We consider the task of predicting lexical entailment using distributional vectors. We perform a novel qualitative analysis of one existing model which was previously shown to only measure the prototypicality of word pairs. We find that the model strongly learns to identify hypernyms using Hearst patterns, which are well known to be predictive of lexical relations. We present a novel model which exploits this behavior as a method of feature extraction in an iterative procedure similar to Principal Component Analysis. Our model combines the extracted features with the strengths of other proposed models in the literature, and matches or outperforms prior work on multiple data sets.

Not every scientific study can be about weighty topics, like gravity waves or gene editing. Sometimes you can gain a true scientific insight by discovering that mammals of vastly different sizes require roughly the same amount of time to empty their bladders, or by noticing that people who speak 10 disparate languages all came up with a version of the word "Huh." These awards are bestowed every fall by the editors of the Annals of Improbable Research. There are 10 winners in a range of categories, which typically include fields like physics, neuroscience and mathematics (but which also may include entomology, safety engineering, fluid dynamics or acoustics). The prize-winning scholarship may sound silly, but that doesn't mean it's trivial.

There were two "tracks" for agents to compete on, offering very different challenges. Track 1 featured a map known to the teams, and rocket launchers were the only weapons. The agents started with a weapon but were able to collect ammo and health kits. Track 2 was a far harder challenge. It featured three maps, unknown to teams, and a full array of weapons and items.

SAN FRANCISCO-- LinkedIn Corp. LNKD 0.04 % rolled out new technology and products Thursday aimed at keeping members on its network longer, a move that could help generate more data and make it more valuable to Microsoft Corp. MSFT 0.10 % LinkedIn, which agreed to sell itself for 26.2 billion to Microsoft in June, debuted training, messaging and news feed features designed to keep LinkedIn's 450 million members using the social network more often and longer. If successful, members will be more likely to keep their profiles up-to-date, add new connections, and post items that offer insight into their work interests. "There's a flywheel there," LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner said in an interview. "The more we understand who you are…, the more personal an experience we can create." One feature is LinkedIn Learning, training videos to help professionals learn new skills, such as computer coding, for their careers.

LinkedIn wants to become more useful to workers by adding personalized news feeds, helpful messaging "bots" and recommendations for online training courses, as the professional networking service strives to be more than just a tool for job-hunting. The new services will arrive just as LinkedIn itself gains a new boss -- Microsoft -- which is paying 26 billion to acquire the Silicon Valley company later this year. LinkedIn said the new features, which it showed off to reporters Thursday, were in the works before the Microsoft takeover was announced in June. But LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner said his company hopes to incorporate some of Microsoft's technology as it builds more things like conversational "chat bots," or software that can carry on limited conversations, answer questions and perform tasks like making reservations. Chat bots are a hot new feature in the consumer tech world, where companies like Facebook, Apple and Google are already racing to offer useful services based on artificial intelligence. As a first step, LinkedIn says it will soon introduce a bot that could help someone schedule a meeting with another LinkedIn user, by comparing calendars and suggesting a convenient time and meeting place.

Autonomous cars are just beginning to edge their way onto the roads, but soon, they could replace human drivers altogether. And in some areas, it could happen just five years from now. Advocates for autonomous vehicles have proposed a shift toward'driver-free zones,' starting by banning human motorists from car-pool lanes on a 150-mile stretch of Interstate 5 between Seattle and Vancouver. Within a decade, researchers say self-driving cars could have full reign of these roads during peak hours. Autonomous cars are just beginning to edge their way onto the roads, but soon, they could replace human drivers altogether.

When it comes to diseases like cancer, much can be read into the language we use. For instance, there's a great deal of debate about whether military terminology like "battling" cancer are useful, or suggest that the disease is a fight that only the strongest can win. Likewise, Silicon Valley's tech companies in recent years have unveiled moonshot initiatives they claim will someday "cure" diseases like cancer. When announcing a 3 billion investment into life sciences research, Mark Zuckerberg described his goal to cure the disease within his daughter's lifetime. We've been using such terminology for decades, but is it helpful?

'Everyone concerned with the future of work must read this book.' "[The Rise of the Robots is] about as scary as the title suggests. Ford issues a stark warning that automation in the form of robotics is moving beyond the menial jobs to put the rest of us out of work. Read it now before it is too late." "As Martin Ford documents in Rise of the Robots, the job-eating maw of technology now threatens even the nimblest and most expensively educated...the human consequences of robotization are already upon us, and skillfully chronicled here."

A simple cryptography method can produce the unusual language-like features of a mysterious manuscript from the Middle Ages. The finding suggests that the famous Voynich manuscript may be an elaborate hoax, not a secret language to be decoded. The manuscript has baffled cryptographers since book dealer Wilfrid Voynich found it in an Italian monastery in 1912. It contains hundreds of pages of fine calfskin parchment, which scientists have dated to the first half of the 15th century. Pages of indecipherable text are accompanied by illustrations of exotic unidentified plants, naked nymphs and plant-based pharmaceuticals, astrological diagrams, and other material that no one has been able to identify.

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