Rapid Travel Chai

Dateline: Jersey City, NJ

News:

• When an artist runs a country [Albania] (FT).
• I Haven’t Washed My Hair in a Month – and It Feels Great! (Out and Out). Will Harlan next try bacteria Mother Dirt? (Bloomberg Businessweek).
• Changes Coming to U.S. Expats’ Fbar/Fincen Filing Experience (WSJ Expat). No sign of a modern online filing system, better have the right version of Adobe Acrobat to get it work.
• The Suez and Panama canals are being expanded, but some ships still won’t fit into either (Quartz). Give Egypt its due for a major protect on time and budget. Port Said is a great stop on your Egypt trip, though very out of the way.
• North Korea creates its own time zone (CNN). Joining single time zone China and wacky South Asia time zones for self-defeating political posturing with time zones. Not as nutty as the UTC+05:45 Nepal time zone.
• Windows 10 privacy problems: Here’s how bad they are, and how to plug them (Slate). Yikes, more to do in my upgrade.
• Review: Epson’s New Inkjet Printers Eliminate Cartridges, Save You $500 a Year (David Pogue, Yahoo!). About time.
• Yemen’s Hidden War (Rolling Stone). Overlooked country in chaos.
• Shanghai mother dies of heatstroke during postpartum confinement (Shanghaiist). 坐月子 (zuo yuezi) has always puzzled me, yet the power of relatives threatening impending doom if you do not obey is incredibly (and in some case, destructively) powerful.
• Australian university accused of deliberately failing Chinese international students for profit (Shanghaiist). I don’t know the specifics of this case, but Australia and UK universities in particular profit heavily by accepting rich overseas students and herding them into ghettoized programs with only other international students.
• Target’s dropping its TargetExpress and CityTarget names for small stores (Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal). How many retailers in the US need to fail at small format sub-brands for the mythical urbanite that wants less selection?
• Free Puerto Rico, America’s Colony (NYT). A historical take on the long descent of the Puerto Rican economy.
• One Minnesota resident has deservedly been pilloried in world press, so let’s note the passing of Dr. James Jude, who helped develop CPR (Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal). Strange to think the technique was only invented within the lifespan of someone who just passed.

Travel:

• A rare trip to Canada’s least-visited national park: Tuktut Nogait (The Globe and Mail).
• Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s Former Office in Tokyo Opens to Public (WSJ Japan Real Time).
• Postcard from . . . Fukushima (FT). The next Chernobyl, in tourist terms.
• Volcanic Eruptions Create New Island Off Of Tonga (Travel + Leisure). Looks fun, going to be a while before South Pacific gets back on my radar.
• Is Hong Kong Disneyland Worth it? Yes! 14 Tips to Make the Most of Your Visit(The Deal Mommy). Go to Ocean Park first.
• How to Successfully Book Train Tickets in Spain without Using Renfe (Travel Codex). There is a market spot for easy to use train booking without egregious fees.
• Delta Loses Its Skymark Bid (The Cranky Flier). Never should have given up the Northwest legacy in Japan.
• Stunning photos of modern life in Greenland (Business Insider via TravelBloggerBuzz). Heading there in September!
• Why Have Airport Restaurants and Amenities Recently Gotten So Much Better? – View from the Wing). My dream is Costco running a cafe in every US airport. I liked when I was in college Philadelphia had typical chains and others, with a program that they pledged to keep prices the same as non-airport locations in the city.