First trials of the Deparochialiser

[fivemack]

Did you know that the US was more than 41 times the size of Portugal and Belarus combined? That Russia was more than 405 times the size of Denmark? That India was just under 78 times the size of Lower Saxony?

This kind of useful information is a side-effect of a proxy I've always wanted to write to remove the parochialisms in the CIA World Factbook - it's of little use to point out that some place is twice the size of Oregon. I haven't quite figured out how to set it up as a proxy yet (and also would rather avoid things that could be construed as imitating the CIA]

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[fivemack.livejournal.com]

I'm planning some travel around Europe by train, and starting to realise that Europe itself is distinctly large; Cambridge to Krakow is two days each way, though of course if I'm travelling by train in Europe I should probably break the trip at interesting German cities.

I had pondered Vancouver to Montreal by train as part of my round-the-world travel last year, but it didn't fit in sensibly with everything else I wanted to do; and after travelling through mile after mile of snow-clad farms for the in-comparison-tiny trip from Montreal to Quebec City, I think I'd not have coped well with 48 hours of prairie, Winnipeg to Edmondton by way of Saskatoon.

Given that anyone travelling across all Canada on a train is probably a tourist and interested in the view, I'm somewhat surprised that the Vancouver-Montreal trip crosses the Rockies at night, both directions!