Bag of Randomness for Tuesday, July 14, 2020

‘It’s the fear factor.’ English pub owner installs electric fence to keep customers at a safe distance

This Website Simulates What It’s Like To Have Dyslexia

IBM job ad calls for 12 years’ experience with Kubernetes – which is six years old

Donald Trump Jr’s new anti-Biden book misplaces apostrophe in the title

Donald Trump Jr appears to have forgotten one of the cardinal rules of the apostrophe: it comes after the “s” when the possessive noun is plural.

The American president’s son’s forthcoming book, Liberal Privilege, is subtitled “Joe Biden and the Democrat’s Defense of the Indefensible”. Unless Trump Jr is referring to only one Democrat, then the apostrophe needs to shift one place to the right to make the title grammatically correct.

Inside the White House, a Gun Industry Lobbyist Delivers for His Former Patrons

The Trump administration lifted a ban on sales of silencers to private overseas buyers that was intended to protect U.S. troops from ambushes. The change was championed by a lawyer for the president who had worked for a firearms trade group.

I keep hearing how great the seventh season of The Clone Wars is I found an essential guide list to the episodes I need to watch before starting it. The cartoon is a lot better than I thought and I’ve enjoyed watching them with the kids. Rebels also look like it has some great potential. I do think it’s very cool how Liam Neeson and James Earl Jones have contributed to the shows. Speaking of James Earl Jones, he will turn 90 this January. I saw on his IMDB page that he’ll be reprising his role in the sequel to Coming to America which is supposed to be released this year.

Star Wars: The Bad Batch is a new Clone Wars spinoff coming to Disney Plus in 2021

It’s nice to see that Dave Filoni is behind the project. I never heard of the guy until I watched the behind the scenes shows of The Mandalorian and my daughter points out his name anytime there’s something Star Wars related.

Confessions of a Trump Supporter’s Daughter – Between the pandemic and the election, it’s now harder than ever to talk politics with my dad without putting our relationship at risk

“I worked out like Halle Berry for a week: here’s what happened”

Inspired by the 53-year-old’s fit philosophy (and yes, okay, her abs, too), I decided to try her routine out for myself. Luckily, she’s not one to keep her workout secrets all to herself.

Berry takes a kitchen sink approach to working out; she literally does it all. Though she typically only has time for four full-on workout sessions per week (at least one of which is often just 20 minutes or so long), she incorporates everything from strength training to yoga to skipping.

Eager to mix up my own routine, I channelled my inner Halle for a week—and though I may not have come out of it with her abs, I sweated (and learned) a lot:

Thanks for allowing this to happen, Gov. Abbott.

Planning a trip? 12 states require Texans to quarantine due to COVID-19 concerns

Disney World offering mask-free ‘relaxation zones’

Queen Elizabeth II sells gin made from leaves found at Buckingham Palace after tourist revenues crash

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Bag of Randomness for Monday, July 13, 2020

Finally, President Trump is wearing a mask in public. This is a very good thing. It will influence people who normally wouldn’t wear a mask to actually wear one, which will help control the spread of the virus, which will save lives. He should have done this simple act long ago.

First world problem – GeedingManor had a power outage Saturday from about 5:00 PM – 9:45 PM. The cause was an aging transformer located on the back corner of our lot which was responsible for powering another four houses. The CoServ workers were great. They arrived on the scene about 15-minutes after the outage and immediately got to work. Funny thing, but for the past three or four years I’ve noticed the soil around the transformer was oily. I thought it was because my neighbors were dumping old cooking oil in the back corner of their yard and it leaked onto the transformer. However, the CoServ technicians informed me that the transmitter itself contained oil and it was the cause of the leak. Because of the leak, a soil contamination team had to come out and remove any contaminated soil. A big truck arrived which had oil barrel type containers, it looked like something out of the movies.

We made the most of it. Sure, it stunk not to have electricity or air conditioning for about four hours, but it’s great to put things into perspective how great we really have things and how easy it is to take modern conveniences for granted. The family actually had a great time just conversing and playing games in the dark. The most touching part was as soon as the power came back on, DaughterGeeding asked if she could go outside and thank the men for working in the heat and in the dark just to give us back our electricity. I hope in that regard, she never loses that appreciation for others. I escorted her back there and the technicians seemed very touched.

https://twitter.com/ryanjhiggins/status/1281059031038283777?s=09

Royce West and MJ Hegar are still vying to be the Democratic nominee to run again Texas Senator John Cornyn. But last week, I noticed a very negative “I’m John Cornyn and I approve this message” commercial against Royce West. That’s an interesting strategy and I can’t tell if Cornyn is doing this because he assumes he’ll be running against West and wants to get a head start or if it’s a backward strategy to bolster Hegar who he thinks he’ll have an easier race. Either way, I think Cornyn is getting off easy with this irresponsible answer in a recent local interview regarding COVID-19.

Cornyn made the statement in response to a question about whether schools should open for in-person learning.

“I think the most important thing is safety. The schools can open, but if parents don’t feel comfortable sending their children back then they won’t go. So, I think we’ve got a long way to go to regain their confidence,” he said. “The good news is if you look again at the numbers, no one under the age of 20 has died of the coronavirus. We still don’t know whether children can get it and transmit it to others.”

But I’m also ticked off at the NBC5 reporter for being too devoted to her list of questions to not call out the senator for such an egregious claim or at least to ask him to at least expand on his answer.

Our governor with COVID-19 humor back in May. Not only was the taste in humor poor but the data was incorrect.

They lost the Civil War and fled to Brazil. Their descendants refuse to take down the Confederate flag.

It’s one of history’s lesser-known episodes. After the Civil War, thousands of defeated Southerners came to Brazil to self-exile in a country that still practiced slavery. For decades, their descendants have thrown a massive party that now attracts thousands of people to the twin cities of Americana and Santa Bárbara d’Oeste to celebrate all things Dixie. The Confederate flag? Everywhere.

On flagpoles and knickknacks. Emblazoned on the dance floor. Clutched by men clad in Confederate battle gray. Decorating the grounds of the cemetery that holds the remains of veterans of the rebel army — the immigrants known here as the confederados.

In a country that has long been more preoccupied with class divisions than racism, the Confederate symbols, stripped of their American context, never registered much notice. But now, as the racial reckoning in the United States following the killing of George Floyd inspires a similar reexamination of values in Brazil, that has begun to change.

A batting cage at Disney’s Wide World of Sports has been transformed into an impressive temporary laundry facility for the NBA. Overboard?

https://twitter.com/NBABubbleLife/status/1282389709335826432?s=09

Sadly, a lot of folks won’t get this joke.

https://twitter.com/hgomez27/status/1281650374961623041

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Bag of Randomness for Friday, July 10, 2020

Yesterday on the air during “Letters from Listeners”, the Musers read an email from me.

Not bad for a 14-year-old.

I’m Alexander Hamilton’s Direct Descendant. And He Wasn’t As Perfect As You Think. – By Ariel Clay Schuyler Hamilton Ehrlich

I shouldn’t be picking on a 14-year-old for something he can’t control, but having five names is a bit much, almost snooty.

He makes great points and even supports his arguments, though his comments about Hamilton’s thoughts on slavery has me thinking. I’m not saying he’s wrong to think about his forefather’s actions on selling slaves for his in-laws or his interpretation. I have no idea what Hamilton really thought nor am I defending his actions. But there is the possibility that he believed one particular way at one part in his life and another later in his life. It is interesting how we can be judged for something we did at one point in our life but never be able to do anything to overcome it. I learned that lesson from Roy Munson in the cinematic film Kingpin.

The kid says his father is a dead ringer for the Founding Father, I just wish he provided a photo.

‘The Wonder Years’ is getting a reboot with a Black family

Famed director Lee Daniels will executive produce and Fred Savage, the star of the original series, will direct a reboot of the hit program — this time built around a Black family, ABC announced Wednesday.

The half-hour comedy will focus on how a Black middle-class family in Montgomery, Alabama, “in the turbulent late 1960’s, the same era as the original series, made sure it was The Wonder Years for them too,” the network said.

I never knew this.

In 1652, a doorway was added to the wall that holds the painting. Its construction meant that a lower central chunk of the piece—which included Jesus’ feet—was lost.

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Bag of Randomness for Thursday, July 9, 2020

Why the heck do I have to find this news in the Wall Street Journal instead of a local paper or television station?

The U.S. Airport That’s Buzzing as Covid Shuts Down World Travel – With coronavirus drastically reducing travel, Dallas-Fort Worth International finds itself suddenly as the busiest in world—by default

The sprawling Texas hub, with seven runways and five terminals, has more than 90% of its gates and half its restaurants in operation. DFW typically ranks behind Atlanta, Chicago O’Hare and Los Angeles in takeoffs and landings. But due to the instant transformation of the airline business, DFW finds itself at least temporarily on top, with long-lasting implications for travelers.

“We don’t want the guidance from CDC to be a reason why schools don’t open,” Vice-President Pence said.

That quote really bugged me yesterday. The CDC created those guidelines to protect our kids, to help keep them safe. The manner in which the vice-president spoke didn’t provide me with any assurance he wanted to protect and keep our children safe. It felt more like he wanted to put our kids’ safety and protection at risk just to open schools on time to make it appear the pandemic is totally over when the data totally don’t back that up. Schools opening up regularly makes it seem as if the pandemic has been solved.

US hits 3M coronavirus cases – about a quarter of the world’s total

It took the USA a little more than three months to hit 1 million cases on April 28. It took about half that time, 44 days, to get to 2 million on June 11 and only 26 days to reach 3 million on July 8. By that gauge, if no new measures are taken, 4 million cases could be tallied as soon as July 22.

Armchair Political Consultant – If I were on Joe Biden or the Lincoln Project’s team I’d advise an ad that says the possible cancellation of the upcoming NFL and college football season (or when they are officially canceled) is due to the president and his administration not getting a better handle on this pandemic when they had the chance in January and February, or even when the curve started to flatten from mid-May to mid-June. I’d use the same ad against the Texas governor and lieutenant governor two years from now. It would start off with one of those dramatic voices, “He could have saved football season but he chose not to. Even Europe was able to protect its citizens better.” The ad could even be more generalized, “No school year or football season, blame the ones in charge of protecting the public from a pandemic.”

President Trump held a rally in which attendees did little to protect themselves and now cases are starting to spike. I expect to see the same thing in South Dakota.

Speaking of his rallies – Trump campaign considers displaying statues at future rallies

Time Capsule Found in North Carolina Confederate Monument

So far, excavators have found a wooden box, a stone allegedly from Gettysburg, two buttons and horsehair. But in that goop, a newspaper clipping from The Charlotte Democrat shows, there could be more.

A ceremony from May 1894 that laid the monument’s cornerstone listed other relics put in the time capsule under it, including a lock of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee’s hair, a coat button and rosebud believed to be from Lee’s coat, and a strand of hair possibly plucked from the tail of Lee’s horse Traveller.

I really thought I posted about Gary Larson creating new ‘The Far Side’ material earlier and was quite excited about the news, but I think I overlooked it. I also thought of my friend Nathon’s young son who discovered the comics who shared the laughter with his grandfather.

So a few years ago–finally fed up with my once-loyal but now reliably traitorous pen–I decided to try a digital tablet. I knew nothing about these devices but hoped it would just get me through my annual Christmas card ordeal. I got one, fired it up, and lo and behold, something totally unexpected happened: within moments, I was having fun drawing again. I was stunned at all the tools the thing offered, all the creative potential it contained. I simply had no idea how far these things had evolved. Perhaps fittingly, the first thing I drew was a caveman.

The “New Stuff” that you’ll see here is the result of my journey into the world of digital art. Believe me, this has been a bit of a learning curve for me. I hail from a world of pen and ink, and suddenly I was feeling like I was sitting at the controls of a 747. (True, I don’t get out much.) But as overwhelmed as I was, there was still something familiar there–a sense of adventure. That had always been at the core of what I enjoyed most when I was drawing The Far Side, that sense of exploring, reaching for something, taking some risks, sometimes hitting a home run and sometimes coming up with “Cow tools.” (Let’s not get into that.) But as a jazz teacher once said to me about improvisation, “You want to try and take people somewhere where they might not have been before.” I think that my approach to cartooning was similar–I’m just not sure if even I knew where I was going. But I was having fun.

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