This article was originally published by High Country News.The first grainy film clip shows a black bear exploding out of the trail camera’s frame. In another, a mule deer stops munching wildflowers, backs away, and takes off in the opposite direction. In a third, a moose doesn’t move at all but stands there, vigilant.All three animals were reacting to sound bites from boom boxes in the woods, part of a study measuring the effect of outdoor recreationists’ noise on wildlife.

Even by the standards of today’s political ads, the video that recently roiled the Republican presidential race is not particularly subtle. In it, a talking head accuses Florida Governor Ron DeSantis of producing “some of the harshest, most draconian laws that literally threaten trans existence.” Headlines like “DeSantis Signs ‘Most Extreme Slate of Anti-Trans Laws in Modern History’” flit across the screen.

The chef presents me with a nugget of raw meat, tinged yellowish gray, then takes it back and drops it in a pan. “Today, you’re going to be having our whole-muscle chicken filet,” Daniel Davila tells me, searing the morsel. He lets it rest, chars some tomatoes and scallions, and throws together a beurre-blanc sauce. “Kind of a classic,” Davila says.

In early May, rumors swirled on social media about a mysterious book. Its title wouldn’t be announced until June 13, but it was slated for worldwide publication on July 9, with an initial print run of 1 million copies. Media coverage focused on fan speculation that the author was Taylor Swift, a theory that drove a wave of preorders of the still-unnamed project. However, some of us immediately deduced that the book was actually about the South Korean pop group BTS.

This is an edition of The Wonder Reader, a newsletter in which our editors recommend a set of stories to spark your curiosity and fill you with delight. Sign up here to get it every Saturday morning.I’ll admit right off the bat that I’m not much of a puzzler. Growing up, I always preferred the quick satisfaction of a book or a movie to the more frustrating challenge lurking in the Sunday paper.

This article was originally published in Hakai Magazine.In May 2022, California officials unanimously rejected a plan to build a $1.4 billion desalination plant in Huntington Beach. The plant, the officials said, would produce costly water and possibly harm the marine environment. The decision wasn’t an outright rejection of desalination, but it did highlight some of the problems that have made desalination an impractical solution to California’s water problems.

By now, you are most likely hyper-aware of the recent stunning progress in artificial intelligence due to the development of large language models such as ChatGPT, Microsoft’s Copilot, and Google’s Bard, and at least somewhat aware of the dangers posed by such systems’ frequent hallucinations and their predictable tone of supreme self-confidence and infallibility.

Earlier this week, a game of cricket turned into a diplomatic incident. England is involved in a five-match series with the touring Australian team. The second of these matches concluded on Sunday with an Australian victory assisted by the controversial dismissal—or “out,” as it would be in baseball—of an English batsman. Most informed commentators agreed with the game’s umpires that the dismissal was legal, but many onlookers felt it was unfair.