Of the top 25, only four are public. The rest are all private.
There are eight "Ivies." Forbes lists "the next 20 Ivies, ten public and ten private."
Of the private, Vanderbilt is #9 or 10.
And look at this, of the ten public universities that are listed among the twenty new Ivies, The USAF Academy is #1. Neither of the other two academies even make the list. Wow. UT-Austin comes in at #7.
By the way, it's easy to remember the eight Ivies. They each trace their heritage to the original 13 colonies.
In New England
Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire (neither Maine nor Vermont were among the 13 original colonies)
In north/central Atlantic:
New York (2) -- Cornell and Columbia
New Jersey
Pennsylvania
None in the other colonies.
So if you can name "the original 13 colonies" and you know the "big university name" in each of those colonies, you can name the eight Ivies.
The 13 original colonies, founded between 1607 and 1733, were
established along the Eastern seaboard. They are generally ordered by
their founding (or initial permanent settlement) as follows: Virginia
(1607), Massachusetts (1620/1630), New Hampshire (1623), New York
(1624), Maryland (1634), Connecticut (1635), Rhode Island (1636),
Delaware (1638), North Carolina (1663), South Carolina (1663), New
Jersey (1664), Pennsylvania (1681), and Georgia (1733).
I get a kick out of comments on social media from military careerists / retirees with regard to Hegseth. One wonders if they would have the courage to say that to him directly or if any of them have / had seen combat.
**************************** Flashback
One of my favorite photos. The original photo, taken in 1983, has faded quite a bit, but now it's on digital and "saved."
From left to right, Drew, a family friend, age 4; our younger daughter, Laura, less than a year old; and her old sister, Kiri, about four years old, when we were stationed in Germany. It's hard to believe, but we set one bedroom completely aside for Lego.
What make this photo so precious: look how Laura is so focused on what her older sister is doing with her Lego pieces.
First, without question, this is a huge win for everyone.
This --> Operation EPIC FURY. No one got everything they wanted, but everyone got something. Even Iran. They get a chance to rebuild.
Two, Trump got his needed "off-ramp."
Mainstream media keeps using the phrase "Trump was desperately looking for an off-ramp." He wasn't desperate at all; the Iranians were desperate and running out of time, finally settled for a two-week-cease-fire and a 10-point plan of their own that won't go anywhere. [Typo: that two-cease-fire should read "two-week cease fire."]
Agreeing to a two-week-cease-fire and a 10-point plan is standard negotiating procedure by the IRGC to save face, re-arm, and tweak their plan.
Three, "we" may have just avoided a global recession.
Four, if one is able to think strategically, Trump's actions will be described as "TECTONIC" by historians in 2040. Trump will be treated like Churchill after WWII. Exception: the Israelis will know and will be forever grateful.
Five: for the military, lessons learned.
No other country is getting the wartime experience that the US is getting. The Maduro extraction and the highly successful search-and-rescue of two downed US airmen were EPIC.
Six: the US has the best intel agencies in the world. Much could be said. Much more cannot.
Seven: Artemis II is getting more attention than the ceasefire -- four astronauts flying around the moon and coming home with an album full of "I Love Me" photos; other highlights: "Outlook" failing almost immediately after launch, as well as the toilet.
And to think we're going to Mars any time soon? With regard to flying around the moon and back:
four Corgis could have replaced the astronauts on this mission and they would have been cuter and more lively;
we did the same thing -- multiple times -- fifty years ago and landed men on the moon safely and back again six times -- Apollos 11 - 17 inclusive except #13 -- and they did the same thing these four astronauts did with a lot more excitement, nerve, and heroism -- and four Corgis could not have done what the following did, Apollo 13:
Commander James A. Lovell, Jr.
Commander Module Pilot John L. "Jack" Swigert, Jr.
Lunar Module Pilot Fred W. Haise, Jr.; and
Flight Director for getting them safely home, Gene Kranz (no, not "Jr.")
Eight: the US learns who its allies really are.
I'm thinking, maybe Israel is one of the few. Certainly not the UK, France, or the others that Trump himself named. Now we're getting stories NATO countries were actually helping secretly and behind the scenes. Oh, give me a break. It gets tedious.
Nine: the US military-industrial complex will rebuild the arsenal and work to make sure this never happens again (a shortage of bombs, and missile, and drones, and ....). The US drone industry is going to exceed all expectations.
President Trump has submitted a record-setting DOD budget to Congress.
Ten: for the time being, the Persian Gulf becomes Trump's Lake. No one will complain: not China, and that may be the most important country on that "list." Along with the GCC, of course.
Eleven: the US is now the supplier of oil and natural gas of last resort -- Saudi Arabia can no longer be seen as the "swing producer" and certainly Qatar has lost its reputation of the most reliable provider of liquid natural gas. Iran can cut them off any time it chooses.
The US oil and gas sector, all of a sudden, become really, really important. Solar and wind energy didn't help at all in this war.
Exhibit A: Hungary will buy more oil from the US going forward. Link here.
Exhibit A: India, Venezuela. It's not as if Venezuela doesn't exist. Link here.
Twelve: coal is dead. Long live coal.
Thirteen: a sorry state of affairs, to be sure -- the US Congress and the mainstream media.
Fourteen: say what you want, but it's now pax Americana in the Mideast, the Persian Gulf is Trump's Lake, and the new normal: the US is in charge.
Fifteen: the firing of US Army Chief of Staff, four-star general Randy George was exactly the right thing to do. Exactly the right thing to do.
The US Secretary of War is not there to make The New York Times editors happy; he's there, among other things, to support the men and women in the trenches and those in helicopters flying into, literally, the jaws of death. What our helicopter crews did in rescuing those airmen was incredible. You don't show your respect for those crews by suspending their fellow airmen for an inconsequential action. Randy might still have his job had he said, at the right time, "enough is enough."
Some questions:
why did the Houthis not get involved?
why did North Korea not take advantage of the situation?
even more so, why did China not take advantage of the situation? This may be the most interesting question to consider going forward when the Taiwan question comes up (again, and again, and again).
to what extent will the GCC re-build / enlarge / modernize their own bases to accommodate the US?
talk about lack of statesmen in the GCC. Quick: did Prince MBS ever say anything to the American public? That's really not a question, just an observation.
VG could be / will be "bigger" than Qatar and Cheniere.
Venture Global is positioned for a repeat (see linked article) scenario that could boost its
ambition to not only surpass Cheniere, but also overtake Qatar, the
tiny Middle Eastern nation that sits on some of the world’s largest gas
reserves and has become an LNG juggernaut.
The Strait of Hormuz remains closed to most tankers, which has clogged LNG flows, and Iran’s missiles have crippled Qatar’s facilities that liquefy and ship natural gas. [The writer forgot to mention the damage to Qatar's export terminal / liquefaction capacity in Qatar due to the war; estimates: three years to get that terminal back to "normal."]
That
has turned Venture Global’s available cargoes into a hot commodity.
Unlike Cheniere, which sells most of its cargoes under long-term
contracts, Venture Global reserves a large share of its volumes for spot
markets, where prices can fluctuate widely.
How did this all start? That massive fire. Or actually two first at the same plant.
This is at least the second time I'm aware that Ford has had a major problem due to the fact that it has single-source contracts with critical "stuff." Remember the "Blue Oval" shortage?
Apple has a huge problem. Apple can't keep up with MacBook Neo demand. And they've run out of chips for the current Neo. They are using chips newer, high-end models that have been upgraded with new chips. Ordinarily, the older chips for these newer, high-end models would simply be trashed.
Apple is now using these high-end chips, that would otherwise be trashed for the MacBook Neo.
The most expensive part of a laptop? The CPU?
And Apple is putting in high-end CPUs into the MaBook Neo and these chips are costing Apple nothing.
The problem: Apple will soon run out of these high-end CPUs to meet MacBook Neo demand.
Apple has three choices: none of them are good.
raise the price of the Neo by $100, to $699 for the base price;
I'm not sure what this would do except anger everyone
upgrade the current Neo model with newer chips that were to be used for next year's upgraded Neo;
side-by-side on the shelf would be two identical-looking Neos but one would have the current (old) CPU and the other would have the upgraded (new) CPU that was scheduled to be introduced in the 2027-year model;
so, Apple lowers the price on the "old" Neo that has just been introduced and brings the new Neo to market a few months (like a full year) early -- LOL
simply tell folks Apple will be pausing supply of the Neo due to shortage of current CPUs.
If you don't see the irony / humor in this, you are most likely a chatbot.
No, TSMC has shut down the production line for the chips in the current MacBook Neo and will not ope that line again.
All DHS workers will have received their first paycheck this Friday. Six weeks without pay. US Congress has still not authorized payment; current pay through executive order. This is not over. Link here.
ServiceNow: link here to wiki. A chatbot query listed ServiceNow as one of the top ten holdings for AI / Fourth Industrial Revolution for investors with a 30-year horizon. I had not heard of this comopany and the other ten are the likes of Amazon, Meta, Nvidia, etc. What's the deal with ServiceNow (ticker: NOW) and do you agree that it deserves to be on the top ten list for this sector?
My data points:
in dollars, very cheap -- $100 / share
P/E at 60: relatively cheap if it's as promising as some say
chart: price appreciation -- dreadfully awful over the past year
no dividend
Micron: a throwaway article over at Barron's. Link here.
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.
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. Now, I've added Amazon.
Physical crude oil, global: supply surged to record highs. Repeat: global physical curde oil has surged to record high. And yet, prices have surged to recent record highs. What's driving the paradox.
At least 12 million barrels per day of supply—roughly 12% of global
output—remains effectively shut in due to the disruption around the
Strait of Hormuz. That has forced refiners in Europe and Asia to bid
aggressively for replacement barrels from the North Sea, Africa, and the
Atlantic Basin.
For now, the market remains defined by access to prompt barrels.
RBN Energy: US E&Ps stay cautious on 2026 CAPEX amidst market volatility. Link here. Archived.
The
roiling of global energy markets by war in the Middle East has, at
least temporarily, magnified the importance of domestic oil output and
dramatically heightened interest in production trends. As lower prices
continued to erode returns for oil producers in 2025 and into early
2026, it’s no surprise that E&Ps accentuated a cautious,
discipline-first approach in their initial 2026 capex and production
guidance, which targets generally lower investment and flattens
production growth. In today’s RBN blog, we’ll take a detailed look at
the 2026 forecasts by peer group and offer some far-too-early
speculation about the potential industry response to the recent surge in
oil prices.
As shown in Figure 1 below, the 36
companies we follow have set 2026 capital investment of $59.1 billion
(far-right blue bar and left axis), down 5% from $62.5 billion in 2025
and continuing a moderation from the recent peak in 2023. The commodity
price collapse at the onset of the pandemic threatened the financial
stability of a chronically overspending E&P industry that had lost
the investment community's confidence. The response was drastic cuts to
capital spending in 2020 and 2021, as producers strategically shifted
their investment focus to maximizing shareholder returns over reserve
and production growth (see Where Has All The Capex Gone?).
Sustained high commodity prices allowed producers to increase drilling
to offset steep shale decline rates, leading to substantial quarterly
increases in investment and a total 2022 capex of $52.1 billion, up 58%
over 2021 and the largest growth rate in over a decade. Inflation as
well as increased organic capital outlays related to acquisition
activity led to another 24% increase in 2023 investment to $64.5
billion, similar to amounts spent in pre-pandemic 2018. The restored
investment over two years resulted in a 14% production gain.
Figure 1. E&P Capex and Production, 2014-2026E. Source: Oil & Gas Financial Analytics LLC
