The wonderfully detailed images below come from three USGS topographic maps of the Big Moose-Old Forge-West Canada Lakes region of the Adirondack Park in New York State. They are from the edition of July 1903 reprinted 1951, March 1901 reprinted 1949, and June 1903 reprinted 1948. Let’s have a look at some memorable names:

First, we have Witchhopple Lake. Apparently witchhopple is a type of plant, although it sounds more like a disease.

Witchhopple Lake

Next, we have Deadmans Gulch. For those who don’t know, a gulch is a steep valley formed by a stream. Odds are no one died here – instead the name probably stems from dangerous floods after heavy rain.

Deadman's Gulch

No, this is not a dessert made of cats. Kitty Cobble was probably named after the size and shape of the stones in the area (a cobble is a rock measuring from 3-12 inches in diameter). Someone probably thought the rocks formed the silhouette of a cat’s head.

Kitty Cobble

The name Queer Lake is perfect for this irregular body of water. Only God knows how this one was formed.

Queer Lake

Say the name of the next one five times fast. Shingle Shanty Pond. Shingle Shanty Pond. Shingle Shanty Pond. Shingle Shanty Pond. Shingle Shanty Pond. No shanty is shown on the map – it must have fallen apart before the turn of the century.

Shingle Shanty Pond

Notice how Stink Lake is located next to Balsam Lake. What are the odds?

Stink Lake

What a terror you are, Terror Lake. This one is as oddly shaped as Queer Lake.

Terror Lake

Finally, we have a lake whose name shall be censored for this post. There are two potential reasons for naming this body of water N***** Lake. 1) the lake is dark in color 2) the lake was discovered by an African-American and at the time, it was common practice to honor such an individual by naming it thus. Decades later, this lake was renamed ‘Negro Lake’.

N***** Lake

{webspace.utexas.edu/cokerwr/www/slides/anacatlan/symmes.html}

It’s highly, highly unlikely that an advanced people live in the center of the Earth, that there are multiple entrances to the center, and that the Northern Lights are caused by gases escaping from the area. Still, spend a few minutes looking at the image above. It’s pretty intriguing even though no physical evidence can back it up. My favorite theory related to the Hollow Earth is that the Snake People altered the Earth’s axis in order to turn Rainbow City (located in Antarctica) from tropical paradise to frozen desert. Learn more about the phenomenon at the Wikipedia page.

Color-coded by ticket density per town along the Thruway, from Rochester to the Mass. line. The toughest stretches average 1-2 tickets per day.

Data Source: Democrat and Chronicle’s RocDocs Speeding Tickets database.

Safest stretches:

• Montezuma (between Port Byron and Seneca Falls)
• Danube (near Indian Castle, exit 29a)
• Marcy/Whitestown (between exits 31 and 32)

Heavily enforced stretches:

• Nassau (first exit on the Berkshire spur, just off I-87)
• Fultonville (exit 28)
• Schuyler (between exits 30 and 31)

*The data for the Albany-area may not be accurate due to the nature of the raw data.

FORECASTS INDICATE THAT A TSUNAMI WITH AMPLITUDES IN THE RANGE
OF 20 TO 65CM IS EXPECTED ALONG THE CALIFORNIA AND OREGON COAST.
TSUNAMIS OF THIS AMPLITUDE CAN GENERATE STRONG CURRENTS DANGEROUS
TO THOSE VERY NEAR OR IN THE OCEAN. THE TSUNAMI IS EXPECTED TO
BUILD AND REACH ITS MAXIMUM APPROXIMATELY ONE AND A HALF HOURS
AFTER THE INITIAL ARRIVAL. TSUNAMI ARRIVAL TIMES AND OTHER
AMPLITUDE FORECASTS ARE LISTED IN THE WEB SITE BELOW.

The wave is currently speeding across the ocean after causing a 5 foot deluge of water at Pago Pago, American Samoa.

Faster, GPS! {deviantart}

Beware if you are fortunate enough to have a GPS unit in your car, or even if you routinely use Google Maps to find your way in unknown territory. Speed bumps (humps) often do not appear in the algorithm and therefore are not a factor in the final time calculation for your trip. So, if that extra minute of flat, but potentially traffic-ridden road is worth it, do some extra research ahead of time. However, if the certainty of lighter traffic outweighs the guaranteed stop-and-go nature of the speed hump street, save your valuable time and just listen to the software.

The last image from the webcam shows plenty of smoke {Mt. Wilson Tower Cam 1:49pm PDT}

Update (Tuesday 9:00pm PDT): Most of the danger has passed.

Update (Tuesday 2:30pm PDT): Three days later and Mt. Wilson is still fighting back. The mountain’s webserver was recently knocked out by firefighters clearing flammables on the ground. Things don’t look good on the Mt. Wilson Towercam’s final image , but the smoke is from backburning on the north side. The situation has stabilized somewhat today and the main threat is only coming from one side. Firefighters have returned to the summit:

Firefighters are setting backfires on the drought-stricken north side of Mt. Wilson to reduce the risk of flames and protect the observatory and communications towers atop the 5,700-foot peak.

Earlier today, wind-fueled flames were beginning to move the very flank now being back-burned.

“Their goal is to blacken the edges and reduce the chances that fire will rush the facilities. They are also increasing their defensible space,” said U.S. Forest Service spokesman Ray Dombroski.

The so-called “Station Fire” is only 5% contained and could potentially burn in a path toward the famed Mt. Wilson:

Firefighters are also keeping an eye on Mt. Wilson, which is six to eight miles east of the fire. “That’s several days out. It gives us an opportunity to prepare and defend the Mt. Wilson site,” said L.A. County Fire Department Deputy Chief Jim Powers, an incident commander. {L.A. Times Blog}

Apart from pristine wilderness and spectacular views of the Los Angeles metropolitan area, Mt. Wilson antenna site is home to 13 FM radio antennas and all L.A. TV antennas, plus crucial communications relays. At an average antenna height of 6,000 feet above sea level, 5,500 feet above metropolitan Los Angeles, and 3000 feet above average terrain, this is a superpower site, with typical coverage footprints of 5,000 square miles. The television stations here also have incredible reach because of the height of the site, along with very high effective radiated powers.

NBC Los Angeles has added insight:

Loss of communications facilities there would cripple fire and police departments across Southern California, which not only use mountaintop transmitters to communicate in the field but in many cases relay signals from other mountaintop sites back to dispatch centers via microwave facilities that are now threatened.

“There are extremely-crucial to the infrastructure and public safety protection, and the daily lives in the L.A. basin,” Dietrich said.

Nearly all of the 22 Los Angeles TV stations transmit from those sites, and more than two-thirds of the region’s FM radio stations broadcast from there as well.

“If Mount Wilson goes out, this news conference is done, because we won’t have any telecommunications,” Powers said.

Regardless, a Google Map designed to help the public track the fire has been set up by the L.A. Times. For whatever reason, Mt. Wilson is depicted by a volcano – exactly what we don’t want to see.

Initial fire map (8/29)

Current fire map (9/1)

Mt. Wilson at night during better times {voiceguy82}

Unfortunately, the area will be closed to the public for some time.

Greece:

During its occupation by Nazi Germany in 1941-1944, the rate of inflation hit 8.55 x 10^9 percent per month (prices doubled every 28 hours). As a result, the 100 Milliard, or 100 Billion Drachmai note was issued in November 1944. Although this note only displays 2 zeroes, it still contained a hefty denomination.

Yugoslavia:

Yugoslavia’s rate of inflation hit 5 x 10^15 percent inflation between 1 October 1993 and 24 January 1994 (prices doubled every 16 hours). The rate maxed out at 323 million percent per month. A 500 Billion Dinar note was issued in December 1993, and was worth roughly $6 US at the start of the day. By evening, it was only worth an equivalent $3 US.

Zimbabwe:

In 2008, a 100 billion dollar bank note was issued in July. In January 2009, however, a 100 Trillion Dollar note was released, making it the the bank note with the most zeroes (14). Only two weeks later the government dropped 12 zeroes from the curency, making the note worth Z$100. Tricky.

Hungary (29 zeroes!):

The most severe known incident of inflation was in Hungary after the end of World War II, peaking at 4.19 × 10¹⁶ percent per month (prices doubled every 15 hours). In order to keep up with the inflation rate, the government issued the 100 Million B-Pengo note in 1946. (A larger denomination note was created but never issued). A B-Pengo is equal to one billion pengo, but in European terms a billion is equal to one-thousand milliard, or one trillion in American terms. Therefore, the 100 Million B-Pengo is essentially equal to 100,000,000,000,000,000,000 (100 quintillion) Pengo. It was worth about U.S. $0.20 in 1946. Eventually, 29 zeroes were dropped when the Forint was adopted in mid-1946.