Well, I just discovered all the Alnaturas around town are closed.
✅ Yes, I've been busy
✅ Yes, I realize the fact I'm just noticing might be why
🥲 Still. I really liked them for a lot of stuff.
Change sucks.
🖖 RIP Beloved store I only occasionally shopped in
'member ... 'member ... that bespoke BMW you used to have? That was great
“We thank Maria for her work over the last 12 ½ years and wish her all the best on her next chapter."
UPDATE: See Dylan Byers tweet below
NOTE: Not mine, I have nothing to do with this, but I wish I did
https://damstrait.net/#overview
The Russia–Ukraine war is a grinding attrition campaign that reroutes and degrades supply without removing much crude from the market: four years of sanctions, price caps, and ~194 drone strikes on refineries in H1 2026 alone have hollowed out Russian refining (~a third offline per trackers; Kyiv claims more) and forced Russia to export more crude, not less.
The 2026 US/Israel–Iran war did what sanctions never could: the Strait of Hormuz closure (de facto Feb 28, declared Mar 2–4, until Jun 17; ~20 mb/d of total oil transit incl. products cut to a trickle — plus 19–20% of world LNG, a third of world helium, roughly a third of traded urea and the light ends behind Asia's crackers, none of which has a pipeline out: the bypass ledger) was, per the IEA, the largest supply disruption in the history of the global oil market — world supply fell from 106.9 to 94.5 mb/d in three months, Brent went from $71 to $138, and the largest-ever coordinated stock release could replace barely a sixth of the lost barrels.
Prices broke on the expectation of reopening: Brent fell 21% in the two weeks before the June 17 memorandum was signed (Jun 3 $101.69 → Jun 17 $80.33), then a further 13% after — the market priced the deal before the signatures. That truce collapsed on July 8, with the buffers that cushioned round one now substantially depleted.
SUMMARY
Mike Rothman’s main point is that the oil market is far tighter than prices suggest, and that the apparent mismatch comes from a collapse in financial/speculative demand rather than a collapse in real oil demand. He argues that geopolitical shocks, underinvestment, and refinery constraints have created a structural supply problem that the market is still underpricing.
One of his strongest claims is that oil prices are disconnected from fundamentals: inventories are drawing sharply, but prices are not reflecting it. He calls this the worst mismatch on record and says it looks like a collapse in “financial demand” for oil, where trading and positioning overwhelm physical supply-demand signals.
His broader takeaway is that price discovery is being distorted by paper markets, so investors and policymakers should pay more attention to physical inventories, flows, and refinery data than to headline futures prices
Rothman’s Investment Message
Energy stocks still look attractive because they act as a proxy for oil and can outperform when the market eventually reprices tight physical conditions. He thinks the sector is still in the middle innings of a multi-year bull cycle.
He also points to historical episodes where energy stocks outperformed crude itself before major oil rallies, and he thinks the current setup may be another version of that pattern.
TLDR
Rothman’s view is: physical oil supply is tighter than the market admits, geopolitical risks are worsening, and the current weakness in oil prices is mostly a paper-market distortion rather than a true signal of abundant supply.
>Gavin Newsom on Wednesday appointed Scott Galloway, an entrepreneur and influential podcaster, to a seat on the University of California’s Board of Regents.
>If confirmed by the state Senate, Galloway, who co-hosts a popular tech and business podcast with Kara Swisher, will serve on the powerful 26-member board that oversees the sprawling 10-campus UC system, which has 300,000 students.
On Raging Moderates he said his first move will be listening for 6-12 months, but he's most concerned about access.
I have nothing to do with this site or any of these companies or anything to do with any of this in any way, shape, or form, purely just passing along what seem like a few good deals
One of my favorites is in here, the Asics Sonic Blast at $110 is a killer deal for these shoes IME - if I didn't already have 2 backup pairs I'd buy more!
Also the NB SC Trainer v3s are one of my favs - both are in this pic, the bottom row is the NB SCTv3 and the red shoe on the left is the Asics Sonic Blast
I kept getting the maintenance page, but kept refreshing and trying all kinds of things:
Eventually I made it to the ESTA login page on Chrome, but then it asks you to select a preferred store and strap size and it was booting me out.
Finally I got past that to the first question and then it booted me out a few times
Finally I got to the questions and they're big time trivia - since I was panicked it was going to boot me again, I just zoomed through it which probably screwed up my chances because there's clearly a riddle going on.
Also, the site was consuming a LOT of laptop resources, not sure why
Oh well, hope this helps someone else!
*WF-1000XM6
The perspective on the pics is a little misleading, so I tired to get enough to give a sense of the size - it's really negligible if you don't mind the earbuds case already
Some thoughts on the official Sony case for the XM6 earbuds
This case is surprisingly useful for a specific use!
I'd put it more in the change-the-feel than protect the earbuds category, though it'll do that just fine if that's what you're looking for.
So why would you want this?
The final point is where this case really is worth it.
So, for me, when I travel I wear pants with thigh pockets and I keep the earbuds there so they're super handy. Once I'm in my airplane seat I usually switch to over-ear headphones, but I like the earbuds to always be handy.
Because this case has a more tacky rubberized texture, it won't move much in a larger pocket and is much less apt to fall out if the pocket is open
So, even if you're not a case person like me, if you keep these in a pocket where they might fall out, and don't mind the tradeoff of them been somewhat harder to slide out of your pocket, then highly recommended!
King's College Professor of Finance, hedge funder, and former investment banker Patrick Boyle lays out why the Germans are in big trouble which also explains the noticeable drop in quality
At the heart of the new ANC technology is Anker’s custom-designed Thus chip. "We actually spent three years building this foundation for Anker,” says Qian. The Thus chip is not solely for the Liberty 5 Pro series. Thus is a significant multi-year investment to develop proprietary silicon, which moves Anker from a component assembler to an architecture player.
I recently attached the Concept 2 RowErg Tractor Seat due to some lower back issues that had kept me off the rower for the last 6 months and DAMN if this thing isn't great!
It doesn't inhibit you from rowing normally (maybe a little), but the win is if you don't want to use the hinge motion due to back injury / issue, then you can use this as stable assist to keep you perfectly positioned through the stroke.
The back rest hits me perfectly right in the lumbar so it's super easy to keep great back-saver form, but also get in a great row.
I got in awhile ago from Concept 2, but maybe they've offloaded sales to 3rd party because now I only see them here: https://sportsmith.com/tractor-seat-for-concept2-rowers/product/p17040
With that I didn't look too hard so YMMV.
Anyway, just wanted to let the community know: if you have back issues keeping you off the rowerg, this might be the way to get back on - it is for me!
A quick snap of some of my Sistem 51s, all 10+ years old, all work great, even the Notte which got a ton of wrist time as it was my travel watch
Nick Norwitz could have been great. He isn't.
Nick Norwitz is one of those people who seems LEGIT. He's got Dartmouth, Oxford and Harvard on his CV, and MD, PhD after his name. Surely he knows what he's talking about? Sigh.
In this video I share my views on what genuine, deep competence takes (lots of hard boring work over many, many years [out of the limelight]), and how Nick's lack of "doing" (and his decision to abandon that path for internet fame) have let him down.
What a waste.
I have a 22 X5M, just drove the 26 X6Mc for a day, thoughts:
Better:
Worse:
Overall
So, basically, BMW is charing 13% more for a much less luxurious vehicle
My supposition is BMW is targeting 25% between price increase & cost cutting to pay for EV transition & keep profits rising.
TLDR:
Final sad thoughts: