Great entrepreneurs have these six skills

(Illustration for The Washington Post) What skills do the founders of upstart companies like JetBlue, Chipotle, Tesla and LinkedIn have in common? That’s the question researcher Amy Wilkinson set out to answer by spending five years interviewing 200 of the country’s leading entrepreneurs, all of whom dreamed up companies within the past decade that have each grown to more than $100 million in annual revenue. From her interviews and research, she deduced six essential skills that those who create and scale majorly successful ideas share—the ability to spot gaps in the marketplace, maintain a long-term vision, iterate quickly, fail smartly, collaborate and be generous. Wilkinson is a lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and compiled her research in the recent book “The Creator’s Code.” The conversation has been edited for length and clarity. Q. A. Q. A. There's a lot of hero worship around entrepreneurs. But actually when you spend time with them, you see they're not that comfortable. Elon Musk, for example, he's a hero right now. But I was on the factory floor with him at Tesla and said, "Wow, you're having such a good year. You're so on top with Tesla and SpaceX and all these things." And he's like, "Really, do you think so?" He has struggled. If you wind back the clock to 2008, it really was not an obvious thing he would succeed. Tesla could have very easily gone out of business. SpaceX had three big rocket explosions before a fourth one launched. With these kind of endeavors, the people who take them on know how challenging they are and they get comfortable being uncomfortable. Q. Author Amy Wilkinson (photo by Katarina Price) A. How this becomes really interesting, especially in the last five years, is that technology has made our behaviors transparent. Because of the rapid speed of communication and the transparency of our reputations, people know when you collaborate and help others—and then information comes to you, deals come to you, people want to work with you, talent shows up at your door. Q. A. A sunbird is somebody who can pick up an idea in one place then fly it over to another place and reapply it. It requires reasoning by analogy—you see something that works over there and see how to make it work over here. An easy example would be Starbucks. Howard Schultz didn't invent coffee culture.


Why federal regulators care about Kim Kardashian’s Instagram feed

Kim Kardashian’s nearly 43 million Instagram followers represent a pretty attractive audience for marketers (AP Photo/Lionel Cironneau) It seemed like the perfect combination: - A pregnant A-list celebrity who had been publicly open about how she’d been suffering from morning sickness in early pregnancy, - A newly approved medication for the treatment of nausea and vomiting in pregnancy, - The instantaneous and vast advertising platform of social media via Instagram and Twitter. And it was. . . for a while. Last month, Kim Kardashian Instagrammed and tweeted that Diclegis, made by Duchesny USA, had helped her morning sickness tremendously and was completely safe for her baby. She also disclosed that she was compensated by the manufacturer. Hundreds of thousands of women “liked” the post, and thousands commented, many stating that they called their doctor and asked for the medication after reading the post. OMG. Have you heard about this? As you guys know my #morningsickness has been pretty bad. I tried… https://t.co/5nA8eoDvl6 This week, though, the FDA sent Duchesny USA a letter stating that the Instagram post was in violation of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act due to misleading claims of efficacy without including any mention of its risks. Whether in its entirety in the printed prescription labeling information that accompanies medications or the extremely abridged version that appears in TV commercials, the ethical and medical imperative of informed consent requires a balanced discussion of risks and benefits. This ubiquitous legal-ese is so widely known that it’s even become fodder for parodies. Since Kardashian’s post had neglected to mention any potential risks or contraindications, the company immediately complied with the FDA’s order, telling Kardashian to take down the post, which she did. Direct-to-consumer advertising is certainly not new. Paying celebrities to endorse prescription drugs isn’t, either: Golfer Phil Mickelson supports Enbrel, which treats his psoriatic arthritis; former senator Bob Dole promoted Viagra; actress Sally Field endorses Boniva for osteoporosis. While we can argue that we should not be listening to celebrities for our medical advice, pharmaceutical companies continue to pay top dollar because the marketing research demonstrates that it is effective. (That effectiveness can go both ways. For example, Jenny McCarthy helped ignite an anti-vaccination movement after she started blaming vaccines for her son’s autism.) And as long as that means increased revenue for the pharmaceutical company, you can bet Larry the Cable Guy is going to continue


The Justice Department says it approved subpoenas or search warrants for three journalists last year

Former Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. (Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images) The Justice Department said Friday that former Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. authorized three subpoenas or search warrants last year for journalists or people viewed as members of the media, though two of the three were not ultimately used. This information was included in a four-page report released Friday afternoon that the Justice Department said encompassed requests law enforcement officials made to media members for information. One of these requests came in the form of Holder authorizing a subpoena calling for limited testimony from New York Times reporter James Risen in a leak case involving a former CIA officer. Risen’s 2006 book, “State of War,” detailed a CIA plan to sabotage Iran’s nuclear program, and prosecutors charged that Jeffrey A. Sterling, a former CIA operative, provided information used in that chapter. The Supreme Court declined Risen’s appeal last year, allowing the possibility that prosecutors still may have subpoenaed the reporter in the case, but they ultimately decided not to call him to testify. Sterling was convicted in January. Holder eventually authorized a subpoena that asked Risen to discuss certain topics regarding his book, and Risen was eventually asked basic questions at a pretrial hearing. [The strange saga of James Risen, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, and the leak trial] Holder announced last year and again earlier this year that the Justice Department would tighten its guidelines regarding how subpoenas and search warrants are used to get information and records from journalists. These shifts came amid the Obama administration’s unprecedented campaign against government officials giving reporters information about national security issues, which prompted an outcry from media organizations and free-press advocates. As Matt Apuzzo put it in a story about Risen’s situation earlier this year: Mr. Risen’s lengthy fight to avoid testifying about his sources turned the case into a rallying point for news organizations, who said the Justice Department had made it harder to cover national security beyond what it released in news statements and approved leaks, such as those that told a glowing story about the mission to kill Osama bin Laden. Less favorable stories, such as those revealing warrantless wiretapping or secret prisons, led to criminal investigations. In addition to the Risen case, the Justice Department also secretly obtained the telephone records of Associated Press journalists and investigated a Fox News reporter described as a possible “co-conspirator” for his


How to replicate Scott Walker’s eat-your-way-around-America diet

If you want to eat like Republican presidential hopeful Jeb Bush, you can Google "paleo diet" and find directions. But if you want to eat like his rival Scott Walker -- the Republican governor of Wisconsin who has been consuming thousands of calories on a "eat your way around America" tour -- the rules are a bit more difficult to discern. Here's what we can glean from Walker's various social-media accounts: 1) Eat like an American -- which means eat a lot of fast food. Thanks to the crew at the Delavan @McDonalds for the great welcome!!! I flipped burgers there in high school. -SKW http://t.co/hahXcPUkXG Two ways to spot the difference between when @HillaryClinton and Scott Walker stop to order food. - STAFF http://t.co/22tdAGwto7 It's always a #11 ham sandwich for me @JimmyJohns. - SW http://t.co/sILDryWlHP Stopped to grab some good food at @ChickfilA. - SW #Walker16 http://t.co/YvDGV5qE7q Stopped to get a Blizzard at the DQ in Diamond off I-55. - SW #Walker16 http://t.co/lWblcBzO7K 2) If you're not sure if Walker would eat something, ask if it's produced in Wisconsin. If the answer is yes, you must eat it in massive quantities. This guy is his state's most aggressive traveling salesman, so get ready to eat endless dairy products and drink cranberry juice, plus some Wisconsin-brewed beer. Having a beer today with my son @MattWalkerWI celebrating his 21st birthday. -SKW http://t.co/lPPVmbYyij 3) There is nothing more American than barbecue, so eat lots of barbecue. Walker has a special connection to barbecue: He and his wife, Tonette, met at Saz's, a popular barbecue restaurant in Milwaukee. That's the same place where Walker proposed, and the couple stopped by for a drink on their wedding night. Walker regularly does campaign stops at barbecue joints, especially in Southern states. What a great crowd at Hudson's Smokehouse in Lexington, SC. Pulled pork sandwich was amazing!!!! -SW http://t.co/N40gTvULOQ 4) Oh, well, pizza is also pretty American, so eat lots of that, too. Dinner at Charlotte airport. - SW #Walker16 http://t.co/0SRzLgHHuT Eating our way through NH at JJ's Woodfired Pizza in Franklin - SKW http://t.co/uJJxcP5rZc 5) And burgers. You can't forget all-American burgers. Had a double cheeseburger & a beer at the Billy Goat in Chicago -SW http://t.co/GPHweuW39o Burgers on the grill last night in Maple Bluff! -SKW http://t.co/NparwNNNL4 6) After consuming lots of caloric, salty food, wash it down with an American-made beer. Expo


Talking about war makes it more likely. Look at South Sudan.

Mundri, South Sudan, December 8, 2014. (Photo: Lotje de Vries) Today, Aug. 17, 2015, is yet another final deadline for the warring parties in South Sudan to sign a peace agreement. The new nation has been at war with itself since December 2013. Today’s deadline was set by the regional Intergovernmental Agency for Development (IGAD), which has been mediating in the conflict. But IGAD hasn’t had much mediation success since South Sudan’s political and military leadership split into two camps: One led by President Salva Kiir and his national army, and the other a coalition of military commanders headed by former Vice President Riek Machar. Political rivalry turned into fierce fighting and violence committed along ethnic lines in the three northeastern states of Jonglei, Unity and Upper Nile, killing tens of thousands of people and displacing more than one and a half million others. Both camps have signed a number of cessation of hostilities agreements over the past 20 months; both continue to violate these while missing various other IGAD deadlines to reach a power-sharing deal and create a transitional government. President Obama pressured for a settlement during his visit to East Africa last month. A peace deal between the political-military elites responsible for the violence has been the major aim not just of IGAD and the U.S., but also of South Sudan’s other long-standing western partners such as Norway, the U.K., and the Netherlands. A second priority for the international community has been to prevent the war from spreading to the more peaceful parts of the country. This means that while seeking peace, donors and the South Sudanese government alike are scrutinizing South Sudan’s relatively stable regions for signs of war. Telling two dangerous stories about what’s happening in Western Equatoria State In the ordinarily peaceful South Sudanese state of Western Equatoria, dozens of people reportedly died recently during what South Sudan’s army has called “ethnic unrest” between communities from the Dinka and the Azande people. The army commander in charge assured journalists that “everything is under control” and asked politicians to avoid “inflammatory statements.” But attributing these clashes to conflict between ethnicities is inflammatory in itself: It feeds conveniently into two dangerous narratives that we regularly encountered among South Sudanese and the international community while conducting research in South Sudan’s southwest between November 2014 and March 2015. The first narrative is that ethnicity causes clashes. Since the civil


A Nat Geo journalist’s remarkable and ingenious quest to track down ivory smugglers

took his tusks to Tanzania, where officials mistakenly thought he was a smuggler. The airport’s wildlife expert shows up, Christy writes, “picks up a tusk and runs his finger over the butt end,” points a finger at Christy and “yells, “You are a liar, bwana!” (“Bwana” is Swahili for “sir.”) Christy spent a night in police custody. But by morning, he writes, he was released after Tanzanian wildlife officials and officials from the U.S. Embassy arrived. Christy writes that his arrest was, in a way, “reassuring” since Tanzania suffers from rampant elephant poaching. ©National Geographic [Overwhelmed U.S. port inspectors unable to keep up with illegal wildlife trade] Through a confidential source, Christy eventually planted his fake tusks on the black market in a small village in the Central African Republic, along the main ivory smuggling route running from the Garamba National Park in Congo to Sudan. Sure enough, Christy’s fake tusks ended up being carried north along the route, from wildlife-rich central Africa to civil-war torn Darfur. An orphaned elephant calf, left, is introduced to an adult at the Game Rangers International Release Facility at the Kafue National Park in Zambia in June 2014. (AP Photo/Jennifer Bruce/IFAW) “We inserted them originally on a path we knew to be the path that ivory takes out of Garamba National Park on its way north into Sudan,” he told Fresh Air. ” . . . We watched it go from country to country north. It was extremely exciting to watch this idea, this creative idea, could we do it, march north, avoiding all roads as it moved north toward Sudan.” The tusks went nowhere for several weeks. But “on the 15th day after they began to move, they cross into South Sudan and from there make their way into the Kafia Kingi enclave, a disputed territory in Darfur controlled by Sudan,” he writes. His digital detective work backed up what he heard from witnesses, including LRA defectors: Kony and the LRA use elephant poaching to finance their international reign of terror, crossing porous borders to kill, rape and kidnap defenseless villagers. Kony’s hunting parties have slaughtered scores of elephants in national parks like Garamba, Christy’s investigation found. Then the LRA traded the ivory to the Sudan Armed Forces in exchange for weapons and ammunition. [As the world mourned Cecil the lion, five of Kenya’s endangered elephants were slain] At times, Kony’s men would


Following the OPM data breach, Uncle Sam needs to step up recruitment of cyber talent

and eager folks like those in the Knights. Recruiters also should look for older cyber experts with valuable experiences. During a Federal Diary conversation with two Knight team members, it was clear they are impressed with the government’s mission, even while noting shortcomings in Sam’s recruiting efforts. Kevin DiClemente, for example, recalled a recruiting call he received from the National Security Agency. Secrecy being endemic to the NSA, the caller ID indicated an unknown number. That might make sense for the agency’s regular business, but it’s not the best way to get recruiting calls answered. DiClemente mentioned the unknown number to the NSA recruiter, and, to the agency’s credit, subsequent calls were not cloaked in that level of secrecy. Jason Cooper, another team member, said he had not considered a public-sector career before the collegiate competition. He encouraged government recruiters to increase school visits. “At the University of Central Florida, we don’t get too many visits like that,” Cooper said. “Getting that exposure for students really is critical.” Neither DiClemente nor Cooper chose to work for the federal government. Both accepted jobs in the private sector, DiClemente with Microsoft and Cooper with Amazon.com. (Amazon and The Washington Post have the same owner.) The talent shortage also affects government contractors, said David Wajsgras, president of Raytheon’s intelligence, information and services business. Raytheon and the Department of Homeland Security were sponsors of the competition. Wajsgras said about 95 percent of the company’s work is on government contracts. Neither government nor industry focuses enough on “the direct benefit that these folks with these specific skill sets can bring to the overall mission,” Wajsgras said. “We have collectively not done as good a job as we need to in attracting expertise.” GAO offered three recommendations to help government focus on closing the skills gap. In January, GAO told OPM it should strengthen how it identifies and addresses the skills gap in cybersecurity and other critical areas, “establish a schedule and process for collecting government-wide staffing” data and develop a core set of metrics for use by all agencies in government-wide workforce analyses. OPM agreed with the first and third recommendations, but not the second. “Funding and resource constraints negatively affect our ability to support agencies’ efforts to address their workforce competencies,” OPM said in its reply to GAO. In plain English, it costs too much. But if GAO’s recommendations help prevent additional massive thefts


Astronomers capture a stunning galaxy collision, the closest ever of its kind

A color image of the collision, showing the elongated inner galaxy in yellow and the outer ring galaxy glowing purple-pink. (Ivan Bojicic / the scientific team) When galaxies collide, the results aren't always disastrous. Many collisions could really be called close encounters, with the stars in each system easily passing by one another. Sometimes the collisions result in beautiful new formations, as in the image above. [A great view of colliding galaxies, thanks to magnifying glasses in the sky] The "bulls-eye" formation, with one galaxy forming a complete ring around another, is rare — and this is by far the closest one ever spotted. At a distance of An alternative coloring of the galaxies. This image retains the bright star that helped keep the ring hidden from view. (Ivan Bojicic / the scientific team) “Not only is this system visually stunning, but it’s close enough to be an ideal target for detailed study," Quentin Parker of the University of Hong Kong, who led the discovery team along with Albert Zijlstra of the University of Manchester, said in a statement. [What it looks like when one galaxy pulls another apart] "The ring is also quite low in mass — a few thousand million Suns, or less than 1% of the Milky Way — so our discovery shows that collision rings can form around much smaller galaxies than we thought," Parker said. Because galaxies of this size are much more common than large ones, the researchers say, this discovery could indicate that such collisions are up to 10 times more frequent than previously assumed. The formation, which was described recently in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, has been dubbed "Kathryn's Wheel," in homage to both the brilliant pinwheel fireworks that the ring represents and to Zijlstra's wife, Kate. Read More: Only 5 billion years until The Milky Way gets gobbled up New study predicts the slow, inevitable death of the universe Astronomers find a teeny-tiny supermassive black hole Check out this gorgeous space opal that NASA found Newly discovered, Jupiter-like planet may sit in a solar system much like our own


Eleven years after being approved, Montana’s medical marijuana industry faces an existential threat

2009, after the U.S. Department of Justice said it wouldn’t interfere with state-compliant medical marijuana patients and providers. From 3,921 patients and 1,403 providers in September 2009 – one month before the Justice Department announcement – the program grew to 29,948 patients and 4,848 providers by March 2011. As the system swelled and pot shops opened a stone’s throw from schools in Butte and across the street from churches in Billings, an opposition movement was born. “There were medical marijuana distribution sites next to churches and the junior high,” said Steve Zabawa, a prominent funder of the anti-marijuana movement in Billings, where he owns a chain of car dealerships. “You could just see that the traffic going in and out had nothing to do with medicine. Basically, the black market went to the regular market, and it popped up everywhere.” In March 2011, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration conducted raids across the state, the culmination of an 18-month investigation into whether the medical marijuana businesses were involved in large-scale drug trafficking and other federal crimes. Shops were closed down, and their operators went on to be charged under federal drug laws. The DEA did not return multiple calls for comment. Several attempts at legislative repeal of medical marijuana followed the raids, targeting the few businesses still open. The program came a signature away from dissolution in April 2011, when then-Gov. Brian Schweitzer, a Democrat, vetoed a repeal bill passed by the Legislature. Later in that same legislative session, lawmakers pushed through SB 423 – widely known as “repeal in disguise,” which was signed into law in May 2011. Under the law, providers couldn’t charge a cent for services, save recouping license application fees, so they had no incentive to stay open. The law’s future now hinges on the outcome of the Supreme Court decision. Nearly 30,000 patients had been reduced to less than 9,000 by June 2012. The restrictive law, which limited each provider to three patients, cut the number of providers to less than 400, down from a June 2011 height of nearly 5,000. Dubbed “one of the most restrictive laws in the country” by Roy Kemp, interim administrator of the agency that regulates the medical marijuana program, SB 423 allows for “providers,” but not “dispensaries.” Larger providers – allowed for now under a judge’s order – operate storefronts with regular hours. They stock assorted strains, from Blue Dream


Magazine devotes issue exclusively to women in photography; here are 10 we think you should know

(PDN magazine) In a bold and unprecedented move, the award-winning publication for photography PDN, has dedicated its entire September issue to women. It hit newsstands on Tuesday. From curators and reporters to photographers and photo editors, this issue speaks to and features the wide spectrum of women whose voices stand out in a crowded field, and one largely dominated by men. “We are doing this because we can,” Holly Stuart Hughes, PDN’s editor in chief, said in a statement. “There is a fantastic breadth of talent and expertise among women photographers working today. It wasn’t difficult to create a whole issue of PDN featuring business insights, technical information and outstanding new work from women photographers who are leaders in advertising, photojournalism, and fine-art photography.” The September issue embodies significant movements and contributions that women in the industry have made, with timely commentary on the proliferation of groups created by and featuring only women that include Women Photojournalists of Washington (WPOW), a profile on groundbreaking South African portrait photographer Zanele Muholi, an excerpt from the book of celebrated photographer Mary Ellen Mark, who passed away in May of this year. Cover to cover, every article, column, profile and photograph in the issue was written or photographed by a woman. Below, In Sight features 10 female photographers across the industry that our photo editors think you should know about, some of whom are featured in PDN’s issue. Kendrick Brinson The Sun City Poms rehearse in a recreation hall for an upcoming holiday performance in Glendale, Ariz. The cheerleading squad’s members range from 57 to 81 years old. (Kendrick Brinson) Heidi Levine A Palestinian woman, with her children watching, blows on a tiny fire, preparing to cook in her devastated home in Beit Hanoun, Gaza Strip, in January 2015. (Heidi Levine for The Washington Post) Lexey Swall Lucy Clark, 72, who suffers from asthma, wears a mask every day when she walks to get her mail because her home in the foothills north of Bakersfield, Calif., sits at an elevation where smog begins to settle in the air. (Lexey Swall) Laylah Amatullah Barrayn One of the most important elements of the Baye Fall, a group of men and women of the Islamic Sufi order, is dedicated work. Many followers dedicate their lives to the land, often working the fields of their daara, a rural Mouride community. These followers are seen in 2014 in


When all else fails for their children, desperate parents drive national push for medical marijuana

Editor’s note: This report is part of the project titled “America’s Weed Rush,” produced by the Carnegie-Knight News21 initiative, a national investigative reporting project involving top college journalism students across the country and headquartered at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. PITTSBURGH — In Room 716 of the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, 12-year-old Hannah Pallas is motionless but for an occasional turn of her head and the blink of her eyes, having suffered life-threatening seizures. On the same day, 5-year-old Sydney Michaels is down the hall in Room 749, waiting to be discharged after 15 grand mal seizures within 36 hours. Their mothers have known each other for years, though it’s a hapless coincidence caused by their daughters’ epilepsy that brings them to the pediatric unit on the same day. The two women are part of a tenacious group of parents and national marijuana advocates demanding that politicians and state legislators legalize medical marijuana treatment for their children, whose medications have had limited success treating seizures and other severe conditions. “This is something that needs to happen across the country so that every child who might need this would have access,” said Julie Michaels, Sydney’s mother and a member of Campaign for Compassion, which is pushing for comprehensive medical marijuana laws in Pennsylvania. “Why should the state lines be the factor as to whether my child can get help or not?” Julie Michaels and her daughter, Sydney, 5, prepare to go home after spending a couple of days at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. Sydney is one of a few children enrolled in a clinical trial for Epidiolex. (Calah Kelley/News21) Sydney is one of only a few hundred children in the country enrolled in a clinical trial to test the use of marijuana-based treatments for epilepsy. But Hannah is not. “I’m watching my daughter die every day,” said Heather Shuker, Hannah’s mother. “Hannah has so many seizures, and every seizure could take her from me. I firmly believe that medical cannabis will help her.” “There’s so much that I want for her right now that she just can’t do,” Michaels said about Sydney. “Just being able to go out and experience life, to be able to go out and play in the yard without fear of seizures starting.” Since 2014, 17 states have legalized the use of marijuana-derived cannabidiol (CBD) for children: Utah, Wyoming,


Jeb Bush won’t say whether Donald Trump is qualified to be commander in chief

would suggest that he wants to make 10 changes to the Constitution, he added: "I mean, is there any way to actually have a conversation with people where the context of the words are clear?" [Jeb Bush on Donald Trump’s immigration ideas: ‘A plan needs to be grounded in reality’] The candidate also said that he is opposed to ending birthright citizenship -- something that Trump has proposed as a way to deter illegal immigration and that another GOP presidential candidate, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, said he supports. "Look, this is a constitutionally protected right. I don’t support revoking it," he said. "That’s not one of my – I mean, look, there’s a way to use leadership to solve abuses for people that are coming into the country, having children so that their children can be citizens. That’s a legitimate problem, and there’s a targeted way you can deal with this issue. But to suggest that people born in this country are not United States citizens, that they don’t have this in the Constitution, I just reject out of hand." During the forum, moderator Jeanne Meserve noted that two female soldiers are poised to graduate from the Army’s grueling Ranger School on Friday and asked Bush whether women should be allowed to serve in combat. "Absolutely, if they’re Rangers, they’re clearly qualified," he said. "These decisions ought to be made by the military, not by the political side of life in Washington, D.C. But if you’re Ranger-ready, you’re combat-ready." [History made: Army Ranger School to graduate its first female students] He also faulted President Obama yet again for failing to have a clear strategy on how to defeat the Islamic State. "I want to win; I want to take them out," he said. "We can’t do this alone. We can’t be the world’s policemen," he said. "What happens if we did that -- if we came in, we can take them, militarily we have the capability to do this, but immediately the chaos that would ensue would create another void. Just as it's done historically. Libya is a good example of this. This administration doesn’t have a strategy; they’re incremental in their approach, and the net result is that we have chaos." Bush is scheduled to visit Atlanta later Tuesday for a fundraiser before traveling to New Hampshire for two days of campaign stops. He'll also visit Ohio on Friday.


In the shadow of hazy marijuana laws, Hawaiian patients rely on a network of hush-hush growers

jungle foliage surrounding his property hid his illegal grow. Mac Adam said he moved to Hawaii from California and started smoking and growing medical marijuana illegally. He didn’t want to draw the attention of law enforcement, he said, so he didn’t register to be a medical patient and caregiver until the health department took over. “The Department of Health took over, and I felt that that was a lot better fit for the program,” he said. “I felt like the police wouldn’t be coming here to harass me over my medical use of marijuana. “I chose, up until just recently here, to fly under the radar and more of less break the law – civil disobedience,” he said. “I feel it’s an unjust law, and the way I’m showing I feel it’s unjust is through civil disobedience.” Before using marijuana to cope with her multiple sclerosis, Heede said she was using as many as 40 medications to treat her symptoms. (Katie Campbell / News21) Teri Heede did the same for years. She began using marijuana while she was still a federal employee under the Department of Defense during the Vietnam War. She was told by a supervisor if she used she’d be fired, but she said the symptoms of her condition made it worth the risk. “I’ve had multiple sclerosis for over 20 years, and when I was first diagnosed, I had tried every treatment available and I was still down,” Heede said. “I could not get to work. I could not get up. I was going blind.” After research into treatments for her condition led her to medical marijuana, a form of medicine her neurologist supported, Heede began smoking to combat her illness. “I started smoking like a burning haystack,” she said, “and when I limped into work on my cane, I could see my computer screen, I could type on my keyboard, and I could walk. I wasn’t real graceful, but I was walking.” Heede was a widow with two kids at the time. “I wasn’t doing anything that would say, ‘OK, this person is a crazed drug abuser,’” she said. “But I was staying on my feet, and I was walking and doing my job. There was no problem.” Now, at 60, her long silver hair hangs over her colorfully printed kaftan as she rolls a joint with freshly dried marijuana from her garden. Her husband, who


Denver corpse flower finally blooms, stinks up botanic garden

According to USA Today, the gardens have seen a record 30,000 visitors in the past 10 days — almost as many as it gets in some months. The plant got its own hashtag — #StinkyDBG — on which it bantered with other corpse flowers around the country. The garden gift shop began selling limited edition corpse flower t-shirts, and a local doughnut shop started churning out corpse flower doughnuts. A local TV station even has a live camera trained on the blooming plant. The gardens will be open until midnight for the two days that the flower is in bloom. “This is super unique to have just one plant that people are coming to see,” Denver Botanic Gardens spokesperson Erin Bird told USA Today. “I think it’s just human curiosity, the interest in the weird and the absurd, and also the anticipation of the unknown that is stringing us along. We don’t know when Stinky will bloom.” Though DBG staff have known that a bloom was in the works for weeks, they didn’t know exactly when the corpse flower would unleash its characteristic putrid odor. The source of the stink is the “female” flower at the base of the plant’s spadix, the tall structure at its center. During the initial part of the bloom, the female flowers emit a nauseating mixture of chemicals: dimethyl trisulfide (which smells like rotting onions), trimethylamine (the essence of rotting fish) and isolvaleric acid (the smell of old sweat socks), among others. The plant also generates heat, giving it the approximate temperature of a human body. People typically find the combination repulsive (though it doesn’t seem to stop us from flocking to see the flowering plants) but the stench and the warmth attract hordes of flies and carrion beetles. The insects — who are hopefully carrying pollen from other flowers — then get trapped inside the plant. People smell the pungent aroma of various corpse flowers. (Photos by AP, Getty, and Reuters) When the “male” flowers open roughly a day later, they capture the pollen from the captives and sprinkle their own pollen onto them, before releasing the bugs back into the world to pollinate other plants. The elaborate two-day process prevents the plants from self-pollinating. Stinky is one of at least three corpse flowers to bloom in the U.S. this year — one of the plants stunk up the botanic garden at University of


We can’t wait for these five D.C.-area restaurants to open this fall

Chaia’s tacos are made with hand-pressed tortillas. (Morgan Hungerford West) Summer brought a slew of new restaurants, which only whet our appetite for the blockbuster fall season ahead. Though Shaw will dominate the landscape in terms of openings, we couldn’t be more excited for these other D.C.-born projects to get off the ground. Bantam King 700 Fifth St. NW Unnamed Alex McCoy project 845 Upshur St. NW Yona 4000 Wilson Blvd., Arlington Chaia 3207 Grace St. NW Hank’s Pasta Bar 600 Montgomery St., Alexandria More dining news: Compass Rose to debut a ‘Bedouin tent’ tasting room on back patio Sundevich owner to open Small Fry, a smoke house and fry shop in Parkview Nick Pimentel, co-owner of Room 11, signs lease at old Heller’s Bakery property


Scientists say they’ve grown the world’s most complete Petri dish brain

grown from pluripotent cells was able to replace the traditional test subjects of mice and computer models. Other organs have been modeled from the pluripotent state, but the brain is the “holy grail,” Anand said, because it is far and away the most complex. Buoyed by previous advances, Anand sought to develop his own model, one that would contain even more of the structures necessary to build a complete human brain. Due to a pending patent, Anand has not published the details of how he developed his brain model. But he’s already enthusiastic about the results of the process. “The model has everything,” he said. “We have the midbrain, the area that gets affected in Parkinson’s. We have the spinal cord, the circuitry, the different cell types,” everything except a vascular system. If the model is approved, researchers could take a skin cell from a patient with Parkinson’s, induce it to become pluripotent using Yamanaka’s technique, then grow the resulting stem cell into a brain based on Anand’s process. They could then study the organoid to find clues about the illness in the brain’s early development. The research will help bridge the gap between what we know about genetic predisposition to neurological problems and how they manifest in living people, Anand said. He and his co-researcher, McKay, are already using the process to create models of Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and autism in a dish. It could also be used to study PTSD, he said (which is part of why he presented his research at a military symposium). If he and McKay are able to develop their model even further so that it includes a blood supply, they also hope to be able to study strokes. They have also founded a Columbus, Ohio-based start-up, NeurXstem, to commercialize their model. “It won’t replace mice and rats entirely,” Anand said, but I think it’s going to add value and become a pre-clinical model on which we can test a lot of things,” he said. “It lets you test all your ideas in the dish, so when you got to a patient you have a much better chance of getting it right.” More science stories from Morning Mix Major publisher retracts 64 scientific papers in fake peer review outbreak A Nat Geo journalist’s remarkable and ingenious quest to track down ivory smugglers How a coughing ape is changing our ideas about animals, humans and language


Temptation to cheat, pressure to look perfect: E!’s ‘WAGS’ reveals the scary world of dating pro athletes

practically to the floor] down here.” Nicole Williams, from left, Natalie Halcro, Olivia Pierson, Sasha Gates, Barbie Blank, Ashley North and Autumn Ajirotutu arrive at the NBCUniversal Summer TCA Tour. (Rich Fury/Invision/AP) 4) Certain sports are more prestigious than others. Olivia, for example, will never again date an NHL player, because her first hockey player boyfriend cheated on her. Barbie, of course, thinks Olivia’s implying that all hockey players are cheaters — and is extremely offended by this assumption. 5) Women are always going to try to steal your man. This is the most important rule and drives most of the episode. “Millions of people want your man,” says Nicole Williams (girlfriend of Tampa Bay Buccaneers defensive end Larry English). “It’s like a war zone.” The women agree that even though men cheat all the time, their husbands and boyfriends are far more tempted because of all the ladies throwing themselves at them at all times, mostly for the money and potential fame. During a day at the salon, the WAGS trade stories about the most egregious examples: Sasha, for example, “snapped” after a woman started flirting with her Antonio in a VIP area at a club right in front of her. Some go to extreme measures: Nicole sets up a camera in the bedroom where she can watch Larry at all times. (Okay, it was a camera for the dog, but she says it works just as well as extra security.) Later, they get in a fight during the Vegas trip when Larry wants to go out with the boys — but she doesn’t trust what will happen if she’s not around. Luckily, her pals Natalie and Olivia completely understand. “You know that the girls are going to be there and be all over him,” Natalie tells the camera. “Women throw themselves at these guys,” Olivia confirms. Natalie agrees. “Then the fact that they’re dating someone pretty like Nicole, that –” “Just ups their stock,” Olivia interrupts. “It makes Larry a lot more attractive than if he were single. It’s just the reality,” Natalie says. “It sounds sick,” Olivia concurs sadly. “But that’s the reality.” Read more: - Michael Sam, Oprah and the danger of thinking reality TV is the answer - ‘Survivor’ changed television forever and it still endures. What’s the secret? - Kylie Jenner is now an adult, but reality TV ensured she never had a childhood


For some in the South, defying medical marijuana laws is the Lord’s work

Jones said. “If somebody contacts me, I have to look at them and wonder. I wonder if that’s police first, not if I can help their kid. I try not to do that, but you have to because you’re scared.” Jones helps everyone she can, whether they be young mothers of epileptic children or older patients suffering from chronic pain. Her specific brand of civil disobedience, like so many other facets of Southern life, is captained by her faith. “They talk about the South being the Bible belt, and praise the Lord we are,” Jones said. “I cannot not help somebody. I have to. As a Christian, that’s what I’m here for.” Many Southern states have a long and failed history with medical marijuana, mired deep in forgotten statutes and a lost generation of patients. Only recently, as the marijuana movement sweeps through statehouses, have those laws become political tinder for a new debate in the Old South. * * * BATON ROUGE, La. — In 1976, as Ada Jones was graduating from Chester High School in South Carolina, Tony Guarisco — who would become an iconic advocate for medical marijuana in Louisiana — joined the state Legislature. Tony Guarisco, a former Louisiana state senator, proposed a bill to legalize medical marijuana through a research program in 1978. (Shawn Weismiller / News21) Just two years after his election, Guarisco proposed a bill that wrought a hurricane of controversy statewide — from Baton Rouge’s towering, Art Deco Capitol building to Guarisco’s small, shrimping hometown of Morgan City along the banks of the Atchafalaya River. He wanted to legalize medical marijuana through a therapeutic research program. “Some people said I was ahead of my time about a lot of things,” Guarisco said. “I wasn’t afraid of it.” Between 1978 and 1982, 25 states set up similar medical marijuana research programs, designed mainly to treat cancer and glaucoma patients. To receive the marijuana, states were supposed to contract with the National Institute on Drug Abuse, which cultivated cannabis at a federally funded farm at the University of Mississippi. Louisiana became the third to pass legislation in July 1978. Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina quickly followed, signing laws in a seven-month span between 1979 and 1980. “I knew we were pioneers in it,” Guarisco said. At Senate committee meetings, Guarisco offered up testimony from afflicted patients and family members. At one hearing, he was


Main Street Morning: EPA releases new rules for methane emissions

in stockpiles. Management - Five tech companies with great cultures and four bad business habits of small business owners… and what can help them. - The fledgling marijuana industry is pushing through its labor pains. - Walmart and other U.S. companies are starting to feel the full effect of minimum wage increases. Online - Yelp wants you to review the government. - How Amazon is keeping its customers on its site longer. - Google gives Hangouts a new homepage, away from Google+. - A promoter claims that online hook-up site Tinder is killing live music venues. Start-Up - Here are 10 businesses to start that can weather any economy. Sales and Marketing - How to nail a sales presentation. - Facebook is deemed the most trusted channel for branded content. - “Shockvertising” has become obsolete, according to a new study. - The “Isis Spa & Salon” spends $10,000 to change its unfortunate name. Opportunities - September is National Preparedness Month. Retail - George Zimmerman teams up with an anti-Muslim gun shop to make Confederate flag art. Technology - Microsoft plans to abandon its free one-year Office 365 subscription with new Windows 10 devices. - An e-mail glitch costs Bloomingdale’s $25,000. - Google introduces its own $200 router. - This chart shows the hottest technologies of 2015. - A study finds that 80 percent of Apple Watch users are already using Apple Pay. - Here comes the world’s first drone film festival. Taxes - A CPA offers these small business tax planning tips for the summer. Around the Country - Monica Lewinsky will be the keynote speaker at a conference for financial advisors. - Ocean warming is pushing the lobster population north. - A new company is aiming to help make Washington state’s recreational marijuana industry cashless. - Connecticut shuts down a nail salon over wage abuse. - Billboards are a hot topic for the commissioners of a North Carolina town. Around the World - Google is bringing its Android One program for affordable phones to Africa. - Why some feel that China’s miracle economy is going from illusion to nightmare. - Venezuela’s currency is now so worthless that people are using it as napkins. Gene Marks owns the Marks Group, a Bala Cynwyd PA consulting firm that helps clients with customer relationship management. Follow Gene Marks and On Small Business on Twitter. News we should know about? Email us here.


Tropical disturbance in central Pacific could threaten Hawaii this weekend

This area of thunderstorms has a 60 percent chance of developing into the Pacific Ocean’s next tropical cyclone, which may track toward Hawaii over the weekend. (Weather Underground) There’s lots of attention on Tropical Storm Danny in the Atlantic, but a nearer term threat to the United States may be a fledgling disturbance in the central tropical Pacific, which could threaten the Hawaiian islands late this weekend. The Central Pacific Hurricane Center in Honolulu gives the disturbance a 60 percent chance of becoming a tropical cyclone (either a tropical depression or tropical storm) within the next 48 hours. Invest 93C decent chance of become TS Kilo South of Hawaii ... move near Big Island as hurricane according to HWRF http://t.co/wRTlvYj0YI As of Wednesday morning, the disturbance has a somewhat ragged appearance on satellite imagery, with lots of thunderstorm activity but little in terms of organization. A center of low pressure circulation is not clearly obvious from imagery. But the Central Pacific Hurricane Center says environmental conditions should gradually become more conducive for this area of thunderstorms to develop into the next Pacific Ocean tropical cyclone. Satellite image shows disturbance as mass of thunderstorms southeast of Hawaii (NOAA) If this disturbance attains tropical storm intensity, which most forecast models predict, it will be named Kilo. [Tropical Storm Danny strengthens, could be category 1 hurricane on Saturday] Models generally track the storm very close to the Big Island in four to five days, with rain and wind potentially affecting the area Sunday or Monday. Note, however, there is a good amount of spread in the model forecasts, meaning the entire island chain could face impacts from the storm while it’s also possible the system passes harmlessly to the east of west. This is certainly a situation that bears watching over the coming days. Track forecasts for disturbance that could threaten Hawaii in 4-5 days (UCAR)


Former Ashby Inn chef David Dunlap’s new Richmond restaurant opens next month

Maple & Pine will serve breakfast, lunch and dinner daily. Examples from Dunlap's "New American" menu include brioche French toast with stewed peaches and hickory syrup, a Virginia ham and Appalachian cheese sandwich and almond-crusted lamb with pickled blueberries and lavender hummus. Dunlap will be working with mid-Atlantic farmers to source his ingredients. In another D.C.-area connection, the restaurant will feature custom tableware made by Arlington-based artist Amber Kendrick of Cloud Terre. Original post: Ashby Inn Dunlap, who has led the kitchen of the Paris, Va., inn since September 2013, said his last day there is Sunday. His next gig will be as the top toque at Richmond's forthcoming Quirk Hotel. He anticipates a Sept. 1 opening. Chef David Dunlap is saying goodbye to the Ashby Inn and his garden there. (Scott Suchman for The Washington Post) [The $20 Diner visits Richmond] "We're actually working through the concept right now," Dunlap said. They're kicking around possible names at the moment. As to the food, the chef expects to keep the menu relatively small at 10 to 15 items that will change at least weekly. The cuisine will be similar to what he's been cooking at the Ashby Inn: "globally influenced," he said. What will Dunlap miss most about Ashby? His garden. Not being able to walk out of his kitchen to pick vegetables will be hard, he said. Once he relocates to Richmond, Dunlap will start looking for a farmer who will devote an acre or so to growing his ingredients. "My hands won’t be in the dirt like they are right now," Dunlap said. "My last two jobs I've kind of worked in the country." The gig at the hotel will be "a little bit more cosmopolitan," he said, with a location in Richmond's Arts and Cultural District. "I'm sad to leave, but at the same time I'm really excited that I get to develop a restaurant," he said. Misty Williams, the Ashby Inn's business liaison, said the garden won't be left to the weeds once Dunlap leaves. "We definitely want to continue using the garden," she said. The search for Dunlap's replacement is underway, Williams said. In the meantime, the inn may bring on a few guest chefs until a permanent hire is made. First published May 12, 2015. Related items: The $20 Diner visits Richmond Fake blood and real meat: GWARbar gets ready to open in Richmond


‘Completely Betrayed’

who holds a top-level security clearance, had already read an unredacted version of his 500-plus-page report. Her son, 1st Lt. Matthew Greene, based at Fort Hood, Tex., participated in the briefing via video, listening as Jackson presented a synopsis of his findings. Among the conclusions: The shooting could not have been foreseen or prevented, and there was no negligence on the part of any military leader. âThere are many things we may learn from this experience that may help us prevent making ourselves an easy target to the next would-be shooter,â wrote Jackson, who declined to be interviewed for this story. âThe outcome of this case illustrates what can happen when we combine a determined shooter with a target of opportunity. .â.â. This incident does, however, bring into question a fundamental problem set in how we must balance the need for maintaining an environment of trust and confidence with our Afghan partners while providing adequate force protection for our advisory team members and leaders.â Myers, five months shy of celebrating what would have been her 30th wedding anniversary, was not satisfied. She and her family had a litany of questions about how so many military commanders got so close to an unsecured building and why U.S. investigators couldnât pry more information out of the Afghan military about the slain shooterâs motives. Jackson couldnât offer many answers, recalled Myers, in her first interview since her husbandâs death. âWhen I asked Jackson about all this missing information, he kind of shrugged his shoulders, saying thatâs the way it is,â said Myers, 57. âThey made a big deal about how the Afghans werenât cooperating, and we were fortunate to have anything from them at all. I was like, âWhat the hell? Why donât we pull some money?â Weâve got all these guys over there, and we canât convince them to cooperate?â Of the 2,351 U.S. service members killed in the longest war in U.S. history, only a small fraction have been at the hands of Afghan allies-turned-traitors. Insider attacks have killed 147 coalition service members and wounded hundreds of others since 2007, when U.S. officials first began tracking them. But the treachery of "green-on-blue" attacks â the phrase used to describe assaults on NATO forces by members of the Afghan security forces â has had an outsize effect, undermining trust between the two sides and raising questions about whether Afghans will ever be


Scientists built a ‘vomiting device’ to show how spewing chunks spreads disease

It's vomitous. (Grace Tung-Thompson/NC State) Researchers wanted to know whether vomit could facilitate the spread of norovirus, a highly contagious stomach ailment notorious for turning unlucky cruise ships into ground zeroes for diarrhea epidemics. But first, they needed a way to reproduce the physical action of vomiting -- so they built a "vomiting device" to puke on command in the lab. Here it is in action: A machine that creates projectile vomit demonstrates how vomit contributes to the spread of human norovirus. Grace Tung-Thompson explains at Jaykus Laboratory of North Carolina State University. Science is glorious. By using the device to approximate the spray of human vomit, the researchers found the first direct evidence that norovirus can be spread by way of the technicolor yawn. Their findings were published Wednesday in the journal PLOS ONE. [This blood test can tell you every virus you’ve ever had] "When one person vomits, the aerosolized virus particles can get into another person's mouth and, if swallowed, can lead to infection," study co-author Lee-Ann Jaykus of North Carolina State University said in a statement. "But those airborne particles could also land on nearby surfaces like tables and door handles, causing environmental contamination. And norovirus can hang around for weeks, so anyone that touches that table and then puts their hand to their mouth could be at risk for infection." (Grace Tung-Thompson/NC State) In other words, you don't have to have direct exposure to vomit contaminated with norovirus in order to get sick. The physical act of vomiting helps the virus proliferate by leaving behind particles much less conspicuous than a puddle of sick. [One day, doctors might prescribe viruses instead of antibiotics] In addition to a viral soup the likes of which would be found in a sick person's puke, the researchers used vanilla pudding to simulate the viscosity of vomit. They determined that 800 milliliters of vomit was a good upper threshold, while anything lower than 50 milliliter of liquid would count as a "dry heave". They also determined that coughs were common after the act of vomiting, so they were sure to simulate a few sharp exhalations with their device during the experiment. Ultimately, only around .02 percent of the viral particles ended up airborne, with the rest staying put inside the viscous fake vomit. But that small percentage still amounts to thousands of viral particles -- ones that could end up


The new biggest thing in the universe, and why it’s a headache for scientists

This image from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captures thousands of glittering stars in the northern constellation of Hercules. (NASA/ESA/Gilles Chapdelaine) The biggest thing in the universe — sounds pretty straightforward, right? Well, not exactly. We all love a good cosmological superlative — the hottest, the brightest, the most massive — but studying space is rarely that simple. In many cases, the "mosts" of the universe bend our theoretical properties of physics in ways we don't understand. A group of international scientists have recently discovered something that's vying for the title of biggest thing in the observable universe: a clustered ring of galaxies located about 7 billion light-years away. But the ring, detailed in the latest monthly notice of the Royal Astronomical Society, is so big that some cosmologists are saying it violates the basic theoretical principles governing the universe. [NASA estimates 1 billion ‘Earths’ in our galaxy alone] The proposed cluster isn't visible from Earth because it's so far away. It was revealed to cosmologists after they observed nine gamma-ray bursts, which are the result of super-massive stars collapsing into black holes. The bursts offer brief clues about the location of other galaxies. In this case, the bursts are so close together and similar to one another that scientists think they must be a single feature. The team said there's a very low chance — one in 20,000 — that the arrangement appeared by random chance. An image of the distribution of gamma ray bursts on the sky at a distance of 7 billion light years, centred on the newly discovered ring. (Illustration courtesy of the Royal Astronomical Society/Lajos Balazs) This discovery is the latest addition to a mix of galaxy clusters referred to as galaxy filaments — the great walls and massive threads that clothe the vast voids of space. These features are so inconceivably large that scientists don't know how they could possibly be formed. If you were to travel from one end of the new cluster to the other at the speed of light, it would take more than 5.6 billion years. Lajos Balazs, contributor to the ring's discovery and a professor from the Konkoly Observatory in Budapest, said that if we could see the feature in the night sky, it would be 70 times bigger than the moon. But the ring has stiff competition for the title of "biggest." A team of scientists found another enormous


The surprising effects of study abroad

spring semester, with the winter break providing a valuable window during which a treatment group of students just returning from a semester abroad can be compared with a control group of students who are about to embark. Since all subjects are predisposed to participate, the design controls for self-selection, and the choice of which semester is a logistical one with no obvious implications. These are significant design improvements over earlier studies that did not control for self-selection or lacked a strong control group. More than 500 students were surveyed on their feelings of international community, perceptions of foreign threat, and levels of nationalism and patriotism, as well as demographics and study abroad program characteristics. As expected, those returning from a semester abroad (the treatment group) were not significantly different either demographically or in terms of program choices from those about to take their semester abroad (the control group). For instance, they selected the same host countries in which to study abroad, especially Spain, France, Italy and the United Kingdom, and females outnumbered males in both groups. All this mirrors the general population of American study abroad students, who are majority female and tend to study abroad most in Western Europe. First, I tested the core liberal hypothesis that cross-border contact promotes a sense of shared international community, or what political scientist Karl Deutsch called a “we-feeling” across cultural divides. Theorists define this in terms of warmth, shared understandings and values, and trust. Surprisingly, the hypothesis was not supported: None of the indicators for international community was higher on average for students returning from study abroad than for those yet to travel. In fact, those who had just returned from a semester abroad felt they had significantly fewer values in common and were more likely to say their understandings of key concepts were different from the people of their host country. None of this was sensitive to potential moderators like whether or not students opted to live with a host family. Given the intuitive plausibility of the liberal hypothesis, these results are striking. How about threat perceptions? I asked students to rate how threatening they would consider their study abroad host country if it were to surpass the United States in terms of material power, such as economic growth or military expansion. In theory, cross-border contact should mitigate perceptions of foreign threat and foster expectations of peaceful change and cooperation, despite


Why Ashley Madison’s founder thinks cheating can help marriages

site for years to avoid giving any ideas to readers who may be considering an affair. He talked to Wonkblog Thursday morning, saying the hack would likely deter any new customers. "I think people just give up too quickly," Haltzman said. "Sometimes, that's all I have to do when I meet with a couple, tell them, 'Your problems are solvable.'" In his book "The Secrets of Surviving Infidelity," he estimates that more than half of married couples in which a partner strays do not end in divorce — an estimate he acknowledges is uncertain. He and other psychologists rely on personal experience with couples who come into their offices. Every family is different, and the families who tend to participate in therapy or who volunteer for studies might not be representative of families in general. Haltzman agreed that monogamy might not be natural for humans in an evolutionary sense, but, he noted, humans avoid many behaviors that might have made sense for our prehistoric ancestors interested in passing on their genes, such as theft and violence. Infidelity has costs for children, he argued. Those who stray spend less time at home with the kids, and less time working to preserve their marriages — even if the cheater is never found out. Even Biderman agreed that infidelity was bad for a marriage if the spouse learns the truth. That, he said at the time, was rare. The discovery of an affair "comes with a whole host of consequences," he said. "Most of it never gets discovered." [How to search the Ashley Madison database] A spokeswoman declined to make Biderman available for an interview Wednesday. She provided a statement confirming the attack but not the authenticity of the data the perpetrators published online. "The criminal, or criminals, involved in this act have appointed themselves as the moral judge, juror, and executioner, seeing fit to impose a personal notion of virtue on all of society," the statement read. Polls consistently show that that almost all Americans agree that infidelity is morally wrong, in contrast to childbirth out of wedlock or gay and lesbian relationships, on which the public remains somewhat divided. "The ideology that the hackers have is probably the exact same ideology of any two individuals that stand at an altar that take their vows," Haltzman said. "If anything, it's Ashley Madison's ideology which is not keeping with the vows of marriage."


Is cheating more ‘natural’ for humans than staying monogamous? It’s complicated.

Is science on the side of the Ashley Madison cheaters? Ehhhhh. (Chris Wattie/Reuters) Unless you're lucky enough to live under a rock, you've probably heard that Ashley Madison, a dating site that caters specifically to married folks looking to cheat on their spouses, has had a massive data leak. Around 37 million people have watched their personal data spill out onto the Internet, revealing them as cheater cheater pumpkin eaters and allowing the rest of the world to engage in some serious, ethically questionable schadenfreude. So it seems as good a time as any to delve into one of the most complex and fascinating questions in social science: Are humans even meant to be faithful to one partner? And, well, the answer is complicated. Let's start off by saying that there is far from enough evidence for either camp — pr0- or anti- monogamy — to insist that science is definitely on their side. [Why Ashley Madison’s founder thinks cheating can help marriages] Ashley Madison founder Noel Biderman makes it clear that he's in the "science-shows-monogamy-is-bunk" camp. In an interview with The Post last year, Biderman cited the book "Sex at Dawn" (which is, to be fair, an interesting read) and claimed that science was on his side. "You get married, and after a period of time, your sexual attraction to your partner seems to wane," Biderman said. "Monogamy emerged from an economic principle [ownership]. . . . What we really meant was, women need to be monogamous. I don’t think men ever had an intent to be monogamous." It's unnatural, he insists, and that's why his Web site — which provides a discreet (erm, formerly discreet) outlet for extramarital affairs — is a net positive for the world. [The evidence of polygamy is in our genes] It's true that less than 5 percent of mammals in the world share life-long monogamous bonds. And humans don't have the same stunning track record as some of those animals. "I don't think we are a monogamous animal," Pepper Schwartz, a professor of sociology at the University of Washington in Seattle, told LiveScience. "A really monogamous animal is a goose – which never mates again even if its mate is killed." So it's clear that humans — who date, sleep around, form polyamorous relationships and polygamous marriages and so on — can't be defined as a monogamous species in the same way a


The world’s most dangerous predator is you

[pardon the technical jargon] on the planet in lots of different ways, and one of those ways is directly killing animals. There are no indirect effects here. This is not a case, for example, of you filling up your gas tank and then burning some fuel that sends CO2 into the atmosphere and warms the planet and increases water temperatures and boosts ocean acidity and eventually kills a coral reef and makes it hard for a really pretty fish to survive. No, that fish is already dead — we killed it! We went straight for the jugular. We poison, plunder, destroy. We’re a Swiss Army Knife of environmental damage. A photo taken on July 16, 2015, shows a unique view of the moon as it passed between the spacecraft and Earth, taken by a camera on the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR). A series of images shows the fully illuminated ‘dark side’ of the moon that is not visible from Earth. (EPA/NASA/DSCOVR – EPIC) (But won’t I feel guilty tonight when I fire up the Big Green Egg? Aren’t I a one-man environment-wrecking crew? All that grilled meat?? Hey, it’s not like I’m serving smoked condor!) So, climate change isn’t the only thing to worry about. Sometimes I think it sucks up all of the oxygen in the room. That said, it’s a huge problem and potentially an existential one. It would help if certain political leaders and media blowhards stopped claiming that it’s a hoax dreamed up (for some unclear reason) by climate scientists. (Someone should do a story on why people don’t believe in science, dontcha think?) Note that the authors of the predator study refer to constraints from “managers.” I know that will cause some folks’ heads to explode, because that’s not purely a market-driven process, it’s not libertarian, it’s not relying on the Invisible Hand, and once you start managing things you’re on the slippery slope to World Government and Big Brother and 2+2=5. But the future of human civilization will require a lot more management than we’ve seen to date. Welcome to Spaceship Earth. Images of consumption are the theme of the book, “Overdevelopment, Overpopulation, Overshoot.” It addresses environmental deterioration through subjects including materialism, consumption, pollution, fossil fuels and carbon footprints. Further Reading: Scientists say human activity has pushed Earth beyond 4 of 9 “planetary boundaries.” Sure way to incite a raucous debate: Say “geoengineering.”


Scientists are still trying to figure out how fast we could lose West Antarctica

time to move gigantic volumes of ice. And now, in a new study recently published in The Cryosphere, a large team of researchers from a bevy of universities and research institutes across 6 countries — including the University of Bristol in the UK and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in the U.S. — have applied a sophisticated computer modeling approach to try to determine West Antarctica’s potential melt rate. The researchers began with different scenarios for global emissions, and for corresponding changes to the atmosphere and oceans around Antarctica. Then they used those scenarios to fire up a high resolution ice sheet model. The model, depending on its inputs, then computed a range of predictions for what would happen to West Antarctica going forward. The result was neither good news, nor utterly catastrophic. The study found that at the most extreme, the entire ice sheet could move fast enough to raise sea level by 200 millimeters (20 centimeters) by the year 2100, and 47.5 centimeters by 2200. That would be an acceleration in comparison with what it’s doing today. For instance, one recent study found that West Antarctica is currently losing 134 gigatons of ice per year (a gigaton is a billion metric tons). That may sound like a very large amount, but it’s only enough to raise sea level by about a third of a millimeter per year (it takes 360 gigatons to produce 1 millimeter of sea level rise). Nonetheless, 20 centimeters of sea level from West Antarctica by 2100 is not too dramatic of a scenario. In fact, it’s in line with the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s 2013 consensus projections, which had sea level rising by, at most, about a meter by the year 2100. “It turns out that the numbers we get are consistent with the IPCC,” says study author Tony Payne, a glaciologist with the University of Bristol in the UK. The new research arrives, however, at an interesting time – one when a number of scientists are doubting the IPCC’s projections, as well as the ability of current modeling efforts to fully capture the dynamics of ice sheets. For instance, a recent modeling study that added two additional mechanisms into the mix, dubbed hydrofracturing and ice cliff failure, found “a very rapid collapse of West Antarctic ice, on the order of decades” in a scenario of increased warming. The new study does not


Federal agencies are failing when it comes to managing employees throughout their careers

Tyler Whitsett, a First Lieutenant cadet with the Civil Air Patrol United States Air Force Auxiliary helps to hold up a large American flag on Monday May 25, 2015 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Matt McClain/ The Washington Post) The management of the federal workforce—effectively using talent, providing training, creating opportunities for promotions—can have a profound effect on employee performance and job satisfaction. Based on an analysis of federal survey data by Deloitte and my organization, the Partnership for Public Service, agencies are failing on a number fronts when it comes to managing employees throughout their careers. According to the research, fewer than 40 percent of current federal employees government-wide believe their agencies are recruiting people with the right skills; only about half believe their talents are being used well in the workplace; and less than a third are satisfied with the opportunities to get a better job in their organization. In addition, fewer than half of federal employees are satisfied with their training opportunities and only about 40 percent had positive views regarding the recognition they receive. All of these results are about 15 to 20 points lower than what is found in the private sector. Agencies and their leaders clearly need to do a better job, starting with recruitment and going through the entire panoply of talent management responsibilities. Most importantly, you need to take charge of these issues, and not view it as the responsibility of the HR office alone. While managers may be hard-pressed to find the time needed to address everything at once, it is important to examine your agency employee survey data, talk to employees and determine what areas your staff believes are the greatest weaknesses. Then set some priorities for action. Whether you are a senior leader or a hiring manager, you need to first reach out to HR to learn more about the recruitment processes and responsibilities. Many leaders are often too hands off, which is a big mistake since talent acquisition should be a top priority. Federal leaders need to partner with HR to craft job announcements, selection criteria and interview approaches to ensure that the best candidates are applying and getting through the process. Recruiting young talent has become a major issue for the federal workforce. Contrary to what might be expected, data show that the percentage of the federal workforce under age 30 dropped from 9 percent in 2010


Photos: Thursday’s golden sunset over Washington, D.C.

Marine Corps Memorial Lightning at sunset, August 20, 2015. (Joseph Gruber via Flickr) In the wake of Thursday evening’s storms, not only were there beautiful rainbows, but also a spectacular sunset that stood out in its own right! [Photos: Washington, D.C.’s most vivid rainbow spectacle in recent memory] The contrast between the dark gray skies departing to the east and the clearing skies to the west cast an eerie, yet soothing glow all around the region. Sunset lightning over the Lincoln Memorial (Kevin Ambrose) We received so many terrific sunset images that I decided we should publish them in their own post, separate from the rainbow images (some of which also coincided with sunset). Skies turning yellow in D.C. as sunset approaches. (Jim Havard via Flickr) As always, thanks to all of you who shared your photos! Sunset over Capitol Hill, August 20, 2015 (Nienke DC via Facebook) Greatest thing about an evening storm is the painting nature creates in the sky afterwards! @capitalweather http://t.co/sim8JSu4qR @capitalweather the sky looks pretty intense in Arlington! http://t.co/AoGdzIa0CG Also shaping up to be a glorious sunset! @capitalweather http://t.co/Xbm6UxWc10 @capitalweather @nova_weather_ce @nova_wx @NoVaCo_WX another stunning pano of tonight's post-storm display. http://t.co/uHDeSoBwPe ...but the photos came out pretty nice. (2/2) #nofilter @capitalweather http://t.co/VY3AAp4vC1 @capitalweather after the rain #Ashburn #Nelson http://t.co/yTzrrqy751 Iwo Jima Memorial this evening @capitalweather @SteveRudinABC7 @navinsarmaphoto @ABC7Alex https://t.co/WfwvnU0MPN http://t.co/eMEgCZSSx9


Mei Xiang: Recalling another time we swooned for National Zoo’s panda young

(CAVNA’S CANVAS / The Washington Post 2015) HOW TIME It was a decade ago last month that our Tai Shan was born at the National Zoo — the first Zoo-born panda cub to survive more than mere days there — and Washington (including The Washington Post) embraced the little one as he grew to become a giant one. Before Bryce, we had Butterstick — next to whom, as a mascot, no Racing President (not even Teddy or Taft) could hold a flame or name. Per agreement, Tai Shan was eventually sent to China. But now Tai Shan’s mama, Mei Xiang (who also birthed Bao Bao), has delivered again, bringing twin cubs into our world Saturday. As we welcome the two new pink cuties, we also hark back to a time when pandamonium first gripped this city: (CAVNA’S CANVAS 2005) (CAVNA’S CANVAS 2005) (CAVNA’S CANVAS 2005) (CAVNA’S CANVAS 2005)


Happy Birthday Bao Bao! A National Zoo treasure turns 2

Giant panda cub Bao Bao is given a cake to enjoy on her second birthday, at Smithsonian’s National Zoo, in Washington, DC, on Aug. 23, 2015. Bao Bao’s second birthday comes a day after her mother, 17-year-old Mei Xiang, gave birth to twins, Aug. 22. This is only the third time a giant panda living in the United States has given birth to twins. (EPA/Michael Reynolds) It was a busy weekend for giant pandas at the National Zoo: Twins were born. But big sister Bao Bao took the cake, literally, as she turned two today. Bao Bao, whose name means “precious treasure,” was born at 5:32 p.m. on Aug. 23, 2013. The second cub of Mei Xiang and Tian Tian has developed a kind of cult-like following: people watch her tackle her mom in the snow or eat fruitsicles or tumble down a hill. For her birthday, Bao Bao enjoyed a traditional frozen fruitsicle cake with all of her favorite treats: honey, apple juice, carrots, beet juice and of course bamboo. For a special treat, zoo officials said keepers wrapped tiny treats inside cardboard boxes for her to unwrap — or enjoy. Mei Xiang just gave birth to twins, so she couldn’t join in on the fun with her precious baby girl. But mom knows, just like everyone else, that Bao Bao is a rock star. And no one puts Bao Bao in a corner.


The Daily 202: Biden Boomlet Turns Serious as Veep Weighs Options Against Hillary

Ted Cruz, who has assiduously courted evangelicals throughout his presidential run, will take a lead role in the launch this week of an ambitious 50-state campaign to end taxpayer support for Planned Parenthood — a move that is likely to give the GOP candidate a major primary-season boost in the fierce battle for social-conservative and evangelical voters…More than 100,000 pastors received e-mail invitations over the weekend to participate in conference calls with Cruz on Tuesday in which they will learn details of the plan to mobilize churchgoers in every congressional district beginning Aug. 30…Roughly 1 in 4 voters have identified themselves as evangelical in exit polls from the 2004 campaign on. In key Republican primaries such as Iowa, and in some of the Southern states that Cruz has said are critical to his run, that figure was higher during the last presidential campaign — nearly 50 percent.” –“Why Come Fall, Democrats will Need Republicans on Capitol Hill,” by Kelsey Snell: SOCIAL MEDIA SPEED READ: Pictures of the day: Giant panda Mei Xiang delivered two cubs at the National Zoo over the weekend. Here’s a photo of the second during an examination: (smithsonianzoo) Actress Ellen Page confronted Ted Cruz on gay rights at the Iowa State Fair. Watch the video here: (@yomike) Over at Nats’ Park, Teddy Roosevelt hopped in the back of a flat-bed truck for the first part of the Presidents Race. But did he win? Watch the video here: (nationals) The Curiosity Mars Rover took a selfie in this snapshot released by NASA: (@engadget) Tweets of the day: Glad to hear the National Zoo #Panda gave birth! What a miracle! Will @realDonaldTrump call for the "anchor" panda to be sent back to China? Congrats to Mei Xiang on the panda twins! DC is panda crazy today Vice President Biden congratulated Americans who helped stop a gunman on a Paris-bound train: Three Americans on a Paris-bound train courageously took on danger to help their fellow passengers. Americans around the world stand proud. Jeb Bush and Donald Trump traded attacks on Twitter: His massive inconsistencies aside, @realDonaldTrump’s immigration plan is not conservative and does not reflect our nation's values. Jeb Bush is weak on illegal immigration, in favor of common core, bad on women's health issues and thinks the Iraq war was a good thing. Trump later claimed a record number of


Main Street Morning: Wall Street dips into correction territory

AFP PHOTO BERTRAND GUAYBERTRAND GUAY/AFP/Getty Images Welcome to Main Street Morning, The Washington Post’s daily collection of news affecting entrepreneurs, start-ups and small businesses with a special focus on policy and government. Here’s what’s affecting my small business, my clients and other entrepreneurs today. Washington - A new survey finds that 61 percent disapprove of President Obama’s handling of immigration. The Economy - Robert Reich believes corporate welfare is ravaging American taxpayers. - Wall Street dips into correction territory. - Sequestration is still holding the D.C. region back, and there’s more to come. The Elections - Bernie Sanders gets a surprise endorsement from Deez Nuts. - A majority of Republican voters believe that Donald Trump will be their party’s presidential nominee. People - QuizUp wants companies to train employees with its new corporate trivia game. - Troy Aikman spends a Saturday morning hanging out with a 100-year-old fan for her birthday. - The ACLU invites Amazon’s employees to come to them with their grievances. - Why your employees are about to quit (and what to do about it). - Why minimum wage-related job losses on the West Coast might be worse than reported. Management - How Deluxe Corporation manufactures checks…and cashes them too. Cash Flow - Rising costs are putting the pinch on small business. - Eight expenses businesses should pass on to their customers. Productivity - How successful people overcome uncertainty. Entrepreneurs - How to master working for yourself without crushing your soul. - The Queen Diva of bounce music explains her entrepreneurial rise. - A 27-year-old entrepreneur turns his high school idea of a shaving gel in bar form into a product that’s taken the personal hygiene world by storm. Retail - How to reach your retail customers in spite of their cocoons. Finance - Two of the biggest myths about crowdfunding. Start-ups - This is the start-up CEO helping Slack, Pinterest and Airbnb tackle diversity. - How a failed entrepreneur is now minting millions with his recycling start-up. Online - Amazon joins the Adobe Flash hate parade. Around the Country - Half of New Orleans still remains in ruins, ten years after Hurricane Katrina. - A small business incubator and retail village in Pascagoula, Mississippi celebrates its fourth anniversary with a block party. - Zerkapalooza is affecting businesses in downtown Joplin, Missouri. - Applications are now being accepted for CoolCalifornia.org’s Small Business Awards competition. - Apple recalls


Panda cubs make social media debut

To Washingtonians, it’s like a royal birth — if royal births were captured on live feed and immediately distributed through Instagram. In case you haven’t heard, giant panda Mei Xiang gave birth to two cubs over the weekend at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo in Washington. For those who missed the moment on the ever-popular Panda Cam, the Zoo’s social media feeds have been actively documenting the cubs’ early moments with keepers and their mother. Greeting new pandas is a time-honored Washington tradition. As the Post reports, the birth of the cubs launches a “fresh and not totally unexpected chapter in the public romance with the rotund black-and-white bears”: Inside the panda house Saturday afternoon, a small, rapt knot of onlookers watched on a video monitor as Mei Xiang tossed and turned in her cage. About 4:30 p.m., zoo officials confirmed that the panda’s water had broken … Suddenly at 5:33, someone said, “I think it’s coming.” Watch the two births via Instagram below: The posts are the first in what will undoubtedly be a lifetime of social media stardoms for the new cubs. Here’s the older cub being examined by veterinarians on Sunday — let the mania begin:


American runner celebrates prematurely, with predictably bad result

We feel your pain, Molly Huddle. (Dylan Martinez / Reuters) Apparently, athletes aren’t paying enough attention. How else to explain how, in spite of embarrassing viral videos, athletes continue to goof up by prematurely celebrating their achievements? The latest example occurred Monday at the world championships in Beijing, where American runner Molly Huddle was nosed out by Emily Infeld, also an American, in the 10,000-meter final. Huddle was all set to finish third — until she wasn’t. https://twitter.com/asjadnazir/status/635804131576442880?ref_src=twsrc^tfw “It’s painful to watch. Emily slipped on the inside as I eased up a little bit,” Huddle said (via NBC Sports). “She had this once-in-a-lifetime moment. I feel like it kind of slipped through my fingers. … The Olympics are typically a hard race, not a tactical one, so this probably won’t ever come around again.” [A French soccer plays goes wild…a little early] Infeld, a Georgetown University graduate, knew it was a weird way to medal. [Utah football player makes a huge mistake] “I don’t think [Huddle] knew I was there. I hate to take a medal away from a teammate and fellow American. … I don’t mean to snipe someone or do that. I feel like that’s kind of like a [expletive] way to get it, so I feel kind of bad now.” But not as bad as Huddle.


The numbers are in. Everyone watched the panda cam this weekend.

National Zoo panda Mei Xiang gave birth Saturday afternoon to twin cubs just days after zoo officials confirmed she was pregnant. A few hours later the zoo's panda cam showed her playing with one of the newborns. The birth of twin pandas at the National Zoo this past weekend yielded an 849 percent increase in giant panda cam viewership over the previous weekend, with 868,000 people visiting the zoo’s panda cam Web page between Saturday and Monday. The National Zoo’s giant panda cam allows the most enthusiastic of panda enthusiasts to monitor mother Mei Xiang and her newborn cubs 24/7. Mei Xiang gave birth to two tiny giant panda cubs Saturday, several hours apart. The panda cam maxed out its bandwidth over the weekend, which the National Zoo expected, according to zoo spokeswoman Annalisa Meyer. By comparison, between Aug. 15 and Aug 17, 91,594 people visited the panda cam Web page. Bao Bao, the now third-most famous panda cub in the District, who just celebrated her second birthday, similarly attracted high viewership when she was born. Between Aug. 23, 2013 — the day Bao Bao was born — and Sept. 16, 2013, the zoo’s Web site had more than 1.2 million visits to the panda cam. Meyer said that zoo staff also use the panda cam to monitor Mei Xiang and the newborn cubs.


Scott Walker: Obama should show ‘some backbone’ by canceling Chinese state visit

Walker called on President Obama to cancel Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit, currently scheduled for next month. (AP Photo/Jim Mone, File) This story has been updated. Angry anti-China rhetoric from U.S. politicians escalated Monday as Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) called on President Obama to cancel Chinese President Xi Jinping's state visit to the White House next month. Walker cited the economic turmoil Monday that roiled U.S. stock markets, which analysts said began over concerns about China's slowing growth, as the latest in a string of provocations from Beijing. "Why would we be giving one of our highest things a president can do -- and that is a state dinner for Xi Jinping, the head of China -- at a time when all of these problems are pending out there?" Scott Walker told reporters following a visit to the Carolina Pregnancy Center in Spartanburg, S.C., on Monday afternoon. "We should say those... honors should only be bestowed upon leaders and countries that are allies and supporters of the United States, not just for China, which is a strategic competitor." Walker said that a disinvitation would be a diplomatic move that other countries would respect. "I think China, as others in the world, would actually respect some leadership once and for all from the United States. Part of our problem right now is that they don't respect us," Walker said. "...This is sending a clear message that we expect better out of China." Republican front-runner Donald Trump has been hammering China for months; Walker said Monday that it's something he has been worried about for just as long. Walker mentioned China as a threat during his announcement speech on July 13 -- a topic he seldom, if ever, mentioned before then which has become a regular part of his stump speech. Walker said his action today has nothing to do with Trump, who is beating him in early polls. "It's something I've talked about repeatedly... Just because the media covers some candidates more than others doesn't mean the rest of us aren't talking about things. It's just that we don't get the same level of coverage." He said the timing of Monday's statement was intended to coincide with the stock market turmoil in the wake of the Chinese move to devalue their currency. Wisconsin currently has two trade missions to China planned for next year. In 2013, Walker himself visited China


After Cecil the lion, Zimbabweans worry about losing elephants to China

The advocacy group Elephants DC provided this photo of an elephant caught in the wild and held at Hwange National Park in February. Zimbabwe has sold dozens of the young elephants to China. (Elephants DC) As Zimbabwe's economy struggles, the government is preparing for a controversial export program. Hundreds of this country's elephants could soon be shipped to China -- a deal potentially worth millions of dollars. The killing of Cecil the lion attracted little attention within Zimbabwe, despite an international outcry. But the elephant deal is becoming far more controversial, seen by critics as a desperate attempt to sell off precious natural resources. [Zimbabwe charges farmer over killing of Cecil the lion, but not American dentist] The Zimbabwe Independent reported last week that 24 of the country's elephants have already reached China and 170 are due to be shipped soon. "The baby elephants, which are between two-and-a-half and five years old, are being given limited feeding as part of the preparations," the newspaper reported. The government has confirmed that 24 elephants have already been shipped to China, but has not said how many more are on the way. Although the Zimbabwean government hasn't said how much the deal is worth, conservationists estimate that an elephant would likely be sold for roughly $50,000. The plan to sell the elephants to China is all the more controversial because demand for ivory among Chinese consumers has recently propelled poaching to historic levels. Hunters kill the elephants and hack off their tusks to get the ivory, which sells on the black market for nearly $1,000 per pound. It is used to make holistic medicine across much of East Asia. The elephant deal between Zimbabwe and China was ruled legal by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which released a statement saying, "the export would not be detrimental to the survival of the species in the wild." The elephants are said to be destined for Chimelong Safari Park in Guangdong Province of China, where wild animals often appear in circus-style performances. A travel story broadcast on CNN called the park "surreal, intriguing and disconcerting all at once." Last month, photos of the elephants at Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe awaiting their transport to China were leaked to National Geographic, causing an uproar among conservationists. "Capturing wild elephant calves is counterintuitive to raising funds for conservation,” Mike


Who loses most from chaos in China — and some possible silver linings

The kind of airplanes that are boosting Washington State's exports to China — and might be in trouble if economic turmoil continues. (Mary Altaffer/AP) It’s still unclear what impact China’s falling stock market will have on the real American economy, but the worst will likely be felt in one state: Washington. China is the United States' third-biggest export market, buying $120.8 billion worth of U.S. products in 2014. That total might sounds like small potatoes compared to our $17.4 trillion economy, but Washington state accounts for the biggest chunk, selling $15.3 billion worth of stuff to China last year — largely in the form of airplanes, but also in agricultural products like apples and timber. One of the state's corporate powerhouses, Amazon.com, saw its stock slide 6.14 percent Monday, as investors sold shares in Internet companies on doubts about expansion in China, potentially tempering Seattle’s red-hot economy. And therein lies a lesson about today’s China-driven roller coaster: The effects could be significant, but selective. Certain sectors that do lots of business in China could shed some jobs if the dip gets any worse. For other sectors, the economic slowdown might have negligible or even positive effects. The industries most exposed to China. (Graph by Goldman Sachs) To figure out the industries that could potentially be impacted the most, it helps to look first what products China buys the most: Soybeans ($14.5 billion), civilian aircraft ($13.9 billion) and passenger cars ($11.2 billion). Soybean futures closed down 2.54 percent and Boeing was off 3.42 percent. Detroit's three automakers fell between 4.87 and 6.08 percent — all more than the Dow Jones Industrial Average’s 3.88 percent slide. How is that playing out across the country? Well, it could take a while for Washington to feel the effect of reduced demand for Dreamliners. Robert Hamilton, a trade policy adviser for the governor of Washington, says the lead time needed for plane orders means the Chinese downturn would only impact his state down the road. "This could change if these troubles continue," Hamilton says. Meanwhile, farm states like Iowa But remember, all the fear that showed up in the markets yesterday could be overblown. A slowdown in China does not necessarily mean consumers there will stop spending. The service sector has grown even as manufacturing has weakened, and wages continue to rise at a quick clip. So if U.S. exports start to flag, it might


Best Buy delivers surprisingly strong sales growth

A Best Buy store in Hialeah, Fla. (AP Photo/Alan Diaz, File) Propelled by strong sales of big-ticket items such as appliances and flat-screen TVs, Best Buy saw a healthy increase in sales in its U.S. business in the most recent quarter. The upbeat results could be an early indication that Best Buy is starting to find a better footing amid a confluence of trends that have been tough for its business: E-commerce players have created stiff competition for the big-box chain, and electronics sales have generally slowed as the U.S. market for smartphones has become largely saturated and as interest in tablets has stalled. The big-box chain said Tuesday that revenue in its domestic business rose 3.9 percent in the second quarter to $7.9 billion, and sales rose 2.7 percent at its U.S. stores open more than a year. The boost in sales, coupled with the fruits of a cost-cutting effort the retailer outlined earlier this year, helped it grow its profit 12 percent to $164 million. A variety of factors contributed to Best Buy’s improvement: Television sales ticked up as prices came down on those equipped with 4K technology. The retailer also believes that its new merchandising displays for Sony, Samsung and LG TVs helped make these products more attractive to customers. The retailer also saw a whopping 21 percent increase in sales of appliances, a bump that Best Buy says is in part attributable to a better customer experience in its Pacific Kitchen & Home “store-within-a-store” concept and its refreshed Samsung appliance display. But chief executive Hubert Joly also concedes that the retailer is benefiting in this category from broader economic tailwinds, such as improvement in the housing market. While consumers remain generally cautious, there seem to be some indications that they are starting to loosen their purse strings for practical purchases. Home Depot, for example, reported last week that it saw a solid 6.3 percent increase in transactions for items costing over $900, such as appliances, water heaters and riding mowers. Meanwhile, Best Buy is chugging along with a previously-announced plan to trim $400 million in costs over three years, a plan the company has described as phase two of its “Renew Blue” turnaround strategy. The retailer said Tuesday it has already eliminated $100 million in annualized costs as part of this effort. Yet Best Buy still has plenty of challenges ahead. Its online sales grew 17


Why giant panda cubs are so incredibly tiny

body reserves to nourish a growing fetus during a short gestation, and then can use different body reserves to nourish an altricial newborn with their fatty milk. National Zoo panda Mei Xiang gave birth Saturday afternoon to twin cubs just days after zoo officials confirmed she was pregnant. A few hours later the zoo's panda cam showed her playing with one of the newborns. The altricial nature of panda cubs poses a challenge for scientists at the National Zoo who are trying to keep the two cubs alive and healthy. They were born Saturday, one at 138 grams and the other at just 86 grams. The scientists for now call them "the larger cub" and "the smaller cub." [Panda twin cubs are special to the National Zoo, but they're not rare worldwide] They have had mixed results in their efforts to swap out the two cubs so that the mother, Mei Xiang, spends time with, and bonds with, both of them. Late Sunday night, the panda team tried and failed for hours to get Mei Xiang to leave the larger cub and move to the smaller cub that had been placed in the den. The team finally succeeded about 7 a.m. Monday. As of late Monday the cubs appeared to be healthy, said Zoo spokesperson Pamela Baker-Masson. She said of Mei Xiang, “Just as she is learning how to manage cubs, so are we.” Update Tuesday 12:30 p.m. The Zoo has issued the following bulletin about the panda cubs: Mei Xiang has not been a willing participant in the panda team’s efforts to switch the cubs since 2 p.m. yesterday afternoon. She has the larger cub in her possession. The panda team is caring for the smaller cub and will continue efforts to swap the cubs about every four hours. However, because the smaller cub has been away from Mei, the panda team is now managing it more intensely. The little cub’s behaviors are good. The team is concerned about its fluctuating weight since the cub is now more than 48 hours old. The most important thing for the panda team is to help the cub get enough fluids and nutrients. To accomplish this, they are bottle and tube feeding the cub. The cub has shown some signs of regurgitation which can lead to aspiration in such a tiny creature. To be prudent, the veterinarians are administering antibiotics to prevent