Category Archives: Travel

2025.02.20

The sweet smell of hindsight in the morning!
Some Democrats now admit they screwed up by voting for Trump’s nominees Oliver Willis, author https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/2/20/2304999/-These-Senate-Democrats-regret-voting-to-confirm-Trump-s-awful-nominees?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=top_news_slot_1&pm_medium=web

Are CEOs walking away from civic leadership? The answer depends on who you ask, but there’s no doubt the obstacles to CEO involvement in civic affairs are multiplying. by Liz Fedor https://www.minnpost.com/twin-cities-business/2025/02/are-ceos-walking-away-from-civic-leadership/

Minnesota colleges and public schools shaken as Trump takes aim at education Colleges and K-12 schools that fail to eliminate DEI practices and ‘wokeness’ threatened by funding cuts. by Ana Radelat https://www.minnpost.com/education/2025/02/minnesota-colleges-and-public-schools-shaken-as-trump-takes-aim-at-education/

Delta offers $30,000 to passengers in Canada plane flip – ‘no strings attached’ Plane caught fire and flipped at Toronto’s Pearson airport, hospitalizing 21 of 80 people onboard Jessica Glenza https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/20/delta-payments-toronto-plane-crash

Wot? No cherry on top? Let’s be clear – the US never had moral supremacy. With Trump, it’s not even pretending any more Owen Jones https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/feb/20/us-moral-supremacy-donald-trump-president

Historic US ocean liner moves out of Philadelphia after nearly 30 years
The SS United States, once the largest passenger ship built entirely in the US, has been towed from Philadelphia after nearly 30 years.
Launched in 1951, the ship was a symbol of luxury and innovation, carrying nearly a million passengers before its retirement in 1969.
Now on its way to Alabama, it will be intentionally sunk to form the world’s largest artificial reef.
This transformation aims to support marine life and attract divers to the site.
https://www.bbc.com/news/videos/cx2gkxwpgggo

First pharaoh’s tomb found in Egypt since Tutankhamun’s
Frances Mao
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5ym30v356po

Hotdogs and motorways: The ripples created by Denmark’s Ozempic and Wegovy boom Adrienne Murray https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20250220-hotdogs-and-motorways-the-ripples-created-by-denmarks-ozempic-and-wegovy-boom

2025.02.11

Brian Bakst and Mathew Holding Eagle III at MPR report: “Becker County Attorney Brian McDonald added a second burglary charge Monday against state Sen. Nicole Mitchell focusing on items she had with her when police encountered her stepmother’s home in April 2024 in Detroit Lakes.” Via MinnPost https://www.mprnews.org/story/2025/02/10/new-felony-count-added-to-charges-against-sen-nicole-mitchell-for-april-2024-incident

With a new hit film, Netflix has reduced disabled lives to feelgood fodder – and got the facts shockingly wrong Archie Bland and Ruth Spencer https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/feb/11/netflix-film-disabled-lives-feelgood-child-cerebral-palsy-families

Lockboxes ‘littering’ Dublin’s streets become latest front in overtourism battle Council to remove keyboxes left in public areas by landlords Lisa O’Carroll in Dublin https://www.theguardian.com/news/2025/feb/11/key-lockboxes-dublin-overtourism

At Bisto and Aardman’s new pop-up floating restaurant you can pour gravy over your pudding or down a gravy drink – but where’s the cheese board, Gromit? Stuart Heritage https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/feb/11/gravy-cocktail-wallace-gromit-cheese-free-dining-venture-bisto-aardman

On board the maiden sleeper from Brussels to Venice: we got there in the end Affordable couchettes, wonderful scenery and good company make up for the teething problems en route Monisha Rajesh https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2025/feb/11/brussels-to-venice-on-board-a-new-sleeper-train

Manchester theatre suspends Dolly Parton musical over homophobic abuse Actor in Here You Come Again says cast left stage because ‘a woman was so disgusted there was a gay character’ Nadeem Badshah https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2025/feb/10/manchester-performance-of-dolly-parton-musical-suspended-due-to-homophobic-abuse

For you Novavax fans out there — you know who you are: FDA Authorizes Updated Novavax COVID-19 Vaccine to Better Protect Against Currently Circulating Variants https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-authorizes-updated-novavax-covid-19-vaccine-better-protect-against-currently-circulating

Opinion
The Checkup With Dr. Wen: When to get the new coronavirus shot? That question and more, answered. When is the optimal time to get the updated shot? It depends. (DePayWalled)
https://wapo.st/3TcZeB1

Star Tribune reports Ladan Mohamed Ali plead guilty Thursday to federal charges connected to an attempted bribe in the Feeding Our Future Trial. Ali, also admitted to stealing $80,000 of the cash the defendants gave her to bribe the juror. — MinnPost

Did the media learn nothing from its disastrous coverage of Trump and Clinton in 2016?
Rebecca Solnit
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/sep/06/trump-clinton-harris-election

Stonehenge tale gets ‘weirder’ as Orkney is ruled out as altar stone origin
Weeks after revelation that megalith came from Scotland, researchers make surprise discovery
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/article/2024/sep/05/stonehenge-tale-gets-weirder-as-orkney-is-ruled-out-as-altar-stone-origin

Meanwhile in Amsterdam:
Amsterdammers left bemused at plan to tackle flowerpot ‘jungle’
Authorities in Dutch capital launch ‘Operation plant pot’, saying excessive pot placement threatens accessibility
https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/sep/06/amsterdam-plan-to-tackle-flowerpot-jungle

Thai Chef Makes KHAO SOI From Scratch!
https://www.youtube.com/embed/gwV9SJtewCY?si=YiXS2AO6x1HFRBtn

It was just a year ago today

On March 6, 2020, I got on a plane in Bangkok for one of those long days that stretch across the dateline and the Pacific. We switched planes in Narita, and thought we had time to hit the lounge, but headed for the gate and that ate up the available time. We got asked twenty questions by a rather irritating official before we were allowed down the elevator to the gate. We had been traveling since the end of January through airports and border stations in Seoul, Bangkok, Myanmar, Laos, and Cambodia without hitting quite that level of questioning. They also only questioned me, and I’m not great at responding to COVID-19 questions. Let’s just say that Bangkok was a model of decorum compared to Japan. We thought we were fleeing from close to the epicenter of the pandemic — little did we know that we were flying into the heart of it instead.

The flight was nonstop from Tokyo to Minneapolis, but getting off the plane in Minneapolis was like time had warped somewhere over the Pacific. Signs warning about COVID-19 had vanished. Temperature checks had gone too. My traveling companion had to report for jury duty on the Monday after we arrived from S.E. Asia. After Someone picked us up at the airport, we wondered if we’d left the frying pan for the fire. It turns out, we had.