We were so busy with other things here (Hi, Osama bin Laden!) that we missed the biggest news from the last couple of days: The Kajimoto Lab in Tokyo has invented a robotic kissing machine:

The Kiss Transmission device is a pair of boxes with plastic tubes sticking out the front that are powered by motors that are controlled by a computer. The guy on one end puts the straw in the mouth and flicks it around with the tongue and the person on the other end has the straw on their machine move in the exact same way. It’s supposed to simulate the feeling of kissing, with lots of tongue.

The device could ultimately be used to store the kissing styles of celebrities, so that everyone can eventually experience the thrill of sticking a straw in our mouths that will move in the fashion of a straw that was once manipulated by Angelina Jolie. Sorry, folks. We took our eye off the ball and we missed the story of the century. It won't happen again.