Just started listening to the audiobook version of Robert Caro's "The Power Broker," about Robert Moses and New York. Will also check out the book from library in case it has pictures or diagrams.
99% Invisible did a 10-part series on the book this year, so will be toggling back and forth to hear the commentary as well.
The audiobook is around 60 hours. Guessing this all will keep me busy for a couple of months.
Just finished "The Message," by Ta-Nehisi Coates. Highly recommended.
I have a number of elderly relatives. The one thing I keep telling them is if they ever get approached, to contact their kids, or check with another family member before responding. So far, there haven't been any problems.
But I heard an in-law's parents in a different state lost a big chunk of money to one of these scams and may now lose their home.
Builders care about the nuts and bolts of a building. Most people just care about whether they can get a decent hot shower, how cold it gets inside at night, or whether the smoke alarm goes off every time they fry onions.
The killer feature of decentralization, I suspect, does not lie in a singular interaction with a user, but (as Mike notes) in harnessing the power of the distributed group to do something amazing.
We've had a box that comes in three segments. Each has a label: Save, Give, and Spend. Easy to find online.
The weekly cash allowance, as well as family and holiday gifts all go in there, split into portions. The spend section typically gets used when hanging out with friends or after sports practice. Usually candy or junk food. If going on a planned field trip or a group gathering with friends, we throw in some extra funds ($5-$20) so they can get food, snacks, or treat a friend. Nothing is digital or credit based.
When the Save or Give sections get full, kid gets to pick a charity ('Give') or we walk down to the bank to deposit the 'Save' cash into a kid's saving account with no monthly fee.
We have them installed out in the open outside public libraries and City Hall. You skip having to add a USPS delay, coupled with text messages from the election office verifying they got it. They're great if you don't feel like standing in line on election day. Never had problems.
Nobody thought there would be dipshits out there who thought setting them on fire was a sane idea.
The cassette player in my old car had a cover that was also a display panel. It folded out, then you put the tape in and flipped the cover back so it locked, then you could play.
Got one of these adapters to plug in an iPod. Stuck it in, then went to close the panel. The wire got in the way so it couldn't lock. No way to jam it without damaging the cable.
No return policy back then. It sat in the dashboard until the car died many years later.
A few tips, based on what has worked in our local libraries:
A story-reading space where parents or caregivers can bring infants and toddlers to listen to books being read outloud. Librarians, parents, and volunteers take turns as book readers. Hugely popular. Absolutely packed them in. One branch even built a hand-painted replica of the "Goodnight Moon" set.
A separate, private space for nursing mothers.
If the budget allows it, a phone charging station.
Space for common government forms. Applications for welfare, disability, voter, and tax forms. If you can get volunteers to help, even better.
Was going to mention tools, but see you already have it. In ours, you can check out shovels, saws, wrench sets, gardening tools, etc, to take home for a few days. It got so popular they had to move into their own space.
And the one time the rocket goes kablooey on its way up, everyone down the flight path will get a shower of used hypodermic needles, disposable vapes, and old appliances.
Reading that was a rollercoaster of horror and confusion, ending in relief.