20 m. ago Scots Come Dine With Me star to trek 50 miles in heels as Mrs Claus in memory of sister

Garry MacDonald hopes to raise cash for the young family of his sister Helen, who passed away aged 37 last year.

Politics

17 h. ago Tech should help us be creative. AI rips our creativity away | Dave Schilling

AI-generated songs are topping Spotify charts. This isn’t about the ‘democratization’ of art – it’s about scaleMaking music is hard. Well, at least it used to be. I remember the old days, when you had to spend hours and hours honing skills, coming up with something clever or personal to say, then actually recording sounds that people would want to listen to. But that’s the past. In our sparkling future, a pre-teen can dump a bunch of words into a machine and out comes a catchy tune. In 2025, a robot can be a pop star. (Although Data from Star Trek did drop an album back in the 90s. How soon we all forget.)Three AI-generated songs recently topped Spotify’s “Viral 50” charts. One of the “creators” responsible for these songs, Broken Veteran, who squirted out a track about immigration policies, told the Guardian that AI is “just another tool for expression, particularly valuable for people like me who have something to say but lack traditional musical training”. It used to be that if y...

Science

4 d. ago Son of Birds Of A Feather star to take part in Alzheimer’s charity trek

Charlie Quirke is walking 140km to raise money and awareness for Alzheimer’s Research UK after his mother Pauline Quirke was diagnosed with dementia.

Politics

6 d. ago The moment I knew: I felt a pang of fear – but I knew we were an unbeatable duo

After spying Tom Box at a punk gig, Kate Logan made a Dalek poster to capture his attentionFind more stories from the moment I knew seriesLong before we’d met, I had heard a lot about a guy called Tom Box. I knew he was an Australian living in the South Island of New Zealand. I was in Wellington, and there’d been a few occasions when I’d travelled to the South Island for raves or anarchist conferences where some of the folks had gone to Tom’s place – but I splintered off somewhere else.Then one day, in 2007, I was at a punk gig when a mutual friend said, “Oh, do you know Tom Box? He’s over there. He’s just moved up to Wellington.” There in a sea of black-clad punks, jumping up and down at the front of the mosh pit, was this guy in a pale blue Star Trek uniform. To me, as a person unfamiliar with Star Trek, he looked like he was wearing pyjamas. This was my first vision of him, but we didn’t talk at all that night. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago Lego: The final frontier. Star Trek’s first set beams down in 3,600 pieces

The set will be available in Lego stores and online November 28

Politics

2 w. ago Star Trek and The Twilight Zone director Ralph Senensky dies as tributes are paid

Ralph Senensky, who directed episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series, The Twilight Zone and The Waltons, has died at the age of 102, with tributes flooding in

Events