Random News: September 30, 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.

---

Good morning. It’s September 30, 2024, and it’s a Monday. I’m the first person up in my house each morning, so while I write this news for you — at least the start of it — it’s super quiet apart from the occasional car engine of other early risers in my neighborhood. It’s nice. Just you and me, and my coffee, and the news.

• Once again, we need to open things today to the continuing emergency situation in the Southeast via the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.
• The storm tore through multiple states since Friday, killing over 100 people across five states, knocking out power to millions, and trapping families in floodwaters. In hard-hit North Carolina, which has a death toll of 42 and rising, days of unrelenting flooding have turned roads into waterways, left many without basic necessities and strained state resources.
• Deaths have been reported in South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, and Virginia. Scores of missing persons reports have been filed amid communication outages.
• Hundreds of roads remain closed in the Carolinas. Those closures have hampered delivery of water and emergency supplies to communities in need. There are 50 boil water advisories in effect across western communities.
• Like many of you, I have friends who have been directly impacted by this. Even those who escaped injury and whose homes are intact have been told not to expect to have power back for a week or more. I feel badly for them.
• President Joe Biden will visit some of the affected communities later this week, as soon as it will not disrupt emergency response operations. The president approved disaster relief and has been in contact with the governors where the damage was most severe.
• In the midst of all that, a fire at a Georgia chemical plant (ironically caused by a sprinkler head malfunction) forced evacuations and road closures in the area.
• It happened at BioLab in Conyers, GA. Water from the malfunctioned sprinkler head came in contact with a reactive chemical and produced a plume. BioLab is a manufacturer of pool and spa treatment products.
• Trump’s Project 2025 plans to remove regulation of manufacturing and to remove safety standards for workers and nearby residents.
• Voting for that piece of shit can literally cause the deaths of yourself and people you love. I can’t emphasize this enough. Fuck politics, fuck parties, fuck it all. Just don’t vote in ways that end up killing yourself and your families.
• Thank you.
• Moving on.
• Yesterday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill that would have enacted the nation’s most far-reaching regulations on the booming artificial intelligence industry.
• He did it despite our legislators having overwhelmingly passed the bill, called SB 1047, which was seen as a potential blueprint for national AI legislation.
• The measure would have made tech companies legally liable for harms caused by AI models. In addition, the bill would have required tech companies to enable a “kill switch” for AI technology in the event the systems were misused or went rogue.
• Who was against the bill? A bunch of powerful players in Silicon Valley, including venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, OpenAI, and trade groups representing Google and Meta. They argued it would slow the development of AI and stifle growth for early-stage companies.
• Who was for it? Elon Musk and pioneering AI scientists like Geoffrey Hinton and Yoshua Bengio, who signed a letter urging Newsom to sign it.
• Why was it vetoed? Newsom said that while SB 1047 was well-intentioned, it didn't take into account whether an AI system is deployed in high-risk environments, involves critical decision-making or the use of sensitive data.
• How do I feel? Frankly, I don’t know the details enough to be able to offer a strong opinion either way. I know that like all tech, AI has the possibility to be used to the benefit or to the detriment of people.
• Unrelated side note, since I mentioned Elon… his social media platform is now estimated to be worth $9.4 billion. Seems like a lot, right?
• Um, no. According to analysis by investor Fidelity, X is now worth 79% less than what it was worth when Elon Musk purchased it for $44 billion.
• Let’s move on.
• Speaking of money, Kamala Harris' U.S. presidential election campaign raised $55 million during two events this weekend. Holy shit!
• The Democratic candidate raised $27 million at a fundraising event at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco on Saturday.
• She then drew $28 million for an event in downtown Los Angeles that included performances by Alanis Morissette and Halle Bailey. Also spotted at the event were Keegan-Michael Key, Sterling K. Brown, Demi Lovato, Jessica Alba, Lily Tomlin, and Stevie Wonder.
• And my friend, audio manufacturer EveAnna Manley. I saw you!
• Speaking of Kamala…
• Harris is going to be the latest guest on perhaps the most unlikely media vehicle to ever host a presidential candidate: All the Smoke, the podcast by former NBA players Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson.
• As a sports guy, I’ve been a fan of this podcast since it started some five years ago. Here’s the weird thing: I did not appreciate Barnes or Jackson during their playing days due to my own prejudices.
• I considered them straight-up thugs. Gangsters. Both of them were involved in serious violent incidents on and off the court. But as the went by and I became a regular viewer of their interview content, I found their perspective to be so incredibly genuine and lacking in the glossy bullshit factor you get from most other shows.
• But how the fuck did those two guys get Kamala? I’m blown away. The new episode featuring Harris just premiered this morning, and I am definitely finding some time to watch it today.
• There are just 36 days until the election.
• In international news…
• The Freedom Party secured the first far-right national parliamentary election victory in post-World War II Austria yesterday. That’s definitely not good.
• What was their platform? Same as it ever was: they tapped into anxieties about immigration, inflation, Ukraine and other issues.
• Sound familiar? 
• Preliminary official results showed the Freedom Party finishing first with 29.2% of the vote and Chancellor Karl Nehammer’s Austrian People’s Party was second with 26.5%. The center-left Social Democrats were in third place with 21%.
• Herbert Kickl, a former interior minister and longtime campaign strategist who has led the Freedom Party since 2021, wants to be chancellor. Hundreds of protesters gathered outside the parliament building in Vienna last night, holding placards with slogans including “Kickl is a Nazi.”
• Sigh.
• Over the weekend, I watched some clips from the first episode of Saturday Night Live’s 50th season. Most of it was good.
• I bring it up only to mention that absolutely excellent cold open that featured Maya Rudolph as Kamala Harris, Jim Gaffigan doing an uncannily great Tim Walz, Dana Carvey returning as Biden, and Andy Samberg playing Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff.
• It’s on YouTube. Watch it if you need a laugh.
• And now, The Weather: “Backyard Lover” by Merce Lemon
• A big RIP to a talented guy… Kris Kristofferson died yesterday at 88.
• He attained success as both a groundbreaking singer-songwriter and a film and TV star.
• As a songwriter, Kristofferson wrote a bunch of number-one country hits including “Sunday Morning Coming Down” (Johnny Cash). But his most well-known tune on a larger scale was “Me and Bobby McGee” which became a posthumous number-one pop hit for his former girlfriend Janis Joplin.
• He also starred in some huge acclaimed movies, like Martin Scorsese’s “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore” and won a Golden Globe Award as a dissolute rock star co-starring with Barbra Streisand in “A Star is Born.”
• As if that wasn’t impressive enough, Kristofferson was a genius-level student and a star athlete in his youth. He graduated summa cum laude with a degree in English from Pomona College, and attended Oxford University in England as a Rhodes Scholar.
• Wow.
• Let’s do a chart. It’s the end of September 1977. I am just starting fourth grade at Madera Linda Elementary School in Rancho Palos Verdes, CA. Kamala Harris is starting her freshman year of high school.
• I 100% promise she had a few of these albums.
• 1. Rumours (Fleetwood Mac). 2. Star Wars (Soundtrack). 3. Moody Blue (Elvis Presley). 4. JT (James Taylor). 5. Shaun Cassidy (Shaun Cassidy). 6. Commodores (Commodores). 7. CSN (Crosby, Stills & Nash). 8. Foreigner (Foreigner). 9. Going For The One (Yes). 10. Floaters (The Floaters). 11. Anytime… anywhere (Rita Coolidge). 12. I Robot (The Alan Parsons Project). 13. Right On Time (The Brothers Johnson). 14. Here At Last… Bee Gees… Live (Bee Gees). 15. Rejoice (The Emotions). 16. Little Queen (Heart). 17. Simple Things (Carole King). 18. Star Wars & Other Galactic Funk (Meco). 19. Livin' On The Fault Line (The Doobie Brothers). 20. I'm In You (Peter Frampton).
• From the Sports Desk… I know we’re only four games into the NFL season, and statistically this makes sense, but I’m feeling an odd amount of parity in the league this year.
• Yes, there are the anomalies, like the undefeated Chiefs and Vikings at 4-0 and Seahawks at 3-0). There’s also the hapless Titans and Jaguars who are winless.
• But the teams at 2-2? The Jets, Falcons, Colts, Saints, Ravens, Chargers, Cowboys, Raiders, Broncos, Eagles, 49ers, Packers, and Bears.
• I’m sure the better and worse teams will separate a bit more as the season progresses… right? We can’t end up with most of the league at 9-8 or 8-9.
• Today in history… Henry IV is proclaimed king of England (1399). Spanish conquistador Hernando de Soto and his forces enter Tula territory in present-day western Arkansas, encountering fierce resistance (1541). The first performance of Mozart's opera The Magic Flute takes place two months before his death (1791). Thomas Edison's first commercial hydroelectric power plant (later known as Appleton Edison Light Company) begins operation (1882). Radoje Ljutovac becomes the first soldier in history to shoot down an enemy aircraft with ground-to-air fire (1915). The League of Nations unanimously outlaws "intentional bombings of civilian populations” (1938). NBC broadcasts the first televised American football game (1939). The 1947 World Series is the first to be televised and the first to include an African-American player (1947). The Boeing 747 is rolled out and shown to the public for the first time (1968). Ethernet specifications are published by Xerox working with Intel and Digital Equipment Corporation (1980). Controversial drawings of Muhammad are printed in a Danish newspaper (2005). 
• September 30 is the birthday of astronomer Michael Maestlin (1550), activist Ann Jarvis (1832), businessman William Wrigley, Jr. (1861), physicist Hand Geiger (1882), sexologist Charlotte Wolff (1897), bassist/bandleader Thelma Terry (1901), drummer/bandleader Buddy Rich (1917), US Army captain Lewis Nixon (1918), novelist Truman Capote (1924), activist Elie Wiesel (1928), actress Angie Dickinson (1931), singer Cissy Houston (1933), singer Johnny Mathis (1935), drummer Dewey Martin (1940), music producer Gus Dudgeon (1942), singer Marilyn McCoo (1943), singer-songwriter/guitarist Marc Bolan (1947), actress Fran Drescher (1957), singer-songwriter/guitarist Marty Stuart (1958), actor Eric Stoltz (1961), singer-songwriter/guitarist Trey Anastasio (1964), actress Jenna Elfman (1971), actor Daniel Wu (1974), MLB player Jeremy Giambi (1974), tennis player Martina Hingis (1980), and rapper T-Pain (1984).

As usual, that’s not all the news. It’s some of the news. It’s the news as filtered through the things I note at 7am on a random Monday morning. But perhaps it’s more than you would have known otherwise. Enjoy your day.