This week, as Donald Trump attempted to freeze government spending and Elon Musk kicked off an effort to get federal workers to resign en masse, I found myself repeatedly visiting one soothing, hypnotizing, and strangely suspenseful corner of the federal government's vast apparatus—the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Great Lakes Ice Analysis website.
The site is an absolute buffet of statistics and renderings of just how cold our Great Lakes are, chock full of information such as whether the lakes are freezing, and where you can find ice eggs. (What are ice eggs? They are beautiful egg- to bowling ball-sized balls of ice that form on the Great Lakes in the winter and are absolutely mesmerizing.) Just to be bombarded with measurements and graphs and historical data is to feel like you are a subject of a much more efficient and focused ruling order, based on science, diligence, and observation.