Sunday Morning Coming Down -- January 6, 2019

Geology of the Bakken: I seldom update this page any more, but there are two new graphics posted regarding geology of the Bakken. 

This is a screenshot of the formation tops/depths of a Bakken well:

It is interesting to note that the precision of these "tops" at 10,000 feet below the surface of the year is/are measured to the 100th of a foot (for example, 0.67 of a foot = 8.04 inches. I find that absolutely incredible. Do you think that's fake geology?

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Notes From All Over

Word of the day: singerie. I will never be able to dissociate my image of a singerie from that of Algore and his PowerPoint presentation on global warming. 

Singerie is the name given to a visual arts genre depicting monkeys imitating human behavior, often fashionably attired, intended as a diverting sight, always with a gentle cast of mild satire. The term is derived from the French word for "Monkey Trick."

Or, as a Brit might write: singeries – comical scenes involving monkeys playing musical instruments and making mischief.

Sort of describes Algore in ten words or less.

A huge "tip of the hat," as they say, to a reader.

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End-of-year books and Christmas gifts:

• A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens, with an afterword by A. N. Wilson, Signet Classics, c. 2007 
• The Comanche Code Talkers of WWII, William C. Meadows, c. 2002 
• Tequila Mockingbird, Tim Federle, c. 2013 
• Japanese Whisky, Brian Ashcraft, c. 2018 
• Dividing the Spoils: The War for Alexander the Greta's Empire, Robin Waterfield, c. 2011
• "The Talmud": The Book of Legends: Legends from the Talmud and Midrash, edited by Hayim Nahman Bialik and Yehoshua Hana Ravnitzky, translated by William G. Braude, c. 1992; first published in Odessa in 1908 - 1911 
• The Letters of Sylvia Plath, Volume 2: 1956 - 1963, c. 2018; with foreword by her daughter, Frieda; edited by Peter K Steinberg and Karen V. Kukil -- Grapevine Library (I don't own copy)   
• So We Read On: How The Great Gatsby Came To Be and Why It Endures, Maureen Corrigan, c. 2014  
• Trinity: A Graphic History of the First Atomic Bomb, Jonathan Fetter-Vorm, c. 2012; $14.95
• The Los Alamos Primer, Robert Serber, c. 1992, $79
• 109 East Palace: Orbert Oppenheimer and the Secret City of Los Alamos, Jennet Conant, c. $17.99; 2005
• Man of the Hour: James B. Conant, Warrior Scientist, Jennet Conant, c. 2017; $30 face; free from museum
• The Los Alamos Primer, Robert Serber, very thin pamphlet; from Los Alamos museum; $30; no copyright

Trinity: it's funny how things work out. After our recent trip to New Mexico, I finally feel "comfortable" with the Los Alamos story. I "knew of" but did not "know all" regarding the Trinity test. When we returned home, we watched the first of three episodes of season 7 of Foyle's War: "The Eternity Ring." It turns out that the episode revolves around the Trinity test. So coincidental; who would have thought?

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Teslas

Updates

January 10, 2019: just days after announcing a decrease in the price of all Tesla models, Elon Musk tweeted that starting next Monday (January 14, 2019) the least expensive versions of the Model S and model X will no longer be available.

Original Post

 
Teslas on sale. Last week it was reported that Elon Musk had dropped the price on all models of the Tesla by $2,000 each. Our younger daughter bought me a  Model X Tesla -- and, yes, it was a "model." A Hot Wheels model. LOL. But note: even the models of the Teslas are now on sale. Our younger daughter noted that this was the first time she had seen prices on the Hot Wheels Tesla marked down by 30%.