Overnight Open Thread (3 Nov 2012)

Pathetic. Benghazi A Blip On Media's Radar. A whole bunch of so-called journalists should just hang it up after this. 8 weeks out and still barely any coverage outside of Fox. Oh sure, WaPo and CBS are starting to cover it. But just barely. Heads need to roll for this.

Disgusting that their political party and allegiance to it is more important than the lives of 4 Americans and getting out the truth as to what exactly happened. Funny, it wasn't too long ago that CIA leaks were front page news when they slammed Bush. When they paint Obama in a bad light? Not so much.

Also note that with the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy getting nastier for those coping with the recovery, Obama isn't taking pictures anymore with FEMA or hanging out in the Situation Room. Hell, he's not even Taking Questions About Storm Victims' Frustrations. All that early praise for FEMA? Maybe just a hair to fast there MSM. FEMA Taps Private Vendors To Deliver Water. On Monday. So much for that prior planning. I guess a weeks notice that a major storm is going to hit the east coast isn't enough. I'm pretty sure by Day 6 with Katrina, Bush was being blamed in the news 24/7. Obama, not so much. I guess Geraldo is a bit distracted saving his Koi.

Dangers Of Robot Attachment

Man, it is only going to get worse when the robot hookers show up. The Danger Of Falling For A Machine That's Just Not Into You.

So it’s no surprise that people become attached to these robots. What is surprising is just how attached some have become. Researchers have documented people kissing their mechanized companions, confiding in them, giving them gifts—and being heartbroken when the robot breaks, or the study ends and it’s time to say good-bye.

And this is just the beginning. What happens as robots become ever more responsive, more humanlike? Some researchers worry that people—especially groups like autistic kids or elderly shut-ins who already are less apt to interact with others—may come to prefer their mechanical friends over their human ones.

Are we really ready for this relationship?

Beach PSA

Never turn your back to the ocean. Warning: Some language.

Political Poll Analysis

This is a pretty good write up. Politics: On Polling Models, Skewed And Unskewed.

Different sets of polls are, more or less, describing two alternate universes in terms of what the 2012 electorate will look like, one strongly favorable to Obama, one essentially decisive in favor of Romney. The pro-Obama view requires a number of things to happen that are effectively unprecedented in electoral history, but Nate Silver argues that we should trust them because state poll averages have a better track record in other elections than national polls. The pro-Romney view, by contrast, simply assumes that things have gone wrong in a number of the polls' samples that have gone wrong before.

Trailer #2

A Good Day To Die Hard. Hey, it's got the music, explosions, machine guns, wisecracks, gunships and even boobehs. Just missing a member of the Gruber family. I think.

In other movie news, Castle Wolfenstein Movie In Development. Hopefully, it will be better than the Doom movie. The potential is there for a good movie.

Kitteh Profiling

Y'all kitteh lovers are a bunch of profilers. Judging A Cat (Wrongly) By The Color Of Their Coat.

Some trends appeared in the data. Orange kitties were perceived as friendly and rated low in the aloof and shy categories. (They were also considered more trainable than were white cats, although the idea that anyone considers a cat trainable is kind of funny. Or am I betraying my own bias here?) Tri-colored cats rated high in aloofness and intolerance, and white cats were also considered aloof, as well as shy and calm. And bi-colored cats–which could have been any color, really, in the participants’ minds–were thought to be friendly. The data for black cats, however, was a bit muddier and no clear trends emerged.

Kitteh Video

Ginger puncher.

Meanwhile, another cat fight is brewing. Lady Gaga vs Adele.

Adele is bigger than me, how come nobody says anything about it?

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