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DEADLY WEEKEND IN THE SKIES - Kerry's wife critically ill - Congress scrambles for student loan fix – 650K DoD furloughs begin – GOP FRETS OVER LIZ CHENEY RUN
DEADLY WEEKEND IN THE SKIES: CRASH MARKED PILOT'S 1ST ATTEMPT TO LAND 777 AT SFO -- Jaxon Van Derbeken, Demian Bulwa and Erin Allday report for the San Francisco Chronicle: "The doomed Asiana Airlines jetliner had its throttles set to idle and was moving so slowly that it nearly stalled before it smashed into a seawall bordering a San Francisco International Airport runway, federal investigators said Sunday. The crew tried to abort the landing and avert the disaster, which killed two teenage passengers and injured dozens of others, but it was too late, according to a preliminary review of flight data and cockpit communications by the National Transportation Safety Board. The crew sought to accelerate 7 1/2 seconds before impact, investigators said. Three seconds later, a vibrating 'shaker stick' in the cockpit signaled an impending stall - a condition in which the wings lose lift and a plane can't be controlled.
-- "And with 1 1/2 seconds left, someone on board alerted an air traffic controller that the Boeing 777 jetliner would try to pull up and circle around. It could not, and at 11:27 a.m. Saturday it bounced and skidded across the ground, losing its tail before it came to rest on the side of Runway 28L. National Transportation Safety Board Chairwoman Deborah Hersman said at a media briefing Sunday that it was too early to say what caused the crash of Asiana Flight 214, which was completing an 11-hour trip from Seoul with 307 people aboard. 'Everything is on the table right now,' she said. However, Hersman focused on the speed of the plane, which she said was 'significantly below' the target speed of 137 knots, or 158 mph. 'We're not talking about a few knots here or there,' she said. …
Story Continued Below
-- "Asiana Airlines officials ruled out engine trouble as the cause of the crash. The flight originated in Shanghai and stopped over in Seoul, and the company said most of the passengers were Chinese, Korean or U.S. citizens. An Asiana spokeswoman, reached in Seoul, identified the chief pilot as Lee Jeong-min, who joined Asiana in 1996. She said Lee Kang-guk, who has been with the airline since 1994 and has logged more than 10,000 flying hours, was at the controls during the landing. Saturday's flight was the ninth time Lee Kang-guk had flown a Boeing 777, and it was his first time landing that type of plane at SFO, said spokeswoman Hyomin Lee. She said that technically Lee Kang-guk was still training on the 777, but given his years of his experience, 'training is an unsuitable word to describe him.' He had landed a Boeing 747, another large-capacity plane, at SFO 'many, many times,' she said. 'He was very experienced.'" http://bit.ly/13F0WxC
OTHER FRONT-PAGE HEADLINES: New York Times 1-col: "Terror on Jet: Scramble for Exits – Junior Pilot Flying." Wall Street Journal 4-col lead: "Pilot Error Examined in Crash: Asiana Plane Was Traveling Too Slowly, Investigators Say; No Sign of Engine Trouble." Washington Post: "Jet was coming in too slowly: PILOT TRIED TO ABORT LANDING: Airline: No Mechanical failure in S.F. crash." USA Today 4-col lead: "FLIGHT SPED FACTOR IN CRASH." L.A. Times 2-col lead: "Jet on verge of stalling before crash: The Asiana plane was flying below intended landing speed at SFO, federal officials say. It's pilot was in training." Sidebar: "2 dead were Chinese teens," with photo of grieving parents.
-- CORONER probing whether one crash victim was run over by fire truck. http://bit.ly/12lO5dE
NTSB WORKING OVERTIME: 10 DEAD IN PLANE CRASH IN ALASKA; STATE'S WORST AIR DISASTER IN QUARTER CENTURY – Michelle Theriault Boots And Lisa Demer report for the Anchorage Daily News: "An air taxi crashed at the Soldotna Airport on Sunday morning, killing all 10 people onboard in the worst aviation accident in Alaska in at least 25 years. The de Havilland DHC-3 Otter airplane crashed at 11:20 a.m. at the Soldotna Airport, according to the Alaska State Troopers and Soldotna Police Department. The plane was operated by Rediske Air, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. The National Transportation Safety Board described the flight as an air taxi, but on Sunday evening was still trying to confirm who was onboard and where they were going. The NTSB's Clint Johnson said an initial report from someone at the small airport indicated the plane was taking off." http://bit.ly/13w2tHK
TERESA HEINZ KERRY CRITICALLY ILL – Bryan Bender reports for the Boston Globe: "Teresa Heinz Kerry, a leading philanthropist and wife of US Secretary of State John F. Kerry, was in critical but stable condition Sunday after being flown to Massachusetts General Hospital from Nantucket, where she had been rushed to the hospital for an undisclosed ailment, according to aides to the secretary. Heinz Kerry, 74, was stricken while at the family's vacation home, according to State Department spokesman Glen Johnson. 'Late Sunday afternoon, Mrs. Teresa Heinz Kerry was taken by ambulance to Nantucket Cottage Hospital, accompanied by her husband,' Johnson said in a prepared statement. 'Once doctors had stabilized her condition, she was transferred to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, again accompanied by the Secretary.' Johnson did not provide further details of her condition, saying 'the family is grateful for the outpouring of support it has received and aware of the interest in her condition, but they ask for privacy at this time.'" http://b.globe.com/12xLZZ2
**Traveling through 7 states in 7 days on the Rights and Responsibilities Tour, Gabby Giffords and Mark Kelly met gun owners and non-gun owners who support common sense policies to reduce gun violence, like expanded background checks. Hear their stories at www.rightsandresponsibilitiestour.com.
CONGRESS SCRAMBLES FOR STUDENT LOAN RATE FIX – Burgess Everett reports for POLITICO: "Congress returns to Washington this week groping for a way to retroactively fix a high-profile doubling of some federal student loan rates. The rate for new subsidized loans shot up from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent on July 1 after divisions among Senate Democrats made finding a solution untenable. Now with the bright lights of the immigration bill off the upper chamber, student loan rates take center stage. In the days since the missed deadline, Washington's political apparatus has been a muddle of messaging. House Republicans are blasting Senate Democrats for not passing a bill as the lower chamber has done, albeit one that President Barack Obama has threatened to veto. And lawmakers from both parties are now using the #DontDoubleMyRate hashtag on Twitter, first popularized by Obama at the height of last year's presidential campaign. Senate leaders concede that the optics aren't great. A Democratic leadership aide called the situation 'awkward,' adding: 'We need to get it resolved.'" http://politi.co/12SjKI3
HAMILTON STRATEGIES is out with a white paper today arguing that student loan rates are "a short-term problem reflective of a long-term tension." Highlights:
-- "The irony of the economics in the student loan debate is that by subsidizing demand, Washington has actually been enabling the college price increases that it aims to solve. The underlying tension between policies to improve access and the adverse impact those policies have on cost and student debt is the real challenge facing policymakers."
-- "…while the absolute return on education may have declined somewhat, the comparative return remains very high, making higher education still a good bet."
-- "…with tax credits, grants and student loans facilitating increased demand against limited supply we are effectively 'bidding up' the cost of college education, thus resulting in higher tuition and higher debt. In this context, the onus of navigating the value and cost of education is falling to students and their families." Read the white paper here: http://bit.ly/10IxLqY
THE BIG PICTURE: "In Congress, Gridlock and Harsh Consequences." Jonathan Weisman reports for the New York Times: "Despite finger-pointing news conferences and radio addresses by both parties on Capitol Hill, Congress let interest rates double last week on federally subsidized student loans. Eleven days earlier, a coalition of Democrats and conservative Republicans in the House scuttled the latest attempt at a farm bill, dooming for now disaster assistance for livestock producers still affected by last year's drought. Congress returns on Monday with a major overhaul of immigration pending in the House, the farm bill lying in a heap and new fiscal deadlines looming when the government runs out of spending authority on Sept. 30 and reaches its borrowing limit shortly thereafter. The Postal Service, meanwhile, continues to lose millions of dollars every day as a measure to rescue the agency founders in the House. There is no guarantee that any of these issues will be dealt with.
-- "Even in some of the worst years of partisan gridlock, a deadline has meant something to Congress — until 2013. Drop-dead dates have come and gone this year, causing real-world consequences. On Jan. 1, tax rates went up not only for affluent families, but also for virtually all workers when lawmakers looked the other way and let a payroll tax cut expire. On March 1, after leaders from both parties declared that automatic, across-the-board spending cuts would never happen, they happened anyway because of inaction. 'One hundred percent of Congress opposed it, and we're doing it,' said Representative Peter Welch, Democrat of Vermont. 'That's a sign of a dysfunctional institution.'
-- "At this time in 2011, Congress had passed 23 laws on the way toward the lowest total since those numbers began being tracked in 1948. This year, 15 have been passed so far." http://nyti.ms/16iF8Ec
-- WaPo, A2, "The president's summertime push: After a rocky spring, Obama to focus on immigration, economy." http://wapo.st/12xNMxh
HOUSE IMMIGRATION BILL'S STOPS AND STARTS – Seung Min Kim reports for the hometown paper: "Every time the House bipartisan immigration group set a deadline this year, its members have blown it. First, it aimed for the State of the Union. In April, the group said, 'Soon.' Members struck a tentative deal twice in May and said a bill was coming in early June. Then a key lawmaker bolted, but the group insisted it was still on track. It's now almost mid-July, and there is still nothing the group can show for four years of secretive talks. But given the uncertainty in the House on how to go forward on immigration, it's not too late for the group to help dictate the path of reform — if it acts fast. House Republicans have declared the Senate-passed legislation dead on arrival, and two House committees have cleared five separate bills — which Democrats hate — to reform pieces of the current system.
-- "Republicans have an all-hands-on-deck meeting on Wednesday to discuss various options. Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said in a memo Friday that his chamber 'may' start considering border security bills while reviewing other immigration plans. Leadership's strategy could mean either moving each bill separately through the floor or bundling the committee-approved measures into a larger package for a full floor vote. Republicans could also decide to take up take the House bipartisan bill, when it's released, and pick it apart. Putting the Senate-passed bill through House committees and letting members rewrite it is another option, although that now seems more unlikely. Or they could do nothing." http://politi.co/182JjaB
GOOD MONDAY MORNING, July 8, 2013, and welcome to The Huddle, your play-by-play preview of the day's congressional news. Send tips, suggestions, comments, complaints and corrections to email@example.com. If you don't already, please follow me on Twitter @scottwongDC.
My new followers include @jsolomin and @KellyDaltonPhx.
TODAY IN CONGRESS – The Senate meets at 2 p.m. and will vote at 5:30 p.m. to confirm Gregory Alan Phillips of Wyoming to be U.S. Circuit Judge for the Tenth Circuit.
The House is also in at 2 p.m. with votes expected about 6:30 p.m. on legislation considered under suspension to the rules: the Financial Competitive Act, Audit Integrity and Job Protection Act and FOR VETS Act.
650K PENTAGON CIVILIAN FURLOUGHS START TODAY – Steve Vogel reports for the Washington Post: "Furloughs for Department of Defense civilians begin Monday, a move that amounts to a 20 percent cut in pay for hundreds of thousands of defense workers over the next three months and will disrupt operations at installations around the country, Pentagon officials warn. The furloughs, which were ordered by Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel to meet mandated budget cuts forced by the sequester, will affect more than 650,000 civilian defense workers. The Pentagon initially projected that 22 furlough days would be needed to meet its sequester targets, but Hagel announced in May that the number would be reduced to 11 days." http://wapo.st/12fox6p
POLITICO, "Want to take back the Senate? Pay up, GOP," By Manu Raju: "Republican Senate leaders, sensing an opportunity to pick up several seats and possibly win the majority, have a blunt message for their GOP colleagues: Open your wallets. For years, GOP senators have been stingy with the National Republican Senatorial Committee, refusing to make large transfers of money out of their personal campaign accounts that could help their party compete in neck-and-neck races across the country. For 2012, Democratic senators transferred nearly five times more to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee than Republicans gave to the NRSC. And just like last year, an initial look at the Senate map shows a path to the majority. It won't be easy: Republicans will have to knock off well-financed Democratic incumbents, defend Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and limit the internecine primary warfare that has twice cost them a chance at the majority. Top GOP senators say that's exactly the point: Not maximizing the NRSC's operations could be another unforced error. In short, without more money, you'll still be in the minority." http://politi.co/1afTD39
NYT: "In Wyoming, a Cheney Run Worries G.O.P.," By Jonathan Martin in Lusk, Wyo." "A young Dick Cheney began his first campaign for the House in this tiny village — population 1,600 — after the state's sole Congressional seat finally opened up. But nowadays, his daughter Liz does not seem inclined to wait patiently for such an opening. Ms. Cheney, 46, is showing up everywhere in the state, from chicken dinners to cattle growers' meetings, sometimes with her parents in tow. She has made it clear that she wants to run for the Senate seat now held by Michael B. Enzi, a soft-spoken Republican and onetime fly-fishing partner of her father. But Ms. Cheney's move threatens to start a civil war within the state's Republican establishment, despite the reverence many hold for her family. Mr. Enzi, 69, says he is not ready to retire, and many Republicans say he has done nothing to deserve being turned out. It would bring about 'the destruction of the Republican Party of Wyoming if she decides to run and he runs, too,' Alan K. Simpson, a former Republican senator from the state, said in an interview last week. 'It's a disaster — a divisive, ugly situation — and all it does is open the door for the Democrats for 20 years.'
-- "The developments underscore the complicated relationship between the Beltway-centered Cheney family and the sparsely populated state that provided its political base. … Ms. Cheney's ambitions reflect a greater tension within the Republican Party as a younger generation feels less reluctance to challenge incumbents in the party, especially if they are seen as too consensus-minded or insufficiently conservative. Mr. Enzi is known as a studious, low-key legislator who worked well with Senator Edward M. Kennedy. He avoids political talk shows because, he says, their goal is to get guests to 'beat up on their colleagues.' In an interview last week after a town hall-style meeting at the county fairgrounds here, a few feet from a plaque marking the site of Mr. Cheney's first political speech, Mr. Enzi revealed that Ms. Cheney told him this year that she was thinking about challenging him in 2014. 'She called me and said that she's looking at it,' he said. And did Ms. Cheney ask Mr. Enzi, now in his third term, if he was planning to run again? 'No,' Mr. Enzi said." http://nyti.ms/10IyYyj
WEDNESDAY'S TRIVIA WINNER – Jim Casto was first to correctly answer that William S. White was referring to "the Senate" when he wrote in 1956 of "the South's unending revenge upon the North for Gettysburg." Bill Cody cleverly guessed he was referring to "SEC football."
TODAY'S TRIVIA – David Heymsfeld offers one final Gettysburg question: Name the TV show in which a store in Gettysburg was a critical site in a 21st century terrorist plot. The first person to correctly answer gets a mention in the next day's Huddle. Email me at email@example.com.
GET HUDDLE emailed to your Blackberry, iPhone or other mobile device each morning. Just enter your email address where it says "Sign Up." http://www.politico.com/huddle/
**Data shows that American gun owners can support gun safety, and Americans without guns can support gun owners. Responsible gun ownership is part of what makes us Americans, but recent tragedies show America is not doing enough to keep its citizens safe. We know that doing nothing while others are in danger is not the American way. We're mobilizing support to push the U.S. Senate to take another vote on expanded background check legislation, and in every stop of the 7 day 7 state Rights and Responsibilities Tour, citizens told us they wanted action to keep weapons out of the hands of criminals and the dangerously mentally ill. From Nevada, Alaska, North Dakota, Ohio, New Hampshire, Maine and North Carolina, hear the voices of the Americans who are standing with Gabby Giffords, Mark Kelly and Americans for Responsible Solutions at www.rightsandresponsibilitiestour.com **


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subset: commoncrawl


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I never knew you could dance to the "Rocky" theme. But, that's exactly what Chaz Bono did – dressed in boxing garb – on "Dancing With The Stars" last night. The only thing missing was Burgess Meredith screaming, "come on, Rock!" But, in place of Mickey was [lastfm link_type="artist_info"]Cher[/lastfm].
[photogallerylink id=29080 align=left]I won't go draw any comparisons between the two! The proud mama was on-hand to root for her son. She burst into tears!


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Country: United States
City: New York
System: New York City Transit
Location: Substation #15
Photo by: David Sagarin/Historic American Engineering Record
Collection of: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
Date: 8/1978
Notes: Gallery equipment. Note addition of board between D.C. circuit breaker switches and instrument panel.
Viewed (this week/total): 1 / 2963
Available Image EXIF Data:
Resolution : 1024 x 812


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The Disgruntled Worker's Gift Guide for 8 Insufferable Bosses
In this guide we suggest gifts for a variety of bad bosses, from the ones who try too hard to the ones who make you work too hard. Not that I, as a Gizmodo intern, would know anything about that. But for those of you who do hate your bosses, here are the best gifts to give them.


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|Publication number
|Publication type
|Application number
|Publication date
|Dec 17, 2002
|Filing date
|Jun 13, 2000
|Priority date
|Dec 22, 1999
|Fee status
|Publication number
|John Brian Pickering
|Original Assignee
|International Business Machines Corporation
|Export Citation
|BiBTeX, EndNote, RefMan
|Patent Citations (9), Referenced by (89), Classifications (8), Legal Events (5)
|External Links: USPTO, USPTO Assignment, Espacenet
1. The Present Invention
The present invention relates to voice processing apparatus and the like, and more particularly to voice processing systems that use speech recognition.
2. Description of the Related Art
Voice processing systems whereby callers interact over a telephone network (e.g. PSTN or Internet) with computerised equipment are very well-known in the art, and include voice mail systems, voice response units, and so on. Typically such systems ask a caller questions using prompts formed from one or more prerecorded audio segments, and the caller inputs answers by pressing dual tone multiple frequency (DTMF) keys on their telephones. This approach has proved effective for simple interactions, but is clearly restricted in scope due to the limited number of available keys on a telephone. For example, alphabetical input is particularly difficult using DTMF keys.
There has therefore been an increasing tendency in recent years for voice processing systems to use speech recognition in order to augment DTMF input (N.B. the term speech recognition are denote the act of converting a spoken audio signal into text). The utilisation of speech recognition permits the handling of callers who do not have a DTMF phone, and also the acquisition of more complex information beyond simple numerals from the caller.
As an illustration of the above, WO96/25733 describes a voice response system which includes a prompt unit, a Voice Activity Detector (VAD), and a speech recognition unit. In this system, as a prompt is played to the caller, any input from the caller is passed to the VAD, together with the output from the prompt unit. This allows the VAD to perform echo cancellation on the incoming signal. Then, in response to the detection of voice by the VAD, the prompt is discontinued, and the caller input is switched to the recognition unit, thereby providing a barge-in facility.
Speech recognition in a telephony environment can be supported by a variety of hardware architectures. Many voice processing systems include a special DSP card for running speech recognition software. This card is connected to a line interface unit for the transfer of telephony data by a time division multiplex (TDM) bus. Most commercial voice processing systems, more particularly their line interface units and DSP cards, conform to one of two standard architectures: either the Signal Computing System Architecture (SCSA), or the Multi-vendor Integration Protocol (MVIP). A somewhat different configuration is described in GB 2280820, in which a voice processing system is connected via a local area network to a remote server, which provides a speech recognition facility. This approach is somewhat more complex than the TDM approach, given the data communication and management required, but does offer significantly increased flexibility.
Speech recognition systems are generally used in telephony environments as cost-effective substitutes for human agents, and are adequate for performing simple, routine tasks. It is important that such tasks be performed accurately, otherwise there may be significant caller dissatisfaction, and also as quickly as possible, both to improve caller throughput, and because the owner of the voice processing system is often paying for the call via some free phone mechanism (e.g. an 0800 number), or because an outbound application is involved.
(Note that as used herein, the term "caller" simply indicates the party at the opposite end of a telephone connection to the voice processing system, rather than to specify which party actually initiated the telephone connection).
There has been an increase in recent years in the complexity of input permitted from the caller. This is supported firstly by the use of large vocabulary recognition systems, and secondly by supporting natural language understanding and dialogue management. As a simple example of this, a pizza ordering application several years ago might have gone through a menu to determine the desired pizza size, topping etc., with one prompt to elicit each property of the pizza from a caller. Now however, such an application may simply ask: "What type of pizza would you like". The caller response is passed to a large vocabulary continuous speech recognition unit, with the recognised text then being processed in order to extract the relevant information describing the pizza.
The extraction of such information is typically performed by a natural language understanding (NLU) unit working in conjunction with a dialogue manager. These units have knowledge of grammar and syntax, which allows them to parse a caller response such as "I would like a large pizza with pepperoni" to extract the particular information desired by the application, namely that the desired pizza (a) is large, and (b) has a pepperoni topping. The dialogue manager further provides flexibility in terms of generating prompts (perhaps using text-to-speech synthesis) to acquire specific information from a caller.
The above approach presents a much more natural interface for callers, provides greater flexibility, and potentially can significantly reduce call handling time. However, the increased flexibility also increases the scope for caller confusion. In such cases call efficiency can actually be reduced, and a lost call may result. Prior art voice processing systems have not addressed the problem of caller confusion or uncertainty that is sometimes an inevitable consequence of trying to support a caller interface that is more natural, but at the same time also more complex.
Accordingly, the invention provides a method of operating a voice processing system comprising the steps of:
receiving spoken input from a user;
performing speech recognition to convert said spoken input into text equivalent;
analysing at least one semantic or prosodic property of said spoken input by looking for task words in the text equivalent of the spoken input; and
responsive to said analysis, determining that the user input has effectively completed if there has not been a task word for more than a predetermined period of time.
The invention typically finds application in a telephony environment, in which the voice processing system and the user communicate with each other over a telephone network. In this situation, the spoken input is received over a telephone connection, and the voice processing system may itself play out prompts over the telephone connection, such as in response to a determination that the caller input has effectively been completed. The particular prompt played back to the caller in these circumstances may of course be dependent on what information the caller has so far provided to the voice processing system.
Underlying the present invention is the fact that conventional human dialogue is regulated by the concept of turn-taking, with linguistic cues that indicate when one party has finished speaking, and is expecting or inviting the other party to take over. Prior art voice processing systems have not been sensitive to such cues, and so seem extremely artificial in terms of the dialogue that they support. This in turn can cause difficulties for callers trying to use such systems, particularly if they have relatively little experience with such man-machine interfaces.
Unlike prior art systems, the present invention allows a determination of when the caller input has effectively (rather than actually) been completed. In other words, it detects not when the caller has stopped speaking altogether, but rather when the caller has stopped saying anything useful or relevant. This is achieved by analysing at least one semantic or prosodic property of said spoken input. The intention is firstly to assist more quickly callers who are in difficulty (whether or not they are conscious of the fact), and secondly to speed up call handling by interrupting callers who are giving lots of irrelevant information. The naturalness of the caller interface can also be improved by this approach, since the techniques employed mirror to a certain extent what happens in normal conversation.
Since playing out a prompt before the caller has stopped speaking altogether effectively represents an interruption of the user, it must be timed so as to minimise any confusion or indeed offense to the user. Thus if the system starts its prompt at a particular moment when the user is still talking, the user is likely to miss the start of the system prompt. Therefore, in the preferred embodiment, once it has been determined that the user input is effectively completed, the system then plays out the next prompt when there is some break in the spoken input. This ensures that the user is likely to hear all of the system prompt, and reinforces the naturalness of the dialogue.
Note that typically the duration of a break to trigger the interruption will be much shorter than the time-out period for user input into conventional voice processing systems. Thus such prior art systems rely on silence to determine completion of user input, and so need a relatively long time-out period to discriminate input completion from the short, transitory breaks which are natural in any spoken input due to breathing, etc. By contrast, in the present invention, the determination of effective caller completion is made from semantic and/or prosodic properties, thereby allowing a much shorter interval to then be used to trigger the interruption.
This clearly has advantages even when the user does not in fact intend to continue after the break, in that the quicker determination of caller completion both accelerates call handling, and also prevents an artificially long period of silence intruding upon the dialogue.
Other possible cues for an interruption by the voice processing system (which would typically be employed in addition to the use of a break) include when the caller is dwelling on an extra-linguistic word, such as "um". Such an approach does however require a fast response from the speech recognition system to be effective, and so would be more difficult to use as a trigger than a break, which can be detected very quickly by the voice processing interface software.
There are a wide variety of techniques available for the step of analysing at least one semantic or prosodic property of said spoken input. These can be used either singly, or in conjunction with one another. One possibility based on semantics is to look for task words in the text equivalent of the spoken input. In this case the determination can be made that the user input has effectively completed when the caller has not spoken any task word within a last predetermined period of time, or according to any other suitable criteria to indicate a reduction or termination in useful information from the caller.
Another possibility, based this time on prosody, is to look for a prolonged pitch fall as representing effective completion of the spoken input. Such a combination of increased duration and falling pitch is a good indication in normal conversation that the speaker has completed their contribution. A further possibility is to look for a reset of the pitch excursion envelope; this typically indicates that the caller is psychologically re-starting their input, which in turn suggests that he or she has become confused.
Since the prosodic indicators are independent of the textual equivalent of the caller input, they can be calculated in parallel with the speech recognition. However, since such prosodic indicators may not be completely reliable by themselves, in the preferred embodiment they are used in conjunction with semantic properties. As an example of this, one good indication that the caller has effectively completed is that the caller is asking the machine a question. This can be detected both semantically, in terms of word order or words such as "how" etc., and also prosodically, typically by virtue of a final rise in caller pitch.
The invention further provides a voice processing apparatus comprising:
an input device to receive spoken input from a user;
a speech recognition unit to convert said spoken input into text equivalent; and
means for analysing at least one semantic or prosodic property of said spoken input, wherein responsive to said analysis, it is determined that the user input has effectively completed.
Such voice processing apparatus may be adapted for connection to the telephone network (conventional PSTN or the Internet), in a customer server kiosk, or in any other appropriate device. Note that the speech recognition means and/or any natural language understanding may or may not be integral to the voice processing system itself (as will be apparent more clearly from the preferred embodiments described below).
The invention further provides a computer readable medium containing instructions readable by a computer system operating as a voice processing system, said instructions including instructions for causing the computer system to perform the following steps:
receiving spoken input from a user;
performing speech recognition to convert said spoken input into text equivalent;
analysing at least one semantic or prosodic property of said spoken input;
and responsive to said analysis, determining that the user input has effectively completed.
The computer readable medium may comprise a magnetic or optical disk, solid state memory device, tape, or other appropriate storage apparatus. In some cases this medium may be physically loadable into the storage device. In other cases, this medium may be fixed in the voice processing system, and the instructions loaded onto the medium via some wired or wireless network connection. Another possibility is for the medium to be remote from the voice processing system itself, with the instructions being downloaded over a wired or wireless network connection for execution by the voice processing system.
It will be appreciated that the computer program and apparatus of the invention will benefit from substantially the same preferred features as the method of the invention.
An embodiment of the invention will now be described in detail by way of example only with reference to the following drawings:
FIG. 1 is a simplified schematic diagram of a voice processing system connected to a remote server;
FIG. 2 is a simplified schematic diagram of a speech recognition system for use in or with the voice processing system of FIG. 1;
FIG. 3 is a schematic flow chart illustrating the method of operation of the system of FIG. 1 in a preferred embodiment of the invention; and
FIGS. 4a and 4 b provide schematic representations of pitch movement during a spoken phrase.
FIG. 1 illustrates in simplified schematic form the main hardware and software components of a voice processing system 10 having speech recognition functionality. The system 10 is connected to the telephone network 110 by one or more telephony channels 150. In FIG. 1 these are digital trunk lines, each carrying multiple telephony channels (T1 digital trunk lines in North America comprise 24 channels, E1 digital trunk lines in Europe comprise 30 channels). It will be appreciated that in some installations, the digital trunk lines may be connected to the telephone network 110 via a switch or PBX; indeed one possibility is for the voice processing system to be a part of the telephone network itself, providing intelligent services to the network.
The system unit 145 of the voice processing system comprises a computer workstation, which runs an appropriate operating system 200 and a voice processing program 210, which in turn interacts with a user application 220 in order to determine how calls should be processed. The voice processing platform also supports a natural language understanding (NLU) unit 245 which includes dialogue management. The system unit includes one or more digital trunk adapter cards 160 for interfacing to the telephone network 110 via link 150. The system unit also contains a network interface card 170 which allows programs running on the workstation to communicate over a local area network (LAN) 250, using communications software 205 incorporated into the operating system. In addition, the system unit includes a digital signal processing (DSP) card 180, which is connected to the trunk adapter (or adapters) via a time division multiplex (TDM) bus 165. Speech recognition software 185 may be installed as microcode or firmware on the DSP card.
The adapter cards 160 are responsible for interfacing with the telephone network over their respective lines, including signalling, demultiplexing incoming telephony signals, and so on. They may also be used to perform activities such as voice activity detection on a particular telephony channel, compression/decompression of voice signals, and DTMF recognition and generation, although these may be performed on the DSP card instead.
A server system 300 is attached to the LAN 250 via network interface card 310, and supports an operating system and appropriate communications software (not shown), and speech recognition software 320. It will be appreciated therefore that there are two speech recognition resources available to the application 220, the first of these being locally installed on the DSP card 180 in the system unit, and the second speech recognition resource being available remotely via the LAN 250 on server 300.
The voice processing system includes storage (not shown), either as part of system unit 145 or accessible remotely over LAN 250 for storing software such as voice processing program 210, along with ancillary data and prerecorded audio segments for use by application 220. This software can then be loaded and run as required on one or more processors (not shown) in system unit 145.
In one preferred embodiment, the voice processing system is the IBM VOICE RESPONSE system (previously known as the IBM DIRECTTALK voice processing system) available from the IBM Corporation, running on an IBM RS/6000 workstation on top of the IBM AIX operating system. The speech recognition resource comprises a large vocabulary speech recognition system and may, for example, be the IBM VIAVOICE speech recognition engine, available from IBM Corporation. PC-based systems are also available. Likewise, the NLU unit with dialogue management may also be provided by the IBM VIAVOICE product.
It will be appreciated that there are many possible variations in the design of the voice processing system of FIG. 1. For example, some voice processing systems accept input from analog lines rather than digital trunks, whilst other voice processing systems are connected to the Internet instead of, or as well as, the conventional telephone network (this provides Voice over IP capability). Some voice processing systems may package the DSP card 185 as a daughter card of the digital trunk adapter 160, thereby eliminating the need for the TDM bus. In addition, the illustrated system has access both to a server speech recognition system, and also to a local DSP recognition system, whereas many voice processing systems will have access to only one such resource. Other voice processing systems may also support text to speech (TTS) as an output mechanism, typically enabled by software running on DSP card 185, although again this may be provided remotely by a server over the LAN. Further, any suitable network could be used for communications between the server and the voice processing system, providing it has suitable transmission characteristics in terms of bandwidth and latency (e.g. one possibility might be to use an ATM connection). Additionally, although the voice processing system illustrated has just a single local DSP resource, some voice processing systems may include multiple DSP cards, with each card supporting multiple recognition programs running simultaneously (or possibly different applications such as TTS). Moreover, although the server approach as shown has the recognition system installed on a separate machine from the line interface unit 160, it would clearly be possible for the software recognition system to be running on the same machine 145 as the line interface unit, provided this machine had sufficient processing capability. Conversely, the NLU unit could run on a separate system from system unit 145, for example, on system 300, or possibly on some other system (not shown) connected to LAN 250.
The recognition system and/or the NLU unit may not be included per se in the voice processing system of the invention, but rather may be supplied by some external componentry. Alternatively, the recognition system and/or the NLU unit may be part of or integral to the voice processing system. The NLU unit may be included as part of the user application 220 or as part of the voice processing program 210. The skilled person will appreciate that such variations are not pertinent to the principles of the present invention.
A typical operation of the voice processing system of FIG. 1 is as follows. An incoming call is received over the telephony network 110, and the voice processing system 10, under the control of the user application 220, may determine that the caller does not have a DTMF telephone (this determination can be made for example through knowledge of the calling or called number, or by the caller failing to depress a tone key when requested to do so). Alternatively, the machine may be configured to use speech recognition for all callers. In any event, the voice processing system proceeds to utilise voice recognition to interpret the caller's input, which is generally received in response to an outgoing prompt from the voice processing system. The caller input is forwarded to a speech recognition resource. For use of the local resource, this leads to a channel on the trunk adapter 160 being connected with a channel on the DSP card 180 via the TDM bus 165. Access to the remote resource can be achieved for example using the approach described in GB 2325110, which is incorporated herein by reference. (Note that the TDM bus connection as shown in FIG. 1 provides a uni-directional data flow, so that as is well-known in the art, a pair of such connections are needed to support a full duplex telephone conversation).
The speech recognition system processes the received audio signal, and returns the spoken string to the user application 220. It will be noted that the large majority of voice recognition systems used in telephony are speaker independent; in other words, such systems are trained to recognise vocal input from any speaker. This is accomplished by training the machine on vocal samples from a representative set of speakers. The recognition unit also returns other information in addition to the recognised string, in particular the statistical confidence level. Additional data may also be returned, such as possible alternative results and so on. Where appropriate, this text is first analysed by the NLU unit 245 to extract relevant meaning, before being supplied to the user application. This then leads to further processing of the call in accordance with the determined caller input. For example, if the caller has spoken a numerical sequence corresponding to an account number, it may provide the caller with the ability to access account information; if the caller has spoken a particular name, it may transfer the caller to the telephone extension for that name. Another possibility is to continue the caller dialogue by playing further prompts to the caller. The dialogue management facility in NLU unit 245 allows such prompts to be constructed on the fly to reflect the caller input.
FIG. 2 illustrates a simple schematic diagram of a typical speech recognition system such as might be used in the voice processing system of FIG. 1. Thus the recognition system receives digitised audio input, which in the case of a telephone signal will generally comprise 8 bit samples at 8 kHz (corresponding to a total data rate of 64 kbit/s). These samples are passed to a vector quantisation unit 410, which aggregates them into vectors of typically 10 ms duration (i.e. 80 samples per vector). The vector quantisation unit may be supplied with a so-called alphabet of vectors (known as labels), and replaces each input vector with the label which matches it most closely. Typically there may be about 200 such labels in the vector quantisation alphabet. (N.B. Some recognition systems do not in fact perform any vector quantisation, but work with a parameterisation of the raw input vectors rather than a limited set of labels).
The audio input, now represented as a sequence of vector labels (or parameters), is then passed into a decoder unit 420, which is responsible for converting this sequence into recognised text. The decoder functionality can be broken down into two main components, audio modelling 425, and language modelling 430. The purpose of the audio modeller is to produce a variety of candidate word strings which may match the input sequence of vector labels; the purpose of the language modeller is then to select which of these word strings is the overall best fit to the audio input.
A language modeller typically looks at the likelihood of particular words appearing next to one another in spoken text, which can be used amongst other things to help decide between homophones (different words sounding the same); "new car" is in general much more likely than "knew car". Note that in a telephony environment, language modelling is often simpler because the speaker is constrained to a particular subject matter (such as pizza ordering).
FIG. 3 illustrates a preferred method in accordance with the present invention, such as may be implemented using the voice processing system of FIG. 1. The method starts (505) and proceeds to play a prompt to the caller (step 510); it will be appreciated that this activity may commence at some point during a call (i.e. there may have been previous prompts or other actions on the call). The input from the telephone connection is then received (step 520) in conventional fashion, and a test made to see whether or not the input is silence (step 530). If this is the case, the system then checks whether the amount of silence exceeds a predetermined time-out period (step 540)—if so, the method proceeds to step 570, which will be discussed in more detail later, and then onto the exit (step 580). (It will be noted here that this further action may be dependent on what has happened previously, for example, whether the method has arrived at step 570 via step 540 or via step 560). If on the other hand, the time-out period has not been exceeded, the method returns to processing additional input (step 520).
It will be appreciated that the time-out period used in the test of step 540 may depend for example on whether or not the caller has said anything. Thus a relatively long delay may be more acceptable at the beginning of the caller response period, in order to allow the caller to be satisfied that the outgoing prompt has terminated, and possibly to gather any information needed for the reply.
Returning now to step 530, if this test is negative, it is assumed that the caller has said something, which is passed for speech recognition (step 550). Note that commercially available real-time recognition systems return results on a word by word basis as the caller continues his/her input. The speech recognition is followed by a test at step 560 to determine whether or not the caller has effectively finished his/her input. This test is discussed in more detail below, but is based on something other than the caller simply going quiet (which would already have been detected at step 530). If the caller has finished, the method proceeds to take further action (step 570) and exit (step 580), otherwise it loops back for more caller input (step 520).
Before discussing steps 560 and 570 in more detail, it will be noted that the method of FIG. 3 is subject to many variations. For example, some voice processing applications may ask the caller to terminate their input by pressing a particular DTMF key. This would then result in the test of step 530 becoming effectively tri-partite, looking for silence, DTMF key, or caller input. The result of the caller entering a DTMF key would typically be for the system to go direct to the further action (step 570), unless the system was expecting more than one DTMF key to be entered (in which case it would loop back to step 520).
Also, there may be additional error processing steps, for example if the speech recognition of step 550 fails to produce any text, perhaps because the audio quality of the line is poor. In this case, the method will typically return back to step 510, or may take some other action, such as transferring the caller to a human operator.
Focusing now on step 560, the purpose of this test is to determine when the caller has finished saying anything useful, as opposed to step 540, which determines when the caller has finished saying anything at all. This typically occurs when the caller is confused by the prompt, and/or does not know or has forgotten what information he/she is supposed to provide. The principle here is then to proceed to step 570, which can effectively interrupt the caller with a new prompt, perhaps specifically indicating information which remains outstanding, or can take some other action, such as transferring the caller to a human agent.
There are a variety of tests which can be utilised in step 560, either individually, or in a combination of two or more tests. Suitable tests fall into two general categories, which can loosely be regarded as semantic and prosodic. Semantic tests look at the words that the caller is speaking, and in particular for certain predetermined task words (N.B. the set of task words may vary from one prompt to another). Thus consider for example an interactive voice response (IVR) application in a sports shop, which firstly asks callers "Please state which sport you are interested in". The task words here might be names of various sports. Thus if the caller answered "I'm interested in football", the speech recognition unit transcribes this input, and the NLU unit extracts "football" as the task word. If on the other hand, the caller starts "I'm not sure really, I want to buy something for my son, he's seven years old . . . ", the NLU unit fails to find any task words.
In one embodiment, the test of step 560 therefore monitors how long it has been since the caller said something useful (i.e. a task word). If this exceeds a predetermined time limit, perhaps 10 seconds, then the caller is regarded as effectively having finished, and the method proceeds to step 570.
Another possible element of the test in step 560 is to monitor the rate of extra-linguistic utterances from the caller, such as "Um", "Er" etc (providing these are transcribed by the speech recognition unit). The base rate of these will of course vary from one speaker to another, but a sudden increase in the ratio of these extra-linguistic utterances to dictionary words for any given caller is another useful indicator that the caller has run out of anything useful to say.
A further possible criterion in step 560 is to determine whether the caller input grammatically represents a question. For example, if a caller says "Is that OK", or "Do you need anything more", then clearly it is now time for the IVR to take over responsibility for the dialogue.
The other class of test that can be used in step 560 can be regarded as prosodic, in other words, based not on the actual words of the caller input, but on other aspects such as intonation, etc. It will be appreciated that since such prosodic tests do not require knowledge of the text of the caller input, they can run in parallel to the speech recognition (step 550) on the caller input.
The theoretical basis for such prosodic tests is illustrated schematically in FIG. 4a and FIG. 4b. Thus FIG. 4A shows in general terms the large-scale rise and fall of pitch during a spoken sentence, assuming of course that the sentence is being normally spoken, not sung. The | | markers indicate phrasal boundaries, effectively pauses in the spoken input (although these may not represent actual acoustic silence). Note that as shown, the final two groupings are spoken separately, rather than being run together as a complete phrase. The general movement within each phrase is for a rise-fall-rise, with the final rise being relatively long in duration. The final phrase group then has a different rise-fall pattern, with this time the final fall being relatively long in duration. Note the particular importance of duration here. Thus a final fall of short duration indicates that the speaker is going to continue; conversely a final rise with an excessively long duration implies that the speaker is in trouble.
Superimposed on the pitch pattern of FIG. 4a is a general pitch pattern, as shown in FIG. 4b (note the horizontal time axes of FIGS. 4a and 4 b are aligned, although the vertical scale of FIG. 4b is somewhat exaggerated compared to that of FIG. 4a). This pitch pattern essentially represents an envelope which applies to the whole of the sentence, and shows a decrease in pitch excursion about a slowly decreasing mean (this effect is termed "declination").
Further details about intonation in terms of pitch profiles and declination can be found in: "Synthesising British English Intonation using Tonetic Stress Marks" by B Williams and P Alderson, in Proceedings of the Institute of Acoustics, Speech and Hearing v8, part 7, p417-424, 1986; and "Working with Speech", eds G Knowles, A Wichmann, and P Alderson, Longman, 1996 (see in particular Chapters 3 and 10).
Based on FIG. 4, one possible example of a prosodic indicator that the caller has finished speaking is a long decline in pitch value at the end of the input. This is a cue that the caller is now expecting the IVR to continue the dialogue. Another example where the IVR needs to consider interrupting the caller is where the pitch excursion resets itself to the initial value, instead of continuing with a steady decrease. This is an indication that the caller is in trouble, and that their input is losing coherence.
In terms of a practical implementation of such prosodic tests, the spoken pitch, in particular, the fundamental frequency, can be derived by any well-known method, for example using linear predictive coding (LPC), which is already supported in some voice processing systems. The variation of pitch with time can then be typically low pass filtered to conserve only the gross pitch movements, and also to allow for those periods where no pitch is available (i.e. unvoiced sounds, in particular certain consonants). The derived pitch can then be compared with the templates illustrated in FIG. 4 to locate any exceptions, or dialogue pitch cues.
As mentioned above, the preferred embodiment combines both prosodic information and semantic information in the test of step 560. One reason for this is that the prosodic information, although quickly available (it can be obtained in parallel with the speech recognition of step 550), is often only indicative rather than determinative of the caller situation. As an example, if the caller input semantically represents a question, and prosodically the caller terminates with a sustained rise (as opposed to the rise-fall pattern of FIG. 4a), then this is good confirmation that the caller has asked a question, and is now expecting something back from the IVR.
Considering now step 570, it will be appreciated that it is important that the action taken is sensitive to the caller's situation. Thus assuming that the next action as far as the caller is concerned is a further prompt, then simply to commence playing this out irrespective of what the caller is doing may simply lead to more confusion. Rather the system waits for an opportune moment to interrupt the caller input, such as a short pause (marked by audio silence), or an extended or repeated extralinguistic hesitation (for example "er . . . er"). It will be appreciated that in the former case the pause can be much shorter than the time-out period utilised in step 540, because of the extra information that the caller has completed his or her effective input. One advantage of operating this way is that it avoids any risk that the caller may feel obliged to restart if the IVR does not interrupt quickly enough.
It will be appreciated that there are many variations on the embodiment described herein. As one example, although the test of step 560 has been described as binary in nature, a more complicated procedure may be used. For example, this test may indicate that the caller is likely to have finished, but the system is not certain. In this case, the time-out period may be partially reduced, so that the machine will interrupt only if silence by the caller appears to confirm the situation, although this silence is less than the normal time-out period. It will also be appreciated that the prosodic properties discussed in detail relate primarily to English; other languages may have other prosodic factors that suggest completion of effective user input.
Furthermore, although the system of the present invention has been described primarily in terms of a telephony environment, it is not so limited. For example, it might be included in an automatic kiosk, or in an in-car navigation and control unit. It will therefore be recognised that the system of the present invention may find utility in a great variety of voice processing applications utilising speech recognition.
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Owner name: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION, NEW Y
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|Jan 9, 2006
|Fee payment
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|Mar 6, 2009
Owner name: NUANCE COMMUNICATIONS, INC., MASSACHUSETTS
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Coral Gables has always been the place to go when you can't quite decide what it is you're craving. In the City Beautiful you will find French, Italian, Indian, Cuban, Spanish, Chinese, Thai, Continental - it's a veritable United Nations of dining. But until the past few months, there's been a conspicuous absence of choices for fans of diverse, authentic Mexican dishes. Somebody finally noticed.
Open since mid-December, Margarita's Mexican Cantina is one of the latest entries on the scene. It's located on Calle Ocho and - gracias a Dios - has its own parking lot. That unexpected convenience alone is worth drinking to, which is the first thing my dining companion and I did. Served in frosty mugs, our frozen margaritas were a bit too sweet, but the complimentary tortilla chips and salsa that we munched between sips made up for it. The chips were thin, warm, and crisp, and the salsa, while it could have been a bit chunkier, tasted homemade. A spicier version is yours for the asking, according to the menu.
Margarita's offers more than glorified taco-stand fare, though you won't gasp at the scope of its creativity. Three soups cream of black bean, tortilla, and lentil - are listed, but the menu is bereft of most main-course soups, such as menudo, pozole, and cocido de carne de res con platano. Selections tend toward dishes familiar to gringos (and even cubanos), with a smattering of more ambitious dishes as well, such as chicken mole, carne asada, and beef tamales.
Margarita's is calling itself a cantina, after all, and the menu plainly states that "our Mexican cuisine is subtly flavored and less spicy than standard pepper-dominated Mexican food," so the chef is straightforward in not attempting to appeal to those with flame-proof tongues. And while the unspoken motto seems to be, "If it ain't fried, it ain't Mexican,"
the restaurant uses vegetable oil rather than the lard customarily used in the old country.
Attempts at political correctness aside, Margarita's does a fairly expert job on its traditional fried dishes. The $7.45 sampler platter was proof of this (other starters range between $3.95 and $5.95). An eclectic mix of teasers, the assortment featured three meaty, fiery chicken wings, two potato skins, and a pair each of chicken nachos, quesadillas, and chimichangitas. Most of these were delicious, and among the more southerly tidbits, the beef nachos were outstanding. The ground beef had been enhanced with spices and a little ground pork, lending the mixture a snappy sausage flavor. The least successful of the lot were the chimichangitas, crisp, little burritos that are as common in Arizona as black beans are in Miami. The machaca filling consisted of ground white chicken-breast meat, but the absence of stewed tomatoes, chiles, shredded cheddar, and spices normally used in the preparation of this dish was obvious. Their greasy appearance did not add to their appeal. Salvaging the chimichangitas was a foursome of small, fluted, tortilla baskets, each filled with a different salsa: a fresh, oniony guacamole, sour cream sprinkled with black-olive bits, a cheddar-cheese dip, and a zesty ranchero sparked with cilantro.
Proper preparation of Mexican cuisine is almost as complicated as calculus. For example, the chile colorado, the salsa generally called for in recipes for the aforementioned chimichangitas, is itself made from at least a half-dozen ingredients, including dried red chiles, cilantro, whole cumin, oregano, garlic, and onion. Margarita's is extremely conservative in its use of such seasonings. I can understand a little jalapenophobia, but this joint seems to have banned the entire family of chiles, many of which are not at all hot.
This fear of chiles was most pronounced in the entree I ordered, chicken in mole sauce. I was privileged to have savored this specialty prepared by a Mexican friend of ours in Costa Rica. Her recipe had been passed on to her by her mother, who would spend long hours hand-grinding the necessary nuts, seeds, and spices for the sauce. I don't suppose any restaurant could ever duplicate the mole Marisela prepared for us, but Margarita's doesn't even come close.
Though it's listed on the menu under "south of the border specialties," Margarita's rendering was decidedly Spanish. A plump, tender chicken breast, perfectly baked, was served smothered in a dark brown sauce the texture of beef gravy and joltingly bitter. It tasted almost exclusively of cocoa, and while some might prefer this style, it is not Mexican. Next time I'll choose something simpler.
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My dining companion, on the other hand, had no complaints about his "Mexicombo" entree. For those who have trouble deciding between enchiladas, tacos, tamales, burritos, and chiles rellenos, Margarita's offers a choice of any two for $4.95, any three for $5.95, or any four for $6.95. It's a great deal, and, as with the other entrees, each combo includes a generous portion of refried beans and rice. The night we visited, the restaurant was out of tamales, so my companion dove into a platter heaped with a chile relleno, a beef enchilada, a cheese enchilada, and a bean tostada. He gave each dish high marks, and left no trace of the rice and beans, which were fragrant with the scent of pork. Adding to his contentment was the restaurant's selection of five Mexican beers (there is also a full bar), and he gleefully did his part to deplete the supply of Tecate - figuring he could always switch to Dos Equis, Carta Blanca, Corona, or Bohemia.
Different desserts are offered daily, and on the night we visited, I passed up flan and strawberry mousse cake in favor of the Oreo cookie cheesecake, which proved to be an excellent choice. The flavors of the bittersweet chocolate and the cheese complemented each other perfectly, and the crumbled-cookie crust was soft rather than crunchy, a texture that suited the consistency of the dessert. My dining companion drank his after-dinner sweet in the form of one of Margarita's specialty coffees. Called "Mexican Coffee," his $2.95 java was spiked with Kahlua, brandy, and whipped cream, and he found it good to the last bone-warming drop.
If it's a taste of Mexicana you're craving, Margarita's is well worth a try. The tile-and-brick, mission-style setting and lighted cactus garden create an attractive, relaxing ambiance, and with upbeat Mexican tunes swirling about the room, the restaurant's slogan - "Mucho Fun...Poco Dinero" - is right on the mark.
MARGARITA'S MEXICAN CANTINA 3850 SW 8th St, Coral Gables; 447-0730. Hours: Monday - Saturday from 11:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m.


text: nps.gov [ Yellowstone Magma Less of a Menace By Associated Press May 25, 2014 The magma chamber underlying Yellowstone National Park may not be as volatile as previously believed. Read More Category: Associated Press, Wyoming News Tags: magma, University of Utah, yellowstone national park Send to a friend! Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Pin it! Reddit This! Share on Tumblr!


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'Greedy' rail firms put up parking fees on top of fare hike
RAIL firms were branded as "greedy" yesterday after slapping up to 18 per cent on the cost of car parking.
The hikes follow the New Year inflation-busting fare increases, which averaged 4.2 per cent.
But some passengers have seen their ticket prices rise by up to 10 per cent.
Yesterday the TSSA rail union said that passengers are already being stung before they even buy their tickets.
It said car parking charges at London Underground stations had risen by an average of 18 per cent, while fees at Chiltern Railways car parks on the London to Birmingham line had risen by an average of 8 per cent.
TSSA said the price of an annual car parking pass at High Wycombe, Bucks, had increased by £80 to £1,040 while a weekly parking ticket at Hitchin, Herts, had gone up from £31 to £32.
Meanwhile, in Brighton, East Sussex, the daily parking charge has risen from £11.50 to £12 and in York it has gone up from £14 to £14.50.
Weekday parking at London Underground stations has gone up from £4.27 to £5.07.
Transport for London said the increase was the first for over two years and would bring prices into line with other local car parks.
But TSSA general secretary Manuel Cortes said passengers are being treated as "cash cows" by train operators determined to maximise profits on top of last week's fare increase.
He said: "These firms are squeezing passengers until the pips squeak.
"While fares are controlled by ministers, there is a free-for-all on car parking charges. Rail firms simply charge what they think they can get away with.
"It is a scandal that they are increasing charges by as much as five times the rate of inflation. This is daylight robbery at a time of falling living standards."
Mr Cortes said that car parking charges should be regulated in line with fares as part of the rail ticket price review currently being carried out by the Government.
The attack comes days after the Campaign for Better Transport accused ministers of making commuting an "extravagance" by presiding over a decade of soaring rail fares.
The Association of Train Operating Companies, which runs the vast majority of Britain's 2,500 railway station car parks, said: "Many stations don't charge for car parking.
"Where operators do put up prices, much of the money raised goes towards the running cost of railways in line with the Government's policy to increase the contribution from passengers and reduce the share from taxpayers."
While fares are controlled by ministers, there is a free-for-all on car parking charges. Rail firms simply charge what they think they can get away with
Network Rail runs a total of 17 railway station car parks.
They include Edinburgh Waverley, Leeds, Manchester Piccadilly, Liverpool Lime Street, London Euston, Victoria, Paddington and Waterloo and the short stay car park at Birmingham New Street.
It said parking fees were reviewed once a year and that passengers at some stations will not see any increases.
A company spokesman said: "Network Rail is a not-for-dividend company.
"This means that profits from our commercial activities, such as car parks, are put back into the running of Britain's railway, enabling additional investment at no cost to the taxpayer."


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What Do You Get When You Mix Atomic Wings And Kids…This! [VIDEO]
98.3 the Key hosted a wing eating contest over the weekend at "Wing Stop" and it was going well until the final battle went down with the two first place winners going at it to see who could eat the most ATOMIC flavored wings! Through the beads of sweat came the voice of the daughter.. and it just so happens she helps her Dad take the crown…I'm not sure if this happens at home during dinner or not!
Watch the video…. but pay attention to the girl cheering on her dad!
Subscribe to 98.3 KEYW on


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Pippa Middleton Named Contributing Editor of 'Vanity Fair,' Planning to Move in With Boyfriend?
Pippa Middleton is keeping busy these days and her life is only getting busier. She was recently named a contributing editor for "Vanity Fair" magazine, and her first article appears in the July issue.
Middleton offers a piece on Wimbledon, including her own quest for Wimbledon glory and her family's history of going to the sporting event. Now, of course, the Middleton family no longer has to wait in line for over three hours to get tickets to Centre Court.
"I first went to Wimbledon when I was eight years old and already a very keen player," Middleton writes. "During this first trip I acted on my childish tennis dreams and bought myself a postcard of the women's championship trophy, on which I wrote, 'I will win this one day,' with my signature below."
Middleton is already the published author of "Celebrate: A Year of Festivities for Families and Friends," and frequently writes for Waitrose, a monthly magazine. She also just started her own company called PXM Enterprises.
"We're delighted to have Pippa as a contributor to 'Vanity Fair,' the magazine's editor, Graydon Carter, told the L.A. Times. "She's a keen observer of classic British pastimes. She is also an avid sportswoman, and we look forward to her take on traditional English pursuits, beginning with Wimbledon."
Pippa has come into her own ever since big sister Catherine (Kate) married England's Prince William. She has focused on her career and, even though she has had a few relationships as well, is completely dedicated to her future and family. Pippa is expected to help Kate once she has her baby and will likely relish the role of aunt.
She is currently dating stockbroker Nico Jackson, 35, and reports state that the two may be considering moving in together. They have been together for nine months, and moving out of the flat she shares with younger brother James would be a huge step in their relationship.


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Artist description:
Nothing But a Test Subject incomplete. I'm gonna color it later and do stuff with it later. But, for now, this is good enough.
Java Draw Created Jul 17, 2009 338 x 470px Unless noted Copyright 2009 ZeroYuki.
We encourage you to submit a comment and let the artist know what you think of this drawing. Please log in or join to post a comment.
Post a comment
rate 29
you sketch great too.... XD
yeah, it's really beautiful and sad
beautfiul sketch!!!! :O
love da sketch ;)
hey thank u for th comment on my drawing ^_^ i love her expression this IS gud enuff wow
Awww! I can't wait to see her colored :) I think you drew her better than the manga too! The wings are fantastic and so is the emotion on the face. 5/5 hearts
awww i luv her body sketch! u draw wings verrrryy good! 5/5 wooow, maybe this angel is better than the manga one! ;lol
ah! very pretty! i cant wait for the colored!XD
o: this ish a really cute sketch :3


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There are a lot of witches in Sam Raimi's "Oz: The Great and Powerful", so you can be forgiven for not knowing who is who. Then again, there is only three, so you might want to see a doctor if you can't keep them apart from one another. Anyhoo, medical advice notwithstanding, here's a new featurette for "Oz: The Great and Powerful", complete with a movie voiceover guy who sounds like he's doing an old fashioned movie from the '40s or '50s or thereabouts. I think that was the point, though.
When Oscar Diggs (James Franco), a small-time circus magician with dubious ethics, is hurled away from dusty Kansas to the vibrant Land of Oz, he thinks he's hit the jackpot—fame and fortune are his for the taking—that is until he meets three witches, Theodora (Mila Kunis), Evanora (Rachel Weisz) and Glinda (Michelle Williams), who are not convinced he is the great wizard everyone's been expecting. Reluctantly drawn into the epic problems facing the Land of Oz and its inhabitants, Oscar must find out who is good and who is evil before it is too late. Putting his magical arts to use through illusion, ingenuity—and even a bit of wizardry—Oscar transforms himself not only into the great and powerful Wizard of Oz but into a better man as well.
Starring Mila Kunis, James Franco, Michelle Williams, Rachel Weisz, Abigail Spencer, Joey King, Zach Braff, Martin Klebba, Ted Raimi, Bill Cobbs, Tony Cox, Tim Holmes, and directed by Sam Raimi of "Spider-Man" fame.
Find out who is who March 8, 2013.
Get more images and videos in our "Oz: The Great and Powerful" preview page.
And speaking of witches, here's a new poster with Rachel Weisz:


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So far so good. Now we know that the Z2 is out on the wild but not on many shelves because of component shortages.
Any guys who have followed Sony longer than I maybe, or those who like to crystalballing stuff on forums: Do you think there will be a Z2 compact?
Reason I am asking is that I just got myself an Z1 compact today. I am familiar with (and like) my Sony Tablet Z. The Z1 compact was the only logical possibility for me... I don't like Samsung, I want highend hardware, I value design, I want an SD Card Slot. Now that I have it and compare it to my HTC One S which is also a 4.3 I am a bit miffed. The screen seems to be actually smaller, due to the fact that the One S still has dedicated softkeys and does not count them towards the 4.3, while the Z1 does.
Now I am wondering if I should return, banking on the possibility that in a few weeks or months a slightly larger compact comes out. The Z1 was 5". The new Z2 is 5.2" I believe, so it stands to reason that a hypothetical Z2 compact might be 4.5" or 4.7" which would be kind of perfect. The Z1 itself is ever so slightly too big for my hands.
Other than that I really love the phone big time, it's quite a change for me though cause I was so used to HTCs Sense (6+ handsets in the past).
So, has anyone heard rumors yet? Is the Z1 compact a good seller at all? (Sony is unlikely to make a new compact model if the previous one is lead in the shelves)
Shoot your opinions.


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Virginia planned to dedicate a memorial Friday afternoon for a different kind of hero killed in the line of duty.
About 100 K-9 officers and their partners were expected at a ceremony Friday in Blacksburg remembering the sacrifices of law enforcement dogs. They'll help dedicate a statue installed at the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine at Virginia Tech.
The life-size bronze image of a German Shepherd dog was sculpted by Blacksburg artist Larry Bechtel. The statue honors 12 dogs that have died in the line of duty in Virginia over the past 47 years. Authorities use dogs to locate drugs and explosives, and to help apprehend criminal suspects.
State Attorney General Bill Mims and Virginia Tech President Charles Steger are scheduled to speak at the ceremony.
Natalie Neumann reports...
Listen to the complete story at wamu.org
Copyright 2009 WAMU 88.5 - American University Radio. All Rights Reserved.


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TEHRAN, April 30 (UPI) -- The National Iranian Oil Co. said it discovered what a natural gas field in the southern province of Khuzestan as large as the giant South Pars field.
Mahmoud Mohaddes, an exploration director at NIOC, said a giant gas field was discovered in Khuzestan. A 16,000-foot well is to be drilled to provide an estimate of the field's potential, the Mehr News Agency reports.
The report adds that the field could be as large as the South Pars gas field in the Persian Gulf, considered one of the largest in the world. The NIOC official didn't indicate a reserve potential of the field in Khuzestan, however.
Meanwhile, NIOC suggested it was looking to explore parts of the Forouzan oil field, an oil field that straddles the maritime border with Saudi Arabia. Mehr indicates that Iranian engineers expected to extract more than 300 million barrels of crude oil from Forouzan in the next 25 years.
Iran has made a series of similar announcements in April. Economic sanctions targeting Iran's energy sector go into effect July 1.


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MTB Himachal 2010 - another epic edition of India's toughest
Well, it lived up to its billing, the toughest MTB challenge in India,
that was no hype, I can tell you
it was rough, tough, hard, just the way we like it, even though we had
somehow understood it would be shorter and a bit easier than previous
editions ... well, shorter yes, but perhaps the "easier" was my
imagination/wishful thinking because some of the new stages were
definitely steeper and rougher (in both directions, up and down) but it
was great to discover these new routes, and great to revisit the ones we
already knew from before - especially of course the flagship "queen
stage' up the Jalori Pass and the campsite at Kullu Sarahan
The flagoff from the iconic Shimla Ridge was a great improvement on the
previous year's start from the Peterhoff hotel grounds - more accessible
to the general public so more of an occasion, and the first day's stages
were a bit of a warm up (we needed to warm up! it had been raining the
day before and was still overcast) for what was to come.
http://www.gpsies.com/map.do?fileId=nqrsmcfbfqlwwzsc (for google earth
of the first three stages)
Day 2 briefing Vineet predicted we would be cursing him before the end
of the day, and in the middle of a seemingly never-ending bike and hike
up a stony mountain footpath, feet wet after having to cross a stream, I
didn't hestitate to make his prediction come true, yelling V.... you
b...st ...d across the valley .... though I should have conserved my
energy because the competitiive stage that followed was almost as steep
as the bike n hike, many riders down pushing their bikes in places (it's
a lot steeper than it looks in the photos)
Day 3 took us down the same route as last year, first a blistering 20km
+ downhill on a small winding tar road, then a ride along the highway
till we crossed a bridge over the river and started the second stage
with a horrible climb through a quarry, then up a steep and winding
(again, they wind in those parts) tar road to a bus shelter from which
we could look down and see the start point we had come from.
We knew what was in store for us in the afternoon - a third stage of
relative quiet climb along the side of the valley followed by another
fast downhill to the bridge over another river in the middle of another
town - and then the cruel climb up to the fabled campsite at Kullu Sarahan.
Last year we reached the top only after dark, this year there would be
less daylight so we started immediately on finishing the stage. The road
was rumoured to have been improved but turned out to be worse to ride
on, a lot more loose stones and rocks that had been laid to - eventually
- improve and widen it, that after the heavy monsoon rains were messed
up all over the place. Pretty soon I for one was walking, pushing as
fast as I could, wondering whether to wait for a sweep vehicle but
realising that I would get colder while doing so, and colder still once
inside. That turned out to be the right choice - several of the vehicles
had a lot of difficulty getting up, including the army truck which was
too big to cross a narrow log bridge. I finally reached the camp at
7.30pm, thanks to being revived by a dose of energy gel from another
rider, but those riders didn't reach the camp till 9.00pm (after having
added an extra log to the bridge, so I was told).
The next day was declared a rest day - unscheduled, because in order to
shorten the overall race and make it more accessible to a wider range of
participants the organisers had reduced the number of days riding and
removed the rest day, but after such a late arrival, there was no
option, and anyway Kullu Sarahan is such a beautiful place it is hard to
imagine riding all the way up there and just packing up and leaving the
next morning without spending the day there. Riders hiked up to the
fabled waterfall and beyond to the snow, otherwise it was laundry and
bike-washing day as usual.
Day 4 - humdinger of a downhill stage across all those loose stones,
rocks, mud, streams, log bridge, that we had struggled up, followed by a
beautiful free ride section ... but now I've left it a bit too late to
write it all up, memories of each stage flash by on a multi-day event
like this and start going into a blur of up/down, stage start, stage
finish, lunch packets, free ride sections, sunset over the snow peaks,
moonrise over the snowpeaks (that was at Kullu Sarahan), searching for
campsites, arriving, taking bath as quickly as possible in the evening
chill, gathering around the camp fire for warmth, and of course the
renowned ...
Day 5 Jalori Pass - just remember riding riding riding climbing climbing
climbing, 27km 1600 metres, last few kilometres gruesome - all the time
people had been asking me how do you do it (meaning, at your age, 56, by
the way) and I would reply one word, one secret "attitude" - well in
those last kilometres I'm sorry to say I lost the "attitude" and ended
up walking/pushing, somehow couldn't find the "attitude" to get back on
the bike, it just looked too steep ..... and this was the section I had
ridden last year! At the top there was still snow on the sides of the
slope around the temple, looked lovely, more snow in the direction of
the Kullu valley where we went last year when it was still
Shimla-Manali, this time we turned round, rode back down a few
kilometres (couldn't believe how steep it looked on the way down, did we
really ride/push up that?!) then Vineet had sprung a new route on us, a
super steep, super stony, mostly those slates they used to build mule
roads, several steep hairpins - some went flying down, I was very slow
and careful, by that time I knew I wasn't in the competition any more,
because the "other" Peter had taken 40 minutes off me on the way up the
Jalori, easily making up his 24 minute deficit due to the punctures and
tyre problems he had had earlier, and was one of those who had already
gone flying past me on his big 29er wheels (though he was kind of
risking all or nothing,it seemed to me, he could easily have wrecked one
of his tyres on those stones and I knew he didn't have a spare) - me I
was just focussing on finishing in one piece!
Day 6 as if we hadn't done enough climbing the day before (1863 metres
total on my Garmin) this day we started by going down down down, to well
below 1000 metres .... but then back up up up again to finally reach the
campsite at a mini-ski station - over 2000 metres climbing for the day!
Day 7 last day's ride - since we had missed a day the organisers must
have had to figure out how to get us back to Shimla, well it started off
good, down a well-metalled highway, was just beginning to think this is
going to be a breeze, when the newly-laid surface came to an end and the
highway dissolved into dust, loose stone, potholes so large there was
actually no road anymore, more like one of our offroad downhills, but
with all the traffic, trucks and buses trying to find their way up and
down, in short a bit of a nightmare
finally reached the end of the first day's first stage and rode it in
reverse (not literally), that was a lovely ride to finish up with
then convoy through traffic back to the Ridge in Shimla, podium, quick
shower, closing ceremony .... it was great to have a real podium, with
the public around, and well organised closing ceremony, also on the
Ridge, well-attended by the general public who did appreciate the
several informative powerpoint presentations that had been prepared (at
literally the last minute, so I was told) , I found myself sitting next
to a nice old Himachali gentleman who was genuinely impressed with all
our achievements (I think he had just dropped in by chance from his
evening walk)
plenty of photos on facebook - I hardly took any myself
one recommendation to the organisers, as well as photographers have a
dedicated blogger to write up the day's events every day and post them
(along with the results!) on the website - that would be more lively
than my long after the event recollections, and I haven't said anything
about all the other great riders, the Army team, the Nepal team ... the
record-breaking ascent of the Jalori by Ajay and Ramesh, Nepal and Army,
in 1h49 - faster than you can drive it in a vehicle - my mate Andre who
came back to win the Masters after breaking his hip soon after the race
last year (guess how? cycling of course)
PS one quiz question - why did the 100g packets of Amul butter only
appear at breakfast half way through the race?
(no prizes for guessing the answer, just the satisfaction on knowing you
are a real mountainbiker if you get it first time!)
PS and of course it goes without saying - went
without me saying it actually - a massive vote of thanks to the
organisers, and the whole team, marshals, volunteers, drivers, kitchen,
hot bath crew ..
they have a great formula, but to keep it up year after year requires a
huge sustained effort, and they are putting it in, believe me
sometimes i would reach the top of a climb in the forest and find a
volunteer shivering beside a little fire trying to keep warm -
did we suffer? yes, but that's what we came for ...
did they suffer? yes, but without the excitement we had, and i don't
know if they knew what they were letting themselves in for
MTB Himachal 2011 is here now! Prepare yourself for a tougher challenge. http://mtbhimachal.com
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