Why Bozeman, MT, Is The Fastest (?) Growing City In The US -- June 12, 2021

I believe I read an article earlier this year suggesting Bozeman, MT, was the fastest growing city in the US. If not the "fastest" growing city in the US, certainly in the running.

My sister sent me this photo of herself taken this evening “in” Bozeman. Outside temperature apparently 73°. 

Note: there is an empty chair just waiting for you. 

Later: They're reading the blog. Less than twelve hours after posting the story above, Fox News: Montana, the sold-out state New Yorkers can't get enough of. 

Link: https://www.foxbusiness.com/lifestyle/montana-sold-out-state-new-yorkers-cant-get-enough. 

And from a reader, from the NY Times, behind a paywall, this op-ed, May 12, 2021: my beloved college town has a problem: it's too popular. The "town"? Bozeman, MT.  Posted here, not behind a paywall: link. 

Notes From All Over -- Early Evening Edition -- Nothing About The Bakken -- June 12, 2021

First things first:

Poolside tonight:

They must be reading the blog. This was exactly my point. Earlier I posted this: "enough is enough." Now this:

Fascination with Schwab. A reader noted my fascination with Schwab and sent me this:

My reply:

Note the location of Schwab: WESTLAKE

Westlake is a non-entity as cities go. I think the only thing in Westlake is Schwab.

There is Southlake (huge, conservative, rich); Northlake (rural); Westlake (even more rural), all just down the road from us here in Grapevine/Euless, TX.

Schwab has just built the nation's largest bank-complex, I think, footprint -- excpet for skyscrapers in NYC. But this is huge; just west of us on TX-114. They say this area wil be the population center of the DFW area by 2050.

It's a pretty big deal. I did not know Schwab was the biggest in Texas. Interesting. 

Hulu vs Disney+: see this note from earlier today. Another viewpoint, here.  Bottom line: lots of great choices. 

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Words For The Day

From wiki:

A crepuscular animal is one that is active primarily during the twilight period. 

This is distinguished from diurnal and nocturnal behavior, where an animal is active during the hours of daylight and of darkness, respectively. 

Some crepuscular animals may also be active by moonlight or during an overcast day. 

Matutinal animals are active only before sunrise, and vespertine only after sunset. 

The collateral adjective for twilight is crepuscular, which may be used to describe the behavior of animals that are most active during this period.

Helen of Troy, Bettany Hughes, c. 2005, p. 134; nightjars --> crepuscular --> wiki.

The Graduate: What Katie Ledecky Learned At Stanford And How It Might Make Her Faster -- The Washington Post -- June 12, 2021

Link here. 

This is an incredibly long article. It may be behind a paywall. Here is the beginning of the article. I've archived it. 

Katie Ledecky packed for this week’s U.S. Olympic swimming trials with her usual swim gear and unparalleled goals — plus a carefully folded black cap and gown. On Sunday, one day before her first race, Ledecky planned to take part in Stanford’s commencement ceremony — from an Omaha hotel room 1,700 miles away from campus.

She has no speaking role in the ceremony; she is just one of some 1,450 graduates in Stanford’s Class of 2021. What could she say about all that has happened these past few years?

In 2016, she arrived in Palo Alto, CA, as a 19-year-old, having taken a gap year after graduating from Stone Ridge in Bethesda to train for the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.  

She had never lived alone, didn’t cook for herself and didn’t know how to ride a bike. She had never paid a bill or drawn a paycheck. 

As Ledecky says, “Just thinking about being on the pool deck in Rio, that feels like a long time ago.”

Since then, she has compiled one of the most remarkable collegiate swimming careers before turning pro and has shuffled between living an ordinary campus life and a surreal pseudo-celebrity existence. She studied Greek art one semester, and she gave a swimming lesson to Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg.

All of it led her here: a virtual graduation ceremony in a Nebraska hotel room, followed in short order by a coronation in a swimming pool.

“I have moments where I have to pinch myself,” said Ledecky, 24. “There have been times on campus and it feels a little surreal that I go to school here, or I tell myself, ‘I’ve been to the Olympics — what?’ Even that hasn’t completely sunk in yet, you know?”

Already the owner of five Olympic gold medals, 15 world titles and three world records, Ledecky is on the cusp of a third Summer Games, one that can only further solidify her as one of the sport’s all-time greats. On Monday, she will race the 400-meter freestyle, the first of four events on her ambitious trials program. If all goes as planned, Ledecky will qualify to compete in at least five events at the Tokyo Olympics: the 200-, 400-, 800- and 1,500-meter freestyle races, plus the 4x200 relay. There’s an outside chance she’ll also get tapped for the 4x100 relay team, which would potentially allow her to top her five-medal haul from the Rio Games.

The Enerplus Horse Pad -- Pinto Well Has Just Gone Over 500K Bbls Crude Oil Cumulative -- June 12, 2021

The wells, on multiple pads:

• 22665, 1,352, Enerplus, Mustang 149-93-29A-32H TF, Mandaree, t9/13; cum 476K 4/21;
• 22666, 1,538, Enerplus, Pinto 149-93-29A-32H, Mandaree, t9/13; cum 505K 4/21;

• 22664, 831, Enerplus, Arabian 149-93-29B-32H, Mandaree, t3/13; cum 30K 4/21; 
• 22663, conf, Enerplus, Morgan 149-93-29B-32H TF, Mandaree, no production data, 

Four wells in this section to date. There will eventually be a total of eight, maybe twelve, possible many more. 

A Whiting Parent Well In The Sanish Just Went Over 500K Bbls Crude Oil Cumulative -- June 12, 2021

Link here. 

At 3,000 bbls/month, this well has hit 500K bbls crude oil cumulative as of the end of June, 2021. 

The parent well in its section was drilled/fracked ten years ago and is still going strong:

• 19972, 2,705, Whiting, Oppeboen 14-5WH, Sanish, F, t7/11; cum 495K 4/21; stimulated 7/12/11, 22 stages; 1.9 million lbs sand; it was a relatively short long lateral, if that makes sense, only 16,210 feet long opposed to the usual 19,000 feet we generally see.
  

Amazon's Fire TV Stick -- June 12, 2021

Amazon Fire TV Stick: I first talked about this on May 30, 2021. It's very, very interesting on so many levels what Amazon is doing. Apple TV+ is a streaming service, backed up by an incredible stable of hardware products, from wearables to desktop behemoths. But Amazon, with the Fire TV Stick, has it all:

• Amazon hardware (so inexpensive, they could give it away) -- the "Fire Stick" itself;
• Amazon software: to run streaming from any source through the stick to the television;
• Amazon content (with Amazon Prime and the Fire TV Stick, there is no additional charge for any of the following, all part of Amazon):
  
• Amazon Prime Video;
• IMDb TV; 
• Thursday Night Football (a foot in the door); 
• the MGM catalogue (huge misstep for Apple);  
• Amazon Silk;  
• Amazon Kids+ (think Disney+);
  
• Amazon Photos (prime members get unlimited full-resolution photo storage and 5GB for video); 
• Amazon music;
  

Amazon Fire TV Stick:

• turn on your "dumb" smart television;
• press "on" at the top of he Fire TV Stick remote control;
• Amazon icons automatically appear; a few clicks and one gets to "all streaming" options plus the ability to add more streaming options as they become available (of course, Roku is not shown);
• so, let's say, right now there are twenty "streaming" icons from which I can choose, including the best ever, Hulu, it is interesting to note that Amazon has ten of those icons. 

One icon the Fire Stick does not yet have? NFL, but as noted above, Amazon has a foot in the door. 

I would not be surprised to see Amazon break out the MGM catalogue separately from the rest of the Amazon options. It's all about taking up space on the virtual product shelf. 

By the way, do you all remember the iconic Apple iPod with Apple's "signature iPod click wheel"? That's exactly what the Fire TV Stick looks like. Exactly. Except it's black, not white. 

The Fire TV Stick gets you to "all" streaming content with a few clicks but at the bottom, four buttons to take you immediately to:

• Prime Video, of course
• Disney+
• Netflix
• hulu

This tells me all I need to know. Is it FAANG or is it ADNH now? 

The tea leaves suggest Disney+ will have some stiff competition. 

With Amazon's foot in the NFL door, my next question for myself: would I rather watch the Summer Olympics on NBC or on Amazon? Which of the two companies has more money to spend on presentation?

Why this long note today?

I went out to the pool early this morning to rest, read, and meditate. 

By 10:30 a.m. it had gotten so hot and humid I had to return to our little hovel. There was nothing I wanted to watch on television but I did want to listen to some music. I was not aware that the Fire TV Stick supported the "internet" (and therefore YouTube) on the dumb "smart television" but there was something called Amazon internet which they call Amazon Silk.

It takes a minute to download (no password required; just click on the icon to install). And then, voilà, there it is, the internet, just as if one was on one's computer.

And now we have a giant screen with incredible resolution that can be replaced as technology improves without buying a whole new computer, although I would probably do that, also.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention. Amazon Silk is a very, very clever name. Navigating through the internet through the Fire TV Stick is almost as smooth as silk.

Week 23: June 6, 2021 -- June 12, 2021

Top story of the week:

• Joe Biden is still president.
• Most visited site for the week; 
• MDU makes the Fortune 500;
• Federal judge overturns California's 32-year assault weapons ban;
  

Top international non-energy story:

• We're being played.
  

Top international energy story:

• TC Energy abandons the Keystone XL (US Dems lose huge money-making issue); and, here;
• WTI hits $71; Brent to $73; here;
• Saudi's foreign exchange reserves plummet

Top national non-energy story:

• Record number of jobs available in the US.

Top national energy story:

• Gasoline demand: flat-lined;

Top North Dakota non-energy story:

Top North Dakota energy story:

• MDU makes the Fortune 500;

Geoff Simon's top North Dakota energy stories:

• Quick connects.
• Wow, this should be fair, LOL: ND's legislative redistricting committee, set to convene a special session in November, is made up of four Republicans and two Democrats.
• Interim Energy Committee to be chaired by Beulah senator Jessica Bell; joining her on the committee, senators Brad Bekkedahl, Williston, and, Dale Patten, Watford City. Glad to see no one from Fargo or Dickinson named. 
  

Operators:

• CLR: with four new Fuller/Fuller Federal permits;
• CLR: with four new Brooklyn oil permits;
• CLR: with seven new Chimney Butte permits;
  

Operations:

• Ovintiv's Jorgenson Federal wells goes over 500K bbls crude oil;
• Update: two incredible Charlson Van Hise Trust wells;
• A BR Veeder well goes over 500K bbls crude oil;
• MRO's Axell USA well goes over 500K bbls crude oil;
• Whole pads at a time coming off confidential list;
• CLR starting to report production on the Simmental Federal / Angus Federal wells;
• MRO reports IPs for the L-O-T-V wells;

Fracking:

Natural gas:

• Mysterious disappearing natural gas in the Bakken;

LNG:

• US exports on track for second consecutive record year;

Pipelines:

Bakken 101:

• Frack spread update;

Bakken economy:

• New operator, non-stop to Las Vegas from XWA announced;

Commentary:

• Why the Bakken continues to excite me;
• We're going to get to 2035 ten years early;
• Why rigs don't matter;

The JOLTS Report -- June 12, 2021

From the Breitbart New Desk, the "Breitbart Business Digest":

The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey—or JOLTS—takes the prize for the most illuminating of the week's economic data. That's saying a lot for a week that included jobless claims falling to a new pandemic low, continuing claims falling below 4 million for the first time since the pandemic struck, and a Consumer Price Index with the highest core inflation since 1992, while the University of Michigan's Index of Consumer Sentiment showed inflation expectations declining. Joe Biden might be pretty dull, but the economic data of Bidenomics is riveting.

Economists had forecast businesses posting 8 million or so jobs in April, a slight decline from what was believed to be an unsustainably hot March figure of 8.2 million. This was a quite reasonable forecast, as 8.1 million was a record high in data going back to the turn of the century, topping even the extremely high levels seen at the peak of the strong Trump jobs market. Economic data tend to mean revert, after all.

Instead, March was revised up to nearly 8.3 million, meaning it broke its own record. And April came in at 9.3 million, a new record high. It wasn't just the level that was impressive but the pace. Never before had job postings ever risen by 1 million jobs. The closest it had come to that prior to this year was 808,000 in 2015. The median change is just an addition of 13,000 jobs.

The JOLTS report also shattered a relationship that is one of the mainstays of modern labor economics known as the Beveridge Curve. It tracks the relationship between job openings and the unemployment rate. The curve shows that, in general, the unemployment rate and job openings tend to move in opposite directions. When there are many job openings, unemployment falls. When there are few openings, unemployment rises. Yet in April, the unemployment rate ticked up to 6.1 percent from six percent in March—exactly the opposite of what the curve would predict.

In other words, we are in a highly unusual labor market. No doubt one of the sources of weirdness is the fact that enhanced unemployment benefits pay nearly twice the average weekly wage. That makes it hard to hire anyone on unemployment. But the gap between job openings and employment is so wide that it suggests something else is going on. Perhaps it is the expectation for guaranteed income, either in the form of "family allowances" or Silicon Valley's Universal Basic Income scheme. Perhaps some older people just decided to take a hint from the pandemic and retire early. Some young people may be hanging back from the workforce to enjoy a YOLO reopening summer. We'll know more once the enhanced UI runs out in September and we see whether the gap between openings and hires closes.

– Alex Marlow & John Carney
Breitbart News Network

Absolutely, Positively Worth A Stand-Alone Post -- Nothing To Do With The Bakken -- June 12, 2021

Link here.

Apple's flagship Tower Theatre Store opening in Los Angeles on June 24, 2021.

I don't have a bucket list -- I've talked about that before -- but if I did, this would be on that list. And near the top of that list.

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Going Clear 

This is really, really cool. See first comment. 

Yesterday, there was an article by Michael Andronico, "I ditched my PC for the new iMac -- here are the pros and cons."

I’m constantly testing all kinds of laptops and desktops, but none of them have been able to replace my custom Windows gaming PC as my main machine for work and play. 

Between my computer’s powerful specs, my versatile dual-monitor setup and my comfort level with Windows 10, it’s been hard to make the switch to anything else — until the 24-inch iMac landed on my desk. 

I’ve been using Apple’s new desktop almost exclusively ever since I got it in for review, and barring a few exceptions, I’m not in a huge rush to go back to my PC. 

Between its superb display, excellent webcam and the everyday benefits of macOS I’d been missing out on as an iPhone user, the latest iMac (starting at $1,233; expercom.com and amazon.com) comes dangerously close to being the only desktop computer I need. 

Wow, wow, wow. If that is not the best example of a reporter "going clear," I don't what would be. 

Enough Is Enough -- We're Being Played -- June 12, 2021

Link here.

Supposedly all those attending the G7 summit are vaccinated and all are tested daily. If so, the question arises: why do they wear masks at all and why was the group photo taken with them social distancing, even though they walked in a group (very slowly, I might add -- the Queen set the pace) to the site of the photo op? Asking for a friend? I would ask my wife but I want to have a peaceful weekend. 

Meanwhile, these are atrocious numbers, and if one accepts the science ... the last column shows the number of folks vaccinated in the previous twenty-four hours; this would include folks getting their second vaccine. Has the country hit a wall?

		Total Doses Administered	Number of People Receiving At Least One Dose	Fully Vaccinated	Delta: Difference in daily doses from previous day
Friday	June 11, 2021	306,509,795	172,758,350	142,095,530	822,177
Thursday	June 10, 2021	305,687,618	172,423,605	141,583,252	934,142
Wednesday	June 9, 2021	304,753,476	172,054,276	140,980,110	950,780
Tuesday	June 8, 2021	303,802,697	171,682,507	140,364,386	950,780
Monday	June 7, 2021	302,851,917	171,310,738	139,748,661	1,213,339
Sunday	June 6, 2021	301,638,578	170,833,221	138,969,323	1,369,848
Saturday	June 5, 2021	300,268,730	170,272,150	138,112,702	1,148,178
Friday	June 4, 2021	299,120,552	169,735,441	137,455,367	1,399,624
Thursday	June 3, 2021	297,720,928	169,090,262	136,644,618	808,036
Wednesday	June 2, 2021	296,912,892	168,734,435	136,155,250	508,652
Tuesday	June 1, 2021	296,404,240	168,489,729	135,867,425	737,695
Monday (ND)	May 31, 2021	295,666,545	168,111,851	135,477,372	737,695

Target: here in north Texas, at one of the busier Target stores I visit, there is almost a circus atmosphere. Unvaccinated folks not wearing their masks undoubtedly feel they dodged a silver bullet and the pandemic is behind them. They beat the odds, somehow. The parking lot is packed, hard to find a parking spot, but the store, because it is so big, feels "wide open." People maintaining their separation? Store employees: about half and half. Half wearing masks; half not. Customers: easily 75% of folks not wearing masks. I see very, very few seniors and no one is in a wheelchair or riding one of those electric carts. My hunch is we see those folks down the street at Walmart.