Coronavirus yields skipped card payments ... but you have to call and ask!

A recent article in the New York Times mentions some banks waiving payment penalties (some even skipping interest charges) in the wake of the coronavirus.

The waivers:

• Goldman Sachs with its Apple Card and Marcus loans
• Capital One
• American Express

Still charges interest but allows you to skip a payment:

• Discover

You pretty much have to call them all to get this. I got ahold of Capital One, American Express and Discover all this evening (Saturday) ... American Express said a late fee ding would appear in the account but would be removed within 7 days. Discover did mention that they continue to charge interest, and I got Capital One in only about 10 minutes after failing the last couple of days, but they just moved my existing payment from April 4 to May 4. Wahoo!

Let's all keep washing our hands!

Atul Gawande on the end of life

I have been reading Atul Gawande in the New Yorker for years, but this is the first book of his that I read:

It was terrific!

I'm still young enough that I hadn't thought much about the issues he brings up:

• Nursing homes and why they're generally awful
• Assisted living's initial promise and how it's been adulterated
• What happens when you add animals to an elder-care facility
• How his grandfather lived to 110 without any of US-style elder care
• Why everyone is different in choosing what a desirable end of life is

Recommended to anybody who's mortal ... i.e. all of us! Five stars!

Dylan Ratigan bitten by a tick, alas

I heard about the tick-borne meat allergy on this podcast:

I heard another podcast episode, Truth or Skepticism, with Tom Sosnoff and Dylan Ratigan, where Ratigan reports the meat allergy after having been bitten by the lone star tick.

The tick in question:

If you get bitten by one of these, you're then restricted to fish, chicken and Impossible meats. Beware!

Scott Adams' Memoir; I just reread this on my Ipad ...

I was out of reading material and started rereading this one from Scott Adams:

I quite enjoyed it and it spoke to me at this stage of my life. I just came up with a trading strategy, I think, that will solve my current family set of financial problems.

His story is very interesting:

• How he decided to move to California from upstate New York
• The idea for Dilbert and its background
• Some physical challenges he's faced and mostly overcome
• Some other business ventures he's tried, including the Dilberito vegan burrito
• His use of affirmations, which he says works for him though he doesn't think it's "magic"

And more ... I think it's well worth reading for anyone, but especially younger people. Four stars!

New consumer item coming: hydrogen stove?

Climate change is getting serious enough that some municipalities around the U.S. are looking to start banning natural gas. But since many cooks prefer cooking with flame, what about hydrogen as a cooking fuel?

YouTube is full of demos:




And a bit off topic: this guy recommends drinking hydrogen-rich water!


 There are some stoves advertised  ... and a system described to bring to poor countries in place of carboniferous alternatives.

Finally, Leeds in the UK is looking to be the first in the world to convert a whole region and then the whole UK from natural gas to hydrogen.

Another good Culture series novel from Iain M Banks

I somehow had no memory of getting all the way through this one even though I bought it in 2014:

The title is Matter, by Iain M. Banks, and the plot involves the inhabitants of a "shell world" (artist's rendering above) ... there's been a murder in the Royal Family and surviving Prince Furbin evades the killer with his trusty servant Holst ...

There are a lot of interesting ideas in this novel:

• the idea of the Universe being a simulation, and of war being better waged as a simulation
• the Many Worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics
• The interaction between cultural less developed civilizations and the "optimi" like the Culture and peers

This is almost as good as my favorite, Surface Detail ... where a lot of these ideas are given fuller treatement.


Five stars! Money back if not satisfied ... contact me!
 

Political humor from Saturday night live: The Democratic Debate

Enjoy!