Interesting links for Feb 9 2026

Note: This is the first in what I hope will be a regular series of things I’m reading, watching, or learning about over the last week or two. I’ll share a link that has caught my attention, and sometimes also put my thoughts there.  

• VIDEO: Annapurna Circuit VS Everest Base Camp Trek | Comparison & Recommendation by Follow Alice // A few months ago I’d taken an interest in doing an organized hiking trip… somewhere… and both Annapurna Circuit and Everest Base Camp were on the list, along with the Inca Trail. I thought I might do it through Intrepid Travel but found their communication severely lacking and ended up going to Norway instead. I’d still very much like to experience this part of the world, though.

• VIDEO: Review of Walking the Annapurna Circuit Trek, Nepal | 4K | From Besisahar to Thorong La Pass by Traveling Butler // Sensing a theme? Besides simply enjoying the incredible views of Nepal, check out the video quality and how it’s cut together. Shots are allowed to linger some, which helped me feel more immersed. Anyone interested in doing the Annapurna Circuit with me next year? Maybe late October? I’d want to start training now.

• VIDEO: How to Film Interviews (6 Easy Steps) // I’ve been studying filmmaking, broadly, over the past six months or so. There’s a whole other article about all that I need to write. This video does a good job of both showing and explaining how to set up to record an interview.

• ARTICLE: Is Elon Musk’s Starship Doomed? The future of SpaceX keeps blowing up, and no one knows if he can fix it. // This is an older article but I want to share it anyway. Fortunately, since last summer SpaceX has gotten better at not having their big new spacecraft blow up. This is the part of the article that really got my attention, though. Starlink, an $8B business for SpaceX and which throws off a LOT of cash for them, is facing a problem: “Building and maintaining a constellation of 42,000 would mean replacing more than 8,000 a year. That would require about two launches per week of the Starship…”, which would be the world’s largest rocket that hasn’t had a fully successful launch-and-return yet. SpaceX might get there but I’m a lot less confident of that than I was 18 months ago.

• ARTICLE: Hackers breach Norwegian dam, open valve at full capacity // “Officials believe the hack took place because of a weak password for the valve's web-accessible control panel”. At least this one was reported. Hacks happen all the time. The difference here is this is vital infrastructure and not just your MyFitnessPal account.