Lake Ontario ranks only eighth among North America’s largest lakes, behind the other four Great Lakes, plus three others entirely in Canada: Great Slave Lake, Great Bear Lake, and Lake Winnipeg.
Lake Michigan is the largest lake entirely in the USA.
In 2007, an underwater archaeologist discovered what he reported as stone circle 40 feet below the surface of Lake Michigan, including one rock that he identified as having a possible carving of a mastodon, an animal that went extinct 10,000 years ago.
A man named Jim Dreyer swam across Lake Michigan in 1998 (65 miles), and then in 2003 he swam the length of Lake Michigan (422 miles).
Issyk-Kul is a salt lake in Kyrgyzstan, a mile above sea level, twice the size of Rhode Island. It is easily accessible, with popular beaches in summer.
The Dead Sea, also known as the Salt Sea, is a salt lake bordering Jordan to the east and Israel and the West Bank to the west. The surface and shores of the Dead Sea are 423 metres (1,388 ft) below sea level, making it Earth’s lowest elevation on land.
An unusual feature of the Dead Sea is its discharge of asphalt. From deep seeps, the Dead Sea constantly spits up small pebbles and blocks of the black substance. Asphalt coated figurines and bitumen coated Neolithic skulls from archaeological sites have been found. Egyptian mummification processes used asphalt imported from the Dead Sea region.
The most saline water body in the world is the Don Juan Pond, located in the McMurdo Dry Valleys in Antarctica. It has a salinity level of over 44% (i.e. 12 times saltier than ocean water). Its high salinity prevents the Don Juan from freezing even when temperatures are below −50 °C (−58 °F).
By comparison, the salinity of the Dead Sea is 33.7%. The salinity of Utah’s Great Salt Lake varies from 5% to 27%, that of California’s Mono Lake varies from 5% to 9.9%, and that of California’s Salton Sea is 4.4%.
The average salinity of oceans is 3.5%.
McMurdo Station is a U.S. Antarctic research center on the south tip of Ross Island, which is in the New Zealand-claimed Ross Dependency on the shore of McMurdo Sound in Antarctica. It is operated by the U.S. Antarctic Program, a branch of the National Science Foundation. The station is the largest community in Antarctica, capable of supporting up to 1,258 residents. All personnel and cargo going to or coming from Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station first pass through McMurdo.
Archibald McMurdo (24 September 1812 – 11 December 1875) was a British naval officer, for whom all of the following Antarctica locations are named: McMurdo Sound, McMurdo Station, McMurdo Ice Shelf, McMurdo Dry Valleys and McMurdo-South Pole Highway.
The McMurdo–South Pole Highway is a 1,000-mile-long compacted snow road linking McMurdo Station on the coast to the Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station. It was constructed by leveling snow and filling in crevasses, but is not paved; flags mark its route.
U.S. Route 1 (US 1) is a major north–south U.S. Highway that serves the East Coast of the United States. It runs 2,369 miles (3,813 km), from Fort Kent, Maine, at the Canadian border, south to Key West, Florida, making it the longest north-south road in the United States. The highway connects most of the major cities of the east coast, including Miami, Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York City, and Boston.
While U.S. Route 1 follows the American east coast, California State Route 1 hugs the west coast for several hundred miles.
Septimus has a friend who once spun out, drunk, near Devil’s Slide. Route 1 now bypasses that treacherous cliff.
The southernmost part of US Highway 1 is called the Overseas Highway. According to dangerousRoads.org (a fave, http://www.dangerousroads.org) it is one of the most scenic drives in the USA.
British Airways was formed in 1974 by a merger between British European Airways (BEA) and British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC). BOAC, because it was a crown corporation, exempted its employees from military duty, and continued to fly its routes through World Was Two, earning the sobriquet “Bastards Overseas Avoiding Conscription”.
The Beatles flew in from Miami Beach BOAC and ended up Back in the U.S.S.R.
A compilation of the selections the Apollo crews brought is here. Armstrong also brought a theremin album. Yes, cassettes were around then.
In play: BOAC was the first airline to offer jet service, on the DeHavilland Comet, inaugurating its London-Johannesburg route in 1952. The Comet was a hit with passengers including Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret, who were guests on a special flight on 30 June 1953 hosted by Sir Geoffrey and Lady de Havilland, and thus became the first members of the British Royal Family to fly by jet.
One of the most successful aircraft of the Second World War, the British de Havilland Mosquito multi-role combat aircraft was constructed almost entirely of wood and was nicknamed “The Wooden Wonder”.
Captain Sir Geoffrey de Havilland’s wooden Mosquito has been considered the most versatile warplane ever built.
Although mosquitoes occur there, the Mosquito Coast, on the Caribbean coast of Central America is named that for the Miskito indigenous people who populated the area in pre-Columbian times. The word “mosquito” in English comes from the diminutive form of the Spanish word “mosca”, which is a generic word meaning flying insect.
The Mosquito Coast (1986) was River Phoenix’s 5th film of 16 films before he died.
“Ol’ Man River” (music by Jerome Kern, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II) is a song in the 1927 musical *Show Boat *that contrasts the struggles and hardships of African Americans with the endless, uncaring flow of the Mississippi River; it is sung from the point of view of a black stevedore on a showboat and is the most famous song from the show.
The most famous rendition of it, one that is still noted today, was sung by Paul Robeson in James Whale’s classic 1936 film version of Show Boat. (Robeson had performed the song before in the 1928 London production of the show and in the 1932 Broadway revival.)