Twelve Mile Circle – An Appreciation of Unusual Places

Category: Distance

  • Natural Forces: Gravitation

    Let’s talk about gravity. No, not the physical property whereby objects attract with forces proportional to their masses, but instead the little town in Iowa. I stumbled upon Gravity, Iowa figuratively as I researched the recent Gravity Hills article. Gravity doesn’t have a gravity hill as far as I know so it didn’t elicit a…

  • Semi-Practical Exclaves Galore!

    I mentioned a semi-practical exclave in Australia a few days ago. This was a spot in New South Wales where a resident in an automobile could exit his neighborhood without ever leaving NSW. However, he could return only via Queensland. I noted somewhat tongue-in-cheek that the “…situation becomes very special, perhaps unique, meaning I didn’t…

  • Devil’s Highway

    Here is wisdom. He that hath understanding, let him count the number of the beast; for it is the number of a man: and his number is Six hundred and sixty and six. — Revelation 13:18 Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia –- Fear of the number 666 A national highway in the western United States carried the “number of…

  • Railroad Ferry

    Ferries for trains? I thought it might be a late April Fool’s joke when I first encountered the possibility. They do exist. For the sake of accuracy I should note that operators do uncouple the railcars into shorter segments. The entire train doesn’t simply roll onto a ship in one long string. I’d love to…

  • Little Circles

    I love circles, which I guess would be an entirely redundant statement on Twelve Mile Circle. I’ve been toying with a concept in the back of my mind for awhile. What it the smallest circle that I can draw on a map that touches the largest number of countries? Google Maps doesn’t offer such a…

  • What-le-What?

    I ponder the intricacies of maps, just staring at various corners of the world for no particular reason. I think that’s fairly typical for much of the 12MC crowd although maybe not completely understood by the public at large. That’s their loss. How else would I find an odd conglomeration of LE towns in the…

  • Longest International Bridge

    I like extremes. The middle is boring. I’m also fairly certain that if I feature one end of the spectrum such as the Shortest International Bridge, that I’ll also feature the other end eventually. However, it’s going to be difficult to compete with that earlier article. Reader participation during the hunt and resulting discussions were…

  • As the Bird Flies

    There are people who read Twelve Mile Circle from places located literally around the globe. It’s hard to believe in an era of instantaneous worldwide communication that pigeons were once considered a viable method to pass information in certain specialized instances. Often these were for specific military or governmental purposes. However, I’m not quite as…

  • Run on Water

    Occasionally I’ll come across something really interesting, at least to me, and I’ll save it away for a more appropriate time. That’s great when it works. It’s much less impressive when other factors conspire to take away its very reason for being. Sadly, the 2012 “Run on Water” will be the “Run by the Water”…

  • All Lined Up

    Sometimes I feel like researching a topic and presenting it in exacting detail with supporting maps and illustrations. Other times I simply gaze at a map and draw a few lines. Today it’s about the lines. There’s nothing intellectual here, it’s more of a game. What is the maximum number of states I can cross…