Coal: big story today -- being posted everywhere. Global coal consumption hit an all-time record. Apparently the IEA was the only one surprised by this. Looks like reality trumps the myth of global warming.
Saturday, December 17, 2022
Coal Hits An All-Time Record -- December 17, 2022
Week 50: December 11, 2022 -- December 17, 2022
Top story:
- Joe Biden is still president
Top international non-energy story:
- Russian-Ukraine war continues
- Russia appears to favor scorched earth policy
Top international energy story:
- global crude oil markets in disarray following December 5th Sanctions (D5S)
- global coal usage hits all-time record
Top national non-energy story:
- peaked already? Triple threat: Covid-19; seasonal flu; and, RSV
- "Southern Surge" expected to live up to its name when Title 42 expires this next week;
Top national energy story:
- a huge crude oil build
Javier Blas:
Focus on fracking: most recent edition.
Top North Dakota non-energy story:
- Huge, early winter blizzard shuts down North Dakota.
Top North Dakota energy story:
Geoff Simon's top North Dakota energy stories:
Bakken economy:
Commentary:
- NDSU advances to championship game; to play SDSU.
Winter Reading List -- Native American History -- December 17, 2022
Wow, wow, wow.
After reading:
- Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teaching of Plants, Robin Wall Kimmerer, c. 2013.
I wanted a new authoritative book on Native American history. A quick -- very quick google search -- and I found this:
Wow, it appears exactly what I'm looking for. NYT best-seller list and great reviews, and best of all ... just published a couple of months ago, September, 2022.
Wow. And, yes, I will be ordering it from Amazon and it will be the first book on my winter reading list, 2022 - 2023. [Memo to self: has been ordered.]
The three dots:
- Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teaching of Plants, Robin Wall Kimmerer, c. 2013.
- Indigenous Continent: The Epic Contest for North America, Pekka Hämäläinen, September, 2022.
What A Heart-Breaker -- But NDSU Is In The Championship Game -- December 17, 2022
Our younger daughter graduated from Incarnate Word High School, co-located with the university.
Last night:
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Championship Game:
1 p.m. Sunday, January 8th, 2023
Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas
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Getting Ready For Hanakkah
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Flathead Lake
Greetings from Flathead Lake.
My sister and her husband bought the family vacation home on Flathead Lake when our parents died. The house was already a very, very nice home, and now they have made major renovations / major additions, including a new two-car garage to the south side of the house. The huge garage and separate, but attached, "hunting lodge" on the north side will be converted to a large living area for guests.
My Favorite Chart -- Updated December 16, 2022
Money market funds (from internet, December 17, 2022); duration, generally, but not necessarily, 7-day:
- benchmark, Vanguard: 3.49%
- Vanguard, VMFXX: 3.88%
- SWVXX: 4.04%
- Fidelity, SPRXX: 3.70%
- Goldman Sachs, FMJXX: 4.03%
- JPM, VMVXX: 3.86%
- Bank of America, savings account: 0.03%
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Vision
Cones and rods.
- Rods: light, not color.
- Cones: color; three types of cones:
- L-cones, long wave: longer red wavelengths
- M-cones, medium wave: yellow- to green-medium wavelengths
- S-cones, short wave: blue short wavelength
Some biologists shorten this to:
- three types of cones:
- red
- yellow (golden)
- purple
Yellow and purple are complementary colors.
Complementary
colors are pairs of colors which, when combined or mixed, cancel each
other out (lose hue) by producing a grayscale color like white or black.
When placed next to each other, they create the strongest contrast for
those two colors. Complementary colors may also be called "opposite
colors."
The book I am reading this week:
- Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teaching of Plants, Robin Wall Kimmerer, c. 2013.
In the chapter I just completed, the author spoke of
I was curious about something she wrote. In the process of looking that up, I came across this in northerngardner. Note the source. Whoo-hoo!
One of the more striking / beautiful landscape paintings / photographs are those of canyons taken at dusk. One wonders if the yellow / golden setting sun accentuates the purple formations along the canyon wall.
More on yellow / purple contrast here.
As I tell the granddaughters: never quit reading.Norway -- EVs -- Price Of Charging -- December 17, 2022
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Belk's
Some small items from Belk's. Every day sales price plus additional discount.
Inflation watch:
- "original price": $46
- paid: $11.99
Big Oil To Pour Billions Into The Permian Basin -- December 17, 2022
Billions ... with a "b."
So, what's this all about?
Alex Kimani.
XOM:
- $25 billion CAPEX for 2023;
- more than 70% of its capital investments will be deployed in the US Permian basin, Guyana, Brazil and LNG projects across the globe.
- will help increase the company's upstream production by 550,000 boepd to 4.2 million boepd by 2027 with half of that from high return regions in the Permian Basin and other high-return reegioosn.
CVX:
- $17 billion CAPEX for 2023;
- up more than 25% from 2022;
- still much lower than the $30 billion annual average of the 2012 - 2109 period
Sure -- Just Maintenance -- December 17, 2022
Bloomberg Law: interesting in itself.
A tanker is scheduled to load thee nation's flagship Urals grade at the Baltic Sea port oof Primorsk later on Friday. That will end a four-day hiatus that began on December 12, 2022.
Science Headlines -- December 17, 2022
These will all be behind a paywall.
Starting about a year ago, I started subscribing to a number of periodicals; Science was one of them.
Christmas gift to myself or to my wife this year: a subscription to The Atlantic.
But for now, the Science headlines that caught my interest, and the link to the on-line periodical.
North Dakota: paleontologist accused of fraud in paper on dino-killing asteroid.
- Melanie During: plaintiff
- Robert DePalma: defendent
- Tanis, North Dakota
- at the time, back in 2017, DePalma was a graduate student at the University of Kansas, Lawrence
- he held the lease then and still holds the lease to the site, which is on private land, and controls access to it.
- doesn't change the science; just changes who deserves the credit.
Laser fusion:
- it took hundred of megajoules of electricity to produce a piddly two Mj of laser light, which in turn produced a measly three Mj of fusion energy
- 192 lasers required
- mainstream media reporting that it took only two Mj of energy to produce three MJ of fuusion energy
- wow, I hate "false reporting"
Multiple sclerosis: viral etiology?
- epidemiologists trawled 20 years of medical records for more than 10 million US military recruits
- long suspected; now likely confirmed: Epstein-Barr virus
- this is huge on so many levels; for me -- military electronic medical records -- a game changer;
- the civilian world will never match the military medical record universe; it's incredible
RSV vaccines near the finish line.
NASA's spectacular new telescope.
"Zero-Covid" policy no longer works in China.
Pandemic vaccine equity program may soon start winding down.
UK, NYC to screen 200,000 newborns for 200 rare genetic diseases, using a single drop of blood.
US passes landmark climate law: the Inflation Reduction Act.
My Favorite Chart -- Updated December 16, 2022
Money market funds (from internet, December 17, 2022); duration, generally, but not necessarily, 7-day:
- benchmark, Vanguard: 3.49%
- Vanguard, VMFXX: 3.88%
- Fidelity, SPRXX: 3.70%
- Goldman Sachs, FMJXX: 4.03%
- JPM, VMVXX: 3.86%
- Bank of America, savings account: 0.03%
****************************
Vision
Cones and rods.
- Rods: light, not color.
- Cones: color; three types of cones:
- L-cones, long wave: longer red wavelengths
- M-cones, medium wave: yellow- to green-medium wavelengths
- S-cones, short wave: blue short wavelength
Some biologists shorten this to:
- three types of cones:
- red
- yellow (golden)
- purple
Yellow and purple are complementary colors.
Complementary colors are pairs of colors which, when combined or mixed, cancel each other out (lose hue) by producing a grayscale color like white or black. When placed next to each other, they create the strongest contrast for those two colors. Complementary colors may also be called "opposite colors."
The book I am reading this week:
- Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teaching of Plants, Robin Wall Kimmerer, c. 2013.
In the chapter I just completed, the author spoke of goldenrod and asters.
I was curious about something she wrote. In the process of looking that up, I came across this in northerngardner. Note the source. Whoo-hoo!
One of the more striking / beautiful landscape paintings / photographs are those of canyons taken at dusk. One wonders if the yellow / golden setting sun accentuates the purple formations along the canyon wall.
More on yellow / purple contrast here.
As I tell the granddaughters: never quit reading.
