Bag of Randomness for Tuesday, April 14, 2020

Today is my buddy Jimi’s birthday… or is it? As long as I’ve known him, he said his birthday is easy to remember because it’s the day before taxes are due. So, since the tax deadline got moved back to July 15, I’m going to say his birthday is this year is July 14.

My goodness, that was a suspenseful Better Call Saul last night. It’s been a while since I’ve experienced that much suspense, the kind in which you really have no idea what’s going to happen you just kinda wish something would happen so you can stop stressing about the scene and start possibly grieving a character’s death. That Rhea Seehorn really delivered.

I’m willing to argue Anthony Mackie is the most handsome man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

WWE to resume live TV tapings after being deemed ‘essential business’ by Florida governor’s office

A Tufts University professor pondered what this pandemic would be like under a Hillary Clinton administration. Ignoring the idea if she would have done better or worse or agreeing or debating political differences, it’s fun to read some of the things he came up with.

  • Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told reporters that President Clinton had been “hysterical” to urge governors to quarantine the cities of Seattle, San Francisco and New Rochelle, N.Y. 
  • At the same time, Republicans also criticized the Clinton administration for not taking a more hawkish approach toward China, where the coronavirus outbreak originated. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, blasted Clinton’s refusal to sanction China over a lack of transparency. He also urged the House to launch a third round of impeachment hearings.
  • Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) continued to insist to Vice President Tim Kaine that any aid package had to be revenue-neutral, arguing that Medicaid benefits would need to be trimmed to compensate small businesses in the affected areas. He also urged Kaine to zero out emission standards for U.S.-based airlines, which have suffered tremendously from the reduction in international travel.
  • McCarthy also railed against Fed Chair Janet L. Yellen’s emergency swap lines to Europe, saying, “I don’t see why we should be debasing our currency to aid European socialism.”
  • Nonetheless, coronavirus czar Ron Klain’s intrusions into interstate commerce have raised concerns. A lawsuit pending before the Supreme Court will determine whether Clinton had the authority to restrict domestic flights and car traffic on the western seaboard.
  • House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) demurred on whether he would support a third impeachment effort, suggesting that the 2020 rematch with Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump would supersede any impeachment effort. 
  • Trump also mocked a public service announcement by former presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush advocating that those in the affected quarantine zones wear masks when they go outside.

The last one got me thinking. Any other president than President Trump would have asked the former presidents to make some sort of PSA about washing hands, that we’re all in this together, thanking those in the front lines, and to stay vigilant with social distancing. I would also think any other president would lean on the counsel of former President Carter and the Carter Center with all their work on almost eradicating the Guinea worm.  Granted, I agree that’s not an apples to apples comparison.

I watched the end of Avengers Endgame last night and I’m left wondering whatever happened to Tony Stark’s body. Is he buried in a secret location? Was he cremated? All we’re left with are some floating flowers and an old arc reactor.

Terry Bradshaw doesn’t think Tom Brady is the greatest quarterback of all time.

“It’s hard to say. He may be the best quarterback we’ve had in the last 30 years. Is he better than [Roger] Staubach? No. Is he better than Dan Fouts? No. Dan Marino? No.

I agree with Bradshaw. I may agree Brady is the greatest quarterback of this era, but not of all time. The rules have been changed so much to protect the quarterback and increase the passing game it’s not a just comparison. And I’ll be honest, if I was a GM or coach having to build a new team in this last era, I’d probably pick Manning over Brady. Brady’s great, but he also benefitted from a great coach, and I always thought Dungy held the Colts back.

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Bag of Randomness for Monday, April 13, 2020

WifeGeeding brought in the mail and showed me what she thought was some Trump campaign material. She said, “I’m just going to rip this in half and toss in the recycle bin.” But I told her to hold off as I was slightly interested in what it might say. She opened it to find a $50 check, it was from the CraigsList guy I mentioned last week who was interested in our fireplace mantle. He decided against buying the mantle because it was too large but wanted to give me a check for my trouble and asked that I donate the mantle to Goodwill or a veteran. When I replied back to his message not to worry about it and to keep his cash, he said the check was already in the mail.

I’m not going to cash the check, I’m going to make it out to a charity. What I think would be a funny to do, though I’m not enough of a jerk to do it, would be to make the check out to the DNC or to the construction of the Obama library. I’ll end up making it out to something non-partisan, most like the North Texas Food Bank.

Hawaii is about as isolated as you can get, so I was curious to know how they were dealing with COVID-19. It appears they have about 500 cases and nine deaths.

Dolly Parton wrote I Will Always Love You and Jolene on the same day.

MensHealth.com – Watch What Happened When This Guy Did 500 Pushups Every Day for a Month

By the end of the month-long challenge, Lewis has noticed more visible definition in his chest and triceps, but ultimately concludes that it isn’t a particularly effective or sustainable way of building muscle. He advises against anyone else trying it, saying it’s “not feasible” and creates a lot of “wear and tear” in your shoulders and triceps.

Some guy created an AI clone to sit in on his Zoom meetings. I give him an “A” for effort, but it’s choppy and wouldn’t food anyone.

This is the son he had with his housekeeper.

Arnold Schwarzenegger’s son Joseph Baena recreated his dad’s famous pose

Pollsters find unexpected boon: Americans stuck at home willing to talk

Lonely Americans trapped in their homes because of the coronavirus outbreak are answering their phones to talk to political pollsters in big numbers, a reversal of fortunes for an industry that has recently struggled to connect with people.

Another Break From The Past: Government Will Help Churches Pay Pastor Salaries

In a development that could challenge the Constitution’s prohibition of any law “respecting an establishment of religion,” the federal government will soon provide money directly to U.S. churches to help them pay pastor salaries and utility bills.

A key part of the $2 trillion economic relief legislation enacted last month includes about $350 billion for the Small Business Administration to extend loans to small businesses facing financial difficulties as a result of the coronavirus shutdown orders. Churches and other faith-based organizations, classified as “businesses,” qualify for aid under the program, even if they have an exclusively religious orientation.

“Faith-based organizations are eligible to receive SBA loans regardless of whether they provide secular social services,” the SBA said in a statement. “No otherwise eligible organization will be disqualified from receiving a loan because of the religious nature, religious identity, or religious speech of the organization.”

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Bag of Randomness for Friday, April 10, 2020

Yesterday, I could smell something burning from inside my upstairs home office, so I yelled, “Is somebody burning something?”

DaughterGeeding replies with, “Ummmm, not anymore.”

I’ve been done this road before with WifeGeeding, but perhaps because of COVID-19 things will be different. She’s floated the idea of dying her hair in an unusual color, something like pink or blue, and then use my hair clippers to shave her head. I’m all for it if she can muster up the courage.

We’re remodeling our fireplace so I’ve put the old fireplace mantel on Craig’s List. It’s been out there for about three weeks and I’ve only had a few nibbles. Really, I’m just wanting to get rid of it, I’m not looking to make big bucks off this thing. This week, one gentleman said he wanted to buy it for his wife and would come and pick it up the next day using his grandson’s pickup. Later, he had to cancel the pick-up time and asked if he could come by the next day as his grandson will be out fishing. The next morning, I received an email from him stating his wife thinks the mantle is too big and he’s mailed me a check for $50 and asked me to donate it to a veteran or a place like Goodwill. Immediately, I replied back stating he didn’t need to do such a thing but he replied the check was in the mail and politely do what he asked.

I’ve noticed CBS11 placing their sports reporters outside of the Dallas Cowboys’ headquarters in Frisco for the late-night broadcast. I’m not sure why, it’s a waste of time and money, especially if no there are no sports to report on. Their broadcasts got me thinking about that huge jumbotron of a screen over their shoulder at The Star. It does nothing but play Cowboys highlights without a shred of advertising. That seems like a waste of electricity on the Cowboys part. I’m highly curious how much it costs to power something like that nonstop, and how well off a person or organization must be to not even worry about it.

I recall something similar to this happening during Y2K.

Wanted urgently: People who know a half century-old computer language so states can process unemployment claims

In New Jersey, Gov. Phil Murphy has put out a call for volunteers who know how to code the decades-old computer programming language called COBOL because many of the state’s systems still run on older mainframes.
In Kansas, Gov. Laura Kelly said the state’s Departments of Labor was in the process of modernizing from COBOL but then the virus interfered. “So they’re operating on really old stuff,” she said.
Connecticut has also admitted that it’s struggling to process the large volume of unemployment claims with its “40-year-old system comprised of a COBOL mainframe and four other separate systems.”

Liberty University police issue arrest warrants for NYT, ProPublica reporters

Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. on Wednesday said that arrest warrants had been issued for reporters from The New York Times and ProPublica after both publications wrote stories criticizing his decision last month to partially reopen his Virginia-based college.

Saturday Night Live is returning this weekend with remote sketches

This week’s show will feature sketches from cast members and a version of “Weekend Update,” which is hosted by head co-writers Colin Jost and Michael Che. It’s unclear how much of the show will be live or if everything will be prerecorded from cast members’ homes, according to NBC News.

Op-Ed – I spent six days on a ventilator with covid-19. It saved me, but my life is not the same.

For me, my lungs must rebuild their capacity. I experience breathlessness from even mild exertion. I used to run marathons; now I can’t walk across a room or up a flight of stairs without getting winded. I can’t go around the block for fresh air unless my husband pushes me in a wheelchair. When I shower, I can’t stand the entire time; I take breaks from standing to sit down on a plastic stool I have placed inside my bathtub.

When targeted ads feel a little too targeted – How do you outrun something that’s designed to follow you everywhere?

It wasn’t long after her mom died of cancer in March 2014 that targeted advertisements turned Lindsay Robertson’s version of the internet into a virtual graveyard. “It was just gravestones everywhere,” she says. “It was crazy. It was every type of gray, typical headstone covering all the available space.”

Robertson, the oldest of four, became in charge of certain end-of-life arrangements. She didn’t know how much headstones cost — so she googled it. This simple search likely triggered certain trackers that knew Robertson was looking for headstones, and then used that information to send targeted advertisements to her that then followed her around the internet.

Visualizing Whether Or Not Your Hospital Is At Risk Of Being Overwhelmed By COVID-19 Patients

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Bag of Randomness for Thursday, April 9, 2020

Modern Family’s finale felt a lot like the series finale of the CBS sitcom Alice. Something remarkably happy happened to all the characters which cause them to move. Being the macabre person I am, I would have had Jay died of a massive heart attack right before he’s able to tell her he’s been learning Spanish as a way to express his love.  Or, I’d have Jay have a massive heart attack right when Gloria confronts him with his last words, in Spanish, be, “Heart . . . attack”

One of the coaches of my hometown Mineral Wells Rams is that kicker Mike Leach invited to join his Red Raiders after watching him make a 30-yard field goal to win a promotional contest for six months of free rent.

I’d like to see Dolly Parton on the Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. It would be fun listening to her gabble as she talks through an answer.

I’m always amazed at the stuff I find while looking for other stuff.

I Lived With Tiger King’s Doc Antle For 8 Years. Here’s The Truth.– Former tiger caretaker Barbara Fisher is featured in Netflix’s hit true-crime docuseries Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness. Below, she opens up to ELLE.com about what it was really like working for big cat owner Bhagavan “Doc” Antle at his controversial Myrtle Beach zoo.

Another Way to See the Recession: Power Usage Is Way Down – When the economy is moving too fast for the usual indicators, the electricity grid offers a valuable clue.

New data on electricity use in the past three weeks suggest a sharp decline in U.S. economic activity on par with that of the Great Recession. It may already be the deepest downturn since the Great Depression; it is certainly the fastest.

These numbers are important because our official statistics can’t keep pace with the abrupt economic changes the coronavirus shutdown has caused. All those closed stores, silenced factories and darkened office buildings are yet to be counted in the government’s official economic numbers, which take months to collect, process and report.

But evidence of the sharp economic shift shows up in a large and rapid decline in electricity usage over recent weeks.

‘What Am I Going to Do?’: Inside SportsCenter on the Day We Lost Sports

You Don’t Actually Want to ‘Boost’ Your Immune System

So if your immune system can be weakened, can’t it also be strengthened? Not exactly. If your immune system were stronger than normal, if it attacked more things more often, that would be a problem. “Immune overactivity is as dangerous as immune underactivity,” the British Society for Immunology explains. Allergies are an example of this. So are autoimmune disorders like rheumatoid arthritis.

How Much World Governments Are Spending On Coronavirus Economic Relief, Visualized

Personal finance site HowMuch took a look at data from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other sources and mapped out how much other nations in the G20 were spending on their economic relief plans. Click here for a full-sized image.

A Natural Coronavirus Experiment Is Playing Out In Kentucky And Tennessee – The politically opposite neighboring states have had two different approaches to tackling the spread of COVID-19, and, some residents fear, two drastically different outcomes.

YouTube – Meet The Worlds Most Advanced Camera Stabilizer

Containership vs. Port Crane

Trump asked about pardoning ‘Tiger King’ Joe Exotic during coronavirus conference

“One of the biggest rating hits of the coronavirus, aside from these briefings, has been a show on Netflix called ‘Tiger King. The man who’s the star of this is a former zoo owner who is serving a 22-year prison sentence. He’s asking you for a pardon, saying he was unfairly convicted.”

Nelson also brought up that Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., “jokingly said he was going to advocate” for the pardon. “I was wondering if you’ve seen the show and if you have any thoughts on pardoning Joe Exotic,” Nelson continued.

The president cracked a smile. “Which son? Must be Don,” Trump said. “I had a feeling it was Don. Is that what he said? I don’t know. I know nothing about it. He has 22 years for what? What did he do?”

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