1. Sailing: We have not heard from the two granddaughters and their dad for several days now. They are still sailing among the Greek islands in the Aegean Sea.
2. NBA: game 6 tonight -- this is not the time for Toronto to lose -- it would give the momentum to Golden State, and, in fact, the Toronto fan behavior in Toronto in game 5 may have been the turning point in this series. I think it can safely be said that if Golden State goes on to win the championship after being down 3 - 1, one can attribute the championship to the behavior of the Toronto fans early in game 5.
3. PGA: US Open starts today. Pebble Beach. America's golf course. Yes, the course is open to the general public.
4. NHL: Stanley Cup -- St Louis Blues. And not even close in the final game -- 2 - 0 in the first period which is pretty much insurmountable in the NHL in a game like this. 0 - 0 in the second period. 2 - 1 in the final period. Final score? A lopsided 4 - 1.
5. Oil: war? And WTI moves up a dollar or so. OPEC no longer the swing producer.
6. Oil: it's no longer about the number of rigs. [If you doubt this, check out SLB and HAL.] It's now all about DUCs. The number of drilling rigs deployed is a function of CAPEX, and CAPEX for oil companies is generally a six-month process. The number of rigs deployed in a six-month period will remain within a narrow range; the weekly changes are predominantly due to movement of rigs from site to site, not in any change in CAPEX strategy. However, at least in the Bakken, companies can change production output literally on a daily basis.
7. Oil: US crude oil inventories 8% above the 5-year average (according to the EIA's weekly report released yesterday) and the 5-year average has been moving up from historical levels. The graphics don't really corroborate that statement. Maybe I'm missing something.
8. Mexico: going down the road that Venezuela has taken. This will not be a pretty picture.
9. Iran: to torpedo two tankers in the Strait of Hormuz -- and perhaps result in the sinking of one -- suggests that Iran is in dire straits. Pun intended. Iran risks going to war, and when a country risks going to war -- especially in one that would be quite lop-sided -- it tells me its leaders feel they have nothing to lose.
10. Iran: if OPEC doesn't vote Iran out of its organization --- wow! And I bet the organization doesn't vote Iran out.
11. Iran: those countries upset with sanctions on Iran now have a new event to consider -- does one want to do business with a country so incredibly and inappropriately adventurous. If a country is willing to attack non-combatants (the Saudi Arabian civilian airport earlier; and now two oil tankers), does anyone have any doubt that country would use its nuclear weapons on the countries of Satan?
12. Relevancy of the Mideast: on the brink of war, and the US stock market (the Dow) is actually in the green -- albeit not by much.
13. Texas weather: one of the best springs/early summers we've had since we've lived here -- since 2000. Today in north Texas, it's a beautiful, beautiful 77 degrees.
14. Nick Lane's The Vital Question: Energy, Evolution, and the Origins of Complex Life, c. 2015. I've read it twice; I'm re-reading parts of it now. For a high school planning to major in biology or biochemistry in college, this would be a great book to read over the summer.
15. Global energy, Latin America: the choices that countries made when they entered the 21st century will determine how they enter the 21st century. These choices are still being made. In Latin America, the four countries of most interest:
- Venezuela:
- Mexico: taking the road to Venezuela; already logistical problems showing up under new administration -- RBN Energy;
- Argentina: Exxon Mobil proceeds with expansion project in the Vaca Muerta basin -- WorldOil.
- Brazil: Petrobras to boost five-year investment plant to $105 billion -- Reuters.
17. BP Stats Review 2019: global energy demand grew by 2.9%, the fastest since any time since 2010 - 2011. Other data points:
- natural gas consumption and production was over over 5%, one of the strongest rates of growth for both demand and output for over 30 years
- renewables, despite fast and furious growth, still accounted for only a third of the increase in total power generation (I assume no growth in nuclear energh, hydro, or coal, so this means, two-thirds of energy growth was due to fossil fuel, mostly natural gas
- coal consumption up 1.4%; coal production up 4.3% -- increased for the second year in a row -- someone stockpiling coal? This second year in a row of increase followed three years of decline (2-14 - 2016).
- the US recorded the largest-ever annual production increases by any country for both oil and natural gas, the vast majority of increases coming from onshore shale plays
- BP is drinking the CO2-global warming kool-aid
19. Tattoos: I still find them incredibly unattractive.
20. Alexa: I still don't understand the controversy. If you don't want someone listening in on your conversations, don't buy the Echo, or turn it off when you having intimate conversations with your significant other.
21. Speaking of which ... it's just a matter of time ...
The backstory from wiki:
Brook Benton and Clyde Otis placed the song on a demo tape for Nat King Cole, and he agreed to record it. However, Otis became an A&R manager at Mercury Records, and signed Benton to the label.
Otis felt that "It's Just A Matter Of Time" would be an ideal single for Benton, and he asked Cole not to record the song so it could be Benton's first release on the label.
Belford Hendricks, a classically trained composer, co-wrote and arranged the recording.
Benton's version, in a style clearly influenced by Cole, was a quick success, rising to number three on the Billboard pop charts while topping the R&B chart for 9 weeks in the spring of 1959, the longest run atop the chart of any song that year.
On April 12, during the song's chart run, Benton made his national television debut, singing the song on The Ed Sullivan Show.
When I was stationed at Ft Ord in the early '80's, as an MP, had chance to prove security for the Pro-Am at Pebble Beach. Turned it down as I was not a golf fan. This was when Hope and Cosby where at their zenith there. Soon realized the folly of my decision.
ReplyDeleteStill not a big golf fan, but Pebble is one of the prettiest courses around
Around 1972 or thereabouts I was out in that part of California. I drove to Pebble Beach, paid the $10 fee, and drove my car around the perimeter road. I believe that "touristy" thing is no longer there. My biggest mistake in life was not buying a bunch of small cottages in the Pebble Beach area back in the 1970s. One could probably have gotten them "for a lark," as they say.
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