The Daily Valet. - 12/9/20, Wednesday

✔️ The Virus vs The Vaccine

Wednesday, December 9th Edition

Cory Ohlendorf, Editor in Chief of Valet.

I love my AirPods Pro earbuds. But now I’m rethinking things.

Cory Ohlendorf , Editor ⋯ @coryohlendorf

Today’s Big Story

Tackling the Virus and the Vaccines

In competing events, Trump and Biden offer conflicting messages

The U.S. is averaging 200,000 new COVID-19 cases a day for the first time, and deaths have soared to more than 2,200 a day on average—matching the peak reached last April. So far, there have been nearly 15 million confirmed cases with more than 280,000 deaths across the nation.

Virtually every state is reporting surges just as a vaccine gets ready to rollout in America. The FDA ruled Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate “met the prescribed success criteria,” sparking optimism that the agency will will grant an emergency use authorization on Thursday.

Meanwhile, the makers of the vaccines along with the nation’s top infectious-disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, were notable no-shows at President Trump’s coronavirus vaccine summit at the White House on Tuesday, reports the Washington Post. At the same time, President-elect Joe Biden introduced his health care team and COVID plan during a digital event.

The competing scenes offered contrasting messages about the state of the pandemic, no doubt further muddying the public perception of what we have ahead of us.

Trump touted the vaccine’s imminent distribution, saying it will “quickly and dramatically reduce deaths and hospitalizations. And within a short period of time, I think we want to get back to normal.”

Biden’s event had a more somber tone, but hinted toward a stronger, more organized federal role against the virus. He laid out three pandemic priorities for his first 100 days in office: a call for all Americans to voluntarily mask up, a commitment to administer 100 million vaccines, and a pledge to attempt to reopen a majority of the nation’s schools.

↦ FYI: If the FDA grants authorization, the White House has promised to get vaccines to all 50 states, the District of Columbia and five U.S. territories within 24 hours of the decision.

House Passes Defense Bill Despite Veto Threat

It far exceeds two-thirds majority needed to override a veto threatened by President Trump

The Democratic-controlled House on Tuesday approved a wide-ranging defense policy bill, defying a veto threat from President Trump and setting up a possible showdown with the Republican president in the waning days of his administration.

Trump tweeted that he'll veto “the very weak National Defense Authorization Act,” unless it repeals a part of the communications code that shields Twitter, Facebook and other social media companies from content liability. Trump also wants Congress to strip out a provision in the bill that allows for the renaming of military bases that currently honor Confederate leaders.

Dozens of Republican lawmakers earlier in the day had lined up behind the president to vote against the bill, which secures hazard-pay raises for troops and other crucial military spending items. But their opposition wasn't enough to thwart the passage of an annual bill that Congress has approved on a bipartisan basis for 59 years in a row.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the 335-78 vote was an even larger margin than an earlier House version passed in July: “This week's vote was a rebuke to an embattled president who sought to force major changes in the legislation after the two parties in both chambers of Congress had agreed on compromise language.”

↦ Meanwhile: The White House has proposed a dramatically lower unemployment benefit in exchange for a $600 stimulus check.

Did You See the New AirPods Max?

What you need to know about Apple’s first over-ear headphones

On Tuesday, Apple announced its first pair of over-ear headphones. Dubbed AirPods Max, they're designed to deliver all the best features of the little white earbuds—high-fidelity audio, active noise cancellation, Adaptive EQ, transparency mode, spatial audio—with a comfortable over-ear design, reports Gear Patrol.

And like so many Apple launches, there was delight at the look and features, but it was the price that got people talking. These will run you $549. The cost is at least in part due to Apple's design chops, which are on full display here. The AirPods Max have ear cups that resemble the rounded curves of the Apple Watch, with acoustically engineered memory foam to mold around your ear.

The unique headband is made of stainless steel and a “canopy” of breathable knit mesh fabric. It looks a bit like a modern office chair, but it's engineered to evenly distribute weight and reduce on-head pressure.

But if you're hoping to give (or get) them as a gift, be warned: they likely won't arrive in time for the holiday season. While they're available for pre-order and being released next week, TIME reported wait times of 12 to 14 weeks for all five color options.

↦ FYI: Apple's new online fitness service, Apple Fitness+, debuts on Monday, Dec. 14.

Behold: These Highly-Detailed Snowflakes

A seasonal blending of science and art

Every time I catch a snowflake up close in real life, I'm surprised that they actually, you know, look like snowflakes. We see so many artificial and perfected versions of things these day, but snowflakes are genuinely perfect, icy hexagonal crystals.

Former Microsoft chief technology officer Nathan Myhrvold spent a year and a half building a custom 100-megapixel carbon-fiber super-cooled sapphire-lensed LED-lit super camera ... just to take pictures of snowflakes, reports Forbes. The result? The highest resolution photos ever taken of snowflakes.

They're definitely more detailed than the first photographs of the flakes, taken under a microscope by a self-educated Vermont farmer and published in National Geographic back in 1923.

I've had snowflakes on the brain ever since I learned earlier this week that the snowy Winter Edition of Field Notes actually features a unique snowflake on each of its 99,999 covers. Pretty wild, right?

In Other News

Other Things We’re Talking About Today

2020’s wildest news bloopers

‘Halo Infinite’

The Simpsons and Santa Claus

This Is How You Reboot a Show

When the pop-culture landscape is oversaturated with old intellectual property

New streaming service Peacock has made a reboot of Saved By The Bell, which aired Saturday mornings from 1989 to 1993. And then went on to live in rerun perpetuity all through my adolescence.

With a mix of the old cast — including Mario Lopez as Slater and Elizabeth Berkley as Jessie — and new students at Bayside High, the show walks a fine line between earnestness and self-parody, according to NPR.

But here's the secret: This retooled version was developed by Tracey Wigfield, a former 30 Rock producer. According to The Ringer, this is how you reboot a show in 2020. Because while it may look and sound like, well, Saved by the Bell, it feels and acts like an extension of something sharper.

Which means that even if we don't watch this particular show, it could successfully lay the groundwork for how to update reboots in the future.

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