Bag of Randomness for Wednesday, July 29, 2020

The biggest Emmy nomination omission was Better Call Saul‘s Rhea Seahorn and her portrayal of Kim Wexler.

The Watchmen was nominated for a slew of them and I’m ticked at myself for not recognizing Lou Gossett Jr.

I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again, I can’t believe as much crazy as this administration has been that Sarah Palin has been appointed to something to contribute to it.

I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again, this country is still better off with a Trump presidency than a Ted Cruz presidency.

As if this year couldn’t get any weirder – Mystery seeds from China are landing in Americans’ mailboxes

The USDA and agriculture officials in multiple states have issued warnings about unsolicited shipments of foreign seeds and advised people not to plant them.

“USDA is aware that people across the country have received suspicious, unsolicited packages of seed that appear to be coming from China,” the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) said in a statement Tuesday.

It said it is working closely with federal and state partners, including Customs and Border Protection, to investigate.

I’m surprised with today’s vast amount of resources the type of seeds weren’t identified.

Kodak is branching out into pharmaceuticals with US investment

Kodak, once a powerful force in photography, is branching out into pharmaceuticals and the US government plans to give the company a $765 million loan to support its efforts. Kodak will create a new business arm, Kodak Pharmaceuticals, to produce ingredients needed for drug manufacturing.

The $765 million loan is being made available under the Korean War-era Defense Production Act, which the Trump administration has previously used to speed up production of ventilators, masks, and other medical equipment to help fight COVID-19. As part of its pharmaceutical work, Kodak plans to produce ingredients for drugs such as hydroxychloroquine, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Comparing The Droplets We Spray Out When We’re Wearing No Mask, Cloth Masks And Surgical Masks

Hollowed-Out Jet Engine Camper Took Over Six Years and 1,000 Hours to Build

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Bag of Randomness for Tuesday, July 28, 2020

Having liquid nitrogen applied to that spot on my nose went better than expected. She had to do it three times and I only felt a very sharp pain for about a half-second each time. It is supposed to take three weeks for that spot to heal along with some scabbing and a bit of pain, but to my surprise, nothing hurts. My nose feels better than ever. I used to get a sharp pain in my nose whenever I would scrunch it for whatever reason but now there’s no pain whatsoever.

The fastest vaccine ever developed was for mumps and that took four years. I don’t think we’ve been working on COVID-19 even for a year. But the mumps vaccine happened in the early sixties and we’ve advanced quite a bit with medical science. Of course, the biggest chunk of development is simply the trial period.

I was thinking about those handfuls of churches in which snake-handling still occurs. If they aren’t worried about getting bit by a venomous snake, I’m pretty sure you can’t convince them not to gather or even wear a mask.

Melania Trump Will Revamp White House Rose Garden

The project, which includes electrical upgrades for television appearances, a new walkway and new flowers and shrubs, is meant to be an “act of expressing hope and optimism for the future,” according to remarks Mrs. Trump delivered to the Committee for the Preservation of the White House on Monday morning. “Our country has seen difficult times before, but the White House and the Rose Garden have always stood as a symbol of our strength, resilience and continuity.”

You just don’t see this sort of thing and I’m sure he’s embarrassed as all get out. I bet his peers aren’t going to allow him to live this down, and I’m curious if he’s going to get into some sort of trouble. These men are stringently trained on how to do this for extended periods in all sorts of elements of weather. I can also hear some folks blaming this event on him having to wear a mask. On a similar but much smaller note, every groom and groomsman is told to never lock your knee as you stand in front of the church as it cuts blood flow and will increase the odds of fainting.

Honor Guard sailor collapses from ‘extreme heat and dehydration’ during procession for the late Rep. John Lewis

For the first time in years, Texas Democrats running for the U.S. House have more campaign cash than Republicans – Midway through 2016, Texas Republicans had $20.9 million more for their U.S. House campaigns than Democrats. This year, Democrats have a $7.5 million advantage.

Texas Democrats plan 7-figure ad buy to turn state blue

In addition to the ad buy, which will materialize closer to November, the party is also doubling down on its commitment to get 2 million Texans registered to vote for November. This plays into the party’s already established strategy of winning back the state House this cycle.

Solar system moon comparison – from the smallest to the largest compared to New York City and Earth.

https://youtu.be/ZhpcDI3pYl8

Imagine seeing this for the first time while high.

https://twitter.com/engineeringvids/status/1287797353529974789

 

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Bag of Randomness for Monday, July 27, 2020

The first time I ever heard of John Lewis was when I heard John McCain make a positive reference towards the man and decided to look him up.

The integrity of the upcoming election scares me.

Report suggests local election officials’ emails could be at risk for phishing attempts – Cybersecurity firm Area 1 found 666 of 10,000 election workers used personal email accounts

https://twitter.com/JoshuaPotash/status/1287465082012803072?s=09

The Texas economy is taking a big hit, so if there were ever a time for the legalization of marijuana to increase tax revenue, it would now, but the Texas House Speaker said he’d vote against it. And I’ll freely admit I don’t know how reliable the news from MarijuanaMoment.net may be.

In case you were ever curious as to how Batman’s creators came up with the name Bruce Wayne, he stated “Bruce” came from the Scottish patriot Robert Bruce. As for “Wayne”, he was looking for something that suggested colonialism and thought of Revolutionary War U.S. Army officer and statesman Anthony Wayne. His middle name is “Thomas”, which was his father’s first name.

I was floored when I watched this CBS Sunday Morning report on the number of Americans living without running water or basic indoor plumbing. Just think about that the next time you get a drink or use the restroom and how much you take that for granted. That’s such an alarming number for the United States of all countries.

No one even knew just how bad the problem was – no government agency keeps track – so DigDeep, along with the U.S. Water Alliance, conducted their own survey. The results showed that two million Americans – and probably more – are suffering today with no safe running water, or even plumbing, in their homes.

McGraw said, “There was one finding from the report that is, I think, truly terrifying, and that’s that in six states, and in Puerto Rico, during the time we were studying in the report, those states went backwards in access. The problem got worse. And I mean, how can that be?”

Fox Sports is experimenting with using virtual fans.

East Texas News – A Texas town just removed a fence separating historically segregated cemeteries

 

– A metal barrier was the separation between burial areas at Cedars Memorial Gardens in Mineola, Texas, a town about 80 miles east of Dallas. Black people were buried on one side while Whites were buried on another. Each side is owned by a separate cemetery association, not by the city.

 

– Part of the fencing was saved “for future generations,” according to Rushing, and will be housed at the Mineola Historical Museum and the Texas African American Museum in nearby Tyler.

 

U2’s Adam Clayton sure does look a lot different. I’m used to him only having short hair.

https://twitter.com/atu2/status/1287134813514694656?s=09

The highest-ranking American killed by enemy fire in the European Theater of Operations during World War II was Major General Maurice Rose.

As Confederate monuments tumble, die-hards are erecting replacements

The Sons of Confederate Veterans and, in a quieter way, the United Daughters of the Confederacy, the group that erected many of the monuments that are now the target of the biggest removal campaign in history, are pushing back by building new statues, buying land to house torn-down memorials, and airing radio and online ads seeking public support for their cause.

Across the South, more than 20 new monuments, ranging from small plaques to massive Confederate battle flags placed near major interstate highways for maximum visibility, have been installed on private property in the past few years, said Larry McCluney Jr., commander in chief of the Sons group.

Elephant Takes An Underwater Nap While Using Its Trunk As A Snorkel – Colonel, a 29-year-old Asian elephant, keeps cool underwater at the Forth Worth Zoo.

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Bag of Randomness for Friday, July 24, 2020

Colbert gave me a good chuckle last night when he said the nuclear codes are actually the following: person, woman, man, camera, TV. Unknown to the American public, Trump accidentally gave out the nuclear codes.

Baseball couldn’t start their season on time, or have fans in the stands, and the opening day game was rain-delayed.

Yet he’s a member of Green Acres Baptist Church (seriously, that’s the name, and yes, I wonder if Oliver Wendell Douglas is an elder or deacon), which is part of the Southern Baptist Convention that was formed in 1845 after a split with northern Baptists over the issue of slavery. Also, politics aren’t about the past, it’s about what have you done lately. Was he ever concerned with Trump’s past moral behavior?

Rep. Gohmert calls for Congress to ban Democrats, due to past position on slavery

Rep. Louie Gohmert has introduced a resolution calling for Congress to to ban any political organization or party that has ever held a public position supportive of slavery or the Confederacy. Gohmert specifically pointed at the Democratic Party’s position on slavery.

I’m not concerned or trying to attack (at least not right now) the history of the SBC, or even judge any of you who chose to be part of it. But Gohmert is claiming a moral high ground because of the Democratic party’s history with slavery yet the man’s faith is tied to an organization founded on slavery. The man is a hypocrite and his base is too ignorant to spot it.

If Rep. Ted Yoho called AOC an asshole instead of a bitch he wouldn’t be in the news. When you call someone an asshole, you are treating them as an equal, when you call them a bitch you are trying to demean them.

Legendary chair-maker Herman Miller has teamed up with Logitech to sell what may be the ultimate gaming chair, though it’s basically an upgraded model of the Embody chair. I don’t need an updated model of the Embody, I’d settle for a regular version in a heartbeat, it’s just hard for me to justify spending a grand on a chair, and they usually run about $1,300.

Defining the ’90s Music Canon – Which song is more likely to be recognized by future generations?

Measuring music’s popularity has always been contained to a certain period of time: peak chart ranking, awards, opening-week sales—a song’s performance at its prime.

But for me, it’s equally important to quantify how music is passed down from generation to generation, parent to teen. In 2020, we’re amid that critical juncture for ’90s music—we can finally start asking today’s teens, “What music do you recognize from the ’90s?”

The answer will indicate how future generations will characterize the decade.

I always believed “No Diggity” by Blackstreet would be a ’90s standard, uniting the old and young crowds at weddings of the 2050s. And to test this belief, I used 3 million data points that I collected via a music quiz, which asked readers if they recognized thousands of songs that charted on the Billboard Hot 100.

These Evangelical Women Are Abandoning Trump and the Church – The #MeToo movement, pandemic, and protests for racial justice have divided the evangelical community from their strongman

We Looked At How The Stock Market Performed Under Every U.S. President Since Truman — And The Results Will Surprise You

According to Siegel, author of the 1994 investment classic Stocks For The Long Run, Wall Street’s obsession with politics is mostly misplaced: “Bull markets and bear markets come and go, and it’s more to do with business cycles than presidents.” In some ways the current environment has characteristics of the existential threat faced by George W. Bush post-2001 (replace terrorism with pandemic), the civil unrest that plagued the Johnson and Nixon administrations and Ronald Reagan’s trade war with Japan in the 1980s.

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