A mid-Memorial Day filter pass ... following up on a weird week where it feels like I was too busy to work.  Too much cycling, sailing, and um stuff to do, to get much stuff done.

It was exactly one year ago that I returned from a week in Kazakhstan, and posted a long pictorial report.  Wow, seems like way longer than a year... 

Of possible use: How to ship a Beluga whale via UPS.  I doesn't come up that often... 

FAO Schwartz to close Manhattan store in July as rents rise.  Sigh.  Not sure if this is a cautionary tale about specialty retailers expanding out of their niche, or about landlords ignoring market signals and overpricing.  Either way it's too bad. 

Of course: the House just passed a bill about space mining.  "Any asteroid resources obtained in outer space are the property of the entity that obtained such resources, which shall be entitled to all property rights thereto, consistent with applicable provisions of Federal law."  Excellent. 

How the Netherlands stopped the wind.  A rather breathless ode to 'big engineering'.  And also, the video violates the inverted pyramid for video.  An interesting watch nonetheless... 

A while ago, while musing on that same inverted pyramid, I linked this video of l'Hydroptere, an amazing foiling trimaran built to break sailing speed records.  Well they're at it again!  Amazing video of this amazing boat, but sadly, they do violate the inverted pyramid in this one.  Worth waiting for the boat sailing, though... 

Finally, after about 1,000 references, I can type "l'Hydroptere" without looking up the spelling.  My finders just don't want to type that :)

The headlines on this pretty much write themselves: U2's 'the Edge' falls off the Edge.  I guess he should join Yes :) 

Yay!  New electronics kit-makers aim to awaken the next generation of engineers.  I remember Heathkit with great fondness.  And did you know?  They're still alive... 

Interesting read: An oral history of Industrial Light and Magic.  What struck me most - among many other cool things - was that ILM survived a move to another city (from LA to SF) after they were already successful (after Star Wars IV). 

Excellent (and who knew): the Cirque of the Unclimbables.  This group of peaks in Northwest Canada, between the Yukon and Northwest Territories, is not only hard to climb, but it's hard to reach first.  A great story.  (I will say, this article suffers from lack of editing; it could be shorter and crisper.) 

I'm not a climber, but it would be amazing to visit as a hiker...