Local questions

Denver Water prohibits swimming, scuba diving, water skiing and other any other activities that involve direct human contact with the water at Dillon Reservoir in Colorado. With an elevation of 9,017 feet (or 2,748 meters) above sea level, Lake Dillon’s water is cold year-round, ranging from 45 to 65°F (or 7 to 18°C), and generally considered too cold to safely Read more...

Renowned electrical engineer and inventor Nikola Tesla had an apartment in the Radio Wave Building in New York City in the late 19th century, when it was known as the Gerlach Hotel. He emigrated to the United States in 1884, establishing laboratories in Manhattan where he experimented with electrical energy and patented many discoveries. He stayed at the Gerlach for Read more...

The Boerum Hill neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York, is named after the Boerum family who farmed land in the area in the 18th century. Despite the implied historical connection, Boerum Hill is a relatively recent name, only coined in the mid-1960s by a new resident of the neighborhood, known as North Gowanus up to that point. Recognizing the architectural significance Read more...

The Dublin suburb of Blanchardstown is named after the Blanchard family who were granted lands there in the mid-13th century. The personal name Blanchard is thought to be of French origin, likely derived from the word Blanchart used for someone with white or fair hair or complexion, and also an old term for a white horse. Until the mid-1960s, Blanchardstown Read more...

Fernie in southeastern British Columbia is a small city in the Canadian Rockies notable for being an outdoor adventure destination for snowsports and mountain biking, its well-preserved historic downtown area, and for one of Canada’s worst mining accidents when an explosion at the Crow’s Nest Coal Mining Company mine killed 109 miners in 1902. Surrounded on all sides by the Read more...

The Textor Disc sculpture was created by Jack Squier and mounted on the top of Textor Hall at Ithaca College in 1967. Also known as the Textor Ball or Textor Fish, the silver-colored 10-foot (or 3-meter) high circular abstract sculpture is carved from styrofoam supported on a steel frame, which was then covered in fiberglass and finished in aluminium leaf. Read more...

The Astoria neighborhood in Queens, New York City, is named after prominent German-American businessman John Jacob Astor, said to be the first multi-millionaire in the United States. In the first half of the 19th century, much of the then-rural area, including the village of Hallett’s Cove, was owned by wealthy fur trader Stephen Halsey. His older brother, John Halsey, was Read more...

The townsite of Jasper, Alberta, has an elevation of 1,060 metres (or 3,480 feet) above sea level. Located in the Athabasca River valley of the Canadian Rocky Mountains, Jasper is some 323 meters (or 1,057 feet) lower in elevation than Banff, Canada’s highest town, to the southeast. Read more...

The first Tim Hortons store opened in Hamilton, Ontario, on May 17th, 1964, on the site of a former gas station at the corner of Ottawa Street North and Dunsmure Road in the city’s Crown Point neighbourhood. Established by professional NHL ice hockey player Tim Horton and Jim Charade, the first Tim Horton Donuts location was a franchise opened by Read more...

The Eshima Ohashi bridge in Japan is not as steep as it appears in images circulating widely on the internet. Pictures of the bridge show cars travelling along an incredibly steep road deck, but it is mostly an illusory effect caused by photographing the bridge from a distance with a telephoto lens. The fixed-frame bridge crosses Nakaumi lake and connects Read more...

The Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional (or FALN), in English: Armed Forces of National Liberation, claimed to have planted the bomb at Fraunces Tavern in Manhattan’s Financial District on January 24th, 1975. An attaché case packed with explosives, placed in the tavern’s entrance hallway, detonated during a busy Friday lunchtime, killing four people and injuring more than 50 others. The Read more...

The city of Sparks, Nevada, is named after John Sparks, the governor of Nevada between 1903 and 1908. Located 3.5 miles (or 5.6 kilometers) east of Reno, Sparks grew around a rail switching yard established by the Southern Pacific Railroad. The settlement was renamed Sparks in 1904 after being variously called East Reno, Glendale, and Harriman, after E H Harriman, president Read more...

The Minnesota Wild NHL ice hockey team plays its home games at the Xcel Energy Center in downtown St Paul, Minnesota. Built on the site of the demolished St Paul Civic Center, the arena opened on September 29, 2000, when the Minnesota Wild played their first ever game, in a preseason 3-1 win against the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim. They Read more...

The newly-constructed Nipigon River Bridge in northern Ontario heaved apart in January 2016 due to multiple bolt failure during a winter storm, causing the bridge deck to lift by around 60 centimetres (or 24 inches). The bridge, part of the Trans Canada Highway, was closed to vehicular traffic for 17 hours, severing the only road link between eastern and western Read more...

The probable cause of the Florida International University pedestrian bridge collapse on March 15th, 2018, was load and capacity calculation errors by the bridge designers, according to a National Transportation Safety Board investigation. The partially-constructed elevated foot bridge was being installed to improve pedestrian access across Southwest 8th Street, an eight-lane highway separating the FIU campus in University Park, a Read more...

Bridgeport is the most populous city in Connecticut, notable for its links to circus impresario PT Barnum, being the home of Beardsley Zoo, and as the birthplace of the Subway restaurant chain and the Frisbie Pie Company. Phileas T Barnum was elected as mayor of Bridgeport in 1875, overseeing a period of improvements in city infrastructure and services, including the Read more...

Vinegar Hill in Brooklyn, New York City, is named after the Battle of Vinegar Hill, a major clash between the United Irishmen and British forces that took place in Ireland during the Irish Rebellion of 1798. The neighborhood was named by John Jackson who was developing his land holdings on this stretch of the East River waterfront in the early Read more...

US rapper Young Dolph was killed in a drive by shooting in Memphis, Tennessee, on November 17th, 2021. The 36-year-old musician was shot dead shortly before 1 pm at Makeda’s Homemade Butter Cookies shop near Memphis International Airport. Young Dolph, whose real name was Adolph Robert Thornton Jr, had been targeted in previous shootings in 2017 in Charlotte, South Carolina, Read more...

John F Kennedy International Airport was officially called New York International Airport-Anderson Field, after it opened in 1948, but was more commonly known as Idlewild Airport. The airport in Queens, New York, was developed on land once occupied by the Idlewild Beach Golf Course, leading to it being referred to as Idlewild, and even used IDL as the FAA and Read more...

The suggested dress code for Tavern on the Green restaurant in New York City is smart casual. Jacket and tie are not required for men and smart dark jeans may be worn, but sleeveless shirts are not permitted. Sports and athletic wear is not acceptable attire for the main restaurant although patrons in such clothing are allowed in the Tavern Read more...