Rover Landing: Exploring Mars 🛸
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👫 What is Random Acts of Kindness Day? And what are the positive effects of being kind to others? 🐎 We all know about coaches, trainers, and psychologists, but what are some of the weirdest jobs in sports? Why do we celebrate President's Day every year? And when is President's Day? 🛸 What happens when the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover lands on Mars? Is there life on Mars? 👨🏾⚖️ Plus! The Trivia Question of the Day!
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🛸 Explore the galaxy aboard the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover as it travels through outer space!
👨🏾⚖️ Do a deep dive into the inspiring life of Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.
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Transcript
Various voices 0:00
Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one.
Bethany Van Delft 0:06
From good deeds to good dudes! In the next ten minutes, we'll get the lowdown on what's up in the world. I'm Bethany Van Delft, and this is The Ten News.
February 17th is Random Acts of Kindness Day. A day to, you guessed it, do nice things for no reason at all. Oh, that's so sweet. According to the foundation behind this special day, the positive effects of doing something kind for others, receiving a kindness, or just witnessing a kind act, are backed by science. Brilliant. So why don't you partake in some kindness today and tell us about it? Send us your stories of kindness, given, received witnessed, all of them, at Hello at thetennews.com
And now, let's get sporty. Here's the latest from The Ten News Sports contributor Kenny Curtis.
Kenny Curtis 1:07
Lots of people dream of becoming a famous athlete. Sadly, most of us don't quite have the natural talent or ability to make that possible. But that doesn't mean you can't be part of the action. You already know about the glamorous gigs like head coach or sports psychologist. So today we're going to talk about some of the more unusual jobs that somebody's got to do in order to keep the games going. These people are the unsung heroes of the athletics industry. The folks doing what we like to call the weirdest jobs in sports. First up the horse masseuse.
Yep, there's a whole profession dedicated to keeping race horses relaxed, known in the industry as equine massage therapists, these hard workers are responsible for giving race horses their pre and post race massages. It's their job to make sure the horses are healthy, calm and living a life of luxury. Up next, professional sweat cleaner uppers.
Also known as team attendants. These hard working NBA employees are in charge of everything from setting up a team bench to refilling water bottles to making sure players have their preferred brand of tissues. But most importantly, they're responsible for cleaning off the sweat that makes its way to the floor of the court.
Yeah, they're the people you see wiping the floor with white towels during timeouts and commercial breaks. It's a stinky job, but somebody's got to do it. Especially in the time of COVID. No hard pass. Similar to team attendants, tennis ball receivers help make the tennis world go round. This elite group is responsible for retrieving the flyaway balls during tennis matches. You've probably seen them kneeling and sprinting across the court between points. To star in the coveted position of tennis ball receiver, you actually have to audition, sometimes waiting in line for hours just to get the chance to try out. And then there's the get-back coach. This unsung hero helps keep NFL coaches safe during football games. He makes sure the coach stays in his designated area during the game, and we'll physically move him out of the way of the referee on the sidelines. This job requires some serious muscle and usually goes to the team strength and conditioning coach. And finally, there's golf ball divers. Come on, didn't you ever wonder what happened to all the balls that end up in the ponds and lakes at golf courses? Well, people dress and scuba gear and go get them, of course. If you're an avid scuba diver who just happens to love golf, this could be the job of your dreams. So as you can see, you don't have to be a professional athlete to work in the world of sports. You just need a strong work ethic and the willingness to maybe get a little weird.
Bethany Van Delft 4:07
February 15 was President's Day this year. Did you know that although the holiday was created by the Federal government to honor George Washington's Birthday, it's not actually celebrated on his birthday? What? President's Day is officially recognized on the third Monday of February, so the date changes from year to year. And even though it's a Federal holiday, there are 13 states that don't even celebrate it. So depending on where you live, maybe you had the day off, maybe you didn't. Either way anyone can participate in that time honored President's Day tradition, buying stuff on sale!
It's been nearly seven months since NASA launched the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover on July 30, and it's finally scheduled to land on the Red Planet on February 18th. Once the Perseverance finishes its 300 million mile journey through space and touches down on Mars, it will spend at least one year exploring the Jezaro crater, a 28 mile wide crater on the Martian surface, said to have once contained a lake. Isn't that lovely? You heard that right, that Jezaro crater once held water, which means it's possible that ancient microbial life really did exist on Mars. Whoa.
While roaming the Red Planet, Perseverance will collect rock and soil samples to bring back to Earth for further study. But before it can do that, it has to complete the trickiest part of its mission. The descent known as "the seven minutes of terror," where it will plunge through the Martian atmosphere at 13,000 miles per hour, deploy a jetpack and parachute, and come to a complete stop inside the crater. It's dangerous, and there's no room for error. One small misstep could bring the entire mission to an end. FYI, the Perseverance is unmanned, so it won't be dangerous to an Earthling, but it will be dangerous to our mission of collecting information about the Red Planet. If this sounds like a scene from an action movie, it's because it sort of is. How so? The Perseverance is equipped with high definition cameras and microphones that will record the landing and thankfully for us, NASA said they're going to make the video footage available for all to see. Fingers crossed, all goes according to plan. I cannot wait to see a Martian. Okay, maybe there aren't Martians there, but I can't wait to see that beautiful little Red Planet up close.
Get ready. It's the what? What? What's the big idea? Trivia on The Ten.
Which Supreme Court justice was first introduced to the law when forced to read the constitution as punishment? Was it A) Ruth Bader Ginsburg, B) Earl Warren or C) Thurgood Marshall? Did you guess it? The answer is C!
In high school, Thurgood Marshall pulled a prank that landed him in the principal's office. His punishment was to read the U.S. Constitution. But Marshall actually liked the document and began voluntarily memorizing some of it. He went on to become a great lawyer, legal scholar, civil rights advocate and eventually the first African American Supreme Court justice.
One of the most famous and important cases Thurgood Marshall argued was 1954's Brown versus Board of Education in which as Chief Attorney, he helped the Supreme Court to unanimously declare the segregation of public schools unconstitutional. Marshall argued many more cases in support of civil rights. And in 1967, was appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court, where he continued to work to protect the rights of all citizens for the rest of his career.
Time's up, but before we go, here's a quick note for the grownups. We got you too bo.
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Thanks for listening to The Ten News. Look out for new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday. The Ten News is a co-production of Small But Mighty Media and Next Chapter Podcasts and is distributed by iHeartRadio. Our editorial director is Tracy Crooks. Editing and sound design are by Pete Musto. Our creative producer is Jenner Pascua. Steven Tompkins is our head of audience development and our production assistant is Sarah Olender. Kenny Curtis contributed to today's episode. Our production director is Jeremiah Tittle, and The Ten News is executive produced by Donald Albright and show creator Tracy Leeds Kaplan.
Do you want to be a part of the show? Record a question, a joke, a fun fact you want to share and email it to us at Hello at thetennews.com. And if you really, really, really love The Ten News, go to your favorite podcast app and submit a rating and review. It helps others find the show so they can join the fun too. More the merrier.
I'm Bethany Van Delft, and thanks for listening to The Ten News. Goodbye Earthlings. That's my Martin Martain. It wasn't very good. I wonder if he'd be mad. I hope he's not mad. Don't be mad Martian. I'm not mad. Thank you for the tribute. Bye
