We departed Muscat and are sailing to Mumbai, India.  The   Arabian Peninsula  is a largely ignored part of the world by most visitors.  Under 1.25 million square miles are most of the world's oil.  It is relatively small compared to the USA, which has 3.8 msm and 335 million people.  The AP has a population of 86 million. Saudi Arabia  36.5 million Yeman  33.7 million UAE  9.4 million Oman  4.6 million Kuwait  4.3 million Qatar  2.7 million Bahrain  1.5 million The cities with the two largest population are in Saudi Arabia:  Riyadh 7.5 million and Jeddah 4.8 million. However, in 1950 the population was only 9.5 million, mostly Bedouins in the desert.  Then oil was discovered,  first in Iran in 1908  by the British.  But the story of oil goes back to 600 BC, when the Chinese first found this liquid.  More recently, there was Colonel Edwin Drake's 1859 oil well in Pennsylvania, and within a decade came John D. Rockefeller and the Standard Oil Company.  Then in 1901, Spindletop i

For Wednesday science-technology day I return to the  latest issue of  Energy Matters , compiled by the American Energy Society. India is not buying crude oil from Russia.  Politics?  No, cost. When the Ukraine War started, the West reduced imports from Russia, so  India became the second largest purchaser, next to China .  Then this sudden drop. One reason is that freight costs have risen, plus petroleum is now cheaper from places like the UAE. 91% of the global economy has pledged to cut emissions to zero.  However, a  lot of promises, but no action . That net zero pledge is supposedly for 2050.  Air travel will cripple that attempt. To begin, the U.N. climate science panel has said that man-made carbon dioxide emissions need to fall by about 45% by 2030 to limit warming to only 1.5 C ( 2.7 F ). Some say planting more trees can help.   I say planting more trees will hurt .  Most analysts don't consider methane in their calculations, and no one looks at the ultimate term.  All the

From  Worldometer  (new  COVID-19 deaths yesterday):          DAY     USA     WORLD     Brazil       India    South Africa June     9    1093     4732         1185       246       82 July    22     1205     7128         1293      1120     572 Aug    12     1504     6556        1242        835     130 Sept     9     1208      6222       1136       1168       82 Oct     21     1225      6849         571        703       85 Nov    25      2304    12025        620        518     118 Dec     30      3880    14748       1224       299     465 Jan      14       4142     15512        1151         189     712                  Feb      3       4005    14265       1209       107     398           25       2414    10578         1582        119     144 Mar     2        1989    9490         1726        110     194           31         1115   12301          3950       458      58 April   6         906   11787           4211         631      37 May    4         853   13667          3025      3786     

  From  Worldometer  (new  COVID-19 deaths yesterday):          DAY    USA    WORLD     Brazil      India      South Africa June     9    1093     4732        1185        246        82 July    22     1205     7128        1293      1120       572 Aug    12     1504     6556        1242       835       130 Sept     9     1208      6222       1136      1168        82 Oct     21     1225      6849         571       703        85 Nov    25     2304    12025        620       518      118 Dec     30     3880    14748      1224       299      465 Jan      14       4142    15512       1151         189      712                       19       2804    14760      1183        161     839               20      4385    17350      1382        152     566           21       4363    16578      1335        161     647           26       4045   15879      1206        127     680 Summary:  The expected decline in COVID-19 deaths is beginning to occur Wednesday is science day, so I thought I'd bring you