Nooners; Polar Ice Not Receding As Once Thought -- NASA -- May 20, 2015

The "original" drop dead date was April 9, 2015.

Then it was April 24, 2015.

Then April 30, 2015. 

Then sometime in May.

Then, BloombergBusiness reported that the drop dead date now extends to June 30, 2015.

The Greeks reiterate: they will default by "the end of June, 2015, if not "given" more funds. Now it's Reuters carrying the story.

Meanwhle the S&P hit an intraday high; NASDAQ briefly tops closing high.

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Antarctic Sea Ice ... Expanding?

Forbes is reporting: polar ice not receding as once thought -- NASA --

Updated data from NASA satellite instruments reveal the Earth’s polar ice caps have not receded at all since the satellite instruments began measuring the ice caps in 1979. Since the end of 2012, moreover, total polar ice extent has largely remained above the post-1979 average. The updated data contradict one of the most frequently asserted global warming claims – that global warming is causing the polar ice caps to recede.

The timing of the 1979 NASA satellite instrument launch could not have been better for global warming alarmists. The late 1970s marked the end of a 30-year cooling trend. As a result, the polar ice caps were quite likely more extensive than they had been since at least the 1920s. Nevertheless, this abnormally extensive 1979 polar ice extent would appear to be the “normal” baseline when comparing post-1979 polar ice extent.

Updated NASA satellite data show the polar ice caps remained at approximately their 1979 extent until the middle of the last decade. Beginning in 2005, however, polar ice modestly receded for several years. By 2012, polar sea ice had receded by approximately 10 percent from 1979 measurements. (Total polar ice area – factoring in both sea and land ice – had receded by much less than 10 percent, but alarmists focused on the sea ice loss as “proof” of a global warming crisis.)

I may post this as a stand-alone later -- this is a pretty big deal. It won't be taught in the elementary, middle, or high schools in this country.

Neither Bill Guy, "the science guy," nor the Carl Sagan protege, Neil "deGrasse" Tyson will report this new NASA data.

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Also From Forbes: OXY

For investors looking for dividend-paying stocks, Forbes suggests investors look at OXY as one of ten opportunities:

Houston-based Occidental Petroleum is the largest oil and gas producer in the Permian Basin of western Texas. It also operates domestically in Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, North Dakota and Oklahoma. Internationally it’s all over the world, including Bahrain, Bolivia, Colombia, Iraq, Libya, Oman, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen. Earlier this month, it spun off its California assets as California Resources (CRC), and it still owns 71% of the company.

Occidental pays out a dividend of $0.75 per share every quarter, an amount that is up $0.03 from earlier this year. The $3.00 annual dividend is amply covered by $11.51 per share in cash from operations over the past 12 months.

Even though it has shifted to a pure exploration and production company instead of one that ran substantial refining and marketing operations, the discounts relative to history suggest value. As a ratio of enterprise value to trailing 12 months of EBITDA, Occidental trades 25% more cheaply than it has on average over the past five years.

I post this not as an investment story but as a reminder that OXY is the largest operator in the Permian, the largest shale play in the US. Whiting is probably the largest operator in the Bakken (could be CLR depending how one measures the data). Is EOG the largest in the Eagle Ford?