CPI Airfare Component -- +6.5% M/M In January -- Liz Ann Sonders -- Posted February 16, 2026

l

Robert Duvall, age 95; dies. 

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Airfare 

Link here.

 

Amazing How Fast Things Change -- CRISPR --> AI --> Chatbots --> February 16, 2026

Locator: 49983CRISPR.

Supercomputer Doudna: link here.

Reading this week:

• Matt Ridley's Genome, 1999; notes here; and, 
• The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race, Walter Isaacson, c. 2021. Notes here.
• an early post on CRISPR: link here. This was back in 2018! Whoo-hoo!
• CRISPR was all the rage in the 2010s. All of a sudden, the acronym is seldom heard/read in mainstream media. 
• History of Israel, Bright, 1959.
• Dead Sea Scrolls: discovered, 1946 - 1956.

I had forgotten I wrote this in 2018:

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Bonus Note For The Granddaughters

CRISPR.

CRISPR-Cas9.

Until this week, I knew nothing of significance about CRISPR. For whatever reason I mentioned CRISPR to our 14-year-old granddaughter on the way to school the other day, and she became incredibly animated. She loved "CRISPR" and knew more about it than I did.

Whatever she knows about CRISPR she learned on her own. I doubt they have yet studied it in high school, although it's possible it's been mentioned

I'll have fun talking to her about CRISPR over the next few weeks.

CRISPR is part of the DNA genome. Back in 1993, a biologist studying bacteria in Spanish swamps, found bacteria whose DNA contained repeated sequences of DNA that did not correspond to anything previously seen.

Because of the nature of these repeated sequences (clusters, regularly interspersed, and short palindromic repeats) he labeled them CRISPR for short.

It turns out that these palindromic repeats of "meaningless" genome were actually pieces of viral DNA -- viruses that had invaded bacteria as pathogens (bacteriophages -- to eat bacteria).

It is hypothesized that by incorporating this "meaningless" viral genome, bacteria are more quickly able to defend against a virus from attacking it (a second time).

And like everything else in biology, there is more to the story.

Molecular biology dogma: DNA makes RNA makes protein.

CRISPER makes RNA but this RNA does not make a protein. By itself, the CRISPR-RNA is worthless.

But, as it turns out, as in a Rudyard Kipling "just so" story, bacteria also contain an enzyme (or protein) called Cas9 -- short for CRISPER-associated protein 9. If the biologists had had a sense of humor, it would be easier to remember as"Mama Cass protein" -- CRISPR-associated protein that loves to eat.

But a very special way of eating.

As noted above CRISPER-RNA by itself is worthless.

But with the Cas9 enzyme "stuff happens." Cas9 enzyme is a "cutter."

CRISPER-RNA guides Cas9 enzyme to the virus with the corresponding DNA genome.

At the viral DNA genome, the Cas9 enzyme gets to work, cutting out the viral genome that corresponds to CRISPR-RNA.

Pretty clever, huh?

Know who connected the dots, figured this out?

A Danish yogurt company. Yup, Danisco -- a Danish yogurt company.

Danisco is now owned by Dow Dupont.

Researchers now use CRISPER-Cas9 to target any region/gene in any DNA genome and cut it out / remove it. By removing a gene, researchers are better able to discern the purpose of a previously non-understood gene.

If a bacteria is able to do what a bacteria normally does and now loses a certain function because it has lost a certain gene, scientists have a pretty good idea of what that gene must be responsible for.

Likewise, researchers can do that to any mammalian genome.

Much, much more to the story but I now have enough to share with our granddaughter and still be able to keep up with her.

This was from "Diary" in the current issue of London Review of Books. Another source is here. 

That 14-year-old granddaughter is now a sophomore STEM student at Stanford University, California, ROTC. 

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CRISPR

A bacterial immune system commonly associated with targeting DNA viruses.

So, the natural question was whether CRISPR targets RNA viruses?

My hunch is RFK, Jr., and his HHS would no longer "advocate" for CRISPR in use against a "novel" Covid or the next seasonal influenza pandemic. 

Monday -- Presidents' Day -- February 16, 2026

Locator: 49982B.

NASCAR: I watched the entire race last night on YouTube. 

Took about ten minutes. It was a ten-lap race. 

The winner was the guy who didn't crash coming out of the last turn. That was the only "lap" he led. I think his name was Reddick. Yes, I just checked, Tyler Reddick. Michael Jordan's team. 

According to Google: "Bubba Wallace had a heartbreaking 10th place finish despite dominating the race with a team-high 40 laps led and winning Stage 2."

Golf: an incredibly good tournament -- drama to the very end, and an incredible "bogey-save" by Jacob Bridgeman, literally playing his fourth (?) shot off the pebble beach on the 18th. Link here. 

Reading this week:

• Matt Ridley's Genome, 1999; and, 
• The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race, Walter Isaacson, c. 2021. Notes here.
• an early post on CRISPR: link here. This was back in 2018! Whoo-hoo!
• CRISPR was all the rage in the 2010s. All of a sudden, the acronym is seldom heard/read in mainstream media. 

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 Back to the Bakken

WTI: $63.28. 

New wells reporting: 

• Tuesday, February 17, 2026: 26 for the month, 79 for the quarter, 79 for the year,
• 41962, conf, Kraken, Charity 3-10-15 3H,
• 41961, conf, Kraken, Charity 3-10-15 2H, 
• 41878, conf, Petro-Hunt, State 159-92-36D-24-3H, 
• Monday, February 16, 2026: 23 for the month, 76 for the quarter, 76 for the year,
• 41963, conf, Kraken, Charity 3-10-15 4H, 
• Sunday, February 15, 2026: 22 for the month, 75 for the quarter, 75 for the year,
• 41333, conf, Hess, BW-Stoveland-LE-149-100-1003H-1, 
• Saturday, February 14, 2026: 21 for the month, 74 for the quarter, 74 for the year,
• 41816, conf, BR, Rolla 6C, 

Kura -- Our Favorite Sushi Restaurant -- But Has Become Too Expensive For Us To Visit -- February 16, 2026

Locator: 49981SUSHI.

Link here. 

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Taking A Break

I got up at 2:00 a.m. to continue reading Walter Isaacson's Code Breaker, the biography of Jennifer Doudna and CRISPR.  

I've been uploading posts that I did some weeks ago and left in draft stage. Going through them now, suggests it's a good idea to take a six-month break from x, CNBC (except Cramer's first ten minutes), do a lot of reading and lot of biking. Time to let some stuff ferment, gel. 

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Personal Memories

So many people with whom my paths have crossed. Personal relationships that progressed from casual, unpredictable acquaintances to romantic liaisons. 

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Broad Institute

Wiki.

The Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard or the Broad Institute, is a biomedical and genomic research center located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States; Cambridge, across the Charles River from Boston. 

The institute is independently governed and supported as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit research organization under the name Broad Institute Inc., and it partners with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University, and the five Harvard teaching hospitals.

The Broad Institute evolved from a decade of research collaborations among MIT and Harvard scientists. 

One cornerstone was the Center for Genome Research of the Whitehead Institute at MIT. 

Founded in 1982, the Whitehead Institute became a major center for genomics and the Human Genome Project. 

As early as 1995, scientists at the Whitehead started pilot projects in genomic medicine, forming an unofficial collaborative network among young scientists interested in genomic approaches to cancer and human genetics. 

Another cornerstone was the Institute of Chemistry and Cell Biology established by Harvard Medical School in 1998 to pursue chemical genetics as an academic discipline. Its screening facility was one of the first high-throughput resources opened in an academic setting. It facilitated small molecule screening projects for more than 80 research groups worldwide.

To create a new organization that was open, collaborative, cross-disciplinary and able to organize projects at any scale, planning took place in 2002–2003 among philanthropists Eli and Edythe Broad, MIT, the Whitehead Institute, Harvard and the Harvard-affiliated hospitals (in particular, the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Children's Hospital Boston, the Dana–Farber Cancer Institute and the Massachusetts General Hospital).

The Broads made a founding gift of $100 million and the Broad Institute was formally launched in May 2004. In November 2005, the Broads announced an additional $100 million gift to the institute. On September 4, 2008, the Broads announced an endowment of $400 million to make the Broad Institute a permanent establishment. In November 2013, they invested an additional $100 million to fund a second decade of research at the institute.

During the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, the Broad Institute ran laboratory tests for the virus for about 100 colleges and universities in the northeastern U.S. As of September 2020, the Broad was processing one out of every 20 COVID-19 tests in the nation.

Eli and Edythe Broad: wiki.

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Chatbots

For every hour I spend reading, blogging, "original research," I spend at least fifteen minutes with ChatGPT or Google Gemini asking them their thoughts on my blogging. 

Gobsmacked With Emotions -- February 7, 2026

Locator: 49927ARCHIVES.

Over the weekend, I attended a funeral for an extended family member in southern California.

I hadn't / haven't been back to this part of the country in years. I can't remember when I was last here. We had a house near here many years ago but also sold it many years ago.

Picking up the Enterprise rental car at the airport, I was gobsmacked with emotions. There is just something so different about walking out of a southern California terminal. Fortunately I flew into a regional airport. Small terminal -- the entire terminal I assume was about the size of one terminal at DFW where this flight began. There are two parking garages but both quite small compared to those at DFW. 

The first thing I noted driving out of the parking structure were the palm trees, also the first thing I noticed when driving into Los Angeles in 1970 -- that would have been 55+ years ago. Wow, a lot of water under that bridge.

Talking to a close family friend at the memorial service, I said that the geography, the streets, the buildings have not changed all these years. The only thing that has changed is the culture. And, of course, I was "aware" of that only from watching and reading the news. One wouldn't notice that in these upper-middle income, predominantly white neighborhoods. The freeways are still six lanes wide in both directions and the traffic moved slowly.

In the big scheme of thing, southern California is/was probably the most important part of my life: school, coming of age. 

I went off the grid during this period, at least as far as blogging or replying to any e-mails. Of course, I continued to lurk / surf in the free moments I had. I know I will get back to blogging, but it may take awhile. I really don't know.

I've lost interest in a lot of mundane things, and most of what I blog / blog about is mundane.

 

I have no plans to watch the Super Bowl tomorrow. I assume I watched Super Bowl III, back in the year I graduated from high school, but I do not recall, and that was a most historic Super Bowl ever. Interestingly enough, among some "experts," it did not even rank among the top five "best Super Bowls ever." 

For the past few days, morning talk shows -- except for sports show like Get Up! and First Take -- the talk is all about the food. In fact, if you had no knowledge of what the Super Bowl is all about, watching television three days prior would lead one to believe the even will be hosted on the "Food Channel," and that the event would somehow center around cooking. Mostly chicken wings.

Number 2 on the list above had the same two teams as are playing tomorrow. 

That list also includes the Dallas Cowboys, losing back in 1979. The Cowboys' last appearance (and victory) in the Super Bowl was 1996. I don't recall having watched that. I would have been in my second year in the USAF at which time I incredibly busy. I was very likely working that night. I didn't keep up with my journaling those years. 

Our first child was born a month after the 1979 Super Bowl and I was working seven days a week then, at least ten hours a day some months. [Wow, that's hard to believe 7 days x 10 hours / day = 70 hours; there were periods before that I was working 80+ hours a week.] I never considered it work; it was always a journey. I guess the journey pretty much came to an end in 2004 or thereabouts, three years before I retired from the USAF.

Anyway, enough of this. For the time being, I will remain off the grid, not posting blogs, not surfing social media, and avoiding e-mail. 

But, wow, now sitting in this relatively empty house in southern California, just a mile or so off the coast, in a walled off plot of land, wow, it's peaceful. I would go nuts living out here.