By Ian Chillag

When the great robot war comes, let no one say President Obama was not prepared.

By Ian Chillag

Mr.Doug Berman chimes in on the fact that we now have Carl all to ourselves:

I'm heartened that, after this brief, but ill advised detour into respectable work, Carl has finally come home.

Amen. And now that he's not spending all that time on respectable work...what will he do? Post your predictions/recommendations for Carl's free time in the comments.

By Peter Sagal

For years, our dear friend Carl Kasell has struggled with a split public personality -- weekday mornings, he's the sober voice of the days news, intoning headlines in his best Late Period Cronkite. But on the weekends, he reappears as a jokester and celebrity impressionist on Wait, Wait. He is the Batman of NPR News, and like Bruce Wayne, eventually he'd have to give in to the dark side.

And so it has happened. Tiring of having to do the newscasts every morning without being allowed to actually imitate the newsmakers -- especially the ones with goofy foreign accents -- Carl has decided to leave the newscast unit, after 30 years with Morning Edition. He'll of course continue to serve as Judge and Scorekeeper on Wait, Wait, but we don't know what'll happen now that he doesn't have to maintain a facade of dignity and objectivity. We expect him to start insisting that he can't really imitate Britney Spears unless he dresses like her, too.

All our best to Carl, and welcome to the wonderful world of sleeping in. Believe it or not, Carl, the sun will still rise without you there to see it happen.

By Eva Wolchover

WELLINGTON (Reuters) -- A Santa in New Zealand with a droopy eye has received a NZ$100,000 ($74,000) face-lift in the run-up to Christmas so that his aging face does not scare children

We're so curious...

Pittsburgh Police Want To See Junk In Your Trunk

With the helpful sub-header:

New Holiday Campaign Encourages Safety, Awareness

By Eva Wolchover

Sometimes you've just gotta post an animal video.

By Ian Chillag

So very excited to have Mr.Jason Schwartzman on to play "Not My Job" this week. First got to know him in the above, and he's a voice in "Fantastic Mr.Fox," out next Wednesday nationwide.

By Ian Chillag

We've been covering the Bob Dylan Christmas album non-stop since we first heard about it--without, I'll admit, high expectations. But this track's pretty catchy, and the video's not bad. It doesn't make much sense, but as they say, you can't blame a dog for not meowing. Dylan sort of looks like he's dressed up as Tom Petty dressed up as Bob Dylan.

By Eva Wolchover

According to research conducted by some website or other, the average British family spends a total of four days a year arguing. Is this a lot? Or a little? The accompanying photo of a frazzled mother, suggests Brits are arguing a lot, or else they're misappropriating stock photos meant for migraine medicine ads. But considering all the things families are supposedly arguing about (see list at bottom of article), four days out of 365 seems remarkably tranquil. Speaking of arguing, no one on staff argued in favor of using this story on the show.

By Ian Chillag

To celebrate Geography Awareness Week (only a few shopping days left!), National Geographic asked Senators to draw their home state. Senator Al Franken, as you might expect from the above, nailed his, as did Dick Durbin, but I was disappointed to see nothing from my home state of West Virginia. We have a unique way of representing our geography: you take your left hand, stick your thumb out to the side, and stick up your middle finger. There it is, The Mountain State, staring you in the face. It's especially useful for explaining West Virginia geography to someone who just cut you off in traffic.