Saturday November 30th 2024, Kathmandu, Nepal

Last day of the month, start of a new week, start of a new moon, I feel inclined to reflect and dump a lot of thoughts. Let's back track and start with a long overdue Africa reflection. 1. Government and corruption dictates society more than I previously expected. 2. Living simply and slowly has benefits and drawbacks. 3. Lack of travel infrastructure makes backpacking Africa difficult 4. Food quality and diversity was underwhelming 5. Nicest people: Tanzania, Most to do/see: Kenya, Safest and cleanest: Rwanda 6. Dancing and arts are important for spurring creativity 7. Not as much culture as I expected 8. Community is key around a centralized urban center 9. Protect the parks and the planet, the ecosystems are dying rapidly. 10. The majority of the world lives in poverty and the wealth gap is ever growing, be thankful for simple necessities: food, water and shelter are not a given. Now moving on to Dubai. It is very impressive to see what they turned a barren, hot desert into just by having no taxes. It attracts money centric people to work and invest there. The opulence and the consumption and poshness was kind of disgusting. Travelling has made me see how much China has their paws all over the world. In the Dubai mall there were phone brands and cars I have never seen or heard of. Now for a quick tech talk. The iPhone 16, the newest iPhone can charge at 45W wired connection. That means for a 4,300 mAh capacity battery it takes about 11 minutes to charge it to 50%. Taking in real world conditions it is closer to 30 minutes. The battery is charged at 9V, 5A up until 50%, then the voltage and current is stepped down to prevent overheating and to maximize efficiency. Now the Chinese phones I saw in China do 125W charging. Companies like Xiaomi and Huawei are at the top of the game. You would never know this because these phones are illegal in the US for privacy reasons. These phones have two smaller batteries and charge at 20V, 6.25 A across two cells, charging to 50% in 5 minutes, with 15 minutes being more realistic in real conditions. This among many other things makes it obvious that China is rapidly staying ahead of the curve, all around the world, and the US is trying to hide it from us.