Sunday, December 09, 2012

CHARTING A GRIM MILESTONE: Federal Government Now Borrows 46 Cents of Every Dollar It Spends

Is there a single Democrat with virtue who will decry this madness? Is there a single Democrat who will condemn this unfolding economic catastrophe?

The federal government borrowed 46 cents of every dollar it has spent so far in fiscal 2013, which began Oct. 1, according to the latest data the Congressional Budget Office released Friday.


The government notched a $172 billion deficit in November, and is already nearly $300 billion in the hole through the first two months of fiscal year 2013, underscoring just how deep the government’s budget problems are as lawmakers try to negotiate a year-end deal to avoid a budgetary “fiscal cliff.”

Higher spending on mandatory items such as Social Security, Medicare and interest on the debt led the way in boosting spending compared with the previous year, which also highlights the trouble spots Congress and President Obama are struggling to grapple with.

...The government is poised to post another $1 trillion deficit in fiscal year 2013, which would mark the fifth straight year. Before that, the record was $438 billion, which came in 2008, President George W. Bush’s last full year in office.

Is there a single Democrat with virtue remaining in Washington?


Hat tip: Mark Levin.

GRAPHIC: What Your Beer Says About Your Politics

Via National Journal:

Americans who most often drink Dos Equis are in the middle-of-the-road while drinkers of Heineken's flagship brand are strongly Democratic. Samuel Adams drinkers are strongly Republican, and more likely to vote.

Beer has a long and storied place in American presidential history and politics.

George Washington famously brewed it. James Madison purportedly sought to create a cabinet-level Secretary of Beer. And Franklin Delano Roosevelt helped make it legal to produce and sell (again) by championing legislation repealing Prohibition. Upon signing the bill, he reportedly said, "I think this would be a good time for a beer."


A Small Plan From 1921

These guidelines were originally published as "Rules for Revolution" in 1919 and subsequently reprinted in American newspapers during the 1950s.


Sound familiar?


TOP 15 ABANDONED AUTOMOTIVE CLASSICS

Absolutely amazing.

EXCLUSIVE: White House photo congratulates Juan Manuel Marquez for his historic victory over Manny Pacquiao

Another world exclusive photo from our intrepid cub reporter, Biff Spackle.



Related: President Obama Commemorates the 40th Anniversary of Apollo 17 and Newly Released White House Photo of the President Commemorating Pearl Harbor.

PHOTOS DEPICT RESULTS OF LEADING FROM BEHIND: Syrian Rebels Upload Aftermath of Chemical Weapons Attack on Civilians

Unless Syria's anti-Assad rebels have a full-blown, Hollywood-style makeup department, these snaps of a video uploaded yesterday appear authentic and consistent with a chem attack:

Syrian rebels on Saturday uploaded to YouTube a clip purportedly depicting victims of a chemical weapons attack perpetrated by the regime. The video shows Syrian civilians, some apparently dead and others injured, whose faces were disfigured in a manner that could be caused by a chemical agent.

The rebels claim that the video was filmed in a suburb of Aleppo, where the Syrian regime reportedly maintains its largest depot of chemical weapons.

Citing intelligence reports, British Foreign Secretary William Hague on Saturday warned that the Syrian government might use its sizable stockpile of chemical weapons against the rebels fighting to overturn Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime, AFP reported.

“We are extremely concerned about the stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons, and we are also concerned about evidence during the last couple of weeks that the regime could use them,” Hague said on the sidelines of a regional security conference in Manama, the capital of Bahrain.

The London-based Sunday Times reported that Israeli commandos were on the ground in Syria, monitoring the regime’s chemical weapons depots.

“For years we’ve known the exact location of Syria’s chemical and biological munitions,” an Israeli source said was quoted as saying. “But in the past week we’ve got signs that munitions have been moved to new locations.”

And where did these chemical weapons come from? Saddam Hussein, it turns out. But don't hold your breath waiting for the Leftists to apologize to George W. Bush vis a vis WMDs.

I'm so confused. Didn't Hillary Clinton call Syria's dictator "a reformer" little more than a year ago?

But, hey: it's time for another presidential vacation. Nothing of significance seems to be happening either here in the U.S. or abroad.


Hat tip: BadBlue News Service.

Larwyn's Linx: When You Have Nothing To Lose, Do The Right Thing

Send us tips! Bloggers: install a Larwyn's Linx widget. Get real-time news, 24/7, at BadBlue.

Nation

When You Have Nothing To Lose, Do The Right Thing: NoisyRm
Why the Republican Party Can’t Win Without the Tea Party: FP
"Psychologically Incapable Of Getting Our Fiscal House In Order": FreePost

Koch not backing down, and neither should you: LI
USDA relents, lifts limits on meat and grain consumption in schools: Blaze
Secret to Obama’s Success: A Great Ground Game: RWN

Economy

Collective bargaining is a form of slavery: Mish
New Curricula Will Swap Government Manuals for Classic Literature: Tatler
Surprise: Despite tax increases, Cali revenues go off the cliff: Breitbart

The Fiscal Cliff And The Alinsky President: Small Craft Advisory
What Fed Exit?: ZH
Cutting Spending: Obama Wants $60.4B for Sandy Relief: RWN

Obama Ag Secretary: Rural America “Becoming Less And Less Relevant”: WZ
Why tax increases don't work: AEI
Released: Cost of First Daughter Malia Obama’s Trip to Mexico: JW

Scandal Central

American men find careers in collecting disability: AEI
Kucinich: Obama administration has refused to release memos legally justifying drone strikes: DC
Judge May Overturn GM Bailout: LoneCon

Climate & Energy

Inhofe: Obama funneling billions to UN for climate-change redistribution: Hot Air
Is There a Carbon Tax in Your Future?: RS
UK Endures Coldest Autumn Since 1993: Watts

Media

David Brooks, Ignorant Tool At Large: RSM
Washington Post Cheerleads for Terror: AT
Students Made to Stand for Black National Anthem: MB

Big Ohio Newspaper Cutting One-Third of Newsroom: Publius
Obama: Give Me Dictatorial Powers or I’ll Take Your Country Out: NoisyRm
Whites Stayed Home and Re-Elected Obama: Morris

World

Egypt’s Economic Breakdown Deepens the Crisis: Spengler
Meet the New Dictator… Mohammed Morsi Declares Martial Law in Egypt: GWP
Cheney Takes Flamethrower To Obama: Fox Nation

BREAKING: Hugo Chavez’s farewell speech?: Fausta
We've Got al Qaeda on the Run Alright ... In Africa, Stronger Than Ever!: AmPower
Mashaal: First Gaza, then Ramallah, then Jerusalem: JPost

Egyptian constitutional referendum to go forward in a week, Morsi withdraws controversial decree: LI
Why Egyptians are angry at Morsi, in charts: WaPo
Ex-US Marine Chained To Bed In Mexico Prison: Spew

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue.com/Tech)

If You Use Social Networks, Watch This Video: Mashable
The future of money: New paradigms for the checkout, banking & currency: NextWeb
Did Twitter's founder reveal its would-be Instagram killer?: CNet

Cornucopia

Is There Nothing That Obama Can't Do?: SDA
It’s an honor just to be nominated. I’d like to thank my dog…: MOTUS
Photo of the Day: Artists, Dordogne River: NatGeo

Texas A&M freshman quarterback Johnny Manziel wins Heisman Trophy: Fox
Pacquiao-Marquez: How the stunning fight played out: USA Today
What Your Beer Says About Your Politics: NatlJrnl

Image: Vice President Biden booed throughout Army-Navy game
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Red Planet Cartoons

QOTD: "...the UN’s Green Climate Fund [UNGCF] ... aims to garner $100 billion from industrial nations ostensibly to bolster efforts to get developing nations to use renewable, non-hydrocarbon energy rather than coal and oil in their development. In practice, as we have seen at UN climate-change conferences, the fund has been treated as an entitlement and even a type of reparation by developing nations from the US and the West... the Obama administration has sent billions of dollars already into the UNGCF and plans to send billions more even while the US struggles with trillion-dollar deficits...

Why are we putting any money into this at all? These are the kinds of activities that can be afforded by nations with large budget surpluses, not by nations teetering on a default of its bond obligations. In a very real sense, that’s not even our money. Regardless of the virtue of the effort, which in this case is highly questionable if not outright laughable, the US cannot afford to give one billion dollars away to UN slush funds, let along $2.4 billion or even more than that, if Inhofe is correct.

We can’t afford a dime of this — especially while the White House proposes to sit on its hands while the sequestration cuts $500 billion from the military over the next ten years, or struggles to reform entitlements. Can the White House look soldiers in the eyes and tell them that their aging weapons systems on which they rely for their lives can’t be upgraded while they fund endless parties in Copenhagen and Doha, and send cash to countries because they argue we owe them for the ills which they have entirely visited upon themselves? Can the administration tell seniors and the disabled that their benefits have to be trimmed while billions go to the UN for a slush fund that keeps corrupt bureaucrats in power in Turtle Bay and end up in the hands of petty autocrats and dictators?" --Ed Morrissey

Saturday, December 08, 2012

EXQUISITE PHOTO: President Obama Commemorates the 40th Anniversary of Apollo 17

40 years ago yesterday, Apollo 17, the last of the Apollo series of missions to land men on the on, launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Lifting off just after midnight on Dec. 7, 1972, the Apollo 17 mission was the final of NASA's moon-bound manned flights — and the first night launch. The massive, 363-foot tall Saturn 5 rocket turned night into day as the long flames from its five powerful F-1 engines bathed the dark sky with a brilliant, bright-as-the-sun light that appeared to spectators to slowly climb skyward from the Kennedy Space Center...


Onboard the mighty moon booster were three astronauts. Eugene Cernan, a veteran of two prior missions including the "dress rehearsal" for the first lunar landing three years earlier, commanded Apollo 17 and flew the lunar module "Challenger" to a landing in the Taurus-Littrow valley.

Ronald Evans served as the pilot of the command module "America" that remained in lunar orbit until it was time for the three voyagers to return to Earth... And lunar module pilot Harrison "Jack" Schmitt, who like Evans marked another first with the launch of Apollo 17 — his first time in space...

Also that year Barack Obama, who would later serve as the 44th president of the United States, lived with his mother and sister in Hawaii while his mother was a graduate student in anthropology at the University of Hawaii.


TAXING "THE RICH" WORKING OUT SWIMMINGLY IN CALIFORNIA: Revenues to State Fall 10 Percent

Who could have predicted such a phenomenon?

California ... state revenue for the month of November 2012 fell $806.8 million, or 10.8%, below budget.

Democrats thought they could hammer “the rich” by convincing voters to pass Proposition 30 to create the highest state income tax in the nation.

But it now appears that high income earners have already “voted with their feet” by moving themselves and their businesses out of state, resulting in over $1 billion shortfall in corporate and income taxes last month and the beginning of a new financial crisis.

Passage of Proposition 30 set off euphoria and expectations of higher spending for public employees. The California Teachers’ Association (CTA) trumpeted: "California students and working families won a clear victory today as voters clearly demonstrated their willingness to invest in our public schools and colleges and also rejected a deceptive ballot measure aimed at silencing educators, other workers and their unions.”

State bureaucrats immediately ramped up deficit spending far beyond the state's $6 billion annual tax increase, with the Departments of Health Services and Developmental Services increasing this month’s spending by over $1 billion versus last year. The lower tax collection and higher spending drove the State’s deficit after the tax increase to $2.7 billion for the first 5 months of this fiscal year...

Who could have predicted such a phenomenon?

Oh, wait. I did. Just three short weeks ago*.


*See: DELUSIONAL: California Predicts Budget Surplus in 2014 Thanks to Tax Hikes, Anti-Business Regulations.

WE'RE HEADED FOR ANOTHER 9/11 ONLY WITH DEADLIER WEAPONS: Dick Cheney takes a flamethrower to Obama

The ramifications of President Obama's foreign policy and national security decisions are utterly predictable -- and provably catastrophic. Speaking at the Hudson Institute earlier this week, former Vice President Dick Cheney served notice to the Democrat Party and its sycophants.

It’s a very very dangerous part of the world.. and when I hear that our President got Bin Laden, problem solved... that Al Queda is toast, that they are significantly diminished and that we can pivot now because the United States no longer has to be concerned about developments in that part of the world and focus our efforts on Asia, I am on the one-hand appalled.

...We have got more territory now in that part of the world when you start to add up all the areas that have come or are coming under the influence of the Muslim brotherhood and the radical Islamists. There is a lot more land and territory there for safe harbors and sanctuaries for terrorists than we ever faced back in the time of 9/11. That entire part of the world appears to be or a good part of it certainly to be moving in the direction that is fundamentally hostile to the long term US interest and yet we are, seem to be unable to influence events in that part of the world partly because we are headed for the exits and everybody knows we are headed for the exits.

We pulled out of Iraq, we didn’t even bother to negotiate the final agreement that was traditional in those kind of relationships. We are well on our way out of Afghanistan and we have a president who's been to Cairo and one of the first things he did was to apologize for the U.S. reaction to 9/11, alleging that we quote “overreacted and fallen away from our basic traditional values”...

...Faced with a very real prospect that an area of the world that has spawned terrorists by the thousands some who’ve come to the United States and killed Americans, Al Qaeda is back in business. The United Stated, which once used to dominate that part of the world not long ago, who had valued allies and bases throughout the area, that had been looked to for leadership... for example at the time when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, we were able to muster some 36 or 37 nations to gather with us to liberate Kuwait and send Saddam back into Iraq. And we got the rest of the world to pay 50 out of the 55 billion dollar cost of the exercise. That day is gone...

I think certainly in my conversations with many of our allies, they no longer believe us, they no longer trust us, they no longer believe they can count of the United States of America to do what we did 20 years ago... the President can make bold statements and bold talk as he did in the past couple of days about developments in Syria, but I don’t think they care. Unless something fundamentally different happens, I have grave doubts that he is prepared to do anything with Syria, except hope that he can get away what he has up until now by saying, "well, I got Bin Laden, problem solved." It’s far from solved if anything the national security threat we face is as serious as is the economic one.

When you add to that the enormous damage that is and is about to be done to the United States military with a trillion dollar cut... when you add up what’s already on the budget as well as take out another 500 billion we are doing long term damage to our military capabilities...

So what we are doing today, by way of damaging the US military is going to be a fact of life that future presidents are going to have to deal with. Barack Obama isn’t just dealing with his budget problems; he in fact is restricting the future capabilities of the next president two or three times down the road in terms of our capacity to be able to deal with fundamental threats to the United States and they are out there and we can be absolutely certain that there are people out there tonight planning to do what happened on 9/11 only with deadlier weapons than 19 hijackers armed with airline tickets and box cutters.

This disarmament is precisely what Trevor Loudon has been warning us about for years. America -- starting with its "imperialism" (strong national defense) and "wealth inequality" (capitalism) -- must be fundamentally transformed.


DUDE: Don't show this chart to Grandpa...

He may blow a gasket.

After all, he paid into Medicare for more than four decades, but under Obamacare he will receive lower quality care than illegal aliens, the poor and the indigent who are on Medicaid.

It's all about reimbursements to doctors for services rendered:

The Trustees of the Medicare program have released their annual report... Medicare’s reimbursements to doctors are scheduled to drop by 31 percent on January 1, 2013. Only then is Medicare solvent until 2016/2024. If Congress passes another of its numerous “doc fixes,” Medicare’s insolvency will be even closer at hand. The optimistic insolvency estimate from the Trustees will require “unprecedented changes in health care delivery systems and payment mechanisms,” without which Medicare fees “are very likely to fall increasingly short of the costs of providing those services.”

“For these reasons, the financial projections shown in this report for Medicare do not represent a reasonable expectation for actual program operations in either the short range…or the long range,” writes Foster.

The executive summary: seniors who paid into the system are going to find fewer and fewer doctors accepting Medicare patients; rationing of health care will be the inevitable result.

But remember: the people have spoken! This is what America wanted!


EXCLUSIVE: Newly Released White House Photo of the President Commemorating Pearl Harbor

Biff Spackle sends us this exclusive action shot from Wheeler Field.



A PUBLIC SERVICE MESSAGE FOR AMERICA'S YOUTH: Here's How You're Being Ripped Off

Ever seen these numbers on your pay stub? The numbers I've highlighted?

That money is being taken from you -- or, more properly, it's being stolen from you -- to fund a myth. A mirage.

You're never going to see a dime of that "Social Security Retirement Insurance" you're paying for.

You'll never a see a nickel of that "Medicare Health Care Insurance" either.

That money is being taken from your pay -- your livelihood -- to fund a system that will be bankrupt in less than a dozen years.

Oh, and it's not me saying that: Medicare’s own actuary, Richard Foster, is. Social Security is in a similar situation, according to Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner, who serves as the system's senior trustee.

Suffice it to say that these systems will actually go broke far sooner than anyone's really admitting because the economy remains poor and appears to be slowing down even further.

My public service message is this: this money is being taken from your pay in exchange for a promise that will be broken in just a few years. You'll never see that money again. And it is the government -- the government, not "the rich", not the Koch brothers, not the oil companies -- that is ripping you off.

It is the government, not corporations, spending untold billions on "green energy" scams like Solyndra. It is the government, not "the rich", slathering EBT-welfare cards around like confetti. And it is the government, not "the Tea Party", that is promoting illegal immigration and offering huge financial benefits to those in the country illegally. All with your money.

Unless you like being ripped off every week, I'd recommend you get involved in returning government to its rightful and proper role, which includes having Washington spend within its means -- like all of us must do to survive.

After all, it's your money.


Larwyn's Linx: How you can fire Speaker Boehner

Send us tips! Bloggers: install a Larwyn's Linx widget. Get real-time news, 24/7, at BadBlue.

Nation

How you can fire Speaker Boehner: RS
The Big Lie Department: Liberty's Torch
The Deepest Source of our Troubles: Rahe

Terrorism in Arizona: Q&O
Before Planning to Oust Boehner,..: Barrack
Anniversary and Cautionary Lesson: SSI

Economy

The Message of Welfare: 'No, You Can't': FW
Unemployment Rate Lower At 7.7%: ZH
The Great American Ripoff: Welfare spending : WS

Union Goons React Calmly As Michigan Becomes Right-to-Work: JWF
No recession in goverment: public sector unemployment at 3.8%: CNS
Work-A-Geddon: Preparing for ObamaCare: Designs on Talent

The U.S. Postal Service vs. Greece: Cato
50 million Americans condemned to poverty in 2012: ECN
TA-DA! Small Business Owners' Hiring Intent Plunges to 2008 Lows: Mish

Scandal Central

WH May Have Provided Weapons Used to Kill Amb. Stevens: MB
Obamanomics Update: Deficit already at $292 billion for fiscal 2013: HySci
WaPo pays 2013 dividends now to avoid tax increases championed by president the paper endorsed: Malkin

Climate & Energy

Bummer: New Science Shows Greenland Ice Loss Much Less Than Warmists Computer Models Show: RWN
GM Hypes Chevy Volt's Insignificant 100 Millionth Mile: NLPC
What's the EPA smoking?: Times

Media

Podcast: David Limbaugh on what conservatives can do about the GOP: Bruce
NBC's Williams Fantasizes Over Change in Constitution Allowing Obama to Control Business by Fiat: NB
WH Petition Demands Obama Cancel Hawaii Vacation: Dossier

Blanking Bradley Manning: NYT and AP Launch Operation Amnesia: Floyd
Allen West: Negotiating With “Marxist, Socialist, Rigid Ideologue” Barack Obama Is “Silly”: WZ
Gangnam Style singer -- invited to White House -- rapped about killing American soldiers: Malkin

Not News: Food Stamp Use Spiked in September; Pre-Election Number Revised Up: BizzyBlog
Jonathan Chait: Why Yes, Liberals Do Competely Control The Media: Ace
Rush: Obama is desperate to get Republicans to admit tax cuts caused the economic crisis: Scoop

Hey, Let's Seceede Or Start a Revolution... Said the Left in 2005: Ace
William & Kate have nothing on Obama: Steyn
The Court Predator: Steyn

World

Syria's WMDs came from Iraq: Will the Left Apologize to Bush?: IBD
France Taxes America: Morris
American Babylonia: INN

Senior al-Qaida leader killed in drone strike in Pakistan, jihadis, US officials say: Jawa
Qur'anic truth comes to the New York subways: JihadWatch
Brotherhood leader urges Egyptians to disown violence after deadly clashes: Fox

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue.com/Tech)

MIT professor: Windows 8 is a Christmas gift for 'someone you hate': ZDNet
Google to Rein In Free Version of Software: AllThingsD
Printed gun fails after 6 shots: 'Ma Deuce' wasn't built (or printed) in a day: SSI

Cornucopia

Obama Creates New Atmospheric Agency: Diogenes
It’s a question of right and wrong: JPA
Real Gangsters Threaten Life Of Fake Gangster: TSG

Image: Weasel Zippers
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Sipsey Street Irregulars

QOTD: "Montesquieu did not foresee a society like our own -- where general prosperity has had a propensity to produce a relaxation of the moral discipline encouraged by the market -- but he provides the tools for its analysis.

Tocqueville was less confident than was Montesquieu. He lived in an age in which socialism had already reared its ugly head, and he discerned in his fellow Frenchmen a taste for servility. He feared that there might be a general descent into presentmindedness, and he anticipated Friedrich Nietzsche's vision of the last man -- who would be so satisfied with his little pleasure in the morning and his little pleasure in the evening that he would think of nothing else." --Paul Rahe

Friday, December 07, 2012

Facebook Photo o' the Day

Barack Obama's cousin, Dr. Milton Wolf, posts the following:


Dr. Wolf's blog is well worth a visit.


President Obama Commemorates Pearl Harbor Anniversary With Poignant, Haunting Photograph of... Himself

Well, this is certainly out of character.

On the 71st anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, President Obama commemorated the somber occasion by honoring … President Obama. The White House Twitter account sent out this photo today (taken in 2011):

It’s as if he is physically and mentally incapable of paying tribute to anyone other than himself...

Barack Obama: A president whose narcissism will live in infamy...

Heaven forbid that the president remember Pearl Harbor with a photograph like this:


Or this:


Those who serve -- and those who served -- deserve better.


GRIM MILESTONE: Welfare Spending Per Household Surpasses the Median American's Income

Trillions of dollars have been laundered through the welfare bureaucracy since the inception of "Great Society". And what do we have to show for it?

Rampant fraud and increased poverty:

'Welfare Spending Equates to $168 Per Day for Every Household in Poverty'

The amount of money spent on welfare programs equals, when converted to cash payments, about "$168 per day for every household in poverty"...


...welfare spending per day per household in poverty is $168, which is higher than the $137 median income per day. When broken down per hour, welfare spending per hour per household in poverty is $30.60, which is higher than the $25.03 median income per hour.

History teaches us -- or at least, the intelligent among us, which rules out Democrats -- that collectivism spreads misery.

We are headed for fiscal collapse -- and the welfare state keeps growing like a cancer, incentivizing sloth, formalizing a culture of dependency, and killing self-sufficiency.

Liberty, I am sad to say, is on the wane.


TA-DA! Small Business Owners' Hiring Intent Plunges to 2008 Lows

The people have spoken!

U.S. small-business owners expect to add fewer net new jobs over the next 12 months than at any time since the depths of the 2008-2009 recession...


...In good economic years, net hiring intentions have been in the double-digits. This has not been the case since the recession and financial crisis in 2008-2009 with net hiring intentions reaching a low of -4 in November 2008...

...In November, more small-business owners reported decreasing the number of employees (26%) than increasing (14%), resulting in a net hiring score of -12. That is down from -7 in July and -9 in the prior three quarterly measurements...


It is difficult to blame this on the fiscal cliff, and even more difficult to pin this on Sandy. More than likely, the poor net result is primarily the result of a clear slowdown in the economy (lack of customers).

I believe the US is back in recession and so does the ECRI.

On top of deteriorating economic conditions, also factor in the election and Obamacare...

This history of the Obama administration could be titled Worse and Worser.


STILL LIFE WITH DRUDGE

Also known as "The Art of Drudgetaposition":


What are you trying to say, Matt?


Hat tip: RF.

KEWWWL: How the Mars Rover Snapped a Self-Portrait

NatGeo offers an animation that depicts the first-ever robotic self-portrait on another planet:

The now iconic self-portrait of the Mars rover Curiosity looks like someone, or something, other than the rover took its picture. The photograph, seemingly taken from afar, features an image of the entire vehicle at a site called Rocknest—with tire tracks below, Mount Sharp in the background, and clear scuff marks where Curiosity's arm had scooped up soil for analysis.

...A video released last week by NASA illustrates the daylong rover gymnastics used to take the self-portrait. As the video shows, the camera lens was kept in one place as much as possible to minimize parallax—the seeming change in location of objects within the images caused by a change in camera position—while the arm went through its contortions...

...The actual photo shoot took place in October over two Martian days, known as sols, using the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera, which sits in a turret at the end of the rover's nearly seven-foot-long (two-meter) arm. The camera is a stand-in of sorts for a geologist's magnifying tool, and it can focus on objects very far away, as well as up close (as near as 0.8 inches, or 2 centimeters)...

The three inventors plan on creating a 3-D version of the animation. Upon hearing this news, Keanu Reeves issued the following statement:

"Whoooooaaaaaa."


Hat tip: BadBlue Tech.