Lafayette CA, some 25 miles NE of San Francisco, was formerly called Rancho Acalanes. The name Acalanes comes from the Ohlone word Ahala-n, the name of a Ohlone native village in the area.
In the early 1860s, Lafayette CA was briefly the site of a station for the Pony Express.
Upon his return to France, Lafayette was elected to the post of commander in chief of the Bourgeois Militia on 15 July 1789, and it was renamed the “National Guard”. Similar bodies were spontaneously created in the towns and rural districts of France in response to widespread fears of chaos or counter-revolution. When the French Guards mutinied and were disbanded during the same month, the majority of this former royal regiment’s rank and file became the full-time cadre of the Paris National Guard.
Initially each city, town and village maintained its own National Guard, until they were united on 14 July 1790 under Lafayette, who was appointed “Commandant General of all the National Guards of the Kingdom”.
The next total solar eclipse (TSE) to cross CONUS will be on 08 Apr 2024. This TSE will travel from Mazatlan to Newfoundland.
Between Mazatlan and Newfoundland, the path totality will hit Bogota, Paris, Italy, Athens, Denmark, Geneva, Persia, Bagdad, Holland, Vienna, Copenhagen, Rome, and Holland (again?).
(That’s Bogota TX, Paris TX, Italy TX, Athens AR, Denmark IL, Geneva IL, Persia NY, Bagdad NY, Holland NY, Vienna NY, Copenhagen NY, Rome NY, and Holland VT.)
It will also hit Lafayette, Ohio.
(When’s the next U.S. total solar eclipse? — EarthSky | When is the next total solar eclipse in North America?)
The overlap of the paths of totality of the 2017 eclipse and the 2024 eclipse lies in three states: Illinois, Missouri, and Kentucky. Carbondale, Illinois, is one of the cities that will experience two total eclipses in both 2017 and 2024.
Bad and misleading grammar. I should have said:
Carbondale, Illinois, is one of the cities that will experience a total eclipse in both 2017 and 2024.
The flags of Monaco and Indonesia are virtually identical, each with red and white horizontal stripes, but for their dimensions and the shade of red.
ETA: D’oh! New page. Carbondale, Ill. does not appear to have a municipal flag.
In the closing months of World War II, Japan had agreed to grant Indonesia, which they had captured from the Netherlands, its independence. The surrender agreement, however, required Japan to maintain the status quo in the areas it still controlled, until Allied forces could move in, and that forced Japan to send troops back in to reoccupy the country temporarily. That set up an armed rebellion of independence by Indonesians against the Dutch reoccupation forces.
The Philippines has 7,107 islands, but at low tide the number increases, perhaps to 7,500 or 7,600 depending on the source. Officially, there does not appear to be an answer.
According to the Indonesian Coordinating Ministry for Maritime Affairs, of 17,504 officially listed islands within the territory of the Republic of Indonesia, 16,056 island names have been verified by the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names (UNGEGN) as of July 2017.
As for their coastlines and how they compare, the Philippines and Indonesia:
54,720 km: Indonesia
36,289 km: Philippines
The coastline paradox describes a phenomenon where the coastline length depends on how frequently one takes a measurement. For example, if the coastline of Great Britain is measured using units 100 km long, then the length of the coastline is approximately 2,800 km. With 50 km units, the total length is approximately 3,400 km, or approximately 600 km longer.
The train named the Orange Blossom Special, famous as the subject of the most popular fiddle tune, operated from New York to Florida on the Seaboard Air Line, which merged with the Atlantic Coast Line to form the Seaboard Coast Line. “Air Line” before the days of aerial navigation meant “straight line” or “as the crow flies”. The Coast Line operated the Silver Star and Silver Meteor, which are the surviving Florida trains in the Amtrak network.
The notable U.S. Supreme Court case Strickland v. Washington, about the ineffective assistance of counsel in criminal cases, does not come from Washington State, as one might expect. It arose from a Florida criminal case.
In the District of Columbia v Heller case of 2008, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that an individual has a right to possess a firearm unconnected with service in a militia for traditionally lawful purposes.
The Second Amendment states (and there are two versions shared here):
[ul]
[li]A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.[/li][li]A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.[/ul][/li](Please see Wikipedia: Second Amendment to the United States Constitution - Wikipedia)
The differences in capitalization and punctuation have been a source of debate, particularly with interpreting the three words, well, regulated, and militia.
The Washington National Cathedral in Washington, District of Colombia, has the head of Darth Vader sculpted on it as a grotesque. The grotesques are part of the National Cathedral’s rain control system. They deflect rainwater by bouncing it off the tops of their heads and away from the stone walls.
Colombia does not lead the world in coffee production, they trail Brazil and Vietnam. But Colombia is the world’s largest producer of Arabica, the high quality bean that gives coffee its distinctive flavor. Most coffee blends are a mix of Arabica with poorer quality Robusta filler…
The coffee tree is a tropical evergreen shrub and grows between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. Around 70 countries produce coffee. It is estimated that 3.5 billion cups of coffee are consumed worldwide every day.
The drive to Cabo San Lucas is about 1,000 miles long, from San Diego. From La Paz, the capital of BCS MEX (the state of Baja California Sur), Cabo is 100 miles south if you take the shortest route through Todos Santos (and past the supposedly (but not) “real” Hotel California). But if you take the slightly longer eastern route, through Los Barriles and Santiago, you pass a nice monument marking the Tropic of Cancer. On the shorter route, it is not marked. It is a good place for a selfie.
gImage (not mine), the sign Tropico de Cancer: https://www.google.com/search?q=tropic+of+cancer+baja&client=safari&hl=en-us&prmd=mivn&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiWzty6kKzZAhWDx4MKHdG6BHcQ_AUIEigC&biw=768&bih=922#imgrc=92aJo6hvZ3aw3M:
gImage, Monument (not mine): https://www.google.com/search?q=tropic+of+cancer+baja&client=safari&hl=en-us&prmd=mivn&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiWzty6kKzZAhWDx4MKHdG6BHcQ_AUIEigC&biw=768&bih=922#imgrc=qd6Ol70xc5fo7M:
gMap: Google Maps
Where I live, the Sun is near zenith at high noon in April and again in August. The U.S.A. is north of the Tropic of Cancer, so the Sun never approaches zenith there.
On 21 August 1959, Hawaii became the 50th state to join the Union.
Hawaii is the only state in the United States to experience Lāhainā Noon, which is a tropical solar phenomenon when the Sun culminates at the zenith at solar noon. At Lāhainā Noon, in roughly May and July each year, objects that stand straight up (like flagpoles, telephone poles, etc.) will not cast a shadow.
Lahaina Noon was the selected appellation because lā hainā (the old name for Lāhainā, Hawaii) means “cruel sun” in the Hawaiian language. The ancient Hawaiian name for the event was kau ka lā i ka lolo which literally translates as “the sun rests on the brains.”
There is a legend that after Charles I was beheaded, a cloaked and hatted man came to the chapel that night where the body and head were being coffined, looked at the remains and said “Cruel necessity”, then walked out. The speculation was that the man was Oliver Cromwell.
Historians doubt that it happened, but the legend persisted.
Davy Jones, best known as a member of The Monkees, was the original Artful Dodger in the original London and Broadway productions of the musical Oliver!, and was nominated for a Tony Award for the latter.
The Los Angeles Dodgers baseball club was originally formed in Brooklyn in 1883. They initially played in the American Association and, depending on the source, were originally known as the Grays or Atlantics. By the time they joined the National League in 1890, they were known as the Bridegrooms. In the ensuing years they were also called the Grooms, Superbas, Robins, and Trolley Dodgers before officially becoming the Dodgers in 1933.