THE LOST SEA

The Lost Sea is a non-subglacial underground lake in Craighead Caverns, an extensive cave system located in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains between Sweetwater and Madisonville, Tennessee. The Lost Sea is the largest underground lake in the United States and the second largest in the world. The visible surface of the lake measures 800 feet long and 220 feet wide (4.5 acres) at normal “full” capacity. The lake is 140 feet below the entrance to the cave and has a depth of at least 70 feet.

LAERDAL TUNNEL

The Laerdal Tunnel is 15.23-mile-long road tunnel connecting Laerdal and Aurland in Sogn og Fjordane, Norway. It is the longest road tunnel in the world. The tunnel carries two lanes of European Route E 16 and represents the final link on the new main highway connecting Oslo and Bergen without ferry connections and difficult mountain crossings during winter. The design of the tunnel takes into consideration the mental strain on drivers, so the tunnel is divided into four sections, separated by three large mountain caves at 3.7-mile intervals. While the main tunnel has white lights, the caves have blue lighting with yellow lights at the fringes to give an impression of sunrise.

PORTAGE LAKE LIFT BRIDGE

The Portage Lake Lift Bridge (officially the Houghton-Hancock Bridge), connects the cities of Hancock and Houghton, Michigan. It crosses Portage Lake, a portion of the waterway which cuts across the Keweenaw Peninsula with a canal linking the final several miles to Lake Superior to the northwest. The moveable bridge is a lift bridge with the middle section capable of being lifted from its low point of four feet clearance over the water to a clearance of 100 feet to allow boats to pass underneath. The bridge is the world’s heaviest and widest double-decked vertical lift bridge. More than 35,000 tons of concrete and 7,000 tons of steel went into the bridge which replaced a narrow 54-year old swing bridge.

POTOLA PALACE

The Potala Palace, the world’s highest palace, is located in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region. It is located at an altitude of 12,100 feet from sea level on the “Red Hill” in Lhasa Valley. It served as the residence of the Dalai Lama, the chief authority of Tibetan Buddhism until the 14th Dalai Lama was forced to flees to India during the 1959 Tibetan uprising. The Potola Palace is currently promoted by the Chinese government as a tourist site. It has been declared a World Heritage site by the UNESCO.

POTOLA PALACE
By Coolmanjackey - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=27853762

PUENTE HILLS LANDFILL

Puente Hills Landfill is the largest landfill in the United Sates, rising 500 feet high and covering 700 acres. As of October 31, 2013, its operating permit has been terminated and it no longer accepts new refuse. The landfill is located in the Puente Hills, in southeastern Los Angeles County near Whittier, California. When it was operating, Puente Hills Landfill took in 13 tons of trash a day. 30,000 cubic feet per minute of landfill gas created by the landfill is funneled to the Puente Hills Gas-to-Energy Facility, which generates more than 40 megawatts of electricity.

Aerial View of Puente Hills Landfill

Britta Gustafson [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)]

THE MINISKIRT

The miniskirt did not get its name from the length of the skirt, but rather it was named after Mini Cooper cars. Several designers have been credited with the invention of the 1960s miniskirt, most significantly the London-based designer Mary Quant and Parisian André Courréges. Whether or not Quant invented the miniskirt, it is widely agreed that she was one of its highest-profile champions. Quant loved Mini Cooper cars and named the garment after them, saying that car and skirt were both “optimistic, exuberant, young flirty,” and complemented each other.

MARY QUANT IN A MINISKIRT - 1966

THE HIGHEST FALLS PEOPLE HAVE SURVIVED

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QUODDY HEAD STATE PARK, MAINE

The closest U.S. state to Africa is Maine. Specifically, the closest point is a peninsula called Quoddy Head. Its lighthouse is at the easternmost point of the contiguous U.S., about 3,153 miles from El Beddouza, Morocco. Cape Bojador, Western Sahara is a close second.

Course/Circle #	Point #	Point/Center Latitude	Point/Center Longitude	Distance/Radius	Total Distance /Circumference
1	0	44 48 23 N	066 57 46 W
1	1	32 31 51 N	009 16 41 W	3153	3153
2		44 48 23 N	066 57 46 W	3153	17778
3		32 32 51 N	009 16 41 W	3153	17778
4	0	44 48 23 N	066 57 46 W
4	1	26 15 41 N	014 24 02 W	3154	3154

HANCOCK, MARYLAND

Hancock is a town in Washington County, Maryland that is notable for being located at the narrowest part of the state. The north-south distance from the Pennsylvania state line to the West Virginia state line is only 1.8 miles. The 1.8-mile distance from the Maryland/Pennsylvania state line to the Maryland/West Virginia state line is the smallest non-vertex* border-to-border distance of any U.S. state. *A vertex is a point where two or more lines, curves or edges meet.

Google Earth Screenshot Showing Distance from Maryland/Pennsylvania State Line to Maryland/West Virginia State Line

45X90 POINTS (MARATHON COUNTY, WISCONSIN)

The 45x90 points are the four points on earth which are halfway between the geographical poles, the equator the Prime Meridian and the 180th meridian*. The best-known and most frequently visited such point is 45°0’0” N 90°0’0” W which is located on land at 1,345 feet above sea level in the town of Rietbrock, Wisconsin near the unincorporated community of Poniatowski. This point is the center of the Northwest Hemisphere. The original geographic marker was placed by the Marathon County Park Commission at an incorrect location, but was removed and relocated to the correct location in 2017. The only other 45x90 point on land is 45°0’0” N 90°0’0” E, which is at an elevation of 3.311 feet above sea level and is in a desolates region of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China, near the Mongolian border. *The Prime Meridian is at 0 degrees latitude. The Anti-meridian is at 180 degrees latitude. Together they form a great circle that divides a spheroid (the earth) into two hemispheres (eastern and western).

Pathway to 45x90 Marker in Marathon County, Wisconsin

JUANCHO E YRAUSQUIN AIRPORT ON DUTCH CARIBBEAN ISLAND OF SABA

Juancho E Yrausquin Airport has the shortest runway in the world available for commercial use. The runway is 1.312 feet long and has three cliff edges over the sea, with the fourth side enclosed by high hills. The only planes allowed at the airport are regional propeller aircraft flights provided by Winair from nearby islands.

PRINCETON BRANCH (AKA “THE DINKY”)

The Princeton Branch is a commuter rail line and service owned and operated by New Jersey Transit. The line is a short branch of the Northeast Corridor Line, running from Princeton Junction northwest to Princeton with no intermediate stops. The branch is served by special shuttle trains. Now running 2.7 miles along a single track, it is the shortest scheduled commuter rail line in the U.S. The run takes approximately 5 minutes in each direction.

YANGSIGANG YANGTZE RIVER BRIDGE

The Yangsigang Yangtze River Bridge is a double-deck suspension bridge in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China. The main bridge is 5,577 feet long, 72 feet wide and carries 12 lanes of traffic in two directions. The upper and lower decks are both 6 lanes with a designed speed of 60 miles per hour. The bridge also has a pedestrian passageway, a non-motorized vehicle land and a sightseeing/leisure area. The bridge opened for traffic on October 8, 2019. The Yangsigang Yangtze River Bridge is the longest double-deck suspension bridge in the world.

U.S. SHARK INJURIES VS. BITE INJURIES IN NEW YORK CITY

NORD STREAM

Nord Stream is an offshore gas pipeline from Vyborg in the Russian Federation to Greifswald in Germany that is owned and operated by Nord Stream AG, whose majority shareholder is the Russian state company Gazprom. The project includes two parallel lines. The first line was laid in May 2011 and was inaugurated on November 8, 2011. The second line was laid in 2011-2012 and was inaugurated on October 8, 2012. At 759 miles in length, it is the longest sub-sea pipeline in the world. It has an annual capacity of 1.9 trillion cubic feet.

HEAVIEST AND LONGEST (LENGTH) TRAIN

On June 21, 2001, BHP Iron Ore set a new world record for the longest and heaviest freight train. The train traveled from Yandi mine and Port Hedland in Western Australia. The train operated 172 miles with 682 loaded iron ore cars. The train weighed 99,734 tons and measured 4.57 miles in length. The train was run as a test of distributed power, with a combined eight GE AC6000 locomotives in five locations from front to rear of the train.

WORLD'S FASTEST TRAINS (OPERATIONAL)

The “Blue/Red Dolphin” (CR400AF) and “Golden Phoenix” (CR400BF) are operated by the China Railway Corp.

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TGV – WORLD SPEED RECORD FOR A CONVENTIONAL WHEELED PASSENGER TRAIN (TEST)

The world record for a conventional wheeled passenger train is held by France's TGV (Train à Grande Vitesse), set in 2007 when it reached 574.8 km/h (357.2 mph) on a 140 km (87-mile) section of track.

JPMORGAN CHASE TOWER – HOUSTON

The JP Morgan Chase Tower, formerly Texas Commerce Tower, is a 1,002-foot tall, 75-story skyscraper at 600 Travis Street in downtown Houston. It is: ·         The tallest building in Houston ·         The tallest building in Texas ·         The tallest five-sided building in the world ·         The 22nd tallest building in the U.S. ·         The 107th tallest building in the world

JPMORGAN CHASE TOWER

63 BUILDING

The 63 Building, officially called 63 SQUARE is a skyscraper on Yeouido Island, overlooking the Han River in Seoul, South Korea. ·         At 819 feet in height, it was the tallest building outside North America when it opened in July, 1985. ·         It stood as South Korea’s tallest building until the Hyperion Tower surpassed it in 2003. ·         It is the tallest gold-clad structure in the world ·         The 60th floor houses the world’s highest art gallery

63 Building, Seoul, South Korea

THE MOST REMOTE TOWNS IN THE CONTIGUOUS U.S.

The Malaria Atlas Project spent years building a map outlining just how long it takes to cross any spot on the planet based on its transportation types, vegetation, slope, elevation and more. The Washington Post used this data to identify every populated place in the contiguous U.S. and find the one that best represents the “middle of nowhere”. Of all towns with more than 1,000 residents, Glasgow, Montana, home to 3,363 people in the rolling prairie of northeastern Montana, is farthest – about 4.5 hours in any direction – from any metropolitan area of more than 75,000 people. On a side note, Glasgow was founded in 1867 as a railroad town, and got its name when the founder spun a globe and his finger landed on Glasgow, Scotland.

2019 HURRICANE SCOREBOARD

2019 HURRICANE SCOREBOARD
	Prediction	Actual
		June	July	Aug.	Sept.	Oct.	Nov.
Named Storms*	12	0	1	3	7
Hurricanes	6	0	1	1	3
Major Hurricanes	3	0	0	1	2

*Subtropical Storm Andrea, originally named “Disturbance 1” was so named on May 20, 2019, three days before NOAA made their predictions, and eleven days before the official start of hurricane season.

2019 NAMED STORMS
Name	Month	Type	Max Wind
Barry	July	Hurricane	75
Chantal	August	Tropical Storm	40
Dorian	August	Major Hurricane	185
Erin	August	Tropical Storm	40
Fernand	September	Tropical Storm	50
Gabrielle	September	Tropical Storm	60
Humberto	September	Major Hurricane	125
Imelda	September	Tropical Storm	40
Jerry	September	Hurricane	105
Karen	September	Tropical Storm	45
Lorenzo	September	Major Hurricane	160