Category: Time

  • Population: 1

    I’ve long been interest in small towns facing unique circumstances in isolation. I wondered what might be the smallest town, not just some guy living in a shack by himself but an actual recognized, incorporated town. From there I found an old post from the misc.transport.road newsgroup (remember Usenet?). It explained that the question isn’t…

  • The Impossible 5K

    I was watching the Weather Channel on Sunday morning — yes that’s something I do for fun, thus proving I’m a geek on so many different levels — and they cut to a story on an event called “The Impossible 5K.” My wife is a runner and I pick up a lot of new counties…

  • Islands Split by Time Zones

    I captured the query of an anonymous reader. He or she wanted to know whether there were an islands split by time zones. I’d never pondered that before but I came up with a couple of quick examples off the top of my head. That didn’t satisfy me so I turned to a worldwide time…

  • Summer is Over

    Summer is over on the northern side of the equator but probably not for the reasons you expected. I suppose it’s determined by what one considers “end” and “summer” but I’ve recorded unmistakable signs, not so much upon the physical world but through digital fingerprints. There are several candidates that could mark the end of…

  • Time Zone Joke

    We need to lighten things up a bit after yesterday’s very serious topic. Enjoy this cartoon about, no kidding, time zones. It’s a strip called Imogen Quest by Olivia Walch, which is one of the winners of a contest to find “America’s Next Great Cartoonist.” It’s not often that a cartoon features a geography punchline…

  • What Crosses an Airport Runway?

    The world of geo-oddities extends even to airport runways, and I’ve uncovered several curiosities over the past several days. The areas served by airports don’t always confine themselves to neat, tidy spaces. Oftentimes transportation resources represent a cooperative spirit between neighbors as they band together to meet a common need. Sometimes it’s just the opposite,…

  • Cheesy Orlando

    I’ve arrived at the fourth Orlando described on my previous article and settled in for the week. It was viciously hot in Florida yesterday afternoon when I first arrived, 93° f. / 34° c., but I did manage to get outside and walk about some local sights such as they were. I’m based in the…

  • Some Longitudinal Lines

    I have a soft spot for the unintentional readers of Twelve Mile Circle. Search engines send them randomly to my domain like pollen blowing in the wind. They aren’t consciously trying to arrive at my site. In fact they never even knew it existed. Simply, the all-knowing search engines told these mystery readers that I…

  • Superlative Tunnels

    I’ve been enjoying the World’s Longest Tunnel page recently and I decided to see if I could locate some of the more striking examples using maps and photo sites. Oftentimes I could locate those spots although honestly, sometimes the interior of a tunnel isn’t particularly impressive. Anyway, let’s see what we can find in these…

  • Ignorance or Brilliance?

    So it’s a very simple question. Is there an area with no time zone? Nonetheless, I dismissed the question when it first landed on Twelve Mile Circle in the form of a search query the other morning. I noticed it waiting in my user access logs although this random visitor never asked me personally. The…