Just like most other religious buildings and structures, the designs are very ornate and elaborate. You will see that the building style is different depending on where it was built, when it was built, the materials available at the time, etc. The architectural style may also reflect the governing authority at the time and their own influences.

I don’t have as much experience with the other brands, but from what I can tell

Canon has pretty competitive AF too, and many say their colours are better than those of Sony. Their bodies seem to be a bit more photo-centric, but they will do great with video too. Their lens ecosystem is not as diverse, nearly all lenses for modern Canon cameras will be first-party, as Canon doesn’t support third-party lens manufacturers all too much.

Fujifilm only produced APS-C and medium format cameras, the latter being out of reach and impractical for most people, so you only really look at their APS-C lineup. They lean more into the analogue aesthetic with more dials, metal accents, that kind of stuff. Many people also like the built-in film simulations that mimick the look of old film cameras. All their cameras are very photo-centric in design and feel. They have a large lens ecosystem too with X-mount, and there are lots of third-party lenses available, just like with Sony.

Panasonic mainly focus on their M43 lineup (smaller sensors than APS-C, but larger than 1"), their “G” series, but they also have a full frame “S” series. Their cameras are more video-centric with best in class stabilisation, open gate recording (using the whole sensor for recording video), custom LUT support, etc. Their AF is not as good as the likes of Sony or Canon though, but it’s not at all bad for their modern cameras it looks like. If you want something compact, many of the older M43 cameras by Panasonic are excellent. Note that many of their cameras have different names in different regions, especially for their older models.

Nikon cameras have very good AF, and although their Z-mount lens ecosystem is not as big as Sony or Fujifilm, there are many third-party lenses available. Nikon is known for having excellent wildlife lenses too.

Just curious what you would recommend, but I am not buying a real camera anytime soon

In a nutshell, there are five major camera brands: Sony, Canon, Fujifilm, Panasonic, and Nikon. You also have some smaller brands like Pentax, OM System, Sigma, etc., but those five are the ones most people recommend.

I have the most experience with Sony cameras. They tend to have the best AF with reasonable colours, and the E-mount is HUGE with lots of third-party options. The same mount is used for both their full frame and APS-C lineup, so you can use an APS-C lens on a full frame camera, and vice versa. Sony’s naming conventions are pretty confusing, but I can try to summarise it for you:

• A6x00 series: APS-C hybrid cameras
  • A6400 is the cheapest currently sold model
  • A6700 is the nicer option that is very good value for what you get: IBIS, 4K 120 fps recording, beefier grip, more modern UI compared to older Sony cameras, etc.
  • A6000, A6100, and A6300 can be found used and are still pretty good
  • A6500 is the older IBIS model, if you need that it’s a solid option
• A7 series: full frame lineup
  • base models (e.g. A7 III, A7 IV) are good hybrid cameras
  • resolution R series (e.g. A7R V) are heavily photo-centric with very high resolution sensors, so photos is ridiculously high fidelity
  • sensitivity S series (e.g. A7S III) are video-centric with lower resolution sensors and higher dynamic range
  • compact C series (e.g. A7C II, A7CR) use the same internals as the base models, but in a smaller body (and price tag). You don’t get a second SD card slot though, which might be a deal breaker
• FX lineup: Cinema cameras, probably not for most people BUT!
  • FX30: Very similar to the A7S III but with an APS-C sensor, an internal fan (like the FX3), and a lower MSRP. No EVF, but if you mainly shoot video, it’s a very good deal!
• ZV lineup: Stands for “Gen Z Vlog”, cheaper plastic body cameras at a lower price tag, video-centric with no EVF
  • ZV-1, ZV-1 II, ZV-1F: 1" sensor point and shoots, the three mainly differ based on their lens and zoom ranges (or lack thereof in the ZV-1F, the F stands for fixed)
  • ZV-E10: APS-C camera, guts of an A6400 with a plastic body and no EVF, has a few additional video features. This is the one I mainly use!
  • ZV-1: Full frame camera, guts of an A7S III with a plastic body and no EVF, an incredible deal for what you get!
• RX series: Premium point and shoot cameras, avoid these as they aren’t very good deals

Nice, good to hear! Radicale is really nice and simple to setup too. If you want a good desktop calendar app, I know that both GNOME Calendar and Thunderbird work well with Radicale (I currently use the latter).

1. Always read the documentation!!!

Now for specific recommendations, I can can share my own experience. I started out with hosting something very basic that I had a need for. Nothing fancy, something that’s relatively easy to set up. I hosted Radicale, a CalDAV server that can sync calendars. It was a little fussy about permissions but I was able to sort it out by reading the documentation. I heard Baikal is another good option for that too. Previously, I only used local calendars, as never bothered with Google or Outlook calendar, and if was refreshing to have my events be locally synced! Super neat!

If you have a small, simple need like that, it can be your baby steps into self-hosting. A small calendar, a to-do list, DNS (i.e. PiHole), web server, something like that which you have a need for. Just make sire you read the documentation!

Afterwards, you can “level up” to more complex projects. For file hosting, I use Nextcloud, but OpenCloud is a good option if you need something lighter weight. LearnLinuxTV has an excellent guide on installing Nextcloud! You also have Immich for photo backup, and the documentation for it is excellent. You really should read the docs, for any kind of software! And if you do any programming, having a local Forgejo instance is always good for an additional backup to a cloud git repo service like Codeberg or GitHub. If you have a large collection of media of any kind, Jellyfin (for videos), Audiobookshelf (for…audiobooks), and Navidrome (for music) are all recommended.

As for the OS, I would recommend Debian. It’s rock solid, there’s a bazillion guides for it and Ubuntu (a Debian derivative), and it works well for my use case. Much of the documentation for all kinds of self-hosted applications assumes that you use Debian or some derivative of it. However, if you want a better way to manage networking, RAID configurations, etc., going with an OS tailored for use in NAS systems would be better. I heard that TrueNAS is a really good option for that! Just make sure you read the documentation before you fiddle around with settings.

On the hardware side, I would always go with something you already have over buying new hardware, and if you really don’t have anything, getting some used is always good. Reduce e-waste and save your money! I used (and still use!) an old laptop for self-hosting, since it was what I had available and my storage needs were not massive. That poor 512GB SSD is really putting in the work.

Have I mentioned that you should always read the documentation?

The various public Etherpad instances are good. There are some that don’t require login (good for sharing public notes, bad for private documents), and some that do (better for private documents, gives you user access controls i.e. who can modify or read the notes)

Framapad is one that needs a login, but there are plenty of other Etherpad instances.

Alternatively, I heard lots of people like Nextcloud Notes (you can use a public instance or use a VPS)

Aside from a lot of the ones that are abbreviations (like GNU Image Manipulation Program, or GIMP), most of them are fine I think.

Immich, it sounds like “image”, which makes sense for photo hosting. Inkscape is a landscape of ink, suitable for a vector graphics editor. “Chrono”, the clock app on Android, is named after the embodiment of time. Radicale, the CalDAV self-hosted service, is the word “radical” conjoined with “calendar”. KeePass is a password manager, a master key is used to unlock the vault. KDE likes to put “K” in front of a lot of their app names. KCalc, KGet, Konsole, KOrganizer, KAlarm, KWrite. Their functions are pretty self explanatory. Okular is a PDF reader by KDE, and the name is a play on the word “ocular”, used to describe vision, but with a “K”! MarkText lets you write text in Markdown format. LibreOffice is a free (as in freedom, or libre) open-source office suite. Writer, Impress, and Calc are related to documents, presentations, and spreadsheets. And then there are all the apps that are not unique and are simply what they are. Think “Offline Translator”, “OSS Document Scanner”, etc. (very common with a lot of Android apps I use)

I would imagine Kittygram refers to the vast quantities of cat photos on Instagram.

Not really an insult, but I’ve heard the phrase “how the turns have tabled” as a version of “how the tables have turned”.

A lot of others have already mentioned the use of trigonometry. I would like to add that, often times, the position of the Sun, stars, etc. were used for navigation. I would imagine their positions would be useful to judge large distances. And many times, map makers asked those living in the area about regions they themselves have not explored in great detail. Lots of maps are also an amalgamation of many other maps, so although it is unlikely one person explored vast swaths of forest by themselves, it is more likely that different parts of it came from different people, including locals.

p.s. Eratosthenes, an ancient Greek polymath from 200 BCE ish (!!), measured the circumference of the Earth to a remarkable accuracy simply by using shadows of a vertical rod cast by the Sun. It’s kind of insane how people were able to do all this without the assistance of modern technology.

Vikunja is a great option, but the mobile app is still in development (lots of missing features). I like it, but I have found that using a simple markdown editor like Markor (on Android) and Marktext (on Linux, available on Windows + Mac too) works for me, and I use Syncthing to sync with my laptop. Note that Marktext isn’t being actively developed anymore, but it was the best one I could find that respects the folder structure of my notes. Obsidian is great too, but it’s closed source and having everything in vaults is annoying for me. You might also like VSCodium or Kate, which are code editors that also have markdown highlighting (but not Markdown preview).

However, you can’t easily use custom themes with Markor and Marktext. For Markor, you can only change the background, font, and text colour of the editing mode (not the preview mode!) while Marktext does let you change the font universally, but you have to use one of the prebuilt themes (I found One Dark to be the closest to my system theme). One day I would like to try my hand at making my own cross-platform markdown editor, maybe once I have less schoolwork to worry about.

edit: I was wrong, Marktext is actively developed! Additionally, the latest version of Marktexts lets you use custom CSS to create your own theme, and there are far more default themes to choose from now!

Note that I have seen a lot of people make some really cool “rehousings” of their laptops to turn them into transparent boxes mounted to the wall, usually made of something like acrylic. They look awesome, but haven’t tried it myself since I just self-host using my laptop in its original chassis

Value is inherently subjective. Money, gold, products, services only have value because of people. An ant doesn’t care for a solid brick of gold, it serves no purpose for the ant, but humans see the shiny metal as incredibly valuable. And while the same ant might think that a small insect as valuable food, most humans do not see the same singular insect as all too worthwhile to eat.

What is valuable to you could be worthless to somebody else. In the context of Netflix, most people probably consider it to be decreasing in value as the content (or the quality of it) has not increased enough to compensate. However, there are some people that might be looking forward to a Netflix-exclusive show and believes that it adds a lot of value. In that case, the price increase might be worth it for them.

Something similar could be said for other streaming services. Spotify, Apple Music, etc. could have your favourite artist listed that can’t be listened anywhere, and you might consider that valuable.

There are plenty of good YouTube channels that have this sort of stuff.

Veritasium is really good for exploring various topics of science, their videos are very well-made and they help to convey information in a digestible way. A newer channel called “The Rabbit Hole” is also excellent. And of course, minutephysics and MinuteEarth make very good videos on various topics that are quick and to the point. xkcd’s What If answers lots of silly hypotheticals that are fun to watch, like draining all the water from the oceans!

And there are plenty of other channels I like too that have specific niches. If you like maths, Numberphile, Stand Up Maths, and Tom Rocks Maths are awesome. Up and Atom does videos on various topics in maths, physics, and computer science that are quite interesting. If you like astrophysics*, I would recommend Arvin Ash and PBS Space Time.

If you like geography, Jay Foreman (+ Mark Cooper-Jones) makes fun videos on various different topics. You might also like Geography Now, who has made a video on every single (U.N. recognised) country. It’s very interesting to see how their quality of videos has increased from the beginning to the end. After finishing the Zimbabwe episode, Barbs (Barbie) now covers various other things like unrecognised / partially recognised territories.

If you want some history, The Cold War (run by Kings and Generals) is awesome if you are interested in anything that happened during the Cold War era, and TimeGhost History (run by Indy Neidell) has great coverage of the interwar years between the World Wars as well as the events post WWII.

Ryan Chapman has some videos on various ideas (like nationalism, Zionism, democracy, and Marxism) and assesses conflicts, and I find he does take the points of both sides and judges them fairly. His video on the Taiwan conflict is really good as well! Many people like Johhny Harris as well, and he does make entertaining videos, but some of them are a little oversimplified, especially given that the issues he discusses are very nuanced.

Technology Connections rants about dishwashers, light bulbs, and heat pumps, and covers all the topics nobody else does! And Hank Green makes videos on all sorts of things, and as he puts it, he doesn’t have a specific niche. He’s just Hank Green! Tom Scott has recently come back to the scene and is now doing a series on weird and interesting things in every county in England. Pretty neat!

*Not what you’re looking for, but Anton Petrov is AWESOME if you want to be up to date on all the astronomical discoveries that are happening

Just of note, “Ryzen 7”, “Intel Core i7”, etc. aren’t good indicators of performance. The generation of chip is more important, as newer chip designs are more efficient and have better performance.

Also note, both Intel and AMD have re-released older chips as seemingly “newer gen”, so beware of that! For AMD, which is what the laptop you are looking at is specced with, see if the chips is Zen 3, 4, 5, etc. Zen 5 is the latest gen, 4 is still pretty good, and 3 is bit older and is now found in a lot of really cheap machines.

If you have a modern processor, the iGPU is fine for basic gameplay. I have a laptop with an Intel 13th gen chip (P series), and the iGPU is good enough to reasonably run most games I want to play. The games you have added will probably play fine on modern iGPUs.

TLDR: Look at the architecture of the CPU (Zen n?), modern chips have good iGPU performance that will run most games just fine (just don’t expect AAA games at highest quality settings)

Another thing, since it looks like you won’t be playing any evil multiplayer games with invasive anticheat, I would recommend for you to run Linux if you aren’t already! It generally improves the user experience and sometimes has better performance too. Distros like Fedora, Mint, etc. are all great options, just go with one that you like. You can always distro hop!

To be fair, Wireshark is a far more memorable name than Wireguard. Sharks are very cool!

Note that very few countries have what is considered a low level of corruption (which they seem to define as 80+). Additionally, they note that corruption is increasing in many of these “western” countries, like the United States, Canada, France, and the UK.

But these indexes generally aren’t very helpful, as I have highlighted in my comments. There’s a lot of criticism on these kinds of indexes that generalise these big issues.

On Wikipedia, the CPI has a criticisms section highlight many of its flaws. You could read up on that if you want. There are plenty of articles on this too.

The TLDR seems to be: not politically motivated, the CPI isn’t blatant propaganda. However, it does not cover all forms of corruption, it has a bias towards “perceived” corruption, and it is strongly biased against lower income nations.

As with many of these kinds of indexes, they are a decent-ish generalisation of the issue but are not enough to accurately depect such a complex topic.

A bit more reading has found that many people criticise CPI as it cannot fully represent all kinds of corruption, especially those in lower income areas.

There are people on both sides, arguing that places like China should be lower on the index, since “perceived” corruption could be influenced by China’s strict control of the media. Others note that the index does not account for cultural differences and is biased towards perceived corruption over actual improvements, and that China should have a better score due to their efforts in cracking down corruption. But both sides agree that a simple index cannot cover the complex nature of corruption, which has many layers to it.

I don’t think the index itself is politically motivated, at least not in the sense of being complete propaganda fabricated by the Americans. They do highlight the improvements and declines in the transparency of institutions and strength of justice systems around the world.

However, a single number cannot cover the wide topic of corruption, and there is no distinction between the different forms of corruption.

One more thing, I found an article by “the British academy” written by Professor Pail Heywood from the University of Nottingham relating to this topic. They say that Transparency International is helping to increase media attention and public awareness of corruption, and has helped to push many nations to adopt anti-corruption legislation.

However, he highlights that it is flawed in that it’s biased towards perception of corruption. noting that they focus too much on bribery (since many of the CPI’s sources are from business executives and the like), and that one number can’t accurate represent corruption in an entire territory, and that corruption can vary oj a local level.

Professor Heywood’s main point of criticism though is how it puts some nations into a poverty trap, where aid is restricted for lower income countries, as they lack the strong democratic institutions that are deemed by the CPI as necessary to combat corruption, yet those are the nations where liberal democracy is incredibly difficult to establish.

I am unsure of this professor’s reputation, but he seems to know what he’s talking about at least. I’m not any sort of political scientist or international relations expert, so take it for what you will.

A little bit more research, it seems that you are referring to indexes like the “Corruption Perceptions Index” by Transparency International. Looking into that one in particular, they seem to use data from all sorts of institutions, standardised for a 0-100 scale. No country has a perfect score of 100, meaning all nations are corrupt to some degree according to this index.

Some reading of the documents outlining their results and methodology (wow, Transparency International is pretty transparent!) show that they only use data when there they come from multiple sources, omitting one-offs. They also add a measure of uncertainty, since sources will differ for each nation.

Looking at their map, you can see a general idea of the levels of corruption across the world. This index highlights that countries that are more corrupt generally have fewer freedoms and are more authoritarian. When there are fewer checks in place, those in power tend to be more corrupt. Areas with a lot of conflict, such as Somalia (9) and Syria (15), tend to have more corruption as well.

In 2025, they note that many democracies around the world have worsening corruption, like the United States (64), the UK (70), France (66), New Zealand (81), Sweden (80), etc. In many of these places, it is due to the rollback and weakening of anti corruption legislation.

Many low-scoring countries are slowly improving! They highlight Albania (39), Laos (34), Senegal (46), Ukraine (36), and others for their efforts in reform. They still have ways to to though, with scores below 50.

Additionally, some middle to high scoring countries are also improving, like Estonia (76), South Korea (63), Bhutan (71), Seychelles (68), etc. due to their adoption of stronger justice systems.

The report notes that declines in CPI are mostly due to a combination of the breaking of democratic integrity and independent institutions. Gains in CPI are typically due to greater rights, media freedom, and access to information. They also note that many authoritarian nations have used their control to clamp down on corruption with an iron fist, mentioning that it is effective against bribery, but believe that this approach is not sustainable for all types of corruption, and that they could easily be reversed based on a change in the political environment.

The report also highlights many protests in various nations based around the perceived corruption of political leaders, like in Nepal.

I have sourced this mainly from their published 2025 report on CPI, as well as their basic description of their methodology found on their website.

Health and safety is heavily emphasised in this trip. For the majority of the trip, we will need to stick in our groups, but we do get chances to explore for ourselves in some areas, but even then, we need to meet up as a group after every hour to make sure everybody is here and nobody is missing.