Link here. See also the Ukraine update at this post, from earlier today.
In one-to-two years, Ukraine will be part of NATO. Or ground zero.
Tuesday, October 4, 2022
For Investors, It's An Open-Book Test -- October 4, 2022
Gen-Zers and Millennials -- October 4, 2022
Fascinating article.
DNYUZ: at NYU, students were failing organic chemistry. Who was to blame?
In the field of organic chemistry, Maitland Jones Jr. has a storied reputation. He taught the subject for decades, first at Princeton and then at New York University, and wrote an influential textbook. He received awards for his teaching, as well as recognition as one of N.Y.U.’s coolest professors.
But last spring, as the campus emerged from pandemic restrictions, 82 of his 350 students signed a petition against him.
Students said the high-stakes course — notorious for ending many a dream of medical school — was too hard, blaming Dr. Jones for their poor test scores.
The professor defended his standards. But just before the start of the fall semester, university deans terminated Dr. Jones’s contract.
The officials also had tried to placate the students by offering to review their grades and allowing them to withdraw from the class retroactively. The chemistry department’s chairman, Mark E. Tuckerman, said the unusual offer to withdraw was a “one-time exception granted to students by the dean of the college.”
Marc A. Walters, director of undergraduate studies in the chemistry department, summed up the situation in an email to Dr. Jones, before his firing.
He said the plan would “extend a gentle but firm hand to the students and those who pay the tuition bills,” an apparent reference to parents.
This one unhappy chemistry class could be a case study of the pressures on higher education as it tries to handle its Gen-Z student body. Should universities ease pressure on students, many of whom are still coping with the pandemic’s effects on their mental health and schooling? How should universities respond to the increasing number of complaints by students against professors? Do students have too much power over contract faculty members, who do not have the protections of tenure?
Of all the science courses I took in college, organic chemistry was one of the easiest, though I hated "lab." If these students cannot handle organic chemistry, they will struggle in medical school. But note this: once accepted to medical school, you will graduate. Period. Dot. No one who really wants the "M.D. degree" will wash out of medical school.
One Can't Tell Me Warren Buffett Didn't Know This -- October 4. 2022
- details:
- Gomez field
- 22,124 contiguous net-acre position
- estimate: between $100 million and $500 million
- average daily production: 1,280 boepd
- next 12-month cash flow estimate: $7.6 million
- at mid-point, $250 million
- $250 million / 22,124 acres = $12,000 / acre
- $250 million / 1,280 boepd = $20,000 / boepd
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Governor Newsom And California
Normally I don't post links to ZeroHedge, but this is a great op-ed.
From the article:
Tax hikes to lower gas prices? Bring them on.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom is lashing out at oil companies who he says are “fleecing” Californians with gasoline prices that are rising disproportionately in the Golden State.
“The fact is, they’re ripping you off. Their record profits are coming at your expense,” Newsom said in a scathing video posted to Twitter Friday in which the governor called for a new windfall tax on oil companies.Let’s look at the cost of gas at the California pump again.
A report from Stillwater Associates last year found that California consumers were paying an extra $1.19 a gallon. This year the added costs include a 51 cent state excise tax, an 18 cent sales tax, 20 cents for Fuels Under the Cap, part of the state’s corrupt environmental cap and trade program and 17 cents for the Low Carbon Fuel Standard.
Holy Mackerel! OMG! The New York Times Is Reading The Blog! LOL -- October 4, 2022
Yesterday, completely out of the blue, I posted a stand-alone blog on "two-buck Chuck."
Now, today from The New York Times, I kid you not, I cannot make this up:
Archived.
Like many producers of popular, inexpensive wines, Bronco was always vague about where Charles Shaw came from. Most likely it was a combination of wine sold on the bulk market, because it was either surplus or not considered up to snuff, supplemented by wine made from Bronco’s vineyards — it owns more than 40,000 acres in California, mostly in the Central Valley, a hot, fertile expanse that is a source of grapes for many inexpensive wines.
Bronco now has a line of more expensive Shaw wines made, Bronco says, from organically grown grapes. That’s not Two-Buck Chuck.
How were the grapes farmed, and who provided the labor? What steps were taken at the winemaking facility to ensure some semblance of consistency, since the sources of the wine changed year to year? We can only guess.
It may not occur to many wine drinkers to ask these questions. But they do matter, especially if you are concerned about farming methods and conditions for agricultural workers. And they matter to people who care about where a wine comes from and whether it expresses the distinctive character of a place.
To be clear, Charles Shaw is not the only wine that raises these questions. A lot of wines, inexpensive and not, are made without regard for the environment and workers. As with fast fashion, the pleasure in the product and the price can obscure serious issues in the manufacturing.
Most people don’t really care about how wine is made or where it comes from. They just want an inexpensive drink that gives them a buzz and tastes good or, at least, doesn’t offend. A smaller group of wine lovers spend a considerable amount of time, energy and money on wine because they find it delicious, as well as rewarding intellectually and aesthetically.
A lot of people would never pay more than a modest price for a wine, regardless of how it’s made. But I do take issue with cynical companies that peddle false messages to consumers to hype their products.
Two-Buck Chuck did not damage American wine culture. But Mr. Franzia relentlessly told American wine drinkers that no wine could possibly be worth more than $10. “Elites,” he argued, were trying to brainwash people with all their talk about terroir and nuances.
“You tell me why someone’s bottle is worth $80 and mine’s worth $2,” he said in a 2009 profile in The New Yorker. “Do you get 40 times the pleasure from it?”
His message not only promoted his own company’s products, it also destroyed the notion that any wine could be better.
People who are passionate about wine knew better, but for others it confirmed a suspicion that wine was all a bunch of foolishness. And for people who might have been curious about wine, it raised doubts.
Charles Shaw and Charles Schwab. I often get them mixed up. LOL.
Three Wells Coming Off Confidential List Today -- October 4, 2022
Loretta Lynn: dies at age 90.
Ukraine: from Reuters this morning --
- Ukrainian forces have broken through Russian defenses in the south of the country while expanding their rapid offensive in the east, seizing back more territory in areas annexed by Russia and threatening its troops' supply lines.
- swamped by panic-stricken requests for help to avoid being drafted, Russian lawyers say they are working flat out to offer advice to those at risk of being sent to fight in Ukraine.
Investing: it is incredibly difficult to stick to my investing allocation with oil doing what it's doing.
Shell: frustrated CEO? I think so. Shell, BP, et al trying to go green, and China is eating their lunch. The fact that the CEO of Shell even talks about this speaks volumes about Shell's strategy. Go woke, go broke. Link here. Greta can't be happy, though I doubt she cares much -- now living off her royalties.
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Back to the Bakken
The Far Side: link here.
Active rigs: 45.
WTI: $84.10. Held overnight.
Natural gas: $6.387. To say the least, this is most perplexing but it confirms what I've always thought -- operators can bring natural gas quickly to the market.
Wednesday, October 5, 2022: 11 for the month, 11 for the quarter, 456 for the year
38806, conf, Crescent Point Energy, CPEUSC Defrance 6-12-1-158N-100W-MBH,
36990, conf, Enerplus, Moray 149-94-36C-25H-TF,
35625, conf, Bowline, Lee 151-101-8-5-13H,
38805, conf, Crescent Point Energy, CPEUSC Fantuz 6-13-24-158N-100W-MBH-LL,
36989, conf, Enerplus, Shad 149-94-36C-25H,
32123, conf, Whiting, Niemitalo 31-15-3XH,
RBN Energy: as interest in EVs spikes, revised tax credit boosts plan for US production, part 3. Archived.
By all appearances, the momentum behind electric vehicles (EVs) has done nothing but increase over the last year, boosted by higher gasoline prices and federal legislation intended to speed the pace of EV adoption.
But the transportation sector's transition to electric power and away from the internal-combustion engine (ICE) won't be easy, and may take a lot longer than many expect or hope, due in part to the significant challenges in finding the hard-to-come-by metals and other materials needed for EV production. In today’s RBN blog, we look at the continuing focus on EVs, China’s current dominance in the global market, and how the newly passed Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is boosting plans to make EV batteries in the U.S.
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