Latest news with #ColinMcInnes
Daily Record
30-07-2025
- General
- Daily Record
Family with baby 'left to sleep on street' due to Glasgow council phone outage
Homeless Project Scotland believes if they had not been there, then the woman would have been "forced to walk the streets of Glasgow all night" with her young children. A mum and her two children were left to " sleep on the streets" as she could not get in touch with Glasgow City Council for help during their phone blackout. The mum-of-two was forced to take her family to a homeless shelter after being removed from a temporary accommodation. She arrived with her children at Homeless Project Scotland's night shelter on Glassford Street at around 9.30pm on Monday, July 28. The team were shocked to see she was in the company of her six-year-old daughter and seven-month-old baby, reports Glasgow Live. Founder of the charity, Colin McInnes, believes if the volunteer-run shelter had not been there, the woman would have been "forced to walk the streets of Glasgow all night". Glasgow City Council's phone lines were down on Monday evening, meaning she could not get in touch for help. Once volunteers managed to make communication with the council, the woman and her two children were safely picked up and placed back in temporary accommodation at around 12.30am, Colin confirmed. He says the incident came after the council's Health and Social Care team failed to inform the hotel that the family required an extended stay, leaving her on the streets of Glasgow. Posting on X, Homeless Project Scotland wrote: "Glasgow City Council phone lines were down. No support was available. If our volunteer-run shelter didn't exist, this newborn and their mum would have been sleeping on the streets of Glasgow. "This is the harsh reality. This is why we fight to keep our shelter open. Because when the system fails, we step in." A spokeswoman for Glasgow City Council said: 'We regret there was a period of time last night when the public could not make contact with council services. Alternative contact details were communicated, and the issue was resolved promptly.' Glasgow City Council warned locals that its telephone systems were down yesterday as Community Alarm calls were going unanswered. The City Council's Community Alarm telecare service enables people with disabilities, health problems and elderly people to summon assistance in an emergency. Users wear a pendant with an emergency button that allows calls to be made from anywhere in the home to 24-hour call handlers who can then call relatives, police or the fire brigade to assist. Call handlers could see the calls coming in but could not answer them, the council said, with all incoming calls affected. The council said it would contact family members and send responders out to check on the well-being of Community Alarm users. In a statement shared to social media, the council said: 'Please note our telephone systems are down. All incoming calls to council services are affected. 'Our alarm receiving centre can see calls coming in but can't answer them. This includes calls from service users with a Community Alarm – we will make contact with family members and will send responders out to check on their well-being. 'The Glasgow and Partners Emergency Social Work Services are contacting all relevant partners to provide alternative details for any urgent social work needs. Further updates to follow.' Join the Daily Record WhatsApp community! Get the latest news sent straight to your messages by joining our WhatsApp community today. You'll receive daily updates on breaking news as well as the top headlines across Scotland. No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the Daily Record team. All you have to do is click here if you're on mobile, select 'Join Community' and you're in! If you're on a desktop, simply scan the QR code above with your phone and click 'Join Community'. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. To leave our community click on the name at the top of your screen and choose 'exit group'.
Glasgow Times
07-07-2025
- Glasgow Times
Legal threats to council in Glasgow over homelessness
Details of the number of cases over a three-month period showed more than 700 threats of legal action. The most by far were submitted by solicitors working with charity, Homeless Project Scotland. READ NEXT:Calton residents hit out at minister's comments over drug needles The charity is currently involved in a planning wrangle with the council over its night shelter in Glassford Street. It has been told that it has no planning permission to operate the premises as a shelter for people overnight and must close. When people come to the shelter the charity tries to get them into accommodation. The charity says without it these people would be left on the streets. Working with Ross Harper Solicitors, it has been using the threat of Judicial Review to force action to get people accommodated. The council said often cases are resolved before they get to court. Other legal representatives have used the same redress for people. The recent figures obtained by Homeless Project Scotland under Freedom of Information, and shared with the Glasgow Times, showed the charity with the solicitors has submitted more than others. READ NEXT:Drugs minister said consumption room is not causing more crime or needles Legal charity Govan Law Centre and Shelter Scotland have also use the Judicial Review process for clients. It asked Glasgow City Council for details of Judicial Review notifications or threats. The FOI reply stated: 'The number of Judicial Review threats the Council has received in the 12 weeks prior to 9th June 2025 were as follows: Ross Harper Solicitors acting in partnership with Homeless Project Scotland – 424. Govan Law Centre – 205. Shelter Scotland – 131. Legal Services Agency – 4. The council stated: 'All the Judicial Review threats were submitted by email and the subject matter for all the Judicial Review threats was homelessness. 'These totals include duplicate Judicial Review threats for the same cases as well as Judicial Review threats for cases which were already resolved.' Colin McInnes, chair of Homeless Project Scotland, said: 'The law is there to be used to protect vulnerable people and the council's responsibilities on homelessness are clear. 'We will seek to ensure the council is held to account and will use legal means to get people the accommodation they are legally entitled to.' A spokesperson for Glasgow City Council, said: 'On a weekly basis – sometimes daily – the council receives notification of potential judicial reviews. 'The majority of cases do not even make it to court. This is because we either don't have a responsibility for the person/s involved or they already have accommodation in Glasgow or elsewhere. 'In situations where we do have a responsibility, it is usual for accommodation to be arranged before it gets to court. I 'In many cases, efforts to secure that accommodation will have been ongoing before notice of potential judicial review is received. 'We obviously try and accommodate everyone who presents as homeless. We resort to the use of hotel and B&B accommodation to meet immediate need. 'In cases where we can't accommodate, we explore all options available to them and remain in touch in order that we can offer accommodation as soon as we are able.'
Forbes
12-05-2025
- Science
- Forbes
Sam Altman On Harvesting Star Power
There's a new wrinkle in the connection between the artificial intelligence race, and the drive to explore deep space. It's getting a shot in the arm today with a headline from The Information that Sam Altman is talking about Dyson spheres, and colonizing the light cone. For most of us who aren't NASA nerds, this is all Greek. What is the light cone, and how do you colonize it? And what is a Dyson sphere? But in the end, these kinds of previously theoretical technologies are becoming more viable with actual experimentation aimed at gleaning energy from the stars. A Dyson sphere is a theoretical construct formulated by Freeman Dyson circa 1960, where some existing system would harness power from a nearby star, and send it somewhere else – presumably, to Earth. Some of the leading theories on Dyson spheres have suggested that it would be a series of satellites, and not a single unit, that would scoop up that power and transfer it across deep space. 'Dyson spheres … suffer from a fatal flaw: They are catastrophically unstable,' writes Paul Sutter at LiveScience. 'But now an engineer claims to have figured out a way to stabilize these structures — and all it takes is two stars.' Sutter chronicles some of the work of Colin McInnes, an engineer at the University of Glasgow, who suggests that with the right star duo, and stable gravitation, a Dyson sphere may be viable. But there's still the question of sending that power to ground: McInnes's work was based, not specifically on human aims, but on any civilization, (like alien lizards for example,) making one of these contraptions. How would humans do this? With the understanding that cabling cannot be used to transfer or direct the energy in question, that leaves the technique of electromagnetic radiation. However, as of 2023, we actually have the first experiment of its kind to successfully transmit power to the Earth in this way – it's called MAPLE, and it was developed at Cal Tech. 'To the best of our knowledge, no one has ever demonstrated wireless energy transfer in space, even with expensive rigid structures,' said Dr. Ali Hajimiri, Co-Director of the Space-Based Solar Power Project, in a press statement. 'We are doing it with flexible, lightweight structures and with our own integrated circuits. This is a first!' So that brings the Dyson sphere one more step towards reality. As for the 'light cone,' deep space insiders point out that it's a term to denote that vast stretch of space to which light could emanate from the Earth. In other words, if you can construct Dyson spheres around stars, you could do that anywhere in the light cone. And you could call that a 'colony,' since you're harvesting natural commodities - in this case, star power. We're probably going to hear more about how the head of OpenAI and other pioneering innovators are talking about this kind of space exploration and energy capture. At the same time, Altman and crew are engaged in this effort toward nuclear fusion, as an alternative way to provide large amounts of power for data centers and LLM operations. So deep space is likely going to be a focus for business and government in this decade. Stay tuned for more.
