Pan-American Highway blocked by indigenous protestors

This could definitely throw a wrench into my trip. Indigenous groups all over Colombia are upset about a number of legitimate issues. And selfishly, it's going to potentially wreck my vacation plans. Right now, I'm not concerned about my safety. It's more of a logistics/time issue. I gave myself two days of leeway in case of unexpected delays, but that may not be enough.

Here is a short news piece.

Here is raw footage of a protest.

Here is a longer piece about the plight of long-distance/international travelers.

Here is a typical roadblock.

Saudi father teaches daughter how to drive in Coke ad

Debbie Downer says: Saudi Arabia has a 17.6% diabetes prevalence rate.

Origins of refugees in the 50 states

H/t Ramon.

The Soviet Concorde

Philippines Air Force using South Korean-made fighters to bomb Marawi

Who knew the South Koreans were building and selling these FA-50s?

US versus Taliban

Talk about your asymmetrical warfare.

Another Darien Gap documentary

This is the most recent documented crossing by a journalist. Really informative, with the drama filtered out.

Indian northeast documentary

So many different kinds of not-Hindus/Muslims/Sikhs.

Putin checks out Russian self-driving car

Funny that the engineer in the car couldn't bother to wear a dress shirt for Putin.

JFK McNamara at Lawrence Berkeley Lab, 1962

Best North Korea documentary out there

I've been searching for and watching North Korean videos on YouTube for a decade now, and this one is by far the best. A Canadian tourist exhaustively chronicled his trip there. The first half takes place in Pyongyang. The second half takes place in secondary and tertiary cities. It's fantastic and is definitely worth watching.

H/t to Ramon!

Conan O'Brien visits Golan Heights and Tel Aviv

Crazy that he could hear the fighting from his vantage point.

Tel Aviv looks like a chill place to hang out. 

Interview with a Lithuanian

Thanks, BHF!

1 What are your fondest memories of growing up in Lithuania?

Summers in the city. The city would get almost empty since most of the parents would ship their kids to the villages to stay with their grandparents. I had nowhere to go, everybody lived in the city. I mostly stayed with my grandparents that lived in Zverynas, one of the oldest residential parts of Vilnius and was allowed to do whatever I wanted. Then there were summer vacations on Lithuanian beaches that are beautiful. One place is the Curonian Spit. The other is the seaside resort town of Palanga.

2 What are your worst memories?

I really have nothing. My biggest complaint was that I was not allowed to have a dog.

3 Did Communism permeate through every aspect of life?

Pretty much. I knew that we lived in an occupied country since I was very little.

4 When the Soviet Union broke apart, what were you doing?

I was on the streets. On January 11, 1991, I was outside the Lithuanian Parliament. We honestly thought that the Soviets are gonna attack. We all were ready to die.

5 Before the Soviet Union broke apart, could you ever imagine it would happen one day?

The hope was almost lost.

6 What is the relationship between Lithuanians and the Russians who stayed in Lithuania today?

It's really hard to say, I do not live in the country since 2000. The Russian community was not that big there. The biggest issue is so called local Polish community that is supported by the Soviets. It's pretty complicated, would require a lot of writing but if you wanna now I will try to put something together.

7 Are Lithuanians afraid that Russia will invade again?

Yes, very much so.

8 How similar are the Lithuanian language and culture to the languages and cultures of Estonia and Latvia?

The Latvian language is pretty close, but Estonian is totally different, it belongs to the Ugro-Finnish language group. We were mostly united because our countries were occupied by the Soviets. 

9 Did your family have a car when you were growing up? What was it? What do you remember about it?

We did not have a car. There were very few people who had cars when i was a kid. My great uncle had a Pobeda, but I saw it only in the pictures. That was a beautiful car.

10 What would you like people to know about Lithuania? 

We were the last pagan country in Europe. We were baptized only in 1387. I think that says a lot about our resilience. Also, we are very proud of our language, one of the oldest spoken languages in the world.