Health officials push FDA to add ‘black box’ warnings about using opioids, benzodiazepines together

(Bigstock) Dozens of public health officials and academics across the country are pushing the Food and Drug Administration to warn people about the potential dangers of taking powerful prescription painkillers alongside common anti-anxiety drugs known as benzodiazepines. In a petition submitted to the agency Monday, 41 officials from various state and municipal health departments, as well as from some universities, urged the agency to add so-called "black box" warnings to both types of medications, given evidence that using them together increases the chance of deadly overdoses. "The science clearly demonstrates that this is a potentially fatal combination, when opioids and benzodiazepines are prescribed together," said Nicole Alexander-Scott, director of Rhode Island's Department of Health, saying doctors and public health officials have a moral and professional obligation to be transparent about the risks and be cautious when prescribing the drugs to patients. Opioids, which include narcotic painkillers such as Oxycodone and Hydrocodone, are at the heart of a deadly nationwide epidemic of abuse and addiction. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently reported that overdose deaths from legal opioids grew to nearly 19,000 in the United States in 2014, the most recent year on record. The drugs also have played a role in a surge of overdoses in recent years of heroin, which is cheaper and more widely available than prescription opioids. At the same time, according to a study last week in the American Journal of Public Health, overdose deaths also have been soaring among Americans who use benzodiazepines, a class of sedatives that includes medications such as Valium and Xanax. Researchers found that the death rate from overdoses involving benzodiazepines -- commonly referred to as "benzos" -- had increased more than four-fold since 1996. In 2013, they noted, deaths from benzodiazepine overdoses accounted for nearly a third of the 23,000 deaths attributed to prescription drug overdoses in the United States. In Monday's petition, health officials detailed data suggesting that both types of medication become only more risky when used together -- and they are used together frequently. Often, for example, doctors will prescribe opioids to a patient with acute pain, along with a benzodiazepine to treat muscle spasms. Or benzodiazepines for a patient with an anxiety disorder, along with an opioid to treat chronic pain. "It’s not based on evidence, but it is routine clinical practice," said Baltimore City Health Commissioner Leana Wen. A black box warning, she


Here’s how to catch atrocities and human rights violations. (We’re looking at you, Burundi.)

to make public. Certainly, there has been excellent in-depth reporting using satellite imagery and other media by the State Department and other government agencies on humanitarian disasters such as the catastrophe in Darfur and the ongoing global migration crisis, some of it made public. But many people assume that states can collect and analyze intelligence data more thoroughly and more rapidly than they actually can. For instance, the U.S. State Department used the AI report on the possible mass graves in Burundi to emphasize its concerns about that country’s ongoing violence. After the slaughter was first reported, State’s messaging on Burundi included nothing substantive that relied on U.S. government sourced information. That suggests they either did not have reliable sources of data or hadn’t analyzed and released what they did have. Trying to understand what happens in such cases becomes an exercise in forensics. Sometimes public sources have the best available evidence. Consider the tragic downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over Ukraine on July 17, 2014. Many of the countries involved directly or indirectly, including the United States, made official statements about the incident. But the Dutch Safety Board, the government body overseeing the investigation into the incident, didn’t issue its official final report until Oct. 13, 2015. Even then, the Dutch didn’t identify who shot down the plane, thereby killing 298 civilians. Dutch authorities are now conducting a separate criminal investigation, the results of which may be published later this year. Yet by late 2014 the public source analysts — with website Bellingcat in the lead — had compiled a very convincing case about who shot down the plane and how. For a recent summary of their work, see here. In 1999, the political scientist Ann Florini and her colleague Yahya Dehqanzada foresaw that publicly available commercial satellite imagery would “… shift power from the former holders of secrets to the newly informed. That has implications for national sovereignty, for the ability of corporations to keep proprietary information secret, and for the balance of power between government and those outside it.” They were more prescient than they knew. That shift of power has only accelerated with the advent of globally networked social media and smart digital telecommunications devices. More and more people join the ranks of public source intelligence analysts every day. Governments like those of Burundi, indeed governments everywhere, have been put on notice: Little Brother is


Who won the education ‘award’ nobody wants to receive?

(Charles Rex Arbogast/ AP) There are education awards and then there are education awards. In the first category — those that people in education don’t generally mind winning — we could put the $1 million Global Teacher Prize, given by the Varkey Foundation, the philanthropic arm of GEMS Education, which is the K-12 education company that owns and operates its own GEMS schools in a handful of countries, including Egypt, Abu Dhabi and Uganda. The foundation, whose honorary chair is former president Bill Clinton, promotes the prize as “the Nobel” of teaching — as there is no actual Nobel prize in education — in an effort to show the importance of teaching in societies around the world. Its first awardee, in 2015, was Nancie Atwell, renowned founder of the Center for Teaching and Learning, an award-winning nonprofit independent K-8 demonstration school in Edgecomb, Maine, where she teaches seventh- and eighth-grade writing, reading and history. The second annual award will be given soon. But nobody in education genuinely likes winning the Bunkum Award. Presented annually by the National Education Policy Center at the University of Colorado at Boulder, it is given for what presenters say is “shoddy” educational research based on weak data, questionable analysis and overblown recommendations. The award gets its name from Buncombe County, N.C., where, in 1820, Rep. Felix Walker delivered “a speech for Buncombe” on whether Missouri should be admitted to the United States as a free or slave state, and he rambled on so much that his colleagues yelled at him to stop. From then on, “bunkum” came to mean long-winded nonsense. The 2015 winner was just announced, and it was the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. It was announced by David Berliner, the regents’ professor emeritus and former dean of the College of Education at Arizona State University, and you can watch the “presentation” in the video below. Berliner is a member of the National Academy of Education and the International Academy of Education, a fellow of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, a past president of the American Educational Research Association, and a widely recognized scholar of educational psychology and policy. Here’s the award announcement: This year’s winner is the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, for Separating Fact from Fiction: What You Need to Know about Charter Schools. The National Alliance (NAPCS) describes itself as “the leading national nonprofit


College student: Women should be required to register for the draft, and that includes me

Consequently, women must share the burden of defending the nation with their male counterparts – even on the front line. Registration for the draft is the definitive standard of equality because it’s a fundamental and immutable responsibility of each and every citizen. There are evident biological gender differences in average size, strength and roughness of play, and the American military has said that physical standards will not be lowered to enable women to serve in all roles. Therefore, it must find ways to more effectively train women for front-line combat and other warfare scenarios. There are important exceptions to the stereotype of the fairer sex, though. Women have passed the arduous physical standards in the military and performed well when fighting under various circumstances. In this Aug. 21, 2015 photo, Army 1st Lt. Shaye Haver, center, and Capt. Kristen Griest, right, pose for photos with other female West Point alumni after an Army Ranger school graduation ceremony at Fort Benning, Ga. Haver and Griest became the first female graduates of the Army’s rigorous Ranger School. The decision by the Pentagon to allow women to serve in all combat jobs has put new focus on an often-forgotten U.S. institution: the Selective Service. While America has not had a military draft since 1973, all men must register with the Selective Service within 30 days of turning 18. U.S. leaders repeatedly insist that the all-volunteer force is working and the nation is not returning to the draft. But there are increasing rumblings about whether women should now be required to register if they can indeed serve in all areas of the military. (AP Photo/John Bazemore) Requiring women to register for the Selective Service System would not mean that in the event of a draft, the number of women in combat positions would be on par with the number of men. Rigorous entry standards for all opened positions would still remain in place. Men and women who meet those standards, or could be trained to do so, would be assigned to roles suited to their abilities. Subjection to battlefront danger is the ultimate test of patriotism; it reinforces a strong, desired message of national commitment to friends and foes alike. In times of national emergencies, the country will require access to the best talents. Victory relies on strength, innovation, intelligence and courage – qualities that are not exclusive to just one gender. Requiring women


What new evidence from Somalia tells us about when civilians decided to flee war zones

do certain crises prompt displacement floods while others only elicit a trickle? Unique daily internal displacement data from Somalia in the mid-2000s, which I published in a recent article, can offer insights into these critical policy questions. Since Ethiopia’s 2006 invasion, Somalia has produced some of the world’s largest displacement flows. As Anna Lindley observes, two-thirds of Mogadishu’s population fled between the end of 2006 and the end of 2008. Somali displacement flows furthermore exhibit substantial variation over time. Its lessons may be more broadly applicable, since Somalia contains characteristics that exist in many cases of civil conflict: a weak state, proliferation of armed groups and militias, protracted conflict, poverty, and environmental challenges. The data derives from an UNHCR project called the Population Movement Tracking system. Begun in mid-2006, the project works with 48 local partners inside Somalia to track displacement on a daily basis. Analyzing this daily displacement data reveals that there were actually 15 distinct cycles of displacement in Somalia from 2008 to 2013. The structural conflict characteristics of geographic scope and balance of power are the most important drivers of displacement timing – and not individual events, as is commonly believed. There are two possible drivers of displacement timing in Somalia. The first possibility is that civilians can respond quickly to violence, so we need daily violence and displacement data that offer the opportunity to detect quick responses to individual events. A second possibility is that civilians consider a range of factors in their displacement decisions, thereby requiring broader changes in conflict dynamics to drive their displacement. These changes may involve the geographic scope of the conflict and the balance of power. But such simple explanations do not do justice to the complex reality of Somali displacement. Increases in the geographic scope of a conflict can increase the size of displacement flows, because it increases the proportion of a country’s population affected by conflict. This finding is consistent with previous cross-national analysis from Erik Melander and Magnus Oberg. While this point may appear trivial, researchers have noted that conflict usually does not engulf the entire territory of a country. This makes it important to monitor the proportion of a territory where armed conflict is being waged. Balance of power has more nuanced effects on the size of displacement. The crucial factor for displacement appears to be not the actual changes in balance of power but the effect


A glowing ‘snow moon’ rises over Washington, D.C., landmarks (Photos)

(Rogene M. Waite via Facebook) The full “snow moon” rose over Washington, D.C., last night, glowing behind a thin veil of clouds. The moon came above the horizon at 6:02 p.m., after reaching fullness at 1:20 p.m. Monday. As we wrote yesterday, naming full moons is a Native American tradition. This month’s full moon is the “snow moon” because it tends to be the coldest, snowiest month of the year. Individual tribes have their own names for each full moon moon. For example, the Comanche call the February moon the “sleet moon,” and the Lakota call it “the moon when the trees crack because of the cold.” Thanks to everyone who shared photos of the snow moon with us on Flickr, Twitter and Facebook! If you haven’t yet — follow us on Instagram, we’re featuring a lot of great photography there! The "Snow Moon" over Washington, DC @capitalweather @spann @ABC7Brian https://t.co/QTHf0332xf The “snow moon” rises over the Memorial Bridge, Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial. (Navin Sarma via Flickr) (Jim Havard via Flickr) The “snow moon” is seen rising through the columns at the Jefferson Memorial. (Harrison Jones via Flickr) The “snow moon” rises over the Memorial Bridge, Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial. (Navin Sarma via Flickr) (Chris Fukuda via Facebook)


The Federal Reserve’s complicated relationship with race

of the terms “black” and “African American” in the transcripts from 2008 and 2009 as well -- as waves of foreclosures ripped through minority neighborhoods -- also found no direct mention of the impact the recession was having on these workers or their communities. “You just get into certain patterns of conversation … and other important elements get lost as a result of that,” Kocherlakota said in an interview. “We get pretty granular in our conversations. They would be further enriched by getting granular along this dimension.” Skepticism about the Fed's focus on the needs of black Americans took center stage during the subprime housing crisis that disproportionately affected so many of them. After the crisis, it became clear that Fed regulators had placed relatively little priority on their consumer protection responsibilities, which were shifted to the newly created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as part of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform act. “They had the ability to close the floodgates on these kinds of predatory loans,” said John Taylor, head of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition. “It was one of the most irresponsible inactions of any agency in recent history.” More recently, the Fed has been at the center of a campaign by progressive activists who want the central bank to hold off on any more rate increases until the economy is stronger. The group, known as Fed Up and led by the Center for Popular Democracy, has pushed for legislation that would require the central bank to target a 4 percent minority unemployment rate. During Yellen's congressional testimony, demonstrators filled the hearing room and lined the hallway outside. Yellen tackled the problem of African American unemployment in her very first public address as Fed chief. Speaking in Chicago, she recounted recounted the experiences of individual workers to illustrate why the economy still needed the Fed’s support. The past six years have been difficult for many Americans, but the hardships faced by some have shattered lives and families. Too many people know firsthand how devastating it is to lose a job at which you had succeeded and be unable to find another; to run through your savings and even lose your home, as months and sometimes years pass trying to find work; to feel your marriage and other relationships strained and broken by financial difficulties. And yet many of those who have suffered the most find the will to


A peek inside the most expensive homes for sale in the D.C. area

and the first floor also has a formal living room, a den and a private home office. The five-bedroom, three-bathroom home at 6419 Shadow Rd. in Chevy Chase, Md., is listing for $3.795 million. (HomeVisit) • 6419 Shadow Rd., Chevy Chase, Md. $3.795 million Agents: Joanne Pinover and Liz Lavette, Washington Fine Properties Built in 1962, this home is in the Kenwood community of Chevy Chase, a neighborhood known for its stately homes and spectacular display of cherry blossoms every spring. The grounds of the house include a terrace, swimming pool, pergola and garden, accessible through French doors across the back of the house. The main level has a double living room with a fireplace, one of four in the home; a dining room; a kitchen and breakfast room; a mudroom; a family room; and a master bedroom with a fireplace. Upstairs are five more bedrooms, three full baths and an exercise room. The finished lower level includes a game room. The 12,300-square-foot mansion at 9900 Newhall Rd. in Potomac is listing for $3.699 million. (HomeVisit) • 9900 Newhall Rd., Potomac, Md. $3.699 million Agent: Mandana Tavakoli, Long & Foster Real Estate Built in 2011, this 12,300-square-foot mansion sits on a nearly one-acre lot near Potomac Village. The property includes eight bedrooms, 12 baths, four fireplaces and multiple spaces for entertaining. The home has a large kitchen and a separate caterer’s kitchen as well as a wine cellar. In addition, the property has a professional office space with a private entrance. The grounds include a heated swimming pool with a pool house, a multipurpose basketball and sports court, an outdoor fireplace and a covered porch. The penthouse in Turnberry Tower at 1881 Nash St. #2309 in Arlington is listing for $3.4 million. (Marlon Crutchfield) • 1881 Nash St. #2309, Arlington, Va. $3.4 million Agent: Julie Zelaska, Smith & Schnider This penthouse in Turnberry Tower sits on the northeast corner overlooking Georgetown and includes a terrace that wraps around the home. A private elevator leads directly into this contemporary-style home, which has an open floor plan with glass doors leading from several rooms onto the terrace. The home has 2,655 square feet with three bedrooms and four baths. The sellers are offering the property fully furnished and decorated, although they’ll also consider selling it unfurnished. The condo fee of $1,921 per month covers services and amenities such as valet parking, a


The ‘super bloom’: When Death Valley becomes ‘a valley of life’

valley in October. The storm was devastating at the time, setting off flash floods and damaging one of the visitors’ centers. But it also prompted park rangers to begin speculating about a super bloom like they hadn’t seen in more than 10 years. Super Bloom Coming?The chance of a rare Super Bloom of wildflowers this spring just got better! The autumn rainstorm… Posted by Death Valley National Park on Wednesday, October 7, 2015 The rainstorm washed the protective coatings off of the dormant seeds, the NPS explained, allowing them to sprout. Then, the “godzillo” El Niño climate cycle that has chilled and drench parts of the West Coast (though perhaps not enough) brought more water to the parched landscape. The continued watering kept the nascent plants alive as they waited for spring to come. With the arrival of warmer weather — temperatures in Death Valley have been in the 90s this month, according to the Arizona Republic — the plants finally began to flower. “I’ve lived in Death Valley for 25 years,” Van Valkenburg said in his video about the super bloom, “and I’ve seen lots of blooms, lots of wildflower blooms in Death Valley, and I kept thinking I was seeing incredible blooms. I always was very excited. Until I saw one of these super blooms. “And then I suddenly realized there are so many seeds out there just waiting to sprout, waiting to grow,” he continued. “… When you get the perfect conditions, the perfect storm so to speak, they can all sprout at once.” The colorful plants now carpeting the desert won’t last long. Ephemerals’ survival strategy is to grow fast, reproduce quick and then die off as soon as the weather becomes unbearable again. This is why the desert flowers tend to be short and delicate — there’s no point investing a lot of time and energy in growing a stout stem and huge leaves when a heat wave could roll in and kill you at any moment. Desert gold (Alan Van Valkenburg/Death Valley National Park via Facebook) The brilliant blooms, on the other hand, are extraordinarily useful; they attract the insects that will pollinate the plants, ensuring that their genes get passed on. In some plants the bright coloring also acts as a kind of sunscreen. In a flower called the desert five spot — a dainty violet bloom with red and green leaves —


5 new restaurants to try around D.C. tonight

Photo courtesy of David Amini and Laela Shallal In the time it takes you to finish reading this sentence, at least three new restaurants will have opened in D.C. OK, that’s a bit of a stretch, but it feels as though local dining options are expanding at breakneck speed. We surveyed the horde of newcomers and put together the following must-try list. All five of these restaurants come from industry veterans, and they’re all worth a visit. Hank’s Pasta Bar 600 Montgomery St., Alexandria; 571-312-4117 Pineapple and Pearls 715 Eighth St. SE Mulebone 2121 14th St. NW; 202-332-9672 Tail Up Goat 1827 Adams Mill Road NW; 202-986-9600 Sushi Ogawa 2100 Connecticut Ave. NW; 202-813-9715 You may also like: EatsPlace’s takoyaki hotdog is our dish of the week Who needs other people? These group outings are just as fun for parties of one.


Dread is vanishing from the animal world. Here’s why that’s a bad thing.

make wary. Wary animals spend less time eating, because they’re too busy hiding, or scurrying, or jumping at loud noises, keeping their heads up and their ears attuned to the approach of anything that might find them appetizing. And that can have all the same cascading effects as if the mesopredator really had been eaten. In biological terms, being fearful may change a creature’s impact on the landscape as much as being dead. But it’s difficult to test this theory. Ecosystems are big, complex arrangements, and it’s hard to separate out the fact of predation from the fear of it when looking at the cascading impact of a predator’s presence. Besides, you can’t exactly ask the Yellowstone elk if they’ve moved out of the riverbeds because they’re worried a wolf might spot them there and decide it’s time for his next meal. So Suraci manufactured fear. His victims were the rampaging raccoons of the Gulf Islands. The audacious animals had flourished basically unchecked since their natural predators — cougars, bears — were killed off by humans. They flocked to the exposed rocks of the islands’ intertidal zone in search of tasty meals of fish and crab, and they showed none of the vigilant behavior one might expect of a medium-sized mammal. They even hunted during the day, something that raccoons with a better sense of their own mortality never do. Suraci and his colleagues reminded them of how easily they could be eaten, setting up speakers in the trees near the tidal zone and programming them to play sounds of dogs barking. (They also set up a control speaker system on another island that played sea lion sounds, to ensure that it was the dogs, and not the noise, that affected the raccoons’ behavior.) Then they snuck around the woods and shoreline with video cameras trying to capture the raccoons’ response, like the producers of some bizarre reality show. “It was one of the most fun jobs I’ve ever had,” Suraci admitted. The results were striking. Not only did the raccoons spend far less time in the exposed intertidal zone, where they could have been easily spotted and hunted by a predator (if it existed), when they were there, they spent much more time scanning their surroundings than with their faces down, looking for food. All told, the raccoons spent 66 percent less time foraging than when they were unafraid


Map of the Milky Way’s star-forming gases creates a stunning new view of the galaxy

previously collected data to create the image above — is the result of the APEX Telescope Large Area Survey of the Galaxy (ATLASGAL). The APEX (Atacama Pathfinder EXperiment — there are a lot of acronyms involved) studies the southern sky at submillimeter wavelengths — between infrared light and radio waves. "Seen in visible light, these regions of the Universe are often dark and obscured due to the dust," the European Southern Observatory's website explains. "But they shine brightly in the millimetre and submillimetre part of the spectrum. This wavelength range is also ideal for studying some of the earliest and most distant galaxies in the Universe, whose light has been redshifted into these longer wavelengths." This video takes a close look at a new image of the Milky Way released to mark the completion of the APEX Telescope Large Area Survey of the Galaxy (ATLASGAL). [Music: Johan B. Monell (www.johanmonell.com)] APEX uses nearly 300 high-tech sensors kept at just 0.3 degrees above absolute zero to monitor minuscule changes in temperature. When incoming radiation meets one of the telescope's many detectors, it notes the resulting temperature increase and uses it to map cold swaths of gas and dust. The new map covers an area of sky 140 degrees long and 3 degrees wide, which is more than four times the size of ATLASGAL's previous release. In the video and image above, you can see the ATLASGAL data in red. The background image — the blue stuff — comes from shorter infrared wavelength observations made by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. The European Space Agency's Planck satellite provided more data to complete the picture, contributing the fainter red structures shown. The Planck satellite covers the entire night sky, but it does so at a lower resolution than APEX surveys the southern sky — which is where we can observe our galactic center. You can zoom in on the massive full-sized version of the image here. Read More: This is what it looks like when a black hole tears a star apart A ‘dead’ galaxy full of dark matter is lurking close to home Here’s what our galaxy looks like from the outside New study predicts the slow, inevitable death of the universe The new biggest thing in the universe, and why it’s a headache for scientists Here’s what the sky might have looked like when the Milky Way was alive with star birth


Texas hospitals announce first quick test for Zika that could help identify when the virus reaches U.S.

The map of things that keep NIH’s infectious diseases director up at night] While a number of hospitals around the world are able to test for the presence of a certain families of tropical viruses, this is the first quick test that appears to be able to distinguish between Zika and dengue fever. Musser said that the new diagnostic technique, developed through a joint effort by his hospital and Texas Children's, was validated for accuracy and sensitivity in house and has yet to be reviewed by a third party. While it certainly promises to be a useful tool in the Zika fight, it is not the diagnostic panacea that many public health officials have been hoping for. It requires some expensive, specialized equipment that is typically only found in major hospital centers -- making it impossible to be used in some of the rural areas of Latin America where the virus is spreading. A number of other scientific teams from university labs to major diagnostic companies are working on more portable, inexpensive tests that can be more easily used in the field. Musser said that the hospitals started using the test this week on women who are pregnant, have symptoms of Zika and have been traveling in countries where the virus is actively spreading. He said the institutions' goal is to make the test more widely available to other types of patients and to neighboring hospitals and that researchers will share information about the test with anyone interested in setting up a similar testing effort. The Zika project was funded through a philanthropic grant from L.E. and Virginia Simmons, a local couple, and is part of a larger effort at Houston Methodist to bolster hospital-based rapid response systems for infectious diseases. Musser said the Ebola crisis in Dallas and the spread of other tropical disease, such as chikungunya, that have moved up from the southern hemisphere in recent years underscored the fact that Texas is on the front lines of this fight. Read more: Beyond Zika: The map of things that keep NIH’s infectious diseases director up at night NIH officials accelerate timeline for human trials of Zika vaccine, saying they will now begin in the summer Why Zika is a ticking 'time bomb' for Latin America Why Zika is "much more insidious, cunning and evil" than Ebola For more health news, you can sign up for our weekly newsletter


The U.S. has the most diverse salamanders in the world. This deadly fungus could change that.

continues to vanish, along with bees, monarch butterflies, bats, frogs and even snakes. The impacts of these losses from a deadly mix of disease, competitive invasive species, climate change and pesticides is unknown. Spotted salamander have been a focal species for amphibian monitoring at the USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Laurel, Md., for years. (Evan H.C. Grant/USGS) When Bsal was ravaging salamanders in the Netherlands in 2013, a USGS study reported that frogs, toads and salamanders were vanishing from the American landscape at an alarming pace. The report estimated that seven species — including Colorado’s boreal toad and Nevada’s yellow-legged frog — faced population drops of 50 percent if their rate of decline held steady for seven years. “It’s a loss of biodiversity. You lose them, and you can’t get them back. That seems like a problem,” Michael J. Adams, a research ecologist for USGS and the lead author of that study, said at the time. The findings of the current study were announced in part to help wildlife managers protect already declining amphibians in the United States from a coming threat that could ensure the grim predictions of the earlier report. USGS researchers said biologists should heed the warning and work to detect the fungus early. Bsal would be one of the most significant disease threats to animals since the white-nose syndrome hit bats. In the United States, there isn’t a more lethal pathogen than white-nose, which has killed at least 7 million bats of at least seven species since it was first detected in New York about a decade ago, and it is continuing to spread south and west. It’s an eerie fungus that creeps on bats as they hibernate in large communities in caves and mines, then attacks their tissue. Biologists are still struggling to understand it, let alone cure it. The same can be said of Bsal. An endangered Shenandoah salamander rests in Virginia’s Shenandoah National Park. (USGS) “Amphibians are the most endangered vertebrates in the world,” Richgels said. “Disease risk assessments like ours can help managers prevent and mitigate losses of vulnerable U.S. salamanders.” Read More: Bats and snakes are the latest victims of a mass killer in the wild Study: Butterfly decline signals trouble in the environment Scientists say humans certainly spread the virus that’s killing bees Stink bugs migrating to the Deep South The dirty dozen: 12 of the worst invasive species


The enduring mystery of who shot down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 nearly two years ago

three battalions during the summer of 2014. Using social media posts, open-source imagery and various other reporting, Bellingcat’s team managed to trace the movement of a specific Buk surface-to-air missile system–of the type that shot down MH17–to the border of Russia and Ukraine. While previous Bellingcat reports also identified the Buk system, this most recent iteration manages to point to many of the soldiers allegedly involved and the officers that, Bellingcat believes, authorized the movement of the Buk and bear responsibility for the eventual shoot down of MH17, even if the Buk was fired by separatists. “Although it is likely that the head officials of Russia’s Ministry of [Defense] did not explicitly decide to send a Buk missile launcher to Ukraine, the decision to send military equipment (with or without crew) from the Air [Defense] Forces to Ukraine was likely made at a very high level and, therefore, the Russian Ministry of [Defense] bears the main responsibility for the downing of MH17,” the report concluded. [Dutch report: Buk missile downed MH17 in Ukraine] In October 2015, a Dutch Safety Board investigation also concluded that MH17 was shot down by a Russian missile fired from a portion of Ukraine that was, at the time, under the control of Russian-backed separatists fighting the Ukrainian government. The report indicated that the 9n314m warhead was fired by a Buk surface-to-air missile system–a modern air defense weapon fielded primarily by Russia, although it is also used by Ukraine. The report, however, did not blame Russia nor the separatists. Instead, it only indicated that the weapon was fired from territory controlled by the Kremlin-backed insurgents–a conclusion that was echoed by the White House. The Dutch investigation, did however, blame the Ukrainian government for not closing the airspace over its war torn east, an area that MH17’s flight path nearly bisected. Russian officials were quick to call the Dutch report biased and political. Its conclusion was immediately contested by a Russian investigation released on the same day as the Dutch Safety Board’s findings. The Russian report was led by the missile’s manufacturer, Almaz-Antey. The company concluded that the missile that struck MH17 was an older variant used by the Ukrainian military, and that the missile was fired from Ukrainian held territory. Since October’s flurry of statements and diplomatic barbs, a Dutch criminal investigation into the missile strike has encountered issues similar to those faced by the Safety


SpaceX scrubs its third launch in a row

SpaceX is trying to land a rocket booster on what it calls an autonomous spaceport droneship, essentially a floating platform at sea. UPADTE, Feb. 28: @SpaceX Launch aborted on low thrust alarm. Rising oxygen temps due to hold for boat and helium bubble triggered alarm. UPDATE, Feb. 25: UPDATE, 6:20 p.m.: Team opting to hold launch for today. Looking to try again tomorrow; window also opens at 6:46pm ET. Rocket and spacecraft remain healthy. SpaceX is scheduled to launch a commercial satellite to space Wednesday evening, and will once again try to land the rocket’s first stage on a platform floating in the Atlantic Ocean. But this time the company founded by tech billionaire Elon Musk says that “a successful landing is not expected.” In December, the company successfully landed the first stage at a ground-based pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, a key step toward what many say will lower the cost of space travel. Typically, the first stages of rockets are discarded after launch, landing in the ocean. But since they are the most expensive part of the rocket and house the main engines, Musk and others have been on a quest to find a way to land and reuse them. The company has also tried to land the rocket on floating platforms, coming close but ultimately failing to remain upright. And it warned it is not optimistic this time. SpaceX is trying to launch a communications satellite for SES, a communications company that is sending a satellite to provide high-definition video and Internet service to parts of Asia. But the heavy satellite is headed for what’s known as Geostationary Transfer Orbit, more than 22,000 miles away. The great distance requires more velocity, and that makes it more difficult than previous attempts for the booster to turn around and land. The launch is scheduled for 6:46 p.m. from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station with a 90-minute launch window. Wondering how Falcon 9's first stage will attempt to fly back to Earth on our next launch? Image courtesy of SpaceX.


Lunch links: Feds secretly tracked cellphones nearly 6,000 times

- USA Today reports that U.S. marshals used Stingray technology to track cellphones nearly 6,000 times. - Speaking of U.S. marshals, they apparently recently shot and killed an innocent Albuquerque man while conducting a raid for a fugitive. - Fired New York crime lab analysts say police pressured them to support conclusions unsupported by science. - Arizona death row inmates say they don’t want the state to use a paralytic to mask their pain when they’re executed. The state says the inmates have “no right to go viral.” - Brooklyn district attorney’s new conviction integrity unit exonerates its first woman. - It isn’t just Virginia — other state legislatures are also considering bills that would shield the identities of police officers. - On the other hand, there are a number of promising policing reform bills under consideration in the Hawaii legislature. - Investigations of officer-involved shootings in Houston have been hampered by a lack of video. - Photo of the day: Somewhere over the Arizona desert. (Radley Balko)


Scientists finally track down the source of mysterious radio bursts

timescale of the event (the afterglow lasted six days) the researchers believe a pair of colliding neutron stars could be to blame. But it's possible – even likely – that FRBs come from a variety of sources, because some of the previously observed bursts didn't seem to fit the same bill. FRBs may still hold many mysteries, but they're already being put to use: Scientists can use them to calculate the distribution of matter in the universe. FRBs are distorted as they pass through matter, meaning that some frequencies of the signal arrive a little sooner than others. Based on the delay, scientists can calculate how many particles of space gas and dust the wave went through on its journey. "Until now, the dispersion measure is all we had," CSIRO's Simon Johnston, co-author of the study, said in a statement. "By also having a distance we can now measure how dense the material is between the point of origin and Earth, and compare that with the current model of the distribution of matter in the Universe. Essentially this lets us weigh the Universe, or at least the normal matter it contains.” And guess what? The new weigh-in managed to find a whole bunch of matter that had been "missing" up until now. It's thought that the universe is made up of 70 percent dark energy, 25 percent dark matter and 5 percent boring-old-normal matter, but around half of the latter has never been measured directly. You read that correctly: Only 5 percent of the universe's matter is stuff we understand, and half of that we've failed to detect. Do you feel small? I feel small. "The good news is our observations and the model match, we have found the missing matter," Keane said in a statement. "It's the first time a fast radio burst has been used to conduct a cosmological measurement." Three highly sensitive FRB-detecting instruments are set to open this year A look at the best photos of space. Read More: Why NASA’s top scientist is sure that we’ll find signs of alien life in the next decade Scientists just smashed the distance record for quantum teleportation A ‘dead’ galaxy full of dark matter is lurking close to home The new biggest thing in the universe, and why it’s a headache for scientists Map of the Milky Way’s star-forming gases creates a stunning new view of the galaxy


The Daily 202: Ted Cruz is counting on state legislators to save his campaign in the South

government to break into a locked iPhone. -- The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans issued an emergency order that abortion rights groups say will result in the closure of three of Louisiana's four existing abortion clinics. -- Two adults and a two-year-old child were killed when a tornado touched down in southeastern Virginia. GET SMART FAST: - The 25 people who occupied the Oregon wildlife refuge pleaded not guilty to blocking federal government officials from performing their duties.They each face up to six years in prison. (Mark Berman and Leah Sottile) - A bipartisan group of senators reached a deal to funnel funding to Flint, Mich., and other cities with aging lead pipes. "The agreement includes $70 million in credit subsidies for water infrastructure projects, $100 million for subsidized loans and grants to help states with spoiled water supplies and $50 million for public health programs." (Kelsey Snell) - President Obama will nominate Carla Hayden, an African-American woman, to be the 14th Librarian of Congress. "Hayden is the chief executive of the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore, a job she has had for 22 years. She drew praise and criticism for her decision to keep the library open during last year’s protests over the death of Freddie Gray while in police custody. (Peggy McGlone) - The felony prosecution of Rick Perry has ended after the state's highest criminal court dismissed an abuse-of-power indictment. (AP) - Republicans applauded a decision by Attorney General Loretta Lynch to keep immigrants slated for deportation in federal custody rather than return them to state custody, including sanctuary cities. (Politico) - Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf (D) has a “mild” form of prostate cancer for which he’s being treated. He said he doesn’t expect the treatment to interfere with his job. ( Philly.com) - A lawyer for Kennedy relative Michael Skakel says that his client "did not get a fair shake" during his 2002 trial for murdering Martha Moxley. Skakel was convicted and served 11 years of a 20-year sentence before being released in 2013 when a judge ruled he did not receive an adequate defense. State prosecutors want his conviction reinstated, and there was a hearing yesterday. (The New York Times) - Baquer Namazi, the father of an Iranian-American imprisoned by Iran, was himself taken into custody by the regime. The 80-year-old is an American citizen and may have been taken to


The FBI isn’t a good guy in the encryption fight. But neither is Apple.

highlights that the firm’s meal ticket is monitoring its users and not its moonshot projects, which appeal to a certain utopian sense but cost the company billions. Google makes Android, the world’s most popular smartphone operating system, yet its phones aren’t encrypted by default, unlike the latest version of Apple’s iOS. That has the result, the American Civil Liberties Union’s Christopher Soghoian has argued, of creating distinct tiers of privacy protections for those who can afford an expensive phone with good encryption and those consigned to cheaper Android handsets. But in the absence of solid policy, encryption stands as a potential guarantor of privacy to those who can afford, and know how to use, the tools. Whatever the merits of Apple’s current stand, civil society is in a precarious position if we expect multinational corporations to act as a check on government power and a defender of individual rights. Yet we shouldn’t kid ourselves that the Silicon Valley-Beltway relationship is now completely adversarial. Just last month, tech bigwigs and administration officials held a chummy meeting in San Jose to discuss the digital fight against the Islamic State; another meeting was held on Wednesday at the White House. In December, President Obama signed into law the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act, which is designed to facilitate sharing of cyberthreat information between government and business (Sen. Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon, called it “a surveillance bill by another name”). Tech firms enjoy valuable contracts providing a range of computing services across the government, including in the intelligence community. Talent and influence flow both ways, with In-Q-Tel, the CIA’s venture capital arm, funding firms such as Palantir, a data analytics darling valued at $20 billion. Against such an agglomeration of power, it seems that the most concerned citizens can do is choose which smartphone to buy or which thought leader’s tweets reflect their views. The area of political struggle has been ceded, as billion-dollar companies have deputized themselves to defend, and perhaps define, our rights. If the Crypto Wars are ever to end, these battles will have to be brought out from behind the veil of corporate and governmental secrecy and linked to larger issues of surveillance, privacy, and the relationship between the security state and tech firms. And the American people will have to recognize that their interests may sometimes align with Silicon Valley but that they will never be the same.


IBM and New York Genome Center’s new cancer tumor repository aims to revolutionize treatment

(Joerg Sarbach/AP) At many of the nation's leading cancer centers, doctors have begun to sequence the DNA of their patients' tumors to better personalize their treatments. That information has saved a growing number of lives. It might tell you, for instance, whether a certain type of chemotherapy may be extra toxic for a particular individual or if a different drug that no one ever thought of may be the miracle you were praying for. The problem is: This approach doesn’t scale. Today, figuring out how genetic mutations may impact a patient's response to a treatment is a time-consuming and manual process. It often involves a team of a half-dozen or more experts combing through hundreds of journal articles and consulting with colleagues around the world for a month. Even then, there's no guarantee that this will lead to useful information for the patient. With more than 1.69 million Americans predicted to be diagnosed with cancer this year, there will likely only be a lucky few whose oncologists have the expertise, time and access to do this. The rest will be treated by doctors who have only as little as 15 minutes to make their treatment decisions. IBM and the New York Genome Center are hoping to change this by partnering in a project that uses Watson, the computer superbrain of "Jeopardy!" fame. As part of the White House Precision Medicine Initiative, on Thursday the organizations announced the creation of a national cancer tumor repository that they hope will pinpoint in a very broad way which genetic characteristics correspond to how people might react to the universe of all the treatments available. "Our goal is to take that massive data and turn it into information that can be used for a patient who is waiting at the bedside," Robert Darnell, chief executive and founding director of the New York Genome Center, said in an interview. The initial project will begin with 200 patients being treated at New York City-area hospitals, such as Memorial Sloan Kettering and Columbia-Presbyterian. Recruitment of patients begins immediately and is focusing on the neediest patients who have not responded to multiple treatments. IBM's Watson computer is best known for winning "Jeopardy!" while playing against humans. It's now taking on cancer. (Andrew Spear for The Washington Post) Unlike smaller precision medicine projects that focus on 30 to 50 genes, the IBM-New York Genome Center effort will involve whole


Why America is more competitive than you think

or financial advice dispensed to another country. But some of these flows may actually offset some of the cross-border trade in goods that we’ve seen in the past, dragging down the numbers for global trade altogether. 3D printing is one example. Instead of shipping replacement parts around the globe, some companies may soon send data around the world instead to print replacement parts in another country. Companies, such as GE and Siemens, are already using 3D printing to manufacture spare parts and components. In the longer run, this kind of activity means that cross-border trade in goods will decline, evaporating instead into global exchanges of data. “I don’t think it explains the big slowdown in trade you’re seeing today, but if you project out 10 years, it could have a sizeable impact,” said Lund. Lund and her colleagues argued that this new digital economy is mostly a force for global equality. While international trade in the past was often limited to large multinational companies, now small businesses can participate, and people in any country can find work online as a freelancer or take a course from Stanford. And digital technologies can help certain countries leapfrog ahead — such as Kenya, which has become a leading country in mobile payments, said Lund. However, things don’t look egalitarian yet. The McKinsey data shows that nine countries, the United States included, stand out as relatively connected to the rest of the world in terms of flows of goods, services, finance, people and data. The rest fall far behind, as the chart below shows. McKinsey Global Institute “There are some individual countries, like Brazil, Indonesia and India, their economies may have been 50 percent larger had they been more open over the last decade than they actually are,” Lund said. The Asian powerhouses, such as China, Japan and Korea, also look stuck in the past. They have excelled in manufacturing and goods trade for decades, and received and sent out massive financial flows. But they’ve seen little movement of people across borders, and surprisingly low flows of data, suggesting they are ill-prepared for the next era of globalization. The research suggests that flows of goods, people and data are relatively concentrated in certain parts of the world. Interestingly, the McKinsey data shows that California would rank fourth in the world in terms of flows of people, above Britain and France, while China’s southern Guangdong


13 things to do in the D.C. area on the weekend of February 26-28

Here are this weekend's best bets in nightlife, festivals, music, movies and much more around the Washington area. - Capital Weather Gang forecast: A sunny weekend, much warmer on Sunday. - Thirsty for something new? Here are 6 new bars in D.C. to try right now. Get your camera ready: The giant illuminated bunnies appear on Washington's Southeast Waterfront for Light Yards on Saturday. (BrandLinkDC) Thursday through Sunday: [The $20 Diner's best cheap-eats destination: Beltsville] Thursday: Thursday: [At these D.C. bars, happy hour ends at last call] Friday-Sunday: Friday-Sunday: [D.C.’s best bar for bookish types is inside Petworth Citizen] Friday: Downtown Boys - Wave Of History (live@DemocracyNow) Friday: Friday: Soon is apparently now for the D.C. Streetcar, which is scheduled to start carrying passengers on H Street and Benning Road NE on Saturday morning. (Katherine Frey/The Washington Post) Saturday: Saturday: Sunday: Saturday: [Where to watch the Oscars in the D.C. area] Sunday:


A Challenger engineer blamed himself for 30 years. Then this ‘miracle’ happened.

For more than 30 years, Bob Ebeling carried the guilt of the Challenger explosion. He was an engineer and he knew the shuttle couldn’t sustain the freezing temperatures. He warned his supervisors. He told his wife it was going to blow up. The next morning it did, just as he said it would, and seven astronauts died. Since that tragic day, Ebeling has blamed himself. He always wondered whether he could have done more. His daughter, Kathy Ebeling, said he had even entertained bringing his hunting rifle to work Jan. 28, 1986 to threaten NASA not to launch — that’s how certain he was that the shuttle was going to explode. 30 years ago, the Shuttle Challenger exploded during launch while CNN broadcasted on live television. All seven crew members were killed. That day changed him, Kathy Ebeling, who was 35 then, said in an interview. He became despondent and withdrawn. He quit his job not long after, unable to face it — the MURDERER in graffiti on the overpass on his ride to work, the constant reminder of how NASA failed. He spent the rest of his working life on a bird refuge because there it was about “helping people and not destroying people,” she said. He’s 89 and is dying now. He has bladder and prostate cancer; the family has brought in hospice. But thanks to hundreds of public radio listeners, he finally has some peace. Bob Ebeling (Courtesy: Kathy Ebeling) Ebeling spoke to NPR for the 30th anniversary of the Challenger explosion last month. Remarkably, he had spoken anonymously to the same reporter three weeks after the explosion, but now he was ready to speak publicly. He sadly recalled the day and described his three decades of guilt. “I think that was one of the mistakes that God made,” Ebeling told NPR. “He shouldn’t have picked me for the job. But next time I talk to him, I’m gonna ask him, ‘Why me? You picked a loser.’ ” But listeners didn’t hear a loser. And they sent hundreds of e-mails and letters to NPR and directly to Ebeling telling him so, NPR first reported Thursday. His daughter, reached at their Utah home, said she’s been reading him the letters. Engineering teachers said they use him as an example of good ethical practice. Professionals wrote that because of his example they are more vigilant in their jobs. But


The Daily 202: Rubio won the Republican debate by putting Trump on the defensive

shooter, Cedric Ford, as having a “history of run-ins with the law,” GET SMART FAST: - The FBI director and Apple's General Counsel will each testify next week before the House Judiciary Committee amid an ongoing legal battle over whether the company should help unlock an iPhone used by the San Bernardino terrorists. (Mark Berman) - Falling oil prices have forced Saudi Arabia to implement harsh austerity measures that could trigger unrest. (Hugh Naylor) - The University of Missouri professor who gained notoriety for pushing a student reporter during protests earlier this year has finally been fired. (Susan Svrluga) - The U.S. government introduced a new U.N. Security Council resolution aimed at holding North Korea responsible for its recent nuclear and missile tests. The draft measure is a compromise between the U.S. and China, North Korea's closest ally. (Associated Press) - Medical and human rights workers in the Syrian conflict believe that Russia and its allied forces are INTENTIONALLY bombing hospitals. "Physicians for Human Rights has counted 346 attacks on medical facilities, with 705 staff members killed," per The New York Times. - Anti-anxiety drugs are playing a larger role than previously suspected in overdose deaths from prescription drugs. The American Journal of Public Health found that the number of Americans filling anti-anxiety prescriptions increased 67 percent between 1996 and 2013. (The New York Times) - Vermont could be the first state where the legislature votes to legalize marijuana. The state Senate passed such a bill and it now moves to the state House and then the governor, who supports the measure. The four other states to legalize pot have done so through ballot referendums (Vox.com) - Pfizer will avoid $35 billion in U.S. taxes by inverting. (Renae Merle) - Rep. Matt Salmon (R-Ariz.) announced his retirement. ( Politico) MORE ON THE DEMOCRATIC RACE: -- The Congressional Hispanic Caucus PAC will endorse Clinton following a formal vote. The group includes nearly every Hispanic House Democrat, including New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez, the only Hispanic Democrat in the Senate. (Kelsey Snell) -- Hillary’s labor allies are playing hardball: The head of the Washington State Labor Council canceled plans to speak at a Sanders event in Seattle after AFSCME threatened to pull funding from his group if he appeared, the Huffington Post reports. AFSCME did not dispute the report. -- Bill Clinton, campaigning for his wife in South Carolina, defended Hillary against


The most interesting supermarket in the world

(Amy King/The Washington Post; iStock) Food waste has met its most innovative opponent yet, a new supermarket in Denmark, where the vegetables are dirt cheap—and too ugly or old to sell elsewhere. WeFood The new supermarket is a not-so-subtle swing at the modern food system, which often prioritizes food safety at the expense of waste. Roughly one-third of all food produced worldwide ends up in the garbage, complicating efforts to alleviate hunger around the globe. But the problem is especially pronounced in developed countries, thanks in large part to stigmas attached to unappealing fruit and vegetables and overly conservative expiration dates. In Denmark, the unreasonable standards send 1.5 billion pounds of edible produce to landfill, undermining efforts to bring nutrition to households that struggle to put food on the table. Elsewhere, the consequences are even more grave: In the United States, for instance, some 70 billion pounds of food were wasted in 2012, 20 percent more than was wasted only a decade before. Americans, rather incredibly, throw out more food than plastic, paper, metal and glass, a fact that reflects poorly on the country's fussiness about eating only the freshest foods possible. In order to fill its shelves with unwanted but perfectly edible food, WeFood has established a web of partnerships with local supermarkets and butchers, produce importers and even manufacturers of organic granola bars, according to the Independent. It has also won the support of the Danish government, which publicly lamented the country's contribution to food waste. "It's ridiculous that food is just thrown out or goes to waste," Eva Kjer Hansen, the Danish minister for food and environment, said at a recent event organized by WeFood. "It is bad for the environment, and it is money spent on absolutely nothing." The news comes on the heels of what has already been impressive progress by the Scandinavian country, which has managed to reduce food waste by 25 percent in just five years, according to a recent government report. It also follows an unprecedented announcement by France last year. The European country's parliament voted unanimously to make it illegal for supermarkets to throw away any food that is considered edible. As of this coming July, large supermarkets in France — those approximately 4,300 square feet and larger — will either have to donate the food to charity or make sure it's used as animal feed. Retailers that fail to comply


Keeping mentally active doesn’t stave off Alzheimer’s disease — only its symptoms

(Bigstock) The prevailing wisdom about dementia is simple: Keep your mind active as you age to lower the risk of cognitive decline. But is the same true for Alzheimer’s disease, which is the most common form of dementia? New research suggests that the answer is no. Researchers from the Mayo Clinic have found that while keeping active can protect against the symptoms of Alzheimer’s, it doesn’t stave off the underlying disease itself. Their new study, which was published in Neurology, the journal of the American Academy of Neurologists, finds that even when symptoms are not apparent, the biological markers of Alzheimer’s seem to march forward despite intellectual enrichment. To figure out whether mentally and physically active people are less likely to get Alzheimer’s disease or just slow to show its effects, the researchers looked at longitudinal data from 393 participants between 70 and 89 years of age. Three-hundred-forty of the patients had normal cognition, and 53 had mild cognitive impairment. They separated the participants into two sets: those who were highly educated (14 years or more of education) and those who were not. Participants were given weekly questionnaires about physical and mental activities and MRI and PET scans to look for biomarkers of Alzheimer’s disease. The team looked at the effects of factors, such as age, sex and intellectual lifestyle, on participants’ brains. They also looked for the APOe4 gene, which has been linked to Alzheimer’s disease. In general, mental activity reduces symptoms — that is, cognitive decline — overall for everyone. But only in people with the genetic marker APOe4 did it seem to actually inhibit the progression of the disease physically in the brain. In people without the APOe4 gene, higher levels of academic attainment or more physical and mental activity showed the same slowing of brain metabolism, reductions in the volume of the hippocampus and worsening of amyloid plaques — clumps of proteins that can damage brain cells and trigger inflammation — than their less-active counterparts. Things were different for the 28 percent of the group who carried the APOe4 gene. Despite being predisposed to Alzheimer’s, carriers of the gene fared better when they were better-educated and stayed physically and mentally active during midlife. Highly educated participants with APOe4 developed amyloid plaques about five years later than their less educated counterparts. That surprised Prashanthi Vemuri, the study’s lead author. “People seemed to be able to compensate for


Tunisia’s labor union won the Nobel Peace Prize. But can it do its job?

Tunisian Prime Minister Ali Larayedh, left, meets with Houcine Abassi, secretary general of the Tunisian General Labour Union (UGTT), as part of the dialogue between the country’s ruling Islamists and the opposition in Tunis on Jan. 6, 2014. (Fethi Belaid/AFP/Getty Images) On Jan. 22, Tunisians in the impoverished interior regions of the country took to the streets, demanding increased economic development. Five years ago, similar protests sparked a revolution centered on economic justice. The Tunisian General Labor Union (UGTT), a working- and middle-class-based labor union, played a leading role in the transition process that followed, winning the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize as part of the group of civil society organizations credited with preserving Tunisia’s democratic transition. For all these contributions, however, the UGTT is first and foremost a labor union, and the democratic transition has yet to achieve the economic gains of most concern to its constituents. Tunisia’s unemployment rate is over 15 percent, worse than before the revolution, with more than half of college educated youth out of work. In a survey last month, 86 percent of Tunisians said the economy was bad or somewhat bad, the highest since 2011. The emergency measures promised by the Cabinet and appeals for calm from the president and prime minister may have ended protests for a moment, but structural problems persist. Later this year, the UGTT holds its national congress, likely to coincide with regional and municipal elections throughout the country. With no presidential or parliamentary elections until 2019, national power will remain split between the Islamist Ennahda party and the governing Nidaa Tounes, which is riven by internal divisions. This means that the local elections and the UGTT national congress will be an important moment in determining the politics of economic reforms over the next few years. These elections will reveal the balance between competing forces both within the union and the country: secular and Islamist, coastal and interior, left wing and conservative, with serious ramifications for the unemployed youth who drove the revolution and still await its material benefits. The UGTT played an outsized role in the transition from authoritarianism to democracy in Tunisia. The idea of unions playing such a role in a transition isn’t a new one, but it cuts against some recent global trends. Unions played a key role in the so-called pacted transitions in places, such as Spain and Portugal, where elites cut deals to usher


The suddenly urgent quest to remove carbon dioxide from the air

researchers advocate a completely different approach, called “enhanced weathering.” Scientists have long known that over vast time periods, carbon is removed from the atmosphere by becoming embedded in rocks. Here’s how it works: Rainwater contains some carbon from the atmosphere in the form of carbonic acid. As it falls on certain types of rocks, they break down or “weather,” and the interaction eventually leads to the formation of a carbonate — such as limestone — with the carbon locked inside. However, the process is very slow. “You can wait about 100,000 years and then nature mops up all of our CO2,” Lackner said. The idea is to speed up this process by crushing silicate rocks like olivine, and spreading them over landscape surfaces to get rained upon. Sounds simple, but it takes a lot of money and energy to mine and then crush rocks, and the fine dusts that result could also prove a major health hazard if people breathe them in. It’s also expensive. A recent study estimated a price of between $60 trillion and $600 trillion to remove 50 parts per million of carbon dioxide from the planet’s atmosphere in this manner. Out of the greenhouse and into the greenhouse Lackner and his colleagues are grappling with similar issues. Their box works well as a demonstration, but how do you pull carbon dioxide from the air affordably at a much larger scale — and then, what do you do with all that gas to keep it from ever getting back into the atmosphere again? A key property of Lackner’s device is that it gives back CO2 easily if you simply get it wet. When you lower the plastic strips down into the box and spray them with water, computer readings show carbon dioxide levels in the container spiking. “That’s more than a cup of coffee of pure CO2 in there,” Lackner says, after the machine has been doing its work for more than an hour. Downstairs in Lackner’s laboratory, meanwhile, the plastic sorbent has been formed into objects of many shapes —including a rough doormat, with lots of bristles extending from it. When this carbon-gobbling doormat is relatively full of CO2, the researchers insert it into a research chamber that contains a large indoor plant called Devil’s Ivy, a fan, and plenty of humidity. Dr. Klaus Lackner with his team”s demonstration greenhouse on Feb. 9. (Caitlin O’Hara for


What humanity’s ancient past says about why we’re still damaging the environment today

that the arrival of human populations was the major cause of their demise. In Zanzibar’s case, the question that remains is whether this is the only period in the island’s history during which humans were present. It’s a difficult question to answer because of the fragmented collection of human artifacts scientists have to go on. Some other studies of the island have suggested that humans may have been present on the island thousands of years earlier. Some scientists believe that these humans abandoned the island for a period of time and returned later, while others believe that the island was always occupied. Because nobody’s 100 percent sure about the history of human occupation on Zanzibar, it’s impossible to say exactly how and to what extent humans shaped its ecology, although it’s very likely they played a significant role in the way wildlife populations waxed and waned on the island. Additionally, there are other factors not considered by this study that probably played a role in the island’s history. Historical climate change is one prime example. Despite all the uncertainties, however, the study provides some useful insight for both our understanding of the past and our management of the present. Conducting case studies on other islands around the world, and then comparing them with the Zanzibar study, can increase overall understanding of the kinds of environmental factors or historical human influences that have had a hand in shaping the natural world. And on a more immediate note, biologists and conservationists can use the kinds of information found in Kuumbi Cave to make better management decisions for ecosystems they want to protect. “One thing that people who are in charge of managing diversity often have to deal with is what is the ideal balance in any given ecosystem between different animals,” Prendergast said. “Archaeologists can help provide some historical context for figuring out what that balance is and what an environment used to look like before a major human impact.” Such tailored management techniques are becoming all the more relevant in a world that many scientists believe is heading for another mass extinction — the sixth in the Earth’s history and the first to be caused mostly by human influence. Turning to the past for help is one way archaeologists and biologists can work together to make better decisions for the future — and Zanzibar is not likely to be the last


Unprecedented scientific report says bees and other pollinators are in dire need of help

based on what the available data says.” Other factors thought to be affecting pollinators include disease and the influence of invasive species, which can compete with native species for resources. And climate change is becoming a growing concern, as well. Many species have already been affected by the changing climate, said This kind of reaction is a concern because there’s a possibility that, over time, pollinators could shift their ranges out of reach of the plants they usually pollinate. And this is just one effect we’ll likely continue to see in the future. “One of the other things that’s certainly an issue here in terms of individual species and the direct effect of climate on species … is the timing they have, or the phenology of these species — when they come out, when they do the things that they do,” Kerr said. Climate change can cause some species to emerge at different times of the year than they used to, for instance, or reproduce at different times. These kinds of changes could disrupt their seasonal interactions with the plants they pollinate. With so many factors threatening the world’s pollinators, the looming question is whether anything can be done to save them. According to the new assessment, there are actually a lot of opportunities on this front. Protecting natural areas and diversifying the landscape are obvious steps. The assessment suggests restoring native vegetation, planting flower corridors and trying to keep natural areas connected to one another as much as possible. “Hospitable landscapes are ones where there are suitable nesting habitats for diverse pollinator species, and where consistent forage resources are accessible (within the flight range) of the bees throughout their flight seasons,” Neal Williams, an entomologist at the University of California Davis (who was also not an author on the new assessment), said by email. The assessment also recommends more diverse and sustainable forms of agriculture — for example, utilizing organic farming practices, conducting crop rotations and allowing diverse communities of plants to grow alongside traditional farmland in order to attract and maintain pollinator populations. More in-depth research will be necessary for a better understanding of the specific effects of individual pesticides, and governments may also consider coming up with strategies to reduce their pesticide use and develop more diverse pest management techniques, the assessment suggests. And taking steps to minimize the introduction of invasive species, combat the spread of


save them. According to the new assessment, there are actually a lot of opportunities on this front. Protecting natural areas and diversifying the landscape are obvious steps. The assessment suggests restoring native vegetation, planting flower corridors and trying to keep natural areas connected to one another as much as possible. “Hospitable landscapes are ones where there are suitable nesting habitats for diverse pollinator species, and where consistent forage resources are accessible (within the flight range) of the bees throughout their flight seasons,” Neal Williams, an entomologist at the University of California Davis (who was also not an author on the new assessment), said by email. The assessment also recommends more diverse and sustainable forms of agriculture — for example, utilizing organic farming practices, conducting crop rotations and allowing diverse communities of plants to grow alongside traditional farmland in order to attract and maintain pollinator populations. More in-depth research will be necessary for a better understanding of the specific effects of individual pesticides, and governments may also consider coming up with strategies to reduce their pesticide use and develop more diverse pest management techniques, the assessment suggests. And taking steps to minimize the introduction of invasive species, combat the spread of disease among pollinators and mitigate climate change are all crucial, as well. The biggest takeaway is that there are a huge variety of threats facing the world’s pollinators, and so proportional action must be taken to address each of them as soon as possible. “The question for us as a society really, not just a science community, is can we walk and chew gum at the same time in terms of dealing with conservation solutions,” said Kerr. “Are we really only capable of doing one thing at a time, or can we manage habitats better than we do now, can we control our pesticide use so we’re just a little more careful than we are now?” The answer remains to be seen, and will likely depend on the coordinated actions of individual governments. But there’s much to be optimistic about, according to the assessment’s authors. The report was agreed upon by the more than 100 countries belonging to IPBES, which demonstrates an international concern for the issue, they pointed out at Friday’s briefing. The role of IPBES, and its report, is to strengthen the dialogue between the scientific community and policymakers, said IPBES chair Zakri Abdul Hamid. “We wanted the


Sketchpad: America may become Wall Mart, and it could turn into a new export industry

(Tom Toles)


CDC advises pregnant women to ‘consider not going’ to Rio Olympics

(David J. Phillip/Associated Press) As the Zika virus continues to spread across the Americas, including recently to the United States, the Center for Disease Control issued a statement Friday advising women who are pregnant to “consider not going to the Olympics,” which will take place this summer in Brazil, the epicenter of the virus’s outbreak. The organization provided guidelines that cautioned pregnant women to stay away from the Rio de Janeiro Games, as well as warning those with a male partner attending the event to “use condoms the right way, every time, or do not have sex during your pregnancy” because of the risk for sexual transmission of Zika. It also encouraged pregnant women, and those trying to become pregnant, to talk to their health-care provider and follow the CDC’s steps to prevent mosquito bites if they are planning to attend the Games . The virus, which primarily is spread by mosquito, can cause “serious birth defect of the brain called microcephaly and other poor pregnancy outcomes,” according to a prior travel notice issued by the organization. The CDC’s warning comes on the heels of a statement from the International Olympic Committee’s medical director, Richard Budgett, who told the Associated Press earlier this month that “everything that can be done is being done,” while reiterating that there are no plans to postpone the Games. “Our priority is to protect the health of the athletes,” Budgett said. “The IOC absolutely is not complacent. We do take this very seriously.” More than 500 Americans are expected to compete in Brazil this summer, roughly half of them women. And the risk of contracting the virus is already causing some U.S. athletes to question whether they will attend, most prominently, U.S. women’s soccer goalie Hope Solo.


I see my old battalion assigned to Helmand again and I wonder: What is the point?

volatile province of Wardak. Now I see my old battalion assigned to Helmand and wonder what is the point. What will a few hundred troops do now that ten of thousands of troops over many years could not before? The Afghan National Army has been essentially rolled over by the Taliban in Helmand, among many other areas. The Afghan National Police are a grim, widely corrupt militia that includes child soldiers. The town of Marjah in Helmand, where U.S. Marines paid a heavy price taking it from the Taliban following the troop surge, is now 90 percent controlled by the Taliban. Just last month, an American soldier was killed and two others wounded alongside heavy Afghan casualties there. More than a hundred British soldiers lost their lives trying to secure the district of Sangin in Helmand. This endeavor they largely succeeded, but that is almost all gone now. The Afghan government controls a few government buildings and a couple small army outposts. The Taliban patrol the town’s center and own the countryside. On Feb. 6, the Afghan soldiers defending the government buildings suffered 9 dead, 7 wounded, and three captured. The day before, it was 4 dead and 7 wounded. [Why the end of Camp Leatherneck in Afghanistan matters] It is little more than a lopsided siege, and a single battalion of U.S. troops in a “non-combat” role are not going to reverse the collapse that is coming. By 2010 there were nearly 20,000 Marines in Helmand alongside thousands of British and other coalition troops, and it still took years to even moderately pacify the province. A gradual disintegration is spreading across Afghanistan. According to the United Nations, 2015 saw over 11,000 civilian dead or wounded, the heaviest casualties suffered since the war began in 2001. Improvised explosive devices, suicide bombers, and hit-and-run attacks on soft targets are relatively cheap and easy for the Taliban, and they take a heavy toll on civilians simply at the wrong place at the wrong time. Afghan government forces are not exactly noted for their precision firepower either. As in every war, it is the innocent who suffer the most. U.S. Army Gen. John Campbell, the outgoing commander of coalition forces in Afghanistan, testified to Congress on Feb. 4 that without changes “2016 is at risk of being no better, and possibly worse, than 2015.” He has recommended wider rules of engagement and more


The newest fad in education — and why some teachers find it troubling

elements of competency based learning, and I am not sure how it would survive in the computer-managed environment Vander Ark describes. The essential feature of our current accountability paradigm is its lack of trust in teachers. This suits those who wish to “disrupt” education quite well, because they can come up with one “innovation” after another, and as each one disappoints, they can innovate away again, and every time there is a new status quo to be disrupted and replaced, and a new product to be sold. As Myron Atkin reminded us, the feature that makes formative assessment work also makes it NOT work when it is packaged and sold. Formative assessment, so defined, is a pivotal element of everyday classroom teaching. It occurs throughout the school day. It requires collaborative involvement of both teacher and student. And it isn’t something purchased from a vendor that can be used in an identical fashion anywhere, like an instruction book or a cooking recipe. He goes on to explain: The key benefits of formative assessment emphasized in the research literature are associated with changes in the classroom that result when teachers and students collaborate closely in examining the quality of student work. What does quality look like? What might the student do to improve school work to bring it to a higher quality than it is right now? This integration of teaching, learning, and assessment is complex work, but potent. It takes time and effort: hours, days, weeks, and months – not the periodic 15 or 20 minutes needed to respond to questions purchased from a remote “item bank” developed by the testing companies to foreshadow the final examination. Reporting mini-test scores to the students and even discussing common incorrect answers has little relationship to the type of feedback studied by Black and Wiliam that produced such large gains in achievement. This sort of formative assessment also takes expertise on the part of teachers. The externalization of this process disempowers and de-skills teachers, leaving them the intellectually barren work of monitoring student performance based on computer-assessed tasks. The presence of portfolios in this largely technology-driven vision is not enough to make it worthwhile. As Nancy Bailey points out, this vision misses so many “competencies” that cannot be measured by tests or through a computer. Once again, this is old wine in a shiny new bottle, and once again, it has become vinegar.


Will update fix main problems with USAJOBS, the federal jobs board?

given day, because abandonment can happen in many places along the way, including the agency hiring system,” Earley said. Altough she doesn’t have the number of applicants who said goodbye, OPM analysts did look for reasons behind the departures. “Our research included qualitative analysis through one-on-one interviews and focus groups,” she said. “We also analyzed our help desk tickets and applicant survey data. All of this research described the ‘why’ for abandonment.” Folks such as Austin, who sought scores of jobs in government intelligence, didn’t need a qualitative analysis to know what was wrong with the system. Austin didn’t want his full name used because he fears his criticisms could hurt his chances to gain federal work, even though he has given up, at least for now, on USAJOBS. Austin sounds pretty jaded after applying for 73 positions over a two-year period, being referred for six gigs, but getting no call backs. “I’ve stopped using it altogether,” he said. “It’s probably one of worst hiring processes I’ve ever seen.” Using USAJOBS wasn’t difficult for him, but he did find it confusing and frustrating. He complained about getting emails saying that his application for a position went through, only to get a notice saying his application was incomplete. “You’ll get a not complete,” he said, “even though you’ve completed the form.” Others put their full names with their complaints, which were posted on the USAJOBS Facebook page before the changes took full effect. Allen Wellborn, identified as an environmental engineer from Oakland, Ore., wonders whether “any of the website developers and resume reviewers actually tested the system and submitted a resume and seen how big of pain in the rear and frustrating that web site is?” Stacey Mauro, a waitress and bartender in Sturbridge, Mass, said it is “very frustrating since I haven’t been able to send in one application to not 1, not 2 but 3 jobs now in the past 2 days” because of error messages. Donna-Terry Trogdon, who said she studied homeland security at Tiffin University, asked OPM to “please fix the many glitches on the system!” She complained about continually having to “re-enter our search criteria rather than being able to use the ‘back’ button and the criteria previously entered remain. It is frustrating having to re-do this over and over.” She closed with a one-word review of USAJOBS that OPM hopes to never see again. “UGH!!!!!”


‘Help! Brother has killed everyone’: Indian man fatally slashed 14 relatives at family gathering, police say

give the reason for this,” Ashutosh Dumbre, joint commissioner of Thane police, told the Indian news channel ABP. “… There were no known financial troubles or disputes and now we are hoping that the lone survivor can tell us something about the trigger.” V.B. Chandanshive, the zonal deputy commissioner of police in Thane, told the Indian Express that the attack appeared well planned. Warekar used a newly purchased nylon rope to hang himself and had made sure that every window and door into the house was locked, police said. According to the newspaper, Warekar, a 35-year-old accountant, had invited his relatives to his home that night ostensibly to celebrate his daughter’s fifth birthday. Warekar’s wife, children, parents and one unmarried sister, who all lived with him in the house in the village Kasarwadavli, just outside the city of Thane, attended the party. So did his three married sisters, who came in from out of town with their children. When one sister rebuffed the invitation, he went to great lengths to persuade her to attend — he even paid her autorickshaw fare, an uncle, Mujeeb Warekar, told the Indian Express. Meanwhile, Warekar explicitly told his brothers-in-law not to come until Sunday. After dinner, the whole family went to bed. Police believe that Warekar may have drugged his relatives, because it seemed barely anyone screamed or even woke up during what happened next. People carry the body of Indian man Hasnain Warekar, after autopsy from a hospital in Thane on the outskirts of Mumbai. (Rajanish Kakade/AP) Around 2 a.m., the Indian Express reported, citing Thane police, Warekar slit the throats of his two daughters using a knife meant for slaughtering goats. Then he moved on to his sisters’ children. The oldest child slain was 16, according to the Hindustan Times. The youngest was his own daughter, a 3-month-old named Umera. After that, Warekar allegedly turned on the adults: his parents, his sisters and his wife, Jabeen. “His wife ran from the first floor to the ground-floor kitchen, where he eventually slit her throat as well,” a police officer told the Indian Express. “The fact that she must have shouted but no one awoke makes us suspect the food had some sedatives. Forensic reports will verify that.” Dumbare told the newspaper that Warekar apparently bolted all the doors to the house before the attack, ensuring that none of his relatives could escape. Thane


New Hubble photo shows a serene blue ‘bubble’ in space

Sparkling at the centre of this beautiful NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image is a Wolf–Rayet star known as WR 31a. (ESA/Hubble & NASA, Acknowledgement: Judy Schmidt) Mondays are hard. But with the right space photos, you can feel cool and collected no matter what – because the universe is beautiful and big, and there's something pretty calming about that. Just try to keep stressing out about your commute with this one on your screen: A beautiful cosmic bubble floating 30,000 light years away. At the center of the blue haze sits a Wolf–Rayet star known as WR 31a. Wolf-Rayet stars start out as burning behemoths around 20 times more massive than our sun. When these massive stars reach the Wolf-Rayet stage of their lifecycle, they frantically fuse heavy elements in their core – a process that creates more heat and radiation, causing their outer layers to blow away – until they reach the ones too heavy for fusion. These stars typically lose half their mass in less than 100,000 years, making them incredibly short-lived by cosmic standards. Once the days of fusion are numbered, they implode into supernovae or black holes, depending on just how massive they are. The beautiful blue bubble shown above is a so-called Wolf–Rayet nebula – the result of the star's shirking of its gasses. This particular bubble was formed by interstellar winds around 20,000 years ago, and it's expanding outward at a not-so-calming 136,700 miles per hour. Eventually WR31a will explode into a supernova, seeding its neighborhood with materials that will be recycled into a new generation of stars. Read More: This is what it looks like when a black hole tears a star apart A ‘dead’ galaxy full of dark matter is lurking close to home Map of the Milky Way’s star-forming gases creates a stunning new view of the galaxy The new biggest thing in the universe, and why it’s a headache for scientists Here’s what the sky might have looked like when the Milky Way was alive with star birth


Monarch butterflies and manatees, oh my! These two animals are on a big rebound.

plant milkweed, which the butterflies use as habitat and food, across the country. Each group put out a call to homeowners to do the same to give monarchs as much comfort as possible in a world of farm and household insecticides that are wiping them out. Wildlife officials greeted the recent monarch windfall as good news, but were still fairly grim about their overall outlook. “Long story short, monarchs are still struggling,” Fish and Wildlife said in a news release. “In recent years, monarchs have decreased by 90 percent since peak populations in the mid-90s. Loss of milkweed and prairie habitat in the United States, along with loss of habitat in overwintering grounds have contributed to the decline of this incredible insect.” Monarch butterflies gather on top of flowers at the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, near the town of Chincua, Mexico. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte) The loss of habitat is due to Mexican logging. It’s only 60 miles from sprawling Mexico City, one of the world’s most populated. Monarchs stay in 138,000 acres of a forested, mountainous reserve from about October to February. According to Fish and Wildlife, they mostly cluster in Mexico’s rare oyamel fir forests for protection from extreme temperatures, rain, snow and predators. “As temperatures drop, monarch movement decreases, and the butterflies form large, dense clusters on oyamel branches, coloring the forest orange,” the agency said. After surviving the weather, a more deadly challenge awaits as they fly through the United States past farms and clouds of pesticides. But farmers aren’t entirely to blame, said Fish and Wildlife Director Dan Ashe. Monarch butterflies fly at the El Rosario butterfly sanctuary on a mountain in the Mexican state of Michoacan on Nov. 27, 2013. (Edgard Garrido/Reuters) “We’ve all been responsible. We are the consumers of agricultural products. I eat corn. American farmers are not the enemy. Can they be part of the solution? Yes,” Ashe said. “It’s not about this wonderful, mystical creature. It’s about us.” Manatees are another story. Their rebound is years in the making, going from a low of about 1,000 in 1973 to about 6,200 in the last annual count. Since their numbers have been no lower than 4,500 in the past five years, Fish and Wildlife moved in January to reclassify the manatees from endangered to threatened. Manatees, or sea cows, as they’re known, have been in Florida for 45 million years, according to


National Zoo’s Kids’ Farm shut down after E. coli found in some animals

Toshifumi Kitamura/Agence France-Presse via Getty Images The Smithsonian’s National Zoo shuttered its Kids’ Farm exhibit Monday after E. coli was found in some animals, the zoo announced. Staff members have not been affected, and the animals, which have since been quarantined, have not shown signs of illness. Veterinarians detected the E. coli stx1 bacteria in goats through a routine fecal screening process nearly two weeks ago and moved the goats away from visitors into a barn. On Friday, they conducted individual tests and confirmed that four goats and one cow were positive. This particular E. coli stx1 bacteria can make people sick, and can be transmitted through contaminated water or food or through contact with infected animals or people. “As most people know, E. coli is everywhere in our environment,” Brandie Smith, associate director of animal care sciences, wrote in a news release. “Because it is so common, we routinely test our animals. It’s unfortunate that we have to close the Kids’ Farm temporarily, but we’re taking the right preventative measures for our guests, staff and the animals.” At the Kids’ Farm, people have physical contact with some animals on exhibit. According to the National Zoo, all public- contact animals tested negative for E. coli during routine testing Dec. 15. The zoo will work to reopen the Kids’ Farm after the animals receive three consecutive weeks of negative test results.


Starbucks brought Italian cafe style to America. Can it bring American coffee to Italy?

A Starbucks store in Amsterdam. While the company has stores around the world, it plans to open its first locations in Italy in 2017. (Jasper Juinen/Bloomberg) The global coffee behemoth Starbucks has 24,000 locations worldwide in 70 countries -- customers can buy grande frappuccinos from Brunei to Brazil to Dubai, as well as nearly two dozen European countries. But one locale has long been missing from its massive footprint: Italy, the home of the espresso bar. That will change in 2017 when Starbucks finally opens its first location in Milan, followed by others across Italy, a move it announced late Sunday. Expansions into new countries by global corporations are rarely headline news, but for Starbucks, this occasion is different. For one, the company will be selling its coffee in a place perhaps more associated with coffee aficionados than anywhere in the world -- representing not only a big opportunity to try and prove, but a big risk, too. "If the country that practically invented cafe culture rejected Starbucks, that would be an enormous black eye," said Laura Ries, a brand consultant based in Atlanta. In addition, the move gives the company the chance to reinforce the narrative it has long told about Starbucks’ brand: that it was hatched in Italy by CEO Howard Schultz more than 30 years ago. While that’s a good opportunity for any company, it’s particularly critical for Starbucks, which has long used the story to turn a cheap commodity into a higher end customer “experience” for which people are willing to shell out extra. "What Howard figured out a long time ago is that the 'what' story doesn’t matter," said David Srere, the co-CEO of the brand strategy firm Siegel+Gale. "It's the 'so what' story that matters." The company emphasized both of those points in its announcement. The headline of its news release said the company was entering the Italy "with humility and respect" for the country. Schultz said he plans to develop a coffee blend specifically for the Italian market and add a bar for customers to stand at, as is custom in Italian coffeehouses. It will also be going local with a partner, working with Percassi as the licensee to operate its stores, which Srere noted is "hugely respected in Italy." Branding experts said the humble and local approach was the right one. "You’ve got to go and kiss the ring here, you don’t


Oscar victory spotlights Pakistan’s grim culture of violence

Pakistani journalist and filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy accepts the Oscar for best short-subject documentary for "A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness." (Mario Anzuoni/Reuters) When "A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness" won the 2016 Oscar for best short-subject documentary, the film and its director, Pakistani-born Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, were understandably feted on social media. Obaid-Chinoy's victory was seen as a triumph for women, South Asia and the power of cinema. The documentary details the harrowing story of a young woman in Pakistan, Saba Qaiser, who was shot in the head and left for dead at the side of a river by her father in 2014. The act was an attempted "honor killing," with Saba's father apparently irate at his daughter's decision to marry someone not approved by him. A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness (HBO Documentary Films) The teenager survived and went on to seek justice, a quest captured by Obaid-Chinoy's documentary. The film reveals a grim and tragically widespread culture of abuse and misogyny in Pakistan. In rural parts of the country, as well as elsewhere in South Asia, honor killings and other acts of violence against women are all too commonplace. The Pakistani government estimates that about 500 women were victims of "honor killings" last year, though many activists believe the real number is far higher. The tale of Saba's ordeal, though, has moved Pakistan into action. After the film's victory at the Oscars, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif hailed its director. "Women like Ms Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy are not only a pride for the Pakistani nation but are also a significant source of contribution toward the march of civilization the world over," he said. Sharif also vowed to push through further legislation against the practice of honor killings, which are already outlawed but endure because of religious mores as well as legal loopholes that pardon assailants who are "forgiven" by survivors. The Pakistani leader insisted that "there is no place for killing in the name of honor." In a phone call with WorldViews the day after her victory, Obaid-Chinoy expressed satisfaction that her work had led to the prospect of genuine political reform. "For a social justice documentary filmmaker, it's a dream come true," she said. "You have a sitting prime minister who's making bold gestures." Obaid-Chinoy earlier won an Oscar for her 2012 documentary, "Saving Face," about the prevalence of acid