The Daily Valet. - 3/21/23, Tuesday
✔️ A Ticking Time Bomb
Tuesday, March 21st Edition
By Cory Ohlendorf, Valet. Editor
How happy would you say you are ... nationally, speaking?
Today’s Big Story
A Climate Time Bomb
The world is running out of time to avoid catastrophe, new U.N. report warns
We've heard this before. In fact, I'm sure we've heard several iterations of such dire warnings over the last few years. But there's a simple reason to pay attention to a new report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the United Nations' scientific body on climate change: it's a reality check.The report, released Monday, urged governments across the globe to embark on an urgent course correction to tackle the climate emergency, warning that current plans were insufficient to prevent the worst of what the crisis has in store. “Every increment of global warming will intensify multiple and concurrent hazards,” it says.This is the first comprehensive report from the U.N. climate panel since the landmark 2015 Paris Agreement. By the time the next IPCC assessment report is issued in five to seven years, the report suggests that human actions may have rendered the Paris Accord's 1.5°C target (and possibly even its 2°C benchmark) infeasible. “There is a rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a livable and sustainable future for all,” the report's summary for policy makers states.UN Secretary-General António Guterres is responding to the report's urgency by calling for industrialized countries to move up their net zero emissions targets from 2050 to “as close as possible to 2040.” In a video message, Guterres said “the climate time-bomb is ticking.”Human activities have already transformed the planet at a pace and scale unmatched in recorded history, the IPCC said, causing irreversible damage to communities and ecosystems. Yet global emissions continue to rise, and current carbon-cutting efforts are wildly insufficient to ward off climate catastrophe. Most scientists agree that climate disasters will become so extreme that people will not be able to adapt. Heat waves, famines and infectious diseases could claim millions of additional lives by century's end if serious steps aren't taken, and soon.
Dig Deeper:
Vox reports that a major factor in how fast the world approaches these new thresholds will be determined not by carbon dioxide, but by a lesser-known greenhouse gas, methane.
Botox, But For Your Jaw
The Injectable Form of Stress Relief Everyone seems to be Talking About at the moment
Botox is usually about looking better (or, at least, a little younger), but more and more people these days are using the injectable as a way to combat our ever-increasing stress. Masseter Botox, or Botox injected into the jaw's masseter muscle to relieve tension, is a topic of a lot of conversation lately, especially on TikTok.Videos—of jaws before and after reshaping with masseter Botox and clips of people swearing by the procedure's ability to calm their sore jaws—have upwards of 50 million views. According to Allure, the interest in the noninvasive procedure isn't exactly surprising to a lot of dermatologists and plastic surgeons. A recent study found that stressed people experience a staggering 97% higher chance of developing bruxism, a condition in which you grind or clench your teeth, which can result in the masseter muscle being overworked.A few quick shots will temporarily block nerve signals in the masseter muscles, preventing them from biting down so hard. The injections can also gradually shrink the size of this muscle, one dermatologist told Insider, which is an added benefit for some people that are looking to slim down their jaws without any invasive surgery.
Cost:
Allure says most injectors charge by units of Botox, while others have different fees for different areas of the face. On average, your jaw will cost you between $750 and $1,000.
We get a game on Tuesday night that will feel, for one baseball night in March, like the championship of the whole world—the game that most of us wanted to see at the start of the World Baseball Classic.”
The World’s Happiest Countries
There’s cause for optimism in the latest report on world happiness
Should we all be moving to Scandinavia? For the sixth consecutive year, Finland took the top spot as the world's happiest country—an unprecedented feat in a list that's now been published for more than a decade.The World Happiness Report, unveiled on Monday, showed Finland scores “significantly ahead of all other countries” in the ranking, followed by Denmark in second place and Iceland in third. Other countries included in the top 10 are Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Luxembourg and New Zealand.Also included in the report? The fact that benevolence is about 25% higher than it was pre-pandemic. “Benevolence to others, especially the helping of strangers, which went up dramatically in 2021, stayed high in 2022,” John Helliwell, one of the authors of the World Happiness Report, said in an interview with CNN. And global happiness has not taken a hit in the three years of the pandemic. Life evaluations from 2020 to 2022 have been “remarkably resilient,” the report says, with global averages basically in line with the three years preceding the pandemic. So, at least, we got that going for us, right?
FYI:
The United States didn't make the top 10, but we are in the top 20, ranking at Number 15 on the Happiest Countries list.
The Defender 90 Has Been Lego-fied
The kit comes with a working winch and a roof rack packed with off-road essentials
Lego is helping Land Rover celebrate its 75th birthday by adding the original Defender 90 to its catalog. Created for adult builders, the 2,336-piece kit features operating parts and surprisingly realistic details, and it lets enthusiasts build one of two variants of the emblematic off-roader.This isn't a simple kit that you can put together on your lunch break (unless you take really, really long lunch breaks). But once built, the Defender measures 12.5 inches long, 6 inches tall and 6 inches wide—which means it will look very cool on a bookshelf or desk. Thinking big allowed Lego to dial in details such as opening doors, along with functional steering and suspension systems.According to Car and Driver, the Lego Defender set is highly customizable, coming with numerous add-ons. It will go on sale online in early April for $239.99. Definitely not cheap, but a mere fraction of the real thing, considering it's as close as most of us will get to owning a real Defender. So start saving your allowance—or your paycheck—now.
Get It:
Buy your own Defender kit three days earlier than the general public by becoming a LEGO VIP.
In Other News
Republicans apply pressure to get DA to ignore alleged crimes.
Have you heard about ...
Worth a Listen
The ‘Armchair Expert’ podcast
Overwhelmed by the array of options when it comes to finding a new podcast? Why not try some that are already revered? Dax Shepard and Monica Padman's celebrity-interview podcast, Armchair Expert. The show has gotten a lot of praise over the last few years, and for good reason.The hosts have a great dynamic and the interviews are a mix of in-depth conversations and freewheeling banter. People seem to enjoy the episodes so much because when they work, the interviews are really good. And when they're bad, they're somehow really good as well. The topics and guests are both varied and wide ranging, so take your pick from David Remnick and Paul Rudd to Pet Sitting and Sleep Walking.
Listen:
Shopping
What We’re Buying
A Houndstooth Coat
Now's the best time to buy outerwear. And this handsome houndstooth wool option is now more than half off. The fit is modern enough for now but classically made for the next decade.
Get It:
Cody coat, $689 / $275 by Rue De Tokyo
Morning Motto
Be open to change.
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