Random News: November 28, 2022

DISCLAIMER: Zak's Random News is very random and doesn't cover many things, and not everything may be accurate, because I'm just some guy. Go find a real news source.

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Good morning. It’s November 28, 2022, and it’s a Monday. Let’s see what’s happening, or at least what we think might be happening… 

• I am always so confused after a holiday weekend.
• Who am I? What is it that I do for a living? And how?
• This speaks to the fact that throughout the year, it’s extraordinarily rare for me to take any time off at all. I’m like that machine that runs super well, but you never turn it off because no one knows if it will come back on again.
• Mauna Loa, the world’s largest active volcano, is erupting for the first time since 1984. I was a junior in high school last time.
• There are ash fall advisories on the Big Island. Hopefully any lava flows will confined to the existing caldera walls.
• Here’s an actual important thing for those of you with little kids. Green Sprouts is recalling its stainless-steel cups and bottles over a lead poisoning hazard.
• These sippy cups are sold at chain retailers including Whole Foods and Bed Bath & Beyond.
• Houston is under a water boil advisory after a power outage at their water treatment plant.
• Pretty good possibility of severe weather including tornadoes, affecting people in the South starting Tuesday, from Louisiana through Tennessee. Be careful down there, friends.
• And now, The Weather: “We’re Here, My Dear” by Ging
• I joked over the weekend about going to my local bakery and having forgotten my mask. I really am very good about wearing it, and had it been crowded in there, I would have waited for my order outside.
• Over 300 people every day are still dying of COVID. Most of them are 65 and older. When you choose to ignore COVID, you’re basically saying that you don’t give a shit about the older folks in our society.
• A little reminder to people in Georgia: a vote for Raphael Warnock will make things a lot easier for the Senate to accomplish its goals, while a vote for Herschel Walker will do essentially nothing; it would leave the Senate tied 50-50 as it currently is, with the tie breaking vote going to Vice President Kamala Harris. Just get Warnock back in there and let them get to work. Thank you.
• A very exciting news if you like an active and engaged populace: more Georgians voted yesterday than on any Sunday in the 2018, 2020 and 2022 general elections, or in the 2021 Senate runoff. YOU GO, GA!
• There are 33 days left in 2022. Where did it go? It’s all in the past now.
• An observation from my Twitter pal BlackKnight10k: “Imagine the downward spiral your life must be in to have dinner with Trump and it makes Trump look bad.”
• From the Sports Desk… two weeks ago, I predicted that the Las Vegas Raiders would lose every game for the remainder of the season. They proceeded to win their next two consecutive games, including yesterday’s road game against a tough Seattle squad. I am now definitely doubling down that there’s no possible way for them to win even one more game this year, and I will continue to bet against them.
• I have to note the performance of running back Josh Jacobs, who set an all-time Raiders record on Sunday with 303 combined rushing/receiving yards from scrimmage. It’s not just a Raiders record; according to NFL Research, Jacobs is the only player since at least 1950 with 225+ rush yards and 70+ receiving yards in a single game.
• They’d better pay that man a lot of money.
• Today in history… In Stratford-upon-Avon, William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway pay a £40 bond — equivalent to £12,500 in 2022 — for their marriage license. Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major, Op. 73, premieres at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig (1811). Irish nationalist Arthur Griffith founds Sinn Féin as a political party with the main aim of establishing a dual monarchy in Ireland (1905). The Grand Ole Opry begins broadcasting in Nashville, Tennessee, as the ‘WSM Barn Dance’ (1925). First successful flight of SM-65 Atlas; the first operational intercontinental ballistic missile (1958). NASA launches the Mariner 4 probe toward Mars (1964). The first pulsar is discovered by two astronomers Jocelyn Bell Burnell and Antony Hewish (1967). British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher resigns as Prime Minister and is succeeded by John Major (1990). 
• November 28 is the birthday of philosopher Friedrich Engels (1820), Venezuela president Ramón José Velásquez (1916), songwriter/producer Berry Gordy, Jr. (1929), singer-songwriter Randy Newman (1943), musician/bandleader Paul Shaffer (1949), actor Ed Harris (1950), actress S. Epatha Merkerson (1952), drummer Matt Cameron (1962), comedian/TV host Jon Stewart (1962), and actress Karen Gillan (1987). 

Well then. I didn’t workout since Wednesday, and I’m still fighting that lower back issue, so when I go downstairs in a few minutes and do some exercise, I’m going to be particularly careful and take it slow. The last thing I need to kick off this week is a bunch of disabling pain. But I still am going to do it because longterm, it’s what keeps me from having future pains. I never want to do it, but I do it anyway. Enjoy your day.