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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
Pendulums Under Ocean Waves Could Prevent Beach Erosion (Maria)
The author writes, “Climate change is giving us stronger, more destructive ocean waves, which in turn exacerbate already serious coastal erosion issues. With this in mind, researchers are designing a new underwater engineering project that could help literally swing the pendulum back in humanity’s favor. As first highlighted by New Scientist on Sunday, a team at the Italian National Research Council’s Institute of Marine Science are working on MetaReef — a system of upside-down, submersible pendulum prototypes capable of absorbing underwater energy to mitigate wave momentum. Although still in its laboratory design phases, MetaReef is already showing promising results.”
Red States Are Fighting Their Blue Cities (Al)
From FiveThirtyEight: “The tug of war between state and local power is an old one. Local governments, whose responsibilities are not outlined in the U.S. Constitution, have different levels of authority depending on the state, and it’s not always clear exactly what authorities localities have. ‘It is very much a gray zone,’ said Christine Baker-Smith, a research director at the National League of Cities. ‘The only place where it’s clearly not a gray zone is when there is clear, clear guidance around a certain policy area.’”
Hounded by Baseless Voter Fraud Allegations, an Entire County’s Election Staff Quits in Virginia (DonkeyHotey)
The author writes, “Lindsey Taylor loved running elections here. The previous registrar had spent nearly three decades in the job, and Taylor, 37, hoped to do the same when she was hired in 2019. She loved her staff and the volunteer poll workers, and she took pride in the detail-oriented work. She implemented dozens of new laws in 2020, ran elections through the pandemic and impressed many in the rural, conservative, tight-knit community of Buckingham County. But then the voter fraud claims started.”
Cancer and Heart Disease Vaccines ‘Ready by End of the Decade’ (Sean)
From The Guardian: “Millions of lives could be saved by a groundbreaking set of new vaccines for a range of conditions including cancer, experts have said. A leading pharmaceutical firm said it is confident that jabs for cancer, cardiovascular and autoimmune diseases, and other conditions will be ready by 2030. Studies into these vaccinations are also showing ‘tremendous promise,’ with some researchers saying 15 years’ worth of progress has been ‘unspooled’ in 12 to 18 months thanks to the success of the Covid jab.”
Biden Is Fulfilling Trump’s Cruel Policy on Wild Horses (Laura)
From The Intercept: “The Biden administration was supposed to have been a reprieve from the Trump years, but for conservationists who want the wild horses of the American West to live long and prosper, this didn’t happen. The anti-horse policies formulated under Donald Trump have been dutifully carried out by his liberal successor. ‘We feel betrayed, because we thought this was an administration that really believed in wildlife protections,’ Manda Kalimian, president of the wild horse and environmental advocacy group Cana Foundation, [said]. ‘For all the hope we placed in Biden, it turns out he’s almost worse than Trump when it comes to wild horses.’”
Floodwaters Rushing Back to California’s Long-Dead Tulare Lake (Reader Steve)
From the San Francisco Chronicle: “The storied Tulare Lake is re-emerging. The rivers and creeks that fed it have swelled with so much rain and snowmelt that they’re overwhelming the dams and levees designed to hold the water back. Already, a small inland sea has formed. When the wind picks up, there are even waves and whitecaps. The stunning influx of water has set off what many fear is a slow-rolling crisis. Farmland is being submerged and roads and rural homes are going under.”
Ojibwe Woman Makes History as North Dakota Poet Laureate (Michaela)
The author writes, “North Dakota lawmakers have appointed an Ojibwe woman as the state’s poet laureate, making her the first Native American to hold this position in the state and increasing attention to her expertise on the troubled history of Native American boarding schools. Denise Lajimodiere, a citizen of the Turtle Mountain Band in Belcourt, has written several award-winning books of poetry. She’s considered a national expert on the history of Native American boarding schools and wrote an academic book called Stringing Rosaries in 2019 on the atrocities experienced by boarding school survivors.”
