The Fourth Estate

Laguna Students Head to the Dump

Olivia Sofranko, Writer, Art Director — Wed, 06 May 2026 17:48:24 +0000

On April 22, 2026, Laguna students departed school at 11:30 am for a trip most would not expect to be excited for: the dump. Accompanied by their teacher, Mr. Faust, to the coastal Taijguas landfill in Goleta, the AP environmental science students would be given a detailed tour of the recycling unit, disposal site, compost area, and the area’s personal merchandise guard, Sam the Hawk.

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The Concerns of Facial Recognition

Maddy Osley, Staff Writer — Wed, 06 May 2026 17:44:58 +0000

Facial recognition has become very common in everyday life, from logging us in to our phones in a few seconds, to speeding up customs processing, to catching criminals. While its convenience is often praised, its expansion in public surveillance raises serious concerns. Facial recognition is a type of AI that maps the geometry of facial features–the distance between eyes and nose…

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Fri, 24 Apr 2026 20:51:17 +0000

TEDx Laguna Blanca School’s team began producing the event months before it kicked off. For one of the executive producers, senior Finlay Sutherland, the process begins with collaborative group discussions between staff. “At the beginning of every year, the first thing we do is find the theme,” he said. “We don’t do anything until we find the theme. We start by brainstorming through discussion…

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A Retrospect on TEDx

Niccolo D, Editor-in-Chief — Fri, 24 Apr 2026 20:47:43 +0000

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Claude on the Come Up

Bennett Sullivan — Fri, 24 Apr 2026 20:44:03 +0000

ChatGPT and its parent company OpenAI took the world by storm in 2022 when they released their first large language model, revolutionizing how people search and ask questions. They held a near 85% market share in the initial months of release, an astonishingly high fraction given the huge competition in the software as a service (SaaS) space. In its early years, ChatGPT’s dominance seemed…

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NIL Money: How the Current System is Ruining College Sports

Baylor Wilson, Writer — Fri, 24 Apr 2026 18:53:35 +0000

NIL stands for Name, Image, and Likeness and refers to the right of student-athletes to control and monetize their personal brand through endorsements, sponsorships, and social media. Introduced in 2021, NIL allows college athletes to earn money from their personal brand without losing their eligibility to play sports. In recent years, NIL money has exposed...

Stance of the Staff

Staff — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 21:34:33 +0000

You stare at the sun long enough, and it doesn’t matter if you look away; it is burned into your vision. An afterimage is what lingers after something has passed: a trace, a memory, or a consequence that shapes how we see the present. Most of us don’t notice how much of what we see is residue. We move through the day and respond to the present. But we’re always seeing through the imprint of…

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Red Revival: How Manchester United are Finding Their Form Again

Baylor Wilson, Writer — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 21:24:45 +0000

Last season, Manchester United struggled to find rhythm and consistency, finishing 15th in the Premier League, one of their worst seasons in history. Early in this season, they improved but still remained outside the top 6 leading into November. Under coach Rúben Amorim, the team failed to reach its full potential, dropping points in easy games and tying many matches. The players and fans were…

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The Frontline of Democracy

Niccolo D'Agruma — Mon, 16 Feb 2026 19:37:38 +0000

Small-scale protests bring communities together, spread awareness, build momentum, and demonstrate the power of the people. Not all demonstrations are intended to cause widespread radical change on the national stage, but rather to have an impact on the political environment at the local level, creating a base for further developments. Protesting is about conveying a message to the community and…

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Revisiting a Classic: A Review of “The Graduate” (1967)

Lilly Trautwein, Opinion Editor — Tue, 10 Feb 2026 04:44:05 +0000

The dramatic, somewhat problematic rom-com “The Graduate” grossed $104.9 million in box-office sales when it was released in 1967, making it the highest-grossing film of that year. That is over $1 billion today. But what made this movie such a wild success? Based on Charles Webb’s 1963 novella, the screenplay was written by Buck Henry and Calder Willingham and directed by Mike Nichols.

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