Students lost science experiments in Antares explosion

A rocket that was to resupply the International Space Station blew up Tuesday night a few seconds after lift-off from Wallops Island, Va. For months, students across the United States and Canada conducted scientific experiments. Some wanted to know how crystals would change without gravity. Others wondered whether plants would grow or how fast milk would spoil in space. Nearly 1,600 pounds of science and research was loaded onto a cargo spacecraft bound for the International Space Station. And Tuesday evening, it was all destroyed. Many students watched as an unmanned Antares rocket exploded above its launchpad in Wallops Island, Va. Some saw it on video from the classroom. Others, like students from Knoxville, were “close enough to feel the percussion of the blast.” Teachers described the scene as a “flash and then the explosion” with smoke that “blotted out the stars.” Some elementary school kids in British Columbia were said to be in shock — and “then they started laughing.” “I think the adults took it harder in the room than the kids did,” Serena Connally, a sixth-grade science teacher in Texas, told the San Antonio Express-News. The incident could raise concerns about whether NASA and its private contractors can ensure launches are safe only a month after the agency chose SpaceX and Boeing to send astronauts to the space station as early as 2017. The unmanned rocket that was to resupply the International Space Station blew up after liftoff from Wallops Island, Va. This year, students from grade school through college submitted hundreds of proposals to the nonprofit Student Spaceflight Experiments Program launched by the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education with the private space company NanoRacks. Eighteen experiments were chosen to go into space. “The payload was supposed to be returning early in December and we were going to analyze the data and see if we could draw any conclusions,” Greg Adragna, a science teacher at Cristo Rey Jesuit College Preparatory School in Houston, told the Houston Chronicle. “This was about a year-and-a-half of work. This is not the way we wanted to have the evening end.” NASA officials apologized late Tuesday to those who lost their experiments — and some students in Houston were already being asked to do more research. Hobby Middle School They were unbowed. “It won’t always go your way,” Hobby Middle School student Madelyn Hickman, 11, told the Express-News. “And


READ IN: Gone To Pot Edition

Fla., is suing the state over a ban on growlers, half-gallon jugs patrons can take home. The Crafted Keg filed suit in federal court on Tuesday; Anheuser-Busch distributors have fought against bills introduced in the legislature that would have allowed growlers to be sold. Growlers are legal in 47 states. (Associated Press) DC Digest: -- President Obama meets with public health and national security officials this afternoon in the Situation Room for an update on the government response to the Ebola outbreak. Obama will deliver remarks at an event with health care workers fighting Ebola in the East Room at 3:40 p.m. -- Vice President Biden attends the funeral service for the late Washington Post executive editor Ben Bradlee at the National Cathedral this morning before traveling to Boston this afternoon. In Lynn, Mass., Biden will join 6th district candidate Seth Moulton at a YMCA, before attending a fundraiser for Moulton and Rep. Carol Shea-Porter (D-N.H.) in Cambridge. Tonight, Biden attends an event for gubernatorial candidate Martha Coakley (D). -- House Democratic leaders asked for a last-minute cash infusion from members in a conference call Tuesday, in which a dozen members pledged to transfer about $500,000 to the DCCC. Just 77 members have met or exceeded dues owed to the DCCC. -- DCCC chairman Steve Israel (D-N.Y.) sent members a list of nine candidates on what he called the "Red Alert List," including Reps. Ami Bera (D-Calif.), Julia Brownley (D-Calif.), Bill Enyart (D-Ill.), Pete Gallego (D-Texas), Ann Kirkpatrick (D-Ariz.) and Rick Nolan (D-Minn.). Also on the list: Brad Ashford, running against Rep. Lee Terry (R-Neb.); Aimee Belgard, who's running for retiring Rep. Jon Runyan's (R-N.J.) seat; and Domenic Recchia, challenging Rep. Michael Grimm (R-N.Y.). (Washington Post) -- Did Vice President Biden get a sweetheart deal on a vacation in Grand Teton National Park? The Interior Department is launching an investigation into their management of the Brinkerhoff Lodge, a lakeside cabin operated by the National Park Service where Biden and 12 family members vacationed in August. VIPs aren't allowed to use the cabin for vacation, but NPS said Biden got an official park briefing while he was there. Biden's office said the vice president will reimburse the park $1,200 for renting the lodge. (Time) TV Time Out: -- The TV Time Out is a week away from running its course, and most folks have shipped their last ads. Now comes the


‘SIX SECONDS TO FAILURE.’ The Antares rocket-launch disaster on the front page.

On Tuesday night a rocket carrying supplies to the International Space Station blew up in Wallops Island, Va., just seconds after liftoff. A fiery explosion caused by an unknown “catastrophic anomaly” destroyed hundreds of millions worth of technology, supplies and equipment that was headed to the International Space Station on Tuesday night. The Antares rocket and its cargo were lost in a fireball a mere six seconds after liftoff in Wallops Island, Va., is the latest set back for commercial space operations, which have taken over flights to space since NASA’s space shuttle program ended in 2011. The liftoff would have been seen by millions of people as far awat as Pittsburgh. The rocket carried contractor Orbital Sciences Corporation’s unmanned Cygnus spacecraft, which was set to deliver 5,000 of food, water and supplies to the ISS. Here’s how the story played on newspaper front pages across the country: #SneakPeek at Wednesday's paper: #NASA rocket fails 6 seconds after liftoff. Could a #robot steal your job? http://t.co/QmU8aQwYMq Wednesday's @baltimoresun front page, featuring #Antares explosion. http://t.co/XAh4Wf43E2 'LAUNCH IN FLAMES' A1, @PhillyInquirer #NASA http://t.co/RRxnKTOn4J Another striking Antares front page Via @Newseum http://t.co/y8TDsH1W85 "Fiery Failure" - front page from Newport News' Daily Press http://t.co/HwYqvsgqer Wow. The front page of The Daily News, published in Salisbury, Md. http://t.co/uHrsnvEpMn


Finally, some good news in Liberia: WHO says rate of new cases appears to be slowing down

a high rate of transmission, as well, particularly in the capital of Conokry, according to the World Health Organization. WHO officials said in a news conference a few weeks ago that without significant progress against the epidemic, there could be 5,000 to 10,000 new cases per week in West Africa by the beginning of December. That dire outlook was consistent with other forecasts by epidemiologists who have warned that there would be catastrophically high numbers of Ebola cases without a robust response. The Post reported Tuesday “I don’t think we’ve turned the corner, but it’s better than exponential growth of new cases,” Rajiv Shah, the administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, told The Washington Post after a recent trip to the region. But, he added, “In Sierra Leone we are not yet seeing the kind of trend shift that we’re seeing in Liberia. There’s an urgent need to scale up the effort in Sierra Leone.” Helen Epstein, a writer specializing in public health who has been in Liberia recently, published an online article Monday in the New York Review of Books saying the decline in new cases there is dramatic, and suggesting that “many Liberians, who at first denied the epidemic was real, have come to their senses and changed their behavior by avoiding direct physical contact with sick or dead people.” But there is still great uncertainty about the possible reach of the virus into remote areas and rain forests where disease surveillance has been limited. The official WHO statistics show minimal progress, and disease modelers continue to be concerned. “Hard to know what’s really going on,” said Joshua Michaud, associate director for Global Health Policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation. “Maybe it’s only people looking for good news in an ongoing crisis, maybe reporting is worse than ever and we just don’t have good understanding, maybe people are staying away from the treatment units and cases aren’t being counted, or maybe community behaviors actually have changed in the face of the mounting toll to the point where transmission has been reduced.” The virus has a history of subsiding, then flaring up again. For example, in Kenema and Kailahun districts in Sierra Leone, new cases dropped to zero for several weeks, but then more recently the districts had 23 and 10 cases, respectively, in a single week, the WHO reported. Lena H. Sun contributed to this report.


Here’s why GMO labeling initiatives might fail – again

A bottle of fruit juice is labeled to inform buyers that it is free of GMOs, (or Genetically Modified Organisms), is displayed in Boulder, Colo.. (AP/Brennan Linsley) Yesterday, the Oregonian released a new poll it had commissioned showing that Measure 92, a ballot initiative to require the labeling of foods containing genetically modified ingredients in the state, was trailing 48 to 42 percent among likely voters. Yet back in July, another poll conducted for Earthfix of Oregon, an environmentally focused branch of Oregon Public Broadcasting, put support for the initiative at a very impressive 77 percent. That's a pretty steep dropoff. We've heard this story before. Last year, Washington state rejected GMO labeling at the ballot, with just under 49 percent of citizens voting in favor. Before that, in 2012, a labeling initiative failed in California, 48.6 percent to 51.4 percent. This is despite national polling suggesting that the labeling of genetically modified foods is stunningly popular: A 2013 New York Times national survey, for instance, found that a staggering 93 percent of American support it. So why does GMO labeling keep losing in actual ballot initiatives -- even in pretty lefty places like California, Washington, and now possibly Oregon? Those in favor of GMO labeling -- who argue in favor of consumer choice, and also intimate that GMO foods, modified through modern biotechnological techniques, could potentially be dangerous -- will surely say it's because large volumes of food industry dollars are being dumped in these races, to kill the initiatives with huge ad buys. And indeed, according to The Oregonian, the fight over Measure 92 is "the costliest ballot measure fight in Oregon history," with those spending heavily to oppose the initiative including Monsanto and Dupont Pioneer. But there's another possible explanation -- namely, that when people tell pollsters they favor GMO labeling, they don't really know what they're saying. Because overall public knowledge about GMOs is very low, many GMO polls give "a measure of what people will say they want to label when they have no idea what that means," explains Yale public opinion researcher Dan Kahan. "I am sure you can replicate that with other samples of people who have no idea what you’re talking about," Kahan adds. The data supporting this interpretation -- that Americans don't actually know a lot about genetically modified foods, and so polls suggesting they support their labeling should be taken


These ant queens compete with other species by becoming ‘sperm parasites’

The red queen is mating with the male on the right. Their copulatory organs are locked in place, so the male can completely let go of the queen with his legs and still be firmly attached. The ant on the left is a competitor male trying to get in on the action. (Michael Herrmann and Sara Helms Cahan) Two species of ants in the Arizona desert are at war -- and they're fighting their battles in the bedroom. The ant queens are employing devious tricks to steal the sperm of their rival species' males, in an ongoing inter-species battle of the sexes. Usually sex is a competition between males of the same species. They fight to impress their target females, and the winner gets to pass on his sperm -- and genes -- to the next generation. That is, after all, the biological definition of success. But in some cases, the competition gets murkier. According to a new study published Wednesday in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, two species of Pogonomyrmex harvester ant engage in a complicated mating war, with males of one species butting heads with the females of another. The males of one of these ant species will often mate with the queens of the other (and vice versa) producing sterile offspring. These sterile hybrids (or mules) aren't totally uncommon in other insects and animals. But in most cases, said Sara Helms Cahan, a University of Vermont biologist who co-led the study with her graduate student Michael Herrmann, these mules are a biological mistake. They're incapable of passing along the genes of either parent to a new generation, so they don't benefit either species. But in species like these ants, who need a certain number of sterile colony members to work without reproducing, mules do just fine. There are at least four species of ants who commonly steal sperm from rival species. "They're already producing lots of things that don't reproduce on purpose," Cahan said, "so it gives them a unique opportunity to turn into parasites. They can take those hybrids and put them to work. But it has the result of creating this huge conflict between males and females." It's in every queen's best interest to get rival males to mate with her -- she gets her hybrid workers, and the rival queens have less sperm available to them. The males, on the other hand, would


The danger in a private race to space

The spectacular explosion on the evening of Oct. 28 of an Orbital Sciences Corp. rocket at Wallops Island on the Eastern Shore of Virginia raises safety questions about the rush to commercialize space launches. The Antares rocket with a Cygnus cargo shipment had been bound for the International Space Station but the rocket burst into flames and exploded six seconds after liftoff. The blast from the sandy barrier island was powerful enough to shatter glass windows at nearby business, according to news reports. Dulles-based Orbital Sciences is one of several private firms competing for business from the federal government as part of a plan to reduce costs for the Air Force and budget-strapped NASA. Orbital, Blue Origin, SpaceX and United Launch Alliance made up of space veterans Boeing and Lockheed Martin are all vying for contracts by aggressively touting lower prices. It can get nasty. SpaceX’s iconoclastic leader Elon Musk famously sued the Air Force to break ULA’s monopoly on military satellite launches. He’s also sued to squelch concerns about his rockets’ safety. His firm, as are some others, is pushing manned flights to the space station, space tourism or perhaps missions to Mars or other space locations. Orbital picked up a $1.9 billion contract from NASA in 2008 to deliver cargo to the space station from 2011 to 2015 using its Antares rockets made at a facility in Dulles. Using Wallops Island for its launch site, Orbital successfully launched two demonstration shots in 2013 and two cargo rockets early this year. According to The Post, the engines used on the Antares rocket were modified, decades-old, Soviet models that the Kremlin stopped using in the early 1970s because they were prone to explode. Orbital picked up some, apparently on the cheap, because it was having trouble locating rocket engines from other sources powerful enough to lift its cargoes. [Continue reading Peter Galuszka’s post at Bacon’s Rebellion.] Peter Galuszka blogs at Bacon’s Rebellion. The Local Blog Network is a group of bloggers from around the D.C. region who have agreed to make regular contributions to All Opinions Are Local.


Pentagon scientists win first Guinness World Record

of course, a vast oversimplification). For our Loop technology wonks, what they’ve done, in partnership with Northrop Grumman, is create the world’s “fastest solid-state amplifier integrated circuit.” (Got that?) The good people at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) explain to us tech laymen that the circuit runs at a trillion hertz (sounds like a lot), or put more simply, about a hundred billion times faster than the electricity that powers your home. The real world practical uses? Rick Weiss, spokesman for DARPA, tells us the new technology could result in “extremely high-resolution monitors, improved collision-avoidance radar, and electronic sniffers that can detect potentially dangerous chemicals and explosives with much greater sensitivity.” In other words, this could be a really big deal. In May, Defense One named it one of DARPA’s projects that could be as big a deal as inventing the Internet, explaining it this way: The area of the electromagnetic spectrum between microwave, which we use for cell phones, and infrared, is the Terehertz range. Today, it’s a ghost town, but if scientists can figure out how to harness it, we could open up a vast frontier of devices of that don’t compete against others for spectrum access. That would be a strategic advantage in a time when more military devices use the same electromagnetic spectrum space. Research into THz electronics has applications in the construction of so-called meta-materials, which would lend themselves to use in cloaking for jets and equipment and even, perhaps, invisibility. On the civilian side, because THz radiation, unlike X-ray radiation, is non-invasive, metamaterial smart clothes made with small THz sensors would allow for far faster and more precise detection of chemical changes in the body, which could indicate changes in health states. There’s the future doctor in your pocket. We hear the adjudicator from Guinness World Records, who recognized DARPA’s work at a ceremony Tuesday, told the crowd of scientists and engineers that theirs might be one of the geekiest world records he has documented. He then told them that his life’s work is spent congratulating people who are obsessed over something. For them, it was creating the world’s first terahertz chip. For others, it’s having the dog with the longest tongue (4.5 inches), or the largest collection of Mickey Mouse dolls (a woman in Florida has more than 6,000 Mickey items). One person’s massive breakthrough in technology is another person’s …


Guam: A high concentration of veterans, but rock-bottom VA funding

in the Pacific.” But Guam Gov. Eddie Calvo disagreed, saying the Senate cut mental-health funding for the territory two years in a row. “The federal government has not done their part to assist the very patriotic group of American citizens fighting in so many distant lands, in areas that have never tasted democracy,” Calvo said. “Yet these American citizens of Guam really have not felt what true democracy is all about.” At the height of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan last decade, four of the Army’s top recruiters were from Guam, and enlistment on the island doubled while it was falling almost everywhere else in the nation, according to the documentary. Sfc. Gonzalo Fernandez, stationed in Guam, has consistently ranked as one of the Army’s top recruiters. (Paul de Lumen/America by the Numbers) “It’s a family tradition to do it,” said Sfc. Gonzalo Fernandez, a recruiter for the Army National Guard who won recruiter of the year awards three times in a row during that span. Fernandez also attributed the high numbers to a sense of patriotism among Guam residents. But University of Guam history professor Michael Bevacqua said recruits may be attracted to the “shininess and the niceness” of the military, which offers economic opportunities they may not otherwise find outside the armed services. Guam’s unemployment rate is 13.3 percent, whereas the the national average is 7.5 percent; and nearly 23 percent of residents there live in poverty, compared to about 15 percent of Americans overall, according to the documentary. Maggie Aguon, an Iraq war veteran who was the first woman from Guam to volunteer for service in the military after 9/11, said she joined the military because she wanted to represent her island. “I want to put it on the map,” she said. Maggie Aguon, one of many military veterans from Guam, was the first woman from the island to enlist after 9/11. (Paul de Lumen/America by the Numbers) Aguon suffered a head injury in Iraq when an improvised explosive device struck her vehicle, and she said she still suffers from emotional trauma from her experiences in war. But she also said she would serve again. “If they would have said, ‘Pack your bags,’ I would go again, in a heartbeat,” she said. “For my country, for my island. I’m not trying to prove anything. It’s called pride.” Since the documentary was made earlier this year, the


A search for answers after Antares rocket explodes during liftoff

A rocket that was to resupply the International Space Station blew up Tuesday night a few seconds after lift-off from Wallops Island, Va. Officials began an investigation Wednesday into the explosion of an unmanned cargo rocket that burst into flames shortly after liftoff in Virginia on Tuesday night. There were no casualties or injuries as a result of the explosion, which occurred just seconds after the Antares rocket took off from Wallops Island on Virginia’s Eastern Shore. The rocket was intended to carry Orbital Sciences Corp.’s unmanned Cygnus spacecraft — loaded with thousands of pounds of food, water and equipment — to the International Space Station. The explosive failure, which destroyed a rocket and spacecraft valued at more than $200 million, is a modest setback for commercial companies that took over missions to space after NASA ended its space shuttle program in 2011. “Space flight is inherently risky,” Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), chairman of the Senate subcommittee on Science and Space, said in a statement. “As we push the frontiers of space, there will be setbacks. But our commercial space ventures will ultimately be successful.” Following the explosion, the Orbital Sciences stock price dropped more than 16 percent Wednesday. The incident has also placed added scrutiny on SpaceX, a competing company that is similarly contracted with NASA to complete cargo missions to the ISS. Orbital Sciences tried to reassure jittery investors in a conference call Wednesday afternoon. “Orbital has experienced adversity in the past, some of which was more difficult than this,” said Orbital chief executive David Thompson, who also noted that the Wallops Island launch pad didn’t suffer significant damage during the explosion. The company is insured against the launch failure, Thompson said. At this point, Tuesday’s explosion could push back the launch of the next resupply mission, scheduled for early April, by at least three months. In the worst case, it could be up to a year, he said. Thompson: likely will be days, not weeks, for investigators to determine most likely causes of failure; longer to zero in on exact cause. The rocket’s flight-termination system, which is designed to detect flight anomalies, was engaged shortly after launch, causing it to self-destruct. It is unclear whether that system was triggered by the rocket’s automated on-board systems or by mission control, Orbital Sciences spokesman Barron Beneski said Wednesday. “A malfunction was detected, the flight termination system was engaged,” Beneski


Trying to go to space on the cheap has had disastrous consequences in the past

The Orbital Sciences Corp. Antares rocket, with the Cygnus spacecraft onboard, blows up moments after launch from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport Pad at NASA Wallops Flight Facility on Oct. 28 on Wallops Island, Va. (Joel Kowsky/NASA via Getty Images) When reporters asked the first U.S. man in space, Alan Shepard, what he thought about as he sat atop a Mercury launch vehicle, he's said to have responded, "The fact that every part of this ship was built by the low bidder." That sentiment may hang heavy over the launch failure at a NASA facility near the coast of Virginia on Tuesday night. An Antares rocket from contractor Orbital Sciences came crashing back down onto the launch pad within moments of the launch of a flight intended to deliver supplies to the International Space Station. The mission was unmanned, and there were no injuries reported on the ground. The cause of the failure remain unknown. But Orbital has marketed the Antares as a "cost effective" way to launch payloads, due at least in part on its reliance on recycled Soviet-era rocket engines — a move that has drawn criticism from some, including competitor SpaceX's founder, Elon Musk. Here's what he told Wired in a 2012 interview: One of our competitors, Orbital Sciences, has a contract to resupply the International Space Station, and their rocket honestly sounds like the punch line to a joke. It uses Russian rocket engines that were made in the ’60s. I don’t mean their design is from the ’60s — I mean they start with engines that were literally made in the ’60s and, like, packed away in Siberia somewhere. Orbital has previously acknowledged some issues with the engines, with Executive Vice President Frank Culbertson telling Space Flight Now last year that the company has done refurbishing work on the supply. "As we went through testing, we did discover there were some effects of aging since they had been in storage for a while, including some stress corrosion cracking," he said. "That's what we're correcting with the weld repairs and other inspections." In May, one of the refurbished engines was destroyed in a ground test at a NASA center in Mississippi — with some sources saying it "exploded" — although the exact cause has not been disclosed. In a news conference Tuesday night, Culbertson said a thorough investigation would need to be completed before it could determine


Two years after Sandy, U.S. global weather prediction still inferior to Europe and falling further behind

according to the BBC. A high level NWS Powerpoint presentation titled “Current and Future High Performance Computing” from August 5, 2014 projects NWS computing will have an estimated processing power of 2.7 petaflops by 2018-2020. “We will increase our supercomputing capacity to a total of 1.4 petaflops by January 2015 under an existing contract,” says Susan Buchanan, spokesperson for the NWS. “The procurement process for further upgrades is underway, and we cannot discuss details or provide a timeline for the project until a contract is awarded.” Consider that in 2013, the NWS projected it would have already obtained 2.6 petaflops of processing power by fiscal year 2015. That goal seems to have been pushed back about 3 years. “The message is clear: the U.S. is rapidly falling behind in the computational resources necessary for high quality numerical weather prediction,” Mass writes. Ryan Maue, a meteorologist for the private sector firm WeatherBell, put it this way in two scathing tweets on Monday: “Year-and-half ago NOAA touted “game-changing” improvements for US weather forecasting. So far — zip, zero, zilch.” “NOAA leadership has fumbled ball on weather forecasting computer upgrades. ECMWF MetOffice are a decade ahead (!)” NOAA leadership has fumbled ball on weather forecasting computer upgrades. ECMWF & MetOffice are a decade ahead (!) Year-and-half ago NOAA touted "game-changing" improvements for US weather forecasting. So far -- zip, zero, zilch. http://t.co/vILOtd0Qdg Statement from Louis Uccellini, director of the National Weather Service, in response to this post: The National Weather Service and its research partners have been working together to improve the operational computer models, as we expanded our computing capacity. For example, we have recently implemented the upgraded Hurricane WRF and the High Res Rapid Refresh (HRRR), which could only have been done with the increased computing capacity we’ve already brought on board since 2013. And by December 2014, we will implement the new 13-kilometer Global Forecast System run out to 10 days, a major advancement in our global modeling capabilities. The procurement process for further computer upgrades is underway for increasing our computing capacity through 2015. While we are involved in contract negotiations, we can’t discuss specifics but with these increases, we’ll be addressing improvements in the GFS that will include 4-D data assimilation, and also higher resolution ensembles derived from the Global Ensemble Forecast System — all of which will have major impacts on our forecast capabilities by the end


In ‘Live/Life’ at Artisphere, silkworms are the art AND make the art

Elsabe Dixon created a dome of toilet paper tubes, and her silkworms adorned it with cocoons. (Artisphere Photos) At Artisphere in downtown Rosslyn, about 4,000 moths are beginning to hatch from their cocoons. Don’t worry; your sweaters are safe, says artist Elsabe Dixon. “Silkworm moths are very civilized,” she says. “They’ve been [bred] to stay in their boxes.” Humans have used the insects for thousands of years. It’s not the best deal for the worms — we typically boil them in their cocoons, which we then unravel for silk. Dixon’s worms, however, will complete their life cycle as part of the installation “Live/Life.” Earlier in the month, her gallery was a hotbed of interspecies collaboration. Dixon and passersby stapled together toilet-paper tubes to create a dome, which the worms covered in a translucent filament (aka silk). Now most of the worms are ensconced in cocoons. When they hatch over the next few weeks, Dixon will teach visitors how to tell the females from the male moths, and they will place some of them together to mate. The quiet rustling of their wings will make a perfect soundtrack for visitors to ponder topics such as metamorphosis, Dixon says. The moths will all be dead by sometime in December, but the installation will live on through February. Dixon and visitors will pack up the eggs in envelopes and share them with area schools, or save them for future installations. Then, the artist and her collaborators will create sculptures with the moths’ wings and cocoons. Apparently playing with silkworms is not an odd thing in South Africa, where Dixon grew up. Like many French children there, Dixon got her first silkworm to raise when she was 2. The tradition is a holdover from the Huguenots, a persecuted Protestant minority that fled France in the 16th and 17th centuries. The Huguenots were major players in the silk industry, and took silkworm eggs with them wherever they went. “There is this whole ethical code around raising silkworms,” Dixon says. “You learn that if you don’t feed your silkworms, they die. That there are consequences for your actions, and that we must take care to make sure no one falls through the cracks.” Kids also learn that though they are small, they can, like the worm, contribute to society if they work very hard. “Comparing your children to a worm — it’s not very American, is


Teddy Folkman to open BAROAK in Annapolis

Granville Moore's Executive Chef/Owner Teddy Folkman of Granville Moore's (Photo by Tracy A. Woodward/The Washington Post) "This concept has been in my head for about five years now," Folkman said. "I’ve gone all over the place -- Charleston, Nashville -- trying to find the right location." As it turns out, it was in his own backyard. The name is a play on "baroque," the style of urban plan originally adopted by Annapolis. He chose "cookhouse" because it's another word for a mess hall, a reference to the nearby Naval Academy. Folkman envisions a place where neighbors and tourists will gather over pots of mussels, house-made pastrami and flatbreads. "I’ve been working on our dough recipes, which is interesting for someone that hates baking," he said. "I’m looking forward to challenging myself on this." At the bar, he plans to offer classic cocktails and one of the largest beer selections in Annapolis, but a little lighter on the Belgian influence than his fans are used to. Local and international craft beers will round out the menu. There will be plenty of bar seating, as well as a chef's table in the open kitchen. StreetSense is designing the space -- a makeover for the former West restaurant -- in exposed brick, dark wood, and vintage furniture. The seating will be designed to encourage guests to meet each other. "The art of conversation is so much fun, and we’re going to encourage that," Folkman said. As for Granville Moore's, Folkman has already turned over much of the operations to chef de cuisine Jeremy Kermisch. Folkman will continue to live near H Street NE, and will commute 30 miles to Annapolis each day. "D.C.’s such an awesome scene, but I think it’s time for me to spread my wings a little bit and try a different market," Folkman said. BAROAK Cookhouse Taproom, opening February 2015 at 126 West Street, Annapolis.


Russia warns citizens not to travel abroad because of Ebola

avoid all non-essential travel to countries that have been particularly hard-hit in the Ebola crisis, such as Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. But Popova’s blanket recommendation against all foreign travel comes at a time when Russia is making several moves to isolate itself from the West, either by directly restricting or by subtly pressuring certain groups of citizens from going to countries that have sanctioned Russia in the past several months. In April, shortly after the United States sanctioned Russia over its annexation of Crimea, the Russian government decided to ban nearly all foreign travel for several million employees of the federal government who work in agencies dealing with various aspects of national security. That same month, Russia’s foreign ministry also warned citizens “about the possibility of being detained or arrested” if they traveled abroad, because U.S. law enforcement agencies were actively “hunting” for Russians in other countries to convict in the United States on “usually dubious charges.” This month, Russian parliamentarians were asked to surrender their diplomatic passports to administrative authorities between official trips, which will likely reduce those individuals' foreign travel. The changes have given rise to various worried rumors among Russians that their government may eventually adopt the sort of exit visa requirements and travel restrictions that were employed during the Soviet Union. Tourism experts report that the number of Russians traveling abroad is already falling – a phenomenon partly fueled by the fact that over the summer, several Russian tour companies, squeezed by rising political tensions and a weakening ruble, declared bankruptcy, causing many Russians to opt to stay at home. In 2012, Russia’s tourism agency recorded that Russians took almost 48 million trips abroad, about 15 million of which were for tourism. But according to a poll from March of this year, only 17 percent of Russians hold a passport for foreign travel, and 70 percent of Russians have never been outside the country. As for Ebola, Russia has yet to report a single case in-country, despite unofficial predictions that the disease might arrive by late October. Popova’s agency has been developing and testing a vaccine to combat the virus for the past few months, and alerting residents through near-daily statements to the media that Russia is fully prepared to handle any cases that might arise. Ebola is highly fatal, but not communicable unless one is exposed to the bodily fluids of an infected person.


Can your genes affect your response to Ebola? That’s the case in these mice

University of Washington researchers describe the genetic factors behind surviving or dying from Ebola. Scientists have found a better way to study Ebola in the lab. When they infected a fleet of specially bred mice with the virus, they saw a range of reactions, from zero symtoms to death by hemorrhagic fever. By studying how different genes in mice change the course of infection, they could determine what genes make humans more vulnerable to death by Ebola. The success of these new mice are described in a study published Thursday in Science, which presents the first truly viable mouse model for studying Ebola. In developing treatments and vaccines for a virus -- or even just trying to understand how it works -- researchers need to infect animals with it. Until now, the best animal models for Ebola have been monkeys. But monkeys are large, expensive to keep, and more dangerous to work with than tiny rodents. And they also present ethical issues. "Ask any scientist who does this type of work, and you'll hear that they really want non-human primates to be a last resort," said study co-head Angela Rasmussen, of the University of Washington department of microbiology. But traditional lab mice just don't work: Researchers have been able to modify Ebola so that it infects and kills them, but they don't exhibit any of the traditional symptoms of hemorrhagic fever before they die. With the disease acting so differently from the human version, it's hard to use the mice for research. And while guinea pigs and hamsters have been made to show symptoms, their genomes are much less intricately studied than mice. Scientists know the mice genome in its entirety, so it's easy for them to pinpoint what genes are involved in the disease and its treatment. Not so with these other animals. "Unfortunately, monkeys were just the gold standard," Rasmussen said. Instead of standard lab mice, Rasmussen and her colleagues used a group of genetically diverse mice created by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. These mice were specially bred with disease-related testing in mind. While most lab mice only represent about 10 percent of the genes in the total mouse population, this group of mice cover 90 percent of the species' genetic diversity. That means that testing viruses on them is something like testing viruses on the human population: The genetics of the host vary,


Mapped: The growing Congressional support for drug policy reform

in the Northeast and on the West Coast. Opposition to the measures is heavily concentrated among representatives from Missouri, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana. The map below converts Drug Policy Action's letter grades into numerical scores (4.0 = A) and averages them for each state's House delegation. Individual representative's scores are included in the searchable table below the map. The geographic divide is largely a function of a political one - the average score among house Democrats is 3.704, or a solid B+. But the average score among the Republican caucus is 0.995, or just a hair under a D. Democrats are still much more enthusiastic in their support for drug reform than Republicans are. But some prominent Republicans have been breaking the ice in recent years. Most notably, the report names Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) as a "champion of reform." Rohrabacher introduced the Respect State Marijuana Laws Act, which would "exempt individuals acting in compliance with state marijuana laws from federal arrest and prosecution in states that have reformed their marijuana laws," according to the report. The bill was co-sponsored by 22 Democrats and 6 Republicans, but hasn't made it out of committee. One the other hand, the report named three representatives, all Republican, as "drug war extremists" who have been notable for their zeal in opposing changes to drug laws. Chief among them was Maryland's Andy Harris, who singlehandedly attempted - and failed - to block the enactment of D.C.'s popular marijuana decriminalization bill earlier this year. He's already making noise about opposing D.C.'s full legalization measure that seems poised to pass next week. Overall the report notes just how much Congress has shifted on drug questions in a remarkably short period of time. At the time of Drug Policy Action's last scorecard, in 2008, there were only four drug-related votes in the House, and no Representatives voted in favor of reform on each one. "The intervening years have seen a profound shift in favor of drug policy reform efforts and the emergence of a bipartisan majority of U.S. Representatives working in support of change," the report's authors write. There are a number of factors behind the shift. Growing public support for legalizing marijuana - and widespread distaste for draconian sentencing laws - are a major force. The Great Recession also brought increased awareness of the unsustainable cost of throwing thousands of people behind bars for minor drug offenses.


Happy Hour Roundup

points, based on data from The Huffington Post’s Pollster model. In 2012, pre-election polls underestimated President Obama in nine of the 10 battleground states by an average of 2 percentage points. If that were to happen this year, there’d be a few big races that would flip from Republican, where they look like they’re going now, to Democratic. * Maggie Haberman and Glenn Thrush go behind the scenes at the growing Republican effort to figure out how to stop Hillary Clinton. * Steve Benen cites a real world example of the impact of GOP voting restrictions, and concludes: Republican vote suppression efforts are just poll taxes by another name. * At the American Prospect, I suggested a new slogan for Chris Christie (“Christie ’16: Vote for me or I’ll punch you right in your stupid face”), and noted how the campaign against the Affordable Care Act has turned almost every Republican into a Randian. * Harry Reid emails the Progressive Change Campaign Committee list with a reminder: Mark Begich is running for reelection in a very difficult state on a platform that includes expanding Social Security. * First Scott Brown suggested ISIS and/or anyone with Ebola might stroll across our border. Now he’s warning of still another threat: “Carrying diseases doesn’t need to be Ebola,” said Brown. “but the whooping cough and polio and other types of potential diseases are coming through.” When ISIS gives your kid polio, you’ll know who you should have listened to. And has anybody considered that terrorists might be sneaking across the border and infecting our political candidates with that dangerous ailment known as the vapors? Somebody needs to ask Brown how the Illuminati figures into this. * And Ted Cruz wants Republicans to know that the biggest mistake they could possibly make in 2016 would be nominating someone whose name is not “Ted Cruz”: “[I]f we run another candidate in the mold of a Bob Dole [in 1996] or a John McCain or Mitt Romney, we will end up with the same result, which is millions of people will stay home on Election Day, which is what happened for all three of them,” the senator said. “And if we run another candidate like that, Hillary Clinton will be the next president.” Only by nominating someone in the mold of Barry Goldwater, but maybe more of a jerk, can they prevail. Seems sound to me.


38 federal agencies reveal their vulnerabilities to climate change — and what they’re doing about it

beings and cargo into space, as well as the systems on the ground that help maintain the functionality of NASA's space operations. These adaptation plans update and significantly extend an earlier suite of documents delivered by the agencies in February of 2013. Moving before the other agencies, the Defense Department released its own updated adaptation plan earlier this month, with Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel describing climate change as a "threat multiplier" because it worsens many of the challenges that the military faces, including terrorism and disease. In a separate set of documents, meanwhile, the federal agencies show how they have already cut their own greenhouse gas emissions, decreased their energy use, and taken other steps to improve sustainability -- and plan to continue to do so. Such sustainability plans must now be updated annually by all of the agencies. According to the White House, such measures have reduced emissions from the federal government by over 17 percent since President Obama came into office, "the equivalent of permanently taking 1.8 million cars off the road." The federal government has also cut water use by 19 percent and has begun to derive over 9 percent of the energy it uses from renewable sources. The goal, by 2020, is for a 28 percent government-wide greenhouse gas emissions reduction -- which would also entail $8 billion to $11 billion in reduced energy costs. The collective release of the reports, says Mike Boots, current head of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, will help the federal government to "leave behind a planet that is not polluted and damaged and protect our ability to provide the vital services American communities depend on." The flurry of documents emerges from a five-year process of federal climate change sensitization that began with an executive order by Obama in 2009 that called on the federal government to reduce its emissions and become more energy efficient and sustainable. Later, in 2010, a government task force recommended that the agencies also prepare individualized plans concerning their climate change vulnerabilities and how they would adapt to them. This progressed further in 2013 with Obama's speech at Georgetown University laying out his climate agenda, and a 2013 executive order requiring agencies to update and extend their first set of climate adaptation plans -- with a particular focus on any climate-related risks that threaten each agency's core mission. "It’s great to see the administration


The marathon world record time is inching closer to 2 hours. Here’s what it will take for a human to pass that threshold.

1908 until the middle 1950s. Over this time the runners started training progressively harder. By the 1950s, top competitors were running 100 miles or more per week; most were from the developed world. In 1960, Abebe Bikila from Ethiopia won the marathon at the Rome Olympics. His victory was the start of the globalization of the marathon in general and the ultimate East African dominance in distance running we see today. The record then stagnated until the early 1980s. That’s when the professional era really took off and big races with big prize money became well-established. What does it take to go fast? Physiology research reveals three basic determinants of who runs fast. First, an elite marathoner must be able to consume large amounts of oxygen during maximum exercise, about 20-25 times the resting value. That is twice the capacity of an untrained healthy young male. A runner must have a big, strong heart that can pump blood to the muscles which use the oxygen. Second, he must be able to sustain about 80 percent of his maximum heart rate – usually about 160 beats per minute – for several hours without a buildup of lactic acid in his muscles. At the same time, he doesn’t want to deplete his body’s stores of sugar and hit the wall. Third, he must be mechanically efficient at turning energy into power. Physiologists talk about running economy. A top marathoner must be able to run fast without consuming too much oxygen; this efficiency is due in part to how well a runner uses the muscles and tendons in his legs as biological springs that store energy with each foot strike. All these same factors apply to the shes as well the hes, but on average elite women can consume only about 90 percent as much oxygen as men at maximum. Women have more body fat and their blood contains less of the oxygen-carrying protein hemoglobin. Essentially they have smaller engines that generate proportionally a bit less horsepower. This explains why the world records for women in distance running are about 10-12 percent slower than men. At the moment, East African runners seem to always wind up atop the podium. Their physiological numbers aren’t the best ever measured in the lab. But to their advantage, they tend to be of smaller stature, have been physically active from childhood, live at high altitude, and train


Pansaari brings a chai bar and Indian spice shop to Dupont

of Pansaari, a new Indian shop in Dupont Circle, is its chai bar. (Becky Krystal/The Washington Post) Singh says that to reduce waste, the chai bar doesn't sell tea to go -- unless you bring your own cup. Nor does it offer that other coffeehouse staple, WiFi. The goal is to get people to talk to each other. The menu at Pansaari features protein-rich Indian snacks. (Becky Krystal/The Washington Post) Neither will you find typical Indian restaurant fare on the menu (read: no butter chicken). Singh's food consists of small plates of protein-rich snacks made with ingredients such as chickpeas or paneer, an Indian cottage cheese. Singh, who cooks all the food each morning, says she wants to serve the kind of food she might have eaten at home in India. The menu will change from week to week, but recent fare included aloo tikki potato patties; poha, or flattened rice; paneer pakora (fried cheese); and dhokla, a steamed chickpea batter with a cornbread-like texture. Sweets include kulfi and ice creams made with milk and cream from Trickling Springs Creamery. To help customers make their own Indian food at home, Singh is also selling a vast array of spices, arranged along an entire wall in glass jars. “I felt there was a niche I could fill,” says Singh, who was encouraged by the fact that that 80 to 85 percent of the contributors to her Kickstarter campaign were not people she knew. She expects her shop will attract younger District residents who care about where their food comes from and who don't have cars to get to Indian grocery stores in the suburbs. The retail portion of Pansaari, which is Hindi for "grocer," carries several other house-made products, including ghee (clarified butter), chutneys, paneer, kombucha and local pickled ginger. Soon, Singh will begin selling produce from local farmers. Whatever tropical foods she decides to sell will come from Florida, she says. A kitchen space will host cooking classes and special events, such as dinner parties or team-building exercises. Singh has been a pediatric physical therapist for 30 years. So why the new venture? She laughs, recalling how everything changed once her son graduated from college. "I guess I just had a lot of time." Pansaari, 1603 17th St NW. www.pansaari.com. Open Tuesdays-Saturdays, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Sundays, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The retail store opens at 11 a.m.


Trying to make it in a neighborhood with a 70 percent poverty rate

Across the divide of Interstates 64 and 95 in the heart of Richmond’s Jackson Ward neighborhood, the St. Luke building can be seen rising above the surrounding structures. Jackson Ward was a healthy African American community when the interstate cut it almost in half. The St. Luke building is the site of a bank begun by a famous African American woman, Maggie Walker. (Timothy C. Wright/For the Washington Post.) This is an installment in our series Richmond: The legacy of poverty, tracking the former capitol of the Confederate’s ambitious, sweeping plan to fight poverty. Follow that storyline here and check out previous installments. RICHMOND – In mid-October, Patricia Brown moved out of the apartment with the too-thin walls, the cockroaches and the landlord who sought to evict her, to whom she still owes approximately $1,500. The issue is, she supposes, unresolved. At the moment it feels fitting in the same way she says her former landlord left the leaking pipes and bug infestation unresolved. The debt goes on the list with other debts accumulated during many months of unemployment. She digs out in installments. Brown, her boyfriend and her youngest son have moved into something she has long wanted: a house. It’s small, not quite 900-square-feet, but it has a sun porch and big backyard. It also has three bedrooms, and “that means you can have your own bedroom now,” she tells her oldest son, who is 15 and in a state-ordered residential treatment program for depression and a mood disorder. “For real?” he says, happy, which makes her happy. Something about the house reminds her of the house she grew up in in rural New Kent County, Virginia. Little things, like the white aluminum blinds on the front picture window trigger memories. When she opens the blinds, the nostalgia is shattered. The house faces the brick facades and the wrought-iron iron fences of Creighton Court, one of the largest of the six traditional public housing projects in the city. It’s a powerful backdrop for her own journey toward stability and a decent livelihood. Creighton sits as it has for more than 60 years, a goad, a reminder of the city’s immense challenges, a monument to failed public policy. The East End of Richmond, while gentrifying in spots, holds most of the city’s public housing projects. This is concentrated poverty, the poverty born of segregation and disinvestment, that city government


Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo crashes after ‘anomaly’ during test, killing one

the Mojave Desert. Though both private undertakings, the two accidents this week were linked to two very different types of advanced flight: Antares is a traditional rocket; SpaceShipTwo, a suborbital rocket plane. But both could spark fresh worries over the safety of private manned spaceflight. John Logsdon, a professor emeritus of George Washington University’s Space Policy Institute, said: “This will inject a note of sobriety into the enthusiasm of those who would like the spaceflight experience. There was a whole juggernaut of ground training and private spaceports that were being set up to support an emerging space tourism industry, with a collective burst of maybe unrealistic expectations. This will certainly throw cold water on that.” “It’s going to be very hard to be as optimistic as Mr. Branson has been. He was talking about taking his family on the first flight,” Logsdon added. “Faced with the stark reality that this is still new and unproven technology, I think the enthusiasm will get turned down a notch or two.” “This was a test flight, and test flights try new things,” Logsdon said. “This was their first attempt to use a new fuel. Sometimes, tests don’t work in catastrophic ways.” At the Voyager Airport Restaurant, the closest diner to the spaceport, servers were stunned to learn of the explosion. Personnel from across the port, including test pilots, frequented the Voyager for lunch. “Everyone’s pretty sad right now,” said Blanca Valenzuela, a Voyager hostess. “It was very shocking, just to know that, a few days ago, they were here.” Joudi Alsaady, owner of the Voyager, said: “It’s very, very sad. We have no idea what the next step will be.” He added, “I guess that’s part of life. If you want to reach the stars, you’ve got to pay the price sometime.” American crews have accomplished suborbital spaceflight since before going into orbit, but the potential addition of people, particularly private citizens, is still incredibly new. The Orbital Sciences Corp. rocket was carrying thousands of pounds of food and supplies to the International Space Station when it exploded, a catastrophic event that sent the Dulles, Va.-based company’s stock tumbling but caused no injuries or fatalities. “The thing that’s important is that we don’t overreact to this failure — that we really understand what occurred, we let the Orbital team run the investigation, we understand what happened, we fix it,” Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA’s associate


Burkina Faso’s uprising part of an ongoing wave of African protests

the protests, by the mid-1990s Africa could boast 20 democracies, with numerous more states holding elections. Yet, despite these earlier waves and the political transformations they initiated, African protests are often ignored. We document more than 90 popular uprisings in more than 40 African states since 2005. By our measure, the heralded North African protests of 2011 represented not the first ripple of a wave, but rather its crest, with 26 African countries (including Burkina Faso) experiencing popular protests that year. Since then, protests have continued but have rarely generated the sort of attention devoted to the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia. Why? Political change in the rest of Africa is often thought to result from violent conflict or external intervention. Africans themselves are presumed to be too rural, too ethnic or too poor for popular politics to lead to political transformation. Even today, as protests increasingly shake up ossified regimes and de facto one-party states, little attention is paid to the broader wave of protests unfolding across Africa and what it portends for the future of the continent. In our book, “Africa Uprising: Popular Protest and Political Change” (forthcoming from Zed Books), we look at the two earlier waves and find that since the colonial period, analysts have often misunderstood the specific character of protest in Africa and ignored its political salience. More problematically, African protests have too often been co-opted by elites, who, through subterfuge and deceit, subvert its political content into more narrow agendas. Pro-democracy protesters in Burkina Faso denounce what they're calling a military coup, just days after mass protests forced its long-ruling president to resign. During the first wave of African protest, for example, nationalist parties often moved to the forefront, redirecting often-inchoate and amorphous popular outrage at colonial rule into a clear demand for independence. By offering to negotiate with colonial rulers and constrain the undisciplined masses, nationalist elites were able to reap the benefits of independence. Unsurprisingly, once in power, the same elites quickly replicated many of the ruling practices introduced by colonial regimes, devoting much energy to demobilizing the popular constituencies that brought them to power in the first place. Burkina Faso’s trajectory fits well within these broader patterns of political protest. During the 1950s, a largely peaceful independence movement brought together various constituencies under the leadership of a nationalist party. Yet, upon independence, the new president, Maurice Yameogo, banned all political


These three words could save Japan’s economy

a percentage of the U.S.'s throughout the postwar period. The short version of the story is that, by the late 1980s, it looked like Japan would not only catch up with the US, but actually pass it. (The old joke, as Paul Krugman reminds us, was that the Cold War was over, and Japan had won). Indeed, at its peak, the land beneath Tokyo's Imperial Palace was supposedly worth more than the entire state of California. But then its boom turned to bust, and the BOJ sat passively by while deflation and deleveraging decreased growth. The result was that Japan actually lost ground to the U.S. in the 1990s, and hasn't made up any of it since. So instead of becoming as rich as the US, Japan, despite all its technological marvels, seems to have plateaued at a permanently poorer level. But then came those three little words. It started in 2013, when new prime minister Shinzo Abe decided that two lost decades were enough, and it was time for the BOJ to get serious about getting prices rising and the economy moving again. Let's back up for a minute. Why aren't falling prices a good thing? Well, anytime inflation is too low — practically-speaking, 1 percent or less — it makes it harder to pay back debts and means there isn't as much reason to spend or invest now rather than later. Put simply, it hurts growth. That's why Abe appointed an outsider, Haruhiko Kuroda, who didn't buy the BOJ's excuses, to run the place instead. And he didn't disappoint. Kuroda promptly raised the BOJ's inflation target from 1 to 2 percent, started printing tens of trillion of yen to buy bonds with, and said he wouldn't stop until inflation got up to its new target. And if that wasn't enough, he said he'd do, yes, "whatever it takes" to end deflation. Well, now we're finding out Kuroda meant what he said. See, Japan's economy and inflation rate have heated up the past year, but this progress has stalled out recently. That's because the government just passed a big sales tax hike, and lower oil prices, while good for the economy, have kept inflation expectations from rising anymore. So Kuroda is stepping on the gas even harder to make sure the economy gets to where it's supposed to go. And he's doing that over the objections of four of


Spy Museum’s mission: Find a new cover

Welcome to CapBiz A.M., your morning primer on business news with a focus on Washington. Agents of change: Lessons learned: Bethesda digs: Veteran affairs: Second step starts: Retaliation retaliation: Silicon similarities: Small-minded: Space concerns: Three days after an unmanned cargo rocket blew up moments after launch in Virginia, a test flight of Virgin’s passenger shuttle exploded Friday over the Mojave Desert, killing a pilot. Can the private space sector regain trust? (AP) Flip side: On Wall Street Stocks surged on Friday, pushing the Dow and S&P 500 to record closes and closing out a not-so-scary month of October. (Get the latest updates here) What’s on tap today Gallup consumer spending report (8:30 a.m.) PMI manufacturing index (9:45 a.m.) Construction spending report (10:00 a.m.) Help: Follow: Extra: Thoughts? Coming up: Meet


Investigators: Co-pilot of Virgin Galactic rocket executed slowing maneuver at wrong time

Photos appear to show the dramatic midair explosion of the Virgin Galactic passenger spaceship before its deadly crash. The co-pilot of the SpaceShipTwo rocket that crashed into the California desert Friday may have executed a braking maneuver at the wrong time and speed, the chief investigator of the accident said Sunday. While stressing that they have not determined the cause of the crash, the acting director of the National Transportation Safety Board also suggested that so far there was no sign of an engine failure, fire or explosion. The craft, which was part of entrepreneur Richard Branson’s “Virgin Galactic” dream of ferrying rich people into space, crashed seconds after it was released from the carrier plane that had flown it aloft. The fuel tanks and the engine were recovered intact with no signs of burning, said Christopher A. Hart, acting chairman of the NTSB. An investigation is ongoing after a pilot was killed when the space tourism craft crashed in the Mojave Desert. The findings described yesterday, however, at least hint at the possibility of pilot error or a malfunction of the system designed to create drag as the rocket reenters the atmosphere. A braking action, at a lower altitude where the air is dense, could conceivably have jolted or stressed the rocket causing it to break up. The braking system–which relies on the tailfins folding into a “feathered” configuration to create drag–is supposed to be deployed before the plane enters the atmosphere and then retract. The SpaceShipTwo, a narrow craft designed to whisk wealthy adventure-seekers into suborbital space, crashed early Friday — just seconds after separating from its carrier plane during a midair launch tens of thousands of feet above the Mojave Desert. It was the first time the engines used a new type of plastic-based fuel, splitting from the rubber-based solid fuel that propelled its predecessor, the SpaceShipOne, and nearly all previous tests. The carrier plane is designed to ascend to 50,000 feet and then release SpacShipTwo, which is then supposed to reach a sub-orbital altitude of 328,000 feet before beginning its descent. The craft has two tailfins designed to rotate upward and forward to slow the plane on its way down when it hits a speed of Mach 1.4. The effect has been compared with the feathers of a shuttlecock in badminton. In this flight, however, the “feathers” were deployed at Mach 1.0, Hart said, calling the


The Virgin Galactic crash ends Richard Branson’s incredible lucky streak

history of aviation have carried the weight of so many ill omens as Sir Richard Branson’s extravagant venture to send civilians into space,” the Guardian reported on Saturday. “Even before [the crash], this was a project marked by bad luck and near-calamity.” A Sunday night NTSB briefing reported no engine failure or evidence of mid-air explosion. But no matter the conclusions of the crash investigation, it’s clear billionaire Branson didn’t imbue the space project with his renowned luck. The accident opened him and his whole business model to criticism. British columnist Zoe Williams slammed Branson in an article entitled “Richard Branson’s space tourism shows what today’s obscene inequality looks like,” adding the space venture did little beyond illustrating the “frivolity and emptiness” of “the human condition.” Some experts criticized the continued use of a nitrous oxide fuel to power the craft despite a 2007 incident at the Virgin Galactic spaceport that killed three workers. Carolynne Campbell, a rocket engineer who studied that explosion and wrote a critical report of its use, said the gas is fine when you’re at the dentist — but it’s substantially less predictable when it’s in a rocket engine. There, she told the Guardian, it can “be extremely unpredictable — it has a bit of a devil in it.” Just six months ago, Virgin Galactic described the fuel as “benign” and “stable,” but Campbell said it was anything but. A colleague who co-authored the 2007 report also warned of SpaceShipTwo’s dangers. “Remember, three people have been killed and numerous persons injured by a prior explosion involving [nitrous oxide] in this motor design,” he wrote the Federal Aviation Administration in a letter. “We do not need another incident on the ground/flight line or in the air.” This is very different press than Branson, born into an aristocratic existence in Surrey, England, is accustomed to. He has been exulted as the hip, anti-establishment businessmen who had a knack for entering lucrative industries dominated by one player, then offering a more modern, cool alternative. After getting his start with Virgin Records, his first major business, he moved on to Virgin Airlines, challenging the stodgier giant, British Airways. He now commands 400 companies. Sir Richard Branson of Virgin Atlantic holds up a model of a spaceship unveiled at a news conference on Jan. 23, 2008, in New York City. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images) Branson’s restlessness is driven by many factors, biographers


How marijuana will fare on election day

legalization. They're selling it as the marijuana legalization initiative for people who don't want to smoke marijuana - and who don't want their kids to, either. Most polls Alaska - full legalization Likelihood of passage: too close to call Alaska voters will also decide whether to fully legalize marijuana tomorrow. Alaska's situation is unique because the personal possession of up to four ounces of marijuana has been protected under the state's constitutional right to privacy since 1975. This puts more headwind in front of legalization efforts, since a certain number of voters who would otherwise support a legalization bill might decide that the current protections are sufficient. Alaska already has one of the highest marijuana use rates in the U.S. These users could turn Alaskan weed into a $107 million industry if legalization passes and puts a $50 tax on marijuana at the wholesale level. But polls show an incredibly close contest, with small nuances in how the questions are worded yielding very different responses. At this point its anyone's game. Florida - medical marijuana Likelihood of passage: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ In June, Florida governor Rick Scott signed a bill that would allow a non-psychoactive strain of cannabis known as "Charlotte's Web" to be used to treat patients with epilepsy. Voters are now deciding whether to approve a fairly wide-reaching medical marijuana measure that would allow doctors to recommend marijuana for any "conditions for which a physician believes that the medical use of marijuana would likely outweigh the potential health risks for a patient." As a constitutional amendment, the measure requires 60 percent support to pass. Polls have been all over the map on this one, with different surveys showing 20 percentage point differences within just a few days of each other. While Floridians overwhelmingly approve of medical marijuana in theory, it's safe to say that they're conflicted about the merits of this particular bill. Florida's campaign is also the most expensive marijuana ballot measure this year. Casino magnate Sheldon Adelson has poured $5 million of his own money into the opposition campaign, fueling it almost single-handedly. On the other hand supporters have raised about $8 million, roughly half of it from attorney John Morgan. While the fate of the other marijuana initiatives rests largely in the hands of young voters, Florida's seniors may be the lynchpin here. Given the volatility of the polls it's very difficult to predict how things will


Like other space accidents, Virgin Galactic’s crash was likely a perfect storm of errors

designed for comfort and transportation — not science. SpaceShipTwo is also unique because it's meant to be recovered and used again, said Marshall Kaplan, a professor of aerospace engineering at the University of Maryland. That means Virgin Galactic is faced with a number of design decisions that differ from those facing the likes of Orbital Sciences. That's partly why investigators are looking more closely at SpaceShipTwo's movable tailfins. The fins are meant to change positions — a process known as "feathering" — on descent in order to slow the craft to safer speeds. And in a briefing on Sunday, the NTSB confirmed that SpaceShipTwo's copilot had unlocked the fins too early. But that still doesn't explain why the feathering occurred. In principle, Kaplan said, the force of the ship's rocket should have kept the fins in their horizontal position even if they were unlocked. Instead, something else caused the fins to shift — and the extra drag, combined with the extreme forces from the rocket propelling the craft forward, put too much stress on the structure of the ship. What we still don't know is what led the tailfins to change position, seemingly on their own. "Most accidents are caused by multiple things," said Kaplan, "It's not one thing that goes wrong, it's cascading failures — something caused something else to happen, and eventually the cascading effects of these small failures can add up to a big one." Previous accidents, such as the Challenger explosion of 1986 or when the space shuttle Columbia disintegrated upon reentry in 2003, were caused by a series of failures. We don't yet know what, if any, other problems may have afflicted SpaceShipTwo. But Kaplan added that the NTSB report undermines theories about Virgin Galactic's choice of fuel as a culprit. SpaceShipTwo runs on what is known as a "hybrid" engine, which uses both a solid propellant and a chemical oxidizer to produce thrust. For this test flight, SpaceShipTwo had been testing a plastic-based solid propellant rather than the rubber-based one used in previous launches. Yet the fact that investigators recovered the engine and fuel tanks intact suggests neither the new fuel nor the engine design were primarily responsible for the crash. "Rockets tend to be dangerous anyway, but of the various kinds, the hybrid rocket is relatively safe," said Kaplan. "It just doesn't blow up by itself — you've got to make it burn."


The pilots in Virgin Galactic disaster had a combined 30-plus years of flight experience

(Courtesy of Scaled Composites) Before their spaceship broke apart Friday evening, the test pilots of Virgin Galactic's spaceship had accumulated decades of experience and thousands of hours of flight experience. Co-pilot Michael Alsbury, 39, died in the disaster. His body was discovered among the wreckage of SpaceShipTwo strewn across the Mojave desert in California, according to the Kern County sheriff's office. The other pilot, Peter Siebold, 43, ejected from SpaceShipTwo and parachuted to the ground, where he was found by Kern County deputies. Siebold suffered "moderate to severe injuries" and was airlifted to a local hospital, where he is being treated. According to Scaled Composites, which created the rocket plane for Virgin Galactic and employed both test pilots, Siebold is alert and talking with family members and doctors. The flight was testing a new, plastic-based fuel. Previous SpaceShipTwo flights had relied on a rubber-based fuel, but the company announced the change to plastic in May -- with Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides saying the new fuel type would help send the spacecraft higher. In a press conference after the crash, Scaled President Kevin Mickey said the change was notexpected to cause problems. “We were flying a rocket motor today that had been thoroughly tested on the ground and had gone through a qualification series, so we expected no anomalies with the motor today,” he said. The cause of the crash remains under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board. Christopher Hart, acting chairman of the NTSB, said at a news conference late Sunday that the agency was not yet able to pinpoint a cause but that the investigation revealed that Alsbury initiated one step of a two-step process intended for braking the craft, known as "feathering," at the wrong point in the flight. However, the second step that should have been needed to start the braking process occurred without either pilot initiating it, he said. While the investigation continues, a picture of two deeply experienced engineers has emerged. Alsbury worked for Scaled Composites for more than a decade and served as a co-pilot on SpaceShipTwo at least seven times between 2010 and 2014, according to the company's flight logs, including last year, when the vehicle first broke the sound barrier. He was a "home-schooled, home-brewed" pilot who started at Scaled as an engineer and put himself through commercial pilot school, former colleague Brian Binnie, a test pilot who worked at


The incredible decline in young homebuyers

of first-time home buyers has dropped to its lowest level in 27 years, highlighting the challenges facing the housing market’s stalled recovery, according to an annual survey released Monday by the National Association of Realtors. Only 33 percent of buyers purchased their first home this year, down from 38 percent a year ago, according to the survey, which polled more than 6,500 people who bought a primary residence between July 2013 and June 2014. The last time the share was lower was in 1987, when first-time buyers made up only 30 percent of home purchases. The Realtors group cited several reasons for the decline, including a challenging job market and lending standards that tightened too much in the wake of the housing bust. Source: National Association of Realtors First-time buyers are a bedrock of the housing market, which is why so much attention is focused on their habits. When people purchase a first home, they enable existing homeowners to move or trade up. Having this turnover is critical to a robust housing sector and the economy, which relies heavily on the housing sector for growth. Typically, first-time buyers account for 4 out of 10 home purchases in any given year. But the share has been off the norm since 2011, the Realtors group reported. Saving for a downpayment Tight lending standards also shut out many potential first-time buyers, an issue that has alarmed the Obama administration. The administration has been meeting with mortgage industry executives for months to figure out what it will take for lenders to ease up. Nearly half of first-time buyers said that getting a mortgage remains more difficult or somewhat more difficult than expected now that lenders are demanding higher credit scores than required in normal, pre-housing bubble times. In the mean time, the cost of some government-backed loans also has discouraged potential first-time buyers from entering the market, Yun said. The Federal Housing Administration, a popular source of low downpayment loans, has raised the fees that it tacks onto monthly mortgage payments five times since 2010. The Realtors group and the Mortgage Bankers Association sent letters to the agency asking it to lower these fees. "To put it in perspective, 56 percent of first-time buyers used a FHA loan in 2010." Yun said. "The current high mortgage insurance added to their monthly payment is likely causing some young adults to forgo taking out a loan."


A staggering 400 million birds have vanished from Europe since 1980

the study just out in the journal Ecology Letters, is "alarming." The research finds that out of the 144 most common species, there were about 2.06 billion birds in Europe in 1980, and just 1.64 billion in 2009 (the last year considered in the study). Thus, the loss of 421 million represents more than a 20 percent decrease. "90 percent of that decline can be attributed to the 36 most common species," says lead study author Richard Inger, from the University of Exeter's Environment and Sustainability Institute. According to Inger, the top five species experiencing stark declines are the house sparrow, the common starling, the Eurasian skylark, the willow warbler, and the Eurasian tree sparrow. The research builds on thousands of bird surveys that have been carried out by volunteers going back to 1980. Surprisingly, the research finds that many rarer or endangered species (including marsh harriers and white storks) are actually increasing in number, perhaps in part because these birds have been successfully protected by conservation measures. But the loss of common birds, it emphasizes, can have dramatic consequences, since by their very numbers, they have crucial roles to play in ecosystems, such as controlling the volume of pest species. Decline in the number of European birds from 1980 through 2009. Credit: Richard Inger. The study also notes that precisely because these declines are in common species, they are more likely to be indicators of environmental degradation. "Common species are widespread and their numbers are linked to the deterioration of the quality of the environment on a landscape scale," notes the paper. Inger says that he suspects that expansion of agriculture represents a key cause of the decline, but so does urbanization. More farmland and more houses and roads means less habitat for birds, and also habitat fragmentation. "It’s a bit of a wake up call, really, that we need to start trying to figure out what’s causing these declines, so we can look into ways of then stopping them and hoping to reverse them," says Inger. The current study does not cite climate change as a factor in bird species declines. However, in September a major report from the Audubon Society found that over half of American bird species will be threatened by climate change by the year 2100. In another study, the Audubon Society found a dramatic decline in the numbers of 20 common US bird species.


Deal to bring Wegmans to Tysons falls apart

The Wegmans store in Fairfax will have to suffice for now. (JEWEL SAMAD/AFP/Getty Images) For more than a year officials from Wegmans and one of the largest property owners in Tysons Corner have gone back and forth discussing a deal to build an urban format store next to an apartment-and-retail development near the McLean Metro station in Tysons. But it wasn’t meant to be. Talks have ceased between representatives of the grocer and the developer, Cityline Partners, meaning that if Wegmans wants to open a store in Tysons it will have to find another location. Donna P. Shafer, executive vice president at Cityline, confirmed Monday she was no longer considering a Wegmans for Scotts Run Station South, the project her company is building along the south side of Route 123, what is now a spread of parking lots and older office buildings. The store would have been on Colshire Drive, a short walk from the new McLean Metro station. Shafer said the company will return to its original plan for retail, a mix of restaurants and entertainment. The project is still being designed and planned but is expected to have about 75,000 square feet of retail. In all, Scotts Run Station South will eventually have 6.7 million square feet of development. “We’re going full steam ahead with our original plan which will have a very rich retail street with residential above,” Shafer said. The Scotts Run development, envisioned for the area around the McLean Metro station. (Courtesy CityLine Partners) Jo Natale, director of media relations for Wegman Food Markets, declined to comment. Shafer declined to say why the deal didn’t work out but it entailed far more complexities than the Rochester, N.Y. chain usually encounters in building its stores. Wegmans traditionally builds stores of well over 100,000 square feet with large surface parking lots. In Tysons, it was considering one of its new “urban” stores of as few as 80,000 square feet, similar to one it opened in suburban Boston this spring. Roadside Development, based in D.C., would have developed the grocery space, with apartments upstairs. New apartment buildings Grocery stores remain a particularly missing piece in the effort to turn Tysons from a sprawling mix of office parks into a series of urban neighborhoods. Despite the Fortune 500 companies and steak restaurants there are only two grocery stores in and around Tysons, although Whole Foods has been scouring the


Two pilots who were close friends, now tied together by one fatal flight

investigator raised the possibility of pilot error, saying the co-pilot unlocked a mechanism that enabled the back half of the spaceship’s wing — the part known as the feather — to bend along its hinge at the wrong time and speed. While stressing that investigators have not determined the cause of the crash of the Virgin spacecraft known as SpaceShipTwo, Christopher A. Hart, the acting director of the NTSB, said there was no sign of an engine failure, fire or explosion. At another news conference late Monday, Hart said debris had been found as far away at 35 miles from the crash site. http://www.washingtonpost.com/posttv/national/ntsb-gives-timeline-of-spacecraft-crash/2014/11/04/64d83224-0751-469b-99d9-0053fdf985c7_video.html Employees at Scaled Composites, the firm that designed the space plane, on Friday were able to watch video camera feeds from inside the cockpit and outside the spaceship during its flight. “There are dozens of reasons why mistakes like this one could be made,” said another Scaled test pilot. That pilot went on to explain that there was a rule that anyone flying the spaceship could not re-configure the vehicle without the verbal acknowledgment of both pilot and co-pilot. It is unclear whether that protocol was followed. Normally, the co-pilot would announce when Mach 1.4 had been reached — the proper speed to unlock the feather. The pilot would acknowledge and command the co-pilot to unlock the feather. Once the feather was unlocked, the co-pilot would announce the maneuver had been completed. A number of sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the company has forbidden interviews with the media, described seeing Alsbury unlock the feather and then appear to realize there was an error, moving quickly as if he was trying to shut off the motor, but it was too late. These sources said that within the company, there is a growing recognition that Alsbury, the co-pilot, unlocked the feather early, although it is not clear why. Colleagues say Alsbury was one of the sharpest test pilots on the team, with more than 1,600 hours of flight experience in more than nine different aircraft. Photos appear to show the dramatic midair explosion of the Virgin Galactic passenger spaceship before its deadly crash. The first 15 seconds of the burn are incredibly chaotic for the pilot and co-pilot. Lighting the rocket motor is akin to opening the gate at a rodeo — the bull starts bucking and the pilot is just along for the


Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo wreckage found 35 miles from crash site. Human error not ruled out.

correction via tweet: To clarify information provided in the Q & A portion of tonight's media briefing on the #SpaceShipTwo investigation…(cont’d) …the copilot, who was in right seat, moved the lock/unlock handle into unlock position; he did not survive accident. #SpaceShipTwo To understand why such a mistake was made, Hart said the NTSB will bring in experts to study the interface between humans and the spacecraft, looking at everything from pilot fatigue to the readings on the cockpit dashboard. The NTSB will also study the overall culture at Scaled Composites, the company that built SpaceShipTwo, with a focus on safety protocols, pilot training and other practices that may have contributed to the accident. A new arm of the investigation, dubbed the “human-performance group,” will attempt to zero in on why the co-pilot made the mistake of unlocking the feather, which allows the ship to slow its descent into the atmosphere and properly align itself for re-entry from space. On Sunday, the NTSB disclosed the feather was moved at the wrong time in the flight sequence, when the ship was traveling at Mach 1.0 instead of Mach 1.4. If unlocked too soon, aerodynamic pressure could cause the feather section to move — a maneuver that normally requires pilot input. If the feather began to rise, tremendous atmospheric forces would simply rip it to shreds, sending the spaceship tumbling out of control. Photographs of SpaceShipTwo back up this scenario, showing the booms falling away first and the entire front of the spaceship – the nose, the cabin and everything forward of the feather’s hinge – completely ripped apart and missing. Law enforcement officers examine wreckage near the site where a Virgin Galactic space tourism rocket, SpaceShipTwo, exploded and crashed in Mojave, Calif. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu) Investigators said they are also trying to understand how surviving pilot Pete Siebold — whom investigators have not yet been able to interview — managed to parachute to safety from an altitude of roughly 50,000 feet. Neither pilot wears a pressure suit or oxygen mask, and Siebold would have had very little oxygen to breathe at such an extraordinary height. Scaled Composites employees, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they have been forbidden from talking with the media, are calling Siebold’s survival miraculous, and they describe his escape like something out of a movie script. According to sources, Siebold found himself flying through the air


‘This feels like a carnival of freedom’: 25 years later, a Tiananmen veteran visits Hong Kong

and even driving through Tiananmen Square on the eve of the 25th anniversary of the bloody crackdown on the protests he helped lead. Shortly afterward, police turned up at his hotel room and arrested him again. After about 16 hours of interrogation, he was put on a plane back to the United States. But this week, he was back in China on a much happier mission, reliving memories that had inspired his life. He said he was happy, excited and relieved — that the ideals he struggled for remained alive in his country. "I see the hope, I see the proof that the Chinese people love freedom, they enjoy it, they can talk, they can express themselves freely, truthfully — and they can be really peaceful and powerful at the same time. That's very similar," he said. "To me, it's like back to the future — it's coming back, but it is also the future of Hong Kong, the future of China." Zhou was a 21-year-old physics student at Beijing's Tsinghua University before joining the Tiananmen protests. He ended up getting a business degree in the United States and working in finance, before founding a group that works on behalf of Chinese political prisoners. Zhou clearly feels a deep bond with Hong Kong, a city where about 100,000 people turned out this year — as they do every year — to commemorate the Tiananmen Square massacre, even though many of those who attended the annual rally were not even born at the time. "I am hopeful that the ideal here, what is unfolding here, will some day happen in China," he said. "I am not sure when, but I know that what is happening here will be an important moment." A future generation of Chinese people, he predicted, would one day look to Hong Kong "for ideas and inspiration." Zhou slipped into China this summer under a new scheme allowing for a 72-hour visa-free transit stay. It took more than a day for the authorities to realize he was there, even though he showed his passport at the detention center he visited. On Tuesday, he said he also drew inspiration from the courage of almost 100 people in mainland China who had been arrested after they publicly declared support for the Hong Kong protests, including about 20 Beijing artists — despite almost blanket censorship of the issue. "I want the


Ebola hasn’t dampened air travel

(Keith Bedford/Reuters) Fear of Ebola hasn’t kept people from flying all over the globe, with travel growing by more than five percent in September, according to data released Tuesday. The International Air Transport Association (IATA), trade group for international airline travel, said the 5.3 percent increase over September 2013 didn’t quite match the figures for August, when passengers increased by 6.3 percent. “Overall, demand for passenger travel is growing in line with expectations,” said IATA chief executive Tony Tyler. “We saw, however, some shifting of the sources of that growth in September, largely driven by economic factors. The strengthening of the U.S. and Asian economies was offset by weakness in Europe and Latin American.”


Medical marijuana advocates notch an early victory in Guam

Jars of medical cannabis line the shelves inside a Good Meds medical cannabis center in Lakewood, Colorado, U.S., on Monday, March 4, 2013. (Photo by Matthew Staver/For The Washington Post) With 56 of 58 precincts reporting, Guam voters appear to have legalized a medical marijuana measure. Fifty six percent of voters tallied so far have supported the measure, with 44 percent opposed. “That’s great news, and a positive omen, for marijuana reform efforts across the country,” said Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, in a press release. “Guam is quite conservative politically, and home to a significant U.S. military presence, so this resounding victory is a confirmation of medical marijuana's broad support across the political spectrum." Tom Angell of the Marijuana Majority agreed. "People all across the world are ready to move beyond failed prohibition laws, especially when seriously ill patients are criminalized just for following their doctors' recommendations," he said in an email. Over at the liveblog of Project SAM, an organization that opposes medical and recreational marijuana measures, Kevin Sabet wrote that the results aren't a huge surprise. "As we had expected, Guam legalizes medical marijuana. No surprise here... Guam's law is more restrictive than the majority of mainland US laws, and it will be interesting to see how this plays out." According to an analysis of the bill by Guam lawyer Bill Pesch, Guam's measure doesn't allow patients to grow their own marijuana plants, which most other states allow. Patients would receive a medical marijuana recommendation from a doctor, who would have to attest that "the patient has a debilitating medical condition and the practitioner believes that the potential health benefits of the medical use of cannabis would likely outweigh the health risks for the patient." This criteria is more restrictive than in California, where patients can receive medical marijuana for any condition that would benefit from marijuana treatment. On the other hand, many other states restrict medical marijuana recommendations to only a handful of specific conditions, like epilepsy, glaucoma or cancer, which Guam's measure does not appear to do.


Many states voted on marijuana today. Don’t use puns when you talk about them. Please.

We wrote about coverage of marijuana legalization-- and all the awful puns it often entails -- last March. With all the ballot measures concerning weed being discussed tonight, we thought it would a good time to remind everyone that every joke you think of has already been made. So don't do it. And yes, we are the fun police. Public opinion on marijuana has changed rapidly over the past decade. A NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll from last week showed that more Americans think sugar is more harmful than pot. Across the country, more and more states are warming up to legalized medical marijuana. However, the puns used to describe such changes in American culture haven't changed much over the past couple of decades. In fact, we seem to be using many of the same ones. Over and over again. Here are 46 examples of why we should maybe give up weed wordplay for good. Some are far more creative than others. (Click the headlines to read the story.) 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42. 43. 44. 45. 46.


Marijuana and minimum wage won big on Tuesday

contributed about half of the $8 million raised by People United for Medical Marijuana, which sought to pass it. Georgians approved a measure to cap the top income tax rate, currently at 6 percent, while those in Tennessee voted to abolish it altogether. The Georgia vote won with 3-to-1, while the measure in Tennessee was passed 2-to-1. Here’s a look at where the ballot measures stand, as of 7 a.m. EST on Nov. 6. TOPIC State/Measure/Status SUMMARY Abortion Tennessee’s Constitutional Amendment 1 (Passed 53%) Lays the foundation for future abortion restrictions by amending the state constitution to explicitly make clear that nothing in it “secures or protects right to abortion or requires the funding of an abortion.” Abortion Colorado’s Amendment 67 (Failed 65%) Counts “unborn human beings” as a person or child under the Colorado criminal code and Colorado wrongful death act. Abortion North Dakota’s Constitutional Measure 1 (Failed 64%) Adds the following line to the state constitution: “The inalienable right to life of every human being at any stage of development must be recognized and protected.” Drugs Alaska’s Ballot Measure 2 (Passed 52%) Legalizes marijuana for recreational use. Drugs Florida’s Amendment 2 (Failed 42%) Grants access to medical marijuana for individuals with “debilitating diseases,” as determined by a licensesd phsyician. Drugs District of Columbia’s Initiative 71 (Passed 64%) Legalize possession of two ounces of marijuana and cultivation of up to three plants. Drugs California’s Proposition 47 (Passed 59%) This sentencing reform eliminates the possibility of being charged with a felony for six crimes, including possession in small amounts of a number of drugs, including cocaine and heroin. Represents a further reform of the state’s 20-year-old “three strikes” law. Drugs Oregon’s Measure 91 (Passed) Legalizes marijuana. GMO Colorado’s Proposition 105 (Failed 66%) Requires labeling of genetically modified foods. GMO Oregon’s Measure 92 (Fail 51%) Requires labeling of genetically modified foods. Guns Washington’s Initiative 591 (55%) Bans background checks on firearms, unless in compliance with federal standards. Guns Washington’s Initiative 594 (Passed) Requires universal background checks on gun purchases. Health care California’s Proposition 45 (Failed 60%) Requires changes to health insurance rates to be approved by California’s insurance commissioner. Health care California’s Proposition 46 (Failed 67%) Introduces a pair of controversial changes to the state’s health care system. First, it requires drug and alcohol tests of doctors and penalties for those who test positively. Second, it raises the limit on pain


‘Kissing bug’ disease: Should you be worried?

Chagas Disease is caused by the parasitic protozoan Trypanosoma cruzi and is transmitted while the insect is feeds on the blood of a human host. (CDC/WHO) Researchers at the annual gathering of tropical medicine experts on Tuesday warned of a deadly disease from abroad that is threatening the health of more and more Americans. They weren't talking about Ebola, but Chagas, the "kissing bug" disease. Called a silent killer because it's often hard to diagnose in the early stages, Chagas is a parasitic infection that can lead to serious cardiac and intestinal complications and even death. It typically spreads through blood-sucking "kissing" bugs that bite on people's faces during the night and is estimated to affect 7 to 8 million people worldwide. The disease can also be spread from blood transfusions, organ transplants and congenital transfer from mother to child, according to the CDC. Until recently it was considered a problem only in Mexico, Central America and South America. Over the past few years, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has seen cases across half the United States, but in most cases the victims were believed to have been infected abroad. As recently as 2012, scientists expressed worry about the "globalization" of Chagas. Now a team of researchers from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston is challenging that assumption. During a presentation at the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene meeting in New Orleans, epidemiologist Melissa Nolan Garcia said her team had been following 17 Houston-area residents who had been infected. At least six of them appeared to have been infected locally as they had had insignificant travel outside the United States. Most of the patients spent a lot of time outdoors or lived in rural areas where the bugs are thought to live. The Baylor group also collected 40 kissing bugs near homes in 11 central-southern Texas counties and found that half had fed on human blood as well as that of a dozen kinds of animals ranging from dogs to raccoons. The researchers analyzed blood donors in Texas between 2008 and 2012 and found that one in every 6,500 donors tested positive for exposure to the parasite -- a figure that is 50 times higher than the Centers for Disease Control estimate. "We were astonished to not only find such a high rate of individuals testing positive for Chagas in their blood, but also high rates