HOPE is a homebrew, homely, cheap, cheerful and delightfully anarchic hacker con with deep history and great people.
Speaking of weird ancient history, my pal Ada Palmer - sf writer, librettist, singer, and Renaissance historian - blew my mind this week with her article on the tower-cities of medieval proto-Italy during the Guelph-Ghibelline wars (1125-1392):
https://www.exurbe.com/the-lost-towers-of-the-guelph-ghibelline-wars/
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