So if I ever find myself in a queue in Manchester while some Dutch guy buys a can of Coke with a debit card, I will know who to blame.
Luddonite and proud of it! (Not affiliated to Luddites. They are scum.)
True. I just heard that JFK flew from Fort Worth to Dallas the day of his assassination (or was it the day before?). On a typical map that fits Texas on a single page, they look like contiguous cities!
They effectively are–Dallas, Fort Worth, and a bunch of smaller cities are so run together that you can often tell the difference only by the street signs and the logos on official vehicles. That’s the “Metroplex” I was comparing to Denmark in terms of size and population earlier. It was rather less contiguous in JFK’s day, of course; they’re been a lot of build-up since then.
Based on a quick googling, the flight in question took 13 minutes. I would guess they did it that way to have the plane conveniently located for departure.
I vaguely remember it was because of security. It was less problematic to fly between cities than have (what was then) a two hour drive. Of course I was 14 at the time, so my memory is suspect.
When Hubert Humphrey visited the area, they shut down the highways ahead of and behind his car so his motorcade could pass through. That was for ol’ Happy, so for JFK it would have been much more complex. Flying, easier.
As it currently stands, you can’t just build onto a house without getting planning permission - this isn’t just about making sure you follow building and safety regs (which you must) but also that the size and design of your extension or new building is approved. We live in a small country - if anyone could build what they liked wherever they bought a piece if land, then we wouldn’t have any green spaces left, people would block other peoples light/ views with their new bathroom extensions and the country would be stuffed with ugly, poorly build sheds. It isn’t about a building being originally assigned a certain space and that’s it as you suggest (unless you live in an area designated a conservation zone due to historic reasons) - but more about trying to make sensible decisions about building development that could wreck the area or the lives or property values of the neighbours.
Funnily enough, the current government wanted to introduce legislation to allow anyone to build an extension up to 8 metres long without planning permission in a bid to boost the building economy. There was a huge outcry as we all had visions of unscrupulous builders creating monstrosities and make the neighbours lives a misery. Not sure what happened to that as it’s gone a bit quiet.
Just to add… when you apply for planning permission, the council will solicit opinion from your neighbours, who are given the opportunity to object.
Friends of mine are having this problem at the moment. They want to build a roof extension onto their early victorian townhouse to create an extra room in their loft, but the neighbours are objecting on the grounds that they will be overlooked. There is discussion going on with the council about how they may have to alter their plans - perhaps having frosted windows on the garden side that looks down on the neighbours.
Other friends, also in an early victorian townhouse, also want to have a roof extension (hey, the only way is up or down in London), but they are in a conservation area which means the council can get really picky. They have been refused on the grounds that their house is the last in the street to have a certain type of historic architectural detail in the roofline that they want to preserve for posterity. They are fighting it on the grounds that they shouldn’t be the only house in the street to be singled out like this when everyone else has had a roof extension done.
The blood alcohol allowance is four times higher in California than in Sweden.
Fun Historical Fact:
The laws in New York regulating bars used to specify that the front door needed to be locked on Sundays to enforce closing. They neglected to mention side doors.
If you were on a corner, you could lock your “front” door and have everyone enter through the door on the other street, and thus be within the letter of the law, since a well-bribed policeman woud only check that the front door was locked and be perfectly blind to the fact that the establishment was full of customers.
Probably not as much snow (or salt) as where I live (southeastern Michigan).
And on the roads from mid-November through March, newly spread every few weeks if not more frequently around Auto Show week.
Nice link. If you would have asked me what the 5th biggest state in the country was, it would have been a while before I said “New Mexico,”
Interesting that of the top-20 largest states, all but 1 (Michigan) are west of the Mississippi river. If you go by land area (removing lakes, ocean inlets, etc), all of the top-20 are western states (with Georgia at #21.)
Interesting. I’d wondered about this for awhile. It is a lot different in most of the U.S. We have a few designated historical districts where exterior modifications to homes are tightly controlled.
I’d think if you tried to fly from Meacham to Love Field, you wouldn’t even get your landing gear or flaps up before you’d be landing. It’s 29 miles East-West, so I imagine they’d have to do a big northward or southward curve to get lined up with the Love runway.
The Metroplex is very strange; most other large metro areas have one major city that absolutely dominates the area- think Houston, NYC, Chicago, etc…
The Metroplex has one very large city (Dallas- 1.21 million), one large city (Ft. Worth - 777k) and then 4 cities over 200k (Arlington, Garland, Irving, Plano), 5 between 199k and 100k (Carrollton, Richardson, Mesquite, Frisco, Grand Prairie), and a couple more around 90-99k (Allen, Lewisville). Not to mention all the smaller 15-90k towns nearby (Duncanville, White Settlement, Coppell, Hurst, Grapevine, etc…).
It’s kind of like the Randstad in the Netherlands- one big city, but broken into separate municipalities.
My family lives in Toronto, but has what is now a vacation property (used to be my grandfather’s wilderness laboratory - he studied forest bugs) in northern Quebec - a 7 hour drive by car and boat to a place that is pretty remote.
The property is on an island on lake Kipawa, and the cabin there is very primitive - you burn kerosene lamps for light and pump water by hand. The view off the dock is quite spectacular. Sometimes a day can go by without seeing a boat - although the lake is reasonably popular for recreation, it is also huge.
Taking guests from other parts of the world up there is always an interesting cultural experience. The sheer length of the journey is impressive, as is the isolation once you get there. Also, the notion that everything you see is “Crown Land” - that is, not owned by anyone. Also, the notion that such an enormous lake is basically unknown to most of the people who live in this country, only one of hundreds more or less like it. The fact that you could encounter moose and bears adds a certain interest.
I remember one time driving up there at night (we got a late start) with an English fellow from London, when a moose ambled out onto the road - we almost ran it down. It went galumphing away across the road. Scared us both, but for different reasons - I was scared I’d hit it, which could easily crush our car (moose are so large if you hit them you generally knock the legs out from under them and the body lands on your windshield/roof - crushing you - or at least, so I’ve heard). He was scared because he simply could not believe the sheer size of the beast, looming out of the dark like that.
Am I reading that link wrong? It says that Missouri is #21, Florida is #22 and Georgia is #24.
ETA: Oh, removing lakes and such. I get it.
Also (according to a member of the entourage) Kennedy wanted to arrive “in style,” so to speak.
The schedule for the trip was also very tight. I would imagine it would have taken much longer to drive into Dallas and back than to fly.
… and that means you can drive drunk in California? 
I’m not surprised about Sweden. It’s likely no one there will even want to be seen with you if you’re carrying a bottle home from the liquor store. They’re very uptight about it. (True story!)
The Finns are the same way; they often travel to St Petersburg (Russia) for drinking binges.
I’m under the impression that this doesn’t happen very much over there. I read Autocar, Evo and Car magazines and from what I gather snow there is so infrequent that most Brits don’t bother with snow tires. If I remember right, there was a serious snowfall a winter or two back that messed up travel so badly the government looked at mandating people mount them. The UK attitude towards snow seems like the US attitude towards rain in most of the country - everyone freaks out but few really prepare for it.
Here is the original Quora thread, for those who are interested. Interesting the number of Russians who are amazed that FedEx can leave a package on a doorstep… and nobody will steal it.
I’ve mentioned it many times here before, but my one huge “WTF?” moment was the Pledge of Allegiance during my first day of school:
It was terrifying.