After SpaceX sticks its landing, Elon Musk talks about a city on Mars

Monday evening. It was still standing there Tuesday morning. Viewed from this fishing vessel chartered by SpaceX, it towered some 15-stories tall, right next to the launch pad that shot John Glenn into orbit. Many in the space community heralded SpaceX’s achievement of shooting a rocket into space and then recovering the first stage as another momentous step in the history of space flight, one they hope will touch off a boom in commercial space. Being able to recover and reuse the first stage of rockets—the most expensive part because they house the engines—would dramatically lower the cost of space travel, a key step in making space more accessible. “It would be like having an aircraft used many times when all the other aircraft could only be used once,” he said. The savings with reusing a rocket would be substantial. The Falcon 9 costs about $60 million to build, and that’s on the low end, Musk said, and the fuel costs an additional $200,000. “This may one day be looked back upon as the day that the Space Age really began, because it showed that you can return a stage for reuse without a huge standing army of technicians to do it—unlike the shuttle,” Charles Lurio, who writes a space newsletter wrote Monday evening after the launch and landing. For Musk, whose main goal is the colonization of Mars, the landing shows that the technology to reuse powerful rockets is real. “I think it really quite dramatically improves my confidence that a city on Mars is possible,” he said on a call with reporters Monday evening. “That’s what all this is about.” Last month, Jeff Bezos’ space company also landed a first stage on land. And on twitter he congratulated SpaceX, and said: “Welcome to the club!” But the landing SpaceX pulled off was far more difficult. Bezos’ New Shepard vehicle made it just past the boundary of space, or about 60 miles, during a test flight. Musk’s Falcon 9 is a much bigger, more powerful rocket designed to launch payloads into orbit, which makes the landing feat all the more complex. The landing also came as part of a mission—to launch the satellites into space—and not just a test flight. And SpaceX pulled its feat in front of the world, broadcasting the launch and landing on its website so that everyone could see the triumph—or what could have been


Main Street Morning: Massachusetts breaks a venture capital record

small business owners make money off of Wi-Fi. Technology - How to improve the battery life on your Android 6.0 Marshmallow. - This ride-sharing company focuses on drunk college students. - Here are the wackiest tech gifts you can pick up this Holiday season. - Software-defined vehicles are expected to dominate the upcoming Computer Electronics Show. - An academic believes that Apple Pay is just a Trojan Horse and that Apple has other plans for payments. - Here’s what scares FTC chief Ashkan Soltani about the internet of things. - Elun Musk’s SpaceX returns pulls off a dramatic rocket landing, Bezos and Musk trade tweets and now Elon Musk is talking about building a city on Mars. Online - Google is testing a new schema to markup your local business data. - This communication app’s growth is blowing past the competition. - These are 10 must-have apps for your new device. Social Media - A Scottish entrepreneur gets into a Twitter fight with a 13-year-old. - An app that’s using Twitter’s robust firehose of information to show its users where to eat, is launching in 12 new U.S. cities in 12 weeks. Around the Country - A recent survey by a non-partisan group finds California’s business climate may be better than some people say it is. - Why the Fed interest rate hike will be good for Maryland businesses. - Cincinnati plastic surgeon’s business gets a lift from rewards program. - Bionic eye surgery could soon prompt medial tourism to Hawaii. - The wrong winner gets crowned in the Miss Universe pageant. - A Colorado small business owner has thousands of dollars’ worth of unique jewelry stolen. - “Fireball” lawsuit between liquor companies cools off. - Massachusetts breaks a record for venture capital funding. - New York City’s Mayor De Blasio will likely see a nearly $1 billion budget surplus in 2016. Around the World - A reindeer causes mayhem after escaping a Christmas event in England. - Driving instructors in the Netherlands are allowed to trade instruction for sex. - Scores are missing after a landslide hits a Chinese business park. - The 25 best and worst countries to live in the world. Gene Marks owns the Marks Group, a Bala Cynwyd PA consulting firm that helps clients with customer relationship management. Follow Gene Marks and On Small Business on Twitter. News we should know about? Email us here.


The SpaceX Falcon rocket video is amazing for the landing — and the explosive celebration by Elon Musk’s employees

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from Florida before the reusable main-stage booster turned around, soared back to Cape Canaveral and landed safely near its launch pad. Much has been made of SpaceX CEO Elon Musk's seemingly super-human work ethic, his 80- to 100-hour work weeks, his relentless pursuit of his uncommon ambition. A recent biography reported an unflattering anecdote about his response to an employee missing an event for a child's birth -- a story Musk has denied -- as well as that he once said if he could find a way not to eat so he could have more time for work, he would. While that kind of intensity might not create the environment many people want to work in, the video of the successful Falcon 9 rocket landing Monday night reminded us of one big reason many very smart, driven and talented people do. The most powerful thing about the video of the successful launch and landing of the first stage of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket, of course, was watching the achievement itself. For the first time, a 229-foot rocket took off, deployed 11 satellites into orbit and then landed upright and unscathed, like a pencil landing on its eraser after being catapulted over the Empire State Building. But not far behind it in terms of powerful images was watching the explosive celebration of SpaceX employees, cheering inside and outside mission control at the company's Hawthorne, Calif., headquarters. The shouting and applause and cries of awe and disbelief were deafening. It was as close as many of us ever get to experiencing the unbridled joy and pride of achieving a historic feat of aerospace engineering. Musk added his own celebratory tweet: "Welcome back, baby!" 11 satellites deployed to target orbit and Falcon has landed back at Cape Canaveral. Headed to LZ-1. Welcome back, baby! It was a reminder of the purpose and mission employees have at a company like SpaceX, which is trying to not only build reusable rockets that lower the cost of space travel, but ultimately to create a city on Mars and become "a multiplanetary species with a self-sustaining civilization on another planet," as Musk has said. The landing "quite dramatically improves my confidence that a city on Mars is possible," Musk said during a post-landing news conference Monday night. "That's what all this is about." To quote leadership guru Jim Collins, that's


Eric Ziebold to launch Kinship on Saturday near Mount Vernon Square

Employees were stocking the pantry at Kinship on Tuesday after the D.C. Department of Health gave Eric Ziebold the green light to start cooking at the first restaurant where he will hold the dual title of chef and owner. More than a year out of the kitchen, Eric Ziebold returns Saturday with the opening of Kinship near Mount Vernon Square. (Photo by Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post) Ziebold is still waiting on one last permit but expects to open Kinship on Saturday at 1015 Seventh St. NW., just across from the Washington Convention Center near Mount Vernon Square. Ziebold is calling it a soft opening: The 75-seat Kinship will be open for dinner only and will be closed on New Year's Eve. Expect a more official launch sometime around Jan. 4, with brunch service starting later in the same month. OpenTable will start accepting reservations on Saturday for Kinship only. Ziebold's related fine-dining concept, Métier, is not expected to open until early February. [CityZen's final service: They came to celebrate the past and ponder the future.] Saturday's service will mark the first time Ziebold has cooked for the public since December 2014, when he put a period on his astonishing 10-year run at CityZen, the fine-dining destination inside the Mandarin Oriental. The chef says he has had plenty of time to ponder and fine-tune his opening menu, which will apparently include a few carryovers from CityZen. One is the Parmigiano-Reggiano agnolotti with lamb bacon, and another is the chocolate chip cookie dough souffle. Kinship's a la carte menu will be divided into four categories, each named for a particular source of inspiration for Ziebold and his culinary team: craft, history, ingredients and indulgence. The chef says diners can create their own tasting menus by selecting items from each category such as corned beef cheeks, sticky toffee pudding, brandade chowder, foie gras-stuffed quail and aoyagi clams seviche. (See the tentative menu below.) "Kinship isn't a bistro. We're trying to make it more accessible from a standpoint of it being a la carte," Ziebold says. "Hopefully, this is a more relaxed, more open environment [than CityZen] but where you can still enjoy great food and great service in a great dining room." The butter-poached lobster French toast: "To die for," says Eric Ziebold. (Photo by Jennifer Chase Photography) Among the planned indulgences is butter-poached lobster French toast, which incorporates the preferred flavors of


Russian energy sector struggles as U.S. and Europe tighten sanctions

Russian President Vladimir Putin (right) touches President Obama as they arrive at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit plenary session in Beijing in November 2014. (ALEXEY DRUZHININ/AFP/Getty Images) A year and a half after the United States and its European allies imposed economic sanctions on Russia’s energy sector, major Russian projects that were to carry oil and natural gas to customers in China, Turkey and Germany have stalled. And even though the Obama administration is seeking Russia’s cooperation in Syria, there is no sign that it is planning to let up on sanctions that were designed to get Moscow to withdraw from its occupation of Crimea and eastern provinces of Ukraine. On Tuesday, the Treasury barred business dealings with dozens of individuals and companies in Russia who were allegedly trying to circumvent the earlier economic restrictions. The announcement comes one day after the European Union extended sanctions against Russia for another six months. The Treasury also imposed sanctions on six individuals in the self-proclaimed peoples’ republics of Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine, two former officials in the government of ousted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich and a dozen firms operating in Crimea. “Today’s steps support the U.S. commitment to seek a diplomatic resolution to the crisis in Ukraine by maintaining our sanctions on Russia,” the Treasury said in a statement. “Those sanctions will not begin to be rolled back until Russia fully implements its commitments under the Minsk Agreements, including the return to Ukraine of control of its side of the international border with Russia.” The sanctions have coincided with a plunge in oil and gas prices that have hurt the Russian economy. A World Bank update this month said that Russia’s inflation rate is running around 16 percent, meaning that after adjusting for inflation, pensions contracted 4 percent in the past year. Overall, the economy is shrinking with manufacturing off 5.9 percent, retail services down 11.7 percent and fixed capital investment down 5.2 percent, the World Bank said. In order to cover its budget, Russia’s federal government has been forced to dip into its Reserve Fund, built up when oil prices were high. The biggest victim of the energy sector sanctions so far has been a plan for three natural gas pipelines to China. The Russian pivot to China was supposed to open up a major new market for Russia, which currently relies heavily on exports to Europe. Although the


Zimbabwe’s curious plan to adopt China’s currency

become little more than a kitsch souvenir. By 2008, foreign currencies such as the U.S. dollar and the South African rand had become de facto currencies thanks to a booming black market. The following year, the government announced that it would officially allow businesses to use these currencies, effectively abandoning the Zimbabwean dollar. The new agreement would add the yuan to the list of currencies used for public transactions, and the Zimbabwean government said it would encourage its use. In the first stages of the plan, Reuters reports, Chinese tourists would be allowed to use the yuan to pay for services, and Zimbabwe would begin paying back its loans to China in the currency. The new switch may have other side effects, too: In recent months, some Zimbabwean economists had argued that the country should increase its use of the Chinese currency in a bid to get around U.S. sanctions. The move carries important symbolic weight in China. In recent years, the Beijing has pushed to internationalize its currency, with a fair degree of success. Late last month, the International Monetary Fund’s Executive Board voted in favor of acknowledging the yuan as one of the world's top currencies. However, the move's practical effect on the average Zimbabwean is hard to predict. At present, the majority of transactions in the country take place with U.S. dollars, though the situation (and supply of hard cash) varies across different regions. If anything, the deal is further evidence of the lengths that strongman Robert Mugabe, long isolated by much of the Western world, is willing to go to secure the future of his relationship with China. The Chinese government, which touts its "non-interference policy" in trade and aid relationships, has given Zimbabwe more than $1 billion in low-interest loans in the past five years, and Mugabe has considerable personal ties to Hong Kong. Zimbabwe was the first stop on Chinese President Xi Jinping's tour of Africa this month, and Mugabe greeted him by saying, "China is Zimbabwe's all-weather friend." Notably, a Chinese group with murky ties to the government awarded Mugabe the Confucius Peace Prize – considered the Chinese version of the Nobel Peace Prize – in October, despite the Zimbabwean leader's long-standing reputation for human rights abuses. More on WorldViews Zimbabwean strongman Robert Mugabe wins China’s version of the Nobel Peace Prize Zimbabwe’s Mugabe says his people failed to protect Cecil the lion


11 astounding things that happened in 2015

"wild polio" -- polio that is acquired locally and naturally. That victory was the result of a massive and remarkable public health campaign that began in 1988, when polio was endemic in 288 countries, Gates says. It's a fragile victory: Polio is still endemic to Afghanistan and Pakistan, and two cases appeared in Europe this year for the first time since 2010. But as Gates argues, the world has gone "99 percent of the way to eradication." Global Polio Eradication Initiative 8. China scrapped its one-child policy China announced in October that it would finally end the 36-year-old regulation that limits many couples to having only one child. While most families are now limited to two children, the change still marks a significant increase in personal freedom, and a much-needed step toward increasing the country's working-age population. Yet the regulation will continue to leave deep scars, including demographic imbalances and memories of forced sterilization and abortion. As the chart below shows, China's population has already aged significantly, and lifting the one-child policy probably won't do too much to change that. Laris Karklis and Richard Johnson, The Washington Post 9. The Fed raised interest rates, marking the end of an era The Federal Reserve's rate hike in December was notable not for its size -- the federal funds rate increased by a tiny one quarter of a percentage point -- but for its symbolism. It was the first rate hike in more than a decade and a sign that some of America's most prominent economic thinkers believe the economy is once again sound, roughly seven years after the onset of the global financial crisis. The Washington Post 10. Millennials surpassed boomers as the biggest U.S. generation This was the year that baby boomers finally lost their position as the country's largest generation, a title they had held for decades. According to tracking from Pew, the United States was projected to have 75.3 million millennials (defined as those between the ages of 18 and 34) in 2015, compared to 74.9 million boomers (51-69) and roughly 66 million Gen-Xers (35-50). Pew Research Center 11. Same-sex marriage became a right in the U.S. A historic Supreme Court decision in June ruled that state bans on marriage among same-sex couples are unconstitutional. The 5-to-4 decision capped off a rapid change in public opinion about gay marriage over the past decade. Before the decision, 13 states


Angry bees are easily distracted by food, study finds

ready to die for the cause. Previous research has shown that bees and other insects can sometimes get confused by exposure to more than one kind of pheromone. But researchers wanted to see whether the scent chemicals produced by flowers might have any effect. First, they had to make some honey bees angry, which they did by placing them in an "arena" with an annoying moving target: Two bees are placed into a container with a moving target and are unaffected by the movement until one of the bees strikes. Then they added alarm pheromones into the mix, which you can see makes the bees attack the target much more quickly: Two bees are placed into a container with a moving target and an alarm pheromone. The reaction to the sting alarm pheromone can be extremely fast, as evidenced by this pair of bees attacking the moving dummy within seconds of their introduction inside the test arena. But when flowery scents like lavender were added, the bees chilled out. It wasn't simply a question of masking one scent with another -- some food-related scents, like citrus, had no effect -- but the compounds linalool and 2-phenylethanol, along with the scent of lavender (a mix of linalool and other chemicals) seemed to block the aggressive response to the alarm hormone. Since stinging is such a nasty business, it's not surprising that bees might be hardwired to avoid it in favor of accessing available food for the hive. But the bees didn't have to rely on memories of previously foraged snacks in order to decide what food trumped fighting. Even newly emerged bees, who had never foraged and therefore had no experiential preference for particular flowery smells, were calmed by the lavender-related scents. The researchers told Live Science But that doesn't mean that humans can't benefit from the study. "We certainly see great potential for applications to beekeeping," first author Morgane Nouvian, a graduate student at both the University of Queensland and the University of Toulouse, told Live Science. "Developing a product based on our results — for example a scented hand spray [or] cream, or an odor-releasing device to place at the hive entrance — could certainly help reduce the number of bees stinging while [beekeepers are] handling the hives. This method would be a great alternative to the current use of smoke and repellents, because we would be tricking the


Loosening the rules of engagement against ISIS; more sanctions over Ukraine; and British troops go back to Helmand

RULES OF ISIS STRIKES. The complaints aren’t just coming from Republicans promising they would “carpet bomb” the Islamic State into oblivion, but also from coalition allies and local partners that would prefer to see attacks against the extremist organization increased, even if it means risking more civilian lives. Yet others are counting casualties, such as Amnesty International, which put out a report citing 200 civilian deaths in Syria due to Russian airstrikes, and suggesting that they might amount to war crimes. Where the middle ground is, if it exists, the administration has not determined. MORE SANCTIONS OVER UKRAINE. The move comes just after the European Union announced it would extend sanctions on Russia over the Ukraine conflict for another six months. BRITISH BACK TO HELMAND. U.S. and NATO forces pulled out a year ago, and local Afghan security forces have struggled to keep a grip over Helmand in the face of increased Taliban attacks.


Brazil declares emergency after 2,400 babies are born with brain damage, possibly due to mosquito-borne virus

department of Martinique. Brazil's Health Ministry confirmed the connection between the growing of microcephaly cases in babies born in northeast Brazil and the Zika virus. (Patrice Coppee/AFP/Getty Images) Until a few years ago, human infections with the virus were almost unheard of. Then, for reasons scientists can't explain but think may have to do with the complicated effects of climate change, it began to pop up in far-flung parts of the world. In 2007, it infected nearly three-quarters of Yap Island's 11,000 residents. In 2013, Zika showed up in Tahiti and other parts of French Polynesia and was responsible for making an estimated 28,000 people so ill they sought medical care. It arrived in Brazil in May, where tens of thousands have fallen ill. The World Health Organization, which has been monitoring the spread of the virus closely and issued an alert about the situation in Brazil, reported this month that it had popped up for the first time in the West African nation of Cape Verde and that it had led to additional illnesses in Panama and Honduras. In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has found the virus in a few travelers returning from overseas, but says there have not come across any cases of people being infected by mosquitoes in the country. Brazil has been struggling to contain the virus for months through both public education campaigns --which urge residents to use insect repelant and limit their time outdoors -- as well as by sending mosquito eradication teams house to house to treat places where aedes aegypti mosquito that carries the virus might breed. The health ministry said it was sending truckloads of larvicide -- enough to treat 3,560 Olympic-sized swimming pools -- to northeastern and southeastern states that have been most affected and that it would add 266,000 new community health agents to make the house calls. Read more: Principal to give former student ultimate Christmas gift: Her kidney Beware the rule-following co-worker, Harvard study warns Happiness won’t help you live longer (but unhappiness won’t kill you either) It turns out parenthood is worse than divorce, unemployment — even the death of a partner The myth of sugar-free drinks, candy: Study shows they can wreak havoc on teeth, too Neighbors file ‘extraordinary, unprecedented’ public nuisance lawsuit against autistic boy’s family For more health news, you can sign up for our weekly newsletter


Why saving the Amazon means saving more than just trees

in the Amazon, “a large proportion of headwater streams, rivers, and other wetland types are unprotected, and many freshwater ecosystems within protected areas are vulnerable to upstream threats (e.g. dams) outside their boundaries.” Furthermore, they add, some protected areas include exceptions for certain activities, such as mining. Policymakers should also consider development projects in the context of their cumulative impact on the environment, said And policymakers should also remember that, in water systems, “the impacts don’t stay in one place,” Macedo said. “You have the impacts moving downstream in the river, across official boundaries, across state and country lines.” This means national governments in the Amazon will need to work together to monitor the impacts that activity in one location might have in another place. “The most important thing is to build the information across borders — looking for similar policies in order to protect the resources of the species and ecosystems across the borders,” said Claudio Maretti, president of the Brazilian Institute of Biodiversity Conservation and Protected Areas. Remote sensing using satellites is likely to be one useful method for monitoring freshwater ecosystems, said Castello. Satellite data has already been immensely helpful in allowing national governments, particularly the Brazilian government, to keep an eye on where illegal deforestation is taking place in the Amazon. And greater research into the impacts of certain environmental disturbances on the ecosystems — particularly climate change — will be useful as well. “The vulnerability of freshwater species and ecosystems to climate change is something that we need to be developing much more in order to have adequate, well-established adaptation strategies for biodiversity conservation,” Maretti said. But despite the challenges ahead, Maretti added that totally halting development in the Amazon would not be advisable, either. “Avoiding economic interest is not a good answer,” Maretti said. “Trying to protect everything would not lead us to a stable sustainable condition. At the same time we cannot just accept activities that are bringing damage to these ecosystems.” Policymakers and conservationists must find ways to balance economic development with healthy conservation practices, he said — and they must do so in a way that includes all aspects of the Amazon, both terrestrial and aquatic. “Basically, if we stop thinking about just the forest and start thinking about forest and freshwater ecosystems, as the Amazon is — you cannot separate those things — the benefits that we are going to


Now Dasher! Speedy, distant asteroid zips by Earth on Christmas Eve

will safely fly past Earth at a distance of 6.8 million miles: https://t.co/dnCkF0FtCj https://t.co/HvbgzM92Gl Asteroids constantly zoom by the Earth. Within the nominal distance of half of one one-hundredth of an astronomical unit, there will be 19 asteroids whizzing by Earth before mid-February. In terms of half an astronomical unit, where asteroids are in our region of the solar system, there will be over 250 near-Earth objects over the next 60 days, according to NASA’s Near Earth Object Program. In fact, today there will be five asteroids moving past us, while on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, our planet will wave to seven such objects on each day. For example, 2010 JM41 whizzes past Earth on Christmas morning at 24.39 kilometers per second – or 54,558 miles an hour. Hold on to your hats. While 2003 SD220 was discovered 12 years ago by the Lowell Observatory Near-Earth Object Search, dubbed LONEOS on Sept. 29, 2003, the program ceased operation in 2008. We’ll get another close approach by this asteroid three days before Christmas 2018. Track Santa with the North American Aerospace Defense Command 2015 CONR NORAD Tracks Santa Radar is running. Check. Satellites available. Check. Flight plans are ready. Check. And the secret microscopic tracking chips in place. Check. Now that North Pole and the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) officials have successfully tested their Santa sleigh tracking equipment, it’s a gift and a go! Check out www.noradsanta.org. For the past 60 years, kids have been able to track Santa’s progress every Christmas Eve. Back in the day, children used to call NORAD on the phone for updates, but with the web, today’s kids can find Santa, and play a few games and listen to music as well. NORAD Tracks Santa 2015 See the SantaScope Live! Enjoy cosmic kiddie merriment on Christmas Eve at 7 p.m. Eastern time on Slooh.com, as the astronomy website – replete with telescopes and telescopic partners all over the world – track Santa’s progress in real time. SLOOH CHRISTMAS Watch Santa travel as that jolly old elf delivers presents to millions of girls and boys. Since the full moon will be prominent, Slooh astronomers will help you catch a glimpse of jolly Saint Nick on the their SantaScope. Using Slooh’s StarShare camera, kids will be given the chance to snap their own picture! That’s more than fun than astronomers should be allowed to have!


From secret entrances to the next Sriracha, here’s what experts predict will be hot in retail in 2016

said he believes this frustration could be the catalyst for getting people to make the leap to mobile wallets. Plenty of companies will be jockeying to be your mobile wallet of choice: In addition to services from Apple, Samsung and Google, Walmart has launched its own mobile payments offering that works across most smartphones and operating systems. Target is reportedly working on a similar offering. Those moves, Schmidt said, may mean that 2016 is a make-or-break year for MCX’s mobile payments app. This system, still in pilot mode, was created by a consortium of retailers looking to avoid the interchange fees they must pay on credit card transactions. “You have seemingly a shift in the market away from trying to reduce interchange at the retailer level to just wanting to be top of mind, to stay relevant,” Schmidt said. 2. The Sriracha craze will push restaurants to go spicy. 3. It will be a good year for the (relatively) little guys. For example, Quinlan said MasterCard has found that smaller apparel retailers are doing “extremely well,” even as large department stores and mega-chains such as Gap and J. Crew have struggled to deliver strong sales. Quinlan expects millennials should generally be spending relatively strongly in 2016, particularly at restaurants and on furniture. 4. We’ll see new tactics from grocery stores and convenience stores. “There’s a gap in the market as the fast-food industry struggles to reinvent itself,” said Shilpa Rosenberry, a retail strategist at consultancy Daymon Worldwide. That’s why Daymon is predicting that grocers and convenience stores will unleash a barrage of new marketing, products and services to fill that gap and win your dining dollars. Rosenberry said she expects you’ll see more “hyper-personalized” meals and snacks at these stores, items that cater not only to gluten-free and vegan eaters, but those who are doing so-called “DNA-based diets” that have been customized for their unique makeup. Rosenberry said she expects these stores will start taking some queues from boutique restaurants by adding secret menus, secret entrances and other special perks for in-the-know customers. The hope would be that this helps build customer loyalty by making a trip to the grocery store feel a bit more like a fun experience instead of a routine errand. 5. At brick-and-mortar stores, we’ll see more dynamic pricing. “As a product goes out of date, you can start dropping the price dramatically, dynamically,” Guy said.


Obama thanks troops and poses for a few hundred photos

President Obama called the six U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan on Monday, Dec. 21, "outstanding" and "brave" as he thanked American service members at a Marine base in Kanoehe Bay, Hawaii on Christmas Day. KANEOHE BAY, Hawaii – President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama spent part of their Christmas Day at this Marine base thanking U.S. troops for their work and posing for a few hundred photographs. The event, which has become an annual tradition for the Obamas, came less than a week after six U.S. airmen were killed in a suicide bombing while on patrol outside of Afghanistan’s Bagram Air Base. Obama’s remarks to about 460 service members and their families briefly acknowledged the losses. “Even though we have been able to reduce the number of folks who are deployed in places like Iraq and Afghanistan, there are still folks over there every single day and it’s still dangerous,” he said. He described the six airmen as “outstanding brave Americans.” The attack was the deadliest day of 2015 for U.S. troops and comes at the end of a year in which the president scrapped his plans to end the U.S. troop presence in Afghanistan before he leaves office. Obama also approved modest increases this year to the U.S. force of about 3,500 troops training and advising Iraq troops, and he sent about 50 Special Operations soldiers to Syria. “Whatever service you are in, whatever branch, we are extraordinarily grateful for everything you do every single day,” he told the troops at the Marine base. With the first lady at his side, Obama spoke of the sacrifices that have come with 14 years of war. “We know when you are deployed overseas, it's tough,” he said. The event at the Marine base, though, was more celebratory than somber. The president spotted a few new babies in the crowd and said he was looking forward to taking pictures with them. “We always get our baby fix,” he said of the annual visit. He also joked of the perils of working out in the mornings at the base, which is just down the street from his vacation compound in Kailua. “Your commander in chief is in pretty good shape,” Obama said. But, lifting weights next to Marines made him feel "small," he said. He described the humbling morning workouts as “inspiration to work harder next year.” And with that, the president


China expels French journalist for terrorism coverage

Ursula Gauthier has been working in China for the French newsmagazine L’Obs. (L'Obs via AP) BEIJING — China didn't like Ursula Gauthier's reporting — so it is kicking her out of the country. The Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a written statement Saturday that the Beijing correspondent for French news magazine L’Obs would not be issued press credentials for 2016, effectively expelling her. Gauthier drew Beijing's ire by writing an essay that questioned the Chinese government's rhetoric on terrorism. In the statement, Lu Kang, a spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry, said Gauthier was no longer "suitable" for her job in China and that her reporting "emboldened" terrorists. Chinese Foreign Ministry confirms expulsion of French journalist for her story on terrorism, more to follow https://t.co/AMnljKvohd Gauthier is the first foreign journalist to be booted from China since 2012, when Al Jazeera's Melissa Chan was forced to leave after doing a series of stories on secret prisons. Journalists for the New York Times and Bloomberg News were also denied visas after publishing prize-winning stories about the wealth of China's top leaders and their families. (Both news organizations have since been issued new visas.) The Foreign Correspondents Club of China, the Committee to Protect Journalists and the French Embassy in Beijing have all expressed concern about the case. Gauthier, a veteran journalist, has been in Beijing's crosshairs since November, when she wrote an essay about China's response to the Nov. 13 attacks in Paris. The piece suggested Beijing's expression of solidarity post-Paris attacks had "ulterior motives," namely a desire to get the international support for its claim that violence in China's Xinjing Uighur Autonomous Region is linked to a global war on terrorism. Beijing maintains that violent unrest in Xinjiang is linked to international terrorist groups and often accuses foreign governments — and foreign reporters — of having a "double standard" on terrorism. Many foreign scholars and rights groups say that what's happening in China's far northwest is less about global jihad than China's suppression of its Uighur population. Symptoms, root causes of terrorism should be addressed. Double standard shouldn't be allowed https://t.co/kpYOW2QSh7 https://t.co/eXIOTzbNNJ In the immediate aftermath of the Paris attacks, Chinese officials released details about a deadly attack at a coal mine in Xinjiang. China called it a coordinated terrorist attack; Gauthier's report suggested otherwise. What happened in Paris and what happened at the coal mine attacked had "nothing in common,"


You funded these clinical trials, but you’ll never know what they found.

it could complete related medical journal articles. Oof! This connects to another problem we’ve discussed on this blog and elsewhere, which is the push to publish articles and the push to promote. Here’s another example from Piller’s investigation: In 2009, the nonprofit Hoosier Cancer Research Network terminated a study of Avastin in 18 patients with metastatic breast cancer. The drug didn’t help and caused trial volunteers serious harm — including hypertension, gastrointestinal toxicity, sensory problems, and pain. But the Indianapolis-based network, which runs trials under contract for drug companies, did not report the results as required the following year . . . In 2011, the FDA revoked its approval of Avastin for breast cancer after determining that it was ineffective for that use and posed life-threatening risks. The Hoosier Network researchers finally published the data in a medical journal in 2013. They have yet to post results on ClinicalTrials.gov — nearly six years after the legal deadline. I have to say that I don’t always get reports done on time myself. Once a report is late and I’m not hassled about it, I might not get around to filing it either. The real issue to me is not paperwork, but rather the system of publication and publicity that revolves around hype. We’ve seen lots of examples recently, such as the Excel error of Reinhart and Rogoff, the himmicanes and hurricanes study, the paper by Tol with almost as many errors as data points, and so on and so forth. Consider the recent confusion regarding the supposed rise in death rates among middle-aged white Americans. In this case, it was possible to sort things out because the data were all publicly available. After adjusting the data by age, it turned out that there was an increase in death rates among middle-aged white women in the South, but not much happening elsewhere. See here for background. My point in bringing up this story is that it worked the way science is supposed to. A research paper (by economists Anne Case and Angus Deaton) was published, others looked at the data and made some corrections, and we all moved forward. And this was all facilitated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which had the relevant data in easily downloadable form. For a story that has not worked so well, consider the recent battle in which the authors of a controversial paper


rather the system of publication and publicity that revolves around hype. We’ve seen lots of examples recently, such as the Excel error of Reinhart and Rogoff, the himmicanes and hurricanes study, the paper by Tol with almost as many errors as data points, and so on and so forth. Consider the recent confusion regarding the supposed rise in death rates among middle-aged white Americans. In this case, it was possible to sort things out because the data were all publicly available. After adjusting the data by age, it turned out that there was an increase in death rates among middle-aged white women in the South, but not much happening elsewhere. See here for background. My point in bringing up this story is that it worked the way science is supposed to. A research paper (by economists Anne Case and Angus Deaton) was published, others looked at the data and made some corrections, and we all moved forward. And this was all facilitated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which had the relevant data in easily downloadable form. For a story that has not worked so well, consider the recent battle in which the authors of a controversial paper on chronic fatigue syndrome continue to refuse to release their data. Piller continues: Journals often reject papers about small studies or trials stopped early for a range of reasons, such as a drug causing worrisome side effects. They publish relatively few negative results, although failed tests can be as important as positive findings for guiding treatment. ClinicalTrials.gov tries to fill these critical information gaps and serve as a timely and comprehensive registry. We have to move beyond the attitude that scientific truth comes in journal articles. And this relates to our recent discussions of research transparency. I’m upset that all these research organizations aren’t sharing their data, and I’m glad that Piller has reported this, which I hope will spur the government into enforcing open-data requirements. If we want to do evidence-based medicine and evidence-based policy — and I think we should — then we all need access to the evidence, for three reasons. First and most directly, when data are available, outside investigators can follow up and formulate and test their own hypotheses. Second, open data make it easier for people inside and outside the academic research establishment to find flaws and oversights in published work. Third, the requirement


The overlooked international stories of 2015 (and how they might change 2016)

the announcement of results in the Nord Pas de Calais Picardie region in the recent second round of regional elections in Henin-Beaumont, France. (Pascal Rossignol/Reuters) The resurgence of fringe far-right parties across Europe has been feared and talked about for years. In 2015, with economic and security fears gripping the continent, it began to look as if those concerns had finally come true. Marine Le Pen, leader of France's National Front, came close to making major gains in regional elections, before being (yet again) set back by the nation's two-round electoral system. A plethora of far-right parties became political players in Scandinavia, where they often helped influence anti-immigrant legislation. And in Poland, a right-wing, anti-immigrant party won a majority in October (already the Law and Justice party's critics say they are trying to change the legal system in undemocratic ways). The continent is perhaps just beginning to feel the influence of these parties. For example, Britain's David Cameron, bowing to pressure from the anti-immigration U.K. Independence Party, has promised to have a referendum by the end of 2017 on whether Britain should leave the European Union. While it remains unlikely, a "Brexit" could be a dramatic change for the entire continent — perhaps opening the floodgates for more countries to leave. The deaths of Shiite Muslims in Nigeria Locked-up shops are seen in Zaria, in Nigeria's Kaduna state, on Dec. 15. (Reuters) Between Dec. 12 and Dec. 14, the Nigerian military conducted raids on a number of mostly Shiite locations in the northern town of Zaria after an attempted assassination of an army chief. According to Human Rights Watch and other groups, soldiers fired on unarmed children during the raids. As many as 1,000 people may have been killed. This is far from the first time the Nigerian military has been accused of human rights abuses, but the killing of so many Shiites has sparked protests in areas as far as Tehran. It serves as sad evidence that Nigeria's problems go further than just the Islamic State-linked terrorism of Boko Haram – an extremist Sunni group responsible for more deaths in 2014 than the Islamic State. Despite the widespread attention paid to the abduction of almost 300 schoolgirls in 2014 (most of whom are still held captive by Boko Haram), the world has a habit of overlooking problems in Nigeria. That's a mistake — the complicated country, a key U.S.


If all the world’s a stage, Walmart is its largest set, as this strange incident proved again

Confederate flag from Walmart, of all places, was an affront to the country that made it possible for such a retail giant to thrive. [Wal-Mart, American bellwether, and the Confederate flag] While Walmart became the end of the road for some, it was the very beginning for others. This past year, at least two babies were born inside stores: one in Tennessee, and another in Alabama. In 2013, four women gave birth inside Walmart stores. A nurse from the Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital in California helped a woman give birth in a Wal-Mart bathroom. The stories read like the plot of “Where the Heart Is,” a novel and 2000 movie starring Natalie Portman as a pregnant teenager who ends up living and giving birth inside an Oklahoma Walmart. The in-store delivery makes her character, Novalee, somewhat of a celebrity, garnering a $500 cash gift from the Walmart president. This may have been on the mind of a woman who handed a newborn girl, amniotic fluid and all, to a couple in a Colorado Walmart parking lot in January. The couple proceeded to drop the infant off at a nearby fire station, one of the state’s designated “safe havens” where a parent can relinquish a baby, unharmed, without being subject to prosecution. Walmart stores didn’t make the list. Life, death. What’s next? Why, love. Donald Evans rides a store scooter adorned with tin cans through the aisles after being married Friday, June 28, 2013 at Walmart in Post Falls, Idaho. (AP Photo/The Coeur D’Alene Press, Shawn Gust) For years, a Walmart store in Fort Smith, Ark., had been Renate Stumpf’s place of work. This past February, it became the spot where she said “yes” — again — to her 75-year-old ex-husband. Stumpf, also 75, was standing in the pasta aisle, just below a sign that read “LOW PRICE $1.50,” when Louis Demetriades walked up behind her with a large sign that read: “Happy Valentine’s Day! Will you marry me?” The couple met at an army base in Germany when they were both 18, married, moved to the U.S. and had three children, according to ABC. The union ended 13 years later and was only reignited in December 2014, after each of their respective second spouses passed away. “The love has never passed,” Stumpf told ABC. Walmart seems to have a particular romantic cachet among the elderly. Two years ago, Walmart employees


Developers seek to transform stretch of Rhode Island Avenue in Northeast D.C.

studio on the 1700 block, has been around for around 30 years, and also received funds. A small-business resource center will be opening on the 2300 block later this winter, and we also have a weekly podcast, Rhode Island Avenue Radio, where I highlight one business each week and speak with business experts offering tips and tools. In terms of new businesses, who has been drawn here? Many of our spaces are conducive to small-scale production. In many buildings, the front third can be used for retail, while the back two-thirds are in production use, like Zeke’s Coffee [the coffeehouse uses the back to roast beans]. That way, they aren’t dependent on walk-in sales to make or break them. Good Food Market is also killing it, in regards to sales. Their concept is to bring affordable, healthy food to neighborhoods that desperately need healthy products. They have locally grown produce, grab-and-go dinners, and they work with food incubators Union Kitchen and Mess Hall to buy products from local producers, like Bullfrog Bagels and Capital Kombucha. They want to make the meals price-competitive with a place like KFC. They want people to feel like they can’t use the excuse of healthy food is too expensive. They are using this as a test area, because we have a good mix of incomes and ages on a well-traveled road. That said, there is a distance issue. When I look at Yelp reviews for Zeke’s or Nido, which are positive, invariably somebody says, “It’s so far away! It’s out in this desolate wasteland of Woodridge!” In so many neighborhoods, there is an emotional war between the old and the new, with the old, both retail- and residential-wise, feeling pushed out by the new. Does that exist here? There are lots of sides to each of those [issues]. For example, Barbara Dement has owned the salon Shear Madness here for 30 years. She decided she was ready to retire and leased her space out to a new business. She proudly says: “That’s my retirement.” You can’t ask for a better scenario. When you think about the “battle,” it’s not binary. One of the best days I’ve had was when one of our more elderly neighbors stopped me on the sidewalk and said: “Thank you for working on bringing back what this used to be. We’re so excited about it.” Shilpi Malinowski is a freelance writer.


The Daily 202: Are we going to lose Afghanistan?

high-interest debt. When he decided to leave, in 2009, the exit was far from smooth and graceful; he gave up after last-ditch battles with bondholders. Today, some still love him here, even people who lost money. Others have bitter memories. ‘He trampled everyone: the shareholders, the bondholders, the employees, the contractors,’ said Sebastian Pignatello, who lives in Flushing, N.Y., near where Trump grew up. An investor who headed a stockholders’ committee that tried to recover losses in one Trump bankruptcy, Pignatello says many small businesses had to settle for ‘pennies on the dollar.'” John Kasich leaves a birthday message for the father of a voter attending his town hall in Salem, New Hampshire, on December 3. (Michael Mathes/AFP/Getty Images) Kasich campaign touts analytics –> New Hampshire Union Leader, “Primary ‘ground games’ delve deep into data mining,” by Dan Tuohy: A long exposure photograph from last week shows the SpaceX Falcon 9 lifting off (L) from its launch pad and then returning to a landing zone (R) at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. (Reuters/Mike Brown) — Daily Beast, “What’s next for outer space?” By David Axe: “Elon Musk has called reusability ‘the fundamental breakthrough needed to revolutionize access to space.’ For decades, government and private space organizations have dreamed of possessing such a multiple-use rocket, believing it will cut down on the high cost—hundreds of millions of dollars per launch—of getting to, and beyond, Earth’s orbit. Governments have repeatedly tried and failed to design a launch-and-land rocket. It took a private company headed by an eccentric billionaire inventor to actually get it done following years of experimentation and one high-profile crash in April. Musk and SpaceX’s December feat was more than just a technological milestone—it also signaled the coming of age of private space exploration. If 2015 was the year private space firms such as SpaceX, Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic and lunar mining concern Moon Express blasted into the headlines, 2016 could be the year these extraterrestrial companies make substantial progress toward reaching, exploring and profiting from space.” HOT ON THE LEFT The University of California school system will no longer invest in private prisons after its administrators met with black student groups who were lobbying for the change. HOT ON THE RIGHT Trump, in response to Trey Gowdy’s endorsement of Rubio, called the Benghazi hearings a “disaster.” DAYBOOK: –What’s happening today on the campaign trail: — On the Hill:


In 2015, the fortunes in D.C.’s housing market spread eastward

burgeoning potential catches the attention of home buyers] In all, the highest sales price in the city can be found in the Northwest Washington communities of Kent, with a median sales price of $1.41 million, Spring Valley at $1.38 million and Georgetown at $1.21 million. Days on market As bidding wars and hot neighborhoods continue to pop up across the city, days on market — the number of days it takes a property to go from active on the market to under contract — have continued to fall. The biggest winners this year for median days on market (MDOM) were clearly Crestwood in Northwest (down 84.9 percent to just eight days on market) and Woodley Park in Northwest (also down significantly to eight MDOM). American University Park, Shaw, Bloomingdale, LeDroit Park and Capitol Hill each saw just seven MDOM in 2015, a trend that will probably continue in 2016 in a supply-restricted market. Price per square foot Like most urban markets, the District’s home pricing per square foot can get pretty high. In 2015, the areas with the highest price per square foot were clustered together. The price per square foot in Washington remains the highest in the Northwest communities of Georgetown ($781), the West End ($733) and Burleith ($702). However, the biggest gainers in price per square foot were in Southeast. Anacostia (up 27.7 percent), Marshall Heights (up 24.8 percent), Fort Dupont Park (up 24.0 percent) and Congress Heights (up 22 percent) all saw the biggest gains in 2015. With new construction going up across these areas, these gains show the investment potential in many parts of the District’s Southeast quadrant. Sales-price-to-list-price ratio With properties selling fast and with competition, the sales-price-to-list-price ratio — the price for which a property sells compared with its list price — is very important in determining the most desirable places to live. Overall, the sales-price-to-list-price ratio for the District in 2015 was 98.9 percent, up 0.2 percentage points from 2014. In 2015, the highest sales-price-to-list-price ratio was by far highest in Bloomingdale where homes sold for 105.4 percent of the listed sales price. Other high sales-price-to-list-price ratios were found in Shaw (102.85 percent) and Crestwood (102.4 percent). Moreover, Crestwood saw the biggest increase in the ratio, rising 9.1 percentage points from the previous year. [Where We Live: Crestwood in Northwest Washington] What does this mean for 2016? As 2015 comes to a close,


10 things to do in the D.C. area during the week of Dec. 28

Comedian John van der Put, who performs as Piff the Magic Dragon, takes the stage on Friday and Saturday at Arlington Cinema 'n' Drafthouse. (Photo courtesy piffthemagicdragon.com.) Monday, Dec. 28 The White Panda at the Fillmore: The Man in the Wall (2015) - TRAILER Tuesday, Dec. 29 "The Man in the Wall" at the DCJCC: Jimmy Fallon, The Roots & "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" Cast Sing "Star Wars" Medley (A Cappella) The Roots at the Fillmore: Wednesday, Dec. 30 Nate Bargatze at the Kennedy Center's Millennium Stage: Thursday, Dec. 31 New Year's Eve parties: Piff the Magic Dragon: Heidi Klum Helps Comedic Magician in Dragon Suit - America's Got Talent 2015 Friday, Jan. 1 Piff the Magic Dragon at Arlington Cinema 'n' Drafthouse: Saturday, Jan. 2 ZooLights at the National Zoo: DDWIWDD (Dan Deacon “When I Was Done Dying”) | Off The Air | Adult Swim Dan Deacon at U Street Music Hall: Sunday, Jan. 3 "Say Goodbye to the Freer" at the Freer Gallery: "Indiana Jones and the Adventure of Archaeology" at the National Geographic Museum:


Aerial imaging shows the dramatic effects drought has had on millions of California’s trees

worst shape were found in the southern half of the Sierra mountains, although trees in southern California around Los Angeles and those in the northern coastal forests were also among the most vulnerable. To be clear, these results don’t necessarily mean that all 888 million affected trees are at immediate risk of dying. “The science isn’t strong enough yet to make such a prediction,” Asner said. The researchers still need to conduct more analyses in order to figure out how the water loss has been distributed among individual trees and how many of these are likely to die. Asner plans to conduct more flights in 2016 to see how conditions have progressed. In the meantime, however, the data so far are likely to be useful to the state in a number of ways. First, they can help state officials identify drier areas which are more likely to pose a fire hazards. “Trees don’t have to die outright in order to become a fire hazard,” Asner said. “A suppression of water content is highly correlated with whether a tree becomes flammable or not.” And Conrad-Saydah, from the California EPA, added that the data can also be used to identify areas where vulnerable trees might be at greater risk of falling over, especially during storms. Falling trees pose risks to human life and property by falling over and causing damage, but they can also present problems for the state’s water systems. “You also have these bigger risks with trees dying and decomposing in a watershed,” Conrad-Saydah said. She also noted that the new data do not supplant previous field sampling techniques — rather, the new use of imaging technology adds to what was already a formidable effort to assess the health of forests in California. “When you couple that long-term data with this new data, it really gives you a much better sense of change over time and the severity of the drought,” she said. But future airborne observations will provide a quicker, easier way to collect data on thousands of trees at a time, giving scientists faster insight on how climatic changes in the state are affecting the environment. “I think that the new science that we’re bringing to the table here presents a significant opportunity for advancing resource management and conservation in the current time and the future of climate change,” Asner said. “I think that’s really what we’re after.”


This model gives us the best look yet at how Amazon forests will react to climate change

gradually into savannah-like states, with smaller scrubbier trees. The severity of a forest’s response, however, depends on certain factors. The types of trees present in an area, and their ability to withstand water stress, is one obvious influence on how a landscape will change. “ The model also demonstrated that soil type is another important factor. “The reason the soil type comes into play is that the amount of water stress [in a region] is not just influenced by how much rainfall comes into the ecosystem, but also how much of that rainfall is held by the soil,” Moorcroft said. “Different kinds of soils have different hydrologic properties, different capacities to hold water.” For instance, the results suggested that regions with high clay content would be more sensitive to changes in climate. And, Moorcroft added, regions that already have longer dry seasons are likely to be more vulnerable to change, since they’re already more water-stressed than other areas. “Somewhere that’s very wet, the dry season could lengthen but the ecosystem will likely survive because there’s a lot of extra water available,” Moorcroft said. It’s important to note that the model likely still isn’t giving us a perfect picture of what the future will look like. There are many other factors important to a forest’s resilience that could be included in future simulations, said Saleska, such as higher atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide or deforestation and other land use changes. For the time being, the model is “a demonstration of the kinds of things that we need to incorporate in order get these answers,” Saleska said. But as future simulations become more accurate, they’re also likely to become more important to policymakers making decisions about which regions of the Amazon to prioritize for conservation. Knowing which regions are most vulnerable and which are likely to thrive on their own is useful in this way. “Let’s say land use managers and policymakers say we have enough resources to save 50 percent of the forest,” Saleska said. “Which 50 percent should we save? Under limited resources, or needing to prioritize, these models could be used as a tool to say which ones we should save.” And this could be a boon for forests outside the Amazon — even forests outside the tropics, altogether — as well, Saleska pointed out. The problems with the old Amazon models represent “a problem across the board in


We can’t wait for these D.C.-area restaurants to open in 2016

The Chinese-French bistro will frequently change up its menus, though you can probably count on regularly seeing Ma's signature crème fraîche chicken wings. 1924 Eighth St. NW. [With Kyirisan, Tim Ma takes another crack at naming his Shaw restaurant] The MGM National Harbor, shown in an artist's rendering, will open with restaurants from several celebrity chefs. (Courtesy MGM National Harbor) Marcus Projected opening date: Second half of the year. Prolific chef and cookbook author Marcus Samuelsson already has restaurants in New York, Chicago, Costa Mesa, Calif., Bermuda and Sweden, but this will be his first in the Washington area. Samuelsson is still developing the menu, but he thinks it may include such fare as crabs and oysters. He'll be joined at the MGM National Harbor casino by restaurants from fellow chefs José Andrés and Michael and Bryan Voltaggio. National Harbor, Md. [MGM National Harbor casino will feature restaurants by the Voltaggio brothers, José Andrés and Marcus Samuelsson] Chef Eric Ziebold, center left in his former kitchen at CityZen, will have a double presence near Mount Vernon Square.<br />(Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post) Métier Projected opening date: February. This will be the second of two dining rooms former CityZen chef Eric Ziebold is opening near Mount Vernon Square. The first, Kinship, started welcoming diners this past weekend for its a la carte menu served in a more-casual environment. Métier, on the other hand, will be the smaller, more luxurious space and will serve a $150 or so tasting menu. 1015 Seventh St. NW. [Métier is the name of Eric Ziebold's new luxury dining room] Chef-owner Aaron Silverman will open Pineapple and Pearls next door to his Rose's Luxury. (Dixie D. Vereen for The Washington Post) Pineapple and Pearls Projected opening date: January for the cafe, March for dinner service. You may have heard of Aaron Silverman's first restaurant in Washington, Rose's Luxury. The restaurant that earned the No. 1 spot in our Fall Dining Guide will soon be joined by a sibling that will offer coffee and cafe service by day and a prix fixe dinner by night (four days a week). Silverman is billing the new establishment as fancy but not formal. And, for those that hate the lines at Rose's, take note that Pineapple and Pearls will take reservations. 715 Eighth St. SE. Related items: A hungry person's guide to the Washington Convention Center's restaurant makeover 2015 Fall Dining Guide


Photos: Trees and bees confused in Washington, D.C.

Cherry trees bloom with the U.S. Capitol in the background, December 27, 2015. (Kevin Ambrose) “Those poor, sad trees,” a D.C. tourist exclaimed after she had finished posing for a family photo with a blooming cherry tree near the Washington Monument. “They’re confused,” she continued. It was Sunday afternoon and the temperature was 70 degrees with a light breeze. Dozens of cherry trees were blooming on the Mall and their blossoms were filled with bees. Tourists and residents of Washington, D.C. were out in large numbers enjoying the beautiful weather and photographing the spring-like scenes with pink and white blossom backdrops. A bee hovers over a cherry blossom on the National Mall, December 27, 2015. (Kevin Ambrose) But are these trees truly out-of-sync with the seasons? The cherry trees on the Mall with blossoms are of the autumn-blooming variety called Higan cherry. The Higan cherry trees have a big bloom in the spring but they also produce blossoms off-and-on during periods of warm autumn weather. The Higan’s have been blooming on the Mall since at least November 19. Our warm fall and early winter has extended their bloom into late December. As for the bees, the exceptionally warm weather activated the over-wintering insect to emerge to find flowering plants which were numerous on the Mall. Thousands of bees buzzed among the blooming cherry trees and the scattered, flowering bushes Sunday afternoon. They’ll return to their over-wintering locations when the weather cools, which will happen this week. Scenes of spring in late December in Washington, D.C. Visitors on the National Mall photograph the cherry trees that are blooming in winter, December 27, 2015. (Kevin Ambrose) Several weeks ago, I joked with friends that if the warm weather continued, I would photograph cherry blossoms at the same time as photographing the National Christmas Tree. It turned out not be as much of a joke as I thought. I ended my blossom photo shoot on Sunday by taking several photos of the National Christmas tree with the White House. It was a beautiful holiday scene which was made more comfortable by the spring-like conditions. Maybe we’ll have snow next Christmas. Snow lovers can dream… Related: Why are the cherry blossoms blooming on the Mall The ‘autumn-blooming’ cherry blossoms are still going strong on the National Mall Bah humbug weather! A bee collects nectar on the National Mall, December 27, 2015. (Kevin Ambrose) Saba


Al Jazeera doping story: Nothing but impact

Denver Broncos injured quarterback Peyton Manning watches prior to an NFL football game against the New England Patriots, Sunday, Nov. 29, 2015, in Denver. (AP Photo/Jack Dempsey) In a recently published Al Jazeera report on doping in professional sports, Liam Collins uses a notepad as he talks with pharmacist Charlie Sly about his alleged activities in supplying top athletes with performance-enhancing drugs. Journalists, of course, use notepads all the time during interviews; they’re a standard item in the reportorial toolbag. This, however, wasn’t a standard story. Collins is an elite British hurdler who signed up with Al Jazeera to do an undercover sting on the tenebrous channels through which athletes procure performance-enhancing drugs. He meets Sly on the premise that, at age 37, he needs a boost to make a last-ditch run at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. On top of that imperative, Collins is seen as a possible conduit to a new market of European soccer players and the like. After Sly talks about all the famous athletes he has served, Collins says he’ll have to take notes in order to remember them for the marketing campaign. “He had [the notepad] on his lap,” says Al Jazeera’s Deborah Davies in a chat with the Erik Wemple Blog. The notepad approach makes for a compelling documentary. For example, Collins asks Sly: “So with the likes of [Phillies star Ryan] Howard, once you’ve set him off, is there like maintenance thing?” Sly: “He’s somebody that you cannot overwhelm with stuff. You just make sure you have everything in bags.” A lawyer for Howard called the claims in the Al Jazeera investigation “completely false.” Here’s another gem from the hour-long Al Jazeera investigation: Collins: “If anyone ever says what about testosterone, what’s your typical answer?” Sly: “You don’t need it if you’re taking Delta-2.” (Delta-2 is a hormone supplement) “Some guys just take it every day, like they refuse to stop it.” Collins: “Who’s like the biggest hard-head?” Sly: “I don’t know, maybe Mike Neal.” Neal is a linebacker with the Green Bay Packers and didn’t respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment. When questioned about the report after its airing, Neal said this: “You might as well just stop asking me questions. I mean, I’m sure you saw how (expletive) off Peyton Manning was about somebody coming out with false accusations, so if you want to (expletive) me off,


VIDEOS: A year of stunning images and insights from outer space

Representation of Ceres showing differences in surface composition. (NASA) The unexplored and unexplained phenomenon beyond the Earth’s atmosphere continued to fascinate us in 2015. Research, technology and imagery shed new light on some the greatest mysteries in space, like the presence of water on Mars and the surface of Pluto. Space adventure also captured the imagination of millions in two of the biggest movies of the year, “The Martian” and the latest installment in the “Stars Wars” franchise. And a historic rocket landing heralded the beginning, perhaps, of a new era of space travel. Here are a few examples of the most stunning and ground-breaking space videos we published this year. A sped-up look at 48 hours of solar eruptions What happens when a star gets too close to a black hole According to NASA, when a star gets too close to a black hole, intense tidal forces rip the star apart. This animation shows how some of the stellar debris is flung outward, while the rest falls toward the black hole causing a distinct X-ray flare that can last for a few years. NASA reveals the unseen side of the moon NASA provided a unique view of the moon from the side that can't be seen from the Earth and explained how the images were captured. Stunning flyover views of dwarf planet Ceres A video animation of dwarf planet Ceres, based on images taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft, provides dramatic flyover views of this heavily cratered, mysterious world. 4k ultra HD reveals closest-ever details of Jupiter New imagery from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope reveals details never before seen on Jupiter. The high-resolution maps and spinning globes are the first products to come from a program to study the solar system’s outer planets each year using the Hubble Space Telescope. Take an aerial tour of Pluto’s surface NASA's New Horizons spacecraft gives an aerial tour of Pluto made from its latest images as of Sept.11.


Keep your canned goods. There are better ways to help feed the poor.

During the season of giving, the most common method of organized charity is probably the food drive. Businesses often set up makeshift boxes in their lobbies that soon overflow with canned goods. Feeding the hungry is unquestionably a meaningful charitable endeavor, but the customary canned and packaged goods may not be the best way. Healthy options exist, but a large share of nonperishable items are loaded with excess sodium, sugar and other chemicals to maintain flavor and longevity. And sometimes the food given is unappealing — the unwanted items collecting dust in the back of a family’s kitchen cupboard. This was actually the subject of an episode of “Adam Ruins Everything,” the new educational sketch comedy show on TruTV, that debunks societal norms: Adam Ruins Everything - Why You Shouldn't Donate Canned Food to Charities While the American diet is shifting from the processed, ready-to-go meals of the last half century to a focus on organic and fresh produce, that’s not a reality for the nation’s poorest. The U.S. government estimates that 23.5 million people live in food deserts where there is no access to fresh, affordable food within one mile. More than 2 million people in low-income rural areas are more than 10 miles from a grocery store. And around one in seven Americans at some point in the year will rely on food pantries or meal services to eat, according to a 2014 survey by Feeding America, a network of 200 food banks. In America’s food-insecure households, a lack of food isn’t always the issue. The problem is the type of food. It’s known as “hidden hunger,” or more clinically, “micronutrient deficiency,” where people are consuming the requisite amount of daily calories, but not getting essential nutrients. Patrick O’Neill, 55, an Army veteran in New Jersey, saw traditional food drives as one part of the problem. He estimated that roughly 75 million Americans donate to food drives annually. Though their charity is well-intentioned, their contributions may exacerbate health issues like diabetes and hypertension prevalent in low-income households, he said. So in September, O’Neill launched Amp Your Good, a “crowdfeeding” site that operates like a wedding registry where, like an engaged couple chooses kitchen appliances, a local food bank identifies what food items the families it serves needs most. Then a company, school, religious institution or other organization that wants to host a food drive sets it up online


Main Street Morning: Oil hits an 11-year low

puts aside their differences to strengthen their business. - The top 10 trends and innovation in packaging in 2015. Restaurants - Six menu tricks that restaurants use to get their customers to spend more money. Online - Once one of Microsoft’s biggest money pits, Bing is now eroding Google’s core business. Start-Ups - A rise in start-ups is a good omen for the economy. Retail - U.S. retail sales rose 7.9 percent this year. - Amazon reports another banner holiday season with instant film and a record player leading the way. - Four ways the Internet of Things will change the retail industry. - A barber makes an incredible promise to a 9-year-old. Travel - The TSA moves closer to rejecting certain drivers’ licenses for travel. - A supersonic business jet is closer to taking off. Entrepreneurs - A man dies trying to blow up a condom vending machine. Technology - Eight free tools that small business owners can use to improve customer satisfaction. - An Xbox kid waits 8 years to get a Christmas prank revenge on his dad. - The economics of drone delivery. Around the Country - The suit against Uber in California slows down. - Medical marijuana is becoming a second career for many Illinois cops. - A South Jersey business owner partners with an elementary school to collect food for needy families. - Some small business owners in South Carolina want a change to their local business license fee system. - The Governor of Arizona’s new water council is too business-friendly, some critics say. - A New Mexico town considers more ways to support their small businesses. Around the World - The cost of recent flooding in the United Kingdom tops £5 billion, with thousands facing financial ruin. - To combat air pollution, an Italian town has banned traditional pizza-making. - A new French start-up accelerator offers spectacular beachfront views to inspire sports-related start-ups. - Saudi Arabia has raised domestic energy prices by as much as 40 percent after the world’s leading oil producer announced a record $98 billion budget deficit, citing rock-bottom global petroleum prices. On This Day In 1845 - Texas was admitted as the 28th state. Gene Marks owns the Marks Group, a Bala Cynwyd PA consulting firm that helps clients with customer relationship management. Follow Gene Marks and On Small Business on Twitter. News we should know about? Email us here.


The 10 most popular Innovations stories of 2015

Here are the stories that readers loved the most in 2015. (Blue Frog Robotics) With the year wrapping up, we’re taking a look back at our most-read stories from 2015. Thanks for reading this year! 10. We need a new version of capitalism for the jobless future “With the technology advances that are presently on the horizon, not only low-skilled jobs are at risk; so are the jobs of knowledge workers. Too much is happening too fast.” 9. I used to doubt Microsoft. Then I installed Windows 10. “What is clear is that Microsoft is back — in full force. This is a good thing; Apple and Google desperately need the competition that Microsoft will once again provide.” 8. Quantum computing is about to overturn cybersecurity’s balance of power “Quantum computers have profound national-security implications, because they are the technology equivalent of a nuclear weapon.” 7. The 12 threats to human civilization, ranked “Machines with an extreme amount of technology could be difficult to control. They may hoard resources to boost their own intelligence, leaving little or nothing for humankind.” 6. 7 odd inventions that we’ve come to love “Just as people sometimes fall for the unlikeliest partners, history has shown that people’s love for certain ideas, no matter how crazy, are no exception.” 5. The coming era of unlimited — and free — clean energy “Critics say that solar is inefficient, too expensive to install, and unreliable, and will fail without government subsidies. They too are wrong. Solar will be as ubiquitous as cellular phones are.” 4. The most anticipated innovations coming in 2015 “For fans of the classic “Back to the Future” movies, 2015 may very well turn out to be a banner year after all. The Hendoboard, a working hoverboard of sorts, is on track to arrive sometime in October. And self-tying shoes? They’re on their way also.” 3. How fixed-gear bikes can confuse Google’s self-driving cars “The self-driving cars are notoriously careful, and tend to brake when anyone else is moving forward into the vehicle’s path. While a human driver can easily see a rider doing a track stand isn’t going anywhere, Google’s self-driving car seems to be still be figuring that out.” 2. Amazon has a new drone delivery video. Here are 8 details worth noting. “Amazon’s prototype is an octocopter — meaning it has eight propellers and can take off and land vertically, like


State Department touts success in ‘winning’ war against extremism and bringing peace to Syria

Secretary of State John F. Kerry noted the year's diplomatic achievements in an op-ed piece for the Boston Globe. Then State Department spokesperson John Kirby added some headlines. (Sergei Karpukhin/Pool photo via AP) It’s hard summing up 2015. Especially in only five words. Ask the State Department’s John Kirby. He blogged the year’s successes. Someone could have warned him. Hip diplomacy is an oxymoron. Kirby, the assistant secretary of state for public affairs and official spokesman, came in for a dose of criticism when he decided to highlight pivotal foreign policy moments of 2015 on Dipnote, the State Department’s official blog. Kirby jazzed up his list of 10 “significant successes” with a hook from what he called “a great hashtag — #2015in5Words — which was recently trending on Twitter.” Each item on the list had a meaty, sober and carefully phrased summation of diplomacy at work on some of the year’s most compelling issues — combating climate change, the thaw in relations with Cuba, a Pacific Rim free trade pact and stemming Ebola. Secretary of State John F. Kerry noted many of the same diplomatic achievements in a year-end op-ed piece he wrote for the Boston Globe, his hometown newspaper. But some people looked askance at Kirby’s five-word headlines, some of which seemed to claim a measure of victory in realms that are still tumultuous. An entry on a White House summit in February on countering jihadist terrorism carried an extremely optimistic headline. The Iran nuclear deal finalized in July is still to be implemented, and its ultimate impact remains the source of huge debate. But the headline hints at no uncertainty. But no headline attracted more scorn than the one atop an item on humanitarian aid to Syria and upcoming peace talks expected to start next year. Dipnote seemed to suggest the war and chaos were almost over. Critics leapt. “Wait, what?” asked Foreign Policy magazine, adding that “It’s hard to argue that the United States brought any significant ‘peace’ or ‘security’ to the Syrian people.” The conservative website RedState called it a “lie so blatant,” and wrote tongue-in-cheek, “If you read the news you would be excused for thinking there is actually a war going on in Syria. … But you would be wrong.” And the Daily Beast included the Syrian peg on a list of items it characterized in a single word — “Nope.” The State Department


The bar, brewery and distillery openings we’re most looking forward to in 2016

floors. (A rooftop deck is in the works, too.) Owner Tom Brown expects some of the old Passenger staff to be behind the bar again, which would really feel like coming home. 1539 Seventh St. NW. Facebook page. A number of New York restaurants have opened locations in Washington, but few bars have made the same move. Quarter + Glory is a rare exception. (Rendering of Quarter+Glory by Parts & Labor Design) Quarter + Glory Projected opening date: The week of Jan. 4. While Shaw, Bloomingdale and Petworth have passed 14th Street in terms of the number of new openings, there's still life near the corner of 14th and U. Coming to the former Jin Lounge is Quarter + Glory, a cocktail lounge from the team behind New York City's Ward III and the Rum House. Expect 23 cocktails at this "authentic ode to the bars of old New York," including a barrel-aged Negroni on tap, in a sleek setting with a 33-foot oak-topped bar, large booths, and 20-foot ceilings. 2017 14th St. NW. quarterandglory.com. ChurchKey beer director Greg Engert selected the Belgian beers available at the Sovereign. (Photo courtesy of the Neighborhood Restaurant Group) The Sovereign Projected opening date: Mid-to-late January. Think of the Sovereign as the ChurchKey of Belgian beer bars. Beer expert Greg Engert is stocking the new Georgetown destination with 50 draft lines and 300 bottles -- look for classics from Belgian brewers Westvleteren, Cantillon and De La Senne alongside like-minded Americans, such as Allagash and Crooked Stave. Peter Smith, formerly the chef at PS7's, is handling the "playful" menu, which will include a variety of mussels. The two-level building, formerly home to Champions and Blue Gin, has received an extensive makeover that might have you itching to book tickets to Brussels -- but with a beer selection this good, you might not have to. 1206 Wisconsin Ave. NW. thesovereigndc.com. Twisted Horn Projected opening date: This week, or early January. Jamie Leeds, the chef behind Hank's Oyster Bar, brings another promising neighborhood hangout to Petworth, where she lives. The bar will be helmed by inventive drink-slinger Megan Coyle, long one of my favorite reasons to visit Hank's in Dupont, and promises cocktails that are made from house infusions and small-batch spirits, while the menu of bar bites includes pickled eggs and mac'n'cheesy fritters. 819 Upshur St. NW. twistedhorndc.com. The forthcoming Stone brewery in Richmond, Va., will


‘Mozart in the Jungle’ finds its feet

still silly, but also often rather delectable. Having introduced us in Season One to Bernadette Peters as an uptight socialite board chairwoman who seems single-handedly to run the orchestra (silly), the series now lets her sing in Season Two, at an open mic night (silly, but delicious). Malcolm McDowell, as the conductor who was publicly ousted from the music directorship of the fictitious New York Symphony at the start of Season One, is now hanging around, picking up the reins of his former job as needed (silly), but he’s having so much fun playing a man out of control, abusing substances, messing up his relationships, and trying to reinvent himself as a composer, that he’s hard to resist. Saffron Burrows is less plastic this season as the beautiful cellist, Cynthia, who keeps playing through physical pain and multiple romantic relationships with professional colleagues. And Bernal’s intensity helps keep credibility in the figure of a mercurial boy-child conductor, even when he’s talking to a bewigged reincarnation of Mozart, or being improbably rude to powerful donors. Now that all of the characters have been set in motion, however improbable their initial situations, the performances are good enough to help us past the suspension of disbelief. Furthermore, the show’s portrayal of the classical music world is far more recognizable as something approaching reality. Among the main plot points of Season Two — only the first six episodes were included on the preview screener — are the threat of a possible musicians’ strike and Rodrigo’s first international tour with the orchestra, which brings him back to his native Mexico. While the first season bore little relation to actual life in an orchestra, this season depicted the tour, in particular, with a spot-on juxtaposition of vignettes: the slow eager anticipation of a musician on her first tour (Hailey, played by Lola Kirke, an oboist and the show’s protagonist) yielding to a montage of vignettes of airplanes taking off and landing, musicians playing, instruments going in and out of cases, and one press conference after another, creating a blur of imagery that well evokes the whirl of an orchestra on the road. Certainly there are hard-to-swallow fictional embellishments. A plot line involving the concertmaster’s missing violin detours into a car chase through Mexico City, while another takes Rodrigo and Hailey on an AWOL excursion to Rodrigo’s home town. But unlike many of the inventions in Season


Animal videos that took over the internet in 2015

Although 2015 is technically the year of the sheep, pandas stole the spotlight this year. Whether it was pandas being born, pandas sneezing or pandas with birthday cakes, the internet was abuzz with panda fever. The newest addition to the National Zoo’s Panda Cam drew most of the attention, especially at his first checkup this fall. Two-week-old panda cub gets a checkup National Zoo veterinarians gave a quick checkup to the panda cub to ensure that he is growing and healthy. The nearly 2-week-old cub now weighs about 10 ounces. And the red panda – confusingly, not a relative of the giant panda – also made waves, frolicking through a late winter snowfall in February. Red pandas romp and bounce through snow-filled pen The Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden shared video of two of their red pandas frolicking in the snow. But other animals rose to stardom, too. Here are some of the most memorable animal videos of the year. Hungry black bear won’t stop breaking kayak Kayaker Mary Maley had a surprise encounter with a curious, and hungry, black bear. In a video she posted on Sept. 29, Maley switches between berating, yelling and reasoning with the bear intent on eating her plastic kayak in Berg Bay, Alaska. Therapy dog born without eyes helps children in need Smiley, a 12-year-old golden retriever, was born without eyes. Yet, Smiley has a lot to offer. He was certified to be a therapy dog and has been teaching people to “live in the moment,” according to his owner Joanne George. Turtle’s-eye view of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef This video shows a journey through Australia's Great Barrier Reef seen from a turtle’s eye view. Environmental groups are campaigning the Australian government and UNESCO to designate the reef as "in danger," claiming industrial activity in the area threatens the reef’s ecosystem.


These fish started life as boys. Now scientists aren’t sure what sex they are.

to identify locations that may warrant further investigation." The strongest suspicion focuses on what is poured down the drains of homes, businesses and farms every day. Scientists are worried that prescription drugs such as birth control and mood-control pharmaceuticals, flushed down toilets, and chemical pesticides such as atrazine, washed off farms by rain, have turned creeks, streams and rivers into chemical soups that disrupt the endocrines of marine life. These substances throw off functions that regulate hormones and the reproductive system, said USGS biologist Vicki Blazer, a co-author of the latest study and lead author of numerous earlier reports. At one polluted site Blazer examined in the Susquehanna River near Hershey, Pa., two years ago, 100 percent of the male smallmouth bass sampled had eggs. The surprising thing found in the most recent survey, Iwanowicz said, is that the bass are being sexually transformed in more pristine waters at national wildlife refuges managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The agency's 560 refuges -- 71 in the Northeast -- provide a sanctuary for 1,000 fish species, 700 bird species and about 200 species of mammals. Smallmouth bass are "like the canary in the coal mine," Iwanowicz said. "In the case of this specific study, we’re getting a better handle on how widespread [the problem] is. We’re seeing this signal at national wildlife refuges, … evidence that in areas that are managed for animal health, stuff is going on behind the scenes." A magnification of a cross-section view of a smallmouth bass' testes that shows immature eggs, which are round circles on the monitor. (Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post) Among the 19 refuges included in the study were Blackwater and Patuxent in Maryland, Mason Neck and Rappahannock River Valley in Virginia, Great Swamp in New Jersey, Cherry Valley in Pennsylvania and Moosehorn in Maine. "These effects have been observed in other organisms, including mammals," said Don Tillitt, another co-author who is a research toxicologist at the USGS Columbia Environmental Research Center in Missouri. "The mechanism occurs in the epi-genome, around the genome. Not the genes, but how those genes are expressed." A USGS study released in March found that male fish exposed to a synthetic hormone called 17a-ethinylestradiol, or EE2, produced offspring that struggled to fertilize eggs. And their grandchildren suffered a 30 percent decrease in their fertilization rate. The problem extends well beyond the Chesapeake Bay region that includes the


7 of the biggest innovations that made headlines in 2015

took the stage in April to unveil Powerwall, a home battery system designed to store and supply solar energy. On paper, clean sources of energy are exponentially more than capable of replacing fossil fuels. If humans were somehow able to convert 1/10,000 of the sunlight that the earth receives, the world would have all the fuel it currently needs. And according to a study published in Nature Climate Change, wind power from turbines alone can satisfy global energy demands more than 100 times over. Solar energy, of course, isn’t readily available round the clock or year round. Nor is it economically feasible to erect a wind turbine for every square mile. Home and commercial battery systems help to fill in these gaps by storing excess energy collected during daylight hours and releasing it in the evening. The Powerwall unit, which starts at $3,000 for the 7 kWh capacity version, has been criticized for not being cost-effective for many homeowners compared to what they would typically pay for electricity once the cost of installation and other necessary components, such as a DC-AC inverter, are taken into account. But it’s less expensive than other rechargeable home battery systems with the expectation that costs for manufacturing and Tesla Energy’s technology will drop over time. Blue Origin’s New Shepard vehicle launches during a test flight in West Texas. (Blue Origin) 2. Reusable space rockets prove themselves Despite a string of unsuccessful attempts, Elon Musk’s SpaceX team had been closing in on becoming the first to send a rocket into outer space and return it back to Earth fully intact. Coming up with a rocket that’s refuel-able and reusable would significantly reduce the cost of space missions, which average about $1.5 billion per launch. And when private space firm Blue Origin, founded by Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos, unexpectedly took home the honors in November by safely landing the BE-3 rocket after a 62-mile journey to the tip of outer space, Musk took the news in stride, even tweeting out some congratulatory props. (Disclosure: Bezos owns The Washington Post.) But just a month later, SpaceX one-upped the feat, landing a Falcon 9 rocket that traveled twice as far. In response, Bezos took to Twitter to say in a cheeky manner “Welcome to the club!” Not exactly Russia and the United states in the 60’s, but it appears a new kind of space race is indeed


study in recent years after experiments that showed administering them to mice dramatically extended their lifespan. More notably, the FDA has decided recently to approve the testing of Metformin, a widely used diabetes medication, for the treatment of aging. Supporting evidence for the drug’s possible anti-aging benefits come from animal studies and data from patients that pointed to lower incidences of cancer. Even then, it was a hard sell. Investigators had to work out a study design that can demonstrate that warding off the effects of aging can be as viable a way of combating disease as drugs prescribed to patients. In an interview with Nature, Nir Barzilai, a physician at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York who will serves as lead researcher, put it this way: “What we want to show is that if we delay aging, that’s the best way to delay disease.” The trial, called Targeting Aging with Metformin, or TAME, is scheduled to start in 2016. Hemolink is an experimental device that uses suction instead of needles to extract blood samples. (Tasso Inc.) 6. Blood tests becoming less of a pain Blood tests have long been one of those universally dreaded things. They hurt and can be especially taxing for the elderly and those whose health had been compromised. That was until it Theranos, a much-hyped biotech start-up, announced what seemed like quantum leap in advancing one of the medical industry’s most vital tools. But since October, the start-up with $9 billion dollars worth of backing has been facing intense scrutiny after a blockbuster report in the Wall Street Journal raised questions over the effectiveness of the firm’s highly-secretive breakthrough technique for screening for a wide multitude of infections and conditions using a single drop of blood — and at a fraction of the cost of conventional laboratories. Still, the controversy shouldn’t overshadow the fact that there’s been considerable progress toward making the procedure quick and painless. In May, start-up Tasso received a $3 million DARPA grant to further development on HemoLink, an experimental device that relies on a unique suction method, rather than needles, to draw a tiny amount of blood for testing. And just earlier this month, search giant Google was spotted filing a patent for a smartwatch that collected blood samples using a similar pressure-based technology. At Columbia University in New York, a team of researchers announced in June that


hurt and can be especially taxing for the elderly and those whose health had been compromised. That was until it Theranos, a much-hyped biotech start-up, announced what seemed like quantum leap in advancing one of the medical industry’s most vital tools. But since October, the start-up with $9 billion dollars worth of backing has been facing intense scrutiny after a blockbuster report in the Wall Street Journal raised questions over the effectiveness of the firm’s highly-secretive breakthrough technique for screening for a wide multitude of infections and conditions using a single drop of blood — and at a fraction of the cost of conventional laboratories. Still, the controversy shouldn’t overshadow the fact that there’s been considerable progress toward making the procedure quick and painless. In May, start-up Tasso received a $3 million DARPA grant to further development on HemoLink, an experimental device that relies on a unique suction method, rather than needles, to draw a tiny amount of blood for testing. And just earlier this month, search giant Google was spotted filing a patent for a smartwatch that collected blood samples using a similar pressure-based technology. At Columbia University in New York, a team of researchers announced in June that they had developed a DNA-based blood test that can detect every virus a person has ever had. Being able to precisely pare down and sort out various infections would not only allow for the early detection of HIV and Hepatitis C, but also help scientists better track disease patterns in various populations as well as shed light on how certain antibodies play into the emergence of auto-immune diseases such as multiple sclerosis and type 1 diabetes. In Back to the Future, shoes tie themselves and skateboards hover. (Universal Pictures) 7. With hoverboards, inventors scramble to go “Back to the Future” In retrospect, it would make perfect sense that it would be the year of the hoverboard. In “Back to the Future,” the fictional timeline was set in 2015 and Marty McFly had one. Heck, that means everyone else should too. The urgency to delivery or at least cash in on what many fans of the classic film were treating as some sort of prophetic deadline became increasingly real late last year. It was around that time that inventors Jill and Greg Henderson started a Kickstarter campaign for the Hendoboard Hoverboard, a skateboard designed to allow riders to ride on a


The B-1 bomber: The underappreciated workhorse of America’s air wars

been a punch line. A glowing New York Times feature earlier this month on the B-1’s older, slower brother, the gangly B-52, highlighted the tribulations of the supersonic bomber’s development, comparing it unfavorably to the reliable B-52 of “Dr. Strangelove” fame, which has been in uninterrupted service since the 1950s. And during a Senate hearing last year, Sen. John McCain pushed back hard on Secretary of the Air Force Deborah Lee James’s description of the B-1 as an effective airplane for “close air support,” or the delivery of precision-guided bombs in support of embattled ground troops. “That’s a remarkable statement,” McCain scoffed. “That doesn’t comport with any experience I’ve ever had, nor anyone I know has ever had.” What McCain didn’t seem to be aware of, and what the Times report failed to note, is the long third act of the B-1’s life. Converted in the 1990s from a Soviet-airspace-penetrating nuclear strike plane to a conventional bomber meant to pound the infrastructure and massed formations of an enemy army, the “Bone” converted again in the aftermath of September 11, 2001, into exactly what the Arizona senator found so hard to believe: not just a close air support plane, but, by all accounts, a hugely successful one. One need only watch this video below of a B-1 strike in Afghanistan’s ultra-violent Pech valley, and listen to the profanity-laden commentary of the ground troops doing the filming, to get a sense of the role the big bomber played supporting troops in contact in both Iraq and Afghanistan. In the video, originally uploaded to YouTube by a military spokesperson, troops at a remote firebase watch as three satellite-guided bombs from a B-1 strike mountainside targets almost simultaneously, followed seconds later by a fourth. The soldiers express their elation in not-safe-for-civilian-work terms. (Editor’s note: Video below contains explicit language.) Afghanistan War: RAW VIDEO B1 Bomber Strikes direct hit's on Taliban Positions afghanistan By the time of the airstrike depicted in the video, Bone-drivers had been flying their dark gray planes 20,000 feet over Afghanistan for years — since the opening night of the U.S.-led air war in October 2001, when five B-1s flying out of the Indian Ocean outpost of Diego Garcia joined ten B-52s and two B-2 stealth bombers in pummeling the Taliban regime’s few fixed-site targets. One pilot who flew B-1s in the early months of the Afghan war, Jordan Thomas, had