Cubic Lock

These are the four pieces of Cubic Lock by Goh Pit Khiam as realized in exotic woods by Brian Menold. A union of the two pieces on the left (top, the key made up of 10 cubies; bottom, 9 cubies) is inserted into a union of the two pieces on the right (top, 23 cubies; bottom, 19 cubies) and by means of a strategic to-and-fro of the key, the pieces are shifted into place. It's not obvious that the finished 4*4*4 cube has an internal void until one counts and adds those cubies. A good show-off puzzle as one is unlikely to forget the assembly once one has put it together a few times.

The wall

I went to Raymore Park (on the other side of the Humber river) last Friday to see what progress had been made on the erosion-control retaining-wall they were putting in place (on my side of the river). Contrary to the intelligence in my previous entry on this, I can now see that the wall will not be so much "on top of the now-in-the-river foundation" as I had supposed but (rather) much higher and more-closely hugging the slope bedrock — which is actually being exposed for a more stable conglomeration. And that storm drain interruption will end up being a barrier to my ever walking along the full length of the wall. At any rate (depending on the wall-top width), it may be too high to be safe. The bits of white floating through the air (more evident in the second photo) is tree fluff.