Chapter 531

This one is compliments of Gary

Not a joke or giggle but some interesting comments:

Interesting& Amazing Facts - Geography

Alaska
More than half of the coastline of the entire United States is in Alaska.

Amazon
* The Amazon rainforest produces more than 20% the world’s oxygen supply.
* The Amazon River pushes so much water into the Atlantic Ocean that, more than one hundred miles at sea, off the mouth of the river, one can dip fresh water out of the ocean.
* The volume of water in the Amazon river is greater than the next eight largest rivers in the world combined and three times the flow of all rivers in the United States.

Antarctica
*Antarctica is the only land on our planet that is not owned by any country.
* Ninety percent of the world’s ice covers Antarctica. This ice also represents seventy percent of all the fresh water in the world.
* As strange as it sounds, however, Antarctica is essentially a desert. The average yearly total precipitation is about two inches.
* Although covered with ice (all but 0.4% of it, i.e.), Antarctica is the driest place on the planet, with an absolute humidity lower than the Gobi desert.

Brazil
Brazil got its name from the nut, not the other way around.

Canada
* Canada has more lakes than the rest of the world combined.
* Canada is an Indian word meaning “Big Village.”

Chicago
Next to Warsaw, Chicago has the largest Polish population in the world.

Detroit
Woodward Avenue in Detroit, Michigan carries the designation M - 1, named so because it was the first paved road anywhere.

Damascus, Syria
Damascus, Syria, was flourishing a couple of thousand years before Rome was founded in 753 BC, making it the oldest continuously inhabited city in existence.

Istanbul, Turkey
Istanbul, Turkey is the only city in the world located on two continents.

Los Angeles
Los Angeles’s full name is El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciuncula --and can be abbreviated to 3.63% of its size: L.A.

New York City
* The term “The Big Apple” was coined by touring jazz musicians of the 1930s who used the slang __expression “apple” for any town or city. Therefore, to play New York City is to play the big time - The Big Apple.
* There are more Irish in New York City than in Dublin, Ireland; more Italians in New York City than in Rome, Italy; and more Jews in New York City than in Tel Aviv, Israel.

North America - Africa
Percentage of Africa that is wilderness: 28. Percentage of North America that is wilderness: 38.