US Crude Oil Supply: Almost 40 Days -- July 9, 2020

US crude oil, days of supply: link here. The supply continues to shrink, at least measured in number of days. We're now down to 38.6 days. The previous reading was 38.8. LOL. Divide by seven days, this represents about six weeks of supply.

Two weeks of supply is cutting it close; one doesn't want to see that. About perfect is three weeks, or 21 days. Anything over four weeks (28 days) is "ludicrous," as Elon Musk would say. So, yes, six weeks of supply is ludicrous.

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The Literature Page

This is so cool. Back on April 27, 2020, I stumbled across the Bay of Fundy while reading a biography of Wyndham Lewis.

The Bay of Fundy.

Sail down the St Croix River, which forms part of the border between Maine, US / New Brunswick, Canada, sail through the Passamaquoddy Bay, and then make a hard turn to port, on a 45° heading, to enter the Bay of Fundy, located between New Brunswick to the west-northwest and Nova Scotia to the east-southeast.

Link here.

The Bay of Fundy is one of the 7 wonders of North America. The highest tides on earth, the rarest whales in the world, semi-precious minerals and dinosaur fossils; all this convinced an international panel of experts in 2014 to choose the Bay of Fundy as one of the natural wonders of the world. 

Today,  while reading the Greek tragedies, I stumbled across the Euripus Strait, separating the Greek island Euboea from Boeotia, mainland Greece.

The strait is subject to strong tidal currents which reverse direction approximately four times a day. Tidal flows are very weak in the Eastern Mediterranean, but the strait is a remarkable exception. Water flow peaks at about 7.5 miles per hour, either northwards or southwards, and lesser vessels are often incapable of sailing against it. When nearing flow reversal, sailing is even more precarious because of vortex formation.

The Swiss scholar François-Alphonse Forel contributed to an understanding of the enigmatic phenomenon by his study of limnology and the discovery of seiche, where layers of water of differing temperature oscillate in thickness in a confined body of water.

But the problem was solved completely only by D. Eginitis, director of the Athens Observatory, who published his conclusions in 1929.

So, the word for the day:

• seiche (pronounced like "latch" but with a long "a"): a temporary disturbance or oscillation in the water level of a lake or partially enclosed body of water, especially one caused by changes in atmospheric pressure.

So, how is the Euripes Strait related to the Greek tragedies? This is where the Greek flotilla stage prior to setting out for Troy. From wiki:

As the Greek fleet was preparing to sail to Troy to force the return of Helen, they gathered in Aulis near the Euripus Strait.

While there, king Agamemnon killed a stag sacred to the goddess Artemis. The enraged deity caused a contrary wind and eventually forced the king to agree to sacrifice his daughter Iphigeneia in order to ensure a favorable wind for the Greek fleet.

In one version of the myth, a surrogate sacrifice was provided through the divine intervention of Artemis, and the saved girl then became a priestess of the goddess among the Tauri, a people living near the Black Sea in the Crimean peninsula.

Subsequent to these events, Iphigenia returns from among the Tauri with the assistance of her brother Orestes. In Euripides' version of the myth, the goddess Athena reveals that Iphigenia will make landfall in Brauron and there be the priestess of Artemis, die, and be buried.