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Member since 2017-07-15T03:50:57Z. Last seen 2025-03-18T19:45:31Z.
2753 blog posts. 128 comments.
1) LS17 Alwoodley / Adel
2) LS18 Horsforth
3) LS8 Roundhay
4) LS6 Meanwood
5) LS6 Far Headingley
6) LS7 Chapel Allerton
7) LS16 West park
8) LS16 Weetwood
9) Ls17 Moortown
10) L20 Guiseley
11) Ls21 Otley
12) Ls28 Pudsey
13) LS8 Roundhay
14) Adel
15) Alwoodley
16) Shawell
17) Morely
Bad areas
1) LS8 Harehills
2) LS6 Hyde Park
3) LS6 Headingley (shopping area)
4) Ls7 Chapel Town
5) Ls13 Bramley
6) Ls28 Pudsey 東北邊近Bramley
Words 25/4
Talking classes
Sports Beginner
Team Sports: Soccer Basketball Baseball Hockey Rugby Handball Ultimate frisbee
Individual Sports: Tennis Swimming Gymnastics Running Cycling Boxing Badminton
Sports Equipment: Ball Racket Helmet Pads (knee, elbow, etc.) Goalposts Running shoes
Benefits of Sports: Physical fitness Mental health Discipline Goal setting Teamwork Leadership Improved concentration
Sports intermediate
Team Sports: Soccer Basketball Baseball Volleyball Hockey Rugby Cricket Handball Water polo Ultimate frisbee
Individual Sports: Tennis Swimming Gymnastics Running Cycling Boxing Golf Figure skating Badminton Track and field
Sports Equipment: Ball Racket Bat Helmet Pads (knee, elbow, etc.) Goalposts Running shoes Swimming goggles Bicycle Gymnastics mat
Benefits of Sports: Physical fitness Mental health Stress relief Social connections Discipline Goal setting Teamwork Leadership Improved concentration Self-esteem
Lived in Newcastle my whole life and its pretty much the same as everywhere else. Sometimes it snows and sometimes it doesn't. It doesn't rain as much as it does compared to the west coast as it generally disburses over the west and the central part of the country before it reaches us. The past few days it has been lows of -2 and highs of 5/6 but yesterday and today its been lows of 5/6 and highs of 10/12.
Through out the winter its either mild or below freezing. But that shouldn't be the reason you move up here. Its the greatest city/area on earth! Best countryside, fantastic restaurants, amazing nightlife, friendly people, not over crowded and overall just a magnificent place to live. The outer west end of Newcastle is definitely the best place to live.
Weather
I grew up in the South East.
Here's a secret - for about half the year, Newcastle actually has pretty good weather compared to most of the rest of the country. A lot of the rain gets stuck the other side of the Pennines, and the strong winds keep clouds moving over. This means Newcastle has more 'bright but breezy' winter days, or 'grey but stil not raining' days than a lot of the rest of the UK.
The biggest difference only comes through in the summer, because Newcastle doesn't have one.
When London is baking in 30+ degree heat, Newcastle City centre might be lucky to break into the low 20s and the coast will still be 12-15. In roughly a decade of living here, I've only felt 'too hot' for maybe a matter of minutes at the peak of major heatwaves. It's always windy too.
Stereotypes of people wearing shorts and t-shirts, sitting in the garden with an ice cream as soon as it hits double figures are not exaggerated. You have to double down on the British habit of forcing yourself into BBQs and beer gardens whenever it's reasonably mild.
That said, this might actually be an advantage as global warming marches on. Definitely in the past few years my London and South East friends have found the heatwaves are becoming too uncomfortable and that's never a problem here. Plus they still have shit summers 80% of the time - British weather doesn't vary that much over a few hundred miles.
Edit: I just had a look through your post history and noticed that you're actually a local hoping to move somewhere warmer in the south. DON'T. The South does not get reliably warm - most of the summers are still grey, chilly and even wetter than they are here, it's just the rare heatwaves where it does get noticeably hot. Honestly, it would be cheaper to live in Newcastle and fly to Spain for one weekend a month than it would be to live near London.
Having moved here, Its very windy and can be bitterly cold in winter. But it's pretty dry. The weird thing is because of the constant sea breeze if it rains its usually very brief as the rain clouds move inland. Growing up in the SE you could get thunderstorms that would last days, here they don't last an hour.
Leeds also has a growing digital and technology sector, with a focus on areas like fintech, health tech, and digital media. The city has been working to develop its technology ecosystem and has attracted various tech businesses and startups. Here are some examples of the digital and technology scene in Leeds:
Leeds Digital Festival: An annual event that celebrates and promotes the digital and technology sector in the city. The festival brings together businesses, professionals, and students to network, share ideas, and showcase the city's digital talent.
Nexus: A collaborative hub supported by the University of Leeds, Nexus provides office space, networking opportunities, and support services for technology and digital businesses. The facility aims to foster innovation and collaboration between businesses, researchers, and students.
Fintech Hub: Leeds is home to several fintech companies, with a focus on areas like digital banking, online payments, and insurtech. The city is working to establish itself as a fintech hub, attracting businesses like Equiniti Credit Services, BJSS, and Contis Group.
Health Tech: Leeds has a strong health tech sector, thanks in part to the presence of the NHS Digital headquarters and the University of Leeds' research expertise in this area. The city is home to companies like EMIS Group, TPP, and Lhasa Limited, which focus on developing innovative health tech solutions. Digital Media: Leeds has a growing digital media industry, with companies like Sky, Perform Group, and ITV having a presence in the city. This creates opportunities for professionals in the digital content production and broadcasting sectors.
Tech Incubators and Accelerators: Leeds has several organizations supporting tech startups, such as the Leeds Enterprise and Innovation Hub, which provides office space, mentorship, and support services to help early-stage businesses grow.
While Leeds may not be as large or as established as Manchester in terms of its digital and technology sector, it is still a vibrant and growing ecosystem. The city is home to numerous tech companies and initiatives, which can offer opportunities for IT educators. It is essential to research the job market in both cities, considering factors like the number of available job opportunities, the cost of living, and personal preferences, before deciding which city is the best fit for your career aspirations.
When referring to Manchester having a more established digital and technology sector, it means that the city has a strong presence of technology-focused businesses, research facilities, and supporting infrastructure. The city has been successful in attracting various tech companies and fostering innovation. Here are a few examples that demonstrate Manchester's established digital and technology sector:
MediaCityUK: This development in Salford Quays, Greater Manchester, is a major hub for media and technology companies. It is home to major broadcasters like the BBC and ITV, as well as many smaller tech and digital companies. The presence of these companies creates an ecosystem that supports the growth of the technology sector in the city.
Manchester Science Park: Located near the University of Manchester, this science park provides office and laboratory space for technology and science-based companies. It has a focus on sectors such as digital technology, advanced materials, and life sciences. The park is home to various startups, scale-ups, and established businesses, promoting collaboration and innovation.
The Sharp Project: This creative digital hub in Manchester provides office and studio space for digital content production, creative and tech businesses. The facility is designed to support the growth of digital and technology enterprises in the city.
Tech Incubators and Accelerators: Manchester is home to several tech incubators and accelerators, such as The Landing, Manchester Digital Laboratory (MadLab), and the Innovation Factory. These organizations support early-stage tech startups, providing resources, mentorship, and networking opportunities to help them grow.
The Manchester Digital Cluster: This organization works to promote and support the growth of the digital and technology sector in the city. They provide networking opportunities, skills development programs, and industry events to connect businesses and professionals in the sector. Major Tech Companies: Manchester has attracted several major tech companies, including the UK offices of international giants like Amazon, Google, and Microsoft. The presence of these companies helps to create a thriving ecosystem for smaller tech businesses and startups.
These examples demonstrate that Manchester has a strong and growing digital and technology sector, with a variety of organizations and initiatives supporting its growth. This environment can be beneficial for IT educators looking for job opportunities, as the demand for skilled professionals in the sector is likely to be higher in a city with a well-established tech ecosystem
BY VIORICA MARIAN
Viorica Marian is director of the Bilingualism and Psycholinguistics Research Lab at Northwestern University and author of “The Power of Language: How the Codes We Use to Think, Speak, and Live Transform Our Minds.”
The Washington Post 20/4/2023
About 7,000 languages are in use around the world, a number that shrinks every year. How many will there be after large language artificial intelligence models such as CHATGPT-4, and their more powerful successors, entrench themselves in our lives?
Far fewer. There is reason to believe that these tools could bring about a mass extinction of languages. And that, more worryingly, would expunge a diversity of ways of thinking and creating.
How this might happen holds clues for how it could be stopped.
First, some basics: Large language models (LLMS) are trained to make predictions about the best fit for what to generate next in a conversation or piece of writing. They learn that the most likely word after “bacon and” is “eggs” and that the probability of “eggs” being correct is higher if other preceding words included “breakfast” or “coffee.”
Except we are already far past bacon and eggs, and much closer to a Joël Robuchon menu combining all the offerings from his restaurants with 32 Michelin stars total. And each new iteration of LLMS surpasses the last more and more quickly.
AI language models are trained on enormous amounts of data — from the books, journals, newspapers and online content available. The more data, the better. But what’s available to train a model varies widely across the thousands of languages used today.
The most powerful models will be those trained on about 20 “high-resource languages” such as English, Mandarin, Russian, German and Japanese. In turn, AI will churn out massive amounts of new text mostly in those languages. Like invasive species, such dominant models could drive out languages for which fewer resources exist for training.
Some of these languages — such as Hawaiian, Quechua and Potawatomi — are already critically endangered because of globalization, migration and cultural homogenization. Currently, about nine per year are extinguished. LLMS could increase that extinction rate dramatically.
Crucially, this is about much more than language. If a majority of languages die in the space of a few generations, that will also bring about a collapse of ways of thinking and being. Because the interaction between language and the mind is bidirectional.
Language shapes the brain. It is one of the most powerful ways to organize, process and structure information. The languages we use influence how we perceive the world, what we remember, the decisions we make, the emotions we feel and the insights we have.
In experiments in my lab at Northwestern University and others, we see that people who speak different languages make different eye movements and have different brain activity. Different things in the environment capture their attention; their memories and interpretation of the world and of reality vary. Those who speak many languages have somewhat different neural networks activated by each.
Reality as each of us perceives it is a subjective experience. It results from how our brains combine the input from our senses with knowledge and experience. Language experience gives us a prism through which to see the universe.
The demise of languages winnows the number of prisms through which to refract the world.
Here’s an irony. When I was on sabbatical at Stanford University, most Silicon Valley AI scientists I met spoke, studied, grew up with or were exposed to more than one language. Many spoke two or more languages. The very people potentially contributing to the demise of the multilingual mind are those harnessing its prowess to build these extraordinary artificial intelligence software programs.
If our reality becomes filtered through a much more limited linguistic set, shaped largely by the symbolic systems of math, logic and artificial languages, could our thinking change?
One insight comes from a version of the classic dilemma used to study morality. A trolley is speeding toward five workmen who cannot see it; you are standing on a footbridge above a train track next to a person. If you push them onto the tracks below, they will die. But they will also stop the trolley, saving the five workmen. What to do?
When responding in a native language, 20 percent of people opt to sacrifice one person to save five. Responding in a second language, 33 percent do so. This 13 percent shift toward utilitarian decision-making is called the foreign language effect.
But just when new brain imaging and computational science are beginning to give us insight into why the multilingual mind works the way it does, we are setting a course that might eliminate one of its core features. What can be done?
Two things. First, AI research, development and use should be regulated in the public interest. At a minimum, this should be at a level similar to other private-sector industries. Better still would be a level akin to that of the defense sector.
Second, to buy time to come up with more solutions, it is imperative to keep as many natural languages actively engaging human minds for as long as possible.
Now is not the moment to reduce the supply of new ideas. Our many languages are one of the most powerful sources of diversity of thought. In the human experience, multilingualism is not noise, it is the signal.
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By Laura Purkess l.purkess@dailymail.co.uk
Daily Mail 05/4/2023
FAMILIES looking to rent homes are having to turn to Airbnb for long-term lets because there are so few properties available, estate agents have revealed. Money Mail has seen messages from estate agents and tenants to Airbnb hosts about renting their holiday lettings for as long as a year.
And estate agents say they have seen desperate tenants track down Airbnb hosts on Facebook as they look for a place to live.
Landlords have been quitting the market in huge numbers due to soaring costs and stinging tax increases.
The number of homes available to rent has tumbled as a result, with property agent Zoopla last week saying there were a third fewer rental homes available compared with 18 months ago.
At the same time, the number of households looking for somewhere to rent has been rising.
Estate agents say soaring mortgage rates are forcing some homeowners back into the rental market, as they can’t afford to remortgage. Meanwhile, others are renting for longer before buying as they wait to see what happens to shaky property prices, and some are simply unable to buy because of a lack of homes for sale.
SARAH Bush, of Cambridge-based estate agents Cheffins, says the Airbnb long-term rental market in the city has ‘ hugely increased’ in recent months.
‘The strong Airbnb market in Cambridge is currently being fuelled by people wanting to rent long- term who can’t find a traditional landlord,’ she says.
‘ rental properties go within days of being listed online, we’re doing bulk viewings every 10 to 15 minutes and 70 pc of viewers make offers.’
Tenants have a number of protections through traditional renting that they do not have with Airbnb. For example, even under a ‘no-fault eviction’, where landlords can evict tenants without a specific reason, they must still give two months’ notice. But if an Airbnb guest overstays their welcome or causes trouble, such as throwing a party, there is no obligation to continue hosting. The rules differ between England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Ms Bush says the lack of homes available means landlords are being more picky and are opting to take those willing to lock in for longer tenancies, leaving renters who need more flexibility out in the cold.
‘Cambridge is a fairly transient area, so we have a lot of people come through looking to stay less than a year including families,’ she says. ‘In the past it was possible to rent that way, but now those people are turning to Airbnb instead — and they’re willing to pay a lot more to guarantee a nice property.
‘People are contacting Airbnb hosts asking to do some sort of deal on the nightly rate if they agree to stay long- term, and people are contacting us asking for help with this.’
London has a rule for Airbnb hosts which stops them renting out their home for more than 90 days a year.
But across the rest of the UK, there is nothing to stop people staying in an Airbnb for as long as they like.
Dawn Hardiman, lettings coordinator at richardson & Smith in Whitby, North Yorkshire, says the mine just outside Whitby attracts workers who need somewhere to stay and Airbnb bridges that gap.
‘People are going straight to Airbnb hosts to ask for long-term stays and they’re also coming to us, and then going to Airbnb when we can’t find them anywhere,’ she says.
‘There simply aren’t enough rental properties here.’
Ian Wyn- Jones, an estate agent in North Wales, says: ‘With the massive lack of rental properties available at the moment, we’re sending letters to Airbnb owners — as many estate agents are doing — encouraging them to consider long-term rentals.’
Landlords are being hit by a number of rising costs, including higher mortgage rates.
Meanwhile, stricter energy efficiency measures are soon to arrive while mortgage interest tax relief was fully abolished in 2020.
Mr Wyn- Jones says one local landlord with more than 50 properties in North Wales has decided to sell his entire portfolio.
‘There are simply not enough protections for landlords so there’s no incentive for them to stay,’ he says.
‘As a result, rental prices are going through the roof. A two-bed flat worth £600 a month a few years ago now goes for £1,000.
‘With people turning to Airbnb, they are going to be paying even more than that.’
In the past year, rental prices have risen 9.8 pc across Britain to reach £1,184 per month, according to HomeLet.
BUT experts warn tenants will end up paying far more through Airbnb than they would via traditional renting.
‘Airbnb owners can typically earn more through holiday rentals and won’t want to lose their income, so they won’t be willing to rent that cheaply,’ Mr Wyn- Jones says.
According to Zoopla, the average monthly rental income in Manchester is £977 while a typical nightly price for an Airbnb in 2021 was £ 89.54, according to All The rooms.
Based on these calculations, a typical tenant in Manchester would pay around £11,724 a year but through Airbnb they would pay £32,682 for 365 nights — almost £21,000 more.
However, it is likely that those turning to Airbnb are negotiating a far more reasonable price.
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Hi
I am from Hong Kong. I have been living in London at the past one year. Now I am living in airbnb in Liverpool and looking for a room renting. Being an IT manager working for a Hong Kong based company remotely (WFH), I am enjoying a stable monthly income. I am a neat, cautious and tidy person.
The room looks good. Can I have a viewing? I can move in on 11/4.
Thanks and look forward to your reply soon.
Kind regards, Arthur Law
In the UK, the responsibility for repairs in a rented property is generally divided between the landlord and the tenant. Here's a general overview of the responsibilities for each party, although specific arrangements may vary depending on the rental agreement.
Landlord's responsibilities:
Structural repairs: The landlord is responsible for maintaining the structure and exterior of the property, including walls, roofs, foundations, drains, gutters, and external pipes. Utilities: The landlord is responsible for maintaining and repairing installations for the supply of water, gas, electricity, sanitation, heating, and hot water. Safety: The landlord must ensure that the property meets safety standards, including having working smoke alarms, a carbon monoxide detector (if applicable), and conducting regular gas safety checks. Appliances and furniture: If the property is furnished, the landlord is responsible for maintaining and repairing any provided appliances and furniture. Tenant's responsibilities:
Reporting: The tenant is responsible for reporting any repair needs or damages to the landlord as soon as possible. Minor repairs: Tenants are typically responsible for minor repairs, such as replacing light bulbs, unblocking drains, and maintaining the garden (if applicable). Damage: Tenants are responsible for repairing or paying for any damage they or their guests have caused. Always check your rental agreement for specific information about the division of responsibilities between you and your landlord.