A Brave New World -- Nothing About The Bakken -- Except For The Active Rig Count

Active rigs:

	2/4/2014	02/04/2013	02/04/2012	02/04/2011	02/04/2010
Active Rigs	189	184	202	165	90

The Wall Street Journal

Clinical laboratories must give patients access to their own lab-test results upon request, without going through the physician who ordered them, according to a new federal rule announced Monday. All I can say is: "about time."

Detroit is seeking to invalidate several Wall Street deals that allowed it to fund pension plans, arguing the deals were illegal and shouldn't be repaid.

Tax refunds add urgency on debt ceiling. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew pressed Congress to deal soon with the debt ceiling, arguing that the Obama administration has much less flexibility to avoid a crisis than in previous standoffs.

I'm shocked! I'm shocked? Police discover variety of drugs at actor's home.

Heroin use, and deaths, rise. I have no dog in this fight. Perhaps the liberalization of pot laws in Colorado and Washington are the answer.

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Apple quietly building new networks: the company is boosting internet infrastructure, laying the groundwork for more traffic amid broader ambitions. 

Apple is stitching together a network of Internet infrastructure capable of delivering large amounts of content to customers, giving the company more control over the distribution of its online offerings while laying the groundwork for more traffic if it decides to move deeper into television.

Apple's online delivery needs have grown in the last few years, driven by its iCloud service for storing users' data and rising sales of music, videos and games from iTunes and the App Store.

But the iPhone maker is reported to have broader ambitions for television that could involve expanding its Apple TV product or building its own television set. Snapping up Internet infrastructure supports all those pursuits at once. Apple is signing long-term deals to lock up bandwidth and hiring more networking experts, steps that companies like Google Inc. and Facebook Inc. have already taken to gain more control over the vast content they distribute.

Bill Norton, chief strategy officer for International Internet Exchange, which helps companies line up internet traffic agreements, estimates that Apple has in a short time bought enough bandwidth from Web carriers to move hundreds of gigabits of data each second.

A brave new world.

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I noted this yesterday: January auto sales chilled by winter weather.

The New York Times

I guess this might put fracking into perspective for smug New Yorkers: Hoffman's heroin points to surge in grim trade. 

Detectives found dozens of small packages in the West Village apartment where Philip Seymour Hoffman, the actor, died on Sunday. Most were branded, some with purple letters spelling out Ace of Spades, others bearing the mark of an ace of hearts. At least five were empty, and in the trash.

Each of the packages, which can sell for as little as $6 on the street, offered a grim window into Mr. Hoffman’s personal struggle with a resurgent addiction that ultimately, the police said, proved fatal. And the names and logos reflect a fevered underground marketing effort in a city that is awash in cheap heroin. 

The NYT reporters were hesitant to be more specific: "dozens" may or may not sound like a lot of packages. But 70 packages is incredible, and that's what other sources are reporting.

But why would this be a surprise? The President of the United States, after all, has said that drugs like marijuana are no more dangerous than beer. What a great country. 

But before anyone gets their knickers in a knot, go back and watch a few episodes of Miami Vice which aired in 1985. The US heroin problem probably can be traced back to the Vietnam War, if not even farther back.

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First We Take Manhattan, Jennifer Warnes

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Somewhere Around Barstow

Miami Vice, Crockett's Theme