Sports Today -- PGA -- US Open - Observations -- June 20, 2026

Locator: 51023SPORTS.

Updates 

6:50 p.m. CT: another huge crash.  Lap 35/60. Another red flag; took about an hour. Exciting finish.

First caution: lap one. Car hits manhole cover that had supposedly been welded down ... a manhole cover ends up in the radiator of car #17. Race is over for Corey Day. 150 manhole covers, or thereabouts. How fast can they weld the manhole cover back over the manhole? 

4:15 p.m. CT: NASCAR race starting momentarily out at San Diego. Naval Base Coronado. Street racing. A very irregular track; not the typical oval. Many of the curves single file; spotters / crew chiefs can't see every spot on the track. 

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Original Post 

1:00 p.m. CT: Scottie about ready to tee off.  We don't see the leader until 2:45 p.m. CT -- almost two hours from now. 

• this Long Island golf course not as nice-looking as the Masters at Augusta, George; 
• Rolex needs to move on; still using "stills" of Tiger Woods to sell watches;
• the first wave of players: USA Network (NBC) and NBC only interested in Jordan Spieth it seems, and he continues to disappoint; his last win was in 2022 -- there are upwards of 45 PGA tournaments each year; so he's had some 150 opportunities to win; none to date; 
• crowds huge in some areas, but sparse in other areas;
• Scottie has just teed of from the first tee; in the rough just off the fairway; bogey first hole, Rory, par; not impressive in either case;
• I'm still not seeing any "real" champion; no "must-see" golfer.
• finally the first wave is completed and now we see the top of the leaderboard. 

NASCAR is making history this weekend (June 20-21) at Naval Base Coronado for the Anduril 250, marking the first time the Cup Series has ever competed on an active military base. It will be located at airfield operations, north island, I believe.

• today's race: late afternoon
• tomorrow's race: mid-afternoon

Naval Base Coronado (NBC) is a massive, 57,000-acre consortium of eight military installations in Southern California. Stretching from San Clemente Island to Imperial Beach, it serves as the West Coast hub for naval aviation, amphibious operations, and special warfare, employing over 36,000 military and civilian personnel.

FIFA Soccer: based on countries, none that interest me. The USA plays Turkey later. this week, Thursday. Not exactly must-watch television. 

Bakken -- Staggering -- A Reminder -- June 20, 2026

Locator: 51022B.  

A reminder. This link to see staggering wells from over the years. 

When you get there, this post will show up at the top, so scroll down through all the "staggering" wells.

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The Book Page

Arrived today: The Conversations: Walter Murch and the Art of Editing Film, Michael Ondaatje, c. 2002. Dustcover price: $35. Thriftbooks, $6.75. 

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The Book Page

Re-reading. Trying to sort this book out.

Suddenly Something Clicked: The Languages of Film Editing and Sound Design, Walter Murch, c. March, 2025. 

Link here for the notes. 

This is the first of three volumes. The author says he has already completed volumes 2 and 3, but they won't be released "until the right time." 

Walter Murch is 82 years old. Volume 1 was published when he was 81 years old. Wiki. 

Never quit reading. This is truly amazing. On the very first page of this book: "uncanny valley." See wiki. So incredibly relevant at this moment in time.

Murch started compiling notes for this book in 2013 or thereabouts. And now AI.

As related to robotics engineering, robotics professor Masahiro Mori first introduced the concept in 1970 from his book titled Bukimi No Tani, lit. 'uncanny valley phenomenon').

Bukimi no tani was translated literally as uncanny valley in the 1978 book Robots: Fact, Fiction, and Prediction written by Jasia Reichardt.

Over time, this translation created an unintended association of the concept to Ernst Jentsch's psychoanalytic concept of the uncanny established in his 1906 essay "On the Psychology of the Uncanny" which was then critiqued and extended in Sigmund Freud's 1919 essay "The Uncanny." 

Mori's original hypothesis states that as the appearance of a robot is made more human, some observers' emotional response to the robot becomes increasingly positive and empathetic, until it becomes almost human, at which point the response quickly becomes strong revulsion. 

However, as the robot's appearance continues to become less distinguishable from that of a human being, the emotional response becomes positive once again and approaches human-to-human empathy levels.

When plotted on a graph (see above), the reactions are indicated by a steep decrease followed by a steep increase (hence the "valley" part of the name) in the areas where anthropomorphism is closest to reality.

Presidential Libraries, Museums, Shrines, Centers -- June 20, 2026

Locator: 51021OBAMA.  

The President Barack Obama Center (is that the correct name?) came up in passing this morning in a one- or two-line conversation with my wife when she mentioned a friend of a friend of a friend attended the opening of said library, Chicago, IL.

I mentioned that as far I knew, I have only visited one presidential library, the George W. Bush library here in Texas, and I think I only went there because of its proximity to where we live. I thought it was a great museum / library.

Then my wife reminded me that we had been to John F Kennedy library in Boston. Now, I remember. Without question that was my favorite. Very small, mostly a library in the true sense of the word, except not a "lending" library. The site, the location, the view, second to none. What I liked most about it: small, intimate, quite, restful.

The Bush libary here in Texas is beautiful, but it was a museum, not a library. It's "way over the top." Wonderful to visit, but I liked the JFK library so much more.  

So, now I'm starting to get it. Library. Museum. Shrine. Center. Campus.  

Factoid:

• the Obama Center in Chicago, the one we're talking about, is 8 stories high;
• the proposed Trump Center, to be built in Florida, is expected to be 50 stories high.

The centerpiece and major visual "wow factor" inside the museum at the Obama Presidential Center is a soaring, three-story atrium containing a monumental artwork called "City of the Big Shoulders" by artist Mark Bradford, alongside an expansive 88-foot digital wall celebrating the "Power of Words." See photograph of the painting here.

President George W. Bush library: a replica of his Oval Office.

President Donald J. Trump center: a decommissioned Air Force One on the bottom floor.  

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Going Forward

 

What Makes An Investor, An Investor -- A Repost From Three Years Ago -- June 20, 2026

Locator: 51020INVESTING.  

Re-posting, from November 23, 2023. Link here.

Locator: 46146INV.

I don't know how this contributor ended up on my twitter feed, but I consider myself lucky he did. I've learned a bit about investing from him.

From today:

Two things Giuliano taught me today, as an investor, not a trader:

• investors don't understand P/Es; and,
• investors wait too long to pivot.

I live and breathe mom-and-pop retail investing, in which I mean I know nothing about bonds, nothing about inverted curves, nothing about short-selling, nothing about options, nothing about puts and calls. At the end of the day, all I know from the financial pages is the basic stuff -- market caps, P/Es, highs and lows. But I live and breathe mom-and-pop retail investing. I think about it 24/7. 

I think about -- and live and breathe -- only a handful of things, and pretty much in this order:

• the love of my life;
• music;
• reading;
• retail investing;
• my extended family.

A basic question I ask when investing: if I were 20 years old would I want to work at this company for the rest of my life, for this CEO, and, if the answer is "yes," would I be willing to invest 100% of my retirement funds into this company's 401(k) or equivalent? If the answer to both questions is "yes," then I will invest in that company. If the answer to either question is "no," I won't invest. That seems pretty simple. [Obviously that question -- actually two questions -- needs to be re-asked periodically, not less than annually.]

In all my years of investing, I've only been really, really disappointed in three or four decisions and in all cases, I failed to pay attention to the answer to that question (or actually two questions).

California Archives -- Minor Notes -- June 19, 2026

Locator: 51019CALI.  

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Burrows

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The Birth Of Movies
The Book Page

Suddenly Something Clicked: The Languages of Film Editing and Sound Design, Walter Murch, c. March, 2025. Notes here. 

Dates: 

• Tech -- The projector, film, motion picture, etc: Thomas Edison, Eastman Kodak (George Eastman / Henry A, Strong), and others. Over several years, but for one specific date, perhaps, 1899. 
• Art -- Cinema: 1901.

Birth: 1889 -- 1901: twelve-year infancy and childhood of motion pictures.... motion pictures and cinema were not born simultaneously.  -- Walter Murch, 

Query: 

What happened with motion pictures in 1889 that Walter Murch said the movie pictures infance was 1889 to 1901? 

Reply: 

Query:

Difference between motion pictures and cinema. Walter Murch said that motion pictures and cinema were not born simultaneously.

Reply: