Hi ,It's the end of the summer and here in Chicago at least, the sun is resisting the come of autumn: the past few days have been bright and sunny, nearly 90ºF / 32ºC!I'm writing this on Sunday morning from the patio (terrace, for us Europeans) of my favourite neighborhood independent coffee roaster and I'm already roasting under the sun.As everyone in Chicago loves reminding me: Winter is Coming. Meanwhile I'll keep enjoying the sun and the outdoors as much as I can. I hope you're enjoying your weekend wherever you are!CheersWillem

 Weekly Combo Two or three flavours, interesting separately, fascinating together 

Return of the city-state (Aeon, 16 min read)A fascinating long read pulling in different sources, history, theories surmising the end of nation states in favor of the rise of city states. Interesting to consider that while nation states are our current reality norm, they aren't so ancient, a phenomenon that really rose only in the 19th century.City states have been around much longer. I think this idea is interesting contrasted with thoughts from the second article about innovation that doesn't have to happen in cities as this piece states, the role of international corporations in the kind of city-states envisioned, and of agriculture. On the latter, I've seen illustrations and read of plans and current experiments for vertical hydroponic city farms which could be an answer.The Tater Tot is American Ingenuity at its Finest (Eater, 9 min read)This is a fun and interesting read about a pretty simple starch food (who does't like alliterations) and its origins. I wondered of an interesting comparison with the previous piece about the place of product or brand symbols to represent the largest corporations like cities can be representative of nation states while at the same time people generally agreeing they're different.London can easily be seen as synonym of the UK, and at the same time I think people can easily agree it's different from the rest of the UK. Same for Paris and France. Ketchup or arguably to a lesser public extent the Tater Tot might be representatives of the Kraft-Heinz corporation, Oreo of Mondelez, Camry of Toyota. I'm not sure how far the thought holds, though it seems rich territory to think around and come up with new perspectives about brands and business.