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Posts Tagged ‘Amazon’

Winner: Judge Judy, then Carol St. Martin, Pluto, Oh Donna, and Tom Twin

Carol St. Martin, still under the weather, still recovering from her bout with pneumonia, hung in there to tie Judge Judy. The playoff was decided with a most intriguing question – which type of sexual activity is popular with about 25% of participants?

Carol answered “menage a trois,” which seemed quite reasonable, but was not correct. Surprisingly, shockingly, Judy knew immediately. She did not hesitate as she wrote down her answer, which is just a bit too X-rated for this publication. Can you guess what it is?

With Daphne on a slow boat somewhere, and Mike among the missing, it fell to Tiffany to moderate tonight’s game. Fortunately she did not put the questions together.

Good Question!: What is the longest river in the U.S.?

Choices: a. Missouri   b. Mississippi   c. Rio Grande   d. Colorado

Answer: Missouri

What the heck happened! Did the Mississippi shrink since we were kids? Maybe the Missouri needs a better PR guy.

Almost everyone got this one wrong. It’s a close call and here’s the scoop.

According to the USGS, Missouri River stretches for 2,341 miles from source to mouth the river beats out the Mississippi River as the longest river in the US. The river starts flowing from the Rocky Mountains in Western Montana and drains into the Mississippi River. The earliest commercial use of the river was during the fur trade.

The Mississippi River is the second largest river in the US, stretching for 2,202 miles. Its source is in the Lake Itasca in Minnesota, and its mouth is the Gulf of Mexico. The River had important navigation value, the reason why various powers such as France, Spain, and Native American Indians fought to control it. The introduction of steamboats in the early 18th century revolutionized trade along the river. The Mississippi River played an important commercial role when the US was constitutionally established.

Next longest would be the Yukon River (1,979), then the Rio Grande (1,759), and the Colorado River (1,450).

LONGEST RIVERS IN THE WORLD

Determining the world’s longest river is not an easy task. Although for most of us, the answer would be the Nile River, there is a section of scholars who regard the Amazon River as the true winner of this title. The difficulty in declaring a unanimous winner lies in the fact that the determination of the headwaters or the origin of a river is often quite challenging. Large rivers like the Nile and Amazon have numerous sources and many large and small tributaries. The need to find the furthest source of a river is there if the true length of the river has to be calculated. Often, such sources are located in remote and inaccessible locations, rendering the discovery of such sources an arduous task.

The Amazon River is undoubtedly the largest river in the world by discharge volume of water. However, its position as the longest river in the world is highly disputed as the title has for long been granted to the Nile River in Egypt. The dispute arises from the determination of the origin of the Amazon. Until now, the headwaters of the Apurímac River were considered to be the origin of the Amazon River. However, a recent 2014 study claims that the origin of the Amazon can be traced to the Cordillera Rumi Cruz from where Peru’s Mantaro River originates. Now it is estimated that the length of the Amazon is 4,325 miles, which would make it the world’s longest river.

My favorite river is the Chattooga River, where they filmed the scenes for the movie Deliverance.

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Editor’s Note: This month marks the start of the 10th year of the Tuesday Night Bar Exam blog. Over the years we have had 345 posts and almost 47,000 page views. You keep reading, we’ll keep writing.

 

 

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