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Happy Year of the Fire Pig!
Topic Started: Feb 18 2007, 01:40 AM (377 Views)
Ali
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Ortonologist
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I just wanted to wish everyone a happy Chinese New Year!

The year of the Fire Pig began yesterday at 4.15 pm GMT, and I have already been to one great party! Not a New Year's do, but the 40th birthday party of one of my best friends & an excellent musician, she!

It should be a year of many parties, huge fun, generosity & good humour, and absolute over-indulgence in food, drink, drugs & sex (not to mention practical jokes - a pig speciality!).

All in all a year of good fortune! The Chinese regard it, and the next (rat), as particularly lucky years to be born in, so expect a lot of babies to be born in the orient!


:mexican: :beer: :rocking: :drunk: :welcome:

Now you're sittin' on a Paris train, laughing at your own jokes again
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rc.cope
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That's all I needed to hear. I'll be buying a keg and having one huge frickin' hog roast. And bring on the Chinese babes, too. :mexican:
I'd rather have a bottle in front of me, than a frontal lobotomy.
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Ali
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lmao! :D




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rc.cope
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It seems that I recall reading an article recently on the shortage of Chinese babes. There was a huge push by the Chinese government to dissuade people from having any more than one child. And they wanted that one child to be a boy...supposedly because they made better workers.
Now there is an entire generation of young men with no wives.

What a man to do? :(
I'd rather have a bottle in front of me, than a frontal lobotomy.
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Ali
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Move to my home town, where there are five (or is it seven?) girls to every guy! :blink:


On second thoughts . . . forget I ever said that! :vhappy:

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Ade
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rc.cope
Feb 18 2007, 03:50 PM
And they wanted that one child to be a boy...supposedly because they made better workers.

In the New Scientist a few months ago, they were actually getting worried in a very poor Southern area of China (Hunan), because the ratio of men to women is so high, they are on the verge of civil unrest.
Went to the JobCentre today, and the Army were there going "Be the Best" ... now T-Mobile just told me I didn't have the qualifications to sell phones, Microsoft said I didn't have the qualifications to answer the phones, and the Army want to let me loose with a machine gun?
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rc.cope
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You said it, Ali. Be ready for an onslaught of Chinese laundries and New Moon restaurants. :D
No ticki, no washy! ;)

http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/chinese_new_year.htm
I'd rather have a bottle in front of me, than a frontal lobotomy.
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TJ
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Beth-anorak
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Ade
Feb 18 2007, 07:39 PM
rc.cope
Feb 18 2007, 03:50 PM
And they wanted that one child to be a boy...supposedly because they made better workers.

In the New Scientist a few months ago, they were actually getting worried in a very poor Southern area of China (Hunan), because the ratio of men to women is so high, they are on the verge of civil unrest.

Just in time...technology to the rescue!

Quote:
 
San Francisco State University professor David Calkins, looked the furthest ahead suggesting that robots would eventually become personal companions, answering questions, serving as butlers, even reading children bedtime stories.

Calkins said life-like robots could be used in elder care, performing routine medical functions like dispensing pills in hospitals, and serving as home care providers. He hinted that robot companionship could one day go, as teens once said, all the way, for "geek bachelors who can't get a girlfriend."
"Happy Hallucinations, Honeys!"
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rc.cope
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I'd rather have a helper monkey... :D


But check this out.

http://www.oddcast.com/home/demos/tts/fram...php?frame1=talk

I'd rather have a bottle in front of me, than a frontal lobotomy.
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Ali
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ROTFLMAO!!

(Suggested text: Bloody motherfucking asshole!)

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rc.cope
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(yikes) HA! I had that thing talking dirty all day yesterday. My wife thought I had a woman down here.
I tried to get it to say "computers and robots will take over the earth." It freaked me right down to the bones, as it was all too real. That little strand of hair on her forehead is what really gets me. (yikes)

Ali, you and I think on the same lines. What else can we make her say?
I'd rather have a bottle in front of me, than a frontal lobotomy.
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TJ
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Beth-anorak
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You can build your own!!

"Happy Hallucinations, Honeys!"
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Ade
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Bah,

I spent far too many years studying shit like this. The very early attempts at passing the Turing test were piss poor; this looks like it might be able to do something, but there is a research version of this somewhere out on the West Coast which is able to have a conversation about recent events. It's a very clever concept, as people spend all-day inputting data from Almanacs.

The prize is of course quite good, as if any computer can fool ALL of the judges, then there is a huge amount of money and fame to be enjoyed.

(p.s. A.L.I.C.E. is quite old, but did win the Loebner AI prize several years ago. http://www.jabberwacky.com/ has won it every year since)
Went to the JobCentre today, and the Army were there going "Be the Best" ... now T-Mobile just told me I didn't have the qualifications to sell phones, Microsoft said I didn't have the qualifications to answer the phones, and the Army want to let me loose with a machine gun?
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