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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The Global War on Island Rats (Maria)
The author writes, “In 1959, voracious invasive rats were blamed for killing hundreds of white-faced storm petrels, a small seabird, on New Zealand’s Maria Island. In part to protect the birds, conservationists spread rat poison on the 2-hectare island, also known as Ruapuke. They didn’t intend to eradicate the rats but 5 years later were pleasantly surprised to discover that the rodents had disappeared, and the seabirds were safe. Today, that pioneering effort and others have helped inspire a global push to eradicate rats from many other islands. … That’s good news for conservationists, because although rats are considered the ultimate urban pest they may do their worst damage when they invade islands.”
In-Person Voting Begins for US Presidential Contest, Kicking Off the Sprint to Election Day (Reader Steve)
The author writes, “In-person voting for this year’s presidential election began Friday, a milestone that kicked off a six-week sprint to Election Day after a summer of political turmoil. Voters lined up to cast their ballots in Minnesota, South Dakota, and Virginia, the states with the first early in-person voting opportunities. About a dozen more states will follow by mid-October.”
Amazon, Tesla, and Meta Among World’s Top Companies Undermining Democracy (DonkeyHotey)
From The Guardian: “Some of the world’s largest companies have been accused of undermining democracy across the world by financially backing far-right political movements, funding and exacerbating the climate crisis, and violating trade union rights and human rights in a report published on Monday by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC). Amazon, Tesla, Meta, ExxonMobil, Blackstone, Vanguard and Glencore are the corporations included in the report. The companies’ lobbying arms are attempting to shape global policy at the United Nations Summit of the Future in New York City on 22 and 23 September.”
GOP Senate Candidate’s Business Received Millions From Bank Linked To Mexican Drug Cartel (Dana)
From AlterNet: “New financial documents have been unearthed raising questions about the bank run by Wisconsin Republican U.S. Senate candidate Eric Hovde. On Thursday, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported that Sunwest Bank — whose website lists Hovde as its chairman and CEO — was the recipient of a $26.2 million cash transaction from scandal-ridden, Mexico-based Banco Azteca. The paper reported that Banco Azteca flew four planeloads full of cash from Mexico to the U.S. last December as part of a currency conversion known as ‘repatriation.’”
Sunken Superyacht Believed To Contain Watertight Safes With Sensitive Intelligence Data (Reader Jim)
The author writes, “Specialist divers surveying the wreckage of the $40 million superyacht that sank off Sicily in August, killing seven people including British tech tycoon Mike Lynch, have asked for heightened security to guard the vessel, over concerns that sensitive data locked in its safes may interest foreign governments, multiple sources told CNN. Italian Prosecutors who have opened up a criminal probe into multiple charges of manslaughter and negligent shipwreck think the 56-meter (184-foot) yacht, the Bayesian, may contain highly sensitive data tied to a number of Western intelligence services, four sources familiar with the investigation and salvage operation said. Lynch was associated with British, American and other intelligence services through his various companies, including the cyber security company he founded, Darktrace.”
High Toxin Levels Are Illegal in Public Water. But Not for Americans Using Private Wells (Laura)
The author writes, “On a Tuesday morning in May 2021, during a brief period when Cathy Cochrane’s chemotherapy sessions had paused, her hair was beginning to grow back and the intense pain from the treatments was subsiding, she nervously logged into a Cowlitz County commissioner meeting to testify about what she believed had caused her ovarian cancer and her fears that others were in danger too. … The previous November, Cochrane discovered that the water she had been drinking for nearly a decade contained 638 parts per billion of arsenic, a toxin that can cause cancer and increase the risk of diabetes and heart disease. The maximum allowable level of arsenic in water for public utilities is 10 parts per billion — or 10 micrograms of arsenic per liter of water — meaning their water had nearly 64 times what would be legal in public drinking water.”
Some Mad Genius Put ChatGPT on a TI-84 Graphing Calculator (Sean)
From Wired: “On Saturday, a YouTube creator called ChromaLock published a video detailing how he modified a Texas Instruments TI-84 graphing calculator to connect to the internet and access OpenAI’s ChatGPT, potentially enabling students to cheat on tests. The video, titled ‘I Made the Ultimate Cheating Device,’ demonstrates a custom hardware modification that allows users of the graphing calculator to type in problems sent to ChatGPT using the keypad and receive live responses on the screen.”
