Jim Ulvog – Page 16 – Outrun Change

The 2010’s: best decade in history.

Matt Ridley explains the best improvement in living standards for us humans over a single decade is the decade that ends today, 12/31/19.

(Cross-post from my other blog, Freedom is Moral.)

He explained his point from multiple directions on 12/21/19 in Spectator: We’ve just had the best decade in human history. Seriously.

A few of his points that caught my interest:

The rate of extreme poverty in the world has dropped from 60% when he was born to under 10% in this decade. If you ache to seek less people in dirt eating poverty that is a wonderful thing.

Continue reading “The 2010’s: best decade in history.”

Congress establishes the United States Space Force, newest branch of U.S. military.

Congress has approved and the president has signed legislation to create the United States Space Force.

This sixth branch will start out as a department of the U.S. Air Force in the way that the U.S. Marine Corps is a department of the U.S. Navy.

Continue reading “Congress establishes the United States Space Force, newest branch of U.S. military.”

In October 2019 North Dakota continues record setting level of oil production after one month break

Oil pad with four wells; one with pumpjack and three without. Looks like there is room for another six or more wells eventually. Photo by James Ulvog.

Crude oil production hit yet another record level in October at 1,517,796 barrels of oil per day (BOPD) (preliminary). September was not a record at 1,443,980 BOPD (revised). September was only the third highest production.

During 2019, record level of production was hit in October, August, July, June, and January. Record was broken in 2018 during December, October, September, August, July, and May.

Huge amount of room on that site for additional wells. Already have two rows of wells. Photo by James Ulvog.

What does the average daily production trend look like? Check it out:

Continue reading “In October 2019 North Dakota continues record setting level of oil production after one month break”

A sixth branch of the United States military?

We are about to get a sixth branch of the U.S. military. There are currently five branches:

Army
Navy
Marine Corps
Air Force

And most people forget to include the:

Coast Guard

The soon to be approved sixth branch?

United States Space Force

Yes, the Congress is just about to approve moving space missions out of the Air Force and into a new branch.

10/10/19 – Behind the Black – Congress approves establishment of Space Force – Continue reading “A sixth branch of the United States military?”

Where are they now? Minor updates to status and location of Silk Road players.

Just checked on the status of the players in the Silk Road dark web bazaar.

Updated previous post for the location and release date for Andrew Michael Jones. Release date and location for Gary Davis is now listed. Release date for Carl Mark Force has been shorted one month.

I won’t repost all the details. Check out the status at:

Where are they now? Players in Silk Road, the on-line bazaar for drugs, explosives, and body parts.

North Dakota breaks record oil production level for three months running.

Crude oil production in North Dakota has broken a record for three months in a row. This is not a record breaking number of record breaking months though. In the post-bust time since 2014, the record number of record levels was July 2018 through October 2018, or four months in a row. Back then production was 1.27m bopd in 7/18, 1.29m, 1.36m, and 1.394m, before sliding a bit to 1.378m in 11/18.

Production was 1,477,394 bopd (preliminary) in August 2019, up 2.18% from 1,445,934 bopd in July.

Check out the production trend:

Continue reading “North Dakota breaks record oil production level for three months running.”

In July 2019, North Dakota oil production breaks record for second month in a row.

Four of the reasons oil prices are *not* completely crazy after the attack on Saudi Arabia’s processing facilities this past weekend. Photo by James Ulvog.

The Million Dollar Way blog points out With The July, 2019, Data, North Dakota Set Four New All-Time Records.

In July, the state energy wizards set four record levels of production:

Crude oil
Gas
Barrels of oil equivalent (converting gas into equivalent amount of oil and combining with crude production)
Number of producing wells

Breaking production records in North Dakota, New Mexico, and Texas is something to celebrate if you like being able to get gasoline for your car whenever you feel like doing so, or if you like having gas available at reasonable prices in spite of when, oh, say, someone drops a bunch of bombs on Saudi production facilities.

Continue reading “In July 2019, North Dakota oil production breaks record for second month in a row.”

Cost of Los Angeles and Las Vegas football stadiums

3d rendering of an outlined stadium. Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

It is fascinating to see the cost of large projects. Check out the price tag for new football stadiums in Los Angeles and Las Vegas.

Los Angeles

The new stadium under construction in Los Angeles which, will be the home of the Rams and Chargers, will run a cool $5 billion.

Continue reading “Cost of Los Angeles and Las Vegas football stadiums”

Where are they now? Players in Silk Road, the on-line bazaar for drugs, explosives, and body parts.

Mr. Ulbricht’s housing area for either the rest of his life or until the Feds decide to move him to another facility for the rest of his life: Federal Correctional Complex Tucson FCI Tucson Arizona Overhead View by Prison Insight is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Time for a follow-up on the status and jail location of the major players in the Silk Road, dark web fiasco. If you need lots and lots of background, check out this tag.

Bureau of Prisons’ inmate locator service, some online searching, and previous reporting provides this info:

Ross William Ulbricht, a/k/a “Dread Pirate Roberts”, “DPR” – Silk Road mastermind – age 35.

Serving Life Sentence. (In the federal system, I think “life” means life.)

In 12/18 he was confined at Florence (Colorado) – High security U.S. Penitentiary, that is the ‘super-max’. On 9/2/19 he is confined at Tucson U.S. Penitentiary, a high security prison.

Update 11/21/19– Still at Tucson USP and still showing Life as release date.

Roger Thomas Clark – a/k/a “Variety Jones”, allegedly Mr. Ulbricht’s deputy – age 57

Continue reading “Where are they now? Players in Silk Road, the on-line bazaar for drugs, explosives, and body parts.”

Where is he now? Keith Graves, star of “The Overnighters” documentary

Federal Correctional Institution Pekin Illinois Front by Prison Insight is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Update 9/17/20 – Bureau of Prisons website shows Mr. Graves has scheduled release date of 5/17/43. He is still in Pekin FCI.

Update 5/2/22 – Scheduled release date per BoP is 6/26/43. Still at Pekin FCI.

Recap of posted release dates:

5/19/16 – release date 12/24/43
10/23/18 – release date 12/24/43; no change
8/31/19 – release date 1/5/44; slippage of 12 days
9/17/20 – release date 5/17/43; about 7½ months earlier; which is 22 years 8 months from now
5/2/22 – release date 6/27/43; slippage of 42 days

He is age 44 as of 9/17/2220, so he will be 66 or 67 years old at his schedule release date.

If you were reading my blog a few years ago, you recall lots of discussion of the documentary The Overnighters. The movie provides one perspective on the oil boom in Williston, North Dakota.

As you may recall, one of the main characters was a fellow by the name of Keith Graves. He was identified by the director as one of the individuals who “survived” the tumult seen during the time the movie was filmed. If you want to catch up on his story, check out this link.

Where is he now?

Federal prison.

Continue reading “Where is he now? Keith Graves, star of “The Overnighters” documentary”

Two percent increase in North Dakota oil production in June 2019.

Oil production in the state increased 2.15% in June, growing an average of 30,004 bopd, from 1,394,648 bopd average in May (revised) to 1,424,652 in June (preliminary). That is after a lull from October 2018 through May 2019, when the average production increased a mere 648 bopd.

Before showing the production graph, a few comments about prices and rigs in operation.

Prices have declined substantially in the last couple of months:

Sweet crude in North Dakota
$48.00 March
$52.50 April
$50.50 May
$43.10 June

The drop, especially in June, shows up in the value of crude production:

The productivity of wells has increased over the years. The result is the count of completed wells is largely independent of the number of drilling rigs in operation.

Consider an overlay of the completed well count and the rig count:

Continue reading “Two percent increase in North Dakota oil production in June 2019.”

Deepfake – manipulating video to create a fabricated story.

How’s this sound for another down side of technology?

Applying cutting edge technology to a video, changing the words said, altering the mouth movement to conform to the fabricated words, changing facial expressions, and thus fabricating a new video telling a story that doesn’t exist.

That is called deepfake.

Currently, the technology is at a level where a human watching a deepfake can tell it is fake. Inconsistencies in facial movement or lighting or pixelation will give away the fabrication. Several articles say the technology is advancing so fast that soon humans will not be able to detect a fake just by watching.

Special computer programs can detect the alterations.

A few articles for more background:

Continue reading “Deepfake – manipulating video to create a fabricated story.”

Just another routine space launch and recovery of the booster. What a delight to ponder recollections of the Apollo 11 mission along with another SpaceX mission.

Falcon 9 and Dragon capsule lift off on CRS-18 mission. Credit Flickr. Courtesy of SpaceX who has placed their photos in the public domain.

Just a few days ago we celebrated the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 landing on the moon. What an astounding accomplishment and what a joy to remember. Take a look at the grainy views of the launch and walk on the moon mentioned in immediately previous post.

Check out the SpaceX Commercial Resupply Mission yesterday, 7/25/19. CRS-18 carried about 5,000 pounds of supplies and experiments to the International Space Station. In four weeks about 3,300 pounds of cargo will be returned to earth.

The mission press release says this is the third time this Dragon capsule has flown, which is a new record for reuse. This is the second time this particular Falcon 9 booster has flown. The booster was successfully recovered.

The announcer on the broadcast said this is the 44th successfully recovery of a booster.

Continue reading “Just another routine space launch and recovery of the booster. What a delight to ponder recollections of the Apollo 11 mission along with another SpaceX mission.”

Film clips of Apollo 11 mission to the moon. 50th anniversary is today.

Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin by Neil Armstrong, Sea of Tranquility, Moon, 1969 by trialsanderrors is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Behind the Black has a series of posts linking to video of the astounding first trip to the moon. Today, July 20, 1969, marks 50 years since humans set foot on the moon. What an incredible accomplishment.

Some fun links to fun video:

Continue reading “Film clips of Apollo 11 mission to the moon. 50th anniversary is today.”