tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-302800472024-03-05T22:24:09.975+00:00Conversation, Deception and IntelligenceA blog dedicated to science, technology, and my interests in music, art & film and especially to Alan Turing for his Imitation Game: a measure for machine intelligence through text-based dialogue.Huma Shahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01334580708628395059noreply@blogger.comBlogger174125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30280047.post-58946427091331533762017-03-26T15:16:00.002+01:002017-03-26T15:16:30.456+01:00Humane Humanoids vs. Mercantile Homo Sapiens <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b><span style="font-size: x-small;">©</span></b><b><span style="font-size: x-small;"> Huma Shah March 2017</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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The fear of intelligent machines draws analogies with Luddites’ rejection of 19th-century<sup></sup> industrial methods, increasing production at the cost of human labour, and 21<sup>st</sup> century concerns over foreigners taking jobs.</div>
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The 4<sup>th</sup> Industrial Revolution’s intelligent technologies will execute many jobs we humans do, but much better, in all sorts of industries including financial, legal, education and transportation. Machines will observe the results of their behaviour, modify their own programmes “so as to achieve some purpose more effectively” (Turing, 1950, p.449). Such intelligent machines are not the biggest existential risk to our species. The mercantile human is and has been throughout history. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The human species is a mercantile breed for whom trade has eclipsed benevolence over the centuries. Past great empires were enriched on the backs of human slaves (Frankopan, 2016). Vegetarian Leonardo Da Vinci’s ingenuity included military designs that could throw inflammable materials causing serious injury to enemies of the 15<sup>th</sup> century Milanese (White, 2001).<o:p></o:p></div>
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Humanity’s penchant for personal pleasure through cruelty to others is viscerally captured in the new TV series Westworld (2016). It depicts a future game world in which wealthy guests, the <i>outsiders</i> are hosted by humanoids on whom the vilest acts can be perpetrated through depraved scenarios designed by the <i>narrative</i> department at the adventure park. Human visitors act out their desires inflicting pain, after which each robot’s memories are wiped to erase the suffering in a session: “these violent delights lead to violent ends” (Shakespeare, quoted in Westworld, 2016). We need only open a newspaper on any given day and learn what horrors we humans wreak on each other.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Nonetheless, “limitations of the human intellect” (Turing, 1950, p.445) require us to develop smart machines. Guidelines on future and emerging technologies (Palmerini et al., 2014), applied by multidisciplinary teams learning from and reducing mistakes of the “sufficiently elaborate” machines (Turing, 1951, p. 473; Shah, 2013), even if they do “outstrip our feeble powers” could ensure they do not “take control” (p. 475). Advances in intelligent technologies, through the following of instruction and learning from experience, will produce driverless vehicles reducing road casualties, enhance student engagement through deployment of bots in pedagogy, medics diagnosing accurately and sooner, surgical operations increasingly error-free, deep learning programmes improving performance for our savings and investments, conversational humanoids attending the elderly and the unwell for dignified living, sophisticated programmes helping us to harness nature and prevent damage from weather-related disasters, and all-seeing machines (Person of Interest, 2015), monitoring to protect our privacy and secure us from cyber-criminals. Why would we not want this future?<o:p></o:p></div>
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Anxiety over future machines intent on malfeasant behaviour is valid, but so is the dread of the Homo sapiens who have put aside humane actions to ensure competitive trade advantages for their own particular group. Cooperative interdisciplinary human teams constructing social, cultural, ethical, moral and legally-binding technologies could lead to equitable sharing of the planet’s natural resources. Artificial Intelligence does not have to be a threat to humankind, it can help us to preserve our species for longer.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>©</b><b> Huma Shah March 2017</b></span></div>
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<b>References<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Frankopan, P. 2016. <i>The Silk Roads: A New History of the World</i>. Bloomsbury Paperback, London UK.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Palmerini, E., Azzarri, F., Battaglia, F., Bertolini, A., Carnevale, A., Carpaneto, J., Cavallo, F., Di Carlo, A., Cempini, M., Controzzi, M., Koops, B.J., Lucivero, F., Mukerji N., Nocco, L., Pirni, A., Shah, H., Salvini, P., Schellekens, M. and Warwick, K. 2014. <i>Guidelines on Regulating Robotics</i>. Deliverable D6.2 EU FP7 RoboLaw project: Regulating Emerging Robotic Technologies in Europe-Robotics Facing Law and Ethics, SSSA-Pisa. Report accessible from http://www.robolaw.eu/<o:p></o:p></div>
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Person of Interest (2015). <a href="http://www.cbs.com/shows/person_of_interest/">http://www.cbs.com/shows/person_of_interest/</a><o:p></o:p></div>
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Shah, H. 2013. Conversation, deception and intelligence: Turing’s question-answer game. Chapter in Cooper, S.B. and van Leeuwen J. (Eds), <i>Alan Turing: His Work and Impact</i>, pp. 614-620. Elsevier. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Turing, A.M. 1951. Intelligent Machinery, A Heretical Theory. In Copeland, B.J. (Ed). <i>The Essential Turing: The ideas that gave birth to the computer age</i>. Oxford University Press, UK<o:p></o:p></div>
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Turing, A.M. 1950. Computing Machinery and Intelligence. <i>Mind</i>, Vol 59(236), 433-460<o:p></o:p></div>
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Westworld. 2016. HBO: http://www.hbo.com/westworld/about/index.html<o:p></o:p></div>
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White, M. 2001. <i>Leonardo Da Vinci: The First Scientist</i>. Abacus paperback edition, London, UK.<o:p></o:p></div>
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</script></div>Huma Shahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01334580708628395059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30280047.post-34228412978217100742016-12-11T15:39:00.003+00:002016-12-11T16:22:49.448+00:00Hugh Loebner did a David Bowie: Died Surprisingly Quietly.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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© Huma Shah, December 11, 2016 <o:p></o:p></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hugh Loebner from 2006 Prize, UCL</td></tr>
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<o:p> </o:p>One week ago, December 4, 2016 a tweet from @eloebner announced
“<a href="http://www.loebner.net/Prizef/loebner-prize.html" target="_blank">Hugh LOEBNER</a> died peacefully in his sleep” [1].</div>
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Hugh Loebner’s ex-wife’s message didn’t sink in. That day,
like many, I was in anticipation of <a href="http://www.hbo.com/westworld" target="_blank"><b>Westworld TV</b></a> show’s Season 1 finale [2]
promised by Sky Atlantic to air at the same ‘time’ (2am UK 5 Dec) as for
viewers in the US (9pm Dec 4), the mesmerising “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJQOXPbmjd8" target="_blank"><i><b>dawning of consciousness</b></i></a>” [3] robot
epic based on the 1973 movie starring <b><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070909/?ref_=nv_sr_2" target="_blank">Yul Brynner</a> </b>as the refusing-to-die killer
robot [4]. <o:p></o:p></div>
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One week on, I’m reminded of <b>John Sundman</b>’s 2003 article in <b>Salon</b> <i><a href="http://www.salon.com/2003/02/26/loebner_part_one/" target="_blank"><b>Artificial Stupidity</b></a></i> [5]:</div>
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“<span style="background: white;">All
Hugh Loebner wanted to do was become world famous, eliminate all human toil,
and get laid a lot. And he was willing to put up lots of good money to do so.
He’s a generous, fun-loving soul who likes to laugh, especially at himself. So
why does everybody dislike him so much? Why does everybody give him such a hard
time?</span>”<o:p></o:p></div>
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I don’t think this is the time to go over his human
failings, because we all have them, what I do want is to remind the academic
world and beyond how approachable Hugh Loebner was. And yes he did have a sense
of humour, read his cheeky retort claiming that the (now late) <a href="http://1995%20loebner%20prize%20announcement/" target="_blank"><b>Marvin Minsky</b></a> supported
the <a href="http://www.loebner.net/Prizef/loebner-prize.html" target="_blank"><b>Loebner Prize</b> </a>[6]. But more than that, Hugh had a profound understanding of
Turing’s idea about how to build and measure <a href="https://www.academia.edu/226311/From_the_Buzzing_in_Turings_Head_to_Machine_Intelligence_Contests" target="_blank">whether a machine could think</a> [7] -
see his <b>response to Stuart Shieber</b>’s article<a href="http://loebner.net/Prizef/In-response.html" target="_blank"> <i>Lessons from a Restricted Turing test</i></a> [8].<o:p></o:p></div>
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I’m loathe to divulge personal experiences of interactions
with Hugh Loebner, and there were many. I first saw him in <b>2003 at the 13<sup>th</sup>
Loebner Prize contest at the University of Surrey. </b>Then from 2005 discussions
began for me to organise his 16<sup>th</sup> contest. I co-organised two Loebner
Prizes: at<a href="http://loebner.net/Prizef/2006_Contest/loebner-prize-2006.html" target="_blank"> UCL in 2006</a> [9], and at<a href="https://www.reading.ac.uk/15/research/ResearchReviewonline/featuresnews/res-featureloebner.aspx" target="_blank"> Reading University in 2008</a> [10]. Hugh
allowed me to design his 18<sup>th</sup> contest as an original Turing test experiment
different from all his previous Prizes– see <a href="https://www.academia.edu/415888/Deception-detection_and_machine_intelligence_in_practical_Turing_tests" target="_blank">Chapter 5 in my PhD thesis </a>[11]. I
can say as late as 2014, long after I’d gone my own way designing my own Turing
test events, at <a href="http://www.reading.ac.uk/news-and-events/releases/PR445524.aspx" target="_blank"><b>Bletchley Park</b></a> [12] on the 100<sup>th</sup> anniversary of Alan
Turing’s birth June 23<sup>rd</sup>, 2012, and another on the 60<sup>th</sup>
anniversary of Turing's passing away, at <a href="http://turingtestsin2014.blogspot.co.uk/" target="_blank"><b>The Royal Society London</b></a> [13], 6-7 June,
2014, Hugh remained approachable. He responded swiftly to my queries on the pass-rate in his 2014
Loebner Prize (I was concerned and have many emails making a plea not to use
the ‘unsure’ score in my own 2014 Turing tests as part of a <a href="http://www.robolaw.eu/" target="_blank"><b>RoboLaw</b></a> project dissemination
event, and the media backlash following prove me right, but that’s another story).<o:p></o:p></div>
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Anyway, Hugh clarified that in his 2014 contest “<span style="background: white;">The program must fool half the judges.
That automatically means it will be compared to two different humans. Each
judge meets each human once.</span>” (Personal email to me: 18 May 2014 at 16:26).<o:p></o:p></div>
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Back to Hugh’s own words, here’s Hugh’s analysis of
his own scholarship. It conveys his ability to self-mock. <span style="background: white;">In early 2005 I had posed a question on Robby Garner’s Yahoo Robitron group message
board: <i>Knowledge and a</i></span><i> <span style="background: white;">Doctorate:
to be a doctor or not, that is the question</span></i><span style="background: white;">. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white;">This is how Hugh Loebner replied:
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<span style="background: white;">16
March 2005: "<b>I pose the following question: Am I a fraudulent Ph.D</b>.?</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Affirmative:</span> <span style="background: white;">I submitted the dissertation for my Ph.D. knowing full well that the</span>
<span style="background: white;">results were garbage. I published (jointly
with my chairman) the</span> <span style="background: white;">results of my
dissertation in the Journal Demography (top journal in</span> <span style="background: white;">the field) knowing full well that the results were
garbage.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Negative: I did not alter the data. I
performed my statistical</span> <span style="background: white;">calculations as
I described. I explicitly explained and described why</span> <span style="background: white;">the results were garbage.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Why were the results garbage?</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">I reanalyzed some data on fertility in Central
India which the chairman of my committee had collected and previously analyzed
using cross tabulations and published as a book.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Rather than perform cross tabulations as my
chairman had done, I used the method of 'path analysis', the 'hot' new
statistical analysis in sociology/demography at the time.</span><br />
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<span style="background: white;">Path analysis proceeds in three steps. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white;">1.
Take a piece of paper and mark dots on the paper representing variables of
interest. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white;">2.
Based</span> <span style="background: white;">upon 'theory,' draw arrows from
some dots to some other dots</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">representing causation <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white;">3.
After the arrows are drawn (based upon</span> <span style="background: white;">'theory')
perform a multiple regression analysis to put numbers next</span> <span style="background: white;">to the arrows indicating relative strengths of the
'causes.'</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Note Well: The choice of paths (arrows) is
based upon "theory." The data do not reveal the causal
network. The data reveal the strengths of the causes *given whatever
particular path diagram is drawn.*</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">I asked the question (which apparently no one
else has ever considered): given N variables, how many different possible path diagrams
can be drawn?</span><br />
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<span style="background: white;">Note
that with N variable 1, 2, 3, 4 ... n, there are n*(n-1) = M ( 1 -> 2; 2 -> 1; 1 -> 3; 3 ->1; ...
etc) possible arrows (causes), only some of which, presumably, are
correct. We can have every path</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">diagram from the null case (nothing directly
causes anything else eg no arrows on the page) to the complete case, (every
variable causes every other variable eg every possible arrow on the page).</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Given M objects, how many different subsets can
be drawn. The answer is "the Power Set" = 2^m .</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">The answer to the question "How many path
diagrams are possible given M arrows?" is 2^M. M, remember, is
the number of arrows, not variables.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">My analysis had 22 variables(dots). This
means that the number of possible causes (arrows) was 22*21=462 possible
arrows. The number of possible path diagrams for my set of variables is
2^462, which is a very large number. Only one path diagram can be
correct, therefore, as a first approximation, the p that my path diagram was
correct is 1/(2^462) I pointed this out on page 3 of my dissertation and
column 3 of the article, and then said "with this limitation in mind, lets
analyze the results."</span><br />
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<span style="background: white;">Ergo, the results were garbage.</span><br />
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<span style="background: white;">Am I a fraud? My results were garbage, but
I said it first. If anyone critiques my dissertation (or article) I can
reply: "Yes, of course, but I already said that." ;-)</span>
<span class="il"><span style="background: white;">Hugh<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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And that’s how I will remember <i>Hugh-the-original </i>:)<o:p></o:p></div>
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© Huma Shah, December 11, 2016 <o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>References<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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[1] Elaine Loebner on Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/eloebner"><span style="color: windowtext;">https://twitter.com/eloebner</span></a><o:p></o:p></div>
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[2] Westworld 2016: http://www.hbo.com/westworld <o:p></o:p></div>
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[3] JJ Abrams at Westworld premiere: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJQOXPbmjd8<o:p></o:p></div>
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[4] Westworld 1973: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070909/?ref_=nv_sr_2<o:p></o:p></div>
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[5] Artificial Stupidity, Salon, February 23, 2003: <a href="http://www.salon.com/2003/02/26/loebner_part_one/">http://www.salon.com/2003/02/26/loebner_part_one/</a><o:p></o:p></div>
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[6] Home of the Loebner Prize: <a href="http://www.loebner.net/Prizef/loebner-prize.html">http://www.loebner.net/Prizef/loebner-prize.html</a> and<o:p></o:p></div>
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1995 Loebner Prize Announcement: <a href="http://loebner.net/Prizef/minsky.txt">http://loebner.net/Prizef/minsky.txt</a><o:p></o:p></div>
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[7] <i>From the Buzzing
in Turing’s Head to Machine Intelligence Contests</i>: https://www.academia.edu/226311/From_the_Buzzing_in_Turings_Head_to_Machine_Intelligence_Contests<o:p></o:p></div>
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[8] Hugh Loebner: In Response to Stuart Shieber: http://loebner.net/Prizef/In-response.html<o:p></o:p></div>
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[9] 2006 Loebner Prize: <a href="http://loebner.net/Prizef/2006_Contest/loebner-prize-2006.html">http://loebner.net/Prizef/2006_Contest/loebner-prize-2006.html</a><o:p></o:p></div>
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Blog with pictures: <a href="http://humashah.blogspot.co.uk/2006/09/loebner-2006-contest-day.html">http://humashah.blogspot.co.uk/2006/09/loebner-2006-contest-day.html</a><o:p></o:p></div>
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[10] 2008 Loebner Prize: <o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="http://loebner.net/Prizef/2008_Contest/loebner-prize-2008.html">http://loebner.net/Prizef/2008_Contest/loebner-prize-2008.html</a> and <o:p></o:p></div>
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Reading University page:<o:p></o:p></div>
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https://www.reading.ac.uk/15/research/ResearchReviewonline/featuresnews/res-featureloebner.aspx<o:p></o:p></div>
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[11]. Deception-detection and machine intelligence in
Practical Turing tests. <a href="https://www.academia.edu/415888/Deception-detection_and_machine_intelligence_in_practical_Turing_tests">https://www.academia.edu/415888/Deception-detection_and_machine_intelligence_in_practical_Turing_tests</a><o:p></o:p></div>
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[12] Turing100in2012 at Bletchley Park: <o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="http://www.reading.ac.uk/news-and-events/releases/PR445524.aspx">http://www.reading.ac.uk/news-and-events/releases/PR445524.aspx</a><o:p></o:p></div>
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[13] Turing2014 at The Royal Society, London: <a href="http://turingtestsin2014.blogspot.co.uk/">http://turingtestsin2014.blogspot.co.uk/</a><o:p></o:p></div>
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[14] RoboLaw: http://www.robolaw.eu/<o:p></o:p></div>
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</script></div>Huma Shahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01334580708628395059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30280047.post-75827650552621839702016-11-22T18:38:00.000+00:002016-11-22T18:38:02.921+00:00Why the Winograd Schema Challenge is not an advance on the Turing test<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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© Huma Shah, 22 November, 2016<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Charles Ortiz of <a href="http://www.nuance.com/company/news-room/press-releases/Winograd-Schema-Challenge.docx" target="_blank">Nuance Communication</a> states: </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“The <a href="http://commonsensereasoning.org/index.html" target="_blank"><b>Winograd Schema Challenge</b></a> provides us with a tool for concretely measuring research progress in commonsense reasoning, an essential element of our intelligent systems." (</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">from</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><a href="http://www.nuance.com/company/news-room/press-releases/Winograd-Schema-Challenge.docx" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">here</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> ).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So does the <a href="https://www.academia.edu/415888/Deception-detection_and_machine_intelligence_in_practical_Turing_tests" target="_blank"><b>Turing test</b></a>!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The <a href="http://www.nuance.com/company/news-room/press-releases/Winograd-Schema-Challenge.docx" target="_blank"><b>Winograd Schema Challenge</b></a> is <u><b>not</b></u> superior to
the <a href="https://www.academia.edu/2195902/Conversation_Deception_and_Intelligence_Turings_question-answer_game" target="_blank"><b>Turing test</b></a>. This is because, the kinds of common-sense reasoning questions
that <a href="https://www.cs.toronto.edu/~hector/" target="_blank">Hector Levesque</a> proposes are the kinds of ‘statements-followed-by-questions’
that judges already ask in English-language Turing test contests.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For example, in the </span><a href="https://www.academia.edu/232909/Testing_Turings_five_minutes_parallel-paired_imitation_game" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank"><b>2008 Turing test experiment</b></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> I designed (around
the 1</span><a href="http://www.loebner.net/Prizef/2008_Contest/loebner-prize-2008.html" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">8<sup>th</sup> Loebner Prize for AI</a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">) at </span><a href="https://www.reading.ac.uk/15/research/ResearchReviewonline/featuresnews/res-featureloebner.aspx" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">Reading University</a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">, one of the judges (a psychologist),
asked </span><b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Eugene Goostman</i></span> </b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">machine ‘</span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My car is red.
What color is my car?</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">’. In 2008 </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Eugene Goostman </i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">replied correctly with ‘red’.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To me the Winograd Schema Challenge is a condescension and
presumption that Turing test judges don’t have the intellectual faculty to ask
smart questions to determine human from machine. <a href="https://www.academia.edu/354696/Hidden_Interlocutor_Misidentification_in_Practical_Turing_Tests" target="_blank">The transcripts</a> show that most judges do. Whether the judges are members of the public including teenagers, computer scientists or
journalists, they ask all sorts of visceral questions during Turing test
contests.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What a major Turing test challenge needs is not pittance
prizes but a major few-million -sterling-pounds or 10million dollars award to address and
build a truly <b>Turing-conversational system</b>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://medium.com/chris-messina/2016-will-be-the-year-of-conversational-commerce-1586e85e3991#.qqoat4j97" target="_blank"><b>Conversational commerce</b></a> will drive question-answer systems to beyond common-sense reasoning. What is that anyway? Knowledge gained by experience :)</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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© Huma Shah, 22 November, 2016</div>
</div>
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</script></div>Huma Shahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01334580708628395059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30280047.post-91420446726036747052016-10-10T20:01:00.000+01:002016-10-10T20:01:55.969+01:00Turing test is more than mere theatre: it shows us how we humans think. <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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© Huma Shah October 2016</div>
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Is the Turing test mere theatre?<o:p></o:p></div>
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You might question why anyone bothers
to stage Turing test experiments when a computer programme achieved 50%
deception rate in the first instantiation, the inaugural <span style="color: #0070c0;">Loebner Prize for Artificial Intelligence </span>in 1991.
Back then judges were restricted to asking questions specific to each hidden
entity, human or machine’s <i>specialism</i>.
Whimsical conversation was the topic winner in 1991 from Joseph Weintraub’s <a href="http://www.loebner.net/Prizef/weintraub-bio.html" target="_blank"><b>PCTherapist III programme</b></a>: <a href="http://www.loebner.net/Prizef/weintraub-bio.html">http://www.loebner.net/Prizef/weintraub-bio.html</a><o:p></o:p></div>
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Since then machine simulation of
natural language has moved on and we see chatbots with characters able to express
opinions, share ‘personal information’ and <i>tell
it like it is</i>! This from <b><a href="http://www.elbot.com/" target="_blank">Elbot</a></b> /Artificial
Solutions (<a href="http://www.elbot.com/">http://www.elbot.com/</a>) during a chat with this
blogger on Oct 6, 2016: “<span style="background: white; color: #000066;">You have
quite an imagination. Next thing you know you'll say I needed batteries!</span>”<o:p></o:p></div>
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For me the interest comes from
movie talking robots, recently sensationally experienced in <i>Ex Machina</i> where the female embodied
robot <i>Ava</i> perpetrates the ultimate
deception, or does she? Well it wasn’t quite what Ava’s programmer in the
movie, Nathan had imagined. And of course HAL from <i>2001: A Space Odyssey </i>who talked and lip-read to a menacing end in
Kubrick’s truly glorious cinematic production.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Experiencing the 13<sup>th</sup>
Loebner Prize at University of Surrey in 2003 I felt tweaking that format could
produce some interesting data. After all, Turing’s imitation game was as much
concerned with finding out how we humans think as it is about exploring the
intellectual capacity of a machine through its ability to answer any question
in a satisfactory and sustained manner – Turing’s words (<i>Computing Machinery and Intelligence</i>, 1950).<o:p></o:p></div>
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Two decades from the 1<sup>st</sup>
Turing test instantiation developer Rollo Carpenter claimed his programme <i><span style="color: #0070c0;">Cleverbot</span></i>
was considered to be 59.3% human, following 1334 votes cast at a 2011 event in
Guwahati, India. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Up to the year 2003 the method of
practical Turing tests involved a human interrogator interviewing one hidden
entity at a time. This is what I have named the <b><i>viva voce</i></b> Turing test in
my PhD, ‘<span style="color: #0070c0;">Deception-detection and Machine
Intelligence in Practical Turing tests</span>’.
In 2008 I designed a Turing test experiment in which, for the first time,
control pairs of 2machines and 2humans were embedded among pairs of
human-machine set-ups. In this layout each interrogator simultaneously
questioned a hidden pair and had to decide which was human and which was
machine. The 2008 Turing tests were also the first time in which school pupils
were given the opportunity to participate as judges and hidden humans. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The new book, ‘<span style="color: #0070c0;">Turing’s Imitation Game: Conversations with the Unknown</span>’
details that experiment and two follow up Turing test events, in 2012 at <span style="color: #0070c0;">Bletchley Park</span> held on the 100<sup>th</sup>
anniversary of Alan Turing’s birth, June 23<sup>rd</sup> as part of the
worldwide centenary celebrations, and at <span style="color: #0070c0;">The Royal
Society London </span>in 2014, on the 60<sup>th</sup> anniversary of Turing’s
untimely and sad death. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Each experiment had an
incremental purpose, including to scale machine performance in dialogue and
whether they were getting better at answering questions in a satisfactory
manner. As readers will learn from the book, we humans do not always answer a
question appropriately, so should we be harsh when machines don’t, especially
as they are learning programmes and a lot ‘younger’ than some of the youngest
human judges? <o:p></o:p></div>
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Implementing Turing tests is
actually quite hard work. Finding open-minded human interrogators and human
foils for the machines as well as motivating developers of computer programmes
to participate, takes time and persuasion. Not everyone is happy at the
conclusions, as can be evidenced by the many negative and angry comments across
tech magazines and newspaper articles, especially after the 2014 experiment.
The Turing test does this, it is one of those controversial areas of science
that brings out the proprietorial impressions; everyone feels their interpretation
is the one Turing intended.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I am really grateful for all the
participants, humans and machine who have participated in our experiments –
more than 80 judges, 70 hidden humans, and for the ingenuity, patience and collaboration
of the developers: Fred Roberts for <i>Elbot</i>;
Robby Garner for <i>JFred-TuringHub</i>;
Rollo Carpenter for <i>Cleverbot</i>; Robert
Medeksza for <i>Ultra Hal</i>, and Vladimir
Veselov and his team for <i>Eugene Goostman</i>.
You will meet these conversationalists, or chatbots in the book. I hope it
encourages more school pupils and the general public to take interest in the
Turing test and get involved in the challenge. There’s still more to be done
here <span style="font-family: "wingdings";">:)</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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</script></div>Huma Shahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01334580708628395059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30280047.post-57261214446178317692016-10-06T15:34:00.000+01:002016-10-06T15:34:46.058+01:00What is the Turing test?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
For the October 2016 launch of <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Turings-Imitation-Game-Kevin-Warwick/dp/1107056381/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1475764104&sr=1-1&keywords=turing%27s+imitation+game+conversations+with+the+unknown" target="_blank"><b>Turing's Imitation Game: Conversations with the Unknown</b></a>, publisher <a href="http://www.cambridge.org/gb/academic/subjects/computer-science/artificial-intelligence-and-natural-language-processing/turings-imitation-game-conversations-unknown?format=HB&isbn=9781107056381" target="_blank">Cambridge University Press</a> asked the authors for answers to fundamental questions on the <a href="https://www.academia.edu/474617/Turing_s_misunderstood_imitation_game_and_IBM_s_Watson_success" target="_blank">Turing test</a>. Co-author, <a href="https://coventry.academia.edu/HumaShah" target="_blank">Huma Shah</a> answers hers below:<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvrdTyOJHpOQohLmsNwaHaRBtUBk6-gRq5nxuxCtqPaKbvb_Q-NGJpcCZJyneCt_aGx29HqbBQ2l6YtVKK7JSmApcUqsfYfMiBueXOTv2OrKzN5Je5Y2r7epFic4A7fYSgmZDm/s1600/01+Turing+Robot.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="149" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvrdTyOJHpOQohLmsNwaHaRBtUBk6-gRq5nxuxCtqPaKbvb_Q-NGJpcCZJyneCt_aGx29HqbBQ2l6YtVKK7JSmApcUqsfYfMiBueXOTv2OrKzN5Je5Y2r7epFic4A7fYSgmZDm/s200/01+Turing+Robot.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Image: <a href="http://www.harjitmehroke.com/" target="_blank"><b>Harjit Mehroke</b></a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<b>CUP: The Turing test was originally devised by Alan
Turing in 1950. Why write a book about it now?<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b><u><span style="color: red;">Huma</span></u><span style="color: red;">: Turing actually devised his imitation game in his 1948 paper,
‘Intelligent Machinery’, considered the first manifesto of artificial
intelligence. Turing’s test aims to investigate the intellectual capacity of
machines, so it is as relevant today as when he was developing his ideas more
than 60 years ago, especially because we are building more and more computer
programmes and robots to</span><span style="color: #1f497d;"> </span><span style="color: red;">conversationally interact and collaborate with humans.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b>CUP: What reactions have you seen in people who have
taken the test?<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b><u><span style="color: red;">Huma</span></u><span style="color: red;">: Judges and hidden humans have mostly enjoyed their participation.
However when some judges who got it wrong learn they did not accurately
categorise humans as humans and machines as machines they ask all sorts of
questions to mitigate their error, such as ‘W<i>ere the humans told to act like
machines?’</i> – they were not, all humans in our experiments have always been
asked to be themselves. However, what these judges probably have not realised
is that error-making is part of intelligent thinking, it’s one way of how we
learn and improve.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b>CUP: Why has the Turing test been controversial?<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b><u><span style="color: red;">Huma</span></u><span style="color: red;">: Because it questions the very nature of what it means to be
human, and conversation-natural language is most human. Different
interpretations of Turing’ ideas exist as to the purpose of the test with lots
of disagreements, but this is healthy and democratises science and empirical
work.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b>CUP: There is a popular misconception that the Turing
test is a test for human-like intelligence in machines. But what is it really?<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b><u><span style="color: red;">Huma</span></u><span style="color: red;">: No, it is not a test for human-like intelligence but an
exploration of whether a machine can ever answer any question put to it in a
satisfactory and sustained manner. Of course the judgement of whether an answer
to a particular judge’s question is relevant rests with the interrogator who
might feel a machine’s response is more appropriate than a human’s answer to
the same question.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b>CUP: Has a machine passed the Turing test? What is the
significance of that event?<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b><u><span style="color: red;">Huma</span></u><span style="color: red;">: No, not in the sense that Turing would have envisaged. What
has been achieved in the 2014 Royal Society London held experiment could be
said to be the first challenge being overcome, that of wrong identification by
30% of a panel of judges. But this is open to interpretation of one statement
of Turing’s in his 1950 paper ignoring what he said before and after. We do not
yet have in existence the kinds of machines Turing envisaged that would play
his imitation game satisfactorily.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b>CUP: Can machines think?<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b><u><span style="color: red;">Huma</span></u><span style="color: red;">: It depends on what you mean by thinking </span></b><b><span style="color: red; font-family: Wingdings;">J</span><span style="color: red;">
In place of circular definitions Turing posed his imitation game and felt that
if a machine could answer any question in a satisfactory and sustained manner
then that would not be an easy contrivance. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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</script></div>Huma Shahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01334580708628395059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30280047.post-44937545800928510322016-09-29T19:31:00.002+01:002016-09-29T19:31:56.887+01:00Turing's Imitation Game: Conversations with the Unknown<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
New book published by <b><a href="http://www.cambridge.org/gb/academic/subjects/computer-science/artificial-intelligence-and-natural-language-processing/turings-imitation-game-conversations-unknown?format=HB&isbn=9781107056381" target="_blank">Cambridge University Press</a>, September 2016:</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b><span style="font-size: large;">Turing's Imitation Game: Conversations with the Unknown</span></b><br />
co-authored by <a href="http://www.kevinwarwick.com/" target="_blank">Kevin Warwick</a> and <a href="https://coventry.academia.edu/HumaShah" target="_blank">Huma Shah</a><br />
<br />
Based on Shah's PhD thesis, <a href="https://www.academia.edu/415888/Deception-detection_and_machine_intelligence_in_practical_Turing_tests" target="_blank">Deception-detection and Machine Intelligence in Practical Turing tests</a>, the book presents interviews with two contemporaries of Alan Turing, (the late) Professor <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/dec/22/john-westcott" target="_blank">John Westcott</a>, and Sir <a href="http://io9.gizmodo.com/5876545/an-eyewitness-account-of-the-most-awkward-urology-lecture-ever" target="_blank">Giles Brindley</a> co-members of the Ratio Club. It tells the story of the origins of the ideas that gave rise to the <a href="https://www.academia.edu/474617/Turing_s_misunderstood_imitation_game_and_IBM_s_Watson_success" target="_blank">Turing test</a> and introduces you to Developers of computer programmes and the <a href="https://www.academia.edu/3648067/Can_Machines_Talk_Comparison_of_Eliza_with_Modern_Dialogue_Systems" target="_blank">chatbots</a> that attempt to answer any question in a satisfactory manner.<br />
<br />
The book is appropriate for 'A' level and university students and teachers with interest beyond computer science: design, engineering natural language, linguistics, psychology, philosophy, anthropology, sociology, robotics, ethics and cybercrime/deception-detection.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b><br /></b>
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</script></div>Huma Shahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01334580708628395059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30280047.post-6427333965060577792014-10-09T17:18:00.001+01:002014-11-23T17:16:16.359+00:00Review of Alan Turing biopic ‘The Imitation Game’<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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“<span style="font-size: large;">What if only a
machine can defeat another machine</span>?”<o:p></o:p></div>
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Last night, Wednesday 8<sup>th</sup> October 2014 I was one
of the lucky ones, packed into a <a href="http://www.cineworld.co.uk/" target="_blank"><b>Cineworld</b></a> (High Wycombe in my case), watching
a simultaneous screening of the London premiere and gala opening of ‘The
Imitation Game’ biopic of my hero <a href="http://www.turing.org.uk/scrapbook/" target="_blank"><b>Alan Turing</b></a> (My <a href="https://www.academia.edu/415888/Deception-detection_and_machine_intelligence_in_practical_Turing_tests" target="_blank">PhD</a> is based on the imitation game to explore machine thinking). Thank you to <a href="http://www.showfilmfirst.com/" target="_blank">Show Films First</a>,
Amex and the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vpbvb_rAR8U" target="_blank">BFI 2014 Film Festival</a> for making this opportunity possible.</div>
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Drawing away from the film the mantra ‘<span style="color: blue;"><b>Don’t be normal, be
Turing</b></span>’ reverberated in my thoughts all the way back to my home in a London
suburb.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Watching the film compels you <i>not</i> to try to 'fit in', it will
be seen as a pretence and you’ll be dismissed for it, better to be yourself, be
as brilliant as it is possible for you to be, you may be disliked intensely, it
may polarise people’s opinions about you, (in the cricket world currently one
only has to look at how a batting "talent that comes along too rarely" <a href="http://www.espncricinfo.com/england/content/story/787933.html" target="_blank">Kevin Pietersen</a> has been treated by
some of his <a href="http://www.espncricinfo.com/england/content/story/787623.html" target="_blank">fellow team members</a> and the<a href="http://www.espncricinfo.com/england/content/story/787701.html" target="_blank"> English Cricket Board</a>, ECB). But being
despised is better than being ignored. Turing was not ignored, no one could ignore
Turing.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Stepping back to yesterday morning, before I saw ‘The
Imitation Game’ movie, I had really wanted <a href="http://www.totalfilm.com/news/leonardo-dicaprio-to-play-alan-turing" target="_blank">Leonardo DiCaprio </a>to play Turing, as had been mooted in 2011 with Ron Howard to direct Graham Moore's script based on <a href="http://www.maths.ox.ac.uk/people/andrew.hodges" target="_blank">Oxford mathematician</a> <a href="http://www.synth.co.uk/" target="_blank"><b>Andrew Hodges</b></a>' biography. <a href="http://www.totalfilm.com/news/leonardo-dicaprio-to-play-alan-turing" target="_blank">Leo </a>has a
similar square-ish face shape to Turing’s – handsome. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD__Z4Re_J3Vdc2pigH3Jss7FRCio9gbgumbzx0to1GVwF8fVQFKv9qTyuNf9UntBHf2LO8XFtE8ePoin_YILve6Tvoek57JrygubDPJxDc1YsKnAoBt7dGbHxSiA5eyrZVN2-/s1600/Alan-Leo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD__Z4Re_J3Vdc2pigH3Jss7FRCio9gbgumbzx0to1GVwF8fVQFKv9qTyuNf9UntBHf2LO8XFtE8ePoin_YILve6Tvoek57JrygubDPJxDc1YsKnAoBt7dGbHxSiA5eyrZVN2-/s1600/Alan-Leo.jpg" height="149" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Young Turing_Young Leo</td></tr>
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Benedict Cumberbatch’s
face is elongated and he doesn’t look anything like Turing, but then neither do
<b>Derek Jacobi</b> (BBC Breaking the Code) and <b>Ed Stoppard </b>(Channel 4’s Codebreaker)
who have also played <b>Alan Turing</b>. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3dOyDTpp2R3uHm0Pn3kw2Or7S_F4i-Hg2XykbyxgdMAVUV26g04at68CZd_9T9hAz2r2mMVMnnzDryXPBy8bhWWve2CFyDtVUoFiSUTMyWQc1583RFLIBkAQoF1YtW2WZw90L/s1600/AT_Derek_Ed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3dOyDTpp2R3uHm0Pn3kw2Or7S_F4i-Hg2XykbyxgdMAVUV26g04at68CZd_9T9hAz2r2mMVMnnzDryXPBy8bhWWve2CFyDtVUoFiSUTMyWQc1583RFLIBkAQoF1YtW2WZw90L/s1600/AT_Derek_Ed.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Adult Turing - Derek Jacobi - Ed Stoppard<br />
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Benedict <i>is
<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b018ttws" target="_blank">Sherlock Holmes</a></i>, he seems to epitomise that kind of annoying logical
smartass and mechanical sleuth. </div>
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Yesterday Benedict <i>was </i>Turing. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwWHHdZU2z-S_6jw-RCDYU0KOlENRs1XcVl6NF3pOaHMzQSaIFifZd1-TcL_3ijWhOZD48ifg1tJXTWyFKWnjZfrLX3S7w4_rRCxlB24aEJ2knAWaWk6hCJor291rIjyTrhoZs/s1600/AT-adult.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwWHHdZU2z-S_6jw-RCDYU0KOlENRs1XcVl6NF3pOaHMzQSaIFifZd1-TcL_3ijWhOZD48ifg1tJXTWyFKWnjZfrLX3S7w4_rRCxlB24aEJ2knAWaWk6hCJor291rIjyTrhoZs/s1600/AT-adult.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Benedict Cumberbatch as Alan Turing in 'The Imitation Game'</td></tr>
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Let’s turn to what I felt after seeing ‘The Imitation Game’ film.</div>
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In '<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2084970/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_5" target="_blank">The Imitation Game</a>' film, the characters, and brilliant acting talent portraying the
people around Turing at times in his life, included:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b><a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0835016/?ref_=tt_cl_t5" target="_blank">Mark Strong</a></b> (Welcome
to the Punch, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Kick Ass) plays the mysterious but
Turing-supportive MI6 head Stewart Menzies who passed Turing’s 1941 request for
resources to Churchill. That Prime Minister responded and gave the resources in
the plea, unlike David Cameron who had no money to support the Alan Turing
centenary events in 2012, including the ‘<a href="http://www.reading.ac.uk/news-and-events/releases/PR445524.aspx" target="_blank">London Inspire Mark</a>’ award winning
<a href="http://turing100.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/vladimir-veselov-wins-colonnade-trophy.html" target="_blank">Turing100</a> series of <a href="http://turing100.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/new-scientist-article-on-reading.html" target="_blank">practical Turing tests</a> at the place where Turing broke the
enigma code, well, not in Hut 8, but in Bletchley Park mansion’s Billiard and
Ballroom on 23 June 2012. </div>
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Turing’s 100<sup>th</sup> birthday. Mark Strong said, on the red
carpet of the gala opening of the BFI London Film Festival: “I hope enough
people in the UK know who Alan Turing is, because he is a hero”. Last night in
Cineworld at least one of the staff members learnt who Alan Turing was, she
asked me after the film what I thought and what certificate it should have, I
feel it’s okay for children to watch with parents, in fact they should watch
because it will inspire them. More than an Oscar or any ‘gong’, if this movie
reaches more people beyond the world of us academics who work in his legacy,
widens the circle of interest in Turing, then the film will be a major
achievement of the entire production and cast.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b><a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001097/?ref_=tt_cl_t4" target="_blank">Charles Dance</a></b>
said of his character in the film, Commander Denniston, that he was “a bit of a prat” .
I’ll leave the reader to watch the film and find out why <span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;">J</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<b><a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0461136/?ref_=tt_cl_t2" target="_blank">Keira Knightly</a></b>. One can forget that her character, <a href="http://www.bletchleyparkresearch.co.uk/research-notes/women-codebreakers/" target="_blank">Joan Clarke</a>, is not a made-up female
drawing on cinematic licence ticking all the boxes to connect movies with
movie-goers watching them, and who will want to watch them over and over again. Joan Clarke was very real, a first-class Cambridge-educated mathematician like Turing, who was, because she
was female, designated a linguist rather than a code-breaker. We can easily
forget that in the time Joan was part of Turing’s life it was less than two
decades since women had been granted the vote on equal terms with men in the UK
(in 1928), and how at Bletchley Park during WWII women assisted men as ‘secretaries’,
but were capable of a lot more if given the opportunity, which <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2346828/Film-WW2-codebreaker-Alan-Turing-attacked-biographer-exaggerating-love-affair-woman-gay-says-Keira-Knightley-glamorous.html" target="_blank">Joan Clarke</a>
showed she so obviously was. </div>
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Times are better for women, but still not great –
in the second decade of of the 21<sup>st</sup> century the UK still has far
fewer females populating the higher echelons of academia as University Vice
Chancellors. Keira Knightly brings Joan Clarke out of the shadows into the
light as a heroine herself and a role model for girls today. Thank you to Keira, for portraying Joan Clarke, not as a glamorous kitten in ‘The Imitation Game’ but
with gracious simplicity masking an inner quality beyond beauty as Turing’s
<i>mind-for-mind</i> friend.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBC8CqVMHDhLoi-X-UmUp7DuLo-fXsbCI3awrQYaVcd1RkLdN9R916cqrL_TKH0mAOdBOglCKAnNAgVT-SNH_dK1kI47eFivJtZuChbrMF3cJOL_OMFvUXVlVY3nEXQzEgsiFV/s1600/Keira.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBC8CqVMHDhLoi-X-UmUp7DuLo-fXsbCI3awrQYaVcd1RkLdN9R916cqrL_TKH0mAOdBOglCKAnNAgVT-SNH_dK1kI47eFivJtZuChbrMF3cJOL_OMFvUXVlVY3nEXQzEgsiFV/s1600/Keira.jpg" height="189" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Keira Knightley as codebreaker Joan Clarke</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1212722/?ref_=tt_cl_t1" target="_blank"><b>Benedict Cumberbatch</b></a>. BBC’s Sherlock Holmes, Benedict was not <i>that</i> <i>character</i> as
Alan Turing. Depicting the ‘confidant in his work’ mathematician, belief in ‘Turing
as the codebreaker; and what the logician was doing, what was needed to be done
at that crucial time and how to realise it in a not-normal way, pitting a
machine against another machine by firstly focusing on getting a big machine
built – was genius thinking. The film does not shirk from the fact that Turing
was a homosexual, it’s ever present, but what the film does is not
sensationalise that feature of Turing’s character. Alan Turing was much, much
more than a homosexual man – he was a complex human being. This is what Benedict
captures in his interpreting Turing, played brilliantly as a pioneer who
challenged and risked to improve the world. Turing was not perfect, who is? Who
wants to be? Turing was not normal; goodness the world needs more <i>not-normals</i>. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2084970/?ref_=nv_sr_1" target="_blank">The Imitation Game</a> showed
us that elegantly.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Finally about the film, there are scenes in the movie that I don’t
recognise, or remember reading about in <a href="http://www.waterstones.com/waterstonesweb/products/andrew+hodges/alan+turing/4232814/?gclid=CjwKEAjw5NihBRCZmdLkuuTHyWYSJACtCY0JDNfNTGHVy9-CoB6t8P9JnN4mjrqCCaC8g7YUtLP3yxoC7jjw_wcB" target="_blank">Andrew Hodges biography</a> ‘<b>Alan Turing:
the enigma</b>’, or his mother Sara Turing’s book, that the film presents as
happening to Turing. It is unimportant as far as the concept of the movie goes –
I recall a Greek colleague piqued that <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000093/?ref_=nv_sr_1" target="_blank">Brad Pitt</a>’s <i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0332452/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1" target="_blank">Troy</a> </i>related <a href="http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/3581/Achilles" target="_blank">Achilles</a> killed inside the city, rather than what we’re tuned to by the myth. Creativity in ‘The
Imitation Game’ tells a great story of a dazzling intellectual, of the heroic
Alan Turing who needs to be as well-known as Leonardo Da Vinci and Einstein. Thanks
to <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0878763/?ref_=tt_ov_dr" target="_blank">Morten Tyldum</a>'s movie he will be.<o:p></o:p><br />
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vpbvb_rAR8U" target="_blank">YouTube</a> 'Introduction to <i>The Imitation Game</i> BFI 2014 LFF gala screening':<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/Vpbvb_rAR8U" width="560"></iframe></div>
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cht3FF2P_1E" target="_blank">YouTube</a> 'The Imitation Game premiere, red carpet interviews at the 2014 London Film Festival':<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/Cht3FF2P_1E" width="560"></iframe><br />
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<br />
<a href="http://www.wltx.com/video/3828641267001/51325932001/INTERVIEW---Mark-Strong-on-the-film-and-history-on-Alan-Turing-being-at-Betchley-Park-at-The-Imitation-Game-Gala-Opening" target="_blank">Interviews of the cast</a> of 'The Imitation Game', including Mark Stong <a href="http://www.wltx.com/video/3828641267001/51325932001/INTERVIEW---Mark-Strong-on-the-film-and-history-on-Alan-Turing-being-at-Betchley-Park-at-The-Imitation-Game-Gala-Opening" target="_blank">here</a>:<br />
<br />
http://www.wltx.com/video/3828641267001/51325932001/INTERVIEW---Mark-Strong-on-the-film-and-history-on-Alan-Turing-being-at-Betchley-Park-at-The-Imitation-Game-Gala-Opening<br />
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Readers might want to check the the 60th anniversary '<b>Turing on Emotions</b>' 2014 special volume (5) with two issues of papers ranging from articles about Turing the man to Turing-related work in the <a href="http://www.igi-global.com/journal/international-journal-synthetic-emotions-ijse/1144" target="_blank">international journal of synthetic emotions</a> (IJSE), they include:</div>
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<a href="http://www.igi-global.com/article/film-theory-and-chatbots/113416" target="_blank">Film Theory and Chatbots</a>. 5(1), pages 17-22</div>
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<a href="http://www.igi-global.com/article/the-emotions-of-alan-turing/113417" target="_blank">The Emotions of Alan Turing: The Boy Who Explained Einstein's Theory of Relativity Aged 15 1/2 for his Mother</a>. 5(1), pages 23-30</div>
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<a href="http://www.igi-global.com/article/the-turing-test/113418" target="_blank">The Turing Test: A New Appraisal</a>. 5(1), pages 31-45</div>
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<a href="http://www.igi-global.com/article/feelings-of-a-cyborg/114906" target="_blank">Feelings of a Cyborg</a>. 5 (2), pages 1-6</div>
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<a href="http://www.igi-global.com/article/turings-three-senses-of-emotional/114907" target="_blank">Turing's Three Senses of Emotional</a>. 5 (2), pages 7-20</div>
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<a href="http://www.igi-global.com/article/the-social-psychology-of-dialogue-simulation-as-applied-in-elbot/114908" target="_blank">The Social Psychology of Dialogue Simulation as Applied in</a> <a href="http://www.elbot.com/" target="_blank">Elbot</a>. 5 (2), pages 21-30</div>
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See <a href="http://www.igi-global.com/journal/international-journal-synthetic-emotions-ijse/1144" target="_blank">here</a> for full contents list of <a href="http://www.igi-global.com/journal/international-journal-synthetic-emotions-ijse/1144" target="_blank">IJSE Volume 5 issues 1-2</a>:</div>
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http://www.igi-global.com/journal/international-journal-synthetic-emotions-ijse/1144</div>
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<o:p> </o:p>© Huma Shah 9 October 2014 - please note all images in this blog post have been taken from across the web</div>
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[NB: updated with YouTube clip and links]<br />
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<br />
Update 23 November 2014<br />
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I've now seen <a href="http://theimitationgamemovie.com/" target="_blank">The Imitation Game</a> film <b>five times</b> (8 October and 8 November pre-UK release, then 16, 18 and 22 November), once with my <a href="http://www.kevinwarwick.com/" target="_blank">boss</a> and his wife. W/E 22-23 November, the Turing story on film is sitting at number two in the <a href="http://www.imdb.com/chart/?ref_=nv_ch_cht_2" target="_blank">IMDB</a> Box Office after <a href="http://www.interstellarmovie.net/" target="_blank">Interstellar</a> - <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0816692/?ref_=nv_sr_1" target="_blank">Chris Nolan's 2001: Kubrick</a> inspired space adventure.<br />
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The more I see the Imitation Game the more I admire Turing-type characters who have such self-belief and confidence in their talent that they challenge authority with the nature of a child. The scene in the film where Cumberbatch's Turing roars "<b>You people will never understand the importance of what I am creating here</b>" reminds of every time 'authority' continues with its old ways regardless of how unsuccessful they may be, too weak to take the risk, too self-important to envelope imagination.<br />
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<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2084970/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1" target="_blank"><b>The Imitation Game</b></a>, <a href="http://www.turing.org.uk/scrapbook/" target="_blank"><b>Alan Turing</b></a> biopic based on <b><a href="http://www.turing.org.uk/index.html" target="_blank">Andrew Hodge</a>s</b> book '<a href="http://www.turing.org.uk/book/" target="_blank"><b>Alan Turing: the Enigma</b></a>' will open <b><a href="http://www.bfi.org.uk/lff" target="_blank">BFI's 2014 London Film Festival</a> </b>tomorrow, 8 October 2014. Simultaneous screenings of the premiere will be shown around the UK, here's my ticket :)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnVYuZKETqQGQevpAM2f1qO9AiRCaBiZbgrGzEp5xzHtiT6X5NamaOdQJXBIfR7oNTUuk-X50zvdXsxpd-1JOXNMZVbJ9qaPFUc8r4XAM2vH-52KsHgwmP2cL2r_7NYT5d301v/s1600/TIG+ticket_8Oct2014.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnVYuZKETqQGQevpAM2f1qO9AiRCaBiZbgrGzEp5xzHtiT6X5NamaOdQJXBIfR7oNTUuk-X50zvdXsxpd-1JOXNMZVbJ9qaPFUc8r4XAM2vH-52KsHgwmP2cL2r_7NYT5d301v/s1600/TIG+ticket_8Oct2014.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.turing.org.uk/scrapbook/" target="_blank"><b>Alan Turing</b></a> has been played previously by <b>Derek Jacobi</b> in '<b><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0115749/?ref_=nv_sr_1" target="_blank">Breaking the Code</a>'</b> (1996), and by <b>Ed Stoppard </b>in '<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2119396/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_19" target="_blank"><b>Codebreaker</b></a>' (2011). </div>
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This time around it is <b>Benedict Cumberbatch</b> who plays the tragic genius in the film that marks the 60th anniversary year of the untimely death of the tragic genius in 1954.</div>
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From my guest editorial, in a special '<b>Turing on Emotions</b>' volume of major papers in <a href="http://www.igi-global.com/journal/international-journal-synthetic-emotions-ijse/1144" target="_blank"><b>The International Journal of Synthetic Emotions</b></a> (IJSE):</div>
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"Alan Turing is one of those towering pioneers under whose striding shadow researchers in many fields amble. He accomplished and contributed more in his 41 years than many of us could hope to in twice that lifetime." </blockquote>
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From <a href="http://www.igi-global.com/journal/international-journal-synthetic-emotions-ijse/1144" target="_blank">here</a>:</div>
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http://www.igi-global.com/journal/international-journal-synthetic-emotions-ijse/1144</div>
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My paper in Volume 5, issue 1 of IJSE:</div>
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<b><a href="http://www.igi-global.com/article/the-emotions-of-alan-turing/113417" target="_blank">The Emotions of Alan Turing: The Boy Who Explained Einstein's Theory of Relativity Aged 15 1/2 for his Mother</a>:</b></div>
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<b>"</b><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">This paper makes no apology for its reading like a collection of book reports. It draws mainly on the reminiscences of Sara and John Turing, Alan Turing's mother and elder brother respectively, as well as from Andrew Hodges' extensive research on the man, his work and his impact gathered for the definitive Alan Turing biography. Alan Turing was a complex, talented man bereft of one stable and loyal companion throughout his life. He was the boy who explained Einstein's Theory of Relativity aged 15½ for his mother and the tormented outcast who gave us the modern world (Sunday Times, 2011)."</span></blockquote>
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Read more <a href="http://www.igi-global.com/article/the-emotions-of-alan-turing/113417" target="_blank">here</a> : http://www.igi-global.com/article/the-emotions-of-alan-turing/113417</div>
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Update 8 October:</div>
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Trailer for '<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2jRs4EAvWM" target="_blank">The Imitation Game</a>' movie:</div>
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<a href="http://www.coventry.ac.uk/primary-news/coventry-university-researchers-build-on-the-pioneering-work-of-alan-turing/?theme=main" target="_blank">Coventry University</a> continues Turing's pioneering work in machine intelligence, press notice <a href="http://www.coventry.ac.uk/primary-news/coventry-university-researchers-build-on-the-pioneering-work-of-alan-turing/?theme=main" target="_blank">here</a>:</div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.5px;">Deputy Vice Chancellor-Research, Professor <a href="http://www.kevinwarwick.com/" target="_blank">Kevin Warwick </a>said: "The Turing Test is one of the most important yet controversial milestones in the field of artificial intelligence, and Coventry University is critically involved with its practical assessment. This will have a dramatic impact on future communication not only where computers are involved but in all aspects of cyber-crime where identity and deception are key elements".</span></blockquote>
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http://www.coventry.ac.uk/primary-news/coventry-university-researchers-build-on-the-pioneering-work-of-alan-turing/?theme=main</div>
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...................... so they wouldn't upset the Daily Mail!!!!!<br />
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A week ago two acknowledged space scientists,<a href="http://www.ucl.ac.uk/star/people/hpeiris.html" target="_blank"> Dr Hiranya Peiris</a> and <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mk7h" target="_blank">Sky at Night</a> presenter <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2013/maggie-aderin-pocock.html" target="_blank">Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock</a> appearing on Newsnight to discuss <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/03/21/daily-mail-ucl-scientists_n_5005988.html" target="_blank">"</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/03/21/daily-mail-ucl-scientists_n_5005988.html" target="_blank">detected gravitational waves, an echo of the Big Bang, the universe's cataclysmic birth almost 14 billion years ago</a>" </span>brought forth this description by a Daily Mail columnist:<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18.98714256286621px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">"....two women were invited to comment on the report about (white, male) American scientists who've detected the origins of the universe – giggling Sky at Night presenter Maggie Aderin-Pocock and Sri Lanka-born astronomer Hiranya Peiris"</span></span></blockquote>
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Read a disgusted <span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18.98714256286621px;"><b>Professor David Price</b>, vice-provost for research at University College </span><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/uk/london" style="background-color: white; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18.98714256286621px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="More from the Guardian on London">London</a><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18.98714256286621px;"> (UCL) feelings on the matter in the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2014/mar/20/dailymail-newsnight" target="_blank">Guardian</a>:</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">"I am writing to express my deep disappointment in the insinuation in your newspaper that <a href="http://zuserver2.star.ucl.ac.uk/~hiranya/Hiranya/Hiranya_Peiris.html" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Dr Hiranya Peiris</a> was selected to discuss the Big Bang breakthrough on Newsnight for anything other than her expertise.<br />In Ephraim Hardcastle's column on 19 March, he asserts that Dr Peiris and Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock were selected based on gender and birthplace because 'Newsnight's Guardian-trained editor, Ian Katz, is keen on diversity.'<br />The implication that anything outside of her academic record qualifies Dr Peiris to discuss the results of the BICEP2 study is profoundly insulting. She is a world-leading expert on the study of the cosmic microwave background, with degrees from Cambridge and Princeton, so is one of the best-placed people in the world to discuss the finding.<br />Dr Aderin-Pocock is a highly-qualified scientist and engineer with an exceptional talent for communicating complex scientific concepts in an accessible way.</span></blockquote>
<span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18.98714256286621px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Full letter <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2014/mar/20/dailymail-newsnight" target="_blank">here.</a> </span></span><br />
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Perhaps fearing the wrath of the Daily Mail, and their contempt for contribution by intelligent females in highly technical matters, persuaded BBC 2's Newsnight team to host an-all male debate - <span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;"> "<span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; white-space: pre-wrap;"> last min editorial decision to replace me for 'wider views' (<a href="https://twitter.com/MFrancoisCerrah" target="_blank">M. Francois-Cerrah/Twitter Feed</a>)</span></span><span style="background-color: #f5f8fa; color: #292f33; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span>on <i>who speaks for British Muslims?</i><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-GzXbhf8Zpp0EnYjcC4ne21wuWHJqlM_-nwmAQeFitdRupVfvfdu7BXgTgg1A3AKnzsREndBA129cCxwvUlm-8ghdasYksjpiJn9Gwoap5l1KkZraY1zhgulY6Db5ll1IIBpf/s1600/Newsnight_24Mar2014.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-GzXbhf8Zpp0EnYjcC4ne21wuWHJqlM_-nwmAQeFitdRupVfvfdu7BXgTgg1A3AKnzsREndBA129cCxwvUlm-8ghdasYksjpiJn9Gwoap5l1KkZraY1zhgulY6Db5ll1IIBpf/s1600/Newsnight_24Mar2014.png" height="180" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Newsnight 24 March 2014: Who speaks for UK muslims?</td></tr>
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On BBC2's <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mk25" target="_blank">Newsnight </a>last night (Monday 24 March 2014), <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mk25" target="_blank"> </a><a href="http://myriamfrancoiscerrah.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Myriam Francois-Cerrah</a> was dropped and replaced with <a href="http://moansar.blogspot.co.uk/" target="_blank">Mohammed Ansar</a> resulting in umpteen minutes of squabbing among <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/" target="_blank">UK Huffington Post'</a>s political director <a href="https://twitter.com/mehdirhasan" target="_blank">Mehdi Hasan</a>, Ansar both of whom clearly objected to former radical and 'counter-extremist think tank' <a href="http://www.quilliamfoundation.org/" target="_blank">Quilliam Foundation</a>'s <a href="http://maajidnawaz.com/" target="_blank">Majid Nawaz</a>, looked on by an unusually hapless Jeremy Paxman. Missing was a rational discussion about there not being a need for anyone to speak for the disparate coterie of Muslims anywhere.<br />
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Pity Newsnight backed down on Myriam's views though.<br />
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<h1 style="background-color: whitesmoke; color: #083e94; font-family: 'Adobe Caslon Pro', 'Times New Roman', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif, georgia, serif; font-size: 30px; line-height: 28px; vertical-align: middle;">
2013 Winners</h1>
<br style="background-color: whitesmoke; font-family: Frutiger, Corbel, 'Droid Sans', 'Myriad Pro', 'Adobe Caslon Pro', 'century gothic', Arial, Verdana; font-size: 13px; line-height: 21px;" />
<div align="center" style="background-color: whitesmoke; font-family: Frutiger, Corbel, 'Droid Sans', 'Myriad Pro', 'Adobe Caslon Pro', 'century gothic', Arial, Verdana; font-size: 13px; line-height: 21px;">
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<tr><td bgcolor="#003399"><span style="color: white;"><b>R.R. Hawkins Award</b></span></td></tr>
<tr><td>Elsevier Science<i><br /><b>Alan Turing: His Work and Impact </b>in the West, 350-550 AD</i><br />
Edited by S. Barry Cooper and Jan van Leeuwen</td></tr>
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</div>
</blockquote>
<br />
From here:<br />
http://www.proseawards.com/current-winners.html<br />
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Chapters detailed here: http://www.mathcomp.leeds.ac.uk/turing2012/give-page.php?300<br />
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<img alt="Turing book" src="http://www.mathcomp.leeds.ac.uk/turing2012/Images/impact.book.png" /></div>
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<b><a href="http://eyeborg.wix.com/cyborg" target="_blank">Neil Harbisson</a>,</b> and pioneer of implants, Professor <a href="http://www.kevinwarwick.com/" target="_blank"><b>Kevin Warwick</b> </a>met at the <a href="http://www.2045fs.com/" target="_blank"><b>2045: A Futurist's Symposium</b></a> in the UK in October 2013:<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTYvkT5xDDb6PGm9orTIbpchZdZvO7aFxVGqT_ziI3z9BzlByUGKfkTroNJDzmA90hPtA0ExQPvV8Xcmx6rZ2X7P__HvSKS9j96y-06oZpQJbGybW_VV5U0JFh_i13m-9mC7fw/s1600/NHarbisson_KWarwick.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTYvkT5xDDb6PGm9orTIbpchZdZvO7aFxVGqT_ziI3z9BzlByUGKfkTroNJDzmA90hPtA0ExQPvV8Xcmx6rZ2X7P__HvSKS9j96y-06oZpQJbGybW_VV5U0JFh_i13m-9mC7fw/s400/NHarbisson_KWarwick.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Neil Harbisson and Kevin Warwick*</td></tr>
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<br />
<br />
Hear Neil's <a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/neil_harbisson_i_listen_to_color.html" target="_blank">TED Talk</a> <span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: purple;"><i><b>I listen to colour</b></i>:</span></span> <br />
<a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/neil_harbisson_i_listen_to_color.html">http://www.ted.com/talks/neil_harbisson_i_listen_to_color.html</a><br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" mozallowfullscreen="" scrolling="no" src="http://embed.ted.com/talks/neil_harbisson_i_listen_to_color.html" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="560"></iframe><br />
<br />
<br />
Read about Professor Warwick at the <i>2009 World Science Festival</i>: on '<b>Battlestar Galactica: Cyborgs on the Horizon</b>':<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">"....the story of how he became the “World’s First Cyborg” yet left a deep impression. (A microchip embedded in a nerve in his wrist transmitted perceptible pulses to directly to his brain, based on signals sent via the Internet across the Atlantic ocean.)"</span></blockquote>
<br />
More here:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://blog.ted.com/2009/06/15/world_science_f_1/">http://blog.ted.com/2009/06/15/world_science_f_1/</a><br />
<br />
<br />
*Photo courtesy of Mariana Viada / <a href="http://eyeborg.wix.com/cyborg" target="_blank">Cyborg Foundation</a></div>
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On <b><a href="http://www.internationalwomensday.com/" target="_blank">International Women's Day 2013</a> </b>hear <b>Kakenya Ntaiya</b> speak at <a href="http://www.ted.com/" target="_blank"><b>TED</b></a> agreeing to female circumcision if she could go to school:</div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" mozallowfullscreen="" scrolling="no" src="http://embed.ted.com/talks/kakenya_ntaiya_a_girl_who_demanded_school.html" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="560"></iframe></div>
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More on IWD here: <a href="http://www.internationalwomensday.com/about.asp#.UTp10qKvaSo">http://www.internationalwomensday.com/about.asp#.UTp10qKvaSo</a></div>
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Below, pictures from last month's <a href="http://www.onebillionrising.org/" target="_blank">One Billion Rising</a> in Parliament Square, London, 14 February 2013.</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk6ZtqciIA1u1M5GiUpgkuEKAkGJp-jXs3IM0C2-h-rMnf4vqI0a-ZrzuafbYbDoWXnWzYcofZSAU3WzWA0HrL1896nyfkdtP3E_GYrm5BMEkbUXsG4MJsMxCn6KcvKwuNWx9z/s1600/Ruby+Wax.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk6ZtqciIA1u1M5GiUpgkuEKAkGJp-jXs3IM0C2-h-rMnf4vqI0a-ZrzuafbYbDoWXnWzYcofZSAU3WzWA0HrL1896nyfkdtP3E_GYrm5BMEkbUXsG4MJsMxCn6KcvKwuNWx9z/s320/Ruby+Wax.jpg" width="214" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ruby Wax, 1 Billion Rising, Feb 2013</td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqkJRDmrJQfu8vLzFrieQm7ak24IfycZAAhRk_iczxFoib2QNVh7nKz8vkNNjXrrVD2TIDRQhct3IM8-vg5FT14ijUFp_Xq2S2gvrWAhBteIJUq3P3jhsUGwshct12dHujiRFg/s1600/CNV00001.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqkJRDmrJQfu8vLzFrieQm7ak24IfycZAAhRk_iczxFoib2QNVh7nKz8vkNNjXrrVD2TIDRQhct3IM8-vg5FT14ijUFp_Xq2S2gvrWAhBteIJUq3P3jhsUGwshct12dHujiRFg/s320/CNV00001.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMnLg1d64vquMBMGIOV_GkobKTnJ4TJXMDQg1JFcyS0bEEQQ8p3Gt0eXFqAEdtYJLBkNTx-pM6dtSDfsroCjOYN6JLMm07ZmJrDLP7lKldNcFHwQkaeUNMH7JDnXqWvYE3HNBN/s1600/CNV00018.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMnLg1d64vquMBMGIOV_GkobKTnJ4TJXMDQg1JFcyS0bEEQQ8p3Gt0eXFqAEdtYJLBkNTx-pM6dtSDfsroCjOYN6JLMm07ZmJrDLP7lKldNcFHwQkaeUNMH7JDnXqWvYE3HNBN/s320/CNV00018.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgchUsy0DIQBfcoPXyET_2bfDJFWLCmw-9WY-wq4MM6AHgb9JvHf-wx5Uo55klPFXpPHZzJqwtVewUDhY8ZBmA56_YhArx2DXni6OW6Ca2vT-HkfJaB6O2qaoiZ3vXY856CZARq/s1600/CNV00036.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgchUsy0DIQBfcoPXyET_2bfDJFWLCmw-9WY-wq4MM6AHgb9JvHf-wx5Uo55klPFXpPHZzJqwtVewUDhY8ZBmA56_YhArx2DXni6OW6Ca2vT-HkfJaB6O2qaoiZ3vXY856CZARq/s320/CNV00036.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvqmsouNE_oTgG9vqTmn20xon5TZo9hitutNOW33pQKkeTjMW74JSkdZaCzf9l9bCXjwPjYET48MNx52HcNpe38fI6LaB9brvs-rWcPlKOLS0EKH4wCSPuWnk6QNVMVxWPp2di/s1600/CNV00025.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvqmsouNE_oTgG9vqTmn20xon5TZo9hitutNOW33pQKkeTjMW74JSkdZaCzf9l9bCXjwPjYET48MNx52HcNpe38fI6LaB9brvs-rWcPlKOLS0EKH4wCSPuWnk6QNVMVxWPp2di/s320/CNV00025.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jon Snow head & shoulders above the rest!</td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoAcbIspkDP8jlGzaeucHXXvfhmizEJGhMeRSpChxBVNrTXPuR31iHe9Cm6O28q5zoipW933W_CZyYA9JT3dtRF6Bo06sGtjHVGioS49Ngp4B7LfB59EkmPKoFWBRi0vXnt0Uh/s1600/CNV00019.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoAcbIspkDP8jlGzaeucHXXvfhmizEJGhMeRSpChxBVNrTXPuR31iHe9Cm6O28q5zoipW933W_CZyYA9JT3dtRF6Bo06sGtjHVGioS49Ngp4B7LfB59EkmPKoFWBRi0vXnt0Uh/s320/CNV00019.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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Today, Thursday 14 February 2013 saw worldwide gatherings for <b>1 Billion and Rising</b> to end violence, including (dis) honour killings, rape, against women the world over.<br />
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Why they rose:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">"<strong style="color: #222222; font-size: 15px;">ONE IN THREE WOMEN ON THE PLANET WILL BE RAPED OR BEATEN IN HER LIFETIME.<span style="color: red;">*</span></strong><strong></strong></span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong>ONE BILLION WOMEN VIOLATED IS AN ATROCITY</strong><strong></strong></span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<strong style="font-family: inherit;">ONE BILLION WOMEN DANCING IS A REVOLUTION"</strong></blockquote>
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From here: <u>http://www.onebillionrising.org/pages/about-one-billion-rising</u><br />
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<b>News of today's <a href="http://onebillionrising.org/" target="_blank">1 Billion and Rising</a> event in Parliament Square in the <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/video/2013/feb/14/one-billion-rising-celebrities-london-video" target="_blank">Guardian</a> here:</b><br />
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/video/2013/feb/14/one-billion-rising-celebrities-london-video<br />
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Pictures from Parliament Square (from <a href="http://www.demotix.com/" target="_blank">Demotix.com</a>):<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuTwDEx3pxjp21MbL5Ocy3dKmM115eH_TwDkTHPTXXku-EqGv4zo2limTUFfGlbxLZHz1wKCxjMBz0y3WWJYtwa60unYDP0Pzrx3uvx_ISxEhcbwWBpMIpa34mS-HAtxpuv-0m/s1600/Thandie_Yvette.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuTwDEx3pxjp21MbL5Ocy3dKmM115eH_TwDkTHPTXXku-EqGv4zo2limTUFfGlbxLZHz1wKCxjMBz0y3WWJYtwa60unYDP0Pzrx3uvx_ISxEhcbwWBpMIpa34mS-HAtxpuv-0m/s1600/Thandie_Yvette.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Yvette Cooper & Thandie Newton</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdQheVkO90UjlDV3tX_i0_hu_B6U5FIwsYlrDWtkmcQMVrJ9xslETy9su5Z7J-uaG6iGsaZn9ZNEKj-C8Np_anE7K628I5xd7zumMOBSDnL-LFC2bviVp7lVu8DtdF_EOcgZT2/s1600/Ruby+Wax.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdQheVkO90UjlDV3tX_i0_hu_B6U5FIwsYlrDWtkmcQMVrJ9xslETy9su5Z7J-uaG6iGsaZn9ZNEKj-C8Np_anE7K628I5xd7zumMOBSDnL-LFC2bviVp7lVu8DtdF_EOcgZT2/s1600/Ruby+Wax.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ruby Wax </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrZdgwjgR0g8_V7LHETzPvPZx4dYlB2RHOjX9SHK70AchKDgRNlaiwCo2S4pKzqc3Ntv_dPvIunlKLAWtqSREx3lEIYKZnpW6-PQkXOQqZ4lWs5E-Gl5jJzZDqABeWaS-4LNl-/s1600/Parliament+Square.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrZdgwjgR0g8_V7LHETzPvPZx4dYlB2RHOjX9SHK70AchKDgRNlaiwCo2S4pKzqc3Ntv_dPvIunlKLAWtqSREx3lEIYKZnpW6-PQkXOQqZ4lWs5E-Gl5jJzZDqABeWaS-4LNl-/s1600/Parliament+Square.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.tarantino.info/" target="_blank">Quentin Tarantino</a>'s use of the <span style="background-color: white; line-height: 17px;">Luis Bacalov <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060315/?ref_=sr_2" target="_blank">Django 1966</a> composition, featuring <a href="http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=28176" target="_blank">Rocky Roberts</a>' <a href="http://www.elvis.com/" target="_blank">Elvis</a>-style vocals from the <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060315/" target="_blank">Franco Nero</a> starrer<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=lNUpbYwj57k" target="_blank"> </a>in his latest cinematic feast <a href="http://www.djangounchained-movie.net/" target="_blank">DJango Unchained</a> is pure genius! [Loved his Kill Bill Vol 1 use of *<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8O0y3Rg2SnI" target="_blank">Santa Esmeralda</a>'s <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YBKwlWNFfE" target="_blank"><i>I'm just a soul whose intentions are good, oh Lord please don't let me be misunderstood</i></a>]'.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 17px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Trailer for<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060315/?ref_=sr_2" target="_blank"> DJango 1966</a></span><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">:</span></span></div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/lNUpbYwj57k" width="420"></iframe><br />
<br />
Details for the tune:<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px; line-height: 17px;">Song from spaghetti western film Django (1966)</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px; line-height: 17px;">Directed by Sergio Corbucci</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ8yqgdERlbWxE_EXCtFnmyFWeieSBAUNxYI9geIqal-JEyQjm_XXAIvI_Vp_1dtG67CCM_D1Bs7bCv3h9yNZfXP8fZq2H4hsphfCFOweJa5cp1-c6WRHtc2Bgnt_44pdv3G3_/s1600/Rocky+Roberts.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ8yqgdERlbWxE_EXCtFnmyFWeieSBAUNxYI9geIqal-JEyQjm_XXAIvI_Vp_1dtG67CCM_D1Bs7bCv3h9yNZfXP8fZq2H4hsphfCFOweJa5cp1-c6WRHtc2Bgnt_44pdv3G3_/s1600/Rocky+Roberts.jpg" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px; line-height: 17px;">Starring Franco Nero</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px; line-height: 17px;">Music composed by Luis Bacalov</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px; line-height: 17px;">Song performed by <b>Rocky Roberts</b> (see image right)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 17px;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 17px;">From here:</span></div>
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http://youtu.be/lNUpbYwj57k</div>
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End of <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHZ2lbJYNz4" target="_blank">DJango 1966</a>:<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/eHZ2lbJYNz4" width="420"></iframe><br />
<br />
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHZ2lbJYNz4<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; line-height: 17px;"><b><a href="http://www.djangounchained-movie.net/" target="_blank">DJango Unchained</a> 2012</b><span style="font-size: 12.800000190734863px;"> trailer:</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 17px;"><u>Quentin Tarantino interview on UK Channel 4 News</u></span> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 17px;"><a href="http://www.channel4.com/news/tarantino-uncut-when-quentin-met-krishnan-transcript" target="_blank">Channel 4 news</a>' <a href="http://www.channel4.com/news/tarantino-uncut-when-quentin-met-krishnan-transcript" target="_blank">Krishnan Guru-Murthy</a> provocative interview with <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000233/bio" target="_blank">Quentin Tarantino</a></span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"KGM</strong>: Let me ask you about violence. You said, you know, everyone knows you make violent movies, you like violent movies. Why do you like making violent movies?<br />
<strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">QT</strong>: Erm... I don't know. It's like asking Judd Apatow: "Why do you like making comedies?"<br />
<strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">KGM</strong>: You just get a kick out of it? Or you just enjoy it? Or...<br />
<strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">QT</strong>: It's... It's... It's a... I think... I think it's good cinema. I consider it good cinema. You know, it's... You sit there in a movie theatre when these cathartic, violent scenes happen... I'm talking about the cathartic violence scenes.<br />
(...)<br />
..Then there's the cathartic violence of Django paying back blood for blood.<br />
<strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">KGM</strong>: Is that why you think people like watching violent movies -- people who are not violent people or twisted people in any way, but why it's OK to go into a movie and enjoy the violence?</blockquote>
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<strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">QT</strong>: Yeah, well, it's a movie. It's a fantasy. It's a fantasy -- it's not real life. It's a fantasy. You go and you watch. You know, you watch a kung-fu movie and one guy takes on 100 people in a restaurant. That's fun!"</blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 17px;">Make up your own mind, about whether movie producers should be held responsibility for violence, rather than the perpetrators, and view the full Guru-Murthy & Tarantino's interview <a href="http://www.channel4.com/news/quentin-tarantino-im-shutting-your-butt-down" target="_blank">here</a>:</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 17px;">http://www.channel4.com/news/quentin-tarantino-im-shutting-your-butt-down </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; line-height: 17px;">From Ian Jack's article in the <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jan/25/bloody-mayhem-tarantino-django-seriously" target="_blank">Guardian</a>:</span><br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">"To chastise the director for fictions and anachronisms may be to miss the point. We know Tarantino's interest doesn't so much lie in history as in the history of films; not so much in the time depicted as in previous depictions of the time. Spaghetti westerns, blaxploitation movies, John Wayne: all get their salute as the two men change the purpose of their travels from the hunt for profitable criminals to the finding and freeing of Django's wife, who is still enslaved on a Mississippi plantation owned by the capricious Mr Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio). And yet Tarantino, to judge by his promotional interviews, wants it both ways: to create a preposterous entertainment and at the same time to have it taken seriously as a rewarding study of American slavery."</span></blockquote>
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Read more <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jan/25/bloody-mayhem-tarantino-django-seriously" target="_blank">here</a>:<br />
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jan/25/bloody-mayhem-tarantino-django-seriously<br />
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I loved the movie and hope it wins the <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1853728/awards?ref_=tt_awd" target="_blank">5 Oscars it's nominated</a>* for (including "<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen" for Tarantino).</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">*Addendum: <span style="color: red;"><b>Congratulations to DJango Unchained team, the film won <a href="http://oscar.go.com/nominees" target="_blank">2 Oscars in 2013</a>: Quentin Tarantino for Original Screenplay, and Christoph Waltz for Supporting Actor.</b></span></span><br />
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That *Santa Esmeralda tune:<br />
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<a href="http://www.channel4.com/news/uk-snow" target="_blank">UK snow</a> in January 2013 has seen some fabulous snow sculptures; <a href="http://battle-bot.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/snowbot-dalek.html" target="_blank"><b>Steve Battle</b></a> and <b>Deborah Cooper</b>'s <span style="background-color: #eeeeee;"><span style="color: #b45f06;"><a href="http://battle-bot.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/snowbot-dalek.html" target="_blank"><b>snow dalek</b></a> </span></span>is the best by far!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBFXhdScDGf5cKOIak2AcH7dJrCA4T0qb05zdTk6O4BFmjxVIklj0ouNSaVkeR-HXj4xbLqbRwWay7hQWM7pCY8Jo0qKRNdmD86rJsljOcczvt5r7w8okW2AVhSZm32D5J_ESQ/s1600/Snow+dalek.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBFXhdScDGf5cKOIak2AcH7dJrCA4T0qb05zdTk6O4BFmjxVIklj0ouNSaVkeR-HXj4xbLqbRwWay7hQWM7pCY8Jo0qKRNdmD86rJsljOcczvt5r7w8okW2AVhSZm32D5J_ESQ/s320/Snow+dalek.jpg" width="214" /></a></div>
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Image from <a href="http://battle-bot.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/snowbot-dalek.html" target="_blank">Steve Battle</a>'s website <a href="http://battle-bot.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/snowbot-dalek.html" target="_blank">here</a>:<br />
http://battle-bot.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/snowbot-dalek.html</div>
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<a href="http://dayofthegirl.org/about/" style="text-align: left;" target="_blank">2012 International Day of the Girl</a><span style="text-align: left;"> fell on 11 October 2012 while I was in Brussels at a </span><a href="http://www.computing-conference.ugent.be/tic2" style="text-align: left;" target="_blank">Turing</a> <span style="text-align: left;">conference, and yesterday was </span><a href="http://findingada.com/" style="text-align: left;" target="_blank">2012 Finding Ada Day</a><span style="text-align: left;">. I'm combining both events to recognise a true heroine of our times, 14-year old Pakistani girl <a href="http://action.amnesty.org.uk/ea-action/action?ea.client.id=1194&ea.campaign.id=16893&gclid=CNS4lqjYh7MCFYXJtAodvi4ABQ" target="_blank"><b>Malala Yousufzai</b></a> shot in the head, for daring to speak out to be schooled, by a Talebanist who undoubtedly sees educated women as a threat and prefers his women-folk to be subjugated and subservient to men. Unfortunately this sentiment and thinking is not confined to the Taleban.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEhMWeGu3ArjoFwoS2AMNnftRl_e95gLP1rCiwRajY3ccDxq2Rd4p6GFslUC6MFpYYWTFRa2OtgecfE80iIaTYeCm0tS04UwAyYM24Tb8wLBjBP3Peocf0KNvSHso-0t3IM0K1/s1600/Malala.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEhMWeGu3ArjoFwoS2AMNnftRl_e95gLP1rCiwRajY3ccDxq2Rd4p6GFslUC6MFpYYWTFRa2OtgecfE80iIaTYeCm0tS04UwAyYM24Tb8wLBjBP3Peocf0KNvSHso-0t3IM0K1/s320/Malala.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Image from Upworthy Facebook page</td></tr>
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<span style="text-align: left;">On one trip to Pakistan, Islamabad in January 2000 sitting on the balcony of my sister's apartment in F11 district I could hear (Mosques, on 'every corner' as pubs once were in Britain, appear to have the best hi-fi systems in the world to ensure no-one misses the call to prayer) distinctly, </span><span style="text-align: left;">from a number of other Mosque moralisms,</span><span style="text-align: left;"> one particular Maulvi/Cleric's rantings, and they were rantings, planting at the feet of all women all the problems of the world, drugs, etc., since <i>she decided to leave the kitchen and throw-off her family carer garb</i>. With my younger sister I wondered how the men in the Mosque would treat their female family members once they returned home; would harsh words, or worse be spoken to a daughter wanting to pursue further education?</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">Pakistan has slipped down the liberal-thinking ladder since 9/11; it is not the same country as it was back in 2000 and I was shocked at the Islamabadian cleric's clear misogyny then. However, Malala <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7834402.stm" target="_blank">Diary of a Pakistani School Girl</a> Yousufzai's shooting in the head was a stab in the heart for all, not just in Pakistan, who demand rights for girls, that they be given the same access to opportunity as boys, regardless of prevalent social and economic thinking.</span></div>
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In the first year of <a href="http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL1210/S00056/first-international-day-of-the-girl-child.htm" target="_blank">International Day of the Girl Child</a> Malala Yousufzai is my <a href="http://findingada.com/" target="_blank">Ada</a> 2012 - her recovery will fuel girl interests in all subjects of study, including science, computing, engineering, maths and physics. Governments of Pakistan-like nations must ensure these girls are availed with the opportunities they deserve as human beings on this planet.<br />
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<b>Malala Yousufzai </b>official website: http://malalayousafzai.webnode.com/<br />
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<b>News reports for Malala Yousufzai</b>:</div>
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<u>Amnesty International</u></div>
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http://action.amnesty.org.uk/ea-action/action?ea.client.id=1194&ea.campaign.id=16893&gclid=CNS4lqjYh7MCFYXJtAodvi4ABQ</div>
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<u>BBC</u></div>
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7834402.stm</div>
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-19966357</div>
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<b>Other links</b>:</div>
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Finding Ada: http://findingada.com/</div>
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International Day of the Girl: http://dayofthegirl.org/about/</div>
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UN General Assembly Resolution adopting International Day of the Girl Child: http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/RES/66/170</div>
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Thank you to LOCOG for granting me the privilege to <a href="http://www.london2012.com/spectators/games-maker/" target="_blank">volunteer</a> during <a href="http://www.london2012.com/paralympics/" target="_blank">London2012</a>, and thank you to everyone appreciating <a href="http://www.london2012.com/spectators/games-maker/" target="_blank">Games Maker</a>s, including Eddie Izzard:<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/53ckZ8x75PU" width="560"></iframe><br />
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Difficult to describe what an incredible experience Games Making at London 2012 has been, from working alongside highly organised, efficient, and importantly, great fun colleagues at the <a href="http://www.theo2.co.uk/" target="_blank">O2 Arena</a> dubbed North Geenwich Arena hosting gymnastics, trampoline and the later stages of the basketball, to watching awesome athletes, and 'washing' in the enthusiasm of the spectators, it was truly memorable. Here are some of my pictures:<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinBS3K1ou95VUl0Me3kf-gHzbeRi39RDuxkjMA0SYQjh_N3j5RO8OPjoGVJyzk87EWkkhgBPLfcRa2pxyWy6f6EfOiXkHOO_3-a2DecDaXU4s9opLdNrROI9r0jEFOp4kwsDzA/s1600/Soldiers+NGA_22Ju12.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinBS3K1ou95VUl0Me3kf-gHzbeRi39RDuxkjMA0SYQjh_N3j5RO8OPjoGVJyzk87EWkkhgBPLfcRa2pxyWy6f6EfOiXkHOO_3-a2DecDaXU4s9opLdNrROI9r0jEFOp4kwsDzA/s320/Soldiers+NGA_22Ju12.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Soldiers at the Venue-specific training Sunday 22 July 212</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXXhAavIrp0vZ4McKYKfqPOwfpwSeDTyA77LnlpU1PDwAKzhrdaXIqEd7fBgbjkXgUOBWCiJ4L5oLRiDNuCPTLyhOeqbNXRh4WmEiWUw3N_dwiWfn8UHIhebUd8HKVCs1uqJmk/s1600/PRD+team_NGA_2Aug12.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXXhAavIrp0vZ4McKYKfqPOwfpwSeDTyA77LnlpU1PDwAKzhrdaXIqEd7fBgbjkXgUOBWCiJ4L5oLRiDNuCPTLyhOeqbNXRh4WmEiWUw3N_dwiWfn8UHIhebUd8HKVCs1uqJmk/s320/PRD+team_NGA_2Aug12.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Amazing Technology PRD colleagues at North Greenwich Arena</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCuhAA05iUQZ22vcMF2llmXmn5PFDQDmuKq8T6khJ3Y9__GZXUoorWV3zAB0-0wQuTfOTWQc96FR49bgNpjr5xaDaHY_0eRsZDxuWf_1H7ot-zHPP14B6IVDDP8oVeEBPO0IPT/s1600/NGA_gymnastics-2Aug12.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCuhAA05iUQZ22vcMF2llmXmn5PFDQDmuKq8T6khJ3Y9__GZXUoorWV3zAB0-0wQuTfOTWQc96FR49bgNpjr5xaDaHY_0eRsZDxuWf_1H7ot-zHPP14B6IVDDP8oVeEBPO0IPT/s320/NGA_gymnastics-2Aug12.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gymnastics in North Greenwich Arena</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8KUYKH2xsm4IrpaI4wUBIPPu59G8JKCkI0wsYt0Yva3q9hgjb87MzZYFNrV1UC7LYFgVekkjtDCPZigufJq-QyOUazfOqItARzk8FZkkfC9HyVCXhUbOBX4V37I3SyPgoUJKF/s1600/Technology+room.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8KUYKH2xsm4IrpaI4wUBIPPu59G8JKCkI0wsYt0Yva3q9hgjb87MzZYFNrV1UC7LYFgVekkjtDCPZigufJq-QyOUazfOqItARzk8FZkkfC9HyVCXhUbOBX4V37I3SyPgoUJKF/s320/Technology+room.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidk5hNYOtnUJfAsWZUwoM6EBIJh4DDqyZFomUvS8WC3ttHE2fpTOmk6FKDG7QBuCBk8pegTaLrSWHFVCUoh0wMJtpQrfE7b0iPW8imPgJ44jvU9OqHddYy2aZdwIBZRIrdPDho/s1600/Soldiers_NGA_6Aug12.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidk5hNYOtnUJfAsWZUwoM6EBIJh4DDqyZFomUvS8WC3ttHE2fpTOmk6FKDG7QBuCBk8pegTaLrSWHFVCUoh0wMJtpQrfE7b0iPW8imPgJ44jvU9OqHddYy2aZdwIBZRIrdPDho/s320/Soldiers_NGA_6Aug12.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Brave soldiers helping to keep London 2012 safe at North Greenwich Arena/O2</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEhxRwYKgdRPC4lReaTgOqNusbpbB-6V3pQn-XLTVMvFhPAH4_auEfYXd5qsMn1VUJHf_hNmUIbAsKexJydnSCWKr42hMUyMnyg6OFUm6yycMuXYDhZleEeBag3eZQ2SJVhWKW/s1600/Greenwich+Peninsula.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEhxRwYKgdRPC4lReaTgOqNusbpbB-6V3pQn-XLTVMvFhPAH4_auEfYXd5qsMn1VUJHf_hNmUIbAsKexJydnSCWKr42hMUyMnyg6OFUm6yycMuXYDhZleEeBag3eZQ2SJVhWKW/s320/Greenwich+Peninsula.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">North Greenwich Peninsula's Emirates Cable Car looking like a scene from Thunderbirds!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSuK-iVkz1TeozbyhAwcBrq4C7F9664BtJ6RC5IUTSp0cQ31S4WdEflIfaduiiH-k8Q1npFhMClKa0lIojK476-AFaqbiL9FeCH3j4hrdoAZTjjLiu1PTbfb8euZfxniloB7cG/s1600/EmiratesCableCar_6Aug12.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSuK-iVkz1TeozbyhAwcBrq4C7F9664BtJ6RC5IUTSp0cQ31S4WdEflIfaduiiH-k8Q1npFhMClKa0lIojK476-AFaqbiL9FeCH3j4hrdoAZTjjLiu1PTbfb8euZfxniloB7cG/s320/EmiratesCableCar_6Aug12.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">View of the O2 Arena from Emirates Cable Car</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTYANxWETg7rAlpWVJllWf9frm3gjqKEZgGMnVhyphenhyphenVgTyKEUI_gd1j8AdU1J9JEb1CJPyRLUTnzITHGPwDH4iBsJduyvxPyOR7VwLwRMBjVAuAZbMk86wP50ed-yIBO_fcymXwR/s1600/Max+Whitlock.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTYANxWETg7rAlpWVJllWf9frm3gjqKEZgGMnVhyphenhyphenVgTyKEUI_gd1j8AdU1J9JEb1CJPyRLUTnzITHGPwDH4iBsJduyvxPyOR7VwLwRMBjVAuAZbMk86wP50ed-yIBO_fcymXwR/s320/Max+Whitlock.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Spectators include Team GB gymnasts at North Greenwich Arena</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_7mUcOE0EV_gR7jICVk1qdQmSIhbOB3IvjA4P8LRGqomUa-cD5ze0wPZBvfulzYwCRhCv0tWzgN8a4e4rFOslss8lD25GAHyuatLWTYwSBuqQ1iq4aHdwiqZsWymXvdnPrha3/s1600/BT+London+Live.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_7mUcOE0EV_gR7jICVk1qdQmSIhbOB3IvjA4P8LRGqomUa-cD5ze0wPZBvfulzYwCRhCv0tWzgN8a4e4rFOslss8lD25GAHyuatLWTYwSBuqQ1iq4aHdwiqZsWymXvdnPrha3/s320/BT+London+Live.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">BT London Live in Hyde Park </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj5QWFFExKlkhGqgLmO4_1NM4dqxLti08ClXXScN_WRSzMBjWVd0aPHJfBlLjAHHor4I822xks4iJ0wr17I_ZHslhKFV3UcAdGXxTBKNIFS-Q0B2OyQ9l9kE0wNMryCw57x5mK/s1600/NGA_basketball1_8Aug12.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj5QWFFExKlkhGqgLmO4_1NM4dqxLti08ClXXScN_WRSzMBjWVd0aPHJfBlLjAHHor4I822xks4iJ0wr17I_ZHslhKFV3UcAdGXxTBKNIFS-Q0B2OyQ9l9kE0wNMryCw57x5mK/s320/NGA_basketball1_8Aug12.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Basketball North Greenwich Arena</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjioNrQVFWKgx5GSdXdG2vCEOjrOECzMCYLhWmm5JTHQWb0-iBWiTwyNXsDsquolUYxCEgN3WpZfLSexE1v9lzy-XpNJt4JDEi9ZuA4aMU_sNP8klHTy5mKvVTR6mW7zVizubA-/s1600/NGA+dining+area.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjioNrQVFWKgx5GSdXdG2vCEOjrOECzMCYLhWmm5JTHQWb0-iBWiTwyNXsDsquolUYxCEgN3WpZfLSexE1v9lzy-XpNJt4JDEi9ZuA4aMU_sNP8klHTy5mKvVTR6mW7zVizubA-/s320/NGA+dining+area.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Games Maker Dining Room wall display North Greenwich Arena</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8RUibX_AxImaZrkuedNIFhdB6Mp-tL5WNf64Wl7BoybiVQMoxK8Zn-85Mcu4ywreTNd21cCe21HHjs0x60UCOJWmixU39myzS50L8hwWyz350BSmNbxPJezmY_wU21umzlZH_/s1600/Skyline.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8RUibX_AxImaZrkuedNIFhdB6Mp-tL5WNf64Wl7BoybiVQMoxK8Zn-85Mcu4ywreTNd21cCe21HHjs0x60UCOJWmixU39myzS50L8hwWyz350BSmNbxPJezmY_wU21umzlZH_/s320/Skyline.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Skyline leaving Games Making shift, North Greenwich Arena</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuTUJxL4zM1L38iiayeaVi3SN96vl5PPGsmScdmmn37FLXqCi_GE-2aVFWKZ3bIQnmgcdfnV4LLnx7o-sTa3knviyx9_rlserv-OuMXC2Gd4Uc80KojaBhfLl9B19aPEEUTtxG/s1600/Another+Wenlock!.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuTUJxL4zM1L38iiayeaVi3SN96vl5PPGsmScdmmn37FLXqCi_GE-2aVFWKZ3bIQnmgcdfnV4LLnx7o-sTa3knviyx9_rlserv-OuMXC2Gd4Uc80KojaBhfLl9B19aPEEUTtxG/s320/Another+Wenlock!.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wenlock!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjEgftdnOxfay4bny_yDg0wfIBQtPr15Bxgb0HL_NauA0RyRDJhrGAdZZope7_Eft_Rrx7lAUKHzeG0ShUU9H4LX9uW1zINpLx1W_daQwO4XDY9uTk6_ZIKFtWAsTog38A1dX9/s1600/Tower+Bridge_9Aug12.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjEgftdnOxfay4bny_yDg0wfIBQtPr15Bxgb0HL_NauA0RyRDJhrGAdZZope7_Eft_Rrx7lAUKHzeG0ShUU9H4LX9uW1zINpLx1W_daQwO4XDY9uTk6_ZIKFtWAsTog38A1dX9/s320/Tower+Bridge_9Aug12.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tower Bridge during London 2012</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOUCWTHE-2qCF2F7yKUVSgANK5bxrTZ91aALM7H7pLU6NqAVrePZ-MGNJBFB0JlbW-GQnJxXIq7gsVQL7kRFlEv_dEfGYgPPrnbsGBXFTxfaq5zb03of1wYrLVh1-dqPKjbiV8/s1600/NGA_Basketball+12Aug12.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOUCWTHE-2qCF2F7yKUVSgANK5bxrTZ91aALM7H7pLU6NqAVrePZ-MGNJBFB0JlbW-GQnJxXIq7gsVQL7kRFlEv_dEfGYgPPrnbsGBXFTxfaq5zb03of1wYrLVh1-dqPKjbiV8/s320/NGA_Basketball+12Aug12.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Victory Ceremony finals of Men's Basketball: US Gold; Spain Silver & Russia Bronze</td></tr>
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Of the many Games Making highlights at the North Greenwich Arena, seeing the formidable Arnold Schwarzenegger (in the Olympic Family Lounge with Boris Johnson), the 'Terminator who fought the Predator' at the Men's basketball final, US vs Spain, was great! [No pictures taken of him, on Games Making duty!]<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">BT London Live in Trafalgar Square - Paralympics 2012</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDw7e7DcIwSHZ4atBrxjPkRQ_UQVurOFx7bMLltd7vo5H7kBD-ucR8_WpJjDBlDFyGAEIVA-MAFar8dLw-plmpDcWYZXRxqR90DCyt4Ry1-u1iaAMZkYkBVruqz24Q7pZgSUk1/s1600/NPGallery-Agitos2012.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDw7e7DcIwSHZ4atBrxjPkRQ_UQVurOFx7bMLltd7vo5H7kBD-ucR8_WpJjDBlDFyGAEIVA-MAFar8dLw-plmpDcWYZXRxqR90DCyt4Ry1-u1iaAMZkYkBVruqz24Q7pZgSUk1/s320/NPGallery-Agitos2012.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Agitos - National Gallery<br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">Was lucky enough to get tickets for the Paralympics swimming and athletics; humbled by the Paralympians and what they achieved, inspirational! Also very special were lovely spectators in the Olympic stadium - bumping into them at Tower Bridge a few days later was fluky :)</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Swimming - Aquatics, Paralympics 2012</td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidI-qnIhUhhqZmMeXMZL7HucE1hWkWiqCxLWw1jkrRreftJHw4e8IRtB_a11I7JD1AWCUmEnSnsZ4X-rtgEBgjeeL9bDRPQCesk35BRjyYth-2mPP4XYYFpdYwIRFQ_pDBK71e/s1600/Orbit.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidI-qnIhUhhqZmMeXMZL7HucE1hWkWiqCxLWw1jkrRreftJHw4e8IRtB_a11I7JD1AWCUmEnSnsZ4X-rtgEBgjeeL9bDRPQCesk35BRjyYth-2mPP4XYYFpdYwIRFQ_pDBK71e/s320/Orbit.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Independent article on greatest Paralympian, Oscar Pistorius</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Olympic Stadium</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9gbK-e2WmCOQNALm0YE2DL9zZ7l7UUZ89jJj_ITmpcYEhyHQj6u22yjqhAzM4xAy81K1nlDwoye4lPTDTYfEF2tj7sBty6WwhC3sKDsd7fGeFeRfEO3CPfsuc7tS5ym5RsR80/s1600/Ready4Run.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9gbK-e2WmCOQNALm0YE2DL9zZ7l7UUZ89jJj_ITmpcYEhyHQj6u22yjqhAzM4xAy81K1nlDwoye4lPTDTYfEF2tj7sBty6WwhC3sKDsd7fGeFeRfEO3CPfsuc7tS5ym5RsR80/s320/Ready4Run.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Athletics inside Olympic Stadium for Paralympics</td></tr>
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dw0DUCnKg6ibNlLKMHPWWB3rV0UoM1oWaUHeYhNFWhFwTMvrRjlIEyqyTyMAJjSf6HmgH5jZGGI4Vs' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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Short video clip of atmosphere in the stadium</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheSGJVYgIQrqp31lVSYUWmApZZCYKw4pCPYScbIZhd0YLoTdQyvgadiGi-hvCgIs9ytfOJARsd-skmidrNk20v6KKxTQATO-BOr-pAjNaW3yS3vM8lAr8CB8wgW4ixoLZRil1K/s1600/Mexican+singers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheSGJVYgIQrqp31lVSYUWmApZZCYKw4pCPYScbIZhd0YLoTdQyvgadiGi-hvCgIs9ytfOJARsd-skmidrNk20v6KKxTQATO-BOr-pAjNaW3yS3vM8lAr8CB8wgW4ixoLZRil1K/s320/Mexican+singers.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">After-sports entertainment: Mariachis in the Olympic Park</td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0oN9Fjk8Ca6qG-QSspEXo_js-qYkrY7Q7OXgJZ_dJBCw9FaWX5k8L3-7-y-zi6AV6oNnEzqnlRYxCscXKDv1M9npzpyt4z34uXhVD9rylYSoBYZjSVWdl_Nozl_qTZarWfk8d/s1600/Javelin.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0oN9Fjk8Ca6qG-QSspEXo_js-qYkrY7Q7OXgJZ_dJBCw9FaWX5k8L3-7-y-zi6AV6oNnEzqnlRYxCscXKDv1M9npzpyt4z34uXhVD9rylYSoBYZjSVWdl_Nozl_qTZarWfk8d/s320/Javelin.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Lastly, one of my best moments in the Olympic stadium, and one my favourite non-Team GB paralympian athletes, was the blind Chinese Triple Jumper <b>Li Duan</b> who urged us spectating in the stadium to silence before entertaining us with his 'tracksuit strip' prior to his triple jump, he earned a silver medal :) See it on Youtube here:</div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/wis9kGlfJ6A" width="560"></iframe><br /></div>
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Read more about <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/othersports/article-2199341/London-2012-Paralympics-Li-Duan-rips-trousers-triple-jump.html" target="_blank">Lin Duan</a>'s athleticism <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/othersports/article-2199341/London-2012-Paralympics-Li-Duan-rips-trousers-triple-jump.html" target="_blank">here</a>.</div>
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<b>Facebook pages for Games Makers to keep in touch</b>:</div>
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<a href="http://www.facebook.com/groups/278753698891814/" target="_blank">River Zone Games Makers: North Greenwich Arena, ExCel, Greenwich Park and Royal Artillery Barracks</a></div>
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<a href="http://www.facebook.com/london2012gamesmaker" target="_blank">Games Maker London Volunteering</a></div>
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<a href="http://www.facebook.com/groups/gamesmakers2012/" target="_blank">Games Makers 2012</a></div>
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Games Maker event 27 July 2013 <a href="http://www.facebook.com/events/224054581055246/" target="_blank">Games Makers One Year On</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://goingtorio.co.uk/" target="_blank">Going to Rio 2016</a> blog by Games Maker Ian Kershaw: <a href="http://goingtorio.co.uk/">http://goingtorio.co.uk/</a></div>
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Addendum: received 'thank you' letter from PM David Cameron for volunteering as a Games Maker at <a href="http://www.london2012.com/photos/" target="_blank">London 2012</a> :)</div>
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Thursday 30 August 2012 episode of BBC2's <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mk25" target="_blank">Newsnight</a> had <a href="http://www.gavinesler.com/content/index.asp" target="_blank">Gavin Esler</a> attempting to discuss serious concerns over drone-hovering and information-capture, all without the consent of anyone caught by an offending drone's cameras, with robotics Professor <a href="http://staffwww.dcs.shef.ac.uk/people/N.Sharkey/" target="_blank">Noel Sharkey</a> and cyberneticist Professor <a href="http://www.kevinwarwick.com/" target="_blank">Kevin Warwick</a>.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw09vyb6uRWZ0SQIMwsuyDZthhK3XIRqjwDqQrXsCp09sqR7alvffAyHOYJPtfZOIMifHmPX5SYqRxi5UoxlIzZSbIZ2mlV11w64YR9lAQLXyKnL3WCNks59NfLM9rP-tHG7PC/s1600/Newsnight_KW_NS.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="203" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw09vyb6uRWZ0SQIMwsuyDZthhK3XIRqjwDqQrXsCp09sqR7alvffAyHOYJPtfZOIMifHmPX5SYqRxi5UoxlIzZSbIZ2mlV11w64YR9lAQLXyKnL3WCNks59NfLM9rP-tHG7PC/s320/Newsnight_KW_NS.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gavin Esler interviews Professors Noel Sharkey and Kevin Warwick*</td></tr>
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* picture from <a href="http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2012/08/31/more-drone-than-debate-newsnight-loses-track-of-issues-at-hand/" target="_blank">The Bureau of Investigative Journalism</a><br />
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Watch a clip of the discussion on BBC's News Technology site <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-19436049" target="_blank">here</a>.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm5RuJPhn7yGcKnPhjRIkkNMFwUSltOvO0ktMCojuPyTHDwTOKrXbjrGdyBepECjj4s4-zkf93L2A9X_bSvgGBuRU4a6LNtsTFZvNjosqBDkrK9E8iS9iT_GxozylXXbg2hQGL/s1600/Drone+robot-UoR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm5RuJPhn7yGcKnPhjRIkkNMFwUSltOvO0ktMCojuPyTHDwTOKrXbjrGdyBepECjj4s4-zkf93L2A9X_bSvgGBuRU4a6LNtsTFZvNjosqBDkrK9E8iS9iT_GxozylXXbg2hQGL/s320/Drone+robot-UoR.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Drone Robot: School of Systems Engineering, UoReading</td></tr>
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Articles about the <b>Newsnight</b> programme include:</div>
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<a href="http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2012/08/31/more-drone-than-debate-newsnight-loses-track-of-issues-at-hand/" target="_blank">The Bureau of Investigative Journalism</a>'s "<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: palatino, serif; line-height: 28px;"><b>More drone than debate: Newsnight loses track of issues at hand</b>" <a href="http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2012/08/31/more-drone-than-debate-newsnight-loses-track-of-issues-at-hand/" target="_blank">here.</a></span></div>
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BBC News "<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19432407" target="_blank">Drones coming to skies near you</a>" from <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19432407" target="_blank">here</a></div>
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<div class="speakers" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 1.6em;">
<a href="http://tv.theiet.org/technology/computing/14369.cfm" target="_blank"><b>IET</b></a> <span style="background-color: transparent; line-height: 20.78333282470703px;">Robotics and Mechatronics Network </span><span style="line-height: 1.6em;">Talk on '</span><b style="line-height: 1.6em;">Era of Social Robots</b><span style="line-height: 1.6em;">'</span></div>
<div class="speakers" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 1.6em;">
<span style="line-height: 1.6em;"> - given by Professor Shuzhi Sam Ge</span></div>
<div class="speakers" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 1.6em;">
<span style="line-height: 21.28333282470703px;">Social Robotics Laboratory </span></div>
<div class="speakers" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 1.6em;">
<span style="line-height: 21.28333282470703px;">The National University of Singapore & University of Electronic Science and Technology of China</span>
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<div style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 1.6em;">
21 August 2012, Bristol, UK</div>
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<div class="channelname" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 1.6em;">
<span class="chansm_contr" style="color: #b60937;">Control & Automation channel</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><td style="vertical-align: top; width: 80px;"><img alt="" src="http://scpro.streamuk.com/webcasts/18/14369/images/presnter_pic.jpg" style="border-right: 3px solid #b60937;" width="75" /></td><br />
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Era of Social Robots</div>
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
Professor Shuzhi Sam Ge</div>
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
From: Era of Social Robots, 21 August 2012, Bristol, UK<br />
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
2012-08-21 00:00:00.0 Control & Automation Channel</div>
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 4px; margin-top: 0px;">
<a href="http://tv.theiet.org/technology/computing/14369.cfm" style="color: #777d80; padding-right: 1.5em; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">>> go to webcast</a><a href="http://tv.theiet.org/recommend/index.cfm?pid=14369&chan=dpx_iet_techcomp" style="color: #777d80; padding-right: 1.5em; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">>> recommend to friend</a></div>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"<u>About the presentation</u><br />Social robots are envisioned to become an integral part of our social fabric as we embrace the coming “silver†society. Across continents, governments have foreseen the needs of an aging population and funded a number of leading groups in universities and research institutes to focus on the research and development of social robots for improving services, healthcare and productivity.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
In this talk, I will first present a brief history of social robotics and the state-of-the-art in research and development. Then, I will introduce three social robots developed at the Social Robotics Laboratory of the National University of Singapore, including Carine for interactive edutainment, Adam for hospitality service, and Nancy for human robot collaboration. To appreciate the advanced technologies in making social robots possible, I shall describe the core technological modules, or building blocks, including locomotion, intelligent control, visuoauditory interaction, and artificial skin. Deeper understanding and further advancements in the modules can help us to make social robots become more appealing, more engaging, and ultimately better companions.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
As a community, we are working hard to make social robots help our "silver" society more vibrant, connected, and productive. Let me illustrate part of this big picture by presenting a few robots for different issues such as security, mobility, and productivity. Finally, I would like to conclude my presentation by giving a few futuristic scenarios how human and social robots live, work, and enjoy life together happily."</blockquote>
<div class="bldc" style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 1.6em;">
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From: The IET Robotics and Mechatronics Network: <a href="http://tv.theiet.org/technology/computing/14369.cfm" target="_blank">here</a>.</div>
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Excellent video, haunting track, love it!<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/WfV2iVJqwwU" width="420"></iframe><br />
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<a href="http://gotye.com/" target="_blank">Gotye official website</a> here:<br />
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<a href="http://gotye.com/">http://gotye.com</a><br />
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<br /></div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/hRFwc_Ck45k" width="560"></iframe><br />
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:)</div>
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[Chris Knight, DEng (right) and Charles Moorey physicist (left)]</div>
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</script></div>Huma Shahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01334580708628395059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30280047.post-39110414243448085702012-07-23T18:13:00.001+01:002012-09-13T20:33:23.014+01:00Robert Medeksza's Ultra Hal 'actor' in Secret Cinema Prometheus event June 24, 2012<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Last month's London <a href="http://www.secretcinema.org/" target="_blank">Secret Cinema</a> event on Sunday 24 June 2012, the day after <a href="http://www.kevinwarwick.com/turing100.htm" target="_blank">Turing100</a> at <a href="http://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/" target="_blank">Bletchley Park</a>, featured Chatbot Developer, Robert Medeksza's <a href="http://www.zabaware.com/?gclid=CIWwlrabsLECFVBlfAodASoA8A" target="_blank">Ultra Hal</a> conversation assistant as one of the 'actors' in the spaceship 're-enactment' and galaxy journey from, unknown prior to the event, <a href="http://www.prometheus-movie.com/" target="_blank">Prometheus</a> the movie!<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiysLcW-iJ_8wYeGsh8OIoBNiAcIjhyphenhyphen45Nb7RA4yEO2fRcZBrItH7iOBw3FUtwmEI2dBxcTRvaY0Sl-nhmfIgXNw9h6uOCY971xKlWgOgwAUyoolg0r8rEJipYsdGUT6Rboffph/s1600/Ultra+Hal.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiysLcW-iJ_8wYeGsh8OIoBNiAcIjhyphenhyphen45Nb7RA4yEO2fRcZBrItH7iOBw3FUtwmEI2dBxcTRvaY0Sl-nhmfIgXNw9h6uOCY971xKlWgOgwAUyoolg0r8rEJipYsdGUT6Rboffph/s320/Ultra+Hal.jpeg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ultra Hal conversation at Secret Cinema event</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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With Marc Allen, creator of the MATT message-by-message Turing test protocol, I was l<span style="background-color: white;">ucky enough to be Robert's guest</span><span style="background-color: white;"> at <a href="http://www.secretcinema.org/" target="_blank">Secret Cinema Sunday 24 June 2012:</a></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJWZuJ__a4yidhh0cSr6JKJW38Azrbb45UUXWX1vtKVyUjOQ35Vp1w3QBbek9tAihn5h8hEMiZbKDRRyzfeiMgQVrNnyx0GIChPXD0XbbOXapB5a0zwFH7pZgQURGcuDcIJjsk/s1600/IMG-20120624-00047.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJWZuJ__a4yidhh0cSr6JKJW38Azrbb45UUXWX1vtKVyUjOQ35Vp1w3QBbek9tAihn5h8hEMiZbKDRRyzfeiMgQVrNnyx0GIChPXD0XbbOXapB5a0zwFH7pZgQURGcuDcIJjsk/s320/IMG-20120624-00047.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Robert Medeksza (left) Marc Allen</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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The <a href="http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-06/06/secret-cinema" target="_blank">Secret Cinema</a> event was an incredible experience culminating with a video message from <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-17701436" target="_blank">Ridley Scott</a> before a screening of <a href="http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-06/06/secret-cinema" target="_blank">Prometheus</a> in 3D (not as awesome as at <a href="https://whatson.bfi.org.uk/Online/default.asp?doWork::WScontent::loadArticle=Load&BOparam::WScontent::loadArticle::article_id=2844C349-1BAD-423A-9959-484D83FE48A7" target="_blank">BFI IMAX</a> but a wonderful surprise) in a secret location, a huge building behind London <a href="http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/stations/EUS.html" target="_blank">Euston</a> train station:<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Most impressive of all was the warehouse’s transformation into a spaceship. Walls were painted white with maps of the ship’s emergency exits everywhere. Hypersleep chambers were laid out in the middle of the room. Loudspeakers droned the message, “Thank you for investing in a brighter future” on repeat. Labs with plants and biology experiments were around every other corner. The 195,000-square-foot space had been entirely changed, and we were given a couple of hours to roam the premises, order cocktails or eat at the space restaurant that was set up.<br />
By the time a warning alarm sounded and the ship employees began ushering everyone into the three screening rooms, many were guessing the movie would be <em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Prometheus</em>. (It was.)"</blockquote>
<span style="border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br />Read more: <a href="http://entertainment.time.com/2012/07/02/living-the-dream-interactive-surprise-movie-events-earn-devoted-following/#ixzz23h5BBioz" style="border: 0px; color: #003399; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">http://entertainment.time.com/2012/07/02/living-the-dream-interactive-surprise-movie-events-earn-devoted-following/#ixzz23h5BBioz</a></span>
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And ...<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"<span style="font-family: inherit;">.... <span style="background-color: white; color: #282828; line-height: 20.71666717529297px;">the point of </span><a href="http://www.secretcinema.org/" style="background-color: white; color: #234b7b; line-height: 20.71666717529297px; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Secret Cinema</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #282828; line-height: 20.71666717529297px;">, nobody is supposed to know what they will be doing or which film they will be watching before they turn up.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #282828; line-height: 1.48em;">This time it is truly epic in scale. A 190,000 sq foot space has been transformed into the world of the film. Props from the actual movie have been flown over, driven up the M3 and bolted into place. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #282828; line-height: 1.48em;">It's completely immersive from the moment the audience gathers a statue of Robert Stephenson at Euston station from where they are led to the venue."</span></span></blockquote>
<span style="background-color: white;"> - from </span><a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/film-news/9309157/Londons-best-kept-cinematic-secret.html" style="background-color: white;" target="_blank">The Telegraph</a><span style="background-color: white;">.</span><br />
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And <a href="http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-06/06/secret-cinema" target="_blank">Wired</a> reported:<br />
<blockquote>
"<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; line-height: 21px;">The event has a dark feel, figuratively and literally -- you'll navigate floors of sparse, dimly-lit corridors, room after room of unusual installations, research labs, terminals and interactive environments inspired by the film. Smoky, sports-hall-sized garages contain life-sized vehicles and props to investigate, and all are backed up by sound pumped from an enormous audio system.</span></span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Certain areas are more vibrant than others, however. Within one of the bars, dozens of sweet-smelling flowers hang from a roof to form a ceiling with an overpowering aroma. Once you reach the bar itself, complete with its actors serving drinks and fellow cinema-goers in costume, you're surrounded by metallic grey walls and bright white panels of light that illuminate the flowers overhead.</span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Then you sip a blue cocktail, have a sit down, maybe reflect on how weird your evening has become.</span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Elsewhere, a large restaurant exists to seat a couple of hundred people or so, sells food and drink, and serves as a sufficient resting place from the sensory overload that's thrusting away behind you. It was here, when I attended the opening night, that an emergency klaxon erupted in tandem with an explosion of red lights, and we were "evacuated" by actors to safety -- it was 9pm and finally the film was about to be screened.</span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Then you breathe, enjoy a movie, and leave at 11pm feeling like you're ready to get back to reality."</span></blockquote>
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What <a href="http://www.futurecinema.co.uk/news.html" target="_blank">Future Cinema</a> wrote:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
".....<span style="font-family: inherit;"> <span style="background-color: black; color: white; line-height: 18.46666717529297px;">a Central London warehouse was converted into a futuristic spaceship for a month to bring to life in a new format – Live Cinema.</span><br />Opening on 1st June, Secret Cinema’s production of Prometheus launched in tandem with the movie’s national theatrical release for the first time anywhere in the world, with full endorsement from director Ridley Scott.<br />Live Cinema, the format defined by Future Cinema – creators of Secret Cinema – allows the cinema goer to step inside the film and creates a unique experience and journey, far beyond a traditional 2D or 3D viewing experience. The line between actor and audience member is blurred. </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">Secret Cinema were esteemed to have collaborated with Radiohead on creating a soundscape to score the parts of the experience using the track “Everything In Its Right Place” from Kid A in multiple dark spaces around the ship..."</span></blockquote>
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Watch their 'live cinema' record below:<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/e4sxqw9wEKs" width="560"></iframe><br />
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My pictures of the experience, from meet-up in front of Euston station to inside the secret venue below:<br />
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<br />
BBC article <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-17701436" target="_blank">here</a> on Ridley Scott's cinematic quest to know the origins of humankind:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 18px;">"During his extensive research ahead of the film, Sir Ridley says he discovered that not even in the science world is there overwhelming agreement.</span></span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">'<i>I had a really great lunch with about 12 scientists and half of them believed in God and the other half roared with laughter said: 'Cobblers</i>'."</span></blockquote>
<br />
Watch Prometheus trailer:<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/34cEo0VhfGE" width="560"></iframe><br />
<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"
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</script></div>Huma Shahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01334580708628395059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30280047.post-81735785682593531142012-06-19T17:30:00.000+01:002012-06-19T17:30:38.938+01:00How Aliens take a break from wreaking havoc!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">[Image via Alan Turing Year Facebook page]</span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"
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Off to <a href="http://www.bfi.org.uk/whatson/bfi_imax" target="_blank">BFI IMAX</a> later today to see <a href="http://www.prometheus-movie.com/" target="_blank">Prometheus</a>, movie about the "search for our beginnings":<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
<br />
Hope it's as good as my favourite <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000631/" target="_blank">Ridley Scott</a> films: <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078748/" target="_blank">Alien</a> (1979), <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083658/" target="_blank">Blade Runner</a> (1982), and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0172495/" target="_blank">Gladiator</a>, (2000).<br />
<br />
Looking forward to 'meeting' David the <i>emotional robot:</i><br />
<i><br /></i><br />
<i><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/cWmbqH_z7jM" width="560"></iframe></i><br />
<i><br /></i><br />
<i><br /></i><br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">[Image from artwork gallery on Prometheus official web site <a href="http://www.prometheus-movie.com/gallery/" target="_blank">here</a>.]</span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"
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