Pollen Count Is Up, But Who's Counting?

When Lawrence Gasman was looking for a PhD topic back in the 1970s, computing labs were already abuzz with smart people proposing clever studies in artificial intelligence. “But the problem was we had nothing to run them on,” he says. “The processors needed just didn’t exist.” It took half a century for computing power to catch up with AI’s potential.

PADANG, Indonesia — Heavy rains and torrents of cold lava and mud flowing down a volcano’s slopes on Indonesia’s Sumatra island triggered flash floods that killed at least 37 people and more than a dozen others were missing, officials said Sunday. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Monsoon rains and a major mudslide from a cold lava flow on Mount Marapi caused a river to breach its banks and tear through mountainside villages in four districts in West Sumatra province just before midnight on Saturday.

LOS ANGELES — Roger Corman, the “King of the Bs” who helped turn out such low-budget classics as Little Shop of Horrors and Attack of the Crab Monsters and gave many of Hollywood’s most famous actors and directors early breaks, has died. He was 98. Corman died Thursday at his home in Santa Monica, California, according to a statement released Saturday by his wife and daughters. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] “He was generous, open-hearted and kind to all those who knew him,” the statement said.

Enough is enough. That’s the message from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to the University of Pennsylvania, Columbia to the University of Chicago as U. S. colleges took a hard line against student protesters, resorting to arrests, suspensions and threats of expulsion to subdue unrest sparked by the Israel-Hamas war. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Graduation season is underway and families are descending on campuses for the festivities, raising the stakes for administrators seeking to ensure public safety.

Vladimir Putin replaced his long-serving defense minister with a trained economist in an unexpected change of guard that signals the focus on growing the Russian war economy more than two years after the invasion of Ukraine. Putin put forward his former economy aide and First Deputy Prime Minister Andrey Belousov, 65, to take over from Sergei Shoigu, 68, who was given a gentle demotion and put in charge of the security council.

Pittsburgh’s Steel Curtain. Dallas’ Doomsday Defense. Chicago’s Monsters of the Midway. L. A.’s Fearsome Foursome. Make way for Colorado’s Purple Rally Killers. On a Sunday afternoon when elite defense was paramount, the Rockies delivered a 3-1 victory to complete a three-game sweep of the defending World Series champion Rangers at Coors Field.