How Target’s epic failure in Canada could spell future trouble for the retailer

Target plans to close the 133 stores it has opened in Canada since 2013. It was less than two years ago that Target opened its first store in Canada, marking the big-box retailer's first foray outside the United States. There were plenty of reasons to expect the expansion to be profitable: Wal-Mart had successfully pushed into Canada years earlier and Target followed its rivals' playbook, buying an established big-box chain and renaming the stores. The Target brand was already beloved by Canadians who made trips over the border to go to its U.S. stores, a sign that the retailer would have an enthusiastic customer base. But Thursday, Target conceded that its venture into Canada was a failure. The Minneapolis-based retailer announced that it will shutter all of its 133 Canadian stores after determining it would take at least six years for the business to turn a profit. Things have been rocky for Target in Canada from the beginning. Customers complained that shelves were frequently empty as Target grappled with supply chain problems, including a hastily-built technology system that made it difficult to track inventory. Some of the exclusive brands customers had come to love at Target's U.S. stores were not available at the Canada outposts. And the prices were higher than they were in the U.S. The company pulled out all the stops this holiday season to try to shine up their blemished image. On a conference call with investors Thursday, chief executive Brian Cornell said the stores were well stocked, including 15,000 new items. The4 company lowered prices, adjusted its promotion strategy and launched a big marketing blitz. But it was too late. "The harsh reality is that both sales and profits continued to fall short of our expectations and we had not realized the improvement in Canadian consumer sentiment,” Cornell said. The move allows Target to get some huge drag off its balance sheet; Cornell said in a blog post that the Canada business was "losing money every day." Investors appeared to cheer the move, sending the company's stock up nearly 2 percent. But it's going to expensive to unload the Canada business, as executives said they expect it to cost $500 million to $600 million to shutter the stores, including laying off more than 17,000 employees. The flop also reveals the depth of Target's challenges going forward. If the company couldn't make it in Canada, a close


Sea turtles use the Earth’s magnetic field to find their beach of origin

A baby loggerhead sea turtle. (Gerald Martineau/For The washington Post) Female sea turtles are known to return to the beaches where they were born to lay their own eggs -- even if they have to swim thousands of miles to do it. But since they make their first trip away from home when they're just itty bitty newborn turtles, how they find their way back has long been a mystery. According to a study published Thursday in Current Biology, these expert navigators may be drawn home magnetically. The study used loggerhead sea turtles, who are known to use magnetic fields to navigate when they're in the open ocean. But it turns out that they may use exactly the same navigation system when they're en route to lay eggs. When researchers compared records of the Earth's subtly shifting magnetic fields with records of sea turtle nesting, they found a connection. From Discovery News: For example, in some cases the Earth’s field shifted so that the magnetic signatures of adjacent locations along the beach moved closer together. When that happened, nesting turtles packed themselves along a shorter stretch of coastline. In places where magnetic signatures diverged, sea turtles spread out and laid their eggs in nests that were fewer and farther between. "It's pretty fascinating how these creatures can find their way through this vast expanse of nothing," study co-author J. Roger Brothers, a biology graduate student at the University of North Carolina, told National Geographic.


Elon Musk says Texas is “a leading candidate” for his futuristic Hyperloop test track

Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk talks at the Automotive World News Congress at the Renaissance Center in Detroit, Michigan, on Tuesday. (Rebecca Cook/Reuters) *Editor’s note: This story has been updated throughout. Entrepreneur Elon Musk announced Thursday that he wants to build a “test track” for his idea for a futuristic high-speed transportation system called the Hyperloop, adding that Texas is “the leading candidate” to host the track. Musk’s Hyperloop concept involves transporting passengers via pods in above-ground tubes that move as fast as 800 mph. The system quickly proved to be a polarizing concept when Musk introduced the idea in 2013, with some praising it as visionary and others deriding it as wildly impractical. “In order to kind of help things along, we’re going to create a Hyperloop test track,” Musk told Texas Tribune CEO and Editor-in-Chief Evan Smith during an interview at the Texas Transportation Forum, an annual conference hosted by the Texas Department of Transportation. “Something that’s maybe on the order of a five-mile loop.” Musk’s talk was part of a public relations blitz Thursday in Austin, as the Tesla Motors CEO hopes to persuade the Texas Legislature to allow Tesla to sell cars directly to Texans and circumvent the state’s requirements that cars be sold through dealerships. After his transportation forum interview, he spoke to a crowd of supporters gathered at the Texas Capitol. During Thursday’s interview, Musk said the facility would be privately funded and not require the kind of incentives that his private space firm, SpaceX, received to develop a test facility in Texas. “We’re not asking for any money from the state,” Musk said. The idea for the test facility is apparently in the very early stages as Musk said that “it sounded good last night after a couple of drinks.” He explained that he envisioned the track as allowing for “teams of students” and companies interesting in developing the Hyperloop concept to test out different pod systems. Musk also discussed taking state and local economic incentives to build a SpaceX facility in South Texas. Smith noted the debate among state legislators over the future of economic incentive programs and asked if Musk would have located the SpaceX facility in Texas without the incentives. Musk said he would have chosen to locate the facility elsewhere. “We wouldn’t have come because it would have been quite rude to not offer us incentives,” Musk said. “A


Risk the flu or the flu vaccine? When it comes to a debilitating side effect, get your shot.

(AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo) The flu can leave you with a rare, but terrible, neurological condition known as Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS). The immune system attacks the nervous system and eventually a small handful of people end up paralyzed, sometimes unable to breathe on their own. (Other things, including campylobacter jejuni bacteria, can lead to GBS too.) Problem is, in rare cases, the flu vaccine may also increase the risk of developing GBS. So if you're worried about the small chance of developing this horrible syndrome, do you take your chances with the flu or the flu vaccine? Health-care workers, in particular, cite GBS as a reason they avoid the vaccine--even though the syndrome affects only 1 in 100,000 people in the United States. Researchers at the Ottawa Hospital Research Center have crunched the numbers and determined that, in most cases, you are better off getting the vaccine. For a hypothetical 45-year-old woman, they found, the vaccination actually decreased the risk of GBS by one chance in every 2.7 million vaccinations. For a 75-year-old man, it would be one fewer case for every 2.4 million people vaccinated,, according to their study, published Wednesday in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention journal Emerging Infectious Diseases. "We found that most of the time, getting the vaccine actually reduces your risk of GBS" over not getting it, said Kumanan Wilson, a professor of internal medicine at Ottawa Hospital. Only if you got a flu shot for a flu season when little virus was circulating would the numbers change substantially. Wilson and his colleague, epidemiologist Steven Hawken, also have developed this nifty interactive scale that allows you to calculate your own GBS risk, accounting for gender, age and flu circumstances. Fear of GBS and the vaccination date way back to 1976, when GBS increased among people who got the vaccine to protect against the swine flu virus. According to the CDC, scientists aren't entirely sure why. Given the potentially catastrophic nature of GBS--there are treatments but no cure--and the growing anti-vaccination movement, fear of the flu vaccine has grown out of proportion, Wilson and Hawken said. "It is rare after the vaccine, but it scares a lot of people, and health-care workers," Wilson said.


Astronaut Scott Kelly will spend a year in space while scientists study his twin here on Earth

NASA's Human Research Program is examining the effects of spaceflight on the human body by studying identical twin astronauts, Scott and Mark Kelly. Astronaut Scott Kelly has a body double, his identical twin brother, retired astronaut Mark Kelly. And while Scott is making history over the next year — living on the International Space Station longer than any other American astronaut — Mark will be down here on Earth, being poked and prodded to determine how his brother is faring in space. In March, NASA will send Scott Kelly on a yearlong mission to ISS, where he will live and work alongside Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko on as many as 500 experiments. Because the typical trip in space is some six months, the Kelly brothers will, in essence, be an experiment themselves, giving NASA a better understanding of how long stints in space affect astronauts — in preparation for an eventual human mission to Mars. “This will give us our first glimpse of what happens to their bodies from six to 12 months,” NASA’s space station program scientist Julie Robinson said, according to the Houston Chronicle. “We want to find what risks might lurk there.” Long-term space travel can do strange things to a person. Bones get weaker. Muscles lose mass. And the near zero-gravity can even make a man taller — a temporary side-effect that amused Scott Kelly when he returned from a mission in 2011 and noticed he was taller than his twin. “It did last long enough that I could stand next to my brother and look down at him a little bit,” he told the Houston Chronicle. The brothers are part of NASA’s “Twins Study,” which will look at how twins in radically different environments change over time. Researchers will compare the brothers’ immune systems, reaction time, vision and heart health, among other things, using blood and urine samples as well as other measurements. This will tell them how Scott Kelly’s DNA might have changed in space. “From bone loss and muscle loss to effects on our immune system, vision, vestibular system and radiation,” Kelly told KPRC‑TV. “You do get a lot of radiation in space, and we know what radiation can do to people. So that is a concern.” NASA is waiting to launch long-term space travel — including trips to the Red Planet — until it learns how the human form can handle it.


Main Street Morning: Goodbye, Google Glass

her food company because she breastfed on the job is now back in business after receiving an apology from the Department of Agriculture. Southwest is fined $1.6 million for long flight delays. People Starbucks plans layoffs at its Seattle headquarters. Catering to home-schoolers altered the course of this business owner’s career. These are the ten best perks offered by the Big 4 accounting firms. Retail How a small delivery service is helping Best Buy to fight back against Amazon. Neiman Marcus is piloting smart mirrors for its stores. Technology The New York Times and The Washington Post plan to start testing drones for reporting. Google Glass will stop selling next week. A few innovative Israeli entrepreneurs are driving transportation technology. Opportunities The U.S. eases its Cuba embargo today opening the island to greater trade and travel. Solar is adding jobs 10 times faster than the overall economy due to a boom in rooftop installations. Finance A tough credit market exists for the smallest firms and startups, with a majority unable to secure any credit according to a study from the New York Fed and Small Business Credit Survey. Social Media Yelp passes 100K registered developers for its application programming interface and plans “off the shelf” tools so anyone can use its data. This infographic reveals the best times to post on social media for B2B and B2C brands. Online A car dealership messes with a pizza delivery guy and feels the Internet’s wrath. Around the Country A new bill would allow 24/7 bars in Nebraska. A new rule allowing Oregon businesses to raise funds from state residents took effect. A U.S. Senator is celebrating Alaska’s beer week with the state’s small business owners. 4 things your small business should know about the proposed tax changes in New York City. Canada The Canadian government will unveil its budget this year later than it usually does because of market volatility. Target closes its stores in Canada, and this is why American retailers are striking out there. Around the World A Chinese-food delivery man ends up driving one of Hong Kong’s hottest start-ups. A restaurant in China determines its customers’ bills according to how attractive they are. Gene Marks owns the Marks Group, a Bala Cynwyd, Pa., consulting firm that helps clients with customer relationship management. Follow Gene Marks and On Small Business on Twitter. News we should know about? Email us here.


Here are spectacular photos and video of a SpaceX rocket crashing into a barge

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk released images on Friday of the attempted landing of a Falcon 9 rocket on an ocean barge on Jan. 10. Elon Musk released photos Friday showing how his daring attempt to land a rocket booster on a floating barge last week ended in a spectacular fireball, or as he called it, a "rapid unscheduled disassembly." @ID_AA_Carmack Full RUD (rapid unscheduled disassembly) event. Ship is fine minor repairs. Exciting day! http://t.co/tIEctHFKHG Musk's SpaceX has been working on building resuable rockets that it says would greatly reduce the cost of space flight. Typically, rockets are burned up and discarded after one use, which the billionaire entrepreneur has said is an unnecessary waste. Previously, SpaceX has tested short launches, with rockets blasting a few hundred feet into the air before landing softly on a landing pad. But last week's mission was the first time anyone has tried landing the first stage of a rocket on a floating barge at sea. The attempt came during an unmanned mission for NASA to resupply the International Space Station with food and supplies. After a successful launch, the first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket separated and then aimed for the barge, 300 feet long by 170 feet wide, using its engine thrust to slow down from a velocity of about 3,000 mph. As the photos show, it hit hard and exploded. @ID_AA_Carmack Residual fuel and oxygen combine http://t.co/5k07SP8M9n @ID_AA_Carmack Rocket hits hard at ~45 deg angle, smashing legs and engine section http://t.co/PnzHHluJfG Musk had previously said that the "grid fins" used to help guide the rocket had run out of hydraulic fluid. On the next attempt, scheduled for later this month, the rocket will have "way more hydraulic fluid." Even though the landing wasn't successful, Musk said, it "bodes well for the future." The resupply mission, however, was successful. SpaceX's Dragon capsule docked to the space station Monday, allowing the astronauts on board to refill their cupboards.


Landmark study lays out everything you ever wanted to know about legalizing marijuana in Vermont

their grand opening on New Year’s day in Northglenn, Colorado. (Rick Wilking/Reuters) Vermont may be leaving tens of millions of dollars in revenue on the table. All it has to do to collect it is legalize pot. That’s according to a new comprehensive report commissioned by the state to explore the legalization and regulation of marijuana, which is currently legally available for recreational use in Colorado and Washington state, and is on track to be allowed in Alaska and Oregon after voters in those states approved it in November. Though it is focused on the options available to Vermont, the report serves as a policy guide to any state considering legalization today. Without making recommendations, it explores multiple forms of legalization from allowing adults 21 or older to grow marijuana to allowing its sale by nonprofits, for-profit businesses or a government entity. It also explores the regulations that could be layered on legalization, from limiting the amount of the chemical THC in marijuana products to mandating child-resistant packaging to imposing price floors. “It is a false dichotomy to think about marijuana policy in terms of choosing either prohibition or the for-profit commercial model we see in Colorado and Washington,” said Beau Kilmer, project leader and co-director of RAND’s Drug Policy Research Center. “Jurisdictions considering alternatives to prohibition could limit supply to home production, cooperatives, nonprofit organizations, socially responsible businesses, a public authority or even a state monopoly.” Vermont residents likely consumed somewhere between 15 and 25 metric tons of marijuana and spent between $125 million and $225 million on the plant, RAND estimates. Meanwhile, state and local governments spend less than $1 million annually enforcing existing marijuana laws, they found. If passed, legalization could have big implications for the region. There are nearly 40 times the number of regular marijuana users within 200 miles of Vermont’s border as there are within its borders, RAND estimates. That means the state could see a huge boost in tourism by legalizing, unless of course other states legalize. Proximity of regular marijuana users to Vermont. (RAND) The report also identifies some “clear acute and chronic health effects” of heavy marijuana use, including the risk of accidents, impaired cognitive functioning under the influence of the drug, anxiety, dysphoria and panic. In the long-term, heavy users risk becoming dependent on the drug and risk contracting bronchitis. It’s not yet clear whether it has long-term cognitive impairment.


A dozen ways to legalize the marijuana supply chain, in Vermont or any state

so far, who often draw comparisons to alcohol both in how harmful the substance is (alcohol is worse, they argue) and how it should be regulated. In Washington, the Liquor Control Board is regulating marijuana. It was the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana in Alaska that shepherded the successful legalization ballot measure that voters approved last November and peer groups exist in a number of other states with active legalization efforts. Taylor Bickford, right, spokesman for the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol, Chris Rempert, center, the campaign’s political director, and Bruce Schulte, of the Coalition for Responsible Cannabis Legislation, talk to reporters on Nov. 5, in Anchorage, Alaska. After votes were counted in Tuesday’s election, Alaska became the fourth state, along with the District of Columbia, to legalize the recreational use of marijuana. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren) “The guiding spirit of this approach is to let the market evolve to maximize the efficiency of production, the appeal of products to consumers, and the size, scale, and scope of the market—subject only to remaining within the regulatory parameters,” the RAND authors write. It isn’t clear how such a market would evolve, but the authors hazard a few educated guesses: firms will grow; production will shift to greenhouses or even outdoors to save money; and the industry will push a shift away from buying loose leaves and toward extract-based products or pre-rolled joints. Competition will make branding more important (Privateer Holdings recently licensed the name of perhaps the world’s most famous smoker, Bob Marley), boutiques will proliferate among wealthier customers and cafes will sprout up where allowed. Where innovation leads isn’t clear. Will firms produce products with increasingly high potency? Will they further develop concentrates and edibles? And then there’s “the biggest wild card of all:” the creation of products based on the extraction and blending of the hundreds of potentially psychoactive and not well-understood chemicals in the plant. What is more certain is that products will likely proliferate under this approach to legalizing supply. “A regulated-like-alcohol industry can present consumers with a tantalizing array of high-quality products at prices well below what they are today; that is a service at which free markets excel,” the authors write. The 8 middle-ground options 1. Let adults grow their own (David McNew/Reuters) Allowing home cultivation isn’t a new idea. Alaska’s Supreme Court ruled in 1975 that privacy rights protected home growth, later defined as


grow; production will shift to greenhouses or even outdoors to save money; and the industry will push a shift away from buying loose leaves and toward extract-based products or pre-rolled joints. Competition will make branding more important (Privateer Holdings recently licensed the name of perhaps the world’s most famous smoker, Bob Marley), boutiques will proliferate among wealthier customers and cafes will sprout up where allowed. Where innovation leads isn’t clear. Will firms produce products with increasingly high potency? Will they further develop concentrates and edibles? And then there’s “the biggest wild card of all:” the creation of products based on the extraction and blending of the hundreds of potentially psychoactive and not well-understood chemicals in the plant. What is more certain is that products will likely proliferate under this approach to legalizing supply. “A regulated-like-alcohol industry can present consumers with a tantalizing array of high-quality products at prices well below what they are today; that is a service at which free markets excel,” the authors write. The 8 middle-ground options 1. Let adults grow their own (David McNew/Reuters) Allowing home cultivation isn’t a new idea. Alaska’s Supreme Court ruled in 1975 that privacy rights protected home growth, later defined as up to four ounces or 25 plants. Several states allow home growing for medical marijuana and voters in the District of Columbia in November approved a measure that allows up to six plants to be grown at home. Research suggests this is exercised by relatively few users and likely does little to increase marijuana use. One drawback is that may not do much to substantially affect the black market and is difficult, though not impossible, to regulate and tax. That difficulty to collect revenue on legalization may lead even states that commercialize marijuana, such as Washington, to maintain a prohibition on home growing. Colorado, however, allows it. 2. Let only small co-ops or buyers’ clubs grow and distribute the drug Technical adviser Juan Vaz holds a cannabis plant for harvest inside a grow room at a club in Montevideo, Uruguay, on Dec. 10, 2014. (Nicolas Garcia/AFP/Getty Images) One problem with home-growing, too, is that it is very easy even for regular users to grow more than is needed. Non-profit cannabis clubs, allowed in some parts of Spain, address that problem without allowing a full-fledged market to prosper. Uruguay is also implementing a collectives-based system. Not only do these clubs compete


After 64 years, Giant to close Old Town store

Giant Food operates 169 supermarkets in the region. Above, one of the company’s newer locations at 8th and O Streets NW. After 64 years, Giant Food is closing its grocery store on First Street in Old Town Alexandria. The decision to close the 18,000-square-foot location was based largely on the store’s age and space limitations, said Jamie Miller, a spokesman for Giant. The company’s newer stores tend to be between 50,000 and 60,000 square feet. “It would have been really impractical for us to remodel or even expand that location,” Miller said, adding that the Landover-based company did not foresee closing any other stores in the Washington area. There are eight other Giant stores within a six-mile radius of the Old Town location, Miller said. A ninth, at Potomac Yards in Alexandria, is scheduled to open this fall. Additionally, Harris Teeter and Trader Joe’s also have grocery stores within four blocks of the soon-to-be-defunct Giant. The influx of grocers such as Whole Foods, Balducci’s, and even Wal-Mart, in recent years has forced the area’s supermarket chains to upgrade existing stores and rethink new ones. The Giant at O Market, for example, which opened in November 2013, sells sushi and allows customers to sip beer or wine as they shop. Other Safeway and Giant stores in the area have been known to carry caviar and pate. “We made the difficult decision to close the Old Town North location after a thorough review of the operating performance of our stores,” Gordon Reid, president of Giant, said in a statement. Last year, Giant closed a 27,000-square-foot supermarket in Springfield with plans to nearly-double its size to 51,000 square feet. A spring reopening is planned. The Old Town Giant will close at 6 p.m. on Feb. 12. All employees have been offered jobs at other Giant locations, Miller said. Giant operates 169 supermarkets in Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and the District.


National Book Critics Circle finalists

Just two months after winning the National Book Award for Fiction, Phil Klay has been named this year’s recipient of the John Leonard First Book Prize from the National Book Critics Circle. Klay’s story collection, “Redeployment,” is informed by his service in the Marines during the Iraq War. The NBCC also announced today that Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison has received the Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of her many decades as an editor, professor and author of such celebrated novels as “Song of Solomon” (1977), for which she won a NBCC Fiction Prize, and “Beloved” (1987), for which she won a Pulitzer Prize. Klay and Morrison will receive their honors at a public ceremony in New York on March 12, when the NBCC will also announce the winners in six categories — autobiography, biography, criticism, fiction, general nonfiction and poetry — for the best books of 2014. The finalists for those awards were released tonight, and for the first time in the organization’s 40-year history, one book will be competing in two different categories: “Citizen: An American Lyric,” by Claudia Rankine, is a finalist for the poetry and the criticism prizes. It was also a finalist for the National Book Award for Poetry, and has been a spectacular success for Graywolf Press, a non-profit publisher in Minneapolis, Minn. Monday night, a spokesperson for the publisher said the book is currently in its fourth printing, bringing the total number of copies to over 40,000. And America’s love affair with French economist Thomas Piketty continues. His surprise bestseller, “Capital in the Twenty-First Century,” is a finalist for the General Nonfiction Prize. Matt O’Brien wrote recently in The Post that President Obama’s State of the Union address on Tuesday would be “Piketty with an American accent.” The full list of NBCC finalists follows. (To read The Post’s reviews, click on the titles): (Courtesy of FSG) FICTION “An Unnecessary Woman,” by Rabih Alameddine (Grove). “A Brief History of Seven Killings,” by Marlon James (Riverhead). “Euphoria,” by Lily King (Grove). “On Such a Full Sea,” by Chang-rae Lee (Riverhead). “Lila,” by Marilynne Robinson (FSG). (Courtesy of Holt) NONFICTION “The Problem of Slavery in the Age of Emancipation,” by David Brion Davis (Knopf). “The Zhivago Affair: The Kremlin, the CIA, & the Battle Over a Forbidden Book,” by Peter Finn and Petra Couvée (Pantheon). “The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History,” by Elizabeth Kolbert (Henry


Local companies are raising the bar — with fruits, nuts and seeds

Out of the Box Bakery sells a trio of paleo-friendly bars. “They’re not going to derail your diet,” says owner Amanda Smith. (Michael LaPierre/www.mikelapierre.com) “These are the best!” squealed Casey Dlott, 29, popping a bite of CharmedBar’s Apple-rageous into her mouth. Even if samples hadn’t been up for grabs at Glen’s Garden Market in Dupont Circle, a few of the snacks would have ended up in her basket. She’s already been buying them by the box: “It’s the trifecta. All-natural ingredients, filling and delicious.” There are quite a few more adjectives that can be added to that list, says CharmedBar co-creator Debbi Ascher, who has struggled with digestive issues for decades. She developed the bars — with her friend and Gaithersburg, Md., neighbor Jen Burnstein — because she could eat only foods free of gluten, grains, soy, dairy and refined sugars. Finding something that fit those criteria and that she could stick into her purse? Forget about it, Ascher says. So, a year and a half ago, when the duo baked up their first batch of bars using nut butters, fruit, coconut and spices, they wondered whether other people might want to try them, too. The need to cut out gluten and dairy led to the launch of both CharmedBar, pictured, and Kate Bakes, another local bar maker. (CharmedBar) Turns out the answer was yes. CharmedBar’s lineup quickly won over D.C.-area shops and grocery stores, including Whole Foods. Now that they’ve transferred production to a West Coast co-packer, the $3 goodies are rolling out to stores across the country (and Canada). It would be a crazy story — except for the fact that other local bar-makers are experiencing similar success. Nearly as ubiquitous is Ever Bar, which launched in 2014 and is already in 80 stores, boasts founder Alex Hempfield. The University of Maryland grad wanted to raise awareness of hemp. “I was tired of the lies being told to the public,” Hempfield says. (And yes, that’s also why he legally changed his last name two years ago.) He spent a year playing with 2,000 recipes to develop a bar that could showcase hemp’s nutritional qualities and taste great. The resulting Ever Bars are now “handcrafted” in Gaithersburg. Two other growing companies, Kate Bakes (gluten-free, vegan bars) and Out of the Box Bakery (which specializes in paleo-friendly treats), share a Northern Virginia kitchen space. As D.C. becomes increasingly health-conscious, such


gluten and dairy led to the launch of both CharmedBar, pictured, and Kate Bakes, another local bar maker. (CharmedBar) Turns out the answer was yes. CharmedBar’s lineup quickly won over D.C.-area shops and grocery stores, including Whole Foods. Now that they’ve transferred production to a West Coast co-packer, the $3 goodies are rolling out to stores across the country (and Canada). It would be a crazy story — except for the fact that other local bar-makers are experiencing similar success. Nearly as ubiquitous is Ever Bar, which launched in 2014 and is already in 80 stores, boasts founder Alex Hempfield. The University of Maryland grad wanted to raise awareness of hemp. “I was tired of the lies being told to the public,” Hempfield says. (And yes, that’s also why he legally changed his last name two years ago.) He spent a year playing with 2,000 recipes to develop a bar that could showcase hemp’s nutritional qualities and taste great. The resulting Ever Bars are now “handcrafted” in Gaithersburg. Two other growing companies, Kate Bakes (gluten-free, vegan bars) and Out of the Box Bakery (which specializes in paleo-friendly treats), share a Northern Virginia kitchen space. As D.C. becomes increasingly health-conscious, such community ties matter, Kathleen Hodge says. That’s why, to promote the launch of her Mission: Bars next month, the brand is offering free yoga every Tuesday at 7 p.m. at Lululemon in Georgetown. “There’s definitely a bar scene here,” Hodge says. “But we all have a different take on what we’re doing so we can co-exist.” D.C.’s bar scene - Gal pals Debbi Ascher and Jen Burnstein didn’t cut any corners with CharmedBar. But their three flavors — Apple-rageous, Cran-dipity and Cherry-licious — come in a distinctive round shape. - “Handmade in small batches” is the motto of Kate Bakes, a lineup of six gluten-free, vegan bars. This week, owner Katelyn Sornik plans to introduce a new flavor made with pulp from green juice. - Sornik shares kitchen space with Out of the Box Bakery. Amanda Smith’s paleo-friendly biz also makes cakes and cookies, but the top sellers are the grab-and-go bars, designed to fuel a workout. - The not-so-secret ingredient in Ever Bar is hemp, “a powerhouse of nutrients,” says Alex Hempfield, who’s developed three flavors: Almond N’ Cranberry, Green Power and Blueberry Cashew. You can soon bite into Mission: Bars, which are headed to stores after a crowdfunding


Asthma is not more prevalent in the inner city, researchers say

more than 50 years, researchers have described childhood asthma as a plague of the inner city -- urban areas where 20 percent or more of the population lives below the poverty line. But a new study by researchers from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine suggests that isn't true, and that race, ethnicity and poverty are more closely associated with the lung disease than location in urban neighborhoods. When they looked at data for 23,065 children across the United States collected in the National Health Interview Survey, the researchers found that self-reported asthma attacks were distributed about equally between inner city areas and all others. More importantly, they found that "black race, Puerto Rican ethnicity and poverty rather than residence in an urban area per se are the major risk factors for prevalent asthma. These findings suggest that the concept of inner-city asthma might need to be refined." "What we found is there is a lot of variation," Corinne Keet, an assistant professor of pediatrics, said in an interview. Asthma rates were high in northeastern inner cities but also high in poor suburban midwestern areas, she said. Most of the variation can be explained by race, ethnicity and poverty, rather than by location, she said. Overall, 12.9 percent of children who live in inner cities have asthma, compared to 10.6 percent of children who live elsewhere, according to the analysis published Monday Tuesday in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. The difference disappeared when variables such as race, ethnicity and geography were factored in. For African-Americans and Puerto Ricans, higher risk of asthma may be genetic, Keet said. For the poor, it may be stresses such as exposure to mouse and cockroach allergens, cigarette smoke, a higher rate of pre-term births and more maternal stress, she said. Keet said it's unclear whether inner-city children who have asthma may suffer more severe symptoms as a result of allergens there. Another study is being conducted to determine that, she said. With asthma rates rising and more of the poor in the suburbs, Keet said, it's important that public health officials know the true prevalence of the disease, she said. "In this survey we estimate that inner-city areas now house only 8% of all children with current asthma compared with the 46% living in suburban or wealthier urban areas, which follows a similar distribution to children as a whole," Keet's team wrote.


With SOTU guest, Obama defies climate skeptics

the first lady's box a scientist who's studied sea level rise. Nicole Hernandez Hammer "I’m anticipating hearing some good news about climate change and policies related to clean energy," said Hammer, in a phone interview shortly before leaving Miami to come to Washington. "It’s my understanding they choose folks that align with the policies that are going to be mentioned." Hammer, who was born in Guatemala and came to the United States when she was 4 years old, devotes much of her time to educating Latinos about how they are vulnerable to climate impacts on sea level. She noted that the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration recently issued a study showing that while 39 percent of Americans live on the coasts, 49 percent of Latinos do. She recalled that when she was surveying a federal list of areas most imperiled by sea level rise and other climate impacts, "I was looking at their list and I realized there were places I had family -- in South Carolina, in Florida and Texas." Hammer, who has both an undergraduate degree in integrated natural sciences and a master's in biology, will not only attend the president's speech but meet Tuesday with Environmental Protection Agency administrator Gina McCarthy and participate in a White House event on engaging children in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) subjects. Hammer said she's particularly looking forward to meeting with students at the White House. "When I was kid growing up, there weren’t scientists who looked like me," she said. For those keeping track, this means eight of the first lady's guests boast some envir0nmental connection. Last year, Iowan Lee Maxwell, who works on wind turbines, sat in Michelle Obama's box. In 2012, Bryan Ritterby, a composite technician working on wind turbines for a Michigan firm came. In 2011, the White House invited Gary and Robert Allen, two brothers in Michigan who used a grant from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to convert their roofing business to produce solar shingles, and Brandon Ford, a then-junior at West Philadelphia High School who worked on developing hybrid vehicles. And at Obama's first State of the Union in 2010, the first lady hosted Li Boynton, a then-senior from Bellaire, Tex., who focused on researching ways to test for clean drinking water, and Don Karner, the president of a Phoenix company that received stimulus funds to expand the nation's electric vehicle charging stations.


The biggest risk in Google’s $1 billion bet on SpaceX

on Elon Musk. But can he deliver? SpaceX confirmed Tuesday that it had raised $1 billion from Google and Fidelity — part of a larger effort by Google to spread the Internet to developing countries and crack open those markets. SpaceX is a natural choice for a partnership: Both it and Google share a fondness for "moonshot" projects and have explored how to provide Internet access to poor and rural areas. In November, Musk suggested that SpaceX was working on the idea; last week, the billionaire investor hosted a private event in Seattle to launch an office dedicated to satellite Internet. SpaceX is still in the early stages of developing advanced micro-satellites operating in large formations. Announcement in 2 to 3 months. Many companies are only just getting started on delivering Internet by other means. Facebook dreams of using drones and satellites to create a vast access network. Google last year bought a drone manufacturer, Titan Aerospace, as part of its research. There are two main ways of getting data to and from space: radio waves and lasers. Lasers represent the cutting edge of connectivity research: They're incredibly accurate — important if you're beaming data from orbit — and can transfer information at speeds approaching the best that terrestrial Internet has to offer. A 2013 laser Internet test by NASA achieved download speeds (from the moon!) of 622 megabits per second — about 62 times faster than what the average U.S. household gets. Unfortunately, laser beams get scattered by things like clouds, meaning they're useless for delivering information in bad weather. So the backup for companies like Facebook is to use a tried-and-true technology: radio waves, or the same airwave spectrum that carries your cellphone calls and smartphone data. Here's the problem for SpaceX, according to The Information: It doesn't have a license to use the spectrum it would need to actually beam the Internet down to the masses. If it can't get the spectrum, and if the laser option doesn't pan out, SpaceX will have a tough time developing a sufficiently robust satellite network. But if can secure some spectrum rights, SpaceX could combine its manufacturing prowess and its space know-how in ways that Google could only dream of. And that's why Google appears so bullish on SpaceX right now. A spokesperson for Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A SpaceX spokesperson declined to comment.


One way to beat a bug that’s destroying Florida’s citrus? Get them high.

based on the number of psyllids captured on traps and the proportion of trees shown to be infested," they wrote. "No psyllids were collected at an elevation of (more than) 600 meters." Why should Florida and California's state entomologists and citrus growers care? Florida provides about 80 percent of the nation's orange juice, worth about $9 billion per year. Brazil chips in the other 20 percent. California produces a third of the nation's citrus, and is the leading grower of lemons. If psyllids gasp for air at higher elevations, it means something is happening in their itty-bitty chests. Or, more likely, the conditions change compounds in plants the bugs eat, making them less tasty. "Changes in elevation result in changes in temperature, short-wave radiation, partial pressure of respiratory gasses, precipitation, oxygen content, and air pressure," the study said. And? An inspector holds a leaf from an orange tree that is showing signs of "citrus greening" caused by the Asian citrus psyllid. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images) "If any of these can be shown to affect the development of the Asian citrus psyllid or of citrus greening disease," the authors said, "then it may be possible to induce these conditions in citrus trees at lower elevations." Or, there's a simple, more straightforward approach: "Another practical implication for this study would be to put citrus nurseries above 600 meters," where the bugs struggle, the study said. It's just a suggestion, the authors said. Florida researchers are listening, Jenkins said. "In fact some people in Florida have contacted us," he said. "They want to conduct studies with pressure, as far as pressurizing tree. They’ve got atmospheric scientists looking at that kind of stuff. We’re not the ones that have the ideas on how to use it, but somebody out there may have the idea to make this practical." It gets better. Earlier studies have shown that the eggs of cold-blooded insects take twice as long to develop into adults for lack of warmth. Nothing likes a slow developing psyllid nymph more than parasitic wasps that attack nymphs, sting them and lay eggs that feed on them from within until they burst from the skin like something out of the movie "Alien." "That's exactly what happens," Jenkins said, excitement in his voice. "It's incredible." More from Health and Science: The wildlife of Japan’s Hokkaido island Florida citrus growers worry bacteria will mean end of orange juice


The mysterious absence of women from Middle East policy debates

Marc Lynch) are women. A dozen women have served as president of the Middle East Studies Association. Women are likewise a palpable presence in Middle East policy: Well over a dozen women have served as U.S. ambassadors in the Middle East, and Anne Patterson currently serves as assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, the highest-ranking U.S. diplomat dedicated to the region. As for the think tanks, women run the Middle East Institute, the Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution (Tamara Cofman Wittes), the Middle East Center of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the Middle East Program at the Woodrow Wilson Center, the Center for the Middle East and Africa at the U.S. Institute of Peace, the Center for Middle East Public Policy at RAND, and play key roles at the Middle East programs of the Center for a New American Security and the Atlantic Council. Women journalists covering the region are powerhouses in print, on air and on Twitter; there are, frankly, too many of them doing cutting-edge work in the region to even start to list them. The vast gap between the large number of senior women in our field and their notable absence from our public discourse means it’s time for active steps to fix the latter problem. Eliminating woman-free public events has become increasingly a priority in other fields, such as the hard sciences. Jonathan Eisen of the University of California at Davis, as just one prominent example, has consistently drawn attention to the absence of women from scientific conferences and events, and has offered practical advice to event organizers on how to overcome the most common reasons for their exclusion. Two years ago, Rebecca Rosen of the Atlantic suggested applying this approach to technology-sector events, which are notoriously high-testosterone. At some graduate schools of international affairs, women now make up a majority of students, and an extraordinary group of talented women populates the rising generation of Middle East academia, journalism and policy. But that doesn’t mean that the current gender imbalance in the U.S. foreign policy debate will fix itself over time. The paucity of women’s voices in public discussion comes not just from thoughtless conveners, but also from long-standing problems in the professional “pipeline” that carries individuals to the top levels of the field. Inequities in hiring and promotion often reflect, and help perpetuate, the unconscious bias of a


The making of The Washington Post’s ‘Children of the Fallen’

Calvin Davis, 6, is shown at his Menifee, Calif., home on Nov. 19. His father, Marine Staff Sgt. Jonathan D. Davis, died in Afghanistan in 2013. (Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post) Over the weekend, several of my colleagues and I published a very ambitious project called Children of the Fallen: 14 portraits of children whose parents died during the conflict in Afghanistan, the longest war in U.S. history. But our original idea was far simpler. We wanted to profile just one child, the son of Johnny “Mike” Spann, a CIA paramilitary officer killed in a prison uprising in Afghanistan — and the very first American to die in the conflict. His son was just a baby when he died. My editor, Lynda Robinson, who helms The Post’s local enterprise team, wanted to profile the way his father’s absence had shaped this boy’s life as a way of offering a different perspective on the impact of the war. I had just interviewed Spann’s widow, Shannon, that spring for a story about the CIA’s Memorial Wall. But when I called Shannon and pitched her on letting us profile her son, she was reluctant. She lives in a new state, works in a different job and enjoys her newfound privacy. So Lynda came up with a different idea: Instead of focusing on a single child, we’d write short narratives about 14 kids, one for each year since 9/11. In the end, “Children of the Fallen” contains 14 vignettes about 17 kids, whose ages range from 6 to 34 and who live all across the country. (For some years, we chose to focus on a set of siblings.) It was much harder than we expected to find these families. We have a Faces of the Fallen database of U.S. service members killed in both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, listing their ages and where they were from. But more often than not, the surviving parent had relocated. It was not easy tracking down the right phone numbers. Nor was it easy to persuade them to participate. Sometimes, the widow had remarried or was dating again, and didn’t want to plunge back into the grief they had left behind. In other cases, the parents wanted to protect the privacy of their children. Finally, after several months, we got our 14 families. Now it was time to interview the children. It’s one thing to listen to adults


Wal-Mart will cash your tax refund — in hopes that you’ll spend it there

refunds are available. Taxpayers would then be able to pick up the cash — up to a maximum $7,500 — at any store through the Wal-Mart MoneyCenter or customer service desk. Wal-Mart isn’t releasing a full list of the tax preparers participating and says consumers will need to ask their tax preparers if the program, called Wal-Mart Direct2Cash, is available. People who use online tax software, or who do their own taxes, wouldn’t qualify. The tax preparer may charge a fee of up to $7 for the service, and Wal-Mart says it isn’t charging a fee for people to pick up the cash in store. The company acknowledged Tuesday that the new program could make it easier for people receiving sizable checks — the average refund issued last year was about $2,800 — to spend some of that money in Wal-Mart. “It’s always a good thing, we believe, to have customers in our stores who have jingle in their purses and in their wallets,” Eckert said during a conference call. Wal-Mart is going after a very particular type of customer. Because the option is only available through roughly 25,000 tax preparation locations partnering with the company, it excludes the millions of people who might file their tax returns online using tax preparation software. And while about two-thirds of taxpayers receive tax refunds, the company is targeting the minority of taxpayers who still depend on snail mail to receive that cash. Of the 109 million tax refunds issued last year, about 77 percent were direct deposited, according to the Internal Revenue Service. Consumers wouldn’t access the cash any sooner than they would if they had the money directly deposited into their bank accounts — which the IRS does at no cost. Wal-Mart has rolled out a slew of banking related services in recent years. In October, thousands of stores began serving as bank branches for GoBank, allowing people to make deposits or to open an account with the otherwise mobile banking platform. By then, Wal-Mart already offered a prepaid debit card, credit card, check cashing and money transfers. The latest option is separate from the tax preparation services Wal-Mart already offers in 3,000 stores through a partnership with Jackson Hewitt. But Wal-Mart is looking beyond banking in its efforts to get people to come into its stores. Last year, the Bentonville, Ark.-based company partnered with an online insurance Web site to


Ebola doctor gets seat in Michelle Obama’s box for State of the Union address

In December, Pranav Shetty briefed Tom Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, at International Medical Corps' Ebola treatment facility in Bong County, Liberia. (International Medical Corps) Responding to medical emergencies across the globe isn't the most glamorous or lucrative job for a physician. The post will take you to spots such as Haiti, Libya, South Sudan, Jordan and Liberia--all of which Pranav Shetty has visited as global emergency health coordinator for the non-profit International Medical Corps. But occasionally, there are perks. Tuesday night, in recognition of Shetty's efforts to fight Ebola in West Africa, he'll be sitting in Michelle Obama's box during the State of the Union address. Shetty deployed to Liberia in August, long before most NGOs and the U.S. military poured into the country, to help start and run two Ebola treatment units in rural parts of the country. I wrote about IMC's efforts to start a 51-bed facility in Bong County last September, a time when getting treatment for Ebola in rural Liberia meant many hours of travel over terrible, cratered roads. The organization also runs another treatment unit in Kakata and two more in Sierra Leone. The New York Times did this wonderful series on the facility as well. On Thursday, Shetty heads to Guinea to determine what Los Angeles-based IMC might do there to help defeat the virus, which has infected more than 21,000 people in West Africa, killing more than 8,600 of them. "It's a privilege and an honor to represent International Medical Corps as well as the thousands of medical volunteers" in West Africa who are working to stop the Ebola epidemic, he said in an interview. Shetty was one of the first people I called when Washington Post photographer Michel du Cille collapsed on assignment not far from the Bong Ebola facility. He sent two staffers to help before du Cille passed away. Also among the guests in the first lady's box will be Larry J. Merlo, president and chief executive officer of drug store chain CVS, which became the first major retail pharmacy to pull tobacco from store shelves.


Restaurant Week: 13 top spots where you can still get a dinner reservation

an even better bargain). So skip the neighborhood gastropubs and instead aim for these Tom Sietsema-approved restaurants where tables are still available this week. Aggio, The Caesar salad at the restaurant-within-a-restaurant Aggio inside Range. (Photo by Scott Suchman/For the Washington Post) Sietsema's take: America Eats Tavern, The hush puppies with trout roe and butter at America Eats Tavern in the Tyson's Ritz Carlton, McLean, VA. (Photo by Scott Suchman/For the Washington Post) Sietsema's take: Bombay Club, Mustard scallops with a tomato cilantro chutney at The Bombay Club. (Photo by Joseph Victor Stefanchik for The Washington Post) Sietsema's take: Casa Luca Patrons dine at Casa Luca. (Photo by Amanda Voisard/for The Washington Post) Sietsema's take: Del Campo Beef short ribs with charred red peppers, bone marrow and chimichurri sauce at Del Campo. (Photo by Scott Suchman/For the Washington Post) Sietsema's take: The Grill Room, Chef Frank Ruta. (Photo by Joseph Victor Stefanchik for The Washington Post) Restaurant Week is the first chance to sample former Palena chef Frank Ruta's cooking in his new digs. Mio, Grilled venison with braised venison agnolotti and cauliflower anchovy puree at Mio (Michael Temchine/for The Washington Post) Sietsema's take: Oval Room, Kazu Marinated Duck with bulb onion kimchee, smoked dates and foie gras ravioli at The Oval Room. (Photo by Joseph Victor Stefanchik for The Washington Post) The departure of longtime chef Tony Conte has brought change to the kitchen, but the appointment of former Fiola Mare executive chef John Melfi should ensure the Oval Room remains a dining destination. Pinea, Chef Barry Koslow in the new dining room at Pinea restaurant on the ground floor of the W Hotel. (Photo by Kate Patterson/ for The Washington Post) Sietsema's take: Rural Society, Short ribs at Rural Society (Photo by Greg Powers For The Washington Post) Sietsema's take: Sushi Taro, A sampler box at Sushi Taro. (Photo by Joseph Victor Stefanchik for The Washington Post) Sietsema's take: Vidalia, Georgia pecan pie at Vidalia. (Photo by Joseph Victor Stefanchik for The Washington Post) Sietsema's take: Water Wall The deep fried sweet breads with bread & butter pickle relish and flash fried kale, hot sauce, and honey at Wall & Water . (Photo by Scott Suchman/For the Washington Post) Sietsema's take: Correction: A previous version of this post quoted a past review of Tom Sietsema's, which stated that restaurateur Ashok Bajaj owns 6 six restaurants. He now owns eight.


The staggering challenges of the online grocery business

A Peapod distribution facility in Lake Zurich, Ill. (Tim Boyle/Bloomberg) The online grocery delivery business seems to get more crowded--and more competitive--by the minute. Tech giants Google and Amazon.com are offering it in some major cities, and so are upstarts such as Instacart, Postmates and FreshDirect. These newcomers are battling with more established businesses such as Peapod, which has been delivering groceries for more than 20 years, and services from companies such as Wal-Mart that allow customers to place orders online and pick them up at a nearby store. It's a business that everyone seems to want in on, even though new data show it's awfully hard to do profitably. In some ways, the enthusiasm makes makes sense: According to a report from IBIS World, a market research firm, online grocery sales grew at an annual rate of 14.1 percent over the last five years and they are expected to grow at a rate of 9.6 percent between 2014 and 2018. But look more closely at the report, and you see the major challenges these companies will face as they try to make these fledgling businesses viable. IBIS World estimates that the online grocery business collectively brought in $10.9 billion in sales in 2014. Profit, it estimates, was just $927.1 million, or 8.5 percent of total revenue. By 2018, the researchers project that profit margins will slip to 6.9 percent of sales. In part, that's because these operators will continue to contend with the high distribution costs associated with getting perishable items to customers. The report also predicts that big players, particularly AmazonFresh, will play a role in compressing margins for the whole industry. Amazon has often sought to vanquish its competitors by undercutting them on price, and the report suggests that the company may use that tactic in the grocery business, dropping their prices as low as possible and, in doing so, pressuring their competitors to make similar price cuts. (Jeffrey P. Bezos, the chief executive of Amazon, owns The Washington Post.) Even though it's a tough business model right now, report author and industry analyst Will McKitterick says companies of all stripes feel they can't afford not to take a chance on it. "For larger companies, it’s definitely a process to build the infrastructure, develop the delivery networks," McKitterick said. "All of that takes a lot of time, and if they miss the boat now, then they’re going


infrastructure, develop the delivery networks," McKitterick said. "All of that takes a lot of time, and if they miss the boat now, then they’re going to be in a pretty bad position” later on if throngs of consumers take to online grocery shopping. For all the speculation about how potentially disruptive these businesses are, IBIS World's report reveals that they so far have a very low penetration in the overall grocery market. Online grocery sales were only 1.9 percent of total grocery sales last year; by 2018, even given the rapid growth the researchers anticipate, online sales are still expected to equal only 2.9 percent of total grocery sales. In the broader retail industry, online purchases now account for 7 percent of overall sales, which suggests that shoppers have been less willing to go digital with their grocery shopping routines than their other shopping routines. The report says that may have to do with shoppers' concern about quality and freshness of produce and meat, something that wouldn't be a factor in the purchase of apparel, electronics and other goods. It may be that online grocery shopping hasn't been widely adopted yet in part because the services are only available in major cities, meaning that some shoppers that might want to take advantage of the service don't yet have the option. But experts say it's difficult to imagine a profitable scenario in which grocery delivery service is ever available outside of dense urban areas, meaning the customer base for these offerings is always going to be somewhat limited. The extent of their challenge in luring customers is evident in the mix of products they're selling. For online grocers, some 30 percent of sales come from "non-food items" such as cleaning supplies and beauty products. At bricks-and-mortar grocery stores, the share of sales from non-food items is much lower, just 14 percent. This suggests that even when people are using online grocery services, they're not using them for the fresh products that make these grocers distinct from, say, a traditional retailer such as Target that could simply send you some paper towels or toothpaste via FedEx or UPS. Despite these headwinds, McKitterick expects to see even more players try to succeed at online grocery retailing in the near future. "I don’t know if it’s a 'do or die,' but it’s one of these opportunities that companies can’t skip out on," McKitterick said.


Climate-change skeptics Cruz and Rubio now help oversee nation’s climate science

With Republicans taking control of the Senate this month, two climate-change skeptics became heads of the subcommittees that oversee the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) chairs the Senate subcommittee on oceans, atmosphere, fisheries, and Coast Guard, is responsible for NOAA. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) leads the subcommittee on space, science and competitiveness, which covers NASA. Why does that matter? Because both agencies manage the nation’s weather satellites, which provide much of the data for studying climate change. The Obama administration in 2013 spent more than twice as much money on climate-change research as it did on weather forecasting. That could change with Republicans controlling the subcommittees that oversee the work of NASA and NOAA. (AP Photo/NOAA) In 2013, the Obama administration spent more than twice as much money on climate-change research as it did on weather forecasting, according to this 2013 PolitiFact article. NASA’s role in examining the climate NOAA’s role is no less significant, with the agency spending about $2 billion on its National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service last year. Last year, the Republican-controlled House passed a bill that would have required NOAA to dedicate more money on weather-forecasting than climate-change studies. Such measures stand a better chance of winning Senate approval with the new Cruz and Rubio chairmanships. Both Republicans have expressed doubts about climate change, or at least what can Congress can do about it. Cruz has outright denied climate change, while Rubio acknowledges the phenomenon but questions many of the proposals for dealing with it. Rubio said during an ABC News interview in May that he does not believe human activity is to blame for the issue in “the way these scientists are portraying it.” In a subsequent National Press Club event, he said climate change is real but that cap and trade legislation wouldn’t prevent it from happening. Rubio’s office did not respond to a request for comment on Tuesday. As for Cruz, his recent comments place him squarely in the climate-change denier’s camp. “The last 15 years, there has been no recorded warming,” he said during a CNN interview last year. “Contrary to all the theories that they are expounding, there should have been warming over the last 15 years. It hasn’t happened.” President Obama criticized that kind of thinking during his State of the Union address on Tuesday. “I know


You’re more likely to work out, quit smoking and lose weight if your partner does the same

(Christoph Schmidt/EPA) Changing bad habits into good ones can be very difficult work. It's easier, though, if you're coupled up with someone trying to do the same. That's the conclusion of a study from researchers at the University College London and published Monday in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine. They found that smokers were more likely to quit if they had partners who also quit; both men and women worked out more if their partners joined them; and people shed more pounds when they had partners who did the same. Researchers turned to the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing and examined the physical activity and smoking habits, as well as weight-loss patterns, of 3,722 married and cohabiting English couples who are at least 50 years old. Across those measures, being with somebody who worked to reduce their unhealthy habits gave adults better odds of improving their own health. Among smokers, just 8 percent of those partnered up with smokers quit the habit. But that number jumped to nearly 50 percent when smokers' partners also quit. A similar pattern emerged regarding exercising; physical activity increased for about 70 percent of both men and women when their partners did the same. But just about a quarter of men and women with non-active partners increased their physical activity. As for losing weight, the researchers looked specifically at whether people lost 5 percent of their body weight. A quarter of men with partners who lost weight also dropped pounds, while 10 percent lost weight when their partners didn't. For women, 36 percent lost weight when with someone who did the same, while just 15 percent of women lost weight when their partners didn't. While the researchers didn't zero in on why this pattern emerged, senior author Jane Wardle of University College London told Reuters it may have to do with mutual support and even competition. But they did find that changes weren't as dramatic for those coupled up with already healthy people, rather than with people who also worked to change habits. Still, the researchers did find that merely being with a physically active person or a non-smoker did influence partner behavior. "Men and women are more likely to make a positive health behavior change if their partner does too, and with a stronger effect than if the partner had been consistently healthy in that domain," the authors write. "Involving partners in behavior change


Your guide to Obama’s tech policy State of the Union

much time discussing the 2013 revelations from former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden -- but said that although others have moved on, he hasn't As Americans, we cherish our civil liberties — and we need to uphold that commitment if we want maximum cooperation from other countries and industry in our fight against terrorist networks. So while some have moved on from the debates over our surveillance programs, I haven’t. As promised, our intelligence agencies have worked hard, with the recommendations of privacy advocates, to increase transparency and build more safeguards against potential abuse. And next month, we’ll issue a report on how we’re keeping our promise to keep our country safe while strengthening privacy. Space, unfiltered America’s quest for the stars got a shout-out at the same time as the photo-sharing service Instagram. I want Americans to win the race for the kinds of discoveries that unleash new jobs: converting sunlight into liquid fuel; creating revolutionary prosthetics, so that a veteran who gave his arms for his country can play catch with his kid; pushing out into the solar system not just to visit, but to stay. Last month, we launched a new spacecraft as part of a reenergized space program that will send American astronauts to Mars. In two months, to prepare us for those missions, Scott Kelly will begin a year-long stay in space. Good luck, Captain — and make sure to Instagram it. Requisite tech company shout-outs Instagram wasn’t the only tech company the president named. In another line about innovation, he checked off a few big tech names: But there are also millions of Americans who work in jobs that didn’t even exist 10 or 20 years ago — jobs at companies like Google and eBay and Tesla. The love for Tesla actually was part of a theme for the night. Silicon Valley tax shenanigans Much scrutiny has been focused on U.S. companies — particularly tech companies, such as Apple — that pay lower taxes by keeping their money abroad. In his speech, Obama took aim at the practice. For far too long, lobbyists have rigged the tax code with loopholes that let some corporations pay nothing while others pay full freight. Let’s close loopholes so we stop rewarding companies that keep profits abroad, and reward those that invest in America. Let’s use those savings to rebuild our infrastructure and make it more attractive


Morning links: Some police agencies can see into your home

- How presidents have addressed criminal justice in the State of the Union over the years. - The DEA acknowledges that it had been accumulating phone records. - SWAT team used to evict Oregon couple from their home. - USA Today reports that some police agencies have been using new technology that can see through walls and into homes, have been for a couple of years and adopted the technology without notifying the public or the courts. - Currently, only one state guarantees the right to an attorney during campus disciplinary hearings. - Federal government pays $134,000 to woman whose identity the DEA stole to create a Facebook profile as bait to lure drug dealers. - Snowden documents show that British intelligence collected emails to and from British and U.S. journalists.


U.S. veteran and wife accused of outsmarting Army for nearly $4 million

Sen. Claire McCaskill, (D.-Mo.) expressed frustration in a letter to Army Secretary John McHugh that ‘sleazy’ actions in a recruiting program resulted in a soldier and his wife receiving about $4 million. (Defense Department photo) A U.S. veteran and his wife used a fake U.S. Army website in a “sleazy” scheme that snagged almost $4 million through a recruiting program, a U.S. senator alleges — but it appears there is nothing the federal government can do about it. Sen. Claire McCaskill (D.-Mo.) expressed frustration about the scheme in a letter sent to Army Secretary John McHugh on Dec. 15 and publicized by her office Tuesday. The veteran, described as a retired sergeant, and his wife set up a fake website — officialarmy.com — to gather the names of potential recruits, and then turned those names over to the service for financial rewards totaling $3.845 million, she said. “I am absolutely disgusted,” said McCaskill in a news release. “This is a staggering exploitation of public trust, of the brave men and women who volunteer to serve in the Army, and of taxpayer dollars. It’s past time for the Department of Defense to take a hard look at the people who perpetrated and approved this scheme, and for the Recruiting Command to put in place policies to better safeguard against future recruiting schemes.” Army officials declined to comment, saying they were preparing a response for McCaskill. It’s the latest bad news for Army recruiting. McCaskill and Army officials disclosed a widespread scandal centered on its recruiting practices last year, saying at the time that they were investigating the actions of more than 1,200 people suspected of collecting more than $29 million fraudulently. In that case, the National Guard Recruiting Assistance Program was involved. In this case, the Army’s Referral Bonus Program to recruit active-duty soldiers was used, McCaskill alleged. It offered $2,000 for each recruit who eventually enlisted. The senator said the only service the sergeant and his wife provided was forwarding the names of the potential soldiers to Army recruiters. Many of them would have found Army recruits anyway, but because there was no policy capping the number of recruits a single person could submit or requiring a sponsor to meet with them, it was legal, McCaskill said. The Army couple boosted their results by enlisting the assistance of the creator of bustedmugshots.com to improve where officialarmy.com appeared in Internet search


The first mentions of technological innovations in State of the Union messages, catalogued

there a submarine cable, under a concession from His Majesty the Emperor of the French of an exclusive right for twenty years of telegraphic communication between the shores of France and the United States, with the very objectionable feature of subjecting all messages conveyed thereby to the scrutiny and control of the French Government, I caused the French and British legations at Washington to be made acquainted with the probable policy of Congress on this subject, as foreshadowed by the bill which passed the Senate in March last. Medicine There are many articles not produced at home, but which enter largely into general consumption through articles which are manufactured at home, such as medicines compounded, etc., etc., from which very little revenue is derived, but which enter into general use. All such articles I recommend to be placed on the "free list." Oil The United States are now participating in a revision of the tariffs of the Ottoman Empire. They have assented to the application of a license tax to foreigners doing business in Turkey, but have opposed the oppressive storage tax upon petroleum entering the ports of that country. Electricity The laws of progress are vital and organic, and we must be conscious of that irresistible tide of commercial expansion which, as the concomitant of our active civilization, day by day is being urged onward by those increasing facilities of production, transportation, and communication to which steam and electricity have given birth; but our duty in the present instructs us to address ourselves mainly to the development of the vast resources of the great area committed to our charge and to the cultivation of the arts of peace within our own borders, though jealously alert in preventing the American hemisphere from being involved in the political problems and complications of distant governments. Wireless communication The Department of Agriculture has been extending its work during the past year, reaching farther for new varieties of seeds and plants; co-operating more fully with the States and Territories in research along useful lines; making progress in meteorological work relating to lines of wireless telegraphy and forecasts for ocean-going vessels; continuing inquiry as to animal disease; looking into the extent and character of food adulteration; outlining plans for the care, preservation, and intelligent harvesting of our woodlands; studying soils that producers may cultivate with better knowledge of conditions, and helping to clothe desert places


Nightlife Agenda: Women in Beer and the Million Man Mosh

This week's essential DJs, bands, dance nights and parties. Smoke and Barrel is hosting a yacht rock-themed brunch on Sunday afternoon, with smooth tunes, delicious barbecue and a costume contest. (Photo by Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post) Wednesday, January 21 Thursday, January 22 Friday, January 23 Los Master Plus - Sexo En Fuego Francophiles and gastronomes alike should sign up for tonight's special class at the Alliance Francaise: "Cheese and Bubbles" covers the differences between American and French cheeses, especially when they're paired with a glass of champagne. CheeseandChampagne.com blogger Colleen Rocha Levine is the guide to this decadent evening, which begins at 7 p.m.; all-inclusive tickets are $40. One night each month, the National Museum of American History stays open for a special "after hours" talk relating to food and drink in America. The 2015 series begins this week with Greg Engert, the man behind ChurchKey and the driving force at the Bluejacket Brewery, and Mike Stein, a homebrewer and beer historian who helped DC Brau resurrect Heurich's Lager, a pre-Prohibition lager brewed by the Christian Heurich Brewing Company. Engert and Stein will discuss the recent fad for 19th- and early-20th century beers, which has seen Boston's Pretty Things and Virginia's Devils Backbone recreating long-lost recipes. They'll also talk about how the current local craft beer scene, and the history of brewing in Washington. The $40 ticket, which must be purchased in advance, includes beer and food, and a chance to peruse what the museum calls "rarely exhibited brewing history collections objects out-of-storage." New Orleans producer Mannie Fresh recently created a viral video meme entitled "The Most Important 15 Seconds In The History of Black Music." The 15-second clip consisted solely of the orchestral string intro to Juvenile's "Back That Azz Up." Setting aside righteous indignation for a minute, you have to give that song props for its enduring ability to set off a party. Now imagine D.C. go-go legends Backyard Band cranking a wall of percussion behind that jam. Get your mind right and get tickets to see Juvenile throw down with Big G and the boys at the Howard Theatre. Saturday, January 24 For a long time, the top-notch local, national and international DJ talent has been found at a concentration of clubs in Northwest D.C. The Lodge at RedRocks is challenging the NW quadrant's dominance, bringing a steady stream of heavyweights to H Street NE to perform


Six new places to eat on H Street

H Street: delicious food. “The neighborhood is resisting a corporate takeover, so there’s a big mashup” of unique local restaurants, says Devin Gong, who opened a bar named Copycat Co. on H Street in December. If you haven’t been to the neighborhood in some time, here are four eateries (and two pop-ups) that have opened within the past year and are worth checking out. Ocopa Peruvian-born chef Carlos Delgado was just 24 when he opened his restaurant five months ago. Dishes mimic the fresh flavors from his home country, as witnessed in the pollo a la brasa, above, and the made-to-order ceviches for which Ocopa has come to be known. “There’s a lot of craft and art to them,” Delgado says. ”You’re not just adding citrus or scooping it out ready-to-go.” DC Harvest 517 H St. NE This all-American restaurant focuses on home-grown produce and domestic beer, wine and spirits. Few things are more patriotic than its Old Bay fried chicken special, which is available Monday and Tuesday nights and often comes with beer specials, like a can of Natty Boh for $1. The Pursuit Wine Bar The build-your-own grilled cheese menu and heavy pours of vino keep crowds steady at this wine bar owned by a pair of old buddies. The brunch menu offers fuller plates, like frittatas, shrimp and grits and French toast loaded with bananas and Nutella. Copycat Co. 1110 H St. NE Formerly a bartender at Jose Andres’ acclaimed barmini, Gong has strong opinions about how a cocktail should taste. But at his bilevel bar (that also serves Chinese food), he’s fine with guests playing bartender. The menu suggests spirit alternatives, and you’re encouraged to build your own drink according to your cravings. “I thought it’d be nice to be able to go to a bar and say, ‘I want a margarita, but with rum,’ ” Gong says. Bullfrog Bagels and Vigilante Coffee pop-ups 1341 H St. NE and 1358 H St. NE Both businesses within businesses (Bullfrog is situated inside Star & Shamrock, and Vigilante is tucked inside Impala Cantina y Taqueria), these two spots can make mornings bright. Crunchy bagels are made fresh daily, while single-origin coffees from Hawaii, Colombia and Ethiopia provide a perk. You may also like: Gypsy Soul, B Side and True Food Kitchen up the food factor at Fairfax’s Mosaic District D.C.’s top dining stories of 2014: the board game


Smithsonian’s ‘Interlocking Science and Beauty’ explains why bugs, humans love orchids

Psychopsis mariposa: These orchids may have evolved to trick butterflies into pollinating them through pseudocopulation. Other orchids dupe pollinators by looking like good places to lay eggs or to collect nectar. (Sadie Dingfelder/Express) What luck! A newly hatched butterfly, we’ll call him Bob, spots an exceptionally sexy female on a nearby tree. He flutters to her, but she’s strangely inert. “What’s the matter, baby?” he says, rubbing his abdomen against hers. Bob’s buddies point and laugh. “Dude, you just tried to mate with a flower,” they say. You can hardly blame him. Psychopsis orchids look a whole lot like butterflies, and they probably evolved to trick gullible bugs into pollinating them through pseudocopulation. These deceptive lovers are just one of the hundreds of orchid varieties in the National Museum of Natural History’s “Interlocking Science and Beauty,” the 20th annual Smithsonian orchid exhibition, which opens Saturday. “The orchid’s game is seduction, and it works on people too,” says Tom Mirenda, one of the exhibit’s curators. “What better strategy on a changing planet than to become the pet of the most successful creature?” Why are the flowers so beguiling to humans? The secret may lie in their bilateral symmetry — meaning there’s only one way to fold them in half so that one side matches the other. (Most other flowers have wheel-like radial symmetry, with many possible midlines.) This gives orchids a face-like appearance, or maybe something more suggestive. Angraecum sesquipedale var angustifolium: This orchid, known as “Darwin’s orchid,” hides nectar at the bottom of a nearly two-foot tube, so that only a particular species of moth can reach it. (Eugene Cross) “They seem to have a personality,” Mirenda says. “I’ll leave it to your imagination, but a lot of men see women in these flowers.” Orchids recently became the top-selling potted flower in America, outpacing poinsettias. This is largely due to advances in cloning technology, Mirenda says. Orchid growers will take a particularly nice plant — perhaps one with a robust color and lots of flowers — and create tens of thousands of genetically identical plants. To illustrate this, the Smithsonian exhibit will include a “green wall” of cloned phalaenopsis orchids. “Cloning has made it possible to mass-produce orchids,” Mirenda says. “They’ve become a commodity.” While human-cultivated orchids are doing well, many wild orchid species are in danger of extinction, due to habitat loss and climate change. They are vulnerable because


The rise of the avocado, America’s new favorite fruit

take just about as much it can get. A similar trend can be seen in the demand for tortillas, which has grown considerably over the past decade. Avocados have also benefited from an association with healthfulness. Numerous studies have linked consumption of the fruit to healthier overall diets, including one published earlier this month, and another in early 2013. A recent revelation that not all fats are evil has painted avocados in a much more becoming light. "Avocados do contain fat, but it is mostly the monounsaturated kind [the good kind]," New York University's Langone Medical Center says on its website. "No matter how you slice it, the avocado has plenty of health benefits." And avocados are coveted. Despite prices that average more than $1 per fruit at wholesale and several times more at many restaurants, Americans continue to buy more bags at the grocery store and add-ons for sandwiches at eateries each year. Chefs praise them for their taste, which is creamy enough to balance out acidity or spiciness but mild enough not to overpower other ingredients. They also celebrate them as a luxury of sorts—not quite as coveted as caviar, but hardly as basic as a slice of green pepper or coil of onion. "It's like a beautiful sandwich with a Tiffany box," Stefano Cordova, senior vice president of food and beverage innovation at Au Bon Pain, told the Wall Street Journal in 2012. The whirlwind success of the avocado is in many ways a testament to so many trends at the heart of modern day America. And no one has benefited more than avocado growers, who have faced record demand seemingly every year. The growth has become something of a self-perpetuating process, largely because the industry's marketing budget is directly linked to its sales. "As volume increases, the Hass Avocado Board collects more revenue," Escobedo said. "But we have to use it all to market the product, because we're a non-profit." The industry's budget is approaching $50 million annually. And it isn't going to waste. On February 1, Avocados from Mexico, one of the industry member organizations, is running its priciest advertisement ever, an avocado spot during the Super Bowl, on national television. "It's the first time we've ever had an ad during the Super Bowl," Escobedo said. "In fact, I think it's the first time any produce at all has ever been advertised during the game."


NASA wants to send its scientists to Mars (using holographic glasses)

Scientists who study Mars will get a chance to telecommute in. (NASA) Since Microsoft's newly-announced HoloLens NASA's OnSight software (which was specially developed with HoloLens in mind) will use real data from the Curiosity rover to create 3-D simulations of Mars. The plan is for program scientists to work within this virtual Mars environment, collaborating together from around the world. Hopefully working in an augmented reality environment will help scientists study the red planet in a more fluid way. On Mashable, Lance Ulanoff describes his experience with an OnSight demo. While walking around on "Mars" is obviously fun, the real purpose of the software became clear when he used it in tandem with a physical computer: On the computer screen, I saw black and white Mars landscape imagery. It was poorly stitched together and offered no context. When I used the mouse to select a rock on screen, its counterpart in the 3D-rendered landscape was also selected and a little flag appeared above it. The tech instructed me to use the mouse to drag my cursor off the physical screen and select something directly in the 3D environment. It sounded like a silly idea: how could the mouse go off screen? Augmented reality makes it possible. I did as I was told and moved the mouse from one digital environment to another somewhat more unchartered territory and then I selected a rock. It was amazing. In a demo with writers from WIRED "Previously, our Mars explorers have been stuck on one side of a computer screen. This tool gives them the ability to explore the rover's surroundings much as an Earth geologist would do field work here on our planet," Norris said in a statement. The Curiosity mission may have OnSight on hand later this year.


Want to convince people that climate change is real? Stop talking about the science of it.

“underlying” scientific facts. It should be clear by now that climate change, although frequently described by scientists, economists and politicians as a straightforward pollution problem, requires more than a technocratic “solution.” By now, everything from trade policy or global inequality to animal extinctions or indigenous peoples’ rights has been woven into the tangled knot of climate change politics. To be sure, scientists have done a great job of bringing climate change onto the political agenda: because of new scientific knowledge, carbon-consuming power plants or gas-guzzling cars that were once tolerated and applauded are increasingly perceived as undesirable or immoral. Yet the orthodox approach to climate change, epitomized in the Kyoto Protocol, has proven ill-suited to adequately address the wicked problem of sovereign states all pursuing their own national, carbon-consuming interests. However useful it has been in bringing the topic onto the political agenda, the scientific framing of climate change as a global pollution problem to be fixed by governmental intervention has run aground. So if you don’t want to talk with skeptics about the science of climate change, then you probably shouldn’t call it a massive pollution issue either, or you will be reminded also of the benefits of industrial pollution. An American debate The debate climate scientists are understandably tired of – but unknowingly contribute to – is American at heart. Politicians here put a higher premium on science to resolve their ideological conflicts than anywhere else – just look at the dozens of Congressional hearings on climate science over the past three decades. Similar debates are going on over petrochemical pesticides such as DDT, genetically modified organisms, or the smoking ban. In each of these cases the protagonists wanted to rely on the authority of science to settle their value disputes. The various parties are committed to different ethical and ideological positions but they are united in their focus on science and claim to derive the legitimacy of their policy position in one way or another from scientific evidence. Why should we ban GMOs? Because science says so. Unless it doesn’t. Many of those who oppose the power of agro-giants have taken the bait and discuss scientific uncertainties rather than the political economy of GMOs. The authority of science, it is understood, trumps the opponent’s “irrational” value judgments. However, in political practice, the scientific framing of these debates – how harmful is DDT, do GMOs affect human health,


NASA releases breathtaking new space images in honor of the International Year of Light

This object, known as MSH 11-62, contains an inner nebula of charged particles that could be an outflow from the dense spinning core left behind when a massive star exploded. (Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO/P.Slane et al; Optical: DSS; Radio: CSIRO/ATNF/ATCA) 2015 has been named the International Year of Light (and light-based technologies) by the United Nations, and NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has some special treats to help kick it off. When a massive star exploded in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy to the Milky Way, it left behind an expanding shell of debris called SNR 0519-69.0. (Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Rutgers/J.Hughes; Optical: NASA/STScI) As you can probably guess based on its name, the Chandra X-ray observatory (launched in 1999) captures the X-rays emitted by celestial objects. But X-rays are just one piece of the full spectrum of light. This supernova remnant is the remains of an exploded star that may have been witnessed by Chinese astronomers almost 2,000 years ago. (Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical: NASA/STScI; Radio: NSF/NRAO/AUI/VLA) These images all combine data from multiple telescopes -- ones that are tuned to capture different wavelengths of light -- to create one stunning picture. You can see the individual shots that made up the composite images at the Chandra Web site. This composite shows a galaxy 700 million light years away. (Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/MIT/D.Castro et al, Optical: NOAO/AURA/NSF/CTIO) The observatory is also running a project called "Light: Beyond the Bulb" where scientists and artists can submit their own examples of the power of light. From bio-luminescent lakes to psychedelic shots of light-bulbs under X-rays, the collection will give you a new appreciation of just how beautiful -- and varied -- light is in our universe. This galaxy, nicknamed the "Whirlpool," is a spiral galaxy, like our Milky Way, located about 30 million light years from Earth. (Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; UV: NASA/JPL-Caltech; Optical: NASA/STScI; IR: NASA/JPL-Caltech) Read More: ‘Cosmic archaeologists’ learn to read ancient meteorites like they’re computer hard drives QVC hosts can’t decide if the moon is a planet or a star (it’s neither) First batch of research on Rosetta’s comet now public


The next energy revolution won’t be in wind or solar. It will be in our brains.

in to cleaner energy, unless you actually bothered to fill out the card saying “no thanks” and mail it back in? In her work with the Navy, Weber thinks she may have already identified a default setting that needs to change. She’s investigating the realm of equipment procurement and the systems that the department uses to decide what kinds of ships, planes, vehicles and other technologies to purchase. You might think the best way to have the Navy or Marines purchase more energy-efficient equipment would be to simply instruct those responsible to do so. But Weber warns that in light of the status quo bias, it might be far better to simply change the software they use. “Think of a software system … that makes an automatic recommendation, and the default would be the most energy-efficient one — but if that doesn’t meet your other requirements, you can go down the list,” says Weber. “But it makes your job simpler, by automatically sorting on that one dimension, unless you decide otherwise.” The biggest wedge? One popular paradigm for thinking about how to deal with the problem of global warming is to divide the problem into “wedges.” Thus, one wedge would be to increase solar power. Another would be to make buildings more energy efficient. And so on. Conceived of in this way, according to Columbia’s Weber, changing human behavior may be most powerful wedge of all for one simple reason: It influences all of the others. “Behavioral approaches are not just one wedge,” says Weber. “It is an additive contribution, because there are certain things that you only get with behavioral approaches — but behavioral science also tells you how to implement all of these other solutions in a different way.” For the Marines, if there’s one reason to think the new behavioral approach may succeed, it’s because it has the right message — perhaps the most important psychological factor of them all. Leaders like Caley, Slates and McGinn are explicitly framing the need for behavioral change in energy use in a language that appeals to their intended audience — war-fighters. For them, it isn’t fundamentally about saving money, and it’s “definitely not about green,” says Caley. Rather, it’s about increasing mission effectiveness — and saving lives. “My battalion command was in Iraq and in the end, it cost me lives to deliver supplies to the units that I support,”


Please stop vaccinating your children. I want to go to Disneyland.

we can all agree this is no time for panic. Maybe vaccination is completely safe and keeps you from catching diseases and maybe there are lots of facts that support that, but maybe we’re all putting too much emphasis on facts and not enough emphasis on Anecdotal Feelings That Some Parents Told This One Doctor About. In that same article, doctors call people who don’t get vaccines “stupid.” That sounds like bullying to me. These “doctors” sound less like medical professionals and more like MEANIES. And I don’t listen to MEANIES. Do you? Sure, the connection between autism and vaccines has been completely disproved by science, but you know what else has been completely disproved by science? Dragons. And who wants to live in a world without those? Not me(asle). These are the same scientists who say that having measles, mumps or rubella is bad. And we know that‘s not true. Some of my best friends are rubella viruses, and they are delights to be around. I think if you took the time to get to know rubella, you would see how wrong you are. (Mumps can be a drag, though. I’ll give you that.) Besides, you let chicken pox and the flu just ROAM FREE among you. You even have a season where you celebrate flu and pass it around to all your family members. And suddenly MEASLES is the villain here? Um, prejudice, much? People are even saying that they don’t want Measles in Disneyland. Excuse me, but the last time I checked, Disneyland was a dreamworld of magic that welcomed EVERYONE, and your narrow-minded judgments have no place there. I’ve never been, myself, but it’s on my bucket list. Frankly, I do not get out as much as I would like, having been contained in a glass vial until just recently. Listen, the science on vaccination is very, very unsettled. Super unsettled. I bet if the Senate voted on the science of vaccinations right now, they would be about split down the middle. That’s how unsettled it is. People who believe in vaccines probably think that the earth is more than 6,000 years old or that evolution is some kind of weird conspiracy, and, hey, I’m pretty sure there is room for discussion on both of those, and we should have a full debate.Debates are good. The more debates the better, I, a measles germ, say. http://www.washingtonpost.com/posttv/national/health-science/measles-outbreak-worries-calif-parents/2015/01/23/25254d04-fada-4521-bb08-c71d90835f70_video.html


8 things to do in the D.C. area on the weekend of Jan. 23-25

For more ideas, see Nightlife Agenda. Hamilton Leithauser. (Photo by Kyle Gustafson / For The Washington Post) FRIDAY FRIDAY-SUNDAY FRIDAY-FEB. 1 WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 22: The grill of a 1970 Chevelle, one of the classic autos for sale as the annual Auto show sets up to open at the convention center on January, 22, 2014 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post) FRIDAY-FEB. 22: Ford's Theatre world-premiere production of 'The Widow Lincoln' aims to humanize one of American history’s most controversial and ridiculed figures. Set during the aftermath of her husband’s death, it focuses on Mary Todd Lincoln’s grief as she enters a painful new phase of life. The show has been commissioned by Ford’s Theatre to mark the 150th anniversary of Lincoln’s assassination. Tickets are $28-$62. SATURDAY SATURDAY SATURDAY SUNDAY-FEB. 1


How a group of conspiracy theorists could derail the debate over climate policy

Two commercial airliners appear to fly close together as the pass over London on March 12, 2012 in London, England. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images) As governments’ efforts to cut greenhouse-gas emissions continue to sputter, some researchers have discussed another possible tool for combating climate change: “geoengineering” the climate. One particular form of it, “solar geoengineering,” would involve reflecting sunlight away from the Earth to reduce future warming, possibly by deploying an army of mirrors or spraying the air with reflective aerosols that would function like a chemical sunscreen. But as it turns out, some people believe that a global campaign is already underway to have aircraft spray the air with chemicals — whether to control climate change or for other, more sinister purposes. Meet the “chemtrails” crowd, who posit that governments, scientists and other institutions are using airplanes’ “chemtrails” — basically contrails that are allegedly laced with chemicals — to alter the climate, create extreme weather, poison people, or even control our minds. The chemtrails movement has gained a small but passionate following on the Internet, with people across the ideological spectrum — from left-wingers worried about the environment to right-wingers concerned about abuses of government power. We don’t know the size of the community, but followers generally point to seeming irregularities in aircraft contrails as indisputable proof that illicit weather or climate modification is already happening, right now, and being used to control people and nations, especially poor ones. Chemtrails activist Dane Wigington, for instance, points to videos of an airplane spewing out multiple exhaust trails of different lengths, or airplanes spewing trails of different colors. “This amounts to weather warfare — period,” he charges. As farfetched (and baseless) as these claims may be, a recent scholarly analysis of the chemtrails movement suggests we can’t write off its relevance entirely — not because its proponents are right, but because of the insights they may offer about a future debate over geoengineering. It might be many years, after all, before any geoengineering proposal seriously enters the policy realm. Still, writes science and technology policy researcher Rose Cairns of the University of Sussex in The Geographical Journal, “Ignoring or dismissing these discourses out of hand as pathological or paranoid is to ignore potentially revealing insights about the emerging politics of geoengineering.” Solar geoengineering — more formally known as solar radiation management (SRM) — is merely an idea right now, and