Latest news with #Go
The Star
a day ago
- Business
- The Star
3,000 cyclists keep green mission in high gear at KL race
Tan (right) and Naquib (second from right) at the flag-off in Kuala Lumpur. A RECORD 3,000 cyclists converged in the capital city for the eighth edition of OCBC Cycle Kuala Lumpur. Spanning 25km of closed roads, the event had the longest non-overlapping stretch since the series began. The race with the theme 'Let's Go Cycle', was flagged off at 6.45am by Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) Culture, Arts, Tourism and Sports Department director Naquib Hamdan. Alongside him were OCBC Bank chief executive officer Tan Chor Sen and Multigreen Events chief executive officer Nezzam Malek. OCBC Al-Amin Bank chief executive officer Syed Abdull Aziz Syed Kechik joined 400 of his OCBC colleagues in the 50km category. Featuring participants from Malaysia and 30 other countries, the race saw the more serious cyclists riding through two 25km loops. The leisure cyclists opted for a single 25km loop, children took part on their own push bikes while team cyclists took on The KL Mayor's Ride. Syed Abdull Aziz (in white) raring to take on the 50km challenge. This year's route had new twists and turns that included stretches along Jalan Conlay and Jalan Kia Peng. Tan said it was gratifying to see families, including children enjoying themselves in the push bike category. He thanked the authorities, including police and DBKL for their support. 'It is no mean feat to pull off something like this as it involves fully closed roads in the city centre. 'As part of our quest to become more sustainable in our endeavours, OCBC Cycle KL 2025 sought to be even more environmentally friendly,' he said, adding that limited or no plastic packaging or paper flyers were used for the event. Instead, event information was displayed on large boards as well as the OCBC Cycle KL website. Also absent was the usual bubble wrap for medals, which were instead placed around the winners' necks or handed to them unwrapped. Recycling bins could be seen at strategic locations for collection of banana peel that were sent for composting. Nezzam said this year's level of participation was the highest to date. The race featured prizes for three adult bicycle types – mountain, road and folding bikes – for both men and women. All participants received a medal and digital certificate each, along with event sponsor goodies.
National Observer
a day ago
- Politics
- National Observer
Quebec language office pressed transit agency for months before the Habs playoff run
Quebec's language watchdog contacted the Montreal transit agency at least six times in the wake of a complaint about using the word "go" on city buses to cheer on a local soccer team. The watchdog — the Office québécois de la langue française — asked for multiple updates on the agency's efforts to remove the word, and kept the complaint open for nine months until 'go' had been scrubbed from more than 1,000 city buses in Montreal, according to emails obtained by The Canadian Press. The correspondence contrasts with the office's public comments responding to an April report in the Montreal Gazette that revealed how the transit agency had replaced the expression 'Go! Canadiens Go!' on its buses with 'Allez! Canadiens Allez!' to appease the watchdog. The news report, coinciding with the Montreal Canadiens' first home game of the Stanley Cup playoffs, prompted a public outcry and elicited a declaration from French-language Minister Jean-François Roberge in support of the expression 'Go Habs Go!' At that time, the watchdog said it had 'contacted the (transit agency) to inform it of the complaint and remind it of its obligations under the (French-language) charter.' But the office didn't share details about the length of its review and the number of times it pressed transit officials for updates. The internal correspondence reveals how an adviser for the language office sent at least six emails to the transit agency between May 2024 and January 2025, informing the agency of a complaint and asking about its plans to fix the problem. The documents were obtained under access-to-information law. The complaint, received on April 29, 2024, related to city buses displaying the expression 'Go! CF Mtl Go!' – a reference to Montreal's professional soccer club. The transit agency initially responded to the language office in June 2024, explaining that such slogans give bus drivers 'a way to salute national sports teams.' Using the word 'go' kept the message shorter and prevented it from scrolling across the buses' electronic displays, the email explained. Still, the agency agreed to remove the word, but warned the process could take several months. In response, the adviser asked why the change couldn't be made 'over a few days when the vehicles are in the garage.' The transit agency replied that each bus had to have its display changed manually, using a USB key. In July, the language watchdog informed the agency that the complaint would remain open until all the buses had been changed. The adviser then followed up two more times over the fall and winter to request updates. Eventually, the transit agency reported in January that 1,002 of its 1,104 buses had been updated, and the remaining 102 buses were out of service. The language office then agreed to close the complaint, on condition that each of the remaining buses would be updated before returning to service. In an email statement to The Canadian Press, a spokesperson for the language watchdog said the correspondence is 'part of a normal process for handling a complaint.' The language office never received a complaint about 'Go Habs Go' and was never informed that the transit agency was planning not to use the word 'go' in relation to the hockey team, said Gilles Payer. He said the office would not have pursued a complaint about 'Go Habs Go,' since the expression is a trademark, which does not need to be translated. A spokesperson for Roberge told The Canadian Press the minister was not aware of the issue until the change was first reported in April. But the documents show his own department was informed of the complaint shortly after it was received and intended to participate in the review. According to Quebec's French-language charter, complaints involving public bodies must be flagged to the French-language department. The department did not respond to questions about its role in response to this complaint. Roberge's spokesperson Thomas Verville said the language office received more than 10,000 complaints last year. 'The minister does not intervene in the complaints received' by the office, he said. 'That would be political interference.' Still, Roberge announced in April that he had held 'several discussions' with the language office, and that any future complaints about the expression 'Go Habs Go' would 'be deemed inadmissible.' He said the slogan has been used for decades to support the Montreal Canadiens. He also said employees of the language office were receiving threats. Verville said there is a 'huge difference' between using the word 'go' in reference to the Montreal soccer team as compared to the Montreal Canadiens. He said fans of CF Montréal typically chant 'Allez Montréal' during matches, while 'Go Habs Go' has long been part of Quebec culture. He added Roberge spoke out specifically to defend the expression 'Go Habs Go,' which was not the subject of the original complaint. He did not say whether the minister opposes the use of the word 'go' in reference to other sports teams. A spokesperson for the transit agency said it is still in discussions with the language office to 'obtain official confirmation that we are allowed to use the word 'go' in a sporting context and that we will not be penalized if we do so.' The agency says no change will be made before the buses undergo regular maintenance in the fall. This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 30, 2025.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Health
- Yahoo
The Countess of Wemyss, trepanning enthusiast who researched the medical benefits of psychedelics
The Countess of Wemyss and March, better known as Amanda Feilding, who has died aged 82, spent decades as a lonely voice crusading for the legalisation of LSD and its rehabilitation as a medical treatment, and claimed that the war on drugs had caused 'more suffering worldwide than any other act'. Once ridiculed as 'Lady Mindbender' or the 'crackpot countess of Brainblood Hall', she lived to see her life's work vindicated in the 'psychedelic renaissance' of recent years, with acid microdosing now evangelised in Silicon Valley and psychedelics heralded by regulators as a breakthrough in treating severe depression. When Amanda Feilding first encountered LSD in the mid-Sixties, she discovered with her friends that small doses – enough to feel 'sparkly' but not high – sharpened their faculties, helping them to win at the Chinese strategy game Go, or bowl better in cricket. 'We used to call it a psychovitamin,' she recalled. But the international flourishing of medical research into LSD was squashed in 1968 when a panicked US government classified psychedelics as 'Schedule 1 substances', designated as having the highest potential for abuse, and no medical value whatsoever. This anti-psychedelic backlash would last until the late 1990s, a combination of stigma and prohibitive red tape putting off any serious scientist interest. During those decades Amanda Feilding's campaign on behalf of psychedelics – 'the flesh of the gods' – was largely pursued through art, which she admitted was 'an uphill struggle'. It did not help that she was easily characterised as a batty aristocrat, living in her family's triple-moated Tudor hunting lodge, Beckley Park, which lent her pronouncements on legalising drugs a touch of 'de haut en bas'. She was also given to unguarded comments such as: 'I have always considered myself my own best laboratory.' As the Daily Mail once asked: 'Is the countess just an amusing and irrelevant eccentric? Or could she be a real danger to society?' But perhaps the greatest hindrance to her credibility as a drug policy reformer was that, between the 1960s and the 1990s, she had been more visible as a trepanning enthusiast, who in 1970 was filmed in a floral shower cap, boring a hole into her shaven skull with a dentist's drill to create more room for blood to pulse through her brain. She then ate a rare steak to replace the lost iron and went out to a party in Chelsea. The resulting documentary, Heartbeat in the Brain, was later screened in New York, where – as one reviewer put it – the fainting audience members could be seen 'dropping off their seats one by one like ripe plums'. Amanda Feilding went on to stand twice for parliament, in 1979 and 1983, on a platform of free trepanation on the NHS, but she was later canny enough to distance herself from the practice, which the new science of brain imaging had failed to support. For the rehabilitation of psychedelics, on the other hand, brain imaging proved a watershed, giving 'you a visual perspective that you can't deny,' she said. Realising that she would have 'to use science as a tool to prove what one was saying was true, not part of a kind of druggy fantasy,' in 1998 Amanda Feilding launched the Beckley Foundation as a 'trojan horse' to infiltrate the establishment. She assembled a board of leading neuroscientists and borrowed her family crest for its double-headed eagle logo, 'to make it look like a college,' she recalled. She converted a 17th-century cowshed knee-deep in manure into the nerve centre of her operation – nicknamed 'World Consciousness House' by her husband Jamie Charteris (Lord Neidpath, and later Earl of Wemyss) – and from it she built the Beckley Foundation into one of the largest organisations campaigning for drug reform around the world. The rarefied atmosphere of Beckley Park lent the organisation a gravitas not ordinarily to be found in drug reform circles. Amanda Feilding was able to give seminars at the House of Lords and in 2011 the foundation's open letter calling for an end to the war on drugs attracted the signatures of Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Desmond Tutu and Mario Vargas Llosa. In 2008 she co-founded the psychedelic research programme at Imperial College London with Professor David Nutt, who shortly afterwards was fired as government drugs czar for observing that alcohol and tobacco did more public harm than LSD, cannabis or ecstasy – a decision Amanda Feilding likened to the Vatican's treatment of Galileo. In 2016 the Beckley/Imperial partnership produced the first ever images of a brain under LSD. It was still hand-to-mouth, but a crowdfunded appeal for £25,000 to process the images met its target within 36 hours. The findings suggested that the drug limited the brain's 'ego' mechanism, known as 'the default mode network', and might be able to rewire the repetitive cycles associated with depression, addictions and obsessive compulsive disorder. That year another Beckley/Imperial study, published in The Lancet Psychiatry, became the first of its kind to demonstrate that psilocybin – the LSD-like active ingredient in magic mushrooms – in conjunction with psychotherapy could be effective against treatment-resistant depression. By 2019 US regulators had fast-tracked further research by designating psilocybin a 'breakthrough therapy' for treatment-resistant depression. Despite being, in her own words, 'a female with no letters to my name', Amanda Feilding was widely judged to have contributed to a step change in our understanding of the brain mechanism of psychedelics and in laying the foundations for a new era of clinical research. 'I am very, very happy to be proved wrong,' she said. 'What I want to do is know.' Amanda Claire Marian Feilding was born on January 30 1943, the fourth child of Basil Feilding and his wife – and distant cousin – Margaret (Peggy), née Feilding; both were descended from the Habsburgs, and from two illegitimate children of Charles II. Amanda's early life was reminiscent of I Capture the Castle: money and fuel were forever running out, while she ran wild in the topiaried garden, her greatest delight being to coax laughter out of her private god: 'that kind of orgasm experience that I think a lot of young children have and then forget'. Her father, a great-grandson of both the Earl of Denbigh and the Marquess of Bath, farmed at night so that the day could be free for painting. 'Violent-tempered, very eccentric, charming and mercurial,' he had an anarchist temperament, and advised her: 'Whatever the authorities or the government tells you to do – do the opposite.' The Tudor house, seemingly adrift in a sea of mist, inspired free-thinking, like 'an island outside culture in which you are free to explore,' Amanda recalled. Aldous Huxley was said to have been inspired to write his debut novel Crome Yellow after visiting Beckley Park for tea in 1921. Her own father read to her at bedtime from The Seven Pillars of Wisdom and The Third Eye. There was, Amanda Feilding recalled, 'a deep feeling that one didn't need to follow society because one was slightly above it'. Although her father was an atheist, her mother was a Catholic and sent her to convent school. Amanda abandoned formal education at 16, however, when she won the science prize but the nuns refused her request to be given as a reward a book on Buddhism. With £25 in her pocket she set off for Ceylon to visit the godfather she had never met, a Buddhist monk called Bertie Moore, but lost her passport in Syria and instead lived for a time with the Bedouin. On her return to England she studied comparative religion with an Oxford professor and became an art student at the Slade. Her first encounter with LSD was not auspicious. Michael Hollingshead, an unhinged associate of Timothy O'Leary, spiked her cup of coffee with a thousand-fold dose of acid. She took three months to recover, finally venturing out to go to a party where a Ravi Shankar performance was promised. There she met Bart Huges, a bright young Dutch doctor who converted her to the cause of trepanation and with whom she began controlled experiments with LSD. She lived for a time in a 'threesome' with Huges and another of his disciples, Joe Mellen, who remained her partner for 30 years and the father of her two sons, Rock Basil and Cosmo Birdie. Huges, however, was too vocal about trepanation and found himself on the front page of a Sunday tabloid under the headline: 'This dangerous idiot should be thrown out of the country.' A knock on the door duly came from two burly government officials and Huges was barred from Britain for the remainder of his life. She would have followed him to Holland had it not been for her tame pigeon, Birdie, whom she had saved as a pigeon chick and fed on bits of Weetabix from the end of a paintbrush. They lived together for 15 years, communicated telepathically and were, she said, 'madly in love'. The pigeon would jealously attack her partner Joe Mellen whenever his hands were occupied and he was unable to fight back. Birdie would also peck her on the eyeball but this was, she said, 'how they show love'. 'I have two obviously wonderful children, but this? It was a unique type of love,' she recalled. She was a talented painter, and as well as immortalising Birdie in oils, she earned a living for a time selling hand-coloured prints on the Portobello Road; she and Mellen also ran The Pigeon Hole Gallery in Chelsea. After four years of failing to find a doctor to trepan her, she decided to go it alone. 'I was trained as a sculptor, so I thought, 'I spend all my time making holes in objects, I might as well make one in my own head.'' When asked whether she was scared, she replied: 'Well, skiing is terrifying.' Four hours later she experienced a feeling of peace and an uplifting. 'You remain the same personality, with the same hangups, character defects, et cetera, et cetera,' she observed. 'But we all have our neurotic bag we carry around. I think trepanation, by increasing the brain-blood volume, it lessens that bag.' When in 1995 she married Jamie Charteris, she persuaded him to be trepanned in a Cairo hospital, which he claimed cured him of his lifelong headaches. Amanda Feilding worked 15-hour days for her cause. Among her supporters was the 'father' of LSD, the Swiss scientist Albert Hofmann, who was president of the Beckley Foundation until his death in 2008 aged 102, but who lived to see her fulfil her promise to him that she would obtain permission to carry out the first LSD research on human subjects since the early 1970s. Amanda Feilding is survived by her husband, who in 2008 succeeded as 13th Earl of Wemyss and 9th Earl of March, and by her two sons by Joe Mellen. The elder, Rock, is involved with Beckley Retreats, which organises psilocybin retreats; the younger, Cosmo, is CEO of Beckley Psytech, which aims to develop psychedelic medicines for the market, and has received a $50 million investment from the Peter Thiel-backed Atai Life Sciences. Amanda Feilding, born January 30 1943, died May 22 2025 Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Gabe on the Go: Cuddling with goats in Cumming
CUMMING, Iowa — Howell's Greenhouse and Pumpkin Patch started out as just that — a greenhouse and pumpkin patch. But now, the attraction has become so much more — and it's a place you can visit year-round. The late spring and summer months are goat cuddling 'season' at Howell's. Visitors are able to cuddle with baby goats, which some visitors have expressed almost feels like therapy. More stories: Gabe on the Go There are also two massive playgrounds and lots of space for little ones to run around and play. A silo has been turned into a 'corn pool,' essentially a giant sandbox that is instead filled with corn. In addition, kids will find a station to make mud pies. Goat cuddling attracts adults and kids, but adults will also enjoy the greenhouse where flowers and plants can be purchased. Next to the greenhouse is a farm market where visitors can continue to shop. Later in the year, flower fields will also be part of the visitor experience, including a sunflower field for the late summer and fall months. Other fall activities will include the namesake pumpkin patch, corn maze, and other activities. Howell's is open every day from 10 AM to 5 PM. Hours extend to 6 PM in September and October. They are closed on most holidays. For more information, visit their website here. Gabe on the Go: Cuddling with goats in Cumming Sausage plant planned for Perry, 500 new jobs to be created Inside look at Final Four in Coolest Thing Made in Iowa Contest Forecast: Thursday raindrops, then heat Gov. Kim Reynolds signs bill aimed at growing rural hospital workforces Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Time of India
4 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
Zoho's Sridhar Vembu says one skill can still help software developers beat AI. How to learn?
Sridhar Vembu, Zoho founder, shared his perspective on software development and AI. He emphasized the importance of human intuition and creativity. He cautioned against blindly relying on AI, which could lead to unmanageable code. Vembu highlighted Zoho's use of AI in its products and internal operations. Social media users discussed the future of programming skills. Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads What is the one skill that will help techies? In a world racing towards automation and AI-driven everything, Zoho founder Sridhar Vembu offers a grounded, thought-provoking take on what truly makes great software. While AI continues to evolve at breakneck speed—powering tools, generating code, and even playing games like Chess and Go with surprising ingenuity—Vembu reminds us that some things, like intuition, creativity, and judgment, still remain distinctly to social media, Vembu broke down the essence of software development as the discovery and application of patterns. He emphasized that good programmers are those who master existing patterns and use them wisely. But great programmers go a step further—they discover new, elegant patterns that push the boundaries of software acknowledged that smart AI has become skilled at learning from an immense pool of known patterns and recommending their use, making life easier for developers in many scenarios. But he issued a caution: without careful discernment, relying blindly on AI could lead to what he called 'impossible to maintain AI slop'—bloated, unmanageable, and inefficient codebases that lack structure and Vembu noted that AI hasn't yet reached the stage where it can create truly original, beautiful new patterns—something the best human programmers do intuitively. However, he hinted that it may just be a matter of time, citing examples like AI's surprising strategies in games such as Chess and Go. Overall, Zoho's Rs 50,000 crore man's tweet is a reminder that no matter the change AI brings, innovation still begins with the human mind. Following Sridhar Vembu's reflections on software development and the evolving role of AI, several users on social media joined the conversation with compelling insights and questions of their user raised a concern about the future of programming judgment, questioning how developers would cultivate this critical skill if they relied too heavily on AI for coding tasks. In response, Vembu emphasized the importance of humans continuing to understand and appreciate good patterns, adding that at least some individuals must retain the ability to create new ones—just as is essential in music or asked how he stays up to speed with the rapidly evolving world of AI, especially having started Zoho before the AI boom, Sridhar Vembu shared that he dedicates most of his waking hours to reading, learning, thinking, and experimenting in a continuous loop. He outlined four key ways Zoho is leveraging AI. First, the company is actively integrating AI into its products to enhance productivity and user experience, with use cases like summarizing information, generating insights and reports, and suggesting actions to users. Second, AI is being used internally across functions—marketing, sales, support and IT to optimize workflows. Third, Zoho is applying AI in software development, mainly as an advanced alternative to search, though usage varies by developer. Lastly, the company has a small research team working on foundational AI models and ideas, aiming for long-term noted that pattern matching is already a strength of AI models. With the continuous scaling of data and advancements in emerging methodologies, these systems are expected to become even more proficient. However, they cautioned that the challenge ahead may shift from creating code to mastering how best to use such powerful tools, indicating that the core skillsets required in tech could soon undergo a major transformation. Many found the discussion deeply thought-provoking, appreciating how it sparked optimism and curiosity about the possibilities ahead for developers and AI alike.
