JUST IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) had a successful launch on Christmas day.  This $10 billion system is on a 29-day journey to Lagrange Point 2, around a million miles away.  Note, that our Earth blocks the Sun's rays from the JWST.  We won't know if it will work until after it gets there, and first sight might not be received for three months.  In the meantime, there appears to be no way to correct any mistake as we did for the Hubble Telescope.  The JWST has six times the collecting size of Hubble's, and is 100 times more sensitive.

The Canary Island's La Palma Cumbre Vieja volcanic eruption which began this past September, finally ended after 85 days, the longest on record for this island:

• 3000 buildings destroyed.
• $1 billion of damage.

I've always wanted to visit La Palma because I have featured it several times in this blog and one of my books as the future potential site to create a mega-tsunami, a possible analog of the Big Island of Hawaii sending monster waves to Seattle.  On my exploration adventure, I found out that city is too well protected, so I'm now back to Five Hours to Los Angeles.

From the American Energy Society:  

Who had the "best year" in energy?

The global mining sector. Coal prices are up, exports are up, and prices for Rare Earth Metal's have achieved stratospheric heights, especially elements and metals necessary for batteries (i.e rhodium from $640 an ounce five years ago to $21,900 an ounce this year; lithium prices rose 11% to $10,000 per ton).

I can add that the value of coal stocks rose.  At one point last month, every coal mining company rose at least 145% in the stock market for the past 12 months!!

Incidentally, the Dow Jones Industrials Average rose 96 to 36,398, breaking its all time record.

And:

The worst year in energy politics: Ohio Somehow Ohio House Bill #6 went into effect in 2021 even though it had essentially no supporters. The new law doesn't require utilities to use renewable energy and guts energy efficiency standards. It's one of the all-time worst state-level energy policies ... ever. No, it's worse than that. HB6 also involves a $61 million bribery scandal.

Finally, also from the American Energy Society:

• President Joe Biden acknowledged that "it seems like an irony" that he is asking energy-rich nations to boost oil production as he implores the world to tackle climate change.
• Norway, once the leader in the energy transition to renewables, is now producing record amounts of oil and gas.

Weather in Honolulu over the Christmas weekend?  Wonderful.  However, did you know that the western portion of the USA experienced as much as 16 feet of snow in the Sierra Nevada mountains (most in December, ever), with 100 MPH gusts and a temperature of 55 below zero in Montana?  There was a 20-car pileup on US 395 near Reno because of visibility.  Today, much of this region is still very cold.

Should you be on your way to Las Vegas, their McCarran Airport, named after Nevada's Senator Patrick McCarran 73 years ago, was changed to the Harry Reid International Airport, another senator who was President of the Senate when he retired.  Why?  McCarran reportedly advocated racism, xenophobia and antisemitism.  Part of the stipulation for the name change was that all funding for this effort needed to come from private donations.  The original McCarran Field sign at the Las Vegas Boulevard entrance will however be kept.  Sad to say that former Senator Reid passed away today.

Did you know that the Environmental Protection Agency is finalizing a new federal greenhouse gas emission standard to raise the corporate average fuel economy to 55 MPG from 2026?  The EPA calculates that motorists will save between $210 billion and $420 billion through 2050 on fuel costs.  Of course, the motivation factor is to curb global warming.  The result will be more electric vehicles.

How terrific is this?  Weep.  Here is a current comparison showing how far we are behind Europe and Japan (the MPG axis is to the right):

The White House has a new resident, Commander, a 3-month-old German Shepherd with large pointy ears.  On the Christmas call to the military, he embarrassingly kept licking a certain portion of his body.  The First Dog was a gift from James Biden, the president's brother.  A cat is soon to follow.

I was glancing through the sports section today and noticed that top ten professional tennis players are all from Europe, if you count Russia as being from that region.  #11 is a Canadian, and, finally at #23 is an American, Fritz Taylor.  He is 24 years old and has been a pro for six years.  His serve has been measured at 149 MPH, which sounds great.  The world record, though, is 163.4 MPH by Sam Groth of the UK.  American John Isner, seemingly a perpetual #24 in the world, is #3 at 157.2 MPH.

You might say our ranking is an improvement, as in July of this year, there were no American men in the top 30.  It was 18 years ago that Andy Roddick won the U.S.Open.  He was also the last American at #1.

A little better for females, as Sofia Kenin is #12.  Two years ago this article heralded the coming the next wave of women in tennis.  While Cori Gauff, only 17, made a sudden entry, she has fallen back and is now #22.  Serena Williams, who is 40 years old, is #41.

Ever use TikTok?  You're not keeping up if not, for it beat out Google to become the most popular website in 2021.  Top ten:

1. TikTok.com
2. Google.com
3. Facebook.com
4. Microsoft.com
5. Apple.com
6. Amazon.com
7. Netflix.com
8. YouTube.com
9. Twitter.com
10. WhatsApp.com

I reported on TikTok on October 29:

TikTok is a video-sharing social networking service started in 2017 by Chinese company ByteDance.  The video performance tends to be short, from 15 seconds to three minutes.  After you watch this supposedly top ten from TikTok, you've got to wonder like me why it is popular.  Maybe you need to be young to appreciate the attraction.

Is TikTok a China's Trojan Horse?  Well, it came from China in 2017, and today remains a Chinese-owned entity headquartered in Beijing and run by Zhang Yiming.  He is worth $44.5 billion and little is known about his personal life.

No question that the company shares data with the Communist Party.  100 million Americans use TikTok.  Certainly something to watch.

Larry King passed away earlier this  year at the age of 87.  He had eight marriages, seven wives, six kids, two bankruptcies, a larceny arrest, a quintuple bypass and lung cancer.  Born in Brooklyn as Lawrence Harvey Zeiger, parents were Orthodox Jews who came from Belarus, conducted 60,000 interviews, was a Jewish agnostic, might have died from COVID-19 with a net worth of $144 million, and had a hell of a life.

I've watched cane fields being set aflame, and rats rushing out.  I've never seen corn being harvested:

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100% ROTTEN TOMATOES FILMS AND SERIES: Part 1

Before I get into the topic of today, got to report that this morning's Star Advertiser headline showed:

New infection record reached

Hawaii confirmed 2205 new COVID-19 cases...but zero new deaths.  

• Also, our hospitalization peak of 448 is only at 84 today.  A bit worrisome is that 32 of them were fully vaccinated.  
• This will get worse because of the holiday season, but maybe not significantly so as the Omicron variant gains in taking over from Delta.
• We also now have 12,777 active cases, another record, as the pervious high was 11,500.
• Our seven-day average positivity is 11%, creeping up, but nowhere close to the really badly hit states in this union.
• DC  109%
• Kansas 53%
• Vermont 52%
• New cases per million;
• Hawaii  1575
• Puerto Rico  1947
• Denmark  2448
• New York  1869
• Ireland  2081
• UK  1571
• Japan  2.5

Congressman Kai Kahele, who was vaccinated and boosted, reported that he tested positive.  However, he said that he only had mild flu-like symptoms, and urged those who haven't, to get inoculated as soon as possible, for the relative benign nature of his illness is because he was protected.

Finally, three members of the Korean boy pop group contracted this virus.  They had just returned from their JINGLE BALL tour of the USA.  They were all fully vaccinated.  

You getting this message?  Got vaccinated, still DON'T travel.

As I thought about what I might do for the rest of my life, global journeys, epicurean meals, and the like came first.  Then I dealt with the reality.  I'm getting old and there are too many 100% rated films and series just on Netflix and Prime that I'll never get close to watching them all.  So I reacted by watching Another Life on Netflix.  Why?  I stumbled across this series with two seasons and 20 total episodes, and noticed that Rotten Tomatoes reviewers gave it a 6% rating, while audiences bestowed 70%.  I sometimes do this when there is this wide gap on topics of my interest, and usually side with the audience.  This one was about searching for extraterrestrial aliens, I watched the first two episodes, and wonder why reviewers hated it.  

I recall several years ago seeing 4%/24% for Movie 43.  That was a Green Band trailer.  Here is a restricted trailer.    It was actually quite entertaining if prurience is among your desired interests.   Plus a cast of Kristen Bell, Halle Berry, Gerard Butler, Richard Gere, Hugh Jackman, Johnny Knoxville and a whole lot more.  This one had a variety of shock clips.  For instance, you just got to see this one of Kate Winslet and Hugh Jackman.

Read this review, calling it the worst film of the 2010's.  That  above short with Jackman/Winslet was filmed first, drawing-in the all-star cast, each paid $800 to appear.  Movie won three Golden Raspberries, but earned more than five times what it cost to make.

Where was I?  Oh, yes, 100% Rotten Tomatoes shows.  You would think all the top 100 movies of all time would get 100% scores.  Nope, only 10 of them.  In fact the highest rated 100% is The 1940 Philadelphia Story at #22.  #1 is the 1934 It Happened One Night (99%), #2 the 1936 Modern Times (98%) and #3 the 1939 The Wizard of Oz (98%).

So without further ado, here is the list of 100% rated films from Rotten Tomatoes.   There are almost 400 of them. You can read that article yourself, so I'll just highlight some items:

• Leave No Trace is a 2018 American drama film based on a novel about what really happened.  I list it first because it hold's Rotten Tomatoes record of a 100% rating with 247 positive reviews, the highest ever.  While it has generally been recognized as a good film, it has won no significant awards.
• Lady Bird once had a 100% rating, but in came four negative reviews, against 394 positive ones, so it was dropped to 99%.  I had my personal review in 2017 and said this film left me totally dissatisfied.  Well, not totally, for I sort of agreed with the RT Audience ranking of 79%.

Rotten Tomatoes can also be cruel.  Here are their ZERO-rated films.  One in particular caught my attention:  Jaws:  The Revenge, starring Michael Caine and Mario Van Pebbles.  I have recorded all four Jaws movies, and was planning to binge on the foursome some day soon.

I can go on an on but will now send you to another list: the best, by polls, genres and country.

• For example, Best Christmas:

• It's a Wonderful Life (1946) was voted the greatest Christmas film by an audience poll conducted by Axios and SurveyMonkey in 2018.^[46]
• Die Hard (1988) was voted the greatest Christmas movie by British film magazine Empirereaders in 2015.^[47]

• Best of China:

• Spring in a Small Town (小城之春; 1948) was ranked number 1 on the Hong Kong Film AwardsAssociation's Best 100 Chinese Motion Pictures list in 2005.^[106] It was also voted the best Chinese film of all time with 25 votes in a 2010 poll of 37 critics organized by the Hong Kong Film Critics Society.^[107]
• Farewell My Concubine (霸王别姬; 1993) was voted the best Mainland Chinese film of all time by 88 international film experts in a poll conducted by Time Out Shanghai and Time Out Beijing.^[108]

Last month Rotten Tomatoes listed a whole bunch of series at 100% Certified Fresh.  There are 145 seasons mentioned.  Over the next two parts I will focus on them, and will begin by dabbling on these three:

• 1971:  The Year That Music Changed Everything:  Season 1 appeared only a few months ago, which means there will be subsequent seasons.
• Babylon Berlin, Season 1:  I started watching this series last year and have not yet gone through the year one and two more series are now available.  Excellent, actually, but hard to find time to continue.
• Breaking Bad, Seasons 3 and 4:  There were 5 seasons and I never watched one episode.  The entire series averaged 96%/97%.  It did spawn off Better Call Saul, which I do view, which also has 5 seasons and an overall rating of 98%/96%.  A point to be made is that even the U.S. can produced worthwhile films and series.

I've focused on Netflix and Amazon Prime series because they have recently dominated.  These two will be featured in Parts 2 and 3.

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Part 2: WHICH COMPANIES GAIN MOST FROM GLOBAL WARMING

With all the precautions we are taking, plus the natural barrier of the Pacific Ocean, Hawaii has nevertheless been recently clobbered by COVID-19.  As of two days ago, it was speculated that maybe half of new cases were from the Omicron variant.  The infection rate could well continue to increase as this strain gains prominence.  Our football team pulled out of Hawaii Bowl on Friday and basketball team out of the Rainbow Classic yesterday because of pandemic protocols.

Hawaii status:

• Our total case count surged past 100,000 yesterday, which means that 7% of people living here have contracted COVID-19.
• However, the USA percentage is 15.9%, more than double that of Hawaii.
• The World average is 3.6%.  Or, Hawaii has double the infection rate of the globe.
• We had 1828 new cases two days ago, our worst ever.
• 73.9% of people here have been fully vaccinated.  Not sure about what percent has been boosted.
• While immunity is not guaranteed about catching this virus, vaccinations well protect you from hospitalization and death.
• Our positivity rate is 10%, but other locations are worse (two days ago):
• DC  108% (??, how is this possible?)
• Kansas  53.4%
• Vermont  51.8%
• New Jersey  48.5%
• Pennsylvania  48.2%
• Wisconsin 47.2%
• 
  
• Hawaii was 6.9% two days ago
• California 2.7%
• Maryland  -0.8% (again, how is this possible?)
• For the elderly, 70 years old and above in Hawaii:
• 9% of population
• 18% of all cases
• 37% of those hospitalized
• 45% of deaths

While COP26 in Glasgow from 31 October to 13 November 2021 did not do much, it is clear that something bad is happening to our weather, and we are at fault.  Even though some countries like Russia have too much to gain from global warming, it is inevitable that some terrible things will happen over the next few years, and there will be a rush to cut net carbon emissions to zero by 2050.

Already, world-wide investment into renewable energy approached $300 billion in 2019.  While global warming was one reason, the primary one was that clean energy is already cheaper than clean coal, nuclear power and other fossil fuels for generating electricity.  While I suspect 2020 and 2021 will not show major change because of the pandemic, the world is awaiting something cataclysmic to happen.  Then, which companies will stand to benefit?

The Imperial College of London and the International Energy Agency analyzed stock market data to determine the rate of return on energy investments over five- and 10-year periods.

• Investments in renewable energy:
• Germany and France yielded returns of 178% over a five-year period, compared with -21% for fossil fuels.
• USA  220.3% for renewables and 97.2% for fossil fuels.
• 
  
• 
  10 companies to benefit most from global warming:
• #10  NV5 Global Inc. (NASDAQ:  NVEE):  based in Florida and is into underground power lines and energy conservation.

• 
  #9    SunPower Corporation (NASDAQ:  SPWR):  sells crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells using a solar cell invented at Stanford.  However, already gained about 700% the past year.

• 
  #8   Brookfield Renewable Partners LP (NYSE: BEP):  operates over 200 hydroelectric plants and 100 wind farms, 19,400 MW throughout the world. 
• 
  #7    Plug Power (NASDAQ:  PLUG):  sells hydrogen fuel cell systems to replace conventional batteries in electric cars.  However, has already jumped 1400% this past year.

• 
  #6    Canadian Solar Inc. (NASDAQ: CSIQ):  has delivered 52,000 MW of solar models in 150 countries.

• 
  #5    Solaredge Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: SEDG):  Israel-based sells power optimizers, solar inverters and monitoring systems.

• 
  #4    Pool Corporation (NASDAQ: POOL):  into swimming pools.

• 
  #3    First Solar Inc. (NASDAQ:  FSLR):  Arizona-based company sells solar panels and operates utility-scale PV power plants using cadmium telluride PV cells.

• 
  #2    Enphase Energy Inc. (NASDAQ: ENPH):  California-based solar company with a market cap of $22 billion.  Sells software-driven home energy solutions.

• 
  #1    NextEra Energy Inc (NYSE: NEE):  Florida-based company has tripled its wind energy capacity over the last 10 years and operates 14,100 MW of wind farms.  also into nuclear power.  Owns Florida Power & Light.  Hawaii rebuffed their attempt to buy Hawaiian Electric Industries.  Tracked by 63 hedge funds.

That list seems a bit too skewed towards clean energy.  Here is another more realistic one from MoneyTalks News:

• #1  BWX Technologies (BWXT)
• Nuclear company.
• Based in Virginia, it supplied nuclear components.
• #2  First Solar (FSLR)
• Mentioned above.  Must be worthy.
• Focusing on increasing energy yield and grid stability.
• 
  #3  Nestle (NSRGY)
• Swiss company, once criticized for using palm oil, now says that 77% of its food and drink are deforestration-free.
• Entering synthetic meat production.
• #4  Unilever (UL)
• UK/Dutch maker of consumer products like Lipton and Dove, aspires to be carbon positive by 2030.
• A climate-change leader.

• 
  #5 Merck (MRK)
• That COVID-19 pill company.
• Will focus more on products for tropical and weather-related diseases.
• #6  Honeywell (HON)
• As residential and commercial buildings account for 40% of U.S. energy consumption, the company is now into heat pumps and home energy managers.
• While rather anemic more recently, this New Jersey firm is poised for growth.
• 
  #7  General Motors (GM)
• As 29% (largest share) of emissions come from transportation, with Bechtel, they plan to build a network of EV stations.
• Also sells EVs.

Finally, Brookfield Renewable (BEP and BEPC) keeps getting mentioned by everyone, including Motley Fool, which lists this company in the top three with TotalEnergies and NextEra Energy, also included in many assessments.  Brookfield teams well, like with Amazon and Apple.

In addition to opportunities for countries and companies, are there other upsides to global warming?  To begin, consider that:

• Over the past 150 years, the global temperature has only gone up by 1 F.
• So far our sea level has already risen by 7 inches over the past century.
• Carbon dioxide levels are the highest in 650,000 years.

Knowing all that, here are a few pluses to come:

• Less winter related illnesses.  Cold weather is 20 times more fatal than warm weather:  5.4 million to 0.3 million.
• There will be new shipping lanes as the Arctic melts.
• Certain agricultural sectors will gain...like in Russia.
• Increased plankton biomass, leading to more fish.

From the compilation of Professor Richard Tol of Sussex University:

• 
  Climate change would be more beneficial than not up to 4 degrees F increase, and will continue to help humanity until 2080.
• Over the past century, temperature increase has improved human welfare by 1.4%.  This means the difference between survival and starvation  for some.
• As small as that was, if the world continues to grow at 3%/year, the average person will be about nine times richer in 2080.
• Says energy costs will be lower and there will be fewer droughts, but both of these should get worse by my reckoning.
• With more carbon dioxide, plants will grow better.  
• So far, 31% of global vegetated areas have become greener, with 3% less green.
• Productivity has increased by 14%.
• Polar bears are doing better.  They had problems in 1974, 1984 and 1992 when the ice was too thick.  Bears need broken ice.
• The death rate from droughts, floods and storms has dropped by 98% since the 1920's, but this is because people are better protected.  In other words, we can work around natural disasters.
• We are spending too much money on fighting climate change when these funds can be put to better use.  It's not clear what good clean energy is and what it will do.  

That above paper came about a decade ago.  Many of his statements are refuted.  See this list from Skeptical Science.  Also, read this.  The point to all this is that a careful search will show that many of the positive studies suggesting that global warming is not all bad  are sources funded by the fossil industry.

So, in conclusion, I can suggest that global warming will mean a shift of wine production towards the north, meaning New York and Canada, Scandinavia and other select sites towards the Arctic.  Plus, don't forget the Southern Hemisphere.  Finally, the additional carbon dioxide in the atmospheric will further aid vineyards.

Will the Cabernet Sauvignon grape be replaced?  Consider Penfolds Grange, Vega Sicilia, Mastroberardino Taurasi and Barca Velha.  Plus aglianico, shiraz, tempranillo and touriga nacionall.

Other future players:

• Between 2006 and 2018, the beer country, Belgium, increased high quality wine production by a factor of four.
• China is expanding faster than anywhere else.
• It is already the fifth largest wine market.

• Is the second-largest grape grower, yet only #7 in wine making.
• Try Ao Yun's Shangri-La, a blend of Cabernet Franc (10%) and Cabernet Sauvignon (90%).

• In partnership with Moet-Hennessy, this bottle costs around $300.
• Shangri-La was called Zhongdian until 2001.  Up the Mekong River Valley.
• High altitude (8000 feet), long growing season (170 days/year compared to 110 days in Bordeaux) and paucity of diseases.
• 
  England and Ireland are also well situated.
• Watch for the flowering of Hokkaido.  The Koshu grape improves on that island.  Also Pinot Noir.

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