Here’s which states are most innovative in America

(CEA) What makes a state a champion of innovation? Is it the size of its tech workforce, the speed of its broadband connectivity, its willingness to protect and foster new business models? What is the essential mix of state-level policies and practices that make a state a leader in developing new businesses and fostering a more competitive U.S. economy? Innovation is a driving force in job creation and economic growth. More, it offers each of us a path toward a more efficient, enjoyable and productive life. To identify the most innovation-friendly states, the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) evaluated and graded the 50 U.S. states plus the District of Columbia on their 2014 pro-innovation policies and milestones, creating the first ever Innovation Scorecard. We considered objective metrics – whether a state has right-to-work laws, its tax friendliness, the speed of its broadband connectivity – as well as more subjective metrics that get to the heart of a state’s innovation profile. What steps, for example, have state governments taken to expand their appeal to the tech community and foster forward-thinking start-ups, strong talent pools and venture funding? After months of accounting and analysis, 10 states stand out as Innovation Champions – those top performers at the forefront of innovation and friendly business practices in America. The results may surprise you. Think California would top the list, given its high concentration of tech start-ups? Think again. While California earned one of the highest overall grades for per capita venture capital investment in the U.S., its high corporate taxes and over-burdensome sustainability practices make it a tough state for tech firms to call home. As a result, the home state of Silicon Valley — as well as global innovators such as Google, Apple and Uber – earned the title of Innovation Adopter, only the third-highest tier among our four categories. On the other hand, favorable employment laws, tax-friendly policies and strong business sustainability practices earned states such as Utah the top-tier Innovation Champion title. A competitive tax system lets businesses keep more of the money they make, drives job creation and boosts investment in research and development. Utah’s low-tax system has earned the state a new nickname: “Silicon Slopes.” Start-ups that call Utah home include Vivint, Qualtrics and Domo. Here’s a closer look at some of the more surprising findings in our first-ever Scorecard. Among the champions The highest-achievers in our inaugural Scorecard –


How marijuana legalizers are winning the battle for hearts and minds

Bud Tender Nate Walton talks to customer Len Jorgensen at the Cannabis Corner, a government-owned and operated recreational marijuana store in the town of North Bonneville, WA. (Leah Nash for the Washington Post) Marijuana legalizers are winning the battle for hearts and minds. That's one takeaway from a new Pew Research Center survey on public attitudes toward marijuana legalization. The survey found that 53 percent of Americans say the use of marijuana should be legal, consistent with what other major studies have shown. But in an interesting follow-up, Pew researchers asked whether people had always held these attitudes toward legalization, or whether there was a time they had felt differently. The results are telling: roughly 40 percent of legalization supporters said they used to feel differently. By contrast, only 16 percent of opponents said the same. Pew Research Center The question shows that the marijuana legalization movement has been successful at changing people's minds on the legalization question. "The more that people learn about marijuana and look at the benefits of legalization, the more likely they are to support reform," said Tom Angell, Chairman of Marijuana Majority, a pro-legalization group. By contrast, opponents of legalization so far haven't changed many minds the other way -- just 7 percent of the overall population says they oppose legalization now, but used to support it. Kevin Sabet, president of Smart Approaches to Marijuana, a group that opposes legalization, says that "people have changed their minds because of the multimillion dollar effort to normalize a drug that stunts normal brain development, contributes to mental illness, and is directly related to car crashes... No one should count anti-legalization groups out. If anything, these numbers make us redouble our efforts." Pew also posed an open-ended question asking supporters and opponents of legalization to state why they felt that way. "The most frequently cited reasons for supporting the legalization of marijuana are its medicinal benefits (41%) and the belief that marijuana is no worse than other drugs (36%)–with many explicitly mentioning that they think it is no more dangerous than alcohol or cigarettes," the study's authors wrote. By contrast, opponents generally said that marijuana hurts society or is bad for individuals, or that the drug is dangerous and addictive. Rather inexplicably, 19 percent of opponents said marijuana should be illegal because it is illegal -- make of that what you will. Other major findings from the Pew


Rahul Gandhi, scion of India’s political dynasty, returns home after mystery absence

Rahul Gandhi (Prakash Sing/AFP/Getty Images) India’s prodigal son has returned. Rahul Gandhi, the 44-year-old scion of India’s premier political dynasty, returned to New Delhi Thursday after a mystery leave of absence that sparked weeks of speculation about his whereabouts. The telegenic, dimple-cheeked Gandhi, who led his party to a resounding defeat at the polls last May, had taken what was supposed to be a two-week sabbatical to contemplate the political future. But in the end, two weeks stretched into 57 days. Rumors flew — Gandhi was at a meditation retreat in Burma; he was in Bangkok, Cambodia, London, Italy. “Missing” posters appeared in his home parliamentary district. India’s government — lead by a rival party — knew exactly where Gandhi was, since it provides him with Secret Service-like security detail. But they played along with the joke, with the environment minister cracking that the lunar eclipse was easier to predict than Gandhi’s return. Gandhi managed to give the shake to several media teams camped out at Indira Gandhi International Airport and at his home, and so far has not officially emerged to make a statement. Somebody set off firecrackers though, to celebrate. The drama surrounding his absence exposed deep divisions in the Indian National Congress party, which had been the dominant force in Indian politics for decades, until May, when they were trounced at the polls by Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party. In his absence, his Italian-born mother, Sonia, 68, the party president, grimly carried on without him, attempting to shore up the party’s rural base by opposing a controversial land acquisition bill that Modi has yet to get through parliament. Party stalwarts have opposed the son’s rumored elevation to take his mother’s place, saying Rahul Gandhi is too inexperienced and uninterested in the job. He is a member of parliament but rarely attends; Indian media channels are quick to resurrect file tape of him napping during debates. The former three-term leader of Delhi, Sheila Dikshit, earlier this week gave voice to the party’s internal doubts, saying there was a “question mark” over his leadership capabilities. “I am yet to meet anybody who has any critical remarks to make about the leadership of Sonia Gandhi. I can say it with absolute confidence. Whereas [in case of] Rahul, of course, there is a question mark, there is skepticism because you have not seen him perform as yet,” Dikshit said, according to


Japan wants visitors to experience its world-class toilet culture — and buy some toilets.

something to behold. Almost every train and subway station in Japan, and many of its parks, boasts a spotless public restroom. It’s not uncommon to find a public restroom where the toilets feature all these impressive technologies, plus additional conveniences like a special seat for your baby while you do your business (which doubles perfectly as a bag-holder) and a flip-down board that you can stand on while you get changed so you don’t dirty your socks on the bathroom floor. At Tokyo’s Miraikan science museum, vistiors can don fecal hats and slide into a giant toilet to learn more about human waste and its disposal. The exhibit runs until October 5. Nor is it unusual to find little toilets and wash basins for children, or hooks to hang your umbrella on while you wash your hands. Accessible stalls with plenty of handrails are standard in this rapidly aging society. And that’s just in public places. Many Japanese homes have similarly fancy toilets, which allow users to adjust the temperature of the seat and the water pressure and temperature from the bidet. What must Japanese think when they travel abroad? While the Toto gallery will be available for viewing and use from next Friday, potential customers won’t be able to buy products on the spot. Instead, Toto officials hope foreign visitors, flushed from the experience, will buy its toilets after they get home. In Japan, customers can buy only the seat component for $1,100 (although the company's top-of-the-line Neorest goes for $3,500). In the United States, the full Washlet, Toto's signature product, retails for $3,000. There’s one person who might not be impressed with Toto’s attempts to showcase its products to foreigners: Chinese leader Xi Jinping. The Global Times "Such news makes a mockery of China's boycott of Japanese goods over the past two years," the newspaper said. "Some Chinese people feel ashamed about this and have criticized their compatriots' obsession with foreign goods,” the paper said in an editorial entitled “Popularity of Japanese toilet seats overstated.” "That Chinese tourists swamp Japanese stores at a time when the country is facing a sluggish domestic demand is certainly not something to be proud of,” it said. Read more stories on Japan: Japan's sexual apathy is endangering the global economy Chinese tourists are a welcome boost in Japan In Japan, it may soon be against a law to not take a vacation


Gwyneth Paltrow doesn’t understand how America’s poor live. But unless you’re poor, neither do you.

seems impossible that a family could have no place to go if they lost their home. Many wonder, “Why don’t just people pull themselves up by their bootstraps?” I understand this attitude. A problem like poverty is complex, there’s no one solution. But in order to be effective advocates for change, we need to empathize with the people we serve. We need to see the world through their eyes. At Seattle University, we’ve tried to do this using the Missouri Association for Community Action’s Poverty Simulation tool kit. They’ve designed a workshop that includes a one-hour poverty simulation broken into four 15-minute “weeks.” During the simulation “families” go to work or school, pay their bills, pay for transportation and feed their families. Most start with a roof over their heads, a job, some money and resources. A few start out homeless, living in the shelter. We always have a handful of people who show up just to prove it’s not all that hard, that they’ll be able to “win.” These are the folks who push back at the “rules” and want to find a way around the system. For example, they can’t understand why poor families don’t have access to online bill pay. We gently remind them that not everyone has an account at the bank; we send them over to the Quick Cash to learn about the way check cashing operations really work. The reality of paying a fee to cash your check is hard to take when you’ve had a bank account since you were in grade school. I believe every person who goes through the simulation experiences some level of frustration, stress and anxiety. It’s not unusual to see a person hiding out in their designated home to catch their breath. We’ve even had participants chose to stay in “jail” to get out of finishing the simulation. One of the most shocking revelations is around the impact of poverty on children. Adults are assigned the role of a child, and this gives them a chance to feel what it’s like to see your world crumbling around you – and you have no way to fix the problem. Those playing the role of parents are stopped in their tracks at the realization they left their children unattended as they rushed around trying to get help at the various service providers around the room. There simply wasn’t time to


Happy birthday to Moore’s Law

the relentless miniaturization of component parts. The smaller the chip, the cheaper the raw materials. Transistors, the building blocks for chips, have fallen in price from $30 each 50 years ago to a nanodollar today—roughly $0.000000000001. That low price encourages more uses, which raises production and lowers costs in a virtuous cycle. Miniaturization also means a shorter distance that electricity has to travel to activate software instructions. Smaller, denser chips are consequently not only cheaper to make, they use less power and perform better. Much better. With each cycle of Moore’s Law, computing power doubles, even as price holds constant. It is the prime example of what Paul Nunes of Accenture and I call an “exponential technology.” It’s hard to get your head around the impact of a core commodity whose price and performance have improved by a factor of two every two years for half a century. (Compare that to commodities such as oil or meat, which get worse and more expensive.) One example I use is to help make Moore’s Law concrete is to compare the performance, cost and size of the Univac I, sold in the mid-1950’s, with devices available now. A video game system from today has as much power as one billion UNIVAC computers. Here Walter Cronkite, right, is shown with a UNIVAC computer in an undated photo. (Unisys Corp./AP) Today’s home video game consoles, for example, have roughly the same processing power of one billion Univac I’s. Even without adjusting for inflation, the cost of a billion Univacs in 1950’s dollars would still exceed the entire money supply of the world today. And had it been possible to buy that many computers in the 1950’s, you would have needed an area about the size of Iceland just to store them. But the consoles cost about $400, and fit comfortably on a shelf. And they are marketed not to the world’s largest enterprises but to children — who probably have a much better idea how to use a billion Univacs anyway. There are few if any examples of basic commodities improving on so many dimensions at once, and certainly not at such a rapid and predictable pace. As Moore reflected recently in an interview with IEEE Spectrum, “The semiconductor technology has some unique characteristics that I don’t see duplicated many other places. By making things smaller, everything gets better. The performance of devices improves; the


Watch SpaceX’s rocket fail to stick a landing — in slow motion

Looks like Falcon landed fine, but excess lateral velocity caused it to tip over post landing http://t.co/eJWzN6KSJa Elon Musk's SpaceX project is a quest to make space travel more economical. A key part of that quest is making reusable rockets: Rocket boosters usually burn or up crash into the ocean, but the Tesla and PayPal founder hopes to make them work more like airplanes -- flying, landing, and then flying again. Newly released slow-motion video of an attempt to land a booster on a floating platform (dubbed "Just Read The Instructions") in the sea shows just how close SpaceX was to pulling the feat off earlier this week. The booster, from a rocket delivering supplies to the International Space Station, can be seen extending landing gear as it makes the descent towards the platform -- an awfully small target in a big ocean. But it comes down too hard and tips over, resulting in a fiery flash. This was SpaceX's second attempt to land its rocket on a such a platform. A January attempt also failed, while another recently planned try was scrapped due to sea conditions. This graphic explains how the landing is supposed to work:


Mystic Mountain: Is this the Hubble Space Telescope’s greatest image?

A star-forming region in the Carina Nebula, seen by the Hubble Space Telescope. Credit: NASA, ESA, M. Livio and Hubble 20th anniversary team The Hubble is about to turn 25. That’s an awesome milestone for a piece of hardware that’s vastly exceeded expectations. We’re doing a story that will run between now and the anniversary of the launch next Friday. See also Rachel Feltman’s Speaking of Science blog for coverage. Here’s a verbatim e-mail exchange I had the other day with astrophysicist Mario Livio, about the “Mystic Mountain” pillar of dust and gas (above) that became the 20th anniversary image of the Hubble Space Telescope back in 2010: JA: “How big is the Mystic Mountain? I mean, like, in hundreds of miles, billions of miles, light years?” Mario Livio: “It is about 3 light-years tall, which is about 18 trillion miles.” So here is one of the big insights about outer space: It’s big. And it’s full of big stuff. I know I’m threatening to go over everyone’s head here with the scientific and technical language. Sorry, it just makes me feel smarter to sling the jargon. The other thing you see in Hubble images is the dynamism of the cosmos. Nothing out there is static. It’s roiling and rumbling. It’s exploding and exuding and entropically eroding. The whole thing is expanding, and thanks to the Hubble and some other telescopes we now know the expansion is accelerating. Hang on for dear life, folks. I’ll have more to say on the Hubble after this brief intermission when I go find my gate (am at BWI again — my second home!). [Muzak…] I’m back. So I’ve already covered space is big and space is dynamic, my two major insights, and now here’s another bonus observation: The Hubble is a great story of human engineering, not only because it works so well but because for a while there it didn’t work very well at all. Spherical aberration: the two most dreaded words in any telescope’s vocabulary. [Mudge from the Boodle suggests two more: “bird poop."] The flawed mirror threatened to render the whole project a disappointment, but in 1993 shuttle astronauts flew to Hubble, grabbed it, and put in an instrument [COSTAR, for “Corrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement"] that corrected the aberration. Hubble was off to the races. At NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, employees keep an eye on the Hubble


The Arctic is ‘unraveling’ due to climate change, and the consequences will be global

Calved icebergs from Greenland’s Twin Glaciers are seen floating on the water on July 30, 2013 in Qaqortoq, Greenland. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images) We often hear that climate change is radically reshaping the Arctic, a place many of us have never visited. As a result, it can be pretty hard to feel directly affected by what’s happening up in a distant land of polar bears, ice floes and something odd called permafrost. A new booklet from the National Academy of Sciences’ National Research Council wants to change that. Synthesizing much past academy work on the Arctic region, the booklet– being released just before the United States assumes the chairmanship of the eight-nation Arctic Council later this month — blazons this message: “What Happens in the Arctic Doesn’t Stay in the Arctic.” Here are four potential ways, drawing both upon the new report and much of our prior reporting here, that changes in the Arctic will reverberate well beyond it and, in some cases, have planet wide consequences: 1. Changing Your Weather. Visualization of a very wavy northern hemisphere jet stream. Credit: NASA This is controversial, but there is growing scientific research backing the still contested conclusion that changes to the Arctic are leading to changes in weather in the mid-latitudes. The basic idea is that a warmer Arctic plays games with the jet stream, the stream of air high above us in the stratosphere that carries our weather and that is driven by temperature contrasts between the mid and high latitudes. If the Arctic warms faster than the mid latitudes do, then the jet stream could slow down, goes the theory. It could develop a more elongated and loopier path, leading to a persistence of particular weather conditions — whether intense snow, intense heat, intense rain, or something else that is, you guessed it, intense. A recent study published in the journal Science found that a more wavy and elongated jet stream in the summer “has made weather more persistent and hence favored the occurrence of prolonged heat extremes.” The National Research Council handles the controversy over this idea by simply stating that “some scientists” have suggested these changes to the jet stream are happening. For now, we’ll simply have to watch closely as the debate over this idea continues. [The scary idea that won’t go away: Global warming messing with the jet stream, and your weather] 2. Changing


Atlanta teachers were offered bonuses for high test scores. Of course they cheated.

(Reuters/Tami Chappell) Earlier this week, 10 educators from Atlanta’s public schools stood before a judge to answer for their participation in an academic cheating scandal. The teachers and administrators were found guilty of giving students access to answers to questions on standardized tests, or of altering students’ incorrect responses on the tests, in order to inflate their scores. Eight were sentenced to jail time, ranging from one to seven years. Many people, including the trial judge, Jerry Baxter, expressed outrage at the educators’ behavior. But those familiar with psychological research on academic dishonesty were hardly surprised. This literature has demonstrated, time and again, the pernicious effects of an institutional emphasis on external rewards and punishments. True, these studies have focused on students, not educators. But in the era of No Child Left Behind, teachers and administrators have increasingly confronted a choice that students have long faced: Risk honest failure, or succeed by any means necessary. Let’s back up for a moment. Psychologists distinguish between two types of motivation: intrinsic and extrinsic. Intrinsic motivation is what moves us to engage in an activity for the sheer pleasure of the activity itself. Think of a young person who loves to read, sneaking glances at her book whenever she gets the chance. Extrinsic motivation is what drives us to perform in order to receive rewards, or avoid punishments, unrelated to the activity itself. Think of a student who doesn’t care a bit about her English class, wanting only to attain a good grade so that she can procure the $100 her parents have promised her for getting an A. Studies have found that intrinsically motivated students are less inclined to cheat. Why crib one’s answers, after all, if the ultimate goal is to learn? Extrinsically motivated students, on the other hand, are more likely to find cheating acceptable, and more likely to engage in cheating behavior. When the end — a good grade or test score — is all that counts, the means often cease to matter. But here’s the rub: Research also shows that students may be intrinsically motivated in one course and extrinsically motivated in another. One’s motivational mode is not a fixed character trait, in other words, but an orientation influenced by the classroom situation created by each individual teacher. The surest way to prevent academic dishonesty among students is not tighter security or more supervision. It is to cultivate


Why lawmakers are increasingly losing faith in America’s top drug cop

going after." This has put her directly at odds with Obama and her boss, Attorney General Eric Holder, who both supported the legislation. Shortly thereafter, Holder instructed her to reign in her opposition to the administration's efforts, the Huffington Post reported. 5. Aggressive targeting of medical marijuana dispensaries The DEA has aggressively gone after medical marijuana dispensaries in California and elsewhere under Leonhart's leadership. During her confirmation hearing in 2010, Leonhart said she would "continue to enforce federal drug laws" even in states where medical marijuana is legal. This stood in opposition to guidance given to federal prosecutors by Eric Holder in 2009, directing them to back away from cases involving medical marijuana patients. Late last year, Congress passed a measure forbidding the Justice Department from using federal funds to target medical marijuana operations. But earlier this year, Justice contended it could still proceed in several cases against individual marijuana operations. This prompted immediate condemnation from the authors of the measure, who wrote to Eric Holder that "this interpretation of our amendment is emphatically wrong." 6. Leonhart's opposition to industrial hemp Hemp is a non-psychoactive version of the cannabis plant. No major experts consider it a drug. You can't get high from it, no matter how much you smoke. It resembles actual marijuana about as much as grape juice resembles wine. Congress passed legislation last year allowing states to implement pilot hemp growing programs for industrial uses. Leonhart's DEA opposed it at every step of the way, culminating in multiple seizures of hemp seeds at the border last year. The DEA only backed down after the threat of lawsuits and condemnation by Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell. 7. Stonewalling the Justice Department's Inspector General In its report last month on allegations of sexual harrasment and misconduct at the DEA and other Justice Department agencies, the Office of the Inspector General noted "repeated difficulties... in obtaining relevant information" from the DEA. The agency "refused to provide the OIG with unredacted information that was responsive to our requests," the authors wrote. "We were also concerned by an apparent decision by DEA to withhold information regarding a particular open misconduct case." *** Leonhart has weathered her fair share of criticism during her tenure at the DEA. But the bipartisan statement of no confidence signed by House members yesterday represents a further deterioration of her relationship with Congress. The White House has not yet issued


Adjunct professor: GW’s cuts will crush music education here

or two, leading some to believe that they are being pushed to resign. The reasons supporting the range of cuts are murky. Douglas Boyce, the chair of the music department, says the layoffs are part of curriculum change, but he refused to tell faculty what the new curriculum is. Contradicting Boyce, Dean Ben Vinson assured the community that the types of music courses would not change. But the department in fact has cut its two popular survey courses for non-majors. Many popular programs are being cut, including a chorus, a band, a popular weekly jazz jam session, chamber ensembles, class piano and private instrument lessons for people not majoring or minoring in music. Successful instrumentalists with years of teaching experience are being laid off. Students are holding a 24-hour protest concert starting Thursday afternoon. The Sam Lee Group plays as part of a 24-hour student protest supporting arts education at George Washington University. (Photo by Paul Kwon.) Jessica Bolger, a GW senior, laments that GW will no longer offer courses to support students who are interested in musical theater. Katie Borgman, a recent GW graduate who majored in international relations, found her career path in arts administration through combining music courses with social sciences. The reduced music department with its new focus on music majors will make synergy like that much harder to come by. Why does it matter whether a college in downtown Washington has a good music department? As we discovered in my ‘Dangerous Music’ seminar – now cut from the curriculum – music plays an important role in society, providing a way for people to explore ideas, values and feelings. Music lets us know what people from other times, places and cultures cared about. Music is an important learning tool for non-musicians, because music isn’t just about music: music’s structures can teach us to notice structures in other domains, other relationships between parts and wholes, whether those are in engineering, chemistry, or social dynamics, deepening our understanding of both the human condition and the physical world. A college that is in the same neighborhood as the White House, the State Department and international embassies, the Kennedy Center, and close to communities of underserved youth, is in the perfect position to use music to bring people together to share and discover values and ideas, to experience joy and beauty together. But not with me, evidently. My “temporary” time


Opinion: It’s time to reevaluate standards for women in the military

introductory training courses call for quick ramp-ups of physical training, so recruits are expected to arrive prepared. But trainee injury rates are astronomical — nearly 50 percent — for both sexes. And with 69 percent of the US population now overweight, the military’s candidate pool is shrinking, figuratively. Arbitrarily closing jobs based on gender could soon become untenable from a manpower perspective. Secondly, U.S. officers should stop speculating in a vacuum about integration’s effects. As mentioned previously, America is no pioneer in this field. Some argue Females have only served in the Irish Defense Forces since 1980 — 32 years after the U.S. Women’s Armed Services Integration Act — but were already in combat roles by 1995. All must pass the same training to serve in combat specialties, and anyone is eligible for assignment to the “full range of operational and administrative duties.” Women have served in combat units alongside men, and as their leaders, during training in Ireland and on operations abroad. A female student at the Infantry Training Battalion that trains enlisted Marines buddy carries another female student during the movement-under-fire portion of the Combat Fitness Test at Marine Corps Base Camp Geiger, N.C., Sept. 26, 2013. (Photo by Cpl. Chelsea Flowers Anderson/ Marine Corps) Danish We propose that this is not an issue about women, but one of standards. Impartial officers already know this. Few of them, however, question how current guidelines were developed or when they were last re-evaluated; they just maintain that standards should not be lowered. Initiatives like the Marine Corps’ Ground Combat Element Integrated Task Force might assist such a review by using performance-based data to inform updated, scientific standards. Available medical research and the experiences of other countries cannot explain why American women are so woefully under-qualified for service in combat specialties. Nor can critics explain why women are found at construction sites, on police forces, or in any occupation where a bigger, stronger man can better perform the physical aspect of the job. Re-evaluate the standard, publish the standard, and hold the standard. For everyone. The authors are writing in their private capacities. David Kelm is a former U.S. Marine infantry officer who deployed four times to Iraq and Afghanistan. Jayne Lawlor is an Irish cavalry officer and has deployed to Afghanistan, Kosovo, Lebanon, and Liberia. Nicole Martin is a physical therapist who has treated hundreds of injured U.S. military personnel.


We had another Rosie Ruiz — a cheater, that is — at the St. Louis Marathon

more infamous than that of Rosie Ruiz, the woman who crossed the line first in the 1980 Boston Marathon, only to get disqualified for re-entering the race near the finish. St. Louis now has a Rosie Ruiz of its own in Kendall Schler. Schler’s first-place finish in the GO! St. Louis Marathon was wiped off after officials determined Wednesday that she could not have actually run the entire course, or even most of it. According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Schler is thought to have crept onto the course after the final checkpoint. Schler also had a third-place finish at last year’s event disqualified, after officials went back and could find no evidence that she crossed any checkpoints and couldn’t identify her in any photos. From the Post-Dispatch: “It’s a difficult situation for everybody, including the people who run a fair race and don’t get the recognition they should receive,” said Nancy Lieberman, president of GO! St. Louis. “I said to her, ‘It looks like you perpetrated a fraud.’ I have nothing legitimate that says she officially started and ran 26.2 miles in 2014 or 2015.” Lieberman said incidents of dishonest runners happened but called this “an extreme case.” … Lieberman said that nothing about Schler’s story made sense. She had her bib and number on her leg, contrary to marathon guidelines, and covered by a shirt. She told Lieberman she had removed the timing strip from the bib in each of the last two years. Schler, from Columbia, Mo., had been manually given a time of 3 hours 13 minutes 4 seconds in 2014, easily fast enough to have qualified in her age group for the Boston Marathon, and she had been entered in that race, which will be held on Monday. Schler won’t be allowed to run in Boston, or in any future organized events in St. Louis. The actual women’s winner this year in St. Louis was Andrea Karl, a Washington University graduate student who crossed the line in 2:54:28. However, she received no initial fanfare and wasn’t even photographed finishing, because Schler had crossed the line ahead of her. Kendall Schler should be barred from all @USATF certified events for cheating + stealing Andrea Karl's moment. http://t.co/ItQAIqHafW “There’s a euphoria the winner gets, breaking the tape and having the crowd cheer,” Lieberman told the Post-Dispatch. “The true winner did everything right and didn’t get her due.”


‘Scandal’ recap Season 4, Episode 19: The return of Papa Pope

Olivia and Jake. But where’s the sun? Kerry Washington. Scott Foley. (ABC/Nicole Wilder) What’s the price of justice? That was the question explored on this week’s episode of “Scandal” which, despite Papa Pope’s return, was kind of a downer. But the episode was big on continuity. David Rosen continued to lead the charge on taking down B613. Fitz, unaware of the plan to take down Rowan, focused his efforts on the Brandon Bill — the legislation he promised to enact in response to the death of Brandon Parker. [“Scandal" recap Season 4, Episode 14:"The Lawn Chair"] Coincidentally, Olivia gets a call from Marcus Walker, the community activist that advocated for Brandon’s father and ultimately convinced Olivia to do the same. Marcus has been busy since we last saw him, running (pretty successfully) for mayor of D.C. But Marcus has a big problem: he’s been having an affair with the incumbent mayor’s wife and now she’s dead. It looks bad. Olivia, Huck and Quinn find Marcus upstairs in the mayor’s house. Natalie Verrano is sprawled out on the bed, covered in blood. Marcus says they heard someone enter the house and assumed it was Natalie’s husband. A panicked Marcus ran to the closet to hide. From there, he saw a masked man come in and swiftly kill Natalie. Two more masked men ran in and one stabbed her several times. Huck, being the murder expert that he is, confirms Marcus’s story, based on the forensics. Marcus wonders if they should call the police, but Liv reminds him that in the aftermath of Brandon’s death and the resulting DOJ investigation, ” we can’t ask the cops for anything.” So Huck and Quinn set out destroy the aforementioned forensics. As Liv puts it: “Goodbye homicidal burglary, hello missing person.” As Huck and Quinn put it (paraphrasing here: let’s hack up this poor dead woman’s body, fold it up and stuff it into a suitcase). Marcus is clearly conflicted about covering up what happened. He asks Liv if she considers him a hypocrite for sleeping with a white woman after giving her so much grief about her relationship with Fitz. She lets him know how this whole client thing works: “You call me and I save your life. Now you know what I’m about.” Rowan claims to know what Olivia’s about. In his opening monologue (that’s what it was if we’re being honest), Papa


Is Europe finally waking up to the deaths of hundreds of drowned migrants?

in the Mediterranean today?" Was jetzt wohl los wäre, wenn heute 400 Passagiere eines Kreuzfahrtschiffes im MIttelmeer ertrunken wären. "After weeks of continuous coverage of the March plane crash, people were outraged when the death of 400 refugees awoke little media attention -- particularly when you imagine the same situation if it had involved Europeans," Milborn told WorldViews on Thursday. Karim El-Gawhary, a popular Egypt correspondent for Austrian TV network ORF, responded to Milborn via Twitter and Facebook: "Very true! We would broadcast live from all ports of the Mediterranean Sea, air special reports and demand to bring those responsible for the tragedy to justice," he wrote. Wie wahr. Wir wären live aus allen Häfen des Mittelmeers zugeschaltet. https://t.co/p3qoonG273 El-Gawhary encouraged his Facebook fans to voice their outrage over the lack of coverage to the Austrian newspapers they subscribe to and the TV channels they tune in to. His post was shared more than 10,000 times and was quickly picked up by other established media outlets, such as Germany's Sueddeutsche Zeitung Magazine. When one reader of the magazine pointed out that instead of simply sharing El-Gawhary's post the media outlet should take action and launch extensive coverage of the frequent deaths of refugees, his comment received more than 5,000 likes. Observers expect that 2015 could become the deadliest year in the Mediterranean in recent history due to an ever-increasing influx of refugees seeking a future in Europe. In reaction to the debate, leftist German newspaper die tageszeitung featured an obituary on its front page on Thursday. "400 people -- deceased April 12, 2015," the newspaper's headline read. The page was widely shared by German social media users who praised the newspaper's decision to make the Mediterranean tragedy the day's lead story. @tazgezwitscher #taz Titelseite heute.. http://t.co/85LYSo0NYY Puls4 news director Milborn says that her network and many other media outlets have continuously tried to put a spotlight on the situation in the Mediterranean Sea, but she also acknowledges that pursuing the story has become tough. "After such tragedies, nobody takes measures, nobody identifies the victims, no politician comments," she said. "And, hence, there is little to report on, unfortunately. It's sad to see how predictable this pattern has become." Read related coverage on WorldViews: Two German businessmen are on a daring mission to save migrants from drowning in the Mediterranean To some, the E.U.’s deadly border is the new Berlin Wall


Men donate more online when an attractive female fundraiser is asking, study finds

to take into account what your competitors are doing and make sure your signal is at least as salient or competitive as [your] competitor.” Raihani and co-author Sarah Smith, an economics professor at the University of Bristol, combed through thousands of personal fundraising pages posted by 2014 London marathon runners. They zeroed in on 668 that met the study’s criteria, such as including a photo and a list of donors who had genders listed. An independent panel of four reviewed every profile picture to rank its attractiveness on a one-to-10 scale. The researchers found that the average donation across the pages ran about 50 British pounds, or about $75 U.S. If a recent donor gave double that amount, both men and women would then give about 10 British pounds more than the average of 50. But men would give four times more when the fundraiser was an attractive woman and the most recent big donor was a man. The researchers looked to see if women did the same when the fundraising page belonged to a good-looking man, and other donors were women. They didn’t. “Female donors do not compete in this way,” the authors found. Smith said they looked at various combinations of donors and fundraisers. “We didn’t set out to go after the men but it turned it out it was only the men” showing this competitive helping behavior. Her earlier research showed that people use previous donations as a guide in determining how much to donate online. In this new study, men and women gave more when a previous donation was large. But more money came in when men saw an attractive women asking. The authors caution not to think of men in the study as calculating and manipulative givers. More likely, evolution has pushed men in such a way that behaviors that would more likely result in mating also end up making them feel good. It’s like eating because you are hungry and not because you’re worried about dying, even though hunger evolved as a way to avoid starving. “It’s kind of like subconscious evolved psychology,” Raihani said. Smith added: “A lot of work recognizes that males are kind of competitive, but I think it’s interesting to think this competition may not be around ‘macho’ behaviors. They’re also interested in demonstrating, subconsciously, their more generous characteristics.” Plus, it’s better than trying to impress women via push-up competitions.


Street Smart: Carroll Creek Park in Frederick

Carroll Creek bridge in Frederick, Maryland. Photo by Andrew Murdock Situated along 1.3 miles through a charming historic downtown, Carroll Creek Park (South Market Street) is the heart of Frederick, Md. A peaceful stream and brick walkways beg passersby to take a stroll. Public art projects decorate the footbridges that cross the water. Some of the city's best dining destinations flank the park, and outdoor seating areas fill up when the sun is shining. It's idyllic. But it wasn't always this way. In 1972 and 1976, floods devastated downtown Frederick. The 1976 flood - which caused millions of dollars in damage to the city, its shops and businesses - sent locals on a search for a solution to the flooding problem, according to Richard Griffin, Frederick's director of economic development. The mayor and business leaders created an ambitious $65 million plan to transform downtown into a safer, more productive place by preventing it from flooding again. Carroll Creek Park. Photo by C. Kurt Holder/Courtesy of Visit Frederick Today, while visitors meander through the park or sit down for a picnic in its grassy amphitheater, they might not know about the engineering marvel in action 20 feet below them. The city's project took the natural stream channel and put it below ground in four 20-by-20-foot concrete conduits, through which storm runoff flows. "Each conduit is big enough to drive a Greyhound bus through," Griffin said. Over the course of six city administrations, Frederick has not only tamed the flood beast, it built an attraction for residents and more than 1.5 million annual visitors to enjoy. When Carroll Creek Park opened in 2006, instead of cutting a ribbon, city leaders and dignitaries released fish into the stream. Today the stream is full of aquatic life, including crawfish. "Some of the fish are enormous - longer than my arm," Griffin said. Hundreds of waterlilies cover the stream's surface. Keeping with the project's theme, this serves dual purposes: to beautify the park and to keep the water cool, which deters algae growth. Dining options along the park include the Wine Kitchen on the Creek, Hinode Japanese, Döner Bistro and Sweeties (ice cream, chocolate and candy). Frederick Alive @ 5 concert series. Photo by Douglas Via In autumn, the city's In the Street festival stretches from the park through downtown. Summer brings the Festival of the Arts to the banks of the stream. Two concert


READ IN: Beer Fest Edition

Cuba will lobby Congress to lift the trade embargo. Crossroads chief Steven Law will join Democratic operatives Luke Albee and Luis Miranda in spearheading the group. They've retained Fierce Government Relations lobbyists Kirsten Chadwick and Billy Piper to help make their case. (Wall Street Journal) Former McConnell aides and Obama aides see eye to eye on something, at least. -- Global ad spending on social media will rise to nearly $24 billion this year, according to eMarketer. About two-thirds of that money will go to Facebook, while Twitter ad sales are expected to rise to $2.1 billion. The group estimates North American advertisers will spend more than $50 per social network user this year. (Wall Street Journal) -- A majority of Americans, 52 percent, say their financial situation is improving, the highest level since 2004 and the first majority since the recession. Majorities of those making above $20,000 a year say their financial situation is getting better, and 70 percent of those 18-29 say things are improving. (Gallup) -- Stock futures are down today after an almost-flat day on Wall Street on Thursday. Global markets in both Asia and Europe are trading lower today. (CNN) Long Reads -- Fritz Hahn writes the most beautiful ledes: "We're about to enter peak Beer Festival Season. From this weekend through the end of June, it's tough to go more than two weeks without at least one event offering the chance to drink dozens of beers outdoors for one low(ish) price." The fun kicks off next weekend in Shirlington, with the Mid-Atlantic Spring Beer Festival. Fill up your calendar here. Attn Fox News -- The American Action Forum estimates the Obama administration's new rules cutting greenhouse gas emissions could coast up to 300,000 jobs -- or about the population of Cincinnati -- by 2030. The Environmental Protection Agency has issued more than 1,600 supporting documents for the proposed rule. (TownHall) Attn MSNBC -- Meet the next MSNBC punching bag: Brian Klawiter, owner of an auto repair shop in Grandville, Mich. Klawiter wrote on his Facebook page that customers who bring a gun to his shop will get a discount, and that he won't hesitate to refuse service to gays and lesbians. (ThinkProgress) Michigan lawmakers failed to pass a religious freedom law earlier this year. But, just desserts: A GoFundMe page for Klawiter's business has already been taken down, after attracting only $5 in donations.


Maryland open houses April 18-19

## 1112-N 5816 Grosvenor Lane 20816 4709 Crescent St 5105 Wehawken Rd 6309 Dahlonega Rd 4956 Sentinel Dr #9-206 20817 9123 Town Gate Lane 6726 Selkirk Ct 7700 Bells Mill Rd 6504 River Rd 8320 Woodhaven Blvd 7517 Glennon Dr 8104 Split Oak Dr 6006 Kingsford Rd 8001 Quarry Ridge Way 6101 Swansea St 5900 Melvern Dr 8106 Merrick Rd 8600 Melwood Rd 6904 Nevis Rd 5909 Kingsford Pl 8906 Melwood Rd 6515 Marywood Rd 6208 Stoneham Rd 8521 Carlynn Dr 10120 Ashburton Lane 7535 Cayuga Ave 9212 Ewing Dr 6705 Pyle Rd 8880 Bradley Blvd 9212 Ewing Dr 7006 Persimmon Tree Rd 7807 Aberdeen Rd 9012 Seven Locks Rd 5927 Johnson Ave BOYDS 20841 14406 Autumn Rust Rd BROOKEVILLE 20833 3717 Sundown Rd 321 Haviland Mill Rd 19315 Dimona Dr 19733 Olney Mill Rd 3360 Tanterra Cir 2709 Owens Rd BURTONSVILLE 20866 14741 Wexhall Ter #18-190 CABIN JOHN 20818 6413 78th St 8204 Caraway St CHEVY CHASE 20815 4866 Chevy Chase Blvd 7400 Ridgewood Ave 4601 Park Ave N #710-K 6408 Garnett Dr 7021 Bybrook Lane 3611 Underwood St 3601 Faircastle Dr 9012 Spring Hill Rd N 3305 Camalier Dr 2821 Spencer Rd 3511 Glenmoor Dr 4242 East West Hwy #407 CLARKSBURG 20871 12002 Tregoning Pl 118 Hawkes Ct 13201 Webster Hill Way 12153 Pond Pine Dr DAMASCUS 20872 16 Clearwater Ct 25634 Coltrane Dr 9022 Gue Rd DARNESTOWN 20874 15308 Parev Ter 14720 Mockingbird Dr 14200 Cervantes Ave 14804 Poplar Hill Rd 20878 13213 Wye Oak Dr 12820 Doe Lane DERWOOD 20855 17531 Applewood Lane 302 Picea View Ct 10 Beauvoir Ct GAITHERSBURG 20877 3 Deer Park Lane 8 Sunnyside Ct 198 Hidden Forest Ct 16525 Westland Dr 20878 119 Timberbrook Lane #102 736 Lake Varuna Mews 654 Main St #b 111 Kent Oaks Mews 11924 Darnestown Rd #309 222 Urban Ave 522 Helene St 216 Hemingway Dr 222 Urban Ave 124 Kendrick Pl #18 203 Twisted Stalk Dr 206 Leafcup Ct 332 Urban Ave 106 Booth St #26 24 Big Acre Sq #19-2 676 Heathwalk Mews 13517 Scottish Autumn Lane 20879 19422 Haven White Ct 8833 Alliston Hollow Way 10732 Game Preserve Rd 1532 Tanyard Hill Rd 10701 Donovan Ct 18921 Glendower Rd 7122 Intrepid Lane 20882 8618 Augusta Farm Lane 21512 Montgomery Ave 8014 Warfield Rd 25113 Hickory Ridge Lane 24141 Newbury Rd 24401 Hipsley Mill Rd 20886 20200 Maple Leaf Ct 8600 Oak Bluff Ct


This technology from the 1800s is still one of the fastest ways to move money

creating more jobs than the European economy, but our business is extremely resilient. Our customers have been very resilient, but we do see a difference sometimes in the dollar amounts. Instead of sending $300, they send $280. As you know, mobile payments are huge abroad and some smaller players are trying to infiltrate the market here for people who want to send money to family members abroad. How many of your customers are sending money on their phones and what is Western Union doing to compete in this space? Our digital business is 6 percent of our total revenue. It’s the smallest but fastest growing part of our business. In the U.S., more and more customers want to send money digitally. Within the digital business, the fastest growing part is mobile. People use their app while they go underground in New York and they get a phone call from Bangladesh, from their mom saying she wants $160 and they can use their app and send the money immediately. I believe in the future that people will use mobile devices – it could be a watch, by the way – to send money. On the receive side though, we don’t see our customers using mobile yet. The only country really is Kenya. But we don’t see a lot that people will get money on their mobile phones and then use that phone to go and shop for milk. So the use case on the mobile receive side is less. But on the send side I believe that’s going to be a huge part of Western Union in the future. Social media companies like SnapChat and Facebook have partnered with money apps to let people send money to friends and family. How does Western Union compete with these efforts? It’s easy to send money from New York to San Francisco, but it’s not easy to send money from New York to Sri Lanka. Facebook and Google and others struggle with that. If you want to move money across borders you need a company like Western Union. It’s easier to do it within one country because you don’t need that kind of expertise, that kind of competency, like you do with cross-border. That’s our competitive advantage. Tell me about Western Union’s partnership with Apple Pay. That’s always a part of our strategy. We are opening our network to any way of collecting payments.


State seizes 11-year-old, arrests his mother after he defends medical marijuana during a school presentation

From the website On March 24, cannabis oil activist Shona Banda‘s life was flipped upside-down after her son was taken from her by the State of Kansas. The ordeal started when police and counselors at her 11-year-old son’s school conducted a drug education class. Her son, who had previously lived in Colorado for a period of time, disagreed with some of the anti-pot points that were being made by school officials. “My son says different things like my ‘Mom calls it cannabis and not marijuana.’ He let them know how educated he was on the facts,” said Banda in an exclusive interview with BenSwann.com. Banda successfully treated her own Crohn’s disease with cannabis oil. After her son spoke out about medical marijuana, police detained him and launched a raid on Shona Banda’s home. “Well, they had that drug education class at school that was just conducted by the counselors… They pulled my son out of school at about 1:40 in the afternoon and interrogated him. Police showed up at my house at 3… I let them know that they weren’t allowed in my home without a warrant… I didn’t believe you could get a warrant off of something a child says in school.” Banda continued, “We waited from 3 o’clock until 6 o’clock. They got a warrant at 6 o’clock at night and executed a warrant into my home. My husband and I are separated, and neither parent was contacted by authorities before [our son] was taken and questioned.” The police apparently found 2 ounces of cannabis oil in her home. She fears that the state will now attempt to take her son away. She has a custody hearing on Monday. I contacted the Garden City Police Department to verify some of the details that have been reported online. A spokesman confirmed that officers had searched Banda’s home, though he denied it was a raid. He also said the initial anti-drug program was put on entirely by the school — the police had no involvement. At that event Banda’s son apparently contradicted some of the claims made about marijuana. The school then contacted the child protection agency, which then contacted the police. Officers from the department showed up at Banda’s at home and asked her permission to conduct a search. She refused. They then obtained a warrant and searched her home. The spokesman wouldn’t comment on exactly what was found,


This Monday, Neil deGrasse Tyson brings science to late-night TV. How’d he manage that?

of the evening talk show universe — and as far as we've been able to research, it's the first talk show focused on science." In episode one, George Takei — known for playing Sulu on the original "Star Trek" and much beloved by the Internet for his passionate activism and sense of humor — discusses the show's bright vision for the future with Tyson. It's not quite like anything else on television: It maintains the intimate feel of the original radio show, and it really does feel like you're just watching a fun, casual conversation about science. Future guests include former president Jimmy Carter, who will discuss how his background as an engineer informed policy decisions, and director Christopher Nolan, who'll talk about the science of his films. It's a great hour of TV, and frequently funny (Tyson always features a comedian as his co-host to lighten up the mood), but can a casual science chat really attract late-night viewers in this post-cable world? After all, science TV for adults was basically nonexistent between Carl Sagan's original "Cosmos" and Tyson's reboot. And "Cosmos" was a different proposition: It's a show for the whole family, and it airs on Sunday evenings when people are bound to be home and channel surfing. The new show is generally safe for younger audiences, but it goes straight for grown-up tastes — and is a bit later than standard channel surfing hours. People will have to seek it out. If National Geographic is concerned about that, the network isn't showing it. They've already ordered a second season of 10 episodes, and representatives from the network expressed hope that Tyson's massive fan base will flock to the program. Tyson seems confident that they will. Neil deGrasse Tyson in his office at the Hayden Planetarium in New York on Feb. 4. (Jesse Dittmar for The Washington Post) "We had a fascinating phoner with Nat Geo staff where we described things we’ve done over the years," Tyson said. "So one of these points came up, and Nat Geo said, oh, that wouldn't work for our viewing demographic. I said, excuse me, excuse me, we are bringing our demographic to you! That shut them up on the spot." The show will serve people who already love National Geographic programming for sure, Tyson said, but the interwoven tapestry of science, humor, and pop culture icons will bring in new viewers,


This glorious Sizzler’s commercial from 1991 says a lot about food in America

firm. Many of the trends that have given rise to the likes of Chipotle were afoot but still in their nascent stages. Families, for instance, were increasingly starved for time, largely because households in which both mothers and fathers worked were becoming more common. People were also becoming more finicky about the foods they ate, a trend that has only accelerated since. And everyone wanted healthier food. Sizzler's answer was to emphasize choice. In fact, the word is uttered some twelve times in the above promo, while the word "freedom" is used another six times. "I think that they were trying to find a niche," said Chapman. "They probably thought they could take advantage by offering all of the things competitors were, but in a buffet." Indeed, instead of touting higher quality or speed of service, Sizzler invested in buffet spreads. Chapman suggests the strategy could have been a response to what consumers wanted at the time: something for everyone. Sizzler wasn't the only chain betting on buffets—Ponderosa, the Indiana-based chain, along with several other eateries, did the same. In any case, the thinking appears to have been dead wrong. Not only did Sizzler file for bankruptcy in 1996, but the number of outlets has shrunk by more than 80 percent since its peak in the 1980s to 129 restaurants, according to data from Technomic. Most of those are on the west coast, mainly in California. The east coast houses exactly two Sizzlers today—one in New York, and one in Florida. Puerto Rico, somehow, is home to 13 locations, or roughly 10 percent of Sizzler's remaining restaurants. "The full buffet thing has really struggled," said Chapman. "It's not really what consumers were demanding." What people actually wanted, beyond quality, convenience, and value, it seems, was the opportunity to customize their meal to their liking, not necessarily fish through endless options. Fuddruckers, which sky-rocketed in the '90s, first proved this to be true. The chain popularized the concept of serving a small number of highly customize-able foods (in this case, predominantly burgers), a model that has been taken to new heights elsewhere. Chipotle, which has grown immensely over the past two decades, implements a similar strategy: a short menu, but near-endless customization. Twenty five years ago, a "quiet revolution" was indeed taking place, as the Sizzler ad notes—only it wasn't the sort of cultural transformation the company appears to have envisioned.


Truck carrying millions of bees tips over on highway

accident, while beekeepers were responding to try and save some of the remaining bees, according to KING 5 News. But you don’t care about the details, do you? You just want to see what it looks like when millions of bees get a brief taste of precious, precious bee freedom. Beekeepers hard at work at the scene. (Ian Terry/Reuters) Here are beekeepers still working to round up some of the bee escapees: Here is a pic of the Bee keepers working to collect the Bees. TS http://t.co/pN3EemcvWk A journalist for KIRO 7 in Seattle qualified for so much hazard pay during this, even though merely watching this video makes me want to climb into a cellar. .@KIRO7Seattle photographer fighting #bees and still bringing you the news. We are all in this together. http://t.co/F08E8cPg1n Oh man, @JeffKIRO7 swatting bees off of him during his live shot. Says photog @DamienKIRO7 has been stung 20+ times! http://t.co/wNio7Ur8ls The bee-carrying semi is flipped back over while firefighters spray foam to kill the bees. http://t.co/dQ2YoeA9aw Yikes! Crews will have to SHUT DOWN NB I-5 once bees are cleaned ukp to clear the semi-crash. No one hurt. http://t.co/cHw9ceFFIC Are there puns? THERE ARE PUNS. The buzz is its going to be 3hrs till the tipped over semi/bee coll is all cleared up. #beesafe when traveling through that area. TS Is there another possible hashtag? You bet there is: Why no, I never thought I'd see this on one of our VMS boards. #Beenado http://t.co/mGQS7OFDkt If the bees staged an elaborate escape so as to distract state authorities while the bees plotted some kind of takeover, their plan appears to be working. No backup yet for NB 5/405 Lynnwood bee truck crash. I've heard @wspd7pio is trying to identify the queen for questioning. This isn’t entirely a joke, though, as authorities really want to remind people to keep their windows closed, lest someone get “My Girl”-ed out there. In all seriousness, if driving through NB 5 #Beenado in Lynnwood, keep your windows/vents closed. Lots of stinging going on. In case you are wondering where this occurred (maybe you’re allergic? Although if you are allergic, would you even click this post? Things to ponder), here is a helpful map showing where the bees are: (Google Maps) The cleanup continued through the morning rush, leading to delays that about doubled the travel time through the area, transportation officials said.


Semi-truck spills 14 million bees on interstate north of Seattle

Firefighters are spraying a foam and water mixture on agitated bees. #beenado http://t.co/qGWzQ9TUGT And you thought we had traffic issues. Early Friday morning, a semitruck rolled spilling more than 14 million bees on an interstate highway near Lynwood, a bedroom community north of Seattle. The incident tied traffic up for hours. It also posed a challenge when it came to cleaning up the mess. As the temperatures began to warm, the surviving bees became more agitated. A truck carrying honey bees overturned near Lynnwood, Wash., spreading boxes of live bees across the highway. [PostNation: Truck carrying millions of bees tips over on highway] The Seattle Times had this account of the mishap. Beekeepers were on site within an hour of the 3:30 a.m. wreck to round up the honeybees, according to the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT). As temperatures warmed and the bees became more agitated, firefighters sprayed a mixture of foam and water on the hives to kill some of the bees. Television reporters swatted at swarms of the insects surrounding their cameras and clumps of bee carcasses littered the roadway. Yes, folks, the incident had traffic reporters buzzing (insert groan here). Some dubbed it #beenado The paper noted: The truck held 458 hives with as many as 14 million bees, Sgt. Keith Leary of the State Patrol said. The honeybees, headed from Sunnyside, Yakima County, for pollination at a blueberry farm in Lynden, Whatcom County, were worth $92,000, he said. Bees are critical for many crops and the loss of the hives could be problematic, Seth Thompson, of Belleville Farms, told the paper. As many as 14 million bees were being carried. - Sergeant Leary http://t.co/NopwWsogiQ


Gwyneth Paltrow bought on food stamps what only rich people buy

Gwyneth Paltrow didn't last long on food stamps. The actress announced last week she would attempt to feed herself for a week on just $29, a little less than the typical person in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program has to spend on food. Paltrow gave up after just four days. People on food stamps can't give in, of course. Any extra money that they spend on food is money they're not spending on something else, whether that's an old bill or a bus fare. From the beginning, Paltrow had the freedom to go back to the grocery store. Yet the real reason that Paltrow's experiment felt unrealistic and even a little bit insulting was that in coming up with a shopping list, she revealed just how out of touch she is with life in poverty. Here's what she bought with her food stamps, as revealed in a recent tweet, compared to the kinds of foods sold at a Rhode Island grocery market often frequented by customers using food stamps. What Gwyneth Paltrow bought with food stamps (left) and what's for sale at a grocery specializing in selling to food stamps customers (right). (Screen shot of Twitter, photo on right by Michael Williamson) Paltrow's choice of beans, rice, corn and eggs were economical, and so was the sweet potato. In most respects, though, Paltrow's purchases were wildly unrealistic for a person on food stamps. Besides scrambled eggs and maybe corn on the cob, there's not really anything for the kids to make at home while their parents are at work, unless they're precocious chefs. There is no string cheese for them for when they get home from school. There are no canned soups or frozen entrees for when their mother is called in for an extra shift and comes home exhausted -- nothing that can be prepared in less than half an hour, at the most. Those beans would have to soak for half a day before cooking. Even the lettuce would have to be washed -- if there is a grocery store nearby that carries fresh lettuce, which is unlikely in many urban American neighborhoods. There's no meat in the basket, so maybe the expectation is that low-income families are vegetarian. And if you've even once been worried about your next paycheck, you would likely not buy seven limes on a $29 weekly budget. In short, this shopping basket suggests


Honoring technology’s power couple: Moore’s Law and the network effect

The combination of Moore’s Law and the network effect have had a huge impact on society. (Toru Hanai/Reuters) Sunday marks the 50th anniversary of Moore’s Law, which I believe to be one of the most important business theorems of the last century. Realized by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore, Moore’s Law ultimately became a golden “rule” in the technology industry that has shaped how we think about the pace of innovation today. Moore’s Law came into being roughly 20 years after the end of World War II, at a time when American business faced an emerging threat from Japan, which was becoming a leader in the innovation race. The emergence of Japan as a post-WWII economic power, with a new industrial base, positioned it well to capitalize on new computing power and technology at an exponential pace. Like most other countries, the United States was bogged down by legacy manufacturing systems, processes, and thinking. As a result, U.S.-based companies such as Intel had a clear objective: rapidly increase the pace of innovation and reduce costs or lose to Japan. We all know what has happened over the five decades since Moore’s Law was first set forth, and the pace of technological change shows no signs of slowing down. Global brands such as Apple and Samsung fiercely compete to be the best and for market share dominance. Dominic Basulto’s collection of 10 images that explain the incredible power of Moore’s Law, is a fantastic demonstration of just how far we have come. As amazing as this has been, the impact is even more dramatic when you combine the power of Moore’s Law to another of the most important business theorems of the past 50 years, the network effect (or Metcalfe’s Law), popularized by Robert Metcalfe, one of the co-founders of Ethernet. Simply put, the network effect is “the effect that a user of a good or service has on the value of a product to other people.” When it is present, there is more value for the user of a product or service if a higher number of other people are also using it. At the dawn of the Internet era, 25 years ago, when Moore’s Law was only half its current age, pioneers such as AOL were the first great companies that became giants due to the combined impact of Moore’s Law on computing power and Metcalfe’s Law on network effects.


D.C. area forecast: Cooler and cloudier today with rain arriving late; flood watch tonight

Flood watch area for tonight in green. (NWS) 11:50 a.m. update: While rain will approach by evening, the heaviest appears to be centered in the overnight hours at this point. Here’s an HRRR model simulation for 1 a.m. showing moderate to heavy rain over the region. (Weatherbell.com) From 5:00 a.m… TODAY’S DAILY DIGIT 6/10: EXPRESS FORECAST Today: FORECAST IN DETAIL 2-hour radar loop. Refresh page to update. High pressure sliding off the Northeast U.S. coast today spells an end to our welcome warm stretch. It’s not a total loss though, as despite the increasing clouds and cool breeze, we stay dry for the better part of the day. A slow-moving system then brings rain, and probably a good deal of it, late today into early Monday. After a potential round of thunder Monday evening, the outlook improves some as we head toward midweek. Today (Sunday): Tonight: For related traffic news, check out Dr. Gridlock. Keep reading for the forecast through the midweek… Tomorrow (Monday): Tomorrow night: A fine-looking day yesterday at Nationals Park. (Kevin Wolf via Flickr) A LOOK AHEAD High pressure developing across the Southeast U.S. tries to clear us out on Tuesday. It should do a decent enough job to call it mostly sunny on the whole, but we may be in for some cloudier periods during the afternoon as some cooler air works in aloft. Otherwise, it’s mild and breezy from the west-northwest, with highs approaching 70. Confidence: Medium Wednesday


Democratic rivals pitch themselves on Sunday TV as Clinton is represented by stand-ins

Martin O'Malley speaks on "Face the Nation" in 2011. (Chris Usher/CBS News via Getty Images) Democrats in the emerging 2016 presidential field angled for exposure on the morning talk-show circuit on Sunday as the formidable front-runner, Hillary Rodham Clinton, stayed out of the fray and sent emissaries instead. Former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley and former Virginia senator James Webb pitched themselves as possible alternatives, with O’Malley declaring during an appearance on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that it would be “an extreme poverty indeed” if no Democrat mounted a serious challenge to Clinton for the nomination. Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.), another potential Democratic rival, appeared on "Fox News Sunday" and said he is prepared to move forward if he determines he can raise enough money to run a credible race. Webb asserted that there is “a lot of incumbent fatigue in the country” and, during an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union,” he declined to say whether he would support Clinton if she becomes the Democratic nominee. “You know, I’m focusing on what we will be trying to do here,” Webb said. “I think Secretary Clinton has plenty of opportunity to sit here and give you her thoughts.” The Clinton camp was represented Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press" by Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D), a longtime friend of both Bill and Hillary Clinton, who praised the rollout of Hillary Clinton's campaign and trip to Iowa last week as “spectacular.” “She got in the van, she drove out, she actually sat with" people, McAuliffe said. "She went to a community college, she took notes." He said it was fine that the large Republican field is focusing so much of its attention on Clinton. "Every second they're not talking about how they want to move this country forward is a great one for Hillary Clinton,” McAuliffe said. “Let the Republicans spend all their time attacking. That's fine. You need a positive agenda of how you move folks forward." Among others making Clinton's case Sunday was Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), who appeared on ABC's "This Week" and praised Clinton as someone who "doesn't need to get briefed about the complicated world we live in." On CNN, Webb suggested that Democratic voters, too, will be looking for “fresh approaches” and that he fits that mold better than Clinton. “We’re never going to have this financial leviathan machine that’s going to pull in $2.5


2015 Boston Marathon: Lelisa Desisa, Caroline Rotich win on a chilly, windy day (updated)

only one-gallon clear plastic bags (one per runner) to the carry food or sports drinks to the starting line, according to the race’s sponsor, the Boston Athletic Association. Fanny packs (one per runner) are allowed as long as they are no larger than 5 inches x 15 inches x 5 inches. All other bags are prohibited. Extra clothing left at the starting line by runners will be collected and donated to charity. Runners can check a clear plastic bag, given to them when they pick up their bibs, on Boston Common where buses to the start will load. “You must use this B.A.A.-provided, clear, plastic bag for gear check,” BAA.org states. No other bags will be accepted.” Costumes are allowed as long as they do not cover the face and are not “non-form fitting, bulky outfit extending beyond the perimeter of the body.” National Guard members began walking the Boston Marathon course early this am. Barb Matson photo http://t.co/qJvRj1AXkr The race, as much a fixture of Patriots Day in Massachusetts as the Orioles-Red Sox game at 11:05 a.m. at Fenway Park, begins at 8:50 a.m. EDT when mobility-impaired competitors start. Elite women runners go off at 9:32, followed by elite men and the first wave of male runners at 10 a.m. Three more waves of male runners follow, with the last setting off at 11 a.m. The field, capped at 30,000, will be smaller than the 35,671 who started last year. Still that’s an increase over the 26,655 in the 2013 field. San Diego’s Meb Meb Keflezighi: looking to be first U.S. man to win consecutive Boston Marathon races since Bill Rodgers won three in a row, 1978-80. The forecast calls for temperatures in the upper 40s to low 50s– and for a 100-percent chance of rain and wind. The race will be televised live nationally on Universal Sports (check your cable system) and streamed live on WBZ.com and UniversalSports.com and BAA.org. Ready to do this Boston! @bostonmarathon @flutiefdn http://t.co/B3FIQmznaX To follow a specific runner, go to BAA.org. To follow generally, go to the Boston Globe’s interactive map. On Tuesday, the marathon bombing will again be making headlines as the penalty phase of the federal trial of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev resumes. He was found guilty of all 30 charges against him and the penalty phase was postponed until after this year’s race. Jurors, who will consider whether to sentence Tsarnaev to


This is what sane marijuana enforcement looks like — in one tweet

with a massive, 125,000 person rally in a local park. And Denver's cops observed the day on social media with a tweet riffing on the lyrics to Chamillionaire's "Dirty," a song about how police go out of their way to pull over and detain young black men, preferably ones with drugs in their pockets. But rather than discuss the evils of drug use or disparage marijuana users, Denver's police simply remind people to consume their weed responsibly. In doing so, they provide a template for what marijuana law enforcement might look like in an era of widespread legalization. [How marijuana legalizers are winning the battle for hearts and minds] Some law enforcement agencies, including the Drug Enforcement Administration, have rallied against recent changes in public opinion on marijuana. Denver's cops, on the other hand, are choosing to work within the framework set by that state's marijuana legalization measures. That doesn't mean lax enforcement -- indeed, Denver PD also tweeted out that it had issued about 100 citations for public marijuana consumption on Sunday. ALERT: #DPD has issued approximately 100 citations at today's 4/20 event. #Denver #ConsumeResponsibly http://t.co/V8x6tG7OOp But beyond that, police reported no major incidents related to the 4/20 festivities so far. In general, crime in Denver is slightly down year-over-year, so there's no real reason for police to oppose their state's legalization regime. That represents a sharp contrast from a few hours east in Kansas, where an 11-year-old was recently taken away from his mother after speaking up during an anti-drug presentation at his school. The mom, Shona Banda, now faces a $2,500 fine, up to a year in jail, and permanent loss of custody over an activity that's perfectly legal just across the border in Colorado. [Virginia school suspends 11-year-old for one year over a leaf that wasn't marijuana] In one final irony, as Colorado smokers enjoy their legal marijuana today, Banda is scheduled to attend a court hearing that may determine whether or not she gets to retain custody of her son. [VIDEO: A day in the Colorado marijuana black market] More from Wonkblog on marijuana policy Marijuana may be even safer than previously thought, researchers say DEA warns of stoned rabbits if Utah passes medical marijuana The Senate marijuana reform bill would bring federal policy in line with medical research After losing at the ballot box, marijuana opponents make a hail mary pass to the courts


Meb Keflezighi surprises Hilary Dionne at Boston Marathon finish line

Meb Keflezighi and Hilary Dionne cross the line together. (Winslow Townson / USA Today) For Meb Keflezighi and Hilary Dionne, two elite American distance runners, the finish line of the Boston Marathon was a disappointing destination. Neither was performing up to their expectations, finishing well behind the winners. [Lelisa Desisa, Caroline Rotich win] But Keflezighi found a way to make the moment special, grabbing Dionne’s hand so that the two could cross together in what was a sweet moment of sportsmanship in a race filled with them. Not my best time, but by far my most memorable finish. Thanks amazing @runmeb for joining me across the line, an unforgettable moment! Because the elite women start the race about 30 minutes before the elite men, it worked out that the two arrived at the Boylston Street finish line at around the same time. Dionne finished 15th in an unofficial time of 2 hours, 40 minutes, 42 seconds. Keflezighi, who won the race last year, finished eighth in 2:12:42. Related: Caroline Rotich of Kenya took first place for the women in the 2015 Boston Marathon, completing the race in 2 hours, 24 minutes. Ethiopian runner Lelisa Desisa, who also took first place in 2013, won for the men, crossing the finish line in 2 hours, 9 minutes and 17 seconds.


Tornado watch for D.C. area, storms possible this afternoon and evening

that the tornado threat could increase later today, in the vicinity of the warm front. A long-lived, intense thunderstorm could have the potential to produce a moderately strong tornado. Weak, isolated tornadoes can also accompany bow echoes. But as of now, the tornado threat is low. We will be closely watching today’s severe weather evolution and will issue an update during the mid-afternoon. Technical forecast By Monday evening, the Washington region will be squarely positioned in a zone of warm flow from the south. The so-called warm sector is between a warm front advancing to the north of the Mason-Dixon Line and an approaching cold front from the west. The primary low pressure system is north of the Great Lakes, supported by a deepening upper-level vortex that is approaching our region. As of 8 a.m., the warm front was passing north of the D.C. region. However, warm fronts often surge northward during the day as solar heating intensifies just south of the boundary. It is very likely this frontal boundary will continue its northward progress during the late morning and early afternoon. Forecast surface weather chart for 8 p.m. Monday. (National Weather Service) The winds from the south are helping to warm the lower atmosphere, which increases the instability available for thunderstorms. Additional heating will come from the sun’s energy. How much additional instability arises depends on the cloud deck. This morning, the clouds were primarily a low-level deck of broken stratus, which was clearing out quickly. The infrared satellite image below reveals a swath of thick cloud layers along the warm frontal boundary, to the north and east of D.C. While there are few mid- and high-level clouds over our immediate region, broken low-level clouds remain to the west and southwest. Enhanced color infrared satellite view shows the cloud cover at 9 a.m. Monday. (weathertap.com) Oftentimes, a line of morning convective showers and storms is ongoing ahead of the cold front. This supplies a stream of mid- and upper-level clouds to the downwind region. This morning, the radar has remained quiet over West Virginia. Thus there is no cloud blow-off to shade the warmth of the sun. Ensemble prediction of CAPE (J/kg, left axis). Various models are shown by colored lines. Solid black line is the consensus value. Time in GMT shown along bottom scale. (National Weather Service) With enough breaks in the clouds and perhaps several hours of


A response from Huwaida Arraf of the International Solidarity Movement

in the West Bank. When Issawi began a hunger strike to protest his re-arrest and imprisonment, we joined the calls for his release. In a system where Palestinian lives and their freedom of movement is controlled by the Israeli Occupying Power, Issawi, as most Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails – many held without charge, others held for various forms of political expression – are indeed political prisoners. While some might understand the term “political prisoner” narrowly, we, like Amnesty International, adopt a broader definition, which includes persons accused or convicted of a crime carried out in a political context. According to Bernstein’s logic, Nelson Mandela – who co-founded the armed wing of the African National Congress (ANC) – should not have been referred to as a political prisoner and those who called for his release should also be called “pro-terrorist.” Bernstein’s original post linked to a 2004 Telegraph UK article that quotes my husband and me as stating that, “The Palestinian resistance must take on a variety of characteristics, both non-violent and violent.” In his follow-up post, Bernstein goes on about how this article shows that we also endorse violent resistance. What the Telegraph article and Bernstein do not inform readers of is that we wrote those words as part of a longer article in which we respond to a prominent Palestinian journalist who argued that nonviolent resistance cannot work for Palestine. In arguing, yes it can, we drew an analogy to the US Civil Rights Movement, which included violent as well as nonviolent resistance. We invite everyone to read our article, “Why Nonviolent Resistance is Important for the Palestinian Intifada: A Response to Ramzy Baroud,” for themselves. Bernstein chooses to twist our words in order to make it seem like we advocated violent resistance, when, in actuality, we were using the language of those who champion violent resistance to argue for the use of nonviolence instead. Since 2001, the ISM has been supporting Palestinian civil resistance by providing international accompaniment, media support and solidarity. A number of our volunteers have been seriously injured and even killed by Israeli forces, with little to no accountability by Israel. In 2003, 23-year-old American, Rachel Corrie, was run over by an Israeli soldier driving an armored Caterpillar bulldozer as she tried to prevent the Israeli military from demolishing the home of her host family in Gaza. A few weeks later, Tom Hurndall, a


Strong to severe storms light up D.C. area; cooler and drier Tuesday

Radar loop over the past two hours. Refresh page to update. 10:50 p.m. update and Tuesday forecast: Earlier overview and updates… Overview: 10 p.m. update: @capitalweather From Courthouse looking over DC. Gorgeous storm! http://t.co/V7cu9Z5Om4 RT @KyleKONNECTED: Quite the lightshow heading back into #DC from @2941Restaurant in #FallsChurch #VA http://t.co/WiA8xwaiGn RT @jenna_penrose: Pea-sized hail in East Falls Church. @capitalweather http://t.co/TwwcihxnYP 9:40 p.m. update: 9:15 p.m. update: Much of PG co about to get 2nd wave from south. Strong storms, but perhaps a bit weaker than 1st http://t.co/ASNhVV1VBL 8:35 p.m. update: Lightning strikes twice in DC https://t.co/QlDdu0XEMk 8:20 p.m. update: What a difference a half hour makes. Intense storm moves through Silver Spring. @capitalweather #DC #weather http://t.co/Hnz1WQjQrb 8:05 p.m. update: Ok mind blown. This is right outside my window looking towards @WNCathedral @capitalweather http://t.co/juOrvQlyYS @capitalweather Hail in Fairfax/Annandale! http://t.co/uTJR4SP4PE 7:50 p.m. update: Severe tstorm WARNING for much of DC area outlined in yellow box til 8:30pm. Hail & 60mph wind poss http://t.co/iFhw4bQ2Ae 7:40 p.m. update: Line of storms (non-severe for now) heading E, impacting DC/Beltway approx 7:45-8:15 http://t.co/sOUZFqjv5Y 7:20 p.m. update: 6:10 p.m. update: We will watch storms developing to the west and southwest associated with the cold front coming in later this evening. These have a chance to become strong to severe (per the 5:25 p.m. update), but our general thinking is that severe weather – if any – will be fairly limited as storms may not arrive until after 8 p.m. when instability needed to fuel them will have weakened. Until more trackable storms approach the region, our updates will be less frequent (for the next hour or two), but we’ll pick up the pace as/if needed. https://twitter.com/PotomacWx/status/590273267329536000 5:45 p.m. update: Wow! Storm rolling over SE DC is looking pretty awesome. @capitalweather http://t.co/s0kN43gc5m 5:25 p.m. update: SOUNDINGS SUGGEST THAT INSTABILITY IS CONTINUING TO INCREASE…AND VAD WINDS SHOW VEERING WITH HEIGHT WHICH IS QUITE FAVORABLE FOR SUPERCELLS CONTAINING HAIL. WEAK CONVERGENCE HAS BEEN A LIMITING FACTOR TO STORM SEVERITY BUT WITH TIME…STORMS MAY BECOME BETTER ORGANIZED AS THE SHEAR CONTINUES TO ACT ON THEM. For the moment, radar shows just one isolated storm within a one county radius of the District, moving up the Potomac between Mt. Vernon and St. Charles. This storm may contain a bit of lightning, heavy downpours and even some small hail. It’s headed northeast towards Clinton, Suitland, and Camp Springs over the next 30 minutes. 5:00


Kraft Mac & Cheese just got duller. You can thank (or blame) ‘The Food Babe.’

as a powerful — if not always reliable — voice in the debate over nutrition. “It’s tough to argue with a crusade to help Americans eat better and to win more transparency from both food companies and the federal agency, but Ms. Hari, a former computer science major with no training as a food scientist, nutritionist or chef, has managed to become a flash point,” the New York Times wrote recently in a profile of the food blogger. “Her click-me headlines (‘Do You Eat Beaver Butt?’ for a post about what’s in so-called natural flavorings) and camera-ready looks have won her a rabid #Foodbabearmy, billings as an expert on television shows, a book (‘The Food Babe Way‘) that made its debut at No. 4 on the New York Times best-seller list last month, and a spot (along with Beyoncé and Kim Kardashian) on Time Magazine’s ‘30 Most Influential People on the Internet.’” She has slammed Starbucks for the supposedly “hazardous chemicals” in its pumpkin spice latte, filleted Chick-fil-A for its artificial ingredients, whacked Whole Foods for selling genetically modified foods, and slammed Subway for using a chemical called azodicarbonamide — also found in yoga mats — in its bread. Subway, for one, crumbled like stale loaf under the pressure. (The company said it was already planning to pull azodicarbonamide from its products, however.) Food Babe: Plastic Chemicals In Your Bread???????? Yet, the Food Babe has herself faced scrutiny. Several scientists have accused her of using “pseudoscience” to build a large and lucrative following. “She gets on all these talk shows partly because she is easier to look at,” Joe Schwarcz, a chemist who runs McGill University’s Office for Science & Society, a department dedicated to identifying pseudoscience, told Bloomberg News. “Her scientific background is nonexistent.” “Her empire is built upon non-scientific ideas and tumbles down if scientists are involved,” wrote Kevin Folta, a horticulturalist who has publicly sparred with Hari. “In her book and on her blog, Hari plays this game of malicious metonymy again and again, leveraging common motifs of disgust, such as excrement and body parts, all the while deliberately confusing the source and uses of material with the molecules themselves,” wrote chemistry professor Michelle M. Francl in February. “She wants you to be aghast that the same chemical used to stabilize the foam in yoga mats, azodicarbonamide, is used to stabilize bread dough, also a foam. Or


The U.S.’s energy infrastructure will need major changes, says Obama report

White House science adviser John Holdren. Work on the Quadrennial Energy Review began after President Obama rolled out the Clean Power Plan in 2013, an effort to review the nation’s energy system at a time of what it called a “dramatically changing energy landscape.” The review is similar to the Pentagon’s Quadrennial Defense Review, a widely followed periodic assessment of the nation’s defense capabilities, but compiled by a broader set of government agencies. The U.S.’s electricity grid is one of the world’s strongest, the document admits. Yet the energy grid of the future does not, in most expert descriptions, look much like the one of today — it needs to make room for more distributed energy generation enabled by innovations like rooftop solar, as well as much more renewable power in general and, perhaps, more battery-based storage options for power. Therefore, the Energy Department document calls for large federal investments over ten years to modernize the grid and improve energy security, including programs to strengthen natural gas systems, help states identify their power vulnerabilities, and move to “mitigate the risks associated with loss of transformers,” which the document calls one of the “most vulnerable components” of the grid. Some industry voices have suggested that the Clean Power Plan itself — the administration’s flagship climate policy move — will weaken the reliability of the U.S. grid, switching out the steady power delivery of coal-fired electricity for more inherently intermittent renewable sources, like solar and wind. The Quadrennial Energy Review’s approach is different. The document acknowledges major energy infrastructure challenges, while nonetheless continually returning to the vital need to address climate change. For indeed, the report notes, a changing climate itself poses grid security challenges due to increases in extreme weather (events like the “polar vortex” can lead to large bulges in energy demand), rising seas (which could threaten low-lying power infrastructure), and other forecast changes. At the same time, two administrative agency moves seek to coordinate an Energy Department partnership with major utilities like Exelon, National Grid, and Pacific Gas and Electric to improve “resilience” to extreme weather and climate threats, and a Department of Agriculture program to encourage solar energy and other new power infrastructure in rural areas. Energy infrastructure is a key enabler of a clean energy future,” said Moniz, “and this review will help us address both the challenges and opportunities associated with developing our abundant energy resources.”


READ IN: Sage Wisdom Edition

More than 68,000 people have signed up for coverage under the Affordable Care Act during an extra enrollment period so far. Those who have signed up have 10 more days to buy coverage to avoid a tax penalty next year. The extra enrollment period applies to those who learned they would have to pay for coverage for the first time while paying their taxes this year. It ends on April 30. (The Hill) -- Stock futures are trading higher this morning after the Dow tacked on 208 points on Monday. Asian stocks closed significantly higher on Tuesday, while European shares are mixed. (CNN) Long Reads -- For every 100 black women between the ages of 25 and 54 living outside of jail, there are only 83 black men. That means there are about 1.5 million black men who are just missing -- either in prison or dead. Among whites, there are 99 men for every 100 women not in prison. The largest proportions of missing men occur in the South, though many big Northeastern cities have high gaps, too. The city of at least 10,000 residents that has the single largest proportion of missing black men: Ferguson, Mo. (New York Times) Attn Fox News -- For the first time in decades, a majority of Americans say it's more important to protect the right to own guns than it is to control gun ownership. Support for gun rights has grown since the 1990s as Republicans have become more homogenously pro-gun, and as fears about rising crime have grown -- despite the fact that crime rates are at 20-year lows. In 2000, 51 percent said having a gun in the home made that home more dangerous, while 35 percent said it made the home safer. Today, 63 percent say the presence of a gun makes the home safer. (Pew Research Center) Attn MSNBC -- The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries wants to remove most of the world's humpback whale population from the endangered species list. NOAA wants to reclassify humpbacks into 14 distinct populations, 10 of which have recovered enough after 45 years of protection to take off the list. The decision comes a year after the state of Alaska sought to remove some North Pacific humpbacks from the list. Populations in Central America, the Western North Pacific, the Arabian Sea and Cape Verde would remain listed as endangered. (Associated Press)


170-year-old, shipwrecked champagne gets a taste test

A glass of a 200-year-old champagne. (AFP PHOTO/JONATHAN NACKSTRAND) In 2010, a nearly 200-year-old shipwreck in the Baltic Sea yielded 168 bottles of perfectly preserved champagne. Now researchers have paired chemical analyses with expert taste testers to find out just what sort of wine it is. Their results were published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Before letting wine experts try the impressively vintage bubbly, the researchers broke down its chemical composition. It turns out the champagne, which was identified as a product of Veuve Cliquot by engravings on the corks, was sweeter and less alcoholic than modern-day equivalents. [The science behind your New Year’s Eve bubbly] Smithsonian Magazine reports But what's really impressive is the sweetness. With around 140 grams in a bottle, the wine was 14 percent sugar. That's even higher than most modern Moscatos. Not surprising, since wine makers used to add way more sugar syrup at the end than modern consumers prefer, but it is actually pretty important: The champagne's sugar content may hint at the ship's intended destination. From Nature Magazine: Although the shipwreck’s location might indicate the champagne bottles were on a trade route to the Russian Empire, their sugar levels suggest otherwise. Russians were known to consume champagne with sugar content higher than 300 grams per litre, Jeandet says, but the shipwrecked bottles had less than half that. That suggests they may have been intended for German markets, which favoured moderately sweet wines. By present standards, this would be exceedingly sweet: the most popular style today, brut, uses about 10 grams per litre. When the researchers let tasting experts try a bottle of the wine, which has been auctioned off for as much as $156,000, the initial reaction was that it was "cheesy," and had notes of "animal" and "wet hair." So it tasted like a wet dog, apparently. And most of the bubbles were gone. Plus it was unusually creamy when compared with modern champagnes, probably because of the addition of lactic acid during the fermentation process. But after the wine got some much-needed oxygen, the tasters changed their tune: Now it was a sublime sip with "spicy," "smokey," "grilled" and "leathery" notes. Unlike beer found in the same wreck, which was badly diluted with sea salt, the champagne seems to be in remarkably good shape. [Here’s the chemistry that makes your beer taste good (or bad)] Lead


D.C. finally gets that long-awaited shipment of frozen panda semen from China

Giant panda cub Bao Bao went outside with her mom, Mei Xiang, for the first time on April 1, 2014, at the National Zoo. (AP photo/Smithsonian National Zoo) Pandas are infamously finicky when it comes to mating. And that’s a problem for the endangered species because, well, the survival of their species relies on them wanting to get it on. Luckily, science has found a way to circumvent their low libidos and the National Zoo’s adult female panda, Mei Xiang — yes, that’s Bao Bao’s mom — could become pregnant with another high-profile baby in the near future. Caitlin Burrell, a research scientist at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, returned from China on Monday night with frozen giant panda semen that could be used to artificially inseminate Mei Xiang before the end of May. This is the first time frozen panda semen has made such a trek for breeding, according to the National Zoo. The semen sample belongs to Hui Hui — a 9-year-old panda who lives at the China Research and Conversation Center for the Giant Panda in Wolong, Sichuan Province. [Seeking mates for Mei Xiang and Tian Tian] Officials say a cub from Hui Hui would be more genetically viable than one sired by the National Zoo’s own Tian Tian. (Tian Tian and Mei Xiang have two cubs together, including Bao Bao, who was also the result of artificial insemination. Their first cub, Tai Shan, who was born in 2005, lives in China. Bao Bao, born in 2013, will leave for China when she turns 4.) The National Zoo shared photos of the semen’s journey to Dulles International Airport on Monday night on Instagram. Throughout the 7,000-mile journey, it was kept frozen at minus 196 degrees Celsius in liquid nitrogen. The National Zoo said the trip was covered as part of a research grant, and a grant from the Ford Motor Company Fund paid for the equipment needed for the transport. “The National Zoo received the semen as the result of a breeding recommendation. Each year SCBI scientist Jon Ballou calculates the best genetic matches for all of the eligible breeding pandas around the world,” a press release from the zoo read. “He originally developed the mathematical formula used to make the recommendations in the 1990s for golden lion tamarins.” Devin Murphy, spokeswoman for the National Zoo, said scientists at the D.C. zoo have been working with colleagues