Monday Links from the Gap Between Teams Meetings vol. DCCCXXVIII

[NickFitz]

Running a bit late today! It's been a busy morning

• How HS2 built a bridge to nowhere - A remarkable story of bureaucratic failure: ”A state-of-the-art road bridge has been built deep in the heart of rural Buckinghamshire. Designed to carry traffic over the HS2 railway, there's just one

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[NickFitz]

I forgot to revert the title last week after the holiday/Louvre special the week before

• The Blue Book Burglar - ”The Social Register was a who’s who of America’s rich and powerful—the heirs of robber barons, scions of political dynasties, and descendants of Mayflower passengers.

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[NickFitz]

Back to work for me this week. Oh well, soon be Christmas

• 70 years ago, a Colorado man plotted to kill his mother. How he carried it out shocked the nation. - Talk about overkill: ”The bomb plot that brought down the United Mainliner over Weld Counry killed 44, showed planes could be

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[NickFitz]

I'm off this week. Reports that I started my holiday with a flying visit to Paris at the weekend are completely unfounded

• The Pushkin job: unmasking the thieves behind an international rare books heist - ”Between 2022 and 2023, as many as 170 rare and valuable editions of Russian classics

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[NickFitz]

Another Monday that isn't a Bank Holiday? Shameful! I suggest taking back your time to read this lot in protest

• In Search of Michelle Vanek - ”She was the only hiker ever to die while seeking the summit of central Colorado’s most famous 14er. A member of the successful search team investigates

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[NickFitz]

No meetings for me today other than standup, but it turns out that's even worse - I have to work instead!

• Extremely offline: what happened when a Pacific island was cut off from the internet - When an undersea volcano cut Tonga off from the Internet, it meant a lot more than being unable

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[NickFitz]

Had a narrow squeak today when I almost reposted a link I'd already posted in 2018! Luckily I realised it was old enough that I might have posted it before and checked

• The human stain remover: what Britain’s greatest extreme cleaner learned from 25 years on the job - Meet the man who cleans up

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[NickFitz]

Happy autumnal equinox! The sun crosses the equator at 19:19BST, so here's some reading to pass the time till then

• The Florida Divorcée’s Guide to Murder - ”Hit Man: A Technical Manual for Independent Contractors inspired a triple murder and led to a major First Amendment case. Still, the book

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[NickFitz]

My Monday has started with a cold; maybe this selection of fine reading matter will help ensure yours is a little more enjoyable

• ‘The forest had gone’: the storm that moved a mountain - Extreme weather in the Alps: ”On a small ledge in the Swiss mountains, 200 people were enjoying a summer

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[NickFitz]

When I finished work on Thursday, I had no meetings today except the morning standup. Yet somehow I've been in meetings virtually all morning, and don't have time for lunch yet because there's another one in a few minutes. Good thing I was able to get this choice collection of reading matter assembled...

[NickFitz]

I'm back at ClientGov now, but will I let that prevent the flow of links to stuff you can waste your time on? Certainly not!

• 99 Problems: The Ice Cream Truck’s Surprising History - Despite the Americanism “ice cream truck” in the title, this piece is mainly focused on the great British ice

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[NickFitz]

Final day of my holiday today

• The Great French Fry Mystery - A peculiar crime wave in Toronto: ”When an A&W takeout bag appeared on my neighbour’s porch in the middle of the night—followed by another, then another—I became obsessed with solving a fast food whodunit that was as

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[NickFitz]

Final week of my holiday, and at least the weather's cooling down a bit

• The Worm Hunters of Southern Ontario - From the “jobs you didn’t know existed” department: ”To successfully catch a Canadian nightcrawler, you have to approach it a little like you’re a cat. The worm—fat, pink, undomesticable,

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[NickFitz]

My holiday continues, and it looks like I'll even get "the weather for it" - except that I can't stand hot weather

• Whiteouts, Ice Roads, and Wolverines: What Working at a Diamond Mine in the Far North Is Like - The perils of life in the far north: ”The cold that ripped through

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[NickFitz]

Sorry about the weather - I'm on what the permies call "annual leave", so expect the tempests to continue with ever-increasing vigour

• The Talented Mr. Bruseaux - Dodgy business in the 1920s: ”He made his name in Chicago investigating racial violence, solving crimes, and exposing

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[NickFitz]

Busy week for me as I move from one project to another. But I'm taking most of August off, giving me plenty of time to read more interesting stuff like this

• Disneyland of the Dead - Ralph Jones finds out about the problem of overcrowding in cemeteries: ”London’s Highgate Cemetery shows us just

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[NickFitz]

I wonder if the Girl Guides have a new badge for "wasting time on the Internet"? If so, this lot will give you a head start

• The Hideaway - ”Two long, tall barracks came into view, mirror images of each other. The severe silhouettes, matching blocks of Soviet Lego, were softened by shades

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[NickFitz]

Running a little late today as I had to do some actual work this morning. Outrageous imposition

• Conversations With a Hit Man - ”A former FBI agent traveled to Louisiana to ask a hired killer about a murder that haunted him. Then they started talking about a different case altogether.” David

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[NickFitz]

Anyone for tennis? No? Good, then you'll have time to read this lot instead

• The radical 1960s schools experiment that created a whole new alphabet – and left thousands of children unable to spell - ”The Initial Teaching Alphabet was a radical, little-known educational experiment trialled in British

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[NickFitz]

Warm out again, so it's a good job there's no need to go out there when the Internet has this kind of stuff to offer

• Why does Switzerland have more nuclear bunkers than any other country? - Going underground: ”Switzerland is home to more than 370,000 nuclear bunkers – enough to shelter every

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[NickFitz]

Just because a certain person is trying to start World War III, that's no reason not to waste time reading this lot

• A Crushing Wave of Snow - ”Thirty-five years ago this July, an avalanche killed forty-three climbers on a mountain called Lenin Peak. I witnessed the disaster and have lived with

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[NickFitz]

Looks like some of us are getting a heatwave. But of what importance is that when the Internet has such riches as these?

• Trial by Fire: The crash of Aeroflot flight 1492 - ”On the 5th of May 2019, travelers at Moscow’s biggest international airport were greeted by the astonishing sight of a

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[NickFitz]

Posting these a little early today because I've got one of those meetings shortly, where you can't be sure if it'll last five minutes or fifty-five

• The Stalingrad Incident - ”Robert Robinson was walking home on the cobblestone sidewalks of Stalingrad one night when a Russian coworker

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[NickFitz]

That's the Bank Holidays out of the way until August. Nothing to do now but try to look busy while reading this lot

• The Longest Journey - ”Lena Rowat skied 1,600 grueling miles across the Coast Range to quiet her demons. But she didn’t begin to silence them until tragedy struck.” Perilous adventures

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[NickFitz]

Gloomy clouds? Chance of rain? Yes, it's a Bank Holiday! Another good reason to stay in and read this lot

• An English gentleman, a crooked lawyer: the secrets of Stephen David Jones - ”With his brilliant mind and impeccable credentials, it’s little wonder that wealthy clients trusted him with

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[NickFitz]

More light reading to pass the time until next week's Bank Holiday

• ‘It was as if someone had been murdered’: the felling of the Sycamore Gap tree - ”I set out to answer the question a whole nation has been asking: what made two men cut down the Sycamore Gap tree?” Andrew Hankinson, who

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[NickFitz]

Lovely weather today, because it isn't a Bank Holiday

• Deliverance - ”A telekinetic teenager became a convicted killer. Can a group of strangers prove that Christina Boyer is really a victim of injustice?” I suspect that in Alabama, being perceived as some kind of witch doesn't help h

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[NickFitz]

Some stuff to read while the family complain about being stuck on a windswept bench on Skegness seafront

• All That Glitters - ”His alleged victims say he bribed New York Police Department officials, stole millions in diamonds, and persuaded Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Kim Kardashian to shill

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[NickFitz]

For the eight hundredth time, stop working and read this stuff instead

• “The Trolley Solution” - A short story by Shiv Ramdas about AI: ”From the moment the text message arrived with an aggressive ping, Ahmed knew something was amiss. Oh, it read innocuously enough, just the one line from Niyati

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[NickFitz]

Should you happen to be a contracting Cardinal, here's some stuff to read on the flight to Rome

• Codename: Chilbom - ”On a fall morning in 1976, a bomb exploded in the middle of Washington. The shock waves were felt for the next 30 years.” The tangled web of US and South American politics

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[NickFitz]

We're nearly at the season of multiple Bank Holidays! Until we make it, this lot should help to pass the time

• The Strange But True Story of the Witches’ Circle - ”I don’t believe in witchcraft, ghosts, Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, or anything else that can’t be proven to exist via science

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[NickFitz]

Some respite from watching the numbers go down around the world

• The Balloon that Fell from the Sky - High drama: ”Fifteen teams lifted off from Switzerland in gas ballooning’s most audacious race. Three days later, two of them drifted into Belarusian airspace—but only one would survive.”
• Ukraine’s

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[NickFitz]

I've got way too many meetings today, but I managed to put this lot together while people were talking about some boring stuff

• World War II’s Only Canine POW Survived Shipwrecks, Crocodile Attacks, and Japanese Prison Camps - The story of Judy, a pointer who served in the Royal Navy and RAF among

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[NickFitz]

I'm feeling a bit under the weather today, and I was just on a Teams call with somebody who looked dreadful and was sniffling a lot, so now I'm wondering if I've seen my own future. Better get this lot posted while I still can

• The Worst 7 Years in Boeing’s History—and the Man Who Won’t

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[NickFitz]

Better get this lot posted before somebody pops up expecting me to work

• The Diabolical World of Phone Scams - Sarah Trevelyan investigates a long-running fraud targeted at Canadians: ”Since the scam began a decade ago, police say the criminals behind it have contacted—by phone, email

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[NickFitz]

I just had a quick look at the news, and quite honestly you'll feel better ignoring it all and reading this lot instead

• Madness, Melancholy, or Murder: An Ancient English Farm’s 50-Year-Old Mystery - ”Andrew Chamings returns to his childhood farmland to investigate the mystifying deaths of

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[NickFitz]

There's lots of "pairing" and "mobbing" with this project team I'm on, so I'm taking advantage of a brief hiatus to get this lot posted before I'm dragged into another "huddle"

• From Antarctica with Love - ”Captain Robert Falcon Scott’s doomed journey to

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[NickFitz]

If Elon Musk wants to know what I've been doing, the answer is having too many meetings Anyway, finally found time to post this lot

• This Is What Happens When You Unleash 500 Singles on an IRL Date - ”Done with endless swiping on dating apps, more people are looking for love through in-person

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[NickFitz]

The gaps between meetings seem to be getting even shorter these days, but at least there's plenty to read whilst half-listening

• Murder in the Blue Mountains - Dark deeds in rural Canada: ”Ashley and James Schwalm had what seemed like a fairy tale life—two wonderful children, fulfilling

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[NickFitz]

February already seems to be going quicker than January, probably due to this quality reading matter helping to pass the time

• My Quest to Find the Owner of a Mysterious WWII Japanese Sword - ”When I was a kid, I was fascinated by a traditional katana my grandfather had brought home from Japan

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[NickFitz]

Too many meetings today, so I've got to get these posted then wait an hour until I can have lunch

• "There Will Be No Mercy": On the Frontlines of War in Ethiopia - ”When Ethiopia’s government launched a brutal two-year war in Tigray, the region’s largest hospital was overrun

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[NickFitz]

Once you've retrieved your trampoline from the neighbour's garden, you can relax with some light reading

• Blow up: how half a tonne of cocaine transformed the life of an island - High times: ”In 2001, a smugglers’ yacht washed up in the Azores and disgorged its contents. The island of

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[NickFitz]

I expect there'll be interesting news from across the Atlantic later today, but I also expect it would be better for your sanity to ignore it and read this lot instead

• Child Catchers - Josh McColough on growing up amidst the USA's national panic about child abduction: ”If you grew up

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[NickFitz]

January drags on and apparently won't be over for nearly three weeks yet, so here's some stuff to help pass the time

• The School Shootings Were Fake. The Terror Was Real - ”The inside story of the teenager whose ‘swatting’ calls sent armed police racing into hundreds of schools nationwide—and

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[NickFitz]

Back to work today, and they've got me doing work! Diabolical liberty, I call it

• The After Dark Bandit - ”The police couldn’t figure out how the perpetrator ripped off two banks at the same time. Until they discovered there wasn’t just one robber but a pair of them: identical twin bro

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[NickFitz]

Some light reading to pass the time as you try to finish the Quality Street, Roses, stilton, etc. in time to open the New Year batch of same

• The ‘mad egghead’ who built a mouse utopia - The now-forgotten work of John Calhoun, ecologist and psychologist, who studied rats and mice to learn what might

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[NickFitz]

Bit late today as I've been awaiting delivery of a new recliner. They had to take the back off in the hall to get it into the apartment

• Humphrey’s world: how the Samuel Smith beer baron built Britain’s strangest pub chain - Excellent, in-depth look at the brewery chain and its owner, and his…

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[NickFitz]

I've finished with work for the year, and I strongly recommend you do the same as it will give you more time to read stuff like this

• Asleep at the Wheel in the Headlight Brightness Wars - ”The crusade against bright headlights has picked up speed in recent years, in large part due to a couple

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[NickFitz]

I don't know about you but I finish for the year at COB Thursday, and it can't come soon enough

• Inside the Vatican’s secret saint-making process - Fancy being canonised? ”Canonisation has long been a way for the Catholic church to shape its image. The Vatican is preparing to anoint its

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[NickFitz]

Now December is here, it's more than seven years since I had a heart attack for the first time since November 27 2010

• The Good Traitor - A tale of journalistic repression: ”The Nazis feared journalist Carl von Ossietzky so much they sent him to a concentration camp. Could winning the Nobel Peace

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