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Vincent Padois, head tutor at the Pierre and Marie Curie University who teaches robotics and is babysitting the Paris ICub, makes a demonstration with ICub robot, a ?hybrid embodied cognitive system for a humanoid robot" about 1 metre (3.2 feet) high, at the Pierre and Marie Curie University in Paris September 4, 2009. Six versions of ICub exist in laboratories across Europe, where scientists are painstakingly tweaking its electronic brain to make it capable of learning, just like a human child and hoping it will learn how to adapt its behaviour to changing circumstances, offering new insights into the development of human consciousness. REUTERS/Philippe Wojazer

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    Yo! Singapore censor rap hits YouTube

    SINGAPORE
    Fri Nov 23, 2007 7:35am EST
    A screen capture shows a scene from Singapore's Media Development Authority's rap video, November 23, 2007. REUTERS/YouTube

    SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Singapore's Media Development Authority, which regulates and censors media and the arts, has scored an unexpected hit on YouTube with a rap video about the city-state's media ambitions.

    Entertainment  |  Technology

    The YouTube posting has received more than 11,000 hits -- and a string of snide postings on the video site (here). The government body aims to promote the growth of the media industry, to promote "core values" and safeguard consumer interests, its Web site says. It hopes the rap video will showcase its potential to be "a vibrant media city".

    But critics say this ambition does not rhyme with Singapore's regular censorship of films and theatre and the many defamation lawsuits its government have launched against foreign media.

    In the video, middle-aged executives are seen moving and shaking to a rap tune, mouthing lines from a corporate brochure.

    "William Hung is more entertaining," said one of the YouTube postings, referring to the goofy singer made famous in American Idol.

    (Reporting by Geert De Clercq)
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    Technology


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