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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.
Cyberattackers Knock US Airport Websites Offline (Maria)
The author writes, “An apparently coordinated denial-of-service attack organized by pro-Russia hackers rendered the websites of some major US airports unreachable early Monday, though officials said flights were not affected. The attacks — in which participants flood targets with junk data — were orchestrated by a shadowy group that calls itself Killnet. … ‘We noticed this morning that the external website was down, and our IT and security people are in the process of investigating,’ said Andrew Gobeil, a spokesman for Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. ‘There has been no impact on operations.’”
Judge Aileen Cannon Treated a Public Letter About Trump’s Health as More Sensitive Than America’s National Security (DonkeyHotey)
The author writes, “As I have shown, had Judge Aileen Cannon left well enough alone, the government would have handed all Category B documents identified by the filter team back to Trump on September 1. Instead, she deliberately inflicted what she herself deemed to be further harm on Trump to justify intervening in the search of Trump’s beach resort. And now she may have caused even more harm. That’s because, by means that are not yet clear … the inventories from both Category A (government documents that deal with a legal issue) and Category B (more personal documents) were briefly posted on the docket.”
A Parents’ Lawsuit Accuses Amazon of Selling Suicide Kits to Teenagers (Mili)
The author writes, “Amazon is facing a lawsuit accusing it of selling so-called suicide kits, brought by the families of two teenagers who bought a deadly chemical on the company’s website and later used it to take their own lives. The parents of 16-year-old Kristine Jónsson of Ohio and the parents of 17-year-old Ethan McCarthy of West Virginia say the retail giant assisted in the deaths of the two minors by selling them sodium nitrite, a food preservative that is fatal at high levels of purity.”
The Satanic Temple Takes Aim at Idaho, Indiana Abortion Bans (Reader Steve)
The author writes, “Religious organizations have long been involved in the debate over Idaho’s strict abortion laws, with Catholic priests, evangelical Christian groups and others frequently lobbying lawmakers and filing legal briefs in support of abortion bans. Now The Satanic Temple is also weighing in. The Salem, Massachusetts-based group, which doesn’t believe in a literal Satan but describes itself as a ‘non-theistic religious organization,’ sued Idaho in federal court … contending that the state’s abortion bans infringe on the rights of members who may want to practice the temple’s ‘abortion ritual.’”
Three COVID Scenarios That Could Spell Trouble for the Fall (Sean)
From Medscape: “In the United States, more than 300 people still die every day from COVID and more than 44,000 new daily cases are reported, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). But progress is undeniable. The stark daily death tolls of 2020 have plummeted. Vaccines and treatments have dramatically reduced severe illness, and mask requirements have mostly turned to personal preference. Epidemiologists and other medical experts laud the progress$%, but as they look at the maps and the numbers, they see several scenarios ahead that signal a coming wave of disease, among them more-resistant variants coupled with waning immunity, the potential for a ‘twindemic’ with a flu/COVID onslaught, and underuse of lifesaving vaccines and treatments.”
The World’s Oldest Winged Insect Is in Trouble. How Frightened Should We Be? (Laura)
The author writes, “When we think about the environment, we tend to think big. As in air, ocean, rainforest and the globe itself. The same holds true about species in peril. Whales, elephants, California condors and other large animals get a lot of press. But insects? Unless they’re the darlings of the bug world — think honeybees and monarch butterflies — they’re pests to be avoided. ‘It’s really hard to get people to care about an insect,’ says Richard Knecht, a paleobiologist at Harvard University’s Museum of Comparative Zoology. ‘People say, “Well, what’s that got to do with me?”’ When it comes to the mayfly, I have learned that the answer is: more than you might imagine.”
Crocodile Crawling — Bizarre Back Relief Exercise Takes China by Storm (Dana)
From Oddity Central: “Thousands of people in China are taking up ‘crocodile crawling’ classes, a weird type of back relief exercise inspired by the movement of a crocodile. Multiple news outlets in China have been reporting on a new health trend with dozens of people joining large groups and moving around on all fours. Viral videos shot in large cities like Xiangshan and Changsha show long lines of people all dressed the same and wearing industrial gloves to protect their hands as they slowly move around on their hands and feet. The movement is supposed to strengthen back muscles and relieve back pain if practiced regularly, for a long enough period of time.”
