Rapid Travel Chai

WSJ profiles a retired couple that sold their house to see the world, see the original and the follow-up Q&A.

The WSJ also looks at one of those Tri-State Metro-North Rail stop towns succeeding in developing a nightlife, Stamford, CT.

In South Korea, the Republic of Samsung from the Washington Post is an engaging look at the statist-capitalist country pervasively dominated by chaebol.

The Economist’s Gulliver highlights my hometown delight, Minneapolis-St Paul International Airport (MSP), for its move to free wi-fi.

That Crush at Kosovo’s Business Door? The Return of U.S. Heroes from the NYT looks at the US government-business revolving door and the difficulty for a government like Kosovo when seemingly every competitor is fronted by a hired gun from the UN-intervention days. Interesting for me with my days in China where endless US and other expatriate businesspeople open up consulting shops touting connections that are exaggerated or past their sell-by date and of little practical use to the dupe client. In Kosovo the dilemma is too many have real cache!

Welcome to Saudi Albany?, also from the NYT is a warning about pitfalls of America’s rush to increased fuel output. I am still haunted by my visit to Bahrain, I have never seen such a despressing place and despoiled environment.

I recently read Tokyo Vice by an American, Jake Adelstein, after I heard a BBC interview of him. He become a crime beat reporter in Japan for the Yomiuri and waded deeply into a tangled web a yakuza, organ-selling at UCLA and human trafficking. His The Yakuza Lobby for Foreign Policy is a peek into the murky world of Japanese polictics.

China National News reports that American, Delta, and United are adding internet to international flights over the next few months. I haven’t heard this elsewhere so need to research. This is one of those inevitable things that I dread on business trips when I take it as my right to unplug on a long flight.

Is Virgin Atlantic stake good for Delta, or just good for Richard Branson? by Joe Brancatelli posits that Delta may just be the latest dupe to fall for Branson’s charms when he puts on a sexy dress.