The Daily 202: Bob Woodward has quietly written a new book with fresh details on Watergate

aircraft to Syria in the past day or so and has deployed a small number of forces there, Reuters reports, “the latest signs of a military buildup that has put Washington on edge.” - Apple unveiled improvements to its iPhones, iPads and Apple TV. The TV device will now function as a game console. - A new discovery suggests that Rome was much bigger than previously thought in ancient times. (Nick Kirkpatrick) POWER PLAYERS IN THE NEWS: - One day after he criticized his brother for running up the deficit, Jeb Bush unveiled a tax plan that would add at least $1.2 trillion to the deficit over 10 years. That’s according to Republican economists who reviewed the plan on Bush’s behalf. Traditional modeling would suggest that the “Bush 45” plan would add $3.4 trillion. The Bush camp dismisses standard scoring models as “antiquated” and “irrelevant.” (Ed O’Keefe) - President Obama will personally greet Pope Francis when he arrives at Andrews Air Force Base on Sept. 22 for his visit to the United States. John Boehner will also meet one-on-one with Francis at the Capitol. - The House Benghazi panel summoned the State Department IT guy who set up Hillary Clinton‘s homebrew e-mail server to appear before the committee, even though he has said he will plead the Fifth. The decision to require an in-person appearance by Bryan Pagliano prompted a stern letter from his lawyer, who accused the panel and its chairman, Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), of engaging in political theater and abusing its subpoena power. (Carol D. Leonnig) - Both vice chairs of the Democratic National Committee, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (Hawaii) and former Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak, called for more Democratic presidential debates, echoing Martin O’Malley. - The New York Times floats John Kerry in today’s paper as someone being “discussed among party officials … as an alternative” to Hillary. That is not going to happen, but it’s a reflection of the increasing unease with the frontrunner. The current Secretary of State is mentioned alongside Al Gore, Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren. - North Dakota Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp announced that she will NOT run for governor next year, a huge break for Senate Democrats who worried about losing the red-state seat. (Fargo Forum) WAPO HIGHLIGHTS: South Carolina Rep. Mick Mulvaney is part of a group of conservatives who says House GOP leaders are “setting up for surrender” on


How this overworked lawyer found time to run again

Photo by Jonathan Palmer The 21 Day Timehacker Project matches readers with coaches who help them find time for their most important goals. DAY ONE: But once he started working a few years ago for a law firm, he stopped. He worried he didn’t have the time to run, and that what time he did have should be devoted to work. Then inertia set in. “As an attorney, time is how I am measured, specifically the time I bill, which is not necessarily the same as time worked,” he said. “So there is pressure to use the hours for work. Honorable mention goes to my iPhone. It is a time drain.” Wiseman wanted to find time to run again. [Related: How a too-busy doctor trained for an ultra marathon by making every minute count] THE TIME HACKS: 1. DEFINE WHAT’S ESSENTIAL: “Tim has, in the past, accomplished some great things like running a marathon. His job has become more demanding and takes up more of his time, and he feels guilty for not doing some of the things he used to find time for quite easily, like running, recreational reading, and having fun,” Coomber said. “As we become more busy and essential at work, it’s hard to determine what else in our life should take priority.” Becoming clear on what’s essential helps alleviate the guilt that can arise when it comes to doing something enjoyable outside work. 2. SET A REASONABLE SCHEDULE: 3. CREATE NEW HABITS: 4. FIND THE MOTIVATOR She suggested making a bet with a friend about running in an upcoming race. The competition would serve as motivation, as well as keep serve to keep him accountable to his goal. DAY 21: He’d signed up to run the Urban Bourbon Half Marathon in Louisville. And, to keep his motivation high, he’d made a $200 bet with a friend that he would beat his best half-marathon time of 1 hour and 55 minutes. “Another friend thinks I won’t do it and has bet another $100,” Wiseman said. “So I want to double down on my training to show I can.” Either way, he said, he can’t lose. “It’s been good to get back into running and just try,” Wiseman said “It’ll be a small price to pay if I don’t make it by a few seconds.” Wiseman said figuring out his top, essential, priorities helped him see that running


Washington Monument camera catches bright meteor streaking over Virginia

A bright meteor occurred over West Virginia last night at 9:27 EST, moving west to east. It was seen across Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, and Maryland! NASA’s Pennsylvania and Ohio all sky cameras caught it near the edge of the field-of-view, but what also saw it was an EarthCam located on the Washington Monument! Pretty fun. :-) Posted by NASA Meteor Watch on Wednesday, September 9, 2015 A meteor bright enough to potentially be classified as a fireball streaked across the Mid-Atlantic sky on Tuesday night, captured on video by the Washington Monument EarthCam. The meteor blazed a trail across northern Virginia and West Virginia at 9:27 p.m. Tuesday. The American Meteor Society says that it might have been a fireball, which is a particularly bright meteor, brighter than the planet Venus in the evening sky. However, one reader noted on Twitter that it ended in a flash, indicating it may have been a bolide, which is a meteor that “explodes in a bright terminal flash at its end, often with visible fragmentation.” @angelafritz was on way to IAD last night at 9:30p saw a meteorite (?) right over Dulles. Very bright streaking across the sky then flash? The meteor was seen from the D.C. region west to Columbus, Ohio, and as far south as Raleigh, N.C. By Thursday morning 20 people had reported seeing the meteor, which you can do on the American Meteor Society website. Location of Tuesday night meteor sightings. (American Meteor Society)


Teen pot use holds steady in first year of legal weed, new federal data show

just-released numbers from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Many opponents of legalization have warned that legal weed would lead to a spike in the number of teenagers using and abusing the substance. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has frequently said that legalization would "send the wrong message" to kids. Federal drug czars have often echoed a similar refrain. But these numbers suggest that so far, national conversations about marijuana legalization haven't led to an increase in teen use. This comports with the best available research on marijuana laws, which finds that marijuana laws have have so far had little impact on overall teen use trends. Nationally, 7.4 percent of kids age 12 to 17 use marijuana monthly, according to SAMHSA's new numbers. That's up by 0.3 percentage points from the prior year, a change that SAMHSA says is not statistically significant, but still significantly lower than levels seen in the early 2000s. There has, however, been a significant increase in the number of adults age 26+ smoking weed monthly, from 5.6 percent in 2013 to 6.6 percent in 2014. The implication is that marijuana legalization in Colorado and Washington has had little to no effect on national teen marijuana use trends, but perhaps has contributed to the increase seen in adult marijuana use. SAMHSA will release state-level numbers later this year, which will give a clearer picture of what's happening in Colorado and Washington. If you're an advocate of loosening marijuana laws , this is exactly what you want to see -- more adults using a substance that's now legally available to them, with little impact on teen use. Of course it's early, still, in the national legalization debate. We won't really know the full effects of changing marijuana laws until four or five years down the line, when markets have matured and states have had time to track data on use and abuse. But so far, there's been little apparent downside to legal weed in Colorado and Washington. Colorado marijuana taxes are bringing in millions of dollars for schools (ditto in Washington). Cops are spending less time arresting and jailing marijuana users. Crime and impaired driving in Colorado is generally flat or trending downward. Anti-marijuana groups keep warning us that the sky's about to fall, and that each incremental shift in drug policy will lead, inevitably, to catastrophe. But the actual data continue to show otherwise.


A version of Pokemon is finally coming to your smartphone

a version of the existing game for the smartphone, the new Pokémon Go title will let players pursue those wily pocket monsters throughout the real world. Players will be able to seek and catch Pokémon, trade them and get into battles with other trainers through their smartphones as they visit real-world locations. The Pokémon Company and Nintendo are making the game in partnership with Niantic, which was the first company to spin out of Google in the wake of its Alphabet restructuring earlier this summer. While it was a part of Google, Niantic saw some great success with "Ingress," an augmented-reality game that requires players to travel to real-world locations, such as prominent local landmarks, to compete for control of in-game portals. Ingress has had 12 million downloads, and regularly holds meet-up events that draw hundreds of players. Given that the company already has experience with getting players to walk all over creation in pursuit of digital goals, Pokemon seems like a natural fit. “Pokémon GO is a wonderful combination of Niantic’s real world gaming platform and one of the most beloved franchises in popular culture,” said John Hanke, Niantic's founder and chief executive, in the release. “Our partnership with The Pokémon Company and Nintendo is an exciting step forward in real-world gaming and using technology to help players discover the world and people around them.” The announcement comes just two months after the death of Nintendo president Satoru Iwata, who resisted calls to move Nintendo games over to mobile for years, instead preferring that the company make games for its own devices. Before he died, however, he announced a deal with the Japanese mobile game firm DeNa, saying that the two companies would make five games together. Yet while Pokémon Go may be designed for iOS and Android devices, it will also support a separate, dedicated Bluetooth device called thePokémon Go Plus. "Players will be able to enhance their Pokémon GO experience even when they are looking away from their smartphones by using a unique device called Pokémon GO Plus," the release said. "By pressing a button on Pokémon GO Plus, simple in-game actions like catching a Pokémon can be performed." The game will be coming to the App Store and the Google Play store sometime next year. So you won't have to wait too long to begin your own quest to be the very best. (Courtesy of Niantic)


Secrets of longevity may lie in long-lived smokers, a ‘biologically distinct’ group with extraordinary gene variants

that things like disease status were self-reported -- the researchers had enough information to develop a genetic risk score for smokers. They reported that they were not only able to predict an individual's likelihood of surviving to a very old age -- but a person's risk of cancer, which, not surprisingly, was significantly lower in those with the protective gene variants. An important question smokers may have is whether they carry the genetic variants identified in the study. While there are a number of companies that offer direct-to-consumer tests for genetic information, Levine said not all of them measure the same markers and "therefore, they may not have all the markers we presented in this paper." Such a test may possible in the future, however. Levine is collaborating with other researchers at the University of Southern California's Davis School of Gerontology to develop tools that would allow individuals to calculate their health risks based on information from blood tests and genetics. Levine emphasized, however, that the “proportion of people who have a ‘genetic signature’ that would help them cope with the biological stresses of smoking is extremely small, and therefore, nobody should use this paper as an excuse to continue smoking.” “Even among those who are genetically predisposed to longevity, smoking cessation is likely still one of the best things they can do for their health,” she said. With the focus on wellness in modern society, Levine said she's currently working on new research into people's "health spans" (as opposed to life spans), a term that refers to the length of a person’s life that is disease and disability free. "Our society has been conditioned to associate a very negative image with being old," she said. "However, we have seen that some people are able to live to be centenarians without ever suffering from disease and disability. This is the goal." Read more: SPECIAL REPORT: Tech titans’ latest project — defy death: For centuries explores have searched the earth for the fountain of youth. Today’s billionaires think they can create it, using technology and data. In new study, a startling 100 percent of participants taking HIV prevention pill Truvada remained infection-free Scientists: Why running makes you so happy America's love affair with caffeine has parked a crisis of overdoses -- and what the FDA is doing about it In awesome feat of engineering, paralyzed man takes steps with robotic exoskeleton


New images of Pluto show a surface ‘every bit as complex as that of Mars’

help us understand the origin and the evolution of the Pluto system for the first time,” New Horizons Principal Investigator Alan Stern said in a statement. “And what’s coming is not just the remaining 95 percent of the data that’s still aboard the spacecraft – it’s the best datasets, the highest-resolution images and spectra, the most important atmospheric datasets, and more. It’s a treasure trove.” The images of Pluto show amazing diversity in the dwarf planet's geology: The image includes dark, ancient terrain; bright, smooth young terrain; mountains; and a field of dark, aligned ridges that resemble dunes. (NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute) “Pluto is showing us a diversity of landforms and complexity of processes that rival anything we’ve seen in the solar system,” Stern said in a statement. “If an artist had painted this Pluto before our flyby, I probably would have called it over the top — but that’s what is actually there.” Jeff Moore, leader of the New Horizons Geology, Geophysics and Imaging team, added that the surface was "every bit as complex as that of Mars," with jumbled mountains, nitrogen ice flows, and possible dunes. Pluto's largest moon Charon makes an appearance, too: Pluto's largest moon Charon, as seen by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft 10 hours before its closest approach to Pluto in July from a distance of 290,000 miles.(NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute) Look at these worlds! These are some great worlds. And here are new images of the haze around Pluto: Two different versions of an image of Pluto's haze layers, taken by New Horizons as it looked back at Pluto's dark side nearly 16 hours after close approach, from a distance of 480,000 miles. (NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute) I hope this is just a taste of the treasure trove of magnificent images that are yet to come. And as those images are combined with other sources of data, NASA scientists will begin to unravel some of Pluto's mysteries. Read More: NASA’s New Horizons may have a new target, far beyond Pluto Gorgeous new photo shows Pluto with jazzed up color Why NASA’s top scientist is sure that we’ll find signs of alien life in the next decade Why did NASA spend 9 years getting to Pluto only to fly right past it? Is there a Planet X, a ‘massive perturber,’ hidden beyond Pluto?


Celebrating the Ethiopian New Year with Mahmoud Ahmed

At 74, Ethiopian singer Mahmoud Ahmed still has a command presence onstage. (Courtesy of Mahmoud Ahmed) When Mahmoud Ahmed opens his mouth to sing, his voice trembles. This isn’t some stylish affectation and it certainly isn’t stage fright. That lovely wobble you’re hearing is one of Ethiopia’s brightest and longest-burning stars attempting to wrangle an entire spectrum of human emotion into his vowels. It’s the sound of a national hero who, at 74, still sounds as stately as he does emotive. On Friday, Ahmed will ring in the Ethiopian New Year at George Washington University’s Lisner Auditorium. It’s a large but relatively cozy venue for the singer, especially considering that the District boasts the largest Ethiopian population outside of Ahmed’s native Addis Ababa. If you’re lucky enough to score a seat, you’ll have rare proximity to a remarkable voice. So listen close. But don’t forget to dance. With Tineshu Tilahun on Friday at Lisner Auditorium. Show starts at 8 p.m. 202-994-6800. lisner.gwu.edu. $35, $29.75 for GW students. Mahmoud Ahmed - 06 Atawurulegn lela - Ethiopiques 7.wmv


For D.C. traffic, how will pope’s visit compare with inaugurations?

In April 2008, Metro’s Navy Yard station was jammed with people heading for the papal Mass at Nationals Park. (Robert Thomson/The Washington Post) Many officials working on the papal visit to D.C. say they are preparing for an inauguration-scale event. That’s something Washingtonians understand, so let’s compare and contrast to help with your individual preparations. Number of events. Location. The papal parade around the Ellipse on Sept. 23 is emerging as a best-bet chance for the general public to see Francis. This location also will be challenging for people seeking a view and for those just trying to avoid the congestion. The biggest event the Ellipse hosts each year is the National Christmas Tree lighting, which locks up the street grid for many blocks. One advantage: There are six Metro stations within easy walking distance of the Ellipse. Timing. More specifically, we’re looking at a string of crowd-drawing events at various times of day. For inaugurations, we usually recommend that spectators decide whether they want to see the swearing-in at the Capitol or the parade on Pennsylvania Avenue, so they can stake out a good viewing spot for one of them. It’s difficult to get a good spot for both, but at least these two events are close together. People who want to at least get a glimpse of Francis are likely to be bopping all across town over three days. It won’t be just for events like the parade or the Mass at the National Shrine. Some will want to get a glimpse of his motorcades to the Vatican Embassy on Massachusetts Avenue NW, or to St. Matthew’s Cathedral on Rhode Island Avenue, or to Capitol Hill, or to St. Patrick’s Catholic Church downtown. There’s enough separation among events that many people probably can take several chances at a view. No playbook. For the reasons we’ve reviewed so far — the number of events, varied locations and timing — the crowding during the pope’s visit and the disruptions in travel times are much less predictable. There’s really no playbook for this one. We know in a general way that they will be significant. But what individuals want to know is more like: Is the Smithsonian Metro station going to be a mess on the morning of Sept. 23? Should I find some way other than the Red Line to get from downtown to Silver Spring on the afternoon of


Why you shouldn’t freak out about ancient “Frankenviruses” emerging from Arctic permafrost

and Chikungunya in the Western Hemisphere. This is a fact of our planet and our existence…. The finding of new viruses in permafrost is not much different from all of this. Its relevance will be dependent on a sequence of unlikely events: the permafrost virus must be able to infect humans, it must then be pathogenic (cause disease), and it must be able to spread efficiently from human to human. This can happen, but it is very unlikely. Climate change itself poses significant viral health risks, adds the University of Florida’s Grant McFadden, but not because of thawing permafrost. Rather, the worry is “the wider global spread of insect vectors (particularly mosquitoes) and the viral pathogens they carry,” he says. “Compared to the real threat caused by ever increasing geographic ranges of vector-born diseases like Dengue and Chikungunya viruses, the threat to human health of re-animated viruses from thawing permafrost is vanishingly small.” Indeed, amid all the fear and extreme headlines, many are missing that the relatively recent discovery of giant viruses — not just in permafrost but in several other locations as well — represents a major breakthrough of basic biological science. It underscores that we don’t know everything under the sun, whether among animals or otherwise. Granted, I did reach one researcher who evinced more concern. Tara Smith, a microbiologist who studies infections spread from animals to humans at Kent State University, said by e-mail that she was “conflicted” about the new work. As Smith explained: “I think it’s important to do these types of studies, because as the earth warms, we certainly have the potential to be exposed to new pathogens that have been trapped in ice for millennia. It’s important to know what the chances are that they could survive this long-term freezing and still infect their host.” At the same time, Smith added, “I think the public is wary of such studies, and we’ve had high-level mistakes at the CDC and other labs … that right now, it’s hard to justify the importance of such work to the public, and tough for everyone to believe it can be done safely and without incident.” The bottom line, then, seems to be that we’re dealing with a “theoretical possibility” of a danger right now, to quote Racaniello. The danger is certainly conceivable, because viruses can stay inactive when frozen for vast periods of time, and then come


Navy secretary criticizes controversial Marine Corps gender integration study

performers who may be able to stand up to the rigors of life in the infantry or another combat unit. That point also has been made by others advocating full integration of the military. “Part of the study said that women tend not to be able to carry as heavy of a load for as long,” Mabus told NPR. “But, there are women who went through this study that could. And part of the study said that we’re afraid that because women get injured more frequently, that over time women will break down more. That you will begin to lose your combat effectiveness over time. That was not shown in this study. That was an extrapolation based on injury rates, and I’m not sure that’s right.” Sgt. Emma A. Bringas, an anti-tank missileman and Lance Cpl. Terrence A. Lay, both anti-tank missilemen, fire the MK153 shoulder-launched multipurpose assault weapon (SMAW) during research by the Ground Combat Element Integrated Task Force at Twentynine Palms, Calif., in March. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Alicia R. Leaders/Released) The Marine Corps’ research was conducted as the services face a deadline this fall to submit recommendations to Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter on whether any jobs should be kept closed to women. Then-Defense Secretary Leon Panetta threw the doors to women serving in all positions in January 2013, but gave the services until this fall to research how they wanted to better integrate women and if any jobs should be kept closed. Officials who conducted the research said Thursday that they did not focus on the performance of individual Marines because they wanted to see how inserting women into combat units would affect the performance of the overall units. The research also did not track the performance of individual women in an effort to avoid “confirmation bias,” in which personal opinions gleaned by watching some women in action tainted the research, said Paul Johnson, the principle investigator involved. “There isn’t enough power in the research — at least not the way this research was designed — to go back and say, ‘There you go. That’s her. You want ones that look like that,'” Johnson said. “We tried, and that’s one of the limitations in my report.” [Women now 0 for 29 in attempting the Marine Infantry Officer Course] Mabus told NPR that analysis from the Center for Naval Analyses, a federally funded think tank


An epic Mideast sandstorm might have helped Syrian rebels

Syrian children walk amid the dust during a sandstorm at a refugee camp on the outskirts of the eastern Lebanese city of Baalbek. (STR/AFP/Getty Images) September usually brings cooling rains to parts of the summer-scorched Middle East. This year, it’s brought a massive cloud of choking dust. An unseasonal and unusually intense sandstorm has enveloped much of the region, producing far more than just itchy eyes, poor visibility and dust-coated vehicles. The haze has affected the battle plans of warring parties in Syria, shut down Egyptian ports and caused respiratory-related deaths in Lebanon. In Israel, authorities have warned people to stay indoors. By Sept. 7, the thick plume had swept across Syria, the Mafraq region of Jordan and part of Turkey’s Mediterranean coast. (NASA) The khaki-colored plume that originated Monday in Iraq has even migrated beyond the Arab world, causing sand to fall on homes and sidewalks in Cyprus. In Beirut, the Lebanese capital, some residents have been venturing outdoors wearing surgical masks. “You have to wear a mask because it’s so intense. There’s more dust than oxygen!” said Hussein Daiss, 24, who donned a light-blue mask while walking near downtown Thursday. A construction worker on a work site as a sandstorm shrouds Beirut. (Hussein Malla/AP) The timing, intensity and duration of the sandstorm have surprised meteorologists. Such storms usually happen during the spring, last a day or two and then dissipate, said Marc Wehaibe, a meteorologist who works at Beirut’s Rafic Hariri International Airport. This one has lingered longer than most had expected. “It’s exceptional,” he said. The dust appears to have aided rebel movements in Syria’s civil war. On Wednesday, fighters from al-Qaeda-affiliated Jabhat al-Nusra used the haze as cover to capture a large airbase in the Idlib province from Syrian government forces, said Abed Qintar, an activist from the area who is monitoring the fighting. “The sandstorm meant that the regime’s air force was blind to the resistance movements on the ground,” he said, speaking by telephone. A Palestinian man wears a mask to protect his face from the dust as he walks past the Dome of the Rock mosque in the al-Aqsa Mosque compound during the sandstorm. (Ahmad Gharabli/AFP/Getty Images) In Egypt, low visibility forced authorities to close four ports Wednesday, according to the state news agency MENA. On the same day, Lebanese authorities closed schools and government offices. The Health Ministry says the storm has


Leading anti-marijuana group got its facts wrong

400,000, according to the survey's estimates. That number is, in fact, the lowest it's been since at least 2009. That drop is not statistically significant, according to the survey. In other words, the number of kids smoking 20-plus days per month is essentially flat year-over-year, and has been for awhile. So how did Project SAM go from that to "heavy marijuana use soaring among young people?" It turns out they were looking at the wrong part of the report. When I asked Kevin Sabet, the group's director, how they arrived at that conclusion, he pointed me to a different set of tables from the report — the tables showing the error estimates around the survey numbers. It appeared that Project SAM's number crunchers had mistaken the survey's margins of error for the actual survey results. When I pointed this out to him, Sabet thanked me, and the group issued a corrected press release Friday evening. The original headline, which was unsupported by the data, remained up until Saturday afternoon. "We made an error and issued a correction immediately," Sabet said. "We're human. What's not in error is that overall marijuana use is up, and perception of harm is down ... and daily college use is at a 30-year high. But that seems to be ignored." It seems clear that this was an honest mistake, and that Project SAM wasn't deliberately attempting to mislead. But their misstep comes after other deeply questionable assertions and inaccuracies pushed by anti-drug organizations going back to the dawn of the War on Drugs. Just this year, anti-drug group DARE published a story on its Web site claiming that marijuana edibles, "sold on the street as ‘Uncle Tweety’s Chewy Flipper’ and ‘Gummy Satans’," were responsible for over 20 deaths. The story was actually an elaborate joke originally published on a satire Web site. There's no doubt that sussing out the effects of marijuana legalization is really, really hard. New scientific studies come out nearly every week, with sometimes conflicting results. The same numbers might get spun in totally different directions by pro- and anti-legalization advocacy groups. But getting these facts right matters now, perhaps more than ever, as a number of states will consider whether to join Colorado, Washington, Alaska, Oregon and the District in legalizing marijuana in 2016. Update: This article has been updated to reflect the headline change on Project SAM's corrected press release.


Miss America: Miss Georgia Betty Cantrell wins, even after bizarre DeflateGate question

Betty Cantrell is crowned in Atlantic City. And your new Miss America is … Miss Georgia, Betty Cantrell, who thinks that Tom Brady definitely cheated during last season’s DeflateGate scandal! Yes, this really was relevant during the pageant. Cantrell, a 21-year-old student at Mercer University, made it all the way to the Top 7 and the famously awkward Q&A portion of the evening. Although contestants always prep for current events questions, she had quite the bizarre query from judge/country singer Brett Eldredge. [Vanessa Williams returns to Miss America, gets public apology from CEO for being forced to resign] “New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady was suspended for his part in the so-called ‘DeflateGate’ scandal, then reinstated by the courts,” Eldredge read off a card. “Legalities aside, did Tom Brady cheat?” Cantrell stalled for time as she asked him to repeat it. Then she had 20 seconds to answer.”Did he cheat? Um, that’s a really good question. I’m not sure,” she said. “I think I’d have to be there to see the ball and feel it and make sure it was deflated or not deflated. But if there was question there, then, yes, I think he cheated. If there was any question to be had, I think that he definitely cheated, and that he should have been suspended for that. That’s not fair.” The question (among others about gun control, Kim Davis and Planned Parenthood funding) was roundly mocked on Twitter, but Cantrell was still awarded the crown and a $50,000 scholarship at the end of the competition. She also impressed the judges by wearing a crop-top evening gown: “I would say that my dress may be a little sexy because it’s a two-piece that shows, like, an inch of midriff — so, breaking ground,” she said. “But I would say it’s more classy and elegant than sexy.” She also briefly stumbled twice on the stage during the evening gown segment, obviously captured on social media, but it apparently didn’t matter. During the talent portion, Cantrell sang opera — “Tu Tu Piccolo Iddio” from Puccini’s “Madame Butterfly” — which already had won her top honors last week for the preliminary competitions. Cantrell won over first runner-up Miss Mississippi Hannah Roberts; second runner-up Miss Colorado Kelley Johnson; third runner-up Miss Louisiana April Nelson; and fourth runner-up Miss Alabama Meg McGuffin, who was asked a question about Donald Trump during the Q&A segment,


Monday Bear Blogging

There is an old tradition on the VC of occasional Monday posts about bears: Pictures, news stories, trivia or whatever. In that spirit, here’s an interesting report from the Guardian about the travails of Luchegorsk, a town in eastern Russia that is apparently besieged by bears. In the past month, more than 30 bears have entered inhabited areas in Russia’s Primorsky region, located between China, North Korea and the Sea of Japan. Local authorities have had to shoot at least two animals. Luchegorsk, a town of 21,000 on the river Kontrovod near the Chinese border, has been particularly affected. Two large bears – a brown bear and a Himalayan bear – are now “ruling over” Luchegorsk, wandering the streets and scaring local people, the Primorskaya newspaper reported. Asian black bears have also been seen, and a further three dozen bears are circling the town, according to other reports. Local people say they are afraid to leave their homes and that the streets are filled with the sounds of sirens and loudspeakers telling citizens not to go outside for their own safety, VladNews reported. In one case, bears reportedly ransacked bee hives kept by locals. Kindergartens have kept children inside. The Guardian story contains links to video and news reports about Luchegorsk’s troubles.


The political (and sometimes painful) Miss America answers, ranked

night show, which, yeesh), but I can evaluate how well the contestants tackled questions about politics. Of which there were a lot during the Miss America 2016 pageant. Contestants were asked about Kentucky clerk Kim Davis declining to issue gay marriage licenses, about Planned Parenthood funding and about Black Lives Matter. And, honestly? They did pretty well. Their job is to be attractive and talented and savvy. Mine is to make politics interesting and informative. And here is where the two meet: The Miss America contestants' answers, ranked There were seven contestants asked to answer questions from the seven judges. They were told that their answers would constitute 20 percent of their final score, which, host Chris Harrison said, meant that "it could all change, right here." But clearly, it didn't. 7. Miss Georgia, Betty Cantrell Question from: Country singer Brett Eldredge Miss Georgia ended up winning the entire contest — despite getting (1) the second-easiest question of the bunch and (2) mangling it. Eldredge asked the question twice, because Cantrell couldn't hear him the first time, perhaps because the audience started cheering when the singer said "Brady." The question: New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady [applause] was suspended for his part in the so-called Deflategate scandal, then reinstated by the courts. Legalities aside, did Tom Brady cheat? The response? Did he cheat. That's a really good question. I'm not sure. I think I'd have to be there to see the ball and feel it and make sure it was deflated or not deflated. But if there was question there? Then yes, I think he cheated. If there was any question to be had, I think that he definitely cheated and there and I think he should have been suspended for that. That's not fair. You can see her formulating her opinion in real time. It's a fascinating psychological exercise. But yooooo, what a train wreck. And she won! However. 6. Miss South Carolina, Daja Dial Question from: Amy Purdy, actress and paralympian Dial was the second contestant to be asked a question and, interestingly, it was about gun violence. The contestants drew judges names from a bowl, so there was no way to know that Dial, from a state that recently saw a horrible act of gun violence, would get this topic. The question: America loves our 2nd Amendment, but gun violence continues to be a tragic problem. Do


Tony Abbott is out of a job, and another leading climate-change skeptic may soon follow

Western world's leading climate-change skeptics and has repeatedly insisted that it's not worth imposing "substantial costs" on the economy with measures aimed at curbing emissions. In 2009, Turnbull, a backbencher in Abbott's party, described Abbott's climate policies as "bullsh*t." Now, though, Turnbull is toeing the party line, at least until elections. Abbott won global notoriety for his intransigence on the matter. He was not alone, though. For years, he had a kindred spirit: Canada's Stephen Harper, another conservative prime minister from the Commonwealth. Under Harper's watch, Canada has assumed the role of a kind of petro-state — a transformation that reflects Ottawa's apparent lack of seriousness in enacting meaningful climate-change policy. Australia and Canada earned the lowest rank among industrialized nations in the 2014 Climate Change Performance Index, compiled by various European nongovernmental organizations. Multi-millionaire lawyer and former tech entrepreneur Malcolm Turnbull won a secret Liberal Party vote, making him Australia's new prime minister and ousting longtime rival Tony Abbott. Their indifference to critics — and even their desire to muzzle them — generated little outcry outside their countries. Last year, Harper floated the idea of a "conservative alliance among 'like-minded countries' " to work against global climate-change efforts proposed by the Obama administration, according to a report in the Sydney Morning Herald. This sort of hard-headed stance won praise among the right. A 2013 article in the National Review hailed Harper — a hawkish nationalist — as the "Leader of the West." But Harper is now under threat, too. Canada will hold parliamentary elections in October. Polls indicate that the contest will be an uncomfortable one for the conservative leader, who has been in power for almost a decade. Both the rival left-leaning parties aiming to oust the Conservatives have more concrete climate-change measures in their platforms. A slump in global oil prices has hurt the Canadian economy, which Harper has so entwined with its booming western tar-sands industry. His leadership style, which critics decry as being particularly partisan and demagogic, has become widely unpopular. This is similar to the experience of Abbott, frequently pilloried as a boor and a bully. Though separated by thousands of miles, their political fates may soon echo the other. Read more: Tony Abbott, ousted Australian prime minister, is being mocked with photos of raw onions Australia’s embattled leader has long history of gaffes Why is Tony Abbott running his country from a tent?


Why scientists are so worried about drylands — which make up 40 percent of the Earth’s land

then not only are dust storms more likely to blow up the loose sand, but there will be less storing of carbon and the ecosystem may be set up for what researchers call “succession” — transition into a more extreme desertified state, without as many lichens or mosses and with only cyanobacteria hanging on. So what does climate change add to this dynamic? To find out, the researchers conducted a long term experiment in which plots of Colorado Plateau biocrust were subjected to either 10 years of warmer temperatures or more rainfall, or 15 years of literal human trampling. In the climate change scenario, plots of ground were continually warmed by infrared heaters several degrees Celsius above the temperature surrounding them. In the stomping scenario, by contrast, a team of volunteers walked heel to toe, twice, across a plot of land — once per year for 15 years. The researchers found that in all cases, the effect was more or less the same — a severe blow to the lichens and mosses of the community, leaving behind only the algae or “cyanobacteria,” which proceeded to show an increase that the researchers called “dramatic.” For instance, while algae made up 81 percent of the biocrust community prior to human trampling, afterward it made up 99 percent. Warmer temperatures had a similar effect. “We were really surprised,” said Ferrenberg. “We know that walking on them or driving on them kills them. We were really surprised that giving them a bit of extra heat would kill them, and it did.” The researchers proceeded to observe that while you can protect drylands from humans, vehicles, or livestock — at least to an extent — you can’t switch off global warming. “The effects of warming described here are a great cause for concern, as increasing annual temperatures are a near certainty across dryland ecosystems,” they wrote. The experiment only looked at one dryland ecosystem, but according to the researchers, biocrust is prevalent in drylands across the globe. “We think this heralds pretty bad news for biocrusts on a global scale,” Ferrenberg said. And if that’s right, then it doesn’t just mean drylands may not hold in as much carbon any more (which means more of it goes to the atmosphere). It also means they may produce worse dust storms in the future. So, no, drylands and biocrusts don’t get a lot of attention. But maybe


A statutory fix for the Microsoft problem — tentative draft #1

controlled by a U.S. person, or a person physically located inside the U.S., the court should deny the motion to set aside the warrant. Similarly, if the court is persuaded that account is controlled by a non-U.S. person outside the United States but that there is no workable MLAT alternative — either because there is no MLAT procedure with the country where the data is stored, or the MLAT procedure is sufficiently broken that relying on it would be futile under the circumstances — then the motion should be denied. If the court is persuaded that the account is held by a non-U.S. person outside the U.S. and there is a workable MLAT alternative, then the court should grant the motion to set aside the warrant. Here’s my thinking. The providers need to be able to tell European customers and governments that their communications won’t be accessible using a U.S. warrant. They know which of their accounts are European government accounts, and normally they have a good idea about which of their customers are European. Because there are functioning MLAT procedures with those countries, the providers won’t have to comply with warrants to disclose contents from such accounts. On the other hand, the government wants to get warrants for U.S. persons or people in the U.S., and they don’t want to be completely stymied by the possibility of storage in a country with no workable legal process alternative. (Rogatory letters can work in some jurisdictions where MLATs are not available, but generally not well.) So in those cases, the government could rely on a traditional U.S. search warrant. My hope is that perhaps this kind of procedure could give each side what it needs. My approach is somewhat similar to the LEADS Act proposed by Senators Coons and Hatch. But I think my approach is better. The LEADS Act tries to achieve a similar goal with this language: A warrant issued under [the SCA] may require the disclosure of the contents of a wire or electronic communication, regardless of where such contents may be in electronic storage or otherwise stored, held, or maintained by the provider, if the account-holder whose contents are sought by the warrant is a United States person. A court issuing a warrant pursuant to this subsection, on a motion made promptly by the service provider, shall modify or vacate such warrant if the court finds that


NASA reminds us that astronaut poop burns up ‘like shooting stars’

(NASA) Astronaut Scott Kelly is just about halfway through his record-breaking one-year mission. To celebrate the occasion, NASA has released an infographic sharing some facts about what Kelly's up to. And what his poop is up to. [Why American astronauts drink Russian urine] During his 12-month tenure, Kelly will drink about 730 liters of recycled urine and sweat -- some of which, you may recall, But the crowning glory of NASA's cheeky infographic is plain as day: While he's in space, Kelly's poop will be jettisoned and burn up in the atmosphere, looking like "shooting stars." Your poop will not look like a shooting star -- unless you, too, become an astronaut. If that's not a motivation to stay in school, I don't know what is. And lest you think NASA is exaggerating: In 2009, a particularly large waste dump from the International Space Station had folks reporting a mysterious glow in the sky. Read More: Why NASA is excited about sending a twin into space An astronaut’s surprisingly helpful guide to pooping in space You can earn $13,000 a year selling your poop When nine people eat dinner on the International Space Station, the ceiling becomes a seat Someone once smuggled a sandwich into space, which is a horrible idea Hubble captures a shimmering ‘butterfly’ in space


Researchers rate chain restaurants on antibiotic use: How does your favorite stack up?

restricting antibiotic use by their meat suppliers, according to a report by public interest groups including Friends of the Earth and the National Resources Defense Council. See why Starbucks, Subway, Wendy's and Domino's Pizza got the grade, and why Chipotle and Panera Bread received A's. "From double bacon cheeseburgers to chicken nuggets, most meat served by America’s top chain restaurants comes from animals raised in industrial-scale facilities where they are routinely fed antibiotics," researchers Kari Hamerschlag of Friends of the Earth, Sasha Stashwick of Natural Resources Defense Council, and their collaborators wrote. They explained that when livestock producers regularly give antibiotics to their animals, bacteria can become resistant to it and even spread to humans. "The worsening epidemic of resistance means that antibiotics may not work when we need them most: when our kids contract a staph infection (MRSA), or our parents get a life-threatening pneumonia," they said. [What Tyson’s pledge to stop using human antibiotics in chicken means for the future of superbugs] Chipotle built its brand on the idea that it stands for the "ethically conscious" consumer and has had a hard line against using meat from animals treated with antibiotics. In 2013, the company's "Scarecrow" video that took stabs at everything from antibiotic use and genetically modified foods to animal cruelty treated went viral with millions of views. (The company's policy does allow for limited emergency purchases of meat treated with antibiotics, but the company says locations inform consumers through prominent signs which meats are impacted.) Panera, which nearly a decade ago stopped using chicken meat from animals treated with antibiotics, was applauded by the researchers for expanding its commitment to ham, bacon and other types of meat over the years. 2015 "Chain Reaction" report by Friends of the Earth, Natural Resources Defense Council, Food Animal Concerns Trust, Keep Antibiotics Working, Consumers Union, and the Center for Food Safety. Chick-fil-A, Dunkin' Donuts and McDonald's were in the middle of the pack. Chick-fil-A announced it would stop using meat from chickens treated with antibiotics in 2014 but has said the policy will take time to implement. Dunkin' Donuts has also announced a no-antibiotics policy covering all meats but has not announced a timeline for implementing it. McDonald's has said it will no longer use meat from chickens treated with antibiotics. As for the rest, they all received Fs from the group. Most top U.S. chain restaurants, including Subway,


Stay thirsty: Beer festivals are taking over your fall weekends

Some attendees at the annual Mid-Atlantic Oktoberfest beer festival in Shirlington really get into the spirit of the day. (2014 photo courtesy of Capitol City Brewing Company) There's no doubt about it: Fall is the perfect time for a beer festival. Weekends through early November are full of opportunities to get outside and sip a few seasonal beverages. Some are ostensibly Oktoberfest celebrations with dozens of breweries from across the country; others are outdoor parties with live music and a selection of hyperlocal breweries. This list is an attempt to make sense of it all. Our advice from last year stands: Skip the big names and take chances on beers you've never tried before, drink plenty of water, and do not ask "What's the strongest beer you've got?" Skip to Saturday, Sept. 19 Bleu and Brew Beer and Cheese Festival Fourth Annual Hoppy Oktoberfest (AP Photo/Toby Talbot) Heurich House Oktoberfest Backyard Beer Fest Sunday, Sept. 20 D.C. Homebrewer's BBQ Saturday, Sept. 26 Takoma Foundation Nuclear-Free Beer Fest VII Saturday, Oct. 3 Make It Funky Fest Capitol City Brewing Company's Mid-Atlantic Oktoberfest Saturday, Oct. 10 Bad Wolf Fall Fest Saturday, Oct. 17 Chesapeake Real Ale Festival Saturday-Sunday, Oct. 17-18 NoVa Fall BrewFest Saturday, Oct. 24 LoCo Brewfest Baltimore Craft Beer Festival Saturday, Nov. 7 D.C. Beer Festival


Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin space company to launch from historic pad at Space Coast

Galactic, Blue Origin is meant to fly tourists into space, allowing them the chance to view Earth from more than 60 miles away and experience weightlessness. At the event Tuesday, Bezos unveiled a photo of the new orbital launch vehicle, which he said would launch vertically and have a fully reusable booster stage. He said the company would share more details about the vehicle sometime next year. In an interview after the event, Bezos said, "The thing I'm most excited about is humans in space, and the vision for me is millions of people living and working in space." But he said the the new vehicle would also be able to deliver commercial satellites to space, and could position the company to bid on lucrative government contracts from NASA and even the Pentagon. That could put it into competition with some of the industry's biggest players, including SpaceX, Boeing and Orbital ATK. By taking up residence on the Space Coast, Bezos’s company will join a growing number of commercial entities that are slowly transforming Cape Canaveral into what NASA calls a “multi-user spaceport.” The commercial investment is slowly reinvigorating a historic stretch of coast, which has suffered since the retirement of the space shuttle in 2011. Elon Musk’s SpaceX has a lease to operate Launch Complex 39A, which was used by the space shuttle program. Boeing is also increasing its presence on the cape, taking over a former shuttle facility to build its new capsule, the CST-100 Starliner. The development on Cape Canaveral comes as the commercial space industry has made some remarkable achievements, fueled by a class of billionaires, including Bezos, Musk, Richard Branson and Paul Allen, who are pouring their fortunes and ingenuity into space travel. NASA has also helped prop up the industry by contracting out missions to carry cargo and, eventually, astronauts to the International Space Station. Like Musk, who has tried landing the first stage of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on a barge at sea, Bezos said Blue Origin would attempt to develop a reusable first stage. Being able to reuse the most expensive part of the rocket, instead of ditching it into the sea, or allowing it to burn up, would dramatically lower the cost of space flight. "If you reduce it enough by making the vehicle reusable, then you can start to have people going on space adventures," he said. The new


Sidwell Friends consolidating to single D.C. campus, lower school to leave Bethesda

The Sidwell Friends School announced it is buying the Washington Home and Community Hospices in Northwest Washington, forcing those living in the assisted living facility to find another home. Sidwell Friends announced Tuesday that the school plans to consolidate onto a single campus in the District after the administration signed an agreement to purchase an adjoining property in Northwest Washington. The elite private school announced that it plans to buy a 5.7 acre site bordering the north side of its campus along Wisconsin Avenue, a property currently occupied by the Washington Home assisted living facility and hospice. Sidwell, founded in Washington in 1883, has an enrollment of 1,149 students and has educated generations of children from Washington’s most affluent and influential families, including President Obama’s daughters Sasha and Malia, as well as Chelsea Clinton, Julie and Tricia Nixon and Archie Roosevelt. School officials wrote in a letter to parents that the new property will grow the campus to a total of 22.7 acres and allow Sidwell to share a single campus for the first time since 1963, when the elementary school grades moved to Edgemoor Lane in Bethesda, Md. “The resulting continuity and strengthened sense of community will improve the Sidwell Friends experience for generations to come,” Head of school Bryan Garman and board of trustees clerk Margaret Plank wrote in the letter. “The acquisition of The Washington Home site will also allow the School to create new shared community spaces for our Middle and Upper School students, and attend to a long-overdue renovation of the Upper School building.” The Sidwell leaders wrote that the purchase will be completed through philanthropy, and the new lower school in the District is scheduled to open in the fall of 2019. Under the new plan, students currently in grades 1 through 4 will finish at Bethesda while students in Pre-K and Kindergarten will move to the new campus starting in their 3rd and 4th grade years respectively, the school officials wrote. “All divisions will benefit from the creation of shared community and dining spaces—and from being part of one community on one campus,” Garman and Plank wrote. Tim Cox, the CEO of the Washington Home and Community Hospices, wrote an open letter about the transaction on the home’s Web site. He said that because the sale won’t close until the end of 2016, there will be time to develop “individual transition plans for


Climate change is great news for Arctic mosquitoes

thought in a warming Arctic the predators might more eat mosquitoes on any given day, and that the mosquito population might actually go down," Culler said. For most of us, it's difficult to imagine wanting to save the mosquito. "I think we have yet to fully appreciate the role of mosquitoes, in the Arctic in particular," Culler said. But the swarms of bugs pollinate many of the local plants, and they're also an important source of food for birds. "We definitely don’t want them to disappear completely," she said. [Thanks, global warming: Now polar bears are devouring dolphins] But it turns out that the Arctic mosquito population is doing just fine. While other bugs did eat more mosquitoes as the weather warmed, the hungry predators couldn't enjoy the buffet for long. If a mosquito is going to get eaten, it's likely to happen during its larval or pupal stage, when it's living in the water and largely helpless. But Culler and her team found that every 1 degree Celsius increase in temperature shortened the average time spent in larval and pupal stages by about 10 percent. In other words, warm weather makes mosquitoes grow up faster. Overall, the study predicts, mosquitoes would have a 50 percent greater likelihood of surviving to adulthood if temperatures raised by just 2 degrees Celsius. Studies have shown that the Arctic is warming twice as fast as anywhere else on the planet. Already, more mosquitoes are surviving into adulthood than before, entering the stage of life where they become a nuisance to humans -- and more importantly, to caribou. Caribou hitch a ride on an ice chunk in the Yukon River near Circle, Alaska. (AP Photo/Alaska Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, Claude Denver) "Mosquitoes can actually drive caribou movement," Culler explained. "Caribou are known to run to the top of windy ridges or flee to a snow patch in response to nuisance from mosquitoes." Any time and energy they spend fleeing to remote areas is detrimental: It takes away from the time and energy they could have spent finding food. Previous research suggests that a lack of high-quality food makes caribous less likely to reproduce successfully. Culler was even more disturbed by the way the warm weather changed the time at which the mosquitoes emerged. There was a full two-week difference between the peak mosquito season from 2011 to 2012, Culler said, caused


Fire, flood and drought: In Calif., ‘El Nino is a cruel system’

past 150 years. Rather than relief, the water brought chaos. Thousands lost power and hundreds of cars crashed on flooded roads, according to the Los Angeles Times. More than 200,000 gallons of stormwater surged from San Gabriel sewers, contaminating the river and beaches dozens of miles downstream. At least one home plunged down a hillside as the earth beneath it was suddenly washed away. Ten people had to be plucked from rushing, rain-swollen rivers by rescue crews. For months — for four years, really — California has been dying for a drink. Repeated dry winters and scorching hot summers have depleted reservoirs and river systems and set fire to much of the landscape. As the Valley Fire continues to rage in California, watch these social media clips of people evacuating their homes and surveying the damage. [Scientists say California hasn’t been this dry in 500 years] But now that the rain might finally be coming, carried along by an El Niño that promises to be one of the strongest in recent history, the land isn’t ready to absorb it. The same drought that makes the state so desperate for water has also baked the earth and denuded the landscape. Forests that once strengthened the soil and soaked up rainfall have been obliterated by fire. “El Niño is a cruel system,” Australian climatologist Roger Stone, a University of Southern Queensland professor and a program chair the U.N.’s World Meteorological Organization, told The Washington Post. “They bring Poor California. When it’s not “extraordinarily hostile” fires, as veteran firefighter Kevin Rosado described the Valley Fire north of San Francisco, it’s the “Godzilla” El Niño forecasted in a few months. For a while, they’ll both be happening at once. September and October are usually the “largest and most damaging months for fires,” Cal Fire Chief Information Officer Daniel Berlant told Wired. Meanwhile, stronger than usual storms are starting to arrive. “You have the leftover intense drought patterns lingering in the system and now here comes the El Niño effect,” Stone said. “You’ve got both pummeling you at the same time, or it feels that way.” Climate change isn’t necessarily causing these phenomena, but it makes them both worse, he added. Periods of scorching heat and drought are natural in California, but global warming has exacerbated them, scientists say. In El Nino years, the warmer air over the oceans makes storms slightly more fierce —


The court battle over once-missing U.S. soldier Bowe Bergdahl’s actions is about to begin

two days and lay out new evidence against the soldier. A military lawyer overseeing the hearing will then make recommendations to the senior officer in charge of the case, Gen. Robert B. Abrams, about whether to proceed to a court-martial trial in coming months. Bergdahl’s defense team will be given time to cross-examine witnesses and challenge the government’s case. [Bowe Bergdahl, once-missing soldier, charged with desertion] The case remains deeply emotional for many who have served in the military and consider it a personal affront for someone to walk away from comrades in a combat zone. His critics argue that Bergdahl put lives in danger from the moment he left his post on June 30, 2009, and needs to be held accountable. “If Bergdahl gets off scot-free, it would be an atrocity for anyone who has served with him, and anyone who has served honorably over the last 200 years,” said former Army Spec. Joshua Cornelison, 26, who was deployed with Bergdahl’s platoon as a medic. “Whatever the maximum punishment is, that’s what he should get.” Bergdahl vanished in the middle of the night from an austere, 150-yard-long base in southeastern Afghanistan that was known as Observation Post Mest and was home to about 30 soldiers. His disappearance triggered “90 days of absolute craziness,” with soldiers across Paktika province and beyond launching a series of raids, helicopter assaults and reconnaissance operations in a desperate attempt to recover him, Cornelison said. Bowe Bergdahl is shown here in an image released Dec. 7, 2010, as a prisoner of insurgents affiliated with the Taliban. AFP PHOTO / IntelCenter / FILES Bergdahl’s lawyer, Eugene Fidell, has raised questions about whether his client can get a fair trial anywhere, in light of the intense media coverage of his case and sustained interest in it on Capitol Hill. Soldiers were assigned to protect Bergdahl from his fellow soldiers after he was recovered, Fidell said in a March letter to Gen. Mark A. Milley, now the Army’s top officer. Fidell wrote that Bergdahl’s intent “was to bring what he thought were disturbing circumstances” about his unit to the attention of senior commanders. In a brief interview with The Washington Post, the lawyer expressed wariness about sharing too many details ahead of the hearing. “Despite the torrent of abuse that Sergeant Bergdahl has taken in the right-wing media, we’re not going to try this case in the press,”


National Zoo’s giant panda cub is growing, weighing nearly two pounds

The giant panda cub is growing at the National Zoo. (Courtesy of the Smithsonian’s National Zoo) He’s growing! And he is starting to look more like a panda, with black-and-white markings. The 4-week-old giant panda cub at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo weighs almost two pounds, officials said. That brings him to roughly eight times his birth weight. He was born Aug. 22 to dad Tian Tian and mother Mei Xiang. His twin died four days after being born after inhaling some food product, which led to pneumonia. Zookeepers had an intense six hour effort to try to save the cub. In April, Mei Xiang was artificially inseminated twice. Once with semen from Tian Tian and from a male at a research center in Wolong, China. [Surviving panda cub is thriving] The surviving baby panda — which has not yet been named — is also starting to look like his dad, zoo officials said. The markings on its back are similar to ones his father has. [‘It’s a boy!’ the National Zoo says of surviving giant panda cub] Authorities at the zoo said Mei Xiang has left the den several times over the last few weeks, allowing them to get a better look at the cub. And vets have done checkups on the cub and report “he’s healthy,” according to Twitter messages. And another reads, “Our panda cub is growing fast! Our panda cub is growing fast! As of Sat. he’s 409.6 grams—a 297% increase from last Wed. #PandaStory http://t.co/ha50ViO4KX Our vets were able to do a giant panda cub checkup Wed. He’s healthy & weighs 287.5 grams! #PandaStory http://t.co/sWqXKEahAU Zoo officials said the cub spends most of his days sleeping, a favored routine for pandas. The panda cub’s next milestone, zoo officials said, is opening his eyes. That’s expected in the next few weeks. No decision has been made on when the panda cub will be named. Bao Bao, the zoo’s female panda cub, was named 100 days after her birth. Zoo officials may or may not follow a similar pattern with the newborn cub. For panda lovers, officials have said they expect the cub will likely make his first public appearance in January.


This gay rights activist is suing the Chinese censors who banned his film

Mama Rainbow 彩虹伴我心 Fan Popo Last winter, 'Mama Rainbow,' the Beijing-based filmmaker's poignant documentary about six Chinese mothers striving to understand their gay and lesbian children, disappeared from major Chinese Web sites. Fan says an employee at one of the sites, 56.com, told him the film was pulled at the behest of the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (SAPPRFT) — a claim the censorship body later denied. On Monday, Fan officially filed a lawsuit against the government branch, alleging they lied about the directive. Fan hopes the suit will help call attention to ongoing efforts to keep gay people and their stories out of film and television and, more broadly, to the state's effort to silence calls for human rights. "This is about justice," he said in a telephone interview on Wednesday. "I want to find out why they pulled my film." "The purpose of fighting this case is, on one hand, to raise public awareness about gay groups — that they should enjoy equal rights and they deserve equal treatment," said Fan's lawyer, Wang Zhenyu. "On the other hand, to demand SAPPRFT stop its improper control on gay subjects." Wang said he could not find a single SAPPRFT regulation that prohibited "gay subjects" in film, although Chinese censors routinely block LGBT content based on the notion that it is somehow "pornographic" or "obscene." The lawsuit comes at an interesting time — for two reasons in particular. First, Fan filed suit just weeks after Chinese authorities approved the release of "Seek McCartney," a Sino-French co-production about the relationship between two men, one Chinese, one French. Breaking the news on social media, the director, Wang Chao, called it "a small step for the film department” and "a big step for the members of the film industry.” The release of "Seek McCartney" is indeed a step in the right direction, but Fan's lawsuit reminds us that the trend lines are not clear — it is not generally possible in China to depict gay relationships in film and television, just as it remains complicated and risky to push for LGBT rights. China decriminalized gay sex in the late 1990s, but discrimination persists, as documented in a detailed report by the United Nations Development Program last year. Though some find a measure of freedom and acceptance in China's big cities, many struggle to discuss issues of gender or sexual identity


As California considers looser marijuana laws, Paul calls out Christie

In this Aug. 19, 2015 photo, Canna Care employee John Hough waters young marijuana plants at the medical marijuana dispensary in Sacramento. (Rich Pedroncelli/AP) SIMI VALLEY, Calif. -- The 15 leading Republican candidates for president have arrived in California just as the state closes in on a fully legal regime for medical marijuana. Californians have been buying marijuana with medical exception cards since it was legalized by a 1996 ballot measure, but only this month has the state's Democratic legislature passed comprehensive bills to regulate the industry. The state's Department of Food and Agriculture would oversee cultivation; the Department of Public Health would monitor quality. Come Election Day 2016, it's highly likely that Californians will vote on whether to legalize the drug, full stop. [Today is 4/20/2015. Is it finally time to stop calling marijuana a gateway drug? The survival of that experiment could depend on who gets elected president that day. Earlier this month, in New Hampshire, Gov. Chris Christie (R-N.J.) told an audience that current experiments with legal marijuana were encouraging "lawlessness," and needed to end. "Marijuana’s illegal in the United States, yet the president allows Colorado and Washington state: Hey, get high! It’s okay! I’ll look the other way!" said Christie. "I won’t change the law, but I’ll look the other way." A Christie administration would sprint in the other direction. As he described a friend's descent into opiate addiction -- a story he often tells to talk about New Jersey's treatment programs -- Christie said that his DEA would raid the legal pot industry in the West. "Seize their money," he said. "Seize their product. Close their stores." [Rand Paul raises money with the marijuana industry] In an interview here, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) -- Christie's most ready critic in the GOP field -- said that Christie's idea of raiding currently legal businesses puts him "on the wrong side of history," and wasn't even workable. "If he wants to put the parents of a kid who had 500 seizures a day away before he started moderating that with cannabinoid oil, he can say so," said Paul. "He can put someone with MS in jail. He can put someone who's just carrying a little marijuana in jail. Most Americans are not with him, and it's not going to sit well with a lot of conservatives and libertarians, I mean, is he going to send federal troops in


Hyperloop’s new CEO compares his project to ‘building the Internet’

A rendering of a Hyperloop capsule is shown in tube cutaway with attached solar arrays. Hyperloop is a proposed transportation system for traveling between Los Angeles and San Francisco in 35 minutes. (Courtesy of SpaceX) You may have heard: The Hyperloop is real. And now the company behind it has a fresh CEO who has grand visions for the future of transportation. A brainchild of billionaire and evident supervillain Elon Musk, the Hyperloop promises a futuristic way to carry passengers along at hundreds of miles an hour, cutting the duration of a trip from, say, Los Angeles to San Francisco to roughly half an hour. The contraption works (in theory) by sucking a capsule full of people or cargo from one location to another, all using a — wait for it — series of tubes. You know what else has been described that way? The Internet. And Rob Lloyd, Hyperloop's new chief executive, thinks it's a perfect analogy. This is hardly a surprise; after all, Lloyd is a former co-president at Cisco, the company that makes a lot of the hardware that connects people to the Web. Like the Internet, said Lloyd in an inaugural blog post Wednesday, "Hyperloop will become a global network of connected technologies except we will be moving atoms, not bits." Buried in this innocuous comparison is a hint of Hyperloop's vast ambitions. What has begun as a planned 5-mile test track in Los Angeles would, if Lloyd and Musk get their way, become an international mode of travel rivaling the airplane.


Experts say a government shutdown is likely. D.C. says it’s ready.

best one and could lead to fines and criminal prosecution. The city ultimately opted to tap into its $144 million contingency fund to keep the city running as normal. Congress must pass a budget before Sept. 30, or it faces partially shutting down the government for the second time in two years. Here's how we got to another potential shutdown. But the city says it’s better prepared this time. When D.C. approved its fiscal 2016 budget, it included a provision that said the city could continue to operate at locally approved budget levels in the event of a government shutdown. (This latest budget turned into a controversial fight for budget autonomy, but the District did ultimately submit the budget to Congress as the law requires it to, and the budget made it through.) D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton pushed to have a nearly identical measure tacked onto a 2015 appropriations bill, which was passed by Congress and signed into law by the president. Here’s how the mayor’s office put it in an e-mail: In the event of a shutdown, the District would continue to perform all vital services and functions. Last year’s Budget Request Act provides that we can continue to operate at the locally approved budget levels. Our position is that Budget Autonomy will be effective as law for the District’s next fiscal year. This will allow the District to spend local funds at the levels approved in the FY16 BRA until a continuing resolution or appropriations bill is approved – and allow us to spend funds on new programs and initiatives without restriction. Still, just because D.C. employees have to go to work during the shutdown, it doesn’t mean the city won’t take a hit. Federal workers and government contractors could be out of jobs, and the Panda Cam, for instance —which is operated by the Smithsonian’s National Zoo — would be powered down. The Mall and the Smithsonian museums will be closed, all of which typically draw in tourists and are a big boon to city coffers. And the Meridian Park drum circle? That’s federal land and a no-go as well. On the plus side, if the 2013 government shutdown is any indication, there will be lots of food and drink specials throughout the city. “The federal government is a vital part of the District’s community and economy,” mayoral spokeswoman Christina Harper wrote in an e-mail. “A


Nobu is coming to D.C., but don’t expect to get a table anytime soon

Chef Nobu Matsuhisa, actor Robert De Niro and former film producer Meir Teper during the grand opening of the Nobu restaurant at Caesars Palace on April 28, 2013, in Las Vegas. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images for Nobu Hotel) We called this more than a year ago. When famed Japanese chef Nobu Matsuhisa, whose eponymous high-end sushi spots dot the globe, stopped in Washington to cook for the Children’s Ball last year, the rumors spread immediately. Would D.C. be dubbed cool enough for the restaurant chain that serves as Hollywood’s version of Cheers? Not only did the District pass muster, but the team behind Nobu, led by former film producer Meir Teper, specifically christened the West End as the neighborhood. Developers had been trying to lure the cult sushi saloon for some time, taking Teper on tours of bustling 14th Street, opulent CityCenter and the fanny-packed blocks around the convention center. Nothing clicked. Not even some areas in the traditionally tony Georgetown. “He called it the ‘flip flop and T-shirt’ crowd,” recalled Paul Dougherty, president of PRP, which owns the building on M Street that eventually snagged the Nobu deal after eight months of negotiations. Dougherty, who’s on the board at Children’s Hospital, approached Matsuhisa at the 2014 Children’s Ball and urged him to get serious about opening a restaurant in D.C. This week, it was announced that Washingtonians could be noshing on $9 sushi rolls by fall 2016 when a massive Nobu (more than 11,000 square feet) opens its doors on the ground floor of Dougherty’s new luxury condo building. The new Nobu — the restaurant is a favorite of President Obama’s — is just a block from the Four Seasons hotel in Georgetown. Expect politicos, lobbyists and visiting A-listers to be among the first to snag the notoriously-impossible-to-get reservations (the waiting list for the Nobu in Doha is rumored to be more than two months long).


The 2015 National Book Award nominees, for nonfiction

Ta-Nehisi Coates, author of “Between the World and Me,” is among the 10 nominees for the 2015 National Book Award in the category of nonfiction. (Andre Chung for The Washington Post) Memoirs dominate the long-list of nominees for the 2016 National Book Award (nonfiction category) announced today by the National Book Foundation. The five finalists will be announced Oct. 14. Below are the nominated books and authors, in alphabetical order, including excerpts and links from Washington Post reviews: Cynthia Barnett, “Rain: A Natural and Cultural History” (Crown, 355 pp., $25) The four-billion-year story of rain, from the creation of the oceans to the modern struggle with climate change, by the author of “Mirage” and “Blue Revolution.” Ta-Nehisi Coates, “Between the World and Me” “‘Between the World and Me’ is written as a letter to the author’s teenage son, conveying the personal and historical struggle to ‘live free in this black body,’ a body that faces the constant, exhausting threat of state-sanctioned violence. But the book also reads like an open letter to white America, to the well-meaning sorts who at some point might have said, ‘Yes, things are bad, but they’re getting better, right?’ ” (Washington Post essay, Carlos Lozada) Coates “is firing on all cylinders, and it is something to behold: a mature writer entirely consumed by a momentous subject and working at the extreme of his considerable powers at the very moment national events most conform to his vision. It is hard, perhaps impossible, not to be enraptured by his righteous and. . . loveless indignation.” (Washington Post review, Thomas Chatterton Williams) Martha Hodes, “Mourning Lincoln” (Yale University Press, 396 pp., $30) “‘Mourning Lincoln’ draws on letters and diaries written by Americans during the spring and summer of 1865. Together, they offer an intimate, bracing account of a people who, still grappling with the conclusion of a brutal war, experienced the murder of the victors’ standard-bearer.” (Washington Post review, Carlos Lozada) Sally Mann, “Hold Still: A Memoir with Photographs” (Little, Brown, 482 pp., $32) ” ‘I will confess,’ Mann writes in the introduction, ‘that in the interest of narrative I secretly hoped I’d find a payload of southern gothic: deceit and scandal, alcoholism, domestic abuse, car crashes, bogeymen, clandestine affairs.’ And you can bet she found it — and then some. Mann’s book has enough sensational material for several novels and a few late-night movies you might not


Scientists say air pollution causes more than 3 million deaths each year around the world

A man walks past a coal-powered steel plant in Tianjin, China, on May 29, 2015. (Andy Wong/AP) Air pollution isn’t just bad for the environment — it’s a danger to human health too. And new research is giving us a clearer idea of just how much. A While ozone concentrations play a role in these deaths, the biggest culprit is a type of pollution known as “fine particulate matter,” or tiny particles too small to be seen. These toxic particles can be composed of many different chemical compounds and come from many different sources, including the burning of fossil fuels or organic matter, and even emissions from fertilizer used in agriculture. They can be responsible for a variety of potentially fatal illnesses, including respiratory and heart disease. Their size is part of what makes them so dangerous, said Worries about particulate matter aren’t new, and many studies have linked outdoor pollution with increased risk of premature death. In fact, Thurston recently led and But the new study takes the research in another direction. Led by By identifying which sources cause the most mortalities in various parts of the world, the scientists “hope to provide information that helps develop better [pollution] control measures in different countries and regions,” said Lelieveld during a Tuesday teleconference. They found that the greatest number of mortalities were concentrated in the Western Pacific region, followed by the East Mediterranean and Southeast Asia. According to their analysis, China suffers the greatest number of deaths linked to outdoor air pollution each year, followed by India. When examining the different sources of outdoor air pollution, the researchers concluded that energy emissions have the greatest impact on premature mortality worldwide, causing about a third of air pollution-related deaths. The second biggest single source was agriculture, which releases ammonia particles that can form other compounds, like ammonium sulfate and nitrate. Regionally, these sources varied much more. While residential energy use was the biggest contributor in many parts of Asia, natural sources of air pollution were found to be dominant in much of northern Africa and the Middle East. Power generation was the biggest source throughout much of the U.S., and agriculture was the biggest factor in Europe. “With regard to agriculture, it is quite surprising that [these particles] are so important,” Lelieveld said at the teleconference. He said he had assumed, as most people probably would, that industry and traffic would


President Obama tweets in support of #IStandWithAhmed

Since Wednesday morning, Ahmed Mohamed -- a young man now internationally known for being arrested for making a homemade clock that his teachers thought resembled a bomb from a movie -- has received a lot of support. He's got invitations to MIT: @IBJIYONGI @anildash I would love to!! MIT is my dream school. And tons of NASA scientists want to encourage him: Hey Ahmed, give me a call in a couple years. We could always use smart, curious & creative people. https://t.co/02a4feMrk5 He's been invited to Facebook, too: You’ve probably seen the story about Ahmed, the 14 year old student in Texas who built a clock and was arrested when he... Posted by Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday, September 16, 2015 Plus he's going to space camp! Ahmed gets to go to Space Camp! https://t.co/mvOTN7AoN5 Oh, and the president of the United States weighed in: Cool clock, Ahmed. Want to bring it to the White House? We should inspire more kids like you to like science. It's what makes America great. Yup. Read More: #IStandWithAhmed: Scientists and the public surge to support boy arrested for homemade clock How the Earth is shaping our shrinking moon Saturn’s moon Enceladus is covered in a potentially habitable ocean


For wife of imprisoned Saudi blogger Raif Badawi: ‘It’s a life of waiting’

has called Badawi’s detention “an insult to intelligence and liberty,” awarded Badawi its Press Freedom Prize in 2014. The group also sent an open letter to Obama this month urging him to raise Saudi Arabia’s “dismal human rights record,” including Badawi’s case, with King Salman on his official visit to Washington. “Badawi’s situation is merely one example of Saudi Arabia’s brutal response to any voice deemed too liberal by the royal family and religious authorities,” the letter said, noting that Saudi Arabia ranks 164th out of 180 countries on its press freedom list. Obama has been publicly critical of Saudi Arabia’s repressive political culture, but it was unclear whether he raised human rights issues with Salman during their private meetings. Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Obama said he and Salman had discussed the situation in Syria, Yemen and Iran, but he made no reference to human rights. The two leaders seemed mainly intent on presenting a united front and sidestepping differences over the Iran nuclear deal. For her part, Haidar has been traveling and speaking out from her home in the Canadian town of Sherbrooke, Quebec, where she and the children have been living with asylum. Haidar has started the Raif Badawi Foundation to push for his release and promote freedom of expression and religion. South African Nobel Prize-winner Desmond Tutu, author Salman Rushdie and Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales have signed up as honorary board members. Earlier this year, Badawi’s supporters published a book by Badawi, called “1,000 Lashes: Because I Say What I Think” (Greystone Books). The book is a collection of Badawi’s blog posts, and Haidar said he dictated the introduction to her over the course of many phone calls from prison. On the back cover, Rushdie writes: “Raif Badawi’s is an important voice for all of us to hear, mild, nuanced, but clear….He must also be read, so that we understand the struggle within Islam between suffocating orthodoxy and free expression, and make sure we find ourselves on the right side of that struggle.” Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the Dutch activist who advocates Islamic reforms, also wrote: “Badawi writes for his generation, and for all those interested in changing the Arab and Islamic world for the better.” Haidar said she is grateful for the support, but she is worried about her family. She speaks to Badawi a couple of times a week when he calls from


Obama’s Nobel peace prize didn’t have the desired effect, former Nobel official reveals

FILE: President and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Barack Obama, right, and wife Michelle celebrate after he received the Nobel Peace Prize. (AP Photo/Cornelius Poppe, Scanpix) When Barack Obama was announced as the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009, even the fresh-faced president appeared a little shocked. "To be honest, I do not feel that I deserve to be in the company of so many of the transformative figures who've been honored by this prize," Obama said at the time. Now, a former director of the Norwegian Nobel Institute has acknowledged that, in hindsight, he's not so sure if giving the prize to Obama was a good move either. In a new memoir titled "Secretary of Peace: 25 years with the Nobel Prize," Geir Lundestad, the non-voting Director of the Nobel Institute until 2014, writes that he has developed doubts about the Norwegian Nobel Committee's decision to grant Obama the Nobel Peace Prize over the past six years. While the prize was designed to encourage the new president, it may have not have worked out as intended. "In retrospect, we could say that the argument of giving Obama a helping hand was only partially correct," Lundestad writes, according to VG newspaper. Lundestad explains that it became impossible for Obama to live up to the high expectations placed upon him. "Many of Obama's supporters believed it was a mistake," he writes. "As such, it did not achieve what the committee had hoped for." According to Lundestad's account, the White House even tried to find a way for Obama to avoid the ceremony, though the Nobel Committee warned it that recipients of the prize were only allowed to avoid the ceremony in exceptional circumstances. Following the media interest in Lundestad's memoir, the Norwegian historian called a press conference on Thursday to deny that he had implied that Obama didn't deserve the prize. "Several of you have written that I believe the prize to Obama a mistake, but then you can not have read the book," Lundestad told the assembled reporters, according to VG. "It says nowhere that it was a mistake to give Obama the Peace Prize." Lundestad's book also contained a number of other controversial passages, including some criticism of the committee's former chairman Thorbjørn Jagland and revealing that Norway's foreign minister Jonas Gahr Store had tried and failed to prevent the committee awarding the prize to Chinese dissident in


Dear Ahmed Mohamed: Please keep creating. America needs you.

Ahmed’s repeated explanations that “it’s a clock” were summarily rejected by adults looking for a “movie bomb.” Irving Mayor Beth Van Duyne’s response was even more disturbing: “As a parent, I agree that if this happened to my child I would be very upset. It is my sincere desire that Irving ISD students are encouraged to use their creativity, develop innovations and explore their interests in a manner that fosters higher learning. Hopefully, we can all learn from this week’s events and the student, who has obvious gifts, will not feel at all discouraged from pursuing his talent in electronics and engineering. As much as the whole whole world has rallied around Ahmed and his family, neither Duyne’s reponse, nor the statement from the Irving Independent School District, issues any sort of apology for what Ahmed and his family have gone through. They don’t even mention that all Ahmed brought to school was. a. clock. Instead, Duyne hopes “we can all learn from this event” and that Ahmed will somehow move along with his passions as if he wasn’t arrested and interrogated for hours without his parents present nothing happened. When it comes to non-apologies, “we can all learn from this” is the lesser-known half-sister of the more recognizable “mistakes were made” or “I feared for my life” explanations. After he was arrested, interrogated and fingerprinted, Ahmed said, “It made me feel like I wasn’t human. It made me feel like a criminal.” Ahmed didn’t just feel “discouraged,” Mayor Duyne. He has just experienced, at the hands of Irving school officials and police officers, what it feels like to be utterly dehumanized. Some people have the support and the strength to recover from such instances. For others, such experiences leave long-lasting emotional scars. Ahmed Mohamed, the Texas teenager who was arrested when his homemade clock was mistaken for a bomb, thanked his supporters during a news conference on Wednesday. Since his arrest, Mohamed has received a personal invitation from President Obama to attend an astronomy night at the White House. The most heartbreaking part of the original story is that Ahmed said he will never bring an invention to school again. Beyond that, it means this is how children’s dreams can be killed by the racism and bigotry of adults. Ahmed now says he might transfer schools. As someone who grew up in the Dallas area, I cannot help but


Get schooled on the D.C. area’s Division I university campuses

Jesuit treating his class to fries and beer here as a newly minted 21-year-old, the traditional birthday stamp inked on her forehead, dancing til closing time with all of her friends. Late-night eats: Quick Pita 1210 Potomac St. NW. Late-night junk food joints come and go in Georgetown. (You probably can still find seniors talking in hushed, reverent tones about drunken meals at the now-defunct Tuscany Pizza.) But Quick Pita is an old and underappreciated standard, offering tasty shawarma and crisp fries at a convenient five block walk from campus. Take the parents: Das Ethiopian 1201 28th St. NW. The perfect place to introduce your parents to an essential D.C. cuisine. Mom and Dad will be impressed by the white tablecloths and fancy atmosphere, and a giant platter of tibs, vegetables and spongy injera makes for an ideal family-style meal. First date spot: Baked and Wired 1052 Thomas Jefferson St. NW. Just a few blocks past the long lines at Georgetown Cupcake is the TV star's cooler, tastier cousin. Take a date here for great coffee, comfy couches and impossibly rich cupcakes almost as big as your face. If the date goes well, the waterfront is just a block away - a pretty place for a romantic stroll. Get some culture: The gardens at Dumbarton Oaks 1703 32nd St. NW. The gardens at Dumbarton Oaks are some of the most beautiful in Washington. (Nikki Kahn/The Washington Post) The Mall has museums and art galleries galore, but one of the most beautiful spots in Washington is tucked behind these brick walls on R street. For a $5 student ticket, you can stroll through statuesque hedges and beneath blossoming cherry trees, sniff a rose and toss a penny in a fountain. And if it starts to rain, the associated museum is free. Can't-miss event: Rangila Everyone and their brother will tell you to go to Mr. Georgetown, the talent show that happens every Homecoming. But just as fun and far more colorful is Rangila, an annual South Asian dance festival that stars hundreds of students. Buy a ticket this November, and we guarantee you'll want to be the one on stage next year. Iconic Instagram spot: Dahlgren Quad Framed by trees and the red brick walls of Dahlgren Chapel and Healy Hall, this quiet quad is unquestionably the most beautiful place on campus. The fountain is an ideal spot for an Instagram.


Bowe Bergdahl’s former officer: ‘Absolute disbelief that I couldn’t find one of my men.’

This Army photo shows then- Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl before his capture by insurgents in Afghanistan in 2009. AFP PHOTO / HANDOUT / U.S. ARMY JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO – FORT SAM HOUSTON, Tex. — Army prosecutors began laying out their case Thursday against the soldier at the heart of the most closely watched military desertion case in decades, arguing that Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl sneaked away from his base in Afghanistan under cover of darkness in an effort to get the attention of his commanding general. Bergdahl, 29, was charged in March with desertion and misbehavior for allegedly walking off his patrol base alone and without a firearm in Afghanistan on June 30, 2009. He was captured within days by insurgents affiliated with the Taliban, and held until the White House agreed last year to a controversial deal in which he was exchanged for five Taliban detainees held at the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The released Afghans were sent to Qatar. [Earlier coverage: Bowe Bergdahl, once-missing U.S. soldier, charged with desertion] Bergdahl, who is assigned to the installation here, walked into a small hearing room Thursday morning in a crisp, blue dress service uniform. He responded affirmatively in a soft, deep voice when asked if he understood his right to remain silent. “Yes sir, I do,” he said, seated at a table while flanked by Army defense lawyers and his civilian counsel, Eugene Fidell. Bergdahl faces up to life in prison if convicted. He sat ram-rod straight for most of the proceedings, occasionally writing in a notebook on his left knee beneath the table at which he was seated. U.S. Army military policemen patrol Joint Base San Antonio – Fort Sam Houston in Texas on Thursday near where Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl will face charges of desertion and misbehavior before the enemy. (Photo by Erich Schlegel/Getty Images) Prosecutors are expected to depict Bergdahl’s actions — made near two roads frequented by the Taliban in Paktika province, less than 20 miles from the Pakistan border — as endangering the lives of fellow soldiers and prompting a months-long manhunt that pulled valuable military resources away from other missions. Fidell has suggested Bergdahl wanted to inform senior commanders of problems in his unit — a defense that has been dismissed by his former comrades. Army prosecutors plan to call three witnesses at the hearing: Bergdahl’s former platoon commander, company commander and battalion


The tech that could’ve stopped that Philadelphia train crash won’t be rolled out for years

(jmv) A federal audit finds that the nation's railroads are overwhelmingly behind on implementing positive train control, a safety technology experts say would have averted a deadly Amtrak derailment near Philadelphia this year that killed eight people and injured 200 others. As many as 70 percent of rail operators say they will fail to meet a key year-end deadline for deploying positive train control (PTC) on their routes, according to the Government Accountability Office. Some will miss the target by a year; others, as much as five years. Only five railroads — SEPTA in Pennsylvania; Silicon Valley's Caltrain system; Southern California's Metrolink; Portland's TriMet; and Portland and Western Railroad — will successfully meet a legal requirement to install PTC by Dec. 31. Positive train control works by regulating the speed of a train based on its location and the data it receives from PTC equipment embedded in the tracks or mounted nearby. Information about signal status and local speed limits can be relayed through PTC to the locomotive, which then automatically applies the brakes if the train is moving too quickly. In the case of the Philadelphia crash, Amtrak train 188 leapt off the rails after barreling into a curve at 102 miles per hour, over twice the speed limit. Investigators said that in the moments leading up to the crash, the locomotive actually accelerated, for unexplained reasons. Had positive train control been active, the safety feature would likely have intervened, saving lives. Even the few railroads that report being on track with PTC may face problems using the technology, GAO said. "The ability of these five railroads to achieve full PTC implementation may be affected because other railroads they interact with may not be equipped by the deadline," the agency said in its report Wednesday. In addition, the complex business relationships between companies that all use the same tracks could pose a roadblock to progress.


Steve Czaban and Andy Pollin are talking Redskins together again

the show together for 13 years. And there were so many episodes, so many stupid little things along the way that is all part of the big picture about the team and about the fan base. How did we get to this place?” Pollin — who continued the “Sports Reporters” brand for 18 months after the duo broke up — still contributes to ESPN 980 on “The Man Cave,” the Redskins pregame and Monday morning shows and elsewhere. And Czaban continues to talk about the team in his traditional 4-7 p.m. weekday slot, with co-hosts Chris Cooley and Al Galdi. While I often listen to that show, as well — check the transcripts — the cadence and tone are obviously different than they were in the old format. Cooley has relationships with many people in the team’s front office, and he often leads the show’s on-field discussion. Galdi has been talking about the Redskins for years, but is far younger than Pollin. “So that’s why I just figured it might be fun to talk to Andy once a week, because I believe this year is going to be an eventful year,” Czaban said. “I just get that feeling. This thing has the potential to be hugely entertaining, in a non-winning sense.” Czaban and Pollin plan to do a new episode each Wednesday, assuming they get “anything more than 30” listeners, Czaban said. They aren’t making any money on it, and are not doing it for the station. Both used the same word to describe the project: “fun.” “It just sounded like a fun and easy thing to do, and so we’re doing it,” Pollin said. “We may get into other stuff [besides the Redskins], but like he said, what we always had together is my historical perspective, and he wanted that to talk about the team. It was all his idea and his execution, and it’s just something to do for fun.” (Listen to their podcast here) Incidentally, this whole conversation led me to ask Czaban the age-old question: does an entertainingly bad team bring in the mega-ratings for sports radio, like many listeners (and readers) assume? Is it better for the Redskins to be dysfunctionally bad than boringly competent? “I wouldn’t know what it’s like when things are going well, so how could I compare?” Czaban quipped. “Look, there’s always some farcical enjoyment in dysfunctional intrigue, but believe me


15 things to do in the D.C. area on the weekend of September 18-20

This weekend's best bets in nightlife, festivals, music, sports and much more around the Washington area. Alabama Shakes - Don't Wanna Fight (Live on SNL) Friday: Friday: Friday: [The September Hotlist: 13 things to see, eat, drink and do before summer ends] Friday: Friday: Saturday: [Get to know your D.C. college towns and neighborhoods] Saturday: Ahead of the Joint Base Andrews 2015 Air Show, Washington Post reporter Lori Aratani was taken through a series of rolls and dives aboard a F-16 Fighting Falcon flown by the U.S. Air Force's Thunderbirds. Saturday: Saturday: [Six things you have to do at the H Street Festival on Saturday] Saturday: [Stay thirsty: Find every fall beer festival right here] Saturday: Saturday: Saturday-Sunday: [Celebrating Oktoberfest in Washington, from beer festivals to racing wiener dogs] Saturday-Sunday: Sunday: