All posts tagged: Empty

I’m a travel writer – book one plane seat to get an empty row | World | News

I’m a travel writer – book one plane seat to get an empty row | World | News

Published by Sam Flores

There’s a nifty hack I use to secure an empty row on planes (Image: Amy Jones) There’s nothing better than getting on a plane, hearing the ‘boarding complete’ announcement, and discovering that you have an entire row to yourself. Say hello to a blissful and undisrupted flight – even better during those long-haul flights. This feeling never fails to excite me when travelling abroad, knowing that I joyfully have a row all to myself for the next nine hours, so I can stretch out and even construct a makeshift bed with the spare seats, pillows and blankets. What more could I want during a long-haul flight? While I can’t always bag this level of luxury when flying economy, I can do everything in my power to give myself the best chance of making it happen. And it’s all about selecting the right seat, without paying for the privilege. Before every trip, I will always wait until I can check in online 24 hours ahead of the flight to choose my seat preference. Sometimes you can …

Why Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s abandoned home Frogmore Cottage is still empty

Why Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s abandoned home Frogmore Cottage is still empty

Published by Daniella Wilson

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are happily settled in Montecito at their sprawling estate with its seven acres and abundance of luxury features. Ahead of their move across the pond, the couple resided at Frogmore Cottage in Windsor. Today, the secluded five-bedroom property still lies empty. We unpack why no other royal has moved in and discuss what the couple really thought of the place… Prince Harry and Meghan Markle left the home in 2020, and for three years it was officially known as their “UK base” and they used it for a handful of occasions, including The Platinum Jubilee and Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral. In 2023, it was requested by King Charles that they hand the keys back.  © NetflixThe couple packing their things from Frogmore Cottage No royal interest  When Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was forced to give up Royal Lodge, rumours swirled that he was offered Frogmore Cottage as an alternative residence, but that didn’t materialise. Last year, Prince William and his wife, Princess Kate, made the move from Adelaide Cottage to Forest Lodge. …

Police issue warning about controversial Welsh hotel that’s stood empty for months

Police issue warning about controversial Welsh hotel that’s stood empty for months

Published by Sam Flores

Police have warned people to stay out of the former Stradey Park Hotel in Llanelli after a rise in reports of trespassing linked to social media activity over the bank holiday weekend. Dyfed-Powys Police said officers received a number of calls about people entering the building, with concerns that some individuals were accessing the site to create online content. The force said enquiries are underway into alleged criminal damage and burglary offences, and officers are in contact with those believed to have been involved. Mystery continues to surround the future of this once-proud Welsh hotel which thrust itself into a whirlwind of controversy three years ago and then closed suddenly in March this year without warning staff or customers – leaving many of them out of pocket. Always keep on top of the latest Welsh news with our newsletter The Stradey Park Hotel in Llanelli announced in May 2023 that it was shutting its doors to paying guests. Instead the historic building would become a home to around 240 asylum seekers after a deal was …

The ‘Backrooms’ Director Found Hell in Empty Hallways

The ‘Backrooms’ Director Found Hell in Empty Hallways

Published by Daniella Wilson

In 2019, a mysterious post took off on 4chan, that ever-churning morass of anonymous commentary and internet peculiarities. In response to a yellowed picture of an empty, carpeted room (actually in a vacant HobbyTown store in Oshkosh, Wisconsin), a user wrote, “If you’re not careful and you noclip out of reality in the wrong areas, you’ll end up in the Backrooms.” To “noclip” is to walk through solid surfaces in a video game, and the idea of blipping out of reality and into some odd, mundane parallel universe sparked instant intrigue—including for one 13-year-old named Kane Parsons. Parsons was already deeply enmeshed in imagining, and visualizing, strange new worlds online. “It’s nothing,” Parsons told me recently, speaking of what drew him to the empty place shown in that particular viral photo. “But it’s also kind of giving us everything.” Within seven years, he would expand the simple notion of “the Backrooms” into a complex saga. He developed the concept into a string of YouTube videos, which have attracted hundreds of millions of views since he …

In rusted collars and empty chairs, I still live with my beloved ghosts | Paul Daley

In rusted collars and empty chairs, I still live with my beloved ghosts | Paul Daley

Published by Sam Flores

Sometimes it seems like my world is inhabited by ghosts, such are the remnants and reminders of past lives all around me. The dead dogs are everywhere. On a coatrack on the hallway wall just near the front door outside my study hang their sun-bleached and harbour-rusted collars and leads, memorial stalactites to much-loved animals who’ve never really left us. Their tags are clipped on the fridge and one is screwed into the tree in the back yard under which its wearer is buried. The name tag of Nari, Paul Daley’s dog, screwed into a tree. Photograph: Paul Daley The ashes of the last to die sit in their urn on the mantlepiece to my right. We haven’t quite come around – or been able – to scatter her yet. Too soon! Photographs of them as shiny pups are on the fridge. Line drawings (kindly sent by a professional artist acquaintance when he read of my grief at losing the last one, Ronda) and watercolours, one by an artist daughter, the other by a talented …

Swarm of Empty Waymos Descends on Unsuspecting Suburb, Circle Cul-de-Sacs for Hours on End Like Strange Ghosts

Swarm of Empty Waymos Descends on Unsuspecting Suburb, Circle Cul-de-Sacs for Hours on End Like Strange Ghosts

Published by José Betancourt

Sign up to see the future, today Can’t-miss innovations from the bleeding edge of science and tech Nearly a year after Waymos touched down in Atlanta for the first time, residents of the community of Buckhead, Georgia have noted a massive influx of the company’s autonomous vehicles trying to forge a path through their neighborhood. The result is a massive increase in vehicle traffic — and occasional weird ritual-like scenes as the AVs circle cul-de-sacs for hours on end. “It’s almost every little cul-de-sac in our area, so I think it’s a problem,” one neighbor told the local WSBTV. While it’d be forgivable if residents were just going hog-wild on Waymo rideshares, most of the AVs filmed by residents appear completely empty. One clip making the rounds on social media shows numerous Waymos simultaneously roll into an otherwise deserted roundabout, circling ominously like something out of a Stephen King story. While it’s possible the algorithmically-guided vehicles are using area roundabouts to correct their direction of travel — where most humans would just pull a U-turn …

Feeling empty after finishing a video game? Researchers say post-game depression is a real phenomenon

Feeling empty after finishing a video game? Researchers say post-game depression is a real phenomenon

Published by José Betancourt

A recent study published in Current Psychology has found that many video game players experience a specific sense of emptiness and sadness after finishing highly engaging games. The research introduces a new psychological scale to measure this phenomenon, showing that post-game depression is linked to general depressive symptoms and difficulties in processing emotions. These findings offer new insights into how deeply immersive media can impact a person’s emotional well-being. Video games are the third most popular leisure activity in the world. Modern video games are not solely designed to provide simple entertainment or pleasure. Many of these titles feature complex narratives that evoke deep emotions, existential reflection, and a profound sense of achievement. As players invest hours into these immersive worlds, they often form strong attachments to the characters and the storylines. When the experience abruptly ends, gamers often report a lingering sense of loss or emptiness. Psychologist Kamil Janowicz at the Center for Research on Personality Development at SWPS University in Poznań and Piotr Klimczyk, a UX researcher and narrative designer with Orion Belt …

50 Empty Waymos Invade Upscale Tiny Atlanta Neighborhood

50 Empty Waymos Invade Upscale Tiny Atlanta Neighborhood

Published by Jenni Sidey

With Waymo robotaxis now operating in 11 major U.S. markets, these fully autonomous Jaguar I-PACE SUVs are becoming increasingly visible to everyday folks. This wider rollout means more public encounters and more viral footage capturing robotaxis in the wild. One such incident occurred in a northwest Atlanta neighborhood this week, where residents told local media outlet WSB-TV that more than 50 empty Waymo SUVs flooded their tiny street. “It’s almost every little cul-de-sac in our area, so I think it’s a problem,” one neighbor on Battleview Drive told WSB’s Steve Gehlbach. The Battleview resident said, “I think yesterday morning we had 50 cars come through between 6 and 7.” It’s not just Battleview; other residents in the area say empty robotaxis have been repeatedly circling their streets in growing numbers over the past several weeks. Residents told the local outlet that the robotaxis are not picking up passengers, raising concerns that the activity is excessive and potentially dangerous, especially for families with children nearby. Expect more stories like this as robotaxi deployment ramps up nationwide. …

From empty stands to record crowd as Ireland women return to Aviva

From empty stands to record crowd as Ireland women return to Aviva

Published by Sam Flores

May 15 : When Ireland’s women last played at the home of Irish rugby, they walked out to a stadium emptying after Brian O’Driscoll’s farewell, but this weekend they return as the headline act rather than an afterthought, and in front of a record crowd. Sunday’s Six Nations match against Scotland is the first standalone women’s rugby fixture at Dublin’s Aviva Stadium, with over 30,000 tickets already sold. The record attendance for a women’s rugby match in Ireland was set less than a month ago when 9,206 watched Ireland beat Italy in Galway. Italy were also the opposition during Ireland’s only previous appearance at the Aviva, in 2014. Billed as a double-header, with the men also playing Italy, a sell-out crowd watched O’Driscoll, one of the country’s greats, play his last international home game for Ireland. Fiona Coghlan, the women’s captain that day, has bittersweet memories. “We didn’t get changed in the main stadium, and I remember to get into the stadium, walking down the tunnel where normally the buses go,” Coghlan told Reuters. “A …

The moment I knew: I gave her one of my paintings, she gave me an empty chip packet | Relationships

The moment I knew: I gave her one of my paintings, she gave me an empty chip packet | Relationships

Published by Sam Flores

The first time I saw Agatha, she was saturated, standing in a knee-high bucket wearing a knitted woollen jumper that said Ho Ho Ho on it. Whatever I’d expected to see at the Christmas group show at MOP Projects – an artist-run gallery in Redfern, Sydney – this vision transcended it. As I walked into the hall-like space, it was devoid of any artwork aside from this absolutely beautiful woman standing there with water dripping on to her head. It was 2007, and I was a graduate of the National Art School. People weren’t making this type of work there, so it’s no exaggeration to say the whole image was completely new and arresting for me. She was silent and stationary but so alive. ‘The atmosphere in Sydney at that time was alive with fantastic artists, fantastic spaces and Agatha was the brightest light out there’ Some weeks later, I was back at the same venue and some friends of hers introduced us, suggesting I could advise her on applying to the National Art School. …