A lot of people were glued to their screens last week to see the brilliantly successful landing of the Mars rover Perseverance, and a lot of them noticed the crew’s diversity.

The Hawaii contingent included several women, such as University of Hawaii researcher Sarah Fagents. And on the mission floor at NASA were many people of color. Swati Mohan was calling out the mission milestones for the viewers: “Touchdown confirmed!” she said.

Persevere in STEM classes, kids. Science has room for you.

Recruiting (and retaining) police

To put a dent in its long-standing officer shortage, the Honolulu Police Department last year cut the application processing time from 14 months to just under five months, and added a recruit class to the calendar. Still, some new hires are quitting almost immediately after starting the six-month academy.

One of HPD’s newer goals is to set up an apprenticeship program to give prospective recruits a “simulation” of physical training and studying required of officers. That could help quickly sort out needed retainment potential.

This month, HPD was 324 officers short of the count it’s authorized to employ, 2,143 officers.