Dog Owner? Turn Poo into Free Wi-Fi

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We got our dog, Gil, a little over three years ago. I wasn’t sure I was ready for the responsibility of dog ownership, but my wife promised we could get a rough and rugged-sounding breed – he’s a Cockapoo, natch – so I relented.

I work from home, mostly, so it’s up to me to take Gil out periodically and I can safely say that I’ve never once found joy in picking up after him. Not once. Cockapoos are supposed to be intelligent? He wouldn’t know how to use a toilet if we gave him a pair of my socks as a reward.

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His inability to use a toilet doesn’t change the fact that I’ve cleaned up after him every single time he’s left a deposit somewhere. The same can’t be said for some of the other dog owners in my neighborhood, however, and as a dog owner, it’s appalling. If you’ve stepped in something that was once inside a dog while visiting the fair city of Boston, I apologize on behalf of the selfish heathen who left it there.

Perhaps we need poo-funded Wi-Fi systems like the good people of Mexico City have, thanks to a pilot program/publicity stunt by web portal Terra. Found in 10 parks around the city, Terra has set up things that look like garbage cans connected to digitally metered scales.

According to Creativity-Online.com:

When people throw away their bags of poop in a special box in the park, it calculates the weight and Terra gives everyone free minutes of Wi-Fi in the park. The greater the weight, the more minutes are added — and everyone can enjoy a poo-free park.

Creativity-Online.com asks the same thing that’s on everyone’s mind: What happens if other stuff gets thrown in the poo collector? “Nothing, says the agency, but we figure that would just help keep the streets even cleaner anyway.” I’m guessing this isn’t really about gaming the system; it’s more about people chuckling at Terra’s poo-funded Wi-Fi system and remembering the name Terra as the company that put the poo-funded Wi-Fi systems all over Mexico City.

And while my first reaction was, “So dog owners do what they’re supposed to and clean up after their dogs, while everyone else in the park enjoys free Wi-Fi?” Then I realized it’s the absolute least we can do to make up for the other dog-owning jerks who don’t pick up after their pets.

[DVICE via Lost at E-Minor]