Bookmark finds

Hello!

I’m in Waterloo for a brief family visit. It’s nice to be here.

Enjoying time together, I’ve had little time to read or write. Here, then, are some things I read or thought about recently:

• How to Do Nothing. I realize I’ve referenced this book in four of the last five issues. But it is quite good, and worth a final nod. Jenny Odell inspires a consciousness—and once such awareness is introduced, you can’t go back.
• ClimateData.ca. A straightforward site to visualize, analyze, and download historical and projected climate data (according to a variety of models) for locations across the country. For example, the annual average temperature in my neighbourhood may nearly double by the end of the century.
• The City of Ottawa has an in-house waste management team that competes against private sector companies for waste collection contracts. There’s an interesting story here around deciding to build and support a team in-house (as the City does for downtown collection) versus positioning that team as another option on the market.
• Canada had a very winding road to formally declaring entry to the Second World War. The internal handwringing over whether the declaration was constitutionally valid draws out one of those, uh, interesting elements of the law: even when all parties agree to the principle behind an action, it still needs to follow the law’s constraints.
• “The same but different”, by Carrie Bishop, on different experiences with digital services teams (via Cyd Harrell). Comparative essays are fantastic—as the current incarnation of digital service delivery matures, we can see ideas flow across experiences. Love this.

That’s all from me for today. Have you read anything of note recently? Please let me know. In the meantime, all the best for the week ahead!

Lucas