NASA rocket launch scrubbed

D.C. Although the cloud shield overhead is sinking south, it may not clear in time to view the launch locally (should it occur). 2:45 p.m. update: Blast off! Assuming good weather, Washingtonians will be able to catch a view of the most spectacular rocket launch from NASA’s Wallops Island, Va. flight facility since its inception. “…it’s going to be the biggest and loudest and brightest thing that’s ever launched from Wallops! So it’ll be visible up and down the coast,” Frank Culbertson, an executive with Orbital Sciences Corporation, the rocket builder, told CBS News. Where rocket will be viewable, assuming clear skies, and amount of time after launch (NASA) The unmanned rocket is scheduled to lift off at 5 p.m.,with the launch window extending until 8 p.m. The big wild card for hopeful skywatchers is the weather. NASA says the chance of launch is just 45 percent due to the possibility of low clouds and showers. If it’s determined the mission is a go, look east and the rocket will be viewable about 10 degrees above the horizon in the Washington area. Where to look for the Antares rocket (Orbital Sciences Corporation) Terrific link: The rocket is 133-feet tall, the largest ever launched from Wallops Island, CBS News reports. Designed “to provide responsive, low-cost, and reliable access to space“, the Antares rocket is being launched as part of an Orbital Sciences test mission with the goal of transporting cargo to the International Space Station (ISS). No delivery to the ISS will be made on this mission but, in a second test mission planned for June, the rocket will eject a capsule – named Cygnus – that will hook up with the ISS. “It will demonstrate the ability of Cygnus to rendezvous and berth with ISS and then destructively reenter Earth’s atmosphere,” NASA says. Watch: Orbital Sciences Cygnus ISS Resupply Vehicle | COTS Program NASA Space Station Video Assuming this second demonstration is successful, Orbital Sciences is contracted by NASA to complete eight cargo delivery missions to the ISS – the first tentatively scheduled for September. The Antares rocket (Orbital Sciences Corporation) Additional viewing information * Real time launch updates will be available on Facebook and Twitter. * Launch status is available by phone by calling 757-824-2050. * The launch will be broadcast on NASA TV. * For those living in or visiting the local area, there are two primary viewing


Wild party for the National Zoo hosted by Jim Kimsey

Wild party at Jim Kimsey’s McLean mansion — and for once, we mean that literally. Moya and Jim Kimsey at a fundraiser for the National Zoo Tuesday night. (Tony Powell) Kimsey invited 50 friends for a hands-on fundraiser Tuesday to drum up support for the Smithsonian’s National Zoo. That included a cocktail party, dinner and speeches — and some not-so-standard guests of honor: A cheetah, wallaby, penguin, armadillo and baby foxes. “The idea is to invite people who have a natural affinity for animals — and have checkbooks to match their love of the animals,” explained Kimsey. The two-legged VIPs got up close and personal with the exotic animals, hand-raised by the Columbus Zoo to travel around the country for education and conservation programs — and help raise money for local zoos. Trout, a black-footed penguin, walks through the cocktail party at the zoo fundraiser. (Pam Jenkins) The National Zoo, facing budget cuts from the sequestration, is looking to beef up the coffers for its’ 125th anniversary next year. To that end, the board is looking for more deep-pocket private donors. “We have been dependent on the American taxpayer for a lot of our budget,” Zoo Director Dennis Kelly told the crowd. “We need to grow like a great university.” Then he introduced Moya, who joined the party after dinner. The three-year-old cheetah plopped down on a table just a few feet from the other guests and began to purr loudly (think Italian race car) while his handlers took questions. Nothing to fear, they explained: Unlike lions and tigers, cheetahs don’t see humans as prey because they’re too big. Boyden Gray with a baby wallaby at the Kimsey National Zoo Dinner. (Roxanne Roberts/TWP) Moya is so tame that he posed for individual pictures with all the guests — who quickly cleared out shortly after the cat and his handlers called it a night. “When the cheetah leaves,” shrugged Jim Garrity, “the party’s over.” Also in The Reliable Source: Valerie Harper, live and very alive at National Archives, discusses cancer diagnosis Quoted: Anne Frank’s stepsister on the Bieber controversy Amanda Thatcher, Margaret Thatcher’s granddaughter, is a University of Richmond student (video) Salahi Oasis Winery is headed to foreclosure auction Stars battle rumors on social media — but is it bad PR? Celebrities at White House Correspondents’ dinner to get their own ‘gifting suite’


D.C. test cheating: Time to move on?

There is no plot, no conspiracy, no plan, no war.” (City Paper) Most city employees will get 3 percent yearly raises through 2016, Mayor Vincent Gray announced (Post, WRC-TV) Police union chief: Gray is “willing to use taxpayer dollars to make sure that certain groups are supporting him” (Examiner) CBE reporting on city development projects is spotty at best (WaTimes) Vince Gray, Rock Newman and a presidential yacht (Loose Lips) Catania is raising private funds to hire Hogan Lovells lawyers to write school reform legislation (Post) Parents and activists line up to poke holes in proposed DCPS budget (Post, Examiner) Study from pro-charter foundation says charter schools are getting shortchanged (Post, Examiner) Budget autonomy campaign poses a bit of a marketing challenge to voting-rights activists (Post) Elissa Silverman gets the Washington City Paper endorsement (City Paper) U.S. Institute of Peace to DDOT: Could you move Constitution Avenue for us, please? (WRC-TV) Patrick Mara should get your vote, says pro-small-biz columnist (Blade) Meanwhile, pro-biz PAC goes to work for Mara by slamming Silverman (DCist) “Anita Bonds, Leader of D.C. Council Contenders” (Afro) Matthew Frumin, who makes a lot more money than Silverman, is second candidate to release 2012 tax returns (Post) Mara and Frumin float between Hill and Wilson Building spheres (Roll Call) All council candidates support decriminalizing marijuana possession (Examiner) Filmfest DC could be victim of UDC budget cuts (Post) Arizona congressman says he’ll reintroduce “pain-capable” abortion ban bill (The Hill) Kwame Brown has a second travel request denied (Post) A new way of exploring D.C. campaign finance data (Sunlight Foundation, Housing Complex) Mary Cheh to critics of residential “large tract review” proposal: Relax (UrbanTurf) Verizon and People’s Counsel are at war over telephone network upkeep (WBJ) Federal testing of the District’s health insurance exchange is underway (WBJ) Family Court litigants need more lawyers, report finds (Legal Times) Kids Count counts kids, finds more of them (DCist) No increase in D.C. meningitis cases despite epidemic in gay communities elsewhere (Blade) Do DCPS cheating allegations threaten confidence in the system? (GGW) Another temporary playspace for the Nationals Park environs (WBJ) Judge declines to back WPFW-FM move to Silver Spring (Arts Desk) Tuesday night shooting on Brentwood Road (WaTimes) Another body pulled from city waterway — this time near Key Bridge (Post) Rare mask-wearing charge for alleged street robber (WaTimes) Yeah, the L’Enfant Metro station is a bit of a cluster (PoPville)


Andrew Solomon wins Lukas Book Prize

The $10,000 prize, administered by the Columbia Journalism School and the Nieman Foundation, recognizes “excellence in nonfiction that exemplifies the literary grace and commitment to serious research and social concern that characterized the work of the awards’ Pulitzer Prize-winning namesake, J. Anthony Lukas, who died in 1997.” The judges described Solomon’s book as “a tour de force of heart, head, shoe leather, and terrific writing, gives us a moving and deeply nuanced mural of the American family today.” Reviewing the book last fall in The Washington Post, Lisa Zeidner wrote, “Solomon forcefully showcases parents who not only aren’t horrified by the differences they encounter in their offspring, but who rise to the occasion by embracing them. In so doing, they reveal a ‘shimmering humanity’ that speaks to our noblest impulses to nurture.” The Columbia Journalism School and the Nieman Foundation also announced today that Robert Caro has won the $10,000 Mark Lynton History Award for the fourth volume of his ongoing biography of Lyndon Johnson, “The Passage of Power” (Knopf). This volume previously won the National Book Critics Circle Award. The awards will be presented on May 7 at a ceremony at Columbia University in New York. Twitter @RonCharles


The Texas fertilizer plant explosion is horrific. But how common is this?

Do regulators inspect these facilities? Yes, although it's not at all clear that they was sufficient. The facility in West, Texas had been fined $2,300 by the Environmental Protection Agency back in 2006 for not having a risk-management plan that was up to federal standards, according to WFAA. After that citation, West Fertilizer Co. vowed to meet standards for its ammonia storage tanks — including daily in-house inspections and water-spray systems in case of accidental releases. The remains of a fertilizer plant burn after an explosion at the plant in the town of West, Tex. (Mike Stone/Reuters) For its part, the operators of the West Texas facility thought an explosion was impossible. The Dallas Morning News obtained a copy of the facility's internal safety review for fire or explosive risks. "The worst possible scenario, the report said, would be a 10-minute release of ammonia gas that would kill or injure no one." As for other oversight: The Occupational Safety and Health Administration tends to be understaffed and inspections are relatively infrequent. The Texas fertilizer industry has only seen six inspections in the past five years — and the West Texas Fertilizer Co. facility was not one of them. Are there other downsides to synthetic fertilizer besides occasional explosions? Sure. Here's Tom Philpott with a short rundown: "Industrial agriculture's reliance on plentiful synthetic nitrogen brings with it a whole bevy of environmental liabilities: excess nitrogen that seeps into streams and eventually into the Mississippi River, feeding a massive annual algae bloom that blots out sea life; emissions of nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas 300 times more potent than carbon; and the destruction of organic matter in soil." Can we do without a fertilizer industry? Not easily. As Fred Pearce in a Yale Environment360 essay, chemical fertilizer currently helps feed some 3 billion people worldwide. And synthetic nitrogen fertilizer has lifted the “carrying capacity” of soil around the world from 1.9 people per hectare of farmland to 4.3 people. That said, some scientists have argued that we need to look for ways to reduce our reliance on synthetic fertilizer — for many of the reasons Philpott mentions above. Suggested strategies include breeding crops that are more efficient at absorbing nitrogen, diversifying what we grow (the main U.S. crop, corn, is extremely nitrogen-intensive) and developing farming systems that manage nitrogen better. *Correction: Replaced the Guardian's map of fertilizer plants, which needed a tweak.


New York Post builds bridge between rumor and media

Behold the latest scoop from the New York Post: A story that singles out two men in a photo taken at Monday’s Boston Marathon. “BAG MEN,” screams the cover headline. “Feds seek these two pictured at Boston Marathon.” On a factual level, the New York Post’s “BAG MEN” story doesn’t fall into the same category of its posts from earlier this week that 12 people had died from the marathon bombings. That’s because it might well be true. Have a look at the central contention of the story: Investigators probing the deadly Boston Marathon bombings are circulating photos of two men spotted chatting near the packed finish line, The Post has learned. In the photos being distributed by law-enforcement officials among themselves, one of the men is carrying a blue duffel bag. The other is wearing a black backpack in the first photo, taken at 10:53 a.m., but it is not visible in the second, taken at 12:30 p.m. Law-enforcement officials distribute a massive amount of data “among themselves,” especially in the aftermath of something like the Boston Marathon bombings. Authorities have asked the public for their photos and videos taken on the day of the marathon, so it’s possible that hundreds, if not thousands, of such things have gotten law-enforcement pass-around. Yet the New York Post places one such image on its cover — as if this is the key photo. Even the New York Post acknowledges in its story that it’s unclear if these fellows are the same people investigators are now zeroing in on. (CBS News has reported that they’re not). The upshot is that the New York Post randomly decided to throw a couple of fellows in front of the public and cast them in a suspicious, bag-men kind of light, even though the paper never IDs them as suspects. On “CBS This Morning,” John Miller explained how this New York Post piece, in all likelihood, came about: Those pictures were on the Internet yesterday morning, and then they started going viral on different sites. And then different intelligence fusion centers around the country pick those up and they post them into bulletins and say, ‘Any law enforcement agencies who can name these people, we’ll take that information.’ Then it ends up leaking back to the newspaper, so it comes out in one big circle. As Gawker and Deadspin have explained, the New York Post’s photo


The best sentences we read today

-- "This is watching the sausage of macroeconomics being made. It's not appetizing." -- "Support for expanding background checks and possibly further steps has again become a political norm in almost all of the blue-leaning states." -- "I’ve run marathons and reported on terrorism. Not usually on the same day." -- "As horrific as it was, the Boston Marathon bombing may not qualify as a terrorist attack for the purposes of insurance coverage." -- "If carbon markets can't work in Europe, can they work anywhere?" -- "84 percent of spreadsheets contain some kind of materially significant error." -- "Irish homeowners applying for debt writedowns will have to give up satellite television, foreign holidays and private school educations for their children under a strict new insolvency law introduced to tackle the country’s debt crisis."


Boston bombings: Tsarnaev brothers drawn into ‘religious affairs’

The Wall Street Journal has produced an insta-profile of the suspected Boston Marathon bombers, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26. Tamerlan died last night following a clash with authorities. According to the piece: The family, which included two boys and two girls, had come to America to seek refuge from the war in Chechnya, where an Islamist rebellion had been crushed by the Kremlin under President Vladimir Putin. But soon after arriving their efforts to adapt quickly ran into headwinds. Anzor Tsarnaev, the father, is described as a “talented car mechanic” with ambitions of opening his own garage, but never did. The noteworthy graph in the piece is this one: Both boys were good students, and the elder, Tamerlan, aspired to be a professional boxer, the family friend said. But he dropped out of community college and was soon drawn into religious matters, he said. Dzhokhar “had a gentler demeanor,” the family friend said, but had also apparently taken a deeper interest in religious affairs. Just what sort of religious affairs did these brothers sink themselves into? The Wall Street Journal doesn’t go there, a decision that reflects a wider reluctance within the media to get too particular about these brothers’ background, possible motivations and allegiances. It is, after all, just 18 hours since authorities released photos of the two. “What we’re dealing with most is what we don’t know,” said Chris Cuomo moments ago on CNN. “We don’t know their motivations…”


Was lax oversight to blame for the Texas fertilizer explosion?

Mark Drajem and Jack Kaskey of Bloomberg have a long piece Friday looking at whether lax regulatory oversight may have played a role in the deadly explosion of the West Fertilizer Co. retail facility in Texas on Wednesday that killed at least 12 people. A person looks on as emergency workers fight a house fire after a nearby fertilizer facility exploded in West, Tex. (Rod Aydelotte/AP) There's nothing conclusive here, but there are a few notable tidbits in the piece: -- "The Texas plant that was the scene of a deadly explosion this week was last inspected by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in 1985." -- "There are no federal rules mandating that such plants be located away from residential areas, and the current company safety plans aren’t always shared widely with residents nearby." -- "[West Fertilizer Co.] has been cited for a series of violations over the past few years. The U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration on June 12 ordered the company to pay $5,250 for improperly planning to transport anhydrous ammonia. ... The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency conducted an inspection of the risk management plan at the plant in 2006, and found a number of deficiencies, including that the company was two years late filing the document." -- "Texas environmental regulators investigated the facility seven times between 2002 and 2007. An odor complaint in June 2006 triggered an inspection that resulted in a notice of violation for operating without a required air permit." -- "[E]nvironmental groups, unions and safety groups have been pushing the U.S. to tighten federal oversight of chemical production and storage facilities." -- "Lobbying groups for these plants say the risks are limited and they now face a panoply of regulations and oversight." The headline fact here is that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) hadn't inspected the West facility since 1985. It's not yet clear, however, whether more inspections would have actually averted whatever problem led to the explosion — the Labor Department says that OSHA is currently sending inspectors to the blast site to see if there had been health or safety violations. But that statistic does highlight the fact that OSHA increasingly lacks the manpower to perform as many on-site inspections as it used to. Here's a chart from the agency showing the drop in the number of compliance officers per worker since the 1970s: Currently there are


Lyrid meteor shower peaks this weekend: its brush with history

The Lyrid meteor shower peaks this weekend on the night of April 21-22, says the American Meteor Society and the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada . Under a dark sky, the shower might spray 10 to 20 meteors an hour. However, the gibbous moon – in its glorious illumination – is likely to impede viewing and you may see substantially fewer. You may spot some stray Lyrids for a few days before and after the peak. If you’re determined enough to hunt Lyrids with a vexing moon in the heavens, park yourself away from urban or suburban light. On it’s annual journey around the sun, Earth passes through many meteor streams. Comets are but dirty snowballs, filled with ancient ice and cosmic dirt. When they pass the sun, dust and gas fall away from the comet and dusty trails get left behind. Thus, these residue rivers are the dusty, remnant paths of long-gone comets. When Earth runs into cometary trails, the dust particles smack our atmosphere, burn up and offer the cosmic light show – meteors! This weekend’s shooting stars appear to emanate from the constellation Lyra, hence the name Lyrid meteors. The constellation ascends the north-northeast heavens before 10 p.m. on Sunday night, but reaches appreciable height between 11 p.m. and midnight. On Sunday night into Monday morning, the bright moon likely washes many shooting stars. The moon will be 11 days old and about 83 percent illuminated. At sunset on Sunday, the gibbous moon loiters high in the south-southeast, at a very bright -11 magnitude. It sets at about 3:40 a.m. on Monday morning. Here’s a short video on the 2013 Lyrids from the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore: Lyrid Meteors and Partial Lunar Eclipse - Where & When In April 2013 | Video A little sense of history This comet from which the meteor shower originates seems to have a knack for historical timing. The winds of a civil war swirled from Boston to Washington to the southern states on April 4, 1861. One man in New York City – A. E. Thatcher – gazed to the pristine, night heavens to discover the brightening, fuzzy cotton ball of a comet. Eventually the comet would be officially named for him. Not until later would astronomers connect it as the parent of the annual Lyrid meteor shower. Barely a week after Thatcher discovered that comet, the Confederates opened


Larry Summers on why we shouldn’t worry about gridlock

too slowly. But I think the challenge is to make the case that the defects and the problems that frustrate people lie mostly in the process. of the many of the phenomena that are of concern, perhaps the the most concerning is the declining faith in institutions, in governments, and that’s fairly ubiquitous around the developed world. And that should incline one away from America-specific explanations. I think that’s fair. But my overall worry is that the American system, properly, is designed to make swift action difficult. We already have more veto points than anyone else. That design, however, didn’t account for political parties, much less polarized ones. It didn’t foresee the filibuster. It didn’t imagine cable news channels and radical levels of transparency that permit party activists to exert a much higher everyday level of pressure on representatives. It didn’t imagine today’s money chase. You put all of it together and I think the bias against action might have swung too far toward paralysis. That’s not to say we need to totally overhaul the system, but it is to say we might want ratchet back the new veto points we’ve imposed in recent years. It’s certainly possible that reasonable observers will look back in 2020 or 2025 and conclude that your fears were totally grounded and my optimism was ungrounded. On the other hand, the period from 2009 through 2010 was the period of the most legislative action in 30-some years at least. Perhaps even in 60 years. And this year there’s a very good chance that there will be substantial action on immigration. With all the struggling, measures are being taken. Probably not the ones I’d prefer or that anyone else would prefer, but measures that do have the debt-to-GDP ratio being reduced over the next several years, and somehow, health-care cost growth seems to be slowing. There are undoubtedly periods of too little action, but we had, from my perspective, substantially too much action on tax cuts and unpaid-for wars and unpaid-for entitlement expansions in the early Bush years. So all of us would prefer fewer barriers to action when our side is riding high and more barriers to action when the other side is riding high. The question is, on balance, is it clear that we need fewer barriers to action? It may be that people will look back 10 years from now and say it


Run for Boston along the National Mall

This post has been updated. We've all been glued to the news all week, in the wake of April 15's deadly bombing at the Boston Marathon. But for devoted runners like Adam Siple, it's hard to sit still for long. So Siple, a Boston area native and member of the D.C. running community, is organizing a memorial run in honor of the city and the victims of the attack on Monday at 6:30 p.m. The route begins at the Renaissance Hotel at 999 Ninth St. NW. before heading down to the Mall. (Ricky Carioti / The Washington Post) "Let us all join together Monday for an evening run in our Nation’s Capital to express solidarity with the people of Boston and to honor and support the victims of this past Monday’s terrorist attack," Siple wrote on the event's Facebook page, "[a]nd let us celebrate the great tradition and spirit of the Boston Marathon, its athletes, and its fans." The goal for runners is 4.09 miles, which matches the elapsed time displayed on the official race clock at the time of the first explosion. A portion of the proceeds from post-race food and drinks at the Renaissance will benefit the One Fund. For more information, see the Facebook event and Meetup page. A previous version of this post said the race would begin on the National Mall. The race's start location was changed to the Renaissance Hotel.


Local runs show support for Boston bombing victims

(Katherine Frey/The Washington Post) To show support for Boston following Monday’s bombings, several D.C. area running groups are lacing up, donning yellow and blue, and hitting the road this weekend. Here are some free group runs honoring the city and victims of the blasts: D.C. Runs for Boston Runners can choose to run a 5K or 10K Saturday morning, at group runs starting at 8 a.m. at Union Station, Active Life DC reports. D.C. Capital Striders — Runs for Boston On Saturday, the D.C. Capital Striders will dedicate three runs of various lengths to the people of Boston. A run through Adams Morgan and Columbia Heights begins at 8:15 a.m., and runs beginning at Dupont Circle and Lincoln Park begin at 9 a.m. Runners of all paces are invited to participate. Organizers ask that participants wear a past race shirt, if they have one. Second Wind CrossFit — Solidary 5K Second Wind CrossFit will hold a 3.1-mile run in Rock Creek Park at 10 a.m. Saturday morning. Participants can meet at the gym, located at 5509 14th Street., or join the group at the start line at the intersection of Morrow and Beach drives. Boston Marathon Tribute Run The group will meet at 12 p.m. at the L’Enfant Plaza Metro entrance at the corner of 7th Street and Maryland Avenue SW. Runners are asked to wear yellow and blue, the colors of the Boston Marathon. Marathon Monday Memorial Trail Run Potomac River Running will hold a run at Burke Lake Park in Fairfax at 8 a.m. Sunday. Runners are asked to wear an old race shirt and will receive a blue and yellow ribbon. Donations will also be collected. Vienna Runs for Boston This one-mile run along the W&OD trail begins at the Vienna Town Green at 8 a.m. Walkers are also welcome. Virtual Run for Boston Marathon Victims This fundraising run, organized by the D.C. Running Club, can be done anytime, anywhere (even on a treadmill). Organizers are asking runners to donate $15 if they run a 5K and $20 if they run a 5-miler before Monday, May 27, to benefit victims of Monday’s bombings. Know of other memorial runs or activities? Tell us in the comments below.


Antares rocket launch scheduled for 5 p.m., third time the charm?

1:45 p.m. Sunday update: Latest wind readings, both surface and upper level, all look "green" for today's #Antares launch #Antares rocket scheduled for 5pm launch from Wallops. Window runs until 7 pm. Weather forecast good, 80% acceptable launch weather. In the Washington, D.C. area, the rocket should be viewable about 10 degrees above the southeast horizon moments after the launch. For more information on how to catch a glimpse, read below. And remember, the launch will be webcast on NASA TV. From Saturday…. 4:35 p.m. update: 4:00 p.m. update: Antares rocket (NASA) From 2:48 p.m… Take two. After a scrubbed attempt Wednesday, NASA and Orbital Sciences Corporation will again attempt to launch the Antares rocket today from the Wallops Island, Va. flight facility. Lift-off is set for 5 p.m. 6:10 p.m. with a two-hour launch window until 7 p.m. Clear skies should allow viewing of the 133-foot rocket throughout much of the Mid-Atlantic – including the Washington, D.C. area. Assuming technical issues don’t delay or abort the launch, look southeast and the rocket will be viewable about 10 degrees above the horizon in the Washington area at 5 p.m. 6:10 p.m. Visualization of where the rocket will be viewable from the vantage point of the Lincoln Memorial (Orbital Sciences) An executive with Orbital Sciences is touting the launch as the most spectacular to ever occur from Wallops. ““…it’s going to be the biggest and loudest and brightest thing that’s ever launched from Wallops! So it’ll be visible up and down the coast,” Orbital’s Frank Culbertson told CBS News. Viewable range of rocket launch (NASA) Wednesday’s launch was halted due to “a premature separation of a launch pad umbilical connection to the Antares upper stage used for data communications” Orbital’s website stated. For more information on the purpose of this rocket mission, see our blog post from Wednesday as well as this article from the Associated Press: Wallops Island prepares for spotlight as Antares rocket is set to launch Additional viewing information * The launch will be broadcast on NASA TV. * Real time launch updates will be available on the NASA Wallop Facebook and Twitter feeds. Also follow the Orbital Sciences Twitter feed. * Launch status is available by phone by calling 757-824-2050. * For those living in or visiting the local area, there are two primary viewing locations for Wallops launches: (1) The Wallops Visitors Center located along Virginia


Kevin Powers’s “The Yellow Birds” among Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards winners

Anisfield-Wolf Book Award The Yellow Birds The other winners of the Anisfield-Wolf award are: - Laird Hunt, Kind One (Coffee House), a novel about two Kentucky slaves who take their white owner into captivity. - Eugene Gloria, My Favorite Warlord (Penguin), a collection of poetry about “Filipino heritage, samurai, fathers, masculinity and memory.” - Andrew Solomon, Far From the Tree (Scribner), a nonfiction study of parents and their children with serious medical problems or unusual conditions. Nigerian Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka, 78, was also named the recipient of the organization’s annual lifetime achievement award. Well known for his poetry and plays, he was imprisoned in 1967 during the Nigerian Civil War. He now teaches at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. The Anisfield-Wolf Book Prize was established in 1935 by a Cleveland poet named Edith Anisfield Wolf. The Cleveland Foundation, a philanthropic organization with almost $2 billion in assets, has administered the Anisfield-Wolf prize since 1963. The jury is chaired by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., who directs the Institute for African and African-American Research at Harvard University. The jury also includes Rita Dove, Joyce Carol Oates, Steven Pinker and Simon Schama. The winners will be honored on Sept. 12 at a ceremony in Cleveland. Twitter @RonCharles


Boston implications

Among the most insightful discussions of the Boston bombing case occurred on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday. While Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is still unable to speak due to his wounds, a number of themes are emerging in the aftermath of the rampage. Police in Watertown on Friday- Charles Krupa/A.P. First is the startling revelation (for some) that we may have now migrated from large-scale terrorist assaults to al-Qaeda directed assaults to individuals independently radicalized by violent Islamic jihadism. David Remnick, Martha Raddatz, George Stephanopoulos and Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), the ranking member on the House Intelligence Committee, had this exchange: STEPHANOPOULOS: And David Remnick, you’ve spent a lot of time in Russia for The Washington Post and everybody’s going to be looking at these six months. We know his parents went back and lived in Russia for some time. From the mother we’ve also heard that she says the FBI was on top of Tamerlan for several years. REMNICK: Well the parents moved back to Dagestan in order to, because the father wants to die there. He’s very, very sick. That’s the circumstance as far as we know and we have no link between the parents and anything like jihadist interests at all. In fact they seem to be utterly shocked and in disbelief. Now the older brother has been visiting jihadist websites, I spent Friday looking at his YouTube list and they are extremely frightening, ominous websites, pro-al Qaeda. There was one preacher that’s going on and on about the evils of the magic of Harry Potter. All kinds of deluded things that he was involved in. The Twitter feed of the younger brother hints of this kind of thing as well. So there’s no question that they weren’t merely religious, they were, there’s no sin in being religious obviously, but interested in jihadist struggle, global jihad is now the slogan in that region, in Dagestan, Ingushetia and Chechnya. . . . RADDATZ: And what do [we do when] they get when they radicalized? They get this sense of importance. They get this sense of mission. They fit in, themselves, in their own way. And unfortunately for all of us, it’s a rather either way. REMNICK: They play out a fantasy of fury and romantic nationalism for a place they’ve really never lived. I mean if in fact, its Chechnyan nationalism or some kind of fantastical global


Arlington’s Frank Fumich runs 78 miles, raises $33,000 to benefit Boston bombing victims

in completely insane events such as triple Ironmans, the Ultramarathon in Death Valley, Calif. , and something called the two-day Spartan Death Race. And yet, he told me Monday, “No matter how many times you run long distances, it’s no fun. It’s never easy. Especially when it’s on pavement.” But nowadays, “everybody runs a marathon,” he said. So, with three people killed in Boston, “I just thought, how about if I just run three marathons?” He knew not too many people would join him for 78 miles, but he measured out a course along the Mount Vernon Trail from Gravelly Point at National Airport south for more than three miles into Alexandria. One lap went about 6.55 miles, and Fumich asked people to join him for one of those. Others were asked to do their own running, or simply their own pledging. A friend in Florida, Matt Nelson, set him up with a Web site through FirstGiving, where people could make pledges and describe their own runs. That site is here. Nelson, a former Marine Corps major, said he and three others were running through trails in the Everglades in south Florida Monday night. He was joined by an Australian, a Cuban and a Bostonian. He said he tracked down the administrator for the Richard Family Fund, and that the family gave the event their blessing. “This could have been my family,” the father of three said in an e-mail. Various people joined Fumich in Northern Virginia for one lap, one person ran a full marathon with him (Eric Rohnacher), another man (Todd Jubeck) ran two marathons, and his friend Bryan Selm ran all three marathons, all 78.6 miles, with him. And when Fumich had recovered from the run, “we had exceeded our goal, which I never dreamed of.” The lifelong Arlington resident and Bishop O’Connell High School grad said he’s run about 50 marathons, and was gradually working his way through a list of doing one in all 50 states. He had planned to run the granddaddy, Boston, last. But now, “I think I’m going to run that next year. If I can qualify.” If you want to donate to Fumich’s fund-raiser, go here. Frank Fumich, left, and Bryan Selm on Sunday morning after completing a 78.6-mile triple marathon along the Mount Vernon Trial in Arlington and Alexandria, to benefit victims of the Boston Marathon bombing. (Courtesy Frank Fumich)


Just a Matter of Degrees

Is there any advice you can give a financially struggling parent whose daughter was accepted to a top university but won’t be able to foot the $50,000-a-year tuition bill? If I could put my kidney on eBay for a good price to cover her tuition, I would do it in a heartbeat. -Parent Meet with financial aid advisers, guidance counselors, investment gurus and people who know a heck of a lot more about money than I do. Have your daughter check out every scholarship she might possibly qualify for (Granddaughters of Pinochle-Playing Half-Armenians, anyone?). And keep an honest dialogue going with her. Let her know you take her feelings seriously, you truly want the best for her and you will try your hardest to make her dreams work. But you also need to help her realize that the “best” path doesn’t usually involve driving your family into the ground with financial stress in order to get a certain diploma, or letting her graduate with decades of debt. There are many schools that could be right for your daughter (schools whose acceptance letters hopefully have also graced your mailbox). Treating her feelings with respect will go even further than a kidney. My Co-Worker, The Saboteur I have a co-worker who insists on doing my job, not helpfully, but in a sneaky way. On our last project together, she withheld critical information. When the project seemed to fail, she miraculously used the information to save the day. My supervisor has a “house of cards” theory regarding our team: If we cannot see eye-to-eye as an organization, we will ultimately fail. This makes it hard to approach him regarding the situation because I may be viewed as a defector. Am I being too critical, or even paranoid? -Let Me Do My Job If it’s too critical to be frustrated by someone stealing and sabotaging your work, then I’m curious about what workplace behavior would actually be deemed unacceptable. So your supervisor believes that the workplace team is a delicate “house of cards.” Then he should most definitely be bothered by one of his employees coming at it with a leaf blower. You’ve got concrete and specific evidence of situations where she has hurt the team for her own gain. Use it. Conceptualize it not as you being victimized but as concern about future projects. I can’t imagine anything more in the interest of


A year of outbursts from the sun

NASA has stitched together a dazzling image, combining 25 separate images of solar eruptions between April 16, 2012 and April 15, 2013. (NASA/GSFC/SDO) But wait, there is more awe-inspiring NASA solar imagery. The video below shows a 3-year solar time lapse – beginning in the spring of 2010 – consolidated into 2 minutes and 30 seconds. (Two images per day are displayed). NASA | SDO: Three Years of Sun in Three Minutes Some additional information on what you’re looking at from NASA: [The Solar Dynamics Observatory] Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) captures a shot of the sun every 12 seconds in 10 different wavelengths. The images shown here are based on a wavelength of 171 Angstroms, which is in the extreme ultraviolet range and shows solar material at around 600,000 Kelvin. In this wavelength it is easy to see the sun’s 25-day rotation as well as how solar activity has increased over three years. Note the following highlights in the video: 00:30 Partial eclipse by the moon; 00:31 Roll maneuver; 01:11 August 9, 2011 X6.9 Flare; currently the largest of this solar cycle; 01:28 Comet Lovejoy, December 15, 2011; 01:42 Roll Maneuver; 01:51 Transit of Venus, June 5, 2012; 02:28 Partial eclipse by the moon The final minute of the video displays solar light in four wavelengths: 1. light at 4500 Angstroms, which is basically the visible light view of the sun, and reveals sunspots; 2. light at 193 Angstroms which highlights material at 1 million Kelvin and reveals more of the sun’s corona; 3. light at 304 Angstroms which highlights material at around 50,000 Kelvin and shows features in the transition region and chromosphere of the sun; 4. light at 171 Angstroms. All of the activity displayed has occurred in the run-up to the peak of the current solar cycle, number 24. While solar cycle 24 shows plenty of action, it has been a relatively quiet cycle…probably the weakest in over 100 years. Related But currently, the sun is exhibiting plenty of signs of life and could unleash a flare directed at Earth. Writes Spaceweather.com: Sunspot AR1726 has developed a ‘delta class’ magnetic field that harbors energy for strong eruptions. This has prompted NOAA forecasters to up the odds of M-class flares to 40% and X-class flares to 15% within the next 24 hours. Because of the sunspot’s almost-central location on the solar disk, any eruptions today would likely be


D.C.’s abbreviated restaurant names, in order of inscrutability

A tally of the D.C. area’s abbreviated bar and restaurant names, in ascending order of inscrutability: (James M. Thresher/The Washington Post) PORC


The obscure Russian jihadist whom Tamerlan Tsarnaev followed online

A screenshot of Gadzhimurad Dolgatov from one of his videos. His T-shirt refers to the Dagestan branch of the Caucasus Emirate. (YouTube) Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s YouTube account has been an object of fascination and speculation since journalists and Web users first found it just hours after the Boston bombing suspect's name was released. There's been particular attention on the two videos he placed in a playlist labeled "terrorism," which involves a Dagestani jihadist virtually unknown outside his region. The videos could hint at Tsarnaev’s knowledge of foreign terrorists, at least one expert says. Investigators say they have ruled out the possibility that Tamerlan and his brother worked with an outside group, but the Internet is a big place, and the corners where Tsarnaev may have spent his time could give some clues as to what he believed. The jihadist in the videos is Gadzhimurad Dolgatov, who used the nom de guerre Abu Dujana and was the commander of a small insurgent group until he was killed by Russian security forces not long into his career. Even piecing together that much information about Dolgatov is difficult. An apparently obscure figure, he rarely shows up in mainstream media, even in Russia. Most of his videos have been pulled from YouTube. And, according to regional experts, he wasn’t an important figure even within his own movement. “There are hundreds of minor commanders within the North Caucasus insurgency,” explained Aslan Doukaev, a Chechen journalist and director of Radio Free Europe’s North Caucasus service, via e-mail. There’s an overarching regional separatist group called the Caucasus Emirate, Doukaev explained, headed by a man named Doku Umarov. Within the Caucasus Emirate's claimed territory, there are several vilayahs, or provinces, such as Dagestan and Chechnya. Within those, there is a jumbled, confusing variety of provincial fronts, sectors and semi-autonomous fighting groups that loosely associate with one another. Dolgatov was the commander of a small group in a small (but historically unstable) district: Kizilyurt, a 62,000-person region of Dagestan, says Liz Fuller, an analyst who has followed Chechnya since 1994. But what Dolgatov did in that role, and how long he held it, is a matter of some uncertainty. Fuller estimates that he rose to prominence less than two years ago. According to D.C.-based research group the Jamestown Foundation, the previous leader of the Kizilyurt group died in late July 2012, which would make Dolgatov's time frame even shorter. In


Shorthand

* A Rand Paul adviser will help Crossroads with the grassroots. * Obama knows how to keep his daughters from getting tattoos. * Gabrielle Giffords went on the offensive. * John Kasich has a challenger. * Biden has something to tell "twisted, perverted, cowardly, knock-off jihadis."


D.C. area forecast: Sun springs back on cooler day, weekend looking great

- Today’s Daily Digit - A somewhat subjective rating of the days weather, on a scale of 1 to 10. - 8 A perfectly delightful day with sunshine taking the forefront but temperatures a little slow on the uptick. - Express Forecast - Today: Clouds abate early. 62-67. - Tonight: Full moon in a cloudless sky. 39-45. - Tomorrow: Sunshine throughout. 66-70. FORECAST IN DETAIL Temperature Map Temperatures:Latest D.C. area temperature map. See interactive map on our Weather Wall. There is plenty to like about the next few days. To begin with, true spring time temperatures. No dodging rain drops over the weekend either. A fine full moon greets us tonight, called many different names but I will go with Grass Moon, since most lawns are looking lush thanks to recent rains. A few clouds may try to sneak back into the picture on Sunday but rain chances are slim for at least a week. Today (Thursday): Tonight: For related traffic news, check out Dr. Gridlock. Keep reading for the forecast through the weekend… Tomorrow (Friday): Confidence: Tomorrow night: A LOOK AHEAD Saturday Sunday Monday


Full pink moon tonight and an eclipse half way around the world

The post sunset sky imparts an orange-pink glow on the not yet full moon Monday night above the Navy-Merchant Marine Memorial. Click to enlarge. ( Navin Sarma) A glorious full moon rises this evening at 8:05 p.m. EDT. It has earned the colorful name “Pink Moon,” but not for its appearance. “This name came from the herb moss pink, or wild ground phlox, which is one of the earliest widespread flowers of the spring,” writes the Farmers’ Almanac. Nevertheless, perhaps the moon will take on a pink glow if you catch it in the post-sunset sky (sunset is at 7:55 p.m. in Washington, D.C.) The moon will be 99.4 percent full when it emerges above the eastern horizon. It’s technically 100 percent “full” at 3:58 p.m. EDT today according to TimeandDate.com, a time at which it’s invisible to skywatchers in the U.S. “Other names for this month’s celestial body include the Full Sprouting Grass Moon, the Egg Moon, and among coastal tribes the Full Fish Moon, because this was the time that the shad swam upstream to spawn,” says the Farmers’ Almanac. Partial eclipse In the eastern hemisphere, a tiny piece of the moon will go into hiding as the Earth casts a shadow over it beginning at 3:54 p.m. EDT (19:54 UTC) and ending at 4:21 p.m. EDT (20:21 UTC) EarthSky explains ….tonight’s eclipse is an extremely shallow partial lunar eclipse, with only the northernmost portion of the moon passing through the Earth’s dark shadow for about 27 minutes. At the greatest eclipse, the Earth’s dark shadow will cover less than 1.5% of the moon’s diameter. It is to be the third shortest partial lunar eclipse this century, EarthSky adds. While North America misses out on this eclipse, most of Europe, central Asia, and Africa will have viewing opportunities for parts, if not all, of the spectacle.


Our authentic vice president, and the very real problem of ‘knock-off jihadis’

a few rather concrete things for women, like drafting the Violence against Women Act and taking the lead on the administration’s push against sexual assaults on campus. Bombing suspects Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Again on Wednesday, he said something maybe not quite comme il faut, but true and important all the same. He said what no one else had when he called the suspected Boston Marathon bombers “perverted, cowardly knock-off jihadis.” So what’s so “knock-off” about men who caused so much real suffering? The bombings were by definition the work of terrorists, and the CIA had even recommended that Tamerlan Tsarnaev be put on a counter-terror watch list. Yet he also seems to have been self-recruited, and to have pulled his younger brother Dzhokhar into a plan to kill, maim and terrorize people in Boston and New York. Their distraught mother told CNN that with her oldest son dead, she doesn’t care if her other son dies. “And I don’t care if I’m going to get killed, too! And I will say, ‘Allahu Akbar!'” Still, lots of things don’t add up to any jihad we’ve seen before: If Dzhokhar was at all religious, how does that square with his reported drug-dealing? Was his constant chatter about “soccer, cars, and Brazilian girls,” as the Boston Globe has reported, just a cover for his true motivations? What kind of religious zealot says his highest goals are making a lot of money and buying a great car? And if he’s so looking forward to claiming his eternal reward, why clam up after being read his rights? Even the supposedly far more devout Tamerlan was known to his brother’s friends as a common-garden jerk who loved brawling and complaining, and he was plenty inconsistent, too. He boohooed about not having a single American friend, yet lived off his American wife, a doctor’s daughter named Kate Russell. He clashed no less with his fellow believers than with non-Muslims, reportedly disrupting a January talk at the Islamic Society of Boston mosque by yelling at one of the speakers, “You are a kafir!” and thus insufficiently pure. Though much has been made of their ethnic identity, other Chechens don’t have an anti-American agenda. And calling themselves protectors of Islam no more makes that true for the Tsarnaevs than styling myself as some kind Christian warrior would make me Joan of Arc. Matt Damon, in conversation with John


“Pink” full moon dazzles in D.C.’s night sky

(Kevin Ambrose) Thursday night’s “pink” full moon rose magnificently above the eastern horizon, and many Washington, D.C. photographers captured it in all its glory. (Kevin Ambrose) Named for spring flowers rather than its true color, the heavenly orb progressed through shades of orange, yellow, and ultimately white as it ascended. Related Here’s a selection of photos from readers (via Twitter, Facebook, and Flickr). Thank you for the submissions! (Phil Yabut via Flickr) (Pablo Benavente via Flickr) (Phil Yabut via Flickr) Location: World War I Memorial (A B Pan via Facebook) Location: Chester River (Andy Suplee via Facebook) @capitalweather pink moon and the National Cathedral http://t.co/oCxX2eOxJY @capitalweather Bright Orange Full Moon after Sunset tonight in Ellicott City, MD. http://t.co/4spLOdLAIG Snapped this pic of the full moon poking up over a neighbors house in Chantilly, VA @capitalweather http://t.co/GRlGzYjhwg Moonlight peeking through the clouds in Arlington. @capitalweather http://t.co/xtwuoSNqYS


The strength of the late April sun in Washington, D.C.

Monthly variation in maximum UV index values in D.C. based on data from NOAA and TEMIS. (Justin Grieser) Clear skies and comfortable temperatures have graced the D.C. area this week, making it ideal to spend time outside in the sun. And with the sun above the horizon for over 13½ hours now, there’s plenty of light to bask in. Just don’t underestimate the intensity of the late-April sun – even on some of the cooler days we’ve had recently. While it’s not quite beach weather, the sun’s rays are now just as strong as they are in mid-August. High pressure and a very dry air mass yesterday allowed the UV Index to reach some of its highest levels of the year so far. During the latter part of April, a sunny day in the nation’s capital often yields UV index values in the 7 to 9 range (high to very high). In fact, the sun in late April appears slightly higher in the sky at 9 a.m. than it does at noon on the winter solstice! This means if you have fair skin and burn easily, limit your sun exposure during midday and be sure to apply sunscreen regularly. How to read the UV Index scale National UV Index Forecast for April 26, 2013. The mid-Atlantic will see UV levels in the 6-7 range, though higher levels are possible at high elevations and along bodies of water. (EPA) How can the sun already be so strong when it’s only April? Consider that the sun’s path through the sky on April 26 is about identical to that of August 15. While average high temperatures are “only” 70 degrees now (compared to 87°F in August), the sun follows the same steep trajectory in the sky. In fact, sometimes the sun’s ultraviolet rays are stronger in late spring than in August because we still get cool, dry air masses this time of year. This means less water vapor (humidity) is present for filtering the sun’s rays. (Justin Grieser, data from NWS and timeanddate.com) In the chart above, we see that the time of sunrise, sunset, and the sun’s height above the horizon at solar noon are about equal on April 26 and August 15. Outside air temperatures vary considerably, but have no bearing on how quickly you’ll get a sunburn. As we turn the calendar to May, the sun will continue its steeper


In D.C., restaurants go big

This weekend's cover story explores the dichotomy of D.C. restaurants: In the same period that our biggest restaurants (seating more than 700 guests) have opened, so, too, have our smallest (12 guests). We also explain what it takes to run a giant restaurant and the economies of scale that benefit the managers of the area's biggest eateries. And if you're looking for a place to host a giant group for your office party or graduation dinner, look no further. This graphic will give you a pretty good comparison of some of our mega and mini dining options. Tippi Thole for The Washington Post. Photo: iStock photo. Fun fact: These restaurants would have been dwarfed by what was once the biggest restaurant in Washington: Potomac, owned by Warner LeRoy, the restaurateur behind New York’s famous Tavern on the Green. According to an archival Post article, it was 40,000 square feet, requiring seven miles of electrical wiring, and could seat 1,000. It was inside Washington Harbour in Georgetown. "It's a huge restaurant," LeRoy told The Post in 1986. "Luckily I've never had a failure." Those are words I’m sure he regrets putting in print, because the Washington Harbor restaurant opened in July 1986 and closed 15 months later, in October 1987. The huge-restaurant trend shows no sign of slowing. Streetsense designer Herb Heiserman, interviewed for the cover story, said his company was working with Donald Trump to find a "larger-scale" restaurant to occupy part of the Old Post Office Building, which Trump plans to turn into a high-end hotel. - In Washington, restaurants are thinking big - A day in the life of Range, the bustling restaurant by Bryan Voltaggio - Tiny restaurants a play big role in D.C. dining scene - D.C. restaurants: Some of the biggest (and smallest) of the bunch


Shorthand

* Good news and bad news for socialists. * There's a new anti-Sanford ad. * Obama spoke to Planned Parenthood. * Todd Akin might make a comeback.


Fox News poll on Gosnell: People blame media bias

Dr. Kermit Gosnell (Yong Kim/Associated Press) Just before mayhem at the Boston Marathon stole the attention of the national media, conservatives launched a populist uprising against undercoverage of the Kermit Gosnell trial in Philadelphia. The result was more time in the wilderness for the story of an abortion provider charged with all manner of grisly murders. During the tumultuous marathon week, Fox News conducted a poll featuring a question dear to your local media critic: Usually the media give murder trials a lot of coverage, yet few news organizations have covered the Gosnell trial — what do you think is the most likely reason for the lack of national news coverage? The results Too gruesome: 17 percent Pro-abortion rights media bias: 41 percent Local story, not national: 26 The Erik Wemple Blog is in no position to gainsay those polling results. First of all, they’re the word of the people. Second, we agree with Marc Lamont Hill that at least a partial explanation for the low level of Gosnell coverage stems from media bias. And third, attaching percentages to these factors is unknowable and impossible: Even if all the editors responsible for under-covering the story spoke up — which they won’t do — they can’t possibly self-diagnose their biases. All of which makes this an ideal topic for polling.


The week ahead: Metro late-night work, Beltway lane closings, Silver Line construction

lanes closed from 9:30 p.m. to 5 a.m. Monday through Friday. After midnight, the entire outer loop may be closed for up to half an hour. Route 7 in Tysons Corner Construction of the Silver Line’s first phase through Tysons and out to Reston is scheduled to end in September, the Dulles Corridor Metrorail Project says. Before that, drivers along Route 7 in Tysons will encounter a great deal of road work as crews put the roadway into its final alignment, install traffic signals and put in landscaping. Workers are paving the lanes closest to the median and moving the three left lanes into their final configuration. This will be followed by demolition and reconstruction on what will become the permanent fourth lane and the final curbs and sidewalks. Dominion Virginia Power will install the streetlight poles. Potholepalooza in D.C. Every highway department attacks potholes in the spring, but the District Department of Transportation turns pothole repairs into a month-long social event. People can report D.C. potholes on Facebook and Twitter. They can turn in a pavement problem via e-mail or an online form. There’s an app, too. Worst comes to worst, they can make a phone call. Then they can track the results on a DDOT Web page that displays a map, with differently colored pins marking “open potholes,” “pending potholes” and “closed potholes.” There’s as much information available online about individual potholes as there is about some of the region’s road projects. Here’s a list of the ways that city residents and commuters can turn in an offending patch of pavement during the month-long campaign, known as Potholepalooza. - Phone the Mayor’s Call Center at 311 in the District. - Use the online Service Request Center at 311.dc.gov. - Tweet to twitter.com/DDOTDC. - Send an e-mail to potholepalooza@dc.gov. - Use the District’s new DC311 smartphone application, available for both iPhones and Android devices. - Post a comment on the Potholpalooza Facebook page at www.facebook.com/Potholepalooza. View the results by going to this Web page: gis.ddot.dc.gov/potholeapp. Route 50/10th St./Courthouse Rd. interchange East-West Highway The Maryland State Highway Administration is resurfacing a mile of East-West Highway between New Hampshire Avenue and Riggs Road. The project, which began last summer, is replacing deteriorated pavement on the heavily traveled route between Takoma Park and Hyattsville. Work on this phase should be done in late June. In the meantime, drivers are likely to encounter


A family’s journey: The story of the Tsarnaevs and their life-changing travels, in one chart

also characteristic of the larger Chechen story, of a people repeatedly pushed out of and returning to their home region in the Russian North Caucasus. This chart allows you to trace the family's travels across their ancestral home in Chechnya, to the nearby Russian provinces of Kalmykia and Dagestan, to the Central Asian former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan and finally, for the young brothers, to the United States. Here's how to read the chart: The yellow line shows the path of older brother Tamerlan and the red line shows younger brother Dzhokhar. Mother Zubeidat and father Anzor are marked by the dark and light blue lines. One of the most potentially interesting curves in the Tsarnaev story is elder son Tamerlan's trip back to Dagestan in early 2012. Was the trip just another story of a young, first-generation immigrant visiting his homeland, or does it offer some clue to the attacks he's accused of conducting in Boston? Here is an excerpt from The Post's investigation, which found that "if Tamerlan’s radicalization was cemented or enhanced during his stay, evidence of that has not emerged." In January 2012, Tamerlan arrived in Dagestan for what would be a six-month visit. He saw his father and other relatives — his mother was still in Cambridge then; she returned to Dagestan in the summer and recently reconciled with Anzor. The city Tamerlan came to in search of his roots is beset by intrigue and contradiction. Makhachkala is Muslim but known for its cognac. Weekly shootouts produce a heavy murder toll. Many Dagestanis are turning toward Salafism, a strict fundamentalist sect. Police gun down fundamentalists they say have turned militant. Police are methodically blown up with makeshift bombs. Looking for the answers to Boston in any one turn of this chart — like trying to deduce what would lead two previously normal-seeming young men to commit a horrific act of terrorism — is probably futile. Is the Tsarnaev story, in all its complexity, one of a crumbling family? Does the larger narrative of the Chechen diaspora offer some insight? Or are these just two young men who went a little crazy? Only the Tsarnaev boys themselves can know for sure. But, particularly with Tamerlan dead from a shootout with police, following his and his brother's twists and turns across continents, experiences and ideologies is one of the few ways that we can try to understand.


Shorthand

* Sandra Day O'Connor reconsidered Bush v. Gore. * Mitch McConnell got a million hits, and offered Obama some wine. * Ted Cruz went after Republican "squishes." * Obama named a new transportation secretary. * And a congressman helped an NBA player come out.


Kathleen Frydl on the drug war: ‘Here we have total and complete failure.’

a story I tell in my book, narcotics were the only prescription medicine. And it was a very different thing when they added other medicines to this category of prescription drugs. The government tried to discipline and police first the medical profession, and then the pharmacists, and tried to discipline the dispensation of narcotics. Prescription-only drugs were, for a long time, only narcotics, and then the FDA added different classes of drugs. One of the parts of the book I hope gets some attention is the way that the drug lobby is behind the current structure of our drug war. Looked at from a political perspective, Schedule I drugs represent a regime of trade protection. It privileges OxyContin producers over heroin producers, right. Exactly. Like other acts of trade protectionism, this one has failed because heroin is often cheaper than OxyContin. So we have all these stories of people who got hooked on Oxy and moved over to heroin, and will go back and forth depending on availability and access. This approach costs us plenty but it hasn't worked. Gary Parrish smokes marijuana Dec. 6 just after midnight at the Space Needle in Seattle. (Ted S. Warren/Associated Press) Marijuana was treated a bit differently, if I recall correctly. The 1937 Marijuana Tax Act was modeled on the Harrison Narcotics Tax Act, and legally it's a distinct statute, but the mechanisms were the same. What was different was that no one was pretending there was any medicinal use for marijuana. The government was just creating this structure as a way of prohibiting it. That logical inconsistency wound up bringing the entire tax and tariff structure down. In Timothy Leary v. U.S., that was a case that was about marijuana. It was not about heroin or cocaine, both of which had recognized medicinal uses for decades. The justices ruled it didn't make sense to tax something you wanted to prohibit. People would be incriminating themselves if they filed the forms to pay the tax. The government then followed in and said, "Let's strike it all down, the heroin and cocaine parts too," and that's what's interesting and goes unrecognized. Was that just an accident emanating from that particular case or was there a broader push behind it? Marijuana reform activists had been paying attention to it, but more decisive was that the government was willing to use it as a logical pretext


Why don’t Americans care more about campaign finance reform?

The Federal Election Commission listens Thursday as attorney Craig Engle argues that same-sex couples should be able to make joint campaign contributions from an individual bank account. Credit: Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post As campaign finance reform groups complain that President Obama hasn't done enough to limit the flow of big money into politics, it's worth asking, are Americans riled up about the issue? The answer: not really, even though they back strict limits on campaign contributions in overwhelming numbers. Here's a look at the numbers. On the question of whether super political action committees (Super PACs) should be able to raise and spend unlimited amounts on federal campaigns, the vast majority of Americans say they should be banned. When given arguments for and against their existence, nearly seven in 10 Americans--69 percent--said in a March 2012 Washington Post-ABC News poll Super PACs should be illegal, including majorities of Democrats, Republicans and independents. March 7-10, 2012 Washington Post-ABC News poll Similarly, a CBS News-New York Times poll in January 2012 found 67 percent of respondents believe groups not affiliated with a candidate should not be able to spend unlimited funds on advertisements, also including majorities across party lines. At the same time, Americans are not well versed in campaign finance law. Just 40 percent correctly identified what a Super PAC was in a Washington Post-Pew Research poll last year, and 51 percent thought increased spending from outside groups would not help Barack Obama or Mitt Romney more in their quest to win the 2012 presidential race. Far fewer, moreover, thought Obama (15 percent) or Romney (16 percent) would gain a distinct advantage from such spending. And when asked in their own words what impact increased spending by outside groups would have on the campaign, just 24 percent described a negative consequence; three-quarters described a neutral impact or had no opinion, while 2 percent saw it as a positive. Washington Post-Pew Research Center poll July 26-29, 2012 Like several other political issues, the lack of voter intensity on campaign finance helps account for why elected officials don't feel pressure to do more to overhaul the current system. It ranked 21st out of 22 issues in a January Pew Research Center poll when respondents were asked to name their top priorities for Obama and Congress, edging out global warming at the bottom of the list. This combination of factors helps explain why as


BugCast: Warming temperatures with moderate-to-heavy cicadas

six weeks. The nymphs tunnel out of the ground, shed their skin, fly, sing, mate, and die. They lay their eggs on tree branches which fall to the ground producing nymphs which burrow back into the ground to restart the cycle. 2) The sound organ in cicadas are tymbals, drum like structures on the abdomen of the insect. In most species only males have these organs. They are used to “call” females or warn of nearby predators. Females can make sounds but they “flick” their wings to answer the mating calls. 3) The cicada lifecycle of 13 and 17 years is a mystery, but it is known that it disrupts natural predators. With 13 and 17 years intervals of emergence, predators cannot adapt and scale to the insect. In some cases, a predator may only see the insect once in their life time. 4) Cicadas are not destructive to crops or trees and they do not bite humans. They are a clumsy and fearless bug that flies and lands on almost all surfaces, including humans, cars, houses, and pets. They prefer trees, however. 5) Cicadas can produce sounds up to 120 dB. Their “singing” to find mates can be very loud, particularly in areas that have a lot of trees. When hundreds or thousands of cicadas “sing” together at the same time, the sound is very noticeable and can be found annoying. A cicada close-up, June 3, 2004. (Kevin Ambrose) 4) My top three cicada memories from past broods — Memory #1 – Cicadas hitting the car windshield when driving 55+ mph on the highway. Cicadas are big, plump, juicy bugs that are filled with something that resembles white goo. If you think driving in Florida is bad in the summer, try driving through an active brood of cicadas on I-495 this June. It’s not fun. To give you a visual, they splatter big, with a loud thump or pop, and they explode. If you don’t see them coming, the impact may startle you. Then, after impact, the goo will stream up your windshield. Windshield wipers smear it around a lot, but with a little washer fluid, much of the goo will wash off with time. You may need frequent car washes later this spring, particularly for the front of your vehicle. Memory #2 – Pulling cicadas out of my co-worker’s and friend’s hair. Cicadas are clumsy, fearless bugs that


Study: Ordering groceries online is greener than driving to the store

Good news for people thinking about ordering groceries online from stores like Safeway and getting them delivered to their doorsteps. A new study from the University of Washington finds that grocery delivery can be greener than driving from home to the supermarket and back. How can that be? The basic intuition here is that a truck or van packed with groceries delivering to eight different houses can, in theory, use a lot less fuel than eight different cars all driving from home to the store and back again. Here's an illustrative map: Of course, that's just a crude map — it's not actual research. So what engineers Erica Wygonik and Anne Goodchild did in their paper (pdf) was to take a look at the actual stores and homes around Seattle and simulate thousands of deliveries and grocery runs around the city. They then analyzed a random sample of those runs. They found that delivery trucks bringing groceries to people's doorsteps emitted between 20 to 75 percent less carbon dioxide per customer, on average, than having all those people drive their cars from home to the store and back again. That's bigger than previous estimates: The biggest variable here, interestingly enough, was whether the customers or the grocery store had more leeway over delivery times. If the store could choose its drop-off times (that's the column on the right), then the delivery truck can follow a much more efficient route through the city. The carbon savings are quite large — 80 to 90 percent. By contrast, if customers are choosing drop-off times (the column on the left), then the delivery truck spends more time on the road, and the carbon savings are smaller — between 17 and 75 percent. But even in the latter case, the authors found, the delivery truck was more efficient. Now, there are still lots of caveats here. What's more, it's easy to come up with plenty of counterarguments. What if, for instance, online grocery shopping encourages people to make more shopping "trips" over time? Wouldn't overall emissions actually go up? In some ways, questions like these help illustrate the logic behind proposals for a carbon tax. It's often very, very difficult for individual researchers to calculate precisely which types of behavior are greener than others. There are all sorts of variables and wild cards to consider. There's always the possibility a study might miss something. But


Smithsonian to close small exhibits due to sequester

The Smithsonian Castle in Washington, D.C. (AP). The Smithsonian Institution plans to close small exhibit sections in four of its museums beginning Wednesday due to the across the board budget cuts known as sequestration. The closures, announced by Secretary Wayne Clough after a Board of Regents meeting Monday, are part of $42 million in cuts that began March 1 and extend through Sept. 30, according to a Washington Post report. The moves are part of a reduction in a security contract that supplements the Smithsonian security force, according to the report.


Father of New York Post ‘Bag Man’ seeks legal counsel

case and he will study it.” The Erik Wemple Blog is already on record as favoring this approach. Should the family file a civil complaint, it’ll surely address the upheaval that the New York Post has helped bring to the Barhoum household. The son in the photo, Salah Barhoum, a 16-year-old track athlete (other accounts say he’s 17), sleeps one or two hours per night these days, says El Houssein Barhoum, and sometimes “refuses to go to school.” “He says, ‘I don’t want people to ask me a lot of questions,’ ” the father reports. Before the photo hit the New York Post, it circulated on the Internet, a scary development that prompted Salah Barhoum to meet with authorities to clear his name. That was on Wednesday, two days after the bombings. On Thursday, the Post chose to showcase Salah Barhoum and a friend. Following all the attention, “We were just scared to go outside,” says El Houssein Barhoum, who says he works at a Cosi restaurant in Boston. On account of the sleepless nights he spends thinking about his kid, Barhoum says he’s been arriving late to work. “Recently, because usually I keep thinking about my son and about my family and in the morning, it’s hard for me to wake up early and I become lazy again,” says El Houssein Barhoum, who immigrated from Morocco with his family about eight years ago. “My future is based on my kids, so when you see your future is like really like the destruction of your kids’ future, so how can you feel? My capital is my kids. If something happens to them, it happens to me, too.” Staffers from the New York Post, says El Houssein Barhoum, visited his home In Revere, Mass., on the same day that “Bag Men” appeared on the paper’s cover. “They come here at my home, check his real name and took some pictures,” he recalls. When asked if they’d apologized for the high-profile photograph, El Houssein Barhoum said they hadn’t. “If they won’t apologize, it’s not between me and the New York Post,” he says. “They should apologize on the newspaper. They should write something on the newspaper, not between us. If they make a bad image of your son, they should make a good image just to correct.” The New York Post did publish a story saying that the kids had been “cleared.”


Is U.S. manufacturing making a comeback — or is it just hype?

It’s hardly news when a U.S. firm moves its manufacturing operations abroad to China. But what about when a Chinese company sets up a factory in the United States? Back for good? Or still hurting? (Ty Wright/BLOOMBERG) That actually happened in January, when Lenovo, a Beijing-based computer maker, opened a new manufacturing line in Whitsett, N.C., to handle assembly of PCs, tablets, workstations and servers. The rationale? The company is expanding into the U.S. market and needs the flexibility to assemble units for speedy delivery across the country, says Jay Parker, Lenovo’s president for North America. But also — and this was crucial — the math added up. While it’s still cheaper to build things in China, those famously low Chinese wages have risen in recent years. “We reached the point where we could offset a portion of those labor costs by saving on logistics,” Parker says. U.S. firms that have long operated abroad are making similar moves: Caterpillar, GE and Ford are among those that have announced that they’re shifting some manufacturing operations back to the United States. And economists are now debating whether these stories are a blip — or whether they signal the beginning of a major renaissances for American manufacturing. It’s easy to be skeptical. So far, the effect on jobs has been modest. Since January 2010, the United States has added 520,000 manufacturing jobs — and of those, just 50,000 have come from overseas firms moving here, according to the Reshoring Initiative. (That includes 115 in the new Lenovo plant.) That’s a decent number, but it pales beside the 6 million factory jobs that the Bureau of Labor Statistics says vanished between 2000 and 2009. And all those reshoring anecdotes might just be that — isolated anecdotes. In March, Jan Hatzius of Goldman Sachs pored over the data on U.S. trade and manufacturing and found that the manufacturing gains since 2010 have mainly just been a cyclical bounce-back from the recession and nothing more. "Evidence for a structural renaissance is scant so far,” he wrote. Yet the optimists counter that the logic of a manufacturing comeback remains compelling. Besides the shrinking wage gap between China and the United States, the productivity of the American worker keeps rising. Shipping costs are rising, making outsourcing more costly. And the surge in shale gas drilling gives the United States a wealth of cheap domestic energy to bolster industries


Beard Foundation’s Taste America tour will visit D.C. this fall

Susan Ungaro, president of the James Beard Foundation, is on the phone, and I've posed a question that has stumped food writers in the Washington area for decades: What exactly defines D.C. cuisine? Beard Foundation President Susan Ungaro, left, and chef Daniel Boulud, Vitaly Paley and Tim Love at the Taste America kickoff in New York City in 2007. (James Beard Foundation) It's not a completely fair inquiry, and I know it. Ungaro is not a culinary historian of the Mid-Atlantic, though her organization is leading a Taste America tour of celebrity chefs to 10 cities to explore the "unique range of local cuisines," including a stopover in Washington on Sept. 27 and 28. Ungaro even tells me the cities were selected, in part, based on their "vibrant regional cuisines." She, in other words, set herself up for this question. "Well, I think D.C. is clearly more the melting pot version, honestly," Ungaro says, laughing at her own politic response. "It's the capital. To have a Taste America tour with our foundation and not have an event in our nation's capital would just seem wrong. Clearly, we have many great chefs in D.C. that represent an array of regional and maybe international flavors." Okay, so when Taste America arrives in Washington, the chefs may be forced to talk more about the wealth of talent and produce in the area than any regional cuisine tied to the District. The D.C. stop will feature not just a large public dinner with the celebrity chefs, but also an appearance at a local Sur La Table with chef demos, cookbook signings and other activities. The chef line-up for the D.C. visit has not been set, but Charleston's Sean Brock (Husk, McCrady's) is scheduled to be here. Others expected to join the larger Beard Foundation caravan this fall include Jacques Pepin, Richard Blais, John Besh, Rick Bayless, Suzanne Goin, Daniel Patterson and Silver Spring's Carla Hall. "Right after our 25th anniversary year, which was last year, we felt that we really should revisit our Taste America program, which we first launched in 2007," Ungaro says. The motivation for the tour — aside from its obvious fundraising function — is to expand the foundation's reach beyond its Manhattan address, she notes. The tour has a "more national reach so that we're not just a foundation that holds events in New York City," Ungaro says. "We are,


Alain Ducasse and St. Regis to close Adour on May 31

Alain Ducasse, one of the most decorated chefs in the history of the profession, plans to close his lone restaurant in Washington. Alain Ducasse Enterprise and the St. Regis Washington announced today that Adour will cease operations on May 31 after a five-year run in the hotel on 16th Street NW. Alain Ducasse will have his celebrated name on only two restaurants in the United States when he shutters Adour on May 31. (Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post) Last fall, Ducasse and the St. Regis decided to close the Adour in New York City after a similar five-year run. "Both the hotel and ADE have decided it is the right time for the hotel to change course with regards to its restaurant offerings," Laura Schofield, general manager for the St. Regis Washington, said in a statement. For those keeping score, Ducasse's exit marks the third out-of-town celebrity chef to depart from the District in less than a year. Fellow Frenchman Eric Ripert said au revoir to the Westend Bistro last year, while the Toronto-based Susur Lee officially split from Zentan at the Donovan House Hotel in March. Then again, Ducasse was never much of a fixture in Washington. Last year, when the French chef launched a new lunch menu at Adour based on his cookbook, "Nature," Ducasse explained how he prioritizes his commitments to the 20-plus restaurants under his watch. "There are essentially only five restaurants in the world that carry my name, where my name is on the door, from Tokyo to Paris to London to Monaco to New York, and those are the restaurants where I'm really involved at every level," Ducasse told me through an interpreter in March 2012. "The restaurants that don't necessarily carry my name, I do lean on my colleagues and my teams to be my eyes and ears," he added. The St. Regis already has a replacement lined up for the restaurant space designed by the Rockwell Group: The Mediterranean-inspired Decanter is scheduled to open on June 21 under the direction of chef Sebastien Rondier, a long-time Ducasse acolyte. A native of Saint-Jean-de-Luz in the southwest of France, Rondier first moved to the United States in 2003 to work with Ducasse in New York City. Rondier worked at Adour in Manhattan and helped open Benoit in 2008 before eventually landing at the Washington-based Adour about a year and a half ago. So how much


Eta Aquarid meteor shower this weekend; was Wednesday night fireball sneak preview?

A spectacular fireball shot through the D.C. region’s western skies Wednesday night, a possible prelude to the Eta Aquarid meteor shower which peaks this weekend. At least 3 dozen skywatchers in 6 states in the Mid-Atlantic reported the fireball around 11:45 p.m. according to the American Meteor Society. A fireball is defined simply as a larger than normal meteor. Map showing location of eyewitness reports of May 1 fireball. Green line indicates witness saw fireball moving from right to left. Red line indicates witness saw meteor moving from left to right. (American Meteor Society) An eyewitness in Leesburg filed this report: The most fascinating thing I’ve ever seen! I first thought it was a plane crash landing but quickly realized it was a star/meteor! Very bright, bold and wonderful to experience and see! The streaking fireball was spotted just 4 nights before the peak of the Eta Aquarid meteor shower set for the pre-dawn hours on Sunday, May 5. EarthSky says “In a dark sky, especially at more southerly latitudes, the Eta Aquarids can produce up to 20 to 40 meteors per hour,” EarthSky writes. “From mid-northern latitudes, you might only see about 10 meteors per hour.” A waning crescent moon means just modest interference from moonlight. In the D.C. area, minimal cloud cover should also support good viewing conditions. ( AccuWeather.com) The shower is a result of debris from Halley’s comet and is active from April 19 to May 20, despite the May 5 or 6 peak, Earth Sky says. Thus, it’s possible the fireball seen Wednesday night was part of the spray from this long-duration shower. UPDATE, 4:24 p.m.: AMS’ Mike Hankey does not believe either of these fireballs were part of the Eta Aquarid meteor shower due to their timing and location. He writes: First, both of these fireballs occurred several hours before the Eta Aquarids radiant had even risen. Secondly the radiants for these fireballs were no where near the Eta Aquarids radiant. Event 967 which occurred first, started in the west and headed east , this would place its radiant on the opposite side of the sky from the meteor shower radiant. The second event also happened more than 4 hours before the Eta Aquarids radiant had risen, and this fireball originated in the south west, heading north east, placing its radiant far from that of the meteor shower as well.


Unemployment report shows rates looking up for veterans

percent of veterans who were unemployed in April of 2012. For veterans who served after 9/11, the rate also dropped dramatically, from 9.2 percent in March of 2013 to 7.5 percent in April. The latter eye-popping drop, however, could be statistically invalid, warns Army Times. "The April report shows an unexplainable improvement for Post-9/11 women," the publication notes, and the sharp drops in the rate "are likely the result of Post-9/11 veterans making up a small part of the Labor Department’s sample," particularly for women. Still, even if this month's drop is questionable, there has been a generally steady recent down-tick in the unemployment rate for veterans. In January of 2013, for instance, the unemployment rate for veterans who served after 9/11 was 11.7 percent; for all veterans, the rate was 7.6 percent. Perhaps some of those improvements can be tied to efforts like the White House's campaign to connect unemployed veterans with 100,000 jobs—an effort it launched two years ago. The White House said Tuesday it had nearly tripled its goal, and this week a new goal of 435,000 such hires or trainings for the next five years was also announced. Pledging to hire veterans is not only good business, it brings good PR, as Wal-Mart found with its announcement back in January to hire any veteran who wants a job. The issue is getting recent attention on Capitol Hill, too. In April, the Troop Talent Act was introduced in both houses of Congress to help troops more easily obtain certification of licenses and certifications that would help put their skills to work in the private sector. Whatever the reason, the improvement is encouraging. That's not only because it's a shame that those who risk their lives for this country might face financial strain. It's also because a high jobless rate for veterans, even particular groups like young men or those who served after 9/11, can affect the perception hiring managers have of veterans' ability to hold down jobs. Notes the magazine G.I. Jobs, "this focus skews the public's perception and creates a misperception that can hurt the job prospects for all veterans." And that unintended consequence, of course, is something no one wants to see. Jena McGregor is a columnist for On Leadership. Read also: Why companies hire veterans, and why they don’t The hottest jobs for military veterans Like On Leadership? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter.


Why are bees dying? The U.S. and Europe have different theories.

The mysterious collapse of bee colonies around the world has turned into a real crisis. In the United States, domesticated bee populations have reached a 50-year low and keep dwindling. The situation is just as dire in many other countries. Not doing well. (Linda Davidson / The Washington Post) And that’s bad news for all those crops that depend on bees. The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that "out of some 100 crop species which provide 90% of food worldwide, 71 of these are bee-pollinated." Around the world, these crops are worth at least $207 billion. So why are bee colonies collapsing? And what's the best way to halt the decline? As it turns out, regulators in the United States and Europe are taking very different approaches to these questions. The European Union, for its part, is now moving to ban a certain class of pesticides, neonicotinoids, as a precautionary measure: The European Commission will enact a two-year ban on a class of pesticides thought to be harming global bee populations, the European Union’s health commissioner said Monday. ... Mr. Borg made the announcement after representatives of the 27 E.U. member states failed for the second time in two months to reach a binding agreement on a proposal to ban the pesticides, known as neonicotinoids. The commission had proposed the ban after the European Food Safety Authority recommended in January that use of the pesticides be restricted until scientists determined whether they were contributing to a die-off in bee colonies. Recent studies have found that neonicotinoids can adversely affect bee health, though there are still doubters. (One key question is whether lab results in this area are applicable to the real world.) Here's how an overview in Nature puts it: "a growing body of research suggests that sublethal exposure to the pesticides in nectar and pollen may be harming bees too — by disrupting their ability to gather pollen, return to their hives and reproduce." But other scientists insist "there is insufficient evidence to implicate these compounds." Even so, the European Commission is putting in place a two-year ban so that officials can review the evidence on the topic and “take into account relevant scientific and technical developments.” In the United States, by contrast, regulators are moving more slowly. A big new report (pdf) out Thursday from the Agriculture Department and the Environmental Protection Agency argued there were a


The best sentences we read today

- "What does [Google] Glass and its successors aim to turn us into? Is it something we want to become?" - "It appears that one local grower developed a strain sold under the 'Purple Urkle' label. It was widely held, by producers and consumers alike, to be truly righteous weed, and it flew off the shelves." - "For species that are rare or difficult to capture, they still have to poop." - "SCHOOL CANCELLED DUE TO GREAT WEATHER! WAHOOO!"


D.C. area forecast: Sun vanishes, clouds and showers take control

- Today’s Daily Digit - A somewhat subjective rating of the days weather, on a scale of 1 to 10. - 4 The cloudy, cool weather is a disappointing contrast to the glorious weekend. - Express Forecast - Today: Cloudy, slight chance of showers. Highs: 60-65. - Tonight: Showers likely. Lows: Near 50. - Tomorrow: Intermittent showers likely. Highs: 60-65. FORECAST IN DETAIL Radar & lightning:Latest regional radar shows movement of precipitation and lightning strikes over past two hours. Refresh page to update. Click here or on image to enlarge. Or see radar bigger on our Weather Wall. Our streak of sunny afternoons has ended, and now we face several days of gray, damp weather. It won’t rain all the time, but we could certainly add an inch or two of water to our gauges by mid-week. Some improvement arrives by late in the work week, but the weekend may be unsettled at times (though not a washout). Today (Monday): Tonight: For related traffic news, check out Dr. Gridlock. Keep reading for the forecast through the weeked… Tomorrow (Tuesday): Tomorrow night: A LOOK AHEAD More showers are a decent possibility Wednesday (60 percent chance), but they decrease in coverage and frequency. It’s slightly warmer, with highs 65-70. A 40 percent chance of showers Wednesday night, with lows 50-55. Confidence: Medium The lumbering cutoff low starts to fall apart and move off Thursday, so there’s a good chance we see at least partial sunshine and warmer temperatures. Shower chance are slim (20 percent), with highs 70-75. Mostly clear Thursday night with lows the upper 40s in the cooler suburbs to the mid-50s downtown. Confidence: Medium Friday Over the weekend, a frontal system moving through the region brings back more unsettled weather. Saturday is variably cloudy and warm with better than 50/50 odds of afternoon showers and storms. Highs are in the 70s to near 80. Showers are possible Saturday night with lows in the 50s. Sunday is clearing, breezy and cooler, with highs near 70. Confidence: Low-Medium


Innovations in 5: Superpowers, super brains and supercomputers

it all relative? (AP Photo/DC Comics, File) (Anonymous – AP) 1) You have superpowers and you didn’t even know it. Well, that’s according to Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern, who writes : “Artificial enhancement of the human body isn’t just for cyborgs; most of us have bodies that have already been enhanced beyond their natural potential. To us, these advantages are a routine part of modern existence. To our grandparents, they would have made us seem like Superman.” The piece then notes five technologies that have given us seemingly superhuman abilities. 2) In a 2013 report to Congress titled “Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China 2013,” the Pentagon made its most direct accusation against the Chinese government and military for cyberspying. The report reads, in part: “In 2012,numerous computer systems around the world, including those owned by the U.S. government, continued to be targeted for intrusions, some of which appear to be attributable directly to the Chinese government and military. These intrusions were focused on exfiltrating information. China is using its computer network exploitation (CNE) capability to support intelligence collection against the U.S.diplomatic, economic, and defense industrial base sectors that support U.S. national defense programs.” The Washington Post’s Ernesto Londoño has the story 3) The Big Think’s “Big Theme” today is “predicting the future” with, among others, Daniel Altman. Here Altman goes through what he got right in the wake of his 2012 book, “Outrageous Fortunes: The Twelve Trends That Will Reshape the Global Economy.” 4) Wired’s Daniela Hernandez offers a relatively deep dive on Deep Learning and some of the latest advances in Artificial Intelligence: “…scientists aren’t just aiming for smaller. They’re trying to build machines that do things computers have never done before. No matter how sophisticated algorithms are, today’s machines can’t fetch your groceries or pick out a purse or a dress you might like. That requires a more advanced breed of image intelligence and an ability to store and recall pertinent information in a way that’s reminiscent of human attention and memory. If you can do that, the possibilities are almost endless.” 5) Ars Technica’s Jon Brodkin reports that the company behind the world’s fastest supercomputer, Cray, is making its next generation of supercomputing technology available to companies for a starting price of $500,000. The big takeaway: The technology could potentially be used to power a supercomputer faster than Titan, today’s fastest supercomputer.


Here is your moment to relax: A Q&A with ‘Here is Today’ creator Luke Twyman

week. At the moment, I’m trying to make sure that where I have gaps between work I’m still continuing with personal projects like this. This was only my second project using Javascript/HTML5 canvas. So, some of that time was spent teaching myself how to do what I wanted to do. The rest was spent researching, figuring out lots of percentages and programming the animations/interaction. My starting knowledge on geologic time and its events was next to nothing. So, again, that’s something I had to teach myself as I went along. Why use the Web for this feature? There are lots of printed charts of the geologic or astronomic time scales, but they normally serve a different purpose than to simply compare different blocks of time. To do that there really needed to be some realtime scaling/zooming. Also it’s what I know, interactivity is always a big hook for people, and it makes sharing so easy. Actually for a while now I have been drawing up plans of a physical interactive art/science piece I’d love to do which is also based on the concept of time, but it’s really the kind of thing I’d need funding help for, so that’s another reason why the web is an easy go-to medium. What are you hoping to work on next? I have a load of personal projects underway. I think the next one I plan to complete is a large graphic poster on which I’ve been collecting together all of the NASA launch vehicles and all of their variations used for space missions. What I’m hoping is that I can move into doing more interactive or graphic work for the purposes of science and informal education. It’s something I’ve been planning for a little while but hopefully the interest in “Here is Today” puts me in a good position to make that happen. What’s the coolest/most innovative work, other than your work, that you’ve seen online recently? This was from last year but I only recently saw it: 15-Yr-Old Kelvin Doe Wows M.I.T. I think it’s difficult to tell if the MIT visit would have been of huge value to [15-year old Sierra Leonian inventor] Kelvin Doe, but certainly Doe is amazing and I’m sure inspiring to a lot of people. To me it has always felt most rewarding making something with limited resources, but it’s incredible seeing what some people can do.


Cicadas: Coming to a cocktail list near you

We're probably days away from the emergence of Brood II, the batch of 17-year cicadas that last turned the D.C. area into a noisy breeding ground in 1996. You're more likely to remember their cousins in Brood X, whose 2004 appearance offers the best clue of how local establishments might try to turn magicicada into menu item this time around. A few menu selections from nine years ago: (Michael Williamson/The Washington Post) • The Cicada Cocktail at Kramerbooks, a muddy-looking glass of Jack Daniel's, amaretto and cream, served with two cleaned, candied cicadas on toothpicks. "These cicadas look more like chocolate-covered peanuts than, um, 17-year-old bugs," Fritz Hahn wrote. "No wings, no big red eyes, no twitching legs. That lessens the fear factor considerably." • Another Cicada Cocktail at the Degrees bar in Georgetown's Ritz-Carlton Hotel, but this one only resembled a cicada: Vodka, pineapple juice, a splash of Blue Curacao and a large red cherry which, after you've seen enough cicadas up close, resembles an eye. • The Fairmont Hotel's Lobby Lounge served a pale-green "They're Back Tini," which was an awful name for a $14 novelty drink. Vodka, sour apple liqueur, Cointreau and fruit juice, served with a pair of earplugs. • The Bug Juice Martini at Helix Lounge was an adult version of the summer camp standby: Bacardi Limon (we've come a long way from 2004, haven't we?), cranberry juice, sour mix and Sprite, served with a sparkly plastic insect on the rim of the glass. So that wasn't bad, but this is the first cicada invasion of the social media age, where the perfect specialty menu item or concoction will earn a bartender or restaurant instant (don't say buzz, don't say buzz) notoriety and retweets and blog posts. So expect to read the phrases "candied cicada" and "vaguely nutty taste" often in the weeks ahead.