Will Kharg Island Be Trump Island By The End Of The Month? March 17, 2026

Locator: 50246KHARGISLAND.

Today:

Trump's way: if European allies won't help secure the Strait of Hormuz, he will do it his way -- with US Marines, and the US Army standing by. 

Amazon Plans Drastic Cut In Packages Sent Via USPS -- March 17, 2026

Locator: 50245AMZN.

Tag: Amazon USPS 

Link here. 

Amazon is planning to sharply cut the number of packages it ships through the U.S. Postal Service, a move that could cost the agency millions of dollars in much-needed revenue.

The e-commerce giant, long the Postal Service’s biggest customer, has already begun ratcheting down its postal volume and wants to reduce it by at least two-thirds by this fall, when its current contract with the agency expires, according to people familiar with the matter.

USPS delivered more than a billion packages for Amazon last year, close to 15% of all the packages that the Postal Service delivered in the country. Amazon’s guaranteed volumes have been a source of stability for the agency, which has operated at a loss for most of the past two decades. In fiscal 2025, it reported a net loss of $9 billion.

The Postal Service has expanded its parcel-delivery capacity in recent years, building bigger facilities and buying new machines to process boxes, which replaced aging equipment that focused on letter mail. If the decline in volumes from Amazon isn’t adequately managed, the new equipment and facilities could end up being underutilized. The Postal Service may also have to find more ways to cut costs.

According to people familiar with the matter, Amazon disclosed the plan to the Postal Service in a confidential bidding process for its so-called last-mile delivery service, in which USPS handles the last leg of delivery for businesses. Under new Postmaster General David Steiner, the Postal Service solicited bids from Amazon and other businesses for the service for the first time. Steiner has said the bidding will help the quasigovernmental agency determine the true market value of the last-mile service.

Amazon’s existing contract with the Postal Service expires in October. Results of the last-mile bidding competition will be released in the second quarter, and contracts will be finalized by the end of the third quarter. That left Amazon concerned that it would have little time to make changes to its network if its bid weren’t accepted, the people said.

Eight New Permits, Eleven Permits Renewed -- March 17, 2026

Locator: 50244B.

Cuba: finally being widely supported -- total blackout over the island of Cuba after flow of oil (for producing electricity) has been completely halted. Links everywhere; one here.

*****************************
Back to the Bakken

WTI: $95.94.

Active rigs: 26. 

Eight new permits, #42766 - #42773, inclusive:

• Operator: KODA Resources
• Field: Sioux Trail, Divide County;
• Comments:
• KODA Resources has permits for eight Altbier wells, SESW 18-160-101, 
• to be sited 450 / 650 FSL and 1722 / 1813 FWL.

Eleven permits renewed:

• Hess (4): four SC-Scanland permits, Truax oil field, Williams County;
• XTO (4): three Frisinger permits, Hofflund oil field, Williams County; and a Wolff Federal permit, Haystack Butte oil field, McKenzie County;
• Kraken (3): three Haugen permits, Boxcar Butte, McKenzie County;

This Is How Much The Iranian War Is Hitting The New Englanders' Pocketbook -- March 17, 2026

Locator: 50243ISONE.

Tag: NE-ISO NEISO ISONE state region electricity costs

New England ISO: regional electric rates are running a negative $80 / MW. Negative!

The five-minute real-time graph:

Resource mix: 

So, what's going on?

And Now They're Sold Out -- March 17, 2026

Locator: 50242APPLE.
Locator: 50196APPLE.

Updates

March 17, 2026: link here -- and now, sold out .... this is truly incredible .... 

Original Post 
Previously Posted

Link here. 

The data shows, that for the toughest multi-core tasks, Apple has more than tripled computational performance in just five years. 

It is also relevant to note Apple’s statement that the M5 Pro/Mac systems deliver over six times the peak AI compute we got from the original M1 systems. 

That’s faster progress than Moore’s Law, which says computational performance should double every 18-24 months, and that trajectory shows how quickly Apple’s Macs have become highly competitive at the highest reaches of the PC industry. 

Gone are the thermal throttling limitations that plagued Intel Macs during high-end tasks, in comes the capacity to use Apple’s computers when sustained performance is required.

This is really, really cool. I spotted this -- and predicted this -- back in June, 2024. 

AI prompt: apple tim cook presentation youtube silicon neural 

AI reply:

Not recognized now, and probably not recognized since, this may be the crowing achievement of Tim Cook, perhaps even measuring up to Steve Jobs' famous / amazing introduction of the iPhone.

The iPhone made Apple the $4 trillion company it has become, but Tim Cook's team has moved the entire "compute" so much farther, so much faster than anyone could imagine / has imagined.

Apple didn't just break Moore's Law, the company shattered it. And they did it smartly.

I'll quit here but much more could be said.  

I can't believe how good this post was -- interestingly, it is one of the most frequentd sites on the blog -- back in June, 2024. Linked above.  

Geek Data:

MacBook Neo: for routine tasks, which only require single-core -- beats the incredible M3 Mac single core -- 3,467 to 3,135. By 10%. Single core is what we used to call a "CPU."