Public debates are a common platform for presenting and juxtaposing diverging views on important issues. In this work we propose a methodology for tracking how ideas flow between participants throughout a debate. We use this approach in a case study of Oxford-style debates---a competitive format where the winner is determined by audience votes---and show how the outcome of a debate depends on aspects of conversational flow. In particular, we find that winners tend to make better use of a debate's interactive component than losers, by actively pursuing their opponents' points rather than promoting their own ideas over the course of the conversation.

CAPE, CANAVERAL – SpaceX has made good on a high-priority delivery: the world's first inflatable room for astronauts. A SpaceX Dragon cargo ship arrived at the International Space Station on Sunday, two days after launching from Cape Canaveral. Station astronauts used a robot arm to capture the Dragon, orbiting 250 miles (400 km) above Earth. The Dragon holds 7,000 pounds (3,175 kg) of freight, including the soft-sided compartment built by Bigelow Aerospace. The pioneering pod -- packed tightly for launch -- should swell to the size of a small bedroom once filled with air next month.

Since the first computer-managed elements entered service in a General Motors auto manufacturing plant in 1961, almost every service and manufacturing industry in the world has benefited from increased automation provided -- to a greater or lesser degree -- by robotics. And, as industries become more deeply interconnected as a result of the demands of globalization and ubiquitous connectivity, so the very nature of robots will also evolve. However, increased proliferation of robots will bring as many new or accentuated risks as benefits, heightening the need for control over our creations. Today, there are many different types of robots in commercial and private use, with form factors varying considerably from the static to the fully mobile, from the microscopic to the truly huge and from the single function-specific design to the multi-function, modular types popularised by science fiction. Risks and threats posed by robots will also vary considerably.

Although Google is selling Boston Dynamics to distance itself from "terrifying" humanoid robots, there's still plenty of robot projects underway. SCHAFT, a Tokyo-based robotics company run by Google's parent company Alphabet, presented the bipedal robot at the New Economic Summit in Japan. SCHAFT is best know as the winner of the 2013 DARPA Robotics Challenge that put it on the map. There aren't too many details on the robot yet, except that it can carry up to 132 pounds and can tackle uneven terrain. But it's nice to be in the snow once in a while too.

SpaceX has arrived at the International Space Station (ISS), delevering the world's first inflatable tent for astronauts. The US aerospace company's unmanned Dragon cargo ship, carrying lettuce seeds, lab mice and an inflatable pop-up room, arrived on Sunday at the space station where six spacecraft are now docked. British astronaut Tim Peake reached out with the station's robotic arm and grappled the Dragon, carrying its nearly 3,175kg of gear, at 7:23am (11:23 GMT). "It looks like we've caught a Dragon," said Peake. Four Russian spaceships - two Progress cargo carriers and two Soyuz capsules which ferry astronauts - are docked at the space station, along with Orbital ATK's Cygnus cargo ship and SpaceX's Dragon. Not since 2011, during the final flight of the space shuttle Discovery, have there been six vehicles parked at the ISS at the same time, NASA said.

Digital transformation has become a popular term in IT circles, fast becoming a priority for organisations across the private and public sectors. The government's shift to digital services and departments has been a longstanding goal over the last three years and continues to be a long-term objective, as success across online services has created more efficiency for both workers and UK citizens. It's surprising therefore that this year's Budget, as delivered by George Osborne, was a little light on the technology front and neglected the next chapter in the government's digital story. IT and technology sectors are considered to be the foundation points for economic growth and needs to continue to be a priority for organisations to get more done. Productivity plays a crucial role in sustaining this growth, but continues to be an area where the UK falls short.

They tuned in by the tens of thousands, crowding around their screens the way residents of the Florida Space Coast once jammed the beaches to witness rocket launches at the dawn of the Space Age. But the audience watching SpaceX's live web broadcast of its launch from Cape Canaveral on Friday was treated to a show that until just a few years ago was widely discounted as impossible -- the vertical landing of the Falcon 9 rocket, which used its engine thrust to slow down and touch softly on a boat in the Atlantic Ocean. On Sunday morning, SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft caught up to the International Space Station. Flying at 17,500 mph, the spacecraft pulled up alongside the orbiting laboratory, and at 7:23 a.m., European astronaut Tim Peake grabbed it using a robotic arm. While the main mission was to deliver food and cargo to the station, it was the landing at sea that was hailed as a breakthrough. President Obama, whose administration followed through with controversial plans to retire the space shuttle and contract out missions to the space station, tweeted his congratulations.

A report published by the libertarian think tank the Cato Institute warns that the fruits of technological innovation could mean a new range of unexpected threats to the United States. Terrorists and small states equipped with weapons that take advantage of new technologies could devastate U.S. forces abroad--and even strike the homeland. Hammes, a retired U.S. Marine Corps infantry officer and expert on so-called "asymmetrical warfare"--warfare in which combatants avoid enemy strengths to strike weaknesses--warns that technologies such as 3D printing, nanotechnology, space and near-space travel, drones, and artificial intelligence could lead to cheap, inexpensive weapons with intercontinental reach, devastating lethality, and the ability to overwhelm U.S. defenses. According to Hammes, the linchpin of these capabilities is additive manufacturing, or 3D printing. Combine those two and you have a tiny tank hunter that can be difficult for tank crews to shoot down.

SpaceX has made good on a high-priority delivery: the world's first inflatable room for astronauts. A SpaceX Dragon cargo ship arrived at the International Space Station on Sunday, two days after launching from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Station astronauts used a big robot arm to capture the Dragon, orbiting 260 miles above the Pacific. The Dragon holds 7,000 pounds of freight, including the soft-sided compartment built by Bigelow Aerospace. The pioneering pod -- packed tightly for launch -- should swell to the size of a small bedroom once filled with air. It will be attached to the space station next weekend.

The autonomous vessel can travel on the high seas at speeds up to 27 knots for months on end without a single crew member. The 130-foot ACTUV can be remote-controlled, but its primary use is as an autonomous vessel that can operate safely near manned ships and accommodate all weather conditions. No crew means greater safety for potentially dangerous missions like countermining and submarine tracking. ACTUV is now slated for joint testing in open water between DARPA and the Office of Naval Research to determine viable payloads and potential uses for this sub-hunter robot.