Sunday, September 3, 2023

POTD: Bourtzi Castle in Nafplio

From 2022 11 03 Athens

"Narrow islet's grace,
Gambello's castle of stone,
Stories etched in time."


—h/t ChatGPT

This photo-of-the-day was taken at Nafplio, Greece. It shows Bourtzi Castle, built by the Venetians in 1471. "The design was made specifically to fit the narrow shape of the islet. At first it was used as a small castle where an executioner lived and killed prisoners. Now it's a famous tourist attraction."

A bonus photo of a closeup is after the jump.

Saturday, September 2, 2023

POTD: Ancient Tomb

From 2022 11 03 Athens

"Bronze Age's echo,
Mycenae's enigmatic
Tomb of kings and myths."


—h/t ChatGPT

This photo-of-the-day was taken at Mycenae, Greece. It shows a large underground beehive-shaped tomb constructed between 1400 and 1200 BCE. It was the largest dome in the world for a thousand years. Today, no one knows who was buried here. Sometime in the last three hundred years, it became known as the Tomb of Agamemnon, the king of Mycenae who commanded the Greeks during the Trojan War. It's also known as the Treasury of Atreus, another ancient king of Mycenae known more through myth than history.

Whatever its true history, we're talking ancient. It's during the late Bronze Age. For comparison, the pyramids were built in the early Bronze Age, a thousand years earlier than this tomb. And the Parthenon was built half a millennium later. There are centuries of history mostly lost to us today. What's left are the ruins of a few monuments.

A bonus photo of the exterior is after the jump.

Friday, September 1, 2023

Random Thoughts: It's 107 degrees

Mastodon

2023-08-02: Today's NextDoor top post:
"I am trying to understand why people say climate change isn't real.
It's 107 degrees."
The post was promptly deleted.
Because, of course it was.

2023-08-03: She asked, "I need WOWZA headshots. Who do you recommend?"
Without thinking, I answered, "Charlize Theron. No contest."
And that's how I got canceled.

2023-08-10: A person I was with, seeing a car's license plate bracket: "Dickinson State University. Where is that?"
Me, shrugging: "Dunno. But my guess would be it's now in the Big Ten."

2023-08-22: I ate in a fast-food restaurant today. At the POS machine the woman who waited on me told me to press "No tip" when it asked. I hesitated. She explained, "We don't get the tips. The manager does, and he's not here."


More random thoughts can be found on Mastodon.

Thursday, August 31, 2023

Council Recap: Municipal Campus Site Plan

Source: H/T DALL-E

At the August 21, 2023, meeting, the Richardson City Council was shown two draft designs for a redeveloped municipal campus. The Council generally favored the building placements of Option A, but with one controversy. That was a new entrance off Arapaho Rd between the library and a relocated City Hall with a drive that will go by the fountain. It's safe to bet that the building placements in Option A will be part of the selected site plan, but what to do with that drive is very much up in the air.

Below, after the diagram for Option A, are selected comments by the Council Members that I find illustrative of their thinking.

Wednesday, August 30, 2023

WAIW: Super Bowl XLV

Super Bowl XLV

Where Am I Wednesday!

Fifty points to the first person to identify where this photo was taken.

Answer is after the jump.