A few suggestions for the Nobel Committees

you were supposed to be awarding a prize for Chemistry in 30 minutes, so you embarrassingly wound up giving it to Marie Curie posthumously, “because you can never give Marie Curie too many Nobel Prizes.” That, as I said, is what would happen if you were me, but fortunately you are not me, so you actually found three deserving chemists. Good for you, Nobel Committees! What I mean to say is: I know what you’re going through. So many prizes, so little time to award them! Physics! Chemistry! Literature! Peace! Economics! And then the instant you do make an award, everyone’s first thought is that they have never heard of that person because as far as they were concerned, literature stopped at the Atlantic (No, not that side of the Atlantic, the other side of the Atlantic). I know you have an actual process. I know there are nominations and committees and people scrying into your takeout orders. I hope you are giving Malala Yousafzai all the consideration she richly deserves. But here are a few dark horses I think you should consider: President Obama: Me: Like previous laureate German-Romanian Herta Muller, most people in America have not heard of me, but I offer an added bonus compared to Herta Muller in that most readers of German-Romanian novels have not heard of me either. I know what you are thinking right now: Will such early success be stunting? No. No, it really won’t. Don’t worry about that. Give me the early success first, and then we can deal with that down the line. Early success followed by years of wandering around feeling sort of at a loss worked out fine for F. Scott Fitzgerald, except for the part where his drinking killed him. My point is, we can haggle. I know, too, that it is perhaps frowned on for people to toot their own Nobel horns. But these days, we don’t live by the old customs. These days, everyone has to be their own promoter, which is why I have spent the past eight years marching around downtown dressed as a carnival barker. Plus, I promise that if I win I will just read William Faulkner’s acceptance speech again, which really is all that anyone wants to hear. Miley Cyrus: Tommy Wiseau: An actual dark horse: The Maybe Six People Alive Who Haven’t Written Weighty Thinkpieces About Miley Cyrus Yet:


Shutdown causes anxiety for buyers and sellers

Davis said. “VA loans processing is a little slower than usual, so there could be delays there, too. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are open, so there shouldn’t be a problem on that end.” Furloughed federal workers in the midst of a loan application face the biggest challenge among local buyers because often there isn’t anyone available to verify that they work in a particular agency. Davis says some federal workers also don’t have access to their W2 forms or pay stubs because they’ve been cut off from their government computers where that information is electronically stored. “I haven’t heard of anyone’s loan being canceled or denied at this point, but I’ve heard of some settlements being delayed because lenders cannot verify employment for furloughed federal workers,” says Morgan Knull, associate broker with Re/Max Gateway in the District. “Many of the lenders I’ve talked to say they are closing loans without verification of employment or the borrowers’ tax returns and will audit their borrowers for that information once the government reopens.” The biggest issue faced by all borrowers is that the Internal Revenue Service is closed and isn’t processing any requests for income tax returns, normally required by lenders for proof of income for borrowers. Davis says that decisions about whether to waive some information temporarily are being made on an individual basis, with self-employed borrowers or those who earn money through commissions rather than a W2 less likely to be approved than those with consistent verifiable pay stubs. Rates and potential default If Congress doesn’t act in time to raise the debt ceiling by the Oct. 17 deadline, it’s possible that the federal government could default on some of its obligations and that the U.S. credit rating could be downgraded as it was in 2011, Haberle said. “It’s hard to know what impact this could have on mortgage rates,” she says. “Mortgage rates went up 0.7 percent in 2011 after the credit downgrade, and that could happen again. Even so, that would only raise rates to about 5 percent, which is still very low.” Davis says that while mortgage rates could go up, they could also drop further if the stock market plummets. Advice for borrowers “Whether you’re a furloughed federal employee or any other borrower, if you’re in the middle of a loan application you should call your lender to see what the ramifications of the government shutdown


What default deniers don’t get about the market

But I digress. Remember, Lew’s latest estimate to House Speaker John Boehner is that the United States will have $30 billion cash on hand when the last of the “extraordinary measures” used by Treasury to keep from breaching the debt ceiling are exhausted on Oct. 17. So, the nightmare only gets worse. “If investors decided not to reinvest in Treasury bonds, which is a real risk, it wouldn’t matter if the government was paying interest,” Patterson said. “Treasury would have to cash those investors out in full. But the government would have nowhere near enough cash on hand to do that.” The pain would be immediate. The ripple effects of a debt-ceiling breach wouldn’t just be felt by the investor class, large institutions or governments. The American people would get smacked, too, in the form of hiked borrowing costs. “Our interest rates will immediately rise because of a default premium added to Treasury bills,” Jim Kessler at the centrist think tank Third Way told me. “To put this into perspective, a 0.5 percent increase in Treasury rates would add about $20,000 to the lifetime cost of a 30-year fixed mortgage for a median-priced new home of around $250,000. That’s how it will affect one home buyer in just one aspect of her life if rates only go up a half point because of breaching the debt ceiling.” Don’t get me started on the hell that would be unleashed if President Obama and Lew were put in the untenable position of picking between paying Social Security benefits and federal salaries with what little cash the government might have on any given day because of Treasury’s inability to borrow money to meet its financial obligations. Contrary to what default deniers and others who don’t understand or refuse to let the truth sink in might believe, raising the debt ceiling does not give the president a blank check. The money borrowed is not new spending. That money is used to pay for what Congress already bought. For the default deniers, Bell, of the Bipartisan Policy Center, had a simple question. “Are you going to believe what you hear or what the market is showing you?” News that the Republican leadership (such as it is) is considering a short-debt limit hike might mean the former is giving way to the latter. But I’ll believe it when I see it. Follow Jonathan Capehart on Twitter.


Treasury secretary: We spent 224 years building our credit. Only Congress can act to protect it.

to stress the financial markets. Yields on Treasury bills maturing in the second half of October and early November have already surpassed the peaks on similarly affected maturities in July 2011. At our auction of four-week Treasury bills on Tuesday, the interest rate nearly tripled relative to the prior week’s auction and reached the highest level since Oct 2008. Measures of expected volatility in the stock market have risen to the highest levels of the year. The only way to avoid further self-inflicted wounds to our economy is for Congress to act. I know from my conversations with a wide range of business leaders representing industries from retail to manufacturing to banking that this is a paramount concern for them. That is why it is important for Congress to reopen the government and raise the debt ceiling, and then to work with the President to address our long-term fiscal challenges in a balanced and thoughtful way. Potential Economic Impact of Failure to Raise the Debt Limit The Treasury Department recently released a report examining the potential macroeconomic effects of political brinksmanship in 2011, and the potential risks of waiting until the last possible moment to increase the debt limit in the current economic environment. It points to the potentially catastrophic impacts of default, including credit market disruptions, a significant loss in the value of the dollar, markedly elevated U.S. interest rates, negative spillover effects to the global economy, and real risk of a financial crisis and recession that could echo the events of 2008 or worse. If interest rates rose, it would have a real impact on American households. The stock market, including investments in retirement accounts, could tumble, and it could become more expensive for Americans to buy a car, own a home, and open a small business. These additional costs of borrowing could not easily be undone and our actions would impact Americans for generations to come. Failing to raise the debt ceiling will impact everyday Americans beyond its impact on financial markets. For example, doctors receiving reimbursements under Medicare would likely continue to provide services on a timely basis, but they would be operating with significant uncertainty about when they would be paid by the government for their services. For millions of low-income Americans who rely on Medicaid for their healthcare, the federal government’s payments to states for the federal contribution would likely also be impacted. These


By the numbers: Tom Sietsema’s Fall Dining Guide 2013

<strong>♦ READ: Tom Sietsema's Fall Dining Guide 2013</strong> The big news about Tom Sietsema’s Fall Dining Guide 2013 is how new it is. The Post’s food critic points out that only 15 of the 40 restaurants in the guide were also in last year’s edition, and that’s because there's been a bumper crop of openings in the past year -- many on 14th Street. You’ll see that it’s the neighborhood with the most restaurants (five) represented in the guide, followed by Penn Quarter and Dupont Circle. Eight restaurants, all newcomers, are being reviewed with a star rating for the first time. While the restaurants are fresh, their star ratings mainly are staying consistent with those from Sietsema’s previous reviews. Seven restaurants fell from their earlier ratings, while two, Estadio and DGS, bumped up by half a star. Oval Room had the biggest demotion, falling one full star from 3.5 to 2.5 stars. Range dropped a half star, accompanied by a longer review describing Sietsema’s methods and how he received drastically different service when he went in deep disguise. This year’s guide also features what’s good for your wallet: Sietsema picks 10 great tastes for $10 or less, and a handful of restaurants in the guide fall into our lowest price tier.


Washington, D.C. to pass climate point of no return in 2047, study says; is that credible?

If we continue dumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere at current rates, our coldest years around 2047 will be comparable to our hottest years now, finds a groundbreaking study published in the journal Nature. “On average, locations worldwide will leave behind the climates that have existed from the middle of the 19th century through the beginning of the 21st century by 2047 if no progress is made in curbing emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases, said researchers at the University of Hawaii at Manoa who sought to project the timing of that event for 54,000 locations,” my colleague Lenny Bernstein reports. Climate tipping points in different cities for business-as-usual greenhouse gas emissions. Method: Using temperature data from 1860 to 2005 as a baseline, climate departure describes the point in time that the average temperature of the coolest year after 2005 becomes warmer than the historic average temperature of the hottest year, for a specific location. SOURCE: Nature. GRAPHIC: Gene Thorp – The Washington Post. Published Oct. 9, 2013. The study’s methodology, which pins this climate tipping point to a specific date and location using 39 climate models, is novel and intriguing. Gaining an appreciation for when different parts of the world will step out of the climate of the past and into an entirely new one could help us plan for and adapt to such an eventuality. But if the climate of the future is to become unrecognizable from the climate of the past, can science really nail down exactly when and where with confidence? Unlikely. “I simply do not believe any of the models are able to reliably say anything meaningful on the details in degree and timing with such specificity, region by region, let alone city by city, with no mention of uncertainties,” says CWG’s Steve Tracton, who spent decades working on numerical weather prediction models. (Climate Central) David Titley, a professor of meteorology at Penn State, expressed similar reservations. “We can’t say on one hand that the [current] slowdown in warming air temps is because of random, ‘short-term’ (<30 year) fluctuations (or stochastic processes), then give a prediction (not projection!) to within 12 months of crossing a very specific temperature threshold,” Titley says. “Round to the decade, add a confidence interval, etc….” The study’s authors provide information about the uncertainty in their predictions, but it’s limited. They provide standard deviations (plus or minus 14 years for the global


Shutdown metric: Federal Register’s drastic slimdown

Like one of those diet advertisements with dramatic before and after pictures, here’s a stark illustration of the impact of the government shutdown: Wednesday’s edition of the Federal Register, essentially the diary of everything the government did the day before, was a mere 12 pages. The Federal Register, with its seemingly endless parade of regulations, meeting notices and solicitations for comment, typically runs in the hundreds of pages. It’s hardly riveting reading, but if you want to know, for example, about the dog management plan for the Golden Gate National Recreational Area, it’s your go-to. It’s hard to pin down an exact figure, but a back-of-the envelope calculation using annual data shows that in 2012, the average Register clocked in at more than 300 pages. The sudden slimdown of the Federal Register is an obvious consequence of the shutdown, yet an interesting (at least to us geeks) measure of its effect. And perhaps some could see this as a silver lining to the shutdown — think of the trees being saved!


What it’s like to lose Head Start

Students count in five languages during a Head Start graduation ceremony in August in Washington, D.C. (Amanda Voisard for the Washington Post) It’s been a turbulent 10 days for some Head Start programs. When the federal government shut down Oct. 1, funding for a handful of the early childhood education programs ceased. At least seven were forced to close their doors, according to the nonprofit National Head Start Association. And those closures, which ranged from a day to about a week, affected some 7,000 low-income children in six states. A surprise $10 million donation saved the day. And an additional six programs that would have closed at the end of the day Friday will remain open thanks to that funding from the Laura and John Arnold Foundation. But one big question remains: Will the shutdown outlast the emergency funds? If it does, thousands of parents will have to figure out what to do with their kids. We talked to a few parents with kids in Head Start programs that did close, albeit temporarily, as well as some who work in those programs. Here’s what they had to say about their experience: Jennifer Williams, Florida The federal government shutdown made at least one little girl cry. Jennifer Williams’s 4-year-old daughter, Ziaire, was just getting used to going to school when, with little warning, school was canceled. “She cried,” Williams said. “She cried the entire time. So I looked around for other programs, you know, other day cares, other churches that may be doing programs that she could go to. Everywhere we went she was saying, ‘Is this my new school?’ And she cried.” Williams works nights as an abuse counselor for a state agency that fields claims of child or elderly neglect, she says. Her recently laid-off husband has a new job as a loader that requires travel with truck drivers, so Williams had to turn to her mother and other relatives for help watching Ziaire when she couldn’t. But if she were still living in Jackson, as she was before moving to Tallahassee, the situation would have been drastically different, Williams says. “If this would have happened there, I would have been scarred,” she says. “Besides church members, I wouldn’t have had anyone.” Capital Area Community Action Agency, the nonprofit that administers Ziaire’s Tallahassee-area Head Start program, reopened Tuesday after closing a week earlier. Williams spent that week struggling to


Nine ways the shutdown will get more painful as it drags on

many of the effects of the shutdown at the state level. She has a larger round-up of links here.) 7) Nov. 1: Dozens of schools will face layoffs and closings, affecting tens of thousands of kids. Connecticut teacher Carmen Prybylski works with some of her students at a new Head Start building in Danbury. (Carol Kaliff /AP) As a result of the shutdown, about 23 Head Start centers serving 19,000 children were on the verge of closing in October. That crisis was averted when two philanthropists offered a $10 million donation to keep them open. But if the shutdown lasts until Nov. 1, an even bigger wave of Head Start schools won't receive funding and will have to close down, affecting about 86,000 children in all. (Unless, of course, more philanthropists want to step in.) Similarly, about 22 school districts that are on or near Native American reservations and military bases may have to make cutbacks come Nov. 1, as they were depending on early payments from the federal Impact Aid program. That's according to an estimate by the National Association of Federally Impacted Schools, via Bryce Covert. 8) Nov. 1: The federal shutdown will have cost the U.S. economy $5 billion to $50 billion. The longer this goes on, the more it costs. (AP) Estimates of the economic effects of the shutdown vary. IHS Inc. estimates that the shutdown costs us $160 million a day, assuming that much of the lost economic activity and spending will be made up when the government reopens. By that calculation, a monthlong shutdown would cost about $5 billion. But Mark Zandi of Moody's Analytics estimates that a one-month shutdown would cost about $50 billion. He's factoring in indirect costs, such as the blow to the stock market, which would hurt spending; the affect on the mortgage market; the fact that some small businesses won't be able to get federal loans and will cut back on hiring... 9) Happy flying! Air-traffic controllers will have missed three paychecks by Nov. 22. (Jim Weber/AP) If the shutdown extends all the way to Nov. 22 — the next debt-ceiling deadline — then more than 1 million "essential" federal workers will have seen three of their paychecks delayed. It's not clear how all these workers would be able to keep paying their bills. The same goes for the 400,000 or so federal employees who are still furloughed during


The Internet is disappointed that Malala Yousafzai didn’t win the Nobel Peace Prize

Syria. Here's some of the disappointed reaction: Very disappointed #Malala didn't win the Nobel peace prize. Nobody in the world right now is a more powerfully eloquent advocate for peace. Presumably Malala was ruled out the Nobel Peace Prize because she hasn’t bombed anyone Award or no award, the courage and brilliance of #Malala is recognized across the globe. We are proud of you. #Malala. More Noble than the Nobel. Your turn will come. #Malala may not have won the Nobel Peace Prize but she won the hearts of millions You might not have won a #NobelPeacePrize #Malala but who cares, you've own our hearts. Go #Malala . Group wins #NobelPeacePrize for a job they haven't finished. Looking forward to my Nobel Lit prize for that book I haven't started writing The Pakistani politician and former cricket star Imram Khan even released a statement on Malala's loss, calling her nomination "an honour for all Pakistanis" -- and concluding with a subtle jab at the U.S. and Russia, whom he and others fault for not destroying their own chemical weapons stockpiles. Still, much of the diplomatic community has been quick to celebrate the OPCW's recognition. Anders Fogh Rasmussen is the secretary general of NATO; Espen Barth Eide is minister of foreign affairs in Norway, where the Peace Prize is awarded; James Lambert is Canada's ambassador to the Netherlands, where the OPCW is based. Congratulations to @OPCW for winning #NobelPeacePrize! OPCW doing difficult but essential work in eliminating #WMD #CW in #Syria I congratulate the @OPCW on the #NobelPeacePrize. #ChemicalWeapons are globally banned; the time has come for their complete abolishment. Congratulations to @OPCW, 2013 #NobelPeacePrize winner! http://t.co/6p5OJiltlA This is not, of course, the first time in recent memory that the Nobel committee made an unpopular choice in the Peace category. The European Union won last year "for over six decades contributed to the advancement of peace and reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe;" President Obama won three years earlier, less than a year into his presidency. Both decisions drew plenty of questions and criticism. Last year, I thought the #NobelPeacePrize committee couldn't get any lamer. This year, OPCW was one of 259 nominations. The organization appeared on few front-runner lists, which also generally included prominent activists like Dr. Denis Mukwege, a Congolese surgeon and women’s rights advocate, Lyudmila Alexeyeva, a prominent Russian dissident, and Chelsea Manning -- of WikiLeaks fame.


This year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner was officially notified through Twitter

It appears the Nobel Peace Prize committee couldn't get in touch with its latest laureate Friday morning -- and, out of sheer desperation, decided to hound the winner on Twitter. The committee sent this tweet to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons at 5:44 a.m. Eastern time, about 20 minutes after announcing that the weapons watchdog had won the Nobel Prize. @OPCW Please contact us @Nobelprize_org we are trying get through to your office. As of 6 a.m., the committee still hadn't reached the group: The live webcast is now over. We are still trying to reach @OPCW The Nobel committee is starting to get used to having to track down its honorees. On Thursday, Canadian author Alice Munro won the Nobel Prize for Literature. The committee was reduced to leaving Munro a voicemail when she didn't answer its calls. But at least a voicemail is somewhat private. Notifications via public Twitter accounts can be seen by anyone -- a somewhat less dignified way to alert someone or some group that they've won the world's preeminent humanitarian award. Fortunately, it seems the OPCW did get the message, if not directly from the Noble committee. OPCW wins the #NobelPeacePrize ! For future reference: If you're up for a Nobel prize, you should probably stay by the phone on the days that they're being announced.


Study: Red states most impacted by shutdown

States with high concentrations of federal workers, military installations, veterans and students who rely on federal funding are being hit hardest by the government shutdown. And most of those states, according to a new report, are red states. Virginia will be worst hit by the shutdown, according to WalletHub, an online personal finance company, thanks to the Commonwealth’s reliance on federal contracting dollars and the number of federal workers concentrated around Washington, D.C. and the Newport News area. Alaska and Alabama, both of which rely heavily on federal workers and government contracts, are second and third most vulnerable, the study found. Four of the top five most vulnerable states — including Maine — are run by Republican governors. Only Maryland, which also depends on federal dollars and workers, is a blue state. Meanwhile, Midwestern states, both red and blue, are some of the least vulnerable to a shutdown. Iowa, Indiana, Minnesota and Wisconsin are all among the five least affected states, along with New York. Republican-led states are also the most dependent on loans from the Small Business Administration. Seven of the top 10 states most affected by the disruption of SBA loans — North Dakota, South Dakota, Alaska, Michigan, Maine, Idaho and Wyoming — are governed by Republicans. Democrats hold the governor’s mansions in Colorado, Montana and Oregon. And students in red states are most dependent on federal loans. Georgia, Mississippi, Arkansas, South Carolina and Louisiana are expected to send in the most FAFSA forms this quarter; those forms won’t be processed while the government is shut down. Only Arkansas has a Democratic governor. If the shutdown continues through the end of the month, the Department of Veterans Affairs would run out of money to cover disability and pension claims. Alaska, Virginia, Montana, Wyoming and Maine have the highest concentrations of veterans per capita, meaning those states would feel the crunch hardest.


Gray has become an increasingly vocal critic of the shutdown

government payments had to be suspended. Payments were halted to publicly-funded health programs, many of them serving low-income residents. The District failed to deliver a $74 million payment to Metro. And Gray has also dispatched city workers to do things like clean federal parks in the absence of federal workers. The center of the issue is the District’s funding, which is ultimately controlled by Congress — even local tax revenue. But there is also the lurking issue about how the District, home to Congress and the White House, is treated by the government. Bills focused on D.C. statehood or expanded rights for District residents have come up again and again (and again, and again, and again) but fallen short. The House of Representatives passed a measure last week letting the District spend its local funds and operate normally through Dec. 15. But the White House and Democrats in the Senate have said they are opposed to piecemeal funding bills, so that bill hasn’t gone anywhere. A week into the shutdown, Gray’s tenor began to shift. He publicly demanded meetings with President Obama and leaders in Congress to explain why the D.C. budget should be exempted from the shutdown. “In no other part of our country are Americans facing the loss of basic municipal or state services due to the federal government shutdown,” Gray wrote in the letter. Gray followed that by confronting Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid on the Capitol steps, a public and dramatic moment captured by scores of reporters and camera crews. “Sir, we are not a department of the government,” Gray told Reid. “We’re simply trying to be able to spend our own money.” Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, who represents the District in Congress, has also been a vocal critic. She had what some colleagues called “a heated exchange” with President Obama during a White House meeting this week, pressing Obama to support a bill letting D.C. use its local tax funds. Gray told a large crowd on Thursday that the shutdown threatens “thousands of our most vulnerable residents,” warning about the potential impact on a range of city services. This shutdown has become the longest one experienced by D.C. While the District was affected by the November 1995 shutdown for five days, it was exempted from the 21-day shutdown that stretched from December 1995 into January 1996. Visit our shutdown liveblog for the latest updates.


Metro says significant cuts possible if shutdown drags on

Metro trains have been less crowded since the federal government shutdown began. (Washington Post – Luz Lazo) Although the federal government’s partial shutdown is costing Metro about 20 percent of its normal ridership and “a few hundred thousand dollars a day” in fare revenue, the transit system’s top official said no drastic service cuts are in the offing – not yet, anyway. “But in the long run,” General Manager Richard Sarles said, “you just can’t continue to sustain” such losses. “Eventually something significant could occur here.” Speaking with reporters Thursday at Metro’s board of directors meeting, Sarles said that “close to half” of federal employees in the Washington area commute by Metro each workday, most of them riding subway trains. With ridership sharply reduced by worker furloughs, he said, the transit system has lost “a couple of million dollars” since Oct. 1, when the shutdown began. “Right now, we’re just monitoring the situation,” he said. “Like everyone else, [we’re] hoping that it comes to a conclusion shortly, in which case we can return to normal. As it goes on, though, we’ll have to take a look at what further steps to take.” Sarles declined to specify what those steps might be. So far, he said, Metro has imposed only “relatively modest” service cuts, such as reducing staffing at underused subway stations and running more six-car trains instead of eight-car trains. But the money saved by those measures “doesn’t compare to the revenue loss that we’ve seen.” On top of the lost fare revenue, Metro has yet to receive the District’s $74 million quarterly contribution to the transit system’s annual operating budget. D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray (D) said the payment, due Oct. 1, was not made, because the city doesn’t have the money, another consequence of the shutdown. The District’s budget is appropriated by Congress, and the appropriations have stopped. “The best thing that can happen is, this situation gets resolved shortly,” Sarles said of the shutdown. “If it goes on too long, it can certainly have a further impact.”


Malala: From Peace Prize snub to president?

Malala Yousafzai speaks on Oct. 10 at the Young Women’s Leadership Network breakfast in New York. (Jonathan Capehart) Attendees at the Young Women’s Leadership Network’s “(Em)Power Breakfast” in New York yesterday were rooting for Malala Yousafzai to win the Nobel Peace Prize. YWLN founder (and my co-board member) Ann Tisch pointed out that Malala was the youngest-ever nominee for the prestigious prize. Fashion designer Tory Burch confided she was pulling for the 16-year-old over fellow nominee Pope Francis. We learned this morning that Malala was passed over. That the award went to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and not the Pakistani girl targeted by Taliban assassins for her championing of girls’ education was about as surprising as who won the 2009 Peace Prize. (Even the recipient that year was surprised.) But Malala’s speech before the well-heeled crowd at Cipriani 42nd Street demonstrated that we haven’t heard the last of her yet. Just a year ago Wednesday, Malala was clinging to life after being shot in the head on her way to school by Taliban assassins. Rather than cower, the attempt to kill her only served to amplify her voice for girls’ education and girls’ rights and made her a global hero. Malala’s stunning composure and maturity for someone so young was a sight to behold in person. (Photo by Jonathan Capehart) “I am saying all the time is I want to raise my voice. I want to do something for girls education,” Malala said, her head barely rising above the plexiglass podium. “So how shall I do it? Shall I just speak? Shall I just write?” Her book “I am Malala” hit bookstores this week. “I want to do some practical work. I want to do work on the ground…..[W]e need to reach those people who are suffering,” she said. That practical work is happening through the Malala Fund, which she said has three aims. “First one is advocacy. Then the second important step and the main objective is to work on the ground,” she told the crowd. “Not just speaking, but also to build schools. Also, to do teachers training. Also, to motivate the parents of those children who are not letting their children go to school….And then we need to recognize those girls who are speaking up for their rights. We need to give them a platform to speak globally. So, we also want


Malala Yousafzai didn’t win the Nobel Peace Prize—yet

Nobel Committee bestowed the prize on the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, the Hague-based agency charged with destroying Syria’s chemical weapons. Don't be too disappointed. Nobel recipients are often awarded after years of work, and so the prestigious honor may yet be in her future. Liu Xiaobo was recognized after he was imprisoned for criticizing the Chinese government, but that 2010 award came after 20 years of pushing for a more open and democratic China. Former president of Finland Martti Ahtisaari won in 2008 after three decades as a peace mediator, recognizing resolutions he helped to arbitrate in Namibia, Kosovo and in Indonesia's Aceh province. Moreover, Yousafzai is showing that this is not a fight she intends to end anytime soon. The most amazing thing about her isn't just that she was willing to campaign for girls' education under the Taliban's watch or that she recovered from a gunshot to the head. It's that she has since gotten up and continued to speak out about education for girls, despite being resented in her hometown and getting further threats from the Taliban. (She now resides in England, where she received surgery following the attack.) Through the Malala Fund, which was organized in her name, she is helping to support girls' education. And she says she would like to be a politician someday, even prime minister, and return to Pakistan: "By becoming a doctor I can only help my community, but by becoming a politician I can help my whole country," she said. "I can be a doctor for the whole country." Even without a win, Yousafzai is an inspiration. There is still plenty of time to receive the Nobel Peace Prize if, at 16, she can say of the man who tried to kill her, "I can't imagine hurting him even with a needle"—and that she would respond to a future Taliban attacker by talking to him about education. If this astonishingly courageous girl continues to prove that she is not just a hero but a leader for an issue that will need one for many years to come, it won't be a matter of whether she wins this prestigious honor. It will be a matter of when. Jena McGregor is a columnist for On Leadership. Read also: Can courage like Antoinette Tuff's be taught? Edward Snowden: Hero? Traitor? Leader? Like On Leadership? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter.


The Nobel committee did Malala a favor in passing her over for the peace prize

that's something we've foisted on her. There's little doubt that this amazing young woman has a life of accomplishment ahead of her, one that could bring tremendous and important change on the ground in Pakistan. But what we are trying to make her up to be, by no fault of her own, is something very different: a savior on our behalf, a happy face on an unhappy situation, a way to think about Pakistan that lets us go back to ignoring the problem. The point of the Nobel Peace Prize is not to make Western TV viewers feel inspired and comforted, it is to promote peace. By awarding the prize to Malala at this early moment, the Nobel committee would be abetting our effort to turn some of Pakistan's deepest problems into just another Hollywood-ready drama with an easy-to-follow narrative and a happy ending. That's an enormously gratifying and feel-good message, but it's a distortion, and one that ultimately makes it much easier for us to turn away from Pakistan's deeper and more uncomfortable problems, which extend to our involvement there. That in turn makes it less likely that Malala's mission, of helping young girls in Pakistan, will go fulfilled. Helping human beings who are in conflict, not validating our feelings, is the Nobel's mission. Ask yourself this: Before Friday morning's Nobel announcement, had you ever heard of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons? Did you spend a lot of time thinking about chemical weapons, who has them, how to get rid of them, what practices have worked and what sorts of international support they require? The answer to all of those is probably "no," but Friday's award has a chance at changing that a bit, or at least providing incentives for the world to encourage more of the OPCW's successes. In passing her over, the Nobel committee gave Malala a chance to transcend celebrity and symbolism, to be a part of demonstrable change. Decades from now, should she become Pakistani Prime Minister Yousafzai, as she says she hopes to do, the purity of symbolism she represents today would surely be complicated by the hard realities of governing, as even Mahatma Gandhi's was. But when she traveled to Oslo and accept a Nobel Peace Prize, she could point to more than her own life but to schools she'd built, the lives she'd changed and the peace she'd made.


Why Malala should have won the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize

Malala Yousafzai and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at the July 12 “Malala Day” Youth Assembly. (Mary Altaffer/AP) (Update: Malala statement about drones to Obama) Congratulations to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons for winning the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize. It’s a worthy winner. As would have the other people thought to be leading contenders, including Russian human rights activists and a physician in Congo who has long fought against sexual violence. But there was another nominee who would have been equally deserving and a more electrifying choice for the 2013 prize: 16-year-old Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani teen who has for several years advocated for the right of girls to get an education and who nearly died after being shot by Taliban gunmen who don’t want girls attending school. Alfred Nobel said in his will establishing the annual Nobel Prizes that he wanted “champions of peace” to be rewarded with the Nobel Prize. Advocating for girls’ education is seen by many as perhaps the best long-term approach to achieving peace; Secretary of State John Kerry has said that “gender equality is critical to our shared goals of prosperity, stability and peace.” Indeed, research has made it clear that educating girls and women leads to more stable and economically viable communities. Malala has become the face of the miserable struggle that millions of girls and women face every day to simply sit in a classroom and learn without fear from those who want to deny them that right for religious, cultural and political reasons. There are 33 million fewer girls than boys attending school in the early grades around the world, even though the female population is larger, and the majority of those who live on less than $1.25 a day around the world are female. Malala is a powerful symbol for girls and women who fear standing up for their rights. Some will ask whether a 16-year-old — any 16-year-old — should win a Nobel Prize. Isn’t it supposed to be for a lifetime of work? If a lifetime of work really mattered for this award, then, for example, Yasser Arafat wouldn’t have won the Peace Prize in 1994, as his lifetime of work didn’t exactly scream the word “peace.” As for the 1973 awarding of the Peace Prize to Henry Kissinger, satirist Tom Lehrer said it best when he said that political satire became “obsolete” on that day.


Which U.S. politicians have won the Nobel Peace Prize?

Here are a few prominent U.S. politicians who have taken home “the world’s most prestigious prize.” Many of the Americans who have won the Nobel Peace Prize, "the world's most prestigious prize," have been U.S. politicians. President Obama was the last president to win the award for his achievements in strengthening international cooperation and working towards a future with no nuclear weapons. The first president to win was Theodore Roosevelt in 1906 for his efforts to help end the Russo-Japanese War. In total, four U.S. presidents (Barack Obama, Jimmy Carter, Woodrow Wilson, and Theodore Roosevelt) and one vice president (Al Gore) have taken home the honor. In this segment, PostTV's In Play takes a look back at some of America's prominent politicians who have also been able to call themselves Nobel laureates.


Government shutdown is already doing severe damage

With the political battle over the government shutdown still raging in Washington, it’s worth noting the shutdown is already having a serious adverse impact on hundreds of small communities across the country. Republicans may be suggesting they will agree to lift the debt limit — averting widespread economic chaos — which would obviously be a big relief. But that might be coupled with a protracted government shutdown that stretches deep into the fall, the potential damage of which should not be underestimated. Much of the focus of the government shutdown’s damage has been on the inconvenience of closed government offices and lands. What’s less remarked upon is how damaging the shutdown of federal lands, especially national parks, has been — a sign of the hidden ways it is changing American life. The recreation economy is large, and shuttering our most popular attractions is causing serious damage to communities and the nation as a whole. One place this is manifesting itself is in Utah, the home state of Tea Party Senator Mike Lee, one of the architects of the government shutdown strategy. Not long ago I was in Moab a small town (population about 5,000) in eastern Utah that depends on tourism for its lifeblood. There are two national parks nearby, Arches and Canyonlands, as well as a state park and lots of Bureau of Land Management land. Moab has been quite innovative in its self-promotion. They’ve got a small tax on hotel rooms, and half of the proceeds are returned to the local Moab Area Travel Council, which promotes the area as a travel destination around the world. The success of this and many other efforts can be measured not just by the steady growth in visitation to both parks. Unfortunately due to the shutdown, the National Park Service databases are offline, but roughly speaking Arches has grown from a few hundred thousand visits 20 years ago to over a million last year. All this visitation provides a good economic foundation. In addition to the standard lower-paying service jobs (like maid or cashier) there are better-paying, more skilled jobs as well taking people out into the country (like river guide or mountain bike trainer). Moab is only one small town, of course, but measurements of the overall size of the “recreation economy” have been quite large. A study commissioned by the Outdoor Recreation Association (a lobbying group) found that recreation


A new look for D.C. drivers licenses

The new design swaps a background Capitol photo for cherry blossoms. (D.C. Department of Motor Vehicles) D.C.’s drivers licenses are getting a new look, our Post colleague Mike DeBonis reports. Cherry blossoms are replacing the Capitol building as the background on licenses and identification cards. The changeover will start in November and will incorporate new security features, including laser-engraved photographs. The updated design also comes with a waiting period: about two weeks to get the cards versus being able get them instantly today. Read more here.


Goldin, Krueger and other women who won’t win the economics Nobel Prize this year

she’s the third woman to head the 127-year-old association. Alice Rivlin was the first, in 1986, and Anne Krueger was the second, in 1996. Goldin won the Carolyn Shaw Bell award, which is given to an individual who helps advance the status of women in the economics profession, in 2005. Johns Hopkins University economist Anne O. Krueger’s main academic claim to fame is creating the term “rent seeking” to describe the concept that people do things like lobbying to obtain special privileges from the government. These activities, however, don’t create new wealth, they merely capture wealth that already exists in the economy. Her influential 1974 paper, “The Political Economy of the Rent-Seeking Society,” showed that the existence of “rents” causes private and social costs of certain activities to diverge. Washington is perpetually embroiled in a rent-seeking battle, where interest groups of all stripes seek to gain special privileges through government subsidies, regulation, market restrictions or federal contracts. Much government spending encourages rent seeking behavior as lobbyists try to sway legislators to fund their projects. The more than $500 billion the federal government spends each year on contractors illustrates the benefits of rent-seeking behavior. One of the best predictors of a future Nobel Prize winner is a previous winner of the John Bates Clark medal, which is given to the best economist under age 40. Twelve Clark medalists have gone on to win the Nobel Prize, with 1991’s winner Paul Krugman being the most recent Clark medalist to become a Nobel laureate. Krugman won the Nobel in 2008. In 2007, Susan Athey became the first woman to win the prestigious Clark Medal, and two more women, Esther Duflo in 2010 and Amy Finkelstein in 2012, have joined her. Athey, who is at Stanford University, and Duflo and Finkelstein, who are both at MIT, have also won the Elaine Bennett Research prize that recognizes and honors the research conducted by women at the beginning of their research career. It’s been 22 years since a Clark medalist won the Nobel Prize, so we might have to wait a while to celebrate the second woman becoming a Nobel laureate in economics. For now, Fed vice chairman Janet Yellen, who President Obama has nominated to become chairman of the Federal Reserve, is probably the closest a woman will get to the Nobel Prize in economics. Her husband, George Akerlof, won the Nobel Prize in 2001.


I know the sad kid at the Zoo

I saw the picture the way we see so many things on Facebook – a quick glance, a quick judgment. Blink. It was a picture of a little boy, seen from the back, standing on the fence outside the National Zoo, under a sign that reads “Zoo Temporarily Closed.” I noticed it because the little boy looked about the same age as my little boy, and we live close to the zoo, and the zoo’s closure has been, in our household, the shutdown’s most concrete manifestation. So I thought about linking the picture on Facebook, as being expressive of our shutdown experience, and then decided not to, and moved on. Until our nanny-share partner came by that evening and said, We had a big day today; our son was in the news. How unobservant we are in our relentless scanning of images. I see that little boy every weekday. When I have time, I take him and my son on my lap and read them stories. We gave him the sweater he is wearing in that picture. But I didn’t realize it was him. That picture – in case you missed it – has been the visual flavor du jour for at least 24 hours. “The iconic image of the shutdown,” it’s been called, and people have shamed the government for breaking a child’s heart. Others have jumped to comment about political propaganda, staged images, manipulation, making light of the seriousness of the issue – because the shutdown has stopped medical research, called off food inspectors, and held up veterans’ benefits, and we are disregarding, even slighting all of these things if we presume to sum up the gravity of the situation in this single image of a child. It helps that the iconography is simple: kid in an animal hat, zoo bars, Love Locked Out. It also helps that you can’t see the child’s face. The juxtaposition of sign and small body and quasi-narrative situation invites our projections. We assume that the child is forlorn, or that the picture is staged (it’s not), or that the photographer was seeking to make a political point. We think we have seen all of that in this picture, and we begin to discuss the picture as if we had seen those things, and as if the picture had portrayed them. But it turns out – as I realized when I discovered I


National Parks losing revenue under shutdown

The government shutdown that started nearly three weeks ago has cost the National Park Service nearly half a million dollars in entrance fees and tens of millions of dollars in visitor spending each day, according to a group representing the agency’s retirees. The Coalition of National Park Service retirees estimated that the park system has missed out on about 715,000 visitors daily, based on October 2012 attendance numbers, according to a statement last week from the organization. The group calculated that the tourism drop off has cost $450,000 each day in fee collections and $76 million per day in lost visitor spending. (Erik Petersen/For The Washington Post) One caveat for those numbers: They came out Thursday, which was one day before the Department of the Interior decided to reopen a dozen parks for between six and 10 days with funding from the states where they are located. That means the amount of lost revenue is likely to decline, at least while those parks remain open. The five states that reached agreements with Interior are likely to seek reimbursement once the shutdown ends, but Congress would have to authorize the payments, according to a Post article. Maureen Finnerty, chair of the retiree coalition, said in a statement Thursday that national parks could not open without staffing. “By essentially enabling looting, poaching, and vandalism, Congress would be taking what is already a dark episode in the history of our national parks and making it worse,” she said. To connect with Josh Hicks, follow his Twitter feed or e-mail josh.hicks@washpost.com. For more federal news, visit The Federal Eye, The Fed Page and Post Politics.


The economics Nobel goes to: Eugene Fama, Lars Hansen and Robert Shiller

Three Americans were awarded the Nobel prize in economics Monday for work that helped answer this crucial question: What determines the prices of an asset, whether a stock, bond or a house? The winners of the $1.23 million prize were Eugene Fama and Lars Peter Hansen of the University of Chicago and Robert Shiller of Yale. Their work has led to everything from low-fee index mutual funds to a deeper understanding of why home prices can become irrationally high, as they did in the last decade. Fama and Shiller are considered direct opposites in their views of how markets sort out the prices of financial assets. Fama, 74, is a father of the "efficient markets hypothesis," the idea that because markets are very good at incorporating all known information about the value of an asset, it can be a fool's errand to try to predict in what direction the price of a stock or bond will go. Shiller is a leading proponent of the idea that markets, driven as they are by human psychology, can create large and sustained mispricings, such as in the late 1990s when excessive optimism drove the stock market into bubble territory. He is a student of "behavioral economics," the study of how quirks in human psychology can create results that traditional economic theory would not predict. With the joint award, the Nobel committee was in effect fusing those competing schools of thought into a unified theory to recognize what economists now understand about where asset prices come from. "The Laureates have laid the foundation for the current understanding of asset prices," the committee said in its announcement of the prize, formally known as the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. "It relies in part on fluctuations in risk and risk attitudes, and in part on behavioral biases and market frictions." Fama's research is fundamental to modern finance theory, though his work has been tarnished some in recent years by wild swings in financial markets that have suggested they are anything but rational. His seminal paper "Random Walks in Stock Market Prices," from 1965, is part of a body of work that casts doubt on any theory that we can predict the future value of a stock or bond merely by looking at a price history chart. His work showed instead that the movement of an asset price is a "random


Minnesota might reopen parks, if the state could only find some answers first

Protesters set up a tent at the Minnesota State Capitol in September 2011 to rally against a state government shutdown. (Genevieve Ross/Associated Press) Before Minnesota began considering whether to pay to reopen national parks in the state that were closed by the federal government shutdown, officials there had to struggle just to figure out who in the federal government was available to answer some basic budgetary questions first. “That was one of the difficult issues, was just trying to reach people” in the federal government, says Chris Niskanen, communications director for the Minnesota Department of National Resources. “There’s not a lot of information available out there. You go to some of these Web sites, and they don’t have phone numbers, and the people that we may need to talk to are not working.” Because of the shutdown, now in its third week, many federal employees have been furloughed and agency Web sites temporarily taken offline. The Obama administration announced last week that it would allow states to pay to reopen national parks closed by the shutdown. Some states, such as Utah, are taking advantage of the opportunity. Others are not. And still others, including Minnesota, are weighing the option. “Our governor’s instructions to us were to take a look at the feasibility of it,” Niskanen said. That assessment, reported by The Star Tribune, is in its early stages, he said, adding that state officials may have had success in getting more information from the federal government since he last checked. The “land of 10,000 lakes” is in a bit of a unique position. It has few very heavily visited national park sites, and even those that are more popular often have state access points. Voyager National Park on the Canadian border, for example, is largely water-based, and boaters can use state ramps instead of now-closed federal ramps, Niskanen said. “We have lots of opportunities for people to enjoy our water resources,” he said. On the other hand, the leaves on Minnesota’s trees are changing colors, and winter is not far off, meaning park visitation will soon drop. Niskanen says he expects a decision at the end of the week or maybe early next week. But, it might not matter in the end. “It may very well be that the shutdown is resolved before we’re in a position to make any decisions,” he said.


Calm down, Washington: China doesn’t really want to ‘de-Americanize’

Chinese President Xi Jinping attend a Beijing banquet. (Feng Li/Getty Images) It's no secret that the entire world thinks the United States is crazy for its self-imposed political and economic crisis of shutdown and potentially default. China especially has a lot to lose if our economy craters, and is taking the opportunity to both criticize American democracy – a popular pastime in Beijing – and to urge us to please not default. China's message hit Washington especially hard on Monday morning, when an editorial in the state-run media outlet Xinhua called for a new international reserve currency to replace the U.S. dollar and declared that the international community should "start considering building a de-Americanized world." According to Business Insider, it's got lots of people in Washington talking, probably because it hits on the dual American anxieties that we are letting down the rest of the world and that China is finally making its move to replace us as the global leader. We can calm down on the threat to "de-Americanize," though. China has shown little to no indication that it seriously wants to displace the United States as the global leader anytime soon or even that it believes it could do this, perhaps outside of a few hard-liners in the government. The fact that China is so rightly panicked about the possibility of a U.S. default just goes to show that Beijing knows it is, and will long continue to be, reliant on a U.S.-dominated global order. The mistake we often make China cares much more about its internal issues than about its international standing. We in Washington might see the Xinhua editorial and think, "Oh no, China thinks that this is its big opportunity to kick us out of our position as the global leader." And maybe it's possible someone at Xinhua thinks that. But there is every indication that China's actual leaders want us to stay at the top of the global order. That's why China is betting huge amounts of the money on the future of the American economy. The Chinese economy is growing so quickly in part because China can sell lots of stuff to Americans and because the U.S. military ensures that global trade routes remain open. If the world "de-Americanizes," then both of those go away and China's economic growth would collapse, which Beijing is terrified would lead to political instability and possibly even


Where are the arrests over the World War II Memorial protest?

A crowd of demonstrators converge upon U.S. government property closed to the public. The demonstrators know that they are prohibited from entering the property. Nonetheless, they push through the metal barricades, chanting, “Tear down these walls.” That incident occurred yesterday at the World War II Memorial on the National Mall. Protesters taking part in the “Million Vet March on the Memorials” pile barracades in front of the White House on Sunday. The group was organized in protest of the decision to close the memorial during the government shutdown. (REUTERS/Joshua Roberts) Not confining their protest to the World War II Memorial, some of the protesters then picked up the government’s metal barricades and carried them blocks away to the White House, where the barricades were deposited outside the gates. Television recorded police struggling to keep the protesters away from the White House fence. No arrests were made. Now, let’s see if I have this straight: If a group of people decide they don’t like the closing of facilities under the federal government shutdown, they are now empowered to take wire cutters to the locks, push aside barriers and go in and about on their merry way without fear of arrest? Scale fences of the National Zoo? Break down the doors of the National Air and Space Museum? Don’t like the idea of public tours of the Capitol being suspended? Tear down those congressional walls. Federal food inspectors aren’t working. Why not just go on into the labs so you can inspect some of that red meat and poultry? No sweat. Just as Sunday’s protesters, led by Texas Republican bad boy Sen. Ted Cruz and America’s former everything, Sarah Palin, were given immunity from arrest, so will all others of their stripe who take it upon themselves to open closed federal facilities that suit their fancy. What’s a federal shutdown order between the politically privileged and the pliant protectors of public facilities? Apparently nothing.


This Silicon Valley startup is feeling the pain of the shutdown

For some Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, the federal government shutdown has mostly been a theoretical issue. But for others, it's becoming a serious problem. Tara Lemmey is one of them. She's the CEO of Net Power and Light, a startup that created the iOS video chat app Spin. While the app has had good reviews, the startup had terrible timing: The new app was released on Oct. 1, the same day that a standoff in Congress ended with the shutdown. That's a problem because an antiquated regulatory regime classifies cryptographic software as a munition and requires approval from federal regulators before it can be exported abroad. Lemmey says the government shutdown means the company can't get its application approved, which means it can't legally offer its product outside the United States. "The first thing people started asking about is whether we can call internationally," Lemmey says. But the Department of Commerce's Bureau of Security and Industry needs to sign off on the app before it can be offered overseas. Normally, that's a "fast process," Lemmey says, but the shutdown changes that. The agency's Web site says that "all pending export license applications, commodity classification requests, encryption reviews, encryption registrations, and advisory opinion requests will be held without action by BIS until the shutdown ends." Net Power and Light isn't the only high-tech company inconvenienced by the shutdown. Wireless device companies will be forced to delay the release of new phones if the shutdown doesn't end soon. And companies whose products depend on data published by the government are suffering, too.


Local breweries bring home gold at the Great American Beer Festival

Port City Brewing Company's Optimal Wit was named the country's best Belgian-style white ale at this weekend's Great American Beer Festival. (Photo by Greg Powers) Surprise: Northern Virginia is home to America's best Belgian-style witbier, and three of the country's top Oktoberfest beers come from the D.C. area. At the Great American Beer Festival in Denver last weekend, Port City Brewing Company took home four medals, including a gold for its popular Optimal Wit. The Alexandria brewery also won a silver for its Oktoberfest in the Vienna-Style Lager category, and its two Colossal beers -- one-time-only ales created on the brewery's anniversary -- also medaled. Colossal One, a strong Belgian ale, won bronze in the Aged Beer category, and Colossal Two, a smoked imperial porter, won bronze in Smoke Beer. These aren't the first national awards for the Alexandria brewery: Its Monumental IPA won bronze in the GABF's English-Style IPA category last year. Local breweries swept the German-style Maerzen category, with Lost Rhino's Rhinofest winning the gold, Sweetwater Tavern's Oktoberfest taking silver and Flying Dog's Dogtoberfest earning the bronze. (While German-Style Maerzen is the traditional drink of Oktoberfest, two of the three winners in the Vienna-Style Lager category -- a group for less-malty lager -- call themselves Oktoberfest beers, mirroring the trend for lighter beers at the Munich festival. This is the category in which Port City won.) Of course, trying the winners won't be easy. Colossal One and Two were each brewed for only one day, explains Port City brewer Jonathan Reeves, and the brewery only has one keg of each "that we're holding" to be tapped at a future event, he says. And as for Oktoberfest, "we made 180 barrels of the beer, and it's all gone," Reeves says. "We don't have any kegs left in the [brewery] tasting room. It's unfortunate … but one of my guys came in and said he saw six-packs of it at the Giant up the street, so it's out there. " One place you'll definitely find it: Glen's Garden Market is hosting a Port City tap takeover this weekend, and both Optimal Wit and Oktoberfest will be on draft, along with two other to-be-determined beers, says Port City owner Bill Butcher. He says that there are also plans to brew Colossal One and Colossal again at some point, but a date hasn't been determined. Flying Dog is in a similar boat:


This snack-food corporation has a creepy plan to watch you in the grocery store

(20th Century Fox / Dreamworks Pictures) It's not quite "Minority Report"-levels of creepiness, but it's getting there. Mondelez International, whose properties include Chips Ahoy, Nabisco, Ritz and other high-profile snack brands, says it's planning to debut a grocery shelf in 2015 that comes equipped with sensors to determine the age and sex of passing customers. The shelf, which is hooked up to Microsoft's Kinect controller, will be able to use basic facial features like bone structure to build a profile of a potential snacker, Mondelez chief information officer Mark Dajani told the Wall Street Journal. While pictures of your actual face won't be stored, aggregate demographic data from thousands of transactions will be. The company expects the shelf to help funnel more of the right products to the right consumers, and even convince undecideds to commit to an impulse buy by offering well-timed in-store commercials or coupons when the embedded weight sensor learns they've picked up an item. The move is almost certain to make it more difficult to resist junk foods. Of course, what one industry tries, another could copy. Imagine if the produce aisle starts talking about the beta carotene in carrots. Then the problem won't be a matter of healthy foods getting squeezed out of the picture, but of consumers being bombarded with a cacophony of ads, all the time. Maybe we're not so far from "Minority Report's" vision after all. Minority Report - Personal Advertising in the Future


Town Square | Upscale retirement living draws buyers in Bethesda

the Frasier. The apartment is located along U.S. Route 1 just north of Old Town Alexandria. The 18-mile Mount Vernon Trail is nearby and easily accessible for joggers, walkers and bike enthusiasts. For more information visit www.Bozzuto.com. Hunt for the 2014 D.C. Design House begins The annual D.C. Design House, a fundraiser for Children’s National Medical Center and a showcase for local interior designers and landscape designers, starts each year with an epic house hunting project. The organizers of the D.C. Design House have started looking now for the perfect location for the 2014 event and while the property can be in any location in D.C., Maryland or Virginia inside the Beltway, the other requirements aren’t exactly easy to match. In order to be considered as a host site for the D.C. Design House, the home must be vacant from March through May 2014 and, ideally, offer 4,000+ square feet of space, including multiple bedrooms, bathrooms, a kitchen or two, living, dining and family rooms and an outdoor space. It must also offer a separate location for boutiques, such as a lower level, detached garage or pool house. Preferably the home will have at least 20 or more rooms that can be designed by the D.C. area’s top interior designers. Since the D.C. Design House attracts hundreds of visitors over several weekends, a location close to Metro or with easy parking is crucial as well. So far, each Design House has been on the market for sale before, during and after the Design House, but that’s not a requirement. Anyone who would want to donate their house as the Design House during those months would be considered. One hundred percent of the proceeds from the Design House goes to Children’s National Medical Center. Contact Skip Singleton, co-founder of the D.C. Design House and principal of D.C. Living Real Estate, for more details at skip@DCliving.com or visit www.DCdesignhouse.com. New mobile responsive site introduced by Avery-Hess Avery-Hess Realtors “We’ve seen our mobile traffic to our Web site increase by 107 percent since the beginning of 2012 so we wanted to make sure our customers get the best experience on the site no matter how they reach us,” says Kristin Maynard, director of marketing for Avery-Hess Realtors in Dunn Loring. Maynard says most visitors are looking for property, so the company added features such as geolocation services that allow customers to push a


Coalition of veteran and military groups demanding end to shutdown

A coalition of 33 organizations representing veterans and members of the military are to gather at the World War II Memorial Tuesday morning to demand an end to the government shutdown that members say is harming veterans and military families. “The shutdown has been devastating for the nation’s military readiness and for the veterans, service members, families and survivors in the uniformed services community,” said a statement from The Military Coalition, which represents among other groups the American Legion, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Disabled American Veterans, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, and the National Military Family Association. The Department of Veterans Affairs has warned that unless the shutdown ends soon, the department will run out of money and be unable to issue disability and pension checks due to be sent Nov. 1. The VA has also reported that the shutdown has halted progress on lowering the backlog of disability claims. “Many services that military families count on daily are suspended,” the coalition said in its statement. “Veterans make up 27 percent of the federal workforce and don’t know when they will get to go back to work.” The World War II Memorial has emerged as a favorite protest site from the start of the two-week-old shutdown, when barriers closing the site were pushed aside to allow visiting World War II veterans to see the memorial. On Sunday, hundreds of veterans tore down barricades from memorials and monuments and piled them in front of the White House. Volunteers from Team Rubicon, a veteran support organization, spent Sunday cleaning up trash left uncollected owing to the shutdown.


The amazing history of the Nobel Prize, told in maps and charts

big trend here is Asia, which has seen its rate of winning Nobels increase dramatically since the 1980s. Most of those prizes, at first, went to Japan. There's now a small but rising number of Nobels going to other Asian countries, particularly India and China. Here are a few more statistics about the history of the Nobel: • Nobel prizes have been awarded to people from 72 different countries. But more than half all Nobel laureates come from only three countries: the United States, Britain and Germany. • More than one in every three Nobel laureates is from the United States. Put another way, the United States has 4 percent of the world's population and 34 percent of its Nobel laureates. • All of Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East combined have only 104 Nobel laureates. These regions hold 81 percent of the world's population but only 10 percent of its Nobel laureates. • 82 percent of Nobel laureates are from Western countries (Western Europe, North America, Australia or New Zealand). If you add in Eastern Europe, it's 90 percent. • Just over half of all Nobel laureates are from Europe: 54 percent. Of those, most are from Western Europe, which has had 45 percent of all laureates. You can see this in the giant swathe of green in the circle chart above. • About half of the world's Nobel laureates are from the Anglosphere: Britain, United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. • The second most common native language among Nobel laureates is German; 152 laureates are from German-speaking countries. • The region with the fewest Nobel laureates per capita is Africa. There is one African Nobel prize per 62 million Africans alive today. By comparison, there is one American Nobel prize per 900,000 Americans alive today. • The Middle East has had 20 Nobel laureates: 12 Israelis, four Egyptians, one Palestinian, one Iranian, one Turk and one Yemeni. Ironically, it also has the largest proportion of peace prize winners: eight of the 20 Middle Eastern laureates are peace-prize winners. • The top 10 countries with the most Nobel laureates, in order. Pay attention to how top-heavy this list is; the numbers drop precipitously: 1. United States (347 Nobel laureates) 2. Britain (120) 3. Germany (104) 4. France (65) 5. Sweden (30) 6. Russia (27) 7. Switzerland (26) 8. Canada (23) 9. Austria (22) 10. Italy (20)


In the convenience store of the future, you can get a mortgage along with your toothpaste

has built-in rewards for shopping in your stores, you've created customers with a strong loyalty bias toward your products. Wal-Mart recognized this a while ago and introduced its Bluebird card, which Consumers Union gave top marks in a review of the industry this summer. There's just one problem. Like all debit cards, prepaid ones don't help you build a credit history. So if you're satisfied using one indefinitely -- and some of them have enough features that you might be -- you may not be able to make some of the larger investments that can lead to advancement and financial stability, like taking out a business loan or buying a house. Now, banks make it relatively easy to use their prepaid products as an onboarding mechanism for a more robust suite of financial services, which turns marginal customers into more valuable clients. A retail institution, however, might not: Making loans and taking deposits amounts to nothing less than entering an entirely different, highly regulated industry (and unlike some more high-margin businesses, convenience stores don't tend to have billions of dollars in liquidity sitting around to play with). Even if a Wal-Mart or a Walgreens allows the unbanked to elevate themselves from an all-cash existence, it might also create a permanently underbanked middle tier that can't make the jump to traditional credit products. It is, however, possible that retailers could become full-fledged banks. After all, it's already happened in Britain, after years of conservative government and financial deregulation: Big grocery chains like Sainsbury's and Marks & Spencer have partnered with consumer financial institutions for over a decade now, offering everything from mortgages to insurance. It's been a lucrative transition: According to Kantar Retail insights director Bryan Roberts, they realize 20 to 25 percent profit margins on their financial products, compared to 5 percent for things like cheese and toothpaste. "I think a lot of retailers in the U.S. will be looking enviously at what the British supermarkets have achieved," Roberts says. "It's a cradle-to-grave strategy of trying to provide everything that you possibly can." (The health-care sector isn't as fertile for British retailers as it is in the United States, though, since most Brits get their needs taken care of at nationalized free clinics). Banks themselves are probably getting nervous. One supermarket, Tesco, recently took full control of its financial services from the Royal Bank of Scotland, proving that a grocery


deregulation: Big grocery chains like Sainsbury's and Marks & Spencer have partnered with consumer financial institutions for over a decade now, offering everything from mortgages to insurance. It's been a lucrative transition: According to Kantar Retail insights director Bryan Roberts, they realize 20 to 25 percent profit margins on their financial products, compared to 5 percent for things like cheese and toothpaste. "I think a lot of retailers in the U.S. will be looking enviously at what the British supermarkets have achieved," Roberts says. "It's a cradle-to-grave strategy of trying to provide everything that you possibly can." (The health-care sector isn't as fertile for British retailers as it is in the United States, though, since most Brits get their needs taken care of at nationalized free clinics). Banks themselves are probably getting nervous. One supermarket, Tesco, recently took full control of its financial services from the Royal Bank of Scotland, proving that a grocery store can do banking on its own. "I think the opportunity for Tesco is that the banks have such a dismal reputation following the financial crisis, their brand equity is at an all-time low," says Roberts. "So the British public's much more open to alternatives to banks." There's one more question that might trouble people who get nervous about corporations controlling large swaths of the consumer experience. Even if retailers do succeed in becoming full-fledged banks, is it really a good idea to entrust your financial life to as monopolistic an institution as Wal-Mart, which can now make it even less of a good deal to shop anywhere else, and oh by the way has access to all your purchase data as well? For consumer advocates, it's still better than the alternative. Adam Rust, director of research for the North Carolina-based nonprofit Reinvestment Partners, has been tracking the prepaid debit card industry for a few years now and thinks the retailer-based products are doing a better job serving the unbanked than most large financial institutions -- not to mention risky emergency services like payday lenders. "I like that it's Wal-Mart or Walgreens, CVS, more than a payday lender or a check cashing store," he says. And besides, there's no better route to ubiquity for financial services than your local convenience store. "In my neighborhood, a full service bank branch costs about a million dollars to set up. They still have Walgreens and CVSes in most neighborhoods."


John Wall will write ‘playoffs’ on his shoes

alter my view of him. But I doubt this is a .500 team. WRITE “BOSWELL” ON YOUR SHOES, JOHN. SMOOT ON SHANAHAN Hey, here’s Fred Smoot’s suggested headline for the next day’s paper after Sunday night’s loss. It was offered on Comcast SportsNet’s postgame show. Smoot continues to have a way with words. (Via Comcast SportsNet) MIKE GREEN WITH BOSTON COP Mike Green went head over heels into the Washington bench on Monday night. The resulting image — face down, legs up — was amusing, especially given that nobody was hurt. But the best part was the guy who photoshopped the Boston bullpen cop into the image. (Thanks, @CanucksFin56.) (Via @CanucksFin56) BALTIMORE ON RGIII One Baltimore eatery — Nacho Mama’s — had a bit of fun with a certain Redskins quarterback this week. It’s charming how much they all care. (Via @GregPaymer via @HTTR24_7.) (Via @GregPaymer) FAITH AND FOOTBALL My colleague Roman Stubbs has a really interesting read on faith and football at area public schools. The lead anecdote features a Muslim team leader at Suitland, who regularly leads his teammates in the Lord’s Prayer. “I’m not even supposed to be saying the prayer,” Steven Rivers said. “But I do it for my team, because I’m a captain. I say my own prayer.” YAY PORT CITY Popular local brewery — and Verizon Center and Nats Park concessionaire — Port City did mighty fine work at last weekend’s Great American Beer Festival. Via the Going Out Guide: Port City Brewing Company took home four medals, including a gold for its popular Optimal Wit. The Alexandria brewery also won a silver for its Oktoberfest in the Vienna-Style Lager category, and its two Colossal beers — one-time-only ales created on the brewery’s anniversary — also medaled. Colossal One, a strong Belgian ale, won bronze in the Aged Beer category, and Colossal Two, a smoked imperial porter, won bronze in Smoke Beer. Flying Dog, Lost Rhino, Devil’s Backbone and Sweetwater Tavern also received honors. Why do I feel like it’s ok to root for local breweries, but not for local sports teams? That’s an interesting question, Dan. I don’t have a good answer. WHAT TO WATCH TONIGHT The Wizards host the Heat at 7 on Comcast SportsNet. Boston is at Detroit at 4 on Fox, and the Cardinals visit the Dodgers at 8 on TBS. All TV and radio listings are here.


RGIII still wants to go the Olympics

(John McDonnell/The Washington Post) Robert Griffin III has talked before about how much he wanted to represent the United States in the Olympics. My colleague Dave Sheinin wrote about that at length in his book, “RG3: The Promise,” in a section about Griffin running track his freshman year at Baylor. “The only choice [coaches] had, really, was to let Griffin compete at the Trials — with each football coach having to decide privately and individually the degree to which he was rooting for the kid to qualify, or not, for Beijing…” Sheinin wrote. “Was he a track athlete who also played football, or a football player who also ran track? It was getting harder to distinguish.” The situation has obviously changed since then — a Heisman Trophy, a huge NFL contract, and endorsement deals with every company in the United States will do that. But Griffin hasn’t stopped dreaming. Which brings me to the latest video about Griffin and his family released via USAA. The video came out last week, and the timing maybe wasn’t ideal, what with Redskins fans panicking over the current season and not giving much thought to the 2020 badminton trials. “My dream is to be in the Olympics and represent the United States of America,” Griffin says in the video. “So [as a teenager] I was preparing for my dream…I would definitely want to still fulfill my dream of going to the Olympics. Someway, somehow. Maybe it’s track, maybe it’s badminton, maybe it’s ping pong. I’ll find a way to get to the Olympics.” It’s a nice and sweet sentiment. The local sentiment would probably be “find a way to get your football team over .500 first.” “He’s being tongue in cheek, but you know an athlete as confident as Griffin III isn’t totally joking when he talks about not giving up on his dream to compete in the Olympic Games,” the Redskins Web site declared. Meanwhile, Griffin just scored an endorsement deal with the leading shuttlecock manufacturer.


Fireball races across sky in Washington, D.C. Monday evening; a political metaphor?

it in Takoma Park! Traveling approx SE to NW. Really large and bright! fragments Jim Schuyler: Here in Baltimore, confirmed sighting yes. Very bright fireball too. Pretty impressive. Brian R. Hinman: Yes, I saw it in the north sky. Bright blue with pieces breaking off. Very impressive. Brian Reitz: Yes lasted several seconds. Was east of DC heading north and broke up before it disappeared. Crystal Benton Geller: I saw it while driving on South Riding around 8:30. It was green with a long white tail. It was very close! Denise Marie Richards: Saw it in Reston. Quite impressive. It looked like a low firework flaring out. A metaphor for broken political system? Not surprisingly, some readers took the opportunity to connect the exploding space rock with D.C.’s fragmented political climate and the government shutdown: On Facebook: Bruce W. Sutton: That would be John Boehner’s soul flaming out… On Twitter: God almost had final say in govt shutdown RT @capitalweather: Have seen some reports of fireball/large meteor in DC area around 8:25 pm. @capitalweather That's Obamacare exploding right before our eyes! Defund Obamacare strategy going down in flames MT @capitalweather: Have seen some reports of a fireball in DC around 8:25 pm. Anyone see it? @Tark31 It was this big narcissistic explosion that occurred as a result of oversized egos. @xytarium @capitalweather Someone check on Boehner RT @capitalweather: Have seen some reports of a fireball (large meteor) in DC area around 8:25 pm. Anyone see it? Fireball background information Partisan gridlock or not, fireballs are not uncommon in the region. As recently as March 22, a vibrant fireball streaked through the evening sky dazzling hundreds of onlookers. Here’s some useful background on the phenomena from the America Meteor Society: A fireball is a meteor that is larger than normal. Most meteors are only the size of tiny pebbles. A meteor the size of a softball can produce light equivalent to the full moon for a short instant. The reason for this is the extreme velocity at which these objects strike the atmosphere. Even the slowest meteors are still traveling at 10 miles per SECOND, which is much faster than a speeding bullet. Fireballs occur every day over all parts of the Earth. Read more here: Fireball frequently asked questions (American Meteor Society) Related reading: Amazing fireball streaks through West Virginia sky (PHOTO) Fireball blazes across skies in Southeast, outshining moon


Robert Shiller: ‘When I look around I see a lot of foolishness, and I can’t believe it’s not important economically’

An interview with the now-Nobel laureate Yale professor who was a pioneer in the study of behavioral finance. (Brendan McDermid / Reuters) On Monday, the Nobel Prize committee awarded three American economists, Eugene Fama, Lars Peter Hansen, and Robert Shiller, the world's leading economic prize. Shiller won for his work explaining some of the limits of the hypothesis -- advanced in no small part by Fama -- that financial markets are efficient. Shiller, a professor at Yale, spoke with me by phone on Monday afternoon. Below is a lightly edited transcript. Neil Irwin: Congratulations. So, tell me about your morning. Robert Shiller: NI: You were confident it wasn’t a prank call? RS: NI: I guess for a lot of people the surprise is not that you have won the prize but that you’ve won alongside Eugene Fama, where many view the two of you as coming to opposite schools of thought on efficient markets. How do you think of his work and the ways it informs or relates to yours? RS: But I trust him to report what that data says honestly. That’s how research goes. I read a lot of his papers. It’s not like I disagree with him on everything. It’s more that I'm after a different thing. There’s a kind of idea that has been especially prevalent at [the University of Chicago]. The other two people in this prize are from Chicago, where the prevalent view is to find the rational side of human nature very compelling. I guess it’s a different worldview than I have that I don’t find it quite so compelling. When I look around, I see a great deal of foolishness, and I can’t believe it’s not important economically. NI: So, is the old view that Fama and some of the other founders invented modern finance with the [capital asset pricing model] and efficient markets, and you and the behavioralists smashed it to smithereens wrong? RS: NI: What do you see as the biggest implications of your conclusions on these market inefficiencies for policy and how policymakers should think? RS: People should be encouraged to get professional help with their investing. We should be subsidizing financial advisers. In this country we seem to have come around to the idea that there might be a role for the government in subsidizing medical advice, though that is controversial, too. There might also be a role


Chinese censors crack down on cartoon violence

An episode of the Chinese cartoon "Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf." (YouTube) BEIJING – China’s censors have instructed the nation’s cartoon producers and broadcasters to avoid vulgar and violent content, amid concerns that children were imitating scenes from popular shows. In May, two young brothers from Jiangsu province were badly burned after being tied to a tree by a third boy and set alight – allegedly imitating a scene from the popular cartoon, "Pleasant Goat and Big, Big Wolf." The show is about a clumsy wolf that tries to eat a group of goats but always fails. Cartoon makers and broadcasters agreed to new guidelines on Saturday to make cartoons that promoted better values, in the interests of children’s mental development. “We focused too much on how to make the plots funny,” a cartoonist identified only by his surname Liu told the Global Times newspaper. “But we have made some changes since the cartoon began broadcasting, and we are making changes these days as requested by government organizations.” Lui is one of the makers of the Boonie Bears, about a lumberjack trying to log timber from a forest in northeast China who is thwarted by two bear brothers. Liu told the Global Times that the “smelly black bear,” one of the two Boonie brothers, would now be known as the “little bear.” Plot lines in which the bears enter houses when the owners are not at home would be avoided. Cartoons have drawn increased scrutiny after incidents such as the injuries to the two boys in Jiangsu. Makers of "Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf" were taken to court after the boys' father claimed the show had encouraged another boy to attack his two sons, ages 5 and 8. The father assembled clips from more than 500 episodes of the cartoon to show that the wolf had been hit with a frying pan more than 9,000 times and the goat boiled more than 800 times. The show's second episode is embedded below; it ends with the sheep stuffing the wolf's mouth with dynamite, which sends him flying when it goes off: (ENGLISH SUBS) 喜羊羊与灰太狼 EP 01 - Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf The State Administration of Radio Film and Television said Saturday that cartoon makers should fulfill their “sacred duty” to promote the healthy growth of children, in a statement signed by 20 broadcasters and cartoon makers. “Children


‘Obamacare is a bit like the astronaut on top of the rocket’

have a heck of a team to go out and communicate it when it’s up and running. It’s the best people. But there were no heavyweights brought in to manage the IT. This project is one of the single biggest IT projects in American history. When Amazon.com and Facebook started they came up as a small company and came up slowly. This had to become prime time on day one. And this business about building it for 50,000 people? You have 50 million people uninsured and 19 million in the individual market and a few hundred million who aren’t eligible for Obamacare but have been hearing about it for years! Did they not think a few of those would go take a look? I think it gets back to oversight. It was a lack of oversight on the part of the Obama administration. They needed to bring in the same kind of heavyweights in IT that the Obama administration brought in to sell this from the campaign. EK: You said a few minutes ago that they really only have a few weeks to fix this before they run into serious problems for the law. Is anything you’re hearing from the insurance side convincing you that the system is improving that quickly? BL: There’s no evidence of any improvement so far. I say that factually, not as a shot at them. The question then is will they get there in time? Another mistake they made -- and given the politics you can understand it -- was this thing was really politically secret. I joke in speeches that the CIA director couldn’t get away with an affair but no one could figure out what was going on inside HHS. They were paranoid because Obamacare was under siege. I understand that. If they were open with their partners there would’ve been criticism, but it would’ve been constructive criticism. None of us had any idea that the government Web site would require security sign-ins before browsing. Why did that have to be a secret? No one will read a newspaper article about that. If it had been transparent I think most of this would’ve been caught upfront. That really hurt them. One thing the Obama administration has been really paranoid about is rate shock. When someone like me says there’ll be rate shock they say you have to net out the subsidies. That is


Six great analog communication tricks

Lately I’ve been feeling ashamed and mortified by my digital incompetence, which I won’t belabor other than to say that I started to run into trouble around the time that MS-DOS came on the market. I’m still trying to memorize my Compuserve email address. I haven’t been fully comfortable with computers since Radio Shack stopped selling the TRS-80. Remember Commodore word processors? Now that was technology! Or am I dating myself. I can never remember my passwords — Thank God I’ve got the NSA as backup! Seriously, like many people I’m perturbed by the rise of the Surveillance State, but my major concern is that I haven’t done enough that’s worth surveilling. It’s a painful realization, knowing that you’re not very surveillable. You are a dull man when not even the NSA is paying attention. True fact: I still have (happily) an AOL email address, but for years now this has been the subject of derision from the young and the technical. They look at me like I’m raising leeches for their usefulness in medical treatments. But then one day recently I had to give my email address to a young, supremely wired colleague, who is so digital he has already upgraded to quantum computing and mental telepathy and whatnot, and when I ritually noted my shameful AOL address he said, gently, “Oh, that’s coming back.” He said the Silicon Valley tech geniuses have started using AOL addresses — for their ironic quality. It’s like bell-bottom pants, or a pompadour. It’s like commuting to work on a penny-farthing. Or wearing a trucker hat as you dine on the patio at Le Diplomate. Wait long enough, you’ll be back in fashion! Whatever happens with technology, I’m not going to abandon my favorite analog communication techniques, which have worked beautifully for decades and don’t need any upgrading. They include: 1. Writing notes on napkins with a finger dipped in the water glass. When someone comments, “But you’ll never be able to read that later, when it dries,” you can say, “That’s the whole point.” 2. Interacting with other human beings primarily through winks, finger-snapping, thumbs-up gestures, salutes, raised fists, peace symbols and eyebrow-flaring. In my experience, the creative use of eyebrows as a communication tool can get you through an entire day without ever having to speak a word. 3. Nailing theses to church doors. (Keep Scotch tape on hand in case


A roundup of local beer news

DC Brau, a popular beer brewed within the D.C. city limits. (Lexey Swall for The Washington Post) October is shaping up to be a big month for local beer fans — and not just because of the Oktoberfest celebrations around the region. Case in point: Local breweries racked up multiple awards at the recent Great American Beer Festival in Denver. As Fritz Hahn noted at the Going Out Guide, Alexandria’s own Port City Brewing Co. won a gold medal for its Optimal Wit brew and also took home a silver and two bronze medals. Devils Backbone, in Roseland, Va., took home a half-dozen medals, while Flying Dog of Frederick netted a medal for its Dogtoberfest beer. Read Hahn’s item about the festival for more about what won — and where you can sample some of these winners. (Also, Hahn is the man behind this look at the best beer selections around the D.C. region, in case that sort of thing interests you.) There’s more! Local beer has also made its way to the Verizon Center, as Dan Steinberg reported at the D.C. Sports Bog last week. DC Brau and Port City are both available there now, along with Flying Dog and Devils Backbone. The Verizon Center is following in the footsteps of the venues that have recently added similar local options. Nationals Park added DC Brau and Port City over the summer, while D.C. United fans are now able to buy DC Brau during games at RFK Stadium. Fans of these and other local brews also have a big event coming up this weekend. Snallygaster, a beer festival with more than 150 drafts on tap, heads to Union Market on Saturday afternoon.


Israel’s brain drain crisis

Arieh Warshel, one of the 2013 Nobel winners for chemistry, was born in Israel but now lives in the United States. (Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images) For decades, educated and talented Jews from around the world and particularly Europe have migrated to Israel, contributing to an Israeli economic boom that began in the late 1980s and has continued since. In recent years, though, some Israelis have been going the other direction, migrating back to Europe or to the United States. That development has sparked particular concern in Israel about losing some of its highly educated, entrepreneurial citizens – the sort who helped drive the economic miracle. That anxiety was crystallized for Israel with this year's list of Nobel Prize laureates. The chemistry prize went to three Americans, two of whom were born in Israel but had immigrated to the United States. It's felt like a reversal of the natural order for Israel, which prides itself on attracting other countries' talent. The Nobel was a symbol of that: Of Israel's 11 Nobel laureates, six had been born in other countries before immigrating. These two chemists, of course, don't definitively prove anything about Israel's trajectory. But this was a live debate in Israel long before the Nobel announcement, which the Associated Press says has "touched a raw nerve about an exodus of scientists, academics and business leaders over the years, and fueled an anguished debate about whether the country can do more to retain its best talent." A recent study by the Taub Center for Social Policy Studies in Israel found that, since just 2008, a little over one in five faculty members at Israeli universities have left the country to work at American universities. Another study found that one in four Israeli scientists had left the country. Even more telling than the outflow of these Israelis to the United States, a nation that, after all, does have lots of money and research universities, is that many are also leaving for a country that Jews fled in droves not so long ago: Germany. The German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung says that Israelis are increasingly relocating there; 17,000 live in Berlin alone. That prompted Israeli Finance Minister Yair Lapid to speak out against Israelis "who are prepared to throw away the only homeland the Jews possess simply because life is more comfortable in Berlin." This sort of reverse brain drain is a very unusual problem. In


Majority of GOP not worried about debt ceiling lapse

A new Pew Research Center poll shows a majority of Republicans and many independents are just fine with the idea of not raising the debt limit by the Treasury Department’s deadline of Oct. 17. The poll shows 52 percent of Republicans, 38 percent of independents and 36 percent of Americans overall say the country can go past that deadline without major economic problems. Overall concern is growing — albeit slightly. Slightly more than half of Americans — 51 percent — say it is essential to raise the debt ceiling to avoid an economic crisis. That’s slightly more than the 47 percent of Americans who said the same last week. There is a huge partisan split on this questions, with 37 percent of Republicans and 67 percent of Democrats in the new poll believing there would be an economic crisis. The White House has warned of a default if the debt-ceiling deadline isn’t met, but some Republicans in Congress note that the government can still pay interest on its loans even if the debt ceiling isn’t raised by the deadline — something they argue wouldn't technically constitute a “default.” White House press secretary Jay Carney on Tuesday labeled these members “default deniers.”