Another TBB post featuring the most eclectic links around the web such as tax filing mistakes, most beautiful beaches, Russia sanctions, Capital One Venture X credit card, unique restaurants, crazy experiment in New Zealand, beautiful Ukraine before the war, carbon cost of transportation, stock market freakouts, an operational assessment of the war in Ukraine, Linsanity, studying sex in space, best sci-fi movies and more!
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TRAVEL
This post focuses more on uniqueness, less on food quality I think. Still, good resource: Unique Restaurants Around the World, Mapped.
I feel weird posting these with so much carnage in Ukraine! I had this saved some time ago, please forgive me: 25 Most Beautiful Beaches in the World.
Covid travel requirements are slowly being dropped all around us. Bye bye Hawaii Safe Travels Ends March 25.
This is interesting: Saving the night sky: New Zealand’s craziest experiment yet? Sounds crazy for sure.
I am still distraught by what is happening there, so senseless! So, this is timely I guess: 50 Beautiful Pics Of Ukraine That Are Heartbreaking To See Right Now.
Let’s stick with the environmental ESG green stuff then: The Carbon Cost of Transportation.
PERSONAL FINANCE
The 2021 tax season is in full speed mode these days. And I must admit it is going well, no big issues…yet. Don’t make any of these 12 common tax filing mistakes.
These times are scary all around. Never forget that NOTHING you feel compares to what so many innocent Ukrainians are going through right now, ok? Sticking with the subject of this section, please allow me to turn to investing: Freaked Out by the Stock Market? Take a Deep Breath.
I gave up trying to find the winning stock or identify that fund manager who will beat the crap out of the competition. Many years ago. I highly encourage you to become a passive investing management fan. As in index funds (and ETFs). Anyway, here is another article about this issue, enjoy: Low-Cost Protection. But there is one other benefit you may have not thought about. Article also rips Keith Springer who got busted by the SEC selling high-cost annuities.
But the No. 1 reason you should love index funds is they will keep you out of the hands of pushy, unethical financial salespeople.
I think the best read on the markets is Matt Levine‘s newsletter at Bloomberg. Added this to the Personal Finance Blogs/Sites I Like. The newsletter is not for investing newbies, fyi.
BEST link to learn about the unprecedented sanctions imposed on Russia. Listen to David Frumm on the In The Bubble With Andy Slavitt podcast. I also added this podcast finally to the Blogs I Like under “Other”.
UKRAINE WAR
I hope we do not stop supporting the Ukrainians until this senseless war is over. It appears to me that Putin is doubling down and his aim now is to get them to agree to some “wins” in the negotiating table to sell to his people that this was worth it. Which is not…and seeing the carnage continue is so depressing and disheartening.
I saved some of the best material I found and I am sharing them with you as I have been doing in this blog for almost ten years. No marketing and clickbait crap here.
Good background piece on Ukraine’s history: The 20th-Century History Behind Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine. In case you were wondering why Putin seems so intent to save them from the Nazis smh.
First, yes I am obsessed about the sanctions. Because, this type of sanctions we have never ever seen before. The podcast above and this are must listen/read if you are interested in the subject. And here are Five Reasons the Sanctions Are Working.
In lieu of a military response, Biden and his allies are waging economic war on Putin’s Russia. It’s not a close fight.
This blew me away as I listened to it during one of my long runs: The War in Ukraine: An Operational Assessment. At Youtube and it is “only” 1 hour and 33 minutes long.
The Modern War Institute at West Point hosted a multidisciplinary panel to provide an operational assessment of the current state and future projections of the war in Ukraine. The virtual panel features Dr. Rob Person from West Point’s Department of Social Sciences, retired Colonel Liam Collins, PhD, who helped reform Ukraine’s defense establishment from 2016 to 2018, and Mr. Michael Kofman of the Center for Naval Analyses.
Photos from Ukraine, still stunned with what has happened there and it is likely going to get worse before it gets better. On the Ground, Ukraine Under Attack. Please stop bitching about anything ok?
COVID-19
We keep dropping in the US, now under 50,000 cases per day. We are all venturing out more, including me. Many of course decided the pandemic was over a long time ago…
This was interesting: Coronaviruses are ‘clever’: Evolutionary scenarios for the future of SARS-CoV-2.
A slide toward endemicity
Altered disease and symptoms
Emergence of a new recombinant coronavirus
Exploitation of antibodies
In case you missed it, there was a study recently which concluded that “The Huanan market was the epicenter of SARS-CoV-2 emergence“. I saw that in a certain deals blog…no, I didn’t! 🙂
ODDZ & ENDZ
You come here to get educated, entertained and inspired. And this link combines all three lol: Inside the Push to Study Sex in Space. Article starts like this below and you won’t believe what these scientists will request next! 🙂
Late last year, a team of five Canadian academics published a proposal calling upon major space organizations “to embrace a new discipline” of study. This new discipline, they argued, may prove vital to the success of planned efforts to push deeper into space — and potentially build off-world human settlements. They called this supposedly game-changing new field of research “space sexology: the scientific study of extraterrestrial intimacy and sexuality.”
I remember when Jeremy Lin shocked the NBA: The Legacy of Linsanity, 10 Years Later.
A decade after Jeremy Lin’s NBA breakout, Lin and some of the people who observed his sudden ascent reflect on the excitement and lasting cultural significance of his heroics for the Knicks in February 2012
I love sci-fi. Best Sci-Fi Movies of the Last 15 Years. I have seen most of these…It has been so long since I went to the movies and I miss it.
I also love street photography, in addition to space sexology, NBA and Sci-Fi movies: This Instagram Account Features Amusing Street Photographs And Has More Than 500 Thousand Followers.
MILES & POINTS
HOT CREDIT CARD OFFERS: 100k Capital One Venture X Rewards (EXPIRES MARCH 14), 75k CHASE Ink Cash, 75k CHASE Ink Unlimited, 100k CHASE Ink Business Preferred, 60k CHASE Sapphire Preferred, 50k CHASE Sapphire Reserve, 60k CITI Premier, 20k CHASE Freedom Flex. up to 30k CHASE Freedom Unlimited, 50k CHASE United Explorer, 60k BANK OF AMERICA Alaska Airlines Business, 20k CITI Custom Cash, and many more, including many AmericanExpress cards, including Delta, Marriott and Hilton cards! Please check out my Affiliate links. Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers. Visit americanexpress.com to learn more.
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: Beware of marketing “content” masquerading as objective reviews when it comes to travel rewards credit cards. ALWAYS! And if you keep reading articles from the same blogs “reviewing” credit cards ALWAYS encouraging you to get them with their affiliate links of course, just assume you are being marketed to and maybe you should get your information elsewhere. When blogs keep posting “XX reasons I love this card”…you know to click away!
Having said that, I think the Capital One Venture X card With 100,000 Points + $200 Signup Bonus ($395 Fee, $300 Travel Credit, 10k Annual Bonus) is excellent and this offer expires on March 14. I intend to apply for it myself and I hope Capital One approves me because it has been a very long time since I got a card from this bank and it can be stingy on approvals. Any questions about the card please ask in the comments. The initial signup bonus is great and it is a no brainer. Keeping it more than a year…is not a no brainer. You can support the blog AFTER you decide you should apply for the card by using these links HERE. UPDATE: I applied this morning and was instantly approved. Perfect timing with purchase of new air conditioner next month, hooray! Of course, dear newbies, the #1 RULE in this game is to NEVER pay a single penny of interest to the bank…EVER!
In addition, Capital One is also offering a crazy high $3,000 signup bonus on the business Spark Cash Plus card with a, please sit down, insane $50,000 minimum spend requirement, also expiring March 14.
We also have Amex and Delta Launch New Welcome Offers Up to 110,000 SkyMiles. I could pretend that these are amazing but since it involves Delta Skymiles I will not. Because Delta Skymiles generally suck. But, again, to help the blog if you like them please use my links HERE.
Interesting article in the New York Times: The Best Time to Use Your Airline Miles? Now. I should take this advice instead of just keep hoarding them lately…
Frances Meredith of Raleigh, N.C. used a branded American Airlines credit card for everything from groceries to medical expenses during the pandemic, piling up points with nowhere to spend them. That meant she had plenty to redeem when her family of four decided it was time for a winter getaway to Miami. Although the seats were pricey at 50,000 points each, Dr. Meredith, an internist, was excited to save money by using her rewards balance. “It was easy. There were lots of seats,” she said. [DO NOT BURN 50,000 MILES to fly Raleigh to Miami ok? COME ON!]
We’ll see how this new scheme Loyalty Points by American Airlines will work: American Airlines Elite Changes: Loyalty Points, New Membership Year & Status Extended. I am certainly not playing this game because I will soon have the Capital One Venture X card earning 2 points per every dollar instead of blowing money away using a Citi AA card or spending precious mental energy trying to score little “wins” keeping track of how close to earn…AA elite status, seriously?
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.
It was a really good running weekend for me, 23 miles in beautiful weather. 6+ weeks away from the Toledo Glass City Marathon in Toledo, Ohio.
My plan is to cancel the Hilton Aspire card now that I got approved for the Capital One Venture X card. And definitely will not be renewing the United Quest card, I may product change to the no annual fee United card or just cancel the Quest and apply for the annual fee card with my links of course! 🙂 Truth is, I am getting bored with this hobby…This was the longest period without a new card in my household and working on the minimum spend for a signup bonus, very strange development indeed.
Capital One Bank gave me a $30,000 credit line in my Venture X card with instant approval and my credit score is a not too shabby 833.
Good post on Avoiding Delays when Taking Repositioning Flights.
Let me leave you with this…
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LOL I recently dropped 2x30k AA miles for one-way tickets from MIA to CLT. But it was part of an itinerary from Managua, it pretty much had to be that day, and it saved us from having to pay a lot of cash with Avianca as they are the only airline flying out of MGA right now and for some reason flying to MIA is cheap and everywhere else is expensive.
Better than paying cash or losing to AA shutdown!
Nickel is up 50% since the beginning of the year. Unless the war is over soon, we may be facing a recession.
30k is tolerable, 50k should be a felony 🙂
Putin is counting on us giving in…don’t. We need to stick it to him…every day that goes by this guy is losing!
losing…more I meant.
Nickel is now up a lot more than 50% this week. A recession’s definitely coming and energy’s only going to get more costly. It’s surprising how many people think it’s easy to produce more oil, like there’s a switch that needs to be turned on or something.
Next up: anti-government protests worldwide as life gets more difficult for the poor.
More specifically, food prices will go up and we can’t afford a bad harvest this year (wheat etc). Obviously Ukraine’s production will be impacted. Fingers crossed.
How quickly can Germany et al turn on decommissioned nuclear power plants?
People can bithc about Biden’s energy policy, however, this crisis has exposed how unrealistic many European countries have been, in particular Germany. The exception is of course France (nuclear power).
Posted this morning:
Stop bitching about the price of gas, #inflation, #cancelculture, #masks and everything else, just stop! Nothing compares to what the Ukrainian people are going through, NOTHING! #SupportUkraine, do it, any way you can!
Thanks for the great links!
Good luck with the Venture X. I’m finding flights hard to get
Looking forward to receiving and deploying it.
Thanks for another superb post. Just FYI… got approved for Venture X using your link.
Thank you!
Thanks for the post
Have a great week!
Thank you David, you too!
I can’t believe it. Cap1 approved me for the X (with your links)! They’ve always always rejected me, but your success stories (and others on reddit) inspired me to go for it since the offer is supposed to be ending.
Thank you! Yeah…I was shocked they approved me too!
Glad to see PSG eliminated. Complete amateurs. Donnarumma, amazing in AC Milan and Euro. Suddenly very generous to Benzema. What happened to Messi? He sucks and has shown zero flexibility since he was forced out of FCB. Does a team have to be 100% structure around Messi for him to perform? Leave him off the team.
Are you going for the paceline CC? Share your referral link.
Will watch the highlights tomorrow. Yeah, I think Messi should come to…MLS 🙂
Paceline cc is interesting concept for sure but most likely has no…staying power. And I got enough plastic around me to add another one.
Just booked daughter’s return from Greece in May. From Mykonos through LHR and ORD…30,000 AA miles and $99 in taxes/fees. Not too shabby and she is okay overnighting in Heathrow…youngsters!
Thanks to all readers who are getting the Capital One with my links!
Sorry about the blog troll, keeps posting here and I keep deleting…just sad!