The Daily Valet. - 9/30/21, Thursday

✔️ Going, Going, Gone

September 30, 2021

Thursday, September 30th Edition

Cory Ohlendorf, Editor in Chief of Valet.

When do you cross over from being someone with plants to actual “plant parent”?

Cory Ohlendorf, Editor ⋯ @coryohlendorf

Today’s Big Story

U.S. Declares 20+ Species Extinct

The animals (and a plant) had once been listed as endangered species

The Fish and Wildlife Service announced Wednesday that 22 animals and one plant native to the United States are now extinct and should be removed from the endangered species list after exhausting efforts to find evidence that they are still alive.

Extinct. As in wiped from the planet—most likely forever. It’s the biggest batch of species the government has announced as extinct, reports the Center for Biological Diversity, a nonprofit that works to protect threatened species.

Officials said that each extinction shows “how human activity can drive species decline and extinction, by contributing to habitat loss, overuse and the introduction of invasive species and disease.”

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland underscored that while a variety of specific factors contributed to each species’ demise, "the story arc is essentially the same—humans altered their habitat in a significant way, and we couldn’t or didn’t do enough to ultimately change the trajectory before it was too late.”

The extinctions include 11 birds, eight freshwater mussels, two fish, a bat and a plant. Many of them were nearly extinct by the time the Endangered Species Act passed in 1973, reports the New York Times. So perhaps no amount of conservation would have been able to save them.

According to Axios, 54 species, including the bald eagle and humpback whales, have been taken off the endangered list after recovering, and another 56 species have been downgraded from endangered to threatened. So conservation efforts can have big pay offs. But it’s a fight that has to keep being fought.

↦ FYI: Nearly a dozen of the species were native to Hawaii and Guam.

Mail Is About to Get Slower

It’ll get temporarily more expensive too

Starting Friday, the U.S. Postal Service will start to “implement new service standards” for first class mail and periodicals—slowing its target delivery time by about 30%, USPS spokesperson Kim Frum told NPR.

Americans who have been frustrated with the slow service of the mail since the beginning of the pandemic probably won't be thrilled to hear this.

According to USA Today, the changes are part of the Postal Service's 10-year strategic plan, which was announced by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy in March. The plan has drawn heavy criticism from elected officials.

Additionally, starting Oct. 3 through Dec. 26, the Postal Service will temporarily increase prices on all commercial and retail domestic packages because of the holiday season and its increase in mail volume.

↦ FYI: On average, the Postal Service delivers 173.1 million pieces of First-Class Mail each day.

You Can Stay at the Scream House

“Do you like scary movies?”

Has 'Spooky Season' officially kicked off for you? I'm currently snacking on candy corn by the handful, so I'm all in. And just in time for Scream's 25th anniversary, Airbnb is inviting scary movie fans everywhere to stay the night at the home used in the original film.

The Northern California house was the Woodsboro home of Stu Macher (played by Matthew Lillard), and served as the final showdown for the legendary Wes Craven slasher. On Oct. 27, 29 and 31, the house will welcome up to four guests who will get the full Scream experience—complete with a virtual welcome by local sheriff Dewey Riley (David Arquette).

Every memorable trope of the pop culture phenomenon is included in the house: a phone line for calls from Ghostface, that gruesome garage and the television set playing classic horror films like the characters did. You'll also have all four Scream films available on VHS. And, of course, the kitchen is stocked with Jiffy Pop.

Sound like fun? You can request to book this stay beginning on Tuesday, Oct. 12, at 1 p.m. EDT. Just don't say you'll “be right back!”

↦ FYI: The film was originally titled Scary Movie, which was later used for a parody of this movie, but the term “scary movie” is mentioned multiple times.

The TikTok of Plants

The purest social media platform out there

The first thing I thought when I encountered PlantLife—a new plant-oriented social media app out today for iOS—was a riff on the classic Zoolander quote: “What is this? A center for plants?!?”

The plant-centric social platform, which rolled into the iOS app store on Wednesday, was founded by former Apple and Nike employees. And Gizmodo sweetly calls it “the purest social platform they've ever tried.”

It's as you can guess, geared towards plants and plant-lovers. Users begin by taking photos of each of their plants and providing information regarding each one. While the app has yet to implement photo-identification technology, you can manually search for plants in the existing database. Securing a match for your plant will give you an accompanying sheet of care instructions.

It's built with familiar full-bleed videos and a user interface borrowed largely from TikTok. But instead of duets and dances, it's meant to be a salve to the toxicity of social media. Given that 70% of millennials claim to be “plant parents,” they imagine that PlantLife could generate serious green for the business too.

↦ Dig Deeper: The houseplant market is currently a $1.7 billion industry.

In Other News

↦ YouTube Is Banning All Content That Spreads Vaccine Misinformation

↦ COVID Made America’s Obesity Crisis Worse—Especially Among Communities of Color

↦ A Brief List of America’s Best Oktoberfest Celebrations

Other Things We’re Talking About Today

The blue men of the Sahara

The ultimate tailgating chair

Myth-busting the military diet

Strap in for a Better Workout

Use gravity to get the most from bodyweight exercises

“To be perfectly honest, when this product first hit the market in the mid-2000s my initial reaction was, ‘meh,’” says San Diego-based trainer Pete McCall. But it only took strapping in for one workout to make a believer out of him.

Don't let the minimalist design fool you: Suspension trainers like TRX offer distinct advantages over barbells and dumbbells. Truth is, you don't have to use stacks of weights to build muscle. Suspension training uses your own body weight and the benefits of gravity to engage more muscle groups at the same time.

The straps add an element of instability, which turns something as simple as a chest press into a full core-stabilization exercise. The result? True strength and real results you can see and feel in your body.

There are dozens of exercises you can do on a TRX system, but we asked McCall for the ones that offer a quick, full-body workout.

↦ Get: Try out one of the TRX systems and these four essential exercises.