Business
London Underground workers to strike in September over pay and workload | London Underground
Tube workers are to stage a series of strikes next month in a dispute over pay and conditions amid an intensifying dispute with managers.
The Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) said its members would take industrial action for seven days from 5 September amid a dispute over pay and workload, among other things.
In a separate dispute, RMT members on London’s Docklands Light Railway will also be striking in the week beginning 7 September.
London Underground (LU) workers and management have been discussing workers’ demands on pay, fatigue management, shift patterns and a reduced working week. But union leaders have claimed management have refused to engage seriously.
“Our members are doing a fantastic job to keep our capital moving and work strenuous shift patterns to make sure Londoners get to their destinations around the clock,” said the RMT’s general secretary, Eddie Dempsey.
“They are not after a king’s ransom, but fatigue and extreme shift rotations are serious issues impacting on our members’ health and wellbeing – all of which have not been adequately addressed for years by LU management.
“Coupled with the fact there are outstanding issues around staff travel arrangements, an atmosphere of distrust has been created, where our members feel like no one is listening to them.
“RMT will continue to engage LU management with a view to seeking a revised offer in order to reach a negotiated settlement.”
Docklands Light Railway workers have also been in discussions about pay and conditions.
A Transport for London spokesperson said: “We regularly meet with our trade unions to discuss any concerns that they may have, and we recently met with the RMT to discuss some specific points.
“We are committed to ensuring our colleagues are treated fairly and, as well as offering a 3.4% pay increase in our ongoing pay discussions, we have made progress on a number of commitments we have made previously.
“We welcome further engagement with our unions about fatigue and rostering across London Underground, but a reduction in the contractual 35-hour working week is neither practical nor affordable.
“Given the improvements we have recently put in place in response to concerns raised by our unions, we urge the RMT to put our fair, affordable pay offer to their members and to continue to engage with us rather than threaten strike action, which will only disrupt Londoners.”
Business
This startup has built an AI ‘copilot’ for mechanical engineers. Check out the pitch deck it used to raise $9.7 million.
Massachusetts-based Leo AI has created what it calls a large mechanical model, or “LMM,” that’s trained on engineering materials like sketches and peer-reviewed technical literature.
Engineers can enter prompts, like “show me a bolt that fits this hole,” and the AI can display the correct one. In addition to text, engineers can input sketches and 3D designs, and they can also use the tool to visualize concepts.
“We developed the first AI to understand geometry and engineering,” Leo AI’s cofounder and CEO, Maor Farid, told Business Insider. “Our LMM knows how to take machine parts as tokens, and turn them into an assembly model.”
A key problem the startup wants to solve is reducing the amount of time mechanical engineers spend on repetitive tasks, such as searching for product parts.
Leo AI makes its money by offering a subscription model to clients, which includes Scania, HP, Siemens, and others.
“We are rebelling against very expensive or long-term contract relationships, and we offer small subscriptions — with the smallest package lasting just a month,” Farid said.
Flint Capital led the $9.7 million seed round, which included participation from an A16z scout, Tech Aviv, Two Lanterns VC, and Google VP Yossi Matias, among others.
With the fresh funding, Leo AI plans to double down on its product development.
Check out the 10-slide pitch deck used to secure the funding, shared exclusively with Business Insider.
Business
‘It was a present to myself’: Southport house for sale with ball pit off bedroom | Property
It was the model Cara Delevingne who said you can never be sad in a ball pit – so why wouldn’t you install one in a room you don’t quite know what to do with?
A large Victorian house for sale in Southport has gone viral not because it is, as estate agents say, a “hidden gem” and an “oasis of calm” with viewing “absolutely essential” but because just off the master bedroom is a vestibule that is “presently adorned by numerous plastic balls to create a ball pool all of your very own”.
There are 11,300 plastic balls in the pit and it is enjoyed by children and adults alike, according to Julie Williams, an IT consultant who is selling the house. “It was a birthday present to myself,” Williams said. “Instead of a weekend away I built a ball pit. It is so relaxing.”
Williams was inspired by Delevingne, who installed a ball pit in her former Los Angeles home, described by Architectural Digest as “St-Tropez meets Coney Island meets Cotswolds cottage meets Monte Carlo meets butch leather bar”.
Delevingne said the house reflected her changing characters and moods: it had a costume room for dress-up parties, a poker tent, trampolines, a secret “vagina tunnel”, a party bunker with a mirrored ceiling, a David Bowie memorial bathroom and the ball pit. “If I’m having a bad day, I just hop in the ball pit,” she said. “You can’t really cry in a ball pit.”
Williams said she had thought about creating a bathroom in what she called her “project room” – an odd first-floor vestibule off the master bedroom with its own small staircase.
“My friend had seen a video on YouTube of Carla Delevingne where she says something along the lines of you can never be unhappy or sad in a ball pit.” So Williams went for it, buying 11,300 plastic balls in March 2024 and creating the ball pit herself.
It was inaugurated with Williams and friends drinking half bottles of rosé champagne in it. “It’s great. This is the new relaxation method for mums and dads. Get a ball pit and hide away from the children.”
Williams’ seven-bedroom house in leafy Birkdale village is on the market for £799,995, and if new buyers wanted to keep the pit, plus balls, then they could, Williams said.
The house went viral after featuring on a social media account called Housing Horrors, which shines a light on some of the weirder and more wonderful quirks of houses for sale or rent in the UK.
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