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.
|
Listen To This Story
 |
Quiet Before the Storm: Busy Hurricane Season Is On the Way, Top Forecast Reports (Maria)
The author writes, “Colorado State University’s forecast update still warns of above-normal hurricane activity this season. The tropics may be relatively quiet for the moment but the latest forecast for the 2025 Atlantic hurricane season doesn’t expect that to last. A more active than normal season is expected, reports the tropical research team at Colorado State University. The forecast is unchanged from its initial April release, which calls for 17 named storms, nine hurricanes, and four major hurricanes. Activity is expected to be about 125% of the average hurricane season.”
Burning Waymos Have Become a Symbol in California Ice Protests — But Why? (Dana)
From the San Francisco Chronicle: “Lighting cars on fire has long been a tactic to escalate protests and capture the public’s attention. But demonstrators opposing the immigration raids in Los Angeles have a new target: Waymo robotaxis. At least five Waymos had been torched in Los Angeles as of Monday, each creating a dramatic, made-for-social media tableau. Photos that circulated online showed the jaunty electric Jaguars engulfed in flames and spattered with graffiti as demonstrators leapt atop their hoods. In one particularly dramatic image, a masked protester stands on a Waymo and raises a skateboard over his shoulder, as though preparing to smash the vehicle’s roof cameras. The vandalism reached a point that prompted Waymo to divert service from downtown Los Angeles and other areas where protests were anticipated.”
Trump Administration Urges Court Not To Dismiss Case Against Wisconsin Judge (Reader Steve)
The author writes, “The Trump administration argued Monday that charges should not be dropped against a Wisconsin judge who was indicted for allegedly helping a man who is in the country evade US immigration agents seeking to arrest him in her courthouse. Attorneys for the US Department of Justice urged a federal judge to reject a motion filed by Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan seeking to dismiss the charges against her, saying doing so would be ‘unprecedented’ and allow judges to be above the law. Dugan faces a July 21 trial in the case that escalated a clash between Trump’s administration and opponents over the Republican president’s sweeping immigration crackdown.”
News Sites Are Getting Crushed by Google’s New AI Tools (Jeff)
From The Wall Street Journal: “The AI armageddon is here for online news publishers. Chatbots are replacing Google searches, eliminating the need to click on blue links and tanking referrals to news sites. As a result, traffic that publishers relied on for years is plummeting. Traffic from organic search to HuffPost’s desktop and mobile websites fell by just over half in the past three years, and by nearly that much at the Washington Post, according to digital market data firm Similarweb. … At a companywide meeting earlier this year, Nicholas Thompson, chief executive of the Atlantic, said the publication should assume traffic from Google would drop toward zero and the company needed to evolve its business model.”
Zuckerberg Is Personally Recruiting New ‘Superintelligence’ AI Team at Meta (Sean)
From Bloomberg: “Mark Zuckerberg, frustrated with Meta Platforms Inc.’s shortfalls in AI, is assembling a team of experts to achieve artificial general intelligence, recruiting from a brain trust of AI researchers and engineers who’ve met with him in recent weeks at his homes in Lake Tahoe and Palo Alto. Zuckerberg has prioritized recruiting for the secretive new team, referred to internally as a superintelligence group, according to people familiar with his plans. He has an audacious goal in mind, these people said. In his view, Meta can and should outstrip other tech companies in achieving what’s known as artificial general intelligence or AGI, the notion that machines can perform as well as humans at many tasks. Once Meta reaches that milestone, it could weave the capability into its suite of products.”
Penguin Poop May Help Preserve Antarctic Climate (Laura)
The author writes, “New research shows that penguin guano in Antarctica is an important source of ammonia aerosol particles that help drive the formation and persistence of low clouds, which cool the climate by reflecting some incoming sunlight back to space. The findings reinforce the growing awareness that Earth’s intricate web of life plays a significant role in shaping the planetary climate. Even at the small levels measured, the ammonia particles from the guano interact with sulfur-based aerosols from ocean algae to start a chemical chain reaction that forms billions of tiny particles that serve as nuclei for water vapor droplets. The low marine clouds that often cover big tracts of the Southern Ocean around Antarctica are a wild card in the climate system because scientists don’t fully understand how they will react to human-caused heating of the atmosphere and oceans.”
