"Many types of texts—though not all of them—are so monotonous on the language level that they can be produced automatically without any very complicated cognitive Artificial Intelligence models. A meticulous corpus analysis can reveal how similar elements and rules are used over and over again: one then only needs to reproduce them with a computer. This procedure will be demonstrated and discussed using television news..."

Ulrich Schmitz, Automatic generation of texts without using cognitive models: television news, in Susan Hockey & Nancy Ide (eds.): Research in Humanities Computing 2. Oxford: Clarendon Press 1994, pg 186-194.

"...[Our computer] program is based on an empirical analysis of news bulletins which have actually already been broadcast; it could, however, keep on generating texts which could be broadcast right into the next century. This is due to the fact that news texts acquire their topicality solely from the random mixture of constant elements belonging to the "Symbolfeld" and the variables belonging to the "Zeigfeld" valid at the time..."

"...the concept presented here for a computer simulation of German television news can be perceived both as a project for the entire setting up of a news machine and as a criticism of the hollow simplicity of the usual news bulletins. In other (polemic) words: artificial intelligence—of a particularly simple kind—could replace natural stupidity or could show it up. The political conclusions of the "dequalification of knowledge leading to the fact that people are informed rather than being able to discuss issues" (Schmidt 1986) have not yet been drawn...

...in Leland, a rural Iowa town...
[because it can be calculated to be near no large US city]

... from Burlingame, a suburb south of San Francisco...
[nearness to large US city; direction from lat/long]

Main Entry: an·a·phor·ic Pronunciation: "a-n&-'for-ik, -'fär- Function: adjective Date: 1904

Of or relating to anaphora ; especially : being a word or phrase that takes its reference from another word or phrase and especially from a preceding word or phrase -- compare CATAPHORIC.

Main Entry: cat·a·phor·ic Pronunciation: "ka-t&-'for-ik Function: adjective Date: 1968

Of or relating to cataphora; especially : being a word or phrase (as a pronoun) that takes its reference from a following word or phrase (as in: before her Jane saw nothing but desert) -- compare ANAPHORIC

GUTHRIE, Okla. -- Four prisoners broke out of a county jail Wednesday by smashing through a ceiling and an inner wall and escaping through an air conditioning duct.

They then climbed over a 10-foot fence topped with razor wire, Sheriff Randy Richardson said. They may have fled in a minivan discovered stolen Wednesday morning.

A shoe and a piece of torn clothing were found near the fence.

Richardson said bars cover the air conditioning vents at the Logan County Jail, but once the prisoners broke through the ceiling and the inner wall, they were able to get behind those bars.

The jail, located near a historic district of antique shops, is more than 100 years old.

The escaped convicts were identified as Timothy Glenn Garner, 20; Phillip Dean Hancock, 38; Dedrick Max Bloss, 22, and Tanner Michael James, 22.

Garner was being held on charges arising from a domestic dispute and an assault on a police officer. Hancock faced drug charges. Bloss and James had transferred to the jail from other facilities, and the sheriff wasn't immediately sure what charges they were facing.

They were all in the same cell at the time of the early morning escape. They were discovered missing during a 6 a.m. head count.

Richardson said sanding and repainting work is under way at the jail and may have covered up any noise made in the escape.

Civil servants have "made up" personal details for at least 1 million people and added them to the results of the 2001 census...(read more)

Plot units include success, failure, motivation, change of mind, perserverance, loss, resolution, trade-off, mixed blessing, hidden blessing, sacrifice, killing two birds with one stone, fleeting success, starting over, giving up, intentional problem resolution, fortuitous problem resolution, success born of adversity, threat, and promise.

Onondaga County Sheriff Kevin E. Walsh said Friday that deputies are investigating a two-vehilce crash that claimed the life of a Fulton teen-ager.

At approximately 8:33 a.m. sheriff's deputies responded to Henry Clay Boulevard, about one mile south of Route 31, to investigate a head-on collision.

Upon their arrival, deputies and rescue personnel discovered a 1999 Pontiac Grand Am operated by Ashley Spear, 19, of 105 Honey Hill Road, Fulton, had crashed head-on with a tractor-trailer operated by Philip Keller III, 53, of Lysander Road, Baldwinsville.

Investigators report that Spear was traveling south on Henry Clay Boulevard and apparently crossed the double solid line before crashing head-on with Keller's northbound tractor-trailer.

Witnesses told deputies that Keller tried to avoid the crash and that his truck skidded onto the shoulder of the roadway.

The impact of the crash caused immense damage to the car and forced paramedics to pronounce Spear dead at the scene.

Members of the Sheriff's Accident Investigation Team spent most of the morning at the scene of the crash and will continue with their investigation.

Henry Clay Boulevard, between Route 31 and Waterhouse Road, was reopened to traffic by 12:45 p.m.

No other vehicles were involved in the crash, and no one else was injured, deputies said. Keller was visibly shaken, according to Sheriff Walsh.

Keller was hauling an empty trailer at the time of the accident.

No tickets are expected to be issued, according to the sheriff.