Commentary: Technological innovation needs to begin at home

Board recommended that the Pentagon look more at acquiring commercially available technology products from emerging and small businesses as a way to address our national security needs and requirements. Agencies such as the Defense Intelligence Agency, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Air Force and many others are using new models of engaging and contracting with nontraditional sources of innovation. Through my work with TandemNSI, a public-private partnership among Amplifier Ventures, Arlington County and the Commonwealth of Virginia, I have first-hand knowledge of these activities and others that are pending. Take a look at our recent “Building a Bigger Tent for Technology Entrepreneurs” white paper for specific examples. The federal government is more innovative than you think. The cybersecurity industry is an example of where the resources and assets of our region are being marshaled to provide innovative service and product offerings. It shows that we can change and adapt, although there is much work to be done. What is less appreciated perhaps is that cybersecurity is the current “flavor of the day” of a larger trend. The government is looking for innovation more broadly and rapidly than a technology service delivery business model can provide — and industrial sectors such as data analytics, robotics, material sciences, space, life sciences and others will follow the trend of rapid innovation that we currently see in cybersecurity. In short, the national security agencies’ appetite for technology product innovation will continue unabated and accelerate over time. A number of months ago, I was with some national security program managers discussing their innovation needs, and shared with them the mission of TandemNSI and our 2,000-plus nontraditional performer members. I made the point that our region had a deep bench of talented people previously not involved in national security that were now looking to move rapidly in concert with our national security agencies to create new technologies and product companies. “Wow,” said one of the meeting attendees, “you mean I don’t have to get on a plane and fly to California?” Exactly. Jonathan Aberman is managing director and founder of Amplifier Ventures, a investment firm that focuses on emerging technologies. He is also the managing director and founder of Arlington-based Tandem NSI, a program to promote greater connection between entrepreneurs and national security agencies. More from Capital Business: For a daily rundown of Washington area business news, sign up for the “CapBiz A.M.” e-mail newsletter.


World Digest: Oct. 12, 2014

reach the Tokyo area by Tuesday. — Associated Press EGYPT Amid protests, police storm universities Egyptian police backed by armored vehicles stormed the campuses of at least two prominent universities to quell anti-government student demonstrations, officials and a student spokesman said Sunday. The largest rallies took place at Cairo and al-Azhar universities, where students smashed newly installed metal detectors. Ahead of the start of the academic year, which began Saturday, authorities intensified security measures at universities to prevent the resurgence of student protests organized largely by supporters of former Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, who was ousted last year by the military. At least 16 students were killed and hundreds were arrested during protests last year. Protest spokesman Youssef Salhen said demonstrators clashed briefly with police outside al-Azhar University on Sunday. A security official said at least six people were arrested at al-Azhar, where police fired tear gas. He said seven students were detained at another Cairo university. — Associated Press LIBYA 23 killed in fighting between militias Fighting between Islamist militias and rival groups in a western Libyan town has killed at least 23 people, a hospital official said Sunday. Emad Khalifa Abdul-Salam of Gharyan hospital, southwest of the capital, Tripoli, said the battle in a nearby town also left 43 people wounded. The fighting is part of a nationwide power struggle between Islamist-backed militias, which have seized control of most of Tripoli, and their opponents, which back an internationally recognized government based in the country’s far east. The anti-Islamist Zintan militia attacked Kikla, an Islamist stronghold, on Saturday. A commander in the Islamist militias, known as the Dawn of Libya, said the Zintan militia, with the backing of local tribes, seized parts of Kikla and briefly cut off roads between the town and Gharyan, about 50 miles southwest of Tripoli. But the Dawn of Libya fighters forced them to retreat, allowing traffic to resume, the commander said. Libya descended into chaos after the 2011 uprising that toppled dictator Moammar Gaddafi. Since then, violence and rivalry between political groups, backed by supportive militias, has deeply split the country, which has two rival governments. — Associated Press Explosion in Somalia kills 11: A car bomb exploded outside a popular cafe in Somalia’s capital, killing 11 people and wounding eight, a senior police official said. The bomb was thought to have been detonated by remote control, Mohammed Hussein said. No group asserted


U.S. is way behind in credit card security

The security breach at JPMorgan Chase is an indication that everyone gets into trouble [“JPMorgan breach raises alarms about safety of financial system,” Economy & Business, Oct. 7]. That firm spends $250 million a year on information security, which is much more than most companies can spend. Evidence is emerging that more banks were targeted in the same attacks, so the issue goes beyond one company. When it comes to credit card information, the United States is way behind the security curve. We’re using magnetic card stripes, a technology from the 1960s. Next year, the United States is switching to smart cards — technology designed 20 years ago. Card issuers have had little incentive to move beyond smart cards because they aren’t losing money. Consumers and banks also have little liability. The retailers are the ones on the hook to pay. The severity of recent breaches is creating enough static to get issuers to question whether smart cards are enough. The current payment model has most tools on the back end. But consumers could benefit more from a front-end approach. One-time-use credit card numbers that randomly change at each purchase could make card fraud less worthwhile. Similarly, consumers could set spending limits for a given time period, which produces the same effect of limiting the amount a thief could steal. Bob West, San Jose, Calif. The writer is chief trust officer of CipherCloud.


Bats are hit by a hard one-two punch: Deadly windmills and white-nose disease

bats than birds are killed at wind turbines, according to a University of Colorado study by researcher Mark A. Hayes published last year. At the experimental turbines in the USGS study, where the blade speeds were manipulated for the experiment, bats flew near wind turbines about 900 times, managing to avoid them far more often than they hit them, Cryan said. It’s possible that bats could have been struck more often than monitors could tell. They rarely saw blades strike bats. Injured bats could have flown off and died somewhere other than the base of the turbine where dead animals were found. The authors had a few recommendations to lower the death toll. Wind-turbine operators could turn off the blades when the wind is too low to produce energy, for example. They could also stick a pulsing light on the pole or a beeping device that would scare off bats. For hibernating bats, researchers have offered few solutions to counter their instinct to fly back to caves, and often, to their doom. When they get there and fall into their deep sleep — hearts and minds barely active — the fungus that causes white-nose syndrome will creep on their bodies. It doesn’t discriminate between little brown bats, big brown bats, Indiana bats and gray bats. The disease attacks them all. Scientists at the USGS and the Fish and Wildlife Service theorize that the immune system of the animals goes into full attack mode to fend off the intruder, not unlike what the human immune system does to protect people from HIV. Tens of thousands of bats have been found in death piles at the mouths of caves. “I’m terribly, terribly concerned,” said Katie Gillies, a conservation biologist for Bat Conservation International. “I don’t think the disease will run its course. There is no way to save our bats from white nose without intervention. The situation is . . . absolutely dire.” In August, the Fish and Wildlife Service provided $1.2 million in grants to 30 states to confront the disease. The funding source, federal Endangered Species Recovery and Science Applications programs, is an indication of the peril bats face. Read more: Bats are the latest victims of mass killings In ancient battle, winner gets the Pacific ocean coral Ten things in nature that could vanish before your kids see them Study: Global warming may force orioles, eagles from D.C. region


Mortenson returns to Afghanistan, trying to move past his ‘Three Cups of Tea’ disgrace

schools in Afghanistan. Four-star U.S. generals sought his advice on Afghan tribal dynamics. President Obama donated $100,000 of his Nobel Prize winnings to Mortenson’s charity. Former president Bill Clinton praised him. Four million people bought his book. Many of his former advocates now see him as a fraud. A 2012 investigation into his charity, the Central Asia Institute, found that he spent millions in donations on his expenses, including travel and clothing. His book turned out to contain large-scale fabrications. Some of the schools he boasted of had no students. Some appeared not to have been built at all. Now, Mortenson is trying to start over, to emerge from years of pain and disgrace. His donations have crashed. His co-author committed suicide by kneeling in front of a train. His daughter tried to take her life. He almost died of heart failure. Mortenson, 56, is wearing Afghan clothing — a flowing tunic and flat wool cap. He sits in the truck on this sunny morning, staring at the blue gate, which remains closed. He is tapping his foot. The minutes pass slowly. Then the gate opens. The girls are everywhere, skittering near the front steps of the school, in blue uniforms and white headscarves. Mortenson’s face lights up. He bounds from the SUV and embraces the male teachers, putting his hand on their hearts, a sign of respect here. He shakes the hands of the little girls. “This is where I belong,” he says. Return to public life In Afghanistan, Mortenson is still “Mr. Greg,” the man who can transform a village of illiterate farmers by writing a check. Word of his disgrace barely arrived here. He has come back to Afghanistan several times since his fall from grace, quietly visiting schools. But on a trip this summer, he invited a reporter to spend a few days with him. It was a first step in Mortenson’s return to public life — one he hardly seems ready for. He is a man who struggles to find the right words. Back when he was appearing on TV and giving speeches, he had to train himself to project confidence, to memorize snappy one-liners about girls’ education. Today, Mortenson prefers to regard his celebrity as an accident. “Americans want heroes to believe in. Once the machine kicks in, you can be pretty much anyone, and people will flock to you,” Mortenson had said as


Flu season is coming, along with Ebola-like symptoms. Just in time for holiday travel.

care workers for the infection. Flu: a 100-degree-or-higher fever, headache, body ache, fatigue, chills, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea. With airline crews on alert, passengers scrutinizing each other for Ebola symptoms and special screening being established at major international airports, there is already evidence that one sickness can be mistaken for the other. As the flu begins its annual spread and holiday travel picks up in the coming weeks, the confusion is likely to lead to anxious moments. About 43 million Americans will travel more than 50 miles from their home for Thanksgiving, based on the AAA survey from 2013. Most will drive — about 40 million — but more than 3 million will fly. On average in recent years, between 50,000 and 60,000 people in the United States have come down with seasonal flu, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Some years the number is far lower, and others it is much higher. Last Thanksgiving week, of 5,306 people with flu symptoms who were tested, about 10 percent of them actually had the illness, according to the CDC. A 30-year federal survey on the flu found that February usually is the peak month but that there is a spike in December after the Thanksgiving travel. Fear of Ebola sent emergency crews racing to meet a United Airlines flight into Los Angeles International Airport on Sunday after word that a passenger was vomiting and exhibiting flulike symptoms. The fears were buttressed when it was learned that the passenger had flown through New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, destination for about 43 percent of those who fly to the United States from the three African nations hardest hit by Ebola, and that the passenger’s journey began in Africa. The plane, with 148 people aboard, was diverted to a separate runway, where it was boarded by emergency workers wearing containment suits. “Due to the concern and the nature of the patient’s illness, the Los Angeles Fire Department felt it very important to handle this following the CDC procedures,” Capt. Jamie Moore, a public information officer for the department, said at a news conference. “It has turned out that there was some miscommunication, that this person had been to the continent of Africa but not near West Africa. As a matter of fact, it was South Africa.” Moore said the passenger appeared to have suffered from motion sickness. Screening of international


Animal numbers are shrinking, but kids can help

Giant Pandas, like the National Zoo's Bao Bao, are among the endangered species surveyed in the World Wildlife Fund's Living Planet Report. (Abby Wood/Smithsonian Institution) The past four decades have not been very good ones for the world’s animals. Since 1970, the populations of vertebrate species have declined by more than 50 percent. For kids, that means there are half as many mammals, amphibians, reptiles, birds and fish around today as there were around the time their parents were born. This news comes from the World Wildlife Fund’s Living Planet Report, which surveyed the health of more than 10,000 animal populations to understand the challenges facing living things on Earth today. Most of these challenges, the report says, are caused by people. Humans have what is called an “ecological footprint” — a mark we leave on the planet’s environment by using up resources and burning fuels that contribute to climate change. And recently, that footprint has grown very big. “The demands that we’re making on Earth are unsustainable,” said Keya Chatterjee, director of renewable energy for the World Wildlife Fund. Through the Smithsonian's eMammal program, citizen scientists can install cameras that help conservationists learn about local wildlife, such as this deer. (eMammal/Smithsonian Institution) This is bad news for animal species because it’s hard for them to adapt to changes in their environment. There are signs of these changes in the news every day, Chatterjee said. She pointed to the story of 35,000 walruses that gathered on a beach in Alaska this autumn. Normally, the walruses would be resting on sea ice scattered throughout the Arctic. But global warming has caused most of that ice to melt, so the walruses must cram themselves onto the beach when they need to stop swimming, where they are at risk of dying from disease or stampedes. Freshwater creatures — animals that live in lakes, rivers and streams — have suffered the most. Those populations are especially vulnerable to changes in their habitats (such as lakes becoming polluted or drying up) and have declined 76 percent during the time period of the report. But the news from the World Wildlife Fund isn’t completely gloomy. The report also includes conservation success stories and ways to protect species and their habitats. “Humans caused this, and so we know that humans can resolve it,” Chatterjee said. “This stuff can be turned around.” Kids can get involved in the


deer. (eMammal/Smithsonian Institution) This is bad news for animal species because it’s hard for them to adapt to changes in their environment. There are signs of these changes in the news every day, Chatterjee said. She pointed to the story of 35,000 walruses that gathered on a beach in Alaska this autumn. Normally, the walruses would be resting on sea ice scattered throughout the Arctic. But global warming has caused most of that ice to melt, so the walruses must cram themselves onto the beach when they need to stop swimming, where they are at risk of dying from disease or stampedes. Freshwater creatures — animals that live in lakes, rivers and streams — have suffered the most. Those populations are especially vulnerable to changes in their habitats (such as lakes becoming polluted or drying up) and have declined 76 percent during the time period of the report. But the news from the World Wildlife Fund isn’t completely gloomy. The report also includes conservation success stories and ways to protect species and their habitats. “Humans caused this, and so we know that humans can resolve it,” Chatterjee said. “This stuff can be turned around.” Kids can get involved in the conservation effort as well. According to Chatterjee, most of humans’ ecological footprint comes from burning fossil fuels, such as the gasoline that runs cars. Anything you can do to use less energy — whether it’s installing efficient light bulbs or biking to school rather than having your parents drive you — makes a small difference. “Kids are a really important part of this change,” Chatterjee said. “They’re the ones that are most affected by this because they’re the ones who are going to be living with this planet.” “Citizen scientist” programs are another way for people to contribute to conservation efforts. Through the Smithsonian’s eMammal project, families can set up cameras in their back yards to help researchers keep track of endangered animals in our region. Another program, FrogWatchUSA, teaches kids how to recognize and report the calls of local frogs and toads so that scientists can better protect them. These kinds of programs really work, said Don Moore, a senior scientist at the National Zoo and the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. Just look at the bald eagle: The famous bird almost went extinct in the middle of the 20th century, but a combination of government protection, monitoring from


they are at risk of dying from disease or stampedes. Freshwater creatures — animals that live in lakes, rivers and streams — have suffered the most. Those populations are especially vulnerable to changes in their habitats (such as lakes becoming polluted or drying up) and have declined 76 percent during the time period of the report. But the news from the World Wildlife Fund isn’t completely gloomy. The report also includes conservation success stories and ways to protect species and their habitats. “Humans caused this, and so we know that humans can resolve it,” Chatterjee said. “This stuff can be turned around.” Kids can get involved in the conservation effort as well. According to Chatterjee, most of humans’ ecological footprint comes from burning fossil fuels, such as the gasoline that runs cars. Anything you can do to use less energy — whether it’s installing efficient light bulbs or biking to school rather than having your parents drive you — makes a small difference. “Kids are a really important part of this change,” Chatterjee said. “They’re the ones that are most affected by this because they’re the ones who are going to be living with this planet.” “Citizen scientist” programs are another way for people to contribute to conservation efforts. Through the Smithsonian’s eMammal project, families can set up cameras in their back yards to help researchers keep track of endangered animals in our region. Another program, FrogWatchUSA, teaches kids how to recognize and report the calls of local frogs and toads so that scientists can better protect them. These kinds of programs really work, said Don Moore, a senior scientist at the National Zoo and the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. Just look at the bald eagle: The famous bird almost went extinct in the middle of the 20th century, but a combination of government protection, monitoring from citizen scientists and programs to protect their habitat brought the bald eagles back. Now they are no longer considered endangered, and Moore often sees them in his own neighborhood. “The bald eagle is a symbol of optimism,” Moore said. “It shows what we can do if we make individual choices to help animals.” Glossary Conservation: Endangered species: Habitat: Sustainable: Vertebrate: Did you know? The American bison, which has come back from near extinction, has a hump made of muscle, which supports its head as it plows through thick snow — Sarah Kaplan


Case of disabled child who died at troubled group home in Maryland is now a homicide

The July death of a 10-year-old disabled foster child has been ruled a homicide — six years after the Baltimore city boy’s mother was accused of shaking him into a coma-like state, Baltimore police announced Monday. Damaud Martin died July 2 at an Anne Arundel County group home that state regulators were closing for multiple problems. State health officials are still investigating whether Damaud received adequate care while living at the home, which was run by a company called LifeLine, but have cautioned against drawing any premature conclusions. A LifeLine nurse who was caring for Damaud when he died on the morning of July 2 told the Baltimore Sun that she was caring for three disabled children who relied on feeding and breathing tubes even though their care plans called for one-on-one supervision. A Sun investigation of LifeLine showed that the state awarded contracts worth millions of dollars to LifeLine despite numerous issues at its Anne Arundel operations — problems with medical care, a founder imprisoned for arson, unpaid taxes and police reports of abuse and neglect unknown to regulators. Regulators had told the Laurel company in June that its license was going to be revoked after they found that “staffing patterns addressing the health and safety needs of each child had not been maintained” among other problems, records show. LifeLine’s chief executive responded by notifying regulators that the company was closing because of inadequate state reimbursements. LifeLine officials could not be reached for comment. An attorney for Damaud’s family said it appears unlikely that the Anne Arundel contractor or any of its employees would be implicated in the homicide because Baltimore law enforcement officials are investigating. The state medical examiner’s office has not released Damaud’s autopsy because of the ongoing investigations by the Maryland health department and Baltimore police. The office ruled Damaud’s death a homicide on Sept. 17. Homicide determinations are made when the medical examiner finds that “injuries that caused death were inflicted by another person,” said Bruce Goldfarb, a spokesman for the medical examiner’s office. A police department news release about the newly designated homicide details the injuries Damaud suffered on Jan. 19, 2008. It also states that his mother, Tamekia Martin, 34, had been charged with first-degree abuse in the 2008 case. But she has not been charged in connection to her son’s death. “We have not made any arrests and our detectives are continuing


Chef Barry Koslow makes Pinea a fresh reason to check into the W Hotel

At Pinea, a braised chicken thigh is accompanied by house-made boudin blanc and sprinkled with toasted almonds. (Kate Patterson/For The Washington Post) The former chef of DGS Delicatessen downtown is cooking at the new, Mediterranean-themed Pinea in the W Hotel, which sounds like a stretch unless you know that the guy who ditched making brisket for bourride is Barry Koslow. “I’m getting back to my roots: fine dining,” says the veteran chef, 45, whose past employers include 2941 in Falls Church and the late Michel Richard Citronelle in Georgetown. DGS, says Koslow, was a “passion project.” Pinea, owned by Starwood Hotels & Resorts and a follow-up to J&G Steakhouse, is more in line with his long-term aspirations. “Pinea” refers to the pine trees of southern Europe. As such, pine nuts add crunch to dishes as varied as grilled swordish with charred cauliflower and a tart dressed up with candied fennel and lavender ice cream. “Merenda” is the only menu category you might not know by name but will recognize for its style. The meant-to-be-shared snacks include marble-size, crab-filled croquettas that would be bland without their spicy remoulade and delicious fougasse with a trio of dips. My preferred spread with the warm, house-baked wreath of bread combines roasted red peppers and feta cheese. Chef Barry Koslow returns to fine dining at Pinea, in the W Hotel. (Kate Patterson/For The Washington Post) Koslow cooks as much for the eye as the taste buds. Two of his more beautiful appetizers are an elegant version of the Provençal vegetable soup, pistou, served with a sauceboat of shimmering pesto, and charred octopus splashed with sherry vinaigrette. The smoky seafood shares its curvy black plate with saffron-colored potatoes and zippy coins of chorizo. This being a hotel restaurant, there’s a burger. In keeping with its theme, Pinea offers a lamb patty with cucumber yogurt and excellent polenta fries, crisp on the outside and fluffy within. Chances are, you will finish the lot. The same cannot be said of the ziti with rabbit ragu (too sweet) and the chewy ravioli, bested by the buttery chanterelles that flank it. The entree that will lure me back lauds high-end comfort: a braised chicken thigh under a cloak of tomato sauce, scattered with toasted almonds and ennobled with boudin blanc the chef makes himself. The succulent sausage combines chicken, duck and foie gras. Do some of the chairs, padded in


Vegetables: Are they the new bacon? José Andrés and other chefs think so.

recognizing “the flavors people like to eat and applying them to vegetables.” “We’re not trying to have a mock meat. We’re not trying to mimic meat,” she says. “It’s its own cuisine, and it’s really coming into its own right now.” Still, it remains difficult to convince diners that vegetables are much more than a salad or a side dish. Earlier generations saw vegetables as a kind of peasant food, a cheap way to fill a plate when meat was expensive. Eataly’s vegetable-focused Le Verdure “was a tough concept in the beginning because people thought you couldn’t make a meal out of vegetables,” says Alex Pilas, executive chef for Eataly USA. Even now, he says, the restaurant, which has been replicated at every Eataly location, does much of its business at lunch, when diners are in search of lighter meals. And there is one more challenge: Many of the heartier vegetables that can add substance to a meal — the carrotlike salsify, rutabaga and sunchoke — are still relatively unfamiliar to diners, even those who frequent farmers markets and gourmet grocers. To do the prep work for Le Verdure, and to prod along greens-averse customers, Eataly introduced the “vegetable butcher.” It’s a head-scratcher of a job title but based on a sound idea: To encourage shoppers to explore the produce aisles, the market offers to clean and slice and even advise customers on how to use watermelon radish, artichoke and even the mysterious sea bean. Frederik De Pue, executive chef and owner of Table and Menu MBK, says restaurants can teach, too. “People go to restaurants to discover things,” says De Pue. “They leave it up to the chef to make them discover new preparations. So that’s why, as chefs, we need to grab that, and use the celery root. People say, ‘I’ve never had that. Wow.’ ” Andrés occasionally allows that the idea of a fast-casual vegetable restaurant is a wild one. But he says, “I believe this is needed. “When we opened Jaleo, many people told me 20 years ago, ‘Tapas, it’s not going to make it. People in Washington like big portions, people are more conservative, people don’t like to share.’ ” Sometimes, he says confidently, the public doesn’t know what it’s craving. It is the chef who points the way. More from Food: Weeknight Vegetarian column Vegetarian dining in meat-centric restaurants Washington’s 30 essential vegetarian eats


Suspects in killing in Southwest D.C. implicated victim in shooting of their friend

Two people arrested in the shooting death of a man in his Southwest Washington apartment Friday told police that the victim had killed their friend in the District last year, according to court documents filed by D.C. police. Authorities would not comment on whether they believed that the man killed Friday, Ricky Kelly, 29, is linked to the Nov. 21, 2013, shooting death of Kevin Lucas, who was found just south of East Capitol Street and near the Anacostia Freeway in Southeast Washington. Police identified the two arrested in Kelly’s shooting as Gregory Smithwick, 22, of Northeast Washington, and Dominique Holmes, 23, of Southeast. Each has been charged with first-degree murder while armed and they were ordered detained until preliminary hearings Oct. 21. In interviews with police, and while not admitting to the shooting, “both implicated decedent Ricky Kelly in the murder of their friend,” according to an arrest affidavit filed in D.C. Superior Court. Friday’s shooting occurred shortly before 7:30 a.m. in the 100 block of Ivanhoe Street NW, near the Anacostia Freeway and the D.C. police training center. The court affidavit says that before the shooting, the suspects tried to steal one car and then carjacked another at gunpoint, which police said they used to drive to Ivanhoe Street. A witness told police that he heard a struggle from the second-floor hallway outside Kelly’s apartment, and then heard several gunshots. Another saw a man coming out of the apartment wiping blood off his face, the court documents say. Police also said that Kelly was on the phone with a friend when he was attacked, and that the friend heard him shout, “Gimme the gun, gimme the gun,” followed by him yelling, “Call the police.” The friend “heard five gunshots, followed by a pause, then two more gunshots,” the affidavit says. Police said Kelly was struck in the chest, head, neck, hip and left knee. He was pronounced dead at th scene. Shortly after the shooting, police said officers located the stolen silver Hyundai Sonata with Maryland license plates being driven in the 300 block of Southern Avenue SE. Police said they chased the car four miles to Alabama Avenue and 32nd Place, where it crashed. Police arrested the two people in the car and said they found a 9mm Beretta semiautomatic pistol in the vehicle.


Regulations for windmills could prevent bat deaths

Regarding the Oct. 13 news article “A deadly one-two punch for bats: Windmills and disease”: It is especially important that we minimize all human causes of bat mortality if these incredibly beneficial creatures are to stand a chance of survival. Commercial wind turbines cause an estimated 900,000 bat deaths per year, making wind turbines the second-biggest killer of bats, after white-nose syndrome. Nearly all turbine deaths are avoidable. Recent studies showed that up to 93 percent of bat deaths could be prevented if wind turbine operators changed the wind speed at which the blades start moving. More than 800,000 bats could be saved with a minuscule drop in electrical energy production. Despite the strong recommendation from some U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service staff that this solution be regulatory, the agency instead offered it as a voluntary suggestion. Not surprisingly, very few wind companies have implemented this solution. Bats eat insects that otherwise would destroy crops and that carry diseases that affect humans. Without bats, farmers would have to use more pesticides, resulting in higher food prices and more damage to our soil and water. Requiring the industry to implement an easy solution to reduce bat deaths, benefiting crop production and consumers, isn’t unreasonable. Albert M. Manville II, Falls Church The writer is a retired wildlife biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.


What female athletes need to know about iron deficiency

Are you a female athlete? Consider adding steak, dark leafy greens and vegetables into your diet. (Bigstock) A year ago, local running coach and veteran marathoner Kathy Pugh was preparing for the Marine Corps Marathon. But despite a tried-and-true training program, it wasn’t going well. “I just didn’t have the energy,” Pugh says. “I was struggling and felt like I never wanted to do a marathon again.” What had happened? As Pugh found out through a blood test, she was iron-deficient, something that’s not all that unusual for premenopausal women, particularly athletes. “It’s quite common for female athletes to have iron deficiency,” says Nancy Clark, a Boston-based sports nutritionist and author of the “Sports Nutrition Guidebook.” “And it really affects performance.” Exactly how prevalent iron deficiency is among female athletes isn’t known, but Clark says it could be as high as 50 percent. In the general premenopausal female population, the prevalence is roughly 9 percent. A 2011 study of female collegiate rowers in New York state found 10 percent were anemic and 30 percent had low iron stores. (Anemic refers to low hemoglobin, for which the most common reason is low iron. But you can be iron-deficient without being anemic — as was true for Pugh.) Clark attributes iron deficiency among female athletes to monthly blood loss (true for most premenopausal women) and an added demand on iron stores through high-intensity training as well as a focus on lean, vegetarian and natural foods. But wouldn’t “lean, vegetarian and natural” be a good thing? “Absolutely, but if you are vegan, especially as an athlete, you have to make sure you are getting what you need nutritionally,” says Lisa Lilienfield, a doctor with the Kaplan Center for Integrative Medicine in McLean, whose expertise includes women’s health and sports medicine. Iron And so, Clark says, the trend among female athletes and other health-conscious consumers to move away from red meat and to give up fortified foods in favor of natural foods creates a “perfect storm” for iron deficiency. “Female athletes tend to be very health- and weight-conscious,” she says. “And when they want to lose weight, they’ll give up things like hamburgers and steaks,” as well as processed food, she says. For example, good ol’ Grape Nuts – a fortified (“processed”) cereal has 90 percent of the recommended daily allowance for iron, while the natural Kashi Go Lean Crunch has 8 percent. The


JPMorgan profit misses expectations

quarter, allowing it to post a 2 percent increase in mortgage banking income even as it made 40 percent fewer home loans compared with the same period last year. Overall, the fourth-largest U.S. bank’s net income for common shareholders was $5.41 billion, or $1.02 per share, in the quarter, in line with analysts’ expectations. A year ago, it posted profit of $5.32 billion, or 99 cents per share. Citigroup, up 2.7 percent at $51.26, was among the top boosts to the benchmark S&P index after the bank posted better-than-expected quarterly results and said it would pull out of consumer banking in 11 markets. — From news reports IRELAND Corporate tax loophole to close Ireland’s government will phase out a tax shelter used by U.S. companies from Google to LinkedIn, amid mounting pressure from international authorities. The “Double Irish,” which allows companies to avoid paying tax on much of their income, will be closed to new entrants starting in January, Finance Minister Michael Noonan said Tuesday in parliament in Dublin, as he laid out the 2015 budget. Companies enjoying the tax break can continue to do so until 2020. “Aggressive tax planning by multi-national companies has been criticized by governments across the globe,” Noonan, 71, said. It has “damaged the reputation of many countries.” As he delivered his fourth budget, Noonan said the state will stick by its 12.5 percent corporate tax rate, which has helped draw companies such as LinkedIn and Airbnb to Dublin and keep the economy afloat after the worst real estate collapse in Western Europe. Today, facing a general election within 18 months, Noonan is laying out the first non-austerity budget in eight years. “The macroeconomic and fiscal framework underpinning this year’s budget is far more favorable than in previous years,” Noonan said. “The recovery is gaining momentum.” — Bloomberg News Also in Business ● Intel gave a current-quarter revenue forecast above expectations and said Tuesday that the supply chain was in good shape ahead of the holiday season as demand for personal computers recovered. A global slump in personal-computer demand that began with Apple’s launch of the iPad four years ago has stabilized in recent months, in part because of companies replacing employees’ older laptops. For the third quarter, Intel said its mobile and communications group had an operating loss of $1.04 billion on revenue of $1 million, reflecting subsidies Intel has been paying to persuade


Why ‘Fearbola’ reminds me of the early AIDS panic

Fox News, and you might have Fearbola.” About the only thing that happened this past week that didn’t mirror the AIDS panic was that the phrase “Ebola fear” became a trending topic on Twitter — and that’s no doubt only because the social network was unimaginable in 1983. I’m not the only one to draw this parallel. At a recent World Bank meeting, the CDC’s Frieden said that the last time he witnessed anything like the Ebola outbreak was during the early years of the HIV/AIDS crisis, cautioning: “We have to work now so this is not the world’s next AIDS.” HIV/AIDS and Ebola have certain broad similarities: Both emerged in Africa, both are caused by viruses, and both, at least at their onset, have extremely high mortality rates. But there are significant differences. AIDS has a long latency period, meaning that those infected with HIV can go years without symptoms (although still transmit it). When it first emerged, no known tests could diagnose the virus; in fact, the virus was not named HIV until 1986. And it wasn’t until 1995 that the AIDS cocktail, the life-prolonging drug treatment, became widely available. Ebola symptoms, by contrast, typically appear within 21 days; there is an antibody test, and generally effective treatments exist. Patients must be exhibiting symptoms, such as vomiting or diarrhea, to spread the disease. Most notably, those infected with Ebola are dying gruesome, fast deaths. AIDS fear was predicated on the unknown; fear of Ebola is largely based on what we do know. “AIDS phobia,” a term used to describe discrimination against those with HIV, ravaged the United States because of a dearth of political leadership, misleading if not inaccurate information from public health officials, and a news media that stoked anxiety in its quest for ratings and headlines. Together, these became almost as dangerous to public health and civil rights as the virus itself. How did this happen? President Ronald Reagan’s record is forever tarnished by his lack of leadership on HIV/AIDS; he infamously refused to address it until 1987. By that time, the CDC reported that more than 40,000 Americans had contracted the disease and more than 23,000 of them had died. When the president did speak about AIDS prevention, he recused the government and alarmingly mingled science with ethics: “The federal role must be to give educators accurate information about the disease. How that information is


Buck’s, Restaurant Eve, Vermilion: Three dining guide near-misses

The upstairs dining room scene at Vermilion. (Sean McCormick/For The Washington Post) T The less pleasant aspect of October is explaining why some places fell off the list. That’s this week’s mission. As in years past, many are called, few are chosen. More than 80 restaurants were revisited in the past four months for potential inclusion in the collection. Fewer than half of the candidates made the cut, mostly because they seemed to be cooking in place (or worse). Simply because a previous favorite didn’t make my current roster doesn’t mean the establishment is a less desirable experience. Where’s Blue Duck Tavern, you ask? I’m giving its new chef time to settle in. Similarly, when Eric Ziebold said he would be leaving CityZen to open a place of his own in the near future, I decided against returning to the luxury dining room in the Mandarin Oriental for what would likely be a short-lived critique. Restaurants featured in the fall guide are there with the expectation they’re going to last at least until the next roundup. Time didn’t permit me to make multiple visits to the following popular restaurants, so I’m not changing their star ratings — yet. So consider these snapshots rather than fully developed pictures. BUCK’S FISHING CAMPING (Scott Suchman/For The Washington Post) Even if it weren’t in a part of the city sorely lacking for good places to eat, Buck’s Fishing & Camping, the recipient of a 2½-star rating last November, would probably play to a full house. There’s comfort in a staff that guides you through dinner like able scouts. Eleven years in, the folksy American restaurant also retains the good looks with which it opened; red walls, amber globes, a community table that runs 20 handsome feet long and an oil-on-linen nude over the bar remain as alluring as ever. The charms, alas, do not extend to as much of the menu as a year ago. Chewy fish tacos and soft shell crabs offered with a stiff slab of cornbread pudding left me scratching my head here in mid-summer, and an encounter in early autumn with a trio of duck biscuits left me longing for the good old days at Buck’s. Tanned past optimal, the biscuits came stuffed with what smacked of leftover duck and gravy — from days earlier. Lobster stew should be rebranded “soup”; more watery than creamy, it tasted thinly of shallots


Montgomery County Animal Watch

No cases were reported by the Montgomery County Animal Services Division. For information, call 240-773-5900. This number provides recorded information on topics such as the new animal services and adoption center’s hours and location in Derwood, adoption and licensing procedures, and lost-and-found and field services. The Partnership for Animal Welfare Adoptable cats at no-kill shelter: Gaithersburg Adopt or foster rescue dogs: Rockville Reduced fees for cat adoption: Germantown — Compiled by Lisa M. Bolton


Volleyball: No. 1 Flint Hill dominates on its trip to Roanoke, remains undefeated

to its first undefeated since 2010 when the Huskies finished a program-best 33-0 and as the The Post’s No. 1 team. Hesitant to discuss a possible undefeated season before, the Huskies have come to realization that they have a special group with eight seniors. They talked about an undefeated finish before Tuesday’s practice. The 2010 did them one better with nine seniors including four-year Virginia starting outside hitter Tori Janowski, the 2010 All-Met Player of the Year. “The thing that separates them from the 2010 team is the closeness and how well they play together,” Flint Hill Coach Carrol Anderson said. “Our schedule is though, and we aren’t overlooking anyone.” Gracie, Carrol’s daughter, has been a digging machine for the Huskies with 256 stops, which is among the top five players in the area. Combined with Ford and McKnight’s explosive play at the net, 223 and 209 kills, respectively, the Huskies are primed for a repeat sweep of the Independent School League, City and Virginia Independent Schools Athletic Association titles. “We have to keep working hard and stay focused,” McKnight said. “We have little goals that we set every game and those are crucial for us. Little things like that make our team.” Briar Woods runs streak to 11 In year two, Briar Woods has fully adjusted to Falcons Coach Marsha Hermes’s way of running the volleyball program. It took some time for the Falcons to adjust to her more regimented style of coaching, but the players have flourished this season with 11 consecutive wins. On Tuesday, the Falcons found themselves down two sets against Freedom-South Riding. The Falcons turned up the intensity to win the final three sets in a 23-25, 18-25, 25-21, 25-19, 15-9 win in South Riding. Junior Lauren Twitty posted a season-high 19 kills to rally the Falcons along with 15 digs. “We did not change anything. One of our assistant coaches, Coach Mike Byers, gave an encouraging speech and we went off that,” Twitty said. “That kind of pumped us up. After that, it was awesome.” Briar Woods (12-2, 4-0 Conference 14) began the season with losses in two of its first three matches. Hermes moved the offense from a 5-1 attack to a 6-2 and the offense has been clicking since. Senior setter Taylor van der Biezen (275 assists) has thrived in the new system with more options on offense. The 6-foot-1 Twitty has


Recognizing the threats Ebola poses

our lack of readiness. Emergency preparedness is about anticipating problems. Bird flu, HIV and growing antibiotic resistance have failed so far to rouse the public to demand a focus on public health, the budgets for which have been shrinking. I hope that what is happening in West Africa and Texas will be a dramatic wake-up call about the importance of public health and emergency preparedness domestically and globally. Richard Lee Skolnik, Reston ● Bushmeat in Africa is a dangerous source of viruses, including Ebola, that may be transmitted to humans. It is illegal to import bushmeat into the United States, and smoked meat has been confiscated at U.S. airports. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other organizations have shown that other viruses that infect humans and wildlife are in imported bushmeat. Every year 260 tons of bushmeat arrive at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris. A 2012 report showed that 80 percent of the bushmeat confiscated at U.S. ports was from West African animals. Increased emphasis is being placed on evaluating international passengers arriving from West Africa at U.S. airports. This action should be coupled with an increase in inspections of cargo and luggage. Confiscation of bushmeat at U.S. ports is an urgent national priority. The Ebola epidemic in West Africa suggests that imported bushmeat could serve as a source of infection. Roger Lawson, Columbia ● As an associate professor of bioethics and nursing, I know that nurses and other health-care workers often work in unfamiliar and dangerous patient-care situations [“Dallas nurse tests positive for Ebola,” front page, Oct. 13]. This means that mistakes can and do happen. That two Dallas health workers acquired Ebola raises many questions. If a breach occurred, how? What type of training did they receive to prepare for Ebola patients? How many hours were they at the patient’s bedside? We must focus on what went wrong to minimize any future virus transmission to health-care workers and to allay the public’s fear. A national consensus is urgently needed on uniform, centralized and well-thought-out training procedures and policies that decrease nurses’ exposure time to Ebola patients. But let’s also applaud the workers’ smart thinking in recognizing their symptoms and getting themselves immediately isolated and under medical care. More important, they deserve our gratitude for courageously risking their lives to care for others in need as their lives are now in jeopardy. Connie M. Ulrich, Lothian


Kennedy Center’s new leader wants to showcase contemporary artists

art to explain and understand the world. “Art is certainly for art’s sake,” she said. “But I also fervently believe in art for life’s sake. She also spoke of the role of the arts in her life, her family’s and in the larger world. She recalled her third-grade teacher who opened a closet and asked her students, “What instrument will you play?” “That teacher gave me the first tool and curiosity and passion to find myself. To write my story in the arts,” she said. Her address was followed by a half-hour of questions that touched on the importance of cultural diplomacy and her early experiences in the nation’s capital. Rutter’s responses demonstrated her sharp political skills and her sense of humor. For example, while she was direct in her support of contemporary composers — a hallmark of her tenure at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, where she worked from 2003 until June — and passionate in her description of the “missionary work” of increasing access and participation in the arts, she tap-danced around questions of whether she “is happy with the National Symphony Orchestra.” “The word ‘maestro’ means teacher. Every orchestra needs to be motivated, led by and guided by great teachers,” she began. “Christoph Eschenbach is an extraordinary maestro.” But she wasn’t finished. “We need to continue to help elevate the musicianship,” she said, adding that the audience has a role in that work. “Being in the audience is important. It is about a relationship between artist and the audience. I need your help by being a part of our orchestra as it continues to grow.” She responded in similar fashion about the Washington National Opera, a company she said needs to be nurtured and supported. “Its future is great.” When asked to comment on the labor strife at the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, where management has locked out musicians over a contract dispute, she laughed. “Six weeks on the job and I’m an expert in everything,” she said. Rutter noted that the $100 million expansion of the Kennedy Center (the groundbreaking ceremony is Dec. 4, with a tentative opening in 2017) will create informal spaces to encourage participation and interaction with artists. She cited these spaces when asked whether the Millennium Stage, the free venue, will continue but probably in “a new format.” “As with anything that is innovative and new, it needs to grow and evolve,” she said.


Lockheed Martin is building a compact nuclear fusion reactor

Energy Lockheed is building small fusion reactor What if the nuclear reaction that heats the sun could be replicated to power cities on Earth? Lockheed Martin is betting that it can be done — and within a decade. The defense giant said Wednesday that it is building a compact fusion reactor. The key term here is “compact.” Although nuclear fusion has been studied for decades, Lockheed is hoping to build a reactor small enough to fit on the back of a truck and ship around the globe. “Many of the approaches [to nuclear fusion] right now have significant drawbacks,” Tom McGuire, compact-fusion lead for Lockheed’s California-based “Skunk Works” team, said in a phone interview. Some of those drawbacks include instability associated with the reaction, he said, and scaling problems, which means the reactor needs to be very large for fusion to work. “What’s different about our physics is it’s inherently small and stable,” McGuire said. The Skunk Works Group’s first step is proving that its model works, he said. Eventually, the company hopes that “instead of a construction project, we can make them in a factory,” he said. With the announcement, Lockheed joins a host of ongoing global efforts to study the potential of nuclear fusion. For example, the European Commission last week announced a $1 billion initiative to develop nuclear fusion as an energy source by 2020. — Amrita Jayakumar pharmaceuticals AbbVie reconsidering $55 billion takeover U.S. pharmaceutical company AbbVie said Wednesday that it was reconsidering its proposed $55 billion takeover of Shire in the wake of government moves to curb deals designed to cut taxes, wiping as much as $13 billion off the London-listed firm’s stock price. Chicago-based AbbVie said it was responding to the proposals that aim to make it harder for American firms to shift their tax bases out of the United States and into lower-cost countries in Europe. AbbVie’s move for Shire, a leader in drugs to treat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and rare diseases, was announced in July amid a spate of similar takeover deals within the U.S. and European pharmaceutical sectors. AbbVie proposed creating a new U.S.-listed holding company with a tax domicile in Britain, which applies low tax rates to patent income and has passed laws that make it easy for companies to shift profits into tax havens. The news hammered shares in Shire, sending them down 23 percent — back to where


part of changes in management under President Jim Yong Kim at a time when staff members are questioning his reorganization plans. The departures of Philippe Le Houérou, a bank veteran who had been vice president for South Asia, and Inger Andersen, a vice president for the Middle East and North Africa, were announced Wednesday by Kim at a town hall meeting in Washington. Bank spokesman David Theis declined to provide reasons for the moves. Le Houérou was appointed vice president at the London-based European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Andersen, in a message posted on her Twitter page, said she is becoming director general of the International Union for Conservation of Nature. ● General Motors’ global sales rose 2 percent in the third quarter, driven by strong demand in the two largest auto markets in the world, China and the United States. The No. 1 U.S. automaker said it sold 2,449,595 cars and trucks, up from 2,396,864 in the same period last year. That marked GM’s best third-quarter sales since 1980. In the first nine months of this year, GM sold 7,371,743 vehicles, up 2 percent from 7,250,764 last year. ● Nike’s Converse brand is suing 31 companies, saying they are selling knockoff versions of its Chuck Taylor sneakers. Converse is suing Skechers USA, Wal-Mart Stores, Fila, Ed Hardy, K-Mart and Ralph Lauren, among many others. It says the companies are infringing on trademarks that cover the look of the shoe and the diamond pattern on the bottom of the sole. Nike acquired Converse in 2003. Sales of the brand rose 16 percent in the most recent quarter, ended in August, to $575 million. ● Wal-Mart Stores cut its outlook for revenue growth for the current fiscal year as it confronts a tough global economic environment. The world’s largest company now expects annual sales to be up 2 to 3 percent, down from its guidance of 3 to 5 percent growth that it released a year ago. The reduced guidance, announced at its annual analysts’ meeting, comes as the Bentonville, Ark.-based retailer reduces its capital spending on its physical stores because of its move to halve the store growth of its Supercenters. — From news services Coming Today ● 8:30 a.m.: Jobless claims released. ● 9:15 a.m.: Industrial production. ● ● Earnings: BB&T, Capitol One, Delta Air Lines, Goldman Sachs, Google, Mattel, Philip Morris, Piper Jaffray, Schlumberger, SLM, Winnebago Industries.


Ask Amy: Husband plays games; marriage is the loser

from the start. I discovered it gradually. He admitted some of it, but there is way more. He went for an STD test a few years ago. He said it came up negative so it was none of my business. I want to know the extent of his infidelity, but when I bring it up he screams at me and makes me the culprit and storms out for the night. I agree I am a fool for sticking around. But I am in my 50s and I don’t want to start over. I do want the truth. And the pain in my heart it causes when I see what is going on kills my soul. Every boyfriend I have ever had has cheated on me. No, I am not exaggerating. I have contracted STDs from each of them. Does a cheater ever quit? Is a cheater ever honest? -- Sad DEAR SAD: Not everybody cheats, but many people do — at least once. According to one study I read, 57 percent of men admitted to at least one instance of infidelity (in any relationship). The percentage for women was about the same (54 percent). Because you are in a lifelong pattern, you need to examine the dynamics of your own life — and your past — to see what it is that makes this okay for you. This is sad, depressing and an unfortunate reflection of your self-esteem. There is no loneliness as deep as the one you feel when you are in a relationship in which you are devalued. Your cheater might not change, but you can. I hope you will get help to understand your own motivations. Of course you can start over. And you should. DEAR AMY: This is in response to “Wondering,” who wanted to know how to ask her friend to pick up the rental car tab for a trip to her family’s vacation home. I wonder why she is more focused on covering her rental car cost than finding a way they might compensate her family for providing accommodation and meals. Perhaps “Wondering’s” parents, similarly, are hoping she will “think of it on her own.” -- Responder DEAR RESPONDER: Good point. Amy’s column appears seven days a week at www.washingtonpost.com/advice. Write to Amy Dickinson at askamy@tribune.com or Ask Amy, Chicago Tribune, TT500, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, Ill. 60611. 2014 by the Chicago Tribune


Stricter Ebola screening begins for travelers arriving at Dulles airport

bears responsibility for the process, said it would not release information, and passengers emerging from routine passport and luggage checks said they saw no evidence of it. The enhanced screening that was expected to begin Thursday at Dulles and three other international gateway airports — Chicago’s O’Hare International, Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International and Newark Liberty International — is intended to single out travelers from Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia in West Africa. By the time the plane wheels thud against the runway at Dulles, passengers from the three nations should have been through the process twice already. According to guidelines, they should have been quizzed and scrutinized for symptoms when they began their journey in one of those three nations. It should have happened a second time when they boarded flights for the United States in London, Brussels, Paris or Naples. During the flight across the Atlantic, flight attendants alerted to the fact a passenger was coming from West Africa watched for any sign of illness, mindful of their obligation to radio ahead to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention if anyone showed symptoms. Jacqueline Tagne, 41, and her four children flew into Dulles on the Ethiopian Airlines flight after departing their native Cameroon, in Central Africa. Before they boarded the flight in Addis Ababa, airport officials took their temperatures and screened them for Ebola-like symptoms. When they arrived at Dulles, she said, they moved quickly through customs. No special screening. No temperature checks. No people in hazmat suits. “There was nothing special,” she said. Bienvenu Mouofo, who was there to welcome his sister-in-law and her four children, said he was surprised his relatives did not go through the extra screening process. But he said he hoped the stepped-up screening could help prevent the spread of the deadly virus. “This is great. The health-care system needs to do what it can to prevent the disease,” he said. “But the best way to fight the virus is by helping to stop it in Africa.” Under the enhanced screening guidelines, travelers from Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia are singled out by officers from CBP for examination and asked to fill out an Ebola-specific questionnaire. They will have their temperatures taken — fever is a symptom of the virus — and be taken to an isolation room if the temperature is higher than 100.4 degrees. Passengers whose travel began in other nations,


What’s brewing in Northern Virginia: Old Bust Head, Heritage Brewing and BadWolf Brewing

storefront nanobrewery, so the tap turnover remains constant. Manassas’s first brewery sits right across the street from Heritage Brewing Company in a nondescript strip mall between a hair salon and a print shop. As intimate as Heritage and Old Bust Head are spacious, BadWolf more closely resembles tiny Crooked Run Brewing, the Leesburg nanobrewery that opened about the same time. But Badwolf makes the most of that space. Three tables fill the front room, and the colorful bar — decorated with beer caps — can sit another handful of folks. Each batch ferments in one of many plastic tanks in a storage closet. And the six taps are guaranteed to be pouring something interesting. The Meyerses are working with about 190 recipes while revisiting only a few, such as the popular Jesse’s Girl, an American amber ale. So while they’ll put a seasonal pumpkin saison on tap, as they did during their recent fall festival, BadWolf might also have a smoked rauchbier or a recent favorite of Jeremy Meyers’s, Ignis Infernalis, a rye amber made with smoked malt and habanero. But even with the near-constant brewing, producing about 200 gallons a week, Meyers says it’s hard for BadWolf to keep up with demand. The brewery’s convenient spot on busy Route 28 near Old Town Manassas keeps business steady, and the company has exceeded early expectations. “It built a lot faster than we expected it to,” Meyers says. “We get very close to running out of beer on a weekly basis.” Come next spring or summer, that shouldn’t be a concern. BadWolf plans to expand to a second location — this one in a warehouse, about three miles from the storefront — that will house a 10-barrel system, a large tasting room with 12 taps, and plenty of space for events and music performances. Meyers says BadWolf also has plans to start bottling and distributing, starting with the restaurants in Manassas and working into Northern Virginia. The new brewery also plans to serve coffee from their friends (and BadWolf regulars) Ryan and Alycia Otte, who are working to open Monument Coffee Roasters in Manassas. That brewing friendship has led to a collaboration, flowing very soon through one of BadWolf’s taps: the Monument Coffee Imperial Stout. Meyers jokingly calls this milk stout a “latte,” but it checks in at 8.5 percent ABV, giving it a bit more kick than your late-afternoon coffee.


Donald Shore, bassoonist with Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra, dies at 52

Tenor Plácido Domingo (L) and bassoonist Donald Shore in an undated photo. (Photo by David Peiffer) Donald A. Shore, principal bassoonist of the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra and the Washington National Opera Orchestra for 30 years, died Oct. 9 at his home in Washington. He was 52. The cause was brain cancer, said his brother, Tony Shore. At 23, Mr. Shore became one of the youngest members and principal musicians of the Kennedy Center’s Opera House Orchestra. There, he accompanied prestigious ballet organizations including the Bolshoi and Mariinsky ballets and performed in numerous concerts. With the Washington National Opera, he collaborated with opera stars such as tenors Plácido Domingo and Andrea Bocelli. In the Washington area, he was principal bassoonist of the Wolf Trap Opera and the Post Classical Ensemble, and he performed with the Virginia Chamber Orchestra and National Gallery Orchestra. Reviewing a 1989 concert of the Virginia Chamber Orchestra, Joseph McLellan wrote in The Washington Post that Mr. Shore “showed virtuoso technique” in performing the “Bachiana Brasileira” No. 6 of Heitor Villa-Lobos. Domingo, who had served as the Washington National Opera’s music director from 1994 to 2011, said in a statement that Mr. Shore was “a great artist.” Donald Allen Shore, a third-generation Washingtonian, was born Nov. 30, 1961. He began playing the bassoon at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School, where he graduated in 1979. He studied at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore before transferring to the University of Toronto, where he received a bachelor’s degree in music and bassoon performance in 1984. As a senior, he won the National Symphony Orchestra’s Young Soloists’ Competition. Survivors include his companion of nine years, David Peiffer of Washington; two brothers, Tony Shore of Chevy Chase, Md., and Francis Shore III of Fort Myers, Fla.; and two sisters, Lynne Grace of Eastbourne, England, and K.C. Shore of Auckland, New Zealand.


Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley on Ebola: ‘We can’t live our lives in fear.’

Texas Health Presybterian Hospital nurse Nina Pham is helped out of the back of an ambulance in Dallas. Pham, 26, who has Ebola, was transferred from Dallas to an isolation unit at the National Institute of Health in Bethesda. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) As a Texas nurse infected with Ebola began treatment at the National Institutes of Health clinical center in Bethesda, Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) had this message for his state’s residents on Friday morning: Nothing should change in your daily lives. “We can’t live our lives in fear, and our fear is not going to help us to contain any potential cases that we identify,” O’Malley said during a news conference with health officials in Baltimore. “I don’t find fear to be of any great service.” O’Malley said that U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell called him on Thursday with a “heads up” that one of the country’s Ebola patients would soon arrive in his state. That wasn’t a surprise, he said, as Maryland is home to several leading public health institutions. O’Malley said that Maryland could see even more patients transferred to Maryland — along with some suspected cases that turn out to be negative and, perhaps, some that are positive. O’Malley and other health officials were firmly confident on Friday that the state could safely handle such cases — just as it has responded in the past to worries of SARS, swine flu and anthrax-laced letters. “This is not the first time we’ve had things like this,” O’Malley said. “We’ve been through things like this before.” Maryland health officials said Friday that they are closely coordinating with their counterparts in D.C. and Northern Virginia to share procedures, policies and information. Within the state there have been rounds of meetings, conference calls and intense training sessions. Operators answering 911 calls are now asking detailed questions about symptoms and travel histories so that emergency responders can arrive in protective gear, if needed. The same sort of questioning is also happening at the front lines of hospitals and emergency rooms, they said. Those who are at the highest risk of contracting Ebola are health-care workers treating seriously ill patients, and the Maryland officials say they have modified their plans as they learn more about how workers elsewhere in the country likely became infected. For example: There have been concerns about how some of those workers removed


training sessions. Operators answering 911 calls are now asking detailed questions about symptoms and travel histories so that emergency responders can arrive in protective gear, if needed. The same sort of questioning is also happening at the front lines of hospitals and emergency rooms, they said. Those who are at the highest risk of contracting Ebola are health-care workers treating seriously ill patients, and the Maryland officials say they have modified their plans as they learn more about how workers elsewhere in the country likely became infected. For example: There have been concerns about how some of those workers removed their protective gear, said Dr. Lisa L. Maragakis of Johns Hopkins Hospital, so her institution has trained doctors, nurses and others to use a “buddy system” when putting their gear on and taking it off. That means one person helps another put on his or her gear and vice versa. Meanwhile, a third person monitors from a distance. They have also practiced this routine using red paint to learn how to avoid contact with fluids that might be on the outside of their gear. “They are practicing that procedure again and again and again,” Maragakis said. O’Malley and the health officials had some advice for Marylanders who want to be proactive: Those who have traveled to regions where Ebola is rampant — like Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia — need to be upfront in sharing that information. And everyone else needs to get a flu shot, as many flu symptoms are the same as those of Ebola. “That might sound silly,” the governor said, “but to the degree that we can reduce the numbers of our citizens who come down with the flu, that will eliminate some of the strain on the system.” And the officials also did their best to share some basic facts about the infectious disease in hopes of calming some fears: Ebola is spread through bodily fluids and is not airborne, they pointed out, and the virus can be easily killed with basic disinfectant cleaners. Maryland’s top health official, Joshua Sharfstein, said that he has answered questions on several recent call-in shows and has heard people ask things like: Should I postpone my surgery? Can I send my child to school? “At this point, the Ebola virus is not affecting our daily lives in Maryland,” he said, “and there’s no reason to let it do so.”


Woman who fell ill near Pentagon does not have Ebola

An emergency worker in a hazmat suit sprays another worker in a Pentagon parking lot after a woman who recently traveled to Africa vomited there on Friday. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters) A woman whose illness caused concern near the Pentagon and a four-hour quarantine for passengers on a bus in the District does not have Ebola, Arlington and Fairfax County officials confirmed Friday. The woman vomited in a parking lot at the Pentagon about 9:15 a.m., and the county initially reported that she indicated she recently had been to western Africa. She was isolated at Inova Fairfax Hospital, and 22 people on a Pentagon shuttle bus, which she had briefly boarded, were kept quarantined for hours. About 5 p.m., the two counties’ health departments said in a statement that she did not have the virus. The hospital said in a statement that she did not meet the criteria to be tested for Ebola. The episode demonstrated the extraordinary precautions that authorities in the United States are taking to avoid transmission of the deadly virus, which has infected nearly 9,000 people in western Africa and three in America to date. Two officials with knowledge of Friday’s incident said they do not believe the woman has recently traveled out of the United States. Here's how the virus spreads and how contact tracing works to stop outbreaks. Steve Gordon, the woman’s boss at the public relations firm Total Spectrum, said the woman was suffering a severe illness and he does not think she has ever left the country. Gordon said the ordeal left him concerned about his employee’s privacy. He said the Pentagon sent Marine officials to question him about the woman. “I understand the mass hysteria out there,” Gordon said. “It’s the wildest thing I’ve ever seen. I’m trying to balance the requirements of following up on all this publicly with the overreach that is going on. I want to put this thing to bed.” He said the woman transfers bus lines near the Pentagon on her daily commute to and from Fairfax County. He said he believes she became disoriented and mistakenly boarded the shuttle instead of a public bus. The shuttle, carrying Marines and other Defense Department guests to a Marine Corps event, was parked in a commuter lot outside the Pentagon’s security perimeter. Lt. Col. Eric Dent, public affairs officer for the Marine commandant, was on the bus. He said that


How to cover the Islamic State — and survive

that are supposed to create space for negotiations serve no purpose. While families and media organizations (rather than governments) have negotiated the release of hostages in other parts of the world, this has not been the case in Syria. More open reporting on kidnappings, however, and the public engagement it would elicit can compel governments to take more decisive steps. This could include military action, efforts to find another government that could serve as an intermediary with the hostage-takers or more direct engagement with the families of the kidnapping victims. It is less clear, but possible, that more open discussion of kidnappings could also pressure Islamic State militants. For example, the family of recently killed British hostage Alan Henning sought to highlight his humanitarian work on behalf of Muslims in Syria, and the family of American aid worker Peter Kassig , shown in the most recent Islamic State video, has publicly emphasized his conversion to Islam (while in captivity, Kassig changed his name to Abdul-Rahman). To have the best chance at success, these campaigns must begin long before Islamic State fighters issue a public death sentence — after which the group cannot back down without losing face. It is reasonable to withhold certain information that could endanger a hostage. But as blackouts become the norm, governments’ demands on journalists are growing. The British government, for example, now routinely sends messages to British and U.S. publications, requesting that they suppress certain news. And in Turkey, the government recently demanded that the local news media withhold coverage of the abduction of Turkish diplomats by Islamic State fighters in Mosul, Iraq. When I recently met with Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, he contrasted the “responsible” U.S. media with the supposedly reckless Turkish media, which revealed information about the Mosul hostages. In such cases, he argued, the media has an “ethical responsibility not to say anything.” The threshold for blackouts needs to be raised, and at a minimum there should be more aggressive and comprehensive reporting once hostages are released. It is a sensitive issue, but the Islamic State benefits from an environment in which these facts are obscured. Covering Syria The horrifying beheading videos released by the Islamic State have heightened public awareness of the dangers journalists face when covering the conflict in Syria. In fact, more than 70 journalists have been killed there since the civil war erupted in 2011. Initially, rebel


Wind industry looking out for the bats

Regarding the Oct. 13 news article “A deadly one-two punch for bats: Windmills and disease”: Wind power companies take their effect on all wildlife, including bats, seriously. Studies have shown wind power has the lowest life-cycle environmental impact of any major energy source, illustrated in part by our legacy of care regarding wildlife. In 2003, Bat Conservation International, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the American Wind Energy Association and the Energy Department’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory formed the Bats and Wind Energy Cooperative (BWEC) to better understand the interaction between bats and wind turbines and find solutions to reduce ill effects. BWEC’s partners are actively investigating several promising techniques to protect bats, such as acoustic deterrents and potential operational changes, including adjustments to turbine cut-in speeds. Moreover, climate change represents the greatest threat to bats and all wildlife, and wind power’s proven ability to reduce carbon dioxide emissions is one of the smartest ways to protect our environment and our society. John M. Anderson, Washington The writer is director of permitting policy and environmental affairs for the American Wind Energy Association.


NIH unit treating Dallas nurse for Ebola is one of 4 special isolation facilities in U.S.

It has a specially designed air-flow system to prevent contaminated air from leaving the patient room. It requires anyone who enters to be buzzed in. Personnel who work there receive special training in infection control to prevent the spread of bioterror agents, natural or man-made. It also has a tiny gym. Welcome to the Special Clinical Studies Unit at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md. It is a 4,000-square-foot unit inside the NIH Clinical Center, the nation’s only hospital dedicated to research, which provides free state-of-the-art care to very sick patients from all over the world. Now it’s home to its first confirmed Ebola patient, Nina Pham. Pham is the first patient with a confirmed infectious disease to be cared for in the special seven-bed unit, center director John Gallin said in an interview Friday. Opened in 2010 for patients who need advanced isolation and extended stays, the unit was initially designed to take care of personnel working at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases in case they were exposed to infectious agents. In more recent years, it has been used to house healthy volunteers participating in live vaccine trials. The volunteers need to be monitored in a place where they can be safely quarantined, Gallin said. To accommodate those healthy volunteers, the unit has a dining room and a “tiny fitness area,” he said. Pham, the first nurse diagnosed with Ebola after caring for a patient in Dallas, is in fair and stable condition, officials said Friday morning. “We are giving her the best possible care on a symptomatic and systemic basis,” Anthony Fauci, director of NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said during a news conference. Pham, 26, was transferred to the facility, one of four in the country with a special biocontainment unit, late Thursday. She was diagnosed with Ebola on Sunday, becoming the first person to contract the disease on U.S. soil. Pham had been part of the team that treated Thomas Eric Duncan, a Liberian man who flew to Dallas last month before being diagnosed with Ebola. Duncan died last week, four days before it was announced that Pham had contracted the disease. “There is no specific therapy that has been proven to be effective against Ebola, and that’s why excellent medical care is critical,” Fauci said. He said Pham was “very, very tired” from her trip. Patients


Some politicians demanding temporary travel ban

it’s never worked,” said Lawrence O. Gostin, faculty director of the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University and director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Center on Public Health Law & Human Rights. The United States did not put in place travel bans with the outbreak of SARS in 2003, though it did perform health checks in airports, handing out cards listing symptoms. The World Health Organization issued an emergency advisory during the outbreak, warning against travel to China, Hong Kong and Toronto. Gostin and others said that barring travel from the three countries will spur people who want to leave to slip across porous borders into another country from which they will travel. The Post's Abby Phillip looks past the Ebola hysteria to address three of the latest misconceptions about the deadly virus. “Germs don’t respect borders. They will cross borders, they will go by other means, it will give them greater incentive to get out, and it will get more people infected,” he said. “It will impede medical supplies, food, humanitarian assistance. “It would exacerbate a health and humanitarian crisis,” Gostin said. “We couldn’t do anything worse.” In 2009, President Obama lifted a 22-year ban on travel to the United States by people who tested positive for HIV, a policy that he said was “rooted in fear rather than fact.” Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said on Capitol Hill this week that officials just won’t know who is traveling to the United States from an affected country if flights are suspended — because they would just go somewhere else first. “Right now we know who is coming in,” he said, and if people travel overland or from other countries, “We won’t be able to check them for fever” at designated U.S. airports. The White House said Friday that Obama is not “philosophically opposed” to a travel ban but believes it could, in the end, do more harm than good. “Putting in place a travel ban could have a pretty perverse effect on people who are seeking to travel to this country,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Friday. Another unintended consequence of a travel ban would be its effect on the flow of thousands of medical and aid workers needed to halt the epidemic at its root, said Stephen Morrison, senior vice president and director of


Book review: ‘The Brewer’s Tale,’ a history of beer, by William Bostwick

warily — sipping his latest experimental home brews. In keeping with the maker culture we live in today, Bostwick wisely structures “The Brewer’s Tale” around the makers, starting with the Babylonians, then moving on to shamans, monks, farmers, patriots, industrialists and so on. In every chapter he describes the ancient methods once used to brew beer and the reasons behind them — the beer-spoiling length of a voyage to India, say, or an effort to ward off the plague — and then he attempts a modern re-creation of an old recipe. Bostwick admits to being a careless home brewer, keeping no records and throwing in handfuls of strange but historically accurate ingredients. The results aren’t always wonderful — his Thanksgiving guests took a polite sip of his pumpkin beer and opened a bottle of wine — but his adventurous spirit is what makes him such a good guide. He takes us on a spin through Egyptian drinking history, introducing us to a 5,000-year-old recipe for sorghum and grape beer flavored with herbs, and a thick and soupy beer that would have had to be filtered with a straw. After that come hallucinogenic brews made with such ingredients as henbane, nightshade and magic mushrooms, and then it’s on to Trappist ales. Those 15th-century monastic brewers created a style of beer that is still sought after today, and, in fact, the same holds true for every major beer-making tradition he describes. What this means is that, with a little effort, you can go to a liquor store and track down an appropriate beer to sip with every chapter, imbibing history along with a clear-eyed explanation as to what, specifically, makes each one so distinctively pleasing. In his chapter on monks, Bostwick recommends Sierra Nevada’s Ovila series, although the most dedicated Trappist ale drinkers make the trek to Belgium for an allotment of Westvleteren XII, which is widely considered the world’s best beer. As you sip, you’ll get a lively description of the wonders of Belgian yeast and the unexpected banana and clove flavors exuded under just the right conditions. Pick up a Logsdon saison-style brew from Oregon, and you’ll taste a casual, seasonal style of pre-industrial farmhouse beer made from grain scraps left over after the harvest. Open a good English porter and travel with Bostwick back to the old days when chickens roosted in the brewhouse and “dung when it comes


India pushes bank accounts for the poor in bid to share benefits of economic growth

service to so many people. Even so, since August, more than 55 million accounts have been opened with a total of almost $750 million in deposits. “There is a lot of cash-based transactions in India. We want to bring it into the banking system so that the cash becomes productive, the poor get into the habit of small savings and get access to credit,” said Gurdial Singh Sandhu, a secretary in the Ministry of Finance in New Delhi. In the past six years, India’s household savings dropped by 5 percent, he said. ‘A national priority’ According to the World Bank, only 35 percent of India’s 1.2 billion people have bank accounts; the government says the figure is close to 58 percent. About 73 percent of farming families in rural areas have no access to formal sources of credit, according to a 2013 report by the Reserve Bank of India. Many rely on money lenders or informal women’s groups for small loans. There are 115,000 bank branches in India, up from 60,000 a decade ago. But vast swaths of hinterland have none. In the past 15 years, the microfinance industry expanded to bridge the gap to some extent, but the sector gained a bad reputation in recent years because of some agents’ aggressive loan collection practices. Some companies also operated Ponzi-like schemes among the urban poor. In an e-mail to bank officers in August, Modi called the account-opening drive “a national priority.” It was “untenable,” he said, for so many Indians to be deprived of basic banking benefits. The new accountscome with a debit card, an accident insurance policy worth about $1,600, and a short-term loan of about $100 after a year. Modi’s banking push is not India’s first. Past efforts fizzled because the government did not monitor them, and new accounts remained dormant, Sandhu said.But the freebies, Modi’s personal interest and the target of reaching every home are likely to make this campaign more effective, he said. “Many people are coming in hordes to open accounts because they think government welfare benefits will come their way in the future through these accounts,” said Preeti Mall, a manager at the State Bank of India near Prangarh. Doubts and optimism But one lingering question is whether the accounts will survive. Unable to build new bank offices quickly, India adopted in 2006 what has come to be called the “branchless banking” model, a


The new snack craze on Mexico’s streets starts with Doritos, and goes from there

Doritos sliced open, lengthwise, then heaped with grated carrots, jicama, cucumber, pickled pork rinds, peanuts, jellied candies, lime juice, two kinds of chili powder, and swirls of several kinds of fruity syrup and hot sauce. It was a veritable insane asylum of sugar and spice. It looked like a Jackson Pollock painting dumped in a chip bag. “They’re just a fad,” scoffed Carlos Gonzalez, a pushcart tamale vendor, watching teens and young adults line up at the Dorilocos stalls across the street. “They’re for kids,” he said, “and people who don’t have to worry about gastritis.” No one is sure of Dorilocos’s precise origins. Some say they are a northern invention concocted somewhere along the border. Others trace them to the rough barrios that ring Mexico City. There are Dorilocos fan pages on Facebook and DIY YouTube videos about how to make them. Evelia Alcala first encountered Dorilocos about a year ago at the outdoor market in her gritty Santo Domingo neighborhood in southern Mexico City. “I tried them,” she said, “and I said to myself: I can do better.” She had been selling socks and backpacks on the street for six years until then. Then she began experimenting with spice combinations and sauces until she found the right blend. Now she serves about 300 Dorilocos a week from her stall, just down the street from Mexico’s National Autonomous University and the adjacent metro station. Though the Mexican government has launched a public health campaign against junk food, Alcala insists that while Dorilocos may be crazy, they are not junk. “Look at all the vegetables,” she said, pointing to plant material buried under all the gooey sauces. Alcala sells them for 18 pesos, about $1.50. The bag of chips alone costs her nearly half that. “My son hurt his knee and needed surgery last year,” she said. “I was able to pay for it with my Dorilocos.” Alcala named her stall Dorilocos La Sonrisa — roughly, Crazy Doritos with a Smile, decorating it with colorful banners that depict several chip brands loaded with toppings. Other variations include Fritolocos (a more portable version of Frito Pie) and PapiLocos, made with Ruffles. At the ready are other Dorito flavors: Pizza, Flaming Hot, Devil-Hot and a milder one called Incognito. But the rojos — Nacho Cheese — are the Dorilocos standard. It is only fitting. Nacho Cheese Doritos were introduced by the late


The flu pandemic that came to Washington in 1918 killed 2,800, sickened many more

ago bore similarities to today, and engendered the same kind of fear, courage and tragedy that comes with the spread of a terrifying illness. Nurses and doctors were severely hit. Protective gear, but only in the form of gauze surgical masks, was widely used. Many who thought they had the flu turned out to have something else. A viral illness, like Ebola, the 1918-1919 flu caused high fever, sore throat, a cough and sometimes a serious nosebleed, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services wrote in a history of the pandemic. “I had a cough that tore my very innards out,” one victim recounted in a diary, historian Nancy K. Bristow reported in a supplement to the medical journal Public Health Reports in 2010. The illness could spread quickly and suddenly, via coughing, sneezing or talking. Pneumonia was the most serious and deadly complication. The disease could kill in a day, or two weeks. The pandemic broke out near the turbulent close of World War I. The gymnasium at the University of Vermont in Burlington, Vt., was converted into an infirmary during the Spanish influenza epidemic, as seen in this photo released by the Bailey-Howe Library at the University of Vermont. (AP) Washington, one of the cities most affected, was packed with young federal war workers, soldiers, sailors and Marines that fall. Indeed, many of the flu’s victims were people in their teens, 20s and 30s. Hundreds of federal workers were living three or four to a room in private homes and boardinghouses around the city and suburbs, according to newspaper reports of the time. The city was a “harvest field” for the flu germ, one newspaper editorial warned. Beyond the city, thousands of soldiers were crowded into bases such as Camp Meade, now Fort Meade, in Maryland, and Camp Humphreys — now Fort Belvoir — in Virginia. There, and at many other military installations, infections spread so rapidly that the government postponed a call-up of new fighting men. The state of medicine was more primitive. At the time, influenza was incorrectly thought to be caused by bacteria, according to the HHS history. (The virus was not isolated until the 1930s, experts have said, and a vaccine was not available until the 1940s.) In the face of the epidemic, the surgeon general of the Army urged the public to avoid wearing tight shoes, tight clothing or tight gloves: “Seek


Free online AP courses debut on edX Web site

ranges from $75 to more than $500. “Our program you can take for free,” said Reid Whitaker, executive director of the Center for Digital Learning and Scholarship at Rice. “This is a comprehensive program. Free resources. That’s a game changer.” Whitaker is co-teaching the MOOC with Kara Burrous, a veteran AP biology teacher at Stephen F. Austin High School outside Houston. He acknowledged that his course cannot replicate the kind of hands-on laboratory experience that would be required in a typical AP biology class, but he said the MOOC plans to give recommendations for labs. There will be lecture videos as well as multiple-choice practice questions, free response questions and tutorial videos to show how to solve problems step by step. A key marketing point for these MOOCs will be their connection to top-name universities. Boston University will offer AP Physics 1, and MIT will offer AP Physics C: Mechanics, both starting in January. There also will be AP MOOCs in computer science and chemistry from Cooper Union; in physics: electricity and magnetism from Georgetown University ; and in English language and composition from the Tennessee Board of Regents. The College Board, a nonprofit organization based in New York, oversees the AP program. A summary of Rice’s AP Biology course notes that the College Board “is not currently in partnership with edX to develop or promote these offerings.” “We are interested in the work edX is doing to create supports for more students to enroll in AP coursework and are looking forward to further discussion with them regarding our shared goal: to remove obstacles and deliver opportunity,” Trevor Packer, a College Board senior vice president, said in a statement. David Knuffke, a veteran AP biology teacher at Deer Park High School in New York who moderates an online discussion board for teachers in the discipline hosted by the College Board, said he was unsure how many students would be attracted to an online version of a class that is lab-intensive. “If it’s a useful resource for my students, I’ll be cluing them into it,” he said. Students who obtain a high mark on an AP exam often are able to bypass introductory courses in that field when they enter college or can qualify for college credit. Since it began in May 2012, edX has drawn about 3 million registered users. Of those, 150,000 are believed to be high school students.


Chapman DeMary Trail is a mile-long classroom in Purcellville

trail, got involved even before the design process. They convinced the town that the land had educational value. They also promised to maintain the trail. Now, kids from local schools visit the trail and learn about nature firsthand. Because the trail is only a mile long, Ware says there’s an outstanding opportunity to explore every inch of it. LVHS students act as trail mentors and help kids notice special things about the trail, such as the patterns on each plant’s leaves or which furry friends are out looking to play. Each year, LVHS students and visiting kids work on projects to protect the trail’s plants and animals. One plant of special interest is milkweed. Farmers are getting rid of milkweed because it hurts their crops. But the plant is key to monarch butterflies’ survival on their migration to Mexico each winter. Female monarchs will lay eggs only on milkweed, and it’s the only plant their caterpillars will feed on. Without it their populations are getting much smaller. Picky eaters indeed. But along the trail, LVHS students have planted pollinating stations full of plants such as milkweed to help the monarchs. Visitors can help by taking home milkweed seeds from the stations and planting them in their own back yards. In the spring, students and community members work together to test water quality in the South Fork Catoctin Creek. By testing the water to see what types of organisms and the amount of nutrients they find, they’re able to tell if the creek is healthy. The most recent test showed the creek was not quite polluted, but on its way. LVHS students are determined to not let that happen. Ware said students’ dedication is what makes the trail one of a kind. “They have incredible ownership and pride [in the work they do], and they pass that on to other students they talk to,” she said. Through these projects, kids are not only able to learn about problems in their local environment but also to make a difference in fixing them. “These kids have the power to protect their own part of the world,” Ware said. Ware hopes the trail bash event will inspire visitors to do the same. “There’s so much that can be done,” Ware said. “It doesn’t matter how old you are.” If you go What: Where: When: How much: How old: For more information: — Sarah Polus


Newfound tension for tech’s old guard: Abandoning hardware that helped it soar

servers. In January, IBM said it had struck a deal to sell a key server business to Lenovo Group, a Chinese computer giant, for $2.3 billion. IBM will offload its chip-making operations to Globalfoundries, a contract chip manufacturer in Santa Clara, Calif., which will continue to make processors for IBM systems. HP, the tech giant behind a generation of printers and desktop computers, announced this month it would split in two, separating its legacy hardware from its enterprise business of networking and cloud computing. Chief executive Meg Whitman said the split would help HP “aggressively go after the opportunities created by a rapidly changing market.” Microsoft, the behemoth that once touted hardware and device expansion as its biggest next step beyond Windows, has instead aimed heavily at its own cloud services. At an event Monday in San Francisco, the firm said its cloud platform, Azure, was signing up 10,000 new customers a week. IBM’s traditional hardware offerings have struggled to stay afloat. Revenue from the company’s systems and technology hardware, including its semiconductor segment, dropped 15 percent in the third quarter. And the firm has lost key contracts it once would have easily clinched, from a 10-year, $600 million contract with the CIA to deals for Sony and Microsoft’s new-generation PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Some of the drop-off has come as the shifting tech landscape tilts away from IBM’s mainstays. Cloud computing, in which rivers of data flow from distant data centers, has undermined the need for businesses to invest heavily in building their own server banks. High-quality servers and computing horsepower can be rented with the swipe of a credit card for pennies an hour, with less fear of overheating or going obsolete. IBM has pushed heavily to promote what it calls “the world’s most complete cloud portfolio,” saying in January that it would spend more than $1 billion to build 40 new data centers across five continents. But IBM’s market share for cloud hardware and software lags behind HP and Cisco, according to the Synergy Research Group. Its pay-as-you-go server space business is also dwarfed by Amazon’s cloud powerhouse, which has a market share bigger than IBM, Microsoft and Google combined. Although it will phase out its building of semiconductor chips, IBM said it will spend $3 billion over five years toward researching and developing new chip designs “to lead in the next generation of computing.” It’s