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Researchers made progress enabling a computer to teach itself British Sign Language by analyzing video footage. The scientists from the University of Oxford and University of Leeds first programmed a machine vision algorithm so the computer could identify the shapes of hands in the video. From New Scientist: Once the team were confident the computer could identify different signs in this way, they exposed it to around 10 hours of TV footage that was both signed and subtitled. They tasked the software with learning the signs for a mixture of 210 nouns and adjectives that appeared multiple times during the...

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – The former fiance of Gov. Sarah Palin's 18-year-old daughter says he thinks he knows why the Alaska governor is resigning — concerns over money. Levi Johnston, 19, whose wedding to Bristol Palin was called off earlier this year, says he believes the governor is resigning over personal finances.

AN ILLUSION device that makes one object look like another could one day be used to camouflage military planes or create "holes" in solid walls. The idea builds on the optical properties of so-called metamaterials, which can bend light in almost any direction. In 2006, researchers used this idea to create an "invisibility cloak" that bent microwaves around a central cavity, like water flowing around a stone. Any object in this cavity is effectively invisible. Now a group of researchers has gone a step further. "Invisibility is just an illusion of free space, of air," says Che Ting Chan, a...

I have heard liberals whine several times about "give Obama a chance". Every time they say it, I feel like slapping them silly (Of course, slapping liberals silly doesn't usually accomplish much). But my response is always, "we've already given him many chances and he's blown every single one." Cap and Trade. Universal Health Care. Weak foreign policy. Lies about just about everything under the sun. His policies are ruining the country and we're supposed to give him a chance when liberals wouldn't give Bush a chance. No. He's already squandered all of his chances. Give him any more and...

Your chance to query President Obama about Africa: What do you want to ask President Obama as he prepares to visit sub-Saharan Africa for the first time as leader of the United States - a stop in Ghana on 10-11 July? Write your question here, and we will compile your submissions. Please, if you would, include your age and your occupation.

I haven't commented on Sarah Palin's resignation as Governor of Alaska since Friday afternoon, when I noted the story and said that her resignation "seems bizarre to me." Here are some additional thoughts on the subject. I am, to begin with, an admirer of Governor Palin--the real Sarah Palin, not the creature of myth. Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of the Palin phenomenon is that the mythical version, a caricature of Palin as arch-conservative, especially on the social issues, and populist almost to the point of know-nothingism, has been embraced by many of her supporters as avidly as by her...

GOP zeroes in on Al Franken in new ad View article...

Ever-vigilant for opportunities to quash anything contrary to the liberal worldview, Leftists in Congress are working on new ways to silence any dissent. Most of us know about the “Fairness Doctrine” that they got away with for years to harass and control the opposition. Most of us also know the liberals have been trying for years to bring it back. Their latest attempt is HR 1966, ostensibly to fight “cyber bullying,” but it could very easily be used to prosecute “hate crimes,” or essentially any electronic communication that hurt someone’s feelings. David Rittgers of the Cato Institute discusses this Orwellian...

The Iranian regime warned that any demonstrations would be mercilessly crushed, and meant it. As darkness fell on baking, dust-shrouded Tehran last night an army of riot police and hardline basiji militiamen used batons, gun butts and tear gas to beat back thousands of Iranians converging on the city centre. "The security presence was massive. It was like a military occupation," one witness told The Times. "They were clubbing the hell out of people." The greater victory belonged to the demonstrators, however. Male and female, some quite old, they came armed with nothing more than a burning sense of injustice....

Gov. Sarah Palin is the political train wreck that keeps on giving. First, she was an awful choice last year as John McCain's running mate. I came to this conclusion with regret - I am one of McCain's biggest admirers. But facts are facts. An inexperienced governor of a small state, she lacked the experience to be President and brought nothing to the ticket except a surefire knack for exciting voters who were already reliably Republican. It was a strategically awful choice, and I said so - both on and off microphone - at the time. Most pundits thought I...

In a July 7 New York Times Magazine article ("The Place of Women on the Court"; HT to an e-mailer) apparently scheduled to appear in its July 12 print edition (based on its URL), Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg told the Times's Emily Bazelon that "at the time Roe was decided, there was concern about population growth and particularly growth in populations that we don't want to have too many of." Who is this "we" Ginsburg refers to? Alleged reporter Bazelon did not follow up on this astounding admission. Here, in full context of the Q&A discussion about women's...

Big-time John Edwards Barack Obama supporter John Mellencamp shares his views on the First Amendment: “I don’t think people fought and gave their lives so that some guy can sit in his bedroom and be mean. I don’t think that’s what freedom of speech is,” he continued. “Freedom of speech is really about assembly — for us to collectively have an idea. We want to get our point of view out so we can assemble and I can appoint you to be the spokesman. That’s freedom of speech — to be able to collectively speak for a sector of people....

Max Keiser: "Does the US Secretary of the Treasury work for the people or does he work for the banking system on Wall Street?" Dr. Paul Craig Reports: "He works for Goldman Sachs." Video at site

BY MELANIE HAIKEN OF CARING.COM She may have started her public career as a fluffy pin-up girl, but Farrah Fawcett couldn’t have ended it with more dignity in her role as a public figure. Diagnosed three years ago with anal cancer, Fawcett talked openly about her battle with a type of cancer that’s particularly embarrassing to talk about. With her mane of beautiful hair, white teeth, and sun-tinged skin, Farrah was the picture of health and the quintessential California girl (though she hailed from Texas), adorning many a teenage boy’s wall in her famous red tank top. Thanks to the...

The doctrine of karma states that one's state in this life is a result of actions (both physical and mental) in past incarnations, and action in this life can determine one's destiny in future incarnations. Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce the Karmic Koala, the newest member of our alliterative menagerie. Mark Shuttleworth introduces Ubuntu 9.10-Karmic Koala! A good Koala knows how to see the wood for the trees, even when her head is in the clouds. Ubuntu aims to keep free software at the forefront of cloud computing by embracing the API’s of Amazon EC2, and making it...

The visit last month was particularly significant as it was his first trip since the New York Times and IHT websites were merged to a single global product. The tie-up in March served as a precursor to a key decision in August on how best to charge for access to the group's websites, reversing an earlier decision not to, and becoming the first major non-financial newspaper group to take the step. The move comes as the advertising downturn proves particularly challenging for the listed group, which has seen its market value fall 65pc to $707m (£438m) in the past year....

Tomorrow Pope Benedict XVI and President Barack Obama meet for the first time, an affair much anticipated and in some circles frowned upon by American Catholics in the wake of Obama's controversial Notre Dame commencement speech in May. Conservatives in the church denounced Obama's appearance as a nod by the premier Catholic university to a conciliatory politics that heralds the start of a slippery moral slope. In truth, though, Obama's pragmatic approach to divisive policy (his notion that we should acknowledge the good faith underlying opposing viewpoints) and his social-justice agenda reflect the views of American Catholic laity much more...

Here is video of Bill O'Reilly's "Talking Points" tonight where he expounded on "God, Global Warming, and President Obama." O'Reilly talks about Obama's impending meeting with the Pope tomorrow, and mentions Obama's statement last year during the campaign that the question of when life begins is "above his pay grade." O'Reilly wonders at what the Pope might have to say to Obama on that score. He also cites examples of how Obama and his administration are overtly distancing themselves from the Judeo-Christian values that O'Reilly believes indisputably are the foundation principles that have shaped our nation. . . . ....

Jared Bernstein, chief economist for the office of Vice President Joe Biden (who knew that the Vice President needed a chief economist?), is quoted as saying "We're hitting the right balance between speed and oversight." Unfortunately for the American public, sound economics teaches that, regardless of how fast the money is spent or how much oversight is provided by bureaucrats, the money doled out by the stimulus plan will be wasted and will have a detrimental impact on the economy in the long term, because that is the nature of profligate government spending. From an economic perspective, Obama's stimulus plan...

[...] To me, one of the most interesting aspects of the story is how vehemently the Palin camp blames Barack Obama. From the story: For Palin, however, these aren't isolated incidents. She believes they grow from the same root, which is too big and too formidable to ignore. "A lot of this comes from Washington, D.C. The trail is pretty direct and pretty obvious to us," says Meg Stapleton, a close Palin adviser in Alaska. Awaiting a flight back to Anchorage from distant Dillingham, Stapleton adds that the anti-Palin offensive seems lifted straight from The Thumpin', which describes the political...