The weather will be great for the annual Astronomy Festival on the Mall

(Geoff Chester) This post has been updated. Looking for something to do Friday night? Marvel at Mars’s magnificence. Scan the sun safely. Count the moon’s craters and catch a close-up, breathtaking view of Saturn’s rings at the annual Astronomy Festival on the Mall. Pack the kids into a minivan or go by Metro, as children — and their grown-ups — will delight in seeing the night sky from the shadow of the Washington Monument. The area’s coolest scientists and astronomers will be there. A large array of optical telescopes, binoculars, solar-filtered telescopes and radio telescopes will be set up at 15th Street and Constitution Avenue NW, from 6 to 11 p.m., across Constitution Avenue from the Ellipse — and it’s all free. The International Space Station will make two passes over the District during the event. The first will happen at 9:14 p.m., but will be low in the sky, so we’re not sure how bright it will appear. The second pass will occur at about 10:50 p.m., starting in the northwest sky and disappearing in the northern sky. You can track the space station using this tool: The forecast looks favorable — clouds are possible but there should be enough clear sky to catch a glimpse of all you want to see. The rain date is June 11 at Catholic University — but we doubt it will be needed. Long before sundown, catch sunspots exploding on our own star’s surface. Talk to dozens of astronomers and find out about all facets of space. “Gazing at the rings of Saturn or the moon’s craters captures the imagination, no matter how old you are,” said Donald Lubowich, coordinator of astronomy outreach at Hofstra University, the Long Island school organizing the event. “Bringing astronomy to the National Mall and partnering with astronomical organizations gives us a very special opportunity to encourage children to pursue … science or math and to promote public understanding of science,” he said. U.S. Naval Observatory astronomer Geoff Chester says that Jupiter will be high in the west at evening twilight, as it “will be flanked by his four bright Galilean moons, two on each side of Jupiter’s striped disc,” he said. The young, teenage moon — approaching first quarter — will be in the west-southwest and gaining on Jupiter. The moon will be near Jupiter on Saturday evening and then it will pass the planet on Sunday


D.C. area forecast: A magnificent Monday before it turns unsettled later this week

Sunset at National Harbor on Friday (Theresa Rasmussen via Flickr) TODAY’S DAILY DIGIT 10/10: EXPRESS FORECAST Today: FORECAST IN DETAIL The first two days of this week are the safest bets for dry, comfortable weather. Beyond that, the pattern turns unsettled, with a chance of showers late Wednesday and Thursday. Friday could turn into a good old-fashioned rainy day. The weekend right now is a huge wild card, depending on the track of a possible coastal weather system. Today (Monday): Tonight: Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for the latest updates. For related traffic news, check out Dr. Gridlock. Keep reading for the forecast through the weekend… Tomorrow (Tuesday): Tomorrow night: A LOOK AHEAD There’s a chance of showers Wednesday, but mainly late in the day and at night and mainly south of the District. For most of the day, it’s partly to mostly cloudy, with highs in the low-to-mid 80s. Confidence: Medium Showers and perhaps some thunderstorms are possible Thursday, especially in the afternoon and at night. It’s probably not a washout, but cloudier than not, with highs in the low 80s. Confidence: Medium Friday The weekend right now is a tough call. An area of low pressure will be meandering off the coast and may try to drift inland. Chances are, however, that it remains out to sea. Assuming it does, the weekend may turn into an excellent one with high pressure building in from the north, which would mean sunshine, low humidity and highs about 80. But, there’s an outside chance it is unsettled, rainy and cooler. Confidence: Low-Medium


Can Saudi Arabia pivot away from oil? A powerful prince brings his pitch to America.

oil economy, the petro-giant Saudi Arabian Oil Co., universally known as Aramco. Then Prince Mohammad sketched out bold proposals to create the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, which could sink money into everything from property to business ventures worldwide. The prince’s U.S. visit could be something of a scouting trip – and a mission to reinforce Saudi warnings. The Saudis have threatened a massive sell-off of their U.S. holdings if Congress passes legislation that could clear the way for lawsuits against the kingdom by families of victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers were of Saudi descent. The White House has said President Obama would veto it. For good reason. In May, a Treasury Department report said Saudi Arabia held $116.8 billion in U.S. debt, Bloomberg reported. In an opening salvo of the Saudi economic changes, rulers last month dumped their veteran oil minister, Ali al-Naimi, and replaced him with the Aramco chairman. Also shaken up was the leadership of the central bank, which has a key role in managing the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund. Lots more is on the drawing boards and could be raised by Prince Mohammad in his U.S. meetings. Saudi leaders want to start a new property boom by working with private developers to build on state-owned lands. Visa procedures could be streamlined and paths smoothed to ease foreign investment, the deputy crown prince has said. On Saturday, Aramco and General Electric announced a partnership to build Saudi Arabia’s first wind turbine. The goal, Saudi officials say, seeks to more than triple non-oil revenue to about $141 billion by 2020. But that ambitious target would still be dwarfed by oil sales even if crude prices stay low. At the same time, rulers want to trim costs. Possible moves include reducing some of the subsidies for Saudi citizens, such as low-cost water and electricity, and imposing more taxes and fees on the kingdom’s extensive foreign workforce, the backbone of nearly every industry from construction to retail. But there’s more than just macroeconomics in play. The front-line role for Prince Mohammed is yet another sign of the generation shift in motion. The current Saudi king, Salman, will be the last ruler from among the many sons of Abdul Aziz, the founder of the modern Saudi state. Salman’s direct heir, Prince Mohammad bin Nayef, is his nephew. Picking the younger Prince Mohammed as


New beer gardens pop up across the Washington area

tables that fill the brewery's sidewalk beer garden. Surrounded by colorful planters, it might be the only beer garden in the city with a view of a graveyard, situated across West Virginia Avenue NE from the historic Mount Olivet Cemetery. The taproom and patio offer a number of beers that aren't found anywhere else, such as Gaslight, a version of Atlas's 1500 South Cap Lager made with Brettanomyces bruxellensis yeast to give it an earthier flavor, and Pope in a Barrel, a Belgian ale brewed to commemorate Pope Francis's visit to Washington, and then aged in bourbon barrels for three months. Owner Justin Cox says there will be more exclusive beers in the tasting room later this summer, once Atlas installs a small pilot brewing system. Brewers can use it to create experimental beers for the tasting room and "get instant feedbacl" from customers. Beer garden as beer laboratory -- now that sounds like a good idea. Wunder Garten Wunder Garten, which sprung up in an empty lot next to the NoMa Metro station last summer, is moving across the street from NoMa Junction, where the neighborhood hosts free movies and other events. The new lot is 13,000 square feet, which is half the size of last year's location. (Frankly, that can only be a good thing, because the previous space often felt too large and empty.) Expect a similar look and feel, with Oktoberfest-style benches, German and local craft beers on tap, food trucks and tents for rainy days. REI, which is opening in the nearby Uline Arena later this year, will again sponsor a series of events, and provide corn hole, ladder golf and other outdoor games. This year's big addition (for now) is a stage for local musicians. While Wunder Garten's new location isn't quite ready, it will open Friday for a season preview happy hour from 4 to 8 p.m. Then, from 8 to 11 p.m., REI hosts the after party for Capital Pride's annual Pride Ride bike ride, with DJs and drinks. The event is open to everyone, not just cyclists, and admission is free. Correction: A previous version of this article misspelled Jason Strich's last name. Read more: Local beer is easy to find: The definitive guide to D.C.’s best breweries Where to watch every single match of the Copa America and the European Championships Summer concert guide: 32 D.C.-area shows you shouldn’t miss


British Brexit campaign tries to capitalize on Orlando shooting, then deletes tweet

LONDON — Britain's pro-Brexit campaign "Leave E.U." was harshly criticized by commentators on Monday for a tweet published on the group's official account. "Act now before we see an Orlando-style atrocity here before too long," a graphic accompanying the tweet read. It was deleted about one hour after publication — but screenshots continued to circulate online. A senior MP of Britain's Labour party, Hilary Benn, condemned the ad, calling it "shameful and cowardly." Good to see Leave.EU has found the pro-Brexit angle on the Orlando shooting. https://t.co/QEFOeotU2A Although the tweets come at an extremely sensitive time, Leave E.U.'s line of argument is hardly new. Leave E.U. and other pro-Brexit groups have used the influx of refugees, as well as recent terrorist attacks on mainland Europe, to argue that Britain would be safer if it left the European Union. In its now deleted tweet, the campaign also stated that "the free movement of Kalashnikovs in Europe helps terrorists." Although the availability of Eastern European weapons in Western Europe has indeed been blamed on the absence of borders in the so-called Schengen area, a British departure from the European Union would most likely not change the risk that weapons smuggling poses to the United Kingdom, however. The island nation is not currently part of the Schengen area, which allows it to conduct border controls, and it already has some of Europe's strictest gun laws. Other pro-Brexit advocates have pointed to legal challenges to emphasize that the European Union has made the nation's counterterrorism operations more difficult. In March, Boris Johnson, one of the most high-profile campaigners for a British exit, said that European Union judges were putting Britain at additional risk of terrorist attacks. "I think it is important to put a countervailing point which is that there are some ways now that the European Court of Justice is militating against our ability to control our borders in the way we want to and indeed to maintain proper surveillance," Johnson said. The European Court of Justice had previously ruled that the retention of certain mobile phone data by member states may be illegal. Britain's security agencies are among Europe's strongest advocates for surveillance, and the country has one of the world's highest rates of CCTV coverage. Also read: Shooter’s father says he’s saddened by massacre, calls gunman ‘a good son’ Shifting portraits emerge of shooter as authorities dig into possible terror ties


Nearly six in 10 Americans have leftover narcotics at home

Nearly 165,000 people have died of overdoses from prescription-opioid medications such as oxycodone, hydrocodone and morphine since 2000. According to a survey conducted by the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Agency, half of people who misused prescription painkillers got them from a friend or relative, while 22 percent got them from a doctor. The survey, conducted in 2013 and 2014, also showed that 4.3 million Americans had engaged in "non-medical use" of prescription painkillers in the previous month. In March, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued guidelines that urge doctors to use more caution in prescribing narcotic painkillers. That includes using non-narcotic alternatives, prescribing the lowest effective dose of a drug and limiting the number of doses to the smallest possible. In the Hopkins survey, 57 percent of respondents said they have or expect to have leftover medication. That included more than 60 percent of people who no longer were using the painkillers and 53 percent of those who were still taking them. Almost half said they would hold on to the drugs for future use. Some were expecting to get rid of their leftover pills, either by flushing them down the toilet (14 percent), putting them in the trash (7 percent), throwing them out after mixing them with something to prevent further use (6 percent) or turning them into a drug store or returning them to a "take-back" program (12 percent). Barry said authorized take-back programs, such as those run by the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, are very difficult for most people to find. Drug stores generally will not accept medication containers that have been opened, she said. More troubling, she noted, is that just 21 percent of the people surveyed said they kept their painkillers in a place that locks or latches -- with less than 9 percent saying their medication was in a location that could be locked. "The overwhelming majority with these prescriptions in their homes are keeping them in locations that are very accessible" to young children who might find them accidentally and young adults who might experiment with them, Barry said. That includes nightstands, counter-tops and briefcases. Nearly half of the survey's respondents said they had received no information on safe storage or proper disposal of painkillers. Read more: FDA adds new warning on addiction, overdose and death for prescription opioids Drug users are rescuing each other with antidote naloxone.


Here’s who took home honors from last night’s Rammy Awards

Scott Drewno of the Source took home the Rammy for chef of the year. (Dixie D. Vereen for The Washington Post) On Sunday night, there were awards, acceptance speeches and fancy clothes. The Tonys? Well, sure, those were happening too, but Washington hosted its own bit of glitz and glamour at the 34th annual Rammy Awards. The award ceremony is one of the biggest nights of the year for D.C's restaurant industry (though, of course, you must be a member of the Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington to be eligible). Here are the 2016 winners: Formal Fine Dining Restaurant of the Year: Upscale Casual Restaurant of the Year: Everyday Casual Restaurant of the Year: New Restaurant of the Year: Chef of the Year: Rising Culinary Star of the Year: Pastry Chef of the Year: Wine Program of the Year: Cocktail Program of the Year: Beer Program of the Year: Service Program of the Year: Restaurateur of the Year: Regional Food and Beverage Producer of the Year: Favorite Gathering Place of the Year: Upscale Casual Brunch: Everyday Casual Brunch: Favorite Fast Bites: Employee of the Year: Manager of the Year: Related items: Post critics on Rammy Awards: Time to smell the Rose's Who won at the 2015 Rammy Awards, D.C.'s annual restaurant prom Two restaurants almost got Rammy nominations they weren't eligible for


What Metro could learn from private railroads

the freight rail network to safely and reliably deliver goods as well as people. Many passenger lines such as the Virginia Railway Express and MARC trains operate on freight railroads’ right of way. But the freight railroads’ ability to continually invest the private capital needed to grow and maintain the country’s 140,000-mile rail network, which move critical commodities and on which 1.7 million people every day, requires smart policies by D.C. policymakers. A new report from Towson University finds that major U.S. rail carriers — which maintain “a wide footprint on the economy, impacting many industries and occupations” — support 1.5 million jobs, generate $33 billion in taxes and produce $274 billion in economic activity. Stated differently, railroad spending, which in 2015 is approximately enough to cover the collective value of the top 10 sports teams in the world (including the Redskins), supports nine other jobs throughout the economy, produces more state and local taxes ($12 billion) than 30 states and generates enough economic activity to fund Medicare for nearly 25 million Americans. When accounting for all of the industries it touches, the total 2014 impact of the rail industry spending in one year is nearly the GDP of Finland. All the while, railroads move more intercity freight than any other mode of transportation, reduce congestion and further damage on already-stressed publicly funded roads and cut greenhouse gas emissions an average of 75 percent compared to trucks. They do so with their own money – and do so safely. According to FRA data, recent years have been the safest in rail history, despite incidents the industry undoubtedly want to curb in the future. But these host of benefits remain threatened, which brings us back to one of the problems plaguing the Metro: public policy. The nation’s freight rail industry once faced an uncertain future similar to a metro system unsure of where its revenue will originate. Heavy-handed federal regulation — admittedly different from the hodge-podge structure in place with Metro — prevented freight railroads from earning the revenue to thrive. In that time, 20 percent of the nation’s railroad miles were operated by bankrupt entities, and nearly 50,000 miles across the network faced poor conditions. Yet in 1980, Congress enacted a structure that still allows railroads to earn the revenues needed invest. Railroads can today act like other private businesses, deciding how they compete with one another, manage the various


‘He’s figured out the big roads: Black bear spotted nine times in D.C. suburbs

of this bear: It has figured out how to navigate the region’s traffic. Spiker said researchers know this bear has “spent a lot of time next to bigger roads,” including Interstates 70, 95 and 495. “He’s figured out the big roads and how to cross them without getting hit,” Spiker said, noting the bear has been tracked crossing Interstate 70 at least four times recently. Last week, the same bear held up traffic along Interstate 70 and U.S. 29 when it paused in the middle of the road. Several passersby stopped to take pictures. At one point, the bear lingered for about three weeks in the Howard County areas of Columbia and Ellicott City. “It is not going to settle down in this area,” Spiker said. “It is just a matter of how he gets to a more western part where there are other bears.” There are over 1,000 bears living in western Maryland. Because black bears breed every two years, Spiker said, it is typical that around this time of year the mother bears “kick the youngsters out.” When a mama bear gives birth in January, the cubs stay with the parents for the first year, according to Spiker. But once the next spring comes, the yearlings — as the young bears are called — are “forced to go fend for themselves.” This bear that’s been seen repeatedly, he said, is likely a youngster. “You’ve basically got a bunch of confused teenagers trying to find their own habitat,” he said of spikes in bear sightings in spring. Spiker said his office gets plenty of calls from the public asking why they don’t come out and tranquilize the bear and move it. But he noted that’s not an easy process and that it “doesn’t work like it does on ‘Animal Planet,’ ” referring to the TV channel. He said tranquilizers for the young bears, which can be about 100 to 150 pounds, can take up to 20 minutes to take effect. In that time, the bear has clouded judgment, Spiker said. “And that’s 15 to 20 minutes that it stands the chance of running into traffic or making things worse for people.” His advice for those who see a bear — treat it like a stray dog. Give it plenty of space. “The bear will be running scared,” Spiker said. “He’s had quite the ordeal. He’s just looking for cover.”


Main Street Morning: Walgreens drops Theranos

restaurant apologizes for the death of a customer with a peanut allergy. Sales Marketing - Why Amazon Prime’s next target customer is the Target customer. - As TV cuts its commercials, product placement is worming its way into more and more shows. - Uber introduces a whole new way to take a ride. Finance - Here are three ways to withdraw from your IRA before retirement – penalty free. - How crowdfunded financing for a marijuana software business went up in smoke. Start-ups - A start-up turns leftover beer into delicious snacks. - A start-up that wants to end world hunger is starting with a tiny indoor vertical farm. - How these start-ups are driving an unorganized trucking business towards efficiency. - A new bike repair business is born from the health difficulties of its business owner. Technology - A solar aircraft test flight paves the way for Internet drones. - Walgreens cuts ties with Theranos. Online - Amazon will reportedly launch a standalone music streaming service, challenging Spotify and Apple. - A mobile payment app raises $9 million to tap into the cash economy in Southeast Asia. - WhatsApp can quote messages users want to respond to. Social Media - Why consumers still aren’t buying social media buy buttons. Ideas - Defense researchers plan to bring “GPS” to where it’s never gone before: under the sea. Around the Country - People in suburban Chicago are upset about an adult diaper fetish store. - Small businesses are not optimistic about growth in New York City. - A business owner in Illinois has played an instrumental role in Dairy Queen’s development and is one reason why the corporation is looking to expand its reach and roll out new restaurants throughout Illinois. - A new small business in Bismarck, North Dakota does the things others may not have time for in an effort to create “a community that has time for each other.” - How these Wisconsin female business owners gained solidarity and strength while competing in male-dominated markets. Around the World - Canada’s Prime Minister makes his case for legalizing weed. - Warsaw’s airport suspends landings briefly due to drones. - The battle between rum companies expands as Cuba reopens for business. - Walmart Canada says it will stop accepting Visa, blaming high fees. Gene Marks owns the Marks Group, a Bala Cynwyd PA consulting firm that helps clients with customer


Scientists discover a giant planet that orbits two suns – and could have habitable moons

An artist's impression of the simultaneous stellar eclipse and planetary transit events on Kepler-1647 b. Such a double eclipse event is known as a syzygy. (Lynette Cook) Some worlds have more than one sun in their sky. Now scientists say they've confirmed the existence of the largest-ever planet orbiting a pair of binary stars – a gas giant with the same mass and radius as Jupiter. Exoplanets like this one – situated in their stars' habitable zone and massive enough to lasso in many rocky moons – could be an interesting place to go looking for signs of alien life. The newly confirmed behemoth has been dubbed Kepler-1647 b, and it sits 3,700 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus. At an estimated 4.4 billion years old, it's roughly the same age as Earth. But it's nothing like our home planet. It's what is known as a circumbinary world – one that orbits two suns that dance together as a binary pair – and it's the size of Jupiter, a planet with a diameter more than 11 times that of Earth's. Its suns are pretty similar to our own (one is slightly smaller and the other slightly larger) but, well, there are two of them. An artist's impression of Kepler-1647b. (Lynette Cook) At about 2.7 astronomical units (AUs) from its suns (Earth is 1 AU from ours) Kepler-1647 b is in the habitable zone of its stars. That means it's in the magic sweet spot that experiences the right amount of sunlight and heat to allow liquid water to form. But the planet itself wouldn't actually be home to life as we know it: It's almost entirely made of gas. If it's anything like the gas giants in our solar system, however, it likely has dozens of moons – and just like the moons that orbit Saturn and Jupiter, those little rocky worlds could be great places to look for life like ours. Scientists find exoplanets by measuring the way the light of their host stars dim when the planets "transit," or pass in front of the stars from our perspective. This is way harder to do with circumbinary planets, or CBP. "CBPs are harder to detect because their transits are not strictly periodic," Veselin Kostov, a NASA Goddard postdoctoral fellow and lead author of a soon-to-be-published study on the planet, told The Washington Post in an email. "A planet around


Gen. David Petraeus steps out of the shadows with public appearance at D.C. summit

vice presidential contender. The general defended the use of U.S. military forces abroad, saying that when the United States does not get involved in ungoverned spaces in the Middle East, northern Africa or southwest Asia, Islamist extremists will. The effects of those militant operations will spill into other countries, Petraeus said, citing the “veritable geopolitical Chernobyl” in Syria that has caused a “tsunami of refugees” to flee to European countries. “We’ve got to be involved, and the truth is where we are not, the situation tends to get worse,” Petraeus said, noting the impact that U.S. airstrikes, surveillance and intelligence collection have had in the military campaign against the Islamic State. Petraeus, when asked about the mass shooting early Sunday in Orlando, said that the United States has “very clear, basic principles” and that it is time to return to them. The shooting was carried out by Omar Mateen, 29, who claimed allegiance to the Islamic State, officials said. “We have been an inclusive society,” Petraeus said. “We have welcomed immigrants from around the world. Certainly, you should do the background checks. Certainly, you should safeguard against individuals who wish us ill will. And also, by the way, safeguard against the extremist thinking that has been behind some of these attacks, it’s quite apparent. But we don’t do that by being exclusive, or by hate speech or other types of responses. I think you do that by pulling together.” Shortly before the Orlando massacre, Petraeus and a handful of other former U.S. military officers began the Veterans Coalition for Common Sense, which calls for closing loopholes in background checks that allow felons, domestic abusers and the mentally ill to buy firearms. The group, which Petraeus did not discuss Monday, also calls for partnering with veterans groups on suicide prevention and mental health issues. The general identified several issues that could cause problems for the nation at home, including threats in cyberspace and the growing use of autonomous machines. The latter could require the United States to consider changes to its education system, he said. “This sounds a tiny bit bizarre, but we really have to think through what is going to happen when we have the rise of the robots,” the general said. “We’re facing a situation where machines with greater automation, advanced robotics and the rest, are going to take away jobs that are huge employment opportunities right now.”


Where to dine around Eastern Market, morning, noon and night

aged provolone and olive salad on a toasted sesame seed Italian roll. (Joseph Victor Stefanchik/For The Washington Post) The best lunch deal on the Hill is at Hank's on the Hill, where the set menu costs $13 for one entree and a drink: Choices include lobster roll sliders with Old Bay fries; fried oyster salad; and fish tacos with Mexican corn salad. Pair them with red or white wine, a seasonal punch, a Narragansett tallboy or a non-alcoholic drink. Happy hour starts at 3 p.m. every day, with $1.25 oysters and $4 beers. 633 Pennsylvania Ave. SE. hanksoysterbar.com. Lunch menu available 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday. Happy hour begins at 3 p.m. daily. Chef David Guas brought a taste of his native New Orleans to Pennsylvania Avenue in 2015, opening his second Bayou Bakery in a restored carriage house on the grounds of the Civil War-era Old Naval Hospital. The menu is packed with favorites such as his Muff-A-Lotta, a BLT with Benton's Bacon on Texas toast and grilled pimento cheese sandwiches. There's a kids menu, too, which explains all the families eating in the grassy patio area outside. [Bayou Bakery on Capitol Hill serves beignets with a side of U.S. history] 901 Pennsylvania Ave. SE. bayoubakerydc.com. Lunch served 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on weekdays, 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday and noon to 4 p.m. on Sunday. Night The jukebox at EatBar. (Deb Lindsey/For The Washington Post). Rose's Luxury's popularity hasn't ebbed since it was named Best New Restaurant in America by Bon Appetit in 2014. Aaron Silverman winning Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic at the 2016 James Beard Awards didn't help matters. Unless you're willing to stand in line for hours, you'll need to find somewhere else to dine. Washington Post critic Tom Sietsema gave the nearby Garrison three stars in his 2015 Fall Dining Guide, telling those waiting for Rose's that "down the street awaits consolation that could well turn into competition." Chef Rob Weland stars with a menu starring local vegetables and seasonal salads, though it devotes space to seriously good pasta, local fish, and bison. 524 Eighth St. SE. garrisondc.com. Entrees $27-$30. More playful is Eatbar, also on Barracks Row, a cozy spot where the free-to-play jukebox is full of Fugazi, Sharon Jones, the Clash and Trouble Funk. Nathan Anda, the man behind the Red Apron butcher shops, has a free hand


Scientists just got one step closer to answering one of biology’s greatest mysteries

observed for years under the Green Bank Telescope Prebiotic Interstellar Molecular Survey (PRIMOS). The S (Latin for sinister, left) and R (Latin for rectus, right) versions of the chiral molecule propylene oxide. (B. Saxton (NRAO/AUI/NSF)) The cloud "One plausible theory is that a small excess of left-handed molecules was produced in interstellar space before our solar system was formed, and biochemical processes on the young Earth amplified that initial interstellar excess," said Ben McCall, an astrophysicist from the University of Illinois who wasn't involved in the new study. Chiral molecules have already been detected in meteorites, leading many scientists to suggest that chirality has origins far older than our planet or solar system. "This theory can only be tested by observing chiral molecules in space, and this work sets the stage for such tests," McCall said. If Earth inherited its lefty bias from some kind of phenomenon in the molecular clouds that give birth to our galaxy's stars, it would follow that we'd see more left-handed propylene oxide than right-handed. "We can use this molecule as a kind of tracer to look back in time to how this selection might have happened," McGuire told The Post. Detecting the molecule required a marriage of lab science on Earth and radio telescope observations, he explained. Every molecule has a unique set of frequencies, wavelengths of radio light that it either absorbs or reflects. When a radio telescope looks at a light source shining behind a molecule, it can detect the molecule's presence based on which wavelengths of light that molecule has chewed up and spit out. Scientists test tumbling molecules on Earth to figure out their exact signature, called the spectrum, so that they can recognize those fingerprints in telescope data. "There's no other molecule that could give that exact spectrum," McGuire said. It must be propylene oxide, and that means it has the ability to form on either side of a mirror-edge schism. Propylene oxide itself isn't a molecule of particular significance for life as we know it. "But you really only have to understand one chiral molecule to understand them all," Carroll said. And observing bigger, more complex molecules is much more difficult to do. But after the researchers confirm whether Sagittarius B2's propylene oxide has a chirality bias, tracking down the molecules that helped build life on Earth could be an exciting next step. "Ideally we should strive to


Brexit and political ignorance

The people of Britain will soon be voting in a referendum on Brexit: whether Britain should leave the European Union. Whatever side you support, it is clear that this is an extremely important decision for the future of Britain and Europe. Yet a recent survey by the British polling firm Ipsos MORI finds that most of the British public is ignorant or misinformed about basic facts relevant to the Brexit decision. Here are a few of their findings: EU immigrants: we massively overestimate how many EU-born people now live in the UK. On average we think EU citizens make up 15% of the total UK population (which would be around 10.5m people), when in reality it’s 5% (around 3.5m people). Those who intend to vote to leave overestimate EU immigration more: they think 20% of the UK population are EU immigrants, compared with the average guess of 10% among those who intend to vote “remain”…. Child Benefit: we massively overestimate the proportion of Child Benefit awards given to families in other European countries. The actual proportion of UK Child Benefit awards going on children living abroad in Europe is 0.3%, but 14% of us think that 30% of UK Child Benefit goes to children abroad and 23% of us think 13% does. This means that nearly 4 in 10 of us think the number of children in EU countries receiving Child Benefit from the UK is 40 to 100 times the actual level… Inward investment from EU countries: we underestimate how much investment into the UK comes from EU countries. The average guess is that they contribute 30% of total investment into the UK, when it actually makes up almost half (48%). This perception gap is mirrored by an overestimation of investment from China, which people think makes up 19% of inward investment but actually only accounts for 1%. Overestimation of the number of EU immigrants and the amount of child benefit they get is significant because fear of immigration is one of the main arguments put forward by the “leave” side. Underestimation investment by EU countries in Britain is relevant because one of the main arguments of the “remain” side is that Britain will suffer serious economic harm from leaving the EU (which might well end free trade and investment between Britain and other current EU members). Significantly, most of the examples of ignorance relevant to Brexit described in


Obama lashes out at Trump, says using the phrase ‘radical Islam’ is ‘not a strategy’

in the United States, as was one of the perpetrators in the mass shooting in San Bernardino, Calif., in December and the gunman at a mass shooting at the Fort Hood military installation in Texas in 2014. As he has in the past, the president warned that using inflamed rhetoric about Muslims and Islam threatens to play into the motives of terrorist groups that use propaganda to portray a U.S. war against Islam and recruit new members. Here is President Obama's full speech after he met with his national security team in the wake of the shooting at an Orlando nightclub. “That’s not the America we want,” said Obama, who will travel to Orlando on Thursday to pay respects to the victims and their families. “It does not reflect our democratic ideals. It won’t make us more safe, it will make us less safe, fueling ISIL’s notion that the West hates Muslims, making young Muslims in this country and around the world feel like, no matter what they do, they’re going to be under suspicion and under attack.” The president added that such rhetoric “betrays the very values America stands for. We have gone through moments in our history before when we acted out of fear, and we came to regret it. We have seen our government mistreat our fellow citizens, and it has been a shameful part of our history.” But Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.), a member of the Homeland Security Committee, took issue with Obama in a written statement. “You’re wrong,” he said. “Telling the truth about violent Islam is a prerequisite to a strategy — a strategy you admitted you don’t have. It is the Commander-in-Chief’s duty to actually identify our enemies and to help the American people understand the challenge of violent Islam.” Rep. Ed Royce (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said that Obama “still doesn’t have a plan to defeat ISIS. The White House’s inaction and ineptness allowed these radical Islamist terrorists to spread across Syria, Iraq and Libya." The president spoke after meeting with his national security advisers for an update on the campaign against the Islamic State, part of a series of meetings outside the White House he started last year as a way of bringing more attention to the issue. Summarizing a largely positive review after the closed-door session, he provided no new details, but said that the “campaign


Deadly diseases can jump from animals to humans. These maps show where that might happen next.

This map shows overlapping geographic ranges of zoonotic diseases carried by wild terrestrial mammal host species from 27 orders. Purple and pink areas have the highest diversity of zoonotic diseases. (Drew Kramer via Cell Press) In a forest in Cameroon, a tiny, virulent virus leapt from a single infected chimpanzee carcass into a human's blood, giving him HIV. Near a tree in the Guinean village Meliandou, children at play may have captured and eaten a tiny Angolan free-tailed bat, ingesting the Ebola virus that would launch a deadly epidemic. Somewhere on the Arabian peninsula, a herdsman got too close to the runny nose of a camel and unwittingly infected himself with Middle East Respiratory Syndrome. Of all the ailments that plague people, the majority began like these three: with a bacteria, virus, parasite or other pathogen that jumped from an innocuous animal host to the human population. Figuring out where the next spillover will take place is a question that keeps public health experts up at night. But there's no global database documenting where these kinds of infections — called zoonoses — might be lying in wait. So Barbara Han, a disease ecologist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, N.Y., decided to map them. "What we really want to do is shift the strategy from one of being defensive — always running around putting out fires — to one that's preemptive," she said. "One step toward that goal is to figure out where things are, what's carrying the known diseases and what's their distribution." A worker wears a mouth and nose mask to avoid contracting MERS as he touches a camel at a farm on May 12, 2014, outside Riyadh. (Fayez Nureldine/AFP/Getty Images) Drawing on hundreds of studies of emerging zoonotic diseases that come from mammals (other mammals, being our close relatives, are the largest source of zoonotic outbreaks in humans), Han tracked what classes of creature harbor the most known human pathogens, and where those reservoirs are most likely to be found. The results, published Tuesday in the journal Trends in Parasitology, are complicated and at times surprising. She uncovered no overarching trends in the prevalence of zoonoses, no single factor that health officials can hone in on when pinpointing spots with the potential for an outbreak. But she did identify several classes of animals and regional hot spots to keep an eye on. "It's a


in Millbrook, N.Y., decided to map them. "What we really want to do is shift the strategy from one of being defensive — always running around putting out fires — to one that's preemptive," she said. "One step toward that goal is to figure out where things are, what's carrying the known diseases and what's their distribution." A worker wears a mouth and nose mask to avoid contracting MERS as he touches a camel at a farm on May 12, 2014, outside Riyadh. (Fayez Nureldine/AFP/Getty Images) Drawing on hundreds of studies of emerging zoonotic diseases that come from mammals (other mammals, being our close relatives, are the largest source of zoonotic outbreaks in humans), Han tracked what classes of creature harbor the most known human pathogens, and where those reservoirs are most likely to be found. The results, published Tuesday in the journal Trends in Parasitology, are complicated and at times surprising. She uncovered no overarching trends in the prevalence of zoonoses, no single factor that health officials can hone in on when pinpointing spots with the potential for an outbreak. But she did identify several classes of animals and regional hot spots to keep an eye on. "It's a hard game to play because there's hundreds and hundreds of combinations of different zoonoses and carriers," Han said. She compared the study to "opening a Pandora's Box." "We'd hoped to find a unifying theme, and instead there's just 45 more questions that need to be answered." Going into the review, Han had assumed that zoonotic diseases would be focused in the tropics, which have the greatest number of mammal species. "Biodiversity begets biodiversity," Han said. "That pattern is sort of biogeographical dogma." Instead, the number of zoonoses was no greater near the equator than it was anywhere else in the world. Indeed, one of the geographic hot spots Han identified was a band across the sparsely populated global subarctic. Although there were relatively few reservoir species in Alaska, northern Canada and northern Russia, the number of zoonoses there was about the same as in the tropics. This meant that each host was likely to harbor a larger and more diverse set of zoonoses, increasing the likelihood that one could make the jump from animals to humans. Global hot spots of zoonotic diseases, grouped by mammal type. (Drew Kramer via Cell Press) Other hot spots included Europe, which has a huge


hard game to play because there's hundreds and hundreds of combinations of different zoonoses and carriers," Han said. She compared the study to "opening a Pandora's Box." "We'd hoped to find a unifying theme, and instead there's just 45 more questions that need to be answered." Going into the review, Han had assumed that zoonotic diseases would be focused in the tropics, which have the greatest number of mammal species. "Biodiversity begets biodiversity," Han said. "That pattern is sort of biogeographical dogma." Instead, the number of zoonoses was no greater near the equator than it was anywhere else in the world. Indeed, one of the geographic hot spots Han identified was a band across the sparsely populated global subarctic. Although there were relatively few reservoir species in Alaska, northern Canada and northern Russia, the number of zoonoses there was about the same as in the tropics. This meant that each host was likely to harbor a larger and more diverse set of zoonoses, increasing the likelihood that one could make the jump from animals to humans. Global hot spots of zoonotic diseases, grouped by mammal type. (Drew Kramer via Cell Press) Other hot spots included Europe, which has a huge population of rodent and small insectivores, and Southeast Asia, which possesses a worrying combination of mammalian diversity and large human population packed into a relatively small land mass. The research also gives a sense of what sorts of creatures public health experts should be keeping an eye on, and it's not necessarily the ones you'd expect. Although rodents are the most diverse order of mammals, with more than 2,200 species, they harbored about the same number of zoonotic diseases as the carnivores, which have just 10 percent as many members. The carnivores are also most likely to be reservoirs for disease: Of the 285 member species, almost exactly half carry pathogens that can infect humans. Han noted that there are many gaps in her data: She was surveying previous research, so she could measure only the number of pathogens for species other researchers had documented. She's aware that some of the data may be skewed by sampling bias. For example, perhaps the apparent prevalence of zoonoses in Europe is due to the fact that governments in wealthy nations have more money to spend on public health research on potential zoonotic reservoirs. But the maps are a good start, Han said.


WHO: Zika risk not high enough to postpone or move 2016 Olympics

Margaret Chan to exert pressure on Olympic authorities. More than 8,500 citizens from Spain and various Latin American countries also signed a petition requesting that the WHO and the International Olympic Committee postpone the Olympic Games. Maracana Stadium, right, which will be a venue during the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.(Matt McClain/ The Washington Post) But other public health officials, including Tom Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, have said there is no public health reason to postpone or move the Games. Aylward said about 20 percent of the world lives in a Zika-affected region, and 30 percent of global travel already is "in and out of Zika-affected areas of the world." He said the proportion of travel affected by the Olympics, which is expected to draw up to 500,000 visitors, is "very marginal." Aylward also sought to clarify a WHO recommendation issued last week about ways to avoid sexual transmission of the virus. As part of its overall guidance to avoid having babies with birth defects, the WHO said "men and women of reproductive age" living in Zika-affected regions should "be correctly informed and oriented to consider delaying pregnancy." The guidance drew widespread attention because the WHO had not previously made such a recommendation. Aylward said Tuesday that the agency's intention was to provide clarification about one of the options. "It was misconstrued as a change in WHO advice, but it was not," he said. Pregnancy remains "very much an individual decisions," he said. Everything you ever wanted to know about the Zika virus and its spread across North and South America. The WHO and other public health agencies, including the CDC, have said pregnant women should skip the Olympics. NBC “Today” show anchor Savannah Guthrie said last week that she is expecting her second child and will not be going to Rio. Pregnant women infected with the virus during their first trimester face as high as a 13 percent chance that their fetus will develop microcephaly, according to research published last month that analyzed data from one of the most affected areas in Brazil. Read more: 150 experts say Olympics must be moved or postponed because of Zika US to send rapid response teams when Zika hits here Superbug found in second pig in U.S. CDC confirms Zika virus causes microcephaly Why pregnant women and their doctors are so worried about Zika


A U.S. restaurant is No. 3 on the 2016 World’s 50 Best Restaurants list

Eleven Madison Park chef Daniel Humm. (Courtesy Adrian Mueller) The famed New York restaurant Eleven Madison Park was named the third-best restaurant in the world last night, an honor that hasn’t been awarded to an American restaurant in — fittingly — 11 years. “We were definitely hopeful to move up a little bit,” said chef and co-owner Daniel Humm. “It’s unbelievable, it’s an incredible honor.” Eleven Madison Park is known for its refined, seven-to-nine course tasting menus, which are $295 excluding beverages. The restaurant was founded in 1998 by restaurateur Danny Meyer as a French brasserie, but in the years since, it has become world-renowned for elegant fine dining, earning three Michelin stars. Eleven Madison Park follows Osteria Francescana in Modena, Italy, which rose to the top spot on the list for the first time. Francescana claimed first place from El Celler de Can Roca, which dropped to second place this year. Eleven Madison Park claimed the third spot from Noma, Rene Redzepi’s Copenhagen restaurant that ushered in a Scandinavian food craze, dropping to fifth place this year in a major upset. The World’s 50 Best Restaurants ranking is an annual list produced by culinary professionals, food writers and other members of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants Academy, a spinoff from the UK magazine Restaurant, which used to calculate the rankings. The list itself has risen in stature over the years — some say it has even surpassed the longstanding Michelin Guide as the top-ranked restaurant ranking in the world. The awards were announced Monday night in New York at a splashy ceremony attended by chefs from around the world. Chef Massimo Bottura (C) celebrates his #1 Best Restaurant Award with the top 50 chefs at the World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2016 Awards at Cipriani Wall Street on June 13, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for Lavazza) You’ll need a passport and a lot of cash to dine at the restaurants on this list. The top 50 is dominated by Spanish restaurants, which take seven of the spots, and the majority of the restaurants are in Europe. But the Unied States is close behind. Five other restaurants made the list: Chicago’s Alinea (No. 15), New York’s Le Bernardin (No. 24), San Francisco’s Saison (a first-timer at No. 27), New York’s Estela (another debut at No. 44) and Blue Hill at Stone Barns, in Pocantico Hills,


Forest Hills estate sells for record $9.1 million

(HomeVisit) While everyone knows D.C. home prices are high, every once in a while a super-sale occurs. The Tudor-style estate at 3134 Ellicott St. NW recently broke records for the most expensive home sale so far in 2016 in the entire metro area. Listed at $10 million by Nancy Taylor Bubes with Washington Fine Properties, the home sold after just 25 days on the market for $9.1 million. Christie-Anne Weiss and Christopher Ritzert, agents with TTR Sotheby’s International Realty, represented the buyers. The Forest Hills property includes 1.1 acres with a swimming pool, perennial gardens, mature trees, a guest house with two bedrooms and a Tudor-style stone home that has been renovated and expanded. (HomeVisit) The main house has more than 6,500 square feet, including six bedrooms and 10 baths. The first level features a great room with a cathedral ceiling and exposed beams, an adjacent clubroom with a cathedral ceiling and an upgraded kitchen that opens to a family room. The finished lower level has an open living area and an exercise room. To pass on a tip or item, contact us at realestate@washpost.com and put “Town Square” in the subject line.


What would Britain look like post-Brexit? Here are four possibilities.

Could a post-Brexit Britain look a little more like Switzerland? (Peter Schneider/EPA) When Britons go to the polls on June 23, they will have the opportunity to jettison their country’s membership in the European Union — an outcome popularly known as Brexit. But the ballot won’t say anything about what should replace E.U. membership. That will be up to negotiators — representing Britain on one side and the governments of the 27 other E.U. member nations on the other — who will spend the next two years hammering out the terms of divorce if Britain votes to leave. Pro-Brexit campaigners have said that Britain will continue to swap goods and services with E.U. nations; those imports and exports now make up about half the country’s trade volume. Brexit advocates also say that Britain will be free from stultifying Brussels bureaucracy once it leaves the E.U. But how will that actually work? And what are the chances that Britain’s post-Brexit reality will match the rhetoric of those advocating for “out”? Those arguing for “in” say Brexit would be a leap in the dark, with leading economists warning of dire consequences. On June 23, Britain faces a fateful decision: whether or not to leave the European Union. And the world will be watching. A post-Brexit Britain would have a number of different models to choose from based on the experiences of other countries that exist outside the E.U. but still do business with the bloc. Here are four options, with the pros and cons for each. Norway/Iceland/Liechtenstein Pros: Cons: Switzerland Pros: Cons: Canada Pros: Cons: World Trade Organization Pros: Cons: Read more: After poisonous campaign, British vote on E.U. ties shapes up as cliffhanger Europe worries Brexit vote could trigger a stampede of exits John Oliver explains the 'insane' Brexit vote to the rest of the world


It’s almost time for Fare Well, the new plant-based diner coming to H Street NE

one of her own, with, of course, the twist she has become known for at her Sticky Fingers bakery: Everything is plant-based. Her goal was to offer the "delicious and fun" fare -- breakfasts, baked goods, etc. -- diners are known for, but in adaptations that would still be recognizable, or "not scary," to omnivorous customers. "There's something for everyone. That's always been my goal," Petersan said. In addition to being part of the local diner boom, Fare Well will be opening amid a bit of a vegan wave with other recent arrivals such as Shouk and HipCityVeg. Some Fare Well offerings riff on the Italian and Greek dishes those Northern diners are known for, things like pastas, Greek salads and calzones. Nods to deli-style specialties include knishes and bagels. Breakfast -- all-day, naturally -- will feature French toast casserole, polenta biscuit sliders, seitan and waffles, Greek omelets and chilaquiles. Also intriguing: A Buffalo cauliflower dip, which is kind of like a souffle, Petersan said. The bakery will also be a major component, not only in terms of the housemade breads (challah, focaccia, etc.) but also pastries (croissants, scones, danishes) and desserts (Neapolitan cake, anyone?). The drinks Classic and contemporary cocktails, plus beer and wine on tap. Oh, and boozy milkshakes, made with coconut-based ice cream. There also will be a coffee counter. The space In its 2,600 square feet, Fare Well has seating for more than 40 people across the dining and bar areas. Petersan said she was going for the look of a traditional diner with contemporary flourishes, which architecture and design firm Grupo7 brought to life. The first thing you'll notice upon walking in is the sweets case, where there will be a grab-and-go counter with savory items as well. The Fare Well interior is a little retro and a little modern. (April Greer) For seitan and waffles, the gluten-based protein is battered, fried and served with Sriracha and maple syrup. (April Greer) Fare Well will serve dishes made with its own dairy-free cheese, including this burrata. (April Greer) Pierogi at Fare Well. (April Greer) The Neapolitan cake (vanilla, chocolate and strawberry) at Fare Well. (April Greer) Related items: The next frontier for vegan restaurants? Not calling yourself a vegan restaurant. D.C.'s diner boom shows that the more things change, the more they stay the same HipCityVeg and its plant-based riffs on fast food are almost here


This gas leak was so massive that NASA saw it from space

knowledge, anyway — we’ve been able to see the methane plume from space,” Thompson said. “And this is important because it sort of presages the possibility of using other instruments that are focused on methane in order to do similar things on a much wider scale.” Here’s an image that NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory released to accompany the research: Comparison of detected methane plumes over Aliso Canyon, California, acquired 11 days apart in Jan. 2016 by: (left) NASA’s AVIRIS instrument on a NASA ER-2 aircraft at 4.1 miles (6.6 kilometers) altitude and (right) by the Hyperion instrument on NASA’s Earth Observing-1 satellite in low-Earth orbit. (NASA-JPL/Caltech/GSFC) The Hyperion spectrometer is an optical instrument that scans in “many hundreds of wavelengths,” Thompson said, which allows for the identification of specific gases. “Every gas leaves its fingerprint on the light that passes through it,” he continued. “So what the algorithms we applied do is they examine the imagery from the spacecraft to see the very unique spectral signature of methane, and then map it over wide locations.” This was possible even though the spacecraft that carries Hyperion is currently drifting in its orbit, having long since run out of fuel, and despite the fact that the spectrometer was not designed to make measurements of methane. All of this meant that the instrument was “severely handicapped,” the researchers write. So future, more strategically tailored methane measurements could be considerably more accurate. The work comes at a time when remote imaging technologies, more and more, are helping scientists understand the global distribution and major sources of air pollution. Recently, another satellite-based study identified dozens of new, major sources of sulfur pollution around the globe. Improving methane leak observations will not only allow more precise estimates of how much countries are contributing to the atmospheric greenhouse gas burden — a key goal of the Paris climate agreement — but will help track the hardest hitting gases in particular, such as methane. While it has a far shorter atmospheric lifetime than carbon dioxide, methane causes far more warming than an equivalent amount of CO2 while it lasts, making large releases particularly consequential. The space-based gas spotting trend will only increase, based upon the new research and further improvements of it. “Future satellite systems that focus on methane could be much more sensitive to an event like this one,” Thompson said. Read more at Energy Environment: 30


SpaceX’s latest rocket landing ended in a ‘rapid unscheduled disassembly’

The failure comes as the company appeared to successfully deliver two satellites to orbit. Elon Musk's SpaceX failed to complete what would have been its fifth landing of a reusable booster rocket Wednesday, a down note on what appeared to be an otherwise successful mission to deliver two Boeing-built communication satellites to high orbit above the Earth. "Falcon 9 was lost in this attempt," the company said in its webcast. As the satellites headed on their way Wednesday, the booster rocket began its descent toward the ocean for a landing on a special floating platform. Video footage of the attempt seemed to show the booster touching down, then flames, before the picture froze. Lots of ooh’s and ahh’s because there was so much smoke that NO ONE AT SPACEX KNOWS WHAT HAPPENED https://t.co/B7b3VgIJw0 As with previous attempts, SpaceX had said landing the reusable booster rocket would be made more difficult by the fact that it would be falling from higher up. And, the company said, the rocket would have less fuel than normal to control its descent. SpaceX founder Elon Musk later tweeted that it appeared the the thrust in one of three landing engines was insufficient, causing the rocket to come in far too fast. In what he said may have been SpaceX's "hardest impact" ever, the booster ultimately suffered an RUD, or "rapid unscheduled disassembly." Upgrades to compensate for the problem could come by year's end, said Musk. Ascent phase & satellites look good, but booster rocket had a RUD on droneship SpaceX believes its landing technology represents the future of space exploration. Previous spacecrafts launched by NASA and other companies historically relied on disposable booster rockets, which increased the cost of getting to outer space. By recovering the booster rocket and using it again, SpaceX argues it can significantly cut the cost of missions — an achievement that could make space launches more economical and more common. SpaceX had successfully landed boosters on land and at sea four times before. But Wednesday's crash-landing is a reminder that pulling off such a task remains a technically challenging feat. Despite the latest setback, SpaceX officials said they had nevertheless gathered a wealth of performance data that will help inform the next attempt. Related: The rockets that will take you to space


Main Street Morning: As Greenland’s ice melts, tourism sees new growth

How Costco turned a century-old business back into a start-up. Entrepreneurs - What a near-death experience taught an entrepreneur about survival in business. Retail - A study reveals that many consumer goods retailers and manufacturers are transforming to maintain a competitive edge. Sales Marketing - Website creator platform Squarespace introduces new analytics for its commerce-focused customers - This is the ad campaign that convinced Americans to pay for water. - Intuit launches a global search for the firms of the future. Travel - American and United plan to join Delta in offering no-frills, stripped-down seats. - A survey reveals that small business owners realize the benefits of vacations, but still struggle to unplug. Finance - Why Microsoft, with $100 billion of cash, wants to borrow $26 billion to purchase LinkedIn. - How your online identity affects your business loan application. Start-ups - An influential academic who helped define a new wave of networking is laying plans to unleash the next, hoping to displace chips that have long held a dominant position in the field. - A family-run start-up turns the hat industry on its head. Online - Here are 17 e-commerce growth hacks to try this month. - A service claims to crawl the Dark Web to detect future cybercrime. - Google brings “intelligent search” to business users. - Why local, local, local matters for your online business. - A new online platform is trying to fill empty seats in classrooms. Social Media - Facebook will track whether ads lead to store visits and offline purchases. - Pinterest adds site and app retargeting to its ad-targeting options. - Snapchat is becoming popular with the older generation. Ideas - These students are developing bacteria that eats plastic pollution. Around the Country - How this little Louisville company is helping to change health care. - In Philly, the soda industry is on the verge of losing one of its biggest battles ever. - The largest crowdfunding campaign in GoFundMe’s history raises more than $3 million for the Orlando shooting victims. - Tallahassee, Florida weighs an end to its business license tax. - The birth of a child creates a dilemma for family business in Hull, Massachusetts. - Local businesses in Pittsburgh have profited from the Penguins championship run. - According to new IMF data, California is now the sixth-largest economy worldwide. Around the World - Here’s what to expect if Britain votes


NASA just set a fire in space — on purpose

began the largest intentional fire ever set in space. The capsule that contained the experiment held a video camera and other sensors, as well as an exhaust system to keep air moving through to feed the flames. With a radio signal from scientists at NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, a hot wire touched a towel-sized card of woven cotton and fiberglass. Within seconds, there was fire. Gary Ruff, project manager of the experiment dubbed "Saffire I" (a portmanteau of "safe" and "fire"), watched closely as data streamed down to his desk at NASA Glenn. By the morning after the fire, he could tell that it took eight minutes for the material to burn — a lot longer than it would have taken on Earth. He also knew that the Cygnus's smoke alarm had gone off — good news for spacecraft fire safety. Saffire I was the first of three experiments aimed at understanding how fire behaves in microgravity. "We want to know how big can a fire get, how rapidly does it grow, how rapidly do the conditions inside the vehicle change?" Ruff said. That knowledge will help NASA refine its computational models for space fires, choose better materials for building spacecraft and develop procedures for fighting fire. These concerns are becoming more and more pressing, Ruff added, as NASA gets closer and closer to its first long-distance manned mission in space: a trip to Mars. The years-long trip offers plenty of opportunity for something to go wrong, and astronauts need to be prepared to fight any fires, literal and otherwise. Smaller experiments conducted at space stations — and a few larger, unintentional ones — have shown that fire can be unpredictable and dangerously tenacious in the absence of gravity. The worst accident happened in 1990, when an oxygen generator on board the Russian Mir space station malfunctioned and was set ablaze. "The fire spewed with angry intensity, sparks – resembling an entire box of sparklers ignited simultaneously – extended a foot or so beyond the flame’s furthest edge," Jerry Linenger, an American astronaut on board the space station at the time, wrote in his book "Off the Planet." "Beyond the sparks, I saw what appeared to be melting wax splattering on the bulkhead opposite the blaze. But it was not melting max. It was molten metal. The fire was so hot that it was melting metal." The fire


10 great things to eat and drink at D.C.-area farmers markets

onigirazu from Filling Good. (Becky Krystal/The Washington Post) Filling Good’s beef onigirazu at the Downtown Fairfax Coalition Community Farmers’ Market $5.50-$7.50. Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. through at least July at 10500 Page Ave., Fairfax. At her Filling Good stand, Joyce Chan sells a version of Japanese onigirazu that’s like a sushi burrito but smaller and more sandwich-like. Wrapped in nori with a layer of sushi rice, the onigirazu come with one of three fillings: bacon, avocado and egg; bulgogi beef; and chicken teriyaki. The beef onigirazu, pepped up with Sriracha and miso tahini, is made crunchy with sprouts and carrots. — Becky Krystal Chocolate almond croissant from Bonaparte Breads. (Becky Krystal/The Washington Post) Bonaparte Breads’ chocolate almond croissant at the Fairlington Farmers Market $3.95. Sundays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at 3308 S. Stafford St., Arlington. Also at the Shaw, Baltimore Museum of Industry, Columbia Pike, Brookland, Columbia Heights, Chevy Chase, Glover Park, Vienna, Falls Church, McLean and Annandale markets and their shop in Savage, Md. Bonaparte Breads are a familiar presence at almost a dozen markets throughout the region, and deservedly so. Their handcrafted pastries, made with high-fat European butter, would not feel out of place in Paris. The chocolate almond croissant, a variety of the bakery’s signature item, is generously spread with egg-white-lightened almond paste on top and in the middle, where you’ll also find two veins of dark French chocolate. — Becky Krystal Panorama Bakery's salmon quiche. (Kara Elder/The Washington Post.) Panorama Bakery’s salmon quiche at the Bloomingdale Farmers’ Market $5. Sundays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at First and R streets NW. Also at the 14, White House, Petworth, Marymount and Southwest D.C. markets. It can be hard to look beyond the croissants, macarons and kouign-amanns sitting at the Panorama Bakery stand, but if you’re craving something savory, the salmon quiche fits the bill. Each hefty slice is filled with generous layers of Atlantic salmon and spinach, bound with milk, heavy cream, eggs and Parmesan cheese. The quiche is sturdy enough to eat with your hands on its own. Paired with a green salad, it makes for a fine post-market lunch. You did buy salad greens, right? — Kara Elder Read more: - Where to dine around Eastern Market, morning, noon and night - The 40 most essential D.C. restaurant dishes of 2016 - New beer gardens pop up across Washington


Not just the DNC: Five more hacks the West has tied to Russia

one of the most sophisticated actors we’ve seen,” a senior American official said. Russian President Vladimir Putin, by his own admission, does not use a cellphone, and rarely uses computers. 2. Ukraine power grid hack On the evening of Dec. 23, 2015, hackers seized control of a west Ukrainian power grid, opening up circuit breakers and knocking out power substations in a lightning-quick attack that eventually plunged 230,000 Ukrainians into darkness. One worker at the Prykarpattyaoblenergo control center in Ukraine's Ivano-Frankivsk region told Wired about watching his computer's cursor, controlled remotely, magically glide across his computer screen and "click open one breaker after another," then cut power to the control center itself. The publication called it a "first-of-its-kind attack that set an ominous precedent for the safety and security of power grids everywhere." Ukraine quickly pointed the finger at Russia, with which Kiev was locked in conflict over the annexation of Crimea and support for separatists in the country's Donbas region. The United States did not comment on the source of the attack, and one of the companies investigating the breach said it could not say with certainty who was behind it. The head of Germany's BfV intelligence agency in an interview with Agence France-Presse blamed Russia for the breach, calling it an element of Russia's "hybrid warfare." 3. Estonia denial-of-service attacks As tempers flared in 2007 over Estonia's removal of a six-foot bronze statue of a Soviet soldier, the country came under a concerted, weeks-long cyberattack that targeted the computer networks of major commercial banks, government agencies and media outlets, even knocking ATMs temporarily offline. It was an early demonstration of the power of denial-of-service attacks, which effectively paralyzed the Estonian government, largely seen as one of the world's most technologically savvy (sometimes called the "e-government"). NATO, which at the time did not define cyberattacks as military action, dispatched top cyber-terrorism experts to the country. Estonia blamed Russia, saying that many of the attacks were coming from Russian state computer servers. The United States and NATO have never formally accused Russia of the attacks. Georgia accused Russia of launching similar cyberattacks during a five-day war in 2008. 4. German steel mill meltdown In December 2014, the German Federal Office for Information Security announced that hackers had broken into computers at an unnamed German steel mill and hijacked a blast furnace, preventing operators from shutting it off. It was a


For the second time ever, scientists detected gravitational waves from colliding black holes

specially developed software. Being able to detect a weaker signal is useful for several reasons: Smaller black holes spend more time merging before their massive gravity pulls them together, and it’s during this brief window that LIGO can detect the waves they produce. The signal of the second event lasted for an entire second — almost 10 times longer than the first — which allowed scientists to glean more information about the behavior of the two black holes. The detection of smaller black holes makes some LIGO researchers hope that they’ll soon detect the interactions of ultra-dense neutron stars, which are even less massive and very poorly understood. “Our experience with this new black-hole binary gives us confidence that we can detect — in near real-time with our present techniques — systems with very small amplitudes as we expect for binary neutron stars,” Pennsylvania State University’s Chad Hanna, who led the group that developed the software, said in a statement. “We now have good reason to believe that the future for gravitational-wave astronomy and multi-messenger astrophysics is bright.” While Hanna isn’t the only team member who’s optimistic about detecting neutron stars, González is a little more cautious. LIGO is going to do another round of data collection starting this fall, but she suspects that the signals produced by these mysterious stars will still be too weak to detect — unless they happen to catch one that’s very close by. That doesn’t mean they won’t be trying. González hopes to see the detection of strange new systems with the help of improved detectors and analytical software. And even if it takes years — or even a totally new kind of detector — to find something new, the LIGO teem is now confident that they’ll be seeing plenty more black hole collisions. “We like to say that we now have put the ‘O’ in LIGO,” González said. The facility isn’t a theoretical instrument anymore: It’s an observatory, and it’s going to be kept very, very busy. A look at the best photos of space. Read More: Everything you need to know about gravitational waves (in gifs) This is what it looks like when a black hole tears a star apart Scientists just smashed the distance record for quantum teleportation The new biggest thing in the universe, and why it’s a headache for scientists A brief history of gravity, gravitational waves and LIGO


How would a ‘Brexit’ vote affect your life? Share your thoughts with us.

A boat that is part of a "Brexit flotilla" campaigning for Britain to leave the European Union sails under Westminster Bridge toward Parliament in London. (Niklas Halle'n/AFP) On June 23, Britons will go to the polls to decide whether their country should remain part of the European Union. It's a complicated decision — the European Union is one of the world's most important institutions, but it is also one of its most confusing and opaque. We know that if Britain decides to leave the bloc, it will have a huge effect on the nation. But whether it will be a net positive or a net negative is a matter of debate. The Washington Post is seeking the perspective of readers who think their life would change if Britain votes to leave the European Union. We want to hear not only from Britons who will be voting in the polls next week but also from others in Europe and even farther afield who think a British exit would affect them personally. Just as important, we want to hear from those who think it will be good as well as those who think it will be bad — and even those who think the importance of the vote is exaggerated. You can use the submission form below to send us your thoughts on how a 'Brexit' might affect you. Please note: If you fill out this form, we may publish your submission. We may also contact you for more information. More on WorldViews The bizarre Brexit flotilla battle that rocked London, explained Quiz: What do you actually know about the E.U.? Obama’s support for the E.U. is driving some Brits mad What’s a ‘Brexit’? A guide to Britain’s E.U. drama for confused non-Europeans.


Updated: Superbug found in Illinois and South Carolina

have been looking for the gene since its emergence in pigs and people in China was reported late last year. There have since been dozens more reports in animals and people on three continents. The number of positive cases in animals is about 20 times that in humans, so researchers say it's not that surprising that two pig samples have tested positive in the United States. Public health officials' biggest fear is that the gene will spread to bacteria that are now susceptible only to colistin. In all three cases here, the gene was carried on a plasmid, a mobile piece of DNA that easily can transfer the gene to other bacteria. That would result in a kind of super-superbug, invincible to every life-saving antibiotic available. Appearing before a congressional hearing Tuesday on antibiotic resistance, a top expert at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it is essential to slow the spread of resistant bacteria. "Antibiotic resistance is perhaps the single most important infectious disease threat of our time," Beth Bell, who heads prevention and control of a wide range of infectious diseases at the CDC, said in her written statement. "The identification of the mcr-1 gene vividly illustrates the domestic and global challenges of antibiotic resistance," she told members of the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on oversight and investigations. The gene was first identified last November "and in less than six months, it has been found in a human and two animals in the U.S." According to Bell, the investigation by the agency and the Pennsylvania health department into the woman's case is currently focused on identifying and screening contacts she had at home and while a hospital patient to determine whether any might carry bacteria with the mcr-1 gene. The patient was treated at a military outpatient facility in Pennsylvania, and the antibiotic-resistant strain of bacteria was found in her urine. The patient was treated with other types of antibiotics and is fine, officials have said. Bell said the CDC has been able to verify that the patient no longer has the bacteria in her urine. A national surveillance system that includes the CDC, USDA and the Food and Drug Administration has analyzed more than 55,000 bacterial samples collected from food animals, retail meats and people. None has contained the gene. As part of that effort, the USDA's Agricultural Research Service has been looking through


Why this start-up wants to put vegetables you’ve never heard of on your dinner table

Farmer Rogelio Bautista, who sells produce to Blue Apron, works his land with a tractor tiller. (Yana Paskova for The Washington Post) G Fairy tale eggplants are hardly a staple of the American dinner table and are nearly nonexistent in supermarkets. And yet, Blue Apron, the meal-kit delivery service, has plenty of use for them: The company expects to buy half a million pounds of them this year. In fact, executives think they are buying literally the entire commercial supply of the obscure produce. They plan to do the same with Shokichi Shiro squash, Atlas carrots and at least 40 other specialty crops this year. Blue Apron's vegetable binge is helping the young company build a fast, almost-cult following among people who want to prepare original home-cooked meals without the fuss of dealing with a shopping list. And it is hardly alone. Investors have poured hundreds of millions of dollars into a wave of ambitious start-ups with names like Plated and Sun Basket that are aiming to take a piece of a grocery industry that has proven difficult to disrupt. Each meal-delivery player has its own hook: HelloFresh has enlisted celebrity chef Jamie Oliver to whip up exclusive recipes, while Marley Spoon is doing the same with Martha Stewart. Purple Carrot, backed by former New York Times food columnist Mark Bittman, touts plans for vegans. PeachDish promises customers seasonal food with Southern flair. Humans have been genetically manipulating fruits and vegetables for thousands of years through selective cultivation. Once we started cultivating wild plants, fruits and vegetables got a lot more colorful. Earlier upstarts tried to win over shoppers by delivering food to their doorsteps and saving them a trip to the grocery store. The dinner-in-a-box companies, though, are betting that they can bypass the supermarket altogether by adding the convenience of curating recipes and portions so that all families have to do is chop and stir and fire up the stove. It's still too soon to know whether they will ultimately become a threat to traditional grocers. But Blue Apron thinks the secret might be changing the logistics of how fresh food moves to the pantry, fundamentally rethinking the food supply chain by starting all the way back at the farm. ** Rogelio Bautista's farmstead is nestled in Upstate New York's Black Dirt region, so named for the dark-colored, highly fertile soil that is unique to this stretch of


know what they want, but it's not precise. This is so precise." "And we know we can sell all of it," adds Jenny Parker, also a co-owner. In the late-morning heat, as the Ironwood team takes two of Blue Apron's co-founders, Matt Salzberg and Matt Wadiak, on a tour of the farm, it is easy to see why this precision matters. They've got only nine acres of land, and that means little room for error. "We get one shot to make all of our money in a small space," said Lauren Jones, a third Ironwood co-owner. As the women invite Salzberg and Wadiak inside a greenhouse bursting with rows of salad greens, it's not long before Wadiak — a former chef and tomato farmer who today heads Blue Apron's operations — is crouching to pick off a piece of arugula and taste it, immediately praising how spicy it is. Salzberg, the chief executive, is soon crunching on the arugula as well. Stepping out of the heat of the greenhouse, Salzberg says the punchy flavor captures why working with small farmers is a core business strategy for Blue Apron. "It tastes better," Salzberg says. "It's the quality control." Also, there's this: At a moment when small-batch goods and local produce are ultra-trendy, Blue Apron can use these relationships with farmers to create a halo of uniqueness and a feel-good vibe around its brand. But Wadiak and Salzberg think the business case is broader than that: The grocery business is extremely competitive, and they think what Blue Apron is doing with specialty crops would be hard for a supermarket to replicate. "Traditional grocery stores can't sell the variety of products we can, because they don't merchandise as recipes," Salzberg said. Here's what Salzberg means by that: Take a crop like pink lemon, another item that Blue Apron thinks it has bought the entire commercial supply of. If shoppers saw the uncommon green-and-yellow striped fruit at the supermarket, they might not know what to do with it — and so they probably wouldn't buy it. But Blue Apron isn't selling a pink lemon. It's selling a recipe. It's selling something like Za'atar Chicken and Pearl Couscous that is dressed with a pink lemon compote. By providing the pink lemon as part of a broader suite of ingredients, and providing instructions on what to do with it, Blue Apron thinks it's better positioned to


Zika can cause microcephaly even if moms have no symptoms, report says

Daniele Santos, 29, with her three-month-old son, who was born with microcephaly, during a doctor's appointment in Brazil on March 4. (Lianne Milton/Panos Pictures) Pregnant women who become infected with the Zika virus are at risk of having babies with the severe birth defect known as microcephaly, regardless of whether they have symptoms of the disease, according to a new report. The findings, part of the first comprehensive look at the Zika outbreak in Colombia, one of the countries hardest hit by the mosquito-borne virus, add to the growing body of evidence about the potentially devastating consequences of Zika. The report Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine said nearly 66,000 people, including nearly 12,000 pregnant women, were reported to have Zika virus infections in Colombia from August 2015 though early April, 2016. Cases of microcephaly are starting to emerge in Colombia. From Jan. 1, 2016 through April 28, 2016, four infants were born with microcephaly and had laboratory-confirmed Zika virus infections. But none of these infants' mothers had symptoms of the disease during pregnancy and were not reported as part of the government's monitoring. Only about 1 in 5 people with Zika infections show symptoms. The most common symptoms are fever, rash, joint pain or red eyes. “This is really adding weight to existing data that asymptomatic infection is also associated with microcephaly," said Margaret Honein, chief of the birth defects branch at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and one of the authors of the report. She noted that the 12,000 pregnant women reported to have Zika are only the ones with symptoms. That means "a lot more" pregnant women infected with Zika, who don't have symptoms, could be at risk, she said. But the report did offer a glimmer of reassuring news. Researchers found that among a small group of Zika-infected women, a majority of those infected in the third trimester delivered healthy babies with no apparent abnormalities. A majority of the women who contracted Zika in the first or second trimester were still pregnant at the time of the report in early April. Other research has found that pregnant women infected with the Zika virus during their first trimester face as high as a 13 percent chance that their fetus will develop microcephaly. Dr. Stella Guerra performs physical therapy on an infant born with microcephaly on June 2, in Recife, Brazil. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)


D.C. area forecast: Heavy rain potential tonight but a very nice weekend ahead

Most of the daylight hours today should be quiet but we do have a risk of heavy storms tonight. Flash flood watch in effect from this afternoon through late tonight. TODAY’S DAILY DIGIT 6/10: EXPRESS FORECAST Today: FORECAST IN DETAIL Today’s showers are likely to be few and far between but, by tonight, the action is likely to pick up. There is even a slight chance for a severe storm, especially west of the city, but the main event is potential heavy downpours tonight. The responsible disturbance should sweep out to sea Friday and take the rain and clouds with it. In its wake, drier high pressure builds in strongly for a delightful weekend. Today (Thursday): Two-hour radar loop of rain and storm movement through the area. Refresh page to update. Tonight: Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for the latest updates. For related traffic news, check out Dr. Gridlock. Keep reading for the forecast through the weekend… Tomorrow (Friday): Tomorrow night: Dawn on Wednesday. (AllTheGoodIdsAreTaken via Flickr) A LOOK AHEAD Saturday Sunny skies do a repeat performance Sunday. Light breezes and moderate humidity give us another day with no excuse to be out and about, with highs still only in the upper 70s to lower 80s. Under a nearly full moon, overnight lows fall to the upper 50s to lower 60s. Confidence: High Monday


After Chinese tourist destination folds, the main attraction — monkeys — terrorize residents

It started as a tourist destination, but the main attraction soon overran the town. In a story that seems to channel the spirits of both Michael Crichton and Charlton Heston, a scheme by Chinese villagers to support the local economy with dozens of tame monkeys has gone horribly awry. In 2003, over a span of nearly seven weeks, the residents of Xianfeng village lured dozens of macaque monkeys down from nearby mountains. Xianfeng is located in China’s Sichuan province, where another tourist attraction, Mount Emei, is famous for its monkeys. The villagers were, perhaps, inspired by the mountainous monkey refuge, according to China’s CCTV News. In the beginning, Xianfeng found success. Tourists flocked to see the monkeys, with investors following close behind. “Every weekend and public holiday, the village welcomes thousands of visitors,” a stakeholder told CCTV. But it would not last. After the death of lead investor Zhou Zhenggui in 2014, commercial support for the village dried up. Meanwhile, the monkey troop swelled to 600 animals, which began ransacking farms. (Where macaques are common, they can be pests; this presents a particular conundrum in northern India, where the animals are simultaneously icons of the God Hanuman as well as threats to the local Hindu farmers.) Like humans, macaques are intelligent primates: Dario Maestripieri, a primatologist at the University of Chicago, once called the macaque “Machiavellian.” Also like humans, the monkeys can adapt to — and become nuisances in — diverse environments. At Xianfeng the monkeys steal food, get into cacophonous fights and break into homes, CCTV News reports. On nearby Mount Emei, visitors to the monkeys’ habitat are now warned not to touch or feed the furry denizens, and to clutch valuables tightly as the animals have been known to abscond with objects and drape them from the treetops. Even in urban Hong Kong, the macaques are not afraid of humans, nabbing food from human hands and convenience stores. One monkey led police on a two-day chase through the center of Tsim Sha Tsui, in what the South China Morning Post referred to as the “infamous 2001 Kowloon monkey chase.” The Hong Kong government has begun sterilizing the monkeys in the hopes of lowering the population. Chinese wildlife authorities removed 300 monkeys from Xianfeng village. The other half still remain.


Eighth Circuit holds that accessing credit card magnetic stripe is not a ‘search’

he could not have had an expectation of privacy simply because his name was embossed on the front of the cards. He also could not have had a subjective expectation of privacy in any of the other cards because the purpose of a credit, debit, or gift card is to enable the holder of the card to make purchases, and to accomplish this, the holder must transfer information from the card to the seller, which negates an expressed privacy interest. Medina, 2009 WL 3669636, at *11. Information is transferred to the seller “by manually inputting the information on the front of the card or swiping the card through a machine that reads the magnetic strip on the back.” Id. When the holder uses the card he “knowingly disclose[s] the information on the magnetic strip of his credit card to a third party and cannot claim a reasonable expectation of privacy in it.” Id. Even if DE L’Isle had an actual, subjective expectation of privacy in the information found in the magnetic strips on the cards, this alleged privacy interest is not one society is prepared to endorse. In the normal course, all of the information found in the magnetic strips on American Express credit cards is identical to the information in plain view on the front of the cards. “Society is not prepared to recognize as legitimate an asserted privacy interest in information in plain view that any member of the public may see.” Alabi, 943 F. Supp. 2d at 1276. Even less convincing is the situation in this case where the magnetic strips on the American Express credit cards were empty. If society does not recognize a privacy interest in readily visible information, DE L’Isle certainly cannot assert a privacy interest in information that is nonexistent. From Judge Kelly’s dissent, with paragraph breaks added: In my view, the answer to [whether there is an expectation of privacy in the data] depends on whether there are significant technological barriers to an individual rewriting information on the magnetic stripe of their cards, and I would remand the case to the district court to develop evidence on this point. If the information on the magnetic stripe can be modified without much difficulty, the cardholder may indeed have a reasonable expectation of privacy in the contents of the stripe, based on the straightforward principle that law enforcement conducts a Fourth Amendment “search” when


Mosquitoes don’t just spread the Zika virus. They may be helping an older killer reemerge.

sprung no surprises. We just weren’t paying attention. Thus, the outbreak’s first warning is to not overlook the familiar. Our thinking about epidemics is informed by our fear of the unknown and of being unprepared. We rightly worry about the next pandemic flu or antibiotic-resistant bacteria. But that doesn’t mean we can neglect the familiar diseases, assuming that we know how to deal with them and can put that knowledge into practice in time and at scale. Chan cautions that “you cannot trust the past when planning for the future.” In other words, yellow fever reminds us that diseases we have “put behind us” can be just as dangerous as the ones we have never encountered. Furthermore, much of energy and funding behind epidemic responses is generally directed toward the quest for new treatments and vaccines. We’ve see this, for example, with Ebola, Zika and HIV. Likewise, policymakers often rush to create new programs and institutions and pass new regulations to fill perceived governance gaps. The global response to HIV generated an unprecedented number of new institutions, including UNAIDS and the Global Fund. The SARS outbreak motivated countries to finally revise the International Health Regulations. Ebola prompted the new Pandemic Emergency Financing Facility and the WHO’s health emergency program, which radically changes how that agency is structured and operates. But with yellow fever, these policy responses are redundant. There is a vaccine. The necessary regulations and programs are in place. We just haven’t been using, enforcing and supporting them. Thus, the outbreak’s second warning calls attention to a different set of global health governance challenges and foreshadows the stumbling blocks that may confront other epidemic responses in the future. The systemic weaknesses in vaccine production, distribution, and stockpiling are not unique to yellow fever. But so far, the Ebola and Zika outbreaks have not exposed these weaknesses because we don’t have vaccines. Finally, the yellow-fever outbreak warns us that, short of full eradication, no public-health victory is irreversible. Amid all of the political focus on improving our response to health emergencies, it demonstrates that effective global-health governance is not only about responding to present threats. It also requires maintaining vigilance and initiative even against diseases that no longer seem threatening. Otherwise, the future is going to look a lot like the past. Mara Pillinger is a PhD candidate in political science at George Washington University. Follow her on Twitter @mplng.


Main Street Morning: FDA dings Whole Foods over safety issues

Publishing sells its Ebony and Jet magazines to a Texas firm. Entrepreneurs - Martha Stewart will now deliver your meals. - How a tiny staging company built a $100 million business. - An army veteran turns his hobby into a $20 million business. Retail - How Millennials are impacting supermarket growth. - A mom-and-pop shop prove small business can fall prey to Chinese hackers. Restaurants - Panera Bread may be sitting on a billion-dollar business rooted in clean supermarket food. - Restaurants around the country are showng support for the Orlando community. Sales Marketing - New tools from YouTube will allow small businesses to create video ads on their phones. - Some sports teams are getting into a business that they used to both envy and scorn. Start-ups - Leonardo DiCaprio is the latest celebrity to invest in a Manhattan start-up. - A company offers free start-up advice from a robot. - These are the three things in start-ups that VC firm Andreessen Horowitz looks for. - A couple quits their jobs to open a floating pizzeria in the Caribbean. - Why starting your own business from scratch might be a bad idea. Technology - Why some feel that Microsoft’s Office plans are a confusing mess. - Apple is finally embracing Not Apple. - The Weather Company launches the world’s most advanced hyper-local weather forecasting model for businesses. - Why PayPal sees itself as the future of payments. Online - Instacart is testing a pickup-only option. - Sushi donuts are now invading the Internet. - This company wants to take on Slack with video messaging for enterprises. Social Media - Facebook may be “all video” in five years, according to a company vice-president. - Why Facebook is embracing SMS. - Twitter now lets advertisers target users who tweet emojis and makes a $70 million investment in SoundCloud. - How social media is changing the way we access news. Ideas - A study finds that coffee can cause cancer – but only if it’s very hot. - How mobile today is like TV six decades ago. On This Day in 1884 - The first roller coaster opens. Around the Country - Pennsylvania and Airbnb reach a tax agreement. - San Francisco gets “F” for small business friendliness, according to a new report. - Two chambers of commerce in Arizona partner with two alternative lenders to boost small business growth in the


If England loses in Euro 2016 will the E.U. lose Britain?

but they could shift the vote in an election by at least a few percentage points." But the outcome of the E.U. referendum on June 23 is expected to be extremely tight. Most polls have shown a narrow lead for the pro-Brexit campaign, but others have suggested the anti-Brexit camp to be slightly ahead. Several percentage points could make a significant difference. The United Kingdom, unlike other countries, is participating in the soccer championship in divided teams. Northern Ireland, Wales, and England all sent separate teams to France. But it is the English team's performance that might ultimately have the biggest effect on the E.U. referendum: 50 million out of the United Kingdom's 64 million residents live in England. The referendum will probably be decided by younger English voters because many Scots, for instance, are overwhelmingly pro-European Union. According to Hagen, the effects of the team's performance will be short and will "probably vanish after a few weeks or even just a couple of days." The fact that the E.U. referendum run-up is happening at the same time as the Euro championship increases the likelihood of a soccer effect on the Brexit vote, Hagen argues. But academics are uncertain about whether their observations from elections can be applied to a referendum. "An opposed effect of success in the tournament might be mediated via national pride: Rising pride and collective self-confidence might lead to opt for the nationalistic path," Hagen said. National pride and soccer results have had undeniable effects in other countries in the past. When Germany won the World Cup in 1954, the win was considered evidence for the country's resurrection amid post-war struggles. Its World Cup win in 1990 coincided with the fall of the Berlin Wall one year earlier and fueled euphoria that eased the reunification process for East and West Germany. According to Malhotra, there is only one way the championship would not affect voting behavior next Thursday: "The effect operates on a subconscious level — people are not aware of it." But as soon as voters are made aware of the relationship soccer may have on their mood, and consequently on their voting behavior, the effect disappears, Malhotra said. "So this story might actually decrease the likelihood that soccer will have an impact on June 23," Malhotra said. Also read: British member of Parliament dies following shooting New pro-Brexit ad gets linked to Nazi-era propaganda