Sunday, June 29, 2014

Wells Coming Off The North Dakota Confidential List Monday; Extent Of Sea Ice Hits New Record "Anomaly" -- Yes, Just An Anomaly; June 29, 2014

Monday, June 30, 2014
  • 25963, 987, Petro-Hunt, Syverson 156-99-30A-31-3H, East Fork, t5/14; cum 2K 5/14;
  • 26858, drl, Hess, EN-State D-154-93-2636H-8, Robinson Lake, no production data,
Sunday, June 29, 2014
  • 26663, drl, Hess, HA-Link-152-95-3526H-4, Hawkeye, no production data,
  • 26696, 396, Hess, EN-Schroeder-157-94-1102H-1, White Earth, t5/14; cum 4K 4/14;

Saturday, June 28, 2014
  • 25966, 955, CLR, Rehak Federal 5-25H1, Alkali Creek, t5/14; cum --
  • 26424, drl, KOG, P Manning 154-99-2-2-11-14H, Stockyard Creek, no production data,
  • 26497, drl, Hess, GN-Ring-158-98-1522H-1, Rainbow, no production data,
  • 27083, drl, BR, Denali 44-33TFH, Johnson Corner, no production data
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Global Warming: Another Inconvenient Truth
This Is Climate, Not Weather
What's Up With That?

Antarctica sets new record for ice extent is being reported by What's Up With That based on studies coming out of one of President Obama's home states, Illinois, 
The sea ice surrounding Antarctica, which, as I reported in my book, has been steadily increasing throughout the period of satellite measurement that began in 1979, has hit a new all-time record high for areal coverage.
The new record anomaly for Southern Hemisphere sea ice, the ice encircling the southernmost continent, is 2.074 million square kilometers and was posted for the first time by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s The Cryosphere Today early Sunday morning. 
The previous record anomaly for Southern Hemisphere sea ice area was 1.840 million square kilometers and occurred on December 20, 2007.
Global sea ice area, as of Sunday morning, stood at 1.005 million square kilometers above average.
What's up with that?

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Russian Jets Arrive In Baghdad

What's up with this? rt.com is reporting: the first batch of Russian jets have arrived in Baghdad. President Obama refused to sell our allies* in Iraq any jets, not even any old ones mothballed in the desert.

What's up with that?  I assume the primary need for the jets is to protect a) the Baghdad government; and, b) the oil fields that will now become Russia's. Russia is playing two chess games now, magnificently: one in the Ukraine; and, now one in Iraq.

*Allies? One year ago, Mr Maliki seemed to think the US and Iraq were allies, and Mr Obama certainly suggested the same, as reported in this Washington Post op-ed:
But does that mean Iraq is not the "sovereign partner" of the United States that Maliki describes? The assessments are mixed. Speaking with Maliki as U.S. forces withdrew from Iraq in December 2011, President Obama declared, "Our strong presence in the Middle East endures, and the United States will never waiver in the defense of our allies, our partners, and our interests."
As far as chess goes, Russia supplying the jets was Putin executing an en passant capture, and done quite well, one might add. Which I just did.

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Main Street Bistro and Bakery, Grapevine, Texas

It's funny how things work out. When we were stationed in Germany (decades ago), my wife and I would go out every so often, late in the evening, for frog legs and a beverage. In England we often went for afternoon tea between 2:00 and 4:00 p.m., not often, but often enough. Since then, back in the states, we've tried to relive those memories. We've come close, but it's never quite the same.

Today, of all things, after watching "Moonstruck" with Cher and Nicolas Cage, I suggested afternoon tea, either at the Cheesecake Factory in Southlake, or the bakery on Main Street in Grapevine. Both of us preferred the bakery.

I always thought the Main Street Bistro and Bakery had been part of Grapevine in one form or another for decades. It is modeled after a European bistro, but has the feeling that it's been there for decades. I was surprised to see that it opened for business on October 27, 2000.

We had coffee and shared an almond croissant, and then, totally unexpected, in one corner was a flat-screen television tuned to the Costa Rica - Greece World Cup soccer game. It was an incredible game, but the almond croissant was not going to last the length of the game. Earlier I had talked with one of the bistro employees so I knew that their mussels were one of their most asked-for appetizers. During the shoot-out (Costa Rica won, 5-3) we had the mussels and shared a glass of white wine. It was incredible.

It came as close to our afternoon teas that we remember in England as anything we've experienced back in the states.

Earlier this week I read a short essay on "modern-day" dating; I thought the article was in The Wall Street Journal but I can't find it now. Whatever. The writer noted that women these days were frustrated that when they "went out" with their male friends, they did not know if they were on a "date" or not. The writer said women were still interested in real dates: planned events, one-on-one, no distractions (like mobile devices). So, taking that to heart, I asked my wife if she would like a standing date: every Sunday after when we are in town, no other conflicts, we would have Sunday tea at the Main Street Bistro, and dinner at the same location on Thursday evenings.

So, after our first year in our new home, we finally have a new dating tradition. We'll see how it goes.

[Update: I found that story on "dating." It was in The Los Angeles Times. I should have guessed. From the article:
“In a new Glamour survey, 73 percent of single women said they often can’t even tell whether they’ve been on a date or not — and, shockingly, 19 percent said they had never been on a ‘real date’ at all. Women in relationships aren’t faring much better; just 12 percent of them have a regular date night with their significant other. There seem to be no dating rules anymore — or even any expectations.
“Here’s what is happening instead: ‘My boyfriend won’t turn off his phone alerts when we’re out,’ says Alexandra Einstein, 26, an account manager from Greenville, South Carolina. ‘The other night I grabbed it and read ‘Drunk fan falls asleep in front row during Blazers game.’ Thank God we were alerted.’ And everyone’s gotten lazy about planning time together, as evidenced by this, spotted recently on a Tinder profile: ‘No more Netflix on a first date.’ No wonder we’re all complaining about our love lives. The bar for acceptable night-out behavior has dropped to the floor.”]