12/12/12

Happy 12/12/12!

 Here are some maps and boring facts about highways designated as Route 12 - mostly from Wikipedia.

US Interstate 12 is one of the shortest major (one or two digit) interstates in the country running 85 miles along the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain all in Louisiana. It is a shortcut that takes you from Interstate 10 back to Interstate 10 avoiding New Orleans. The road is also officially called the Republic of West Florida Parkway, in honor of that short lived republic created from an 1810 rebellion against Spanish rule.

By contrast US Route 12 is an almost cross country route running from Detroit to Aberdeen, Washington, almost 2,500 miles. The photo on the lower left was taken near the intersection of Michigan Avenue and Cass, where Route 12 officially begins. This photo came from the US Ends, a web site for people like me who are obsessed with where roads begin and end. On the left is a map of the Grays Harbor area at the western end of Route 12.

South Korea's Expressway Number 12 is also called the 88 Olympic Expressway. It runs across the southern part of the country.

There's many other highway 12's listed on Wikipedia's List of highways numbered 12 inlcuding the following three non-US routes chosen because I like their route shields.

Finally realizing that I forgot the awesome Kansas sunflower route shields (despite K-12 being retired,) here is another set of US state route shields. Once again, Happy 12/12/12!

Etch a Sketch Maps

There's been lots of talk about Etch A Sketches in our current presidential election. Those of us in Massachusetts have a long history of watching Governor Romney shake that thing clean.

I was looking at something completely unrelated to politics, maps or vintage toys when I came across some wonderful examples of etch a sketch art, including a few maps. Here is the USA, from ivman's blague. This is supposedly from a young child and has a caption of "Tubby_Rules_the_World" - yes all the words have to be connected.

Africa:

Of course, there's an app for this. Here is a world map from the Etch a Sketch Mobile app. Yes the Mercator Projection continues its dominance in the field, pleasing the residents of Greenland.

Romney may want to study this world map after his statement in Monday's debate about Syria being Iran's route to the sea - as if they need one. There's a little problem called Iraq in between. Note all that blue stuff at the bottom of Iran. Picture form the Daily Banter.

MOTW #16

A map of Iran from WorldAtlas.com