I'm back from Russia...and pretty wiped out. I'm really tired and need a couple of days to catch up with myself before getting back to things. I got in late last night after a 12 hour trip (you'd think I was going from LA to Hong Kong) and am going to take a few days to rest and be with my family before I start uploading pictures and things. I have about 10 days before the next event (special visitors and 3W London) and I am planning to catch up on work--but more importantly, catch up on family time. While in Siberia, we did hear word about the Earthquake in Japan. Now that I am back in Berlin, I am online and catching up on the news and images. Japan's 9/11 is an understatement. Already, a much higher percentage of people in relation to the country's population and a much larger number of people period have died in this Earthquake/Tsunami.

I can't get over the irony. The atomic bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were so traumatic for the Japanese people. It scarred the national psyche to the present day. Yet the country rebuilt incredibly...and ironically used nuclear power in a big way for cheap energy. How Shakespearean if the country ends up being devastated twice by nuclear forces. Hopefully these reactors will shut down and the radiation damage can be contained--but it's frightening to see how decades of hard work and millions of lives can be derailed and destroyed in an instant. Truly we are fragile creatures.