Podcasts about OCR

Alan and Ian have a cosy, chaotic, typical Swift Half blend of OCR chat, Christmas leftovers, Hybrid racing and community updates. In this festive‑flavoured episode, Ian and Alan swap Christmas stories, from Secret Santa OCR survival kits to surprise Tough Mudder infinity tickets. They dive into the highs and lows of this year's Christmas ads, explore alcohol‑free dining gems, and even plan a potential tapas‑style meet‑up in Sowerby Bridge. The pair chat about listening bars, tech‑free pubs, and the joy of gifts that hit the mark — including Ian's long‑awaited model kits. There's also the long‑overdue patron prize draw, updates on the OCR Awards, and a reminder to get those votes in before January 11th. From BBC licence debates to inflatable kettlebells in Stockholm, kissing‑booth Christmas races in Sweden, and the wild concept of ATHX Air flights to Paris, the episode is also packed with quirky festive finds suggested by the pub regulars They round things off with HYROX updates, McTuff race planning, and the importance of mapping out your 2026 race calendar. If you have any questions about the show or would like to explore advertising opportunities, feel free to reach out to us at admin@ukocr.com.

Alan is joined by Wil Chung and Gavin Hogarth for a deep dive into the full shortlist for the 2025 UKOCR Awards. From standout athletes to unforgettable events, the trio break down every category, share insights from across the OCR community, and celebrate the people and races that made this season special. Whether you're passionate about elite performances, grassroots heroes, junior athletes, or the events that brought us all together, this episode gives you everything you need to cast an informed vote. ✅ Ready to have your say? Click the link to vote for your favourites in the 2025 UKOCR Awards — and make sure your voice helps shape this year's winners. VOTE HERE

2026 is shaping up to be a year of recovery but not without risk.In this episode, we break down our 2026 predictions across the New Zealand economy, covering GDP growth, interest rates and OCR expectations, share market risks and opportunities, AI's real economic impact, property market forecasts, election uncertainty, and the global factors that could derail momentum.For more money tips follow us on:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The content in this podcast is the opinion of the hosts. It should not be treated as financial advice. It is important to take into consideration your own personal situation and goals before making any financial decisions.

Now that the GDP has been released, was the Reserve Bank decision to hold interest rates the right one? Should the rapidly growing streaming industry pay tax in New Zealand? LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It's the most chaotic time of the year, and the Swift Half crew are back with a festive twist!

Welcome to AI Unraveled (December 19, 2025): Your daily strategic briefing on the business impact of artificial intelligence.Listen at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ai-daily-news-rundown-and-what-it-means-for-your/id1684415169?i=1000742031008Key Topics:

as with all demo-heavy and especially vision AI podcasts, we encourage watching along on our YouTube (and tossing us an upvote/subscribe if you like!) From SAM 1's 11-million-image data engine to SAM 2's memory-based video tracking, MSL's Segment Anything project has redefined what's possible in computer vision. Now SAM 3 takes the next leap: concept segmentation—prompting with natural language like "yellow school bus" or "tablecloth" to detect, segment, and track every instance across images and video, in real time, with human-level exhaustivity. And with the latest SAM Audio (https://x.com/aiatmeta/status/2000980784425931067?s=46), SAM can now even segment audio output! We sat down with Nikhila Ravi (SAM lead at Meta) and Pengchuan Zhang (SAM 3 researcher) alongside Joseph Nelson (CEO, Roboflow) to unpack how SAM 3 unifies interactive segmentation, open-vocabulary detection, video tracking, and more into a single model that runs in 30ms on images and scales to real-time video on multi-GPU setups. We dig into the data engine that automated exhaustive annotation from two minutes per image down to 25 seconds using AI verifiers fine-tuned on Llama, the new SACO (Segment Anything with Concepts) benchmark with 200,000+ unique concepts vs. the previous 1.2k, how SAM 3 separates recognition from localization with a presence token, why decoupling the detector and tracker was critical to preserve object identity in video, how SAM 3 Agents unlock complex visual reasoning by pairing SAM 3 with multimodal LLMs like Gemini, and the real-world impact: 106 million smart polygons created on Roboflow saving humanity an estimated 130+ years of labeling time across fields from cancer research to underwater trash cleanup to autonomous vehicle perception. We discuss: What SAM 3 is: a unified model for concept-prompted segmentation, detection, and tracking in images and video using atomic visual concepts like "purple umbrella" or "watering can" How concept prompts work: short text phrases that find all instances of a category without manual clicks, plus visual exemplars (boxes, clicks) to refine and adapt on the fly Real-time performance: 30ms per image (100 detected objects on H200), 10 objects on 2×H200 video, 28 on 4×, 64 on 8×, with parallel inference and "fast mode" tracking The SACO benchmark: 200,000+ unique concepts vs. 1.2k in prior benchmarks, designed to capture the diversity of natural language and reach human-level exhaustivity The data engine: from 2 minutes per image (all-human) to 45 seconds (model-in-loop proposals) to 25 seconds (AI verifiers for mask quality and exhaustivity checks), fine-tuned on Llama 3.2 Why exhaustivity is central: every instance must be found, verified by AI annotators, and manually corrected only when the model misses—automating the hardest part of segmentation at scale Architecture innovations: presence token to separate recognition ("is it in the image?") from localization ("where is it?"), decoupled detector and tracker to preserve identity-agnostic detection vs. identity-preserving tracking Building on Meta's ecosystem: Perception Encoder, DINO v2 detector, Llama for data annotation, and SAM 2's memory-based tracking backbone SAM 3 Agents: using SAM 3 as a visual tool for multimodal LLMs (Gemini, Llama) to solve complex visual reasoning tasks like "find the bigger character" or "what distinguishes male from female in this image" Fine-tuning with as few as 10 examples: domain adaptation for specialized use cases (Waymo vehicles, medical imaging, OCR-heavy scenes) and the outsized impact of negative examples Real-world impact at Roboflow: 106M smart polygons created, saving 130+ years of labeling time across cancer research, underwater trash cleanup, autonomous drones, industrial automation, and more — MSL FAIR team Nikhila: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikhilaravi/ Pengchuan: https://pzzhang.github.io/pzzhang/ Joseph Nelson X: https://x.com/josephofiowa LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josephofiowa/ [FLIGHTCAST_CHATPERS]

David Stifter spent 20 years as head of technology at Colony Capital, managing systems for a $60 billion private equity real estate firm. When a longtime AP specialist retired, the company lost its institutional knowledge for coding complex invoices across thousands of entities and tenant relationships. After a year evaluating RPA, template-based approaches, and early OCR solutions, David recognized that structured historical data—invoices paired with their coding—could train AI models to capture implicit business rules. Five years ago, at 40 with young children, he left his executive role to build PredictAP. The company now processes tens of thousands of invoices monthly for firms including Bridge Investment Group, demonstrating how operational expertise combined with AI can solve problems that pure technology approaches miss. Topics Discussed Identifying AI use cases with structured annotated data and human feedback loops  Moving from CTO buyer to vendor founder and discovering which networks actually convert  Building repeatable sales motion after exhausting warm introductions  Technology adoption barriers in real estate and the domain expertise requirement for vertical SaaS  Hiring sales leadership to scale from founder-led to systematic pipeline generation  Solving complete workflow integration challenges beyond isolated technical problems GTM Lessons For B2B Founders Match technical approach to problem structure, not trend: David identified three critical elements for his AI application: structured annotated data from historical invoice coding, recognizable patterns in implicit business rules, and human review as a feedback mechanism. He notes many founders "try to shove AI, the AI hammer to smash any nail, but they're not always the best use case." Six years ago, before modern LLMs, he used historical invoice-coding pairs as training data—solving the annotation problem that plagued early machine learning. Founders should evaluate whether their problem has the structural characteristics that make a given technology approach viable, rather than applying trending solutions to force market fit. Network quality reveals itself when you need something: David contrasts two early investors: a former acquisitions executive who promised extensive connections but delivered "not a single callback" after leaving their role, versus an asset manager who generated "hundreds" of leads through genuine relationships. The acquisitions person experienced "an existential crisis" realizing "my network was based upon my ability to have a massive checkbook behind me." Founders should recognize that network strength isn't tested until you're asking rather than giving—those who built relationships through consistent helpfulness rather than transactional power will see different response rates when they launch. Architect the founder-led to systematic sales transition: After two years of founder-led sales, David "hit that wall" and brought in Steve Farrell, prioritizing experience scaling from $3-5M to $20M ARR over industry-specific expertise. He notes warm intro calls are "very to the point" while cold outreach "starts hostile or skeptical"—requiring entirely different trust-building approaches. The shift required adding BDRs, AEs, and systematic content generation. Founders should hire sales leadership with specific stage experience before network depletion forces reactive hiring, and expect to rebuild positioning for skeptical buyers who lack pre-existing trust. Integrate solutions into existing workflow infrastructure: David emphasizes the failure mode of optimized point solutions: "They have a perfect solution from the technical problem but it's not going to work for this firm because it's not going to fit into their workflow." He maps the complete experience including integration with existing systems, training requirements, user experience, consistency, and speed. Technical superiority in isolation leads to "problems with adoption and retention." Founders should map every system, process, and stakeholder their solution touches, designing for workflow integration rather than isolated problem-solving. Sequence customer sophistication as you scale beyond innovators: David's initial customers were "leading edge folks" from his technology network who understood AI potential. As PredictAP matured, sales cycles became "much longer" with more conservative firms requiring higher proof thresholds. He learned that "initial sales have to be very successful and you have to have customers that advocate for you" because mainstream buyers need extensive social proof. Founders should recognize that early adopter ICP differs fundamentally from mainstream buyers—what closes innovators (technology potential) differs from what closes pragmatists (proven ROI and references), requiring distinct positioning and sales approaches for each segment. // Sponsors: Front Lines — We help B2B tech companies launch, manage, and grow podcasts that drive demand, awareness, and thought leadership. www.FrontLines.io The Global Talent Co. — We help tech startups find, vet, hire, pay, and retain amazing marketing talent that costs 50-70% less than the US & Europe. www.GlobalTalent.co // Don't Miss: New Podcast Series — How I Hire Senior GTM leaders share the tactical hiring frameworks they use to build winning revenue teams. Hosted by Andy Mowat, who scaled 4 unicorns from $10M to $100M+ ARR and launched Whispered to help executives find their next role. Subscribe here: https://open.spotify.com/show/53yCHlPfLSMFimtv0riPyM

Reserve Bank governor Anna Breman has taken the unusual step of indicating the OCR is unlikely to be cut for some time. Economist Cameron Bagrie spoke to Corin Dann.

Reserve Bank governor Anna Breman has taken the unusual step of indicating the OCR is unlikely to be cut for some time; Australia's national cabinet has agreed to bolster gun control laws in the wake of the Bondi Beach terror attack; Opposition leader, Chris Hipkins spoke to Morning Report; Summer is well and truly here, and with warmer days comes more time spent outdoors, and the need for sunscreen; Splore has decided to call it quits after its 2026 show after lower than hoped ticket sales.

Convenient OCR (Optical Character Recognition) is a feature in JAWS that allows you to recognize and read text that appears as part of an image or in places where text is not accessible to screen readers. This is useful for reading things like scanned documents, inaccessible PDFs, images with text, or application windows that only display text as graphics. In this training, we'll show you how to OCR text in an image or document, access the results, and provide important keyboard commands.

In this bonus episode of Banking on Fraudology, powered by Safeguard , Hailey Windham talks with Ben Graf, a self-taught AI expert in the neobank space. Ben embodies the spirit of curiosity and courage driving the next wave of fraud-fighting transformation.The conversation dives into what it really looks like to learn AI from the ground up, emphasizing that the future of fraud prevention isn't about replacing people, but empowering them through technology.Key Takeaways: AI, Innovation, and Fraud-Fighting EmpowermentUsing AI to Learn AI: Ben explains how he used varying LLM chats (like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini) as a coach or mentor, experimenting for hours to understand their capabilities, consistency, and how to effectively prompt them.This approach helped him translate technical language and practices (like data analysis, SQL, and JavaScript) into actionable knowledge for his team, breaking down communication barriers.The hardest part was knowing where to start, but the key was realizing that "something is better than nothing" and compounding knowledge quickly breaks down barriers.Practical AI Applications for Eliminating Busy Work: AI should be used to make teams more efficient and help professionals focus strategically.Automating Document Verification: AI can use OCR to pull data, flag inconsistencies, and serve up summaries for identity, business, and income documents, which are often the most time-consuming parts of a review.Data Retrieval and System Silos: AI can help team members write their own SQL queries to retrieve data from data warehouses, dramatically reducing requests to the data team.Product and Feature Proposals: AI tools can mock up full dashboard concepts and even provide code snippets to give engineers a visual and break down communication barriers between fraud and technical teams.The Power of Empowerment and Buy-In: Leadership should create a culture where fraud fighters are empowered to explore and innovate.The magic of time savings lies in filling the time freed from "busy work" (like false positives) with new, high-impact tasks, whether that's cost savings in fraud loss or better customer retention.Teams are advised to keep proprietary or PII information out of the loop and find safe spaces to explore, remembering that everyone is still figuring out what AI can do.Get in the mood of being grateful for the fraud-fighting community, and be reminded of how strong the fraud-fighting community truly is. About Hailey Windham:As a 2023 CU Rockstar Recipient, Hailey Windham, CFCS (Certified Financial Crimes Specialist) demonstrated unbounding passion for educating her community, organization and credit union membership on scams in the market and best practices to avoid them. She has implemented several programs within her previous organizations that aim at holistically learning about how to prevent and detect fraud targeted at membership and employees. Windham's initiatives to build strong relationships and partnerships throughout the credit union community and industry experts have led to countless success stories. Her applied knowledge of payments system programs combined with her experience in fraud investigations offers practical concepts that are transferable, no matter the organization's size. Connect with Hailey on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hailey-windham/

Alan and Ian celebrate a milestone episode with a packed mix of race results, gear talk, and community updates:

Send Us A Message! Let us know what you think.Topic #1:  Stuff 10th of December - Capital crunch: Central Wellington now has the cheapest property in the countryTopic #2: RNZ 9th of December - GST used to be 10%, is it going to rise again?Topic #3: Interest.co.nz  11th of December- Average asking prices on Trade Me Property cooled in most regions in NovemberTopic #4: RNZ 9th of December - The OCR is down, so why are home loans rising?Topic #5: Financial Markets Authority 11th of December - FMA censures Opes for breaching financial advice provider licensee obligations  A special thanks to Feedspot for naming us as one of the "Top New Zealand Real Estate Podcasts".Support the show*Nothing from this episode should be taken as individual financial advice. *Property Advice Group Limited trading as Property Apprentice has been granted a FULL Licence with the Financial Markets Authority of New Zealand. (FSP Number: FSP157564) Debbie Roberts | Financial Adviser (FSP221305) For our Public disclosure statement please go to our website or you may request a copy free of charge.

Westpac has stunned everyone. The Reserve Bank cuts the OCR, the government does a victory lap promising relief is finally coming, and then Westpac sprints out of the blocks with a mortgage rate hike. Kiwis are on their knees, desperate for a break, and the bank that holds the government contract is the first to crank rates up. You honestly couldn't make this stuff up. This episode, we call it exactly as we see it, then bring in economist Ed McKnight to explain what's really going on. Ed breaks down why wholesale funding costs have jumped, why Westpac moved before anyone else, and whether the other banks are about to follow. He also maps out where rates might head next and how long the brief low-rate window really lasted. Plus, we dig into spending trends, business confidence, and why sentiment is shifting even before mortgage rates fall for everyone. It's a big chat, and it's one you shouldn't miss. Find every episode and discover your next favourite podcast on the rova app or rova.nz Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

DEKA World Championships took place in Fort Lauderdale, FL this past weekend and while we focus on being an OCR podcast, this event has my interest every year! Since we didn't fly down to cover it in person (someday!), we looked for an athlete to have on the show to talk about their experience. It didn't take long to pick Brooklyn Nichols as our potential guest as she had an incredible race weekend being the first elite to win all events, especially in an increasingly stacked field! We talk about her background in sport and fitness, coaching, how she came across hybrid racing, her history with DEKA, her plans for the world championships, HYROX, and much more!  We did not discuss the sled station in the DEKA STRONG because what matters is the end result and that Brooklyn had an incredible series of races.  I am not an expert in the sport but that being said Dave Claxton is as the head official, and DEKA stands by their decision and I'm sure there will be other podcasts talking about the situation. Start – 4:40 – Intro 4:40 – 13:10 – Quick News 13:10 – 14:25 – Content Preface 14:25 – 1:07:46 - Brooklyn Nichols Interview 1:07:46 – End – Outro Next weekend we have our final regular episode of the year, hopefully on what was teased previously! ____ News Stories: Heather Gollnick on iFIT's Trainer Games New Baby Stroller Mile World Record Jacob Heppner's Dog 2025 Ragnar Immortal Medal DEKA World Championships Results Running Legend Secret Link Stunt Team Secret Link Best Birthday Secret Link Basketball Inclusion Secret Link Pup Cup Secret Link ____ Related Episodes: 235. Bubbles the Clowne aka Kevin Gregory on Underdog Fitness, Deka Strong, and More! 296. Rylan Schadegg on Winning Spartan North American Championship, Palm Beach Deka FIT, and Faith! 309. Deka World Championships with Terra Jackson 362. Deka World Championships with Kevin Gregory! 379. Deka Mile Live Coverage at Underdog Fitness! 425. The First DEKA ATLAS with Underdog Fitness! 462. Mark Jones on DEKA Ruck, Oscar Mike, and 24 Hour Rucking World Record! ____ The OCR Report Patreon Supporters: Jason Dupree, Kim DeVoss, Samantha Thompson, Matt Puntin, Brad Kiehl, Charlotte Engelman, Erin Grindstaff, Hank Stefano, Arlene Stefano, Laura Ritter, Steven Ritter, Sofia Harnedy, Kenny West, Cheryl Miller, Jessica Johnson, Scott "The Fayne" Knowles, Nick Ryker, Christopher Hoover, Kevin Gregory Jr., Evan Eirich, Ashley Reis, Brent George, Justin Manning, Wendell Lagosh, Logan Nagle, Angela Bowers, Asa Coddington, Thomas Petersen, Seth Rinderknecht, Bonnie Wilson, Steve Bacon from The New England OCR Expo, Robert Landman, Shell Luccketta and Jules Estes. Sponsored Athletes: Javier Escobar, Kelly Sullivan, Ryan Brizzolara, Joshua Reid, and Kevin Gregory! Support us on Patreon for exclusive content and access to our Facebook group Check out our Threadless Shop Use coupon code "adventure" for 15% off MudGear products Use coupon code "ocrreport20" for 20% off Caterpy products Like us on Facebook: Obstacle Running Adventures Follow our podcast on Instagram: @ObstacleRunningAdventures Write us an email: obstaclerunningadventures@gmail.com Subscribe on Youtube: Obstacle Running Adventures Intro music - "Streaker" by: Straight Up Outro music - "Iron Paw" by: Dubbest

A signal from the Reserve Bank's led Westpac to hike rates - and one economist expects other banks could follow. Westpac lifted two five-year fixed rates by 30 basis points yesterday. The bank's chief economist, Kelly Eckhold, says it seems the Reserve Bank's unlikely to cut the OCR again any time soon. "We kind of expected that they would cut the rate by 25 basis points, but we didn't expect them to call time on the easing cycle. It sort of scared the markets a little bit." LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The new Reserve Bank Governor, Anna Breman, hosted an event for media earlier, allowing financial journalists to get their first look. Breman is monitoring the impact of tightening financial conditions, amid concerns about the state of the OCR. NZ Herald Wellington business editor Jenee Tibshraeny explained further. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Money expert Liz Koh joins Kathryn to discuss the latest drop in the OCR and the choices facing some homeowners with mortgages - to fix now, and for how long?

Peraton has emerged as the winner to overhaul the air traffic control system, securing a contract to oversee the multi-billion dollar project with the Federal Aviation Administration. In an announcement Thursday night, the FAA said the Virginia-based technology firm will be the integrator for the project. Initial funding includes a $12.8 billion infusion from Congress as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill earlier this year, but the agency is eyeing billions more to complete the project. FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said an additional $20 billion will be needed to finish the modernization effort. Bedford said in a statement included in the release: “This is a long-term investment in the future of air travel, and we're committed to getting it right.”. According to the agency, Peraton had capabilities that matched the needs of the project, including “integrating complex tech platforms and successful collaboration with federal government agencies.” The project is planned to take just three years. The FAA's search for an integrator for the modernization effort began earlier this year and came amid concerns over its aging air traffic control systems. The issues with the existing infrastructure range from IT outages that cause travel delays to the continued use of antiquated technology, such as floppy disks. In a public appearance in September, Bedford said the current system is “failing every day.” The Education Department informed numerous Office of Civil Rights employees Friday that they are expected to return to work later this month while they await a court ruling on reduction-in-force orders that sidelined them nearly eight months ago. Multiple workers in Education's OCR told FedScoop they received notices from the agency late Friday afternoon. Those notices stated that they are expected to return in person to their assigned-duty location on either Dec. 15 or 29. The notice, according to four copies obtained by FedScoop, said the following: “While RIF notices are tolled during litigation, it is important to refocus OCR's work and utilize all OCR staff to prioritize OCR's existing complaint caseload.” The notice stated: “In order for OCR to pursue its mission with all available resources, all those individuals currently being compensated by the Department need to meet their employee performance expectations and contribute to the enforcement of existing civil rights complaints.” The agency told workers this will boost enforcement activities in a way that “serves and benefits parents, students, and families.” Workers have until Monday to inform the agency if they do not plan on returning to their positions. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

Alan, Ian, and Will dive deep into the mud-splattered legacy of Rat Race events, from urban treasure hunts to global adventure epics.

From scorching Spartan battles to spooky seasonal fun, Alan and Ian pack this episode with race results, athlete updates, and plenty of laughs.

We talked about the Taco Bell 50K in Colorado as a quick news story but then another one happened in Washington DC and I wanted to have someone on the show to talk about it! Carlo Piscitello noticed that MaryJane Osuji was taking on the challenge and suggested that she would be a good potential guest to talk about the experience.  We met her at World's Toughest Mudder earlier this year, we liked her, and so we immediately reached out to have her back on the show! We talk about her background in OCR, what made her want to take on the endurance food challenge, details about the event including the rules and route, what was earned at the finish line, what other food challenges she would like to take on and much more! Start – 4:25 – Intro 4:25 – 10:21 – Quick News 10:21 – 10:54 – Content Preface 10:54 – 52:21 - MaryJane Osuji Interview 52:21 – End – Outro Next weekend we will likely be having a returning guest in the same year which we usually dont do but breaking a world record is a great reason! ____ News Stories: Christian Brown Johnson World Record for Fastest 50Ks in All Continents New England OCR Expo Ticketing Open for 2026 Arizona State University "Release Files" Strava Rich Ryan is a Dad! Pattie Gonia is Backpacking 100 Miles in Drag Most T-Shirts Worn for a Half Marathon Spartan Beast World Championship Podiums Pistachio Earbud Secret Link Signed Milk Secret Link Weed Jesus Secret Link Evacuate Challenge Secret Link Filter Scare Secret Link ____ Related Episodes: 80. Savage Race Boston with Elites, and Brainfreezer 5k with Isabel Tuck! 445. World's Toughest Mudder 2025! (Part 3: British Brunch Interviews and Audio) ____ The OCR Report Patreon Supporters: Jason Dupree, Kim DeVoss, Samantha Thompson, Matt Puntin, Brad Kiehl, Charlotte Engelman, Erin Grindstaff, Hank Stefano, Arlene Stefano, Laura Ritter, Steven Ritter, Sofia Harnedy, Kenny West, Cheryl Miller, Jessica Johnson, Scott "The Fayne" Knowles, Nick Ryker, Christopher Hoover, Kevin Gregory Jr., Evan Eirich, Ashley Reis, Brent George, Justin Manning, Wendell Lagosh, Logan Nagle, Angela Bowers, Asa Coddington, Thomas Petersen, Seth Rinderknecht, Bonnie Wilson, Steve Bacon from The New England OCR Expo, Robert Landman, Shell Luccketta and Jules Estes. Sponsored Athletes: Javier Escobar, Kelly Sullivan, Ryan Brizzolara, Joshua Reid, and Kevin Gregory! Support us on Patreon for exclusive content and access to our Facebook group Check out our Threadless Shop Use coupon code "adventure" for 15% off MudGear products Use coupon code "ocrreport20" for 20% off Caterpy products Like us on Facebook: Obstacle Running Adventures Follow our podcast on Instagram: @ObstacleRunningAdventures Write us an email: obstaclerunningadventures@gmail.com Subscribe on Youtube: Obstacle Running Adventures Intro music - "Streaker" by: Straight Up Outro music - "Iron Paw" by: Dubbest

Chris and Daniel unpack how AI-driven document processing has rapidly evolved well beyond traditional OCR with many technical advances that fly under the radar. They explore the progression from document structure models to language-vision models, all the way to the newest innovations like Deepseek-OCR. The discussion highlights the pros and cons of these various approaches focusing on practical implementation and usage.Featuring:Chris Benson – Website, LinkedIn, Bluesky, GitHub, XDaniel Whitenack – Website, GitHub, XSponsors:Shopify – The commerce platform trusted by millions. From idea to checkout, Shopify gives you everything you need to launch and scale your business—no matter your level of experience. Build beautiful storefronts, market with built-in AI tools, and tap into the platform powering 10% of all U.S. eCommerce. Start your one-dollar trial at shopify.com/practicalaiFabi.ai - The all-in-one data analysis platform for modern teams. From ad hoc queries to advanced analytics, Fabi lets you explore data wherever it lives—spreadsheets, Postgres, Snowflake, Airtable and more. Built-in Python and AI assistance help you move fast, then publish interactive dashboards or automate insights delivered straight to Slack, email, spreadsheets or wherever you need to share it. Learn more and get started for free at fabi.aiFramer – Design and publish without limits with Framer, the free all-in-one design platform. Unlimited projects, no tool switching, and professional sites—no Figma imports or HTML hassles required. Start creating for free at framer.com/design with code `PRACTICALAI` for a free month of Framer Pro.Upcoming Events: Register for upcoming webinars here!

During incident response, what separates good from great counsel is bedside manner.In this episode, host Anthony Hess sits down with Josh Mooney, Partner and US Head of Cyber and Data Privacy at Kennedys Law, for a candid look at effective cyber response leadership.Josh explains why empathy and communication are as critical as legal precision when guiding clients through chaos. He also shares how US courts are reshaping ransomware incentives, why data governance failures attract OCR scrutiny, and how privacy law is edging toward a fifth fundamental right, namely the right not to be tracked.From the psychology of crisis response to courtroom strategy and compliance realities, Josh reveals how the next decade of cyber risk will test not only systems, but the people behind them.You'll learn:1. Why empathy and trust are strategic tools in breach response2. How US court rulings are driving ransom payment dilemmas3. What OCR investigations reveal about weak governance4. Why data inventory discipline determines breach outcomes5. How privacy law may soon expand to include a “right not to be tracked”___________Get in touch with Josh Mooney on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshua-mooney-cybersecurity/___________About the host Anthony Hess:Anthony is passionate about cyber insurance. He is the CEO of Asceris, which supports clients to respond to cyber incidents quickly and effectively. Originally from the US, Anthony now lives in Europe with his wife and two children.Get in touch with Anthony on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonyhess/ or email: ahess@asceris.com.___________Thanks to our friends at SAWOO for producing this episode with us!