Monday, August 10, 2015 -- The Funny And Ridiculous; A Breath Of Fresh Air -- Katie Ledecky; 8:08, 800-Meter

A reader alerted me to an ABC television trailer for a new series coming to television this fall with the word "Bakken" somehow associated with us. This is what I wrote the reader who was the first to send me the link:

The best part is the "new millionaire every single day."  Which is probably about the only accurate thing about the series / television trailer.

Thank you. I would prefer not to link it, but I know I will get a gazillion e-mails telling me about this. I had not seen it. Yours was first. Thank you.

I'll post the link if I receive more than 5 more folks writing me about it. Thank you.

Okay, now back to the serious.

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This Is Not An Investment Site 

Reporting today:

• CNP: misses by a cent; Zacks;

Tesla burning cash, reported by Reuters:

The Silicon Valley automaker is losing more than $4,000 on every Model S electric sedan it sells, using its reckoning of operating losses, and it burned $359 million in cash last quarter in a bull market for luxury vehicles. The company on Wednesday cut its production targets for this year and next. Chief Executive Elon Musk said he's considering options to raise more capital, and didn't rule out selling more stock. 

There are suggestions with "proper" accounting, Tesla might be losing $14,000 per car. That makes sense. If Tesla was losing only $4,000/car, the company could jack up the price by $5,000/car. Folks buying Tesla EVs for $106,000 are not price sensitive.  On the other hand, raising the price from $106,000 to $120,000 would get the attention of investors.

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The Katie Ledecky Page

The New York Times is reporting that the "Olympics" needs to rethink the format for the 2016 summer games based on Katie Ledecky's "Ledecky Slam."

On the eighth day, Katie Ledecky was supposed to rest. So the text message she sent in the hours after her fifth gold-medal swim of the 16th world championships caught its recipient, Scott Leightman, by surprise.

Ledecky told Leightman, the director of communications for USA Swimming, that she planned to be at Kazan Arena by the start of Sunday morning’s preliminaries to cheer for her teammates in their final races. Did he need her for any public obligations?

“That’s what makes her special,” Leightman said.

In 2014, Ledecky finished the summer as one of only two Americans ranked No. 1 in the world in individual events. Michael Phelps was the other.

By Sunday’s unofficial end to the 2015 long-course season, Ledecky and Phelps, who clocked the fastest times in the world in his three events at the concurrent United States championships in San Antonio, again held the top spots. Four other Americans were No. 2 in their events: Ryan Lochte (200-meter individual medley), Nathan Adrian (with an American record in the 50-meter freestyle), Connor Jaeger (with an American record in the 1,500 freestyle) and Maya DiRado (400 individual medley).

In two world championships, Ledecky, 18, is nine for nine in finals. Over the past 24 months, she has broken 10 world records. Swimming has bestowed upon Ledecky an embarrassment of riches, and she goes quietly about doing whatever she can to give back. She brings attention to the sport without resorting to picking a Twitter battle with an absent rival, as Chad Le Clos of South Africa did in the case of Phelps.

Ledecky charmed her hosts last week on her way to becoming the first swimmer to sweep the 200-, 400-, 800- and 1,500-meter freestyles in a major competition. A Russian boy proclaimed himself Ledecky’s No. 1 fan until he discovered he was talking to her brother, Michael. “Number two fan, then,” he told him.

Ledecky broke her 1,500-freestyle record on consecutive days in front of crowds that enthusiastically cheered her on. She had to strike while she was rested because she will not race the event again in a major meet until 2017, at the earliest. After Ledecky’s performance, the exclusion of the 1,500 freestyle from next year’s Olympic program has never seemed more ridiculously retrograde.

A real breath of fresh air.

So much more at the link.

See Katie break the 800-meter freestyle record in Moscow at this video: http://swimswam.com/watch-katie-ledecky-break-the-800-free-world-record-race-video/. Also from the link:

KATIE LEDECKY!!! WOW! I am out of words after watching Ledecky destroy her own World record in the women’s 800 freestyle, posting a time of 8:07.39. She went out after hit, and it was evident with her splits. She flipped at the 400 meter mark at 4:03.22; a time that was still faster than everyone else in the individual 400 freestyle earlier in the week. She lowered her record by 3.61 seconds, becoming the first woman ever under 8:10.