Monday, January 17, 2011

Which US cities are higher than Ben Nevis?

There's a serious point to this question. We were intrigued by the research linking high-living (up a mountain) with mental health problems.

So when writing the story, our writer tried to google some facts, ie this question: which US cities are higher than Ben Nevis? You'd think it was the sort of strange fact you'd find on wiki-answers - but, no, it was not there.

We knew that Denver was high - and sure enough it is in fact about a mile above sea-level. Ben Nevis in Scotland - the highest mountain in the UK - is just 4,409 feet high - well below a mile high.

The US research linked high living to suicide risk and the researchers were not just talking about loners living in shacks on mountainsides. They had also taken in statistics from cities such as Denver.

The findings are interesting but may well not apply to the UK, where the population mostly lives a lot lower than Colorado. In fact there must be a whole clutch of cities on the Rocky Mountains higher than Ben Nevis. How many? Does anyone know?

In fact it's hard to think of any British cities with any sort of altitude at all. There are many very hilly cities, such as Edinburgh, Bristol and especially in Yorkshire. But they all cluster on river beds or on the coast. I've googled cities such as Bradford in Yorkshire and the altitude is clearly so unremarkable it does not even appear on Wikipedia.

So here's another question for anyone interested. Are there any British cities 2,000 feet above sea level?

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Losing weight

Here's a great video just released by the American Heart Association on losing weight. If it's your New Year resolution, take a peek!

Monday, January 3, 2011

Facebooking

Our Facebook page is picking up - after being in the doldrums for quite a while. Stories from this site and one or two of our related sites now feed into it automatically. It's building up a base of fans.

It's a great way to comment on stories, to follow our feeds and to rate them. And two or three postings a day is not intrusive on your Facebook feed. You can find the Facebook page here.