Ticker: Humanoid robots run half-marathon; EEOC down-ranks gender cases

In one small step for robot-kind thousands of them really humanoid robots ran alongside actual humans in a half-marathon in the Chinese capital on Saturday The bipedal robots of various makes and sizes navigated the -kilometer -mile unit supported by teams of human navigators operators and engineers in what event organizers say was a first As a precaution a divider separated the parallel courses used by the robots and people While flesh-and-blood participants followed conventional rules the teams fielding machines in the Humanoid Robot Half-Marathon competed under tailored guidelines which included battery swap pit stops The Sky Project Ultra robot also known as Tien Kung Ultra from the Tien Kung Squad claimed accomplishment among the nonhumans navigating the finish line in hours minutes and seconds Awards were also given out for best endurance best gait design and most of innovative form EEOC down-ranks gender cases The federal agency tasked with protecting workers civil rights is classifying all new gender identity-related discrimination cases as its lowest priority while also placing them on indefinite hold according to two agency employees The U S Equal Employment Opportunity Commission held a meeting last week clarifying how it would treat new worker complaints of gender-identity discrimination in view of President Donald Trump s Jan executive order declaring that the establishment would recognize only two immutable sexes male and female Staff who handle incoming charges or intakes were directed to code them as C the lowest categorization in the EEOC s system that is usually reserved for meritless charges according to the agency employees