Op-Ed On A Possible M4 MacBook This Year -- August 18, 2024

Locator: 48459APPLE.

Link here. 

From the linked article:

Apple hasn’t officially announced M4 Macs, but tipsters like Mark Gurman claim the company will unleash a new MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, Mac Pro, Mac Studio and Mac Mini sometime in the latter half of 2024. Considering how the iPad Pro (2024) packs an Apple M4 chip, it’s not unreasonable to assume we’ll soon see Macs featuring the latest M-series processor.

The prospect of M4 Macs is exciting, as each new M-series chip ups the ante in terms of power and efficiency. Based on our testing of the M4 processor in the iPad Pro, the next wave of Macs should be the most powerful yet. But is that enough justification for you to plunk down money for a new Mac?

Though I’m looking forward to M4 Macs, I don’t think most people need to rush out to get these machines. Here are 5 reasons why you might want to skip Apple M4 Macs.

And then this: 

Based on our testing, we can confidently say the M4 chip is the fastest and most powerful M-series processor we've benchmarked. As you can see in the table below, the iPad Pro with M4 has excellent performance — even besting some of the best laptops. We should see similar results from M4 Macs.

That's what we could see from Macs with the entry-level M4 chip but things might be more interesting if Apple announces M4 Pro and M4 Max processors. We haven’t heard much about these potential chips, but considering how previous generations of M-series processors had Pro and Max variants (and Ultra for Apple M1 and Apple M2), the same should be true for M4.

Outside of those potential M4 versions, don’t expect anything surprising from the base M4 chip in the upcoming Macs.

***********************************
Disclaimer Briefly 

Reminder

• I am inappropriately exuberant about the US economy and the US market, 
• I am also inappropriately exuberant about all things Apple. 
• See disclaimer. This is not an investment site. 
• 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.
• Reminder: I am inappropriately exuberant about the US economy and the US market, 
• I am also inappropriately exuberant about all things Apple.  

SoFi Walked Away From Intel -- But ... August 18, 2024

Locator: 48458CHIPS.

From April 9, 2024, IEEE Spectrum:

I'm posting this mostly for the archives.

Also for the "jargon" as it were, and the progression of the chips. 

But mostly I'm posting this because of the recent chatter about a possible SoFi - Intel link up, which apparently is dead ... but ... for me, hope springs eternal. Intel is too vital to fail. And Washington, DC knows it. 

Right now, keeping an eagle eye on INTC and RIVN. But note the blog's disclaimer.

From the linked article: 

Although the race to power the massive ambitions of AI companies might seem like it’s all about Nvidia, there is a real competition going in AI accelerator chips. The latest example: At Intel’s Vision 2024 event this week in Phoenix, Ariz., the company gave the first architectural details of its third-generation AI accelerator, Gaudi 3.

With the predecessor chip, the company had touted how close to parity its performance was to Nvidia’s top chip of the time, H100, and claimed a superior ratio of price versus performance. With Gaudi 3, it’s pointing to large-language-model (LLM) performance where it can claim outright superiority. But, looming in the background is Nvidia’s next GPU, the Blackwell B200, expected to arrive later this year.

Gaudi 3 doubles down on its predecessor Gaudi 2’s architecture, literally in some cases. Instead of Gaudi 2’s single chip, Gaudi 3 is made up of two identical silicon dies joined by a high-bandwidth connection. Each has a central region of 48 megabytes of cache memory. Surrounding that are the chip’s AI workforce—four engines for matrix multiplication and 32 programmable units called tensor processor cores. All that is surrounded by connections to memory and capped with media processing and network infrastructure at one end.

Intel says that all that combines to produce double the AI compute of Gaudi 2 using 8-bit floating-point infrastructure that has emerged as key to training transformer models. It also provides a fourfold boost for computations using the BFloat 16 number format.

Intel projects a 40 percent faster training time for the GPT-3 175B large language model versus the H100 and even better results for the 7-billion and 8-billion parameter versions of Llama 2. 

For inferencing, the contest was much closer, according to Intel, where the new chip delivered 95 to 170 percent of the performance of H100 for two versions of Llama. Though for the Falcon 180B model, Gaudi 3 achieved as much as a fourfold advantage. Unsurprisingly, the advantage was smaller against the Nvidia H200—80 to 110 percent for Llama and 3.8x for Falcon.

Intel claims more dramatic results when measuring power efficiency, where it projects as much as 220 percent H100’s value on Llama and 230 percent on Falcon (see wiki on large language models).

“Our customers are telling us that what they find limiting is getting enough power to the data center,” says Intel’s Habana Labs chief operating officer Eitan Medina.

The energy-efficiency results were best when the LLMs were tasked with delivering a longer output. Medina puts that advantage down to the Gaudi architecture’s large-matrix math engines. These are 512 bits across. Other architectures use many smaller engines to perform the same calculation, but Gaudi’s supersize version “needs almost an order of magnitude less memory bandwidth to feed it,” he says.

Llama? Link here.

From META AI: Llama (acronym for Large Language Model Meta AI, and formerly stylized as LLaMA) is a family of autoregressive large language models (LLMs) released by Meta AI starting in February 2023. The latest version is Llama 3.1, released in July 2024.

***********************************
Disclaimer Briefly 

Reminder

• I am inappropriately exuberant about the US economy and the US market, 
• I am also inappropriately exuberant about all things Apple. 
• See disclaimer. This is not an investment site. 
• 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.
• Reminder: I am inappropriately exuberant about the US economy and the US market, 
• I am also inappropriately exuberant about all things Apple.  

Why The CHIPS Act Was So Incredibly Important -- Thank You, Mr Biden -- August 18, 2024

Locator: 48457CHIPS.

Link here. And here.

**************************
How Israel Killed A Ghost

Link to The WSJ. 

An Unexpected Answer To An Earlier Question -- August 18, 2024

Locator: 48456INV.

Less than three hours ago I posted a fairly long note on personal investing. Then less than thirty minutes ago, I had a sidebar e-mail discussion with a reader regarding the same subject, personal investing.

Now, out of nowhere, to my yahoo e-mail address I get this:

I am not kidding.

Either absolutely coincidental or someone's tracking me a whole lot better / more than I can even imagine. 

LOL. 

By the way, Michael Fitzsimmons is, perhaps, my favorite SeekingAlpha contributor. 

I know what I'm doing Monday. LOL. 

***********************************
Disclaimer Briefly 

Reminder

• I am inappropriately exuberant about the US economy and the US market, 
• I am also inappropriately exuberant about all things Apple. 
• See disclaimer. This is not an investment site. 
• 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.
• Reminder: I am inappropriately exuberant about the US economy and the US market, 
• I am also inappropriately exuberant about all things Apple.  
  

*********************************
The Book Page
Jane Eyre

A note to one of our daughters:

Hi, Laura,

You mentioned reading my literature blog and mentioned you might read Emma. I can't recall reading Emma. My hunch is Jane Eyre would be the better of the two. 

You may want to read the wiki entries of both books before deciding. 

I have dozens of journals -- literally dozens of journals -- all handwritten -- and I'm gradually typing them all out and posting them on the web. Not public yet. However, here is a snippet of how I got started reading and it has a section on Jane Eyre. 

Here's the snippet: 

I had been sent to northern England by the Air Force for indeterminate length of time – it turned out to be three months – my duty days were short, and being the asocial creature I was, I spent my free hours, starting at 4:00 p.m. in my room with nothing to do but read. British television, except for minor exceptions, is lousy – when it’s good, it’s very good, but when it’s bad, it’s very, very bad – and it seemed bad 90 percent of the time. 

But if the Brits can’t do TV right, their writing is outstanding. 

Passing through British airports in London and British bookstores in the local area I picked up books and began reading as I’ve never read before. When the occasional visitor stopped by, it was with great pride to show him a stack of eleven books which I had completed, and a stack of three or our new books, not yet opened. There would be two or three opened books on the bed. 

I was back and forth to this northern England base for the next eighteen months, accumulating perhaps as many as nine months there. Once I started reading there, I have not quit. So much of my reading leads me to explanations of things not understood before I can really appreciate why philologists enjoy their vocation. 

Wow – where do I begin? 

Because of my romantic ties to Yorkshire and having visited Haworth, Emily Brontë’s home, I began there. I got through my Brontë phase by reading Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre, and two biographies of Emily and the Brontës – one by the close friend of Emily – Elizabeth Gaskell. From there, based on a recommendation of a woman “colleague” still at Menwith Hill Station, England, I read Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Another awesome book. From there, I don’t remember exactly why, I then chose to read something from George Eliot. I seldom saw Middlemarch recommended, but when I saw a copy at Borders, it immediately appealed to me. Through this reading, there were references in introductions or prefaces or internet searches to Sir Walter Scott, so I finally broke down, and decided I wanted to read something of his. He never interested me until now. Again, not often recommended, I read Rob Roy and find it so exciting, interesting, a real joy to read. To better understand the times I read The History of the Scotch-Irish (Ulstermen) at the same time. I couldn’t believe how well Rob Roy dovetailed with what I was reading in the history of the Scotch-Irish. It was almost as if historians have often relied on novelists, poets, authors for additional insight. 

My reading became so voracious – it became insatiable. It became an addiction, a craving. Two nights ago (5 July 2005) despite several books yet to read at home, I suddenly felt the need for another Sir Walter Scott book and even another Jane Austen book. I thought after reading Rob Roy and Middlemarch I was past my Brontë-Austen-Scott phase. Apparently not. My craving was so bad, despite the lateness of the hour (10:05 p.m.), the heat, the high price of gas, the wear and tear on the car, I drove to the nearest Half-Price Bookstore. I hate to pay full –price and only at these 2nd hand bookstores can I find some of these books. But Half-Price Bookstore was closed – I had to feed my addiction. I went to Barnes and Noble nearby but couldn’t find the book I was looking for. The next day/night, I went to Borders and bought Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey and a Bob Dylan musical DVD – more on that later. I have read a bit of Northanger Abbey and can’t wait to get into it deeply. More on that later. Anyway, some interesting tidbits. 

Where did Middlemarch come from? The word/name Middlemarch. Serendipitously I have found the answer. 

Reading an abbreviated history of England I came across the phrase “Marcher Lords.” Marcher – March – hmmm…is there a connection? You bet there is. In early England—12th century, let’s say, the boundaries between Scotland and England and between Wales and England were called Marches. The boundary was the march – from the same derivative of the word mark – markers that denote a geographical boundary. Te king came up with a new title to give a man who receives land along these boundaries from the king: marquis!! French word? Remember – Wm the Conqueror spoke French, as did several kings that followed. So, I now understand the derivation of Middlemarch can move on. I never gave much thought to Jane Eyre – where did that name come from? Again, I never gave it much thought. Eyre is said to be a common English name (when I read Boswell’s journal of his trip to the Western Isles (Hebrides) there was an individual whose first name was Eyre – therefore, I wonder if it is more correct to say Eyre is a common “Scottish name – not “English”). So I left it at that until, again, serendipitously, reading that same abbreviated history of England, I came across an innovation of Henry II: “Justices in Eyre.” 

Due to inadequate legal infrastructure in rural England, Henry II instituted circuit judges – and called them Justices in Eyre, from a French wood “errer,” to journey. 

Wow! Eyre – to journey – which is essentially what the autobiographic Jane Eyre is all about. After making that connection, I found someone on the net who had made the same connection. But – no mentioned was made of the alliteration – Jane Eyre – Justices in Eyre. Wow! It all makes sense.

 (Transcribing February16, 2008: I wonder if Jane Austen looked at “justice” being meted out by herself, or Jane Eyre, when writing this novel? I would have to go back and read the novel.)

Starbucks -- One Of The Most Fascinating Business Stories To Follow Over Next 12 Months -- August 18, 2024

Locator: 48455SBUX.

Updates

Later, 7:49 p.m. CDT: I was wrong -- CNBC thinks Starbucks' big problem is its mobile app, link here:

 Original Post

Starbucks. New CEO. Two things to watch:

• how the new CEO cuts costs to increase earnings to excite investors:
• close under-performing stores quickly; surely there must be many;
• take a lesson from GE's Jack Welch's "cut 10%" policy (stores, not baristas)
  
• close "uncomfortable" stores (high crime areas); symbolic but will appeal to investors;
  
• how the new CEO changes the product to excite customers; the product?
• price: perceived as high-price option; coffee and a bagel costs as much as a Chipotle burrito; prices have to come down, but I just don't see it; will probably market "value" for price, maybe offer more specials at slow times of the day.
  
• service: perceived as slow (with which I disagree)
• is there an opportunity for self-serve for simple black coffee like most other places?
  
• fare: perceived as bland, little change in ten years
• could they add smoothies during the summer? I honestly don't know.
  
• loyalty rewards: perceived as really, really chintzy (with which I agree)
• give local baristas more latitude in rewarding daily visitors, especially those who actually spend time in the restaurant; offer a free refill and see if a customer might be ready for another snack (at cost)
  
• seriously, how much revenue is lost when a barista offers a free refill on a tall black coffee;
• the app: seems okay to me

This will be absolutely fascinating; a new CEO is generally given a year to make his/her mark. 

Where to watch the new CEO's successes / failures? On Cramer's Mad Money.

Personal Investing -- August 18, 2024

Locator: 48454INV.

I owe my fascination with investing to my dad. He knew very, very little about investing but he did quite well. I can't explain it. The only real access to investing news was the 4" bx 4" box of stock market activity in the Bismarck Tribune that he received a day late, since the newspaper was delivered by truck from Bismark to Williston, North Dakota, a day late, and he got the morning edition on the following afternoon.

I remember only one piece of advice from him: "6-6-6." Buy shares at the following data/price points:

• share price: $6
• p/e: 6
• dividend: 6%.

And that was it. 

Shares, in his day, moved up and down "an eighth of a point" on a daily basis.

He bought AAPL at least a decade before I ever bought any shares in AAPL. He honestly thought Apple was a fruit wholesaler when he first looked at AAPL as an investment opportunity.

He rode the greatest bull market in history. 

Fast forward.

Stocks move up and down 20% on any given day.

Data points:

• share prices: $100
• p/e's: 50
• dividends: 2% or less

Opportunity to get rick quick: incredible.

Opportunity to go broke quick: incredible.  

Access to business news / information: 24/7. 

Quality of business news: can be quite phenomenal.

• or quite bad. A lot of negativity out there. A lot of hate out there. A lot of pessimism out there.
• business news risk: overload. lose sight of the forest for all the trees.
  

"They" say diversification is key.

Okay, so where do I stand?

Well, for one thing, I've quit investing for myself. The entire portfolio is being moved to the portfolios of the five grandchildren. TODs and PODs are being re-accomplished, naming the five grandchildren. No controlling from the grave. 

All new money for investing is going into the grandchildren's accounts.

Horizon: a rolling 30-year horizon.

Mostly large cap.

Generally must pay a dividend. Few exceptions.

Diversification: 20 companies. 

Only companies in which I would want my grandchildren to work for and would be willing to establish 401(k)s in those companies. 

The challenge right now is the diversification mix:

• energy 
• natural gas for electrification demand -- Texas
  
• two premier shale oil companies
  
• tech 
• seven big names
• AAPL: only on significant pullbacks
  
• BRK -- exception to the dividend rule
  
• consumer retail 
• WMT
  
• EVs (remember: I would never invest in EVs for myself but for my grandchildren, a different story)
• Rivian
  
• professionally managed -- 529s? ETFs, mutual fund-equivalents inside grandchildren Roth IRAS
  

And that's about it. 

Of the five above, maybe this allocation, new money:

• 10% -- currently overweighted in energy after years of accumulating shares in oil sector
• natural gas pipelines may be one of the better ways to play the energy market
  
• 30% -- currently way underweighted except in AAPL
• 10% -- BRK is a real quandary for me; as is AMZN for that matter
• 10% -- if have to diversify in the "WMT sector," then perhaps Costco
  
• 10%????? -- EVs -- in percentage terms, this would not amount to much, but in dollar amounts this would be quite ... shall we say, "interesting"?
• I wonder if millennials like RIVN so much is because they can get a lot of shares for $20? 
• that is something to think about: for $20, about what slips through my fingers every couple of days, I could be building a pretty nice Rivian position
  
• 30%????? -- managed financial vehicles would probably be the smartest thing to do
  

Again, this is new money. Current portfolio they will inherit completely different.

***********************************
Disclaimer Briefly 

Reminder

• I am inappropriately exuberant about the US economy and the US market, 
• I am also inappropriately exuberant about all things Apple. 
• See disclaimer. This is not an investment site. 
• 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.
• Reminder: I am inappropriately exuberant about the US economy and the US market, 
• I am also inappropriately exuberant about all things Apple. 

The Book Page -- August 18, 2024

Locator: 48453BOOKS.

New books on the shelf in the past 48 hours or so:

• A Plausible Man: The True Story of the Escaped Slave Who Inspired Uncle Tom's Cabin, Susanna Ashton, c. 2024. Clemson University. Fascinating. Really, really good.
  
• The American History: Conversations With Master Historians, David M. Rubenstein, c. 2019. This is going to be a really, really good read. 
• Tin to Table: Fancy, Snacky Recipes For Tin-Thusiasts And A-Fish-Ionados, Anna Hezel, c. 2023. A gimmicky book; will look nice on the recipe shelf, but that's about it.
• Art and War in the Renaissance: The Battle of Pavia Tapestries, editor, Carmine Romano, c. 2024, catalogue, coffee-table book to accompany the first-ever showing of the seven tapestries all at one time except for their permanent home in Italy; currently showing at Kimbell Art Museum, Ft Worth, TX. Really, really nice addition to our coffee-table art books.

Current list of books for my summer-reading program, 2024: link here.

Presidential Politics: Choosing To Lose -- August 18, 2024

Locator: 48452HARRIS.

Did Benzinga change somewhere along the line? Maybe I simply missed it, but Benzinga seems to have really upped their game. I'm impressed except for all the ads. Seems like a clickbait site, and like the CNBC site, more and more stories require a subscription of some sort. Whatever.

From Benzinga on the presidential campaign trail:

"... will be a terrible president." Freudian? Should it have been "... would be a terrible president, and that's not gonna happen." But "... will be a terrible president"?

The New York Times has a great piece on Kamala's run for attorney general for California. It's a great article, but the author really, really missed the biggest takeaway from that article. See if you can spot it.

From the linked article: 

It was 2010 — the pinnacle of the Tea Party’s power — and Ms. Harris, running statewide for the first time, was struggling to shed the same San Francisco liberal label that Donald J. Trump is wielding as an epithet yet again.

Ms. Harris, then 45, was already seen as a rising star in the Democratic Party. “The female Barack Obama,” Gwen Ifill had memorably tagged her the year before. But plenty of rising stars are snuffed out early, and Ms. Harris was facing a formidable Republican foe in Steve Cooley, the popular and moderate district attorney of Los Angeles County.

Mr. Cooley’s reputation as an evenhanded, corruption-busting prosecutor had put him tied or narrowly ahead of Ms. Harris entering October — largely on the strength of his distinctive popularity for a Republican in Los Angeles. He had won election three times in what is the state’s most populous Democratic stronghold.

Ms. Harris was running out of both time and money when she arrived at their only debate on the first Monday of October. Then, about 45 minutes into the hourlong clash, Mr. Cooley gave an answer that was frank, fateful and foolish.

By the way, speaking of Kamala Harris. Has Kamala Harris really proposed any new initiatives that:

• Trump himself hasn't already proposed;
• that the Biden administration was already doing, or planning to do;
• that would really increase any federal spending like ObamaCare or the Covid stimulus acts;
• that would really negatively effect the average voter?

It's hard to pin the "socialist" tail on this donkey, more than any other democrat, except perhaps JFK and Bill Clinton.

On that continuum, Harris seems more to the right of Obama, but obviously left of JFK and Bill Clinton.

The border? Apparently it's pretty much under control right now (don't take that out of context; it's all relative).

*******************************
More Politics

The politics of this story interests me not. I was more curious to learn about Miriam Adelson's business interests than her politics. 

Adelson:

• is a (real) physician (unlike "Doctor Jill")
• born in Tel Avia, Mandatory Palestine, 1945, to parents who fled Poland before the Holocaust
• father owned several movie theaters in Haifa; a prominent member of a left-wing political party
• served mandatory army service as a medical officer
• medical degree, magna cum laude, Tel Aviv .... Medicine
• chief internist in an emergency room in Tel Avia
• Rockerfeller University in 1986; specialized in drug addiction
• instrumental in the methadone therapy movement for heroin addiction
• has publisher numerous scientific papers on topic of drug addition; 
• guest investigator at Rockefeller University
  
• is majority owner of the Dallas Mavericks, with her son-in-law -- a recent story; thank you, Mark Cuban;
• a voting member on the board of trustees: USC (my alma mater)
• do you think she will donate a few dollars to USC when she dies?
  
• is worth $28 billion;
• is the fifth-richest woman in America;
• richest Israeli in the world;
• 52nd richest person in the world (Bloomberg); 65th (Forbes)
• publisher
• current publisher of the newspaper Israel Hayom
• owns the Las Vegas Review-Journal
• Warren Buffett likes (or at least, used to like) newspapers, but I digress
• awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2018, say what?
  

Rivian, Lucid, The Cybertruck -- August 18, 2024

Locator: 48451EVS.

Some months ago, I said I wasn't going to follow EVs any more except when there were some particularly newsworthy stories. What can I say? The EV story is absolutely fascinating. 

The most fascinating story this past week: Rivian shuts down Amazon van production due to shortage of parts. The supply chain shortage excuse is getting a bit long in the tooth. What bothered me most was the fact there was no transparency: 

• what parts?
• are the parts unique to the Amazon van, or does it include parts found across Rivian's platforms?
• how did it happen?
• expected date to begin production?

And then this: 

Rivian has amassed a surplus of the delivery vans at the plant that are awaiting delivery to Amazon. The carmaker has a deal to supply the company with 100,000 vans by the end of the decade, and about 15,000 are already in service in the U.S. 

Amassed a surplus of the delivery vans at the plant that are awaiting delivery to Amazon. 

Why in the world would a start-up "amass a surplus of delivery vans" apparently already sold to Amazon and expected to arrive during their slow period. 

“We’re aware that Rivian encountered short-term production issues this month, and we don’t expect it to impact us,” an Amazon spokesperson said in an emailed statement.  

Rivian’s vans account for a fraction of the overall fleet used to deliver packages for Amazon, which taps gig workers who drive their own vehicles, as well as traditional couriers such as UPS.

Rivian Chief Financial Officer Claire McDonough has said the carmaker expects Amazon to take fewer deliveries during the fourth quarter, consistent with the online merchant’s seasonal pattern when it focuses on the holiday sales rush. 

"... don't expect it to impact us." Why wouldn't they simply say the impact won't affect them at all.

There just seem to be too many "excuses." 

Two thoughts: either this becomes a non-story (most likely) or there's more to this story than either Rivian or Amazon are letting on.

So, what else with regard to Rivian? This link seems to be clickbait with all the ads, but it turns out to be quite a good article. One wonders to what extent AI was used to write the article. By the way, when a reporter acknowledges that AI was used in writing the article, the reporter is telling us the story was written by ChatGPT and was proofread by the writer before posting.

Apparently the match-ups between Rivian and Mercedes and others didn't work because of issues with incompatible electronic control units (ECUs). Rivian wants to keep everything in-house -- the Apple model -- whereas the hoped-for partners did not. Which, of course, on the surface doesn't make sense. That would seem to be one of the things that would make Rivian appealing.

My hunch: like Apple, the Rivian folks are very, very difficult with whom to work, unable to compromise, which fits the Apple narrative. 

From the linked article: 

For Rivian, maintaining control over its network architecture isn’t just important—it’s essential. The company’s entire strategy revolves around having a tightly integrated system where every component works in harmony. The level of control allows Rivian to offer features like seamless over-the-air updates and a unified user experience, which are key selling points for the brand. Much like how Rivian is straying from adding Apple CarPlay or Android Auto to the interior, the brand experience is paramount. 

****************************
Lucid

Benzinga has an interesting take on Lucid. Link here.

With regard to clickbait, this site is even worse, but we press on. 

 

********************************
Investing

Obviously I don't hold any positions in any of the EV companies, or any auto companies at all for that matter. 

Having said that, two observations:

Tesla is not a car company. It's an energy company specializing in batteries and regulatory credit sales. 

I may need to re-think investing in Rivian. Seriously.

Rivian and Apple: lots and lots of similarities. 

**********************************
Southlake, TX

Lots and lots of Teslas in the Southlake, Texas, neighborhoods, and Southlake is not even the swankiest suburb in the state.

Tesla sedans everywhere and now Cybertrucks. They are huge. They seem like the perfect vehicle for fighting wars in Iraq, if the Mideast would a) put in a few thousand charging units; and, b) pave over the sand so the incredibly heavy Cybertrucks could actually off-road. 

Cybertrucks are clearly bought to "show off." I guess it's called "prestige" these days. Whatever.

Exhibit A. 

Benzinga said this, not me:

Enerplus Will Report Some Huge Wells -- Again -- This Next Week -- August 18, 2024 -- Updated August 25, 2024

Locator: 48450ENERPLUS.

Reminder: Enerplus is now part of Chord Energy. With regard to wells, mano a mano, Enerplus has the best wells, then Oasis, then Whiting. 

Previously posted: a reminder how active the operators are in the area of these wells:

The wells: 

• 39855, conf, Enerplus, Wildebeest 148-95-4A-16H, Eagle Nest,

Date	Oil Runs	MCF Sold
6-2024	46818	60649
5-2024	46696	53696
4-2024	44193	51801
3-2024	32198	36816
2-2024	0	119

• 39854, conf, Enerplus, Yak 148-95-4A-16H, Eagle Nest,

Date	Oil Runs	MCF Sold
6-2024	45356	63922
5-2024	45192	56685
4-2024	19671	25003
3-2024	32404	36747
2-2024	0	1217

• 39853, conf, Enerplus, Jade 148-95-4A-9H-LL, Eagle Nest,

Date	Oil Runs	MCF Sold
6-2024	26464	35312
5-2024	38984	48045
4-2024	44156	56326
3-2024	52467	65288
2-2024	4853	3440

• 39800, conf, Enerplus, Opal 148-95-03A-10H, Eagle Nest,

Date	Oil Runs	MCF Sold
6-2024	25937	37673
5-2024	38512	50427
4-2024	31996	40951
3-2024	11711	16259
2-2024	10222	13637

• 39795, conf, Enerplus, Sapphire 148-95-03B-10H, Eagle Nest,

Date	Oil Runs	MCF Sold
6-2024	37176	40455
5-2024	41707	42377
4-2024	31172	42817
3-2024	65759	93198
2-2024	15427	18784

END

Initial Production Data For Wells Coming Off Confidential List This Next Week -- August 18, 2024

Locator: 48449B.

The wells:

• 40476, conf, CLR, Clover 4-10H, Murphy Creek,

Date	Oil Runs	MCF Sold
6-2024	45356	63922
5-2024	45192	56685
4-2024	19671	25003
3-2024	32404	36747
2-2024	0	1217

• 40361, conf, Oasis, Maverick Federal 5602 13-12 3B, Tyrone, npd,
• 36270, conf, BR, George-Lillibridge 4C MBH-ULW, Pershing, npd,
  
• 40470, conf, Oasis, Maverick Federal 5602 13-12 2B, Tyrone, npd,
• 39854, conf, Enerplus, Yak 148-95-4A-16H, Eagle Nest,

Date	Oil Runs	MCF Sold
6-2024	45356	63922
5-2024	45192	56685
4-2024	19671	25003
3-2024	32404	36747
2-2024	0	1217

• 36269, conf, BR, George 4B TFH, Pershing, npd,
• 21543, conf, Grayson Mill, Knight 35-26 1-H, Banks,

Date	Oil Runs	MCF Sold
6-2024	21767	76735
5-2024	19903	60808
4-2024	28296	71740
3-2024	11139	6019

• 40348, conf, Stephens Williston, Greenbrier 15591-0211-3HSL, Stanley,

Date	Oil Runs	MCF Sold
6-2024	10455	5735

• 36268, conf, BR, George 4A MBH, Pershing, npd,
  
• 40349, conf, Stephens Williston, Greenbrier 15591-0211-4H, Stanley,

Date	Oil Runs	MCF Sold
6-2024	7359	3749

• 39853, conf, Enerplus, Jade 148-95-4A-9H-LL, Eagle Nest,

Date	Oil Runs	MCF Sold
6-2024	26464	35312
5-2024	38984	48045
4-2024	44156	56326
3-2024	52467	65288
2-2024	4853	3440

• 39255, conf, Hess, SC-4WX-153-98-3130H-7, Banks,

Date	Oil Runs	MCF Sold
6-2024	9482	18309
5-2024	31204	47200
4-2024	33687	63394
3-2024	57139	82735
2-2024	6743	5732

• 40394, conf, WPX, Missouri River 25-26HUL, Mandaree, npd,
• 40393, conf, WPX, Missouri River 25-26HD, Reunion Bay, npd,
• 39709, conf, Hess, TI-Larson-157-95-2536H-3, Tioga,

Date	Oil Runs	MCF Sold
6-2024	17676	19399
5-2024	15174	17537
4-2024	17279	19600
3-2024	29696	28290
2-2024	9124	10808

• 39708, conf, Hess, TI-Larson -157-95-2536H-2,

Date	Oil Runs	MCF Sold
6-2024	13353	16572
5-2024	12687	15015
4-2024	16292	18704
3-2024	19867	19013
2-2024	9151	6589

• 24362, conf, Grayson Mill, Knight 35-26 4H, Banks,

Date	Oil Runs	MCF Sold
6-2024	26984	83445
5-2024	21566	62912
4-2024	21812	43847
3-2024	2523	506

• 40392, conf, WPX, Missouri River 25-26HZ, Reunion Bay, npd, 
• 39900, conf, Liberty Resources, Elroy E 158-95-7-6-2MBH, Temple,

Date	Oil Runs	MCF Sold
6-2024	10620	12126
5-2024	13578	19653
4-2024	18174	25082
3-2024	16139	18598
2-2024	4060	473

• 40391, conf, WPX, Missouri River 25-26HB, Reunion Bay, npd,
• 40345, conf, Whiting, Sanish Bay E Federal 5292 11-3 2BX, Sanish, 

Date	Oil Runs	MCF Sold
6-2024	15099	13821

• 39800, conf, Enerplus, Opal 148-95-03A-10H, Eagle Nest,

Date	Oil Runs	MCF Sold
6-2024	25937	37673
5-2024	38512	50427
4-2024	31996	40951
3-2024	11711	16259
2-2024	10222	13637

• 40390, conf, WPX, Missouri River 25-26HW, Reunion Bay, npd,
• 39901, conf, Liberty Resources, Alvin E 158-95-18-19-2MBH, Temple,

Date	Oil Runs	MCF Sold
6-2024	14462	20748
5-2024	20010	35944
4-2024	20518	31952
3-2024	34199	47962
2-2024	11949	14958

• 40237, conf, WPX, Missouri River 25-26HC, Reunion Bay, npd,
• 39902, conf, Liberty Resources, Alvin E 158-95-18-19-2MBH, Temple,

Date	Oil Runs	MCF Sold
6-2024	10813	17120
5-2024	15851	30271
4-2024	19323	30082
3-2024	27872	35932
2-2024	9847	11691

• 39795, conf, Enerplus, Sapphire 148-95-03B-10H, Eagle Nest,

Date	Oil Runs	MCF Sold
6-2024	37176	40455
5-2024	41707	42377
4-2024	31172	42817
3-2024	65759	93198
2-2024	15427	18784

• 39254, conf, Hess, SC-4WX-153-98-3130H-6, Banks,

Date	Oil Runs	MCF Sold
6-2024	14250	26894
5-2024	20950	45916
4-2024	30375	62671
3-2024	40668	95484
2-2024	26815	39653

• 40416, conf, Kraken, Fasching 15-22-27 4H, Hebron, npd,
• 40389, conf, WPX, Missouri River 25-26HW, Reunion Bay, npd,
• 24360, conf, Grayson Mill, Knight 35-26 2H, Banks, npd,