GEOGRAPHY FACTS
• Australia is wider than the moon! Australia is about 2,485 miles across, while the Moon’s diameter is about 2,112 miles.
• The majority of Canadians live south of Seattle! Due to the shape of the continent, the most densely populated part of Canada (the Windsor-Quebec Corridor) dips quite far south.
• Canada has the longest coastline in the world! At over 125,000 miles, it’s not even close.
• Maine borders exactly one state! It only borders New Hampshire.
• Tennessee and Missouri border eight states apiece!
• Canada has almost as many lakes than the rest of the world combined! Canada has an incredible amount of freshwater, with over 31,000 “large” lakes and roughly 2 million total lakes. While it has the most lakes of any single country, it doesn’t quite have more than the entire rest of the world combined.
• A major FedEx hub is in Anchorage, Alaska! Because of the curvature of the Earth, flying over the top of the globe is the shortest route between Asia and North America. Anchorage is perfectly positioned for refueling cargo planes from around the world.
• Maryland has no natural lakes! Maryland has many man-made reservoirs, but no naturally occurring lakes.
• Maine is the closest point in the U.S. to Africa! When looking at a globe (not a flat map), the shortest distance from the US to Africa is from the coast of Maine to Morocco.
TO STAND OUT, PARENTS GIVE THEIR BABIES OUTLANDISH NAMES _ Each new generation of parents are faced with a unique set of challenges that their parents before them never encountered. However, a survey of parents finds that many may be doing their children a serious disservice all in the name of potential social media followers. In all, 7 percent of respondents said they’ve given their kid a made-up name, with half of them choosing a name with social media in mind. Some interesting names: Jaspin; Ranger; Wrenlow; Eastley; Graylen; Maevery; Faelina; Evabeth; Tessadora; Jessalie; Sophiel; Elisobelle
PEOPLE WITH LONGER THUMBS MISTYPE ON THEIR PHONES MORE OFTEN _ A study (University of Copenhagen) found those with long thumbs are more likely to make errors on their smartphone touchscreens. The researchers said: “Our study demonstrates that long thumbs alone can explain 12 percent of all the errors made of users that had to hit certain targets on the screen while holding the phone with one hand.” The conventional wisdom has been that big hands or thick fingers are to blame for the majority of errors. But this is not the case according to the researchers: “It’s the length of your thumb, not its thickness, that makes the big difference.” The long-thumbed are particularly challenged when it comes to accuracy at the bottom of the screen. The experiments demonstrate that the longer your thumb, the harder it is to guide it with precision in the lower corners of the screen.
