Oil Tops $68 For First Time In More Than Three Years -- April 18, 2018

From CNBC:

Weekly petroleum report, link here:

• US crude oil inventories: decreased by 1.1 million bbls; now at 427.6 million bbls
• operable refining capacity: 92.4% (flat, but technically down a bit)
• otherwise, ho-hum
• I no longer track "time to re-balance"; that metric has become irrelevant
• the "old" US crude oil inventory baseline number was 350 million bbls
• the "new" US crude oil inventory baseline number is 400, maybe 420 million bbls

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For The Granddaughters

Well before the 15th century, the Chinese were using the equatorial system for open water navigation. From Gavin Menzies, 1434, page 33:

For the stars, the Chinese had the same system of measurement they used to determine latitude and longitude. This system was called the equatorial system -- vastly simpler than the equinoctial system [Wiki does not have a page for the equinoctial system], used in medieval times which relied on the ecliptic or the horizon. After 1434, Europeans adopted the Chinese system, which remains with us today.

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For The Granddaughters

If there is one part of the world's geography that gives me the most trouble, it is Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei.

I was reminded of that while talking to a woman of Asian descent recently (the Tucson wedding).

My wife is Hispanic-Japanese -- her mother was Japanese, born in Japan and emigrated to the United States during the Korean War.

I have always enjoyed trying to recognize the ethnicity of people I meet -- based on any number of criteria. I remarked to this woman that I was was having trouble with her ethnicity, running through about six different Asian possibilities. I failed to mention Filipino. When she said she was Filipino, I was quite taken aback. She did not appear Filipino to me and after after a bit of conversation it turned out that only her mother was Filipino. Her father was not Asian. That explained everything.

She looked more Japanese than Filipino and interestingly, had a connection to Malaysia -- and that's where the blog helped me out immensely.

I know almost nothing about that part of the world (geographically) but because I had been following the route of the Shaden on the blog, I was somewhat familiar with the straits, Malacca, and Singapore. Absolutely fascinating.

Just one more reason why I love to blog and how much it has permeated all aspects of my life.

[I completely missed the next one, but I was working with almost no information. I suggested to the woman next to Ms Filipino above that she looked to be Welsh or Irish -- completely wrong: she was of Lithuanian/Polish background. When we were stationed in Europe, we were struck by how beautiful Polish pottery was -- and, of course, that became the topic of conversation.]