News of the Weird - Jeopardy-Winning Computer Swears Too Much

Some linguists say that "street" language will eventually be the death of the English language, at least as we know it.

Who knew that it would also be the death of an intelligent computer in a much more immediate fashion?

Yes, "Watson," the computer that beat two Jeopardy champions at their own game, has had to have its "memory wiped" because it was starting to swear too much (no word on whether this was before or after Quentin Tarentino offered it a role in his next movie).

According to the Daily Mail, programmers had it download the entire contents of the Urban Dictionary site, and the machine took it a little too much to heart.

Evidently programmers were trying to create a machine that would pass the Turing Test for machine intelligence (The Turing Test is basically a test where a machine tries to sound like a normal human being if you're conversing with it without knowing it's a machine. If it passes, it's considered intelligent).

Yes, speaking in slang would be a good indication that you're talking to a human and not a machine, but without the intelligence to realize when you should use slang and when you shouldn't, it's really hard to consider you intelligent (a fact that also applies to far too many human beings to begin with).

News of the Weird - Special Edition - Toilet-training iPads

I try and keep my Weird News posts to Tuesdays if I have them, just because I like my themed days.

Sometimes, though, there's just too much (and I'm aware of the irony in the fact that I haven't had one in a while, but there's another one scheduled for this Tuesday already).

Does your child have everything? Are you one of those parents who insists on buying an iPad for your kid even though he is only a year old?

Then you must buy the iPotty for him!

That's right. The iPotty is a combination toilet/iPad holder for those kids who just can't be torn away from their shiny new toy to learn the intricacies of going to the bathroom.

According to the Daily Mail:

"The firm behind it claims the gadget, revealed at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, can help children feel more comfortable by allowing them to watch videos or play games while answering the call of nature."

As you can see, it's a little toilet with an iPad holder, complete with splashguard in case little Timmy is a bit too wild when he lets loose! And the seat folds down so you can have little Timmy sitting in it all the time. You know, so you can have him sit there in "time out" when he misbehaves. This will be a good way to ease in to sending him to the bathroom itself when he's been bad when he's a little older.

It will let little Timmy continue watching his videos or playing his games while he's also learning how to not use a diaper.

It's a win-win!

Is this really a good idea? Are toddlers that good at multi-tasking? I'm not a parent, so this is an honest question to you parents out there. If you are potty-training your kids, should you really be distracting them? Or do you think this would actually ease their anxieties about doing it?

And of course, as newspapers and print books die out, Big Timmy will eventually be taking his iPad for his evening constitutional anyway, so this is good training for him!

Parents, please chime in. Is this a totally silly idea or mana from heaven?

News of the Weird - Court Orders Woman to Wear "Idiot" Sign

Have you ever been driving and seen something in front of you that you just had to avoid? Not because it was something that, if you ran it down, you might get 15 to Life (or maybe just bad Karma), but something that was just annoying and keeping you from getting where you wanted to be?

Maybe a herd of ducks waddling across the street?

How about a school bus stopped for the kids?

That's what annoyed one Cleveland, Ohio woman to no end. Why should she have to stop and delay her trip to the local pub (ok, I don't really know where she was going, but still) just because a bunch of grimy rugrats are trying to get off or on a school bus?

News of the Weird - Toilets and Soccer

I'll bet you didn't realize those two things could go together, did you?

Only in Japan?

Yes, according to Orange News, two Japanese companies have combined forces to create a toilet that can also be a goalkeeper.

What's that? Why would you want your toilet to also tend goal on your soccer team?

You must not have an imagination.

Why pay extra for a goalkeeper when you can just bring out the toilet from the locker room? It doesn't even have to move, so you don't need things like rollers or actual, you know, feet or anything. It will never get hurt.