AIRPORTS IN THE U.S.

KFC BAKU – LARGEST KFC IN THE WORLD

The KFC restaurant in the Azerbaijani capital of Baku is the largest KFC location in the world. The 17,200-square-foot restaurant is housed in the city’s Sabunchu rail station. The historic station was built in 1926 and was part of the Soviet Union’s first electrified railway system in 1924, linking Baku with its outlying petroleum districts. It had fallen into disrepair before KFC’s franchise partner in Azerbaijan invested 3 million euros in the station’s restoration. The restaurant seats 300 people and sells about 1.5 million meals a year.

KFC IN THE SABUNCHU RAIL STATION IN BAKU, AZERBAIJAN

KHAN SHATYR ENTERTAINMENT CENTER – WORLD’S TALLEST TENT

The Khan Shatyr Entertainment Center in Astana, Kazakhstan’s is the world’s tallest tent. The 490 feet high tent has a 660-foot elliptical base covering 140,000 square meters (35 acres). Under the tent, an area larger than 10 football stadiums, is an urban-scale park, shopping and entertainment venue with squares and cobbled streets, a boating river, shopping center, mini-golf and indoor beach resort. The fabric roof is constructed from ETFE- cushions suspended on a network of cables strung from a central spire. The transparent material allows sunlight through which, in conjunction with the  stack effect air heating and cooling systems, is designed to maintain an internal temperature between 59–86 °F in the main space and 66–75 °F in the retail units, while outside the temperature varies between −31 and 95 °F across the year.

KHAN SHATYR ENTERTAINMENT COMPLEX IN ASTANA, KAZAKHSTAN

TOP FIVE CRUDE OIL PRODUCING COUNTRIES, 1980-2018

INDIANA WEATHER EXTREMES

ELEMENT	VALUE	DATE	LOCATION
Maximum Temperature	116°	7/14/1936	Collegeville, St. Joseph County
Minimum Temperature	-36°	1/19/1994	New Whiteland
24-Hour Precipitation	10.5 inches	8/6/1905	Princeton
24-Hour Snowfall	33 inches	12/23/2004	Salem
Snow Depth	47 inches	1/28/1918	Hammond

THE IRAN MALL – WORLD’S LARGEST SHOPPING MALL

The Iran Mall, located in Northwest Tehran by Chitgar Lake, is the world’s largest shopping mall. Its first of two phases opened in 2018 and occupies an area of 15,600,000 square feet. The first phase includes 700 shops, a 215,300 square-foot hypermarket, a fashion avenue, a diamond and crystal atrium, three food courts with more than 200 restaurants, a 35,520 square-foot book garden with 67,000 volumes of books and several book stores, a cinema complex with 12 IMAX cinemas as well as a state-of-the-art 2,000-seat theater, a family entertainment center with a roofed amusement park, a museum, art galleries, a permanent car showroom, an Iranian Bazaar, and three hotels including a 5-star luxury hotel with 450 rooms, a 3,000-seat conference hall, a convention center, several galleries, and meeting and banquet facilities.

IRAN MALL UNDER CONSTRUCTION

MOST EXPENSIVE HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL STADIUMS IN TEXAS

Stadium Name	School District	Cost ($ millions)	Opened	Capacity
Cy-Fair FCU Stadium	Cy-Fair	80 (1)	2006	11,000
Legacy Stadium	Katy	70.3	2017	12,000
McKinney Stadium	McKinney	70	2018	12,000
Eagle Stadium	Allen	60	2012	18,000
District Stadium	Tomball	51.2	2020 (2)	12,000
Woodfest Bank Stadium	Conroe	49	2008	10,000
Children’s Health Stadium	Prosper	48 (3)	2012	12,000
Memorial Stadium	Beaumont	47.3 (3)	2010	10,600
Freedom Field	Alvin	41.4	2018	10,280
Challenger-Columbia Stadium	Clear Creek	39	2016	10,000
Planet Ford Stadium	Spring	38.9	2019	8,000
Alamo Stadium	San Antonio	33	2014 (4)	18,500
The Pfield	Pflugerville	25.8	2017	10,000
Ken Hall Stadium	Fort Bend	25	2004	10,000
(1)    Cost includes 9,5000 seat arena and 456 seat theater (2)    Scheduled to open in 2020 (3)    Includes cost of natatorium (4)    Originally opened in 1939, but went through $33 million renovation in 2014

INTERSTATE 70 – “THE BREEZEWOOD GAP”

One of the few instances in which there are traffic signals on an Interstate occurs on I-70 in Breezewood, Pennsylvania. I-70 uses part of US 30 along a surface road in Breezewood. Traffic traveling eastbound on I-70/I-76 must exit and travel a short distance on US 30 in order to continue east on I-70 to Hancock, Maryland*. (The routing is similar for traffic on I-70 in the opposite direction: traffic must exit and travel a short distance on US 30 in order to continue west on I70/I-76 to enter the Pennsylvania Turnpike). Local businesses have lobbied to keep the gap to avoid a perceived potential loss of business. To better understand this gap, note the map below. Begin at the lower left (Exit 161/Breezewood). West of that exit you are traveling east on I-70/I-76. When you take the Breezewood exit, you are leaving I-76, but staying on I-70. I-70/I-76 (Pennsylvania Turnpike) is a toll road, and therefore you must pay a toll before continuing on I-70. After paying toll, you continue east on I-70. Note that after you leave the toll booth you travel under the eastbound (south direction at this point) lanes of I-70, which is where you wind up after completing the Breezewood gap. Continuing eastbound on I-70 you come to US 30, where you make a cloverleaf to go westbound on US 30. At the second light you turn left to continue eastbound on I-70. Note that even though you exit onto US 30 and encounter two traffic signals, you technically never leave I-70. For an even better understanding, please enjoy the YouTube video of a motorist travelling eastbound on the I-70 Breezewood gap. *I-70 is an east-west Interstate that runs from near Cove Fort, Utah to Baltimore, Maryland. Although I-70 is an east-west route, its direction of travel out of Breezewood is south.

ELECTRA, TEXAS, BUICK ELECTRA AND LOCHEED L-188 ELECTRA TURBOPROP

Electra is a city in Wichita County, Texas. The population was 2,791 at the 2010 census. Daniel Waggoner started a ranch in present-day Electra in 1852. Around 30 years later, the Fort Worth and Denver City Railway was built. In 1885, Waggoner’s son, William Thomas Waggoner, successfully lobbied railroad executives to build a railroad station at the site. By this time, the Waggoner ranch covered a half-million acres. Until this time, the town was called Waggoner, but following the building of the station and a post office in 1889, it was dubbed Beaver Switch, after the nearby Beaver Creek. The opening of 56,000 acres of land north of the railroad station brought more farmers to the area. The town was renamed again in 1907, this time after the Waggoner’s daughter, Electra Waggoner. Electra Waggoner was born on January 6, 1882 near Decatur, Texas. She had two brothers; E. Paul Waggoner and Guy Waggoner. E. Paul Waggoner had two sons and a daughter. His daughter was born on November 8, 1912 and she was named after her aunt, Electra Waggoner. Electra (born 1912) ultimately became a well-known sculptor. A large collection of her work is featured at the Red River Valley Museum in Vernon, Texas. Electra (born 1912) also has the distinction of having both a plane, the Lockheed L-188 Electra turboprop, and a car, the Buick Electra, named after her, the latter by her brother-in-law, Harlow H. Curtice, former president of Buick and later president of General Motors.

1960 BUICK ELECTRA 225 CONVERTIBLE

AN L-188A ELECTRA OF PACIFIC SOUTHWEST AIRLINES

HONG KONG-ZHUHAI-MACAU BRIDGE

The Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge (HZMB) is a 34-mile-long bridge-tunnel system consisting of a series of there cable-stayed bridges, an undersea tunnel, and four artificial islands. It is both the longest sea crossing and the longest open-sea fixed link on earth. The HZMB spans the Lingding and Jiuzhou channels, connecting Hong Kong, Macau, and Zhuhai, three major cities on the Pearl River Delta. The Main Bridge, the largest part of the HZMB project, is a bridge-cum tunnel system constructed by the mainland Chinese authorities. It connects an artificial island, housing the Boundary Crossing Facilities (BCF) for both mainland China and Macau in the west, to the Hong Kong Link Road in the east. This section includes a 14.2-mile viaduct and 4.2-mile undersea tunnel that runs between two artificial islands. The viaduct crosses the Pearl River estuary with three cable-stayed bridges spanning between 920-feet and 1,510-feet. The Hong Kong Link Road connect the Main Bridge to an artificial island housing the Hong Kong Boundary Crossing Facilities. This section includes a 5.8-mile viaduct, a 0.62-mile Scenic Hill Tunnel and 1.0-mile at-grade road along the east coast of the Hong Kong International Airport. The Zhuhai Link Road starts from an artificial island housing the Boundary Crossing Facilities for both mainland China and Macau, passes through the developed area of Gogbei via a tunnel towards Zhuhai, and connects to three major expressways.

ZOLLVEREIN COAL MINE – MOST BEAUTIFUL COAL MINE IN THE WORLD

The Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex is a large former industrial site in the city of Essen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It has been inscribed into the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites since December 14, 2001, and is one of the anchor points of the European Route of Industrial Heritage. The first coal mine on the premises was founded in 1847, and mining activities took place from 1851 until December 23, 1986. Shaft XII, built in the New Objectivity style, was opened in 1932 and is considered an architectural and technical masterpiece, earning a reputation as the “most beautiful coal mine in the world”. The Zollverein Coking Plant, built between 1957 and 1961 in the same architectural style as Shaft XII, went into operation on September 12, 1961, and enabled the complex to achieve superlative production capacities. Following expansion in the 1970s, 10,000 tons of coal were “baked” into 8,600 tons of coke on the “black side” in 304 ovens at 1,250 degrees Celsius every day. In peak periods, the coking plant employed 1,000 people. Today, the industrial monument is a dynamic cultural location with museums dedicated to industrial heritage and design as well as numerous leisure activities and events. About 1.5 million worldwide guests visit the site every year to experience the exceptional industrial architecture.

SHAFT XII ZOLVEREIN COAL MINE

NEW CASTLE, INDIANA V. NEW CASTLE, PENNSYLVANIA

	NEW CASTLE, PA	NEW CASTLE, IN
Established/Settled	1798	1822
County Seat	Yes	Yes
Origin of Name	Unknown	Named after New Castle, KY*
Also Known As	(1)    Hot Dog Capital of the World (2)    Fireworks Capital of the World	None
Peak Population/Year	48,674 (1930)	21,215 (1970)
Claim to Fame	In 1998 was the host city for the History Channel Great Race	(1)    Birthplace of Ruth Smith (White) mother of your humble blogger (2)    “The Fieldhouse” at Chrysler High School is the largest high school gymnasium in the world. (3)    Maxwell Auto Factory was, at the time of construction in the first part of the 20th century, the largest automotive manufacturing plant in the world.
Tourist Attractions	None	Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame
Notable Companies	Zambelli Fireworks	New Castle Correctional Facility with a capacity of 3,500 inmates.
Notable People**	Chuck Tanner former MLB player and manager	Steve Alford and Kent Benson – NCAA champions at I.U.

*Fun Fact: Both New Castle, Indiana and New Castle, Kentucky are the county seat of their respective counties, and both counties are named Henry. Both counties were named after Patriot Patrick Henry, governor of Virginia.

**Your humble blogger has had to have heard of them to qualify as a notable person.

SELECTED DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILE 2013-2017 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates
	New Castle, PA	New Castle, IN
POPULATION:	21,797	17,476
AGE:
Median Age:	42.4	40.8
EDUCATION:
Educational Attainment:
Percent high school graduate or higher:	88.2	86.8
HOUSING:
Total Housing Units:	11,728	9,056
INCOME:
Median Household Income:	31,044	36,655
ORIGINS AND LANGUAGE:
Foreign Born Population	339	139
POVERTY:
Individuals below poverty level:	27.2%	23.3%
RACE AND HISPANIC ORIGIN:
White alone, Not Hispanic or Latino:	18,172	16,450
VETERANS:	1,743	1,113