WTI Finishes Near $100; Five New Permits; Seven Permits Renewed -- May 20, 2026

Locator: 50842B.

Apple: Apple shares hit new all-time closing high. Link here. 

• rose $3.28 to close at $302.25; Apple's all-time intraday high was $303.20; today's intra-day high hit $302.80.
• much more information at the link. 

*************************************
 Back to the Bakken

WTI: $99.07. 

Active rigs: 25.

Five new permits, #42956 - #42960, inclusive:

• Operators: Formentera Operations (4); BR
• Fields: Noonan (Divide County); Jim Creek (Dunn County);
• Comments:
• Formentera Operations has permits for four Bernadette permits, SESW 13-162-95, 
• to be sited 495 FSL and 2247 / 2347 FWL;
• BR has a permit for a Firebird well, NWNE 12-145-96, 
• to sited 529 FNL and 2205 FEL.

Seven permits were renewed:

• Foundation Energy: seven Elkhorn Ranch Federal permits, Elkhorn Ranch, Billings County.

US Markets Surge; BRK Drops -- May 20, 2026

Locator: 50841BRKB.

New HEB Opens In North Texas -- Euless, TX -- May 20, 2026

Locator: 50840HEB.

Without question, the big news for the day, was the opening of the new HEB in south Glade Parks. I can ride my bike there in less than five minutes, open 6:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. HEB at the south end of Glade Parks; Target at the north end of Glade Parks. 

I was there at 5:30 a.m. for the grand opening. On my bike.

Earlier. 6:00 a.m. today: link here. 

Wednesday -- WTI Drops Below $100 -- May 20, 2026

Locator: 50839B.

Hiring: strengthened. Link here. 

*****************************************
Back to the Bakken

WTI: $100.49 (as low as $99.92).

New wells reporting:

• Thursday, May 21, 2026: 49 for the month, 149 for the quarter, 306 for the year, 
• None.
• Wednesday, May 20, 2026: 49 for the month, 149 for the quarter, 306 for the year, \\
• 42029, conf, Kraken, Steen LW 12-13-24 10H, 

RBN Energy: NextEra Energy/Dominion combo may accelerate gas-fired plant buildout. Link here. Archived.

With their scale, financial wherewithal and 130-gigawatt (GW) pipeline of new large-load customers, the planned combination of electric utility and wholesale power giants NextEra Energy and Dominion has the potential to substantially accelerate the buildout of new natural gas-fired power plants and gas transmission infrastructure and, with that, the need for incremental gas production to support it all. There’s a caveat, though, namely that NextEra’s Florida Power & Light (FPL) so far is sticking to its plan to phase out all of its gas-fired generation within the next 20 years. In today’s RBN blog, we discuss how we view the likely impact of the NextEra/Dominion merger, focusing primarily on the near- and midterm.

Many of you have already heard or read about the deal, so we’ll keep our summary to a short paragraph. NextEra Energy, corporate parent of regulated utility FPL and wholesale power developer NextEra Energy Resources, on May 18 announced an agreement to merge with Dominion in an all-stock deal valued at more than $66 billion. NextEra shareholders will hold a 74.5% stake in the combined company and shareholders of Dominion, which has 3.6 million electric customers of its own in Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina (plus a half-million gas customers in South Carolina), will hold a 25.5% stake. The massive deal is expected to close in 12 to 18 months; the duration is tied in part to the fact that it needs to be reviewed and approved by four state public service commissions. (Oh, and while a single entity will be formed, NextEra and Dominion will retain their names and operate out of dual headquarters in Florida and Virginia, respectively.)

In announcing the agreement, John Ketchum, NextEra’s chairman, president and CEO, said “To really put our size and scale into perspective, consider this: The combined company's enterprise value would make us the third-largest company in the energy sector in America, behind ExxonMobil and just barely behind Chevron, and bigger than the next two largest power companies combined.”

To get a handle on the merger’s significance to data centers, power development and U.S. gas consumption — the primary focus of our analysis today — let’s briefly describe the three biggest elements of the two parent companies:

• NextEra Energy’s (NEE) FPL subsidiary is the largest electric utility in the U.S., with more than 6 million customers, the vast majority of them on the Florida peninsula and a much smaller number in the state’s panhandle. FPL also is the nation’s #1 end-use consumer of natural gas; the utility’s 37-GW-plus generation fleet includes more than 20 GW of combined-cycle plants and 3 GW of combustion turbines (CTs) that likely consume an average of 1.5 to 2 Bcf/d in the warmer, more humid months of the year when air conditioning demand is highest. FPL’s pipeline supply contracts add up to some 2.2 Bcf/d, equal to the demand of an LNG export terminal. Its pipeline contracts represent about half of all the gas consumed in Florida.
• NEE’s NextEra Energy Resources (NEER) unit is the U.S.’s largest developer, owner and operator of independent power facilities, almost all of which sell their output to utilities and others under long-term power purchase agreements. NEER’s current generation portfolio tops 36 GW, with wind farms accounting for about 60% of the total, followed by solar (28%), nuclear (6%), natural gas (4%, or about 1.5 GW), and biomass and other renewables (2%). The subsidiary also has more than 5 GW of battery storage capacity.
• Dominion, finally, owns three regulated utilities: Dominion Energy Virginia, Dominion Energy North Carolina and Dominion Energy South Carolina. The North Carolina utility serves the northeastern corner of the state and operates in conjunction with its much larger Virginia counterpart. Their installed capacity totals more than 23 GW, including 8.4 GW of utility-owned gas-fired plants. Dominion Energy South Carolina, in turn, has about 6 GW of existing capacity, nearly half of it fueled by gas.

There are three more things we should note here — all of which will play into what we’ll be discussing in a moment. One is that Dominion Energy Virginia serves the largest concentration of energy-intensive data centers on the planet (see Sweet Virginia). Another is that FPL and the Dominion utilities have locked up a substantial share of the existing and planned pipeline capacity serving the lower half of the East Coast. Yet another is that NextEra in the past couple of years has entered into several agreements — with gas-plant provider GE Vernova, utility giants Entergy and Xcel Energy, and mega-tech companies Google and Meta, among others — aimed at quickly advancing the development of power projects to support massive data center plans across the U.S.

Before we get into some details, Figure 1 below puts the size and ambitions of NextEra and Dominion into perspective. The short green bar to the right illustrates the capacity of Dominion’s (stock symbol D) existing generation fleet (about 30 GW), while the blue bar shows NextEra’s (stock symbol NEE) 80 GW and the black bar shows the pro forma company’s combined 110 GW. The tall green bar to the far left shows what the companies see as the potential size of NextEra/Dominion’s fleet in 2032, by which time they expect to add another 115 to 150 GW of capacity, most of it from solar, battery storage and gas-fired projects (and maybe some nuclear). NextEra’s Ketchum, who will serve as the merged company’s CEO, noted that the expected addition of about 130 GW of capacity over the next six years is “more than three times the total installed capacity of the entire state of New York.”

Figure 1. Top 10 Electric Generators in the U.S. (in GW). Source: NextEra/Dominion

Five New Permits; Six Permits Renewed -- May 19, 2026

Locator: 50838B.

WTI: $104.30. Though, CNBC suggests WTI is >$105. [Yes, late tonight: oilprice shows the price of WTI at $107.80.]

Active rigs: 21.

Five new permits, #42951 - 42955; 

• 42951, Enerplus, Magnum 5301 36 4BHP, Baker, lot 7, section 4-152-101; 1287 FNL and 2283 FEL;
• 42952, BR, Ole Clemens 2F-MBH-ULW, Dimmick Lake, SESW 7-151-96; 438 FSL 2145 FWL; 
• 42953, KODA Resources, Pilsner 2511-1BHN, East Goose Lake, SWSW 25-162-103, 606 FSL and 552 FWL. 
• 42954, KODA Resources, Pilser 2514-3BH, East Goose Lake, SWSW 25-162-103, 606 FSL and 587 FWL. 
• 42955, KODA Resources, Pilsner 2512-2BHN, East Goose Lake, SWSW 25-162-103, 606 FSL and 6222 FWL. 

Six permits renewed:

• Oasis (5): four Aune Federal ...3B / 2BX and ne Ernie Federal ... 2BX; Eightmile oil field, Williams County;
• Devon Energy: one Sorenson 29-32 9TFH permit; Alger oil field, Mountrail County. 

Scientific Technical Revolution (STR) -- One Of Three Revlutions In The Modern World -- May 19, 2026

Locator: 50837STR.

Walter Isaacson: said there were three.

******************************

The Book Page

The Mystery of Charles Dickens, A. N. Wilson, 2020.

Notes here.

 

The Annotated A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens, Susanne Alleyn, c. 2014.

 

Notes here.  

Tuesday -- May 19, 2026

Locator: 50836B.

Google Gemini / Spark AI introduced. 

Qeshm Island: explosions heard overnight. Mum's the word. 

WTI: spikes to $108.80 mid-morning. Later, $107.70. CVX up $2.70 today; trading at $197.06/

****************************************
Back to the Bakken

WTI: $103.30, but there are reports that WTI has hit $107.10 overnight.

New wells reporting:

• Tuesday, May 19, 2026: 48 for the month, 148 for the quarter, 305 for the year, 
• 42030, conf, Kraken, Dwyer East LE 2-36-26 11H, 
• 41750, conf, KODA Resources, Stout 1301-1BH, 
• 19795, conf, Devon Energy, Johnson 150-99-34-27-1H, 
• Monday, May 18, 2026: 45 for the month, 145 for the quarter, 302 for the year, 
• 41956, conf, Kraken, Dwyer East 26-35 8H, 

RBN Energy: After years of declining interest, the Anadarko is now an M&A hotbed. Link here. Archived.

The prospect of procuring steady-as-she-goes production assets at reasonable prices has been spurring interest in the sprawling Anadarko Basin. In just the past few weeks, two privately held producers closed on deals totaling more than $4 billion, and earlier this month, publicly held Diversified Energy — in partnership with Carlyle Group, the global investment firm — announced an agreement to buy a big set of assets from Camino Natural Resources for nearly $1.2 billion. In today’s RBN blog, we discuss the big-money M&A happening in the Anadarko and the drivers behind it.

The 50,000-square-mile Anadarko Basin, which is centered in western Oklahoma but extends into the Texas Panhandle and western Kansas, has seen its ups and downs during the Shale Era. Back in the early-to-mid 2010s — after the booms in the Bakken and the Eagle Ford, and before the Permian took (and held) the spotlight — it seemed for a moment that all eyes were on the Anadarko’s SCOOP/STACK (see Figure 1 below; we’ll make brief mention of the adjoining Ardmore Basin in Part 2). Production from horizontal wells in the Anadarko continued rising through 2019, with crude oil output peaking at about 500 Mb/d and natural gas production approaching 7 Bcf/d.

But a combination of the Covid shock and better rock (and economics) elsewhere — especially the Permian — took the wind out of the Anadarko’s sails; so did the determination there was “pressure communication” between the STACK’s Meramec and Woodford formations, complicating development there. (Put simply, pressure communication means that wells in one formation are interfering with the other rather than behaving independently — a bad thing.) E&Ps in the play ratcheted down their Oklahoma capex; production sagged and then plateaued at less-impressive levels: about 300 Mb/d of oil and 5 to 5.5 Bcf/d of gas in recent years.

Figure 1. The Anadarko and Ardmore Basins. Source: RBN

Google, Blackstone To Create New AI Cloud Company -- May 18, 2026

Locator: 50835GOOG.

"You can howl at the wind, but AI is not going away." -- Amazon CEO Andy Jesse. 

Link here. 

 From the linked article:

Alphabet’s Google and Blackstone plan to create an artificial-intelligence cloud company to rival the likes of CoreWeave using Google’s specialized chips, according to people familiar with the matter.

The duo plans to launch the unnamed U.S. company with $5 billion in equity capital from Blackstone, which will be the majority owner, the people said. The deal is set to be announced later Monday. 

The venture, the biggest attempt yet by Google to sell and monetize its own chips to external parties, will sharpen a rivalry with Nvidia, the market leader in AI computing.

The new company aims in 2027 to bring 500 megawatts of capacity online—roughly the same amount of electric power required to serve a midsize city—and substantially increase capacity over time, the people familiar with the matter said.

The companies are forming the venture as demand for computing power to train and run advanced AI models reaches unprecedented levels. Most of the major AI companies currently rely, at least in part, on computing infrastructure from CoreWeave, which uses Nvidia’s chips. A class of smaller so-called neocloud companies have also cropped up in response to ravenous demand.

Google last month introduced a new processor that is customized for AI inference, or the computing required to run models rather than train them. Demand for that type of processing has exploded as businesses embrace AI. Google also introduced a new version of its chips that is specially designed for training models.

Google will supply hardware—including its specialized chips known as Tensor Processing Units, or TPUs—as well as software and services to the venture, the people said. Benjamin Treynor Sloss, a longtime Google executive, will serve as the new company’s CEO.

Google and Blackstone have identified data centers that will likely be part of the venture, some of which are in the process of being built.

Industry observers have wondered for years whether Google will commercialize its TPUs for widespread use. The technology giant has signed two major deals with outsiders: one to give Claude-maker Anthropic access to about one million of its chips, and another with Facebook owner Meta Platforms.

News Corp, owner of The Wall Street Journal, has a commercial agreement to supply content on Google platforms.

Bakken End-Of-Day Report -- May 18, 2026

Locator: 50834B.

Back to the Bakken

WTI: $104.40.

Active rigs: 22. 

Five new permits, #42946 - #42950, inclusive:

• Operators: Hunt Oil Company
• Fields: Parshall (Mountrail County)
• Comments:
• Hunt Oil has permits for three Oakland wells and two Severance wells, lot 4, section 4-153-89, 
• to be sited 434 FNL and 883 / 1003 FWL.

Eight permits renewed:

• Silver Hill (5):  four Haustveit permits (Capa, Williams County); and, one Tank permit (Wheelock, Williams County);
• Lime Rock Resources (3): two Robert Sadowsky permits (Manning, Dunn County); and, one Harlan Rebsom permit Murphy Creek (Dunn County).

Monday, May 18, 2026

Locator: 50833B.

Bonds: everything points to a bull market! 

Deal: holy mackerel! NextEra Energy to buy Dominion!

WNBA: Another day, another record for Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark, who is now the WNBA's all-time leader in 20-point, 10-assist games.

Clark, who had 21 points and 10 assists on Sunday, now has 12 20-and-10 games -- in just 57 career appearances. Clark technically broke the record on Friday night in the team's overtime loss to the Washington Mystics but just for good measure, she had another big night on 5-of-10 shooting from the field in the Fever's 89-78 victory over the Seattle Storm on Sunday.  

******************************
Back to the Bakken 

WTI: $102.90.

New wells reporting:

• Tuesday, May 19, 2026: 48 for the month, 148 for the quarter, 305 for the year, 
• 42030, conf, Kraken, Dwyer East LE 2-36-26 11H, 
• 41750, conf, KODA Resources, Stout 1301-1BH, 
• 19795, conf, Devon Energy, Johnson 150-99-34-27-1H, 
• Monday, May 18, 2026: 45 for the month, 145 for the quarter, 302 for the year, 
• 41956, conf, Kraken, Dwyer East 26-35 8H, 
• Sunday, May 17, 2026: 44 for the month, 144 for the quarter, 301 for the year, 
• 41955, conf, Kraken Dwyer East 26-35 7H, 
• 41858, conf, Devon Energy, Finn 13-25F XW 1H, 
• 41497, conf, Hess, BW-Wilson-149-99-3625H-6, 
• 41496, conf, Hess, BW-Wilson-149-99-6325H-5, 
• 41495, conf, Hess, BW-Wilson-149-99-3625H-4, 
• 41452, conf, Devon Energy, Wagenman 32-29 6H, 
• Saturday, May 16, 2026: 38 for the month, 138 for the quarter, 295 for the year, 
• 41957, conf, Kraken, McCabe 24-13 5H, 
• 41751, conf, KODA resources, Stout 1301 2BH, 

RBN Energy: after a long, steady decline, Alaska oil production is on the rise. Link here. Archived.

Last year, Alaska produced only 421 Mb/d of crude oil, barely one-fifth the more than 2 MMb/d that wells there were churning out back in 1988, when North Slope production peaked. It’s been a long, steady decline, but two new projects — one already producing and the other only weeks away from “first oil” — will add a combined 100 Mb/d once both are fully up and running. And Alaska’s biggest new project in years, ConocoPhillips’s massive Willow effort, will contribute another 180 Mb/d by 2030. In today’s RBN blog, we discuss the ongoing rebound in North Slope production and the prospects for even more growth going forward.

As we said five years ago in The End?, it’s been a challenging few decades for producers in the 49th state. Back in the 1970s and ’80s, Alaska was seen as the next big thing for U.S. crude oil production. With the 1977 completion of the 800-mile Trans-Alaska Pipeline (TAPS) from Prudhoe Bay in the north to Valdez in the south, Alaska North Slope (ANS) production took off (blue line in Figure 1 below), and just 11 years later the state not only accounted for 25% of total U.S. crude oil output, it also briefly knocked Texas off its perch as the #1 oil-producing state. Alaska crude oil production was all downhill from there, however. By 1995, it had fallen to less than 1.5 MMb/d, and by 2000, it was below 1 MMb/d. The slide didn’t end there. Through the mid-2010s, production was hovering around 500 Mb/d, and so far in the 2020s it’s been averaging less than 450 Mb/d — or just over 3% of total U.S. output.

Figure 1. Alaska Crude Oil Production. Source: EIA

 

Teres Major -- An Amazing Cut Of Meat -- Getting Ready For Summer -- May 17, 2026

Locator: 50832TERESMAJOR.

This was from 2010, link here:

A couple of readers and I have been talking about grilling teres major. The reader who brought it to my attention mentioned they had it again this week and continue to really enjoy it. Another reader, a real grill master / a Weber aficionado said he had not grilled teres major before but was always looking for something new.

He ordered teres major from Snake River Farms about a week ago, and coincidentally it arrived today:

And tonight, just moments ago, he sent this photograph and this comment: "This cut is amazing!"

Wow, is that not impressive!

In the upper midwest, your butcher may know it as chuck-eye. It comes from the shoulder (chuck) of the steer, but it's an elongated muscle that is a pain for the butcher to separate out from the rest of the shoulder, so one seldom sees it (at least based on what others have said). On a transverse cut of the chuck, the teres major looks like the eye -- or the center -- and thus chuck-eye.

At least that's my understanding. 

***************************

A reader wrote me tonight -- 

There’s a butcher I try to get to every once in a while just to see and viola , there it is. Got lucky I guess. 

Found this earlier this week:

Wishing all a great summer of grilling!

Sunday Night: WTI Surges; Breaks Through $107 -- May 17, 2026

Locator: 50831SUNDAYNIGHT.

WTI: Its "go time" for Trump. Sunday night; Trump just back from a successful China trip. WTI surges at the open. Up 1.75%; up $1.84; opens at $107.30. Overall market continues to fall (futures). Trump has called a meeting in the "Situation Room" for Tuesday, two days from now. [Later: drops back to $106.50.]

PGA: Aaron Rai runs away from the field. Wins by three. Scottie Scheffler, T14.

Amazon (AMZN): "You can howl at the wind, but AI is not going away." -- CEO Andy Jessy over at Amazon.

MSFT: from an investment point of view, this may be the most interesting. See this link. BRK holds more MSFT than any of the other funds being tracked.

Computer choice: Verge provides options. Starts with three Apple computers. Link here. The M5 MacBook Air 15-inch, 2026, $1,149); the same, but 13-inch, $949; MacBook Neo, $599. Best price lower by $100 for verified students, educators. 

And while the MacBook Neo's A18 Pro processor is technically a smartphone chip, it’s faster than most Windows laptop chips in single-core performance — making it more than enough for everyday tasks. 

Its 8GB of RAM and relatively slow storage may feel lean for more intensive users, but the Neo performs great unless you really push it with dozens of Chrome tabs or heavier content creation apps.

Three-Mile Island: it's being reported that Unit 1 is being reopened as early as early 2027. Constellation Energy is working with FERC to see that it opens on time to provide power to Microsoft's LDCs. 

*********************
The Book Page

I finally finished A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens. Notes here. I've now become obsessed with the book and will spend weeks studying it and discussing it with the only one that will listen to me regarding it: the chatbots. LOL.

Since I had just recently finished three books on India and now knowing the backstory to this book, I will be re-reading the history of India at the time Charles Dickens wrote this novel. 

• Indian Mutiny: Indian Rebellion of 1857 -- see wiki.
• "the events of 1857 ... have provoked more impassioned literature than any other single event in Indian history." -- p. 436 -- at the bottom.  
• connection: A Tale of Two Cities, published in 1859
• the end of the English East India Company ruling India ended
• the beginning of the British Raj 

The first thing I'll do is read A. N. Wilson's The Mystery of Charles Dickens.  Have ordered a copy from Amazon.  

Query: Charles Dickens died fairly young. What was that all about?

Reply:  

Early Production Data For Wells Coming Off Confidential List This Next Week -- May 17, 2026

Locator: 50830B.

The wells: 

• 41753, conf, Stout 1301-4BH, Fertile Valley, 

Date	Oil Runs	MCF Sold
3-2026	20192	2352
2-2026	18798	2829
1-2026	23493	8580
12-2025	21138	8449

• 41752, conf, KODA Resources, Stout 1301-3BH, Fertile Valley, 

Date	Oil Runs	MCF Sold
3-2026	17843	2086
2-2026	18074	2721
1-2026	24592	9039
12-2025	24663	10319

• 41590, conf, Hess, EN-Trout-157-93-3130H-4, Big Butte, 

Date	Oil Runs	MCF Sold
3-2026	15395	24273
2-2026	12939	18564
1-2026	24934	29403
12-2025	41359	34509
11-2025	7074	1790

• 41453, conf, Devon Energy, Wagenman 33-28 XE 1H, Todd, 

Date	Oil Runs	MCF Sold
3-2026	13615	12387
2-2026	4451	3898
1-2026	27074	24664
12-2025	27140	22820
11-2025	13746	10930

• 42029, conf, Kraken, Steen LW 12-13-24 10H, Antelope Creek, npd, 
• 42030, conf, Kraken, Dwyer East LE 2-36-26 11H, Antelope Creek, npd, 
• 41750, conf, KODA Resources, Stout 1301-1BH, Fertile Valley, 

Date	Oil Runs	MCF Sold
3-2026	17452	2046
2-2026	17084	2685
1-2026	23628	9196
12-2025	22945	10598

• 19795, conf, Devon Energy, Johnson 150-99-34-27-1H, South Tobacco Garden, 

Date	Oil Runs	MCF Sold
3-2026	16265	42395
2-2026	16239	34072
1-2026	17135	32302
12-2025	13479	19657

• 41956, conf, Kraken, Dwyer East 26-35 8H, Rawson, npd, 
• 41955, conf, Kraken Dwyer East 26-35 7H, Rawson, npd,
• 41858, conf, Devon Energy, Finn 13-25F XW 1H, Briar Creek, 

Date	Oil Runs	MCF Sold
3-2026	29311	23574
2-2026	28284	23348
1-2026	28918	21007
12-2025	35768	23505
11-2025	30310	27836

• 41497, conf, Hess, BW-Wilson-149-99-3625H-6, Juniper,

Date	Oil Runs	MCF Sold
3-2026	16237	31220
2-2026	16589	33359
1-2026	20638	40714
12-2025	25958	48124
11-2025	14117	30369

• 41496, conf, Hess, BW-Wilson-149-99-6325H-5, Juniper, 

Date	Oil Runs	MCF Sold
3-2026	14283	29743
2-2026	16602	30781
1-2026	18681	36955
12-2025	27547	46679
11-2025	11367	17369

• 41495, conf, Hess, BW-Wilson-149-99-3625H-4, Juniper, 

Date	Oil Runs	MCF Sold
3-2026	12017	29574
2-2026	13334	27546
1-2026	19513	40299
12-2025	21146	42262
11-2025	1602	2463

• 41452, conf, Devon Energy, Wagenman 32-29 6H, Todd, 

Date	Oil Runs	MCF Sold
3-2026	17887	16859
2-2026	20170	17503
1-2026	29186	25743
12-2025	28630	24078
11-2025	30541	26622

• 41957, conf, Kraken, McCabe 24-13 5H, Rawson, npd, 
• 41751, conf, KODA resources, Stout 1301 2BH, Fertile Valley, 

Date	Oil Runs	MCF Sold
3-2026	27387	3128
2-2026	26412	3848
1-2026	32517	11783
12-2025	26444	11310

Wells Coming Off Confidential List This Next Week -- May 17, 2027

Locator: 50829B.

Wednesday, May 27, 2026: 53 for the month, 153 for the quarter, 310 for the year, 
41753, conf, Stout 1301-4BH, 

Tuesday, May 26, 2026: 52 for the month, 152 for the quarter, 309 for the year, 

Monday, May 25, 2026: 52 for the month, 152 for the quarter, 309 for the year, 

Sunday, May 24, 2026: 52 for the month, 152 for the quarter, 309 for the year, 
None.

Saturday, May 23, 2026: 52 for the month, 152 for the quarter, 309 for the year, 
41752, conf, KODA Resources, Stout 1301-3BH, 
41590, conf, Hess, EN-Trout-157-93-3130H-4, 

Friday, May 22, 2026: 50 for the month, 150 for the quarter, 307 for the year, 
41453, conf, Devon Energy, Wagenman 33-28 XE 1H, 

Thursday, May 21, 2026: 49 for the month, 149 for the quarter, 306 for the year, 
None.

Wednesday, May 20, 2026: 49 for the month, 149 for the quarter, 306 for the year, 
42029, conf, Kraken, Steen LW 12-13-24 10H, 

Tuesday, May 19, 2026: 48 for the month, 148 for the quarter, 305 for the year, 
42030, conf, Kraken, Dwyer East LE 2-36-26 11H, 
41750, conf, KODA Resources, Stout 1301-1BH, 
19795, conf, Devon Energy, Johnson 150-99-34-27-1H, 

Monday, May 18, 2026: 45 for the month, 145 for the quarter, 302 for the year, 
41956, conf, Kraken, Dwyer East 26-35 8H, 

Sunday, May 17, 2026: 44 for the month, 144 for the quarter, 301 for the year, 
41955, conf, Kraken Dwyer EAst 26-35 7H, 
41858, conf, Devon Energy, Finn 13-25F XW 1H, 
41497, conf, Hess, BW-Wilson-149-99-3625H-6, 
41496, conf, Hess, BW-Wilson-149-99-6325H-5, 
41495, conf, Hess, BW-Wilson-149-99-3625H-4, 
41452, conf, Devon Energy, Wagenman 32-29 6H, 

Saturday, May 16, 2026: 38 for the month, 138 for the quarter, 295 for the year, 
41957, conf, Kraken, McCabe 24-13 5H, 
41751, conf, KODA resources, Stout 1301 2BH, 

The Mac Mini -- This Is Simply An Incredible Story -- May 17, 2026

Locator: 50828AAPL.

Quote: "Because of this surge in demand, high-memory Mac Minis are frequently selling out, prompting Apple to expand domestic production at their Apple Newsroom facilities in Houston, TX."

Apple's Newsroom in Houston: 

May 17, 2026: this is simply crazy. Is Apple's Mac Mini becoming a "must-have" AI peripheral? 

May 17, 2026 -- link here -- this is quite the story -- and we've discussing it for quite some time, see links below:

 

The background: link here -- a very, very, very good blog that explains all this -- 

Does This Guy Ever Sleep -- Whether You Love Him / Hate Him -- He's Getting Things Done -- Taking Reagan's "You Can Run, But You Can't Hide" To A New Level -- May 16, 2026

Locator: 50827TRUMP.

All this while Trump's involved with a high risk trip to China. 

Story assigned to Francesca Regalado. It appears she joined The New York Times last year, assigned to the hub at Seoul, Korea.

Story assigned to their top reporter,

College In The US -- May 16, 2026

Locator: 50826COLLEGE.
Locator: 50826ARCHIVES.

Link here. 

l

This is going to be a long blog and eventually I will get around to the subject: college choice in the US, but it's a blog in progress and I don't want to keep updating it, putting it in draft, and starting over, so I will post as I go along. It's for my edification for now. I'll let you know when it's finally complete. Don't read now.

Personal: Coyote Capers. Maybe more on this later. For the first time in my life I saw what was really possible! I'm still amazed. I would love to know the history -- who got it started? When and how? The importance of athletics.

Headlines from overnight:

• Number 11 hails "landmark" Trump visit. Expect to see Number 11 in DC soon.
• Number 11 sees what a protracted conflict could do to its economy; 
• think Taiwan; an invasion is not the way to go 
• Small mind: Senator Warren sends letter to new Fed chairman to divest portfolio. 
• Has she divested her portfolio? I don't know? Did Nancy? 
• Small minds: now TNYT is upset that the FBI director snorkeled with the US Navy in Hawaii, supposedly mixing business with leisure -- oh, give me a break -- it gets tedious -- at least Hunter Biden only mixed pleasure with pleasure while profiting off his dad's travels; where is Hunter these days? That snorkeling trip for the FBI director -- last year. Meanwhile, Comey and the seashells. It does get tedious.
• Starbucks may be preparing for major change.
• Yahoo!Finnace still comparing 2000 dot-com bust with current AI boom. This too gets tedious.
• Warren Buffett is clearly missed at BRK -- no, not really -- 
• Bill Ackman is suddenly bullish on OpenAI partner Microsoft. 
• auto manufacturers seeing huge unexpected surge -- COWs
• US short-sightedness in aluminum is now making headlines -- Diet Coke particularly hard hit;
• The U.S. began moving primary aluminum manufacturing (smelting) overseas during the 1980s. Domestic production peaked in 1980 at 4.65 million metric tons and subsequently declined by over 80% as rising energy costs and global competition drove companies to build or shift smelting operations to countries with cheaper power.
• Ronald Reagan was president of the US for the entire decade, 1981 - 1989
• thank you for all your help Mr Reagan; that's why we need to MAGA
• the Chinese now account for more than 50% of global supply of aluminum
• seems like there might be a solution
• every day the strait stays closed, the less relevant the strait becomes 
• Cheaper power. Hold that thought. For the next 20 years. 
• Mainstream media continues to misread the Iran story: Trump has all the time in the world; Saudi Arabia does not. Iran is a lost cause. Every day the strait remains closed, the Mideast becomes less relevant. The winners: China and the US. The losers: the Mideast and the EU.

 *************************
The Human Genome Project

From Walter Isaacson's book on Jennifer Doudna:

Chapter 5: The Human Genome

• Doudna working in Jack Szostak's lab 
• 1986: Harvard, genetics; Mass General Hospital 
• began working at Harvard as a molecular biologist in 197
• simultaneously started his own independent research laboratory at the Sidney Farber Cancer Institute (now the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute) in Boston. He later became a full professor at Harvard in 1988 before eventually transitioning his academic lab to the University of Chicago.
• while at Harvard, 1986, Human Genome Project
• 3 billion pairs in human DNA; 20,000 genes
• Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory: James Watson and his son Rufus Watson;
• the younger, schizophrenic; led the elder to starting what would later become the human genome project; 
• in the 1940s, phages -- Salvador Luria and Max Delbrück led a study group on phages that included the young Watson. He returned as director, Cold Spring Harbor, 1968 - 2007.
• Human Genome Project
• launched 1990
• Watson: first director
• major players: Eric Lander, Craig Venter, Francis Collins  

************************
Eric Lander

p. 39 

 

****************
Craig Venter 

p. 39

*******************************
James Watson

Query:

How did James Watson end up at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in the 1940s?

Reply:

************************
Apple

Two queries:

Apple is famous for sourcing its entire lineup under one company umbrella -- from the smallest wearables to the largest personal laptops -- from intenal components -- memory, TNPs, CPUs -- does any other personal computer manufacturer come close?

Last paragraph in the reply:     

Why nobody else copies the "Apple Model" The PC industry evolved on a modular model (the "Wintel" era) where specialization is highly efficient. Companies like Dell or HP act as assemblers of third-party parts, which keeps costs down and avoids the astronomical Research & Development (R&D) costs required to design proprietary CPUs, custom batteries, and proprietary operating systems (like macOS or iOS) all under one company umbrella. 

That's interesting -- that last paragraph -- why nobody else copies the "Apple Model" -- the high cost of R&D. Most recently it sounds like Apple made a huge and wise choice to deviate from this business model, by outsourcing all AI to established AI leaders, whereas Apple focuses on EDGE, a way of keeping AI under its (Apple's) control and the control of its customers.

Wage Inflation -- CNBC -- Net Worth -- May 16, 2026

Locator: 50825NETWORTH.
Locator: 50825WAGEINFLATION.

My heart truly goes out to those Americans who are having trouble making ends meet. I feel very strongly that more efficient use of our HHS dollars would go a long way to improving their situation but most of us have no input. And when politicians try to improve things, they are thwarted at every turn.  

From earlier this week.

Sorry about the glare.

Wages have remained absolutely flat for quite some time now but did you note the more impressive data point? Wage growth / lack of growth has been in a downward trend since Covid! And it's not subtle. 

A better look, link here:  

The best graph would be one comparing wage growth for hourly workers that work in jobs that illegal immigrants can and do take / hold vs salaried workers in high-paying white collar jobs that go to US college graduates. 

Even CNBC doesn't dare do that analysis. For the majority of healthcare workers who are at the lowest pay rate, those services can be provided by illegal immigrants. Let that sink in. Farm laborers? Ditto. Landscapers? Ditto. And the list goes on. 

And, oh, by the way, although they don't pay into social security, they also don't get social security benefits.  

Someone making $40,000 last year saw their annual earnings jump to $41,400. 

Gasoline (feel free to use your own numbers and fact check):

• 12,000 miles annually;
• a beater or old pickup truck: 18 mpg 
• at $2.89 / gallon: $1,926 in gasoline in 2025
• at $4.89 / gallon: $3,260 in gasoline in 2026
• delta: $1,334 offset by $1,400 jump in earnings!

The senior:

• gasoline:
• 2025: $445 for gasoline for the year
• 2026: $564 for gasoline for the year
• social security, high social security recipient (I don't take my social security):
• 2025: $54,000 (fact check, which I did)
• 2026: with 2.8% COLA -- $55,512
• delta: $1,512

By the way, for someone earning $50,000 what does a 6% wage increase y/y look like compared to a 3% increase:

• 6%: $3,000; divided by 12 months; divided by four week <  $65 / week
• 3%: $1,500; divided by 12 months; divided by four week ~ $30 / week.

Meanwhile, inflation has just turned "north." 

From a "senior's" perspective, from someone who is older than 75 years of age (this goes back to my blog on "net worth" some weeks ago): 

• the data without comments: link here. 
• the long, long discussion from a senior's viewpoint, well worth reading: link here.

From a senior's perspective what does this graph tell me? 

• a little bit of inflation is not going to hurt me; it will actually drive help me in some arenas, including investing; and,
• our income, all things being equal, will increase this year when higher inflation will drive a higher COLA for pensions and social security.

Our expenditures (not costs) will likely remain fairly flat.  

Quick example:

• the cost of gasoline will go up significantly;
• I will drive less; a lot less.