The Daily Valet. - 7/24/23, Monday
✔️ Be Careful Out There
Monday, July 24th Edition
By Cory Ohlendorf, Valet. Editor
Remember when the Twitter bird actually had cartoony eyes?
Today’s Big Story
Be Careful Out There
Wildlife attacks and Record Heat ... It’s Dangerous out there in America’s national parks
It's all fun and games until someone gets hurt. And by hurt, I mean gored by a 1,200 pound bison. The National Park Service is advising visitors to proceed with extra caution as two people were recently injured after interactions with wild bison at both Yellowstone National Park and Theodore Roosevelt National Park. The NPS said they wanted to remind visitors to never approach wildlife.Despite signs that provide that very same warning, another man was just filmed at Yellowstone National Park surrounded by bison, having blithely strolled right into the middle of a herd with his phone to take pictures of the animals. Similarly, a group of campers was just caught harassing bison at Badlands National Park. The incident was caught and shared online via the Instagram account @TouronsOfNationalParks, which essentially showcases the worst of humanity at sites dedicated to preserving the natural beauty and animals in our country.Meanwhile, a woman was found dead in Montana over the weekend after coming into contact with a grizzly bear on a trail west of Yellowstone National Park. Investigators said the attack comes amid a rise in Montana's grizzly bear population and an increase in sightings.“The animals in our National Parks are wild and unpredictable, no matter how calm they appear to be. The safest (and often best) view of wildlife is from inside a car,” the NPS shares on their safety website. The safety tips also include maintaining a 300-foot distance from bears and wolves, and at least a 75-foot distance from all other animals. Even if that means you can't get a selfie with them.And if it's not the animals, the extreme summer weather can be just as dangerous. The heat is believed to have killed at least five people in various U.S. National Parks since the start of June. The fatalities already exceed the average number of heat-related deaths over an entire summer in a typical year. And as mortality data provided to CNN revealed, August—the deadliest month for parks—is still to come. Stay hydrated and use good judgment out there, kids.
FYI:
While the National Park System comprises 423 national park sites, only 63 of them have the “National Park” designation in their names.
Twitter Is Being Rebranded As X
After Elon tweeted about it all night, the bird site is shedding its feathers
Do you ever see this stuff and wonder if it's, like, real? Me too. In a series of tweets Sunday, Elon Musk announced plans to replace Twitter's decade-old blue bird logo with a new, yet-to-be-decided logo featuring an “X,” the one-letter name he's used repeatedly in company and product names.It's the latest (seemingly slapdash) effort by the billionaire mogul to phase out Twitter's original branding. The X, Musk said, will “embody the imperfections in us all that make us unique.” As for what the new identity will look like, Musk pinned a GIF that was posted by Sawyer Merritt, a Twitter user who offered the logo, which he said was used for his discontinued podcast. Later Musk said he was going with the “minimalist art deco” logo but would probably make changes to refine it later.While some Musk fans applaud the change, or anything the man does, plenty of long-time users of the messaging service aren't particularly enthused by the change and have plenty of questions. Like what will we call tweets now? What other services does Musk have in mind for the rebranded service? And what about the fail whale?
FYI:
X.com now redirects to Twitter.com, which makes me wonder ... how long has he owned X.com?
Sick of Hearing About the Heat?
Well, there's more on the way as Three high pressure systems expand across the U.S.
The heat wave that's been sizzling throughout the Southwest since spring is expected to expand into the central and eastern parts of the country this week, forecasters said Sunday. Nearly 78 million people are under heat alerts in the U.S. this morning, as health officials report a spike in callouts and emergency department visits due to the extreme weather.NASA just reported that last month marked the hottest June on record for the planet. Last week, the director of the agency's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, Gavin A. Schmidt, said at a news conference that July is likely to be the hottest month ever. With a summer of extreme weather records dominating the news, meteorologists and scientists say records like these give a glimpse of the big picture: a warming planet caused by climate change.Beyond the maps and the numbers are real harms that kill. According to the Associated Press, more than 100 people have died in heat waves in the United States and India so far this summer. And with air conditioners running at full blast day after day, surging electricity costs often get passed down to customers. Texas's utility grid has seen surging demand break the system's maximum load records 10 times within the past five weeks. NBC News reports that U.S. consumers' utility bills would be nearly 12% higher this summer than last—but higher in places like Texas, where residents are expected to pay an average of $706 between June and August, up from $642 last year.
Meanwhile:
Several airlines are currently wrestling with shifting weight limits due to extreme heat.
‘Oppenheimer’ Left This Part Out ...
Radioactive Fallout from the Trinity Nuclear Test Impacted 46 U.S. States, Study Finds
As millions of excited people settled into the theaters this weekend to see Christopher Nolan's epic Oppenheimer, a new study was released that tracks the radioactive devastation wrought by the U.S. government's first nuclear weapons test. And it's kind of mind-blowing.When the plutonium-implosion device was detonated by the American military atop a hundred-foot metal tower in a test code-named “Trinity” on July 16, 1945, the resultant blast was much stronger than anticipated. And new research shows that the test distributed radioactive deposits across 46 U.S. states, as well as to parts of Canada and Mexico.Ironically, “despite America's Cold War fears of being nuked by the Soviet Union, the only government that ever nuked us (and nuked us quite a bit) was our own,” says Gizmodo. “It's a huge finding and, at the same time, it shouldn't surprise anyone,” the study's lead author told the New York Times. And as NPR reports, the research could start a new conversation about how many people are due compensation from the government over the health impacts of the tests.
FYI:
Do you know how to survive nuclear war after a bomb is dropped? Here's what to do and how to prepare.
In Other News
Both shattered expectations and fueled the fourth-biggest box office weekend in history.
Have you heard about ...
The Long Read
Swifties flocking to 'Eras' Tour cities are filling hotels and crowding restaurants; so much so that the Fed has noticed, too
The tour is on track to become the biggest in concert history, potentially grossing $1 billion. It’s filling stadiums that hold more than 70,000 people, and Swift is often staying in town for several days, giving local businesses time to soak up the Swiftie money.”
- By Joseph Pisani
Read It:
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Shopping
What We’re Buying
A quality work chair
How's your work chair? You know, the one you sit in for hours at a time—be it at the office or while working from home. Could it be better? More comfortable, ergonomic and stylish? If the answer to any (or all) of those is “yes,” then take advantage of the Herman Miller sale. Right now, you can get 20% off some of the brand's legendary office chairs and have them shipped direct to you for no charge. Our recommendation? The Sayl chair ($750 / $600). Inspired by a world-famous suspension bridge, it features an unframed back made of elastomer strands that provide tension where support is needed and flexes with your body for ultimate comfort and air circulation.
Want more?
The five stylish items you should be buying this week.
Morning Motto
Don’t rush it.
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