We bring you more on the bank rewards frenzy, an amazing site all about documentary mania, how to do (or not) Covid travel, the last honey hunter, TBB escapes in the woods, we visit Singapore and Switzerland, always the best Covid-19 coverage, some positive changes from AA, a few hotel promos, we go intergalactic, we talk about bonds, vending machines and movie theaters, praise teachers, a long article about Vanilla Ice of that ridiculous Ice Ice Baby fame, amazing photography and lots more, enjoy!
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This goes out to subscribers via email the day it is posted at 8 am. After that I may add something new and I indicate it like this: Update. So you all come back often and check what was added, it may, wait for it, shock you!
There is a LOT in this post. You all enjoy the weekend and thanks for spending some of it reading my blog. If you are not into the frequent flyer miles/points game please feel free to skip the Miles & Points section.
Stay positive, test negative!
TOP PICKS
I am starting a new blog section titled TOP PICKS. For readers who have been here for a while it is similar to the “Best of Web” posts I used to do. I pick some content that deserves special mention in these now weekly curated blog posts I do. As I think everything I post here is a must read, think of these in this section as the MUST must reads! 🙂
You like Documentaries? You ‘ll love this site!
You can watch documentaries like my favorite Free Solo about the amazing Alex Honnold solo free climbing Yosemite’s 3,000 ft high El Capitan Wall. Or Unfit about the current US President and, well, how amazingly fit is to hold such a position. For you lonely undecided voter who found my site by accident…
This next site will blow your mind. Especially if you love history!
Welcome to Histography, where every dot is a historic event from Wikipedia. Click on the dots to learn more about the specific event. You may end up spending hours on this site, I apologize.
A 36 minute movie that at some parts is so visually stunning it will, wait for it, shock you!
Movie does not have a good ending, you have been warned. It is filmed in Nepal and I don’t add things to the Top Picks section if they do not deserve it.
MILES & POINTS
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If you do not see a credit card with my affiliate links, perhaps I could refer you? Contact me please, thank you!
Chase Sapphire Preferred 80,000 Points Signup Bonus with $4,000 Spend. I can now refer you to this card, please use my REFERRAL link, thank you! Offer ends November 7.
The increased offers keep coming! AMEX now offers 60,000 points for the Gold card that offers 4x on dining. AMEX also now offers 100k points for the Marriott Bonvoy Business Card and 125k for the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant card. The number of points is not that big of a deal but, more interestingly an added twist, both cards offer Platinum status for 2021.
Marriott has come out with a credit card offer that offers 5 free nights for the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless card. But you must be careful about Marriott’s rules.
American Airlines is making some positive changes for its elite flyers. But not earth shattering. If no progress on the Covid front and some more government help it is hard to see all the airlines continuing to bleed billions, tick tock. American Airlines Makes Positive Changes to AAdvantage Program for 2021. Son managed to achieve Platinum Pro elite status and will keep it until 1/31/22. But since business travel collapsed post Covid he has no realistic chance this year to achieve Executive Platinum, which was a certainty before everything changed.
The New York Times takes a shot here: Airline Miles Programs Sure Are Profitable. Are You the Loser? Kind of hilarious to get the The Points Guy editor to admit that cash back cards are the best lol.
Decent hotel promo from Radisson Rewards: 25% Back On Awards, 15% Back On Giftcard Purchases.
And you can register for the latest Accor ALL promotion to earn 3x on hotels in North and Central America HERE.
TRAVEL
Landlopers with some really good thoughts on Traveling in 2020: Thoughts & Trip Styles For All Comfort Levels. I think I belong in the first categories, as in Stay at Home, Roadtrips and regional travel when I am daring (we visited the Michigan Upper Peninsula in August, a four night hotel adventure). And that’s all for us. I don’t know, the vision of seeing myself or my loved ones in the prone position connected to a ventilator because I could not take it anymore and took a trip somewhere far just does not appeal to me. If you do, please try to minimize spreading the virus. And if you get it during your trip, maybe add some of those pics from the hospital or your bed being sick next to the ones you laying flat in your business class seat ok?
Amazing timelapse video of Singapore: Lion City Rising.
If you thought the Singapore city video above was awesome, you have not seen anything yet. Like this absolutely stunning 4k video about Switzerland.
Well, since we can not visit both Singapore and Switzerland let’s go out of space and watch One hour of active satellites orbiting Earth (sped up by 240x). You look at that and you start wondering when these things will just keep crashing onto one another and…crash through your house roof!
Wait, let’s go even further next by playing around this interactive site with 100,000 stars! TBB is going intergalactic baby! Next best thing to flying into space if you ask me. And freeeee!
COVID-19
There are many of these dashboards out there but here is the one from the World Health Organization.
Here is another one, check out what happens on the screen! COVID Cases Since June in the US States. You see a whole lot in red, coincidence? Wake up Trump fans, come on, do your research! 😉
We all can not wait for this pandemic to end! But how realistic is this? This next article will show what is in store for us. And it is not good. How do pandemics end? We are in the grip of a pandemic like none other in living memory. While people are pinning their hopes on a vaccine to wipe it out, the fact is most of the infections faced by our ancestors are still with us.
Sometime in the past week I think it hit us that this is not going to happen anytime soon. There is no getting ‘back to normal,’ experts say. The sooner we accept that, the better. I was looking so forward to have my mother stay with us from Greece in May and then the phucking virus hit and life changed. But we humans are resilient…
This will shock you. Hope we learn from this to attack FAST next time! See in one minute how Covid-19 has torn across the U.S.
The latest thread update by Andy Slavitt.
With so many still being infected, sometimes I find myself saying “screw it, let’s just get it and be done with it” and move on. But then I read articles like this and change my mind ” ‘I Feel Like I Have Dementia’: Brain Fog Plagues Covid Survivors”.
Oh, this happened in New Zealand on October 11, 2020. And you want to give the one in charge four more years to kill even more, isn’t 215,000 in body bags enough, WTF!
If you ever wondered about this: How the Coronavirus Death Toll Compares to Other Deadly Events From American History. We are living through one of the greatest ongoing tragedies in our history!
This is a 36 page report of the 2020 Freedom on the Net and the pandemic’s digital shadow. Obviously, read if interested and have the time. Or just take a look at the many graphs and charts at least.
PERSONAL FINANCE
We are all trying to cope in this era of super low interest rates. It sure is not easy and we all need a major rethink about the subject and the role bonds play in investment portfolios: Game Over. Some really good commentary here…
Something that is still going strong apparently. And kind of fun to learn about. The economics of vending machines. Sure looks better than having a blog bwahahaha.
I feel so awful for everyone in the movie theater business and I hope they get some help, especially the small independent theaters out there! The fate of the American movie theaters looks terribly bleak. One of the things I missed so much is going to the movies to watch a film and eat popcorn!
I was asked by a blog reader what I think about the bank bonuses the Doctor of Credit blog usually writes about, here is my response.
CURRENT EVENTS/POLITICS
I found this article extremely disturbing! How a Road Trip Through America’s Battlegrounds Revealed a Nation Plagued by Misinformation. So many morons…stop clicking on clickbait shit!
No, I did not watch the town halls, I have already voted! I heard QAnon fans are against pedophilia #wow.
ODDZ & ENDZ
Remember this dude? The (Mostly) True Story of Vanilla Ice, Hip-Hop, and the American Dream. In 1990, there was no star bigger than the man born Robert Van Winkle. But just as quickly as he became the bestselling rapper the world had ever seen, he became a pariah. Now, 30 years after “Ice Ice Baby,” he’s ready to talk about it all—and it may change how you feel about him. I think we may have been a little too tough on this guy, we all make mistakes when we are so young!
I firmly believe teachers are heroes. And they deserve to get paid more. This is a very touching example, it should shock you. Or at least humble you! Albert Camus’ letter to his teacher after winning Nobel Prize for Literature is a heartbreaker.
A French dude is doing this, I could not stop laughing, I am sorry! The etiquette school for China’s super-rich.
75 awesome maps on Reddit. Which one is your favorite?
This shows you how super tiny these are! Zooming In: Visualizing the Relative Size of Particles.
Some amazing photos from the Wildlife Photographer of the Year contest, enjoy!
These are awesome: Photos of the Rough and Tumble Tour de France Throughout the Years.
I have been holding off this pic in the queue for a while: No comment…ok one, wow.
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.
Some good recent data points here: Current Retention Offer: Amex, Chase & Citi Retention Offer Data Points.
The successful bloggers are the ones who likely pay someone to write these for them, SAD! And here I am busting my ass smh, it is what it is I guess…
My running has been interrupted. Again. I think I tried to come back too soon, got sciatica flared up. Lots of walking lately in the woods around Ann Arbor. Love the pic below!
Here is your favorite blogger with my patented constipated look lol.
And I leave you with this…
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Bank sign up bonuses have been around for a long time. Used to be “get a free toaster or encyclopedia” for a new checking account. In the late 90’s -early 00’s, I would visit Blogs dedicated to listing best signup bonuses along with best savings rate, best loan rate, etc.. These blogs were gateways to discovering the Miles & Points game. So proliferation of bank bonuses is not new.
Correct, see my follow up comment on that.
Thanks for the investment links this morning! I didn’t wait to read them.
The vending machine piece is really interesting but something changed in what is sold. I used to be able to get fruit but not now. Annoying to have a vending machine next to “eat right” slogans that only sells candy.
The piece on bonds is really good. The vanished yields surely explain why AMEX lets you borrow on its “Plan It” for 0%. And of rather greater importance the yield chasing of the pension funds.
As with most things online (not TPG), the comment section is where you get the truth:
“Eric Whitten
As a previous owner/operator of my own dozen machines, I can confirm what all is presented here. I’ll add that the only people who are actually making money in that biz are the machine repair people.”
“Vending Pro Service
i own around 200 vending machines here in Vancouver,BC and rarely making any profits. All profits goes to the guy who fixes my broken vending machine compressor. You are absolutely right, the repair guy and the moving guy are the only ones making money on the vending machine business”
Next article should be about the repair or moving business!
Next, blogging about how to vend and become a millionaire? Oh wait, looks like that is here already lol
So, now “The Points Guy” is moderating panels on travel sanitation for Delta Air Lines.
Oy.
Seriously?
Lol
I think you should reconsider bank account bonuses. Over the past 4 years, my haul in 2P mode is about $20k after taxes. The fine print seems daunting at first, but with a good spreadsheet and some practice it becomes easy, particularly in 2P mode when you open accounts simultaneously. It feels like gambling at a special kind of casino where the only thing you can lose is your time.
I have no doubt it could be…
But if I do that I would have to let my blog baby go…and then what platform will I be left with to change the world and…whine about how it does not make any sense keeping this blog if $$ was the goal hey? 🙂
Oh, disregard my comment, they’re not worth your time. Keep blogging! I’m really enjoying the weekly posts.
Super nice picture of a Proboscis Monkey, as evidenced by all of my really crappy attempts to get a decent picture this January. The suckers are somewhat elusive and you can generally only get a chance to take pictures when the sun is fading.
They are so elusive I had never heard of them 🙂
Scientific discourse hits a roadblock:
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/oct/16/profanity-filter-bones-paleontologists-conference
TBB will never censor such words lol.
Bone, really?
Roadtrip tomorrow, northern michigan, Petoskey area. Harbor Springs to Cross Village to see Tunnel of Trees and catch the leaves changing colors. Could have burned some Marriott points in son’s account if it was not sold out!
Thanks to the reader who got an IHG Rewards card.
You are #4 this month!
The momentum is clearly gigantic, TPG M&A accountants are doing the numbers now before the buyout offer lands…
and then I woke up. Actually, I am going to bed early for early risin and drivin!
Probably better than Milevalue. The new owners are pushing CCs very hard. Maybe to an audience of zero….?
They are pushing them hard to the members of the FB group they have apparently I was told where of course they show them how to travel for free because it is their hobby 😉
So they bought this site from that gal who actually tried really hard after buying it from that dude who, if you remember, had said out loud that ‘He will never push a card that was an inferior offer” LOL.
This is one thing that at least Dan of DansDeals gets some respect…he never pretended that this was NOT his job!
Drove way too many miles to northwest Michigan and back today. I may post some photos in next blog post
Just used your Chase Sapphire referral link. I hope the points come through!
Thanks for letting me know and I appreciate it.
Who would have thought…
“ All University of Michigan undergraduate students are now under an emergency stay-in-place order, after data shows that Covid-19 cases among Michigan students represents more than 60% of all local cases.”
Credit to the university president/chancellor for focusing on revenue $$$$$ this semester. With a renowned research institute and medical center it’s amazing that they don’t have appropriate testing, contact tracing and rules to keep the virus under control.
My favorite headline is from the Daily Tarheel back in late August “ UNC has a clusterfuck on its hands”.
Yeah. There is a lot of anger here, clusterfuck2. No more donations ever.
Daughter was exposed, tested negative twice. Had to go to outside testing facility as the college test sites are overwhelmed.
All these kids are sent home before Thanksgiving…not sure what the plan is yet on…how to avoid infecting their families.
We should have kept her home but she really insisted on having the “college experience”…smh.
Got approved for the CSP yesterday using your link. Look for the points!
Thank you. Anyone who has used the Chase referral links, how long does it take?
I would like to dedicate the $0.18 cents the blog earned yesterday to all the readers who have been reading the blog but never clicked to support it. Saw a recent stat about how most NPR listeners never support their stations either so that made me feel better…
I guess the TPG board meeting has been cancelled. 8 year blog anniversary in a few weeks, thinking of Mile Nerd.
Stay positive, test negative.
Wife’s birthday today…and it is raining!
Citi is back in the game, offering the Premier card for 60k. Let’s do this, Gary is already out pumping it, did not miss a beat!
Oh, you will LOVE my blog post tomorrow. It has some awesome stuff and it is already bigly that I started gathering stuff for next blog post already, wow!
We’re expecting full coverage of the new Spirit Airlines loyalty program.
I think you see it in the main blogs because they expect cc affiliate $$$ 🙂
Absolutely stunning! Thank you on a detailed impressive guide!