Another week another travel flakes filled with some pretty crazy stories this week. Who here plays poker? I want to hear your worst bad beat while playing poker. Once I went all in after a raise at a tournament in Panama. I had pocket Aces so I felt pretty good but I ended up getting flushed out by a guy with one club. Such is the way of poker. If you don’t play poker, which card games do you like to play? UNO or Cards Against Humanity don’t count.

Valentine’s Day (or as I like to call it...Singles Awareness Day) is tomorrow. What are your plans for that day? Dinner at a crowded restaurant? Rose petals on the bed sheets? A romantic walk through a dark forest? Sitting at home and eating a pint of ice cream while watching 2013 Husker Football Highlights? Let’s hear your stories in the comments.

Also spare a quick thought for everyone on the Diamond Princess cruise ship quarantined outside Tokyo. That has got to be one of the worst situations you can be with the coronavirus slowly spreading everywhere and there is nothing they can do about it. Anyways onto Flakes...

Frosted Flakes

2020 Nebraska Football Preview: Offensive Line | Football | Corn Nation

The Huskers return all five starters and have some promising youngsters toiling in the weight room. So, why aren’t fans more optimistic?

Nebraska Baseball Pitching Preview | Baseball | Corn Nation

Nebraska will be replacing their entire weekend rotation and has seen two of their best relief pitchers leave the program since last season. Connor Curry will be out for the season as he will have his second Tommy John surgery of his career. It is a tough break for Curry who pitches well when he can be on the mound.

Nebraska WBB vs. Penn State Preview | Basketball | Corn Nation

The Huskers have lost four in a row. The latest loss was a four point decision to #18 Indiana in which the Huskers started slow and faced a 25 point deficit in the second quarter. Penn State comes to Lincoln with a 7-17 overall record in Coach Carolyn Kieger’s first season leading the Lady Lions.

Mailbag: Which Kind of Play Will Nebraska be Better at in 2020? | Sports | Hail Varsity

Hail Varsity staff members Mike Babcock, Jacob Padilla, Greg Smith, Erin Sorensen and Brandon Vogel tackle your questions about the latest news in Husker Nation.

Padding the Stats: A Glimpse of the Future in Huskers Loss at Maryland | Basketball | Hail Varsity

The Huskers scrapped and fought all game. Nebraska clearly isn’t capable of putting together a full 40 minutes of quality basketball at this point, but the effort at least never waned on Tuesday and buried within the loss was a look at what Fred Hoiberg wants Nebraska basketball to look like.

Huskers Open Bolt Era at Baylor | Baseball | Huskers.com

Friday’s season opener is set for 6:35 p.m. (CT) at Baylor Ballpark. Saturday’s game is scheduled for 2:05 p.m., one hour earlier than the originally scheduled time due to Baylor’s men’s basketball team hosting a game at 3 p.m. Sunday’s series finale will begin at 1:05 p.m.

Huskers Head to Atlanta for Big Ten/ACC Challenge | Softball | Huskers.com

The Huskers will begin the weekend on Friday when they play Georgia Tech at 3 p.m. CT. On Saturday, NU faces Boston College ( 9 a.m. CT) and Georgia Tech (11:30 a.m.). The Big Red finishes the weekend on Sunday against Boston College. First pitch for the game is set for 9 a.m. CT.

Nebraska Travels for Mid-Winter Classic | Bowling | Huskers.com

The Husker bowling team is headed to compete at the Mid-Winter Classic this Friday through Sunday in Jonesboro, Arkansas. The Mid-Winter Classic is a tournament stacked with lots of competition. Twelve of the 20 teams are ranked in the top 25 with seven of them being in the top 10.

Travel

The 20 Safest Airlines in the World | Travel | Conde Nast Traveler

Aviation safety site AirlineRatings.com recently released its annual list of the top 20 safest airlines in the world. The site’s staff monitors serious safety incidents on 405 airlines to determine which carriers are among the 20 safest.

Portugal’s Azores Are Still a Wild Paradise | Travel | Conde Nast Traveler

I’ve been visiting the Azores for the past six years, drawn back again and again by the epic landscapes and sapphire-colored sea, grateful that this wondrous, green part of the planet has not yet been conquered by humanity.

In County Donegal, Ireland’s Myths, Magic and Music Intertwine | Travel | Conde Nast Traveler

For fledgling authors, stumbling upon a place to call their muse can be life-changing. Timothy O’Grady found his in Donegal, on the northern coast of Ireland.

Nine Unique Sports to Try on Your Travels in 2020 | Travel | Lonely Planet

There’s a whole world of colorful pastimes to try your hand at and amazing destinations to learn them in – trips that will not only leave you with a potential new hobby, but a deeper understanding of a place and a stronger connection with its people.

Peru Plans New Machu Picchu Routes in 2020 | Travel | Lonely Planet

Peru is beginning work on new alternative routes to Machu Picchu this year, in an effort to diversify tourism in the area and give visitors more opportunities to immerse themselves in local Peruvian culture and communities.

Winds from Storm Ciara Help British Airways Break Flight Record | Travel | Travel and Leisure

The flight reached a top speed of over 800 mph making the journey in only four hours and 56 minutes. Flying time is typically about six hours and 13 minutes, the network noted, citing flight tracker FlightRadar24.

America’s First African-American-Owned Travel Agency Celebrates 65th Anniversary | Travel | Travel and Leisure

The agency planned and booked thousands of trips for black travelers, including Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s visit to Oslo, Norway, where he accepted the Nobel Peace Prize for his leadership in the Civil Rights Movement.

Celebrating a Nation That Doesn’t Exist | Travel | BBC

Most people haven’t even heard of Transnistria, the breakaway state of Moldova that hugs its border with Ukraine. And that’s partly what makes it so fascinating to visit.

Europe’s Strange Border Anomaly | Travel | BBC

Not far from the Belgian border, the Netherlands municipality of Baarle-Nassau is home to nearly 30 Belgian enclaves, known collectively as Baarle-Hertog. On the map, they look like cartographic amoebae, some of them with Dutch nuclei inside.

You Have to Read These Stories

I Stumbled Across a Huge AirBnb Scam Taking Over London | Tech | WIRED

The curious tale of a man called Christian, the Catholic church, David Schwimmer’s wife, a secret hotel and an AirBnb scam running riot on the streets of London.

Wrecked Cars, Homicide and Bags of Meth: Inside the Wild Ride of Peer-to-Peer Car Rentals | Tech | NBC News

The Accord wasn’t due to be rented on that Sunday morning last month, and it took Escobar a few hours to find out where it was: abandoned on a street in Washington. Police told him it had been used in connection with a homicide.

So You Rented Out a Meth House | Tech | The Outline

After finding meth paraphernalia, the only way for a property owner to be protected from any liability, both monetary and/or criminal, is to have the property properly tested for meth residue, and if found, cleaned according to state guidelines. Only when the property is determined to be free of residual traces meth by a state-certified inspector is the owner in the clear.

Inside Mark Zuckerberg’s Lost Notebook | Tech | WIRED

In the early days of Facebook, Zuck kept his plans for world domination in handwritten journals. He destroyed them. But a few revealing pages survived.

Oldest Evidence of Modern Bees Found in Argentina | Science | National Geographic

Ancient nests confirm that bees were alive and well in Patagonia 100 million years ago, marking the oldest fossil evidence for modern bee. The nests consist of tunnels studded with grape-shaped alcoves, where the ancient bees’ larvae could mature undisturbed.

Voyager 2 Comes Back Online, 11.5 Billion Miles From Home | Space | New Atlas

NASA has announced that it’s turned Voyager 2’s scientific instruments back on and resumed collection of scientific data. The rest of the craft is still under review, and the team is slowly running diagnostics to determine when everything else can be switched back on.

Homeless in Koreatown: Living on the Streets of Los Angeles | Culture | Slate

I was homeless in Salt Lake City. But nothing prepared me for what I saw in Los Angeles’ Koreatown.

Was Jeanne Calment the Oldest Person Who Ever Lived — or a Fraud? | Culture | The New Yorker

People in France remember the summer of 1997 for the deaths of Princess Diana, Mother Teresa, and Jeanne Calment. The first became a household name by marrying into royalty; the second, by caring for the world’s sick and poor. Jeanne Calment, however, was an accidental icon, her celebrity the result of a form of passivity.

Meet the Children Being Armed to Defend a Village From Drug Cartels | World | VICE

Luis and his barely adolescent friends are the latest enlistees in a self-defense group in Mexico’s southwestern state of Guerrero, which sits at the heart of Mexico’s heroin trade and has been wracked by violence in recent years.

Everything is Fine

Telescope Detects Fast Radio Bursts Hitting Earth Every 16 Days | Space | Gizmodo

Last year, CHIME/FRB reported finding eight new sources of FRBs, including this repeating one, which is located in a relatively nearby spiral galaxy. From September 2018 to November 2019, the experiment detected 28 bursts from FRB 180916.J0158+65.