A quick glance at the photo above and you would think that it’s a valley scene in the Swiss Alps. It’s an alpine scene alright — at Fairy Meadows, Gilgit-Baltistan in northern Pakistan, with the snow-shrouded Nanga Parbat, the 9^th highest mountain in the world, in the background. Landscapes like this have led Lonely Planet to label Pakistan as “on the brink of being tourism’s ‘next big thing’ for more years than we care to remember.”

We’ve traveled to Pakistan a number of times before as part of our work with a non-profit organization. Most of these visits were to its major cities — Karachi, Lahore, Rawalpindi and the capital city of Islamabad. Those visits and our friendships with Pakistani colleagues have allowed us to appreciate the country, its culture and its people over the years.

Peshawar

The most interesting city that Leo had a chance to explore, however, was Peshawar in the Northwest Frontier Province (now the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa). The first time he flew into Peshawar it was like entering a city straight out of the Middle Ages. The narrow streets, centuries-old bazaars, walled forts and old architectural designs on wood and brick houses quickly endeared Leo in a strange way to the frontier city and its remarkable people. More than 2,500 years old, Peshawar is located on the strategic crossroads between Central and South Asia — a fact not lost on dozens of invading armies over the centuries. Consequently the city would endure incursions from Persians, Greeks, Bactrians, Turks, Mughals, Afghans, Marathas, Sikhs and the British.

The Khyber Pass

Peshawar is less than 60 kilometers from the border with Afghanistan and lies at the foot of historic Khyber Pass. This famous mountain pass connects the city of Kabul in Afghanistan to Peshawar and runs along a range of arid, broken hills that is part of the Spin Ghar Range. It also happens to be the best route for armies invading South Asia from Central Asia and vice versa ensuring its place as one of the most contested pieces of real estate in history. So heavily fought over is this strategic gateway that a British soldier once said that “every stone in the Khyber is soaked in blood.”

Leo joined a group tour of the Khyber Pass in 2000, a year before 9-11. Starting from Jamrud just outside Peshawar, they drove along the whole length of the pass all the way to the Afghan border and up a bare, rocky summit from where the first village inside Afghanistan was clearly visible. Their escort were two members of the modern-day Khyber Rifles, which was hardly reassuring when a large majority of the native Pashtun tribesmen they met cradled Kalashnikov assault rifles. (The native Pashtuns here are practically the same people group as those in Afghanistan.) Even before the subsequent war in Afghanistan this area was already considered a fairly wild region where banditry, drug trafficking and tribal warfare were common.

While Pashtun tribesmen are known as wheelers and dealers and have a reputation as fierce warriors — having fought ancient invaders, Turks, Mughals, the British and the Soviets — we were surprised to discover that they are genuinely hospitable. A Pashtun family will not have second thoughts about slaughtering their last remaining lamb to feed a guest. A group of Afghan Pashtun villagers in 2013 hid and protected an American SEAL from the Taliban and said they would do it again despite death threats from the extremist group and the disappointments and troubles that have hounded the NATO military campaign in the country. It’s just who they are as a people. Leo experienced this hospitality personally when the owner of a snack shop, upon learning he was a first-time visitor in the region, politely refused his payment.

Northern Pakistan

While much of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa around Peshawar and south of it are mainly semi-arid with historical sites as the main attractions, the regions to the north and northeast are marked by a breathtaking shift in scenery. Just north of Peshawar and still inside the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) are the Swat, Kaghan, Kumrat and Chitral Valleys. This region is home to snow-capped peaks, rugged hills, lush green landscapes, rich farmlands and rivers stocked thickly with trout. There are also a number of Buddhist archaeological sites from the Gandhara civilization as well as Hindu archaeological sites.

Chitral is at the northernmost fringes of the KPK and is no less stunning compared to its southern neighbors. And it’s not just nature that may be admired here. Chitral is home to the pagan Kalash tribe (said to be descendants of Greeks exiled here by the Persians before Alexander the Great’s time) and also contains several historical fortresses and towers.

East of Chitral and at the extreme northern end of Pakistan is Gilgit-Baltistan, possibly the most beautiful region in the country. It is home to the Karakoram Mountains and the Hindu Kush, including some of the world’s tallest peaks such as K2 (the second highest mountain in the world) and Nanga Parbat. The Baltoro Glaciers and two others in Gilgit-Baltistan are among the world’s longest outside the Polar Regions. Some of the most interesting and gorgeous nature sites in the South Asian subcontinent, and indeed in the planet, may be found here:

• The Katpana Desert or Biama Nakpo, also known as the Cold Desert, is a unique arid landscape in the highlands near Skardu. Because it is located at a high altitude, the sand dunes here are sometimes covered in snow.
• The Deosai Plains, situated at 4,000 meters above sea level in northern Gilgit-Baltistan, are the world’s second highest plateau.
• The Hunza Valley, a scenic region surrounded by towering peaks lies to the extreme northern end of Gilgit-Baltistan and borders China to the northeast.
• Skardu, the capital of Gilgit-Baltistan, is located at the confluence of the Indus and Shigar Rivers. Normally used as a base for touring the towering Karakoram Mountains, it is also home to Lower Kachura Lake, also known as Shangrila Lake, and stunning Satpara Lake.

• The Phander Valley is a beautiful valley in the Ghizer district of Gilgit-Baltistan. It is situated on the road to Chitral to the west.

Pakistan is still relatively unknown as a tourist destination even though one can easily appreciate its potential just by looking at the photos here. Armed conflict in nearby Afghanistan and the resulting spillover into the KPK as well as the continued presence of religious extremists have unfortunately gotten parts of Pakistan into Forbe’s list of most dangerous places to travel in 2020.

The Taliban took control of some parts of northern Pakistan more than 10 years ago — including the Swat Valley — but the Pakistani Army had re-occupied these areas and these places are now peaceful and getting their share of tourists (tourism has actually increased by 300%). Peshawar and most of the KPK including Swat and Chitral are relatively safe according to many travelers; Gilgit-Baltistan is said to be the safest in the country. The U.S. State Department, however, while acknowledging the improving security situation due to the Pakistani Army’s efforts since 2014, discourages travel to Pakistan at this time due to Covid-19 and the continued threat of terrorism, even singling out the KPK and other regions.

We hope however, that peace and order in these regions will continue to improve — pending the end of this pandemic — and that Northern Pakistan and its people will be appreciated for their stunning beauty.

The post Paradise Unknown: Pakistan’s Northern Reaches appeared first on Traveling Archive.

Since this web site focuses on travel and food I try to deal with topics that include both.  “La cucaracha” is found just about everywhere and there are people who actually like to eat them.  But I am getting ahead of myself. Wait, are you actually singing that song?  Did you know the Spanish folk song, “La Cucaracha,” is about a cockroach unable to walk because he has lost one of his six legs?

Let me tell you what this chapter is not about.  It is not about all the strange things people eat.  There are so many they can’t possibly be listed.  It is also not about the grossest things people eat.  Some things eaten around the world are really not worth mentioning and can be very disgusting, even depraved, so I won’t be mentioning them even though I have seen some of them.

Some people have eaten unusual items to win a wager like the man who ate his automobile by grinding it up and putting it in his mash potatoes.  Isn’t there an easier way to make money than proving you can eat your car?  And the list is actually long for that type of culinary challenge.  One man ate a coffin, another a Cessna airplane, one consumed thousands of light bulbs and one person ate his bedroom (yes, even the doorknobs and blinds, drywall and carpet).  Next time he tells his mom he is hungry she will listen.

But this is the first of several stories about odd and often funny moments in our personal travels that have to do with food.  No doubt many of you have stories to tell since you are travelers and food in one culture is not always what is thought of as food in another.

The Merriam Webster dictionary defines food in a lengthy and technical fashion including words like “carbohydrate, and fat used in the body of an organism to sustain growth, repair, and vital processes.” I won’t bore you with the rest.  But in my 70 plus years of life and travel I have come to a simpler definition.  Food = anything.  At this time I cannot think of much that man has not eaten on this planet. If possible, someone would even try to eat that.

When I grew up it never entered my mind that one day TV programs would exist that were built around people eating tarantulas, rats, scorpions and hissing cockroaches.  Things are definitely less shocking today. I was thinking about what is the most important thing to carry with you when traveling in the impoverished regions of the world.  The answer is a sense of humor.  I was once laying on a wooden board on the ground tying to fall asleep in a remote region of the Philippines with insects crawling on me.  So, what was funny about that?   My friend was sleeping in a wheelbarrow.  Now, that I think about it, I may have been jealous.

There are 4,000 species of cockroaches in the world. They are one of the few things that survived the Hiroshima atomic bomb.  Here are some random, interesting facts about this uninvited house guest:

A cockroach can live for a week without its head.  So, if you manage to accomplish that be sure to pull one of its legs off as well.  At least it will only run in circles. It can even survive being submerged under water for half an hour. Roaches can run up to three miles in an hour, even a one-day old baby the size of a dust speck.  They are born on the run and spend their lives that way. The American cockroach has shown a marked attraction to alcoholic beverages, especially beer. This is sounding more like that uncle all the time. The world’s largest roach (which lives in South America) is six inches long with a one-foot wingspan. I don’t know about you but the most troubling word in that description is the word, “wingspan.”  Yes, some cockroaches fly and can fly about the length of a tennis court.

They make a loud whirring noise just before they land on your neck. From personal experience I can describe that sound in more detail if you like.  They can also live without food for a month but only a week without water so you usually find them around wet areas. Prisoners in WW2 ate them to get some protein. While living in Asia, we kept all food items in the refrigerator, nothing on our shelves, or roaches would get into them.

The World Health Organization (WHO) adds some additional encouraging news. They report that cockroaches are carriers of salmonella, typhoid, dysentery, cholera and many more diseases and that they will eat book bindings, glossy paper, shoe linings, hair, and even the nails of sleeping babies and sick people. Having said that it would be hard to imagine anyone eating them wouldn’t it?

We had a cat in the Philippines that used to eat cockroaches where we lived. So, for all you cat haters, they do have a purpose.  But there was one drawback.  In the middle of the night when I was in the deepest sleep I would be awakened by this gentle purring sound in my face and the smell of horrible cockroach breath.  I guess our cat was so happy eating the disease-ridden varmints all day that she just wanted to share her joy with us.  I have never smelled a cockroach in America, but in Asia we had that strong, unmistakable odor in our cabinets, rooms and just about everywhere.  And on our cat.

A friend of mine, was drinking milk in a restaurant one day and said he thought the milk was staring to turn, but he finished it anyway and at the bottom of the glass was a giant cockroach. When he told me what had happened, I forgot to ask if the roach was still alive.

There is a woman in China that has 100,000 cockroaches in her home and she breeds them and calls them her children.  The one thing I can’t figure out with that story is how does she keep the number to only 100,000?

Asian cockroaches are much larger than the ones you see in America.  We used to have a cockroach of the week contest for our five children to at least make a fun time of sharing our space with the critters.  One night one of our young children woke up crying and said a cockroach bit her.  We had not been in the country very long and we told her not to worry because they don’t bite.  The next morning, she had a large red swollen area on her leg with a white spot in the middle.  We asked a missionary friend if cockroaches bite and she said, “Oh, yes, and they make a swollen lump with a white spot in the middle.”  We quickly apologized to our children and it was mosquito nets all around after that.  I bet you didn’t know they bite, or fly.

When the kids got older we stopped using the nets, just too much trouble.  Cockroaches would get in our hair at night and many times one would crawl across my face and startle me awake at night.  After several years we learned to just pick them out of our hair at night, crunch them in our hands and toss them on the floor and go back to sleep.  As missionaries we worked with the poor and we lived near the poorer clusters of the people, so we had to deal with these dirty little buggers. But when we saw what cockroaches fed on and how they lived the one thing we never considered was eating them. I mean how would you prepare them? Would you boil them and make soup stock?  I bet that would smell just delightful.

“A research team based at the Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine in India believes that the “milk” from the Pacific beetle cockroach – the protein-rich crystals that the insects lactate to feed their young – could make for the next great superfood. Now, maybe you’ll think twice before squashing that pesky cockroach in your apartment.” (CBS News)

No, let’s be clear, I will not think twice before squashing the pests and the only way I will milk one is with the bottom of my shoe. That brings me to the story I want to tell.  You needed some background information to appreciate it.

One day, a friend who had just returned from Cambodia brought me something as a gift. It was a menu from a restaurant where he had eaten.  On the menu, one of the main entrees, was “flying cockroaches.”  So, this restaurant must have gotten bored with their contest of the week and starting eating them and it became so requested it earned a place on the menu.

A week later after getting that menu my wife and visited our youngest daughter who had used her school break to work at a Vietnamese refugee camp.  The camp was about 4 hours north of the city of Manila where we lived. It housed about 18,000 Amerasians. These were the “leftovers” from the Vietnam war.  American servicemen had fathered children and returned to the USA after their assignments leaving children with no fathers but more importantly, no country.  They became a rejected people in Vietnam, viewed as a mixed-breed.  Remember, we lost that war and left the country.  As one writer has written “Many ‘children of the dust’ fathered by Americans were abandoned, taunted, abused, and left unschooled after the last of the U.S. military departed after the fall of Saigon.”  The presence in the Philippines of several large American military bases also produced and abandoned over 50,000 Amerasian children when the bases pulled out.

A US government congressional act would later allow 23,000 Amerasians and 65,000 family members to settle in the U.S.

It was an Amerasian resettlement camp where our youngest high school daughter worked that summer. So, what does that have to do with cockroaches?  I’m coming to that. We arrived at the camp for our allowed visit.  They were careful not to make the Amerasians a tourist site or photo op.  It was a difficult place to visit.   While there, we met the people our daughter stayed with and the people she worked with.  One of those was a Vietnamese cook who prepared food for an American family that helped direct the camp operations.

At one point I was alone with the Vietnamese cook and my curiosity had gotten the better of me and I just had to ask. The memories of that menu with flying cockroaches was still fresh in my mind. I told him about the menu and I asked if he liked to eat cockroaches.  He did and so I asked how he liked to prepare them.   He described carefully slicing them up and frying them in brown sugar.  I then asked if he liked them any other way.  He revealed he like to eat them alive and when I asked him to expand that answer he described in detail how he picked off the wings and then tossed them in his mouth like you and I would eat peanuts.  He seemed disappointed the American family didn’t share the same interest in what he liked to eat.

I had one more question for him.  “Is there anything the American family eats that when you watch them eat it, it almost makes you sick to your stomach.  At that point he looked around to make sure no one was watching and said in a quieter voice,  “Yes, there is one thing.  You know those potatoes that they mash up?”  All I could say at that point was,  “Yes, I know the exact thing you are talking about.” He eats live cockroaches and mashed potatoes makes him want to puke!  The guy reminded me of Olle.  He was a missionary from the Faroe Islands who, like us was working in the Philippines.  We were at his house one day when he kindly offered us some of his personal stock of whale blubber.  The Faroes are somewhere near Iceland and they mostly eat stuff that comes from the sea. I could have said fish but whale blubber is not fish, it is stuff, and ugly looking stuff at that.  Olle actually brought that stuff in his check ins when he traveled back and forth to the Philippines. I don’t know why Customs didn’t shoot him when they inspected his bags.  When we refused to eat his private whale blubber stock he tried to entice us by saying it was three years old, really seasoned.  That explained the thick green ick growing on the yuck.  I finally said, “Olle, how do you eat that stuff?”  He said, “Well, you eat peanut butter!”  I guess he saw the strange look on our faces so he continued,  “And you know what it looks like?”  I think Olle would have gotten along well with the Vietnamese cook as long as they didn’t mix peanut butter in with mashed potatoes.

I am reminded of one college frat person trying to be “macho” who ate a cockroach on a dare and then shortly afterwards his thoughts began to torment him and he quickly grabbed a plastic trash can in his room and emptied the contents of his stomach into it.  He said afterwards, “I didn’t think I had lost it too bad, then as I looked in the can I noticed that one of my socks was at the bottom!”

I did say I would give you 101 things you can do with cockroaches so here they are:

1. Eat them.
2. Milk them.
3. Squash them.

Repeat number three 98 more times

The post 101 Things To Do with Cockroaches appeared first on Traveling Archive.

Tired of 300+ wine education books? The subject of wine can be overly complicated and seemingly endless. is all you need to know about wine in 90 minutes or less, the “Cliff Notes” on wine. Whether you are trying to identify your taste preferences or simply looking to pick up a good bottle for dinner, Monika Elling’s new book, Wine 123 is an intuitive guide to wine confidence.

Every UNESCO World Heritage Site in the UK

Courtesy Ferne Arfin, TripSavvy

UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, has been identifying and listing World Heritage Sites of special cultural, scientific and natural importance to humanity for more than thirty years.

Today, of the 1,073 sites on the planet, 31 are in the UK including its newest, The English Lake District, added to the list in 2017. They are landscapes, castles, cathedrals, prehistoric communities, bridges, factories and natural wonders. They are scattered across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland but also Gibraltar and remote island territories in the North and South Atlantic, the Caribbean, and the South Pacific. And a further 11 sites are waiting in the wings in the early stages of nomination to the list.

Pay Respects to Liz Taylor, Walt Disney at this Glitzy Graveyard to the Stars in Glendale

LA Times

This is one of the grand cemeteries in the world — in setting, in scope, in star power. Step inside Forest Lawn Glendale and honor the memories of Elizabeth Taylor, Walt Disney and Jimmy Stewart, among dozens of other famous names.

The 300-acre cemetery dates to 1917 when Hubert Eaton took it over in hopes of celebrating eternal life. It hosts funerals, art shows and weddings. Ronald Reagan married Jane Wyman in one of its chapels.

Grab a map from the info booth as you enter the lush and hilly cemetery. Out of respect for privacy, the map will not guide you to the stars’ graves, but other resources offer maps.

From the front gate, follow signs to the wonderfully gothic Great Mausoleum, where Elizabeth Taylor is buried and honored by a giant angel at the end of the hallway. L. Frank Baum, of “Wizard of Oz,” fame is buried to the west of the Great Mausoleum, with a hefty tombstone.

Michael Jackson? He rests in a private section not open to the public.

But Jimmy and Gloria Stewart are marked by humble graves that are open to public viewing – though not easy to find.

As you face the Wee Kirk O’ the Heather chapel, they reside up the hill to your left: space 2, lot 8, small markers near the statue of a man holding an arrow.

Clustered at the Freedom Mausoleum, you’ll spot the graves of Walt Disney, Spencer Tracy, Errol Flynn, George Burns and Nat “King” Cole.

Where: 1712 S. Glendale Ave., Glendale, Calif., about 15 minutes from downtown Los Angeles, in Los Angeles County.

How much: Free

Info: Forest Lawn Glendale, (323) 254-3131

Talking Turkey: Thanksgiving Trivia

Why is the Turkey bird call “Turkey”?

Turkeys (the birds) are originally from the Americas. The Europeans knew a similar looking and tasting bird, known nowadays as Guinea fowl, originally from Africa but introduced through the Ottoman Empire, who was called the turkey-cock or turkey-hen. When the Europeans arrived to the Americas and found the bird we now know as turkey (Meleagris gallopavo), they called it turkey by association. In other countries it is called different names, referring to the geographical origin, and mostly getting it totally wrong.

A Thanksgiving mix-up inspired the first TV dinners

In 1953, a Swanson employee accidentally ordered a colossal shipment of Thanksgiving turkeys (260 tons, to be exact). To get rid of them all, salesman Gerry Thomas came up with the idea of filling 5,000 aluminum trays with the turkey – along with cornbread dressing, gravy, peas and sweet potatoes. They were sold for 98 cents, and were a hit. Within one year, over ten million were sold.

Talking Turkey

The origin of “talk turkey” seems to come from colonial times. Historical accounts suggest the phrase came about from the day-to-day bartering between colonists and Indians over wild turkeys. Today the term ‘talk turkey’ means to discuss something frankly and practically. When someone ‘talks turkey’ they get to the point and the term often refers to settling a business deal

Gobble, Gobble

Male turkeys are called “gobblers,” after the “gobble” call they make to announce themselves to females (which are called “hens”) and compete with other males. Other turkey sounds include “purrs,” “yelps” and “kee-kees.”

Our National Symbol

Benjamin Franklin never proposed the turkey as a symbol for America, but he did once praise it as being “a much more respectable bird” than the bald eagle.

Beatle Beat

The Ramones band name was in reference to Paul Ramon, the pseudonym that Paul McCartney used to maintain his anonymity when checking into hotels.

In a 1995 interview, Joey Ramone explained: “In the days of the ‘Silver Beatles,’ Paul McCartney would go to check into a hotel room, using the name Paul Ramone. Dee Dee was a big Paul McCartney fan, so he changed his name to Dee Dee Ramone. When I hooked up with Dee Dee, we decided to call the band the Ramones.”

Time Capsule Cinema

The Bird with the Crystal Plumage – A Look Back

By Walt Mundkowsky

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The General (1926)

This shot from the movie The General is the most expensive shot in silent film history. Directed by and starring Buster Keaton, It was filmed in a single take — that had to be perfect — with a train and a ‘dummy’ engineer (notice the white arm hanging out the conductor’s window). Some of the audience who came to watch the filming thought the dummy was a real person and screamed in horror; supposedly, one person even fainted.

Hard Day’s Night 2017

 

Hands down, this Canadian gem is our pick for the most hilarious, madcap travel show on the cybersphere.

In this zany episode, the Travel Guys take on Las Vegas.

WATCH Travel Guys Take on Las Vegas

The California Bucket List: Your Daily Guide to the Best Adventures and Experiences in the Golden State

The California Bucket List is your daily guide to essential California adventures, from easy to edgy. Check in every day for a new must-do adventure, each tried and tested by one of the Travel section’s staffers and contributors. Or use the filters in blue below to seek out great spots in each of 12 California regions: North Coast, Shasta Cascade, Gold Country, S.F. Bay Area, High Sierra, Central Valley, Central Coast, Deserts, Inland Empire and the counties of L.A., Orange and San Diego.

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Butter

Last year, France consumed about 18 pounds of butter per capita, according to statistics from a coming report by the International Dairy Federation. That is over twice the European Union average, and more than three times the figure in the United States.

Dairy production in Europe, though, has been falling since European Union milk quotas ended in 2015, slumped after the summer of 2016 because of bad yields from fodder crops and unfavorable weather.

Meanwhile, as butter has shed some of its unhealthy image, demand has risen worldwide, especially in the United States — where the fast-food chain McDonald’s promised to put butter back in its recipes last year — and in China.

In France alone, butter consumption increased 5 percent from 2013 to 2015, according to a recent report by an umbrella organization for France’s dairy industry, Le Cniel.

Albert Einstein’s Quote about Living A Modest Life Sells For $1.3 Million

Albert Einstein is known worldwide for his phenomenal work in theoretical physics that gave the world the Theory of Relativity. However, the genius scientist has also made various intellectual statements and quotes that remain relevant even today and a hidden note that the physicist gave to a courier service messenger in Tokyo resurfaced, giving us lessons on Einstein’s theory of happiness. The handwritten note that Albert Einstein gave to a Japanese messenger in 1922 just sold for $1.3 million.

“A calm and modest life brings more happiness than the pursuit of success
combined with constant restlessness.” – Albert Einstein

The original note on paper is below, followed by a translated version.

Fall Festivals in Asia

Courtesy Greg Rodgers, TripSavvy

These fall festivals in Asia are exciting and widely celebrated — yet another list of good reasons that fall is a great time to travel in Asia.

Steve Kerr: Golden State Warriors to Bring Values to D.C. After Trump Dis

Head coach also notes it’s a “no-brainer” that Colin Kaepernick is being “blackballed” in the NFL in recent interview

Coach Steve Kerr and the Golden State Warriors got a very public dis-invitation from President Donald Trump to visit the White House. What is normally a warm and non-political event for championship teams became a wholly political spectacle that played out in the media and on Twitter.

Now, with the Warriors schedule empty for their February 28th visit to the nation’s capital, the team is trying to find a way to still make a statement. Kerr spoke about potential plans on the Pod Save America podcast on Monday, and the interview was conducted by Dan Pfeiffer, a former Barack Obama aide.

“I don’t think we would have gone,” Kerr said. “And I think he knew that. Several of us had been very critical of the president in the past year, and it would have been awkward, for sure.”

Kerr also said the team might visit the childhood home of Kevin Durant in Seat Pleasant, Maryland and run a basketball clinic. He says they’ve received invitations from other D.C. politicians, and there’s also the possibility the team visits a historic monument or museum.

The head coach has been to the White House numerous times as a championship player and coach, and his brother also worked there during the Bill Clinton administration. Kerr also spoke about the differences between the fanbase of the NBA and NFL, and how that has fueled Colin Kaepernick being “blackballed,” and why NBA players are allowed to have a more open voice.

“That’s a no-brainer,” Kerr said of Kaepernick. “All you have to do is read the transactions every day, when you see the quarterbacks who are being hired. He’s way better than any of them.

“The NFL has a different fan base than the NBA,” Kerr continued. “The NBA is more urban, the NFL is more conservative, and I think a lot of NFL fans are truly angry at Kaepernick, and I think owners are worried what it’s going to do to business.”

Personal Translator Lets You Speak and Understand 80 Languages

See how it works:

Travis is the first translator with artificial intelligence, and the more it’s used the smarter it becomes. In each language combination, it chooses the most appropriate translation software: from engines like Google and Microsoft, to more local ones. Soon Travis users will be able to rate on an online platform the accuracy of translations delivered, so that the translator can improve. “We already have 6,000 users and are looking for more early adopters who want to make Travis even better. This year we want to reach 50,000 active users to make even better translations available to everyone through software updates in the device.”

The post Humor, Facts & Stats, Trivia and More appeared first on Traveling Archive.