DIS & DAT

Well, President Donald Trump said he will decide today on the potential agreement with Iran.

• However Iran's Foreign Ministry said today that the nuclear issue was not negotiable. Plus, Iran's semi-official Fars news agency indicated what Trump is saying is a mixture of truth and lies.  And what about Lebanon?

• 
  Stock market?

Stocks rose in afternoon trading on Wall Street Friday, adding to the all-time highs they set a day earlier.   The S&P 500 rose 0.2% Friday. The index is coming off six gains in a row and is headed for a ninth straight winning week, which would be the longest such streak since 2023.

Jeff Bezos' Blue Horizon exploded on its pad in Florida yesterday.  

• Watch the explosion.  
• No injuries or deaths, but a costly loss, for their only pad has been destroyed.  
• Amazon was expecting this rocket to take 48 satellites into space on the next launch.  That's now cancelled.  
• Did you know that there are maybe 15,000 satellites up there, with up to 12,000 perhaps actively operating?  

• 
  Elon Musk's SpaceX alone operates over 10,000 Starlink satellites.  You ask, how did he do that?
• Falcon 9 rockets are reusable, and can carry up to 60 satellites per flight.
• Launched multiple batches every month from Florida and California.
• When the Falcon 9 reaches Low Earth Orbit, satellites are released, and each has built-in thrusters  and autonomous tracking to space themselves out into their precise orbital planes.
• Amazing!  10,000 satellites, or more.

“Most unfortunate. Rockets are hard,” he said shortly after the incident.  Musk and Bezos remain direct competitors in the race to return astronauts to the moon in the face of China’s expressed goal of landing astronauts on the moon by 2030. Both companies are developing lunar landers for NASA’s Artemis program.

Congress, with some prodding from the White House, is considering issuing a $250 Donald Trump bill.  Get it?  250th anniversary for the USA this year.  Will this actually happen.  No.  Needs 60% or more of senators to approve.

Something about Southeast Asia, but that current rescue of seven Laotians certainly reminds me of what happened in Thailand in 2018.  Then, twelve members of a soccer team and their coach suffered through a similar rescue from June 23 to July 10, or 18 days.  There were 10,000 rescuers from 20 different countries. All were saved, but two Thai volunteers died.  Ron Howard directed a 2022 film, 13 Lives, which got 85/93 scores from Rotten Tomatoes.

Here are the finalists for the 2026 Scripps National Spelling Bee.  held in Washington, DC, the first time in 15 years.

• The winner was 14-year old Shrey Parikh from California.  
• Will take home $52,500, the Scripps Cup, a commemorative medal and other prizes.  
• Has had some history here, for he placed third in 2024 and 89th at the age of 10.
• Practiced five hours per day, and said he had an amazing community helping him.

• 
  The winning word was bromocriptine, which is a polypeptide alkaloid.  Some other tough ones were cara sposa and quincke tube.  I'm a PhD biochemical engineer, and never before heard any of them.

• 
  According to Google AI, since 2000, this competition has been won by students whose parents came from India....16 times.  
• The last most recent non-India winner was Zaila Avant-garde in 2021.  Her parents are African American.  She was the first Black winner.

• 
  Katharine Close was the last White American to win....in 2006.
• The Scripps Spelling Bee began in 1925.

How's Caitlin Clark doing?  Well she's not hurt and just became the first WNBA player in history to record 500 career assists and 1000 points in only 59 games.  The next fastest was Sue Bird, who took 82 games to achieve those numbers.

• All top 5 of the league's most-watched games in the last two years have featured Clark.
• Her merchandise sells at the level of top NBA stars like LeBron James.
• However, the Golden State Valkyries don't have a huge star (they do have Kate Martin and Kayla Thornton), but led the league in average attendance last year with 18,064 fans/game, more than the Indiana Fever with 16,560.  The Valkyries still lead the charts this year.  And they beat the Fever 90-88 when Clark set the above record.  WNBA is doing well.  Maybe I'll get a fantasy team next year.

Crystal cruises started building a new ship in Venice, Italy.  

• To be called the Crystal Grace, she is the first new ship for Crystal (now owned by Abercrombie & Kent, as of 2022) in a quarter century.   The 659-passenger ship will make its debut in 2028. 

• 
  I remember cruising a couple of times on their Crystal Harmony, which was built in Nagasaki, Japan in 1990.  Left Crystal in 1990 and renamed the MS Asuka II, which continues to operate as the largest cruise ship in Japan.  

• 
  We have been on the Crystal Symphony a couple of times, and will sail on their Crystal Serenity in the Spring of 2027, from Bali to Thailand, then Hong Kong to Tokyo.

Ocean storm Jangmi becomes a typhoon today.  However, the eye will remain to the east until it weakens and reaches southern Kyushu.  Currently expected to move along the eastern coast of Japan as a tropical storm and move up at sea parallel to Tokyo on June 3.  But that is only a prediction.

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ULTIMATE CURES FOR CHOLESTEROL AND CANCER?

As I begin this posting, I look to my right and see.....a rainbow.

Next, the Iran War:

• Yesterday, President Donald Trump warned Oman not to work with Iran to jointly manage the Strait of Hormuz.
• Oman has been a close strategic partner of the U.S. for 50 years, and has been involved in peacemaking.
• That article hinted that Trump was confused, as he has been recently, and misspoke in even mentioning Oman.

• 
  As you can see, Iran and Oman are the two countries through which the strait passes, so a cooperative agreement actually makes a lot of sense.
• The strait is only 21 miles wide at the choke point, and you can see Iran from Oman.
• Yesterday, again, the U.S. struck Iran's Bandar Abbas.
• 
  However, today the news is that the the U.S. and Iran reached a tentative deal to extend the ceasefire.  What does this mean?
• First of all, this so-called deal is unofficial, as the agreement has no yet been approved by the leadership of either country.  And where is Israel, still actively striking Lebanon?

• 
  But there now exists an unofficial draft of a 14-point memorandum of understanding, which the White House called a complete fabrication.  Trump said that he wants a couple of days to think about it.  To quote the BBC:

The report included the lifting of Washington's naval blockade of Iranian ports, the withdrawal of US forces from the "vicinity of Iran", and the restoration of non-military traffic through the Strait of Hormuz with Iran and Oman in control of the management and routing of vessels.

• 
  People keep complaining about inflation and the economy, but maybe President Trump is doing something right.  All stock market indexes today began at historically record highs.  I asked Google AI, if this is true:

Yes, all three major U.S. stock market indexes—the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the S&P 500, and the Nasdaq Composite—closed at fresh record highs together. [1]

This trifecta milestone was driven by investor optimism over ongoing negotiations to end the U.S.-Iran war, easing geopolitical concerns, and a strong rotation into risk-on artificial intelligence and tech shares. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

The specific closing numbers on Wednesday included: [1, 2]

• Dow Jones Industrial Average: Closed at 50,644.28, a new all-time high.
• S&P 500: Finished at 7,520.36, marking a new record close.
• Nasdaq Composite: Settled at 26,674.73, achieving a record close of its own. [1]

Now on to my medical topic of today, Eli Lilly announced earlier this week that its gene-editing therapy can reduce Low Density Lipoprotein, that bad one. HDL is good.

• Called VERVE-102, a one-time infusion over the course of four hours will cure this problem for most, one third of patients had lower levels of LDL for up to 18 months after treatment.
• This drug switches off the PCSK9 gene in the liver that makes a protein that regulates cholesterol levels.

• 
  Replaces for many the daily finger prick and pill process.
• High LDL is a major risk factor for heart disease, the leading  cause of death.
• Mind you, this is only a first study of  35 patients.  The larger Phase 2 study will be launched later this year.

How is medical science doing to cure cancer, the second-most cause of death?

• Cancer will not be cured this year.  Why?
• Cancer is an umbrella term for more than 200 distinct diseases, for which there will never be a magic bullet to cure all.
• What is happening is a range of approaches.
• Personalized vaccines which are mRNA-based.

• 
  Advanced cell therapies like CAR T-cell, shifting to durable remission.
• Precision targeting, new molecular glues and targeted radioligand therapies to treat previously untreatable cancers.

• 
  Earlier interception, using liquid biopsies and artificial intelligence for doctors to cath and map tumor DNA earlier than before.
• Are sound waves the next big cancer breakthrough?

• 
  The pathway now is to turn the disease into a manageable, chronic condition to maximize the patient's quality of life.
• Read this report from the Van Andel Institute or go to the American Cancer Society for further details.

The world is now 2 weeks away from the first FIFA World Cup game.

• That selfie is being taken by FIFA President Gianni Infantino of the presidents of the USA, Mexico and Canada, the combined hosts of the series.

• 
  Happens every four years.
• 48 countries will play 104 games, with the U.S. hosting the final at MetLife Park in New Jersey, where ticket prices are sky high.
• Well, there are a very few $60 seats, but most are around $1000, and as high as $10,000.
• According to Google AI, the cheapest resale price seats are now going for $8300 to $11,000, with listings as high as $2.3 million.

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ENERGY MATTERS

It's Wednesday, sci-tech day, so I'll this week draw from the American Energy Society information they send me.  No big surprise that petroleum companies are getting richer because of the Iran War.

But first a post-mortem of Ken Paxton's victory over John Cornyn in the Texas Republican primary.  

• I thought Paxton would win by 10%.  Turns out that the margin was 28 percentage points, mostly because of President Donald Trump's endorsement.
• Time magazine had a particularly convictive article, starting with:  For more than a year, Republicans beseeched President Donald Trump’s advisers in the White House with a simple ask: if he couldn’t find his way to endorsing Sen. John Cornyn, could he at least keep his mouth shut?  Further:

• 
  The point is that Cornyn would have beaten current Democratic Texas state representative James Talarico, who is 37 years old.  At minimal cost.
• Now, the speculation is that the national Republican Party will need to spend $250 million to try to beat Talarico, at the expense of flipping Democratic seats in Georgia, Michigan and New Hampshire.

• Not sure why the Republicans are so concerned.
• To begin, the current betting odds favor Paxton, 56% to 44%.
• Texas hasn't had a Democrat in the U.S. Senate for almost 40 years, the longest of any state in the union.

• 
  But Paxton is severely tainted.  According to Google AI:

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has faced a highly controversial reputation defined by years of extensive legal troubles, political polarization, and ethics investigations. His tenure has been marked by multiple high-profile legal controversies, including: [1, 2, 3]

• Securities Fraud Indictments: He has been under federal indictment for felony securities fraud allegations that date back to 2015.
• Impeachment Trial: In 2023, the Texas House of Representatives impeached Paxton on numerous articles, including bribery, misuse of public resources, and obstruction of justice. While he was ultimately acquitted by the state Senate, the proceedings highlighted severe allegations of corruption.
• Whistleblower Settlement: Paxton’s office agreed to a massive payout to settle wrongful termination lawsuits with former top aides who reported his alleged abuse of office to the FBI.
• Bar Lawsuit: The State Bar of Texas previously sued him for professional misconduct regarding his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

Despite this controversial reputation, Paxton remains a significant force in conservative politics. His defenders view him as a steadfast defender of conservative ideals, while his critics cite his legal baggage as a significant threat to political integrity. You can read more about his official track record on the Texas Attorney General.

• But, of course, Donald Trump is a felon and was elected President of the USA.  The first in the history of this country.

My sense is that Talarico can win, for the voting public has changed, and will continue to sway Democratic by election day in November.

• Google AI indicates:  ...a net negative shift of approximately 15 to 20 percentage points in Independent support of Trump since the start of his second term, with prices, foreign policy, and the cost of living driving the majority of this disapproval. [1]
• Trump is losing the youth vote.  
• From Time magazine, and this was in February.  At the end of May, it can only be worse.
• An Economist/YouGov poll conducted February 6-9 showed that Trump’s Gen Z support dropped to its lowest level in his second term so far, with approval among voters aged 18 to 29 at 25%, and 67% disapproving. That is down from 50% approval and 42% disapproval in Feb. 2025.
• Trump lost Hispanic votes.
• Same for Black votes.
• The danger remains that Trump might find a way to postpone the November General Elections.   He showed signs of doing so in 2020.

Now on to my topic of the day from the American Energy Society.  Who are they?  From Google AI:

Energy Matters is the flagship weekly newsletter and news publication published by the American Energy Society (AES). It provides energy professionals with non-partisan soundbite summaries, trend-spotting maps, and direct access to original sources on climate-tech, fossil fuels, renewables, and global policy. [1, 2, 3]

- The world's largest 100 oil and gas companies (including national oil companies for Saudi Arabia and Russia) generate an additional $234 billion in profits Y/Y when oil prices average $100/barrel. (Note: in March, 2026, oil averaged $100-$102/barrel; in the first half of April, the average is $107-$110.) Insert: added profits Mar-Dec 2026 at an average price of $100/barrel.

• 
  Over half of the sugar produced in the US comes from sugar beets, a process that relies on anthracite coal to turn raw plant juice into pure crystals. This high-grade coal is burned to create the lime and CO2 used to filter out impurities that would otherwise prevent the juice from crystallizing.  In other words, sugar needs coal.

• 
  First of all, added sugar is very bad for your body.
• You can survive without eating added sugar.
• Mind you, your body must have glucose to power it's cells, especially the brain.  
• However, your body will create its own glucose from protein and fat through processes like gluconeogenesis, or by producing ketones for fuel.
• Benefits of cutting out sugar:
• Heart health.
• Weight management.
• Improved cognitive function, focus and memory.
• Skin and dental health.
• This, coming from a person who spent the first eight years of my work career in the Hawaii sugar industry.
• Watch out for fructose.  According to Google AI:

Yes, in the context of processed diets, fructose is generally considered worse for your metabolic health than glucose. [1]

While glucose is the primary energy source for your body's cells and is easily processed throughout the body, fructose must be metabolized almost entirely by your liver. When you consume excessive amounts of added fructose, it can overwhelm the liver, leading to a higher risk of fatty liver disease, increased triglycerides, and insulin resistance. [1, 2, 3, 4]

• 
  Table sugar is sucrose, which is 50% fructose and 50% glucose.
• A ripe banana is 3.5% fructose.
• Honey is 37.5% fructose.
• Agave (the cactus syrup to make tequila) is between 70% and 90% fructose.

• 
  An acre of solar panels produced 20-100 times more energy than an acre of corn.
• Russia controls half of global uranium conversion.
• Energy budgets.

• 
  I've been saying this for weeks:

 Whether the Strait of Hormuz is open remains unclear amid conflicting reports of a US blockade on Iranian ports. However, the International Maritime Organization reports a backlog of over 1,600 stalled vessels against a daily transit cap of 140.Even under a best-case scenario—clearing 40 "extra" ships per day—it will take 40 days to resolve the congestion; a more realistic 25-ship daily surplus pushes that recovery to 60 days. Ultimately, the Strait is the "single point of failure" for the global oil economy.

• 
  March 2026. The average temperature was 9.4°F above average, making it the most anomalous hot month in the historical record. It could be said that the hottest March was the hottest month in history.

• The U.S. has reduced emissions.

1. US emissions in 2024 stayed virtually the same as the previous year — up just 0.04%. 
2. Net US emissions in 2024 were down 3.8% from 1990 levels. 
3. Emissions in 2024 were nearly 19% below the US emissions peak year of 2005.

• China is surging ahead in the sales of electric cars.

• Here is a graphic showing how global energy use has increased.  Note the increase for solar and natural gas, and stabilization of oil and coal usage.
• While solar has increased, the Sun only shines so many hours/day, and there are clouds sometimes.  Here is a comparison of an average day's load in megawatts of natural gas (60%) and solar (40%).

• 
  Quote from Billy Leung of Global X ETF: Markets have reached peak uncertainty.
• A generation ago, Atlantic salmon ran through much of New England; today, they are in just three rivers in Maine.

There are many ways to compare oil market disruptions.  DISRUPTION              DATE                        PRICE                                                                                                                             AT START        90 DAYS LATER 1973 Oil Embargo    Oct 1973                $6.71            231% Iran-Iraq War            Oct 1980              $29.70              31% OPEC Collapse        Nov 2014             $78.89            - 26% Ukraine War             Feb 2022             $99.24             114% Iran War                   Mar 2026             $70.83               79%  after 3 months (FOR SOME REASON, THE RIGHT SIDE OF THIS  SECTION GETS CUT OFF.  YOU DON'T  REALLY MISS MUCH, BUT IF YOU WANT TO GET THE  WHOLE STORY, READ MY OTHER AND NEWER  BLOGSITE BY CLICKING ON THIS.) Solar still makes up about half of new US generating capacity, based on projects in the pipeline and under construction. There are 30 onshore wind farms projects that are stuck in the Pentagon's review process. The military wants to make sure the wind turbines won't interfere with military radar or aviation systems. (Each of these wind projects can produce about 200 to 300 megawatts.) Spotlight on Stanford Climate Ventures, a one-year course at Stanford University: “Big Ideas in White Space” is taught during the Fall term followed by project practicums in Winter and Spring terms. The following are alumni impact metrics for the last ten years: 59 companies (and 7 new companies forming this year) $2.7B in funding ($1.88B private + $829M non-dilutive) 1,034 employees hired in 32 states and 18 countries   Hightlights: Holocene acquired by Occidental Petroleum; Conduit Tech acquired by ServiceTitan; Mitra Chem raised $350M to build a cathode plant in the US. New startups in the 2025/2026 pipeline: Pravah: AI engine for grid management Recovered Potential: Wastewater nutrient recovery IronGrid: Insurance for frontier hardware Telluscope: AI for environmental risk intelligence TransformerAM: Additive manufacturing for transformers (industry insights). Quotes: The Strait of Hormuz is the world’s most important oil chokepoint… and we keep acting surprised.” - Dan Yergin Oil is a fuel of convenience that has become a fuel of insecurity.” - Amory Lovins, RMI The 3 largest national shipping entities in the world: Bahri (Saudi Arabia): Operates the world’s largest fleet of VLCCs (104 total).  ADNOC Logistics & Services (UAE): The largest fleet in Persian Gulf (76 vessels). Nakilat (Qatar): An LNG fleet with 69 vessels. There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and EV statistics. EV sales in the US are up—unless you look quarter to quarter, where they’re down. The market is growing, but the growth rate isn’t. Both are true.   - Related, the European EV market, top 5 y/y sales growth: Poland (+160%) Iceland (+128%) Slovenia (+104%) Slovakia (+97%) Spain (+77%)

• 
  The Iran War returns, but this is because I'm taking excepts from several weeks of Energy Matters.  As I said earlier, I've been writing about the significance of Kharg Island for months.

There’s a lot of news about the US/Israel–Iran war, but the most consequential story is Kharg Island:

• An Iranian island in the Persian Gulf ~25 km off the coast of Bushehr Province.
• Stores nearly 30 million barrels of crude.
• Terminals on the island handle 90% of Iran’s oil exports.
• Home to Iran’s only deep-water ports capable of loading VLCCs.
• 
  Main export hub for Iranian oil flows to China.
• Core source of national revenue.
• Sanctions have left Iran without the capital, technology, or expertise to rebuild the terminal if destroyed—meaning a single successful strike could cripple its economy and disrupt global markets.
• The US military faces a bind: Kharg is the Pentagon’s most critical strategic target; recent strikes have hit Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps assets on the Island, but damage to oil infrastructure risks global economic fallout.
• The US may need to secure Kharg Island to maintain oil flows.
• 
  Two final quotes:
• "If we successfully neutralize the Iranian threat, we're not just looking at a temporary price drop—we're looking at a massive unlocking of global energy potential." 
  - Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, speaking at a Pentagon briefing
• “We’re very much in the $150 range but I don’t think it’s ridiculous at all to [suggest] $200. It would be very fair given we are basically having a crisis-a-day right now equivalent to supply outages.” 
  - Onyx Capital Group CEO Greg Newman

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