Students at St. Ambrose University are learning and teaching through play. Over the past year, students in the early childhood education and doctoral occupational therapy programs have participated in the interdisciplinary "Nature Play Project" at the SAU Children's Campus and Hand in Hand, a Quad-Cities organization providing inclusive programs for people of all abilities, from infants to adults. The project is a framework for outdoor play, focused on early childhood intervention. The hope is to support children's physical, cognitive and social-emotional development though the benefits of being outdoors. The Nature Play Project is designed to be embedded in classroom settings or other community-based programs, like Hand in Hand. Angela Rekers-Power, assistant professor of early childhood education at St. Ambrose University in Davenport. "We are developing professional development courses for teachers and early interventionists, so they can use the outdoors to more sustainably benefit their students, and themselves," said Angela Rekers, a professor in SAU's early childhood education program. People are also reading... Funded by an SAU grant in spring 2023, the Nature Play Project is headed by Rekers and Angie McCombs, senior lecturer in the occupational therapy program. Last spring, they got to present on the project's pilot at the Forest School Research Symposium at the University of Liverpool in the United Kingdom and the Children and Nature Network Conference in Madison, Wisconsin. "It was really well received," Rekers said. "There hasn't been a lot of research (on) this idea of early intervention, cross-disciplinary work, so we were excited." Hand in Hand received a grant in spring 2022 to renovate its playground and outdoor classroom space. The occupational therapy students visit Hand in Hand on Fridays to observe how children use these spaces and explore strategies to better support early intervention work. Children at Hand in Hand in Bettendorf enjoy the organization's outdoor playground/classroom space. "We love partnering with the students; they are so eager to share in reciprocal learning, which is really fun," said Angie Kendall, CEO of Hand in Hand. "We learn just as much from them as they do from us." She's enjoyed collaborating with SAU students and faculty on new ideas for adaptive technology and equipment, inclusive playtime, interventions and other areas. "Traditional play equipment can be very overwhelming and intimidating to a lot of children, especially if they have motor challenges," Kendall said, adding Hand in Hand has seen "extraordinary growth" in children's confidence and creativity when playing. "Even from children who (see) an external physical therapist." SAU plans to continue the Nature Play Project at Hand and the Children's Campus in the spring — but they're also eyeing other partnerships, including Nahant Marsh Education Center and Tapestry Farms. Rekers said her team has already met with Tapestry Farms about building a new outdoor learning space at its Trinity Cathedral site, calling it “another goal” for the spring. The purpose of play Since both structured and unstructured "free" play is a crucial factor in childhood development, the Nature Play Project's embedded approach can help schools avoid the burdens of additional intervention specialists or lost instruction time. Children naturally learn self-regulation skills by playing, Rekers said. "But it becomes internal," she added. "Which is why I think play — whether it's indoors or outdoors — is so important for children, because they become more internally motivated." A child at Hand in Hand in Bettendorf plays on the organization's outdoor playground/classroom space. Many people have a narrower perception of early childhood education, Rekers said, noting how it ranges from infancy to third grade. "Early childhood is very holistic," she said. "We are thinking about their physical development, their social-emotional development (and) cognitive outcomes." Still, Rekers said children are being increasingly pressured by academic expectations that don't always align with their physical, sensory and cognitive development. This leads many of them to be "already disengaged" when their school-based education starts. "And it shouldn't be like that," she said. "What they need is that realistic sensory learning experience. ... Climbing, running, picking things up — that challenges them, and that's what's so exciting." A child at Hand in Hand in Bettendorf plays a xylophone at the organization's outdoor classroom space. Wider applications Outdoor play can also help students understand how classroom concepts — like science, physics, math or even leadership skills — apply in real life. When students learn through play, they often feel more competent and confident to tackle formal instruction, Rekers said. "Math is so fun when it's developmentally appropriate," she said, adding the "Forest School" concept hails from Scandinavian countries, where kids don't typically start traditional school until age seven. "So, the idea is (that) writing, formal reading and all of those kinds of things come much more naturally once you're seven and have had all these experiences that make you feel like a competent, learner." Rekers' own doctoral research studied children's motivation towards learning and performing task and participation across classroom and woodland Forest School settings. She found that children receiving supplemental outdoor play demonstrated diverse skills that were often overlooked in the classroom setting, and these experiences also encouraged a wider range of physical, sensory and self-regulatory opportunities. "Those challenging behaviors were just not there outside," Rekers said. "The kids who are the most 'trouble' in school, become the leaders outside, so I wanted to (find out) why that might be the case." Her research compared a range of elementary-aged students’ playtime habits and behaviors in both settings, which also uncovered another finding: students seemed to be more fixed to certain roles or activities in the classroom — largely based on gender — compared to outdoors. Children at Hand in Hand in Bettendorf enjoy a sensory table in the organization's outdoor classroom space. For example, Rekers said most girls would play as "princesses" in the classroom, while boys might engage in more hands-on activities. But this didn't translate to outside. "We'd have boys hanging in a hammock or (playing with) woodland puppets, and the girls would be climbing trees, building dens, things like that," she said. "We'd see boys and girls playing together more frequently ... there was this real shift in gender affordances." Rekers said play-based learning should still be facilitated by teachers or trained adults, nodding to the Nature Play Project's focus on professional development. "That's what we're trying to do here, train our students and graduates in play-based learning provisions and therapy, so they can really observe where they're at (developmentally)," she said. In meeting kids where they're at, adults can gain a better understanding of their perspectives, motivations and challenges. "It allows us to help guide them and (meet) some of the expectations they find so challenging," Rekers said. "It just provides a more cooperative, better way to support young people. "I think seeing children as competent — instead of having a deficit perspective — is really important, too," she added. See Hayes Elementary second-graders explore Camp Kawpini Hayes 13.JPG A second-grader from Hayes Elementary School in Davenport builds a fort at Camp Kawpini in Blue Grass during a class field trip on Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024, focused on free outdoor play via the TimberNook Greater Quad Cities program. Hayes 5.JPG A second-grader from Hayes Elementary School in Davenport conquers the rope swing — as his peers cheer — at Camp Kawpini in Blue Grass during a class field trip on Thursday focused on free outdoor play via the TimberNook Greater Quad Cities program. Hayes 12.JPG A second-grader from Hayes Elementary School in Davenport takes a spin on the tire swing at Camp Kawpini in Blue Grass during a class field trip on Thursday focused on free outdoor play through the TimberNook Greater Quad Cities program. Hayes 11.JPG Second-graders from Hayes Elementary School in Davenport explore the great outdoors at Camp Kawpini in Blue Grass during a class field trip on Thursday. Hayes 14.JPG Second-graders from Hayes Elementary School in Davenport use teamwork to build a fort at Camp Kawpini in Blue Grass during a class field trip on Thursday. Hayes 4.JPG A second-grader from Hayes Elementary School in Davenport hangs on a swing at Camp Kawpini in Blue Grass during a class field trip on Thursday focused on free outdoor play through the TimberNook Greater Quad Cities program. Hayes 12.JPG A second-grader from Hayes Elementary School in Davenport takes a spin on the tire swing at Camp Kawpini in Blue Grass during a class field trip on Thursday focused on free outdoor play through the TimberNook Greater Quad Cities program. Hayes 14.JPG Second-graders from Hayes Elementary School in Davenport use teamwork to build a fort at Camp Kawpini in Blue Grass during a class field trip on Thursday. Hayes 5.JPG A second-grader from Hayes Elementary School in Davenport conquers the rope swing — as his peers cheer — at Camp Kawpini in Blue Grass during a class field trip on Thursday focused on free outdoor play via the TimberNook Greater Quad Cities program. Angela Rekers-Power, assistant professor of early childhood education at St. Ambrose University in Davenport. Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items.Oct 2, 2024; San Diego, California, USA; Atlanta Braves pitcher Max Fried (54) throws during the first inning of game two in the Wildcard round for the 2024 MLB Playoffs against the San Diego Padres at Petco Park. Denis Poroy-Imagn Images/File Photo After missing out on Juan Soto, the New York Yankees made their first splash of the offseason. The Yankees and left-handed starting pitcher Max Fried have agreed to an eight-year, $218 million contract, several reports said Tuesday. The contract includes the most guaranteed money for a left-handed pitcher in baseball history, ESPN reported. A two-time All-Star, Fried will join right-handed ace Gerrit Cole to form a one-two punch at the front of the Yankees' rotation. Fried, 30, spent his first eight MLB seasons with the Atlanta Braves and went 11-10 with a 3.25 ERA across 29 starts last season. He had 166 strikeouts and a career-high 57 walks over 174 1/3 innings. He also pitched a major league-high two complete games (one shutout). Fried was an All-Star in 2022 and 2024, and he received votes for the National League Cy Young Award in 2020 (placing fifth) and 2022 (second). In 168 career games (151 starts), Fried has gone 73-36 with a 3.07 ERA and 863 strikeouts against 246 walks in 884 1/3 innings. He has tossed six complete games, including four shutouts. --Field Level Media REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you. Read 3 articles and stand to win rewards Spin the wheel nowGuest Column: Target land acquisition, sustaining livelihoods in Punjab
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California , home to some of the largest technology companies in the world, would be the first U.S. state to require mental health warning labels on social media sites if lawmakers pass a bill introduced Monday. The legislation sponsored by state Attorney General Rob Bonta is necessary to bolster safety for children online, supporters say, but industry officials vow to fight the measure and others like it under the First Amendment. Warning labels for social media gained swift bipartisan support from dozens of attorneys general, including Bonta, after U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy called on Congress to establish the requirements earlier this year, saying social media is a contributing factor in the mental health crisis among young people. “These companies know the harmful impact their products can have on our children, and they refuse to take meaningful steps to make them safer,” Bonta said at a news conference Monday. “Time is up. It’s time we stepped in and demanded change.” State officials haven't provided details on the bill, but Bonta said the warning labels could pop up once weekly. Up to 95% of youth ages 13 to 17 say they use a social media platform, and more than a third say that they use social media “almost constantly,” according to 2022 data from the Pew Research Center. Parents’ concerns prompted Australia to pass the world’s first law banning social media for children under 16 in November. “The promise of social media, although real, has turned into a situation where they’re turning our children’s attention into a commodity,” Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, who authored the California bill, said Monday. “The attention economy is using our children and their well-being to make money for these California companies.” Lawmakers instead should focus on online safety education and mental health resources, not warning label bills that are “constitutionally unsound,” said Todd O’Boyle, a vice president of the tech industry policy group Chamber of Progress. “We strongly suspect that the courts will set them aside as compelled speech,” O’Boyle told The Associated Press. Victoria Hinks' 16-year-old daughter, Alexandra, died by suicide four months ago after being “led down dark rabbit holes” on social media that glamorized eating disorders and self-harm. Hinks said the labels would help protect children from companies that turn a blind eye to the harm caused to children’s mental health when they become addicted to social media platforms. “There's not a bone in my body that doubts social media played a role in leading her to that final, irreversible decision,” Hinks said. “This could be your story." Common Sense Media, a sponsor of the bill, said it plans to lobby for similar proposals in other states. California in the past decade has positioned itself as a leader in regulating and fighting the tech industry to bolster online safety for children. The state was the first in 2022 to bar online platforms from using users’ personal information in ways that could harm children. It was one of the states that sued Meta in 2023 and TikTok in October for deliberately designing addictive features that keep kids hooked on their platforms. Gov. Gavin Newsom , a Democrat, also signed several bills in September to help curb the effects of social media on children, including one to prohibit social media platforms from knowingly providing addictive feeds to children without parental consent and one to limit or ban students from using smartphones on school campus. Federal lawmakers have held hearings on child online safety and legislation is in the works to force companies to take reasonable steps to prevent harm. The legislation has the support of X owner Elon Musk and the President-elect’s son, Donald Trump Jr . Still, the last federal law aimed at protecting children online was enacted in 1998, six years before Facebook’s founding.
Trump asks Supreme Court to delay Jan 19 TikTok ban deadline
If you’ve ever driven the Taconic State Parkway — and I do frequently — a reasonable argument can be made that New York should offer medals of valor to motorists and their vehicles that survive the experience intact. I’m thinking in particular of what I long ago, in a Wall Street Journal story, dubbed the “Wall of Death.” I take no credit for creativity; the terrifying feature named itself. The soaring sheer stone face, coming soon after the parkway transitions from three spacious modern lanes of traffic to two claustrophobic strips that harken back to the thoroughfare’s Depression-era origins, is sufficient to challenge the self-confidence of even the most seasoned driver. That goes especially in the rain. And with other cars passing you on a curve. And your spouse shouting at you to slow down. Were that not sufficient to rattle you, awaiting just at the bottom of this treacherous stretch of tarmac is a speed trap where New York state troopers are only too eager to pick off any motorist that the walls and curves haven’t gotten first. This is all a rather longwinded way of stating that if you survive the ordeal, there’s probably a pretty good chance that you have a full bladder and your mind is wandering to bathroom options. In that regard, I’d like to give a shout-out to at least one gas station just off the road. It’s the Mobil station on Bryant Pond Road, perhaps the first exit heading northbound after the parkway narrows. There are those who would accuse anybody already needing a bathroom break of being quitters, but there’s a good chance that if you’re driving up from New York City, especially on a Friday night, you already might have stewed in traffic for a harrowing hour or two by the time you reach that point. The Mobil station had three reasonably well cleaned unisex bathrooms (two outdoor, one indoor) as well as a well-stocked convenience store. It would be wrong amid the pressures and responsibilities of the holiday season to presume too much on your time, but I have decided views on whether it’s fair to use the opposite sex’s facilities if those of your assigned sex are unavailable at stores and restaurants that still distinguish between the two. I’ll save that for another day. But if you can hold out long enough to reach the Taste of New York market at Todd Hill in Dutchess County, you’re in for a refreshing new treat. I’m not referring to the abundant product selection from local merchants — pastry and sandwiches, cheese and honey — but to the comfort facilities. And, boy, have they taken their sweet time in coming! When the shop opened in 2014, it included two modern bathrooms with futurist all-in-one sinks, soap dispensers and hand dryers. I don’t know why, or exactly when, the staff designated only themselves worthy of such conveniences. But the traveling public was relegated to a platoon of portable toilets, while a separate structure devoted exclusively to the welfare of Taconic Parkway travelers and boasting, count ‘em, eight separate bathrooms was under construction. I lost consciousness of how long it took them to be completed. It felt like decades, but it was probably two-plus painful years. The sign promising completion soon started to feel like an inside joke. In the meantime, intrepid travelers were directed to those unheated outdoor Port-O-Sans. As such things go, they weren’t all that bad. But portable toilets that get emptied but once a week are by definition a journey into the underside of the human experience and best avoided. Yet dare I say it, the new bathrooms, opened in November, were almost worth the wait. They’re spacious, heated and include diaper-changing tables, walls of a calming blue hue, and both natural and artificial light. I don’t want to jinx it, but thus far none of the accommodations have been defaced by graffiti. I’d like to think that’s due to a couple of factors. The typical person capable of tackling the Taconic isn’t just an adept driver but also a serious soul, an environmentalist, the kind of upright citizen who leaves a National Park carrying out one more piece of litter than he or she brought in. The other reason is that the new bathrooms are just so darn attractive that only hoodlums would deface them, and most of those people prefer the New York State Thruway anyway. I suppose it’s only a matter of time until these totems of civic pride, rare proof of your tax dollars at good work, go the way of most public conveniences not located in some well-behaved Scandinavian country: riddled with political graffiti, bathroom humor, etc. So enjoy them while you can. Remarkably, they’re open every day from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. And just for readers of this publication, here’s an inside tip: Four of the bathrooms are around the back of the structure, or the front if you’re going southbound, and most people remain unaware of them as yet. And if there’s anything better than a brand new bathroom, it’s one shining a bright green vacant sign. If that’s not in the holiday spirit, I don’t know what is.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who is already facing pressure from the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) to sack his food and civil supplies minister Dhananjay Munde of the Ajit Pawar-led NCP, accused of shielding the killer of a village official in Beed district, is now in a spot after even BJP MLAs attacked Munde openly. This led to Fadnavis’s confidant and Maharashtra BJP chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule stepping in and expressing his displeasure over remarks made by BJP MLA Suresh Dhas in public, targeting NCP minister Dhananjay Munde, in connection with the murder of Massajog village sarpanch Santosh Deshmukh. Dhas has been criticising Munde indirectly alleging that Valmik Karad, the main accused in the murder case has been evading arrest due to his links with food and civil supplies minister Dhananjay Munde, who assumed charge of his post very recently. Advertisement “I will ask Suresh Dhas to share any information he possesses directly with the Chief Minister rather than going public. I will tell him not to make any comments which will hamper the (murder) probe,” Bawankule told reporters in Shirdi. Advertisement However, Bawankule’s efforts failed when BJP MLA Abhimanyu Pawar, who was previously an aide to CM Fadnavis before becoming a BJP MLA from Ausa, publicly stated on Saturday that the pain caused by the murder of Massajog village sarpanch Santosh Deshmukh has been felt throughout Maharashtra, as evidenced by a protest march organised in Beed district against the murder. The silent march, held in Beed to protest the murder of Massajog village sarpanch Santosh Deshmukh, was attended by politicians across party lines. BJP MLA Suresh Dhas, Sharad Pawar-led NCP MP Bajrang Sonawane, Sharad Pawar-led NCP MLA Sandeep Kshirsagar, Ajit Pawar-led NCP MLA Prakash Solanke, Sharad Pawar NCP MLA Jitendra Awhad, and BJP MLA Abhimanyu Pawar participated in the march. All the political leaders present demanded the arrest of the main accused at the earliest. Despite Maharashtra BJP chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule’s statement in Shirdi earlier, BJP MLA Suresh Dhas alleged at the protest march on Saturday that Valmik Karad, who is considered close to food and civil supplies minister Dhanajay Munde, has been “terrorising the district and is working to extort ransom to deliver it to his boss”. BJP MLA Abhimanyu Pawar also attacked food and civil supplies minister Munde, saying, “Similar protest marches will be held across Maharashtra against the murder of Santosh Deshmukh. The culprits should be given the death penalty. Be it Valmik Karad or anyone else, no matter how big the accused is, he should be punished. The government should take note of this march,” BJP MLA Abhimanyu Pawar said. Sharad Pawar-led NCP MLA Sandeep Kshirsagar said that the main accused, Valmik Karad, considered close to food and civil supplies minister Dhananjay Munde, must be arrested. “Dhananjay Munde must resign until the investigation is over,” Kshirsagar said at the protest. Significantly, Prakash Solanke, who is from food and civil supplies minister Dhananjay Munde’s own Ajit Pawar-led NCP, also demanded that Munde must be removed from his ministerial post until the Santosh Deshmukh case is solved and the culprits are arrested. Advertisement
Los Angeles Chargers Head Coach Jim Harbaugh Cashes In During Week 17In a chat with reporters after the Sacramento Kings ' latest coaching change, star point guard De'Aaron Fox opened up on whether the players feel any guilt for the recent turn of events. Unsurprisingly, Fox denied taking any blame and he explained that it's just the nature of the business. “I wouldn’t use the word ‘guilt.’ That’s the nature of the job that we have. He signed his extension this summer, and we thought we would be together a whole lot longer," said Fox via Kirsten Moran-Kellar . "But that’s the decision that they made. But at the end of the day too, he’s still getting paid. A great part of being an NBA player and an NBA coach is that those things can happen, but contracts are guaranteed." The Sacramento Kings just recently decided to fire head coach Mike Brown , who had been with the team since May of 2022. After years of mediocrity, he helped the Kings to a respectable place in the Western Conference. In the 2022-23 season, his first as their coach, he led them to their best record in years (48-34) to secure the third seed in the West. They even gave the Warriors a tough fight in the first round before being eliminated in 7 games. But sadly, it's been downhill ever since for the franchise. Last season, they fell from 3rd in the West down to 9th and they couldn't make it out of the play-in tournament. In the 2024-25 season so far, they've been even worse. Currently, the Kings are 12th in the West and a shell of the team they were two seasons ago. They've seriously declined as a team and there was a growing sense that something needed to change. The last straw for Mike Brown was a loss to the Detroit Pistons on Thursday, which marked their 5th straight defeat. In the aftermath of the firing, several prominent NBA coaches spoke out in defense of Brown , but it's not entirely shocking that he was let go. In today's NBA, coaches are often under more pressure than the players perform and when the team fails to meet expectations, the coach is often the first one blamed by the fans and front office. Fortunately, as Fox pointed out, Brown will still get what he's owed after signing a 3-year, $25.5 million back in June. But for a Kings franchise that has lacked continuity, this latest coaching change threatens to further disrupt everything they've built in this current basketball era. The only way for the Kings to avoid disaster is by finding the right replacement for Brown. With a nearly limitless pool of candidates, it's impossible to say who they will choose but it needs to be someone who can speak to the players and instill a system that brings out the best in their stars. As for De'Aaron Fox, he's not concerning himself with the King's ongoing coaching search. Instead, he is focused on turning this season around and there is still so much work to be done. This season, through 31 games, Fox is averaging 26.2 points, 6.1 assists, and 5.0 rebounds on 48.2% shooting. The next game for the Kings is tonight, December 28th, against the Los Angeles Lakers at Crypto.com arena (10:30 PM EST). On Monday, December 30th, they host the Dallas Mavericks at Golden 1 Center at 10:00 PM EST. On Wednesday, January 1st, the Sacramento Kings play the Philadelphia 76ers at Golden 1 Center at 10:00 PM EST. This article first appeared on Fadeaway World and was syndicated with permission.It’s a pleasure to be able to get a snack and a hot coffee at Erik Nielsen International Airport again, thanks to Air North’s Black Wolf Bistro. They even have an airside vending machine called “The Cache,” which provides travellers waiting to board a chance to grab something for the plane. This is a nice service for Air North to offer to the passengers of stingier national airlines who don’t give you snacks and cookies on board. The Cache offers Red Bull Peach Edition energy drinks, Fruit Compote Chia Puddings and Turkey Combo Deli Sandwiches. In the old days, this kind of service would have involved a coffee cart with an actual human pushing it around and taking cash. The Cache, of course, is fully automated and takes credit cards. Paying humans to push carts around airports is not economically attractive these days. There is a labour shortage in the Yukon, and one that will get worse as our population keeps aging. We are shifting our thinking from how to create jobs for unemployed humans to how to eliminate jobs so the scarce human workers can work on the most important things. And, in the grand spectrum of jobs, getting up at 4 a.m. to serve me a coffee in the Air North waiting room will not be high on the list. I was recently in Japan where you get a hint of what an older society looks like. There are 55.4 Japanese over 65 years of age for every 100 Japanese of traditional working age (20-64 years). In Canada, the equivalent is 31.7 but rising. In Tokyo’s equivalent of YXY, the airport lounges have robots to collect the used plates and cups. They are about four feet tall and wander the lounge like the robotic Roomba vacuum cleaner you may have. They emit soft classical music and have slowly pulsing coloured lights in muted colours, perhaps so as not to scare the humans too much. After failing to understand Tokyo’s address system, we accidentally found ourselves in a noodle bar for busy workers. It was tucked away on a side alley and full of delivery workers grabbing a quick and cheap lunch. At the door, there was a ticket machine. First, you selected salt ramen noodles or the white-soy sauce or salt-dipping versions. Then you added options, such as a boiled egg, roasted pork, fish ball, seaweed or seasoned bamboo shoots. Next was your choice of beer, whisky and soda, or soft drink. Then you paid and received your ticket. The humans in the kitchen quickly produced our lunch and, when we were done, we just left. No wasting a precious human’s time with paying the bill. Nor were we able to waste a human server’s time asking how salty the broth was, whether the noodles were produced on a sustainable wheat farm, or if the pork was Canadian or Japanese. (Of course, we couldn’t have done that anyway given my inability to do anything more than answer the telephone in Japanese – “moshi moshi!”). Tokyo is also famous for its conveyor belt sushi restaurants, where a continuous stream of sushi options roll by your table. You just grab them and pay by the plate later. Some Yukon friends who visited Japan a few months ago were startled to find that their table even had drink dispensers, and were even more startled to discover after a couple glasses of lemon soda that it contained Japanese vodka. Japanese vending machine technology is also a national phenomenon. In fact, although The Cache is an innovation by Yukon standards, visiting Japanese Northern Lights tourists undoubtedly find it primitive. In Japan, there are drink vending machines everywhere. You can get a range of cold drinks, from Pocari Sweat (Japan’s answer to Gatorade) to a variety of cold coffee and Asian tea energy drinks. I was surprised to discover they also have hot selections which change seasonally. From our AirBnB, there was no need to walk to a distant human-staffed café. We could just get a can of hot coffee across the street. There was a dizzying selection of teas, black coffees, milky and latte products, and sweetened options. A baffling array of vending machines also sell sushi, sandwiches and other foods such as triangular rice balls filled with seasoned pork or pickled plum. The machines are refreshed regularly. I felt more comfortable eating at a Japanese vending machine than at certain unnamed Alaska Highway lodges. If you visit the flagship store of Uniqlo in Tokyo’s central Ginza district, you’ll find lots of self checkouts. Somehow Uniqlo has managed to make it work. Unlike some Canadian chains, there was no struggling with barcodes, having the machine freeze until a non-existent human arrived to unlock it, or getting searched by a security guard just after having paid. That’s the service industry. But the Japanese government hopes to go even farther. They have been investing for years in research and development on robots to help older people. This includes lifting, managing stairs, getting things off high shelves as well as detecting falls and even helping with bathing and the toilet. With the rise of artificial intelligence and ChatGPT, researchers hope to develop companion robots. If Siri on your iPhone can tell you the Canucks scores, then why can’t a home robot talk to you about the weather? The hype about Japanese eldercare robots is currently outpacing the reality, according to James Wright, a researcher writing in MIT Technological Review. However, the next five years may see some breakthroughs. Of course, the Yukon is many years behind Japan in terms of aging. The Yukon government has been aggressively promoting the Temporary Foreign Worker program to bring in lower-skilled workers, usually young, to augment the Yukon labour force. But eventually, the Yukon may get a little Japanese. By the time it does, I hope the Japanese have put some research funding into robotic driveway shoveling robots.
Listen to Story The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) is all set for a groundbreaking mission to deploy as many as 24 scientific experiments into space aboard the PSLV Orbital Experiment Module-4 (POEM-4) under the SpaDeX mission . These payloads include a mix of projects from Isro's own research facilities, as well as contributions from private entities and academia, showcasing India's growing collaborative prowess in space technology. The mission will carry 14 payloads developed by ISRO/Department of Space (DOS) centres, alongside 10 contributions from non-government entities (NGEs), including academic institutions and start-ups facilitated through the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe). Isro's payloads will focus on advanced robotics, sensor technology, and space science experiments, such as: The 10 payloads from NGEs consist of the study of various spectra of science and engineering, such as: Meanwhile, the space agency, in a recent statement, the SpaDeX mission has been integrated and moved to the first launch pad of Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota. This mission is intended to develop and demonstrate a technology needed to dock and undock spacecraft in space, apart from other things. The SpaDeX mission is a cost-effective technology mission for the demonstration of 'in-space docking' using two small spacecraft launched by The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV).NoneMajor Tech Titans Join Forces to Revolutionize AI TrainingGeode Capital Management LLC Acquires 6,166 Shares of AMERISAFE, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMSF)
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — When the MLS playoffs began late last month, everyone who follows Inter Miami assumed coach Tata Martino would be preparing his team for the conference semifinals this week. Instead, the runner up for MLS Coach of the Year was in the Chase Stadium interview room on Friday morning announcing his resignation two weeks after the team’s shocking first-round playoff exit. Martino said he wanted to diffuse rumors and stress that he is leaving strictly for personal reasons, that he must return to his hometown of Rosario, Argentina, and that his decision was made before the first playoff game in late-October. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings.
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