The Spartans (22-5, 13-3) have surged atop the highly competitive conference with their third straight win. The Wolverines (20-6, 12-3) fell out of first place with their first loss in seven games.
Michigan's Vladislav Goldin scored 21 points, Danny Wolf had 11 points, eight assists and seven rebounds, and Nimari Burnett added 12 points. The Wolverines led 38-34 at halftime and the Spartans went ahead for good on Carson Cooper's dunk early in the second half.
Michigan State's Richardson earned his first start of the season on Feb. 8 against Oregon. He scored a season-high 29 points that night and has scored in double-digits in every game since then, including Friday.
Jaden Akins had 11 points, Jeremy Fears scored 10 and Michigan State was 9 of 22 on 3-pointers.
Michigan State: Tom Izzo's team has put itself in a position to win a Big Ten title that wasn't expected to be in reach when the season began. The Spartans have games remaining against conference contenders: No. 11 Wisconsin, No. 20 Maryland and Michigan at home on March 9 in the regular-season finale.
Michigan: The school agreed to a multiyear contract extension for coach Dusty May, announcing the move two hours before tip off. May, a Bob Knight protege, made it clear he is happy and had no interest in being the next coach at Indiana.
Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren in "Yellowstone" prequel series "1923."
Trae Patton/Paramount+
"Yellowstone" prequel series "1923" returns to screens for season two on February 23.
It's been around two years since audiences were first introduced to the earlier generation of Duttons.
If you don't have time to rewatch season one, here's a recap of what's happened so far.
After a roughly two-year wait, "1923" is finally set to return to screens.
Season two of the Paramount Network drama, which stars Hollywood legends Helen Mirren and Harrison Ford, premieres on Sunday, February 23.
The series, created and written by Taylor Sheridan, is an origin story about an earlier generation of Duttons and their struggle to hold onto the land that makes up the "Yellowstone" ranch.
But as audiences who tuned into season one saw, there was more to "1923" than just the story of the Duttons.
In case you need a refresher on what happened, Business Insider has you covered. Here's a rundown of what went down in season one of "1923."
The Duttons' ownership of their Montana ranch was under threat.
Helen Mirren as Cara, Harrison Ford as Jacob, and Darren Mann as Jack.
Emerson Miller/Paramount+
Much of season one of "1923" revolved around the Duttons' battle to keep hold of their land and cattle. After angering a group of local sheepmen led by Scottish sheepherder Banner Creighton (Jerome Flynn), the family found themselves caught up in a range war.
By the end of the season, Banner had found a powerful ally in mining magnate Donald Whitfield (Timothy Dalton) who found another way to destroy the Duttons.
In the final moments of the season one finale, he showed up at the ranch with a signed document from the bank stating that the ranch's deed would revert to him if Jacob Dutton (Harrison Ford) did not manage to pay his property taxes by the end of the year.
As viewers saw throughout season one, Jacob has no way to pay the ranch's debts, having been denied a loan to purchase more cattle or hay, and is against the idea of taking out a mortgage.
There were two major deaths in the Dutton family.
John Dutton Snr. (James Badge Dale).
Paramount Network
Tragedy struck early on in season one when Jacob's nephew John (James Badge Dale) — who was originally introduced as a child in "1883" as the son of James and Margaret Dutton — was killed in a shootout with Banner and his men.
Beset by grief, his wife Emma (Marley Shelton) shot herself soon after, leaving behind their adult son Jack (Darren Mann) to help defend the ranch with Jacob and Cara (Helen Mirren).
The adventuring Spencer learned that he needed to return to the ranch.
Brandon Sklenar as Spencer and Julia Schlaepfer as Alexandra in "1923."
Paramount+
Before the series began, Spencer Dutton (Brandon Sklenar) left the family homestead in Montana to fight in World War I. When the war ended, he chose not to return and instead became a big game hunter in Africa.
He only learned of the peril at the ranch after his traveling companion Alexandra (Julia Schlaepfer) encouraged him to read a stack of unopened letters sent by his aunt Cara.
Once he did, the pair wasted no time in starting their journey back to Montana. He and Alexandra left Kenya via a rickety tugboat that ended up capsizing before being rescued by a cruise liner that took them to Sicily.
Once there, they boarded an England-bound liner, with plans to board another ship to America once there, hoping to make it back to Montana in time to save the ranch.
Spencer's homecoming was delayed.
Brandon Sklenar as Spencer.
Emerson Miller/Paramount+
Without realizing it, Spencer and Alexandra boarded the same ship as Alexandra's scorned ex-fiancé and his aristocratic family.
Tensions built up over the course of the weekslong journey, resulting in Alexandra's former flame, Arthur (Rafe Soule), challenging Spencer to a duel, which Spencer won. Afterward, Arthur pulled a pistol on Spencer, leading Spencer to throw him overboard in self-defense.
As a result, newlyweds Spencer and Alexandra were separated. Spencer made it ashore to the nearest port, and Alexandra vowed to reunite with him in Bozeman, Montana.
Jack and Elizabeth also faced heartbreaking news by the end of the season.
Darren Mann as Jack and Michelle Randolph as Elizabeth.
Christopher Saunders/Paramount+
Audiences saw another tragedy unfold when Spencer's nephew Jack and his wife Elizabeth (Michelle Randolph) discovered that she had had a miscarriage.
It came after she sustained an abdominal injury during a shoot-out earlier in the season, and it's suggested that this has affected her ability to carry children and continue on the Dutton name.
Native American teenager Teonna managed to escape her abusive boarding school.
Aminah Nieves as Teonna and Michael Greyeyes as Hank.
Christopher Saunders/Paramount+
Alongside Spencer's odyssey to return to the Dutton homestead, the first season of "1923" also focused on the homeward journey of Teonna Rainwater (Aminah Nieves).
After suffering abuse at the hands of some of the school's nuns, she eventually escapes.
While wandering the badlands, she reunited with her father, Runs His Horse (Michael Spears), and crossed the border from South Dakota into Wyoming. However, a determined Father Renaud wasn't far behind.
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Before the iPad, Apple saw a lot of success in K-12, but it was mainly around cart-based learning with MacBooks. While several schools had 1:1 programs, the iPad (and its $499 price point) kickstarted the mobility revolution. The iPad was a hit with students and teachers alike, but managing iPads at scale was, to put it mildly, a logistical nightmare for IT teams.
The family of a Queens man killed by a Palestinian teen in the West Bank is bracing to see the thug walk free as part of Saturday's hostage-prisoner exchange-- fearing further attacks as once-locked away "monsters" are released.
Democrats proved on Thursday during a press conference about protecting Medicaid that Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has become an inevitable policy discussion under President Donald Trump's second term.
Ahead of the National Governors Association’s winter meeting in Washington, D.C., this week, Democratic and Republican governors huddled within their respective parties to strategize and discuss policy. Democratic governors held a press conference on Tuesday, sounding the alarm on Trump’s threat to Medicaid and signaling a Democratic messaging priority.
"This is a life-and-death situation for so many of our citizens in all of our states. I'm more worried about DOGE," Gov. Ned Lamont, D-Conn., said. "I find the Department of Government Efficiency is leaking its way into HHS and everyplace else."
DOGE headlines dominated Trump’s first month back in the White House as Democrats protested weekly and called his executive orders a "constitutional crisis." When asked by Fox News Digital whether there’s a consensus among Democratic governors that its a "constitutional crisis," Lamont said, "It’s a budgetary crisis."
Lamont said it’s impossible to plan for unpredictable and last-minute budget cuts, adding that cutting Medicaid would cost $2 billion.
"It's not DOGE. It ought to be called dodge, a way to just push the costs on to our people," Lamont said.
The Connecticut governor said he supports rooting out fraud in the federal government, but he said that if DOGE expects states to pick up the costs on things like Medicare or Medicaid, then it would put people at risk.
"DOGE is pretty cruel. Let's be blunt about that," Gov. Josh Green, D-Hawaii, added. "These are people in our states that have worked long careers, very dedicated servants, and they're getting kicked out of their lives."
Green said he launched an initiative in Hawaii yesterday to hire employees who have been fired by the federal government.
"We're hoping to bring good people into the fold and help them heal through this process, and we will hire them. But at the end of the day, if there are deep cuts in budgets, we will all suffer and struggle to do that. There's a lot of great human capital out there, and this is just not the right way to go about things," Green said.
Fox News Digital asked the governors whether they had agreed on a messaging strategy to combat DOGE.
"It’s just not American. Honestly, I don't know how they came up with the plan to slash trillions of dollars in order to pay for tax breaks. Most Americans are going to be really upset when they lose fundamental services. My message is, we can be caring about our country and not just play to bombastic news moments," Graham said.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, D-N.M., said that governors work to make government more efficient every day.
"I think another unified message is we all want efficient, effective government," Grisham said. "I predict it will spend more on itself than it actually saves or finds cost savings or fraud. You know who finds fraud in health care and any number of other things? Governors do! And then we work with the federal government to make sure that we stamp that out across the country. If they were really interested in that, they would be working with us."
The Democratic governors urged more Republicans to stand up against Trump’s agenda. In the meantime, Grisham said that Democratic governors will continue to hold them accountable.
"They're not telling us the truth. They're using this effort to line the pockets of one or a few Americans and companies, and they have not found any significant waste or fraud. They have to keep correcting, or at least we're going to hold them accountable, and correcting those numbers. You want help making government meaningful and effective and efficient? You're looking at a team that delivers on that every single day," Grisham said.
President Donald Trump unleashed an earthquake on the U.S. immigration system during his first full month in office, quickly overturning Biden-era policies and overhauling how authorities conduct enforcement in the interior and at the border.
An order late Wednesday, which was implemented a day ahead of the administration's one-month mark, directed all federal agencies to identify all federally funded programs currently providing any financial benefits to illegal immigrants and "take corrective action." The order is intended to ensure that any federal funds to states and localities "will not be used to support sanctuary policies or assist illegal immigration."
But it was just the latest in what has been a battery of overhauls to the U.S. immigration system.
Trump, who ran his campaign centered on border security and cracking down on illegal immigration, got to work on day one of his administration — signing executive orders that declared a national emergency at the border and deployed the U.S. military. He also signed orders ending birthright citizenship for children of illegal immigrants, suspending refugee admissions and also ending the use of the CBP One app at the southern border to admit migrants via humanitarian parole.
Other orders included moves to restart border wall construction, which had ended under the Biden administration.
It wouldn’t take long before the moves were followed up by additional decisions from Cabinet agencies. The Pentagon quickly deployed troops to the southern border and also opened up Guantánamo Bay to flights of migrants.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) also issued orders that ended limits on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) imposed by the Biden administration on "sensitive" places, and also took limits on the use of expedited removal, allowing the rapid-fire removal process to be used more broadly after being limited by the prior administration. Another order allowed ICE to review the parole status of migrants brought in under parole, opening them up to deportation.
DHS has also gone after federal funding to migrant causes. Most recently, four Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) employees were fired and tens of millions of dollars taken back from New York City designated for hotels where migrants are being housed.
"Secretary [Kristi] Noem has clawed back the full payment that FEMA deep state activists unilaterally gave to NYC migrant hotels," a DHS spokesperson told Fox News Digital.
Meanwhile, the administration quickly moved to ramp up interior arrests and deportations. A number of high-profile raids were quickly launched across the U.S., particularly in "sanctuary" cities that do not cooperate with ICE agents. Daily arrests quickly moved above 1,000 a day, and officials pointed to a number of criminals and gang members that were picked up in the process.
According to DHS data, obtained by Fox News Digital, there were 11,791 interior ICE arrests from Jan. 20 to Feb. 8, compared to 4,969 during the same period in 2024. That’s a 137% increase.
Arrests of aliens with criminal histories have soared by nearly 100% from 4,526 in the same period in 2024 to 8,993 under Trump this year. Arrests of fugitive aliens at-large, meanwhile, have gone up from 2,164 to 5,538, a 156% increase. Arrests of criminal aliens in local jails have risen 59%.
The new Trump era has seen the rapid unwinding of a number of Biden-era programs. Fox News Digital confirmed on Wednesday that DHS has now paused pending applications for three Biden-era programs: Uniting for Ukraine; parole processes for Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela (CHNV); and family reunification programs.
Trump had already ordered an end to the use of some Biden-era parole programs on day one, including CHNV. He had also ordered the end to the practice of paroling migrants at ports of entry who had made appointments on the CBP One app.
At the time, the Biden administration touted the expansion of "lawful pathways," claiming they were part of an effort to reduce illegal crossings, but Republicans accused the administration of abusing limited parole power and allowing in migrants who should not legally have entered.
The Trump administration has also suspended refugee resettlement, which had expanded under the Biden administration. It has also frozen funding to foreign nations, which was a cornerstone of the "root causes" strategy championed by the prior administration.
Migration strategies often require foreign cooperation, and the Trump administration used diplomacy and tariff threats to secure additional cooperation with neighbors and other countries in the region.
Both Canada and Mexico agreed to ramp up their border security efforts after Trump floated new tariffs on incoming goods from their countries. Meanwhile, both Venezuela and Colombia agreed to take back their immigrants being deported, with Colombia’s president backing down after a public clash with President Trump.
Guatemala, separately, agreed to accept deportees from other countries as part of a deal hashed out with Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
So far, there are indications that border numbers continue to trend lower with the new administration.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) apprehended just 29,116 illegal immigrants along the southern border during the month of January, down from 47,000 in December and hitting a low mark not seen since May 2020, when 32,349 arrests were made at ports of entry, according to a White House press release.
Meanwhile, border czar Tom Homan said this week that Border Patrol "has encountered a total of 229 aliens across the entire southwest border" in a single day and rallied around President Trump, saying, "He is delivering."
"That is down from a high of over 11,000 a day under Biden," he said. "I started as a Border Patrol Agent in 1984, and I don’t remember the numbers ever being that low."
Fox News' Michael Lee and Bill Melugin contributed to this report.
Elon Musk’s remarks at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Thursday drew praise from those who were pleased with the cuts being made by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
"I wasn't really that interested in being political. It’s just like there was at a certain point no choice," Musk said at the event in Maryland while wearing a black MAGA hat and sunglasses. "The actions that we’re taking, with the support of the president and the support of the agencies, is what will save Medicare, what will save Social Security."
"That's the reason I'm doing this," he added. "Because I was looking at the big picture here, and it's like, man, it's getting out of control."
"A country is no different from a person," he continued. "[A] country overspends, a country goes bankrupt in the same way as a person who overspends usually goes bankrupt. So, it's not optional to solve these things, it's essential."
Matthew Kochman, a New York Real Estate broker, said that DOGE cuts "probably saved the country from financial collapse."
"I thought it was all just common sense," Kochman said of Musk’s comments.
When attendees were asked about the proposal to use 20% of the money from the cuts across the board to go toward a stimulus check for American taxpayers, some raised questions about whether the funds should help pay down over $36 trillion in national debt.
"I’m not sure I agree with the sending money back. I would just assume money going to pay down our debt, because it is an existential threat," Angie Carrai, of Vienna, Virginia, said, adding that Musk's comments have "tapped into what a lot of people feel" about taxes being wasted on "ridiculous" programs.
However, Kochman said he believes that taxpayers should get some of their money back but thinks it should also help pay off the debt.
Speaker Mike Johnson has also raised concerns about the pitch from Musk and Trump, saying that the United States needs to "pay down the credit card" with the $2 trillion objective amount to be slashed through DOGE.
Pat Dennis, President of the left-wing American Bridge 21st Century opposition research firm, told Fox News Digital after watching Musk’s remarks that he’s concerned about cuts to programs that benefit Americans.
"He was talking about cutting programs that everyday Americans rely on, things like Medicaid," Dennis said. "The implication that massive percentages of these programs just can be unilaterally cut because they’re fraud is not real."
"People rely on these, voters rely on these, families rely on these, people in Republican districts rely on these," he added.
DOGE made headlines in recent weeks for taking aim at spending through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) as well as grants doled out through various cabinet agencies.
Fox News' Peter Pinedo and Liz Elkind contributed to this report.
A climate group linked to high-profile Democrat Stacey Abrams was granted $2 billion by the Biden administration in a "scheme" of "wasteful" spending, the Trump administration's leading environmental agency has revealed.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently made a revelation that the Biden administration was allowing just eight entities to distribute $20 billion of taxpayer dollars "at their discretion."
Included in the funds was a $2 billion grant to Power Forward Communities, a nonprofit with ties to former Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams that seeks to "reduce our impact on the climate" by financing the replacement of household appliances in lower-income communities with green alternatives.
Abrams, who lost the Georgia gubernatorial race in the 2022 midterms, reportedly "played a pivotal role" in establishing the group, according to a LinkedIn post by Ian Magruder, who works at one of the coalition's partners, Rewiring America.
"If you care about clean air, land and water, if you think there are some communities that have been left behind, then why aren't you spending a dollar actually remediating that issue instead of paying off your friend," EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin told Fox News' Laura Ingraham.
The $2 billion was used for the "decarbonization of homes" in low-income communities and paid for new household appliances, such as water heaters, induction stoves, solar panels, EV chargers, and weatherization, according to an April 2024 press release from Power Forward Communities.
Zeldin told Fox News that in 2023, Power Forward Communities reported just $100 in revenue but was later granted $2 billion by the Biden-era EPA in 2024.
The climate group was given only 21 days to distribute the $2 billion, and another 90 days to complete a training session called "How to develop a budget," Zeldin said.
"I would say that if an organization needs to take a training on how to develop a budget, one, they should be taking the training before they are spending a dollar, but they definitely shouldn't be getting two billion [dollars]," the administrator told Fox News.
"The entire scheme as set up is fraud, it's wasteful, it's abuse," he said.
Zeldin also noted the EPA found a potential "conflict of interest" payment of $5 billion to the former director of the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund under Biden.
"All this money was put up front," Zeldin said. "It was ‘here is $20 billion.’ And it was going to their friends on the left."
The news that the Biden administration gave $2 billion to a climate group linked to Abrams was first reported by the Washington Free Beacon.
Fox News Digital reached out to Rewiring America, Power Forward Communities and Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund for comment.
It’s hard to keep up with all the news about all the giant gassy orbiters out there. I’m speaking, of course, about hot Jupiters, a class of planets that takes the concept of “inhospitable” to dazzling and creative new levels, and which had an epic news week.
Then, what did scientists find in cores taken from deep-sea trenches? The answer might surprise you. Next, mice administer “first aid.” Last, fish can see you for who you really are (though yummy treats will certainly not be refused).
Hot Jupiters Are So Hot Right Now (and at All Other Times)
Hot Jupiters are the low-hanging fruit of exoplanet discoveries. As the name implies, they are Jupiter-sized worlds that orbit extremely close to their stars, a proximity that makes them—you guessed it—hot.
Given that they are both giant in scale and have short years lasting only hours or days, hot Jupiters are the easiest exoplanets to spot, which is why our catalog of distant worlds is packed with them. In fact, a study came out just this week that identified seven new ones.
But while it’s not all that novel to discover these worlds (which is kind of amazing in itself), scientists have now peered deep into the atmosphere of the hot Jupiter WASP-121, nicknamed Tylos, which is about 850 light years from Earth. It’s the first time several distinct atmospheric layers and processes have been observed on an exoplanet.
“Ultra-hot Jupiters, an extreme class of planets not found in our solar system, provide a unique window into atmospheric processes,” said researchers led by Julia Seidel of the European Southern Observatory (ESO). “Here we show a dramatic shift in atmospheric circulation in an ultra-hot Jupiter” including “the first vertical characterization of a high-altitude, super-rotational atmospheric jet stream.”
Tylos is slightly bigger than Jupiter, but it is so close to its star that its year lasts only 30 hours. As a consequence, it is tidally locked, meaning that one side is always facing the star, and the other always faces away. The star-lit side is about 2,300°C (4,200°F) which is, as advertised, quite hot. Using the ESO’s Very Large Telescope, the researchers spotted the aforementioned equatorial jet stream and saw flows of hot gas moving from the hot day side to the cooler night side—which is still pretty hot at around 700°C (1,340°F).
The weather report on Tylos is permanently fatal with a chance of titanium rain, according to a third study that came out this week (that’s a hot Jupiter hat-trick). Taken together, the research represents a new emerging era of exoplanet observations in which astronomers can peek under the hood of these distant atmospheres and start to get a real vertical cross-section of otherworldly skies.
Down the line, this will lead to better characterizations of the atmospheres of potentially habitable exoplanets, which could contain detectable signs of alien life. But for now, on this late winter weekend, let's be satisfied with warming ourselves into certain oblivion in the bellies of hot Jupiters.
To cool off, we shall now dive straight into the deepest parts of the ocean, the hadal zone, where strange things are inherently afoot. Scientists took sediment cores from seafloors at depths of over 4.6 miles in the Japan Trench which is, in my opinion, asking for trouble. But in this case, the results revealed an activity that you might not expect to find in one of the most inhospitable places on Earth—farming.
I should just say, the “farmers” are probably invertebrates, like sea cucumbers or bivalves, that cultivate microbes that help break down organic matter for them. Still, a basic form of “agrichnial” farming is preserved in trace fossils, like burrows, the team found in the cores.
Trace fossils of burrows in the cores. Image: Hovikoski, Jussi et al
“The hadal zone, >6 km deep, remains one of the least understood ecosystems on Earth,” said researchers led by Jussi Hovikoski of the Geological Survey of Finland. The cores open a rare window into this otherworldly region and reveal “slender spiral, lobate and deeply penetrating straight and ramifying burrow systems…interpreted to include burrows of microbe farming and chemosymbiotic invertebrates.”
The study also gets points for its title, “Bioturbation in the hadal zone,” which sounds like an early aughts prog rock album. \m/
Somebody Call an EMT! (Emergency Mouse Technician)
Humans produce a lot of selfish psychos, if you hadn’t noticed, but one nice thing about our species is we generally share a prosocial instinct to help people during a medical crisis. As it turns out, we’re not alone in this behavior, according to a new study that monitored the reactions of mice to ailing, unconscious, or dead conspecifics.
“Anecdotal observations across several species in the wild, including nonhuman primates, dolphins, and elephants have reported intriguing behaviors of animals toward unresponsive conspecifics that have collapsed because of sickness, injury, or death,” said researchers led by Wenjian Sun of the University of Southern California. “These animals…display various behavioral responses, including touching, grooming, nudging, and sometimes even more intense physical actions, such as striking, toward the collapsed peers. Some of these actions toward incapacitated conspecifics are reminiscent of human emergency responses, especially those involving sensory stimulation.”
To bring these anecdotal reports in an experimental setting, the team videotaped mice responding to cagemates that had been anesthetized into unconsciousness, as well as their reactions to dead mice. The r mice interacted with unconscious cage-mates about ten times as much as with an active partner, and may have even performed basic versions of first aid.
“Our results suggest that the actions of mouth/ tongue biting and tongue pulling may have rescue-like effects, reminiscent of human first aid efforts in reviving unconscious individuals with physical stimulation and airway maintenance,” the researchers said.
“The consequences of the behaviors, such as improved airway opening or clearance and expedited recovery, are clearly beneficial to the recipient,” they added, though they also cautioned that “it is challenging to determine the motivational needs behind these distinctive ‘reviving-like’ behaviors.”
Familiarity played a strong role in the experiment's outcome; mice heaped much more attention on dead or unconscious cage-mates that they knew well compared to strangers. At the risk of anthropomorphizing, it’s kind of sad to think about these mice being confronted with their passed-out or dead friends, but the silver lining is an empirical validation of widespread prosocial behaviors.
I’m also going to assume it means that the Disney franchise The Rescuers, starring mice humanitarians, is a documentary.
The next time you go for an ocean swim, why not introduce yourself to some neighboring fish? They might learn to recognize you as an individual and start following you around, especially if you give them something nice to eat. That’s the conclusion of a new study that found fish can tell individual divers apart based on visual cues—and that they rapidly learn which divers are generous with treats (in this case: shrimp).
Researchers Maëlan Tomasek and Katinka Soller conducted several dives at the STARESO research station in Corsica, France. Soller was the designated shrimp dispenser, and the wild fish “volunteers” rapidly learned to distinguish her visually from Tomasek, the shrimp miser.
Tomasek with fish “volunteer.” Image: Maëlan Tomasek
“Two species voluntarily took part in our experiments: saddled sea bream O. melanura and black sea bream S. cantharus,” said the researchers. “Of specific individuals, the saddled bream (Bernie) was first identified at dive 5 of the training, four black bream at dives 12 (Left Hump), 15 (Kasi), 19 (Alfi), 21 (Julius) and the last black bream (Geraldine) on the first session of experiment 1. Note that this marks the moment from which we were able to reliably identify them (i.e. identify with absolute certainty at each apparition from one dive to the next) but that they most likely appeared several days prior to this.”
First of all, fantastic names. I’m already shipping Julius and Geraldine as a celebrity fish couple called Juladine. Left Hump will officiate the wedding. But setting aside the fish fanfic, the team demonstrated that the fish learned to visually tell the researchers apart, leading to a clear preference for following Soller.
“The fact that wild bream can discriminate between divers adds scientific evidence to the numerous accounts suggesting differentiated relationships between fish and specific humans,” the team said. “Our study thus encourages a reappraisal of the methodological avenues to study cognitive abilities of wild fish under natural conditions.”
“It also demonstrates a potential difficulty when conducting such experiments that could be disturbed by fish following specific experimenters,” the researchers said, concluding with an implied wink: “Researchers might not always want to be followed all around by fish, but if they do, they will not be disappointed.”
I moved from Chicago to San Diego to be with my long-distance boyfriend, who's now my husband.
Although my friends were jealous I was moving to a sunny "paradise," San Diego wasn't for me.
I found the weather to be boring, and I didn't like how hard it was to get around without a car.
After living in Chicago for six years, I had a fulfilling career, great friends, and was involved in several organizations.
I would've happily stayed there forever, but my then-boyfriend (now husband) was in the Navy. We'd been in a long-distance relationship for seven years, and we wanted to be together.
In July 2023, I moved to where he was currently located: San Diego.
When I told my Midwest friends and colleagues about my move to California, some of their eyes would grow wide with envy.
Many of them — some who'd never been to San Diego — would tell me how lucky I was to move to a sunny "paradise" with so many beaches.
I would smile and nod, but I was actually very reluctant to move. Eventually, I learned firsthand why the sunny city wasn't the right home for me.
San Diego's sunny weather bored me
The nice weather made it easy for me to enjoy San Diego's beautiful hiking spots, but I got bored of all the sunshine.
Chelsey Stone
Although many of my Midwest friends envied the idea of year-round beach weather — especially during frigid winters — I wasn't a fan of it.
Having grown up in California, I actually took perverse delight in the adversity of Chicago's cold and snowy winters. I was amazed at how the city carried on, no matter the weather conditions.
I loved having white Christmases like in the movies I watched as a kid. I reveled in Chicago's changing seasons, dining outdoors in the spring and summer, bundling up in the winter, and watching the leaves change in the fall.
Meanwhile, San Diego's weather is almost always sunny and in the 60s. Eventually, I even removed the weather app from my phone's home screen because I felt there was no point in checking it anymore.
Although the sunshine was nice when I wanted to visit the beach or one of the area's great hiking trails, I grew bored by the lack of seasonal change and even missed the difficulties Midwestern winters can bring.
I missed needing to wear the sweaters my nana had knit to keep me warm in Chicago — and being able to comfortably visit the beach on Christmas just felt wrong to me.
I struggled to adjust to living in a car-centric city
Before moving, I'd visited my partner many times, so I knew just how car-centric San Diego is. However, I didn't have (or need) a car in Chicago and had no desire to purchase or own one.
Since San Diego is also a sunny beach town, I assumed cycling to get around would be popular, convenient, and easy enough. I soon discovered that was not the case.
Unfortunately, many of the city's neighborhoods and downtown areas didn't feel well connected for biking. I struggled to find bike lanes, and my map apps often directed me to cycle on roads that were basically highways.
Eventually, I began trying to run or walk to places instead, but that, too, proved challenging as I often encountered missing sidewalks or busy roads.
On the bright side, I was pleasantly surprised by San Diego's public transportation. To be fair, coming from Chicago — a big city with extensive bus and train options — I had very low expectations.
Although it was nice to be able to take public transit, it sometimes took me an hour or more and several connections to travel throughout San Diego.
Eventually, I accepted that San Diego and I just don't have compatible priorities when it comes to getting around. Living here reminded me how much I prefer walkable cities to car-centric ones.
Sometimes it was even hard to enjoy the beaches
San Diego is beautiful, but it was hard to watch people litter and leave trash on its beaches.
L. Toshio Kishiyama/Getty Images
Many of my Midwestern friends were jealous of just how many beautiful local beaches I'd have access to in San Diego.
Unfortunately, these beaches also drew in many tourists and visitors — and I didn't always know if I'd be able to fully enjoy them.
I moved to California just before the Fourth of July 2023, and I still remember my run around Mission Bay the day after the holiday weekend that brought me to tears.
Our nearby beaches were covered in abandoned pool floaties, broken camping chairs, and food bags that couldn't fit in overflowing trashcans. Rummaging seagulls further dispersed the garbage as I gagged on the stench of stale beer.
Hundreds of people had come into my new home, partied all night, left their trash, and now the beach had a serious hangover.
Unfortunately, this incident in 2023 wasn't the first (or last) time locals and volunteers were left to clean up messes partygoers left behind during holiday weekends.
It never got easier to watch my home being treated so poorly.
After a year in California, I was excited to leave
I couldn't have been more excited about the prospect of living in a walkable city with changing seasons and ample public-transportation options once more.
Although I understand why many love San Diego, it just wasn't for me — and I've been happy spending my days in DC exploring museums instead of lounging on the beach.
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