oh, Austin

Why do sidewalks in Austin suddenly end?

“According to Austin’s Public Works Department, the city is missing about 1,600 miles of sidewalk — a length of concrete that could stretch from here to Winnipeg, Canada.” ~ learn more

retail therapy

What do you do with a billion grams of surplus weed?

“We have more pot in [Canada] than we can possibly sell. Producers today are sitting on a massive, and predictable, oversupply that is slowly becoming worthless—and that’s going to cost a lot of companies a lot of money.” | learn more

on the blockchain

A death in Cryptoland

“When reports emerged in 2019 that the CEO of Canada’s largest cryptocurrency exchange had died, it left over a quarter of a billion dollars of customers’ funds in limbo. While authorities investigated, one online sleuth decided to dig deeper to […]

big ideas

Why recycling doesn’t work. 

This article is Canada-focused, but I would guess that the content applies to the US as well. “Ontario is the only province from which detailed financials are available. In 2016, blue-box collection cost municipalities a total of $347 million, and […]

fun facts

Have you ever heard of a telephone party line? 

I first heard of party lines from a customer in rural Canada who said, “when you call me back, it’ll ring for a while before I answer because it’s a party line.” I had no idea what he was talking […]

retail therapy

The last days of Target Canada. 

“Target pulled the plug on its massive Canadian expansion less than two years after opening. This is the incredible untold story of how it all went wrong.” | learn more