All posts tagged: ghost

Iconic seaside resort known as ‘mini Blackpool’ now ghost town | UK | News

Iconic seaside resort known as ‘mini Blackpool’ now ghost town | UK | News

Published by Sam Flores

The colourful shop signs hark back to a different age when the town was referred to as the Welsh version of Blackpool (Image: Rob Browne) For generations of people from all over the UK, Porthcawl was the coastal retreat that shaped childhood summers. Days were filled with devouring ice creams on the shore, setting up your caravan at Trecco Bay, and waiting eagerly for the helter skelter at Coney Beach Pleasure Park. During its golden era of the 1940s, 50s and 60s, Porthcawl was even called “Wales’ mini Blackpool”. Each summer, the renowned Miners’ Fortnight revolutionised the town, packing guesthouses, caravans and the thriving seafront with families from mining communities throughout Wales. Customarily occurring during the final week of July and the opening week of August, it represented the pinnacle of the year for countless families and on hot days there was barely space for a towel to be found on the beach, such was the extent of the crowds. Now, though, the picture is dramatically altered. A midweek visit to the town exposes an …

Eyesore 200-home ghost estate overrun by yobs after being left abandoned

Eyesore 200-home ghost estate overrun by yobs after being left abandoned

Published by Sam Flores

An abandoned 220-home housing development in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, United Kingdom, has been left unfinished for nearly three years, with residents calling it an eyesore and a safety risk. The site, intended for a marina with homes, shops, and restaurants, now contains derelict shells and has reportedly attracted fires, graffiti, and anti-social behaviour involving teenagers. Local residents and councillors say the brownfield site near the River Trent is unsafe and damaging the town’s image, with the land now up for auction. Source link

Ghost MOTs: drivers warned over fake certificates that lead to huge repair bills | Scams

Ghost MOTs: drivers warned over fake certificates that lead to huge repair bills | Scams

Published by Sam Flores

You have just bought a secondhand car. It was older than you wanted, but were reassured because it had recently passed its MOT. Within a few days, you notice a problem with the steering and take it into a garage to be checked. As well as that issue, they find the tread depth of the tyres is so low it should not have passed the test. You have been the victim of a “ghost MOT”. Although you have a certificate clearly saying the vehicle was successfully checked over, no such examination ever took place. The fraud happens when a garage, or a mechanic, claims to have done the inspections but has simply logged in the system that the vehicle has passed. In some instances, this can happen without the vehicle even being in the garage. The MOT tester should have checked for wear to items such as tyres. Photograph: David Burton/Alamy The MOT, designed to ensure minimum standards in vehicles, usually more than three years old, is a test carried out in 23,000 accredited garages …

I found 50GB of ghost files on my SSD — this is where they were hiding

I found 50GB of ghost files on my SSD — this is where they were hiding

Published by skeptic

If you’ve been seeing your C: drive shrinking on its own, you’re not going crazy. Windows and its programs love to set up folders and start filling a cache of data that eats up space like anything on your drive. The worst part? Getting rid of this data isn’t as simple as selecting it and hitting delete. Windows itself can hold back as much as 7 GB on your SSD, but these so-called ghost files created by installed programs on your PC are much worse. Thankfully, with a free tool and some cautious deletion, you can chase these ghosts straight out of Windows. Related You don’t need a bigger SSD if you do this with your storage Free up SSD space without spending a dime. Visualizing storage to uncover what Windows hides Windows’ built-in File Explorer is nowhere near as effective if you’re looking to find hidden files. In this case, using a tool like WizTree makes more sense. It’s a free disk analyzer for Windows that’s embarrassingly fast compared to File Explorer. Instead of …

Patrick Swayze’s widow reveals she still talks to his ghost 17 years after his death

Patrick Swayze’s widow reveals she still talks to his ghost 17 years after his death

Published by Daniella Wilson

Lisa Niemi has opened up in a deeply emotional new interview about the enduring bond she shares with her late husband, revealing that nearly 17 years after his death, she still speaks to him every day. The widow of Patrick Swayze, who died in 2009 following a battle with pancreatic cancer, shared that maintaining a spiritual connection with him has helped ease the profound loneliness she felt after losing the love of her life. “I still feel him with me every day, and hear what he would say to me about certain things. It’s great,” she told US weekly. “I talk to him, I feel him. I hear his voice in my head. He gives me advice, and I am absolutely certain that he is there whenever I need him.” © Maury PhillipsLisa Niemi Swayze speaks during Stand Up To Cancer Press Conference Lisa, who was married to the Dirty Dancing star for 34 years, described their relationship as the foundation of her adult life, making his loss all the more devastating. “Patrick and I …

Ghost Elephants review: Werner Herzog searches for ghost elephants in stunning new documentary

Ghost Elephants review: Werner Herzog searches for ghost elephants in stunning new documentary

Published by skeptic

Environmental anthropologist Kerllen Costa (far left), conservationist Steve Boyes (second left) and Angolan hunter-guides search for ghost elephants, possibly shown below Ariel Leon Isacovitch Ghost Elephants Werner Herzog, Disney+ Film director Werner Herzog has always been drawn to the limits of human knowledge – to the places where science meets myth, where discovery shades into obsession. InGhost Elephants, which premiered at last year’s Venice Film Festival, he follows conservationist Steve Boyes in Angola as he searches for a herd of elephants that may or may not exist. It is both a scientific expedition and a philosophical fable that asks what it means to chase a dream that could easily remain just that. The premise is strikingly simple. Boyes believes that there has been a sighting of a group of unusually large elephants, possibly related to the legendary Fnykvi specimen preserved at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington DC. Named after the engineer and big-game hunter Josef Fnykvi who shot it, it is one of the largest land mammals ever displayed and stands …

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s former home that’s like a ‘ghost town’ after move

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s former home that’s like a ‘ghost town’ after move

Published by Daniella Wilson

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has officially moved into Marsh Farm, his permanent home on the Sandringham estate, leaving Royal Lodge in his wake. According to a new report, the 31-room property on the Windsor Home Park estate is now lying empty, having been the former Duke of York’s home since 2004. As per The Sun, the grounds of Andrew’s former home have been left looking like a “ghost town”, having once been a “hive of activity” during the former prince’s tenure. The future of Royal Lodge remains uncertain. Andrew once had a 75-year peppercorn rent deal on the property, which would have transferred to his daughters, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie. © UK Press via Getty ImagesAndrew moved out of Royal Lodge in February 2026 However, following King Charles‘ decision to remove their father from the residence, the long-term lease cannot be passed on to them. Royal Lodge is owned by the Crown Estate.  Inside Royal Lodge © Getty ImagesRoyal Lodge pictured in the 1930s It is a grand affair, which, according to The Guardian, is “laid out …

Ghost map: Europe’s first glimpse of Tenochtitlan shows a city already destroyed

Ghost map: Europe’s first glimpse of Tenochtitlan shows a city already destroyed

Published by Jenni Sidey

For early 16th-century Europeans, this map was a revelation. It showed a previously unknown island metropolis in the recently discovered Americas — an alien Venice, if you will. However, by the time this first European portrait of the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan was published in 1524, the city, once home to perhaps 200,000 people, was already gone — razed in 1521 by Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés. In its place, Mexico City would eventually rise. Yet this is more than the ghost map of a recently deceased city. It is a multi-layered document of first contact, evidence of the hybridization of two clashing cultures as well as the dominance of one over the other. Curiously, nobody knows who exactly made this map. The leading theory is that it was based on an indigenous chart of the city. Cortés had obtained from the Aztec emperor Montezuma a map of the coastline, so it seems plausible that a native cartographer provided a cartographic outline of the capital, too. The map shows a city labelled Temixtitan built on islands in …

Democrats Are Exorcising the Ghost of Iraq

Democrats Are Exorcising the Ghost of Iraq

Published by Daniella Wilson

The speech that arguably won Barack Obama the presidency was delivered six years before he ran for the White House and four years before he reached Congress. In October 2002, Obama, then a state senator from Illinois, delivered a blistering speech against the impending war in Iraq. “I don’t oppose war in all circumstances,” he declared at a Chicago rally. “What I do oppose is a dumb war.” Years later, that stance would distinguish Obama from Hillary Clinton, the initial front-runner in the 2008 Democratic primary. The two contenders were largely in accord on domestic policy, which made their differences on foreign policy loom large. Clinton, like most Senate Democrats, had voted to authorize the Iraq War. But with that decision now deeply unpopular on the left, Obama leaned into his early opposition. His campaign produced supercuts of his anti-war sentiments over the years and even filmed supporters reciting the lines of his 2002 speech, in one of the earliest examples of viral video in American politics. The contrast proved consequential. Surveys showed that Democratic …