October 20, 2020
what we are watching...
empowering you with insights and information from the edge of today’s headlines
International
Thailand Protests: Inspired by the protests in Hong Kong, anti-government protests have been raging across Thailand. The country is run by a military-linked government and a long-standing monarchy, and Thailand traditionally has a taboo against criticizing the monarchy, while the government has a long history of cracking down on political movements. The youth-led protests began this summer, calling for greater democratic freedom in Thailand, reforms to the constitution and the resignation of Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, the general who won disputed elections last year after leading the army in a 2014 coup. Last week, the Thai government issued an emergency decree in an effort to end the protests, but this served only to galvanize the demonstrators, who gathered in the tens of thousands before they were dispersed by water cannons. The protesters are also coordinating on Telegram (and with the movement in Hong Kong) in order to outsmart the authorities.
In August, the protesters sent 10 demands to reform the monarchy. The King was coronated just a year ago, and the media has reported on his lavish lifestyle in Germany. The protesters have even adopted the three finger salute from The Hunger Games to show their solidarity. The State of Emergency is expected to last until November 13. In recent weeks the military-dominated Senate and royalist groups have both attempted to block proposals in parliament to revise the constitution. The groups appear to be at an impasse with little effort at negotiation.
Bolivia: Evo Morales’s leftwing party is celebrating a stunning political comeback after its candidate appeared to trounce rivals in Bolivia’s presidential election. The official results of Sunday’s twice-postponed election had yet to be announced, but exit polls projected that Luis Arce, the candidate for Morales’s Movimiento al Socialismo (Mas), had secured more than 50% of the vote while his closest rival, the centrist former president Carlos Mesa, received about 30%. Morales, Bolivia’s first indigenous president, remains in exile in Argentina after attempting to secure an unprecedented fourth term.
The Con of FoxConn: In 2017, President Trump and Governor Walker of Wisconsin struck a deal with Foxconn, a Taiwanese electronics manufacturer; Trump dubbed the deal the “eighth wonder of the wold.” Foxconn promised to invest $10B and to build a 20 million square foot LCD manufacturing facility with 13,000 jobs and received several billion dollars in tax incentives. Three years later, the factory still does not exist. Racine County bought the land for the facility and gave it to Foxconn for free. Property owners had their land seized by the state, paid for by taxpayers, to make way for Foxconn's facility. Millions more were spent on infrastructure improvements. Since all taxes for the project were eliminated, the tax incentives were essentially cash payments to the company. If everything went perfectly, "the state wouldn’t break even until 2043."
Last year, a Foxconn spokesman said the quiet part out loud: that the company would not be manufacturing anything in Wisconsin; the facility would "consist of research facilities along with packaging and assembly operations." Last month, "Foxconn received a permit to change its intended use from manufacturing to storage." Last week, Wisconsin state officials again denied taxpayer incentives for Foxconn, saying at the end of 2019 the company employed only 281 people. The state maintains no taxpayer incentives will be awarded unless a new contract is negotiated. The current plan calls for 5,200 jobs and a $6B Foxconn investment by the end of the year, which is highly unlikely. For more details on the original deal and how it affected local towns in Wisconsin, have a listen to Reply All’s Negative Mount Pleasant.
V-shaped Recovery: The fabled V-shaped recovery has appeared, and it’s in China. China reported GDP growth of 4.9% in the third quarter. Although the number was on the low end of expectations, China appears to be the only large economy on track to grow this year despite the pandemic. China continues to be the engine for the global supply chain: foreign demand for medical supplies, electronics, and household items have pushed China's share of global exports to a record high.
Reskilling the UK: The UK received some backlash this week after publishing an advertisement promoting its retraining campaign. The ad featured a ballet dancer and the words “Fatima’s next job could be in cyber, she just doesn’t know it yet.” While the ad was meant to focus on the UK’s need to retrain its workers (The Confederation of British Industry stated that 90% of people will need new skills by 2030, costing the government £13B in additional spending.) The ad was a push toward “Rethink. Reskill. Reboot” but was determined to be offensive and crass in light of the massive job losses in the arts due to the pandemic. While the UK is focused on providing cyber skills to its citizens, it might remember that artists/makers/designers have (needed) skills too.
US Immigration: The US Department of Homeland Security has been issuing stealth regulations to restrict access to the US. Yesterday, the DHS proposed massive restrictions for foreign correspondents, limiting their stay in the US from 5 years down to 240 days. In September, the DHS proposed a policy limiting international student visas from several Middle Eastern, Asian, and African countries, and reducing their term to two years. The Trump administration is also using COVID as an excuse to further reduce the annual cap on refugees entering the US: just 15,000 annually vs 18,000 in 2020 and 110,000 during the Obama administration.
Science
Measuring Time: Scientists have measured the shortest interval of time ever recorded, clocking how long it takes a particle of light to cross a single molecule of hydrogen. The ultra-quick journey took 247 zeptoseconds: with a zeptosecond representing a trillionth of a billionth of a second. This is equivalent to the number 1 written behind a decimal point and 20 zeroes. Time already feels like an eternity under COVID, so we’d prefer not to count in zeptos.
Moon Network: NASA has awarded Nokia a contract to build the first 4G cellular network on the Moon, which should roll out in 2022. The collaboration is part of NASA’s Tipping Point program, through which the agency hopes to accelerate the development of space-based technologies through investments with private firms. It awarded Nokia $14.1M for its plan to deploy the first LTE/4G communications system in space, which will be key for NASA's Artemis program and hopes of establishing a sustainable presence on the Moon.
The Case of the Disturbing Twinkie: For eight years, a box of Twinkies sat in Colin Purrington's basement until last week when he finally opened them. Varying levels of mold had developed on the snack cakes, and he eventually sent them to two West Virginia University scientists to study the kind of fungus growing on them. While we all tend to think that Twinkies are immortal and will outlive the apocalypse along with cockroaches, Twinkies actually have a shelf life of 45 days (and apparently they don’t outlive a pandemic). The scientists are still working on identifying the varying levels of fungi and mummification within the aging snack treats.
Culture
End of an Era: If you happen to be a fan of Tab, Coke’s original diet soda (which was launched in 1963), you are out of luck. Tab will be one of the several hundred brands Coca Cola will shutter due to the pandemic. Besides Tab, Coke will retire Odwalla juice, Zico coconut water and Diet Coke Feisty Cherry (not sure we’ll be missing any of them). Despite having less than 1% of the diet soda market share, Coke had kept Tab alive due to its incredibly loyal fanbase. Tab was even featured in the ‘80s Airplane and Back to the Future.
Bringing back an Icon: Atari will be launching its first new hardware in over 20 years, a mini-console called the Atari VCS. The gaming console will have access to over 100 Atari arcade games (the classics like Pong, Asteroids and Centipede). There is a twist: Atari is launching its own cryptocurrency (Atari Tokens) which will be used to pay for in-app purchases and partner games. So far, more than 11,500 people have preordered the new hardware through the crowdfunding site Indiegogo, where Atari ran a campaign for the console and took in more than $3 million.
SNL in the Pandemic: New York State’s guidelines regarding reopening businesses came with an unusual perk for the audience of Saturday Night Live: they were paid to attend. The live studio audience not only didn’t have to pay to watch the show, but they got paid $150 as “cast members.” Television shows in NY were not allowed to host live audiences unless they consist of paid employees, cast and crew. The audience also had been given a rapid virus test and asked to sign health forms indicating that they did not have COVID or symptoms of the disease and had not come into contact with anyone who had it before they were allowed to attend the show. (Guess they had to be paid to laugh at Jim Carey.)
Among AOC: Representative Ocasio-Cortez put out a call on Twitter to get out the vote with her by playing Among Us on Twitch. (Among Us is a multiplayer game where a group of players are dropped onto an alien spaceship. Each player is designated a private role as a “crewmate” or “impostor.” The players must complete tasks and root out the impostors.) The game has become popular due to quarantine and AOC is taking advantage of her gaming skills (she supposedly rocks at League of Legends) and her popularity to enlist Twitch stars to get out her election message.
Male Polish: We noticed an article in the Wall Street Journal discussing male nail polish. We have no objections to the polish or the trend of celebrities using nail polish as a statement piece. We applaud that beauty companies are recognizing that they can and should expand their audiences to include non-traditional targets. We just don’t understand why this article is in the WSJ??
— Lauren Eve Cantor
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