How far down is down?

I'm just asking for a friend... 

Ford isn't looking healthy? 

Damn the torpedos - full speed ahead!

Ford stock taking a beating of late.

The coronavirus pandemic is sweeping throughout the world, and pummeling the Dow Jones Industrial Average so hard it might close the stock market. Its next victim may be Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F).

The company’s expensive restructuring program is failing to show results. And as the coronavirus sends the global economy careening towards recession, the American automaker is unlikely to survive.

Ford Motor Company is in the middle of a massive restructuring. And China is the key to the automaker’s transformation.

The coronavirus has sent Chinese auto sales into freefall, and the United States could be on the verge of recession.

With deteriorating margins and massive debt, the legendary American automaker is running on fumes. It may not make it to the finish line.

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This may hurt me, sadly. I'm planning on going to Ireland in May to see my brother.

Trump says he's suspending travel from Europe to US, though citizens and others are exempt 

Here's Trump showing everyone where Europe is.

President Donald Trump said Wednesday he was sharply restricting travel to the United States from more than two dozen European countries, a drastic step he framed as an attempt to contain a spreading public health crisis that has engulfed his presidency, caused global market turmoil and disrupted everyday life.

In an primetime Oval Office address meant to rebut criticism that he's taken the matter too lightly, Trump framed his announcement as a suspension of "all travel from Europe to the United States for the next 30 days."

But immediately afterward, his administration made clear it was not as drastic as the President stated: The ban will apply only to foreign nationals and not to American citizens who had been screened before entering the country, mimicking restrictions he applied to China last month.

Trump was also forced to clarify he was not blocking goods from Europe, despite saying his ban would "apply to the tremendous amount of trade and cargo" across the Atlantic. He tweeted the ban would apply to "people not goods" after stock futures tumbled on the prospect of a trade freeze.

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Freakin' about about the Virus? 

Run out of masks? 

Need cleaners and disinfectants? 

Don't wanna go to the supermarket? 

It's gettin' nutty out there - why risk it?

These guys will deliver anything you want right to you front door:

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Anybody have any idea where this is?

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The Detroit construction worker who got into a shouting match with Joe Biden said the former vice president “kind of went off the deep end” when he asked a question about his intent to ban assault weapons.

“I thought I was pretty articulate and respectful. I didn’t try to raise feathers,” Jerry Wayne said Wednesday during an interview with “Fox & Friends.”

“He kind of just went off the deep end. … Once he got caught in a lie, I kind of wanted to ask him why he wanted to take our long arms rather than the handguns,” Wayne continued. “To me that’s very skeptical. If you care about human life, wouldn’t you want to go after the tool that’s used the most.”

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This kinda says it all about the market lately.

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The funniest thing about this is I didn't know they were still publishing Rolling Stone.

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More Chris Shapan magic.

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I don't wear 'normal' belts - how about you guys?  

I like web belts. 

For work or play or dressup, I just find 'em easier to deal with. If you don't use 'em, why not give it a shot?
If you do, this is a pretty good deal.  

Take a look here:

Web Belt with Black Flip Top Buckle 50'' Long (3 Pack: Black, Navy, Cofee)

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Smallest dinosaur found trapped in 100-million-year-old amber.

A new species of dinosaur is described for the first time from an exquisitely preserved (and incredibly small) skull.

The bird-like skull of a tiny new species of dinosaur has been discovered trapped in amber at an archaeological site in northern Myanmar. Scientists say the fossil find represents the smallest dinosaur from the Mesozoic era to date and its diminutive size makes it smaller than the smallest living bird found on Earth today.

"When I first saw this specimen it just blew my mind," Jingmai O'Connor, a paleontologist with the Chinese Academy of Sciences and co-author on the paper, said in a Nature video. "I had literally never seen anything like this."

The skull is estimated to be nearly 100 million years old, 

according to details of the remarkable find published Wednesday in the journal Nature. The find measures just over 15 millimeters in length, around the same size as the diameter of a US penny. Analysis of the skeletal features suggest the tiny creature was mature, had really big eyes and a lot of tiny teeth. For that reason, the new species has been given the scientific name of "Oculudentavis khaungraae" with the generic name "Oculudentavis" derived from the Latin for "eye-teeth-bird". Its species name relates to the person responsible for donating the specimen.

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“To say they were crushed is an understatement,” a top royal expert has revealed about Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s exit from the British Royal Family, saying it was “unnecessarily cruel,” adding, “things might have been different if a family member or two had stood up for them during the darkest times.”

Why do people give one single fuck 

about this silliness?

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I'm thinking we all might wanna re-read this one.

As Jason Bourne would say:
'Opportunities will present themselves'

Might be time to get a different perspective on things - get the book about the market that's easiest to read and understand here:

Investing For Dummies, 4th Edition

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Screwing the lyrics pooch - Volume Three:

Joe Strummer of The Clash

Original lyric –“Shareef don’t like it. Rock the Casbah.”

Misheard lyric – “Surely she’ll like it! Lock the cash box.”

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How Capicola Became Gabagool:

 The Italian New Jersey Accent, Explained 

“Don’t eat gabagool, Grandma,” says Meadow Soprano on an early episode of The Sopranos, perhaps the most famous depiction of Jersey Italian culture in the past few decades. “It’s nothing but fat and nitrates.” The pronunciation of “gabagool,” a mutation of the word “capicola,” might surprise a casual viewer, although it and words like it should be familiar to viewers of other New Jersey–based shows like Jersey Shore and The Real Housewives of New Jersey, where food often drives conversation. The casts are heavily Italian-American, but few of them can actually speak, in any real way, the Italian language. Regardless, when they talk about food, even food that’s widely known by the non-Italian population, they often use a specific accent.

 And it’s a weird one. “Mozzarella” becomes something like “mutzadell.” “Ricotta” becomes “ree-goat.” “Prosciutto” becomes “pruh-zhoot.” There is a mangling of the language in an instantly identifiable way: Final syllables are deleted, certain consonants are swapped with others, certain vowels are mutated in certain places. 

“One thing that I need to tell you, because this is something that is not clear even for linguists, let alone the layperson—the linguistic situation in Italy is quite complicated,” says Mariapaola D’Imperio, a professor in the linguistics department at Aix-Marseille University who was born in Naples and studied in Ohio before moving to France. The situation is so complicated that the terms used to describe pockets of language are not widely agreed upon; some use “language,” some use “dialect,” some use “accent,” and some use “variation.” Linguists like to argue about the terminology of this kind of thing.

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Claudia Cardinale, born 1938, is an Italian Tunisian film actress and sex symbol who appeared in some of the most acclaimed European films of the 1960s and 1970s, mainly Italian or French, but also in several English films.

Born and raised in La Goulette, a neighbourhood of Tunis, Cardinale won the "Most Beautiful Italian Girl in Tunisia" competition in 1957, the prize being a trip to Italy, which quickly led to film contracts, due above all to the involvement of Franco Cristaldi, who acted as her mentor for a number of years and later married her.

Cardinale became one of the best-known actresses in Italy after roles in films during the 1960s. For several years, she appeared in Hollywood films in this time, but jaded with the Hollywood film industry and not wanting to become a cliché, Cardinale returned to Italian and French cinema. 

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I was there back in the 70's - it was a pretty cool place.

Leavenworth, Washington is kinda like a little taste of Bavaria. It’s reportedly one of the state’s most popular tourist stops. Here you will discover Bavarian-style architecture, bars, breweries, cideries, and local shops.  

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Another one from the 'who knew' department:

Hedy Lamarr’s Invention Was Used By The Navy 

During The Cuban Missile Crisis

 Known for her unique good looks and glamorous acting roles, Hedy Lamarr turns out to have been a class act inventor and scientist as well. Married to an arms dealer in Europe (the first of her six marriages) before she came to the U.S., Lamarr’s great beauty landed her many roles but with sparse lines. Her value at the time was in her looks. Little did they know what she was capable of! Working with composer, George Antheil, she developed and patented a frequency-hopping device small enough to fit into a pocket watch. The device used paper rolls to encode the frequencies which spooled around much like a player piano. The usage of many frequencies in the radio transmissions that guided missiles and torpedoes could prevent enemies from jamming the signal. When she submitted her ideas to the Navy to help win WWII, they told her to leave the science to the big boys and try fund-raising instead. She went above and beyond to help raise money for the war effort, garnering $7 million in one night! 

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Do you keep a First Aid rig in your car or truck? 

You most certainly should, don'tcha think? 

It comes with an added bonus smaller kit. Take a look:

Swiss Safe 2-in-1 First Aid Kit (120 Piece) + Bonus 32-Piece Mini First Aid Kit

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WTF is this numbskull even trying to do? 

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Now tell me that doesn't conjure some memories... 

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