Establishing Presence Of The Seasonal Flu Virus And Typing The Various Types / Strains -- February 8, 2026

Locator: 49936SEASONALFLU.

One of the things I learned in medical school was how helpful laboratory technicians could be. Classroom didactics made a lot more sense when "we" took that information and saw how it was "translated" in the laboratory. It's the same analogy that the tech sector figures out how to "monetize" their very, very high-level work. 

Our professor could talk to us for two hours on antigenic properties of the various types of flu. But that information was reinforced when we went to the hospital's clinical laboratory and saw how laboratory techs identified the presence or absence of virus and what kind of influenza virus it was, if present. 

It took me three attempts to get to the right question before Gemini explained what I did not understand, but this is exactly how students are now learning much more effectively and efficiently than I ever did.

My IA prompt: 

Aha, so in the lab, when ruling out influenza, they place the human secretion in a broth with antigens for Hx, Nx, M, ad NP? And then go from there?

Gemini's reply:

Interestingly, I did the same "stuff" during a college research project one summer outside of Point Barrow, Alaska. I just didn't know what I was doing. LOL. I need to start life over. LOL.

Wow, I can't wait to explain this to Sophia. 

1. For complete list of antigens, google: seasonal flu schematic genetic material (M), matrix, membrane, surface antigens HxNx. 

2. Then link here. 

AI prompt: 

Once identified, how long (days, weeks, months) did it take for scientists to identify all the genes / proteins of Covid-19?

Gemini:

You all know where this is going. I will let you ask Gemini the next obvious question.

This would be one of the next obvious questions: once they had the genetic map (all genes) of Covid-19 identified, it was just a matter of time to develop a vaccine. What was the rate-limiting step in developing that vaccine and is AI likely to address that rate-limiting step?

Education: when I look at the above, I'm beginning to think at the college / university / graduate / doctorate level, we will move from "generic" professors to "facilitators." A facilitator will be defined as a professor with special skills in AI / working with chatbots and working with students to develop their own "curricula." UC-Santa Cruz has been doing that for decades and so has to Stanford, but in a more subtle way than US-Santa Cruz. Students will continue to collaborate with their professors / facilitators and fellow students on teams but a chatbot, whom they will name, will become an equal partner within the team. There is an analogy within medicine that occurred many decades ago but don't have time to talk about that now. But it's biggest fallout: physicians were now called "health care providers" and an equal member of the health care team.

Used Cars -- Inflation -- Now There's A Glut -- Totally Anticipated -- November 6, 2025

Locator: 49355INFLATION.

Link here. Schwab's Liz Ann Sonders. 

There are two reasons for the increased number of used cars sitting on dealers' lots. 

IYKYK. 

Is Inflation The Result Of Excessive Deficit Spending? December 1, 2024

Locator: 44469INFLATION.

This article was sent to me by a reader about a week ago.

Most interesting: experts are still arguing about this. Speaks volumes.

I keep coming back to the price of eggs. LOL. And used cars. And single-unit houses. And rent. And the price of EVs.

Link here.

Paul Winfree, founder and CEO, wiki.

Inflation Watch -- Laundry Detergent -- June 7, 2024

Locator: 48081INFLATIONWATCH.

But first, GameStop. Keith Gill. All talk, all hat. No steers.

GameStop (GME) down 40% today. LOL. CNBC is spending way too much time on this meme stock. If this is what millennials and Gen Zers are buying and selling, good for them. Not for me. 

AAPL: up $2.41 today. Who wudda guessed? But Tim better "perform" well Monday.

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Inflation Watch

On sale this week at Walgreens.

Folks know my fascination with laundry detergent pricing.

Each of these are regularly $3.99. This week, each is $1.99.

23 loadings.

My bar: 14 cents / loading.

$1.99 / 23 loadings = 8.65 cents / load.

What's in your laundry room?

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Painting

We've spent a lot of time in New England.

I can say there is nothing in New England that is better than this photo for painting.

This is simply awesome. Grapevine Lake, DFW area, north Texas, June, 2024.

Inflation Watch -- Detergent -- April 30, 2024

Locator: 47114INFLATION.

For previous posts on this subject, search "detergent" on the blog.

The bar is 13 cents / load for detergent, although I have found it for as low as 8 cents / load.

Today, holy mackerel: paid $1.99 for 50-loads --

$1.99 / 50 = 4 cents / load.

I didn't get a picture of the large Tide "on sale": $19.99 for 45 loads: $19.99 / 45 = 44 cents per load.

This wasn't shinkflation. This was seriously misleading by the makers of the detergent, not the retailer.

Can you imagine? Folks who are having trouble making ends meet, pay $20 for a container of detergent vs $1.99 for the same amount in terms of number of loads.

Inflation Watch: Electricity Vs Starbucks -- April 14, 2024

Locator: 47004ELECTRICITY.

Tag: inflation.

This is why I created a tab for the US electricity grid. This will be fascinating to follow for the next decade.

Link here.

Everyone who knows, knows.

(280-210)/210 = 33% increase, 2024 over 2021.  

33% over three years.

Starbucks? 33% over 10 years.

Don't even get me started.

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Texas Wind

Link here.

Economy -- April 13, 2024

Locator: 46991ECONOMY.

Finally, someone gets it. But still no mention of RMDs, a recurring theme on the blog. And at a mandatory 4% withdrawal rate, those IRAs will continue to grow and be passed on to heirs who must deplete the IRAs within ten years. 

Link here to Carl Q.

 Nice thread on inflation. Link here.

Chicago: something tells me this is bogus or out of the norm, but if accurate, it tells me all I need to know about Chicago.

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My Favorite Branch

Our local Schwab branch hosted an eclipse event last week. Awesome. Right across the street from Trader Joe's.

Inflation Watch -- Price Of Detergent -- Per Wash Load -- March 3, 2024

Locator: 46668WASH.

Assuming I did the math correctly. 

I bought four 31-ounce "bottles" of Tide detergent today, on sale at Walgreens, four bottles for $10.49.

4 x 31 = 124 ounces. Compare with a slightly higher price at Amazon.

$10.49 / 124 = 0.084597 cents per ounce.

The bottle states: 31 fluid ounces will be enough for 20 wash loads.

31 / 20 = 1.55 ounces per wash load,

1.55 ounce x 0.084597 cents / ounce = 13 cents per wash load.

So, now I know, when comparison shopping, 12 to 15 cents detergent for a single wash load.

Again, assuming I did the math correctly.

And as far as I know, detergent can be stored for a long time.

Inflation Watch -- February 21, 2024

Locator: 46859INFLATION.

One of my pet peeves is the exaggerated reporting with regard to the cost of food. 

This is from the Kroger circular this week: bacon, soft drinks, and chips are all on sale this week for half-price. And "party-size" Lays potato chips are being sold for less than half price. And every week, it's something else.

I'll bike to Walmart in a few minutes and check out the price of eggs, which seems to be what the Wall Street Journal journalists seem most interested in. LOL. The NYC and DC folks see a dozen eggs priced at $3.50 a dozen. I'll come back later with the price at Walmart here in north Texas. My hunch? $1.89.

Later: wow, I was wrong! Eggs are back up in price. At Walmart the best I could do was $2.60 for a dozen but no shortage. But the price of eggs is a one-off. It has nothing to do with the price of groceries in general, except on the margin:

But, as usual, the price of eggs did not affect me today -- didn't buy any. We stock up when we find a sale and we still have plenty in the refrigerator. But I had bought them, I could have afforded the extra dollar per dozen with savings elsewhere -- see below. It all averages out.

But on the other hand, prices elsewhere are coming down. My soft drink staple is diet Coke, in the 500 ml 6-pack plastic packs. Recently I've seen a six-pack as high as $5.88 but generally a six-pack is running $4.98, but at Walmart the price has been rolled back to .... drum roll ... $3.98.

Another staple: tuna fish in those little cans. They generally run a bit over $2.00 these days, or maybe around $1.79. Today, four cans for $3.52, less than a buck a tin. 

The interesting thing: my "groceries" were quite expensive today but in fact I had only a few food items. Most of my "groceries" were non-food items, including a ream of printer paper and some bug spray (very, very expensive).

Urban Rambling -- November 9, 2023

Locator: 46007ARCH. 

Usual disclaimer applies. There will be content and typographical errors, and those errors are more likely in a long note like this. Read at your own risk. It's not meant for readers but for the grandchildren as an archival document to remind us what "things" were going on today.

Wow, I'm in a great mood. 

IRS: has just published new tax brackets. Whoo-hoo! I'm sure every change was made in favor of the taxpayer. LOL. IRS publishes new tax brackets for tax year 2024 on November 9, 2023. These new brackets are for tax year 2024! Because of inflation, the changes are actually in the taxpayers' favor.

Oilprice.com today: 

Inflation. I just returned from Target to pick up a few items. Target still has logistics issues; many shelves with empty spaces.

But having said that, it felt like prices have stabilized, and, in fact, dropped a bit. Sales everywhere, including a big sign, 10% off total bill for orders greater than $50. Or was it $10 off for orders greater than $50. I forget now. Whatever.

Apparently Target does not carry McCormick Cinnamon Sugar. I've never seen it there. Will continue to look. I love it on my French toast for breakfast. The French sure are clever, more on that later, if I remember. So, I'll order from Amazon. I'll start ordering my vanilla extract from Amazon, also. It's slightly less expensive than Target and much more convenient. Just a click away. 

But eggs! OMG. $5.00 / dozen last year at this time and Biden was getting all that blame for the high price of eggs (avian flu, of course, was the real cause, and poor logistics in some cases) but now at the high end stores (see yesterday's note), a dozen eggs cost $1.69 and today at Target, $1.39. Are you kidding me? $1.39 for twelve eggs. I hope folks are sending "thank you" notes to the White House. LOL. 12 cents an egg.

Seriously, grocery prices at Target have that feeling that we have simply seen a "reset." We're now where she should have been had there not been a Covid-19 lock down. So, we'll see.

The freezer coffins are over-stuffed (pun intended) with huge Butterball turkeys and their prices are starting to go up. Earlier this year, they were $0.99 / pound. Today, at Target, Butterball turkeys are $1.49 / pound. There was one honeysuckle turkey -- wow, it was huge -- for $1.19 / pound.

Every year for the past several years we've dropped off 10 - 15 turkeys at Sophia's elementary school for the annual Thanksgiving turkey drive, but not this year. I noticed that no one seemed to care one way or another how the drive went, not even a note in the school's weekly note with a summary of last year's drive. I'll donate the money to the "red kettle." Salvation Army.

 

Post-Covid: speaking of groceries, we're also "saving" a lot of money by drawing down on all the grocery and paper supplies we squirreled away during the Covid-19 lock down. A lot. 

Disney: had a great day. 

One Disney analyst, who is not a Disney bull, says Disney still has problems, but says that one exception is Disney Parks. Apparently the parks are reporting explosive profits / explosive growth. Not surprising. People say Disney park tickets are expensive. My response: "compared to what?" One can easily fact-check this; I did and, yes, Disney parks are doing great. I continue to add $200 / month to the 3-y/o twins Disney fund -- held in a Schwab investment account. They are three years old; they will go to Legoland, San Diego, when eight years old and Disneyland, Anaheim, California, when they are a bit older. The fund was started not long ago and now has over $5,000 invested.  

RSV: I mentioned that I got my RSV vaccination yesterday. Absolutely no cost to me: no deductible, no co-pay. Cost to insurer? $210.78. But we did get a coupon for 10% off on one grocery trip -- no limit on the 10%!

New car: with all the money I'm saving by shopping at Target, I was able to buy a new McLaren.

Jews not welcome? Sign of the times? On another note, DFW Kabob and Gyros restaurant, here in Grapevine, Texas, has excellent / outstanding Mediterranean / middle Eastern cuisine for really good prices. 

My wife and her best friend, who happens to be Jewish, were in line for lunch there today when a Palestinian (most likely) customer ahead of them, in a loud voice, shouted "yea, Palestine," to the DFWKAG proprietor who returned a "go, Palestine, from the river to the sea."

Needless to say, our Jewish friend was unable to have lunch there and they left. There are a gazillion restaurants from which to choose here in our local area. This will no longer be one of them.

I will send DDFWKAG a note to let them know of this incident and that I'm willing to make an 8x10 glossy / laminated sign, "Jews Not Welcome," for their window, if they would like. I wonder if they bake cakes.

Inflation Watch -- Eggs -- May 22, 2023

Locator: 44721INFL.
Locator: 44721BUD.

At Walmart this morning:

• $1.24 / dozen / white -- lowest price for a dozen eggs; probably less if bought in volume
• $1.36 / dozen / white -- store brand

From Barron's last month:

I know he was blamed for high price of eggs; I wonder if President Biden will get credit for bringing price of eggs down. There is some suggestion that eggs are valued / priced at less than $0.00 (no typo) but transportation costs, grocers / middlemen handling bring eggs to $1.30 / dozen.

The article above also helps explain why Costco was able to maintain prices on their rotisserie chickens, but it certainly suggests grocers were making a lot of money on those rotisserie chickens as they raised the prices from $5.99 / chicken to $9.99 / chicken this past year (at least in our regional grocery stores).

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Bud -- It's Even WorseThan I Thought

The WSJ had a very, very long article over the weekend on the Bud debacle. I did not link it or note it because the story was pretty well known; not much more to add. [Maybe I did post it; don't remember.]

One data point caught my attention but not enough to get me to post / link the article, but after getting a note from a reader today, I decided to post it.

The link: https://www.wsj.com/articles/bud-light-boycott-sales-dylan-mulvaney-6c23bb86?mod=hp_featst_pos5.

Anyway, this data point of interest, from The WSJ article, "how Bud Lite Blew It" and what it is doing to make amends:

The company is planning to have Bud Light sponsor a veterans group for the first time ever, the Journal reported. 

So, when Bud Light is/was trying to expand its consumer base, they went with Mulvaney first rather than with US military vets? 

Let's see, Memorial Day was on its radar scope when Bud Lite went with Mulvaney? Pride month was further out (June).

How long has Bud / Bud Lite been around? And all those decades Bud Lite has never sponsored a US veterans group! Holy mackerel. 

I was giving the benefit of the doubt to the two marketing execs who made the Mulvaney-face-on-a-can decision but no more. Not sponsoring a US veterans group all these years is beyond the pale, as they say, a true deal-breaker for me.

*********************************
Trump

Link here. 

To say the least, this certainly gets tiresome.

GDP Forecast Keeps Rising -- February 28, 2023

Link here. 

The "inflation" meme? It gets tedious.

• CNBC this morning: high transsporation costs
• regular gasoline here in north Texas today -- $2.58. 

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Historical Inflation Rates, 1914 - 2023

Link here.

 

This was pretty much the majority of that part of my adult life in which I was earning a living and raising a family, for me, 1977 - 2007. Pay particular attention to 1973 to  1976, and then again, 1977 - 1982. The year 1977 was relatively good compared to what came before and what came after:

 

Now, on a fixed income:

 

And for those who prefer the alternative, 1929:

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Global Inflation

Inflation Watch -- Not a Bakken Story

Just a reminder.

For those interested in a true picture of inflation, unbiased, non-political, and simply based on prices of billions of products, this is a nice site to review periodically.

The first thing I do when I get to the site is un-check the boxes of all the countries except the US to get a clearer picture of the true inflation rate of the US.

Note the steep incline (almost straight up) between September, 2009 (-2.5%) , and January, 2010 (2.25%). Since then it has been relatively flat.

I have the site bookmarked at the top of my sidebar on the right but am planning on moving it.