Let's be Fwends #135:

The Vacation Edition

"I have forgotten much that I thought I knew, and learned again much that I had forgotten."

~J.R.R. Tolkien

καλημέρα! Welcome to issue 135 of Let's be Fwends, coming to you from Greece. We're spending a couple of vacation days here, so this is a really short one: One map, one meme, one rabbit hole about the Lord of the Rings.

On a personal side note, I am adding some more tunes to my 2024 Year in Strava Music, but instead of cycling, I am running - which to my own surprise I quite enjoy. I don't know if this is just some variant of Stockholm Syndrome in relation to the availability of sports equipment or a sign of my age and the onset of senility. Whatever it is, I expect it to fully recede once we're back in Vienna.

How Middle Earth's Shire Was Really Run

If you've read the books or seen the movie, you're familiar with the "Shire", the region where the hobbits live in Middle Earth. It's a peaceful place; Maybe I'm wrong, but to me it always felt like a caricature of a romantic take on english peasantry and a life in the countryside. How does the Shire actually work? How is power distributed? How is it inherited? Is there a government? If so, how is it paid for? If not, how do things get done in the Shire? Nathan Goldwag goes about finding the answers to these questions, and one thing is clear: Frodo, Pippin, and Merry are not your ordinary hobbits. They're clearly rich, maybe even filthy rich.

A Relief Map of Manhatten

Using LiDAR data, Reddit User vKittyhawk created a stunning relief map of Manhatten und surrounding burrows. Be sure to click on the image to see it in a better resolution

Every Company Right Now

That's it from this edition of Let's be Fwends. I hope the revelation that our little hobbit heroes are actually bored, pampered playboys living off their heritage doesn't perturb you too much. 🧙‍♂️