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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.
Shhhh — ChatGPT Now Has an Incognito Mode (Maria)
The author writes, “ChatGPT is one of the most popular AI tools at the moment, but it’s still lacking some fairly basic privacy features — just ask Italy. The service is now rolling out a mode that will keep your conversations relatively private. OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, DALL-E, and other tools, has announced a new option for ChatGPT to turn off your chat history. By default, your chat history is saved. … That could be helpful for the companies warning their employees against using ChatGPT for fears that their confidential data could be integrated (intentionally or otherwise) into AI models.”
Tucker Carlson Has Lost His Job — But the Far Right Has Won the Battle for the Mainstream (Michaela)
The author writes, “Carlson is merely one figurehead of a misinformation industry that has dramatically reshaped rightwing politics across the world. Defined by conspiratorial thinking, often crude racism and bigotry, and calculated deception, it has succeeded in destroying whatever barrier existed between the traditional center right and what lies beyond. Carlson — or indeed the modern godfather of this movement, Donald Trump — are easy to single out on account of their vulgarity and open repudiation of respectability. This allows the mainstream right that originally courted and enabled this extremism to evade responsibility.”
Police Shot Atlanta Cop City Protester 57 Times, Autopsy Finds (Laura)
From The Intercept: “It looks like Manuel ‘Tortuguita’ Terán was executed by firing squad — underscoring why we must stop the massive police training center.”
Third Grade Teacher in Texas Gets Reprimanded for Teaching Students About Their ‘Legal and Constitutional Rights’ (Reader Steve)
From In the Know: “Sophie Marie (@soph4president), a third-grade teacher in Austin, Texas, recently came under fire for certain ways she conducts her class. Her attire was also a point of contention. … ‘OK, so today I got pulled into a “check-in meeting” with my administrator at school, and she had this lovely list of concerns that she wanted to bring to my attention,’ Sophie explains. … Included in the list is the concern that Sophie is ‘intentionally’ teaching her third-grade students about their rights.”
There’s Already a Solution to the Crisis of Local News. Just Ask This Founding Father. (Al)
The author writes, “Given the sudden interest in public policy to support community media — bills to help local news are popping up in both Congress and in state legislatures around the country — it’s worth revisiting and truly understanding the significant government intervention in newspapers that began in the founding era and continued until the mid-20th century.”
Us Dollar on the Brink of Collapse? Top Financial Analyst Thinks So (Sean)
From Cryptopolitan: “Renowned American geopolitical and financial cycle expert Charles Nenner has issued a dire warning about the future of the US dollar, suggesting that it may be on the verge of collapse. Nenner, who has accurately predicted various economic trends in the past, believes that the dollar’s days as the world’s reserve currency could be numbered due to the increasing influence of the BRICS nations and the potential for global conflict.”
Warmer Climate May Drive Fungi To Be More Dangerous to Our Health (Mili)
The author writes, “A [recent] study finds that raised temperatures cause a pathogenic fungus known as Cryptococcus deneoformans to turn its adaptive responses into overdrive. Heat increases its number of genetic changes, some of which might presumably lead to higher heat resistance, and others perhaps toward greater disease-causing potential.”
Has the ‘Tully Monster’ Mystery Finally Been Solved After 75 Years? (Dana)
The author writes, “The state fossil of Illinois is a strange creature with stalked eyes and a long nose-like appendage with teeth, dubbed the ‘Tully monster.’ Specimens typically measure just 15 centimeters (about 6 inches), but the tiny creatures sparked a major decadeslong scientific debate over whether they should be classed as vertebrates or invertebrates. That mystery may now have been solved, according to a team of Japanese scientists who claim their 3D scans of a generous sampling of fossils rule out the vertebrate hypothesis. They described their findings in a recent paper published in the journal Nature.”
