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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Refreshing News: Scientists Uncover How the Brain ‘Washes’ Itself During Sleep (Maria)
The author writes, “Scientists think sleep is the brain’s rinse cycle, when fluid percolating through the organ flushes out chemical waste that accumulated while we were awake. But what propels this circulation has been uncertain. A study of mice, reported [yesterday] in Cell, suggests regular contractions of blood vessels in the brain, stimulated by the periodic release of a chemical cousin of adrenaline, push the fluid along. … The scientists also found that the sleep drug zolpidem, better known as Ambien, impedes the blood vessel oscillations and the fluid flow they promote, implying it could hamper cleansing. The finding could help researchers create new sleep aids that preserve this brain-scrubbing function.”
How Hitler Dismantled a Democracy in 53 Days (Gerry)
The author writes, “Ninety-two years ago this month, on Monday morning, January 30, 1933, Adolf Hitler was appointed the 15th chancellor of the Weimar Republic. In one of the most astonishing political transformations in the history of democracy, Hitler set about destroying a constitutional republic through constitutional means. What follows is a step-by-step account of how Hitler systematically disabled and then dismantled his country’s democratic structures and processes in less than two months’ time — specifically, one month, three weeks, two days, eight hours, and 40 minutes. The minutes, as we will see, mattered.”
Trump Says He Will Change the Name of the Gulf of Mexico. Can He Do That? (Reader Steve)
From the AP: “President-elect Donald Trump said Tuesday that he would move to try to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the ‘Gulf of America,’ a name he said has a ‘beautiful ring to it.’ It’s his latest suggestion to redraw the map of the Western Hemisphere. Trump has repeatedly referred to Canada as the ‘51st State,’ demanded that Denmark consider ceding Greenland, and called for Panama to return the Panama Canal.”
Lead in Gasoline Tied to Over 150 Million Excess Cases of Mental Health Disorders (Dana)
The author writes, “Exposure to lead in gasoline during childhood resulted in many millions of excess cases of psychiatric disorders over the last 75 years, a new study estimates. Lead was banned from automobile fuel in 1996. The study, published [late last year] in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, looked at its lasting impact in the U.S. by analyzing childhood blood lead levels from 1940 to 2015. According to the findings, the national population experienced an estimated 151 million excess mental health disorders attributable to exposure to lead from car exhaust during children’s early development. The exposure made generations of Americans more depressed, anxious, inattentive or hyperactive, the study says.”
The Militia and the Mole (Reader Jim and Sean)
From ProPublica: “Posing as an ideological compatriot, [John] Williams had penetrated the top ranks of two of the most prominent right-wing militias in the country. He’d slept in the home of the man who claims to be the new head of the Oath Keepers, rifling through his files in the middle of the night. He’d devised elaborate ruses to gather evidence of militias’ ties to high-ranking law enforcement officials. He’d uncovered secret operations like the surveillance of a young journalist, then improvised ways to sabotage the militants’ schemes. In one group, his ploys were so successful that he became the militia’s top commander in the state of Utah. Now he was a fugitive. He drove south toward a desert four hours from the city, where he could disappear.”
How Extreme Car Dependency Is Driving Americans to Unhappiness (Laura)
From The Guardian: “The car is firmly entrenched as the default, and often only, mode of transport for the vast majority of Americans, with more than nine in 10 households having at least one vehicle and 87% of people using their cars daily. Last year, a record 290m vehicles were operated on US streets and highways. However, this extreme car dependence is affecting Americans’ quality of life, with a new study finding there is a tipping point at which more driving leads to deeper unhappiness. It found that while having a car is better than not for overall life satisfaction, having to drive for more than 50% of the time for out-of-home activities is linked to a decrease in life satisfaction.”
NASA Is Watching a Vast, Growing Anomaly in Earth’s Magnetic Field (Sean)
The author writes, “NASA has been monitoring a strange anomaly in Earth’s magnetic field: a giant region of lower magnetic intensity in the skies above the planet, stretching out between South America and southwest Africa. This vast, developing phenomenon, called the South Atlantic Anomaly, has intrigued and concerned scientists for years, and perhaps none more so than NASA researchers. The space agency’s satellites and spacecraft are particularly vulnerable to the weakened magnetic field strength within the anomaly, and the resulting exposure to charged particles from the Sun.”
