Creepy Sign-Twirling Mannequins Sweeping Stripmall Sidewalks

Our dystopian future has arrived: robots are stealing our jobs. We knew this day would come; we just expected the robots to be a little more ... impressive looking? Meet the robot sign spinners, creepy motorized mannequins that wiggle signs and attract the curious, the delighted, and the disturbed to your place of business. Plug-in and battery-operated models available! They're big business (or business, anyway) for two Valley companies. One budding Thomas Edison told the LA Times he was inspired to create his sign doll after seeing a human sign spinner all sweaty on a street corner, plying his trade, and thought "Poor guy. He should have a machine doing what he's doing." Yeah poor guy, because losing your job to a 65-pound piece of plastic is so refreshing. But on the whole the makers of the spinner mannequins say "their creations as ideal workers who are always on time, never need a lunch break and never complain about being underpaid"; they are also more prone to losing their arms than their human counterparts. Humans aren't obsolete yet!
· Spin this: Human sign wavers being replaced by flash text dummies [LAT]