Twelve Mile Circle – An Appreciation of Unusual Places

Twelve Mile Circle

  • European Latitude Paradoxes

    There aren’t any great research efforts or revelations today, just some interesting observations about various lines of latitude in western Europe. I spend a lot of time simply looking at maps, at the patterns, and the logical contradictions that aren’t always apparent in our conventional thoughts. These are a few that have made me smile…

  • EXTREME County Counting

    Many of us are County Counters here on Twelve Mile Circle. I’m a practitioner myself and I’ve been known to go a couple hours out of my way to pick up a few new ones. However, what would you say about a plan to visit every single county in New England within a 24-hour period?…

  • Nuevo León’s Quirky International Border

    The border between the United States and Mexico has been a frequent topic of news and conversation this summer. But let’s be clear; Twelve Mile Circle doesn’t generally focus on political issues. Even so, it does have an interest in situations created by geography such as the recent border pirate phenomenon. In fact it was…

  • Should I Ban China?

    Twelve Mile Circle is about Geography, Geo-Oddities, Travel and the sharing of thoughts and ideas. Would it be ethical to ban 1.3 billion readers for the sins of a minuscule few? That would equal nearly 20% of the world’s population! The Problem China has become my website’s bane of existence. Internet Protocol addresses geo-locating to…

  • All Vowel Place Names

    I come across various language trivia lists on the Intertubes all the time. They cover a thousand different topics but some of them focus on words of unnatural length composed solely of vowels. It doesn’t take much to entertain me but you already knew that. They’re somewhat amusing but they do tend to stretch towards…

  • Magic Roundabout

    My childhood happened in a time before video games completely transformed the adolescent earth. Sure, we enjoyed a little screen time with those early Atari consoles but we also had plenty of non-electronic diversions too. I loved making intricate designs as they sprang forth from highly simplistic repetitive motions on a Spirograph. Those crazy geometric…

  • Islands Below Sea Level

    Are there any islands below sea level? The question seemed absurd on its surface when I noticed it lodged in my web logs in the form of a search engine query. However I’ve learned to not be so dismissive. I’ve uncovered increasingly obscure artifacts and encountered surprisingly unusual situations in the years I’ve written Twelve…

  • Ultralineamentum

    I follow the usual geography blogs each day like many of you probably do too. They all seem to have distinct personalities even if they cover the same subjects already blossoming in the popular media. I wouldn’t trade those blogs for anything. They’re informative and insightful, and I enjoy them. However, I wouldn’t try to…

  • Australia’s Longest Straight Line?

    Lines continue to fascinate me, both imaginary and real. I found myself pondering the website of Australian Rail Maps, looking at their Western Australia page. I’d heard about a specific segment crossing the hauntingly desolate Nullarbor Plain and I intended to investigate it further. It’s here, between kilometre 797 west of Ooldea (South Australia) and…

  • Colorado’s Paradox

    It’s a paradox. How does a search engine decide that my website is a good source of information on the naming of the tiny town of Paradox, Colorado? I’d mentioned it only one time in a most innocuous way. I’d been examining a kink in the boundary between Colorado and neighboring Utah. Back then I…

Latest Comments

  1. I’ve enjoyed your Hawaii reports. I’ve visited 4 times, between 1976 and 2007, but no plans to return. In 1976…

  2. The British flag continues to fly at Roche Harbor, a couple miles north of English Camp.

  4. Been there Once for a few years. In 76 &77. Ran cooperative store. Even though it was very isolated It…

  5. As an Alaskan I always wondered why Interstates were a big deal. From my point of view a road went…