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I was struck by the beauty of Forte Spagnolo in L'Aquila[1].
The purpose of most star forts appears to be keeping a city safe from armies. Forte Spagnolo was built to keep an army safe from a city! Are there any other forts where this is the case?
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forte_Spagnolo,_L%27Aquila
I recommend reading David Grann's excellent piece from 2003 on the New Yorkers building this tunnel: https://archive.ph/k45QP
Detour is one of a handful of apps whose demise really tears me up. A great idea with great execution.
Rick Steves had audio tours on his app, but without the GPS initiated cue. I had no idea the original Detour podcasts were preserved, thanks for sharing!
22) Turn the AC wayyyyyyy down when the party starts
23) Buy frozen finger food and put into oven in staggered batches. When a batch is ready, immediately transfer to serving tray and walk through party offering people food. Great task to delegate to that one attendee who doesn't know anyone!
24) Polaroids/Disposable cameras are cheap and seem to be universally adored. Get a few and scatter them throughout the party.
25) Sharpies/labels for marking solo cups, drastically cuts down on clutter as the night goes on.
26) If someone brings a bottle of wine or a bottle of liquor as a gift, just crack it open and ask them to share it with other attendees. Same with food. Makes for a good conversation starter.
A great companion piece on a government bureaucrat who solved the problem on how to optimally support the roofs in longwall mines: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/interactive/2024/mic...
Main presentation begins at 2:38 (looks like HN stripped the timestamp): https://youtu.be/Df_K7pIsfvg?t=158
SEEKING FREELANCER | Worldwide | Remote
I'm looking to hire an expert in web animations to help me build a specific UI for a static site. I've been tackling the problem with SVGs and CSS animations but if you think another approach would work (e.g. HTML Canvas), I'm open to hearing you out. Note this is a one-off project and there is no possibility of converting to full-time.
If you are interested, please email me some past projects that demonstrate past work in this space along with your hourly rate. Looking forward to working together!
you can’t get a SCIF in your house
Have you tried having a contractor follow ICD 705?
https://www.dni.gov/files/Governance/IC-Tech-Specs-for-Const...
They may not do a hard credit pull (which impacts credit score) but many of them do a soft pull and incorporate it into their underwriting.
Voting ring detection for thee and not for me
Did you ever shop at my grandfather’s hardware store?
An absolute necessity for anyone heading to Japan to ski. Don’t be that person lugging your sticks to the hotel!
Some unique things I’ve added to my kit over the years:
* blister packs of certain medications, loperamide and ibuprofen being particularly useful
* Narcan, unfortunately
* small gifts (stickers/morale patches/enamel pins) to hand out as thank yous
This healthcare/Cheesecake Factory mashup is one of my all-time favorite articles: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/08/13/big-med
SF landlords will try to limit access to their POPOS as well. For example, the Hampton Inn on Mission St has a rooftop deck that is supposed to be open to the public. I tried to go in on my lunch break but, surprise, it's "for guests only". Then they allowed me to go up but not before making me sign some BS liability waiver. Reported them to the city government and got an immediate reply. If you see something, say something!
I am very curious to hear the personal experiences of a frontline firefighter/EMT in Phoenix
You should write more on this topic.
This is a good one! If your mentors/the people who made your career warn you not to do something, you should think really, really hard about doing that thing!
The fact that this story was broken by Darcy is just *chef's kiss*:
From the Atlantic piece:
"Licht was still coming to terms with the ferocity of the backlash later that night when CNN’s popular Reliable Sources newsletter landed in his inbox. He read the opening line in disbelief: 'It’s hard to see how America was served by the spectacle of lies that aired on CNN Wednesday evening,' Licht’s own media reporter, Oliver Darcy, wrote.
Licht could handle being ridiculed by his media rivals. But being publicly scolded by someone on his own payroll—on the biggest night of his career—felt like a new level of betrayal. Licht, who just hours earlier had expressed ambivalence to me about how the event played, went into war mode."
I'd recommend any (aspiring) manager/founder to read this piece. So many lessons to be learned from Licht's tenure.
This article is pretty off-base with its description of Medellín from my experience (lived in Laureles for ~1 year with some locals).
Medellín has been a digital nomading hotspot since at least 2016. It is not “in the early stages of nomadification”.
Laureles is not a middle-class neighborhood.
Insinuating that the “gringo price” for an apartment is what a local (or even a gringo who can speak Spanish) will pay is dishonest.
And while I love paisas, it’s disingenuous to complain about the rich gringos when much of the current middle-class Colombian lifestyle is powered by Venezuelan migrant workers.
Drop a link to your bakery, I'd like to come visit!
"The Making of Modern Ukraine" by Timothy Snyder: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLh9mgdi4rNewfxO7LhBoz...
As Prof. Snyder mentions in his introductory lecture, it is kind of wild that there are zero other classes, at any American university, focusing specifically on Ukraine given its importance in the current geopolitical climate.
Prof. Snyder is a great lecturer and the dynamics that shape Ukraine are fascinating and useful for understanding European history more broadly.
I think this is one of the best ways to get to know a city. I did a similar survey of the most popular cheeseburgers in SF a few years back and it was a blast spending an afternoon exploring a new neighborhood after a great lunch. Black Sands Brewery's burger was my favorite, RIP.
The stealth taqueria in the back of the mercado is a good tip, especially in places like the South where "Mexican restaurant" means something else entirely.
Can we change the link to the official blog post, which has more details? https://blog.google/threat-analysis-group/spyware-vendors-us...
Matt Levine, as always, has a good primer: https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2023-03-09/crypto...
Great folks! Highly recommend!
If I had to guess, it has to do with trademark protection. I went down this rabbit hole when trying to figure out why certain famous buildings were missing from the Spider-Man video game: https://stevenbuccini.com/why-1wtc-isnt-in-spiderman
A bit off-topic, but curious to hear if anyone has thoughts on DC vs. Baltimore.
I would strongly encourage you to take the full ride. This is coming from someone who was in a similar situation to you decided to the Tier 1 route.
As another commenter noted, it really depends on what you hope to achieve in your career, but it's rare that an 18-year-old has that figured out. I'm in my late 20s and haven't figured it out!
Ultimately, the main thing Tier 1 university gives you is a foot in the door. For 95% of non-savants, the educational experience is the same, if not worse, than your "Tier 2" schools. There are many other (much cheaper!) ways to get the type of prestige which opens doors: Y Combinator, Recurse Center, an internship at a prestigious company, certifications, etc. That being said, prestige only opens the door -- you'll still need to kick it down.
Think of it this way: you are being given ~$300k to go to school. This is the same amount of money you would earn after working full-time for ~5 years after factoring in taxes. You could literally travel the world for several years and come out with less debt than paying out-of-state tuition for four years at UIUC.