16. Muscle Flex

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Amongst these, the Helix Dusk Luxe mattress is a mid-range option from the brand, offering a step up in luxury from the standard Helix Dusk. Similar to other Luxe line products, it includes Zoned Support coils and a plush pillow top for added comfort.Our Helix Dusk Luxe mattress review will cover everything you need to know about this bed to help you decide whether it's the right fit for you. Black Friday Mattress Deals Ready to replace that mattress? Score huge savings on great mattresses with these Black Friday discounts. See now CNET-exclusive deal Looking for a new mattress? With this CNET-exclusive deal, you can take 27% off Helix sitewide and get two free pillows with any mattress purchase. This is the biggest discount available -- you wont find it anywhere else. Use code CNET27 at checkout. First impressionsI ordered Dusk Luxe online and it arrived in a large box, similar to many other bed-in-a-box mattresses. I dragged it inside, dumped out the contents and started taking off all the plastic the bed was encased in. Dillon Payne/CNETThe bed started to immediately expand once it was released from its compressed packaging. Since it has coils for support, the bed inflated much faster than a normal all-foam mattress. Nevertheless, I gave it some time to sit out on our foundation so it could get to its true form.By the next day, the bed was ready to be put through CNET's rigorous sleep tests. When I tested its responsiveness, I noted that the bed felt neutral and accommodating. It just felt like a comfy pillow-top bed that you'd find in a nice hotel, something familiar.This notion of accommodation was further reinforced when I lay down on the bed. I immediately felt supported by the Zoned Support coils, and the neutral comfort foams made the bed feel super cozy. The Dusk Luxe doesn't feel like a body-conforming, memory foam bed, and while it's slightly firmer than a medium, it still feels like it could work for all sleeper types.Read more: The Different Sleep Positions and Their Effects on Your HealthOverall, my first impression of this bed was a good one. Pillow top beds are my personal favorite style of mattress, and I could sleep like a baby on this one. I had quite a bit more to say about this mattress, so check out my video review below.Video: Helix Dusk Luxe mattress

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November 27, 20244 min readOuch! Linguists Find Universal Language for PainFrom ouch to ae to yakayi, languages across the world exclaim pain using similar-sounding words, hinting at a common originBy Allison Parshall Richard Drury/Getty ImagesWhat would you say if you suddenly stubbed your toe on a doorframe? Depending on how much it hurt, you might cry out in pain, unleash a stream of expletivesor utter a very specific exclamation, such as ouch or ow.Most languages have a word that that serves as interjection for expressing pain. In Mandarin, its ai-yo. In French, its ae. And in several Indigenous Australian languages, its yakayi. All have sound elements that seem quite similarand thats no coincidence, according to a new study in the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. Researchers found pain interjections are more likely to contain the vowel sound ah (written as [a] in the International Phonetic Alphabet, or IPA) and vowel combinations that use it, such as ow and ai. These findings may point back to the origins of human language itself.Across every country, you see this overrepresentation of [a] in pain interjections, says the studys senior author Katarzyna Pisanski, who studies vocal communication at Frances National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS). It was a really strong, robust effect. Pisanski and her colleagues also found that [a] dominates the nonlinguistic, often involuntary cries of pain, called vocalizations, that people utter around the world. This suggests that words like ouch may have been shaped by the more primal sounds of pain that humans evolved to makepossibly well before language or speech developed.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.Maa Ponsonnet, the studys lead author, first noticed the similarity between yakayi and the French ae while studying Indigenous languages of Australia. Obviously, this is a very naive observation, says Ponsonnet, a linguist who also works at CNRS. You shouldnt draw any inference from observations of just two languages. So Ponsonnet and her colleagues scoured dictionaries and databases of 131 world languages for interjections that express pain and two other basic emotions, disgust and joy. The sample included dozens of language families from Asia, Australia, Latin America, Africa and Europe.The researchers found striking statistical similarities in pain interjections across languages. In fact, these interjections resembled one another across languages more than they resembled other words of the same language. This effectwhich did not hold true for interjections expressing joy or disgustwas driven by one category of vowels in particular: [a]-like ones that often combine with others to create sounds such as ai and ow.It doesnt often happen that a hypothesis ... is tested on such a large scale and comes out so clearly, says Mark Dingemanse, a linguist at Radboud University in the Netherlands, who also studies interjections.The pattern suggests that the words we humans use for pain are not as arbitrary as many other words. Instead they have likely been shaped by some common factor. Could those similarities come from the primal, nonlinguistic sounds that seem to automatically spring from us humans when we get hurt? Research on this is scant, so Ponsonnet joined forces with Pisanski, who studies the evolution of vocal communication in mammals, to conduct another experiment. The researchers recruited 166 speakers of English, Japanese, Spanish, Turkish or Mandarin to produce the sounds they would make if they were experiencing pain, disgust or joy.This time the team found thatfor each emotionvocalizations contained similar vowel sounds across those five languages. For disgust, the most common vowel was [] (pronounced like uh); for joy, it was [i] (pronounced like ee); and for pain, it was the now familiar [a].The fact that [a] was overrepresented in both primal vocalizations and interjections for pain suggests that these two types of utterance may be related, Pisanski says. Its possible that words like ouch and yakayi have been shaped by the involuntary sounds we evolved to make in order to signal pain or distress to one another.For disgust and joy, the results tell a different story. While the vocalizations for these emotions are similar across the world, their interjections were far more diverseperhaps because these feelings carry more cultural dimensions than pain, Pisanski suggests. Pain is pain, I think, no matter where youre from, she says. Its a biological experience.Our shared biology has impacts across many aspects of language. Researchers are continually discovering cases of symbolism, or sound iconicity, in which the intrinsic nature of a word has some connection to its meaning. These cases run counter to decades of linguistic theory, which had regarded language as fundamentally arbitrary (meaning, for example, that there was nothing in the structure or sounds in the word bird that would intrinsically make someone think of an actual bird).Yet iconicity often does show up all over human language. Signed languages, long overlooked by many linguists, employ a lot of symbolism: in American Sign Language, bird is formed by using a finger and thumb to mime a birds beak opening and closing. And in spoken languages, the term onomatopoeia refers to words that imitate sounds directly, such as bang or splat. Many types of birds, such as the cuckoo and chickadee, have been given names that echo their calls.But these connections between form and meaning can be so abstract that theyre all but invisible until revealed by researchers. For example, theres the classic bouba-kiki effect, in which people around the world are more likely to associate the nonsense word bouba with a rounded shape and kiki with a spiked one.This is [whats] beautiful about sound iconicity and symbolismbecause somehow we all have a feeling about this, says Aleksandra Ćwiek, a linguist at the Leibniz Center for General Linguistics in Germany. Its amazing to see that people kind of agree on them. In a paper published last week, also in the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, Ćwiek and her colleagues showed that people associate the trilled R sound with roughness and the L sound with smoothness.Finding out when unrelated languages do things in similar ways brings home our common humanity, says Dingemanse, who in 2013 found that Huh? and similar words in other languages are universal in conversation. No matter how much languages differand that is also fascinatingthey also unite us.

PlayStation Plus Monthly Games announced for DecemberIt Takes Two! Sly Cooper! Free multiplayer!Image credit: Hazelight News by Ed Nightingale Deputy News Editor Published on Nov. 27, 2024 Sony has announced the Monthly Games coming to its PS Plus catalogue this December, as well as how it's celebrating PlayStation's 30th anniversary on the platform.It Takes Two (PS4, PS5), Aliens: Dark Descent (PS4, PS5), and TemTem (PS5) will be available to download across all tiers of the subscription from 3rd December until 6th January. That's Premium, Extra, and Essential.That means this is your last chance to download November's games: Hot Wheels Unleashed 2 - Turbocharged, Ghostwire: Tokyo and Death Note Killer Within.It Takes Two Official Gameplay TrailerWatch on YouTubeA new game trial has been added for Warhammer 40K Space Marine 2 from 3rd December for Premium members.Also for Premium members, three PS2 platformers are joining the classics catalogue: Sly 2: Band of Thieves, Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves, and Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy.Other updates for December include:A free online multiplayer weekend from 6th-8th December across PS4 and PS5, without needing PS Plus membershipAn esports tournament the same weekend, featuring the likes of EA Sports FC 25, NBA 2K25, Tekken 8, Mortal Kombat 1, Madden NFL 25, College Football 25, UFC 5, MLB The Show 24 and Guilty Gear StriveA sweepstakes to win 30 months of PS Plus Premium for 30 winners, with entry open from 10th - 23rd December A 30 percent off films on Sony Pictures Core offer from 3rd - 9th DecemberFilm credit on Sony Pictures Core for any purchase of 12-month PS Plus membership from 10th December - 10th JanuaryMore details on all these offers can be found on the PlayStation Blog.In London, PlayStation is celebrating its 30th anniversary by sponsoring a train on the London Underground - the first time in 25 years that Transport for London has allowed a brand to advertise on its Tube seats.For more on PS Plus, here's our complete list of all games available on the subscription.

30 Birds review - a magical, kaleidoscopic adventure through Persian mythFine feathers.Image credit: Eurogamer/Arte France Review by Katharine Castle Managing Editor Published on Nov. 27, 2024 Instantly captivating and perpetually playful, this whimsical romp across a world of paper lanterns is utterly enchanting. The Night Train to Lantern City. Just saying these words out loud immediately conjures an image of a place with warm, hushed lighting spooling out of glazed windows, with billows of steam and smoke misting over the landscape. It's certainly an evocative kind of opening, but 30 Birds goes one better, placing its detective heroine Zig on a train careering through space on tracks made of clouds, heading toward a city made of actual paper lanterns. It's a dreamy and impossible kind of architecture, its inhabitants shifting up and down each lantern's colourful panels and wrapping their 2D bodies around the edges of a very real, 3D space, with doorways transporting them to other miniature lamp spaces hanging around its periphery. The locals themselves are a little impossible, too, as you'll clock sentient aubergines and disco-loving djinn glyphs, and, of course, a heck of a lot of birds as you saunter through the city's various districts.30 Birds reviewDeveloper: Ram Ram Games, Business Goose StudiosPublisher: Arte FrancePlatform: Played on PCAvailability: Out on 28th November on PC (Steam)Persian mythology sits at the heart of 30 Birds, and the reason Zig's been called here in the first place is to witness the awakening of Simurgh, an enormous phoenix-like creature whose god-like status in both real-world legend and in the game forms the backbone of this fantastical tale. Here, Simurgh is the creator of Lantern City, and has been asleep for the past fifty years, dreaming of what to do next with her magical creation. But when the awakening ceremony goes awry and Simurgh gets captured by a mysterious being known only as 'The Scientist', Zig sets off on a quest to free her by bringing together the titular avian individuals who can help save her (as Simurgh itself can also be translated as 'thirty birds').Watch on YouTubeBut 30 Birds isn't just some linear A to B hero's quest adventure. After that initial inciting event sees Zig paired with her first feathered collaborator - a sassy hoopoe called Hoop - you're more or less free to wander the city however you wish, peeling back its layers and generally noodling through at your own pace. Locals will occasionally give you clues and hints about where you can find certain birds, but after that you'll need to follow your nose and sense of curiosity - which isn't exactly hard when Lantern City is so immediately enticing to look at. The Central lantern is a hive of activity, with people spilling out of shops and baths onto the streets, while the Park feels wild, untamed and teeming with life, a complete contrast from the towering buildings of the College district, but even these warren-like avenues hold some surprising secrets inside them. Then there's the Grand Bazaar, which is a throng of competing speech bubbles as everyone goes about their business. They all have such distinct characters and a strong sense of place, and they're wonderful spaces to poke around in. The transition between different sides of each lantern panel is always a delight. A beautiful blend of 2D and 3D visuals. | Image credit: Eurogamer/Arte FranceThat said, navigation can feel a little stodgy at times, as remembering which landmarks live on which panels (and how to get back to them) could be smoother if the map in Zig's phone wasn't quite so abstract. Each panel is surprisingly spacious, always stretching up and down further than you're expecting, which can make it hard to get a grasp on where you are at times. A simple zoom out feature could have done wonders to help orient you within these dense and vivid spaces, but you'll have to make do with just being thorough and meticulous in your exploration. Still, when feathers, paintings and other collectibles gleaming in seemingly locked off windows and obstructed doorways are always drawing your eye toward some hidden nook and cranny, tempting you back behind its layered, picture book diorama, a little bit of backtracking rarely feels like much of a chore. Interior spaces transport Zig to another smaller lantern on the district's periphery. | Image credit: Eurogamer/Arte FranceBefriending its 30 birds is also a delight. All of them are surprisingly funny and well-written, for starters - shout out to cult leader Gurubird and the Frasier-esque radio host Lovebird in particular here - and seeking them out forms the main thrust of the game's story. Some can be spotted in plain sight across each city district, while others require more thorough investigation and some very light puzzling before they'll reveal themselves. Finding one is often its own reward, as many will instantly give you their contact details as soon as you've had a chat with them. The best ones, though, are the birds that have a little minigame mixed in - though even calling them minigames doesn't quite do them justice. These aren't minigames that you can fail, or are forced to try again if you don't get them right. They're more like daft, miniature episodes of pure playfulness - whether that's navigating a Rubix Cube-like prison, diving inside a crocodile's mouth to find a matchbox inside a vase inside a briefcase inside its stomach, inflicting terrible tattoos on unsuspecting underground market customers, or giving romance advice to Lovebird's radio listeners. Each bird you meet is an utter delight. | Image credit: Eurogamer/Arte France30 Birds accessibility optionsDedicated sliders for master, music, instruments and SFX volume. Seven language options.If anything, failure and simply having a go is often encouraged in 30 Birds, and nowhere is this more evident than in its tactile musical puzzles. These are all about twiddling dials, sliding buttons and tuning all manner of doodads to get a particular sound or match shapes to create certain patterns, but there's nothing pressuring you to hurry things along. Instead, you can just luxuriate in the act of play, which permeates 30 Birds from top to bottom.Indeed, it's the kind of adventure that you wish could last forever, or at least a little longer than its tight five or so hour run-time allows for. There's just enough here to give it a sense of life beyond what you're able to see and explore as part of the main story, such as distant special lanterns that can only be travelled to via magic carpet, living constellations that impart stories when their fallen stars are returned to them, and an entire Snap-like card game played in its cafes and coffee houses where picture tiles are smashed violently together for gleeful victories. But even if 30 Birds feels like a dream you've woken up from earlier than you'd like, what a thing to say you've experienced all the same. It's a game I'll be thinking about for many months to come, and I only hope we get to see more stops along the Night Train to Lantern City in the future.A copy of 30 Birds was provided for review by publisher Arte France.

You can trust VideoGamer. Our team of gaming experts spend hours testing and reviewing the latest games, to ensure you're reading the most comprehensive guide possible. Rest assured, all imagery and advice is unique and original. Check out how we test and review games hereFortnite players like to use cosmetic skins in their locker to don their look before they jump into a Battle Royale match. However, those who cannot afford the paid skins are left with a default character that Fortnite imposes on them.Earlier in Chapter 1, characters like Jonesy, Renegade, Ramirez etc. were the default characters which players had grown up playing, and these are mostly seen in a lobby worn by bots and a lot of other players in common. However, now in lobbies players are seeing one skin used so commonly that its a new default skin in the game.The free Juice WRLD skin is the new default Fortnite skinFortnite has started granting players the free Slayer Juice WRLD skin starting November 25th until November 30th till before the upcoming live event. The redemption process is quite simple, just log in during this period and youll automatically get the skin in 24 hours.Fortnite players are claiming the free skin already. Image by HYPEX.However since the skin is free for all and requires no grind, players are claiming it endlessly and using the cel-shaded outfit in lobbies to commemorate the late rapper Juice WRLD. Upon seeing this, data miners like HYPEX were amazed and termed it as the new default skin in Fortnite lobbies.Agreeing with the sentiment, several other players also chimed in where one said, I think its so cool, I mean, were in a tribute. Another chimed in, The best default skin, very rare. A third user wrote, I mean its free why wouldnt a noob wear it lol.Despite being the redemption process of the free skin being simple, some players are still facing issues redeeming it and are confused if they did something wrong. If youre one of those too, check out this page for a solution. FortnitePlatform(s):Android, iOS, macOS, Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/XGenre(s):Action, Massively Multiplayer, Shooter9VideoGamerSubscribe to our newsletters!By subscribing, you agree to our Privacy Policy and may receive occasional deal communications; you can unsubscribe anytime.Share

Emma Ainscoughs recent clients discovered her in a storybookwell, sort of. A pink limewashed holiday cottage belonging to a viscount and viscountess, nestled in the picturesque British countryside and designed by Ainscough, served as a calling card for the London-based designer. Its cheeky, fairytale-like faade hinted at the creative interiors within: an ebullient blue bedroom clad in Folies Bergre wallpaper, a bespoke kitchen with a deep red-and-white checkerboard motif, a thick-stripe-walled dining room with a larger-than-life dried floral installation. I had kind of gone to town on that, laughs Ainscough. I was a bit worried that everyone, any future potential client, would think it was way too bonkers. But boldness was precisely what her new clientsa couple with two young childrenwere seeking for their home, a 3,000-square-foot Clapham renovation.Due to post-pandemic delays in London, the homeowners faced a challenge in planning commission approval. But construction eventually proceeded, with the houses lower ground floor being dug deeper to create a more expansive ceiling height and a larger reception room. The houses grand bones remained, providing an ideal ground for creative experimentation. Ainscough worked with architect Smith Brooke on the project.In the entryway, Edward Bulmers French Blue sets a serene tone. The bench cushion is upholstered in Lisa Fine Textiles Nicobar in Indigo. The accessories are antique, and the cat belongs to the clients.The wife was up for embracing a certain amount of color and pattern, which is what I love so much, enthuses Ainscough. And given the scale and ceiling heights of the Victorian house, it was easier to incorporate that without it feeling overbearing. In turn, the projects primary challenges proved to be spatial rather than style-related, as the designer worked to bridge former and future in the original house and its newly added extension. The lower ground floordark and dingy at firstwas transformed via a reconfiguring of the walls. Reimagining the kitchen, with DeVol Kitchens, provided a special challenge, since the space historically wouldnt ever have been a kitchen, notes Ainscough, who opened up the dining and kitchen areas to make it more family-friendly (and better lit, thanks to the double-aspect floor plan). Ceiling moldings, which upon first glance during the selection process appeared oversized, actually workedthanks to the houses proportionsto soften and make it feel less like a kitchen.The checkerboard floor in the main entryclassic of those Victorian housesfeatures Mandarin Stones Di Scacchi tumbled marble, set against Soanes Wild Tulips wall covering from floor to ceiling, which really sets the tone for the house beyond. The stair runner is Sinclair Tills Coir runner, and the Eloise mirror is from Sweetpea & Willow. Alfred Newalls Berwick console table with reeded drawers (left) holds a Penny Morrison table lamp with an Imogen Pope lampshade. The pendant lights are Beata Heumans Dodo Egg lanterns in brass, and the blinds are rendered in Flora Soamess Cornucopia fabric.The designer also tucked in some subtle references to the local neighborhood, a conservation area of London: When the family originally purchased the home, an old William Morris wallpaper went the whole way up the stairway, which was quite full-on, she shares. It was so English. While that wall covering wasnt to be preserved, a refined nod to that Arts and Crafts style was achieved with Soanes Wild Tulip wall covering papering the main hallway. In accommodating a young family, Ainscoughs brief meant carving out specialand sometimes smallspaces. Take the childrens rooms: The sons room, which pops with a monochromatic blue theme, was so slight that the designer didnt even know how we were going to get a single bed in it. The pair of bedrooms benefited from a bathroom shoehorned between them.Most PopularShopping27 Best Christmas Ornaments of 2024By Kristi KelloggArchitecture + DesignTour a Designers 100-Year-Old LA RetreatBy Vaishnavi Nayel TalawadekarBedroom15 Dreamy Baby Girl Nursery Ideas to Make Your Little One Feel Right at HomeBy Perri Ormont BlumbergThe DeVol kitchen cabinets and island are set against Paint & Paper Librarys Stone II paint. The backsplash tiles are Mosaic Factorys zellige tiles in blush pink, and the wall lights are Visual Comforts Clemente double sconces in black. DeVols Bum stools sit at the island, while the antique pendant lights above were sourced from Joseph Berry Interiors. The pendant lights above the sink are DeVols Frilly Cranberry Light, and the blind fabric is Howes Cypress Linen in Cocoa.With the same double-aspect layout as the primary suite, the dining and kitchen areas also echo the femininity of the room upstairs. The dining table was designed by Ainscough and, like the office desk, made bespoke by Made by Bill. The dining chairs are antiques sourced from Joseph Berry Interiors and clad with Pierre Freys Le Manach fabric. Beauvamps pinstripe Tiffany ruffle lampshade flutters above, and an antique black dresser sourced from Adam Lloyd sits at right.Most PopularShopping27 Best Christmas Ornaments of 2024By Kristi KelloggArchitecture + DesignTour a Designers 100-Year-Old LA RetreatBy Vaishnavi Nayel TalawadekarBedroom15 Dreamy Baby Girl Nursery Ideas to Make Your Little One Feel Right at HomeBy Perri Ormont BlumbergMeanwhile, the guest suitethough eaten into quite a bit to accommodate an ensuite bath in the primary bedroomevokes a hotel-like cool, clad in Edward Bulmers soothing Celadon shade. The playful powder room bursts with Parisian atelier Antoinette Poissons Guirlandes de Fleurs wall covering, a mix-and-match contrast to the Fired Earth checkerboard tiles. The playroom, located just beside the main sitting room, is presided over by a mischievous vintage Polish circus poster from Projekt 26 and outfitted with an upholstered sofa nook clad in Josef Franks fantastical Vegetable Tree print.Filled with pattern play, the playroom is also adjacent to the main sitting room. I was really mindful of what was going on next door, without them clashing too much, says Ainscough. Colorwise, they talk slightly to each other. The playroom area will evolve as the kids get bigger. The wall color is Paint & Paper Librarys Slate II. The joinery color is Little Greenes Woad, and the windows are cast in the same brands Bone China Blue. The wall lights feature Matilda Goads Raffia scallop candle shade; the rug is Evelina Kroons Korean Chives jute rug; and the two vintage posters were sourced from Projekt 26.A sweet wall coveringCherry Pie in Pink, by British designer Honor Addingtonadorns the walls in the childrens bathroom. The vanity is Neptunes Chichester undermount vanity unit with a Carrara marble top, and the wall mirror is from Oliver Bonas.Most PopularShopping27 Best Christmas Ornaments of 2024By Kristi KelloggArchitecture + DesignTour a Designers 100-Year-Old LA RetreatBy Vaishnavi Nayel TalawadekarBedroom15 Dreamy Baby Girl Nursery Ideas to Make Your Little One Feel Right at HomeBy Perri Ormont BlumbergDespite all the color and playfulness, Ainscough also created a quiet sanctuary with the primary suite through feminine touches and colors, like Farrow & Balls Dimity on the walls, Edward Bulmers Jonquil on the joinery, Pierre Freys La Pannonie on the headboard, and a custom bamboo silk rug by Pelican House on the floor. The subtle hues work together, gently offering up what she calls an escape from kid life. The home has a place for everyone.In the primary bedroom, Shaker-style closets feature braiding detail. The walls are cast in Farrow & Balls Dimity, and the joinery is in Edward Bulmers Jonquil. The headboard is clad in Pierre Freys La Pannonie. The daybed, a 19th-century antique with adjustable arms, is upholstered in Yarn Collectives Marci Mohair with a cushion in Bennisons Hibiscus fabric. A bamboo silk rug designed by Ainscough and made by Pelican House grounds the space.Art: Ruby BatemanA timber floor runs from the bedroom into the bathroom. The client was keen to keep that, says Ainscough, who aimed for a decidedly not clinical ambiance in the bathroom. Porter Bathrooms Carter double vanity unit is joined by Vendome single sconce wall lights from Visual Comfort.Most PopularShopping27 Best Christmas Ornaments of 2024By Kristi KelloggArchitecture + DesignTour a Designers 100-Year-Old LA RetreatBy Vaishnavi Nayel TalawadekarBedroom15 Dreamy Baby Girl Nursery Ideas to Make Your Little One Feel Right at HomeBy Perri Ormont BlumbergWhen the doors are open, the primary ensuite bathroom reveals an amazing double-aspect [view] from the front to the back of the house, says the designer. The towel rail and taps are from Lefroy Brooks, and the marble, which took quite a while, to find the right slab, is white cipollino from Porter London.Art: Tom AllportFor the houses extension, Ainscough and her clients wanted [it] to feel architecturally different to this house. It does feel different. Howe at 36 Bourne Streets Cypress, a paisley wall covering, provides a patterned backdrop in the home office. The custom-designed desk features plane timber sourced from old trees originating in London. Ceraudos Chiara dining chair, Soho Home lamps and wall lights, and a mix of retail and antique accessories complete the WFH setup.Beswick Stones Avignon limestone covers the floor of the utility room, which was carved out as a small space, shares Ainscough. The designer wanted to lean into this utilitarian feel down there, with Mosaic Factorys zellige tiles in brown and cream hues accenting the area and Farrow & Balls Dimity on the walls. A curtain featuring Ian Mankins Ticking Stripe 01 fabric hides away the washing machine and dryer.Kensington LeverneIn the daughters bedroom, a Living Quarters Creeping Toadflax wall covering provides a fanciful backdrop for a tented nook crafted of Ian Mankins Ticking Stripe in Rose. Edward Bulmers Pea Green is on the beams and woodwork.Most PopularShopping27 Best Christmas Ornaments of 2024By Kristi KelloggArchitecture + DesignTour a Designers 100-Year-Old LA RetreatBy Vaishnavi Nayel TalawadekarBedroom15 Dreamy Baby Girl Nursery Ideas to Make Your Little One Feel Right at HomeBy Perri Ormont BlumbergAn upcycled chest of drawers was repainted in Little Greenes Olive color, and the single beds feature Scumble Goosies Gustavian headboards. Ferm Livings rattan lamp duo shed light from above.Cozy was the prevailing direction for the sons bright blue bedroom, which is notably smaller than the daughters. Embracing the smaller footprint was key, shares Ainscough. Its often more successful than trying to kind of elongate and make things feel bigger. Rosi de Ruigs Bonbon stripe lampshade, bespoke cushions from the designer herself, and a round metal side table from The Masie provide red counterpoints.Most PopularShopping27 Best Christmas Ornaments of 2024By Kristi KelloggArchitecture + DesignTour a Designers 100-Year-Old LA RetreatBy Vaishnavi Nayel TalawadekarBedroom15 Dreamy Baby Girl Nursery Ideas to Make Your Little One Feel Right at HomeBy Perri Ormont BlumbergThe powder room on the lower ground floor showed to be one of the spaces where you can go a bit wild and surprise the guest with an explosion, shares Ainscough, who praises the clients for letting her embrace that and let me do my thing. Antoinette Poissons Guirlandes de Fleurs wall covering is accented by Edward Bulmers Azurite paint along with Fired Earths Forecast tiles. The antique brass taps are from Lefroy Brooks, and the mirror is vintage. Whilst its an explosion, says the designer, it still does tie in with the rest of the space.[This is one] of my favorite bedrooms, shares Ainscough of the guest room. We wanted it to feel like a bit of an escape or a hotel suite for guests. Edward Bulmers Celadon paint maxed out the size and height of the space, while a custom headboard with Pierre Freys Teddy Mohair in aubergine, House Nine Designs Nelly bedside table, and custom-designed throws and cushions provide deep-hued accents.Marigold checkerboard wall tiles from Bert & May line the guest bathrooms shower, while Farrow & Balls White Tie was used on the wall paneling. The sink is from Burlington, the taps are from Cast Iron Bath Co., and the wall light is Original BTCs Hector Bibendum wall light. The mirror is from Zara Home, and the candlestick holder is an antique.

In a podcast interview, Eric Schmidt warned that AI dating may increase loneliness among young men.The former Google CEO said young men dating the "perfect" AI girlfriend may also lead to obsession.He suggested changes to AI regulation but expects little action without a major incident.People in 2024 aren't just swiping right and left on online dating apps some are crafting their perfect AI match and entering relationships with chatbots.Eric Schmidt, Google's former CEO, recently shared his concerns about young men creating AI romantic partners and said he believes that AI dating will actually increase loneliness."This is a good example of an unexpected problem of existing technology," Schmidt said in a conversation about AI dangers and regulation on "The Prof G Show" with Scott Galloway released Sunday.Schmidt said an emotionally and physically "perfect" AI girlfriend could create a scenario in which a younger male becomes obsessed and allows the AI to take over their thinking."That kind of obsession is possible," Schmidt said in the interview. "Especially for people who are not fully formed."Of course, young men aren't the only people involved in AI relationships. The CEO of the AI companion app Replika has said that most of the app's users are over 35 years old. But Schmidt believes young men are particularly vulnerable, partly because they're not as educated as women on average. A 2024 Pew Research Study found US women outpaced men in college completion.Schmidt said that in extreme cases, younger men can "turn to the online world for enjoyment and sustenance, but also because of the social media algorithms, they find like-minded people who ultimately radicalize them." The former Google exec also said he's "particularly concerned" about the impact of technology on the human psyche when users are isolated and computers feed them information that's not necessarily centered on human values, a topic he wrote about in his latest book.Many people are becoming increasingly concerned about the harmful effects AI chatbots can have. A mother sued the chatbot startup Character.AI in October after her 14-year-old son committed suicide. The teenager had exchanged sexual messages with the chatbot, which told him to "come home" before he killed himself, the boy's mother said in the civil suit.Schmidt said parents need to be more involved, but they can only control what their children are doing to a certain extent. Although there are "all sorts of rules about age" for online platforms, Schmidt said they aren't doing enough to prevent teenagers from accessing harmful content."You put a 12- or 13-year-old in front of these things, and they have access to every evil as well as every good in the world," Schmidt said. "And they're not ready to take it."Schmidt has invested in various AI startups since leaving Google, and he's said that regulation of the technology shouldn't stifle innovation.In his interview with Galloway, he said that US laws such as Section 230, which largely frees tech companies from being held legally responsible for the content users post to their platforms, should be amended "to allow for liability in the worst possible cases, so when someone is harmed from this technology, we need to have a solution to prevent further harm."President-elect Donald Trump's pick for FTC chair, Brendan Carr, has pushed for limitations to Section 230.Schmidt said he doesn't expect much AI regulation to happen over the next four years as Trump's administration will likely have other priorities. He also said that because tech companies have battalions of lawyers protecting their intellectual property and goals, "it's likely to take some kind of a calamity to cause a change in regulation."

DOJ proposing forced sale of Google Chrome, could fetch $20 billion if judge OKs: ReportBloomberg reported the U.S. Justice Department aims to force Google to sell Chrome, which could fetch as much as $20 billion.Jonathan LimehouseUSA TODAYShow CaptionHide CaptionShould Google be broken up?What might 'googling' something look like if the DOJ forces the tech giant to break its divisions apart?Corrections & clarifications: This story has been updated to reflect the U.S. Department of Justice is reportedly aiming to force a sale of Google Chrome.The U.S. Department of Justice aims to force the sale of Google Chrome, which could fetch as much as $20 billion if a federal judge agrees to the browser's sale, Bloomberg reported, a potentially huge blow to the world's second-largest technology company.The fate of the Chrome browser owned by Alphabet Inc., the parent holding company of Google, is in the hands of U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta, who ruled in August that Google illegally monopolized the search market, according to the memorandum opinion obtained by USA TODAY.Alphabet Inc. paying a total of $26 billion in 2021 to make Chrome the default option on smartphones and web browsers blocked other competitors from succeeding in the same market, Mehta ruled, per Bloomberg News, which cited people familiar with the plans."Googles dominance has gone unchallenged for well over a decade," according to Mehta's memorandum opinion. "Googles distribution agreements foreclose a substantial portion of the general search services market and impair rivals opportunities to compete."USA TODAY contacted Google's attorneys and the Justice Department on Wednesday but did not immediately receive a response.Done with X? How to delete your Twitter account in a few easy steps.States join in on antitrust suit against GoogleThe Justice Department asked Mehta to set requirements for Google's artificial intelligence and Android smartphone operating system, Bloomberg reported, citing "people familiar with the plans."Antitrust officials and states that have joined the suit filed by the original plaintiff, Colorado, plan to recommend on Wednesday that Mehta enforce data licensing requirements, Bloomberg reported, again citing the people who asked not to be named.Some of the states that have joined the suit include Tennessee, Missouri, Indiana, Texas, South Carolina, Montana, Florida, Mississippi, Wisconsin, California, Michigan, Arkansas, Washington, Florida, Louisiana and Kentucky, court records show.The next status conference for the case is on Nov. 26, District of Columbia court records show.What would the sale of Google Chrome mean?Google selling Chrome would affect the company's advertising business. Alphabet Inc. currently has a market capitalization of more than $2 trillion, and "much of that value is due to Googles extremely profitable advertising business," according to Mehta's memorandum opinion.Chrome is the most used browser in the U.S., with 61% of the market, according to web traffic analytics firm StatCounter. Google Search has over88% of the search engine marketin the U.S., the firm said.Google also used Chrome to direct people to Gemini, the company's flagship AI product, which could go from an answer-bot to an assistant that follows users around the web, Bloomberg reported."The integration of generative AI is perhaps the clearest example of competition advancing search quality," Mehta's memorandum opinion reads.If the sale goes through, Chrome would be worth at least $15-$20 billion, given it has over 3 billion monthly active users, Bloomberg Intelligence analystMandeep Singh said."Its not directly monetizable, Bob ODonnell of TECHnalysis Research told Bloomberg about Chrome. It serves as a gateway to other things. Its not clear how you measure that from a pure revenue-generating perspective.Google: DOJ pushing a 'radical agenda'Lee-Anne Mulholland, Googles vice president of regulatory affairs, told USA TODAY in a statement on Wednesday that the Justice Department continues to push a radical agenda that goes far beyond the legal issues in this case.""The government putting its thumb on the scale in these ways would harm consumers, developers and American technological leadership at precisely the moment it is most needed," Mulholland said.During President-elect Donald Trump's first term, he led the Justice Department's antitrust suit against Google in 2020 after it deemed the company used illegal tactics and strategies to monopolize search engines. It is unclear if Trump will continue to support the DOJ's efforts against Google.