We bring you the most eclectic links featuring the next pandemic, how IRS is imploding, the greatest art heists, reiterate how Delta Skymiles suck, marvel again at an octopus and seeing the Acropolis with snow, an amazing life story about the richest black girl in America, we travel to cool places, we cover Covid THE event of our lifetime, we buzz over to Mars, we look at more unique maps, learn about deforestation and lots more, enjoy and have a great week!
TBB Blog Mission: To Educate. Entertain. Inspire. In That Order!
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Changing things up a little bit as this blog evolves. The MILES & POINTS section has now moved toward the end to widen the appeal of the blog and hopefully not turn off first time visitors. The eclectic variety of content has absolutely NOT changed!
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TOP PICKS
Top picks are not excerpted at all. I recommend you find time to read every word!
An absolute masterful performance of an octopus, WOW! Maybe my blog is moving on from a North Korea obsession to an octopus one?
Cirroteuthid Octopus Billows Like a Circus Tent
I had heard of Sarah Rector but I did not know much. I am glad I decided to read this, what a wonderfully written story about her life. When an 11-year-old Black girl in Jim Crow America discovers a seemingly worthless plot of land she has inherited is worth millions, everything in her life changes — and the walls begin to close in. The untold story brought to life from thousands of pages of archival documents.
The Richest Black Girl in America
Just love this image of the Acropolis in Athens…For more after a rare winter storm click here.
TRAVEL
For some reason I never had a strong desire to visit this place. Or maybe I am confusing it with Aruba? 24 Cool Things to Do in Curacao. Looks nice…
This looks amazing! This Epic Immersive Van Gogh Exhibit Is Headed to Chicago and Staying Through the Summer.
These are awesome: 21 spectacular and unique trees and forests around the world.
Why build here? Ambitious is an understatement! Check Out this Ambitious House Built Into a Cliffside in Greece. It reminds me that mansion featured in one of my favorite movies, Ex-Machina.
COVID-19
Yes yes, dear God, let’s make this happen, we all need to get back to normal! A Quite Possibly Wonderful Summer. Families will gather. Restaurants will reopen. People will travel. The pandemic may feel like it’s behind us—even if it’s not.
Yeah, amazing what they are doing in Israel: Vaccinations and the impact of COVID-19 – our continuously-updated data for Israel.
The former CDC director lays it all out, I hope we go ahead and do this instead of forgetting all about it when we are past the pandemic: Will We Be Ready for the Next Pandemic?
If we each had a dollar every time we did this…
PERSONAL FINANCE
Really good post on claiming Social Security benefits: Poor Old Me. I think it is definitely worth it if you can wait until age 70 to start…
This is fantastic, you can click on each country! Visualizing How COVID-19 Has Impacted Global Wages.
IRS is in a crisis! The IRS Cashed Her Check. Then the Late Notices Started Coming. The pounding it is taking is merciless. And many taxpayers are getting caught here. You must do whatever you can to minimize opportunities to get caught in snafus like this because your life will become absolutely miserable trying to sort it out. Stop filing your tax returns in paper and stop mailing checks, move these functions online. Many bloggers encourage to pay estimated taxes with a credit card (so they can sell more credit cards) but you are adding one intermediary into the mix (and paying fees!) and increase the chances of something going wrong! I am very afraid the whole system of tax collection is going to break…Remember, you read this first here.
This is great:
CURRENT EVENTS/POLITICS
The footage (with sound) from Mars is unreal.
The only TV show I watch every week is 60 Minutes. And the one on Sunday February 21 was amazing with segments on the federal judge whose son was murdered at home, horrific images coming out of Syria’s civil war and another disturbing QAnon report. It will be posted HERE soon, worth watching imho.
ODDZ & ENDZ
Great link, never forget! The 25 Greatest Art Heists of All Time.
Some of these are amazing: 30 Unusual Maps People Shared On This Group That Might Change Your Perspective On Things.
I hardly ever do quotes. But this one I recently saw is worth sharing with you:
“I’ve never seen any life transformation that didn’t begin with the person in question finally getting tired of their own bullshit.” — Elizabeth Gilbert
This site has amazing data! The world has lost one-third of its forest, but an end of deforestation is possible.
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!
This section is about my hobby addiction of collecting frequent flyer miles and hotel points since the early 1990’s! Feel free to skip this section and parts of the next one if this is not for you.
Newbies: Go slow! Go at your own pace and focus on your own goals. Stop reading blogs that keep trying to sell you travel rewards credit cards ALL the time! Ask questions here, some of us were traveling for free all over the place before The Points Guy was in middle school!
Delta Skymiles are so devalued that we used to call them Skypesos. And even that became too good so then maybe they should be called Drachmas (the long gone former Greek currency). Or Zimbabwe money or whatever. But if you really try hard you can find some decent ways to use them and…these may also be gone by Wednesday lol: Best Uses for Delta Miles.
The AMEX Blue Cash Preferred card signup bonus is now up to $300. You earn $300 cash after you spend $3,000 in the first six months which is pretty easy. This is the best earning card for groceries imho, it earns 6% cash back! The sad thing is it only earns it for up to $6,000 of grocery spend per calendar year. It also earns 3% cash back on gas stations and streaming services and 1% everywhere else. The $95 annual fee is even waived for the first year. I mean, when you think about it, AMEX is paying YOU, what a country lol! Even after the annual fee starting in the second year you can just use exclusively this card for groceries to maximize the rewards in this category. And probably for gas too when you can not earn 5x on that category. This card is not for me at the present time as I am using the Chase Freedom Flex card for groceries earning 5 Ultimate Rewards points per dollar in the first year. It is available HERE. Caution: If you do all your grocery shopping at Costco, Walmart or Target, this card is NOT for you! Also, do not use it abroad as foreign transaction fees apply. If I was a slimy salesman I should have not added the two previous sentences!
Miles and points action dies over the weekends, zzzzzz.
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.
Citi…this bank is like it is in an alternate reality, so sad! Just When I Thought Citi Couldn’t Get Any Dumber, They Did This.
This is exactly why I recommend skipping all the little deals out there because you increase the probability that something may happen that will…hurt! Widespread Unauthorized Transactions – Check Your Accounts.
Has Brex bought One Mile at a Time yet? I mean, I have not seen any blogger sell something so hard wow!
One of my pet peeve sayings is “There are many ways to skin the cat”. And I am like, how cruel of a person you must be to even think about doing such a horrific act, meow!
Not seeing much improvement after that cortisone injection for my bulging disk issue, at least not yet. This blows…will give it a bit more time #developing.
And I leave you with this…This made me lol.
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Any post that ends with John Calvin is fabulous!
Thanks for the links! I might just take a flight next month …
There’s a reason we here call them shiti… after trying in the past I also recently got approved for the Citi premier, those Turkish sweet spots better stay intact until I can use them.
True, but shitibank used to work in my favor. Between a 5x point cards and churning AA/HH cards I used to love their unintended offerings. Unless I’m missing something, all the loopholes have been closed. PedroNY???
Bronze! For the Pacific Northwest! Man, been a while since I medaled!
I wish I could have waited on Social Security, but alas, the set-up on how my gummint pension worked due to the job I had absolutely prevented it. Still I scored pretty high considering so cannot complain too much.
Sure hope there will be easier travel by summer. I haven’t been anywhere at all in over a year now and it is bugging me a lot! Hoping to get the vaccine in April. Fingers Crossed! After that? Road Trip!!!
Much good stuff today again! Thanks so much!!!
I recently came across the IRS site as a good way to verify that payments submitted such as by credit card processor have indeed been received. Seems obvious yet I had not previously thought to register there and check.
Meow is right!!! Speaking of cats, I’ll be hosting a meetup next weekend in SAN. The same place where I had the pleasure of meeting TBB in living color many years ago. https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/communitybuzz/2034550-san-meetup-sun-feb-28-2021-a.html
Thanks for all taking the time to comment again.
When was the last decade Citi did a software upgrade omg!
Yeah, where is PedroNY? Hope he still reads or maybe he moved on…
We are all completing a full year since our life changed completely. It was fine for the first few weeks…now we are all completely sick of it, I know I am!
Yeah, the IRS account works great. Just heads up, if you “voluntarily” generate your own Identity Theft PIN one year…then you are non voluntarily forced to keep doing it every year! So much for the IRS definition of “voluntarily”!
I remember that SAN meetup, it was great! And you know it seems so long ago…like 1996 or something, wow! Good luck with it. I was just over on Twitter with a colleague both of us whining how long it has been since an in person conference! And I am running out of Tshirts swag….may even do the unthinkable, like actually buy a TShirt!
Not much worthy content already in the queue, which is kind of unusual.
In the meantime, OMAAT continues the plastic sales pumping like never before and I remember DCFlyer’s message that I am just like him LOL. And maybe Miles Per Day should stick with his monthly Slack group instead of blogging about his investing in stocks smh.
Oh shoot, I need to go check in to my local Hyatt Place 🙂
BTW, OMaaT is not the only place I am seeing a lot of talk about that Brex thing. Pretty popular point of conversation over on FM as well.
The Section that is filled very easily is the TRAVEL section.
Next is the COVID section.
Rest is pretty even, varies a lot. Mentally, the toughest one to fill is the PERSONAL FINANCE section simply because of my background imho…
So, this is where we are…The first two sections are already full and barely have anything in the other sections…If I do a post tomorrow there is no way in hell I will have close to four links in the other sections…So, maybe I am overthinking this. Will aim to limit UP to three links and NO WAY ever have more than four links in each section. And increase my own commentary sprinkled in…I think it will still be a much more enjoyable read than reading so much credit card sales copy and clickbait shit with shocking videos that now flood so much of this space!
Thoughts?
So much evolution going on here I gotta wear shades!
Late to the party but some commentary:
Trees and maps — great content I’d never find on my own. Gracias!
I knew the story of little Sarah Rector thanks to my late mom. But how I knew it is a (long) story itself. Short(er) version is that my mom was getting her Master’s in Mesoamerican history and I was studying slavery in the Americas in 7th grade history. She told me to research native American tribes that held slaves (black, white, other tribes). Holy eye-opener Batman! An ugly part of US history rarely discussed — then or now.
Another solid post, Buzz!
#TBBon
AT&T nears deal with TPG to sell large minority stake
see more at CNBC.com
CEO Of Tunisair Evades Arrest And Now No One Knows Who The CEO Is
Family Wins $3 Million Verdict After Alaska Airlines Killed Their Grandma
Report: American Airlines UFO Contact Over New Mexico On Sunday
American Airlines Confirms: UFO Contact Over New Mexico On Sunday
Is Gary Leff the Ted Cruz of miles?
“You are like them TBB”…