Maldives, an archipelago nation in the Indian Ocean, is comprised of 1,192 coral islands. It is the lowest nation on Earth, with an average elevation above sea level of only 1.5 meters, and its highest natural elevation point above sea level is only 2.4 meters.
The highest point in Denmark is 170 meters. There is a planning group tha hopes to build a ski mountain more than half that height, out of trash.
Ski Dubai is an indoor ski resort with 22,500 square meters of indoor ski area located in the Middle East, where the outdoor temperature seldom goes below 60F and is often above 100F. The park maintains a temperature of -1 degree to 2 degrees Celsius throughout the year. It is a part of the Mall of the Emirates, one of the largest shopping malls in the world, located in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The indoor resort features an 85-metre-high indoor mountain (equivalent to a 25-story building) with 5 slopes of varying steepness and difficulty, including a 400-metre-long run.
Howelsen Hill ski area, located in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, is believed to be the first ski resort to open in North America. Founded in 1914 by Norwegian immigrant Carl Howelsen, the resort has produced almost 90 Olympians, more than any other ski area in the country.
Norwegian Carl Howelsen was born in Christiania, Norway, in 1877. Christiania was named in honor of King Christian IV. He lived from 1577-1648. King Christian IV was King of Denmark and Norway and Duke of Holstein and Schleswig from 1588 to 1648. His 59-year reign is the longest of Scandinavian monarchies.
Christiania functioned as the capital of Norway during the 1814–1905 union between Sweden and Norway, a common monarch and common foreign policy that lasted from 1814 until its peaceful dissolution in 1905.
In the late 1800s the city’s name was changed from Christiania to Kristiania.
In 1925 the city’s name was changed from Kristiania to Oslo.
Jan Stenerud was a Norwegian exchange student, who came to the U.S. in 1964 to attend Montana State University on a ski jumping scholarship. Stenerud, who had played soccer in Norway, was seen kicking a football by one of the school’s coaches, and recruited to join the school’s football team as a placekicker.
Stenerud went on to be an All-American at Montana State, both as a placekicker, and as a ski jumper; he then had a 19-year career in the NFL as a kicker, and became the first “pure specialist” to be elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Jan Hus was a Czech theologian and philosopher who became a Church reformer and the inspiration of Hussitism, a key predecessor to Protestantism and a seminal figure in the Bohemian Reformation. Hus was a master, dean, and rector at the Charles University in Prague. On 6 July 1415, he was burned at the stake for heresy against the doctrines of the Catholic Church. He could be heard singing Psalms as he was burning.
The Breeders’ Stakes is a stakes race for Thoroughbred race horses foaled in Canada, first run in 1889. Since 1959, it has been the third race in the Canadian Triple Crown for three-year-olds
Although the word thoroughbred is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thoroughbred breed. The Thoroughbred was developed in 17th-and 18th-century England; all modern Thoroughbreds can trace their pedigrees to three stallions originally imported into England at that time.
George Thorogood is a blues rock musician, originally from Wilmington, Delaware. He has performed with his band, the Destroyers (originally “the Delaware Destroyers”) since the 1970s. Thorogood’s song “Bad to the Bone” is frequently used in advertisements, movies, and television shows, and he and his band performed at the 1985 Live Aid benefit concert in Philadelphia, accompanied by Albert Collins and Bo Diddley.
Officially denied: Will Prince Charles Change His Name When He Becomes King?
In play:
Michael Collins the late Irish freedom-fighter and Michael Collins the Apollo 11 astronaut, now 90, are not related.
The Tom Collins is a drink made of gin, lemon or lime juice, soda, and sugar. It has never been into space, but may have shown up in an Irish pub somewhere.
The Collins mixer is a soft drink that allows you to make a Tom Collins by just adding gin.
Gin emerged in England after the introduction of the jenever, a Dutch and Belgian liquor that was originally a medicine. Although this development had been taking place since the early 17th century, gin became widespread after the William of Orange-led 1688 Glorious Revolution and subsequent import restrictions on French brandy. Gin today is produced in different ways from a wide range of herbal ingredients, giving rise to a number of distinct styles and brands. After juniper, gin tends to be flavored with botanical/herbal, spice, floral or fruit-flavours or often a combination.
Syracuse University, a private university in Syracuse, New York, uses the nickname “the Syracuse Orange” to refer to members of their intercollegiate sports teams; prior to 2004, they used the names “Orangemen” and “Orangewomen.”
The name is likely a reference to the Netherlands, as New York was initally colonized by the Dutch, and many locations in upstate New York have Dutch-related names.
According to the Syracuse Orange, the original colors adopted by Syracuse University for its athletic teams were rose pink and pea green, chosen in 1872. The colors were changed the next year to rose tint and azure, later becoming pink and blue.
Later, however, it was determined that new colors should be chosen. A committee made up of students and faculty members discovered that orange had not been adopted by any college or university as a single color. In 1890 the Alumni Association rendered a unanimous decision and orange has been the sole official color of Syracuse University since that year.
Not in play: baaaaaarf! 
The Sea Wing disaster occurred on July 13, 1890 when a strong squall line overturned the excursion vessel Sea Wing on Lake Pepin near Lake City, Minnesota. Approximately 215 people were aboard the vessel when it overturned and as a result of the accident 98 passengers drowned. An excursion barge that was being towed by the Sea Wing was either cut loose or broke loose and survived the disaster with its passengers unharmed. It is one of the worst maritime disasters that has occurred on the upper Mississippi River.
Wind also caused the collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge spanning Puget Sound in Washington, four months after it opened in July 1940. Undergraduate physics textbooks usually blame this disaster on forced resonance - vibrating at a specific frequency. In fact, the cause was actually aeroelastic flutter, rhythmic pitching due to solid sides which would not allow the wind to pass through. The bridge was known for its jerking motions. In Canada, engineering students wear an iron ring, in part to remember the importance of cautious measurement.
I live about about 60 miles downriver from Lake Pepin and had not heard of the
Sea Wing disaster before.
-"BB-"
In play: locals nicknamed the Tacoma Narrows Bridge “galloping Gertie” because she’d move quite a bit in the wind.