The Daily Valet. - 1/12/22, Wednesday

✔️ A Big Challenge

January 12, 2022

Wednesday, January 12th Edition

Cory Ohlendorf, Editor in Chief of Valet.

Today’s gonna be a good day. I can feel it.

Cory Ohlendorf , Editor ⋯ @coryohlendorf

Today’s Big Story

Biden Challenges Senate on Voting

The president calls for changes to the filibuster to pass voting rights bills

President Joe Biden on Tuesday made a full-throated appeal for U.S. voting rights legislation stalled in Congress, saying Democratic lawmakers should rewrite Senate rules to overcome Republican opposition.

Biden delivered a fiery speech on what he said was “the battle for the soul of America.” He did not go so far as to call for full-scale elimination of the filibuster, a Senate tradition that was amended in the 1970s to allow the minority party to block legislation that fails to garner 60 votes. But said he supported “getting rid of” it in the case of voting rights legislation.

Biden delivered his remarks alongside Vice President Harris in Atlanta, home to the civil rights legend, late-Rep. John Lewis, and one of the many places where Republicans have introduced legislation to limit eligible Americans’ voting rights. “I ask every elected official in America: How do you want to be remembered?” Biden asked. “Do you want to be on the side of Dr. King or George Wallace?”

The Democratic efforts are focused on two bills: the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which would restore the federal government’s authority to review certain state voting laws to prevent discrimination, and the Freedom to Vote Act, a broader bill that would create national rules for voting by mail, early voting and other parts of the electoral process.

But the reality remains: Even with the President’s new call for a filibuster exception, changing Senate rules would require the support of the entire Democratic caucus and the vote of the Vice President to break a tie and pass the legislation. And that’s not guaranteed.

West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin threw more cold water on the idea Tuesday, saying he believes any changes should be made with substantial Republican buy-in. And currently there are no Republican senators willing to sign on.

↦ Romney’s Warning: Senator Mitt Romney of Utah made some fair points in a speech from the Senate floor about the dangers of removing the requirement for political consensus.

What’s Up With Wordle?

The popular word game keeps gaining traction and attracting copycats

If you've spent time on social media lately (and I know you have), you've no doubt seen the grids of green, yellow and gray squares popping up. In what felt like the space of a few days, scorecards from the word game Wordle went from novel to unavoidable as a deluge of puzzlers eagerly compared their daily results.

The Guardian reports that it already has more than 2 million daily players. The game is simple and addictive. Every day, players are asked to identify a new five-letter word in as many as six guesses.The ostensible goal is to find the word in as few turns as possible, but—aside from a concluding grid with fewer rows of attempts—there is no reward to speak of.

Not that that has done much to dampen the Wordle craze, reports The Ringer. And like most good ideas (especially the ones that go viral), there have been several clever parodies of Wordle, along with waves of jokes on Twitter using the emoji block format that players use to share their scores.

And unfortunately, the game's simplicity has also made it easy to easy to duplicate. Also, it's web-based, and that leaves a gap in app stores that imitators are quickly filling. But late last night, Apple started removing some of the Wordle-like apps from the App Store. Maybe we can have nice things.

What Happens to Lost Mail? It’s Sold.

The USPS Mail Recovery Center auctions off $8 million worth of stuff every year

We've all had a piece of mail go missing. While some are lost forever, others are simply undeliverable and unable to be returned to sender—lost to a massive, churning system of mail bags, trucks and processing centers. So what happens to all those?

Motherboard filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the USPS for a list of items auctioned by the Mail Recovery Center in Atlanta, Georgia, the Postal Service's “lost and found,” where some 67 million pieces of undeliverable mail [PDF] are sent to every year.

The packages are stored in case the USPS receives an inquiry from the person who was supposed to get it. After a period ranging from 30 days to “indefinitely,” the USPS either recycles, destroys or auctions the item.

The auctions, which are run by GovDeals, a government surplus auction website, net the Postal Service millions each year. But it'd be more if they knew what they were selling. Recent auctions ranged from gift cards and new, boxed cell phones to trading cards that surely are worth more than they sold for. Ironically, the lots must be picked up at the Atlanta facility, as the mail will not mail you the lost mail you just bought.

↦ FYI: The Postal Service handled more than 13.2 billion pieces of mail over the holidays, one of its strongest peak seasons in recent history.

The Future Is Sweet

Girl Scout cookies can now be delivered via DoorDash

Look, it's been a tough couple of months, so don't judge anyone if they're celebrating that Girl Scout cookie season just kicked off.

The youth organization said Tuesday that it'll offer delivery of its signature cookies through DoorDash this year—in addition to the usual sales routes (like the tables outside of grocery stores I've never been able to resist).

In the first selling season of the pandemic, the Girl Scouts hosted “virtual cookie booths and drive-thru contactless cookie stands” since COVID restrictions hampered door-to-door sales.

Now through April, cookie enthusiasts can get their hands on all the classics, along with this year's newest flavor: Adventurefuls, a brownie-inspired cookie with caramel-flavored crème. The new French Toast-inspired Toast-Yay!, which were introduced last year, will also be available.

↦ FYI: Which flavor reigns supreme near you? USA Today digs into the delicious data.

In Other News

↦ Inflation Is Surging: What That Means for Your Finances

↦ Apple in Serious Talks With MLB to Broadcast Games

↦ Crypto Startup Lets You Fund Other People’s Lawsuits Against Each Other

Other Things We’re Talking About Today

Sparkling non-alcoholic drinks

Buying a vintage jet

Smart guns

Up Your Omega-3s

Why you want to supercharge your diet with these right now

Nutrition is an area where trends come and go all the time. But omega-3 fatty acids have stood the test of time. And for good reason. You might not know all the ins and outs of optimal health, but you've no doubt heard of omega-3 fatty acids.

That's because they're incredibly vital to our brains and bodies. There's no one secret ingredient to supercharging your health, but if there were ... it would look and act a lot like these powerful polyunsaturated fats. Nothing else quite does what they do.

We dug into the science and spoke with a few experts to understand the ins and outs of omega-3s, all the ways they help our bodies and the best ways to incorporate them into our everyday diets.

↦ Read: How to up your omega-3s

6 Winter Friendly Items on Sale Now

↑ This hybrid jacket ($325 / $162.99) combines a classic kimono style with a down ski material, finished with quilted finishing. This is a perfect layering piece with a hoodie or a tailored denim jacket underneath. Also designed entirely from upcycled plastics, this is a great way to look good and feel good about what you're wearing.

↦ Want more? 6 winter friendly items on sale