Marathon champion Rita Jeptoo gets two-year doping ban

(Tony Karumba/AFP) Rita Jeptoo, a three-time winner of the Boston Marathon and two-time winner of the Chicago Marathon, received a two-year ban from Athletics Kenya after she failed a doping test in September. The Associated Press has more: Jeptoo tested positive for the blood-booster EPO in an out-of-competition test last September, a few weeks before winning her second straight Chicago Marathon title. Both the “A’’ and “B’’ samples were positive. Athletics Kenya announced Friday that Jeptoo was suspended from all competition until Oct. 29, 2016. The sanction rules her out of this year’s world championships in Beijing and next year’s Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. The 33-year-old Jeptoo is the biggest name among dozens of Kenyan athletes who have failed drug tests in recent years. The World Anti-Doping Agency has urged Kenya to step up its drug-testing program and is working with the east African country to help set up a national anti-doping body. According to Athletics Kenya President Isaiah Kiplagat, 32 Kenyan athletes have been banned or suspended for doping over the past five years.


Your handy criminal justice guide to the Super Bowl

abusers rather than when they actually experienced the abuse that prompted them to flee). Myth: Reality: Around the time of the 2014 Super Bowl, leaders from the Polaris Project — an advocacy organization — wrote a column in the Huffington Post, in which they acknowledged that the evidence for a spike in trafficking around the Super Bowl is slim. And the idea detracts from the fact that trafficking occurs year-round. The Global Alliance Against Trafficking in Women, an advocacy group, published an extensive report on sex trafficking and the major sports events, including the Super Bowl, in 2011. “The hype around large sporting events and increases in trafficking for prostitution is often based on misinformation, poor data and a tendency to sensationalize,” the report says. “On various occasions, politicians have uncritically repeated this claim, despite the fact that numerous researchers, anti-trafficking experts, and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have stated that there is no evidence of a link between large sporting events and trafficking for prostitution.” PolitiFact rated Cornyn’s statement as “mostly false.” Myth: Reality: Their staffs attributed the 300-percent figure to a study by Traffick911, an anti-trafficking religious nonprofit based in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. The group led anti-trafficking efforts ahead of the 2011 game in Dallas, and monitored Web sites used to advertise escorts (i.e., prostitutes) with suggestive titles that specifically addressed the Super Bowl. On Jan. 15, 2011, there were 135 escort ads on backpage.com, a Web site that posts listings for everything from furniture to cleaning services and includes an adult section with escort ads. On certain days in the weeks after that, the number of ads increased, the group said. On the day before the Super Bowl, Feb. 5, 2011, there were 367 ads. That is a 172 percent increase, so the 300-percent figure is simply incorrect. But, beyond the lawmakers’s basic failure to use a calculator properly, there was no basis for comparison in the study. How did the particular days in those three weeks compare to similar days in the three weeks leading up to the 2010 Super Bowl in Miami? How many ads were there during the same three weeks in a non-Super Bowl year in Dallas? How do the three weeks compare to other three-week periods during the rest of the year? How many ads were actually placed by law enforcement in an effort to arrest potential clients of prostitutes? . . .


Is the Pentagon hyping climate change? Here, take a look.

But that’s not true, said officials with both the Air Force, which manages one set of launch pads, and NASA, which manages another. While Cape Canaveral has been battling beach erosion due to stronger storms, its launch pads have never flooded. And while there is a revised development plan for the cape that involves building future launch pads farther back from the sea – an “adaptation strategy for assured national access to space,” as one presentation put it – those launch pads have yet to be built. “I think you just got a bad rumor somewhere along the line,” said Nancy Bray, deputy director of operations at John F. Kennedy Space Center. In an interview, Conger acknowledged the error. “We’ve done some fact-checking today, because you raised the issue, and what was changed was the master plan,” not the actual location of the launch pads. “I’ve used that example in the past, and I won’t anymore.” Still, Cape Canaveral does offer a genuine example of how the Pentagon is affected by global warming, Conger said. “The fact of the matter is … we’ve changed the planning document to take into account climate change.” Finally, we come to the example that set this whole line of inquiry in motion: Conger’s assertion that two military bases are running out of water. “There are a couple bases that run out of water in the West in twenty years,” Conger said last June at a conference on sea-level rise hosted by Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) at Old Dominion University. “What do you do when a base runs out of water? Truck it in like you do in Afghanistan?” That’s an intriguing question, but one that turns out to be largely theoretical. Because the bases – Fort Irwin National Training Center in California’s Mojave Desert and Mountain Home Air Force Base in the high desert of southern Idaho – are decades away from running out of water. A water truck douses a road with recycled water to keep the dust down in September in Fort Irwin, Calif. Fort Irwin is in the Mojave Desert and is home to the National Training Center. (Photo by Matt McClain/ The Washington Post) At Fort Irwin, the Army has implemented a host of conservation measures – landscaping with desert plants rather than grass, for example – that have slashed annual water consumption from 1 billion gallons to around 700


The saddest story Roald Dahl ever wrote — about his daughter’s death from measles — is worth reading today

British children’s author Roald Dahl in 1971. (Dumant/Getty Images) Updated Some people “Acute encephalitis occurs in approximately 0.1% of reported cases,” says the CDC. “Onset generally occurs 6 days after rash onset (range 1–15 days) and is characterized by fever, headache, vomiting, stiff neck, meningeal irritation, drowsiness, convulsions, and coma. Cerebrospinal fluid shows pleocytosis and elevated protein. The case-fatality rate is approximately 15%.” Roald Dahl, the renowned author of “Boy,” “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” “Matilda” and scores of other books and screenplays, lost his daughter Olivia to measles encephalitis in 1962. In 1988, about seven years before his death, he wrote a poignant plea for the Sandwell Health Authority in Britain urging everyone to get their kids vaccinated. Dahl’s recounting of his experience has been rediscovered and recirculated in recent days because of the measles outbreak in California, spread largely by unvaccinated individuals who came in contact with an infected visitor to Disneyland. Here, in part, is what he wrote: Olivia, my eldest daughter, caught measles when she was seven years old. As the illness took its usual course I can remember reading to her often in bed and not feeling particularly alarmed about it. Then one morning, when she was well on the road to recovery, I was sitting on her bed showing her how to fashion little animals out of coloured pipe-cleaners, and when it came to her turn to make one herself, I noticed that her fingers and her mind were not working together and she couldn’t do anything. “Are you feeling all right?” I asked her. “I feel all sleepy,” she said. In an hour, she was unconscious. In twelve hours she was dead. The measles had turned into a terrible thing called measles encephalitis and there was nothing the doctors could do to save her. That was twenty-four years ago in 1962, but even now, if a child with measles happens to develop the same deadly reaction from measles as Olivia did, there would still be nothing the doctors could do to help her. On the other hand, there is today something that parents can do to make sure that this sort of tragedy does not happen to a child of theirs. They can insist that their child is immunised against measles. I was unable to do that for Olivia in 1962 because in those days a reliable measles vaccine had not been discovered.


Why measles should be the thing that freaks politicians out

This post has been updated. Gov. Chris Christie's (R-N.J.) declaration on Monday that vaccinations against diseases like measles should incorporate a "balance" of parental concerns with public health recommendations met with a quick, often derisive response. It's easy to see why. "Not every vaccine is created equal," Christie said, "and not every disease type is as great a public health threat as others." In short order, that comment was contrasted with Christie's forceful response to a possible Ebola case in his state. In that case, Christie mandated that Kaci Hickox be quarantined against her will -- suggesting that Christie feels that Ebola is a greater public health threat than the measles. In West Africa, that's been true. In the United States, it has not, by a wide margin. According to data from the Centers for Disease Control, there were four cases of Ebola diagnosed in the United States last year. In contrast, there were 644 cases of measles. This year, a measles outbreak at Disneyland has pushed the number of cases in the country up quickly -- but no one else has contracted Ebola. We've noted that one of the Ebola cases diagnosed in the U.S. died -- the first man to receive the diagnosis. Measles is less deadly than Ebola, but still deadly. In about two of 1,000 cases among children, the patient dies. Others suffer from less severe complications. But the most salient comparison between the two is that measles, unlike Ebola, can largely be prevented through the use of vaccinations. Ebola transmissions can be kept in check through quarantines, yes, but measles was eradicated in the United States in 2000 thanks to the use of vaccinations and education programs. Now, in part thanks to parents opting to ignore public health advice, it's back. Update: We've also updated the graphic to include data from the last three days of January. RELATED Amid growing vaccination debate, measles continues to spread and is now in New York state The Disneyland measles outbreak and the disgraced doctor who whipped up vaccination fear Anti-vaccine doctor revels in his notoriety Why this baby’s mom is so angry at the anti-vaxxers The CDC is urging people to get vaccinated for measles amid an outbreak that began at Disneyland and has now spread to other states, including Utah, Washington, Oregon and Colorado.


White House budget: All systems go at NASA

A handout picture made available by NASA shows NASA’s Orion spacecraft, mounted atop a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket after the Mobile Service Tower was finished rolling back at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 37, Fla., Dec. 4, 2014. (EPA/NASA/Bill Ingalls) The president’s budget keeps NASA on its current trajectory, with an $18.5 billion top-line number and an all-systems-go approach on such key, high-cost initiatives as the Orion crew capsule and the Space Launch System rocket, both of which are still under development, and the James Webb Space Telescope, which is scheduled for a 2018 launch. The budget also includes $1.2 billion for the Commercial Crew program. NASA has awarded contracts to Boeing and SpaceX to take astronauts to the International Space Station using newly designed “commercial” spacecraft that will finally return launch capability to U.S. soil after many years in which the United States, having retired the shuttle, had to depend on the Russians to get Americans into space. This significant investment in that program brings the taxi-to-orbit concept a step closer to reality. Also still funded: NASA’s controversial Asteroid Redirect Mission, an elaborate endeavor that would use a robotic probe to haul a small asteroid out of its natural orbit around the sun and into an orbit around the moon. There — if all goes as planned — the rock would be visited, sometime in the 2020s, by astronauts aboard Orion in one of the first missions of that new capsule. Politically the mission is fraught because it is closely associated with Obama — who nixed his predecessor’s plan to put astronauts back on the moon — and has been the target of steady opposition from congressional Republicans. The budget includes $5.3 billion in funding for space science. That will go toward the next rover on Mars, as well as toward the development of a robotic mission to Europa, the moon of Jupiter that has long intrigued scientists because it shows signs of a subsurface ocean.


A Super Bowl ad took on the nation’s heroin problem, but this drug could do more

opioids, meaning that it blocks drugs like heroin and hydrocodone from exerting their effect in the brain. When naloxone is administered, opioids are rapidly forced out of brain receptors. The effects of opioids – most notably the potentially fatal suppression of breathing – are reversed as a result. When the heroin epidemic of the 1960s and 1970s waned, many people forgot about naloxone. Not only was there less need for it, but once its patent expired there was no financial incentive for drug manufacturers to continuing marketing it to prescribers. But over the past 15 years the explosion of U.S. opioid prescribing generated a new epidemic of addiction to drugs such as oxycodone, which more recently has cascading into rising heroin use as well. As the annual number of opioid overdoses began climbing, naloxone had a renaissance, particularly the possibility of moving it out of the emergency room and into the community where non-physicians could use it in overdose emergencies. Research on how expanding access to naloxone affects overdose death rates is at a preliminary stage, but all signs so far are encouraging. A recent evaluation of a program that trained community members how to recognize and respond to opioid overdose (including how to administer naloxone) found a decrease in community-wide overdose death rates. Since police in Quincy, Massachusetts began carrying naloxone, they have been reversing about one overdose every 10 days. The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy reports that over a third of the states have passed naloxone access legislation and companion “Good Samaritan” provisions. Civil liability protections for police officers who carry naloxone and physicians who make it available to community members (e.g., the parent of a heroin-addicted teenager) are common Good Samaritan provisions. Good Samaritan provisions also sometimes grant immunity from drug possession charges to drug users who contact 911 during an overdose crisis. Naloxone does not always succeed in reversing an overdose, does not remove any underlying addiction and does not obviate the need for medical care for overdose. Yet it remains life-saving in many circumstances. Given the flurry of state-level legislation and the fact that a bipartisan group of U.S. Senators are pushing to help more states equip first responders with naloxone, it seems likely that more communities will be using naloxone in the coming years to reduce the deadly toll of opioid overdose. Keith Humphreys is a Professor and Director of


Chart: New measles cases skyrocketed in January

Data released Monday To put it another way, we've had about twice as many new measles cases in the past 31 days as we did in all of 2012. Last year was a record year for measles, with 644 new cases confirmed in 2014 -- the highest in decades. If the California outbreak continues to spread, this year's totals could end up much higher. From a public health standpoint, policymakers are in something of a bind. The impulse is to urge parents to vaccinate their children, as President Obama recently did. But when politicians get involved, the danger is that a public health issue becomes a political one. On Monday morning, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie tried to set himself apart from Obama's position by calling for "balance" on the vaccine debate, only to hastily walk back his statements hours later. It's nigh impossible to change hearts and minds on vaccines; a recent study found that presenting vaccine skeptics with facts only reinforced their views. Over at The Upshot, political scientist Brendan Nyhan warns that "news articles focusing on an extreme and unrepresentative group of anti-vaccine parents and celebrities may cause others to wrongly infer that their views are mainstream." In reality, their numbers are small -- in California, for instance, only about 2.5 percent of kindergartners hold "personal belief exemptions" that allow them to opt out of state vaccine requirements. Large outbreaks and big infection numbers, like what we're seeing in California, may scare some skeptical parents into holding their nose and getting their kids the required shots. Reporting out of California from my colleague Todd Frankel suggests this may already be happening.


The Chipotle effect: Why America is obsessed with fast casual food

the chain's growing full-service, sit-down business. Call it Chipotle In lieu of a rigid understanding, the category is perhaps best defined by those restaurants that best exemplify its essence. And few, if any, chain is more closely aligned with the concept than is Chipotle. "Chipotle is really the one that comes to mind," said Tristano. "Not just because of the format, but because of the food and mission. It has everything that fast casual means today." The Mexican chain has come to embody not only the present but also the future of fast casual sector. Chipotle both has satisfied all of the conventional qualities of the category—food quality, freshness, efficiency, transparency, etc—and has managed to etch out a new standard that is increasingly central to the category: sustainability. Other fast casual chains, including Panera, seem to be following suit. Panera has taken steps to be more environmentally friendly, including a redesign of all of its packaging last year to promote recycling. "What consumers are looking for is the best value proposition," said Bonnie Riggs, an industry analyst with NPD group. "And value doesn't mean the cheapest price." Better food, better business The origins of the fast casual category date back to the early 1990s, when chains like Fuddruckers and Au Bon Pain introduced a new, slightly more upscale version of the otherwise supremely cheap and quick options available at competitors like McDonald's and Subway. What separated those pioneers from the rest of the fast food industry was little more than a commitment to an elevated experience in food and atmosphere. "What we saw early on with fast casual was mainly an emphasis on offering a better product," said Tristano. "It was the price point, but also the food quality, the ingredients, the experience." The name Fuddruckers and the word pioneer might sound strange when paired together, but that first generation was a food movement in its infancy, pushing consumer demands for better food and better value to only modest ends. Over the years, the fast casual category has evolved to accommodate a heightened interest in health, sourcing, ethics, and value, all of which have coalesced in the likes of Chipotle. "We noticed this incredible thing at the start of the recession," said Riggs." Traffic in the restaurant industry was negative for two years in a row, which we had never seen before. Quick service was flat; full service was flat.


When Craigslist comes to town, HIV infections go up, study says

(Craigslist/File) Craigslist is the place where numerous communities conduct the everyday business of life: Locating affordable apartments, selling household items, buying cars and, yes, finding people with whom to have sex. Researchers at University of Minnesota and New York University have linked the latter type of transaction, facilitated thousands of times each day via Craigslist’s personal ads, to a 15.9 percent increase in HIV infections after the site moves into a new U.S. market. Their findings were published in the December edition of MIS Quarterly. The study — titled, in part, “Internet’s Dirty Secret” — found that Craigslist transactions are linked to more than 6,000 cases of HIV infection nationwide each year, resulting in as much as $65.3 million in annual treatment costs. “I actually think that the creators of Craigslist had no intent of harming society,” researcher Jason Chan said in a news release. “They came in with good intentions. At the same time, they did not anticipate that users could use the features in an unexpected way with unintended consequences.” Chan, now an assistant professor of information and decision sciences at University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management, told the Minneapolis Star Tribune that the idea for the study originated while he was a doctoral candidate at New York University and read about a doctor “who traced sexually transmitted diseases to online chat rooms.” “I went to Craigslist in New York and went through the ads,” said Chan, who wrote the journal article with Anindya Ghose, a professor at NYU’s Stern School of Business. “To my shock, I found out almost all the ads were hookup ads. They were very explicit.” Chan and Ghose analyzed data in 33 states between 1999 and 2008, according to the study. Because Craigslist enters a community with existing HIV trends, researchers were presented with a unique opportunity to measure how the site seems to influence a given market after its arrival. The study notes that a one-year delay exists between the arrival of Craigslist and an increase in HIV cases in a particular community. Chan attributes the delay to to the time it takes for the site’s local popularity to grow and for infected individuals to get a diagnosis, according to the Star Tribune. “In particular,” the researchers wrote, “we argue that the introduction of Craigslist provides users with the ability to locate and socialize with specific groups of individuals who are


Freedom of speech vs. right of publicity in sports computer games

Rogers/Restatement Approach. The Second Circuit in Rogers v. Grimaldi, 875 F.2d 994 (2d Cir. 1989), concluded that even an expressive work’s title — and certainly the work’s content — may include a person’s identity, unless the use is “‘wholly unrelated’ to the individual [or] used to promote or endorse a collateral commercial product.” Id. at 1004 (noting the need to “limit the right [of publicity] to accommodate First Amendment concerns”). In Rogers, the Second Circuit upheld Federico Fellini’s right to use Ginger Rogers’ identity in a fictional work called Ginger and Fred, a film about two entertainers who patterned their lives on Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire. Rogers’ identity played a much larger role in the film than any particular player’s identity plays in the Electronic Arts games considered by this Circuit; even so, the Second Circuit held that the use of Rogers’ identity was allowed. The Restatement (Third) of Unfair Competition has endorsed this test. See Restatement (Third) Unfair Comp. § 47 cmt. c (1995) (proposing that “entertainment or other creative works” be exempted from all liability for uses of others identities unless a “name or likeness is used solely to attract attention to a work that is not related to the identified person”). The Keller majority distinguished Rogers on the theory that Rogers only tried to predict state law “in the absence of clear state-law precedent.” Keller, 724 F.3d at 1281. The Rogers discussion of the right of publicity, however, expressly stressed that courts must “recogniz[e] the need to limit the right to accommodate First Amendment concerns” and a “concern for free expression.” Rogers, 875 F.2d at 1004. The Rogers court’s analysis is therefore helpful in analyzing the First Amendment issues. And given the Keller majority’s acknowledgment that video games are as protected as films, the Rogers test should apply to video games as much as to films. If Rogers were applied to the present case, defendants’ use of the players’ identities would be protected, because the use was relevant to the underlying expressive work and was not “used solely to attract attention” to an unrelated commercial product. 2. The C.B.C. Approach. In C.B.C. Distrib. & Mktg. v. Major League Baseball Advanced Media, 505 F.3d 818 (8th Cir. 2007), the Eighth Circuit concluded that there is a First Amendment right to use “information … readily available in the public domain” even within fantasy sports games. Id. at 823.


What Super Bowl manvertising says about men’s new role in America

| Dove Men+Care The Super Bowl may be the apex of manvertising, but it is far from the only way that brands are targeting men these days. Changes in American jobs and gender roles over past decades are putting more men in the position to buy and use commercial products for their homes and families. And that means brands are putting more effort than ever into marketing toward men. Historically, most consumer brands have focused on women. Because women traditionally held the purse strings for their households, the advertising industry’s target customer has typically been a “she.” Most estimates say that women account for between two-thirds and 80 percent of U.S. consumer spending. They are also more active in managing the home: On average, women still spend significantly more time doing work in and around the house than men do, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Know More http://knowmore.washingtonpost.com/2014/10/20/the-u-s-government-weighs-in-on-who-in-your-house-should-be-doing-that-next-load-of-laundry-4/ Yet men are doing more housework, grocery shopping and childcare than ever before. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 32 percent of fathers with working wives regularly cared for their children in 2011, up from 26 percent in 2002. Research by Nielsen shows that American women took fewer trips to most retail stores in 2012 than they did in 2004, while the trend for men moved in the opposite direction. Nielsen, U.S. Women Control the Purse Strings, http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/news/2013/u-s--women-control-the-purse-strings.html A survey by market research firm NPD Group found that men are the primary grocery shoppers in 41 percent of U.S. households. In another survey, 54 percent of married men say they shop for groceries and household supplies more than their spouse. (We’ll never know what their spouses would say about that.) These new responsibilities are a result of changing ideas about gender roles, as well as simple economics. Two-income households are increasingly the norm in the U.S.: For roughly half of all married couples, both partners were employed in 2013. Nontraditional households consisting of single people or roommates are also growing at a faster pace than traditional ones, meaning more men are in charge of purchasing decisions for their households. Given this shift in attitudes and behaviors, brands are trying to identify how and when to market to men. Dannon’s Oikos Greek yogurt adopted more gender-neutral packaging; other food companies found that bold flavors and high-protein meals performed better among men. Sometimes it’s a simple issue of organization: Procter


GNC, Target, Wal-Mart, Walgreens accused of selling adulterated ‘herbals’

A shopper looks at the vitamin selection at a Walgreens drug store in New York in 2004. (Jennifer S. Altman/Bloomberg) A warning to herbal supplement users: Those store-brand ginkgo biloba tablets you bought may contain mustard, wheat, radish and other substances decidedly non-herbal in nature, but they’re not likely to contain any actual ginkgo biloba. That’s according to an investigation by the New York State attorney general’s office into store-brand supplements at four national retailers — GNC, Target, Walgreens and Wal-Mart. All four have received cease-and-desist letters demanding that they stop selling a number of their dietary supplements, few of which were found to contain the herbs shown on their labels and many of which included potential allergens not identified in the ingredients list. “Contamination, substitution and falsely labeling herbal products constitute deceptive business practices and, more importantly, present considerable health risks for consumers,” said the letters, first reported today by the New York Times. The tests were conducted using a process called DNA barcoding, which identifies individual ingredients through a kind of “genetic fingerprinting.” The investigators tested 24 products claiming to be seven different types of herb — echinacea, garlic, gingko biloba, ginseng, saw palmetto, St. John’s wort and valerian root. All but five of the products contained DNA that was either unrecognizable or from a plant other than what the product claimed to be. Additionally, five of the 24 contained wheat and two contained beans without identifying them on the labels — both substances are known to cause allergic reactions in some people. [How a fake doctor made millions from ‘the Dr. Oz Effect’ and a bogus weight-loss supplement] Of the four retailers, Wal-Mart was the worst offender: None of its six supplements that were tested was found to contain purely the ingredient advertised. Target’s supplements were the least misleading of the lot — though that isn’t saying much, since tests on six of the brand’s products resulted in only one unqualified positive. Two of Target’s other supplements contained DNA from other plants alongside their purported ingredients, while the remaining three tested negative. Harvard Medical School assistant professor Pieter Cohen, who is an expert on supplement safety, told the New York Times that the test results were so extreme he found them hard to accept. He suggested that the manufacturing process may have destroyed some of the ingredients’ DNA, rendering the DNA barcode test ineffective. On the other


Why a few unvaccinated children are an even bigger threat than you think

the measles can spread rapidly, causing huge outbreaks. (Marcel Salathé) In order to stop the growth in the number of transmissions, we need to ensure that each individual case causes, on average, less than one new infection. So, let’s say that one case leads on average to two more infections, but instead we want that number to be less than one. That means at least 50 percent of the population needs to be immune, so that at most, only one of the two people who might have been infected by an individual will be. When the vaccination coverage reaches a certain threshold, full herd immunity can be attained in principle. (Marcel Salathé) How many people need to get vaccinated to achieve herd immunity? So, how do we calculate what fraction of a population needs to be immune to reach herd immunity? First, we need to know what the reproduction number, or R, is. That’s how many new cases a single case of an infection will cause. Imagine that you are infected in a completely susceptible population, and you pass on the infection to five other people (ieR=5). In order to prevent an outbreak, at least four out of those five people, or 80 percent of the population in general, should be immune. Put differently, 20 percent of the population may remain individually susceptible, but the population would still remain protected. So if you can estimate the reproduction number for a given disease, you can calculate the fraction of the population that needs to be immune in order to attain herd immunity. For influenza and Ebola, the number R is about two. For polio and smallpox, it is around five to eight. But for measles it is much higher, somewhere between 10 and 20. And because of that, the goal for measles vaccination coverage is typically around 90 percent to 95 percent of a population. But there’s a problem with this calculation. The population is not random The assumption underlying the calculation for herd immunity is that people are mixing randomly, and that vaccination is distributed equally among the population. But that is not true. As the Disneyland measles outbreak has demonstrated, there are communities whose members are much more likely to refuse vaccination than others. Geographically, vaccination coverage is highly variable on the level of states, counties, and even schools. We’re fairly certain that opinions and sentiments about vaccination can


Common sense on vaccinations

We hear a lot about ‘irresponsible political rhetoric’ — offering inaccurate information that can affect people’s personal choices and health is irresponsible, and not really political rhetoric at all.”) What is interesting is that Richard Epstein, as he did on foreign policy, demolishes Paul’s hooey and rides to the rescue of sanity on behalf of libertarians who don’t buy the rubbish that this is all a matter of personal freedom. First, on the science he explains, “Before the measles vaccine in 1963, the death rate from measles was close to twice that from polio. Fortunately, the new vaccine turned the situation around. In 1963 and 1964, there were over 800,000 cases of measles in the United States. By 1982, vaccination had largely eliminated the disease. Measles made a modest comeback around 1990, and then fell quiescent—until the recent outbreak of measles cases at Disneyland in California, which, as it spreads, puts the issue of vaccines back on the table.” One factor in reducing immunization, he says, “is the spread, sometimes deliberate, of misinformation that overstates vaccination risks. This sentiment is often fueled by powerful suspicions that drug companies are greedy and governments corrupt. This entire episode was fueled by fraudulent studies published by Dr. Andrew Wakefield in 1998 in Lancet magazine, which twelve years later the journal eventually retracted, but only after much of the damage was done. Those studies, which had been funded in part by plaintiffs’ lawyers suing vaccine manufacturers, purported to find a (nonexistent) link between vaccines that were manufactured using a mercury-based compound, Thimerosal, and autism. Unfortunately, Lancet’s forthright retraction of the article did not quell the uneasiness about vaccines in either Britain or the United States. Indeed, it may well have fueled populist concerns of an ever-wider conspiracy among establishment figures.” So there — libertarianism does not necessitate quackery. On a constitutional level, Paul and others claiming the “right” not to immunize are also on shaky ground. Epstein reviews the applicable case law and confirms, “The blunt truth is that even libertarians and other defenders of small government should support the basic constitutional framework that gives public officials extensive powers to control against infection and disease by devices such as quarantine and vaccination. Apart from the forced vaccination of compromised individuals, it is difficult to carve out some enduring constitutional island of individual rights from the general principle of state control. The weak constitutional system


This month in food contests: Make chili, brew beer or get on Shake Shack’s playlist

Dining out is a passive experience. You order food and it's brought to your table and consumed. At a bar, you ask for a drink and sip it. But it doesn't have to be this way: This month, restaurants and breweries are offering patrons the opportunity to be full participants in the experience, crafting the soundtrack, making lunch and even creating their own versions of a popular beer. Hill Country is looking for Washington's best chili - Texas-style or otherwise - at its Feb. 21 Chili Cook-Off. (Photo by Kris Coronado) Shake Shack's Burger Beats Contest Hill Country Chili Cook-Off Atlas Brew Works Rowdy-ish Homebrew Competition


Everything you need to know about measles

and polio, according to the CDC. Why would anyone refuse to be vaccinated or to inoculate his children? In 1998, a study published in the prestigious medical journal the Lancet suggested that the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine could cause autism. The research by Andrew Wakefield was later discredited and the study was retracted by the journal in 2010. But the paper set off a movement among people who continue to believe that there could be a link between the vaccine and autism. It has been fanned by the support of some celebrities. Vaccination is also opposed by some people on religious grounds, and some states allow parents to opt out of vaccinating their children based on "personal beliefs." California, epicenter of the current outbreak, is one of them. With the latest measles outbreak spreading fast, you may be surprised by the state with the best child vaccination rate in the country. Do children really get 10 vaccinations at once, as Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said Monday? Close, but not really. Under the standard recommended vaccine schedule, a child could receive five injections and an oral vaccine at two months. Some of those injections cover more than one illness — the DPT injection, for example, protects against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (whooping cough). At 12 months, the same child might receive six injections that protect against eight diseases, if the physician didn't use a combination vaccine, Sawyer said. But most do. However, many physicians will spread those multiple injections over a few weeks if it makes parents uncomfortable to administer so many during a single visit, Sawyer noted. Doctors are free to tinker with the schedule a bit, he said. But that becomes a problem when some parents decide to delay vaccinations by months and even years, he said. In that case, children are going too long without critically needed protections against very serious illnesses, he said. Right now, with a measles outbreak in Southern California, Sawyer said he would not recommend even a short delay in a measles immunization. See the vaccination schedule recommended by the CDC and the American Academy of Pediatrics here. Isn't measles a lot worse in some other countries? Why? Yes. Twenty million people get measles annually and in 2013, about 145,700 of them, mostly children younger than 5, died. Consider the 2014 totals in the Philippines (53,357 confirmed cases) and China (50,960 confirmed cases),


Young adults are driving vaccine skepticism in the U.S.

Vaccine skepticism is highest among 20-somethings (photo: Washington Post). Who are the vaccine skeptics? On the heels of the Disneyland vaccine outbreak, that's what everyone wants to know. As with just about every other major issue facing the country, the temptation is to divide it along familiar left/right political divides. It may seem natural that Republicans, who tend to be skeptical of mandates and government intrusions, would be most opposed to vaccination policies. Or that Democrats, distrustful of big businesses like pharmaceutical companies, would harbor the most skepticism. But as it turns out, we're asking the wrong question. Public opinion polling shows that vaccination attitudes don't differ much by party affiliation. Or by income, or even education. But there is one important demographic factor: age. Millennials -- 18 to 29-year-olds -- are about twice as likely as senior citizens (65+) to say that parents should decide whether their kids get vaccinated, rather than having it mandated by law. Republicans and independents are more likely to say this than Democrats, but here the split is not as stark. More strikingly, 21 percent of millennials say it's likely that early childhood vaccinations are linked to autism, compared to only 3 percent of those aged 65+. There's little variation by political party on this question. The Pew Research Center, which polled the first question, posits that "One possible reason that older groups might be more supportive of mandatory vaccinations is that many among them remember when diseases like measles were common." Having come of age in an era when measles was declared eradicated, millennials have no generational memory of time when hundreds of thousands of Americans were stricken with the disease each year. Not to mention polio, or smallpox. Vaccines are partially a victim of their own success. They've done such a great job of wiping out deadly diseases that it's easy to become complacent. Largely liberated from having to worry about measles outbreaks, or tetanus, or polio, we're able to fret over whether vaccinations comport with an "all-natural" lifestyle. But we've forgotten that the incredible success of vaccination programs is what afforded us that luxury to begin with. It may take more California-style outbreaks to jolt our memory.


Next Day’s News: Jordanian pilot latest, politics of vaccines, three-parent babies in Britain and more

Activists protest in Amman, after the release of a video purportedly showing Islamic State captive Jordanian pilot Mouath al-Kasaesbeh being burnt alive, February 3, 2015. Islamic State militants released the video on Tuesday and Jordanian state television said Kasaesbeh was murdered a month ago. Reuters could not immediately confirm the video, which showed a man resembling the captive pilot standing in a black cage before being set ablaze. The signs read: “We demand the execution of Islamic State detainees in Jordan”. REUTERS/Ahmad Abdo (JORDAN – Tags: CIVIL UNREST CONFLICT POLITICS) Here’s a look at tomorrow’s top talkers from Washington Post reporters and columnists who know the topics best. ISIS/JORDANIAN PILOT: ‘TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD’ SEQUEL: POLITICS OF VACCINE/ MEASLES OUTBREAK LATEST: CHRISTIE ABROAD: FCC/NET NEUTRALITY ANNOUNCEMENT: BRITAIN’S THREE-PARENT BABIES:


Night sky trio: Full “snow” moon, Jupiter, and International Space Station TONIGHT

Groundhog Day full moon, February 2, 2015 (Kevin Wolf via Flickr) There are three reasons to check out the night sky tonight: the Full Snow Moon, Jupiter by its side, and a quick pass of the International Space Station. Mostly clear skies in the D.C. area should provide ideal viewing for this astronomy triple feature. The full “snow” moon will rise from the east sky at 5:35 p.m. and won’t set to the west until 7:15 a.m. Wednesday. “February’s full moon is aptly named the Full Snow Moon as snowfall can be heavy this month,” notes Universe Today. The moon will snuggle up close to Jupiter for much of the night – within about 4.5 degrees. “The brilliant twosome will reach its high point for the night around midnight, and will descend westward in the wee hours after midnight,” notes EarthSky. Evening sky map. ( EarthSky) Tonight presents a great opportunity to take a closer look at either the moon or Jupiter through your telescope. Writes Geoff Chester of the U.S. Naval Observatory: After the Moon, Jupiter is the most rewarding target for the small telescope. Simple spotting scopes will show the four moons first described by Galileo over 400 years ago, while instruments of progressively larger apertures begin to reveal subtle details in his furiously evolving atmosphere. The prominent dark equatorial cloud belts straddle a bright zone that betrays the presence of a massive jet stream that boasts speeds approaching 600 miles per hour; the interaction between the dark belts and brighter zones cause localized storms to form and dissipate in a matter of hours. Many of these storms are the size of continents on the Earth, and some of the longer-lived ones are larger than our entire planet! Jupiter, imaged February 1, 2015 (Geoff Chester) Lastly, the International Space Station will zip across the southwest corner of the sky, first visible at 7:21 p.m. It will only be up there for two minutes in the D.C. area, appearing initially 11 degrees above southwest and departing 29 degrees above south-southwest. It will have a longer pass Wednesday evening, appearing first 10 degrees above south at 6:29 p.m. and departing 21 degrees above east-southeast four minutes later.


PM Update: Calm and clear this evening; Warmer than average Wednesday

Two-hour satellite loop. Blue sky finally appeared around noon today, and combined with light winds it made for a pretty nice afternoon. Clear skies this evening may provide a great opportunity to check out the full moon next to Jupiter and a pass of the International Space Station all in one go! Wednesday’s highs are about 10 degrees above average, so take a moment to soak up the “mild.” Through Tonight: Tomorrow (Wednesday): See Matt Rogers’s forecast through the weekend. And if you haven’t already, join us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter A beautiful pink shot of the Jefferson Memorial during this morning’s picturesque sunrise. (Angela Pan via Flickr)


Two helpful resources for understanding measles and vaccinations

The ongoing measles outbreak has drawn attention to a virus that had faded from prominence, which means many people — particularly younger people who have lived through years when barely anyone had measles in this country — may not be fully aware of how measles works and how severe it can be. So here are two useful resources to help anyone feeling like they want to learn more about the disease and the ongoing arguments over vaccinations: Everything you need to know about measles This guide walks you through the symptoms of measles, how it spreads and details about the measles vaccine (along with why some people refuse to vaccinate their children). My colleagues Lenny Bernstein and Charity Brown helpfully knock down some myths about vaccinations (no, kids don’t usually get 10 vaccinations at once) and explain why measles, which until recently was largely absent from the United States in this century, remains a considerable danger around the world. How fast does measles spread? Okay, so you understand the measles. How does the disease actually spread? How does the spread differ if it’s a place where some people haven’t been vaccinated versus a location where there is no vaccination program at all? Bonnie Berkowitz and Lazaro Gamio created this graphic to illustrate the different scenarios and explain what would happen: Related links: Younger Americans are much more likely to say vaccination should be a choice Parents skip vaccinations for other reasons than being anti-vaccines How the U.S. went from eliminating measles to a measles outbreak at Disneyland The measkes outbreak and the disgraced doctor who whipped up vaccination fear More than 100 measles cases confirmed in the U.S. With the latest measles outbreak spreading fast, you may be surprised by the state with the best child vaccination rate in the country. The debate about mandated vaccinations has the political world talking. A spike in measles cases nationwide has President Obama, lawmakers and even potential 2016 candidates weighing in on the vaccine controversy.


The tweet of tolerance that lived on after a Japanese journalist was beheaded

pilot Muath al-Kaseasbeh, 26, stalled. On Tuesday, the Islamic State released a video purportedly showing militants burning Kaseasbeh alive. Goto, a 47-year-old freelance journalist and father of three, was captured October 2014 in Syria as he was trying to secure the release of Haruna Yukawa, whom he met while traveling in the region. For days, Jordanian and Japanese officials had been negotiating for Goto's and Kaseasbeh's release in exchange for an Iraqi woman on death row in Jordan for her role in a 2005 triple-bombing in Amman. Talks appeared to stall after Jordan insisted upon getting proof that the pilot was still alive. The Jordanian Armed Forces issued a statement Tuesday saying Kaseasbeh was killed a month ago, but it did not give details explaining how it determined the timeline. By Saturday, Goto's beheading was made public. Japan referred to the killing as an "atrocious act of terrorism" and "horrific act" that had outraged the nation. As the Associated Press notes, Goto's Twitter feed is full of the kind of tweets you'd expect from any other journalist, including his reporting and thoughts on topics as mundane as French wine. “I want to cuddle with the people. That’s the best way to express my approach,” Goto had once said about his work, AP reported. “By cuddling with them, I can talk with the people. I can hear their views — their pain and their hopes.” The veteran journalist frequently reported from orphanages and refuge camps, and in 2005, wrote about children suffering in Sierra Leone. “Kenji has left us on a journey,” his 78-year-old mother Junko Ishido said, according to AP. “It is my only hope that we can carry on with Kenji’s mission to save the children from war and poverty.” His youngest daughter was three weeks old when he departed for Syria, and he left a video recording behind, according to AP. "No matter what happens to me, I will always love the people of Syria," he said on the recording. A protester holding a photo of Japanese journalist Kenji Goto who was taken hostage by the Islamic State group appeals to the government to save Goto during a rally in front of the prime minister's official residence in Tokyo on Jan. 30, 2015. The news of a video purportedly showing the killing of Goto rushed through Japan early Sunday, Feb. 1. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara, File) Yuki Oda contributed.


Infrared images of space allow new views, reveal hidden stars

This picture compares a new view of the Trifid Nebula in infrared light, from the VVV VISTA survey (top) with a more familiar visible-light view from a small telescope (bottom). (ESO/VVV consortium/D. Minniti/Gábor Tóth) Images of the same space object can look very different from one another, depending on what wavelength of light the space telescope or orbiter was capturing. In a new image taken with the European Southern Observatory's VISTA telescope, the Trifid Nebula -- one you've probably seen before -- is cast in a whole new light. And by cutting through the gas and dust captured in visible light photos, the new infrared images has revealed previously unknown stars. The Trifid Nebula gets its nickname from the dense interstellar cloud that cuts through it, which looks like a cosmic road cutting the cluster into three sections. But in infrared, these dark lines are missing, as are the glowing pink and blue lobes they cut through. The blue burn of hot young stars, the pink spray of hydrogen clouds, and the blur of light-absorbing cosmic dust are all overlooked. But because those light-absorbing clouds let infrared light (which has a longer wavelength than visible light) right through, we get to see what's behind all the beautiful muck. Two newly discovered Cepheid stars are visible in the new image. (ESO/VVV consortium/D. Minniti) That's exactly what scientists wanted to do when they pointed VISTA thereabouts: The Trifid Nebula is only about 5,200 light-years away, but it sits in the general direction of the center of the galaxy. Researchers are trying to get a closer look at the middle of the Milky Way (which is 27,000 light years away) and beyond. The new image reveals two distant stars called Cepheid variables. These bright stars are unstable, and they brighten and fade over time. The pair of stars, which are about 37,000 light years away, were described in a paper published Wednesday in Astrophysical Journal Letters. Read More: Stunning new picture of the Pillars of Creation What it looks like when one galaxy pulls another apart NASA releases breathtaking new space images in honor of the International Year of Light


How craft beer is fighting back against Budweiser’s belligerent Super Bowl ad

peach ale." Budweiser reminds Super Bowl watchers that its beer is not brewed to be "fussed over." The industry snapped back quickly at Bud's bullying. Abita Brewing in Louisiana unveiled a video saying, "We don't make one-size-fits-all beer," and adding, "Yeah, we made a pumpkin peach beer. It was good. Damn good." Ninkasi Brewing, in Oregon, on Tuesday released a parody ad asking, "If you aren't drinking a beer for taste, what are you drinking it for?" and dubbing craft "the future of beer." Hopstories, which makes videos for the craft beer industry, issued a video rebuttal saying craft beer is "not brewed to be slammed." Northern Brewer, a homebrew supplier, even launched a $39.99 "Peach of Resistance" kit for rebels wanting to brew pumpkin peach ale: "Sip away pretense ... (with) just a touch of nonconformity." In e-mail ads, it riffed off Bud's catchy slogan, saying, "This kit's for you!" Bud parent company Anheuser-Busch, bought by Belgian-Brazilian beer conglomerate InBev in 2008, has plenty to be afraid of. The average American is drinking 40 percent less of the mass brew than in 2004, and company research found that nearly half of all drinkers between the ages of 21 and 27 haven't even tried the beer. While overall beer sales in the U.S. in 2013 sagged 2 percent, craft beer sales from America's 2,700 microbreweries and brewpubs climbed 17 percent, Brewers Association data show. But Bud's Super Bowl ad was especially weird because it is firing barbs at the same kind of breweries that its parent company hopes to profit off. Anheuser-Busch has unveiled craft-esque ales, like Shock Top, and spent millions to dip its hands in successful craft breweries, like Red Hook, Widmer Brothers and Elysian, the latter of which even has a peach pumpkin beer to its name. In the face of backlash, Bud has already walked back its attack, with marketing executive Brian Perkins saying, "This is an affirmation of what Budweiser is, not an attack on what it isn't." In a tweet, a representative for the beer said, "We're not anti-craft. Just pro-Bud." But Bud's big rivals are already gloating over a new chance to strike. MillerCoors, the brew conglomerate behind Miller Lite and Coors Light, tweeted an image late Monday saying, "We believe all beers should be fussed over," and adding, "All brewing is a craft. And when it's done right, it should be respected."


Why China is investing $250 billion in Latin America

(Ng Han Guan/Associated Press) Over the past few decades, China has become a leading global player in international trade and finance. While the United States was entangled in its financial crisis, China intensified its “go global” strategy to expand its international economic influence. In its global quest for energy, raw materials and export markets, China has increased its presence in Latin America. Most recently, China pledged to invest $250 billion in the region over the next 10 years. But why has China decided to make such a sizable commitment to Latin America at the same time growth is slowing back home? How do Chinese investment activities compare to Western approaches? And will China be able to recoup its investments in a region with a history of debt problems? In comparison to the United States, where markets and short-term profits have often ruled the day, China focuses on the longer term. China has sought to expand its economic footprint internationally to promote the growth and stability of its own economy. For example, concerned about scarcity of food and resources, China has aimed to secure long-term access to energy and raw materials through global trade and investment. Latin America’s abundant resources and scarce capital make it an ideal target for this strategy. How does China achieve these objectives? The Chinese Development Bank (CDB) plays a vital role, lending billions of dollars to Latin American countries in exchange for future commodity deliveries or guaranteed contracts with Chinese firms. After first venturing into extractive industries, China has expanded into the food, agricultural and construction sectors, creating a growing regional infrastructure network to secure trade routes and commodities. China touts this expanding relationship as mutually beneficial, but it poses several risks. Much scholarly attention has been focused on the potential for Latin America to become too dependent on China. But China also is creating vulnerabilities for itself. China employs the CDB, its largest overseas lender, as a financing tool to promote opportunities for Chinese firms and contractors abroad. Chinese loans to Latin American governments often are accompanied by fewer conditions and lack the traditional Western emphasis on fiscal rectitude. (They instead emphasize non-interference in domestic affairs, as stipulated in China’s Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence.) China is thus willing to make what are in essence risky bets. The Chinese Development Bank, for example, until recently did not fret much about Venezuela’s credit risk given that


Photos of the Snow Moon and Jupiter from Washington, D.C., and beyond

(Richard Barnhill via Flickr) Tuesday night featured a fun trio of celestial objects — the “Snow Moon,” Jupiter and an International Space Station pass. Given the clear evening skies, Capital Weather Gang readers joined photographers around the country in documenting the conjunction. The view of the Snow Moon — another name for the full moon that occurs in February — was particularly beautiful through a telescope. After it rose above the horizon around 5:30 p.m., Washington photographers captured the Snow Moon’s coincidence with Jupiter, which was just 4.5 degrees away in the sky. (Joseph Gruber via Flickr) (Joseph Gruber via Flickr) From Bel Air, Md. (John Kunzelman via Facebook) (Joe Seamone via Facebook) Bonus astronomy! Venus and Mars were also visible at twilight over the city. Venus can be seen shining brightly in the southwest sky in this photograph by Richard Barnhill. Venus and Mars over Washington. (Richard Barnhill via Flickr) Many social media photos from around North America featured the Snow Moon and Jupiter wrapped in a halo. That bright star beside the Moon tonight? It's Jupiter! - http://t.co/tUWPbRKRrH http://t.co/Rp0hMzqiid Tonight's cloudy moon rise from Little Rock, Arkansas, USA. Tonight's full moon is the Snow Moon. #moon http://t.co/rzTkq1ZhXl BarnegatBayIsland,NJ sent us tonight's moon view at the Manasquan Inlet Jetty,Pt Pleasant Beach,NJ. @GarySzatkowski http://t.co/UCFVBNN5r3 Moonrise tonight over #LakeOntario in #RochesterNY @Ginger_Zee @DandC @News_8 @13WHAM @news10nbc @JimCantore #Roc http://t.co/iAgf1vZaCP Vicky Stroupe's photo of the full moon through the pylons at Garden City Pier. 3scwx http://t.co/ext8OnNPLZ Full snow moon in conjunction with Jupiter @capitalweather http://t.co/nXMJmz4OOx Great snow moon tonight @capitalweather http://t.co/xSODAgWU07 Another beautiful moon rise. This from Cindy Lilly in Pawleys Island. #scwx http://t.co/M4pefqqodB WOW! Tonight's full "snow moon" seen from eastern Iowa. Photo courtesy of Lisa Smith. #Moon http://t.co/1oGQB7WNOL Jacob Zimmer sent me this AMAZING full moon picture tonight over the #Louisville skyline!!! WOW!!! http://t.co/YsXFrRvhp4


Wall Street is turning its back on a basic driver of economic growth

Xerox PARC's Ed Chi wears a head mounted eye tracking device in Palo Alto, Calif. in 2001. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma) Once upon a time, some major U.S. corporations functioned almost like universities. Many of the country's brightest scientists worked in the research departments of firms such as DuPont, AT&T and Merck, and they were largely free to pursue whatever paths their experiments opened for them. "That was a pretty special period in American history, indeed in world history," said Ashish Arora, an economist at Duke University and one of the authors of a new working paper titled "Killing the Golden Goose? The Decline of Science in Corporate R&D." He and his colleagues found that these days, large firms are less willing to maintain laboratories in house or to buy small companies with promising ideas, and that investors on Wall Street place less value on scientific capability. The authors, who also include Duke's Sharon Belenzon and Andrea Patacconi of the University of East Anglia in England, argue that the change may be due to increasing competition from overseas firms. With narrower margins and less spare cash, firms lacked the resources to make risky, long-term bets on science. Yet the authors did not find evidence that science has become less valuable. Indeed, firms are investing as heavily as ever in the proverbial goose's golden eggs -- applied research and patents. That is, companies remain dependent on the fruits of scientific research. If anything, shareholders value patents more highly than before, and large firms will pay a premium to buy out smaller competitors with many patents. "There's a pessimism out there that somehow all the important discoveries have been made and the remaining ones are going to be harder," Arora said. "Our data casts some doubt on that pessimism." Research isn't only useful to firms because it can yield new, profitable technologies. Since corporate researchers are often in touch with colleagues at universities and other companies, a staff of qualified scientists can provide all kinds of useful intelligence to managers at large firms. They can help identify patents or small businesses worth buying up. And in a large corporation that manufactures a range of products, a measure of intellectual freedom can help the company's bottom line. Whatever a company scientist happens to discover, an engineer in some other department has a chance of putting it to use. At the same time, scientists in


Why Coca-Cola wants to sell the world expensive “science milk”

that is growing. And they're growing fast: Sales of milk alternatives, which include soy milk and almond milk, have quadrupled since 1999, according to data from Euromonitor. Fairlife is also low in sugar, which has fallen victim to recent health narratives. Several studies, including one published last year, have tied added sugar consumption to an increased risk of heart disease. Sugar has been found to be highly addictive. And Americans, though they are eating less sugar today than they once did, are still eating too much. The most compelling aspect of Coca-Cola's new milk offering, however, isn't what the drink doesn't have; it's what it does have: protein, and lots of it. With 50 percent more protein than your average milk, Fairlife tiptoes into the lucrative world of protein supplements. And it's fairly easy to see why: protein shakes, bars, and supplements are booming. "The only issue that U.S. adults are now checking on the Nutrition Facts label on the back of foods and beverages is the amount of protein," Harry Balzer, chief industry analyst and author of Eating Patterns in America, noted in a press release for a study on protein by market research firm NPD last year. The study found that more than half of Americans say they want more protein in their diet, while roughly one quarter say they actively look for protein content on nutrition labels. Coca-Cola is also entering into the milk market at time in which the industry is highly fragmented. There are so few recognizable brands in the milk aisle that store brands have managed to capture roughly a third of the milk market. If Fairlife finds an audience, it could stem that trend by establishing a powerful brand in an industry light on name power. Convincing Americans to drink Fairlife, however, won't come without problems. Fairlife will, as Coca-Cola has noted, be much more expensive than regular milk, which could prove problematic. One of the reasons big milk brands have lost customers to store-brand milk is that when people buy milk, they are trading down and buying the cheapest milk available. Dean Foods, which sells TruMoo and Tuscan, noted last fall that the trend was compromising its sales. The fact that Fairlife is made by means of "a proprietary milk filtering process" isn't likely to sit well with everyone either. Steven Colbert alluded to the reality last fall, when he responded to


As Elon Musk tries for another incredible rocket landing, a glimpse of the future

The unmanned Falcon 9 rocket launched by SpaceX on a cargo resupply service mission to the International Space Station (ISS), lifts off from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida January 10, 2015. An unmanned Space Exploration Technologies mission blasted off on Saturday carrying cargo for the ISS, but efforts to reland the rocket on a sea platform failed, the firm said. The Dragon cargo capsule itself was successfully launched into space and is expected to dock with the space station on Monday. REUTERS/Mike Brown The last time Elon Musk tried to pull off an incredible landing from space, the rocket crashed and exploded in an awesome fireball. Now he’s going for it again. If SpaceX, his startup space company, can land the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket on a floating platform in the Atlantic Ocean Sunday evening, it will mark a huge step toward developing rockets that perform like airplanes--fly, land and fly again—instead of crashing and burning up after one use. But beyond the audacious attempt, which comes as part of a unmanned mission to launch a satellite for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, it’s clear Musk has much grander plans. The billionaire entrepreneur, who wants to colonize Mars, gave a glimpse of his vision when he recently released an animation of what it would look like if SpaceX’s far more powerful Falcon Heavy rocket could land and be reused. Check it out: According to SpaceX, when Falcon Heavy launches later this year, it will be "the most powerful operational rocket in the world by a factor of two." The Falcon Heavy is a monster that has thrust at liftoff equal to about 18 747'\s taking off at the same time. With a test flight scheduled for later this year, it’s the rocket SpaceX hopes to use to eventually get to Mars. As for the launch scheduled for Sunday evening, it comes after last month’s attempt to land a rocket booster on what Musk calls an “autonomous spaceport droneship,” essentially a modified barge that’s 300 feet long by 170 feet wide. The rocket used its engine thrust to slow down from a speed of about 3,000 mph, but ran out of hydraulic fluid. It hit the barge, an amazing feat by itself, but crashed and exploded. This time, the rocket will have “way more hydraulic fluid,” Musk has said. Here's the video


No, climate models aren’t exaggerating global warming

edges of the corresponding predicted ranges, they weren’t consistently at the higher or lower edges. Basically, when the models were missing the mark, they weren’t doing so consistently in one direction. So, it’s true that the IPCC model runs didn’t predict the recent warming slowdown. But as these findings show, they didn’t accurately predict certain other 15-year periods of warming accelerations or slowdowns in the past either, and it’s not because they were always overestimating warming. Indeed, in some 15-year periods, the models underestimated warming. Essentially, that means climate skeptics are cherry-picking when they point out that climate models didn’t predict the recent 15-year hiatus. That doesn’t entirely explain why the model simulations in a given year produced varying results to begin with, though. Was it due to differences in the underlying physics coded into the models? (The models differ slightly in terms of how much light they assume hits the Earth, how “sensitive” temperatures are to changes in CO2, and how much heat the oceans suck up.) Or was it just random fluctuations in the climate system? Or a combination? The researchers did a statistical analysis to answer that question. In the end, none of those physical reasons was a major factor. Random fluctuations had 2.5 times the impact on the model predictions’ variations as all those physical factors together did, the researchers found. Only when the researchers used longer-term intervals (of more than 60 years) did differences in sunlight amount, ocean heat trapping or climate sensitivity start to make a big difference. So climate models may not provide the perfect picture of what will happen to temperatures in a given short-term period (on 10- or 20-year scales). But maybe they simply can’t, due to the random ways in which climate can temporarily fluctuate. That doesn’t mean that climate models aren’t valuable to us. They still give us good sense of the long-term picture, the one that is more important for us to worry about anyway: that temperatures are increasing, and that natural factors can’t explain this increase. As the researchers argue, then, their findings ought to put to rest assertions by climate “skeptics” that climate models overestimate how much warming we’re going to get. This post is part of our new Energy and Environment coverage. If you like it, please bookmark our page, follow us on Twitter, sign up for our online newsletter — and come back often!


Army revokes Silver Star award for Green Beret officer, citing investigation

his actions. He directed his troops to launch an assault across 700 meters of open fields, but an armored truck known as a Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicle sank into mud under gunfire after about 175 meters. Under heavy machine-gun and sniper fire, Golsteyn ran about 150 meters to the trapped MRAP to retrieve a powerful 84mm Carl Gustav recoilless rifle, an anti-tank weapon. While moving under gunfire, he coordinated a medical evacuation for the wounded Afghan soldier and then opened fire with the Carl Gustav, said the Army narrative, which was obtained by The Post. “Captain Golsteyn was alone running in the open through enemy gun fire that had over 80 men pinned down, and from the crow’s nest on top of [Forward Operating Base] McQueary, it looked like Captain Golsteyn was alone fighting 30 enemy fighters out in the poppy fields,” the award narrative said. Enemy reinforcements continued to arrive on the battlefield, so Golsteyn organized airstrikes by both F/A-18 Hornet fighter jets and a Predator drone. No American or coalition troops were killed in the battle despite a barrage of enemy fire that lasted four hours, the narrative said. Golsteyn has been critical of the Afghanistan mission in the past. In the 2011 Bing West book “The Wrong War: Grit, Strategy and the Way Out of Afghanistan,” he is quoted as saying that the Americans were considered insurgents in Afghanistan who were “selling a poor product called the Kabul government.” West later wrote in a review of a book about another Special Forces soldier, Maj. Jim Gant, that the careers of Gant, Golsteyn and a third Green Beret, Dan McKone, were “terminated,” assessing that the Army failed them. West could not be reached for comment Wednesday. Golsteyn wrote about his assignment in Afghanistan in a June 2014 academic paper for a class at Fayetteville State University that was published online. It covers his 2010 deployment and said that his unit — known as a Special Forces Operational Detachment Alpha, or A-Team — operated in multiple two- and three-man teams. Over time, local tribesmen grew to trust them, especially after three weeks of fighting, he added. “We enjoyed repeated interactions with the local populace because we lived with them, fighting for them as well as alongside them,” Golsteyn wrote. “In a 60 day period, our medical clinic run by Green Berets with several Marine medics treated approximately


New DDOT director: No date yet for D.C. streetcar opening

The first D.C. streetcars, like this one being tested near Union Station, will operate on H St. and Benning Rd. NE. (Robert Thomson/The Washington Post) Leif Dormsjo, the new acting director of the D.C. Department of Transportation, said Wednesday that the agency is fully cooperating to get the safety certification necessary to open a long-delayed streetcar line, but declined to offer an opening date. It is still unclear how long it will take to complete the safety certification process, Dormsjo said. He said his first step coming into office last month was to ensure the D.C. State Safety Oversight Office of DDOT’s complete cooperation and compliance during the process. “I am holding back from putting any dates out there because I made a commitment to the independent SSOO that he can tell me it is ready to go in two weeks, or two months or two years,” Dormsjo told members of the council’s transportation committee during a hearing about streetcar propulsion technology. “I apologize if not providing a date is frustrating, but it is the only way that I think we should be treating this.” D.C.’s efforts to launch the city’s first streetcar line in more than 50 years has been mired in a series of setbacks. Residents and business leaders in the H Street corridor have been awaiting an opening while the cars have been testing the routes for months. The latest opening date was scheduled for last month. DDOT also has been in a battle with safety officials. E-mails showed that tensions between DDOT and the SSOO after the former administration sought to push ahead with a series of pre-revenue operations testings without completing all safety certifications. The Federal Transit Administration raised significant concerns about safety issues and timing in December. Dormsjo said he understands the growing frustration, but that safety is the top priority, and getting the safety certification is the first step toward launching the 2.2-mile streetcar line on H Street and Benning Road NE. He said he has also convened a group of outside experts to review the system before it serves passengers. While in the past DDOT has approached the issue in an “inconsistent manner,” Dormsjo said, that “going forward I intend for the agency to be more consistent, comprehensive, and open minded.” He said he expects changes will be needed to achieve the city’s goals. Committee Chair Mary M. Cheh (D-Ward 3) said


Over nine years after its launch, New Horizons’ first images of Pluto have arrived

Pluto and Charon, the largest of its five moons, as seen by New Horizons. (NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute) Hey there, Pluto! New Horizons has spent nine years approaching Pluto, the only "planet" in our solar system (okay, okay it's a dwarf planet) that hasn't been visited by a spacecraft yet. It's going to be another 99 days or so (check the countdown) until New Horizons sends back pictures of Pluto that are better than any The Hubble has ever taken, and another 60 days after that until the spacecraft actually gets to Pluto. But today we have the first goodies of what's sure to be an exciting space mission: In honor of the late astronomer (and Pluto discoverer) Clyde Tombaugh's birthday, NASA has released the first photos sent back by New Horizons, taken on Jan. 25 and Jan. 27 with the spacecraft's telescopic Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager. Pluto and Charon (the largest of its five moons) are pictured. The dwarf planet and its largest moon are tidally locked: They face each other, spinning around a common axis like ice dancers holding hands. New Horizons was still over 126 million miles away from Pluto when the first picture was taken. Traveling at a speed of 31,000 miles per hour, it was 1.5 million miles closer for the second shot. Still, the pictures are rather fuzzy. But they're a tantalizing glimpse of what's to come. "Pluto is finally becoming more than just a pinpoint of light," Hal Weaver, New Horizons project scientist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md., said in a statement. "LORRI has now resolved Pluto, and the dwarf planet will continue to grow larger and larger in the images as New Horizons spacecraft hurtles toward its targets. The new LORRI images also demonstrate that the camera's performance is unchanged since it was launched more than nine years ago." In a Reddit Ask Me Anything session on Wednesday, the mission team explained that Pluto will start looking like a planet -- as opposed to a bright, star-like blur -- a few weeks before the closest approach on July 14th. Read More: NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft is awake and almost ready to change our view of Pluto forever The Philae lander is still missing, but could wake up by May What it looks like when one galaxy pulls another apart Infrared images of


NBC News’s Brian Williams recants story about taking incoming fire during Iraq war coverage

way in. WILLIAMS: (Voiceover) It all started Monday morning, a round trip that’s supposed to take six hours. Routine, yes, but we’re all aware it’s over Iraqi air space. And in war, routine gets thrown out the window. (Soldiers donning clothing; helicopter on ground; pilot in helicopter cockpit) WILLIAMS: Do you regard your job as dangerous? Sergeant CLAY SOWER: Oh, it’s got some danger to it. WILLIAMS: (Voiceover) Sergeant Clay Sower of Washington state is with the Bravo 159th Army Aviation Regiment based in Germany, now deployed here in Kuwait. Their job is to move troops and supplies around the battlefield. Today that means dropping huge sections of a steel bridge near Najaf, some 100 miles south of Baghdad. We’re going along for the ride. We are one of four Chinook helicopters flying north this morning, third in line. As we head toward the drop point the Iraqi landscape looks quiet. We can see a convoy of American troop carriers and supply vehicles heading north. (Clay Sower; Sower and other soldiers; soldier manning gun in helicopter as it takes off; bridge section suspended beneath helicopter; soldiers in helicopter; aerial view of convoy) Offscreen Voice #1: Man, look at all the tanks. That’s our guys, right? WILLIAMS: (Voiceover) Down below some civilians, seemingly happy to see us. (Village) Voice #1: See those people at 9:00 down on the ground? They’re not doing anything. WILLIAMS: (Voiceover) But these soldiers have heard reports of Iraqis in civilian clothes firing on American troops. (Soldier sitting in helicopter) Voice #1: What’s the weapon status? Offscreen Voice #2: Right now it should still be locked and loaded on safe. WILLIAMS: (Voiceover) Indeed, just before we’re able to make our drop, radio traffic makes clear this routine mission is running into trouble. (Aerial view of countryside; bridge section beneath helicopter) Offscreen Voice #3: We took fire on the way in. We currently are not under fire–I say again, not under fire–but we look for some type of security, over. WILLIAMS: (Voiceover) We quickly make our drop and then turn southwest. Suddenly, without knowing why, we learned we’ve been ordered to land in the desert. On the ground, we learn the Chinook ahead of us was almost blown out of the sky. That hole was made by a rocket-propelled grenade, or RPG, fired from the ground. It punched cleanly through the skin of the ship, but amazingly it


Morning Bits

be a Republican who wants to beat Hillary Clinton, would you really take a risk with this guy? “Rand Paul, who has been mired in controversy over whether child vaccinations should be mandatory, has long been associated with a medical group that opposes mandatory vaccinations and has published reports promoting a handful of other dubious positions.” It just so happens that responsible doctors and public health officials agree with Erin Burnett on vaccination: “This is not about choice. This is about our moral responsibility to our children and to other people’s children.” And old people, people with an immune deficiency, etc. This will happen a lot, until there is no state to fight about. “Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder on Wednesday announced the state will not appeal a federal trial court decision ordering the state to recognize the marriages of same-sex couples that were granted in the state this past year.” Unfortunately, until American leadership emerges, real action by Arab countries is not likely to happen. “Outrage spread across the Arab world on Wednesday over an Islamic State video purporting to show the burning to death of a captive Jordanian pilot, while Jordan vowed to press its campaign against the extremists. The video released Tuesday appeared to show First Lt. Muath al-Kasasbeh being burned alive inside a cage. It shook other Arab governments involved in U.S.-led airstrikes against Islamic State in Syria and Iraq and raised fresh alarm over the group’s brutal tactics. Jordan responded early Wednesday by executing two convicted terrorists, one of whom the government had offered to swap for the pilot’s release. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar—the three key Gulf Arab partners in the anti-Islamic State coalition—all offered condolences to Jordan, calling the killing a crime and a defamation of Islam.” When big gaffes happen as they have with Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Ed Rogers says it is a teachable moment: “If candidates are not careful, little problems can get amplified and they run the risk of developing a negative stereotype that they then have to hide from and seek to mitigate for the rest of their political life. Ronald Reagan had to be super conscientious about looking out of it or literally lost. Bush 41 had to make sure he didn’t look haughty or aristocratic. Bill Clinton had to constantly try to live down the nickname ‘slick willie.'”


Main Street Morning: A $30,000 margarita

tells a local business man that he has one year to hire black employees or lose his support for future city contracts. Online • Here’s why your bank account is less secure than your Gmail. • Google wants you to share your knowledge with a .how domain. • Yahoo plans to spin off its small business unit. Social Media • Facebook can cause depression, according to a study. Retail • A restaurant is offering a special margarita priced at $30,000, Red Tape • A third-generation veteran and business owner says the government is choking him from his livelihood, blocking his access to bank accounts and forcing him to pay exorbitant fees for basic financial services. Entrepreneurs • After the snowstorm earlier this week, a man rents out his igloo on Airbnb for $10 a night. • How this veteran’s itchy beard and a buddy’s untimely death led to a profitable skin care business. • An entrepreneur is betting on the growth of microbreweries. • A chocolate entrepreneur answers some questions about the business. Start-up • A stealthy data storage start-up snags a $40 million investment. • Many accelerator programs are revving up for their spring and summer batches – and application deadlines are nearing. • An entrepreneur offers free legal help to start-ups hit by patent trolls. Ideas • If you want to make more money, then you might want to learn one of these languages. Around the Country • An Ohio business owner has admitted to peddling fake urine and other products online to help people thwart drug tests. • The backups and delays at the Port of Seattle are costing some small business owners a lot of money. • New York’s mayor is planning homes for the creative class. • What’s it’s like to be at a Cubs game in 1938. • Immigrant business owners are saving Philadelphia’s Italian Market. • A Colorado state law may put some of the tax money raised from marijuana sales directly back into residents’ pockets, • Oregon adopts rules allowing industrial hemp crops. • Beginning next year, the city of Madison, Wisconsin will invest $1 million per year for five years in establishing new worker-owned businesses. Gene Marks owns the Marks Group, a Bala Cynwyd, Pa., consulting firm that helps clients with customer relationship management. Follow Gene Marks and On Small Business on Twitter. News we should know about? Email us here.


South Sudan’s warring parties agree to agree on a peace agreement

South Sudanese President Salva Kiir (L) and rebel commander Riek Machar exchange documents after signing a cease-fire agreement during the Inter Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) Summit on the case of South Sudan in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa, Feb. 1, 2015. (Tiksa Negeri/Reuters) Since the beginning of the year, two developments have revived hope that South Sudan’s civil war, which began in December 2013, may soon come to an end. First, the country’s main political party, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), whose split precipitated the conflict, announced its reunification during an Intra-SPLM Dialogue hosted in Tanzania. President Salva Kiir and his former vice president and current leader of the SPLM/A-in-Opposition then signed an Agreement on the Establishment of a Transitional Government of National Unity at the mediations sponsored by the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD). While both of these processes are necessary to address SPLM party governance and possible power-sharing arrangements, they are not yet sufficient enough to make the signing of a final peace agreement a foregone conclusion. According to the IGAD agreement, warring parties are required to sign a final peace agreement by March. A transitional government with a tenure of 30 months is to be established no later than July 9, 2015, but will be preceded by a Pre-Transition Period that will start on April 1, 2015. Still to be negotiated are the proposed power-sharing ratios under a notional transitional government. As warring parties have exhibited blatant disregard for previous agreements in this conflict and have missed previous IGAD-imposed deadlines to create a transitional government, there is ample reason to be skeptical that recent agreements could likewise fall through. A major concern is that the groups participating in the IGAD peace process do not represent the realities or interests of most ordinary South Sudanese, thus repeating some of the flaws of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement that ended the Second Sudanese Civil War and resulted in South Sudan’s 2011 referendum on independence from Sudan. Furthermore, the constituencies that the principal signatories to the agreement purport to represent are not monolithic. Even if Kiir and Machar were genuinely committed to peace, they would need to sell compromises in a transitional government to extremist elements within their constituencies, who may believe the war can be won militarily or may be skeptical that their standard bearers are conceding too much power to their political rivals. Kiir may face resistance


Obama hails Dalai Lama, condemns the Islamic State at National Prayer Breakfast

When the Dalai Lama was recognized at the 63rd annual National Prayer Breakfast, President Obama could be seen bowing and placing his palms together in a gesture of greeting. President Obama hailed the Dalai Lama at the National Prayer Breakfast Thursday, giving a show of support in a relationship fraught with thorny geopolitical implications. Obama called the Tibetan spiritual leader a "good friend" and upheld him as a "powerful example of what it means to practice compassion." Obama bowed his head and brought his hands together in a Namaste gesture when the Dalai Lama was introduced at the beginning of the breakfast. The Dalai Lama was seated at a table with top Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett. She was dispatched to Dharamsala, India, where the Dalai Lama lives in exile, after the White House canceled a meeting with the leader ahead of Obama's first visit to Beijing in 2009. Chinese leaders sharply criticized the presence of the Dalai Lama at the Prayer Breakfast -- as Beijing did the previous three times the two men met in the past. This time, the White House stressed they did not invite the Dalai Lama and that he and Obama had no plans to meet. China's concerns about the Dalai Lama stem from his role as the leader of Tibet's push for political and economic autonomy from China. Obama spoke at length about the Islamic State, which he called a "brutal, vicious death cult that in the name of religion" carries out "acts of barbarism." President Obama spoke about how religion can be abused and the common theme of loving thy neighbor during his speech at the National Prayer Breakfast on Feb. 5, 2015, in Washington, D.C. Here are highlights from that event. Faith, he said, is being "twisted and distorted" and "used as a weapon" by the Islamic State, which he said subjects women to rape as an act of war and persecutes religious minorities. He also warned of groups using religion as a means for carrying out brutality in Africa and a rising tide of anti-Semitism and hate crimes in Europe. Faith has been warped and misrepresented in the past -- from the Crusades to the Inquisition to slavery to Jim Crow, he said. "There is a tendency in us, a sinful tendency that can pervert and distort our faith," Obama said, which is "not unique to one group or one religion.” In


Hubble catches a rare three-moon-parade in front of Jupiter

(NASA, ESA, Hubble Heritage Team) Jupiter has more stable moons than any other planet in the solar system (67!) but the four Galilean satellites are the most famous. Discovered by Galileo himself, they're the planet's four largest moons. Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto have different orbits, and seeing three of them pass the face of the planet is something that only occurs once or twice in a decade. The Hubble space telescope managed to catch the rare event on Jan. 23. The two photos, taken 40 minutes apart, show Io, Europa, and Callisto passing in front of their host planet at the same time. Ganymede didn't get the memo, but you can see the fourth moon's position in the simulation below: This simulation shows the "orbits and positions of Jupiter’s four largest moons" during a triple-moon transit that occurred on Jan. 25, 2014. Europa may have barely made an appearance, but it's the most exciting of Jupiter's moons. It may even be one of the most exciting things in our solar system. The moon is covered in an icy ocean, and many scientists hope it contains the same kind of extreme microbial life found deep in frozen Arctic waters on Earth. NASA's new budget includes funding for an unmanned Europa mission, so we hope we'll be swinging by for a visit sometime very soon. Read More: Remastered image shows the icy surface of Jupiter’s moon in living color Over nine years after its launch, New Horizons’ first images of Pluto have arrived Infrared images of space allow new views, reveal hidden stars


‘Scandal’ recap Season 4, Episode 11: ‘Where’s the black lady?’

it’s there that Fitz and Jake put aside their differences and meet to discuss how they’ll get Olivia home safe. For his part, Fitz demands to see proof that Olivia is alive and Andrew brings him a video of Liv announcing that she’s being held against her will and that the only way to keep her alive is to declare war with West Angola. Liv’s captors gives her a copy of The Clarion International — (that font looks rather familiar) — and cue cards that make her stay sound a lot more pleasant than it actual is. Behind the scenes, Olivia is smart enough to add a prop — a glass of water. As Huck, Jake and Quinn scrutinize the video, Huck realizes that the glass of water was an intentional move by Liv — her captor, Ian, is reflected in the bottom of the glass. They run facial recognition programs, but don’t have any luck in matching the face with a name. Huck has other ways of getting information about Olivia’s whereabouts. He pays Elizabeth North a visit as she’s putting her young daughter to sleep and maniacally threatens to “cut that girl open and make you watch.” Liz confronts Andrew about his plans and he reminds her that she wanted the war with West Angola. “I’m gonna be the next president of the United States,” he tells. “I don’t think you want to miss that train.” That calms Liz down enough that she doesn’t rush to get Huck the information he wants. Rose gives Huck and Co. another lead to work with when she tells Quinn that Liv had a key to her neighbor’s apartment. They go to Lois’s apartment and find the ring that Olivia smartly pushed underneath the doormat. They also find the Internet connection, which allows them to trace the last person to log into the network. This eventually leads them to Ian. Meanwhile, Fitz begrudgingly declares war on West Angola, a move that upsets Cyrus greatly. He paces. He throws a mug. Typical Cyrus. Fitz orders him to read a report on the military action and Cy is so vehemently opposed that he almost misses the message that Fitz has written on it: “They have Olivia.” Olivia appeared broken in her first few scenes, but after Fitz’s war announcement, she seemed to slip back into gladiator mode. When Ian brought her dinner, she asked


Is there a link between the measles outbreak and illegal immigration?

the State address, Feb. 3 One of our colleagues noticed that virtually every Washington Post article concerning the measles outbreak is followed by comments that link the outbreak to illegal immigration. As it turned out, a number of prominent politicians have suggested that there might be a link — or that a link cannot be ruled out. (LePage did not mention measles, but suggested there could be in “uptick” in other diseases.) Our friends at PundiFact noted that Rush Limbaugh flat-out declared the outbreak was linked to “our immigration policy,” earning the commentator a “Pants on Fire.” But the politicians’ statements were much more nuanced and careful. What kind of evidence do they have? The Facts There are two key issues. Where is the measles outbreak coming from? And how well screened are illegal immigrants such as unaccompanied children? The 2015 outbreak, mostly centered at Disney amusement parks in California, is still under investigation, Anne Schuchat, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, told reporters on Jan. 29 that the “genotype of the virus that’s associated with the Disneyland outbreak is causing outbreaks in 14 different countries around the world.” She specifically mentioned Indonesia, India and Dubai as possible sources that were under investigation, but she emphasized that “we assume that someone got infected overseas, visited the parks and spread the disease to others.” In other words, an American brought the disease back, not that an illegal immigrant brought it in. The 2014 outbreak was traced to the Philippines, specifically from members of the Amish community in Ohio who had traveled there as missionaries; the community had halted routine vaccinations many years ago after a baby was suspected of getting ill from a shot. In 2014, the Philippines had a measles outbreak, with some 50,000 cases. After the church group came back from the trip, the disease “spread like wildfire” through the community. The Philippines and India are on a top 10 list of sources of illegal immigrants, but about three-quarters of all illegal immigrants come from just four countries — Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. And it turns out that these countries have pretty good records on immunization rates. Here’s how the countries compare to the United States over the four most recent years of data, according to the World Health Organization: United States Mexico: El Salvador Guatemala: Honduras:


Futuristic Japanese hotel will be run almost entirely by robots

(Courtesy of Huis Ten Bosch) A hotel in Nagasaki, Japan, has seen the future, and it involves C-3PO offering turn-down service. At least, that’s the goal for the Henn-na Hotel, set to open this July. The 72-room hotel will be staffed by 10 humanoid robots capable of greeting guests, carrying luggage, cleaning rooms and seizing control of the planet for mankind’s own good. Okay, not that last one. The technology for the hotel’s cyborg staff isn’t far from science fiction. The Telegraph reported the robots will come from robotics company Kokoro, which has been developing “actroid,” or human-seeming, robots since 2003. Kokoro’s actroids are generally modeled on the appearance and mannerisms of a young Japanese woman. They can mimic human behaviors such as breathing and blinking, speak fluent Japanese, Chinese, Korean and English, and know how to make eye contact and respond to body language and tone. (Courtesy of Huis Ten Bosch) It’s worth noting that “Henn” can mean either “change” or “strange” in Japanese. Both interpretations seem fairly apt. For those seeking relief from both the change and the strangeness, developer Huis Ten Bosch said the robo-receptionists, bellhops and maids will be supplemented by human staff. However, company president Hideo Sawada told the Japan Times he soon hopes to have robots performing 90 percent of hotel services. “We will make the most efficient hotel in the world,” Sawada said, as the Japan Times reported. (Courtesy of Huis Ten Bosch) The building itself will be comparably high-tech, according to CNN. Guests will access their rooms through facial recognition software rather than key cards, and room temperatures will be monitored via a radiation panel that detects body heat. Rather than calling reception, guests in need of additional amenities request them through a hotel-provided tablet. (Courtesy of Huis Ten Bosch) The hotel will be located in Huis Ten Bosch’s historical theme park, also called Huis Ten Bosch, which is modeled on a 17th century Dutch settlement in Nagasaki. If the pairing of a throwback park and a “smart hotel” strikes you as odd, well, we’ll refer you to the image of a robot in a bellboy’s hat. Room fees start at about $60 per night, according to a press release. (Courtesy of Huis Ten Bosch) The Henn-na project is Japan’s first robot-run hotel, but it joins a host of other android-oriented businesses in the country. Earlier this week a Tokyo bank unveiled