Tag: Travel
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#36: The 75-Year Flood (Part I)
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is a relatively new country as far as the rest of the world is concerned. Situated on the Arabian Peninsula directly across the Persian Gulf from Iran, its modern fortune arose from beneath its own desert floor in the form of oil and gas. UAE’s initial ruler quickly reinvested much…
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#34: Pretzels and Beer
Continued from Blog #33: Munich Security Conference Hallway reputation. Personal brand. Leadership shadow. Regardless of the buzzwords we use to describe the way others think about us in the workplace, a bad reputation can be hard to shake. The concept isn’t exclusive to humans, either. Amsterdam banned the smoking of cannabis in public in an…
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#33: Munich Security Conference
“Rechts!” barked the man sitting in the backseat with me, craning his neck to look out the rear window. Upon hearing this, our driver firmly tugged the steering wheel with a smooth confidence that could only come from highly specialized government training. The vehicle lurched into the lane to our right and the engine revved…
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#32: Ivy League Pizza
“How many world leaders do you think are just completely out of their mind?”“A pretty sizeable percent.”-President Obama answering a question from Jerry Seinfeld during an episode of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee. Royals, political leaders, and even some diplomats routinely get placed onto a pedestal making them appear larger-than-life. Indeed, members of such distinction…
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#31: San Francisco
“It is an odd thing, but every one who disappears is said to be seen at San Francisco.”-Oscar Wilde in The Picture of Dorian Gray This is a continuation of Blog #29: APEC Leaders’ Summit. Through a combination of work-related activity and downtime, my coworkers and I are fortunate enough to be able to explore…
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#29: APEC Leaders’ Summit
“San Francisco is a lot of things. It’s hippies, hipsters, vagrants, flagrants, artsy, fartsy, and more. You name it, and it probably lives here.” – The Bold Italic Magazine In 1989, the growing independence and importance of the Asia-Pacific region was brought to formal recognition by 12 countries intent on combining their successes, ideas, and…
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#28: Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade
The crack of a gunshot, followed by the footsteps of 50,000 people running. The noise could be heard for several blocks in each direction. It was even louder 26.2 miles away in Central Park where the New York City Marathon finish line was located on Sunday, November 5th, 2023. Fortunately, the gunshot was a starter…
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#25: Black Gun
This is a follow-up to Blog #23: Red Gun, Blue Gun In the back half of the first millennium of the Common Era, Chinese alchemists seeking immortality created a dark powdery substance which they named huǒyào. Literally translated by character interpretation as “fire medicine”, huǒyào is the modern Chinese word for gunpowder. In the first…
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#21: Switzerland…of America (Part II)
Continued from Blog #20: Switzerland…of America (Part I) “The summit is what drives us, but the climb itself is what matters.” -Conrad Anker, former The North Face climbing team leader and three-time Everest summiteer. “Nothing like this.” I nervously replied. The question, asked by my guide, was whether I had climbing experience or not. In…
The Dark Passport 