20 December 2024

Morning walk to work

Nephew and I walking to Boarding Pass coffee place for me to jump on to work meetings and he to do his stuff. Not sure what I was doing in this picture but I think I was explaining the answer to a logic puzzle I had asked him previous night while walking back from Central City Tavern after seeing the Thursday Night Football.

Category: My Family | LEAVE A COMMENT
17 December 2024

From the barista’s corner – Coffee from country #19. Guess where?

Most of us can guess the largest coffee producing country in the world. It is also the largest coffee exporting country. Do you know which country is the second largest producer of coffee (also the second largest exporter of coffee)?

Recently Madhumita and Kushal visited us from Dallas. And somehow the discussion went towards this question. And we were all stunned to find the answer – Vietnam!! Did you know it? Anytime I think of Vietnam, I think of rice and paddy fields. I had no clue.

True to their gracious style, I got a gift of Vietnamese coffee from Madhumita and Kushal. That would be country #19!

Category: Coffee | LEAVE A COMMENT
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