Latest news with #1980s
ABC News
9 hours ago
- General
- ABC News
How Perth's king and queen of skating keep rolling back the years
When Peter and Barbara Rye get into their rollerskates, they move in a kind of unison that only comes after five decades of marriage — three of them on wheels. Now aged in their seventies, the pair first fell in love with rollerskating when they competed in a couples' dance event in the 1990s, a time when the category was overflowing with skaters. But the event has since died out. In fact, Peter and Barbara were the only couple in the rink at the state championships in Perth this year. Despite the challenges, the couple have maintained the same commitment to the sport as they have to each other, in the hope artistic rollerskating can be revived. Peter and Barbara picked up the skates by chance when they were in their forties, and have been hooked ever since. Despite their age, the couple trains about three times a week. "You can trip each other up and we do sometimes have falls," Barbara said. The joy of coming up with choreography and keeping the beat of the music has kept the pair engaged in the sport, even if there isn't much competition. "It's still fun. It's still rewarding to go out there and compete, to push yourself," Peter said. "So many people our age sort of just vegetate rather than push yourself and keep achieving. "Even if sometimes you can't achieve what you used to be able to achieve." When rollerskating first hit Australia in the 1980s, it was a booming sport for social and competitive skaters. But participation declined over the following decades, as trends moved on and more options entered the market. "Couples skating like [us] have really gone out of fashion, there are very few left now," Barbara said. "It's a real shame that the young skaters aren't still doing it because they can do so much more than we can now." Many of Peter and Barbara's peers have either given up the sport or died, but for those still committed to rollerskating, the competitions have become an opportunity to reminisce. "The national championships isn't so much a competition as a reunion," Peter said. "It's unfortunately becoming less and less so as our friends have faded away one way or the other." The couple are now an anomaly in Perth. But they don't mind standing out from the crowd and have no intention of slowing down while they are both willing and able to keep skating. "You get some quite amazing feedback from the audience when we skate at competitions because we are quite unique," Peter said. The fluctuation of rollerskating's popularity, particularly in a social capacity, has often been tied to popular culture. Barbara said that cycle has kept her hopeful that up-and-coming skaters will start walking through the doors again. "We've had ups and downs, but it's never stayed that way," she said. Morley Rollerdrome owner Ozzy Kilgallon said the end goal was to get rollerskating to the Olympics. "World sports are best when you watch on TV and then you can go and do it … it's accessible," he said. "If they can get rollerskating to the Olympics, like skateboarding did, everyone will want to try it and that's a good thing. "That will keep us going."
CNET
13 hours ago
- Entertainment
- CNET
Netflix Finally Picks 'Stranger Things' Season 5 Release Dates. Get the Full Scoop
Everyone (like me) who's been waiting nearly three years for the last season of Stranger Things has finally learned when we'll get to visit Hawkins, Indiana, and the Upside Down again. Netflix is giving fans a big holiday present and the end of this year with a three-part release of Stranger Things season 5. During Netflix's live Tudum fan event, we got all the details about the highly anticipated final season of Matt and Ross Duffer's global hit series. The three-part release of Stranger Things 5 will all come near the fall and winter holidays -- four episodes on the day before Thanksgiving, Thursday, Nov. 26; three episodes on Christmas Day, Friday, Dec. 25; and the finale on New Year's Eve, Wednesday, Dec. 31. Three years have passed since the show's fourth season premiered on Netflix, with a nerve-jangling run of episodes that introduced Vecna -- the biggest bad of the series -- while setting the stage for an ultimate showdown between the kids of Hawkins, Indiana, and the dream-invading hell-raiser. Stranger Things 4's ending alluded to a hell-on-earth scenario looming on the horizon. The new eight-episode adventure will pick up 18 months later, in the fall of 1987. Yes, we're still in the '80s even though the cast members are full-fledged adults now. Just go with it. Last season's finale found Eleven processing the earth-shattering realization that, during her time undergoing experiments led by Papa (Matthew Modine), she inadvertently created Vecna and the Upside Down. A collection of Nightmare on Elm Street-inspired kills throughout the episodes helped to unlock the veil separating the netherworld and the real one. Thanks to Will's psychic connection to the beast, we know Vecna is going to come back bigger and badder than before. By the look of things, the whole cast is back at it for one final go-round: Millie Bobby Brown, Finn Wolfhard, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Noah Schnapp, Sadie Sink, Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton, Joe Keery, Maya Hawke, Winona Ryder, David Harbour and Brett Gelman are all here. It's a new year for Stranger Things, and something tells me it'll be the most challenging one the gang has ever faced.
The Guardian
16 hours ago
- General
- The Guardian
The kindness of strangers: when my period arrived, a lifeguard quietly put a towel around me
It wasn't my first period, but it was within the first year of getting my period. I was only 13 years old and, when you first start menstruating, you never know when your next period is going to arrive. I was away on holiday with my family, playing in the hotel pool with some new friends I'd just met. There was definitely a boy there I fancied. At one point, I hopped out of the pool and suddenly this lifeguard, who must have only been 15 or 16 himself, walked straight up, put a towel around me and said really quietly in my ear, 'You need to go to the bathroom.' I looked down and realised why: my period had started. That was it. He said nothing more. Not even my twin sister, who was also in the pool, had any idea what had happened. He was that subtle about it. If he hadn't done that, it likely would have destroyed my entire holiday. You can just imagine the humiliation of having met a group of cool teenagers you're trying to impress and suddenly you've got blood running down your legs. This was the 1980s – they would have pointed at me and laughed! I will always be grateful to that lifeguard. I've always wished that I could go online and find this boy to thank him – or thank his mother more than anything, as she clearly taught him perfect manners. He somehow knew not to make a big deal of it, and how not to embarrass me. It was just done so beautifully. I now have two sons myself and I've always said to them, if you ever see a stain on a girl's dress, take off your jumper, put it around her waist, tell her she needs to go to the bathroom and never mention it again. That day also showed me that kindness doesn't have to be big, sweeping 'look at me' gestures – the smallest acts can be the most impactful. From making your day to changing your life, we want to hear about chance encounters that have stuck with you. Your contact details are helpful so we can contact you for more information. They will only be seen by the Guardian. Your contact details are helpful so we can contact you for more information. They will only be seen by the Guardian. If you're having trouble using the form click here. Read terms of service here and privacy policy here
Forbes
16 hours ago
- Business
- Forbes
The Role Of Leaders When AI Can Know Everything
As much as AI can do and will do, there is something it cannot do that remains a crucial role for ... More leaders—and it's not what we think. When personal computers went mainstream in the 1980's, a euphoria around what they could do was met by contrarians pointing out their limitations. Sure, they could do analytical tasks better than humans, but not intuitive, strategic tasks, such as playing chess. And then computers were built to become chess champions. Yes, they could reason faster than humans but not coordinate movement tasks. And then computers were built into deft manufacturing robots and human prosthetics. Sure, they could do what humans programmed them to do, but they couldn't outlearn their programming. And then AI shredded that assumption. As ChatGPT burst onto the scene, a similar euphoria erupted around what it could do, again followed by contrarians pointing out limitations. Sure, it could learn and regurgitate case law faster than a human, but it also made up cases. Then AI was improved to show sources. Yes, AI can write content better than many people and faster than all, but it's wreaking havoc with publishing and educational practices. Then AI was developed to detect AI-developed content. And so on. We have decades of experience telling us that the edges we suppose to machine intelligence are but the starting point for the next X-prize. And so it is now as we witness the explosive use of AI in good hands and bad—arguably even its own hands—with command of knowledge and networked effects we cannot even imagine. It is with full recognition of this history of underestimating what machines can do that I suggest there is yet something AI cannot do, no matter how much it knows nor how powerful it becomes. And that is to be a living antenna and transformer for sensing and manifesting futures in which life flourishes. This is the crucial and uniquely human role for leaders when AI can know everything. It is an energetic or spiritual role: to sense the zeitgeist, the field, the emerging future, the collective unconscious, God-Source, the Way, or universal Mind—however we name it—and from this place of resonant connection, through collaboration and using all tools available, including AI, conduct that future into the present. I'm certainly not alone in suggesting there's a quality of human intelligence that supersedes AI, nor that AI could be mighty dangerous in the wrong hands or in charge of itself. The earliest pioneers in machine intelligence, such as Marvin Minskey saw risk, not in whether such intelligence could be achieved, but in having no way to ensure it would act in our best interests. The Australian Risk Policy Institute, part of a global risk advisory network, argues for the importance of AI augmenting human intelligence, not replacing it. Numerous tech companies have been party to AI pledges promising responsible and ethical AI development and use. And dominant players, such as Google, have also walked away from those pledges or subjugated them to a winner-take-all race to dominate the AI industry. Mo Gawdat, a former AI leader at Google, in a mind-bending interview on Diary of a CEO, sees the biggest threat facing humanity today is humanity in the age of the machines, with all of our ignorance, greed and competition. 'This is an arms race,' Gawdat says, with 'no interest in what the average human gets out of it…every line of code being written in AI today is to beat the other guy.' AI is an exponential amplifier of the mindset with which it's being created, trained and deployed. As covered in Closing The Great Divides, when that mindset is based in dualism, that is, separation within oneself, self from others or self from the environment, it propagates that separation and resultant suffering in what it creates. For example, it will create businesses that exploit the environment, social systems that create big winners and many losers, or economic policies whereby the rich get vastly richer. Add to this the amplification of AI and the effects are so extreme that it gives even the tech titans pause to ponder the ethics of it all. While dualism is the norm in our culture (in which AI has been created) and embedded in our subject-object language (on which AI has been trained), it is not the greatest truth for the human being. Human leaders are capable of a kind of merge or flow state that goes by many descriptions: unity consciousness, interbeing, samadhi, mystical union, being one-with, or simply being the whole picture. This one-withness is the essence of Zen Leadership. When leaders operate from this state of connection, they propagate a sense of care for the whole, for example, in businesses that take care of the environment, social systems that help people thrive, or economic policies that respect limits. Such leaders create flourishing futures. So, while there are many areas in which AI will far exceed human capacity, it is poorly equipped to sense connection at the depth available to a human being. Moreover, this isn't just another limit that will be superseded by the next generation of AI. Machine intelligence itself grew out of living in our heads—disconnected from the wisdom of the body—and equating intelligence with our thoughts, as in Descartes' dictum: 'I think therefore I am.' We failed to realize that the very thoughts 'I' thinks and the language it uses to express them is how 'I' keeps its ego-centric game going. Modeling computers and AI on how we think and talk propagated this mindset of separation, first replicating the mind's left-brain logic, then advancing to more holistic pattern recognition associated with the right brain. By contrast, the human being has a very different origin. We come from one living cell, through which the entire evolutionary journey played out in our development from gilled sea-creatures to lunged air-breathers. We embody antenna for a whole spectrum of consciousness whereby the universe has revealed itself to itself from the beginning of life, from five basic senses to thought consciousness, to ego consciousness, to collective consciousness. In the collective field, we are able to sense the energy of relationships, of opportunities in crises, of ideas not yet taken form, which is the playground from which skillful leaders bring an emerging future into the present. While AI can reproduce the veneer of human experience—even vastly accelerate and improve upon some aspects of it—it has not lived those experiences. Just as reading the Adventures of Tom Sawyer is not the same as being Tom Sawyer, AI's training in the language of human experience is not the same as living those experiences. Even though AI can talk a good game about being one-with by regurgitating things it has read, it has no physical basis for experiencing one-withness. It lacks the antenna. AI may have sensors or network connections to feed its semiconductors, silicon wafers, transistors, software and so forth. But it does not vibrate or resonate with the field the way a human body does. It does not have the complexity or fractal quality of life and hence cannot support the same expansive consciousness. Opinions vary in the field as to whether AI has consciousness (or 'interiority') at all. But even if we grant that everything has consciousness commensurate with its complexity, AI is far less complex than a human being. That said, AI is already superior to humans at knowing what there is to know. It has thoroughly commoditized knowledge; being the 'smartest person in the room' is no longer a necessary or useful role for human leaders. Far more useful and necessary are practices for connection, which are part of contemplative, embodied wisdom traditions, as in Zen Leadership, for literally resonating one-with others, one-with the environment, one-with the emerging future. Through our connected selves, we bridge AI knowledge and universal wisdom. For sure, such bridging will not be the main AI narrative anytime soon. AI development and use is likely to be dominated by the billionaire footrace we see now, with even shadier characters at the margins and AI itself in the not-too-distant future. But wise, connected AI development and use can serve as a vein of gold through the detritus of disruption and destruction of coming years, manifesting the priceless role of humanity in the evolution of consciousness. AI can only serve a flourishing future for life if it is helped along by living beings connected with same purpose. It is the essential, human leadership opportunity in an era when AI can know and do most everything else. As Mo Gawdat concludes, there are several inevitables with AI. (1) AI will happen, (2) AI will be smarter than us, and (3) AI will replace many of our jobs. But what he also concludes is that it's smarter to create from a place of abundance rather than scarcity, which is another way of saying create from a place of infinitely resourced connection rather than the scarcity of a separate self. That is the most important role a leader can play, and we are living at a most pivotal time in which to play it.
Yahoo
21 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
HBO's new show looks like a dream (or nightmare) for true crime fans
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. It can sometimes get lost in the noise generated by huge prestige shows like The Last of Us, which just finished its second season, but HBO doesn't just make huge fictional series for people to follow. It's also a great producer of documentaries, which are often just as influential and riveting to watch. If you're a true crime fan (and untold millions of people are, at this point), then you might want to pay attention to the show it just unveiled, which will come to HBO and its once again renamed streaming platform HBO Max on 1 June – The Mortician. It just got its first trailer, and it's an interesting watch. This is a limited series which doesn't aim to take up your time for weeks on end. In fact, it'll only run for three episodes in total. That doesn't the show doesn't have a lot to offer up, though. It looks like a pretty chilling examination of the psychology of one particular criminal, with testimony from his victims but also from the man himself. Cremation can be a solemn act that plays a part in the cycle of remembrance, but it also involves a lot of trust in a mortician to do the job right. It transpires that back in the 1980s David Sconce was one of these morticians, but he was eventually discovered to be doing his job not just badly, but criminally. Image 1 of 5 Image 2 of 5 Image 3 of 5 Image 4 of 5 Image 5 of 5 Sconce was accused by his clients of ignoring their wishes, performing mass cremations instead of individual ones. This saved him a large amount of time and money, but was fairly obviously a huge act of disrespect, as well as a professional lie – and it looks like it eventually got him caught. That said, the trailer hints that he also got up to far more unbelievable exploits, too. With access to Sconce himself in interviews, as well as his victims and those who investigated him, this looks like a comprehensive recap of the almost unbelievable story of what he did. He presumably participated in the hope of exonerating himself to some degree, but in the trailer he mostly comes across terribly. Diverse content like this is what makes HBO Max (or Sky Atlantic and Now here in the UK) one of the best streaming platforms out there – add it to your watchlist if you think you could get a kick out of it in June.
