SPLAT! How I Fell for Japanese Suicide Satire

Remember last week, I told you the story of Seppu Kuma, the Japanese “suicide bear” that let suicide-minded people choose their poison: death by suffocation, asphyxiation, or lethal injection?

Well (wiping egg off face), nope!  It was a joke.  The readers who were incensed at the dangerous direction our world is taking can breathe a sigh of relief.

There is, in fact, a cute, cuddly robot which looks like that–but its intended purpose isn’t to “off” the terminally ill or the perennially sad. It’s an aid to doctors and medical staff in caring for patients.

I’m not the only one who fell for the report from the website iflscience.org–a site with which I was unfamiliar. That story got picked up all over the place!  That’s no excuse, though; I promise to check my sources more carefully in the future, and only give you something to stew about when it’s absolutely necessary!

Now let us all breathe a collective sigh of relief.  

Life is a gift.