NFL Playoffs -- Championship -- January 17, 2026

Locator: 49740NFL. 

The best part about the four games this weekend (two today, two tomorrow) we are going to be listening to the best "color" analysts:

• today -- Tony Romo and Tom Brady.
• tomorrow: Troy Aikman and Cris Collinsworth.  

In order of preference for me:

• Tony Romo (my favorite by far): after posting this blog, this was a trending story (LOL).
• Tom Brady
• tossup between Troy Aikman and Cris Collinsworth but if forced to choose, my least favorite is Troy Aikman.

DUOs:

• Tony Romo and Jim Nantz: CBS
• Tom Brady and Kevin Burkhard (very, very good): Fox
• Cris Collinsworth and Mike Tirico (very, very good): NBC
• Troy Aikman and Joe Buck: ESPN/ABC
•  Joe Buck is getting long in the tooth (as are the others, but Joe Buck seems more annoying;his "catch phrases" have not changed in years);
• Troy Aikman and Tom Brady are way too analytical / unemotional 
•  Kirk Herbstreit and Al Michaels: Amazon Prime (Al Michaels is so good, I forget he is "play-by-play" and not the "color analyst.")

How good is Al Michaels?

NBCUniversal developed an AI-generated version of Al Michaels' voice for personalized, pre-recorded, or automated highlights, but not live game action. 

Next games:

• AFC championship: CBS
• NFC championship: FOX
• Super Bowl: NBC
• missing: ABC/ESPN and Amazon Prime

Memory -- This Is So Incredibly Interesting On So Many Levels -- January 17, 2026

Locator: 49739DRAM. 

Tag: memory costs Micron DRAM 

From Beth today. 

I have spent the last hour or so discussing this issue with ChatGPT. Very, very interesting.

Rabies And AI -- January 17, 2026

Locator: 49738RABIES.  

If you think Jensen Huang's racks are efficient (see this post from Beth) and compare it to the rabies virus. 

To put this in perspective:

• human: 25,000 protein-coding genes 
• E. coli bacterium: 4,500 genes
• chickenpox virus: 72 genes
• measles virus: eight genes.
• rabies virus: five genes. 

AI prompt:

Can AI research learn anything from the rabies virus? Of all viruses causing severe human disease, only rabies is so highly attuned to nerve cells, similar to AI using "neutonal-like systems to transmit information. Amazingly, the rabies virus has only five genes. It reminds me of Velcro and the Venus fly trap. 

Google Gemini reply: 

So, how would ChatGPT handle that question? I prefer ChatGPT's reply. It is such a long reply, I had to make it a stand-alone post; link here.

On-Line Times Subscription Is Increasing By 20% -- January 17, 2026

Locator: 49737INFLATION.  

The New York Times alerted me that my on-line subscription to The New York Times will be increasing by 20% next month, from $25 / month to $30 / month.

Automobile Mileage -- January 17, 2026

Locator: 49736MILEAGE.  

For my 2012 Honda Civic, exactly:

For my wife's 2025 Mazda CX-50, estimated due to data provided by wife: 

Claude -- January 17, 2026

Locator: 49735CHATBOTS.  

Tag: Anthropic Claude software  

Last summer, perhaps July, 2025, my son-in-law was telling me about his efforts building a web page for his business. I had read about Anthropic and suggested he try Claude. He did and he was amazed. He said work that was taking upwards of two months to complete without AI, he was completing that same work in two hours on Anthropic Claude.

See my post from November 1, 2025.  I'm pretty proud of this, that I picked Claude out early from all the rest. 

Link here. 

From the linked article:

They call it getting “Claude-pilled.”

It’s the moment software engineers, executives and investors turn their work over to Anthropic’s Claude AI—and then witness a thinking machine of shocking capability, even in an age awash in powerful artificial-intelligence tools.

Many coders spent their holiday breaks on a “Claude bender,” testing out the capabilities of the latest Anthropic model, Claude Opus 4.5, which they used within a desktop coding tool called Claude Code. Tech companies have been incorporating code-writing AI into their workflows for years, and prior models were often compared with a junior software developer. The buzz around Claude’s latest incarnation is something different.

Malte Ubl is chief technology officer at Vercel, which helps develop and host websites and apps for users of Claude Code and other such tools. He said he used the tool to finish a complex project in a week that would’ve taken him about a year without AI. Ubl spent 10 hours a day on his vacation building new software and said each run gave him an endorphin rush akin to playing a Vegas slot machine.

The Claude zeal has spread widely this month, even to non-engineers. Many took to social media to describe the process of building their first software program without ever having learned to code. And despite the “code” in the name, people are using Claude Code for everything from health-data analysis to expense-report compiling as well.

Some described a feeling of awe followed by sadness at the realization that the program could easily replicate expertise they had built up over an entire career.

“It’s amazing, and it’s also scary,” said Andrew Duca, chief executive of Awaken Tax, a cryptocurrency tax platform. Duca has been coding since he was in middle school. “I spent my whole life developing this skill, and it’s literally one-shotted by Claude Code.” 

That in red corroborates exactly what my son-in-law, an engineer has also said.  

Disclaimer -- Intergenerational Wealth Transfer -- Real Estate -- January 17, 2026

Locator: 49734WEALTH.  

Updates

January 17, 2026: link here to The Wall Street Journal.  

 

Original Post

Intergenerational wealth transfer! Wow, wow, wow! Corient commercial this morning is now "reporting" that the intergenerational wealth transfer will be $124 trillion! That has been a recent story on the blog. The bigger story, not being reported: like everything else in life, this $124 trillion will not be evenly distributed across all income levels. 

*********************************DisclaimerBrief Reminder 

Briefly:

• I am inappropriately exuberant about the Bakken and I am often well out front of my headlights. I am often appropriately accused of hyperbole when it comes to the Bakken.
• 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 something appears wrong, it probably is. Feel free to fact check everything.
• 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. 
• Many posts are not proofread for several days after they've been posted.  
• Reminder: I am inappropriately exuberant about the Bakken, US economy, and the US market.
• I am also inappropriately exuberant about all things Apple. 
• And now, Nvidia, also. I am also inappropriately exuberant about all things Nvidia. Nvidia is a metonym for AI and/or the sixth industrial revolution.
• I've now added Broadcom to the disclaimer. I am also inappropriately exuberant about all things Broadcom.
• And Oracle. 
• Longer version here.

Beth: Nvidia's Vera Rubin NVL72 Rack -- Micron Memory -- Impossible To "Visualize" -- January 17, 2026

Locator: 4994INVDA.

Tag: Nvidia. 

Link here. 

In the thread. 

INTEL -- INTC -- P/E -- PEG -- January 17, 2026

Locator: 49940INTEL.

Tag: INTC.

ASML -- January 17, 2026

Locator: 49939ASML.

This is must watch. For anyone with doubts about the 6th (4th?) industrial revolution, this might result in changed thoughts.  

Link here.