Western-Style Supermarkets Threaten Traditional Indian Vendors

World Hum contributors share a favorite travel-related experience from the past seven days. Jim Benning I loved the Sigur R?s documentary, Heima , which aired on Sundance Channel (and will air next week , too). Not only because I like the band’s distinctive, ethereal music, but because the film was shot in more than a dozen places around Iceland and really captures a sense of place. Check out this great trailer in a big-screen format, with its images of ice fields and... more

The Pulitzer Prize-winning funnyman has apparently figured out where it is, because he’s been blogging from Costa Rica about his travels. He’s seen lots of monkeys , and he went zip-lining, “which is a sport where the object is to look like the world’s biggest dork,” he writes. “I was very good at it.” Judge for yourself . Related on World Hum: * Onion Video: Andorra is ‘Not in Africa’ ... more

The pyramid-shaped, 105-story Ryugyong Hotel in Pyongyang, North Korea, has been languishing—unfinished—for 16 years. But now Egyptian developers have begun refurbishing what was once dubbed “the worst building in the history of mankind,” Reuters reports . It’s estimated to cost $2 billion—about 10 percent of North Korea’s annual economic output—to finish the skyline-dominating eyesore. Related on World Hum: * The Ryugyong Hotel: ̵... more