What we learned this week

‘Put the sun to work’ is the slogan of French solar company Solarbox, whose new TV adverts feature ‘sun king’ King Louis XIV turning up at people’s homes to power their appliances on an exercise bike. It’s silly, but there’s a nice thought behind it about energy democracy – where the historical king Louis used the sun as a symbol of his ultimate power, today the sun belongs to everyone.

Speaking of the sun, ‘la sombrita’ is a controversial new sun shade installed on bus stops in Los Angeles ...