Top Lifestyle News
Ghost in the machine: how AI is haunting the search for the supernatural
Ghost hunting has changed in recent years due to AI chatbots, and paranormal enthusiasts are concernedGhost hunting is a tech-heavy pursuit. When Amy Waine and Jarrad Cutting investigate haunted locations, they’re loaded up with software of their own design, such as an app that assigns signals from a phone’s sensors to different words in a database. In the age of ChatGPT, the ghost-hunting pair is probing the world of AI. They describe one of their latest inventions, an app called GhostTube Seer, as “the world’s first AI Ghost Hunting tool”. In the hands of paranormal investigators, scientific tools like EMF meters (used to detect electromagnetic fields) are repurposed to identify changes and anomalies that they believe indicate supernatural activity. Seer is, in many ways, simply an expansion of that practice, another way to scan an empty room and believe that something may be there. The app, which requires a paid monthly subscription, has more than 1m downloads, according to its Google Play store listing.But for others in the ghost hunting world, AI is an unwelcome presence. Since the release of ChatGPT in 2022, AI-generated ghost stories and images of the supernatural have flooded online spaces, so much so that popular forums like the r/Nosleep subreddit, meant for scary stories, have implemented a strict policy against AI-generated material. Continue reading...
Witches, clowns and a killer durian! Halloween in the Blue Mountains – in pictures
Each Halloween, photographer Maja Baska roams the streets of North Katoomba with her analogue camera to document the local festivities, capturing everything from the delightfully banal to the genuinely terrifying Continue reading...
Mercury, lead and methanol found in counterfeit beauty products seized across UK
Copies of popular cosmetics and skincare products more likely to contain toxic substances, Trading Standards warnsMercury, lead and methanol have been found in counterfeit beauty products seized across the UK, Trading Standards has said.There is a rising problem with fake beauty products, with scammers selling copies of popular and expensive brands. Cosmetics, skincare and perfumes are now among the watchdog’s most commonly investigated fakes. Continue reading...
Homes without neighbours in England and Wales – in pictures
You’ll be safe from trick-or-treaters in a grand home at the end of a long driveway or a Grade II-listed farmhouse tucked away in a hamlet Continue reading...
What is it like to work when your co-workers are AI agents?
Using AI for roles from executive assistants to chiefs of staff, companies are boasting about doing more with less, creating tension with their human workersOn an average workday, Dhruv Amin chats with dozens of colleagues to get things done at his AI startup Anything. He might ask Gwen, his executive assistant, to schedule a meeting, then troubleshoot a technical problem with Cody, his coding partner. Then he might check in with Betsy for search engine optimization, or Juno for onboarding customers. If the office runs out of snacks, he sends a Slack message to Justin, the office manager charged with stocking the kitchen.But none of these co-workers are people. They’re artificial intelligence agents, software that handles tasks without human intervention. Anything is one of several startups building them, and betting on a future where workplaces will increasingly turn over their sales, marketing, coding and other tasks to semi-autonomous AI. At Anything, there are 15 human employees and roughly 150 agents – a ratio that Amin believes will soon be the norm. Continue reading...
Sali Hughes on beauty: skincare for teens has had a glow-up
From the packaging to the products, brands aimed at young people have come a long wayThere’s some great new skincare in town for teens – and none of it preys on insecurities.I really like Equals Even, a British-made line for young people. The founders are two female doctors (and mothers), not dermatologists, which feels appropriate, since frontline physicians manage more routine, everyday teen skin struggles than specialist consultants tackling severe conditions and cutting out cancers. Continue reading...
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My mother donated her body to science. I really wasn’t prepared for what came next
The process included a gala featuring medical students doing aerial yoga and singing Taylor Swift to donors’ families. In some ways, it was absolutely perfectWhen my mother, Erin O’Connell, was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive cancer in late 2022, one of her first thoughts was: “What will I do if I can’t work?”At the time, she was 62 years old and working as a physical therapist in Portland, Oregon, where she had recently moved to live closer to me and my family. Reluctantly, she filed for short-term disability from her job and paused her training to become a volunteer search and rescue EMT. Continue reading...
How to face the end of the world – according to Plato and the Stoics
Fearing future catastrophe is nothing new – ancient Greek and Roman philosophers all visualized the apocalypseDo your feelings of existential dread extend beyond your own personal mortality? Do they include fears about the survival of our culture and institutions, our species, nonhuman life and the Earth itself? Do you feel like there’s nothing that can help to wrap your head around the biggest problem we face: the end of the world as we know it?Apocalyptic expectations are on the rise. According to a 2022 Pew Research Center survey, 39% of Americans believe that we are living in the end times. Continue reading...
‘Don’t sweat the small stuff’: hospice workers share 12 lessons about life and death
Hospice and end-of-life workers discuss what they’ve learned from their work and patients in their last moments“Hospice” can be a loaded term. Some see it as synonymous with death and “giving up”, as Courtney, a full-time hospice nurse practitioner in Missouri, puts it. But Courtney, who asked that her last name be withheld for privacy reasons, doesn’t see it that way.“Hospice is giving someone a gift,” she says of her patients, who have typically received a terminal diagnosis with a timeline of six months or less. “It is giving them the gift of being able to stay at home and eat or not eat whatever they want. It is the gift of comfort.” Continue reading...
I tried the new Anydeli plastic-free containers: ‘The perfect food storage finally exists’
These food storage containers with clever, reheat-friendly vented lids are ‘endlessly versatile, lightweight and durable’ The best air fryers, tried and tested in a food labYou know those round deli containers people love to keep after getting takeout pho? Recently, I’ve been using some new food storage containers in the same shape that stack the same convenient way. But that’s where the similarities end.The Anydeli plastic-free silicone containers were just released by Anyday, the maker of my favorite glass food storage system. (I raved about those previously.) After testing a set at home for a few weeks, I have no notes. Well, I have notes, but they’re all very positive, because the containers are endlessly versatile, lightweight and durable enough to send in my kids’ lunchboxes without worry. They’re also cute.The Anyday glass food containers transformed how I store leftoversThe best plastic-free food storage containers: Anydeli Silicone Mixed Set of 3The best plastic-free food storage full set: Anydeli Silicone Mixed Set of 6 Continue reading...
The last thing I did for my mother was illegal
An urn cost more than my rent. So I scattered my mother’s ashes at Yosemite from a Ziploc bag, without the federal permit I couldn’t afford to wait forMy mother is in a Ziploc bag on my lap, wedged between a half-eaten bag of trail mix and my purse.My stomach is queasy from the switchbacks up to Yosemite, where I’ve come to spread her ashes, and I’m having an existential crisis. Continue reading...
Homes with striking interiors for sale in England – in pictures
From a brick stable block renovated into an eco home to a Georgian townhouse painted in atmospheric shades of grey Continue reading...
