For me, cycling is therapy. It’s calming, meditative and uncomplicated. But there’s a catch. To experience the simple joy of riding a bike, you first have to navigate the maddeningly complex process of buying one.
Make no mistake: this is not a straightforward case of marching into Halfords, saying, “One bike, please!” and leaving with a shiny new steed. But, while complicated, it needn’t be stressful.
As Elon Musk, Peter Thiel and their peers have grown richer and more influential, Gil Durán argues they have all but abandoned democracy – and found the perfect government to enable them
In April, Gil Durán was permanently banned from Elon Musk’s X for posting just two words. Durán was responding to a post from the tech company Palantir outlining its 22‑point “technological manifesto”, which praised American “hard power”, western culture and AI weapons, denounced inclusivity and called for compulsory national service. Durán responded: “TLDR: Fascism” (TLDR is short for “too long, didn’t read”).
Durán didn’t break any of X’s written rules, he points out over a video call from San Francisco – so much for Musk’s “free-speech absolutism”. His ban might just have had something to do with his preceding tweet, showing the cover of his new book, The Nerd Reich: Silicon Valley Fascism and the War on Democracy. The book’s central argument is that big tech is no longer our friend, as many of its billionaire owners have seized economic and political control and are steering the fate of the planet towards their own bizarre, apocalyptic visions.
If you’re at a restaurant and hear a ping a couple of minutes before your meal arrives at your table, it’s unlikely to be a good sign. But microwave ovens are a brilliant tool in the home kitchen. They’re fearsomely fast at heating up – or even cooking – food when you’re time-poor and lacking the energy to make something wholesome after a hard day at work. And in hot weather, cooking by microwave isn’t just quick: it also won’t warm your home.
Microwaves work best for heating food with a high water content (they make the water molecules in food vibrate to create heat). However, before testing, I asked around to find out what people use theirs for most, with a view to using this information to shape my tests. I learned a few things – like lots of people eat mug cakes. Who knew? And that wheat bags are a popular alternative to hot-water bottles. But the majority of folk use their microwave for reheating cold cuppas, defrosting frozen batch-cooked meals, warming food, popping microwave popcorn – and, of course, cooking jacket potatoes more quickly. I used these insights to shape my testing.
Choosing a cordless vacuum isn’t a decision that should be taken lightly. You’re likely to keep a vacuum cleaner for years, relying heavily on its ability to suck up dust, crumbs, mud, pet hair and any other dry spillages or sheddings that end up on your floor. Choosing the right model can be the difference between an effective cleaner that’s a delight to pull out of the cupboard and a dud that you dread having to unblock, detangle and clean after every use.
In this review, I took 16 of the leading cordless vacuum cleaners from a range of manufacturers and at various prices and inflicted the same cleaning tests on each one. That takes all the guesswork out of picking your next cleaner: I can tell you exactly which ones picked up the most mess.
I’ve heard that in Germany you can buy sausages in vending machines. What should be sold in machines that isn’t offered at the moment? Sybil Freestone, Oregon
Post your answers (and new questions) below or send them to nq@theguardian.com. A selection will be published next Sunday.
I wanted our last family games night to be the best fun we’ve ever had. Maybe we should have stuck with Mario Kart …
It is the end of an era for the Diamond family. For 20 years, there have been five of us living together. It has not been easy. Militant vegan daughters, sons who have inherited Scottish tempers, and a youngest child who attracts trouble like an industrial magnet, have meant our house has been conflict-laden at times. Throw in the fact that we are beset with all manner of mental health bobbins and chronic illnesses that resulted in two of our three kids almost dying in hospitals and you get a family that is combustible – but extremely close.
Through it all, we had games. They always brought us back together. Not just us all hunkering over Super Mario Kart like some kind of UN-mandated family therapy, but the conversations that happen when any of us spy another playing something new. Games are a cultural touchstone that helped us crack through the veneer of disagreements and distrust and remind us that we have more things in common than we sometimes feel.
Vacuuming rarely starts with vacuuming. First you have to clear the floor of stray socks and abandoned toys left behind by children, pets or messy partners. Then there’s the irritation of finding the vacuum’s dustbin still full of dirt, or the battery flat because someone forgot to charge it.
The (take a deep breath – long name coming up) Shark PowerDetect Speed Clean and Empty Pet Pro cordless vacuum Ultramarine IA3241UKT certainly won’t pick up the scattered toys for you, but it has been designed to make the job of vacuuming as frictionless as possible.
Avtar spent decades wondering what happened to the mother he never got to know. Thousands of miles away, Nicci was haunted by the story of a half-brother given away before she was born. How did a chatbot bring them together?
As a small boy growing up in Amritsar, India, in the 1960s, Avtar Singh used to hear whispers. Your mum isn’t really your mum, the rumours would say. Your mum lives abroad. Avtar didn’t really pay any attention to it. “I thought, the neighbours are just making up stories.” But the stories were true: the woman raising Avtar was actually his grandmother. When he was too young to remember it, his father had emigrated to Canada to work as a teacher, leaving Avtar in the care of his paternal grandparents. His grandfather, a police officer, was a fearsome authoritarian, but his grandmother brought him up with tenderness, as if he were her own son. She called him by his nickname, Titu. He felt loved.
When Avtar was around eight years old, he was told about his family in Canada: his dad, his mum and a little brother were waiting for him there, and he would soon travel to join them. Just after his ninth birthday, Avtar found himself sitting on a plane, dressed in a three‑piece suit and tie. He was travelling alone. He had never flown before. He didn’t speak a word of English. He landed in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on Christmas Eve, 1968; his family met him at the airport and took him home. “I didn’t know what to think,” Avtar, now 66, tells me in a video call from his home in Abbotsford, British Columbia. “Before I knew it, it was the first week of January, and I was put in school.”
Comfort is crucial to the gaming experience. It’s hard to focus on blasting aliens or taking Stoke to the Champions League final if your bum has gone to sleep because you’ve been sitting on an old chair for three hours. We’re spending more time playing games than ever before, so good posture matters. If you have set up a dedicated gaming space, then a rickety seat just won’t cut it.
From luxurious ergonomic thrones to cheap-and-cheerful bucket seats, the options available are bewildering. So I set out on an epic quest: to find the most comfortable, durable and stylish gaming chairs. Here’s what I discovered.
Surprisingly easy to manoeuvre and skilled at cleaning carpet and hard floor, Shark’s upright bagless model is one of the best corded vacuums I’ve tested
Corded vacuum cleaners aren’t as glamorous as their cordless cousins, but swapping battery power for a plug socket has its advantages. The device will never be short of power, so it can keep cleaning for as long as you need it to. Prices also tend to be lower because there’s no expensive battery to factor into the cost.
On the downside, there’s a cable to manage while you clean, and even the longest cords usually need to be switched from one plug socket to another if your home is any larger than a small flat.
Designers say that as well as offering a degree of protection from surveillance, their clothes make a powerful fashion statement about the importance of privacy
As facial recognition technology is rolled out across Britain’s public spaces, a new generation of designers say privacy could be the next big fashion trend.
Companies have started incorporating “adversarial patterns” in their garments – carefully designed arrangements of shapes, colours and repeated motifs said to exploit weaknesses in some computer vision systems.
With five light modes targeting everything from fine lines to blemishes and pigmentation, CurrentBody’s latest mask promises a lot – and so does its price tag
I’ve been testing LED masks for a couple of years now, and the CurrentBody Series 2 red-light face mask has long been my favourite option for anti-ageing. It’s comfortable, offers excellent coverage and powerful deep near-infrared treatments. Sadly, it doesn’t work for other skin concerns. It’s a one-trick pony.
So, when I heard that CurrentBody had launched its Multi Light Therapy mask with five different modes, I was interested to see how it would stand up to the stellar performance of its predecessor. As someone with hormonal acne, I was especially keen to try the mask’s “clearing” mode, but it also offers a calming “restoring” mode, a pigmentation-reducing “brightening” mode, and a distinctive “complete” mode, as well as the “anti-ageing” mode.
In a feat of engineering that borders on magic, the best wireless earbuds can silence the noisy world around you at the tap of a finger. So, why would you buy open earbuds, which are specifically designed to let in environmental sounds?
Frankly, I didn’t understand the appeal of them either until I started testing them, and now I use open earbuds even more than my noise-cancelling earbuds. For situations from hiking to running errands, these are the headphones you should be wearing. Here’s what you’re missing out on, and a few of the best pairs to try.
Best overall open-ear earbuds:
Soundcore Aeroclip Open-Ear Earbuds
Best premium open-ear earbuds:
Bose Ultra Open Earbuds
The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical concepts
I would like to know why we build solar farms over green space, when we could just put them over massive car parks as a popular current internet meme suggests. Chris, Middlesbrough
With three ways to cool down and a cold plate that can lower skin temperature by up to 9C, Shark’s latest fan is a standout if you can justify the cost
When I first wrote my guide to the best handheld fans in 2025, familiar electronics brands in the space were hard to come by. But, like buses, two have arrived at once this summer. The Dyson HushJet Mini Cool provided plenty of power, but missed the mark on the “hush” part of its branding, and now it’s time for Shark’s debut mini fan: the ChillPill.
In words that I never expected to write, Dyson’s product is the cheaper option – although everything is relative. While the HushJet Mini Cool is a penny below three figures, the Shark ChillPill blasts through that ceiling, coming in at £129.99.
I would like to know why we build solar farms over green space, when we could just put them over massive car parks as a popular current internet meme suggests. Chris, Middlesbrough
Post your answers (and new questions) below or send them to nq@theguardian.com. A selection will be published next Sunday.
They claim to fix fine lines, blemishes, and redness – but which stand up to scrutiny? After consulting dermatologists and putting them to the test, we have crowned a brand new number one
LED face masks are booming in popularity – despite being one of the most expensive at-home beauty products to hit the market. They claim to either reduce the appearance of fine lines, stop spots or calm redness, with some even combining different types of light to enhance the benefits.
However, it’s wise to be sceptical about new treatments that are costly and non-invasive, and to do your research before you buy. With this in mind, I interviewed doctors and dermatologists to find out whether these light therapy devices work.
Best LED mask overall: CurrentBody Multi Light Therapy LED mask
Best budget LED face mask: Silk’n LED face mask 100
Our world is getting hotter. Summer heatwaves are so frequent, they’re stretching the bounds of what we think of as summer. Hot-and-bothered home working and sweaty, sleepless nights are now alarmingly common.
Get a good fan and you can dodge the temptation of air conditioning. Aircon is incredibly effective, but it uses a lot of electricity … and burning fossil fuels is how we got into this mess in the first place. Save money and carbon by opting for a great fan instead.
As summers become hotter, air conditioner sales are booming. If you’re looking to invest, here’s what to consider
When a heatwave struck the UK this week, Jon Connorton, a software developer, began monitoring temperatures inside his east Hampshire terrace house. With some rooms reaching close to 40C, it was time to deploy the air conditioner. “We just wheel it out in emergencies,” he said. “We were having trouble sleeping.”
Connorton and his wife have a portable air conditioner. These plug-in devices cool interior air by removing heat from it and blowing that heat outside, typically via a large hose slung from a window or door.
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