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Saturday, July 16, 2022

A Rambling Thought -- July 16, 2022

Having now seen medicine in the military for thirty years -- all branches -- and then comparing that to what I've seen in the civilian world -- as it stands now, I would take military medicine over civilian medicine any day of the week. 

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Featured Artist

Daniel Johnston.

Casper the friendly ghost.

The Open -- Third Round -- July 16, 2022

Updates

Later, 2:16 p.m. CT: first golfer to "reconsider" -- 

Original Post 

Holy mackerel. Rory McIlroy just moved to the top of the leaderboard. For a moment or two, he was in first place by himself.

Now, after thirteen holes, Rory is tied for the lead, at fifteen under, six under for the day, tied with Viktor Hovland, also through thirteen holes.

Dustin Johnson, LIV, tied for fifth. 

Other LIV players of note:

  • Sergio Garcia: slips to 47th, tied.
  • Phil Mickelson: missed the cut.
  • Talor Gooch, at ninth, tied.
  • Bryson DeChambeau, 19th, tied.

An EV Combine Won't Cut It -- July 16, 2022

Link here

For urban New Yorkers, the combine is on the left in the photo above; that "thing" to the right is a ... a tractor. Although even that may have a special name.

Specifications:


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The Movie Page

Levi and Judah are twins, just turned two. They "speak" three languages: sign language; their own private language; and, a very, very primordial English, of which I only understand a half dozen words. Their mother understands much more of their English.

They each have their own very unique personalities.

Levi is the older by about a minute or so. 

There is a rule that they must "pick up their room" before coming to breakfast or any other meal. 

One is already blue collar and one is already white collar.

M2 MacBook Musings -- July 16, 2022

The new M2 Apple MacBook Air: this is a game changer. This is getting back to Steve Jobs' original vision. Available as of yesterday, July 15, 2022, reviews for the new MacBook Air are coming in fast and furious. This is the biggest update for the MacBook Air in ten years. See this link.

When Jobs came back to Apple, Inc. after being fired some years earlier, he was quite unhappy with the direction Apple had taken. There were simply too many Apple computer choices available. Folks were delaying their purchases because they did not know what they wanted / needed. And, everything seemed to expensive compare to non-Apple products. 

Steve Jobs wanted to streamline the computer division to a "2x2" option:

  • desktop
    • for the professionals: Mac Pro (the tower)
    • for the rest of us: iMac
  • laptop
    • for the professionals: MacBook Pro
    • for the rest of us: MacBook Air

So that's easy. Does one want a desktop or a laptop? If that stumps you, well, what can I say?

Then, are you a professional or are you among "the rest of us"? That's it. Really, really simple. 

The only challenge is the configuration one wants for any particular computer which mostly has to do with memory.

My advice: unless you like spending money, buy the base model, the least expensive configuration, if this is your first Apple. You will know next time you buy an Apple computer what you prefer. 

It is interesting that:

  • the MacBook Air got the M2 chip before the MacBook Pro (still with the M1)
  • the MacBook Air is thinner and lighter than the MacBook Pro
  • the MacBook Air is significantly less expensive than the MacBook Pro
  • except for an ever smaller circle of "pro" users, the MacBook Air meets the needs of almost everyone
  • the brand new M2 MacBook Air is no more expensive than its predecessor ten years ago
  • the MacBook Air comes loaded with all necessary software at no additional cost (compare with non-Apple computers)

See the linked article above. 

My hunch:

  • the MacBook Air is going to take away a lot of sales from the MacBook Pro
  • Apple is really, really going to have to "up its game" with regard to the MacBook Pro if it wants to compete with the Air.

One last thought: apparently the color schemes have become an incredible success story for Apple. At the end of the day, that might epitomize the Steve Jobs vision more than anything else. 

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The Book Page

Just started this past week: Transformer: The Deep Chemistry of Life and Death, Nick Lane, c. 2022.

Nick Lane is one of my favorite writers. This book is probably the most "difficult" of the books he has written of which I have read. I do not recommend it unless you are really, really into this "stuff."

The book is about the Krebs cycle. More on that later, perhaps later this week.

Earlier this week I finished:

Ken Kocienda, Creative Selection: Inside Apple's Design Process During the Golden Age of Steve Jobs, c. 2018. Amazon.

It's a deceiving title. I had expected a book on the development of Apple designs. But re-reading the "sub-title: it's about the "process" Steve Jobs used in coming up with designs for Apple products. It's a good read for anyone interested in Apple, but it's a must-read for high school juniors or seniors who want to major in software engineering in college and then work for Apple, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and others in that sector. 

It's a book I would like to read again, but I simply don't have the time. I will mail it to my nephew, a "new" software engineer recently moved to Minneapolis, working as a software engineer. 

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Halloween

In the old days, when I was growing up, Halloween came once a year.

Now, here in Texas, it's year-round. Commonly seen: knee-length crochet Bohemian twists; peacock feather eyelashes; five-inch claws (no hyperbole); and, full-body tattoos. 

And that's just the guys. LOL.

Busy, Busy Saturday Morning -- July 16, 2022

First things first: 

We have a new meme: "Breakfast falafels." Tina Fey probably wrote that line. LOL. We can't let "breakfast tacos" get all the press. 

Chorizo: Speaking of which, I'll be off the net for a few minutes while I make one of my world-famous omelettes.

I now understand why world-class omeletteers make 3-egg omelettes. You need that many for all the fillings. My biggest decision every day: should the meat component be chorizo or Spam. 
Not woke? My google blogging app does not recognize "chorizo." Every time I type "chorizo" I'm prompted to check the spelling.

NBC coverage of The Open: the almost complete "blackout" of the LIV players is very, very disappointing. 

Most perplexing energy story: link here. My original comments / observations / conclusions are spot on, but I think there's more to the story. I will post my thoughts later. 

Quick: name the top story that did not come out of the Biden meeting with Saudi Arabia. Hint: not politically correct right now. If this issue did not come up during Biden's visit I would be very, very surprised. 

The new M2 Apple MacAir: this is a game changer. This is getting back to Steve Jobs original vision. More on this later.  While waiting, this link.

Crypto: another one in trouble. Coinbase. Big question: are the proposed cryptomining plans for MonDak dead in the water?


NY Times: it appears I now have a full / limited subscription with online NY Times. At no cost. More on this later. Later: nope. It appears my "subscription" with the NY Times  is limited but has expanded.

Crypto: this story explains a lot. Huge story. NY Times. A stand-alone post later. When I first saw the headline I thought it was a two-year old story; how wrong I was. Published July 15, 2022. Absolutely amazing. Five words: everything in Texas is bigger. Archived.

Amazon: another huge story. Still not sure how accurate it is. Link here. Will be a stand-alone post later. This Forbes article, October 19, 2021, will provide background. Some irony here: I have a "subscription" for both Amazon-branded coffee and Starbucks coffee K-pods, and a delivery of both will arrive today. I just received a message from Amazon that the first order has been delivered. [One minute later: the second order has also been delivered.]

Tesla: an important story? I don't know.

Climate: a reader noted that there is an old adage, "the hotter the summer, the colder the winter." That's been my experience also, and, yes, at my age, I can say, "based on my experience." LOL. North and South Dakota, 1936. Headline from BBC: Heatwave: national emergency declared after UK's first red extreme heat warming. A stand-alone post later. Link here. This will not affect their electricity grid: the Brits don't have air conditioning.

Electric power: I don't think many/most folks realize that EVs will not do the heavy lifting. We already know that EV pickups cannot even tow something as "small" as a horse trailer (don't take that out of context). And that's just the beginning. Look at this behemoth. Link here. A stand-alone post later. 

Deere: speaking of which -- that harvesting combine mentioned above ... I'm still fully invested. I have a revenue stream that allows me to invest twice a month. Discussed earlier. My current mix for new allocations: 50%, Buffett-like, blue-chip, Fortune 500 companies; 30%, tech; and 20%, energy. 

It's easy to find the tech in which I want to invest; it's relatively easy to find the energy (oil) in which I want to invest; the 50% allocation is more difficult, but it may be worth looking at DE. Expensive per share, but like everything else, way off its high. Small dividend but enough to meet my requirements. 
For the first time ever, I've started a position in CAT this past week. DE might be a nice complement to CAT.

Disclaimer: this is not an investment site.  Do not make any investment, financial, job, career, travel, or relationship decisions based on what you read here or think you may have read here.

All my posts are done quickly: there will be content and typographical errors. If anything on any of my posts is important to you, go to the source. If/when I find typographical / content errors, I will correct them.

Quick: name the most abundant protein on earth. 

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Corky Has A Side Gig

Regular readers know all about our granddaughter Sophia and her fluffy, Corky. Corky has been with her for five or six years now. Corky currently self-identifies as a "he," but for the longest time, Corky was a "she." 

Corky has a habit of "disappearing" sometimes for weeks at a time before showing up again. We never know where Corky has been but Sophia generally knows. Sophia says Corky often goes on vacation to visit her foster parents in Michigan, or maybe Wisconsin. I forget which. 

The fact that Corky, a piggy, has foster parents has something to do with bacon. It's a long story, but apparently not a sad story. LOL. 

But now, of all things, here it is, Sophia has a side gig. We discovered that this morning when I drove Sophia too a friend's birthday party.