Random News: February 10, 2023

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.

---

Good morning, It’s February 10, 2023, and if you can believe it, it’s a Friday once again! Here are some items of information that might be interesting to you, or might not — it doesn’t matter to me…

• Mwa ha ha ha.
• Former Vice President Mike Pence has been subpoenaed by Jack Smith, the special counsel investigating Donald Trump and his role in January 6, 2021.
• Smith wants Pence to testify about his interactions with Trump leading up to the 2020 election and the day of the attack on the US Capitol.
• Speaking of the piece of shit that was named president by the electoral college in 2016, Donald Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts were restored yesterday.
• As of this morning it doesn’t seem that Apricot Pol Pot has posted anything, not that I’d notice if he had.
• Some very good news on a very scary situation…
• Florida schools will no longer ask student-athletes to share their menstrual histories in order to play high school sports.
• Yesterday, the Florida High School Athletic Association's board of directors voted 14-2 at an emergency meeting to adopt a proposal that removes questions about a student-athlete's menstrual history from the state’s pre-participation physical evaluation form. Their sports medicine committee had recommended the questions be mandatory just last month.
• Here’s why that’s really not going to happen… the Palm Beach County School District announced that this school year, student-athletes could submit the form digitally, but the platform's privacy policy, and federal law, could require it to turn data over to legal authorities or other officials if they had a valid subpoena.
• You almost certainly don’t want your daughter’s period information to be tracked by the government, or stolen in a data breach… especially after the overturn of Roe v. Wade.
• And now, The Weather: “I Don't Care” by Whose Rules
• In my continuing reporting on the insurrectionists and their failed coup attempt on January 6, 2021, meet Kevin Seefried.
• He was the guy who carried a huge Confederate flag on a pole that he jabbed at law enforcement while rampaging through the U.S. Capitol. Remember him?
• Yesterday, he was sentenced to three years in federal prison for his actions.
• Judge Trevor McFadden called it “deeply offensive” to “use a Confederate flag as a weapon against an African American officer” — referring to officer Eugene Goodman of the Capitol Police, who stood alone against Seefried and the rest of those assholes as they entered the building.
• So fuck that guy and the rest of them.
• And now for some amazing shit that will blow your mind.
• 330 stone artifacts were discovered in Kenya that date back 2.9 million years. While there have been older tools that date back to 3.3 million years, these are quite sophisticated for the time frame.
• Humans — aka members of the Homo genus — don’t go back quite that far. These tools were made by pre-hominid species like the australopithecines, perhaps by an ancient humanlike ape known as Paranthropus.
• How long have we been here as the anatomically modern humans we’d recognize today? Only about 300,000 years max. A teeny tiny blip in time on a cosmic scale. Before that, we weren’t us.
• We were something else. And before that something else. I’m just a very impressive shrew-like creature that evolved for awhile and got bigger and learned to type. So are you.
• I’m kinda over talking about George Santos (R-NY). The latest os that he was charged with theft in Pennsylvania in 2017 after several bad checks written in his name went to dog breeders in Amish country. There’s literally nothing I wouldn’t believe about that guy’s shitty behavior at this point.
• From the Sports Desk… do you know what a prop bet is? It’s a wager not tied to an actual game, and is often very silly.
• Here are some of the prop bets for Super Bowl LVII which airs this Sunday…
• Travis Kelce’s receiving yards vs. his brother Jason Kelce’s snaps. More points after halftime than before it. Eagles Score First/Eagles Win or Chiefs Score First/Chiefs Win. Shortest TD of the game. The Eagles and/or Chiefs will score on three consecutive possessions.
• All very silly.
• And yes, there are odds on all of these plus many more. I don’t bet money on sporting events, and rarely gamble at all except small amounts for fun, usually when I’m in Vegas. Gambling for money in general is never worthwhile in the long term.
• And in fact, due to online wagering apps such as Draft Kings, sports betting has risen tenfold in the past three years, with some experts stating that its addictive nature is on par with the opioid crisis.
• Experts are projecting 50 million people will wager $16 billion on the Super Bowl this year, more than double last year’s haul.
• Good luck!
• In stupid sports news, Brett Favre has filed defamation lawsuits against former players/current commentators Shannon Sharpe and Pat McAfee, who’d both spoken out publicly about Favre having ripped off charities. Honestly, fuck Brett Favre.
• Today in history… Baghdad falls to the Mongols, bringing the Islamic Golden Age to an end (1258). Vasco da Gama sets sail from Lisbon, Portugal, on his second voyage to India (1502). Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom marries Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (1840). A Union naval flotilla destroys the bulk of the Confederate Mosquito Fleet in the Civil War Battle of Elizabeth City in North Carolina (1862). Texas Tech University is founded as Texas Technological College in Lubbock, TX (1923). U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower warns against United States intervention in Vietnam (1954). Captured American U2 spy-plane pilot Gary Powers is exchanged for captured Soviet spy Rudolf Abel (1962). The 25th Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified (1967). Ron Brown is elected chairman of the Democratic National Committee, becoming the first African American to lead a major American political party (1989). The traditional Carnival in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil is canceled for the first time because of the COVID-19 pandemic (2021).
• February 10 is the birthday of poet John Suckling (1609), composer Johann Melchior Molter (1696), English admiral William Cornwallis (1744), astronomer Agnes Mary Clerke (1842), electrical engineer Edith Clarke (1883), actor/singer Jimmy Durante (1893), playwright/director Bertolt Brecht (1898), actress/educator Stella Adler (1901), actor Lon Chaney Jr. (1906), composer Jerry Goldsmith (1929), actor Robert Wagner (1930), singer-songwriter Roberta Flack (1937), singer-songwriter Kenny Rankin (1940), drummer Nigel Olsson (1949), swimmer Mark Spitz (1950), golfer Greg Norman (1955), astrophysicist Katherine Freese (1957), journalist George Stephanopoulos (1961), bass player Cliff Burton (1962), actress Laura Dern (1967), director/producer/screenwriter Vince Gilligan (1967), and actress Elizabeth Banks (1974).

This week has been relatively busy, which, under the circumstances of my mom having passed away on Tuesday, has been somewhat welcome. Tomorrow afternoon, I am helping out her husband at the mortuary. Having been through this before, I know they try and upsell you on various funeral services. I get it; it’s a business, and I don’t fault them. But in these situations, I also feel like Walter in ‘The Big Lebowski’ and am tempted to show up with an empty coffee can. Regardless, the choice of a modestly priced receptacle will be made. Enjoy your day.