Nothing About The Bakken -- October 26, 2016

A list.

Bring it on. North American Wind Power: Xcel has plans for huge Midwest wind portfolio --

• Dickey County, ND: 150 MW project, NextEra Energy Resources, Foxtail Wind
• Freeborn County, MN: 200 MW project, Invenergy, Freeborn Wind Energy
• Lincoln County, MN: 200 MW project, Geronimo Energy, Blazing Star 1
• Lincoln County, MN: 200 MW project, Geronimo Energy, Blazing Star 2

Dickey County lies a couple of counties east from the Standing Rock Reservation, most likely on sacred tribal burial grounds, and along the South Dakota border.

These projects will bring a lot of money to ND and MN; and will make a lot of farmers rich, especially those farmers growing corn to support the highly-subsidized ethanol industry. North Dakota is quickly becoming the Elon Musk of renewable energy among the 50 states.

But best of all, these projects will require a lot of fossil-fuel back-up.

If Americans like wind energy, they might as well send their money to North Dakota, as long as those wind farms are not in my backyard (I have never been in Dickey County as far as I know).

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Amazon Not Stealing Costco's Customers

Over at Yahoo!Finance.

This is a great story. Amazon is place to buy books or pick up that one item you forgot or didn't see at Costco.

Costco, on the other hand is a destination.

Costco is a destination for shoppers. A destination. Sort of like a cruise ship stay-cation. Once a month or once-a-week. Duty free (local sales tax and that's it). And at Costco, one doesn't window shop with plans to buy it "cheaper" at Amazon. Whether or not it would be available at Amazon, it doesn't matter.

• the price at Costco "can't be beat" 
• hey, that's why we're here -- to buy, not window shop
• I brought the SUV; I have plenty of room for these huge packages; why else would I have a(n) SUV?
• this is what you do on stay-cations: you shop
• Costco is a social outing; Amazon is something you do when alone at home (or more likely bored at work)
• it's a shame to leave a huge shopping cart half-filled 
• all Costco shoppers -- regardless of ethnic background -- "share" white privilege: one has to be a member to shop at Costco; they don't let just anyone in; and, now that I'm in, I'm gonna shop
• Costco has the best hot dogs in the world; and they only cost a buck

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Random Thoughts On EVs

I have spent a large portion of my adult life in England. If I had all the money in the world, one of my homes would be in northern England, near Scotland, overlooking a river.

I've often thought that if any country was the perfect country for EVs, it would be England, or Great Britain, in general. The Brits love to pay "up" for quality; they are used to high taxes; their commuting distances are short. So I was curious. I assume wiki would provide the quickest answer but I chose not to look at wiki. Instead, I went to a site where they love EVs, insideevs.

The link is from an article almost a year old, but it pretty much told me everything I needed to know:
the Brits prefer plug-in hybrids, not all-electric cars

• November, 2015: registered EVs in the UK -- 1.27%
• December, 2014: registered EVs in the UK -- 1.29% (the "previous" record)
• growth rate has been slightly over 20% year-over-year (so the fact that registrations as a percent dropped, means that overall Brits are buying more cars, but not necessarily more EVs -- as a percent of vehicles sold)

Spin it however one might, this is not a good news story for EVs. This comes on top of a recent story that the Germans have lost their appetite for EVs, also. 

The real question is to what extent the British government is marketing/incentivizing EVs. The price of gasoline  per gallon in:

• Netherlands, Amsterdam: $6.48
• Norway, Osla: $6.27
• Denmark, Copenhagen: $5.96
• UK (London): $5.79
• NYC: $2.16

By the way, Venezuela? $0.12. Yes, 12 cents a gallon. Assuming there is gasoline to be found.

The difference in price between gasoline in London and the price of gasoline in NYC: taxes.

That should probably answer the question to what extent the British government is marketing/incentivizing EVs.

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Another List

If I have time, I might come back to this. Someone else pointed this out. It's now an original thought with me, but I have not seen this list before:

• The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
• Girl with Pearl Earring
• Girl in the Dark
• The Girl on the Train 

While traveling earlier this month, or was it last month, I forget, I missed a number of New Yorker magazine issues. I thought I had caught up with them all, but it appears I missed one of the better issues, the September 26, 2016, issue. That's what got me thinking about the list above.

Among many, many other good articles in that issue, there's a nice review of Ron Howard's new Beatles movie (which I do not plan to see). The reviewer references one of the best movie scenes ever:
... if you want to know how Uma Thurman felt, in Pulp Fiction, when that syringe of adrenaline was harpooned into her chest, here's your chance (Howard's movie on the Beatles).

I noted earlier that The New Yorker "missed it by that much" when the profile of Leonard Cohen appeared about the same time that Bob Dylan was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. To make up for that, The New Yorker has a black/white caricature of a young Bob Dylan on the cover of this week's issue, but, of course, no article on him in this issue.

Unfortunately this week's issue appears to be have been written and edited by a Hillary Super PAC.

And we move on.