The flight jacket: when one separates from the Air Force certain "issued" items are to be returned. After I qualified for flight status, I reported to "wherever it was" on Grand Forks AFB to be issued my flight gear. The jacket I was issued was "used," previously worn by a Major Baird according to the indelible ink entry on the inside of the jacket. That was in 1982, and my inaugural flight with this jacket was an all-night, eight-hour, low-level training run through the Rocky Mountains in a B-52. I wore that jacket almost daily for the next 25 years. It is still in the very same condition as it was when it was issued to me (with the exception of a few loose threads). The cloth, elastic cuffs are not a bit worn. For whatever reason, the Air Force never asked for any of my issued items back when I retired in 2007. I was issued 6 sets of flight suits, or thereabouts, and still have all of them. To the best of my knowledge, those were the only flight suits I was ever issued. Despite 25 years of wearing them, they still look brand new.
I learned in the Air Force to never go anywhere without a book to read. Often electronic gizmos (like iPhones) were not allowed but books were never an issue. The military is well known for it's "hurry up and wait" culture. Books make the waiting a lot less irritating.
By the way, when a line seemed to move very, very slowly, if I pulled out a book, all of a sudden the line began to move very quickly. My assumption is that the commanding officer did not like folks enjoying their "time off" by reading a book. "Standing in line" in the Air Force was never all that irritating for me; I found it was one place I could relax.
I read a lot of books while in the Air Force.
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Making America great: Trump - China deal means China will be buying Montana beef.
Montana has scored a $200 million dollar deal to sell its beef on the Chinese market, one that will come with an up-to-$100 million investment in a processing plant In its state.
The deal between JD.com, one of China’s largest retailers, and the Montana Stockgrowers Association was announced Wednesday — even as the Donald Trump administration is in Beijing negotiating a separate deal it said is worth as much as $9 billion.
Under the memorandum of understanding, JD.com has agreed to purchase a minimum of $200 million of Montana-sourced beef over a three-year period from Montana Stockgrowers Association members. The retailer will also invest up to $100 million in a processing plant in Montana to support the beef production.Active rigs:
| $57.20→ | 11/10/2017 | 11/10/2016 | 11/10/2015 | 11/10/2014 | 11/10/2013 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Active Rigs | 52 | 38 | 66 | 192 | 182 |
RBN Energy: major changes afoot in sand use, supply and prices.
In the past year, there have been major changes in the frac sand sector. Exploration and production companies in the Permian and other growing areas have significantly ramped up the volume of sand they use in well completions, catching high-quality sand suppliers in the Upper Midwest off-guard and spurring sharply higher frac sand prices due to the tight supply.
At the same time, development of regional sand resources has taken off in the Permian — with close to 20 mines announced with upwards of 60 million tons/year of nameplate capacity possible — and, to a lesser extent, in the SCOOP/STACK, Haynesville and the Eagle Ford.
That new capacity should begin easing sand-supply shortfalls next year, reducing sand delivered costs and potentially threatening the dominance of traditional Northern White sand. And more changes are ahead in 2018.
Frac sand is critically important, not only in Shale Era hydrocarbon production, but in production economics. Production in shale plays is founded on a combination of horizontal drilling and the use of proppant (primarily natural sand, but also a bit of ceramics and resin-coated sand) that, when forced out of the horizontal portion of wells at high pressure (using water and other fluids), fractures openings in the surrounding shale. When the pressure is released, the fractures attempt to close but the proppant contained in the fluids keeps them open, making a ready path for oil, gas and NGLs to flow into the well bore.
