Saturday, May 21, 2005

Lake Superior

Some Lake Superior Facts:

LENGTH: 350 miles / 563 km.
BREADTH: 160 miles / 257 km.
AVERAGE DEPTH: 483 ft. / 147 m.
MAXIMUM DEPTH: 1,332 ft. / 406 m.
VOLUME: 2,900 cubic miles / 12,100 cubic km. (It could contain all of the Great Lakes, plus 3 additional lakes the size of Lake Eerie)
WATER SURFACE AREA: 31,700 sq. miles / 82,100 sq. km.
SHORELINE LENGTH (including islands): 2,726 miles / 4,385 km.
ELEVATION: 600 ft. / 183 m.
Detention Rate: 191 years for a drop of water to remain in the lake
Average Water Temperature: 40 degrees Fahrenheit
Maximum Wave Height Recorded: 31 feet
Could cover all of North America in water three feet deep.
Lake Superior rarely freezes over fully, and when it does, it usually doesn't last longer than a few hours or perhaps a day. It's estimated that Lake Superior froze nearly 100 percent in1996, about 96 percent in 1994, and about 95 percent in 1972. The last records of complete ice coverage date to the winters of 1979 and 1962. Very cold, calm weather is necessary for the complete freezing of Lake Superior.

My favorite fact about Lake Superior:

With the entire surface frozen, there would be enough room for every person on earth to spread out a 12' by 12' picnic blanket.

Monday, May 09, 2005

Just Rambling

In Pilgrim At Tinker Creek Annie Dillard writes:

Self-consciousness is the curse of the city and all that sophistication implies. It is the glimpse of oneself in a storefront window, the unbidden awareness of reactions on the faces of other people -- the novelist's world, not the poet's. I've lived there. I remember what the city has to offer: human companionship, major-league baseball, and a clatter of quickening stimulus like a rush from strong drugs that leaves you drained. I remember how you bide your time in the city, and think, if you stop to think, "next year . . . I'll start living; next year . . . I'll start my life." Innocence is a better world.

Innocence sees that this is it, and finds it world enough, and time.

* * * *

I was fortunate enough to have someone recommend Pilgrim to me and now I recommend it to others. The quote above is from the chapter "The Present," which is about experiencing the present purely.

I've read Ayn Rand and enjoyed her novels. But, when someone gets all excited about Rand's philosophy, I tell them I prefer Dillard's.