Covering only a part of war

the sense that it covers some events but not others. Second, information in news reports may be inaccurate or simply false, making the coding based on these reports unusable for scientific analysis. My recent paper in the Journal of Conflict Resolution addresses the latter question by taking advantage of the rare chance to compare media-based conflict events with another data set from a non-media source. The recent availability of detailed military reports from conflict regions provides this unique opportunity to conduct a comparison between media-reported accounts of violence and versions of these events as recorded by military forces. For the latter, I use data from 2008 to 2009 from the Significant Activities (SIGACTS) military database for Afghanistan, which was collected by U.S. and Coalition forces. These incidents were matched with a set of events extracted from international news media by the Uppsala Conflict Data Program’s Georeferenced Event Dataset (GED) project. The GED usually relies on more sources than news media, but the preliminary Afghanistan coding that was made available to me only includes news media reports. For the years 2008 and 2009, the matched dataset contains 1,077 pairs of events of lethal violence between Taliban militants and Coalition forces. I tried to see how well the two sources – military database and international news – agree on some of the “hard facts” about these events. In particular, I was interested in two pieces of information: the reported number of casualties of an event and the event’s location – the latter being especially important since most event datasets are now georeferenced and attach a geographic location to each entry. The focus on these hard facts alleviates some concerns about biased reporting in the military database, which serves as the reference in my study: SIGACTS locations are reported using GPS data, and there is little reason to manipulate it. The number of casualties is more sensitive information. While we could expect the nature of casualties to be subject to systematic errors (for example, civilian casualties could be recorded as insurgents), the total number should be less prone to bias. In general, the SIGACTS database should be less problematic in this regard since it was not created for public dissemination. What is the disagreement between the two datasets, and what explains it? I find some interesting patterns. The “spatial error” of the media-based event codings – i.e., the difference between the media-reported location


How Wal-Mart and Google could steal young customers from traditional banks

It used to be that the JPMorgans of the world only worried about losing customers to Wells Fargo or Bank of America. But that universe of competitors has grown to include T-Mobile, Wal-Mart, Google and a host of other retail, tech and telecom companies that are now operating like banks. These upstarts are gaining footing in the banking world with prepaid debit cards that customers can use to pay bills, make purchases and deposit checks via a smartphone camera -- pretty much all the things you can do with your traditional checking account. And they are piquing the interest of a highly coveted group that traditional banks have struggled to attract: young people. A new survey of nearly 4,000 Americans by Accenture found that 72 percent of people ages 18 to 34 would bank with such companies as Wal-Mart, Google or T-Mobile if they offered banking services. Of the nearly two dozen companies that researchers asked about, people were most willing to sign up with Square or PayPal because of the relationships they already have with the companies. Nearly one-third of those polled said the same about T-Mobile, Costco, Apple and Google. These companies possess a few things that could really pose a threat to banks: an existing customer base, scale and an ability to quickly adopt new technology. Take T-mobile, which has 49.1 million wireless customers, an established base for the telecom to pitch its prepaid debit card. Many of these folks use T-Mobile's prepaid wireless phones (15.5 million) for the same reasons that make prepaid cards attractive: There's no credit check and no long-term contract. And with more people using their mobile phones to transfer money or take pictures of their checks for deposit, having the same provider manage most of the steps in that process could be appealing. The biggest game-changer for traditional banks is Wal-Mart's incremental expansion into consumer banking. The world's largest retailer has rolled out everyday low prices on check cashing, money-transfer and checking accounts in the last few years. When Wal-Mart teamed with American Express to launch the prepaid Bluebird card as a low-cost alternative to checking accounts, the pair attracted one million customers in less than a year. Wal-Mart fought to get a bank charter years ago, only to be foiled by lobbyists who were dead set against having the retailer go head to head with traditional banks. But Wal-Mart may be


Californian sets U.S. record for consecutive days running at 45 years and two days

team, told him that he had run every day for the past year. Sutherland, a 6'4" baseball pitcher, said he was in way over his head on the track team, but he decided to train like Covert, who was setting junior college records at the time. "I'm too big for the sport, too heavy when I started. But I was a really hard worker. I tried my hardest every time I showed up. People hated it when they saw me." One year became two, then five, then 20, then 40. Along the way, Sutherland ran a 10-kilometer best of 28:51 and a 5K best of 13:51. He has won 325 of the 615 races he has entered, mostly local contests, he said. On Tuesday he passed Covert, who retired a year ago after exactly 45 years and one day of consecutive running, finally giving in to a congenital foot problem and taking up cycling. They remain close friends, Sutherland said. Covert has encouraged him to keep going. Sutherland weighs 158 pounds and said he has a resting heart rate under 40 beats per minute when he wakes in the morning. At an insurance company physical at the age of 50, he was told he was in the best shape of anyone the physicians had ever tested. He coaches for Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks and likes to run on trails or in the woods, often with his dog. He's devoted to Nike shoes and gear. The company has sponsored him in the past. Sutherland's streak now tops the charts kept by the U.S. Running Streak Association. Yes, it's all on the honor system, said Mark Washburne, who heads the association that keeps the list, but Washburne tries to check out anyone who submits a claim of a lengthy active streak. Behind Sutherland are Jim Pearson of Marysville, Wash., at 44.28 years, but he's already 70 years old. Next comes Stephen W. DeBoer, a dietitian from Rochester, Minn., who has run every day for nearly 43 years and, at just 59 years old, could threaten Sutherland's record one day. Sutherland told me he needed to get out for his afternoon run, so I asked him one more thing: When might the streak stop? He quoted the answer Metallica's James Hetfield gave to the same question: "'I don't see any f---ing stop sign.' That's the way I feel about it."


Rheinhardt Harrison, 10, of Falls Church sets world record in half-marathon

Rheinhardt Harrison (number 403, center) and his father Dennis Harrison (404) at the start of Sunday’s half-marathon in the Alexandria Running Festival. Rheinhardt Harrison set a world record for a 10-year-old in the event by more than two minutes. (Philip Bowie) UPDATE: The Association of Road Race Statisticians has decided not to certify Harrison’s May 25 run as a world record for 10-year-olds. The association’s founder, Ken Young, said Monday that the half-marathon course in Alexandria, which had been certified prior to the race, was altered at the last minute and thus was not certified, even if it was longer than 13.1 miles. In addition, Young said in an e-mail Monday, another 10-year-old ran a faster time last year, 1:34:53, which was certified over the weekend. Harrison’s 10-mile record, set in April at the Cherry Blossom 10-Miler in the District, remains the world mark for 10-year olds. ORIGINAL POST: When last we checked in with Rheinhardt Harrison, he was dominating the field of distance running for eight-year-olds, winning two national cross-country championships and setting records in his age group. But “distance” meant about 1.2 miles. Now, at the ripe old age of 10, Rheinhardt has moved up to the big leagues of distance, and of records. First, on April 6, Rheinhardt ran the fastest 10-mile race ever run by a 10-year-old, 1:11:24, in the Cherry Blossom 10-Mile Run. The Association of Road Racing Statisticians keeps track of the fastest time run at every age, from six to 85, and Rheinhardt now has the 10-mile WORLD record. Oh, and that was the first time he’d ever run 10 miles. Rheinhardt Harrison, 10, approaches the finish line in Sunday’s half-marathon at the Alexandria Running Festival, where he broke the world record for 10-year-olds. (Philip Bowie) But Rheinhardt wanted more. So on Sunday, he ran the half-marathon in Alexandria’s Running Festival, and once again he set the world record for a 10-year-old. But he didn’t just set the record (also in his first-ever attempt at 13.1 miles (!!)). He broke the previous record by more than two minutes. He ran a pace of 7:15 per mile, checking a wristband with mile splits to make sure he was running fast enough for a 1:35:00 half-marathon. His final time was 1:35:02, and is awaiting record certification by the ARRS. And if you think that’s not fast, try a few seven-minute miles sometime. Even better, that


When it comes to hosting the Olympics, more cities are saying, ‘Hold that thought.’

reporter for HBO’s “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel,” recently did a report on the “white elephants” left behind after a country hosts an international sporting event such as the World Cup or the Olympics. “You don’t have to obtain a post-doc in finance to understand that this is a white elephant,” Rena Duru, who is running for mayor of Athens, told Frankel. “There was no plan,” said Spyros Capralos, president of the Greek Olympic Committee. “Nobody has thought about post-Games usage of the facilities. And this, together with the not having more temporary facilities, was the biggest problem of Athens.” Now, it appears that more countries are saying “no thanks” to the chance to own the world’s biggest stage in sports. Krakow, Poland Stockholm just came out and said it: “Arranging a Winter Olympics would mean a big investment in new sports facilities, for example for the bobsleigh and luge,” Sweden’s Moderate Party said in a statement to Reuters. “There isn’t any need for that type of that kind of facility after an Olympics.” St. Moritz and Davos, which were going to host jointly, and Krakow cited similar reasoning. A Greek sports writer told Frankel: “The Greek economy couldn’t stand the Olympic Games. I’m not saying the crisis was caused by the Olympic Games, but the Olympic Games has a part of responsibility for the Greek economic crisis.” Yahoo’s Jay Busbee noted the astronomical costs of hosting — money that cities are finding they don’t recoup: Why the sudden mass exodus from hosting? Because cities with an eye for financial reality have seen the results: Russia spent $51 billion on the Sochi Olympics, an incomprehensible sum for any nation but particularly one teetering on the edge of political turmoil. China spent $40 billion for the 2008 Beijing Games. Montreal lost nearly a billion dollars hosting the 1976 Games, and it took 30 years to pay off that debt. Nagano, Japan, which hosted the Olympics in 1998, apparently still hasn’t paid off its debt. Last month, Vietnam withdrew as host of the 2019 Asian Games, saying that the country’s economy is still recovering from the global financial crisis. Flavorwire has a gallery of past Olympic white elephants, not just from Athens, but from all over the world. It’s a sobering look at hosting hangovers. Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel: Episode #206 Web Clip - White Elephants (HBO Sports) h/t Business Insider


22,000 troops or more could leave Afghanistan this year. How have Americans’ opinions changed since there were 100,000 abroad?

changed in the past decade. In December 2005, before the midterm elections, 22 percent of the country thought war or the situation in Iraq was the biggest problem facing the country. Six percent said unemployment or jobs, while 12 percent found dissatisfaction with government to be the biggest problem plaguing the country. In early May, 0 percent of Americans listed the situation in the Middle East to be the most important problem. Twenty percent found unemployment to be the most important problem, and 19 percent found dissatisfaction with government to be the biggest problem. Casualties from Afghanistan happen infrequently, but are more likely to be severe, but we rarely hear about them in the news. Thoughts about the war have vacated our minds, replaced with worries about paychecks and debt and political stalemate. The evidence about America's distaste for war goes on and on. In January 2014, 52 percent of Americans thought that U.S. efforts in Afghanistan had mostly failed. In December 2013, 82 percent of Americans opposed the war in Afghanistan, according to CNN polling. Eighty-three percent of Americans had an unfavorable opinion of the war this year, according to Gallup. Forty-nine percent of respondents to a February Gallup survey said the war was a mistake. Although the country hasn't paid attention to the war, and international politics have mostly moved on to other arenas, 55 percent of Americans polled in a December 2013 ABC News/Washington Post survey would like to keep some troop presence in Afghanistan, as Obama has recommended. As Afghanistan fades from America's collective consciousness, it looms in the minds of the 22,000-plus soldiers about to return from duty. Many of the soldiers are wounded, physically or mentally. As one veteran told the Washington Post earlier this year, "I left the war zone, but the war zone never left me." Other soldiers wish they could go back, or at least miss the excitement they found in the Middle East. A soldier profiled by Eli Saslow earlier this year wrote to a fellow soldier from his home in Wyoming, “Welcome back to the life of petty nonsense." Soldiers are far more likely to say the war was worth fighting than the public. However, these nostalgic, past-plagued or proud soldiers are mostly insulated from the public that wants to forget the war, as data from a Kaiser Family Foundation/Washington Post poll from earlier this year showed. Those two


How fog harvesting can revive the driest places on earth

fog have been around for centuries, perhaps dating even as far back as the Byzantine Empire, when residents of the ancient city of Feodosia stacked stones to build structures thought to be air wells to draw water from the atmosphere. Currently, fog collecting systems are being used in at least 17 countries. As a self-sufficient, low maintenance alternative, the math shows that the system the MIT team, in collaboration with researchers at the Pontifical Catholic University in Santiago, came up with would produce as much as 12 liters (3.17 gallons) a year. Scaling up the technology, they estimate, would alone produce enough fresh water for a number of settlements along the northernmost areas of the Atacama Desert, where the average annual rainfall tops off at about 0.6 of an inch. (For comparison, Las Vegas gets about 4.2 inches of rain each year). The region also happens to be home to some of the most arid sites imaginable, such as the abandoned mining town of Yungay, which typically sees rain clouds roughly once every decade. In the coastal fishing village of Chungungo, where earlier designs were tested, residents had to rely on having drinking water trucked in from other parts of the country. When McKinley, whose background is in chemical engineering, first got involved in the project a few years ago, the researchers had been tinkering with various mesh patterns that made it possible to dramatically increase the volume of harvested water. A series of lab tests would later determine that the optimal design was a woven mesh pattern comprised of thin, slightly-spaced apart strands of stainless steel that, from a distance, resembled a window screen. By making the gaps smaller than its predecessors, they were also able to minimize the degree in which droplets can escape while also allowing for enough spacing for the fog to pass through. MIT-designed fog-harvesting mesh material “The best examples of fog collecting can be found in nature,” McKinley points out. “Whereas flat surfaces force the wind to move around it, taking the fog along, trees like redwoods have needle-shaped leaves that collect droplets as the wind moves along.” McKinley was then asked to develop a coating that’s sticky enough to catch tiny droplets suspended in the air while also retaining certain slippery properties that allow the accumulated drops to easily slide down towards the collection gutter before the wind blew them off the surface.


Running through chemo, and life’s other challenges

my seven-miler. Running has always been in my core, something that defines me and comforts me in good times and bleak moments. But that spring seven years ago was the last time I had run consistently. Since then, my routine has been de-railed, first by parenthood, then by the near constant demands of earning a living. Now cancer and chemotherapy, of all things, have given me back the gift of running. At the start of treatment, I was assured that I could run. “No problem,” the medical staff told me, “many of our patients run, swim, play golf, ride bicycles.” Easier said than done. Running is much harder on the body than those activities. In order to receive chemotherapy drugs, I have a catheter that was implanted in my jugular vein. Its “port”--a titanium top to the catheter--is a visible bump in my chest. It took me a while to heal from the surgery to install this hardware, and more time to get used to running with the new gear inside of me. The first run after treatment always feels horrible, like I haven’t run in seven years. By the second or third I’ve recovered enough to move fluidly--never crisply or with great speed, but after a finishing kick I leap high to smack the top of a stop sign, which responds with a reassuring clang. My daughter has begun saying she wants to run with me. I want to make that happen, but not until I am through the last treatment and its aftershocks. She is already athletic, into gymnastics and soccer. She is lithe and strong, and like me, so happy when her body is moving fast. I've never had company on a run. I had never been willing to adjust my routine to accommodate others, even my wife. And I've always worried that it will be less rewarding to run slowly. Now, however, I feel ready to make exceptions. I would love to watch my daughter grow into her own exercise habit, one that sees her through her own life’s struggles. Setting the example for her as I go off on my runs is important. But traveling that route with her would be running's greatest gift so far. Dan Klotz has run the Empire State Building race four times, the last time more than 10 years ago. He is looking forward to his fifth chance in 2015.


5 harsh truths about the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan

A soldier interacts with an Afghan boy in a northeast Arghandab valley village in Khevejeh Molk, Afghanistan on September 24, 2010. (Photo by Karin Brulliard/The Washington Post) With this week's news that U.S. military will scale down its operations in Afghanistan and eventually withdraw in 2016, a lot of people are wondering what this will actually mean. Here, The Post's Kabul bureau chief Kevin Sieff spells out five things you need to know. 1. This might be the Afghan military's war now – but only because 140,000 Western troops failed to defeat the Taliban. (The Washington Post) Some 9,800 American troops will remain in Afghanistan at the beginning of next year. To put that number in perspective, there were over 100,000 U.S. troops here in 2011 (along with 40,000 troops from other nations) during the peak of the American-led surge. They occupied more than 700 bases across Afghanistan, some of them the size of small cities. Through 2011, those troops were committed primarily to a unilateral fight against the Taliban. Many U.S. officials hoped that with so much combat power, Western forces could deal a knockout blow to the Taliban. By 2012, it was clear that such a blow had not been dealt. Insurgents were able to use sanctuaries in Pakistan to regroup and regenerate. Reconciliation efforts failed and the war appeared to have no short-term diplomatic or military solution. The White House needed a new "New Strategy." 2.The Afghan military and police have become much better fighting forces, but you can't fight without guns or fuel. In this picture taken on March 16, 2014, an Afghan soldier attached to the 4th Brigade, 201 Army Corps of the Afghan National Army (ANA) sits on his bunkbed surrounded by members of his unit at their barracks in a forward operating base in Khogyani district. ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP/Getty Images By 2012, it became very clear that the only sustainable way to continue applying pressure on the Taliban was to build an effective Afghan army and police. But after a decade of war, the Afghan security forces remained notoriously incompetent – often mocked by both their American counterparts as well as Afghan civilians. As the U.S. mission pivoted to “advising and assisting” the Afghan military and police grew in both size and ability. By 2013, they were conducting independent missions against the insurgency. But soldiers and police still struggle to handle even rudimentary logistical


Big Bang rumblings: What it all means

the Flauger et al paper: The signal would constitute direct evidence for quantum fluctuations in the spacetime metric. It would provide very strong additional support that a period of cosmic inflation occurred in the early Universe. The inferred amplitude of the tensor modes would provide a measurement of the Hubble rate during inflation … and evidence that the inflation underwent a trans-Planckian excursion in field space. In addition, it would have important implications for axion physics, would essentially exclude cosmologically stable moduli with masses below [10 to the 14 GeV], and would motivate serious consideration of the graviton problem. It would also place a direct bound on the graviton mass … You don’t have to understand all this to grasp that it’s cosmos-shaking stuff. This is like turning the CMB into a lens to look back to the origin of time and space and measure quantum effects directly — something heretofore the province only of theories scrawled on whiteboards. (And fyi I am suddenly remembering a tequila party at the beach circa 1978 when I underwent a trans-Planckian excursion in field space and then someone loaded me onto the tailgate of a pickup. But that’s another story.) 3. If the signal turns out to be from foreground dust, that will not disprove the inflation theory. It’ll mean that astrophysicists will keep looking. There are at least seven experiments looking for these gravitational waves. 4. If inflation theory comes into disfavor, that will not disprove the theory of the Big Bang, which is on solid observational and theoretical ground. 5. If the signal turns out to be cosmological, at least in part, it will be a huge triumph for the BICEP2 team, but the lesson will linger that when making a dramatic announcement, one should always hedge one’s language to take in the possibility of gremlins in the foreground messing up your data. A good rule would be: The bigger the apparent discovery, the more cautious the announcement. 6. As we say of writers: A scientist is someone for whom science is more difficult than for other people. These CMB experiments are excruciatingly delicate, and in this case required the construction of a telescope at the SOUTH POLE. This one’s hard. No one’s going to get this answer by Googling it. [Update: Nature has an in-depth article on the Flauger et al paper and another recent paper analyzing the BICEP2 report.]


U.S. measles outbreak sets record for post-elimination era

The ongoing measles outbreak in the United States has reached a record for any year since the disease was eliminated in this country 14 years ago, with 288 cases of the potentially deadly infection reported in 18 states, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday. The largest measles clusters are in Ohio (138 confirmed cases), California (60) and New York (26), according to the CDC. Almost all — 97 percent — have been brought into the country by travelers, mainly Americans, who contracted the infection abroad. About half of those were people who picked it up in the Philippines, where a large measles outbreak has affected more than 32,000 people, causing 41 deaths, since January alone, said Anne Schuchat, director of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. In this country, the biggest outbreak is centered in the Amish community in Ohio, where many of the residents are unvaccinated, the CDC reported. In Virginia, two cases were confirmed earlier this month. "This is a wake-up call for travelers and parents to make sure vaccinations are up to date," Schuchat said. "Measles vaccine is very safe and effective and measles can be serious," she added. "It's very infectious." Forty-three of the people in this country who have come down with measles required hospitalization, most often for pneumonia, she said. No deaths have been reported here. Measles is a highly contagious respiratory disease that generally affects young children, causing fever, a runny nose, a cough and a distinctive rash all over the body. This year, however, more than half the people who have come down with it are 20 years old or older, according to CDC data. About one in 10 children also gets an ear infection and one in 20 comes down with pneumonia. A person with measles is contagious as long as four days before the symptoms are apparent. Parents and even physicians who haven't seen measles in years may be unaware of the early warning signs. The largest number of confirmed cases of measles since the infection was eliminated in the United States in 2000 occurred in 2011, when 220 were recorded. The CDC hasn't seen this many cases so early in the year since 1994, when 764 people were infected by this time, Schuchat said. In the past 20 years, a concerted public health campaign, especially among lower-income families, has made measles outbreaks rare


infectious." Forty-three of the people in this country who have come down with measles required hospitalization, most often for pneumonia, she said. No deaths have been reported here. Measles is a highly contagious respiratory disease that generally affects young children, causing fever, a runny nose, a cough and a distinctive rash all over the body. This year, however, more than half the people who have come down with it are 20 years old or older, according to CDC data. About one in 10 children also gets an ear infection and one in 20 comes down with pneumonia. A person with measles is contagious as long as four days before the symptoms are apparent. Parents and even physicians who haven't seen measles in years may be unaware of the early warning signs. The largest number of confirmed cases of measles since the infection was eliminated in the United States in 2000 occurred in 2011, when 220 were recorded. The CDC hasn't seen this many cases so early in the year since 1994, when 764 people were infected by this time, Schuchat said. In the past 20 years, a concerted public health campaign, especially among lower-income families, has made measles outbreaks rare in the United States. But an estimated 20 million people are infected in Europe, Asia, Africa and elsewhere each year, and 122,000 of them die. In the United States, the number of people who choose not to be immunized for religious, philosophical or personal reasons has begun to become a public health problem, Schuchat said. Others are unaware of, or unable to get, vaccinations before they arrive in the United States. A small number of adults can lose their immunity over time and may need to be re-vaccinated. Authorities aren't sure how the Amish community in Ohio contracted the disease, but Schuchat said they believe that people traveling to conduct faith-based work abroad are involved. According to the CDC, 40 importations of the infection were attributed to unvaccinated U.S. travelers returning from abroad. Steven Nolt, a history professor at Goshen College in Indiana who has written about the Amish, said some groups do travel to places such as Kenya, Ukraine and Central America to do mission or relief work. He said many Amish do vaccinate themselves and their chidren, but others refuse. Some, Nolt said, have a "more traditional, conservative, old-fashioned way of life and set of sensibilities that views


Chinese woman beheads kitten, posts pictures online, stirs outrage

A Chinese woman sparked online fury after beheading a kitten last week and posting pictures of its bloody remains online. According to reports, the woman, identified as Li Pingping, decapitated a cat in her bathroom Friday. The animal had been in her possession for only two weeks. That same night, Li, who lives in a city in China's southern Guangdong province, posted pictures on Sina Weibo, the Chinese version of Twitter. The post soon went viral, with enraged commenters hurling abuse at Li. A few outlets picked up on the online backlash — "MAY GOD PUNISH HER!" screamed a headline on the Malaysia Chronicle. Here's China Daily on what followed: Netizens unleashed a flurry of comments decrying the brutal act, with many calling the woman "insane" and "out of her mind." Amid the flood of verbal attacks, the woman said she took her anger out on the cat because her family had been destroyed by her father's extramarital affair. She told people to "back off" and stop judging her, which fueled even more online resentment. Li later deleted her posts related to her abuse of the kitten. But as pressure from the public mounted, Li apologized in an open letter on Monday in which she said she abused the cat under the influence of alcohol and domestic misfortune, and that she has been living in fear and guilt over the past few days. The letter drew more than 60,000 comments by Tuesday. Reports do not indicate whether Li is under threat of punishment or arrest by authorities. But the incident is far from an isolated one. Another report this week claimed that a man in Zhejiang province, in China's east, smashed the heads of seven puppies in front of their mother. The mother is at a shelter for strays and will be reportedly put down in a few days. In the past year, other stories of animal abuse have stirred outrage in China and abroad: the bludgeoning of two escaped Tibetan mastiffs by an entire fearful village last November; the mysterious slaughter of stray cats in a famous Beijing park; and the reported discovery last month of a mass grave of some 100 stray dogs in Inner Mongolia, many of whom were buried alive. CHINA - Were these dogs BURIED ALIVE by Chinese officials? It is thought yes... http://t.co/c9Ky0hFTf2 http://t.co/00cB7o5tys


Wisconsin’s bar-to-grocery store ratio puts the rest of the country to shame

When it comes to bars, Wisconsin is more like France than Germany. (istockphoto) Drive around the state of Wisconsin and you're probably more likely to come across a bar than a grocery store. For Wisconsinites, this probably comes as no surprise, given the state's well-documented culture of drinking. The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel launched a multi-part series titled "Wasted in Wisconsin," which documented just how drunk Wisconsinites tend to be, and how often they don't know it. Stacked up against the rest of the country, however, the picture is pretty stark. Wisconsin's bars outnumber their grocery stores almost three to one, according to Google data mapped by FlowingData's Nathan Yau. (Nathan Yau/Flowing Data) Yau's analysis and visualization add some useful context to data that have been around for at least the past few years. Rather than simply looking at where in the U.S. bars outnumber restaurants and vice-versa, Yau was able to map magnitude. And though he notes that "higher rates don't necessarily point to higher volumes of drinking," its hard to miss just how deep Wisconsin's bar culture goes. Within Wisconsin, there's some debate about the origins of the state's drinking — and bar — culture. Some of it, according to the Journal-Sentinal, is blamed on the state's German and European heritage: Some 43% of Wisconsinites claim ancestry from Germany — second only to North Dakota, a state that virtually mirrors our drinking patterns. But time has diluted Wisconsin's German blood. The great majority of German immigration to the state ended more than 100 years ago. And while North Dakota downs a lot of alcohol, so does much of New England, where German ancestry is minimal. "I don't buy it," Wisconsin historian Jack Holzhueter said of the German-heritage explanation. "Too many generations have gone by." ... But even if the direct effects of Wisconsin's German and brewing heritage have largely vanished, they help shape the state's collective identity — an identity many accept as it's passed on to them. Curious about that too, Yau went looking for similar patterns in Europe and came up with nothing in Germany, where many Wisconsinites claim their ancestors hailed from. You're more likely to find similar bar-to-grocery store ratios in France or Spain. (Nathan Yau/Visualizing Data) On the other hand, Wisconsin still doesn't rank highest in bars per capita. That honor goes to North Dakota and Montana, who are numbers one and two respectively. North


World verging on ‘sixth great extinction,’ study says

great extinction,” Stuart Pimm, a professor at Duke University who lead a team of nine international scientists, told the Associated Press. “Whether we avoid it or not will depend on our actions.” Previous mass extinctions are often associated with a meteor strike, one of which likely killed off the dinosaurs 66 million years ago. Another extinction, called the Great Dying, offed 90 percent of the world’s species 250 million years ago — though as The Washington Post’s Fred Barbash pointed out, that one may have been caused by a microbe. This study focused on contemporary rates of extinction and used databases such as the Red List of Threatened Species. Researchers compared today’s rates with those before humans arrived. And today’s, according to the AP, are 10 times faster than scientists had earlier believed. “Recent studies clarify where the most vulnerable species live, where and how humanity changes the planet, and how that drives extinctions,’ the study said. “We assess key statistics about species, their distribution, and their status.” Many land-based species are distributed across terrains smaller than the state of Delaware, Pimm said in this Duke University press release. Such species are “geographically concentrated and are disproportionately likely to be threatened or already extinct,” the study said. “Future rates depend on many factors and are poised to increase. Although there has been rapid progress in developing protected areas, such efforts are not ecologically representative, nor do they optimally protect biodiversity.” The number one threat to the world’s many species: habitat loss. It is becoming increasingly difficult, researchers said, to find any speck of planet that hasn’t been either altered or built upon by humans. Complicating efforts: There are so many species no one knows of. “Most species remain unknown to science, and they likely face greater threats than the ones we do know,” Pimm said in the press release. According to the Associated Press There was reason for hope, however. Smart phones and other crowd-sourcing apps “are making it easier to collect data on species,” Pimm said. “When combined with data on land-use change and the species observations of millions of amateur citizen scientists, technology is increasingly allowing scientists and policymakers to more closely monitor the planet’s biodiversity and threats to it.” He said such technological precision may allow researchers to target specific species in trouble. “For our success to continue, however,” he said. “We need to support the expansion


Not far from Panda House, a bid to rename Chinese Embassy street for dissident

Seeking to put a less cuddly spin the Chinese government ahead of next week’s 25th anniversary of the military crackdown on Tiananmen Square, a powerful group of congressional representatives is pushing to rename a street in front of the Chinese Embassy. The sprawling white-stone compound sits at 3505 International Place NW, about a mile from the National Zoo’s much-loved panda house, home to Mei Xiang, Tian Tian and their adorable offspring, Bao Bao. But House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Virginia Rep. Frank Wolf (R) and a bipartisan group of congressional colleagues want the stretch of street in front of the embassy renamed for imprisoned pro-democracy activist Liu Xiaobo, who won the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize. “This modest effort would undoubtedly give hope to the Chinese people … and would remind their oppressors that they are in fact on the wrong side of history,” they wrote in a letter to Mayor Vincent Gray and members of the city council. Gray spokesman Pedro Ribeiro said the request is under review. “Obviously, a letter signed by a number of members of the House is something we want to take seriously,” said council Chairman Phil Mendelson (D). But Mendelson refrained from endorsing the idea, citing both practical issues and possible concerns about setting precedent. Mendelson has helped sink a series of requests from Gray to name city streets for people who died tragically in recent years, including a murder victim. District law, Mendelson said, requires a person to be dead for two years before a street can be named after them, though he said the council has the power to make exceptions. “I certainly don’t want to be dismissive. … The fact that it is an international human rights issue makes it important enough to consider,” Mendelson said. “There might be other ways that are more effective in terms of trying to use the nation’s capital to bring attention to this issue in China,” Mendelson added, though he declined to speculate on what those might be. A Chinese Embassy representative said a spokesman was not immediately available to comment. Liu took part in the Tiananmen demonstrations, which ended in government gunfire on the night of June 3 and into June 4, 1989, and resulted in hundreds, perhaps thousands, of deaths. He was jailed after the crackdown, spent years in a labor camp, and later continued pushing for legal and political reforms before being


Everything you need to know about the VA — and the scandals engulfing it

with delays in diagnosis and treatment. The program also had 3,800 backlogged appointments. The report said the hospital used on;y $200,000 of $1 million designated to help reduce the glut of appointments. According to CNN, six deaths at Dorn have been tied to delays in care. Pittsburgh At least six veterans died What is this backlog of claims that officials are talking about? A tide of disability claims from soldiers who were injured in Iraq and Afghanistan has inundated the VA. The VA also recently made veterans suffering from additional ailments tied to exposure from Agent Orange during the Vietnam War eligible for disability claims, increasing the number of people filing claims. The claims seek financial compensation for injuries suffered during military service. About 300,000 cases were stuck in processing for more than 125 days, our colleague Greg Jaffe reported. The backlog peaked last year at 611,000 claims. Obama and Shinseki made it a point to reduce the glut. "We launched an all out-war on the disability claims backlog, and just in the last year we’ve slashed that backlog by half," Obama said. How does the claims system work? Disabled service members are typically told about disability benefits before being discharged and can file for them upon leaving the military. There is no time limit for a veteran to file a claim, Eagle said. The application can be filled out by phone, where it is rerouted to a call center, online or to a representative. Oftentimes servicemembers seek help from a veterans group. If a lawyer gets involved at the start of the process, he or she must do so on a pro-bono basis; for a lawyer to be paid, he or she cannot get involved until a monetary value has been assigned to the claim or it has been denied. If there is a 50 percent certainty or more that an injury was suffered during military service, a veteran is eligible for disability benefits. The backlog that Congress and the public are focused on comes from when a veteran has filed a claim but the VA has not made a decision on whether to grant it, Eagle said. There is a separate backlog among cases that have been decided but appealed. The House Veterans' Affairs Committee on Thursday voted to subpoena top VA officials to testify on May 30 after a tense discussion of the issues facing the department.


The climate change science cop-out

talking about climate change science doesn’t require a Ph.D. in climate science or the publication of academic research papers. It simply requires a basic understanding of the evidence for climate change and the prevailing view of experts about its causes, starting with: * Atmospheric concentrations of heat-trapping greenhouse gases are at their highest level in at least 800,000 years, due to human activities (mainly the burning of fossil fuels) since the Industrial Revolution. * The Earth’s average temperature has risen about 1 degree C since the late 1800s; scores of other independent environmental indicators present indisputable evidence of a warming world ( EPA, 2014) * The prevailing view of publishing climate scientists is that most of the warming in recent decades is due to the increase in greenhouse gas concentrations * Additional warming is projected as greenhouse gas concentrations increase; the faster it warms, the greater the risk of unwelcome effects For meteorologists, as climate change and weather are inseparable, lacking this knowledge is simply unprofessional. For politicians, since climate change science has potentially profound implications for energy policy – not to mention the state of the environment, attaining this knowledge is an obligation. An absence of information certainly can’t be an excuse for ignorance or avoidance. Countless resources are available to politicians and meteorologists to get up to speed on climate change science. If Environment Canada is concerned its meteorologists may misspeak on climate change, it should simply require they take a short course on the subject. A lack of time might be a more legitimate excuse for busy politicians but that could be overcome in a series of short briefings. Some politicians’ reluctance to discuss the science of climate change no doubt reflects the fear that discussing what’s happening will corner them into a policy position. But even accepting and conveying the consensus view that the Earth is warming largely due to human activities doesn’t prescribe a particular response. Whereas the basics of the science of climate change are fairly straight forward, how to best respond to climate change involves wickedly complex judgments involving economics, technology, ethics, policy, and politics. Hence, there are all kinds of response options that can satisfy a particular politician’s politics/ideology. Given the high profile of the climate change issue and the availability of information, avoiding or deflecting questions about the science is unsustainable and totally unnecessary. Even, if for whatever reason, a


Veteran defensive tackle Tank Johnson claims up to 80 percent of NFL players use marijuana

offers an alternative explanation for the possible widespread use of pot — self-medication. “Managing and tolerating your pain is how you make your money in this game,” Johnson said, who added he’s broken multiple bones, suffered “a few concussions here and there” and experienced various other types of pain on the job. Although Fusion’s report is based on the anecdotes of Johnson and a couple of other football players, it is likely that at least some players probably prefer to manage their pain through marijuana. It could be that they prefer “the green” to more traditional prescription pain medications, which have come under fire in the NFL for misuse. Recently, a group of former players filed suit against the NFL, alleging the league advocated them to use prescription pain medications without disclosing the risks of addiction. ESPN.com columnist Gregg Easterbrook writes about the problem of prescription drugs in his new book “The King of Sports: Football’s Impact on America,” as well: “Just as head trauma is coming into the light of day as a football problem, so is painkiller abuse. Professional football players are major consumers of three kinds of painkillers: Narcotic pills such as Vicodin, injected local anesthesia, and Toradol, an all-purpose pain reliever that a disturbing number of NFL players have injected even when they are feeling fine.” With that in mind, it’s logical to ask whether using marijuana for medical reasons should be allowed in the NFL. That’s a sticky question as surely some players, as insinuated by Johnson, would continue to use it purely for recreational purposes, with or without a prescription. Ergo, if someone were to test positive, it’d be hard to know whether to cite him for a violation or not. As for NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell’s view on medical marijuana, he has said he would considering allowing it. Goodell told USA Today: “I’m not a medical expert. We will obviously follow signs. We will follow medicine and if they determine this could be a proper usage in any context, we will consider that.” At the moment, though, he added, “our medical experts are not saying that.” In other words, nothing will change regarding the NFL’s drug policy anytime soon. It seems for now, if Johnson’s estimate is correct, those 70 percent to 80 percent of marijuana users in the NFL might want to think twice before their next puff, no matter the reason.


Chuck Hagel, Susan Rice defend decision to trade terror suspects for Bergdahl

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel speaks during an April briefing on the Defense Department's fiscal 2014 budget at the Pentagon. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters) National security adviser Susan Rice and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel defended the Obama administration's decision to trade five Taliban-affiliated terrorism suspects for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the only known American prisoner of war in Afghanistan, who on Saturday was recovered by U.S. Special Operations forces. "This is a joyous day," Rice said during an interview Sunday morning on ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos." Although the recovery of Bergdahl, who had been in Taliban captivity for five years, has been praised widely, the decision to trade five high-level Taliban officials has prompted heavy criticism from Republicans. “The release of five mid- to high-level Taliban is shocking to me, especially not coming to Congress," said Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), an Iraq and Afghanistan war veteran, during an interview on NBC's "Meet the Press." "You now are going to have five people on the ground targeting American troops, the Afghan troops and the Afghan people. There are a lot of questions that need to be asked here." But Obama administration officials have defended the swap, insisting that it was consistent with the U.S. pledge to leave no man behind on the battlefield. Hagel, speaking from Afghanistan during an interview on "Meet the Press," said U.S. officials were concerned about Bergdahl's health. He brushed off Republican criticisms. "We didn't negotiate with terrorists," Hagel said, dismissing the suggestion that this swap could incentivize future kidnappings of American soldiers. "In war, things are always dangerous and there are vulnerabilities... but our record, the United States of America, in dealing with terrorists and hunting down and finding terrorists, is pretty good." The swap, announced Saturday morning, has enraged some congressional Republicans, who argue that the decision potentially compromises national security because it amounts to a negotiation with terrorists. But, earlier on Sunday morning, Rice told CNN host Candy Crowley — when asked whether this meant that the United States could no longer claim that it does not negotiate with terrorists — that she "wouldn't put it that way." Other critics have argued that President Obama may have violated the law by not giving members of Congress the required 30-day notice before moving prisoners who were being kept at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Top Republicans on the Senate and House armed services committees went so far as to


With this rifle, almost anyone can hit targets a kilometer away with ease

as small as a smartphone from distances as far off as a kilometer. The video demonstrated that, even with the painted target area narrowed to a radius of only a few inches, the device, an HTC One, never really stood a chance. 1123 Yard Shot - HTC One M8 “Most experienced shooters have much better accuracy after their initial shot. But the problem, especially with hunting, is that they often don’t get a second shot,” explained Oren Schauble, the company’s director of marketing. “With our rifles, the chance of hitting your target no matter how small and at extremely long range the first time around is as high as 80 percent.” “It’s not impossible to miss,” he added, “but it’s close.” To grasp how the system works, it’s important to note that there’s nothing particularly special about the rifles themselves. In fact, the .300 Winchester Magnum rifles are manufactured by Surgeon Rifles in Prague, Okla. All the company did, essentially, was to modify them with a tracking system that allows shooter to easily “tag” both stationary as well as moving targets (up to 10 mph) with a laser rangefinder that’s visible via a mounted LCD display, much like the lock-and-launch missile systems fighter jet pilots use to take down enemy planes. Compared to conventional scopes, which rely on enhanced optics, TrackingPoint’s technology is designed to ensure near flawless accuracy by taking into account a wide range of variables that can throw off the shooters aim. Doing so involves an array of sophisticated components that include gyroscopes and accelerometers to determine the rifle’s incline and elevation, pressure and temperature sensors to detect climate conditions, such as humidity, while also taking into consideration other important factors such as wind speed and the shooter’s own jitteriness. So as the shooter aligns the on-screen laser pointer directly onto the red dot or “tag,” which designates the intended hit area of the target, and squeezes the trigger, a Linux-based ballistic computer crunches the available data to calculate when, precisely, to fire. “The system makes it easier not only for novices, but also for trained snipers because it saves time on all the calculations they’d have to make before firing,” Schauble says. “They can even use it to shoot over long distances in less than ideal shooting positions or even offhand.” Though Schauble estimates that roughly 90 percent of purchases come from game hunters, a major


Why the EPA’s new power plant rules are a diversion from serious climate policy

until it is heap and easy to do so. And this, even more than meeting the 80 by 50 target, requires a technological revolution in energy production 0r carbon mitigation. Such transformations are possible — consider how fiber optics and then satellite and wireless replaced traditional copper wire for telecommunications — but they are rarely driven by regulatory mandates. And although tradeable emission credit schemes are supposed to incentivize innovation, there’s little empirical evidence that such programs have actually achieved this goal. Clean-energy innovation cannot be imposed, but it can be encouraged If policymakers are serious about meeting the climate challenge — and are more interested in atmospheric stabilization than expanding EPA control over energy use — they should focus their efforts on policies that will encourage the development and deployment of clean energy technologies. Among the policies I’ve endorsed are technology inducement prizes, as a supplement to or substitute for traditional R&D funding, policies that remove regulatory and other barriers to technology deployment (such as those that have plagued Cape Wind), and a revenue-neutral carbon tax. Such policies would be just a start, but what they have in common is that they would increase the economic incentive to develop and deploy clean energy technologies. Encouraging technological innovation does not guarantee atmospheric stabilization, but neither does the current regulatory course. What it does, however, is at least create the possibility that stabilization could be achieved — something that piling on round-after-round of regulatory mandates can’t even promise. The bottom line is that if we want to achieve atmospheric stabilization, we have to make it possible — and it will only be possible with dramatic technological innovation. Thus encouraging and accelerating such innovation must be the dominant focus of any serious climate policy. Today, however, innovation is nothing more than an afterthought. Postscript: Some readers may object that climate change is not a serious problem. Given my libertarian leanings, it would be convenient to hold this view, but I do not. While some environmental activists exaggerate the certainty or severity of some climate-related threats, I believe climate change is a serious policy concern, albeit one that policymakers do not take seriously. Those on the right pretend its not a problem, while those on the left pretend as if old-fashioned regulatory strategies have a prayer of addressing the problem. Both are mistaken, and as a consequence little of any import gets done.


Out-of-control car interrupts the Comrades ultramarathon in South Africa

South African long distance runner Bongmusa Mthembu gestures as he wins the Comrades Marathon. The annual 56-mile ultramarathon this year attracted over 16,000 runners — and one out-of-control vehicle — from around the world. (Rajesh Jantila/AFP/Getty Images) A 56-mile foot race between the South African cities of Durban and Pietermaritzburg already sounds treacherous. But add an out-of-control car to the mix and, dang, the Comrades ultramarathon just got real. It wasn’t the runners, however, who had to jump out of the way, but the race’s spectators, as a fast-moving vehicle spun into a highway barricade. Car crash on Comrades marathon livestream Yikes. The action, which occurred over seven hours into Sunday’s race, didn’t affect winner Bongumusa Mthembu, however, who finished in just about five and a half hours. Mthembu humbled by Comrades Marathon victory (H/t: Deadspin)


Climate scientists generally express approval for proposed EPA carbon rule

To confront the threat of climate change, the U.S. EPA announced a landmark proposal today that would reduce carbon emissions from existing coal-fired power plants 30 percent from 2005 levels by 2030. Clean Power Plan Explained I emailed a group of climate scientists to obtain their thoughts and reactions. Most (not all) of the scientists I reached out to support the measure, with some qualifiers. Their responses offer some interesting perspectives… Myles Allen, Oxford University From a climate perspective, if these new regulations promote the large-scale deployment of carbon capture and storage, then our grandchildren may look back on this day as a kind of Pearl Harbour moment when the formidable resources of the United States of America were finally deployed against climate change. But if, as many claim is more likely, they simply mean the closure of lots of coal-fired power plants, then it is hard to see how they will have much impact, because U.S. coal will simply be exported and burnt elsewhere. A much cleaner, and arguably fairer, approach would be for the EPA to require capture and storage of a fraction of the carbon content of all fossil fuels: why simply target coal when flares from the Bakken shale formation are visible from space? Richard Alley, Penn State University Extensive scholarship shows that the climate changes from the CO2 emitted to the air by our fossil-fuel burning will have economic costs—the “social cost of carbon”—and thus that actions to reduce CO2 emissions can make us better off economically. Numerous studies have also found that the particles, mercury, etc. emitted by some coal-fired power plants hurt the health of people downwind, with costs to society that may exceed the cost of the electricity from those plants to their customers. Hence, efficient approaches to reduce CO2 and other emissions from power plants can have much larger benefits than costs. Economists generally seem to prefer a “cost signal”, such as a revenue-neutral carbon tax, to deal with the social cost of carbon. In such a plan, taxes might be reduced on valuable things such as our wages, and the money replaced with a tax on emitting carbon, starting small but increasing slowly and steadily to become large over ~30 years, allowing current coal workers to retire and current coal investors to get their money back, and putting the entire economy to work to reduce climate change from CO2. The


The litany of woes for government HR

(Panorama of the US Capitol building) The federal HR community faces a litany of woes: limits placed on new hiring, inflexible hiring procedures that often discourage or rule out high-quality applicants, continuing budget constraints and declining employee morale. These difficulties are further complicated by the negative public atmosphere and internal unease created by high-profile examples of government mismanagement, such as the recent scandal involving health care for veterans, the problems associated with the Affordable Care Act enrollment Web site and the lavish spending on conferences by the General Services Administration. Despite the numerous obstacles and the fallout from occasional agency missteps, there are ways to move forward and make progress, according to a recent report that surveyed 62 federal chief human capital officers (CHCOs) and human resources (HR) leaders regarding the challenges facing the federal workforce. The report, “Embracing Change: CHCOs Rising to the Challenge of an Altered Landscape” by my organization, the Partnership for Public Service, and Grant Thornton LLP, found that federal HR leaders assume that longer-range actions will best repair the damage of the past few years and strengthen the workforce. Yet while many of the recommendations in the report require congressional or administration action and are beyond the purview of the HR departments or managers, there are ideas in here that agency leaders can get to work on immediately to improve workforce management. Here are some of their proposals: - Agencies need to find ways to invest more in training and development opportunities for both employees and management, and maximize the return on that investment by identifying more cost-effective options, including better use of technology and greater cross-agency collaboration. - Agencies should continue to reduce costs by sharing services and establishing other collaborative, cross-agency methods for improving how missions are achieved. - Senior managers need to take the lead and be held accountable for reversing the significant decline in employee morale. Leaders at all levels can benefit from studying those agencies that managed to improve employee satisfaction and commitment in 2013 despite facing the same reduced funding, increased workloads and sequestration-related problems as those that fared poorly. - Even in tough times, supervisors and managers can make a positive difference by focusing on effective communication with their employees, particularly by providing realistic and constructive performance feedback that highlights opportunities for growth. - Cutbacks in monetary recognition for superior employee performance can be counterbalanced to some degree


The curious case of Bob Bergdahl’s apparent tweet to the Taliban

It’s unclear why this particular tweet was deleted: A spokesman for the family told The Post on Monday that Bob and Jani Bergdahl were asked by the media about the now-missing message upon their return to Idaho from Washington. But the Bergdahls didn’t discuss it. “They just nodded their head in acknowledgement of the question, but they didn’t address [it] in their remarks,” said Col. Timothy Marsano, the family spokesman. During their long, painful wait for their son’s safe return, the Bergdahls have vacillated between quiet, consistent remembrance and outspoken activism. After his son’s capture, Bergdahl appeared to pour himself into an effort to find solidarity with his missing son. He grew a long beard and learned Pashto and Urdu, languages spoken along the Afghan-Pakistan border. And it has been no secret that he offers compassion to his son’s captors. The father of former prisoner-of-war Bowe Bergdahl recorded this personal message to the Pakistani armed forces, citizens, and his son's captors in 2011. “Strangely to some we must also thank those who have cared for our son for almost two years,” Bergdahl said in the 2011 video message to the Taliban. “We know our son is a prisoner and at the same time a guest in your home.” Last year, during a rally hosted by the P.O.W. activist organization Honor-Release-Return, Bergdahl commented that the Taliban treated his son “fairly.” “Bowe and the other Americans in captivity have been extremely fortunate not to be badly mistreated by the Taliban,” he said, referring to other unnamed Americans in captivity, as he often does. At times during the last five years, he considered taking matters into his own hands. He thought about going to Pakistan to retrieve his son himself. “I’ll talk to them,” he told Rolling Stone Magazine in a 2012 profile. “I’ll bring him home myself.” And he has said he maintains constant e-mail contact with a Taliban member with knowledge of his son’s whereabouts. When negotiations stalled in 2012, the Bergdahls spoke out forcefully in favor of the exchange of Guantanamo prisoners for their son, in an interview with the Idaho Mountain Express — even while they praised the U.S. government’s handling of the situation. Mr. and Mrs. Bergdahl … are advocating that the Pentagon and the White House consider swapping one or more U.S. prisoners being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for their son. “I’m pushing it hard,” Mr.


Here’s how Tiananmen lives on, 25 years after the bloody crackdown

This photo taken June 3, 1989, shows exhausted soldiers after a night of clashes with protesters. (Catherine Henriette/AFP via Getty Images) Twenty-five years ago, China’s Communist leaders sent soldiers and tanks against unarmed protesters, mostly students, in Tiananmen Square in one of the bloodiest and most brutal crackdowns in modern history. At least several hundred, and possibly several thousand, were killed. Dan Southerland, who was The Washington Post's Beijing bureau chief at the time, said the demonstrations started mid-April in 1989, first as a way to honor then-Communist Party Secretary Hu Yaobang, who was admired by some students. But it quickly evolved into protests calling attention to corruption among officials and then later demanding a more open system. Watch the video below, in which Southerland describes in detail the scene on the streets and what followed. Hundreds of people were killed in June 1989 when Chinese soldiers opened fire on unarmed civilians in Beijing's Tiananmen Square. Dan Southerland, The Post's Beijing bureau chief at the time, talks about what led to the anti-government demonstrations and military crackdown. This video was originally produced for the 25th anniversary of the event. Since then, China has made every attempt to erase the traces of what happened in Tiananmen Square, including censoring the Internet. But as my colleague William Wan reported from Beijing, in recent years, a small group of dissident artists are re-imagining the bloody crackdown and, through their work, telling the stories about what happened 25 years ago. One such artist, Liu Yi, painted this art below — a series of black-and-white portraits of people he imagined were killed by Chinese soldiers. “I can’t explain why, but I felt a need to do something for the people who died,” the artist said. “Once I finished the [painting] series, I felt a kind of peace.” (Courtesy of Liu Yi) Many Chinese who led the protests were arrested and imprisoned after 1989. There were students like Wang Dang, who helped start a hunger strike during the protests, and then there were Communist officials like Bao Tong, whose sympathy for student protesters got him purged from his own party. Both of them were charged with acting against the state. And the man who is thought to have ordered the use of soldiers against the students, then-Premier Li Peng, has retired, and little is known of his whereabouts. Today, many of the key players in the


Why waste energy running when this exoskeleton will do it for you?

Feeling lazy? This robotic exoskeleton might be for you. (Issei Kato/Reuters) Panasonic spin-off ActiveLink is developing an exoskeleton that can assist a person in walking or running. The Powerloader light PLL-04, also called the Ninja, weighs 33 pounds and can assist a user at speeds up to 7.5 mph. It’s powered by a battery pack on the wearer’s back. The exoskeleton senses a user’s movements and moves in turn to ease the individual’s workload. The Ninja is still in development but will reportedly be on the market in three years. Here’s what it looks like in action: POWELOADER light PLL-04 NINJA running test at 12km/h ActiveLink’s next step is to prove the Ninja works effectively outdoors and on slopes. (Toru Yamanaka/AFP/Getty Images) Another version of the Powerloader is designed to help construction workers, farmers and anyone else who lifts heavy objects. An ActiveLink employee demonstrates the PLL-011E in Tokyo. (Issei Kato/Reuters) Related:


READ IN: Tuesday, June 3, 2014: Bergdahl a hot potato, Obama job approval up to 46, primaries in 8 states, Tom Cotton finally leads, albeit a GOP poll, OK SEN goes negative

31 to begin a $200 million renovation that will create a 271-room hotel set to open in 2016. The Trumps will pay a base rent of $250,000 a month, though the government will continue to own the building. (Washington Post) -- Markets are mixed in early hours trading. Asian markets closed higher today, but European markets are trending lower. (CNN) C1: -- The EPA is using Section 111 of the Clean Air Act to justify new regulations on coal-fired power plants. That section, authored by Sen. Edmund Muskie (D-Maine), came to exist thanks to the top lobbyist for the United Steelworkers union, who didn't want Rust Belt industries targeted specifically. Muskie's staff set about developing a provision to eliminate incentives for industry to leave states with stricter regulations. (Politico) C4: -- Wisconsin has nearly three times as many bars as it does grocery stores. New Hampshire residents drink the most beer and spirits per capita, almost twice the national average. And residents of Idaho and the District of Columbia drink more than twice the national average of wine every year. North Dakota and Montana have more bars per capita than every other state, while Delaware, Maryland and Mississippi have the fewest, at less than 1.5 per 10,000 people. All that and more scenes from America's Beer Belly, along with great maps, at Washington Post. -- Marijuana dispensaries in San Jose, Calif., are offering discounts and free pot to customers who show proof they voted in today's primary election. The dispensaries put out a voter's guide advocating for a few candidates, but they say their overall goal is just to improve turnout. (Chicago Tribune) Attn Matt Drudge: -- Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R) wants answers from the White House over reports that undocumented immigrants from Central America have been dropped off at bus stations in Tucson and Phoenix in recent weeks. Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) has asked House Oversight and Government Reform Committee chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) to investigate. The Border Patrol said last week it had flown about 400 migrants from the Rio Grande Valley in Texas to Tucson to be processed. (Arizona Republic) Attn HuffPo: -- The Virginia Flaggers, a group that celebrates the Confederacy, raised a 20-foot by 30-foot Confederate flag alongside Interstate 95 near Fredericksburg on Monday. The first time the group raised the Stars and Bars, 24,000 people signed an online petition against the display. (Reuters)


The Ben & Jerry’s Truck is back on our streets

It's a promotional tour, sure, but why pass up the chance for some free Ben & Jerry's? While the Ben & Jerry's truck is on its East Coast tour through June 29, you can tweet @BenJerrysTruck to request a stop near your office. If you're afraid you'll miss it, you can find the truck at 6:30 p.m. during Wednesday's City Running Tours party (along with food and drinks from Right Proper Brewery). The truck will also be parked at the Capital Pride-themed DC MEETMarket June 7 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Today is the day, #DC! #CoreTour is cruising the streets with free @benandjerrys, so tweet us your stop requests! http://t.co/5rE9bgLTSF


Mount Pleasant’s Tonic will become organic Goodall’s Bistro

said in an interview this morning. Before moving to Washington in 2000, Warren lived in Vermont, where he managed a cafe and started a catering company that focused on locally sourced ingredients. But he gave that up to work in D.C., and Warren has spent the last 14 years working in small business administration and managing Puppy Love, a pet-setting company. Still, the idea of opening a locally-focused restaurant was in the back of his mind, as he watched friends open neighborhood spots, such as Room 11. Warren says he had opportunities to open a business elsewhere in D.C., but he was holding out for a chance to open on Mount Pleasant Street. "I really feel like the culture of Mount Pleasant is right for what I want to do," he said. "I see it happening in other places, but knowing my neighbors, I feel like the neighborhood is conducive to the idea. I like that it's homegrown in every way. "When I moved in to the neighborhood, it was a lot of people in group houses. Now it's changing, and there are a lot more people with kids. People's tastes have refined as we're aging, but I don't see that reflected in the neighborhood. When I was young, it was a lot of fun to go to Tonic and eat tater tots, but I believe people want to eat healthier, less-processed food." To that end, he is working with chef David Duffy, formerly of the vegan restaurants Cafe Green in Dupont Circle and Great Sage in Clarksville, Md., and Dannielle Sharkey, formerly of Tabard Inn. Nick Pimentel of Room 11 is taking a hand in designing the new space, which will open in segments: The former Tonic basement space will open first, after a "significant facelift," Warren said. "Three to six months down the road, we'd like to turn the Last Exit space into a cafe that's open during the day." Tonic was a simple place, built around tater tots, taco nights and Michigan football games. After opening the basement-level Tonic, though, the partners expanded multiple times within the same building. They added an upstairs dining room with an extra bar; took over a restaurant across the hall from that dining room to create the Radius pizzeria (which was subsequently sold); and then took over the basement under Radius to build the speakeasy-inspired Last Exit cocktail lounge. Pollok said


World Cup participation increases state aggression

levels of the treatment and control groups before and after the sporting event, much like we were medical researchers testing the effect of some new drug through a randomized controlled trial. These experiments are the gold standard for establishing causal relationships in most scientific fields, so the results from this type of study could significantly improve our understanding of how sporting events affect interstate conflict. Although there has never been a real experiment that tests how sports influence state aggression, my new Using this idea, I constructed a sample consisting of 142 countries that barely qualified or barely missed qualification. I show in my paper that the qualifier and non-qualifier groups are very similar across a wide range of political, economic and demographic factors, which supports the idea that qualification was essentially random for these countries. They are also very similar on past levels of aggression. To quantify aggression, I use the standard measure of international aggression in political science, which is the number of Militarized Interstate Disputes that a state initiates. These disputes are instances where states explicitly threaten, display or use force against other countries. This measure is commonly in security studies, since interstate wars happen too infrequently to be a useful measure in most statistical tests. The results show that going to the World Cup increases aggression substantially. The countries that barely qualified experienced a large spike in aggression during the World Cup year. The difference in the aggression levels between the two groups is statistically significant and very unlikely to have been caused by chance (p The qualifiers not only took military action more often than the non-qualifiers, but the actions they took tended to be more violent. The Militarized Interstate Dispute dataset codes for the highest level of action taken by each country, with one being the threat to use force and 20 being the start of interstate war. In the two years following the World Cup, the median for the qualifiers was 15, whereas the median for the non-qualifiers was 11. Moreover, the qualifiers were significantly more likely to launch a direct attack against another country (highest level of action=16). The Militarized Interstate Dispute dataset also codes for whether each dispute was intended to revise the status quo. In the two years following the World Cup, 72 percent of the disputes started by the qualifiers were revisionist, compared to only 54 percent for the


Quick round of downpours to cycle through D.C. area this afternoon

Radar lightning: Overview: 3:00 p.m. update: 2:50 p.m. update: 2:10 p.m. update: 1:45 p.m. update: 1:35 p.m. update: Radar screenshot at 1:22 p.m. Radarscope


After Bergdahl’s release, a sickening spectacle in the Rose Garden

On Jan. 31, 1945, the U.S. Army executed a soldier from Detroit named Eddie Slovik. He was what we would now call a loser –a petty thief, a self-proclaimed coward and, by his admission, a deserter. He was the first U.S. soldier executed for desertion since the Civil War and, as far as I can tell, the last. He soon became the subject of a book and a movie – and then slipped into history, ignominious and pathetic in death and now almost entirely forgotten. Jani Bergdahl, left, mother of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, speaks to the media while Bob Bergdahl and President Obama look on in the Rose Garden of the White House on May 31. (Mandel Ngan/Agence France-Presse via Getty Images) Now, all these years later, deserters are treated somewhat differently. Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl is accused by some of his Army colleagues of deserting his post in Afghanistan, leaving behind his weapon and his body armor. He was taken prisoner by the Taliban and was just swapped for five terrorists who were being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. If the charges are true, the Taliban got back valuable and esteemed warriors and the United States got a deserter. The ultimate truth about Bergdahl has yet to be determined. War is foggy, or some such thing, and not all eyewitness accounts are accurate – you know the cliches. But there seems to be ample evidence to wonder about Bergdahl and to particularly wonder why his parents were invited to the White House, where they engaged in a huggy session with the president of the United States. I am not for executing deserters, but I am not for hugging their parents, either. The Obama administration’s mismanagement of this event truly has to be a personal best for the president and his staff. They are accused of violating the American principle of never trading for a hostage. This sounds ominous, but in truth you do what you have to do to get your people back. I give Obama a pass on this one. The administration is also accused of violating the law by not notifying Congress that a swap was in the offing. This is a more serious charge since the law is the law and ought to be obeyed. Still, there is a long and proud tradition of the White House telling Congress to shove off when it comes to the


War-zone deserter? If so, Bowe Bergdahl joins a fascinating and bizarre club

The Taliban has released footage of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl's release to U.S. forces in Afghanistan after spending five years in captivity. The chatter about Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl has been unrelenting ever since the White House announced Saturday that it had swapped five members of the Taliban in detention for the only U.S. service member held by the enemy in Afghanistan. The buzz isn’t just because Bergdahl had been held in captivity since going missing in Afghanistan on June 30, 2009. It’s because it is widely believed that he walked off his base in a war zone with no plans to return. Doing so would be desertion, a crime in the military in which individuals leave their unit with no plans to return, or quit to avoid hazardous duty or “important service.” Army Secretary John McHugh acknowledged the desertion concerns about Bergdahl on Tuesday, but added that the Defense Department will take “as long as necessary” to help him recover medically from his time in captivity. “The Army will then review this in a comprehensive, coordinated effort that will include speaking with Sgt. Bergdahl to better learn from him the circumstances of his disappearance and captivity,” McHugh said in a statement. “All other decisions will be made thereafter, and in accordance with appropriate regulations, policies and practices.” Desertion in itself is not uncommon. Thousands of U.S. service members did so annually during the height of the Iraq war, according to numerous media reports. Those individuals typically deserted while in the United States, however, either before their unit deployed, or while they were home on leave in the middle of a deployment. Many of them sought refuge in Canada, like Kimberly Rivera, an Army private who was sentenced last year to 10 months in prison for fleeing in 2007 from a break in a deployment to Iraq. What makes Bergdahl’s case so unusual in modern times is that he disappeared while in a war zone. There are remarkably few known cases in recent years in which service members have been accused of fleeing their units while deployed. Perhaps the most famous case is that of Marine Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun, who disappeared June 19, 2004, from his base in Fallujah, Iraq. Several media reports suggested the following month that he had been killed after being held captive, but he later resurfaced at the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon, where he had family.


Chronic pain sufferer Katie Pumphrey completes 15-mile open water swim

time to time on her bid to tackle one of the most daunting challenges in endurance sports despite a disorder that has been diagnosed as fibromyalgia. Fewer people have made solo crossings of the 21-mile channel than have climbed Mt. Everest. Pumphrey views the effort, partly, as way of confronting chronic pain that has, at times, become an overwhelming issue in her life. (I couldn't make Saturday's double-crossing, but our intrepid videographer, Whitney Leaming, was there throughout. Her video is atop this post.). Long distance swimmers will want to know that Pumphrey got up to about 37,000 meters a week in a salt water pool in the weeks leading up to Saturday's swim. She stopped every half hour for food--vanilla bean GU packets and energy bars--and a liquid mixture of water and Hammer Perpetuem. Both were lowered from the boat in a basket by her crew, as required by the rules for a channel swim; Pumphrey will be immediately disqualified if she touches the guide boat that will accompany her next summer. Until the last hour or so, Pumphrey kept up a fast pace of about 28 strokes per minute. She crossed from Maryland to Virginia in 3:38, and made the trip back in a little over 5:07. Along the way, there were crab pots to avoid, and salty water in the high-60-degree range to endure. But it was the wind-whipped chop that bothered Pumphrey most, she said. Days after the swim she still felt as if she had been run over. Later in the afternoon, the wind died down and the waves diminished with it. At times, Pumphrey said, her mind played tricks on her. "The dark moments were, like, being in pain and getting upset about it," she said, "being nauseous and being tossed around." "I was pretty confident, just because I'm so stubborn, I knew I wasn't going to let myself stop," Pumphrey added. "But I was getting so upset, just moments of 'I'm not sure I want to endure that.'" Pumphrey, a swim coach and painter, continues to raise money for her self-financed effort and train for her next major goal, a 16.2- 15.5 mile swim across Long Island Sound in August. Later she will have to swim for six hours in 60-degree water, to prove to the governing body of channel swims that she can handle the cold. We'll keep you posted on her progress.


On Tiananmen anniversary, Chinese state media tweets panda pics

Just look at that panda. (AFP/Getty Images) On Wednesday, the world commemorated the 25th anniversary of the events at Tiananmen square, when Chinese tanks and troops cracked down brutally on the nation's student-led pro-democracy movement. Mass protests in Hong Kong, a Chinese territory where certain democratic rights and freedoms are preserved, were particularly epic and powerful. But glance at the English-language Twitter feeds of Beijing's main state news outlets and you get a sense of the conspiracy of silence that still surrounds June 4, 1989, on the mainland. The most eye-catching tweet was the one below, on the existence of psychic, soccer-score predicting panda cubs. A sampling of other tweets follows. Giant #panda cubs in China are making their predictions for the outcomes of the #FIFA World Cup in #Brazil http://t.co/Wgbpfe90Gd Chinese President Xi Jinping met with Kuwaiti PM Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah in Beijing on 4th http://t.co/4tHQVdJoGQ On the 25th anniversary of the crackdown on China's pro-democracy movement, there was some hullabaloo in Beijing about government cafeteria conditions: Beijing officers received complaints on canteen hygiene of State Admin of Cultural Heritage but blocked entering http://t.co/MTWArZM39H There was also a terrible stabbing in a provincial city: #Shaoguan knife attack: 2 died, 1 injured; Attacker captured on the spot in Zhenjiang http://t.co/O6NVBOhTg3 The Global Times, another Beijing-based state mouthpiece, ran this sort of anodyne message: Xi vows China will promote innovation in engineering http://t.co/04pUYf2xym http://t.co/HzZCLqDiMd It also trumpeted the decline of the West. First, with gloating about the new Sino-Russian gas pipeline pact, and then mocking the United States' own wasteful energy habits. Sino-Russian gas deal shows center of gravity has shifted from West http://t.co/CzXLbeUvOt http://t.co/T5FyYjsyp6 Cartoon: Windmills welcome back US President Barack Obama unveils historic rules to reduce coal pollution by 30%. http://t.co/mhX5Oug6qB Then it got a bit weird: Brazilian man undergoes surgeries to look like "more Asian" http://t.co/MWfHwQvZyz http://t.co/59sxLTczEc Lastly, the China Daily reported on an interesting act of dissent: Women dancers refuse to stop for students. http://t.co/Vx0Uco8jdk


The consequences of the Durbin Amendment for American consumers

I have just posted a new article co-authored with colleagues from the International Center for Law and Economics, Geoff Manne and Julian Morris, “Price Controls on Payment Card Interchange Fees: The US Experience.” Here’s the Abstract: The Durbin Amendment to the Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation capped debit card interchange fees for banks with assets of $10 billion. Credit card and prepaid card interchange fees were not regulated. The cap, which took effect on October 11, 2011, cut the average interchange fee for covered banks from $0.50 to $0.24 per transaction. The cap reduced annual revenues from interchange fees by between $6 billion and $8 billion. Covered banks have recouped these losses in indirect ways. In particular, they have: – Reduced the availability of fee-free current accounts. The total number of banks offering free current accounts fell by 50% between 2009 and 2013. In comparison, fee-free banking actually increased at banks not subject to the Durbin Amendment. – More than doubled the minimum monthly holding required on fee-free current accounts between 2009 and 2012, from around $250 to over $750. – Doubled average monthly fees on (non-free) current accounts between 2009 and 2013, from around $6 to more than $12. – These fee increases and loss of access to free checking contributed to an increase in the unbanked population of approximately 1 million people, mainly among low-income families. – Consumers have shifted their payment usage from debit cards to credit and prepaid cards, which were not subjected to price controls. Most large retailers have seen significant cost reductions as a result of the Durbin Amendment, yet to date there is no evidence that those cost savings have been passed-through to consumers. Interchange fees have increased for merchants that make small-ticket transactions, as networks have eliminated discounts that they previously received, and smaller merchants have not seen any reduction in their merchant discount rates. Thus, while consumers have seen large and immediate increases in the cost of bank accounts, to date there is no evidence of reduced prices at the pump or checkout. We estimate that as a result of the Durbin Amendment, there will be a transfer of $1 billion to $3 billion annually from low-income households to large retailers and their shareholders, which have been the primary beneficiaries of the Durbin Amendment to date. Over the next few days I’ll plan to post some highlights from the paper as well.


D.C. area forecast: Showers make a quick exit; clearing the way for a fine summer weekend

- Today’s Daily Digit - A somewhat subjective rating of the day’s weather, on a scale of 1 to 10. - 7 This day may start out as a 5 with a few lingering showers but quickly turns into a 9 with sun, low humidity and seasonable temps. - Express Forecast - Today: Isolated showers early, clearing by midday. Highs: 79-83. - Tonight: Mainly clear and calm. Lows: 55-62. - Tomorrow: Sun dominates. Highs: 78-82. FORECAST IN DETAIL Radar lightning: Our lucky streak of nice weekends should remain pretty much intact. The only thing we have to worry about is another “blob o’ thunderstorms” coming out of the Midwest by late Sunday, similar to the one that just passed through last night. Highs in the mid-80s sounds a little warm but with humidity yet to gain a foothold this season it should be just dandy for outdoor activities, including one of my favorites, the Astronomy Festival on the National Mall, lots of telescopes on hand to view what should be a wonderfully clear sky. Today (Thursday): Tonight: For related traffic news, check out Dr. Gridlock. Keep reading for the forecast through the weekend… Tomorrow (Friday): Tomorrow night: A LOOK AHEAD Saturday Sunday Monday


Quantum teleportation is just the latest mind-blowing innovation made possible by breakthroughs in subatomic physics

quantum teleportation — in which objects could travel vast distances — would theoretically mean that these objects can travel faster than the speed of light. Einstein would have had a problem with that. While quantum mechanics is tough to wrap the brain around, quantum teleportation is not the only fascinating development in the world of subatomic physics. Take quantum computing, for example, which has long been a topic of discussion among computer scientists. Given the fact that we appear to be running up against a wall when it comes to Moore’s Law, some are now claiming that quantum computers — which rely on transforming quantum bits rather than digital bits — are the future. It’s for good reason that companies like Lockheed Martin, IBM, Hitachi and Google are now at work building a quantum computer. And there are other innovations that are being made possible by quantum mechanics, in fields ranging from genomics to logistics. The NSA, for example, views quantum computers as the key to cracking any known type of cryptography. The reason, quite simply, is that quantum computers are better than digital computers at certain mathematical operations involving prime numbers. Other innovators see quantum mechanics as the key to creating a quantum Internet, in which packets of information are securely exchanged vast distances without actually having to travel those distances. Right now, we’re still at the baby steps of innovation involving subatomic physics. Those quantum computers? They can’t do much more than a few basic operations, and some of the ones being built today have come under withering skepticism. Quantum teleportation? Yes, researchers “teleported” information about 10 feet, but are still awaiting the big showcase later this summer, when they teleport information 1300 meters. Instead of teleporting information from one room to another room, they will attempt to teleport information from one building to another. But you can see where all this is headed. Innovative tech companies such as Google are surfing the quantum physics wave, determined not to be left behind by the creation of fantastically powerful computers. The University of Maryland (site of quantum computing research) is now hosting “relativity camps” in which kids will learn all about Einstein’s theory of relativity. Government and university labs are now receiving funding to study quantum computing. It seems to be only a matter of time before the study of something very small ends up producing something very big.


After faltering, conductor steps down

Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos at Tanglewood in 2011. The conductor announced his retirement this week. (Photo: Hilary Scott) Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, the influential Spanish conductor, has announced that he is retiring from the podium, effective immediately. “I have to recognize publicly that I have cancer,” the 80-year-old conductor said in a press statement issued on Wednesday, “and that in this state of health and with deep sorrow I am not able to conduct at my standards and the moment to quit professional matters has come.” In March, Frühbeck de Burgos occasioned concern among players and audiences of the National Symphony Orchestra, where he was principal guest conductor from 1980 to 1988 and where he has frequently conducted since, when he slumped over on the podium while conducting Respighi’s “The Pines of Rome.” He continued to conduct, and was finally able to stand and finish the piece. The music never stopped. Frühbeck, who had led the first concert of the series without incident, did cancel the final night, and was replaced by Ankush Kumar Bahl. It proved to be the last concert Frühbeck ever led. Named Conductor of the Year by Musical America in 2011, Frühbeck was Chief Conductor of the Danish National Symphony Orchestra at the time of his retirement, as well as a frequent guest with a number of the world’s leading ensembles. In recent years, as the Boston Globe reports, Frühbeck had developed a special relationship with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, often stepping in for another maestro who was frequently in poor health, the BSO’s former music director James Levine. He was scheduled to lead that orchestra three times at Tanglewood this summer, and for two weeks this coming October. He was also scheduled to conduct the NSO in March, 2015, during the Kennedy Center’s “Iberian Suite” festival. His replacements for all of these concerts have yet to be determined.


Capitals won’t play in Baltimore Hockey Classic this preseason

After two recent sojourns up Interstate 95 for the Baltimore Hockey Classic, the Washington Capitals have decided to forgo the event and play their entire 2014-15 preseason home schedule at Verizon Center. “The Baltimore Hockey Classic was a terrific event and we were overwhelmed with the support from the city of Baltimore, Baltimore Arena and our fans in Maryland, but after evaluating all of our options the decision was made to play all home preseason games at Verizon Center next season,” a team spokesman said in an e-mail Thursday. This came as little shock to the folks in Baltimore, based on how facility issues marred the past two events. “I honestly never thought they were coming back,” Baltimore Arena General Manager Frank Remesch told CSN this week. “Really, we needed to be perfect. Everything is magnified when you host one game a year, and if they’re going to give up a home gate and travel to a smaller venue, then we need to be perfect and we weren’t.” That CSN article does a solid job outlining the issues Baltimore Arena — formerly 1st Mariner Arena — experienced when the Capitals took the ice there in 2011 and 2013, missing the sandwiched season because of the NHL lockout. In 2011, the building’s first ice hockey game since 1997, “the playing conditions proved subpar with ice melting and puddles forming on the playing surface.” Last season, a cracked glass pane crashed onto Alex Ovechkin. Here’s colleague Katie Carrera on the conditions from 2013, when the Capitals lost in a shootout to the Bruins: The Baltimore Arena was colder than it was two years ago, and there weren’t any puddles forming lakes around the rink. But the ice quickly grew choppy and full of ruts each period, making caution a necessary focus for players. Passes and shots, rolled and bounced unpredictably all over the rink. Perhaps the best example was when Mike Green was unable to stick handle down center ice during the shootout because the puck started bobbling the moment he tried to pull it back across. “First five minutes [ice] is well but after it’s kind of, you can’t hold the puck you can’t shoot it and you’re afraid to go to the boards because it’s too dangerous out there,” Alex Ovechkin said. “I think in the third period, the end of the game we start to feel little better. It’s


Analyst: A Sprint and T-Mobile merger has a 10 percent chance of approval

Billionaire Masayoshi Son, chairman and chief executive officer of SoftBank Corp., speaks during a news conference in Urayasu, Chiba Prefecture, Japan, on Thursday, June 5, 2014. (Tomohiro Ohsumi/Bloomberg) That Sprint wants to buy T-Mobile is pretty much the telecom industry's worst-kept secret right now. On Wednesday, the two companies reportedly turned a corner in their negotiations: Reports suggest the two companies have settled on general terms for a deal, around $40 a share -- or about $32 billion -- with a $1 billion break-up fee if the merger doesn't go through. The feds seem largely skeptical of yet another tech merger this year on top of Comcast-Time Warner Cable and AT&T-DirecTV. In fact, it's such a long shot that a top telecom analyst thinks there's only a 10 percent chance that the Justice Department and the Federal Communications Commission will give Sprint-T-Mobile a green light. "Softbank has apparently concluded that its odds of success are greater now — while the FCC and DOJ are simultaneously reviewing Comcast/TWC and AT&T/DTV — than they would be later," New York-based Moffett Nathanson wrote in a research note Thursday. "But realpolitik says otherwise. Approving all three would be untenable for the left. Rejecting all three would be untenable for the right. At least one of the three would have to be rejected. And it's easy to see which one of the three it would be." (Moffett Nathanson) Sprint's chairman, Masayoshi Son, has been touring the country trying to make the case for a merger, recruiting smaller wireless carriers to his cause and playing up the benefits of more consolidation to regulators. But he's got a lot of work to do ahead of him.