Tuesday Already -- October 21, 2014

Updates

Later, 1:40 p.m. CDT: there's an interesting article over at The Atlantic Monthly asking the same question many others are asking: Is the Chinese economy about ready to go over a cliff? The link may require a subscription. The article doesn't say anything of which regular readers should already know. However, there was an interesting data point:

Even after all the progress China has made, it isn’t a rich country. According to World Bank data, its per-capita G.D.P. in 2013 was $6,807, which puts it on about the same level as Iraq and South Africa. By comparison, per-capita G.D.P. in the United States was $53,143; in South Korea, it was $25,977. Looking at the experience of South Korea and other “Asian tiger” economies, there is no obvious reason for the rate of economic growth to slow down dramatically at the income level China has reached. Unless, of course, the government puts a wrench in things.

I was not aware the gap between South Korea and the United States was so great. 

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Later, 11:13 a.m. CDT: a reader notes that they are starting to move earth west of Richardton for this new transloading terminal. 

It was also noted that earth is being moved just east of Richardton between the interstate and the railroad tracks but reason unknown.  

Later, 1:18 p.m. CDT: the reader also notes that a small trucking company in Minnesota is trucking 52 loads of fracking sand / day from Wisconsin, 7 days/week, which translates into almost 2.5 million lbs of sand on a daily basis from one trucking company. This is an interesting story for this reason: when I return to the Bakken, invariably I run into someone who has built a single-truck business into a fairly large operation. My hunch is that prior to the Bakken, this trucking company in Minnesota was not moving 52 loads of anything into North Dakota.

Original Post

 
Wow, what a great way to start the morning: a review of the Lana Del Rey Hollywood Forever Cemetery concert in Grantland. The reviewer and I traveled the same road -- initially we were not fond of LDR but over time ... the concert seemed so very ... Hollywood. Ha. My biggest surprise: I would have bet the reviewer was a man, but no, unless he/she is using a pseudonym, the writer has a very feminine name, Emily.

So, a great way to start the day.

Earnings today, anything of interest?

McDonald's, expectations, $1.37; actual: $1.09; "profit plunges"; "earnings ugly"; "profit drops 30%; shares tumble"; okay, I get the picture, not good news; and that was it for earnings today; nothing else interested me. Canadian National and Canadian Pacific report today for those interested. Back to McDonald's: McD is my go-to-on-the-road-fast-food-restaurant when traveling, but I have to admit, the experience is less and less enjoyable. Simply utilitarian. The dollar-menu to recharge and quickly back on the road. Purely utilitarian. Folks don't say, "hey, let's go to McDonald's" any more. I'm not sure what they mean by "shares tumble"; right now shares are down about half a percent, down 60 cents on a $90-stock. Shares were down 2% in pre-market trading (which isn't exactly "tumbling" either.

Active rigs:

	10/21/2014	10/21/2013	10/21/2012	10/21/2011	10/21/2010
Active Rigs	190	182	186	195	151

RBN Energy: the fifth in a series on condensates in the Eagle Ford; this time on Koch Industries and NuStar. I bike right past a NuStar storage facility every day when I ride over to Starbucks in Southlake. 

Chief of Total Oil killed in plane crash, Moscow airport on take-off, struck a snow-plow. I don't often get a two-fer: two stories in one. Global warming hits Moscow and plane hits snow plow. AFP via Yahoo!News is reporting:

Russian and French experts were investigating Tuesday a plane crash at a Moscow airport which killed the CEO of French oil giant Total, Christophe de Margerie, whose private jet struck a snowplough on takeoff. Total, one of the world's biggest oil company, confirmed the death of its 63-year-old boss known affectionately as the "Big Moustache" because of his distinctive facial hair.

Later, if I get a chance, I will note another "the Moustachioed" from Andrew Bridgeford's 2005, 1066: The Hidden History in the Bayeux Tapestry.

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A Note to the Granddaughters

At one time there was nothing more boring (for me) than British history. But after several years of living in England, particularly Yorkshire, I have come to really enjoy British history. 

Some years ago I read for the first time Andrew Bridgeford's 2005, 1066: The Hidden History in the Bayeux Tapestry, but as so often with my reading, I did not really recall the thrust of the book. Rushing out the door the other day, I grabbed a book to read just in case I had spare time. It was Bridgeford's book again.

For background one may want to quickly read Wiki's overview of the Angle-Saxon Chronicle.

Then, this paragraph (which I have broken up) -- second from the end in Bridgeford's book:

It was at St Augustine's Abbey that one of the versions of the Angle-Saxon Chronicle was kept up, nowadays called the E version. The E version of the Chronicle tends to be the most favourable towards Earl Godwin and his family, but it, like the other versions of the Chronicle, passes over in silence the whole matter of Harold Godwinson's fateful journal to the continent that was the catalyst of all that followed.

The truth behind Harold's mission, and with it King Edward's crucial wishes toward the end of his reign, was recorded at St Augustine's not, on this occasion, in ink scratched upon parchment but with colourful stitches pierced through white linen cloth (the Bayeux Tapestry).

In this sense, the Bayeux Tapestry can truly be described as the lost Angle-Saxon Chronicle as wellas the secret Chronicle of the House of Boulogne, a generation before the blood of Charlemagne achieved a new pinnacle of success in the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

I can add something to the mysteries of the book: the origin of the coat-of-arms for the French region of Boulogne: the three balls.

Modern heraldry is traced back to the 12th century. The knights, 1066 A.D., in the Bayeux Tapestry carry shields, but there appears to have been no system of hereditary coats of arms. However, if one looks closely, one sees the "three balls" on the shield of Eustace II.

The tapestry begins with the scene of a juggler holding a couple of horses readied for the invasion of England by William the Conqueror.

Heraldry, juggler, the importance of Turold the juggler in the tapestry, and the three balls on the shield of Eustace's shield seem to be several dots that can be connected.

Turold, through the Song of Roland is considered the father of French literature. The Song of Roland relates the exploits and successes of Charlemagne. Eustace was a descendent of Charlemagne. Eustace II, Count of Boulogne, showed his respect for Turold by placing him in the tapestry, at the very beginning, no less, and perhaps further "honored" him by placing the juggler's "universal symbol" on the coat of arms for Boulogne. See also Taillefer.