It's Saturday night so pull up a milk crate to the trashcan fire, get your best fortified wine, and let the good times out.

Son of Big Dog: Petman

I think by now most of the morons have seen Big Dog, the semi-creepy robotic mule that's loud but can walk over rough terrain and even be pushed without falling over. Well the people at Boston Dynamics have come out with a new bipedal version, Petman. Petman can jog at up to 4.4 MPH pace and seems almost as stable at Big Dog. So once they work out the power issues, the minigun attachment, and other kinks, robot army here we come. And I for one welcome our new cybernetic allies.

Posted by: Maetenloch at 05:25 PM | Comments (1051)
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Important Update [DiT]

Very loose. Just let it go. more...

Posted by: Monty at 04:39 PM | Comments (223)
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Isn't it possible -- indeed, necessarily true -- that the world's tallest short man and the world's shortest tall man are one and the same person?

Posted by: Monty at 12:30 PM | Comments (406)
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Brazen and baiting -- check out his wink and grin as he says it. "I screwed you over, and now I'm giggling about it like a schoolgirl!"

The question and answer come at 3:15.

Captain Ed notes Crist is effectively attempting to turn a betrayal into some kind of virtuous positive.

I don't even think that's going to play well with RINOs. You have to really hate a party to get all excited about lying to them and thieving away their hard-won dollars. Most will find it slimy and self-serving, but I guess, as regards Charlie Crist, that information is already baked in the cake.

Posted by: Ace at 12:30 PM | Comments (145)
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Maher last night. Now I'm with most of you idiots, I wouldn't spend five minutes watching Bill Maher unless SE Cupp was on the panel.

That's how I roll.

The other guests are Cory Booker, newly-elected Mayor of Newark and some goober who works for the Daily Beast.

The set up from Maher is that he doesn't understand why Obama would nominate a "cypher" to the Supreme Court. Great straw man, presumption being a) she isn't a partner idealogue like Obama and b) flat-out admission of same wouldn't kill her nomination (which it most assuredly would).

It's a fun discussion, except for Jon Cryer, he's a bit of a buzzkill. Maher eventually moves on to "Losing Our Religion" and asks Cupp to affirm that religious people are deluded, and her response is "I am not a militant atheist".

I find that refreshing. Should you accuse me of sucking up I will respond "shut up, you.. you."

Also a good retort from Booker on the "religion causes most wars" whine from Maher. "Bill, humans cause wars."

Ok that was the second best retort. The first best from Booker was "oh please." Third best was telling Maher "you're a fucking idiot."

I might have messed that last one up.

Anyway, good morning morons. If this isn't palatable there's always bacon and coffee. Also, a warning, it leaves you hanging when they start digging into the book, but I wasn't willing to jump through the HBO hoops to see if I could embed more of this. The set up was entertaining enough.

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 06:07 AM | Comments (335)
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I've been sifting through some of the oldest posts deleting all their encrusted comment spam and trying to close comments so no more remora can attach themselves (yo, Ace dude - about 80% of the disk space is being consumed by comment spam!!!)...

...but anyhow...

I came across a real early one from 2004-05-06 that appears to be regular commenter "rdbrewers" first comment. [correction: 1st comment on the mu.nu era AoS]

Six years dude, six freaking years. In blog years that's something like a bazillion, right?

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 09:25 PM | Comments (236)
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Welcome to the beginning of the beginning of the weekend.

Werewolf Prevention Training

Forget teh zombies - we need to start worrying about the werewolves! And this video will show you how to both keep them at bay and keep keep them as pets. Of course it's always good to have some silver bullets on hand in case there's one of those minor lycanthrope-human misunderstandings. They also have silver arrowheads for you longbow/crossbow aficionados.

Posted by: Maetenloch at 05:13 PM | Comments (917)
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And she too isn't alleging merely "rape" but actual rape-rape.

Four years after he fled the United States in 1978 after pleading guilty to unlawful sex with a minor, Roman Polanski "forced himself" on another woman, then 16, in his Paris apartment, the woman alleged Friday.

Charlotte Lewis of London, who appeared in Polanski's 1986 film Pirates, made the allegation in a press conference held at her attorney Gloria Allred's Los Angeles office. Allred described Polanski's alleged behavior as "sexually predatory conduct."

"[Polanski] sexually abused me in the worst possible way when I was just 16," said Lewis, who remained composed while reading a prepared statement. "He knew [how old I was] when he met me and forced himself upon me in his apartment in Paris. He took advantage of me and I have lived with the effects of his behavior ever since it occurred. I've traveled to the U.S. at my own expense to make sure that justice is finally done and that Mr. Polanski gets what he deserves. All I want is justice."

I'm inclined to believe her, but there's a reason laws impose a statute of limitations on crimes (and they vary according to the crime): To make sure the charge can be resolved while evidence still exists. This charge certainly can't be resolved so many years after the fact.

Considerations of fundamental fairness compel us not to presume anyone is guilty based on non-existent evidence; but, on the other hand: Guilty.

Posted by: Ace at 03:54 PM | Comments (139)
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This is pretty chilling -- the full video of the intimidation of the cops by religious lunatics after the assault on Lars Vilks, and the cops' complete acceptance of that intimidation.

A few points. Vilks' presentation was, in fact, provocative, as it deliberately juxtaposed pictures of Mohammad (?) and praying Muslims with gay fetish shots.

But, as everyone on the receiving end of artistic provocations for thirty years can tell you -- we're supposed to understand that ideas may incite, and in fact that is the very point of them, and that our right to not be offended doesn't trump anyone else's right to give offense.

That lesson was definitely not taught here, as the Violently Aggrieved won the battlefield they turned this university into only on this day, but on future days as well -- the university has decided to put an end to this madness, by which they mean they won't invite Lars Vilks back for any further lectures.

The lesson taught here is, once again, that if Muslims just get violent and criminal, they get exactly what they want.

I'm just curious - I see the police making few arrests here.

If there had been another crowd here -- a fired-up anti-jihad crowd, let's say, which intervened with the jihadists went wild, and started doing their own face-breaking -- how many decades of incarceration do you think they'd currently be facing?

Should the law not be changed to reflect the actual law -- that Muslims are in fact permitted to create disturbances of the peace and commit assault? Because if you trick non-Muslim citizens into thinking these things are crimes, and then they intervene, believing themselves to be stopping crimes in progress... then you're locking them up without fair warning, aren't you?

Eh. They've been warned, I guess. Everyone knows what the real law is.

Posted by: Ace at 02:04 PM | Comments (359)
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Couple of questions asked by Howie Carr, in a piece excerpted by JWF:

1. If it's not illegal to be illegal, what charges are Shahzad's confederates being held on? Because I heard they were immigration violations.

And 2., since the Massachusetts governor has "stepped up surveillance" -- of whom?, I wonder -- does that mean it's time to boycott the racist, Nazi-esque state of Massachusetts?

The question at the press conference at the State House yesterday was, Why do these illegal types keep gravitating to Massachusetts?

The attorney general, “Marsha” Coakley, was a no-show, but she’d already answered the question a few weeks ago on Worcester radio station WCRN.

Marsha, why are so many of these illegal aliens invading Massachusetts?

“Technically,” she replied, “it is not illegal to be illegal in Massachusetts.”

That’s one of the people Deval said had been briefing him on the “probe.” Whew - good to know, we have people who are serious about this problem. Back to Deval at the press conference.

“Two people in Massachusetts are in federal custody.”

But the bigger problem was, he wouldnÂ’t say what they were charged with: immigration violations. See, the governor doesnÂ’t like to talk about illegal aliens, especially when theyÂ’re committing crimes, as opposed to just being illegal, which Marsha Coakley says is not illegal.

Deval has been “fully briefed” on the probe, or so he said, so he must have known that the feds were tracking illegal aliens. Or maybe no one dared tell him that they were on the trail of some of the people he wants to give in-state tuition to.

Arrested in Watertown - will the Boston City Council vote to boycott Watertown next?

The second suspect was lugged at the Double Tree in Allston - thatÂ’s Boston. Does this mean the City Council will now have to bocyott itself?

Deval Patrick also won't use the "T" word, saying that calling the probe a "terrorist probe" might be a "step too far" based on current information.

Shahzad was trained in terrorist camps in Pakistan but he's not sure if he wants to say he's probing to determine if the men he's arrested are involved in terrorism?

Posted by: Ace at 01:15 PM | Comments (86)
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