From PinkTentacle.com:

Robot goat feeds on gambler misfortune

02 Nov 2007

Unlucky gamblers at the Edogawa Kyotei boat race course in Tokyo have a new way to ease their frustrations after botching a bet — they can feed their losing tickets to a robotic goat. Edogawa Kyotei enlisted the help of the ticket-munching robo-goat at the end of last month in an effort to reduce litter inside the facility. The 1.6-meter tall Rocky Mountain goat, which has a thick coat of white fur and ticket-detecting sensors in its mouth, devours about 500 tickets per day — many of which would otherwise end up on the floor. The goatkeeper says, “It eats up your frustrations so that you will have better luck with the next race.”

Oh, how happy this makes me.  Such complete and unabashed weirdness.  

I love to think about the inventor’s overwhelming joy when the idea first occurred to him.  I also like to imagine his wife’s earnest efforts to shut down the idea before he went public with it.  How much more bizarre it must have sounded on paper.  And that’s really saying something.

Will post progress pictures of the knitted skirt soon – am nearly halfway done with the main panels.  Knitting has recently come to a screeching halt and will not resume until after I take the GMAT this Friday.  Wish me luck.  

If anyone wants to go dancing, I’m sure that will be occurring over the weekend as well.  There has been plenty in my life lately, and it somehow never seems to be enough.