The Daily Valet. - 1/6/22, Thursday

✔️ Here We Are ...

January 06, 2022

Thursday, January 6th Edition

Cory Ohlendorf, Editor in Chief of Valet.

Let’s be kind to one another today, okay?

Cory Ohlendorf , Editor ⋯ @coryohlendorf

Today’s Big Story

One Year Later

What does the day mean for the country and where do we go from here?

By now, the date is lodged into the country’s collective memory: January 6, 2021, when what started as a rally for an outgoing president turned into a violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Today, the country will remember that horror with speeches, prayers and candlelight vigils.

But as the Washington Post’s Robin Givhan puts it, “a day that should be one of unifying commemoration promises to be one in which the country remains at odds over precisely what happened and what it means to be American.”

According to the Associated Press, the events of January 6th only seem to have pushed lawmakers further apart. Where they stand on remembrance can be largely attributed to their political party—a jarring discord that shows the country’s lawmakers remain strikingly at odds over how to unify a torn nation.

What we know for sure is that in the months since the deadliest domestic attack on Congress in the nation’s history, federal prosecutors have charged more than 700 people, with new criminal cases being introduced every week.

In a speech on Wednesday, Attorney General Merrick Garland pushed back on criticism that the Justice Department’s probe has not been aggressive enough, while signaling that no one would be off limits as prosecutors “followed the facts.”

Unlike past national traumas—including the 2001 terror attacks—the country has emerged from Jan. 6 without an agreed upon road map for what comes next. “The rituals of commemoration should offer collective catharsis ... a balm to the body politic,” writes Givhan. “But when the pain comes from within, everything becomes more complicated.”

↦ Silver Lining: I loved the quiet leadership exemplified by Rep. Andy Kim, who was photographed clearing debris from the Capitol rotunda the next morning. NBC News checks in with him a year later.

Djokovic Denied

After outrage over his surprising medical exemption, he was denied entry into Australia

Well this was a weird story that got even stranger. News that the world's top-ranked men's tennis player had been granted a mysterious medical exemption to compete in the Australian Open despite his vocal unvaccinated status was met with outrage earlier in the week.

But on Wednesday, Djokovic's chance to play for a 10th Australian Open title was thrown into limbo when the country denied him entry at the airport. After eight hours of questioning, the Australian Border Force determined that Djokovic did not have adequate evidence to enter.

The decision spares Prime Minister Scott Morrison the headache of weeks of negative publicity around the tennis star, who provoked widespread outrage when he was allowed into the tournament despite not receiving his COVID shots. In a tweet, Morrison said that “rules are rules, especially when it comes to our borders.”

Reuters reports that Djokovic is filing an injunction to prevent the deportation, but it's unlikely to succeed. He seems to have the Serbian government on his side though— even before his visa was canceled, the situation had become something of a minor international incident.

↦ Meanwhile: Kyrie Irving, the star Nets guard, made his regular-season debut against the Indiana Pacers last night (since he can play outside of New York without a vaccine).

CDC Signs Off on Boosters for Kids

5 million children are immediately eligible

The CDC announced Wednesday hat adolescents age 12-17 should receive a a Pfizer-BioNTech booster shot five months after their initial series of immunizations. The move comes days after the FDA expanded its authorization of boosters to allow adolescents to receive the third shots.

“It is critical that we protect our children and teens from COVID-19 infection and the complications of severe disease,” CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said in a statement. “This booster dose will provide optimized protection against COVID-19 and the Omicron variant.”

Obviously, the Omicron variant is surging and it's throwing in-person learning into jeopardy. Children generally experience severe illness from Covid less often than adults, but kids are now being hospitalized with the disease at record numbers as the new variant spreads, reports NBC News.

↦ FYI: While 62% of the total U.S. population is fully vaccinated, only 34.9% has received a booster shot, according to CDC data.

BMW Created a Color-Changing Car

Can’t decide what color of car to buy? One day you won’t have to.

In a debut straight out of a futuristic movie, BMW demonstrated an entirely new technology at CES on Wednesday: a vehicle with an exterior that can change colors.

Apparently, the color-swapping car shares more in common with a Kindle than you'd think at first glance. The surface coating of the BMW iX Flow utilizes E Ink (the electronic paper technology used in e-readers). Tiny microcapsules, with a diameter equivalent to the thickness of a human hair, contain negatively charged white pigments and positively charged black pigments.

It's a neat trick, but Gizmodo points out that it's a practical way to improve efficiency. On a hot day, the car's finish can be flipped to white to reflect UV rays and help keep the interior cooler with less demand on the AC, while in the cold winter, flipping it to black would have the opposite effect, absorbing heat from the sun.

And surprisingly, E Ink tech itself is extremely energy efficient. Unlike displays or projectors, the electrophoretic technology needs absolutely no energy to keep the chosen color state constant, reports Designboom. Current only flows during the short color changing phase.

↦ Watch: Want to see the color change in action? Of course you do.

In Other News

↦ Venmo, PayPal and Cash App Will Now Have to Report Transactions Totaling More Than $600 to the IRS

↦ KFC’s New Menu Item Tastes Like Chicken (But Isn’t)

↦ Grammy Awards Postponed Due to Omicron Variant

Other Things We’re Talking About Today

Shopping in the Metaverse

Popcorn Time

These comfortable KN95 masks

Reframe Negative Thoughts

Don’t psyche yourself out of your own success

There’s a lot to be anxious about these days. A global pandemic, economic uncertainty and politics. Not to mention old favorites like social media and imposter syndrome.

We're all scrambling to deal with it in the best we can, but there's a lot we can't control right now. Our reactions, however, are under our control. And that's something worth focusing on. Because all that bullshit out in the world—which we so often willingly bring into our lives via our trusty phones—can really amplify our inner demons and critical voices.

These thoughts have an official name: cognitive distortions, and they're perfectly normal. But there are tactics experts suggest to reframe negative thoughts that will help ease your mind and steer you through it. We asked some docs for proven options to try right now.

↦ Read: Reframe your negative thoughts

What We’re Wearing

To loosely paraphrase Deion Sanders, “If you look good, you feel good, and if you feel good, you play good.” This is true in any environment; you should always dress for the job you want and not the job you have, right? Why not use this same logic for workout attire?

↦ Get the Look: Our gym kit