For The Journal / For The Archives -- April 23, 2026

Locator: 50597ARCHIVES.

This is for the extended family; nothing about the Bakken and not much about anything else. 

Not for the general readership. 

Family update:

Granddaughters:

• oldest granddaughter racking up the air miles between DFW and SEA, visiting significant other as often as possible.
• middle granddaughter having taken college courses in Peru and the Galapagos is now off to the Marshall Islands. Still has her eyes set on playing polo for the college team; the one and only time she has been on a horse was when she was in the Boston area in second grade. She also has 14+ hours flight time and two solo fights with the USAF -- from a couple of summers ago, California dessert. No interest in pursuing. Been there, done that. Favorite (?) college course: music, specifically German Techno; one three-hour class each week during which all they do is listen to music. 
• the youngest granddaughter is watching soccer and jiu-jitsu from the sidelines due to a "boot"on her right ankle/foot from a sprain that is slowly recovering. I don't think she needed it; she could have toughed it out, but she's loving the rest and the attention. 

Grandsons: six-year-old twins; home-schooled. just got their first-grade certificates in reading; now reading at second-grade level. Where they excel? Arithmetic and singing. One of the twins probably reads at third-grade level; the other prefers to discuss the history of Egypt, mummification, and purple dye from Murex snails. 

Wife: will not be happy if I write anything about her.

Me? First visit to a physician since 2018. I thought it was 2016, but it looks like it might have been 2018, eight years ago. I thought it was ten years ago. Although I couldn't pass the USAF requirements for the mile-and-a-half run, I passed the general physical -- so, if I'm called up, I'm ready to go. No meds, no follow-up labs, no nothing. Next visit: one year from now. If I remember, I will come back to this later. 

The US market has been on a tear, but today, a pullback led by Microsoft. 

BRK-B finally had a good day, but BRK-B is still way off it's historic highs. Huge disappointment for new investors, I would think. 

The Iran war is at (another) turning point. 

Hegseth has sacked the US Secretary of the Navy (well deserved; should never have been appointed in the first place; discussed at length elsewhere). Iran's leadership is incredibly divided: hard-liners who want to live the good life vs hard-liners who want to be martyrs. Trump appears to be perplexed. Nonetheless he is tightening his grip on the Persian Gulf / Strait of Hormuz and the blockade of Iran. Today he issues a "shoot-and-kill-on-sight" order -- for the US Navy to take out the "fast boats." The fast boats will go back into their shell(s) to come out to fight another day. 

AI/LDC: Nscale's West Virginia Monarch announcement is a game-changer. CAT, up as much as $31 earlier has pulled back as the overall market has pulled back. 

Investing: made major changes in portfolio. No new positions, but sold some huge disappointments and added more shares of a particular US retail giant. I live and breath investing and blogging. Seldom does one get these opportunities to make major changes in the portfolio. I don't think I have made such major changes in over a year. Again, did not add any new positions; simply added to positions, and completely eliminated one position. 

Best lunch deal: McDonald's -- double cheeseburger, small fries, and no limits on soda refills, $3.23 -- all in, with tax. 

The double cheeseburger is free today -- for the 2026 season, North Texas McDonald's offers a free McDouble (with a minimum purchase) via the McDonald’s app when the Texas Rangers turn a double play at a home game. This "Double Play" offer is typically valid at participating DFW-area locations until 11:59 p.m. the day after a qualifying home game. At Starbucks, $3.23 will get me a tall coffee. The Texas Rangers double play - free double cheeseburger is this year's go-to luncheon for me.

Biking: ten-mile round-trip daily, except on the weekend; either for hash browns, coffee and real orange juice at McDonald's or the "$3.00" McDonald's meal.  

Reading this week: really, really excited about Paul and The Jewish Annotated New Testament, NRSV, Second Edition, Oxford, c. 2010. Notes at this post plus elsewhere. 

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The Book Page

The Jewish Annotated New Testament, NRSV, Second Edition, Oxford, c. 2010. Notes at this post plus elsewhere.

NScale's Monarch LDC In West Virginia -- Huge -- 8+ GW -- How Does It Compare To META's In Mississippi And Musk's In Memphis? How Big Is This? CAT Jumps $27 -- New 52-Week High -- April 23, 2026

While Maine, North Dakota, perhaps Texas are cutting back on LDC approvals, West Virginia? "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead."

Disclaimer: in a long note like this there will be typographical and content errors. I often misread things. 

LDCs are tracked here. 

• Data Center Map, link here.

Locator: 50596CAT.
Locator: 50596LDC
Locator: 50596THEDRAGONSLAYER.

For me personally, this may be the biggest story of the year in the AI arena. Again, see the blog's disclaimer. This is for the extended family; this is not for general readership. 

Click on Disclaimer.

See also RBN Energy today at this post.

How big is it?

You can ask the question (I have) but nothing in the rest of the world (outside of the US) begins to remotely compare with Monarch.

Who or what is Nscale?

Ticker CAT: 

CAT:

• pre-market, futures: +$23
• at the open: +$27
• at noon, CT: up $31; broke through $840. One year ago it was $300!

How in the world does Buffett miss one like this? This is the one-year comparison, but the five-year and "max" show a very, very similar pattern.

Because of its business model, it is ulikely that BRK-B can turn this around very quickly. It has three issues which we have addressed previously. The only way BRK-B can turn this around quickly is dividends, and significant dividends and guidance on increasing dividends going forward, as long as they BRK is not investing in AI. And, to some extent, I would be concerned that BRK has missed the AI revolution.

St George's Day -- The Day The Brits Slew Musk And Meta -- Combined! Damn The Torpedoes, Full Speed Ahead -- April 23, 2026

Locator: 50595B.

WTI: $93.48. StanChart: $95 is the new price equilibrium.

New wells reporting:

• Friday, April 24, 2026: 80 for the month, 80 for the quarter, 237 for the year,
  42184, conf, BR, Omlid 6-8-7 MBH, 
• 41862, conf, Devon Energy, Finn 13-25F 4H, 
• 41362, conf, Devon Enegy, Marvin 27-34 5H, 
• 41361, conf, Devon Energy, Marvin 27-34 4H, 
• 41095, conf, Enerplus, Lind 145-97-2-11-4H, 
• 41094, conf, Enerplus, Lind 145-97-2-11-3H, 
• 41093, conf, Enerplus, Lind 145-97-2-11-2H-WLL,
• Thursday, April 23, 2026: 73 for the month, 73 for the quarter, 230 for the year, 
• 41388, conf, Hess, BW-Barbara Ann-LE-149-100-1705H-1, 
• 41793, conf, XTO, GBU Apollo Federal 14X-12D-N,

RBN Energy: Nscale's Monarch data center aims to optimize the BTU-to-GPU value chain. Link here. Archived. See this post to put this LDC in perspective. While Maine, North Dakota, perhaps Texas are cutting back on LCD approvals, West Virginia? "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead."

The rapid expansion of data centers and AI applications is one of the biggest stories in the energy sector and the Monarch Compute Campus, which is beginning to take shape in West Virginia, figures to be one of the most interesting sites coming online and could be a compelling test case for future development. In today’s RBN blog, we explore the Monarch project, a massive data center with on-site power generation that seeks to optimize the Btu-to-GPU value chain through upstream access to Appalachian natural gas, creation of the nation’s first state-certified microgrid, and a modular approach to development.

Let’s start with the basics. London-based Nscale, which builds, owns and operates data centers, announced March 16 that it had acquired American Intelligence & Power Corp. (AIP), which was established earlier this year by 8090 Industries and our friends at Fidelis New Energy. Since AIP owned the Monarch campus, Nscale’s acquisition included that site. Nscale also said the same day that it had signed a letter of intent to provide 1.35 gigawatts (GW) of compute capacity to Microsoft, setting up the campus as a flagship development of Nvidia’s next-generation Vera Rubin AI platform. We’ll touch on more details about the campus later, but construction is expected to start soon with operations beginning in H2 2027. Should the site expand as planned, it would reach 8.1 GW of capacity by 2031.

As we noted in Win, Lose or Draw, numerous factors go into deciding where to build a data center, and each location has its own strengths and weaknesses. While West Virginia has not seen a rapid buildout of data centers, especially compared to neighboring Virginia (home to at least 100 hyperscale facilities), the Monarch campus (see Figure 1 below) was especially attractive to Nscale primarily because of its size, scale and potential. 

Figure 1. The Monarch Compute Campus. Source: Nscale