Pope Francis weighs in on climate change. How do his proposals measure up?

created the Global Environment Facility in 1991 to promote sustainable development in the global South. However, the Facility only funds the “incremental” costs of a project—that portion deemed to have global environmental impacts. This not only reduces the total amount of funds available, but subjects all projects to a rigorous and lengthy accounting process, which slows the release of funds. Similarly, the Green Climate Fund, created in 2009 during the UN’s multilateral climate negotiations in Copenhagen, aims to help developing countries reduce their emissions and adapt to the effects of climate change. The Green Climate Fund was intended to be the centerpiece of a larger effort to raise $100 million in climate-related aid, but it has yet to disburse any funds. No one would disagree with the pope that sustainable development is a laudable goal. Indeed, countries have pledged time and again to help the global South develop in a sustainable way. The problem, however, is the practical application of this principle. And here states’ collective record has been mixed at best. The limits of international law Third, the pope asserts that international law is critical to tackling climate change. Climate change is a global problem, and thus can be addressed through international treaties negotiated among states. He points to successes in international environmental law such as the Basel Convention, which restricts international trade in hazardous waste, and the Montreal Protocol, which phased out the production of ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons, as evidence that traditional intergovernmental approaches are useful. While international environmental law has had some successes, there are equally impressive failures. Despite ongoing climate negotiations and the creation of a number of carbon markets, carbon dioxide emissions have increased by an average of 2.5 percent per year over the last decade. There are almost 200 multilateral treaties on fisheries, and yet one study predicts that the global fishing industry will collapse by 2050. Some of the earliest environmental treaties aim to protect biological diversity, yet today UNEP estimates that up to two-thirds of species in some taxa are now threatened with extinction. At best, international law has a spotty record on environmental protection. Given that most treaties are negotiated by consensus, this is not surprising. Treaties are easily weakened or hijacked entirely by one or two dissenting parties. Moreover, recent research shows that environmental treaties rarely contain enforcement mechanisms because countries are loath to make laws with real sanctioning power. Pope


An Alabama tractor company wants to set up shop in Cuba, if only Washington will let it

Early in the morning, as the sun rises, Geraldo Carrion, 72, picks cilantro plants that have gone to seed, on a small farm in Santiago, Cuba. (Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post) Two U.S. businessmen are trying to become the first Americans to set up a manufacturing operation in Cuba in more than half a century, with plans to build inexpensive tractors on the island for sale to local farmers. Horace Clemmons and Saul Berenthal, former IBM engineers and longtime business partners, said they have been working with officials in Cuba and regulators in Washington to turn their seemingly implausible business plan into a trailblazing pilot project for a new era of U.S.-Cuba relations. Cleber LLC, their Alabama-based company, is seeking to build a small assembly plant in the Mariel Special Economic Zone, an area west of Havana with a new $1 billion deepwater port terminal where the Cuban government is trying to attract foreign investment. Two Mexican companies "I believe we can pull it off," said Clemmons, 71, "and it'll be good for everyone." Clemmons and Berenthal have never made tractors before-- they're working on their first prototypes-- but that may be the least of their problems. The U.S. trade embargo on Cuba remains firmly in place even as the two countries are moving to restore diplomatic relations severed by Washington in 1961. It remains a bureaucratic minefield for even the most basic forms of U.S.-Cuba commerce -- like charter flights or shipments of frozen chicken-- never mind something as complicated as a tractor-assembly operation. Officials at the U.S. Treasury Department and Commerce Department have told the men their plan could be approved "as long as we comply with the spirit of the law," said Berenthal. "They're cooperating with us." Officials in Washington have told them to expect a response within 180 days. The tractor-making plan would take advantage of loopholes in the trade sanctions that allow for agricultural exports and farm equipment, as long as the end users of those products are private farmers and non-government cooperatives. And Berenthal said they would hire a non-government cooperative to assemble the tractors, a labor arrangement that does not appear to be possible under Cuba's existing investment framework. They would start with five to 10 employees, he said. The tractor parts will come from Alabama, Berenthal said, but eventually the company would like to source parts from Cuba. Clemmons and Berenthal have


Nearly instantaneous, finger-prick test for Ebola could be game changer

Public health officials may soon be able to screen patients for Ebola at border crossings and hospitals with a finger-prick blood test that takes mere minutes. The development of the rapid diagnostic test, reported in The Lancet Thursday, represents a significant victory for scientists around the world who have been experimenting over the past year with all manner of vaccines, treatments and other ways of eradicating the virus. [Rise in new cases shows Ebola has not released its deadly grip] Developing a way of confirming Ebola in a patient has been one of the top priorities. In the early stages the symptoms -- chest pain, cough, nausea -- can look like many other illnesses, making it very difficult for doctors to triage -- to determine who should be quarantined and who to send home. It can often take days or longer for laboratory tests, the current standard, to return a positive or negative result. "Delays like this result not only in the failure to diagnose and treat Ebola-infected patients, but also in individuals without Ebola being admitted to holding units where they may be subsequently infected with the virus," explained Nira Pollock, an associate medical director of the infectious diseases diagnostic laboratory at Boston Children's Hospital who is a co-author of the study. [How the world’s health organizations failed to stop the Ebola disaster] The new test was evaluated in two government-run treatment centers in Sierra Leone, one of the hardest hit countries in the epidemic that has killed more than 11,200 people in West Africa as of this week. The research team, which also included scientists from Harvard Medical School, compared the accuracy of the rapid test with the laboratory test in 106 individuals suspected of having Ebola. The rapid test identified 100 percent of all infected patients who also got positive results with the lab test. Surprisingly, the rapid test also detected some cases that the lab test did not pick up. The authors cautioned that more research needs to be done on patients with low levels of virus in their blood in both tests. A number of other scientific endeavors that aim to fight Ebola are also well under way. Scientists have started a small trial of a Japanese antiviral drug in Guinea’s forest region and are testing whether the blood plasma of survivors can save lives. Vaccines are being tested in the National Institutes of Health


D.C. area forecast: Rain risk up late today, peaks Saturday when severe weather and flooding may visit

* Flash Flood Watch late tonight through late Saturday night for potential for 1-3 inches of rain in a short time * TODAY’S DAILY DIGIT 7/10: EXPRESS FORECAST Today: FORECAST IN DETAIL Radar loop of rain over our area. Refresh page to update. Any showers today, probably few and far between most of the time, will look tame compared to tomorrow’s potential downpours and even severe weather. We can probably eke by some of our outdoor plans today. But you may consider rescheduling Saturday activities to either be indoors or move them to Sunday—it looks much nicer as we dry out then. Monday looks to be a winner. Maybe you can play hooky from work, because we turn muggier and stormier perhaps by Tuesday. Today (Friday): Tonight: For related traffic news, check out Dr. Gridlock. Keep reading for the forecast into next week… Tomorrow (Saturday): Tomorrow night: Sunday: Memorial Bridge on June 20, 2015 by ABPR (via our CWG Flickr group). A LOOK AHEAD Sunday night: Our workweek starts off in lovely fashion on Monday, with sunny skies and high temperatures in the low-to-mid 80s. With drier air around, dew points should reflect lower readings that feel non-tropical below the 70 degree mark—keeping us in a fairly comfortable zone for summer warmth! Confidence: Medium Tuesday


New D.C. gym will bring beer and rock-climbing under one roof

its kind in the city. Englert and real estate investor Langdon Hample purchased the property at 1240 Mount Olivet Road NE, the former home of Strauss Photo repair shop, about a year ago for $1.1 million. They’re partnering with Steep Rock Bouldering in Manhattan to transform the vacant space into Rocky Mount Bouldering Corp., a 40-foot tall, single-story bouldering facility for all skill levels. (In bouldering, all climbing is done without ropes.) Courtesy of Langdon Hample Qualia Coffee, a coffee shop and roasting company in Petworth, is expected to move into 3,500 square feet of the space. The Petworth neighborhood outpost is moving its entire roasting operation there and will have a standard coffee shop as well. There will also be a beer garden, serving a still-undecided type of local beer. Joel Finkelstein, the owner of Qualia Coffee, said while he expects some local residents to drop in and hang out for a cup of coffee, the bulk of his revenue from that location will come from the roasting operation. “We are going to get way more car and bike traffic than foot traffic,” Finkelstein said. “It lets us focus on our core customers, people coming for coffee, and not just coming for convenience.” Englert similarly predicts that most people will travel to the gym via “Ubers and bikes.” Ivy City is about 1 1/2 miles away from the NoMa-Gallaudet Metro station. Englert has considered the idea of providing shuttle service to the location. Still, he and Hample said, Ivy City is more convenient for D.C. residents than a popular rock-climbing gym in Rockville that many D.C.’s rock climbers visit. Not to mention that places like Union Market — which opened in a similarly ailing industrial area in 2012 — are thriving, despite not being immediately adjacent to a Metro station. “We can build two more of these and people would go bonkers over them,” Hample said. In 2014, the city released a five-year strategic plan, “Ward 5 Works,” to examine how it could transform 1,000 acres of industrial land in the ward into a mixture of parks, restaurants, grocery stores and other businesses that create jobs and serve the community. The plan calls for increased connectivity to these industrial areas, including bike lanes, sidewalks and bus routes — possibly even a rapid bus line like one in Alexandria. “I imagine that some residents, maybe not all, will be interested


Neptune-sized planet with comet-like tail found with Hubble Telescope

This artist’s illustration of exoplanet GJ 436b. (Mark Garlick/University of Warwick) Scientists have spied a new, possible “game-changer” of a planet in the depths of space. Known as Gliese 436b, or GJ 436b, the exoplanet is the size of Neptune and is trailed by a gas stream similar to that of a comet, according to a journal article published in Nature this week. Scientists working at NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and the Chandra X-ray Observatory discovered it 33 light years away from Earth orbiting a red dwarf star and it is the first exoplanet of its kind ever seen, NBC News reported. A University of Warwick press release showed artist Mark Garlick’s depiction of the discovery. In the release, Peter Wheatley, one of the Nature article’s co-authors, explained that ultraviolet light from the nearby star causes the planet’s hydrogen to spiral outwards, forming the comet-like tail. The rare combination of this relatively small exoplanet being engulfed in this massive hydrogen cloud makes Gliese 436b unique. “This cloud of hydrogen is very spectacular!” wrote David Ehrenreich, lead author of the study, in a release from the European Space Agency. “Although the evaporation rate doesn’t threaten the planet right now, we know that the star, a faint red dwarf, was more active in the past. This means that the planet’s atmosphere evaporated faster during its first billion years of existence. Overall, we estimate that it may have lost up to 10 percent of its atmosphere.” The researchers believe the gaseous cloud, or tail, trailing the exoplanet is able to remain largely intact because the planet’s red dwarf star is relatively cool, not emitting enough radiation to sweep the gas away. The exoplanet is burning off 1,000 metric tons of hydrogen a second, but that only means it’s losing 0.1 percent of its total mass every billion years, Wheatley said. The researchers believe exoplanets similar to this are likely burning off gas at a much faster rate. The discovery could explain “hot-super Earths,” planets that orbit closer to their stars but are usually more massive than Earth, the ESA release said. “Finding the cloud around Gliese 436b could be a game-changer for characterizing atmospheres of the whole population of Neptunes and Super-Earths in ultraviolet observations,” said Vincent Bourrier, another co-author. Gliese 436b is about 23 times the size of Earth, comparable to the size of Neptune, and is actually referred to as a


How Atkins bucked the downward trend in frozen food sales

its community was struggling to prepare whole foods dinners from scratch. Many turned to a short list of staples, such as turkey burgers and chicken with green beans. This sacrifice, or compensating behavior in Wengel’s words, is the sign of a business opportunity — and Atkins seized it. Within a year it was offering a range of 20 frozen meals that fit the Atkins diets. The meals weren’t as cheap as traditional frozen meals, but that wasn’t a problem. “These consumers were not comparing our product with the other frozen offerings,” said Scott Parker, the chief marketing officer at Atkins Nutritionals. “We were competing with their same old boring dinners, so the competitive reference point and value proposition were totally different.” Parker said that after the launch, one of its biggest challenges was just keeping up with demand. The report, released this week, highlighted products that were initially launched in 2013 and have established themselves as successful since then. Nielsen waits a couple years to name the breakout products in consumer goods in order to be sure that the products have staying power. After six years of work on the report and naming 74 winners, Wengel has become an innovation optimist. He sees a wealth of opportunities for companies selling packaged goods, a space that hasn’t fared well lately. “Breakthrough innovation is accessible to really any company of any size in any category,” Wengel said. “When we look at the cross section of winners, you see them all.” Wengel advises against trying to innovate around trends or demographics. (The word millennial, arguably the dominant buzzword of the 2015, appears not once in the 53-page report.) He suggests that companies do in-depth studies of how consumers use products, so that they can better realize where opportunities lie. For example, there’s much talk about the shrinking market for soft drinks. Yet three of the 12 products cited in the report are beverages: Monster Energy Ultra, Mountain Dew Kickstart and RedBull Editions. Rather than fear a downward trend, these companies grabbed new markets. Mountain Dew Kickstart resulted from learning that Mountain Dew was popular in the mornings and that some customers were actually mixing it with orange juice. They wanted a pick-me-up, but not a full-blown energy drink. PepsiCo seized the chance to launch a product just for these customers. In Kickstart’s second year sales grew 50 percent to nearly $300 million. Related:


This is still the hardest space weather problem, and it’s a huge threat to our infrastructure

by a process called “reconnection.” The more different the alignments are, the more energy that gets transferred, and the more potential there is for damage to our critical Earth infrastructure. [The aurora was seen as far south as Texas] So to anticipate the strength of a geomagnetic storm, forecasters must be able to predict the vector, or direction of the interplanetary magnetic field — the “Bz.” But forecasters, who are tasked with predicting geomagnetic storms that have the potential to wipe out our electrical and telecommunications grid for weeks to months, have no ability to predict Bz beyond an hour. They can predict, with some success, the path a coronal mass ejection will take after it leaves the sun, as well as when it will reach Earth. This was the case for the solar eruption on June 18 — forecasters at the Space Weather Prediction Center nailed how fast the ejection was traveling and where it was headed. However, the first prediction for the intensity of the storm was just “minor,” and it turned out to be “severe.” Forecasters had nothing to help them predict the strong southward Bz, and thus the very strong geomagnetic storm, other than circumstantial evidence and previous experience. It’s like predicting the future strength of a hurricane without knowing anything about the storm’s barometric pressure. Forecasters do have one tool available to them to determine the strength of a storm — the ever-watchful ACE satellite, soon to be replaced by DSCOVR, which samples the solar wind magnetic field 1 million miles upstream from Earth. But this satellite only gives us 30 to 6o minutes of warning, and further away from Earth, across the other 92 million miles between us and the sun, this critical magnetic field vector is missing. [New satellite launched to monitor potentially damaging solar wind] In order to solve this problem, researchers at NASA published a paper in the journal Space Weather laying out a plan to enable predictions of the magnetic vectors of coronal mass ejections. The paper is the first of a series, in which they will show the results of a number of recent test cases. While the scientists say that the work is still in research, it has clear applications in giving space weather forecasters the ability to determine how strong a geomagnetic storm will be here on Earth much further in advance than we’ve ever truly known.


D.C. area forecast: Periods of heavy rain and a severe storm threat today, pretty pleasant Sunday

below. HRRR radar simulation for 4 p.m. (Weatherbell.com) We’ll have a new post with some updated thoughts at some point midday. 6:50 a.m. update: Overnight, the NWS Storm Prediction Center upped the storm risk for today from “slight” to “enhanced.” The most widespread risk there is wind damage, but a tornado threat may materialize over the area as well. SPC’s next update comes along in a few hours, when we might have a better idea on how much of a break in rain comes up during the heating of the day. You'll want to pay attention to the weather today. Flash flooding and severe thunderstorms will be possible. http://t.co/nLMdjjSPXM From 5:00 a.m… TODAY’S DAILY DIGIT 3/10: EXPRESS FORECAST Today: FORECAST IN DETAIL 2-hour radar loop. Refresh page to update. Much like last Saturday, we’re staring down a pretty ugly one today. A storm system passing by to our northwest promises the risk for heavy rain, thunderstorm, and perhaps some severe weather. It might be a good day to hang out in and near home! The good news is that tomorrow looks quite nice, as long as you don’t mind some wind. No crazy heat immediately on the horizon either… Today (Saturday): Even without severe storms, we see copious amounts of rain — 1 to 2 inches or more — on an already saturated ground. The period with the heaviest rainfall appears to come during the mid-to-late afternoon and maybe through the evening. Rain particularly during that period, but really any period, could promote flash flooding problems. Confidence: Medium Tonight: For related traffic news, check out Dr. Gridlock. Keep reading for the forecast through the weekend… Tomorrow (Sunday): Tomorrow night: Marine One departing the White House on Friday. (John Sonderman via Flickr) A LOOK AHEAD Our work week starts off on a brilliant weather note Monday. It’s mostly sunny and humidity remains quite low for this time of year. While temperatures do begin to rise back closer to what we’d expect in late June, they’re still rather comfortable. Most spots reach the mid-80s. Confidence: Medium Humidity is back up by Tuesday, and temperatures are as well. Since it’s feeling a bit more summer-like once again, we’ll also be dealing with at least partly cloudy skies at times. By late in the day, some isolated to scattered showers and thunderstorms may threaten. A weak cold front entering the region is the


Worst of storms exit D.C. area, but lingering downpours, flooding (Updates)

some roadways, low-lying areas, streams and creeks to begin soon. Areas in warning: 1:58 p.m. update: Tornado watch for areas in red until 8 p.m. (Jordan Tessler/NWS) 1:40 p.m. update: 1:10 p.m. update: (NWS SPC) Original post Severe storms are possible across the D.C. area starting this afternoon and lasting through the evening as a low pressure system slides into the Mid-Atlantic from the west. We will continue to update this post with new information as storms begin to fire this afternoon. Overview: - Storm timing, coverage: General rain and thunderstorms will continue into the early morning hours of Sunday, but the likely timing of the most hazardous weather will be 3 to 10 p.m. - Likely storm hazards: Heavy rain, localized flash flooding; lightning, strong wind gusts - Possible storm hazards: Isolated small tornadoes, widespread flash flooding, small stream and river flooding, isolated severe wind gusts, small hail - Rainfall forecast: Widespread 1 to 2 inches with locally higher totals possible in the heavier storms - Confidence: Low-medium – Biggest uncertainties are (1) where the most intense rain and flash flooding will set up, and (2) likelihood of severe thunderstorms remaining just south and east of the immediate D.C. region We have a 10 percent chance (yellow area) of isolated tornadoes in the D.C. region today. (NWS SPC) The Storm Prediction Center has placed the D.C. region in an enhanced risk for severe storms today, which includes a 10 percent chance of isolated tornadoes. Our severe weather expert Jeff Halverson says the tornado threat strongly depends on the warm front this afternoon: “The 10 percent tornado probability is uncommonly high for this region. The character of today’s weather system is more typical of a spring or late fall, dynamic-type weather pattern. The tornado threat is highly conditional, however, on the warm front migrating far enough north to set up across the D.C. region, and there is a limited timeframe for this to occur; the best dynamics begin exiting our region after 9-10 p.m. “As of early afternoon, a very cool and stable air mass is locked in across our region. If the warm front scenario plays out, we will have excellent wind shear, both in terms of increasing speed and directional turning, for isolated supercells and tornadoes. Bowing line segments with downburst winds could also occur. The instability does not have to be exceedingly large for that to happen.”


SpaceX’s rocket just exploded. Here’s why that’s such a big deal.

SpaceX’s unmanned Falcon 9 rocket launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on Sunday but exploded a few minutes after liftoff. It was on a mission to resupply the International Space Station. An unmanned SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket bound for the International Space Station exploded a couple of minutes after liftoff Sunday morning. It was the third cargo mission to the space station to be lost in recent months. Elon Musk, SpaceX's founder tweeted that "there was an overpressure event in the upper stage liquid oxygen tank." He added: "That's all we can say with confidence right now. Will have more to say following a thorough" analysis. NASA officials said it was not clear what caused the explosion. During an afternoon press conference William Gerstenmaier, NASA's associate administrator for human exploration and operations, said there was "no negligence here." The three failures from three different launch providers show "the challenges facing engineering and the challenges facing space flight in general." [Elon Musk’s SpaceX is on a roll, but here’s why the pressure is really on] The rocket took off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., at 10:21 a.m., and everything seemed fine until 2 minutes at 19 seconds. Then video of the launch showed harrowing, if now familiar, images of a rocket exploding into a plume of smoke. The Falcon 9 was carrying more than 4,000 pounds of food and supplies to the space station, where American Scott Kelly is spending a year. There were no astronauts onboard. The explosion also lost many student experiments and a water filtration system. Also onboard was a piece of hardware that would be used to help two new crew vehicles dock to the station. Watched #Dragon launch from @space_station Sadly failed Space is hard Teams assess below @NASAKennedy #YearInSpace http://t.co/myi3col5Ix The failure follows two earlier mishaps, which had put tremendous pressure on SpaceX to deliver a successful flight. An Orbital Antares rocket blew up in October, and then a Russian Progress 59 spun out of control after reaching orbit. The Orbital failure raised questions about NASA's bold plan to outsource the cargo resupply mission to contractors in the wake of the space shuttle retirement in 2011. “We are disappointed in the loss of the latest SpaceX cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said in a statement. "However, the astronauts are safe aboard the station and have sufficient supplies for the next


I own guns. But I hate the NRA.

David Fellerath on a hunting trip. Image courtesy of the author Some time after I bought my first gun, I got a robocall from the National Rifle Association, asking me to join. After the customary “Please stay on the line…” from a pleasant but earnest voice, I recoiled from the barkings of an angry-sounding man. Did I know that Barack Hussein Obama and European leaders are meeting on American soil right now, at this very moment, to plot the confiscation of my guns? The caller continued with his insinuations of an imminent United Nations plot against America, but before I could be handed off to a live operator, I hung up the phone. I was amused, and then insulted, that someone would think I was dumb enough to fall for such a pitch. But the sad truth is that there are enough people willing to open their checkbooks to make such a noxious fundraising appeal worthwhile. The NRA claims to have five million dues-paying members (though there’s some reason to believe this figure is inflated). That sounds formidable, until one considers that there are approximately 50 million adults who own firearms. Still, the organization has successfully positioned itself as the singular representation of gun owners. For decades they’ve worked to defend and expand access to firearms in spite of polls showing that most Americans, including gun owners, favor laws that would limit access in various reasonable ways (even three-quarters of NRA households favor background checks prior to private gun sales). But when a U.S. congresswoman was shot in the face, the NRA made certain that no law was passed that would have made her safer. There’s no doubt that the NRA does have some grass-roots support, but it’s smaller than we think. The NRA does not represent all gun owners, and it certainly doesn’t represent me. If I hate the NRA so much, why did I buy a gun at 37? As a meat eater with no particular desire to become a vegetarian, I wanted to confront the fact of killing animals for food. Once I took up hunting, I discovered that I relished the time I spent off the grid. Some might scratch this itch with a weekend camping trip. I chose to trudge into the woods before dawn, often in freezing temperatures, to keep a silent vigil in the trees as the morning light begins to filter through


Solar-powered plane takes off on longest leg of round-the-world trip

about Solar Impulse 2 is its pilot. The telephone booth-sized cockpit fits only one person, and humans — unlike the plane — can only fly through the night for so long. That’s part of the reason that this round-the-world trip is being undertaken in stages, with Piccard and Borschberg alternating time at the controls. The Nagoya to Hawaii trip is leg eight of a 13-part journey that began in Abu Dhabi in March. The numerous stops allow the pilots to trade off, gives crews a chance to inspect and repair the craft and provides an opportunity for Piccard and Borschberg to evangelize about clean, renewable technology. Their project is sponsored by Masdar, an Abu Dhabi clean-energy company; Omega; Google and Moët Hennessey, among others. The month-long layover in Japan was unplanned; Borschberg had originally intended to make the six-day flight from Nanjing, China to Kalaeloa in one go. But bad weather in early June grounded the plane, and a second flight attempt later in the month was cancelled because of concerns about weather conditions. Even Borschberg and Piccard began expressing doubts about their ability to complete the journey. “If we cannot finish this year, we will finish next year,” Borschberg told CNN on June 19. The Solar Impulse 2 approaches Nagoya Airport in Toyoyama, Japan, shortly before its landing on June 1. (Takuya Inaba/Kyodo News via AP) Finally this week the 150 meteorologists, flight experts and engineers behind the project found the right five-day weather window to set off on the plane’s riskiest flight yet. Now Solar Impulse 2 moves noiselessly through the air at a modest 28 miles per hour, rising to 28,000 feet during the day to catch the sun’s rays, and sinking to just 5,000 above the ocean while flying at night. There’s no room in the tiny cockpit for standing or moving around — the toilet is simply a hole beneath a cushion on the pilot’s seat. But Borschberg needs to keep his eyes on the controls. The lightweight plane responds to the slightest changes in weather and wind, meaning he must be constantly alert. He and Piccard trained themselves to sleep for a mere 20 minutes at a time, 12 times a day. During flight they wear goggles that flash lights to wake them up, and armbands beneath their flight suit will buzz if the plane isn’t flying straight. In a livestream of the flight


Japan honors Tama the cat, stationmaster with four paws, at lavish funeral

a rural train station in Japan, attracting tourists and saving the struggling station. After her death, Wakayama Gov. Yoshinobu Nisaka said in a statement that the cat was a “tourism superstar extremely popular in and out of Japan who contributed greatly to promoting tourism in our prefecture. I am filled with deep sorrow and appreciation.” Tama was elevated to the status of goddess at her funeral Sunday, according to BBC News, joining many other animal gods honored in the Shinto religion. A decade ago, Wakayama Electric Railway’s provincial Kishigawa Line had been losing about $4.7 million a year. Trains were arriving at the Kishi station in Kinokawa in Wakayama Prefecture empty. In 2006, the rail line watched its last human employee walk out the door, according to Agence France-Presse. Then Tama, a stray, strolled in. The next year, Tama was named honorary stationmaster. Tourists started pouring into the area to see her wearing the uniform cap. She inspired T-shirts and stuffed animals. She even got her cartoon-likeness on a train. Posted by Masaharu Yasuda on Saturday, December 13, 2014 [Video: Meet the cats of D.C.’s first cat cafe] The rail line’s marketing strategy seemed to be a success. By 2008, Wakayama Electric officials said the cat had helped bring in more than $10 million to boost the local economy, according to the Wall Street Journal. “Tama has stimulated the region and I’m happy to see many tourists leaving in smiles after watching her,” company staffer Maki Miyashita told the newspaper. Then in 2013, Tama was named Wakayama Electric Railway’s deputy president. Posted by 大岡正 on Thursday, June 25, 2015 Wakayama Electric Railway spokeswoman Yoshiko Yamaki told AFP last week that the cat had been sick for several weeks. “She had had a sinus infection since last month so was being cared for by her owner,” she said. “When we visited her with the company president a day before [she died], she stood up and meowed as if she was begging him to hold her,” she added. [This cat does not seem to be enjoying its really cool glider flight] “We are proud to have worked with Tama, who appeared in this world as a savior for Wakayama Electric Railway as well as regional train lines throughout the nation,” Wakayama Electric Railway president Mitsunobu Kojima said in a statement. “We will name her as an eternal station master emeritus,” he added.


This is what Greece looks like on the brink of economic disaster

People wait in line in Athens to withdraw euros -- limited to 60 euros -- from an ATM after Greece closed its banks. (Milos Bicanski/Getty Images) As talks between Greece and its creditors broke down over the past few days, a Greek financial meltdown has become a very scary and very real possibility. Images from Greece show exactly how real the fears of the collapse were, with long lines at ATMs a recurring theme as people rushed to withdraw their savings. On Monday, Greece ordered banks shut for six business days while regulators imposed a limit of 60 euros ($67) on withdrawals, hoping to stem a run on the banks. Greeks queue up to withdraw money amid worries the country could be forced to implement capital controls. Even with the limit, many ATMs ran out of money. Sign says " not a penny left" #Greece #greferendum http://t.co/37YRz8D0G3 Κεντρική πλατεία Λαρισας, τώρα. Απλα δεν εχει ξαναγίνει... http://t.co/mWU7DHkl99 Greece may default on its debts if a deal for more funding in exchange for fiscal reforms is not made. Here’s why that matters. And, despite the bank closures, some pensioners formed lines outside the banks in the hope that they might open. "I don't have a card, I don't know what's going on. We don't even have enough money to buy bread," Anastasios Gevelidis, 74, told the Associated Press. He had arrived outside a bank in Thessaloniki at 4 a.m. Pensioners with deposit books wait in hope for their bank to open in Loutraki. One has only €10 in her purse. http://t.co/mD8R5iJ5Wq Pedestrians stop to read notices posted outside the closed offices of the Bank of Greece in Athens on Monday. (Simon Dawson/Bloomberg News) Greek pensioners wait to collect their pension payments from a National Bank of Greece SA branch in Thessaloniki on Monday before its opening. (Konstantinos Tsakalidis/Bloomberg News) The chaos wasn't limited to the banks, either: Many retailers had decided to stop accepting credit card transactions by Monday. At a gas station in Athens on Monday, a sign read ''Credit cards not accepted.'' (Thanassis Stavrakis/AP) There were also some signs of panic-buying at gas stations and supermarkets. An employee walks across the empty forecourt of a gas station that ran out of diesel in Athens on Monday. (Kostas Tsironis/Bloomberg News) A notice at a petrol station reads "No Fuel" on Monday in Athens. (Milos Bicanski/Getty Images) On Monday supermarket shelves in


Two rocket explosions have ruined this high school kid’s science projects. She’ll try again.

and says she won’t give up now. Shortly after the explosion, she called Kathy Duquesnay, the teacher overseeing the project, to talk about next steps. “I don’t like quitting things,” Powell said. “We spent a lot of time on it and it’s kind of like, why stop now?” It all started in the fall of Powell’s 8th-grade year. The Center for the Advancement of Science in Space granted her science class — taught by Duquesnay — a chance design an experiment for the International Space Station. Their usual classwork was put on hold. The students brainstormed potential experiments, and whittled them down to what NASA would approve. Then the students voted and selected a project to test the impact of blue and red LED light on plant growth in space. Powell was assigned to the plant growth media team to determine what their pea shoots could grow in. They considered water and soil before settling on a gel-like substance. The class finished the experiment and got back to their usual studies. The project was scheduled to launch the following fall, October 2014, on an Orbital Sciences rocket in Wallops Island, Va. An excited Powell watched the launch on a TV in her parent’s house. But then things went wrong. The rocket blew up shortly after liftoff. Powell learned her first lesson in how tough space flight is. Powell and the rest of her former classmates got an e-mail from their former teacher asking if they wanted to help rebuild the experiment for a second try. Powell and two other students wanted in. During free time they’d help out. Powell missed a few classes to help make deadlines. The final experiment, rebuilt nearly identical to the first project, took up about as much space as the size of two editions of “War and Peace” stacked on one another. (“War and Peace” happens to be one of the books she’s currently reading on summer vacation.) Powell’s project was one of 51 student experiments that NanoRacks, a launch services provider, shepherded on to SpaceX’s rocket for Sunday morning’s launch. The SpaceX rocket was the third cargo mission to the space station to end in failure since October, and the second in a row. Powell’s project wasn’t the only one to suffer an unwelcome fate once again. An algae experiment by elementary school students at her school and two projects from nearby Awty International


Former Green Beret war hero, investigated in killing, survives Army hearing with his benefits

Army Maj. Mathew L. Golsteyn is shown here in Afghanistan as a captain in 2010. (Photo courtesy the office of Rep Duncan Hunter) The former Green Beret soldier who was stripped of a prestigious valor award after allegedly disclosing to the CIA the unsanctioned killing of an unarmed insurgent in Afghanistan will leave the service with the bulk of his military benefits intact, a panel of Army officers decided Sunday night. But it’s unlikely that the fallout from the case is over. The decision comes following a week of testimony in an administrative hearing known as a Board of Inquiry. The Army accused Maj. Mathew L. Golsteyn of violating the law of armed conflict, but the three-member panel found the allegation unsubstantiated. The panel did find that Golsteyn demonstrated conduct unbecoming an officer, a lesser allegation, and recommended a general discharge under honorable conditions. [Inside the stunning fall and war-crimes investigation of an Army Green Beret war hero] The Army will place a general officer memorandum of reprimand in Golsteyn’s file, said a spokeswoman for Army Special Forces Command, Maj. Allison Aguilar. The action is typically considered a career killer in the military, although Golsteyn already was planning to leave the Army. Special Forces Command had earlier revoked his Special Forces tab, a qualification that goes to any soldier who completes Special Forces training. The results of the hearing were first reported by the Fayetteville Observer. Golsteyn’s lawyer, Phil Stackhouse, said in an interview Monday that he considered the result “a win of sorts,” but said they will fight to get Golsteyn’s discharge from the military upgraded. Similarly, a congressman who threw his support behind Golsteyn, Rep. Duncan D. Hunter (R.-Calif.), said he will continue pressing the service to restore a Silver Star award that it had presented to Golsteyn, but later took back during the investigation. Capt. Mathew L. Golsteyn is congratulated by fellow soldiers after receiving the Silver Star in January 2011 at Fort Bragg, N.C. The Fayetteville Observer/James Robinson “It’s not going to be the end, I’ll tell you that,” Stackhouse said of the hearing. “There’s more that’s going to be coming following this.” Golsteyn could not be reached for comment. Golsteyn led a Special Forces team in Afghanistan in 2010 during the bloody Battle of Marja. He received a Silver Star for heroism that Army Secretary John McHugh later authorized to be upgraded to the Distinguished


Washington Post starts to automatically encrypt part of Web site for visitors

start using https technology by the end of 2016. But the news media has lagged. Last year, the New York Times published a blog post challenging news organizations to begin automatically encrypting their sites' traffic by the end of 2015. But the Times has yet to make the security feature automatic for its readers. Although some smaller online-only outlets, including the Intercept and TechDirt, use https technology by default, The Post is the first major general news organization to roll out the added security measures to all of its readers. Almost everything a user does on the Web leaves a trail of digital bread crumbs. And a person's news habits can be especially revealing, privacy advocates say. "The articles you read paint a picture of your life. They can reveal your political interests, suggest your sexuality, your interest in medical issues and other sensitive topics that are really no one else's business but your own," said Christopher Soghoian, a privacy researcher and technologist with the American Civil Liberties Union, who has long urged news organizations and other groups to encrypt their Web sites. The type of encryption being rolled out by The Post, known as https or SSL, establishes a private connection between the Web site and the user, making spying or hijacking Web traffic much more difficult. The technology also has the potential to make online censorship more difficult for government regimes: When visitors go to a site using the technology, someone monitoring their traffic can only see the domain they are visiting - not the specific page. So a country won't have the option to filter only some content; it would be forced to block an entire site. The Post expects there to be some drop-off in online advertising revenue in response to the change, although it is unclear how much, said Jeff Burkett, the company's senior director for sales operations and product strategy. The new security measures will require advertisers to make sure their content is also secure, an extra step that may drive some away, he said. The Post will monitor the site to make sure ads are secure. "Every third party we use on the site needs to be https-compliant, or it either stops working or the browser will warn about it being insecure," said Greg Franczyk, chief digital architect of The Post's Web site. That will include content from advertising partners, but also content


How a Hawaiian mountaintop became a battleground between native activists and astronomers

by conflict. A proposal to install a revolutionary $1.4 billion telescope at Mauna Kea’s summit has led to a bitter standoff among those who value it most, pitting scientists from some of the world’s most powerful and prominent research centers against a small but tenacious group of cultural and environmental activists. As the controversy spread across the state, into the press and onto social media, it has evoked both rancor and introspection about cultural sensitivity in the scientific community. Some scientists have compared telescope opposition to religious fanaticism and accused critics of preventing progress; others questioned whether the construction of the telescope is colonialism of a different sort. Meanwhile, Hawaii residents of all ethnicities are fiercely debating whether benefits brought by the project — jobs, tourism, a $1 million-per-year lease, better views of the universe’s outer reaches and distant path than any we’ve seen before — outweigh the potential costs to their cultural heritage. The telescope, which will see as much as 100 times farther and more clearly than anything that has come before, allowing astronomers to gaze deep into the universe’s past and out toward its most distant reaches, is backed by institutions in the United States, Canada, China, India and Japan, as well as the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation in San Francisco. Its opponents are mostly local leaders who have thrown lawsuits, petitions and sometimes their own bodies in the path of construction. And lately, the opponents seem to be gaining ground. Work on the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) — named for the diameter of its enormous, light-gathering mirror — has been disrupted since workers broke ground on the project last fall. In early April, hundreds of protesters gathered at the mountain’s visitors center and summit in an effort to blockade work crews. More than 30 were arrested, triggering more demonstrations across the state and pushing Gov. David Ige (D) to postpone construction briefly. Ige has at times seemed both sympathetic to and frustrated by the protesters. After the initial protests in April, he acknowledged that the state and the scientists who work on the mountaintop “have not done right by a very special place.” “What can we do to be better stewards of the mountain?” he asked in a statement released in late May. His answer was to establish a cultural council to help manage the mountain and reduce the number of telescopes at the summit


The Daily 202: What to watch for in Q2 fundraising reports

Marijuana Laws Complicate Federal Job Recruitment,” by Matthew Rosenberg and Mark Mazzetti: “For all the aspiring and current spies, diplomats and F.B.I. agents living in states that have liberalized marijuana laws, the federal government has a stern warning: Put down the bong, throw out the vaporizer and lose the rolling papers…It may now be legal in Colorado, in Washington State and elsewhere to possess and smoke marijuana, but federal laws outlawing its use — and rules that make it a firing offense for government workers — have remained rigid.” — San Jose Mercury News, “California Senate passes vaccine bill on second vote; now heads to governor”: The legislation “would require almost all schoolchildren to be fully vaccinated in order to attend public or private school, regardless of their parent’s personal or religious beliefs. The only exception would be for medical reasons. Despite continued objection from a few Senate colleagues who have called the bill an overreach by the government, the Senate voted 23 to 14 to approve a handful of amendments added to the bill this month in the state Assembly, which passed the bill last week…If enacted into law, California would join only two other states — Mississippi and West Virginia — that permit only medical exemptions as legitimate reasons to sidestep vaccinations.” — National Journal, “Lunch and Populism with Hillary Clinton’s least-likely advisor,” by Nancy Cook: “Teresa Ghilarducci is not your typical Hillary Clinton advisor. The New School professor and expert on retirement and pension issues has never worked in Washington, D.C. and touts an populist-based economic policy that runs much further left than anything Clinton has ever embraced. But, as Clinton tries to move away from the centrist economic legacy of her husband’s administration, with its welfare reform and deregulation of banks, Ghilarducci offers a fresh take—and a fresh face—on economic-policy debates long dominated by a small, sharp-elbowed cast of white men who have advised the Clinton or Obama administrations. How Ghilarducci’s influence evolves will provide a test case for how far left Clinton actually intends to go.” — Arizona Daily Star (Tucson), “High Court: Arizona can’t require citizenship proof to register to vote”: HOT ON THE LEFT “A county clerk in Arkansas plans to resign effective Tuesday because of a moral objection to issuing same-sex marriage licenses.” HOT ON THE RIGHT “Officials with the Department of State threatened to call security Monday on a Washington Free


For the gift of mustard, and other tasty condiments, thank the very hungry caterpillar

Scientists uncover how caterpillars created condiments For millennia, plants and their predators have been locked in a bitter battle. Literally. About 90 million years ago, ancestors of today’s Brassicale order — which includes wasabi, horseradish and mustard as well as cabbages and kale — figured out a way to fend off hungry caterpillars: sharp-tasting chemicals called glucosinolates that were poisonous to the snacking critters. But over the course of generations, the bugs developed defenses against the glucosinolates, a new study shows, and the plants had to churn out ever-stronger versions of the toxin “bomb.” Eventually the fight escalated into an “evolutionary arms race,” researchers say, with defensive adaptations from caterpillars prompting sharper and more complex glucosinolates from the plants. And in this particular case of garden-variety chemical warfare, the winner wasn’t either of the combatants — it was humans. Though toxic to tiny caterpillars, the cocktail of glucosinolates turned out to be pretty tasty to humans. We have them to thank for half our refrigerator condiments shelf — spicy wasabi, bitter horseradish, pungent mustard. They also add to the complex and highly particular tastes of cauliflower, capers, radishes and a variety of other vegetables. “Why do you think plants have spices or any flavor at all? It’s not for us,” Chris Pires, a biologist at the University of Missouri and one of the lead authors of the study, told NPR. “They have a function. All these flavors are evolution.” Though scientists have long known that sharp flavored plants co-evolved with the bugs that eat them, Pires’s study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences last week, was the first to map out exactly how the escalation occurred. Pires and his colleagues started by lining up the evolutionary family trees of Brassicales and ancestors of the cabbage butterfly. They found that every time the plants evolved a new type of glucosinolate “bomb,” their family tree would branch into several new and more complexly flavored species. “Most bugs don’t like it. It’s toxic,” Pires said of the chemical. “It turns their guts inside out.” Eventually, the bugs would respond with new protein defenses and diversify themselves. This escalation occurred three times over the course of the past 90 million years, according to Smithsonian; each time the combatants would raise the stakes not just by tweaking their genes to protect themselves but by creating entirely new copies — a rare


How new drugs helping millions of Americans live longer are also making them go broke

REUTERS/Eric Gaillard If you pay for good health insurance, shouldn’t you be able to afford the medicine you need? For Kristin Agar, a 63-year-old social worker in Little Rock, Ark., this has not been the case. In 2008, Agar began experiencing strange symptoms. Her feet swelled, her joints ached, a rash appeared on her face, and every night she would get a fever that would disappear in the morning. Her doctor diagnosed her with lupus, a disease in which the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks healthy tissue, including the skin, joints, brain, or kidneys. Agar’s doctor prescribed Benlysta, the only treatment on the market specifically for lupus. But Agar says that, although she works hard and makes decent money, she isn’t able to afford Benlysta. Agar’s insurance policy pays for 80 percent of the drug’s price, or about $2,500 per dose. But Benlysta is so expensive that Agar would still have to pay $450 once or twice a month for the medicine -- on top of a $770 monthly insurance premium, and her other medical costs. “I make too much money to qualify for assistance, but I don’t make enough to pay the bills,” she says. Kristin Agar, who was diagnosed with lupus in 2008. Photo courtesy of Malise Perrilliat. Around the U.S., people with serious diseases like Agar’s are falling through the cracks, unable to afford the medication they need even if they have good jobs and good insurance. Patients with HIV, cancer, lupus, leukemia, hepatitis C and other serious conditions are paying huge out-of-pocket sums for necessary medication. These costs are putting heavy mental and financial stress on some of America’s most vulnerable people. And the trend is getting worse. According to Truveris, a drug pricing research firm, the combined prices for brand, generic and specialty drugs rose 10.9 percent in 2014 compared with the previous year. These rising prices are forcing some patients to take on huge amounts of debt. Others, like Kristin Agar, are forgoing medications altogether – increasing the risk that they will have more serious health complications down the road. The reasons for these trends are complex: Drug companies blame insurers, insurers blame drug companies, and researchers blame both, as well as government regulations. But the implications are clear. Patients who can’t get medications will get sicker, and when they do, families, insurance companies and the government will bear the cost. The Supreme Court


D.C. area forecast: Heat, humidity and chance of storms into holiday weekend

This 2-hour radar loop shows the movement of rain and storms as well as severe weather warnings. 9:15 a.m. update: TODAY’S DAILY DIGIT 7/10: EXPRESS FORECAST Today: FORECAST IN DETAIL Satellite loop showing the movement of clouds over the past two hours. Here we go again. Today (Tuesday): Tonight: For related traffic news, check out Dr. Gridlock. Keep reading for the forecast through the weekend… Tomorrow (Wednesday): Tomorrow night: (Kevin Wolf via Flickr) A LOOK AHEAD Thursday Friday The rest of the Independence Day weekend looks mixed. Saturday has a higher chance of clouds, showers and storms as highs manage the lower to middle 80s. I think we can find some partly sunny skies at times though at least. Saturday night fireworks may still be challenged by scattered showers and storms as temperatures dip into the middle 60s to low 70s yet again- but not expecting a widespread washout at this time. Our best chance for more sun and less cloud/rain risk is Sunday. We’ll call for partly to mostly sunny skies, highs in the middle to upper 80s, with only a slight chance of an afternoon/evening storm. Humidity throughout the weekend continues in the moderate range (not super-high, but still noticeable). Confidence: Low-Moderate


VA extends veterans benefits to same-sex couples; Pentagon says SpaceX blast shows need for two space launch firms

At left, Space X’s Falcon 9 rocket as it lifts off with a Dragon CRS7 spacecraft at Cape Canaveral, Fla., on Sunday. But the unmanned rocket exploded (shown at right) minutes after liftoff, following what was meant to be a routine cargo mission to the International Space Station. (Left photo by Bruce Weaver/AFP/Getty Images; right photo by John Raoux/AP photo) VA extends veterans benefits to same-sex couples: Pentagon says SpaceX explosion shows need for two space launch options: Pentagon’s No. 2 says nuclear modernization will average $18 billion annually:


Young people voted in droves for marriage equality in Ireland. Equality would have won without them.

would vote, and how they would vote, by asking how much they knew about the referendum issue. Irish voters generally avoid uncertain outcomes. “If you don’t know, vote no” and “If you don’t know, don’t vote” were common refrains from earlier campaigns. This obviously produces an incentive for No campaigners to confuse people and muddy the issues, so as to depress turnout and increase the No vote. However, it also means that those who know more about the issues are more likely to vote and more likely to vote yes. This might lead one to expect that the young Yes voters should have had a good deal of correct knowledge about the issue. Younger people are more likely to be open about their own sexuality and to know someone in their social network who is gay or lesbian. Perhaps this increases their awareness of the issue? In Figure 3, we show the levels of knowledge of the referendum – evaluated by asking people in different age groups four factual questions about the referendum. Strikingly, the younger generation knows least. Figure 3 suggests that this is largely a generational shift, rather than an effect of the stage in life of a voter. In other words, it is something specific to this generation of young people, rather than a stage that all young people go through. If we compare the marriage vote to the 1992 abortion referendums on whether Irish citizens have the freedom to travel to another country to get an abortion, and also on whether abortion information should be available in Ireland, we see that the cohort of those who were then 18-24 years old and are now 41-47, still votes more or less the same way. The Irish marriage referendum therefore shows unusually high levels of mobilization and engagement among younger voters, but the impact on the result is very limited: had younger citizens not come out, the Yes side would still have easily won. This engagement also had its limitations: while younger voters did, indeed, come out to vote, they did not learn as much about the referendum issue as their older counterparts. Nevertheless, a generational shift is clearly visible in the survey data over time. Conservative Ireland is slowly dying. Johan Elkink is a lecturer in politics and international relations at University College Dublin (@jelkink). David Farrell is a professor of politics at University College Dublin (@dfarrell_ucd).


More than 1,000 people were likely sickened by norovirus after French mud run

(iStock/sscreative) Obstacle course mud runs have become a trendy pastime for fitness buffs, but they could also be hazardous to your health. French health officials More than 1,000 of the 8,400 people who participated in a Mud Day run in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region reported symptoms of a norovirus — diarrhea, vomiting and fever — within hours of the June 20 event. Some also suffered from abdominal pain and “intense fatigue.” One patient was hospitalized, according to the statement from a regional health agency. A few days after the event, racers began complaining to organizers that they had suffered gastrointestinal symptoms after participating in the race. According to UPI, some complained that the course smelled distinctly of horse manure. Organizers responded by saying that they were investigating the complaints. The following day, health officials confirmed that hundreds of people had reported similar symptoms after they participated in the run. That number later shot up to more than 1,000. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 1.5 million people participated in mud runs in the United States in 2012. And the obstacle course events are only getting more popular. But runners are also vulnerable to bacteria lurking in the mud — often caused by animal feces in the topsoil. The watery and muddy conditions make it easy for participants to ingest contaminated mud. In 2014, the CDC linked a mud run in Nevada to illness in 22 participants. That race was held on farmland where participants reported seeing cattle and swine “on or near the course” on race day. And earlier this month, a woman who participated in a Dallas mud run caught a flesh-eating bacteria, which caused her to lose sight in one eye. RELATED: The latest obstacle in obstacle racing is bloody diarrhea Over 2,000 runners ventured into the backwoods of the Marine Corps Base at Quantico, Va., to take on four miles of hills, obstacles and mud for the Marine Corps Marathon's "Run Amuck" mud run.


Meet the Hairy Collins’ Monster, the newly discovered ancient ‘superarmored’ worm

journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Reconstruction of Collinsium ciliosum. (Javier Ortega-Hernández) A well-preserved fossil of the Hairy Collins' Monster was found in a Southern Chinese deposit site. The worms are thought to have been more than three inches long and eyeless with nine pairs of rear legs that ended with claws. Researchers believe the monster worm, unable to really walk around a muddy ocean floor with those claws, likely hooked itself to hard surfaces and used its six pairs of front legs, which had bristles, to filter food. So why the spikes all over? These guys could have made for some easy prey, given that they pretty much stayed put as they ate and had squishy bodies. The sharp spikes protected them from being gobbled up, researchers reasoned. [This freaky ancient worm shows what spider and insect ancestors might have looked like] The Hairy Collins' Monster -- named after paleontologist Desmond Collins, who illustrated a similar Canadian fossil three decades ago -- lived during the Cambrian period, an explosive time of evolution within the Paleozoic Era. The worm is considered an early ancestor of onychophroans, or velvet worms, which live in tropical forests, and also resembles another Cambrian fossil, the Hallucigenia. "Both creatures are lobopodians, or legged worms, but the Collins' Monster sort of looks like Hallucigenia on steroids," study co-author Javier Ortega-Hernández of the University of Cambridge said in a statement. "It had much heavier armor protecting its body, with up to five pointy spines per pair of legs, as opposed to Hallucigenia's two. Unlike Hallucigenia, the limbs at the front of Collins' Monster's body were also covered with fine brushes or bristles that were used for a specialized type of feeding from the water column." [Ancient filter-feeding giants hint at the evolution of today’s insects] The creature -- and similar superarmored lobopodians -- went extinct during the early Palezoic Era. Ortega-Hernández described the Hairy Collins' Monster as one of the many "evolutionary experiments" during the Cambrian period, "one which ultimately failed as they have no living direct ancestors -- but it's amazing to see how specialized many animals were hundreds of millions of years ago." Collinsium ciliosum, a Collins’ monster-type lobopodian from the early Cambrian Xiaoshiba biota of China. (Jie Yang) Read More: Say hello to the centipede from hell Now there’s a guide to penis worm teeth An ancient ‘misfit’ finally finds a family


Hours from deadline, GOP faces new pressure on Ex-Im Bank

Matt Sparks, replied that "while the Congressman understands the concerns of the bank’s supporters, he believes the role of the bank is better suited for the private sector" and criticized "Washington special interests" for campaigning to "simply reauthorize a government bank that picks winners and losers." While Boeing and other large corporations account for the vast majority of the overall dollar volume supported by Ex-Im, bank defenders have been quick to highlight the small businesses that take advantage of Ex-Im financing. Rep. Denny Heck (D-Wash.) pointed to companies like the Manhasset Specialty Co. of Yakima, Wash., a manufacturer of music stands, which has a pending loan guarantee at risk due to the lapse. Small companies, Heck said, will be hurt most by the lapse, because small banks are typically unwilling to assume the risks of export financing, while large banks aren't inclined to see those loans as being large enough to be worthwhile. "These are the people that are going to feel the damage," he said. "We are playing with fire." [The expiration of the Export-Import Bank, explained for those who don’t know what that is] Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.), who has taken a leading role among Senate Democrats in arguing for the bank's renewal, said she took her case Tuesday to a meeting of the Chamber of Commerce in Jamestown, N.D., population 15,427. Heitkamp, who has teamed with Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) on an Ex-Im reform and reauthorization bill, said her constituents "don’t understand why we’re at this point and why Congress isn’t supporting an agency that helps them grow, doesn’t cost a dime, and has actually returned nearly $7 billion to taxpayers over the past two decades." But one conservative group opposing the bank's renewal, Citizens United, said the lapse is a "victory for supporters of smaller, more efficient government and fiscal discipline." "Any attempt by Speaker John Boehner to bring the Export-Import Bank back to life would be yet another example of him supporting the Obama agenda and is a slap in the face to the grassroots conservatives who put him in power," said the group's president, David N. Bossie, in a statement. Despite the intense pressure from conservative activists, Newhouse said his organization is "confident this is a short-term blip" and that Congress will act next month to revive the bank. "When there's a broad bipartisan majority to do something, it tends to happen," he said.


GOP under pressure on Ex-Im bank

Exporters and Democrats are dialing up the pressure on Republicans over the pending lapse of the Export-Import Bank’s charter at midnight. As the Post’s Mike DeBonis reports, the two groups started to lay the foundation on Tuesday for reviving the bank when lawmakers return to Capitol Hill after the Fourth of July recess. While Ex-Im critics have won out so far, advocates hope that they can change the tide by emphasizing the lapse’s effect on small businesses and job growth, DeBonis writes: In separate calls with reporters, exporters and Democrats cited bank statistics indicating that nearly 200 pending transactions totaling more than $9 billion will be put at risk by an extended charter lapse, costing an untold number of jobs … While Boeing and other large corporations account for the vast majority of the overall dollar volume supported by Ex-Im, bank defenders have been quick to highlight the small businesses that take advantage of Ex-Im financing. Rep. Denny Heck (D-Wash.) pointed to companies like the Manhasset Specialty Co. of Yakima, Wash., a manufacturer of music stands, which has a pending loan guarantee at risk due to the lapse. Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.), who has taken a leading role among Senate Democrats in arguing for the bank’s renewal, said she took her case Tuesday to a meeting of the Chamber of Commerce in Jamestown, N.D., population 15,427. Heitkamp, who has teamed with Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) on an Ex-Im reform and reauthorization bill, said her constituents “don’t understand why we’re at this point and why Congress isn’t supporting an agency that helps them grow, doesn’t cost a dime, and has actually returned nearly $7 billion to taxpayers over the past two decades.” Meanwhile. President Obama in a Boston Globe op-ed urged Congress to renew the bank’s charter: Past Congresses have reauthorized Ex-Im 16 times. They’ve always done it with support from both parties. And the past 13 presidents have supported the bank, too. It really shouldn’t be any different this time. The good news is, the support in Congress is there. Strong majorities of Democrats and Republicans have said they’d vote yes to reauthorize the Bank. Congressional leaders just need to call a vote. That’s all it’ll take to get the Export-Import Bank back on track. It’s time for Congress to do its job, and keep America’s exports growing.


Severe late night storms sweep through D.C. area

11:30 a.m. update, July 1: 1:15 a.m. update, July 1: That's the first time I've been legitimately frightened by a storm since I moved out to DC 10 yrs ago. That was bonkers. @capitalweather @capitalweather - that was very intense here in so. fx. co. Crazy wind, thunder, lightning and rain like I haven't seen since a hurricane! Many people on Twitter commented this was the most intense and scary storm they’ve witnessed in some time. They said they’ve never seen such a lightning display. We’ll have an explainer on what happened in the morning. Stay safe. 12:30 a.m. update, July 1: Follow the progress of the storms on the radar above. For the latest warnings, follow our Twitter alert feed: @dcweatheralerts or the National Weather Service. 8:30 p.m. update: HRRR model simulated radar shows showers and storms in the region at midnight (WeatherBell.com) 6:45 p.m. update: 6:00 p.m. update: Of greater interest is a line of storms entering West Virginia that could affect the region between about 11 p.m. and 3 a.m. It could produce some heavy rain and gusty winds coming through. Severe weather expert Jeff Halverson says some may wonder if it’s a derecho but assures us it is not. It doesn’t have a history of widespread damaging winds, isn’t moving as fast as a derecho and environmental conditions don’t support a derecho. We’ll keep an eye on this storm complex and will post our next update around 8 p.m., or sooner if needed. 4:40 p.m. update: Storm overview: - Storm timing, coverage: Isolated to widely scattered storms between 5-9 p.m., more coverage north of the Beltway - Storm motion: Southwest to northeast - Likely storm hazards: Downpours, lightning, gusty winds - Possible storm hazards: Damaging winds, small hail, brief-small tornadoes - Rainfall forecast: No rain to a quick inch in the heaviest localized downpours - Confidence: Low-Medium – Biggest uncertainty is storm coverage; it’s possible this is a non-event for some or even many areas, especially south of the District 3:40 p.m. update: Incredibly, almost the entire Southeast and Mid-Atlantic is under a severe thunderstorm watch through this evening. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a watch area this large (although size in this case is not an indication of intensity or coverage of severe storms – which we expect to be widely scattered rather than widespread): Severe T-storm watches stretch from the Ohio Valley to


Oregon celebrates with free weed as recreational marijuana becomes legal

Hundreds of marijuana enthusiasts lit up celebratory joints in the streets Tuesday night as recreational use was officially made legal in Oregon. High on the top of the Burnside Bridge in Portland, they gathered, uniting to celebrate the legalization of recreational marijuana use in their state. A large group of people collected at the bridge Tuesday night, waiting for the stroke of midnight when Oregon’s Measure 91 went into effect. The state now allows recreational use for people 21 and over, growing of up to four marijuana plants and giving small amounts as gifts. (Since early this year, District of Columbia residents have been allowed to possess, grow and, in the privacy of their own homes, smoke marijuana.) With the Oregon “gifting law” in mind, growers and enthusiasts decided to unite for a “BYOW” party, passing out their now legal product to everyone old enough. Organized by Russ Belville, along with the Portland chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, the “Burnside Burn” was a chance for pot enthusiasts to celebrate their new freedom together. “I am no longer a criminal in my home state!” Belville Tweeted at midnight. And the count down begins...Lots of people on the Burnside bridge celebrating soon-to-be #legalpot #BurnsideBurn http://t.co/GUrS78sqz9 It's now legal to be gay in America, but as of tonight it's legal to be high and gay in Oregon...#BurnsideBurn #LoveIsLove Already close to a couple hundred ppl here, a warm summer breeze, full(ish) moon, the smell of weed. #burnsideburn http://t.co/c3VNVkimDw I'm in line for free marijuana. What a day to be alive. #BurnsideBurn Happy Legalization Day, Oregon! http://t.co/JhoIhY4NQq Though pot is now legal for use, there are still legal hurdles to climb before a marijuana market is up and running as it is in Colorado. There are also still laws inhibiting completely worry-free pot smoking, including employers with anti-drug policies. “For us it’s like the end of the Civil War, but we still have reconstruction and Jim Crow to go through,” Belville said in a phone interview. It is still currently illegal to buy or sell marijuana in Oregon. However, thanks to recent legislation, starting Oct. 1 people will be allowed to buy some products from medical marijuana dispensaries in the state, Oregon Live reported. A connected bill also established a sales tax for marijuana. [One surprising downside of marijuana legalization: major energy use] One tricky federal law, which


Rand Paul raises money with the marijuana industry

Monday in Reno, Nevada, Paul said the federal government shouldn't meddle with states that want to legalize marijuana. "I think the federal government shouldn’t interfere," he said. "One of the problems is the federal government has come into states that have allowed medical marijuana and still harass them so I think the federal government ought to stay out." Paul said he would allow the marijuana industry to use the U.S. banking system, something from which it is currently prohibited from doing. Paul said he is concerned about potential "theft and crime" from a cash-only business and that taxes may not be paid because the money is not in a bank. "I support legislation to allow them to do traditional banking and allow them to do traditional tax returns as well," he said. Paul's view on full marijuana legalization is murky. Colorado, Washington and the District of Columbia have legalized specific quantities of marijuana for recreational use. Oregon will be added to the list Wednesday. "I really haven’t taken a stand on," Paul said last year, "The actual legalization. I haven’t really taken a stand on that, but I’m against the federal government telling them they can’t.” Paul co-sponsored legislation earlier this year that would end the federal prohibition on medical marijuana. It would allow veterans to be prescribed the drugs, make the banking system easier and facilitate limited interstate trade. Twenty-three states, the District of Columbia and Guam allow the medical use of marijuana, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Paul has made reforming drug laws a centerpiece of his presidential campaign, calling for low-level offenders to receive treatment instead of being incarcerated, and abolishing mandatory minimum sentences for some crimes. Paul has called the war on drugs a failure and said that it has incarcerated a generation of black men. A fundraiser attendee told the Associated Press Paul spoke about the failures of the drug war. Paul also held a rally at a sports bar here and closed door events to raise money on the last day of the reporting quarter. His campaign said the event was a private fundraiser at the convention center and it was not officially affiliated with the expo. "Do we attract people there? Yes," a Paul aide said. "People know Rand's position on medical marijuana. People know his position on banking." Mason Tvert, director of communications for the Marijuana Policy Project, said


Sweetgreen raises more lettuce to continue expansion

A Sweetgreen restaurant in Bethesda, Md. (Photograph by Jeffrey MacMillan) D.C.-based salad chain Sweetgreen has picked up $35 million in a fresh round of funding that it plans to use to expand across the country, the company said Wednesday. The restaurant already counts locations in Boston, New York and Philadelphia and opened its first West Coast outlet in Los Angeles last year. It plans to open a second L.A. location in Santa Monica next month, as well as a third restaurant in Berkeley, Calif., by the end of the year, said co-founder Jonathan Neman. Sweetgreen has 31 locations and more than 1,000 employees, he said. The number of outlets is expected to grow to 40 by the end of the year and the company plans to hire up to 300 new employees. The chain plans also to open new locations in the Washington area this year and expand to two more cities next year, according to Neman. He said the company had not identified the new markets yet. The latest round brings Sweetgreen’s total funding to $95 million since it opened its first location in Georgetown eight years ago. T. Rowe Price led the investment round, along with existing investor Revolution Growth, the D.C.-based venture capital firm. Sweetgreen plans to also use the money to invest in technology that improves the customer experience and beef up its supply chain, Neman said. The company is set to release a mobile app later this year. The salad chain also wants to use the capital to develop its brand and promote healthy eating, according to Neman. Sweetgreen co-founder Nicolas Jammet recently accompanied First Lady Michelle Obama to Milan as part of a U.S. delegation on food and development issues. ‘We want to use this funding to raise awareness on the choices we make about the food we eat and where it comes from,” said Neman.


To truly grasp what we’re doing to the planet, you need to understand this gigantic measurement

growing in volume due to their temperature. And for those who don’t think 2 or 3 millimeters per year of ocean rise is a big deal — the real concern, with both Greenland and Antarctica (and also Alaska), is that these rates are increasing. And why might that be happening? It’s because of the 34 gigatons annually of carbon dioxide that humanity is currently putting in the atmosphere. In 2013, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimated that to have a good chance of keeping global warming under 2 degrees Celsisus above pre-industrial times — a widely embraced international goal — humanity had, as of the year 2011, only about 1000 gigatons of CO2 left that it could emit. Divide 1000 by 34 and you get maybe 3 decades more of emissions at current levels. And that assumes that emissions merely stay constant, rather than rising along with rising economic growth. When it comes to our gigatons of carbon dioxide emitted each year, NOAA’s Earth System Research Laboratory has done some fascinating math (which starts with a relatively simple conversion of gigatons of carbon dioxide into gigatons of carbon): In 2010 about 9 Giga-tons of Carbon (GtC) were emitted from burning fossil fuels as 33 Giga-tons of CO2 gas. How much is 9 Giga-ton? 9 billion tons or 9,000,000,000,000,000 grams, or 19,800,000,000,000 pounds. Can you imagine…9 Giga-tons is the weight of about 132 billion people. The amount of carbon we are putting into the atmosphere each year is equal to 20 times the weight of the current world population. All of which further underscores that the gigaton is the unit that really explains to you how we’re altering the planet — changing its atmosphere, and changing its oceans, at a scale that’s hard for humans to conceive of. Net gigatons of CO2 are going into the atmosphere and net gigatons of H2O are going into the ocean. And if you wanted to reshape a planet, it’s hard to think of a better recipe than that. Also in Energy Environment: New research suggests nature walks are good for your brain Alaska wildfires have burned over a million acres — and fire season still has a long way to go Giant earthquakes are shaking Greenland — and scientists just figured out the disturbing reason why For more, you can sign up for our weekly newsletter here, and follow us on Twitter here.


Mark Zuckerberg says the future of communication is telepathy. Here’s how that would actually work.

is a two-way street: How could we not only “read” a mind but also get that pattern of electrical signals into someone else’s head? There are invasive options; i.e., implanting some kind of device in your brain. In 2013, scientists at Duke University implanted two lab rats with microelectrode arrays and taught one of the rats to press one of two levers. Afterwards, the second rat, who had not been trained, also seemed to know which level to push: It had received neural signals from the first rat, via the implant. Recently, researchers have also had some luck with a noninvasive technique called transcranial magnetic stimulation, or TMS. When you put on a TMS headset it generates a magnetic field over your scalp, which can be used to activate neural pathways. Last fall, test subjects in India were able to use TMS to “think” the words “hola” and “ciao” to test subjects in France; the process was painfully slow, however, and the words weren’t sent in their entirety — they had to be encoded as binary digits, uploaded to the Internet, sent, downloaded and then decoded as flashes of light. (WHEW.) An overview of the brain-to-brain (B2B) communication system used by researchers to send the words “ciao” and “hello.” It’s really complicated. (Grau et al/PLOS One) This is, while promising, a really clunky system. It’s unsophisticated (no one has yet “sent” an actual emotion or idea), it’s inexact (the rat still chose the wrong lever sometimes), and it’s slower than virtually every other form of modern communication, save perhaps snail mail. These experiments also required access to some very expensive, sophisticated equipment. Even if you wanted to, you could not try this at home. “‘Telepathy’ technology remains so crude that it’s unlikely to have any practical impact,” wrote Mark Harris at the MIT Technology Review. That said, these are only the very earliest days of telepathy research, and new developments are in the works. Among other things, researchers are looking into handheld, cellphone-sized MRI machines that would make it easier and cheaper to capture your own brain activity. And the Army is developing a telepathy helmet, almost like a VR headset, that would condense and simplify all this electrical signal-sending — although that, experts say, is still decades away. Where Facebook fits in Is Facebook currently developing any technology in this vein? A spokesperson for the company did not immediately


Jeb Bush wants to be the anti-Clinton on transparency. Do people vote on that?

voters in the swing states of Florida, Pennsylvania and Ohio described Bush as honest than did Clinton. For Clinton, more people in each of those states described her as dishonest than honest. As we've noted before, she's got an honesty problem. [ For Bush, his best ratings came from his home state, Florida. But when pollsters asked voters in Pennsylvania and Ohio about his honesty and trustworthiness, it was more split -- even as he was still, unlike Clinton, more likely to be viewed as honest than dishonest. But despite what people think about her relationship with the truth, Clinton still holds a small lead against most GOP contenders -- including Bush -- in early polling of the 2016 general election. Source: June 4-15 Quinnipiac University Swing State Poll Source: June 4-15 Quinnipiac University Swing State Poll American voters, of course, do rely on their assessment of the candidates’ personal characteristics to make voting decisions. The Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research has looked deep into the data weeds of several presidential campaigns. In analyzing voter data and polls conducted around the time of several presidential election cycles, researchers associated with the project have found a few things to be consistently true. Voters form opinions about the candidates' honesty, morality, compassion, competence and leadership ability and then use that information -- along with their own political leanings, naturally -- to make a choice. Digging a little deeper, the research also shows that voters are always interested in what researchers call "the integrity dimension" of a candidate's personality. But different characteristics seem to take on greater importance to voters at different periods in time. For instance they found in 1976 that honesty ranked very high in importance. In 1980,competence reigned supreme. Of course, you don't have to be a political scientist with a massive data set to know that in 1976, the country was still reeling from the Watergate scandal and had just watched the first and only president to ever resign leave the office in 1974. It was a time for honesty. In 1980 Today, there are all sorts of political and social forces, a spate of recent Supreme Court court cases and global and domestic news events shaping voter concerns. But what those things collectively do to the list of characteristics voters prioritize in a candidate likely won't be crystal clear until just before the November 2016 election.


The Daily 202: Gay marriage cleaves conservatives

to the SCOTUS marriage ruling. He notes that Cruz endorsed judicial retention elections and calls it “especially disheartening” that the Texas senator, “who clerked for Chief Justice William Rehnquist and who is better equipped by education and experience to think clearly about courts, proposes curing what he considers this court’s political behavior by turning the court into a third political branch. Imagine campaigns conducted by justices. What would remain of the court’s prestige and hence its power to stand athwart rampant executives and overbearing congressional majorities? Sixteen months before the election, some candidates are becoming too unhinged to be plausible as conservative presidents.” - Cruz defenders will seize on this disclosure at the end of George’s column: “This columnist’s wife, Mari Will, works for Scott Walker.” Walker, according to Will’s column, supports a “minimalist” amendment to the Constitution, “concerning process rather than policy,” which “would restore the traditional state control over marriage law.” - For context, 98 percent of the U.S. population lives in counties where same-sex marriage licenses are currently available, according to an ongoing analysis from Ballotpedia. 2 percent live in counties where licenses are not being issued or being delayed. Alabama had the highest proportion of a state population without access to licenses. A county clerk in Texas who publicly said she would refuse to issue license walked it back last night in the face of likely legal challenges. She now says she won’t “personally” do it, but her office will. The Dallas Morning News has a good graphic showing which Texas counties are not issuing licenses and the explanations they’re offering. WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING: — Greece edged even closer to the brink. In another nationally televised address Wednesday night, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras blasted European leaders as “sirens of destruction” for trying to “blackmail” Greek voters over wanting to have a say in their future. He urged Greeks to vote “no” in Sunday’s referendum on whether to accept strict bailout conditions, in what some see as a prelude to the peninsula nation exiting the Eurozone. But Tsipras is sending mixed messages as he largely accepted the terms of a bailout (no longer operative) on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Greeks are facing the reality of a banking system that is shut down, where they can only withdraw 60 in euros a day. “Tsipras has turned this country into North Korea,” 83-year-old Angeliki Andreaki told the Wall Street


Why the next Russian space mission is suddenly so critical

SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket explodes after taking off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on Sunday. (Photo courtesy: NASA) The last two attempts to resupply the International Space Station in unmanned rockets have gone kablooey. First the Russian Progress 59 went spinning out of control in April after it hit orbit. Then SpaceX’s Falcon 9 did an imitation of a Fourth of July fireworks celebration on Sunday two minutes into flight. Those failures followed an Orbital ATK explosion last year. Now, it’s the Russians’ turn. At 12:55 a.m. Friday, the Russian space agency will try again to fly more than three tons of food, water and supplies to the three astronauts on the station in an incredibly important mission that could end a streak of failures -- or further shake the confidence in space flight and raise more questions about the safety of the astronauts aboard the station. NASA has said the station has plenty of supplies for now and that the astronauts are in no danger of running out. But if something happens with this mission, there could be serious trouble. The three failed mission have all been cargo flights with no passengers on board. But later this month, Russia plans to fly three more astronauts to the station -- a mission that officials said would likely be postponed if Friday's resupply mission goes awry. Another catastrophic failure would raise even more questions about the ability of the Russian and U.S. governments to keep a critical supply line open to the station. Both of the contractors that the U.S. government relies on are now on the sidelines after their failures. Since its explosion last year, Orbital has been unable to fly. SpaceX is investigating what went wrong with its rocket and has already had to postpone at least one flight. But NASA officials aren't panicking. In addition to Friday’s Progress flight, a Japanese spacecraft is scheduled to make a delivery run in August. And Orbital is expected to fly again later this year. “We manage the in space station to get through these types of incidents,” Mike Suffredini, NASA’s space station program manager, said after the explosion Sunday. “We always assume we would lose a vehicle every so often. Space flight is very hard…. Of course, having three this close together is not what we had hoped for.” The timing is particularly bad for NASA, which hopes to use two contractors


ESPN’s Curt Schilling says Stephen Strasburg should be 100,000 times better

confused between soreness and pain. I just don’t know him. Part of pitching in the big leagues is going out there with the aches and pains. This is supposed to be your Game 1, winner-take-all guy, and he’s still not there. I don’t know what kind of guy he is, what kind of makeup he has, but I feel like he should be so much farther along. I just expected there to be more at this point.” [Five years after ‘Strasmas,’ Nationals star pitcher confounds] Schilling, who was with his third team in four seasons before he established himself as a rotation fixture with the Phillies in 1992, said Strasburg has all the physical skills to be an ace. “His upside is stratospheric, he’s the ultimate swing-and-miss guy,” Schilling said. “From a stuff perspective, who compares to him? Look at his stuff and it’s amazing to me. [Red Sox prospect] Joe Kelly, Stephen Strasburg and Max Scherzer all have incredible stuff. One guy’s in AAA, one guy is 5-5 with a 5.50 ERA. … Makeup wise, I assume he isn’t a number one guy. I think you have to want to be that. It’s part of who you are. I’ve never seen a guy become that. That’s fine, you don’t have to be that way. I just expected him to be a once-in-a-generation talent because he has once-in-a-generation stuff. Max is doing what I expected Stephen to be doing pretty consistently.” Strasburg is coming off his best start of the season after a stint on the disabled list. He pitched seven innings against the Phillies on Sunday for the first time since April and said he felt as strong in the seventh inning as he did in the first. He’s expected to oppose Giants ace Madison Bumgarner on Saturday. “I like him, I love watching him pitch when he’s healthy and he’s feeling good, but he’s a guy who should be 100,000 times better than he is now,” Schilling said of Strasburg. Schilling is much higher on the Nationals’ other No. 1 overall pick, Bryce Harper. “He has done nothing but impress me,” Schilling said. “I like the trash-talk and I like the confidence because you can’t talk in baseball more than once if you can’t back it up. From what I’ve seen next to [Mike] Trout, he might be the best all around the player in the game.” [Matt


This is how the Earth’s hills and valleys were made — and what will shape them in the future

and valleys are accurate. The knowledge could be useful for predicting how Earth’s landscapes will be affected as its climate changes — over geologic timescales, that is. Sweeney stressed that landscapes are often shaped over hundreds or thousands of years, so the study can’t necessarily be used to make predictions about short-term climate changes, such as those that might occur in the next century as a result of human-caused global warming. “I wouldn’t feel comfortable making any sort of predictions about short-term climate change,” Sweeney said. But Earth’s climate will also shift in the long term, maybe partly due to anthropogenic influences, but also as a result of natural planetary processes like glacial cycles. In these cases, she said, “as climate changes, precipitation should change, and that should change the way that these processes work.” For example, if precipitation becomes heavier over the next few hundred (or few thousand) years, landscapes will be pelted with more water. But an increase in precipitation may also lead to an increase in vegetation, which could then house more burrowing animals — both of which could lead to greater disturbances in a landscape’s sediment. Each of these climate-related factors has the potential to influence the formation of landscapes in the future. And insights from the study can also be used in reverse, Perron added, as a way of looking back in time and making assumptions about what processes were happening on Earth thousands of years ago to create the landscapes we see today. “Records of past environmental change on the continents can be challenging to construct,” said Perron. “So any clues that we can extract from landscapes that can help us understand what’s been happening in terms of longer-term changes in climate and biological communities are really valuable.” All practical applications aside, the study’s experimental evidence helps shed some light on one of geology’s most intriguing questions, a satisfying outcome for many a puzzled Earth scientist. “One of the most salient characteristics of landscapes is the size of the ridges and valleys,” Perron said. “Those are the most prominent topographic features that one recognizes when one looks at a landscape. And so understanding what controls that size is really a fundamental problem in the study of Earth’s surface.” Returning to those Painted Hills we started with, or to the Gabilan Mesa, or to any of the world’s picturesque hilly landscapes, we now have a


DC Council approves funding to create first “unified cultural plan”

other cities — is aimed at generating “a bigger picture” of the role of culture and how to support it. “How do we look at what’s already happening, and what would grow the District?” Grosso said. “It’s not just ‘Can we get more money,’” said Sam Sweet, co-chair of Arts Action DC’s steering committee. “We wanted to be more holistic. Rather than going at it piecemeal, we thought cultural planning would be the best way to address the issues.” Arts Action DC describes itself as “a diverse group from the District of Columbia creative community” championing a “strategy that collectively demands sustainable full-funding,” according to its website. The site also declares, “For D.C. to become a truly world class city, it must plan now to create, enhance and sustain a thriving artistic and creative ecosystem.” The website lists more than 60 members, including Washington Performing Arts Society president and CEO Jenny Bilfield, Arena Stage executive producer Edgar Dobie, Ford’s Theatre director Paul Tetrault, Phillips Collection director Dorothy Kosinski, Dance Place founder and director Carla Perlo, Shakespeare Theatre Company managing director Chris Jennings, Washington Ballet managing director Arthur Espinoza, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company managing director Meghan Pressman, and chair emeritus of the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities Dorothy McSweeny. The D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities is the city’s grant-making body, but its budget comes from annual appropriations by the council. In past years the Commission’s budget has been subject to substantial swings. “We have suffered for years because the D.C. Commission has its funds appropriated,” Sweet said. Identifying a stable stream of funding may lead to multi-year support that would help arts groups plan better. “Any manager knows that will make for a much more effective organization,” Sweet said. Grosso says that previous attempts to earmark a small percentage of tax money for arts funding typically died on the vine. This proposal, which he called more “comprehensive,” was different: “Everyone was 100 per cent on board here at the council,” he says. The broad mandate of the plan goes beyond the D.C. Commission’s role, but does not eclipse the Commission. Grosso points out that the Commission’s participation in any plan is “written into the code.” The Office of Planning will put out a request for proposals for organizations interested in conducting the study and developing the strategy. The plan is to be submitted by Dec. 15, 2016.