We bring you a gem about innovation magic, the Covid long haulers, a comprehensive Citi ThankYou Points guide, having second passports, lasting immunity, the latest credit card offers, the latest merger rumors and promos, the most remote Airbnb properties, amazing photos from South Korea, warn you about financial advisors charlatans who are not fiduciaries and other scammers, Europe awakens, the history of the Web, the biggest explosion ever footage and always eclectic material to educate, entertain and inspire you. This means no stupid clickbait and endless ways trying to trick you to click on my ads (oops, I have none) and my affiliate links…which is probably directly related to the fact they get no clicks LOL.
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MUST READ POST OF THE DAY
I am singling this one out because it is a fine gem and you should make time to read it! I could excerpt the whole thing but I won’t. Theme of it is about how true innovation happens at the darkest times when fear runs rampant, enjoy.
COVID-19
We keep seeing confusing reports regarding immunity from the virus. They range all over the place. The thing is, as in everything with this virus, we need time to study it as it is so freaking new! We will answer this question “soon”: Scientists See Signs of Lasting Immunity to Covid-19, Even After Mild Infections.
Another must read by Ed Yong of The Atlantic: Long-Haulers Are Redefining Covid-19. Very disturbing! Maybe this was never like the flu hey?
Meanwhile in Wuhan: Massive party held at swimming pool in COVID-19 epicenter Wuhan while we have tens of thousands of new cases and lose over a thousand of our fellow citizens EVERY SINGLE DAY!
In the meantime, we have to waste time with people who just keep falling for stupid crap! Nine COVID-19 Myths That Just Won’t Go Away. Can you tell I have no patience for conspiracy nuts?
MILES & POINTS
HOT CREDIT CARD OFFERS: There are now three different 65k Chase Southwest card offers and a 60k Chase United Explorer card offer. Please use my Affiliate links.
If you do not see a credit card you want with my affiliate links, perhaps I could refer you to it? Some cards I can refer are: ChaseFreedomUnlimited, ChaseSapphirePreferred, AmexHiltonAspire, AmexBlueBusinesPlus, AmexHiltonBusiness. Contact me please and thanks for your support!
As a lifetime former Platinum Fairmont President’s Club member (now Accor ALL Platinum)…this was very disturbing to find out: Accor Shows Interest in Merger With IHG to Create Global. Hotels Behemoth. Then again, this is par for the course when you are dealing with Accor. I wonder if we will soon start seeing a wave of mergers in the travel industry induced by, what else, the virus…stay tuned.
Bloggers, in an environment where the main thing we are dealing with, travel is so curtailed jumped on some “news” by an airline that will likely not make it in the next months: Virgin Atlantic Flying Club Updates. I guess the “big” news is getting elite credit for award flights. Only to be offset with even higher fuel surcharges lol.
Comprehensive resource if you have any. Citi ThankYou points sweet spots for high value redemptions.
Newbies: The name of the game is earning credit card signing bonuses for free travel. In these pandemic times when travel is mostly not happening it may be a great time to start accumulating miles and points to start burning for epic trips when we eventually get back to normal. Offers north of 60,000 miles/points are attractive. You get one, you satisfy the spend requirement, you earn 60k+ miles/points and then “do the work”, as in maintaining the card, ALWAYS paying the balance EVERY month, keep for a year or cancel and…keep rinsing 😉 Or at the very minimum get ONE 2% cash back credit card and use it for all your purchases, you can handle that right? If this is all too much…you should be skipping this section of my blog, you are just not cut out for this. No shame about it, your life will be simpler no doubt. Oh, my wife just got one of the Southwest 65k cards for future travel #diversify!
TRAVEL
The hotel boom in Ann Arbor shows no sign of stopping: 2 hotels approved for former Michigan Inn site in Ann Arbor, an Aloft by Marriott and a Home2 by Hilton. And keeping it local, the new Indigo Hotel in downtown Detroit looks very nice.
Amazing photography by Ekaterina Busygina of South Korea.
I really liked my second passport (Greek), it allowed me to travel to Iran (when other US passport holders could not go) and to Brazil by avoiding a visa back when it was required. I could travel to many more countries now that do not allow Americans in. And we have friends who come from all over the world and the passport discussion is becoming a lot more frequent after the pandemic hit! The New American Status Symbol? A Second Passport.
Some interesting properties listed here: The Most-Wishlisted Off-the-Grid Airbnbs in the U.S.
PERSONAL FINANCE
Be careful out there of financial advisors who are not fiduciaries okay? Because this can happen to you!
Wild story, beware of scammers! How a Fake CIA Spy Fooled Everyone and Swindled Millions.
CURRENT EVENTS/POLITICS
We’ll start off with two presidential speeches. Here is the first one by Joe Biden. Seeing the kid who used to stutter give a speech was one of the most heart warming things I have seen lately, what a change from the current tweeting lunatic nastiness!
One more: A speech by the former President. Just to piss off the few remaining Trump fans here woohoo. I actually deleted the speech by Michelle Obama for fears of being accused of partisanship lol. One day I am going to start doing things that drive conversions… 🙂
Europe may come well ahead after the Covid pandemic actually. Europe’s Geopolitical Awakening.
ODDZ & ENDZ
Fantastic resource: THE BLACK MUSIC HISTORY LIBRARY. Enjoy!
Another gem, I could be doing posts about moronic clickbait shit or just keep trying to sell you but I don’t! The History of the Web.
Wow, stunning clip. “Newly-declassified” footage of the Tsar Bomba nuclear test back in 1961. 50 megatons boom, biggest explosion on record to date. For aviation geeks, start watching around minute 18, you are welcome. The explosion happens at minute 22. Thanks for the HTs bloggers smh.
LOL: Shakespeare Insult Generator.
LOL2: Facemask prevents store from ID’ing man who stole a 3-foot, 40-pound dildo in broad daylight. Hope he is not a relative of yours bwahahahaha.
I like these Index posts at Harper’s Magazine, some selected ones:
Total value of surplus military equipment distributed to U.S. police departments under the Trump Administration : $964,962,803
Percentage increase since February in the number of American Jews who have applied to emigrate to Israel : 64
Average number of times per day that Donald Trump tweeted in 2017: 7
Percentage of Americans who want Trump to tweet more frequently: 3 [WTF to infinity!]
Enjoy these amazing photos! 2020 iPhone Photography Award Winners.
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.
I hope these brothers are not anyone in our hobby who got way carried away with reselling hacks, wtf! How Four Brothers Allegedly Fleeced $19 Million From Amazon.
Have fun dreaming I guess…You Can Now Book Some Cathay Pacific and GOL Rewards on Aeroplan.com.
These guys at American Airlines are just plain mean now, WTF! American Airlines Going After Hidden City Ticket ‘Abusers’.
The writing is on the wall. I have only had two credit card conversions this month here. One by my daughter (Discover it for Students, her first card as an adult to build her credit) and the other one by my wife (one 65k Southwest card). I mean, how sad is that. Ingy is laughing, even after leaving millions on the table as he sold years early. And so it goes…Aiming for an 8 year blog anniversary and a new direction, it’s been fun you guys.
When travel “thought leaders” copy what you post ten days later showing off to their own readers and try to “bury” it on a Sunday night…If I had a dollar for ever time I never got an HT, it is what it is I guess.
Last week: 25 miles running, 28 miles biking #consistency
Another pic from Michigan Upper Peninsula road trip.
And I leave you with this…
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Opinions expressed here are author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post.
LOL The same goes for small states. If I see them mention Maine on the news I say “that’s us!”
Good morning!
Thanks for the links.
It is indeed a good time to build up mileage balances. And conditionally book for next spring.
Thanks for the covid long-haulers article. I don’t know if I ever had covid as my test was negative but I have been going through something like what’s described in that article (though less severe, thankfully) for the past month.
One angle the author left out in the Must Read article (it was, too!) was the aount of artistic creativity that burst forth during that same time.
Imagine, towards the end of the thirties, you could, within a year or a little more, go see Gone With The Wind, The Wizard of OZ, and many other classic movies. Or you could go buy the first issues of Superman, Batman, Captain America, Captain Marvel and many other comic books that were first introduced. Or see the first real TV Broadcasts from ther 1939 World’s Fair.
They were amazing years.
I’d like to recommend this column, for one, from the Chicago Tribune, about funding for the arts during the Great Depression.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/books/ct-books-biblioracle-0802-20200728-gt5znnfjlzamlaqffmaivvio4y-story.html
Just as the TBB’s Must Read article mentions the WPA funding roads and infrastructure, “One of the key parts of the WPA was Federal Project Number One, which consisted of the Federal Art Project, the Federal Music Project, the Federal Theater Project, the Federal Writers’ Project and the Historical Records Survey.
It is not an exaggeration to say that the writers, artists and musicians who were supported by the WPA shaped American culture in the latter half of the 20th century. ”
Something to think about when you consider how hard-hit the arts have been by Covid quarantines.
At this point…with the pressure at CDC to do even less testing…I am very afraid if this current clusterphuck gets elected again we are all going to die…so, let’s get past this so we can start recovering and yeah…I am ALL IN for the arts!
At one point we thrusted the CDC. And now I lost trust in the FDA. It will be hard to get >60% of the population vaccinated in Q1-2 next year.
Well done draining the swamp!
Dr. Paul Offit, who serves on the FDA’s vaccine advisory committee, says he’s seen evidence of bullying and pressure from the administration on the agency.
https://twitter.com/theleadcnn/status/1297993384443949057?s=21
Imagine when the vaccine comes and the FDA says to take it…
https://apnews.com/a7f0e8aac34a860ad502912564681b7c?utm_source=nextdraft&utm_medium=email
Meanwhile, “ CDC was pressured ‘from the top down’ to change Covid-19 testing guidance, official says https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/08/26/politics/cdc-coronavirus-testing-guidance/index.html
I will certainly NOT be first in line to vaccinate against COVID. I’m starting to understand anti-vaxxers.
I can not believe this is happening, the phucking moron has managed to destroy our jewel (not anymore)….yeah, extremely disturbing. VOTE often!
@ sexy_kitten7: Lol…you are the first person I know who is from Maine 🙂
@ DML: It is…but nobody other than my familia is doing it with my links, sad!
@ Nick @ PFD: Negative…for antibodies? Those tests are crap, do another one. Sorry to hear it. Get outside, under the sun. Very under rated!
@ Carl: Great points indeed.
@ ABC: Yeah…starting to agree with you lately, WTF is going in there! Can you imagine four more years…will we survive it? In the meantime, markets keep going higher…it is completely bonkers. Client called me today “What is going on?”. I responded “I don’t know, enjoy the ride” 🙂
Love your stuff and I’ll be really sad when you finally throw in the towel, hopefully many years from now. On the stopping blogging front, any idea what happened to Drew at Travel Is Free? I thought that he was supposed to be the one bringing integrity to TPG but haven’t seen a word. Even the search for his name comes up empty.
He is still working there. On the app.
I can’t figure out if all the bloggers who jumped to TPG did so at the right time or the wrong time… I guess it depends on if they reassign you to writing about mortgage analysis for bankrate or whatever.
Good point seeing the turn of events with the virus.
One thing for sure is that Ingy sold FTG way too early! FTG just lays there dead stiff, sad!
George, did you see this nice summary of the Myka-Huxley Rehoming story?
https://www.thecut.com/2020/08/youtube-myka-james-stauffer-huxley-adoption.html
Interesting insight about the business of family vlogging. Lots of parallels to the miles & points world.
Just added it to the “to read” list, looks very interesting.
My blog has a youtube channel, I have not visited for years, maybe I should 🙂
Read it. Very disturbing. I am just not cut out for this kind of staged manipulative crap…so many people watching this shit. I bet you many of them don’t even bother to vote either because they are too busy watching this shit. And then we all wonder why this country has gone to hell.
Look at the RNC speakers, what a total cultish freakshow OMG!
Don Jr looked like he was Henry Hill trying to drive away from the helicopter chasing him
They let out Tiffany…who is looking for a job, LOL.
Donald Trump is the second coming of Hitler!
Come on, over reaching much?
Melania sure looked like she was dressed like a Nazi last night smh
Got to love this stock market. Salesforce up 25% with a PE greater than 100. Hard to imagine that 1999-2000 was a bubble without the Fed printing money like crazy.
Elon Musk is the 4th richest in the US and the richest African in the world. Tesla is 14x bigger than Ford with just a fraction of the revenue.
The market will not be this great under Biden (nor a 2nd Trump term).
At this point I am certainly not making any stock market predictions…not like I ever did any in the first place. I am talking about short term of course.
What is happening is completely nuts and…it could keep going….or crash tomorrow. Nobody knows.
I tell client enjoy the ride, focus on what you do best and I pray every night 🙂
Citi Thank You Points are worthless to me now and will be canceling my Premier card in the next week or so. I accepted their devaluation to 1% and looked to book a hotel (1 night) with the remaining 6,160 points I have left before canceling the card. The first screen showed 5300+ points plus cash, which would’ve been fine, but going to the next page was shocking. Suddenly the cost was ALL my 6,160 points PLUS cash! So much for 1% value!
Yikes. The only Citi cards I have are the AAadvantage Platinum cards and always get the annual fee back as statement credits. We travel to NYC a lot and the bags come handy. Actually, used to travel I meant to say 🙂
Been out of ThankYou points for a while, too many others I find more useful.
https://www.scottgrimmer.com/
TPG’s future?
Holy phuck…This is the guy who had blogged about how he WILL always blog about the best credit card offer out there…only to just pummel his readers with horrifically shitty affiliate cc offers. He probably tricked the buyer of his blog and promised her the moon…
Can’t wait to read George’s take on this!
I have an amazing post tomorrow! Sad news in the hobby, blog sale, best Covid stuff, we take Doug Parker for an epic beating, the most eclectic travel posts you will not find anywhere and you will see at VFTW weeks later without an HT.
All that without a single cc conversion from anyone outside my household, LOL. Come on, really?
Moving daughter to the college dorm, BIG day…This empty nester thingie is about to stick after son moves back to NYC next month…
You all have a good day
Secret Service getting charged for resort fees at Mar-a-lago like a bunch of newbs! Probably didn’t even get an upgrade or free breakfast either. #Trump-voyed
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-company-secret-service-spending/2020/08/27/9331bd86-de36-11ea-8051-d5f887d73381_story.html
We’ll be hearing about shit like this for years…But first we need to get this dude out…
Where is Rams to justify the 17 year old dweeb who felt so inspired by Trump’s racists shit to shoot and kill protesters? 17 year old kid brandishing a big gun in daylight…smh.