The Baffler

• “Suddenly a generation of lonely basement kids had marketers whispering in their ears that they were the most important commercial demographic of all time. Suddenly they started wearing shiny blouses and pinning bikini babes onto everything they made, started making games ...

• Today in Bespoke: Long Island-born duo Cody and Zachary Vichinsky have founded Bespoke Real Estate, an agency that deals exclusively with homes worth $10 million and above in the Hamptons. The real estate slump is over, they say; with a $147 million home selling earlier ...

Hey kids! Are you excited to head off to college? Maybe it’s time to read Thomas Frank’s “Academy Fight Song” and see if that changes your mind. No? You’re still going? Okay, well, if you want to start the year off right, by impressing your friends ...

• People don’t like to buy weird-looking fruits and vegetables, so the ugly ones normally get thrown out (tons and tons and tons of them). That is, until a French supermarket came up with a way to make weird and ugly produce fun. • A New York Times article earlier ...

• Uber and Lyft are on a “lobbying blitz” to fight safety and insurance regulations, says Valleywag. • In case you missed it, the British Embassy celebrated the 200th anniversary of the Brits burning the White House with a cake, sparklers, a day at the pool, ...

• Burning Man is now just another tech conference, says Re/code, which is why they’re sending someone to go cover it this year. Lol. (Via Quartz.) • Today in Advice from Billionaires: according to “Koch 101,” a Q&A in the Kansas City Star, the Koch ...

• We talk a lot about the First Amendment and how the Obama administration is threatening press freedom in the United States, but it’s also worth noting that journalists can often be entitled assholes. Reporting the news is an important job, but doesn’t ...

• According to reports of the ongoing trial of Virginia’s ex-governor Bob McDonnell and his wife Maureen, both of whom face charges of public corruption, “The defense painted Ms. McDonnell as a vitamin-obsessed ‘nutbag.'” • Former Obama operatives ...