Glued sounds: I can't wait to tell her I now understand the concept of glued sounds.
Market: Dow was down as much as 400 points (rounded) earlier this morning; now trending toward a negative 150 points. Could the Dow turn green by the end of day. Unlikely. But ....
Normally after new Apple releases I hear a lot of "negative" chatter on social media. Not this time. The chatter on the new iPhone (four models) and the new chips in the computers has been nearly 100% positive. The only really negative chatter? Supply constraints are limiting orders and slowing delivery times. Nice problem to have, I suppose.
From techcrunch: the new MacBook Pro is powerful and fast, but it's the battery life that will blow you away.
Wow.
Apple already has the students and the seniors. Now, Apple is going after the geeks and gamers.
Wow, I love all that alliteration. Purely accidental. Okay, contrived to some degree.
From an earlier post this morning:
From the techcrunch link:
Apple has introduced three machines that use its new M1 system on a chip, based on over a decade’s worth of work designing its own processing units based on the ARM instructions set.
These machines are capable, assured and powerful, but their greatest advancements come in the performance per watt category.
I personally tested the 13” M1 MacBook Pro and after extensive testing, it’s clear that this machine eclipses some of the most powerful Mac portables ever made in performance while simultaneously delivering 2x-3x the battery life at a minimum.
These results are astounding, but they’re the product of that long early game that Apple has played with the A-series processors.
Beginning in earnest in 2008 with the acquisition of PA Semiconductor, Apple has been working its way towards unraveling the features and capabilities of its devices from the product roadmaps of processor manufacturers.
The M1 MacBook Pro runs smoothly, launching apps so quickly that they’re often open before your cursor leaves your dock.
Video editing and rendering is super performant, only falling behind older machines when it leverages the GPU heavily. And even then only with powerful dedicated cards like the 5500M or VEGA II. Compiling projects like WebKit produce better build times than nearly any machine (hell, the M1 Mac Mini beats the Mac Pro by a few seconds).
And it does it while using a fraction of the power.
This thing works like an iPad. That’s the best way I can describe it succinctly.
One illustration I have been using to describe what this will feel like to a user of current MacBooks is that of chronic pain. If you’ve ever dealt with ongoing pain from a condition or injury, and then had it be alleviated by medication, therapy or surgery, you know how the sudden relief feels. You’ve been carrying the load so long you didn’t know how heavy it was. That’s what moving to this M1 MacBook feels like after using other Macs.
That comparison to the iPad caught me off-guard. I thought I was the only one that noticed that. I routinely "work" with the desktop iMac, the laptop MacBook Air, the iPad, and the iPhone.
Of the four, it's the iPad that is fastest, smoothest, and best machine for surfing the internet. The iPad, without an attached keyboard, does not meet my needs for blogging. For blogging I need the laptop or the desktop.
Did you see that comment regarding battery life? " ... while simultaneously delivering 2x-3x the battery life at a minimum." That's quite impressive.
Metrics
Easy metrics to follow:
Reparations
President Biden: "environmental justice"
Janet Yellen: if there is one constant theme being voice by Janet Yellen, it's "reparations";
NY Times: link here;
Words matter: watch for articles discussing "equal, equity, equitable, and equality";
Thoughts
A reader asked me my thoughts on President Biden:
For all the anxiety Trump caused his detractors, it appears that Biden is a much more dangerous president: vindictive, capricious, extreme ideologue, a puppet, ignorant, a reptile in action, a dinosaur in thinking.Although I really don't know how dinosaurs thought. I would have said "Neanderthal" but that would have been dissing the Neanderthals who were probably brighter than we think.For those who were worried about Trump having the "nuclear code" they should be much more concerned with Biden having the "nuclear code."I can't cite the source (for obvious reasons), but this is the password for the nuclear code that Trump kept in his pocket:"as76%^4749&^aBC"This is Biden's:
"password"When push comes to shove, his advisors will tell Biden to type in the password and he will comply.
Updates
February 12, 2021: Biden has shown that he is more dangerous than Goldwater + Nixon + Trump all put together.
February 2, 2021: under Trump, the "vaccine" was questionable, might not protect against variants, not thoroughly tested; under Biden, the "vaccine" just keeps getting better and better.
January 20, 2021: a not-ready-for-prime-time reply to a reader regarding the state of the union with regard to the Biden presidency:
You mentioned earlier about the price of gasoline.I've actually become quite cynical about the whole thing.We now know we can drill our way to lower gasoline prices, but if the price of gasoline rises to $5.00/gallon in California, that's their problem. If they want/like $5.00 gasoline in California then that's fine with me.It was huge for me to see that, yes, we (the US) could become energy independent, control our own destiny, have affordable energy, but if Californians want to go in another direction I no longer have a dog in that fight.There's too much to enjoy in life to worry about such things.It will be fascinating to watch if gasoline does trend toward $5.00 / gallon in California and how politicians / press respond to that. But as for me, I no longer care. What was important to me was just knowing we could do it. Like getting a man on the moon: getting there the first time was huge, but then the bureaucrats took over and the program never interested me much any more after that.That's also true for pipelines. I no longer care. Shut down all pipelines if they want. All I wanted to see was whether we could do it, and it's obvious we could with the right leadership. But if New York wants to shut down their pipelines, that's fine with me. Texas will go its own way. It may become "blue" -- I expect it will but that doesn't bother me either. It's becoming less and less "blue" vs "red" and more and more "the elites" vs the "rest," or the "haves" vs the "have-nots." The gap will widen regardless, and there seems to be as many "elites" and "haves" in "red" states as in "blue" states. It appears the wealthiest men and women in the US are all Democrats. That speaks volumes.Now, what fascinates me is if we really can pivot to EVs. There's a huge amount of infrastructure that needs to be put in place in a relatively short period of time. The cars are the easy part. Every auto maker (and computer companies -- Microsoft, Apple) are making EVs. It will be interesting to see the infrastructure that will be needed.
January 20, 2021: This is a great essay on why Trump lost; why he almost won. Over at the Claremont Review of Books. It may be behind a paywall. If so, it's too bad. They should make this available to everyone.
January 13, 2021: the US House voted for the second time asking the US Senate to determine whether President is guilty of specific charges with regard to "his supporters" storming the Capitol last week. I have real trouble with GOP House minority leader voting the way he did after his speech in the House.
January 11, 2021: the whole twitter - Trump story is childish. Having said that, how is Trump missing the obvious? There is so much going on in the world, all he has to do is call his favorite reporter -- print or television -- doesn't matter and give that reporter a teaser: "If I had a media outlet, I would update Americans on the Mideast." "If I had a media outlet, I would update Americans on our plans to hit Iran if Israel needs back-up." "And, oh, by the way, I have completed my second to last list of pardons. Because of the risk of inciting more violence, I've issued an executive order to keep the pardons "confidential" until after January 20, 2021." "I'm working on my final list of pardons; it's quite a list; it will be released 11:30 a.m. January 20, 2021." Any of those, would give Trump immediate exposure. Reporters everywhere would be demanding Trump be allowed to post that information.
January 10, 2021: to what extent this is true, I don't know. But I would love to hear Trump, Giuliani, Mo Brooks, Josh Hawley deny they said these things or did these things.
January 10, 2021: at this level, politics is very, very ugly and very, very real. This is a chance for VP Pence to make incredible history. He has morality and "higher ground" on his side. He has to be asking himself: does he remain loyal to his boss, or does he remain loyal to the country? For me, this is not a difficult decision. He needs to be looking at the history books that haven't been written yet. Will history judge him harshly regardless of which decision he makes? I don't think so. I think one decision propels him into "Profiles In Courage," the other decision relegates him to an asterisk, at best.
December 13, 2020: tea leaves suggest mainstream media will push Joe Biden under the bus by the end of 2021; actual regime change, Biden out, Harris in; might not take place until early 2022. [Later, January 10 2021: no longer true; after the Capitol was stormed, Biden was seen as the last elder statesman.]
Original Post
I did this for the Trump presidency, and to some extent the Obama presidency. Now the Biden presidency.
This will be linked at the sidebar at the right. This will be for the archives, to track the next chapter in US history.
The entire Biden presidency can be summed up in four words: Back to the Past.
Obama will be running the show from the shadows.
Expect more fireworks:
Expect lots of social engineering:
Monetary / fiscal policy:
20/20 hindsight on Trump:
Active rigs:
| $41.10 | 11/17/2020 | 11/17/2019 | 11/17/2018 | 11/17/2017 | 11/17/2016 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Active Rigs | 14 | 57 | 63 | 56 | 38 |
Two wells coming off confidential list today -- Tuesday, November 17 2020: 22 for the month; 46 for the quarter, 711 for the year
RBN Energy: New England gears up for another propane-dependent winter. Archived.
The leaves have already fallen off New England’s trees, the first snow has come and gone, and the six-state region is preparing for another long, cold winter — this time with no Tom Brady and little hope that their beloved Patriots will make it to the playoffs. There is at least some good news, though: record volumes of propane have been railed or shipped into New England and put in storage, which should help to ensure that the many homes and businesses that depend on the fuel for space heating will stay warm. Today, we discuss propane supply and demand in the northeastern corner of the U.S., including a look at SEA-3 Newington — New England’s largest propane storage and distribution center, which rails in the fuel from the Marcellus/Utica and Canada and imports and exports propane by ship.
New England may be a leading producer of lobsters, cranberries, and maple syrup, but it doesn’t produce a barrel of crude oil, a gallon of NGLs, or a cubic foot of natural gas — unless you count the methane generated by the region’s grass-fed, organic-as-they-can-be dairy cows. Heck, it doesn’t even have a refinery. So, to fuel its cars and trucks, power its gas- or oil-fired power plants, and heat its indoor spaces, New England needs to bring in every molecule of dinosaur-based hydrocarbons from somewhere else. The region’s natural gas needs are met primarily by pipeline and, to a much lesser degree, by imported LNG. They come in through a combination of tanker, rail, and truck, plus a couple of intra-regional pipelines that transport refined products inland from the ports of New Haven, CT, and Portland, ME.
Firster things firster: "blogger app" fixes another glitch. Wonderful. Slowly but surely. They must be listening to their users. I wish they would get rid of the "<p>" function; causes nothing but problems. It was supposed to enhance the "<br />" function but not working.
First things first: Walmart earnings surge. Links everywhere, here's one. Best article was at Fox Business but blogger app blocks that site.
Mainstream media -- US retail sales disappoint: up 0.3% vs anticipated 0.5%. Oh, well. It could be worse. But really, 0.3% vs 0.5% -- background noise, at best. Means nothing. Wait until panic buying sets in ahead of second wave. Later: see first comment.
Mainstream medial -- seldom take revisions into account: after those revisions, October
sales printed 0.9% higher than September sales were reported at a month
ago...almost no reports take those revisions into account...see comments.
Is Buffett becoming a trader? Dumps "hold-forever" companies and buys vaccine companies during pandemic. Link here.
Most inexplicable move ever? After holding for 20+ years, Warren Buffett dumps stock just before $10/share special dividend -- and he would have known it was coming. Link here.
Maybe Warren saw this coming: Amazon starts selling prescription drugs to Prime customers. Is Amazon Prime Costco's number one competitor? If you think so, then maybe it was smart to get rid of Costco. On a day that the Dow is plummeting -- down 400 points -- COST is up 2.2%, up over $8/share.
Disclaimer: this is not an investment site. Do not make any investment, financial, job, career, travel, or relationship decisions based on what you read here or think you may have read here.
NFL: point after TD (PAT) missed in last night's professional football game! Say what? High school kids in Texas can kick PATs.
Non sequiturs:
For ATT (T) shareholders, what are we supposed to do, "sit around and wait for you?"
Love her or hate her: this was a great disco song. Melody, beat, and lyrics.
Dueling rockets: Elon Musk with successful launch; European Vega suffers major failure, costs $400 million in French/Spain satellite losses. Oh, oh. Link here.
Second thoughts? College basketball tournament in Sioux Falls, SD, seemed like a great idea some months ago. Now so much any more. Scheduled for next week. Can you spell "debacle"? If the tournament goes on as scheduled, it's clearly all about the Benjamins. LOL.
Hedy West, 1967: "We'll be controlled by manipulated fear." Link here.
Dr Faust, 2020: even with 90% vaccinated, we will still need to wear masks and remain socially isolated for the next ten years. Paraphrased.
Looking for love in all the wrong places: why I love to blog. This article would have made no sense to me had it not been for RBN Energy. Is the world's top fertilizer the missing element in super batteries? Link here.
They're reading the blog: just yesterday I suggested this was not the time to sell energy holdings. Now these from same writer:
Apple:
Dog-bites-man story: new stats reveal massive NYC exodus amid coronavirus, crime. So where are they moving? The Hamptons and New Jersey. This speaks volumes. Folks aren't moving far from "home." This is all about schools, crime rates, and ability to work from home. Time for New York state to pass 25% luxury tax on elites who choose to work from home.
************************************
New Yorkers Flee
Where they are relocating (New Jersey? Are you kidding me? A New Yorker moving to New Jersey? This is like a Norwegian moving to Sweden):
1. East Hampton, NY 11937: 2,769
2. Jersey City, NJ 07302: 1,821
3. Southampton, NY 11968: 1,398
4. Hoboken, NJ 07030: 1,204
5. Sag Harbor, NY 11963: 961
6. Scarsdale, NY 10583: 812
7. Water Mill, NY 11976: 577
8. Greenwich, Conn. 06830: 558
9. Yonkers, NY 10701: 567
10. Jersey City, NJ 07310: 434
11. Port Washington, NY 11050: 414
12. Westhampton Beach, NY 11978: 409
13. Princeton, NJ 08540: 395
14. Woodstock, NY 12498: 392
15. New Canaan, Conn. 06840: 389
16. Great Neck/Manhasset, NY 11021: 380
17. Hampton Bays, NY 11946: 344
18. Darien, Conn. 06820: 326
19. Mount Vernon, NY 10550: 325
20. Long Beach, NY 11561: 323