by ROBERT ROSS and GERARD J. TELKAMP I In a sense, cities were superfluous to the purposes of colonists. The Europeans who founded empires outside their own continent were primarily concerned with extracting those products which they could not acquire within Europe. These goods were largely agricultural, and grown most often in a climate not found within Europe. Even when, as in India before 1800, the major exports were manufactures, in general they were still made in the countryside rather than in the great cities. It was only on rare occasion when great mineral wealth was discovered that...

The photographers of the New York City Police Department are engaged in taking photos at the many demonstrations against the Vietnam War. They encounter a group named the Weathermen. This group is determined to end the war by acts of violence. The photo unit has taken pictures of their work, which consists of explosions at colleges and federal buildings. The weathermen decide to get the police department involved in their bombings. Can they be stopped? It will be decided by a member of the photo unit.

For 50 years the natural language interface has tempted and challenged researchers and the public in equal measure. As advanced domains such as robotic systems mature over the next ten years, the need for effective language interfaces will become more significant as the disparity between physical and language ability becomes more evident. Natural language conversation with robots and other situated systems will not only require a clear understanding of theories of language use, models of spatial representation and reasoning, and theories of intentional action and agency - but will also...