dogs

Online activists with Anonymous said they took out a site associated with the Euro 2012 games in Ukraine to protest the country's rounding up and slaughter of stray dogs in advance of the soccer championship that started there today.

The account for YourAnonNews tweeted: "#OpUkraine?: Revenge for your Animal Holocaust: http://www.kieveuro2012.org ==>> TANGO DOWN!! | ?#Euro2012? via @AnonOpsLegion| ?#Anonymous? ?#Ukraine?"

However, the site appeared to be back up as of midday Pacific Time. Distributed denial-of-service attacks that shut down Web sites are Anonymous' tool of choice in its ops, or operations. The activists have … Read more

What would you do for free Wi-Fi? Mexican Internet provider Terra has teamed up with ad agency DDB to offer free Wi-Fi in public parks to dog owners who clean up after their pets.

As seen in the absurd promo vid below, owners who deposit poop in the special bins in 10 parks in Mexico City will be rewarded with free Wi-Fi, broadcast through routers shaped like doggy bones.

The more you add, the more minutes you and everyone else gets. The bins seem to have a simple scale to weigh the poop, so they would likely still work if people put rocks or trash in them instead. … Read more

Boston Dynamics, creator of the very awesome BigDog and a menagerie of other bots, is sending two small reconnaissance robots to the U.S. Army for testing.

Sand Flea and RHex, developed with funding from the Army's Rapid Equipping Force, are off to the Army Test and Evaluation Command (ATEC) to pass safety and reliability assessments.

Three RHex units have already been delivered to ATEC and Sand Fleas will join them later this year, Boston Dynamics said in a release. The machines could improve soldiers' awareness of threats in war zones.

RHex is a six-legged, 30-pound crawling bot inspired … Read more

DARPA is quickly becoming the supplier of my nightmares.

As if the monstrous AlphaDog wasn't intimidating enough, it now has a feline friend, the "Cheetah," that will certainly have you running for the hills. Chances are you won't be able to outrun it, though.

Created by Boston Dynamics, Cheetah is allegedly now the fastest legged robot on the planet. DARPA released a video today showing the bot running at various speeds on a laboratory treadmill, ultimately hitting its maximum speed of 18 mph. This breaks the previous land-speed record of 13.1 mph set back in 1989. … Read more

The sights, sounds, and smells of summer are never far away when it comes time to enjoy a hot dog. The tubular treasures have the ability to transport our senses into the backyard, the ballpark, or beyond. All it takes is a little heat.

How to apply said heat to hot dogs is not the only question. Also of concern is the attention that any cooking method requires. Luckily, hot dogs require very little attention to cook. And even less with the Electric Hot Dog Turner from Sharper Image.

The motorized rotisserie grill gadget adjusts both vertically and horizontally, making … Read more

Remember the original BigDog? That funny robot pack animal? Well, a supersized version has been let off the leash--and it ain't so funny anymore.

We last saw the brute when Boston Dynamics unveiled the AlphaDog prototype last year. Even in a harness, it looked pretty mean and could haul 400 pounds without even panting.

This latest incarnation, though, makes its predecessor look quite poodle-like. As seen in the video below, DARPA recently took AlphaDog, aka the Legged Squad Support System, or LS3, out for a walk in the woods and probably scared off every living creature for miles around. … Read more

A U.K. firm has developed a camera system that relays video and audio information from rescue dogs, helping man's best friend to lend a paw in emergency situations, the BBC reports.

The system is called PAWS--a heart-melting backronym that stands for "Portable, All-terrain Wireless System" and takes the form of a harness that's saddled on to the brave rescue hounds.

The Beeb has a video of the system in action, complete with adorable dog. Developed by Wood & Douglas, the harness features a camera that sits atop the dog's bonce, and relays video and sound back to a monitor.

Read more of "PAWS dog rescue camera could save your life" at Crave UK.… Read more

Who really owns your Twitter account, anyway?[*] That's the question at the heart of a lawsuit that could redefine the right of employers to seize and make use of employees' social-media accounts.

[*]OK, technically the answer is, "Twitter." But it's obviously more complicated than that.

For four years, writer Noah Kravitz produced reviews and video blogs for the mobile-phone site phonedog.com. During the same period, he also posted on Twitter under the handle @PhoneDog_Noah, eventually gathering 17,000 followers. When Kravitz left PhoneDog in October 2010, he changed his Twitter handle to @noahkravitz and continued … Read more

Tablets are done. The future is tables. Unfortunately, it's the same future where giant teddy bears punch you in your sleep and adorable pugs are transformed into bloodthirsty monsters. This week, Bonnie Cha joins Donald and Eric to talk all about this topsy-turvy dystopia and provides the invaluable function of translating Eric's obscure '80s film references for the rest of us. In Geek News, Eric channels the dark heart of Bane.

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