] In the famous sketch from the TV show "Monty Python's
] Flying Circus," the actor John Cleese had many ways of
] saying a parrot was dead, among them, "This parrot is no
] more," "He's expired and gone to meet his maker," and
] "His metabolic processes are now history."

] Now, using several methods, including statistical
] techniques borrowed from gene analysis, two researchers
] have created a program that can automatically generate
] paraphrases of English sentences.

This article focuses on applying this technology to news stories, but the product of the research could be applied to many language related tasks.

'Get me rewrite!' Now computers can play along | CNET News.com