So I wonder what The Fed is doing too. And I like watching a nice fire. From A Wealth of Common Sense.

7 Questions I’m Pondering

After dinner last night saw three critters in the grass in the back yard. Thought they were squirrels, but they were moving too slow. Walked up and they were little armadillos. Not afraid of me at all as I walked up taking photos. They eventually scurried under the fence and into my neighbors yard.

Iowa and New Mexico. Not my first guesses. Both over 50% renewables. From OilPrice.com

The U.S States with The Cleanest Power Grids

From the Guardian (UK).

‘This used to be a beautiful place’: how the US became the world’s biggest fossil fuel state

No country has ever in history produced as much oil and gas as the US does now and Louisiana is ground zero

Its no secret that the Internet has been tough on news sources. I admit that for years I mostly rely on Google News to select the news I read. For a while I was pretty happy with this. Over time I began to get more “clickbait” articles, that is, one with ridiculous headlines designed to get you to click on their link. I figureed ignoring these stories would “tell” Google not to send me this sort of stuff. But it didn’t.

I found I was getting lots of articles about the same thing, often using the same text. I also began to get local stories from places I have never been and have no particular interest in. I also found it was taking me longer and longer to read my news in the morning. But maybe that was Googles plan all along.

Recently I decided to beging to ruthlessly block articles and sites that sent me any stories I found had misleading headlines or information. Also I tried to reject news that was loaded with adjectives and adverbs. I’m just want facts, not opinions and emotions. This had led me to blocking what I’m used to consider premier content. I’m mostly thinking of the New York Times. I’m fact, their stories keep popping up and I keep blocking them. What up with that Google (although I suspect I know the answer)?

i joke that I’m down to ESPN, Al Jazera and The Onion. But something funny has happened, at least temporarily. I’m spending less time reading news and feel more informed. I’m also getting lots of news from less prominent and often more local sources. Its important to note that I’m trying to broaden what I read, not narrow it. I’m not looking to make my own echo chamber; quite the opposite. I’m not sure what the solution is for news in today’s world, but I’m happy with my aggressive blocking of news sources.

Of course, existing coal, oil and gas have enjoyed decades of subsidies. An nuclear subsidy is probably hard to calculate. The other story here is the trends. Older technologies aren’t getting much cheaper. New renewables are on a very steep price decrease curve. From Visual Capitalist.

Ranked: America’s Cheapest Sources of Electricity in 2024

For TLDRers: Its all about frackers, mostly here in Texas. My understanding has always been that fracking technology was never economically competitive, especially when you figure in negative methane (“natural gas”) prices. Yes, they will pay you to take natural gas in Texas these days. Predictably, it just ends up burned or “vented” into the atmosphere. From Scientific American (which somewhat cowardly lists this completely factual article as “Opinion”).

New Satellites Alone Won’t Stop the Methane Climate Crisis

I keep wondering how such vast quantities of FPAS, “Forever Chemicals” are being found in our environment. From The Guardian.

PFAS widely added to US pesticides despite EPA denial, study finds

I am technically a Baby Boomer, but just barely. I never identified with the group, being too young for Vietnam and Woodstock, though I do remember seeing them on the news as a kid. I always “passed” as Generation X, but I have learned I am part of a “microgeneration”, Generation Jones.

Generation Jones

From the Washington Post.

The life secret Jerry Seinfeld learned from Esquire