Philip Bump on the results of a recent poll. What Makes an American? Three in 10 Republicans Say: Being White.
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Entries for August 2025
The Case of the Terrifyingly Affordable Flashlight
In this video, Maurice Moves highlights a pair of flashlights that are extremely useful & well-designed but also shockingly affordable.
Most people never think about flashlights, but as someone who uses one daily for work, it’s always top of mind, and the tech, value, and products are proof that modern flashlights are absolutely insane and defy logic and manufacturing economics.
The two flashlights he featured are the WUBEN G5 Rechargeable EDC Flashlight ($20) and the Nitecore EDC37 8000 ($140) — the Wuben in particular would be affordable at twice the price given how nicely designed and engineered it is.
I feel like this about Apple’s M4 Macbook Airs; as I wrote last week, “$800 is an absurdly low price for so much computer”.
See also No One Knows How to Make a Pencil. (thx, dunstan)
Corporation for Public Broadcasting says it’s shutting down (due to a lack of continued federal funding). Just catching up from last week and this one fucking stings.
Lonely Avenue
Jon Batiste & Randy Newman team up for a song called Lonely Avenue. This is lovely. (via craig mod)
I’d like to say that I’m a proud member of The Great I Haven’t Economy™ — “owning zero Labubus, consuming zero matchas, having zero dating profiles, eating zero Dubai Chocolates, owning zero Stanley Cups” — but more likely I’m just old.
The Panama Playlists is a collection of the Spotify accounts of celebrities, politicians, and journalists (JD Vance, Pam Bondi, Marc Andreessen, etc). “The Panama Papers revealed hidden bank accounts. This reveals hidden tastes.”
Cory Doctorow is coming out with a book on enshittification in the fall: Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It.
“If the behavior that this administration has exhibited in just its first six months continues and is amplified for its full four years, the America you know will be gone. And I don’t know how we will get it back.”
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