The Walt Disney Family Museum -- World War II -- Exhibition -- DFW -- Dallas (Texas) Holocaust And Human Rights Museum -- August 21, 2026

Locator: 51513DISNEY.  

Wow! May and I have been to four "holocaust" museums or sites. One in Germany (Dachau, near Munich); one in Washington, DC; one in Los Angeles; and one in Dallas. 

Currently in Dallas. Link here.

 How it all started: 

When Walt Disney received word that The Walt Disney Studios lot in Burbank, California, had been converted into an Army anti-aircraft base after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, he and his staff pledged to support the war effort without hesitation, and without profit. 

Walt knew that cartoons would be an ideal method for communicating with the American people. This exhibition showcases how The Walt Disney Studios educated the civilian public in an amusing, uncomplicated manner about the war, while simultaneously boosting the spirits of troops deployed abroad. 

In addition to the short films and military insignia produced, Disney characters appeared in a variety of home-front initiatives, from advertisements, magazines, and stamp books, to government posters promoting food recycling, rationing, war bond sales, and farm production.

Photos pending. 

It was amazing the number of patches that The Walt Disney Studios designed. At least two of the dozens of patches I wore while in the USAF, 1977 - 2007, were designed by Walt Disney. They were the patches worn by members of two fighter squadrons -- the 22 TFS -- the Stingers -- bumble bees -- and the 53 TFS -- the flying Tigers. I've posted photos of them somewhere on one of my blogs but I can't find them now. I will have to take pictures of them again and post them again.  

The exhibition was organized by the The Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco and is financially backed primarily by presenting sponsor Texas Instruments, with additional support from Debbie and Ron Greene, American Airlines, NFI Industries, and the Dallas Tourism Public Improvement District.

Link here to Instagram. The exhibit booklet was copyright 2021 which suggests that the Disney Family Museum leadership used the Covid-19 lockdown to organize this exhibit. This was really, really brilliant. Kudos to Kirsten Komoroske, the executive director of The Walt Disney Family Museum, San Francisco, CA. 

Bio:

Kirsten joined The Walt Disney Family Museum as Executive Director and Member of the Board of Directors in 2013. 

Kirsten has held a number of executive and board positions, including General Counsel and Vice President of Human Resources for Tyco Electronics Corporation, Interim Vice President of Human Resources at Groupon, Inc., and Chair of the Board of Directors of the Peninsula Humane Society & SPCA. 

Prior to her position at the museum, Kirsten worked as a practicing lawyer, advising for-profit and non-profit organizations on a wide range of strategic, business, and HR issues. In 2018, she was appointed to the Board of Directors of both San Francisco Travel and Hiller Aviation Museum. 

She has a background in—and a lifelong passion for—the arts, having grown up studying violin and modern dance. She received her B.A. in Italian from the University of California at Berkeley, and J.D. from Santa Clara University.

Previously an active Army base and the Pacific coast’s strongest coastal defense from 1846 to 1994, the Presidio now serves as a national park and is home to The Walt Disney Family Museum.

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Key Lime Pie

Link here. 

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USAF

The Boeing MH-139A Grey Wolf is a new U.S. Air Force multi-mission helicopter replacing the Vietnam-era UH-1N Huey. It is special because it flies 50% faster, carries nearly twice as many security troops, and features an increased range to better protect the nation's intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) fields.

From wiki, link here:
 

Our granddaughter Olivia was one of only two USAF ROTC Cadets from her squadron to be given a familiarization flight ride in a Grey Wolf while participating in MAX #6 Field Training this past summer. These are the two cadets, our granddaughter and another member of the squadron with the Grey Wolf in the background:

Family Photo -- Bragging Page -- Not Intended For General Readership -- For Extended Family Members Only -- August 20, 2026

Locator: 51508FAMILY.   

Director's Cut, August with April, 2026, data: link here. 

Meanwhile, elsewhile: 

Granddaughter, USAF ROTC, field training, in an elite group ... three weeks --- comes home today ...

Apple 3-Day Event Begins! March 2, 2026

Locator: 50108TEXAS.

New Apple products being announced today. Start with a new iPhone 17e.  No streaming but can probably catch every segment on YouTube. Link here.

Link here. 

It's Texas Independence Day. I will be at events all day. I will try to do some blogging later, but for now, I'm off the net.  

Texas' 190th birthday today.  

From today:

From a couple of days ago: 

Pacific Ocean — February 6, 2026

Locater: 49929FAMILY.

 

This Is So Exciting -- It's Hard To Believe -- 2025 Is Coming To A Close -- Last Day Of The Year -- Tomorrow -- December 30, 2025

Locator: 49769ARCHIVES.

This makes sense, why the market would be open all day New Year's Eve -- the last trading day of the year.  

December 31, 2025, is a significant date as it is a quarterly expiration date for certain equity, ETF, ETN, and PM-settled index options. This "quadruple witching" event can sometimes lead to increased trading volume and volatility as expiriing derivatives are settled for rolled over.
PM-settled options: trading closes at the end of the trading day; mitigates the risk of overnight events which would effect AM-settled options.   

A lot of folks didn't think they would make it to 2026 -- but less than 36 (?) hours now is all they have to go. Awesome.  

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Deer Hunting -- Texas

Extended family member.

One of several deer this hunting season. 

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The Kitchen Page:
How To Clean Cookie Sheets

Link here. 

9th Circuit Court: President's Federal Authority Trumps City's Authority -- October 20, 2025

Locator: 49457ICE.

Federal troops can be deployed to Portland.  

Get out the popcorn.

Game on! 

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1931 Chevrolet Farm Truck
To Be Restored
Five-Year-Old Brothers 

Link here.

 

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Back to the Bakken

WTI: $57.44.

Active rigs: 32.

Six  new permits, #42410 - 42415, inclusive:

• Permits:
• 42410, loc, Oasis, Nelsen State Federal 5202 13-13 2B, Indian Hill,
• 42411, loc, Oasis Joseph Federal 5202 13-13 3B, Indian Hill, 
• 42412, loc, Oasis, Nelsen State Federal 5202 13-13 4B, Indian Hill,
• 42413, loc, Oasis, Nelsen State 5202 13-13 5B, Indian Hill,
• 42414, loc, Oasis, Eckert 5202 13-13 6B, Indian Hill, 
• 42415, loc, Oasis, Eckert 5202 13-13 7B, Indian Hill, 
• Field: Indian Hill, McKenzie County;
• Comments:
• Oasis has permits for six Joseph Federal, Eckert, and Nelsen State Federal wells, NWNE 13-152-102, 
• to be sited 265 / 430 FNL and 1605 FEL;

One producing well (a DUC) reported as completed:

• 38109, Silver Hill Operating, LFM2, 364 bopd.

Archives -- Most Recent GDP Estimate -- September 16, 2025

Locator: 49130ARCHIVES.

Who wudda thought? Link here.

• best selling desktop on Amazon? the Mac Mini
• best selling laptop on Amazon? the MacBook Air
• best selling tablet on Amazon? the iPad
• there seems to be pattern here.

Cost of oil exploration: 

There is no single global average cost of oil exploration per barrel; it varies significantly by region and method, but typical exploration and production (E&P) costs in the 2000s and early 2010s saw a significant increase of about 100% from 2000 to 2012. For example, costs in North America can range from $30 to $70 per barrel, while they are considerably lower in regions like Saudi Arabia, at $10–$15 per barrel.

These costs are influenced by the difficulty of extraction, with deepwater drilling and fracking being more expensive than easier-to-access resources.

GDPNow: estimate today -- 3Q25 estimate rises to a remarkable 3.4%. Wall Street analysts suggest the 3Q25 GDP will come out closer to 2%. 

Eleven years ago: bigger sister, Olivia, reading The WSJ to her new baby sister, Sophia.

Raising The Roof -- One Pallet At A Time -- September 14, 2025

Locator: 49103FAMILY.

My son-in-law wanted to raise the interior height of an old shed by a few feet (for another project he has in mind).

This was a solid wood building. 

This is how he raised it, gaining two-to-four feet in interior height.

The project was done 100% with recycled wood, old pallets that had been discarded, that my son-in-law picked up over the years. 

Hopefully he's not thinking about raising his house by two-to-four feet.

Sophia Wins A Gold Medal In Today's Jiu-Jitsu Tournament, Dallas, Texas -- September 6, 2025

Locator: 49025SOPHIA.

Link here. Jiu-jitsu tournament in Dallas, Texas, where they take their sports really, really seriously. 

In the video below, Sophia is in white, to the observer's left -- she outgrew her "black competition robe," and her new robe has not yet come in.

Sophia won all three matches by "submission," after getting her opponent in a "headlock" -- a dangerous position for. her opponent. In a headlock, the opponent will "tap out" -- the opponent will ask to stop the match so she (Sophia's opponent) is not injured. 

Sophia has perfected her technique to bring her opponent down, bring her opponent down on top of her, wrap her long legs around her opponent, control her opponent, and then quickly, move her legs into a headlock -- Sophia's legs wrapped around her opponent's neck in a choke hold. Her opponent has no choice but to "tap out" -- concede, to prevent serious injury.

Matches are scheduled for 3:00 minutes. Sophia ended all three matches today, by submission. She ended the first two matches under 1:53.

In the video below, Sophia's South Korean coach was at the mat, filming. This was such a big deal, the wife of Sophia's coach was also at the mat, watching Sophia. The coach's wife is also a martial arts instructor, excelling in taekwando, rather than jiu-jitsu. 

After the third win, in the video below, look how excited Sophia's coach was. I have never seen her coach so excited.

On the awards podium:

GLW -- Hit A New 52-Week High Today -- August 26, 2025

Locator: 48970GLASS.

Ticker: 

Look at the news:

See Investor's Business Daily.

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Sophia's New Apartment

Look at that view over the pool!

Forecast: perfect swimming weather! Hot today. Hotter tomorrow. Hotter the day after that.

Hot And Hotter -- July 24, 2025

Locator: 48829FIRED.

Hot -- today's forecast, north Texas, DFW:

Hotter:

Really hot! Link here.

Ice cream break in Peru, granddaughter Olivia far right in shorts. This was a day off from work; Olivia is working this summer in Peru involving satellite technology. Later this summer to the Galápagos Islands before returning to Stanford.

Sophia -- Jiu-Jitsu -- Awarded the top grey belt, July 25, 2025:

MSFT: Hits New Record High -- June 6, 2025

Locator: 48696MSFT.

CHINA-US trade:

• China desperately needs US ethane (plastics);
• US auto manufacturers need rare-earth-based magnets. China blinks. Link here.
  

Warren Buffett, ask ChatGPT anything -- "Buffett said he was making a huge purchase in the first quarter of 2025 but SEC allowed him to keep it secret; any update?

Reply: Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway has disclosed that the confidential investment made in the first quarter of 2025 was a substantial stake in Chubb Limited (NYSE: CB), a leading global property and casualty insurance company.

Berkshire accumulated approximately 26 million shares, valued at around $6.7 billion, representing a 6.4% ownership in Chubb as of March 2025.

The SEC granted Berkshire confidential treatment for this investment to allow the firm to build its position without influencing the market price.

This approach is consistent with Berkshire’s past practices when acquiring significant stakes in companies like Chevron and Verizon. Chubb’s stock experienced a notable increase following the disclosure, reflecting investor confidence in the company’s prospects and the significance of Berkshire’s investment.

Warren Buffett, 1Q25: reported yesterday by MarketWatch. That source did not mention Chubb.

• did not open any new positions (no word on "secret" new position rumored earlier)
• exited, completely, had trimmed in prior quarters:
• Nu Holdings (NU)
• Citigroup (C)
• maintained his massive stakes in:
• CVX
• AAPL
• added to positions:
• Constellation Brands (STZ), "bulked up" -- Corona Beer; opened his position in 4Q24
  
• Pool (POOL)
• Sirius XM (SIRI)
• Domino's Pizza (DPZ)
• VeriSign (VRSN)
• Heico (HEI)
• OXY (interesting, very interesting)
• remains pessimistic with banks and financial stocks; pared large positions in
• BofA (BAC)
• Capital One (COF)
• other reductions:
• Charter Communications (CHTR)
• DaVita (DVA)
• T-Mobile (TMUS)
• Liberty Media (FWONK)
• Legacy
• AAPL: now makes up 28% of Berkshire's total equity portfolio, up from 6% in 2016
• notably: essentially nothing in tech

Five-year return (rounded) -- these numbers don't mean a lot in the big scheme of things; may or may not include unreinvested dividends; reinvested dividends, specific dates when bought and sold. All data taken from Yahoo!Finance.

• NVDA: 1,500%
  
• AMD: 120%
  
• AAPL: 144%
  
• MSFT: 150%
  
• INTC: - 50%
  
• AMZN: 60%
  
• META: 200%
• SNOW: - 10%
• AVGO: 700%
  
• BRK-B: 145%
  

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The Market In Early Trading

It's as if yesterday never happened. 

Open:

• Dow Jones: +417 --> +526
  
• S&P 500: +60 --> +66
  
• NASDAQ: +230 --> +232
  

S&P 500: reaches 6,000.

• the all-time high closing value for the S&P 500 was 6,144.15 on February 19, 2025.

AAPL: up $4.29; up over 2%; now trading about $205.17. 

AVGO: down $10; down almost 4%; trading at $250.

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Is California Ready To Implode?

Statistics:

Central Valley:

• middle class to upper-income neighborhoods: as many as 40- 50 people living in home zone for "single-family" occupancy; how do they manage? Port-a potties and Winnebagos.
• 20% of the population at or below the poverty level;
• 33% of the population on public assistance live in Califonia;
• 40% of the population are on Medi-Cal;
• 50% of all births are covered by Medi-Cal;
• 27% of the resident population was not born in the US
• huge black market economy: flea markets and restaurants do not collect state sales tax.

When we lived in San Pedro, Los Angeles, California: on all small residential streets with 1500-square-foot single-family units with a small one-car garage, there were as many as four to five cars parked in front of each of these houses, on the street, or double-parked / triple-parked on the driveway / lawn.

Property tax does not come close to paying for public school requirements when two to three families with six young children live in a 1500-square-foot home designed for one family with two children.

Gang members in Compton: have gone to public authorities complaining that cartel gangs from south of the border are creating major problems for US gang members and their extended families.

State income tax: 10% once income reaches $70,000.

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Origin Of Life

Link here. Link here.

Lead author: Sawsan Wehbi, Genetics Graduate Interdisciplinary Program, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ.

Amino acids date back four billion years, the last universal common ancestor (LUCA).

Scientists have creaated an evolutionary tree of amino acids, a tree of these protein domains.

Trytophan, designated by the letter "W" was the last of the 20 canonical amino acids to be added to the genetic code, but "W" has now been found to exist pre-LUCA.

Nohting new here: again, suggesting these amino acids emerged around the alkaline hydrothermal vents that are believed to have played a key role in how life began, despite the fact that the resulting life forms did not live there for long.

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Haircut By Sophia

Barbershop On The Balcony -- May 29, 2025

Locator: 48711ARCHIVES.

The last time I had a haircut in a barbershop was in February / March, 2020, just before everything closed down due to the Covid pandemic. From that day on, Sophia was my barber.

Earlier this week, a small trim.

By the way, we just bought Sophia an expensive, high-end, authentic electric hair clipper used by professional barbers and also an authentic pair of scissors exclusively for cutting hair.

 

Trump 2.0 -- January 3, 2025

Locator: 44606TRUMP.

Trump 2.0 is tracked here.

Link here. 

Ivan Krastev.

From The Atlantic today. Talk about a misreading of American politics.

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Duck Hunting In North Texas

Our granddaughter and her friend, duck hunting, north Texas.

No dog, so they have to retrieve the ducks themselves.

Parting Shots -- December 21, 2024

Locator: 44500ARCHIVES.

My favorite Santa elf giving me a haircut in anticipation of the Christmas season.

I haven't had a haircut in a barbershop since February / March, 2020, the month the Covid-19 lockdown began. That was almost five years ago. 

Apple iPhone 15 Sales Projections -- August 16, 2024

Locator: 48437APPLE.

Projections are starting to be discussed.

Some data points:

• consensus: 50 million iPhone 15s will be sold in the September 2024 quarter
• MS: 52.5 million will be delivered in that quarter
• early numbers / early polling / early research suggests as many as 55 million will be delivered
• 50 million will be a record for the September 2024 quarter
• most popular iPhone 15 likely to be sold: the most expensive -- the iPhone 15 Pro Max
• the Pro Max could account for 35 to 40 percent of all iPhone 15 deliveries (link here)
  

From that link:

Apple is expected to unveil the iPhone 15 series in the second week of September, followed by its availability for purchase a week later.

Now, according to the well-known analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, the iPhone 15 Pro Max, featuring an exclusive periscope camera lens, is anticipated to become the best-selling model despite its higher price point.

In fact, the iPhone 15 Pro Max alone is projected to account for 35 to 40 per cent of the total iPhone 15 series shipments.

It’s estimated that Apple might ship around 10 per cent more iPhone 15 Pro Max units by the end of the year compared to the current iPhone 14 Pro Max.

Kuo also suggests that Apple could commence shipping the iPhone 15 Pro Max as early as this week.

The company’s shipments for the iPhone 15 series are estimated to exceed 80 million units by the end of this year, with the number expected to rise to 220 million units by the end of 2024.

Search:

• almost 30% of all search goes through the Apple toolbar (across all makes and brands).
  

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The 2032 US Olympics Jiu-Jitsu Team

Sophia: far left, back row.

Dallas: New Financial Hub -- August 10, 2024

Locator: 48380TEXAS.

Link here. 

Ross Perot Jr. gestured out the window as his helicopter circled a 4.5-acre pit alongside the skyline of downtown Dallas. Texas and U.S. flags hung from a crane within it.

The site is where Perot’s real-estate investment company, Hillwood, is partnering to build a $500 million Goldman Sachs tower for more than 5,000 bankers and investors. That will make it the financial firm’s second-largest office, behind New York. As the helicopter swung northwest, windows glinted from two unfinished Wells Fargo office towers, scheduled to open next year. A bit farther away: a fourth office building under construction for Charles Schwab, which moved its headquarters from California to the Dallas area five years ago, and the footprint of a Deloitte campus doubling in size.

The sprawling landscape illustrates an expansion that has brought to North Texas a presence in financial services that now sits second only to New York City in the U.S.

And growth of so-called Y’all Street is accelerating.

Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that Texas investment-banking and securities employment has increased 111% over the past 20 years and 27% since the pandemic, compared with 16% and 5%, respectively, in New York.

The number of people employed in finance overall has risen 13% in Texas since 2019, compared with 2% in New York and 3% nationally.

Dallas now ranks second to New York City among metro areas in the number of workers employed in finance-related industries. Other cities, particularly in the Sunbelt, have seen growth as those services increasingly seek to be closer to customers nationwide.

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Movie Night

Notorious. Alfred Hitchcock.

It begins in Miami. Perhaps the one place in America I have not been. Not to be taken out of context. Ends in Rio de Janeiro. I have been to Rio. 

From wiki: 

Notorious is considered by critics and scholars to mark a watershed for Hitchcock artistically, and to represent a heightened thematic maturity. His biographer, Donald Spoto, writes that "Notorious is in fact Alfred Hitchcock's first attempt—at the age of forty-six—to bring his talents to the creation of a serious love story, and its story of two men in love with Ingrid Bergman could only have been made at this stage of his life."

In 2006, Notorious was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

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The Book Page

From One Cell: A Journey Into Life's Origins And The Future Of Medicine, Ben Stanger, 2023.

Audience: should be summer reading for high school students -- juniors / seniors -- with plans to attend college to major in the life sciences. 

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The Boys

And "They" Told Us Not To Buy The Dip -- LOL -- Who's Kidding Whom -- August 8, 2024

Locator: 48370INV.

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Ready To Quilt 

Cramer's First Hour -- July 31, 2024

Locator: 48275INV.

Tag: Corning, GLW, California DMW.

Update

Later, 11:12 a.m. CDT: CNBC practically giddy over the amount of money META and MSFT are going to be spending on Nvidia chips. Apparently META is Nvidia's biggest customer, and MSFT is going to spent $85 billion on Nvidia chips this year. Needs to be fact-checked -- heard in passing.

Later, 10:51 a.m. CDT:

Later, 10:48 a.m. CDT:

Original Post

Chicago PMI: 45.3 vs 45.5. Whoo-hoo!

Household cash:  link here.

Opening:

Hope you all bought on the dip: Nancy Pelosi.

AMD: long interview with CEO. Shares up 7% today.

NVDA: up 7.5% at the open. Hope you all took advantage of the dip yesterday, or actually this past week.

INTC: up 1.5% today. Down 14% for one full year.

F: pain continues. Down at the open. Trading at 11.78. Down 15% past month.

GM: down 6% past month.

Boeing’s losses astounding. Not likely over even with new CEO. “Kitchen-sink” quarter yet to come.

Delta’s CrowdStrike problem.

OXY vs S&P 500: excruciating.

MSFT investors upset: Azure growth only 31%.

TMUS: huge beat; shares surge. Our carrier. Whoo-hoo! Fiber vs fixed wireless. Five million subscribers in three years. Fan of Apple. Looking for an interesting rollout. Cable streaming.

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Working On Their Aeroplanes

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Painting By Sophia

Acrylic on canvas, perhaps my favorite medium.

A lot of subtleties in this painting for a ten-year-old.

Short Squeeze -- July 26, 2024

Locator: 48242INV.

Wow. The first 300 points were due to reaction to economic data today. Everything else -- short covering!

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Amazon

This is not unusual in our apartment complex, just ten minutes from DFW and multiple Amazon fulfillment centers. 

Order something this morning and one will have it by early afternoon. Order something late this evening and it will be at your door tomorrow morning.

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Grammy's Culinary School Graduate
Advanced Degree
Summa Cum Laude