Latest news with #AndrewCarr
Scotsman
15-06-2025
- Politics
- Scotsman
Why we need to make fathers visible
A protest was held this week at the Scottish Parliament. Picture: Andrew Carr | Andrew Carr This would be a good time for policy makers revisit and renew a coherent parenting strategy Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... There was an amiable gathering of fathers and mothers, and babies in slings and buggies outside the Scottish Parliament on Wednesday afternoon, protesting the poor provision of paternity leave in the UK. The Singing Mamas sang 'Under Pressure' and a parental leave version of 'Bella Ciao'. Paternity leave was introduced by Labour in 2003. In cash, it amounts to less than half the minimum wage. In duration, a basic two weeks. Hundreds of employers, of course, add their own more generous schemes on top of the statutory obligation. I discovered on Wednesday, that the Scottish Parliament is not among them. The campaign for fathers to spend more time with their partner and new child is like being in favour of virtue. Who can disagree? Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The narrow focus on paternity leave, however, could be the key that opens up a much-needed wider debate on the visibility and positive resource of fathers that has been dormant during a period of significant demographic change. I look back to 2012 and the launch of the Scottish Government's National Parenting Strategy. The Minister for Children and Young People, Aileen Campbell, gave a passionate speech. She said, 'Valuing parents is one of the single biggest ways of giving the nation's children the best start in life.' It was part of the ambition for 'Scotland to be the best place in the world to grow up.' There were 14 pages of 'commitments'. One page was specifically about fathers under the strapline 'Parents facing additional challenges'. Funding was put in place 'for organisations such as Men in Childcare, working to redress the existing gender imbalance and the need for more men in early years settings.' The redoubtable Kenny Spence who has been driving the cause of men in childcare, reports the funding raised the number of men in the early years workforce from 2% to 4%. Is 4% in early years, or 9% of male staff in Primary Schools, enough? Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Families Need Fathers Scotland – that's us. We changed our name to Shared Parenting Scotland in 2020 to reflect the evolution of our client base as we took more calls from mothers, grandmothers and new partners. We were funded to 'provide support to fathers and other family members facing contact problems with their children.' Much of our casework reveals the kaleidoscope of embedded barriers and disincentives to sharing parenting after divorce or separation. There was a commitment to a 'twice-yearly fathers round table meeting acting in an advisory capacity on national policy and how it impacts fathers.' The Fathers Advisory Board was very useful but just faded away about 2018. There have been Third Sector bright spots. The birth of Dads Rock which now reaches across Scotland was based on the building the role and recognition of fathers in parenting from ante-natal classes onwards. Fathers Network Scotland came up with the Year of the Dad in 2015, which had buy-in from all sectors. Its annual Dads Survey is now becoming a valuable longitudinal study of both the time fathers are spending with their children, as well as the pressures they experience when balancing parenting with work – feeling guilty at both. This would be a good time for policy makers at local and central government level to revisit and renew that 2012 commitment to a coherent parenting strategy.
Yahoo
10-06-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Detroit Pistons to host Kentucky forward Andrew Carr for NBA draft workout
Former Kentucky forward Andrew Carr joined the Detroit Pistons for a predraft workout June 10, a league source told the Free Press. Carr is listed at 6 feet 11, 235 pounds, and averaged 10.3 points, 4.7 rebounds and 1.7 assists last season. He transferred twice in college, playing two seasons at Delaware and two at Wake Forest before spending his final season with the Wildcats. Advertisement For his career, he shot 52.2% overall, and shot 34% from 3 on 2.3 attempts per game. The Pistons have the 37th overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft on June 25-26. They need frontcourt size with shooting versatility, which Carr could bring. TRENDING: Pacers shocked the NBA with improbable run to Finals. Pistons might be next Kentucky Wildcats forward Andrew Carr celebrates after a basket and foul during the first half against the Georgia State Panthers at Rupp Arena at Central Bank Center in Lexington, Kentucky, Nov. 29, 2024. Carr is widely viewed as a fringe draft pick or Exhibit 10 candidate. Exhibit 10 contracts are one-year non-guaranteed deals with a clause allowing teams to convert it to a two-way contract, and a financial bonus if the player spends at least 60 days with the team's G League affiliate. Advertisement Former Tennessee wing Chaz Lanier worked out with the Pistons last week. [ MUST WATCH: Make "The Pistons Pulse" your go-to Detroit Pistons podcast, listen available anywhere you listen to podcasts (Apple, Spotify) ] Follow the Pistons all year long with the best coverage at Follow the Detroit Free Press on Instagram (@detroitfreepress), TikTok (@detroitfreepress), YouTube (@DetroitFreePress), X (@freep), and LinkedIn, and like us on Facebook (@detroitfreepress). Submit a letter to the editor at and we may publish it online or in print. This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Pistons to host Kentucky's Andrew Carr for NBA draft workout
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
AI Animation Firm Cartwheel Emerges From Beta; Pixar Alums In Exec Ranks, Jeffrey Katzenberg's WndrCo Among Backers
EXCLUSIVE: AI firm Cartwheel has emerged from closed beta, promising to help make the 3D animation process smoother and accessible to a wider range of creative workers. The company was co-founded by Jonathan Jarvis and Andrew Carr. Jarvis, who is CEO, spent nearly seven years at Google and also runs animation and gaming studio Universal Patterns. Carr, who is Chief Scientist, interned at Google and later worked at OpenAI. More from Deadline Generative AI Studio Promise Wins Backing From Google; Peter Chernin's North Road Company Also Ups Investment Conan O'Brien Joins 'Toy Story 5' SAG-AFTRA Responds To Fortnite's AI-Generated Darth Vader Feature With Unfair Labor Complaint Staffers at the company include Pixar alums Catherine Hicks and Neil Helm, along with veterans of Riot Games and Sony's Spiderverse franchise. Along with its emergence from beta, the company revealed $10 million in new funding led by David Sacks' VC firm Craft Ventures, bringing its total funding to $15.6 million. Participants in the latest funding round include existing investors like Katzenberg's WndrCo, Ben Feder's Tirta, Accel, Khosla Ventures, Human Ventures and established AI firm Runway. Cartwheel focuses on 3D animation, in particular aiding the process of how animated characters move, and says 60,000 people have signed up for the waitlist to gain access to its set of tools. During the closed beta, the company's tools were used by creatives at companies including DreamWorks, Duolingo, Sony and Roblox. The company says it can turn video, text and large motion libraries into production-ready 3D character animations that can be moved, edited and downloaded directly into current workflows. Along with prototyping ideas or refining their work, animators can also tap Cartwheel's library for a motion to fit or inspire their scene. Even non-pros can use Cartwheel to generate video clips, and designers and developers can turn their character animations into files to be added to apps or websites. The co-founders compared their company's impact on the field of animation to that of the iPhone on photography. 'We've developed a new way to simplify the animation process, putting creatives in the drivers' seat as they dramatically accelerate their workflows, eliminate tedious tasks, free up budget for more creative exploration, and enhance control over their final products,' they said. The company's impact will be felt across animated films, anime, gaming, advertising and storyboarding, social media and other areas, they said. At Pixar, Hicks was animation director and worked on more than 15 movies, including the Oscar-winning Inside Out, Coco and Toy Story 3. She is Cartwheel's head of animation innovation. Helm, who is the head of interactive animation at Cartwheel, focused on motion and crowd elements at Pixar, working on Inside Out 2, Turning Red, Lightyear, and the third and fourth Toy Story installments. 'Cartwheel has changed the entire paradigm of animation by introducing a new toolset that builds on the artistry of animation, making productions more efficient so more stories can be told,' Feder, Managing Partner at Tirta Ventures. 'Where concepts could take days, weeks, or months to visualize, Cartwheel's technology makes the process virtually instant, unleashing an entirely new world of storytelling possibilities.' Best of Deadline Sean 'Diddy' Combs Sex-Trafficking Trial Updates: Cassie Ventura's Testimony, $10M Hotel Settlement, Drugs, Violence, & The Feds All The 'Mission: Impossible' Movies In Order - See Tom Cruise's 30-Year Journey As Ethan Hunt Denzel Washington's Career In Pictures: From 'Carbon Copy' To 'The Equalizer 3' Error while retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data
Forbes
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
AI Startup Cartwheel, Led By OpenAI And Google Veterans, Raises $10 Million To Simplify 3D Animation
Founders Andrew Carr (L) and Jeffrey Jarvis (R) Cartwheel Cartwheel, a new 3D animation company founded by OpenAI scientist Andrew Carr and former Google creative director Jonathan Jarvis, has come out of stealth with a browser-based animation platform designed to dramatically accelerate the creation of character animation for games, films, advertising, and social content. The company also announced a $10 million funding round led by Craft Ventures, bringing its total raised to $15.6 million. Cartwheel's tools allow users to generate rigged 3D character animations from text, video, or motion library prompts. The platform supports professional workflows, including exports to Maya and Unreal, but also includes a simplified interface designed to let less technical users build animated scenes and characters directly in the browser. Cartwheel's technology reduces the time required for common animation tasks from hours or days to minutes, enabling creators to experiment, iterate, and deploy animation assets at production scale. 'There's this core frustration animators face with today's software,' Carr told me. 'You need huge teams and weeks of effort to do things that should be fast. We wanted to solve that.' Carr previously worked at OpenAI on code generation tools and saw the potential for language models to unlock animation workflows. Jarvis, a designer who helped launch Google Creative Lab and later led the animation-focused studio Universal Pattern. He and Carr started the company together in 2023. The platform supports text-to-motion generation, motion remixing, and in-browser character rigging. Users can search from a curated library of animations or type prompts such as 'cast a wizard spell' or 'do a silly dance,' and receive rigged motion sequences that can be applied to custom or generated characters. Animations are fully editable and exportable, and the system is being designed to integrate into industry-standard environments like Unity and Unreal. Cartwheel's team includes veterans from Pixar, Riot Games, Sony, and Unity. Animation director Catherine Hicks, whose credits include Coco, Toy Story 3, and Inside Out, has joined as head of animation innovation. Neil Helm, known for leading crowd animation on Inside Out 2, Turning Red, and Up, has been named head of interactive animation. They are helping refine Cartwheel's tools and rigging systems from an animator's perspective. The company's early access program attracted more than 8,000 beta users, including creatives from DreamWorks, Roblox, Duolingo, and Take-Two. Many of those users, according to Carr, were exploring how Cartwheel could accelerate background and crowd animation, rapid prototyping, or previsualization tasks traditionally bogged down by time and cost. 'Animation software hasn't really changed in 20 years,' Carr said. 'There's no reason the same rigging or blocking task should take three hours every time.' Cartwheel also includes a character generator trained on licensed 3D assets. Users can upload sketches or models and receive rigged characters in return. The founders were adamant about the importance of training on paid, ethically sourced data, especially as legal scrutiny mounts around AI training practices. Cartwheel enters a growing field that includes Anything World and Wonder Dynamics. Anything World focuses on auto-rigging and animating 3D assets for game engines like Unity and Unreal, offering a large asset library and developer-friendly tools. Wonder Dynamics, now part of Autodesk, enables filmmakers to insert CG characters into live-action footage without traditional motion capture. All are focused on professional animators working primarily on video games, and background characters in commercial animation. Cartwheel's backers include WndrCo, Khosla Ventures, Accel, Tirta, Human Ventures, and Runway, the AI video company. Investors see the technology as applicable beyond media and entertainment, with potential for marketing, education, and e-commerce. The startup's next steps include an API, planned for release later this year, that would allow developers to integrate Cartwheel directly into games or other interactive environments. For now, anyone can sign up and begin animating in the browser at 'The tools of storytelling should be in more hands,' said Carr. 'That's what we're building for.'
Washington Post
22-03-2025
- Sport
- Washington Post
Oweh scores 20 points as third-seeded Kentucky beats Troy 76-57 in the NCAA Tournament
MILWAUKEE — Otega Oweh scored 20 points, Andrew Carr had 13 and third-seeded Kentucky beat Troy 76-57 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Friday. Oweh added eight assists and six rebounds, and Amari Williams grabbed 13 boards for Kentucky.
