One New Permit And That's About It; Three More DUCs -- July 28, 2016

Active rigs:

	7/28/2016	07/28/2015	07/28/2014	07/28/2012	07/28/2011
Active Rigs	35	73	193	207	181

Wells coming off confidential list Friday morning:

• 29858, drl, Newfield, Jorgenson Federal 148-96-10-15-2H, Lost Bridge, no production data,
• 32014, TASC, MRO, Jackie USA 34-34TFH, Reunion Bay, no production data,
• 32283, SI/NC, XTO, FBIR Blackmedicine 24X-21E, Heart Butte, no production data,
• 32302, SI/NC, XTO, FBIR Blackmedicine 24X-21AXD, Siverston, no production data

One new permit:

• Operator: Liberty Resources
• Field: McGregor (Williams)
• Comments:

Two producing wells completed:

• 31930, 630, Hess, HA-Grimestad-152-95-3031H-4, Hawkeye, 50 stages, 3.5 million lbs, t7/16; cum --
• 31932, 1,233, Hess, HA-Grimestad-152-95-3031H-6, Hawkeye, Three Forks, 36 stages, 2.5 million lbs, t7/16; cum 5K after 2 days; 

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New-Well Oil Production Per Rig

For the Bakken, Eagle Ford, and the Permian. Nice graphic.

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Surprise, Surprise. Tesla Needs More Money - Barron's

Link here.

MuskMelon as much as admitted that a "modest" capital raise will be necessary. On news, shares were initially up, but today down.  Will the "modest" capital raise be announced before/after August 3 2016?

I-98: An Update -- July 28, 2016

I-98: An Update

Some folks (not many, but some) have been asking whatever happened to the television series, I-98? 

Unfortunately the series only ran for one season and only eight episodes. Due to low ratings, the series was canceled. The series was just beginning to build its audience and many think killing the series at this time was premature.

However, there is talk of at least one spin-off. It is possible the roles of Thelma and Louise will be brought back in a 30-minute sitcom: "Stripper Wells."

Stripper Wells is the story of a young woman from south Minneapolis who heads west to the Bakken when she hears that women can become quite wealthy working, not as waitresses in cheesecake restaurants, but as dancers in upscale gentleman's clubs. Mary Bernitsky Westly takes the stage name of "Stripper Wells." To save money she shares a room with "Shelley Shaker" at the far end of town in El Ranchero, a modern 32-story glass skyscraper, which has become the place to be if in the oil and gas industry. The skyscraper replaced the 32 man-camps that were strewn about McKenzie and Williams counties. The Trump helicopter landing pad will be highlighted in the sitcom's opening credits. Mary and Shelley will be the two lead characters in an ensemble of four regular characters, with weekly cameos by the seventeen original 2016 GOP presidential candidates.

As for the two main characters, Sam will become a spokesperson for BOG, formerly known as Bakken Oil & Gas; and, Liam will return to Rugby where he hopes to become a community organizer with a focus on getting the marker for the geographical center of North America in exactly the right spot.

BOG, often derisively referred to as "bogged down," has recently expanded into wind and solar, and will be renamed WASBOG (wind and solar, Bakken oil and gas). 

Off The Net For Awhile -- July 28, 2016

I guess we can add this to the Obama legacy: home ownership at 51-year low. Let's see -- 2016 - 51 = 1965. That was a great year for music. Can't say the same for the top hits of 2016. The Beatles had two songs on the top 100 song-list for 1965, and didn't score higher than 31st. That tells you exactly how good the music was in 1965. President Obama, according to available data, turned four years old in 1965.

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A Nice Write-Up Of The Montessori Method

Yesterday was the last day for one of Sophia's "tutors" at TutorTime. Ms Almas had been accepted for a position at a local Montessori school. Sophia wrote a short congratulatory note with a small monetary gift and proudly handed it to Ms Almas as her going-away present and thank you.

Today, of all things, while continuing to read Kate Clifford Larson's Rosemary: The Hidden Kennedy Daughter, I came across several pages of a nice discussion regarding the Montessori method and the eponymous school. 

Data points which are easily available at wiki, I assume, but more rewarding to read in a biography:

• Maria Montessori, born in 1870
• medical degree in 1896, one of Italy's first female doctors
• she saw first-hand the ravaging effects of poverty and the lack of education on the city's most vulnerable
• became particularly interested in those with intellectual disabilities and emotional problems
• opened her first day care in the slums: Casa dei Bambini
• in the right environment, older children readily worked with younger children
• advocated practical skills like cooking, carpentry, and domestic arts along with classical education in literature, science, and math
• to her surprise, teenagers seemed to benefit most
• the Montessori method arrived in the US in 1915
• it would be years before it was accepted in the US
• very closely allied with Catholic teachings, especially on good and evil

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DNA: Wilkens, A Physicist

From Siddhartha Mukherjee's The Gene: An Intimate History

Ernest Rutherford, to Cambridge, on a scholarship in 1895:

• a New Zealander
• a blaze of unrivaled experimental frenzy 
• deduced the properties of radioactivity
• built a convincing conceptual model of the atom
• shredded the atom into its constituent subatomic pieces
• launched the new frontier of subatomic physics
• 1919: the first scientist to achieve the medieval fantasy of transmutation: by bombarding nitrogen with radioactivity, he converted it to oxygen
• discovered that atoms were made up of even more fundamental units of matter

Wilkens followed in Rutherford's wake. BUT Wilkens had read read Schrodinger's What Is Life? and became instantly enthralled.

• he reasoned that the gene must also be made up of subunits
• he felt that the structure of DNA would illuminate these subunits
• 1946: Wilkins appointed assistant director of the new Biophysics Unit at King's College, London

From The Los Angeles TImes: Trump 47.4% Vs Hillary 40.1% -- Too Close To Call

Screen shot taken on July 28, 2016. The poll is taken daily. This is the first time I've seen it as a banner at the top of the on-line "edition" of The Los Angeles Times.

Best surf rock ever? Too close to call:

Misirlou, Dick Dale and the Del-Tones

WTI: Down To Around $41 -- July 28, 2016; Another Million Insured May Lose Their ObamaCare Coverage -- Anthem

Will we see $39 oil next week?

Previous poll: did operators "jump the gun" on adding rigs in the Bakken, 2H16?

• Yes: 56%
• No: 44%

Market down in early morning trading. Investors are concerned about something:

• jobs report?
• oil dropping to $41 and trending down?
• earnings?
• Fed hinting at rate increase in September?

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Validating Earlier Reports That Southwest Airlines Tried To Save Money Over The Years By Not Investing In Software Scheduling Upgrades

Will Heads Roll?

From The Chicago Business Journal:

Southwest Airline's massive technology outage that caused a near collapse of the carrier's operations nationwide last week continues to reverberate throughout the low-fare airline, and is likely to do so for many days and weeks to come.

An internal memo to Southwest Airlines employees from Craig Drew, senior vice president of air operations, only underscores the magnitude of the meltdown and the damage control with employees that top management is now engaged in as many workers have been outraged by the company's handling of the mess.

Drew began his memo by noting "the last week has been a trial by fire for us at Southwest Airlines, especially for those of you who were on the front line." Drew went on to praise employees for their efforts, noting "I am extremely grateful for everything you did to preserve the relationships with our customers, answering impossible questions and demonstrating the special nature of our people."

Drew tried in his memo to tamp down concerns among many employees that appropriate steps won't be taken to address the meltdown. He wrote, "our technology issue is on the minds of many of you, and I can tell you that the company is swiftly and aggressively investigating the cause so we can mitigate a future breakdown like the one experienced last week."

Sources told me Southwest's board of directors have requested an internal investigation. It remains to be seen how exhaustive the investigation will be and whether it will name names if certain of Southwest's management team fell short in executing their responsibilities.

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Anthem Voicing Concerns On ObamaCare

From the front page of the print edition of The Wall Street Journal, no longer available on-line at WSJ?:

Anthem Inc. said it is now projecting losses on its Affordable Care Act plans this year, a turnaround for a major insurer that had maintained a relatively optimistic tone about that business.

Anthem said it now believed it would see a "mid-single-digit" operating margin loss on its ACA plans in 2016, due to higher-than-expected medical costs. It expects better results next year, because it is seeking substantial premium increases.

Anthem Chief Executive Joseph R. Swedish said that the insurer will re-examine its full-on commitment to selling plans on the health law's exchanges. Anthem will take a "prudent" approach to its future offerings, he said. Anthem has been a major player in the ACA marketplaces, with 923,000 exchange enrollees, and it offers the plans throughout the 14 states where it is a Blue Cross Blue Shield insurer.

The GOP needs to run, not walk, away from ObamaCare.