The variety of bagpipes with which most Americans are familiar is the Scottish Great Highland bagpipe, though there are a number of different types of bagpipes, which originated in various areas of Europe, Africa, and Asia.
All bagpipes create musical notes by the forcing of air from the bag through one or more pipes. In many bagpipes, such as the Great Highland bagpipe, the musician inflates the bag by blowing into a tube; in other varieties, such as the Irish uilleann pipe, the bag is inflated by using a bellows.
For the bags in bagpipes, the materials vary widely but the original materials were typically skins from farm animals such as cows, sheep, and goats, but sometimes also dog skin was used. Synthetic materials can now be used as well.
While many origami objects are decorative, such as paper cranes and animals, others are useful and functional. This includes paper wallets, baskets, egg and chopstick holders, fans, bellows that emit small puffs of air, as well as protective cylinder bellows made from high-tech materials that have found applications in space flight and medicine.
The whooping crane is one of only two species of crane found in North America, the other being the sandhill crane. Due to hunting and habitat loss, the whooping crane nearly became extinct in the middle of the 20th century – by 1941, there were only 21 known birds left in the wild, and two in captivity. Conservation and breeding efforts have led to a slow recovery for the species, which now numbers over 800, though it is still classified as Endangered.
Sand Hill Road, on the San Francisco peninsula, runs 6 miles from the intersection with El Camino Real in Palo Alto at its east end, westward along the Stanford Shopping Center and then past Stanford Hospital, and it passes in front of the offices for SLAC, the Stanford Linear Accelerator, at 2575 Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park. The west end of SLAC is at the intersection of Sand Hill Road and Whiskey Hill Road, and the west end of Sand Hill Road is at the intersection of Portola Road in Woodside CA.
Drivers on Interstate 280 can see, briefly if they know where to look, the Stanford Linear Accelerator as the interstate passes over it at the approximate Lat / Long of 37.415773, -122.210718
‘Palo Alto’ means tall stick in Spanish. The city is named after a coastal redwood tree called El Palo Alto. The town was established by Leland Stanford Sr. when he founded Stanford University, following the death of his son, Leland Stanford Jr.
Stanford University’s athletic teams are known as the Stanford Cardinal – a singular noun, referring to the shade of red used in the teams’ uniforms.
The school’s teams had previously been known as the Indians (from 1930 until 1972), and the Cardinals (from 1972 until 1981).
Stanford does not have an official mascot, but it does have an unofficial mascot, the “Stanford Tree,” which is portrayed by a member of the Stanford band in a tree outfit. The Tree is a reference to El Palo Alto, the redwood tree in Palo Alto which appears on the school’s athletic logo.
The largest cheese factory east of the Mississippi is in Alto, Wisconsin, a village so small that it doesn’t have a post office. Alto and Ladoga WI have the Zipcode of Waupun. Ladoga was the site if the first cheese factory in Wisconsin, in 1844.
The city name of Waupun WI comes from the Ojibwe word “Waubun” which means “the east,” “the morning,” “the twilight of dawn” and “dawn of day.” In fact, Waupun was originally supposed to be named “Waubun” but the State of Wisconsin made a spelling error, and Waupun never bothered to change it.
Waubun MN, 500 miles to the northwest of Waupun WI (map >> Google Maps), was incorporated on December 18, 1907, 70 years after Waupun WI was founded.
The original exhibit-sized casting of Fraser’s iconic statue “End of the Trail” stands in Waupun WI, commissioned by Clarence Shaler. After Shaler’s death, I grew up iin the Shaler mansion, then converted to a rental duplex. Shaler invented a quick vulcanizing kit, which revolutionized roadside tire repair lin the 1930s. End of the Trail (Fraser) - Wikipedia
Waupun WI is known as The City of Sculpture. Besides End of the Trail, the city also hosts outdoor sculptures by Clarence Addison Shaler, a manufacturer, inventor, and sculptor from the local area. These sculptures include The Dawn of Day, Who Sows Believes in God, The Pioneers, and The Recording Angel.
The Freedom Trail is a 2.5-mile-long path through downtown Boston. It passes by 16 historical locations, including the Paul Revere House, Old North Church, and the USS Constitution.
The American Freedom Train was a mobile historical exhibit, which toured U.S. cities during 1975 and 1976, as part of the American Bicentennial celebration.
The train, which consisted of 10 display cars (which had been built from converted New York Central and Penn Central baggage cars), was pulled by three different steam locomotives over the course of its journey. A range of items from American history were displayed on board the train, including George Washington’s copy of the U.S. Constitution, the original Louisiana Purchase document, Martin Luther King’s pulpit and robes, and a rock from the Moon.
Many of the early steam locomotives were designed not for passengers but for industry and coal mining. “Puffing Billy” is the world’s oldest surviving steam locomotive, constructed in 1813–1814 for the Wylam Colliery near Newcastle upon Tyne, in the United Kingdom.
The Schenectady Locomotive Works, in Schenectady NY, was founded in 1848 and operated until its merger with Alco, American Locomotive Company, in 1901. After the merger Alco’s headquarters was still located in Schenectady. Alco built the fastest American locomotives, the Class A Atlantic and Class F7 Hudson streamliners for the Milwaukee Road’s Twin Cities Hiawatha run in the 1930s, capable of speeds over 100 miles per hour.
ALCO also built the most powerful steam locomotives ever, the Union Pacific “Big Boys”, between 1941 and 1944. Basically two locomotives on a single frame, they used a 4-8-8-4 wheel arrangement (four wheels on a leading truck, two sets of eight driving wheels, and a 4-wheel trailing truck). Originally given the name of “Wasatch” (after the Wasatch Mountain range), it acquired its better-known moniker when an anonymous worker scribbled the name “Big Boy” in chalk on the front of engine #4000 as it was under construction as the first of the class.
ALCO built a total of 25 of these behemoths, of which eight survive — seven on static display in various locations across the US, and the eighth (#4014) in the hands of the Union Pacific Railroad. It has been painstakingly restored and is maintained in operating condition, and occasionally makes excursion and PR trips to this day.
Big Boy is a restaurant chain, originally founded by Bob Wian in California in the 1930s.
For many years, the name, menu, and mascot were licensed to regional franchisees, many of which would append their own name to the Big Boy name. Thus, there were Bob’s Big Boy restaurants in California, Marc’s Big Boy in the Upper Midwest, Frisch’s Big Boy in Ohio, Elias Brothers’ Big Boy in Michigan, Shoney’s Big Boy in the South, etc.
The Upper Peninsula of Michigan has the only counties in the USA where a plurality of residents claim Finnish ancestry. The Upper Peninsula contains 29% of the land area of Michigan but just 3% of its total population. Residents there are called Yoopers, for “UP-ers”.
