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A friend of mine spotted a transaction on his credit card which he didn’t make to “eBay HK”. He called his credit card company and was routed to an overseas call center. When he informed the agent of this suspicious activity, the agent asked, “Sir, are you sure you didn’t go into eBay HK in Honk Kong and make a purchase.” My friend kindly stated he’s never been to Asia and has never set foot inside a single eBay store. A few days later or so he receives notification the dispute was denied. He called the credit card company again and again was routed to a call center overseas. The agent told him that the eBay HK company submitted undisputable evidence that it was he who made the purchase at the eBay store in Honk Kong. My friend then had a rather colorful discussion questioning what this indisputable evidence was.

A lot of folks are feeling a real Contagion or The Walking Dead kinda vibe as of late. Of all movies, I’m feeling a Bird Box vibe. We certainly aren’t experiencing mass suicides by simply looking outside, but I’m just feeling that sort of vibe when I first watched that Sandra Bullock Netflix movie.  But I also felt this way when I watched the Ice Capades.

There’s a simulation in this article, I think it’s the fifth one down, which I thought was pretty impressive on how the COVID-19 virus affects a population in terms of healthy, recovered, and sick people. I wish I knew how to embed it in this post.

Why outbreaks like coronavirus spread exponentially, and how to “flatten the curve”

Amazon wants to hire 100,000 new workers to meet coronavirus demand – It will also increase all warehouse workers’ hourly pay by $2

Liar In Chief – Video emerges showing Trump talking about cutting pandemic team in 2018, despite saying last week ‘I didn’t know about it’

A video has emerged of Donald Trump talking about cutting the US pandemic response team in 2018 – days after claiming that he knew nothing about the disbanded White House unit.

Mr Trump said of the pandemic team that “some of the people we’ve cut they haven’t been used for many, many years and if we ever need them we can get them very quickly and rather then spending the money”.

“I’m a business person, I don’t like having thousands of people around when you don’t need them,” he added.

Of course, I don’t blame Trump for COVID-19, but I do hold him accountable for not having the country adequately prepared for a potential pandemic. This program was already in place for him, all he had to do was take the wheel. There’s nothing wrong with him modifying it to meet certain needs, but disposing of it doesn’t keep America great. I also hear folks complain that government is too big and full of waste, this is my argument against it. Can some government fat be trimmed? Of course, and it’s good to have thoughtful discourse about it. But it’s like having insurance, you pray you don’t have to use it, but it’s there if you need it. A pandemic team is like having the best military in the world. You hope you don’t need it, but it’s there just in case to protect the citizenry. Fake news? Bullshit. Shove it up your ass, Mr. President.

I’ve noticed a lot of men on television wearing button-up dress shirts without collars as of late. I fear this is a new fashion trend.

American Teenagers Are Declaring ‘Virginity Rocks’ – A clothing item inspired by a YouTube star has found its way into malls and schools, stumping adults along the way.

But whatever their motivation, teenagers across the country have been going wild for shirts that bear a chaste declaration: “Virginity Rocks.”

The clothing items became popular online thanks to a social media influencer and are now stocked by a major retail chain with a presence in malls across the United States. The trend has puzzled some school administrators, who have banned the shirts only to face criticism, and other adults, who have wondered if youth abstinence is on the rise.

It can be traced to Danny Duncan, a 27-year-old YouTube personality and prankster, who said he started wearing “Virginity Rocks” shirts in his videos as something of a joke in 2017. Mr. Duncan said that his use of the phrase was “tongue in cheek,” and that most people wore it humorously. But, he added, he is proud to have seen it catch on with young people who champion abstinence.

I recently engaged in an electronic mail conversation with a person with the last name of Aarzoo. It made me think of how R2-D2 is often referred to as Artoo, which you’ll see in closed captioning, comics, and the books.

Students at Olin College held a ‘fauxmencement’ ceremony with garbage bags gowns, paper ‘origami’ caps and tassels made of yarn

I love how they took the lemons they were given and made some lemonade. I bet secretly, a lot of families were happy they didn’t have to sit through a graduation ceremony. Let’s face it, most of them are pretty boring despite the accomplishment, it’s hard for graduates to spot loved ones in the crowd, and graduates prefer gifts rather than your attendance. I’m sure I’m not the only one who only showed up at the end and pretended I was there for the whole ceremony.

We’re getting new floors this week and right now almost all our furniture is moved out. I tried to make the most of it by playing wiffleball with the kids in the vacant living room and kitchen area.

A lot of shelves at our local grocery market were pretty bare to no surprise. WifeGeeding and the kids are visiting her parents in the small town of Lindale. She went to their local grocery store to pick up some sugar. The store was sold out of sugar but no other shelves seemed bare.

We ate at Cotton Patch on Friday and I was impressed with how they were handling the spreading of germs. All salt, pepper, and other condiments were removed from all tables and you had to request them, and they cleaned them as soon as they were removed. I noticed all the menus were being scrubbed vigorously. It was basically the same thing at Jason’s Deli. However, when I dined with a friend at 54th Street, it seemed they weren’t taking any precautions.

The president must be going nuts not being able to speak at any rallies in the foreseeable future. It made me think of parenting and grounding or punishing kids by taking away the thing they loved most. It’s unique for each child. Some kids feel like they can’t live without television, their tablet, video games, or playing with their friends. For the president, that one thing has to be speaking in front of large crowds. But then again, Twitter would rank pretty high up there as well.

I went paint supply shopping at Home Depot and Sherwin Williams. I noticed all the paint masks and respirators were sold out at Home Depot and heard several customers ask for them. But I was surprised to see my local Sherwin Williams had a large supply of them. That actually made me happy, painters aren’t stopping painting, and they need those for their job to protect their lungs.

Very nice of the mouse.

Disneyland to donate excess food to O.C. food bank during closure

There’s some major drama going on at my alma mater. Hardin-Simmons has been going through some financial challenges and hired a new university president who was considered to be very skilled with the finances. The school has recently laid off staff, eliminated several majors and schools, and most surprising to me, closed down their seminary (you can still get degrees in Bible and theology at their school of theology, but the seminary has closed). They’ve been sending a lot of communication out about these decisions. On one hand, it appeared as they were trying to be transparent, but at the same time, it had a hint of propaganda, which I guess it was. It’s been reported that 64% of the faculty and 550 alumni have declared “no confidence” in the university president and the board. The family of the president of the university when the school’s name was changed from Simmons to Hardin-Simmons (serving as president for 31-years) is now requesting that their family name not only be removed from all buildings but that the body of the former president, who is buried on campus, be relocated. You can read the family’s letter in this article. The family is also pledging to financially help with any family or student with legal matters.

In a letter to the HSU Board of Directors, Jeff Sandefer says he, his father’s widow, and his sister would like to have their family name removed from all buildings and would like to relocate his great-grandfather’s remains to “a more suitable resting place.”

Sandefer says he believes HSU is “headed for financial and spiritual bankruptcy” as a result of “poor leadership, unwise financial decisions and a disregard for HSU faculty, students and alumni” the letter states.

In the letter, Sandefer says his great-grandfather, Prexy Sandefer, would be proud of the faculty and students, “he would be embarrassed by its low graduation rates, abysmal starting salaries for graduates and acceptance of almost any student, as long as he or she is able to qualify for a student loan.”

Finally, Sandefer says he pledges financial support “for legal actions by any member of the HSU community who has been or will be wronged or wishes to contact regulators or accreditors with their concerns.”

I’m only going to get involved if they dig up the former mascot.

Here’s the Captain America’s stunt double doing the signature backflip. I’m impressed, I thought it was done with cables and edited out.

I wonder if there’s going to be a population boom nine months from now.

I’ll be honest. As for me and my health, I’m more concerned with my allergies and sinuses than I am with COVID-19. But it would be my luck that I’d catch the virus while working from home.

KFC pauses finger lickin’ ads amid coronavirus panic and 150 complaints

7 Lessons from Singapore’s Churches for When the Coronavirus Reaches Yours – Advice from Christians in the “Antioch of Asia” on how your congregation can survive—and thrive—amid the COVID-19 outbreak.

I watched The Late Show with Stephen Colbert last night. He did the show without an audience. just like all the other shows. It reminded me of the time David Letterman did a show without an audience because of a massive blizzard. I recall Denzel Washington being his guest, but can’t recall if he was the only guest.

UK News – Student suspended from school for selling ‘squirts’ of hand sanitizer to classmates

Coronavirus Burial Pits In Iran So Vast They’re Visible From Space

At the Behesht-e Masoumeh complex in Qom, about 80 miles south of Tehran, the excavation of a new section of the graveyard began as early as Feb. 21, satellite images show, and then rapidly expanded as the virus spread. By the end of the month, two large trenches — their lengths totaling 100 yards — were visible at the site from space.

Next week is spring break for my wife and kids. Maybe it was a good thing I didn’t buy tickets to fly to Boston and walk the Freedom Trail after all. Boston has a forecast high of 37-degrees on Monday and a 40% chance of rain on Tuesday. It has been interesting tracking roundtrip nonstop fights and seeing them drop from over $400 to around $150. Also, we are having new floors installed next week so it’s not like we can go anyways.

A neighbor asked for help with something on his MacBook the other day. Again, anything Apple-related is foreign to me, it’s like trying to write with my left hand and I don’t know how you people do it. Luckily, it was something rather simple and it was fixed in no time. But then he started to complain about Spectrum, his internet and cable provider, and how he has to take the afternoon off the next day to be home for a service call. His first complaint was that the DVR wouldn’t power on. I asked if I could take a look and I basically detangled the wires and unplugged and replugged everything. It powered on. Now that I got that working, he asked if I could get the remote to work, stating he was so upset at it the other day he threw it across the room and put a dent in the wall. The poor guy is going through a lot, losing his wife to cancer not long ago, running his own business, and being a single parent. As I was handed the remote, his lawn service needed to show him outside. Something he said earlier lead me to believe he was using the wrong remote. His bedroom door was open and I could see a second remote on his dresser. I nabbed it but it didn’t work; however, the light on the remote wasn’t working when I pressed buttons so I switched the batteries out and it worked just fine. My neighbor came back amazed at my technical brilliance. He then asked why the sound doesn’t come through his speaker bar, and well, I helped with that too, basically changing some inputs and programming his remote to work with both his TV and soundbar. I haven’t seen anyone so grateful in a long time and he couldn’t wait to cancel his service call.

I may have had the strangest fifteen-minutes of my life, and I bet I shared that moment with millions of others. Former Gov. Sarah Palin was unmasked as a masked singer and sang “Baby Got Back” on national TV, President Trump banned travel from most of Europe, Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson revealed they had COVID-19, and the NBA season got postponed.

Right before 9/11, all the local news stations had their own branded helicopters to report on traffic and other things. But after 9/11, they were grounded and proved to be too costly. Soon, technology advanced, like GPS and traffic cameras, and it’s like it never happened. I presented that train of thought because I’m wondering in what ways will COVID-19 trigger a change that becomes the norm. For instance, Super BaD Radio spoke about how the NBA started to restrict reporters from the locker rooms as a way to prevent contamination. They said players have been wanting this for a while, and once things get better, they will decide they’ll continue this policy.

As much as I don’t care for Sarah Palin, I like what she did and wholehearted support her in this endeavor.  If anyone is upset at her appearing hypocritical because of conservative values and the song she sang, I say, “Dude, lighten up.”

“But it’s all about fun. It’s unity. This is all good. This is something that our country needs right now too.”

Experts Say You Shouldn’t Make Homemade Hand Sanitizer – They’re not as effective as you think.

For example, a popular recipe circulating online suggests using 2/3 cups of either 99 percent rubbing alcohol (isopropyl alcohol) or ethanol (ethyl alcohol or alcohol) as the main antimicrobial active ingredient, resulting in roughly 66 percent active content in the final product. However, there is a nuance in the FDA’s rule governing the hand sanitizer product category regarding the different actives recommended as being safe and effective, Aral says.

The rule states that the minimum recommended level for isopropyl alcohol is 70 percent in the final product as opposed to the minimum of 60 percent for ethyl alcohol. So if you use isopropyl alcohol at the recommended 2/3 cup level in the recipe, the active level would fall short of the recommended 70 percent, Aral notes. If ethanol is used instead, the recipe should theoretically meet the minimum of 60 percent required by the FDA rule.