Fast And Furious -- Fifteen Minutes -- September 20, 2020

First things first: anyone following recent numbers have to ask with regard to Covid-19: "what's going on in Iowa?" We'll talk about that later; it's very, very interesting.

Feature article: Amazon keeps spreading across America; plans 1,000 -- that's one thousand -- warehouses in suburban neighborhoods; in ZeroHedge, September 19, 2020.

Hurricane Watch: OMG! Tropical Storm Beta winds as high as 27 mph. Now being reported that the tropical storm probably won't become a hurricane, but Weather Channel still breathless. Hurricane Teddy downgraded. When does golf start this morning? 10:00 a.m. CDT, I believe.

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GM
The incredible shrinking GM: from The WSJ. GM says it can't afford to stay in markets where it no longer makes money, so it will go into EVs. LOL. I can't make this up:

Ms. Barra is adamant that GM can still grow but in a different way than in the past: through new businesses built on electric and driverless cars. Those technologies cost billions a year to develop, and are likely a long way from paying off. GM could no longer afford to stay in markets where it doesn’t make money, Ms. Barra, 58, said in an interview.

Are you kidding me? Link to ZeroHedge via Oilprice -- GM considers expanding into electric-flying air-taxis. Yeah, that'll work. 

From August 24, 2020, Reuters:

Motiv Power Systems, which provides chassis and software systems for medium-duty trucks and buses, said it had secured $15 million in additional funding from GMAG Holdings Corp to fund technology and scaling up its manufacturing operations. 

The latest funding follows a $60 million funding round last October led by GMAG, Motiv's main investor, and recreational vehicle maker Winnebago Industries Inc. Motiv has provided chassis for customers like Aramark and electrifies the E-450, a medium-duty truck made by Ford Motor Co . 

The race to production for commercial electric vehicles was given fresh impetus in June when the California Air Resources Board (CARB) approved a groundbreaking policy to wean its trucking sector off diesel fuel by requiring manufacturers to sell a rising number of zero-emission vehicles, starting in 2024. 

It will be interesting to see if California's electric grid can meet demand. 

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And We Move On

Rigs matter: Trump "boom" sparks record-breaking backlog of big rigs. Seriously. 

But we're not talking about oil rigs, we're talking about the "things" that carry those oil rigs. From ZeroHedge, August 17, 2020. This may have been previously posted; I can't recall, but it showed up over at twitter today.

Military moves: Trump's plans to move US troops in Europe back home, to Italy, and to Poland.

• from defensenews: moving US F-16s from Germany will ripple far outside the Black Sea region,
• from The WSJ: Pentagon to move nearly 12,000 US troops from Germany; major European headquarters to move to Belgium; a squadron of F-16s from Spangdahlem to Aviano, Italy; bring some home; 
• won’t happen if Biden wins election;

Oh-oh: AstraZeneca reports a second adverse effect -- again, a neurological complication. ZeroHedge posts the story published by the NY Times. 

“If there are two cases, then this starts to look like a dangerous pattern.” 

AstraZeneca says 2nd volunteer in coronavirus vaccine trial suffering from unexplained neurological illness; unclear if related to vaccine.

Grand solar minimum: Cycle 25 start date officially established. Wow. And that wasn't a headline story?

• NASA, September 17, 2020: what will Solar Cycle 25 look like? Just like Solar Cycle 24
• techtimes, September 16, 2020: NASA warns over "Global Solar Minimum" leading to "ice-age like events; claims a new cycle is coming;
• Newsweek, September 18, 2020: the sun has been spotless for 28 days straight despite new solar cycle; 
• according to NOAA’s Space Weather Service, the solar minimum for Solar Cycle 24 took place in December, 2019;
• NewsLanded, February 4, 2020: mini ice age to hit earth in 2020 and last 30 years, causing extreme winters;
• "No way out." -- physicist: for the next twenty years, winters will get colder and colder; 
  
• Wiki: solar cycle;
  

California: same ol', same ol' -- high taxes, fires and mudslides. Victor Davis Hanson -- September 15, 2020, in National Review.

NFL today: fifteen games today; one tomorrow (MNF). Cowboys host Falcons today. Day game.

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The Literary Page

Thebes: the forgotten city of ancient Greece; review. The WSJ, September 11, 2020. My posts on Thebes over at my literature blog. 

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Sibling Rivalry: The Feynmans

Joan Feynman, sister of a Nobel laureate, made her own mark in physics despite her mother's doubts. In The WSJ, obituaries, September 18, 2020.

Dr. Joan Feynman, who didn’t want to be completely overshadowed by her famous brother, recalled proposing a deal: “Look, I don’t want us to compete, so let’s divide up physics between us. I’ll take auroras, and you take the rest of the universe.”