What We Will Be Talking About Friday -- November 13, 2014; NDIC -- Crude Oil Needs To Be "Treated" Before Shipping

The Wall Street Journal

Halliburton in talks to buy Baker Hughes. Previously reported. But no one (shareholders, customers, or regulators) likes the idea. DOA?

White House considers timing on executive action on immigration. Let me guess: next Friday night, after 7:00 p.m. ET.

Harry Reid nominates/party accepts Pocahantas as a top adviser to Senate Democrats' policy and communications arm. A lot of "they didn't build that" over the next two years.

Low-key rollout set for second year of ObamaCare. I don't even know who succeeded Sebelius. Oh, that's right. I don't recall her name, but I think the HHS director is female and a budget analyst. I think I recall in a past life she worked for Wal-Mart.

Why not, what could possibly go wrong? Military researchers weigh infecting volunteers with Dengue fever. How does one spell "Tuskegee syphilis experiment"? Tuskege or Tuskegee? Syphillis or syphilis?

Mission creep: Pentagon considering bigger US troop role in Iraq. Speaking of which, there's a new biography of Bob Hope out this month.

Nothing like a war to get folks to agree on something: Baghdad and Kurds reach deal on oil.

Eurozone inflation to remain low.

Liberia lifts state of emergency, just as epidemic may be shfiting to Mali.

Amazon and Hachette end book dispute.

FCC chief squeezed by POTUS and GOP.

Here it is: NDIC will require producers to treat crude before shipping. In case that link breaks, this post.

Gas savings flow to Wal-Mart's carts.

CDC: more teens smoking E-cigarettes. And I assume weed in Colorado, Alaska, and Portland.

Who wudda guessed: gun manfacturer Colt may default.

UPS sets ambitious long-term earning goals.

Buffett to trade P&G stock to buy Duracell. Previously posted.

US oil prices drop below $75/bbl.

Holiday spending should cheer retailers.

Global demand for gold declines as China's appetite wanes.

Dow posts another record....sixth record in seven days.

Tea leaves: the wage growth (read: inflation) data is just not there for the Fed to raise interest rates. [Cool: I posted this November 13; then on November 14, 2014, the next day, this article on wage growth = inflation.]

The Los Angeles Times

John Muir's legacy questioned as centennial of his death nears. One word: wow. 

California can't challenge ruling on concealed guns, court says.

My kind of guy: Dorian "Doc" Paskowitz obit -- this physician gave up a lucrative practice for surfing because he said he never felt right about taking money from people in pain.  Dead at 93.

More than one California surfer has dreamed about following the waves in an old camper, picking up occasional odd jobs by day and generally blissing out at night.

But only one did it year after year with his wife and nine children crammed into a 24-foot camper that ultimately gave each child something like three cubic feet in which to grow up.

Only one started what became a famous surfing school on the sands of San Onofre and preached the benefits of surfing so unrelentingly that Tommy Hilfiger applied the family's name to a line of beachwear; when it came to surfing, the designer explained in 1999, "there's no one more cool and credible than the Paskowitzes."

Dorian "Doc" Paskowitz, a physician who abandoned the prospect of a lucrative practice for surfing because he said he never felt right about taking money from people in pain, died Monday at a hospice in Newport Beach. He was 93.

And with that, I'm going to start my night of watching James Bond, Blu-Ray, Volume 2, "You Only Live Twice"; "Thunderball"; and, "Diamonds Are Forever."

From wiki:

Connery's breakthrough came in the role of secret agent James Bond. He was reluctant to commit to a film series, but understood that if the films succeeded his career would greatly benefit.

He played the character in the first five Bond films: Dr. No (1962), From Russia with Love (1963), Goldfinger (1964), Thunderball (1965), and You Only Live Twice (1967) – then appeared again as Bond in Diamonds Are Forever (1971) and Never Say Never Again (1983).

All seven films were commercially successful. James Bond, as portrayed by Connery, was selected as the third-greatest hero in cinema history by the American Film Institute.

Later: this is the first time I've ever watched Diamonds Are Forever. I was unaware North Dakota had a "leading role" in this movie. Ha.