Tag: Texas
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Fill the Dust Bowl
I posted an article last August about five marathons in five states in five days planned for March 2013. I didn’t intend to run, rather my goal was to convince my favorite runner to participate (in the half-marathon option). That would allow me to tag along to give moral support while pursuing various geo-oddity adventures.…
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Highest Religious Affiliation
I’ve been spending a little time on the Religion Census 2010 website. It includes a wealth of maps and numerical tables which I’m sure to draw upon for future articles. But a few data extremes came to the forefront of my mind immediately as I leafed through some of the reports. First, don’t confuse this…
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One Star Many Centers
I stumbled upon an interesting point as I researched U.S. State Capital Surnames. While Austin, Texas may have been the first and only capital of Texas once it became part of the United States, it was not the original or by any means the only capital of the Republic of Texas. This isn’t the first…
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US State Capital Surnames
We’ve waded through surnames that paired with nations and those that matched U.S. states. Now it’s time for the third and final installment of this investigation. Let’s look at surnames that match capital cities of U.S. states. A quick summary of the rules — I pulled information from Frequently Occurring Surnames from Census 2000 [link…
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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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Longest Distance in an Hour
It’s the easy questions that seem to be the most difficult to answer sometimes. The search engine query captured in my web logs appeared to be a simple affair. “What is the longest distance someone can drive in an hour.” I figured the answer would probably be the portions of the Autobahn in Germany that…
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Mainly Marathons
I always have some kind of weird geography-related scheme bubbling in the back of my mind. I’m constantly on the search for creative ideas for new places to visit. So I have one brewing at the moment — don’t know if it will actually happen — although the potential is there and I’m considering the…
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Natural Bridges
A natural bridge or natural arch appears as advertised. These geological formations erode in such a way as to leave behind an opening beneath stone that continues to stand. Water seems to be the most common denominator. Before today I never realized that a Natural Arch and Bridge Society existed “to support the interests of…
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But What’s the Meridian?
The definition of “meridian” sounds straight-forward enough. There are some ancillary definitions relating to greatest moments, highest achievements and such, plus one dealing with acupuncture. However, the one roughly analogous to longitude interests 12MC the most. From Dictionary.com: me·rid·i·an…(1.) Geography. (a.) a great circle of the earth passing through the poles and any given point…
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Alternate Rhode Islands
Something has to be the smallest. Most of us, or at least those of us in the 12MC audience from the United States, probably know that Rhode Island (map) claims this honor for the U.S. So exactly how small is it though? One hears frequently of individual counties within the United States as being “larger…