The Unicorns Are Coming
November 30, 2020
The Good News
- Earning a check, mate: ‘It’s electrifying’: chess world hails Queen’s Gambit-fuelled boom (Guardian)
- The young woman who saved millions of lives without knowing (BBC)
- A cool reception: Couple uses catering deposit from canceled wedding to feed 200 people on Thanksgiving (ABC)
“If life were predictable it would cease to be life, and be without flavor.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
“The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.” — Bertrand Russell
“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” ― Thomas A. Edison
The Unicorns Are Coming
(Richard Levine via Getty Images)
2020 has been a crazy year by any standard. And although outgoing President Donald Trump wasn’t accurate when he used to say months ago “we’re turning the corner” on COVID-19, it appears now — with the announcement of vaccines on the way and Joe Biden taking over the reins of government — America’s investors trust the economy is poised to do just that.
First, once the Trump administration started the transition process to a Biden administration last week, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above 30,000 for the first time in history, looking forward to a real economic recovery in 2021. Second? There are more than 500 “unicorns” — over half of which are based in the US — and there’s a stampede a’coming.
Venture capitalist Aileen Lee was the one who first applied the unicorn appellation to certain companies in 2013, when she reported on her analysis of venture-backed software startups that were less than 10 years old and valued at $1 billion or more by the markets, acquirers, or private investors. The term was so apropos because such companies and their valuations were as rare and mythical as unicorns. The main reason for that was a limited pipeline for raising venture capital; investors tended to favor companies founded by male graduates, even former students, at Stanford, Harvard, UC Berkeley, and MIT, perhaps with a co-founder who had already founded a company, in some cases in high school or even earlier. Lee called it the “unicorn-hunting investor checklist, as in ’34-year-old-male ex-PayPal-ers with Stanford degrees, one who founded a software startup in junior high, where should we sign?’”
Those days are over. Today, there are around two dozen of the US-based unicorn startups valued at more than $5 billion, including ByteDance (owner of TikTok), SpaceX, Instacart, Epic Games (maker of Fortnite), Coinbase, and Stripe. Then there are the lesser-known cloud software companies seeking to become the next DataDog or Snowflake — valued at a combined $4.6 billion entering 2020, now trading with a combined market cap of $130 billion.
Airbnb and DoorDash plan to go public in the next few weeks. Other companies expected to complete IPOs (Initial Public Offerings) before Christmas include fintech Affirm, gaming platform Roblox, and e-commerce company Wish.
“The real story of 2020 is that it’s just the preview for 2021, especially if there’s a vaccine and the economy roars back,” said a tech IPO banker. Another banker based in San Francisco said he regularly participates in multiple “bake-offs” on the same day for large tech IPOs. Then there are the special purpose acquisition companies (SPACS) which represent another way for startups to go public, including those that might not be ready to do a traditional IPO, like many of the uncommercialized electric vehicle makers. Most of the SPACs formed in 2020 will be seeking out targets in 2021.
Fallout From A Nuclear Assassination
(Morteza Nikoubazl via Getty Images)
- The body of Iran’s most senior nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, who was assassinated last Friday, has been taken in a flag-draped coffin to three of the country’s shrines for prayers and last tributes. Fakhrizadeh and a bodyguard were killed on a highway near Iran’s capital of Tehran in a military-style gun and bomb assault that was operated by remote control and not with gunmen on the ground.
- Iran blames Israel for the assassination, and both Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Hassan Rouhani have vowed an aggressive response in the ‘proper time.’ Israel has not claimed responsibility or officially commented on the attack. However, Tehran has long blamed its arch-enemy for killing several of its nuclear scientists.
- An Iranian analyst published an opinion piece in a hard-line Iranian newspaper on Sunday, proposing a strike on the Israeli port city of Haifa that would destroy facilities and “also cause heavy human casualties.” The analyst said such an attack would be an effective deterrent “because the United States and the Israeli regime and its agents are by no means ready to take part in a war and a military confrontation.”
- Iran claims its nuclear program is non-military and focused on energy. President Trump pulled the US out of the Iran nuclear deal in 2018 and sanctioned Fakhrizadeh; Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has accused the scientist of leading a secret atomic weapons operation. Critics believe the timing of the attack suggests Netanyahu, possibly with Trump’s support, is attempting to stop any future effort by the incoming Biden administration to reconcile with Iran. Biden has said he’s willing to rejoin the nuclear deal and lift some economic sanctions if Iran comes back into compliance with the agreement. (Guardian, NPR)
- Iraq fears militia violence could spark Iran-US escalation (WaPo, $)
Israel’s Midnight Marauders
- A damning report — by three Israeli human rights groups that gathered evidence over the last two years — has condemned Israel’s military for its widespread practice of raiding Palestinian homes in the occupied territories, often in the middle of the night.
- According to the testimonies of soldiers, doctors, and Palestinian families, Israeli troops enter homes on average more than 250 times every month to conduct arrests, but also for other purposes including “mapping” houses, to use roofs for observation posts, or to search for money, weapons or for intelligence purposes.
- Several soldiers interviewed for the report admitted they believed an important function of many raids was simply to intimidate — a claim Israeli military officials deny. The report details the severe psychological impact the raids impose on individuals, families, and wider Palestinian society. It also says “soldiers do not present family members with any warrant or other document as to why they are invading the home or who approved the invasion,” which the authors believe could be a breach of international law. (Guardian)
Additional World News
- As the virus spreads, the wealth doesn’t: Reporting on wealth: ‘The virus isn’t a leveller. It has made the rich richer’ (Guardian)
- China has reached a major milestone in ending absolute poverty. But the Communist Party isn’t celebrating yet (CNN)
- Diplomatic immunity: China hopes ‘vaccine diplomacy’ will restore its image and boost its influence (Guardian)
- Nike and Coca-Cola Lobby Against Xinjiang Forced Labor Bill (NYT, $)
- In Japan, more people died from suicide last month than from Covid in all of 2020 (CNN)
- Stubble burning: Why India cannot stop its farmers (BBC). They must change their ways to end the haze.
- Kushner to visit Saudi Arabia and Qatar seeking deal to end crisis (Axios)
- Ethiopia says it’s captured the capital of its rebellious Tigray region (Vox)
- Biden’s Win Threatens Macron’s Grand Project of a More Independent Europe (Foreign Policy)
- EU: entirely unsure: How close to a Brexit trade deal are we? (BBC)
- Argentine officials search home of Maradona’s doctor while investigating soccer star’s death (NBC)
- After rare protest and show of dissent in Cuba, artists say the government agrees to future talks (NBC)
COVID-19
- Fauci Warns Of ‘Surge Upon A Surge’ As COVID-19 Hospitalizations Hit Yet Another High (NPR)
- Top health officials agree Americans who traveled for Thanksgiving should get tested. But this is where they differ (CNN)
- COVID Models Show How to Avoid Future Lockdowns (Scientific American)
Good Grief, Where’s The Relief?
- Federally-mandated paid sick and family leave, along with expanded unemployment insurance and other policies, will expire at the end of December, leaving as many as 87 million public and private sector workers facing yet more hardship as the pandemic continues to surge and Congress remains in a stalemate.
- The Families First relief package enacted last March required many employers — public sector and private business employers with fewer than 500 workers — to provide employees with two weeks of coronavirus-related sick leave at full pay and up to 12 weeks of family and medical leave to care for family members at two-thirds pay. It was estimated that about half the US workforce was covered under this package.
- Researchers found that states that gained access to paid sick leave under Families First experienced about 400 fewer cases of COVID-19 per day, thereby proving the public health benefits of the policy. Republicans blame the lapse in benefits on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who they say has sabotaged negotiations by holding firm to her demands for a multi-trillion-dollar deal. And yet, according to the Center for Economic and Policy Research, the US is the only wealthy country that does not guarantee paid leave or paid sick days for the nation’s workforce. (Politico)
Additional USA News
- The dogs days of the lame-duck: Biden Fractures Foot Playing With His Dog, Putting Him in a Boot (NYT, $)
- Biden chooses an all-female senior White House press team (AP)
- Federal appeals court rejects Trump’s Pennsylvania election results lawsuit (Vox). A quote of the year candidate: “Calling an election unfair does not make it so.”
- Donald Trump’s Final Cruelty: Executing Prisoners (New Yorker, $)
- Georgia Senate Runoffs: GOP Infighting Harms Party’s Chances & Trump ‘ashamed’ to have endorsed Republican Georgia governor (NPR, ABC)
- Fake news in Asian American communities can affect elections. Organizers are worried. (Vox)
- A new rally ‘round the flag: ‘Time For My Flag to Go Up’: How Anti-Trumpers Are Reclaiming the American Flag (Politico)
- Here Comes the COVID-19 Baby Bust (Atlantic, $)
- Freemasons Say They’re Needed Now More Than Ever. So Why Are Their Ranks Dwindling? (NPR). The floundering sons of the Founding Fathers.
- This state is shutting bars and gyms as the coronavirus surges — but not schools (WaPo, $)
- How Banks Could Bail Us Out of the Climate Crisis (New Yorker, $)
The Amazon Delivers An Ancient Art Exhibit
- One of the world’s largest collections of prehistoric rock art, being hailed as “the Sistine Chapel of the ancients,” has been discovered in the Amazonian rainforest. Archaeologists found tens of thousands of paintings of animals and humans created up to 12,500 years ago on cliff faces that stretch across nearly eight miles in Colombia.
- The discovery was made last year by a British-Columbian team, led by José Iriarte, a professor of archaeology at Executor University and leading expert on pre-Columbian history. The discovery was kept secret while being filmed for a major UK TV series starting December 5: Jungle Mystery: Lost Kingdoms of the Amazon.
- The images include fish, turtles, lizards, and birds, as well as people dancing and holding hands. “We started seeing animals that are now extinct. The pictures are so natural and so well made that we have few doubts that you’re looking at a horse, for example. The ice-age horse had a wild, heavy face. It’s so detailed, we can even see the horse hair. It’s fascinating,” Iriarte said.
- Some of the paintings are so high up they can only be viewed with drones, so how could the artists have reached those elevations? Iriarte believes the answer lies in depictions of wooden towers among the paintings, including figures appearing to bungee jump from them. As the documentary notes, Colombia is a land torn apart after 50 years of civil war that raged between FARC guerrillas and the Colombian government, now with an uneasy truce in place. The territory where the paintings were discovered was completely off-limits until recently and still involves careful negotiation to enter safely.
- The site is so remote that to reach it, the team of archaeologists and film-makers had a two-hour drive from San José del Guaviare, followed by a four-hour trek on foot through some of the region’s most dangerous inhabitants, including Caimans, and the bushmaster, the deadliest snake in the Americas with an 80 percent mortality rate. (Guardian)
Additional Reads
- Cold, hard news: Dry Ice Is Hotter Than Ever (Atlantic, $)
- Giant Rats Are Sniffing Out Landmines and Tuberculosis (Vice)
- Mystery metal monolith vanishes from Utah desert (Guardian). Guess the aliens wanted it back?
- The new ‘gold rush’ for green lithium (BBC)
- How are you shaping up? Geometry Reveals How the World Is Made of Cubes (Wired)
- The problem for the 21st century isn’t that we’re too urban—it’s that we’re not urban enough (Fast Company)
- Is social media bad for mental health? Consider the “jingle-jangle problem” (Inverse)
- Urban ethnographers do harm in speaking for Black communities (Aeon)
- Unrivaled in the undead: These Days, the Best Zombie Content Is Made in Korea (Ringer)
- What is Advent? How and why the season of anticipation is celebrated. (Vox)
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