☕ Space dust

Are Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses actually cool? [Advertisement] December 20, 2023 [View Online]( | [Sign Up]( | [Shop]( [Morning Brew]( PRESENTED BY [AT&T]( Good morning. The State Department announced that passport processing times have returned to pre-Covid levels, and it casually slipped in a jaw-dropping stat: In 1990, only 5% of Americans had a passport. Today, 48% do (though only 5% actually know where they’ve put it). The more than 160 million US passports in circulation today are almost double the number from 2007. That’s good news for global camaraderie. A recent Pew [survey]( found that Americans who have traveled internationally are more interested in and more knowledgeable about foreign affairs, and they feel closer to others around the world. —Sam Klebanov, Cassandra Cassidy, Matty Merritt, Adam Epstein, Neal Freyman MARKETS Nasdaq 15,003.22 +0.66% S&P 4,768.37 +0.59% Dow 37,557.92 +0.68% 10-Year 3.922% -3.2 bps Bitcoin $42,236.42 -0.95% Affirm $50.46 +15.47% *Stock data as of market close, cryptocurrency data as of 12:00am ET. [Here's what these numbers mean.]( - Markets: The stocks simply won’t stop surging, folks. The Dow rose 200 points and the S&P 500 approached a [record high]( as investors continued to feel good about the chances of a Fed interest-rate cut next year. Tuesday’s big winner was Affirm, whose shares skyrocketed 15% after the buy now, pay later company announced it’s expanding its Walmart partnership to include the retailer’s self-checkout kiosks.  SPACE [Blue Origin doesn’t want to get left in the space dust]( [Blue Origin rocket lifting off]( Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images Jeff Bezos has liftoff!…finally. Blue Origin [launched]( a spacecraft yesterday for the first time since September 2022, when a tech failure turned that mission into a space snafu. On Tuesday, the uncrewed New Shepard rocket took 33 [research payloads]( and 38,000 postcards from Blue Origin’s youth STEM club on a space excursion. Despite the win, the Jeff Bezos-owned startup that was once William Shatner’s extraterrestrial taxi now looks like the Carolina Panthers of the corporate space race. With almost 100 successful launches this year and fat government contracts, Musk’s SpaceX is so far ahead that Blue Origin might need a telescope to spot it. Cosmic catch-up To be fair, Bezos is not starry-eyed about his passion business. He [recently told]( podcaster Lex Fridman that Blue Origin needs to get it together. Bezos plans to kick it into high gear by making it, in his words, “the world’s most decisive company.” - The Amazon founder believes that many of its technology choices can be made with less deliberation by “small teams deep in the company.” - Bezos also shared that he ditched his Amazon CEO role specifically to focus on cosplaying as a cowboy ramping up progress at Blue Origin. Meanwhile, Amazon is trying to challenge Musk’s satellite business, Starlink, with its Project Kuiper subsidiary. But here, Team Bezos’s straggler status is even more apparent: Project Kuiper launched its first two test satellites this fall, while Starlink already has 5,000 delivering internet to 2 million customers. Blue Origin is still optimistic…about debuting its next-generation rocket, New Glenn, sometime next year, which NASA will use to launch an exploration robot to Mars. Blue Origin also recently notched a deal to build a human moon landing system for the space agency after losing out to SpaceX on a similar contract two years ago.—SK   PRESENTED BY AT&T [The hap-happiest ride]( [AT&T]( Ah, the holiday hustle bustle. Improve your road trips, errands, and last-minute gift runs with [AT&T In-car Wi-Fi](. Speaking of gifts, AT&T is offering a [free 4-day In-car Wi-Fi test drive]( for everyone hitting the road in their vehicles this szn. That means wherever you’re headed, the power of Wi-Fi is right there with you. You and your passengers can stream videos and music, play games, and stay connected on all your holiday adventures. Take AT&T In-car Wi-Fi along for the ride on your holiday excursions. [See if your car qualifies for a free 4-day trial](. WORLD [Tour de headlines](#) [A map tracking ships in and around the Red Sea]@typesfast on X Cargo ships are avoiding the Red Sea en masse. As a result of ongoing Houthi rebel [attacks]( in the Red Sea, ships are opting to travel all the way around the southern cape of Africa rather than risk using the Suez Canal. According to Ryan Petersen, the CEO of logistics company Flexport, almost [25% of all containers]( shipped worldwide were being affected by the situation in the Red Sea as of Tuesday afternoon. The Houthi militants, who are based in Yemen and are backed by Iran, have vowed to continue targeting commercial ships as revenge for Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. China suffered its deadliest earthquake in nearly a decade. At least 127 people were killed and 700 more injured in Gansu province in the country’s [worst earthquake]( since 2014. Chinese President Xi Jinping ordered thousands of rescuers to the mountainous region, which is among the poorest in China. Local officials said the 6.2 magnitude quake damaged more than 5,000 buildings, many of them old and made of clay, the BBC reported. Disruptions to the area’s power and water supplies—along with freezing temperatures—are complicating the rescue efforts. Google might owe you money. The tech giant agreed to pay $630 million to users in all 50 states as part of a [settlement]( with state attorneys general over the high fees it charges app developers. You may not need to actually do anything to get your slice of the pie: The states estimate that 70% of the 102 million eligible consumers will receive their payments automatically, without filing a claim. If you’re eligible, you’ll get $2 or more, depending on how much you spent on apps in the Google Play Store between Aug. 2016 and Sept. 2023. The settlement also means Android users will now be allowed to download apps directly, outside of the Play Store. GAMING [Hackers leaked internal docs about Sony video games]( [Illustration of a Sony game console]( Francis Scialabba Rhysida, a ransomware group that previously attacked the British Library, released over 1.3 million files pertaining to Sony’s game developer Insomniac Games yesterday. The [cache]( reportedly included internal presentations, Slack screenshots, and employees' personal information, which were leaked after the company failed to pay the $2 million demanded by Rhysida. If what’s in the unverified 1.67 terabytes of stolen data is true, we’ve learned some details about new games: - Sony Interactive has an agreement with Marvel for a [trilogy]( of X-Men games, according to Cyber Daily. Alleged footage from the first game, Wolverine, was released in the hack and is already [flooding]( the internet. - The files included a discussion of a Spider-Man 3 game, a game based on Venom, and a new Ratchet & Clank, according to The Verge. As for what was happening inside Sony…internal documents released in the hack show that executives were concerned about Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard after the deal [closed]( in October. In one slide, Sony said it was worried that the acquisition could “disrupt and threaten” the console and game subscription markets in 2027. Sony’s PlayStation currently dominates the console industry, but these internal discussions highlight how Sony thinks that could all change once Microsoft gains control of Activision’s insanely popular Call of Duty franchise—which is only guaranteed to remain on PlayStation through 2027. Sony declined Morning Brew’s request for comment on the hack.—CC   TOGETHER WITH INVESCO [Invesco]( Keep an on innovation. Want exposure to multiple companies currently at the forefront of innovation—and across an array of sectors? Invesco QQQ ETF gives you access to [100 impactful Nasdaq companies]( in a single investment. That’s right, it can be that simple. Empower tomorrow’s innovations with today’s insights [here](. Invesco Distributors, Inc. TECH [Are Meta’s Ray-Bans the first cool tech for your face?]( [Meta Ray-Bans smart glasses. Hand holding black frames with dark tinted lenses in them.]( Josh Edelson/Getty Images A viral TikTok trend is making wearable tech kinda cool. Videos of popular users wearing the new Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses (usually while lip-syncing K-pop songs) are [amassing]( millions of views. That’s a step in the right direction for Meta’s metaverse, which—like the Nebraska Volleyball fan in your life—is down pretty bad right now. What’s so special about the Meta glasses? The $300 tech looks almost identical to a normal pair of Ray-Bans—aside from the small cameras in the upper corners of the frames that flash when taking a high-quality photo or pulse when recording. The glasses also respond to voice commands to text or call someone. But Meta is banking on them to do much more in the future. The company [announced]( last week that the specs will soon be able to use Meta AI to translate languages in real time for wearers, come up with funny photo captions, and help pick out clothes. Big picture: If they work as intended, these features could finally push wearable AR and VR technology into the mainstream after years of failed attempts (remember Google Glass?). But if the TikTok trend is just a brief fad and the eyewear doesn’t take off, Meta’s risky multibillion-dollar pivot to the metaverse will be that much closer to failure. VR headset and AR glasses sales in the US have already [dropped]( 40% in the last year, according to Circana data reviewed by CNBC.—MM   GRAB BAG [Key performance indicators](#) [A scene from A Christmas Story]A Christmas Story/Warner Bros. Stat: Pour some eggnog out for natural Christmas trees. According to a [survey]( from the American Christmas Tree Association, 77% of Americans who display a tree this year will choose an artificial one. That coincides with a boom for artificial trees: In 2023, the US will import nearly 450 million fake trees (most of them from China), up from 190 million a decade ago. Consumers tend to prefer their consistent appearance and cost savings over time, per the survey. Meanwhile, there are fewer and fewer real Christmas trees to go around following the 2008 financial crisis, when many farmers pivoted to planting crops that don’t take seven years to grow. Quote: “It absolutely scared the you-know-what out of me. It’s New York City. It’s the last thing you expect to see.” If you can’t see Flaco the owl, that doesn’t mean he can’t see you. NYC resident Reilly Richardson found that out the hard way when she discovered the Eurasian eagle-owl—who escaped from the Central Park Zoo in February—outside her window, [watching her closely](. And that wasn’t a one-off: With his newfound freedom, Flaco has apparently taken to acting like Jimmy Stewart in Rear Window, peeping on unsuspecting neighbors as he reconnoiters Manhattan. One owl expert told the WSJ that it’s possible Flaco sees humans as potential mates. Sweet dreams . Read: Dating in your 70s has never been this much fun. ([WSJ]( NEWS [What else is brewing](#) - [Donald Trump]( was barred from appearing on the 2024 presidential ballot in Colorado after the state’s Supreme Court said he violated the 14th Amendment by inciting the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol. The Trump campaign said they will ask the US Supreme Court to reverse the state’s decision. - [Israeli President Isaac Herzog]( said the country is ready for another pause in fighting to recover hostages held by Hamas and get more humanitarian aid to Gaza. - [New investigations]( are detailing concerns with the Israel Defense Forces’ AI-based targeting technology, which is capable of rapidly generating potential airstrike targets. - [Iceland]( warned that pollution could reach the capital city of Reykjavik by this morning after a volcano erupted in the southwest part of the country. - [Homebuilding]( surged in November as mortgage rates came down, according to the Census Bureau. RECS [Wednesday to-do list] Watch: Three minutes of the best [GoPro footage]( of 2023. Give: Wirecutter’s [most popular gifts]( of the year. Look forward: Bill Gates’s annual [“Year Ahead” letter]( touches on the future of AI, climate change, and more. Going once…going twice: The [weirdest auctions]( of 2023, per NPR. The 411 on 401(k)s: A small business has waaaaay more options than they probably realize when it comes to [offering a 401(k)](. Curious? Fidelity’s small-business team outlines the [facts vs. the fictions]( *A message from our sponsor. GAMES [The puzzle section](#) Word Search: Is there anything better than football in the snow? Definitely not. See if you can identify the NFL teams in snow globes in [today’s Word Search](. Olympian trivia An adaption of Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson & The Olympians series hits Disney+ today, which means we’re going to quiz you on the ancient Greek and Roman gods. We’ll give you lists of Roman and Greek gods, and you have to match up the counterparts (for example, Athena and Minerva). Greek: Aphrodite, Zeus, Artemis, Hera, Poseidon, Demeter, Ares, Hephaestus, Hermes Roman: Mars, Vulcan, Diana, Ceres, Jupiter, Mercury, Juno, Neptune, Venus SHARE THE BREW [Share Morning Brew]( with your friends, acquire free Brew swag, and then acquire more friends as a result of your fresh Brew swag. We’re saying we’ll give you free stuff and more friends if you share a link. One link. Your referral count: 0 [Click to Share]( Or copy & paste your referral link to others: [morningbrew.com/daily/r/?kid=4904f90a]( ANSWER - Aphrodite = Venus - Zeus = Jupiter - Artemis = Diana - Hera = Juno - Poseidon = Neptune - Demeter = Ceres - Ares = Mars - Hephaestus = Vulcan - Hermes = Mercury Word of the Day Today’s Word of the Day is: reconnoiter, meaning “to inspect, observe, or survey.” Thanks to Barbara from Savannah, Georgia, and many others for the suggestion intel. Submit another [Word of the Day here](. ✢ A Note From AT&T Requires eligible car and wireless service plan. Additional restrictions apply. ✤ A Note From Fidelity Fidelity Brokerage Services LLC, Member NYSE, SIPC, 900 Salem Street, Smithfield, RI 02917 © 2023 FMR LLC. All rights reserved. 1120216.1.0 Written by [Adam Epstein]( [Neal Freyman]( Sam Klebanov, [Cassandra Cassidy]( and [Matty Merritt]( Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up [here](. Interested in podcasts? - Check out ours [here]( [ADVERTISE]( // [CAREERS]( // [SHOP]( // [FAQ]( Update your email preferences or unsubscribe [here](. View our privacy policy [here](. Copyright © 2023 Morning Brew. All rights reserved. 22 W 19th St, 4th Floor, New York, NY 10011