All posts tagged: rising

A rising tide of e-waste, made worse by AI, threatens our health, the environment and the economy

A rising tide of e-waste, made worse by AI, threatens our health, the environment and the economy

Published by skeptic

Our growing reliance on technology at home and in the workplace has raised the profile of e-waste. This consists of discarded electrical devices including laptops, smartphones, televisions, computer servers, washing machines, medical equipment, games consoles and much more. The amount of e-waste produced this decade could reach as much as 5 million metric tonnes, according to recent research published in Nature. This is around 1,000 times more e-waste than was produced in 2023. According to the study, the boom in artificial intelligence will significantly contribute to this e-waste problem, because AI requires lots of computing power and storage. It will, among other things, lead to more turnover of computer servers used in the data centres that support the extra computational needs of AI systems. This rising tide of e-waste, coupled with the limited lifetimes of hi-tech devices, could affect global sustainability goals. E-waste contain toxic and hazardous substances such as mercury, which can pose serious risks to human health and the environment. E-waste is among the fastest-growing types of solid waste globally: more than 5 …

Schools look to SEND trusts over rising pupil need

Schools look to SEND trusts over rising pupil need

Published by skeptic

More from this theme Recent articles An explosion in the number of children with special needs is prompting mainstream schools to join multi-academy trusts that specialise in SEND. Billingborough Primary in Lincolnshire has been given the go-ahead to join a trust to work with its team of special needs experts. This will also allow it to “continue to adapt and evolve [its] mainstream provision to match the needs of all pupils”.  Leaders of multi-academy trusts with special schools are reporting a spike in the numbers wanting to join their organisations to access support.  ‘They need specialist help’ John Winter, the chief executive of the eight-school Weydon Multi-Academy Trust, three of which are special schools, said: “The profile of children coming into primary is becoming more complex… Schools are finding it very difficult to meet some youngsters’ needs. This is becoming particularly apparent in single-entry primaries. “They need very specialist help and given the nature of the increasing number of special needs children, understandably, local authorities are finding it difficult to keep pace.”  Analysis of government …

The life and tragic death of John Balson: how a true crime producer documented his own rising horror | Television & radio

The life and tragic death of John Balson: how a true crime producer documented his own rising horror | Television & radio

Published by skeptic

The day before it happened was the last good day of John Balson’s life. It was Sunday 17 March 2024. He took his three-year-old daughter swimming, then came home and cooked lunch with his family. He drank some wine and played video games for a while, but it was hard to concentrate. Balson was tired. The 40-year-old freelance TV producer had been working long hours on a new series of In the Footsteps of Killers, a true crime series hosted by the criminologist Prof David Wilson and the Silent Witness actor Emilia Fox, commissioned by Channel 4 from the production company Alaska TV. It was an investigation into an unsolved murder linked to an alleged paedophile ring in London in the 1990s. From the start, the project had been challenging. The family of the victim weren’t on board. Sources close to the case warned Balson off looking into it. He told his family that he had received threats. Then there was the commute when he worked from the office a few days a week: a …

The biggest data breaches in 2024: 1 billion stolen records and rising

Published by skeptic

We’re over halfway through 2024, and already this year we have seen some of the biggest, most damaging data breaches in recent history. And just when you think that some of these hacks can’t get any worse, they do. From huge stores of customers’ personal information getting scraped, stolen and posted online, to reams of medical data covering most people in the United States getting stolen, the worst data breaches of 2024 to date have already surpassed at least 1 billion stolen records and rising. These breaches not only affect the individuals whose data was irretrievably exposed, but also embolden the criminals who profit from their malicious cyberattacks. Travel with us to the not-so-distant past to look at how some of the biggest security incidents of 2024 went down, their impact and. in some cases, how they could have been stopped.  AT&T’s data breaches affect “nearly all” of its customers, and many more non-customers For AT&T, 2024 has been a very bad year for data security. The telecoms giant confirmed not one, but two separate …

He Made a Movie About Humans Rising Up Against AI. Now He’s Doing the Real Thing

Published by skeptic

When I interviewed writers and actors at the picket lines of the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes last year, there was a mix of sentiment around AI, which, while largely negative, encompassed anxiety, uncertainty, equivocation, and anger. The crowd in Burbank was the most uniformly and passionately anti-AI I’ve ever witnessed. Asked for his thoughts on how AI was impacting his industry, one animator said, “AI can fuck right off.” I asked the storyboard artists Lindsey Castro and Brittany McCarthy for their thoughts on AI, and both simply booed. A year after the WGA strikes, AI was not, to the animation workers I spoke with, something to be questioned or experimented with—it was something to be opposed. An animation worker walked by with a sign referencing the master animator Hayao Miyazaki’s comment that using AI in the arts is “an insult to life itself.” It was sweltering, even at 5 pm, as Rianda took the stage to emcee. He introduced a series of writers, directors, and animation legends like Rebecca Sugar, Genndy Tartakovsky, and James Baxter, …

From rising star to potential liability: how JD Vance’s fortunes have turned | US elections 2024

From rising star to potential liability: how JD Vance’s fortunes have turned | US elections 2024

Published by skeptic

He was supposed to be his master’s mini-me, his elevation as Republican vice-presidential nominee hailed as a virile celebration of Donald Trump’s near-total conquest of the GOP. Now – days after receiving a rapturous response at the Republican national convention in Milwaukee – JD Vance is being lamented within party circles as a potentially fatal liability in Trump’s quest to recapture the White House. Affirming the maxim – coined by the late British Labour prime minister, Harold Wilson – that a week is a long time in politics, Vance’s poll ratings have been dragged to record lows by a combination of his own past statements resurfacing on social media and embarrassingly awkward performances on the campaign trail. The danger that Vance’s baggage will drag Trump down with him may already be giving the former president buyer’s remorse, commentators believe. Far from being a yin-and-yang pick chosen to counter-balance the senior candidate’s weaknesses, Vance – the first-term senator for Ohio, a state already firmly in the Republican camp – was selected because he faithfully reflected the …

Watchdog warns reliance on nuclear weapons rising amid global tension | Nuclear Weapons News

Watchdog warns reliance on nuclear weapons rising amid global tension | Nuclear Weapons News

Published by Sam

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute says Russia and the US possess ‘almost 90 percent of all nuclear weapons’. The world’s nine nuclear-armed states have raised their reliance on nuclear weapons, a watchdog has said. A report released by Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) on Monday said the states increased their spending on modernising their atomic arsenals by one-third last year. The watchdog pointed to the contribution of the wars in Ukraine and Gaza to the deterioration of international security. Wilfred Wan, director of SIPRI’s weapons of mass destruction programme, said nuclear weapons have not been seen “playing such a prominent role in international relations since the Cold War”. The report found that the effects of the wars in Ukraine and Gaza are “visible in almost every aspect of the issues connected to armaments, disarmament and international security examined”. The nine nuclear armed states – the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel – modernised their nuclear arsenals and several “deployed new nuclear-armed or nuclear-capable weapon systems …

Where New Tent Cities Are Rising in Central Gaza

Where New Tent Cities Are Rising in Central Gaza

Published by Sam

A growing area of central Gaza is filling up with tents, satellite imagery shows, as Palestinians who fled south to Rafah to escape danger have picked up their possessions and moved yet again in search of safety. Source: Satellite imagery from Planet Labs. April imagery was captured between April 3 and April 20. May imagery was captured between May 18 and May 30. Most Gazans in Rafah began leaving in early May, after the Israeli military, preparing for its ground operation in the south, issued evacuation orders for the eastern part of the city. But another exodus began toward the end of the month, after an Israeli strike that local authorities said killed dozens of people at a displaced camp. Israel said the strike targeted a Hamas compound. An attack at the nearby area of Al-Mawasi two days later killed 21 more people sheltering there, Gazan officials say. Israel has insisted that it has not attacked the areas it has designated as “humanitarian zones,” where evacuating Gazans have been instructed to go. In all, more …

General election: Rishi Sunak says reforming welfare is ‘moral mission’ as he pledges to cut rising costs of benefits | Politics News

General election: Rishi Sunak says reforming welfare is ‘moral mission’ as he pledges to cut rising costs of benefits | Politics News

Published by Sam

The Tories will put benefit reforms at the heart of their election campaign on Sunday as Rishi Sunak seeks to turn things around following a difficult week. The party is promising to cut the cost of welfare to the tune of £12bn a year by the end of the next parliament through measures aimed at helping people back into work. The plan includes a £700m investment in NHS mental health treatment to ensure 500,000 more people can access talking therapies by 2030. It also includes previously announced measures, such as removing benefits for people not taking jobs after 12 months. The number of working age people who are economically inactive has soared to record highs following the pandemic. The trend is thought to be driven mainly by those who have taken early retirement and people with long-term health conditions waiting for treatment on the NHS. But the Conservative Party has said the 40% increase of people out of work – from two million to 2.8 million since COVID – is unsustainable. It claims the cost …

Rising stars who could play a big part in a Labour government | Labour

Rising stars who could play a big part in a Labour government | Labour

Published by skeptic

” frameBorder=”0″ class=”dcr-ivsjvk”> Dr Zubir Ahmed Glasgow South West (SNP notional 5,533 majority) The son of a Pakistani taxi driver, Ahmed joined Labour in his mid teens and recalls how his family were grateful for the support of Scottish Labour MPs. Frank McElhone helped Ahmed’s mother join his father in Glasgow in the 1970s, and Donald Dewar helped his grandfather after his pension was cut off. Ahmed decided to enter politics while working as a consultant surgeon during the pandemic. “Since the late 90s and early 2000s, the country has been regressing,” he said. “It made me feel like I had something to offer.” He would focus on NHS reform and international development. Hamish Falconer Lincoln (3,514 notional Tory majority) Falconer has spent the first part of his career in the Foreign Office, leading its terrorism response team and working in Afghanistan, Pakistan and South Sudan. He comes from a political family – his father is the former Labour cabinet minister Charlie Falconer – and so when the selection opened in Lincoln, near where his …