December 23, 2020

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

Some Random Tidbits for the Week

Catfishing a Spy: Alexei Navalny, the Russian opposition leader, was able to dupe one of the Russian agents involved in his poisoning into telling him the entire story behind the operation. Navalny disguised his phone number and told the elite toxin team agent that he was calling from the FSB for a debriefing. The agent disclosed that Navalny had been poisoned through his boxer shorts and that he had been tailed and surveilled for three years by a variety of different agents. It now appears likely the poison was administered in the form of a spray or an ointment, either via the hotel’s laundry service or by FSB officers sneaking into Navalny’s hotel room. Putin essentially confirmed that FSB agents tailed Navalny but said if Russia had wanted him dead, "they would've probably finished it."

Landmark Ruling: Air pollution has been listed as the cause of death for a nine-year old girl who died after an asthma attack in London. Her medical cause of death was listed as acute respiratory failure, severe asthma and air pollution exposure. The coroner's conclusion was that Ella "died of asthma contributed to by exposure to excessive air pollution." London Mayor Sadiq Khan called it a "landmark moment" and he stated that "toxic air pollution is a public health crisis, especially for our children." 

Cold Distribution: One of the biggest issues for the Pfizer vaccine is its need to be stored at extremely low temperatures. The vaccine, however, is not the first product to be transported across the country using dry ice and cold storage: Dippin’ Dots (the so-called “ice cream of the future”) is stored at -49°F, and prior to the pandemic, was transported from its distribution center in California to stadiums and fairs all across the country. (Dippin’ Dots packs dry ice around and on top of its disposable containers, and can go through 14 semi-trailer trucks of dry ice a week in their typical summer peak.) Vaccine distributors have even reached out to the company about renting its freezer equipment. The sound of the neighborhood ice cream truck jingle may take on a whole new meaning.

The Women of Paris: The city of Paris has been fined €90,000 for appointing too many women to senior positions in the government. In 2018, 11 women and five men became senior officials. That meant 69% of the appointments were women — in violation of a rule that dictated at least 40% of government positions should go to people of each gender. Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo called the fine “absurd” but also said that she is “going to rejoice that we have been sentenced to a fine.” Ms. Hidalgo, who was elected in 2014, is the first woman to lead the city’s government, and she has worked hard to address longstanding imbalances in who represents the interests of Parisians.

Augmented Soldiers: Not to be outdone by the women of Paris, the French armed forces now have permission to develop "augmented soldiers" following a report from a military ethics committee. The report considers medical treatments, prosthetics and implants that improve "physical, cognitive, perceptive and psychological capacities," and could allow for location tracking or connectivity with weapons systems and other soldiers. We’d vote for equal pay before augmentation, but Wonder Woman in Paris has a nice ring to it.

Negro League: Major League Baseball finally announced that it would recognize more than 3,000 players who played in the Negro Leagues between 1920 and 1948 as major leaguers, which means the statistics of these Negro Leagues players will be part of the official history and record books of the game. At the time of the segregation, some white baseball officials claimed African Americans were not good enough to play on MLB teams. The Sporting News wrote in 1946 there was “not a single Negro player with major league capabilities.” Once they got a chance, however, many Negro Leaguers became MLB stars. In the 11 seasons from 1949 to 1960, nine of the players named as the Most Valuable Player in the National League were former Negro Leagues players, including such Hall of Famers as Jackie Robinson, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron and Ernie Banks.

Coronavirus at the outer limits: The Chilean army has reported 36 cases of COVID at its Antarctic research station. The cases apparently stemmed from a Navy supply ship which recently confirmed three cases, and had brought personnel and supplies to the research base. It’s everywhere.

Buried in the COVID Relief Bill: While the as-yet-unsigned COVID relief package (passed by Congress and threatened by President Trump) has some Easter eggs buried in it for the rich (including tax breaks for 3-martini lunches and race car tracks), there are also some not-so-controversial provisions. The Smithsonian will be able to open museums for both the American Woman and Latino; there is a provision to eradicate the murder hornet and one to crack down on the online sale of e-cigarettes to minors; the bill even creates an independent commission to oversee horse racing. The 5,593 page document (which was effectively drafted and signed within hours) even includes a statement regarding the successor to the Dalai Lama, a tax incentive for wind and solar energy, and it makes illegal streaming a felony. We suspect this compilation of favors and legislation is what you get when you leave everything to the last minute — which is apparently just how McConnell likes it.

NYSE Shakes up the IPO: The Securities and Exchange Commission announced that it had approved an NYSE Group Inc. plan for primary direct listings, which allows companies to raise funds without paying fees to Wall Street underwriters. Direct-listing IPOs have been limited to date, as they’ve mostly been used by businesses that wanted to create liquidity events for early investors or management to cash out by selling stock, as opposed to issuing new shares that attract billions in fresh money. This new ruling may help to remove the initial market pricing pop seen on recent IPOs (which is either great PR, or leaves money on the table), and may also allow more retail investors into the IPO market (or at least remove the exclusivity from Wall Street’s favored institutional investors).

The Pharma Bro: The old adage that women prefer bad boys rings quite true in the story of Bloomberg News reporter Christie Smythe giving up her career and her marriage for a now-scuttled relationship with reviled hedge-funder Martin Shkreli, who is serving a seven-year sentence in federal prison for fraud.  As the internet pointed out, the best pull quote of the story: “She asked if she could kiss him, and he said yes. The room smelled of chicken wings, she remembers.” And it only gets weirder.

Soul Cycle Exposed: We used to love Soul Cycle, but we always knew it was somewhat of a cult. The recent exposes about the company have only confirmed what the rich and famous did to boutique fitness. Apparently not only did the pandemic hasten the company’s decline, but its own instructors and its acquisition by Equinox (who attempted to scale exclusivity) did. Half of the fun of attending a Soul Cycle class was often the instructor drama, we just didn’t know how deep it ran.

Crickets as Seasoning: A Tokyo-based insect restaurant (who knew, there was such a thing) has started to sell cricket soy sauce and bug-based miso seasoning. A 100-milliliter bottle of the soy sauce uses 480 crickets and carries a price tag of 1,640 yen ($15.67) after tax. It is relatively expensive because crickets are 10 to 20 times more costly than soybeans. If you happen to visit Tokyo, stop in at Antcicada and try their famous cricket ramen.

Social Distancing Sweater: Home security company SimpliSafe has released their own version of the ugly Christmas sweater, and they have added some COVID functionality. The Social Distancing Sweater has an alarm and flashing lights that go off when someone steps within six feet of the wearer. “As the experts on protection, albeit home protection, we wanted to give people a playful way to protect themselves during this year’s holiday celebrations,” SimpliSafe creative director Wade Devers said. “It’s really meant to bring some lightheartedness to a time that’s otherwise proven very stressful.”

— Lauren Eve Cantor

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