Jazz-singing robot could shed light on consciousness

The Human Brain Topic Guides ROBOTS and humans will soon be living in harmony. A singing robot is being taught to improvise jazz duets with a human in a project that researchers hope will shed light on the nature of consciousness. Antonio Chella at the University of Palermo, Italy, is working with a Telenoid robot, developed by the Hiroshi Ishiguro Laboratory in Japan (pictured). To start with, the Telenoid will be trained to mimic the movements and simple sounds made by a human singer, as well as associate parts of music with different emotional states. Chella then plans to see if the robot can use these associations to improvise - choosing movements and vocalisations that complement its human duet partner. Intelligence is often defined as the ability to find connections between existing entities - understanding that a key goes in a lock, for instance. But Chella suggests that a conscious organism should be able to go a step further and introduce novel connections - between, say, musical phrases - that result in the creation of something new. That, in essence, is the idea behind improvisation. Jazz musicians interviewed by Chella talked of having a mental library of musical phrases that they were able to combine in new ways when prompted by other musicians. Importantly, however, this combination happens in a state that is "similar in a sense to dreaming", he says. "Not really conscious, but not unconscious." Chella wants to replicate these states in a machine. "Consciousness could be linked to these moments of combination," he says. Chella presented the idea this month at the International Conference on Artificial Neural Networks in Lausanne, Switzerland. "[This work] raises interesting questions about the link between consciousness and music making," says musician and computer scientist Philippe Pasquier at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada. But he is sceptical about whether a robot musician needs a physical body, citing examples of AI composers that exist only in software. Instead, Pasquier argues that automated musicianship boils down to two challenges: composition and interpretation. Software has already been developed that can imitate Bach, he says. Interpretation, on the other hand, involves the specifically human traits of taste and aesthetic judgement. "What made The Beatles famous was not so much their compositions, but the fact that the interpretations of the compositions were brilliant," he says. It is not yet clear how an artificial musician would go about interpreting music in a novel way. But by mimicking humans and then learning to sing, Chella's robot could provide clues. What does seem to be important is that human composers often listen to hours of music made by others. "Humans don't tend to do things in a vacuum," says Pasquier. Chella's robot better get listening to those jazz standar!

andy williams dead at 84

Singer Andy Williams, 84, has died at his home in Branson, Missouri, a year after being diagnosed with bladder cancer. He was best known for the song Moon River, the Oscar-winning song featured in the film Breakfast at Tiffany's. In 1962, he started The Andy Williams Show, which was broadcast around the world and went on to win three Emmys. Since the 1990s, he had run the Andy Williams Moon River Theater in his home town. The singer was one of the most enduring stars of the 1960s and '70s, whose easy style and mellow voice led President Ronald Reagan to call him "a national treasure". A new generation discovered Williams' music when Music to Watch Girls Go By made the Top 10 in 1999 after being used in an advert. Williams started singing professionally with his three brothers He described Moon River as his "signature song" which had a "wonderful" melody and "timeless" lyrics. "I never tried to sing like anybody else, fortunately I didn't sound like anybody else. It just happened," said Williams. "I was very lucky that I had a voice that sounded different to almost anybody else's and it's recognisable." Fellow crooner Tony Christie, who achieved chart success with Is This The Way To Amarillo, descried Williams as "a very charming man" who had "perfect pitch". The singer was "one of the old school," he added, "and there aren't many left". Williams died on Tuesday night and is survived by his wife, Debbie, and his three children, Robert, Noelle and Christian. Global fame Howard Andrew Williams was born in Iowa and started singing professionally with his three brothers as the Williams Brothers Quartet. They worked in night clubs and on radio and backed Bing Crosby on his number one record Swinging on a Star in 1944. Williams' TV show made him an international star and launched a recording career that spawned such hits as Butterfly, Love Story, Can't Get Used to Losing You and Almost There. The weekly show lasted nine years and will be remembered by many for introducing the Osmond family to the world.

Someone has written these beautiful words. Read and try to understand the deeper meaning of them

1. Prayer is not a "spare wheel" that you pull out when in trouble, but it is a "steering wheel" that directs the right path throughout life. 2. Why is a car's windshield so large & the rear view mirror so small?... Because our PAST is not as important as our FUTURE. So, look ahead and move on. 3. Friendship is like a BOOK. It takes a few seconds to burn, but it takes years to write. 4. All things in life are temporary. If they are going well, enjoy them, they will not last forever. If they are going wrong, don't worry, they can't last long either. 5. Old friends are gold! New friends are diamond! If you get a diamond, don't forget the gold! To hold a diamond, you always need a base of gold! 6. Often when we lose hope and think this is the end, God smiles from above and says, "Relax, sweetheart; it's just a bend, not the end!" 7. When God solves your problems, you have faith in HIS abilities; when God doesn't solve your problems, He has faith in YOUR abilities. 8. A blind person asked God: "Can there be anything worse than losing eye sight?" He replied: "Yes, losing your vision!" 9. When you pray for others, God listens to you and blesses them, and sometimes, when you are safe and happy, remember that someone has prayed for you. 10. Worrying does not take away tomorrow's troubles; it takes away today's PEACE.

Two baseball fans caught having sex in Yankee Stadium bathroom

A randy couple was filmed having sex in a stadium bathroom while the Yankees played the Tampa Bay Rays on Saturday. The woman sat on the toilet as her enthusiastic male partner - who wore a CC Sabathia t-shirt and no pants - climbed on top of her amid a crowd of onlookers, according to Deadspin.com. "Seems impossible to me, but the couple appeared to be oblivious to the surrounding crowd," New York Post quoted the tipster who filmed the hookup as writing. The sexual act kept going for several minutes even after they noticed onlookers peering over and under the stall - and received a round of applause when they strolled out of the bathroom. Meanwhile The Yankees won the match by 5-3.

A Mean Old Man!

An old man and woman were married for many years, even though they hated each other. When they had a confrontation, screaming and yelling could be heard deep into the night. The old man would shout, "When I die, I will dig my way up and out of the grave and come back and haunt you for the rest of your life!" Neighbors feared him. They believed he practiced black magic, because of the many strange occurrences that took place in their neighborhood. The old man liked the fact that he was feared. To everyone's relief, he died of a heart attack when he was 68. His wife had a closed casket at the wake. After the burial, she went straight to the local bar and began to party as if there was no tomorrow. Her neighbors, concerned for her safety, asked, "Aren't you afraid that he may indeed be able to dig his way up and out of the grave and come back to haunt you for the rest of your life?" The wife put down her drink and said, "Let him dig. I had him buried upside down!"

Now speaker dock that dances along with your music

Researchers at Georgia Tech have developed a robotic speaker dock, which dances along to a user's music. Called Shimi, it looks like a bizarre futuristic table lamp. Its inventors have now set up a Kickstarter project to manufacture the gadget. "We are seriously excited to present our project to you: Shimi, the first musically intelligent robotic speaker dock," the Daily Mail quoted it's creators as saying. "Shimi is a real robot with artificial intelligence that analyzes music it plays through his speaker-ears and generates real-time unique dance moves to bring the music to life in a fun, cute way," they added. The gadget uses five motors to move, and also has facial recognition software so it can automatically rotate so its speakers are always pointing towards the listener. It also has a microphone and can understand human speech, so owners can simply tell it what they want to hear. They can also tap along and the robot will adjust its rhythm accordingly. The team also promises to keep developing the robot once they hit their 100,000- dollar target. "We will keep developing new applications for Shimi. We are already working on applications that will allow Shimi to respond to your facial expression, learn your musical tastes, and recommend new music to you," the researchers stated.

RESERVA TIEMPO!

Reserva tiempo para REIR, es la música del alma. Reserva tiempo para LEER, es la base de la sabiduría. Reserva tiempo para PENSAR, es la fuente del poder. Reserva tiempo para TRABAJAR, es el precio del éxito. Reserva tiempo para DIVERTIRTE, es el secreto de la juventud eterna. Reserva tiempo para SER AMIGO, es el camino de la felicidad. Reserva tiempo para SOÑAR, es el medio de encontrar tus objetivos. Reserva tiempo para AMAR Y SER AMADO, es el privilegio de los hijos de Dios. Reserva tiempo para SER UTIL A LOS OTROS, esta vida es demasiado corta para que seamos egoístas. Nosotros no perdemos tiempo en la vida; lo que se pierde es la vida, al perder el tiempo .

Whitney Houston lands posthumous Guinness World Record

Whitney Houston has achieved a posthumous entry into the Guinness Book of World Records for the most simultaneous hits on the U.K. singles chart by a Solo Female. The tragic diva was given the accolade after 12 of her tracks entered the chart in Britain following her death in February, Contactmusic reported. This honour was previously bestowed upon late singer Amy Winehouse, following her death last year in July. The feat has been made possible by her loyal fans, who flocked to buy the superstar's back catalogue in the days after her bathtub death in a suite at the Beverly Hilton hotel in Los Angeles on 11th February.

Gadgetwise Blog A Phone That Can Take a Dunking

People prone to dropping their phones in the drink – a drop in the toilet is one of the most common cellphone accidents — are usually condemned to buying vaultlike cases to protect their phones from everything including the kitchen sink. But the Kyocera Hydro comes with its dive suit built in. The phone, $130 without a contract from Boost Mobile, is waterproof for up to 30 minutes in water about three feet deep. The phone is compact, about 4.5 by 2.5 by 0.5 inches and weighing 4.16 ounces. The screen is a 3.5 HVGA IPS touch screen that’s clear and legible. Kyocera textured the back of the case with a faux carbon fiber checkerboard. Inside is a one GHz processor, not the fastest on the market, but pretty snappy, and it can take up to a 32-gigabyte micro SD memory card. It comes with a two-GB card installed. The phone’s connection is only 3G. The camera has 3.2 megapixels with software for scene settings, like night portraits or sports, a digital zoom and an LED flash. Using Android’s Ice Cream Sandwich operating system, the phone should work with most current apps, and of course it works with all of the Google goodies the Android interacts with, like your online contacts list and Gmail. The call quality was good in my test. In addition to being waterproof, the phone’s chief attraction may be Boost’s pricing plan, which reduces the monthly fees if payments are made on time. The Android plan, which starts at $55 for unlimited talk, text and data, goes to $50 after six on-time payments, $45 a month after 12, and $40 after 18. As with most carriers, the data part of “unlimited“ is conditional – you get 2.5 GB of full-speed data (that’s the connection you use for Web browsing, streaming video and music), after which you still get data but at a slower speed. The phone worked fine after a half-hour in a bucket of water. And while it is waterproof, it makes no claims against jolts, like some rugged phones, such as the Casio G’zOne Commando. But the Hydro may be the right device if you long to Web surf in the shower or text in the tub.

Giant 914 kilo cheeseburger sets new world weight record

A US casino has created a new world record with their bacon cheeseburger that is 10 feet in diameter and weighs more than a ton. The behemoth burger was served up at the Black Bear Casino Resort near Carlton in Minnesota and tipped the scales at 914kg, the Daily Express reported. Guinness Records representative Philip Robertson verified the record for the biggest burger. He called the feat a result of "remarkable teamwork" and said that the burger "actually tastes really good." According to Duluth News Tribune, the previous mark of the biggest burger was a mere 400kg. The casino's burger included 60lb (27kg) of bacon, 50lb (23kg) of lettuce, 50lb (23kg) of sliced onions, 40lb (18kg) of pickles and 40lb (18kg) of cheese. It took about four hours to cook and a crane was used to flip it.