The Daily Valet. - 2/22/21, Monday

✔️ This Is Big, Really Big.

Monday, February 22nd Edition

Cory Ohlendorf, Editor in Chief of Valet.

I always book a window seat, but maybe the view isn’t all it’s cracked up to be ...

Cory Ohlendorf , Editor ⋯ @coryohlendorf

Today’s Big Story

500,000 Dead

No other country has counted so many deaths during the pandemic

A year ago, COVID-19 had killed just a handful of people in the United States. Late Sunday, the death toll teetered at or near 500,000, according to various counters.

The grim half-a-million mark comes at a complicated time during the pandemic. We’ve lost 100,000 lives to the virus since January 19. And while the U.S. represents just 5% of the world’s population, we still make up a little over 20% of the global COVID death toll. But daily cases continue to drop dramatically and hospitalizations are almost half of what they were at their peak in early January.

Plus, vaccinations keep rolling along. The United States has now vaccinated over 60% of those older than 75, and close to half of those between 65 and 74—that will help to keep cases and hospitalizations down for the long run. And the CDC reports that over 61 million shots have now been given out, with close to 5.47% of the nation fully vaccinated.

Still, it may be months before the pandemic is fully contained. Dr. Anthony Fauci on Sunday warned Americans to “steel themselves against a sense of COVID-19 complacency” even as coronavirus infections plummet and some scientists predict that herd immunity is just around the corner.

The death toll is still hard to grasp. It now equals the size of a major city, more than the population of Kansas City, Mo., and nearly as many as Atlanta or Sacramento. The Washington Post attempted to capture the enormity of half a million people, gone—and the visuals, honestly, are shocking.

This evening, President Joe Biden will hold a moment of silence and candle lighting ceremony at sundown in the South Portico of the White House for the Americans we’ve lost from the coronavirus.

↦ FYI: Clorox is making 1.5 million canisters of disinfecting wipes per day to meet the current demand.

Boeing Suspends 777s After Engine Failure

Why do these engines keep exploding?

Boeing suspended operations for more than 100 of its aircraft Sunday after an engine on a United Airlines flight from Denver caught fire and fell apart—scattering debris in a Colorado neighborhood before making an emergency landing. Did you see the photos?

The suspensions apply to the Boeing 777 jet, powered by Pratt & Whitney 4000-112 engines, according to NBC News. The company said 69 of the aircraft were currently in use, with 59 more in storage. According to the National Transportation Safety Board's ongoing investigation, two fan blades on the plane's engine had developed fractures.

The Federal Aviation Administration FAA Administrator Steve Dickson said in a statement Sunday that based on an initial review of safety data, inspectors “concluded that the inspection interval should be stepped up for the hollow fan blades that are unique to this model of engine, used solely on these airplanes.”

The Intelligencer points out that the engines on these older Boeing 777 airliners are “blowing up with worrisome frequency.” And that there's got to be a better way to catch these dangerous flaws before they turn into disasters. Travelers are eager to get back to flying in The After, but we want to know it's safe when we board.

↦ Meanwhile: Amazon Air's recent plane-buying spree could put 95% of Americans in one-day shipping range, reports Insider.

Talk of Guaranteed Income Is Back

The last time the idea was seriously talked about, it was because of Martin Luther King Jr.

You’ve likely heard of universal basic income. It was a cornerstone of Andrew Yang's 2020 presidential campaign. But are you familiar with a guaranteed income? The concepts are related, but not identical.

While universal income provides equal and unrestricted cash payments to every resident, guaranteed income argues for providing cash payments to specific, targeted communities of people with the express goal of addressing income inequality. Guaranteed income is intended to supplement incomes so that everyone could live at a middle-class standard.

Now, in the middle of a financially crippling crisis, people who had very little before the pandemic likely have even less. Several groups, from the Magnolia Mother’s Trust to Mayors for a Guaranteed Income, are distributing payments and advocating for a greater adoption of the theory.

And while it's being talked about more these days, the concept has been around for some time. In fact, in his Nobel Lecture in 1964, Martin Luther King Jr. said “There is nothing new about poverty. What is new, however, is that we have the resources to get rid of it.”

The Louvre Takes Advantage of the Quiet

With no crowds, the world’s most popular museum gets rare chance to refurbish

Why it's almost enough to make the 518-year-old Mona Lisa crack a real smile. Closure of the Louvre because of the pandemic has put a pause on the constant stream of camera-weilding visitors.

“The Louvre is still living, even though it seems really asleep from the outside,” a project manager tells CNN. That's because since its closure in October (in line with the French government's virus containment measures), the staff has used it as an opportunity to clean sculptures, organize artifacts and inventories, as well as undertake long-overdue restorations

In total, ten large-scale projects that were on hold since last March are under way—and progressing fast, reports the Associated Press. The Louvre ground to a halt when it was first shut down in March. But this time, 250 employees are operational.

“When the museum reopens, everything will be perfect for its visitors — this Sleeping Beauty will have had the time to powder her nose,” said Elisabeth Antoine-Konig, Artifacts Department Curator. “Visitors will be happy to see again these now well-lit rooms with polished floors and remodeled display cases.”

↦ FYI: Those who cannot wait are still able to see the Louvre's collection of art in virtual tours online.

In Other News

Other Things We’re Talking About Today

Kim and Kanye

What we want right now

The benefits of staying present

Japan Upgrades Touchless Controls

The hologram-like controls are tailored made for our current situation

Could Japanese toilets become even smarter? Easier to use? Just plain cool? Apparently, yes. According to several reports, Japan is developing new high-tech toilets with touchless controls.

Focusing on minimizing the spread of germs and bacteria through touch, a major automotive parts manufacturer specializing in rear-view mirrors, has partnered with Kyoto-based startup Parity Innovation to advance past traditional push-button control panels.

Called floating pictogram technology, this technology replaces the panel of buttons with a virtual one that appears like a hologram. According to Designboom, this allows users to operate the toilet through floating images generated by an infrared sensor that can detect a human finger coming close to it. That means that there is no need to touch any surface, making it even more hygienic than before.

The technology, which has been envisioned first on toilets, would have a wide range of uses—from elevators to credit card machines and ATMs. It's the perfect non-contact alternative to our current times where germs and potentially dangerous viruses spread via touch.

What We’re Buying

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