Rapid Travel Chai

Dateline: Stowe Mountain Resort, Vermont.

News:

• Has the U.S. Just Sold Out the Kurds? (Foreign Policy). The Kurds have earned their own state and need international support.
• The Mystery of ISIS by Anonymous (The New York Review of Books) and The West likes to think that ‘civilisation’ will defeat Isis, but history suggests otherwise (The Independent).
• Why Cuba Needs to Follow the Singapore Model (Foreign Policy). I have heard persuasive arguments that Cuba’s human resource reserve can stake a claim for the Latin American headquarters of multinationals.
• Is Taliban Leader Mullah Omar Really Dead This Time? (The Atlantic). Apparently so, since 2013.
• The Truscott Trot (WSJ). Life of a WWII general.
• Michael Jordan loses trademark case against Chinese company (Shanghaiist). Chinese home-court advantage.
• Playing Tennis on Grass (As in Surface) (WSJ). An amateur attempts grass.
• Comic-Con, Defending Fantasy Culture and, Now, Its Brand (NYT). Inside the mask.
• What Finland Can Teach America About Baseball (WSJ) and Not Over Till It’s Over (both WSH) the Finnish take on baseball contrasted with the long slog of the US Major League Baseball season.
• How the Decline of International Studies Hurts American Security (Foreign Affairs). I am more a partisan of area studies, though Americans studying anything international is to our country’s benefit.

Travel:

• The Obsessively Detailed Map of American Literature’s Most Epic Road Trips (Atlas Obscura). Makes me think about US road trips.
• Must-Haves of Travel: Activated Charcoal (Out and Out). A week later the WSJ writes rising interested in activated charcoal.
• Daraius’ Diary: The Truth About Strangers (Million Mile Secrets). Iceland-bound I will be soon.
• Touring Ex-Yugoslavia (Travel is Free). Fantastic part of the world if you avoid the handful of cruise ship ports and yoga-pant tourist havens.
• Why you should visit the world’s poorest country (Gunnar Garfors). I would not have guessed Malawi as most poor. I almost had a 24-stop there in December. With crazy flight times, a desire to extend my Rwanda, and nothing that interested me much, I put off Malawi for a time it would be more easy.
• SAA chief strategy officer believed to have resigned over ‘dysfunctional’ board (Fin24). I may fly South African for the first time this fall.
• Bonaire to receive additional flights from Delta Air Lines and United Airlines for winter travel (Travel Daily News). I visited for a day in May, more options to avoid local Insel Air are good.
• Cuomo’s Plan to Close M.T.A. Funding Gap Revives Familiar Debate (NYT). I confess to not knowing the MTA is run by the state of NY, not the city of NY.
• Inside the Pope’s Vatican (Intelligent Travel). Solid-sound tips. I have not visited.
• Plan for Theme Park at Centuries-Old Chinese Caves Rattles Preservationists (NYT). Dunhuang is one of the great extant sites of human cultural achievement. See it while you can and hope sanity prevails on misguided development plans.
• The Fall and Rise and Fall of Pompeii (Smithsonian). Italy crumbling under the cover of Greek tumult.
• Madagascar offering foreign airlines cabotage rights (ch-aviation). Seeing the lemurs and savoring French food is worth the challenge of reaching Madagascar. Don’t expect domestic flights to operate.
• Shanghai Disneyland Is Customized for the Chinese Family (Bloomberg Business). Interesting strategy to think a Sinofied approach better than the Americanna approach of Hong Kong and Tokyo.
• The 8 Best (and Worst) Travel Apps (FrequentFlier). I especially dislike the slow-loading Delta app.