2 January 2025

Opportunity to explore another part of the world

Nikita is headed to Australia for a semester. She would not let us join her. Apparently, it is not “independent study” if parents come in along with her!!

So, after she takes her flight to Sydney from Los Angeles, we will jump on to a different flight to check out the Polynesian islands. I have been to islands in the Caribbean Sea, the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. But never been to the Polynesian islands. In fact, I just found out that we are actually going to be in Melanesia first (Fiji) and then Polynesia (Samoa). Will miss Micronesia this time to round out the Oceania region.

Then again, she will be studying a full semester there!

Category: Vacations | LEAVE A COMMENT
29 December 2024

I have not seen this in a long time!

Can you spot something out of place in this picture?

This was taken from my Delta flight in Newark airport while waiting for our spot on the 22-4 runway.

Carefully notice the airplane visible thru the rains. Check out the airlines. It says Continental! That company does not exist any more. Has not existed for over 12 years. United bought them in 2012.

I guess they have not gotten around to repainting this plane yet.

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16 December 2024

Geography quiz on land borders

This time the questions are about land borders between countries. See how many you can answer from what you know, remember or even guess before you resort to Google.

1. Which country has the maximum number of countries with who they have land borders? (Hint: there are 2 of them)

2. Of the number of land borders a country can have, what is the most frequent? (e.g. if 13 countries have 3 as number of land bordering countries, 17 have 4, 20 have 5 and there were no other countries in the world – then 5 would be the answer). [Hint: the answer is fairly surprising]

3. We all know that USA and Canada have the longest land boundary (and one that is not guarded by military too!). Can you name the other 4 in the Top 5? [Hint: Russia and China border is NOT one of them!]

4. Which countries have the shortest land border between them? [Hint: It is about 500 feet!!]

5. This one is also very unintuitive. A country can have multiple land borders with the same country. Enclaves or oblasts are great examples of that. Which two countries have the most number of separate land boundaries between them?

Answers posted here.

Category: Maps, Puzzles | LEAVE A COMMENT
14 December 2024

Have you ever seen anything like this?

I was waiting for my nephew in Atlanta airport. He was flying in from California. There is a very interesting feature that has been added for the folks waiting to receive people.

There is a huge screen there. And the screen is streaming cameras that shows the folks as they are coming up the escalator from the underground train.

That was cool. I could spot my nephew (the young gentleman with the red jacket) as he came up the escalator, got a little confused whether to go left or right and then came out from his left. In fact, I could take quite a few pictures of him as he emerged!

Nice touch!

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