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Researchers at Facebook realized their bots were chattering in a new language. Then they stopped it. Bob: “I can can I I everything else.” Alice: “Balls have zero to me to me to me to me to me to me to me to me to.” To you and I, that passage looks like nonsense. But what if I told you this nonsense was the discussion of what might be the most sophisticated negotiation software on the planet? Negotiation software that had learned, and evolved, to get the best deal possible with more speed and efficiency–and perhaps, hidden nuance–than you or...

The six-legged shoes protect the wearer by lifting up a leg if it is over a mine so that the device is not triggered Device promises to save thousands of lives every year Scientists have developed a robotic shoe that will allow people to walk through minefields unharmed. Landmine clearance agencies are showing interest in the device, the inventors say. Landmines kill or wound tens of thousands every year, the majority of them non-combatants, according to mine research organisations. "We presented and exhibited a fully functional prototype at the Asian Defence Technology 2006 Exhibition in February with good responses,"...

<p>Technically, Stephen Thaler has written more music than any composer in the world. He also invented the Oral-B CrossAction toothbrush and devices that search the Internet for messages from terrorists. He has discovered substances harder than diamonds, coined 1.5 million new English words, and trained robotic cockroaches. Technically.</p>

Scientists claim to invent instant translator Scientists claim to have invented an instant translator which will allow people talking on phones in different languages to understand each other. A research team from Rousse in Bulgaria claim to have patented the technology which converts words spoken in one language into digital code which can then be immediately interpreted into another language. The translator chip can be inserted into any phone, the scientists claim. Project leader Koycho Mitev told BTV national television: "A person can talk freely on the phone in their mother tongue and at the other end of the world...

Ok, fellow FReepers, it's time to get creative. I sense that there's a certain amount of pent up hostility towards Tom Thumb and his cronies so I wanted a simple little thread to lighten things up. That's all. I've been itchin' to come up with a few handy catchphrases to say after someone says rhetorically, "why reinvent the wheel." You know, as in "it's already been done before, so why reinvent the wheel." Obviously this is entirely off any normal news or political topic and I've flagged it as a vanity. Help me out here. Thanks for getting those creative...

Living Dolls: A Magical History Of The Quest For Mechanical Life by Gaby WoodThe 18th-century mechanician, Jacques de Vaucanson, made 'robots' that were capable of playing musical instruments as melodiously as human beings - but it was his incontinent duck that has fascinated down the ages Gaby Wood Saturday February 16, 2002The GuardianThe 18th century was the golden age of the philosophical toy, and its reigning genius was Jacques de Vaucanson. His magnificent creations were admired by audiences all over Europe; they were praised by kings and applauded by scientists. Voltaire labelled him a "new Prometheus". Like the Greek Titan,...

FR. JAMES THORNTON In the Book of Psalms we read, "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament sheweth His handywork." To most men living in the time before the rise of modern science, to look up into the sky was to see irrefutable evidence of God's glory and of His boundless power. The daytime dominated by the majestic fiery orb of the sun, with its life-bestowing warmth and light, and the black dome of the night, with its mysterious moon and its millions of bright stars and many planets, could be logically explained in no other way....