Khyber53

It is! Hopefully it's going to wind out into something cool and not just a "It was just a dream" kind of stories. Or worse, do a JJ Abram's Lost wind out where the incredibly intricate plot has no real conclusion because it was just built to be nothing but complication after complication to keep people guessing.

There's also S.W.O.R.D. showing up in places. S.W.O.R.D. is the outward facing version of S.H.I.E.L.D. The Strucker watch with the Hydra symbol on it (and Baron Strucker from the comics was a big part of Hydra and AIM). The beekeeper coming out of the sewer is a reference to the emergence of A.I.M. (Advanced Idea Mechanics) that was a Hydra-like group that was seeking the Cosmic Cube throughout the 1970s. Their headgear looked a lot like beekeeper helmets and screens... In many scenes the Vision still has his Infinity Gem ... the Mind Stone meaning it may have been replaced post Infinity War time loop and this may all be in his head. He and Wanda may well be stuck in a time-free loop within the stone. Alternately, and this is my take: After Vision was killed in the Inifinty War, his consciousness (the old Jarvis) went right back into Cyberspace where he had hid from Ultron back before they both got bodies. The Wanda seen in the show is actually his very detailed impression of her and he is keeping it alive while trying to build some sort of life construct for the two of them (since she was taken out in the Snap), but it is all in his head. He is using old TV shows (The Dick van Dyke Show and Bewitched so far) as an analog to build their life on and preserve who they are. If he can hold on long enough to get the Mind Stone again, he can bring the two back to life with at least some sort of shared time between them. As a further complication, I believe Arnim Zola (remember him as the Nazi scientist that worked for Red Skull and then got computerized in the Captain America movies), might be hiding out in the same part of Cyberspace and is the reason behind the commercials from Stark Industries (the toaster) and Strucker watches coming through. Or at least that's my take.

I'd have said more, but really not wanting to give any spoilers.

The first two episodes are fun and a completely different twist on things. And there is a lot going on under the surface. Easter eggs abound. It's a clever concept and if you're a fan of Marvel and the Marvel Universe of the movies, there's a lot to talk about and speculate on.

Took it, but yeah, I think it is geared for someone decades younger than me! Best of luck with the survey and the thesis!

Just look at the crowds. At the BLM protests, almost everyone was wearing a mask. At the Trump rallies... well, let's see how it shakes out, but advance word is that if you are a true believer in Trump you won't wear a mask and don't need to. COVID doesn't differentiate, but the practices of the participants will probably differentiate them for it.

Wow! You're on the front line there, man. I wonder how many times the local outbreaks start from exactly the situation you saw in the ER? Something tells me it's just about every one of them in rural areas.

I think we also need to look at that as the first wave in our major urban areas (particularly NYC). The rest of the US, smaller cities and rural areas, have not actually hit their first waves, but are still in the fringe introduction moments of the disease here (except for maybe the outbreaks in meat packing plants which could be the canary in the coal mine moments for rural regions). We need to look at how influenza spreads from big city hot spots to get a timing/travel rate for the virus into the heartland. There's always a lag, and this one may be longer for COVID-19 than the flu simply because of the lockdowns. I don't want to see it hit hard again (too many lives have been lost already), but I won't be surprised if you see outbreaks in secondary cities like Omaha, San Antonio, Milwaukee, Cleveland, Charlotte and Memphis, along with a major hit to Las Vegas and Miami as soon as leisure travel kicks back in.

Some mentally challenged 12-year old in Cleveland points a toy gun (orange barrel-end and all) at a cop and gets shot for it. These turds carry a fake .50 cal machine gun and an inert AT-4, and they dare anyone to bat an eye or a cop to arrest them. Now that's a white privilege if there ever was one.

Those were attention-seeking, lawsuit baiting dweebs who would have been shot on sight/site had they been black, walked into a place of business armed and wearing masks. And in the one photo, Muscle-dude, what the hell are you compensating for with two wheelguns and a used AT-4 tube slung over your shoulder? Let's not even get into the guy who was carrying an M2HB rigged for anti-aircraft roles slung onto his shoulder. What quasi-militia poo stone did these threats to the Second Amendment crawl out from under? They weren't exercising their rights near so much as threatening the rights of responsible gun owners. Turd heads.

Ohh, I agree heartily with what we've been doing. More than anything, our self quarantining has kept every hospital in America outside of New York City capable of handling the cases on hand. Had we all just kept partying on the death toll would have been astronomical. The move saved us, even if it did hurt economically -- and we have to realize that not everything in the world is less important than economics. And honestly, I think we should continue social distancing and self quarantining for a while longer just to allow us to rest and refit our healthcare sector. It will also give us more time to develop treatments and best practices for combating the illness. In the end, though, this pandemic wasn't just COVID-19's big debut, it was the coming out party for coronaviruses the world over. It (all the other COVIDs and SARS) are here to stay, mutating a bit each year and rolling through the populace, just like Influenza and Rhinoviruses (the sicknesses we refer to as the common cold).

Sadly, it is going to require folks going out, mingling and potentially infecting each other to get us to the next step in living in a post Coronavirus world. We'll know soon whether we get slammed again or if it will just be a moderate rate of infection. Sooner or later, we'll have to all go back out, but as Magneto said, "Let the pawns go first." We've been living in a post Influenza world since the 1918 epidemic, learning to live with it's reappearances, learning how to treat it and alleviate symptoms, developing vaccines and sadly, burying tens of thousands of terminal cases each year because it can't be eradicated now or ever. We'll do the same with the Coronaviruses that will come along over the years.

Let's also remember that companies in the US were holding record amounts of debt on their books, thanks to phenomenally low interest rates. What the pandemic showed was how it wasn't the interest rates, but the principal payments that would kill these companies that were so leveraged and without any real cash reserves. That's a systemic problem that actually existed long before Trump. Trump, however, has always run his businesses leveraged to the hilt and has, through policy and rhetoric, encouraged our economy to work this way, too. He has long been the champion of borrow and reap rather than save and sow seeds. Trump's not the originator of our economic weakness, he's just the posterboy. It all works well until, well, a rainy day comes. Our country has been so prosperous that it has withstood all of those rainy days, hurricanes, flooding, massive fires, civil unrest and malaise since 2016. It took a pandemic, a modern plague, to shake us down. The idea of borrowing our way back to economic health should be scaring everyone.

Good luck.

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The biggest impact on major corporations and businesses is that many of them have now been exposed for using the cheap credit of the last 12 years to offset unwise business practices that didn't build their businesses. So many companies were caught leveraged to the hilt right now and with no cash reserves that they can't make their bond and debt payments. Many had been unwisely using what should have been cash reserves to buy back issued stock to improve the revenues of the rest of the stock holders. We haven't even started to see the bottom of the business impact yet, that is still downstream as a number of companies that have done massive layoffs won't have the cash on hand to restart production/services and make payroll to bring people on. Couple that with the inflationary aspects of the government/Fed Reserve just printing up $3 billion out of thin air and well, you should get the picture. Don't drop money into the stock market right now, no matter how bad they want you to. This "recovery" is fool's gold, imho. Instead, sock that cash away for your own rainy day. The rains, they are gonna come.

In the end, we're benefiting from their being here, to be honest. We'd like to be done with the project, too. And looking at it from the contractor's perspective, it is easy to see why continuing work on this right now is the best deal going. He has other things lined up afterwards (I hope -- he's a good guy and does quality work) and he needs to finish this, get paid and get to the next (for people who are also waiting). He also is at the mercy of subcontractors like electricians, plumbers and installers, so the more he can keep things moving, the less vulnerable he is to work stoppages for one of those. Just going to have to hope they stay well, we stay well, everything gets done and happiness abounds on both sides. Besides, do you know how good it is to find a general contractor that really knows what they are doing and are fair and trustworthy? You just can't let one of those go when you find them. And all of those folks have families to feed and bills to pay.

There's a lot of self-determined essentials going on. We have contractors and electricians working in our house today ... our project isn't essential, but they want to be here. We'd send them home but have already been told that if they leave today then we have to wait to get back on their schedule and that could be months out, and they'll want payment for the project now. I mean, what do you do? Luckily they are working in the bottom half of the house and my family has sequestered itself in the top half, so we're good and there's little contact, but dang man, really?

Same thing as in 1987 and 2008... sit and hold. It's not a loss if you don't sell. Look for bellweathers that drop and snag a few bargains. People are panic selling and then buying on Fridays to recoup some growth and cash back in on Monday mornings. And your 401k will be fine, just don't look at it for six months.

In one statement, you've completely destroyed any good opinions I might have had of you. You poor misguided fool.

Wasn't downplaying it one bit. Was keeping perspective, though.

I'm not sure if that's a put down or a compliment.

Life is going to be disrupted for a while. The illness will be a big problem for the elderly and those who have underlying health conditions -- particularly those with asthma, COPD and emphysema -- life threatening in the worst cases. Most folks who catch it, however, will recover after feeling lousy for a while. The economy will be disrupted, not just for the immediate future but also for a way on down the line as ripples throughout the supply chain affect industry and retail. Banking, lending and investing are bracing themselves for hits to their sectors as other businesses/people who run close to the margin are unable to keep up with their debts during this time. It will be okay, though. This isn't going to be the bubonic plague revisited, or even the 1918 Influenza pandemic. We have better medical technology, better understanding of epidemiology, better communications, better nutrition and a whole host of other items that should give everyone hope and peace of mind. Yeah, it will possibly get rough, but as much as anything for the average person it will just be a massive inconvenience for a while. For those with elderly family members or who have lung ailments, keep them in your prayers and do everything you can for them. Until this all passes, just wash your hands, avoid big crowds and show common courtesy to those around you. The world is going to have to slow down for a bit, make the most of it.

Video directed by Alton Brown of Good Eats fame. Edit to correct: Nope, my bad. It was "The One I Love" video. Same timeframe, same Southern Gothic feel.

I've got a lot of hope for this young guy. NCAA receiving leader who somehow doesn't get drafted? If he's got his head on straight, coaches up well and puts in some serious work, he could make a lot of folks regret not drafting him. It sure would make a great story.