The oldest living thing in the New York metropolitan area is this 40-meter tulip poplar in Alley Pond Park in Queens.
With an estimated age of 350 to 450 years, it may already have been growing when Henry Hudson sailed into New York Bay in 1609.
A raindrop that falls in Erie County, Pa., will travel 2,147 miles to the Gulf of Mexico rather than 15 miles to Lake Erie.
Via MapPorn. River Runner will trace any drop falling in the contiguous United States.
In areas of mountainous terrain and wildnerness, the border between the United States and Canada is kept clear of brush and vegetation to a width of 6 meters, forming a visible line between the nations that’s visible in satellite images.
The deforested segments total more than 2,000 kilometers.
(The fourth is due to Mick Tully, the fifth to David Armstrong.)
This cottage, at 112 Mercer Street in Princeton, New Jersey, has been home to three Nobel winners: Albert Einstein lived there from 1935 to 1955; physicist Frank Wilczek between 1989 and 2001; and economist Eric Maskin until 2012.
It resides on the National Register of Historic Places and has been designated a U.S. National Historic Landmark, but it bears no outward marker of its significance.
This is just pleasing somehow: The Japanese railway station with the shortest name is Tsu Station in Mie Prefecture.
The name is written with a single stroke.
Roald Dahl wrote the film adaptations for two of Ian Fleming’s novels, You Only Live Twice and Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang.
(Thanks, Ben and Fred.)
The “tails” sides of British coins less than £1 can be arranged to depict the Royal Shield from the monarch’s coat of arms.
The full Royal Shield appears on the £1 coin.
“Whoopee! Man, that may have been a small one for Neil, but that’s a long one for me!” — Pete Conrad, after becoming the third human to set foot on the moon
The highest recorded temperature on Mars (35° C) is higher than the highest temperature on record for Scotland (33.2° C).
(Thanks, Jay.)
