What Month Is This? July? Almost August? Kennedy Klan Running Out Of Ski Polish-- July 29, 2019

This is why they need the "bullet train": to move skiers from San Francisco and Los Angeles out to Mammoth Mountain.

This was two years ago, 2017:

I think I recall posting that story two years ago. Wow, time flies.

Now, again, this year:

It's Cold In North Dakota -- The Political Page, T+161, Part II -- June 30, 2017

So hot in Phoenix last week, airplanes were grounded. Reported over and over. And over and over.

Meanwhile, record cold this summer in the northern tier and the northeast US -- and not a peep. But much, much more at the IceAgeNow:

Last week all you heard was it’s so hot the airplanes can’t take off, but now with record cold during summer and 1/4 of the northern and N.E USA below normal … not a peep.

Also, global temperatures aren’t rising as expected this summer, another indication of the intensifying mini ice age. Snows in Russia days earlier, meters of snow in South America and atmospheric compression events at dozens of locations planet wide.

The changes are beginning. We are entering a mini ice age.

Indeed, according to accuweather.com, September-like cool air is about to plunge into the midwestern and northeastern US.

Baby, It's Cold Outside, Neptune's Daughter

Global Warming Notes -- June 19, 2017

I didn't see rain in today's forecast when I checked the weather forecast last night (less than 24 hours ago). But now I hear thunder (and now I see lightning -- one-one thousand, two-one thousand, three-one-thousand -- two miles....):

But I do know that the science is settled: the earth will be 1.74534 degrees warmer in one hundred years. The "degrees": I think that's Celsius but don't quote me on that.

By the way, for some "non-fake" news on global warming, be sure to check in on this website at least once a week.

I assume my electricity will go out any moment (due to the electrical storm) and loss of internet will soon follow. Whatever.

Good luck to everyone.

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Speaking of Global Warming ... Now It's A Coffee Shortage

From the BBC:

Coffee drinkers could face poorer-tasting, higher-priced brews, as a warming climate causes the amount of land suitable for coffee production to shrink, say scientists from London’s Kew Gardens.

Coffee production in Ethiopia, the birthplace of the high quality Arabica coffee bean and Africa’s largest exporter, could be in serious jeopardy over the next century unless action is taken, according to a report, published today.

“In Ethiopia and all over the world really, if we do nothing there will be less coffee, it will probably taste worse and will cost more,” Dr Aaron Davis, coffee researcher at Kew and one of the report’s authors, told the BBC.

Wow, pulling out all the stops, these idiots.

The Science Is Settled: Global Warming Hits Alaska -- June 17, 2017

From this weekend’s WSJ Review, “The Charade of the Paris Treaty: Real Progress Will Require A Massive Investment In Green Energy.” Some data points:


• empty pledges are no way to deal with the climate threat 
• the Paris treaty risks wasting huge resources to do almost nothing to fix the climate problem while shortchanging approaches that promise the most transformative results 
• signatories will work to keep the rise in average global temperature “well below” 2 degrees Celsius and even suggests that the increase could be kept to 1.5 degrees. This is empty political rhetoric 
• based on current carbon dioxide emissions, achieving the target of 1.5 degrees would require the entire planet to abandon fossil fuels in four years 
• but the treaty has deeper problems 
• just 0.6% of the world’s energy needs are currently met by solar and wind by 2040
• even with the Paris treaty, solar and wind are expected to contribute less than 3% of world energy by 2040
• fossil fuel will go from 81% to 75% of global energy needs 

I forced myself to read to the end of the article to see if Bjorn Lomborg, president of the Copenhagen Consensus Center (“the science is settled”) and writer of the article had any solutions.

He did not.

Hold that thought. From cbc: global warming his Alaska with a vengeance --

The 25th-annual Kluane Chilkat International Bike Relay has been cancelled due to snow at the starting line, affecting about 1,300 riders who were set to begin the race Saturday morning.

This is the first time the race has been cancelled.

More:

"The race was cancelled because not only snow and slush in the upper elevations in the summit legs, but right here in Haines Junction at the start," said Mike Kramer, race coordinator.

"The road report is saying black ice and slushy sections; there is a travel advisory in effect for driving vehicles, so certainly in terms of riding bikes — especially racing bikes — it is totally out of the question."

Kramer said the race will be postponed until next year.

Assuming Alaska is warmer next year. LOL. 

Initial Jobless Claims Fall More Than Expected -- June 15, 2017

At BusinessInsider:

• first time claims fell by 8,000 to 237,000
• forecast: 241,000
• last week's unrevised, at 245,000
• four-week moving average: 243,000

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The Political Page

Camille Pagille in The Weekly Standard:

It is certainly ironic how liberals who posture as defenders of science when it comes to global warming (a sentimental myth unsupported by evidence) flee all reference to biology when it comes to gender. 

The Market And Energy Page, T+143 -- June 12, 2017

Not unexpected:

Annual reports of 68 publicly traded oil companies indicated that their aggregate proved liquids reserves declined in 2016 for the second consecutive year.

The decline in proved reserves was heavily concentrated in a few companies that reduced their estimated reserves from Canadian oil sands projects.

Downward revisions of existing resources, relatively low extensions and discoveries, and relatively high production also contributed to a decline in proved reserves.

Collectively, their global crude oil and other liquids production averaged 24 million barrels per day during 2016, or about 25% of the global total. --- EIA

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See disclaimer this page and elsewhere on the blog.

TSLA: if the tech index continues to fall or remains sluggish, it could not come at a worse time for Tesla. Everything I've read suggests the company will need a huge amount of cash to "ramp up" -- which the company said they planned to do in July, 2017, although as recently as two weeks ago, I've heard analysts suggest the "ramp up" is moving to the right, as "July/August, 2017."

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Disclaimer: this is not an investment site. Do not make any investment, financial, travel, job, or relationship decisions based on anything you read here or think you may have read here.

Market: looks like another buying opportunity on the market today. We don't often get these opportunities. Again, remember, this is not an investment site. Do not make any investment, financial, travel, job, or relationship decisions based on anything you read here or think you may have read here.

Stepping down: for the archives, GE's Immelt is stepping down.

Incredible timing: US approves GE-BHI merger; EC approved the merger earlier. Done deal. Stand-alone GE-BHI company wholly owned by GE. Will still have ticker symbol BHI. Folks talk about GE spinning off companies now that GE has a new CEO whose specialty at GE was "deal-making." 

Kennedys: they can still see snow! It's snowing in Hell Hole (Donner Summit), CA today. For the archives. The "Global Warming - 2016 - 2017" tag will advance to the "new year" on July 1, 2017.

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Note To The Granddaughters

Lots of moving parts, again, within the DFW families. Arianna begins an interesting camp this week, starting with a day at "golf camp" toay. I will be driving Olivia to Olympic Development Program -- Soccer (Plano) and staying in the area during the morning training. Grammy has just departed DFW for two weeks in Los Angeles. Sophia's schedule stays the same: Tutor Time every day and will be picked up by me every day at 4:00 p.m.

Atmospheric CO2 -- May, 2017

Source here.

Essentially no change month-over-month.

Insignificant change year-over-year.

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For AGW Deniers

I post these monthly "atmospheric CO2" updates because I'm truly curious to see how this plays out over the next three decades.

I'm pretty convinced that no one can predict that the earth's average global temperature will be 2 degrees warmer one hundred years from now.

This is pretty timely:why you should be skeptical of global warming alarmists. From lifezette:

When it comes to the global warming debate, both alarmists and critics agree on one thing: The earth has warmed by roughly 0.8 degrees Celsius over the past 150 years. It’s the cause of this warming, however, that remains in dispute. And while the public is constantly bombarded with messages about the evils of carbon dioxide emissions, there are actually compelling reasons to believe that contemporary global warming has been driven by rising solar output, not carbon dioxide.

Everything Changed, Nothing Changed -- June 4, 2017

The other day I posted that Trump announcing that the US will run, not walk, away from the Paris climate accord sent a huge message to countries around the world.

In another post I asked what countries will now consider it safe to follow suit, that is, walk away from the scam. It will be interesting to see which countries continue to send money to South Korea to fund the "Green Fund" as part of the "deal."

[The second link will likely open a PDF on your desktop. As far as I know, no embedded viruses, but fair warning. It is interesting to note that China, India, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, have not seen fit to fund the "Green Fund" whereas President Obama, with no Congressional approval or oversight, had no problem sending $500 million to this fund three days before he left office, according to The Washington Post.]

For now, his announcement has put things on hold. Reuters is reporting that the EU and China failed to agree on a formal climate statement at recent summit. The parties are said to have failed to agree on something as un-challenging as a climate statement (remember: this is all voluntary and parties are allowed to set their own targets -- in other words it's all talk anyway). Generally summits are held when both parties have already agreed on something. Something must have happened for the parties to walk away from pre-summit agreements.

My hunch is that the summit was too far along to be canceled but with the Thursday afternoon, June 1, 2017, announcement, China opted to step back, parse Trump's speech, and wait before committing to anything new.

As Hillary would say: Trump hit the "reset" button.

A Hat Trick! Dow Closes At Record, T+132-- June 1, 2017

The Green Fund

Until yesterday's speech by President Trump pulling out of the Paris climate accord I had forgotten about the "Green Fund." I thought the "Green Fund" was a euphemism for some slush fund; then forgot all about it after reading this article just before President Obama left office. Imagine: transferring a half-billion dollars just before leaving office, no Congressional oversight, to some South Korea oligarchy, no accountability. George Washington, who always short of funds to pay his troops, must be rolling in his grave. No matter how little Trump gets accomplished with regard to tax reform, the good news is that had he not won, Hillary would be doing what Obama did -- but much more. From the linked article:

Barack Obama has heeded calls to help secure the future of the historic Paris agreement by transferring a second $500m instalment to the Green Climate Fund, just three days before he leaves office.

The fund was a key aspect of the Paris agreement signed in 2015, which aims to keep global warming “well below” 2C and aspires to keep warming to 1.5C.

Established in 2010, it is financed by wealthy countries and used to assist developing countries with adaptation and mitigation. It was widely seen as a key measure to bring both rich and poor countries to the negotiating table.

Updates

Later, 9:33 p.m. Central Time: Dow 30 futures have been moving up all evening; now up 66 points. Futures, of course, mean squat.

Original Post 

A hat trick: all three major indices hit new records: the Dow 30, Nasdaq, and the S & P 500.

US is out of the Paris climate accord.

For background.

5 minutes before the announcement scheduled time of press conference, 2:55 p.m. Central Time:

• Nasdaq: up 34.41
• DOW: up 100 points
• S&P 500: up 13.48
• WTI: $48.20 

Talking heads stress that there are only two countries in the world that did not "ratify" the Paris agreement.

One wonders how many countries might follow the lead of the US?

For the media, it appears the big question: will Ivanka be present? [Apparently not.]

Now that the talking points are out (2:00 p.m. Central Time) the only question is how he "threads the needle."

The most concerning: Elon Musk says he will leave White House economic councils if Trump does not support the Paris climate agreement.

VP Pence arrives at 2:30 p.m. (Central Time) -- one-half hour later than scheduled.

POTUS arrives at 2:33 p.m. (Central Time): now we see why there was a delay -- the Manila airport terrorist attack earlier today. The press completely missed that. President Trump runs through a long list of "making America great again."

During the announcement (2:41 p.m. Central Time):

• Nasdaq: up 38.81
• DOW: up 108 points
• S&P 500: up 14.17
• WTI: $48.19

The announcement: "will withdraw from the Paris climate accord" .... huge clapping ... "but begin negotiations to re-enter the Paris accord .... if fair to Americans."

During the announcement (2:55 p.m. Central Time):

• Nasdaq: up 43.22
• DOW: up 116.43 points
• S&P 500: up 16.08
• WTI: $48.07

Formal remarks ended at almost 3:00 p.m. Central Time on the dot.

Market closing (3:00 p.m. Central Time):

• Nasdaq: up 48.31
• DOW: up 133.88 points
• S&P 500: up 18.13
• WTI: $47.96 (which would be expected with US exiting the Paris climate accord, everything else being equal)

The Dow had not had a record close since March 1, 2017, until today. Today, all three major indices -- the Dow 30, Nasdaq, and the S&P 500 all hit new records.

Forget all the emotional baggage tied up with the Paris climate accord, listen to the reasons Trump left the accord. It had very, very little to do with emotion or the environment.

Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump not in the Rose Garden during the speech. Steve Bannon was there, in the front row.

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Stupid Comes in Threes

Elon Musk was first.
Bob Iger was second. (And it may have nothing to do with the climate issue; in a rare slowdown in one of the hottest areas of the entertainment business, attendance declined at 13 of 14 Disney theme parks around the world in 2016 compared with 2015, according to an independent report released on Thursday. Higher prices, intended in part to ease crowding at certain parks, were a major contributor.)
Kathy Griffin.

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Additional Comments

Comments From Readers

I wonder how many people realized $100 trillion for .2 degree centigrade in 83 years ... my beef with financial deal was India (allowed to double coal usage) and China was exempt for 13 more years.

I was completely unaware of the "Green Fund" -- essentially a transfer of wealth from the US to 3rd world countries, to whom we already give a huge amount of foreign aid.

France, Italy, and Germany says deal can't be renegotiated. -- report on CNBC. If the #1 emitter of CO2 walks away but offers to renegotiate, and yet FIG says it can't be renegotiated ... the "accord" that would have saved the world .... this tells me all I need to know about how important this "accord" really was. If this "accord" was that important, and if US walked away, it should have been important enough to renegotiate --- to make it better. And fair to everyone.

Random Update Of Global Warming -- May 28, 2107

Updates

June 1, 2017: Trump announces the US will run, not walk, away from the Paris climate accords.

May 31, 2017: TV crawler -- Trump will walk away from the Paris climate accords.

Original Post

Hillary: we'll support the coal miners. How? Talk.
Trump: we'll support the coal miners. How? Walk.

Rumors are that Trump will walk away from Paris / Kyoto.

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Tea Leaves On Global Warming
80% -- Won't Stay Engaged With Paris
20% -- Will Stay Engaged With Paris

In my mind, I still think there's a 80-20 chance that Trump will stay engaged with Paris / Kyoto on global warming, but these are the tea leaves suggesting he has made up his mind:

• it's now being leaked he has made up his mind; Trump will walk
• Merkel comes out with an incredibly "defiant" speech suggesting she knew Trump's leanings at the G-7 conference
• no love lost between Macron and Trump
• I can't imagine Trump wanting to be part of the Merkel-Macron camp on anything
• why would be announce his support of AGW back in Washington when he could have announced it in Europe and gotten a few moments of adoration?
• he himself says he "hit a home run" on his first overseas trip; I doubt he wanted to spoil it by taking a highly controversial position at the very end; I doubt he wanted the AGW announcement to be the only thing the mainstream media would talk about when he returned
• drives home the point that he wants other countries to pay their fair share in NATO (not directly connected, but "it's all political" and it's all part of "making America great again")
• his first visit was to Saudi Arabia where many, many business deals were signed; not exactly AGW-oriented 
• more than ever he needs to start keeping his campaign promises
• he needs to separate himself from Hillary -- if he is seen as supporting Paris/Kyoto, he's going to be seen as not that much different than Hillary on this issue

A couple of data points that still give me pause:

• Ivanka has taken the opposite view based on other reports
• ex-CEO of ExxonMobil, Tillerson has taken the opposite view based on other reports, and Tillerson may be Trump's "strongest" member of his cabinet 

As far as I can tell, Trump came back from Europe with exactly "no" wins. From Saudi Arabia and Israel, he came back with a wheelbarrow full of wins.

By the way, looking back the at the stories, the photos, the results, something tells me Trump enjoyed the first part of the trip a whole lot more than the second part of trip.

Worse, it wasn't even alphabetical.

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Global Warming Update

Data points from US National Weather Service:

• never since the U.S. Drought Monitor was established in 1999 has there been so little drought across the contiguous U.S. 
• only 4.52% is in some degree of drought (D1-D4, where D1 is moderate drought and D4 is exceptional drought). 
• 85.73% isn't even abnormally dry (D0). 
• contrast that with the most widespread drought since 1999 in late September 2012 when 65.45% was at least D1. Only 23.41% wasn't considered at least abnormally dry.

US drought monitor.

Memo to self: e-mail link to Algore.

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New Millenial Narrative For Losing: "I Nearly Won."

Back To Popsickle Sticks -- May 26, 2017

Years ago I talked about putting "popsickle sticks" into the beaches to use as rulers marking the rising seas. This was just one of many "popsickle stick" posts. It turns out the rulers were the perfect tool for measuring the rising sea. Today, this link from a reader: rising seas? Yeah, 2 mm/year. And the rising seas have nothing to do with AGW.

PJM Provides Update On Efficiency Of Intermittent Energy -- May 24, 2017

From an earlier post:

Solar Energy: Nameplate Capacity Vs Achieved Renewable Energy Output 

The European solar energy experience:

• Germany: 78 GW / 10.4 GW (13.2%)
• Spain: 27.7 GW / 6.8 GW (24.4%)
• Italy: 27.1 GW / 4.4 GW (16.2%)
• UK: 16.7 GW / 4.0 GW (24.4%)
• France: 14.9 GW / 2.6 GW (17.3%
• Sweden: 5.5 GW / 1.2 GW (22%)
• Denmark: 5.4 GW / 1.4 GW (25.6%) 
• Rest of Europe: 39.5 GW / 7.9 GW (19.8%)

This is not news. It has been reported many times on the blog -- data sent to me be a regular reader -- that "achieved renewable energy output" vs nameplate capacity works out to about 25% at best.

Overall, the effective capacity factor in Europe for solar energy was 18%.

Does anyone know the similar number for natural gas? Answer: 87% 

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PJM

Note: an update to this PJM post is at this link, posted at 7:51 p.m. Central Time. 

The reader who sent me the link to the article linked below suggested:

a) the whole issue is a mess
b) the article is way more than any reasonable person with a life would want to know
c) the whole issue is a mess (oh, did I already say that?)

Whatever. Time to look up the definition of obfuscation.

From rtoinsider, some data points on the recent PJM auction to contract for electricity:

• wind: 13% capacity factor (CF)
• solar: 38% capacity factor (significantly exceeds results in Europe which suggests some fancy math)
• this was the first PJM auction that required year-round availability (N.B. wind and solar)
• prices have come down significantly, as much as 25% in most of the regional transmission organization (RTO) or PJM in this case
• last year: $100
• this year: $76.53
• ComEd (Illinois): $188.12 ($202.77 previously)
• Duke OH/KY: $130 this year
• MAAC: $86.04 ($100 last year) -- most of Pennsylvania
• EMAAC: $187.87 (less than $120 last year) -- EMAAC is New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland
• this is the first year in which all generation must be Capacity Performance (CP): must be available throughout the delivery year; faces stiff penalties for nonperformance (in other words, smart operators will have excess NG peakers to back-up wind (in summer) and solar (in winter)
• season demand response (DR) no longer allowed; PJM committed to 558 MW of demand reductions under price-responsive demand (PRD)
• electricity demand decreasing: PJM forecasts a 2.1% reduction in peak load
• "we have units that are at financial risk in the area that, if they retire, it could create a reliability issue" -- confidentiality restricted much more comment, but it sounds like they are talking about coal-fired plants
• PJM: for year 2020/21 has a 23.3% reserve margin; highest ever in the 14-year history of the auctioin (technically the BRA, Base Residual Auction); by regulation, requires a 16.6% reserve
• cost load: $7 billion in 2020/21 -- about the same as 2019/20
• new generation: 3,144 MW (UCAP); of that, about 2,824 MW was mostly natural gas combined cycle and combustion turbines (NG-CCCT) (think GE?)
• wind: 888 MW (6,828.5 MW nameplate capacity; 13% CF)
• solar: 125 MW (330 MW nameplate capacitiy: 38% CF)
• amount of intermittent resources offered as CP dropped by 3,400 MW from last year
• Exelon: third year in a row that TMI left the capacity auction empty handed; Three-Mile Island (TMI) now depends on Pennsylvania; TMI has not been profitable for five years

Disclaimer: I do this quickly; there will be typographical and factual errors. If this is important to you, go to the source. I understand about 2% of the entire article.

Wind: with a CF of 13%, I suppose that means that when you see 100 wind turbines, if everything was working as advertised by the wind farm developer, one would need only 13 turbines.

Global Warming Hits New Hampshire -- May 15, 2017

When our older daughter and family lived in Boston a few years ago, they would go skiing on Mount Washington every winter.

It turns out that global warming extended the ski season this year. More than six (6) inches of snow fell on Mount Washington, New Hampshire, on Mother's Day, this past weekend.

If the Kennedy Klan wasn't already out west skiing where there has been record snofall this year, the ski bums won't have far to go, from Boston to Mount Washington.

Apparently more than 1,000 NH residences remain without power the day after the storm. Once the wind turbines start turning and the clouds move out of the way to heat the solar farms, everything should work out fine.

Scientists Discover An Extra 5 Million Square Kilometers Of Forest -- May 14, 2017

From Joannenova.com:

Scientists apparently can’t predict where forests are right now, but weather patterns one hundred years from now, no problem.

It’s nearly 60 years since the first satellite was launched, and we are still figuring out basic stuff down here on the surface — like which bits are forest.

It is amazing, isn't it? Algore claims he can predict the "temperature of the earth" 100 years from now down to the hundredth of a degree, and yet we didn't even know how much land was covered by forest until .... well, I guess, yesterday.

Apparently, a "recent discovery" increased the known amount of global forest cover by around 9% -- which is a huge amount -- and a huge source of carbon capture (for whatever that is worth).

Monday morning, if things go right, the Algore global warming computer model programming application (AGW-CMP-App) will have an updated formula predicting global temperatures 100 years from now by updating the amount of global forest. Or not. The app is available at the Apple Store for 99 cents.

Global Warming? Rising Seas? Hardly. Ask The Irish -- CNN -- May 9, 2017

From CNN:

The sands at Dooagh on County Mayo's Achill Island vanished in the winter of 1984, leaving nothing but bare rock and rock pools. 

But over the course of a few days in April 2017 the Atlantic returned what it had stolen, depositing thousands of tons of sand and creating a brand new 300-meter golden strand.

The Wild Rover: Dooagh Beach has returned home after 33 years at sea.

The storms of 1984 "completely took every last grain of sand off the beach," Sean Molloy of Achill Tourism tells CNN. 

But last month, "in the space of about eight or 10 days, these very strong winds came from the north," he explains.

And the beach returned. Fancy that.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show

Algore Can Sleep A Bit More Comfortably Tonight; And The Kennedys Can Start Snow Skiing Year Round -- May 7, 2017

I normally would not post this but this is quite incredible, especially linking it with the other global warming story just posted.

For the first time in its history, Squaw Valley, Tahoe, will keep one of its ski lifts operating past July 4th:

According to The Tahoe Weekly, Squaw Valley will keep running its Shirley lift for skiers and riders past July 4th for the first time in the resort’s 68 year-long history.

As of today, Squaw Valley has seen 714″ of snow and their base is a whopping 232″ deep (that's over 19 feet deep).

So,

• nineteen years with no sign of global warming;
• the extent of the Arctic sea ice is back where it was in April, 13 years ago;
• thirteen years ago, the Arctic ice cap was extremely thin, but this at least a whopping (that word again) two meters thick;
• the Greenland ice cap last winter increased in volume faster than at any time for years; and,
• of course, the Antarctic has never shown any evidence of "shrinkage"

A Little North Dakota History -- Nothing About The Bakken -- May 7, 2017

A reader sent me this link to a story in The Bismarck Tribune today:

The Ashley Jewish Homesteaders Cemetery was named to the National Register of Historic Places for being a legacy of the largest Jewish agricultural settlement in North Dakota and, as would naturally follow, the largest such cemetery. An association of far-flung descendants that sees to the upkeep and maintenance is sponsoring a cemetery rededication at 2 p.m. May 21. Everyone is invited.

I had to look up where Ashley is: a little west of the southeastern corner of the state.  It's a fascinating story on so many levels.

I quickly pulled out my copy of David J Wishart's Encyclopedia of the Great Plains. Canada had an aggressive marketing campaign in the late 1800's to lure immigrants from the US into Canada, from page 245:

Like the Mennonites, other minorities were pushed to the Canadian Prairie West by conditions in their homelands and pulled by the liberality of the Canadian government. In 1877, Icelanders settled a block grant ... Mormons moved north from Utah to evade a US antipolygamy law ... attracted by assurances that they could preserve their cultural distinctiveness, Jewish homesteaders abandoned north Dakota to create six agricultural colonies in Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

I know I have another book on early settlers of North Dakota but I can't locate it at the moment.

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A Note To The Granddaughters

I've always wanted to read something by Alexander Pushkin but for some reason have never gotten around to it, mostly because I was always a bit intimidated and I always thought Russian literature would be difficult and depressing. I was certainly wrong about Pushkin.

A new translation of all his prose works has just appeared: Novels, Tales, Journeys -- The Complete Prose of Alexander Pushkin, translation by Richard Pevear and Lrissa Volokhonsky, c. 2016. It is very, very good.

He has an excellent sense of (dry) humor. Occasionally I am reminded of Mark Twain but Pushkin is so much more subtle; perhaps "irony" is the better word. The Tales of the Late Ivan Petrovich Belkin very much reminds me of James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.

From a website that does short bios of Jewish men and women (and men and women who seem Jewish but are not) comes this blurb:

Pushkin, who is not Jewish, is the greatest Russian author of all time (yes, that includes Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky, the father of modern Russian literature. Pushkin married the hottest woman in all of Russia and was then killed in a duel over her.

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Another Note To The Granddaughters

Not a lot of people know this:

Last week we were brought back to earth by the Danish Meteorological Institute (DMI), as charted by our friend Paul Homewood on his blog Notalotofpeopleknowthat, with the news that ever since December temperatures in the Arctic have consistently been lower than minus 20 C.

In April the extent of Arctic sea ice was back to where it was in April 13 years ago. Furthermore, whereas in 2008 most of the ice was extremely thin, this year most has been at least two metres thick. The Greenland ice cap last winter increased in volume faster than at any time for years.

As for those record temperatures brought in 2016 by an exceptionally strong El Niño, the satellites now show that in recent months global temperatures have plummeted by more that 0.6 degrees: just as happened 17 years ago after a similarly strong El Niño had also made 1998 the “hottest year on record”.

This means the global temperature trend has now shown no further warming for 19 years.

But the BBC won’t be telling us any of this. And we are still stuck with that insanely damaging Climate Change Act, which in this election will scarcely get a mention.

LNG Liquefaction Projects -- Three "Models" -- RBN Energy -- April 30, 2017

RBN identifies three categories of existing and new LNG liquefaction facilities:

• first-wave, tried-and-true: building and/or expanding at existing sites; current sites with multiple 4.5- to 5-MTPA trains
• second-wave, smaller scale projects; some at greenfield sites; others at existing sites: multiple 1- to 2-MTPA trains to serve incremental needs of existing customers
• third-wave: new, huge projects that would require huge infrastructure CAPEX, including perhaps hundreds of miles of new pipeline

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Global Warming Across The Nation This Weekend

Snow in Gillette, WY; Denver, CO; southern Minnesota; and now, Goodland, KS where the forecast is for "snow, the snow could be heavy at time. Total daytime snow could reach 7 - 11 inches (accumulation)."

Goodland, KS? On I-70 just inside Kansas, east of Denver. Pretty far south to be getting this kind of snow this time of year, I would suppose, but then I've never been to Goodland, as far as I know.

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For Dyed-In-The-Wool Anglophiles

I don't know if you need a subscription to access this essay; I got to it easily without logging on (unless the site "remembered" "my computer"): a very queer family, indeed. 

This is a typical essay in London Review of Books: something I would never imagine reading, but when I did, I found it fascinating; a very long essay; and, about a very, very obscure subject.

First thoughts after reading the first half: Emily Dickinson; Little Women, Virginia Woolf; the Brontës.

From the essay,

Arthur 'A.C." Benson became a housemaster at Eton, a fellow and then master of Magdalene College, Cambridge, ... edited Queen Victoria's letters ... wrote a series of reflective works on the nature of life and happiness that sold in the hundreds of thousands. He was twice incapacitated by severe depression, and only in those years broke off writing the diary he kept from the age of 35 until his death at 63. At more than four million words in 180 volumes, it is the longest known to be in existence.

The Politcal Page, T+97 -- April 29, 2017

What goes around, comes around: Bernie Sanders in cross hairs of FBI. Reason? Failed college. Sounds like the Trump story.

Texas pipeline protest leader (link at FuelFix):

Gutierrez, 56, has a long criminal history, according to the California Department of Corrections. In 1984, he was sentenced to nine years for forcible rape, seven years for forcible oral sex and three years for possession of a controlled substance with an intent to sell, the California Department of Corrections said. He served the sentences concurrently and got out of prison about six years later, released on parole.

Between 1990 and 1997, he was reimprisoned at least five times for parole violations, according to corrections records, and in 1998, was convicted of having sex with a minor under 18. He went back to jail, but gained parole again in April of 2002. The California Department of Corrections never heard from him again.

The Texas Rangers got him:

The Kennedy Klan is probably on its way out to Gillette, WY: 9 inches of snow over night.

Nothing About The Bakken; Nothing About Energy -- April 27, 2017

The Amazon Page

Source: AEI

Amazon Prime 

Yahoo!Finance posted this story a few hours before Amazon announced quarterly earnings: why it doesn't matter that Amazon's most popular service costs it billions. Data points:

• most popular service: Amazon Prime
• 80 million users (apparently US users)
• up 38% from a year ago
• if accurate, that suggests that nearly two-thirds of American households have Prime subscriptions
• (wow, wouldn't the political parties love to have those address lists; maybe they do)
• Prime members spend an average of $1,300 annually; vs $700 for typical non-Prime member
• much, much more than just fast delivery

More at the link.

Amazon Earnings

Amazon extends growth streak, unfazed by lavish spending -- Bloomberg. Data points:

• unbroken 20-year streak of double-digit revenue growth
• no signs of slowing this year
• topped profit and revenue estimates in 1Q17
• projected sales that may beat projections in the current period
• shares surged as much as 5% in extending trading
• closed during the regular session at a record $918.76; has jumped 23% this year

Bezos is just $5 billion away from being the world's richest person -- Bloomberg.
would surpass Bill Gates, the world's #1 billionaire since May, 2013

Google Earnings

Smash estimates -- CNBC.

• EPS: $7.73 vs $7.39 forecast
• revenue: $24.75 billion vs $24.22 billion forecast

Microsoft Earnings

Missed.

Global Warming

Not just droughts, but all extreme weather is at declining, at, or near record lows. And it all happened within the first 100 days of President Trump's presidency.

US drought in the US fell to a record low this week -- USA Today. Happened on President Trump's watch -- in his first 100 days. Only 6.1% of the lower 48 states is currently experiencing dry enough conditions to be called a drought. This is the lowest percentage in the 17-year history of the weekly US Drought Monitor report. The previous record low occurred in July, 2010, when 7.7% of the continuous US was not in drought. Hmmm, that's funny. President Obama did not mention that (as far

as I recall).

*************************

Socialists' Math

From story regarding FBI investigation of failed college in New Hampshire:

Jane Sanders, wife of Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., overstated donation amounts in a bank application for a $6.7 million loan the college used to purchase a prime 33-acre property on Lake Champlain in 2010.

She told People’s United Bank in 2010 that the college had $2.6 million in pledged donations to support the purchase of the former Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington property.

The college, however, received only $676,000 in actual donations from 2010 through 2014, according to figures provided by Burlington College.

I could care less, but look how far down in that very, very long story for Bernie Sanders name to show up. Had this been a story on Flynn's wife, let's say, completely unrelated to the POTUS, one can bet Trump's name would have been in the first paragraph.

It will be interesting to see where the FBI investigation leads. Something tells me the US Attorney General wants no brick left unturned in this one.