THE FUTURE IS HERE TODAY WITH THOMAS FREY! I love talking about what is coming down the pike with our very own futurist Thomas Frey from The DaVinci Institute. Find out more about Thomas or have him come speak at your company by clicking here. Listen to his super cool podcast here!
A GUY WITH A MISSION TO HELP OTHERS WHILE PUSHING HIMSELF And by pushing himself I mean pushing himself up and down as he does 50 pushups at 50 state capitols in 50 days to raise awareness about veteran suicide. Darren Hafford is on today at 2pm and he's a super guy. Support his cause or find out how to join him in Denver to do pushups too by clicking here.
GOVERNOR JARED POLIS KILLED MORE NURSING HOME FOLKS THAN CUOMO And Ari Armstrong tries really hard to give Polis grace in this article but considering when these deaths occurred, later in the pandemic when we knew how deadly this was for old people, there really is no excuse. To make matters worse, Polis hired a completely untested politically connected firm that he paid $90 million of OUR dollars to for two months of bad work that got people killed. This is a MASSIVE FAILURE and needs to be hung around Polis' neck. One in fifteen of our nursing home patients died between November 1st and January 1st. Is that okay? No, it is not. Armstrong makes the point that overall our death rate was very low outside of nursing homes, but I think that has WAY more to do with our low obesity rates and overall good health of our population than anything Polis did.
FANCY CAP HILL PEOPLE ARE TAKING THEIR CRICKET BATS TO HOMELESS TENTS Okay, so maybe it's ONE guy but you have to watch this story from our friends at Fox 31.
This is not going to end well and I truly hope the Republican party is working on a detailed plan to deal with the homeless situation and going to door to door in the next election cycle to tell these nice folks about it. This guy looks like Orville Redenbacher went Rambo. I love him to be honest.
XCEL IS GOING TO RAISE RATES SO THEY CAN KEEP PAYING DIVIDENDS TO STOCKHOLDERS AT OUR EXPENSE This is why you need to pay attention to elections. The Public Utility Commission approved a rate increase so Xcel can invest a crap ton of money into renewable energy which will leave us in the dark at peak usage times. And in doing so, they can advertise how green they are so their stock price and dividends go up. I'm not opposed to a company paying dividends mind you, but when they have a government controlled monopoly where they can pretty much do what they want because the Governor appoints board members who work in renewable energy, I am opposed.
MURDER IS WAY UP IN DENVER BUT LET'S DEFUND THE POLICE, AMIRIGHT? That is sarcasm, ladies and gents. Our fair city is quickly becoming a cesspool with homeless people taking over and skyrocketing murder and crime. We're on track to beat last year's 30 year high mark for murder. Hooray. Be sure to check out WHERE these murders are happening, and oddly, they are not where a bunch of white people live. But I'm sure defunding the police is what people of color need. Thank goodness the legislature passed more gun bills that criminals will ignore to solve the problem. I'm not saying this is what always happens when Democrats are in charge, but.....
THE FOUR DAY WORKWEEK IS A SMASHING SUCCESS IN ICELAND and I'd love to see us go to a four day workweek but I think America is simply not wired that way. The key finding in these trials is that productivity does not decline AT ALL. People are getting their work done in four days just fine, but their well being and mental health went way up. Any takers here?
MORE COUNTRIES ARE REQUIRING VACCINES FOR THEIR RESIDENTS And though I don't expect this to take hold in the US until the FDA grants full approval to the vaccines (which will likely happen by the end of the year if not sooner) but many nations are not waiting, and they tend to the more totalitarian types. Read where by clicking here.
ERRANT FIREWORK KILLS NHL GOALIE And this is a horrible story as the kid was only 24 years old. Read it here.
ACADEMICS ARE CALLING FOUL ON NIKOLE HANNAH-JONES TENURE AT UNC As well they should. Here is an article where a bunch of academics tell you why her tenure is garbage. Oh, and by the way, she TURNED IT DOWN. Watch her talk about it here.
A FIVE MINUTE BREATHING WORKOUT LOWERS BLOOD PRESSURE BETTER THAN EXERCISE At least according to a new study out of CU-Boulder. This is really cool and I want one of these machines to see if I can breathe better at altitude.
HOW A GILA MONSTER INSPIRED A NEW OBESITY DRUG This story is very interesting. It seems the gila monster lizard has something in its venom that can regulate blood sugar. If you're wondering why, you aren't alone. So did a scientist who has now used that venom to create an entirely new kind of drug to fight obesity. Read more about this new kind of drug here.
WHICH VACCINATED PEOPLE ARE DYING OF COVID? First off, the number of fully vaccinated people who are dying of covid is TINY. Like barely a spec in the data, but they are there. Why are they dying? Fox News says this:
First, vaccines aren't 100% effective. Not everyone who is inoculated will respond in the same way. Those who are elderly or whose immune systems are faulty, damaged or stressed by some other illness are less likely to mount a robust response than someone younger and fitter. COVID-19 vaccines are highly effective but some people will still be vulnerable to the virus even after receiving their shots.
Second, the risk of dying from COVID-19 increases steeply with age. If a vaccine reduces an 80-year-old's risk of death from COVID-19 by 95%, for instance, that 80-year-old's risk of death might still be greater than the risk faced by an unvaccinated 20-year-old. Some chronic illnesses such as diabetes, hypertension and lung disease are also associated with a higher risk of severe illness and death.
Third, as more of the population gets vaccinated, there are fewer unvaccinated people for the virus to infect. If the pool of vaccinated people is larger than the pool of unvaccinated people, then it is possible and even likely that breakthrough infections resulting in death in the older, vaccinated group would match or exceed deaths in the younger, unvaccinated group. Consider an imaginary country with 100% of people vaccinated, where the virus can still somehow spread. All COVID-19 deaths would be in vaccinated individuals.
If you have any of the above situations proceed with caution!
IF YOU ARE WORRIED ABOUT RISING CRIME YOU'RE A RACIST At least according to a member of the uber liberal San Francisco DA's office that is. When someone tweeted that they are thinking of leaving San Fran because of the rising crime and their fear, she tweeted out this:
"'Husbands are scared for their wives' —-your reminder that the ‘crime surge’ crowd shares the same ideology as The Birth of a Nation,"
For those of you not up to speed The Birth of a Nation is an entirely racist film that Democrat Woodrow Wilson showed in the White House. This dame wants to say that people who are dealing with a 750% increase in car theft, and organized shoplifting rings so brazen Target is reducing it's hours in stores to try to do something to stop them. But why prosecute the criminals when you can mock their victims instead?
NOW THERE IS A MACHINE TO APPLY MAKEUP BADLY And though entertaining, hard pass for me.
AND NOW, A DOUBLE BASS TREAT I've always been fascinated by the standing bass and this is a super cool use of two of them.
AND NOW, A PERFECT FAUCI IMPRESSION Wear a mask in the shower