Tulip Sunset, Skagit, Washington

Now, a computer which responds to students' emotions!

Washington: Scientists in the US say they have developed a computer which can respond to students' emotions and boredom.
A team from University of Notre Dame, the University of Memphis and Massachusetts Institute of Technology has in fact come up with what they claim is the"emotion-sensing" computer software that models and responds to students' cognitive and emotional states, including frustration and boredom.
The new technology, that matches the interaction of human tutors, not only offers tremendous learning possibilities for students, but also redefines human-computer interaction, the scientistssay in a release.
Known as "AutoTutor" and"Affective AutoTutor", the programme can gauge the student's level of knowledge by asking probing questions; analysing the student's responses to those questions; proactively correcting misconceptions; responding to the student's own questions.
The programme can even sense a student's frustration or boredom via facial expression and body posture and dynamically changing its strategies to help the student conquer those negative emotions, say the scientists.
"Most of the 20th century systems required humans to communicate with computers through windows, icons, menus and pointing devices. But humans have always communicated with each other through speech and a host of nonverbal cues such as facial expressions, eye contact, posture and gesture.
"In addition to enhancing the content of the message, the new technology provides information regarding the cognitive states, motivation levels and social dynamics of the students," team leader Sidney D'Mello said.
D'Mello added: "Much like a gifted human tutor, AutoTutor and Affective AutoTutor attempt to keep the student balanced between the extremes of boredomand bewilderment by subtly modulating the pace, direction andcomplexity of the learning task."

Mistakes led to Afghan Quran burnings: Official

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN: A series of mistakes led to the burning of Qurans at a US military base in Afghanistan and at least five American military personnel involved may face a disciplinary review over the issue, a Western official said on Saturday.

The official said a joint investigation by senior Afghan and U.S. military officials had convinced them that there was no intent to desecrate the Qurans and other religious texts.

The Feb. 20 incident touched off a weeklong series of deadly riots that killed more than 30 Afghans, as well as six US troops who were fatally shot by Afghan security forces or militants disguised in their uniforms. It also brought relations between the US-led military coalition and the Afghan government to an all-time low and spurred the most serious wave of anti-American and foreign sentiment across the country during the 10-year war.

President Barack Obama and other US officials apologized and said the burning was an accident. But the apologies failed to quell the anger, although Muslim protests over the burnings have now ebbed.

The Western official, who has knowledge of the investigation, said it could lead to a disciplinary review of five US military personnel involved. The official did not elaborate and spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case.

Full details of the incident are expected to be included in a joint Afghan-U.S. probe that is still under legal review by the military. It release date is unclear. A more formal US military investigation is still weeks away from completion.

If any action is taken against American troops involved, it would have come under the U.S. military justice system, officials with the international coalition have said.

Afghanistan's top religious leaders demanded on Friday that those involved be put on public trial and be punished. In a statement issued after they presented the conclusion of their own investigation to President Hamid Karzai, the clerics strongly condemned the incident and blamed it on poor administration of the detention facility where the burnings happened.

"This is an unforgivable act. It's anti-human," they said. "it will certainly not going to be forgiven by apologies, the responsible parties should be prosecuted in an open trial and they should be punished."

The statement said it would back Karzai's call for those involved to be punished. It was unclear if Karzai would accept the findings of a clerical council, which carried out its own separate probe into the Quran burnings, as final or would take the results of the joint investigation into consideration.

The religious leaders also called on the U.S. to end night searches and hand over its prisons, saying that if Afghans had been in charge, the Muslim holy books would never have been burned at Bagram Air Field, near the capital Kabul.

Control over detainees and night raids are the two most contentious issues in a strategic partnership document that Washington and Kabul are negotiating.

The council statement was a boost for Karzai as he seeks to strengthen his negotiating position in talks with the United States over the agreement. The pact is expected to provide for several thousand U.S. troops to stay in the country to train Afghan forces and help with counterterrorism operations. It will outline the legal status of those forces in Afghanistan, their operating rules and where they will be based.

A major stumbling point arose when Karzai demanded control over detainees and an end to the unpopular night raids by U.S. troops as a condition of signing the pact. The U.S. has said that night raids are effective in capturing insurgents. The Obama administration also has said that the Afghan judicial system is not yet capable of taking over responsibility for dangerous battlefield detainees.

The Quran incident started almost two weeks ago, when the books and other Islamic texts that U.S. military officials said had extremist inscriptions were removed from the library at the Parwan Detention Facility and then taken to the burn pit at the adjoining Bagram Air Field.

A NATO military official said last week that it appeared detainees were exchanging messages by making notations in the texts. The Western official confirmed reports that after the writings were discovered, two Afghan-American interpreters were assigned to go through the materials at the library and that 1,652 items were removed.

The items, which included the Qurans, were placed in boxes and the Western official confirmed that a decision was taken to dispose of them because of a lack of storage space and because of the notes scribbled in them.

At some point a group of soldiers on a work detail came and removed the books to throw them away. The Western official told The Associated Press on Saturday the three soldiers on the garbage detail had no idea what they were carrying to the burn pit.

The Afghan workers then realized what was being burned and tried to extinguish the flames, some burned their fingers trying to salvage the books. Afghan government officials said initial reports indicated four Quran texts were burned.

Rs 5,000 ATab low-cost Tablet Announced

The numbers at the lower end of the burgeoning tablet market is slowly growing in India. AcrossWorld Education in association with Delhi-based Go Tech is launching a tablet called the ATab at Rs 5,000.
First there was Aakash with its USPof being the world's cheapest tablet, then BSNL and Noida-based Pantel came up with the Rs 3,250 T-Pad and now the ATab.
Expected to be available in India from the second week of March 2012, the 7-inch ATab is targeted towards the education sector.
The ATab uses Google's Android OSand is powered by a 1.1 GHz processor. It comes with 512MB of RAM and 2GB of inbuilt memory, expandable up to 16GB. AcrossWorld says that the WiFi tablet will also come with an external 3G USB dongle, but does not mention whether the price of the dongle is included in the Rs 5,000. The tablet will be available in five colour options.
The package also includes a three-year free access to AcrossWorld's EducationBridge education technology platform. ATab will launch in India with 10,000 units and the company says it will scale up availability later.
The Boston and Bangalore based AcrossWorld Education is a software as a service (SaaS) company. Go Tech has two other tablets in its protfolio, the Rs 17,000 9.1-inch Funtab Fantasy and the Rs 8,000 7.1-inch FunTab Fudge.

More Trouble For Kingfisher, 7 Accounts Frozen

Mumbai: Trouble doesn't seem to be getting over for the king of good times, Kingfisher Airlines. According to sources, seven more bank accounts of the beleaguered airline have been attached by the Service Tax Department.
The Service Tax Department had attached 37 accounts of Kingfisher earlier and following Friday's action the total number of bank accounts frozen has reached 44.
Kingfisher had promised to pay about Rs 1 crore each day, but that didn't happen so, the Service Tax Department has frozen the companys accounts. The Service Tax Department is also contemplating attachment of Kingfisher's properties following the company's failure to pay dues worth Rs 60 crore before March 31, 2011.
This is over and above the Income Tax department freezing its accounts. The company has already defaults of about Rs 300 crore to the I-T department.
Salaries have not been paid for thelast two months. There are possibilities of pilots going on a strike; however no official announcement has been about this yet.
The company needs to arrange for this amount and equity infusion that banks are demanding.