August 21, 2020

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empowering you with insights and information from the edge of today’s headlines

Summer Snippets

Presidential Actions: The 71-year old president of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, helped rescue two stranded kayakers off the Algarve this week. The president was on vacation and mid-interview, when he jumped into the sea to help the kayakers. Once they were safe, he returned to shore and completed the interview.

Presidential Pockets: We’ve been waiting to see if Michael Bloomberg will remain true to his promise of funding the Democratic opponent to Trump. Bloomberg spent $900M on his own failed presidential campaign, but he seemed to get stingy with his spending during the pandemic. He has pledged to spend $60M to support Democrats running in the House, similar to the push he made in 2018, and he transferred $18M of his campaign cash to the DNC earlier this year. We’re hoping he’ll stop with the pocket change and up the ante soon.

Electric Vehicles: Tesla stock has been a tear (especially following its stock split announcement), and now the company is not only the world’s most valuable car maker, but it has a higher market capitalization than Walmart. (For context, Tesla sold 367,500 cars in 2019 vs 2.9M for General Motors.) Other car makers are taking notice, and some are considering spinning off their electric vehicle units as separate entities. GM is one of the automakers reportedly considering such a move.

While we do believe the electric vehicle market is important, we think the auto makers are missing the point as to why Tesla has such a high valuation. When you buy a Tesla, you are not just buying a car, you are buying a technology company and you are buying a piece of Elon Musk’s dream (which includes SpaceX and the Boring Company and more). Tesla has been known to embrace its stans and critics: earlier this year the company sold short shorts in honor of its short sellers, and not to be outdone, there is even a dating app to match Tesla owners. We are not so sure the same mystique surrounds a Chevy Volt.

Clean your Plate: China started a campaign against food waste following the trade war with the US, the pandemic and flooding in its agricultural regions. While food shortages are a concern, the government has started to crack down on food influencers who broadcast themselves overeating (this trend is similar to ASMR, and we don’t get it, but then again, someone went viral for staring into space for 2 hours, so we are out of touch.) President Xi has asked China to “maintain a sense of crisis about food security,” and popular apps have added warnings to food videos asking users to eat properly and refuse to waste.

Watch your Decimals: Citigroup mistakenly paid $900M (as opposed to $9M) to creditors of Revlon. The bank is suing the hedge funds to return the money claiming that the payment was made in error. The creditors claim it is their money, a portion of the restructuring of Revlon’s debt. Note to self: check your venmo balance.

Easter Eggs: One of the fun things about the virtual Democratic Convention is the placement of Easter Eggs (hidden messages) in the backgrounds. Elizabeth Warren was speaking from a school room and she used the props masterfully: BLM in block letters, a post office worker's uniform hanging in the background and more.

Hangover Cure: Researchers in Finland have tested a hangover cure that they believe reduces the effects of a hangover. The double-blind study also claims that the cure “reduces the need of drinking the next day,” potentially reducing alcohol addiction. As the study was performed on only 19 male Finns, we’ll stick to our Gatorade and egg sandwiches for now.

COVID Unintended Consequences

California Wildfires: You may have heard that California is yet again on fire (this year most of the fires have been caused by lightning strikes as opposed to malfunctioning electric wires). However, you may not have heard that the reason California is having trouble containing the fires is that it lacks the manpower. Normally, California “employs” its prison population as firefighters, but due to COVID almost all of its prisoners are on lockdown. (12 of the 43 state inmate crews are on lockdown, and the state has a total of 2200 certified inmate firefighters.)

Power Shutdown: Los Angeles Mayor Garcetti wasn’t playing around when he threatened to turn off power to homes throwing large parties. This week, Los Angeles did just that: killing the power at the rented home of a TikTok influencer. “The house has turned into a nightclub in the hills,” despite regulations regarding crowd size due to the Los Angeles lockdown. No word on whether the influencer has a generator or will just move to his home in the Valley. We’ll expect to see lockdown-blackout dances trending shortly.

Airbnb is taking action when it comes to parties too. The company is instituting a global ban on parties at its properties. (73% of listings already explicitly ban them.) Airbnb is about to go public, and has confidentially filed for an IPO, so we suspect they are getting more adult ahead of their debut.

Blackberry is Back: With the majority of the planet refraining from travel, the cameras on our phones have become less consequential. (No need to take that selfie in your pajamas on the couch for the 100th day in a row.) Blackberry decided since we are all working from home and with the launch of 5G, why not release a new phone. The phone will have the standard full keyboard and is expected to launch in early 2021.

UK Students in an Uproar: Because of the pandemic, 280,000 UK students were unable to take their A-levels (this is basically the equivalent of a huge final exam at the end of high school, like the SAT, and it determines which university they will attend). The government decided to use an algorithm to generate test results instead, and we know how that goes. The algorithm was overwhelmingly biased against low income students, (40% of students received lower results than expected) and the students revolted. Instead the government will allow teachers to assign grades to their students.

Protest Art

Belarus Balls: You may have seen Bansky’s paintings honoring frontline health workers or the Trump baby blimp. But artist Alexander Ivanov has taken protest art to a new level: the work which we think is entitled “they are coming for you Lukashenko” includes massive inflatable balls with Lukashenko’s likeness (the embattled president of Belarus) bouncing down city streets. We’re not sure if the president has seen them, but the protests seem to be working — even the EU is throwing its support behind them.

Tokyo Toilets: The Nippon Foundation is launching several new public restrooms around Tokyo. The catch: the toilets have transparent walls (although they become opaque when you lock the door). The transparency is meant to heighten the cleanliness of the public restrooms, and remove that awkward moment when you don’t know if someone is actually inside. The toilets are also being designed to showcase inclusion and diversity, allowing anyone to use them regardless of age, gender or disability.

Tune Squad: LeBron James released a sneak peek of the uniform he’ll be wearing in the sequel to Space Jam. The film is set to be released next summer (an update to the 1996 film starring Bugs Bunny and Michael Jordan), but we were hoping for a cameo from Daffy or, even better, Marvin the Martian.

Witches demand inclusivity: A town in the San Francisco area is in the midst of a controversy over the portrayal of witches in the fairy tale, Hansel and Gretel. The real life witch claims that witches are portrayed as evil, child-eating beings, and thus, the book should be banned from schools. We don’t believe in banning books, but hey, the kids did steal the candy…

— Lauren Eve Cantor

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