and robert hughes has a new book coming from random house, rome. now, we've all heard it and tells everyone to know about australia and the fatal shore. his last book was brilliant, moving, and exquisite biography. this book actually once again it's going to filter his own experience in rome and history and art of roma in his own style. i'm thrilled that i can't wait to read it. please, please send it to me. then you've got -- [laughter] please. i know everybody in this room has read on the nature of things. show of hands. this book, i love him because he's such a brilliant sympathizer. he manages to pull so many elements of history, art, philosophy, religion, culture all together into a coherent thoughtful hole. and this book, the swerve, really is about the renaissance when what is book rediscovered and how it changed the world forever. i love steven pinker. i'm sure you've seen all these ads all around. a little sobering, right, a painting of the binding of isaac. but one of the more scary stories in the bible. but anyway, this is a book called

robert epstein, the uc san diego psychologist, editor of the scientific volume "parsing the turing test" and co-founder with hugh loebner of the loebner prize subscribed to an online dating service in the winter of 2007. he began writing long love letters to a russian woman named ivana who would respond with long letters of her own describing her family, her daily life and her growing feelings for epstein. eventually, though, something didn't feel quite right. long story short, epstein ultimately realized that he'd been exchanging lengthy love letters for over four months with, you guessed it, the computer program. poor guy. it wasn't enough that web ruffians spammed his e-mail box every day, now they have to spam his heart. [laughter] on the one hand, i want to simply laugh at the guy. he founded the loebner prize turing test, for christ's sake. what a chump. [laughter] then again, i'm also sympathetic. the un avoidable presence of e-mail spam in the 21st century not only clogs the inboxes and bandwidth of the world, for example, roughly 90% of all e-mail messages are spam. you're talking tens of billions a day

hughes and edward brooks. you stand on the shoulders of judge robert carter, meir david and shirley franklin.you stand on the shoulders of the attorney general pamela harris and douglas wilder. you stand on the shoulders of the ambassador andrew young, general benjamin davis, laurie, toni morrison, and yes, michele miller. you stand on the shoulders of all of the mothers and fathers and grandmothers who are here today who have gone before us and who struggle and sweat and who bled and year-end, who sacrificed and borrowed and scolded and nurtured, who tolerated each and every one of you. you stand on all of their shoulders today. so, howard university class, let us the united, let us be united under god, indivisible with liberty, justice, and a commitment to excellence, the quality and high expectations for all. congratulations. this is your mission. this is your moment. good luck and godspeed. [applause] [applause] general electric chairman and ceo gave the commencement address at the university of maryland baltimore county on monday. he spoke about leadership and innovation. this is 15 minu

hughes, and edward brooke. the shoulders of judge robert carter, mayor david dinkins, and mayor shirley franklin. the shoulders of attorney general kamala harris, mayor kasim reed, and governor douglas wilder. the shoulders of ambassador andrew young, general benjamin davis, fredricka whitfield, and laurie stokes. the shoulders of toni morrison, taraji henson and michelle miller. you stand on the shoulders of our mothers and fathers, grandmothers and grandfathers, we stand on the shoulders of all who have struggled, all who have sweated, all who have bled, all who have yearned, all who have sacrificed, because they join in celebrating howard university's class of 2011 united, under god, indivisible, with liberty, justice and a commitment to excellence, equality and high expectations for all . . congratulations class of 2011. this is your mission. this is your moment. good luck and godspeed. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2011] >> later today, remarks from supreme court justice samuel alito on supreme court prac