David Lidsky's Blog, page 175

Will smartphone camera attachments ever be worth the hassle?

Companies like Realme and Xiaomi are experimenting with modular lenses to bring professional-grade photography to your pocket. But do consumers even care?

Smartphone cameras are still getting bigger and better by the year, particularly if you look at high-end phones coming out of China with huge sensors and protruding bumps to match. These phones can deliver awesome results, and I’m happy to use them in several situations where I would previously have had to rely on a dedicated camera. Just this week I used the Xiaomi 15 Ultra to shoot a Formula One event in Tokyo. 

She worked on ‘Sesame Street’ and ‘Ms. Rachel.’ Here’s her best screen-time advice for kids

It’s about balancing the impact of technology on childhood development with the undeniable urge to just chill out on the couch occasionally.

Of all the modern parenting paradoxes, navigating screen time usage might be one of the most complex—and divisive. Critics of screen time claim it can negatively impact social skills, behavior, and sleep. Proponents say it can help kids learn about living in a digital world, improve cultural awareness, and serve as a means of communication. Parents say sometimes they just need a break.

Elon Musk paid $25 million to find out voters really dislike him

After failing to win over voters in the Wisconsin Supreme Court election, Musk’s days of bankrolling MAGA may be coming to an end.

On Tuesday, Brad Schimel, the Trump-backed candidate in the race for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, lost in decisive fashion to his liberal opponent, Susan Crawford. Other than the candidate himself, the election’s biggest loser is Elon Musk, who spent $25 million on Schimel’s blowout loss, and whose future in bankrolling the Make America Great Again movement is suddenly up in the air.

‘He has never done a hot second of economic analysis’: Senator Chris Murphy on how Trump is using tariffs as a political weapon

Murphy talked to ‘Fast Company’ about what he believes is Trump’s real motivation: a tool to force businesses to ‘bend the knee’ to him.

When Trump unveiled his sweeping tariffs last week, Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut made the case that they weren’t about economic policy. Instead, he says, they’re a tool to force businesses (and countries) to pledge loyalty to Trump. We talked to Murphy about Trump’s motivations, what Congress should be doing in this moment, and how citizens can make sense of the chaos and make their voices heard. (This interview has been edited for length and clarity.)

How to watch March Madness men’s Final Four

Four No. 1 seeds made it to the Final Four, which has happened only once before in tournament history.

March might be over but the madness continues into April. The NCAA’s 68 Division I men’s college basketball teams have battled it out on the courts in single-elimination play, leaving four teams standing. This year the Final Four have something in common: They all were granted No. 1 seeds on Selection Sunday. Duke, Florida, Auburn, and Houston were all safe bets when filling out a bracket, and they delivered on that promise. Here’s what you need to know heading into the remaining competition, and how to tune in.

He played football at MIT. Now he’s designing a lighter, safer helmet

Hard and heavy is not actually better to avoid traumatic brain injury playing football. The Apache helmet shows why.

Kodiak Brush doesn’t mince words when it comes to the state of football helmet design. “Most helmets today are designed to win lab tests, not protect players on the field,” he tells me over email. Brush, an MIT-trained mechanical engineer and former middle linebacker, is a production engineering manager who leads helmet design at Carlsbad, California-based Light Helmets. His latest creation is the Apache helmet, which, at just 3.5 pounds, is the lightest on the market—and yet it has achieved the highest safety score ever recorded by Virginia Tech’s independent helmet testing lab.

How DOGE may wreak havoc on the Social Security system

What can the 71.6 million current Social Security beneficiaries expect now that the SSA is in the path of the DOGE chainsaw?

I’ve written before about my love for the Social Security Administration–from its origin as a response to senior poverty during the Great Depression, to its elegant design as a direct transfer from current workers to current beneficiaries, to its regular adjustments that have preserved its future.

How Trump’s order to end a tariff loophole could impact Shein and Temu

Shein and Temu rapidly expanded in the U.S. using the de minimis provision to deliver ultra-cheap fast-fashion items from China.

A notice to customers dazzled by the low-priced products on Chinese shopping apps: The days of getting trendy clothing, tools, and gag gifts that cost less than lunch delivered to your door in 10 days are probably numbered.

Apple just made it much easier to get a handle on your inbox. Here’s how

A new feature lets you sort emails by category. It might be just what you need to get to inbox zero.

Keeping our inboxes organized often feels like an overwhelming task.

Hundreds of U.S. communities are making reparations for slavery and colonization

These efforts show how working locally to grapple with the complexity of land-based reparations is a necessary and feasible part of the nation’s healing process.

Ever since the United States government’s unfulfilled promise of giving every newly freed Black American “40 acres and a mule” after the Civil War, descendants of the enslaved have repeatedly proposed the idea of redistributing land to redress the nation’s legacies of slavery.