The Washington Post

Washington Post Graphics: Behind the scenes: Dow 30 tax burden

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 16:44:30 -0400

Washington Post Graphics: Behind the scenes: Dow 30 tax burden:

Business reporter Jia Lynn Yang got her hands on SEC filings for the 30 companies in the Dow Jones Index and paired up with graphics editor Darla Cameron to see how much each company pays in taxes compared to how much it makes. Here’s their graphic.

How much data did you start…

Meryl Streep’s statement on Margaret Thatcher’s...

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 13:03:45 -0400

Meryl Streep’s statement on Margaret Thatcher’s death:

“To me she was a figure of awe for her personal strength and grit. To have come up, legitimately, through the ranks of the British political system, class bound and gender phobic as it was, in the time that she did and the way that she did, was a formidable achievement. To have won it, not because she inherited position as the daughter of a great man, or the widow of an important man, but by dint of her own striving.”

Read the whole thing: http://wapo.st/XzljdG

washingtonpoststyle: Roger Ebert’s first film review! IMDB says...

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 15:47:45 -0400

washingtonpoststyle:

Roger Ebert’s first film review! IMDB says “Galia” is a movie about a “free girl who treats men the way they treat women.”

Wikipedia says “Galia” is also a melon that is a cross between a cantaloupe and a honeydew. via oldfilmsflicker

A father-daughter dance — in jail “Everyone is on their...

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 13:31:00 -0400

A father-daughter dance — in jail

“Everyone is on their best behavior. The fathers pull out their daughters’ chairs and rise when their daughters come back to their seats after being away, manners they learned in their fathering class. Some huddle and share family and schools news. One daughter charms her dad into promising she can have a summer pass to Kings Dominion.

But then “The Wobble” comes on and that gets everyone moving and laughing — for a few minutes, the event turns into a silly, sloppy dance party. “Dad!” Alexis laughs, like any daughter embarrassed by seeing her father busting loose. And then she joins in, jumping forward, leaning to the right and waving her hands in the air.

But when it’s time to leave, even the jail guards, some crying, say they feel the ache. The inmates and their daughters all get their photographs in paper frames to keep.”

Photos by Marvin Joseph, story by Emily Wax

expressafterdeadline: Metro, re-imagined as a Super Mario...

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 13:35:57 -0400

expressafterdeadline:

Metro, re-imagined as a Super Mario landscape. Twenty points to anyone sending us pictures of themselves doing Super Mario cosplay on the Metro.

What Fox Guy had to teach us I didn’t know Walt Rave, but for...

Fri, 15 Mar 2013 11:45:27 -0400

What Fox Guy had to teach us

I didn’t know Walt Rave, but for years I saw him walking our Takoma Park neighborhood and swinging his fox pelt on a chain.

I would learn that his cause was the ethical treatment of animals, though he still appeared intimidating. When I read of his death from a house fire in 2011, I immediately imagined a graphic narrative to encapsulate his life.

I contacted two of his closest friends, Fred Hunter and Chris Nordby, and I started culling information and sketching. The more I learned about Walt, the more he stood out as an individual: a Vietnam War veteran who had been a tree surgeon, a nude model and a worker in Takoma Park’s tool library. He stuck solid to his principles against cruelty, even when he may have come across as unbalanced.

Such utter conviction seems rare, and it is hard to capture even in black-and-white.

Being, like Walt, an artist, a Navy veteran and a cat lover, I now find it unfortunate that I never stopped to chat with him once in a while.

— Art Hondros

Habemus Papam!

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 14:42:00 -0400

Habemus Papam!

Gun Number: 7

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 15:32:00 -0400

“How many people do you know who have been shot?” That’s the question Joe Heim asked people around the Washington region for an article that ran in The Washington Post Magazine.

We asked readers to write in and share how many people they knew who had been shot. Here are some of their responses.

GUN NUMBER: 7
Heather Moreno, 39
Arlington

My brother Christopher Morrison was killed coming home from his birthday party. He and his friend had just arrived home and they were laughing and joking about the night’s events when four men entered the house in search of money that did not exist. After becoming angry that there wasn’t any money, one of the men shot my brother five times at point-blank range in the face and chest. That same man and another man both shot his friend.

Someone had told those men he had lots of money because he bought himself a new car for his birthday. It was his first new car.

You hear about people being killed every day on the news or through your friends and acquaintances, but you can never understand that shock that comes with the sudden and tragic death of a loved one. It’s feels like you’ve stepped in front of a moving train that you never saw coming.

I can’t stop crying. I’m always on high alert, looking around for people who may want to do me harm. I’m always checking the rear view mirror to see if I’m being followed. No matter what I do, I can’t get the hole in my heart to heal. I can’t stop replaying that day over in my head when we got the phone call that my brother had been murdered.

The only comfort that I have was the last words that I said to my brother were, “Have a happy birthday and I love you very much!”

Gun Number: 2

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 15:13:00 -0400

“How many people do you know who have been shot?” That’s the question Joe Heim asked people around the Washington region for an article that ran in The Washington Post Magazine.

We asked readers to write in and share how many people they knew who had been shot. Here are some of their responses.

GUN NUMBER: 2
Gabrielle Cabreros, 28
Virginia Beach

My first cousin died of an accidental self-inflicted gunshot wound when deer hunting at age 26. My second cousin, who was at the time only 1 year old, accidentally shot herself when a loaded gun was left unattended. Her lung collapsed. She miraculously recovered and is now a beautiful 3-year-old.

My cousin’s parents never recovered from his death, and our family still misses him every day. No one in our family, to my knowledge, hunts anymore.

Even though my baby cousin recovered and is healthy and wonderful, her incident also scared me enough to worry about having guns in a home with children. She has loving and attentive parents who would never intentionally hurt her, and yet this life-threatening incident occurred.

Personally, I have always feared guns and wanted nothing to do with them, until I met my husband, who is ex-military and experienced with firearms. He taught me how to properly shoot a gun, but I still worry about having guns in our home. Our guns remain locked in a safe, and I will never let my children in a home where they’re not locked up.

Gun Number: 1

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 15:10:00 -0400

“How many people do you know who have been shot?” That’s the question Joe Heim asked people around the Washington region for an article that ran in The Washington Post Magazine.

We asked readers to write in and share how many people they knew who had been shot. Here are some of their responses.

GUN NUMBER: 1
James Worthey, 68
Gaithersburg

I saved the clippings from the Washington Post. June 26, 1992, page C5; and June 27, 1992, page B7. The man was Steven Hong-Luk King, age 51. My son and I knew him as the owner of a restaurant in Germantown. On weekends, his charming son, then about 4 or 5, would spend time at the restaurant to be with his father. Steven King was especially friendly to me and my son, who was 17. The little boy’s mother was Steven’s second wife.

He also had a son slightly older than my boy, but the older son was evidently a no-account. In June 1992, the 19-year old son and an accomplice undertook to rob Steven King at gunpoint. They shot and killed him for about $1,000 in cash.

After the shooting, I spent one pleasant afternoon with the widow and the little boy, and got to know other relatives of the deceased. I learned not to take friends or acquaintances for granted.

For me, the idea of gun violence became more real.

Right after Jennifer Lawrence fell last night… Source:...

Mon, 25 Feb 2013 14:12:50 -0500

Right after Jennifer Lawrence fell last night…

Source: @DoloresM

"We're only human, at least for another few years. Then we go full-robot and all bets are off."

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 12:22:00 -0500

— Joel Achenbach, “Sequester to hit Chinese hackers hard”

Golden, flaky lies: One-third of all seafood is mislabeled

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 12:00:00 -0500

When was the last time you ate seafood? There’s a good chance that you didn’t eat what you thought you ate, according to a survey by the conservation group Oceana.

Michelle Obama's new portrait

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 14:07:00 -0500

The White House released it today.

(Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy)

reuters: A U.S. marine drinks the blood of a cobra during a...

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 13:55:53 -0500

reuters:

A U.S. marine drinks the blood of a cobra during a jungle survival exercise with the Thai Navy as part of the “Cobra Gold 2013” joint military exercise, at a military base in Chon Buri province February 20, 2013.

About 13,000 soldiers from seven countries, Thailand, U.S., Singapore, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea and Malaysia are participating in the 11-day military exercise. REUTERS/Damir Sagolj

PHOTOS: U.S. Marines drink cobra blood during survival exercise

The biofuel craze is wiping out America’s grasslands at fastest rate since the Dust Bowl

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 13:26:59 -0500

Brad Plumer explains:

A new study finds that U.S. farmers converted more than 1.3 million acres of grassland into corn and soybean fields between 2006 and 2011, driven by high crop prices and biofuel mandates.

It’s a big transformation in the heart of the country: The authors conclude that the rates of grassland loss are “comparable to deforestation rates in Brazil, Malaysia, and Indonesia.” And those changes are already having plenty of impacts.

eachnightthesamedream: “I am a Man.” JR Washington Post...

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 13:22:00 -0500

eachnightthesamedream:

“I am a Man.” JR

Washington Post coverage

This probably wasn’t on lawmakers’ radars. Even if...

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 12:49:27 -0500

This probably wasn’t on lawmakers’ radars.

Even if future gun laws ban certain firearms or parts, 3-D printers could enable people to build the banned parts on their own.

“This is a symbolic challenge to a system that says we can see everything, regulate everything,” he said. “I say, ‘Oh really?’ My challenge is: Regulate this. I hope with that challenge we create such an insurmountable problem that the mere effort of trying to regulate this explodes any regulatory regime.”

Wilson’s group has posted several videos to YouTube of AR-15s firing rounds with 3-D printed high-capacity magazines and lower receivers, the part that includes the firing mechanism and is the only regulated portion of the gun if it’s bought over the counter. Wilson’s parts are made from high-grade polymer and retrofitted to the bodies of existing weapons. The receivers are made able to fire by adding over-the-counter springs, pins and a trigger.

Longreads: Resurfaced: Peter Perl's 'The Spy Who's Been Left in the Cold' (1998)

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 11:29:37 -0500

Longreads: Resurfaced: Peter Perl's 'The Spy Who's Been Left in the Cold' (1998):

longreads:

We’re excited to introduce a recurring series in which we work with publishers to dig up notable stories from their archives that were previously unpublished on the web. And we’re especially excited to kick this off with The Washington Post.

Today’s piece is “The Spy Who’s Been Left in…

Perl is one of the best.

What’s with all the dash-cam videos of the meteor? Maybe...

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 12:51:59 -0500

What’s with all the dash-cam videos of the meteor?

Maybe you’ve noticed, but there are a lot of dash-cam videos of this extraordinary meteor. If you’re wondering why, it’s because Russian drivers are terrifying:

“Basically, Russia’s motorists are a different breed. Russia has one of the highest car-accident rates in the world, a fact that Dmitry Medvedev, the former president and current prime minister, once blamed on the “undisciplined, criminally careless behavior of our drivers,” as well as poor road conditions. Hit-and-run crashes are incredibly common, as apparently are crafty, car-related hustles. Drivers of already dented cars will back purposefully into other cars in an attempt to extort money from their owners. Pedestrians will throw themselves on car hoods at crosswalks and then lie on the asphalt, pretending to be injured.

…

And in court, dash-cam footage is the most reliable way to prove what really happened.”