Scientists just caught a black hole swallowing a star — and burping a bit back out

An illustration shows a star torn up by a black hole’s strong gravity. The black hole is launching a powerful jet of matter into space. (NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center/Swift) Astronomers have caught black holes in the act of murdering stars before. But a study published Thursday in Science claims to have caught a step in the crime that has remained elusive until now. [This is what it looks like when a black hole tears a star apart] In addition to catching evidence of the star's destruction -- an inevitable death caused by the massive, inescapable gravitational pull of a dense supermassive black hole -- the scientists saw a hot flare of matter escape from the scene of the crime. You can basically think of it as a hot plasma burp. The researchers say this is the first time anyone has successfully picked up the radio signal produced by this jet of escaping matter. These black hole jets have been seen before, but they've never been directly linked to a star being torn apart -- and the phenomenon remains pretty mysterious. According to NASA, when a star gets too close to a black hole, intense tidal forces rip the star apart. This animation shows how some of the stellar debris is flung outward, while the rest falls toward the black hole causing a distinct X-ray flare that can last for a few years. "These events are extremely rare," study author Sjoert van Velzen, a Hubble fellow at Johns Hopkins University, said in a statement. "It's the first time we see everything from the stellar destruction followed by the launch of a conical outflow, also called a jet, and we watched it unfold over several months." [Astronomers make a remarkable discovery in the center of the Milky Way] The deceased star was quite similar to our own, but sat a staggering 300 million light years away. It was done in by the type of supermassive black hole thought to sit in the center of most galaxies -- including our own. Ohio State University scientists were the first to catch the murder in progress using an optical telescope, which they announced online in 2014. Along with researchers from the University of Oxford, van Velzen used different telescopes to gather optical, radio, and X-ray signals from the event as it unfolded. The researchers hope that they'll be able to catch more black hole burps


Photos: The brilliant Beaver Moon over Washington, D.C.

The Beaver Moon over Reston, Nov. 25, 2015. (Doug Errett via Facebook) On both Thanksgiving eve and Thanksgiving night, the November Beaver full moon beamed in the night sky over the D.C. region. [Full ‘Beaver’ moon Wednesday and Thanksgiving nights] Mostly clear skies and mild temperatures made for delightful viewing, and the photos captured by readers are spectacular. The moons closing out 2015 sure have festive timing. The next full moon, the Cold Moon, arrives on Christmas morning, Dec. 25. Here’s a compilation of the some of the top shots of the Beaver… Full moon rising over D.C., Nov. 25, 2015 (Jim Havard via Flickr) Full moon rising over D.C., Nov. 25 (Phil Yabut via Flickr) Full Beaver moon setting, Nov. 27, 2015. (Kevin Wolf via Flickr) The Beaver Moon over Bel Air, Md., Nov. 25, 2015. (John Kunzelman via Facebook) The beaver full moon rises over D.C.’s city center, Nov. 25, 2015 (Phil Yabut via Flickr) Full moon rising over #WashingtonDC this evening. @capitalweather @SteveRudinABC7 @spann @TomKierein https://t.co/6G49PIFXre Love the moon in Fairfax @capitalweather https://t.co/5IncbiXcTn lovely night in DC @capitalweather @TheNationalMall @weatherchannel @JimCantore @AMHQ https://t.co/KhYrmvnS9l Tonight's moon topping the Washington Monument @capitalweather @weatherchannel @JimCantore @Anaridis @StormHour https://t.co/vhZ5BqxkJf @capitalweather Got a couple of decent pics of a stunning Thanksgiving moonrise over the Chesapeake Bay last night https://t.co/v9mQfAtQB8 @hbwx @wusa9 @capitalweather @universetoday @SkyandTelescope @SPACEdotcom @EpicCosmos Full Beaver Moon maria hilites https://t.co/j0ka3qgTkg Moon rising over the Chesapeake on Thanksgiving evening. Beautiful weather today! @JustinWeather @capitalweather https://t.co/OgtXlxirDb


A ground zero forgotten

a violation of the grand bargain of the treaty: that states refrain from obtaining such weapons if the United States and others negotiated the elimination of their stockpiles. The United States is extending the life of its warheads, shrinking but updating its weapons infrastructure, and planning to construct a new fleet of submarines with nuclear-armed missiles. The price tag on this modernization plan? One trillion dollars over the next 30 years, according to the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies. Even though the United States has reduced its stockpile by 86Â percent from its Cold War high, this reinvestment in nuclear arms doesnât sit well with a poor island nation that has actually felt what nuclear war would be like. Last year the RMI filed lawsuits against the United States and the eight other nuclear-armed nations, alleging noncompliance with the Non-Proliferation Treaty. The news caught most Marshallese, including RMI officials, by surprise. The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation in California engineered the lawsuits in collaboration with deBrum, who has been their cheerleader. The suits were filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco and to the International Court of Justice. The U.S. Justice Department, in its motion to dismiss, implied that the lawsuit is a stunt that has no business in the court system. A federal judge in San Francisco dismissed the suit in February (the RMI appealed), and itâs a nonissue in the international court, since the U.S. government does not recognize that courtâs jurisdiction. No matter, deBrum says. Itâs the principle of the thing, particularly in this year of the 70th anniversaries of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and with next yearâs 70th anniversary of the first atomic test in the Marshalls. He comes to the country heâs suing a couple of times a year, to preach about the connection he sees between a nuclear past and a climate-change future. Just 45 minutes away from Majuro by air, 500 Bikinians are struggling on Kili, a rocky island without a lagoon where their elders were exiled. A ship bearing food and diesel arrives every three months, if the weather behaves. In February, the yearly king tide washed completely over the island, fouling freshwater reservoirs. DeBrum is lobbying Congress to amend U.S. law to definitively allow Bikinians to use their resettlement funds to relocate to the United States. âHow can you separate nuclear from climate with Bikini and Kili?â deBrum says during a


A ground zero forgotten

evacuation âWhat youâre seeing with climate change is that itâs a whole nation now, not a specific island anymore. And itâs all because of these big colonial powers just doing whatever they want, and weâre bearing the brunt of it.â Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner, who teaches Pacific studies at the College of the Marshall Islands and recited a poem about sea-level rise at the U.N. Climate Change Summit last year âDeep sense of lossâ âNuclear issues are forever.â This is Tom Armbruster, the U.S. ambassador to the RMI since 2012. Outside his office window is a balcony with a peach-colored balustrade, beyond which the ocean laps over crushed coral on the outer edge of Majuro, where the average elevation is six feet. Tom Armbruster, the U.S. ambassador to the Marshall Islands. ''A lot of these people are living with those ghosts,'' Armbruster says of the nuclear testing legacy. (Dan Zak/The Washington Post) âA lot of these people are living with those ghosts,â says Armbruster, bald, lanky and considered by many Marshallese to be savvy and empathetic. âItâs part of our shared history, part of our Cold War. Weâre not going to go back and try to understand the decisions. But there are things we can do now.â He lists them: encouraging the resettlement of Rongelap, sending a couple of Marshallese students to California to study nuclear issues, building drinking-water catchments, strengthening disaster management plans. The U.S. Embassy considers the Marshall Islands to be on the front line of climate change, which manifests most dramatically during late-winter king tides. In March of last year, 1,000 people evacuated Majuro as the surge pulled homes into the ocean. âClimate change is my nuclear experience,â says Mark Stege, 37, who grew up in Majuro, studied at Columbia University and is now director of the Marshall Islands Conservation Society. âI can see a lot of connections at the emotional level, and the community level, at the individual family level. The same questions are relevant in both situations. Thereâs this really deep sense of loss.â On the afternoon of Nuclear Victims Remembrance Day, Armbruster hosts the unveiling of a U.S.-funded memorial at an outdoor basketball court near the college. The court is named after Solomon Sam, the only Marshallese service member in the U.S. military to die in Iraq or Afghanistan. Painted in white text on a blue wall is a written tribute to the Marshallese who have


The DEA has failed to eradicate marijuana. Some members of Congress want it to stop trying.

provision in the upcoming spending bill that would strip half of the funds away from the DEA's Cannabis Eradication Program and put that money toward programs that "play a far more useful role in promoting the safety and economic prosperity of the American people": domestic violence prevention and overall spending reduction efforts. Each year, the DEA spends about $18 million in efforts with state and local authorities to pull up marijuana plants being grown indoors and outdoors. The program has been plagued by scandal and controversy in recent years. In the mid-2000s, it became clear that the overwhelming majority of "marijuana" plants netted by the program were actually "ditchweed," or the wild, non-cultivated, non-psychoactive cousin of the marijuana that people smoke. More recently, overzealous marijuana eradicators have launched heavily armed raids on okra plants and warned the Utah legislature of the threat posed by rabbits who had "cultivated a taste for the marijuana." Last year, the DEA spent an average of roughly $4.20 (yes, really) for each marijuana plant it successfully uprooted. In some states, the cost to taxpayers approached $60 per uprooted plant. The program has also proven to be ineffective. The idea behind pulling up pot plants is to reduce the supply of marijuana, thereby reducing its use. In 1977, two years before the program's introduction, less than a quarter of Americans said they'd ever tried pot, according to Gallup. By 2015, after 36 years of federal marijuana eradication efforts, the share of Americans ever trying pot nearly doubled, to 44 percent. Given that marijuana is legal in some form or another in nearly half of the nation's states, some lawmakers are saying enough is enough. "The seizure of these plants has served neither an economic nor public-safety nor a health-related purpose," Lieu and his colleagues write. "Its sole impact has been to expend limited federal resources that are better spent elsewhere." The letter-writers note that the provision to strip $9 million in funding from the program passed on voice vote earlier in the year, "without any opposition from either party." They urge leadership to include the provision in a must-pass spending bill later this year. Lieu doesn't want to stop there: Next year he intends to introduce a measure "to eliminate the program completely," he said earlier this year. Whether that actually happens will probably depend on how this year's measure fares during upcoming spending bill negotiations.


Russia won’t appeal doping ban

A view of the Russian Olympic Committee headquarters, which also houses the management of All-Russian Athletics Federation in Moscow. (Maxim Shemetov/Reuters) Russia won’t fight the ban doled out by the International Association of Athletics Federations earlier this month amid allegations that several top athletes from the country participated in a vast, systematic and “state-sponsored” doping program. The IAAF confirmed the news in a statement on Thursday after the organization’s council met in Monaco. “Council was today informed that written confirmation had been received yesterday from [the All-Russia Athletic Federation] accepting their full suspension without requesting a hearing as was their constitutional right,” the IAAF announced. The ARAF also told the council it would “cooperate fully and actively with the team” as the IAAF moves forward with its own inspection of the report by the World Anti-Doping Agency that was released earlier this month. The report called into question some results from the 2012 London Olympics and claimed Moscow’s anti-doping lab destroyed over 1,000 test samples and engaged in other suspicious activities. “It may be the residue of the old Soviet Union system,” Richard W. Pound, lead author of the report and former WADA president, said at a news conference in Geneva on Nov. 9. Pound added that the the widespread corruption “was worse than we thought.” Pound concluded that the country should be banned from the Rio Olympics next summer, an outcome Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin, would like to avoid. ARAF’s ban from competition at this point won’t necessarily affect its Olympic participation, but it will affect more immediate competitions — including its right to host the Race Walking World Cup and the World Junior Championships next year, according to the Guardian. It will ultimately be up to the IAAF to decide whether to reinstate ARAF, a stipulation Russia agreed to according to IAAF’s statement on Thursday. In the meantime, IAAF is fighting back at allegations made by the German media outlet ARD and others that it has been complacent on the problem of doping. “The IAAF cannot sit idly by while public confidence in its willingness to protect the integrity of its sport is undermined by allegations of inaction/incompetence that are based on bad scientific and legal argument,” the organization said in a statement on Friday. “Instead it has both a right and an obligation to set the record straight.” The document, which accompanies a lengthy and


A successful Paris climate treaty may not be enough to keep temperature rise below 2 degrees Celsius, study warns

Paris talks, when world leaders will try to cement an international accord to stop the sharp rise in atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases from fossil-fuel burning. More than 150 countries have announced pledges to reduce or scale back emissions through the year 2030. [The great thaw] U.S. officials have acknowledged that pledges aren’t enough to ensure that the temperatures remain below the 2-degree mark. In the Science study, a team of 15 researchers sought to calculate the odds for keeping the Earth’s temperatures below that threshold, using different scenarios ranging from no further pollution cuts to aggressive and continuing steps to ratchet back on emissions. In an optimistic case — assuming countries honor their Paris commitments and continue to make further pollution cuts — the chances of holding the temperature rise to below 2 degrees improves, but only to about 30 percent, the study found. Real success depends on a “robust process that allows pledges to be progressively tightened over time,” said the researchers, a group of U.S. government scientists and academics from the University of Maryland and other institutions in the United States and Austria. “It is important to note that this round of [pledges] that countries are submitting only extend through 2025 or 2030,” said Allen Fawcett, a government economist and the lead author of the study. While success in Paris will “reduce the probabilities of extreme warming,” the treaty must be followed by “further post-2030 reductions that would improve the odds” of meeting the 2-degree goal, he said. [Greenhouse gases hit new milestone, fueling worries about climate change] The researchers found that, in order to ensure a strong likelihood of keeping temperature rise in a moderate range, nations will eventually have to achieve a “net-zero” or even “negative” emissions, meaning future emissions are offset by capturing the excess carbon through re-forestation or through new technologies that prevent greenhouse gases from entering the atmosphere. The idea is to deploy carbon-capture technologies on a scale “greater than, or equal to the amount emitted from all other sources,” said Gokul Iyer, the study’s lead scientist at the Joint Global Change Research Institute, a collaboration between the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the University of Maryland “These scenarios include rapid emissions reductions beyond 2030 phasing out fossil fuels, and many also include negative global emissions in the second half of the century,” he said.


D.C. area forecast: Cloudy, cool, and sometimes damp through midweek

Two hour radar loop of rain and storm movement through the area. Refresh page to update. TODAY’S DAILY DIGIT 5/10: EXPRESS FORECAST Today: FORECAST IN DETAIL “Unsettled” would be a good word to describe this forecast period. With a frontal system stalling out across the mid-Atlantic today, a wave of low pressure tomorrow, and a stronger frontal system Tuesday into Wednesday, there isn’t much hope for sunny skies or long stretches of dry weather. Several periods of showers and rain are in the forecast, along with the chance for some drizzle or mist as well. The midweek front should usher in a drier and sunnier pattern for our late week. Today (Sunday): Tonight: Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for the latest updates. For related traffic news, check out Dr. Gridlock. Keep reading for the forecast through midweek… Tomorrow (Monday): A tranquil day on the Potomac yesterday. (Steve S via Twitter) Tomorrow night: A LOOK AHEAD Tuesday into Wednesday


How a Jim Webb independent presidential bid could actually matter (hint: Virginia)

Jim Webb. (Patrick Semansky/AP) Former senator Jim Webb (Va.) never got any traction in the Democratic presidential primary. And by the end, his campaign was more of a punchline than a real factor — better known for Webb recalling a man he apparently killed in Vietnam than anything else. But if Webb proceeds with an independent run for president next year, as he has said he might, he appears likely to shake up the campaign in the state where he is known best — a state that just happens to be among the most vital swing states. Webb polled between 13 percent and 19 percent among registered Virginia voters in four three-way match-ups against leading Democratic and Republican candidates for president, according to a new survey sponsored by the University of Mary Washington’s Center for Leadership and Media Studies. Although it doesn’t appear that Webb could win the state, he could certainly prove to be a factor that both major parties have to contend with — and could swing the state for one side or another, even if he takes less than double digits. Webb, who served as a Democratic senator from 2007 to 2013, received the support of 19 percent of the state’s registered voters in a possible contest pitting him against Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vt.) and businessman Donald Trump, who received the support of 36 percent and 35 percent, respectively. In a hypothetical contest including former secretary of state Hillary Clinton and Trump, Webb received 16 percent support, as compared with 41 percent for Clinton and 33 percent for Trump. In this match-up, involving the two parties’ front-runners, 55 percent of registered voters in Virginia who favored Webb said they were independents, 25 percent said they were Republicans and 16 percent described themselves as Democrats. The survey revealed that current voter support for an independent presidential bid by Webb is comparable to the 13.6 percent support that third-party presidential candidate Ross Perot received in Virginia in the 1992 presidential election. Support for Webb currently remains below the 23.6 percent of Virginians who voted for Alabama’s George Wallace in the 1968 presidential campaign — the high-water mark of Election Day support for an independent presidential candidate in Virginia over the past century. Webb’s worst performance in the four possible 2016 candidate contests examined in the survey came in a possible match-up involving Ben Carson and Clinton, who received 41


Why evacuating wounded troops by air might do more harm than good

we actually looked at the brains they lost cells in the critical hippocampal regions, the place where one makes memories.” The tests also found that the inflammation of the brain that typically occurs after a head injury was “substantially enhanced” after the rats were subjected to the pressure changes. Faden used what’s known as the “fluid percussion model” to create the head injuries in the rats. According to Faden, the model is common for examining the effects of head injuries on rodents and the potential ramifications for humans. While some scientific tests on rodents do not carry over to humans, they have been mostly accurate when it comes to examining certain effects of head injured, Faden added. Typically after a battlefield injury, U.S. troops have been stabilized at a field hospital in either Iraq or Afghanistan before being flown to Landstuhl, Germany. From there they usually receive additional treatment before being sent back to the United States. In follow on-tests, Faden put the injured rats in two pressurized sessions separated by two days, simulating what a service member might go through if they were say, flying from Afghanistan to Germany and then Germany to the United States. Faden found that repeated exposures to pressurized cabins with a mild injury compounded the effects to mimic a larger head injury. The study also looked at the results of air transport in the days following an injury. According to Faden, there was added inflammation to the brain after transport seven days post-injury. In the majority of the tests, the rats were given oxygen to ensure the oxygen levels in their blood were normal, while in some tests—to mimic real world medical treatment– the rats were given 100 percent supplemental oxygen to simulate the treatment often prescribed to patients in transport. “What we showed is that if you give 100 percent supplemental oxygen in this condition of air evacuation pressure, it was worse than just giving enough oxygen to normalize the oxygen tension,” Faden said. To Faden, the study highlights the need to weigh the benefits of rapid air evacuation versus keeping patients stabilized closer to the battlefield prior to airlifting them home. “The major point of this is to rethink this issue,” Faden said, adding that he hopes in the future the Air Force will look at ways to better pressurize their aircraft or find other methods to lessen the effects of pressurization.


Egypt experts are ’90 percent positive’ there’s a secret hiding in King Tut’s tomb. Could it be Nefertiti?

century” Eldamaty said at a news conference. [A mystery inside King Tut’s tomb] Standing inside Tut’s tomb, Eldamaty explained that a wall painted with scenes from the boy king’s burial ceremony is made of two different materials, indicating that there is likely an empty space behind it. Scans also revealed empty space behind another of the chamber’s walls. The imaging was conducted by Japanese radar specialist Hirokatsu Watanabe, National Geographic reported. Pushing a radar machine on a metal trolley rigged to look like a high-tech lawn mower, he slowly inched along the walls of the hot and airless chamber while journalists and antiquities experts watched in breathless silence. Japanese radar specialist Hirokatsu Watanabe stands with his equipment outside of King Tutankhamun tomb in the Valley of the Kings, Luxor, Egypt on November 28, 2015. Scanning was conducted inside King Tutankhamun’s Tomb for two days. (EPA/STR) The radar scans have been sent to Japan for further study; the results of Japanese investigators’ evaluation should be announced in a month, according to Reuters. If their analysis confirms Eldamaty’s belief, researchers will develop a plan to figure out what’s inside the hidden room — and how to get it out. “Everything is adding up,” Reeves told National Geographic. “The tomb is not giving up its secrets easily,” he continued. “But it is giving them up, bit by bit. It’s another result. And nothing is contradicting the basic direction of the theory.” [The real King Tut revealed: Weak, infirm and not much to look at] Reeves’s theory, which is convoluted even by Egyptology’s cryptic standards, goes like this: Nefertiti, the first wife and co-regent of the Egyptian king Akhenaten, took power after the king died. First as Nefertutaten, then using the man’s name Smenkhkare to garner greater legitimacy, she ruled until her own death, when she was given a pharaoh’s burial in a tomb of her own. When her step-son and successor Tutankhamun (believed to be the son of Akhenaten and one of his sister’s) died at age 19 after just nine years of rule, no tomb was prepared for him. Instead, Tut was hurriedly buried in an ante-chamber to Nefertiti’s tomb, and Nefertiti — a controversial queen who some at the time may have wished to forget — was left to languish behind a blocked-off wall. Reeves acknowledges that it’s an eyebrow-raising proposal, one that challenges a lot of accepted thinking about Egypt’s


The Paris climate change summit, explained in 4 charts

other countries in the years since. But the problem of carbon dioxide building up in the atmosphere — one of the main reasons that the atmosphere is trapping heat, according to climate scientists — has only gotten worse. In April 1995, carbon dioxide was present in the atmosphere at 363.23 parts per million. Last month, the figure was 398.29, just less than the 400 ppm number that has long been an upper limit to what's viewed as acceptable. What's more, the last two conferences of parties (COP) have been during unusually hot months. Every month hosting a COP has been warmer than the month would have been during the same month in the 20th century — but recent conferences have been exceptionally warm. This year's is poised to be similar. The main problem being addressed at the Paris gathering, as is usually the problem, is figuring out how to build a mechanism that will reduce carbon dioxide output fairly across multiple counties. The countries of the world do not all produce carbon dioxide at the same amounts. Most greenhouse gas emissions come from electricity production and other fossil-fuel burning, and China has recently surged into the lead as the most polluting nation on Earth. As a function of population, though, the United States produces far more carbon dioxide than most other countries. But a large amount of emissions also comes from smaller countries. The challenge before the U.N. is figuring out how to get the big countries to scale back their emissions while not unduly hobbling smaller (and often growing) countries by limiting the amount of electricity they can produce. Many of the countries participating in the conference have submitted pledges of how they'd limit their own pollution. But those pledges themselves will not be enough to keep global warming within limits scientists consider crucial. (That benchmark is an increase of 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.) This year's conference has taken on special significance for two reasons. First, it comes as President Obama has made a concerted effort to address the problem of climate change — and as he nears the end of his term. Second, the urgency of the problem is becoming more apparent as the world continues to set new temperature records. The United Nations was created mostly to prevent wars. This week in Paris, the organization will tackle a much different, but much more widespread crisis.


MGM National Harbor casino will feature restaurants by the Voltaggio brothers, José Andrés and Marcus Samuelsson

Washington Post) While many of Andrés's restaurants (Oyamel, Jaleo, China Chilcano, etc.) already feature seafood, this will be the peripatetic chef's first dining spot centered around aquatic fare. "I wanted to give it a try," Andrés said of the new concept. "As a Spanish chef, we love seafood culture." The food "will be very international," he said, with crab cakes, seviche and jambalaya among the possibilities. For a bit of local flair, the bivalves will be cultivated by Rappahannock Oyster Co. and a seasonal "crab shack" will overlook the Potomac River on the restaurant's terrace. Andrés's restaurant will also showcase cocktails, sushi and tempura-style fried food at several bars in the space that will seat 140 to 160 diners. This won't be his first casino restaurant either, as his ThinkFoodGroup portfolio already includes Bazaar Meat and KU Noodle in the SLS Las Vegas, as well as Jaleo and China Poblano in the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas. Marcus Marcus Samuelsson, shown with Carla Hall at this year's James Beard Foundation Gala in New York. (Mark Von Holden/Invision for James Beard Foundation/AP Images) This marks the Ethiopia-born, Sweden-raised Samuelsson's first standalone project in the D.C. area. The chef-restaurateur's portfolio includes nearly a dozen concepts in New York (Red Rooster, Streetbird Rotisserie), Chicago, Costa Mesa, Calif., Bermuda and Sweden. [Q with Marcus Samuelsson: Global threads and cooking's 'value proposition'] Samuelsson said he's long been interested in expanding to Washington, having spent a lot of time here, whether for book promotion, pop-ups or a White House dinner. (He designed the opening menus for the Howard Theatre in 2012.) "D.C. is such a good food town today," he said. "I want to take a lot of time to learn about the city." Samuelsson is still working through what he'll serve, but he thinks it may include such items as crabs and oysters as an homage to the East Coast. As to dishes from his other restaurants, diners may find his grandmother's meatballs and shareable chowder and whole fried chicken from the menu at Marcus in Bermuda. At the new restaurant, Samuelsson said he will aim for "comfortable elegance" in a space that will have seating for 200 diners. Other features: a private party room, open kitchen and two bars. Related items: Could Bryan and Michael Voltaggio share a kitchen after all? MGM gets the deal for Maryland's sixth casino, at National Harbor in Prince George's


At the National Zoo, a 13-year-old clouded leopard dies and 6-week-old cheetah cubs eat their first meat

Clouded leopard dies at National Zoo. (Janice Sveda/Smithsonian’s National Zoo) Some may call it the circle of life. At the National Zoo, a 13 1/2-year-old clouded leopard named Tai that had an affinity for meatballs died last week. Meanwhle, 6-week-old cheetah cubs are growing and eating meat, the institution reports. The male clouded leopard was euthanized on Tuesday after veterinarians doing an exam on him found he had several life-threatening tumors. Zoo keepers said they had noticed that Tai “had been chewing gingerly on the right side of his mouth” for about a week. That prompted zoo officials to do a further exam. During that exam, veterinarians found Tai had a “large amount of fluid within his chest” and they found “several masses of varying sizes” in his chest. Officials said he had an “aggressive malignant tumor.” In a statement, zoo officials said, “because of the seriousness of the tumors, veterinarians elected to humanely euthanize Tai.” Tai, according to zoo officials, had lived at the Zoo’s Asia Trail since 2006. The zoo said it also has a female clouded leopard named Mook. They lived together, but did not produce offspring, according to the zoo. The median life expectancy of a clouded leopard living in captivity is 13 years. The median life of a male clouded leopard in human care is about seven years. Clouded leopards are native to China and southeast Asia. They are considered a threatened species. In the statement, Jenny Spotten, a clouded leopard keeper, recalled Tai, saying how much she enjoyed working with him at visitor education demonstrations. “Very few visitors have ever seen a clouded leopard, and there was Tai, in all his glory, mesmerizing the audience as an ambassador for his species and conservation efforts,” she said. “He had a lot of attitude and spunk, and he certainly loved meatballs.” Also at the zoo, its cheetah cubs are now 6 weeks old and the zoo reports “they’re eating meat.” Our cheetah cubs at SCBI are 6 wks old! They're eating meat & venturing out of their nest box more. #WeSaveSpecies https://t.co/70hxDZqzkZ The three cheetah cubs were born in October at the zoo. The zoo now has 21 cheetahs. [Zoo cheetah cubs born in race against the clock] The Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute welcomed three cheetah cubs on Oct. 16 at the Virginia facility, brings the institute's cheetah population to 21.


Animals are showing up in really strange places – this is the surprising reason why

when the isthmus of Panama formed, allowing land animals a bridge to cross between North and South America. As the authors note, the fossil record indicates that in this case, mammals from North America invaded South America and outcompeted many of the native species there for resources. This type of outcome is a potential concern with species crossing from the Pacific to the Atlantic, and vice versa. Additionally, introducing new predators into an area where they didn’t previously exist can “change food web dynamics profoundly,” Laidre pointed out, noting that the killer whale is a recent prime example. As the authors wrote in the paper, killer whales recently “expanded into ice-free areas of Hudson Bay where they were documented preying upon Arctic marine mammals including beluga (Delphinapterus leucas), narwhal (Monodon monoceros), bowhead, and at least four species of seal.” There could be genetic changes within migrating populations, as well, as they move and mix with one another. One consequence could be an increase in hybridization, whereby some species or subspecies could eventually be genetically phased out of existence, suggested Ryan Terrill, a Ph.D. candidate at Louisiana State University’s Museum of Natural Sciences, who served as a peer reviewer on the paper. On the other hand, this type of mixing could add genetic diversity to small subpopulations, which could be a good thing, said Laidre. In general, Laidre said, the effects of the exchange will not necessarily be all negative. “It’s more of a big baseline shift,” she said. And McKeon noted, “Populations of animals have been moving as long as there have been populations of animals.” So it’s not necessarily a good idea to try and stop them. The key, he said, is rather to increase the monitoring of wildlife as they move about in the Arctic to better understand which species are ending up where and how they might be affecting their environment. This information can help inform conservation tactics moving forward, including the need for updated international conservation agreements. “As the Arctic opens, environmental protections may be undermined,” said Kirsten Oleson, an assistant professor of ecological economics at the University of Hawaii and a co-author on the paper. “We haven’t really thought about protecting fauna in the Arctic because it’s been so remote and there’s been so little access to the area. But as the access increases and these animals are moving through the newly liquified waters, then


Obama and Putin’s latest awkward photo

a comically awkward meeting on a big screen, Obama and Putin had a real face-to-face meeting on the sidelines of a D-Day lunch in Colleville-sur-Mer, France. The pair broke away from the crowd and spent about 15 minutes talking about Ukraine. "It's a positive thing that they spoke, but more needs to be done," an official told CNN after the talk. 2014 – A brief talk in Beijing Putin and Obama talk on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Beijing. (RIA Novosti, Presidential Press Service via AP) At APEC summit events in Beijing last year, the two men again broke away to talk privately a number of times. "On three occasions throughout the day, for a total of approximately 15-20 minutes, President Obama had an opportunity to speak with President Putin," White House spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan told reporters. "Their conversations covered Iran, Syria and Ukraine." According to Reuters's Matt Spetalnick, reporters overheard a snippet of conversation between the two as the summit opened in a convention center outside Beijing. "It's beautiful, isn't it?" Putin was heard to have said in English, referencing the grand room the two men were in. "Yes," Obama responded. 2015 – A tense toast in New York President Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin toast during a luncheon hosted by U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon during the 70th annual U.N. General Assembly in New York on Sept. 28. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) The two met again on Sept. 28 at a luncheon hosted by U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon during the U.N. General Assembly gathering in New York. And it seemed, well, tense. Perhaps with good reason. During his address, Obama called out Russia's backing of separatists in eastern Ukraine as well as its military intervention in Syria, where the war is grinding into a fifth year. Putin claimed that the West was responsible for the chaos in the Middle East and North Africa. As my colleague Ishaan Tharoor noted, "He asked 'those responsible' (presumably the U.S.): 'Do you know what you've done?'" The luncheon was a precursor to a longer one-on-one talk later in the day before Putin left for Moscow. 2015 – A behind-closed-doors chat in Paris President Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin shake hands at the U.N. Conference on Climate Change in Paris on Nov. 30. (Mikhail Klimentyev/Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP) Putin isn't even looking this time, but


Meet Julie Samuels, executive director of Engine

Julie Samuels spoke at The Post’s 2015 inGENuitY Summit Dec. 2 in Washington, D.C. Learn more here. Julie Samuels Julie Samuels is the executive director of Engine, a non-profit organization focused on technology entrepreneurship and bringing start-ups to the table in policy debates. Samuels is a frequent commentator on technology and policy issues for national media — particularly in the intellectual property space. She has filed briefs with the Supreme Court and testified before congressional committees. Samuels was previously a senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Mark Cuban Chair to Eliminate Stupid Patents. She serves on the Board of Tech Congress and the Internet Education Foundation. Samuels also serves on advisory board to the Defensive Patent License and the License on Transfer Network. Josh Tetrick, chief executive of Hampton Creek, and Julie Samuels, executive director of Engine Advocacy, discuss the regulatory challenges of breaking into an established market.


Climate change: Liberal hysteria vs. right-wing know-nothingism

Instead, for years those conservatives with access to the biggest megaphones have announced that the science underlying global warming is somewhere between highly speculative and “the greatest hoax,” to quote from the title of a book on the subject by Senator James Inhofe, a Republican with significant influence on climate matters. Manzi and Wehner maintain that the degree of climate change has been exaggerated and its effects misrepresented by environmental extremists (the sort who’d oppose the XL pipeline with zero evidence of environmental harm). Rather than scare people with the prospect that “Manhattan becomes an underwater theme park,” they urge a fact-based approach to explaining the real, but limited potential for a rise in the earth’s temperatures. (Real scientists deal in probabilities and ranges.) They urge renewed support for scientific research and continued energy innovation. Former secretary of state George P. Shultz likewise argues that “the globe is warming and that carbon dioxide has something to do with that fact. Those who say otherwise will wind up being mugged by reality.” He nevertheless acknowledges skepticism and frames the issue for conservatives as one of “taking out an insurance policy,” as President Ronald Reagan did with the ozone issue: With the very real potential for serious harm, U.S. industry turned on its entrepreneurial juices, and the Du Pont company developed a set of replacements for the chemicals implicated in the problem along a reasonable time frame and at a reasonable cost. It came up with something that could be done then — not some aspirational plan for 2050. Action is better than aspiration. As matters turned out, the action worked and became the basis for the Montreal Protocol, widely regarded as the world’s most successful environmental treaty. In retrospect, the scientists who were worried were right, and the Montreal Protocol came along in the nick of time. Reagan called it a “magnificent achievement.” We all know there are those who have doubts about the problems presented by climate change. But if these doubters are wrong, the evidence is clear that the consequences, while varied, will be mostly bad, some catastrophic. So why don’t we follow Reagan’s example and take out an insurance policy? Shultz favors a carbon tax, which many Republicans oppose. But a reasoned argument on what sort of response is warranted and a cost-benefit analysis of various approaches is far better than counteracting liberal hysteria with conservative know-nothingism. As


When in Paris… President Obama has a ‘working dinner’ at three-star eatery

U.S. President Barack Obama and French President Francois Hollande met for dinner in Paris on Nov. 30 after the first day of a climate change summit aimed at securing the world's most ambitious pact on global warming. As working dinners go, President Obama’s meal Monday night in Paris with French President Francois Hollande, Secretary of State John Kerry and others wasn’t too shabby. No cartons of takeout — instead, the gang fueled up after a long day of climate talks at L’Ambroisie, the three-Michelin-starred temple of gastronomie in the Marais neighborhood. Per the Michelin Guide, the ornately be-chandelier-ed dining room is known for “incomparable classicism and an immortal feast for the senses.” Perhaps worried that Obama would create an international faux pas by ordering a burger or a margarita (two of his faves), a reporter asked what he planned to eat. Obama was, appropriately, diplomatic: “I will get recommendations from the president,” he answered, nodding in Hollande’s direction. According to the AP, Obama cracked a joke about the opulence of the setting. “Don’t break the chandelier,” he warned as a reporter’s microphone got just a little too close to the crystal. “You can’t afford it.”


Decision to force out Marine who sent warning ahead of insider attack upheld

Jr., 20; were killed at Forward Operating Delhi, a Marine Corps outpost in Helmand province’s Garmsir district. A fourth Marine sustained five gunshot wounds but survived. The suit was filed last year by the Buckley family, which also is represented by Bowe. In court filings, they have repeatedly expressed frustration with the amount of information the Marine Corps has provided them about the case. It alleges that the shooter, identified by the Marine Corps as Ainuddin Khudairaham, was among the boys the police chief assaulted. A Marine official said Monday that the service had no immediate comment on the new decision about Brezler, citing its administrative nature and the pending lawsuit. The official spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the case. An administrative board of Marine officers moved to remove Brezler from the service in December 2013. A spokesman for Navy Secretary Ray Mabus could not immediately be reached for comment. The shooter was convicted last year in the killings. He was tried as a teen and sentenced to 7 1/2 years in confinement, infuriating the Buckley family, which expected a longer sentence. The shooter allegedly stole a Kalashnikov assault rifle and opened fire on the unarmed Marines until he ran out of ammunition. He is said to have bragged about it afterward to Afghan police, saying, “I just did jihad.” Brezler has served in the Marine Corps since graduating from the Naval Academy in 2000, and is now a member of the Marine Corps Reserve. He works full-time as a member of the New York Fire Department, and has deployed to both Iraq and Afghanistan. Brezler’s case first came to light after he sent an e-mail with a couple classified documents attached to Marines in Afghanistan about Jan. Brezler was deployed to Afghanistan from 2009 to 2010, and had worked successfully to have Jan removed from power in another district, Now Zad. Brezler self-reported his spillage of classified information afterward, and the service found that he had been keeping it on an unsecured hard drive. Several Republican members of Congress have lobbied Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter to clear Brezler of all wrongdoing, citing the extraordinary circumstances of the case. It is not clear whether Carter will review the case. Earlier coverage: Family of slain Marines alleges cover-up, sues Marine Corps Update: This story has been updated to reflect personnel changes in the Navy Department


Wondering what’s different about the Paris climate change negotiations? Here’s what you need to know.

country commits to reducing emissions, no one will. A single country reducing its emissions will bear all of the costs, while all countries reap the benefits of fewer emissions. This “free rider” problem is epitomized by Garrett Hardin’s “Tragedy of the Commons,” in which farmers must collectively agree to reduce the number of cattle they graze on a common pasture to avoid overgrazing. The farmers are collectively better off if they agree to reduce grazing but individually, it is most rational for each farmer to be selfish and graze as many of his or her own cattle as possible. The same is true of climate change. As a planet, we are clearly better off avoiding climate change, and the accompanying effects: drought, sea-level rise, ocean acidification, just to name a few. Yet no nation wants to shoulder the burden of reductions unless everyone else does, and maybe not even then. Enter the Kyoto Protocol. The Kyoto Protocol was a legally binding treaty aimed at solving the free rider problem by getting all major emitters to reduce. (Importantly, at the time the protocol was agreed, major emitters were all in the developing world. Developing countries had no obligations to reduce emissions under the Kyoto Protocol. This turned out to be a major sticking point.) Each country had a target — to reduce a given percentage below 1990 levels by 2012. The European Union had the most ambitious target: – 8 percent. Iceland had the least: it was allowed to increase its reductions by 10 percent. As we now know, this approach didn’t work. In theory, it would have solved the free rider problem. But in practice, it didn’t account for one small issue: domestic politics. Domestic politics is complicated The biggest reason why the Kyoto protocol didn’t work was that it didn’t take into account domestic politics. Countries such as the United States, and eventually Canada and Australia, did not appreciate how difficult it would be to sell the “one-size fits all” approach to their public. The international community is now so wary of “top down” approaches like Kyoto that the pendulum has swung fully to the other end. In Paris, countries will agree to reduce greenhouse emissions in the way and at the level that they see fit. In climate speak, these “Intended Nationally Determined Contributions” (INDCs), allow each country to craft its own policy, in accordance with the preferences


Some roads in Rock Creek Park will be closed at night as deer hunting program starts

White-tailed deer in Rock Creek Park in D.C. (Cortez Austin) Starting Tuesday, some roads in Rock Creek Park will be closed at times during the night for several months as officials conduct a deer hunting program in the area to reduce overpopulation. The roads will be closed periodically until March 1, the National Park Service said in a statement. Several federal agencies help oversee the hunts, which are conducted by biologists who are highly-trained firearms experts from the U.S. Department of Agriculture at times when the park is normally closed. This is the fourth time the park has done its hunt under a plan it adopted in 2013 to help deal with the deer population. Park officials said an overpopulation of white tailed deer over the last 20 years has “negatively impacted” Rock Creek Park. Since it started the hunts, the park service said it has reduced the deer population to roughly 19 per square mile, down from 80 per square mile. The park service said a deer population density should be in the 15- to 20-per-square mile range to have a healthy forest. In a statement, the park service said, “without continued management, deer populations would quickly rebound and again eat nearly all vegetation seedlings before they could grow.” The following are the roads in the park that will be closed from 5 p.m. until 4 a.m. when hunting is underway: Ross Drive; Ridge Road, south of Grand Road; Glover Road south of the Rock Creek Horse Center; and Horse Stable Road. These roads are also expected to be temporarily closed between 8:30 p.m. and 4 a.m.: Beach Drive from Rock Creek and Potomac parkways to the Maryland boundary; 17th Street from the Woodner apartment complex to Piney Branch Parkway; Piney Branch Parkway; the ramp at Porter Street to Beach Drive east of Williamsburg Lane; Blagden Avenue west of Mathewson Drive; Broad Branch Road east of Ridge Road; Wise Road; entire length of Glover Road; entire length of Ridge Road; Grand Road; Sherrill Drive; Joyce Road; Morrow Drive; West Beach Drive at Parkside Drive; Stage Road; and Bingham Drive.


Orbital and SpaceX to fly again for first time after rockets exploded

returning to the launch pad. On Thursday, Dulles-based Orbital ATK--which was Orbital Sciences at the time of the explosion, and has since merged with rocket-maker Alliant Techsystems--is set to fly a cargo resupply mission to the station for the first time since its Antares rocket blew up more than a year ago. Then later this month, SpaceX is slated to launch a commercial satellite from Cape Canaveral in its return to flight. Both companies say they’ve fixed the problems that led to what they call mishaps, learned from the experience and emerged stronger and safer. But with both having explosions so close to one another, the pressure is on. NASA also has a lot riding on the launches. Years ago, it decided to retire the space shuttle program and outsource the resupply missions to the commercial sector, so it could focus on deep-space missions. There is no Plan B. The failed attempts forced NASA to scramble; the station was ultimately resupplied by the Russian and Japanese. NASA has said that the astronauts were never in danger, and the agency has stood by the companies, saying it is confident with the way they have bounced back and handled the subsequent investigations. “The mishap was very disappointing and a pretty big blow to the team,” Frank DeMauro, Orbital’s Vice President of Human Space Systems, said in an interview. “The day of the mishap, we licked our wounds and let ourselves grieve a little bit, but got right into the process of figuring out how we were going to return to fly.” [Another major rocket failure for an industry out to prove itself.] After SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket exploded in June, Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX's president said it was, “a hiccup. It’s certainly a time to pause and make sure we’re doing everything we need to do.” Elon Musk, the company’s billionaire founder, vowed to not just return to flight quickly but to restore some of the sense of urgency that propelled his struggling start-up to a disruptive, mainstream force in the space industry. “To some degree I think the company as a whole maybe became a little complacent,” he said in July. Still, Musk is marching back with swagger, signaling that the company will pick up right where it left off and again try to land the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket. Being able to land and reuse rocket boosters has


What a real Russia policy would look like

for the United States to pressure Putin diplomatically but also upgrade our own defenses. (“United States Secretary of Defense Ash Carter has laid out options that include active defenses, counter-force capabilities, and countervailing strike capabilities. All three capabilities warrant a program of record and robust funding in Obama’s 2017 budget request.”) Cotton also proposes upping the economic pressure on Russia: Individualized sanctions against regime cronies should reach many more Russian elites, as well as their spouses and children. Furthermore, the United States should enact direct and secondary sanctions against Russia’s energy sector, especially its refining industry, which is antiquated and dependent on a steady flow of spare parts from Western nations. Sanctions affecting other industry sectors should also be seriously considered, with their possibility clearly communicated to the Kremlin and foreign investors alike. Additional sanctions should be given a deterrent quality by making them contingent on destabilizing actions by Russia. For instance, sanctions could extend to individuals and entities involved in Russia’s sale of the S-300 air-defense system to Iran or the inking of new major weapons deals with Assad. Finally, Cotton recommends we deploy “prosecutorial resources on Putin’s worldwide corruption racket”; “craft laws in the tradition of the Helms-Burton Act and the Alien Tort Claims Act to open U.S. courts to victims of Russian aggression, theft, and war crimes”; and utilize “public diplomacy and information strategies … [including taking] the lead in funding translation services to make Western media available in Russia.” You can hear the cries from the White House: This will put us in a new Cold War. That would be laughably wrong and very revealing. We are already in a Cold War, but unlike previous Democratic presidents (Harry S. Truman, John F. Kennedy Jr., Lyndon Johnson) who responded to Soviet aggression and acted in defense of the West without setting off World War III, this president simply capitulates again and again to Russia. The Congress should listen to Cotton and move on legislation to accomplish many of these ideas. GOP presidential candidates should consider his policy suggestions. That still leaves us with questions for Hillary Clinton: Did she envision this kind of conduct when she initiated Russian reset? Does she still think it is a success? What is her policy alternative to passivity? It seems the most prominent person who is not giving an alternative to Obama’s failed Russia policy is his former secretary of state.


How one exoplanet got booted to the edge of its solar system

The Gemini Planet Imager helped spot the exiled planet. (Gemini Observatory) Exoplanet? More like exileplanet. On Tuesday, researchers attending Extreme Solar Systems III, an international meeting on exoplanets held in Hawaii, shared recently published research on a distant planet that seems to have been booted to the very edge of its solar system. The planet, called HD 106906 b, is nearly 16 times farther away from its host star than Pluto is from our sun. In fact, the planet is so far removed from its sun's neighborhood that researchers thought it might have formed more like a companion star than an orbiting planet — having condensed from its own cloud of gas and dust instead of from the building blocks that swirled around the distant star. "That was an open question for almost a year," study author Paul Kalas, an adjunct professor of astronomy at the University of California at Berkeley, said during an online news conference on Monday. "Now we sort of have an answer to what may have happened here." Two direct images of the cometary dust and exoplanet surrounding the young star HD 106906 b. (Paul Kalas, UC Berkeley) Images from the Gemini Planet Imager (GPI) in the Chilean Andes and the Hubble Space Telescope revealed a lopsided comet system orbiting the star, which Kalas and his co-author Abhi Rajan of Arizona State University believe is an indication of a recent, violent disturbance in the solar system. This could mean that the planet formed close to the sun, as is more typical, and was then booted far away. "The planet is misaligned with the plane of the comet system, so we think the whole system has recently been disturbed by some violent gravitational interaction, though we’re not sure exactly what happened," Kalas explained. "Something recently happened that kicked it out." Something similar happened in our own solar system back in the day: Scientists believe that our system once had more than its current eight planets — until Jupiter strong-armed them out. It's possible a massive planet is what gave HD 106906 b the boot, but a passing star might be the culprit, too. In any case, the solar system is young — just 13 million years old, compared with our own 4.5-billion-year-old neighborhood. Watching the way it evolves after this violent encounter could help astronomers learn something about our own past. Read More: Why NASA’s top scientist


This is how climate change doubt becomes powerful and spreads into the media

associated with it.” Farrell compiled a list of more than 4,500 individuals with ties to 164 organizations involved in the promotion of contrarian viewpoints, including think tanks, foundations, public relations firms, trade associations and ad hoc groups. He found that these organizations, with their ties to various individuals uniting them, formed a kind of network, with some organizations more central within the network — and, thus, more powerful — than others. Next, he looked into where these organizations had received funding — specifically, whether they’d been funded by either ExxonMobil or the Koch family foundations. The reason for focusing on these two sources, he said, is that there’s a “large body of work cited in my article that have suggested ExxonMobil and the various Koch family interests have played an important role in the climate contrarian movement.” Finally, Farrell used a special form of textual analysis to compare texts about climate change — both written and verbal — from these organizations with those from major news outlets, U.S. presidents and Congress. Similarities in the texts would indicate that contrarian organizations were able to influence these sources, which are key avenues for reaching the public. Farrell found that organizations that had received funding from either ExxonMobil or the Koch family foundations were more central within the network — which is an important way of looking at an organization’s power in the public sphere. “If an organization or individual is more centrally located… they become a conduit through which information can flow through a lot of avenues or arenas,” said Additionally, these organizations’ texts on climate change were more similar to those found in the news media, suggesting that they had a greater influence in the dissemination of ideas into the public. However, Alan Jeffers, a media relations manager at Exxon Mobil, said that the company “rejects the premise” that it was involved in funding climate denial. “We were engaged with funding public policy groups on policy issues, not on science,” he said, adding, “We made our position known on some climate policies that made us unpopular with environmental activists, and they tried to position that as us funding climate denial. And that’s just not accurate.” And in an e-mail to The Post, Charles Koch Foundation representative Trice Jacobson said, “Our grants help researchers to explore ideas broadly, enabling an open discussion on the merits of scholarship from a wide range of


The Washington Post Examines Perspectives on the Habits and Politics of Millennials

Small business ownership is widely regarded as a driver of U.S. economic growth and represents one path for achieving the American Dream. According to two new national surveys of young Americans conducted by The Washington Post and 1776 in collaboration with the Harvard Institute of Politics and FUSION these perspectives remain somewhat consistent among millennials who still see business ownership as a key marker of accomplishment or success, even though younger Americans prioritize stable traditional jobs over starting a business of their own. A declining majority says the American dream still has meaning, and most say it is harder to achieve than in the past. An in-depth look at stories detailing poll results can be read here. Here are highlights of results from both surveys: - 56 percent say the American Dream has personal meaning to them, down from 67 percent in 1986 - 50 percent of African Americans and 43 percent of Hispanics say starting their own business is very important personally, compared with 24 percent of whites - While 68 percent say business ownership is very much part of the American dream, seen as a success marker, only 29 percent say the same of becoming wealthy is seen as less of a part of the American dream, down from 40 percent in 1986 - Over 6 in 10 Millennials are very or somewhat concerned about the government collecting digital information from their computer or phone, and a similar number are concerned about data collection from technology companies An update to the Harvard Institutes biennial study of the political views of younger Americans will be publicly released on December 10, 2015. The Fusion poll is part of an ongoing series of surveys examining attitudes of millennials during the 2016 election. Visit the Harvard Public Opinion Project and FUSION’S 2016 Issues Poll for more on each respective poll, complete findings, survey sample size, and methodologies. In addition to issuing poll results, The Washington Post, in partnership with 1776, will host the inGENuitY 2015 Summit, an interactive event on December 2 at The Washington Post that will highlight the entrepreneurial spirit of the millennial generation and how it is changing business, politics and culture. Programming will include keynote speakers, expert panels, master classes networking sessions and a millennial entrepreneur pitch contest presented by 1776. Visit wapo.st/ingenuity for more details.


D.C.’s coziest restaurants with firepits and fireplaces

It’s tempting to spend the next few months curled up on the couch bingeing “Scandal” and eating takeout. Though Olivia Pope makes a great evening companion, once cabin fever sets in it’s time to interact with real-life Washingtonians. Taking into account the level of heat you may desire, we found six D.C. restaurants that make going out feel as comfy as staying in. Warm (Cozy) The Red Hen Room 11 Warmer (Outdoor lounge) Poste Moderne Brasserie Barcelona 14th Street Hot (Indoor fireplace) Iron Gate La Chaumiere You may also enjoy Find house-made masala chai at Calabash, Slipstream and Compass Coffee Hot cocktails to try around D.C.


Get a chance to see the zoo’s panda cub first

Baby panda Bei Bei at the National Zoo. (National Zoo) For those who are panda obsessed, they’ll get a chance to try to be among the first people to see giant panda cub Bei Bei at the National Zoo. The facility is running a contest on the social media outlet Instagram. Twenty-five people on Instagram will be chosen to be among the first group of regular people to see the panda cub in what the zoo is calling a “special, behind-the-scenes experience” at the panda house. To enter the contest, participants must make a 15-second or less Instavideo that explains why “you want to be part of the National Zoo’s Instameet,” according to a statement from the zoo. What are they looking for? The zoo said it wants to “know anything from why you care about pandas to why you think it’s important to study and save them.” Your chance to see #BeiBei: register for @NationalZoo's #PandaStory Instameet 12/19 https://t.co/TPfRIoDs2U https://t.co/qXZhXfk3ap The proposals are due Dec. 7 and the zoo said it expects to notify the winners by Dec. 11. No Instavideo — no go. The application will be considered incomplete, zoo officials said. Winners of the contest will be some of the first people to get to see Bei Bei and they’ll get a chance to meet panda keepers and “capture and share images of Bei Bei in this special, behind-the-scenes experience at the David M. Rubenstein Giant Panda Habitat,” according to the zoo’s statement. Since the boy panda cub was born in August, it has gained popularity on social media. GUYS: BABY PANDA BEI BEI STEPS (WITH THE OCCASIONAL PLOTZ) https://t.co/mwGE4rDHCT The zoo has been promoting photos and milestones of the panda cub — first tooth, first steps, climbing and tracking its growth — now nearly 13 pounds. The panda cub has several of its own hashtags — #PandaStory and #BeiBei on social media. [Bei Bei, the baby panda takes first step under watchful eye of mom, camera] The panda cub is expected to make its public debut in January.


When China gives aid to African governments, they become more violent

across Africa. When China sends aid, a country’s government becomes more violent toward its citizens. In a new working paper on Chinese Aid and Africa’s Pariah States, we find that Chinese aid to African states increase the risk of civilian abuse by giving state leaders and politicians access to funds with which to carry out this violence. As a nation receives more Chinese aid, its military increases its violence against civilians (including bombing them). State leaders and regimes further use this aid to finance their hold on power by repressing political competitors, such as other political parties and opponents, through tactics such as increased surveillance, detaining and jailing individuals, suppressing peaceful protests, and forced displacement. In countries that receive different and varying levels of Chinese and Western aid, receipt of Chinese aid is followed by increases in police and military violence. Western aid is not followed by any such increase in violence. That’s not because China funds countries that were already violent. Chinese aid does not disproportionately go to countries that typically have high rates of repression, such as dictatorships or countries well-endowed with natural resources. China’s political agenda shapes who gets aid. For example, African states that recognize Taiwan will not receive any aid from China. How do we study Chinese aid and violence against civilians? We use conflict data from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED) project, which makes it possible to distinguish the different rates, types and perpetrators of violence. We then compare those rates between states with different combinations of Western and Chinese aid flows. ACLED is the most comprehensive public collection of real-time political violence data for developing states, and is intended for policy, academic, and media users. Because it produces information on the specific dates and locations of political violence, the types of events, the groups involved, fatalities, and changes in territorial control, it is flexible to make comparisons across countries and aid types. The frequency of conflict and different types are mapped over the levels of Chinese aid to African states in the figure below (Chinese Aid data extend to 2011). So why does Chinese aid increase violence? To understand why Chinese aid increases African conflict while Western aid does not, it’s important to understand who perpetrates political violence. When countries receive large amounts of unrestricted aid, that may attract opponents who want to get their hands on those funds. How


Rio’s Olympic water venues are filthy, no matter how far from shore you are

events will take place and no less risk to the health of athletes like sailors competing farther from the shore. “Those virus levels are widespread. It’s not just along the shoreline but it’s elsewhere in the water, therefore it’s going to increase the exposure of the people who come into contact with those waters,” said Kristina Mena, an expert in waterborne viruses and an associate professor of public health at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. “We’re talking about an extreme environment, where the pollution is so high that exposure is imminent and the chance of infection very likely.” This news likely will further worry Olympic athletes such as sailor Erik Heil, who was treated at a Berlin hospital for the flesh-eating bacteria MRSA after an Olympic test event in Rio in August. The AP’s Brad Brooks reports that Heil planned to wear plastic overalls when he was sailing close to shore and then peel them off when he was out to sea: Now, the AP’s most recent tests since August show not only no improvement in water quality — but that the water is even more widely contaminated than previously known. The number of viruses found over a kilometer from the shore in Guanabara Bay, where sailors compete at high speeds and get utterly drenched, are equal to those found along shorelines closer to sewage sources. “The levels of viruses are so high in these Brazilian waters that if we saw those levels here in the United States on beaches, officials would likely close those beaches,” Mena said. After athletes such as Heil were sickened by the waters this summer, Rio’s Olympic organizers promised to start testing for viruses — a much more comprehensive way to determine a body of water’s cleanliness than simply testing for bacteria — and using that information to best clean up the waters. But the organizers have all but admitted that they will not have enough time before next summer’s Games to properly clean up the waters and ensure athletes’ safety. They also have steadfastly refused to move the sailing, rowing and distance-swimming events to other venues in the country. So the athletes will be left to compete in waters with viral levels that are “30,000 times higher than what is [considered] highly alarming in the U.S. or Europe,” no matter how far or near to shore they are, Brooks writes.


Cameron Barr named a managing editor at The Washington Post

positioned ourselves for success, drawing collaboratively on the abundant talent in Cameron’s department and others. Cameron comes to this job with an impressive resume. Before becoming national editor in February 2013, he was deputy national editor, national security editor and Middle East editor. He reported from The Post’s bureau in Rockville, where he exposed County Executive Doug Duncan’s ties to lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Prior to joining The Post in 2004, Cameron was Middle East correspondent for The Christian Science Monitor, covering the second intifada and the beginning of the Iraq war. In that time, he reported from Iran, Iraq during and after Saddam Hussein, Jordan, Syria, and other countries. He was that paper’s Tokyo bureau chief from 1994 to 2000, covering the region’s financial collapse, the fall of Suharto and the independence of East Timor, and the commercial sexual abuse of children in East Asia. He was the Monitor’s deputy foreign editor and roving South Asia correspondent before that assignment. From 1988 to 1990, Cameron was a staff reporter for The American Lawyer, writing major stories that included a behind-the-scenes account of Union Carbide’s settlement of claims arising from the Bhopal gas leak and a profile of Colombia drug-court judges, who were then being killed at a rate of roughly one per week. He has won the Overseas Press Club Award and the Sigma Delta Chi investigative reporting award, and was a co-winner of the National Magazine Award. Cameron notes that he grew up seemingly everywhere – South Asia, Africa, Europe, and suburban Washington “as the only child of a Foreign Service officer who maintained a ritualistic devotion to the ‘news fix’ provided by the International Herald Tribune and the BBC.” He graduated from Brown University with a degree in religious studies, having spent 1984-1985 at Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi, India. He lives in Kalorama Triangle with his partner Shar Taylor and his daughters Via, 15, and Sydney, 13. Obviously, Cameron’s experience and expertise cover a wide territory. But he also brings an instinct to always know more – a trait he’ll have ample opportunity to indulge in this new job. He’ll be meeting with everyone, hearing your concerns and convictions and hopes, with the goal of assuring that we work closely with each other and take full advantage of the creativity that animates this extraordinary newsroom. Please congratulate Cameron on his appointment. He’ll start Monday, December 7. Marty


D.C. area forecast: Sunshine returns today and stays put for the weekend

(Noe Todorovich via Flickr) TODAY’S DAILY DIGIT 6/10: EXPRESS FORECAST Today: FORECAST IN DETAIL The return of the sun today is a treat, even if it does spend far less time above the horizon these days. Clouds are an endangered species for the next four days. Brisk winds today are gone for the weekend allowing last-minute outdoor light stringing to proceed less painfully. The moon cruises through an array of planets in the predawn skies this weekend and while brisk, the view should be worth it. Today (Thursday): Tonight: Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for the latest updates. For related traffic news, check out Dr. Gridlock. Keep reading for the forecast through the weekend… Tomorrow (Friday): Tomorrow night: A LOOK AHEAD Saturday Clear skies start Sunday off in fine form. A few clouds are likely to spread across the region by afternoon. As long as they don’t get carried away, there should be enough sun to push highs into the mid-to-upper 50s. The clouds should be scattered overnight allowing glimpses of Venus and the moon on top of each other. In fact in Alaska, the moon will eclipse Venus! Lows range through the 30s. Confidence: Medium-High Monday


A short history of conspiracy theories about the U.S. military in the Middle East

children, and the balloons will see you. When large, carnivorous honey badgers appeared near the southern Iraqi city of Basra in 2007, killing livestock and frightening people, Basrawis pointed the finger at Britain, whose troops were based in the area. “We can categorically state that we have not released man-eating badgers into the area,” a bemused British military spokesmen told the BBC. Honey badgers are in fact native to southern Iraq; a Basra veterinarian who dismissed the rumored British connection suggested they might have been edging closer to populated areas after a long absence because of the re-flooding of marshes that Saddam Hussein’s regime had drained. A few months later, when a fisherman in nearby Nasiryah caught a large shark in his net, the rumor mill was quick to assign human blame for the estuarine predator’s unusual appearance 160 miles from the Persian Gulf. Bull sharks have long been known to travel upriver in Iraq and Iran. A specimen now housed at the London Museum of Natural History was captured in Baghdad, more than twice as far from the sea as Nasiriyah, in 1924. But as Reuters reported, locals suspected the hidden hand of the United States. “This is very frightening for us,” another fisherman told a journalist. “I believe that America is behind this matter.” A Nasiriyah schoolteacher put the chances of American involvement in the shark affair at 75 percent. What purpose they thought sharks might serve, the concerned citizens did not say. The most common faunal conspiracy theories in the Middle East have to do with birds, and they implicate not only the United States but, at least as often, Israel. There is even a Wikipedia entry for “Israel-related animal conspiracy theories,” with bullets for pigs, rats, and a variety of bird species including griffon vultures, kestrels, and European bee-eaters. In most (probably all) cases, birds suspected of spying have turned out merely to be the bearers of transmitting devices used to track bird migration patterns by Israeli and other university researchers. In perhaps the most notable bird incident, noted by the Washington Post’s Jackson Diehl in 2011, local media reported the “arrest” of a vulture that strayed into Saudi Arabia while wearing a Tel Aviv University leg bracelet. That birds could be spying for the U.S. or Israeli militaries may sound like a bizarre hypothesis, but in an age of ever-smaller and ever-more-sophisticated aerial drones, it


European probe launched in a search for ripples in space-time

The Vega rocket launches LISA Pathfinder into orbit. (AFP / EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY / STEPHANE CORVAJA) On Thursday, the European Space Agency launched the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) Pathfinder up into space. The probe is just a prototype -- a sort of dry run to test some new technology for a future mission. But one day, LISA's descendants could help us detect gravitational waves -- actual ripples in space-time. Ripples in space-time, which were predicted by Albert Einstein as part of his theory of relativity. Here's a little primer on that, featuring the dreamy voice of David Tenant: Einstein 100 - Theory of General Relativity Massive objects in space really do warp it, not unlike a ball rolling around on a piece of stretchy fabric. If we could directly observe these ripples, we could see the signatures of events like the mergers of massive black holes. LISA Pathfinder launch animation "Virtually our entire knowledge about the Universe is based upon the observation of electromagnetic waves, such as visible light, infrared, ultraviolet, radio, X-rays and gamma rays," the ESA explained in a statement. "LISA Pathfinder will pave the way to a completely different method of observing the Universe: detecting gravitational waves. This will allow astrophysicists to address some of the most fundamental questions about the Universe and possibly raise new ones, such as the nature of binary black holes and their mergers, which are among the most powerful events in the Universe." LISA Pathfinder itself won't look for these ripples. The probe carries two 4.4 pound cubes made of gold and platinum, and once the probe is about a million miles away from Earth, they'll be released into free-fall in vacuum chambers meant to protect them from any interference. Tiny thrusters will work tirelessly to correct the probe's position as the force of the sun's light pushes it out of place. In theory, the blocks will be kept in perfect suspension. LISA's lasers will try to detect minute movement between the blocks caused by space-time ripples, but scientists on the ground don't expect to witness any events of that sort this time around. “We want to see whether we can create an environment in orbit that’s free of interference, and where we can conduct these high-precision measurements,” Michael Menking, senior vice president for Earth observation, navigation and science at Airbus Defense and Space -- the main technology contractor on the


Radio pulses from space have stumped scientists for years. Now we may be close to solving the mystery.

An artist's impression of a Fast Radio Burst reaching Earth. (Jingchuan Yu, Beijing Planetarium) Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) In a study published Wednesday in Nature, scientists report our first real clue: The most detailed origin story ever obtained for an FRB. Their findings suggest that these energetic, seemingly random bursts most likely come from a region dense with either the birth or death of stars. "Hidden within an incredibly massive dataset, we found a very peculiar signal, one that matched all the known characterizes of a Fast Radio Burst, but with a tantalizing extra polarization element that we simply have never seen before," study author Jeffrey Peterson, a faculty member in Carnegie Mellon's McWilliams Center for Cosmology, said in a statement. By studying the polarization of the burst (its orientation, which happened to be corkscrewed) and other data gleaned from the signal, the researchers were able to determine that the pulse passed through a strong magnetic field — too strong to be from our own galaxy — and then through two different regions of ionized gas. While the second cloud of gas was likely in the Milky Way, the first was much closer to the pulse's origin — probably within its own galaxy. That first wave of ionized gas exposure suggests that the pulse came either from a region surrounded by a nebula or from close to the center of its own galaxy. "We now know that the energy from this particular burst passed through a dense magnetized field shortly after it formed," Kiyoshi Masui, an astronomer with the University of British Columbia in Canada and lead author of the study, said in a statement. "This significantly narrows down the source's environment and type of event that triggered the burst — and means the source of the pulse likely resides within a star-forming nebula or the remnant of a supernova." Masui and his colleagues believe that the pulse's origin is no more than 6 billion light years away. "Taken together, these remarkable data reveal more about an FRB than we have ever seen before and give us important constraints on these mysterious events," Masui said. "We also have an exciting new tool to search through otherwise overwhelming archival data to uncover more examples and get closer to truly understanding their nature." FRBs still raise plenty of questions, and there's no telling how long astronomers will continue to puzzle over the


In historic decision, Pentagon chief opens all jobs in combat units to women

times opened an uncommonly public rift between senior military leaders. In particular, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus took issue with a Marine Corps study that found that the average woman struggled to keep up with men, according to a number of metrics. The study did not track individual performance, drawing fire from Mabus and others in favor of full integration. As the Marine Corps commandant, Dunford recommended to keep a number of jobs in infantry and reconnaissance units closed.Carter, asked why Dunford was not present for the announcement on Thursday, said that he and the general have talked extensively on the subject, and he “will be with me” as the services proceeds with making related changes. [Marine experiment finds women shoot less accurately, get injured more frequently than men] “He understands what my decision is, and my decision is my decision, and we will implement it accordingly,” Carter said. Dunford said in a statement on Thursday afternoon that it is his job to provide his “candid best military advice” to Carter on issues ranging from military readiness, to combat effectiveness, to how the services are employed. “I have had the opportunity to provide my advice on the issue of full integration of women into the Armed Forces,” Dunford’s statement said. “In the wake of the Secretary’s decision, my responsibility is to ensure his decision is properly implemented. Moving forward my focus is to lead the full integration of women in a manner that maintains our joint warfighting capability, ensures the health and welfare of our people, and optimizes how we leverage talent across the Joint Force.” Dunford’s spokesman, Navy Capt. Gregory Hicks, said Dunford did not appear Thursday because it was Carter’s decision, and his “opportunity to announce that decision.” Three years ago, Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, then the Joint Chiefs chairman, appeared alongside Panetta as he announced that he was rescinding the combat exclusion policy. Carter said the important factor in him opening all jobs to women was to give the military access to every American who can add strength to it. Studies carried out by the services since 2013 found that some of the standards the military previously used to determine whether a service member was fit for a job were outdated or didn’t reflect the actual tasks required in combat, he said. “It’s been evidence-based, and iterative,” Carter said of the review. “I’m confident the Defense Department


Seven marathons. Seven days. Seven continents. One Boston woman’s quest.

Becca Pizzi of Belmont, Mass., is vying to be the first American woman to complete the World Marathon Challenge — seven marathons in seven days on seven continents — in January 2016. (Elise Amendola/Associated Press) Runners are constantly looking for the next challenge. Whether it’s aiming for a sub-four-minute mile, or setting off to run 50 marathons in 50 states, there is no shortage of feats that may have non-runners shaking their heads in wonderment. One of the most exclusive (read: crazy) clubs available for runners is the Intercontinental Marathon Club. To be a member, one must complete the World Marathon Challenge of running seven marathons on seven continents within seven days. (Yes, you read that correctly.) According to the event’s Web site, there are only 11 current members, 10 men and one woman. Timothy Durbin of San Francisco is the only American on the list. Durbin, who wants to cover 24,901 miles – the length of the equator – before 2022, completed the seven/seven/seven challenge in January. “I set a goal for myself I thought was attainable, which was to run 1,000 miles and walk another 1,000 in 2013,” he told Competitor.com. “About halfway through the year, I saw I was easily going to reach it, so I started increasing my goal.” Becca Pizzi, a 35-year-old day care center operator from Belmont, Mass., is hoping to become the first American woman to join the club when she begins her quest on Jan. 23 of next year in Union Glacier, Antarctica. “The second I heard about it, I knew I was born to run this race,” Pizzi told The Associated Press. “I’m doing it to represent my country and to inspire the world that you can do anything you put your mind to.” After Antarctica, Pizzi will run back-to-back marathons in Punta Arenas, Chile; Miami; Madrid; Marrakech, Morocco; Dubai, United Arab Emirates; and Sydney – all on consecutive days. Overall it will take 168 hours – 59 of them spent recovering in compression socks aboard a charter flight, according to The Associated Press. “It’s going to be an uncomfortable seven days,” she said. “We may not even get a shower. It’s basically going to be run, sleep, eat, repeat.” Pizzi, who has run 45 marathons, including 15 Boston Marathons, will be joined by four other Americans — all men — and runners from Australia, Germany, Japan, Morocco and Singapore, including


Some students are pushing for change by volunteering.

constantly making decisions. You only learn by doing. As the Honduras project closed, we moved forward to a new community, Nyange, in Rwanda, where people had asked for a more efficient way to make clay roof tiles. We spent a year building a bike-powered clay-mixer, tile-press, and accompanying education curricula. It took months of fundraising and a handful of 2 a.m. Skype calls. Then we spent two weeks in Rwanda, implementing our system, meeting with government and university officials, and striving to see life through the lens of another culture. And though Murphy’s Law seemed to meet us at every stage of the trip, it always led us to the inexplicable joy of problem solving. We arrived at Nyange early, eager to build the tile-press with the community and create the first tile. Back in Santa Clara, we rehearsed a method to build the press; we would show how the tools work, build the first half, and have them build the second half. This would allow the community to understand how the machine works and how to maintain the system. After showing how to screw in just two bolts, one woman, Mediatrice, reached for the wrench still in my hand. Her eyes spoke without words, “I can do that.” Incredulity and happiness merged in a way I didn’t know possible. I let go. Guiding the others, she proceeded to screw in bolts while positioning others’ hands to hold the different components. Mediatrice later spoke to me through our translator. She said that the people of Nyange wanted to be self-sufficient, but they didn’t have the means. All the wealth is concentrated in the cities outside of Nyange, and it never finds its way in, and so time is left standing still. All they need is a catalyst. Even though her words were translated and maybe they lost some essence, they still weighed with the enormous gravity of the situation that surrounded us. It was the most incredible illustration of the resilience of the human spirit I have ever seen in my 21 years. And so I landed back in San Francisco sometime later, in my little bubble, contemplating this experience. I still drive down 101, looking at all the tech companies, wondering if “making the world a better place” is just a worn-out marketing campaign — or whether it is handing someone a wrench and saying, “You can do this.”


Authorities pick through suspects’ path: Marriage, baby and then bloodshed

of them that can be found on the Internet are relatively benign: a baby registry that appeared to be in Malik’s name, and undated online dating profiles that appeared to be Farook’s. Among other things, he stated an interest in target shooting. The baby registry page cites a May due date in Riverside, which is near San Bernardino. Malik’s requests are modest: diapers, baby wash, swabs and a convertible car seat. Another site — described as “for people with disabilities and second marriage” — includes a description that appears to match Farook. The “About Him” section on the iMilap.com site introduces someone who works for the county as a “health, safety and envorimental [sic] inspector.” It further states that he is from a religious but modern family of four, lives with his parents and enjoys working on cars as well as “just hang out in back yard doing target pratice [sic] with younger sister and friends.” He added that he enjoyed working on vintage and modern cars, and read religious books while enjoying eating out sometimes. On another matchmaker site, Dubaimatrimonial.com, a person believed to be Farook described himself as having family roots in Karachi, noting he was born in Chicago and was residing in Los Angeles as an American citizen. Farook graduated from California State University at San Bernardino with a degree in environmental health in 2009, according to the university’s commencement document. His seemingly steady persona — high school, college, career — stands in contrast, however, with the apparently turbulent home life of his parents for more than a decade. The couple, Rafia and Syed Farook, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection in 2002, according to county documents. Four years later, Rafia then submitted paperwork for a separation after more than 24 years of marriage, citing verbal and physical harassment and describing her husband as “irresponsible, negligent, and an alcoholic.” Conditions were put in place for visitation with their daughter, Eba, who was born in 1991 — four years after her brother, the alleged shooter. A series of court filings were made between 2006 and 2012 related to their separation. In one 2008 document, the hit from the U.S. financial crisis appeared to be noted: Showing the estimated value of their Riverside home at $175,000 but owing about $100,000 more. A judge granted her petition for a divorce earlier this year. In interviews with the Los Angeles Times,


Alarming research finds humans are using up far more of Earth’s water than previously thought

than 3,500 cubic kilometers, or about 850 cubic miles, of water. Altogether, they estimate that the current level of human freshwater consumption is about 4,370 cubic kilometers, or close to 1,050 cubic miles, per year. These calculations raise the estimated total human water footprint — that’s all water consumed, freshwater or otherwise — by a whopping 18 percent, bringing it up to about 10,688 cubic kilometers per year. The authors note that previous papers have proposed a “planetary boundary” of 4,000 cubic kilometers of freshwater consumption per year. Beyond that point, some scientists say that water consumption becomes unsustainable for the Earth’s growing population. Notably, this new study brings the total estimated freshwater consumption above the proposed planetary boundary. “Whether this actually is a real boundary, of course there’s huge uncertainty related to that,” Destouni said, but added that the study’s results are concerning either way. “It’s very serious that with such a relatively straightforward thing as water, freshwater — all of us use it all the time — we don’t keep track of what changes we have made and how these changes actually relate to what the planet can withstand,” she said. Sterling also pointed out that the paper suggests human activities have a particular influence in already water-stressed regions. “Another important implication of what they found [is that] the biggest reductions in available water from these human activities of dam building and irrigation are in areas that are already arid,” she said. “In these areas, they probably built dams and irrigation to address an existing water stress in the first place.” The study highlights a critical need for better monitoring of our freshwater use and the ways our management techniques can affect the water cycle, as Jaramillo noted that the current effects of human water management “are even larger and more recognizable than the effects of atmospheric climate change.” As climate change is predicted to become an increasing threat to water security worldwide, the persistent impacts of human activity on the water cycle will only be compounded by the effects of global warming in the future — making the need for better management techniques an even higher priority. “That’s another future direction our society needs to take — to go towards greater resource efficiency,” Destouni said. “And if we don’t keep track of how we use water, we cannot reach that efficiency, or even understand what that efficiency


Orbital ATK’s return to flight delayed

Orbital ATK’s return to flight was delayed by a rainstorm Thursday. The Dulles-based company had been scheduled to fly cargo to the International Space Station for the first time since its rocket exploded more than a year ago. NASA said it plans to try the launch again Friday, but the weather is forecasted to be cloudy and windy then, too. Orbital’s Cygnus spacecraft is loaded up with more than 7,000 pounds of food, water, supplies and science experiments. The company’s Antares rocket blew up in October 2014, a few minutes after liftoff. The company has not flown since then. Eight months after Orbital’s explosion, SpaceX, the other company NASA relies on to ferry cargo to the station, also saw its rocket explode. The twin failures, both ending in spectacular fireballs that caused millions of dollars of loss, made some question NASA’s decision to contract out such important and difficult missions to the private sector. But NASA has said it is confident in the two companies and is eager to resume flying cargo missions to the space station, which has been resupplied by other countries.


Motive elusive in deadly San Bernardino rampage as FBI takes over probe

digital trail, including thumb drives, computers and cellphones. But the two had left behind remarkably little in the way of a digital record — no apparent criminal record, no Facebook page, no Twitter account. Speaking to the Los Angeles Times, co-workers who knew Farook described him as a quiet, polite man who held no obvious grudges against people in the office. The office had recently held a shower for the couple’s baby, and the two seemed to be “living the American Dream,” Patrick Baccari, a fellow inspector who shared a cubicle with Farook, told the Times. A number of families in this city were shattered by Wednesday’s violence. On Thursday, officials released the names of the 14 people slain at the holiday party. The eight men and six women ranged in age from 26 to 60. One ran the coffee shop in the building. Twelve of the 14 were county employees. Shaken, too, were Muslims in Southern California. At the Islamic Society of Corona-Norco, Ray Abboud said Muslims were horrified by the shooting. He said he fears people will paint Muslims with one brush. “It breaks our hearts to see 14 people die,” Abboud said. “We feel sorry for everything that happened, but we can’t blame ourselves for being Muslim.” He said people in the community were keeping a close watch on their children “to make sure they don’t fall into any crazy stuff.” Before the attack, Farook and Malik dropped off their 6-month-old daughter with Farook’s mother, saying they had a doctor’s appointment, according to Hussam Ayloush, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Los Angeles. The council organized a news conference late Wednesday featuring Farhan Khan, who is married to Farook’s sister. “I have no idea why he would do something like this,” Khan said of his brother-in-law. “I cannot express how sad I am today.” The attackers were killed in a confrontation with police after a shooting at the nonprofit Inland Regional Center that left 14 dead. Berman and Achenbach reported from Washington. Freelance writers Martha Groves and William Dauber in San Bernardino and staff writers Greg Miller, Brian Murphy, Adam Goldman, Lindsey Bever, Niraj Chokshi, Ann Gerhart, Sari Horwitz, Elahe Izadi, Wesley Lowery, Eli Saslow, Kevin Sullivan, Julie Tate, Justin Wm. Moyer, Yanan Wang, Sarah Kaplan and Alice Crites in Washington contributed to this report. [This story has been updated. First published: 11:30 a.m.]