Tips for climbing Kilimanjaro


I recently climbed Kilimanjaro and it was an awesome experience – I highly recommend it. However, I wished that I could have found a simple quick list of tips ahead of time. I figured I would drop in a few of the things that I think can make the whole experience easier.

  • Yellow fever vaccination. Have this way ahead of the actual trip because it is likely to make you feel a little unhealthy for a few days. Many of the guys in our group (myself included) reported feeling unwell up to 6 days after receiving the vaccination.
  • Wet wipes. There isn’t much water up there, so you won’t be washing at all for 5-7 days. We were disgusting by the end and wet wipes do allow some welcome relief.
  • Diamox. There was a lot of debate about taking diamox. I feel that it didn’t make any difference at all, but I still took it to be on the safe side. Imagine how bad it would feel to get AMS and to wonder if Diamox would have saved you. Take it with.
  • Wet gear. We had some rain and snow – trust me you want gear that is totally water proof. Make sure of this.
  • Bags. You should take 3 bags. One for the gear you will leave at the hotel – lock this one. A waterproof duffel bag which the porters will carry for you – lock this one every day. A backpack which you will carry – this one is for warm clothes, snacks, water, etc. Make sure it’s waterproof.
  • Plastic bags. I found it extremely useful to separate everything in my duffel bag into plastic bags – they also increase water resistance.
  • Toilet paper. You will be using pretty dirty ‘long drops’ all the way up and you should bring your own toilet paper or you’re going to be very unhappy.
  • Camelback. Makes drinking much, much easier. Will freeze on the summit attempt so bring along a thermal water bottle too.

Enjoy! It’s a really great experience.

Watch Wikipedia edits happening


Here is an interesting site that displays a map of the world with near real-time Wikipedia edits as they happen. It can be quite interesting to watch as people around the world make Wikipedia updates.

For instance, while I was watching someone from India edited the article on floor gymnastics

Photo album of a growing leopard cub


National Geographic has a cool photo gallery showing the first year in the life of a young leopard cub, Legadema. It’s a nicely done gallery with some really interesting pictures. This one shows the mother leopard scrambling to prevent the cub from falling out of a tall tree.

There are some other interesting pics, but this little story was particularly interesting. The young leopard managed to kill an adult female baboon. However, when she found that there was a young baby hanging onto the baboon, she was gentle with it. She “groomed it and gently carried it to safer branches higher in the tree”. There they snuggled up for the night, but by morning the baby had died.

National Geographic article on memory

National Geographic has a well written article about memory. It is a sprawling, enjoyable article which bounces around the subject of memory.

As illustrations, two extreme cases are discussed in detail.

There is a 41-year old woman “who remembers almost every day of her life since age 11. She remembers what happened on Murphy Brown on December 12, 1988. She remembers world events and trips to the grocery store, the weather and her emotions.” Mention a date to her and memories of that time come flooding back in extraordinary detail.

“When I’m blow-drying my hair in the morning, I’ll think of whatever day it is. And to pass the time, I’ll just run through that day in my head over the last 20-something years—like flipping through a Rolodex.”

Then there is an
“85-year-old man, a retired lab technician called “EP,” who remembers only his most recent thought”. After his brain was nailed by a virus he lost the ability to make new memories. He can’t remember anything that has happened since 1960 – he doesn’t even remember that he has a memory problem.

The article describes meeting and interacting with the man. His existence is only the thoughts currently in his mind. As soon as he is distracted, what he was thinking about is lost forever. If you ask him to remember something, like a number, he can remember it as long as he is thinking about the number. The second he is distracted, he forgets the number, who you are, and even that you asked him to remember something.

But EP is still able to ‘learn’ unconscious memories. For instance over the years he has learned the route of his daily walk around the block – even though he thinks he is heading out for the first time every time he goes. He has even learned who the neighbors are and is comfortable introducing himself to them.

Is organic necessarily good?


The Economist has this article discussing the latest trends in ‘green’ foods like organic farming and buying local. I am regularly reminded of the article when I hear people advocating organic farming, etc.

If you look at the whole picture, organic farming is not as good as it seems.

  • Farming is bad for the environment – that is a given.
  • We need to minimize the impact of farming, but still feed the masses.
  • Organic farming is not nearly as efficient as that assisted (even responsibly) by synthetic fertilizers, genetic modification, etc
  • Therefore, unless you want people to starve, it is better to use more intensive (non-organic) farming methods
  • The alternative is to farm more land which would have disastrous impacts on the environment

For instance, the article points out that:

Global cereal production tripled between 1950 and 2000, but the amount of land used increased by only 10%. Using traditional techniques would have required a tripling of the area under cultivation.

It’s great that people are willing to make the effort to “go green”. But you have to look at the bigger picture when evaluating the impact of your actions.

Hippo chase

Hippos kill more people in Africa than any other wild animal – they are mean buggers when you bump into them out of water. The problem is that they move quite far from the water in order to graze at night.

I was recently sent an email with a couple of pictures of a close encounter with a hippo. This guy appears to have reacted fast enough to save his skin.

Driving on the left or right


While on holiday with some americans recently I got into a discussion about driving on the left or right of the road. Wikipedia has a good entry on the subject.

  • 66% of world population drives on the right
  • 72% of the world’s roads are designated for driving on the right
  • There is good archaeological evidence that the Romans drove on the left of the road
  • It is believed that driving on the left was more common so that a horseman could hold the reins in his left hand leaving his right free for a sword
  • The switch to the right in the US happened when wagons pulled by several teams of horses came into use. The drivers then switched to sitting on the left (and driving on the right) so that their right hand could be used for a whip
  • In England where smaller wagons were used no such change occurred

Interesting things about living in space

Discover magazine has this article listing “20 things you didn’t know about living in space. Some of the interesting ones from the article:

  • The decreased pressure on the spine in zero-g causes most space travelers to grow about two inches.
  • A 2001 study showed that astronauts who snored on Earth snoozed silently in space.
  • Astronauts spice up their meals with salt and pepper—in liquid form. Sprinkled grains would float away, tickling noses and clogging vents.
  • Some long-duration cosmonauts report that the hardest thing to readjust to about life on Earth is that when you let go of objects, they fall.

Rocks that sail in the wind


I recently read an article in National Geographic about Death Valley in the states. There is a place called Racetrack Playa where rocks move across the landscape leaving tracks in the mud. Some of the stones are really big, but nobody has ever seen one move.

There isn’t a real consensus, but it seems like winds are able to move these (sometimes huge) rocks across the mud. It must be a really strange place – all these rocks with their tracks across the mud.

Wikipedia has a pretty detailed article on it all.

Racial quotas and the rugby world cup


The Economist has two articles (here and here) about our Rugby World Cup victory and racial quotas in sport. From the article:

  • They think it “pragmatic” to have “brief periods of positive discrimination to jump-start any group that has been racially oppressed for generations and has been unable to achieve its potential.”
  • “But once a big affirmative shove towards greater fairness has been engineered, it is dangerous to perpetuate a system of quotas, racial or otherwise, because it always risks undermining the principle of individual merit.”
  • “Far better for the government to concentrate on investment, training and talent-spotting in poor black schools.”

As far as I am concerned, it is almost always best not to impose quotas on sports. Time and energy should instead be focussed on developing affirmative talent young so that real stars are developed.