Part 2, T+57 -- January 2, 2019

Natural gas: a reader provided a nice analysis of the US natural gas situation following last week's natural gas withdrawal report. It was a bit too long for the blog, but I think I was able to provide the important data points. Bottom line: as long as the northeast has a "moderately warm" winter, everything will be fine. See data points and update here.  

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

Non-Bakken

Disconnect: what network and local evening news report and what I see in my daily life.

Disconnect: what I see on social media and what I enjoy in my daily life.

Great to be back home after two weeks of traveling. Two different movies -- at one of several resorts where we stayed during the two-week vacation, I thought the service was lousy; my wife thought it was the best she had ever seen. I never told her my thoughts. It was simply two different movies we were watching. Same with everything else, it seems.

Hockey: if you like great human-interest stories and/or hockey, great article in The Grand Forks Herald. Sent to me by a reader. 

Bowl games: I was traveling January 1, 2019, so I did not see any of the college bowl games but looking at the scores, it looks like I didn't miss anything. Exciting? Hardly, The semi-final championship series were blowouts. The other bowl games, pretty much unidentifiable teams. Gasparilla Bowl?

• Clemson, 30; Notre Dame, 3 -- national championship semi-final
• Alabama, 45; Oklahoma, 34 -- national championship semi-final
• Utah State, 52; North Texas, 13
• Appalachian State, 45; Middle Tennessee, 13
• UAB, 37; Northern Illinois, 13
• Ohio, 27; San Diego State, 0
• Gasparilla Bowl, 38 - 20
• Famous Idaho Potato Bowl, 49 - 18
• Armed Forces Bowl, 70 - 14 -- did anyone even stick around for the second half (second quarter?)
  

Books: a half-dozen more books to read that I picked up over the Christmas break. Right now: 109 East Palace: Robert Oppenheimer and the Secret City of Los Alamos, Jennet Conant, c. 2005. Jennet Conant is the granddaughter of James B. Conant, the administrator of "Los Alamos" during the Manhattan Project. She is a former journalist who has written profiles for Vanity Fair, Esquire, GQ, Newsweek, and The New York Times.

Regrets: the mot common word I saw used when folks connected with the Manhattan Project reminisced on that period --

• Einstein: "regretted" that he ever sent "that letter" to FDR; I guess he preferred that the Russians or the Germans would have won the war; naive
• many physicists: "regretted" that they were involved with the Manhattan Project
• Oppenheimer: did not "regret" what he accomplished what at Los Alamos; "regretted" the direction nuclear weaponry took after WWII