KOG's P Wood Permits/Wells Have Been Updated -- October 27, 2014

KOG added four more P Wood permits today. The P Wood permits/wells have been updated.

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What Some Of Us Will Be Talking About Tomorrow.

The Wall Street Journal

Top story: gasoline at $3 carriers rewards ... and risks.

CDC rejects mandatory Ebola quarantines. CDC opts for the honor system when dealing with the "only" disease that we now routinely treat wearing HAZMAT suits. Open Borders. Open Arms. Open Roam.

VA disability claims soar.

It will be interesting to see what Italy has to say about his: US soldiers returning from Ebolaland to take 21-day R&R in Italy.

US soldiers depart Afghanistan .. leaving Afghan forces to fight Taliban largely alone.

Pakistan was the biggest obstacle to the goal of stopping world-wide polio transmission by the end of 2014. Didn't Pakistan have a relationship with Osama bin Laden, also?

I don't recall if I posted the story earlier about the huge bill the EU sent the Brits. The EU is holding firm, saying it is "extremely difficult" to see how the EU rules could be changed to give the UK more time to make good on the extra 2.1 billion euros "owed" the EU. 

Tesla: to lower its lease price by 25% and give buyers 90 days to return the vehicle if they are unhappy with it.

Heard on the street: Apple's surprise star -- the Mac. Apple logged its biggest sales gains with a a product heading into middle-age, the Mac. That helped the computer line leapfrog the iPad to become Apple's second biggest-selling product behind the iPhone.  So many, many story lines. 

Rising US life spans spell pain for pension funds -- already struggling to plug a gap between available assets and future obligations to retirees.

Wall Street's oil bulls are throwing in the towel, conceding that the 25% drop in crude prices since June won't be reversed any time soon.

China is on a buying spree in the global oil markets as prices slumber near the lowest in years. The purchases show how China is taking advantage of the energy glut to stock up on oil used for making transportation fuels.

Gas-price drop pumps up Costco. The sharp drop in oil prices gives hypermarkets that sell gas, like Costco and Wal-Mart, a pricing advantage. 

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 The Los Angeles Times

Kurdish fighters in Syria are desperate for promised reinforcements.

Another burst water pipe shuts down Hollywood intersection.

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Alternative To Pay

As noted earlier, CVS, Rite Aid, and Wal-Mart are notable in their decision not to use ApplePay. They will use something different. From Macrumors:

Headed up by Walmart, which has also publicly stated that it won't be supporting Apple Pay, MCX is composed of several different retail outlets and restaurants, including Best Buy, Lowe's, Old Navy, Southwest, Target, 7 Eleven, Dunkin Donuts, Hobby Lobby, and more.

MCX's payment solution, CurrentC, is currently in testing in Minnesota and takes a decidedly different approach to mobile payments. CurrentC does not use NFC, instead basing payments around the scanning of QR codes with a smartphone camera. CurrentC is highly beneficial to merchants, but appears to be of questionable value to customers given that it requires both a social security number and a driver's license number, along with access to a bank account.

Despite only being available in Minnesota at the time being, MCX's CurrentC app has received hundreds of negative reviews from Apple Pay supporters. Android and iOS users on reddit have also teamed up to call for a boycott on all MCX partners, as disabling NFC support to prevent Apple Pay purchases also disables Android-based payment solutions like Google Wallet.  

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out how this "tech battle" will end. Like I'm going to give some folks in Minnesota my social security number, a bank account number, and my driver's license number. LOL. If you go that route, you better also subscribe to LifeLock.

More from the linked article:

Though quite a few big name retailers have opted out of Apple Pay, Apple has signed on with several major partners including Macy's, Chevron, Disney, McDonald's, Nike, Petco, Whole Foods, and more. Apple Pay is accepted at the retail stores of any of its partners, and at any store that accepts NFC payments.

The list is much more extensive, and any list that has Disney and the oil companies will end up being the one I use. If I use any at all.

By the way, the banks are already competing for ApplePay business. Wells Fargo is enticing offers $20 in credit to try Apple Pay. Macrumors is also reporting:

While some merchants are pushing back against Apple's new Apple Pay mobile payment service as they work on their own competing solution, banks are putting their weight behind Apple's solution that seeks to streamline the current experience of using a credit or debit card.

In an effort to encourage users to adopt Apple Pay, Wells Fargo has just launched a program offering credits of up to $20 just for trying out the service. Wells Fargo credit card users can receive one-time $20 credits, while debit and prepaid card users can receive $10 credits simply by using their iPhone 6 or 6 Plus to complete an Apple Pay purchase on their cards through November 30.  

I think some Las Vegas casinos used to give folks up to $100 in free chips to visit their establishments. That was a long time ago.

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Par For The Course

(Pun Intended)

The US Army has made a unilateral decision to quarantine all troops returning from Ebolaland.

The CDC does not want folks quarantined when they return from Ebolaland unless they have clear-cut Ebolasymptoms. CDC prefers the "honor system" when dealing with the one disease that is treated by health care providers in HAZMAT suits. Based on news reports, it sounds like the CDC has not released "official" Ebolasymptoms.

I'm not sure if Homeland Security has weighed in on what they are now doing with health care workers returning from Ebolaland.

The US president is still deciding (or not deciding) on a national policy.  

By the way, have we heard from the Ebolaczar on any of this? [I posted this October 27, 2014; The New York Daily News asked the same question October 28, 2014 -- called him MIA.]