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Giant Stick Insect Discovered in Rainforest May Be Australia’s Heaviest (Maria)

The author writes, “A colossal stick insect found living in the highland rainforest of northeastern Australia could be the heaviest bug on the continent. Acrophylla alta, as the species has been named, weighs up to 1.6 ounces — comparable to a golf ball — and measures around 16 inches) with its legs outstretched — significantly longer than the average human forearm. … The newly discovered bug makes its home high in the canopy of the Atherton Tablelands, a highland rainforest in tropical Queensland in Australia.” 

Confederate Statue Toppled During Black Lives Matter Protests Will Be Reinstalled (Laura)

From NPR: “The National Park Service is planning to restore and reinstall a statue of Albert Pike, a Confederate general and Freemason leader, that was toppled during Black Lives Matter protests in June 2020. ‘The restoration aligns with federal responsibilities under historic preservation law as well as recent executive orders to beautify the nation’s capital and re-instate pre-existing statues,’ the National Park Service said in a statement, pointing to President Trump’s executive order on Making the District of Columbia Safe and Beautiful and the executive order on Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History. Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, who represents Washington D.C., said in a statement she would reintroduce a bill to permanently remove the statue.”

New Study Sheds Light on ChatGPT’s Alarming Interactions With Teens (Gerry)

The author writes, “ChatGPT will tell 13-year-olds how to get drunk and high, instruct them on how to conceal eating disorders and even compose a heartbreaking suicide letter to their parents if asked, according to new research from a watchdog group. The Associated Press reviewed more than three hours of interactions between ChatGPT and researchers posing as vulnerable teens. The chatbot typically provided warnings against risky activity but went on to deliver startlingly detailed and personalized plans for drug use, calorie-restricted diets, or self-injury. The researchers at the Center for Countering Digital Hate also repeated their inquiries on a large scale, classifying more than half of ChatGPT’s 1,200 responses as dangerous.”

GOP State Senator Changes Child Rape Law After Relative Accused of Sex With Minor (Sean)

From Newsweek: “An 18-year-old in Utah who was accused of having sex with a 13-year-old avoided jail after the laws governing sexual offenses were changed while his relative was president of the state Senate. Senate President J. Stuart Adams confided to legislators that the law relating to his relative’s case should be reviewed in a large bill that was passed in 2024. … The fact that the 18-year-old was related to someone with significant political power in Utah has raised questions over whether or not the legislation was adopted in order to make the sentencing less strict. While the law did not apply retroactively and the 18-year-old was not charged with the new lower-level crime created by the bill, they nonetheless avoided further jail time and were not required to register as a sex offender after the bill was passed.”

Organized Scientific Fraud Is Growing at an Alarming Rate, Study Uncovers (Reader Jim)

The author writes, “From fabricated research to paid authorships and citations, organized scientific fraud is on the rise, according to a new Northwestern University study. By combining large-scale data analysis of scientific literature with case studies, the researchers led a deep investigation into scientific fraud. Although concerns around scientific misconduct typically focus on lone individuals, the Northwestern study instead uncovered sophisticated global networks of individuals and entities, which systematically work together to undermine the integrity of academic publishing.”

Idaho Lost One in Three Obstetricians After Its Abortion Ban (Dana)

From Mother Jones: “Two months after the Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade, in June 2022, Idaho’s trigger ban outlawing most abortions — one of the strictest nationwide — took effect. The fallout soon made headlines. The Biden-era Department of Justice sued, alleging that the Idaho ban violated a federal law that required hospitals to stabilize people who arrived in their emergency rooms facing threats to their life or health — including by providing abortions when necessary. … As all this was happening, another shift was quietly unfolding across the state: obstetricians (OBs) in Idaho — doctors who specialize in delivering babies and providing care for pregnant people during and after pregnancy — were leaving their jobs as they faced the threat of jail time, fines, and felony charges for providing abortions, even in the case of life-threatening emergencies.”

25 Years, 1 Coastline Report Card: The Shocking Wins and Misses (Mili)

The author writes, “At the dawn of the millennium, a group of eminent scientists began compiling a list of the threats they felt were most likely to impact the world’s rocky shorelines over the coming quarter of a century. Published in 2002, it included forecasts that — among other things — pollution from oil spills would decrease, the number of invasive species across the world would rise, genetically-modified organisms would have harmful effects on the ocean, and the impacts of global climate change would be felt more intensely. Now, 25 years on, the same academics — along with a larger and more wide-ranging team of international experts — have revisited their forecasts and discovered that many of them were correct.”