Southern California sees a growth of dual language immersion schools, the temptations of Pinterest's 'buy' button, Paul Dano plays a young Brian Wilson.
The benefits of language immersion for children
The number of dual language immersion schools in Southern California is growing. The schools teach kids as young as kindergarten-age in a language other than English.
Southern California Public Radio's Deepa Fernandes has the story of the Gomez family. For the past 12 months, their now 6-year-old daughter, Gemma, has been learning Mandarin.
It's apparent that Gemma Gomez really took to Mandarin. But what are the benefits for young kids being immersed in a dual language program? Kris Nicholls, president of the California Association for Bilingual Education, explains more in the bonus audio above.
The new Pinterest 'buy' button and consumer impulse buying
This week. the social media site Pinterest announced it had gotten very close to developing a "buy" button.
It would allow people to quickly and easily purchase items they see on the site.
Industry insiders have already been quick to proclaim that it could make the site bigger than Facebook or Twitter.
Alice Truong wrote about this for Quartz, and she tells more about how this simple button could up Pinterest's potential.
While financial experts nod in approval over the Pinterest "buy" button, many personal finance experts worry that it may present a big temptation for average Americans.
Kit Yarrow, a noted consumer psychologist, professor and author of the recent book, Decoding the New Consumer Mind, explains more about temptation and how the brain works.
One day this robot might save your life in a disaster
Watch DARPA Robotics Challenge »
Sitting in a lab on a swivel office chair is a robot worth a lot more than your car (probably more than your house) and it might one day save your life.
It's name is THOR, or Tactical Hazardous Operations Robot, and there are a couple of versions of it sitting around the Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory (RoMeLa) at UCLA. They're the creation of Dr. Dennis Hong, who runs RoMeLa, and his team of graduate students.
Dr. Dennis Hong leads the Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory at UCLA. Dennis Hong and his grad students have been working on versions of THOR for years. (Maya Sugarman/KPCC)
"I have a dream," says Hong. "In the future, when I become old, when I become a grandpa, I’m watching TV with my grandkids... And in the news there’s a burning building. And robots go into the burning building and rescue people. And I tell my grand kids… your grandpa developed that robot. How cool would that be?"
Notes fill a white board inside UCLA's Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory on Friday morning, May 8, 2015. (Maya Sugarman/KPCC)
What's motivated Hong is the same thing that's driven the folks over at the Defense Department's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA: they want to improve our ability to respond to catastrophes like the one at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Japan following the earthquake and tsunami in 2011.
After the tsunami hit, explosions occurred at the power plant because of a buildup of hydrogen gas. Experts say that some of the damage could've been mitigated if humans had access to the area. It was too dangerous for people, so the thought is that if robots could do what humans do in a disaster situation, but go where humans can't, we'll be better off. And that's why they launched the DARPA Robotics Challenge.
The competition pits robot against robot to complete a series of tasks that they might experience if they were deployed in an emergency situation.
The robots need to drive a vehicle through a maze, get out of it, open a door, walk through the door, open a valve, walk over rubble, clear debris, climb stairs and use power tools to punch a hole in a wall. And all of this happens within mock rooms that DARPA built at the Pomona Fairplex.
Disney gave advice to obstacle course designers for DARPA's Robotics Challenge at the Pomona Fairplex. The challenge was first motivated by the 2011 explosion at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant in Japan. (Maya Sugarman/KPCC)
The winner of the competition will walk away with $2 million at the end of it all.
But even though these robots are competing now, it doesn't mean that the technology is ready to save lives.
Take Hong's THOR, for example:
"When you see these robots, they walk really, really slow and they’re really unstable," says Hong. "I consider these as like two-year-old babies. They’re just starting to learn how to walk. But in the next three, five years, you’ll see something very impressive soon."
This giant red button works as a "kill switch" if THOR is about to break itself while going through a test. (Maya Sugarman/KPCC)
THOR ambles along like a toddler when it's told to walk, but a toddler might not be able to control a power tool, drive a vehicle or put a hole in a wall.
"Our robot was able to drive a car, it climbed up ladders — just one step for the trials. It opens and close all valves. It can open doors and go through doors. And it can go over a rubble pile. And basically the competition is designed after these scenarios."
The robots in the competition, including THOR, are semi-autonomous, says Hong, which means they aren't being controlled by someone with a joystick: “A good way to explain this is you give high-level commands. For example, 'Robot, open that door.' Then the robot needs to figure out what do you mean by 'door,' where is it, how do I open the door. But the humans are always in control.”
In a building on the other side of the Fairplex, teams will be giving commands, much like they would in a disaster scenario. And also just like in a disaster scenario, they'll lose their line of communication with their robot at random intervals, which is planned by DARPA. Because in a disaster scenario the robots will need to be able to figure out how to finish tasks and stabilize themselves and wait for the next command.
THOR RD, left, the latest generation of the robot; a THOR shell; and THOR OP stand inside UCLA's Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory on Friday morning, May 8, 2015. THOR was first developed at Virginia Tech with Dr. Dennis Hong. (Maya Sugarman/KPCC)
Compare real life robots to movie robots and you'll be disappointed. They're unstable, not completely autonomous and they still struggle with things like walking over uneven surfaces.
Getting in a car is another example of a normal everyday task that we take for granted. Because of the shift in weight and the movements required to squeeze into a seat, it's tough for scientists to program a robot to do the same. A real-world comparison? Think about the difficulty that an older person might have getting in and out of a car and compare that to what a robot has to do.
Still, the idea of failing doesn't phase Hong: "This is research. We don’t know if it is possible. It’s a challenge, but we need to do it so we’re doing it."
Battery life is also an issue. Most of the robots in the competition only have about a half hour of run time.
Even though you won't see these robots in a disaster situation tomorrow, maybe you will in the next five to 10 years, he says. Every little piece that works in a competition like this gets repurposed and moves into the next generation of machines.
And the ultimate hope is that they can be stationed in places like nuclear power plants so that, if disaster strikes, they can just undock and go help without human instruction.
That — and maybe they can make you dinner, Hong says:
"My dream is to have a butler robot, like Rosie the robot. Doing the dishes. Cooking the food. Let’s say we do have the technology to build a robot that can do all of that. We don’t, but let’s say that we have it. The cost is going to be more than the cost of a Ferrari... So I think we’ll see robots being used in real life where cost is not an issue. Like, for example, when human lives are at stake.
"You’ll probably see these robots being used in these type of scenarios first. And like cars and mass produced technology, the cost is going to go down and then it’s going to transfer to domestic use."
Inevitably one question kept coming up when I told people about this story: When are we going to have to bow down to our robot overlords?
Hong says that he gets this all the time and he's pretty tired of it. Dr. Gill Pratt, the program manager for the DARPA Robotics Competition, said something similar:
"I think that’s part of the difficulty that we have in this field, is that it’s very hard to get people to trust the machines even if the machines are in fact more trustworthy than a human being. They are not making their own decisions, and to be honest, a lot of human beings make pretty bad decisions too."
Don't project human intelligence into inanimate things, says Pratt. And Hong explains that we won't see a Chappie anytime soon.
"Walking with two legs, very difficult. You’re not going to see these robots used in real life in the next five years, maybe 10 years... [The artificial intelligence] that they describe in the movie Chappie, I think, is still science fiction... [The] arm manipulation. Those kind of things, I can easily see as being used in the next five years. Like an upper body on a tank tread for example... It sounds terrifying until it actually comes to you to save your life in an accident."
OK! OK! However, look at this thing from MIT.
If you'd like to see THOR and the other robots compete live, you can watch the stream here:
Paul Dano on playing Brian Wilson and singing The Beach Boys' classics in 'Love & Mercy'
The new film "Love & Mercy" tells the story of Brian Wilson, the troubled singer, songwriter and frontman of the legendary band The Beach Boys.
It's not a traditional biopic, though. The film takes two periods in Wilson's life— as a young man in the mid-60s in the band's heyday, and then during more trying times in the 1980s— and weaves them together.
Actor John Cusack plays the older Brian Wilson, and Paul Dano ("Little Miss Sunshine," "There Will Be Blood") plays the younger Wilson.
The film was made with the cooperation of the real-life Brian Wilson and his wife Melinda, and when the filmmakers set out to cast the role of Wilson in his younger years, Paul Dano was the only actor they had in mind.
Alex Cohen sat down with Dano to talk about taking on the role of Brian Wilson in "Love & Mercy."
INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHTS:
On why he wanted to wait to meet Brian Wilson
"I just wanted enough time to give myself creative license. I felt immediately like Brian is too sort of honest of a person to try to mimic, that wouldn't be the right way to go. So I actually just needed some time to explore the music and learn to start playing it and singing it. 'Cause I knew that Brian was in his music and I felt like that, more than anything, was what was most important and is what brought me closest to him and to the character. I then did meet him, and what was important in that was touching base with his presence. You know, he definitely has some magic, and you can feel it."
On when he knew that Brian Wilson felt comfortable with him taking on the role
“Brian has got such a beautiful voice and such a big range and people love him so much, to let me play and sing in the film, you know, that was a challenge and a risk. And I remember sending him and Melinda, I believe it was maybe me singing part of “You still believe in me" from Pet Sounds and they were really excited by it. And once I had heard that from them, then I felt like okay, I just have to now let myself fly, so to speak, and not be worrying about approval or anything like that.”
On the film's unique approach to portraying Brian Wilson's life
“What I love about the way that we approached the film is that I really think that we tried to look at Brian’s creativity and say 'How can we do this with the language of film what he did with the language of music?' Something that can go down smooth, but also be incredibly complex, you know, just like the music.”
To hear the full interview, click the link above.
Women's World Cup preview: What you need to know
This Saturday, the Women's World Cup kicks off in Canada. The U.S. and 23 other teams will compete all month long, vying to be the best in the world.
Laura Vecsey, who writes for Fox Sports, joined the show from Winnipeg, Canada where the U.S. will play in its first game Monday.
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'Tetris,' 'WoW' among games named to Video Game Hall of Fame
Make way for people running around in virtual reality helmets: The video game industry comes to Los Angeles later this month for the Electronics Entertainment Expo.
But before that gets going, the Strong National Museum of Play in New York recently announced the first inductees to the Video Game Hall of Fame.
The inaugural group includes classics like "Pong," launched in 1972, "Doom," from 1993, and 1985's "Super Mario Bros." Also joining the lucky first few are "Pac-Man," "Tetris" and "World of Warcraft," according to the Associated Press.
Mike Roe is Southern California Public Radio's resident video game expert, and shared his insight on the announcement.
Click on the blue player above to hear the story.
Yahoo and NFL team up to stream a football game
The NFL has partnered with Yahoo to test audience's appetite for streaming pro games; Wired's Issie Lapowsky explains.
Click on the player above to hear the interview.
UCLA's Blueprint marks latest CA magazine in recent months
Blueprint is the latest magazine – yes, a print publication – to come out of California in recent months, following California Sunday Magazine late last year.
But while California Sunday’s focus spans the west and Latin America, UCLA’s Blueprint is dedicated to public policy issues facing people right here in Los Angeles and across the southern part of the state.
Jim Newton is Blueprint's editor-in-chief, and joined the show with more.
Most support path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, Pew says
Whether or not those in the U.S. who are undocumented should have a chance at citizenship is among one of the most prominent immigration issues, but maybe not anymore. A new Pew Research Center poll found that most Americans support a path to legal status.
Carroll Doherty, director of political research at the Pew Research Center, joined the show to break down the numbers.
CatCon LA is coming. Here's what you should know
CatCon LA, the first of its kind, debuts this weekend in downtown L.A.
Just like it sounds, it's a convention for cat lovers.
But unlike a cat show, it's not where the most pedigreed fluff gets crowned. Instead, think Comic-Con: This is strictly for cat fans and cat culture (and it's not BYOC, so don't bring your own cat).
"I expect this to be a really big event, a big gathering of the who's who of the industry," says Scott Stulen, creator of the Internet Cat Video Festival in Minneapolis.
It's also a rare chance for cat lovers to meet up.
"CatCon LA is like an oxymoron. It's like an introverts' conference," says Mike Bridavsky, who's the owner/manager of Internet star Lil BUB.
Here are some of the highlights:
- Lil BIB and Bridavsky are two of the headliners. On Sunday afternoon, they'll host "Lil BUB's Big Show Live," with special guest Jack McBrayer from "30 Rock."
- Mayim Bialik ("Big Bang Theory," "Blossom") introduces a talk on debunking the cat lady myth.
- "You Can Be a Cat Guy and Still be Cool," hosted by Keith Bowers, senior editor of Catster magazine (formerly known as Cat Fancy).
- Nearly 100 vendors offering cat-themed merch, including cat yoga mats, cat bow ties and more.
Kitties and fashion, a purrrfect match
What's really buzzing in the fashion world these days?
It may surprise you – but it's cats! From cats on runways to the fascinating life of Taylor Swift's cat, Meredith Gray.
Michelle Dalton Tyree, founder of the blog, Fashion Trends Daily, joined the show for our regular segment, The Styled Side, to explain why cat fashions driven by the Internet are hot commodities
Weekend on the cheap: bread, bikes and more
We hope you're hungry SoCal, because this weekend is all about the food.
KPCC's social media producer Kristen Lepore shares some of the top happenings in L.A. that don't break the bank, including L.A. Bread Fest, Design-n-Dim Sum Bike Tour and an Etsy Craft Party.
Free weekend? OC Night Market, free donuts and LA Bread Fest