Leafing through

The last days of September and first few of October are always special ones, but this week especially so. It was filled with anniversaries, birthdays, time with friends, and a wedding—lovely occasions, all of them.

Here in Ottawa, the leaves are changing, doing their thing—the world going on, as it were. It’s “Ottawautumn”, as I like to call it—this city seems meant for the fall and winter seasons.

Three links for you this week:

• At this week’s Toronto Data Workshop, Florence V. Dubois presented some of the data work underlying her doctoral dissertation. The data combines biographical data about Canadian Members of Parliament with demographic data from their ridings at (or near) the time of their election. Florence published a short Twitter thread that summarizes the work involved in such a project. To me, it’s a wonderful example of research infrastructure, or facilitating access: combining available data in a rigorous way and sharing it publicly, so others can build on it for their own research. (And, of course, I’m a fan, given the subject!)
• Julia Evans shared a cheatsheet to what different brackets mean in bash / shell scripting. Her zines are always informative, diving deep into what makes programming possible.
• Finally, a piece that I read right after sending last week’s newsletter. It’s so good I considered sending out an issue “160.5”, as it fit well with last week’s theme. Mandy Brown makes “the case for rereading”. It’s an excellent argument for reading, and re-reading, and reading as thinking, and references a number of rewarding books. (I’ve always admired how she includes a “canon” section in her reading list.)

That’s it from me for today! I need to get cozy and do some reading. All the best for the week ahead!

Lucas