A bit of debris chipped the International Space Station. That’s just one piece of a much bigger problem.

When you sit around imagining life aboard the International Space Station (we all do that, right?) one thing you probably don’t want to think about is space junk slamming into your vessel. And you almost certainly don’t want to imagine a piece of that junk taking a chunk of your spacecraft’s window with it. Especially But that’s exactly what happened last month in the space station’s Cupola, a European-built 2010 addition that you’re sure to recognize — it’s where those great pictures and videos showing stunning shots of our planet are taken. “I am often asked if the International Space Station is hit by space debris,” British astronaut Tim Peake, who took the freaky photo of the damaged window, said in a statement. “Yes — this is the chip in one of our Cupola windows, glad it is quadruple glazed!” Um, yeah. You can say that again. The astronauts, of course, are perfectly safe — they generally don’t tweet photos during life-threatening station crises. And the views are safe, too — the chip is less than a centimeter across. According to the European Space Agency, the damage was likely caused by something as unassuming as a flake of paint or a metal fragment just a few thousandths of a millimeter across. A FLAKE OF PAINT. Let that sink in. Because of the incredibly high speeds of these orbiting pieces of debris, something 1 centimeter across could disable critical instruments on the space station, and anything larger could penetrate the sturdy shields that protect crew modules. Debris 10 centimeters across could shatter the spacecraft into pieces. In 2013, experts estimated that there were at least 29,000 objects of this size orbiting Earth. The danger posed by errant space debris were dramatized in the 2013 film “Gravity,” in which astronauts on a shuttle mission are terrorized by speeding chunks of space junk. Space junk is definitely a real concern. Mashable reports that NASA tracks more than 500,000 pieces of defunct satellites and old rocket bits orbiting Earth, some no larger than marbles, so that the space station can be maneuvered away from close encounters — but many small pieces, like the one that hit the space station, are too difficult to keep track of. These days space agencies try to be more mindful of the waste left behind by missions, but no one has found an ideal solution for cleaning up the


A good moon is hard to find — but Pluto’s ‘little sister’ just got one

Pluto is probably feeling pretty annoyed by his "little sister" right now. First Makemake, the icy dwarf planet that hangs out in the Kuiper Belt, helped get Pluto bumped from the official planet list: In the mid-2000s, scientists argued that the just-discovered trans-Neptunian objects Makemake and Eris should join Pluto under the new designation "dwarf planet." Now the distant dwarf planet, which is a mere 870 miles across, just notched another point in their space sibling rivalry: Researchers at the Hubble Space Telescope say they've found a moon for it, spinning through space some 13,000 miles from its owner. The new moon, provisionally given the unwieldy name "S/2015 (136472) 1" (but called "MK 2" for short), was detected last April by some of the same scientists who discovered Eris and Makemake 10 years ago. It was hard to find amid the glare from Makemake, which is the second-brightest Kuiper Belt object after Pluto. But despite Hubble's advanced age — a ripe 26 as of this month — the space telescope has apparently still got it: Its ability to pinpoint faint objects next to bright ones at a relatively high resolution let astronomers discern MK 2 amid the haze surrounding Makemake. The moon is 100 miles in diameter and charcoal black, possibly because it's so small it lacks the gravitational power necessary to hold onto a bright, icy crust. Lots of comets and other Kuiper Belt objects have the same problem. The moon's discovery bolsters the infamous case made by "Pluto Killer" Mike Brown, who was on the original Makemake team (but is not an author on the latest study). It increases the parallels between Pluto and its fellow dwarf planets, suggesting that have enough in common to be their own class of space object. The presence of a moon also gives astronomers a lot more information to work with when studying Makemake, which was named for the creation deity in the Rapa Nui culture of Easter Island. Just as you learn more about a person by seeing them interact with others, scientists know more about planets (and dwarf planets) when they're observed with some company. Monitoring MK2 as it orbits Makemake will give researchers information about the the gravitational relationship between them, which will allow them to calculate the mass of the planet. "The discovery of this moon has given us an opportunity to study Makemake in far greater detail


D.C. gets a lucky break in the clouds just in time for the lunar eclipse (Photos)

In an amazing stroke of luck (and very good timing), the weekend’s persistent, overcast clouds parted just in time for Washington, D.C., to catch a glimpse of the supermoon lunar eclipse last night. Washingtonians had their cameras ready. The sun poked through the clouds early yesterday, bolstering hopes that skies would cooperate for the celestial viewing. But by late afternoon it was totally overcast again, and things did not look promising. At the time, we were thinking there was about a 20 percent chance that there’d be a lucky break around 9 or 10 p.m. — maybe just enough to get a fleeting glimpse before the moon vanished again behind the clouds. What happened last night far exceeded expectations. Around 9 p.m., photos of the moon began pouring in on Twitter and Facebook. Though some of us were not as lucky as others, many photographers in the D.C. region were able to capture amazing photos of this rare and spectacular event. The total lunar eclipse was particularly remarkable because it was occurring while the moon was in perigee, the closest the moon was to the Earth all year and why it’s called a supermoon. The coincidence of a supermoon and lunar eclipse is rare — it last happened 33 years ago, and won’t happen again for another 18 years. Thanks to everyone who shared their view of the eclipse with us!


Federal workers: Are you prepared for a government shutdown?

The federal government is again facing the possibility of shutting much of its operation if Republicans and Democrats in Congress cannot agree on a funding measure by Sept. 30. Those most directly affected would be federal employees, as they were during a 16-day shutdown two years ago. Thousands of government contractors also could be asked to stay home. We’d like to hear directly from federal workers and contractors about whether and how your offices are preparing for a potential closure. Can’t use this form? Click to open the form in a new window.


Scientists may have solved 2011’s mysterious marine die-off along the Pacific coast

conducting surveys along the California coast and comparing these numbers with pre-die-off population counts. The two most badly affected species were the purple sea urchin and the six-armed sea star. These two organisms were both essentially eradicated from the die-off’s impact zone, which spanned about 100 kilometers (that’s more than 60 miles) of coastline. The scientists note that for the purple sea urchin, there’s never been such a severe mass mortality event over such a large area before. The gumboot chiton and the ochre sea star were two other organisms that were observed in large numbers washed up along the shore during the die-off. But while they obviously experienced an increase in mortality during the event, the researchers’ surveys showed that their populations did not suffer any significant declines overall. For the purple sea urchin and the six-armed sea star, however, recovery from the event could be a long and slow process. The researchers note in the paper that “recolonization is likely to rely heavily on immigration from sources outside the region,” meaning the die-off was so complete that the only real chance for recovery is if urchins and sea stars from other places start migrating into the area. This may be an easier process for the purple sea urchin than for the six-armed sea star. Urchin larvae tend to disperse away from their homes, meaning larvae from other areas might make it into the die-off zone and start to settle there. In fact the purple sea urchin has already slowly begun to show back up in the area. The sea star’s larvae, on the other hand, tend to stick close to the spots where they were born, making immigration less likely. “If someone were to come to this area, they wouldn’t know these six-armed sea stars existed here, even though this has been a main part of their species range,” said lead author Laura Jurgens, a researcher at UC Davis’s Bodega Marine Laboratory, in a statement. This paper doesn’t focus on understanding the cause of the algal bloom. However, the researchers do note that dormant phytoplankton “can persist for years in sediment and may bloom again under favorable conditions,” meaning it may be useful in the future to conduct more research on the causes behind algal blooms in the ocean and ways to predict when they might happen. How intertidal communities will be affected by the change in population


‘Finish what you start’: Veterans tell us what they think about attacking ISIS

The United States has been launching airstrikes against the Islamic State without putting combat troops on the ground. We asked veterans to share how their military service has affected their opinions on the current situation in Iraq. Responses below have been edited for length and clarity. If you served and would like to share your story, please submit it using the form below. William J. McIntyre, 65, emergency department physician in Jenkins, Ky. This photograph is from November 1967 just prior to going to Vietnam. I acquired it a few months ago from my late aunt’s estate. She was the photographer. Her name was June Kerstetter. I was a paratrooper in E/2/506th of the 101st Airborne Division on leave in the Seattle area at the time. The 101st lost paratrooper status during the summer of 1968 in Vietnam. I see the airstrikes as a kind of an antiseptic way for our country to deal with this threat, in that not many Americans will be placed in harm’s way in doing this and we can hope that there will be no American casualties at all. The military is worn out fighting the recent two wars. The public is worn out hearing about them, about the day-to-day loss of American lives, of the wounded, the mentally disabled and of paying for these wars … We need to recognize the limitations of American military power and that there are really nasty unintended consequences of picking sides in these conflicts, as there have certainly been in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. Air power alone will not eliminate this threat. It will, however, serve to radicalize more Arab youth. This isn’t our fight. ISIL hates us over our involvement in these Middle Eastern conflicts and with Israel. The less involvement we have the less will be the threat to our country from ISIL, Al Queda and from other militant groups that will inevitably pop up in that part of the world. [My military service] has completely affected how I see the current situation. Without the experience of having served in the military in a combat zone I would not have the perspective to understand this situation, the reluctance of the president to use military force to solve it and the profound effect 13 years of war has had on the morale of our servicemen and women. Nick McCormick, 30, policy analyst in Washington, D.C. Airstrikes are


Senators question wisdom of U.S. government office that exists to sell free technical reports

With their sassily named Let Me Google That For You Act, Sens. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) and Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) are pursuing the possible closure of an obscure, arguably objectionable branch of the Commerce Department called the National Technical Information Service, an office that Coburn pithily summarizes as an entity that "sells free government reports to other federal agencies and the public -- at a loss." Like many parts of government, NTIS is struggling to figure out how to exist in the digital, networked age. But unlike their colleague agencies, at some point the Internet has threatened to turn NTIS from a useful service into a boondoggle. The facts: though the NTIS is meant to be self-sustaining, from 2001 through 2011 there was only one year that it made more money selling its 2.5 millions reports and other products than it spent, despite the fact that it has expanded its offerings of technical, scientific, and research reports to include things like a DVD containing "1,700 convenient recipes" for feeding military-size audiences (selling for $79.) There might seem in all this to be hints of the Office of Technology Assessment, the late, often lamented lamented source of technical expertise that cost-cutting, symbolic and otherwise, killed during the days of the Gingrich revolution. But NTIS, located in Springfield, Virginia, does something different. Rather than focus on producing original research, it acts as a clearinghouse. Established after World War II, NTIS was initially meant as a mechanism for pushing out to the world the great deal of scientific research that had been produced during the war on behalf of the U.S. government -- as well as, fascinatingly, according to an NTIS in-house history, "the review and release of captured enemy research." Then scroll down a bit through the years and the Internet happens. During a Senate hearing last week, the Government Accountability Office presented (free) research showing that a full 76 percent of the NTIS's online offerings collected since 1990 are available elsewhere online and, most importantly, 95 percent of the time at absolutely no cost. Somewhere along the way, that shift seemed to not just make a government service obsolete but to make its premise, and what it's serving up to the American public, arguably fraudulent. Still, at the hearing, NTIS Director Bruce Borzino did his best to defend why, despite the fact that its Web site could well have served as a


Join the Capital Weather Watchers program; free NWS Skywarn Spotter training

Are you a weather enthusiast? Now you can learn more about weather and share the latest from your neighborhood by joining the Capital Weather Gang’s Capital Weather Watchers program. If you missed our training two years ago, here’s another chance to attend! We’re signing up people from across the D.C. area to help us tell our readers about weather events, news and conditions. To help you get started, we’re offering a chance to get SkyWarn Spotter training from National Weather Service (Sterling, Va.) warning coordination meteorologist Chris Strong at a special two-hour class at The Washington Post. Spotters learn how to identify severe thunderstorms, tornadoes, hail and flooding. The free training will be held from 7-9:30 p.m. on Wednesday, September 25, in the Post auditorium at 1150 15th St. NW, in downtown D.C. You must be 14 or older to attend. Questions? E-mail us at weather@washpost.com


South Korea axes pact on sharing military intelligence with Japan

TOKYO — South Korea on Thursday scrapped an agreement to share military intelligence with Japan, significantly escalating the stakes in the U.S. allies’ dispute over trade and historical grievances. The decision was met with disappointment in the United States, which views intelligence sharing between the allies regarding North Korea as critical. “We’re urging each of the two countries to continue to engage,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said during a news conference in Ottawa. “There is no doubt that the shared interests of Japan and South Korea are important and they’re important to the United States of America. And we hope each of those two countries can begin to put that relationship back in exactly the right place.” Kim You-geun of the National Security Council in Seoul said Japan’s decision to drop South Korea from a list of trusted trading partners earlier this month, citing security issues, “brought about fundamental changes to the environment for security cooperation between the two countries.” “Under these circumstances, the government of the Republic of Korea decided that maintaining this agreement, which was signed to facilitate the exchange of sensitive military information, does not serve our national interest.” The pact, known as the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA), was signed in 2016 in the face of a growing threat from North Korea’s nuclear weapons program. South Korea’s decision comes just a day after both nations’ foreign ministers met at a trilateral event in China, where they agreed to keep talking but did not announce any progress in the dispute. Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono called the decision “extremely regrettable” and said Tokyo would lodge a firm protest. The United States had urged the two allies to settle their differences, with Pompeo stressing their “incredibly important” cooperation on North Korea. But some critics say the Trump administration should have acted sooner and more forcefully to defuse the row. “This will only get worse, and it’s only American leadership that can bring the parties together,” tweeted Harry Kazianis, senior director at the Center for the National Interest in Washington. Some experts had expected that South Korean President Moon Jae-in would shy away from canceling the agreement for the sake of his country’s alliance with the United States. But Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha said the decision is “an issue separate from the alliance.” “Cooperation on the alliance front will continue to be strengthened,” she said. “This


We already have a Greenland. It’s called Alaska.

which we examined the economic benefits of a rapidly transforming Arctic. While we focused on the United States, our report did examine Greenland and its rich mineral resources, which include rare earth elements, uranium, iron ore, gold, diamonds, lead and zinc. Greenland, like Alaska, Canada and Russia, is home to some of the world’s largest nickel, iron ore and zinc mines. The discovery of large reserves of rare earth metals is what has probably piqued Chinese economic interest in Greenland. Rare earth elements are essential to a range of smartphones and other devices, but they also have critical applications in the defense, automotive and renewal energy industries, including in wind turbines, hybrid-vehicle motors, missile-guidance systems, rechargeable batteries for consumer products, night-vision goggles, alloys for sonar technology and lasers in weapons systems. The Ilimaussaq complex on the southwestern coast of Greenland holds the largest quantities of rare earth elements in the world, with an inventory of 10.3 million tons of rare earth oxide. This same complex also holds 575 million pounds of uranium concentrates, as well as 2.21 million tons of zinc, which would meet a great deal of global demand for the next 50 years. Several Chinese companies are already actively mining in Greenland. The United States has not made any comparable investments in the island. In 2008, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated that the Arctic could hold upwards of 30 percent of the world’s undiscovered gas resources and 13 percent of the world undiscovered oil resources, with an estimated 84 percent located in offshore areas. While the survey again brought a greater focus on Alaska’s extensive resources, believed to hold the second largest Arctic energy reserves in the world, Greenland also drew attention. So far, however, the envisioned Greenland oil boom has not panned out. In 2013, a British firm abandoned its exploration efforts off the coast of Greenland after its $1.4 billion venture did not yield predicted reserves. And in a world with a rapidly diminishing Arctic polar ice cap, increased Arctic shipping — both across the Arctic and through the Central Passage or trans-Polar route — could economically benefit Greenland. Investment in port infrastructure and related maritime activity would make Greenland a potential shipping hub for trans-Polar commerce. China is exploring the possibilities of this trans-polar sea route as the Chinese shipping firm COSCO annually tests this route. But Greenland’s small population (57,000) and limited infrastructure (predominantly


A Paralympic rower drowned after his boat capsized in training. His body wasn’t found for three hours.

A Belarusian rower hoping to qualify for the Paralympic Games next summer in Tokyo died Wednesday when his boat capsized during training for the world championships on the Linz-Ottensheim regatta course on an arm of the Danube in Austria. An experienced para-rower in the PR1 men’s single sculls, Dzmitry Ryshkevich, 33, disappeared from sight when his boat flipped. Although officials said a rescue boat with a lifeguard was on the spot immediately, Ryshkevich’s body was not found until about three hours later, when divers entered the water, which is about eight feet deep and described by World Rowing.com as “murky.” His body was found near where his boat capsized, and a doctor pronounced him dead at the scene. An investigation began, with a preliminary focus on the stabilizing floating device, a pontoon, located at the side of para-rowing boats. According to World Rowing, the “fixation” of the pontoon was broken, but Ryshkevich still would have been able to unfasten the seat belt and remove his shoes. Rowers in the PR1 category “row with their arms only,” according to the World Rowing Federation (FISA) guidelines, and “use strapping around their midsection to provide support and stability in the boat.” Ryshkevich took up para-rowing in 2013 and had competed in two previous world championships. This year’s competition begins Sunday. “We are all shocked at this news and at this time the thoughts of the whole Paralympic movement are with the family, friends, teammates of the athlete and with our colleagues at the National Paralympic Committee of Belarus,” Andrew Parsons, president of the International Paralympic Committee, said (via the BBC). “I will be writing today to Oleg Chepel, the president of NPC Belarus, to offer my prayers and sympathies following this accident and also send my thoughts to members of the close-knit rowing community who must all be devastated at this news.” Matt Smith, the head of FISA, promised to release “full details” when the investigation has concluded. Read more from The Post: Olympic champion figure skating coach banned for life for sexual misconduct claims Tigers beat Astros in the biggest MLB upset in recent history Jerry Jones is the Cowboys’ biggest star and don’t you dare forget it


The Cybersecurity 202: Chinese-built tech poses danger throughout the Pentagon, lawmaker warns

a board of directors who are all U.S. citizens and approved by the government. “Lexmark is audited annually to ensure adherence to these controls, and we have successfully passed each audit,” Lexmark CEO Allen Waugerman said. Gallagher’s warnings come as U.S. officials are in the midst of a global pushback on Chinese tech companies, especially the telecom company Huawei, which is poised to play a dominant role in building next-generation 5G networks that will carry far more data than existing networks and create greater risk if they’re compromised by hackers. The government’s comparatively lesser attention to commercial products from China could make them more tempting hacking targets for Chinese spies, according to Roslyn Layton, a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, who also spoke on the call. She warned that if China infiltrated the Pentagon through commercial Chinese suppliers, the result could be more damaging than the 2015 China-linked breach at the Office of Personnel Management, which compromised sensitive security clearance information about more than 20 million current and former government employees. “If you’re the enemy and you want to infiltrate American government and military, well why don’t you take the path of least resistance and that is America’s defense industrial base,” Layton said. Gallagher’s co-leading the Cyberspace Solarium Commission, a group of a dozen lawmakers and current and former government officials, which is tasked with charting a course for the future of U.S. cybersecurity policy. The commission is based on a similar Eisenhower-era group that examined how best to counter the Soviet Union. During a separate call with me, he described stemming the spread of Chinese technology as one of the thorniest challenges the United States will face in coming years — and a key focus for the commission. “One thing we’re discovering as we go down this path of a more competitive relationship with China is just how intertwined our economies are,” he said. “You can build a moat around critical technology, but you can never completely divorce us from the Chinese economy.” To combat Chinese tech dominance, the United States should consider surging federal support for research and development efforts to make U.S. and other Western tech companies more globally competitive, he said. The country should also increase efforts to convince allies to shut out Chinese firms from 5G and other sensitive areas, he said. So far, however, that effort hasn’t been going very well. Despite


Northern Ireland’s Troubles began 50 years ago. Here’s why they were so violent.

before the conflict, they generally did not marry one another or attend school together. Workplace segregation was common as well, as Protestants shut Catholics out of higher-paying jobs and business associations. In other words, Protestants and Catholics in mixed neighborhoods never created social ties or a shared sense of community. Instead of generating tolerance, geographic proximity resulted in more intense violence. Good fences make good neighbors? These findings suggest that in the absence of true social integration, “ethnic partition” may be a better strategy than geographic integration. Without meaningful social or economic links across the communities, diversity can make violence more intense. However, these data cannot tell us whether ethnic hostility would abate if the communities developed shared social and economic networks through integrated workplaces, schools, voluntary associations and governance bodies. Research in other contexts — for instance, Hindu-Muslim violence in India — has found that mixed communities with deep economic and social interdependence are less prone to ethnic violence. Community leaders in Northern Ireland — politicians, academics and civil society — have been recommending social integration combined with residential desegregation for decades. A British exit from the European Union probably requires the reestablishment of a “hard” border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. The reestablishment of the border abrogates a key principle of the 1998 peace agreement and threatens several related treaty provisions that fostered interdependence and trust between nationalist Catholics and unionist Protestants. These provisions included shared governance structures, with guaranteed representation for Catholics. The Republic of Ireland’s accession to the treaty also assured northern Catholics that their rights would be guaranteed under British rule, and assured unionists that the south would not seek to assert its sovereignty over the British north. The Belfast agreement also enabled cooperative cross-border development projects that benefited both ethnic groups. Moreover, the free flow of goods and labor increases the interdependence between northern Protestants and Irish-identified Catholics. Increasingly routine encounters with Irish citizens arguably spills over into increased trust with Catholics in the north. Finally, there is the fact that northerners and southerners, Protestants and Catholics, were all E.U. citizens, with shared stakes in the success of the E.U.’s economic and political integration. Absent a shared stake — in the E.U., in north-south cooperation, in governing institutions, in economic interdependence — it is easy to see how trust might erode in a post-Brexit future. Don’t miss anything! Sign up to


Some of America’s top zoos still use bullhooks on elephants. That’s about to change.

nearly 80 percent of the 62 AZA zoos that care for 305 elephants said that they do not use bullhooks or that the changes would have no or little impact on their programs, he said. “The fact that most of our members are not using bullhooks at all and are managing elephants quite successfully indicates that alternative procedures are available,” Ashe said. Given that, he added, “and its historical association with archaic, abusive treatment of elephants, the board decided this was a good step.” The decision comes as scrutiny of elephant captivity grows alongside an expanding body of research documenting the animals’ keen intelligence, complex social structures and unique physical and psychological needs. Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus ended in 2017 following public pressure and local laws that forced it to retire its famed elephant acts. Some zoos have closed their elephant exhibits, citing ethical concerns. This week, members of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species are considering a proposal that would restrict the sale of wild African elephants to zoos in the United States and elsewhere. The AZA’s shift on bullhooks is “a long-overdue move to protect elephants from a weapon whose only purpose is to inflict pain or evoke the fear of pain,” said Rachel Mathews, deputy director of captive animal law enforcement at the PETA Foundation. Nicole Paquette, chief programs and policy officer at the Humane Society of the United States, said she was “encouraged” by the AZA’s phaseout of a “horrible, outdated training tool.” Both groups called on the association to go further, including by opposing the import of wild elephants. The new bullhook policy follows an AZA decision in 2011 to prohibit most “free contact” between keepers and elephants and instead manage the animals primarily through barriers. That move, made to protect keepers after high-profile deaths, ended the use of bullhooks at many zoos with elephants. But at others, the tools — also known as ankuses or goads — have continued to be used through the barriers to tap, prod, push and pull the animals. The 2011 decision was controversial within zoos. Some closed their elephant exhibits in response, and one, the Pittsburgh Zoo, left the association over what it called a “philosophical difference of opinion.” Some people with ties to the industry, who spoke on the condition of anonymity about internal discussions, said similar discord is simmering over the bullhook


Giant panda Bei Bei turns 4 this week, but his days in Washington are numbered

Happy birthday to a giant panda. Bei Bei turns 4 years old Thursday, and zoo officials said he’ll get a “panda-friendly frozen cake” to celebrate. It will be Bei Bei’s final birthday celebration in the nation’s capital before leaving the country. As part of the National Zoo’s breeding agreement, giant pandas have to move to China when they turn 4. Zoo officials said they don’t have an exact date for Bei Bei’s move, but they warned that plans are underway and that “it will occur in the coming months.” Bei Bei won’t be the first giant panda to leave Washington for China. Bao Bao moved in 2017, and her older brother, Tai Shan, moved in 2010. Like most giant pandas around the world, they also were on loan from China. The National Zoo has had giant pandas since the 1970s. Bei Bei was born Aug. 22, 2015, and is one of three surviving cubs of mother Mei Xiang. His father is Tian Tian. He is one of three pandas at the zoo now. Earlier this month, zoo officials said Mei Xiang, who is 21, was showing changes in her behavior that could indicate she might be pregnant. She was artificially inseminated in March with semen from Tian Tian. The zoo has closed off the Panda House to give her a quiet space. Female pandas are in estrus for only 24 to 72 hours each year and also can have false pregnancies. Zoo officials said actions such as licking her paws, cradling toys and building a small nest of shredded bamboo in her den indicate she could be pregnant. Zookeepers have been performing regular ultrasounds on Mei Xiang, who is on the older side for giving birth, and are watching her closely. But officials won’t know for sure if she’s pregnant until later this month.


The G-7 summit kicks off on Saturday. Here are some key relationships to watch.

resolved before France would welcome Putin back. Merkel has been the target of Trump’s ire perhaps more than any other world leader. A photo of the two staring each other down at last year’s G-7 summit went viral, and their relationship hasn’t improved much since then. Trump has repeatedly singled out Merkel for what he considers to be Germany’s insufficient contributions to NATO defense spending. In addition to reiterating calls for higher military spending, Trump is also likely to press Merkel on trade. He has often fixated on the United States’ trade deficit in goods with Germany and the strength of the German economy. “Germany sells 30 year bonds offering negative yields. Germany competes with the USA,” he wrote in a tweet that took aim Thursday at the U.S. Federal Reserve — another favorite target of Trump’s. Expect Merkel, who is inching closer to retirement, to counter Trump’s go-it-alone attitude by emphasizing the importance of international cooperation. Macron has cast this year’s G-7 summit as a defining moment in his quest to ensure Europe — and multilateralism broadly — survives. Looming over the gathering will be Brexit, which British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said will occur Oct. 31 with or without a deal with the European Union. Both Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel met with Johnson ahead of the summit. Merkel, who spoke with Johnson in Berlin on Wednesday, suggested they try to reach an agreement on the Irish backstop in the next 30 days, the Associated Press reported. The backstop, which would tie the U.K. to the E.U. customs union at the Northern Ireland border, has been a point of contention in talks between British and E.U. officials. Macron, who met with Johnson in Paris on Thursday, called the backstop an “indispensable guarantee” for preserving stability in Ireland and throughout the E.U. Like Merkel, Macron expressed optimism that reaching an accord before Oct. 31 would be possible. But he stressed to Johnson that any deal should resemble the withdrawal agreement E.U. leaders had already negotiated with Johnson’s predecessor, Theresa May. Similarities between Donald Trump and Boris Johnson abound, from their mops of blond hair to their penchants for making inflammatory statements. The G-7 will mark Johnson’s debut on the world stage after the former foreign secretary and ardent Brexit backer took over 10 Downing Street last month. Trump and Johnson are scheduled to eat breakfast together on


A broken patent system is the problem

It’s certainly possible that China might one day “pull ahead” in quantum technology, but the Aug. 19 front-page article “Race is on for China, U.S. as quantum tech rivalry grows” didn’t make the case that this will happen anytime soon. While the article noted correctly that China is leading the world in quantum-related patents, the bulk of evidence shows that these patents are generally of low quality. A recent academic analysis shows that China publishes fewer scientific papers on the topic than the United States and that few of these papers are cited by other scholars. Indeed, Canada (population 37 million) produces research on quantum computing that gets cited more than China’s (population 1.38 billion). So do Britain and Germany. The problem facing the United States is not pathbreaking discoveries coming out of China but, rather, a broken patent system that has allowed a geopolitical rival to claim intellectual property rights over obvious “innovations” that didn’t warrant protection in the first place. Eli Lehrer The writer is president of R Street, a free-market think tank whose areas of concern include cybersecurity, technology and intellectual property. Read more letters to the editor.


Baltimore is an easier place to live than D.C.

— and considerably less if willing or able to put in some sweat equity. I live, for example, in Locust Point, a relatively quiet neighborhood (“relatively” because I happen to live fairly close to a lively sports bar) that is clean, mainly peopled by homeowners and a few blocks from Fort McHenry, home of the Star-Spangled Banner. It is also a few minutes from downtown and Interstate 95. Could you find something equally livable and convenient for a comparable price in the District? I think not! At one of those jazz shows I mentioned, the featured guest was the remarkably talented D.C.-based trombonist Shannon Gunn, accompanied by four other musicians. I arrived at An Die Musik Live a few minutes early while she was setting up, and the issue of livability and affordability came up. She commented that the soaring cost of housing in the District has driven many talented but struggling artists to Baltimore. In the classical realm, our symphony orchestra is world-renowned and led by our charismatic and innovative maestro Marin Alsop. There’s another thing. The Baltimore-area rush hour usually does not last more than 90 minutes on most days, and there is only occasionally real gridlock. We all know that rush “hour” is a misnomer in any sizable city and environs, but I need not tell anyone who suffers through D.C.’s interminable traffic hell that the difference between the two cities in terms of traffic is a huge difference in quality of life. Nobody regrets not having spent more time stuck in traffic. The District does have one commuter advantage: a working Metro system (sort of), something yet to take shape in Baltimore. Gov. Larry Hogan (R) killed the most ambitious urban rail project Baltimore had seen in decades and decided to build more roads, a formula guaranteed to be obsolete on completion. Related to cost of living, traffic and accessibility is Baltimore’s outstanding airport. Baltimore-Washington International Marshall Airport is my default airport. It is often considerably less expensive to fly to/from than D.C.-area airports. Decades ago, BWI was a backwater, but since Southwest made it a hub, the airport has been thriving and now offers many amenities. It is also relatively easy to navigate. Craft beer anyone? It seems you can hardly turn around without hearing about another craft brewery opening up in Baltimore. Among these are Heavy Seas, Union Craft, Monument City, the Brewer’s Art


12 fancy-schmancy D.C. chefs reveal where they go for cheap comfort food

or Costco or whatever is a good, easy grab.” Jon Sybert Chef and co-owner of Tail Up Goat shot up the ranks in just a few months when it was awarded a Michelin star in 2016. But the folks behind the Mediterranean spot in Adams Morgan aren’t letting the honor go to their heads, says chef and co-owner Jon Sybert. “My wife’s [Jill Tyler, service director and co-owner] constant refrain ‘smart and kind’ is really the cornerstone to our service ethos,” Sybert says. When he’s not crafting Tail Up’s succulent dishes or putting the finishing touches on his soon-to-open casual eatery down the street, Reveler’s Hour, he’s chowing down on a $3.64 beef chili- and cheese-filled tortilla. “Meats & Foods in Bloomingdale has a few of my favorite snacks in D.C., period, and is an amazing, inexpensive and delicious option,” he says. “The Chilito is maybe my favorite single dish in the city.” Ris Lacoste Owner of In D.C.’s cutthroat restaurant scene, Ris Lacoste’s West End namesake has held strong for the past decade. And to celebrate this milestone, Ris will soon undergo an extensive interior face-lift that will also add more savory American dishes to the menu. As a longtime D.C. resident, Lacoste has a list of favorite indulgences, one being &pizza’s gluten-free pizza topped with spicy tomato sauce, vegan cheese, spinach, mushrooms, grilled onions, bacon, sausage, black olives, banana peppers and garlic oil. “I rarely change [the toppings],” she says. “I did cheat on the dairy and wheat once and had the buffalo chicken pizza, and it was delicious!” Nicholas Stefanelli Chef and owner of If you order carbonara at Nicholas Stefanelli’s Officina at The Wharf, you’ll get cheesy fritters instead of a plate of hearty pasta. The chef isn’t afraid to play with his food, but he doesn’t go completely off the rails either. “We make sure that the heart and soul of what we’re trying to work on stays intact,” he says of his Italian outposts. “If there’s a slight variation on that, or something that we change creates a nuance, you still feel like the dish has some soulfulness to it.” One of his favorite foods to eat during his downtime — besides peanut M&M’s — isn’t quite as nuanced. “I like going to El Rinconcito Cafe on 11th and M for their sopa de res, which is a short-rib beef stew that’s very good.”


Two U.S. soldiers killed in Afghanistan as U.S.-Taliban talks continue

KABUL — Two American service members were killed in combat in Afghanistan on Wednesday, U.S. military officials said, as U.S. negotiators returned to Qatar to resume peace talks with Taliban insurgents and reach a final agreement on the withdrawal of thousands of U.S. troops. The Army Special Forces soldiers died of wounds suffered in small-arms fire in Faryab province, the Department of Defense said in a news release Thursday. They were identified as Master Sgt. Luis F. DeLeon-Figueroa, 31, of Chicopee, Mass., and Master Sgt. Jose J. Gonzalez, 35, of La Puente, Calif. The deaths bring to 14 the number of U.S. service members killed by hostile forces this year, surpassing the total of 13 killed in 2018. About 2,400 have died in Afghanistan since the war began in 2001. In July, two U.S. soldiers were shot dead by an Afghan army soldier who opened fire at a rural military base. The Trump administration is intent on bringing home the bulk of U.S. forces here by next year. The current peace proposal, which top U.S. negotiator Zalmay Khalilzad presented to President Trump last week, would begin bringing home about 5,000 of the 14,000 troops now in Afghanistan once the Taliban leaders formally agree. The insurgents have demanded that all American forces leave before they consider meeting with the Afghan government about the country’s future. They have unleashed a wave of violence in recent months in an effort to gain an advantage in negotiations, including several deadly bombings and ground assaults in Kabul that left scores dead. In an interview Thursday in Doha, the Qatari capital, Taliban spokesman Sohail Shaheen told CBS News that he thought the most recent U.S. troop deaths would have a “positive impact” on the talks. He said the killings demonstrated that “it is very necessary to put an end to the war.” U.S. officials have said the two sides are nearing agreement on the issue of troop withdrawals and on a Taliban pledge to cut ties with al-Qaeda. But disagreements reportedly remain about two other U.S. demands — that the Taliban agree to honor a comprehensive cease-fire and to meet with Afghan officials in follow-up talks. Shaheen, in the interview, suggested that there is support within the Afghan government for the Islamic State, a separate Sunni extremist militia that has been fighting both the Taliban and joint U.S. and Afghan forces. He claimed that such support


Amazon fires could accelerate global warming and cause lasting harm to a cradle of biodiversity

the next couple of months is crucial for determining how significant this is.” An increase in fires and ensuing deforestation in the Amazon make it even more difficult, if not impossible, for countries to hold global warming to “well below” 3.6 degrees (2 degrees Celsius) compared with preindustrial levels, as called for in the Paris climate Agreement. The Amazon, which spans 2.12 million square miles, sucks up about a quarter of the 2.4 billion metric tons of carbon that global forests absorb each year. However, the ability of the rainforest to pull in more carbon than it releases is diminishing, weakened by changing weather patterns, deforestation and increasing tree mortality, among other factors. The ongoing fires will further degrade its function as a carbon sink. Moutinho says the Amazon stores a cumulative total of about a decade’s worth of carbon when using current global annual emissions rates. This amounts to about 90 billion metric tons of carbon. “If you continue to deforest… you are releasing this huge amount of carbon to the atmosphere,” he said. According to Moutinho, the spike in deforestation via wildfires this year follows years of progress on protecting the Amazon. He noted that deforestation was reduced by 80 percent between 2004 and 2012, for example. If the Amazon were to turn into a consistent net source of carbon emissions, it would accelerate global warming while also leading to a huge loss in species that are not found anywhere else on Earth. A study Gomes co-authored this year found that while deforestation is the main threat to Amazonian tree species, climate change may exceed it within a few decades. The research found that a combination of climate change-related impacts, such as increased dryness, along with deforestation to make way for agriculture, could cause a decline in Amazon tree species richness of nearly 60 percent. In a worst-case scenario, without any effective climate policies or programs to limit deforestation, the study found that by 2050, the Amazonian lowland rainforest could become fragmented, harming biodiversity and making the Amazonian ecosystems far less capable of soaking in and storing carbon. The study warned of a “tipping point” beyond which the forest cannot recover. “According to the results of our studies, even in the “best-case” scenario (optimistic), half of Amazonian tree species will be threatened in the future. The trends we’ve seen today could be beyond our “worst-case” scenario,” Gomes said.


With ‘America First,’ some foreign companies in the U.S. fear Trump is putting them last

before layering them into protective garb. DSM, which originated in 1902 as a Dutch state-owned coal-mining company, is located in an industrial park just down the road from several other foreign-owned employers, including Fuji Silysia of Japan, Ceva Logistics of Switzerland and Mayne Pharma of Australia. DSM employs about 23,000 employees in 45 countries and makes animal feed, vitamins, biomedicine and high-performance materials. Annual revenue last year topped $10 billion. The company poured $3.5 billion into the U.S. market between 2010 and 2015, snapping up 17 American companies and expanding some existing facilities. After digesting those moves, Welsh said DSM anticipated a renewed bout of spending. But the president’s trade policies and other factors, including elevated stock prices that make potential acquisition targets expensive, are keeping the Dutch company on the sidelines. “It’s a bit of a schizophrenic scenario,” Welsh said. “The U.S. is a very attractive market. But this uncertainty, this ambiguity, makes it difficult to make decisions on how and where capital will be deployed.” Some of the president’s policies have helped DSM, he said. The 2017 corporate tax cut and deregulation campaign have boosted the bottom line, either directly or by aiding customers. The president’s support for ethanol helped validate plans — first announced in 2017 — to add an enzyme production operation to an existing Emmetsburg, Iowa, plant that produces the corn-based fuel. But Trump’s multifront trade war — which has raised or threatened tariff barriers with China, India, Mexico and the European Union — has made normally routine supply chain planning an industrial puzzle. His recent focus on national ownership has foreign firms worrying they might be disadvantaged by any number of future government policies. In a new survey, 47 percent of chief financial officers at foreign-owned companies said the U.S. business climate is “getting worse.” That is the highest percentage since 2010, when the economy was climbing out of the worst recession in 70 years, according to the Organization for International Investment (OFII), an industry group that conducted the survey. Other executives from non-U.S. companies — who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak with the media — say they struggle to reassure their corporate superiors overseas about Trump policies. His tariffs on industrial metals and goods from China have made the United States less attractive for companies that produce here for export. “When we promote a U.S.


‘Ready to throw officers under the bus’: Baltimore police feel angst over leadership, consent decree

BALTIMORE — Many Baltimore police officers say making an arrest can be nerve-racking — because they feel overburdened by documenting even necessary force, they worry they will be harshly punished for their actions and they don’t feel supported by commanders — according to a recent report. “I don’t feel pride for having 20 uses of force,” one officer said, describing how using necessary techniques against an arrestee who tries to “wiggle” out of handcuffs must be documented. “Now, I am afraid to arrest anyone because I don’t want to have so many uses of force [documented] against me.” The unnamed officer was among 68 surveyed who expressed low morale and confusion about new reforms required under a consent decree. “Feedback from the Field: A Summary of Focus Groups with Baltimore Police Officers,” released last month, was prepared by the Crime and Justice Institute for the Baltimore Police Department Monitoring Team, which is helping the department implement the reforms required by the consent decree. The report was based on eight focus groups of sworn personnel from all three shifts over a three-day period in May. They comprised 40 patrol officers, nine detectives, 10 sergeants and nine lieutenants. The officers were asked about community relations, use of force, the consent decree, leadership and staffing, and areas for improvement. Baltimore Police Commissioner Michael Harrison said Friday that he has heard similar concerns directly from officers. “They expressed their challenges with morale and working conditions,” he said. “Some are reluctant [on the job] for fear of getting hurt or getting in trouble for making mistakes,” he said. Others have told him the consent decree is restricting them, he said. Harrison said he has to tell officers “that the law hasn’t changed.” Rather, the expectations are raised and officers will now be held accountable, he said. Harrison said that he has been attending roll calls to meet with rank-and-file officers to hear their concerns and express his support. He also said that he recently started having monthly roundtable events with about 15 officers; the first was a breakfast at the Center Club. Harrison said that he felt the discussion was positive, and he is hiring more officers and implementing technology that will help alleviate their workload and give them more time to interact with the community and be more proactive. The report echoes some of the concerns expressed by Baltimore police union leadership. It said


Radioactive sushi: Japan-South Korea spat extends to Olympic cuisine

TOKYO — The specter of radioactive sushi on menus at the Tokyo Olympics is a new front in an increasingly vindictive spat between South Korea and Japan, two U.S. allies that can’t seem to get along. With tensions between the neighbors the highest in decades, South Korea’s delegation to Japan’s 2020 Games raised concerns this week about radiation at Olympic venues near the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant and the risk that athletes might consume contaminated food. The protest formed part of a three-pronged attack that suggested South Korea is using the tsunami-induced 2011 nuclear meltdown as another stick with which to poke Japan. The two sides’ dispute over trade and compensation for wartime forced labor escalated Thursday when Seoul scrapped a bilateral military intelligence-sharing pact. On Monday, South Korea said it had summoned a Japanese diplomat to express concerns about the possibility that treated radioactive groundwater stored at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant might someday be released into the ocean — although Japan says the meeting came at its request. A day later, South Korea’s Olympics delegation raised worries about radiation at an international meeting with Tokyo Games organizers, while on Wednesday, Seoul’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety said it would double the radiation testing of some Japanese food imports because of contamination fears. The Korean Sport and Olympic Committee has operated separate cafeterias for its athletes at past Olympics and is considering expanding that operation in Japan due to concerns about food safety, spokeswoman Lee Mi-jin said. In doing so, Seoul has struck at what it knows is a tender spot. Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has set great personal store in a successful Olympics and wants to use the Games as a symbol of hope and recovery after the Fukushima disaster. Six Olympic softball games and a baseball game will be held in Fukushima, the prefecture’s capital city. The Olympic torch relay will start from there, too. Japan’s government says the fears are groundless, with Foreign Minister Taro Kono saying he had “thoroughly explained” the safety of Japanese foods based on scientific evidence when he met his counterparts from South Korea and China on Wednesday. Radiation levels The radiation cloud generated by explosions at the Fukushima reactors spread over thousands of square miles of northern Japan, causing 165,000 people to flee their homes. But officials have been engaged in a massive cleanup since, removing or treating swaths


U.S. sprinter Christian Coleman reportedly missed drug tests, could face suspension

confirming that the sprinter had been charged with the violation and that there would be a hearing about the matter on September 4. A three-person independent arbitration panel will hear the case and issue a decision by the end of the following day. Coleman gave his statement to NBC’s Ato Boldon about the charge, saying he is confident the hearing will clear the matter. “I’m not a guy who takes supplements at all, so I’m never concerned about taking drug tests, at any time,” Coleman said. “What has been widely reported concerning filing violations is simply not true.” Coleman is disputing at least one of the missed tests, according to the Daily Mail, and his ability to race in the world’s biggest events in the next year could hinge on those efforts. He could be facing a two-year ban from the sport if he’s unable to present a compelling defense. Missing a drug test — an athlete’s failure to be available or share his or her whereabouts with drug testers — is treated as a doping violation, and three misses can be treated as a positive test. Missing more than one test is unusual and can raise red flags for doping agencies. Kara Goucher, a long-distance runner who competed at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics, commented on the matter via Twitter on Thursday: “Missing 3 tests in a 12 month period is bad. You can literally text an update of your location at any time.” Coleman won the national title in the 100 at last month’s U.S. championships. He has had his sights set on avenging his second-place finish from the 2017 world championships at this year’s championships, which begin next month in Doha, Qatar. He has posted the world’s fastest time each of the past three seasons, and his personal-best finish of 9.79 came last year at a Diamond League event in Brussels. Coleman ran at the University of Tennessee before turning professional in 2017, when he signed a multiyear contract with Nike. As a 20-year-old, Coleman competed for the United States’s 4x100 relay team at the Rio Olympics. Read more on U.S. track and field: Justin Gatlin, senior spokesman of U.S. sprinters, shows no signs of slowing down Noah Lyles is the fastest man in track and could be the star the sport needs Noah Lyles, living the dream, races to the U.S. championship in the 200 meters


In the D.C. region, the signs are clear: Summer 2019 is nearing its end

By now it has grown clear to most of us that summer, with its many days of great heat, is about to end. But if a celestial sign was required, on Saturday in Washington it may have been the hour and minute at which the sun rose. That moment was, as listed by the National Weather Service, 6:30 a.m. Saturday morning was the last time this summer that the sun would rise here so early. On Sunday, the Weather Service said, sunrise would occur at 6:31 a.m. That early sunrise, almost early enough on some weekends to greet homebound revelers, represents one of the astronomical features of summertime. But of course it would scarcely be summertime without the meteorological features, such as those 90-degree temperatures. So far in 2019, we have had 51 days of 90 degrees or above. But Saturday was nothing like that. (Nor, for that matter, was Friday). In Washington, the high reading on Saturday as recorded at Reagan National Airport was 81 degrees, five below normal. Yes, we have had cooler readings this summer, including, in fact, Friday’s 79. In fact, in July, that broiling month of searing heat, there came a day (July 23) when the mercury reached only 77. It seemed hard to believe, a sign of nature’s capriciousness, perhaps. But Saturday’s 81-degree reading, so late in August, inevitably suggests not a meteorological oddity, but rather an obvious sign that the seasons are changing. “The cool air came as a surprise,” said April Brown. “It’s a nice treat,” she said. “With sleeves. of course.” Another vivid terrestrial sign of that change could be seen in the streets of such neighborhoods as Foggy Bottom. Classes for the 2019-2020 academic year at George Washington University begin on Monday. Students and sometimes their family members moved carts of belongings through the streets. From them lamps projected at rakish angles, their bases embedded in the other appurtenances and items needed to convert dormitory rooms into homes-away-from home. In College Park, the first day of classes at the University of Maryland is also Monday. Georgetown University lags by only two days, with classes set to start on Wednesday. Public school systems have also been preparing to welcome students. The first day of school in the Fairfax County system is on Monday. Suddenly, in one of the most salient signs of the end of summer, the streets and roads of


‘No one just goes hiking in Afghanistan’: American woman gave birth as a Taliban hostage. Now she seeks to end her mystery.

Star Wars forum in 2002. She was smitten. He was charismatic and sure of himself. He seemed to know a lot about the world. He was her first kiss, she said. The son of an Ontario lawyer who later became a tax judge, Boyle had also been home-schooled before attending a Mennonite high school. In college, he studied journalism and told people he wanted to be a war correspondent. He was drawn to groups he saw as misunderstood, including the Taliban. Boyle has spoken publicly of his prolific activity as a Wikipedia editor, which Canada’s National Post has reported exceeded 60,000 edits and focused on areas including terrorism, Star Wars, erotica and Nazi Germany. The relationship was tempestuous from the start. Coleman said Boyle’s insults became more severe, and his attempts to control her gradually grew more extreme. After a brief stint living together in Toronto in 2007, the couple broke up. Boyle then became a spokesman for the family of Omar Khadr, a Canadian who was the youngest inmate at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, when he arrived there at 15. Khadr, who spent a decade at Guantanamo before being transferred to a Canadian prison and released in 2015, became a cause celebre for critics of America’s tactics in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. He is now free and received more than $10 million in compensation from the Canadian government in 2017. Boyle was briefly married to Khadr’s older sister Zaynab, who attained notoriety in Canada for defending the 9/11 attacks. Boyle eventually resumed his romance with Coleman. In 2011, the couple took a backpacking trip through Central America, where they married. According to Coleman, Boyle began dictating what she should wear, whom she talked to and what she said in emails after their wedding. Back home in Pennsylvania after the trip, she began divorce proceedings, but the couple reunited the following spring. Coleman’s family remained wary of Boyle. They described his views as conspiratorial and self-aggrandizing. Her father, Jim, said he was “kind of a weird dude.” Boyle’s mother described her son to a reporter as smart, proud and “very odd.” Jim Coleman said Boyle told him that the West had misrepresented the Taliban and that he planned to travel to Afghanistan to help villagers. Coleman and her family objected, and Boyle agreed to compromise. They would backpack in Central Asia


Hurricanes can’t be destroyed with bombs or any other method. Here’s why.

mining. [Trump denies that he suggested nuking hurricanes. But the government once studied the idea.] Many suggestions advocate cooling the water a hurricane is going to travel over. This makes intuitive sense, since hurricanes need warm water to form and strengthen. But the idea has several weaknesses. First, although forecasts have improved remarkably in the past couple of decades, we wouldn’t know what part of the ocean to cool. Forecasters would have to know exactly where a storm would track to invest the incredible amount of money and energy it would take to cool such a large area of ocean. Environmental effects are probably the biggest concern. Sea life has evolved to live in certain temperatures. Cooling a large part of the oceans could wipe out some fisheries. Also, most parts of the world depend of rain from evaporated seawater. Would cooling a large area of the reduce precipitation over downwind areas? Another common suggestion is cloud seeding, in which tiny particles are injected into the atmosphere to change where clouds and rain form. This is a straightforward method of weather modification that’s useful in specific cases — like drought and snow creating — but has little effect on hurricanes. The first proponent of cloud seeding was Irving Langmuir (1881-1957), the chief scientist at General Electric and a Nobel Prize winner in chemistry. GE scientists had invented ways to use dry ice and later silver iodide to encourage clouds to produce more rain or snow that they otherwise might have. The GE scientists actually attempted cloud seeding on a hurricane on Oct. 13, 1947, when an Air Force B-17 bomber dropped 180 pounds of shaved dry ice into a hurricane over the Atlantic Ocean roughly 350 miles northeast of Jacksonville, Fla. Another B-17 took photos and a B-29 acted as the control aircraft. Those aboard the planes saw no noticeable changes in the storm. Langmuir never published anything providing a hypothesis for his many claims about how cloud seeding would work. After the seeding airplanes left the storm, which had been heading toward the northeast away from land, it turned toward the west and came ashore north of Savannah, Ga., where it killed one person and did an estimated $3.26 million in damage before dissipating over southern Alabama. All in all, it probably makes more sense to learn to safely live with hurricanes than try to destroy or change them.


Catalina, a 3-year-old sea lion, has died at the National Zoo

Catalina, a 3-year-old sea lion at the National Zoo known for being inquisitive and playful, has died, zoo officials said. She was found by zookeepers during a routine check. A necropsy found both of her lungs had collapsed and she had “fluid and an apparent bacterial infection in her chest cavity.” She died Aug. 20, and zoo officials released news of her death Friday. In a statement, they said Catalina’s favorite activities included trying to catch water droplets from a hose. Before she died, Catalina had shown a lack of appetite, which zookeepers said is a regular occurrence “at this time of year when sea lions are molting — but no other signs of illness.” Officials said a full pathology report will be done in the coming weeks. Catalina was born at the National Zoo to her mother, Calli, and father, Jetty, on June 26, 2016. She was known as a sea lion who could “hold her own among the colony." “She seemed to enjoy being in the middle of everything, and often climbed on top of the adults when they were sunbathing,” zoo officials said in the statement. California sea lions typically live 15 to 20 years in the wild and are found along the coast from Mexico to Canada. They’re listed as a “species of least concern” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. In captivity, sea lions can live between 25 and 30 years. The zoo has four other sea lions, including an 8-week-old sea lion pup. Jetty moved last fall to the Queens Zoo in New York. The pup and its mom, Calli, are “behind the scenes,” zoo officials said, “while the pair bonds and the pup develops the swimming skills it needs to safely navigate the large pool in its habitat.” The pup is expected to make its debut at the zoo in the next few weeks. Officials said zookeepers have not determined the pup’s sex or given it a name at this point. In October, it is expected to get its first veterinary exam and experts will figure out its sex then, officials said.


The University of Maryland Medical System needs a cultural overhaul

ONE OF Maryland’s biggest employers, the University of Maryland Medical System, is also one of its most ethically challenged. There might be no other major corporate entity in the state so badly in need of a cultural overhaul. UMMS That’s the background for the scandal that erupted this year thanks to reporting by the Baltimore Sun, which detailed an array of sweetheart deals between UMMS and at least a third of its 30-member board of directors who, charged with providing the organization with leadership and guidance, instead treated it as a cash cow. Most notorious was Catherine E. Pugh (D), who as a lawmaker and then mayor of Baltimore received hundreds of thousands of dollars from UMMS for her insipid “Healthy Holly” children’s books even as she served on the organization’s board. Other board members and their companies also profited from dealings they or their businesses enjoyed with the network. The Sun’s reporting triggered emergency reform legislation in Annapolis; a state-ordered audit; leaves of absences for UMMS board members; and a report commissioned by UMMS itself. Five top executives at UMMS have resigned amid the exposés, including the chief executive and the top lawyer. That’s a fair start on reform. But even as fresh disclosures surfaced, the system sought a 5 percent rate increase for its flagship hospital, the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore. After the Sun reported the hospital is already robustly profitable, the request, which would have produced an additional $75 million of revenue, was withdrawn. At the same time, the board voted to reinstate four of its members who were on leave after it was revealed they had business dealings with UMMS. They included former state senator Francis X. Kelly Jr. , whose Baltimore County company generated some $16 million in revenue in this decade for handling insurance and benefits for the network and its hospitals, according to the Sun. Amid an uproar resulting from his reappointment, Mr. Kelly resigned. Gov. Larry Hogan (R) says he is not inclined to reappoint any current board members after they submit their resignations by the end of this year, as required by the legislation enacted this year. It seems reasonable to expect that people who serve on the UMMS board should have no business dealings with the organization. Still, a new conflict-of-interest policy stops short of that standard, prohibiting instead only contracts for board members and their firms


need of a cultural overhaul. UMMS That’s the background for the scandal that erupted this year thanks to reporting by the Baltimore Sun, which detailed an array of sweetheart deals between UMMS and at least a third of its 30-member board of directors who, charged with providing the organization with leadership and guidance, instead treated it as a cash cow. Most notorious was Catherine E. Pugh (D), who as a lawmaker and then mayor of Baltimore received hundreds of thousands of dollars from UMMS for her insipid “Healthy Holly” children’s books even as she served on the organization’s board. Other board members and their companies also profited from dealings they or their businesses enjoyed with the network. The Sun’s reporting triggered emergency reform legislation in Annapolis; a state-ordered audit; leaves of absences for UMMS board members; and a report commissioned by UMMS itself. Five top executives at UMMS have resigned amid the exposés, including the chief executive and the top lawyer. That’s a fair start on reform. But even as fresh disclosures surfaced, the system sought a 5 percent rate increase for its flagship hospital, the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore. After the Sun reported the hospital is already robustly profitable, the request, which would have produced an additional $75 million of revenue, was withdrawn. At the same time, the board voted to reinstate four of its members who were on leave after it was revealed they had business dealings with UMMS. They included former state senator Francis X. Kelly Jr. , whose Baltimore County company generated some $16 million in revenue in this decade for handling insurance and benefits for the network and its hospitals, according to the Sun. Amid an uproar resulting from his reappointment, Mr. Kelly resigned. Gov. Larry Hogan (R) says he is not inclined to reappoint any current board members after they submit their resignations by the end of this year, as required by the legislation enacted this year. It seems reasonable to expect that people who serve on the UMMS board should have no business dealings with the organization. Still, a new conflict-of-interest policy stops short of that standard, prohibiting instead only contracts for board members and their firms that are not subject to competitive bidding. In this case, the network needs to go the extra mile to reassure the public that strict rules govern a critical player in Maryland’s health-care system.


Nuking hurricanes won’t work, but the U.S. government explored ideas to tame them after Katrina

rejected a proposal from the Department of Homeland Security to engage in hurricane modification research and experiments from 2010 to 2016. In recent years, there has been renewed interest in some segments of the meteorology community for research into hurricane modification. In some respects, this comes from devastating hurricane seasons, particularly the 2005 season that brought hurricanes Katrina and Rita onshore. Following those storms, scientists went on record in Senate testimony in favor of looking into hurricane modification techniques. Mike Garstang, an environmental sciences professor at the University of Virginia who chaired a 2003 National Research Council panel on weather modification, told a Senate committee that weather modification is a “fundamental and legitimate art of the atmospheric and environmental science." D. James Baker, who served as NOAA administrator during the Clinton administration, says more needs to be learned about how hurricanes form and function before any modification work is attempted. “My impression of the field is that it’s like geoengineering the climate — lots of engineering ideas that might or might not work, but so much is unknown that it could be dangerous to try,” Baker said in an email. “I wouldn’t call for research on hurricane modification until we know more about how and why they form, and the exact way that the eyes and eyewalls develop.” A NOAA spokesman said “the primary focus of NOAA’s hurricane research today is better physical understanding of hurricanes and the improvement of forecasts.” The hurricane modification conversation contains many similarities to the scientific debate over geoengineering. Both open up a thorny thicket of issues concerning unintended consequences, but in the case of geoengineering, the lack of progress in reducing global greenhouse gas emissions has led to an increased acceptance of the need to at least explore options to hack the climate. The most popular approach involves scattering sulfate aerosols into the stratosphere, reflecting incoming solar radiation and offsetting the warming influence of greenhouse gas emissions. But as that gains some traction, hurricane modification has languished, viewed as too outlandish and problematic to focus on. As Blumberg notes, climate change is expected to cause hurricanes to be stronger and wetter than they otherwise would be, increasing their damage potential. Studies have also found a link between warming ocean waters and a storm’s rapid intensification rate. Perhaps these trends will provide an incentive to revive his hurricane slayer? Jason Samenow contributed to this report.


To save endangered species, environmentalists need to listen to their fiercest critics

This month, the Trump administration announced changes to the Endangered Species Act (ESA) that would require the government to consider economic effects before listing a species as threatened or endangered. This move sparked stories about all the species pulled from the brink of extinction by the ESA. The law was a massive success, journalists and environmentalists claimed, and these new changes threaten to undo many of the gains in species protection made over the past four decades. But missing from most of the coverage of the rule changes were the voices of people who had often paid a steep price for those success stories: loggers put out of work by the Spotted Owl’s ESA listing in 1990 or ranchers whose herds had been attacked by gray wolves. These men and women who work in resource extraction industries care deeply for the land and have a long and proud tradition of fighting to protect nature. Yet they are siding with the Trump Administration over the ESA rule changes. And that’s the result of decades of environmentalists ignoring the economic consequences of the ESA on these populations. Rather than fighting these loggers and miners, environmentalists who care about saving the ESA would be wise to listen to their criticism. As history shows, the environmental movement has been far more effective when it has included rural people and worked to balance their economic concerns with protecting nature. To see this, it’s useful to go back to the 1950s, when environmentalists looked very different from today. Most tended to come from rural communities. Some had even spent their formative years in mines or logging camps. Take Howard Zahniser. Before he became one of the most influential environmentalists of the 20th century, the president of the Wilderness Society and the architect of the 1964 Wilderness Act, he lived alongside coal miners and loggers in his boyhood home of Tinesta, Pa. While in later years Zahniser became a fierce critic of both logging and mining, he always retained an affinity for these industries’ workers. He had fished the creeks of rural Pennsylvania alongside them and understood they loved nature as much as he. And he understood that jobs in those industries provided the only real economic opportunities for struggling rural communities. Zahniser brought this sensibility to his efforts to pass the Wilderness Act in the 1950s, often fighting just as hard for the economic health of


11 things to do in the D.C. area this week

Monday, Aug. 26 National Dog Day at various locations: [ Sting at Wolf Trap Tuesday, Aug. 27 Red Arrows Flyover and Static Display at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center Wednesday, Aug. 28 Knife Wife at Jackie Lee’s ‘All That Jazz’ at AFI Silver Thursday, Aug. 29 Vampire Weekend at Merriweather Post Pavilion Dark Side of the Rainbow at Denizens Brewing Co. Del Florida at DC9 [ Friday, Aug. 30 Legoland New York Resort at National Harbor Amaro tasting and ‘The Great Beauty’ at Suns Cinema Inter Arma at Atlas Brew Works — Hau Chu, Fritz Hahn, Rudi Greenberg and Chris Kelly


There’s a giant volcanic rock ‘raft’ floating in the ocean. It might actually help boost habitats.

waters stay — and the longer the nutritious algae stays away — the greater the threat. The pumice raft has the potential to deposit new, healthy coral around the reef, Bryan said. “It’s just one way that nature can help promote regeneration,” he told ABC. Martin Jutzeler, a lecturer at the University of Tasmania who studies underwater volcanoes, told the BBC that one downside is that pumice rafts can also transport nonnative, invasive species from one ocean habitat to another. It’s possible the raft might not even make it to Australia, he said. Over time, it will probably break apart and disperse. Terry Hughes, director of the ARC Center of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University in Australia cautioned that if the planet continues to warm, the world’s coral reefs won’t be saved by a pumice raft or any other technological tools. “Reefs will be gone unless we tackle anthropogenic heating,” Hughes wrote on Twitter, about atmospheric warming caused by human activities such as burning fossil fuels. He also noted that the pumice raft is just one two-thousandth the size of the Great Barrier Reef, and that coral rarely settles on pumice. NASA’s Terra satellite detected the pumice raft Aug. 9, and the Operational Land Imager on Landsat 8 captured images of it days later on Aug. 13, according to the Earth Observatory at NASA. The photos showed the mass floating near Late Island in Tonga. Around the raft was discolored water, a sign that the volcano that produced it was just below, the Earth Observatory reported. Shannon Lenz and Tom Whitehead encountered the pumice raft as well, telling the BBC in a video interview that the floating stones had stretched “to the horizon on all sides.” “First we thought it was whale poop,” Whitehead told BBC. “But then as it became obvious there was way more of it than any normal-sized pod of whales could come up with.” Read more: Global warming has changed the Great Barrier Reef ‘forever,’ scientists say Coral reefs are bleaching four times as frequently as they did in the 1980s, scientists say We finally know why Florida’s coral reefs are dying, and it’s not just climate change The Great Barrier Reef is being battered by climate change, and it might only get worse Opinion: The world has barely a decade to avoid disaster. We need to combat climate change — now.


Natural gas leak suspected in explosion that ‘probably totaled’ Columbia, Md. commercial building

A natural gas leak is the suspected cause of an explosion and fire that destroyed a shopping center in Columbia, Md., early Sunday, fire officials said. The building was “probably totaled,” but there were no reports of injuries, they said. The explosion, which could be felt several miles away, occurred shortly before 8 a.m. at 8865 Stanford Blvd., in a building that houses several small businesses and offices in a popular commercial district of Columbia, off Snowden River Parkway, according to Howard County emergency officials. Emergency responders checking out reports of the smell of gas had evacuated the building just minutes before the explosion. Officials said it was fortunate the blast happened on a Sunday morning. “If it had been a normal workday, the evacuation and the clearing of the area would have been a little bit harder, and we definitely would have had different circumstances,” Stephen Hardesty, battalion chief for the Howard County Department of Fire and Rescue Services, said at a news conference. Firefighters investigating the smell about 7 a.m. discovered a small crater about 10 feet long and a couple inches wide in front of the building with natural gas leaking from it, Hardesty said. They checked the building and immediately evacuated bystanders, backing up about 1,000 feet from the building. “We were formulating a plan when the building exploded,” Hardesty said. “The building is probably totaled. . . . There is a lot of structural damage.” The Lakeside Columbia building, a property managed by Holland Properties, has a gym, a coffee shop and small restaurants on the first floor. There are legal, medical and other professional offices in the building. A large portion of the L-shaped building is occupied by a Social Security field office. Denise Weist, a spokeswoman for the county fire and rescue services, said officials are still assessing the damage and it would be an “extended operation” to determine what is repairable. The building remained at risk of collapsing Sunday afternoon, authorities said. Hardesty said fire crews were working with building inspectors and the property owner to secure and stabilize the structure. Hardesty said it was unclear what caused the gas leak, but fire investigators are working with the utility company, Baltimore Gas and Electric, to pinpoint the origin. BGE issued a statement, saying that it received a call from the fire department early Sunday about a gas leak and that a utility


A secretive space drone just broke its own orbit record, and almost no one knows what it’s doing

The X-37B — the Air Force’s ultra-secretive, astronaut-free spacecraft that looks like a miniaturized space shuttle — just broke its own flight record of 719 days in continuous orbit. What, exactly, the experimental spacecraft has been doing for almost two years straight has puzzled analysts who can only speculate about the Pentagon’s ambitions over the low-orbit vehicle. The Air Force has said, “The primary objectives of the X-37B are twofold: reusable spacecraft technologies for America’s future in space and operating experiments which can be returned to, and examined, on Earth.” Pretty clear, right? In September 2017, defense officials said the X-37B’s mission — its fifth since 2010 — would demonstrate the potential for getting to space quickly and “on-orbit testing of emerging space technologies” while testing experimental electronics in zero gravity. Its playground is an important one, and may provide clues to the spacecraft’s true mission and what payload it may carry. Low Earth orbit is where the International Space Station circumnavigates the planet, and where many military and commercial satellites are situated. As future conflict increasingly has a dimension in space, war outside our atmosphere could be focused on killing vital surveillance and navigational satellites to give terrestrial armies an advantage. Scaling down big, unwieldy satellites to smaller, equally capable satellites to get lower in orbit makes a lot of sense when you need higher resolution images of, say, missile launch sites in North Korea or Chinese operations in contested areas of the South China Sea. Lower orbit requires more maneuverability, which means more fuel, Air and Space magazine reported. And the X-37B is using Hall thrusters that use an electric field to accelerate xenon propellant, which means more intricate movements can be done without relying on a lot of fuel on board. That application would be prized on reconnaissance satellites that need to stay low for years, the magazine reported. The X-37B, a diminutive spacecraft with less than a 15-foot wingspan, has been the subject of intense speculation since its initial mission in 2010. And the Air Force has relied on SpaceX to get it to space. In 2017, the company launched the spacecraft atop a Falcon 9 rocket. Air Force officials have been notoriously tight-lipped about the capabilities and mission of the classified X-37B program, and typically have dumped laundry lists of densely worded objectives onto reporters and analysts. “Technologies being tested in the program include advanced


Why it’s always Infrastructure Week

civil war. The long struggle over the Transcontinental Railroad began in 1845, when a dry goods merchant named Asa Whitney proposed building a continuous iron highway from the Great Lakes to the Oregon coast. Rival schemes followed from virtually every part of the country, with numerous cities vying to become the road’s eastern terminus (and major beneficiary of the anticipated trade). Partisans in this debate expected a tremendous windfall for whichever section ultimately won the railway. The road would boost trade, encourage migration and strengthen political ties across all the lands it touched. But that also meant that the railway waded into the thicket of the most divisive political issue of the day: the westward expansion of slavery. It all came down to where the railroad would run: across the free states of the North or through the plantation districts of the South? If the former, the railway would facilitate the expansion of an economic system that rejected enslavement. If the latter, slavery might extend across the continent. Slaveholders, acutely anxious about their declining share of congressional power, proved particularly vigilant in pursuit of a Pacific railroad. Almost annually throughout the late 1840s and 1850s, leaders convened to advocate for a railroad through the slave states and into California. But more than the American West was at stake. Slaveholders understood that an iron thoroughfare could also provide the plantation economy with a direct outlet to the Pacific trade, potentially rerouting Asia’s commerce through the slave South, and vice versa. They hoped to build upon a burgeoning cotton trade to China, spurred by the first formal commercial arrangement between the two nations, signed in 1844. Planters had visions of transporting their cotton across the country via rail before shipping directly from ports along the Pacific. Cotton was already king in the Atlantic world. A southern Transcontinental Railroad might push its dominion into the Pacific, as well, thereby safeguarding slavery and the slave economy in perpetuity. In this race to the Pacific, slaveholders scored several major victories. In 1853, James Gadsden of South Carolina was dispatched to Mexico to negotiate a purchase of land from America’s southern neighbor. The “sole object” of his mission, according to Secretary of State William L. Marcy, was to secure the best possible route for a southern Pacific railroad. The final treaty — America’s last act of territorial expansion before the Civil War — purchased roughly 30,000


Could pandas get caught in the U.S.-China trade war?

President Richard M. Nixon once mused on the sex lives of the National Zoo’s giant pandas. In 2015, first lady Michelle Obama and the first lady of China, Peng Liyuan, attended the naming of one of the cubs. Now, in light of the U.S.-China trade war, the giant pandas could again take on a high political profile. The National Zoo’s beloved black-and-white bears, which have delighted Washingtonians for generations and created joyous episodes of pandamania and profit, often have been on the world stage. But next year, the extended 20-year Chinese lease of the two adults — Mei Xiang, a female, and Tian Tian, a male — will be up Dec. 7. The zoo said it has not started discussions with the Chinese about the lease and could not speculate on an outcome. And the U.S. political landscape by late 2020 is a mystery. “Our agreements are based on science surrounding the giant pandas,” zoo spokeswoman Pamela Baker-Masson said. “We’ve accomplished a lot over the last 40-plus years. Now both sides have to take a look at what the future science goals should be, and they go from there.” Chinese and American giant panda experts get on “exceptionally well,” she said. The zoo’s only other giant panda, Bei Bei, who turned 4 on Aug. 22, is slated to be gone within the next few months. By prior agreement with the Chinese, all giant panda cubs born in U.S. zoos must be sent to a breeding program in China once they turn 4. Two of the zoo’s cubs have been shipped to China in recent years, and plans for the transfer of Bei Bei are underway, the zoo said. The adults are present under different terms from their offspring. The National Zoo is hopeful that China will not leave Washington pandaless and has said that collaboration with Chinese scientists on giant pandas has been highly beneficial for both counties. Should giant pandas be caught up in relations between China and the United States, it would not be the first time. Milestones in the pandas’ tenure in Washington have been celebrated by top officials from both countries. During World War II, China gave New York’s Bronx Zoo two pandas in gratitude for American war relief. In February 1972, at a dinner in Beijing, first lady Patricia Nixon told Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai how fond she was of giant pandas, the zoo’s website


and Hsing-Hsing died in 1999, leaving the zoo’s giant panda house empty for the first time in 27 years. The pair had several cubs, but none survived. In 2000, China sent the zoo Mei Xiang and Tian Tian on a 10-year, $10 million lease. In 2011, an almost five-year agreement was signed, lowering the annual lease price from $1 million to $500,000. And in 2015, another deal was reached to keep the giant pandas in Washington until next year. Meanwhile, the zoo has been waiting to find out whether Mei Xiang is pregnant. The Panda House closed Aug. 7, anticipating that she might be with cub. Zoo experts said Mei Xiang, 21, started to show changes in her behavior this month that might be a sign that she’s pregnant — or having a false pregnancy, which is relatively common in pandas. Mei Xiang had false pregnancies last year, and in 2017, 2011, 2010, 2009 — possibly in 2008 — and in 2007 and 2004. This year, her levels of progesterone were rising, and she remained indoors, both signs of possible pregnancy. It’s tricky to get a giant panda pregnant. The animals are in estrus for only 24 to 72 hours each year. Typically when a female giant panda is pregnant, she will spend more time sleeping and less time eating. Pregnant pandas also become more sensitive to noise, which is why officials decided to close the Panda House. Mei Xiang is licking her paws and cradling toys — two more signs that she could be pregnant. And officials said she has “started building a small nest of shredded bamboo in her den,” which she adds to at night. In March, Mei Xiang was artificially inseminated using semen from Tian Tian. The panda gestation period usually lasts 90 to 185 days. Zookeepers have been doing regular ultrasounds on Mei Xiang for the past month. She is on the older side for giving birth, but officials said some giant pandas have given birth when they were older than she is. Mei Xiang, whose name means “beautiful fragrance,” has birthed three surviving cubs: the males Tai Shan and Bei Bei, and the female Bao Bao. Tai Shan was born July 9, 2005, and now lives in China. Bao Bao was born Aug. 23, 2013, and was moved to China in 2017. The animals are listed as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation


Remnants of a supernova were found in Antarctic snow. The space dust could be 20 million years old.

A star collapses when it dies, spewing out space dust in a giant cloud of elements that make for very beautiful Hubble Telescope photos. The “explosion,” called a supernova, results in either a black hole or an incredibly small, dense star that no longer generates heat. A supernova also shoots space dust out in all directions that travels through the universe, occasionally coming into contact with other stars, planets — whatever happens to be in its path. Earth has been around long enough to collect particles from exploding stars, even though it’s difficult to find the evidence. But sometime in the past 20 years, space dust from a supernova intersected with Earth and settled in Antarctica. The dust itself could be as old as 20 million years. Scientists found a strange version of iron in relatively fresh Antarctic snow, according to a study published in the journal Physical Review Letters. Specifically, it was an isotope of iron, Fe-60, that astronomers know was present when our solar system formed. The discovery of the iron-laden dust could help scientists form a clearer timeline of our solar system. Gunther Korschinek and his colleagues at institutes in Germany and Austria were hunting for evidence on Earth of a supernova in space. They chose Antarctica, Korschinek said, because they wanted a sample from “a very clean area, that is not disturbed by dust from surrounding material.” They ended up hauling a half-ton of snow from the nearly uninhabited, frozen continent to their labs in Europe, under the hypothesis that they might find such stardust evidence. And their methods were relatively rudimentary. Researchers found the best snow samples in unfrequented areas of Antarctica, of which there are many. The snow had to stay frozen on the trip for this analysis to work, so they scooped it into plastic-foam containers and kept the temperature low on the roughly 10,000-mile trek. From the research station, the snow was loaded onto a plane and then headed to the shore of Antarctica’s coast. From there, it was taken by a research boat to South Africa, before getting on another boat to Europe. Finally, the boxes made their way into a van and on their way to a lab, where the snow was melted and filtered. Korschinek was able to receive small samples so his team could analyze the elements found in the snow. The iron-60 was there, but they had


Nukes, plugs and walls: Humanity’s harebrained schemes for combating natural disasters

nearly 1,000 feet, or almost twice the size of the Washington Monument — that the idea is impractical at best. After the paper’s publication, a graduate student at North Carolina State University wrote a rebuttal study that found the proposed walls wouldn’t break up tornadoes, they would simply redirect them, potentially creating a new Tornado Alley. Such is the law of unintended consequences. Trump, whose own history with science includes his colorful and vehement denials of climate change, has also taken on other types of natural disasters: notably, wildfires. Last year, he won international mockery for suggesting that Californians — then recently ravaged by the deadliest and most destructive blaze in state history — should rake their forests to prevent fires. Just like Finland. The Finnish president denied talking to Trump about large-scale raking efforts, and the reality of California’s wildfire problem is much more complex. It’s also made much worse by a changing climate’s hotter temperatures and drier land. A real solution will take much more than rakes, experts have said. However, clearing debris on the forest floor is a much better way to prevent fires than, say, a nuclear bomb is to prevent a hurricane. Such tactics ignore the fact that humans are a part of nature, not in contest with it, Brannen said. “I think we will be in a battle with nature for as long as humanity sees itself in opposition to nature rather than embedded in the systems of nature,” he said. “It’s going to be a war with nature until we lay down our arms.” On Monday evening, Trump repeated his denial that he had suggested nuking future storms. Such an idea, he said via Twitter, would be “so ridiculous.” And on this point, he and the scientists agree. Dig deeper: Weather + History Want to explore how extreme weather has impacted history? Check out our curated list of stories below. Get smart about weather’s impact on history Mother Nature gave George Washington an assist in winning the Revolutionary War. Context matters: The reason hurricanes have names The National Hurricane Center started officially naming hurricanes in 1950. The naming system remained largely unchanged until 1979, when men’s names were introduced into rotation. Understanding why the Earth needs seasons Scientists say that without seasons, not only would there would be less variety in plant and animal life, but it’s possible life wouldn’t exist at all.


Departing top admiral acknowledges Navy’s struggle with character issues

17 sailors. In the Special Operations force, several Navy SEALs have faced criminal charges this year, including two who were accused in the death of a Green Beret soldier, Staff Sgt. Logan Melgar, in Mali in 2017. One of the SEALs in the case, Senior Chief Special Warfare Operator Adam C. Matthews, pleaded down to lesser charges, while Senior Chief Special Warfare Operator Anthony DeDolph still faces trial. In another incident, a platoon of Navy SEALs was sent home from Iraq last month after a female service member working with them was allegedly sexually assaulted by a senior enlisted member of the platoon. The investigation into that incident is ongoing. Richardson said an ethics review of all Special Operations units that was launched by Army Gen. Richard Clarke, the chief of U.S. Special Operations Command, will inform how the Navy looks at the issue. Clarke said the review will address aspects of Special Operations culture that include education, recruiting and training. Some Pentagon officials have said that they do not see a link between frequent deployments in recent years and bad behavior, but Richardson posited that it could at least be a contributing factor. “If you think about when you and I go home each night, you know, we are with our friends and our families and those sorts of righting forces keep us centered, and it’s all reinforcing,” he said. “It strengthens our character. But when you get way forward-deployed for a long time, those forces aren’t as strong.” The ethical issues stretch beyond the SEALs. In the recent court-martial of Special Warfare Operator Chief Edward “Eddie” Gallagher, a Navy SEAL who faced a murder charge for allegedly stabbing a wounded Islamic State fighter in Iraq, Navy officials allegedly used a tracking bug in an email to spy on defense attorneys and a Navy Times journalist, prompting a public outcry and the removal of a prosecutor in the case. Gallagher was acquitted of most of the charges he faced in July. Richardson assumed control of that case and two others this month and launched a review of the Navy Judge Advocate General Corps. The admiral said the service will bring in outside experts to offer opinions. In a separate action, the Navy recently completed a review at Richardson’s direction that examined administrative actions to better handle bad behavior that falls short of criminal conduct. The effort was launched after