Why ‘GMO-free’ is a marketing ploy you shouldn’t fall for

Many restaurant chains and food manufacturers are ditching artificial and genetically-modified ingredients for simpler recipes. But are these changes to benefit customers' health or just to sell more meals? A lot of companies are changing their recipes to remove genetically modified organisms and "unnatural" ingredients, and plenty of customers think that's great news. But these moves play more on irrational fear than they do on actual science, and basing all your food choices on avoiding "unnatural" ingredients may not be as healthy as you'd think. [Why we’re so scared of GMOs, according to someone who has studied them since the start] You can read more about the haphazard case against GMOs The people who push GMO labels and GMO-free shopping aren’t informing you or protecting you. They’re using you. They tell food manufacturers, grocery stores, and restaurants to segregate GMOs, and ultimately not to sell them, because people like you won’t buy them. They tell politicians and regulators to label and restrict GMOs because people like you don’t trust the technology. They use your anxiety to justify GMO labels, and then they use GMO labels to justify your anxiety. Keeping you scared is the key to their political and business strategy. Meanwhile, the obsession with avoiding GMOs ignores a lot of food-safety nuance. One big example is Bacillus thuringiensis, a bacterium commonly known as Bt, which is used as a pesticide. When plants are genetically engineered to produce it themselves, consumers actually ingest less of it than when farmers spray the bacteria onto un-engineered plants. So arguing against creating plants that produce Bt is actually quite misguided -- if you believe that GMO plants that produce Bt are dangerous, then the spray-on pesticide you'll get as an alternative is even more so. [Proof he’s the Science Guy: Bill Nye is changing his mind about GMOs] Oh, and “If they really wanted to improve people’s health, they should worry a lot more about the salt and fat in their burritos than a little bit of soybean oil and a little cornmeal,” Gregory Jaffe, director of biotechnology at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, told The Post in May. The same holds true with a lot of the other recipe changes major companies have been making -- removing dyes, changing sweeteners, and so on. Several of these changes -- the removal of a harmless chemical in Subway's bread that happens


This is what happens when everyone is terrified of carbs

with avoids carbs than gluten, which many feel can cause great gastrointestinal discomfort. "A lot of people are really watching their intake these days," said Darren Seifer, food and beverage analyst at market research firm NPD group. "That's definitely making a dent in pasta sales." It doesn't help either that protein, which pasta has very little of, is so in vogue these days. More than half of Americans say they want more of it in their diet. The desire has been a boon for the protein shake business. So too has it been for the protein bar market, which was valued at more than $500 million in 2013. "You can't discount the trend towards protein-rich foods," said Baroke. "It's probably the most impactful in the United States, but the same is happening over here in Europe." Fresh foods have also forced shoppers away from the middle of the supermarket, where most pastas are sold. Many grocery store goers likely enter and leave without ever having looked down the pasta aisle. And finally, pasta has never been as replaceable as it is today. The rise of alternative grains, like quinoa, which are similarly filling but far richer in protein, have gained popularity at the expense of spaghetti. So too have certain vegetables, which, when cut into thin, long strips, and spiralized, approximate the experience of eating pasta. Spaghetti squash, which was named for its pasta-liked texture when cooked, has become exceedingly popular. "As these grains and other alternatives become more popular, they will only become more threatening to pasta," Seifer said. The pastas industry says it will overcome the obstacles it faces. "The pasta industry has noticed an interest in gluten-free foods in recent years and has responded by offering more options for consumers in this small, yet growing, segment of the market," Carol Freysinger, the executive director of the National Pasta Association, wrote in an email. "There are now dozens of different types of gluten-free pasta available." But while gluten-free pasta brands have been growing fast, the category is still minuscule in comparison to its traditional, carb heavy counterpart. "They just don't have the reach yet," said Baroke. "I mean, there are high protein pastas, too, but they are still incredibly niche products." Asked whether people will eventually change their minds, and warm back up to spaghetti, fettuccine, ravioli, and other starchy Italian fare, Baroke reminded that food trends tend


Outbreak of rare, mutated poliovirus that originated from vaccine in Ukraine leaves two children paralyzed

An Afghan health worker administers the polio vaccine to a child during a vaccination campaign on the outskirts of Jalalabad on Aug. 17. (Noorullah Shirzada/AFP/Getty Images) Poliovirus has returned to Europe after a five year reprieve, paralyzing a 4-year-old and 10-month-old in the Ukraine, the World Health Organization said Wednesday. The WHO said the two cases were in the southwestern part of the country -- bordering Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and Poland -- and that the strain responsible, vaccine-derived poliovirus type 1 or cVDPV1, may still be a threat to the region. cVDPV is a rare, mutated form of the virus that comes from the vaccine itself. Oral polio vaccines contain a weakened form of the virus that activates an immune response in the body so that it builds up antibodies to protect itself. But it takes some time for this to happen, and meanwhile the virus replicates in the intestines and can be excreted by the person immunized and can spread to others in the community. This isn't always a bad thing. It can sometimes provide what is called passive immunity to those who come into contact with it. However, in populations that are under-immunized -- the Ukraine is definitely one of those with only 50 percent of children fully immunized against polio and other vaccine-preventable diseases in 2014 -- the vaccine-virus can circulate for long time, 12 months or longer, and genetically change into a more virulent form that can paralyze. This is what WHO believes happened in the Ukraine. In a statement, WHO officials said that discussions are "ongoing" with Ukranian health authorities to implement "an urgent outbreak response." This type of plan usually involves a vaccination campaign to cover at least 2 million children under age 5. "[T]he risk of further spread of this strain within the country is deemed to be high," the WHO said. Polio disappeared for many years in the developed world, but it still exists in along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. There were outbreaks in Syria and Iraq in recent years but not since 2014. The WHO, in cooperation with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), Rotary International, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, have mounted an aggressive effort in recent years to eradicate polio from the world -- saying the goal is within reach with better rates of vaccination. Read more: Scientists: Why running makes you


Here’s a good view of the National Zoo’s tiny giant panda

The National Zoo's panda parents, Mei Xiang and Tian Tian, have another son. The zoo announced that the surviving panda cub is male and the son of the zoo's male panda Tian Tian. Over the weekend, giant panda mom Mei Xiang finally put her newborn cub down, giving the panda cam a full-on view of the tiny critter. The National Zoo reported that the cub appears to be doing well and is starting to get black markings. Mei Xiang put her cub down twice in the last 24 hrs. He's starting to get black markings & is doing well #PandaStory http://t.co/phyHnnzsYB The cub was born Aug. 22.


Angry French farmers are invading Paris with an army of tractors

Germany, stopping hundreds of trucks hauling cheaper vegetables, meat and milk from other European nations. Farmers have carried banners reading "We want to make a living from our work" — and some have even stormed into supermarkets and plucked cheap imported food off the shelves. In late July, an official with France's primary farmers union proudly told the Agence France-Presse news agency that its members had turned back a truck carrying cheese. "Consumers think this is French, but the cheese comes from Slovakia," Franck Sander told AFP. Local and global pressures are largely to blame for the farmers' woes. Overall, the French are eating less meat. Demand from China has reduced, and Russia has imposed a ban on food imports from the European Union. Labor costs in neighboring countries are much lower than they are in France, making imported food cheaper. French farmers say they are making far fewer profits as supermarket chains opt to stock less-pricey meat and produce from other countries. Farmers and their advocates warn of depression, rising debts, even suicides among farmers. The next generations of farmers, they claim, will have a bleak future. Life has gotten so grim that the government has said that as many as 10 percent of French farms, about 22,000, could face bankruptcy. Concerned that the protests could disrupt the economy as well as France's standing in the E.U., the government this summer announced a $675 million emergency package of tax relief and loan guarantees to help farmers. But that has not stopped the tractors from being deployed. Sander, the union official, explained to AFP that the relief does not solve the long-term problems farmers face because of cheap imports from other E.U. nations. He noted that German asparagus farmers pay their employees $5.62 per hour, while France's hourly wage is $13.50. #1000tracteursetmoi "RT @Whitnezz: du jamais vu des tracteurs sur l'autoute en #Mayenne direct° Paris #agriculteurs http://t.co/J5AFkJBRDI" Mostly, French people have been supportive of the farmers' cause, despite the disruptions of traffic and tourism in many parts of the country. One national poll showed that 88 percent of people view the farmers' protests as necessary. Eight out of 10 French people surveyed said they were willing to pay more for French milk and meat to help the nation's farmers. On Thursday morning, hundreds of tractors are expected to converge on the Place de la Nation, a well-known square in Paris.


The problem with “panda privilege”

The father of the two giant panda cubs born at the Smithsonian National Zoo, Tian Tian, wanders around his enclosure on Friday. (EPA/SHAWN THEW) For some scientists, the excitement surrounding the birth of twin panda cubs at the National Zoo last week is just another example of what one researcher calls “panda privilege.” Critics say that zoos lavish resources on pandas, apes, elephants and other “flagship species,” as they’re known, investing less in the millions of other organisms that aren’t impressively large and furry. It’s a familiar debate among experts on conservation, but the National Zoo has received particularly sharp criticism. Last year, the zoo canceled its its $1 million program for animals without a spine, or invertebrates. Estimates vary, but invertebrates include roughly 99 percent of species. Corals, cuttlefish, leafcutter ants, and other species lost their home when the zoo’s Invertebrate Exhibit closed. One way or another, many larger animals depend on them for their survival, said Scott Hoffman Black, the executive director of the Xerces Society for Insect Conservation in Portland, Ore. Take those grizzly bears fishing for salmon on the bear cam in Katmai National Park, Alaska. They’d have nothing to eat if the salmon didn’t have flies to snap at on the surface of a mountain stream. Or take humans. Our crop yields depend on honeybees and other pollinating insects. “We, of course, were really disappointed that they decided to move away from educating people about a really important part of biological diversity, which are our insects and other invertebrates,” Black said of the zoo’s decision to close the Invertebrate Exhibit. Kathleen Buckingham, a researcher at the World Resources Institute in Washington, called it “panda privilege.” American zoo’s treatment of pandas “raises some wider questions about the hierarchy of the animal kingdom,” said Buckingham, who studied the geopolitics of pandas with colleagues at the University of Oxford. “Invertebrates, nobody will notice if they’re gone, but what’s next to be gone? And what are the implications of that?” [Read more: What China’s panda monopoly means for the world] The zoo cited financial considerations in its decision to close the exhibit. The invertebrate program cost $1 million annually to operate and would have required a $5 million renovation to maintain. There is no media frenzy when a coral clones itself. No one spends hours watching baby cuttlefish emerge from their eggs. And when a colony of leafcutter ants


The problem with “panda privilege”

bids farewell to a young queen taking wing on her nuptial flight, no one says anything about her looks. But when a panda cub is born, she is inevitably the cutest, cuddliest, fluffiest, adorable-est thing any human parent has ever cooed over. When a panda cub dies, it’s front-page news. So critics aren’t surprised that the panda program continues. The total cost of the panda program is $3.5 million a year, including research, feed, and habitat. About $550,000 is a fee paid to China, which controls the bears. Only one of the cubs born last week survived, a male. The parents are the zoo’s adult giant pandas, Mei Xiang and Tian Tian. Away from the zoo, meanwhile, the Smithsonian’s worldwide network of scientists is studying all kinds of species, including invertebrates. A group of researchers is freezing coral sperm from Hawaii, the Caribbean and Australia to preserve the diversity of the animals’ gene pool. Panda proponents also say protecting just one animal often requires protecting many more. It’s impossible to conserve panda populations with conserving the forests in which they live. “It’s not as simple as saving a species in a vacuum,” said Steve Monfort, the director of the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Front Royal, Va. “It’s about the entire system and how it functions.” He gave bald eagles as an example. Concern about their survival reinforced political support for the federal ban on the pesticide DDT in 1972, but the decision protected countless other birds, too. Binbin Li, a doctoral candidate in biology at Duke University, said she was drawn to study pandas in part because she realized that pandas had the potential to persuade the Chinese government to dedicate land to conservation, giving other creatures a home as well. This summer, Li, has been training staff at a Chinese nature reserve to identify individual pandas by their tracks. Her research there, forthcoming in the journal Conservation Biology, catalogs the diversity of species that share a habit with the pandas. That’s important to Li, who enjoys photographing creatures such as the takin, a relative of the antelope, and the Chinese monal, a colorful pheasant. A three-week-old female mishmi takin with its mother at the the zoo in Wroclaw, Poland on March 9, 2013. (EPA/MACIEJ KULCZYNSKI) “I love pandas,” Li said. “That doesn’t mean I only love pandas.” Research on other continents suggests that protecting the habitats of flagship


The problem with “panda privilege”

animals’ gene pool. Panda proponents also say protecting just one animal often requires protecting many more. It’s impossible to conserve panda populations with conserving the forests in which they live. “It’s not as simple as saving a species in a vacuum,” said Steve Monfort, the director of the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Front Royal, Va. “It’s about the entire system and how it functions.” He gave bald eagles as an example. Concern about their survival reinforced political support for the federal ban on the pesticide DDT in 1972, but the decision protected countless other birds, too. Binbin Li, a doctoral candidate in biology at Duke University, said she was drawn to study pandas in part because she realized that pandas had the potential to persuade the Chinese government to dedicate land to conservation, giving other creatures a home as well. This summer, Li, has been training staff at a Chinese nature reserve to identify individual pandas by their tracks. Her research there, forthcoming in the journal Conservation Biology, catalogs the diversity of species that share a habit with the pandas. That’s important to Li, who enjoys photographing creatures such as the takin, a relative of the antelope, and the Chinese monal, a colorful pheasant. A three-week-old female mishmi takin with its mother at the the zoo in Wroclaw, Poland on March 9, 2013. (EPA/MACIEJ KULCZYNSKI) “I love pandas,” Li said. “That doesn’t mean I only love pandas.” Research on other continents suggests that protecting the habitats of flagship species does not always guarantee protection for a broad range of species. One recent study found that parts of South Africa with populations of lions, elephants, leopards, rhinoceroses and buffalo didn’t have large numbers of invertebrates, plants, amphibians and reptiles. The Xerces Society’s Black agrees with the goal of protecting as many species as possible, backbones or no backbones, and he acknowledged that using more attractive creatures to generate support for conservation is sometimes necessary. Entomologists do the same when they use the monarch butterfly as a poster child for fundraising, he noted. Yet Black argues that when visitors who come to see a panda cub don’t have a chance to learn about 99 percent of the planet’s animals, the zoo has missed an opportunity. “A lot of folks who work on invertebrates and insects, it gets exasperating sometimes,” he said. “This is a much broader issue than this one facility.”


Ten animals that will disappear with Western sagebrush

dig at their huge ears. Mule deer grow to large sizes, and, like pronghorn, game hunters enjoy the challenge of hunting them, fueling that sort of tourism in the West. But human development has thrown their once prolific population into decline, which means that wolves, mountain lions, bears, eagles and coyotes that rely on them for food might eat less. Golden eagle (Mia McPherson/On The Wing Photography) If you believe size matters, stop reading. The golden eagle is bigger than our national symbol. America’s largest bird of prey is a hunk among raptors. It swoops down on prey at up to 150 miles per hour, according to National Geographic, a mesmerizing sight. They almost never attack prey as big as livestock, but that didn’t stop ranchers from killing them to protect herds. Now the recovering population of golden eagles is protected by law. Western burrowing owl (Mia McPherson/On The Wing Photography) Get a load of these little guys. That look on their faces is the epitome of cool. Relaxed, not bothered, just hanging out atop a thicket of tall sage, looking for prey. Burrowing owls are too cool even to dig their own burrows. They take over the abandoned homes of other animals. That might be one reason they prefer to live near prairie dog towns. They’re listed as endangered in Canada and threatened in Mexico and a species of concern in the United States. Greater short-horned lizard (Chris Helzer/TNC) This reptile has horns and a rather disgusting super power. They build up blood pressure behind their eyes to squirt blood up to three feet at predators. Thought to be prolific around the turn of the last century, greater short-horned lizards are no longer common in the sagebrush. The Montana Field Guide says little is known about the species, but the trampling of sagebrush by livestock has probably had a detrimental effect on the lizard’s habitat. Sage thrasher (Mia McPherson/On The Wing Photography) This appropriately named bird’s mating songs fill the sagebrush in the breeding season. Males dip and dive around the brush in theatrical flight displays. They are in the family of thrashers and mockingbirds, though they look “like a washed out robin,” says the Audubon Society. Where habitat is healthy, sage thrashers thrive, but the bird “has declined in a number of areas with clearing of sagebrush flats,” Audubon says. Greater sage grouse (Mia McPherson/On The Wing Photography)


It’s not just lattes: How pumpkin took over cat food, cheese, vodka and everything else

Has America reached peak pumpkin? (Katherine Frey/The Washington Post) Twelve years after Starbucks poured its first Pumpkin Spice Latte, the humble pumpkin has become a cultural force too divisive to ignore. The deeply polarizing autumnal squash has, depending on whom you ask, become either one of America’s most celebrated symbols of fall or an inescapable menace in a bright orange shell. But lost in the cultural debate has been the pumpkin’s ascendance to unstoppable financial juggernaut. Once consigned to pie fillings and craft beers, the pumpkin now presides over a sprawling empire spanning nearly every grocery aisle, including pumpkin-flavored pet treats, baby food, tobacco, cheese, soda, hummus, tortilla chips, vodka and soy milk. Sales of pumpkin-flavored anything-and-everything soared to more than $360 million for the year ending this July, up 11 percent over the previous year and 80 percent since 2011, data from industry researcher Nielsen shows. And “not only are sales increasing,” said Jen Campuzano, director of Nielsen Perishables Group, “consumers are spending more per household, and increasing their trips for these types of products.” The makers of pumpkin-flavored foods and other goodies have solidly proven they are more moneymaker than joke. Sales of pumpkin-flavored dog food surged past $12 million in the last year, up from about $2 million last year, while even niche wares like pumpkin-flavored pasta sauces, chewing gum and peanut butter all sold about $1 million each. [Proof that Americans love pumpkin-flavored anything] Pumpkin baked goods have long been a quintessential American tradition. In a 1936 recipe introducing “spice cake of pumpkin,” The Washington Post said the wife of famed pumpkin-eater Peter “would have been a voluntary ‘stay at home’ if some of this delicious cake were always to be found in her larder.” But pumpkin’s true preeminence as a high-selling seasonal staple didn’t reveal itself until within the last five years, when the massive popularity of Starbucks’s Pumpkin Spice Latte, the coffee chain’s “most popular seasonal beverage of all time,” spurred food makers of all stripes to attempt their own pumpkin lines. Planters and Pringles have sold massive runs of Pumpkin Spice Almonds and potato crisps, while Yoplait advertises a Greek yogurt “packed full of … pumpkin seeds.” Petco sells a Harvest Sunrise Chicken & Pumpkin cat food that a reviewer said makes “my cats go crazy with anticipation when I open a can.” Pumpkin’s spread to consumer pantries has also been fueled by


rest of the autumnal melange has not, and analysts point to how corporate marketing now equates the fruit with the warm and fuzzy nostalgia of changing leaves and crisp fall air. Pumpkin-flavored foods have also benefited from the fruit’s sizable “halo effect,” which has helped frame its accompanying fare as fresh and healthy — even when they offer highly questionable nutritious merit. [Not coming to a store near you: The pumpkin spice condom] But pumpkin has also gained ground among food manufacturers for its rawer qualities. After years of strong sales for its pumpkin-flavored kibble, pet-food firm Weruva last year expanded its offerings with Pumpkin Patch Up!, a pureed pumpkin supplement for dogs and cats served in a small pouch. Made from pumpkins grown in Thailand, the fiber-heavy treats are marketed more as “happy belly makers” and less for their seasonal charm. “It’s not exactly like having Advil in your cabinet, but it’s very similar,” said David Forman, the founder of Weruva. In pet stores, it is sold near signs that say “Farty Dog? Get Pumpkin.” Amid all these new products catering to the cold-weather fruit’s wonder, the genuine raw pumpkin in grocery stores is selling worse and worse. Sales of fresh pumpkins at supermarkets and other retailers have fallen almost every year since 2010, Nielsen data shows, though that doesn’t factor in sales at roadside pumpkin patches, which are woefully underreported. That’s perhaps because real pumpkin, even accounting for all the manufacturing progress needed to spread its flavoring far and wide, remains a dense and stringy squash rarely served without a heavy helping of cinnamon, cloves and other spices. “The weird thing about pumpkin’s rise to baconlike ubiquity,” New York Magazine said in 2012, “is that pumpkin, on its own, is not a very appetizing food at all.” Krispy Kreme’s Pumpkin Spice and Pumpkin Cheesecake doughnuts. (PRNewsFoto/Krispy Kreme Doughnut Corporation) The pumpkin-spice blowback has been swift and intense. Comedian John Oliver said Starbucks’s seasonal lattes “taste like a candle tastes” and are made from bottles of “pumpkin-flavored science goo [that] sits behind the counter of Starbucks all year round, never aging, like Ryan Seacrest.” Even fans of the fruit have questioned whether the squash has gone too far. “I like pumpkin just fine,” famed chef Anthony Bourdain told People magazine this week. “But I can’t think of the last time I woke up in the middle of the night


China is changing rapidly both economically and religiously. One art curator wants to help shape those shifts.

be building: people to people, China to U.S., foreigners to locals, Christians to art, cultures to cultures.” China’s Focus on Creative Culture Perhaps strangely, China is looking to creative industries to sustain its economy. The Shanghai Composite stock market declined lost 32 percent of its value in June-July and the Shenzhen market (with more tech companies) was down 41 percent during the same period. In response, the government halted trading on 200 Chinese stocks, $1.4 trillion worth of shares, and bought shares to try to prevent price drops and it also planned to send $40 billion in stimulus spending to prop up parts of the economy that are slowing. The communist party in China is also feeling pressure as The government is funding book fairs, film festivals and promotes artistic works by writers and artists of whom it approves. “China used to be a factory. Now, it’s a large market,” said Marina Guo, head of Arts Management at the Shanghai Theatre Academy. “We are trying to change it from an industrial economy to a creative economy.” Elaine stands in front of Telescope, his nonprofit exhibition space in Beijing. (Photo courtesy of James Elaine) China’s bold ambition startles the West at times. And, certainly, Chinese companies face uphill battles to develop competitive manufactured products with Western peers or to create tech companies that rival Silicon Valley. Some suggest that China’s censorship and blocking of Western press reports and tech companies makes the country less creative in coming up with its own dominant tech startups, top museums and universities. At the same time, the religious identity within China is growing rapidly. Experts suggest all religions are growing rapidly in China with Christianity growing fastest. The Pew Research Center estimates there are 58 million Protestants and 9 million Catholics in China. Researchers at Purdue University in Indiana say the Christian church is growing 10 percent per year on average since 1980 and could reach 250 million Christians by 2030, making China’s Christian population the largest in the world. Elaine believes religion as well as contemporary art plays a vital role in the evolution of China and its changing population. “Artists are, in the beginning, on the bottom of society in all cultures but creativity has power to elevate and to change things, and things are changing in China,” Elaine says. “I think Telescope can play an important role in the art community in


More evidence that the key to allergy-free kids is giving them plenty of dirt — and cows

I'm not saying you should let this cow lick your baby, but ... (Boris Roessler/DPA via AFP) People who grow up on farms -- especially dairy farms -- have way fewer allergy and asthma problems than the rest of us. Now one research team thinks they've brought science closer to understanding why. In a study published Thursday in Science, researchers report that they were able to pinpoint one possible mechanism for the allergy protection in mice they studied. Surprisingly, the protein that they fingered as the likely allergy-preventer doesn't actually affect the immune system -- it affects the structural cells that make up the lining of the lung. [Hotel rooms aren’t yucky – you colonize them with your own personal bacteria within hours] The research is related to something called the hygiene hypothesis, where a lack of exposure to microbes as a tyke leads to more allergy and asthma. It's what leads microbiologists to An estimated 50 million Americans suffer from seasonal allergies. Here's what happens when things like grass, pollen, trees and molds affect your body. And among Amish children It's still not totally clear what's behind this amazing allergy protection, but many scientists believe that the bacteria native to farms, especially ones that house livestock, may trigger something in children who live nearby. The researchers behind the latest study had previously found that the epithelial cells of the lungs are important in the development of allergy responses. "How does your body react the first time you inhale an allergen? The first cells that recognize the allergen are not so much the cells of the immune system, but the structural cells that make up the inside of the lungs," Bart Lambrecht of Ghent University, who co-led the study with Hamida Hammad, told The Post. So they wanted to see how this farm effect might be visible in the lungs themselves. In their experiment, Lambrecht and Hammad induced dust mite allergies in mice, then showed that exposure to dust from a dairy farm made early in life made them immune. [In space, astronauts’ immune systems get totally confused] Then, they studied the mechanism that was protecting the mice, making their mucous membranes less likely to react to the allergens. They found a protein called A20, which the mice were producing when exposed to the farm dust. When the researchers knocked out the A20 in their subjects' lungs, the farm dust


Is there a Planet X, a ‘massive perturber,’ hidden beyond Pluto?

An image provided by NASA on July 14 shows a region near Pluto's equator with a range of mountains captured by the New Horizons spacecraft. (NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI via AP) If you’ve been following our coverage of the New Horizons mission, you know that the NASA probe had a spectacular fly-by of Pluto on July 14 and, if the agency approves the funding, will scrutinize a “cold, classical" Kuiper Belt Object on New Year’s Day, 2019. It’s basically a chunk of ice and rock, maybe about the size of the District of Columbia. [See Rachel Feltman's explanation of why astronomers are interested in these things.] Astronomers so far have detected about 1,500 icy bodies in the Kuiper Belt, according to Scott Sheppard, an astronomer with the Carnegie Institution of Washington. A few of them are big enough to rank as "dwarf planets." And there may be something much bigger lurking out there in the dark, says Sheppard. There are tantalizing hints of a hidden planet that's bigger than Pluto, perhaps even bigger than the Earth -- potentially Neptune-sized. “I think there are definitely things out there bigger than Pluto that are yet to be discovered,” Sheppard told us. Sheppard and Chad Trujillo of the Gemini Observatory in Hawaii published a paper in the journal Nature in 2014 saying that “a massive outer Solar System perturber may exist.” The paper reported discovery of what appears to be a dwarf planet, dubbed 2012 VP113 (nicknamed “Biden”), that's currently about three times farther from the sun than is Pluto -- out beyond Kuiper Belt. In describing this new world, the astronomers noted that a number of large, very remote objects share a similar orbital angle. That's suspicious if you're an astronomer expecting to see a random distribution of objects. The key orbital feature is known, rather obtusely, as the “argument of perihelion.” We're not shy of complicated orbital concepts (we try to toss around the phrase "obliquity of the ecliptic" whenever possible), but this one is not very easy to explain. "The argument of perihelion is the angle at which an object comes to perihelion with respect to the ecliptic plane," Sheppard said in an e-mail. Mike Brown, the Caltech astronomer who discovered the dwarf planet Eris, tells us by e-mail, "Scott's claim is that all of these objects come to perihelion at the ecliptic, and all are going from below the plane to above


The first in a new generation of cheaper drugs isn’t much cheaper

It's a difference of nearly 3 percent. Until an average sales price is established, "we estimate that reimbursement for Neupogen and Zarxio will be comparable under the Affordable Care Act's biosimilar reimbursement formula," Adam Fein, president of Pembroke Consulting wrote in an e-mail. Once that price is established, he estimated that Zarxio would be 12 to 15 percent cheaper than the Amgen drug it's trying to unseat. "This pricing strategy suggests that Sandoz does not want to trigger a biosimilar price war," Fein wrote. "It's consistent with my view that we'll likely see a moderate pace for adoption for infused biosimilars paid under the medical benefit." Andrew Mulcahy, a health policy researcher at RAND Corporation, said that the initial price of Zarxio was within the ballpark of what people expected and is comparable to how the drug was priced when it began to challenge Neupogen in European markets. He says that although the initial discount is modest, prices should drop more in the long run. In a study funded by Sandoz earlier this year, he estimated a cost savings of somewhere around $44 billion over a decade from biosimilar drugs, assuming that prices drop by about 35 percent. "The most important point is this is the starting point in the race; this is not where we’re going to land," Mulcahy said. But there are a variety of unknowns in the nascent market. Economists are unsure how much competition there will actually be in the space, and if there are fewer companies making these drugs, prices won't drop as much. Alex Brill, a research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, has argued there may not be enough customers to support multiple companies making the large upfront investment in developing biosimilars. That may lead to a situation where only the biggest drugs have a healthy biosimilar market and significant price competition. "The point is we’re going to have biosimilars for the blockbusters," Brill said. "And the footnote is the way the market evolving is more and more of the products, brand products on the market today are not blockbusters." Irena Royzman, co-chair of the biotechnology practice at Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler, has warned that at least in the initial period the pricing may seem paradoxical to people who were expecting the new drugs to significantly undercut the drugs they are competing against. "I think it’s unclear how much savings we will


Investigation clears Army of retaliating against Green Beret whistleblower, but scrutiny remains

base in Afghanistan in 2009. Bergdahl was recovered in a controversial swap for five Taliban officials in May 2014 and subsequently charged this March with desertion and misbehavior before the enemy. If convicted, he faces life in prison. [Bowe Bergdahl, once-missing U.S. soldier, charged with desertion] A lawyer for Amerine, Debra Katz, questioned Thursday how the inspector general could fail to reach a determination on the motivation of senior Army officials who referred the FBI’s concerns to Army criminal investigators. Her legal team plans to prepare a new complaint for the inspector general next week after they view more documents related to the case, she said. The criminal investigation of Amerine is still ongoing, nearly nine months after it was initiated, Katz said. Army investigators initially probed whether Amerine disclosed classified information to Hunter, but since have shifted to examine whether he disclosed classified information in his reprisal complaint to the inspector general and to Sen. Chuck Grassley (R.-Iowa), whose Senate Judiciary Committee works frequently with whistleblowers and has taken an interest in Amerine’s case. Lt. Col. Jason Amerine is shown here at Arlington National Cemetery. (Photo released by the office of Rep. Duncan Hunter) “In effect, they are keeping him in a limbo situation,” Katz said of the Army. “They’re putting him in a position where he can’t retire from the military and he is perpetually facing criminal investigation.” Members of Congress are still awaiting the release of the inspector general’s full report, which Grassley said Thursday should be shared immediately. “The Defense Department inspector general should provide to Congress the full, unredacted classified version of the report,” Grassley said in a statement released to The Post. “There are simply too many unanswered questions, and the full report can provide important context in Lieutenant Colonel Amerine’s case.” Sources with the Judiciary Committee said whistleblower advocates have raised concerns with them about there being a potential loophole in the existing whistleblower law that allows criminal investigations to be opened as a way of retaliating and as a “fishing expedition” for other wrongdoing. Amerine’s case may provide insight into how the issue should be addressed, the sources said, speaking on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue. Grassley’s office also faced classification issues while investigating the case, the senator wrote in a June 18 letter to Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter and Defense Department Inspector General Jon


This tiny agency’s own watchdog said it should be deep-sixed. Now, it’s helping to save Alaska from climate change.

to the little agency. As our colleague David Fahrenthold wrote in September 2013, Marsh called his agency “a congressional experiment that hasn’t worked out in practice.” He laid out a case for abolishing federal funding (and his own job). Among his arguments: Some of the communities getting new power plants or medical clinics didn’t have the money to keep them going. He described the commission as an unnecessary middleman. [Obama is using Alaska to add urgency to his climate change warnings] Marsh’s plea was well received by some congressional Republicans, but not by Alaska’s powerful congressional delegation, which made sure the Denali Commission lived. But it was more or less hanging by a thread. The Government Accountability Office began audits of Marsh and the agency’s management. After Stevens’ defeat in 2008 and death in 2010, the commission had lost a strong funding stream from Congress, which banned the earmarks known as political pork. By the time Marsh was telling Congress to ax the commission, it was down to 11 full-time employees. The general counsel was just part time. The program director’s job was vacant. “All of these thing were oppressive,” Neimeyer said. “They just seemed like impediments for the agency moving forward. Many good people believed in our mission, but people are still talking about what Mike Marsh did.” Marsh did not respond to a call to his home near Phoenix, where he returned full-time when he quit in December 2013. Early this year, the commission discovered that it had $2.5 million in grant money left over from last year. The commissioners started conversations with state environmental leaders and with Alaska’s lieutenant governor. Then in June, the governor’s office got a call from the White House. Would Alaska be interested in working with the federal government on short- and long-term programs to protect and repair coastal villages at risk from the warming climate? And would it help relocate some villages inland that wanted to go? [The remote Alaskan village that needs to be relocated due to climate change ] One thing led to another. The commission became the logical agency to coordinate government assistance, with $2 million in seed money from the pot left over from last year. On Wednesday, the president unveiled a series of steps to fight climate change that put the Denali Commission front and center in a new role. The agency will coordinate ”short – and


The Daily 202: Jeb taps Hong Kong expats in fight with Trump

continues: The chairman of Pennsylvania’s Democratic Party, Jim Burn, put out a statement through the Draft Biden committee earlier in the day to say he’s “very excited” about the possibility of the VP running. — Hours after declaring he won’t leave the Republican fold, Donald Trump found himself stumped on several foreign policy questions during an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt Hewitt will be asking questions during the next GOP debate, on Sept. 16, and it will focus on foreign policy. — Four American and two international peacekeepers were wounded in two bomb blasts on Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, and required medical evacuation. “All six troops were with the Multinational Force of Observers, an international coalition set up to keep the peace between Egypt and Israel after a treaty was reached between the two nations at Camp David in 1978,” Dan Lamothe reports. GET SMART FAST: - The Justice Department will now require law enforcement agencies to obtain warrants to deploy devices that track cellphones in criminal probes, and tell judges when they’ll be used. - The jobs number that posts at 8:30 a.m. Eastern could have a big effect on Federal Reserve decision making about interest rates. - About 900,000 military veterans have pending applications to access health care from the VA, according to a report by the department’s inspector general. “One-third of those veterans are thought to be dead, but problems with the data makes it tough to know how many former troops were still struggling to get care,” Emily Wax-Thibodeaux reports. “VA has said it has no way to purge the list of dead applicants.” - “The discovery of live anthrax outside a containment area at a military lab in Utah prompted military officials to order an immediate freeze on operations at nine biodefense laboratories that work with dangerous viruses, toxins and bacteria,” USA Today reports. - A grand jury has charged a white Portsmouth, Va., police officer with first degree murder in connection with the killing of an 18-year old African American man who was suspected of shoplifting at a Wal-Mart. (Fred Barbash) - South Carolina prosecutors announced they will seek the death penalty against Dylann Roof, the 21-year-old accused Charleston church shooter. - Just hours after resigning, Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina was jailed pending a hearing into a multi-million-dollar customs fraud case. - French officials confirm that the debris which washed ashore on


China sanctions could come next week; new limits on ‘stingrays’; Twitter searches for permanent CEO

Chinese President Xi Jinping. (Lintao Zhang/Pool/Getty Images) The United States could announce sanctions on Chinese companies that benefited from hacked U.S. data as early as next week, the Financial Times reports. Citing three U.S. officials, the FT suggested the sanctions are designed to hit before Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Washington later in the month. “Asked about the possibility of sanctions coming next week, State Department spokesman Mark Toner told reporters, ‘When it comes to economic sanctions, we don’t preview any kind of sanctions beforehand for obvious reasons. We don’t want to give a heads-up to those who may be potential targets of economic sanctions to begin to take steps to evade sanctions activity,” Reuters reports. NEW LIMITS ON ‘STINGRAYS’: CEO SEARCH AT TWITTER:


In awesome feat of engineering, paralyzed man takes steps with robotic exoskeleton

science and engineering. Pollock -- who is 39 and from Northern Ireland -- was paralyzed from the waist down after falling from a second-story window in 2010. The idea of a using a mechanical exoskeleton as a way of enhancing what the human body can do has been popularized in everything from "Avatar" to "Iron Man," but Pollock is the first time a person with complete paralysis to regain enough control to use the device. Researcher Parag Gad from the University of California at Los Angeles and his co-authors said they first treated Pollock with a type of electrical current at selected sites in his spinal cord vertebrate to try to reactivate neurons and put him through a series of physical therapy sessions. According to the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, which provided funding for the study, Pollock "reported feeling tension and tingling in his lower limbs during the exercises." They also noticed he was sweating on the skin on his lower back and legs -- a phenomenon he hadn't experienced since his injury. Next the scientists fitted him with a suit with robotic controls. Developed by a California company called Ekso Bionics, the device helps the wearer move in a step-like fashion. Writing in a paper presented at the proceedings of the 47th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society this week, Gad said the team found that spinal-cord stimulation enhanced the level of effort that the subject could generate while stepping in the exoskeleton." "Based on this case study it appears that there is considerable potential" for this type of technology. "It will be difficult to get people with chronic, complete paralysis to walk completely independently, but even if they don't accomplish that, the fact they can assist themselves in walking will greatly improve their overall health and quality of life," V. Reggie Edgerton, senior author and a UCLA professor of integrative biology, said in a statement. "For people who are severely injured but not with complete paralysis there's every reason to believe they could improve even more with these types of interventions. (Courtesy Mark Pollock) Read more: In new study, a startling 100 percent of participants taking HIV prevention pill Truvada remained infection-free Scientists: Why running makes you so happy America's love affair with caffeine has parked a crisis of overdoses -- and what the FDA is doing about it


Trump is right: Shaking hands is a welcome mat for germs

The bugs kill about 800 people and sicken up to 21 million Americans on an average year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Like flu, the virus mutates, and new strains emerge. But while flu typically mutates quickly, new norovirus strains tend to emerge only every two to four years. And when that happens, it’s not known whether preexisting immunity from exposure to other related noroviruses offers protection. “Sometimes when there’s a new strain, we see much more widespread activity,” said Ben Lopman, a CDC epidemiologist who works with diarrheal diseases caused by viruses. The new strain that has emerged elsewhere hasn’t been seen that often in the United States, he said, adding, “CDC will be monitoring outbreak activity in the forthcoming winter season in the United States through our national surveillance systems.” Children are among the hardest hit by noroviruses. Increasingly, they seem to be getting infected at a young age. In the United States, virtually all children will get infected by age 5, and 80 percent of those are under age 2, Lopman said. Here are some tips to prevent infection and reduce transmission: • The single most important method is to wash your hands with soap and water for 20 seconds. Do it before eating, after using the bathroom and after changing diapers. Alcohol-based sanitizers generally do not appear as effective as soap and water, experts say. The bugs can be found in your vomit or stool even before you start feeling sick. Most people get better after about 48 hours, but the bug can stay in your stool for two weeks or more after you feel better. • Don’t take care of others or prepare food if you’re sick and for at least two days after symptoms stop. • Clean and disinfect contaminated surfaces. Use a chlorine bleach solution (5-25 tablespoons of household bleach per gallon of water) on hard, nonporous surfaces. • Wash laundry thoroughly. Wear gloves while handling the contaminated items. Wash the items with detergent on the longest cycle and machine dry. For politicians, maybe go with the elbow bump. Read more: CVS says its cigarette ban led to drop in sales across all retailers Less sleep makes you more likely to get a cold With steroid shots, back pain relief is temporary, at best Omega-3 is still good for the brain. But fish oil pills 'just don't cut it.'


The baby panda is starting to look more like a panda

National Zoo veterinarians gave a quick checkup to the panda cub to ensure that he is growing and healthy. The nearly 2-week-old cub now weighs about 10 ounces. When the National Zoo’s newest giant panda cub was born two weeks ago, it was tiny with fine white fur. Now, it’s a little less tiny with some faintly visible black spots. Mei Xiang, the doting mother, left her den at the zoo for a few minutes Wednesday, allowing veterinarians to give the cub a checkup. The zoo wrote in an Instagram post that it checked the cub’s heart, lungs, abdomen, forelimbs and hindlimbs — and all appears to be going well. “He is moving well and had a full belly. He now weighs in at 287.5 grams (about 10 ounces)!,” the zoo wrote. “His eyes are still closed and his black markings are becoming more pronounced.#PandaStory“


Commentary: Don’t look back. Tech is gaining on you.

the greater impact will be the virtualization of office and commercial activities (why bother “coming to an office” when it can come to you through your VR goggles?). Consumer supply chains will shrink thanks to drones. Just-in-time delivery will be the expected norm. Meanwhile, the ascendancy of additive manufacturing, the ability to create items as needed, will continue to extend into the mainstream. Imagine the profound implications on small manufacturing and logistics. Eventually, the need for delivery of basic items will erode as products can be printed when needed. Need more examples? The emergence of higher capacity and efficient energy storage, more viable alternative energy production processes, the use of DNA to build “artificial life” to create energy sources or food stocks and personalized medicine based on an individual’s genetic composition. Each of these will bring profound changes to how and where we live. This is not some utopian (or dystopian) scenario — these technologies are being commercially deployed as you read this. As these technologies become ubiquitous, they will challenge many assumptions regional planners are currently making on where and how to invest. Imagine how important bandwidth will be as virtual reality spreads into more parts of our lives. Large shared office spaces with trophy lobbies may become irrelevant both for workers and clients who currently visit them. Our dependence on delivery will mean proximity to logistical centers will be essential and energy storage efficiency will put a premium on direct access to power sources. On the education front, once we find ourselves in a world where the abilities to think and make associations are our remaining advantages, worker training should not be vocational but broader. So, constructing large office buildings, more highways and 10,000 square foot McMansions may seem silly in hindsight. Focusing on training employees to think laterally might allow them to better prepare for emerging jobs. Creating housing density to take advantage of access to higher bandwidth and access to shared energy infrastructure may be rewarding. The right answers are still to be determined, but the question of whether tomorrow will be like today has already been answered. It will not be. Not at all. Jonathan Aberman is a business owner, entrepreneur and chairman of Amplifier Ventures, a venture capital fund focusing on national security technology innovation. He is co-host of “Forward Thinking Radio” on SiriusXM, a business and policy program launching nationwide on Sept. 20.


New studies deepen concerns about a climate-change ‘wild card’

and ocean salinity at all,” lead scientist Paul Gierz said. The team’s computer models projected a drop in ocean salinity of about 7 percent in the areas near Greenland’s melting ice sheets, a decline that would alter deep-ocean circulation patterns over time, resulting in “less heat being transported to the high latitudes … which has implications for both North American as well as European weather and climate,” Gierz said. Because the climate systems tend to respond slowly to environmental changes, the full impacts may not be felt for decades. “Even if we shut off all greenhouse-gas emissions tomorrow morning, the climate system would continue to adapt to the already incurred perturbations,” he said. “However, the more we — as a society — do proactively right now, the less we will have to do reactively later on.” A second paper, by a team of Texas scientists, sheds new light on how the Earth’s climate responded during a similar thaw from the planet’s geological past. About 12,000 years ago, rising temperatures at the end of the last ice age released huge volumes of cold freshwater, disrupting the ocean’s circulation systems and sending parts of the Northern Hemisphere back in to the freezer. Scientists refer to the era as the Younger Dryas period. The study in the journal Nature Communications found a wide range of impacts, some of which lingered for centuries. While the far-northern latitudes experienced rapid changes — including an 18-degree Fahrenheit temperature drop in Greenland in less than a decade — droughts and other weather anomalies in the southern Pacific persisted for 1,000 years. “A slowdown of the ocean circulation is a double-edged sword,” said Jud Partin, the lead author and a research associate at the University of Texas Institute of Geophysics. “If we see some temperature changes associated with it … and somehow are quick to act and alleviate the change, then we have the potential to stop it.” Images of consumption are the theme of the book, “Overdevelopment, Overpopulation, Overshoot.” It addresses environmental deterioration through subjects including materialism, consumption, pollution, fossil fuels and carbon footprints. Also in Energy Environment: The simple statistic that perfectly captures what climate change means Scientists may have just stumbled upon a mathematical secret to how nature works Solar energy is poised for yet another record year For more, you can sign up for our weekly newsletter here, and follow us on Twitter here.


Bon Jovi’s support for Dalai Lama may be behind cancellation of first Chinese tour

apologize for the inconvenience and disappointment that this will cause," the statement says. The news follows a summer of trouble for Western acts in China. In July, the Los Angeles-based band Maroon 5 canceled shows planned in Beijing and Shanghai in September. There was no official reason given for the change in Maroon 5's plans, but many speculated that permits had been pulled after Jesse Carmichael, the band's keyboard player, attended the Dalai Lama's birthday party in California and tweeted about it. China regards the Tibetan spiritual leader as a separatist due to his calls for autonomy for the Himalayan region. Less than a month later, American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift faced scrutiny after planning to sell merchandise featuring her initials and the name of her album,"1989," direct to fans in China. There was no political message intended by Swift's merchandize, but in China the events might be seen as reference to the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests of 1989, where hundreds if not thousands of civilians were killed when the Chinese army moved in to clear the square. Western performers in China have sparked political controversies before: In 2008, Icelandic singer Bjork was criticized by the Ministry of Culture after she chanted pro-Tibet slogans at a concert in Shanghai. A number of musical acts, including American singer Bob Dylan and British band Oasis, subsequently had to cancel tours due to their perceived political leanings. However, those involved in organizing the events say there seems to have been an unusually high number of events canceled at the last minute this year. “This put the fear into all of us,” Archie Hamilton, a festival promoter in Beijing, told the Associated Press in May. “Everyone’s afraid of getting it wrong and losing a lot of money." For some Chinese music fans, the news that yet another act had cancelled their shows hit hard. "I booked flight tickets from Shenzhen to Shanghai in June [when tickets went on sale]," a fan complained on Weibo. "No words I've learned could express how crushed I am." Others complained, perhaps sarcastically, that it was the Dalai Lama's fault. "Better go abroad if you want to go to concerts," one exasperated fan wrote. "Too risky in China." Xu Yangjingjing contributed to this report. More on WorldViews Taylor Swift’s next feud might be with the Chinese government How Justin Bieber inadvertently stepped into one of the world’s greatest geopolitical controversies


What happens when the government limits payday lending

repair, too. That said, the fact that liquor stores within a storefront or two of payday lenders lost the most business suggests that borrowers in Washington were making impulsive decisions -- walking out of a payday establishment and into a liquor store. To the extent that they were, they may well be better off all around with the new law in place, protected from exploitation. Proponents of payday lending might object that the poor deserve the freedom to buy and borrow as they choose, even if that means using an expensive loan to pay for alcohol. These proponents might argue that it isn't for lawmakers in Olympia to dictate the spending habits of the poor. Cuffe doesn't see it that way. In an interview, he argued that the decisions a person makes on impulse -- whether to buy or to borrow -- don't always indicate what that person actually wants. For example, many people will actually volunteer for savings accounts that restrict how much money they can spend. That's an indication that people want safeguards imposed on their financial decisions, because they know they can't trust themselves. [Read more: How your lack of self-control might actually boost your savings] "They may know that they won't be able to stop," Cuffe said. He went to say that although everyone makes bad financial decisions, he noted, no matter how much they make, such protections are especially important for the poor. "We can all be equally irrational," he said. "For me, that just means the next morning, I wake up and regret my purchase, but it may pose a bigger consequence for people who, let's say, have to take out a payday loan." That doesn't necessarily mean the poor would welcome proposals from conservative politicians around the country to restrict how welfare recipients use their benefits. These politicians have argued the poor can't be trusted to carry cash or to use their money wisely. [Read more: The double-standard of making the poor prove they’re worthy of government benefits] There's a big difference between between a check from the government and a loan from a payday lender: you only have to pay back one of them. The consequences of misusing a payday loan are much greater if doing so leads is the start of a cycle of debt. As the interest accumulates, the borrower will have less money to spend on everything, including booze.


Big Labor Day news on Bergdahl case? No.

U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl is pictured in this undated handout photo provided by the U.S. Army (REUTERS) To judge from a number of news outlets, some significant news on the case of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl broke over Labor Day weekend. “Earlier this year Bergdahl was charged with desertion after the deal brokered by the United States to bring him home. And now he has also been charged with misbehavior before the enemy, a much rarer offense that carries a stiffer potential penalty in this case,” reports DailyMail.com. The Mirror reports that Bergdahl “faces life in prison after being charged with a new offence.” Newsmax notes that “military prosecutors reached back into a section of military law seldom used since World War II to charge him with misbehavior before the enemy in addition to desertion.” Is there anything new here? Not at all. Eugene Fidell, Bergdahl’s counsel, sent out a note this morning to caution reporters against faux news leads: “A wire service story over the weekend,” wrote Fidell, “has led many news outlets to report that a new charge has been preferred against Sergeant Bergdahl. This is incorrect. The charges — desertion and misbehavior before the enemy — remain precisely as they have been since March 25, 2015. Please feel free to confirm this with Army Public Affairs.” Correct The “wire service story” referenced in the Fidell alert is from the Associated Press and carries this headline, “Military selects rarely used charge for Bergdahl case.” The story tees up a Sept. 17 hearing in the Bergdahl case and doesn’t present the misbehavior charge as a fresh development, though it’s not hard to see how unsuspecting news aggregators could reach that conclusion. “Military prosecutors have reached into a section of military law seldom used since World War II in the politically fraught case against Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the soldier held prisoner for years by the Taliban after leaving his post in Afghanistan,” reads the lead paragraph of the story.


Adorable queens of science send balloon (plus 1 cat picture) to the edge of space

On Saturday, Kimberly and Rebecca Yeung tried out a little science project they had been working on for a few weeks. They launched a craft, which they built themselves, more than 70,000 feet. Like, really. Check it out! Kimberly and Rebecca, by the way, are 8 and 10 years old Kimberly Yeung, 8, is in the pink. Rebecca Yeung, 10, is wearing the blue jacket. (Photo courtesy of Winston Yeung) Queens. (Photo courtesy of Winston Yeung) GeekWire has the details on the launch, which happened in Washington state, where the Yeung sisters live. Kimberly and Rebecca designed and crafted a "Loki Lego Launcher" out of wood, a weather balloon and the shafts of archery arrows, the Web site reported. They included on it a picture of their cat, Loki, as well as a "Star Wars" Lego figurine. (That's what you can see in first GIF posted above.) Then they launched it. Loki Lego Launcher - Trailer According to GeekWire The craft traveled the fastest right after the balloon popped at 78,000 feet, reaching 110 km/h, or nearly 70 MPH. It averaged about 35km/h (20 MPH) over its four hour and 20 minute journey. GoPro cameras captured images of the flight, and data was also recorded. The girls learned about the layers of the atmosphere — about things like temperature and air resistance. "We were really excited to see it go," Kimberly told The Washington Post. Each time they launch a craft, they say, they want to send up a different Lego figurine. So, obviously, this is all fantastic. Here are some lessons learned from the project, some of which you can probably apply to your everyday life (just saying): (Photo courtesy of Winston Yeung) Kimberly said she was worried they wouldn't recover the craft, or maybe it would land in water. But they did eventually locate it, after a bit of a hunt. "I have two favorite parts," Rebecca said. "I really like seeing it go up the first time, because it went so fast, seeing it go up. And then finding it was really awesome, too — in the middle of a cow field." Kimberly, dancing post-launch. (GIF via YouTube footage) Read More: The Curiosity rover spotted a ‘floating spoon’ on Mars This 5-year-old who found a rare dinosaur fossil in Texas is living his best life Whisky sent into space came back ‘noticeably different’ NASA’s New Horizons may


International Space Station, Moon, Venus and Mars in early morning sky this week

Lightning from an area of towering thunderstorms in the Pacific reflects off the solar array of the International Space Stations, August 9, 2015. (NASA) When skies are clear, there will be a lot to look at in the pre-dawn sky the next few days. The International Space Station (ISS) will make several passes while the waning crescent moon is flanked by Venus and Mars. International Space Station schedule The ISS will zip through the pre-dawn sky each morning Wednesday through Saturday. Here the specifics (these are valid for Washington, D.C.; check NASA for your location): - On Wednesday, it will be visible for 3 minutes, starting at 5:13 a.m., traversing 16 degrees above south to 18 degrees above north - On Thursday, it will be visible for 4 minutes, starting at 5:56 a.m., traversing 15 degrees above west-southwest to 20 degrees above northeast - On Friday, it will be visible for 2 minutes, starting 5:02 a.m., traversing 62 degrees above southeast to 22 degrees above northeast - On Saturday, it will be visible for 4 minutes, starting at 5:47 a.m., traversing 18 degrees above west-northwest to 11 degrees above north-northeast The Moon, Venus, and Mars trio Earth Sky says Dazzling Venus is the most brilliant starlike object in all the heavens, ranking in brilliance only after the sun and moon. So it’ll be hard to miss Venus near the moon in the east for the next several days. Mars is fainter, but Venus and the moon – and a very optimum sky, and possibly a pair of binoculars – should help you spot it. ( EarthSky) Local weather considerations Given mostly clear skies forecast early Wednesday, that’s probably the best day to set your alarm clock early to catch the ISS and Moon-Venus-Mars trio. Increasing clouds will likely obscure viewing Thursday and possibly Saturday. On Friday, skies may allow seeing the ISS, but it’s a short pass and on the early side (5:02 a.m.) .


Pentagon watchdog investigating why the Army didn’t award Medal of Honor to Green Beret

examined whether he had illegally sold a rifle scope online. That investigation yielded no charges, but Hunter questioned whether Plumlee was treated fairly. Hunter tied Plumlee’s case to that of two other soldiers: Lt. Col. Jason Amerine, a Green Beret who is under investigation by the Army for possibly disclosing classified information about U.S. hostage policy, and Maj. Mathew L. Golsteyn, who was investigated for the alleged unlawful killing of a suspected Taliban bomb maker in Afghanistan in 2010. Neither was charged with a crime, but Amerine was removed from his job at the Pentagon in January and Golsteyn was recommended for involuntary separation from the Army in June. [Pentagon review of how troops get recognized for combat heroism in final stages] “Specifically, my concern is that the Army — under the leadership of Secretary of the Army — has used CID for the purpose of influencing actions/outcomes and retaliating against soldiers,” Hunter said in a May 19 letter to Rymer. A spokesman for Hunter, Joe Kasper, said Tuesday that the inspector general’s office found in June that the Army was within its rights to launch an investigation into Plumlee’s alleged actions and notified Hunter’s office afterward. Work referenced that in a new letter to Hunter also sent Sept. 2. “On June 26, 2015, the Office of the Inspector General responded to you regarding their investigation into the actions of the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command following complaints lodged against Sergeant First Class Plumlee,” Work’s letter said. “Now that the previous investigation is complete, I have asked the Inspector General to open a separate review of the circumstances surrounding Sergeant First Class Plumlee’s award in response to the allegations in your letter of May 19, 2015. ” Polish soldiers pull security near a breach in the perimeter wall following a complex attack on Forward Operating Base Ghazni, Aug. 28, 2013. Coalition partners, with the help of the Afghan National Army, defeated the Taliban attack. (Operational photo courtesy of Polish Land Forces) Plumlee, then a staff sergeant, rushed to the site of the car bombing near the base’s airfield in an unarmored pickup truck while under fire, including from a 30mm grenade that hit the vehicle’s front passenger-side headlight, but didn’t explode, according to a narrative of his actions provided to The Post. He exited the truck armed with a 7.62mm assault rifle, but couldn’t get it to work and swapped


Five human rights abusers backed by the U.S. whom you never heard of

media to religion — is denied. Berdymukhamedov and his relatives control all aspects of public life. According to Human Rights Watch, relatives of people jailed during waves of mass arrests in the late 1990s and early 2000s still do not have any information about their fates. Berdymukhamedov, though, has allowed U.S. military aircraft en route to Afghanistan to fly through his country's air space. Also attractive to U.S. interests in the region is Turkmenistan's vast gas reserves — the largest in Central Asia. He has discussed strengthening energy relationships with then-Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. Washington views Turkmenistan as a vital piece of its goal to bolster Afghanistan's economy by creating a new "Silk Road" — investment projects and regional trade blocs that would bring economic growth and stability to Central Asia. Chief among the projects is a long-proposed gas pipeline that would flow from Turkmenistan to Pakistan and India via Afghanistan. This year, Freedom House named Turkmenistan one of its 10 "worst of the worst" nations in terms of democracy, human rights and other basic freedoms. The list includes North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Eritrea, Saudi Arabia, Central African Republic — and Uzbekistan and Equatorial Guinea. Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo -- president of Equatorial Guinea Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, president of the Republic of Equatorial Guinea, and wife Constancia Mangue De Obiang arrive for a dinner hosted by President Obama for the U.S. Africa Leaders Summit on Aug. 5, 2014. (Susan Walsh/AP) He is Africa's longest-reigning autocrat, in power since 1979. Oil-rich Equatorial Guinea is one of the most corrupt nations in the world. Obiang and his family own luxury properties around the world, drive expensive cars and fly in a private jet, as the vast majority of his people live in dire poverty, and one fifth of children die before age 5. There is virtually no freedom of the press, no political opposition. Allegations of torture of political prisoners abound. Washington has long sought to keep strong ties with Obiang because of Equatorial Guinea's oil reserves, seen as a way to lessen dependence on Middle East crude. U.S. oil companies are one of Equatorial Guinea’s largest investors, playing a lead role in oil and gas exploration and extraction. Last year, during the U.S.-Africa leaders summit, President Obama posed for a photo with Obiang and his wife, who were his guests at a White House dinner. The magazine


life. According to Human Rights Watch, relatives of people jailed during waves of mass arrests in the late 1990s and early 2000s still do not have any information about their fates. Berdymukhamedov, though, has allowed U.S. military aircraft en route to Afghanistan to fly through his country's air space. Also attractive to U.S. interests in the region is Turkmenistan's vast gas reserves — the largest in Central Asia. He has discussed strengthening energy relationships with then-Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. Washington views Turkmenistan as a vital piece of its goal to bolster Afghanistan's economy by creating a new "Silk Road" — investment projects and regional trade blocs that would bring economic growth and stability to Central Asia. Chief among the projects is a long-proposed gas pipeline that would flow from Turkmenistan to Pakistan and India via Afghanistan. This year, Freedom House named Turkmenistan one of its 10 "worst of the worst" nations in terms of democracy, human rights and other basic freedoms. The list includes North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Eritrea, Saudi Arabia, Central African Republic — and Uzbekistan and Equatorial Guinea. Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo -- president of Equatorial Guinea Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, president of the Republic of Equatorial Guinea, and wife Constancia Mangue De Obiang arrive for a dinner hosted by President Obama for the U.S. Africa Leaders Summit on Aug. 5, 2014. (Susan Walsh/AP) He is Africa's longest-reigning autocrat, in power since 1979. Oil-rich Equatorial Guinea is one of the most corrupt nations in the world. Obiang and his family own luxury properties around the world, drive expensive cars and fly in a private jet, as the vast majority of his people live in dire poverty, and one fifth of children die before age 5. There is virtually no freedom of the press, no political opposition. Allegations of torture of political prisoners abound. Washington has long sought to keep strong ties with Obiang because of Equatorial Guinea's oil reserves, seen as a way to lessen dependence on Middle East crude. U.S. oil companies are one of Equatorial Guinea’s largest investors, playing a lead role in oil and gas exploration and extraction. Last year, during the U.S.-Africa leaders summit, President Obama posed for a photo with Obiang and his wife, who were his guests at a White House dinner. The magazine Mother Jones at the time labeled Obiang one of Obama's "5 most atrocious dinner guests."


7 Middle East crises that are a bigger problem than Iran’s nuclear program

Some senior members of the right-wing government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu don't hide their disdain for the very notion of Palestinian sovereignty. If the new status quo needed to be hammered home any further, a Republican presidential candidate recently curried favor among Israeli settlements whose existence are considered illegitimate by the U.S. government and the bulk of the international community. (Those settlements in the West Bank aren't going anywhere, and are expanding.) A host of Western governments, increasingly exasperated with Netanyahu's government, have held parliamentary votes recognizing Palestine as an independent state; movements to encourage boycotts and divestment from Israel are growing more mainstream, particularly in Europe. Meanwhile, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas sits atop a dysfunctional political apparatus that's increasingly unpopular and disconnected from ordinary Palestinians. The Islamist militant group Hamas maintains de facto control of the battered Gaza Strip, crippled by blockades and war. In the absence of any recourse for Palestinians to win equal civil rights under Israeli occupation, the specter of more violence and conflict looms. And given how widely troubles in the Holy Land register across the region, U.S. policymakers will eventually have to confront the post-two-state-solution — before it confronts the U.S. The Egyptian political tragedy Egyptian President Abdel-Fatah al-Sissi waits for a meeting with U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew at the presidential palace in Cairo on Oct. 27. (Hassan Ammar/AP) Four years ago, the Arab world's most populous state led the region's most inspiring story. A pro-democracy uprising toppled an entrenched dictatorship; spring was in the air. That bloom of optimism for the Middle East has decidedly withered and in few places is the "Arab winter" as stark as Egypt: Since a 2013 coup installed former general Abdel Fatah al-Sissi in power, the country's fragile democratic gains have been totally reversed. Dissidents have been rounded up and disappeared; journalists have been jailed. Some boosters of the Sissi regime argue that this is the price of stability in the Arab world. But the facts prove otherwise. The country faces a desperate security crisis, particularly in the semi-lawless Sinai Peninsula, where elements of the Islamic State have reportedly now gained a foothold. Related on WorldViews Map: The countries that recognize Palestine as an independent state The Islamic State and its war against history Beneath the war in Gaza lies the death of the two-state solution Why Turkey's Kurds are willing to die in Syria


D.C. area forecast: Hot again today, then showers and storms sweep away the summer heat

TODAY’S DAILY DIGIT 4/10: EXPRESS FORECAST Today: FORECAST IN DETAIL Should today be our final day of the year reaching or surpassing 90 degrees, it will do so in classic summer style, with plenty of humidity and a storm chance. Shower and storm chances peak tomorrow before what looks to be a pretty pleasant Friday. The weekend, which once looked nice, is now starting to trend more unsettled. Today (Wednesday): Tonight: For related traffic news, check out Dr. Gridlock. Keep reading for the forecast through the weekend… Tomorrow (Thursday): Tomorrow night: Gorgeous sunset last evening at the Lincoln Memorial. (dh Photography via Twitter) A LOOK AHEAD Friday Models have had trouble making up their mind for the weekend, showing a range of possibilities from mostly dry to a decent amount of showers. The latest trends have been toward the wetter scenario. What’s more certain is that we’ll be cooler than we’ve been in a while, with highs likely in the upper 70s to low 80s. Confidence: Low


Four D.C.-based snack companies to try

organic sunflower oil, salt and organic spices, depending on the flavor. The non-greasy, gluten-free snack falls between health food and junk food. “I’m from the Midwest,” Kaitlin says. “If it’s something I can get my family in Michigan to eat, it’s a success.” Snackability: The chips lack the signature crunch of most crackers, but the balanced seasonings make up for it. Fruitcycle One woman’s trash is another woman’s ingredients. Fruitcycle founder Elizabeth Bennett takes excess, bruised or misshapen apples and kale from local farms and spins them into delicious grub. Apples are dusted with cinnamon and dehydrated until chewy, while the kale chips are made with a cashew sauce that gives them crunch. Both are produced in Northeast D.C. and are gluten-free, dairy-free and vegan. Additionally, Bennett — formerly the director of outreach and communications for the U.S. Healthful Food Council — employs disadvantaged and formerly incarcerated women. Snackability: Opt for the kale. The cashew sauce mimics Parmesan cheese and adds flavor. Black Pug Smokehouse Ted Wanstrath and his wife, Katie, are avid grillers who wowed friends with their smoked meats. They wanted to start a BBQ business, but since the smoked meat scene is crowded, they focused instead on snacks. Black Pug Smokehouse launched this year out of Union Kitchen, where the couple sell smoked cheeses, nuts and peanut butters. Ted’s latest creation is smoked candy pecans cooked in a smoker beneath a pork shoulder. “The drippings get all over the nuts, and it caramelizes them,” he says. To avoid an overwhelming flavor, Ted limits the amount of time food spends in the smoker. Snackability: We could eat the BBQ peanuts by the bagful. Cajun Meets Asian We thought nuts dusted with Cajun and Asian spices made for an unlikely combination, too. But then Cajun Meets Asian owner Ross Perkins broke it down for us. “There’s a lot of crossover with the two cuisines. Both cook with a lot of rice, pork and heat. It wasn’t too hard to make that leap.” Perkins makes his snacks out of Mess Hall, a shared kitchen in Northeast D.C. His pecans are rubbed with cayenne pepper, red pepper flakes, black pepper and a few other spices. His pralines, traditionally a Southern snack, are made of peanuts with toasted sesame seeds, vanilla, sugar and butter. Be on the lookout for a trail mix soon. Snackability: The pralines are delicious but decadent. Go easy.


When good governments (or any governments) base policies on bad research

spent and will spend on the technology and the implementation process. Trillions of dollars, in other words, ride on this mandate to “promote the adoption and meaningful use of health information technology.” Soumerai and Koppel continue: Much of the economic justification for the spending on HIT was based on a now-debunked RAND study that promised up to a $100 billion in annual savings. Recently, however, in a remarkable act of ethics and honesty, RAND disclosed its previous study’s problems, dubious data, and weak research design, and that the research was subsidized by two of the larger HIT vendors (Cerner and GE). But . . . The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), both of which touted the first RAND study, have not issued reassessments of their happy predictions but continue to promote HIT’s cost savings and improved patient safety. While HIT should be and absolutely is far better than paper records, more than 30,000 studies had already failed to support such bold assertions of powerful improvements in health and efficiency. Moreover, the research designs of all but a tiny proportion of those studies were too weak to yield trustworthy conclusions. And the best of them showed few if any benefits. This comes to the heart of our concern here: the use of weak research in support of less-than-effective health policies and medical treatments. And there’s more: Implementation of other federal policies with questionable economic incentives and penalties has also not lived up to expectations. These policies include: paying physicians extra income for things they were already doing (e.g., taking blood pressure), setting up as-yet-to-be-proven-effective Accountable Care Organizations to incentivize cost savings, or charging patients with high cholesterol thousands of dollars more for their health insurance premiums through Affordable Care Act-sanctioned wellness programs that do not improve chronic illness. Soumerai and Koppel summarize: The common denominator here? Absent or untrustworthy evidence of treatment and policy benefits, ignorance of failures, and possibilities of patient harm. Also, the crude application of economic incentives to change doctor and patient behaviors can backfire (e.g., changing diagnostic codes to maximize revenue or avoiding care for sick and expensive patients). I see similar problems in the education world. Even without considering the possibilities of corruption, we all want to hear good news, whether it be the effectiveness of the latest cost-saving teaching innovation or the claim, based


Main Street Morning: Amazon rolls out a $50 tablet

sell electronics in some of their stores. - The owners of a music store are charged with burning down their shop for the insurance money. - Google is getting into the grocery delivery game. - Waffle House has reportedly sold its “one billionth” waffle. - A supermarket makes a special shopping cart for a mom who had trouble shopping with her disabled son. - How small town stores can start subscription box services and reap extra sales. - McDonald’s to switch to cage-free eggs. Entrepreneurs - Insurance company Hiscox’s DNA of an Entrepreneur study shows that the U.S. is a global small business leader. - The caddy girls’ business grows 400% after appearing on “Shark Tank.” - How a controversial company is turning a rave subculture into big business. Opportunities - A long time, top venture capital firm shifts its focus to the next big thing. Sales and Marketing - Why marketing to the LGBT community pays off. Online - How Etsy uses thermodynamics to help its customers search. Social Media - LinkedIn up-and-comers are getting a follow button, Start-Up - A start-up that helps underprivileged artists lands a deal with Staples. - A banker-turned-porn-star launches a start-up. - This man realizes a dream in the opening of a shoe shop. Finance - A Cleveland Fed study finds that there’s a lot of confusion on small business loans. Technology - A drone crashes into empty seats at the U.S. - Microsoft puts more focus on its customer relationship management product and announces a new promotion for its Surface Pro tablets for business through partnerships with HP and Dell. - How to keep from missing the greatest tech opportunity of our time. - Facebook is adding new features for small businesses. Around the Country - North Carolina coastal businesses celebrate a strong summer season. - Caesars Palace is fined for its lax money-laundering controls. Around the World - Lufthansa cancels 1,000 flights due to a pilot strike. - The company behind the Costa Coffee and Premier Inn chains has warned that the looming minimum wage increase will force it to raise prices in the UK. - Puerto Rico lays out a 5-year debt restructure plan. Gene Marks owns the Marks Group, a Bala Cynwyd PA consulting firm that helps clients with customer relationship management. Follow Gene Marks and On Small Business on Twitter. News we should know about? Email us here.


Bid for ULA would cap a tumultous 18 months, and shake up the rocket industry

a revolving door between the Pentagon and the defense industry. SpaceX had already won contracts from NASA to deliver astronauts and cargo to the International Space Station, and ULA took its threats to disrupt the national security launch industry seriously. It replaced its CEO with Tory Bruno, who vowed to “literally transform the company” so that it could compete. Bruno soon announced a partnership with Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin to build an American-made rocket engine. (Bezos owns The Washington Post.) And last summer, ULA unveiled a new, reusable rocket, the Vulcan, which would help the company lower costs. But it still faces massive hurdles. Led by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Congress has moved to limit the number of RD-180 engines ULA could use. Since the RD-180 powers ULA’s Atlas V rocket, that could have a huge impact on ULA’s business. And after settling the lawsuit with SpaceX, the Air Force seemed grateful to have another company able to compete for its launch contracts for the first time in a decade. "Ultimately, leveraging of the commercial space market drives down cost to the American taxpayer and improves our military's resiliency,” said Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James said in May. All of which may make ULA’s board eager to sell—for the right price. (The Wall Street Journal and Reuters have reported that a deal could be announced as early as next week.) After a decade in the business, ULA has been a stalwart and a go-to provider of launches for the government. Its disappearance would mark the end of an era in the space business, though Boeing and Lockheed would remain major players. Boeing won a contract to ferry astronauts to the space station and last week unveiled the new name of its capsule, the CST-100 Starliner. Lockheed makes the Orion capsule, which would be used on the massive new Space Launch System rocket being developed by NASA. It is also competing for the contract to fly cargo to the space station. Aerojet was also hoping to build an engine that could replace the Russian RD-180, but was considered by ULA to be a backup to the engine that Bezos' Blue Origin is developing. If Aerojet acquires ULA, it's not clear what affect that would have on the engine selection. On Twitter, Bruno, ULA's CEO, declined to comment. An Aerojet Rocketdyne spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.


Sister wives: Nelsons forms new orchestral partnership with Leipzig, Boston

Andris Nelsons, the Latvian conductor and music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, has just been announced as the next music director of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, as well.<br />Photo: BSO/Marco Borggreve When the Berlin Philharmonic recently went through the process of selecting its new music director, many wondered whether the post would go to Andris Nelsons, 36, the Latvian conductor who’s already leading, to great acclaim, the Boston Symphony Orchestra. It didn’t. On Wednesday morning, it was announced that Nelsons got the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, instead. A lot of impressive behind-the-scenes orchestration must have preceded this announcement. While we’ve been talking for a while about the imminent changing of the guard at the National Symphony Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic, the Gewandhaus wasn’t even on the table until the orchestra announced last week that Riccardo Chailly would be stepping down in June, several years before the end of his contract in 2020. It’s rare to announce a music director’s replacement less than a week after the post was publically made available. Unusual, too, is the joint role Nelsons is to play in future. Rather than wondering how adding a second music directorship would affect his tenure at the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the BSO has simply taken ownership of it. Shortly after the Gewandhaus announcement, the BSO announced a new “unique multidimensional partnership” with the Leipzig orchestra, to run for a five-year term starting when Nelsons officially assumes the Leipzig post in 2017, with a soft launch next May when the BSO makes its debut at the Gewandhaus. The partnership will involve cultural exchanges and various performance and educational collaborations, all overseen by Nelsons, with Christoph Wolff, the Harvard music professor who until recently ran the Bach archive in Leipzig, as artistic advisor. One concrete manifestation is a series of co-commissions, starting with a piece by the German composer and clarinetist Joerg Widmann that will be performed by both the Boston and the Leipzig orchestras in the 2017-18 season. Conducting fellows at Tanglewood, the BSO’s storied summer home and training-ground for young musicians, will also get a chance to assist Nelsons in Leipzig. The announcement of the partnership is certainly a great PR move, nipping in the bud what promised to be abundant speculation about Nelsons’s future with Boston should he get a plum European gig. It’s also a progressive example at a time when many international conductors hold


Quick action averts disaster as flames and smoke engulf London bound jetliner

Administration stated that the issue came from the left engine as the plane was accelerating on the runway, but Weiss said NTSB investigators will determine the cause. General Electric, the engine’s manufacturer, said in a statement “we are not aware of any operational issues that would hazard the continued safe flight of aircraft powered by these engines,” but that it would send technical representatives to help with the investigation, according to Agence France-Presse. In any case, the incident could have meant disaster had the London-bound plane’s crew and passengers not made a hasty and efficient exit down the inflatable evacuation chutes and had firefighters been slower in dousing the flames. As it turned out, the fire and smoke did not penetrate the cabin, though witnesses told NBC News the heat was so intense it melted windows on the plane. Fire officials initially told the Associated Press 14 people suffered minor injuries from sliding down the chutes after the fire broke out Tuesday afternoon. Video captured Tuesday shows black smoke billowing from a London-bound British Airways jet after its engine caught fire Tuesday while the plane was preparing to take off from Las Vegas. By all accounts, effective management prevented the incident from turning into a tragedy. One passenger, Karen Bravo, 60, told the Las Vegas Review Journal, the evacuation could serve as “a training video. Everybody did their job.” Here’s one version of how it happened, tweeted by passenger Jacob Steinberg, a writer for the Guardian. Steinberg said he was asleep as the plane was taking off. Suddenly it “came to a crashing halt.” There was a “smell of smoke,” and passengers were told to stay seated before the pilot ordered the evacuation. “They opened the back door and [the slide] went down and smoke started coming” in the plane, “followed by a mad dash to the front. A lot of panic,” he tweeted. The pilot looked pretty shook up to be honest. Has been flying for years, don't think he had ever seen anything like that “Emergency evacuation,” the pilot said, passenger Lynne Alexander told BBC News. “Off plane now.” The plane’s captain, identified by the Guardian as Chris Henkey, 63, called for emergency services: “Speedbird Mayday Mayday. Speedbird 2276 request fire services. Speedbird 2276 heavy. We are evacuating on the runway. We have a fire, repeat, we are evacuating,” according to BBC News. “Pretty scary stuff,” passenger Jay


Trader Joe’s is coming to Capitol Hill

A mural of a neighborhood scene at the 14th Street Trader Joe’s. The company said Wednesday it’s opening a Capitol Hill location. (Maura Judkis/The Washington Post) Trader Joe’s is headed east. The popular grocery chain announced that it would be opening an 11,000-square-foot store in the Capitol Hill area — its first store in the District outside of the Northwest quadrant. The California-based chain, which specializes in off-brand, affordable goods, already has a store in Foggy Bottom and on 14th Street NW — both of which are marked by check-out lines that snake throughout the store. The newest store will be located at the shuttered Hine Junior High, 750 Pennsylvania Ave. SE, near Eastern Market. The Hine Junior High redevelopment project will include 116 market rate and 46 affordable apartment units, a 163,000-square-foot office building and space for restaurants and shops. Rent for the market rate apartments will range from $3,800 to $10,000 per month. The Trader Joe’s location is slated to open in summer 2017. The District is in the midst of a grocery store boom targeting the city’s newly arrived young professionals with disposable income. Whole Foods has four stores in the District, all in Northwest, and has plans to open two new stores, one in the H Street NE area and another near National Park in Southeast. It is also planning to open one in Shaw.


Elon Musk’s crazy idea for making Mars habitable: ‘Drop thermonuclear weapons’

Elon Musk (Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty) Elon Musk is clearly in the 2016 race for Supervillain of the Universe, because on the "Late Show with Stephen Colbert," he suggested there were two ways to make Mars hospitable for humans. There's a slow way and a fast way, and both, said Musk, involve warming the planet. The slow way is to flood the planet with greenhouse gases and cause a kind of Martian climate change over a matter of years. The fast way is much more … interesting. "The fast way is to drop thermonuclear weapons over the poles," said Musk with a completely straight face. "You're a supervillain!" Colbert said. "Superman doesn't say, 'let's drop nuclear bombs.' That's Lex Luthor, man." Elon Musk Might Be A Super Villain And how does Musk propose getting to Mars affordably? Why, with his reusable SpaceX rockets, of course. The last test of that technology, which involved landing the craft on a floating barge in the ocean, failed spectacularly when it tipped over and exploded. But within two to three years, Musk told Colbert, it'll be ready for human passengers. Yes, really -- Musk thinks that people like you or I could hop in a SpaceX craft and start jetting around in space. Is it ready? It'll have to be: SpaceX really wants to use its reusable rockets to bring NASA astronauts to the International Space Station within the next couple years, said Musk. What could go wrong?


As Army families wait and wait, GSA fumbles child-care assistance, inspector says

(iStock) Army families trying to enroll in a child-care program administered by a government agency had their calls go unanswered and voice messages deleted, according to a report by the General Services Administration’s inspector general. The families also suffered “severe financial and other hardships resulting from the processing delays,” the inspector’s report said. One Army family even had to declare bankruptcy. In 2014, in an effort to reduce costs, the Army consolidated the program’s administration under GSA, which promised annual savings of $4 million. However, this deal proved too good to be true, said Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) in testimony at a hearing today before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. “Having served on active duty, and as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Air Force Reserves, and as a husband and father of two children, this issue hits particularly close to home for me,” Lieu told the committee. “The GSA’s Inspector General report shows that, with respect to childcare, the Army and GSA have failed our military families.” The GSA took up to seven months to process some subsidy applications, the report found. Army families reported that during the long waits, non-Army spouses had to give up jobs and education as child care became unaffordable, the report said. Security issues were also highlighted. In some cases, Army families’ sensitive information”was inappropriately provided to contractors before they had completed required background checks and training,” the report said, “and efforts to remediate that security access breach failed to prevent a second access breach.” GSA Inspector General Carol F. Ochoa also testified about the evaluation’s findings today. In an interview, Ochoa said that there were 26,000 instances of back-logged items that includes cases of deleted e-mails and phone messages that “resulted in significant harm to Army families.” In February, the then deputy GSA administrator, Denise Turner Roth, brought to the attention of the Office of the Inspector General critical problems with the Department of the Army’s Fee Assistance Program, a child-care subsidy program that had been administered by GSA since October 2003, the report said. GSA also administers the child-care subsidy program for its own employees and for the Coast Guard, National Park Service and U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Between 2003 and August 2014, GSA also administered the Army child-care subsidy program for approximately 200 Army families enrolled in federal child-care centers. Roth told the inspector’s office that GSA “had not