Interesting story on airlines' global expansion - (Delta is leading the way back to Africa), plus some great Pan Am nostalgia.

Quoted: I'm sure today you can stumble across examples of Pan Am's famous blue globe -- faded, peeling and streaked with rust -- on abandoned trucks and ground equipment in Monrovia, Abidjan, Nairobi and elsewhere.

Quoted: Love them or hate them, airlines are more than corporations. They operate, in a sense, as de facto ambassadors.