October

😷 Well, Trump’s got COVID. It’s taking all the self-control I have to resist the urge to snark, be scared, or to resource to being cynical. Moving beyond those impulses, any way you game this out comes up with a whole lot of uncertainty and no clear best-case scenario.

🙋‍♀‍ Written in April, FiveThirtyEight outlines what happens if a presidential nominee can no longer run for office. "“We’ve been lucky. We have actually had some presidents who have died shortly after taking office but not somebody who died either between the convention and the election, or after being elected and becoming the president-elect.”

🍀 2020 is not the year to count on luck.

⛅ Smoke from California’s wildfires cut solar power production by a third. “In the first two weeks of September, soot and smoke caused solar-powered electricity generation to fall 30 percent compared to the July average, according to the California Independent System Operator (CAISO), which oversees nearly all utility-scale solar energy in California.”

🌍 TED’s Countdown Global Launch event is live on YouTube on October 10th. It’s a free five-hour event curated by Bruno Giussani. My family and I will be watching from Berlin.