Editors’ Picks for Feb 3
What Mysterious ‘Cauliflowers’ Found by the Mars Rover Tell Us about Life on the Red Planet, The Intercept’s Kerfuffle, California’s AG Files Charges Over Methane Gas Leak, and More Picks.
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.
Palestinian Poet’s Sentence Reduced from Beheading to 8 Years in Prison and 800 Lashes (Gerry)
Ashraf Fayadh’s crimes include: renouncing Islam, storing images of women on his phone, and cursing against Allah and the Prophet Muhammad.
Mysterious “Cauliflowers” Generate New Hope for Life on Mars (Gerry)
Strange mineral formations discovered inside a Martian crater by one of NASA’s Rovers may point to bacterial action back in the Red Plant’s warmer and wetter past. The formations, which look like tiny heads of cauliflower, may have been “sculpted” by long-extinct Martian microbes. Or … maybe not.
Reporter for The Intercept Makes Up Quotes, Gets Fired (Klaus)
A messy situation is developing over at The Intercept.
Generals Want Women to Register for the Draft (Klaus)
Now that women can serve in combat, a couple of generals think that they should also have to register for the draft.
Could Records of the Woman Who Ran DC Prostitution Ring Affect 2016 Election? (Klaus)
The lawyer for the infamous “D.C. Madam” wants to release her records and claims that the information contained in them could impact the 2016 presidential race.
CA Attorney General Files Charges Over Porter Ranch Natural Gas Leak (Trevin)
Lawsuit alleges that the Southern California Gas Company did not report the leak “in a timely manner.”
Study: The Trans-Pacific Partnership Will Cost US a Half Million Jobs, Drag Down GDP (Trevin)
Tufts University’s Global Development and Environment Institute reports that the comprehensive trade agreement will actually increase the gap between the world’s rich and poor.
