Bag of Randomness for Monday, May 11, 2020

I’ve been laughed at before stating I think zombie movie plots in which people become infected by a virus and world devastation can be plausible. Everything I’m seeing with COVID-19 seems to support me. Now that I’ve seen how the masses are becoming impatient I can’t help but see the situation becoming worst, especially in the fall.

The activists behind the Dallas hair salon stunt played the public like a fiddle. I have to hand it to them, it was well planned and executed. If they didn’t set up her GoFundMe account the day before she opened her salon, they would have gotten away scot-free. Well, I guess they have gotten away with it, their goal was accomplished and there’s been a lack of coverage stating it was all a stunt. The lieutenant governor paid her $7,000, I wonder if he wants it back.

Thank you.

Microsoft now protects Office 365 users against ‘reply all’ email storms – You won’t have to deal with a mammoth thread clogging your inbox.

The real Lord of the Flies: what happened when six boys were shipwrecked for 15 months

Air Force’s mysterious X-37B space plane heads back to orbit May 16th – The US Space Force will oversee its sixth mission.

Experts Knew a Pandemic Was Coming. Here’s What They’re Worried About Next. – Nine disasters we still aren’t ready for.

I love how everyone just knows who “Dirk” is, at least in DFW.

Dirk and his wife, Jessica, among those who volunteered to help give out Mother’s Day meal boxes

Bono Unveils the ’60 Songs That Saved’ His Life for His 60th Birthday

Bono is reflecting on the importance of music on his 60th birthday. The U2 frontman on Sunday (May 10) shared a list of 60 songs that have played a big part in his life.

“These are some of the songs that saved my life… the ones I couldn’t have lived without… the ones that got me from there to here, zero to 60… through all the scrapes, all manner of nuisance, from the serious to the silly… and the joy, mostly joy,” the rocker shared in an open letter posted to the band’s website. “I wanted to thank the artists and everyone who helped make them … They were doing the same for me.”

Bono also noted that he wrote a fan letter to each artist or their families, and revealed the first six on Sunday. The musicians who received the first batch of letters were for Pavarotti, Billie Eilish, David Bowie, Massive Attack, Daft Punk, and Kraftwerk.

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Bag of Randomness for Friday, May 8, 2020

Last Friday I shaved off my beard and turned it into a goatee. My family never noticed. On Monday, I went to the doctor’s office for a three-month follow-up. Upon seeing me, the nurse asked me how long have I been without the beard and rocking the goatee. He’s such a hero.

I finally got past my troubles with the Presta valve and adapter. In short, the valve tip wasn’t sticking far enough up to hit the nipple thingy connected to my air compressor. Air only comes out of the nipple thingy if it’s depressed. I tried screwing the adapter further down so the valve tip could hit the nipple thingy, but that only damaged the rubber o-ring in the adapter, which resulted me in having to buy another adapter. So, with a pair of pliers, I yanked the valve tip to pull it out further and screwed on the adapter as far as I could without damaging it. Luckily, it worked.

I bet all the cities which lost the 2020 Olympics bid feel a tremendous amount of relief they didn’t win.

Mark Cuban’s latest blog entry: I Hired a Team of Secret Shoppers to Find Out How Businesses Were Opening in Dallas. It’s Not Good.

I wanted to get an understanding of what opening meant to businesses around Dallas. Were they opening? What precautions were they taking? Were employees in safe environments? And bigger picture, I wanted to know if these are places that I would feel safe taking my family to.
So I hired a company that specialized in this type of project, https://shiftsmart.com/, and asked them to let me know how Dallas businesses were responding to the Open Order for Texas.
We will do this again a couple more times so we can learn what the trends are and try to learn from it.
This is what we found:
Methodology:
  • We called ~1000 restaurant and retail locations based on popularity (we used # of reviews on Yelp by category as a proxy) to assess full re-open rate (open for dine-in, in-person shopping etc.)
  • We conducted physical audits at ~300 locations across restaurants and retail locations in Dallas to assess compliance against state re-opening protocols

Here’s one big takeaway.

Aggregate Degree of Safety Protocol Compliance – By Locations: Overall – 96% of businesses were non-compliant across all mandatory protocols and all locations. The extent of non-compliance is dramatic with ~1/3 of all locations being <50% compliant across mandatory protocols as established by the Governor’s office.

How the Editor of a Small East Texas Newspaper Won a Pulitzer Prize – Palestine writer Jeff Gerritt’s no-holds-barred editorials shined a spotlight on the record number of people dying in Texas jails.

Alamo Drafthouse launches Alamo on Demand VOD service

Alamo Drafthouse wants to bring the feeling of independent movie rental stores to people in their homes, launching a video-on-demand service completely curated by Alamo Drafthouse employees.

Alamo on Demand will include a library of films available to both rent and purchase, with titles selected and curated by the company’s programming team. The goal is to “champion innovative and exciting films” beyond the 41 locations its theaters exist in around the country

The Denver Broncos released their schedule Full House style.

https://twitter.com/Broncos/status/1258539997868646402?s=09

Frontier Airlines ditches $39 empty seats sale after heavy criticism

 

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Bag of Randomness for Thursday, May 7, 2020

Don’t pray for anything you’re willing to work for

This August 15 will be the 15-year anniversary of this blog.

Yesterday was the first time I’ve tried the Popeye’s chicken sandwich. That’s one solid sandwich and I can see why some folks may prefer it over Chick-fil-A. As for me, I just appreciate the two for what they are, two different but great chicken sandwiches. I will say Popeye’s sandwich is much more filling.

Don’t pray for anything you’re willing to work for.

Nearly half of men say they do most of the homeschooling. Three-percent of women agree.

As a Star Wars fan, I like that thought of this alternate reality of Luke falling to the dark side to rule with is father and Leia being trained as a Jedi by Yoda. Here’s the source of the digital artwork.

In Beverly Hills Cops III, Axel Foley (Eddie Murphy) cuts in front of George Lucus.

Stealthy.

Arkansas Men Arrested For Taking Turns Shooting Each Other While Wearing Bulletproof Vest After Drinking

https://twitter.com/RexChapman/status/1258069157389762562?s=09

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Bag of Randomness for Wednesday, May 6, 2020

I’ve been really busy as of late, so if you’ve contacted me and I haven’t gotten back to you, I’m sorry. I’m usually pretty prompt at replying to either emails or texts.

The actor who plays Lenny Bruce in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel makes him appear cooler than James Dean.

I caught a little bit of the Natalie Wood documentary on HBO last night. There’s an old interview of her speaking about her fear of “dark water, seawater, river water” which just seems eerie.

I recently learned the following about Prescott Bush, the father, and grandfather of two presidents from this article:

  • He required his sons to wear a jacket and tie for dinner at home.
  • He had his grandchildren call him Senator
  • He was Ike’s golf partner in Washington.

https://twitter.com/darrenrovell/status/1257082990565482496?s=09

A man in Oklahoma, not Florida, to my surprise, thought it would be a good idea to take off in his paraglider near powerlines.

Georgia Drops Driving Test Requirement for License Due to Pandemic

Under a new executive order given by Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, teenagers within the Peach State will no longer need to pass a formal driving test in order to secure a driver’s license. Instead they’ll just have to get the ‘A-okay’ from their parents.

Mike Tyson is talking about making a soft comeback.

“I want to go to the gym and get in shape to be able to box 3 or 4 round exhibitions for some charities and stuff,” Tyson said.

“Some charity exhibitions, make some money, help some homeless and drug-affected motherf**kers like me.”

https://twitter.com/SportsCenter/status/1256315074358267906?s=09

I know nothing about boxing, but I’m impressed with that quickness. I do consider myself lucky to be born in what I call a sports sweet spot. Growing up in the 80s and 90s I got to experience the rise and fall of Mike Tyson. There was still a purity of sorts when it came to sports, now it’s gone commercial, oversensationalized, and hollow. College athletes actually played for the love of the game and the quality of the game was better as most stayed all four years. Both the NFL and NBA let defense actually play defense. We got to see Magic vs Bird and then watch Jordan take over the basketball thrown. Wayne Gretsky brought hockey to us folks who would have never given the sport any attention.  We got to witness Olympic greatness with Mary Lou, Carl Lewis, and Michael Phelps. MLB players weren’t abusing steroids and used dugout carts. Even though it was tainted, the Sosa and McGwire ride was fun. And, we also saw the rise, fall, and comeback and Tiger Woods. There’s no telling what I’m leaving out, maybe Tatu throwing his jerseys into the crowd after a goal.

Donald Trump once tried to recruit Don Shula but the coach wasn’t interested.

Senator Sinema Wears $12.99 Pink Wig On Senate Floor To ‘Set Example Of Social Distancing From Hair Salons’

If you are offended by PG-13 humor with inuendos, then don’t watch this video, but I’m told from a reliable source that it’s pretty popular around the elementary teacher social media circuit and they adore the lady’s laugh.

https://youtu.be/amLnpe3F__8

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