Latest news with #SarahBird
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Yahoo
Wallaby sculpture trail honours escape mob
A mob of giant wallaby sculptures has hopped its way into the Staffordshire Moorlands as part of a new trail encouraging people to explore the area. They can be found in towns, villages and beauty spots across the Moorlands – in a nod to the animals which famously escaped from a nearby private zoo in the 1930s. There are 10 colourful sculptures located in various well-known places – including Rudyard Lake, Peak Wildlife Park and Biddulph Grange Country Park. All the sculptures are situated outdoors, with car parking available nearby. With the exception of the sculpture at Peak Wildlife Park (available to view between 10:00 BST and 18:00), they are accessible at all hours. Real wallabies were commonly viewed around The Roaches, and although they are rarely seen now, there are occasionally sightings reported. A group of wallabies was said by local historians to have been set free from the private zoo on the Swythamley Estate. They bred, leading to a mob of about 50 of them across the area. "We hope this trail will encourage people to get outside and have fun, and we're excited to see the Moorlands get even more wild about wallabies," said Peak Wildlife Park director James Butler, who invited people to come and visit their captive mob of wallabies. Sarah Bird, creative director of arts organisation Outside, said each of the sculptures told a "unique story" of the people and places of the Moorlands. "We can't wait for everyone to head out to find the sculptures over the summer and, in doing so, explore the landscape and discover the creativity across the district." The sculptures will be in place until 5 September. The full list of sculpture locations… The Hideaway Café, Biddulph Grange Country Park, Biddulph, ST8 7TA Rudyard Lake Visitor Centre and Cafe, Off Lake Road, Rudyard, ST13 8XB Buxton and Leek College, Stockwell Street, Leek, ST13 6DP Tittesworth Water Visitor Centre, Meerbrook, ST13 8SW Manifold Valley Visitor Centre, Hulme End, SK17 0EZ YHA Ilam Hall, Ilam, Ashbourne, DE6 2AZ Earl's Drive, Off Red Road, Dimmingsdale, Alton, ST10 4BU Cheadle Market Square, 58 High Street, Cheadle, ST10 1AJ Blythe Bridge Library, Uttoxeter Road, Blythe Bridge, ST11 9JR Peak Wildlife Park, Winkhill, ST13 7QR (outside entrance, entry fee not required to visit the wallaby sculpture) Follow BBC Stoke & Staffordshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram. More on this story Escaped albino wallaby recaptured near Dover How likely is a Nottinghamshire wallaby encounter? Survey shows wild wallaby population likely 1,000 Wayward wallaby spotted in Devon garden Related internet links Outside Arts
BBC News
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Wallaby sculpture trail honours escape mob in Staffordshire Moorlands
A mob of giant wallaby sculptures has hopped its way into the Staffordshire Moorlands as part of a new trail encouraging people to explore the can be found in towns, villages and beauty spots across the Moorlands – in a nod to the animals which famously escaped from a nearby private zoo in the are 10 colourful sculptures located in various well-known places – including Rudyard Lake, Peak Wildlife Park and Biddulph Grange Country the sculptures are situated outdoors, with car parking available nearby. With the exception of the sculpture at Peak Wildlife Park (available to view between 10:00 BST and 18:00), they are accessible at all wallabies were commonly viewed around The Roaches, and although they are rarely seen now, there are occasionally sightings reported.A group of wallabies was said by local historians to have been set free from the private zoo on the Swythamley bred, leading to a mob of about 50 of them across the area. "We hope this trail will encourage people to get outside and have fun, and we're excited to see the Moorlands get even more wild about wallabies," said Peak Wildlife Park director James Butler, who invited people to come and visit their captive mob of Bird, creative director of arts organisation Outside, said each of the sculptures told a "unique story" of the people and places of the Moorlands."We can't wait for everyone to head out to find the sculptures over the summer and, in doing so, explore the landscape and discover the creativity across the district."The sculptures will be in place until 5 September. The full list of sculpture locations… The Hideaway Café, Biddulph Grange Country Park, Biddulph, ST8 7TARudyard Lake Visitor Centre and Cafe, Off Lake Road, Rudyard, ST13 8XBBuxton and Leek College, Stockwell Street, Leek, ST13 6DPTittesworth Water Visitor Centre, Meerbrook, ST13 8SWManifold Valley Visitor Centre, Hulme End, SK17 0EZYHA Ilam Hall, Ilam, Ashbourne, DE6 2AZEarl's Drive, Off Red Road, Dimmingsdale, Alton, ST10 4BUCheadle Market Square, 58 High Street, Cheadle, ST10 1AJBlythe Bridge Library, Uttoxeter Road, Blythe Bridge, ST11 9JRPeak Wildlife Park, Winkhill, ST13 7QR (outside entrance, entry fee not required to visit the wallaby sculpture) Follow BBC Stoke & Staffordshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
BBC News
11-07-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Biddulph's Festival of Brilliant hopes to inspire children to read
Organisers of a festival in Staffordshire hope to inspire hundreds of children to Festival of Brilliant at Biddulph Old Hall will include theatre, dance, acrobatics, circus acts and author readings in the grounds of the 14th Century Bird, Director of Outside Arts, described reading as a gift and has set out to make the annual event as enjoyable as possible for children."We passionately believe that stories and reading have the power to transform people's lives for the better and make them happier," she said. One thousand pupils from across the Staffordshire Moorlands will attend the event on Friday and a public celebration will take place for families on Saturday. Ms Bird said reading for pleasure was at an all-time low and that competition for children's attention had never been higher."Books can offer confidence, creativity, innovation, empathy and can really feed children's mental wellbeing," she said."There's no surprise there's a correlation there between instances of mental health challenges in young people at the same time as there's this big dip in reading for pleasure."We want the children to be able to suspend their disbelief and step into a fairytale world."Her creative team have listened to local librarians, authors and families to shape their programme of events for the of the ideas suggested by a youth advisory group of teenagers was a Harry Potter film night, which will take place on Friday evening. A number of popular children's authors will attend the event, including the Children's Laureate Frank Cottrell organisers said they hoped that by staging the event in July it would spark an enthusiasm for reading ahead of the summer holidays, a period when children generally read less frequently.
BBC News
26-06-2025
- Health
- BBC News
Revised figures show higher numbers were hit by water parasite
An annual report has found 143 people were confirmed to have had cryptosporidiosis during an outbreak in Devon in May 2024, with four hospitalisations. The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) previously confirmed 126 cases during the revised figure of 143 includes lab-confirmed Bird, consultant in health protection at UKHSA South West, said a study to estimate the impact of the outbreak in South Devon in 2024 would be published once a Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI) investigation was complete. The report's authors said 'typing' was used to determine the source and routes of infections and differentiate between individual isolates of the same microorganism. 'Very rare' Thousands of home and businesses across Devon were affected by the outbreak."Drinking water outbreaks are very rare in the UK," Ms Bird said."However, cryptosporidiosis is not an uncommon infection and can be picked up from lots of different sources." Ms Bird said in most cases the symptoms, which include abdominal pain and diarrhoea, go after a few days. "However, in some cases, cryptosporidiosis can be unpleasant with diarrhoea lasting for several weeks," she said.
CNBC
21-05-2025
- Business
- CNBC
Walmart AI details leaked during Microsoft Build conference
Microsoft AI security chief Neta Haiby showed a confidential Teams chat to a room full of people on Tuesday, revealing details from the company's artificial intelligence plan for Walmart, according to materials viewed by CNBC. Protesters interrupted the Microsoft Build session on best security practices and Haiby switched her screen share amid the ruckus, showing that Walmart, one of Microsoft's most significant customers, was "ready to ROCK AND ROLL with [Microsoft's] Entra Web and Al Gateway." The message, posted by Leigh Samons, a principal cloud solution architect at Microsoft, detailed the process for how Microsoft would go about integrating its technology into Walmart's processes. It also said that one of Walmart's tools needed extra safeguards. "MyAssistant is one they build that is overly powerful and needs guardrails," the message said, referencing a tool Walmart created and built last summer that "leverages a unique build of Walmart proprietary data, technology and large language models in Azure OpenAI Service," according to a January press release. The tool helps store associates summarize long documents, create new marketing content and more, per the release. The internal Teams message also cited a "distinguished" AI engineer at Walmart as saying, "Microsoft is WAY ahead of Google with Al Security. We are excited to go down this path with you." The Verge was first to report on the AI plans. CNBC has reached out to Microsoft and Walmart for comment. The protest singled out Sarah Bird, Microsoft's head of responsible AI who was part of the Build panel with Haiby. Haiby herself was formerly a member of the Israeli Defense Forces, according to a years-old Tumblr page viewed by CNBC. Haiby did not immediately respond to a request for comment. "Sarah Bird, you are whitewashing the crimes of Microsoft in Palestine," Hossam Nasr, an organizer with the group No Azure for Apartheid, said, continuing, "How dare you talk about..." before the livestream audio was muted. Nasr was one of the Microsoft employees terminated last year after planning a vigil for Palestinians killed in Gaza. The protest and the reveal of Walmart's AI plans followed another disruption earlier that day at Microsoft's Build developer conference in Seattle when an unnamed Palestinian tech worker disrupted a speech by Jay Parikh, Microsoft's head of CoreAI. "Jay, you are complicit in the genocide in Gaza," the tech worker, who did not wish to share his name for fear of retaliation, said. "My people are suffering because of you. How dare you. How dare you talk about AI when my people are suffering. Cut ties with Israel." He then called to "free Palestine" and said, "No Azure for apartheid," a nod to the group and its petition. On Monday, Microsoft software engineer Joe Lopez interrupted CEO Satya Nadella's keynote speech onstage, saying, "Satya, how about you show them how Microsoft is killing Palestinians? How about you show them how Israeli war crimes are powered by Azure?" The recent disruptions are part of a mounting string of protests at Microsoft events over the Israeli military's use of the company's AI products. At Microsoft's 50th anniversary event last month, two Microsoft software engineers publicly protested during executive presentations. The roles of both employees were terminated soon after, according to documents viewed by CNBC. At the April event, Ibtihal Aboussad, then a software engineer in the company's AI division, interrupted Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman's speech. "Mustafa, shame on you," Aboussad said as she walked toward the stage at the event in Redmond, Washington. "You claim that you care for using AI for good, but Microsoft sells AI weapons to the Israeli military. Fifty thousand people have died, and Microsoft powers this genocide in our region." "You have blood on your hands," she said before being swiftly escorted out. "All of Microsoft has blood on its hands." Although the Microsoft protests centered on the Israeli military's use of its technology, AI companies in recent months have been walking back bans on broader military use of their products and entering into deals with defense industry giants and the Defense Department. In November, Anthropic and defense contractor Palantir announced a partnership with Amazon Web Services to provide U.S. intelligence and defense agencies access to Anthropic's Claude AI models. Palantir recently signed a new five-year deal worth up to $100 million to expand U.S. military access to its Maven AI warfare program. OpenAI and Anduril announced a partnership allowing the defense tech company to deploy advanced AI systems for "national security missions." And last month, Scale AI forged a deal with the Department of Defense for a multimillion-dollar flagship AI agent program.
