Friday Morning Links

I used to separate topics with asterisks, but the formatting sometimes looked terrible (I also don't like the default font "blogger" seems to have switched to, but that's another story) so I've quit with the asterisks. Consider this a buffet of topics. I"ll use bold to help the reader.

I'm still impressed with the gusher reported by Oasis today, and all the Oasis wells in the Willow Creek oil field. But then I'm biased.

Active rigs: 189, holding steady.

BRK-B and XOM hitting new 52-week highs. CVX flirting with all-time highs. Disclaimer: this is not an investment site. Do not make any investment decisions based on what you read at this site.

Periodically the WSJ features a current writer naming his/her five favorite writers. Today J.K. Rowling gets the chance to respond. Her response/her writing is as good as her choices. I can't cut and paste a portion of her response because it is so short, but it is really a hoot. Her top five: P.G. Wodehouse, Jane Austen, Colette and Charles Dickens. In passing she mentions a fifth, Emily Brontë, but I don't know if Emily was one of her favorites, of if she used a quote by Emily to make a point:

Wasn't it Emily Brontë who said [Jane Austen] had a mind like a small pair of scissors?

Wow, what a great metaphor. Google J.K. Rowling: my favorite writers. I've never read a Dickens novel completely to the end. I am fascinated by Colette but have read very little of her.

This will make my wife happy: a WSJ review of Elementary, a new CBS series with another re-make of Sherlock/Dr Watson. She tells me it's one of her favorite shows right now. Google Sherlock got sex appeal. But hasn't he always had sex appeal?

I don't know if folks have been following the problems American Airlines is having with their seats: they are coming loose (the seats, not American Airlines). After the first incident, which was discovered in flight, the airline has noted that a quarter of all "757's" inspected so far have problems with loose seats. How hard can it be to install seats in an airliner? I assume they do it in an air-conditioned hangar by well-trained and well-paid union workers. And then I think of roughnecks and geologists in the Bakken drilling down two miles, and then laterally two miles, in a seam 10 feet thick to hit oil. And being successful 99.99% of the time.  In comparison, how hard can it be to install a battery of seats in airliners? No link needed; the story is everywhere. --- American Airlines is blaming te loose seats on build-up of "gunk" -- coffee, soft drinks, candy, etc. I didn't read the story, just the headline -- sounds fishy to me to say the least. In a quarter of their inspected fleet? "Gunk?"

The Turkish-Syrian "war" is getting a fair amount of coverage in the WSJ. In addition, a very short editorial by the WSJ staff pretty much echoes what I wrote yesterday:

Turkey is also a NATO ally, which obliges the US to come to its aid of attacked.

Like that's gonna happen under no drama Obama. And Putin knows it. Google a Turkish-Syrian war.

Timing is interesting. The presidential debates focus on different subjects. The first one was on the economy. The new unemployment number came out a few days late. The tone of that first debate could have been entirely different. I assume the 2nd or 3rd debate will be on foreign affairs -- just as the Mideast seems to be spiraling out of control (again). Speaking of which, there's a great story in the WSJ, page A8: google west seizes on Iran's currency woes. This looks more and more like a country ready to implode: the question is whether the imams can prevent rioting in the street by a) getting rid of a mad man; and, b) convincing the west to remove sanctions. The west is moving toward total embargo. Like the Cuban embargo: begun in 1962, the Cuban embargo was expanded by Bill Clinton in 1990. Maybe this time it's different.

Apparently the riots in the Iranian streets are a pretty big deal. The worst thing Israel could do now is attack Iran which would end the riots as folks get into a war footing posture. The Israelis just need to let the country implode on its own.

Oh, this is a huge story. I first saw it at Carpe Diem: Caterpillar is going all in with natural gas.

“We have decided to go all-in on gas,” declared Feucht during his keynote address at HHP Summit on Sept. 27. 

”We are going to invest because we see a global market long term. Large engines are going gas. It’s not debatable; it’s our conclusion.” 

Feucht’s remarks confirmed that Caterpillar will provide natural gas fuel as an option for engines across its many high horsepower lines for marine, rail, mining, earthmoving and drilling operations. The company recently announced its first expected liquefied natural gas (LNG)-powered products will likely include Cat 793, 795 and 797 mining trucks , and locomotives.

It should be noted that Cat also has electric drive monster mining trucks. I still can't get "my hands around" (figuratively speaking) LNG-powered trucks but over time we will see how this plays out.

California gasoline prices jumped by 20 cents overnight. More stories of rationing distribution of gasoline in California.

Even Costco, the giant discount store chain that sells large volumes of gas, decided to close some stations, the Los Angeles Times reported.  

"We do not know when we will be resupplied," read a sign at one Southern California Costco, according to the Times. Other gas stations charged more than $5 a gallon. The Low-P station in Calabasas charged $5.69 Thursday. The pumps bore hand-written signs reading: "We are sorry, it is not our fault," the Times said.

Folks in California should be comforted by fact that the unemployment rate is plummeting, largest one-month drop since 2009. Californians will weather this spike in gasoline prices; they are content/satisfied: polling shows they overwhelmingly support four more years.

After all that hoopla to criminalize circumcision, the Germans will now legalize it. In the US, I don't know what physicians charge to perform this procedure, but 30 years ago or so, it was common to see a $50 or $100 fee attached to it. Pediatricians generally charged less; obstetricians generally charged more.