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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Venomous Sea Creature With 96 Arms Can Turn Itself Inside Out. See the New Species (Maria)
The author writes, “Partially buried in the sand of a beach in Singapore, a venomous sea creature spread its 96 arms. It was probably waiting for a meal to swim nearby. Instead, passing scientists spotted the multi-colored animal — and discovered a new species. ‘The animal was first encountered by a team of local citizen scientists more than a decade ago,’ researcher Nicholas Yap told McClatchy News in an email. … [Its name is] Macrodactyla fautinae, or the tiger anemone.”
South Carolina’s New All-Male Highest Court Reverses Course on Abortion, Upholding Strict 6-Week Ban (Reader Steve)
The author writes, “South Carolina’s newly all-male Supreme Court reversed course on abortion Wednesday, upholding a law banning most such procedures except in the earliest weeks of pregnancy. The continued erosion of legal abortion access across the U.S. South comes after Republican state lawmakers replaced the lone woman on the court, Justice Kaye Hearn, who reached the state’s mandatory retirement age. The 4-1 ruling departs from the court’s own decision months earlier striking down a similar ban that the Republican-led Legislature passed in 2021. The latest ban takes effect immediately.”
Ukraine Claims Crimea Landing in ‘Special Operation’ (Sean)
The author writes, “Kyiv has repeatedly said it aims to take back Crimea, which is recognized internationally as part of Ukraine but has been controlled by Russia since 2014, when Moscow’s forces seized the peninsula. Ukraine’s GUR intelligence agency said its special forces had landed overnight on Crimea’s western shore near the towns of Olenivka and Mayak, where they had ‘engaged in combat.’ ‘As a result, the enemy suffered losses among personnel. Enemy equipment was destroyed,’ it said, adding that the ‘state flag flew again in the Ukrainian Crimea.’”
The Corruption of Lindsey Graham (Gerry)
From The Bulwark: “The surrender to despotism doesn’t happen all at once. It advances in stages: a step, a rationalization. Another step, another rationalization. The deeper you go, the more you need to justify. You say what you need to say. You believe what you need to believe. So let’s go back to the beginning. Let’s see who Lindsey Graham was before he drank the poison.”
What Happens to All the Stuff We Return? (Reader Jim)
From The New Yorker: “Online merchants changed the way we shop — and made ‘reverse logistics’ into a booming new industry.”
A Mother’s Diet Can Protect Her Grandchildren’s Brains: Genetic Model Study (Mili)
The author writes, “Mothers who eat apples and herbs in early pregnancy could be protecting the brain health of their children and grandchildren, a study using genetic models has found. The discovery is part of a project that found a mother’s diet can affect not just her child’s brain but also those of her grandchildren.”
What’s to Be Done About the Wild Horse Herds of the American West? (Laura)
From Sierra: “The magic and myth of the mustangs seem to collide with the realities of landscape management, policy tussles, and laws that haven’t been meaningfully updated since the 1970s.”
