Hype for the Future 79J: Mildura 🇦🇺 and the Permian Basin 🇺🇸 Compared

Introduction

Both Mildura and the Permian Basin share basic climatological characteristics; however, with the locations in opposite hemispheres, the seasons in Mildura are always the inverse of the seasons in the Permian Basin. While the Permian Basin is associated with the eastern edge of the Trans-Pecos region of the State of Texas, the community of Mildura is associated with the Upper Murray River and specifically with the Victorian side of the river. On the opposite side of the Murray River is the State of New South Wales, though the community directly across into NSW is significantly smaller than the semi-arid/steppe community of Mildura in northwestern Victoria.

Cultural Differences

Though both the Mildura area and the Permian Basin may have similar climactic features, the cultural distinction is as dramatic as would be expected between continents. While the community of Mildura is typically identified as a frontier settlement along the Upper Murray River and as a gateway to the Outback further northwest, the Permian Basin has no such Outback region to connect to. Rather than connecting to fully desert communities, the Permian Basin is predominantly identified as a basin for oil extraction and the resulting corporate greed.

Hype for the Future 79I: The Smallest County Seats in America

Introduction

While the vast majority of counties in the United States have obviously defined county seats, a number are actually out of the ordinary in a number of respects, including, but not limited to, the consolidated city-county and town-county arrangements and the independent cities. Each county mentioned below contains a relatively lower population count relative to other counties in the United States of America as a whole, and the communities are typically situated in the Great Plains states, where the land area of counties remains relatively similar to the land areas represented in counties further east.

Selected Counties

Slope County is located in the southwestern portion of the State of North Dakota, with only one county, Bowman, located further south. Amidon serves as the county seat of Slope County, though the community does not represent the largest area in the county or region. However, the county is accessible by way of United States Route 85, which merely expands the geographical anomaly as the U.S. Numbered Highways in the Great Plains region often represent the larger communities of the respective corridors.

Blaine County, Nebraska, located in the Sandhills region associated with the State, is the second-smallest county by population in the entire State and often represented in the bottom twenty-five (25) of counties in the United States by population count. The City of Brewster, a community of only around seventeen (17) residents, serves as the county seat, resulting in the community being representative of the least populated incorporated county seat in the United States of America, a role that had been taken by Amidon prior to the 2010 census. Today, the community is accessible primarily by Routes 7 and 91, with the former leading exclusively northward toward the City of Ainsworth, the Brown County seat with under two thousand residents. The latter leads both to the east and to the west, and Route 183 is within the easterly vicinity of the community.

Loving County, located within the West Texas region beyond the Permian Basin in the State of Texas, is home to the fewest residents of all counties in the United States containing a permanent population, with recent estimates around sixty-four (64) residents for the entire county. The only community within the county is the unincorporated community of Mentone, having recorded around nineteen (19) of the residents of the county, which itself is accessible in the state highway network exclusively by way of Route 302 east of United States Route 285 and south of the New Mexico state line.

Within Buffalo County, South Dakota, the situation may appear even more confusing initially, as the communities East River are often identified as more humid and with higher rural base populations than West River. However, this specific East River county, located relatively downstream from the City of Pierre in Hughes County, is identified as a county with a population of fewer than two thousand residents. Gann Valley is an unincorporated community located on the eastern side of the county whose population makes the area the least populated unincorporated county seat in the United States.

Hype for the Future 33A: Texas State Fair Satellites

Apart from the mainstream Texas State Fair on the eastern side of the City of Dallas, serving approximately two million people as of the 2025 session. The satellite fairs of Texas, typically serving anywhere from 125,000 to 250,000 people, are located in Abilene (West Texas), Tyler (East Texas), Denton (North Texas), and Beaumont (South Texas).

Hype for the Future 30/284: Delayed Notice

Unfortunately, novaTopFlex was unable to write more notices for Sunday, November 30, 2025. However, on that day, novaTopFlex was adding numerous locations within the Rocky Mountains, the Permian Basin, the Black Hills, and a few locations in the southern Great Plains (Texas specifically) to the novaTop Travel Itinerary. Locations of potential novaTop interest have expanded toward Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse, Quarter Horses of Amarillo, numerous attractions in the Midland and Odessa areas, and the popular tourist and even local sites of the Front Range Urban Corridor extending into Cheyenne and the Laramie Range, from Colorado into Wyoming. Additional interests include the Ernest Leonard Blumenschein House and the art colony associated with Taos and the historic Taos Pueblo area in northern New Mexico, with Angel Fire, a ski resort, located almost directly to the east over the mountains.