AI-Generated "One Last Cry" Attributed To Lana Del Rey -- June 24, 2026

Locator: 51050MUSIC.

There may be errors / inaccuracies regarding the subject below.  

Gemini said that the lyrics of the AI-generated Lana Del Rey "My Last Cry" was from a Brian McKnight song by the same title. I said that was not true. This was Gemini's reply:

You are correct that the AI-generated "One Last Cry" with a cloned Lana Del Rey voice is not a cover of the Brian McKnight ballad, but rather a new, melancholy piece in her style, similar to her official songs.

Yes, AI chatbots do make mistakes and some are really doozies.  

This is absolutely brilliant -- AI generated -- link here. 

It would have been perfect had the lyrics included a reference to Lana Del Rey's "red dress." LOL.

I accidentally sent my comment about the error a second time and got this reply:

You are completely right. Gemini is mixing up a Lana Del Rey fan-made or AI-generated track with Brian McKnight's 1993 R&B classic, "One Last Cry."

But wow, it's a great song. This has to scare the heck out of singers and songwriters. 

Micron -- Earnings -- Chart(s) Of The Day -- June 24, 2026

Locator: 51049MICRON.

Micron: the CNBC folks did not appear all that excited about MU today. This is such an incredible story on so many levels, especially if one listens to the conference call.  This is where CNBC could be a great help by going into greater detail what this means. 

I suspect we will see a large number of tech stocks surging tomorrow.  

For example: GLW, after hours, was up 6% during normal trading hours, and up another $5 after the close. 

New price target from one major analyst: $1,750.00 

First the charts:

After hours, rose another $170 / share:  

 Most folks will put this in their "TLDR" folder and then forget it; huge mistake:

Profit margin, 80%+: 

To put this in perspective:

• Apple's margins: 40%+
• grocery stores: 1 - 3%

Larger so older folks can read this: 

 This is expected to go on for several years.

 "You can howl at the wind, but AI is here to stay."

 

So, remember the first industrial revolution? What were the twin icons of that industrial revolution?

The steam engine and the railroad were the twin engines of the first industrial revolution, fundamentally transforming transportation and manufacturing. 

So, what are the twin icons of the current industrial revolution?

Drones and robots. 

Along with chatbots and L2+ automobiles. 

Three New Permits; Two DUCs Reported As Completed -- Wednesday, June 24, 2026

Locator: 51048B.

Micron: of course, everyone is following this -- Micron's quarterly earnings. Huge beat. MU is surging after hours. 

Guidance is quite incredible. Across the board, Micron's actual numbers broke the "bull case" estimates. Right now, MU is up 10% after hours. And analysts on CNBC take it in stride, as if everyone knew this; despite the fact that MU was down for the day, only taking off after the market closed. 

Market cap: $1.1 trillion. Price target is now up to $1,750 / share. Right now, trading at $1,145 / share, after hours. Later, well after the close, Micron is up almost 12% from the close, trading up another $122 / share, trading at $1,170. 

Guidance: boom-and-bust cycle for three to five years has ended. It is impossible to put any of this in perspective. Everything with MU right now is parabolic (hyperparabolic?). Saudis et al have completely missed huge opportunities by not seriously dealing with Iran. 

 

QCOM: surging after hours as it raises FY29 targets. This speaks volumes about the entire AI / tech sector right now. The last one, of all of these to watch, is ORCL. 

GLW: as if we needed more good news, GLW surges after hours.  Prior to close, SCCO slumped significantly. Have we finally moved from copper to fiber? 

CAT: after a tough day yesterday, CAT did well today and looks like it will do well tomorrow. 

The big question: why are these companies letting their shares trade over $1,000 and not splitting shares. Yes, I know. Slices.  

Global warming: look at France. And Europe generally doesn't invest in much a/c.

During the historic June heat wave, temperatures in France peaked at a blistering 44.3°C (111.7°F) in the southwestern town of Pissos. 

Widespread regional daytime highs frequently soared between 39°C and 43°C (102°F to 109°F) across much of western France. 

The blistering heat also shattered national averages, with the country hitting its hottest nationwide day on record. 

According to provisional data from Météo-France, the national thermal indicator—an average of day and nighttime temperatures across 30 stations—reached 29.8°C (85.6°F). 

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

WTI: $70.34.

Active rigs: 28.

Three new permits, #43062 - #43064, inclusive:

• Operator: EOG Resources;
• Field: Clear Water (Mountrail County)
• Comments:
• EOG has permits for three Clearwater wells, NENE 31-157-90;
• to be sited 275 FNL and 411 /561 FEL.

Two producing wells (DUCs) reported as completed:

• 41578, 1,488, HBU Marmon Federal 24X-13H, Williams County;
• 41579, 2,000, HBU Marmon Federal 24X-13C, Williams County;

Tech Today -- June 24, 2026

Locator: 51047TECH.

"You can howl at the wind, but AI is here to stay." 

MU earnings later today.

AVGO: Jalapeño. Reported earlier today. Partnership with OpenAI. Jalapeño is a custom AI Intelligence Processor explicitly designed for Large Language Model (LLM) inference, NOT TRAINING. 

Engineered to be highly power-efficient and cost-effective, early tests show the new chip can reduce inference costs by roughly 50% compared to traditional GPUs

QCOM: acquires Modular, link here. QCOM's "answer" to Nvidia's CUDA.

Jalapeño -- Huge Story -- Major Coverage On CNBC -- June 24, 2024

Locator: 51046CHIPS.

Jalapeño, link here. Broadcom Custom Silicon. 

Wednesday -- June 24, 2026

Locator: 51045B.

USPS: see this post. CNBC today had a short blurb on the USPS financial woes. Nothing has changed; simply getting worse.

Micron Technology (MU): will report its fiscal third-quarter results for 2026 on Wednesday, June 24, after the market closes. Management has provided preliminary guidance of record revenue around $33.5 billion and adjusted earnings of $19.15 per share, with the company's high-bandwidth memory (HBM) supply for the year completely sold out.

Jalapeño, link here.

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Back to the Bakken

WTI: $71.06.

New wells reporting:

• Thursday, June 25, 2026: 28 for the month, 184 for the quarter, 341 for the year,
• None.
• Wednesday, June 24, 2026: 28 for the month, 184 for the quarter, 341 for the year,
• 41607, conf, Hess, BL-Mortenson-156-95-2234H-5, 

RBN Energy: retail prices for premium gasoline no longer tethered to regular grades. Link here. Archived.

As anyone who drives a car that requires premium gasoline will surely tell you, the large difference between the prices of regular and premium grades — now averaging nearly $1/gal at the pump — shows no signs of going away. While U.S. retailers once priced those grades much closer together as a matter of routine, those days appear to be long gone. In today’s RBN blog, we look at how regular and premium gasoline were once priced, how that relationship has diverged over time, and what it likely means for future prices.

In the U.S., retail gasoline is usually classified by its octane rating: regular gasoline with a typical octane rating of 87 is the least-expensive option, with premium gasoline with an octane rating of 91 to 93 the most expensive option. The posted octane rating is the average of two different measurements, the Research Octane Number (RON) and the Motor Octane Number (MON). (Both are used to measure gasoline’s resistance to engine knock, but they are determined under different conditions.) That average is called the Anti-Knock Index (AKI), which is the octane number posted on the pump. And as all drivers know, higher octane means a higher price per gallon.

If you pulled up to the pump in the 1990s, posted prices usually showed premium gasoline at about 20 cents/gal above regular gasoline, with a midgrade option half way between the two, a result of long-standing retail pricing strategies. That pricing convention carried over into the early 2000s, as the premium-regular spread at the retail level (blue line in Figure 1 below) showed little fluctuation, regardless of changes in actual pump prices, and remained well above the premium-regular spread seen at the wholesale level (orange line), which represents the actual difference in refining costs and the prices refiners receive for their product. (We closely track the U.S. and global gasoline market in our semiannual Future of Fuels report; the next edition will be published in July.)

Figure 1. Difference Between Premium and Regular Gasoline Prices 
at the Retail and Wholesale Levels, 2000-Current. Source: EIA

AI Is Simply Amazing -- June 23, 2026

Locator: 51044AFPILOT.

See also this link. 

Yesterday, our granddaughter mentioned that a "C-DUB" was the instructor pilot with whom she flew.

This is all I knew about and asked Gemini for help. 

This was the query because this is absolutely all I knew about this pilot, the very minimal details our granddaughter gave us:

T-38. "Incentive" rides for USAF ROTC students. The instructor pilot started out in helicopters. Female instructor pilot.

Gemini's reply: 

 I can now write C-DUB a thank you note for all she did for our granddaughter. This is simply amazing.

Link here. 

But there's more. Click on the "photo." It's a video. Link here.

Must-read bio of CW, link here. CW is a world-class marathoner:

White's athletic accomplishments include competing in the Olympic Trials, the U.S. 10-mile championship, and the 2011 Boston Marathon, in which she ran 2:37 and was the fifth American finisher. She took second place in the 2011 Air Force Marathon, but was the first place military runner. She also won the 2011 U.S. Armed Forces Cross-Country Championship three times.

"When fellow Airmen think running at an elite level is only for a select few and out of reach for them, I like to point out that I did not start running until after I was commissioned," she said. 

"I developed my running while in the Air Force. It is possible for anyone if they are willing to dedicate themselves." White has been running for four years. Of the 191 women who ran Olympic Marathon Trials, she finished 34th.