Thanks for the description of your trip and the hike to Machu Picchu. It looks like it was well worth the efforts. Cheers!

I didn't notice that until you posted it. It's interesting to see this. There used to be a rock formation in New Hampshire, US, that bore a striking resemblance to an "Old Man of the Mountain", which ended up being it's name by residents of the state.

This is a composite photo of that mountain. Unfortunately, the face portion fell off due to natural causes a few years ago.

When history is written it is oftentimes the victor whose voice is heard the loudest. I empathize with the Peruvian people, and all indigenous peoples, whose historical records have been taken from them, whether it be gold or silver artifacts, broken pieces of pottery, their tombs opened and invaded, or the corpses of long dead people taken from their homeland.

Universities, archaeological societies, independent explorers. All sorts of institutions and people have laid claim to their "findings". But, that should't discount that these findings will then reach a greater proportion of people than just a small number who know very well of the magical places that lay hidden from so many eyes. Many of the wider swath of people have expertise and knowledge that can maintain those historical sites and the artifacts within. That being said, it's deplorable for any entity or person to lay claim to treasures that are of great importance to the people whose ancestors were the creators thereof.

For what it's worth, I read this in the wiki entry on Machu Picchu:

On 19 September 2007, the Courant reported that Peru and Yale had reached an agreement regarding the requested return of the artifacts. The agreement includes sponsorship of a joint traveling exhibition and construction of a new museum and research center in Cusco about which Yale will advise Peruvian officials. Yale acknowledges Peru's title to all the excavated objects from Machu Picchu, but Yale will share rights with Peru in the research collection, part of which will remain at Yale as an object of continuing study.[35]

On 19 June 2008, National Geographic Society's vice-president Terry Garcia was quoted by the daily publication, La República. "We were part of this agreement. National Geographic was there, we know what was said, the objects were lent and should be returned."

On 21 November 2010, Yale University agreed in principle to the return of the controversial artifacts to their original home in Peru.

La Casa Concha (The Shell House) located close to Cusco's colonial center will be the permanent site where the Yale University artifacts will be exhibited. Owned by the National University of San Antonio Abad Del Cusco, La Casa Concha will also feature a study area for local and foreign students.

It's one place I want to go to before I die. I will get there someday.

How long were you in Peru? Was Machu Picchu your primary destination? Fill us in on the details!

Edit: just read your post. It sounds amazing and to think your wife was there for 2 months. I've heard good things from people who've traveled to Peru. I can imagine yours and hers experiences must have been truly memorable. Great photo, too!

I'm inclined to start posting under #history given the context and not to create or use tags that aren't familiar and may fracture certain communities (read tags). Just my own personal preference given the community of users who are here and may end up coming here.

I posted this on reddit a few weeks ago and much of the commentary was similar to yours besides those who were fawning over his looks. Some said he looked like he was from today, style-wise from his clothes to his hair. I think it's quite interesting to see how some styles can transcend historical periods.

Speaking for myself, I enjoy walking. I don't own a car and live in a walkable city in the northeast US. One where I can go to a number of cafes, restaurants, grocers, shops, just about anything you can imagine. It's not a large city by any means, but I live downtown so that really is advantageous for walking. If I need to get into the big city then I walk down to the local commuter station and pick up the train. It's 30 mins on the train and then I'm in the center of the city. Our largest city nearby has a decent public transportation system, so you can go from one neighborhood to another in a matter of minutes. Which isn't always the case if you were driving in the city. So, while the article points out some very interesting notes, I think what matters most is ease and if you can access your necessities easily. For me, walking works.

As others have pointed out, I would like to follow hashtags again, as well as users. I do enjoy topics I don't normally read by the users I follow, but I do wish we could follow hashtags for the sheer depth of information that could be presented by the area of interest, ie. if I want to look at historical photos or read articles on space, it would be much more user friendly to have hashtag following incorporated into the site. I thought that when I first created this account I was able to follow hashtags, that was just short of three weeks ago. So, I may not be aware and a bit confused by my memory on that, but was there a change in that regard?

No no no. It's a much different Paul Ryan. Awesome photographer. Check him out.

Thank you for the heads up! I couldn't figure out for the life of me.

Spoiler alert: The last couple of episodes of season 3 had a new group pop up (not the Governor's group), one of whom appears to be Tyreese. Here's a link to the Walking Dead wiki with more information. T-Dawg was never meant to be Tyreese from what I've read elsewhere.

You're welcome. If you ever have any questions on researching materials do let me know. I'm rather good at doing that sort of thing. Cheers.

Just signed up a couple of weeks ago, but do recall coming by about 3 or 4 months ago. I like the site alot. Thanks for the welcome.

The tag cloud is dead only if it remains static.

Image a tag cloud of, say, 25 subjects. Clicking on that tag opens up a close up of that tag with related tags. Do this until you've reached the end of the tag. This helps to create a dynamic tag cloud that could be updated simply by added related tags to the original tag.

You have to remember that when designing anything you need to try to incorporate elements that appeal to a wide swath of users. Many users will perform keyword searches, some will look up by username, some will want to explore using other means. Tag clouds, in and of themselves, are just another tool of discovery.

As someone who has had ample experience working in archives, libraries and with patrons I've come to discover that multiple entry points, that are well designed, coherent and relevant, offer up a variety of means to find the needle in the haystack.

All that being said, I'd not like for a tag cloud to overwhelm the design of the site as it is. I like the fresh, barebones look to hubski. I'd just like more ways to discover content. Maybe I'm doing something wrong, but it feels like I'm barely scratching the surface of content here.

It can be implemented in a couple of ways, that aren't limited to the following - generated by most popular topic, most popular users, least popular topic and least popular users. Something along those lines that offers up avenues of discovery. Basically, I'm all for more routes to find subjects here on hubski, as it appears the only way to do that is by adding followers and reading their content, without performing a hashtag search - which can be complicated if you don't know the right subject terms relevant to your interests.

And if you really want web 2.0 to die, then you might as well kill off search, links, authoring, tags, extensions, and signals. :)

Stoic

Has there been any thought of adding a subject word cloud and denoting the top interests by size of font?

I think incorporating a visual element to the discovery tools might be a nice element to add.