From the Editor’s Desk: Bias ⭐

The other night, we were going to bed, so I turned off the floor lamp in the living room and noticed something odd in the dark. We have two small USB-powered table lamps in this room, and both were attached to power, but only one of the two was displaying a telltale charging light. This light is in a ring at the base of the lamps, and it's either green or red depending on the charging status. But one was just ... off.

Curious, I turned the floor lamp back on to examine the smaller table lamp. There's a history here, and as is always the case, that history, that experience, colors one's view. My wife and I had seen this small USB lamp at a bar in Washington D.C. and we liked it enough that I used AI to find it online and then buy three of them from Amazon for our place in Pennsylvania. When they arrived, we realized they were even better than expected, as you can change the warmth and brightness of the light. So we ordered three more for our place in Mexico City too.

These lights aren't smart in any way, just USB-powered, but they're nice and they provide a soft, warm light that's just right for a music night or watching TV. When the set of three arrived, however, one didn't work whatsoever, and so I simply returned it and ordered another. Amazon is a lot of things, but it makes that sort of transaction as simple as possible, and I didn't think about it again.

Until, that is, a week or so before we left for Mexico when one of the lights in PA stopped charging. Or, more accurately, the USB port inside the base of the lamp had become detached. So I had to unscrew the base, crack it up, and charge that lamp with its innards exposed. This is not ideal, but it works. And even with my limited handyman skills, I figured I could fix it with some superglue or whatever, though that would have to wait until we got back.

With this memory jumping to the forefront in my brain, I looked at the non-charging table lamp in Mexico. It wasn't the same problem, the USB charging port was still attached normally. But it wasn't charging. I slowly unplugged and replugged the charging cable a few times, and once I saw a small red light, not the ring charging light, but something right at the USB port, appear and then quickly disappear. Hmph.

Too tired to think about this clearly, I turned off the floor lamp again, went into the bedroom, and announced to my wife that one of the little lamps wasn't charging. "Again?" she asked, going immediately to the same place I was at. The lamps were relatively inexpensive, less than $30 each, but they aren't to our minds disposable. Maybe they are just cheap, as my look at the inside one and the string of issues suggested. Maybe buying them had been a mistake, a waste of money.

The next morning, I did what I always do, a combination of drinking espresso and reading the news, always depressing these days. But the lamp was bothering me. So I picked it up again and unplugged and replugged the charger, this time with...