We always bring you the best Covid-19 coverage online, show you how to apply for small business loans, an amazing read about an owner’s restaurant soul, a review of the Grand Hyatt Baha Mar, how so many airplanes are parked, we go in parts of cruise ships we can not normally visit, we ride Amtrak trains across the US, visit a Georgian convent, visit churches inside rocks in Ethiopian mountains, the most expensive cities in the world, get personal finance lessons from a kid, a story how all the serene sound recordings industry started, learn amazing facts, another disturbing story about a couple of attorneys with issues, my latest running accomplishment, beat up on Amex and American Airlines, give a pass to bloggers this time, only one conversion this month is by far the worst conversion month EVER, if the plastic links are taken away it will be the end I am sorry…I can dedicate myself to running and maybe I can finally go for the Gold in the next Senior Olympics LOL. Enjoy this while you can. Support everything you do not want to lose!
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I have lots of awesome links for you for to start yet another quarantine or shelter in place week or whatever you want to call this we are all going through…
COVID-19
I could turn my blog into a COVID-19 blog and not miss a beat you know…
This is a must read: An Oral History of the Day Everything Changed. On March 11, 2020, the coronavirus pandemic seemed to crystallize in the national consciousness. Americans look back on the turning point.
From Bill Gates: The first modern pandemic. Lets just say the legacy of Bill Gates will be well regarded after all his philanthropic work. Very educational read!
We are learning more about the virus every day, no doubt. We are also learning the wide variation of what it does and who/how it attacks! We still don’t know how many asymptomatic carriers are out there and how infectious they are, we think ones who have had it have some type of immunity but not sure how much and for how long and don’t get me started on how we are still discovering that the virus attacks more and more body parts! And then we get reports like this and we scratch our heads to oblivion! Recovered, almost: China’s early patients unable to shed coronavirus. The poor guy featured in the article…it is like the virus has a curse on some people WTF! Wait, there is more to keep saying WTF to oblivion: Young and middle-aged people, barely sick with covid-19, are dying of strokes. Doctors sound alarm about patients in their 30s and 40s left debilitated or dead. Some didn’t even know they were infected. It’s nuts!
And then we have a country like Sweden that has resisted the more strict measures to stop the spread of the virus. Sweden resisted a lockdown, and its capital Stockholm is expected to reach ‘herd immunity’ in weeks. I am having an argument with my brother who insists Sweden is doing it right. I said lets give it two weeks. It is now one week later and I hate to admit it…he is winning this bet as of now. Anyone care to comment in the comment section? Any readers in Sweden to let us know what is happening?
Maybe we should just stop phucking with nature: Mass Consumption Is What Ails Us. And you bet animals would be glad we don’t phuck with them too!
Humans are not the only victims of novel pathogens as boundaries between habitats erode. Pathogens have also been carried by humans into animals. Since the late 1990s, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, a fungus most likely spread by humans, has decimated amphibians around the world. Spelunkers and other people visiting caves have introduced Pseudogymnoascus destructans, or white-nose syndrome, to North American bats, millions of which have died of the fungal pathogen since 2007. And in 2014, a highly virulent strain of avian influenza—hatched in Asia’s booming factory farms—decimated North American poultry, causing what the U.S. Department of Agriculture called the worst animal disease epidemic in U.S. history.
Don’t you get that feeling that it may be way too soon for this? Brace for the next waves everyone…and I hope I am wrong! ‘Quarantine fatigue’: Researchers find more Americans venturing out against coronavirus stay-at-home orders. But we don’t know. Nobody knows. Hopefully the higher power (some call it God or something) may spare us all and maybe it will “magically disappear”. Yeah, we don’t know. Whatever you do though please don’t inject yourselves with disinfectants okay?
We have 5 vaccines in clinical trials right now and another 71 in preclinical evaluation, they are all HERE. This is good. I think.
If you want to learn about testing, this is a must read: A Non-Scientist’s Primer on Testing for COVID-19. You read this and you realize this whole area is also evolving and changing constantly as well!
MILES & POINTS
HOT CREDIT CARD OFFERS: New: The CitiBusiness AAdvantage Platinum now offers 70k AA miles. There is an offer for the United Explorer card offering 60,000 miles. The IHG Rewards Club card offering 140k points too, highest ever. For a standard workhorse card I recommend the 60k Chase Sapphire Preferred card. For a standard premium card I recommend the 50k Chase Sapphire Reserve card. For a standard 2% cash back card I recommend the Citi Double Cash card. Available with my links. Lets move on!
I do not have much in this section. I don’t blog about gift card 5% off sales, crappy Amex offers, go batshit crazy about “amazing” credit card offers, JetBlue/Southwest sales and meaningless blogged to death stuff like that. You know why? Because right now not much is really happening with all these planes parked! Here’s What You Do With Two-Thirds of the World’s Jets When They Can’t Fly.
Sick of blog posts that Amex MAY come out with new card perks. Maybe a new card too. Don’t fall for clickbait crap like this, they are just trying to sell Amex cards. WAIT for the real news. Oh, Amex credit card spending is down 20%. Actually, I thought that was not too bad…
Many bloggers like this hotel, here is a review of the Grand Hyatt Baha Mar. You know you can stay there for free with the World of Hyatt credit card you can get you know where…you can be the second conversion this month, SAD!
TRAVEL
Never seen pics of these crew and staff only parts of cruise ships! The Parts of the Cruise Ship You Don’t Get to See: What Do the Crew Quarters Look Like? It may be a while before we have a chance to even see them from afar because there is no way in hell anyone will be getting on a cruise ship anytime soon. Some of the pics reminded me of airline lounges…I miss them so much you know!
I posted this a while back. But I recently ran into it again. The particular sheen of America by Amtrak. It reminded me so much of our cross country trip on Amtrak which we loved. Well, all except our son who still thinks it was the most boring trip of his lifetime as he had nowhere to go (and no cord for his laptop lol). As a bonus, the linked page continues with a great article about Rick Steves, which was also posted here years ago. A blast from the past I guess.
I love religious theme places, you know, churches, monasteries and stuff like that. A Glimpse Inside the Secluded World of a Georgian Convent. And love the pictures, wow!
Speaking of churches, why don’t we hike up to the Rock-Hewn Churches of Tigray in Ethiopia. The views are UNBELIEVABLE!
The Most Expensive Cities in the World. Cool, thanks to the Visual Capitalist again.
PERSONAL FINANCE
I am posting this in Personal Finance because I want this to be a warning for everyone who is thinking to open a restaurant. My Restaurant Was My Life for 20 Years. Does the World Need It Anymore? One of the best and most raw things I ever read on the subject. I think the author has a great future as a writer, what an intense read, wow!
This kid gives the best personal finance lesson, wow!
How to Apply for Small Business Loans. And good luck, hope you know a banker really well. We will be reading mega fraud stories about these programs in a few years #youhearditherefirst
ODDZ & ENDZ
Ever wondered how the nature recording started? Me neither, haha. But this article will show you how it all started. It was by this interesting guy named Irv Teibel and this is his fascinating story: How a New Age Hustler Sold the Sound of the World.
I almost skipped this one but I am glad I did not. Amazing facts: Someone Asks People To Share Facts That Sound Fake But Are Actually Real And They Deliver.
Distance from USA to Russia 4 kilometers [Hey, maybe Sarah Palin could see Russia from her back porch…damn fake news media again!]
The guy who sang Peanut Butter Jelly Time died in a police shootout. Also, his brother in law was there trying to talk him out of shooting himself. You know who that brother-in-law was? F***ing Snoop Dogg [phucking alpah, wild!]
Chickens are one of many species of birds that dont have penetrative genitalia. Read; cocks are cockless. The method of reproduction they use is commonly called a “cloacal kiss” and you can think of it as chickens scissoring, because “bumping holes” is the grossest possible way to phrase chicken sex. [cocks are cockless…what is next?????]
This is a stunning read. It is long, you have been warned. Once I started I could not stop. Shaking my head all the way, what is wrong with some people? This couple threw their life away…for what? WTF! Framed She was the PTA mom everyone knew. Who would want to harm her?
Ok, lets get back to laughs ok? Hello (from the Inside) An Adele Parody by Chris Mann. You are welcome, humor is the best medicine they say.
BLOG BUZZ
We are now entering BLOG BUZZ, a section for advanced hobbyists and veterans of this fast imploding hobby and also a section where I go on and on about some stuff that happens in my life because it helps me feel better about myself.
You see this and you say “well, sounds good”. Then you read the details and you shake your head: American Airlines Now Allowing Awards To Be Cancelled Online. I am not feeling comfortable booking anything right now…
I had signed up to run the Toledo Glass City Half Marathon but it was canceled. So I ran it on my own in my local favorite park. I was aiming for a PR under 2 hours. Boom! It is an amazing feeling afterwards…and so addictive, a pure natural high!
And I leave you with this…
TBB
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Gold from Charlotte!
Thanks for the cruise ship pics, I’ve always wondered what accommodations are like for the staff & crew.
Good morning.
Hope everyone is holding up ok. The news out of France about the rush on nicotine patches is just wild. I guess it is never to late to start.smoking!
Bronze! For the Pacific Northwest! (For the first time in a while!)
I saw that article this weekend about the restaurant guy and it is darned good. Glad you spotted it for here!
I need a patch for severe boredom and ennui both. I am sticking to the rules but we started early here in WA state and I am damned tired of not being able to go basically anywhere. I feel a lot more sympathy for people I sent to jail now!
My reaction to aa now allowing awards to be cancelled was, great! Except, how does that go, the devil is in the details….or something.
We have award trip planned except its after Sep 30, its on partners, and its for two people.
Three strikes…………they really do hate their customers.
I would be very interested in reading how the Swedish demographic might be different than in other places where the virus has hit hard, and if that has an effect on the spread of the virus. Just off the top of my head: Swedish “genes”(okay, I know they have a lot of immigrants now too), family size, lack of obesity, etc.
It will be interesting to look back at this virus one day and understand what were the factors that caused it to spread more in one country versus another,
P.S. I really wonder if there is such a thing as “herd immunity”
Good morning Buzz-
I had a funny post ready-centered on Trump missing the boat with Lysol because the real answer is: Mr. Clean. But I can’t post it as this is all just too much dark crap to deal with. I can’t laugh anymore as it is just beyond belief that we could be riding such a rudderless ship.
Here’s a great column “I Will Not Die of Stupid” by Leonard Pitts, a smart guy with a way with words:
https://www.sltrib.com/opinion/commentary/2020/04/26/leonard-pitts-i-will-not/
Goobers in MAGA hats. And how.
TBB is about the only travel and points blog I’ve seen that is giving readers valuable info at this point. Better than asking which Disney World ride you’ll go on when the park opens up again. I am sure most of those other blogs (Looking at you TPG) are worth about 1/10th of what they were 2-3 months ago. But TBB was too smart for that trap. By keeping its revenues low, TBB’s FMV is probably close to what it was in January. Like Amazon-Shrewd thinking.
Congrats on the run, and on getting out of the house.
Cockless cocks. Only on TBB. And Flyer Talk, of course.
P.S, DON’T DRINK MR. CLEAN-IT WAS A JOKE (A joke I never told).
I wonder if Dan’s rating of Trump’s handling of the pandemic shifted from 3/10 after this latest round of psychosis. Maybe if bleach and other disinfectants are available through his amazon link it will actually go up. Imagine once he can get a commission on virus testing equipment – then it will be a 10/10 for sure.
Loved that LA Times story about the power couple. Really great read, made my day.
Hi everyone,
Been a very busy day today so no time to respond individually…I may do it later tonight (Monday).
I just want to make one follow up statement on what Sam said:
>>>>>>>>But TBB was too smart for that trap. By keeping its revenues low, TBB’s FMV is probably close to what it was in January. Like Amazon-Shrewd thinking.
Yep, it was my plan all along and it is WORKING. Lol. For example, yesterday it was not another ZERO # day, nope. I got one reader to sign up with my Rakuten link (thanks!) and still made $0 yesterday but, please sit down, deferred $30 from that due to be paid out on…August 15. MASTER plan Sam, what can I say? I am afraid Harvard Business Review may propose to have my blog as a case study in its MBA program to teach “How to succeed online” course.
Crying 🙂
More later, I hope. And now a nap, got to rest them leg muscles…
@ NickPFD: Yeah, I had never seen the cruise ship pics for the crew, we have seen so many for the airline pilots. Very interesting…and no wonder the virus spreads so fast among them!
@ DML: Yeah, read that and just shook my head. This virus is sure redefining…everything. Or some evil tobacco industry exec did something again…
@ Carl: How can you live with yourself sending them to get Covid-19 man! Ok, just kidding, who would have known! Yeah, we are staying home too.
@ JohnnieD: Yeah, something really wrong in the exec suite over at AA…
@Bluecat: Who knows…maybe we find out about THAT next week or by Thursday…Everything is developing…I already have enough material to do half of today’s size post tomorrow! So, Friday’s post may be yuge. We’ll find out more about this herd immunity thing most of us were not even aware of too…
@Sam: Loved that link, TBB worthy! Loved that business strategy fantasy theory of yours, made me laugh. If only more people were interested in blogs writing about cockless cocks…TPG will be my bitch LOL.
@Bill: Oh yeah, LOL. Thanks for the laugh. I think Dan may feel about his generous rating…he is too busy though these days selling that stuff. Every time he posts something five minutes go by and updates with: DEAD! This never happens in this blog, because my Amazon link is just DEAD period woohoo!
@Josh: Yeah, almost missed it. Kept reading it and I am glad I stuck with it. Amazing, WTF were they thinking? If the dude at least had expressed genuine sorrow ONCE…What assholes! But they had control over it…On Friday, you will read a similar story about a guy who is a natural born asshole…just be patient. I am not going to quit before Friday I promise 🙂
It was telling the comments the LA guys were making that in LA, the original woman is thrown in jail and they don’t think twice about it. The story just kept getting more twisted.
Regarding the origin of SARS-CoV-2
https://www.newsweek.com/controversial-wuhan-lab-experiments-that-may-have-started-coronavirus-pandemic-1500503?amp=1&__twitter_impression=true
And how the original SARS was discovered
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-chinas-bat-woman-hunted-down-viruses-from-sars-to-the-new-coronavirus1/?amp=true&__twitter_impression=true
I read the Newsweek article and thought it was interesting. When this first happened, Occam’s razor would have led me to believe something got released from the Wuhan lab and that led to the pandemic. Simple explanation. The official explanation right now is much more complex. Wonder if we will ever know the truth.
I think this is the most devastating comment
“The PREDICT program has produced no results—absolutely no results—that are of use for preventing or combating outbreaks. There’s no information from that project that will contribute in any way, shape or form to addressing the outbreak at hand. The research does not provide information that’s useful for developing antiviral drugs. It does not provide information that’s useful for developing vaccines.”
No matter where SARS-CoV-2 came from. Let’s shut down any gain of function studies. It’s a dangerous academic exercise with (so far) no practical application. The risks are to great.
I remember reading that Newseek article and for a few seconds debating whether it was going to make the cut. I decided against it.
I loved the other article with the bat scientist, wow.
We’ll never know and there will always be all kinds of conspiracy shit flowing non stop. I stick with the “jumped from bat to humans somehow” explanation. For now…unless we find out more evidence of it being in the US before it was discovered in China and then you know it was the US Military labs and you know they took it to the World Military games in Wuhan, right? 🙂
So much for calling me an anti Chinese conspiracy theorist.
Hey, after Trump recommended ingesting disinfectant or maybe a light source or something…do you still rate him 3 out of 10?
The date of the “intelligence” report is March 27. The administration is still looking for someone to blame…Newseek wasted way too many words with theories that…never mind.
It’s just conspiracy crap galore online…Bottom line, with more dying this year than we lost in the Vietnam war when we just had 5 cases and we were going to zero…it baffles us all your way of rating performance.
I rate myself 2/10 in conversions…coming up a little short this month, sad!
SHOCKING announcement!
TBB earned its 2nd credit card conversion this month! What is even more shocking is that both were CSP cards!
Thank you to the reader who preferred to use my cc links, much appreciated.
I was thinking to go down to once a week posting when the blog earned less than 5 conversions per month but I am learning to not enforce it this month because, you know, coronaphuckingvirus has really messed everything up and travel stuff is on hold for the most part…
Thanks to the two readers!
I could post tomorrow and be as good as my Monday post but…I need to control myself.
Anyone in Sweden to let us know what is happening? – Of course there is, you know Rene is in Gothenburg doing a post on Sweden changing from driving on the left side of the road while ingesting massive amounts of Surströmming and downing Carlsbergs like they’re going out of style… like his lame blog… Oh wait, he sold it to some other chump ages ago, not even named Rene…smh.
TBB Comments Section special Personal Finance lesson;
US Gov’t Unemployment- $600
Stimulus Check -$1200
Multiple streams of income, bitches!
He sold way too late lol
One man’s opinion on the whole Sweden thing:
https://www.balloon-juice.com/2020/04/28/im-at-my-wits-end/
TL;DR: The US ain’t Sweden
I enjoyed reading the comments on that one too!
That was hilarious!
Hey you guys, United miles…RIP…last one bit the dust…waiting for The Points Guy to lower the valuation of them…..LOL!!!!
Weird times in Twitter land, Ben bitching about TPG stealing his trademark and then GSTP begging Ben and Gary to appear in his podcast…BA is a brotherhood or what?
In the meantime, Milenomics moves on to become podcast something…. $180 per year on Patreon…obviously, I am doing something wrong here….
phuck it, I am going to bed, no nap today and I am feeling it!
Or more to the point, when will those clowns lower their UR valuations?
You know…doing THAT will be committing suicide as it will take away the majority of posts and conversions!
Nice to see that Hong Kong hasn’t had any new cases in 5 days.
Meanwhile our dear leader claims that nobody could have done it better.
“Our death totals, our numbers, per million people, are really very, very strong. We’re very proud of the job we’ve done“
There’s nothing more important than great marketing.
In total, 4 COVID-19 related deaths in HK. I believe HK is pretty close to CN. Well done!