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Google's expansion into instant messaging and a web-based calling opens another field of competition with Microsoft and Yahoo. Robert Siegel talks with Scott Cleland, CEO of Precursor, an independent investment research firm tracking technology and telecom sectors.

The Media Lab at MIT has turned a PDA into the Jerk-O-Meter. The device analyzes voice patterns and other verbal cues, then offers callers advice on how they're holding up their end of the conversation.

Critic-at-large John Powers comments on the history of roles for offbeat women in Hollywood. Powers recently saw the hit film The 40-Year-Old Virgin and got to thinking about the actress Catherine Keener, who co-stars.

Fomenting and glorifying terrorism are among the "unacceptable behaviors" that could lead to deportation according to new rules unveiled by Britain's Home Office. Robert Siegel talks with John Prideaux of The Economist magazine.

Actor Peter Sarsgaard is known for his strong supporting performances in a list of quirky, independent films, such as Kinsey, Garden State, Boys Don't Cry and Shattered Glass. But in his latest film, The Dying Gaul, he takes center stage.

Israel has completed most of its planned withdrawal of Jewish settlements from Gaza. Four settlements await final evacuation after a break for the Sabbath. Meanwhile, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas sets elections for late January.

Tom Wopat — yep, good ol' Luke Duke — has worked hard to avoid letting one role define his career. He's a Broadway success, and now comes a CD of Harold Arlen standards.

Some 26,000 people who fled from the Darfur region of Sudan are living in the Breidjing refugee camp in Eastern Chad. They are among 200,000 Sudanese who have fled across the border. Aid agencies predict that the camps will be needed until at least the end of next year.

Robert Walker, a retired congressman from Pennsylvania who served as chairman of the Science Committee, responds to allegations that the Bush administration has mishandled scientific issues. Walker now serves as chairman of Wexler & Walker, a lobbying firm in Washington, D.C.

Actress Lauren Ambrose plays daughter Claire Fisher on the HBO drama series Six Feet Under. Also a classically trained opera singer, Ambrose appeared on stage last year in the Sam Shepard play Buried Child at London's National Theatre. (This interview originally aired July 6, 2005.)