The Daily Valet. - 8/15/23, Tuesday
✔️ Another One
Tuesday, August 15th Edition
By Cory Ohlendorf, Valet. Editor
I'm no wine snob ... feel free to send a box my way.
Today’s Big Story
Trump Charged in GA Election Probe
This is his fourth indictment, but this could be the first trial that’s televised
It's a news alert that's almost become routine: Another grand jury, another indictment for the former president. For the fourth time in as many months, Donald Trump was charged on Monday for serious crimes—this time it was for his role in the failed efforts to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia. An Atlanta grand jury indicted Trump, along with 18 others (including his lawyer Rudy Giuliani and former chief of staff Mark Meadows) of orchestrating a “criminal enterprise” to reverse the results of the election in the state. The 41 felony counts in the 98-page indictment include racketeering charges, conspiracy to commit forgery and perjury.Trump has been charged with 13 counts himself, including soliciting the then-Georgia House Speaker David Ralston and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to break their oaths of office with regard to overturning the election. But of course, a lot of this sounds familiar. Trump has already pleaded not guilty to state charges in a hush-money case, federal charges in a classified documents case and federal charges in a Jan. 6 case. And the churn of legal troubles hasn't hurt his poll numbers—he continues to lead across nearly every category and region for GOP voters.Meanwhile, Trump has long decried the Georgia investigation as a “political witch hunt,” defending his calls to Raffensperger and others as “perfect.” Ahead of Monday's indictment, Trump's Georgia-based legal team had filed legal challenges seeking to disqualify prosecutor Fani Willis and block the investigation. But that isn't likely. The accused have until August 25th to turn themselves in and unlike the other indictments, the public could be able to watch Trump's potential arraignment on TV—as well as an entire potential criminal trial. According to Axios, Georgia requires that cameras be allowed during judicial proceedings.At the heart of the indictment are racketeering charges under the state Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, originally designed to dismantle organized crime groups. Prosecutors describe the “criminal enterprise” as one that operated not only in Georgia, but also in other states, including Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, and in the District of Columbia. It makes you wonder ... could additional charges from additional states be on the horizon?
Dig Deeper:
Listen to the recording of Trump's call with the Georgia secretary of state, telling him “I just want to find 11,780 votes.”
Netflix Is Now Streaming Games
And Your phone is the controller
Netflix is kicking off the first public tests of its cloud-streamed games. The company announced on Monday that select subscribers in Canada and the UK are now able to check out Netflix games streamed to select TVs, connected TV devices, and on the web.To be clear, this is a limited test at the moment, reports Mashable. It's not just limited by region or device, either. Right now, only two games are able to be streamed via Netflix: the indie hit Oxenfree and Molehew's Mining Adventure. On TVs, games will be controllable via a game controller smartphone app that Netflix snuck out into the world recently, so you don't need to go out and buy an Xbox controller or anything like that. PC and Mac users can use a keyboard and mouse for input.But The Verge says it still marks a potentially huge moment for Netflix's gaming ambitions. The company started offering mobile games at no additional cost to subscribers in late 2021, and has proceeded to buy game studios, start new ones, hire some big names in the gaming biz and roll out dozens of games.
FYI:
Netflix's new test conspicuously avoids anything involving traditional game consoles. It does not support Xbox or PlayStation controllers.
Why Does ‘X’ Represent the Unknown?
One of life's mysteries ... From Algebra to X-Mas to Elon Musk
It might one of the least-used letters in the alphabet, but “x” sure is popular. In algebra, the letter is often used to represent an unknown quantity or variable. Similarly, in English, it represents the unknown, as in X-rays, which baffled their discoverer, and Malcolm X, who chose the symbol to represent the forgotten name of his African ancestors. There are the X-Men and the X-Files. But why?This meaning of the letter X traces back to the Arabic word for “thing,” or shayun. In ancient texts, such as Al-Jabr, a manuscript written in Baghdad in 820 A.D. that established the rules of algebra, mathematical variables were called things. (An equation might read “three things equal 15”, for example—the thing being five.)According to The Smithsonian, when Spanish scholars translated the Arabic mathematical treatises, they lacked a letter for the “sh” sound and instead chose the “k” sound. They represented this sound by the Greek letter χ, which later became the Latin x. And while the math history remains a little hazy, there are some instances in which historians do know why X is used. For instance, X-mas as an abbreviation for Christmas definitely comes from the Greek letter “χ.” But there are other cases in which scholars can only guess about the origins of the letter's role, such as the phrase “X marks the spot.” As for Elon Musk's long-standing affinity for the letter, commentators have offered a range of explanations, from his status as a member of Gen X to the letter's historical association with mystery and faith.
This Is the Golden Age of Boxed Wine
Thanks to a new wave of producers, boxed wine has gone from trivial to terrific
Just the phrase “boxed wine” conjures images of bad taste and poor quality, right? Like “cheese spread” or “imitation crab”. But that's really just a bad reputation the wine industry is trying to shake. Next-gen wine producers are now offering very good juice in a large format. “Boxed wine has come a long way from the OG days of Franzia,” one sommelier tells InsideHook. “I like that its packaging can be recycled. Plus, who doesn’t like that volume for the price?”In truth, boxed wines make an enormous amount of sense. The bag-in-box method is a great way to package easygoing wines that are not intended for aging. Plus, it solves a significant environmental problem with glass bottles that are tough to transport and recycle. While the food-grade plastic used inside the box is not recyclable, the benefits of boxes, advocates say, still outweigh the drawbacks.And as the New York Times points out, wine can stay fresh for a month or so. In addition, the standard unit for boxed wine is three liters, the equivalent of four bottles. But the real key to changing consumer perceptions is to fill those boxes with good wine. Sonoma's Ryme Cellars did that, as has Tablas Creek, another California producer in Paso Robles. Even charging upward of $70 for a box, more than twice as much as many other boxed wines, has not deterred customers. So maybe people are coming around.
FYI:
Wine Enthusiast has ranked the best boxed wines, according to industry insiders.
In Other News
As the death toll rises, so do questions about how little warning residents had.
Here’s What to Make of the Hunter Biden Prosecution Debacle and the Appointment of a Special Prosecutor
Have you heard about ...
The Long Read
In a culture devoid of moral education, generations are growing up in a morally inarticulate, self-referential world
Murder rates have been surging, at least until recently. Same with gun sales. Social trust is plummeting. In 2000, two-thirds of American households gave to charity; in 2018, fewer than half did. The words that define our age reek of menace: conspiracy, polarization, mass shootings, trauma, safe spaces.”
- By David Brooks
Read It:
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Shopping
What We’re Buying
Seamless underwear
When was the last time you upgraded your underwear? It's a personal question, I know. And one that most guys don't think about very often. A lot of men end up picking their underwear type during their adolescence and just sticking with it—out of convenience, familiarity or laziness. But have you ever considered that there could be something better out there? Something that suits your needs, provides ultimate comfort and maybe even helps you look better in your clothes?I'm talking about seamless underwear, which is exactly what it sounds like. It's underwear with little to no seams. What's the benefit to cutting out all that stitching? Well, for starters, it's a whole lot more comfortable.
Make the Switch:
Our team of testers put this new underwear to the test. Here's our recommendations.
Morning Motto
Wandering off the path is okay.
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