Semi-Conductors -- Micron -- Reports Huge Loss -- 2Q23

Link here.

The Flat Earth Society — March 17, 2023

I watched The Louis Pasteur Story, a 1936 movie, on TCM today. 

1870s. 

The Covid-19 pandemic reminded me that 50% of Americans are still living in the “Dark Ages” when it comes to vaccines, wearing masks, and, washing hands. Fifty percent of Americans would be anti-Pasteur, anti-Lister, if experience with Covid-19 was any indication.

Intel Delays Products -- March 15, 2023

Updates

May 25, 2023: update.

Original Post

Recent, google: intel major product delay falcon shores gpu --

Back in 2020: 7-nm delay; 

iPhone debacle: social media.

Bakken Yields Clues To One Of Earth's Deadliest Mass Extinctions -- PHYS/ORG -- March 13, 2023

Link here.

The Bakken Shale Formation—a 200,000-square-mile shale deposit below parts of Canada and North Dakota—has supplied billions of barrels of oil and natural gas to North America for 70 years. A new discovery reveals that the rocks also open a uniquely informative window into Earth's complicated geological history.

A research team, which included geologists from the University of Maryland, George Mason University and the Norwegian oil and gas company Equinor, developed a new framework for analyzing paleontological and biogeochemical data extracted from the formation's rock.

Using this technique, the team pinpointed a major trigger of several closely spaced biotic crises during the late Devonian Period almost 350 million years ago: euxinia, or the depletion of oxygen and expansion of hydrogen sulfide in large bodies of water. Published in the journal Nature on March 8, 2023, the team's findings demonstrate links between sea level, climate, ocean chemistry and biotic disruption.

"For the first time, we can point to a specific kill mechanism responsible for a series of significant biotic disruptions during the late Devonian Period," said UMD Geology Professor Alan Jay Kaufman, a senior author of the paper. "There have been other mass extinctions presumably caused by expansions of hydrogen sulfide before, but no one has ever studied the effects of this kill mechanism so thoroughly during such a critical period of Earth's history."

According to Kaufman, the late Devonian Period was a "perfect storm" of factors that played a large role in how Earth is today. Vascular plants and trees were especially crucial to the process; as they expanded on land, plants stabilized soil structure, helped spread nutrients to the ocean, and added oxygen and water vapor to the atmosphere while pulling carbon dioxide out of it.

"The introduction of terrestrial plants capable of photosynthesis and transpiration stimulated the hydrological cycle, which kick-started the Earth's capacity for more complex life as we know it today," Kaufman said.

The Devonian Period ended around the same time the Bakken sediments accumulated, allowing the layers of organic-rich shale to 'record' the environmental conditions that occurred there. Because the Earth's continents were flooded during that time, various sediments including black shale gradually accumulated in inland seas that formed within geological depressions like the Williston Basin, the preserved the Bakken formation. 

Much more at the link. 

Aramco's Spending Mystery -- Bloomberg -- March 13, 2023

After posting a record profit for 2022, Saudi Aramco says it will boost capital investment by as much as 45% this year. But it has yet to answer the question of how much, if any, of that increase will go toward lifting the country’s oil-production capacity, even as it warns of the risks of underinvestment globally.

The company reiterated plans to boost domestic production capacity to 13 million barrels a day by 2027, but that’s a long-held target and the projects to achieve it are well underway. They’re due to start contributing more volumes next year, with the biggest increments set to come in 2025 and 2026. But there’s no sign yet that Aramco’s looking beyond that goal.

Indeed, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said in July that, beyond that, the kingdom “will not have any additional capacity to increase production.” But it's far from clear that's a geological limit.

With access to massive and (relatively) easy-to-exploit oil reserves in Saudi Arabia, Aramco has a huge advantage over other producers. While the world may hold more proven oil reserves than are needed as it transitions away from fossil fuels, much of that crude is unattractive or off-limits to investors.

The vast deposits of Venezuela’s Orinoco basin or Canada’s oil sands, which make them the world’s first- and third-biggest oil reserves holders, respectively, are much more expensive and carbon-intensive to produce than the oil lying beneath Saudi Arabia’s deserts or the shallow waters of the Persian Gulf. They also require a lot more processing once they reach the surface to turn them into usable products.

The next three biggest reserves holders — Iraq, Iran and Russia — are hobbled by politics. Only Iraq is potentially open for business with Western oil companies, and it has seen more overseas oil investors leave than arrive in recent years. For the other two, maintaining current production levels in the face of international sanctions may be their key challenges.

The future of global oil demand is uncertain, but OPEC sees it rising to about 110 million barrels a day, a near 10% increase, by 2035. It’s not clear that Aramco worries enough about underinvestment in oil production to boost its own capacity beyond current plans.

--Julian Lee, Bloomberg Oil Strategist

Bank Failures

 Link here.

Apple's Most Recent Purchase -- March 10, 2023

Link here.