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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.
Used Routers Often Come Loaded With Corporate Secrets (Maria)
The author writes, “You know that you’re supposed to wipe your smartphone or laptop before you resell it or give it to your cousin. After all, there’s a lot of valuable personal data on there that should stay in your control. … At the RSA security conference in San Francisco next week, though, researchers from the security firm ESET will present findings showing that more than half of secondhand enterprise routers they bought for testing had been left completely intact by their previous owners. And the devices were brimming with network information, credentials, and confidential data about the institutions they had belonged to.”
Dominion Was Never Going to Save Our Democracy From Fox News (Sean)
The author writes, “Fox and Dominion reached a $787.5 million settlement just moments before opening arguments were set to begin in the Delaware trial. A jury had been selected, and everyone was preparing for what seemed likely to be a six-week trial that would scrutinize Fox’s broadcasting of false conspiracy theories that Dominion machines stole votes from then-President Donald Trump in 2020. … The settlement is unlikely to be welcomed by Fox critics who believed that a guilty verdict would serve a mortal blow to the network’s reputation. The idea was that Fox, on the ropes, should not be allowed to slip away by writing a settlement check and mumbling an insincere apology.”
What Are China’s Alleged ‘Secret Overseas Police Stations’? (Sean)
The author writes, “Police in New York have arrested two men for allegedly setting up a secret police station for a Chinese provincial police agency to collect information on opponents of the ruling Communist Party. Such offices have been reported across North America, Europe and in other countries where Chinese communities include critics of the Communist Party who have family or business contacts in China. China denies that they are police stations, saying that they exist mainly to provide citizen services such as renewing driver’s licenses.”
Controversial Arizona Bill Would Allow Factories to Treat Their Own Water (Reader Steve)
From Cronkite News: “A bill to let Nestlé treat wastewater at its proposed Glendale plant and pump that water into the aquifer, earning water storage credits to draw on in the future, is raising fears that it will pit businesses against other water users. Under SB 1660, industrial plants would not only be allowed to treat their wastewater on-site, but they would also earn long-term storage credits for treated water they put back in the aquifer. Companies could use those credits later to draw out 75% of the treated water they put in the ground.”
What’s the Future of Gas Stations in an EV World? (Laura)
From Inside Climate News: “A new forecast says the number of public fast-charging ports for electric vehicles will increase by 60-fold between 2022 and 2050 in the United States and Canada. That growth rate, from the research firm Wood Mackenzie, is notable on its own. But it begs a question: What kinds of businesses will be hosting all of those fast chargers? Will we be going to convenience stores like the kind that now sell gasoline? Or, will they be something new?”
Syphilis Cases at Highest Levels in 70 Years in Alarming Trend (Mili)
The author writes, “The number of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in the United States shows ‘no signs of slowing,’ new federal data shows. A total of 2.53 million cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis were recorded in 2021, according to a new report published [this month] from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s a 5.8% increase from the 2.39 million cases reported in 2020 and a 7% increase from five years ago when 2.37 million STIs were recorded in 2017.”
An Eagle Who Adopted a Rock Becomes a Real Dad (Dana)
From The New York Times: “Murphy the bald eagle waited day after day in his modest, yet carefully built nest for his one egg to hatch, but his keepers did not have the heart to break the news to him: The 31-year-old flightless bachelor was sitting on a rock. A usually mild-tempered bird, Murphy gently rotated his rock, less shaped like an egg than a small meteorite, as though to incubate it. He lay in the one spot all day, rising to squawk and charge at the other birds that dared to come near his nest at the World Bird Sanctuary in Valley Park, Mo. … Perhaps it was fate, then, when an orphaned eaglet, just a week or two old, was brought into the sanctuary this month, having survived a fall from a tree during a storm in Ste. Genevieve, Mo., about 60 miles southeast. In a way, Murphy was the ‘obvious choice’ for a foster parent.”
