Bakken -- Staggering -- A Reminder -- June 20, 2026

Locator: 51022B.  

A reminder. This link to see staggering wells from over the years. 

When you get there, this post will show up at the top, so scroll down through all the "staggering" wells.

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The Book Page

Re-reading. Trying to sort this book out.

Suddenly Something Clicked: The Languages of Film Editing and Sound Design, Walter Murch, c. March, 2025. 

Link here for the notes. 

This is the first of three volumes. The author says he has already completed volumes 2 and 3, but they won't be released "until the right time." 

Walter Murch is 82 years old. Volume 1 was published when he was 81 years old. Wiki. 

Never quit reading. This is truly amazing. On the very first page of this book: "uncanny valley." See wiki. So incredibly relevant at this moment in time.

Murch started compiling notes for this book in 2013 or thereabouts. And now AI.

As related to robotics engineering, robotics professor Masahiro Mori first introduced the concept in 1970 from his book titled Bukimi No Tani, lit. 'uncanny valley phenomenon').

Bukimi no tani was translated literally as uncanny valley in the 1978 book Robots: Fact, Fiction, and Prediction written by Jasia Reichardt.

Over time, this translation created an unintended association of the concept to Ernst Jentsch's psychoanalytic concept of the uncanny established in his 1906 essay "On the Psychology of the Uncanny" which was then critiqued and extended in Sigmund Freud's 1919 essay "The Uncanny." 

Mori's original hypothesis states that as the appearance of a robot is made more human, some observers' emotional response to the robot becomes increasingly positive and empathetic, until it becomes almost human, at which point the response quickly becomes strong revulsion. 

However, as the robot's appearance continues to become less distinguishable from that of a human being, the emotional response becomes positive once again and approaches human-to-human empathy levels.

When plotted on a graph (see above), the reactions are indicated by a steep decrease followed by a steep increase (hence the "valley" part of the name) in the areas where anthropomorphism is closest to reality.

Presidential Libraries, Museums, Shrines, Centers -- June 20, 2026

Locator: 51021OBAMA.  

The President Barack Obama Center (is that the correct name?) came up in passing this morning in a one- or two-line conversation with my wife when she mentioned a friend of a friend of a friend attended the opening of said library, Chicago, IL.

I mentioned that as far I knew, I have only visited one presidential library, the George W. Bush library here in Texas, and I think I only went there because of its proximity to where we live. I thought it was a great museum / library.

Then my wife reminded me that we had been to John F Kennedy library in Boston. Now, I remember. Without question that was my favorite. Very small, mostly a library in the true sense of the word, except not a "lending" library. The site, the location, the view, second to none. What I liked most about it: small, intimate, quite, restful.

The Bush libary here in Texas is beautiful, but it was a museum, not a library. It's "way over the top." Wonderful to visit, but I liked the JFK library so much more.  

So, now I'm starting to get it. Library. Museum. Shrine. Center. Campus.  

Factoid:

• the Obama Center in Chicago, the one we're talking about, is 8 stories high;
• the proposed Trump Center, to be built in Florida, is expected to be 50 stories high.

The centerpiece and major visual "wow factor" inside the museum at the Obama Presidential Center is a soaring, three-story atrium containing a monumental artwork called "City of the Big Shoulders" by artist Mark Bradford, alongside an expansive 88-foot digital wall celebrating the "Power of Words." See photograph of the painting here.

President George W. Bush library: a replica of his Oval Office.

President Donald J. Trump center: a decommissioned Air Force One on the bottom floor.  

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Going Forward

 

What Makes An Investor, An Investor -- A Repost From Three Years Ago -- June 20, 2026

Locator: 51020INVESTING.  

Re-posting, from November 23, 2023. Link here.

Locator: 46146INV.

I don't know how this contributor ended up on my twitter feed, but I consider myself lucky he did. I've learned a bit about investing from him.

From today:

Two things Giuliano taught me today, as an investor, not a trader:

• investors don't understand P/Es; and,
• investors wait too long to pivot.

I live and breathe mom-and-pop retail investing, in which I mean I know nothing about bonds, nothing about inverted curves, nothing about short-selling, nothing about options, nothing about puts and calls. At the end of the day, all I know from the financial pages is the basic stuff -- market caps, P/Es, highs and lows. But I live and breathe mom-and-pop retail investing. I think about it 24/7. 

I think about -- and live and breathe -- only a handful of things, and pretty much in this order:

• the love of my life;
• music;
• reading;
• retail investing;
• my extended family.

A basic question I ask when investing: if I were 20 years old would I want to work at this company for the rest of my life, for this CEO, and, if the answer is "yes," would I be willing to invest 100% of my retirement funds into this company's 401(k) or equivalent? If the answer to both questions is "yes," then I will invest in that company. If the answer to either question is "no," I won't invest. That seems pretty simple. [Obviously that question -- actually two questions -- needs to be re-asked periodically, not less than annually.]

In all my years of investing, I've only been really, really disappointed in three or four decisions and in all cases, I failed to pay attention to the answer to that question (or actually two questions).