The Daily Valet. - 5/20/21, Thursday

✔️ Ready to Watch?

May 20, 2021

Thursday, May 20th Edition

Cory Ohlendorf, Editor in Chief of Valet.

Are you ready to go back to the movies?

Cory Ohlendorf, Editor ⋯ @coryohlendorf

Today’s Big Story

Heading to the Movies?

Cinemas are ready to fill up their seats again. Will audiences follow?

After nearly 15 long and bleak months for the movie theater industry, all five of Hollywood’s major studios (plus their independent subsidiaries and the stand-alone indie labels like A24 and Neon) gathered inside a Los Angeles theater on Wednesday to celebrate—and cheerlead—the return of watching a movie in a dark room with a bunch of strangers.

Like so many businesses, the movie theater industry has been ravaged by the economic effects of the pandemic. Some chains have shut down and others have declared bankruptcy. The CEO of AMC (the world’s largest theater chain), told the New York Times that the chain had been “within months or weeks of running out of cash five different times between April 2020 and January 2021.”

The event on Wednesday was meant to assure people that the troubles are over. That movies are coming back, with a vengeance. The larger message was this: Only movie theaters can provide a collective moviegoing experience, and the film industry at large is ready to provide the kinds of movies that will bring audiences back to it.

As the rest of the country opens up and mask mandates are relaxed, is it time to take a break from streaming? The number of streaming service subscriptions passed 1 billion worldwide for the first time in 2020, thanks to everyone staying home.

Admittedly, if you’ve spent the last year-plus conspicuously avoiding being in a confined indoor space for hours with lots of strangers. It may take a bit to get used to it again. Similarly, little personal tics during the movie—be it snacking, rewinding something you missed or simply using the bathroom—are different once you’re not in control.

But one film reviewer, who caught a screening of A Quiet Place II, said after a few minutes, though, those considerations faded away.“While the outside world wasn't completely forgotten, in terms of getting drawn into the story, it was good enough.”

Israel and Hamas Near Cease-Fire

Political pressure pushes U.S. and Europe to stop Israel-Gaza conflict

A cease-fire in the fighting between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas could come as early as Friday, reports the Wall Street Journal, as pressure mounts from Washington and other foreign capitals to bring an end to airstrikes and rocket fire that have claimed a rising number of civilian casualties.

The White House said President Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “had a detailed discussion on the state of events in Gaza, Israel's progress in degrading the capabilities of Hamas and other terrorist elements, and ongoing diplomatic efforts by regional governments and the United States.”

And in Europe, France and Germany, both strong allies of Israel that had initially held back from pressuring Netanyahu in the early days of the conflict, intensified their push for a cease-fire.

Egyptian officials have made headway in negotiations with Hamas's leadership, and the Israeli military has privately conceded that it is nearing the completion of its objectives. The Biden administration anticipates that a cease-fire could come this week—barring any unforeseen clashes that might topple the fragile discussions, according to a U.S. official.

↦ Photos: Across the U.S., people are protesting the violence in Gaza and Israel.

The Crypto Collapse

Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin all bomb lower ... should you buy now?

It's crypto carnage. A Bitcoin bloodbath. An Ethereum thud. A Dogecoin drop. Okay ... you get the picture.

The dramatic pullback in the flagship cryptocurrency comes as a flurry of negative headlines and catalysts—from Tesla CEO Elon Musk to a new round of regulations by the Chinese government—have hit an asset that's been characterized by extreme volatility since it was created.

The recent slide is a reversal from the dramatic rise that started in the second half of last year. The price of Bitcoin is still up more than 200% since September, reports Forbes. Which is why some are wondering if they should buy on the dip.

According to The Ascent, if you've already done your research and decided you want to buy Bitcoin, now may be a good time. But they remind us that this is not a get-rich-quick scheme and while there's a chance of higher returns, there's also an increased risk. This week shows that Bitcoin can fall by almost 20% in a short space of time.

↦ Dig Deeper: The Financial Times looks into Bitcoin's growing energy problem and how the mining of crypto makes it dirty currency.

Extra Body Parts Could be Coming

Scientists prove we can adapt to an extra thumb in a fascinating experiment

A recent experiment in which people were fitted with a robotic third thumb has demonstrated the brain's remarkable ability to adapt and leverage an entirely new body part, and in ways the researchers are still trying to understand.

According to Gizmodo, it started as a graduate project at the Royal College of Art in London, England, and was done to reframe the traditional view of prosthetics.

The research team trained humans to employ a robotic extra thumb and discovered that they could effectively execute complex and dextrous tasks, including building a tower of blocks, using their double-thumbed hand. As participants continued to train, they remarked on how it increasingly felt like just another part of their body.

What's more, they discovered that the brain evolved extremely quickly in order to adapt to the new thumb. When the participants brains were scanned with an MRI afterwards, the researchers found they had changed. They noted that brain activity patterns amongst fingers became less distinct in the brain sensory motor cortex for the third thumb hand, but not the other.

↦ FYI: The prosthetic dynamically moves like a thumb by using two motors controlled by two pressure sensors retrofitted into your shoes (like a car's gas pedal).

In Other News

↦ House Backs Commission on Jan. 6 Riot Over GOP Objections

↦ Zoom Meetings Can Now Be Automatically Transcribed

↦ These Apps Drain Your Phone's Battery the Most

Other Things We’re Talking About Today

Ford’s new electric pickup

A$AP Rocky

Baseball books

Work From Anywhere ...

The best and worst destinations for expats

If you want to live and work abroad, your best bet is to head to Taiwan, according to the Expat Insider Survey 2021 run by InterNations.

The East Asian country, followed by Mexico, topped a list of 50 countries that are best for expats to live in, while Italy and Kuwait came in at the bottom.

For this year's survey—appropriately named “The Year of Uncertainty”—more than 12,000 expat respondents representing 174 nationalities and 186 countries and territories took part. It takes into account quality of life, cost of living personal finance, working abroad and ease of settling in. Respondents also shared how the pandemic has impacted their expat experience.

If this has you considering a move, check out ScandAsia's list of the pros and cons of becoming an expat in Taiwan.

↦ FYI: The United States ranked 34th out of 59 destinations, but performed decently in categories like Ease of Settling In and Working Abroad … while coming in last in Health & Wellbeing.