Twelve Mile Circle – An Appreciation of Unusual Places

Twelve Mile Circle

  • Florida’s Southern Keys, Part II

    We’ll be wandering our way back up the Florida keys later this morning. Then we’ll head home in a couple of days, after one more stop. My internet access will be sporadic so I’ll post this entry a little early and get back to my normal schedule when I return. Notably, I am not a…

  • Florida’s Southern Keys, Part I

    I’ll start off by saying that there’s a special place in heaven for those who leave unsecured WiFi connections open and available for public use. I thought I’d be totally disconnected from the outside world except for an occasional traipsing down to an Internet cafe but for an unknown Good Samaritan. Thank you stranger. You’ve…

  • Likoma and Chizumulu

    Examine the international boundaries that run through Lake Malawi (or Lake Nyasa as it’s also known) in Africa. Something odd will appear. No, it’s not the disputed border between Malawi and Tanzania which perhaps I’ll save for another day. Rather, notice the small circles of Malawian territory within the territorial waters of its neighbor Mozambique.…

  • Canadian Border Anomalies

    I’ve discussed border anomalies between the United States and Canada before. Previously I focused on little areas of the U.S. separated from the rest of the country such as Point Roberts, the Northwest Angle and Alburg, Vermont. Here I give equal time to the Canadians. I’ll outline a couple of instances where citizens of that…

  • Where in the World?

    UPDATE: Google purchased Picasa in 2004 and discontinued it in 2016. Unfortunately the website and this game are no longer available. This article remains here for historical purposes. I’ve come across another addictive geography game that’s occupied way too much of my time lately. I found it on the Picasa website and they call it…

  • Ice Melts, Border Changes

    Borders based on natural features cannot last forever. Topography changes over time, sometimes slowly, sometimes quickly, but invariably it happens. You may have seen a recent article that appeared in CNN, Melting glaciers in Alps forcing Italy and Switzerland to redraw their borders, that proves this point. It’s a fascinating account although the headline is…

  • Australia’s Shortest Internal Border

    What is the shortest border in Australia between any state or territory? Take a look at the map and see if you can figure it out. You won’t, but try anyway. Australian Capital Territory and New South Wales? If I were forced to guess quickly I’d probably say that a likely choice would be the…

  • Reconciliation

    I mentioned Brian Brown’s wonderful Vanishing South Georgia website previously as I explored leaf-vein patterns left behind by swamp drainage. Brian uses an interesting minimalist approach. It allows imagery to portray a wistful almost melancholy longing for a heritage slowly slipping away. He’s attempting to preserve it all visually before it decomposes back into the…

  • The Largest Smallest US County (a.k.a. it sucks getting old)

    Did yesterday’s dispatch seem a little shorter than usual? That’s because it was half the length I’d intended. To summarize briefly, each of the fifty United States has a smallest and a largest county. Yesterday I featured the largest of those smallest counties. Today I’ll take the opposite tack and present the smallest of the…

  • The Smallest Largest US County

    Every one of the fifty United States has a largest county[1]. Of that collection of counties, which is the smallest? Providence County – 436 Square Miles Providence County, Rhode Island is the smallest of those largest counties (map). That’s not too hard to believe, right? After all, Rhode Island is the smallest state and one…

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  2. what is the total population that lives now in the land given back to Virginia should it be part of…

  5. Park ranger at Chalmette (New Orleans) Battlefield let me pull up the Union Jack 20 years ago. My dad would…