Travel tips for Sunday’s Marine Corps Marathon

two lines. (Metro will operate extra Blue Line trains between Franconia-Springfield and Stadium-Armory from 5 a.m. to 8:15 a.m. and from 11:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.) To slow the flow of people into stations and avoid dangerous crowding, Metro staffers sometimes will turn off the down escalators, turning them into walkers. Still, the lines at the fare vending machines and the fare gates can be extraordinarily long, and many of the people ahead of you may be using the system for the first time. Some may try to fit crumpled up paper fare cards into the gate, or may not realize they need to extract the card from the gate once it has been read electronically. Metro staffers do a good job helping people, but it’s still slow going. The price of the plastic SmarTrip card, which can store fare value, is $2 and is available for sale at vending machines in stations. (You pay $10, getting the card plus $8 in fare value.) Buying one for marathon day is a good bet, partly because it saves paying the $1 per trip surcharge on paper fare cards and partly because the plastic cards don’t get soggy during a 26-mile run. The Metro rebuilding program that normally disrupts weekend service will have a minimal impact on Sunday. Orange, Silver, Blue, Yellow and Green line trains will operate at regular weekend schedules, with this exception: Free shuttle buses will replace Green Line trains between Greenbelt and College Park. The bus trip will take about 15 minutes. The Red Line has the biggest variation in schedule this weekend. Trains will leave the ends of the line at Shady Grove and Glenmont every 24 minutes. From 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., more trains will be in service between Medical Center and NoMa-Gallaudet. In that zone, trains should reach platforms every 12 minutes. People who plan on using Metrorail to reach several spots where they can cheer on their runners should keep in mind that no line is scheduled to provide rush hour-level service. Allow enough time to reach a station near the course before your runner passes by. (Runners are required to maintain a minimum pace of 14 minutes per mile. Sometimes, it may be quicker for spectators to walk between viewpoints than to take Metrorail. Metrobus. Parking. Marathon officials advise that runners could use the parking garage at 23rd Street and Crystal Drive


Why you shouldn’t ignore the Middle East’s other epic crisis

killed in the past month of fighting, which shows no sign of letting up. A U.N.-brokered peace deal signed last month between the Houthis and the Yemeni government has unraveled. President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi presides over a toothless coalition government, which has struggled to exert its influence in the wake of the 2011 resignation of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, a strongman who had ruled for more than three decades in Sanaa. People power protests and political chaos compelled Saleh to step away from power and saw Yemen join the ranks of the Arab Spring. But its bloom faded fast, and the country's many divisions and dysfunctions persist. Some experts now fear the disintegration of the state into warring fiefdoms, or a return to authoritarianism, perhaps even in the form of Saleh's son. All the while, Yemen remains one of the Arab world's most impoverished countries, wracked by a severe water crisis that has even more worrying implications than the current violence. There is a dangerous sectarian dimension to the violence The Houthis are alleged to be Iranian-backed; their traditional slogan ("Death to America! Death to Israel!") echoes that of Hezbollah, Iran's Shiite proxy in Lebanon. Al-Qaeda and its Sunni allies have energetically taken the fight to the Houthis, giving the conflict a worrisome sectarian edge -- one that is similar to the awful bloodshed wracking Syria and Iraq. But like in Syria and Iraq, the situation is not that simple. The Houthis are from the Zaydi branch, a distinct sect of Shiite Islam that is closer to Sunni Islam than most. And, as Silvana Toska, a Middle East researcher, notes, the Houthis' growing clout isn't a matter of strength of arms or religious zeal. Away from their stronghold in Yemen's northwest, they have links to separatists in the country's south and have won the support of many Yemenis elsewhere "who view them as a real opposition to the elites that is untainted by corruption," writes Toska. There are also suggestions that Sunni regimes in the Gulf have tacitly backed the Houthi surge, seeing it as the best bet for stability in perennially fractious Yemen. Whatever the case, a narrative of sectarian violence plays into al-Qaeda's hands. Some elements of the Yemeni branch also declared support for the Islamic State, extremists who butcher all those they consider heretics or apostates. Things could very well get worse before they get any


Finalists for Canada’s $75,000 Cundill Prize in Historical Literature

(Courtesy of Knopf) In the past, we may have been guilty of neglecting Canada’s Cundill Prize in Historical Literature. At $75,000, this award, administered by McGill University, is one of the largest in the world for a nonfiction book. But this year, we’re just six degrees of separation from one of the finalists. Gary Bass, a professor of international affairs at Princeton University, is in the running for his latest book, “The Blood Telegram: Nixon, Kissinger and a Forgotten Genocide” (Knopf). Bass is the twin brother of Warren Bass, a former nonfiction editor of Book World. (Tragically, Warren now works for the Wall Street Journal.) In his review for The Washington Post, Neil Sheehan called Bass’s book “a profoundly disturbing account of the hitherto hidden role of Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger in the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of inhabitants of East Bengal . . . and the making of 10 million refugees during Pakistan’s civil war in 1971.” The other two finalists for this year’s Cundill Prize are: • • Each runner-up will receive $10,000. The Cundill Prize is awarded annually “to an individual, of any nationality and from any country, who has published a book determined to have had (or likely to have) a profound literary, social and academic impact in the area of history.” Books published in English from June 1, 2013 to May 31, 2014 are eligible for this year’s prize. The jurors are David Frum, a senior editor of the Atlantic; Marla R. Miller, a professor at University of Massachusetts; Stuart Schwartz, a professor at Yale University; Thomas H.B. Symons, a professor emeritus at Trent University; and Althia Raj, the Huffington Post Canada Ottawa bureau chief. They chose the finalists from 165 submissions. The winner will be announced on Nov. 20 in Toronto.


Will the weather cooperate for your eclipse-viewing plans?

An image of the partial solar eclipse on February 21, 2012 from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory. (NASA) On Thursday afternoon and evening, the moon will pass in front of the sun to create a partial solar eclipse, visible to most in North America. That is, if the weather cooperates. In the Mid-Atlantic, things are borderline. Literally. It’s entirely possible that Baltimore will be almost completely clouded over, while D.C. could have 50 percent or less cloud cover. Related: The line of demarcation for visibility extends from Washington, D.C. north through State College, Pa., and up into Buffalo, N.Y. Northeast of this line, the Nor’easter will still be churning and skies will be nearly completely overcast. West of this line, skies really clear out. Almost all of Virginia will be in good shape for eclipse-viewing, and western Maryland will be only partly cloudy. The Southeast will have good luck this afternoon for a viewing. Skies are mostly clear from North Carolina through central Florida, but things get iffy west of Atlanta, Ga. Miami will also be battling stormy weather this afternoon and evening, so no luck there. A thick deck of clouds is sweeping across the northern half of the central U.S., and will be over parts of the Midwest and south into Arkansas by 5 p.m. Green Bay and Milwaukee, Wi., and Chicago will struggle to see the eclipse through the clouds. St. Louis will also have a hard time, though Little Rock, Ark., is up in the air — it could go either way. Cloud cover forecast for 5 p.m. ET Thursday from the ECMWF. Click to enlarge. (Weather Underground) Unfortunately, the Northwest will also be battling the clouds as a storm is rolling through the region off the Pacific Ocean. A thick cloud deck is expected from Portland south into San Francisco. Western Montana, Idaho, and northern Nevada will all have minimal luck with viewing. However, recent model runs suggest that Seattle may have a chance as clouds could break in northwest Washington this afternoon amidst the rain. Here are the eclipse start times for some selected cities (local time), as well as a brief cloud cover forecast. You can get a longer list of start times from NASA. New York City — 5:49 p.m.(overcast) Philadelphia — 5:51 p.m. (overcast) Washington D.C. — 5:52 p.m. (partly cloudy) Cleveland — 5:42 p.m. (partly cloudy) Atlanta — 6:00 p.m. (mostly


Female fruit flies prefer mates with dazzle. Dullards needn’t bother.

A male drosophila melanogaster, or fruit fly. (Qinyang Li) Not long ago, it was hip to be "fly." It meant you had style. You looked good. There were “fly girls” and “fly guys,” dressed to the nines in their “fly dresses” and “fly suits.” No one who used this cool urban slang from the 1980s to about 2000 knew who the truly original “fly guy” was. Well, it was a fly. A male fruit fly, to be exact. A new study from Sweden shows that female fruit flies choose their mates based on how good-looking their wings are. Males with the most colorful wings gets to copulate and make more flies. It is surface. It is shallow. It has nothing to do with brains. “Our experiment shows that this newly discovered trait is important in female choice in fruit flies and is the first evidence that wing interference patterns have a biological signaling function between the sexes during sexual selection,” said Jessica K. Abbott, a biologist at Lund University of Sweden and the study's lead author. Wing color display is a secret known only to fruit flies. A male fruit fly’s wing appears colorless to the human eye, which is usually focused on flies only when a person is trying to swat one. Researchers who study the flies discovered years ago that against a dark background the wings get psychedelic. Fruit fly wing pattern. (Qinyang Li) Until now it wasn’t known that female fruit flies were checking out the flappers and sizing up males based on how mesmerizing they are. The research paper’s findings were published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Wing interference color is determined by a wing’s thickness, measured in nanometers, thinner than a dime. It is found in other tiny insects — wasps, for example, the research says. “In the...study, the researchers...investigated whether the colors influence choice of partner, [and] to what extent females use these colors to select a mate. The results show the colors are important,” Lund University said a statement. The research doesn’t reveal whether male fruit flies have to work as hard as other colorful showoffs in the animal kingdom, strutting like peacocks, moon-walking like the manakin or dancing a jig like the blue-footed booby. As far as the study shows, fruit fly dudes play it cool and let their wings do all the talking. Clearly, "more


Largest sunspot in more than 20 years facing Earth

Sunspot region 2192 is one of the largest sunspots in solar cycle 24. (NOAA) A massive sunspot region is staring at the Earth, and frequently hurling out high energy solar flares. But so far, none of the flares have been complemented by a blast of plasma known as a coronal mass ejection (CME) that can lead to aurora in the Earth’s atmosphere and interfere with spacecraft operations and power systems. The sunspot region, known as AR2192, is so big that it is visible to a (well-protected) naked eye and was visible during Thursday’s partial solar eclipse. “This is the largest sunspot group since November of 1990,” said Doug Biesecker, a researcher at the National Weather Service Space Weather Prediction Center. Its size is 2,740 millionths of the solar disc which, according to the Web site The Sun Today, is roughly the size of Jupiter. NASA says Large sunspot regions often produce elevated solar flare activity, which can be a concern if they’re accompanied by earth-directed CMEs. But Biesecker said that size isn’t everything when it comes to flare severity. Rather, the magnetic complexity of the sunspot region is a better predictor of the potency of the flare. Active region 2192 and the Earth (lower left) for scale. (NOAA) “A typical sunspot region has a north and south pole but some are are more complex with polarity mixed together,” Biesecker said. “[Sunspot region AR2192] has some of that mixed polarity, but this region isn’t as scary as the region associated with the Halloween solar storm of 2003 which was more complex.” The 2003 Halloween solar storm was so strong that aurora were visible in Florida, according to NASA. While this sunspot region doesn’t appear as active as the Halloween 2003 region (which was smaller, but more magnetically complex), in the last week alone it has unleashed 8 M-class flares, and 2 X-class flares – the strongest variety on the flare rating scale. “If [the sunspot region] maintains this level of complexity, we still believe more X-class flares are likely, and that should continue for next 6 or 7 days,” Biesecker said. “It’s now in position that you would expect any CMEs to be earth-directed for the next 3 or 4 days.” The aurora hopeful – particularly living at high latitudes – will no doubt be tracking this sunspot region, eager for some action while spacecraft and power grid operators keep fingers


PM Update: Clouds part on Friday ahead of a nice weekend

Clouds: It’s not looking great for eclipse-viewing in and east of the city. Clouds from the Nor’easter have lingered over the area for longer than anticipated today. The western suburbs have a much better shot. The eclipse will start around 5:50 p.m. in our area, and will last until the sunset. (If you’re going to attempt some photos, be sure to send us your results!) Clouds will thin as the Nor’easter lifts further away from the Mid-Atlantic, and we’re expecting a nice, sunny weekend. Through Tonight: Tomorrow (Friday): See David Streit’s forecast through the weekend. And if you haven’t already, join us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter The sun peeks through clouds at the Washington Monument on Wednesday. (John Sonderman via Flickr)


‘Scandal’ recap: Season 4, Episode 5: ‘The Key’

to come to the Pentagon and talk face-to-face. It sort of worked — Fitz went to see him. They sang “Sittin’ On The Dock Of The Bay” in a bizarre scene that I’d like to see more of. But Fitz wasn’t at all interested in Jake’s (truthful) explanation: that Rowan set him up. Jake’s theory is that Fitz is punishing him for being with Olivia. It’s a heavy accusation, but it’s not altogether false. We saw how Fitz reacted when he found out Olivia hadn’t been alone on that island. Still, Rowan has made a pretty damning case for Jake. After Olivia learned that her father was the one who convinced Fitz that Jake was responsible, she went to Rowan himself to get answers. What she got were lies — really convincing lies. Jake was obsessed with her, Rowan says. He wanted to drive a permanent wedge between her and Fitz. According to Rowan, Jake also killed Harrison. Olivia sought solace from an unlikely source: Abby, who showed up at Olivia’s door to take her to task for corrupting David Rosen and being a horrible person, basically. David confessed that he leaked the B613 information that led Judge Sparks to kill himself — a move he blamed on Olivia and her approach to getting things done. (ABC/Adam Taylor)<br /> Darby Stanchfield as Abby Whelan. Abby confronted her former boss: “Why are we all trying to be Olivia Pope?” (Answer: her wardrobe, obviously. And Jake.). Her friend instincts kicked in as Olivia hysterically told her that Jake was in custody for murdering Jerry and that he is also suspected of killing Harrison. Fitz got so swept up in dealing with Jake that he missed his and Mellie’s daily trip to Jerry’s grave. After cornering Lauren and getting no information about Fitz’s whereabouts, Mellie convinced herself that her husband had been with none other than Olivia Pope. In a heated argument, Fitz let slip that he was interrogating the person suspected of murdering Jerry. He was apologetic until Mellie had an unexpected reaction to the news that Jerry was targeted. As she tells it, Jerry’s death now has a purpose. Short story: It earned them four more years in The White House. “He died for our sins!” Mellie says. Bravo to Fitz for giving Mellie the appropriate amount of side-eye. His shock and anger at Mellie’s comments probably didn’t do Jake any


How Ebola is fueling prejudice against gays

Ponpon told Reuters over the phone from Monrovia. The article elaborates: Ponpon, an LGBT campaigner in the Liberian capital, says gays have been harassed, physically attacked and a few have had their cars smashed by people blaming them for the hemorrhagic fever, after religious leaders in Liberia said Ebola was a punishment from God for homosexuality. The Liberian Council of Churches, as my colleague Terrence McCoy noted in August, released a statement saying "God is angry with Liberia, and that Ebola is a plague." It went on: Liberians have to pray and seek God's forgiveness over the corruption and immoral acts (such as homosexualism, etc.) that continue to penetrate our society. As Christians, we must repent and seek God's forgiveness. "Voluntary sodomy" is a crime in Liberia and can lead to a year in jail. It is consistent with harsh anti-gay laws that exist in many African countries. According to Reuters, Ponpon is afraid to move around during the day -- local Liberian newspapers have printed his picture and phone number on their front pages. But a curfew imposed by authorities as a measure to deal with the epidemic means he can't go out at night either. "All we want is protection," Ponpon told Reuters. "We want the government to come forward and say that this is a minority group and they deserve the same rights as anyone else and then people will stop attacking us." Christian missionary and evangelical groups play a conspicuous role in parts of Africa, providing aid but also fanning bigotry and hate. In Uganda, American evangelicals have influenced the draconian anti-gay legislation being deliberated there. And so it shouldn't be too surprising that some Christians across the Atlantic have imposed a similar narrative on the outbreak. In early August, Oklahoma conservative Christian radio host Rick Miles appeared to echo the anti-gay Liberian clergymen, pinning the advent of the epidemic on a grab-bag of things loathed by American cultural conservatives. "This Ebola epidemic can become a global pandemic, and that’s another name for plague," he said. "It may be the great attitude adjustment that I believe is coming. Ebola could solve America’s problems with atheism, homosexuality, sexual promiscuity, pornography and abortion." In West Africa and the United States, it seems, such bigotry is one threat of the Ebola outbreak that is very real. Here's how the virus spreads and how contact tracing works to stop outbreaks.


‘Birdman’ gets its power from its ambiguity. At least, I think so.

They say there’s always magic in the air on Broadway. (Twentieth Century Fox) The Reelist is a column about Kristen Page-Kirby’s relationship with movies. To read Washington Post film critic Ann Hornaday’s review of “Birdman,” click here. Did you know you’re supposed to call a certain movie “Birdman or The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance” on first reference, per the press materials, and then you can just call it “Birdman” after that? Now that that’s over with, let’s talk about “Birdman.” Some people are going to hate — HATE — “Birdman.” The movie is about Riggan (Michael Keaton), an actor most famous for playing a superhero in a series of wildly successful movies way back when [note to self: Insert Michael Keaton joke here after coffee]. Looking to reignite his career, Riggan has adapted a Raymond Carver short story into a play he’s starring in. What follows is kind of a melancholic “Noises Off,” in which the troubles of getting a Broadway play playing on Broadway mingle with Riggan’s depression, alcoholism and possible superpowers. "Birdman or The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance" tells the story of an actor (Michael Keaton) struggling to mount a serious play on Broadway while his superhero identity haunts him. Yeah, see, when we first meet Riggan, he’s levitating. Director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu opens the film with a long take of Keaton’s bare back as he hovers about 3 feet off the floor. Then the camera moves away, then Keaton walks into frame. We don’t see how he un-levitates — or if it’s a trick of perception, or if Inarritu is messing with us, or what. Some people will leave the theater ticked that it’s never made clear, truly clear, if Riggan is a superhero in other ways than in his own mind. Some people will leave the theater, go out to dinner and end up in a shouting match with their friends, both sides trying to prove either yes he can fly or no he can’t. But those people are making a mistake. The ambiguity of “Birdman” isn’t a bug, it’s a feature. It’s not a puzzle to be solved, it simply is ambiguous. Of course that’s frustrating. Very few of us enjoy not knowing something that we suspect is, in fact, knowable. Living in the space between certainties is when humans are at our most frustrated — as proof, ask someone what her week was like


Maryland open houses Oct. 25-26

Ave 8522 Bells Ridge Ter 13115 Piney Meetinghouse Rd 10670 Muirfield Dr 9704 Clydesdale St 7916 Turncrest Dr 9909 Conestoga Way 10600 Burbank Dr 11116 Hunt Club Dr 12325 Greenbriar Branch Dr 7552 Heatherton Lane 12717 Hunting Horn Ct 9416 Holbrook Lane ROCKVILLE 20850 118 Monroe St #109 3 China Rose Ct 19 Sterling Ct 10116 Treble Ct 500 King Farm Blvd #401 23 Martins Lane 20851 203 Halpine Walk Ct 2003 Deertree Lane 20852 27 Shagbark Ct 14 Loganwood Ct 11120 Cedarwood Dr #198 805 Brice Rd 10914 Wickshire Way #d-2 11110 Buckwood Lane 5922 Empire Way 20853 4900 Norbeck Rd 13701 Drake Dr 4944 Walkingfern Dr 5112 Adrian St 14720 Janice Dr 4612 Tallahassee Ave 5500 Marlin St 15521 Pennyroyal Lane 16604 Lescot Ter 3919 Arbor Crest Way 20854 1529 Blue Meadow Rd 923 Willowleaf Way 1749 Crestview Dr 20855 17508 Applewood Lane SANDY SPRING 20860 17518 Ashton Forest Ter SILVER SPRING 20901 9609 Clearview Pl 11449 Encore Dr 303 Crescendo Way 511 Kerwin Ct 819 Dennis Ave #new House 10511 Procter St 10008 Brunett Ave 10021 Brookmoor Dr 20902 2913 Harris Ave 11520 Clairmont View Ter 10703 Glenhaven Dr 10810 Inwood Ave 1805 Myrtle Rd 3800 Randolph Rd 700 Hermleigh Rd 2502 Dennis Ave 2301 Churchill Rd 2207 Prichard Rd 12208 Judson Rd 20904 617 Deerhead Ct 705 Hobbs Dr 12300 Loft Lane 13709 Wendover Rd 14315 New Hampshire Ave 304 Kimblewick Dr 20905 14848 Carona Dr 546 Ednor Rd 17215 Donora Rd 16813 Hoffman Manor Dr 16813 Hoffman Manor Dr 15517 Wembrough St 15044 Notley Rd 15700 Peach Orchard Rd 20906 13208 Osterport Dr 13552 Coachlamp Lane 15400 Layhill Rd 20910 2208 Washington Ave #w-302 714 Silver Spring Ave 1214 Pinecrest Cir 1734 East West Hwy 9210 Summit Rd 1220 Blair Mill Rd #300 1911 Stratton Rd TAKOMA PARK 20912 609 Hudson Ave #126 WASHINGTON GROVE 20880 403 6th Ave PRINCE GEORGE’S COUNTY BELTSVILLE 20705 13104 Oriole Dr BOWIE 20715 2707 Birdseye Lane 20720 13212 Arriba Greenfields Dr 20721 11515 Lottsford Ter CAPITOL HEIGHTS 20743 417 Dateleaf Ave CLINTON 20735 10608 Ridge Dr FORT WASHINGTON 20744 7300 Allentown Rd 8110 Alcoa Dr LANHAM 20706 10303 Diablo Ave MOUNT RAINIER 20712 3403 Newton St RIVERDALE 20737 6100 Madison St 6306 Somerset Rd UNIVERSITY PARK 20782 6405 40th Ave UPPER MARLBORO 20772 9816 Green Apple Turn 20774 2128 Turleygreen Pl ST. MARY’S COUNTY LEONARDTOWN 20650 22513 Armstrong Dr


Partial solar eclipse: Stunning photos from Washington D.C. and beyond

Stargazers in Florida gather to watch a partial solar eclipse near a pier in Naples on Thursday. Considerable cloud cover meant Thursday evening’s partial solar eclipse often played hide and seek for D.C. area skywatchers. Nevertheless, a number of photographers managed to capture magnificent views. Not only do photos reveal the “pac-man”-like bite taken out of the sun, but several also show the prominent sunspot region AR2192, the largest observed since 1990, some 80,000 miles across! Here we share with you standout images from the D.C. area and other parts of the nation, collected from Flickr, Twitter, and Facebook, as well as shared with us via email. Thanks to everyone who sent pictures to our attention! Washington, D.C. area views of the eclipse (Joseph Gruber via Flickr) Centreville, Va. looking west (Jeff Gamble via Flickr) (Rachel Sanderoff via Facebook) From Culpeper (Kevin Ambrose) From Manassas Battlefield Park (Jane Anderson) (Ryan Schuster via Flickr) From the top floor of the Library of Congress’ Madison Building (Claire Gardiner via Facebook) Clear view of the #solareclipse from Hechinger Mall! @capitalweather @FrozenTropics http://t.co/fn3RZujcpI Awesome takeoff from @Dulles_Airport during partial #solar #eclipse! Photo by Tom Hamilton @ABC7News @airwaysmagazine http://t.co/tGkQHTfLDb #sunset #taylorsisland #eclipse #maryland #ChesapeakeBay 10/23/14 http://t.co/sVls3kGhnz Sun starting to peak out below the clouds #partial #eclipse @capitalweather @SteveRudinABC7 http://t.co/sQgbetAVLc View of the eclipse from across the nation Gorgeous shot of the partial #SolarEclipse from Stuart McDaniel in Lawndale, NC! http://t.co/rE2n90s5hu Amazing crescent sun! RT @MargaretOrr: @jayvise: Mandeville, La. - #solareclipse shots. @MargaretOrr http://t.co/OAy3WjLUtr THE BEST! @SpencerWeather Here's a shot I got of the partial solar eclipse this evening here in Logan County, WV :) http://t.co/oXKlRNing9 THIS. IS. AWESOME. RT @weatherdan Partial solar eclipse from @HotelChancellor @WeatherBug cam. #arwx http://t.co/N3uFtJRdPu This is what a 6% eclipse looks like from Atlantic Beach, NC via NishFuts Productions #EncBeauty #Pacman http://t.co/MarlAFcSu2 We agree! RT @JoshuaTreeNP One word: WOW. #eclipse #SolarEclipse http://t.co/t2kbjqopa2 Partial solar eclipse, as seen in Potosi #MO. Thanks to John Albert Christeson Jr! Email pix: photos@ksdk.com http://t.co/EPB91Nrbcw Awesome shot! MT @MatthewTrudeau1: Solar Eclipse 2014 #myrtlebeach @JimCantore @EdPiotrowski @USATODAY @msnNOW http://t.co/HHuDTfZK0B A neat shot of the solar eclipse! Taken by Richard Gordon in #Denver. @DenverChannel #cowx #colorado #SolarEclipse http://t.co/S7ACKh9e8u Partial solar #Eclipse shot from Louisville, Ky., before the sun disappeared behind the clouds. - @KevinHarned http://t.co/1FELMWXFC7


READ IN: Blame Game Edition

Do you Read In? Sign up today and get all the headlines you need delivered right to your inbox every morning! A1: -- A doctor in New York City tested positive for the Ebola virus on Thursday, after returning from Guinea where he was treating patients. Three people who had contact with the doctor, Craig Spencer, have been placed in isolation, and he is being treated in an isolation ward at Bellevue Hospital Center. Spencer reported a fever of 103 degrees Thursday morning. (New York Times) -- Islamic State militants appear to have used chlorine gas in a September attack against Iraqi police officers in Duluiyah, near Balad. Iraqi forces say militants have launched two other chlorine attacks since seizing a former chemical weapons production plant. The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons says chlorine gas has been used "systematically" as a weapon in northern Syria; the U.S. blames those attacks on the Syrian government. (Washington Post) Iraqi forces are months away from being able to start any kind of ground offensive against Islamic State, U.S. Central Command said Thursday. (Reuters) -- A Russian captured while fighting with insurgents in Afghanistan will be flown to the U.S. for prosecution in federal court, after spending years in detention near Bagram air base. Irek Hamidullan is suspected of leading several insurgent attacks in 2009 that killed or wounded U.S. troops. Hamidullan, who also fought in the Soviet war in Afghanistan, is expected to be tried in the Eastern District of Virginia. (Washington Post) -- Two New York City police officers were wounded, one critically, by a man wielding a hatchet in Queens. The assailant was killed. Police declined to comment on reports that the attack was linked to terrorism, or that an internal memo urged officers to be more aware after recent attacks in Canada. (Reuters) -- Canadian police said Thursday that Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, the gunman who shot and killed a soldier and tried to attack Parliament in Ottawa, had not been identified as a security threat despite a lengthy criminal record and an intent to travel to Syria. Police said Zehaf-Bibeau arrived in Ottawa as early as Oct. 2, apparently hoping to expedite his passport application. Sergeant at Arms Kevin Vickers, who shot the gunman, was given a standing ovation as he presented the ceremonial mace in the House of Commons on Wednesday. (New York Times) -- Congressional investigators say


READ IN: Blame Game Edition

in federal court, after spending years in detention near Bagram air base. Irek Hamidullan is suspected of leading several insurgent attacks in 2009 that killed or wounded U.S. troops. Hamidullan, who also fought in the Soviet war in Afghanistan, is expected to be tried in the Eastern District of Virginia. (Washington Post) -- Two New York City police officers were wounded, one critically, by a man wielding a hatchet in Queens. The assailant was killed. Police declined to comment on reports that the attack was linked to terrorism, or that an internal memo urged officers to be more aware after recent attacks in Canada. (Reuters) -- Canadian police said Thursday that Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, the gunman who shot and killed a soldier and tried to attack Parliament in Ottawa, had not been identified as a security threat despite a lengthy criminal record and an intent to travel to Syria. Police said Zehaf-Bibeau arrived in Ottawa as early as Oct. 2, apparently hoping to expedite his passport application. Sergeant at Arms Kevin Vickers, who shot the gunman, was given a standing ovation as he presented the ceremonial mace in the House of Commons on Wednesday. (New York Times) -- Congressional investigators say more that 30 million cars in the U.S. are equipped with dangerously defective air bags, far more than the 7.8 million vehicles that have been recalled so far. The air bags, made by Japanese manufacturer Takata, can blast metal shards when deployed; the defect has been linked to four deaths. (Washington Post) -- Front Pages: WaPo leads with the Islamic State chemical attack. LA Times looks at the tens of millions of dollars the Islamic State is bringing in every month. NYT two column lede, next to three column photo of late-night presser: "NEW YORK DOCTOR, BACK FROM AFRICA, IS SICK WITH EBOLA." WSJ and USA Today also lead with Craig Spencer's diagnosis. Poll-a-Palooza: -- Massachusetts: This one got tongues wagging last night: Businessman Charlie Baker (R) leads Attorney General Martha Coakley (D) 45 percent to 36 percent, by far the biggest lead he's ever had in a public survey. Last week, Baker and Coakley were tied. Baker's growth comes almost entirely from people who have decided on a candidate within the last month and a half; Baker leads among independents by a 57 percent to 20 percent margin. (Boston Globe) -- Georgia: Philanthropy executive Michelle Nunn (D) leads businessman


Join The Washington Post and Univ. of Maryland for a discussion on midterm races in Maryland

On Wednesday October 29, the University of Maryland, in partnership with The Washington Post, will host a panel discussion about its recent UMD/WashPost poll looking at the Maryland Governor’s race. Post staffers including Polling Manager Peyton Craighill and Reporters Jenna Johnson and John Wagner will join UMD faculty members for this public event to further discuss the poll and related results. The event will be moderated by Al From, founder and former CEO of the Democratic Leadership Council, author of The New Democrats and the Return to Power and member of the CAPC Advisory Board. What: University of Maryland/Washington Post Poll Panel Discussion When: 10 a.m. Oct. 29 Where: 0130 Tydings Hall, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742 The event is free to the public; no RSVP required. Get more information about the event and partnership.


Traffic, transit tips for this weekend

again by 11:30 a.m. Saturday. Map shows the route of the Saturday morning Walk to End HIV (Courtesy of Whitman-Walker Health) Marine Corps Marathon. The start line is on Route 110 between the Pentagon and Arlington Memorial Drive. Runners start at 7:55 a.m. Sunday. The course through Arlington County and the District remains open till 3 p.m. The Finish Festival, where runners meet up with their supporters, is on North Lynn Street between Wilson Boulevard and 19th Street in Rosslyn. Metrorail will open at 5 a.m. Sunday, two hours earlier than normal. To reach the start line, use Pentagon station on the Blue and Yellow lines. The Pentagon station tends to be very crowded on race morning, so another option is the station at Pentagon City, one more stop down the lines. Arlington Cemetery station won’t open till 8:30 a.m. The Arlington Cemetery station is an easy walk to and from the finish area, but it’s served by the Blue Line only. Rosslyn station, on the Blue and Orange lines, is also within walking distance and is popular on marathon day because it has the extra service provided by two lines. (Metro also will operate extra Blue Line trains between Franconia-Springfield and Stadium-Armory from 5 a.m. to 8:15 a.m. and from 11:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.) Driving and parking for the marathon will be challenging. Marathon officials advise that runners could use the parking garage at 23rd Street and Crystal Drive in Crystal City, then take the free shuttles to the Runners Village near the Pentagon. Parking Panda, the online parking service, has set up a Web page that can help marathon participants find and reserve parking in the vicinity of the start and finish areas. Metro weekend schedule Red Line. Orange Line. Green Line. Travelers who normally would use the Greenbelt station on weekends might want to board at College Park instead, to avoid the shuttle ride. I-95 HOV lanes Beltway inner loop, Virginia Route 123, Tysons Corner Traffic won’t be able to get onto Tyco Road from Westwood Center Drive or from eastbound Route 7 at the Tyco Road intersection, but drivers can reach westbound Route 7 from Westwood Center Drive. All this is part of the final paving work on Route 7 for the Silver Line project. Image shows this weekend’s traffic pattern at the busy Route 7/Tyco Road intersection in Tysons Corner. (Dulles Corridor Metrorail Project)


Ebola will make Americans more likely to give up civil liberties

Craig Spencer, a Doctors Without Borders physician who recently returned to New York after treating Ebola patients in West Africa, was rushed to Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan on Thursday and has tested positive for the virus. (AP Photo/John Minchillo) The emerging reaction to America’s newest case of Ebola shows that many Americans are scared by serious contagious diseases. Recent polling of Americans shows that public concern over Ebola has grown since the first cases arrived in the United States and since the death of the first Ebola patient — with 4 in 10 Americans saying that they are worried about family members contracting Ebola. The symptoms associated with Ebola, such as bleeding and weakness, are frightening, and the death rate in this current outbreak is very high, reaching 70 percent in certain places. Ebola anxiety, while potentially misplaced and harmful, is likely to have an affect on whom Americans trust to handle the disease and what kinds of policies they will support to fight it. Based on work that we have done on other public health anxieties, such as smallpox and the H1N1 flu, we expect that Ebola anxiety will lead people to seek protection from diseases that may cause harm to them or their family. In seeking protection, we expect that Americans will, at least initially, put their trust in medical experts like the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to tell them how to stay safe and will support state powers that may lead to quarantine or other civil liberties restrictions for those suspected of exposure. By looking at another disease – smallpox — we can see how anxiety affects trust in public health officials and support for a variety of policies designed to control smallpox outbreaks and thus keep the population safe. Smallpox is a good analogue to Ebola. It, too, is a lethal infectious disease that few Americans have immunity to. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared smallpox eradicated in 1980, which means that there is no longer routine vaccination. Smallpox can still rouse the public’s fears. It is regularly discussed as a potential bioweapon, and in summer 2014, the National Institutes of Health discovered vials of forgotten live smallpox in a storage closet, raising concerns about its handling and containment. In 2011, we worked together with YouGov to run an experiment with a representative sample of 600 Americans. Some of the 600 were picked at random


Public transit does spread diseases. But Ebola isn’t one of them.

of diseases, Ebola probably won't be one of them. It is not, for instance, influenza. Research has found that riding transit in flu season can increase your risk of catching an acute respiratory infection as much as six-fold. Similar results have been found linking certain bus routes in Houston to higher incidences of tuberculosis. The poor ventilation and close contact of minibuses are also thought to significantly contribute to the spread of tuberculosis in South African cities. Historically, public transportation was also a central public health concern during the spread of epidemics of influenza. Both influenza and tuberculosis, though, can be transmitted by airborne particles — by one commuter coughing or breathing on another. Ebola is much more stubborn in how it spreads. You've probably read by now (if you live in New York, in comforting emails from your elected officials) that Ebola can't be spread by an infected person before he or she shows symptoms of the disease. Spencer reportedly developed his symptoms after riding the train. And the symptoms that we're talking about — high fever, vomiting, diarrhea — would probably prevent most of us from riding public transit in the first place. The next big factor is that you have to come in contact with the bodily fluid of someone who has developed symptoms. There are no known cases of Ebola transmission through dry surfaces, meaning you're probably not going to catch it from sharing a hand rail on the train or sitting on a seat previously occupied by someone who's sick. Yes, there is an out-there scenario where you catch Ebola on mass transit. Emphasis on out-there. This is what would have to happen, according to a good but graphic explainer from the New York Times: If someone ejected bloody mucus or vomitus onto a subway pole, and the next passenger were to touch it while it was still wet and then, for some unimaginable reason, were to put those wet fingers into an eye or mouth instead of wiping them in disgust — then yes, it could happen. Similarly, if an extremely ill passenger with high viral saliva loads were to sneeze large, wet droplets directly into the mouth or eyes of another passenger, the infection might be passed. But the influenza route — sneeze to hand to pole to hand to eye — has never been known to happen and is considered extremely unlikely.


The marijuana industry could be bigger than the NFL by 2020

Meg Sanders inspects drying marijuana at her grow house in Denver. The agriculture tax questions facing the marijuana industry are the latest wrinkle for the states trying to establish commercial recreational pot industries. (AP Photo /Ed Andrieski) A report out from Greenwave Advisors, a "comprehensive research and financial analysis for the emerging legalized marijuana industry," projects that legal cannabis could be an industry with revenues of $35 billion by 2020 if marijuana is legalized at the federal level. They note that this is a floor representing revenues in the first year of countrywide legalization. To put that figure in perspective, $35 billion represents more annual revenue than the NFL (currently $10 billion), and is roughly on par with current revenues for the newspaper publishing industry ($38 billion) and the confectionary industry ($34 billion). Greenwave arrived at its numbers by considering existing and likely marijuana markets - medical and recreational - in states that already have them, as well as states that appear likely to open up such markets by 2020. According to the Huffington Post, Greenwave assumes 12 states plus DC will have legalized recreational marijuana in that time, with medical marijuana markets in 37 states. Currently 23 states have legalized medical marijuana, and two have legalized the plant for recreational use. Even without full federal legalization, Greenwave projects legal marijuana revenues of $21 billion. It's worth noting that there's a fair degree of uncertainty surrounding these numbers - current estimates place the size of the U.S. black market at anywhere from 10 to 120 billion dollars. Predicting future marijuana sales may be a fool's errand, as evidenced by Colorado's difficulties in projecting marijuana tax revenues earlier this year. Considering the legal marijuana industry generated roughly $1.53 billion in revenues in 2013, according to industry research group Arcview Market Research, it's reasonable to assume there's a lot of growth potential between now and then. That potential has attracted investor interest, but enthusiasm remains constrained due to the uncertainties surrounding legal weed. The biggest buzzkill remains the federal government's classification of marijuana as a Schedule 1 substance, making it illegal for any use. The Justice Department has thusfar taken a hands-off approach to legalization efforts in Washington and Colorado. But depending on who wins the White House in 2016, or who Obama nominates for the Attorney General slot until then, that situation could change on a dime. And the DEA still


The real worry isn’t Ebola in New York. It’s Ebola in Mali.

sign of the disease, and the World Health Organization praised it as "a good example of what to do when faced with an imported case of Ebola." The Post's Abby Phillip looks past the Ebola hysteria to address three of the latest misconceptions about the deadly virus. Meanwhile in Nigeria, a single contagious Ebola patient managed to infect a further 19 people. The country was able to isolate these people and treat them before the disease spread. While eight died, the virus was ultimately contained, and WHO declared the country Ebola free on Oct. 20. Nigeria won considerable praise for its response to Ebola. “Nigeria acted quickly and early and on a large scale,” John Vertefeuille, from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), told AFP this week. “They acted aggressively, especially in terms of contact-tracing.” These cases are encouraging, because they seem to show that that Ebola can be contained. Nigeria in particular, shows how a well-functioning health care system can be used to track and isolate a number of Ebola cases (existing infrastructure in place used to monitor for cases of polio was a particular help in the country). For a wealthy country like the United States, it's a good sign, and the circumstances of the New York case are also in Americans' favor: Just three people have been entered into quarantine, and none are showing symptoms. The worst-case scenario would likely be that one of these people has Ebola. In Mali, however, things might not be so simple. It's worth remembering that a study in the New England Journal of Medicine identified the Ebola outbreak's ground zero patient as another 2-year-old, this time in Guinea. This child died on Dec. 6, 2013, but not before passing on the infection to his mother, sister and grandmother. At the time of writing there have been more than 1,500 cases in Guinea alone. A CDC medical officer demonstrates the correct procedure for health-care workers to put on protective equipment. He is using the protocol recommended by Doctors Without Borders to prevent being infected with Ebola. The ground zero case in Guinea, of course, came before Ebola panic and the associated safety precautions were set up, but it should still cause concern. Infants and toddlers may be particularly prone to spreading the disease due to their need for close care (in contrast, Senegal's only Ebola case, who managed to


Hurston/Wright Foundation awards NoViolet Bulawayo for her debut novel, ‘We Need New Names’

2013 Man Booker Prize: “We are on our way to Budapest: Bastard and Chipo and Godknows and Sbho and Stina and me. We are going even though we are not allowed to cross Mzilikazi Road, even though Bastard is supposed to be watching his little sister Fraction, even though Mother would kill me dead if she found out; we are just going. There are guavas to steal in Budapest, and right now I’d rather die for guavas. We didn’t eat this morning and my stomach feels like somebody just took a shovel and dug everything out.” Accepting the award, Bulawayo stood on stage in brilliant yellow. “It is such a great privilege to be nominated for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for fiction and to be nominated along with a fine list of writers with many accomplishments,” said Bulawayo, who won a Stegner Fellow at Stanford University. “I accept this award with gratitude and in celebration of the luminous lives and the works of Zora Neale Hurston and Richard Wright, for being the bright beacons who created so we could write today with gratitude and dignity.” Wilder, the winner of the nonfiction category, said the award was like an affirmation. “Most historians don’t write with an aim of getting a specific award,” Wilder said. “My dream was people will say one day I got it right.” Poetry winner Johnson told the crowd he began writing poetry 20 years ago as a student at Howard University. “I read poems because they were short. ‘I could read a 500-page novel or I could read this poem five times,’ ” he said. “I never imagined being a poet. It is an honor to be in the space.” Biographer and journalist Wil Haygood was master of ceremonies during the 2014 Hurston/Wright Foundation Legacy Awards ceremony. (DeNeen L. Brown/The Washington Post) Washington Post staff writer and biographer Wil Haygood, whose front-page story in The Post inspired the movie “Lee Daniels’ The Butler,” was master of ceremonies. Haygood was awarded the 2013 Hurston/Wright Ella Baker Award for his “masterful writing.” Haygood recalled his time as a writer at the Boston Globe, when an editor called Haygood into his office and gave him an assignment to write about a feature writer teaching at the University of Massachusetts. “I said, ‘Who is it?’ ” Haygood recalled. “He said, ‘It’s James Baldwin.’ ” Haygood recalled being very nervous. “I was


The young and the disconnected: America’s youth unemployment problem

is in a slow, steady recovery, the number of young people considered to be “disconnected” from the economy or school system has hardly fallen, according the findings of a new analysis from the bipartisan nonprofit Opportunity Nation. Over the past four years, the group has measured access to social mobility on a number of factors, including high school and pre-K enrollment, median wage and access to high-speed Internet. The group’s 2014 calculation, released last week, find that America’s seen a modest, but broad increase in opportunities for mobility. Overall, those opportunities have increased about 5 percent for Americans since 2011. Meanwhile, the national high school graduation rate has hit a historic high and the overall unemployment rate has fallen to 6.3 percent. In July, according the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the overall youth unemployment rate was 14 percent, down from 16 percent the year before. But the number of so-called disconnected youth in the country has hardly budged at around 5.6 million. Those problems mirror the steady climb of youth unemployment numbers globally, with the International Labor Organization citing a 12.6 percent unemployment rate for young people, near the crisis-era peak. In 2013, there were an estimated 73 million unemployed young people across the globe. Big Washington recognizes the problem. Congress passed a new Workforce Innovation Act this summer that requires at least 75 percent of federal funds made available to state employment programs be directed toward helping disconnected youth. Some economists Research has also linked disconnected youth to poverty and crime. A 2012 analysis of the group for the White House Council for Community Solutions attributes 63 of youth crime to disconnected youth and cost taxpayers — in the most conservative estimates — nearly $14,000 a month, per young person. “There are obvious risks if they don’t have access to the labor market,” said Kisha Bird, youth policy director for the Center for Law and Social Policy. “And if they don’t have a liaison to help them get access, they will never get it.” Hernandez is ready to change his life. It’s just that the job market won’t let him. Small Washington — the local government — recognizes the youth employment problem as well. Also last week, the District opened a Youth ReEngagement Center to address the complex cocktail of problems many disconnected youth face. Some need to take the GED or get vocational training. Some need support with


Army football players gave booze, cash from boosters to recruits at bowling-alley party

beverage and allowed recruits – high school athletes – to drink their fill. Some cadets reported having as many as seven drinks in 90 minutes before a wild bus ride home. Some of the hosts handed leftover booster money to the recruits, the report found. West Point said it has no accounting of how much money was spent or how it was spent that night. Twenty cadets were punished by the academy for promoting underage drinking, the Gazette reports, and two officers and two coaches were reprimanded. The cadets have not missed any regular season game time, with Coach Dan Monken keeping them out of the team’s spring game instead. Army’s report says that Monken and the team’s other football coaches knew about the incident soon after it happened but did not inform the school or the NCAA, which will not sanction Army over the incident, instead warning Monken that he will face punishment if it happens again. The Gazette reports such incidents have become a tradition at Army: The outing for recruits with full police escort started more than a decade ago under former Army coach Bobby Ross, the report said. It has been a night with few rules. “The Palisades mall trip has been in place for many years,” the report said. “Additionally no officer-in-charge attends the trip to the Palisades, cadets do not sign out and there is no clearly understood cadet in charge.” In the wake of the report, Army has changed its rules regarding recruiting visits, requiring an officer to be present at all times. The Black Knights are 2-5 this season, Monken’s first at West Point. Army has had just one winning season since 1997. Army is only the latest service academy to face scrutiny for off-the-field issues involving its student-athletes. In August, the Gazette reported that Air Force student-athletes “flouted the sacred honor code by committing sexual assaults, taking drugs, cheating and engaging in other misconduct at wild parties while the service academy focused on winning bowl games and attracting money from alumni and private sources in recent years.” Air Force’s superintendent has since called for an inspector general to investigate the academy’s athletic department. In March, former Navy football player Joshua Tate was found not guilty by a military judge of sexually assaulting a female classmate in a case that shined an unflattering glimpse on the Midshipmen football team. The incident occurred


Want people to drink less? Make their cigarettes more expensive

Money to burn. (Flickr user Marius Mellebye/CC) Excessive drinking leads to about 88,000 deaths each year in the United States. Cigarette smoking adds another 440,000 deaths to the tally, most due to long-term health problems like cancer. A new study from the Washington University School of Medicine suggests you could take a bite out of both figures with one simple policy change. There's already a substantial body of research showing that cigarette tax increases lead to decreased cigarette consumption. A recent Congressional Budget Office study concluded that a 10 percent increase in cigarette prices leads to a 5 to 15 percent decrease in teen smoking rates, and a 3 to 7 percent decrease among all adults. The Washington University study finds that the same 10 percent cigarette price increase also leads to a 1 percent decrease in alcohol consumption. But the researchers found that when it comes to tax policy, all drinks aren't created equal: "Strengthening of tobacco policies was associated with reductions in beer and spirits consumption, but not wine. This suggests that smoking and drinking beer are more strongly related than smoking and drinking wine." Why no effect on wine? The authors note that "people who prefer wine are less likely to smoke, more educated, and more likely to have healthier lifestyle habits than those who prefer other types of alcohol." Since wine drinkers aren't smoking as much as beer drinkers to begin with, it make sense that a change in cigarette prices would have less of an effect on wine consumption. In his book Paying the Tab, Duke University's Philip J. Cook shows that in real terms, federal beer, wine and liquor taxes are approaching historic lows - on average, if a typical drink in this country costs about a dollar, federal tax accounts for 10 cents of that. Mark Kleiman argues that tripling that tax would add about $14 billion a year to federal revenues, and save about 3,000 lives per year due to decreased consumption - all for the relatively low price of 20 cents per drink But higher alcohol taxes have been a tough sell historically. The alcoholic beverage industry has fiercely opposed tax increases. Cook notes that in 2005, a majority of the House signed on to a bill that would have cut beer taxes by half. However, it wasn't voted on and never made it out of the House. Tobacco


Stop pretending we can fix the environment by curbing population growth

to reduce the size of the global population would help stave off climate change, the loss of species, and other environmental concerns. The resulting research, just out in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and co-authored by the University of Adelaide's Barry Brook, seriously challenges the idea that greens ought to be campaigning for population control. On top of the serious ethical problems with trying to restrict the global population, the study also finds a purely practical one: It doesn't even appear possible. "No matter what levers you pull, we have such a huge demographic momentum, there’s no way we can rein in the human population fast enough to address sustainability issues in the next century," says Bradshaw. Or as the study itself puts it, the increase in population over the course of the 21st century is "virtually locked-in"; this means, the authors argue, that population reduction "cannot be argued to be the elephant in the room for immediate environmental sustainability and climate policy." Credit: United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population
Division (2013). World Population Prospects: The 2012 Revision,
Volume I: Comprehensive Tables ST/ESA/SER.A/336. To show as much, the researchers used population models to examine nine different scenarios for the global human population over the course of the 21st century. One involved a "humane" approach to population control, in which female empowerment and greater access to contraception lead to better family planning and women having more control over their fertility. Two others modeled a much harsher "one child" policy, implemented either gradually by 2100, or more rapidly by 2045. Rather grimly, the study also modeled a number of hypothetical disaster scenarios in which large swaths of humanity die due to climate change, pandemics, or wars. In one scenario, Bradshaw and Brook added together the number of people killed in World War I, World War II, and the deadly Spanish Flu (roughly 131 million) and calculated what percentage of humanity that represented at the close of the second World War. The answer was about 5.2 percent. So in one scenario, the study assumed a similar 5 percent die-off of the human population circa 2056 (when that total would be 500 million people out of a projected 9.95 billion living on the globe). Higher catastrophe scenarios, meanwhile, contemplated the staggering death of 2 billion and 6 billion people worldwide. In a climate change scenario simulating


Why China might pull the plug on Hong Kong celebrities

Chow Yun-Fat in the 2007 film "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End." (Disney Enterprises) For decades, Hong Kong's movie and pop stars have been some of the leading lights of East Asian showbiz. And, despite the relatively small size of the Chinese territory as well as the emergence of an influential film scene on the mainland, Hong Kong's actors remain some of the most well-known and sought-after celebrities in China. But the month-long pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong have echoed in the larger world of Chinese pop culture. A number of prominent Hong Kong celebrities have come out in support of the demonstrations, which are being led by the city's university and high school students. These include celebrated actors Chow Yun-Fat and Tony Leung, musicians Anthony Wong and Denise Ho, and others. In the month since Hong Kong's pro-democracy protesters took to the streets, the city has seen the worst civil unrest in decades. The campaign has dwindled from thousands to hundreds, but many are saying they're ready to tough it out. Some across the border in mainland China are not so impressed. According to the New York Times, online petitions have proliferated around Chinese social media, calling for a boycott on such "good-for-nothing" artists. The Times reports: [Some Hong Kong celebrities] are being shunned by fans and companies in China, on whose support many of their careers depend. Arms of China’s state-run news media have denounced them as disloyal to their country. Photographs of a list containing the names of Wong, Ho and other artists were circulated on social media this week. The list was said to be a blacklist of pro-Occupy artists that had been drawn up and sent to mainland news media outlets and entertainment companies, with instructions not to mention or promote the stars. Earlier this month, Chow, one of the celebrities in the crosshairs, had expressed support for the protests, who have been occupying some of Hong Kong's busiest thoroughfares as acts of civil disobedience. “I’ve met the residents, the students," he told the Apple Daily newspaper. "They are very brave and it’s touching to see that they’re fighting for what they want." He called on to government to come up with a solution to address the students "reasonable" demands. When asked recently whether he feared the impact of a rumored Chinese boycott on his career, he dismissed it off-hand: "I'll just make less


Sharyl Attkisson’s computer intrusions: ‘Worse than anything Nixon ever did’

reporter James Rosen in a much-discussed leak case. On a subsequent appearance on Fox News’s “O’Reilly Factor,” Attkisson said she thought she knew who was responsible for the ruckus. All of which was just enough to whet the appetite for the treatment in “Stonewalled.” On one level, the book is a reminder of all the ways people can mess with you. It’s not just her computers that showed signs of tampering, says Attkisson, who bolted CBS News earlier this year. “[B]y November 2012,” she writes, “there are so many disruptions on my home phone line, I often can’t use it. I call home from my mobile phone and it rings on my end, but not at the house.” More devices on the fritz at Attkisson Central: “My television is misbehaving. It spontaneously jitters, mutes, and freeze-frames,” she writes, noting that the computers, TVs and phone all use Verizon’s FiOS service. At one point, “Jeff” inspects the back of Attkisson’s house and finds a “stray cable” attached to her FiOS box. That cable, he explains, could be used to download data. (Read more: The bizarre tale of Sharyl Attkisson’s spare wire) Next big moment: Attkisson gets her computer checked out by someone identified as “Number One,” who’s described as a “confidential source inside the government.” A climactic meeting takes place at a McDonald’s outlet at which Attkisson and “Number One” “look around” for possibly suspicious things. Finding nothing, they talk. “First just let me say again I’m shocked. Flabbergasted. All of us are. This is outrageous. Worse than anything Nixon ever did. I wouldn’t have believed something like this could happen in the United States of America.” That’s all coming from “Number One.” The breaches on Attkisson’s computer, says this source, are coming from a “sophisticated entity that used commercial, nonattributable spyware that’s proprietary to a government agency: either the CIA, FBI, the Defense Intelligence Agency, or the National Security Agency (NSA).” Attkisson learns from “Number One” that one intrusion was launched from the WiFi at a Ritz Carlton Hotel and the “intruders discovered my Skype account handle, stole the password, activated the audio, and made heavy use of it, presumably as a listening tool.” To round out the revelations of “Number One,” he informs Attkisson that he’d found three classified documents deep inside her operating system, such that she’d never know they were even there. “Why? To frame me?” Attkisson


Spaceship spectacular: Rocket launch scrubbed due to boat, reset for Tuesday

International Space Station. .@Space_Station passing over DC this evening https://t.co/Oa13Uv3Jqo @capitalweather http://t.co/d5xROo1DkO Original post, from 11: 55 a.m. The Orbital Sciences Corporation Antares rocket is seen as it launches from Pad-0A of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) at the NASA Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, Sunday, April 21, 2013. (NASA/Bill Ingalls) In an extraordinary coincidence, Mid-Atlantic and Northeast residents can view both a rocket launch and flyover of the International Space Station (ISS), within 5 minutes of one another. Weather conditions should be close to ideal for sky watching with mostly clear skies and light winds. Rocket launch The rocket launch is set for 6:45 p.m. from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in eastern Virginia. Weather permitting, Orbital Sciences Antares rocket will soar through the atmosphere into space. It’s on a mission to resupply cargo to the International Space Station (ISS) on November 2 via its attached Cygnus spacecraft. (Orbital Sciences) From the D.C. area, the rocket will become visible in the southeast sky about 10 degrees above the horizon one to two minutes after launch. Look for a glowing trail of light that makes an arc in the sky. On its Web site, Orbital Sciences offers diagrams showing where to look for the rocket launch from various landmarks in the Mid-Atlantic. Below is the diagram of the view from the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial towards the Jefferson Memorial. (Orbital Sciences) Note that even with suitable weather conditions, rocket launches are sometimes scrubbed due to engineering difficulties. You can keep abreast of the launch status by following the NASA Wallops Flight Facility on Facebook and Twitter as well as Orbital’s Twitter feed. If you can’t view the launch in person, it will be shown live on NASA TV. International Space Station pass Beginning at 6:49 p.m. – just moments after the Wallops rocket launch – the ISS will become visible on a path almost directly over Washington, D.C. In Washington, its bright stream of light will first appear in the northwest sky at 6:49 p.m. By 6:55 p.m., the flyover concludes as the ISS trails off to the southeast. (@hbwx, Howard Bernstein, WUSA9) For any location, you can obtain specific information on the timing and position of the ISS pass at NASA’s Spot the Station Web site. If you take photos of either the rocket launch or the ISS flyover, please share with us via Twitter, Facebook, or Flickr.


Documentary: Some of Bach’s great masterpieces were composed by his wife

J.S. Bach (Detroit Publishing Company Photograph Collection/Library of Congress) Anna Magdalena led a strenuous and stressful life. A gifted singer and musician, she married an egotistical and obstinate genius who believed the world should revolve around him, and complained when it didn’t; she worked constantly and loyally to advance the family’s business, which was music; she was pregnant every year from 1723 to 1737, bearing 13 children, seven of whom died in youth. After her husband’s death, she becomes only “the widow Bach” in contemporary documents — bound, as bad luck would have it, for a pauper’s grave and forgotten except by a few scholars of baroque music and others with an obsessive interest in her husband. Her husband, Johann Sebastian Bach, never died. The “father of all harmony,” as Beethoven called him, lives on in immortality. A new documentary is now attempting to lift her — and by implication, women of the past whose musical accomplishments have been “hidden from history” — from obscurity. In “Written by Mrs Bach,” about to premiere in London and then move to Germany, a professor of music, a composer and an American expert in document forensics advance the case that Anna Magdalena Bach actually composed some of the most notable works attributed to her husband, Johann Sebastian Bach. The works in question are immortal masterpieces: - Bach’s unaccompanied cello suites, of which there are six — the first of them popularized as the theme of the film “Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World.” - The aria that begins and ends perhaps the most famous keyboard work of all time, “The Goldberg Variations.” - A portion of the two-book masterwork originally composed for the harpsichord known as the “The Well-Tempered Clavier.” Thomas Auner performs the prelude of Bach's "Cello Suite No.1" in G major. “Written by Mrs Bach” relies on the work of three people: Martin Jarvis, a Welsh-born conductor, musician and professor of music at Charles Darwin University in Australia; Sally Beamish, a British composer; and Heidi Harralson, an Arizona-based expert in document forensics. They don’t prove their case and don’t purport to. “There’s circumstantial evidence,” Jarvis said in an interview with The Washington Post. “Plus there’s strong musical evidence.” It’s a theory — and it’s plausible. The argument rests on three legs: The pieces, according to the researchers, deviate from other Bach works in significant structural and technical respects;


Swimmer Diana Nyad is fishing for what comes next

Diana Nyad is channeling her swimming stamina into new endeavors. (Catherine Opie) Diana Nyad isn’t currently training for anything. But that doesn’t mean the 65-year-old endurance swimmer — best known for her record-breaking journey from Cuba to Florida last year — has become lazy. When she recently decided to see how long she could hold a high plank, her knees and elbows didn’t touch the ground for two whole hours. “If I ever do that again, I need to have a book in front of me,” jokes Nyad, who was in town last week to promote Extra Strength Tylenol’s “Stories of Strength” campaign. In exchange for folks submitting tales about people who’ve helped them through a challenge, the company is donating money to dosomething.org. Her contribution? Sharing her recent experience with best friend Bonnie Stoll, who served as the “cornerman” during Nyad’s epic swim endeavor. At a certain point, Nyad was floundering. “I forgot what I was doing, I was so out of it,” Nyad recalls. That’s when Stoll asked for just five more strokes. Then five more. Soon enough, Nyad was back on track to Florida. Nyad prides herself on having an iron will to match her rock-hard physique. “But I come to my emotional knees occasionally,” she admits. And there’s nothing wrong with relying on others for help. Nyad says each of the 30,000 runners in the Marine Corps Marathon likely has someone to thank: “I don’t know any marathoner who says, ‘I did this all by myself.’ ” She’s certainly getting assistance to pull off her next tricks. Coming up: a one-woman show about her life, premiering in Key West, Fla., in February. Nyad is also penning a memoir and planning a walk across the country — and maybe snagging the record in holding plank. You might also like: The Marine Corps Marathon is Sunday. Want to get faster by then? Greek out over veggies with Aglaia Kremezi For a better run, tread(mill) carefully


JONAS SALK: Google says ‘thanks’ to the heroic polio-vaccine developer with birthday Doodle

(courtesy of GOOGLE 2014) WHILE I WAS Each such leap into the breeze seemed like not only an act of a certain courage, but also of confidence — that your limbs would not fail you now. And it felt perfect that these trips of faith were launched so close to the institute — named for the scientifically sure-footed pioneer whose vaccine saved so many limbs, and so many lives. Salk on the March 29, 1954, cover of Time magazine. When I first began walking to the Salk site, in the ’90s, you could still spot the man himself there in La Jolla, in his 70s and several decades removed from his initial work that would land him on magazine covers as an international hero. His legacy was not only larger than life, but was also precisely about the fragility of life itself. As so many tens of thousands of children suffered from polio into midcentury, his vaccine began as the stuff of dreams; by the mid-’50s, it was the substance of a profoundly life-altering reality. Dr. Salk had begun his journey a coast away; he got his medical degree in 1939, at the New York University School of Medicine, and was working at the city’s Mount Sinai Hospital before a research fellowship at the University of Michigan — with his mentor — beckoned. In 1947, he moved to head up the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine’s Virus Research Laboratory, where he did the real groundbreaking work in his march toward a vaccine for paralytic poliomyelitis, or polio. The goal, of course, was to trigger the body’s own defenses — so it would build immunity against the disease. Salk believed that antibodies could be produced by injecting not a live virus, but rather a deactivated (non-infectious) one. At this point, enough necessary tumblers clicked into place. For one, the team of Harvard scientist John Enders solved how to grow the pure poliovirus in the test tube — a crucial step that enabled Salk’s effective experimentation with a “killed virus.” And then there were the needed funds — Salk got backing from the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis (the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation). In 1954, at least 1-million children — the Polio Pioneers — were tested across the nation (this followed testing that ranged from monkeys to Salk’s own family). The vaccine was announced as safe and largely effective


Landfills are overflowing with food. Here’s a gelatin label that could limit the waste.

store — meaning food might be good for a week or even longer afterward. But consumers tend to see the date as a sign to immediately throw food out. Manufacturers use a mix of other messages, from “best by” to “enjoy by” to “best before,” to suggest when food might be at its tastiest. But those labels also don’t mean that food is bad. “If you’re a manufacturer, you don’t know how consumers are going to handle your product,” Gunders says. “So manufacturers often are setting those dates based on the worst-case scenario. So they’re thinking about the mom who goes shopping and leaves her groceries in the car while she’s watching her kid’s soccer game. They’ll consider those types of mishandling while setting dates.” Unlike a printed label, the Bump Mark automatically adjusts if food is left out too long. That means consumers also have a clear indication if food was mishandled before it got to the store. “If the retailer is using this, they’re going to have to store it in conditions such that when it’s on the shelf, that label is still smooth, and people are going to be reassured that it is in fact still safe to eat,” Pakstaite says. “There’s such a huge mistrust of retailers, especially after the recent horsemeat scandal in the UK. I think that retailers probably want to buy into anything that would help build trust.” Though the label would cost more than a simple printed sticker, Pakstaite says that it will be cheaper than other alternatives. She will calculate exact costs after she begins working with a retailer to finalize specific materials and quantities. “It’s incredibly low-cost considering the fact that many retailers have been trying to implement RFID and electronics-based solutions for this,” she explains. “They would be far more expensive than just jelly and a bit of plastic are going to be.” Pakstaite is patenting the design and looking for a commercial partner to help bring it to life. She hopes that it can help reduce the enormous amounts of food that end up unnecessarily in the trash. In the United States, nine out of 10 people throw out food early because of confusion over dates. For the average family of four, that can add up to several hundred dollars’ worth of food — and the huge environmental footprint of growing food that goes straight to the trash.


Casino billionaire Sheldon Adelson is behind 85 percent of Florida’s anti-pot campaign

Sheldon Adelson, owner of Las Vegas Sands, in Spain in November, 2013. (Perez Herrera/EPA) UPDATE, Nov. 5: The most recent campaign finance data show that the numbers below have held relatively steady. Adelson added another $0.5 million to the $5 million he’s given to Drug Free Florida. Morgan and his firm have still contributed roughly half of the $8 million raised by People United for Medical Marijuana. Click here for more information on how marijuana fared at the ballot. Floridians will decide whether to legalize marijuana for medical use in their state next week and, whatever the outcome, two men will deserve most of the credit (or blame) for bankrolling the fight. Contributions to the campaign against Florida Amendment 2. (Niraj Chokshi) The single largest contributor on either side of the fight over Amendment 2, which grants patients with “debilitating diseases” access to medical marijuana, is billionaire casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, who, new campaign finance filings show, added $1 million to the $4 million he’s already spent in support of the campaign to defeat the measure. Adelson, the chairman and CEO of Las Vegas Sands and America’s 12th richest person, is responsible for 85 percent of the $5.8 million raised by Drug Free Florida, the organization leading the charge against the measure and headed by former Reagan drug czar Carlton Turner. For Adelson, that amount of spending is roughly equivalent to a person worth $1 million writing a $157 campaign contribution check. Contributions to the campaign for Florida Amendment 2. (Niraj Chokshi) The man largely behind the yes campaign is personal injury lawyer John Morgan, who mostly through his law firm has contributed more than half of the $7.6 million raised by People United for Medical Marijuana. Morgan has toured the state and participated in debates to advocate for the measure, which he says he supports so people like his brother Tim Morgan, a quadriplegic, can get legal access to marijuana for pain relief. Because of Adelson’s outsized influence, only about 15 percent of the money raised by the no campaign has come from within the state. In contrast, about 91 percent of the money raised by the yes campaign was raised in-state. Nineteen out of every 20 contributors to People United for Medical Marijuana listed a Florida home address. A review of campaign finance data shows about 80 individuals or organizations have contributed to the no campaign, while roughly


Report: Legal weed in Alaska could be a $107 million industry

$107 million in 2020. Marijuana Policy Group The report, by the same nonpartisan group of academics and private researchers that provided marijuana market estimates to Colorado upon legalization in that state, aims to apply lessons learned from Colorado to Alaska's situation. "Previous studies incorrectly assume that all demand will quickly shift to regulated markets," the group wrote in a release. "In our experience, such assumptions are naïve." Initial estimates of marijuana tax revenue in Colorado were considerably higher than actual revenues, although in subsequent months demand for legal marijuana has grown and revenues are now considerably higher than the latest Colorado Department of Revenue projections. Based on data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, the report estimates that there are 103,000 marijuana users aged 21+ in Alaska, representing at least one-fifth of the state's adult population. It says 72,000 of them use marijuana monthly or more, and 22,000 use marijuana at a near-daily rate. Surveys and government reports consistently show marijuana use in Alaska among the highest in the nation, due partly to the quasi-legal status of marijuana in the state. Marijuana Policy Group As in Colorado, the bulk of the marijuana demand comes from the heaviest users. Twenty-one percent of the state's marijuana users use on a near-daily basis, but this group accounts for fully two-thirds of the overall demand. The report estimates that these heavy users will be the last group to widely adopt a move to the legal market from the black market. "For these users, the budget share for marijuana is large," the authors write. "Because they are regular consumers, it makes sense to shop carefully in order to find low-cost marijuana." With a $50 per ounce tax on marijuana as specified in the ballot measure, it will take several years for prices on the legal market to fall close enough to black market prices for a substantial share of the heavy users to migrate. It's worth noting that as in Colorado, the expected revenues from marijuana represent just a small fraction of the state's total budget. The latest polling on the ballot question is contradictory, with one recent poll showing a 10-point majority in favor of legalization, while another shows a 10-point majority opposing it. MPG received no payment for the Alaska study. The group undertook it partly because current Alaska policy forbids the state from performing such research on its own.


Chris Christie says quarantines won’t hurt the Ebola fight in West Africa. Doctors disagree.

unless they're showing symptoms. Those are potential deterrents that workers will have to weigh as they consider going overseas. And ultimately, these are factors that could hurt the most critical part of containing the Ebola outbreak: sending more health-care workers to West Africa to fight the disease at its source. "Mandatory quarantines may do more harm than good by creating additional barriers to effective treatment of patients with Ebola and impede global efforts to contain and ultimately prevent further spread of the disease," the American College of Physicians said in its statement against quarantines of health-care workers. "Forced quarantines of healthcare workers with no symptoms of Ebola who have risked their lives to protect others are unnecessarily harsh and are not aligned with scientific evidence," said the Association of Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology in a statement. And that's one of the reasons why the feds have struggled to put together policies on returning health-care workers. They need to protect the public at home, but they also don't want to hinder the fight against Ebola at the source of the outbreak. The new CDC guidelines and policies adopted by some states, like Maryland, can be seen as an attempt to thread that needle. They prescribe at-home quarantines for "high-risk" workers, those who have knowingly come into dangerous contact with an Ebola patient — like accidentally sticking themselves with a syringe or handling patients without proper protective equipment. And they're considering asymptomatic workers who've safely treated Ebola patients at a lower risk — they're asking the workers to face continuous monitoring within the incubation window. But they're not being forced to stay at home. This debate about quarantines comes as the World Bank president Tuesday morning warned an additional 5,000 health-care workers are needed in West Africa. And officials are worried that the growing fear around Ebola could leave them short of that goal. "Right now, I'm very much worried about where we will find those health-care workers," said the head of the U.N. Mission for Ebola Emergency Response, David Nabarro, according to the Associated Press. "With the fear factor going out of control in so many places, I hope health care professionals will understand that when they took their oath to become a health care worker it was precisely for moments like this." Health-care workers have been just as courageous as we'd hope during this outbreak. But we also


What counts as evidence of Syria’s war crimes?

under the principle of universal jurisdiction by initiating prosecutions of their own citizens who have allegedly committed crimes in Syria. Groups like the CIJA may just prove that, in the Jalacic’s words, “it is possible to investigate, document and establish linkage during the context of conflicts.” And if their investigations lead to successful prosecutions, there will be pressure to make the use of such groups the norm, rather than the exception, in investigating international crimes in the context of active conflicts. This, in turn, exposes another risk: creating a competitive market place for the collection of atrocity evidence. It remains unclear whether the relationship between the organizations and groups investigating crimes in Syria is one of cooperation or competition. Jelacic notes the CIJA has given the Commission of Inquiry access to its evidence. However, when asked whether it has a cooperative relationship with other groups and agencies, the commission replied that “Interlocutors, including those working on documentation, may provide information they have collected to the Commission. This information is welcome and may be used to corroborate material collected by the Commission or to generate new investigative leads.” Any “kinks” in cooperation require greater scrutiny. Private investigations, according to Dutton, raise issues of fairness, objectivity, impartiality and undue influence on witnesses. These issues could be exacerbated if groups and institutions are competing for evidence. And if they are competing, the question is why? The answer may not come from the organizations and groups investigating Syria but from the (primarily Western) states that are funding groups like the CIJA while simultaneously supporting the Commission of Inquiry and pushing for a referral of Syria to the ICC. Here, a number of questions remain unanswered: Are these states playing different organizations off of each other? Do they view private organizations as simply a means of giving the appearance of doing “something” in support of justice? Are they putting pressure on different groups and institutions to cooperate? The prospects of international justice and accountability in Syria are dim. Until cases test the evidence collected, we can’t know whether the ongoing investigations by private organizations will stand the tests of legal rigor and contestation. And only time will tell whether this was a one-off attempt to make the best of a bad situation or whether employing private groups represents a novel strategy for mass atrocity investigations and prosecutions. Mark Kersten is a researcher at the London


Jupiter gains a creepy ‘eye’ in this Hubble photo

Here's looking at you, Jupiter. (NASA/ESA/A. Simon - Goddard Space Flight Center) No big deal guys, Jupiter is just giving us all side-eye. The Hubble Space Telescope took this spooky space pic while monitoring Jupiter's Great Red Spot (GRS) on April 21. GRS is an ongoing cyclone storm -- bigger than our entire planet. It's been shrinking, although even after losing half of its size since scientists first started measuring in the late 1800s, it's still over 10,000 miles across. But the cycline seems to be shrinking at a faster rate, so astronomers have been keeping a close eye on it. In the top photo, GRS seems to be looking right back at us. That's because one of the planet's moons (Ganymede) happened to cast a shadow right in the middle of the swirling storm. The whole picture. (NASA/ESA/A. Simon - Goddard Space Flight Center)


The campaign of beers: Why suds are flowing on the midterm trail

brew during her 2008 presidential run has the campaign trail felt so awash in booze. Beer has played a notable role in the 2014 elections. Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) famously helped a tailgating LSU student do a keg stand. Senate candidate Scott Brown (R) attended a suds-soaked tailgate earlier this month at the University of New Hampshire, then campaigned at a craft-beer festival last week. His Democratic opponent, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, highlighted her support of small-business legislation by sipping a pour during a tour of the Smuttynose Brewery. Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley recently campaigned for Democrats in Colorado, where he appeared at a fundraiser held at Denver’s Epic Brewing. There, he vowed to buy a beer for anyone who signed up to volunteer, the Denver Post reported. “This is not an idle promise,” he told the crowd. Put it on your calendar: Beer with Brat on November 1! #VA07 http://t.co/5nU03Yg4A7 Politicians have long turned to the bottle when courting voters, the conventional wisdom being that knocking back a beer lends even the stiffest candidate an Everyman appeal. But brew-as-campaign-prop can come with perils, and a candidate can’t be seen as too hard a partier. Landrieu, for example, was all too happy to assist the LSU student with his keg-draining (she held the tap), but she had her limit: Asked if she wanted to take her turn, she declined. Matt Laslo, a freelance reporter who runs an interview series with lawmakers called “Bills and Brews,” says the new comfort with suds on the trail is related to the proliferation of craft breweries in congressional districts in states both red and blue. Now, the act of drinking a beer is not just a gesture meant to show how likable and relate-able one is. It’s also an act of economic boosterism. “The huge economic success of small brewers… gives them cover,” Laslo says. “It’s win-win.” But there’s one new danger for candidates looking to toss back a frosty pint of job creation, he notes. Creative — and sometimes edgy — names that might not jibe with a family-values platform (Polygamy Porter, anyone?) are common among the new wave of ales and IPAs. “So they have to watch out for that.” Read more Reliable Source: The story behind Drake’s cash-dropping rush into Stadium Club David Letterman is not impressed by congressional reality show ‘Sexy Joe Biden’ is among Playboy’s suggested Halloween costumes Even more


Ten reasons why bats are a lot cooler than you think

Big brown bat. (Steve Gettle/www.SteveGettle.com) A group of federal agencies want to let you in on a little secret: Bats are freaking rock stars. They say it's time that you see through the fog of bad Hollywood publicity and recognize their worth on the first National Bat Week, which kicked off Monday with a presentation at the Agriculture Department. They're concerned because about two million bats are being killed by a fungus called White Nose Syndrome and wind turbines. Here are 10 reasons why bats are cool. 1. 2. On the first National Bat Week, experts show why bats are cool. 3. 4. One of the nicest snacks for bats is the emerald ash borer. 5. Conservationists argue that vampire bats have been framed. 6. Hollywood loves bats and so do you. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice - Help Save the Bats 7. It's Halloween, so let's address this Dracula business. 8. Bats sing. 9. Here's a head turner: Bats don't show signs of aging 10. That saying, "It takes a village to raise a child," bats are really into that. BatWorldSanctuary - Lil' Drac Related: Bats are the new black


The worst possible case for the worst possible idea, the gold standard

of a certain bent, especially ones wearing bow ties, aren't worried about unemployment. They're worried about inflation. And, for all its flaws, the gold standard does have the very limited virtue of keeping the price level stable over the long, but not short, term. In other words, prices bounce around a lot from year to year—in fact, more than they do now—but it all eventually balances out to zero. So that's why the usual suspects of charlatans, cranks, and Zerohedge readers think the gold standard is the answer now matter what the economic question. But now Peter Thiel, the billionaire co-founder of Paypal and the first investor in Facebook, has a new and incomprehensible defense of the gold standard. Just try to figure out what this means: Where we’ve had progress in the world of bits but not in the world of atoms, and this world of bits, we’ve had progress in computers, Internet, mobile Internet. Technology just means information technology. It’s all about bits, but the world of atoms, space travel, energy like nuclear power, biotech, new medical devices, that’s been much slower, and there’s been much less progress in those areas in the last forty years. … One’s been regulated, the other has not, but we’ve had this sort of dualistic world where the virtual world of bits has been growing very fast, but the real world of atoms has been kind of stagnant. And I think there’s a strange counterpoint where the same thing happened with our currency, where the real value of money became separate from the virtual in August of ’71 when we went off the gold standard. And so, you know, whatever you think of the gold standard, it had the virtue of connecting the real with the virtual. Where we’ve had progress in the world of bits but not in the world of atoms, and this world of bits, we’ve had progress in computers, Internet, mobile Internet. Technology just means information technology. It’s all about bits, but the world of atoms, space travel, energy like nuclear power, biotech, new medical devices, that’s been much slower, and there’s been much less progress in those areas in the last forty years. … This is some impressive gibberish, but I think I know what it means. Thiel might be saying that, under the gold standard, dollars and inflation-adjusted dollars used to be the same thing, but


Amateur videos capture rocket explosion on social media

After an unmanned rocket exploded seconds after liftoff from the Virginia coast, social media users took to the Web to post their videos and photos. The Washington Post has not independently verified the authenticity of these posts. On Tuesday night a rocket carrying supplies to the International Space Station blew up in Wallops Island, Va., just seconds after liftoff. A rocket that was to resupply the International Space Station blew up Tuesday night a few seconds after lift-off from Wallops Island, Va. Children scream as Antares Rocket explodes Orbital Sciences Antares Explosion at Wallops from 3000ft Antares Rocket Explosion at NASA Wallops Antares Rocket explodes at NASA Wallops Island


Launch failed: Antares rocket explodes just seconds after liftoff, investigation underway

A rocket that was to resupply the International Space Station blew up Tuesday night a few seconds after lift-off from Wallops Island, Va. For the latest Antares updates see: Update at 9 p.m. ET: Update at 7:06 p.m. ET: Doppler radar shows the explosion of the #Antares rocket. No injuries reported according to @NASA http://t.co/ugY57LZgve Update at 6:45 p.m. ET: Update at 6:40 p.m. ET: Update at 6:30 p.m. ET: The Orbital team is implementing its necessary procedures and investigating the cause of the failure. Officials on NASA TV have said that the damage appears to be limited to the facility, and there’s no indication that any personnel are in danger, but there is significant property and vehicle damage. A news conference is forthcoming. Live coverage is still in progress on NASA TV. Original post, from this afternoon The Antares rocket on Tuesday morning. (Orbital Sciences via Twitter) Monday night’s Antares rocket launch was scrubbed when a sailboat entered the range. Fortunately, the weather is looking favorable for Tuesday’s “take two,” which is scheduled for 6:22 p.m.ET. Photographers lined the tidal basin in Washington D.C. on Monday evening to capture a perfect shot of the rocket launch from Wallops Island, Va. The International Space Station was scheduled to pass overhead a few minutes later, providing an excellent opportunity for a unique photo. Some love of science going on out here http://t.co/ovylgQloah However, just as the final, 12-minute countdown was scheduled to begin, the launch process was put on hold for a “boat in range.” After liftoff, the Antares rocket will fly eastward over the Atlantic Ocean. A safety range or launch hazard area of about 1,400 square miles is set up around the launch site so that in case of a failure, no one is at risk. According to NASA Public Affairs Officer Stephanie Schierholz, public notifications were released to mariners in the vicinity of NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility. The notice outlined the consequences of disregarding the safety range, including fines and even arrest by the U.S. Coast Guard. It’s not yet known what action may have been taken against the passengers of the sailboat that scrubbed Monday night’s launch. Schierholz described Monday’s hazard in an email: On Monday evening, a small sailboat, about 26 feet long, entered the hazard zone early in the launch count. The radar aircraft detected the boat and hailed it several times, but


D.C. area forecast: Cooler with light showers today, then hoping for a dry Halloween before chilly weekend

9 a.m. Update: - Today’s Daily Digit - A somewhat subjective rating of the day’s weather, on a scale of 0 to 10. - 5 While much cooler than Tuesday and perhaps showery at times, still adequate for late October. - Express Forecast - Today: Light showers likely. Highs: 60s. - Tonight: Showers ending. Lows: 40s. - Tomorrow: Mostly sunny and cool. Highs: Upper 50s to near 60. FORECAST IN DETAIL Today’s temperatures in the 60s are fairly average by October standards, but substantially cooler than yesterday’s highs near 80. It’s all relative, though, because by Saturday we’ll be downright cold and breezy with highs having trouble reaching or getting much past 50. We might even see some stray snowflakes around town. But first we have some showers to deal with today. And what about Halloween?… Radar lightning: Today (Wednesday): Tonight: For related traffic news, check out Dr. Gridlock. Keep reading for the forecast through the weekend… Tomorrow (Thursday): Tomorrow night: Burke Lake, Virginia, Oct. 28 (@SuaveElefante via Twitter) A LOOK AHEAD Friday Saturday Sunday


Antares rocket explosion: The question of using decades-old Soviet engines

A rocket that was to resupply the International Space Station blew up Tuesday night a few seconds after lift-off from Wallops Island, Va. The tale of the engines that propelled the Antares rocket, which exploded in a spectacular ball of flame in Virginia Tuesday night, begins four decades ago, thousands of miles away, in the land of communism and Sputnik. There, in the Soviet Union, rocket scientists conceived and built dozens of rocket engines meant to power Russian astronauts into the cosmos. But it didn’t work out that way. Instead, all four launches of the mighty N1 Soviet rocket, which used an earlier iteration of the first-stage engines used in Thursday’s launch, failed between 1969 and 1972. And as the Soviet Union abandoned the idea of putting cosmonauts on the moon, those engines languished in Russia “without a purpose,” reported Space Lift Now. That was until they were snapped up by Dulles-based Orbital Sciences, which built the rocket that exploded. It uses two modified versions of those Russian engines to propel missions to the International Space Station, according to the company’s user’s guide. To be clear, investigators say they do not know what caused Tuesday’s explosion, which destroyed hundreds of millions of dollars worth of equipment. But some observers are questioning those Soviet-era engines. On Tuesday night a rocket carrying supplies to the International Space Station blew up in Wallops Island, Va., just seconds after liftoff. On Tuesday night, an Orbital executive complained there aren’t more modern alternatives to the decades-old engines, the Guardian reported. “When you look at it there are not many other options around the world in terms of using power plants of this size,” said Frank Culbertson, the company’s executive vice president. “Certainly not in this country, unfortunately.” The first issues with the rocket appeared to arise, he said, during the rocket’s first stage, when it was powered by Soviet engines. “The ascent stopped [and] there was some, let’s say, disassembly of the first stage, after which it fell to Earth,” he said. Regardless of the outcome of the investigation, the explosion is likely to stall the ambitions of Orbital Sciences, which has a $1.9 billion contract to make eight supply missions to the International Space Station. It shed $266 million in market value Tuesday night. What’s more, this is not Orbital’s only recent engine-related explosion. In May, one of its refurbished Soviet engines failed at