All posts tagged: pushing

I was a running addict – but pushing myself to the limit led to two knee replacements | Rod Gilchrist

I was a running addict – but pushing myself to the limit led to two knee replacements | Rod Gilchrist

I am preparing for an anaesthetist to sink a hypodermic needle into my back at a busy London hospital ahead of a scheduled surgery to replace my knee. Knowing this might be painful, I ask a fellow patient how he got his mind around the jab. “Two spliffs of good dope worked for me,” he confessed. I’m yet to try that, but this is my second left knee replacement in less than 15 years – an increasingly common story as our population ages and obesity levels cause growing strain on our joints. More than 2m hip and knee replacements have been performed in the UK since the early 2000s and waiting lists continue to grow. By 2060, demand for hip and knee joint replacement (based on data for England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Isle of Man) is estimated to increase by almost 40%. But I think there is another reason for these soaring figures: I blame the fitness gurus. Joe Wicks and his ilk, with their fashionable shorts and bulging quads, all promise we …

Pushing the boundaries: England Women using AI to help with team selection | England women’s cricket team

Pushing the boundaries: England Women using AI to help with team selection | England women’s cricket team

The England Women’s head coach, Jon Lewis, has revealed how he is using AI as a selection tool and credits the technology with helping his side draw last summer’s Ashes series. Lewis was first exposed to the work of London-based PSi when he took charge of the Women’s Premier League franchise UP Warriorz in India and now uses the company to bolster the decisions he makes about squad make-up, team balance and in-game match-ups. Explaining the system, which plots projected outcomes depending on the composition of each side, he said: “I can send multiple different line-ups to the PSi in London and they run, I think, about 250,000 simulations per team that I send, with all different permutations that could happen through the game. “We are able to run simulated teams versus the simulated opposition to give us an idea about how those teams may match up against each other. I came across it during my time at UP Warriorz and it’s something I looked at and thought it could add some value to the …

Vigil held for mother who was stabbed to death in Bradford while pushing baby in pram | UK News

Vigil held for mother who was stabbed to death in Bradford while pushing baby in pram | UK News

A vigil has been held to pay tribute to a mother who was stabbed to death in Bradford earlier this month. Kulsuma Akter, 27, from Oldham, was pushing her baby son in a pram along a street on the outskirts of the city centre when she was fatally attacked on 6 April. The event, organised by women from across the city, saw around 100 people gather outside the steps of Bradford’s City Hall, less than a mile from where Ms Akter was killed. Those gathered gave speeches, read poems and lit candles in her honour, before a minute’s silence was held at 3.21pm, marking the exact time emergency services were called to the scene of the attack. Image: Crowds at a Bradford vigil for Kulsuma Akter chanted ‘say her name’ The crowd chanted, “Kulsuma Akter, say her name,” while many held up placards and paper signs with those words on. A number of those gathered were visibly emotional, including Tracy Brabin, who is standing for re-election as the mayor of West Yorkshire, and West Yorkshire’s …

While Pushing to Give Himself a Massive Bonus, Elon Musk Apologizes for Stiffing Laid-Off Employees

While Pushing to Give Himself a Massive Bonus, Elon Musk Apologizes for Stiffing Laid-Off Employees

A new low. Fired and Stiffed Tesla CEO Elon Musk has become hellbent on gifting himself a previously thrown-out $56 billion pay package, with the company going as far as to launch an entire website exclusively designed to convince other shareholders of the plan. That’s despite Tesla facing some very tough months ahead, with the carmaker laying off a whopping ten percent of its staff this week. Meanwhile, Musk had to apologize to those he fired for stiffing them with severance packages that “are incorrectly low,” according to an internal email he sent to employees, as quoted by CNBC. “My apologies for this mistake,” he added. “It is being corrected immediately.” Severed Ties Musk is no stranger to shortchanging laid-off employees. Ex-Twitter executives, including former CEO Parag Agrawal, filed a lawsuit against X-formerly-Twitter last month seeking over $128 million in unpaid severance. “Under Musk’s control, Twitter has become a scofflaw, stiffing employees, landlords, vendors, and others,” a court filing reads. “Musk doesn’t pay his bills, believes the rules don’t apply to him, and uses his …

Windows 10 will start pushing users to use Microsoft accounts. How to turn it off.

Windows 10 will start pushing users to use Microsoft accounts. How to turn it off.

Windows 11 has been out now for about two and a half years, but its predecessor, Windows 10, still dominates the operating system market. It’s pretty clear that when it comes to PCs, Windows 10 is the most popular operating system. That means many of you readers might very well know how annoying Microsoft’s prompts are regarding getting you to upgrade to Windows 11. So far, we’ve been able to pass on that upgrade without too much trouble. SEE ALSO: Microsoft is testing out start menu ad placement in Windows 11 Well, Microsoft is getting ready to annoy its faithful Windows 10 user base with yet another prompt. This time, Microsoft wants Windows 10 users to switch from using a local account to their online Microsoft account. As noticed by the tech news outlet Neowin, the most recent Windows 10 update Release Preview includes some information about new notifications added to the operating system intended to make users switch from their local account to their Microsoft account. “New! This update starts the [roll out] of …

‘Social inequalities’ pushing disproportionate amount of children into care in north of England, new report finds | UK News

‘Social inequalities’ pushing disproportionate amount of children into care in north of England, new report finds | UK News

One in every 52 children in Blackpool is in care compared with one in 140 across England, according to new analysis which researchers said exposes “deeply rooted social inequalities”. The report also found the North of England accounts for just over a quarter (28%) of the child population, but more than a third (36%) of the children in care, the analysis by the Child of the North All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) said. Professor David Taylor, the co-author of the report, said the findings reflect a “doom loop”, with poverty pushing children into the care system at an additional cost to local and national government. He said: “Cuts to prevention services, things like Sure Start, family support, investment in youth services have been cut, particularly in the areas where they’re needed most. “In those places poverty has gone up, that’s increased the number of children in the care system and it’s putting incredible pressure on health and care systems.” The report was researched and funded by Health Equity North – an organisation focused on finding solutions …

How council taxes and the budget are pushing owners to de-list second homes in England and Wales | Business

How council taxes and the budget are pushing owners to de-list second homes in England and Wales | Business

In the first Covid-19 lockdown, Selaine Saxby noticed how empty her village had become. “I live on a close of 30 homes of which only five were occupied,” said Saxby, the Conservative MP for North Devon. Second homes were left vacant and holiday homes unlet as the pandemic spread, illustrating how much of the nation’s picturesque towns and villages were owned by people who lived somewhere else. Later, remote working by City dwellers keen to grab a slice of countryside and a boom in staycations meant many Devon towns became swamped. Ilfracombe on Devon’s north coast has seen a 52% increase in house prices since 2021, largely as a result of second home buyers, says Saxby. Over the same period there has been a 67% drop in long-term rentals to locals. Second homes are in the government’s sights after Jeremy Hunt reacted to complaints from the likes of Saxby in his spring budget. The chancellor said he wanted to encourage second-home owners to offload their properties when he announced higher taxes on holiday lets and lower …

Commentary: Conscription is pushing many in Myanmar to choose sides

Commentary: Conscription is pushing many in Myanmar to choose sides

RESISTANCE TO CONSCRIPTION NOT NEW Resistance to conscription is not new. The SAC spokesperson argued that Myanmar was not exceptional and that the current move “aligns with international practices”, claiming that 18 countries practised conscription. A glaring omission is that the primary purpose of conscription is for a country’s defence against external threats, not for the prosecution of internal civil conflicts against one’s fellow citizens. He also clarified that the 2010 Military Service Law was not without precedent. The law and its present activation stem from the 1959 Military Service Law promulgated by the caretaker government under then commander-in-chief General Ne Win, to which Burma’s then civilian government ceded power constitutionally from 1958 to 1960. There are historical precedents for the authorities pressing civilians into ancillary roles in the military. This is the key reason why the update of the 2010 Military Service Law has triggered much concern. For example, the 1907 Village Tract Act, enacted when Burma was a British colony, empowered the authorities to requisition local services, such as for porters, in law …

Google Pushing Its Unsafe Search AI on Users Who Didn’t Opt In

Google Pushing Its Unsafe Search AI on Users Who Didn’t Opt In

Has anyone spotted Bono at the Google HQ? All Aboard Don’t want Google’s experimental AI search feature embedded into your search pages? Too bad. According to Search Engine Land, Google has started unleashing its AI-powered Search Generative Experience (SGE) product, which was previously available for users only on an opt-in basis, into the browsers of users who didn’t choose to partake in Google’s AI search experiment. Google has defended the unsolicited SGE-ification of its platform, telling Search Engine Land that it’s thus far only incorporated SGE automatically into a “subset of queries” that take up a “small percentage of search traffic in the US” and arguing further that the rollout will allow them to glean feedback from the users who, again, didn’t elect to opt into the generative AI search service. Regardless of how limited the effort is, though, the fact that Google’s tentatively starting to test SGE in its open waters feels like a sign that the search giant’s vision for an AI-infused gateway to the internet is still gunning full-steam ahead. Complex Queries For the …

Google’s AI Search Caught Pushing Users to Download Malware

Google’s AI Search Caught Pushing Users to Download Malware

That’s not good! Click Here! Google’s AI-integrated Search feature is leading platform users straight to malware-laden spam sites. Per BleepingComputer, the issue was first caught by search engine optimization (SEO) expert Lily Ray, who took to X-formerly-Twitter last week to show that Google’s AI-powered Search Generative Experience (SGE) — which churns up web content and regurgitates it into paraphrased snippets — had returned numerous spam pages in response to the query “pitbull puppy for sale craigslist.” “OH GOOD,” Ray tweeted, along with a screenshot. “SGE WILL EVEN RECOMMEND THE SPAM SITES AS PART OF THE ANSWER.” That SGE isn’t yet able to reliably distinguish useful search results from full-on SEO spam, especially considering Google’s recent and wide-ranging spam crackdown, is issue enough on its own. Unfortunately for Google, though, this particular SGE error only got worse from there. When the folks at BleepingComputer visited the AI-recommended spam sites themselves, they were met with a barrage of scammy fake captcha and YouTube pages designed to trick visitors into subscribing to spammy browser notifications that flood their computers …