Overlooking South Africa’s M2 highway. Photo by Zivanai Matangi

Sixes and Sevens: an irregular collection of the contextual, the cultural, and other things that catch my eye.

The best single thing I read on the American election. The Irish writer Fintan O’Toole is at the top of his form as he writes about America’s zombie politics: neither dead nor alive.

The most intriguing thing I read was about a swathe of Democrat-voting counties running across the South. It connects geological history and economic history.

There are common patterns to the COVID innovations. These six elements are a pretty good guide to innovation more generally.

Bloomberg reckons the fossil fuel emissions peaked in 2019. But they’re not falling fast enough to bring climate change under control.

Forecasting is junk. I know that I know this, but it’s still good to be reminded how useless forecasting is.

Using outdoor media to disrupt our sense of the everyday. William Kentridge’s Centre for the Less Good Idea has been promoting some inspired billboards.

Reinventing our folk tales. Photographer Nadja Ellinger on Little Red Riding Hood. Related: Rebecca Solnit’s long read from lockdown of the replenishing power of these stories.

“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)