Lunch links: Long-time Angola Prison warden resigns

- The Baltimore Sun is providing live courtroom coverage of the trial of a police officer charged in the death of Freddie Gray. - Long-time Angola, La., prison warden Burl Cain has resigned amid a corruption probe. - Good post here on the political and social realities of race, crime and policing. - Anti-police brutality protests swell in Chicago; calls for Mayor Rahm Emanuel to resign. - This report from the Prison Policy Initiative corrects some of the misconceptions, myths and contradictory information about America’s incarcerated population. - The good news: The FBI is significantly improving the quality of the data it collects about police-involved shootings. The bad news: The program is still dependent on voluntary cooperation from local police agencies. - The Justice Department says it will soon only accept evidence analyzed by accredited crime labs. - Report: America’s largest law enforcement agency is plagued by corruption, brutality and a lack of oversight. - Photo of the day: Rovinj, Croatia.


Millennials embrace a long-standing tradition: Letting someone else fight their wars

Marine recruits stand in line before getting lunch in the chow hall during boot camp on February 26, 2013 at MCRD Parris Island, South Carolina. (Scott Olson/Getty Images) A quick little data nugget from the new Harvard Institute of Politics survey of people aged 18 to 29. (We looked at the economics earlier.) The poll was conducted between Oct. 30 and Nov. 9, with a few questions asked again in the wake of the Nov. 13 terror attacks in Paris. One of those questions dealt with the willingness of young people to support the use of ground troops in the fight against the Islamic State. Before the attacks in Paris, 47 percent of the people surveyed supported the use of ground troops. After the attacks, that jumped up 13 percentage points, to 6 in 10 adults under 30 years old. But the very next question added more context. "If the United States needed additional troops to combat the Islamic State," the pollsters asked, "how likely would you be to serve?" To that question, 85 percent of respondents said they'd probably or definitely not join the military. In other words, at least 45 percent of people under the age of 30 would like to send troops to fight the Islamic State but wouldn't themselves be willing to go. This is not a new phenomenon in the post-draft world, to be sure, but it is one that will apparently survive into another generation.


Why Google’s new quantum computer could launch an artificial intelligence arms race

optimizing the training regimens of top-flight athletes. And it’s not just Google D-Wave vs. IBM Watson in some kind of ultimate cage match to see who’s better and faster at optimizing solutions to really hard problems — it’s all the other classes of unconventional computers out there. Consider, for example, the new memcomputer, which mimics the way the human brain works, storing and processing information simultaneously. There are plenty of other unconventional computers too, including some that are biological. Not to mention the other research labs and universities — such as Yale University, which recently launched the Yale Quantum Institute — that are also working on their own quantum computers. Quantum Computing | Robert Schoelkopf What all this points to is the fact that traditional digital computing (what Google refers to as “classical computing”) is on the way out. We’re now looking for a new heir apparent and Google hopes to anoint D-Wave as the rightful heir. With its big announcement that quantum computing can actually work, Google hopes to show that they’ve figured out how to make practical quantum computers for the commercial market. Any time you claim to have created something that’s 100 million times faster than anything else that’s ever existed, though, you’re bound to run up against skeptics. And, indeed, there are plenty of skeptics for the D-Wave. One big quibble about the quantum qubits, for example, is that the test results were not nearly as impressive as Google claims they were. That’s because the digital computer trying to defeat the quantum computer was forced to compete under Google’s house rules, which basically meant that it had to use the same algorithm that the quantum computer used — and that algorithm had already been carefully sculpted to the peculiarities of the quantum world. Imagine running a race against a competitor in shoes that are too big, pants that keep falling down, and on a course where your competitor can run across and through the track — not just around it. Going forward, it’s possible to think of two vastly different scenarios for quantum computing. The first scenario is that Google uses these D-Wave quantum computers to completely corner the market in artificial intelligence. Just as once nobody could have predicted that everyone would own their own personal computer one day, maybe people will all own their own quantum computers one day. The other scenario is that


Washington Post to host chat Friday on ‘Serial’ coverage of Bowe Bergdahl

In this image taken from video obtained from a militant website, Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl sits in a vehicle guarded by the Taliban in Afghanistan. He was turned over to U.S. forces after five years in captivity. (Voice of Jihad website via AP) As Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl faces charges of desertion and misbehavior before the enemy, the new season of the popular “Serial” podcast debuted Thursday with coverage of the case — and the first recorded interview with the controversial soldier since he was released in Afghanistan in 2014 after five years in captivity. In light of the crush of interest in the case — and confusion about it — I’ll be running a one-hour online chat for The Washington Post about it on Friday at noon, Eastern time. I’ll take questions on where the criminal case stands, how the investigation got to where it is now and why Bergdahl is considered such a controversial figure. I’ll also explain what has been disclosed about the case so far. The chat will be available here. In the meantime, here is a substantive — although not all-inclusive — list of Post stories about Bergdahl, starting with his recovery in May 2014: U.S. soldier held captive released in exchange for Afghan detainees: June 1, 2014 Mixed reaction to Bowe Bergdahl’s recovery among those who consider him a traitor: June 1, 2014 War-zone deserter? If so, Bowe Bergdahl joins a fascinating and bizarre club: June 4, 2014 Afghan villagers recall when Bergdahl stumbled into their midst: June 4, 2014 Bergdahl’s writings reveal a fragile young man; June 11, 2014 Guantanamo transfer for Bowe Bergdahl violated federal law: Aug. 21, 2014 Bowe Bergdahl, once-missing U.S. soldier, charged with desertion; March 25, 2015 Bowe Bergdahl, in sparse prose, details his captivity for the first time; March 25, 2015 Disillusioned and self-deluded, Bowe Bergdahl vanished into a brutal captivity; Sept. 20, 2015 Army officer recommends against prison time for Bowe Bergdahl, lawyer says; Oct. 10, 2015 Donald Trump vs. Bowe Bergdahl: Soldier’s lawyer says political attacks have gone too far; Nov. 22, 2015


The troubling science that’s pushing the world toward a much tougher climate goal

and two colleagues added two new processes to an ice sheet model called “hydrofracturing” and “cliff collapse.” The first refers to how great ice shelves in Antarctica and Greenland develop large cracks before ultimately breaking off or disintegrating, as the Larsen B ice shelf so spectacularly did in 2002. The second refers to the notion that a sheer cliff of ice, extending over 100 meters above sea level, may collapse under strain, since ice is not a particularly durable material. Adding these processes to their model, and then simulating a warm past climate representative of the so-called middle Pliocene era — when temperatures were 2 to 3 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels — the authors found that the retreat of West Antarctica was “much faster than might be expected from the previous work. The main cause is the new mechanisms of hydrofracture and cliff failure.” Indeed, the study found that the retreat occurred “on the order of decades.” It’s worth pointing out that all of the research I’m citing above came out after the completion of the 2013 iteration of the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s assessment report on the state of climate science. That’s right — the research got more dire subsequent to the last articulation of the scientific consensus on this issue. You will also note that I’m only focusing on recent research about what 2 and 1.5 degrees C means for our oceans and planetary ice — but there will be many other impacts of climate change that will differ at these different temperature levels. So in sum, small island nations like Tuvalu or the Maldives may have long supported a 1.5 degrees C temperature target. But in the past two years or so, quite a lot of science has backed them up by suggesting that we are already very near to thresholds where could lock in major sea level rise – precisely what they’ve long been worried about. That’s why 1.5 C remains in the latest draft text of a Paris agreement and, well, may also be in the final one. More at Energy Environment: The one thing that really doesn’t make sense about the climate debate in Paris Climate-change warnings include wild weather shifts. But giant flying boulders? In Paris, experts cite looming risk from coolants, methane For more, you can sign up for our weekly newsletter here, and follow us on Twitter here.


Our borderless Internet

that criminal activity is being undertaken and that a judicial warrant should be issued. Many countries — including those that meet “international standards of due process and human rights” — have a much lower threshold for allowing law enforcement access to information like this. By suggesting that “American technology companies should be free to comply directly with foreign government requests for data,” Woods is either suggesting that we should allow foreign governments freer access to that information than we allow our own government — which would surely be bizarre — or that we should abandon those ECPA protections entirely, for U.S. and foreign governments alike, which is a terrible idea. The addition of the qualifier — that compliance with the request should be limited to cases in which “that access is warranted” — begs the question completely. That’s what we do now — we place the request before a judge, who decides whether the access is warranted under the ECPA (and the Fourth Amendment). Asking Facebook, Google, Twitter, etc., to make those determinations seems like a step decidedly in the wrong direction. [And just as an aside, Woods’s article also illustrates an infuriatingly wrongheaded idea — or, more precisely, a rhetorical posture — that has come to dominate the rapidly expanding world of Internet law and policy. He begins his article this way: “The Internet is routinely described as borderless, and that is often how it feels. Tweet a photo or post a comment, and it is instantly viewable in nearly every country in the world. But a global Internet unbounded by territorial limits is pure fantasy.” The idea that those who describe the Internet as borderless are engaging in “pure fantasy” seems to be a way, these days, that commentators signal how hard-headed and realistic they are: “See, I’m not one of those starry-eyed cyber-utopians who still talk about the ‘borderless’ Internet.” It’s particularly infuriating in an article dealing with a problem caused by precisely the borderless nature of the Internet — the fact that a business in Brazil, or a terrorist cell in Denmark, or a bank robber in Australia, or a social club in Singapore, can all store their communications information anywhere on the borderless Internet and yet still have instantaneous access to it. The very problem on which Woods is focused arises out of the conflict between the borderless Internet and the bordered world of international


Good news, America! There are fewer drunk teens on the road today.

(Elaine Thompson/AP Photo) The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) released data this week showing that America's teenagers and young adults are much less likely to drive drunk than they used to be -- but the rate of driving while stoned has been slower to improve. Between 2002 and 2014, "the prevalence of driving under the influence of alcohol alone and alcohol and marijuana combined significantly declined among persons aged 16–20 years and 21–25 years," SAMHSA concluded. Among 16- to 20-year-olds, the drunk driving rate fell 59 percent. Among the 21 to 25 set, the rate fell by 38 percent. Driving under the influence of booze and weed combined fell by smaller amounts, while stoned driving alone fell by even smaller -- essentially negligible -- numbers. As SAMHSA notes, motor vehicle crashes are the No. 1 cause of death among 16- to 25-year-olds in the United States. So naturally, any reduction in DUI rates among that age group is welcome. The data also weaken an argument by opponents of marijuana legalization. From 2002 to 2014, voters approved medical marijuana laws in 15 states and approved recreational weed in four more. Legalization opponents have warned that loosening pot restrictions would lead to more stoned driving. But as the numbers above show, it appears that hasn't happened, at least not among young adults. More from Wonkblog: Teen pot use holds steady in first year of legal weed, new federal data show Marijuana may be even safer than previously thought, researchers say Federal court tells the DEA to stop harassing medical marijuana providers Correction: The drunk driving data was released and analyzed by SAMHSA, and published by the CDC


President Obama signs three constructive gun measures

tax imposed by section 4181 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 [26 U.S.C. 4181] (determined without regard to any exemptions from such tax provided by section 4182 or 4221 or any other provision of such Code).” This cross-references the federal excise tax is 10 percent for “Pistols. Revolvers” and 11 percent for “Firearms (other than pistols and revolvers). Shells, and cartridges.” As a result, the EPA cannot use the TSCA to prohibit ammunition. However, some groups have petitioned the EPA to ban the lead “component” in all ammunition. After the Obama EPA declined to do so, the groups sued in federal court and lost. The NDAA amendment makes it clear that the TSCA exclusion of ammunition also applies to ammunition components. As amended, TSCA now reads: “(v) any article the sale of which is subject to the tax imposed by section 4181 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 [26 U.S.C. 4181] (determined without regard to any exemptions from such tax provided by section 4182 or 4221 or any other provision of such Code), and any component of such an article (limited to shot shells, cartridges, and components of shot shells and cartridges)”. (New language in italics.) The amendment does not in any way reduce the ability of state or federal wildlife agencies to restrict the use of lead ammunition in hunting, where necessary for environmental reasons. The amendment does prevent any future EPA administrator from banning lead ammunition entirely. Allowing military personnel to protect themselves This summer, a jihadist attacked military recruiting stations in Chattanooga, Tenn. In 2009, a jihadist attacked the Fort Hood military base in Texas. He murdered 13 unarmed victims and wounded 30. The military personnel there were defenseless, so the criminal was not stopped until military police arrived. Section 526 of the NDAA takes a first step toward remedying the dangerous disarmament of our armed forces: SEC. 526. Establishment of process by which members of the Armed Forces may carry an appropriate firearm on a military installation. Not later than December 31, 2015, the Secretary of Defense, taking into consideration the views of senior leadership of military installations in the United States, shall establish and implement a process by which the commanders of military installations in the United States, or other military commanders designated by the Secretary of Defense for military reserve centers, Armed Services recruiting centers, and such other defense facilities as the


Scientists claimed they found elusive ‘Planet X.’ Doubting astronomers are in an uproar.

The antennas of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) under the northern Chilean sky. Researchers using the ALMA say they have found two mysterious large objects at the outskirts of the solar system. (Rex Features via AP Images) It’s a big, dark presence at the farthest reaches of our solar system, a mysterious force powerful enough to skew the paths of planets in orbit and yet so subtle that it slips undetected past even the most powerful telescopes on Earth. For centuries, it has eluded some of the most brilliant minds in astronomy — some say it even destroyed one. It’s the subject of endless calculations and rampant speculation, crackpot theories and countless hours spent gazing, fruitlessly, at the night sky. It’s known as Planet X. And on Tuesday, a group of astronomers said they’d found not just one such presence, but two of them. “ALMA discovers the most distant object of the solar system,” read the title of one paper uploaded to the research-sharing site arXiv. “The serendipitous discovery of a possible new solar system object with ALMA,” went the other. Using the Atacama large millimeter/submillimeter array (ALMA), a powerful telescope located in the high desert of Chile, the researchers said they’d come across two extremely large objects skimming through the outskirts of the solar system. Though both studies were submitted to the prestigious journal Astronomy & Astrophysics, neither has been peer-reviewed or formally published — steps that are par for the course with any kind of serious scientific research but especially when pronouncements of previously unknown planets are at stake. They’re both based on limited observations — just two spottings apiece for each odd object. And even after just 48 hours online, they have garnered a great deal of skepticism within the astronomy community. But the researchers say they posted their papers with exactly that purpose. “We specifically wanted to reach the community that could tell us if we overlooked something, in which case we fully intend to withdraw the papers,” Wouter Vlemmings, an astronomer at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden and co-author on both studies, told Scientific American. Here’s what Vlemmings and his colleague say they found: A large rocky something they call “Gna” (for a fast-moving Nordic messenger goddess, one of the authors told Scientific American), that could be an asteroid-type object roughly the size of Ireland zooming around somewhere near Uranus. Alternatively, the researchers


Why some scientists fear the world could over promise and under deliver in Paris

at the University of Oslo. “It means reaching…70 to 95 percent reduction in emissions by 2050 as an absolute minimum, and it actually means being careful with statements like ‘greenhouse gas neutrality.'” Kallbekken, Anderson, and the other scientists suggested that the language about “greenhouse gas neutrality” could open up a massive door to so-called “negative emissions” technologies that could theoretically remove large amounts of carbon dioxide from the air, even as humans keep on emitting it. If we emit too much carbon dioxide to stay within a given temperature target, meanwhile, negative emissions technologies might theoretically cool the planet back down again, allowing for a temporary overshoot without too much lasting planetary harm. However, scientists have recently been highly critical of assumptions that we can launch these technologies on a mass scale without suffering major knock-on impacts, such as using vast amounts of land that might otherwise be used to grow food. At the panel on Friday, Anderson suggested that relying on these technologies may lead us to believe in “spurious options for the future.” Another researcher present, Joeri Rogelj, Research Scholar at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, is one of the few scientists to have published a study on precisely what it would take to keep warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius in the long term. The current draft text’s language about “greenhouse gas neutrality,” he said, “kind of obscures the fact that global carbon dioxide emissions will have to become zero to stabilize warming at any level.” “To limit warming below 1.5 by the end of the century, there are no scenarios available that basically delay global mitigation action beyond 2020,” Rogeli added — the start date of the proposed agreement. “That means that from 2020 onwards, and preferably before that we need to be starting rapid emissions reductions.” In contrast, the current draft text’s call for merely peaking emissions “as soon as possible” leaves vast wiggle room. To be sure, the researchers praised the inclusion of a 1.5 degree Celsius temperature aspiration in the current text, along with the idea of holding warming well below 2 degrees Celsius. And they emphasized that the current text could change again by Saturday, perhaps in the direction they’re hoping for – but also perhaps becoming weaker. “It’s incredibly positive that world political leadership has now recognized the science,” said Kallbekken. “It has to then stay scientifically consistent right through.”


This tiny star has a massive storm raging on it – just like Jupiter’s

fusion going on — but not enough to make it too warm for clouds made of minerals to form in its atmosphere. It's not a total stellar failure, but it's probably pretty close. But as is the case on Jupiter, that weird combination of star and planet qualities may have resulted in a massive storm -- which blurs the line between star and planet even further. Jupiter's storm, called the Great Red Spot, has been raging for as long as humans have been watching it -- about 400 years. It's slowly shrinking, according to recent observations, but it's still about three times bigger than Earth. [Real life ‘Death Star’ caught in the act of destroying a planet] "The star is the size of Jupiter, and its storm is the size of Jupiter's Great Red Spot," study author John Gizis of the University of Delaware said in a statement. "We know this newfound storm has lasted at least two years, and probably longer." (NASA) The cosmic forecast comes courtesy of Kepler, the great exoplanet hunting telescope. Kepler detects exoplanets by watching the dimming of distant stars, which scientists use to determine details about the objects passing in front of them. When Gizis and his colleagues looked at W1906+40, they saw a dark spot that didn't waver. That in itself isn't totally unusual: The most likely explanation would be a star spot. Known as sunspots when they happen on our own star, these patches of concentrated magnetic field can make dark blotches on a star's surface. But further investigation in infrared light revealed that the dark spot had nothing to do with magnetic fields. The whopping storm makes a dark mark on top of the star, rotating around it about every nine hours. Scientists aren't sure why these storms last so long or how common they are, but the researchers involved in the study plan on seeking out more stormy dwarfs to learn more. New imagery from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope reveals details never before seen on Jupiter. The high-resolution maps and spinning globes are the first products to come from a program to study the solar system’s outer planets each year using the Hubble Space Telescope. Read More: Uranus might be full of surprises The new biggest thing in the universe, and why it’s a headache for scientists This is what it looks like when a black hole tears a star


Home of Rose’s Luxury sells for $4.1 million in all-time historic flip

Dining at Rose’s Luxury, 717 8th St. SE in D.C. (Photo by Dixie D. Vereen/For The Washington Post) Many real estate investors, amateur and professional alike, have tried their hand at buying up old D.C. row houses or storefronts in order to fix them up and make a tidy profit in the process. Few have done it as well as it was done at 717 8th St. SE, a two-story brick commercial building on Barracks Row. In 2011 a local developer bought it for $675,000, according to RealtyTrac. He then leased it to a chef, Aaron Silverman, who opened a restaurant that served unique food combinations and didn’t take reservations. What happened next is well known to foodies. Silverman’s restaurant, Rose’s Luxury, was named the best new restaurant in the country by Bon Appetit magazine. Critic Tom Sietsema gave it four stars. The line to get in outside is sometimes two hours long, even in the summer. For the building’s owner, Greg Selfridge of Novo Development, this was akin to hitting the jackpot. He put the building on the market this year and just sold it for $4.1 million. The restaurant won’t be affected, Silverman said. He signed a 10-year lease with two five-year options in 2012 and has no plans to go anywhere. He is opening a second restaurant next door, in the former Homebody store. The sale “will not affect our restaurant at all,” Silverman writes. According to the broker who lined up the deal, Bobby Meehling of CBRE, the $4.1 million price tag is very likely a record price per-square-foot on Capitol Hill. Meehling said the building was about 4,100 square feet, not counting the roof deck, which equates to about $1,000 per square foot. He declined to name the buyer, which is listed as 717 8th Street LLC. “The sellers got lucky — they put in Rose’s Luxury and it ended up being the restaurant of the year,” Meehling said. Follow Jonathan O’Connell on Twitter: @oconnellpostbiz


The secret to why money is so good at changing people’s minds

experiment, the letter search game showed that having financial incentives on your mind can distort how you perceive the world. You might seek out information to justify yourself, or even ignore contrary information that is staring you in the face. It’s important to think about these issues in the context of medical procedures. There is great controversy over whether it is ethical to pay people for their organs, for instance, or to pay women to be surrogates. One concern is that desperate people might not fully understand the risks of donating a kidney, or of carrying a baby to term. It is the doctor's job to present them with enough data for them to make an informed decision. Ambuehl's research suggests that you can give people information, but that doesn't necessarily mean they will be informed. Biases start to take over when there is money on the line. A potential kidney donor might not listen very closely while the doctor is talking because she's focused on the upsides. Another example that Ambuehl brings up is military recruitment. Though it may be illegal to pay people to risk their lives becoming organ donor, we pay men and women to risk their lives defending the country in the military. The size and strength of a volunteer army depends on how much you pay recruits. The U.S. Army has used enlistment bonuses — up to tens of thousands of dollars — to bring people in. That kind of money gets people in the door, after which potential recruits are given more information about the risks and rewards of joining. The money might also shape how they understand the Army's pitch, and may motivate them to seek out more positive information about military careers. Ambuehl's research shows that cash can convince people to convince themselves. It might also be possible to detect this dynamic in politics. Politicians are often accused of ethical sketchiness, of being in the pocket of lobbyists and big donors. But as Ambuehl demonstrated, part of the reality-bending power of money is that it motivates people to seek out certain kinds of self-serving information. A politician might genuinely believe she is making the right vote, without realizing how the financial incentives subconsciously guided her there. In the case of bug-eating at least, Ambuehl was likely making a positive change in the world. Environmentalists have said that we should perhaps eat less


As Pentagon opens combat jobs to women, ‘deep-seated’ opposition and a checkered past

commanding officer eventually disqualified her from flying in 1995 while at sea. Their struggles are a dark spot in naval history. The investigation, prompted by a complaint from Lohrenz’s family, found that female fighter pilots received accelerated training to send them to carrier squadrons before they may have been ready. They also faced open hostility from some males pilots and a crush of media attention that, in Lohrenz’s case, adversely affected her ability to fly, the investigation found. In addition, female pilots on the Abraham Lincoln also were ordered to undergo numerous pregnancy tests, infuriating some of them. The case, outlined in an inspector general report released in 1997, underscores the challenges the Pentagon faces now as it prepares to open all ground combat jobs by April 1 following a landmark this month by Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter. Many cultural issues have been raised in ground units that could complicate the integration effort, according to documents newly released by the Pentagon last weekend. About 110,000 more jobs across the services will be opened with the move — 10 percent of the active-duty force. The jobs are primarily in the Army and Marine Corps, with some Special Operations jobs in the other forces — Navy SEAL and Air Force pararescueman, for example. The services must submit implementation plans for how they will do carry out integration by January, with the work to begin no later than April. A U.S. Army Special Forces soldier fires an M240 machine gun April 22, 2015, at a firing range in Camp Shelby, Miss. (Photo by Staff Sgt. Osvaldo Equite/ Army) Many men in ground combat jobs remain deeply skeptical that combat effectiveness will remain the military’s top priority as the integration occurs, according to the documents, which were releasesd just days after Carter’s announcement. A study completed for U.S. Special Operations Command this year by the Rand National Defense Research Institute found that opposition to opening all jobs to women is “deep-seated and intensely felt” among all types of Special Operations forces, mostly due to the belief that it will compromise combat effectiveness. One unidentified Navy SEAL officer, when asked if women should be allowed to earn Naval Special Warfare Command’s coveted “SEAL Trident” decoration, offered an apparently sarcastic alternative. “No,” he said, according to the Rand report. “They could get a mermaid with two guns crossed.” Overall, 85 percent of those polled were


How to grocery shop for one person

to the grocery store, I start my shopping on the perimeter aisles (typically produce, dairy/eggs, meat/fish). These fresh ingredients are the staples of healthy home cooking, and are the things I tend to run out of each week. The inside aisles (oils, pastas, breads, beans, grains, packaged goods) are the shelf-stable pantry goods I typically need to replenish less frequently. Speaking of shelf-stable non-perishables, I buy them in the bulk section whenever I can. The extra 20 seconds spent looking for the product code and writing it on a twist-tie is well worth the money I save since I’m not paying for packaging. Flours, grains, pastas, coffee, tea, snack mix, even some cookies and candies can all be purchased in the bulk section. Not only is the bulk section good for when you want a lot of something (such as beans or grains), it’s also great for when you only want a little of something (such as those dangerously delicious raspberry-fig bars at my local Whole Foods). Okay, grab your reusable bags and let’s get shopping. PRODUCE (Photo by Gabi Moskowitz) Greens you can eat cooked or raw Baby carrots, mini Persian cucumbers, mini bell peppers, or any other crunchy, easy to eat raw vegetable For healthy snacking, but can also be used in cooking. 1 or 2 medium onions I usually buy yellow (which I find have the most flavor), but white or red are okay too. Look for what’s on sale. 1 head of garlic You’ll use it in just about everything. The pre-peeled kind is okay, if you know you’ll be using it quickly (otherwise it oxidizes and becomes rancid). Do not buy the chopped, jarred variety; it doesn’t taste as good, and it’s more expensive than fresh. Fresh herbs Using fresh herbs is the quickest way to take your cooking from average to great with very little effort. My weekly buys are cilantro for Asian/Latin dishes and flat-leaf parsley for Italian/Mediterranean. Mint and basil are semi-regulars. Buy the full bunch as opposed to those small plastic containers with single servings of herbs — it’s cheaper and there’s less waste. 1 or 2 lemons Good for flavoring water and squeezing over cooked vegetables or salads. Apples, oranges, bananas, or another in-season, easy to eat fruit If it’s easy to eat and requires little to no prep beyond washing, you are more likely to eat it. Which is


Why you can’t call nuts, avocados, olives, or salmon “healthy”

of Nutrition & Food Studies at New York University. While she concedes that Kind's product is admirable, she says that the company's campaign is misleading. "Health claims are about marketing; they are not about health," she said. The FDA's regulations were put in place as a concession of sorts. The government didn't encourage companies to tell customers that their products were not only good, but good for them—companies clamored for the right. Health claims used to be disallowed, but the food industry pressured the government enough that it allowed them, given certain restrictions, in exchange for the Nutrition Facts label that is now required on all packaged and processed food. The clearest sign of this—that health claims might not be as altruistic as they seem—is that the regulations only apply to processed foods. Whole foods, like fruits, vegetables, and nuts—which are arguably the healthiest of all—can't carry any health claims. In that light, Kind's assertion that the current regulations stipulate that foods like nuts and avocados aren't healthy looks a little more suspect. The truth is that unprocessed nuts can't be called healthy because there is no such thing as a label for any unprocessed food. Why should cleaning them, roasting them, and packaging them—which is perhaps the most benign form of food processing that exists—change that? The same can be said for any fruit or vegetable, sliced and then put inside plastic. Or of Kind's bars, which are mostly made from whole foods. The problem, Nestle says, isn't the way in which the government regulates the use of health claims—it's the fact that it has to deal with them at all. "Foods are foods, not drugs," she said. "I don't see why companies should be allowed to carry any health claims." "The kind thing for Kind to do would be to stop angling for health claims to promote its products," she added. "I like Kind, I think the product is really pretty good—real foods stuck together with a little sugar—but leaning on health claims diminishes the image the company is trying to project with its product." Making such a fuss about it might not help much either. The more Kind, which isn't associated with junk food or unhealthfulness, doubles down on the ability to call its products healthy, the more people might begin to question why it matters, and whether, as Nestle believes, it's merely a matter of marketing.


The special, weird misery of being a shopper in Venezuela

the wealthy hilltop neighborhood near the U.S. Embassy, one can buy Swiss Miss pudding cups for 4,250 Bolivares ($4.72) or Norwegian smoked salmon for 16,900 Bolivares ($18.77). Pudding at a fancy deli in an upscale neighborhood of Caracas. The manager, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that 80 percent of his clients are now foreigners, including many from the embassy, because the prices are out of range for most Venezuelans. He admitted that his business isn't wholly legal. To get these high-end imported goods, he works with someone in the government who has access to the most favorable exchange rate, buys from a Costco in Miami with cheap dollars and has products shipped by boat to Venezuela. The middle men resell the goods at a healthy profit. "You get the products from people in the government. They're very high up," the manager said. "It's a better business than drug trafficking." Black market For those who don't want to wait in line for hours, there is a thriving black market, which in Caracas's poor neighborhoods operates openly on the street. These markets are run by "Bachaqueros," a nickname that comes from the big rainforest ants that carry things from one place to another. At a sidewalk stall in the Petare neighborhood, Angelica Gonzalez, 33, was selling Pampers and soaps and shampoos. She gets the diapers from a guy who waits in line for hours at other stores. He can buy them for about 280 Bolivares at the regulated price, resells them to Gonzalez at 800, who herself re-sells on the black market for 1,000. ($1.11). Nearby, another woman was selling for 1,000 Bolivares a carton of 30 eggs similar to the one that Freddy Henriquez had waited more than an hour to buy at 420 Bolivares in the private grocery store. "We are bachaqueros," Gonzalez said proudly. "They talk bad about us but everyone buys from us, survives from us." But she barely can make ends meet. With her salary, of about 11,000 Bolivares per month, she could buy 11 packs of the Pampers she sells, and nothing else. Black market eggs sell for more than double the price at a supermarket. Angelica Gonzalez, right, sells diapers and other products on the black market. Read more: Election loss in Venezuela could be the beginning of the end of the Chávez era Budget woes threaten Mexico’s reputation as a conservation leader


Scientists may have just solved one of the most troubling mysteries about sea-level rise

Mitrovica said. When the scientists added the coupling effect to their calculations, suddenly everything snapped together — the calculations fit the observed astronomical data, and there was enough rotational “signal” left over to account for 20th-century sea-level rise. A controversy continued But the mystery may not be quite resolved, according to some. Peltier’s main issue with the argument in the paper has to do with the new viscosity model — the model of the way the Earth flows — that the authors used to help account for the ice age effect. Previous research has suggested that this model does not match up with observed data on the way the Earth’s geology actually behaves, Peltier said. In essence, he claims, this aspect of the paper is “absolutely incorrect.” Peltier does note that the authors’ inclusion of the coupling influence — that hamster-wheel effect described by Stanley — is “the really interesting and innovative comment in the paper.” However, taken as a whole, he said the proposal is a “nice try, but no cigar.” So, it seems, there’s still a debate to be had here. Mitrovica insists that the striking thing about this paper is how neatly all the calculations line up at the end. Reinforcing modern climate science The findings “lend support to our confidence in recent estimates of sea level rise and the increasing ice sheet contribution,” said Indeed, Mitrovica said, exploring climate change’s more subtle effects — such as its ability to affect the planet’s rotation — is an important way for scientists to back up the existing climate science. And, more simply, the paper helps reinforce the awe-inspiring power of climate change to produce global-scale effects, changing the planet’s very rotation. While this effect might be tiny from a human perspective, “the amazing thing is that we can observe these things,” Mitrovica said. “The effects are very small, but hidden in them are very large changes in the Earth’s system.” More at Energy Environment: The world just adopted a tough new climate goal. Here’s how hard it will be to meet Holding warming under two degrees Celsius is the goal. But is it really attainable? Interactive graphic: Gauging a warming world Another danger of climate change: Giant flying boulders? ‘It’s an invisible threat.’ Climate change spurs scientists’ fears of deadly diseases For more, you can sign up for our weekly newsletter here, and follow us on Twitter here.


The 2016 Washington, D.C., weather calendar

photos of fireworks over a D.C. monument or landmark. The fireworks photos are posted on CWG and they are later used in the calendar for the following year. 4) The calendar must have at least one lightning photo or storm image. I had a good storm chase on April 20, 2015 that produced a nice assortment of lightning images. However, the month of April in the calendar was already taken with a cherry blossom photo. So, I moved a lightning image from the April storm to June in the calendar. Close enough. 5) The calendar must have at least one or two fall foliage photos for October and/or November. I have learned that the Tidal Basin is a perfect place to shoot fall foliage. Great Falls is also a favorite fall location that I use for photography. 6) The calendar must have a snow-covered Christmas tree for December. The trees of choice are the National Christmas Tree and the Capitol Christmas Tree. This photo goal is often difficult because accumulating snow in Washington during the month of December is not particularly common. So I usually go back into my archives to previous years for a December snow photo. For the 2016 calendar, I used a photo from Dec. 5, 2007. It’s a cool image that I’ve not posted or published before on this blog. 7) If I’m lucky enough to photograph a rainbow, I’ll use it in the calendar. I have photographed a rainbow over the Reflecting Pool in 2014 and 2015 and this year the August photo shows a rainbow. Overall, it’s a lot of effort to take the photos each month and then later produce the calendar. But it’s a labor of love. Below are the photos for each month of the 2016 calendar with short caption and the date that the photo was taken. January: Fresh snow cover at the Tidal Basin, Jan. 6, 2015. (Kevin Ambrose) February: Snow on the National Mall, Feb. 17, 2015. (Kevin Ambrose) March: Sledding at the Stone House, Manassas National Battlefield Park, March 6, 2015. (Kevin Ambrose) April: Cherry blossoms bloom with beautiful spring weather at the Tidal Basin, April 12, 2015. (Kevin Ambrose) May: Arlington National Cemetery, May 24, 2015. (Kevin Ambrose) June: Lightning fills the sky over Washington, April 20, 2015. (Kevin Ambrose) July: Fireworks over the Reflecting Pool, July 4, 2015. (Kevin Ambrose) August: Rainbow over Washington, Aug.


Amtrak President Joseph Boardman says he plans to step down next year

perceived shortcomings. Former House Transportation Committee chairman John L. Mica (R-Fla.), who spent his college summers working on the railroad, never missed a chance to denounce Amtrak as “a Soviet-style railroad with Soviet-style operations.” Boardman was called back once more this year after an Amtrak train traveling at more than twice the speed limit derailed in Philadelphia, killing eight people and injuring more that 200, 11 of them critically. Despite the acrimony of Mica and some others in Congress, Boardman generally was well received by most members, and surveys suggested the railroad was well regarded by the majority of its passengers. “Joe Boardman is a good friend who had led Amtrak through difficult times and many changes,” said Rep. Jeff Denham (R-Calif.), who chairs the House subcommittee on railroads. “He has been instrumental in writing many of the reforms recently signed into law. His hard work and dedication will be missed.” The railroad operates more than 300 trains daily on 21,300 miles of track, reaching 46 states and three Canadian provinces. Outside of the corridor between Washington and Boston, most of the rail that it runs on belongs to freight railroad companies. Outside of the Northeast Corridor, most of its routes operated at a loss. Boardman, who was raised on an upstate New York dairy farm, spent more than three years running the Federal Railroad Administration before taking the job with Amtrak. Prior to the FRA, he was commissioner of the New York State Department of Transportation. “For those of you who know me, you know a decision like this is something that I spent a lot of time considering,” Boardman said in his letter to Amtrak employees. “Yet, I think in the railroad business, all of us know when it’s time to retire.” He said that he gave the board almost 10 months notice of his planned departure to allow them time to find a successor. “The other reason why I want to work well into 2016 is because there are things I want to get done on my watch, and they include critical and important investments both in the future of our service and the safety of our railroad,” he wrote. “Early next year, we expect to place an order for the next generation of high speed trainsets in North America. When they are delivered they will instantly add capacity and the newest technology available to our passengers.”


How tiny islands drove huge ambition at the Paris climate talks

here in a way that was just undeniable,” said Jennifer Morgan, director of the climate-change program at the World Resources Institute. “That’s how I think it got as far as it’s gotten.” But the talk of 1.5 degrees brings with it deeply sobering implications that, until now, many in the climate debate largely managed to avoid or ignore. Increasing talk about this target also opens up, more than ever, a troubling discussion about “negative emissions” technologies that do not exist on any mass scale at present but theoretically would be able to pull carbon dioxide out of the air. Perhaps the most popular of them is bioenergy with carbon capture and storage, or BECCS, which would involve burning plants for power and then storing the carbon released in the ground. These technologies will be needed, scientists say, for 1.5 to be possible. It may be that the only way to land the planet at 1.5 degrees is to temporarily overshoot that target and then cool things back down again through massive carbon removal from the air, according to scientists. Criticisms of “negative emissions” technologies are mounting. Recently, a large group of scientists said it would be “extremely risky” to rely on such technologies rather than simply cutting carbon emissions sharply, because they all have major trade-offs (BECCS, for instance, would require a huge amount of land). But nonetheless, they’ve become a part of the debate out of necessity. Thus, the powerful moral case made by small island nations and other climate-vulnerable countries now runs head on into the extraordinarily complex math of the global carbon budget, with a little science fiction thrown in to boot. But even if humans cannot manage to keep the planet from warming more than 1.5 degrees Celsius, there could be a benefit to the effort. “Having aimed for 1.5 in the first place,” Rogelj said, “if we are not lucky, if some technologies don’t turn out, then maybe we will be safe enough to stay below two degrees.” More at Energy Environment: The one thing that really doesn’t make sense about the climate debate in Paris With warming temperatures, these frozen relics of the Little Ice Age are disappearing Climate-change warnings include wild weather shifts. But giant flying boulders? In Paris, experts cite looming risk from coolants, methane For more, you can sign up for our weekly newsletter here, and follow us on Twitter here.


Wired to cheat: Why these ‘monogamous’ rats keep fooling around

A pair of voles, one with an ear tag that is used as a unique identifier. (Photo: Aubrey Kelly/Cornell University) A new study published in the journal Science does nothing to dispel the notion that males who routinely cheat on their mates are just a bunch of rats. The study examined the DNA of Midwestern prairie voles and linked it to the rodents' behavior. Voles are known for their monogamous pair-bonding, but that doesn't stop a lot of the males from wandering off and sleeping around. Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin found that one of every three males has a certain hormone in his brain that makes him just plain naughty. Not only were these guys prone to creeping outside of their main relationships, they were so brazen that they often found themselves in nests already occupied by faithful males that beat them to a pulp. While some of the unfaithful were out fooling around, other unfaithful males slipped into their homes and impregnated their mates. This cycle of strange poetic justice virtually guaranteed that philanderers were more likely to unknowingly help raise young as stepfathers. The study does more than offer observations on dirty vole behavior. It appears to suggest that vole cheaters are born that way. "Just as people can be introverted or extroverted, prairie voles can be more or less prone to sexual fidelity because of...genetic differences," said a statement by the university that accompanied the study's release late this week. The researchers found no link between the behavior of voles and that of other animals, humans included. Deep inside its content, buried under a lot of technical words that most people have never heard, their report offered only this this: "Among humans, similar forces have been proposed to explain differences in personality, resilience, and psychiatric risk." Because sociology is crucial to understanding the ways humans act, the authors said it was surprising that science doesn't know more of the same for other animals. "We may find this to be a common pattern in social behavior, including personality differences, in lots of species," said lead author Steven Phelps, an associate professor of integrative biology. The study doesn't come to any moral conclusions about whether fidelity and infidelity makes voles naughty or nice. Phelps said both types are important. "Every brain is like a snowflake," he said. "No two are quite the same. Selection favors


Countries just adopted a historic climate change accord. Here’s what happens next

are effectively put in the hot seat by it — so-called “negative emissions” technologies that would be able to remove carbon dioxide from the air. Scientists have said that the aspirational temperature goal contained in the text, namely that “parties should pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels,” likely won’t be possible unless we have a large-scale way of removing carbon dioxide from the air. Many scenarios for limiting warming to 2 degrees C also rely on such technologies. The new text itself appears to empower these technologies further when it says that the ultimate goal is to “achieve a balance between anthropogenic emissions by sources and removals by sinks of greenhouse gases in the second half of this century.” Sources are things like coal-burning power plants — sinks are things like trees, forests and oceans. But the language in this section may also subtly invoke negative emissions technologies. Commenting on this “long term goal” language, John Schellnhuber, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, remarked that “to stabilize our climate, CO2 emissions have to peak well before 2030 and should be eliminated as soon as possible after 2050. Technologies such as bio-energy and carbon capture and storage as well as afforestation can play a role to compensate for residual emissions, but cutting CO2 is key.” In other words, yes — there is going to be a lot of carbon cutting in coming centuries, but there may also have to be quite a lot of carbon withdrawal and burial by human-made devices (or carbon sequestration by human-planted trees). The conversation needs to start now about these technologies — many of which have major side-effects, such as the use of very large amounts of land (to grow the crops and plants that would be burned in bioenergy combined with carbon capture and storage schemes). “So far, negative emissions are basically ‘science fiction,'” says Oliver Geden, a scholar with the German Institute for International and Security Affairs. “We will need a serious debate on the consequences, and R&D on a massive scale.” The Paris accord thus does indeed deliver us into a very new world. Even as we monitor ongoing changes in the climate, our attention must now shift to the business and technology trends that just may save it. More at Energy Environment: 5 things you should know about the historic climate agreement


Hours before first concert in China, North Korean girl band abruptly goes home

the bilateral exchanges and cooperation in culture and all other areas, a press release from the departments said,” Xinhua reported, using the acronym for North Korea's official name. The Korean People's Army's State Merited Chorus was also scheduled to perform at the National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing, known locally as "The Giant Egg," for three consecutive days from Saturday. "We express deep regret for the inconvenience this may have brought you," said a notice on the center's website. But Saturday afternoon, Japanese television networks broadcast footage of the women, dressed in military coats and hats, arriving at Beijing airport, as photos began appearing on social media. Performance cancelled for unknown reason; #DPRK’s music troupe the Moranbong Band leave hotel in Beijing, Sat https://t.co/eyVuysWI1I North Korea's Ambassador to China, Ji Jae Ryon, was seen accompanying the women onto the plane, which was delayed by three hours and took off shortly after 4 p.m., the Shanghaiist website reported. The Moranbong Band -- ordered formed by Kim Jong Un in 2012 as North Korea's answer to the manufactured, saccharine girl bands that have come out of South Korea in recent years -- has become a sensation because it's so, well, different from the usual music that comes out of the totalitarian regime's propaganda units. Sure, they still sing propaganda, but they do it in short skirts and high heels -- a departure from the conservative attire of North Korea -- and with electric guitars and drum kits. They also have been known to play western music, including the theme from "Rocky." "Rocky" Theme performed in North Korea - Moranbong Band As with many things about North Korea, the reasons behind this sudden change were unknown. Pyongyang itself had announced the tour with some enthusiasm. The North's official Korean Central News Agency reported Friday about the trip, saying that "the world is now focusing on the China visit of the DPRK's State Merited Chorus and Moranbong Band," and that "the Chinese people show keen interest in those art troupes' performance tour of their country." KCNA even cited a report from China's Global Times newspaper quoting Lu Chao, a researcher of the Liaoning Provincial Academy of Social Sciences, as saying that the performance tour "goes to prove that China and the DPRK [have] made a substantial progress in the field of high-level cultural exchange." Relations between North Korea and China, once famously


Plumber sues Ford dealer after truck with company logo was used by extremists in Syria

filed the suit have been contacted to change their reference to Weiss, he said. Weiss reportedly obtained the image from an Ansar al-Din Facebook account. A few days after the photo of the truck surfaced on the Internet, Stephen Colbert featured the story as an opening item on his final show — the most-watched episode in the history of “The Colbert Report,” at 2.5 million viewers. On his segment, Colbert joked that Syria “is going down the toilet, but for the first time, they know who to call to unclog it.” Mark-1 Plumbing received more than 1,000 phone calls from across the country just two days after the tweet was posted, Oberholtzer’s suit alleges. His family members feared for their lives, and his secretary was too scared to return to the office. The complaint claims that AutoNation is guilty of, among other things, gross negligence, common-law fraud, negligent misrepresentation and invasion of privacy by appropriation of name. The most curious part of the story is perhaps how the truck reached extremists in the first place. An AutoNation spokesman told the Huffington Post that after Oberholtzer’s trade-in in October 2013, the vehicle was immediately sent to an auction house, which then sold it to a local used-car dealer. According to the lawsuit, a vehicle history report says the truck was imported at Mersin, Turkey, on Dec. 18, 2013. The damaging tweet was sent out almost exactly a year later. Oberholtzer’s Ford isn’t the only car that has been repurposed for use by extremists. The Islamic State is known for featuring Toyota trucks and SUVs in its graphic propaganda videos, prompting the U.S. government to ask the Japanese automaker why so many of its products have landed in the militant group’s clutches. “How could these brand-new trucks … these four-wheel drives, hundreds of them — where are they coming from?” asked Iraqi Ambassador to the United States Lukman Faily in an interview with ABC News. Toyota distributors in the region told ABC that they did not know how their vehicles reached the Islamic State. This post has been updated to clarify the identity of Caleb Weiss. More from Morning Mix Relatives of drowned Syrian toddler Alan Kurdi will arrive in Canada before New Year’s Ted Cruz channels ‘Flashdance’ in latest Twitter feud with Trump ‘Obviously not one of the wise men’: British drunk driver tries to hide from cops in Nativity scene


Jonathan Aberman: Why Washington just might succeed at becoming the capital of cybersecurity

Everywhere I go these days, people are talking about cybersecurity and its ability to drive economic growth in the greater Washington region. While they agree on its potential, they often seem to disagree on how we are doing on taking advantage of this opportunity. If you listen closely, some will say that our region is poised to, or has already become, the “Silicon Valley of cybersecurity.” Others say, “this region has all the attributes, if only we did X” and that until X occurs our region is doomed to have second-class status as a technology innovation community. Some cybersecurity start-ups lament that they need to look elsewhere for product and software development skills and yet others say we have an abundance of cybersecurity talent in the region. Why is this picture so confusing, and what is the truth? How are we actually doing? (Photo courtesy of Jonathan Aberman) A big part of the answer is the nature of the software industry itself. It is maturing; very little software now is truly new. The industry’s tools are commoditizing, and the value is in novelty in how tools are used. Novelty is delivered in two primary ways: highly-skilled consulting or the delivery of a software product. Buyers are becoming more sophisticated with a desire for efficiency and prefer completed products that can be easily adopted, or high value-added consulting that is truly insightful. Our region is uniquely positioned to compete and win business in both of these approaches. For example, in high-value consulting, we have recent examples of success like Raytheon’s $1 billion contract with the Department of Homeland Security and Engility gaining significant new cybersecurity businesses from the Air Force. Booz Allen Hamilton has dedicated a good chunk of its workforce to hybrid solutions, combining consulting services with recent acquisitions of cybersecurity product companies. Simply put, our high value-added software consulting and solutions businesses are well established and there is a strong ecosystem to support their continued growth — much of which is centered on national security. Our region is reaping the rewards of an established base. Our region also the talent and capital to support broad and lasting cybersecurity start-up growth. Take ThreatConnect. It got its seed funding from local angels and the Virginia Center for Innovative Technology. It grew a product and team with help from experienced leadership from Sourcefire, an earlier successful cybersecurity software business. And it was


Elite U.S. troops fear PMS? A deeper look at the Special Operations gender study

more agile.” The Army Ranger School is set to graduate its first two female students, 1st Lts. Kristen Griest and Shaye Haver. The women started school April 20 alongside 380 men and 17 other women. The Associated Press previously reported on the overall findings. But the release of the full gender integration report now provides a fascinating window into what some of those polled said. It’s clear they didn’t pull many punches, based on the commentary. Some of the remarks here, separated by category: Facility concerns — “At Ft. Bliss, three women shared their own barracks. Men were stacked. Women had time in the shower, in the bathroom. Guys had to wait 20 minutes for a shower. It breeds dissension.” A sergeant first class in the Special Forces Context: The most significant facilities concern, according to the study: “How do you build a cohesive team when you separate and treat some of the team members differently?” Fears of women premenstrual syndrome – — “I have a wife. She’s very independent. But when that time of her month comes, she’s weaker.” — A Navy SEAL who is a petty officer second class Context: The report adds that participants discussing menstrual concerns were in the minority. But there were still at least several of them, underscoring the cultural issues the military will deal with as it integrates women. Pregnancy concerns — “Now you’re taking someone we rely on. She decides to go out and get pregnant… If she even comes back after that — because now she has a child to take care of — I have lost an asset to the team who is not a one-to-one replacement. There is no one-to-one replacement.” — A staff sergeant in Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command (MARSOC) Context: This issue has some more practical concerns than PMS, but it also shows certain level of suspicion about when women might not be able to do their jobs. Concerns about how wives will handle it Context: “Living in close quarters, working long hours and physical contact that is required during training were were cited as problems for many of the spouses, the study said. Army cultural support teams get a better reception — “The intel role (18F) might be viable. I’ve had both good and bad experiences with the CSTs. But when they were good, they were very good.” — Special Forces sergeant first class


Larry Summers: We might be facing a world of high volatility, risk taking, excessive leverage and frequent accidents

consistently far behind the curve in recognizing that the neutral real rates has fallen. If, as I suspect, Rachel and Smith are right there will be much less scope to raise rates in the industrial world over the next few years than the world’s central banks suppose. Fourth, Rachel and Smith recognize that their findings are highly problematic for the existing central banking order. They imply that the zero lower bound is likely to be a major issue at least intermittently going forward. After all we will have future recessions and when we do there will be a need to drop rates by 300 basis points or more. Perhaps quantitative easing or negative rates or forward guidance will be availing. I am skeptical that they will be efficacious if a recession comes in an economy without a heavily disrupted financial system in need of repair. Rachel and Smith also share my concern that a world of chronic very low real rates is going to be a world of high volatility, imprudent risk taking, excessive leverage and frequent financial accident. We may be about to get a taste of this in emerging markets and U.S. high yield markets. It is fashionable to invoke the brave new world of macro-prudential policy in response. To borrow from Wilde, I fear that enthusiasm for macroprudential policy is the triumph of hope over experience. In the last wave of enthusiasm for such policies the poster-child was Spain’s countercyclical capital requirements. They did not work out so well. As best I can tell U.S. macroprudential policy as currently practiced has meaningfully impaired liquidity in some key markets and damaged the credit availability for small and medium sized businesses while not touching excessive flows to emerging markets and high yield corporate issuance. To work, macroprudential policy has to reduce financial vulnerabilities without to an equal extent reducing credit flows that stimulate demand. This is logically possible. I doubt that actual regulators who after all were proclaiming the health of the banking system in mid 2008 are capable of pulling it off consistently given the pressures they face. There are no certainties here. It is possible that neutral real rates will rise over the next several years. But there is a high enough chance that they will not to make contingency planning an urgent priority. That has been and is the main thrust of the secular stagnation argument.


Many exoplanets may hide water in their thick clouds

An artist’s impression of the 10 hot Jupiter exoplanets studied. (ESA/Hubble & NASA) So-called hot Jupiters — exoplanets that are basically like Jupiter, but hotter (go figure) — have often seemed to have less water in their atmospheres than scientists would expect. In a study published Monday in Nature, data from the Hubble provides a possible explanation: Clouds and haze are obscuring the molecule from detection. In studying exoplanets, scientists have to infer a lot of information from what seems like scant data. When a planet passes in front of its host star, its atmosphere scatters the star's light in a particular way. Analyzing that signature can tell researchers about the atmosphere of a planet much too far away to observe directly. But in looking at hot Jupiters, scientists had detected much less water in these shimmering signatures than they'd expected, suggesting that the planets had formed in a dry environment — which upends everything we know about planetary birth. "Our results suggest it's simply clouds hiding the water from prying eyes, and therefore rule out dry hot Jupiters," co-author Jonathan Fortney, professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the University of California at Santa Cruz, said in a statement. "The alternative theory to this is that planets form in an environment deprived of water, but this would require us to completely rethink our current theories of how planets are born." Since hot Jupiters are quite close to their host stars (which is why they're so hot) they're difficult to study — often lost in the glare. The new research used the Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes to analyze the atmospheres of 10 of these giants. As it turns out, these planets that seem to have a water deficit are the same ones that seem to have clouds — exotic things most likely formed by liquid droplets of iron. "I'm really excited to finally 'see' this wide group of planets together, as this is the first time we've had sufficient wavelength coverage to be able to compare multiple features from one planet to another," lead author David Sing of the University of Exeter said in a statement. "We found the planetary atmospheres to be much more diverse than we expected." Read More: Why NASA’s top scientist is sure that we’ll find signs of alien life in the next decade This tiny star has a massive storm raging on it – just


CDC urge doctors to curb opioid prescriptions: “The risks are addiction and death, and the benefits are unproven.”

This post has been updated. The government on Monday urged primary-care physicians who prescribe opioids for pain relief to rein in their use of the drugs, proposing new guidelines that call for a more conservative approach than the one that has led to a crippling epidemic of addiction to the powerful narcotics. Just a few days after a new report showed a surge of drug-related overdoses in 2014, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggested in draft recommendations that physicians tackle chronic pain with other methods, such as physical therapy and non-opioid analgesics, before turning to the powerful medications. If opioids, such as OxyContin and Percocet, are necessary, the agency recommended short-acting versions over extended release formulations, the lowest possible dose and short-term prescriptions. It also suggested that doctors ask patients to take urine tests before prescribing opioids and additional urine tests at least once a year if they continue on the drugs, to ensure that they aren't secretly taking other opioids or illegal drugs. "What we want to just make sure is that doctors understand that starting a patient on an opiate is a momentous decision," said CDC director Tom Frieden. "The risks are addiction and death, and the benefits are unproven." [One county, 69 minutes, eight overdoses] The draft guidelines were published in the federal register by a CDC committee that reviewed more than 100 studies on opioid therapy. They are not intended for doctors treating patients for severe chronic pain associated with diseases, such as late-stage cancer, or those providing end-of-life care. They are not binding on physicians. "Primary care providers report concern about opioid pain medication misuse, find managing patients with chronic pain stressful, express concern about patient addiction and report insufficient training in prescribing opioids," the panel wrote. The guidelines are an attempt to provide them evidence-based information for patients who need help with pain. The nation continues to suffer through a widespread epidemic to prescription opioids and their illegal cousin, heroin. The CDC estimated that 20 percent of patients who complain about acute or chronic pain that is not from cancer are prescribed opioids. Health-care providers wrote 259 million prescriptions for the medications in 2012, "enough for every adult in the United States to have a bottle of pills," the CDC wrote. [Thousands of drug users are rescuing one another with antidote naloxone] Last week, the National Center for Health Statistics reported that


What happens next to the baby orphaned by the San Bernardino shooters?

in Redlands, Calif. Rafia Farook moved in with her son and daughter-in-law in June after selling her home in Riverside. She initiated divorce proceedings against Farook’s father, who is also named Syed Farook, and they are legally separated. Saira Khan, the baby’s aunt — the older sister of Farook — is seeking, along with husband Farhan Khan, custody of the baby. [The San Bernardino killers’ network of interest] The Khans live in a ranch-style home on a cul-de-sac in a well-tended subdivision in La Sierra, a community between Corona and Riverside. They have a 7-year-old son and 2-year-old daughter. On Sunday, Farhan Khan emerged from his home to speak to a man from a garage-door repair company who was working on his garage. He politely declined to grant an interview to two reporters who briefly stopped by. “I’ve already said too much,” he said, and referred questions to an attorney. The attorney did not respond to messages. The family members have said in interviews, and via statements made by their lawyers, that they were completely unaware that Farook and Malik had been radicalized and intended to carry out a terrorist attack. In an interview with ABC News She said she and her husband could give the orphaned baby “a stable upbringing.” “For the time being, we want her to enjoy her innocence,” she told ABC News. “You know, we don’t want her to know everything, but I think eventually she will find out probably on her own.” The family members have been interviewed extensively by the FBI since the Dec. 2 attack. They have also been besieged by reporters and TV camera crews — at Farook’s brother’s condo in Corona the business cards of journalists were piling up at the entrance. At the Corona mosque where Khan and his wife are active members, Yousuf Bhaghani, the director of the mosque’s board, said of Farhan Khan, “He wants his life back where he can be a normal American man living the American Dream.” Mostafa Mahboob, a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Los Angeles who has been handling media requests for the family, said the family doesn’t want to give interviews right now because they’re in the middle of the custody case. CAIR released a statement after a custody hearing last Monday: “The family is naturally distraught at the separation and are eagerly awaiting to obtain custody of the


Courts are forcing marijuana users to get drug treatment they probably don’t need

Most pot users don't need drug treatment. (Robert MacPherson/AFP/Getty Images) Opponents of marijuana legalization often cite the "skyrocketing" number of people seeking treatment for marijuana addiction in their arguments. Project SAM, the nation's leading anti-legalization group, notes with some alarm that "data from the National Institute on Drug Abuse found that in 1993, marijuana comprised approximately 8 percent of ALL treatment admissions, but by 2009 that number had increased to 18 percent." But new data out this month from the Department of Health and Human Services provides some important context behind those numbers. In 2013, more than half of marijuana users in treatment were sent there by the courts or the criminal justice system. That's more than the share of court-ordered referrals for any other drug, including far more deadly ones like alcohol and heroin. Overall, fewer than 1 in 5 marijuana treatment seekers checked themselves in voluntarily. That too is a lower share than for any other drug. "Many cannabis consumers are being forced by cops, courts and corrections officers to undergo drug treatment that they themselves don’t feel they actually need," wrote legalization advocate Tom Angell last week. Keith Humphreys, a researcher and addiction specialist with Stanford University, said in an email that "being addicted to [marijuana] is generally less impairing than being addicted to heroin/cocaine, so people have relatively less interest in attending treatment on their own." He also notes that the criminal justice system is typically "more merciful" to marijuana dealers — where a person convicted of selling pot may be sent to treatment, a heroin or meth dealer is likely to be jail instead. Angell argues that the large numbers of people ordered into marijuana treatment could delay access to treatment for users of harder drugs. HHS data shows that nearly 40 percent of those seeking treatment had to wait a day or more to be admitted. More than 15 percent faced waits of a week or more — time that can be the difference between life and death for people in dire circumstances. The HHS data shows that marijuana users accounted for more than a quarter of all drug treatment admissions in 2013, which means that court-ordered marijuana treatment is taking up more than 1 out of every 10 beds in the nation's drug treatment facilities — at a time when prescription painkillers and heroin are killing record numbers of Americans. It's also worth


The Bowe Bergdahl case, explained

Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl was held prisoner for years by the Taliban after leaving his post in Afghanistan. (AP Photo/U.S. Army, file) Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl has been a controversial figure ever since he slipped away from his base in Afghanistan in 2009 and was captured by the Taliban. On Monday, the Army announced he would face a general court martial and be charged with desertion and misbehavior before the enemy. The latest season of the podcast “Serial” also explores Bergdahl’s story. Below, we try to answer some of the most common questions regarding this unusual case: How did Bergdahl end up leaving his base? Bergdahl was five weeks into a deployment in southeastern Afghanistan and frustrated with his mission and his leaders. He and his fellow soldiers weren’t going after the Taliban as aggressively as he wanted, and his sense of disillusion added to the disgust for the Army that he had begun developing while still in basic training. Looking to make a stand, Bergdahl hatched a plan: He would run away from his platoon’s tiny outpost in Paktika province late on June 29, 2009. He would stay away from the Army a day, maybe two, and then reappear about 19 miles away at a larger installation and demand to air his grievances with a general. He knew that the region was crawling with insurgents, but he had “outsize impressions of his own capabilities,” according to an investigating officer. Carrying just a disguise, a knife and some provisions, Bergdahl was captured by insurgents by 10 a.m. the following morning, beginning four years and 11 months of captivity and torture by the Haqqani network, a group affiliated with the Taliban, according to Maj. Gen. Kenneth Dahl, the senior officer who carried out an investigation of Bergdahl’s actions and interviewed him at length. Is there any evidence he was trying to join the Taliban? There’s a lot of mystery surrounding this question. The Washington Post’s Kevin Sieff reported last year that Afghan villagers near their base remembered Bowe wandering around. He appeared to be heading deliberately toward areas where there were Taliban, the villagers said. The question is: What was his motive? Bergdahl said in “Serial” that he deviated from his plan to head 20 miles to a larger base when it dawned on him that he was in a world of trouble. It made sense in his mind at that point,


Baltimore schools officials warn that students may face consequences for protesting Freddie Gray verdict

an effort to silence students’ legal speech and an infringement on their First Amendment rights. There’s a difference, some pointed out, between violent behavior and staging a walkout, a common and nonviolent form of civil disobedience. Students who break laws outside of school face sanctions just like anyone else, said Susan Goering, executive director of the ACLU of Maryland. “But students cannot be punished in school for actions that take place out of school, absent some nexus to school activities or in school consequences,” Goering said in a statement. “The school system’s letter ignores these rules, and could result in, and seems to be having the effect of, chilling legitimate, peaceful protest activity.” Goering said that the school system’s letter “assumes that students only want to express their emotions, not rational views about the conduct of police and lack of accountability, and it misses an opportunity to affirmatively engage students who want to be politically engaged on these issues.” In the past year, Baltimore high school student activists have organized walkouts to protest public education budget cuts and police brutality; according to the Baltimore City Paper, several were arrested in October for occupying City Hall after efforts to meet with the mayor and police chief failed. @BCPSS you should be ashamed - A Walkout is NOT the same as vandalism/Maybe you should go Back to School! https://t.co/2OpCgFdqN2 In a statement Monday evening, Baltimore City schools officials said they are “committed to ensuring students have an appropriate venue in which to express their views while also ensuring expectations regarding student conduct are met.” “There is no intent to quell student voice and we have provided our schools with resources aimed at educating students on constructive ways to express their opinions,” the statement said. Last spring, Baltimore schools were closed the day after riots erupted, and Thornton issued a statement promising that the “small minority” of students who engaged in violent behavior would be held accountable. “I am deeply angered that the inexcusable actions of those few now threaten to color perceptions about the many,” he wrote at the time. “We are working to identify those students, who will experience consequences in full accordance with the law and City Schools’ code of conduct.” A schools spokesman did not immediately respond to a question about how many students were disciplined for violent behavior during last April’s unrest. Read the letter: Family Community Letter


Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl to face most serious kind of court-martial in Army desertion case

The army announced that Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl will face general court-martial for leaving his outpost in Afghanistan in 2009. Here's what happened, explained in 90 seconds. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl will face a general court-martial in connection with his 2009 disappearance from his base in Afghanistan, service officials said Monday, raising the possibility that the soldier could face life in prison after being held captive by the Taliban for five years. The Army has chosen a type of trial that could yield a more severe sentence than what an officer recommended earlier this year. Bergdahl, 29, has been charged with desertion and misbehavior before the enemy, and the court-martial could touch off even more scrutiny of what has become a bizarre and controversial case. [The Bowe Bergdahl case, explained] The Obama adminstration arranged a prisoner swap last year to release Bergdahl from captivity, approving an exchange of five Taliban officials being held at Guantanamo Bay in return. That decision triggered an intense political backlash from soldiers who viewed Bergdahl as a traitor for leaving his post, saying he endangered U.S. troops who went looking for him. General court-martial is the highest level of trial in the military justice system. If convicted, Bergdahl could face life in prison. Desertion can carry a death penalty, but Army officials have said that will not occur in Bergdahl’s case. U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl was handed over May 31 by members of the Taliban. Bergdahl’s attorney, Eugene Fidell, said in a statement Monday that the decision by Gen. Robert Abrams to pursue court-martial “did not follow the advice of the preliminary hearing officer.” Bergdahl’s defense team “had hoped the case would not go in this direction,” Fidell said. His attorney has also argued that a panel of psychiatrists found that Bergdahl was suffering from a mental defect when he walked away from his base. The Post's Dan Lamothe points out key moments in the video released by the Taliban showing Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl's recovery. (Editor's note: This video was originally published June 4, 2014.) Monday’s judgment is more severe than what an Army officer, Lt. Col. Mark Visger, recommended after overseeing a two-day hearing for Bergdahl’s case in September, according to Bergdahl’s lawyer. Visger recommended that Bergdahl face a lower form of judicial proceeding known as a special court-martial, which would have come with a maximum penalty of 12 months of confinement. He also


How Japan’s toilet obsession produced some of the world’s best bathrooms

The Toto toilet company recently opened a $60 million museum for toilets in Kitakyushu. Everything from giant sumo wrestler toilets to Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s humble washroom to high-tech electric thrones are on display. KITA-KYUSHU, JAPAN — If there’s one thing Japan is passionate about, it’s toilets. Potties, loos, restrooms, john, powder room, however you say it, Japan has put a lot of thought into the smallest room of the house. Japan is famous for its high-tech, derriere-washing, tushie-warming toilets. These are now such a valued part of Japanese culture that Toto, the beloved Japanese brand, has just built a $60 million museum devoted to its renowned product, at its home base in Kita-Kyushu, on the southern-most of Japan’s four main islands. Toto even makes extra-wide, extra load-bearing toilets for sumo wrestling stadiums. Here are four things you might not know about Japan’s obsession with lavatories. There’s an app for that Don’t take your chances going to a restroom without a little seat in the stall for your baby, or a fold-down platform for standing on while you get changed so you don't have to put your feet on the bathroom floor. There are a bunch of apps in Japan that can help you find the nearest public bathroom, or one with a special facility, like large stalls with facilities for people with ostomates (a relatively common issue in rapidly aging Japan). Lion, a manufacturer of diarrhea medicine Stoppa (and various toiletries and detergents), provides an app @Toilet for people who need to take care of their business urgently away from the home or office. Click on the "emergency" button and it locates the closest restroom. NPO Check operates a free app called Check a Toilet, listing over 53,000 restrooms in major cities. It shows restrooms nearby with information including whether they're wheelchair accessible and/or have ostomate-friendly functions. Users can contribute by submitting information on the restrooms they’ve visited. In Japan, there's an app to help women find restrooms with space to fix their make-up. And for those ladies who, we now know, need clean bathrooms if they're ever to leave the house, the well-known map publishing company Zenrin offers an app for women called Koisuru Map — A Map in Love — with information about nail salons, cafes and clean restrooms. This app includes information such as whether there's a powder space for fixing your makeup, electrical outlets and diaper


She’s braved rough seas and space walks. Can she weather climate change skeptics?

NOAA Administrator Kathryn Sullivan giving the Atlantic hurricane season outlook during a news conference in 2013. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images) Kathryn Sullivan has helped U.S. Navy sailors navigate —literally —through rough seas as an oceanographer in the Navy Reserves. As a NASA astronaut, she’s walked in space, the first American woman to step outside a spacecraft, 140 miles above Earth. These challenges are a world apart from what she’s now confronting in Washington as she leads an agency of federal scientists in the crosshairs of a powerful member of Congress. But allies of the embattled chief of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration say Sullivan’s experience as a working scientist exploring the upper atmosphere and the bottom of the sea and a Navy reserve officer for 18 years has prepared her well for the contact sport of Capitol Hill politics. They imprinted a military ethic of looking out for comrades and troops and a scientific one of sticking by the results of your research and never tailoring them to others’ political whims. [Standoff over government climate study provokes national uproar by scientists] “As I learned in the Marine Corps and Kathy learned in the reserves, we have core values,” said NASA Administrator Charles F. Bolden, Jr., who flew with her on two space missions, including one that deployed the Hubble Space Telescope. “They’re not challenging a bureaucrat or a traditional political appointee,” Bolden said of Republicans in Congress. “They’re challenging a scientist. They just picked the wrong person.” Just shy of two years into the job, Sullivan, 64, has been drawn into a lingering and passionate skepticism among some congressional Republicans of the mainstream scientific consensus that man-made pollution is behind the planet’s recent warming. Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Tex.), chairman of the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, is investigating a decisive study published by NOAA scientists in June that debunked the idea of a global warming slowdown or “pause.” [NOAA climate feud: Pursuit of scientific truth vs. public accountability ] Smith, a prominent climate-change skeptic, is on a campaign to discredit the scientists, whose research he claims was “rushed to publication” to advance what he calls President Obama’s “extreme” climate change agenda. The chairman said in an email that he is “encouraged” that Sullivan has recently expressed to him “a shared commitment to ensuring that political pressure from the Obama administration is not used to manipulate the


Did Bowe Bergdahl appearing on ‘Serial’ alter his criminal case?

Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, left, and defense lead counsel Eugene Fidell, center, look on as Maj. Gen. Kenneth Dahl is questioned during a preliminary hearing to determine if Bergdahl will be court-martialed on Sept. 18 at Fort Sam Houston, Tex. (AP Photo/Brigitte Woosley) In a meandering conversation published last week on the podcast “Serial,” Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl told a filmmaker that he deliberately walked off his unit’s combat outpost in Afghanistan knowing that it would cause a commotion. He did so anyway because he wanted to speak to a general officer directly about problems he saw in his unit, he said. It was a dangerous decision that led to the Taliban capturing Bergdahl on June 30, 2009, within hours of him slipping away under cover of darkness. A months-long manhunt for the missing soldier ensued, but Bergdahl was taken over the border into Pakistan and held captive for the next five years, until the White House approved a prisoner swap in which five Taliban officials released from the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The story has grabbed headlines for more than a year — and that was before “Serial,” the wildly popular podcast spun off from public radio’s “This American Life,” decided to focus on it. The second season of “Serial” began last week with Bergdahl’s case on the microscope and now raises questions whether he hurt his own criminal case with the Army by participating. The soldier faces charges of desertion and misbehavior before the enemy in connection with his disappearance. [Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl to face most serious kind of court-martial in desertion case] On Monday, the service announced that it will seek a general court-martial — the most serious kind of trial in military justice — to prosecute Bergdahl’s crimes. The decision means that Bergdahl faces up to life in prison, rather than a more lenient sentence with no jail time recommended by an Army officer, Lt. Col. Mark Visger, who oversaw a preliminary hearing in the case in September. The army announced that Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl will face general court-martial for leaving his outpost in Afghanistan in 2009. Here's what happened, explained in 90 seconds. The case is overseen by Gen. Robert Abrams, who commands U.S. Army Forces Command at Fort Bragg, N.C. If Abrams had pursued the lesser legal proceeding, a special court-martial, against Bergdahl, he would face no more than one year


Pluto, poop and the perils of gene editing: This year’s best science stories

2015 has been a great year for scientific discovery -- and an especially great year for space exploration. Here are some of the highlights: 1. Pluto A composite of enhanced color images of Pluto (lower right) and Charon (upper left). (NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI) In my opinion, Pluto really stole the show this year. It was early in 2015 that the New Horizons spacecraft, which launched nearly a decade ago, started sending back its first images of the distant dwarf planet. Soon those images were the best we'd ever seen of Pluto -- though they were still blurry dots of light. By the time summer rolled around, we had near-constant updates from the mission, with every set of photos blowing the previously captured images out of the water. That's bound to happen when you're speeding towards a never-before-visited object at around 31,000 mph. The year is wrapping up with the end of the Pluto imagery chapter: NASA has just started releasing the most highly resolved images taken during the July 14 Pluto flyby. It's likely that these pictures are the best we'll ever see. That doesn't mean that New Horizons is over. The spacecraft has 16 months worth of data to send back to Earth, which means mission scientists still have about a year of new information to look forward to. And it's likely that the mission will be extended to observe an even more mysterious object -- 1 billion miles closer to the edge of our solar system -- that New Horizons will reach on Jan. 1, 2019. The Pluto flyby was a gorgeous moment of global excitement over science. I was so into it I got a tattoo to commemorate the occasion. Sure, people can argue over whether or not Pluto deserves its designation as a "dwarf planet," but I think that misses the point: The complexity of Pluto -- which rivals that of "real" planets like Mars -- goes to show us that our galaxy is bursting with things we don't understand. Heck, our solar system is bursting with those things. 2. Misc. space Enceladus's battered north pole. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute) Sorry, other space news. You're just no match for Pluto. But 2015 had a lot of exciting stuff: Tons of new exoplanets were found by Kepler, a space telescope that should have been put out of commission by a hardware failure ages ago. The dwarf planet Ceres teased us


The world just adopted a tough new climate goal. Here’s how hard it will be to meet

2 degrees C: Climate Interactive/MIT Sloan But of course, the Paris agreement also mentions that the world should strive for an even stronger climate goal, of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees C, which would undoubtedly be safer (but would also risk some serious impacts). So is that possible, too? Myles Allen, a climate scientist at the University of Oxford who specializes in carbon budgets, just released an analysis showing that it is….but, well, it kind of depends on what you mean by possible. “Possible does not mean straightforward,” he writes. Allen’s analysis shows that to have a chance at 1.5 degrees C, you need really sharp cuts in carbon dioxide emissions, as well as major cuts to short-lived climate pollutants (methane, soot), and, finally, carbon dioxide removal from the atmosphere (using technologies that don’t exist yet on a large scale). And still, it’s only a chance, not a guarantee. For the analysis also assumes that “the climate system response turns out to be in the lower half of the current range of uncertainty,” Allen writes. These are not the only analyses or the only scenarios. There are multiple groups out there counting carbon, running models and trying to figure out whether we can really, safely, land this plane. But the analyses, although they vary, tend to have some themes in common. One of them is that the quest to limit warming to a particularly low amount, to hit a particular stringent target, will require not only emissions cuts but also the development of key new technologies. The second is that all of this remains clouded, to a major extent, by scientific uncertainty. In other words, whenever we pick a temperature goal, and compute how much carbon we can release and still stay below it — and how much countries’ policies must, therefore, strengthen — there’s still always a substantial chance that we could be wrong. What’s so important about Paris, then, is that countries of the world have finally committed to at least addressing those parts of this equation that they can actually control. More at Energy Environment: Holding warming under two degrees Celsius is the goal. But is it really attainable? This huge deal is the latest evidence that the battery revolution has arrived Another danger of climate change: Giant flying boulders? For more, you can sign up for our weekly newsletter here, and follow us on Twitter here.


Transcript: CNN undercard GOP debate

to step up and buy their own freedom because there's not going to be enough people left at less than one percent. And as my good friend Ken Allard, former Dean of the War College, has often said, we're fighting all the wars with other people's kids. And that's one of the things that's making us much less safe, is because we don't have enough Americans truly invested in the process of defeating our enemies. Therefore, I do think without a draft we do need to ask people to recognize we are at war. GRAHAM: Can, can I... BASH: Senator... GRAHAM: This is important. We're not fighting all the wars with our kids. If you've been to Iraq and Afghanistan and you made any friends, you've lots of bunch. Thousands have died in Iraq and Afghanistan fighting. BASH: Thank you, Senator Graham. GRAHAM: Don't belittle their sacrifice. HUCKABEE: I'm not belittling their sacrifice, Lindsey, but I'm just making note that on the part of Americans we have sent National Guard troops over for an 18-month em -- 18-month deployment. They come back for five, they go back for another 18. We're wearing these guys out. They agreed to be citizen soldiers. We turned them into full time soldiers because we've not kept up the pace by recruiting enough people in the military to fully fill these forces, and that's what we need to be doing. BASH: Senator Graham. GRAHAM: No. BASH: Senator Graham, quick response. GRAHAM: To, to those the (well) times in the Army were a bigger problem than they are today. If you want to fix this, you get the Army to 500,000, not 420,000. You want to win this war, grow the Navy to 350 ships, not 275. Sequestration is Latin for doing really dumb things. We're going to have the smallest Navy since 1915, the smallest Army since 1940. I was yelling and screaming don't do sequestration. I was right. If I am President of the United States, Commander in Chief, we're going to rebuild our military without a draft... BASH: Thank you, Senator Graham. GRAHAM: ...and we're going to go on the offense and they're ready to go. BASH: Thank you, Senator Graham. GRAHAM: They are ready to go. They just need to be led. BASH: Senator Santorum, earlier this month the Pentagon opened all U.S. military combat positions to women. You previously opposed allowing