Niccolo Machiavelli and Leonardo Da Vinci, most likely at the behest of the Borgias, once conspired to steal a river.
That’s right folks. They planned to change the course of the Arno River so that they could steal it from Pisa and make Florence accessible by sea.
Please take a moment to imagine that.
Please.
‘So we just divert the -’
‘Don’t worry they won’t notice a thing’
100% better than National Treasure.
This should be a wacky bromance heist film. We need more wacky historical heist films.
It gets better. I just had to go check on the veracity of this and discovered MORE.
Their plan failed, at which point Machiavelli decided to quietly fade out of politics…and went on to write The Prince, one of the most (in)famous pieces of Western literature.
Da Vinci, meanwhile, never forgot the river that got away. In fact, he made it the background of one of his most famous paintings–hell, one of the most famous paintings, period.
my policy for “they’re just doing it for attention” has always been and always will be “then someone needs to pay attention to them”
I’ve always thought this
Let me tell you about the time I worked as a computer teacher for a small private school. My first day went well, but in the staff room that day I was told I was lucky that this one kid was out sick. No one could control him.
Next week, he was in. It took me 10 minutes to determine that I was dealing with a 10 year old kid who was incredibly intelligent, more than a little bored, and loved being the center of attention.
He was also black. I say this because I think that a intelligent, somewhat bored, attention-seeking white kid might have been treated differently.
So, day one I made him sit by himself where no one could see him to stop him from taking over the class (which he was clearly used to doing).
Day two: I paid close attention to when he finished (not surprising, he was first and did everything correctly). I immediately told him he was helping me, and paired him with a struggling student.
My hunch was right; he made a excellent teacher. He thrived on having this other kid’s attention. He wasn’t bored. He was one of my best students.
He was a bright kid. And he needed people to pay attention to him and would settle for any kind of attention he could get. But when he was able to channel that positively, he was a great student and a really helpful classmate.
50 years ago from the August 22, 1969 cover story - THAT YOUNG NEW YORK LOOK - one of the classic LIFE photo essays by the great Vernon Merritt III. This image ran in the essay which started with the following caption: “New York City is a costume party for the young this summer, a party that is taking place outdoors, on the streets and in the parks. Long hair, long legs. The party is not always elegant, but it is completely alive.” (Vernon Merritt III—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images) #thisweekinLIFE #NYC #1969 https://www.instagram.com/p/B1WNHn6g1if/?igshid=f58qs0gzqjpj
