The Economist, Feb 22, 2025

choi

(1) Argentina | A Dead Cow Comes Alive; Argentina's shale fields are booming, to Javier Milei's delight. at page 25.
https://www.economist.com/the-am ... ig-on-an-oil-gusher
https://archive.ph/0UXOw

Paragraph 1: "IN A DUSTY desert in north-west Patagonia, a hulking rig is busy drilling. After plunging 3km underground, its drill turns and chomps horizontally for the same distance again. In Neuquén, the nearest city, boffins crunch data from the rig and keep its drill trained on an oil-rich sliver of shale, just five metres thick. Nearly 40 of these machines dot Vaca Muerta ('Dead Cow'), a vast shale patch in Argentina. The formation stretches from the Andes to the outskirts of Neuquén, where its dark layers peek through the sand.

Note:
(a)
(i) Vaca Muerta
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaca_Muerta
("The Vaca Muerta Formation, commonly known as Vaca Muerta (Spanish for dead cow), is a geologic formation of Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous age, located in the Neuquén Basin in northern Patagonia, Argentina. * * * The large oil discovery in the Vaca Muerta Formation was made in 2010 by the former Repsol-YPF.[1] The total proven reserves are around 927 million barrels, [2] and as of 2014 YPF's production alone was nearly 45,000 barrels per day. * * * In several outcrop locations, the Vaca Muerta Formation has been the site of paleontological finds: [dinosaurs]")
(A) Neuquén Basin is named after Neuquén River
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuquén_River
(Spanish: Río Neuquén; "Neuquén [River] meets the Limay River near the city of Neuquén, to form the Río Negro, which continues its way east towards the Atlantic Ocean")

Heed the top photo: the grayish-black parts in it.
(B) City of Neuquén -- population (2010 census): 225k; 'The name of the city comes from the Neuquén River, which in Mapuche language means 'water that has strength' ": en.wikipedia.org for Neuquén -- is capita of Argentine province of Neuquén.  en.wikipedia.org for "Neuquén Province" which also says, "The word (without the accentuation) is a palindrome."
(ii) Vaca Muerta; How a Source Became a Reservoir. GeoExPro (a geoscience magazine published by "GXP Publishing" in Heggedal, Norway, vol 16, issue 4, page 14 (cover story; 2019)
https://www.geoexpro.com/wp-cont ... xPro_V16i4_2019.pdf
(Please read page 14: "Guillermo Bodenbender * * * [photo caption:] Outcrops of the organic-rich shale of the Vaca Muerta Formation between Bardas Blancas and Planchón-Peteroa Volcano.")
(A) In Spanish: Guillermo Bodenbender
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guillermo_Bodenbender
(1857 - 1941; an Argentine geologist of German origin)
(B) In Spanish: Bardas Blancas
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bardas_Blancas
is a town in Mendoza province (whose southern neighbor is Neuquén province), Argentina.
(C) Planchón-Peteroa
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planchón-Peteroa
(a volcano of 4,107m along the border between Argentina and Chile)
(D) The positions of Bardas Blancas and the volcano are shown in
Figure 1. In La erupción del volcán Peteroa (35º15’S, 70º18’O) del 4 de septiembre de 2010. Revista de la Asociacion Geologica Argentina, 68: 295 (2011; The English title would be: The eruption of the Peteroa volcano (35°15'S, 70°18'O) on 4th September, 2010)
https://www.researchgate.net/fig ... b-ubicacion_fig1_2.
(E) Spanish-English dictionary:
* vaca (noun feminine; from Latin [nun feminine] vacca [cow]): "cow (adult female of the species Bos taurus)"
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/vaca
* muerto (adjective masculine; from Latin verb morior to die): "dead"
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/muerto
* barda (noun feminine) "fence"
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/barda
* The Spanish noun feminine bolsa and English noun bourse (both means stock exchange) came from Latin noun feminine bursa (meaning purse) and, in turn, Ancient Greek noun feminine βύρσα ([romanization:] búrsa) "skin stripped off a dead animal."
(iii) Search images.google.com with outcrop and you will understand its meaning (in geology).


(b)
(i) For Repsol-YPF, see YPF
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YPF
(Spanish pronunciation 0for Spanish letters]; is a state-owned Argentine energy company; founded in 1922 by Argentina (as state-owned enterprise) -> "YPF was privatized under president Carlos Menem and was bought by the Spanish firm Repsol in 1999; the resulting merged company was called Repsol YPF.   The renationalization of 51% of the firm was initiated in 2012 by President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.[10] The government of Argentina eventually agreed to pay $5 billion compensation to Repsol [which exited Argentina in 2014]. * * * President-elect Javier Milei stated after his election in 2023 that YPF was one of the state-controlled companies that he planned to privatize.")
(ii)
(A) Repsol's history began in 1951 with REPESA launching the lubricant brand Repsol. (In 1987, the brand name would be name of the new company.)
(B) Repsol
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repsol
("In the 2022 Forbes Global 2000, Repsol was ranked as the 320th-largest public company (public company means its stocks are traded, in this case in BMAD (Bolsa de MADrid), whose English full name is "Madrid Stock Exchange"] in the world")
has two predecessors, both state-owned: CAMPSA (created in 1927) and REPESA (created in 1948 to build a refinery in Spain, which would not be built until 1968 (located in Francolí). To enter European Economic Community (EEC), Spain privatized energy sector and created Repsol, SA in 1987.
See About Us. Repsol Global, undated
https://www.repsol.com/en/about-us/history/index.cshtml
• In all three companies, the SA stands for "Sociedad Anónima."
• The Spanish word "bolsa" is defined in Note (a)(ii)(E).

choi

(2) Sex imbalance | Bare Branches; By 2027 nearly one in six young Chinese men will be unable to find a partner. at page 34.

Paragraph 2: " * * * The Economist has analysed data from UN's World Population Prospects, a biennial report, and from China's 2020 census. The data revealed that the sex ratio--the number of men aged 23-37 and women 22-36 will hit a peak of 119 by 2027. *Those are the ages between which 80% of each sex gets married--see chart 1.). It is then predicted to remain high for decades. In 2012 the ratio was just 105.

Note: Attached below, chart 1 is a mere extension of the observation that sex ratio in China's newborn was skewed -- an issue that was postponed decades later (males: 23-37) and now raises its head when those babies are seeking nates.



(3) Defence and demand | Fiscal Vollgas; To spend big, Germany's next government may need EU help. at page 65.
https://www.economist.com/financ ... nt-may-need-eu-help

paragraph 1: WHEN, IN OCTOBER 2017, Wolfgang Schäuble left the Detlev Rohwedder Building for the final time after his stint as German finance minister, hundreds of civil servants, dressed all in black, waited under his window in the shape of a giant zero. Their schwarze Null symbolised the balanced budget, or surpluses, he had achieved since 2014. * * *

paragraph 3: Evidence of underinvestment [in Germany] is not hard to find. Germany's train system makes a mockery of the country's reputation for punctuality. In September a tram bridge collapsed, thankfully in the middle of the night. Public services are stuck in the 20th century, such us their phobia of anything digital. Estimates suggest that required public  investment over the next decade amounts to more than 15% of GDP.

Note:
(a) Detlev-Rohwedder-Haus
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detlev-Rohwedder-Haus
(b) German-English dictionary:
* schwarz (adjective; schwarze is an inflection of schwarz): "black"
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/schwarz
* Null (noun feminine): "zero"
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Null
   ^ English noun/ adjective null and German noun feminine Null both ultimately came from Latin pronoun masculine nūllus no one.
(c)
(i) such is life
https://dictionary.cambridge.org ... nglish/such-is-life
(ii) French has a phrase "c'est la vie" (meaning: that is life), that was borrowed directly from English.


(4) Geomorphology | Assuming the Mantle; How the great highlands of continental interiors form is no longer a mystery. at page 70.
https://www.economist.com/scienc ... heory-of-everything

paragraph 2: "Mountain ranges, ocean trenches, volcanoes and earthquakes are, however, things that happen mainly where plates abut. Plate tectonics is not as good at explaining events and features elsewhere, particularly in continental interiors. There are often dominated by extensive highlands called plateaux, which differ in form from mountain ranges and are frequently bounded by giant escarpments. But, as he told the annual meeting of the American Association for the advancement of Science in Boston, Tom Gernon of Southampton University [in Eng;and] thinks he can bring these puzzling geographical features into the orbit of plate technics as well. * * *

Note:
(a) There is no need to read more, as new theory takes time for confirmation.
(b)
(i) English dictionary:
* plateau (n; plural plateaus or plateaux; borrowed from Modern French of the same spelling, from [noun masculine] plat [a flat area]+ [suffix masculine] -eau [diminutive]; First Known Use 1743)
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/plateau
* The English noun escarpment is borrowed ("circa 1802": merriam-webster.com) from Modern French noun masculine escarpEment of the same meaning, from verb escarper to steepen +‎ [suffix to form noun from verb] -ment)
(ii) escarpment
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escarpment