Since he first emerged from his caves to gaze into the sky, man has always dreamed of getting it on with twins, one a human being, the other, a robot.

Aim here on my dirty robotic sister!

The robot smiled and furrowed its brow in almost simultaneous mimicry of the woman, whose face was filmed with a video camera which then provided information on her expressions to the robot through electric signals.
"I felt like I had a twin sister," the woman told reporters afterwards.

The developers said they expected the robot to be eventually used in real-life situations, for example in hospitals.

Hospitals, right. Like in Double-D Cyborg Nurses 4.

Bonus: Cracked's List of Amazing Warporn Weapons. I'm especially interested in Number 4, the ARSS, an unmanned aerial cybernetic sniper platform.

That's why they're building ARSS (yes, it's pronounced "arse") to straight up murder you from the sky while the pilot lounges comfortably on a recliner miles away drinking a cocktail out of a halved coconut.

ARSS is nothing less than a goddamn aerial sniper bot, complete with a .338 rifle that fires seven to 10 rounds a second, with "extreme precision." Though that two-word phrase seems a bit insufficient for something that can fire large caliber bullets that will punch through body armor from 10 football fields away. Silently. From the sky.

New Concepts in Punishment: Sheriff Joe Forcing Fat Inmates to Exercise. Pretty damn funny -- he's got them pedaling on electricity-producing stationary bicycles to power their televisions.

Posted by: Ace at 12:59 PM | Comments (136)
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If a poll falls in a forest without reinforcing The Narrative, will anyone hear it?

The movement is whiter than the population at large, but only slightly so.

For purposes of comparison, it's more white than a Kwanzaa Greeting Card Salesman Convention, but much less white than the all-white country club known as "The MSNBC Anchor Team."

In several other respects, however -- their age, educational background, employment status, and race -- Tea Partiers are quite representative of the public at large.

It tilts conservative, of course, and is almost uniformly hostile to ObamaCare.

Another poll finds that 40% of the Tea Party is either independent or Democratic in affiliation.

Four in 10 Tea Party members are either Democrats or Independents, according to a new national survey.

The findings provide one of the most detailed portraits to date of the grassroots movement that started last year.

The national breakdown of the Tea Party composition is 57 percent Republican, 28 percent Independent and 13 percent Democratic, according to three national polls by the Winston Group, a Republican-leaning firm that conducted the surveys on behalf of an education advocacy group. Two-thirds of the group call themselves conservative, 26 are moderate and 8 percent say they are liberal.

It's not a very good sample, though, because of 1000 respondents, 17% said they were supporters of the Tea Party, and it's only that small sample of 170 that yields the numbers of the Tea Party's composition. (You usually want 400, or at least 300, for a decent sized sample.)

Finally, more of the public says the Tea Party represents their views than Obama -- a near-majority, in fact, according to Reichspollster Scott Rasmussen, where the "SS" stands for "SuperStatistics."

On major issues, 48% of voters say that the average Tea Party member is closer to their views than President Barack Obama. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 44% hold the opposite view and believe the presidentÂ’s views are closer to their own.

...

“Unaffiliated voters are continuing the pattern they established in 2006 and 2008 of opposing the party in power,” notes [Reichsminister of Aryan Surveys] Scott Rasmussen...

...

Eighty-seven percent (87%) of those in the Political Class say their views are closer to the president. The Obama Administration has created a significantly larger government and political role in the economy.

Sixty-three percent (63%) of Mainstream Americans say their views are closer to the Tea Party.

Posted by: Ace at 10:21 AM | Comments (208)
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Next year, can Michelle throw out the first pitch? The media keeps telling me she has great arms.

UPDATE: I just noticed this in the video. Check out the Fan behind home plate (Look for the jersey with the number 26 on it in the front row).

Think he's making a statement of some kind? Probably a racist tea-bagger with no appreciation for baseball history. Or fearful that even with that rag-arm Obama could make it into the Nationals' rotation.

More: [DrewM.] How a real man and a real President throws a pitch. more...

Posted by: Jack M. at 09:38 AM | Comments (489)
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I'm sure one of the rioters has drank tea at one point in his life.

Scores of gangbangers marauded through Times Square and nearby streets last night, storming businesses and harrassing pedestrians as three people were shot in possibly related violence.

Hundreds of cops struggled to disperse the youths. Police made 54 arrests on a variety of charges, including disorderly conduct.

One man was shot in the ankle on West 41st Street between Seventh and Eighth avenues.

Early this morning two people were shot at 34th Street between Seventh and Eighth avenues. Their conditions were not immediately known. Twenty young men were seen fleeing the scene.

Despite this riot occurring right outside the NYT's offices, they did not report the story.

A story which does not advance The Narrative is not a story at all.

Posted by: Ace at 09:00 AM | Comments (152)
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Not a photoshop, unless a major media outlet (the Telegraph of London) got played, and we all know that is impossible.

This Easter Bunny weighs a whopping three-and-a-half stone and is four foot three inches long - making him the biggest rabbit ever recorded.

...

Ms Edwards, from Worcester, has bred big bunnies before but Darius has been recognised as the largest rabbit ever recorded.

She said: "I only measured him this weekend and that was when I realised he was much bigger than Alice, who is the current record holder.

"He is so gentle and I wonder if this has helped him grow bigger than the rest. He does run around all the time, so I guess the combination of food and exercise has worked out for him.

"He really is a handsome beast though, there's always a bit of a glint in his eye when you go near him."

Darius is the son of current record holder Alice and the grandson of earlier owner of the crown Amy.

Three and half stone is around 50 pounds. Guinness apparently confirms this is the biggest rabbit ever recorded, and also notes his length is "over four feet."

Thanks to rdbrewer.

Posted by: Ace at 08:33 AM | Comments (137)
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The media has been trumpeting the "good news" that the "unemployment rate" has remained "unchanged" at a paltry 9.7%, right?

Well, when you dig a little deeper and look at the specifics of the actual BLS report, the picture is ummmm....somewhat different, and the supposed "gain" of 162,000 jobs turns out to be well...how to say this tactfully...a COMPLETE FRACKING LIE "optimistic".

Our media, that shining paragon of virtue, honesty, keepers of the public trust, with their multiple layers of fact checking, and hoards of deep thinking highly educated economic analysts, whose job it is to tell us what we're supposed to think, apparently failed to read past the first sentence of the report.

The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks and over) increased by 414,000 over the month to 6.5 million. In March, 44.1 percent of unemployed persons were jobless for 27 weeks or more. (See table A-12.)

The civilian labor force participation rate (64.9 percent) and the employment-
population ratio (58.6 percent) continued to edge up in March. (See table A-1.)

The number of persons working part time for economic reasons (sometimes referred to as involuntary part-time workers) increased to 9.1 million in March. These individuals were working part time because their hours had been cut back or because they were unable to find a full-time job. (See table A-8.)

About 2.3 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force in March, compared with 2.1 million a year earlier. (The data are not seasonally adjusted.) These individuals were [presto changeo!] not in the labor force, wanted and were available for work, and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months. [pull rabbit out of hat!]They were not counted as unemployed because they had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey. (See table A-16.)

Among the marginally attached, there were 1.0 million discouraged workers in March, up by 309,000 from a year earlier. (The data are not seasonally adjusted.) Discouraged workers are persons not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them. The remaining 1.3 million persons marginally attached to the labor force had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey for reasons such as school attendance or family responsibilities. (See table A-16.)

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 05:45 AM | Comments (275)
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The latest poll of registered voters in California suggests that California voters aren't reacting the same way as most of the rest of the country:

On the health bill, 35% of those polled said that if their senator or U.S. representative had voted for the legislation, they would be "much more likely" to support them in November. Eleven percent said they would be "somewhat more likely" to vote that way.

On the other side, 20% said they would be "much less likely" and 9% said "somewhat less likely" to support that lawmaker. Nineteen percent said the health vote would have no effect on their support, and 5% said they did not know.

Californians view the healthcare package "much more favorably than what we are finding nationally," said Stan Greenberg of Greenberg Quinlan Rosner. "I don't think we will see numbers like this in other states."

In addition to support from Democrats, the healthcare bill appeared to have backing among nonpartisan voters. By a margin of 48% to 23%, those who registered without stating a political party said they would be more likely to support a representative or senator who voted yes.

In follow-up interviews, many respondents who were optimistic about the healthcare package said they had yet to grasp its particulars but thought it better than the status quo.

"I'm still learning a lot of the details," said Stephanie Martinez, 33, a stay-at-home mother in East Los Angeles. "From the things I do know and understand, I think people who don't have insurance and can't afford it will be able to get something."

There's a reason I've been telling folks not to get too excited about sending Senator Boxer packing. The average California voter doesn't give a darn about disfunctional government and they're quite apt to be bought off by shiny things like ObamaCare or high-speed rail.

When whichever GOP candidate we select proposes to take their shiny new toys away from them, Boxer will swoop in with more promises of bread and circus. These people will believe it.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 05:45 AM | Comments (126)
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No shit?

The federal stimulus act has performed "exactly" as the Obama administration expected it to, Council of Economic Advisers Chairwoman Christina Romer said Sunday.

Republicans renewed their criticism of the stimulus in the aftermath of the March jobs report that showed the unemployment rate stuck at 9.7 percent. But the White House and Democrats and Congress have touted the 162,000 jobs created last month as a sign that their policies are working to spark a recovery.

"I think it has done exactly what we would say it would do," she said on NBC's "Meet the Press."

I seem to remember that Obama's promises about the stimulis were somewhat more optimistic:

Geoff's unemployment chart superimposed on Obama's stimulus expectation.

So Christina Romer lies. As if that's unusual for this administration. And more employment problems may be right around the corner.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 05:34 AM | Comments (37)
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I'm so shocked.

Steele was asked if he felt he has a smaller margin of error than others because he's black.

"The honest answer is yes. It just is," the former Maryland lieutenant governor said. "Barack Obama has a slimmer margin than others."

"But you take that as part of the nature of it," Steele added. "It's more because you're not somebody they know. ... Not old-boy network oriented. ... My view on politics is much more grassroots oriented ... so I tend to, you know, come at it a little bit stronger, a little bit more street-wise. That's rubbed some feathers the wrong way."

I don't give him a smaller margin because he's black. I give him one because he's a whiney bitch who cannot seem to focus his energies on his actual job, raising money and getting Republicans elected, because of his personal distractions and hyper-sensitivity to criticism.

He cannot find the backbone to simply stand up and say "this was a mistake, it was improper, we dealt with it. It won't be tolerated now or in the future." Instead he has to cry like a girl that it's just so unfair for me, just like it is for Obama.

Nope. It's just a bunch of Republicans who can't respect his "streetwise" managerial style.

To which I reply (with a look of astonishment on my pretty face): Are. You. F'n. Kidding Me? You cannot take this heat and deflect it with a little, I don't know, actual leadership, you have to resort to this? In case you haven't noticed, moron, the entire tea-party movement and conservative activism is being painted with the "racist" charge. Not exactly the best time ever to make this suggestion to soothe your little hurt feelings. Grow a pair already.

I've had enough of this guy.

tip via commenter Tami down there in the eternal fight thread.

MORE: When Robert Gibbs can make you sound like an idiot, you might actually be one (Allahpundit via twitter).

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 05:18 AM | Comments (117)
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Just another manic Monday.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 05:11 AM | Comments (24)
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