Stephen Curry won’t play for Team USA at Rio Olympics

Stephen Curry will skip the Olympics to rest his knee. (Ezra Shaw/Getty Images) Marcus Thompson of the Bay Area News Group reported Monday that Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry has informed USA Basketball that he will not take the court for the United States at this year’s Rio Olympics. But it’s not because he fears the Zika virus. Instead, he wants to rest the injured right knee and ankle that have bothered him throughout this year’s NBA playoffs. Curry and the Warriors confirmed the news in a statement: Stephen Curry statement regarding USA Basketball & 2016 Summer Olympics: https://t.co/sBF4eVrIyH Curry might not be the only big-name star to opt out: Thompson says Andre Iguodala — who already has a gold medal from the 2012 Olympics — has concerns about Zika and “is keenly watching the developments.” Thompson also has a source telling him that LeBron James and Russell Westbook might not make the trip to Rio, though Draymond Green is all-in if he gets the call. “If he is invited to play, he will play,” Thompson writes of Green. As Thompson notes, Curry almost certainly will get another shot at an Olympic medal in 2020, when he will be 32 years old. The two-time defending NBA most valuable player also will likely have gotten a max contract by then, making his participation then less risky. USA Basketball is expected to announce the final 12-man Olympic roster in late June, with training camp to begin in Las Vegas in July. With Curry’s decision, Anthony Davis’s knee injury and Chris Paul’s decision to end his international career after two Olympic gold medals, the announced player pool is down to 28 men. Last week, cyclist Tejay van Garderen became what is assumed to be the first U.S. athlete to back out of the Olympics because of concerns about the Zika virus. Van Garderen’s wife is due to give birth in October, and pregnant women have been advised not to travel to Rio because Zika has been shown to cause birth defects.


HipCityVeg and its plant-based riffs on fast food are almost here

Nicole Marquis opened HipCityVeg in Philadelphia in 2012, and her first location in Washington debuts this week. (Becky Krystal/The Washington Post) Name: The food Founder Nicole Marquis said her goal is to make plant-based food that appeals to everyone, regardless of whether they eat meat or not. To do that, her small chain, which she started in Philadelphia in 2012, features vegan riffs on fast-food standard-bearers. "We really don't cater to vegans per se," Marquis said. "Vegans come to us regularly, but the masses, that's who we're really trying to reach." That intention is perhaps best represented by HipCityVeg's second-most-popular item, its Crispy HipCity Ranch, which consists of the company's own battered and fried chick'n (made of grains and soy) along with lettuce, tomato, pickle, onion and peppercorn ranch dressing. The chick'n also stars in a fajita wrap and Disco Chick'n sandwich, as well as in nugget form. And here, the fries are made of sweet potatoes. Other items include a Philly steak sandwich and Ziggy burger with smoked tempeh. More sandwiches and wraps star tofu and grilled or fried mushrooms. You'll also find a variety of salads, such a Jerk Chick'n Caesar and Asian-inspired bowl with udon noodles. The drinks The Groothie, a green smoothie with apples, greens, bananas and other fruit, is HipCityVeg's top seller. (And many customers, do in fact, pair this virtuous-sounding sip with a fried chick'n sandwich.) You can also quench your thirst with kale or carrot-ginger lemonade. On the frozen side, banana whips and soy ice cream milkshakes will keep you cool. The space Light, white and airy. There are about 12 seats in the relatively small space -- but fear not, because if you're waiting in line out the door, your order will be taken by an iPad-toting employee so that your food will be waiting for you by the time you reach the counter to pay. The HipCityRanch is one of HipCityVeg's most popular items. (Becky Krystal/The Washington Post) A fajita wrap from HipCityVeg includes its own chick'n, plus onion, pepper, cabbage, pico de gallo, avocado and chipotle crema. (Becky Krystal/The Washington Post) Related items: Vegan chain HipCityVeg is putting down roots in Washington Philadelphia restaurants are moving in on D.C. Get used to it. The next frontier for vegan restaurants? Not calling yourself a vegan restaurant.


This spaceship is great at falling — and that could help us understand the universe

time, or “space time” as physicists call it, the way a bowling ball would change the shape of a trampoline as it rolls around on it. Smaller objects will move differently as a result — like marbles spiraling toward a bowling-ball-sized dent in a trampoline. Large objects should all produce detectable gravitational waves, but giant black hole collisions and other space disasters send them out like beacons. Because these waves can pass through physical objects without changing (unlike light) they could be used to carry remarkably pristine data about these events back to detectors on Earth. And they could be used to study "dark" objects, such as black holes, that don't emit light for us to detect with traditional telescopes. But in the grand scheme of things, these waves are tiny. Any minute vibration from other forces could muck up a scientist's data. That's why LISA has to be oh-so-perfectly quiet and still. LISA's test cubes. (ESA/ATG medialab) To attain actual free fall in space, LISA — a proof-of-concept for a trio of spacecrafts that the ESA hopes to launch in a couple of decades — uses an array of thrusters to keep a pair of 4.6-centimeter gold and platinum alloy cubes virtually immune to the effects of anything but gravity. Electrodes sense their position relative to the position of the outer spacecraft, telling the thrusters when to fire and create tiny forces to negate everything but gravity's pull. When the LISA observatory mission launches in 2034, lasers will detect the tiny movements that occur between the two cubes despite this free-fall correction. Those movements will be the result of gravitational waves. The researchers believe the spacecraft's current sensitivity has surpassed the level needed to detect black hole mergers anywhere in the universe. "The measurements have exceeded our most optimistic expectations," project scientist Paul McNamara said in a statement. "We reached the level of precision originally required for LISA Pathfinder within the first day, and so we spent the following weeks improving the results a factor of five." Read More: Everything you need to know about gravitational waves (in gifs) This is what it looks like when a black hole tears a star apart Schrödinger’s cat just got even weirder (and even more confusing) Why NASA’s top scientist is sure that we’ll find signs of alien life in the next decade Scientists just smashed the distance record for quantum teleportation


Privacy advocates accuse Obama administration of failing to properly protect student data

(Bigstock) A coalition of organizations and individuals concerned about student privacy rights is accusing the Obama administration of failing to properly protect student data from unauthorized disclosure and is petitioning the Education Department to strengthen a federal law to prevent the unauthorized disclosure of kids’ personally identifiable information. The petition, sent to U.S. Education Secretary John King, says changes made to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, known as FERPA, over the past several years have allowed education agencies and organizations to share student data with third parties without permission from students or their parents. It also says that the department has failed to protect data from major breaches, which have occurred at a number of schools and colleges. Here are some of the examples of data breaches given in the petition: * A University of Maryland database containing 287,580 student, faculty, staff and personnel records was breached in 2014; the “breached records included name, Social Security number, date of birth, and University identification number.” The breached records included records going as far back as 1992. * In 2015, unauthorized individuals gained access to the University of Berkeley’s Financial System and gained access to Social Security numbers and bank account information for approximately 80,000 students, vendors, staff, and current and former faculty. By some estimates, the breach impacted “approximately 50 percent of current students and 65 percent of active employees.” * Indiana University also reported that it had stored names, addresses and Social Security numbers for “approximately 146,000 students and recent graduates” in an “insecure location” for almost a year, thus potentially exposing students to identity theft and other forms of fraud. The petition asks that the Education Department establish new rules within FERPA for encryption, privacy-enhancing techniques and breach notification. Among the signatories are the members of the advisory board of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit public interest research group that focuses on civil liberties issues and the First Amendment, as well as groups including the American Association of School Librarians and the Consumer Federation of America. The Education Department has come under stern criticism from Congress and its own Inspector General’s Office for its handling of student data. In a 2014 report, the department’s Inspector General’s Office said: “While the Department made progress in strengthening its information security program, many longstanding weaknesses remain and the Department’s information systems continue to be vulnerable to


This technology may finally help us figure out what black holes really look like

(ragesoss / Flickr) What does a black hole really look like? For the first time, scientists might find out because of a machine-learning algorithm — one that pieces together image data collected from multiple radio telescopes scattered around the globe. If it works, artificial intelligence will have contributed to our first non-artist rendering of a captivating scientific mystery. No single telescope is up for the job, because none is big enough to produce a high-quality image. And we will never build one, said Katie Bouman, a graduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology working with Harvard researchers on what's called the Event Horizon Telescope. "A black hole is very, very far away and very compact," Bouman said in an MIT blog post. "It's equivalent to taking an image of a grapefruit on the moon, but with a radio telescope. To image something this small means that we would need a telescope with a 10,000-kilometer diameter, which is not practical, because the diameter of the Earth is not even 13,000 kilometers." The solution is to use multiple telescopes around the world, joining them together to form a huge single telescope, then merging the results into one picture. But that comes with its own problems: Each participating telescope is a little different from the others, and based on its geographic location, is affected by Earth's atmosphere in different ways. That produces interference that scientists must account for if they want to produce a successful composite image. The machine-learning algorithm being used by the Event Horizon Telescope — which is really almost a dozen individual telescopes — is designed to do just that. It crunches all the incoming data and tries to narrow or eliminate the differences between readings by comparing them to one another. The result could give us the first true images of a celestial phenomenon that, for decades, we've left to artists to imagine and describe with pictures.


Main Street Morning: Ralph Lauren is shedding jobs and closing stores

software at neuro diseases. - How an online bachelor’s in business strengthened this entrepreneur’s career. Retail - Mobile shoppers are more likely to make in-store purchases, a study finds. - Wal-Mart says that tech investments, such as warehouse drones, will boost its online sales. - Ralph Lauren is cutting jobs and closing stores as sales slump. Sales Marketing - How podcasts are becoming more popular among listeners and advertisers. - Instagram ads are coming to billboards and movie theaters. - John Oliver tops Oprah with one of the largest giveaways ever on TV. Finance - HSBC plans to shake up its global banking business to cut costs. - Here’s how Facebook Messenger will change banking. Start-ups - A semi-retired business executive forms a nonprofit development group. - How student loan debt is putting the damper on business formation. - A professor of entrepreneurship looks into whether start-ups really create lots of good jobs. - These are five new travel start-ups that are helping hotel employees better serve guests. Technology - A low-cost British airline has made sneakers that use Google Maps. - Slack’s artificial intelligence will tell customers what they need to know. - Why the jetpack movement may finally be taking off. - These are three new technologies poised to improve work and play. - How biometrics technology is reshaping the landscape of the security industry. Online - A man is sued for $30K over a $40 printer he sold on Craigslist. - Microsoft officially launches a Trello competitor. Social Media - Mark Zuckerberg’s Twitter and Pinterest accounts get hacked. Around the Country - A Kansas man’s bicycle hobby grows into a successful home business. - Business owners in a Maine town are hoping that more dining options will draw more people. - WeWork quietly opens hotel rooms in New York City. - A Pennsylvania business owner wants to install an airplane on his roof. - Local businesses in Panama City Florida are benefitting from a good snapper season. Around the World - The Indian government is prepared to allow Apple to open its first three planned retail outlets in the country without any sourcing requirement for their first few years of business, - These are seven reasons why European cities are going to beat U.S. cities as hubs for innovation. - Here are five things to know about doing business in Ireland. - Turkey sinks an airbus jumbo


Legionnaires’ outbreaks: Cases nearly quadrupled in 15 years

Water from showers is one of the most common sources of the bacteria that causes Legionnaires' disease. (Bigstock) Cases of Legionnaires' disease nearly quadrupled in the United States over a 15-year period, and almost all might have been prevented with the proper use of disinfectant, the right water temperature and other measures, federal health officials said Tuesday. In the last year alone, about 5,000 Americans were diagnosed with this severe, sometimes fatal pneumonia, and more than 20 outbreaks were reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The disease is caused by a person breathing small droplets of water contaminated with the bacteria Legionella. "Large recent outbreaks in New York City and Flint, Michigan have brought attention to the disease and highlight the need to understand why the outbreaks occur and how best to prevent them," CDC Director Tom Frieden said in a briefing. From 2000 to 2014, the rate of reported cases of legionellosis, which includes Legionnaires' disease and a milder flu-like illness called Pontiac fever, increased nearly fourfold, from .42 to 1.62 cases per 100,000 persons, according to a CDC report released Tuesday. Virtually all of the cases involved Legionnaires' disease, officials said. Reported cases of legionellosis, almost all of which are Legionnaires' disease: 2000-2014. (CDC) "People are unnecessarily and avoidably getting sick and dying from preventable infections," Frieden said. And the cases carry a high price tag: The annual cost of treating Legionnaires' disease, based on hospital claims, is about $434 million, he said. Officials said a combination of factors is likely behind the increase. More people may be getting sick because of the country's aging population, more people with chronic illnesses and older plumbing infrastructure. Increased use of diagnostic testing and more reliable reporting may also be factors. Most individuals need hospital care and make a full recovery. But about one in 10 people will die from the infection. Most at risk are people 50 years and older, those with certain risk factors, including smoking, and those with chronic lung disease or a weakened immune system. The CDC analyzed outbreaks it had investigated from 2000 to 2014 that involved 415 cases, including 65 deaths. Most of the outbreaks were in buildings with large or complex water systems, such as hotels, hospitals and long-term-care facilities. The report only looked at outbreaks associated with buildings, but the disease is also found on cruise ships.) About half of


GOP plan to dismantle Dodd Frank has a big problem

of a debate that is expected to rage next year on whether the country's banking system is strong enough to withstand another crisis without taxpayer bailouts. The Republican plan takes aim at the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform package. Six years after it was passed, the legislation remains a controversial prescription to the ills that precipitated the financial crisis. Regulators are still putting in place thousands of pages of regulations, and the banking industry says it has spent millions of dollars to comply with its tough new rules. Republicans have repeatedly argued that the law amounts to a micromanaging of the financial system and now appear poised to challenge key aspects of it. "Why has Dodd-Frank failed? Because Dodd-Frank rests upon faulty principle, faulty premise and faulty policy," Hensarling (R-Tex.) told the Economic Club of New York. Hensarling met with presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump Tuesday to pitch the proposal, but it is unclear whether Trump, who has previously called for "dismantling" Dodd-Frank, will support the Republican approach. "Dodd-Frank is a very negative force, which has developed a very bad name," Trump said in an interview with Reuters last month. A Trump spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Congress is unlikely to take up such complex legislation before the presidential election, and President Obama would surely oppose any effort to weaken one of his signature accomplishments. Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary, addressed the Hensarling proposal this afternoon. "Financial industry reform essentially guarantees that taxpayers will not be on the hook for bailing out big banks if their risky bets go south," Earnest said. "But if you tear it down, like House Republicans say that they want to do, that will allow big banks to go back making risky bets and put taxpayers on the hook once again for bailing out those banks to prevent a second Great Depression. That doesn’t make any sense." Also, Wall Street did not rush to support the proposal and has shown more interest in reviewing the effect of the rules already put in place rather than adapting to a new set of regulations. "We look forward to working with the committee and anyone who will help remove obstacles that make it harder for America’s banks to serve their customers and meet the needs of their local communities," said James Ballentine, executive vice president of congressional relations for the American Bankers


Atmospheric carbon dioxide just reached a huge record high

in an unprecedented era. “Carbon dioxide levels are increasing faster than they have in hundreds of thousands of years,” said Pieter Tans, lead scientist of NOAA’s Global Greenhouse Gas Reference Network. “It’s explosive compared to natural processes.” The last time our planet saw such a sustained increase in carbon dioxide was between 17,000 and 11,000 years ago, NOAA says, when levels increased by just 80 ppm. Tans says today’s rate of increase is 200 times faster than that. (NOAA) Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is higher now than it has been in more than 800,000 years. We know that because we can literally measure the carbon dioxide in ancient air that is trapped deep inside glacial ice. The increase comes courtesy of our preferred energy source: the burning of fossil fuels, a process by which Earth’s carbon stores are essentially excavated from their natural position in the global carbon cycle and released into the atmosphere as heat-trapping greenhouse gas. Perched on top of the second-largest volcano in the world, the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii has been measuring atmospheric carbon dioxide for nearly 60 years. The resulting carbon dioxide levels create the iconic Keeling Curve, shown above, named for the scientist who began the measurements in 1958, Charles David Keeling. The first carbon dioxide measurement recorded by Keeling was just 316 ppm. Since then, it has shot through the roof. In 2013, our atmosphere’s carbon dioxide concentration hit 400 ppm — a significant milestone, because it’s the level at which climate scientists identify as “the beginning of the danger zone,” said Princeton University’s Michael Oppenheimer. “It means we’re probably getting to the point where we’re looking at the ‘safe zone’ in the rear-view mirror, even as we’re stepping on the gas,” Oppenheimer said. Though the vast majority of the increase in carbon dioxide is due to the burning of fossil fuels, part of this year’s very large spike can be attributed to El Niño. The tropics tend to dry out during an El Niño, which kills off a lot of plant life. Plants absorb atmospheric carbon dioxide, which is necessary for photosynthesis. Fewer plants means more CO2 in the atmosphere. El Niño also increases the likelihood of extreme wildfires, which also inject large amounts of CO2 into the air. The last time a record-high, year over year CO2 jump occurred was in 1998 — also a big El Niño year.


It’s not just Britain: A new poll shows Europeans elsewhere are tired of the E.U.

The European Union flag at a rally last year in Athens. (Milos Bicanski/Getty Images) On June 23, British citizens will cast their ballots in the long-awaited referendum on whether the United Kingdom should remain in the European Union. Known unofficially as “Brexit,” the referendum represents a watershed moment in Euro pean politics. It deals with an issue far larger than the political and economic relationship between London and Brussels. What Brexit is fundamentally about is the idea of Europe itself, and whether the notion of an “ever closer” continent — a unquestioned pillar of postwar development — has lasting appeal in 2016, 70 years after World War II. Poll statistics suggest that it might not. According to the results of a Pew survey released Tuesday — of more than 10,000 participants in 10 major E.U. nations this year — Euroskepticism is on the rise across the continent, even outside of Britain. Only 51 percent of those polled expressed a positive view of the Brussels-based institution, while 42 percent expressed the desire to have certain powers restored to their local governments. Although E.U. favorability has generally been in decline — with temporary upticks — since 2012, when the Eurozone economic crisis began, it has fallen significantly in the past year. In both France and Spain, for instance, Pew reports that favorability has dropped by double-digits between 2015 and 2016. As for an explanation, the poll data indicate that “overwhelming majorities” in each of the 10 countries surveyed disapprove of the way the E.U. has handled the migrant crisis, which saw more than 1 million people pour into continental Europe in 2015 alone. The crisis represents the largest on European soil since 1945, and it is far from over: Just last week, more than 1,000 people died in the Mediterranean while attempting to reach Europe. Brussels has yet to institute a comprehensive rescue policy. Perhaps predictably, the disapproval of E.U. migrant policy is strongest in several of the countries most directly affected: 94 percent of Greeks, 77 percent of Italians and 88 percent of Swedes polled expressed dissatisfaction. According to the data, the E.U.’s handling of economic issues “is another huge source of disaffection with the institution.” Approximately 68 percent of Italians, 66 percent of French and 65 percent of Spanish expressed unfavorable opinions. In Eastern Europe, however, where general support for the E.U. was highest, numbers were different: 47 percent of


Olympic gold medalist, wary of Zika, will freeze his sperm before Rio Games

isn’t unfounded. Although the primary mode of transmission is mosquito bite, according to the CDC, a male can pass on the Zika virus to a partner via his sperm, which can be affected by the virus for longer than a person’s blood. Verrill also revealed that she and the couple’s son, Milo, will not be traveling to Brazil for the Games, although she spends as much time expounding on the logistical problems with attending the Olympics — “Remember the time someone had loads of fun spending £6,000 on flights to Rio and two days shuttling to and from a stadium without a pram but with a feisty toddler? No, me neither” — as she does the worry over Zika. “The Zika news has caused no end of concern if we’re totally honest,” Verrill said. “We’re not ones to worry unnecessarily, but after more than 100 medical experts stressed the Games should be moved to prevent the disease from spreading, this was a huge factor in us choosing to stay put.” The article comes less than a week after American cyclist Tejay van Garderen announced his decision to pull out of the Rio Games due to Zika. Golfer Vijay Singh had already decided to skip the Olympics because of the virus in April, and dozens more athletes have expressed their concern over the virus and its spread for months. “Some of these athletes [I spoke to] are planning to have children in the near future and this could affect them, it could affect the health of their kids and their wives,” Chicago Bulls and Spanish basketball star Pau Gasol said in May. “Their health should come first.” But those opting not participate — so far — are few and far between. “It’s the Olympics. Mosquitoes? Like, whatever. I’m going,” U.S. gymnast Gabby Douglas told the Associated Press this week. “This is my shot. I don’t care about no stupid bugs.” “The Zika virus is definitely a concern,” American soccer star Alex Morgan told Health magazine in May. “You don’t know how long the virus lasts in your system, and that’s an issue for someone who’s trying to get pregnant,” she continued. “I am concerned, but I really do trust the International Olympic Committee about traveling in Brazil. It is kind of scary.” Fear has led Spain’s Olympic committee to commit to bringing 3,000 bottles of insect repellent to Rio. It has


The most scathing restaurant reviews Tom Sietsema has ever written

The Post's food critic Tom Sietsema granted Founding Farmers, a D.C.-favorite restaurant, zero stars in a recent review. Here's why. Washington Post food critic Tom Sietsema bestowed the unenviable honor of a zero-star review upon Founding Farmers, the perpetually bustling Foggy Bottom restaurant. Ouch. (It had previously earned one star in 2009 and a half star in 2012.) It joins the select fraternity of restaurants to which Sietsema has awarded less than a single star, which is the cutoff for a rating of "satisfactory." Restaurants that earn zero stars are considered "poor." Sometimes, such pans are so bad, they're good -- good reading anyway. Here's a collection of, and some choice excerpts from, Sietsema's most withering critiques of all time. (These excerpts reflect the restaurant's condition at the time of the original review, and may not be reflective of the present reality; several of these restaurants have since closed.) [Founding Farmers review: Zero stars for the mega-popular D.C. eatery] Founding Farmers Le Pigalle La Tagliatella "Someone needs to put a stop to this threat to our nation." Lauriol Plaza Mussel Bar Grace's Mandarin STK Suna "The unfocused Suna calls to mind a pique of mine: restaurants that taste like rehearsals but charge full admission."


How the world’s most popular foods have traveled all over the planet

of Asia, southeastern Europe and the Mediterranean, and tropical South America. This figure, from the paper by Khoury et al., shows primary regions of diversity for major crops around the world. (Courtesy of the International Center for Tropical Agriculture) “The main finding really is that everybody’s connected to everywhere else to some degree or another,” Khoury said. Even the countries that maintain the lowest percentages of foreign plants in their food supplies still don’t eat a totally native diet. And taking note of this fact can provide some important insights into how we can best safeguard our food supply for the future. The study’s major takeaway is the importance of protecting the diversity of crops all over the world, Khoury said, because food that originates in one place may one day become a staple in another. Experts believe that maintaining a wide array of genetically diverse plants, in particular, can help scientists breed more resilient types of crops in the future — ones that can be grown in many different places, withstand extreme climatic changes and resist disease. These are all factors that are becoming increasingly important in a world where habitat destruction, invasive species, climate change and other environmental threats continue to build. In fact, world leaders have already begun to think about this issue and plan for the future. An Additionally, nations around the world have established seed banks, or safe places where seeds are stored both for research purposes and in case disaster — whether war or a cataclysmic weather event — should seriously damage a region’s crops. And on a remote archipelago in Norway, the These kinds of steps should be an area of increasing focus in the coming decades, the research suggests. Not only is it clear that food supplies all over the world will be challenged by the social and environmental issues facing the plan — it’s increasingly apparent that global collaboration is the key to tackling these challenges. “If we’re thinking long-term about our food supplies, and if we understand that we need genetic diversity as one of the main ways that we keep our food supplies resilient and strong — especially in terms of increasing problems like climate change — then we should be invested in working internationally and collaborating internationally to make sure that the resources are protected and also are accessible,” Khoury said. “That they are shared with each other.”


The Dabney makes Food & Wine’s list of 2016 Restaurants of the Year

Chef Jeremiah Langhorne preps food during dinner service at the Dabney. (Deb Lindsey for The Washington Post) The national accolades continue for Washington restaurants. This morning, Food & Wine announced its 2016 Restaurants of the Year, and the Dabney was among the 10 eateries honored. "This year's winners are raising the bar in unexpected ways, showcasing serious originality and offering food that is as authentic as it is delicious," according to a press release. Chef Jeremiah Langhorne opened the Dabney in Shaw last fall, with an emphasis on mid-Atlantic cuisine. Post Food critic Tom Sietsema awarded it 2 1/2 stars and also included it in his list of the best new restaurants in Washington. While we might kindly beg to differ with the remark about our region's produce, here's what Food & Wine had to say. It's no small feat for a restaurant to source 100 percent of its ingredients from the region, especially if the area is the mid-Atlantic, which isn't known for bountiful produce. To turn those ingredients into outstanding food is more challenging still. To do this at The Dabney, chef Jeremiah Langhorne obsessed over historic cookbooks. The resulting dishes -- aged ham toast with truffle Mornay sauce, peanut butter cake with celery ice cream -- taste wonderfully modern but have roots that go back hundreds of years. The local pride extends beyond food to an excellent list of hard ciders, all also found in the mid-Atlantic. Langhorne sent along his reaction: "Words can't express how excited and proud I am of our team. We are so honored and grateful to be included among such amazing company!" This is the second recent honor Food & Wine has bestowed on Washington chefs. In April, it named Aaron Silverman of Rose's Luxury and Pineapple and Pearls one of its Best New Chefs. The Dabney joined restaurants from other cities such as New York, San Francisco and Minneapolis on the Food & Wine list. Also included: Shaya, the New Orleans restaurant The Post's Sietsema visited as part of his America's Best Food Cities package last year and called "a modern Valentine to Israel." For the complete list, check out foodandwine.com/2016-restaurants. Related items: D.C.'s food scene gets a prestigious boost: Michelin inspection (and stars) Why this chef plans to avoid lemons and olive oil The Dabney review: Bringing Mid-Atlantic cuisine to life


Nike digs in its heels for court battle with rising track star Boris Berian

Boris Berian wins the 800 meters at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore. on May 28. (Craig Mitchelldyer/Getty Images) (This story has been updated) Nike, the wildly successful shoe and apparel company, says it will suffer “irreparable harm” if a promising middle-distance runner refuses to compete while wearing its iconic swoosh and has asked a U.S. District Court judge to sort out a contractual dispute. In a highly unusual legal drama, that runner, 23-year-old Boris Berian, contends Nike is trying to sabotage his Olympic dream and his attorneys contend the company’s litigation is “designed to hinder Mr. Berian’s training and bully him into submission.” “Nike’s purported concern with Mr. Berian’s success seems highly disingenuous,” the runner’s attorneys argued in a recent court filing in the U.S. District Court of Oregon. Just one month before the U.S. Olympic track and field trials, the two sides met in a courtroom in Portland, Ore., on Tuesday, where a U.S. District Judge Marco Hernandez granted Nike’s request for a temporary restraining order, which will keep Berian from competing in New Balance gear or promoting the company until June 21, when the two sides are scheduled to meet again. Barely two years removed from a job flipping burgers at a Colorado McDonald’s, Berian’s star has been rising and he’s considered a favorite to represent the United States at the Rio Olympics in the 800 meters, having recently won the IAAF World Indoor Championships and the Prefontaine Classic. He’s been competing this season wearing New Balance gear, even though Nike contends it has a deal with Berian. Berian’s attorneys told the judge that the runner would be pulling out of two events in June and would not compete again until the U.S. trials next month in Eugene, Ore. Berian tweeted over the weekend: “Thank you @nike for trying to keep me from running.” “He did have a schedule that he has since cancelled because of the stress of the litigation and the emotional burden that all of this is placing on him and how it’s affecting his training,” said Vincent C. Ewing, one of Berian’s lawyers. Berian said on a podcast interview last weekend that he was planning to compete at the trials. “My agent, he’s definitely got a good plan right now. I’m not really worried about that,” Berian told the “World’s Greatest Athlete” podcast. At the heart of the dispute: Did Nike sufficiently match a


Investigation shows the real reason the Army denied a soldier the Medal of Honor

Sgt. 1st Class Earl D. Plumlee, assigned to 1st Special Forces Group, is presented the Silver Star for his actions in Afghanistan on May 1, 2015. (Spec. Codie Mendenhall/ Army). The Army followed its rules while denying a Medal of Honor last year to a Green Beret credited with staving off a brutal ambush in Afghanistan, according to a Defense Department inspector general’s report released Wednesday. But the report provides a unique glimpse into something else: just how subjective decisions surrounding awards for valor can be. The investigation examined the case of Army Sgt. 1st Class Earl Plumlee, who was recommended for the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest award for combat valor, for his role in repelling a bloody Taliban attack Aug. 28, 2013, on Forward Operating Base Ghazni in eastern Afghanistan. Plumlee, a member of 1st Special Forces Group from Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington, is credited with killing several attackers at point-blank range, using both small arms and hand grenades, as their suicide vests detonated. The commander of Plumlee’s task force nominated him for the Medal of Honor, and the recommendation was backed by senior battlefield commanders, including Marine Gen. Joseph F. Dunford, then the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan. But in May 2015, Plumlee instead received a Silver Star, two levels below the Medal of Honor, drawing concerns from Rep. Duncan D. Hunter (R-Calif.) and prompting Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter to request an inspector general’s investigation. The Medal of Honor is the military's highest honor. The medal and those who wear it represent the values of courage, sacrifice and patriotism. Hunter questioned whether Plumlee’s award was downgraded to a Silver Star because he was subsequently investigated by the Army’s Criminal Investigation Command (CID) for attempting to sell a rifle scope online. Though the investigation was closed without any charges being brought against him, the implication was that the Army didn’t want a Medal of Honor recipient with that kind of baggage. The inspector general found no evidence that anyone used the CID investigation to justify awarding the Silver Star, which typically is awarded in a small ceremony at a soldier’s base, rather than the Medal of Honor, which comes with national recognition and a ceremony at the White House. But the report did provide new details about how the decision to not give Plumlee a Medal of Honor was reached. In Afghanistan, the Medal of


Genetically engineered bugs to fight malaria and Zika? Not so fast, experts say

A female Aedes aegypti mosquito in the process of acquiring a blood meal from a human host. (James Gathany/CDC via AP) It is premature to fight malaria, Zika, Lyme and other diseases with genetically engineered insects or other animals that have been designed to spread their modified genes in the wild, according to an expert panel convened by the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine. But the group, saying such a “gene drive” offers promise in combating diseases or saving endangered species, concluded that experimental research should continue, including carefully controlled field tests. The panel's report, released Wednesday, has no force of law but will likely be influential in the debate about how, when and whether to use gene-drive technology to suppress the spread of pathogens. It comes amid mounting concerns about the Zika virus, which can be spread by mosquitoes and is linked to a spike in birth defects in South America. The National Academies formed the group in response to the recent development of gene-drive techniques. The field of biotechnology is in the midst of a revolution, in part due to a new gene-editing tool known as CRISPR, which mimics a system invented by bacteria to defend themselves against viruses. With CRISPR, scientists can easily manipulate the genetic code of almost any organism. An earlier National Academies report, released last month, gave what could be described as a nuanced endorsement of genetically engineered (GE) crops. This new report is a close cousin, focusing on a subset of GE animals, including disease-carrying insects, in which the modified genes are designed to spread like wildfire through nature and have the potential to reduce populations or even, in theory, to drive a species to extinction. It can also protect species that are assaulted by invasive pathogens. The new report has a more cautious tone than the crop study — more akin to a flashing red light (stop and proceed if all is clear) rather than a flashing yellow. The panel did not object to gene-drive technology in theory but said there are too many uncertainties in how it would play out. Its report states: "There is insufficient evidence available at this time to support the release of gene-drive modified organisms into the environment. However, the potential of gene drives for basic and applied research are significant and justify proceeding with laboratory research and highly-controlled field trials." The report said the


Update: Roads reopen near North Capitol Street and New York Avenue in Northwest Washington after police investigation

Updated at 7:34 p.m. D.C. police said the incident has been cleared and all streets are now open in the area. Updated at 6:29 p.m. Some closures in the area of the investigation remain in place, D.C. police said. Authorities still have two lanes closed on westbound New York Avenue between Florida Avenue and North Capitol Street NW. Two right lanes and a left turning lane are shut down, but traffic is getting by in the center lane, police said. In addition, a North Capitol Street NW service road remains blocked because of the investigation. Original post at 5:54 p.m. D.C. police closed streets near North Capitol Street and New York Avenue NW on Wednesday evening as authorities investigated a shooting. The investigation shut down a portion of westbound New York Avenue NW between Florida Avenue and New Jersey Avenue NW. Also a southbound North Capitol Street NW service road is closed from O Street to New York Avenue NW. A D.C. police traffic alert advised people to avoid the area and seek alternate routes. Several people possibly shot at New York Avenue and North Capitol Street. Details to come. https://t.co/baqDUjAvmo


In China, cheating on an exam will get students detention — in prison

A student walks in to take the national college entrance exam on June 7 in Qingdao, China. (Wang Haibin/European Pressphoto Agency) More than 9.4 million Chinese students just sat for annual college entrance exams known as gaokao. The stakes are incredibly high, as admissions are largely based on exam scores. A high scorer streamlines his or her path toward a better education and better jobs — a low scorer may be destined for the opposite, made worse by shame. Because the stakes are so high, cheating is a huge concern. Allegations of cheating rocked China in recent years. This year, Chinese authorities aren't playing around. Xinhua, the Chinese news agency, reported that cheating is now considered a criminal offense that could be punished with up to seven years in prison. The new law apparently came into effect last November, and the most severe punishments would be reserved for those found to be engaging in the organizing of mass cheating or hiring others to sit state-level exams. There were reports from all over China indicating that the police are now playing in active role in preventing cheating. Many were stationed at exam halls and were on the lookout for "suspicious behavior." In Beijing, an average of eight police officers were stationed at each exam hall. In some cities, students' shoes were being scanned before they entered testing locations. Xinhua quoted parents who felt both positively and negatively about the new punishment law, but as one "educationalist" interviewed by the agency astutely noted, "To fully eliminate cheating, not only must the punishment be strengthened but also the admission system must be reformed." The gaokao have been the be-all-end-all of the Chinese education system since the Cultural Revolution. Students delve into an incredibly consuming study period in the lead up to the June exams, and wealthier families often dole out thousands of dollars for coaching and prep courses. Read more: ‘Ever been to Tibet bro?’ A nationalistic Chinese Twitter account goes rogue Chinese schoolkids climb a 2,625-foot cliffside ladder to get home. Soon, they’ll have stairs. China and India have a huge problem with racism toward black people


Climate change could force huge migrations for people and animals living near the equator

get to cooler ground, populations close to the equator are forced to make a beeline for the subtropics to reach their ideal conditions. This means essentially the entirety of migrating populations living in the tropics end up halting and concentrating in more or less the same places. “It’s kind of analogous to when you’re driving on the highway and suddenly the cars in front of you all slow down,” Hsiang said. “It creates a traffic jam.” This kind of response could cause massive problems for regions at the edges of the tropics, he noted. The study suggests that populations in these regions — again, not referring to any specific type of animal at this point — could grow by 300 percent after the migrations simulated by the model. “That would be really hard for any system to handle, whether it’s an ecosystem or a human system,” Hsiang said. Competition for resources, increased spread of infectious disease and even civil unrest or war in the case of human populations are just some of the consequences that could occur under such a scenario, the authors note in the paper. As an added experiment, the researchers applied their model to the current distribution of human populations on Earth. They found that, under all the same assumptions, 12.5 percent of the global population would be forced to migrate at least 1,000 kilometers, and up to a third of the population would have to move more than 500 kilometers. Of course, the reactions of human populations to climate change are more complex than those of other organisms, and these findings are not intended to provide a realistic picture of how humans will behave in the future. While there’s certainly a precedent for humans migrating in response to climatic changes — the evacuations from North American prairies during the Dust Bowl of the 1930s is one prime example — humans may also rely on technological advancements and other forms of adaptation, such as installing lots of air conditioning, to deal with rising temperatures in the future. And even the movements of plants and animals in real life depend on a diverse array of factors, the authors have acknowledged. Some organisms may opt to shift their elevations in search of better climates, for instance, rather than moving poleward (although, as the researchers have noted, space tends to become limited the higher you climb, which can cause populations


The 40 most essential D.C. restaurant dishes of 2016

your table or, more likely, yourself. Second, you will hunt down every Sriracha mayo-slathered morsel of tempura shrimp, avocado, pickled cabbage and carrot to make sure nothing gets left behind. This sushi log may have structural weaknesses, but its flavors are expertly engineered to balance crunch and creaminess, sweetness and spice. Think of it as the futomaki version of the five-napkin burger and embrace the messiness. Buredo, 825 14th St. NW. 202-670-6770. eatburedo.com. $11.75. (Dixie D. Vereen for The Washington Post) Ayote con queso pupusa at Pupuseria El Comalito Split apart your pupusa at El Comalito and witness a miracle of kitchen science: an impossibly thin masa shell that somehow contains a thick, molten layer of mozzarella and Salvadoran cheeses studded with tiny bits of ayote, a mildly flavored green squash. The kitchen prepares every pupusa by hand, and the women here (always women) have honed their skills into an art form. That griddled, eggshell-thin masa casing allows the squash and cheeses to have their say, while perfuming the air around the filling with a sweet corn fragrance. Garnish the pupusa with some fermented cabbage called curtido and a little watery salsa, and you’ll be eating like a Salvadoran, right in the D.C. suburbs. Pupuseria El Comalito, 1167 University Blvd. E., Takoma Park, 301-445-2225. $1.95 per pupusa. (Tim Carman/The Washington Post) Pan-fried soup dumplings at Shanghai Taste Available only on Saturdays and Sundays, the pan-fried soup dumplings (sheng jian bao) at Shanghai Taste are more like a genetic mutant of the traditional XLB (xiao long bao) dumplings than a subspecies. The skin on these pan-fried behemoths is thicker, yeastier and chewier than its steamed cousin: It’s a soup dumpling crossed with a fluffy Chinese pork bun, and when drizzled with a ginger-black vinegar condiment, the sheng jian bao delivers a rare combination of sensations: crustiness, meatiness and soupiness. It’s little wonder that disciples of these pan-fried beauties willingly make pilgrimages to Rockville every weekend. Shanghai Taste, 1121 Nelson St., Rockville. 301-279-0806. $6.95 for six. [Shanghai Taste review: The virtuoso of soup dumplings] (Deb Lindsey For The Washington Post) Lechon asado at Mi Cuba Cafe The roast pork doesn’t look like much. In fact, the meat may look less appetizing than whatever sides you order with it, especially if you order the arresting congri rice, stained with water used to cook the accompanying black beans. But don’t be fooled by lechon


a verdant leaf or two of cilantro and a drizzle of citrusy and mezcal-laced tomatillo salsa. Three harmonious bites and you’re ready for more. Espita Mezcaleria, 1250 Ninth St. NW. 202-621-9695. www.espitadc.com. $10 for two; $14 for three. [Espita Mezcaleria review: A new contender for D.C.’s best Mexican restaurant?] (Lavanya Ramanathan/The Washington Post) Scallion bubble pancake at Peter Chang The dense, flat scallion pancake, staple of so many Chinese restaurants, has been nudged aside by a flashier foodstuff: scallion-flecked puffs that arrive at your table roughly the size of soccer balls. No diner can resist oohing a bit over the bubble pancakes at Peter Chang. Served with a mild curry sauce, they’re the Sino equivalent of tortilla chips at a Mexican restaurant — crunchy, savory and excellent for kicking off a meal. 2503-E N. Harrison St., Arlington; 20A Maryland Ave., Rockville. www.peterchangarlington.com. $6. [Peter Chang review: A master's cooking, times two] (Dixie D. Vereen/For The Washington Post) Bialy from Bullfrog Bagels Popular almost exclusively in New York, the bialy hails from Poland and tastes like an English muffin and a bagel had a baby. It’s soft, slightly sour and excellent toasted with cream cheese, but not as much of a carb-bomb as its more robust, rounded cousin. Some fret that it’s on its way to extinction. That should be reason enough to replace your morning bagel, at least once, with Bullfrog’s bialy, which is as close to New York-style as it gets. Bullfrog Bagels, 1341 H St. NE. 202-494-2609. www.bullfrogbagels.com. $1.50. [Where to find a good bagel in the Washington area] (Jennifer Chase For The Washington Post) Chef Andrea’s Hometown Ravioli at Villa Mozart Andrea Pace, the chef-owner of the delightful Villa Mozart in Fairfax, is an ace with pasta. No dish surpasses his crescent-shaped rye ravioli with fresh spinach and mountain cheese, a reminder that the maestro hails from a part of Italy where German is spoken. Villa Mozart, 4009 Chain Bridge Rd., Fairfax. 703-691-4747. villamozartrestaurant.com$19. [Villa Mozart review: Impeccable food trumps indifferent service] (Deb Lindsey For The Washington Post). Quinoa avocado salad at Nazca Mochica Ancient grains are showing up on more menus, and Nazca Mochica chef Roberto Castre makes a spectacular salad from quinoa tossed with all sorts of delicious supports: creamy avocado, toasted Marcona almonds, cubed mozzarella, fresh mint and more. A dressing adds welcome tang, and although you can eat the salad as is, it’s


25 states now call marijuana “medicine.” Why doesn’t the DEA?

Charles Schatz of Bel Air, Maryland holds a sign demanding the use of marijuana for medical cases as he joins dozens of protestors for the legalization of marijuana in front of the White House, April 2, 2016, in Washington, DC. Mike Theiler/AFP John Kasich signed Ohio's medical marijuana bill into law yesterday, making it the 25th state (26 counting Washington, D.C.) to allow some form of medical marijuana use. Ohio's measure is more restrictive than medical marijuana bills in many other states. It does not allow patients to smoke marijuana -- they must ingest it orally via edible products, or use a vaporizer. It doesn't allow patients to grow their own marijuana, and only a handful of conditions, including epilepsy, chronic pain and cancer, qualify for a medical marijuana recommendation. Medical marijuana advocates had launched a campaign to put a broader medical marijuana bill before voters this fall. But the bill approved by legislature and signed by Gov. Kasich was in many tended to stave off more permissive ballot measures. And it appears to have been successful: the group pushing for the ballot initiative recently suspended that campaign, calling the legislature's bill "imperfect" but saying the bill's passage represented "a joyous day for the thousands of Ohioans who will finally be able to safely access much-needed medicine. This year has been a symbolically significant year for medical marijuana policy: with the passage of legislation in Pennsylvania and Ohio nearly 175 million Americans -- over half of the population -- now have access to medical marijuana. These changes are putting pressure on the federal government to update a decades-old marijuana policy that most experts agree is out of step with current scientific understanding of the drug and its risks and benefits. The Drug Enforcement Administration has, since the 1970s, classified marijuana under the most highly restrictive category of regulation: Schedule 1, meaning it has "no currently accepted medical use in the United States, a lack of accepted safety for use under medical supervision, and a high potential for abuse." Marijuana shares this designation with heroin. But drug science has come a long way since the 1970s. Researchers now know that marijuana is actually one of the least-addictive mind-altering drugs. Even chronic uses poses few serious risks to physical health. Most importantly, at least for federal classification purposes, marijuana has been shown to have great promise when it comes to medical use.


Bill Clinton did it. So did Joe Biden. But President Obama won’t — because he’s ‘going to cry’

will make all the difference— for you, for your country, and for the world. To make the right ones, you will need a lot more than knowledge and access to the Internet. You will need wisdom and resolve. For what it’s worth, here is my advice. First, be brave. Dream big and chase your dreams. You will have your failures, but you will grow from every honest effort. Over three decades ago I sat where you are. I can tell you without any doubt that in the years since, my high school classmates who chased their dreams and failed are far less disappointed than those who left their dreams on the shelf for fear of failure. So chase on. Even if you don’t get what you think you want, amazing things will happen. Second, be optimistic and be grateful. Some bad things are going to happen to you—to some of you, unfair things, perhaps even tragic things. Some of you have faced tragedy already. When these things happen, try to remember that each new day is still a gift, full of the mystery and magic of life. Try not to waste even one of those days trapped by hatred, the desire to get even, self-pity, despair, or cynicism. We all give in to them now and then, of course, but you need to work at snapping out of it and going on. Hatred and self-pity give victory to the very dark forces we deplore. Despair guarantees defeat. Cynicism is a cowardly cop-out. And no ever really gets even in life; that is God’s work. No matter how bad it gets, don’t forget there’s someone who’s endured more pain than you have. No matter how unfair it gets, remember that most of us are far better off than we would be if we only got what we deserve. And don’t stop at admiring a Mandela or a Cardinal Bernardin. Strive to be more like them. Keep your spirits up. There is profound truth in the proverb, “A happy heart maketh good medicine, but a broken spirit dryeth the bones.” Third, be of service to others. Much has been given to you already, and a lot more is coming your way. You owe it to yourself to give something back, to help to build a society and a world in which more people have your chance to live out their dreams, and


This Iceland plant just turned carbon dioxide into solid rock — and they did it super fast

could be quite important because of the ubiquity of basalt in the world. The researchers say that 10 percent of the rocks that make up continents are basalt, and so is “most of the ocean floor.” So is 90 percent of Iceland, according to CarbFix. The injection reported in the new study was small, to be sure, and only amounted to a pilot project, Stute said. About 250 tons of gas was injected, mostly carbon dioxide but also a substantial volume of hydrogen sulfide. Since then, however, Reykjavik Energy has scaled up and injected 5,000 tons per year, and it is now looking to double that, Aradottir said. Ultimately, it could be possible to store all the plant’s CO2, or 40,000 tons per year. “The capacity is, for sure, in the ground to take all the CO2, and much more, actually,” she said. Other experts involved in the carbon capture and sequestration hailed the results reported by the group Thursday. “Carbon storage is a critical piece of the global initiative to reducing carbon dioxide emissions and realization of the Mission Innovation goals set out in Paris,” said Sallie Greenberg, a scientist with the Illinois State Geological Survey who has collaborated with Archer Daniels Midland on a project to store large volumes of carbon dioxide in Illinois sandstone layers. “This work on demonstrates carbon mineralization has potential to increase our ability to permanently store CO2.” “They made very nice progress and this paper represents a breakthrough,” added Klaus Lackner, who heads the Center for Negative Carbon Emissions at Arizona State University and who says he knows the researchers involved and helped get the project started but is not an author of the paper. “It is an important result that the CO2 forms carbonates in a short time. Mineral sequestration underground is only useful if it happens on a human time scale. If it takes 5,000 years, as it might in silicate formations, there really is not much of an advantage to forming minerals. It does not add much to the safety of the CO2 storage because on the relevant time scale the CO2 is still mobile and can come back.” Lackner, along with other scientists involved in trying to study how to remove carbon dioxide from the air and store it, has researched a related idea dubbed “enhanced weathering.” In this scheme, the natural weathering reaction, in which carbon in water


This is where the real action in artificial intelligence takes place

as Siemens say they have used to it to analyze data streaming in from sensors to predict which wind turbines will break. NBC Universal is collecting data on consumer behavior and using algorithms, crunched in Spark, to predict which television shows will resonate with consumers. Some of this stuff may not sound entirely new. But it’s what is happening on the backend that has gotten geeks and investors excited. In the last four years, Silicon Valley’s obsession with big data and data mining has ballooned into a full-blown artificial intelligence craze. Look at the travel industry. Today, companies like Expedia want to collect your travel interests and history, crunch the data in an app or some other platform, and build virtual travel agents who will assist you on your flight using voice recognition technology. This shift, in which automation and algorithms move into every industry, is already underway. It is powered by a growing number of backend technologies and startups aiming to win lucrative contacts with corporate America, whose names most consumers have never heard of; At least one of them may become the next Microsoft, Oracle, or IBM. The most prominent recent example of these hyped backend big data technologies is called Hadoop. The software, named after a toy elephant owned by the son of the Yahoo programmer who helped develop it, arose in the mid-2000s when Google and Yahoo were neck-in-neck in a battle to be the dominant search engine. Hadoop was used by both companies to index the massive amounts of data consumers were throwing up on the “Web.” By 2008, investors thought the data-mining software was ripe for corporate America, and armies of salespeople began pitching it as an all-purpose big data analytics tool. They said, for example, that it could help credit card companies and banks detect fraud and other anomalies in massive amounts of financial transactions, or e-commerce companies to build recommendation features on their websites that say “people who shopped for this also shopped for this.” By 2014, investors had poured over $2 billion into dozens of companies selling services based on Hadoop. Because Hadoop is open-source, which means the core software is free for developers to share and modify, companies make money off selling tech support and other services on top of Hadoop. But Hadoop ran into trouble because the clunky tech didn’t always deliver on its promises. Four years into the


Main Street Morning: FDA took months to organize recall after finding salmonella

is the unusual way this start-up found funding. - A start-up raises $12 million for an app to end office thermostat wars. - This could be the un-sexiest trillion-dollar start-up ever. Technology - A new Adidas shoe is made from recycled ocean garbage. - This device transforms your desk into a place to take a nap at work - Lexus navigation systems have been acting up nationwide. Online - Beyoncé sneezed during her concert and the Internet went nuts. - Netflix’s new “Binge Scale” reveals which shows viewers like to devour. Social Media - Snapchat’s app redesign lets users subscribe to published content. - This is the easy fix that could end Twitter’s celebrity account-hacking problem. Ideas - A human-carrying drone taxi gets approval for testing in Nevada. - Prosthetic arms inspired by “Deus Ex” are coming next year. On This Day in 1943 - The withholding tax on payrolls was authorized by the U.S. Congress. Around the Country - Google floats a balloon 60,000 feet above Minnesota and a state demographer is warning businesses in St. Paul s about its shrinking workforce. - A suburb near Cleveland is on the brink of bankruptcy. - A Sacramento, California coffee shop celebrates 28 years in business. - A creperie owner in Knoxville, Tennessee says a building developer is trying to put him out of business. - The business license of an Illinois hotel is revoked after claims of prostitution. - The Pensacola Florida business community vows to fight a workmen’s compensation rate hike. - Residents in a Maine community are complaining that a local landscaping firm has too much business and seven family-owned companies in the state are recognized for making an impact. Around the World - A ghostly woman in black is reported by terrified Scottish shoppers. - Jeff Bezos promises to pour $3 billion more into Amazon India. - Demand to vote on Brexit is so high, the UK has extended the deadline to register. - 16,000 items that vanished from Auschwitz are found. - This is what’s it like to eat at one of North Korea’s overseas restaurants. Small Business, Big Impact - A champion of private space travel dies at 68. 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.


How a scorned industry of lenders plans to keep the 400 percent loan around

and repeat lending isn’t necessary. A borrower might pay $200 in financing charges for a $100 installment loan, with the repayment spread over months or several years. The CFPB’s proposal addresses both payday and installment loans, but for installment loans, the rules merely limit who is eligible, trimming the pool of customers. The business model for payday loans, on the other hand, will be “obliterated,” said Darrin Andersen, the chief executive of QC Holdings, the company that operates Quik Cash, a major payday lender. Andersen said his company is “preparing to weather the storm” by shifting more heavily to installment loans. Right now, Andersen said, payday loans comprise about 60 percent of Quik Cash’s total. That share could soon fall to 20 percent, he said. “We’ve been entirely focused on payday for most of our lifecycle” as a company, Andersen said. Not all payday borrowers want installment loans, he said, because they are guaranteed “to be in debt for a longer period of time.” But they, too, can provide an influx of money for emergencies. Though consumer groups have generally applauded the CFPB’s approach to the payday industry, the Pew Charitable Trusts has been critical about the dangers of a potential shift toward installment loans. “Lenders can be as profitable under an installment model,” said Alex Horowitz, an officer at the Pew Charitable Trusts who studies short-term lending. In Texas, for instance, Advance America offers a $500 installment loan with $1,341.84 in financing fees. The annualized interest rate is 574.52 percent. That loan remains legal under the CFPB’s proposal. The demand for risky loans Lenders have at least one thing going in their favor: A lot of credit-strapped Americans are desperate for money in a pinch. According to recent data from the Federal Reserve, 46 percent of American households say they would have trouble handling an emergency costing $400. “The demand will always be there,” O’Shaughnessy said. When O’Shaughnessy, during a trip through the District, stopped earlier this week at a strip mall store in Springfield, Va., he found himself in a branch that looked much like the other 2,200 Advance Americas — with green and yellow trim, mahogany chairs and a line-up of employees whose positioning was designed to mimic bank tellers. “Money problems? No problem,” said a sign on the door. During O’Shaughnessy’s visit, a flow of customers came through. One man joked about borrowing $25,000. One woman


These honeybees invade foreign hives and live without males

their queen to keep the population going, so worker bees don't need to devote energy to growing their reproductive organs. "And they can go in and lay these eggs without being detected," he added. Those eggs hatch as fully-fledged worker bees, but the workers don't do much work. They leave most of the foraging to the natives of the colony they've infiltrated, and reap the rewards. They can keep laying their own eggs to compete with the ones laid by their unsuspecting step-mom, and eventually the glut of lazy invaders leads to the collapse of the colony. Until now, most research suggested that a single gene might be the cause of this strange behavior. But in the new study, Webster and his colleagues identified several regions of the Cape bee genome that were markedly different from those of their close relatives, standing out in sharp contrast to the many, many genes they share in common. For now, the scientists aren't exactly sure how or why these genes change behavior so drastically — but finding their location is a crucial step in the right direction. "We don’t know what these different genes are doing and how they cause this behavior, but we can see there are definitely strong signals of something different going on there," he said. Webster and his colleagues suspect that the genes involved play roles in hormone regulation, development, and cell division. Future research could help single out individual mutations that might drive the bees' unique lifestyle — and figure out why those mutations were beneficial enough to create a new subspecies. "It's not really known," Webster said. But he suspects that location has something to do with it. Cape bees are only naturally found in one specific place known as the fynbos ecoregion. This tiny belt of shrubland has a rich diversity of plant species that the Cape bee pollinates, and the creature's natural population seems completely tied to that ecological niche. "It's not really clear what aspect of the environment would cause them to act this way," he said, "but it seems sensible that it might have something to do with them living in this region." Read More: Scientists examine why men even exist Lady snake gives birth after being alone for eight years On the verge of extinction, female sawfish resort to 'virgin births' to survive Shark stores sperm for 4 years before having a


The weird story of the arrest of a Canadian education researcher in Uganda

Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni stands under an umbrella during his swearing-in ceremony in Kampala on May 12. (Gael Grilhot/AFP/Getty Images) Here’s one for the you-can’t-make-this-stuff-up files: A Canadian doctoral student who was in Uganda to research the operations of a for-profit outfit called Bridge International Academies (BIA) was arrested after complaints about his work by the company. Curtis Riep, the University of Alberta researcher, was in Uganda to research BIA’s operations for a study commissioned by Education International, a federation of 396 associations and unions in 171 countries and territories. He was arrested in late May by Ugandan police on charges of impersonating a BIA officer and trespassing, but he was cleared of all charges and released two days later. He has now returned to Calgary, but the episode has put a spotlight on the company and how it works. BIA — which is supported by the World Bank; Pearson, the world’s largest for-profit education company; and billionaire education philanthropists Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg, among others — operates a chain of for-profit schools in a few African countries, charging what it says is an average of $5 a month to families for high-quality nursery and primary education in places where public education is poor or nonexistent. Educators’ unions have been critical of for-profit companies opening schools in poor countries, saying that some of these schools are run by unqualified staff in inadequate facilities. Shortly before the May arrest, BIA’s plans to expand operations in Uganda were halted by the government. BIA complained to Uganda authorities about Riep, and he was arrested and questioned by police for two days. Riep and his supporters — including several teachers’ federations from various countries, including Uganda — said the charges were false and that Riep had been “set up” by BIA to keep their operations secret. Fred van Leeuwen, secretary general of Education International, sent a letter to BIA co-founder Shannon May on June 6 saying in part (you can see it in full here): We are shocked by the actions of your company, Bridge International Academies Ltd., in Uganda, against Mr. Curtis Riep, a Canadian researcher, undertaking a study commissioned by Education International. This study follows serious concerns that our International has received from a number of our member organisations concerning your operations in their countries. We are appalled that Bridge International Academies Ltd. published a ‘wanted’ advertisement in New Vision on


Boris Johnson clashes with rivals in highly charged Brexit debate

British prime minister’s office at 10 Downing Street. Johnson didn’t respond to the personal barbs, but did insist that Britain leaving the E.U. was the only way to claw back sovereignty and regain control of the country’s borders. As a member of the E.U., Britain has to abide by freedom-of-movement rules and can’t block entry by citizens from the bloc. Britain has “absolutely no way of controlling” the flows of immigrants coming into the country, Johnson said. Over the course of the two-hour debate, the six politicians on stage clashed on issues including immigration, the economy, and the National Health Service. Those arguing to remain in the E.U. were keen to steer the debate toward issues on the economy, those who were pro-Brexit repeatedly returned to issues around immigration. Tempers also flared over a claim from the Brexit camp that Britain sends £350 million ($506 million) a week to the E.U.-- a claim emblazoned across the campaigners’ battle bus. Critics say that the claim doesn’t take into account the rebate and subsidies Britain gets back. The Battle Bus and Mr Carswell arrive in Brackley #Brexit https://t.co/TKWiPHZo1P Sturgeon said that Johnson was driving around Britain in a bus with a “giant whopper” painted on the side. When Sturgeon, the popular leader of the Scottish National Party, was pressed on what a Brexit result could mean for a second independence referendum in Scotland, she said that the issue was “speculation.” Earlier Thursday, former prime ministers Tony Blair (Labour) and John Major (Conservative) shared a platform in Northern Ireland to argue that at stake was the very existence of Britain itself. They said that a Brexit result could trigger a second referendum on Scottish independence, and could disrupt stability in Northern Ireland. “The plain, uncomfortable truth is that the unity of the United Kingdom itself is on the ballot paper in two weeks’ time,” Major said. For his part, Cameron has refused to take part in any head-to-head debates over fears that he would be seen to be attacking members of his own party. But the Conservative Party, which is deeply divided over the issue of Europe, has already seen its fair share of infighting. In her final remarks of the debate, Rudd said that Johnson, her Conservative Party colleague, was “the life and soul of the party, but not the man you want driving you home at the end of the evening.”


‘Imagine living and dying in such a small space’: Zoo workers in Yemen are struggling to feed starving animals

In Taiz Zoo, lions and rare Arabian leopards are in cages, casualties of the war. Food and medicine are running out, and animal activists fear that the animals could become ill or die. Already, 12 lions and six leopards have died in the zoo. (Photo by Sudarsan Raghavan/ The Washington Post) TAIZ, Yemen — Add lions and endangered Arabian leopards to the casualties of Yemen’s civil war. To see the impact, enter through the rusting gates of the zoo in this southwestern city, go past the handful of donkeys in a fenced compound and walk toward the cages. Inside are the desperate-looking lions, leopards and other animals. Their pens are the size of walk-in-closets, with some cramped with two predators. One lion is taking medication because his skin peeled off from hunger. “We have about two and half weeks of food for them,” said Victoria Johner y Cruz, a Geneva-based lawyer who is trying to help save the animals. Lancement d’une campagne pour sauver les animaux mourant de faim au zoo Taiz au Yémen https://t.co/InsWy3sCcR via @metrobelgique The animals were in far worse condition four months ago. They were emaciated, bones protruding. Some were covered with untreated sores from fighting each other for scraps of food, according to zoo workers. The city’s government services system had broken down because of incessant airstrikes and clashes between rival armed groups that have plagued Taiz since March of last year. The zoo depends on fees from visiting tourists, but they all vanished when the conflict erupted. Zoo workers weren’t getting paid. There wasn't money to buy food or medicine for the animals. The cages weren’t kept clean. By this February, 12 lions and six leopards had died of starvation and neglect. “I have a picture of one of them eating his brother,” said Bassam Al-Hakimi, a Yemeni youth activist working to save the zoo. “Imagine living and dying in such a small space.” RT Lions & leopards STARVING to death at #Yemen’s #Taiz Zoo; caught in civil war https://t.co/jJBRa3Vhd7 Link2DONATE https://t.co/QIsj28LjBC Helpless, zoo workers and activists posted pictures of the starving animals on social media and reached out to local journalists to publicize the animals' plight. One Twitter post read: “SOS Taiz zoo. Animals are starving. 16-Feb-2016” Thousands of miles away in Europe, Cruz and other animal lovers were stirred into action by the appeal. Cruz and Chantal Jonkergouw, a bank executive in


How China’s war on dissenting views spills over into pop music and French cosmetics

made waves from Hong Kong to Seoul and Paris. French cosmetic giant Lancôme found itself facing a public relations disaster when it abruptly canceled a pop concert it had sponsored featuring the Hong Kong pop singer Denise Ho. The decision Sunday followed a social media post by China’s state-owned Global Times newspaper accusing Ho of supporting the independence of Tibet and Taiwan. The post stirred up nationalist Netizens on the Chinese mainland and seemed to give the French company a bad case of the jitters. But the cancellation of the concert only made things worse. Lancôme, and its parent company L'Oréal, were accused by many Hong Kongers of kowtowing to the Communist Party and taking the path of self-censorship, presumably out of fears of consumer backlash in China. The company was forced to close its stores in Hong Kong for a day on Wednesday, as hundreds of people turned out to protest. A petition is now circulating to boycott their products. Protesters in Hong Kong. (AP) The episode is reminiscent of a January controversy when a 16-year Taiwanese singer, who performs in a South Korea K-pop band, Chou Tzu-yu, was forced to make a humiliating apology to China after being seen with a small Taiwanese flag on South Korean television. Denise Ho was arrested at the 2014 Hong Kong pro-democracy protests, and was among a group of Hong Kong artists subsequently blacklisted from mainland China, according to a leaked directive from the Ministry of Culture, according to the China Digital Times website. Ho has never called for the independence of Hong Kong from China, but she does not shy from expressing her views, posting pictures of herself with Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama and calling him a "loving grandfather,” the BBC reported. Lancôme canceled the sold-out June 19 event citing "possible safety reasons," also adding in a Facebook post that Ho was not their spokeswoman. Ho responded by telling the BBC she was shocked and saddened that a global brand such as Lancôme would succumb to such pressure, adding that Hong Kong has been going through a tough two years since the Occupy Central pro-democracy protests. “Most celebrities, we wouldn’t dare to speak up for ourselves, because we know self-censorship is really serious right now in Hong Kong,” she said. Finally, for all those disappointed concertgoers, here is Denise Ho performing one of her hits. 何韻詩 - 再見露絲瑪莉 http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-36466680


Justin Trudeau may have made the best case for legal pot ever

will inevitably lead to increased use among teens and adolescents. This would obviously be a problem, because younger users are more at risk for marijuana dependency than adults, and heavy use among teens has been linked to a whole host of social and mental health problems. But Trudeau points to an easy-to-overlook fact: It's already incredibly easy for teenagers to get high if they want to. In 2015, for instance, nearly 80 percent of U.S. 12th-graders said it would be easy for them to obtain marijuana. It's clear, in other words, that current policies centered on making the drug completely illegal are doing little to keep it out of the hands of kids who want to use it. Trudeau argues that taking pot out of the black market and putting it under the aegis of a regulatory structure will actually make it harder for kids — those most susceptible to the drug's harms — to obtain it. We don't really know yet if that's the case. Legalization experiments in Colorado and elsewhere are still too young to draw sweeping conclusions about the effects of legalization on teen use and access. That said, the early data is encouraging. A recent study published in Lancet Psychiatry found that the over the past decade or so — as 13 states passed medical-marijuana laws, 10 states relaxed penalties for marijuana use, and Colorado and Washington became the first states to fully legalize recreational pot use — not only have national teen marijuana use rates declined, but problems associated with teen marijuana use, like dependency, have fallen too. Beyond that, the latest federal data shows no significant year-over-year change in marijuana use among teens in Colorado and Washington in the year after marijuana became legal there. Experts say none of this is particularly surprising. "Most of the legal changes have pertained only to those 21 and over, so the absence of a big increase in teens is exactly what you’d expect," Jonathan Caulkins of Carnegie Mellon University told me late last year. In short, it may be the case that marijuana legalization will have a much smaller impact on teen use rates than once feared. This doesn't mean that legalization doesn't bring risks of its own, however. If marijuana is more widely available, more people will use it, and a certain percent of them will develop a dependency on the drug. And another subset of


Maryland open houses June 11-12

21163 3020 Granite Rd 2120 Ganton Green #d-202 2120 Ganton Green #d-102 MONTGOMERY COUNTY ASHTON 20861 17710 Hidden Garden Lane 17818 Hidden Garden Lane 321 Olney Sandy Spring Rd 17513 Country View Way BETHESDA 20814 4845 Broad Brook Dr 5225 Pooks Hill Rd #1125s 5606 Forest Pl 10512 Weymouth St #w-3 4985 Battery Lane 4630 Woodfield Rd 5225 Pooks Hill Rd #1305n 8911 Battery Pl #31 8007 Overhill Rd 5307 Danbury Rd 5723 Bradley Blvd 20815 4242 East West Hwy #1016 20816 4956 Sentinel Dr #9-401 5217 Elliott Rd 5021 Baltan Rd 6102 Namakagan Rd 5138 Massachusetts Ave 6401 Broad St 4309 Torchlight Cir 4309 Torchlight Cir 20817 9448 Seven Locks Rd 7004 Orkney Pkwy 8310 Still Spring Ct 7508 Hamilton Spring Rd 9200 Seven Locks Rd 7420 Westlake Ter #402 10476 Parthenon Ct 8301 Rising Ridge Way 9502 Lindale Dr 6308 Orchid Dr 7000 Armat Dr 9913 Montauk Ave 10004 Mayfield Dr BOYDS 20841 14411 Bubbling Spring Rd 18307 Aspen Dale Ct 18318 Tapwood Rd 14609 Bubbling Spring Rd 15422 Conrad Spring Rd BROOKEVILLE 20833 2040 Brighton Dam Rd 18648 Queen Elizabeth Dr BURTONSVILLE 20866 3619 Childress Ter 3608 Turbridge Dr CHEVY CHASE 20815 6416 Garnett Dr 7209 Summit Ave 4601 Park Ave N #105 5605 Warwick Pl 3807 Blackthorn St 4601 Park Ave #1109j 3305 Brooklawn Ter 6665 Fairfax Rd #92 3312 Pauline Dr 4515 Willard Ave #1410s CLARKSBURG 20871 22221 Overview Lane 11918 Little Seneca Pkwy #2452 23202 Linden Vale Dr 23105 Meadow Mist Rd 12822 Grand Elm St 12103 Pond Pine Dr 22968 Newcut Rd #2362 13230 Dutrow Dr 13202 Dutrow Dr 23726 Bennett Chase Dr DARNESTOWN 20874 14410 Seneca Rd DERWOOD 20855 5723 Dimes Rd 17501 Jacobs Ct 15705 Kanawha Ct GAITHERSBURG 20877 220 Lee St 577 Summit Hall Rd 840 Hidden Marsh St 4 Pembrooke View Ct 16505 Walnut Hill Rd 7 Oxley Square Pl 406 Rock Lodge Rd 224 Summit Ave #28 20878 640 Main St #a 102 Driscoll Way 803 Pointer Ridge Dr 1006 Bayridge Ter 484 Hackberry Pl 1010 Bayridge Ter 23 Redding Ridge Dr 445 Leaning Oak St 949 Hillside Lake Ter #707 614 Firehouse Lane 179 Chevy Chase St 304 Ridgepoint Pl #24 11 Apex Ct 3 Arch Pl #128 20879 7924 Coriander Dr #12 19269 Wheatfield Ter 18518 Traxell Way 1342 Carlsbad Dr 18928 Marsh Hawk Lane 19985 Tygart Lane 19231 Wheatfield Ter 20882 7424 Damascus Rd 24621


The Daily 202: Hillary will huddle with Elizabeth Warren this morning, fueling VP buzz

Ryan is basically saying "it's better to be racist than liberal" by supporting Trump. https://t.co/sz9LXZlGNS For D.C. readers: how Founding Farmers managed to receive zero stars from our food critic, Tom Sietsema: The Post's food critic Tom Sietsema granted Founding Farmers, a D.C.-favorite restaurant, zero stars in a recent review. Here's why. SOCIAL MEDIA HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE FIRST YEAR OF THE 202— Who can forget Marco Rubio pegging a kid with a football? Scott Walker released a health care plan today BUT MARCO RUBIO'S FOOTBALL TO THE FACE IS THE ONLY THING THAT MATTERS. http://t.co/WfkugQNcn0 Huma Abedin joins Twitter: This is too good not to share. @HumaAbedin pressing send for the first time. http://t.co/tBpLPGORxB This one speaks for itself: Rep Trey Gowdy (R-SC) winks at Planned Parenthood Pres Cecile Richards during today's Hse Oversight Cmte he... https://t.co/BRh6EeMuec See Bernie make a surprise visit to a Trump rally: Thank you, Internet: https://t.co/C1ecv4e8LO 2015 World Cup champs, the U.S. women's national soccer team, visited the White House: "This team taught all of America's children that playing like a girl means being a badass" - President @BarackObama. https://t.co/O3eYhNGTGq Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) makes good on a bet: As promised, here's proof I made good on my promise to my daughters & shot gunned beer when Akin won primary. http://t.co/9rZGi9zhLL Then-Kentucky GOP gubernatorial candidate visited Kim Davis in jail: Was honored to have Kim Davis and her husband ask for me to visit them in the Carter County jail today... #WeAreKY http://t.co/VKyXQgEap1 The former Michigan congressman was epic on Twitter this year: Old Guy Who Yells A Lot Sick Of Listening To Old Guy Who Yells A Lot Hillary parties with the first family of reality TV: Remember this Vine when Ted Cruz accidentally elbowed his own wife? Watch Mary Pat Christie listen to Trump talk about the "woman's card:" Hillary shrugs off questions about her homebrew email server in a contentious August press conference: Chris Christie's "hostage face" showed the perils of social media in modern campaigns: LOOK: A rainbow appeared to begin at the World Trade Center today, one day before 9/11. Photos by Ben Sturner http://t.co/mL2pchVjXr Some of our fave animal videos of the year: Tian Tian woke up this morning to a lot of snow, and he was pretty excited about it. 🐼🌨 #blizzard2016 https://t.co/GrhI9t1u7j This guy Feels the Bern: Watch Bill Maher spoof Hillary mean tweeting: Real Time with


The huge issue that’s keeping Silicon Valley and the Pentagon apart

(Charles Dharapak/AP) For over a year, top military leaders have been quietly conducting a charm offensive in Silicon Valley, in hopes that the tech industry might want to work with the Pentagon again like it used to during the Cold War. A lot has changed since then; some in tech don't want to be seen as being too close to the U.S. government for fear of alienating international customers in a globalized world. Still, Defense Secretary Ash Carter seems determined to rebuild that relationship, making trips out to California, founding a new office meant to get cutting-edge tech into the hands of soldiers and meeting everyone from Facebook to Andreessen Horowitz, one of the Valley's signature venture capital firms. Now one of the partners at Andreessen Horowitz says he's diagnosed a huge challenge that the Pentagon will have to overcome if it wants to woo the tech industry back. "You hit a product cycle problem," said Martin Casado, a former Defense Department researcher who is one of nine partners at the firm, at a Washington conference Friday. "The procurement cycle is too baroque." Casado's putting a finger on a choice that he says faces every start-up that wants to sell its goods to the military, be it software or hardware. At some point, the bureaucratic demands placed by the military on private-sector suppliers become so complicated that tech companies can either 1) stop chasing after government contracts so that they can keep selling to regular consumers like you or me, or 2) agree to focus all their energies on the government, effectively making the Pentagon their only customer. "If the companies decide to sell into the government, that's basically all they do. You wind up building government-only companies, which is not what we want. What we want are base technologies that are very consumable by everybody," Casado said. There are obvious outliers to this model. Many contractors in the aerospace industry, for instance, serve both government and commercial clients. So do firearms manufacturers. But military contracts can make up a huge chunk of (reliable) income for many businesses in this position — even food vendors. So the incentive to become a "government-only" company, to use Casado's phrase, is strong. Chances are this isn't what Carter wants out of the tech industry, either — the whole point is that private-sector innovation has outpaced government. It would be self-defeating for the military


Main Street Morning: Walmart could soon use drones to track inventory

ruling. Retail - Wal-Mart is testing drones to check warehouse inventory. - Visa is significantly reducing - “Dot-Salon” (.salon) names are now available. Travel - Airbnb launches third-party bookings to simplify business travel. Finance - A helpful small business loan comparison tool is launched by a nonprofit. - How to get lenders to want to finance your business. Start-ups - How this company turned $500 into an $18 million business. - Why now is the best time to start a handmade business. - These five apps will help you start a business. Technology - Google’s Larry Page has been investing in secret flying cars. - HTC is selling a “business edition” of its virtual reality headset. - Google moves closer to a universal quantum computer. - PC sales are expected to continue their decline in 2016. Online - Malware infections in corporate-owned cloud folders almost triple in three months. Social Media - Facebook now lets users take and upload 360-degree photos. - Someone is selling 33 million Twitter passwords on the dark web. Ideas - Wingman, a skinny flotation jacket, wins a business plan contest. - Securing cars from cyberattacks is becoming a big business. On This Day in 1971 - The U.S. ended a 21-year trade embargo of China. Around the Country - Business owners are “nervous and unhappy” after San Diego raises the minimum wage to $11.50. - Los Angeles’ first cat cafe will open this fall. - A Joplin, Missouri business owner is indicted on tornado fraud. - A San Francisco business is being accused of turning on its rooftop sprinkler system to deter homeless encampments from staying outside their building. - A Charlotte, North Carolina recycling business is seeing green in discarded e-devices. - Cape May, New Jersey employers are emphasizing smiles this summer. - Ohio legalizes marijuana for medical use. Around the World - Two Uber executives are convicted in France. - Canada’s Supreme Court rules some bestiality is legal. - 1,300 sheep take over a Spanish city after shepherd falls asleep. - Why June 26 will be a sea change for all business owners. Small Business, Big Impact - Black Angus Steakhouse founder Stuart Anderson dies at 93. 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.


Elon Musk provides new details on his ‘mind blowing’ mission to Mars

to be big. The Dragon spacecraft would become the largest object to land on the Martian surface “by a factor of 10,” Musk said. That would make it one of the most ambitious Martian landings ever attempted—and difficult. Of the 43 robotic missions to Mars, including flybys, attempted by four different countries, only 18 have been total successes. The latest, a NASA mission, delivered the unmanned Curiosity rover that is currently roaming the planet. An artist's rendering of what a SpaceX Dragon capsule would look like landing on Mars. (Photo courtesy of SpaceX.) Some have pointed out that Musk's timeline is exceedingly ambitious, especially considering SpaceX has yet to fly the Falcon Heavy or land Dragon by using its own engine thrust, which is a key component to landing in the relatively thin Martian atmosphere. By the next launch window, in 2020, Musk said the company would aim to fly at least two Falcon Heavy rockets and Dragon spacecraft, loaded with experiments. “By that time there will be quite a few organizations … that are interested in running experiments on Mars,” he said. Then in 2022, Musk said he hoped to launch what the company now sometimes refers to as the Mars Colonial Transporter, designed to bring a colony to Mars. Musk declined to provide too many details, saying he would unveil the system at a conference in September. But he was clearly excited about the prospect and could barely contain himself. “This is going to be mind blowing,” he said. “Mind blowing. It’s going to be really great.” At another point he said: “I’m so tempted to talk more about the details of it. But I have to restrain myself.” Still, he said that “the first mission wouldn’t have a huge number of people on it, because if something goes wrong, we want to risk the fewest number of lives as possible.” And he acknowledged that the company would have to “get lucky and things go according to plan” to hit a launch window for manned flight in late 2024, with a landing in 2025. “But I do want to emphasize this is not about sending a few people to Mars,” he continued. “It’s about having an architecture that would enable the creation of a self-sustaining city on Mars with the objective of being a multi-planet species and a true space-faring civilization and one day being out there among


How the effects of climate change in one place can radiate all over the world

globalized world unless societies put some adaptation measures in place to prevent them. While the paper doesn’t delve into what the best forms of adaptation might be — that’s an area for future investigation, Levermann said — there are some ideas floating around. For instance, production sites around the world tend to favor small amounts of product storage “because whatever’s lying in storage just doesn’t do anything,” Levermann said. But engaging in greater storage could help safeguard against potential future losses that might occur as a result of unexpected disturbances. Or, he said, countries might restructure their supply chains so they can obtain the same types of products from several different countries. That way, if one supply is disrupted, there are others to help make up for it. There are some basic adaptation measures that countries might consider at the beginning of the supply chain as well, said Peter Howard, the economics director at the New York University School of Law’s Institute for Policy Integrity (who was not involved with the study). These could include increases in air conditioning or other technological advances designed to help laborers cope with changes in the climate. One important point to consider, he added, is that under future warming scenarios, some parts of the world may reach a threshold in which outdoor labor actually becomes physically impossible. Some past research has suggested that under extreme future warming conditions, some temperature spikes could actually exceed the limits of the human respiratory system — an idea that underscores the importance of thinking about adaptation strategies now. But the biggest takeaway from the paper, according to both Howard and Levermann, is that none of us are in it alone when it comes to climate change. All nations around the world will feel its effects in some way. “I think this is a really important paper because one of the things that it’s really demonstrating is in an increasingly globalized system — which is not going to change any time soon — that we really cannot think of countries responding to climate change alone,” Howard said. “What happens to another country that we are connected to by trade really does affect us.” These effects can present an argument for collective climate action, he noted — countries around the world working together to address the problem. “We need to think of this all together,” he said. “The costs do


What happens when your search engine is first to know you have cancer

then looked back months earlier to examine patterns in the symptoms that the users searched for. This included phrases such as “dark or tarry stool,” “abdominal swelling,” “dark urine” and “yellowing skin.” From this analysis they realized trends in the queries of users who were soon to be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, identifying 5 to 15 percent of cases with low false-positive rates. The research was published in the Journal of Oncology Practice. “This is really a big step forward and I think it’s exciting research,” said Robert Grossman, a professor of medicine at University of Chicago and director of the Center for Data Intensive Science. “Finding low cost, low risk, high coverage health surveillance systems is an important challenge.” But Alison Patricia Klein, a professor of oncology at Johns Hopkins University who studies pancreatic cancer, cautioned that there are limits to how useful the early detection through Web searches can be for pancreatic cancer, because it’s generally too late for a patient once symptoms emerge. “It’s interesting that they can pick out a portion of individuals that might have pancreatic cancer,” Klein said. “My concern is, for many of the people it’s picking up, they’re in the later stages of the disease where we don’t have very good therapies.” She also warned that analyzing digital data would not necessarily deliver a representative sample of all individuals with a medical condition. Low-income patients tend to have less access to digital technology, so they will create less data to be analyzed. This is problematic because health-risk factors can differ across the population. For Grossman, the Microsoft research demonstrates the power this new data can have, but a big hurdle is how to implement such an approach. “There’s a lot of tough questions that need to be worked out,” Grossman said. “ As consumers spend more time using digital services, ranging from Fitbits to smartphones and search engines, a wealth of new and potentially useful medical information is being created. And that data is largely in the hands of a new class of players such as Microsoft rather than the traditional health providers. The Microsoft researchers acknowledge this challenge in their paper. A surveillance system would need to convey the uncertainty linked to detection while also considering the search engine’s liability, and the anxiety the news may generate in a Web searcher. They mention the possibility of alerting physicians separately from patients.