MONDAY WAS OUR 103RD DAY IN LOCKDOWN, but the century itself passed unremarked. There are fireworks at strange hours of the day and night, which paint a hallucinatory sheen on the days. There’s a man who screeches around the neighborhood at high speed in stolen cars, the photos. But whether these noises are evidence of life outside or not, I really I don’t know: I’ve become even more reclusive than usual—something I didn’t think was possible, but has been surprisingly easy to achieve.

It’s mainly because I’m spending my cross-contamination budget very carefully: while there’s been a rollback of the unlocking here, the city has allowed summer camps—very small, very limited summer camps—to open, which means that for the first time in three months we have some kind of childcare. I’ve been very cautious about interacting with other people in general, but the almost total lack of community spread in other childcare settings has been helpful in making decisions here; as long as we’re careful and really limited in our exposure, we’re going to try it out.

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My stories this week: Trump’s data-hungry, invasive app laid bare by Jacob Gursky and Sam Woolley (with some insight into what Biden’s app does as well) • Elizabeth MacBride takes a thorough look at why venture capital isn’t building the things we need • Older generations want to claim Tik Tok teens and K-pop stans for the “Resistance” but Abby Ohlheiser says the reality is both more exciting and more complicated • Brian Barth looks at Canada’s tech industry in Toronto would like to be seen as the nice person’s Silicon Valley, if that’s not too much trouble.

Things my friends made: Rose Eveleth’s Advice from the Future asks “Should I follow my partner to Mars?” • Katie Macbride asks 911 dispatchers how they feel about the police.

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Notebook: Some lessons in 18F’s “Building trust in a public health crisis” • Are we living through narrative collapse and entering the age of the database? • Intrigued by a Chris Jones tweet that (a) is 100% correct and (b) terrifying that he’s only recently come to this conclusion • Reminded of this piece by the often imperious Tressie MacMillan Cottom on the broken logic of thinking poor people are stupid for spending money.

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