Sunday, March 20, 2022

KAFFEKLUBBEN ISLAND (COFFEE CLUB ISLAND)


Kaffeklubben Island or Coffee Club Island is an uninhabited island lying off the northern tip of Greenland. It contains the northernmost undisputed point of land on Earth. 

Kaffeklubben Island was first visited in 1921 by Danish explorer Lauge Koch and was named after the coffee club in Copenhagen’s Museum of Mineralogy.



Sunday, November 21, 2021

MEAN CENTER OF POPULATION FOR THE U.S.: 1790 TO 2020


The concept of the center of population as used by the U.S. Census Bureau is that of a balance point. The center of population is the point at which an imaginary, weightless, rigid, and flat surface representation of the 50 states and the District of Columbia would balance if weights of identical size were placed on it so that each weight represented the location of one person. 

The 2020 national mean center of population is 37.415725 N, 92.346525 W, the most western and southern mean center of population point in our nation’s history. The 2020 center of population is 11.8 miles from the 2010 center and 885.9 miles from the 1790 center. Hartville, Missouri, the nearest incorporated municipality to the 2020 center of population, is a town of 594 people in Wright County, Missouri.


Sunday, November 7, 2021

CRIMEAN BRIDGE


The Crimean Bridge, also called the Kerch Strait Bridge, is a pair of Russian Constructed parallel bridges, spanning the Strait of Kerch between the Taman Peninsula of Krasnodar Krai and the Kerch Peninsula of Crimea.

The road bridge was opened for non-truck cars on May 16, 2018 and for trucks on October 1.  The rail bridge was inaugurated on December 23, 2019 and the first scheduled passenger train crossed the bridge on December 25, 2019, while the opening of the bridge for freight trains is scheduled for July 1, 2020.

With a length of 11.8 miles, it is the longest bridge Russia has ever built and the longest in Europe.



THE CRIMEAN BRIDGE
By Rosavtodor.ru, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=85232127

Tuesday, October 12, 2021

SS UNITED STATES


SS United States is a retired ocean liner built in 1950-51 for the United States Line at a cost of $79.4 million.

SS United States is the largest ocean liner constructed entirely in the United States and the fastest ocean liner to cross the Atlantic in either direction.

On her maiden voyage, July 3-7, 1952, United States broke the eastbound transatlantic speed record (held by the RMS Queen Mary for the previous 14 years) by more than 10 hours, making the maiden crossing from the Ambrose lightship at New York Harbor to Bishop rock off Cornwall, UK in 3 days, 10 hours, 40 minutes at an average speed of 35.69 knots (40.96 mph).

On her return voyage United States also broke the westbound transatlantic speed record, also held by RMS Queen Mary, by returning the America in 3 days 12 hours and 12 minutes at an average speed of 34.51 knots (39.71 mph).

SS United States is currently moored at Pier 82 on the Delaware River in Philadelphia. Preservation groups have been raising funds to save the ship, but its fate remains uncertain.



SS UNITED STATES, PIER 82, COLUMBUS BOULEVARD, PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA
By Brian W. Schaller - Own work, FAL, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=61238420

Monday, July 5, 2021

BULLWINKLE OIL PLATFORM


Bullwinkle is a 1,736-foot tall, pile supported fixed steel oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico. Of the total height, 1,352 feet are below the waterline. It is located in Green Canyon Block 65, approximately 160 miles southwest of New Orleans.

Bullwinkle is the world’s tallest supported fixed steel structure. The tower is designed to resist hurricane force winds, 70’ waves, and a lifetime of stress-reversals induced by small waves.

Bullwinkle used 10 times the amount of steel as the Eiffel Tower and weighed over 50,000 tons. In order to tow it out to sea, an 853-foot long barge, the world’s largest at the time, had to be constructed.



Bullwinkle Oil Platform being towed out to sea
By Jay Phagan - Bullwinkle Oil Platform, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=102530784


Saturday, July 3, 2021

POPULATION OF ORIGINAL 13 COLONIES: 1790 CENSUS AND 2020 CENSUS

 



DUQUESNE BREWERY CLOCK – PITTSBURGH, PA

 

Located on Duquesne Brewing Company building in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the Duquesne Brewery Clock has the largest clock face in the United States. When it was installed in 1933, it was the largest single-face clock in the world.

The 60-by-60-foot clock face, with a 35-foot minute hand and a 25-foot hour hand, both of laminated aluminum, is nearly twice the size of London’s Big Ben.

Originally located on a Mount Washington hillside, the clock’s face has been used as advertising for a succession of businesses. Most recently, AT&T took over the rights to advertise on the clock and redesigned the face to display the traditional blue and white AT&T logo.



The Duquesne Brewery Clock in 2019, with no advertising