Foreign regimes use spyware against journalists, even in U.S.

provided the foundation for a multibillion-dollar industry with its own annual conferences, where firms based in the most developed countries offer surveillance products to governments that don’t yet have the ability to produce their own. Hacking Team, which Reporters Without Borders has named on its list of “Corporate Enemies” of a free press, touted on its Web site that its “Remote Control System” spyware allows users to “take control of your targets and monitor them regardless of encryption and mobility. It doesn’t matter if you are after an Android phone or a Windows computer: you can monitor all the devices.” Hacking Team software has been used against Mamfakinch, an award-winning Moroccan news organization, and Ahmed Mansoor, a human rights activist in the United Arab Emirates who was imprisoned after signing an online political petition, Citizen Lab reported. Another research group, Arsenal Consulting, has said Hacking Team software was used against an American woman who was critical of a secretive Turkish organization that is building schools in the United States. Such discoveries have sparked calls for international regulation of Hacking Team and other makers of spyware, which typically costs in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to experts. By selling spyware, “they are participating in human rights violations,” said Eva Galperin, who tracks spyware use for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a civil liberties group based in San Francisco. “By dictator standards, this is pretty cheap. This is pocket change.” Rabe, the Hacking Team official, said that the company does not itself deploy spyware against targets and that, when it learns of allegations of human rights abuses by its customers, it investigates those cases and sometimes withdraws licenses. He declined to describe any such cases or name the countries involved. Ethiopian Satellite Television, typically known by the acronym ESAT, started in 2010 and operates on donations from members of the expatriate community. The news service mainly employs journalists who left Ethiopia in the face of government harassment, torture or criminal charges. Though avowedly independent, ESAT is viewed as close to Ethiopia’s opposition forces, which have few other ways of reaching potential supporters. Despite the nation’s close relationship with the U.S. government — especially in dealing with unrest and Islamist extremism in neighboring Somalia — the State Department has repeatedly detailed human rights abuses by the Ethiopian government against political activists and journalists. There has been little improvement, observers say, since the


Europe wants less U.S. power over Internet

Former National Security Agency systems analyst Edward Snowden speaks during a presentation ceremony for the Sam Adams Award in Moscow on Oct. 11, 2013, in an image from video released by WikiLeaks. (AP) BERLIN — In a communique presented in Brussels, the European Commission said it would seek a firm timetable to limit U.S. influence over institutions that control the nuts and bolts of the Internet and oversee tasks such as the assignment of .com and .org domain names used to access Web sites. The commission, which effectively acts as a cabinet government of the 28 member states of the E.U., additionally said it would seek other ways to “globalize” key decisions about the expansion of the Internet that are now largely concentrated in the United States. Those include the assignment of names and numbers used to direct Web traffic around the globe. Changes were needed, the commission said, because the world has lost confidence in U.S. stewardship of the Internet after the snooping programs revealed by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden. “Recent revelations of large-scale surveillance have called into question the stewardship of the U.S. when it comes to Internet governance,” the commission said in a statement. The language used by the European Commission illustrates the continuing fallout of the Snowden revelations, which have deeply rattled millions of Europeans. Negative reactions have been particularly strong in Germany, where reports have emerged that U.S. intelligence eavesdropped on the phone calls of Chancellor Angela Merkel and former chancellor Gerhard Schröder. References to the Snowden scandal in the commission statement, however, were perhaps more consequential than the contents of the policy paper itself. The commission has previously stated its desire for more international oversight of Internet governance, and it did not offer any new concrete plans for change. Instead, it effectively called for an acceleration of a global debate that is already underway about whether the oversight of the mechanics of the Internet should remain concentrated in the United States. That issue will take center stage at a summit in April called by the Brazilian government in response to the Snowden scandal. There, observers say, the United States can expect to face the anger of governments that have been stung by the surveillance scandal and feel that the Americans have abused their role as a technological gatekeeper of the Internet. In the communique, however, the Europeans agreed with the Americans


Two bistros on Capitol Hill: a newcomer with a meaty focus and an old-timer with a fresh look

A tale of two bistros: Spike Mendelsohn offers a French revelation at Bearnaise, which Jeff Buben’s Bistro Bis unveils at updated interior, if not menu. Among restaurant fans, the arrival of Rose’s Luxury continues to command the most attention on Capitol Hill, but other changes deserve notice, too. One involves a “Top Chef” performer and his most sophisticated idea yet; the second concerns a veteran restaurateur and a refreshed interior. Although both restaurants claim French accents, the similarity stops there. With Good Stuff Eatery, Spike Mendelsohn gave us burgers served in a farmhouse setting, and with We, the Pizza, the “Top Chef” celebrity rolled out thick-crusted pies and sodas made by in-house “fizzicians.” For his latest concept, Béarnaise, Mendelsohn skips the cupcake and doughnut trends — thank goodness — and reaches back to his childhood in Montreal for inspiration. His favorite place to eat, he says, was a steak frites restaurant, L’Entrecôte Saint-Jean. Like his burger joint and pizza parlor, Béarnaise, introduced in July, unfolds on a busy stretch of Pennsylvania Avenue. Distinct from its nearby siblings, Béarnaise suggests an owner who isn’t just a personality with dollar signs in his eyes, but a chef with admirable chops. Make that two chefs. Brad Race, 33, is the day-to-day presence with an unconventional past: He started out as a bond trader but ditched Wall Street for kitchen duties, starting in New York at Oceana and Le Cirque, where he met his future boss, and continuing in Washington at the original Minibar and the late Michel in Tysons Corner. Exuberant table service is the first clue this is a restaurant with aspirations. In the seven months since it set sail, puppy-eagerness has given way to breezy charm. Quick with recommendations, the waiters coach and flirt their way through your meal. “More fries?” the staff asks if you’re running low on the escort to steak. The best deal is the juicy eight-ounce flat iron, which comes with a choice of salad or soup plus a sauce and unlimited potatoes for $28. “More bread?” waiters inquire if there’s broth left in a bowl of steamed mussels. The seafood that calls to me most gathers plump bivalves in a tropical bath of coconut milk, ginger and lemon grass. Intoxicating. A server tells us the duck confit is a favorite of the two toques. Skin that crackles between the teeth and flesh that falls from the


Fusion energy milestone reported by California scientists

the fusion-energy field and came as a relief for Lawrence Livermore scientists after early efforts produced energy yields lower than what had been predicted from computer models. The process requires exquisite precision in operating the lasers to compress the fuel pellet by a factor of 35, like squeezing a basketball to the size of a pea, Callahan said. The latest technique modified the laser pulses to create a better-shaped implosion of the pellet. “The real significance of this is, we’re now matching our models, we have our feet back on the ground where we know where to go forward,” said Jeff Wisoff, the principal associate director of NIF and photon science at the lab. “We have a number of knobs we can turn.” NIF is funded by the National Nuclear Security Administration and does fusion research only part of the time. Usually it is engaged in tests that help scientists understand the processes involved in nuclear weapons explosions. Another fusion energy strategy, developed at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory in New Jersey and more widely used by researchers worldwide, uses giant magnets to confine the hot plasma in which the fusion reactions occur. Stewart Prager, director of the Princeton laboratory, applauded the new results reported in Nature by the California team, saying, “It’s the first sign that they’re getting what we call self-heating.” He’s optimistic about fusion energy in the long run. “In 30 years, we’ll have electricity on the grid produced by fusion energy — absolutely,” Prager said. “I think the open questions now are how complicated a system will it be, how expensive it will be, how economically attractive it will be.” The short-term problem is funding. Congress appropriated about $500 million for fusion energy science in the 2014 budget, a boost of more than $100 million from the tight budgets of the previous two years, but fusion advocates want more. Rep. Rush D. Holt (D-N.J.), a physicist who spent 10 years working at the Princeton lab, said Wednesday that the United States is losing leadership in fusion energy research to Europe, Japan, South Korea and China. “It’s nowhere close to making your electric meter run backwards,” Holt said of fusion energy. “But the reason other countries are now investing more than we are — this is a sad story in itself — is that the country that was the world’s leader in fusion research is no longer.”


Md. lawmakers eager to talk about legalizing pot — but don’t ask whether they’ve used it.

group Change Maryland, declined to respond. The Maryland General Assembly is rethinking prohibitive attitudes toward marijuana that go back at least to the 1920s. Some want to tweak the medical marijuana bill that was passed last year to make it more workable. Others, including Mizeur, have introduced bills that would decriminalize marijuana by imposing only civil penalties for possession of small amounts. Still others would outright legalize pot and regulate and tax its production, distribution and sale. But few believe Maryland is ready to follow Colorado’s or Washington’s lead and do that — even if a cultural shift is at work. President Obama, in a recent interview with the New Yorker, said he considered smoking marijuana a vice no worse than alcohol. A Gallup poll last fall found that 58 percent of Americans support legalizing marijuana, compared with 12 percent in 1969, when Gallup first posed the question. The survey also found that 38 percent of the public acknowledged trying marijuana. Apply that to the Maryland General Assembly, and that means perhaps 71 of its 188 members have had more than a second-hand whiff. But try to find them. “I’m convinced that this is an issue that legislators are ready to act on. I’m just not sure they’re ready to talk about it,” said Sen. Jamie B. Raskin (D-Montgomery), who sponsored a bill to legalize, tax and regulate marijuana. Consider Morhaim, who as a physician sponsored Maryland’s medical marijuana bill last year. In an expansive interview, he discussed advanced Israeli research on cannabinoids, possibly prescribing pot to alleviate appetite loss or lift the mood of terminally ill patients, and even vouched for marijuana’s comparative safety. “In the history of medicine, the number of overdose deaths from marijuana is zero,” Morhaim said. But asked whether he’d ever tried it, Morhaim demurred. “I’m focused on the medical part, because for me it’s all about my life as a physician and the medical perspective, “he said. (Morhaim also acknowledged that he smoked tobacco for “about a year” and then asked that his use of tobacco not be reported.) And wait — what about Raskin? “A lot of people in my family have asthma, including me as a little boy, so I’m terrified” of smoking, he said. “And truth is, I’m not interested in using mind-altering substances, except for Shakespeare or Bruce Springsteen.” Del. Jolene Ivey (D-Prince George’s), who is running for lieutenant governor


PayPal president punches holes in chip-card conversion argument

the “random” numbers, they could record the data and play back the information later — tactics known as “pre-play” attacks. The Cambridge team collected data from more than 1,000 transactions at more than 20 ATMs and point-of-sale terminals. They began researching vulnerabilities in the system after learning about customers in the United Kingdom whose banks refused to reimburse them for fraudulent transactions, said Ross Anderson, professor of security engineering and an author of “Chip and Skim: Cloning EMV Cards With the Pre-Play Attack.” “The random-number attacks have only been seen in one actual dispute case so far, but we have found noticeable patterns in the supposed random-number generators of slightly under half the terminals and ATMs tested,” he said. It is unknown whether PayPal’s Marcus was the victim of this sort of breach, but his experience highlights a potential weakness that EMV is supposed to prevent. Security experts say the technology is far superior to the magnetic stripe cards that most Americans use. Credit card issuers are pushing for widespread adoption of the chip cards by October 2015. Banks and merchants have been squabbling over the multibillion-dollar cost of conversion, though they generally agree that upgrades are necessary. Thomas Borton of the Information Systems Audit and Control Association said the United States needs to adopt complementary antifraud technology such as tokenization, which generates a unique code for each transaction. Proponents of chip card technology agree that additional antifraud controls are needed, but they stress that chip and pin cards should be a baseline for security. “The Fed must not let banks do the same liability shift that occurred in Britain, and indeed also in Canada,” Anderson said.“All the fraud costs are dumped on either the merchant or the card-holder [in Britain], despite the fact that it’s the bank that operates the systems and pays the fraud detection agencies. In his string of tweets, Marcus, who was not made available for further comment, never said whether the charges on his card were cleared up. He did take the opportunity to plug PayPal’s safeguards, saying the theft of his data would not have happened if the merchant had accepted PayPal. “Obfuscating card data online, on mobile and now more and more offline remains one of PayPal’s strongest value props,” he said. Related: Wonkblog: Why you should keep your debit card at home Magnetized and chipless, U.S. credit card system courts global fraudsters


Maryland gubernatorial candidates state their views on marijuana

of legislative efforts this year that would make the medical marijuana law more workable and broaden access to medical marijuana? As governor, I would work with our legislature to support such efforts as long as there are very specific regulations in place to ensure that all sides of the debate are given a fair and open hearing and doctors and medical experts are fully engaged in the discussion from the very beginning. Question 3: Do you support or oppose decriminalizing marijuana? Why? I do not support decriminalizing marijuana with the exception of the use of medical marijuana under the supervision of board-certified, licensed doctors within strict legal guidelines set forth by legislation approved by the General Assembly. Question 4: Do you support or oppose legalizing marijuana? Why? I oppose the legalization of marijuana. For one thing, Maryland should not be solving its fiscal problems by finding something else to tax, such as marijuana, especially with so many unknowns. What concerns me are studies that have shown the increased potency of today’s marijuana and potential for long-term addiction and mental impairment and, as such, I believe it can be a gateway drug that opens the door to much more lethal drugs and further addictions. Question 5: Have your views on marijuana changed over the years? Can you describe what you were taught about marijuana when you were growing up? What do you think now? Over the years I have engaged in the discussion of the potential medical hope this drug can provide those people suffering from specific illnesses. During my administration, I am open to continuing further discussions about marijuana beyond that, but feel as governor of Maryland, it is important to carefully evaluate the impact on those states that have already legalized its use more broadly and examine the greater impact its legalization is having on our society as a whole. Question 6: Have you ever tried marijuana? No. ==xx== Del. Heather R. Mizeur (D-Montgomery) Question 1: Do you support or oppose the use of medical marijuana? Support. Question 2: What is your view of legislative efforts this year that would make the medical marijuana law more workable and broaden access to medical marijuana? I absolutely support efforts to ensure that the therapeutic benefits of medical marijuana are available to and will make a real-world difference in the lives of patients who need it. Question 3: Do you support or


U.S. launches new global initiative to prevent infectious-disease threats

the effort. “Global health security is a shared responsibility. No one country can achieve it alone,” she said. “A threat anywhere is indeed a threat everywhere.” Lisa Monaco, assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism, said biological threats can “emerge quickly, travel quickly and take lives.” She cited the H7N9 bird flu virus, a virus first reported in China last year, and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), first reported in Saudi Arabia in 2012. Lab workers in Vietnam run diagnostic tests, one of many activities to improve the health of global citizens and U.S.-bound travelers. CDC experts provide training to enhance Vietnam’s ability to confirm detection of new pathogens such as H7N9 and MERS-coronavirus. (Niki Pham/CDC Vietnam) Diseases that until recently weren’t found in the United States have become widespread, including mosquito-borne illnesses related to West Nile virus. There has also been a resurgence of diseases such as drug-resistant tuberculosis, a particularly dangerous form of the infectious lung disease. Reports of TB are not uncommon in the Washington area and other major metropolitan areas, which typically are home to large immigrant populations and professionals who travel overseas frequently. Recently, there was a tuberculosis case at a Montgomery County high school , and three cases were reported at a Fairfax County high school in June. In recent weeks, another mosquito-borne virus common in Africa and Asia has spread quickly through the eastern Caribbean, appearing for the first time in the Western Hemisphere. Chikungunya fever, which is similar to dengue, was reported in December on the French side of St. Martin and has spread to seven other jurisdictions, including Martinique, Guadeloupe and the British Virgin Islands. International regulations require nations to report outbreaks quickly to the World Health Organization, but most countries have not complied. “We hope this will be the shot in the arm, energizing the global health security agenda,” Andrew Weber, assistant secretary of defense for nuclear, chemical and biological defense programs, said in conference call with reporters Wednesday. The WHO, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, and the World Organization for Animal Health are also participating in the effort. This year, the CDC and the Defense Department are committing $40 million to work with 10 countries, including Uganda and Vietnam. The CDC recently completed pilot programs in those countries to improve diagnostic testing and transportation of potentially infectious samples. Uganda has battled the deadly Ebola virus, cholera


operated in only one part of the country, and they were aimed at only the one disease. Now, Uganda has a network operating across the country to test patients for a range of pathogens and transport samples by motorcycle to provincial capitals, where the samples are sent by overnight mail to state-of-the-art labs in Kampala for testing, Frieden said. Test results are then delivered by special printers that operate on mobile networks similar to those used by cellphones. The printers can transmit results to officials in remote areas of the country within days, instead of the months it used to take. CDC officials also created a dipstick — similar to those used in pregnancy kits — so local health officials can quickly test whether someone has pneumonic plague, the most serious form of the illness and the only form that can be spread from person to person. As a result, not only can health officials speed up testing, but they also can avoid having to grow tissue samples in petri dishes, which can produce “billions of plague bacteria that could have the potential to become a biological weapon,” Frieden said. Officials said the Defense Department is likely to be involved in improving the physical security of laboratories to prevent specimens of potentially lethal pathogens from being stolen or released inadvertently. Among the other countries that U.S. officials hope to work with this year are India, Kenya, Tanzania and Ethiopia, according to health experts familiar with the initiative. Next year, the Obama administration is proposing to spend $45 million to expand the program to include more countries; within five years, officials hope to have 30 countries participating. U.S. government agencies operate many programs related to infectious diseases. But the new effort is the most comprehensive so far, and experts say it will help call attention to disease threats around the world. Thursday’s meeting drew participants from 26 countries, including China, India, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Uganda and Vietnam. Notably absent was Pakistan, where 83 polio cases were reported last year, more than in either Afghanistan or Nigeria, the other countries where polio is endemic. Health workers and officials have tried for years to persuade conservative Muslims to accept vaccination. Violence against polio workers flared after revelations in 2011 that the CIA had sponsored an immunization campaign to gain information about Osama bin Laden before U.S. forces killed him in Pakistan.


Afghanistan frees suspected Taliban prisoners over U.S. objections

“Violent criminals who harm Afghans and who threaten the peace and security of Afghanistan should face justice in the Afghan courts, where a fair and transparent trial would determine their guilt or innocence,” the military said. U.S. military officials said the detainees were “directly linked” to attacks that killed or wounded 32 NATO troops — including Americans — as well as 23 Afghan security forces and civilians. The Afghan government, which has long viewed U.S. detainee operations in Afghanistan as an affront to its sovereignty, has said that it reviewed the evidence against 88 former U.S. inmates and concluded that the majority were innocent. “That is why they were freed today and are on the way to their homes,” said Abdul Shokoor Dadras, a senior member of the review board that studied the cases. “Legally, we have no right to hold these people. We are studying the cases of the rest of the prisoners to see which one deserves to be punished and which one needs to be freed.” Karzai has called the U.S. detention center at Bagram air base a Taliban “factory” where innocent Afghans have become radicalized. On the eve of the release, U.S. officials took the rare step of disclosing the names of a handful of detainees set for release along with a summary of the evidence against them. One, Mohammad Wali, was detained in Helmand province last May after investigators found his fingerprints on the residue of roadside bombs that targeted Afghan and foreign troops, the U.S. military said. Another, Nek Mohammad, was captured the same month in Kandahar province in possession of several artillery rounds that U.S. military officials suspected were part of an arsenal used to target their bases, the military said. [READ: These former detainees went to fight for the Taliban] Afghanistan’s fledgling court system has traditionally given more weight to confessions than the type of forensic analysis that U.S. military personnel see as irrefutable evidence of guilt. It has released several former U.S. detainees over the past few years, in some instances as gestures to appease political factions and power brokers. The release comes amid an impasse between Kabul and Washington over a security pact that could keep as many as 10,000 troops in Afghanistan after the end of the year. Karzai has thus far refused to sign the document, arguing that he will do so only if Washington helps broker a


Stop whining, Washington. Winter rocks!

soft and mushy when he talks about it. “It’s touching to me. I want you to get home safely. It’s my job, my responsibility to get you to your family,” he said. “That’s deep.” Winter is a crisp, clarion call to action for many. Think the animals at the National Zoo are all hunkered down and miserable? “People kept telling me all day how active all the animals are, how they never knew the zoo was so great in the winter,” said Chelsea Grubb, an animal keeper on the American Trail. Those giant pandas who loll around all Buddha-like in the summer, when crowds flock to see them be couch potatoes? They play and frolic and slide in the snow. “They tolerate the summer,” one zoo official said. I’m totally with you on that, Tian Tian. I’m a hideous puddle of misery in August. But come January, I’m like Po the kung fu panda on skis. Just try to keep up. River otters Niko and Konrad, 14-year-old brothers, have a blast in the winter. They dive into the water, then drip all around their enclosure to create icy little pathways that they slide around on, like little lugers. The gray wolves play tag; the seals are super-charged. Grubb, an Arizona native who doesn’t share her animals’ love of winter, is busy. And she’s really trying to love the vigor of the season. She should take a cue from the next guy I met. “D.C. is a place of muggy, stale air,” said Nathaniel Nash, who has lived on several continents in his 26 years. “But in the winter, the cold frostbite in the air brings a crisp, refreshing urgency to the whole city.” Okay, this Winter Walt Whitman is a sales guy at the Ski Center in Northwest Washington. So maybe he is a little bit of a ringer. I talked to Amy Tanen out in the parking lot. She was hoping her flight out of town Thursday wouldn’t be canceled. Was she, like so many of my Facebook friends, apoplectic about missing her flight to Florida or the Caribbean? “We were going somewhere even colder! Vermont!” said Tanen, a fitness instructor. “All those people sick of the cold? Gimme a break. In three months, they’ll be kvetching about the heat.” Another thing about flights and winter weather? That’s when all those Congress members the rest of the country sends


Details on four detainees released from Parwan from U.S. Forces-Afghanistan

Despite U.S. protests, Afghanistan released 65 suspected Taliban prisoners from Bagram detention center on Thursday. This news release, from the U.S. Forces-Afghanistan, lists four of the 65 detainees Afghanistan released Thursday despite warnings from the United States that the men pose a threat. Read more about the release and the tensions between the United States and Afghanistan. KABUL, AFGHANISTAN (February 12, 2014) – The Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is continuing preparations to release 65 dangerous individuals from the Afghan National Detention Facility at Parwan. U.S. Forces – Afghanistan has repeatedly expressed strong concern about the potential threats these detainees pose to coalition forces and Afghan security forces and civilians. Detainees from this group of 65 are directly linked to attacks killing or wounding 32 U.S. or coalition personnel and 23 Afghan security personnel or civilians. It remains the position of USFOR-A that violent criminals who harm Afghans and threaten the peace and security of Afghanistan should face justice in the Afghan courts, where a fair and transparent trial would determine their guilt or innocence. The 65 detainees, who will be released starting tomorrow morning, include the following: Mohammad Wali, apprehended in Helmand province in May 2013, is a suspected Taliban explosives expert who reportedly emplaced IEDs targeting ANSF and coalition forces. He was biometrically linked to two IED incidents, plus a latent fingerprint match to another IED in Helmand province. Wali’s personal property tested positive for multiple types of explosives in an explosive residue test after his capture. Nek Mohammad, captured in Kandahar province in May 2013, is accused of facilitating rocket attacks against Afghan and coalition forces. He was apprehended with several 107mm artillery shells, mortar rounds and improvised explosive components, to include at least 25 pounds of homemade explosives. Mohammadullah was apprehended in Paktiya province in May 2013. He is believed to be a Haqqani network IED specialist who builds and emplaces IED’s. Mohammadullah was biometrically linked to an IED and tested positive for four types of explosives in an explosive residue test. He was captured with his Haqqani commander, Ehsanullah, who is also being released. Ehsanullah, captured in Paktiya province in May 2013, is a suspected Haqqani network commander who plans IED operations and attacks against ANSF and coalition forces. He was biometrically matched to a radio-controlled IED and tested positive for two types of explosives in an explosive residue test.


Q&A about the Afghanistan prisoner release

Afghan soldiers stand guard at the main gate of the Parwan facility outside Bagram, where the detainees were held. (Massoud Hossaini/AP) On Thursday, Afghanistan freed 65 suspected Taliban militants from prison over vehement objections from the United States. How will the prisoner release affect U.S. relations with Afghanistan? This type of public spat can only complicate matters at a critical time. The two countries are at loggerheads over a security agreement that would keep a small contingent of U.S. and allied troops in Afghanistan after 2014. The United States has largely abandoned hope that it will reach a bilateral security agreement with the Afghan government before President Hamid Karzai is replaced after elections in April. But the White House has said that the longer this drags on, the more likely a full withdrawal becomes. Why weren’t the prisoners charged? Despite U.S. protests, Afghanistan released 65 suspected Taliban prisoners from Bagram detention center on Thursday. U.S. officials, who have spent millions of dollars building up Afghanistan’s rule of law sector, were hoping they would. They presented what they called irrefutable evidence that the men were dangerous and guilty of terrorist attacks. The Afghan government was not convinced. The Afghan court system remains heavily reliant on confessions, rather than physical evidence. Cases frequently are resolved in politically expedient ways, or after bribes are paid. Some Afghan analysts suspect that by releasing the prisoners, Karzai is seeking to bolster his image as a sovereign leader who is not afraid to stand up to his American patrons. His motivation, they say, could be to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table. Didn’t something similar happen at the end of the Iraq war? Yes. Several detainees that had American blood on their hands were released by the Iraqi government during the final months of the war. The process there was at times contentious, but it didn’t spark a public confrontation until after the 2011 withdrawal. U.S. officials protested in 2012 when the Iraqi government released a Hezbollah commander the U.S. military accused of major attacks against its troops. In that case, several appeals that U.S. officials made to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki went unheeded. [READ: Here's a list of former Afghan detainees who’ve returned to fight for the Taliban]


Peter J. Salerno, NASA engineer

Peter J. Salerno, a senior electrical systems engineer for NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., for 30 years, died Jan. 6 at Holy Cross Hospital in Silver Spring, Md. He was 53. He had a heart attack and complications from diabetes, his mother-in-law, Dorothy Boerner, said. Mr. Salerno, a resident of Calverton, Md., worked in Goddard’s flight microwave and telecommunications systems branch. He helped develop radio-frequency communications and was part of a team that helped service the Hubble Space Telescope in the 1990s. Peter Joseph Salerno was born in Washington and grew up in Rockville, Md. He was a 1977 graduate of Richard Montgomery High School and received a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Maryland in 1983. He served on design review boards at Goddard and received a 30-year service award from NASA in 2013. Mr. Salerno enjoyed hunting and judged competitions for the Potomac Chapter of the National Association of Versatile Hunting Dogs of America and the D.C. Chapter of the Weimaraner Club of America. He was an amateur radio operator and a member of the American Radio Relay League. He also was a member of the Bethesda-Chevy Chase chapter of the Izaak Walton League of America, a conservation group. Survivors include his wife of 28 years, Susan Boerner Salerno of Calverton; his parents, James and Elizabeth Salerno of Rockville; two sisters, Ann Gervasio of Herndon, Va., and Joanne Salerno of Portland, Ore.; and a brother, Robert Salerno of New Windsor, N.Y. — Megan McDonough


Temirkanov, St. Petersburg Philharmonic show sonic opulence at Strathmore

Some of the season’s most anticipated concerts have run into conflicts with the weather this winter. A couple of weeks ago, the Takacs Quartet played through a snowstorm to a diminished audience in the Terrace Theater. On Wednesday night, the Washington Performing Arts Society brought the St. Petersburg Philharmonic to Strathmore, and there were so many weather advisories and state-of-emergency announcements that it seemed impossible that anyone would come. No fear. The orchestra is a Russian national treasure, conductor Yuri Temirkanov one of the best in the world, and one could even assume that the Russian contingent of the audience — which was considerable — knows how to deal with a little snow. The hall was, if not packed, at least respectably filled. The orchestra didn’t disappoint. The conditions, true, were a little unusual: The orchestra dropped the “Barber of Seville” overture from its scheduled program and played the two other pieces, Prokofiev’s second violin concerto and Rachmaninoff’s second symphony, without intermission as a concession to the audience’s need to get on the roads before the snow got too bad. You could argue that this detracted slightly from the sense of occasion and pacing of the evening. But it took nothing from the sound of the orchestra: lush velvety clouds of it, pillowing out from the stage. Temirkanov is a brilliant conductor and a gentle one, leading with urbane understatement, coaxing the music out of the orchestra rather than trying to force himself upon it. The ear luxuriated in tactile, even simple aural pleasures: the chuff of a double-bass, the liquidy burble of the winds, or the spinning wonder of a well-balanced chord, dozens of voices enmeshed in a kind of spinning, suspended globe of sound hovering over the stage. Sayaka Shoji, the soloist in the Prokofiev, was new to me. She was scheduled to perform the same work with Temirkanov in 2006, when he was music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, but he had to withdraw from that performance, so this was a kind of make-up date. Her sound was light as a wire and a little steely, growing in authority and intensity as the piece progressed. It was a fine performance without quite being a dazzling one — something unfortunately spotlighted by the contrast with the sonic opulence of the ensemble behind her. Chief Conductor of the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Yuri Temirkanov. (Courtesy of Washington Performing Arts


Will it snow again? Computers, balloons and radar help figure out the forecast.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) uses Doppler on Wheels vehicles, which can be driven near or into a storm to take weather observations. (Gene Blevins/Reuters) It has been a busy winter for weather watchers. One storm system after the next has brought bitter cold and snow to much of the United States. How do meteorologists keep up? In this digital age filled with lightning-fast wireless Internet, gigabytes of weather data are available around the clock with the simple touch of a screen. But where does the information come from? It’s gathered by moving weather tools in outer space, in the atmosphere and on the ground. From sky and space The computer is the main tool meteorologists use to view and forecast the weather. It can display temperature maps, which are easy to read. But those maps are the final product. The information on them often comes from up in the air or out in space. Weather satellites called GOES (that’s Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites) orbit the Earth and gather information by taking pictures, measuring clouds’ temperatures and determining the amount of moisture in the atmosphere. These satellites have improved in recent years. They can take very clear pictures of any area above Earth. They also transmit the information very quickly. Only a few years ago, meteorologists would have to wait 30 minutes to see a picture taken by a satellite. Now, the image will appear in a minute! Weather balloons, filled with helium or hydrogen, are another way of tracking weather conditions in the air. The six-foot-tall balloons float up to 100,000 feet and measure wind speed, air temperature, air pressure and humidity with a device called a radiosonde. The National Weather Service releases 92 of them twice a day from its offices across the country. (The balloons usually burst after about two hours, and the radiosondes float back to the ground with the help of a parachute.) The information from satellites and weather balloons is sent automatically to a supercomputer. What’s a supercomputer? A supercomputer is a computer that can process incredible amounts of data in a very short amount of time. Imagine a large black refrigerator. Now imagine hundreds of those refrigerators taking up the entire floor, or several floors, of an office building! That’s a supercomputer. A government agency called the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is in charge of most supercomputers used to


For real‘Monument Woman,’ saving Afghan treasures is unglamorous but richly rewarding

policy,” says Evan Ryan, assistant secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs. “The U.S. is playing a part in protecting another country’s cultural identity, and in Afghanistan, preserving cultural identity helps to counter violent extremism.” She also notes that there’s often a direct connection to economic growth in the countries, either through tourism or training programs that work with local populations. And archeological preservation is a logical fit for Afghanistan, because it has countless ancient sites that have been ravaged not only by the Taliban, but also by civil war. Going forward, Tedesco says she’s uncertain how much the federal government will invest. But she is certain work will continue. “The projects we’re engaged in are multiyear projects,” she says. “They know we’re in it for the long haul. You can’t go in and shore up a falling-down minaret and then say, ‘Alright, now we’re out of here!’ ” Preserving history in conflict While the State Department aims to preserve sites, the U.S. military has another job: to avoid them. Laurie Rush, an archeologist working for the Army, began developing training programs for soldiers at Fort Drum, N.Y., in 2006. Cultural heritage became a priority for the U.S. military after the ancient Iraqi city of Babylon was damaged by a Marine base built on the sensitive site in 2003. “After Babylon, we realized we could do a better job of supporting personnel by offering more information about the heritage of ancient Mesopotamia,” Rush said. “We want to make sure deploying personnel are as knowledgeable as possible, and that their radar will go off if they see something.” Rush’s programs have dual missions: the Army teaches troops about the ancient histories of Iraq and Afghanistan and that they might encounter ancient artifacts or sites that should be treated with care in conflict. At Fort Drum, 10,000 deploying soldiers each year get to practice bedding down on a 19th-century archeological site that Rush oversees. The Army is also investing in mapping initiatives to keep track of archeological sites in regions where troops are deployed. Rush hopes the Army’s program, which has been replicated throughout the military, reminds troops that preserving cultural heritage is a valuable part of their mission. “It’s not unusual to find people who have risked their lives to save heritage,” Rush said. “The heroic museum staff at the National Museum of Afghanistan put their lives on the line


As medals slip away, Americans are getting steamed at Sochi Games

But no. When snowboarder Hannah Teter was asked what she has been snacking on, she delivered a grocery list straight from an organic health food store. “I’ve got kale chips, sprouted nuts, electrolyte drinks — all the healthy stuff, all the super-food,” she said. If it wasn’t the food, maybe it was the clothes. The growing collective neurosis over the lack of medals coalesced around the speedskaters’ racing skins, those high-tech Under Armour-Lockheed dimpled racing unis. They came under intense examination Friday, when coaches and team members began to obsess on whether air vents on the back were design flaws that might be slowing them down. The Case of the Fractional Aerodynamic Hoodie. A seamstress was called in. But the suits were not why American champions were slower by a second — unless they were catching their skate blades on the hems and tripping. “Shani has won in the same suit,” Mantia said. “All speed suits feel like crap.” Nevertheless at Friday’s training sessions, there were emergency conferences and whispers of more alterations. “There is a meeting later today about some stuff I have no idea about,” Davis said. #graphics-jpt {height: 250px; display:block; width:100%; position:relative;} #graphics-jpt .background img {position:absolute; z-index:-1; bottom:0; right:0; width:100%;} #graphics-jpt .text {position:absolute; width:100%; top:30px; left:0;} #graphics-jpt h3 {font-family: FranklinITCProThin,Helvetica-light,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;float:left; padding:30px 0 0 10px; width:100%; margin-bottom:0;} #graphics-jpt ul.link {padding:0 10px 0 0; list-style-type:none !important; background-color: #4c4c4c; float:left; margin-left:10px;} #graphics-jpt ul.link li { font-size: 18px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0; position:relative; } #graphics-jpt ul.link li a { padding: 9px 15px; display: block; color: #d5d5d5; } #graphics-jpt ul.link li i {border: solid transparent; content: " "; height: 0; width: 0; position: absolute; pointer-events: none; border-left-color: #d5d5d5; border-width: 6px; top: 42%; right: -7px; margin-top: -4px; } Are the Winter Olympics for the rich? See how income matters But what if there was no culprit, nothing to blame except themselves, and the weather? What if the Americans trained for a Winter Olympics at altitude on hard-packed snow and ice, and arrived in Sochi to find they should have trained for an Early March First Buds of Spring Olympics at sea level? As the temperatures hovered between 60 and 65 degrees, Sochi became a giant tanning parlor and everyone was breaking out their Maui Jims. The balmy air grew heavier down on the coastal plain where the speedskaters competed, while up in the peaks, the snowcaps liquefied. The surface of the Alpine courses


Md. Senate passes plan to preserve more wildlands; lawmaker says state should consider local impact

The long-standing tension between rural Marylanders and their metropolitan cousins was on display Friday as the Senate passed legislation creating nine new state wildlands areas and expanding 14 others. The bill passed unanimously, but not before Sen. George C. Edwards, a Republican who represents Garrett County, lightly chastised fellow lawmakers for setting aside more land as pristine wilderness without fully considering the economic impact on the people who live there. “There’s some people here that would like to buy the whole county and put a fence up and a gate, and run everybody out, and say, ‘Here’,” Edwards said in an interview. “But you have to understand people live there and make a living off the land.” Supporters of the bill backed by Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) said the measure will help slow development and provide Marylanders with more room for hiking, fishing and other noninvasive forms of recreation in the outdoors. Edwards, in his floor speech, said setting aside more land as untouchable wildland will cut back on production of timber, coal, and other minerals, hinder people from building new cabins on those lands that bring visitors to the region, and create other negative impacts for nearby property owners. He said the risk of forest fires will likely increase because traditional forest management, such as cutting underbrush, is limited in areas set aside as wildlands. “All you have to do is look out west where they don’t clean out the underbrush, and they have had all these forest fires,” Edwards said. “We’re going to have more of them in Maryland because they’re not going to be managing the forest the way they used to.” And yet local fire fighters will be asked to put out any forest fires that start, he said. There are approximately 44,000 acres in 29 separate preserves, similar to federal wilderness areas, in Maryland’s wildlands system, according to an analysis by the Department of Legislative Services. The areas are devoted to public use for recreation, scientific, educational and historical uses. The trappings of civilization – roads, motorized equipment and permanent structures – are generally banned. Edwards, who said he is not a foe of conservation, argued that the state already owns 25 percent of the land in Allegheny and Garrett counties and should perhaps look elsewhere. Yet once again, he said, the state looked mostly to Garrett and Allegheny counties for 16,000 acres to conserve,


Obama administration clears banks to accept funds from legal marijuana dealers

The Obama administration on Friday gave the banking industry the green light to finance and do business with legal marijuana sellers, a move that could further legitimize the burgeoning industry. For the first time, legal distributors will be able to secure loans and set up checking and savings accounts with major banks that have largely steered clear of those businesses. The decision eliminates a key hurdle facing marijuana sellers, who can now legally conduct business in 20 states and the District. So far, the Obama administration has dealt with the legal dilemmas posed by Colorado and Washington — where state laws now allow recreational marijuana use — largely by choosing not to enforce the federal statutes. Eighteen other states allow the sale of medical marijuana — though federal law does not allow that, either. Last year, for example, the administration said it would not challenge Colorado’s and Washington’s legalization of the drug, as long as they kept a tight rein on marijuana businesses. The administration agreed in August not to prosecute legal dealers as long as they met eight requirements, including not selling to minors. This was not, federal officials said, a change in the law itself. Marijuana was still illegal, as far as the federal government was concerned, in all 50 states. Instead, it was just a declaration that the Justice Department had bigger things to worry about. Colorado became the first state in the nation to open recreational pot stores, and marijuana tourism has helped turn it into a booming business. “Colorado will be a tourist stop for everyone in the United States,” said Mike Stetler, the owner of Marisol Therapeutics in Pueblo, “until it comes to their state.” On Friday, the administration went a step further by laying out a path for banks to bring marijuana commerce out of the shadows and into the mainstream financial system. The Treasury Department issued new rules that could make it easier for banks to do business with marijuana dispensers. In separate guidance, the Justice Department directed U.S. attorneys not to pursue banks that do business with legal marijuana dispensers as long as the dealers adhere to the guidelines issued in August. A senior administration official, who was not authorized to speak publicly, acknowledged that the decision could draw legal protests from anti-legalization groups. Some lawmakers have complained that the administration is enabling an industry that is in violation of federal


‘Train: Riding the Rails That Created the Modern World—from the Trans-Siberian to the Southwest Chief’ by Tom Zoellner

significant measure by the rhythms of the train, and points out that one subject of the composition is “the America connected by steel rails and locomotives, the empire of railroads that America had once been, the astonishing steam-powered device that could carom from New York to Chicago in eighteen hours and had transformed a seaboard republic of small farmers and merchants into a continental power of speed and industrial might.” Today, nearly a century later, “the vast majority of Americans have never once been on board a passenger train, except perhaps the toy steam railroad that circles the edges of Disneyland and Disney World,” yet “that old identity — American Train Sublime — still dwells in the collective unconscious of who we are: our prodigious growth, our faith in business, our love of velocity, our confidence in technology, our capacity for seeing beauty in the newcomer.” ‘Train: Riding the Rails That Created the Modern World — From the Trans-Siberian to the Southwest Chief’ by Tom Zoellner (Viking ) Zoellner may be a borderline foamer, but he’s no sentimentalist. He is quick to emphasize that the American railway system grew out of corruption on a massive scale: The rail barons “owned newspapers that were little more than propaganda sheets, bought off entire legislatures, threatened their enemies, placated critics with offers of free tickets.” Even today, railroads cannot escape serious and damning criticism, when one takes into account that one of their chief sources of revenue is carting coal. Zoellner writes: “There is a terrible irony at the heart of this enterprise. Since the 1990s the nation’s railroads have been trying to position themselves as the more environmentally pure method of transportation when compared to their exhaust-spewing, gas-guzzling brethren in the trucking business. ‘We help ease gridlock by taking trucks off the roads, saving you time and fuel that are being wasted in traffic’ is a line from a television commercial put out by Freight Rail Works, a group sponsored by the American Association of Railroads. But they are playing an enabling role in a business responsible for chuffing more than 2 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year, thickening the layer of greenhouse gases above us, not to mention emitting heavy plumes of lead, mercury, methane, uranium, and sulfur dioxide.” All of which is merely to underscore that in the complicated world we now inhabit almost everything,


Noelle Pikus-Pace wins silver medal; Katie Uhlaender misses bronze by .04 seconds

she had grabbed the lead. Uehlander squinted at it. Four hundredths of a second. Four hundredths. “I don’t even know how to calculate that,” she said. Going headfirst down the track, these competitors are making a statement from head to toe. Pikus-Pace was next, and the only calculations she cared about were the most basic of numbers. “I just hoped for a ‘1’ or a ‘2’, ” she said, because if she were first or second with only Yarnold to go, she would be assured a medal. Her sacrifices to get there, at the top of that run, were myriad. Eight years ago, she was struck by a bobsled, so she has a titanium rod in her right leg. Her daughter, Lacee, is 6; her son, Traycen, is 2; but she lost a daughter after 18 weeks of pregnancy. The only way she would return to her sport, at the urging of her husband, Janson, was if the entire family traveled together on the international circuit. Throw in a concussion that limited her training at the Olympics, one she revealed only Friday night, and that was enough. When she got to the bottom of the run, with a total time of 3 minutes 53.86 seconds, she was in first. The medal secured, she leapt from her sled and dove immediately into the stands, where Janson and Lacee and Traycen awaited. “The first thing she said to me was, ‘That’s our medal,’ ” Janson said. Yarnold’s final run settled the results: gold for Great Britain, silver for Pikus-Pace, bronze for Nikitina. At the flower ceremony, they could hardly contain themselves. Pikus-Pace blew kisses, bounced up and down, smiled a smile that looked permanent. “I never thought that this moment would come,” Pikus-Pace said. “I never thought that this could be real.” And around a corner in the shadows, the other side of the Olympics played out. “I put my heart out there,” Uehlander said, “which is why I’m crying because it broke a little bit.” More Olympics news Wise: Tracy Barnes makes Olympic sacrifice for her sister Lanny Jenkins: As medals slip away, Americans are getting steamed Report: U.S. Speedskating has asked to switch from Under Armour suits Three decades after Miracle on Ice, U.S.-Russia ice hockey rivalry cools NHL doctors in Sochi try to avoid hackers Jeremy Abbott lashes out at critics Miller, Ligety err on side of caution, finish


Marriott Watch: Four Marquis bars, restaurants revealed

The Marriott Marquis Washington D.C., which opens May 1, will have five restaurants and bars. (Jeffrey MacMillan/Capital Business) No word yet on the to-be-announced “specialty restaurant” at the upcoming Marriott Marquis Washington D.C., but the Bethesda-based company announced its plans last week for the hotel’s four other eateries and bars. A quick run-down of the offerings, which will make their debut May 1: Down-home diner Upscale lounge. “High-tech” sports bar: Lobby bar


Beer Madness: Call for reader panelists

The Washington Post’s eighth annual Beer Madness — a bracketed taste-off — is appproaching, and you know what that means: We’re in need of reader panelists. As with last year’s event, our 2014 competition will feature 32 all-American craft brews. And our tasting panel will again include experts and readers. So take your best shot, and do it promptly. Send an e-mail to food@washpost.com with BEER MADNESS in the subject line. To be considered for one of the four designated reader slots, you must be able to attend tasting sessions on two evenings in early March at a location TBA in the District. Other requirements: ● Describe your qualifications and your passion for beer in a single, tightly constructed sentence. Humor is appreciated. ● List your three favorite domestic craft beers. ● Include your age and gender, and attach a photo of yourself that we could publish if we decide to. (File format: JPEG, under 1 MB in size.) The deadline for submitting your panel bid is Wednesday, Feb. 26. These cozy recipes from our Recipe Finder will hit the spot on cold winter days. More from Food: Weeknight Vegetarian The Immigrant’s Table Smoke Signals Spirits Column Beer Column


U.S. speedskaters wore their old suits; what they needed was security blankets

Most of the skaters train at altitude in Salt Lake City, and even Davis, a Chicago native, has a part-time home there. But the bottom line was that to single out the suits was a form of denial. “Medal performance is quite complicated, and it’s very difficult to tell if one factor makes a difference,” said Benjamin Levine, a cardiologist and renowned expert in exercise physiology. No one circumstance could be the entire explanation, but the warm Black Sea air and ice sheet at Adler Arena were awfully big common denominators. “The higher you go in altitude, the less resistance there is,” said Levine, “and the faster you go, the more air resistance makes a difference. And it’s not just air resistance but also how altitude affects the ice, how water evaporates off the ice, the layers of water and air on the ice.” #graphics-jpt {height: 250px; display:block; width:100%; position:relative;} #graphics-jpt .background img {position:absolute; z-index:-1; bottom:0; right:0; width:100%;} #graphics-jpt .text {position:absolute; width:100%; top:30px; left:0;} #graphics-jpt h3 {font-family: FranklinITCProThin,Helvetica-light,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;float:left; padding:30px 0 0 10px; width:100%; margin-bottom:0;} #graphics-jpt ul.link {padding:0 10px 0 0; list-style-type:none !important; background-color: #4c4c4c; float:left; margin-left:10px;} #graphics-jpt ul.link li { font-size: 18px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0; position:relative; } #graphics-jpt ul.link li a { padding: 9px 15px; display: block; color: #d5d5d5; } #graphics-jpt ul.link li i {border: solid transparent; content: " "; height: 0; width: 0; position: absolute; pointer-events: none; border-left-color: #d5d5d5; border-width: 6px; top: 42%; right: -7px; margin-top: -4px; } Are the Winter Olympics for the rich? See how income matters The real-world application of that for a skater, Jansen says, is friction. Skating at sea level is less about what it does to your lungs, than what it does to the surface. “The effect is huge,” he said. The softer, wetter ice in Sochi may have been unfavorable for the Americans, who have powerful long strokes. “Shani is a glider, he glides very well, and most of our team is,” Jansen said. The Adler Arena rink seemed to force Davis into a less effective rhythm. “He’s floating into his turns,” Jansen observed. “It looked like he got caught kind of in-between. He took about four long strides, and on this ice, that doesn’t work . . . the friction will slow you down. There is friction here; it’s not like at altitude.” After the Olympics are over, all of these potential variables will be intensely analyzed by the American


Kerry calls climate change a weapon of mass destruction, derides skeptics

Addressing a group of students and government officials at an American cultural center in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta, Secretary of State John Kerry called climate change perhaps the world’s most fearsome weapon of mass destruction. JAKARTA, Indonesia — Kerry painted a picture of looming drought and famine, massive floods and deadly storms as a result of global warming, and he urged ordinary citizens in developing nations to speak out on the issue and demand more from their political leaders. He labeled those who denied the evidence of climate change as “shoddy scientists and extreme ideologues.” He was addressing a group of students and government officials at an American cultural center in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, in a country and region that he said were “on the front lines of climate change” and some of the most vulnerable to the effects of global warming. “It’s not an exaggeration to say that the entire way of life here is at risk,” he said. Global efforts to counter climate change have long foundered on a sharp divide between developed and developing nations. Although developing nations now account for more than half of greenhouse-gas emissions, they have been reluctant to commit to meaningful cuts as they seek a path to Western industrialization and prosperity. They argue the West caused the problem and should fix it. But Kerry, who has spent much of his long political career calling for more action on the issue, said that every country needed to play a role in cleaner energy or the world would face a calamitous future, calling climate change “perhaps the world’s most fearsome weapon of mass destruction.” “It’s absolutely true that industrialized countries have to play a leading role in reducing emissions, but that doesn’t mean other nations have the right to repeat the mistakes of the past. It’s not enough for one country or even a few countries to reduce emissions when other countries continue to fill the atmosphere with carbon pollution as they see fit,” he said. “If even one or two major economies neglects to respond to this threat, it will counteract all of the good work that the rest of the world does. When I say we need a global solution, I mean we need a global solution.” China and the United States are the world’s largest sources of greenhouse-gas emissions, accounting for about 40 percent. Indonesia, a country of around


At Sochi Olympics, finding risk is snow problem

of Georgia luger Nodar Kumaritashvili died during a training run on the day of the Opening Ceremonies. American downhiller Stacey Cook had to be airlifted from Whistler after a wipeout, and there were plenty of delayed events because of poor conditions. A British Journal of Sports Medicine survey of doctors who worked in Vancouver showed that at least one in 10 athletes suffered an injury of some kind there. There may not necessarily be more injuries here; we won’t know that until we count up the medical charts in a week. Ask the International Olympic Committee whether the conditions are causing more harm than usual, and you get an exercise in hedging, backing and filling. IOC spokesman Mark Adams said of Komissarova’s broken back, “I’m not sure that it is actually the format or the course that’s necessarily the problem.” Asked whether there was evidence of any statistical spike, he rambled, “The medical commission of the IOC collects and monitors data on illness and injuries, and what I can tell you — I mean once you look at prevention strategies and so on — is at this stage we don’t see anything.” If there isn’t a rise in the actual number of injuries, there do seem to be a higher number of traumatic ones, requiring stretchers and ambulances. Since 1998, the IOC has added 26 new medal pursuits — including 10 in snowboarding — to put more eyes on the screen and money in its pocket. That means more kids jacked up in the air and more chances to get hurt. Giving an Olympic platform to such audacious athleticism is great in principle, but as long as the IOC is going in that direction, it has an obligation to put the Winter Games in places where the conditions are optimal. Not in a soup bowl. #graphics-jpt {height: 250px; display:block; width:100%; position:relative;} #graphics-jpt .background img {position:absolute; z-index:-1; bottom:0; right:0; width:100%;} #graphics-jpt .text {position:absolute; width:100%; top:30px; left:0;} #graphics-jpt h3 {font-family: FranklinITCProThin,Helvetica-light,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;float:left; padding:30px 0 0 10px; width:100%; margin-bottom:0;} #graphics-jpt ul.link {padding:0 10px 0 0; list-style-type:none !important; background-color: #4c4c4c; float:left; margin-left:10px;} #graphics-jpt ul.link li { font-size: 18px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0; position:relative; } #graphics-jpt ul.link li a { padding: 9px 15px; display: block; color: #d5d5d5; } #graphics-jpt ul.link li i {border: solid transparent; content: " "; height: 0; width: 0; position: absolute; pointer-events: none; border-left-color: #d5d5d5; border-width: 6px; top: 42%; right: -7px; margin-top: -4px;}


A snowy-owl bonanza, thanks to a little, stubby-legged Arctic rodent: the lemming

coast in search of meals. They fanned out from New England to New York to downtown Washington to Jacksonville, Fla. “The assumption is they’re coming here because they’re hungry,” said Scott Weidensaul, co-director of Project Snowstorm, a collaboration of scientists who are observing, trapping and fitting the owls with solar-powered radio collars. “They’re not coming south because they’re hungry. Every owl we’ve caught is fat, healthy,” he said. Weidensaul said that a snowy owl he helped trap for removal from Philadelphia International Airport on Wednesday “looked like it was living very high on the hog.” When snowy owls are away, lemmings play. Hidden under snow cover with few worries, they do what comes natural, giving birth to litters of six to eight. Lemmings mature sexually in a few weeks, allowing three generations to grow during a single winter, said Gilles Gauthier, a professor of biology at Université Laval in Quebec City. The Arctic owl, who had been in recovery at City Wildlife after being struck by a bus and an SUV in downtown Washington, has recovered after being secretly moved to a much bigger clinic with a warehouse-sized flight cage. But the population booms that feed the big snowy-owl irruptions might not last in an era of global warming. The Arctic landscape is changing, and there are early signs that it has caused lemming populations to dip in Scandinavia and Greenland. Studies have shown that lemming populations have not peaked in more than a decade. The flat tundra now sprouts willows and shrubs that compete with the grasses and mosses lemmings prefer. Even the texture of snowfall has changed, from fluffy to soggy and wet. It ices over when temperatures drop, encasing the vegetation that lemmings covet while replenishing their ranks. When there are few lemmings, snowy owls don’t bother to raise chicks. “I think it’s safe to say that what’s going on is unsettled, and when it’s unsettled, it’s cause for concern,” said Henry Tepper, president of Mass Audubon, a Massachusetts conservation group. Lemmings in Canada’s portion of the Arctic have yet to show signs of a downturn. The irruption they fueled last summer has raised public awareness and revolutionized the study of snowy owls. Project Snowstorm pulled dozens of scientists together from some 10 states to study them, Weidensaul said. They improved their methods of trapping and placed solar-powered radio collars on dozens of the owls, which live


Upgrading D.C.’s Virginia Avenue tunnel is key to growing East Coast rail freight, officials say

in the United States is projected to increase 35 percent by 2050, according to the Federal Railroad Administration, and as the U.S. population expands, the freight system will have to step up to meet the demands of a larger population. Such projects have been controversial, especially in urban areas where development has boomed around the railroad. But in some areas, the public and the private sectors have come together to address the growing need for upgrading infrastructure. In Chicago, for example, a major rail project is bringing together the city, state and U.S. departments of transportation, local passenger and commuter rail and national freight companies to invest in building infrastructure that would improve passenger rail service and reduce freight-rail congestion. The work includes 70 projects, about half of which are related to freight rail. Over the past decade, railroad companies have invested heavily in upgrading aging infrastructure. Last year, the industry spent about $25 billion to build, maintain and upgrade its network and equipment, said Holly Arthur, a spokeswoman with the Association of American Railroads. “That’s money that railroads pay using private capital so the taxpayers don’t have to,” said Arthur. And it goes to infrastructure and equipment like new tracks, new wayside detectors and technologies, new locomotives and upgrades similar to the ones proposed for the Virginia Avenue tunnel. “Those are critical corridor projects that open up efficiencies in the network and are vital to improving and continuing [our ability] to meet demand,” she said. Contentious project In, Washington, the $200 million Virginia Avenue tunnel reconstruction, which CSX would fund, has become a touchy subject among area residents, who have caught the attention of numerous elected officials and revived the debate on rail safety. At numerous public meetings, the discussion has centered on concerns about derailments similar to those that have recently occurred in other parts of the country and on the transportation of hazardous materials. CSX says it rarely transports crude oil through the District and does not carry hazardous substances such as compressed flammable gases and toxic and radioactive materials through the city. Some residents and elected officials complain that the Virginia Avenue tunnel project will require an open trench during construction, with trains running through the middle of the city, within the heart of monumental Washington. “The railroad runs up and down, close to this neighborhood, and always has,” Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) said at


Local digest: A roundup of D.C.-area news briefs

MARyland Man critically hurt in Pr. George’s stabbing A man was stabbed and in critical condition Monday night in Prince George’s County after an incident police believe was related to domestic violence. Prince George’s police were called to the 8200 block of Landover Road about 8:30 p.m. and the victim was taken to a hospital, said Cpl. Nate Lewis. Police did not immediately have additional information. — Donna St. George Death of 3-month-old is under investigation Frederick County authorities are investigating the death Monday of a 3-month-old boy. Emergency personnel and sheriff’s deputies were summoned for help at 7:48 a.m. Sunday after the infant became unresponsive at a home in the 5900 block of Picnic Woods Road in Jefferson. The child was taken to Frederick Memorial Hospital and later flown to Children’s National Medical Center. Frederick County investigators were informed Monday that the baby had died, Sgt. Jennifer Bailey of the Frederick County Sheriff’s Office said. — Donna St. George Virginia 18 deer spayed in Fairfax City program The initial phase of Virginia’s first experiment with sterilizing deer rather than killing them to reduce the population has ended in Fairfax City. Anthony DeNicola of White Buffalo Inc., who oversaw the program, said 18 were captured and spayed over six nights this month. DeNicola and his team of volunteers are to return annually to spay does and monitor the size of the deer population. The hope is that the herd will gradually decrease by “natural” causes — hit by cars, killed by hunters, disease and old age — avoiding the need for lethal force in a densely populated city that measures only six square miles. The program was approved by the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries as a research project. Other jurisdictions — including Fairfax County, the District and Montgomery County — hire sharpshooters to cull deer, with the meat donated to needy causes. — Tom Jackman


Methane, friend and foe for climate change

A STUDY in the journal Science finds that the United States is putting a lot more methane, a potent contributor to global warming and the primary compound in natural gas, into the air than the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has estimated. But the report also shows that the problem is fixable — and not a reason to shut down the controversial extraction method known as fracking. Natural gas, as a transitional fuel, remains an important response to climate change. Methane is a powerful driver of climate change. Unburned methane is about 20 times more effective at heating the planet than carbon dioxide on a century-long time frame. Burning it, on the other hand, is much better for the environment; combusting methane — in a power plant, for example — produces CO2, but about half the amount of burning coal, the fuel for which it often substitutes. So burning methane could help reduce U.S. greenhouse emissions in the short-term, but letting lots of it waft into the air would have a negative impact on the climate. The study’s results aren’t disastrous, for two reasons. First, they indicate that extremely high estimates of methane leakage that have popped up in analyses of particular regions aren’t representative of the leakiness of the whole natural-gas system. Second, a lot of the leakage can be reduced relatively easily. Through its regulation of another class of compounds, the EPA has already established rules requiring drillers to perform “green completions,” which capture methane escaping from wells. But that rule only applies to new wells, and not even to all of those. Besides, significant leakage occurs not only during drilling but also during fuel processing, storage and transportation. A recent study found 5,800 separate instances of natural gas leaks around the District, which has aging cast-iron pipes. Old, abandoned mines and wells that weren’t sealed properly also contribute. Reasonable new regulation wouldn’t be very expensive, in part because it would reduce the amount of product that goes to waste. The Science analysis, meanwhile, indicates that a huge chunk of the country’s methane pollution comes from a small group of “super-emitters,” which the EPA could aim to fix first. Some states already have imposed more comprehensive rules on the oil and gas industry. John Hickenlooper (D), Colorado’s governor, is pushing through regulations that would apply to old and new facilities for both oil and gas, which would require various


Group tries to slow federal government’s move away from paper to the Web

ended the practice of printing prescription information and inserting it into drug packages, instead requiring that it be posted online. The Food and Drug Administration has been pressing for the change, which the agency says would save money and ensure the information is up to date. But Michaud warned that the change would put consumers at risk. His argument about the dangers of the “rush to go paperless” was highlighted in a December op-ed article in Roll Call signed by Michaud and Rep. Sean P. Duffy (R-Wis.), which said the shift was “disenfranchising millions of seniors and other vulnerable Americans and making the digital divide even deeper.” Consumers for Paper Options helped craft the piece and got it placed in Roll Call, according to officials familiar with the article. The group has conducted several studies of consumer preferences, Runyan said, including a poll last year that reportedly found that 73 percent of American adults do not think they should be required to interact with the government online. Those research findings have been repeatedly cited in newspapers and trade publications across the country and attributed to Consumers for Paper Options. In very few instances did they disclose that the group was set up by the paper industry. Consumers for Paper Options started in 2010 as the Senate was debating the Dodd-Frank Act, which created new regulations for the financial industry. A little-noticed proposal would have required banks and credit-card companies to put all statements online. That provision was never enacted. But the Obama administration had other plans to reduce paper services. The government, for instance, was looking to make use of direct deposit or prepaid debit cards for monthly checks for veterans, federal retirees, disabled Americans and 66 million retirees on Social Security. IRS tax forms and other government “paperwork” were also going online. The paper industry was growing alarmed. Consumers for Paper Options stepped up its fundraising and outreach in Washington, arguing, for instance, that using debit cards would saddle the poor with high fees and that electronic tax refunds and checks would lead to stolen identities. “I wish we had launched this effort 10 years ago,” said Thomas Howard, vice president of government relations for Domtar, one of North America’s largest paper manufacturers and a financial backer of Consumers for Paper Options. “But we’re on top of things now. Government agencies are in effect slamming citizens by determining how


Jackson Diehl: Japan’s provocative moves

Could Japan end up provoking the most serious national security crisis yet faced by President Obama? That idea would have sounded preposterous a couple of years ago, when the Land of the Rising Sun was still the country that Americans have known it to be for the past two decades: gently aging; rich but stagnant; democratic but, because of chronically weak leadership, a non-factor in global and even regional security. Japan, however, has a history of long periods of stagnation followed by bursts of rapid and sometimes disruptive change. Some who watch the country believe that Shinzo Abe, the conservative nationalist who became prime minister 14 months ago, is leading it into one of those dynamic and potentially dangerous eras. In his first year in office, Abe successfully stimulated the economy, cultivated Japan’s neighbors and pursued closer security relations with the United States. His first steps to strengthen Japan’s defense posture, such as increasing the arms budget and creating a national security council, looked sensible in the face of increased belligerence from China and North Korea. In the past several months, however, Abe has appeared to pivot toward the hard-line nationalism that has always been an element of his political makeup. He has managed to set off alarm bells not only in predictable places — China and South Korea — but inside the very U.S. administration he hoped to partner with. The prime minister’s most conspicuous gesture was his visit on Dec. 26 to the Yasukuni shrine in Tokyo, which memorializes Japanese military dead, including convicted war criminals from World War II. It was an act sure to escalate already considerable tensions with China, which a month earlier had unilaterally declared an air defense zone covering territory claimed by Japan, and it was undertaken with express disregard for high-level appeals from the Obama administration. That same month Abe appointed four new directors to the 12-member board of Japan’s public broadcast network, NHK. They soon began making headlines. One declared that the 1937 Nanjing massacre by Japanese soldiers in China “never happened” and that U.S. trials of Japanese war criminals were staged to cover up U.S. crimes. A second was revealed to have authored an essay claiming that, thanks to a ritual suicide by a right-wing militant, the Japanese emperor had become a deity. Then there is the new head of the network, Katsuto Momii, who after belittling Japan’s history of


Smithsonian Chamber Music Society concert engages on multiple levels

Kenneth Slowik plays the harpsichord. (Baobao Zhang/Handout) Listening to music can occur on many levels, from the purely aural to the emotional and intellectual. A concert performed by members of the Smithsonian Chamber Music Society on Sunday night meant to engage you on all of them. The full effect includes a discussion of the music by the performers, as well as the concert, in the intimate West Wing of the Smithsonian Castle, the only concert venue in the city where one is surrounded by rockets, mounted wildlife and other curiosities. Violinist Robert Mealy and SCMS Artistic Director Kenneth Slowik, at the harpsichord, played four of the six sonatas for violin and harpsichord by Bach (BWV 1014 and 1017 to 1019). In spontaneous and expert preconcert remarks, they spoke of the new genre that Bach was creating in these works, a distillation of Corelli’s trio sonata texture. Their performance fell in line with these comments, the fast movements percolating and largely regular of tempo so that the three strands of the polyphonic structure locked into place. The slow movements were more rhapsodic and of many different characters, including the gorgeous Andante movement from the B minor sonata that served as the encore. Mealy’s limpid tone served those slow movements best, with perfectly tuned notes glowing on long lines, while Slowik was an adroit and sage presence at the keyboard, as in the solo central movement of the G sonata. The choice not to use a reinforcing instrument on the bass line, specified by Bach as optional, allowed the two instruments a clear balance, except in some cases where a larger registration on the harpsichord tipped the scales. If the joys of this concert leaned more to the didactic than the virtuosic, one left with both brain and ear having understood this music profoundly. Downey is a freelance writer.


Boys’ basketball: For Clarksburg, a new method to measure success

night, Kissal believed points per game wasn’t a helpful statistic. So he bought two pitch counters — one to track his team’s points scored per offensive possession, one to track his team’s points allowed per defensive possession — and charged two assistants with tracking the stat. “The stats could not be clearer,” Kissal said. “In the games we have lost, we have given up more than .85 points per possession. In every other game, we’re at .75 or below.” Clarksburg’s biggest loss of the season was an 83-59 blowout against Gaithersburg in late December. The Coyotes yielded 1.02 points per possession to the Trojans in that game, reinforcing Kissal’s point to a team he says has been receptive to the unorthodox emphasis. Clarksburg guard Josh Hardy (0), pictured during a Jan. 17 win against Springbrook, is one of the Coyotes’ leading scorers during their breakout campaign. (Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post) “Now I can show them: if you play ‘D’, you win. Period,” Kissal said. “If you get stops, you’ll win, because you’re good enough offensively.” Leading scorers Josh Hardy (10.8 points per game) and Xavier Sewell (14.7) agree that the focus on each possession bolsters the Coyotes’ defensive effort. “Whenever we hold teams under that number of points per possession, we should come out with the win,” Hardy said. “That’s the point of emphasis when we get into close games. . . . I think our athleticism and our drive to get stops each time down the floor really helps us.” The Coyotes have produced plenty of offense to back the defensive effort, and are averaging 62.1 points per game, third in Montgomery County. Most of that offense starts with explosive guards Sewell and Hardy. The latter made school history of his own against Northwest, setting a school record for career points (he now has 879). While he admitted he’s “ecstatic” about the accomplishment, Hardy said the single-season win total is just a step on the way to bigger things for he and his teammates. Host B.J. Koubaroulis runs through the top plays from the week of basketball in the D.C., Maryland and Virginia area. “I’m not satisfied with it. We should do the things that we’re doing,” Hardy said. “We’re not impressed with anything that’s going on. I won’t be satisfied or happy at least until we got to regionals. But hopefully beyond that and to a state championship.”


At Sochi 2014, athletes’ nationality is pliable

“They don’t live in Togo,” Kelani Bayor, vice president of the Togo Olympic Committee, said of his country’s two-athlete delegation (skiers originally from France and Italy), “but they are part of the diaspora.” In sports in which one country is dominant — and thus, spots on that country’s Olympic team are scarce — lesser competitors frequently find another country to play for. In the 2008 Beijing Games, for example, the United States fielded a table tennis team that included four players who were born in China. Courage and humanity have shined in the Winter Olympics. Here are moments that transcended one nation’s — or one person’s — achievement. Individual wealth, motivation and at least some talent also can help. Gary and Angelica di Silvestri, husband-and-wife cross-country skiers from Staten Island, N.Y., and Italy, respectively, were granted citizenship by Dominica — an island nation in the Lesser Antilles — on the basis of their unspecified “philanthropic activities,” and came to Sochi to compete. Unfortunately, Gary di Silvestri, a hedge-fund manager, developed bacterial gastroenteritis within days of their arrival in Sochi and failed to finish his race. Angelica crashed during a training run and broke her nose badly enough to require hospitalization, forcing her to withdraw from hers. Pushback may already have begun The difference between most of those athletes and Ahn, however, is that they typically are not medal threats, whereas he may be the best short-track speedskater in the world. In that sense, Ahn may be a new type of mercenary the likes of which the Olympics haven’t seen. It is common for countries to recruit athletes with financial incentives into switching countries, as when Qatar paid eight Bulgarian weightlifters a reported $1 million apiece to compete for it in the 2000 Sydney Olympics. But Ahn may be the first case of an athlete being the impetus for such a bold, calculated transaction. Perhaps someday Ahn will be seen as the Curt Flood of the Olympics, the man whose actions spurred an era of free agency. Then again, the Olympics may not be ready for that. The pushback against Ahn’s move has already begun. In South Korea, President Park Geun-hye has ordered the country’s sports ministry to answer for why Ahn felt ostracized to the point that he decided to leave. “We must ask ourselves if his problem was not due to the unreasonableness on our sports community,” she said


Nightlife agenda: Beer everywhere — ChurchKey, Pizzeria Paradiso and Heurich

House. Try unlimited beers from brewer Nathan Zeender and eat snacks while touring the Victorian Dupont Circle mansion of Washington brewing magnate Christian Heurich. Meanwhile, ChurchKey is finally hosting a meet-and-greet with Hugh Sisson, the pioneering owner of Baltimore’s Heavy Seas Brewing, formerly known as Clipper City. A cask takeover planned for last Thursday was postponed because of bad weather, but Sisson is bringing five of his casks, including a dry-hopped Loose Cannon IPA and the more traditional British-style Powder Monkey pale ale. Sisson will be working the crowd, so if you’re curious about his new Heavy Seas Alehouse, which will open in Rosslyn in the next few weeks, bring questions. ChurchKey: Tuesday and Thursday at 6 p.m. 1337 14th St. NW. 202-567-2576. www.churchkeydc.com. Free admission. Pizzeria Paradiso: Wednesday from 5 to 10 p.m. 3282 M St. NW. 202-337-1245. www.eatyourpizza.com. Free admission. History and Hops: Thursday from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Heurich House Museum, 1307 New Hampshire Ave. NW. 202-429-1894. www.heurichhouse.org. $30. Digital Mystikz In the dubstep world, Mala and Coki are heavyweights. The two South London producers DJ together as Digital Mystikz, which is also the name of their 10-year-old record label and a wildly successful club night. In the studio and on tour, the duo’s dark, sometimes eerie sound is underpinned by deep, unrelenting waves of bass. The idea of Digital Mystikz putting U Street Music Hall’s sound system to the test while playing “Anti-War Dub,” “Return II Space” and “Ancient Memories” is thrilling and potentially gut-shaking. American dubstep pioneer Joe Nice handles opening duties. Thursday at 10 p.m. U Street Music Hall. 1115 U St. NW. 202-588-1880. www.ustreetmusichall.com. $15. Christylez Bacon Even if you haven’t been to one of Christylez Bacon’s many shows for kids and adults, it’s likely you’ve seen him out and about. He’s hard to miss: Tall, lanky and always smiling, Bacon looks like a cross between a lost Harlem Renaissance poet and a “What’s Happening” cast member. He’s one of the most unusual members of the D.C. arts community, and his disciplines include hand percussion, guitar, beat-boxing, rapping and storytelling, all with a hint of go-go swing. For the release of his second studio album, Bacon will be performing with the 22-piece Bohemian Caverns Jazz Orchestra, the Sweater Set and surprise guests. Saturday at 9:30 p.m. Atlas Performing Arts Center, 1333 H St. NE. 202-399-7993. www.atlasarts.org. $25. — Fritz Hahn and Rhome Anderson


Monsanto develops new veggies without GMO’s Frankenfood factor

A lab technician screens peppers for diseases at Monsanto’s pathology greenhouse in Woodland, Calif. (NOAH BERGER/BLOOMBERG NEWS) Reality check: New crops developed by Monsanto are not genetically modified ‘Bred to Perfection,’ Wired magazine, February issue The name Monsanto, Ben Paynter points out in Wired, “is synonymous with Big Ag.” Over the past century, the company has produced saccharine, PCBs, Agent Orange and dioxin; it’s also known for genetically engineering crops that resist its weedkiller Roundup and for patenting their seeds. Now, Paynter reports, the company is introducing novel strains of familiar foods. Among them: Frescada lettuce, which, Paynter says, “is sweeter and crunchier than romaine.” There’s also BellaFina peppers, which come in single-serving sizes to reduce leftovers, and Beneforte broccoli, which has three times the usual level of an antioxidant-boosting compound. “But here’s the twist,” Paynter writes. The plants “aren’t genetically modified at all. Monsanto created all these veggies using good old-fashioned crossbreeding.” The company has drawn on its “accumulated scientific know-how to create vegetables that have all the advantages of genetically modified organisms without any of the Frankenfoods’ ick factor.” If you keep them away from pesticides, you could call them organic, Paynter notes. The company, he says, hasn’t changed in one way: It still prohibits farmers from regrowing seeds from its new crops. Suicidal humans ‘The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History’ by Elizabeth Kolbert Five times in Earth’s history, massive numbers of creatures died off in an extremely short period. The first mass extinction came 444 million years ago, at the end of what is called the Ordovician period: 85 percent of marine species disappeared. The last was about 65 million years ago, when large animals including dinosaurs went extinct after the Earth was hit by an asteroid. Today, New Yorker staff writer Elizabeth Kolbert says, humans are the cause of “The Sixth Extinction” — the title of her new book. Combining historical research with field reporting, she powerfully chronicles the extraordinary effect human activities have had on the planet. You’re familiar with the concept of climate change, but she also makes clear the impact of acidifying oceans, deforesting land and moving species around the world (in cargo ship and airplane holds and on the soles of the shoes you wear home from vacation). She discusses a dozen species that have vanished or are on the verge of doing so. At this point, she writes, humans have engineered


Mikaela Shiffrin finishes fifth in Olympic debut, behind giant slalom gold medalist Tina Maze

snow conditions, raining and fog — da-da-da-da-da — and I think some of the older ladies were able to turn that to their advantage today.” Which is exactly what Maze, the 30-year-old defending World Cup overall champion, did. She built a commanding lead of more than half a second after the first run — an advantage of 0.91 seconds over Shiffrin, who was fifth in the morning. And then she skied just well enough to hang on, seven hundredths of a second ahead of Fenninger. “I don’t care if it’s rainy or if it’s sunny or whatever,” Maze said. “Good skiing is possible.” It was possible, too, for Shiffrin. She admitted to nerves waiting for her morning start, but they did not affect her skiing. She made one mistake during that run that cost her time, but the day was remarkably normal. Jeff Shiffrin’s interaction with his daughter? “‘Good morning, Mikaela. Have fun today. Bye,’” Jeff said. “That’s it.” Which seemed to be how she handled the entire affair — not blase, of course, but as if she had planned to be here all along. “It was a pretty spectacular day, actually,” Shiffrin said. “It’s not sunny, but on the other hand, who gets to race their first Olympics in rain this bad when there’s still snow on the ground?” 101 mph 148.1 feet 148.1 feet 37 mph 54.3 feet 54.3 feet 11 mph 16.6 feet 16.6 feet 0 FT 148.1 FT Winter speed demons (and curlers, too) How far and how fast an athlete travels per second They were conditions, too, with which Shiffrin was wholly familiar given how much time she spent skiing on spring days in Vermont, where she attended Burke Mountain Academy. But as sloppy as the course was — U.S. veteran Resi Stiegler said she twice had to wipe her goggles in the middle of her first run — the racers said the snow held up well, and the weather did not determine the result. “I think it was a pretty fair race,” Shiffrin said. Thus, she appeared to have little trouble grappling with the result. When she finished her second run, she was second behind Rebensburg, with four skiers — including Maze and Fenninger — still to come. She barely reacted, knowing the slim chances of holding onto a medal. Keep in mind, too, that while she was certainly capable of a giant slalom


U.S. citizen sues Ethiopia for allegedly using computer spyware against him

put my life and the lives of my family at substantial risk,” Kidane wrote in the affidavit. Computer researchers tracking the spread of spyware have named Ethiopia among a list of dozens of countries that use such products. The spyware typically can read e-mails, snatch documents and contact lists, record video chats, and remotely activate cameras and microphones, making a computer capable of spying on targets in their homes or workplaces. The market for spyware operates with few international restrictions, although using spyware can violate a range of laws. Hidden files discovered by forensics experts show the hacking of Kidane’s computer began in October 2012, when he downloaded what appeared to be a Microsoft Word file attached to an e-mail, the suit alleges. The document, in Ethiopia’s Amharic language, contained a desperate plea from another Ethiopian expatriate requesting Kidane’s help in protecting a relative in danger. It also contained FinSpy, which gradually took hold of Kidane’s computer. More than four months later, in March 2013, an independent research group published a report detailing evidence that Ethiopia was using FinSpy, produced by Gamma Group, a spyware maker based in Britain and Germany. That report, by Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs, singled out a server based at Ethiopia’s state-owned telecommunications company as controlling the spyware. Five days after that report was issued — prompting widespread news coverage — the server in Ethiopia went offline and the hackers who had taken control of Kidane’s computer attempted to remove all traces of FinSpy from his machine, the lawsuit alleges. But the attempted removal was incomplete: It left behind the hidden files that forensics researchers for the Electronic Frontier Foundation eventually found. Gamma Group did not respond to a request for comment filed through its Web site, which describes the company as an “international manufacturer of surveillance & monitoring systems with technical and sales offices in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Africa.” The lawsuit, prepared in conjunction with the law firm Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi, seeks a court declaration that the Ethiopian government was behind the hacking of Kidane’s computer, as well as attorney’s fees and $10,000 in damages. Privacy International The latest from Craig Timberg: Foreign regimes use spyware against journalists, even in U.S. New surveillance technology can track everyone in an area for several hours at a time Blimplike surveillance craft set to deploy


The craft-beer curious finally get a primer

Beer Course,” Bernstein says, was inspired by one of his publisher’s most successful titles, Kevin Zraly’s “Complete Wine Course,” first released in 1985. Bernstein is quick to acknowledge that other beer-tasting books exist — “Tasting Beer” by Randy Mosher is a good example — but he views his as more introductory than most. “A ton of people don’t really want to know about all these chemical compounds and things,” Bernstein says. “They just want to know why their India pale ale tastes bitter, and why their imperial stout tastes like chocolate.” With the heft of a cookbook, sidebar-heavy layout and a hip-leaning but not totally hipster aesthetic, “The Complete Beer Course” lends itself to piecemeal perusal rather than cover-to-cover reading. But beer beginners should start at the beginning, which addresses topics from basic ingredients (barley, hops, yeast) to proper glassware (snifters, tulips, steins). The rest of the book takes the form of “classes” devoted to families of beers, including “The Bitter Truth,” on I.P.A.s, and “Toasting to a Higher Power,” on beers inspired by Belgium’s monastic brewing traditions. (Bernstein must have a high tolerance for both alcohol and wordplay.) What I admire most aren’t the history lessons, which readers can find elsewhere, so much as Bernstein’s “Two to Taste” sidebars, which suggest reliably stellar and widely available examples of the styles he discusses. Profiling iconic breweries like Allagash and Hair of the Dog, not to mention such exotica as Scandinavian ales, he covers a huge amount of ground. His guide to craft beers, plural, is really a guide to craft beer, singular — the entire movement. That’s not to say the book is for everyone. For some, Bernstein’s voice might be a turnoff; I happen to like how his silliness of tone offsets his serious mastery of his subject, but it’s a bit much to say a beer is “blacker than a raven lost in a coal mine and smells like Raisinets doing the backstroke in a double espresso.” The volume of information, too, can be daunting, as when he profiles more than 50 hop varieties. Still, over the top or not, he is a good guide for anyone beginning a craft-beer journey, as he likes to put it. I’d bet other beer writers will follow his lead and write more accessibly; whether they already have, of course, remains debatable. “I don’t know if the writing has changed,” Holl told