As someone who is still paying-down a 5-figure debt to treat my dog’s cancer, this story from The New York Times’ The Daily hits close to home. The nugget of the story:
So, as we know, prices for all kinds of things are going up, because we’ve seen inflation over the last couple of years, but that pet care prices have risen much faster than the overall rate of inflation. My colleagues and I actually ran the numbers, and in the last decade, the price of [other] services has risen about 30 percent, and in that same period, veterinary care has gone up by more than 60 percent.
My dog (pictured above) is still healthy and doing great.
The above is a photo I took of a formerly empty lot in Montréal, upon which has been built a thriving temporary space. It has the above gazebo, benches galore, picnic tables, and a free mini gold course. It isn’t built to last—instead it’s built to test out having a park in that spot. It’s taking unused space and giving it a use, commonly known as ‘tactical urbanism’.
Montréal, more than any other North American city I’ve seen, really uses its public space. Kids play. Old people walk and sit on the benches or play pétanque. Young people go at night to drink beer, hang out, and flirt. Our parks are full from morning to late at night. More and more streets are being closed temporarily to cars, and replaced with benches, terraces, games, and art installations. Lots or formerly empty spaces are being filled with spaces for all ages to gather. It’s a wonderful way to try things out, see what people use, and adapt for longer use later.
The intent behind meanwhile spaces is to grow innovative ideas and empower the local community. Through interventions such as meeting areas, learning and training spaces, pop-up shops, eateries and exhibitions, urban areas and their communities witness positive transformation. The lease may last anywhere between a few days to a few years. The impact on localities may last up to a lifetime.
I love this tiny house designed by Japanese artist Zajirogh and his wife. The house is centred around a courtyard which can open to the sky. Extra points for showing the house without being staged like in an architecture magazine.
The Atlantic’s Anne Applebaum makes a clear and urgent argument that Biden should drop out of the presidential race immediately:
Doubts about the 81-year-old president’s ability to continue governing were already widespread and are partly responsible for his low approval rating. Since last week’s debate, they have been front and center, and there is no reason to believe they will dissipate. On the contrary, the doubts are very likely to grow worse. Every stumble, every forgotten word will reinforce the impression created by the debate. Biden is polling behind Trump now. If he remains the candidate, he is likely to lose.
Biden should have done this months ago, but as they say: the best time to plant a tree is 20-years ago, the second best time is today. It’s time to step aside.
A cute little piece of design. This is a self-propelled phonograph, which runs on tracks embedded with music, by Japanese artist Yuri Suzuki. Taken at the SF Moma Art of Noise exhibit.
Built in the 1950s to test a rather ambitious plan to build a series of dams across large parts of San Francisco Bay, the Bay Model is an impressive, multi-acre scale model of most of the lower part of watershed. The model found that the plan was extremely flawed, and would likely cause extensive flash floods, but it lived on as laboratory to study the movement of water in the region until the early 2000s, when computer modelling became feasible.
The model was built with three different scales, with the vertical depth being exaggerated in order to improve the accuracy of depth measurements, and the scale of time on the model condensing the tide cycle down to under 15 minutes.
We unfortunately visited it when the water was not flowing, but there is a great little summary by Tom Scott:
A fascinating and risqué new podcast from the creators of Canadaland. Some viewer discretion advised.
From gay swans to self-pleasuring elephants and amorous giraffes, they learn how scientists have been understanding and misunderstanding queerness in nature for centuries. And they introduce us to a bold researcher in the 1990’s who helped us see nature for what it is – queer as fuck.
