Sunday, July 11, 2021

Oh, Give Me A Break -- July 11, 2021

From today:

From a couple of days ago:

I wonder if they put Dr Fauci in charge it would help? If they're not listening to Bill Gates, maybe they would listen to Dr Fauci.

OPEC Bsket Price -- July 8, 2021 -- Post July 11, 2021

Link here. 

From last week -- so a bit "dated" -- we'll see tomorrow where "we" are.



Hopefully It Was Worth It -- Eight Years In Federal Prison For Some "Fun With Fire" -- July 11, 2021

Link here. 

One of two central Iowa women responsible for millions of dollars in damage to the Dakota Access pipeline was sentenced in federal court Wednesday to eight years in prison.

Climate activists Jessica Reznicek, 39, and Ruby Montoya, 31, were indicted on nine federal charges each in September 2019, including charges for damaging an energy facility, use of fire in the commission of a felony, and malicious use of fire.

Reznicek and Montoya both pleaded guilty to a single count of damaging an energy facility. The remaining charges were dismissed. 

In July 2017 the women claimed credit for a series of acts of sabotage, including burning pipeline construction equipment at a Buena Vista County worksite in November 2016 and using oxyacetylene cutting torches or gasoline-soaked rags to damage other pipeline sites around the state between March and May 2017. At the time of their admission, they were affiliated with the Des Moines Catholic Workers' social justice movement. Montoya will be sentenced July 30.

[Lots of time to think about it.]

I hate plea agreements. Nine federal charges each, and they plead guilty to one.  I assume they know they are out in two years, including time served, with good behavior.

Sports Today -- July 11, 2021

Updates

July 12, 2021: it appears investors in Virgin Galactic were as excited about the flight to "the near the edge of space" as the rest of us. SPCE dropped 17.3% today; lost $8.51 per share, closing at $40.69. 

July 12, 2021: before the year is over, we're going to hear a lot about the Karman line. From wiki:

The Kármán line is an attempt to define a boundary between Earth's atmosphere and outer space, which is important for legal and regulatory purposes: aircraft and spacecraft fall under different jurisdictions and are subject to different treaties.

The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI), an international standard-setting and record-keeping body for aeronautics and astronautics, defines the Kármán line as the altitude of 100 kilometres (54 nautical miles; 62 miles; 330,000 feet) above Earth's mean sea level.

Not all organizations recognize this definition.

NASA, the US Space Force, US Air Force and Federal Aviation Administration define the boundary as 50 miles (80 km) above sea level. International law does not define the edge of space, or the limit of national airspace.

The Kármán line is named after Theodore von Kármán (1881–1963), a Hungarian American engineer and physicist who was active in aeronautics and astronautics. He was the first person to determine the altitude at which the atmosphere becomes too thin to support aeronautical flight, which Kármán calculated as 275,000 ft (84 kilometres). A vehicle above this altitude would not be able to use aerodynamic lift to support itself. This is also close to the upper boundary of mesosphere, which is estimated to end at about 80–90 km.

According to Andrew G. Haley, the 100 km line is an effect of agreement between U.S. and Soviet Union delegates of FAI. Coincidently 100 km is also approximately an altitude of turbopause, below which atmospheric gases (oxygen, nitrogen etc) are well-mixed and above 100 km heavier molecules tend to occupy lower parts of atmosphere due to gravitational separation.

Original Post

Flight into space: done; anti-climactic. Expensive carnival ride. With enough money, anyone can be labeled an "astronaut." Four firsts (corrected from original entry; huge thanks to a reader):

  • Alan Shepard -- first American in space
  • John Glenn -- first American to orbit
  • Neil Armstrong -- first man on extraterrestrial body
  • Sir Richard Branson -- first billionaire in almost-space on a plane with several close friends

NASCAR: now, 2:30 p.m. CT.

PGA golf: on but I'm not interested

NBA: this evening, 7:00 p.m. CT

On another note, any American who has "trouble" with America or is "embarrassed" to be an American, should read the wiki entry for Giannis Adetokunbo, and then read the wiki entry for Nigeria.

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Video

Wow, I just watched the shorter-than-90-second video of Virgin Galactic. NASCAR is more exciting. I doubt one can tell the difference between mach 1 and mach 2. Branson reached mach 2 momentarily. Every USAF F-15 fighter pilot has flown in excess of mach 1, and way more than once. The Lockheed SR-71 "Blackbird" regularly flew mach 3+ and at altitudes in excess of 85,000 feet. All personnel on board wore spacesuits.

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Tweets By Dan Riffle Today

Congrats to Richard Branson on going to almost-space in a plane, thus adding to the long list of billionaire "achievements" that are really just mediocre versions of much cooler things we already did decades ago through collective endeavors financed by taxes. 

Excited to watch the biggest televised sports event of the day: John Smoltz and Vinny Del Negro dueling it out at an amateur golf tournament.

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Hilarious

Hilaria Baldwin.

While Hilaria apologized and clarified in February that she was born in Boston and was simply raised in a household that admired Spanish culture due to her father’s undergraduate degree in Spanish literature, she has remained adamant that she feels a "deep connection to two cultures." 
Her parents later moved to Mallorca in 2011, which reportedly contributed to her affinity for the Spanish language and culture.

On the other hand, Alex really was hilarious in 30 Rock. 

For Investors Only -- Oil And Gas -- July 11, 2021

This article is almost a week old. I was not interested in it when it was first published, but after recent events / stories coming out of California and now the Permian, all of a sudden this article becomes more compelling, at least for the archives.

From Brian Sozzi, the anchor, editor-at-large, Yahoo!Finance: ten great stocks to own because oil prices have surged -- Goldman Sachs. 

  • turnaround stories: OXY, XOM, OVV
  • M&A winners: FANG, COP, EQT, PXD, DVN,
  • company-specific stories: HES, SLB

Note two companies of interest not mentioned: RDS and CVX

By the way, I was blown away by the fact that the story had such a huge typographical error -- and it wasn't just once but twice. That makes it something other than a typographical error, doesn't it? I previously noted the typographical error, but only saw it once. This time I saw it a second time. 

How did an anchor, editor-at-large make such a huge mistake? It makes me wonder if I'm missing something.

Be that as it may, for investors in oil and gas, one now has an interesting list from which to choose. 

Brian Sozzi listed ten; I added two more.

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What A Ham!

 Wearing crazy socks.