When a Robot Signs a Bill
By Brian Resnick

Yesterday, the president was in Hawaii but the recently passed fiscal-cliff deal was in Washington. How could the presidential signature be affixed to the bill to make it law? Obama signed it via a robot, the autopen.

Here’s a brief history of the gadget. (Did you know Thomas Jefferson was the first president to use it?)

PHOTO OF THE DAY: President Obama waves as he speaks on technology and the economy after touring the National Robotics Engineering Center at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh on Friday. (SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images)