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Why Computers Can’t Make It as Stand-Up Comics
LiveScience: Computers may have beaten us in chess and "Jeopardy!" — but can they create and tell a good joke? Fortunately for comedians like Jon Stewart, who verbally sparred with a right-wing doppleganger of "Jeopardy!"-winning computer Watson on his show this week, any computer cracking wise is likely to need human writers for the foreseeable future. Read the whole story: LiveScience
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Staring contests are automatic — especially if you’re bossy
MSNBC: Sometimes you can win a battle without lifting a finger. Just think about the time you got into a staredown over that last open parking space in the Costco lot. Somebody blinked, right? Now, a new study suggests that we may engage in staring contests without even thinking about it, especially if we're people who like to run things. Read the whole story: MSNBC
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From Bitter to Wrong: Conscience of a Conservative
Fans of the old sitcom Seinfeld will recall Mr. Bookman, the well-named New York Public Library investigator who relentlessly pursues Jerry for failing to return a library book that he checked out two decades before. Jerry borrowed the book, Tropic of Cancer, in 1971, and when Mr. Bookman finally tracks him down, the mere mention of that year sends the library cop off on a sweeping moral tirade on the degradation of civilized culture: “Yeah, ’71 . . . bad year for libraries. Bad year for America. Hippies burning library cards. Abby Hoffman telling everybody to steal books. I don’t judge a man by the length of his hair or the kind of music he listens to. . . .
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More Americans Believe in Climate Change than in Global Warming
Reuters: A new study conducted by researchers from the University of Michigan, show that more Americans believe in "climate change" than in "global warming." The study, which will see its results published in an upcoming issure of the journal Public Opinion Quarterly, surveyed 2,267 adult Americans asking them a simple question regarding the issue of climate change/global warming. Read the whole story: Reuters
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Abstract Art Isn’t So Inscrutable, Study Finds
The New York Times: Do the canvases of Cy Twombly look like finger-painting to you? No matter how you answer, you’re probably more an of aesthete than you think. Building on a put-down commonly directed at abstract art – “my kid (or a monkey/elephant) could do that” – researchers at Boston College tested whether laypeople and art students could distinguish between abstract paintings by professional artists and those made by schoolchildren and animals. As they report in the journal Psychological Science, even non-experts could tell the difference between finger (or trunk) painting and the real deal. Read the whole story: The New York Times
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Pitchers Bean More Batters in the Heat of the Summer
Pitchers’ temperatures — and tempers — seem to flare when the thermometer tops 90 degrees, research shows.
