Random News: March 30, 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 March 30, 2023, and it’s a Thursday for some reason. I am enjoying some delicious coffee on a very rainy morning, so let’s all see what it be…

• If you recall, last year when Roe v Wade was overturned, I (and many others) made a prediction that states would start to prevent women from traveling to other states without proving they are not pregnant.
• The process has now begun.
• The Idaho state legislature is moving forward with a bill that criminalizes transporting minors to get an abortion without their parents’ consent, potentially soon becoming the first state to restrict interstate travel for abortion as Republican lawmakers seek to strengthen existing state bans on abortion and enact further limits.
• The next step will be expanding this to adult women. Soon you (or your wives or daughters or other loved ones) will be stopped and forced to take a pregnancy test or other kind of physical examination when you cross a state line.
• It’s amazing that the party who claims to want smaller government and less government regulatory control are now the ones driving the most invasive government actions of our country’s history.
• More to come on that.
• In Kentucky, Republican state lawmakers voted yesterday to override Gov. Andy Beshear’s veto of a sweeping GOP bill that curbs transgender medical procedures and limits teaching certain sex-related topics in Kentucky schools.
• The TN House and Senate — both controlled by Republican supermajorities — easily set aside the governor’s March 24 veto. The Senate voted 29-8 in a mostly party line vote. The House followed with a vote of 76-23. 
• Like many other bigoted states, TN’s new law bans school districts from using a student's preferred pronouns, limits what sex-related courses can be taught, and requires school policies ensuring students use restrooms, locker rooms and shower rooms for their biological sex. In many ways, the new TN law will endanger children.
• I am looking forward to this blowing up in the legislators’ faces. It will.
• Elon Musk and a group of over 1,000 artificial intelligence experts and industry executives are calling for a six-month pause in developing systems more powerful than OpenAI's newly launched GPT-4, in an open letter citing potential risks to society.
• Somewhat predictably, the letter was notably not signed by Sam Altman, chief executive at OpenAI, nor was it signed by Sundar Pichai and Satya Nadella, CEOs of Alphabet (Google) and Microsoft.
• "Powerful AI systems should be developed only once we are confident that their effects will be positive and their risks will be manageable," said the letter issued by the Future of Life Institute.
• Guess what? They’re right. AI is highly likely to be the thing humans invented that kills us all. We thought that was the atomic bomb, but AI is likely much worse and can kill humanity much more quickly.
• That being said, the genie is already out of the bottle and varying forces will continue its development at full speed regardless of this warning, mostly driven by potentials of big profits.
• The latest news in the battle between the Walt Disney Company and Florida governor Ron DeSantis took a hilarious turn yesterday.
• Their squabble began in March 2022 when DeSantis passed the state’s“don’t say gay” law banning classroom teaching on sexual orientation and gender identity. Disney stated public opposition to the bill, which prompted DeSantis to try to revoke privileges Disney has had for decades at its theme park, which employs 75,000 people.
• But this week, it came out that the agreement between Florida and Disney has a clause that states that its provisions will stand until “21 years after the death of the last survivor of the descendants of King Charles III, king of England living as of the date of this declaration”.
• That means, without being specific about it, forever. It means DeSantis and his anti-gay GOP cronies are fucked. Forever.
• Ha ha.
• The spokesperson of Gov. Katie Hobbs (D-AZ) resigned amid controversy over a social media post invoking gun violence posted hours after the deadly shooting at a Nashville school on Monday.
• Josselyn Berry had posted a scene from a movie with an actress holding s handgun in each hand, and posted it with the words, "Us when we see transphobes.”
• Wrong way to say it, Josselyn.
• North Carolina is the newest state where anyone can now buy a handgun without getting a permit. Their Republican-controlled legislature overrode the Democratic governor’s veto.
• As of immediately in NC, there is no requirement to perform character evaluations or criminal history checks of pistol applicants. Private gun sales in NC require no background check at all, and there is no way to prevent them from being used to commit violent crimes.
• The Democratic-led U.S. Senate voted 66-30 on legislation to formally repeal the war authorizations that justified the 1991 Gulf War and the 2003 Iraq War. The action is largely symbolic as U.S. combat operations against Iraq ended more than a decade ago.
• However, per their statements, it was important for Congress to reassert its constitutional authority to start and end wars.
• Fair point.
• The effort faced indifference from the Obama administration and outright opposition from the Trump administration, but President Biden has indicated he will sign it if it reaches his desk.
• And now, The Weather: “Selene” by Night Tapes
• Here’s a good weather headline: “L.A. Rainier Than Seattle As Latest Dangerous Storm Plows Through”
• Jesus.
• Another big train derailment with toxic chemicals involved this morning. Residents of Raymond, MN had to evacuate after 22 cars derailed around 1am, with some of them carrying ethanol and corn syrup, and started on fire.
• The government’s effort to ban the video sharing platform TikTok hit a surprising snag in the form of Rand Paul (R-KY).
• "If Republicans want to continuously lose elections for generations, they should pass this bill to ban TikTok, a social media app used by 150 million people, primarily young Americans,” he said.
• He’s in agreement with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), who says, "The solution here is not to ban an individual company but to actually protect Americans from this kind of egregious data harvesting that companies can use without your significant ability to say no.”
• Other members of Congress note that banning TikTok for reasons that are equally applicable to Facebook, Instagram, Google and others doesn’t feel right.
• Valid points.
• From the Sports Desk… after a 16-year hiatus, the Sacramento Kings are back in the NBA playoffs. After a win last night, Sacramento clinches its first playoff berth since the 2005-06 season. Why is this newsworthy? It was U.S. major sports' longest postseason drought.
• Today in history… The Florida Territory is created in the United States (1822). Ether anesthesia is used for the first time, in an operation by the American surgeon Dr. Crawford Long (1842). Sir William Crookes announces his discovery of the element thallium (1861). Danish prince Wilhelm Georg is chosen as King George of Greece (1863). Alaska is purchased from Russia for $7.2 million by United States Secretary of State William H. Seward (1867). Texas is readmitted to the United States Congress following Reconstruction (1870). The Heinkel He 100 fighter sets a world airspeed record of 463 mph (1939). A riot breaks out in Austurvöllur square in Reykjavík when Iceland joins NATO (1949). U.S. President Ronald Reagan is shot in the chest outside a Washington, D.C., hotel by John Hinckley, Jr.; three others are wounded in the same incident (1981). SpaceX conducts the world's first reflight of an orbital class rocket (2017).
• March 30 is the birthday of painter/sculptor Francisco Goya (1746), author Anna Sewell (1820), poet Paul Verlaine (1844), painter Vincent van Gogh (1853), writer/philosopher/monk Chunseong (1891), animator Marc Davis (1913), singer-songwriter/harmonica player Sonny Boy Williamson (1914), actor Richard Dysart (1929), singer-songwriter Rolf Harris (1930), actor Warren Beatty (1937), NBA player Jerry Lucas (1940), singer-songwriter/guitarist Eric Clapton (1945), model Naomi Sims (1949), actor Robbie Coltrane (1950), actor Paul Reiser (1956), rapper MC Hammer (1962), singer-songwriter Tracy Chapman (1964), singer-songwriter Celine Dion (1968), and NFL player Richard Sherman (1988).

Well, that’s a lot of stuff. I have a pretty normal Thursday. Got meetings to attend, press releases to write, ads to make, web content to post. I do this shit daily. Enjoy your day.