Trip Switch

If systems collapse, why crowd size matters

The great deadpan comedian Steven Wright used to joke: "In my house there’s this light switch that doesn’t do anything. Every so often, I would flick it on and off just to check. Yesterday, I got a call from a woman in Germany. She said ‘cut it out.'" Humanity has been turning the dial on climate change for years. The changes have moved from gradual to rapid. But these changes will seem remarkably slow compared to the changes we'll experience if one or more of Earth's great systems doesn't just change, but collapses. And like that Steven Wright joke, the switch that's being flipped in one place will have impacts across the world. And it may be too late to cut it out. NYT (Gift Article): How Close Are the Planet’s Climate Tipping Points? This brings to mind another Wright quote: "Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it."

+ These days, you can hardly accuse Death Valley of misleading labeling. It's hot. Almost inhabitable. That makes it a curiosity for visitors. It makes it a, well, Death Valley, for residents. "In July, the hottest and driest place in America outdid itself. Last month in Death Valley was the most sweltering ever recorded, with an average temperature of 108.5 degrees, a figure that includes overnight lows, which rarely dipped below 95. For a punishing nine consecutive days, the mercury hit 125 or higher. Six of Death Valley’s hottest summers have come during the past decade, and as the climate continues to warm worldwide, the region’s recent record-setting month could be a postcard from the future." WaPo (Gift Article): Death Valley keeps getting hotter. How do residents survive?

+ Greece’s wildfires underscore global need to adapt for extreme heat.

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Size Matters

Over the weekend, the rally crowd size-obsessed Donald Trump accused the Harris campaign of using AI and other tactics to make it look like their crowds were bigger than they actually were. At this point, is it really newsworthy that a pathetic, jealous narcissist who lies about everything is lying about something relatively trivial? Unfortunately, yes. Because like so many of his strategies over the past several years, this is is all about laying the groundwork to deny the election results. For his backers to believe he won, they can't be allowed to believe that the Harris/Walz campaign has the momentum. Bottom line: Diminishing Kamala's popularity lays the groundwork to try to steal the election. The claims are easily disprovable and patently ridiculous. But as Philip Bump explains, "the point isn’t to increase Trump’s credibility. It’s to erode everyone else’s. That way, when they accurately report the results in November, Trump can remind his supporters to reject them if necessary." WaPo(Gift Article): ‘AI’ crowds and unskewed polls: Trump prepares to reject another loss. Trump falsely argued that 3.5 million people illegally voted in an election he won. He began laying the groundwork to claim that the 2020 election was stolen months, if not years, in advance. The worse reality gets, the more aggressive these claims will become.

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Plane Mystery

"To aviation experts around the world who watched the videos showing the 89-foot plane spinning slowly as it plummeted before crashing almost directly on its belly, the question of what had happened was simple to answer: The plane had stalled ... The question of why VoePass Flight 2283 might have stalled, however, remained a mystery." NYT: What Caused a Plane to Fall From the Sky in Brazil?

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Five Ring Circus

I'm already suffering from severe Olympics withdrawal. In an instant, we went from nonstop action and inspiration to being left with nothing left but viral replays of Raygun's breakdancing performance. Paris did a great job. NBC did a great job. Mike Tirico was smooth and flawless. Even viewer-created memes were great. Here are some of the Winners and losers of the 2024 Olympics: Big upsets, failures and joyful moments. (But it barely scratches the surface.)

+ Next time someone tells you nice guys finish last, remind them of these guys. The world got to enjoy what Warriors fans have been spoiled by for years. The excellent leadership of Steve Kerr and the ridiculous threes launched by Steph Curry. Nuit, nuit. Steph Curry Put a Golden Era for Team USA to Bed. And in an even closer win that sealed an even more dominant multi-year run, U.S. Women hoops won gold in an unfamiliar nail-biter. And behind new coach Emma Hayes, the US beat Brazil to take women's soccer gold.

+ The Games are over. But one controversy lives on. The U.S. challenges the ruling that overturned gymnast Jordan Chiles' bronze medal.

+ And now the Olympics begin the move towards its next stop. LA. (Traffic is already getting bad.)

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Extra, Extra

It Takes a Villages: "As one of the world’s largest retirement communities, The Villages in central Florida is known for its endless golf courses, having the oldest median age in the United States and its traffic-stopping golf-cart parades usually supporting a Republican candidate during campaign season. What it’s not known for is kids. Yet the area that is home to The Villages has become the fastest-growing metro for young children in the U.S. this decade." Why the fastest-growing place for young kids in the US is in the metro with the oldest residents.

+ Middle East on Edge: Israel and US brace for Iranian attack as diplomats push hard for Gaza ceasefire. Meanwhile, "U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has ordered a guided missile submarine to the Middle East and is telling the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group to sail more quickly to the area, as the U.S. on Monday said it believes Iran or its proxies may launch a strike against Israel as soon as this week."

+ Week Sauce: "Scientists hail ‘smart’ insulin that responds to changing blood sugar levels in real time. "People with type 1 diabetes may in future only need to give themselves insulin once a week."

+ End of an Era: "Wojcicki’s death Friday from lung cancer at age 56 marks the end of an era for Google and Silicon Valley. It cuts tragically short the life of a Silicon Valley leader who was a role model throughout her industry and a link to her powerful company’s earliest and humbler days. She was the rare tech-industry executive, even rarer as a woman in a male-dominated industry, who was universally liked." WaPo: A Silicon Valley pioneer who locked in on excellence. "Wojcicki and her husband, Dennis Troper, a longtime Google employee, knew tragedy, too. In February, their 19-year-old son, Marco, a freshman at the University of California at Berkeley, died of a drug overdose."

+ Emergency in the ER: "Bleeding and in pain, Kyleigh Thurman didn’t know her doomed pregnancy could kill her. Emergency room doctors at Ascension Seton Williamson in Texas handed her a pamphlet on miscarriage and told her to “let nature take its course” before discharging her without treatment for her ectopic pregnancy." Dozens of pregnant women, some bleeding or in labor, are turned away from ERs despite federal law.

+ Kid Plenty: Last week my daughter told me, "No one on TikTok liked Biden. Everyone on TikTok loves Kamala." That's all the evidence I needed of the shift in youth perceptions. If you need a little more, there's this from The New Yorker: Kamala Harris’s Youth-Vote Turnaround. "In the past year, I’ve interviewed dozens of young voters across the country. I kept asking myself: Was Trump doing something right, or was Biden doing something very, very wrong? Three weeks into Kamala Harris’s campaign, we seem to have our answer. The news for the Democrats is full-blast, coconut-tree thrills. While Biden had idled behind Trump in surveys and vibes, Harris quickly caught up and even overtook the former President. Young people, including in battleground states, are now choosing Harris over Trump by as many as twenty-four points."

+ Tourist Trap: A mass circumcision is marketed to tourists in a remote area of Uganda. Some are angrily objecting. (Don't let the Project 25 folks see this. They'll add it to the plan.)

+ Box Set: Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds mark first married couple to top box office in 34 years.

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Bottom of the News

"A large tortoise that had escaped from an ostrich ranch was saved from a potentially fatal encounter after it was recovered alongside a busy Arizona highway." OK, it's not the Olympics, but I'd watch this event.

+ Even as tech giants pour billions of dollars into what they herald as humanity’s new frontier, a recent study shows that tacking the 'AI' label on products may actually drive people away.

+ A teacher spent 1800 hours building the hovercraft of his childhood dreams. (And no, it wasn't Tim Walz.)