TV Censorship in the USA

Can you believe the interview below was BANNED from being shown on CBS? The FCC used the equal time rule as an excuse, but most Americans likely haven't heard of his candidacy and he has not received much coverage overall... so why is this interview banned from television? I am fuming at all the censorship going on right here in a country that purports to love freedom, rights, and religion. Here is a kind-hearted priest running for Senate whose interview was banned from being shown by the corporate bigwigs (or should I say goons as David Letterman called them) at CBS — a broadcasting giant who is complicit in the corrupt and devilish Trump Administration's trampling of the Constitution.

As mentioned in this YouTube video (↗), CBS didn't even want Stephen to mention that he was not allowed to interview Talarico on CBS! Don't get me wrong, I am okay with Jasmine Crockett as a candidate as well, so I am hoping that Texans make a well-informed decision to choose who they believe can turnout the vote among Democrats, Independents, and reasonable Republicans to win against the Republican candidate for the now-more-important-than-ever Senate seat. I appreciate she spoke up against FCC censorship (↗) (especially the 5 minute mark in this linked video) even as it relates to CBS/FCC preventing her opponent's interview from airing. It is worth noting that Jasmine was on the Colbert show multiple times in the past, so having this first interview for James should not have been an issue. Whoever you vote for, this is blatantly clear: vote Democrat to vote for freedom. Thank you YouTube, James Talarico, Jasmine Crockett, and Stephen Colbert for standing up for freedom of speech rights, which I will always be a supporter of! It would be nice if I can focus on geography, but there is so much nonsense going on in this country that I feel compelled to speak up.

Interactive Website for Island Finding

Have you ever wondered about the name of a particular island on a map but there isn't a label? As an avid map peruser, I dealt with this problem countless times. There were a couple of islands off the coast of mainland GUINEA-BISSAU that did not a label on multiple interactive maps. However, I turned to a trusty website that is typically useful for planning travel itineraries but also provides a meticulous level of detail. This post is not sponsored or an advertisement, but ViaMichelin (viamichelin.com) provided me the answers I was looking for! Etuntute and Mochkutuch are the islands not typically labeled. ViaMichelin comes from the same company as that big, poofy mascot known as the Michelin Man (or Bibendum, or Bib for short). If you ever looked at a map and wondered the name of an unlabeled island, give ViaMichelin a try and see if they have the island labeled.

The Amazing Race 38, Episode 10

Season 38 Episode 10 (Wednesday, November 26th, 2025) Info: “Racers visit Milan, Italy where one team faces a major setback when they're forced to travel an hour behind the pack; heat exhaustion threatens to end the race for another team.”

In this tenth episode of The Amazing Race Season 38 (U.S. Edition), teams traveled from Athens, GREECE 🇬🇷 to the world-class fashion city of Milan, ITALY 🇮🇹. This majestic city of about 1.4 million residents in northern Italy is home to the world’s oldest shopping mall dating to 1877. The episode info above mentions that a team was “forced to travel an hour behind the pack”; the duo Kyland and Taylor had to book a slightly later flight from Athens to Milan due to previous teams reaching the first plane’s maximum capacity. This episode did not have a Detour task like most previous episodes in Season 38.

A Roadblock was the first task of the day; teams recreated a floral designer dress to meet a fashionista’s approval. Multiple team members struggled with this detail-oriented task since they had to have the correct number of flowers (five or so varieties) and arrange them in specific spots. The second part of the episode info above took place at this Roadblock; Adam suffered from heat exhaustion and took a well-needed break. When he resumed the task, teams encouraged him by cheering, especially Izzy and Paige. Teams encountered the “Who’s Got Italian Game?” Roadblock in the town of Vigevano — geographically located 40 kilometers (24.8 miles) west-southwest of Milan. Fun Fact: Leonardo da Vinci was involved in planning the town’s layout! First, a team member had to complete a replica of Vigevano’s Bramante Tower. To accomplish the second Roadblock task, the same team member was pushed on a rolling horse by two Italians and had to poke a lance (essentially a pole used for pole jumping) through four rings.

Before arriving at the Pit Stop, teams built a self-supporting bridge with notched logs. This task was inspired by da Vinci’s clever bridge invention. When teams were putting these together, I was reminded of being a kid constructing small buildings with Lincoln Logs! Anyways, Kyland/Taylor and Chelsie/Jack were building their bridges as fast as possible to avoid last place. Chelsie and Jack almost completed the bridge when all of a sudden it collapsed, giving Kyland and Taylor a much-needed advantage. They quickly rebuilt it but were not able to avoid last place. Jag and Jas won $7,500 each for arriving in first place at the Villa Borri-Manzoli Pit Stop in Corbetta — a town located north of Vigevano and west of Milan. Izzy and Paige arrived second (their best finish so far), Adam and Joseph in third, Kyland and Taylor in fourth, and Chelsie and Jack in fifth/last place. Chelsie and Jack completed their Amazing Race journey — which was occasionally chaotic with navigational difficulties but positively filled with memories nonetheless.

The Amazing Race 38, Episode 9

Season 38 Episode 9 (Wednesday, November 19th, 2025) Info: “Phil sends the team off to race through Athens, Greece. The live Double U-Turn vote returns.”

In this ninth episode of The Amazing Race Season 38 (U.S. Edition), all teams departed at different times but flew on the same airplane — therefore starting this leg of the race together. Teams left ROMANIA 🇷🇴 and arrived in Athens, GREECE 🇬🇷 and quickly proceeded to Pnyx (Pnyka) Hill near the National Observatory, Parthenon, and Acropolis. This area of ancient Greek civilization 🏺 is the birthplace of democratic voting. The Amazing Race chose this setting to conduct a Double U-Turn Vote. Each team voted two teams to slow down, requiring them to complete both Detour tasks 🚧. For coming in last place in the previous episode (↗), Adam and Joseph were penalized with one U-Turn Vote. This turned out to be a trivial disadvantage for the team since the most votes were against Eric/Tucker (4 votes), Jag/Jas (3 votes), and Kyland/Taylor (3 votes). The teams of Adam/Joseph, Chelsie/Jack, and Izzy/Paige only received one vote each. Here is a team-by-team vote tally in sequential order:

        → Adam and Joseph voted against Chelsie/Jack and Eric/Tucker.
        → Eric and Tucker voted against Jag/Jas and Kyland/Taylor.
        → Chelsie and Jack voted also against Jag/Jas and Kyland/Taylor.
        → Jag and Jas voted against Eric/Tucker and Kyland/Taylor.
        → Izzy and Paige voted against Eric/Tucker and Jag/Jas.
        → Kyland and Taylor voted against Izzy/Paige and Eric/Tucker.

While there were supposed to be two teams having to complete both Detours, Jag/Jas and Kyland/Taylor both tied in votes so a tiebreaker vote was held. Just like in the first round of voting, both teams received three votes. Therefore, Eric/Tucker, Jag/Jas, and Kyland/Taylor were required to complete both Detour challenges: “Music in the Air” 🎶 and “Olives Everywhere”. In “Music in the Air,” team members chose to carry or took turns carrying a Greek laterna piano 🎹 on her or his back to a nearby town square. They performed the musical instrument and caught everyone’s attention with various shenanigans (and begging) in hopes of earning at least 10 Euros 💶 from nearby pedestrians. Jag and Jas earned €12.20 relatively quickly, Eric and Tucker earned €18.40, Kyland and Taylor earned €11.10, and Adam and Joseph earned €13.03. For the “Olives Everywhere” Detour task, teams tasted, visually identified, and memorized 10 varieties of olives grown throughout Greece. They then quizzed their newfound olive knowledge by going to a different table somewhat close by to match 10 bowls of olives with their variety name.

Visiting another hill in Greece, teams went to a place called Hill of the Muses to roll a giant ball on it. Teams were then tasked with memorizing the 24 lowercase Greek letters, and they recited them as an elderly gentleman in ancient Greek garb pointed to each letter in random order. If I was a contestant on The Amazing Race, I would have loved to complete this task because these letters are used for designating stars in almost all the constellations in the night sky! I created the Amazing Astronomy Blog (↗) to share my passion for 🔭 stargazing and learning about the cosmos 🌌. Visitors accessing the Amazing Astronomy Blog may notice lowercase Greek letter symbols (α, β, γ, δ, ε, ζ, η, θ, etc.) within constellation maps and various posts.

Now back to recapping this episode! Jag memorized the letters in alphabetical order but did not realize the elder sage was going to point to them in random order. Nevertheless, he completed this task in first place. Meanwhile, Tucker struggled at this task despite usually finishing something in first or second place. Jag and Jas arrived at the Kotzia Square Pit Stop first and met Phil — and a lady dressed as Athena. Phil gave Jag and Jas a trip to CAMBODIA 🇰🇭 including the following destinations and activities: the world-famous Angkor Wat temple, the city of Siem Reap, ATV adventures, a Cambodian culinary tour, and Ta Prohm temple. Phil noted that Jag and Jas is the first team ever to have arrived first at the Pit Stop 🏁 after being U-Turned! Chelsie and Jack arrived at the mat in second place, followed by Adam and Joseph in third, Izzy and Paige in fourth, and Kyland and Taylor in fifth. Despite being a competent team and winning in four episodes in a row, Eric and Tucker arrived last at the Pit Stop and ended their Amazing Race journey in this episode.

The Amazing Race 38, Episode 5

Season 38 Episode 5 (Wednesday, October 22nd, 2025) Info 🚧: “Teams travel to Croatia; a frustrating Roadblock brings some teams to tears.” 💧

In this fifth episode of The Amazing Race Season 38 (U.S. Edition), teams left Budapest and arrived together in Dubrovnik, a seafaring city near the very southern tip of CROATIA 🇭🇷. I looked on an interactive map of Dubrovnik and noticed an island 🏖️ with a pinpoint saying “Qarth – Game of Thrones”. I am familiar with the Game of Thrones but have never watched the HBO series. I had no idea what Qarth is, but I found out it is a fictional setting that is partly inspired by Dubrovnik. Some scenes were filmed in and around Dubrovnik. Please let me know with a comment if you wish to see more GeoFact of the Day posts that are focused on cinema and TV filming locations around the world. If you don't mind, maybe share about your travel experiences 📷 if you ever visited a place featured in the The Amazing Race.

Anyways, teams arrived at a classy statue of a famed Croatian poet, Ivan Gundulić. Teams found the Detour and chose between 1) lugging a heavy fishing net 🐟 and chum bucket for a ½ mile to the Old Port or 2) preparing and filleting one slimy monkfish (grdóbína) each. Whoever named this fish likely noticed the pointy shape — the monkfish somewhat looks like it is wearing a monk’s hood. It is possible that whoever named it did not think very highly of monks since the monkfish is quite ugly and ghastly! 😱 Next, teams made their way through a hard-to-see stone walkway and arrived at the proverbial “light at the end of the tunnel”: the scenic seaside sojourn known as the Buža Bar watering hole. Here is where teams found the infamous ↪️ Double U-Turn ↩️ board. Eric and Tucker did not use the U-Turn to ensure that teams would not be upset with them. Jag and Jas did not have that thinking when they U-Turned Izzy and Paige. I don’t usually mention middle fingers right here on the GeoFact of the Day Blog, but I will mention that Izzy used both middle fingers to flip off the Jag and Jas photo at the Double U-Turn board. Adam and Joseph used the second U-Turn against Kristine and Rubina.

Teams arrived at the Ploče Gate to take on the frustrating Roadblock challenge mentioned above in the episode info. One member of each team had to assemble a not-so-sturdy scooter board by hand with many types of screws and wooden pieces. Natalie and Simone had the most struggles in assembling the handmade kart. The same team member who assembled the rectangular board with wheels then sat on and raced it with the help of their hands and/or feet for propelling. Chelsie, Izzy, Kristine, and Simone struggled to race the scooter in under 36 seconds. While Natalie took relatively long to create the kart, she steered it quite well — clocking in at about 38 seconds for the first attempt then crossing the finish line in about 35.7 seconds for the second race.

Finally, teams arrived at the Pit Stop known as Fort Bokar, a cylindrical bastion fortification overlooking the Adriatic Sea. Just like the previous episode, Eric and Tucker arrived 1st but each won $2,500 this time. Kyland and Taylor arrived 2nd, followed by Jag and Jas 3rd, Adam and Joseph 4th, Natalie and Stephanie 5th, Chelsie and Jack 6th, Izzy and Paige 7th, Kristine and Rubina 8th, and Hannah and Simone 9th. Host Phil Keoghan told Hannah and Simone that they were eliminated from this season of the The Amazing Race. I am wondering if there will be a non-elimination leg in this season since it hasn’t happened yet. The next episode will be Wednesday, October 29th at 9:30 p.m. Eastern Time on CBS and soon streaming on Paramount+.

The Amazing Race 38, Episode 4

Season 38 Episode 4 (Wednesday, October 15th, 2025) Info: “Racers travel to illusionist Harry Houdini's birthplace, Budapest, Hungary, where a puzzling Fast Forward puts one team to the test; a horse drawn carriage has teams racing against the clock.”

In this fourth episode of The Amazing Race Season 38 (U.S. Edition), teams left Prague and boarded one of two train routes that either went through eastern AUSTRIA 🇦🇹 or western SLOVAKIA 🇸🇰 in order to reach Budapest, the national capital of HUNGARY 🇭🇺. Teams arrived at the Széchenyi Thermal Baths to search for a king chess piece. Teams then gave it to locals who were swimming and playing chess on a floating platform in a large pool. After completing this task first, Eric and Tucker encountered a Fast Forward. They decided to complete the Fast Forward and both solved a Rubik’s Cube in less than 7½ seconds after much practice. Kudos to them because I don’t remember if I ever solved a Rubik’s Cube — or maybe I completed it in several days! Due to the Fast Forward, they quickly surpassed the competition and arrived at the Pit Stop: Várkert Bazár (Castle Garden Bazaar), a neo-Renaissance style promenade near the Royal Palace and Danube riverfront in Buda. The historic site was closed in the 1980s and sat neglected until a beautiful restoration in 2014.

For arriving in first place at this Pit Stop, Eric and Tucker won a trip to BOLIVIA 🇧🇴 including stops at the city of La Paz, the largest salt flat in the world (↗) (Uyuni, also known as Tunupa), and Charquini Mountain. Meanwhile, teams carefully steered a carriage with two horses along a figure eight course in less than 45 seconds. Next, teams arrived at the House of Houdini to unlock a chained wooden container — reminiscent of Harry Houdini’s escapist stunts but without the danger. Finally, teams chose either the “Juggling Act” or “Balancing Act” Detour task. For Juggling Act, teams juggled five rings and had to keep them dangling in midair for ten seconds. For Balancing Act, teams practiced and performed a folk dancing routine. One team member balanced a bottle on his or her head, while the other teammate maneuvered a large stick. Kat had trouble completing her routine but nevertheless persisted even though she was the last performer at the Detour. Therefore, Alex and Kat arrived last at the Pit Stop and ended their Amazing Race journey.

The next episode was on Wednesday, October 22nd at 9:30 p.m. Eastern Time on CBS. The episode 5 recap will be posted in several days.

GeoFact of the Day Statement Regarding Gerrymandering

GeoFact of the Day is concerned about the politicization of election maps in the United States. Gerrymandering has been an issue for many years but hasn't been properly resolved in most states. Ideally, elections should be competitive to where either party could theoretically win in a district, but fewer and fewer districts are like this as the years go on. 10 of the 11 most gerrymandered states are Republican. I feel obliged to note that Republican Party has been notorious, in my opinion, for gerrymandering (they've done this for many years and in dozens of states). Gerrymandering results in districts that look elongated and ugly on a map. Ideal districts should be relatively squarish or circular and keep together neighboring counties and communities. Some districts have a length of more than 100 miles, connecting areas that are not exactly connected culturally and socially. GeoFact of the Day encourages lawmakers to hand redistricting duties over to cartographers, demographers, and other social scientist-minded individuals who will draw districts that will help revitalize United States elections and bring forth high-quality candidates and public servants — who will try to serve the interests of all constituents in their district, not just big-moneyed special interests.

Request for Your Feedback!

Hello there! I hope you are enjoying the GeoFact of the Day Blog. I have a question for you: what would you like to see to make this geography website better? What kinds of topics should I focus on in upcoming posts? What kind of maps should I make, and about which places? I really enjoy reading your comments. I occasionally come across a nice and very helpful comment with constructive criticism. Your feedback is greatly appreciated!

World Flag Coloring Pages

I searched the interwebs and happened to find a wonderful resource that would be great for coloring fun all while getting a geography education. A digital image collection provided by the Florida Center for Instructional Technology (FCIT) — part of the College of Education at the University of South Florida — ClipArt ETC houses over 200 black and white world flags (↗) that could be used as printable coloring pages. If you know about all the world's countries, you might notice some countries' flags are missing — including AFGHANISTAN, HAITI, KAZAKHSTAN, LIECHTENSTEIN, LUXEMBOURG*, MALTA, and ZAMBIA. Nevertheless, lots of coloring fun can be had since the website's images are easy to copy/paste into a document and print. For educational, classroom, and non-profit uses, ClipArt ETC grants you "permission to use a maximum of fifty (50) clipart items in any non-commercial, educational project (report, presentation, display, website, etc.)" although there are some reasonable restrictions. More information about the free (and commercial) licensure options can be found on the ClipArt ETC website (↗). If you are a teacher, you could let your students choose a flag to color and instruct them to create a poster or PowerPoint presentation involving the flag's country. Enjoy, and kudos to FCIT for a wonderful website!

* The NETHERLANDS' flag can be used as a substitute due to three-stripe similarity.

Proud of Kamala (and Tim)

I first want to mention my gratitude for veterans this Veterans Days and always. This election was quite a roller coaster, the likes of which I never experienced before. I believed Kamala Harris and her running mate, Tim Walz, had a decent chance of winning — but I knew the election results would be almost 50/50 and that the winner would not win by much. Unfortunately, the result turned out to be disappointing for me (I was confident they could win) but yet not all that surprising since Donald Trump has a strange stranglehold over much of the American people. I know Trump might have done some good things for the economy, but I and many fellow Americans wanted to give Kamala a chance; she might have given us an even better economy for all we know!

While Harris-Walz did not win the so-called “swing states,” Trump-Vance did not win those states by a landslide. All of the swing states in this election — Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin — gave Harris-Walz almost or at least 48% of the vote. To summarize, Harris-Walz and other Democrats put forth a valiant and optimistic effort that helped to bring out the best in us, in contrast to the hatred, fearmongering, and falsehoods coming from the “other side.” Harris and Walz (and other Democrats) should be very proud of their campaign. It is worthwhile to note how Harris-Walz had relatively little time to prepare (since late July 2024) compared to Trump's team. They also conceded the election with grace, class, and wisdom, whereas Trump and his people disputed the 2020 election even in 2024. I immensely believe future generations will look back at this moment in history and will appreciate the historic candidacy of Kamala Harris — and how she inspired us to be better.

GeoFact of the Day Enthusiastically Endorses Democrats

Of course, GeoFact of the Day tends to focus on topics relating to geography. However, this upcoming election in the United States has real-world implications and is important enough to write about. I respect your vote no matter who you vote for and respectfully wish to share my perspective. I cheerfully support Kamala Harris for multiple reasons including her dedication and compassion in multiple public service roles — not to mention that she likes freedom, justice, and democracy. She is forward-thinking in wanting to make sure future generations can have a comfortably inhabitable Earth. Also importantly, she can stop Trump from possibly taking the U.S. to a dark, depressing, and cruel place. Trump may distance himself from Project 2025 as much as he wants to, but he is known for being a liar and therefore we should assume that he will approve and institute the nefarious agenda. Thankfully, you can read what Project 2025 is and find out how it might impact you and your family.

You may be correct in mentioning some positive things that happened because of the Trump administration, but I cannot forget some of their truly awful decisions and occurrences. For example, Trump’s administration separated children from their parents at the southern border, and his intended mass deportation plan would only encourage more of that. Trump’s Muslim nation ban unfairly discriminated against whole countries that have many wonderful people who would have brought their skills, talent, expertise, and generosity if they were allowed to. These Muslim majority nations have scientists, researchers, doctors, etc. who might have made amazing discoveries for the world and helpful contributions to the U.S. They would have helped us address critical gaps in health care and other career sectors in desperate need of more help.

During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and Black Lives Matters protests — at a time when the U.S. needed uniting and compassionate leadership like never before — Trump held political rallies all across the country and spread misinformation (and the virus) while way too many Americans were dying. Other countries were able to unite their people to mask up and take social precautions seriously which halted the virus sooner; the U.S. under Trump was not able to. If you care about the future, you likely acknowledge the impact of climate change and how it might burden future generations with more difficulties. Trump likely does not care about people in the future — only himself and maybe his family. He even tried to roll back lifesaving environmental regulations; he didn’t mind us having more lead, mercury, and other toxins in our air and water, for example. Trump also supported "socialism" in the form of a trillion dollar tax cut that mostly benefited wealthy billionaires and large corporations, some of which used the benefits for buybacks and dividends and while not investing in their employees. Trump was a sore loser and could not accept the fact that he lost the 2020 election. I could go on and on, but I think you understand the gist of my concerns.

Trump supported the construction of potentially leaky oil pipelines over large Great Plains aquifers which provide clean water for many states. Several years ago, he proposed the idea of transferring Great Lakes water to drought-stricken California which would not have provided immediate relief, would have been an outrageously expensive endeavor, and would have negatively impacted recreational and economic opportunities (and the ecosystem) in the Midwest and beyond. This did not seem to make it on the news very often (especially Fox News), but President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris made tremendously needed investments in the Great Lakes states and every other state — including the politically red ones. An influx of federal funds is now funding all sorts of projects from sea to shining sea. Some states such as Michigan are making amazing progress and are using their federal funds wisely such as for lead pipe removal, improved roads, more amenities, and home renovations.

There are so many topics that can be talked about in light of the upcoming election, which explains the length of this post! Another important topic is democracy: who will encourage democracies around the world to remain steadfast, courageous, and vibrant in the face of adversity? Who will help keep democracies and allies united — like how President Biden and Vice President Harris cordially strengthened our alliances with most of Europe and the Americas and strived to accomplish the same for Asia, Africa, etc.? Trump sowed and is STILL sowing the seeds of discord, cruelty, false propaganda, and chaos. I somehow came across a 2010-dated article on Howard Stern’s website about Trump (↗) and found an insightful and prescient quote that might describe Donald Trump to a T. He quipped, “If you get good ratings, you can be the worst human being on Earth.” Now I would like to think this is just part of his sarcasm and dark humor, but I think it could be a foreshadowing of what will happen if voters give him another term. We deserve better: a leader who will bring out the best in us, not the worst. I confidently believe that leader is Kamala Harris! Please consider voting in this truly important election before or on Tuesday, November 5th. Early voting and voting by mail are wonderful options and provide more convenience for you; I hope your state allows you plenty of days to vote early or to mail in your ballot.

P.S. I can’t believe the election is coming this soon!

You may see the previous post saying that I will not be blogging until July 19th, but after hearing about a recent bill signed by the Republican governor of Texas, I could not remain silent on what is going on even though it is happening in a different state from where I am. There is an awful agenda happening nationwide in Republican-dominated state legislatures and in league with Republican governors, not to mention what is going on with the ultra conservative Supreme Court and the lackadaisical Congress. I can go on and on about how they want more rights for guns yet fewer rights for specific groups of people. Many conservative and Republican politicians balk against President Biden's initiatives for student loan forgiveness — which if Congress supported would undoubtedly benefit millions of hardworking people who are currently in the middle class or lower socioeconomic status.

Meanwhile, these politicians were fine with the previous president wanting to give more than a trillion dollars for tax breaks that especially benefited the ultra wealthy. These allegedly pro-life Republicans and conservatives are actively "working" to lower the quality of life in the United States. As one excruciating example, according to Business Insider (↗) among others, Texas governor Greg Abbott signed a bill that eliminates requirements for outdoor working people to take necessary rest and water breaks. While this does not mean breaks are forbidden, it unfortunately opens the door for construction companies, utility companies, etc. to limit or discourage these breaks which could mean life or death for employees working in sweltering conditions. I am hoping that employers will have the integrity to make sure all their employees have as many breaks as needed because it is the right thing to do and results in happy and productive employees. If you care about your employees, they will more than likely care about you!

I believe this is a serious reminder of why voting is a serious responsibility. Politicians unfortunately have the power to ruin people's lives, but on the other hand they optimistically have the ability to help people live fulfilling lives and achieve their dreams. My hope is that voters vote for who will honorably serve all the people and not vote for only personal reasons. Starting with my next post, I promise that I will resume the geography-related content that best exemplifies the GeoFact of the Day Blog's true purpose, but I wanted to express my thoughts (and frustrations) on what is going on in the United States.

Won't Be Blogging Until After July 19th

I would like to notify you ahead of time that images may or may not be visible on the GeoFact of the Day Blog after July 19th. Album Archive – which is the image storage system currently storing most GeoFact of the Day Blog images – will be shut down on July 19th and therefore might result in posts and pages without images. There appears to be a "copied" GeoFact of the Day folder in another Blogger-related storage system with these images, so maybe these images will be uploaded to replace the originals. Otherwise, it would be a tedious process to upload every image back to its original post — which I might have to do because technology does not often give me easy transitions. Please hope that there will be a proper transfer of Album Archive data so that Bloggers are not punished for being longtime supporters of the Blogger platform. Thank you for visiting the GeoFact of the Day Blog today!

The Amazing Race 33, Episode 8 Recap

“Souvlaki” Episode Description: Teams travel to Halkidiki, Greece, where they are tested on their spelling and memory skills.

Episode Airdate: Wednesday, February 16th, 2022 on CBS

After experiencing two episodes worth of various picturesque locations in Corsica, FRANCE, teams flew eastward to another picturesque destination: northeastern GREECE. Episode 8 of the The Amazing Race mostly centered around the Halkidikí (Chalkidikí) Peninsula. Once they arrived at Peraía Beach in the town of Peraía near the city of Thessaloníki…

● Teams drove to the Konstantinos Olive Grove in the village of Néa Gonía and were tasked with finding a clue high up in an olive tree. Cayla and Raquel made use of the shoulder-stepping method — which displayed their dependable teamwork — to reach the clue. Unfortunately, they did not have to resort to the clever but shoulder-hurting maneuver because The Amazing Race showed a ladder close by! Teams traveled to Marianna’s Vineyard and encountered the episode’s first…

● Roadblock (“Who Likes to Wrap?”): Marianna’s Vineyard typically grows grapes to harvest the fruit’s leaves and not necessarily to make wine. One member on each team combined a mixture of rice, vegetables, and spices and filled grape leaves to make 60 dolmades, which are essentially “leaf burritos” as Dusty said. Kim successfully prepared her wraps first, maintaining Team Kim and Penn’s longstanding lead in the competition. Meanwhile, Raquel had difficulty in wrapping the dolmades to the satisfaction of the vineyard’s proprietor but finally found success after some trial and error.

● Teams visited Mamo’s Kantina Stand near Heraklia Beach about 13.4 miles and 21.6 kilometers east of Mount Olympus (Olympos). They asked the food cart vendor about the Dish of the Day and were instructed to spell the name of this cuisine: souvlaki. Teams then had to make a decision that would make some vegan and vegetarian viewers cringe or change the channel: choosing whether to eat a chicken souvlaki or a pork souvlaki. While clues for the next stop are typically found in an iconic black-and-yellow envelope, this clue was simply a place name (Saint George Church) printed on the souvlaki’s wrapper. Many teams did not notice the clue at first, including Lala and Lulu who ate several souvlaki servings and were puzzled about not receiving a traditional clue envelope in hand.

● Roadblock (“Who Wants to be Iconic?”): Néa Irákleia’s Saint George Orthodox Church is a circular and three-tiered structure featuring an octagonal bell tower. Outside in the church’s plaza, one member on each team took about ten minutes to listen to a priest as he taught them about Saint Anastasia (of Sirmium), Saint Christopher, Saint David (the Dendrite), Saint George, Saint Irene, Saint John the Apostle, Saint John the Theologian, Saint Mercurius, Saint Nicholas (of Myra), and several other saints. He or she had to correctly identify the illustrations of five saints — St. Anastasia, St. Christopher, St. David, St. Irene, and St. Mercurius — based on a vendor’s variety of quiz questions. Penn successfully completed this task first.

● Pit Stop: Néa Kallikráteia — a fishing port overlooking the Thermaic Gulf (Thermaïkós Kólpos) which is a component of the Aegean Sea

● An extra GeoFact: the Aegean Sea is home to over 1,400 islands.

● Before arriving at the souvlaki task(s) mentioned above and consuming way more souvlaki then they would’ve liked, Lala and Lulu somehow found the Pit Stop and show host Phil Keoghan before finding the souvlaki stand! While having the “advantage” of knowing the Pit Stop location ahead of time, this sneak peek ultimately did not help them since they ended up in last place and were eliminated from the competition. In this season, the twin duo occasionally argued with each other but quickly became one of my favorite teams as they tried to make the most out of their traveling mishaps — especially when they attempted to eat not-so-yummy meals! Their Amazing Race journey seems relatable; for me, traveling is not 100% enjoyable but I try to make positive memories nevertheless!

● On the next episode of The Amazing Race and even closer to the $1 million finale, “Teams leave no stone unturned”…

  Season 33, Episode 8 Results

  1st — Kim and Penn [same as previous episode]
       1st place prize — $7,500 each

  2nd — Cayla and Raquel [same as previous episode]

  3rd — Dusty and Ryan [same as previous episode]

  4th — Arun and Natalia

  5th — Lala and Lulu
       Eliminated from the competition

The Amazing Race 33, Episode 4 Recap

Episode Info: Teams gather in Switzerland to restart the race nearly 20 months after production was suspended for the COVID-19 pandemic.

Episode Airdate on CBS: Wednesday, January 19th, 2022 at 9 PM

After such a long hiatus, teams competing in The Amazing Race Season 33 were clearly enthusiastic to restart the competition despite the omnipresent threat of the coronavirus pandemic. However, not everyone returned due to various reasons; some of them might have been understandingly leery of travelling and decided not to continue the pursuit of $1 million. As an illustrative (and claustrophobic) example, airline travel in the present situation seems to be a spectacle of unruly passengers being duct-taped to their small seats. My Public Service Announcement to airline companies and CEOs would be something like this: providing spacious seats/aisles/legroom (which means fewer seats with more space all around) would likely encourage your customers to be more relaxed and less confrontational — and less likely to appear on Inside Edition! For whatever the reason(s), four teams did not return to the competition in episode 3: Anthony and Spencer, Caro and Ray, Connie and Sam, and Isaiah and Taylor. Thankfully, though, this brought an opportunity for the two previously eliminated teams to return: Arun and Natalia as well as Michael and Moe.

Throughout this fourth episode, teams travelled across picturesque mountain terrain and through tremendous towns in northeastern SWITZERLAND. Teams began at the Saint Gallen Cathedral in the town of Saint Gallen. In a cameo interview scene within this episode, twin sisters Lala and Lulu told us that their grandmother unfortunately passed away in the months-long interim between episodes 3 and 4. They are dedicating the rest of their Amazing Race journey to her in loving memory.

● From the cathedral in Saint Gallen, teams went to Museumstrasse (Museum Street) and hopped on one of three classic green and yellow buses waiting to take them to Säntis, the highest mountain in Appenzell Innerrhoden canton. As a sidenote, this canton prominently features a black bear on the flag and coat of arms. A fun fact is that someone located atop or near the peak of Säntis can see six countries from that viewpoint: Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Liechtenstein, and of course Switzerland.

● Roadblock (“Who Wants to Take in the View?”): Teams rode a cable car about 8,200 feet and 2,500 meters up to the area of Säntis’ peak. In this Roadblock, one member on each team familiarized himself or herself with the ferrata, a method of walking, jogging, etc. along the mountain ridge while harnessed onto a safety rope along the way.

● The clue from the ridge top brought them to Gasthaus Sonne (Sun Inn) in the town of Urnäsch. The clue box at this location contained Detour clues.

● Detour, choice between “Punch It” or “Toss It”: teams choosing the Punch It option learned about the importance of Swiss belts to the local farming community. Swiss belts are sort of a status symbol. More silver ornaments — which look like decorative belt buckles — are traditionally thought of to indicate more financial wealth. These belts also have cultural and storytelling significance in that the ornaments tell a story in a one-side-to-another order, sort of like a comic strip in the newspaper. Teams utilized various hand tools to attach ornaments in the shape of a calf, farmer with cow, goat, sun, etc. in the correct order based on the example belt.

Teams choosing the Toss It option learned about Fahnenschwingen, a Swiss discipline involving choreographic maneuvers to fling, flip, toss, turn, and twist the national flag. This reminds me of talented color guard groups that do all sorts of tricks with flags of thematic designs and therefore complement high school and university marching band performances all across the United States. Amazing Race teams performed a Fahnenschwingen routine to the satisfaction of a judge to receive their next clue. Completing either the Toss It or Punch It Detour task brought teams with clues in hand to the…

● Pit Stop: Alstätten, a market town

  Season 33, Episode 4 Results

  1st — Dusty and Ryan
       1st place prize — $2,500 each

  2nd — Kim and Penn

  3rd — Cayla and Raquel

  4th — Lala and Lulu

  5th — Akbar and Sheri

  6th — Arun and Natalia

  7th — Michael and Moe
       Eliminated from the competition

Happy Saint Patrick's Day

Hope you are having a happy and wonderful Saint Patrick's Day!

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and  Happy New Year!

Recap of the June 23rd South Bend Tornadoes

Warning: tornado pictures are shown in this post!



A city of over 100,000 residents in north-central Indiana, South Bend was the unlucky yet lucky (I'll explain the lucky part soon) site for two peculiar tornadoes that seemingly came out of nowhere. Even WNDU Channel 16's renowned Chief Meteorologist, Mike Hoffman, was quite surprised by the tornadoes' sudden and rare formation. The image of the first tornado was captured from a Facebook video by Tricia Sloma, a popular — and apparently brave — news anchor for WNDU's morning news. This EF 0 tornado touched down near Roosevelt Road after 8:30 PM Eastern Time. Tricia's photo illustrates how relatively minuscule this tornado was; its widest path on the ground was 10 yards, highest winds were 65 to 70 miles per hour, and the tornado path was a half mile (0.5 miles) in length. Barn doors and tree branches were damaged.

First Tornado


Second Tornado


In comparison to the first tornado, the second tornado (EF 2 strength) was a mighty beast aiming to devour the south side of South Bend! Branches from large trees fell down, the Irish Hills apartment complex experienced some aesthetic damage, electricity went out for hundreds of homes and businesses, and a residential screened building and the Growing Kids daycare facility were partially destroyed. Even though the CVS Pharmacy is across the street from Growing Kids, its facility was virtually unspared — with a possible power outage being a temporary inconvenience. There is video footage available of tornadic winds swirling across a portion of U.S. Highway 20! Fortunately, drivers on the two-lane restricted highway (under construction) knew the tornado was coming, giving room for the tornado to cross the highway without incident.

All in all, South Bend was lucky on June 23rd. Despite a rather massive tornado hovering over the south side, miraculously no one was killed or seriously hurt. This tornado developed at 8:38 PM Eastern Time, ran for about 2 miles and up to 200 yards wide, and brought winds of 115 to 125 mph. Growing Kids will certainly have to rebuild to get their service up and running, but thank goodness the tornado occurred on a Sunday — when no kids or employees were present at that site. Even the custodian/janitor was not there! While this tornado was merciful, it was a strange one: its cloud height was less than 18,000 feet, and there was no lightning or thunder associated with it! The footage of the second tornado above and below is credited to Ashlee Sassaman and Tomi Vicen, respectively. More information about this tornadic event is provided by the National Weather Service of Northern Indiana (↗).

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A government leader thought Bhutan and Nepal are part of India

The author of GeoFact of the Day would like to thank government leaders and personnel around the world for at least trying to learn more about the world around them. However, one such head of state allegedly mispronounced the names of BHUTAN and NEPAL in an intelligence briefing — but also said something that leaves geography nerds (like me) and international-relations wonks pulling their hair out! According to Politico (↗) based on two sources "with knowledge of the meeting," the U.S. President mispronounced Bhutan as something like "button," while Nepal was pronounced something like "nipple." Unfortunately, no recording of the incident is publicly available as far as I know. This leader also mispronounced NAMIBIA as "Nambia." I get it, sometimes countries have interesting names. When speaking, there is probably at least one countries' name that I am mispronouncing. However, the mispronunciation of Bhutan and Nepal as mentioned above is a far stretch in my opinion, and especially for a leader!

...But there's more (dun dun dun...)! According to John Wolcott's Time report (↗), the U.S. President thought that Bhutan and Nepal were entities within INDIA, rather than the separate and sovereign countries that they really are. OH THE HORROR!!! I have much respect for India, but as a proud geography whiz, hearing that a "world leader" thought Bhutan and Nepal were a part of another country rather than as their own is absolutely heart-wrenching! Nowadays, geographic information is thankfully at the fingertips for everyone with Internet and library access.

We make mistakes, so hopefully he can learn from these geographic mistakes and try better at learning more about other countries. Maybe GeoFact of the Day would be a great place for him to start (hint hint, wink wink), so at least he can sound smarter at his intelligence briefings! It feels strange knowing something that a world leader did not at the time, so maybe I will run for President one day!

Bhutan post (↗) ● Nepal post (↗) ● India post (↗) ● Namibia post (↗)