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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.
Cops Can Extract Data From 10,000 Different Car Models’ Infotainment Systems (Maria)
The author writes, “For anyone with a Honda or Nissan car, it was possible for a hacker with a laptop to unlock or start their vehicles, locate them and raid personal data stored inside, cybersecurity researchers warned on Wednesday. They could even honk the horn. The hack highlighted a weakness in modern vehicles’ internet-connected systems, in particular those that track vehicle use and location, while hooking up to drivers’ cellphones and sucking in user data. They’re the same technologies that are regularly being exploited by federal law enforcement agencies, with immigration and border cops investing more than ever before on tools that extract masses of data … from as many as 10,000 different car models. The latest vulnerability was due to a now-fixed flaw in the cars’ shared telematics system.”
75 Percent of Texas Voters Under Age 30 Skipped the Midterm Elections. But Why? (Reader Steve)
From The Houston Chronicle: “Young Texans voted in record numbers in 2018 — but four years later, with Democrat Beto O’Rourke at the top of the ticket again, participation among 18- to 29-year-olds fell flat. Just 25 percent of young people who were registered to vote cast a ballot this year. About 34 percent of the same group voted four years ago, while 51 percent of them did in the 2020 presidential election, according to a post-election report by Derek Ryan, an Austin-based GOP strategist and data analyst.”
Why America’s Railroads Refuse to Give Their Workers Paid Leave (Dana)
From Intelligencer: “Unlike nearly 80 percent of U.S. laborers, railroad employees are not currently guaranteed a single paid sick day. Rather, if such workers wish to recuperate from an illness or make time to see a doctor about a nagging complaint, they need to use vacation time, which must be requested days in advance. In other words, if a worker wants to take time off to recover from the flu, they need to notify their employer of this days before actually catching the virus. Given that workers’ contracts do not include paid psychic benefits, this is a tall order.”
Sam Bankman-Fried Doesn’t Read. That Tells Us Everything. (Russ)
The author writes, “Amid all the bombshell revelations about fallen crypto king Sam Bankman-Fried, a seemingly trivial bit of information might tell us everything we need to know: He doesn’t read books. If you’re anticipating a caveat or qualifier, you’re as out of luck as the FTX investors whose money SBF allegedly lost. ‘I’m addicted to reading,’ a journalist said to the erstwhile multibillionaire in a recently resurfaced interview. ‘Oh, yeah?’ SBF replied. ‘I would never read a book.’ Now, there are plenty of people who don’t read. This does not indicate that they are likely to end up accused of having robbed thousands of others of their fortunes in a speculative adventure that is part financial experiment, part Ponzi scheme. … The thing is, the reason counts. Behold, then, SBF’s reason: ‘I don’t want to say no book is ever worth reading, but I actually do believe something pretty close to that. … If you wrote a book, you f—ed up, and it should have been a six-paragraph blog post.’”
Britain Opened the Door to Online Gambling. Now It’s Living With the Consequences (Reader Andrew)
From Bloomberg: “On an August morning in 2016, Stewart Kenny, the co-founder of Paddy Power, was struggling to keep his emotions in check as he took his seat around the firm’s board table at its Dublin headquarters. The company he helped set up 28 years earlier had recently finalized a £7 billion ($8.4 billion) merger, making it one of the world’s biggest gambling companies. Paddy Power had led the transformation of the betting industry … into a digital wonderland where anyone with a smartphone could access a maze of blackjack tables, flashing slot machines, and virtual horse races. All the would-be bettors, or punters, across Britain now had a casino in their pocket, and with a flick of the finger they could win — or, more likely, lose — thousands of pounds on a single spin of a virtual roulette wheel. In just three years, the total amount lost in the UK online casino market had gone from £27 million to £2.66 billion.”
Deadly Bird Flu Outbreak Is the Worst in US History (Sean)
The author writes, “An ongoing outbreak of a deadly strain of bird flu has now killed more birds than any past flare-up in U.S. history. The virus, known as highly pathogenic avian influenza, has led to the deaths of 50.54 million domestic birds in the country this year, according to Agriculture Department data reported by Reuters. … That figure represents birds like chickens, ducks and turkeys from commercial poultry farms, backyard flocks and facilities such as petting zoos. The count surpasses the previous record of 50.5 million dead birds from a 2015 outbreak.”
Meteorite That Recently Fell in Somalia Turns Out to Contain Two Minerals Never Before Seen on Earth (Mili)
The author writes, “A giant meteorite that fell in Somalia in 2020 contains at least two minerals that have never before been seen on our planet. The minerals have been identified by researchers at the University of Alberta, according to a press release. Tons of space material enters the Earth’s atmosphere every day but very few actually survive the journey through the atmosphere and hit the ground. Instead, they tend to burn up instantly from the outside in, as friction with the atmosphere causes them to ablate. For this reason, few large meteorites reach the planet’s surface, and the one that fell near the town of El Ali in Somalia is definitely an exception. The celestial piece of rock weighs a massive 16.5 tons (15 tonnes), making it the ninth-largest meteorite ever found.”
