Food For Thought

I've been updating the data at "new wells reporting, back in the "early" years. Three things jump out:

• some really pathetic wells compared to what operators are reporting these days
• a real hodge-podge of locations being drilled as operators delineated the Bakken
• some operators that no longer exist, having been bought by current operators

If folks thought the Bakken was good in the early days, they will be amazed how far we have come. It is absolutely striking to scroll through some of the data at the linked site, going back to the "early" days, back in 2010. 

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A Note to the Granddaughters

I'm reading another wonderful book, Athens: A Portrait of the city in its golden age, Christian Meier, c. 1993. I will post notes at the literature blog (but haven't done much with this book yet).

I recall my reading list in first and second grade. I loved to read; I have no idea what attracted me to reading. I don't recall my parents reading a whole lot to me: they had their hands full with four children when I was in first grade -- I was the oldest.

I don't recall what I was interested in during the later elementary school years, But I do recall the wonderful library in the northwest (?) corner of that huge study hall in Central School (our "junior high" which I suppose is now called a "middle school"). That Central School was torn down years ago; Williston Middle School is now collocated with the high school, but I digress.

In middle school I was fascinated with classical Roman and Greek history, and Carl Sandburg's biography of Abraham Lincoln. [Amazon's reviews bring back wonderful memories.] I also remember the wonderful biography of Albert Schweitzer that I read, but do not remember the author.

I think the only two "things" I lacked in my high school education was a) a good physics teacher; and, b) a Greek literature teacher. And perhaps, a good Shakespeare literature teacher. But short of that, I can't say enough about the excellent education I received in Williston. I've mentioned more than once my wonderful middle school Latin instructor and my junior year in high school chemistry instructor.

[My college roommate could recite long passages from Greek plays and from Shakespeare plays; he was educated in a small rural school in Tea, South Dakota.]

I do not recall what book I first read that left such an impression on me regarding Pericles and the golden age of Athens, but I assume that's why I am really enjoying Christian Meier's book on Athens; it probably rekindles some of the dying embers of what little I remember from my early reading.

I am reading Athens very, very slowly. I don't have a South Lake, Texas, public library card because our address is outside South Lake. So, I bike the 5 miles most week days to the library and read a bit of it.

Friday, I came across this very interesting paragraph, p. 48:

Max Weber speaks of the "growing demand on the part of a society accustomed to absolute satisfaction of its needs for order and protection (police) in  all areas of life." But government does not stop there. A great amount of regulation becomes necessary and is often supplied to excess. it comes into being partly to sustain and legitimize governmental power and partly as a result of increasing specialization. Ultimately, it culminates in the separation of state and society. This trend of specialization can be resisted, but reversing it would be difficult. Political centralization does not necessarily produce a strong foreign policy.

Wow, talk about insight.

Max Weber was a German sociologist, philosopher, and political economist but most of that paragraph was written by a modern-day historian, Christian Meier.

Parsing that paragraph, the individual points:

• a society accustomed to absolute satisfaction of its needs for order and protection
• in all areas of life
• a great amount of regulation is necessary
• governmental regulation is often supplied to excess
• excess governmental regulation is driven partly to legitimize governmental power
• excess governmental regulation is driven partly due to increasing specialization
• ultimately it culminates in the separation of state and society
• specialization can be resisted, but reversing it would be difficult
• political centralization does not necessarily produce a strong foreign policy

I was particularly caught by the comment about the "separation of state and society." Both George W. and Mr Obama have been criticized for being out of touch with "America." Certainly the developers of ObamaCare were grossly out of touch with "America."