"Denali versus McKinley: a brief history of the debate over a mountain’s name"
This article highlighted something I'd never had pointed out before: that Denali had multiple names from different indigenous people.
At 20,310 feet tall, Denali is visible for hundreds of miles around. For thousands of years, it has been called not just Denali but a variety of names by Alaska Native people living around the Alaska Range, according to language experts.
Athabascans to the north and west of the range referred to "the high one" with varying names, including Deenalee in the Koyukon language, Denaze in Upper Kuskokwim and Denadhe in Tanana, wrote University of Alaska linguist and professor emeritus James Kari in "Shem Pete's Alaska," a guide to Dena'ina place names.
Groups living to the south of the Alaska Range identified it as "the big mountain," or Dghelay Ka'a in Upper Inlet Dena'ina, Dghili Ka'a in Lower Inlet Dena'ina and Dghelaay Ce'e in Ahtna, Kari wrote.
The name "Denali" is derived from the Koyukon name — which doesn't actually mean "the great one," as widely believed, Kari wrote. Instead, the word represents something nearer to "high" or "tall."
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Jeopardy on TikTok & a Country Question
I have discovered Jeopardy! clips categories and final Jeopardy! on their TikTok account and it is delightful.
Mostly.
I was immensely annoyed that they had one which ended before the 2nd answer was given and thus before the answer was revealed. I had to Google the question.
The question-err-answer was: "This is one of two countries in the world which ends in H, and is among the ten most populous countries in the world." Or some similar wording, but containing those tidbits.
I spent a moment trying to think of the answer on my own. If you want to try and figure it out, stop reading as I'm about to spoil the answer-err-question.
Bangladesh.
I didn't come up with it. H as the last letter in an English word almost always means it is part of a dipthong. SH, CH, TH, etc. I tried to come up with the country, and this was obviously the correct logic to go, but interestingly the population tidbit through me off.
I tried counting countries by population. India, China, USA, Brazil... and from there it gets murky for me. No H there.
So I was unsuccessful and had to Google it. Doing so, I was gratified to see likely others had similar been annoyed as Google suggested "Countries ending in H Jeopardy" as the search query. I wasn't alone.
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Topography of Africa
Found from this Reddit thread. I particularly love this top comment by g1ngertim:
Three plates meet in Ethiopia at what's called the Afar Triangle. All three plate boundaries are divergent, and the boundary between the African plates forms what's sometimes called the Great Rift Valley. It will eventually become a sea that divides Africa.
This sent me to Wikipedia to read more about the Afar Triangle.
The Afar Triangle (also called the Afar Depression) is a geological depression caused by the Afar Triple Junction, which is part of the Great Rift Valley in East Africa. The region has disclosed fossil specimens of the very earliest hominins; that is, the earliest of the human clade, and it is thought by some paleontologists to be the cradle of the evolution of humans. The Depression overlaps the borders of Eritrea, Djibouti and the entire Afar Region of Ethiopia; and it contains the lowest point in Africa, Lake Assal, Djibouti, at 155 m (509 ft) below sea level.
Of note, Badwater Basin in the US is the lowest point, at just 282 feet below sea level.
Fascinating stuff.
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The only point in the world where four countries meet
Found via Reddit. Technically they don't quite connect due to river rights for Botswana separating Namibia and Zimbabe, as otherwise they'd only get a triangular portion of the river rather than a quadrangle of it. But given that it occurs in the river, the popular belief is that they all connect in the middle of the river.
There are 175 points on the planet where three countries connect, making this four pointer very special.
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"Kazakhstan approves proposal to restore capital’s old name Astana"
Kazakhstan's President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has approved a proposal to restore the capital's previous name Astana, in a new sign of a break with the legacy of the country's former longtime leader, President Nursultan Nazarbayev.
The skyscraper-filled capital of the Central Asian country was renamed Nur-Sultan in March 2019, in honour of outgoing president Nazarbayev.
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Follow up on Swastika Mountain
My brother got curious and actually looked into it, this is what he sent me:
I got curious and looked it up. Wikipedia says "The mountain took its name from the extinct town of Swastika, which was reportedly so named because a rancher there branded his cattle with the image of a swastika."
Was this rancher a Nazi, I wondered? One of the citations on Wikipedia was to a book called In Search of Western Oregon that's available on the Internet Archive. I had to sign up for an account but was able to browse the book (which is excruciatingly boring), and it turns out the town was called Swastika at least as early as 1909.
So it's definitely not Nazi-related. Clayton E. Burton was the rancher with the swastika brand. He was a settler from Minnesota, and Wikipedia says the swastika moved from India into Scandinavia, so that's presumably how it got to this Minnesotan rancher. It pops up a lot in old northern US/Canada, such as this Canadian women's hockey team called "the Swastikas" (photo from 1922):
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Oregon to rename "Swastika Mountain"
The name of a mountain south of Eugene will soon be changed.
The Oregon Geographic Names Board confirmed Wednesday that Swastika Mountain, which refers to a symbol of the German Nazi Party, will be changed, KOIN-TV reported.
A final decision on the new name for the mountain outside Cottage Grove will be made in December. So far, two name change proposals — Umpqua Mountain and Mount Halo — have been submitted to the Oregon Geographic Names Board.
I only hope the mountain got named for a shape similarity, though given Oregon's history with white supremacy I would not be surprised if it was the worse reason. Glad it's being rectified.
Edit (8/26): My brother got curious and sent me a bit more of the mountain's history
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