My weekly collection of the provocative, intriguing, or curious, in a world where the house is falling down. The contextual, the cultural, and other things that catch my eye.

Image: Joana Choumali, Ca va aller (c) Prix Pictet

Economists don’t understand rent control. As with the minimum wage, housing “markets” behave in unexpected ways.

Better late than never, I guess. The World Economic Forum’s latest manifesto catches up with the idea that companies shouldn’t sacrifice the future for the present.

Culinary philosophies. Big picture essay on how we think about food. Related: Who’s the boss? The French movement for fair food prices.

Bologna is reinventing the way the city thinks about itself. It believes this is essential to rebuild civic trust.

The Prix Pictet goes annually to a photographer using their voice to raise environmental awareness. For the first time it has been awarded to an African. Joana Choumali’s work goes quite a long way beyond photography.

The world would have been different had Caesar saved the Library of Alexandria. Maybe we would have applied Greek science and technology a lot sooner–suggests this playful alternate history.

The secret history of Monopoly. It started life as a game designed to show the evils of landlordism. And other examples of seeing whole systems. Entertaining Long Now podcast, 55 mins plus Q&A.

“The whole world’s at sixes and sevens, and why the house hasn’t fallen down about our ears long ago is a miracle to me.” (Thornton Wilder)