Locator: 52022B.
October 23, 2026:
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Back to the Bakken
WTI: $103.30.
Active rigs: 37.
Three new permits: #43433 - #43435, inclusive:
Six permits renewed:
One permit caneled:
Locator: 52021TOPSTORIES.
From Alison, a "factoid": North Dakota averaged 182 drilling rigs in 2011. By 2024-25, that average had dropped to about 34 rigs but each rig was drilling nearly 5 times more lateral footage per year.
Quick connects:
Locator: 52020APPLE.
Tag: Duo.
The "iPhone Handoff" feature is exclusive to Apple right now. The phenomenon will grow very, very slowly but it will grow.
Which smart phone or which carrier has "handoff" capabilities -- a second phone with same telephone number? And a whole lot more information/discussion!
Link here. Link: https://share.google/aimode/jkW3xpz7UkPG97yy7.
Continuing the conversation, link here. Link: https://share.google/aimode/Z3YTl128Gx4rIf6po.
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On Another Note
Latest from IDC as reported by CNBC:
Apple will hold iPhone Duo orders / production at 7 million for 2026.
Apple will eventually control 40% of the foldable market.
Apple will overtake Samsung in foldables sometime in 2027.
Locator: 52018APPLE
Tag: iPhone smartphone AAPL extraordinary
If they can afford to pay for gasoline to drive to the store, they can stand in line and be among the first to buy a $2,000 smartphone that folds.
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Reposting
Locator: 52005STELLAR.
The review at this link: benchmark -- the iPhone Duo and the iPhone 18 Pro scored nearly identical scores
CPUs:
GPUs, similar in that both scored similarly
Now, how do these Apple number compare to Duo's closest Android competitor, the Galaxy Z Fold 8?
Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen %:
But look at this for the GPU, the Z Fold 8 (Qualcomm designs and makes the Adreno 840 GPU integrated inside the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset powering the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8):
Holy mackerel.
"That puts the closest competitor to Apple, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8, scoring a measly 17,331 on the GPU test. That puts the Samsung Z Fold 8 at 22% less powerful on a single-core and a whopping 71% less performance for the GPU. "
Holy mackerel!
Gamers are going to sell a body part to pay for the Duo but they're still going to have to wait.
Reality: this has little to do with profits, profit margins, revenue, sales, etc. This is all about bragging rights. And Apple has the rights.
But get this:
I track the "Chips" here but have not kept up for obvious reasons. It looks like I will be tracking Apple's "A" chips here.
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How Are They Different
Query: How does A20 differ from previous A chip?
Reply:
Locator: 52017WTI.
PSX: this explains why PSX was down yesterday / earlier today. US has now recovered and is doing fine.
Thank you very much.US: Department of energy announces authorization of emergency exchange of up to 400,000 barrels of crude oil from SPR to address crude oil supply disruption affecting Phillips 66 Lake Charles refinery in Louisiana.
Diesel: meanwhile, that tanker of Russian diesel will last 2.4 hours of US consumption. I doubt it lasts that long. This is the dirty little secret:
Not all of the diesel headed for "New York" will necessarily get there. Expect some or even most to be redirected to other markets in the region, particularly Brazil.
The US is the world's largest exporter of diesel, so the direct imports aren't necessary to lower prices, as long as regional supply is improved; and yes, the volumes are modest, but in commodity markets, as in economics, "everything interesting happens on the margin".
WTI: surges 3% after Trump invokes the Defense Production Act. See this blog. Exactly as predicted. Wow. Amazing.
Traders know the two reasons Trump invoked the DPA and why it won't work. So here we go: WTI up 2.97% -- let's call it 3%; up $2.95 -- let's call it $3; and, now trading at $102.4 going into the weekend. Brent? A couple of days ago folks were mortified to see Brent go over $112. Today? Over $116.
[Later, about ten minutes later -- WTI is now up again, to $102.50 and now more than 3% higher since the close yesterday.] CVX up as much as $5 today! Breaking: two Israeli soldiers shot and killed by "Palestinians."
[Later, 11:10 a.m. CT: WTI now up 3.6%; up $3.58; and CVX up $6.05, trading at $233]
[Later, 11:32 a.m. CT: WTI now up 3.69%; up $3.67; trading at $103.10.]
By the way, what did oil inventories do this week -- I forgot to look?
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The Book Page
Locator: 52015LITERATURE.
Before we get started: because no one will read the long note below because I lack the necessary gravitas, I will link you to Gemini. Link: https://share.google/aimode/83XaEe0uB9JsAKr9T.
This is such an unbelievably great country.
Amazing how connecting the dots "after the midnight hour" lead one to the most amazing things.
I have just completed reading "my" trilogy of Alexander the Great's campaigns by Arrian.
How does one get from Alexander the Great to Chevy Chase, the comedian, in just a few minutes.
I was in my "Alexander the Great" phase. No reason; it just happened. About one month ago it began, I suppose. I forget.
About midway through that experience, Anne Carson was named the recipient of the Nobel Prize in literature in 2026. I had not heard of her.
Meanwhile, completely unrelated, I came across "Bard College" somewhere in my reading during the past month. I had not heard of Bard College but I was curious about its location geographically and, wow, was I surprised. It's on my top ten list of places to visit if I were ever to get interested in traveling again. [That reminds me: I was sent a note by a reader who is one his third visit to Africa. He sent me a photo. No desire to go. To Bard College, yes.]
Something tonight led me to visit the Bard College website and the wiki entry on the same. Blown away.
Fifty-three photos at the Bard College website that also blew me away. I went through them tonight and that's where I discovered Anne Carson. Say what? Yup. That Anne Carson and Bard College.
Which took me to Anne Caron's wiki entry. Buried in the entry:
In the biobibliography accompanying the Nobel award, committee chair Anders Olsson described Carson's juxtaposition of classical and modern writers as central to her creation of new literary forms. He cited her pairing of Simonides with Paul Celan in Economy of the Unlost, and of Thucydides with Virginia Woolf in Men in the Off Hours. He also treated her Greek translations as literary works in their own right.
Of course, one of my all-time favorite personalities? Virginia Woolf but that's a story for another day.
Who else among the 53 photos? Chevy Chase, an alumnus of the college. He graduated from Bard College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1967 -- the year my wife graduated from UCLA and two years earlier than I graduated with a science degree from an unknown college in the midwest.
Locator: 52014TECH.
Pageviews: current "run rate" -- 765,636 hits / 24 hours. That's easily one million hits every two days.
No one in my universe likes to be tracked on "Find My" or whatever it's called. I find the app invaluable. Amazing. The paranoia that exists. One can never have too many Air Tags. People don't spare expense tracking their luggage but won't put an Air Tag into their toddlers' shoes or if really paranoid, sew them into their underwear. LOL.
It really is an impressive piece of engineering—especially how it can securely locate devices even when they are completely offline by using a vast, encrypted mesh network of other nearby Apple devices.
For this to work, it relies on the fact that iPhones are "everywhere." And where an iPhone might not have service now, they will have that service "tomorrow" with Starlink.
The security is amazing. Link. Link here: https://share.google/aimode/vRgiTRqzqluBVu25a.
The trilogy (all linked elsewhere).
I've finished the three as far as I'm concerned. I now understand the story, know the names, have the t-shirt. This is as fine a trilogy as one could have on Alexander the Great. Top shelf.
Learned a lot about Bard College, Annondale-on-Hudson, New York, exactly straight east of the Massachusetts / Connecticut state line. Wiki.
When you read the history of the college, one wonders if any religion has done more than the Protestant religion for humanity. At the other end of the continuum: Islam. Quick: name another "institution" more philanthropically-oriented than American protestants. Seriously. Certainly not the LA international airport Buddhists.
I've never visited Bard, but if I still enjoyed traveling, visitng Bard would be at the top of the list.
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The Travel Page
Speaking of travel, my favorite personal travelogue -- I fell into a trance / fugue state while filming this -- it took every ounce of strength I had not to do a "Thelma and Louise" exit.
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A Musical Interlude
Link here. All I ever need is you.
Locator: 52013B.
Reposting.
This is a huge story. Speaks volumes. Reminder: overseas, refiners are paying upwards of $40 / bbl in tanker costs that ship crude oil. I remember the "good ol' days" when they said transportation costs out of North Dakota were prohibitive. LOL. Wow, I'm just amazed at the short-sightedness of Hillary Clinton, et al. Well, I guess in her defense. she was smart, just politically on the wrong side of the fence. Her democratic successor was simply dumb. Both of them.
Here, again, is the Reuters link. This story is not yet behind a paywall. I don't understand. Reuters is almost fanatical about their paywalls.
Summary
Some key points from the story:
Well, how else does oil get anywhere? By plane? LOL. Oh, that's right -- pipeline. Unfortunately for Joe Six Pack and Debbie Downer, the East Coast doesn't allow pipelines into their states. California as a rule won't accept pipelines -- earthquakes.
Locator: 52012MAGNETS.
Tag: Hanau Germany Fort Sumter South Carolina --- who have thought those two geographical locations would have shown up on same page? Ever?
So much for contracts. If you can't trust GM, who can you trust ...
Is GM in more trouble than we know? All of a sudden, the US has too many magnets? Enquiring minds want to know. I thought shortage of magnets was painting a doomsday scenario for the US, but apparently the shortage existed only to supply EVs. Now that GM is getting out of the EV business ... no more shortage? This is crazy -- I took the bait -- hook, line, and sinker that the US was short on magnets and China had the monopoly.
So, who, what, and where is "VAC"?
Locator: 52011DONQUIXOTE.
This story is everywhere.
Three questions: what and why and will?
What will this do?
Why is he doing it?
Will it make any difference?
You can find the story everywhere but I haven't been able to find out exactly what the Pentagon is going to do with this: read this again. President Trump is directing the Pentagon -- the military -- toward expanding US petroleum refining, pipeline building, petroleum storage and marine terminals.
Exactly what is the Pentagon going to do with this directive? Well, it should keep Hegseth busy for awhile if Hegseth even cared. He has other fish to fry.
After the announcement, the price of oil went up.
But this is the real question: why is the President doing this? It's 100% political to keep diesel-using MAGA folks in his camp going into the mid-terms. Of course, it won't work but ...
... but the next question follows. Is it more than political? There's an obvious answer and I know I'm right, but there's no way I will post it. I don't need the pushback. Life is too short.
Locator: 52010B.
Production increased slightly; remains solidly above 1.1 million bopd. The bigger story not being widely reported: ND producers are speeding up completions. Reuters has the story, link here.
Link here. A record number of active wells in North Dakota -- almost all Bakken.
