Yay, I'm back!  Yes, it was a great trip* - thank you for asking - and no, I am not that thrilled to be back yet.  They say a good vacation is one which you're glad when you're gone and also glad when you're back, so perhaps this one wasn't long enough :)  Already planning the next one ...

* many pictures on FB

Meanwhile, it's all happening...

So, do you think the Economist editors like Trump?  No, they do not.  But also they are committed libertarians and they do not like Bernie Sanders.  A Trump/Sanders election would be a nightmare for them.  Kind of like Boris Johnson running against Jeremy Corbyn...  But somehow they have to rationalize their dislike of Trump (and Johnson) with their popularity (and results).  

Wired: A tribute to Wikipedia, "one of the few remaining places that retain the faintly utopian glow of the early World Wide Web".  Wikipedia is the best, a beautiful thing based on user-generated content which somehow evolved to keep itself from being corrupted by its users. 

This is great: Construction of the Forth Railway Bridge.  "Spanning 541 meters over the Firth of Forth, Edinburgh's Forth Railway Bridge became the longest cantilever bridge in the world when the future King Edward VII drove its final 'golden' rivet on March 4, 1890."  Yes, there are pictures, and yes, you must click through to see them.  Isn't it amazing what people were able to do before computers? 

Can we say this is cool?  Solar Orbiter heads to the sun in mission to unravel its mysteries.  "The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Solar Orbiter spacecraft is traveling through the cosmos. Its destination: the inner solar system. The 3,900-lb. (1,800-kg) spacecraft will work in tandem with NASA’s Parker Solar Probe to unravel solar mysteries that have puzzled scientists for decades."  Excellent. 

Yeah, so whatever happened to flying boats?  At first it seems obvious that airplanes should land on land, but then, when you think about it, maybe landing on water is more logical ... nothing to build, water all over the place, and easy emergency landings on long flights. 

So this is amazing ... the true size of Africa.  It's ginormous!  I knew Mercator projections distorted relative sizes, but this is pretty dramatic.  {I have to say, the Visual Capitalist is one of my favorite new sites, so much great stuff...} 

OMG: ELP's classic Karn Evil 9 to be made into a movie.  Welcome back my friends, to the show that never ends, we're so glad you could attend, come inside, come inside! 

And I'll leave you with this MUST READ think piece from Peter Thiel: Back to the Future.  Of all the people I've ever worked with, I find Peter to be consistently the most thought-provoking.  So great...