Tag: France
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Schwebefähre
Twelve Mile Circle received a wonderful suggestion from loyal reader “Joshua D” probably six months ago. He mentioned the schwebefähre (“suspension ferry“) in Rendsburg, Germany. These structures went by various names in different languages including “transporter bridge” in English. They were so odd, so whimsical, so amazingly impractical that I found them difficult to comprehend,…
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Sensing Senses
Five senses came to mind; sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch. They were very traditional human-centric senses I conceded, given various other senses in existence like echolocation, magnetoception and others. So I ignored those. I also ignored the so-called sixth sense, extrasensory perception, ESP. But you already knew that, though (kidding!). Could I find five…
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Short Distance Namesakes
Something has been bothering me since I mentioned the town of Washington, Virginia recently in Flip-Flopping. It claims title to the oldest town named for George Washington, platted by none other than George Washington himself in 1749. I noted that many call it Little Washington to differentiate it from nearby Washington, DC which dates to…
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Creative Marketing
It’s wonderful when an article results in a comment that inspires an article, creating a self-perpetuating geo-oddity cycle. In this instance loyal reader “Pfly” mentioned the curious case of Guadalupe, California that nearly changed its name to Guadalupe Beach. However it was actually located several miles from the nearest beach. NOT on the Beach Local…
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How Invasive
I had a conversation recently with my friend the birder. He pointed out various bird species that happened to fly within line-of-site of our gathering, while noting which ones were native species and which ones were transplants. That led to discussions of various invasive animals introduced into North America either by accident or by design,…
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Residential Airparks
I didn’t know at the time that the formal terms “residential airpark” and “fly-in community” existed. Still, I found it pretty cool that people could own an airplane, keep it in a garage attached to their homes, and roll it directly onto an active runway mere steps away. Actually I noticed the phenomenon a number…
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Saint Martin Borders and Boundaries
Borders? We don’t need no stinking borders. You didn’t really think I’d go all the way to St. Martin and sit on the beach all week, right? Well I’ve done a bit of that too, and I’ll focus some attention there in my next post. However, today it’s all about all the awesome border crossings…
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Antipodes Islands
I’m back to my antipodes fixation again, a recurring theme here on Twelve Mile Circle. I’d placed this one on my mental list as I researched the Closest Antipodal National Capitals a few weeks ago. Today I feature the Antipodes Islands Group of New Zealand (map). Characteristics The Antipodes Islands, part of a collective of…
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Canada’s International Border(s)
So a burning question keeps coming up on the site. “What is Canada’s only international border?” Single-time visitors of Twelve Mile Circle seem acutely interested in Canada’s international borders. My web logs register variations of this Search Engine query probably daily. Sometimes this comes up — I think — as a trick question on trivia…
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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…