Following the Equator

Suppositions at Stonehenge

Stonehenge's mystery is alive and well.

Less than two months after a two-week excavation led archaeologists to suppose that the site was once a place of healing, new research suggests that Stonehenge may have been a long-term cemetery.

Some archaeologists believe that cremation burials (perhaps for a ruling dynastic family) may have occurred at the site for 500 years—from about 3,000 B.C. to 2,500 B.C.—a century before the large stones were put in place.

It's fascinating to watch the theories fly. Answers—or maybe even more questions—could come Sunday night when "Stonehenge Decoded" premieres on the National Geographic Channel. Stay tuned!

Photo: IanL via Flickr

Friday Fun Fact: European density

Photo: Brapke via Flickr

With a population of 82 million, Germany has more people than any other European Union nation. Not a shabby total by any means—that's roughly the equivalent of a quarter of the U.S. population. And yet, area-wise, Germany is only a little bit bigger than New Mexico and a little smaller than Montana.

No Big Sky here: Germany has 596 people per square mile, compared with 80 in the United States and just eight in Canada. And that only earns Germany the 56th spot on the list of most densely populated countries, and sixth among European countries (Gibraltar, Malta, the Netherlands, Belgium and the United Kingdom are, so to speak, denser).

The place on earth with least space between you and your neighbor? Macau (Special Administrative Region of China) with more than 40,000 people per square mile.

Leaning Tower of Pisa saved for 300 years

Photo: irene. via Flickr

Whew! The Leaning Tower of Pisa is not going to topple—at least for another 300 years.

The impressive Italian icon, which underwent a major stabilization effort in the 1990s, yesterday was declared safe for at least three more centuries.

“All of our best expectations have been confirmed,” said Michele Jamiolkowski, emeritus professor of geotechnical engineering at Turin Polytechnic, who led the project to safeguard the tower. “Now we can say that the tower can rest easy for at least 300 years.”

The Leaning Tower, which began tilting five years after construction began in 1173, has never been on solid footing—literally. The tower was situated on unstable clay. Various attempts through the centuries to decrease the dangerous decline have never fully developed. Until now.

Tour Tales: Lasagna in Rome

Several EF College Study Tours staff members are traveling with EF groups on tour this spring and summer. Two EF Tour Consultants, Jackie Thomas and Janice Johnson, are currently on tour with a CST group in Italy and Greece. Jackie emailed us this update from Rome:

Top 20 Imaginary Lines

Our post last week about the Real Equator got me thinking about Earth's imaginary lines—those lines we can't see but still observe.

Look at a globe or map, and you'll see all kinds of imaginary lines running all over the place. I started to ponder the most prominent imaginary lines in the world. What are the most important? The most famous? And why?

To address those questions, Following the Equator compiled a list of the Top 20 Imaginary Lines. What do you think? Is one line better than another? Did we overlook any lines? Scrutinize our list and post your comments below.

Transatlantic Time Travel: 1925

Here's a paradox for you:

The student travel industry—a high-minded field which impresses upon young minds the value of "global" over "national," and attempts to showcase our shared humanity by helping us bridge our surface differences—got one of its formative boosts from one of America's less-high-minded moments.

The Immigration Act of 1924, whose intent was largely to curtail the influx of "undesirable" immigrants (it enacted quotas that were much friendlier to northern and western Europeans than they were to southern and eastern Europeans and non-Europeans) had the primary effect of working as planned (for example, Italian immigration went from 200,000 a year to about 4,000) and the secondary effect of spurring opportunity-seeking businessmen—specifically, steamshipmen—into action.

Friday Fun Fact: Neutral countries

Photo: ianlord via Flickr

Most people know that Switzerland is a neutral country, but may not realize that the Swiss are not alone in their neutrality. There are a total of eight neutral countries: Austria, Costa Rica, Finland, Ireland, Liechtenstein, Sweden, Switzerland and Turkmenistan.

Broadly, neutrality means not taking sides in armed conflict between warring countries, but it has a range of real-world manifestations: For instance, Switzerland and Sweden are famous for their large armies (and those armies, in turn, are famous for pocketknives and bicycles, respectively), while other countries keep very small fighting forces. Likewise, Ireland allows foreign military forces inside its borders—specifically, military aircraft can land at Shannon Airport—while other neutral countries don't.

Neutral countries in Europe (Austria, Sweden, Ireland and Finland, but not Switzerland) also find themselves in the conundrum of belonging to—and being bound by the policies of—the European Union, which is not neutral. 

Transatlantic sightseeing

The idea of a Transatlantic Tunnel connecting London and New York City has enthralled visionaries since Jules Verne suggested it in 1895.

Today, that vision became reality—€”sort of.

The Telectroscope, which officially opened to the public today, allows people in London and New York to see each other across the Atlantic in real-time. A pair of Victorian-looking contraptions are located near the Tower Bridge in London and the Brooklyn Bridge in New York.

The Telectroscope is the creation of London-based artist Paul St. George. The real art, though, comes in the alleged backstory of this global sightseeing device.

The Little Red Ball

Follow the little red ball in this video that Bryan Wojtowicz and students from Bryant University made on their trip to Panama City, the Galápagos Islands and Quito, Ecuador, in January.

As Wojtowicz told us, the concept was to create a promotional video for Bryant's Sophomore International Experience. The coolest thing that the students did with the little red ball—”aside from their famous dodgeball game—was at the Panama Canal.

"We bounced it off the wall from the boat," Wojtowicz said. "We didn't know if we were going to get in trouble by people on the boat, because you aren't supposed to throw anything off the boat. We asked our professors, and they said, 'No, go for it, because that's kind of a creative idea.'"

The Real Equator

The most interesting thing we learned from talking with equatorial dodgeball enthusiast Bryan Wojtowicz was that the "world's first interhemispherical dodgeball game" took place at the "real" equator.

"Real equator?" I asked.

Wojtowicz explains:

"We first went to what was called the real equator (outside Quito, Ecuador)," he said. "I don't know if you know, but in the '50s, they made a monument for what they thought was the equator. But, years later, with GPS technology, they found out that that was not exactly zero degrees latitude.

What time zone is it?

I just stumbled across Time Zone Check, a cool interactive site where you can instantly check the time in any point around the world.

If you're planning an educational tour, this is a good place to find out which time zones you'll be in and to see the time difference. And, even if you're not traveling soon, this is still a fun diversion.

Dodgeball across the equator, Part II

Whenever we hear something exciting about the equator itself, Following the Equator just has to follow through. After reading about the college students who played dodgeball at the equator, I tracked down the man behind the feat that nearly became a world record.

Bryan Wojtowicz, who just graduated from Bryant University in Smithfield, Rhode Island, concocted the idea for the impromptu game while filming a student video project during a university trip to Latin America. Bryan was one of about 50 Bryant students who traveled to Panama and Ecuador in January.

At the equator just outside Quito, Ecuador, Bryan (photo above) and teammate Matt Meehan competed against Rob McNell and Chris Walker in what Bryan dubbed "the world's first interhemispherical dodgeball game." Brendan Sysun served as referee and uttered the now-famous line, "Equatorial line infraction! You're out!" Luckily, Raymond Mahoney filmed the game for all to see.