Put a Ring On It

Olympic Ring, Weekend Whats, Feel Good Friday

As all eyes turn toward the five Olympic rings in Paris, there is one ring that rules them all. That ring surrounds the city and is made up of a network of cameras being constantly monitored by artificial intelligence. Athletic performances will break the records of the past, but security efforts will give us a glimpse into the future. "Complaints about dystopian security are almost an Olympics tradition. Previous iterations have been characterized as Lockdown London, Fortress Tokyo, and the 'arms race' in Rio. This time, it is the least-visible security measures that have emerged as some of the most controversial." At the Olympics, AI is watching you.

+ The security efforts in the city are extreme. But the first breach happened away from the capital. French rail sabotage plays havoc with Paris Olympics opening.

+ Not every place will be secured. The Dirty Secret of Olympic Swimming: Everyone Pees in the Pool.

+ "At the Paris Olympics over the next three weeks, thousands of athletes will compete to win medals and stand on podiums. A select handful, such as Noah Lyles, will be striving for something even greater. The Olympics are not only a spectacle for determining the world’s best athletes. They are a quadrennial window into the limits of human performance." WaPo (Gift Article): Olympians are approaching the limits of human performance. (Much like I did with news curation and analysis this week...)

+ BBC: What Olympic runners can learn from cheetahs. (Hopefully, not how most cheetah races conclude...)

+ Canadian soccer teams have been spying with drones for years. This year, they got caught.

+ They really gave Snoop Dogg an Olympic torch that looks like a blunt. (Meh, it's a little small for Snoop blunt.)

+ How ‘girl dad’ Flavor Flav became hype man for the US women’s water polo team. (I always figured the giant clock he wears would attract him to a timed race.)

+ The Peacock app is probably your best bet if you want to catch all the action. How to stream the Olympics like a champ.

2

Mayonews

"The arrest in the United States of two top leaders of the Sinaloa drug cartel came after what initial accounts suggest was a dramatic betrayal that saw one of the men, a son of the notorious drug lord known as El Chapo, lure the other under false pretenses onto a plane that delivered them both into the hands of American law enforcement ... Mr. Guzmán López had persuaded Mr. Zambada García to join him on the flight by saying they were going to look at real estate, officials said, but the plane instead headed north across the border ... Mr. Zambada García, 76 and known as El Mayo, has been charged in several federal indictments stretching back more than two decades." NYT (Gift Article): A Fake Trip and a Stunning Betrayal Landed Top Cartel Leaders in U.S. Hands.

+ Here's a notable detail from WaPo (Gift Article): Mexico wasn’t told of cartel arrests until kingpins were in U.S. custody. (Your first guess as to why is probably right.)

3

Bone of Contention

It turns out that unusual court rulings are not limited to SCOTUS. "Boneless chicken wings do not have to be bone-free, Ohio's top court ruled, ending a lawsuit filed by a man who fell ill after swallowing a piece of bone from his order ... The 4-3 ruling was peppered with dissent, with one judge calling the majority opinion 'utter jabberwocky.'" To quote Justice Sotomayor, with fear for our democracy, I dissent

4

Weekend Whats

What to Watch: House of the Dragon is a solid follow-up to Game of Thrones and season 2 is a solid follow up to season one. Check it out on Max. (Even with the dragons, it's a lot less contentious than our politics...)

+ What to Doc: Surprise! The mastermind behind America's biggest boy bands wasn't entirely on the up and up. On Netflix, check out Dirty Pop. Big boy bands, bigger ponzi scheme.

+ What to Wear: The official fashion of the next 100 days is the our new Comma La 24 shirt. It's probably the fastest selling NextDraft shirt ever. Get you t-shirt or hoodie now!

5

Extra, Extra

Friendly Foes: "Russian and Chinese bombers flew together for the first time in international airspace off the coast of Alaska, in a new show of expanding military cooperation."

+ Arson of a Bitch: It usually takes us a while to ever figure out what starts a massive wildfire. The currently growing Park Fire in Northern California is an exception. And the cause was a guy who pushed a burning car into a gully. Crazy. Meanwhile, another guy started a 36-acre wildfire by driving a truck for more than 4 miles with no tire.

+ Barry Picking: "The endorsement, announced by her campaign in a video, caps a week where the vast majority of people involved in the Democratic party, including convention delegates, lined up behind Harris after President Biden announced on Sunday that he was abandoning his bid for a second term." The Obamas have endorsed Harris.

+ Search Party: "OpenAI is announcing its much-anticipated entry into the search market, SearchGPT, an AI-powered search engine with real-time access to information across the internet." (If you want to learn more about this new product, Google it.)

+ Seating Arrangement: "An unofficial motto of Southwest Airlines’ open seating process for its people boarding its planes was once, 'You can sit anywhere you want — just like at church.'" Well, now your seat will depend on how much you drop into the collection plate. Southwest Airlines says ‘assigned and premium seating’ will replace open seating plan.

+ Ethics Elegy: "'Hillbilly Elegy' contains an indictment of “conspiracy-mongers and fringe lunatics” who spread lies about Barack Obama’s religion and birthplace. And it laments the corrosive cynicism that led many in his white working-class community to embrace these falsehoods. Vance presented their views as self-defeating ... Now Vance promotes all these things." Of course, he's not the only one who has traded former beliefs for nonsense in the name of power, which makes trying to understand it all the more important. NYT (Gift Article): The Unnerving Changeability of JD Vance. (Given his poor reception, Trump may be changing his opinion about Vance. And as history will show, when Trump drops support for a VP, it's not pretty.)

6

Feel Good Friday

"He pulled over to the shoulder of the highway and tapped the brakes enough to stop the car, but still gently so the boat didn’t crash forward, he said. He then called 911 and told the dispatcher what had happened and where he was located." Man faints while driving 70 mph on highway. His grandson, 10, took the wheel.

+ A neurological disease stole Rep. Jennifer Wexton's voice. AI helped her get it back.

+ An electrode in the brain restores the career of saxophonist Joey Berkley.

+ I just feel like living every day’: oldest American, 115, offers tips for longevity.

+ Coast-to-coast in a solar-powered car — and a new Cannonball Run record.

+ Latest shingles vaccine may also delay dementia.

+ Gizmo the dog went missing in Las Vegas in 2015. He’s been found alive after 9 years.

+ Backpack-wearing dogs enlisted to rewild urban nature reserve. (I never even considered the idea of making my beagles carry the backpack...)