Locator: 50910MONTEREY.
Query: what's going on with California's Monterey Shale?
Reply: dead, dormant, dismissed --
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Cottage Pudding Recipe
This looks suspiciously what my mother used to called cottage pudding, though she topped with a wonderful treacly syrup.
See recipe at this post.
Locator: 50440APPLE.
Tempting. Unfortunately my "old" MacBook Air works just fine.
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The Soy Sauce Page
I did not know this.
This is simply brilliant.
I can't wait to share this secret with my extended family.
Locator: 48488ARCHIVES.
Two years ago, these supercomputers would have been built in Silicon Valley (California) and Los Angeles. But now? Texas. Why? Energy. AI, LDCs, and supercomputers? An energy story.
Know what else blows me away? Congressional delegation will travel to El Salvador for a welfare check on Salvadoran MS-13 gang members being held in their own country's prison. Wow. What a photo-op. My hunch: they won't be allowed inside the security prison. But I could be wrong.
And more, link here.
Astronauts: with the Blue Origin astronaut crew that included Aisha Bowe, Amanda Nguyễn, Gayle King, Katy Perry, Kerianne Flynn, and Lauren Sánchez, the US astronaut corps has now added six more astronauts.
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Memories -- The Lockdown
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The Recipe Page
Chicken Tikka Masala Sauce.
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 10 minutes
Locator: 48497MMF.
This is a bit old, but will post it regardless, from last week. The update should be out tomorrow.
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The Recipe Page
Chocolate cake. The NYT.
Locator: 48565OIL.
Tag: Sentinel Midstream crude oil export SPOT EPD Enterprise Products
A reminder before we get to Sentinel Midstream, with regard to SPOT:
Today:
RBN Energy's top ten prognostications for 2025, link here:
6. No offshore SPM crude oil terminal will be sanctioned in 2025.
We really hope to be proved wrong on this one, but it just looks like this is a case where the benefits do not justify the cost. Since 2018, numerous offshore single-point mooring (SPM) terminals have been proposed along the Gulf Coast to fully load a Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) without reverse lightering.
Currently, only the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port (LOOP) can handle VLCCs but it is limited to two ships per month on average, far below the one per day a couple of the SPMs could manage.
The remaining projects — Energy Transfer’s Blue Marlin, Sentinel Midstream’s Texas GulfLink, Phillips 66’s Bluewater Texas, and Enterprise’s Sea Port Oil Terminal (SPOT) — have faced regulatory hurdles but made progress, with SPOT receiving its U.S. Maritime Administration (MARAD) license in April.
Yet none have reached a final investment decision (FID) after nearly seven years of development. The problem is shifting market dynamics. Initially, U.S. crude exports to Asia (15,000 nautical miles from the Gulf Coast) justified VLCC efficiencies, but Europe now takes 45% of exports compared to 40% to Asia, driven by demand shifts due to the Ukraine war and declining North Sea production. The shorter 5,000-nautical-mile trip to Europe diminishes the economic advantage of VLCCs, making shippers hesitant to commit to long-term capacity deals for the SPM terminals. Granted there are still good reasons for one or more of the SPMs to be sanctioned. But it is more difficult today to get shippers signed up than it originally looked, and that’s a situation that will likely get worse before it gets better.
Also from April 25, 2024, also on the blog:
RBN Energy: Sentinel Midstream's Texas GulfLink emerges as serious contender in export terminal race. Archived.
In the race to build the next deepwater crude oil export terminal in the Gulf of Mexico, Sentinel Midstream’s proposed Texas GulfLink (TGL) is currently in second place in the regulatory race, behind only Enterprise’s Sea Port Oil Terminal (SPOT) — and seems to be emerging as a serious contender. The plan offers some compelling attributes, including Sentinel’s status as an independent midstream player and plenty of pipeline access to crude oil volumes in the Permian and elsewhere. In today’s RBN blog, we turn our attention to TGL and what it brings to the table.
From today:
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Recipes
Cooking rice. Grains.
Locator: 48526CARPLAY.
Reminder: GM was about the only carmaker that made decision not to go with CarPlay but use their own in-house technology. One of the reasons cited by GM: safety concerns with Car Play. I can't make this up.
Doubles down on decision, link here.
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Cutting Costs, One Penny At A Time
The penny costs almost four cents to make.
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How To Boil A Hard-Boiled Egg
Scientists solve the problem.
Takes 32 minutes.
Locator: 48491VG.
Ticker:
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Disclaimer
Brief
Reminder
Briefly:
With regard to electricity demand in New York state, see this post from four years ago!
Now this, link here:
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The Recipe Page
Key:
From Bloomberg today:
It’s still unknown who Trump will task with running and possibly reshaping FEMA.
For now, the president has tapped Cameron Hamilton, a former Navy Seal, to temporarily lead the agency, alongside Mary Comans, who has held several key FEMA jobs. Hamilton has some emergency management experience, but he has never overseen the response to large-scale disasters like the wildfires that have ravaged Los Angeles for weeks, destroying more than 15,000 structures and killing at least 28 people.
In fact, over the weekend Trump signed an executive order establishing a "Council" to be led by the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Homeland Security to "assess FEMA." From the EO:
The Secretary of Homeland Security and the Secretary of Defense shall serve as Co-Chairs of the Council.
So, I guess we have the one-two punch. Hamilton and Comans in charge of FEMA right now. [Does that mean that FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell is "out" as the administrator? Yes.]
And Pete Hegseth and Kristi Noem to head the "council."
You know you are in trouble when a government agency's administrator's bio starts out with where the individual went to elementary school:
Criswell attended elementary school in Free Soil, Michigan and was graduated in 1984 from Catholic Central High School in Manistee, Michigan. She then earned a Bachelor of Science in technology education from Colorado State University, a Master of Public Administration from the University of Colorado Denver, and a Master of Arts in homeland security from the Naval Postgraduate School.
Her skill set: fighting fires as a firewoman.
Bloomberg has a long piece -- I would say it's a op-ed and not news -- about how challenging FEMA's job is and then blames much of FEMA's problem on .... climate change. Al Gore first warned us about climate change in 1994 or thereabouts ... so how much has the global temperature changed in 31 years? Fact check: 2025 - 1994 = 31 years.
And that figure assumes the US government is reliable when measuring global temperatures. But 0.2°C over 31 years and that's a significant reason why FEMA's job has been made more difficult? LOL. How about better technology, less regulation, better leadership just for starts.
Wow, this gets tedious. Climate change.
By the way, here in Texas the weather folks give us the temperature rounded to the nearest "one degree," such as 74° or 68° or 92°. They've never given the daily temperature to the nearest tenth (98.5° or 78.3°). And even in medicine, we never gave temperatures to the nearest 100th but when it comes to global / climate warming, we're getting the degree change to the 100th degree (see above: 0.36°) -- such preciseness provides a false sense of accuracy. LOL.
So, we're back to "councils" and "commissions" and "committees" -- I hope this doesn't "foreshadow" a Biden-like administration. Hopefully Cameron Hamilton will appoint a FEMA California czar to monitor the money the US government sends to California and that it reaches the right people sooner than later. I would start with Altadena. I think Newsom will take good care of Pacific Palisades.
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Recipes
Cooking tips.
It appears the key to great cooking? Bacon.
A long, slow cook time — roasting, braising and leisurely poaching— is a simple way to marry contrasting ingredients. This works especially well in recipes that can be prepared ahead of time. Stored for a night or two in the refrigerator, their flavors meld and mellow together.
Classic examples are the slowly cooked pulled pork or the long-simmered pot of chili.
But long and slow simmering also works nicely with root vegetables — especially carrots, parsnips and beets. When poached in a tasty liquid, they become tender and absorb the flavors of the cooking medium. Finally, it’s always a good idea to keep a few store-bought condiments at the ready, including chili oil, curry paste, good vinegar and extra-virgin olive oil, canned anchovies, olives and capers.
Tips:
Locator: 44705ARCHIVES.
Weather: It's hard to believe that it's going to be very, very cold later this week. Right now, I'm blogging outside, sitting on a beach chair outside a jiu-jitsu gym watching Sophia through the windows. Without a coat / sweater, it's fine, but with a light coat / sweater, it's incredibly nice sitting outside. Meanwhile, our older daughter was kayaking / racing on the Trinity River on the northwest side of Ft Worth. She had a tough time getting through the Ft Worth. Today was the annual cattle drive through the city
Plans: I'm not sure what to do this weekend with re: to blogging. I may devote a fair amount of time to David Lynch and to the readings in the current issue of The Atlantic.
Reading: right now I'm reading Gilbert Osofsky's Harlem: The Making of a Ghetto, Negro New York, 1890 - 1930. Remember those convict helping to put out the fires in southern California, being paid less than $6.00 / day? Link here. There's a word for that and it's called peonage (yes, it's illegal in the United States). I'm probably wrong on that; I'm sure the convict-firefighters were all volunteers. And we move on.
NFL: two games today, two games tomorrow.
Magic: speaking of the NFL, if you want to see the "magic" of the NFL, specifically, Mahomes (Kansas City Chiefs), look at the touchdown play, 7:44 third quarter, today, Houston Texas at KC.
NASCAR: first race of the season, February 2, 2025 (?)
Politics: whether accurate or not, the general feeling was that Biden was either in his basement (during the 2016 campaign) or on the Delaware beach (during his presidency), Trump, not even sworn in yet, wants to visit China.
Who was the first president to visit China? Yup, Nixon. Trump is telling us the "buzz" is no longer with the EU; it's with Asia. The other thing Trump is telling us? He's no ideologue like Al Gore, Barack Obama, Joe Biden. He's a free-thinker.
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Year's Biggest Tech Debacle
Sonos.
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The Movie Page
Movie night tonight: time to watch "The Big Lebowski" again. The Roger Ebert review. This is a really, really good interview.
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Politics
NAR: The Atlantic, February, 2025.
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Television
Looking forward to "Paradise." Hulu. Wiki here.
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Bio of The Day
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The Recipe Page
Pork tenderloin.
Locator: 44618RETAIL.
All prices from FRED, on-line.
Percent increase from oldest entry to newest entry.
Imagine the price of lettuce when all the foreign workers are deported. Wow. But apparently that's what MAGA supporters want. I have no dog in that fight. The amount of lettuce I eat every year could be held in one hand. Although that varies from year-to-year. Depends on my feel-the-need-to-eat-healthy.
See disclaimer.
Specifically: I often make simple arithmetic errors. I often input incorrect data. Everything on the blog needs to be fact-checked.
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Recipe: Hoya Black Beans
I generally keep this soup in my refrigerator at all times.
Locator: 44566FREEZE.
Beautiful short-sleeve weather this afternoon in the Dallas, Texas, area. Almost reached 70 degrees this afternoon. Will reach 80 degrees tomorrow per forecast below.
Forecast here in north Texas:
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Recipes
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Recipes -- Baked Potatoes
Locator: 44540ARCHIVES.
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LNG
A must-read: the history of US LNG export. Two big takeaways:
A third big takeaway: American exceptionalism.
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The Book Page
I simply don't find such quality tweets over at Bluesky.
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Netflix
Set streaming records. Link to The New York Times.
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Hertz -- The Day The Music Died
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ISO-NE
Trending toward $180. Link here.
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Seasonal Flu
Two weeks from now, should start to get interesting.
One wonders if RFK, Jr. has had his annual flu shot. LOL.
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Recipes
Big batch eggs.
Locator: 44506AI.
Tag: AI
I'm really not interesting in this, this morning, but I'm clearing out the in-box.
I think this tweet has been tweeted before but not sure. If it was tweeted before, I've probably linked this before.
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Recipes
Hash browns from frozen potatoes.
Locator: 48358CRAMER.
Cramer's first hour: a mix of facts, factoids, opinions from various sources -- often not cited -- while listening to Cramer's first hour on CNBC.
Holy mackerel! Apple! AAPL:
Meanwhile, BRK-B:
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Disclaimer
Brief
Reminder
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Recipes
Stuffed Bell Peppers -- Riced Cauliflower
Pick up at store: ground beef, bell peppers, mozzarella cheese, maybe onion.
1. Pre-heat oven to 350°.
2. Large pot; one inch of water -- boil with a fitted steamer basket.
3. Prepare bell peppers: cut off 1/8th of the top and scoop out shell; boil, until they soften, about three minutes; set aside. Chop the top of the bell peppers AND DICE -- to be added to the stuffing!
4. Skillet
4a. Prepare cauliflower: heat in oil on large skillet, medium heat; pinch of s&p; stir until softened and starting to brown; about three minutes; transfer to small bowl.
4b Back to the skillet, wipe it clean. Add a bit more oil, chopped bell pepper and onion; again, about three minutes until softened;
4c. Add to skillet: beef, garlic, oregano and 1/2 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper. Stir, about five minutes.
4d. Add tomato sauce and cauliflower rice from container that was set aside; stir to coat.
5. Place peppers in an 8-inch square baking dish; fill generously. Top each pepper with 2 tablespoons cheese.
6. Bake: 20 to 25 minutes.
Ingredients:
Locator: 44505INV.
Updates
Later, 6:52 p.m. CST: I posted the original note below earlier today. Now this from CNBC: analysts tout these three energy companies for their nice dividends: Chevron, Energy Transfer, and EPD.
Original Post
Link to The WSJ:
That would be a welcome sight for dividend investors, as large U.S. companies’ payouts haven’t kept pace with the market’s rally. This week, the S&P 500’s dividend yield, which measures dividend payouts relative to stock price, hit a 20-year low when it dropped below 1.19%.
And even more specifically, dividends may be the only thing keeping the "legacy" energy stocks above water.
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Recipes: Beef Stroganoff
The only thing one might need to stop by the grocer for this recipe: beef and sour cream; maybe an onion. One should already have all the other ingredients in the pantry.
Pasta: boil while preparing the beef stroganoff.
Ingredients:
Preparation:
Cramer's first hour: a mix of facts, factoids, opinions from various sources -- often not cited -- while listening to Cramer's first hour on CNBC.
Thanksgiving travel:
Pre-market: both AAPL and NVDA hold gains from yesterday.
Peter Zeihan today: no shale oil for Europe -- we've known this for two decades --
ATT.
ISONE: now $215. Link here. Again, $215. And using more coal than wind.
The election: it was not "turnout" that doomed Kamala. It was the message. The New York Times. Link here. From the essay:
During the campaign, The New York Times and Siena College polled many of these voters. After the election, we analyzed election records to see who did and didn’t vote. The results suggest that higher turnout wouldn’t have been an enormous help to Harris.
That may be surprising. It’s not usually how people think about turnout. Typically, turnout and party-switching are imagined as independent. After all, millions of voters are all but sure to vote for one party, and the only question is whether they’ll vote. In lower-turnout midterms and special elections, turnout can be the whole ballgame.
But in a presidential election, turnout and persuasion often go hand in hand. The voters who may or may not show up are different from the rest of the electorate. They’re less ideological. They’re less likely to be partisans, even if they’re registered with a party. They’re less likely to have deep views on the issues. They don’t get their news from traditional media.
Throughout the race, polls found that Trump’s strength was concentrated among these voters. Many were registered Democrats or Biden voters four years ago. But they weren’t acting like Democrats in 2024. They were more concerned by pocketbook issues than democracy or abortion rights. If they decided to vote, many said they would back Trump.
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Recipes: Meatloaf
Once Thanksgiving leftovers are gone, homemade meatloaf?
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Disclaimer
Brief
Reminder
Locator: 47988PLAYBOY.
Note: some formatting is yet to be completed. In a long note like this there will be typographical and content errors.
Note: this was taken from one of my journals elsewhere -- I did not date it but it must have been written in the early 2000's. I may be able to find the date if I go looking for it. We were probably living in San Antonio at the time, around 2006, just before I retired from the USAF.
Note: my best journaling was done between 2000 and 2007. This was originally done during that period. I recall the Discount Books bookstore between our rental on Diamond Canyon and north side of downtown San Antonio. I can vividly recall all the reading I did poolside at the pool when we moved from that home to an apartment complex closer to downtown San Antonio. I was still making military trips to northern England.
The Journal
Hugh Hefner connected with his customer from the very beginning: letters to the editor were prominently placed, and treated with respect. The letters he published all suggested his readers were literate and sophisticated. Hefner frequently and regularly commented on the letters, speaking directly to the writer; his comments were direct and informative without being condescending. The letters were always arranged in the same order; comments on the pictorials were last; comments about the magazine in general were placed first. From the very second issue I found the letters to the editor to be one of the best features of the magazine.
In the March, 1956, issue, a reader suggested a Playboy calendar; the editor said it was under serious consideration.
From the very beginning, Playboy had compelling articles. In its fourth issue, the March, 1954, issue, for example, there was an article about recent laboratory data linking cancer with cigarette smoking.
I was born in 1951. The first issue of Playboy was published at the end of 1953 and was undated; the second issue was dated January 1954. I was two years, five months old.
In 1969 I was eighteen years old. From that date on, until about 1985, I read and subscribed to Playboy on an irregular basis. I recall I always looking forward to each issue, but seldom had time to read it as much as I might have liked. I was extremely busy with college, graduate school studies, then work (24/7), raising a family and being deployed with the military. During those years I did not enjoy fiction to any great extent and Playboy was filled with fiction. As with the The New Yorker, I enjoyed the cartoons more than anything else.
Upon retirement in 2007, I began a very aggressive reading program, trying to catch up on all the reading I did not do all those years. I am very proud of my reading program, and continue to enjoy [my reading program] immensely. I started with the age of Romanticism and the 18th and 19th century English writers, mostly women, particularly the Brontës and George Eliot. I probably devoted a year to Virginia Woolf. I have enjoyed Gertrude Stein, Sylvia Plath, Ernest Hemingway, Henry James, and Henry Miller / Anaïs Nin. I feel comfortable with William Shakespeare with the help of Harold Bloom. I cannot say I enjoy James Joyce but I continue to type Ulysses as one way to make sure I read it completely. I did the same for Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway and Waves, typing out both novels completely.
Recently I have become fascinated with Graham Greene. I have read Norman Sherry’s three-volume biography of Greene, and have read several of Greene’s novels, including The Heart of the Matter and The Third Man. I also read much of Joseph Conrad, the author who inspired Greene.
Now that I am reading again, it is interesting to read the book reviews in Playboy, something that I certainly did not read when the issues initially came out. I just picked up a digital copy of all Playboy issues from the 1950’s. Playboy Cover-to-Cover, the 50s, was published in 2007. It has a list price of $100, but can be found in brand new condition (in shrink wrap) for less than $40. The digital archive includes ever page of every issue of Playboy published in the 1950s. It is a treasure trove of Americana.
Playboy introduced “Playboy After Hours” in its November, 1954, issue. In that feature, the editor reviews theater, film, dining/drink, books, and music. I am going to have a field day reading the book reviews.
I mentioned that I am currently enjoying Graham Greene. It was very satisfying then to read a theater review in the April, 1957, digital issue of Playboy of Graham Greene’s “new” play, The Potting Shed. The review states that the play is a “psychological detective story,” along the lines of Graham’s Ministry of Fear and Confidential Host.
In that same issue, Playboy reviews Alistair MacLean’s second book, The Guns of Navarone. The reviewer says that Navarone is “perhaps the most continuously exciting adventure story we’ve ever read.” The movie by the same name, and, of course, based on this book, came out in 1961.That is the first action-adventure movie I remember seeing. My parents (or it may have been another family friend who) paid the admission for me and about six other boys who attended my tenth (or was it my eleventh) birthday party – growing up in rural North Dakota, we didn’t always get movies as soon as they were released.
Playboy magazine:
The 50’s:
September 1, 1954: first article on jazz. (need to confirm that it was the first)
Volume 1, Number 1
January 1954
February 1954
March 1954
April 1954
May 1954
June 1954
July 1954
August 1954
September 1954 (Issue 1/10)
October 1954 (Issue 1/11)
November 1954 (Issue 1/12)
December 1954 (issue 1/13 or 2/1)
January 1955 (Issue 2/02)
February 1955 (Issue 2/03)
March 1955
April 1955 (Issue 2/04)
May 1955 (Issue 2/05)
June 1955 (Issue 2/06)
July 1955 (Issue 2/07)
August 1955 (Issue 2/08)
September 1955 (Issue 2/09)
October 1955 (Issue 2/10)
November 1955 (Issue 2/11)
December 1955 (Issue 2/12)
January 1956 (Issue 3/01)
February 1956 (Issue 3/02)
March 1956 (Issue 3/03)
April 1956 (Issue 3/04)
May 1956 (Issue 3/05)
June 1956 (Issue 306)
July 1956 (Issue 3/07)
August 1956 (Issue 3/08)
September 1956 (Issue 3/09)
October 1956 (Issue 3/10)
November 1956 (Issue 3/11)
December 1956 (Issue 3/12)
January 1957 (Issue 4/01)
February 1957 (Issue 4/02)
March 1957 (Issue 4/03)
April 1957 (Issue 4/04)
May 1957 (Issue 4/05)
June 1957 (Issue 4/06)
July 1957 (Issue 4/07)
August 1957 (Issue 4/08)
September 1957 (Issue 4/09)
October 1957 (Issue 4/10)
November 1957 (Issue 4/11)
December 1957 (Issue 4/12)
January 1958 (Issue 5/01)
February 1958 (Issue 5/02)
March 1958 (Issue 5/03)
April 1958 (Issue 5/04)
May 1958 (Issue 5/05)
June 1958 (Issue 5/06)
July 1958 (Issue 5/07)
August 1958 (Issue 5/08)
September 1958 (Issue 5/09)
October 1958 (Issue 5/10)
November 1958 (Issue 5/11)
December 1958 (Issue 5/12)
January 1959 (Issue 6/01)
February 1959 (Issue 6/02)
March 1959 (Issue 6/03)
April 1959 (Issue 6/04)
May 1959 (Issue 6/05)
June 1959 (Issue 6/06)
July 1959 (Issue 6/07)
August 1959 (Issue 6/08)
September 1959 (Issue 6/09)
November 1959 (Issue 6/11)
December 1959 (Issue 6/12)