Outrunning the food coma

Good evening!

I’m racing a rapid onset food coma, so will keep today’s newsletter pretty short, focused on the links, which we’ve aplenty. (Tonight’s food coma is brought on by roast chicken and a hearty salad; last night’s was homemade pizza. It was a great weekend of food!)

• I shared stories about the BC rains and flooding last week, all of which are worth a read. This week, my brain dwelled on the infrastructure story—what it’ll take to rebuild, how we incorporate adaptive principles, and whether we have time do it. Also, huge kudos to BC’s Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure for remembering that Flickr exists and maintaining an active album of flood damage and restoration work. Incredible photos.
• Another month, another well-argued piece advocating for change to Canada’s access to information regime. Rhetorically, it seems notable to me that we call it “access to information”, instead of the more American “freedom of information”—emphasizing the privilege we imply it to be, versus the more fundamental right implied elsewhere. (Also, props to whoever at IRPP put out this brilliant tweet about the article.)
• Ottawa’s downtown isn’t just office buildings—though our city planning and leadership often treats it that way. We have a chance to actually rethink how we plan for downtown—but a lack of imagination on the part of our city’s leadership may lose us that chance.
• Props to Chapman’s for supporting all their workers—while internet trolls overlook how they support even workers who aren’t fully vaccinated. (I followed a link in this story to one about how Chapman’s recovered from its devastating blaze, over a decade ago. Part of their success was to keep and trust their people, such as when they lost all their recipes but longstanding staff remembered the mixes. A lesson applicable anywhere.)
• IKEA has a digital museum, including an archive of its catalogue—going back to the 1950s. I love how text heavy the early catalogues were. We see the evolution in both IKEA’s design sensibility and graphic design itself.
• I don’t think the ball actually touches the ground in this incredible shot by Thiago Alcantara (though it skims the grass, in a mindboggling sine-wave motion).
• Going to find ways to apply the Ashleigh Weeden Principle in the weeks ahead.

That’s it from me—all the best for the week ahead!

Lucas