Apoorv Upreti - Observations

Peruvian Days #2 / The Floating Islands Of Uros

On arriving to the shores of Lake Titicaca you notice a few things. The first is the altitude. It's really high up – around 3800 metres above sea level – which you notice because the lack of oxygen starts giving you headaches, and also

Peruvian Days #1 / Comidas

I'm writing some posts about the one month that I spent in Peru. This is part 1, about the food in Peru. After spending a month in Peru I left with the impression that Peruvian food is seriously underrated. Peru has all

What I'm Reading, October 2021 Edition

You can find the September edition here [https://apoorvupreti.com/what-im-reading-june-2021-edition/]. Zorba the Greek, Nikos Kazantzakis. I want to say I'm enjoying this book, but if I am, why has it been sitting half-read in my Audible library for months? I can

Peruvian Potato

On a food tour of Lima I was introduced to the huge variety of potatoes in Peru. They come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, and apparently the taste can differ significantly between them too. The International Potato Center (!) claims there are 4000

How The Incas Did Accounting

I learned about quipus on a visit to the Museo Larco in Lima. Quipus were a string-based system used by the Incas for storing numeric information like the size of the population or other resources. The PeruForLess blog has a demonstration of how the

The Humboldt Current

I was wondering why good quality seafood is so affordable in Peru. At a Cevicheria [https://www.google.com/maps/place/Cevicher%C3%ADa+Miramar+Miraflores/@-12.1236941,-77.0337578,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x9105c818e881ecc1:0x30d1b8f071269cc6!8m2!3d-12.1236942!4d-77.0315821] in

Snail Racing

Bizarre fact of the day: snail racing [http://www.snailed.co.uk/about/] is a thing. If you're in Wales on the 17th of December 2021 you can watch the race and participate.

World Population Distribution

Almost every country in the world has a smaller population than the island of Java in Indonesia (145m people). Notable exceptions are the USA, Brazil, India, China, Nigeria, and Pakistan. Java itself has a little over half the population of Indonesia (273m people). WowShack

The Incans And Wheels

The most interesting fact about the Incans is that they didn't use the wheel. At least not in any serious sense; it appears they did have wheeled toys, but did not use the wheel to transport goods and people. Jennifer Povey explains

A Look Inside A CPU

Micrographia is a new YouTube channel that studies interesting objects under a microscope. In this video it's an old Intel 8086 CPU:

eSIMs are Great

eSIMs are virtual SIM cards that can be downloaded and stored electronically on your phone unlike a physical SIM. I'm finding these fantastic for travel. There are a few [https://www.airalo.com/]companies [https://surfroam.com/]that help you buy an

Curaçao Travel Notes

I spent one week on the Dutch Caribbean island of Curaçao (pronounced kura-SOW) recently. Here are some things that stuck out to me: Multi-lingual Curaçaoans, at least the ones who work in the tourist industry, speak multiple languages fluently. In restaurants I would see

Big Tech And Scrum

This article [https://blog.pragmaticengineer.com/project-management-at-big-tech/] on how big tech does project management rings true to me. Most teams at FB had a very loose project management process, and almost no team followed Scrum as religiously as non-SV companies seem to. If you

A Hike In The Mountains Of Curacao

At you start on the trail towards the summit of Mount Christoffel, the highest point in Curacao, a sign warns you that you are not allowed to start the hike after 10 in the morning. It's too hot and there is little

The Potato Paradox

The Potato Paradox is a really weird mathematical paradox that I found in Alexander Kruel's newsletter [https://axisofordinary.substack.com/p/the-most-counterintuitive-facts-in]. Here's the description of the paradox from Wikipedia [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potato_paradox]: > Fred brings

Snorkelling In Curacao Pt 2: Scavenger Sea Turtles

Playa Grandi is a small beach in the north of Curacao. The beach is mostly used by fishermen but tourists have also started to visit it to witness an interesting phenomenon. The fishermen clean and cut up the catch and sell it right on

Snorkelling In Curacao Pt 1: Tugboat

Tugboat beach was the best snorkelling experience that I had in Curacao. The beach itself is quite pebbly and not that attractive; the main attraction is the Tugboat wreck that is located a few hundred metres away. The boat has been here for a

Why Are Rice And Beans So Popular In The Carribean?

Rice and beans is staple in most of the Caribbean, and also in parts of Latin America. But why? Why not corn and beans, or rice and corn, or beans and potatoes? Corn and potatoes are native to the Americas after all. It turns

Inside A Hurricane

Yesterday, a US government agency was able to send a drone [https://www.noaa.gov/news-release/world-first-ocean-drone-captures-video-from-inside-hurricane] into the category 4 hurricane Sam and capture some footage of what the eye of the hurricane looks like:

What's Happening To Supply Chains

This TIME article [https://time.com/6088033/why-inflation-is-rising/] says it's about inflation but it's really a great look into the problems affecting supply chains right now, demonstrated by looking at what it now takes to ship a toy giraffe from

Wingwalkers

This [https://www.airspacemag.com/history-of-flight/wingwalker-rescue-180978193/] might have been one of the craziest stories I've ever read: In 1926, a 'wingwalker' rescued a pilot by attaching a wheel to the landing gear of his plane in mid-flight, then held

Lab-Grown Meat Scepticism

The Counter has an in-depth article [https://thecounter.org/lab-grown-cultivated-meat-cost-at-scale/] on lab-grown meat. The summary is that it's unlikely to be a economically feasible alternative to real meat in the next few decades. The other problem for lab-grown meat is that plant-based

Extreme Travel With Kurt Caz

If you're bored of all the travel bloggers showing you the most glamorous upscale places in the world, check out Kurt Caz's YouTube channel [https://www.youtube.com/c/KurtCaz/featured]. Kurt travels to some pretty dangerous places armed with

Birth Rates Worldwide

> Elegant way of showing global fertility data for every country in 2019. It's actually a rather elegant visual. Spend a few minutes studying it and might become as big as a fan of the piece as I am. Great work by

SPF 30 Is Fine

As far as I can tell, there is no point worrying about the difference between SPF 30, 50, or 50+ sunscreens. SPF 30 blocks ~97% of UVB rays, while SPF 50 blocks a marginally higher ~98%. It's also worth noting that SPF