7 h. ago How do I feel about air conditioning? I’m very hot – but it’s destroying the planet | Emma Beddington

Yes, temperatures are rising. But more and more AC means more and more CO2 – and then more and more global heating. Let’s have some long-term thinking insteadIt’s way too hot. I’m cowering inside, curtains drawn, pale limbs clammily exposed, the sound of my overheated laptop fan drowning out the sound of an ancient, feeble desk fan. If it gets any hotter, I’ll stagger to my air-conditioned car and drive to the air-conditioned supermarket to stand in its chilly aisles, shamelessly fanning myself over the ravaged ice-cream cabinet in the freezer aisle. I’ve even become nostalgic for the summer when I shared an office with a man who insisted on having the AC set to 17C, meaning I had to wear a cardigan to work in August.Ah, air conditioning, the dream. Or the nightmare? Welcome to appliance culture wars, 2025 edition. You may recall, in 2023, the US debated whether induction hobs were a communist plot; then last year Republicans tried, in all apparent seriousness, to pass the Liberty i...

Politics

5 d. ago Three surprising mistakes that are making homes too hot during this heatwave

As we experience warmer summers, many households are finding their homes uncomfortably stuffy. Temperatures are regularly reaching over 30 degrees and, without air conditioning, these hot days can feel unbearable.

Society

6 d. ago The worst thing about AI? That stupid Samsung ad where the guy adds ‘way too much sugar’ to his pasta sauce | Emma Beddington

Only a robot would attempt to turn it into ‘tasty cookies’. A human would just scoop the sugar out againAt a time of intense, bitter division, it’s heartwarming when something brings us together. No, not “briefly becoming experts in lawn tennis”, or “being too hot” – that stupid Samsung advert where the guy “added way too much sugar to my gochujang pasta sauce” and asks his phone for help.If, by the greatest good fortune, you have managed to dodge it, Google Gemini (an AI “assistant”) suggests he makes “tasty cookies” out of his sugary sauce. Instead of throwing his phone out of the window in holy rage, the youth seems inexplicably enthused (“Sweet!”) and follows its frankly inadequate instructions – add butter, mix, bake for 10 minutes – before wandering off with a cookie, apparently happy with this bizarre outcome. Continue reading...

Politics

9 d. ago Is ‘princess treatment’ a harmless trend – or yet more fuel for misogyny? | Emma Beddington

A life of passive ‘perfection’, in which you minister to your partner and don’t speak unless spoken to, is a nauseating prospect that leaves women dangerously vulnerableDo you wish you were a princess? Do you crave being cosseted and showered with gifts, having every door opened and every chair pulled out? Perhaps you’d rather not pay for your clothes; maybe you’re sick of deciding what to eat and where.Courtney Palmer can help. The self-proclaimed housewife princess has a series of TikTok videos on “princess treatment” and how to get it. It’s a matter of accepting compliments graciously, dressing the part, being unapologetically good to yourself (disappointingly, this seems to mean exercising and drinking water) but mostly ministering to your partner, who is treated as a weirdly needy and highly suggestible man-baby. Would-be princesses should create a calm, frictionless domestic paradise for their provider prince, “speaking in a feminine way – we’re not screaming, yelling; we’re n...

Politics

1 week ago I was a big orca fan – but their skincare regime is giving me the ick | Emma Beddington

These supposedly serious cetaceans have been spotted massaging each other with kelp stalks. This is the sort of performative nonsense you’d expect from dolphinsI’ve thought for a while that it would be nice to be an orca. Not because I hate boats and they sink them (though I get it – the briny depths are none of our human business). What actually appeals is the idea of being charismatic megafauna – I love that phrase – and also important as a post-menopausal female. Orcas are one of very few species that go through menopause, living for decades after their reproductive years. These older matriarchs remain an integral part of the community, improving pod survival rates thanks to being “repositories of ecological knowledge”, caring for young and even, research suggests, keeping their giant adult sons safe from being attacked. The fact that they’re fashion-conscious is a bonus: the 80s orca trend for wearing jaunty salmon fascinators was revived, intriguingly, in some pods last Decembe...

Politics

2 w. ago What’s it like to be 23 and starting a new life? I’m unpacking a lot of emotions as my son heads to the US | Emma Beddington

Can he really be that old? Was I ever that young? A trip to clear out his student flat has brought back so many memoriesThere’s an accurate, if snide, thing I’ve seen online that reads “No parent on Facebook can believe their child has turned any age”, and yes, OK, not the “on Facebook” bit, but there is a rote astonishment at time passing that I sometimes slip into, contemplating my adult sons. But, allow me, just this once, a Facebook parent moment. My elder son turned 23 last month and we’ve just been to London to collect his stuff at the end of his degree. On the way, I realised I was 23 when I moved there myself.You can’t often pre-emptively pinpoint parenting “lasts”, but when you can, they’re strange and melancholy – even when they’re not, objectively, things a person would choose to do again. This trip involved (I hope) my last time standing, hips screaming from the drive, texting “We’re outside” as we waited for our son to wake up (my husband ended up throwing a ball at his...

Politics

3 w. ago I’m thrilled that Liz Hurley is 60, naked and smiling in a meadow. But when will the nude celeb arms race end? | Emma Beddington

From Hurley to Amanda Holden to Jennifer Aniston and Martha Stewart, women over 50 in the public eye are increasingly taking their clothes off and posing artfully on Instagram. It strikes me as a lot of hard workMany thoughts came to mind on seeing Elizabeth Hurley’s recent 60th birthday Instagram post, where she is sitting smiling in a meadow, in as she writes, her “birthday suit”. Like, where will this older celebrity nudity arms race end? Jennifer Aniston did a birthday shoot at 40 for GQ; Gwyneth Paltrow posted nudes three years running, culminating in one painted gold at 50; Amanda Holden posed naked on some rocks (ouch) at 53. Now here’s Hurley. In the era of Martha Stewart (now 83) posting semi-clad thirst trap pics, I’m half expecting to see Sir David Attenborough mark his 100th with his modesty preserved only by a strategically placed aardvark (though the patriarchy seems to have ensured men don’t feel compelled to do this).I also found myself thinking: yes, she looks incre...

Politics