J.R. Nicholson, 85, is a rancher in Mason County, Texas. Last week, he suddenly experienced chest pains. Brian Wright, one of his ranch hands, summoned an ambulance. The ambulance crew drove him toward a hospital in Fredericksburg. 

At about 20 miles along that journey, a driver flagged down the ambulance and told the crew that a dog was on one of the running boards of their vehicle. Buddy, a beagle mix, had decided to follow his owner, Nicholson, to the hospital. Michelle Gaitan writes for the Standard-Times:

“We didn’t have anything else to do but to load the dog up and put him in the ambulance and take him to the ER with us,” Brown said.

Brown remembers making the run out to Nicholson’s ranch in October after Nicholson’s ranch hand Brian Wright called for an ambulance. Nicholson had told Wright he felt dizzy and asked to go to the hospital. […]

Wright described Buddy as a playfully curious dog who likes rides on the tractor back on the ranch.

“It was kind of funny. We were inside and he had jumped onto the control switch and turned on the sirens and the lights,” Brown said as they were inside the emergency room. “We didn’t know what was going on.”

Nicholson was released from the hospital the same day.

-via IOTW Report | Photo: AP Photo/Tanner Brown

20 years ago, 6 friends in Los Angeles met in the home of one them. Someone snapped this photo.

7 years later, the boys were getting ready to go off to college. They liked the old photo and took another one in the same positions.

13 years after that photo, the 6 of them--still close friends after all these years--gathered together to make the photo again and to reminisce about old times and new. They are, from left to right, Matt Gruber, Joel Atia, Mykil Bachoian, Kevin Opos, and Ben Danon. Aviv Edelstein is in the front. Redditor downwarddawg took the photo and posted in on reddit.

Ryan Grenoble of the Huffington Post interviewed the 6 men about their wonderfully long-lasting relationship. When asked to explain the longevity of their relationship, Mykil responded:

I think the longevity of our friendship stems from the fact that we grew up together and have seen each other's growth and progress at every stage in life from about age 8. We are all from the same community and have common interests and backgrounds that overlap with one another. This makes it much easier to relate to each person's individual experiences, because certain things do not need to be explained to one another since we all have a shared understanding of the history that brought each person to any given point in life.

They're fortunate to have each other.

(Photo: Kent Blechynden)

It's not a good idea for future business, right? But the managers of the Island Bay Playcentre in Wellington, New Zealand think that auctioning off a vasectomy will help raise money right now.

The operation normally costs about $316 USD. Dr. Shane Dunphy, who has performed about 1,000 vasectomies, will inflict one to the winner of the auction. Matt Stewart writes for Stuff:

The voucher is valid until June but features a caveat - no frozen peas included, which is commonly applied by patients to reduce swelling.

Widely hailed as "hilarious" on the centre's Facebook page, the surgical auction item sparked some lively discussion including this gem from a mum to a dad: "Just saying, 2 c-sections later, now it's your turn."

-via Nothing to Do with Aborath

P.S. My wife comments, "I wonder if they've picked the parent they really want to win."

What did they put into your food?

"They"? Yes, you know: them. Your enemies.

You can make yourself safer by preparing your own food. But if you eat out, then you can't be sure that they didn't add a their own flavors to your meal, such as broken glass or human hair.

With the Magnifying Spoon, you've a chance of detecting contaminants in your food. Object Solutions, a design firm consisting of Ernesto D. Morales, Chris Maggio, and John Wilson, designed this tool that lets you peer into your food with greater clarity than ever before.

(Video Link)

It's a magnifying lens built into a spoon. Before you chow down on your chowder, peer inside. With the Magnifying Spoon, "you may be the victim of needless contamination, but you'll be damned if you're ever caught eating it."

-via Nag on the Lake

Don't That John! is my ongoing series of daring experiments that push the envelope of culinary science and, dare I say, human achievement. In the past, I've made a taco pizza, a Taco Bell Doritos taco smoothie, and a French toast Reuben Nutella Elvis sandwich. Today, I decided to make a pizza.

But not just any pizza. Pizza is wonderful, of course. But so are Rice Krispie treats. So I made a pizza that had a Rice Krispie treats for the crust.

Other people have made Rice Krispie treat "pizzas" in the sense that they have made Rice Krispie treats decorated with candy so that they look like pizzas. But I want a meal--a pizza meal.

This week, humanity reached out and landed a probe on a comet. This was an unprecedented event brought about by great intellect, daring, and determination. In the same spirit and initiative that made the Philae lander possible, I offer to you the Rice Krispie treat pizza.

Paul O'Rourke of Allstar Ink in Limerick, Ireland made this amazing tat. If you ever meet the man who owns this ink, resist the temptation to try to reach through his arm in the hole that O'Rourke installed. Despite all appearances, it's not a radical new type of body piercing.

-via io9

(Photos via Traverly)

Yes, this is a real product. Shiro Cosmetics, a company that produces "hand-crafted makeup and geekery," offers this eye shadow. It doesn't just make you look like actor Nicholas Cage. It will specifically make you look like him raking leaves on a brisk October afternoon.

Shiro Cosmetics' other colors include Turkey Coma, a variety of Avengers colors, and one mysteriously named What's This Lever Do?

That's the color for me!

Microsoft offers a wide array of tests that computer users can take in order to demonstrate their competency with Microsoft products. These users can then list those certifications on their resumes in order to impress perspective employers.

One of the more demanding exams is the Microsoft Certified Professional. At 5 years old, Ayan Qureshi of Coventry, UK became the youngest person to ever successfully complete that exam. He's now 6. His father, an IT consultant, introduced Ayan to computers when he was 3. He found that Ayan could remember anything that he taught him on the subject. Gurvinder Gill writes for BBC News:

"I found whatever I was telling him, the next day he'd remember everything I said, so I started to feed him more information," he explained.

"Too much computing at this age can cause a negative effect, but in Ayan's case he has cached this opportunity."

Ayan has his own computer lab at his home in Coventry, containing a computer network which he built.

He spends around two hours a day learning about the operating system and how to install programmes.

-via Marginal Revolution | Photo: BBC News

The Taiwanese design firm Charm Villa makes tea bags that look like goldfish. Each one is assembled by machine and hand in a 16-step process. Tug on the cotton string and the bag will appear to swim within your cup.

(Photos: Charm Villa)

-via Lustik

(Video Link)

Nine months ago, Heather Penticoff, 40, and her daughter Destinee Martin, 20, of Lee County, Florida told each other that they were pregnant. The timing was coincidental and they kept it up. Both women had the same due dates. For different reasons, their 2 different doctors decided to induce labor for both women on Tuesday. Madeline, Destinee’s daughter, was then born. Two hours and 46 minutes later, Madeline’s nephew, Damien was born. That’s quite young to become an aunt!

But the family is happy with this experience. Bryan Anderson of NBC 2 reports:

"It's like having twins without carrying twins," said Heather.

Their experience expecting together is unique, just like the ages of other relatives of this Lee County family. Destinee has two aunts and an uncle younger than her.

"It's a blessing all around," Heather said, "I'm just proud of her, so proud of Destinee."

"To have my mom going through it with me is probably the most special, amazing thing ever," added Destinee.

-via AP

Etsy seller Natalie has an original idea for a craft: pop culture pillows. Specifically, she makes pillows that look like electric guitars and are covered in fabrics old school geeks will love. They're not playable, but they're plush and comfortable. Keep yours in a guitar stand and you might make a visitor do a double take. Then try to play the Pac-Man theme on it.

-via Technabob

(Photo: Lindsey Wilson)

Santa Claus planned to visit a mall in Evansville, Indiana to meet boys and girls who wanted to talk with him. But first, he needed breakfast. So he stopped at a Bob Evans restaurant.

Gracie Lynn, 3, and her mother and grandmother were also there eating breakfast. Gracie was appalled that Santa had to eat with no one to keep him company. So she decided to have breakfast with him. Kimberly Yam writes for the Huffington Post:

"They talked for about 20 minutes," Wilson, who is currently pregnant with a boy, told HuffPost, "and all she wanted to talk about was [her future baby brother]." […]

Wilson told HuffPost that the pair chatted about the North Pole's weather conditions and the movie, "Frozen." Gracie even asked Santa if she could visit him and his toy shop.

You may remember Josh Hara's extensive contribution to our Twaggies series. But he does a lot more than write funny tweets. He also draws elaborate cartoons--not just doodles--on coffee cups. Hara has developed an extensive following on Instagram as a result. Why? Hara says that:

I think there is some extra interest in taking something we see every day, something that often gets thrown into the trash, and transforming it into a piece of artwork.

It would be really cool if a comic book artist composed an entire story arc on coffee cups.

Neongrey's Cat Petting Simulator is a text-based adventure game which permits you to experience the joy of petting a beautiful cat without getting cat hair on you or cat urine on your furniture.

You get to name the cat, then interact with her. Decisions flow like a Choose Your Own Adventure novel.

Don't worry too much about making a bad decision. You can save your game and then return to that save point. Or, if you're in the middle of a good petting and your boss insists that you do some actual work, you can come back to it later.

-via David Thompson, who recommends the game to people with cat allergies.

We have seen amazing advancements in robotics in the past few years. For example, knife-wielding robots have been programmed to repeatedly stab meat. Other robots are programmed to comfort dying humans. Still other, completely unrelated robots, can process energy from human biomass.

Now ABB's line of industrial robots can fight with katanas.

(Video Link)

Which is excellent because it's cool to watch increasingly intelligent and autonomous machines wave around swords with perfect precision and at incredibly fast speeds.

Good work, engineers.

-via Geekologie