Talk About Hyperbole! -- Even In The WSJ -- March 3, 2015; Apple #1 Worldwide Phone Sales

Headline story in today's WSJ: the train that derailed in West Virginia two weeks contained high amount of combustible gas. Look at the numbers (OMG):

The crude oil aboard the train that derailed and exploded two weeks ago in West Virginia contained so much combustible gas that it would have been barred from rail transport under safety regulations set to go into effect next month.

Tests performed on the oil before the train left North Dakota showed it contained a high level of volatile gases, according to a lab report reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. The oil’s vapor pressure, a measure of volatility, was 13.9 pounds per square inch.

That exceeds the limit of 13.7 psi that North Dakota is set to impose in April on oil moving by truck or rail from the Bakken Shale. Oil producers that don’t treat their crude to remove excess gas face fines and possible civil or criminal penalties, said Alison Ritter, a spokeswoman for the North Dakota Industrial Commission.

The article neglects to mention that the national standard is 14.7 psi. The first paragraph seems to imply that the cargo would have exceeded national standards. Not. Disingenuous.

The spin never quits.

**********************

What Does It Matter?

Just for the record: the fact that the State Department now admits that Hillary broke the law by using private e-mail for official work means there was a conspiracy to cover up this fact. Obviously "everyone" in the State Department at the time knew she was using a private e-mail account. If not "everyone," certainly the IT folks.

But, then, what does it matter?

[Update, March 3, 2015, later: it turns out -- according to ABC News -- everybody does it or did it, including Colin Powell; this is a non-story; getting it out of the way before she announces her candidacy for Democratic nomination for US presidency.]

**************************

The Arctic Is Still Warming After All These Years

From 1922:

The Arctic seems to be warming up, states George Nicolas Ifft in 1922. He was at that time American consul at Bergen, Norway, and submitted from time to times reports to the the State Department, Washington, D.C.

The following text represents an extract from his report, which was published in the journal Monthly Weather Review October 10, 1922.

"The Arctic seems to be warming up. Reports from fishermen, seal hunters, and explores who sail the seas about Spitsbergen and the eastern Arctic, all point to a radical change in climatic conditions, and hitherto unheard-of high temperatures in that part of the earth's surface."

In August, 1922, the Norwegian Department of Commerce sent an expedition to Spitsbergen and Bear Island under the leadership of Dr. Adolf Hoel, lecturer on geology at the University of Christiania.

Its purpose was to survey and chart the lands adjacent to the Norwegian mines on those islands, take soundings of the adjacent waters, and make other oceanographic investigations.

Dr. Hoel, who has just returned, reports the location of hitherto unknown coal deposits on the eastern shores of Advent Bay - deposits of vast extent and superior quality......The oceanographic observations have, however, been even more interesting. Ice conditions were exceptional. In fact, so little ice has never before been noted. The expedition all but established a record, sailing as far north as 81 degrees 29 minutes in ice-free water. This is the farthest north ever reached with modern oceanographic apparatus.....

********************************

Clueless

Oil companies will move more oil by pipeline than by rail if the price of oil goes up -- yup, that's what Bloomberg says. The writer is obviously clueless.

Texas, the only state that produces more oil than North Dakota, had a century to build its oil infrastructure before the shale boom hit. The Bakken, by contrast, basically went from nothing to a gusher. That left a whole lot of oil without pipes to move it. Since no one was quite sure how long it would last, no one wanted to take the risk of building a big pipeline system to service the area. 

Cheap oil weakens the incentives to build pipelines into North Dakota. At current prices, a lot of wells in North Dakota are no longer profitable. Drilling activity has already declined. Production is likely to follow in the next 12 months. That's hardly a recipe for building a big, expensive capital project. New rules governing the safety of oil trains, proposed by federal transportation regulators, will probably make crude-by-rail more expensive, once they take effect in the next couple of years. Until then, however, the best way to keep trains from exploding is to put that oil into pipelines. That isn't likely to happen without higher oil prices.

Really? The writer's entire article suggests just the opposite. 

The writer fails to mention the number of pipelines any number of companies are trying to build but are being stymied by environmental-nazis - but that's another story.

******************************

Rock Beats Scissors

Apple Beats Samsung

For years, anti-Apple folks have said, "okay, Apple may sell more smart phones in the US, but worldwide, Apple is a distant second to Samsung." Not any more. Macrumors is reporting:

Apple surpassed Samsung in worldwide smartphone sales during the fourth quarter of 2014 to become the world's largest smartphone maker. Samsung lost the top spot to Apple for the first time since 2011.

Apple narrowly edged Samsung as the two rivals had quarterly sales of 74.8 million and 73 million smartphones respectively. Apple's 20.4% market share was also marginally higher than Samsung's 19.9% share during the three-month period ending December.

Steve Ballmer on the iPhone  

Last night, while watching our older granddaughter get ready to start water polo practice, I noted a couple of swimmers -- middle school swimmers -- checking their Apple iPhones. One had the "standard size" iPhone; the other had the larger iPhone -- I know I've seen the larger iPhones at the Apple store but I was surprised (again) how big they are; they are about the size of a small iPad And every time I see someone with an Apple product, I know they will never, ever switch. Not true of non-Apple users. The video above was posted on YouTube in 2007; at that time Mr Ballmer said Apple was selling no (zero, nada, zilch) phones at that time -- whereas Microsoft was already selling "millions and millions" of smart phones. It's amazing that in just seven years, Apple has gone to #1 and I'm not even sure what Microsoft calls their smart phone? It doesn't show up at the Gartner site.