Reported on CNN: Leaders in the US travel industry met in Washington yesterday to discuss the decline in overseas travel to the US since 9/11, and delivered the following message to the Federal Government: “stop treating tourists like terrorists.”

Yesterday a post about an ancient Viking outpost, and today I hear that the tech-savvy descendants of those same Vikings are colonizing the virtual world.

As of today, US citizens arriving by air from outside the 50 States, no matter what their point of origin, must have a passport to re-enter the country. (Unless you’re coming from Puerto Rico or the USVI, that is. Loophole!)

A week from today, all Americans returning to the US from abroad, even if that means the Caribbean, Mexico, or Canada, will have to fork over a passport in order to be readmitted to their home state.