The Daily Valet. - 12/8/20, Tuesday

✔️ The New Olympic Sport

December 08, 2020

Tuesday, December 8th Edition

Cory Ohlendorf, Editor in Chief of Valet.

How old is too old to be a competitive break dancer?

Cory Ohlendorf , Editor ⋯ @coryohlendorf

Today's edition is presented by

Today’s Big Story

Break Dancing Will Be an Olympic Sport

It will debut at the 2024 Paris Games

The Olympics are about to get way more fresh, with the International Olympic Committee announcing four new medal-eligible sports will be added to the program: skateboarding, sport climbing, surfing ... and break dancing.

Those first three will actually make their debut at the Tokyo Games—postponed and rescheduled for July 23, 2021. But the IOC will be saving the flipping, freezing and heelspins of breakdancing for the Paris Games in ’24.

The USA Breaking Committee explained to CBS Sports that if they are approved to be included in the Olympics, they would be fully prepared. That preparation has involved creating a rulebook, a uniform way of scoring and making sure all athletes are brought through the system as any Olympic athlete would be.

Breakdancing will be called breaking at the Olympics, as it was in the 1970s by hip-hop pioneers in the United States, reports ESPN. It was proposed by Paris organizers almost two years ago after positive trials at the 2018 Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires. Breaking passed further stages of approval in 2019 from separate decisions by the IOC board and full membership.

According to the Associated Press, the IOC stressed its future priorities for Paris, and beyond to the 2028 Los Angeles Games, by claiming it will hit a long-term target of “equal participation by men and women athletes, and more urbanized events.”

The IOC has said they want to prioritize events that appeal to younger viewers. Breaking could definitely be one of those. Now my question is ... what music do you think we’re going to hear?

↦ FYI: In Paris, breaking has been given a prestige downtown venue, joining sport climbing and 3-on-3 basketball at Place de le Concorde.

A Vaccine Holdup?

Pfizer tells U.S. officials it cannot supply substantial additional vaccine until this summer

Pfizer has told the White House it won't be able to provide substantial additional doses of its coronavirus vaccine until late June or July because other countries have rushed to buy up most of its supply, reports the Washington Post.

Before the vaccine was proven highly successful in clinical trials, the company offered the Trump administration the chance to lock in supplies beyond the 100 million doses they agreed to sell the government. But the administration never made the deal, which essentially allowed other countries to take its place in line.

That means the U.S. government may not be able to ramp up as rapidly as it had expected, raising questions about whether it can keep to its aggressive schedule to vaccinate most Americans by late spring or early summer. Administration officials denied there would be availability issues in the second quarter, citing other vaccines in the pipeline.

Later today, the president plans to host a White House summit aimed at celebrating the expected approval of the first vaccine later this week. According to the Associated Press, it will focus on the administration's plans to distribute and administer the vaccine, but officials from President-elect Joe Biden's transition team, which will oversee the bulk of the vaccination program once he takes office Jan. 20, were not invited.

↦ Meanwhile: The U.K. is rolling out the first doses of a COVID-19 vaccine in the West as the world watches.

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Last Month Was the Hottest November Ever

It puts 2020 even closer to being the hottest year

The world just experienced its hottest November on record while Europe had its warmest fall, according to an alarming report from the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service.

It's a grim milestone in a year that’s one step closer to surpassing 2016 as the warmest ever in recorded history.

Warm conditions persisted over large swaths of the planet, with temperatures the highest above average across Northern Europe and Siberia, as well as the Arctic Ocean, where sea ice was at the second lowest level ever seen. Much of the United States was warmer than average as well.

And while a climate dynamics scientist told the New York Times there are other elements that affect climate—from natural oscillations of wind to air pressure and ocean temperatures over different time scales—the biggest element, she said, is human-induced climate change.

↦ What can you do? An easy way to bring down your personal carbon footprint? Go meatless for just one meal a week.

Chuck Yeager Has Died

America's greatest pilot, the first to travel faster than the speed of sound, has died at age 97

One of the world's most famous aviators has died: Chuck Yeager—best known as the first to break the sound barrier—passed on Monday at the age of 97.

According to NPR, Yeager started from humble beginnings in West Virginia, and many people didn't really learn about him until decades after he broke the sound barrier—all because of a book and a popular 1983 movie called The Right Stuff.

That feat was accomplished in 1947, when the brash 24-year-old test pilot pushed his Bell X-1 rocketplane—named “Glamorous Glennis” after his first wife—and flew faster than the speed of sound above Southern California.

The pilot later commanded fighter squadrons in Germany and Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War and was promoted to brigadier general in 1969. Later in life, the folksy, hard-living daredevil took to Twitter, often sparring with people decades younger on points of history and aviation, and marking memorable moments in his storied life.

↦ Quoted: “If you want to grow old as a pilot, you've got to know when to push it, and when to back off.”

In Other News

Other Things We’re Talking About Today

Layering up for a walk

The GQ Fashion Awards

A ‘Home Alone’ gingerbread house

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