Brought to you from your good friend Tommy:
Interesting Landscaping Factoids
Here are some interesting facts about lawns and landscaping that I found searching the internet.
- There are about 21 million acres of grass in the United States in back yards and front lawns. That’s a lot of grass to cut.
- Lawns have actually been proven to be great producers of oxygen; three times more effective than trees. Next time you’re out jogging through the neighborhood and feeling winded step into someone’s lawn area and breath deep.
- Australia is the landscape capital of the world. They employ more landscapers than any other country and have the most national parks in the world.
- An hour of weeding burns about 300 calories (equivalent to biking at a steady pace) and an hour of pushing a lawn mower burns about 500 calories (equivalent to playing tennis).
The most viewed picture of a landscape in the world is…
Recognize this picture? It’s the result of a love story. “Bliss”, photographed by Charles O’Rear, is the iconic default Windows® XP background image. It is considered the most viewed photo of all-time with an estimate of over a billion views.
O’Rear captured the photo while driving through California’s Napa county in 1998 on a mission to meet Daphne, who would eventually become his wife. There’s a window in January when the rains come, and the hills explode into green for a few months before the withering summer heat browns them once again. O’Rear was driving down the road, pulled over, took a couple pictures and the rest is history.
O’Rear, a 25-year veteran of National Geographic, was one of the first photographers to use a service called Corbis to digitize and license his photos. And Corbis was owned by Microsoft’s chief executive at the time, Bill Gates. His total payment has never been disclosed but it was rumored to be well north of $100,000 for the negative which he had to deliver in person. FedEx would not insure an envelope for that amount at the time so he hand delivered the negative. Microsoft bought his plane ticket to Seattle.
Years later, “Bliss,” found here, is almost unrecognizable as the landscape has been reworked with vineyards. Microsoft also used a photo titled “Autumn” by Peter Burian showing the leaves changing brilliant colors and falling…. his royalty payment was $45.
Sources include:
- Tom’s fact emporium (his brain)
- PCWorld
- PetaPixel
- BuyBusinessInsurance