The Daily Valet. - 12/7/20, Monday

✔️ All Eyes on This State

Monday, December 7th Edition

Cory Ohlendorf, Editor in Chief of Valet.

I would gladly volunteer to count koalas in Australia right now.

Cory Ohlendorf , Editor ⋯ @coryohlendorf

Today’s Big Story

All Eyes on Georgia

We’ll all be hearing a lot about it over the next few weeks

Georgia seems to be on everyone’s mind lately and it’ll only intensify in the coming weeks. From recounts and certification to two intense runoff races that will determine control of the Senate, there’s a lot going on.

On Sunday, Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger reiterated that President Donald Trump lost the state in last month’s election. According to ABC News, he said while they have more than 250 investigations underway, so far, his office has yet to find evidence supporting “systemic fraud” that would change the outcome.

Over the weekend, Trump held a rally in Georgia in which he falsely claimed that he had won the state—afterwards he made a phone call to Gov. Brian Kemp, asking him to call a special session of the Republican-controlled legislature so that lawmakers could appoint new electors who might subvert the will of the state’s voters when the Electoral College meets next week.

The president’s baseless claims of fraud dominated a tense debate on Sunday night as Republican senator Kelly Loeffler refused three times to acknowledge Biden’s win during a debate with her Democratic opponent Rev. Raphael Warnock. According to CNN, Loeffler denied any wrongdoing about dumping stocks as the pandemic hit, while Warnock then sidestepped specifics on both packing the Supreme Court and COVID relief costs.

In the other runoff race, incumbent Republican David Perdue faces Democrat Jon Ossoff. On Sunday, Ossoff debated alone next to an empty podium as Perdue declined to partake in the televised debate amid allegations of corruption tied to his stock market trading during the pandemic. Ossoff accused him of not wanting to “incriminate himself.”

According to the Wall Street Journal, Biden’s narrow win in Georgia, the first for a Democratic presidential candidate since 1992, sparked excitement among Democrats and frustration among Republicans. As the Jan. 5 runoffs draw closer, young Georgians on both sides of the aisle are working to mobilize their peers to vote again—many for the first time.

↦ FYI: In a tight general election, none of the candidates in Georgia’s two Senate races reached the 50% threshold to win outright, sending both to a runoff in accordance with state law.

China Plants a Flag on the Moon (Sort of)

They become the second country to fly a flag from the lunar surface

A Chinese spacecraft lifted off from the moon Thursday night with a load of lunar rocks—the first stage of its return to Earth, reports CBS News.

Right before the ascent vehicle lifted off, the lander unfurled what the space administration called the first free-standing Chinese flag on the moon. The agency posted an image (apparently taken from the lander) of the ascend vehicle firing its engines as it took off.

According to Vice, the unmanned lunar lander was fitted with a flag-raising mechanism, and the two-metre-wide, 90-centimetre-tall flag is made from a special fabric that allows it to withstand the extreme lunar temperatures, project leader Li Yunfeng told state-run Chinese newspaper the Global Times. Cheng Chang, another leading member of the developer team, explained that "an ordinary national flag on Earth would not survive the severe lunar environment.”

While China is boosting cooperation with the European Space Agency and others, interactions with NASA are severely limited by U.S. concerns over the secretive nature and close military links of the Chinese program.

↦ FYI: Experts say that the American flags left on the lunar surface have likely been bleached white by the sun's glare.

Australia’s Koala Count

The country is using all sorts of ways to count up their notoriously stealth marsupials

How many koalas do you think are in Australia? Because they country would like to know. But the government’s goal to count the population of the iconic marsupials and record where they live is more daunting than it seems.

After all, they're large, fluffy and mostly immobile since they prefer to sleep—much like my dog—for about 20 hours a day. “It’s the fact that they don’t move much that makes them hard to spot,” Desley Whisson, a wildlife ecologist told the New York Times.

Counts so far have been fairly unreliable, reports the Sydney Morning Herald. That can make it hard to get an accurate picture of how koalas are faring, and to know where intensive conservation effort is needed—especially after devastating events such as last summer’s bushfires.

The methods for counting koalas range from the traditional, such as dogs and people at ground level looking up into the trees, to the high-tech, such as acoustic surveys and heat-seeking drones. And while in 2016, it was estimated that there could be up to 300,000 koalas, conservationists warned that the real number could be as low as 43,000.

↦ Dig Deeper: More than 20 conservation groups have blasted the proposed koala census as a "pointless smokescreen" in an open letter demanding better habitat protection.

Barbers Train to Tackle Mental Health

They’re getting schooled on how to help people who may need it but can’t get help

Here's some good news to start the week. A Chicago barber Lorenzo Lewis has founded a national initiative called the Confess Project, which trains barbers to support the mental health of Black men.

According to WBEZ, the barbers are breaking down the stigma of mental health first, then ultimately, allowing the effectiveness of mental health treatment to do the work.

Nationally, only 4% of psychologists are Black, according to the American Psychological Association's data from 2018. Being able to speak with someone you trust is important. And since you're already trusting your head to your barber, this allows you to open up and speak freely. And if further treatment is needed, they're now trained to refer you to a vetted therapist.

Obari Cartman, the president of the Chicago Association of Black Psychologists, said that 2020 has been especially devastating for communities of color. But supports barbers as respected members of the community making a real difference like this. At a time when so much feels shutdown and closed off, it's inspiring to see stories like this where creative solutions can have big impacts.

↦ FYI: According to the CDC, suicide is the third leading cause of death for Black males under 20 and the fourth leading cause for those between 20 and 44.

In Other News

Other Things We’re Talking About Today

Winter lodges

Cool toys for anyone

Chaotic movie football coaches

Taking Masks to the Next Level

Would you wear this Daft Punk-themed option?

No, this isn't some intense Daft Punk cosplay. It's actually a privacy-protecting N99 face mask. The Blanc mask features an egg-like shape and an opaque black strip for the wearer to peer out of while keeping their identity a secret.

The mask makes a conscious effort to look nothing like traditional PPE, but at the same time it's every bit as protective as they are. According to Hypebeast, two interchangeable HEPA filters certified by SGS are loaded in, and purify 99.7% of dust particles the wearer may come into contact with. The ergonomic design hugs the face tightly, and can be adjusted by an elastic headband that wraps around the wearer’s dome piece.

The air that you exhale passes out through outlets located at the base of the mask, ensuring your visor never gets fogged up. And a wide headband goes around the back of your head, making sure you can wear the mask for hours without feeling any fatigue (especially around the ears, as is the case with most face-masks).

The mask launched on Kickstarter with a funding goal of $20K, an amount that was quickly raised and at the time of writing has almost been supplied tenfold — it’s currently sitting at over $215,000. So if you want to get your hands on one early, you'll need to fork over some cash and reserve it.

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