Napa for the Weekend
I was in wine country last weekend… Nothing beats wine + sun (unless it’s wine + sun + cheese).
Obama’s White House, on Flickr
During the campaign, Obama created his own Flickr account. The photos during election night were amazing – and very personal. Obama now has a new Flickr account: The Official White House Photostream. The first set – Delivering on Change – was just posted. Here are a few of my favorites. superbowl briefing on swine flu Michelle Obama with Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, wife of french president a day in the office
Scary Diagrams
Just saw this on the NPR Planet Money blog. It depicts the inter-connectedness of credit default swaps. Kinda reminds you of a really complicated “who hooked up with who” diagram…
Cheerio Loves!
Smashing holiday in London! More soon, long flight – quite zonked. Cheers! (Look Mom, I can speak British!) me, in front of parliament
London
I usually ponder my next trip for a while, before I buy a ticket. About 3 weeks ago, though, a high school friend IM’ed me at work. I was mid work email, so I was ignoring him. :) And then he wrote something like, “I was talking to Liane last night… and we’re thinking of doing a long weekend in London. Flights are cheap. Wanna come?” My initial reaction, was… are you guys crazy? But, I checked and there was a direct flight from Seattle for $530. We figured out we could get free hotel on Starwood points. The trip …
What’s In An Inauguration Speech?
Robbie just blogged about this, and I thought it was super cool. ReadWriteWeb created Word Clouds showing the word frequency of recent inaugural speeches. It’s a good insight into these presidents… and the mindset of the country at the time. President Obama (2009) President Bush (2005) President Clinton (1997) President Reagan (1981)
Back Home
Well, I’m back in Seattle! I have to say, it was quite a shock to go from bikini & sunglasses to wintercoat & boots. The 28 hours of travel was kinda exhausting too. The trip was fabulous, and just what I needed. I took about a zillion photos (okay, around 1200), so expect them to come trinkling in. In the meantime, here’s a video I took in Ranu Raraku, the volcanic quarry where most of the moai were carved.
What are the Moai?
Moai are the giant “head” statues found throughout Easter Island. They rest upon ceremonial platforms (called “ahus”), and represent different high-ranking ancestors. Archeologists estimate that 1000-some statues were carved between 1000-1600AD. All the maoi were made from the volcanic rock on the east side of the island. They were (likely) then rolled on logs to the far corners of the 60 sq mi island. Most of the moai were toppled by the 1700s, the result of inter-tribal fighting. (Deforestation, which caused an ecological & agricultural collapse, was a major contribution.) It wasn’t until this century that some of the moai …