The Daily Valet. - 6/30/21, Wednesday
✔️ A Weird Wave
Wednesday, June 30th Edition
Have you already made your post-COVID summer travel plans?
Cory Ohlendorf, Editor ⋯ @coryohlendorf
Today’s Big Story
This Heat Wave Is Weird
Just how weird is it? Off the charts, according to experts.
Record-breaking temperatures have soared well past 100 degrees across the Pacific Northwest, where the area is trapped beneath a blistering weather phenomenon known as a “heat dome.”
Records have been shattered daily in the area: Portland and Seattle broke records three days in a row, hitting temperatures of up to 116 degrees (in a region where average temps are closer to the 70s this time of year).
In some places, the heat is so intense, the area’s infrastructure is cracking—literally—under the pressure. Roads are buckling, asphalt and concrete surfaces are expanding and cracking. The heat has even melted power cables.
What’s more, the widespread drought extending from the West all the way into the Great Plains has only worsened under the heat dome. The U.S. Drought Monitor reported 79.8% of the region was officially in a drought period just ahead of the fire season. And two large fires, already burning in northern California, grew significantly on Tuesday, reports Axios.
Fortunately, the ferocious heat now seems to be retreating inland, sparing some of the biggest cities from another day of record-breaking heat. But temperatures are still expected to be quite high for the next two or three weeks (not 30 or 40 degrees higher than normal, but 10 to 15).
“That might actually have more implications for our agriculture and potential wildfires,” one climate scientist told the New York Times. The heat wave won’t be as extreme, she said, “but it’s going to last longer.”
↦ Dig Deeper: This week’s sizzling temperatures may herald a tough climate reality that scientists thought was still decades in the future.
Robocalls Are Out of Control
But that could change after today
If you're like me, you don't even bother answering calls from unfamiliar or blocked numbers. For starters, I'm lazy. But there's also a fear that call is likely from an illegal robocaller.
But today is a big deadline in the fight to beat back those annoying robocalls, reports CNET. The Justice Department won an injunction in March 2020 against two internet telephone providers who transmitted hundreds of millions of calls to consumers.
The FCC has since prioritized the fight against robocalls, with the agency sending out cease-and-desist letters to carriers that facilitate scam calls, setting a June 30 deadline for carriers to implement STIR/SHAKEN, a call-verification system that will make it harder for scammers to hide their numbers, and requiring carriers to publish their robocall prevention strategies in a public database.
The number of scam calls to phone lines in the United States dropped during the pandemic, as lockdowns closed the call centers necessary to robocall enterprises and reduced the number of phone lines with a person on the other end. But even with a 10% decline from the previous month, Americans received about 4 billion robocalls in May.
↦ FYI: Americans lost $29.8 billion to phone scams alone over the past year.
United Bets Big on Post-COVID Travel
The airline orders 270 jets; its biggest aircraft purchase ever
United Airlines on Tuesday announced orders to buy 270 jets, the largest aircraft purchase in the company's history and the biggest order by any airline in about a decade, reports CNN.
Business and international flights are still down from pre-pandemic levels, but domestic leisure travel—the kind where these single-aisle planes dominate—is roaring back. And factoring in the new planes that United had already ordered, the company will get 500 new jets over the next few years.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the airline is also preparing to go on a hiring spree to support the new planes. United said it expected to hire 25,000 workers by 2026—a nearly 37% increase to its front-line workforce.
In addition to adding new planes, the airline will also be retrofitting every narrow-body plane in its fleet. The retrofits will introduce more premium seats, upgrade seatback entertainment and improve carry-on bag storage (please, let me never gate-check a bag ever agin.)
↦ Meanwhile: Expect longer lines and wait times at the airport for a while, experts say. Most airlines need to hire a lot of workers.
Venice Rethinks Its Future
The Italian city may be placed on UNESCO’s list of World Heritage in Danger sites
Seven years after Venice was first threatened by UNESCO with being put on its list of World Heritage in Danger sites, the issue will come up again at its World Heritage Committee Meeting next month.
It may be now or never for Venice, whose fragile city and lagoon environment alike are currently protected as a UNESCO World Heritage site.
After a 15-month pause in mass international travel, Venetians are contemplating how to welcome visitors back to its picture-postcard canals without suffering the past indignities of crowds clogging narrow alleyways, day-trippers picnicking on stoops, and selfie-takers crowding the Rialto Bridge.
The recommendation by UNESCO's World Heritage Center took into account mass tourism, in particular the passage of cruise ships through the historic center, a steady decline in permanent residents, as well as governance and management problems.
↦ Dig Deeper: Six other sites, including Kathmandu and the Great Barrier Reef, may be added to the UNESCO in Danger list.
In Other News
Other Things We’re Talking About Today
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Jean Shorts Are Having a Moment
From scrappy DIY versions to extravagantly expensive designer models
Like it or not, jean shorts are back. We at Valet. are somewhat divided on the subject, but I say let your freak flag fly—and nothing has more of a DGAF attitude than a pair of jorts.
As style writer Jacob Gallagher expertly puts it: “In the world of men's fashion, what was once mockable is now covetable.” From fanny packs and wild sneakers, we're in an anything-goes moment. And stylish dudes are breaking out the jean shorts for summer 2021.
Nostalgia is what pushed my buddy Aaron Levine back to jorts. “They harken back to a simpler time,” says the designer who until recently worked at Abercrombie & Fitch. Jorts are “a bit of a ’70s situation, worn with a Faith No More T-shirt or a big polo.” Though he stressed that his chosen homemade cutoffs are a bit longer now than they would've been in the ’70s when Daisy Duke-esque skimpiness prevailed—even for men.
↦ Biased Advice: If you're going to to do it, you could buy the shorts, but a better option would be to get a pair of vintage denim on the cheap and cut them to your desired inseam yourself.
7 Sleek Sunglasses on Sale
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↦ Want More? See all seven pairs
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Morning Motto
Live and learn.
↦ Follow: @success.portal
That’s all for today...
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