The New York Times launched a debate last week: Where Would Hemingway Go in Europe? This referred to Ermest Hemingway, the American journalist and writer, who described his life in European cities like Paris in many of his works. So which city is the new symbol of a dynamic Europe where Hemingway would settle? Several writers and journalists addressed the question.

Joseph described London as a “global city”-though no longer capital of an empire, London drew the best and brightest from all over the world. Fyodor said that Bruges in Belgium symbolized the new Europe. He described Europe as a beautiful old town, a Flemish Venice, with quiet canals, old cathedrals and Renaissance masterpieces.

Berlin was the choice of Gauti, saying although Paris, London, Rome and Vienna remained a high position in our minds, they were like interesting museums with splendid old buildings and statues showing their former greatness and past achievements. But their potential seemed to have gone. He suggested that this potential may be linked to political power. People of talent and influence were very often attracted to power, since it was the greatest source of funds and acknowledgement. There was also the potential of the unknown and yet-to-be discovered, which attracted passionate minds. In his opinion, the European city to offer this now is Berlin.

Personally, I don't feel qualified to decide where Papa Hemingway would hang his hat. These days London and Paris are too expensive for struggling writers. Bruges is pretty, but who wants to live in the Middle Ages? Brussels is clean and attractive, but full of boring Euro-bureaucrats. Rome's terrible traffic would drive Hem mad. Amsterdam might be OK. But I would guess Papa would vote for Pamplona in Spain. He loved bullfighting and was pictured at the annual festival of the running of bulls in Pamplona.

The Global Heritage Fund,a nonprofit organization, aims to protect places of cultural importance in developing countries for the reason that these countries often have few resources to protect such places and that other major cultural organizations often pay more attention to protecting places in the developed world. For example, the UNESCO has 45 World Heritage places in Italy, 42 in Spain, but Peru, famous for its ancient Incan buildings, has only 9 World Heritage places. Guatemala has only 3.

The fund recently released a list of cultural treasures in the developing world that are in danger of disappearing. These places are important because they are records of our human civilization. Globalization has created an international culture that is about sameness. But the endangered places it is trying to protect represent the rich differences of human culture throughout history.

One of the fund's current projects is in Guatemala's (危地马拉) Mirador Basin, which contains several important examples of ancient Mayan settlements. The buildings are surrounded by forest.

Centuries of tree growth have covered the pyramids and religious buildings, which provide some of the finest examples of the early part of the Mayan civilization (玛雅文明). But this area is in danger from robbers and people cutting trees illegally. Also, over the past ten years, over 70% of the natural environment in the area has been destroyed by fires.

The fund has 3 goals for its Mirador project. One is helping the government obtain UNESCO recognition. Another is establishing permanent protection for the area. And the third is working to make the area a sustainable protected area within 10 years.

To meet these goals, money from the fund will go toward restoring the buildings of El Mirador and mapping and exploring newly discovered buildings. The fund is also paying to train local guides on how to stop theft and illegal tree-cutting. Educational programs are helping to give people in the area the skills they need to have jobs that do not endanger this protected area.

The Global Heritage Fund says we have a duty to the people of the past, present and future to make sure we do not lose these examples of human history. Every country, organization and individual can play a role in helping to protect this rich history.

On July 11th Virgin Galactic finally realized the promise that it would take passengers on life-changing trips in its spaceships. For 4 minutes, its six temporarily weightless passengers, including the firm's co-founder, Sir Richard Branson, saw the planet's curvature (曲度) against the blackness of outer space. He may have gloated (窃喜) over beating Jeff Bezos（much richer）, Amazon's retired boss, who would go slightly higher, for slightly less time, in a vehicle built by his own company, Blue Origin, on July 20th.

The two are among a growing group of enthusiasts who believe space tourism's time has come. Suborbital (亚轨道) tourism is part of a broader space economy that has boomed over the past decade thanks to technological advances. Those at Morgan Stanley expect the entire space economy to generate$1trm in revenue by 2040, from $350bn today. UBS (瑞银集团) expects the entire space economy to produce $800 billion by the end of this decade. Space tourism，it thinks, will make “a big contribution” to that total.

But that is highly unlikely. For example, space tourism is not even Blue Origin's main goal. The company is focusing on developing a large new rocket for launching satellites, on selling advanced rocket engines to other companies and on winning NASA contracts such as that for a system to land humans on the Moon. In the long run, Mr Bezos doesn't see Blue Origin as provider of services to thrill-seekers.

The business could be profitable once regular flights begin to offset (抵消) the rockets' development costs. But how fast and by how much is uncertain. Without tourist-friendly destinations to visit, space tourism, with its far higher ticket prices, will not be a huger earner.

Another challenge—and the biggest uncertainty—relates to safety. History has shown that a disaster can set progress back by years. Even with no accidents, problems may arise. Strict top down regulation could mean that industry will no longer have the freedom to pursue new approaches to improving safety.

Space tourism may remain a hobby for a few superrich with a desire to take risks and lots of time to spare. Not exactly a mass market, then, for the time being.