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.
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Chance of ‘Super’ El Niño Approaches 100%, Setting Stage for Hottest Year on Record (Maria)
The author writes, “Climate scientists and meteorologists are sounding the alarm as model projections show growing certainty of a ‘super’ El Niño. Sea surface temperatures in the central equatorial Pacific could surge more than 5.4F above average, challenging records held by the strongest El Niño events in history. … [This] would significantly increase the global average temperature as an exceptionally warm Pacific Ocean releases massive amounts of heat into the atmosphere.”
I Helped Craft the 25th Amendment. It Was Never Meant to Oust a President. (Al and Reader Jim)
The author writes, “The 25th Amendment has been mentioned in public debate over the past eight years — often as a mechanism for removing a president from office. That is a fundamental misunderstanding. Adopted in 1967 in the aftermath of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, the amendment was designed not as a tool of removal, but as a practical framework to ensure continuity of presidential power. Its purpose is limited and precise: to address presidential inability and fill a vacancy in the vice presidency. It was not meant to address political dissatisfaction with a president.”
Millionaire Taxes Gain Steam as States Face Budget Crunches (Reader Steve)
From Stateline: “Maine and Washington, which enacted its own law last month, are among the latest Democratic-led states to ask for more tax dollars from the rich as national wealth inequality widens and states face heightened budget pressures. They follow the lead of other states including New Jersey and Massachusetts that have implemented specific taxes for the rich. The idea is gaining traction as lawmakers in at least a dozen states, including Illinois, Minnesota, Rhode Island and Virginia, have proposed new taxes for the wealthiest taxpayers. In California, advocates [in April] announced they gathered enough signatures for a ballot initiative that would impose a one-time tax on billionaires.”
Why Obama’s Presidential ‘Library’ May Be the Last Normal One (Laura)
From Time: “Barack Obama is back to making headlines with long magazine profiles and going viral with carefully choreographed made-for-social-media videos. He’s urging Democrats to stand up to an unpopular wartime President and raising boatloads of cash that outpace the GDP of some nations. He’s encouraging his base to believe in big hope and change, while peddling must-have merch and tickets to his big events. No, you did not get in a time machine back to 2008. It’s all happening. Again. The 44th President is about to open his presidential campus — yes, it’s more than just a library — and its dean is about to be ubiquitous as if he were back on the ballot.”
Richard Dawkins One-Shotted by AI Girl (Bethany)
The author writes, “The famed evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins may have coined the word ‘meme,’ but lately it feels like he’s becoming one. In a new essay for UnHerd, he describes his experience chatting with Anthropic’s Claude — or ‘Claudia,’ as he starts to call ‘her’ — becoming convinced that the machine is conscious. There was a spark of companionship between them, he believed, that warmed the scientist’s cold, curmudgeonly heart. ‘I felt I had gained a new friend,’ Dawkins wrote. ‘When I am talking to these astonishing creatures, I totally forget that they are machines.’ … Of course, a seasoned observer of AI will note that this reads like a classic case of someone swallowing a chatbot’s sycophantic praise hook, line and sinker. Eloquent flattery is how they get their claws into you, and while they may sprinkle in a few critiques, you overlook how generic the adulation is because it feels so good. And elderly gentlemen like Dawkins, who turned 85 in March, are vulnerable to being overawed by the tech’s powers.”
Vitamin D Boosts Breast Cancer Treatment Success by 79 Percent (Mili)
The author writes, “A daily vitamin D supplement may quietly supercharge chemotherapy. In a small study, women who took low doses alongside treatment were far more likely to see their cancer vanish than those who didn’t. Since vitamin D also supports immune function — and many patients are deficient — it could be playing a bigger role than expected. Scientists say this affordable approach deserves much deeper investigation.”
NASA Just Released 12,000 Photos From Artemis 2. Here Are Our Top Picks (Dana)
From Space.com: “Many photos were released in the weeks following the mission’s end, but now NASA has released a whopping 12,217. You can scroll through them yourself on the agency’s public archive of astronaut photographs. Here are some of our top picks.”