Finished reading: Orbital by Samantha Harvey is enthralling. Nothing much happens and yet so much about humanity, science, and our place in the universe is explored 📚

🔗 The leader in your mirror by Paul Wells

We put too much burden on our leaders, and it makes them act silly. They shouldn’t be the perfect weapon of our vengeance, or the model of every virtue we admire but never quite get around to practicing. They don’t need to know everything. They can’t possibly get everything right on the first try, and we court trouble when we ask them to pretend they’ve managed the trick.

Lights On by Annaka Harris is a fascinating “audio documentary” exploring the idea that consciousness is a fundamental building block of the universe, rather than emerging from complexity. Like Harris herself, I find the idea almost too wild and I’m not yet convinced. That said, the topic is fascinating and the documentary is really well done

Finished reading: The Mercy of Gods by James S. A. Corey is a really promising (though often bleak) start to a new sci-fi series about humans (presumably) overcoming an alien invasion 📚

Finished reading: The Future of Us by Jay Ingram is a broad overview of how science and technology is affecting all parts of our lives from food, to transportation, and to health. I’ve read deeper books on the individual topics. This one provides the overview 📚

📖 The latest Sutherland Quarterly book has arrived: At the Trough: The Rise and Rise of Canada’s Corporate Welfare Bums by Laurent Carbonneau. Likely going to be a provocative and frustrating look at government policy

A person is holding a book titled "At the Trough: The Rise and Rise of Canada's Corporate Welfare Bums" by Laurent Carbonneau, featuring artwork of a man falling while holding an umbrella and money bag.

🎶 The Rush 50 release is delightfully epic and much more than a greatest hits collection. Fun to hear their really early stuff again and to revisit later songs that didn’t get enough attention.