Updates
March 25, 2013: Homeland Security buying another 360,000 rounds of ammunition; refuses to talk about it. Remember: the fall of Rome from fell within.
While the Department of Homeland Security continues to ignore members of Congress demanding to know why the federal agency is engaged in an apparent arms build-up, the DHS has just announced it plans to purchase another 360,000 rounds of hollow point ammunition to add to the roughly 2 billion bullets already bought over the past year.March 11, 2013: Homeland Security buying another 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition.
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I missed the weather report, but I assume it will pop up again. I probably misheard, but I think there are some reports there could be as much as 3 feet of snow falling in some places in New England this Friday/Saturday. More sane/conservative estimates are 8" to 12" of snow for Boston. Wow, this global warming is really playing havoc for the East Coast.
Again, another great article from RBN Energy. Today, a look at the explosive (pun intended) growth in US-exported liquid propane gas (LPG) -- leaving Texas/Louisiana to points south. I was surprised who the customers were. Be sure to read to the end of the article. I give OXY a lot of grief, but there's an interesting data point at the end of the article regarding OXY. And, now that I've brought up OXY, a reader sent me a note suggesting that OXY is moving by leaps and bounds out in California (think Monterey Shale). For investors, OXY has really trailed XOM and CVX share price appreciation over the past two years (according to Yahoo!Financial compare graphs).
Disclaimer: this is not an investment site. Do not make any decisions base on what you read at this site.
New link. A reader sent in a link to a new website. I've only looked at one graphic so can't say much about the site, but if this graphic is an indication is how good the site is, ChartsBin should be fun to explore. The site will be added to my "Data Links" page.
The Bakken on CNBC: A talking head on CNBC, about 6:45 a.m. talked for quite some time on the Bakken and rail, despite the fact that the segment was not expected to be centered on the Bakken. Don might be able to find the video for me later; if so, I will post it. --> Don found the video -- here it is.
WTI/Brent spread appears to be flirting with $21, according to the CNBC crawler. If so, this is the widest spread in quite some time. I follow the spread elsewhere.
When others said the Boeing Dreamliner would be airborne soon after the initial grounding, I disagreed, suggesting this will be drawn out for quite some time. Now they are talking about "redesigning" the batteries or the battery reconfiguration. If so, this will not be overnight. Considering battery manufacturers have been working on "new" batteries for decades without a quantum leap for end-users, it's not good news when "they" start talking about battery re-design for a plane that was supposed to be flying by now. At the WSJ.
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[Update: February 17, 2013: this is just plain weird -- gun dealers report shortages of ammunition at USA Today; Gun shops are running low on ammunition from a run by customers fearful of potential gun-control legislation, according to gun retailers and customers.And DHS purchases 21.6 million more rounds of ammunition, February 7, 2013, infowars.com]
This is just plain weird ... or scary: DHS buying billions of rounds of ammo.
An approximation of how many rounds of ammunition the DHS has now secured over the last 10 months stands at around 1.625 billion. In March 2012, ATK announced that they had agreed to provide the DHS with a maximum of 450 million bullets over four years, a story that prompted questions about why the feds were buying ammunition in such large quantities.
To put that in perspective, during the height of active battle operations in Iraq, US soldiers used 5.5 million rounds of ammunition a month. Extrapolating the figures, the DHS has purchased enough bullets over the last 10 months to wage a full scale war for almost 30 years.
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Meanwhile, a reporter at the LA Times is recommending that the USPS solve its monetary problems by a) converting their post offices to Starbucks-like coffee shops; and, b) become the national provider of high-speed internet e-mail. I can't make this stuff up.
Capitalize on the Postal Service's commitment to communication and have it spearhead efforts for universal access to high-speed Internet service. The Federal Communications Commission already has declared this a national priority, so let's put the Postal Service in the driver's seat.
Meanwhile, let's overhaul our antiquated post offices.
Follow the Starbucks example. Convert them into coffee shops that allow people to go online whenever they please. Sure, you could still mail a package or buy stamps. But you could also get a decent cup of government-brewed java and kick back with your tablet or laptop.And the LA Times is paying this columnist? Next time you visit your local post office, imagine the staff operating a Starbucks coffee shop and trouble-shooting high-speed internet.
