The Daily Valet. - 1/21/22, Friday

✔️ Well, This Will Be Different

Friday, January 21st Edition

Cory Ohlendorf, Editor in Chief of Valet.

Don’t miss the avalanche dog story referenced below.

Cory Ohlendorf , Editor ⋯ @coryohlendorf

Today’s edition is presented by

Today’s Big Story

An Olympic Broadcast Unlike Any Other

Your favorite announcers will likely not attend Winter Games in Beijing

ESPN has joined the increasing number of media companies that will not be sending reporters to next month’s Beijing Olympics due to continued concerns about rising COVID-19 cases worldwide as well as China’s stringent on-site restrictions.

The news comes a day after rightsholder NBC said it will keep most of its announcing teams in the U.S. during the Games, which are set to run February 4-20.

NBC Sports was slated to send broadcast teams to Beijing to cover figure skating, skiing and snowboarding. The network planned to have the rest of its broadcast teams cover events remotely. The network used a similar strategy during Tokyo’s Summer Games. Play-by-play teams for the most popular sports were sent to the venues in Japan while other announcers called events from America.

It makes one wonder what kind of programming we should expect. I mean, the pageantry of the Olympics being held in far-flung locations is a big part of the allure for viewers. And not having announcers on the scene or local tours of the town could detract from that atmosphere.

These Games are already a bit fraught as the U.S. has declared a diplomatic boycott of the event to protest China’s human rights abuses. Athletes have also been warned about speaking up on human rights issues while in China for their own safety.

Meanwhile, for the journalists who will go (the Associated Press will be sending over 100), they plan to work on brand-new cellphones and laptops. When the Games are over, they’ll simply leave them behind or throw them away like burners. Why? Reporters are concerned that any devices they use there could become infected with tracking software, enabling Chinese authorities to spy on their contents.

↦ Dig Deeper: Longtime Olympic broadcast anchor Bob Costas speaks to National Review about NBC’s billion-dollar Olympics investment.

New Film Studio to Be Built in Space

And Tom Cruise could be filming in it by 2024

On Thursday, Space Entertainment Enterprise said it plans to attach the first-ever space movie studio and sports arena to the International Space Station as early as 2024.

Named SEE-1, the module is intended to host films, television, music and sports events as well as artists, producers and creatives who want to make content in the low orbit, micro-gravity environment. The facilities will enable development, production, recording, broadcasting and livestreaming of content.

According to the company, it will be an inflatable module that will stretch up to 20 feet in diameter. S.E.E. says that it will allow third parties to also use the studio for their own projects. The company will then build out the space station before eventually separating it from the ISS in 2028 and making it a free-flying vehicle.

Deadline reports that S.E.E. also revealed itself to be the production company behind Tom Cruise's mystery space movie. In 2020, NASA announced that it was working with the famous actor to potentially send him to the International Space Station to film a project.

↦ FYI: Axiom Space, who in January 2020 won NASA's approval to build a commercial space station, will undertake the construction of SEE-1.

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Scent Diffuser Uses Speaker Technology

Byredo’s new hifi design can “broadcast” scent throughout your space

The only thing that can trigger memories as easily as a song is a scent ... so it makes sense that the two would eventually cross paths. Byredo has just unveiled an all-new room diffuser that lets you experience its fragrances the same way you would your favorite song.

The Swedish fragrance house teamed up with artisanal audio company OJAS to create a new kind of device to thoroughly scent a room. The experimental gadget uses the principles of speaker design to distribute aromas more efficiently than lighting a candle or unpacking a reed diffuser.

According to Robb Report, it's designed to look just like an industrial loudspeaker and is meant to run for two hours at a time. The shape allows it to utilize acoustic horn loading theories and deliver smells in a direct and controlled manner. (It should also be noted that the diffuser only emits smells, not sounds).

It also comes with 10 capsules—more than enough for a year of use—of an exclusive new Byredo scent, titled the “Olfactive Pyramid.” The fragrance is a spicy, incense-y fragrance meant to evoke the aroma of ancient wood structures. It sounds interesting (no pun intended), but I think I'd miss the flickering flame of a candle.

↦ Get It: The Biradial Controlled Directivity Scent Dispersion Device is available now exclusively from the Byredo website and select flagships.

Savor the Details

It’s time to bring back cocktail hour

There’s something to be said about the ritual and relief of cocktail hour. One of life's simple or even profound pleasures is arriving home from work on a Friday evening and fixing yourself a cocktail.

The virtues of it being Friday evening go without saying, but the payoff of a well-prepared cocktail's first sip is a divine moment. The sip itself is one thing—the destination, if you will—but it's the “well-prepared” part that is the journey, and as we know, the value is nearly always in the journey.

The divinity of that first sip does not come from thin air. It doesn't happen by accident. That moment comes to be only when you have developed a taste for something, and that taste evolves into an appreciation by way of learning and experiencing. That appreciation allows you to distinguish what's worthwhile and what isn't, and this is the root of that single, satisfying moment.

Christopher Doell, our resident cocktail expert, waxes poetic on the joys of fixing yourself a cocktail, slowing down and appreciating what you've got. Dry January be damned.

↦ Read It: Why you should savor the details

In Other News

↦ The Supreme Court for a Third Time Allows Texas to Bar Abortions After 6 Weeks

↦ Netflix’s Price Hike: The Math Behind the Plan

↦ Look at Your Webcam, Not Your Monitor During Zoom Calls and Livestreams If You Don’t Want to Appear Shady

Other Things We’re Talking About Today

This sherpa blanket

Woke M&Ms

Avalanche dogs

Partner

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Expert guidance is the key between good returns and great returns

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What We’re Buying

Nike makes great hoodies. This much we know. But the ACG line is one that not everyone messes with—but maybe everyone should. Their latest was inspired by a trip the design team took to Iceland. The result was a fleece-lined hoodie engineered to help keep you warm and repel water for cool hikes and wintry walks.

↦ Get It: $110 by Nike