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Kindergarten is important, but illness, tears make chronic absenteeism a challenge

Los Angeles Times

Things to Do in L.A. Tap to enable a layout that focuses on the article. Students arrive for the first day of school at 24th Street Elementary School. This is read by an automated voice. Please report any issues or inconsistencies here . Kindergartners have California's highest chronic absenteeism rates, with 26% missing at least 10% of school days in 2023-24.


ICE offers big bucks -- but California police officers prove tough to poach

Los Angeles Times

Things to Do in L.A. Tap to enable a layout that focuses on the article. This is read by an automated voice. Please report any issues or inconsistencies here . The Trump administration is offering hefty signing bonuses, student loan forgiveness and six-figure salaries to recruit ICE officers. California police agencies already struggling to hire and retain enough officers now face competition from the federal agency.


Predator drones shift from border patrol to protest surveillance

Los Angeles Times

Things to Do in L.A. Tap to enable a layout that focuses on the article. An unmanned Predator drone flies over Kandahar Air Field in southern Afghanistan in 2010. This is read by an automated voice. Please report any issues or inconsistencies here . MQ-9 Predator drones were deployed over Los Angeles to monitor anti-ICE protests in June.


14 award-winning images of our mighty oceans

Popular Science

The 2025 Ocean Photographer of the Year announced its winners this week. This photo was taken on April 1, 2024, off Point No Point, WA. In Puget Sound, there's a community of people who prefer watching orcas from the land rather than from boats. Land-based whale watchers in Puget Sound can sometimes get lucky, as these wild apex predators occasionally approach the shore, seemingly curious about their human spectators. My friend is one of those land-based whale enthusiasts, and April 1, 2024, was no ordinary day for her.



New species of coral named after Chewbacca

Popular Science

Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. While it's not helping fly the Millennium Falcon, marine biologists have discovered a new type of deep-sea coral in the western Pacific Ocean that bears a striking similarity to a certain beloved character. A new scientific analysis of the species initially documented almost two decades ago indicates that is its own species, with long, hairlike branches that live up to its namesake Wookie. Ten years later, another example was documented close to the Mariana Trench . But it would take a few more years before University of Hawai'i ecologist Les Watling noticed the strange, ethereal sight while reviewing research from some of his colleagues.


Japan political party to install AI leader

The Japan Times

An upstart Japanese political party said Tuesday it will install an artificial intelligence as leader after its maverick founder quit following a disastrous showing in recent elections. The Path to Rebirth party, which was launched in January by Shinji Ishimaru, a former mayor of a small city in western Japan, does not have a policy platform and its members are free to set their own agendas. Ishimaru unexpectedly came second in the 2024 Tokyo gubernatorial election thanks to a successful online campaign but he quit the party after it failed to pick up any seats in this year's upper house elections. The new leader will be AI, Koki Okumura, a doctoral student of AI research who described himself as an assistant to the new leader, told a news conference. Shinji Ishimaru, leader of The Path to Rebirth party, holds a news conference in August in Tokyo.


'I have to do it': Why one of the world's most brilliant AI scientists left the US for China

The Guardian

'I have to do it': Why one of the world's most brilliant AI scientists left the US for China In 2020, after spending half his life in the US, Song-Chun Zhu took a one-way ticket to China. By the time Song-Chun Zhu was six years old, he had encountered death more times than he could count. This was the early 1970s, the waning years of the Cultural Revolution, and his father ran a village supply store in rural China . There was little to do beyond till the fields and study Mao Zedong at home, and so the shop became a refuge where people could rest, recharge and share tales. Zhu grew up in that shop, absorbing a lifetime's worth of tragedies: a family friend lost in a car crash, a relative from an untreated illness, stories of suicide or starvation. "That was really tough," Zhu recalled recently. The young Zhu became obsessed with what people left behind after they died. One day, he came across a book that contained his family genealogy. When he asked the bookkeeper why it included his ancestors' dates of birth and death but nothing about their lives, the man told him matter of factly that they were peasants, so there was nothing worth recording. He resolved that his fate would be different. Today, at 56, Zhu is one of the world's leading authorities in artificial intelligence. In 1992, he left China for the US to pursue a PhD in computer science at Harvard. Later, at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), he led one of the most prolific AI research centres in the world, won numerous major awards, and attracted prestigious research grants from the Pentagon and the National Science Foundation. He was celebrated for his pioneering research into how machines can spot patterns in data, which helped lay the groundwork for modern AI systems such as ChatGPT and DeepSeek. He and his wife, and their two US-born daughters, lived in a hilltop home on Los Angeles's Mulholland Drive. He thought he would never leave. But in August 2020, after 28 years in the US, Zhu astonished his colleagues and friends by suddenly moving back to China, where he took up professorships at two top Beijing universities and a directorship in a state-sponsored AI institute.


Billion-dollar coffins? New technology could make oceans transparent and Aukus submarines vulnerable

The Guardian

Australia's forthcoming Aukus nuclear-powered submarines have been called the'apex predator of the oceans'. Australia's forthcoming Aukus nuclear-powered submarines have been called the'apex predator of the oceans'. Quantum sensing, satellite tracking and AI are part of an accelerating arms race in detection that should prompt a re-evaluation of Australia's defence strategy Military history is littered with the corpses of apex predators. All once possessed unassailable power - then were undermined, in some cases wiped out, by the march of new technology. " Speed and stealth and firepower," the head of the Australian Submarine Agency, Jonathan Mead, told the Guardian two years ago of Australia's forthcoming fleet of nuclear submarines.


Stunning moment UFO deflects Hellfire missile ignites debate over 'non-human' technology

Daily Mail - Science & tech

FBI under pressure over open airport five miles from Charlie Kirk assassination hit as private jet'vanishes' after shooting MSNBC analyst Matthew Dowd fired over'disgusting' on-air comments about Charlie Kirk shortly after conservative star was assassinated Elite sniper breaks down Charlie Kirk assassin's sick plot... and reveals tiny detail everyone's missed: The gun. MAUREEN CALLAHAN: Charlie Kirk's body wasn't even cold... before the fighting started again. Do these ghouls not see where this is headed? Charlie Kirk's powerful tribute to murdered Ukrainian refugee hours before his own assassination: 'America will never be the same' Musk dethroned as richest person by forgotten Wall Street darling's founder as stock soars 42% Charlie Kirk dead at 31: What we know so far about MAGA star's death at Utah campus that sent shockwaves around the world as FBI botches arrest and Trump promises ultimate punishment TMZ forced to apologize after staff heard erupting in laughter as Charlie Kirk's death was announced Sweater weather starts here - the cozy, chic pieces from Soft Surroundings you'll actually wear all season Trump issues Oval Office address over Charlie Kirk's assassination: 'This is a dark moment for America' Fierce debate erupts over'non-human' technology in space after video captures UFO surviving Hellfire strike Is this Charlie Kirk's killer? This Oscar-nominated actress, 68, will soon reunite with her ex in Spain for their daughter's wedding, can you guess who?