United Kingdom

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/11903635

Mini missions are being launched amid the spires – a haven for dust particles that may contain clues about the cosmos and the early Earth

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/11904297

Researchers at Nottingham Trent University hope device used at home will improve tracking of tumours

One of the UK's most under-rated songwriters, in my opinion. RIP, enjoy the Death Trip

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/7700342

Driverless vehicle that uses sensors to measure road surface quality and repair small cracks to stop them turning into potholes and hopefully decreasing the cost of road maintenance while improving average surface quality.

A delivery driver hands over your takeaway on a Friday night but you probably don’t give the exchange too much thought.

Food delivery apps pride themselves on offering safety and tracking features such as including the name and photo of a rider – but the truth is you don’t really know who you’re opening your front door to.

An i investigation has uncovered a growing black market for renting accounts on apps including Deliveroo, Uber Eats and Just Eat, with more than 100,000 people subscribing to Facebook groups where people can rent, buy or sell profiles in the past three years.

Your food may have been dropped off by a ‘substitute’ rider, someone who has rented a profile on an app from another worker without having to register and will likely have avoided the strict vetting process official riders undergo.

It is a loophole that can be exploited by those who would fail a criminal background check or are in the country illegally, with activity on the Facebook groups, seen by i, indicating the majority of people wishing to rent out a profile on an app do not go through any level of vetting and do not meet the legal criteria to work in the UK.

Three women’s rights groups said they were concerned by the findings of i‘s investigation and warned that women were being put at risk of violence and sexual harassment by the practice of allowing substitute drivers to be effectively untraceable.

...

There are also concerns that some substitute workers are being exploited by traffickers and gangs in breach of the Modern Slavery Act. One expert said that the UK’s “hostile immigration environment” is pushing people into precarious work and that more scrutiny should be on Government policy and the business model of food delivery companies.

...

Analysis by i shows demand for renting delivery app profiles through Facebook is growing. One such group has gained almost 28,000 members in less than 18 months.

People using these Facebook channels to find work can pay an up-front deposit and a weekly rental fee, which is usually between £70 to £100 a week, to get a rider account. Buying a profile is less common, with some fetching up to £5,000. There are no caps on how much a rider can charge but the rules state they must pay the courier.

A substitute rider operating in the black market is vulnerable on a number of levels. For example, they are required to hand over large sums of money up-front and they are reliant on the account holder honouring their agreement and transferring their earnings whether they are renting or have bought the profile.

Archive (original link)

cross-posted from: https://infosec.pub/post/9811127

Two of the UK's biggest supermarket chains, Tesco and Sainsbury's, were hit with technical issues on Saturday; Sainsbury's blames a software update (Bloomberg.com)

Bloomberg.com: Two of the UK's biggest supermarket chains, Tesco and Sainsbury's, were hit with technical issues on Saturday; Sainsbury's blames a software update  —  Two of the UK's biggest supermarket chains - Tesco and Sainsbury's - were hit with technical issues on Saturday.

School leaders said that as well as hunger they were now trying to mitigate exhaustion, with increasing numbers of children living in homes without enough beds or unable to sleep because they were cold. They warned that “desperate” poverty was driving problems with behaviour, persistent absence and mental health.

The head of a primary school in a deprived area in north-west England, speaking anonymously to avoid identifying vulnerable children, said: “We have a child who we put in the shower a couple of times a week.” He described the family’s bathroom as “disgusting” and said they couldn’t afford to buy cleaning products.

Across the UK people have been hit by lengthy waiting lists, with some resorting to pulling out their own teeth as they struggle to find a dentist.

At the same time, skilled dentists are "sitting in their homes" desperate to help, but hindered by red tape.

The chair of a refugee charity described the situation as "ludicrous", as the government launched a plan to simplify the route into work for overseas dentists.

The ZX Spectrum Vega+ was supposed to be the perfect way to experience classic ZX Spectrum games on the go, but after a botched crowdfunding campaign, ropey hardware and the collapse of the company behind it, Retro Computers Ltd, it has gone down as something of a disaster.

The bad taste left by the Vega+ hasn't deterred another firm, Elmar Electronic, from having a stab at the concept, though. The ZX Touch is a portable take on Sir Clive Sinclair's classic home computer which boasts a 7-inch touch display, WiFi, SD card support and a six-hour battery life.

Elmar Electronic is "a small company with more than 40 years of history and twenty dedicated employees" which specializes in "the development and manufacturing of industrial and telecommunication equipment". One of its co-owners, Goran Radan, has a deep affection for the Spectrum, which led him to create the ZX-VGA-JOY project. The ZX Touch is his next Sinclair-flavoured venture.

22 games come built-in, all of which are included with the permission of the original developer or rights holder, but you can load up other titles via an SD card.

Both the hardware and software are entirely bespoke; there's no OS included, as the software inside is "pure c/c++ code running on embedded high-performance ARM Cortex-M7 480Mhz MCU" according to the manufacturer.

"If Michael Gove really wants to root out the forces threatening British society, perhaps his party should look in the mirror"

Jones told The Register that attacks range from simply chopping through fiber-optic cables in an underground duct, to lifting the cover of an access chamber, pouring in petrol, and setting the whole lot alight.

The motives for these attacks are thought to be simply vandalism or people with a grudge against a particular provider, rather than being a case of network operators aiming to sabotage their rivals, Jones claimed.

“You find instances where a chamber containing equipment for multiple providers has been accessed, but only one provider has been attacked,” he said, adding that it could be ex-employees with a grudge and that some attacks have even been 5G protesters simply targeting any digital infrastructure.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/11548313

Confirmation comes after public consultation and decision to close Gender Identity Development Service in London

Archived version: https://archive.ph/33GMN

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/11548105

The convicted sex offender's lawyers argue she is covered by a deal made with prosecutors in 2008.

Archived version: https://archive.ph/mco7i

"It is not a coincidence that the spending that is deemed irresponsible is typically for the benefits system or wider welfare state. Tax breaks for a CEO’s investment portfolio are prudent, while funding for a disabled person’s care worker is wasteful."