It's a truism in comedy that the hardest role is that of the straight sidekick, the bemused Abbott who, standing in for the audience, uses subtle facial expressions and clarifying questions to allow Costello's frenzy to have its full absurdist impact. This morning, Hillary Clinton revealed herself to be an excellent sidekick--one with a bit more kick than most--the sharp, funny person her friends have told us about. She was a guest on Zach Galifianakis's "Between Two Ferns," an acerbic, occasional series on the comedy Web site Funny or Die. Usually, Galifianakis, who plays a rude, clueless talk-show host, picks movie-star foils--Brad Pitt, Will Ferrell, Steve Carrell--and it's clear that the back-and-forth insults are all in good fun. Though one previous political guest was President Obama, who jabbed Galifianakis with more abuse than he received.

The current crisis of refugees has divided European countries and societies into those who welcome refugees and those who oppose taking them. In this Viewpoint, we reflect on the role of universities and of computer science in such situations. As a case study, we describe an activity taken at the TU Wien (Vienna University of Technology): when the crisis of refugees culminated in summer 2015, a group of professors and students of the Faculty of Informatics initiated computer courses for unaccompanied young refugees. This project allowed the refugees to gain computer-related knowledge, and, equally important, to make contacts with local students. Another major goal of the project was to give a clear message that refugees are welcome.

After living in Japan for seven of the past 40 years, I recently returned for an institutional development project at Tokyo University of Science. Tokyo University of Science is a private university founded in 1881 with over 20,000 students, and is the largest source of engineers and scientists for Japanese industry. The university is also the Japan host for an educational and research initiative called MIT REAP (MIT Regional Entrepreneurship Development Program).a We have been dealing with the following puzzle: Japan was once renowned for creating powerful, global companies, especially in manufacturing industries like automobiles, consumer electronics, semiconductors, and computer hardware. Japanese government and industry partnerships also once promised to revolutionize information technology, with bold initiatives such as the VLSI (Very Large-Scale Integration) Project of the 1970s for semiconductors and the Fifth Generation Computing Project of the 1980s for artificial intelligence.

Keith Kirkpatrick is principal of 4K Research & Consulting, LLC, based in Lynbrook, NY. Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and full citation on the first page.

For trend-conscious corporate executives in Japan, a connected world is not a distant future in the making but a reality. A growing number of Japanese companies are waking up to the need to sharpen their business strategies and boost investment as the hunt for the next big thing intensifies. The prospect of an aging Japan and a shrinking domestic market is also giving them the opportunity of pondering how they can help solve social and business issues as the country gravitates toward connecting everything from home appliances to cars and factories to the internet. The government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, for its part, is pinning hopes on the benefits of the so-called internet of things and artificial intelligence, hoping that they will become a growth driver rather than a stumbling block at a time when the world's third-largest economy continues to struggle. "I've wanted to do something that will make an industrial change, now that we have IoT, big data, and AI," said Yosuke Okada, the 27-year-old chief executive officer of startup ABEJA Inc. "Japan has many researchers in the field of AI … but there seems to be little interest in solving the kinds of challenges we face in society by monetizing AI-based businesses," Okada said in a recent interview.

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Nasa has announced that it has found evidence of flowing water on Mars. Scientists have long speculated that Recurring Slope Lineae -- or dark patches -- on Mars were made up of briny water but the new findings prove that those patches are caused by liquid water, which it has established by finding hydrated salts. Several hundred camped outside the London store in Covent Garden. The 6s will have new features like a vastly improved camera and a pressure-sensitive "3D Touch" display

Shares of Apple (AAPL) were increasing in late-afternoon trading on Thursday as the company agreed to purchase Tuplejump, TechCrunch reports, citing sources. Tuplejump is an India-based company that specializes in machine learning technology, or an artificial intelligence capability that enables computers to recognize patterns in data without being explicitly programmed. Apple is looking to utilize Tuplejump's "FiloDB" program, an opensource project that applies machine learning technology to data as it streams in, according to TechCrunch. Apple has purchased several machine learning companies in the past few years. It acquired the Seattle-based company Turi for 200 million in August, and U.K.-based artificial intelligence company Perceptio in 2015.

Last week, Publishing Executive hosted a webinar in which we spoke with two experts about how publishers can compete with the kind of sticky user experience that leading platforms like Facebook offer by employing artificial intelligence. We had a lot of great questions throughout the webinar but we weren't able to answer every last one. Boomtrain CEO and co-founder Nick Edwards took a few minutes to answer some of publishers' lingering questions about AI. Check out the Q&A below and click here to watch 7 Steps for Publishers to Get Started With Artificial Intelligence. What is Artificial Intelligence and how does it affect publishers today?

Apple Inc. has acquired Indian machine-learning startup Tuplejump Software Pvt Ltd as it seeks to expand its expertise in artificial intelligence. The iPhone maker bought the Hyderabad, India-based company in June, according to a person familiar with the deal who asked not to be identified. Tuplejump's software specializes in processing and analyzing big sets of data quickly. The deal was reported earlier by TechCrunch. The purchase price wasn't disclosed.