American hostages freed by Russia in prisoner swap return home
Just One Thing: Is Trump actually trying to win?
I want Kamala Harris to lose and, at least as important, I want Republicans to have majorities in the House and Senate. Inexplicably, from the choice of JD Vance to almost everything out of Trump’s mouth since 23 minutes into his convention speech, the former president has been acting as if he’s trying to lose. More specifically, he’s been acting as if the way to win is to appeal even more to the people who already love him and are already certain to vote for him even if it means pushing away swing voters, moderate voters, suburban voters, black voters, and so on. It’s somewhere between political malpractice and Trump saying “I decided I just want to play golf so as far as all that president stuff, never mind.” If he wants to win, he needs to shape up…now.
Today's Guests
CU Physics Professor Paul Beale joins us to discuss the physics of how a shallower Olympic pool may be contributing to overall slower race times, although there have been a few new records set.
What Actually Makes a Pool Fast? (swimswam.com)
From Paul: It is interesting that shallow water increases resistance or make strokes less efficient, probably because of turbulence and wave reflection from the bottom. The opposite happens in the aerodynamic flow near an airplane wing with has decreased induced drag when the plane is within about a half a wingspan of the ground. This is called ground effect and is caused by the disruption of wingtip vortices. Pilot’s are taught about how this affects takeoff and landing.
Ground effect (aerodynamics) - Wikipedia
Also, we'll talk about this: World’s Most Accurate and Precise Atomic Clock Pushes New Frontiers in Physics | NIST
David Steinert is a Managing Director at AlixPartners, a global management consulting firm. We'll talk about the company's recent interesting report on the global vehicle market and I'm particularly interested in the Chinese impact given their incredible progress in developing quality and low-priced electric vehicles.
2024 AlixPartners Global Automotive Outlook | AlixPartners
Synopsis for the report: 2024 AlixPartners Global Automotive Outlook | AlixPartners
Other Stuff
New concert and theater ticket-buying protections begin next week in Colorado: New consumer ticket buying protections begin Aug. 7 | Arts & Entertainment | denvergazette.com
Follow-up on a hunting story we've been covering: Mountain lion hunting ban heads to Colorado voters in November (coloradosun.com)
Participants in the American Airlines retirement plan allowed by judge to sue the company and its benefits manager for breach of fiduciary responsibility for ESG investing which lowered investment returns: Spence v. American Airlines, Inc. - Climate Change Litigation (climatecasechart.com)
Court ruling allowing case to proceed: 20240620_docket-423-cv-00552_memorandum-opinion-and-order.pdf (climatecasechart.com)
This state is going to Kamala Harris, but this is still a bit interesting: RFK Jr. qualifies for ballot - Axios Denver
Olympics-related stories
Rapper doin' good: Flavor Flav pays U.S. Olympian’s rent after her concerned post (ew.com)
More good stuff from the Olympics (which I read about but didn't watch because I'm so pissed about allowing previously gender-disqualified boxers from competing against women): Katie Ledecky wins 13th medal, most ever for female Olympian in history (msn.com)
I love this listener story (thanks, Katie!) about a long-ago Olympian: The Olympic Marathoner Who Went Missing - RUN | Powered by Outside (outsideonline.com)
Remember the movie "Escape from New York"? For some reason, this story made me think of it...the criminals running the city (or the country): Extortion and gang violence are hitting even big corporations and business leaders in Mexico | AP News
Not the Olympic story I was thinking about: Grindr and Enhanced Privacy for Athletes at the Paris Olympics | Grindr
(Military) justice delayed: Navy SEAL COVID-19 vaccine suit settlement vindicates religious objectors | Stars and Stripes
A few things I didn't get to yesterday:
Good: Colville Tribes rescind Colorado wolf offer | Wildlife | gazette.com
This isn't what you might think at first, from the headline: Military service members banned from Colorado Springs mall | Military | gazette.com
Amazon is an absolutely incredible thing. Seriously, consider the management skill required to build what they've built. (That's not sarcasm...it's admiration.) Amazon Pushes Fast Delivery Into Rural Areas in Challenge to Post Office - WSJ
For now, I'm in favor. I don't know whether complaints by vets about this are legit or whether they're just trying to protect their own oligopoly and pricing power. I suspect it's the latter but open to hearing arguments. Backers of vet practitioner initiative submit signatures | Colorado-politics | denvergazette.com
Today's Video
Snoop Dog does Olympic badminton play-by-play