Random News: April 8, 2024

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 April 8, 2024, and it’s a Monday. Feels like a normal Monday so far. Today’s coffee is Peet’s Sumatra, and it’s delicious as usual. Let’s see what we have to chat about today.

• The big news of the day is, of course, the total solar eclipse.
• You’ll probably want to know what time it happens. And that answer is… it depends on where you are. Both time zones and specific geographic locations are needed to tell you exactly when the Moon will pass in front of the Sun and the shadow of said moon will fall on you to whatever degree it does.
• Here in Southern California, the event will run between roughly 10AM and noon, with peak coverage of about 50% here at 11:05AM. It will be neat.
• I bet your local news channels and websites are overflowing with info you can use.
• I guess the thing I’ll tell you, other than to get off your ass and go outside and experience it in person and not just look at it on a fucking screen, is that your regular sunglasses are 100% not dark enough to look into the Sun.
• Also, those super cheap “eclipse glasses” you got last week on Amazon may not be actually protective enough.
• The Sun is an ongoing nuclear explosion that started 4.5 billion years ago. It is 109 times the diameter of Earth. It weighs 333,000 times as much as Earth. 1.3 million Earths could fit inside of it.
• Don’t look at it.
• Or at least err on the side of caution and don’t fuck up your eyes. Having your corneas or retinas burned actually hurts a lot. Ask me, who got snow-blinded once in my youth. But do enjoy the eclipse. You may not get the chance to experience another one.
• That 115-mile slightly curved strip going up from Texas to Maine is the only zone in the USA where a total eclipse will occur. I’m looking forward to the inevitable millions of pics and videos from people who use cameras with filters that were actually made for this.
• Here’s something you can do during the eclipse: look at something red or green.
• As light dims, our eyes transition from photopic vision, associated with the retina's cone cells that deliver full colors and fine detail, toward scotopic night vision that relies on rod cells to detect objects in low light. In the middle is mesopic vision, the transitional phase where both rods and cones are active.
• When the light's intensity dims in the eclipse, colors with longer wavelengths, like red, will look darker as cones become less active. But because rods are sensitive to the shorter blue-green wavelengths, those colors will have a chance to shine.
• See? Neat, huh? You should also note differences in light-oriented phenomenon like shadows.
• And of course, since this is America, people have monetized the event in a huge way via eclipse tourism.
• Occupancy rates at short-term rentals in the path of totality have soared to about 88%. Over 110,000 rental listings were made for Airbnb and Vrbo and the like.
• Areas that would have nowhere near complete occupancy in these rentals are booked solid. Buffalo, NY had a staggering 98.2% occupancy rate for its 1,297 listings, while Rochester was at 97.1% on 1,115 listings. Killeen, TX had 523 listings that drew a 98.3% occupancy rate.
• I mean, Jeffersonville, VT had the highest occupancy rate at 99.2% of 512 listings. That’s crazy.
• A couple of last eclipse things.
• If you’re headed somewhere… a park, a mountain, a whatever, planning to watch the eclipse from some ideal spot, keep in mind that probably thousands of other people share your brilliant idea, and traffic might get fucked up and you’ll be super mad, stuck in your car in a jam while the moon comes and goes.
• So that would be bad.
• Also note that varying schools, depending on the local time of the event, are letting kids out early to experience it. Might wanna check to see if there’s some special schedule today.
• Let’s move on… but again, take 15 minutes out of your day and go outside during the eclipse. You live in a universe; you should experience it a few times in your life.
• Okay then.
• We know that Dumpy is not a smart man, but we also know he will say or do anything that benefits himself.
• After years of backing evangelicals, misogynists, and other people who want to remove the rights of women by supporting a national total abortion ban, Dump sees the writing on the wall.
• No candidate can get elected to any major position in the USA who supports a total abortion ban. Bans on women’s reproductive health care are highly unpopular in the USA, with over two-thirds of people supporting women’s rights to abortion.
• So today, he declined to endorse a national ban after months of mixed messages and speculation, and said that instead it should be left up to the states.
• Meaning, of course, he’s fine with situations like Florida’s new 6-week ban that makes it illegal to seek an abortion before most women are aware they’re pregnant.
• Dump put out a video this morning where he once again takes full credit for the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to end Roe v. Wade, saying that he was “proudly the person responsible for the ending” of the constitutional right to an abortion and thanking the conservative justices who overturned it by name.
• Dumpalumpagus has previously stated that there has to be punishment for any woman who gets an abortion.
• This guy would flip back to his previous stance of a national abortion ban the moment he got back into office. Don’t let that happen.
• Moving on.
• Want a good list of books to read? How about the list of the 10 most challenged titles of 2023 that was just released by the American Library Association?
• These are the books that receive the highest amount of efforts to be banned nationwide, and of the top ten titles, seven of which deal with LGBTQ themes.
• Maia Kobabe’s “Gender Queer,” a graphic memoir that chronicles the author coming out as nonbinary, topped the list for the third year in a row. Other LGBTQ-themed titles on the list include George M. Johnson’s “All Boys Aren’t Blue,” Juno Dawson’s “This Book Is Gay,” and Mike Curato’s “Flamer.”
• The number of books challenged in libraries across the U.S. in 2023 spiked 65% over the previous year, reaching the highest level ever documented.
• 4,240 individual book titles were targeted for removal from schools and public libraries last year — a dramatic uptick from the previous high of 2,571 in 2022.
• Here’s the funny thing: much like the efforts to quash terrorism invariably leads to more terrorism, the act of banning these books raises their profiles and increases the level of interest in them by people who otherwise might never heard of them.
• The top banned book list also included Stephen Chbosky’s “The Perks of Being a Wallflower,” Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye,” Ellen Hopkins’ “Tricks,” Jesse Andrews’ “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl,” Erika Moen and Matthew Nolan’s “Let’s Talk About It,” and Patricia McCormick’s “Sold.”
• Let’s move on.
• An engine covering fell off a Boeing plane and hit the plane's wing flap as the Houston-bound Southwest Airlines flight took off from Denver International Airport yesterday morning. 
• They safely returned to the airport following the incident, and the Boeing 737-800 was towed to the gate.
• Jesus Boeing. What the fuck is going on with you? These incidents can’t all be random.
• And now, The Weather: “God Texted Back” by Snowy
• Let’s do a chart. It’s April 1975, my family is about to move from Massachusetts to Southern California, and here’s the top of the Billboard 200 albums chart. Damn, there is some really good shit in here… and some occasional real shit, as usual.
• 1. Physical Graffiti (Led Zeppelin). 2. An Evening With John Denver (John Denver). 3. Have You Never Been Mellow (Olivia Newton-John). 4. Blood On The Tracks (Bob Dylan). 5. For Earth Below (Robin Trower). 6. Perfect Angel (Minnie Riperton). 7. Rock 'N' Roll (John Lennon). 8. Autobahn (Kraftwerk). 9. Young Americans (David Bowie). 10. That's The Way Of The World (Soundtrack) (Earth, Wind & Fire). 11. Cold On The Shoulder (Gordon Lightfoot). 12. Crash Landing (Jimi Hendrix). 13. Phoebe Snow (Phoebe Snow). 14. Chicago VIII (Chicago). 15. Nightbirds (Patti LaBelle). 16. A Song For You (The Temptations). 17. Yesterday's (Yes). 18. Funny Lady (Barbra Streisand). 19. Al Green/Greatest Hits (Al Green). 20. Really Rosie (Carole King).
• From the Sports Desk… we have a champion for NCAA Women’s basketball. The undefeated South Carolina Gamecocks, who were the predicted favorite from the start, takes home the trophy after beating Caitlin Clark and the Iowa Hawkeyes 87-75.
• The Men’s championship game — Purdue vs. UConn - is tonight.
• Today in history… The Mongols begin their siege on Kaifeng, the capital of the Jin dynasty (1232). Shearith Israel, the first synagogue in continental North America, is dedicated (1730). The Venus de Milo is discovered on the Aegean island of Milos (1820). Harvard University votes to establish the Harvard Business School (1908). Dutch physicist Heike Kamerlingh Onnes discovers superconductivity (1911). The 17th Amendment to the United States Constitution, requiring direct election of Senators, becomes law (1913). President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in an attempt to check inflation, freezes wages and prices, prohibits workers from changing jobs unless the war effort would be aided thereby, and bars rate increases by common carriers and public utilities (1943). Frank Robinson manages the Cleveland Indians in his first game as major league baseball's first African American manager (1975). Windows XP reaches its standard End Of Life and is no longer supported (2014). Bernie Sanders ends his presidential campaign, leaving Joe Biden as the Democratic Party's nominee (2020). A total solar eclipse takes place at the Moon's ascending node, visible across North America (2024).
• April 8 is the birthday of actress Mary Pickford (1892), first lady Betty Ford (1918), comedian Shecky Greene (1926), journalist Seymour Hersh (1937), NBA player John Havlicek (1940), fashion designer Vivienne Westwood (1941), MLB player Catfish Hunter (1946), guitarist/composer Steve Howe (1947), singer-songwriter Brenda Russell (1949), MLB player Gary Carter (1954), guitarist Izzy Stradlin (1962), singer-songwriter Julian Lennon (1963), singer-songwriter Donita Sparks (1963), rapper/actor Biz Markie (1964), actress Robin Wright (1966), actress Patricia Arquette (1968), singer-songwriter/guitarist Alexi Laiho (1979), MLB player Carlos Santana (1986), and NFL player CeeDee Lamb (1999).

So, like I said… I’ll be presumably having a normal day, but I am setting an alarm on my phone so I don’t forget to go outside. You live on a rock that’s floating in space, orbiting a star that itself is orbiting in a galaxy that is also being pulled around a vast universe. Try and get out of your everyday mindset for a few minutes and appreciate the miracle of being here at all. Enjoy your day.