Arctic warming, jet stream coupling may mean another winter of extreme storms and cold air outbreaks for eastern U.S.

storms are surges of anomalous cold penetrating further south over eastern U.S. than nominally expected. It may seem reasonable to believe the odds favor the continuation of this multi-year trend through this winter (and perhaps winters following). However, given limited understanding of factors contributing to arctic amplification, especially as manifest in the predominance of –NAO discussed here, there is no certainty that will be the case. Note: the positive NAO phase that has dominated through at least the latter half of December is not necessarily a predictor of the overall winter average. (For what it’s worth, Judah Cohen’s oft-cited winter outlook is non-committal on the predominant sign of the NAO). Models in recent days suggest that a reversal from a positive to negative NAO may occur next week. Should a –NAO dominate the balance of this winter, the odds do increase for a “big one” (snow lovers’ fantasy come true) affecting the major Mid-Atlantic to northeastern metropolitan regions, possibly, but not necessarily including, the region around Washington, D.C. Variability in the occurrence and specific configuration of a given -NAO (within a season) and how these factors govern the specifics of nor’easter development are not predictable beyond a week or so. I’m referring here to details pertaining to the frequency, amplitude, timing, location, and regional persistence of major circulation features associated with a –NAO. The latter include mid-to-high latitude blocking patterns which frequently are the dominant influence on the evolution and track of potential Mid-Atlantic coastal storms. (More generally, the same is true in regard to potentially significant winter storms affecting Europe.) It’s important to keep in mind that that what is being described here is not necessarily a manifestation of climate change (a.k.a. global warming). The 12-year periods examined here are notably short of the 30 years nominally (arbitrarily?) regarded as minimal to warrant being considered climate. This analysis is limited to describing decadal-scale changes based upon evaluation of readily available global analyses – without reliance on model predictions and/or simulations. Having said this, however, it must be noted that arctic amplification became apparent observationally (see figure 5) without having been predicted by climate models only 10 or so years ago. Nevertheless, it has become the subject of extensive research and media attention in context of being a critical element in the context of global climate change. Details (technical analysis/discussion) As shown in the first image (below), Northern Hemisphere winters


The 10 most memorable leadership moments of 2013

of Honor from President Obama in October. Some questioned whether the delay may have been a result of the award becoming politicized after Swenson spoke out publicly against military leaders. The award ceremony was not just a moment that finally recognized his bravery, however. It was important for what it told any other soldier who might be afraid to speak out against higher authority. 7. Jason Collins came out. Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images Never before had a man playing in a major professional team sport publicly acknowledged being gay. That is, until Jason Collins, the NBA journeyman who'd never spent much time in the spotlight, landed on the cover of Sports Illustrated in April with an article that began: “I'm a 34-year-old NBA center. I'm black. And I'm gay.” Collins, known as a team player and a "pro's pro" who wrote "I sacrifice myself for other players," has now gone undrafted in the current season. Whether that's due to his seniority, his abilities or his admission about his personal life is hard to say. Whatever the reason, Collins' willingness to break the barrier and potentially put his own career at risk will surely lead the way for other athletes to follow. 8. Malala Yousafzai continued her fight. PATRICK HERTZOGPATRICK HERTZOG/AFP/Getty Images The Pakistani teenager was shot in the head by the Taliban in late 2012, and began her campaign for girls' education even earlier. But it was in 2013 that she truly took her story global. Released from the hospital in February, she went on to write a memoir, launch the Malala Fund, and win the Sakharav prize for freedom of thought from the European parliament. She was also a favorite for the Nobel Peace Prize. Yousafzai says she's in it for the long haul—she would like to be a politician someday, she has said, even prime minister, and return to Pakistan. “By becoming a doctor I can only help my community, but by becoming a politician I can help my whole country,” she told an audience at the 92nd St. Y in New York in October. “I can be a doctor for the whole country.” 9. Australia's Chief of Army showed the world how to talk about sexual assault in the military. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSR19QL8ZvI In direct, commanding and remarkably strong language, Lt. Gen. David Morrison, Australia's Chief of Army, addressed Australia's troops in a video about the country's military sexual


Washington, D.C.’s weather photos of the year, 2013

The CWG post can be found here. (Elizabeth Rylander) This photo shows a possible wall cloud on June 10, 2013. Rain is seen falling from the tilted updraft at right. The CWG post can be found here. (Ian Livingston) Storm clouds over Washington, June 13, 2013. The CWG post can be found here. (Steven VanRoekel) A thunderstorm viewed from Poolesville, June 13, 2013. The Capital Weather Gang post can be found here. (Deborah Crosley) The supermoon rises above the Tidal Basin at 8:57 pm on June 23, 2013. The CWG post can be found here. (Kevin Ambrose) Fireworks viewed from near the Potomac River, July 4, 2013. The CWG post can be found here. (Ian Livingston) The scaffolding lights on the Washington Monument are turned on during a beautiful summer evening, July 8, 2013. The CWG post can be found here. (Ian Livingston) Lightning over Annapolis, Maryland, July 20, 2013. The CWG post can be found here. (Jennifer Casey) A dramatic display of mammatus clouds over Stafford, Virginia, August 1, 2013. The CWG post can be found here. (Isha Renta) The Memorial Bridge during a period of fair weather, August 4, 2013. The CWG post can be found here. (Kevin Wolf) The “Blue Moon” rises over Washington, August 20, 2013. The CWG post is included here. (Kevin Ambrose) A roll cloud approaches the National Weather Service forecast office in Sterling, Virginia, September 16, 2013. The CWG post can be found here. (NWS) The Harvest Moon sets over the Lincoln Memorial, September 19, 2013. The CWG post can be found here. (Kevin Ambrose) The sunrise on September 19, 2013. The CWG post can be found here. (Kevin Ambrose) The foliage is changing color in the Shenandoah Valley. This photo was taken from Eagle Rock, October 27, 2013. The CWG post can be found here. (Ian Livingston) The cherry trees along the Tidal Basin show off their color, Nov. 2, 2013. The CWG post can be found here. (Kevin Ambrose) Sunrise with fall foliage at the Jefferson. The CWG post can be found here. (Ian Livingston) Fall color at Arlington National Cemetery, November 9, 2013. The CWG post can be found here. (Ian Livingston) Heavy snow falls at the White House, December 9, 2013. The CWG post can be found here. (Kevin Ambrose)


Brian Greene’s Graph of the Year “reveals an astounding feature of the universe”

Time has its "Person of the Year." Amazon has its books of the year. Pretty Much Amazing has its mixtapes of the year. Buzzfeed has its insane-stories-from-Florida of the year. And Wonkblog, of course, has its graphs of the year. For 2013, we asked some of the year's most interesting, important and influential thinkers to name their favorite graph of the year — and why they chose it. Here's string theorist Brian Greene's. The bump in the solid red line is the experimental evidence for the Higgs boson. The graph not only reveals an astounding feature of the universe (that we are all awash in molasses-like Higgs field that imbues particles with mass), but spectacularly confirms the ability of the human mind to reveal some of reality's most deeply hidden truths. See all the graphs of 2013 here, including entries from Jonathan Franzen, Bill McKibben, Emily Oster, and Ta-Nehisi Coates.


2013 was a more amazing year than you think

spacecraft that is headed to Mars and China landed a six-wheel rover on the moon. China also announced that it is planning to land a man on the moon by 2025. Add to this the success that private companies SpaceX, Virgin Galactic and Moon Express have had and you realize that we are at the cusp of a new era in space travel. NASA once again has competition from governments abroad so there will be a new sense of urgency. Now it has the advantage of being able to collaborate with entrepreneurs and take advantage of the technology advances that they have created. I am eagerly waiting for reservations to open up for the Starship Enterprise. Now let me give you the bad news: we still have a few more years of disappointment before we marvel at all these advances. The base of an exponential curve is flat. When it turns upwards, dramatic developments happen, but for the longest time nothing seems to change. This is where we are with robotics, sensors, artificial intelligence, synthetic biology, 3D printing and medicine — all of which are exponential technologies. We were disappointed, too, when cellphones first came out. They were big, expensive and clumsy. For many years, these were just for the rich — a symbol of wealth and power. Today, there are close to one billion cellphones in use in both India and China. Almost everyone has one. In 1977, the president of Digital Equipment Corp., Ken Olsen, famously said “there is no reason for any individual to have a computer in his home.” The first personal computers were just for geeks and nerds. Then they were for the rich. About two decades ago, we began to question their usefulness and productivity. Now they are transforming industries, and increasingly cost less. More recently, we became disappointed with solar energy and electric cars. The good news is that this disappointment will soon turn into amazement as well. I know because I live in a solar home and drive a Tesla electric car that I say is a spaceship that travels on land. Vivek Wadhwa is a fellow at the Rock Center for Corporate Governance at Stanford University, director of research at the Center for Entrepreneurship and Research Commercialization at Duke’s engineering school and distinguished scholar at Singularity and Emory universities. His past appointments include Harvard Law School and University of California Berkeley.


Will Obama have an Afghanistan problem in 2014?

but a growing number of people in Congress want to make this an issue back home, too. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and 11 of his colleagues tried to include an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act asking Obama to consult Congress before agreeing to another 10 years of war. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid didn’t allow a vote, but the co-sponsors were notable: They included both Democrats (including at least one, Sen. Mark Begich of Alaska, facing a tough reelection battle this fall) and Republicans. A similar measure passed the House in June by a remarkable, bipartisan 305-121 vote. And the Congressional Progressive Caucus, which helped steer that measure through, said in November that the proposed Afghan security agreement is “outrageous.” The fundamentals of this debate for the White House are terrible. Polls show an extremely unpopular war with the public — the number of people who think the war wasn’t worth it have reached all-time highs, with 67 percent agreeing with that assessment in one recent Washington Post-ABC News poll. Obama doesn’t have a good record to lean on, either. During seven years under President George W. Bush, 630 Americans were killed in Afghanistan. Under Obama, 1,671 troops have been killed, and the 127 killed this year — even as the war was supposedly winding down — are more than any other year but one under President Bush. And goals of the war remain unclear. Jay Carney said in 2012, “The reason why U.S. troops are in Afghanistan in the first place is to disrupt, dismantle and ultimately defeat al-Qaeda.” But when I asked the Defense Department about the last time U.S. forces killed an al-Qaeda affiliate, it was 10 months prior. And The Post reported this weekend that any gains made by the United States will be lost quickly after the drawdown. So: a hugely unpopular war. Continued troop deaths. A supposedly antiwar president pushing another decade of U.S. combat operations on increasingly restive members of Congress, including many in his own party. Granted, the media have never given the war too much attention, and most Republicans — trapped between an aversion to seeming dovish and a public that dislikes the war — have never been eager to make an issue of it. But these factors converging in 2014 could finally make voters focus their attention on why the heck U.S. troops are still dying in Afghanistan.


Presenting the third annual Wonky awards

double check. The results thus far are everything a Japan booster might hope for. Japanese GDP is on track to have grown about 2 percent this year, according to the IMF’s World Economic Outlook. After years of falling prices, prices rose 0.7 percent this year. The Japanese stock market was up 57 percent in 2013. Will all this translate into higher standards of living for Japanese citizens? Has Japan ended its long economic funk once and for all? And can Japan emerge into a more prosperous age without a debt crisis or outburst of excessive inflation? Those questions don’t have answers yet. But so far, Abenomics is pure #winning for the world’s third-largest economy. Fail of the year: HealthCare.gov! HealthCare.gov no longer features these photos of smiling people, which struck a discordant note among users who had trouble with the site. (Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg) The disastrous rollout of the Affordable Care Act’s Web site took this Wonky in a walk. While the Obama administration had promised to the country something like Expedia for health insurance, the initial product was a constantly-crashing, nearly impossible-to-use Web site. HealthCare.gov barely functioned at its launch; six people signed up on the first day. Consumers couldn’t get through the shopping process -- and, when they did, health insurers found tons of inaccuracies in their enrollment forms. California and Kentucky managed to build functional health insurance Web sites, but not the federal government. The Web site did show huge improvements in December, followed by a big spike in enrollment. But October and November were essentially “lost” months for HealthCare.gov, where barely anyone could enroll -- and that’s left the Obama administration behind initial enrollment projections for 2014. Most significant economic trend: The U.S. oil and gas boom The United States boosted its production of oil and natural gas once again in 2013. And that’s still having ripple effects throughout the economy. One recent study from Boston Consulting Group estimated that cheap natural gas is now saving the average U.S. household at least $425 per year. The shale-gas boom is attracting at least some manufacturers back to America, particularly petrochemical companies. And the glut of natural gas is still reducing U.S. carbon-dioxide emissions by crowding out (dirtier) coal in the electricity sector. The oil boom is a big deal, too: Thanks to advanced drilling techniques, the United States boosted its oil production by roughly 1 million barrels per


How the United States is reinventing itself yet again

innovation and technology job growth, the powers that be in Washington, D.C. have, even with broad bipartisan support, not mustered up the votes to reform the country’s regressive and punitive immigration policies. Add to all of this an aging populace requiring more and more support from younger workers, ballooning health costs and a tax structure that beggars the young to underwrite benefits for the aged, and the United States looks more and more like a historical footnote than a superpower. Peel back the layers of the onion, and the reality appears quite different. In fact, the United States stands on the cusp of a dramatic revival and rejuvenation, propelled by an amazing wave of technological innovation. A slew of breakthroughs will deliver the enormous productivity gains and the societal dramatic cost savings needed to sustain economic growth and prosperity. These breakthroughs, mostly digital in nature, will complete the shift begun by the Internet away to a new era where the precepts of Moore’s Law can be applied to virtually any field. Computer-assisted design and fabrication will reshape manufacturing forever. These technologies will slash waste and replace nearly all conventional manufacturing with more environmentally friendly and cost-effective additive manufacturing run with robots and computer programs. Complex systems resistant to modeling will succumb to advances in big data that allow mankind to finally make sense and improve upon the most intricate multi-faceted interactions. Where big data fails, ubiquitous crowd sourcing will harness untapped brain cycles to train systems and solve problems, one small activity at a time — on a global scale. In this massively digital world, A/B testing or parallelization of R&D processes will become commonplace for just about everything from airline design simulations to online advertising to artificial organ construction. This will, in turn, allow for far more rigorous testing of products and processes. Dirt-cheap digital delivery platforms for educational content and improvements in the understanding of the way the brain learns will yield a sea change in how we gain knowledge. This will result in more open, flexible educational systems and structures — and a smarter, more learned, constantly learning populace. While the world will benefit from these changes, the United States is uniquely positioned to lead this sea change. The cost per watt of solar and wind energy keeps falling. (Reed Saxon/Associated Press) In the field of energy, even as Silicon Valley has turned cold on green startups,


robots and computer programs. Complex systems resistant to modeling will succumb to advances in big data that allow mankind to finally make sense and improve upon the most intricate multi-faceted interactions. Where big data fails, ubiquitous crowd sourcing will harness untapped brain cycles to train systems and solve problems, one small activity at a time — on a global scale. In this massively digital world, A/B testing or parallelization of R&D processes will become commonplace for just about everything from airline design simulations to online advertising to artificial organ construction. This will, in turn, allow for far more rigorous testing of products and processes. Dirt-cheap digital delivery platforms for educational content and improvements in the understanding of the way the brain learns will yield a sea change in how we gain knowledge. This will result in more open, flexible educational systems and structures — and a smarter, more learned, constantly learning populace. While the world will benefit from these changes, the United States is uniquely positioned to lead this sea change. The cost per watt of solar and wind energy keeps falling. (Reed Saxon/Associated Press) In the field of energy, even as Silicon Valley has turned cold on green startups, the cost per watt of solar and wind energy continues to fall. GTM research computes that solar has already by dropped by 97.2 percent over a 35-year period. Renewables have undercut old carbon-based power generation in swathes of the country — such as Hawaii and California — where electricity is costly. Less reliable has been progress in algal biofuels but progress in biotech drug development techniques and complex drug manufacturing will likely provide equivalent benefits to manufacturing drop-in carbon fuels based on algae fed with water and ambient carbon dioxide. In the interim, the enhanced availability of natural gas extracted domestically via new fracking techniques has sent energy costs plummeting and has resulted in the usurpation of old-line coal-fired power plants for gas-fired generation facilities. In turn, this has driven a new wave of construction of high-efficiency steel and chemical plants along the Gulf Coast of the United States, close to shipping lanes and benefitting from cheap natural gas or electricity. Energy efficiency technologies, such as LED light bulbs, improved heating and cooling systems, and Internet enabled hardware like the Nest thermostat, can save enough money to offset the initial cost – often within a year or less. The implications


Neuromorphics: The first big tech buzzword of 2014

a comeback now? One answer, quite simply, is that neuromorphic computing is finally ready to move from the academic ivory tower to the corporate boardroom. For example, companies such as IBM and Qualcomm are on the cusp of offering new “brainlike computers” to the consumer market. Near the end of the article is a mention that Qualcomm is coming out with a “commercial version” of a neuromorphic processor. Make no mistake about it, a “Human Brain Inside” computer would represent a number of revolutionary breakthroughs for what computers can accomplish. Imagine computers that learn from their own mistakes, computers that spot and recognize errors before they ever occur, computers that can walk and drive, and computers that can “see, speak, listen, navigate, manipulate and control.” In short, anything a human can do, a computer will be able to do, all without the need for humans to program them to do it. It remains to be seen, however, if other tech companies will go along with a buzzword like “neuromorphics” as a catch-all term to describe their futuristic new computing projects. There are, after all, a dizzying number of computing terms that describe nearly the same thing, all of which are mentioned in the New York Times article: biological computing, neural networks, cognitive computing, machine learning, artificial intelligence and “brainlike computer.” If you’re a marketer at a top tech company, do you really want to educate your consumers about something that sounds as intimidating as “neuromorphics?” From a marketing perspective, it’s easier to get a concept off the ground in the tech world if you go with something relatively easy to grasp like “the cloud” or “4G.” So it’s easy to see how neuromorphics might be replaced by another term soon. From that perspective, “neuromorphics” is just another recycled fad from the 1980s. However, consider how much progress has been made recently in understanding how the human brain works and then designing computing processes to mimic these human brain processes. You had the Google cat experiment, in which Google trained a computer to recognize cats by watching 10 million YouTube clips, and the IBM supercomputer simulation of nearly 5 percent of the human brain. There was also the funding of a brand-new brain and machine research learning center at MIT and the launch of a new Stanford MOOC on machine learning that attracted over 750 students. There’s something about the human


Marijuana legalization in Colorado reflects a maturing industry

Recreational marijuana sales are underway in Colorado, attracting a new type of tourism to the state. Govbeat's Reid Wilson breaks down four things pot tourists should know about the new laws. CORRECTION: An earlier version of this post cited a document in which economic projections for Washington and Colorado after legalization were swapped. That document has been updated, as has this post. DENVER — On Wednesday morning, Sean Azzariti became the first person in the nation — and potentially the world, experts say — to buy marijuana for recreational use under a regulated, sanctioned system. The former marine who served twice in Iraq helped to make history, but his involvement on New Year’s Day reflected another change: the professionalization of a multi-million dollar industry that just 20 years ago was fully underground. Azzariti turned to pot after receiving prescriptions for daily doses of 6mg of Xanax, 4mg Klonopin, and 30-50 mg of Adderall to deal with post-traumatic stress disorder, he said. “I just looked at this cocktail, and I was like I just can’t do this. Absolutely no way. I’d just be a drug addict,” he says. “[Cannabis] saved my life, basically.” His involvement was part of an organized media event hosted by the industry — a reflection of a business that, after emerging from the shadows, is becoming increasingly professional. Store owners talk about $100,000 investments and expanding by tens of thousands of square feet. Even the profile of the business people involved has changed. A few years ago, most in the medicinal marijuana business had a high risk for tolerance or extraordinary passion for the work, says National Cannabis Industry Association Deputy Director Betty Aldworth. “But now what we see more and more are experienced investors, experienced entrepreneurs coming in with lower-risk tolerances,” she says. “People who tend to be more averse are looking at this industry seeing potential and poking their toes in the water.” Toni Fox, who is both passionate about the legalization movement and a serious business owner, owns the 3D Cannabis Center, the 18,000 square foot space where Azzariti made his purchase. She plans to expand and expects her average monthly revenues of $30,000 to grow more than eightfold to $250,000 once improvements are made. Medicine Man, a few miles away, boasts an even-larger 20,000-square-foot production space with plans to double it underway. Painting that expanded space alone had cost roughly $100,000, according to


The year in murder

Homicides ticked up in D.C. in 2013, from 88 to 104, with much of that margin accounted for by the 12 victims of the Navy Yard rampage. But the jump also reflects the persistence of stubborn crime problems, Peter Hermann and Lynh Bui report in The Post. Domestic violence, for instance, remains a serious driver of violent crime, but the more noticeable trend is geographic: the chronic violence taking place along the District’s border with Prince George’s County. Things looked up on the east side of Southern Avenue last year, with Prince George’s recording a 10 percent drop in killings, but cases such as the shooting death of 21-year-old Robert Spencer — killed in Bellevue a day after the Navy Yard shooting, allegedly by an Oxon Hill man — show that progress is relative. More from WaTimes and AP. In other news: Higher murder count “is still a far cry from the horrendous old days when 12 people killed in a weekend on city streets was seen as so much business as usual” (Post editorial) Canceled rebid of lottery contract means more waiting for new scratch-off tickets (Post) Bob McCartney predicts Mayor Muriel (Post column) Ballot petitions are due at 5 p.m. (AP) Jesus Aguirre strikes back at Tommy Wells: “Just because I didn’t do what he wanted me to do doesn’t mean that I’m not responsive” (Post) Jack Evans says nine colleagues would have left the LLC loophole in place if not for “public ramification” (DCist) Your Loose Lips quote of 2013: “piece of the piece” (Loose Lips) The Hoodies: 2013’s awards for statehood advocacy (51st State) Vincent Gray birthday party raised $35,000 for his constituent services fund (WBJ) D.C.’s population growth made it 83 percent toward Tony Williams’ 100,000-new-resident goal (BeyondDC) New traffic cameras will go live on Feb. 1 (WaTimes) Fire truck’s broken window fuels union dismay over firefighters being ordered to take up neighborhood posts (WTTG-TV) It’s 2013: Don’t forget to re-register your gun (WaTimes) Could this be the year pot becomes legal? (WRC-TV) Jonetta Rose Barras eyes “troubling weaknesses and disturbing class-based fault lines” in test scores (Post column) Parks employees are ordered to pay back per-diems from Houston conference (WRC-TV) Ward 8 Dems call for outside investigation into 7th District police (Informer) Cathy Lanier will hold community meeting next week at 7D headquarters (AP) Serious decontamination needed for Florida Rock site (WBJ) Lime Fresh


From shark fins to drones: New laws in 2014

State legislatures passed thousands of new laws in 2013, many of which go into effect this week. These laws address a variety of issues: from guns and voting to drones and tanning. Here's a look at some of the most interesting and noteworthy new laws going into effect across the country in 2014. A sign celebrates the day at the Botana Care marijuana store just before opening the doors to customers for the first time in Northglenn, Colo., Jan. 1, 2014. (Rick Wilking/Reuters) 1. 2. Colorado became the first state to legalize recreational marijuana use -- perhaps the most talked-about new law of 2014 -- starting on Jan. 1. While Colorado stores have already begun selling marijuana, it isn't the only state with new drug laws. Washington has also legalized recreational marijuana use, and Illinois has legalized medical marijuana. 3. Illinois passed a law 4. There's now a bigger fine for planning violent flash mobs on social media in Illinois. 5. In Oregon, it's now legal for mothers to take their placentas home from the hospital after childbirth. 6. It's now illegal to sell, distribute or possess shark fins in Delaware. 7. Tanning beds are now off limits for teens under the age of 18, even if they have parental permission, in Illinois. 8. In California, the paparazzi will face tougher penalties for harassing celebrities and their children. The new law was backed by actresses Jennifer Garner and Halle Berry. 9. A new California law requires schools to allow transgender students to use restrooms and play on sports teams according to the gender they identify with. 10. Arkansas now requires voters to show photo ids at polling places.


One problem with geoengineering: Once you start, you can’t really stop

Many of the world's nations show few signs of cutting their greenhouse gas emissions anytime soon. That's why, in recent years, more and more climate scientists have been pondering the concept of "geoengineering" as a way to slow the pace of global warming. When Mount Pinatubo erupted in the Philippines in 1991, it cooled the planet nearly 1 degree Fahrenheit. Geoengineering would work a lot like that. (Arlan N.Aeg/AFP/Getty Images) One popular idea involves spraying reflective particles into the atmosphere to deflect a small portion of Earth's sunlight. Harvard scientist David Keith discussed the pros and cons of the idea at length in a recent interview. Pros: But there's one other concern we didn't really touch on in that interview: Once the world starts geoengineering, we can't really ever stop — especially if everyone keeps pumping carbon-dioxide into the atmosphere at the same time. Why? Because as soon as we quit spraying those reflective particles into the atmosphere, the Earth will heat up very, very, very rapidly. And sudden climate change is even worse than the kind we already know about. David Appell Once they stopped the solar geoengineering in the models, global temperatures rose by 1.5 degrees Celsius within a decade, and over 2 degrees Celsius (or 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) in two decades. (This jibes with the results of a 2009 study on the same topic.) Why is that so bad? It's worth noting that the speed of climate change matters almost as much as the total temperature swings. Plenty of climate policy experts think a 2-degree Celsius rise in global temperatures between now and the end of the century would prove tricky to adapt to. But a 2-degree rise in the span of just a few decades would be even harder. Many species would have difficulty moving to suitable climates. Farmers would struggle to adapt crops to the heat. Building seawalls to fend off rising oceans is much harder when you have less time to build. For the record, the JGR researchers also found that global rainfall patterns could go haywire if solar geoengineering was stopped: So, yes. In theory we could set up a giant hose to spray sulfate particles into the air and cool the planet. We just have to hope that nothing ever happens to the hose. Or, if we start spraying and then discover some horrid unanticipated side effects a few decades out, it


2013’s memorable local stories, superlatively speaking

Phantom Planter got his revenge in October by hanging a large sculpture emblazoned with comments from the public over the same spot. Plans for 2014: 2. Most Stomach- Growl-Inducing Forget all of the trendy new restaurants popping up. What really got people excited was a number of big moves from local favorite Ben’s Chili Bowl. The half-smoke slingers announced that they would open outposts in Rosslyn and at Reagan National Airport, and received permits for a Ben’s on H Street NE (which was initially announced in 2011). Plans for 2014: 3. Most Likely to Be Turned Into a Pixar Film The National Zoo’s giant panda cub, Bao Bao, may have won the most press, but Rusty, the red panda, went on the most exciting adventure. The raccoon-like furball escaped his enclosure in June and spent a few hours in Adams Morgan before being found and returned — but not before much of the city tuned in to the chase. Plans for 2014: Rusty’s days as a young singleton on the loose are over, according to the zoo, which took precautions to trim all nearby tree limbs and bamboo shoots that could be used as a future escape route. He may want to stick around anyway, since he was brought into town as the “perfect genetic mate” for Shama, the zoo’s female red panda. “Rusty is young, so this winter [early 2014] will be his first breeding experience,” wrote Annalisa Meyer, a spokeswoman for the National Zoo, in an email. 4. Biggest Non-Event Depending on whom you ask, the relative no-show of the cicadas — at least in the District proper — was either a major disappointment or a bug-free bit of good fortune. All the hype predicting an insect invasion of biblical proportions was a particular letdown for foodies itching to try the ultimate hyperlocal ingredient. Plans for 2014: 5. Most Annoying Trend Story Millennials Plans for 2014: If only this buzzword would die and the media would either take a more nuanced look at the region’s young denizens or spend time analyzing other demographics (or, heaven forbid, both). We foresee a future filled with even more articles detailing the 14th Street restaurant boom and letting us know that Shaw is the-next-next-big-thing … in case you hadn’t heard. Other Notable News in 2013 Worst Use of Fruit: Best Excuse for Delays: Biggest Shutdown Surprise: Most Apocalyptic: Best Use of Animals:


The Switchboard: Senator wants NFL to kill sports blackouts

Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton (14) passes against the Baltimore Ravens in the first half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Dec. 29, 2013, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Tom Uhlman) Published every weekday, the Switchboard highlights five tech policy stories you need to read. Brown to NFL: Kill blackout policy. NSA seeks to build quantum computer that could crack most types of encryption. Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals plans audio streaming. ACLU appeals NSA phone data ruling. Google’s VP9 Video Codec Gets Backing from ARM, Nvidia, Sony And Others, Gives 4K Video Streaming A Fighting Chance.


Wonkbook: Will your Obamacare insurance work when you go to the doctor?

Weaver in The Wall Street Journal. @sarahkliff How to tell if Obamacare is working. Study: Expanding Medicaid doesn’t reduce ER trips. It increases them. Explainer: Poll: Will Eric Cantor be the first Republican to bring a constructive reform to Obamacare to a vote? @ProfEmilyOster New ad campaign goes after pro-Obamacare politicians. Abortion-rights group finds anti-abortion regulations accelerating. @samsteinhp BEUTLER: The fake outrage strategy. @KipPiper SARGENT: The three stages of Obamacare acceptance. Music recommendations interlude: Top opinion SOROS: The world economy's shifting challenges. BROOKS: I've smoked pot, dudes. MARCUS: Reefer madness! Reefer madness! MEYERSON: How the minimum wage could help Democrats. Culture interlude: 2. Thread by thread, the safety net undone Bye bye, trade adjustment assistance? ...And which states will get hit hardest by the expiration of unemployment insurance? Is the U.S. really about to boom? Politico asked eight top economists. U.S. factories begin to hit growth stride. Jobless claims drop. Labor Department may change how it does data releases. "A Labor Department panel has called for abandoning media lockups for a key weekly measure of U.S. employment. The recommendation is the first formal call by a government entity to end media lockups and could hasten a move away from the government's decades-old practice of releasing sensitive economic data through the media." Brody Mullins in The Wall Street Journal. Behavioral interlude: 3. The debate over Snowden THE NEW YORK TIMES: Edward Snowden, whistleblower. The story behind the editorial. FRIEDERSDORF: No, clemency would not set a dangerous precedent. 1990 counts as a throwback? interlude: 4. "Crude oil doesn't explode like that" Why does Bakken crude keep exploding? Shale-oil boom puts spotlight on oil-export ban. From NASCAR to wind power: Congress just let 55 tax breaks expire. One problem with geoengineering: Once you start, you can’t really stop. NYC interlude: 5. A new kind of farm bill, or not? Farm policy is about to change forever. Reading material interlude: The best sentences Wonkblog read today. Wonkblog Roundup Tim Cook takes a pay cut for Apple’s performance. Finally One problem with geoengineering: Once you start, you can’t really stop Study: Expanding Medicaid doesn’t reduce ER trips. It increases them From NASCAR to wind power: Congress just let 55 tax breaks expire Four ways to tell if Obamacare is working Et Cetera Illegal immigrant may practice law legally in U.S., court rules Got tips, additions, or comments? Wonkbook is produced with help from Michelle Williams.


Time to dish: What are D.C.’s essential eats for 2014?

A few of our favorite things. Clockwise from top: Red Hen's gnocchi; Rose's Luxury's pork and litchi salad; and Astro Doughnuts' creme brûlée. (Stacy Zarin Goldberg for The Washington Post; Astrid Riecken for The Post; Anne Farrar/The Post) A handful of sublime dishes wooed our staff and venerable food critic Tom Sietsema in the past year: Rose’s Luxury’s heavenly pork and litchi salad. Daikaya’s Japanese take on chicken and waffles. Red Hen's unusual semolina gnocchi with fragrant hazelnut pesto. With such addictive little morsels flying out of the kitchens of Washington area restaurants -- and with so many superlative new dining options, from conventional eateries to food trucks, bars and pop-ups -- it’s impossible to choose a singular “best thing we ate” in the past year. We prefer to pick 40 mouthwatering, mind-altering eats with a little help from you. It’s time to name the dish that every Washingtonian must try in 2014. So tell us: Was it Astro Doughnuts’ creme brulee number that satisfied your sweet tooth? Or Duke’s Grocery’s salt-beef sandwich, when your cravings veered toward the savory? Which new restaurants turned out the city’s hands-down best dish? Which sorely overlooked favorite deserves a spot on the list? Name your essential eats, leaving out none of the finger-licking details, and we might feature your pick in our annual list. Make your nomination in the comments, by e-mailing goingoutguide@washpost.com (please include an e-mail address or phone number so we can reach you for a quote), or hit us up on Twitter at @goingoutguide (#40eats). Look back at our previous Essential Eats: 40 Dishes Every Washingtonian Must Try in 2013 40 Dishes Every Washingtonian Must Try in 2012


Three lessons for Colorado from Dutch cannabis policy

Until Wednesday, when Colorado became the first state to allow the sale of marijuana for recreational usage, the Netherlands has had the most liberal laws governing marijuana. Here are a few lessons Colorado can learn from the Dutch experience. 1. Legalization does not necessarily mean increased usage. The map below is from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. I have added a convenient arrow to locate the Netherlands. Cannabis usage in the Netherlands is smaller than in the United States and Canada. The Netherlands also does not stand out in comparison with other European countries. Now, it may be that usage in European countries close to the Netherlands has increased due to Dutch policies (as policy makers in states close to Colorado may fear). On the other hand, there is not much evidence that proximity to coffee shops matters for drug use (although this study does find an effect). One plausible reason is that production restrictions in the Netherlands keep prices of legal marijuana quite high. Moreover, marijuana is readily available in markets where it is not legal, perhaps because it is relatively easy to grow and does not need to be imported. It remains to be seen how this will work in Colorado. On the one hand, the law provides for the licensing of production facilities. On the other hand, production remains a crime under federal law, which would increase the risk and thus the cost of production. There will surely be a flood of drug tourists coming to Colorado to experience public and open usage. This will include some individuals who would not try marijuana as long as it is illegal. Yet, it is difficult to speculate on what the overall effect on drug usage will be. 2. Colorado and Washington (and perhaps a few others) may well remain the outlier states for some time. There is a general perception that other states will follow swiftly once Colorado (and Washington) have successfully legalized. As Ruth Marcus puts it: Colorado and Washington are apt to be the vanguard states, not the outliers. It is likely that Colorado will reap the benefits of being the first to legalize in terms of increased tourism and tax revenues. Yet, there will also be a cost, including the nuisance caused by those drug users. And there will be accidents caused by drivers under the influence of marijuana. Those costs might give


Colorado’s shame and sorrow — bring back the old law

I was younger. And I made a right fool of myself. Not hip enough to try it during high school or stumble woolly-tongued through any English presentations, I had to wait for college for my turn. But then I leapt into it with the same kind of abandon anyone with an not yet fully developed prefrontal cortex leaps into anything. How well I know the slippery slope! You start socially, surrounded by friends, but then you keep going. Oh, the music I listened to under the influence. The phone calls I made! I fell into the delusion that the things I was saying and thinking were interesting. The trouble with this delusion is that it only persists for a few hours at a time and then you get very hungry and feel a little sick to your stomach (or you could make a good living off it and give TED talks). My point is that the substance is terrible. It ought to be sequestered. It leads to all kinds of regrettable behaviors. One time, after over-indulging, I tried to write a paper. I turned it in and it got a decent grade. I’m sorry, this is not a good story to illustrate my point. In fact, most of my stories are not going to be good stories to illustrate the point I am making, which is that young people should not be allowed to experiment with the substance that I experimented with as a young person, because they will grow up and not reach their full potential, just as I did. Er, didn’t. Well, you see what I’m saying. Look, I see what is happening in Colorado now, and I quail. The impact of this substance on your cognitive development. The impairment it produces in drivers. The easy payoff it provides in the form of cheap momentary pleasures, offering satisfaction in the present at the cost of anything more subtle. I understand its appeal. Everyone understands its appeal. That’s why it should still be banned. Yes, there’s a whole social culture around its use. Yes, it’s often portrayed in the media as fun. Yes, there are plenty of responsible adults who enjoy it without doing any harm. But the cost is just too high. We need to bring back the laws to the way they were before. We need to bring back the 18th Amendment. What were you talking about?


General Mills bows to consumer paranoia, makes GMO-free Cheerios

On Thursday, opponents of genetically modified food celebrated a big victory: They managed to get a major American food company to do something it didn't feel was necessary, just because public pressure had mounted to the point where resistance took more energy than it was worth. Soon even purer than pure. (Paul Sakuma/AP) The company is General Mills, maker of America's most iconic cereal brands, which found a way to make a line of Cheerios without any genetically modified ingredients. Not because it thinks there's anything wrong with GM crops: Its Q&A on the Cheerios site clearly states that they're safe, and a longer Web page explains the scientific consensus behind its position. Rather, simply: "We did it because we think consumers may embrace it," the company wrote in a blog post. Despite the lack of evidence that there's anything wrong with eating GM foods, the demand for alternatives seems to exist. More than half of Americans worry that they're unsafe, according to an ABC News poll from the summer, and 93 percent support mandatory labeling. The concern is even higher among women, who also do more of the family shopping. Meanwhile, Whole Foods is asking its suppliers to develop special lines of non-GM products. General Mills may have figured it might as well get out in front of its Big Food competition -- there's always something to be said for gaining a first mover advantage. And anyway, Cheerios were a relatively easy lift for General Mills. There are no GM oats, as it pointed out multiple times, so the recipe was most of the way there. It just needed to switch from beet sugar to cane sugar, find some non-GM corn starch, and figure out how to separate the streams of cereal production so the non-GM Cheerios could stay pure. It's almost the equivalent of slapping a "Trans Fats Free" label on something that never contained trans fats, or a "gluten-free" label on something that doesn't even have wheat, just because something "free" of anything must necessarily be better for you. (Unless it's "made with whole grains," which Cheerios could already claim as well.) There are risks to that strategy. Even labeling some of its foods as GM-free might create the misperception that the rest of its foods are somehow unsafe, pushing consumers toward a product that's harder to make, or other brands that specialize in all-natural recipes. That's


READ: Ben Bernanke looks back on his Fed chairmanship

the fall of 2009 to 7 percent recently. Industrial production and equipment investment have matched or exceeded pre-recession peaks. The banking system has been recapitalized, and the financial system is safer. When the economy was in free fall in late 2008 and early 2009, such improvement was far from certain, as indicated at the time by stock prices that were nearly 60 percent below current levels and very wide credit spreads. Despite this progress, the recovery clearly remains incomplete. At 7 percent, the unemployment rate still is elevated. The number of long-term unemployed remains unusually high, and other measures of labor underutilization, such as the number of people who are working part time for economic reasons, have improved less than the unemployment rate. Labor force participation has continued to decline, and, although some of this decline reflects longer-term trends that were in place prior to the crisis, some of it likely reflects potential workers' discouragement about job prospects. In retrospect, at least, many of the factors that held back the recovery can be identified. Some of these factors were difficult or impossible to anticipate, such as the resurgence in financial volatility associated with the European sovereign debt and banking crisis and the economic effects of natural disasters in Japan and elsewhere. Other factors were more predictable; in particular, we appreciated early on, though perhaps to a lesser extent than we might have, that the boom and bust left severe imbalances that would take time to work off. As Carmen Reinhart and Ken Rogoff noted in their prescient research, economic activity following financial crises tends to be anemic, especially when the preceding economic expansion was accompanied by rapid growth in credit and real estate prices.16 Weak recoveries from financial crises reflect, in part, the process of deleveraging and balance sheet repair: Households pull back on spending to recoup lost wealth and reduce debt burdens, while financial institutions restrict credit to restore capital ratios and reduce the riskiness of their portfolios. In addition to these financial factors, the weakness of the recovery reflects the overbuilding of housing (and, to some extent, commercial real estate) prior to the crisis, together with tight mortgage credit; indeed, recent activity in these areas is especially tepid in comparison to the rapid gains in construction more typically seen in recoveries. Although the Federal Reserve, like other forecasters, has tended to be overoptimistic in its forecasts of real


National Zoo panda Bao Bao meets the press

The National Zoo’s 4-month-old giant panda cub made her first appearance before the media on Monday. Bao Bao, the giant panda cub at the Smithsonian's National Zoo, mugs for the cameras as she greets the media for the first time. Then, Bao Bao went back to sleep as mom Mei Xiang munched on bamboo. The public gets their first look at the cub on Jan. 18. PostTV’s Lee Powell was at the Giant Panda House to see Bao Bao toddle in her habitat and mug for the camera while her mother Mei Xiang munched on bamboo. Panda watchers have been able to monitor Bao Bao since shortly after she was born via the National Zoo’s live-streaming “panda cam.” But the public’s first opportunity to see her live will be on Jan. 18. Zoo officials provided this statement about what visitors can expect: The amount of time Bao Bao and [her mother] Mei Xiang will be on exhibit each day will depend on the bears’ behavior. In the first few weeks they may not be on exhibit for long periods of time; they will spend more time on exhibit as Bao Bao gets older. They will also have access to the den, where Bao Bao has spent much of the past few months, and may choose to spend time in it instead of in public viewing areas. Bao Bao weighs almost 17 pounds, which is right where she needs to be, said National Zoo biologist Laurie Thompson. She is learning how to climb, which inevitably leads to spills like this one: “Pandas cubs are very dense. They have a lot of fur, and it’s very, very thick fur,” Thompson said. “They’re used to taking tumbles. They’re made for it.” Check out footage from other Bao Bao milestones below. Here she is taking her first steps in November: In a momentous occasion, the baby panda at the National Zoo took her first tentative steps. Our first update after the panda cam went dark for two weeks during the government shutdown: The National Zoo's giant panda cub has grown and passed several developmental milestones since the panda cams went dark because of the government shutdown, according to zoo officials. The National Zoo’s Tian Tian responds to the news that he’s the father: Tian Tian, a 264-pound giant panda, is the father of the newborn cub at National Zoo. Our first glimpse of the


Smithsonian's National Zoo, mugs for the cameras as she greets the media for the first time. Then, Bao Bao went back to sleep as mom Mei Xiang munched on bamboo. The public gets their first look at the cub on Jan. 18. PostTV’s Lee Powell was at the Giant Panda House to see Bao Bao toddle in her habitat and mug for the camera while her mother Mei Xiang munched on bamboo. Panda watchers have been able to monitor Bao Bao since shortly after she was born via the National Zoo’s live-streaming “panda cam.” But the public’s first opportunity to see her live will be on Jan. 18. Zoo officials provided this statement about what visitors can expect: The amount of time Bao Bao and [her mother] Mei Xiang will be on exhibit each day will depend on the bears’ behavior. In the first few weeks they may not be on exhibit for long periods of time; they will spend more time on exhibit as Bao Bao gets older. They will also have access to the den, where Bao Bao has spent much of the past few months, and may choose to spend time in it instead of in public viewing areas. Bao Bao weighs almost 17 pounds, which is right where she needs to be, said National Zoo biologist Laurie Thompson. She is learning how to climb, which inevitably leads to spills like this one: “Pandas cubs are very dense. They have a lot of fur, and it’s very, very thick fur,” Thompson said. “They’re used to taking tumbles. They’re made for it.” Check out footage from other Bao Bao milestones below. Here she is taking her first steps in November: In a momentous occasion, the baby panda at the National Zoo took her first tentative steps. Our first update after the panda cam went dark for two weeks during the government shutdown: The National Zoo's giant panda cub has grown and passed several developmental milestones since the panda cams went dark because of the government shutdown, according to zoo officials. The National Zoo’s Tian Tian responds to the news that he’s the father: Tian Tian, a 264-pound giant panda, is the father of the newborn cub at National Zoo. Our first glimpse of the new cub: The National Zoo’s giant female panda Mei Xiang gave birth to a cub on Friday. PHOTOS: National Zoo’s panda makes an appearance


Bao Bao Sways One Panda Cynic

Bao Bao makes her media debut Jan. 6 – Abby Wood/ Smithsonian’s National Zoo I first saw Tai Shan, the then-National Zoo’s world famous panda, five years ago. It was a nice day and I had a Friday with time to kill, so I headed over to Woodley Park. It was time to finally try to suck in some of the magic that, to that point, I’d cynically scoffed at. For most of my life, the pandas and their followers were nothing but a necessary scourge on local society. The thinking being: if these fanatics spent as much time on their fellow humans as they did worrying about these bears, we’d all be better off. On this particular day, Tai Shan was out roaming the enclosure. There were children galore screaming his name, shoving their faces into the glass to get a look. I was lucky enough to find a spot up front amidst this swelling summer crowd. Then that little panda walked straight toward me, the kids got louder and louder, he popped a squat and relieved himself right in front of my face. Luckily there was the glass separation, but, clearly you can see through that. There was no lunch for me that day. I haven’t gone back to see the pandas since. Until today. For some reason, I’m down with Bao Bao, who was born back in August. Don’t get me wrong, you won’t catch me wearing panda t-shirts or becoming a member of FONZ, but for the first time, seeing that baby panda didn’t make me want to puke from all the schmaltzy cuteness alerts. She was debuted to the media this morning at the National Zoo — I didn’t go to that event — and the photos seem appropriately adorable (seriously, click that). When she was born, I found myself genuinely rooting for her, considering that there were worries after what happened the previous year when Mei Xiang lost a cub. Of course, rooting for an animal to stay alive doesn’t make one a saint, but it was a first for me. Interestingly enough, a couple weeks back, when asked what the panda’s name would be, I instinctively told someone that they don’t name the cub until after 100 days per Chinese tradition. At the time, I didn’t even realize that I knew that. Maybe 30 years of zoo propaganda have melted my brain. My


Good news! Health spending as a share of the economy is shrinking.

They also said that the Affordable Care Act has had a "minimal" impact on health care spending. At most, they believe the law increased health spending by 0.1 percent between 2010, when it was passed into law, and 2012. "The trends we're seeing in the last few years are consistent with the historical relationship between health spending and overall economic growth," says Micah Hartman, a statistician in Medicare's office of the actuary. Hartman also pointed to a few other factors that likely contributed to 2012's slow health cost growth. Patents expired for a handful of major drugs, including cholesterol medication Lipitor and Singular, which treats asthma. With many patients switching to generic versions of these brand-name medications, spending on precription drugs grew by a meager 0.4 percent in 2012. A reduction in Medicare payments to nursing homes is also thought to have contributed to last year's slow health care cost growth. "The low growth has a lot to do with onetime events," explains Charles Roehrig, director of the Center for Sustainable Health Spending at the Altarum Institute, which also tracks health care spending. "You had prescription drug growth at a really low rate primary due to these blockbuster drugs coming off patent. That's necessarily a short-term effect." Others, however, pointed to other data to make the case that the health-care spending slowdown will likely stretch well beyond 2012. Harvard's Cutler noted the slow growth in Medicare. Costs in that program, which covers Americans over age 65, grew at 4.8 percent in 2012, a slight decline from 2011. While those with private coverage might cut back on their health spending in a recession, "Medicare is traditionally immune to the economy," Cutler says. "This is another fascinating data point that suggests the changes now are being driven by a set of things that are different from the drivers in past years." And while major drug patents won't expire every year, Cutler points to doctors' growing resistance to pricey medications as reason to believe growth in prescription drug spending could stay low. In 2011, Sloan-Kettering Memorial Hospital in New York announced it would not use a new cancer drug that would cost $100,000 -- after which the drug maker, Sanofi, cut the price in half. Cutler says the downtrend in drug spending is, then, "partly a reflection of drugs coming off patent, but also a reflection of the payers getting more sophisticated, too."


The real effects of the European elections may be felt in London and Edinburgh rather than in Brussels

In countries with national elections within roughly a year of May 2014, the national results of the European elections, and particularly the interpretation of them by the media, will be taken as indicators for the upcoming campaign to fight of new challengers and (re)gain volatile electorates. This will be the case in Hungary, which holds national elections on June 30 (although recent changes to the election laws have made these a shoo-in for the ruling Fidesz party), and Sweden, where parliamentary elections are scheduled for Sept. 14. Of most importance to the future of Europe, however, will be British parliamentary elections, currently scheduled for May 7, 2015. Fighting off a Europhile coalition partner (the LibDems) on the one side, and an anti-EU opposition party on steroids (UKIP) on the other, the ruling Conservative Party is even more divided over its E.U. course than ever before. Both the Europhile and the Europhobe factions within the party are awaiting the European elections with great anticipation, hoping to find electoral arguments to pull the Conservative Party more clearly toward their position. And this time around their E.U. position is not just important for the further development of E.U. policies, because it could influence the next British government. Even more importantly, it could also be a crucial factor in the Scottish independence referendum of Sept. 18, 2014. With the Scots being much more left-wing and more pro-E.U. than the English majority of the British population, “English euroscepticism could doom the Union.” With the gap closing, and proponents of Scottish independence only 9 percent behind opponents, an even stronger Tory Euroskepticism could sway Scots to exchange a Euroskeptic Britain, increasingly marginalized within the European Union, for a solidly pro-European Union independent Scotland. And the European ramifications of Scottish independence go well beyond those of a possible one-third minority of ‘anti-European populists’ in the European Parliament. While it is an exaggeration to predict a “re-balkanization of Europe”, there is no doubt that the Scottish referendum will have consequences for other E.U. member states. For example, Belgium is feeling the pressure of the increasingly popular and radical separatist New Flemish Alliance (N-VA), the most popular party within the Dutch-speaking part of Flanders, while Spain has been confronted with mass demonstrations in favor of Basque and Catalan independence. So far the national elites have tried to stave off separatist claims by arguing that the new states would be


Poll: Majority wants marijuana legalized

Another new poll shows a majority of Americans would like marijuana to be legal. The CNN/Opinion Research poll shows 55 percent think marijuana should be legal, while 44 percent think it should not. The 55 percent who support legalization is up 12 points from just more than a year ago. CNN isn't the first pollster to show a spike in support for marijuana legalization. Both Pew and Gallup have shown similar trends, with new majorities supporting legalization. Gallup showed support for legalization spiking to 58 percent in a poll released in October. The CNN poll also shows that majorities of Americans do not see pot as physically or mentally harmful. They are about evenly split when it comes to whether it is addictive and leads to use of other drugs. Only 19 percent see its use as a major problem in society today. The rise in support comes as Colorado and Washington have become the first states to legalize recreational marijuana. Colorado's dispensaries began selling the drug last week, and Washington will soon join in. Marijuana remains illegal according to federal law, but the Justice Department has said it won't pursue legal action in either state that has legalized the substance. Recreational marijuana sales are underway in Colorado, attracting a new type of tourism to the state. Govbeat's Reid Wilson breaks down four things pot tourists should know about the new laws.


Medical marijuana initiative likely headed for Florida ballot

to allow Florida patients to use marijuana for medical purposes say they will turn in enough signatures to qualify for the fall ballot by next week. Supporters of the measure have until Feb. 1 to submit just over 683,000 valid signatures of registered voters. Realistically, backers are shooting for about 1 million signatures, to account for any deemed invalid; organizers say they will hit the million-signature mark by next week. “As of tomorrow, we should be right at, maybe a little bit under, a million” signatures, said Ben Pollara, who runs the People United for Medical Marijuana campaign that’s spearheading the initiative. “By this time next week, we should have more than enough to give us some comfort that we should be on the ballot.” So far, the Florida Department of Elections says the group has submitted 265,000 valid signatures. The group says it has hundreds of thousands of signatures still being processed by county elections officials. Once the signatures are submitted and verified, Florida’s Supreme Court will rule on whether the amendment’s ballot title and summary meet legal requirements, a decision likely to come before the beginning of April (See the proposed summary language here). And if the measure makes the ballot, organizers say poll results show they will start the fall campaign in strong position. A Quinnipiac University poll conducted in November showed a huge majority of Florida voters, 82 percent, backed allowing adults to use marijuana for medical purposes if their doctor prescribes the drug. Just 16 percent of voters said they opposed marijuana for medical use. The same poll showed a slim plurality — 48 percent — supported allowing adults to possess small amounts of marijuana for personal use. Forty-six percent said they opposed recreational marijuana use. But backers are still preparing for a big fight. Pollara said his group will aim to raise at least $10 million for the fall campaign, which will share the stage with a high-profile race between Gov. Rick Scott (R) and his eventual Democratic challenger. “We’re a big state. We have a lot of media markets. They’re going to be expensive, given the governor’s race,” Pollara said. At present, 18 states and the District of Columbia allow patients to use marijuana for medical purposes, while two states — Colorado and Washington — allow legal purchases for non-medical use. Eleven of those states legalized marijuana for medical use through ballot initiatives.


The Switchboard: California lawmakers want to halt NSA cooperation

Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning. (Bill Wolf - AP Photo) Published every weekday, the Switchboard highlights five tech policy stories you need to read. Calif. bill would halt assistance to NSA. Nebraska AG seeks to shut down vague patent demand letters. Uber CEO: Surge Pricing Is Here to Stay. Yelp seeks Washington clout after rapid rise in Silicon Valley. NSA employee will continue to co-chair influential crypto standards group.


Kale was so much bigger in the 1990s

Over the weekend, the Guardian reported that Britain had gone kale-crazy, with sales of the bitter brassica surging after its endorsement by celebrities such as Gwyneth Paltrow. The United States could have told them that, having already weathered kale-mania in 2012 and 2013, which featured the "all-kale diet," National Kale Day, Bon Appetit's dish of the year being awarded to a kale salad, kale at the White House Thanksgiving and all the trend stories you could eat. And verily, there's a reason you're noticing it more often in supermarkets. "We are definitely seeing a spike in kale," a Safeway spokesman said in a statement e-mailed from his produce team. "It is considered a superfood. We have many new SKU's and different varieties. We are highlighting it by moving it towards the front of our departments so our customers see it immediately. We will be running a special promotion on it weeks 1-4 at 2 bunches for $3 and expanding display size. It is a rapidly growing commodity." But what do the data say about how much kale is actually around? The U.S. Department of Agriculture started tracking the production of kale in 1997, and the closest proxy for consumption we have is something called "disappearance": imports plus production minus exports. By that metric, divided by population, we arrive at the amount of kale the United States absorbed per capita: It looks as though while kale is certainly on the rise again, it's coming up from a crash after 2000; the United States actually used to consume a bit more of it. Compared to the growth in romaine consumption, it barely registers: Romaine in blue, kale down at the bottom in red. But what do those numbers look like in comparison to other veggies? While it's difficult to compare by weight, since leafy greens are lighter than, say, root vegetables, the growth trajectories have differed markedly over time: Carrots have taken a big hit over the past decade and a half, but the figures for asparagus, broccoli, sweet potatoes and mushrooms have been steadily rising. In comparison, kale is negligible, way down along the bottom of the graph -- which you wouldn't know for all the attention it's gotten in recent years.


What your beer says about your politics, in one chart

Graphic courtesy Tracey Robinson and Will Feltus, National Media Research Planning and Placement LLC When we took a look at consumer data showing correlations between an individual’s favorite spirits and his or her political leanings, we were inundated by one query: What about beer? Well, the next time you have to bring a six-pack to a friend’s house, now you’ll know the delicate political calculations involved: Once again, the good folks at National Media Research Planning and Placement have taken it upon themselves to chart the correlations between beer preference and partisan leanings. Perhaps unsurprisingly, beers you might expect to find someone drinking while watching a football game — Miller Lite, Coors Light, basically anything that bills itself as a low-calorie beer — leans Republican. A glass of vino or ice-cold brewski? Gov Beat’s Reid Wilson explains what your favorite beer and wine might say about your political preferences. Rolling Rock, Milwaukee’s Best and Miller High Life, on the other hand, are hipster beers. They lean Democratic. So do microbrews (Boy, the stereotype jokes practically write themselves, don’t they?). Heavier beers like Miller Genuine Draft and Budweiser lean Democratic more than their lighter counterparts. But beer drinkers are far less likely to show up to the polls than wine drinkers are. Oenophiles who prefer Cabernet Sauvignon are more likely to vote Republican, while Sauvignon blanc drinkers are overwhelmingly Democratic voters. And here’s another interesting distinction to draw: Those who drink brown liquors tend to vote Republican, but the type of whiskey one prefers says something about how likely one is to vote. Someone who enjoys a nice single-malt scotch is more likely to cast a ballot than someone who prefers Canadian whiskey, and Bourbon drinkers turn out with the least frequency. Our thanks to Tracey Robinson, Will Feltus and the National Media team for crunching the numbers, which initially came from Scarborough Research.


Alaska could become the third state to legalize marijuana—as soon as August

will be to spread the word and garner support. “We’ll be taking our message to the voters in lots of different ways,” says Tim Hinterberger, one of the three sponsors and a professor at the University of Alaska Anchorage’s School of Medical Education. “It’s clear to everyone that prohibition is a failed policy.” Alaskan voters approved marijuana for medical use in 1998 in a 59 percent to 41 percent vote. A similar initiative for recreational use of marijuana in 2004 failed by the exact same margin that the medical marijuana measure passed. Hinterberger said he was involved in the earlier effort and that shifting attitudes encouraged him and the other sponsors to try again this year. “We were waiting to see what would be a good time to revisit it and the opportunity arose to have some outside support to help move things along,” Hinterberger said. He and the other advocates in Alaska got help from, among others, the Marijuana Policy Project which played a key role in ushering along a successful legalization effort in Colorado. In October, Gallup reported that a clear majority of Americans favor legalization — the first time it found such results since tracking began in 1969. If voters approve the measure, Alaska would become the third state to legalize marijuana for recreational use, joining Colorado and Washington where voters approved similar measures in 2012. Sales of marijuana began in Colorado on Jan. 1 with sales in Washington set to begin in the next few months. After Alaska, activists are setting their sights on Oregon where they hope to get the issue on the ballot later this year. If not, they say they will push to get it on the 2016 ballot, along with ballots in six other states: Arizona, California, Maine, Massachusetts, Montana and Nevada. Supporters are also hopeful that lawmakers will propose and approve legalization in Delaware, Hawaii, Maryland, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont. The initiative would offer lawmakers guidelines on how to set up the regulations governing the production and sale of marijuana, including a $50 per ounce tax on the drug. But legislators will be able to regulate however they please, Hinterberger said. A high-quality ounce of pot costs about $290 in Alaska, based on more than 250 anonymous reports collected at priceofweed.com. (CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story misstated when Alaskans last voted on pot legalization. It was 2004.)


Most expensive homes sold in the Washington D.C. region in 2013

An 11,625-square-foot mansion in McLean tops the list of luxury homes sold in the area last year. View Photo Gallery —An 11,625-square-foot mansion in McLean tops the list of luxury homes sold in the area last year. Most of us can’t imagine spending $12 million on a house. Really large, really expensive homes just aren’t in our budgets. But more and more people in the Washington region are spending significant amounts on their residences, and, as a result, the market for luxury homes in this area has picked up. Last year was robust for high-end real estate here. Twenty-nine homes sold for more than $5 million. That was an increase of more than 40 percent from 2012, when 17 sales topped $5 million or more. Just 10 years ago, that number was five. With the help of MRIS, the Rockville-based multiple listing service, we looked at the most expensive homes sold last year in this area. It’s no surprise where most of them are located. McLean and Georgetown were well represented. McLean had the two most expensive homes in the region, while five Georgetown homes made the list. Maryland didn’t crack the top 10. Its top sale fell more than $500,000 short of making the overall list. “People feel more confident in the value of real estate,” said Dana Landry, principal broker of Washington Fine Properties, whose firm represented eight homes on the top 10 list. “That’s the big shift. . . . Every time we sell another house, it builds confidence for the next person to buy a house. Buyers don’t want to be foolish. But if they feel that other people are doing it, then it builds confidence. I would say there’s an extreme confidence in the Washington, D.C., market.” One property that would have made the list because of its price but was not included was the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy’s home on Chain Bridge Road in McLean, which sold for $9.5 million. Because the house was a tear-down and the price paid was more for the land than the home, we chose to leave it off the list. “We had a wider audience in these price ranges this year than we have in the past, and that led to the successes that we all enjoyed,” said Eileen McGrath, who along with Jamie Peva sold two of the properties on the list. “We had a broader


D.C. to Baltimore in 15 minutes?

Japan wants to loan the U.S. $4 billion to build a 15-minute "super train" between D.C. and Baltimore. http://t.co/NWiMWmUIdq So really? A 15-minute trip between D.C. and Baltimore? You could get to Camden Yards quicker than you could make it Nats Park! Japan is well known for its super-efficient bullet trains. And while travelers in the U.S. always have been enamored with the idea of high-speed rail, efforts to build such as system have been stymied by myriad issues. According to The Telegraph newspaper, however, the Japanese government is eager to promote “Super-Maglev” trains — an even faster solution. The D.C. to Baltimore link would be part of a large rail line that would connect D.C. with Boston. The proposal for the Maglev route was put forward last year by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during talks with President Obama, the newspaper reported. The Japanese government would be willing to pay half of the $8 billion it would cost to install the tracks. According to The Telegraph: “Maglev vehicles have no wheels and are propelled along their track through electromagnetic pull – doing away with friction and, hence, providing a smoother and quieter ride at a faster speed. Conventional Maglev technology is already in use on a number of short routes around the world, but is limited to a speed of around 267mph. Japanese “Super-Maglev” trains are already operating on test tracks at speeds of more than 310mph.” Considering the bumpy road advocates have already encountered when it come to high speed rail, it’s pretty unlikely that we’ll see Super-Maglev trains anytime soon. But in a region looking for smart solutions for its congested roads, it’s always nice to dream.


Rocket launched from Wallops, Va.; aurora may be viewable tonight in northern states

An Antares rocket was launched from NASA’s Wallops Island at 1:07 p.m. today and was viewable for parts of the East Coast. Meanwhile, aurora may be visible in parts of the northern U.S. tonight in the wake of a major solar flare Tuesday. Rocket launch 1:15 p.m. UPDATE: @capitalweather saw it from Sterling - the plume and a quick glimpse of the rocket w/binoculars before it went behind clouds @capitalweather Clear "smoke" trail rising up above low clouds visible in McLean. @capitalweather I saw it from my office in downtown Bethesda! Exciting. Viewing map for today’s rocket launch (Orbital Sciences) From 1:00 p.m.: Because the launch will occur during the daytime, it will not be as visible as some of our recent nighttime launches from Wallops Island. In addition, because Antares first stage engines are liquid fueled, it will not produce a column of smoke that solid fueled rockets typically produce. As a result, from a distance Antares will appear as a faint bright spot ascending in the sky if viewing conditions are optimal. Look to the southeast and east about 10 degrees above the horizon to catch a glimpse in the D.C. area. Where to look for the rocket from the Capitol East Front steps (Orbital Sciences) The purpose of the mission is to carry cargo to the International Space Station. It is the first of eight commercial cargo resupply missions, says Orbital Sciences. Follow @orbitalsciences, @twcspacewx, and @nasa for updates on the launch. You can also watch the launch on NASA TV online. Aurora The coronal mass ejection (CME) or wave of plasma associated with Tuesday’s solar flare is projected to impact the Earth’s atmosphere some time between today and early Friday. Aurora are possible in the northern tier of U.S. states when this occurs, but there is some uncertainty on the timing and extent of viewing possibilities. Writes NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center on Facebook: Onset time of viewable Aurora activity will depend on the arrival time of the CME to Earth’s magnetic field, as well as the strength of the magnetic interaction. If the CME arrives later than forecast (during daylight or at sunrise), if it is cloudy, if the moon is bright, or if the magnetic interaction is less than expected (low K index observed), it will likely not be viewable. If there are dark skies, there are little or no clouds, and the K


Boehner criticizes Obama for ignoring resurgent al-Qaeda

House Speaker John A. Boehner spoke at press conference Thursday on Capitol Hill. (Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA) House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) on Thursday called on President Obama to "get engaged" in securing U.S. interests in Iraq in light of the renewed instability there brought on by a resurgent al-Qaeda. His comments came as two of Obama's leading Republican foreign policy critics also faulted the White House for failing to negotiate an agreement that would have permitted residual U.S. forces to remain in Iraq to help prevent the recent instability. Boehner rarely publicly discusses foreign policy but raised the concerns during his weekly press conference with reporters. "The administration has chosen to spend much of its time and energy trying to explain why having terrorists holding key terrain in the Middle East is not the president’s problem," he said. Asked later whether U.S. military forces should be once again deployed in Iraq, Boehner said that was not something the American public would support and instead that “equipment and other services” should be provided to the Iraqi government. The eruption of violence in Iraq is threatening to undo much of what U.S. troops appeared to have accomplished before they withdrew in December 2011, putting the country’s stability on the line and raising the specter of a new civil war in a region already buckling under the strain of the conflict in Syria. In the western Iraqi province of Anbar, Sunnis are in open revolt against the Shiite-dominated government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Militants affiliated with al-Qaeda have taken advantage of the turmoil to raise their flag over areas from which they had been driven out by American troops, including the powerfully symbolic city of Fallujah, where U.S. forces fought their bloodiest battle since the Vietnam War. Moments after Boehner spoke, Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) accused the speaker of blaming Obama for the recent violence in Fallujah. "That takes a lot of gall," Reid said. "I wonder if the speaker wants us to send more troops -- or wants to send troops into Iraq now? They're home. The American people are glad. They're coming back from Afghanistan," Reid said. He added later: "We're going to be watching very closely what goes on there, and we'll help them, but there is never any hint of anyone in this administration talking about sending troops to Iraq." But as Reid spoke,


NASA wants to keep the International Space Station going until 2024. Is that a good idea?

private company to launch its own craft for successful rendezvous with the station. (NASA) It's not cheap. As mentioned, the station currently costs NASA about $3 billion per year. And that's just NASA's contribution. If other nations don't get on board with the extension, it's possible that the United States could pick up more of the tab. "We are prepared to do what we have to do in case the partners need to take a different path," NASA's Gerstenmaier said on Wednesday. That's a hefty chunk of NASA's budget, which will clock in around $17 billion in 2014. The space station could well eat into NASA's other missions. Here's Achenbach: "Space policy experts warn that, without a significant boost in budget, NASA will not be able to keep running the station and simultaneously carry out new, costly deep-space missions." There are also technical challenges in maintaining the station, as laid out in a Congressional Research report. Until 2011, NASA's space shuttles could transport broken space-station parts down to Earth for repair. But the shuttle program has ended, and it's not clear that the next generation of private spacecraft are versatile enough for repair work. "Instead, new parts will need to be manufactured and sent up, but even this may be impossible in a few cases, as some ISS parts are too large for any of the planned post-shuttle cargo alternatives." Is 2024 the final date? How long can the space station last? In his press conference on Wednesday, Gerstenmaier mentioned that the space station would stay up until "at least" 2024. Right now, NASA and its contractors are working on certifying that the station's components can hold up until at least 2028. What does Congress think? A Falcon 9 SpaceX rocket lifts off Dec. 3 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The rocket is carrying its first commercial payload, a communications satellite. John Raoux / AP The space station has plenty of supporters — not least because of the economic angle. In 2011, NASA bought goods and services in 396 of the 435 congressional districts. One example: Florida's space industry took a big hit after the end of the space shuttle program in 2011. So it's no surprise that Florida Sen. Bill Nelson is in favor of keeping the space station aloft: "This means more jobs at the Kennedy Space Center as we rebuild our entire space program.”


Why legal marijuana is popular, but lawmakers still pass on grass

Marijuana is on fire -- this much we know. A CNN/Opinion Research poll earlier this week was the latest to show a spike in support for legal weed. CNN, Gallup and the Pew Research Center all now show a clear-to-sizeable majority of Americans support Americans' right to toke as they please -- as high as 58 percent in Gallup's polling. Despite the surge in popularity, though, we have yet to see basically any major politicians jumping on board. Indeed, it's tough to name any big-name elected officials who support it -- let alone someone who might run for president in 2016. Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley They have been joined in recent weeks by New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez (R), California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D). So ... pot is popular ... and politicians like to be popular (it kind of helps them win elections) ... so why isn't anybody jumping on-board with legalizing recreational marijuana? Well, a few things are at play here. 1) Marijuana's popularity is very new Politicians are in the business of sustainability, not embracing the latest fad. So before something becomes part of a politician's platform, he or she wants to make sure it has staying power and isn't just a passing fancy. Pot has jumped double-digits in the last year in some polls, and while all the movement in recent years is in one direction, that kind of quick movement is exceedingly rare and potentially unpredictable. There's also the matter of whether or not it's going to work. The fact is that Colorado and Washington, whose voters legalized marijuana in the 2012 election, are entering uncharted territory as they implement their new laws. You can bet that any governor or lawmaker who might, in his or her heart of hearts, support the idea of legal weed is more than happy to see Colorado and Washington take a stab at it before they do. If it fails miserably (you thought we were going to use another play-on-words here, didn't you?), it's not their problem and they'll know that they should steer clear in the future. 2) The payoff is minimal As with issues like guns and immigration, the support/oppose polls don't necessarily tell the whole story. While a majority supports legalizing marijuana, lawmakers might stand to lose more than they stand to gain by supporting it. That's because issues like


U.S. spy agencies were fantasizing about Google Glass four years before it was invented

Stephanie Hernandez, 26, of Miami wears Google Glass to view artwork with the design of the US flag titled "Viewpoints of Billions" by artist David Datuna on Dec. 7, 2013, in the Design District neighborhood of Miami. (Lynne Sladky/AP) Google Glass is still a long way from reaching ordinary consumers like you and me. But the search company isn't the only one that's dreamed of a future powered by augmented-reality vision. Turns out the intelligence community was fantasizing about something called "iGlasses" as early as 2008 — long before anyone had coined the word "Glasshole." Every so often, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence — the same agency that oversees the NSA — shoves a bunch of people in a room and gets them to think about tough challenges ahead. These four-week sessions are called Summer Hard Problems, or SHARP for short. The final reports that come out of these sessions are typically classified. But the Federation of American Scientists managed to get its hands on one, published secretly in 2008, thanks to a FOIA request the group filed five years ago. The paper goes into depth on simulated environments like "Second Life" and "World of Warcraft," looking at the economies and currencies that prop them up (and in some ways predicting the rise of Bitcoin). More interesting, though, is the breathless way researchers described the potential, and the risks, of technology that melds the virtual and the physical. "One plausible future development is iGlasses," the intelligence workers wrote. "The iGlasses would feature a fully integrated computer, PDA, cell phone, ID tag, HMD (Head Mounted Display) and GPS. ... When integrated with sub-meter GPS systems and HMDs, they would allow Reality+ graphic overlays enhancing what people see through the glasses in real time as they walk and traverse the real world. Built-in Internet access would come standard with all models." Even by 2008's standards, some of the language showed evidence of staleness. PDAs? Really? And what about the compulsion to make anything hip and trendy into an Apple-like iThing? It also wouldn't be an intelligence report without a sober assessments of the national security threat posed by AR technology: Of course, this technology could also be abused. Right-wing extremists, for instance neo-Nazis, could overlay racial or ethnic slurs and slogans on buildings or individuals in the real world. Or jihadist sympathizers could gather on the Capital Mall wearing


Maine becomes second state to require GMO labels

Maine Gov. Paul LePage in June 2013. (Robert F. Bukaty/AP) Maine will become the second state to require labels on food that contains genetically modified ingredients under new legislation signed by Gov. Paul LePage (R) this week — but only after other states follow suit. LePage signed the legislation, initially introduced by a Republican state representative, over the objections of agriculture giants who produce many of the raw ingredients that go into everyday foods. The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that about 70 percent of the food products sold in supermarkets contain genetically modified ingredients, the Portland Press-Herald reported. But shoppers in Maine won’t see those GMO labels slapped all over grocery stores any time soon. The legislation doesn’t go into effect until five nearby states, including New Hampshire, pass similar labeling laws. New Hampshire’s legislature will take up a similar measure during its legislative session this year. That provision was necessary, the bill’s backers said, to build a broad base of support. It’s similar to a provision in a GMO labeling bill passed by Connecticut’s legislature, signed into law last month by Gov. Dannel Malloy (D), which won’t take effect until a combination of Northeastern states that add up to 20 million residents pass similar legislation. Industry groups and mega-corporations such as Monsanto and General Mills are likely to challenge the new law in court. Monsanto has said it would file suit on the grounds that the law violates free speech and interstate commerce protections, the Press-Herald said. Monsanto has threatened to sue other states over labeling legislation; in 2012, the threat of legal action effectively halted a GMO measure that had been advancing through the Vermont legislature. A ballot measure that would have required labels on genetically modified food in Washington state failed in 2013, after food producers spent more than $20 million on campaign advertising. Though Maine and Connecticut are the only two legislatures to pass GMO labeling bills, similar legislation has been introduced in about 30 states, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.


Majority in Congress are millionaires

A few items that caught our attention on Friday: (Carol Porter/Washington Post) Most members of Congress are millionaires: Insane Clown Posse sues FBI over gang designation: National Guard concerned about attrition with wars winding down VA reports rise in suicides among youngest vets: U.S. spy agencies dreamed of Google Glass before it became real: CBO highlights options for tough defense cuts: Follow Josh Hicks on Twitter, Facebook or Google+. Connect by e-mail at josh.hicks@washpost.com. Visit The Federal Eye, The Fed Page and Post Politics for more federal news.


This company sold Google a quantum computer. Here’s how it works.

this work that we did with Google, and that was later published, was really about adapting their state-of-the-art conventional algorithms and adapting it and see how it would perform [with quantum hardware]. We ran the training [e.g. had the computer analyze example data] for a couple of weeks on the hardware. The outcome was a "trained" piece of software that no longer needed to be on the quantum processor. And it was quite good at identifying cars—comparable or slightly better than what they were able to do [with conventional computers]. It's a great illustration for us of the potential of the technology and how it could be used. The algorithm looks for features of the image. The identification and evaluation of those features turns into an optimization type of problem. That optimization problem was adapted to run on our hardware. We had to change the problem around slightly so it can run on our hardware, cast it in a form that's actually a little harder for people to solve [with conventional computers]. Even the fact that it was in the ballpark of the conventional algorithms in the field was very exciting. We didn't really officially release the 128 qubit product until 2011. This was on a very early version of this technology I thought the point of quantum computing was that it could solve problems dramatically faster than conventional computers. Why should people be impressed if your hardware only produced results that are "comparable or slightly better" than conventional methods? An important element of D-Wave's technology is our roadmap. We're continuously improving and building bigger processors. Recently we released a 512 qubit processor. If we look at the performance roadmap of that hardware, where performance in solving these problems relative to the state of the art, we saw that between that 128 qubit and 512 qubit, a 300,000x improvement in performance. That kind of performance gain is really unprecedented. With that 512 qubit processor, it was able to meet and match the state of the art in classical algorithms and computers. It's very exciting that we had achieved that. So when we look at that we say we continue to make these things bigger and more powerful. Right now, we have a 1000 qubit processor in our lab. We plan to release it later in 2014. The major thing that's changing aside from some of the design details is the


Mark your calendars: the National Zoo’s giant panda cub Bao Bao has got a big year ahead

Giant panda cub, Bao Bao explores an enclosure in front of the media at D.C.’s Smithsonian National Zoo earlier this month. , DC. (Matt McClain / The Washington Post) Bao Bao won’t be this cute forever. And when she’s 4 years old, she’ll be handed a one-way ticket to China. So we need to savor every moment we can get with our special furball, born to Mei Xiang and Tian Tian on Aug. 23 at the National Zoo. With the reopening of the panda house Saturday, Bao Bao groupies can start watching — in person instead of via Panda Cam! — for the developmental milestones she’ll hit in the coming months. “Between now and her first birthday, there’s just going to be an explosion of behaviors,” says giant-panda keeper Nicole MacCorkle. How many will you spot? TODAY As Bao Bao’s public debut approaches, she’s “just really building the skills that she’s going to use,” MacCorkle says. She’s not that interested in toys yet, and she’s still getting to know her keepers and respond to her name, with the aid of a sweet incentive. Much like dogs, pandas “are very food-motivated,” MacCorkle says. “When she starts to orient toward us, we call her name and say ‘good girl’ and she can have a little taste of apple juice.” JANUARY/FEBRUARY Bao Bao Starts Acting Cute China’s wild giant pandas are accustomed to snowy weather, MacCorkle says. She hopes the forecast cooperates in giving Bao Bao a taste of her motherland. Not much is cuter than an adult panda frolicking in the snow, she says. “But seeing a cub? That is an experience that definitely all Washingtonians should make time for.” Bao Bao’s First Tree Climb Much like a parent would baby-proof a home, zookeepers will cub-proof Bao Bao and Mei Xiang’s outdoor enclosure before Bao Bao gets her paws on the trees. Those with branches that overhang dad Tian Tian’s yard are a no-no; others are just too high for Bao Bao to safely scale at her age — stumps are more her speed right now. Zookeepers will also secure the fence lines and cushion some of the rocky areas with hay. Bao Bao’s father Tian Tian relaxes in his yard. (Bill O’Leary / The Washington Post) Bao Bao Meets Dad A panda family is sweet to imagine, but in reality, Tian Tian, above, is an absentee father. (And maybe a dangerous


Morning Links

• Springfield, Missouri plans to enlist National Guard troops (pdf) to help enforce drug prohibition. • An in-depth look at the financial incentives pushing New York lawmakers to oppose pot legalization. • Ernest Hemingway’s recipe for a good and manly hamburger. • ” . . . you should have said that he pulled a knife on you and shot the son of a bitch.” • The first exoneration of 2014 . . . • . . . and the first execution. • New “smart bowl” will sit by your door, charge all of your gadgets. • Life in prison for selling marijuana. • Alabama man sits in jail . . . for blogging. • And finally, some good news: Both the incidence and mortality rates of cancer continue to fall.