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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.
Judge Hears Arguments Challenging New York’s New Gun Law (Maria)
The author writes, “A lawyer challenging provisions of New York’s new gun law argued that the state restricts people from carrying weapons in too many places, telling a federal judge Thursday the rules affect not only people on busy Manhattan streets but an upstate pastor on his church’s property. The argument was made during a hearing before Judge Glenn Suddaby in Syracuse as he decides whether to temporarily order a hold on provisions of the law while the federal challenge to its constitutionality continues.”
She Wanted an Abortion. Now the Embryo Is Suing Her Doctors (Mili)
From Rolling Stone: “Four years ago in Arizona, a woman had an abortion. She was not ambivalent about the decision: She was upset to learn she was pregnant, scared of giving birth, and she did not want — she had never wanted — children. … Two years later, that woman’s ex-husband, Mario Villegas, created an estate for the aborted embryo, and filed a lawsuit on behalf of the embryo against the doctors and clinic who provided the abortion. Villegas accuses the clinic and doctors of failing to obtain his ex-wife’s informed consent, thus committing malpractice, causing the wrongful death of his potential child and violating his ‘fundamental right’ to parent.”
Supreme Court Trust, Job Approval at Historical Lows (DonkeyHotey)
From Gallup: “Forty-seven percent of U.S. adults say they have ‘a great deal’ or ‘a fair amount’ of trust in the judicial branch of the federal government that is headed by the Supreme Court. This represents a 20-percentage-point drop from two years ago, including seven points since last year, and is now the lowest in Gallup’s trend by six points. The judicial branch’s current tarnished image contrasts with trust levels exceeding two-thirds in most years in Gallup’s trend that began in 1972.”
CIA Doc Sent to Investigate Illness Developed Havana Syndrome (Mili)
The author writes, “A CIA physician who traveled to Cuba to get to the bottom of the mystery illness known as ‘Havana Syndrome’ wound up experiencing some of the same debilitating symptoms, he told CNN. … Dr. Paul Andrews (a pseudonym) told CNN medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta, MD, that within a day of arrival at his Havana hotel, he was awakened with severe pain in my right ear. I had a lot of nausea and a terrible headache, and I never suffered from headaches before,’ he said. ‘The amount of ringing in my ears was just astounding, and things were getting worse and worse and worse, and I started to hear the noise, and I’m really in disbelief.’”
Russian Railway Executive Found Shot to Death on His Balcony (Sean)
From Newsweek: “A top manager at a company that reportedly transported Russian military equipment for the war in Ukraine has been found dead. Pavel Pchelnikov, 52, was the director of communications at Digital Logistics, a subsidiary of Russian Railways. His body was found at 6.30 a.m. local time on Wednesday on the balcony of his apartment in central Moscow, local newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets reported. Police are investigating the death with Russian media reporting that the nature of his injuries suggested that he had committed suicide without specifying further. However, the website Top Cargo 200, which uses open source intelligence to track and publicize the deaths of senior Russian officers in their war in Ukraine, said Pchelnikov had been killed by a gunshot.”
‘It’s a Miracle’: Gran Abuelo in Chile Could Be World’s Oldest Living Tree (Laura)
The author writes, “In a secluded valley in southern Chile, a lone alerce tree stands above the canopy of an ancient forest. Green shoots sprout from the crevices in its thick, dark trunks, huddled like the pipes of a great cathedral organ, and water streams down its lichen-streaked bark on to the forest floor from bulbous knots in the wood. ‘It was like a waterfall of green, a great presence before me,’ remembers the climate scientist Jonathan Barichivich, 41, of the first time he encountered the Gran Abuelo, or ‘great-grandfather,’ tree as a child. … Taking the known ages of other alerces in the forest and factoring in climate and natural variation, he calibrated a model that simulated a range of possible ages, producing an astounding estimate of 5,484 years old.”
Why Do You Like the Music You Like? Science Weighs In. (Sean)
The author writes, “Have you wondered why you love a particular song or genre of music? The answer may lie in your personality, although other factors also play a role, researchers say. Many people tend to form their musical identity in adolescence, around the same time that they explore their social identity. Preferences may change over time, but research shows that people tend to be especially fond of music from their adolescent years and recall music from a specific age period — 10 to 30 years with a peak at 14 — more easily. Musical taste is often identified by preferred genres, but a more accurate way of understanding preferences is by musical attributes, researchers say. One model outlines three dimensions of musical attributes: arousal, valence and depth.”
