The Daily Valet. - 2/25/22, Friday

✔️ Are You Watching This?

February 25, 2022

Friday, February 25th Edition

Cory Ohlendorf, Editor in Chief of Valet.

Who’s ready for the weekend?

Cory Ohlendorf , Editor ⋯ @coryohlendorf

Today’s edition is presented by

Today’s Big Story

Explosions In Kyiv

“Putin chose this war, and now he and his country will bear the consequences.” - President Biden

“The whole world is watching” has become something of an activism cliché, but it sure seems like that’s what is happening in Ukraine.

We’re watching Russia’s invasion on traditional outlets like CNN; live streams on Twitch; intensely personal posts from Ukrainians and TikToks from soldiers across the region.

Ukrainian officials on Friday braced for an attack on the capital, Kyiv, as an explosion lit up the night sky on the city’s outskirts and a rocket crashed into a civilian apartment building.

In an address to his country, President Volodymyr Zelensky said that he was “target No. 1” for Russian forces and the country has been left to fight alone by NATO despite appeals for help from the alliance. But he remained defiant and urged Ukrainians to fight on.

Russia plans to “decapitate” Ukrainian leadership and install a new government in the country, a senior Department of Defense official said Thursday, citing Pentagon assessments. The invasion—by air, land and sea—remains in its initial phase, the official said, adding that most Russian troops have yet to enter Ukraine. And we’ve yet to see the full force of their cyber capabilities, which could shut down key infrastructure throughout Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has ordered about 7,000 service members to deploy to Germany in the coming days to help support NATO. And President Biden announced another set of stricter sanctions against Russia, saying in a Thursday that the aggression “cannot go unanswered.” The sanctions, coordinated with European allies (along with Japan and Australia), target Russia’s elites, its largest state-owned banks and companies throughout its economy.

↦ Awkward: Despite the conflict, both NASA and Russia are still working together to keep the International Space Station operational, as they’ve done during past turmoil.

Let’s Talk About Oxytocin

The love hormone could become a drug you take, for better or for worse

When love is in the air, what’s happening in the brain? For many years, biologists would answer, “Oxytocin!” This tiny protein is often called “the love hormone” because it has been implicated in pair-bonding, maternal care and other positive, love-like social behaviors.

In fact, it can even be applied, in carefully calibrated doses, to people who've signed up to have their feelings of love, lust and intimacy tinkered with. An experimental installation in London, dubbed the Incu-Dater, is a life-sized box that calculates a couple's emotional data and prescribes them the dosage of oxytocin needed to boost their feelings towards one another.

Arguably, taking a drug to induce or maintain love is no different to taking an antidepressant, right? Because both supplement neurochemicals that naturally exist in our bodies.

But, according to New Scientist, this new wave raises some ethical questions. It might be fine to decide to take a love drug yourself, because that is your risk, but is it fair when it affects someone else's life? Where there are power imbalances in a relationship, could one party be coerced by the other to take the drug? And what if one of you stops and the other doesn't?

↦ FYI: Men with sex addiction have been found to have higher levels of the oxytocin, a new study has revealed.

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CDC to Relax Mask Guidance

The update comes as COVID cases continue to fall across the country

Here's a little good news to end the week: Federal officials will significantly loosen mask-wearing guidelines today. That means most Americans will no longer be advised to wear masks in indoor public settings.

According to NBC News, COVID case numbers continue to decline across most of the country. The seven-day average of daily new cases is around 75,000, down by 38% from the previous week, citing CDC data.

With our current guidelines, the CDC has recommended that people wear masks indoors in much of the country—despite many states dropping mask rules in recent weeks. The new policy comes as the Biden administration shifts its focus to preventing serious illness and death, rather than all instances of COVID infection, as part of a strategy adjustment for a new “phase” in the response as the virus becomes endemic.

The updated plan, an official told the Wall Street Journal, will include new metrics for when communities should recommend that masks be worn. Levels of transmission in a community—high, medium and low—will be determined by the number of cases, hospitalizations and the number of hospital beds available.

A Weekend Pairing

The French Dispatch + a Saumur Blanc

I love magazines and I really enjoy Wes Anderson's films, so I don't know why I haven't see The French Dispatch yet. But it starts streaming on HBO Max today, so I think this is the weekend to finally enjoy this film, “made up of a dizzying array of whirring intersecting teeny tiny parts.”

Rolling Stone says Anderson throws every trick in his book at this lovingly tribute to The New Yorker magazine. The cast, of course, is pretty legendary too—Bill Murray, Timothée Chalamet, and at least a dozen other stars make up the magazine's staff. The New York Times says the shifts in tone from melancholy to antic are an Anderson signature, heightened here by switches from black-and-white to color, from live action to animation, and from what could be the '30s or '40s to what might be the '60s or '70s. In any case, it sounds like we're in for a treat."

↦ Your Pairing:Sure seems like the film calls for a French wine, right? This rich yet acid-driven full body white promises to satisfy an array of palate preferences. This is one of the best organic wineries in the Loire Valley and the bottle looks rather Anderson-esque.

In Other News

↦ High-End Retailers Are Now Embracing Sexual Wellness

↦ Meet EatOkra, an App Highlighting Black-Owned Restaurants

↦ Sleep, Stress and Happiness All Feel Different After Age 35

Other Things We’re Talking About Today

‘Euphoria’ haircuts

This ’62 FJ40 Land Cruiser

A better MagSafe battery pack

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