PICKS are stories from many sources, selected by our editors or recommended by our readers because they are important, surprising, troubling, enlightening, inspiring, or amusing. They appear on our site and in our daily newsletter. Please send suggested articles, videos, podcasts, etc. to picks@whowhatwhy.org.
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How New Zealand Saved a Flightless Parrot From Extinction (Maria)
The author writes, “In the thick brush atop Sanctuary Mountain, an inquisitive green face poked its head out of a bag. The kākāpō, a moss-colored feather ball named Motupōhue, looked around. ‘He’s going to run,’ whispered Andrew Digby, a conservation scientist kneeling on the ground nearby and watching closely. As if in response, Motupōhue leapt from the bag and disappeared into the nearby forest, becoming the first kākāpō to step onto either of New Zealand’s two main islands in half a century.”
How Third-Party and Independent Candidates Could Threaten Democrats and Republicans in 2024 (Reader Steve)
The author writes, “Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist and scion of the storied Democratic dynasty, is expected to launch an independent or third-party presidential bid on Monday. Cornel West, a philosopher and Black social leader, made the same choice last week. And No Labels, a new political party, is intensifying candidate recruitment efforts. While the politics are murky, the fresh frenzy of outsider candidates threatens to weaken both major parties as Democratic President Joe Biden and Republican former President Donald Trump tighten their grip on their parties’ presidential nominations.”
Putin Claims Russia Successfully Tested a Nuclear-Powered Missile. (Sean)
The author writes, “President Vladimir V. Putin claimed on Thursday that Russia had successfully tested the Burevestnik, an experimental nuclear-powered cruise missile, and had almost completed work on a new type of nuclear-capable ballistic missile. ‘No one in their sound mind will use a nuclear weapon against Russia,’ Mr. Putin said.”
Why Western Democracy Faces a Nightmare Made Online (Al)
From Politico: “In 2024 — for the first time ever — the U.S., the U.K. and the EU will hold major elections in the same calendar year. Dozens of other countries, including India and potentially Ukraine, are also expected to hold nationwide votes. This motherlode of election cycles is poised to reshape the leadership of the Western world. Yet never before has the integrity of democracy been in so much danger, thanks to the transformation of political campaigning in recent years into a war waged largely online.”
George W. Bush Is Building a Memorial to the War on Terror. He Wants Your Feedback. (Laura)
From The Intercept: “You may not know that there’s a memorial planned for the global war on terror. This would be understandable, since the global war on terror is like a toy that America was obsessed with for a short period of time and then grew tired of and has forgotten under the bed. … There’s no design yet, but the foundation funding the memorial is conducting a public survey for ideas now through October 17.”
California Workers Who Cut Countertops Are Dying of an Incurable Disease (Dana)
From the Los Angeles Times: “Inside the row of workshops in an industrial stretch of Pacoima, men labored over hefty slabs of speckled stone, saws whining over the sounds of Spanish-language rock. Pale dust rose around them as they worked. Many went without masks. Some had water spurting from their machines, but others had nothing to tamp down the powder rising in the air. ‘Nobody uses water,’ one man in a Dodgers cap said in Spanish when Maria Cabrera approached, holding flyers about silicosis, an incurable and suffocating disease that has devastated dozens of workers across the state and killed men who have barely reached middle age.”
Methuselah Arrived in the US in 1938. She’s Now the Oldest Fish in Captivity (Laura)
The author writes, “She’s super-gentle, and doesn’t get overly excited. She enjoys eating earthworms, fruits and vegetables, and slowly moving around her tank. Her favorite food — at least for what is in season now — is a fig. If Methuselah sounds like a grand old dame, it’s because she is: she is the oldest living fish in captivity, aged somewhere upwards of 92 and potentially as high as 101 years. She arrived on a steamship from Australia along with 230 other fish to the Steinhart aquarium in San Francisco in 1938 as a young, small fish.”
