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This story is part of the New Boom series on millennials in America.

President Obama is holding a town hall meeting Thursday in California with a group he wants to mobilize for the midterm elections: millennial entrepreneurs. Millennials — young people ages 18-34 — are a key part of the Democratic coalition.

In just a few years, millennials will become the biggest demographic bulge in the electorate. For a very long time, young people's partisan preferences looked pretty much like everyone else's — they divided their votes between the two parties. After 2004 that changed, and they swung very heavily to the Democrats. But they're not the Obama-adoring college students of 2008 anymore. They're the generation hard-hit by the economy.

"Democrats have an advantage with them at this moment, but the one presidential candidate they really have voted for overwhelmingly is Barack Obama," says Peter Levine, who studies young people's civic participation at Tufts University. "And he's not gonna be available anymore. ... I think the Democrats have a job to shift the allegiance to the party. Quite a tough job ... Republicans should make an active play for them."

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So projections that millennials are once and forever enthusiastic Democrats will be put to the test of the next few cycles. To find out more about their views, we asked six millennials to join us at La Colombe cafe in the Shaw neighborhood in Washington, D.C., to talk politics. They discussed political gridlock, economic issues and social issues like gay marriage and reproductive rights. Listen to their full conversation, and view excerpts below:

Listen to the Full Conversation36:44

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Listen to the Full Conversation

Arturo Chang

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Rachel Lushinsky/NPR

Rachel Lushinsky/NPR

I have issues mostly with the two-party system. ... I wouldn't blame the Republicans for the gridlock we see; I blame that more as a systematic issue as a result of our type of government, you know, the way it's structured it's prone to create gridlock. But I think the issue I see is that [the Republican Party is] not even willing to touch the social issues that we are all talking about here. ... I expect gridlock. The problem for me is partisanship in Washington, which, when you have an extremely partisan Washington and working within a system that is prone to gridlock, you're going to have a government that doesn't get anything done. ... The problem is that Washington just does not reflect the true American, the way America feels. You know, research shows America is not as partisan as we say they are.

Shaza Loutfi

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Rachel Lushinsky/NPR

Rachel Lushinsky/NPR

I would say that it's very difficult to find something that really aligns with what you believe. In a perfect world, I would say I am an independent, but in the system that we have currently where the two parties dominate, we have to choose a side. And in that case I would definitely say Democrat. I think there is this association with the Republicans of it being dominated by white males and the business scene, whereas the Democrats seem more inclusive, and that speaks to me.

As an Arab-American, when you talk about privacy and when we look at what's happened in recent years right after 9/11 — we've seen the wiretapping of Arabs, all of their information being taken and used in different ways — it's an abuse of power. And so when I think about that and I think about Republicans trying to use the privacy issue to get more voters, it is interesting to me. Because, as you know, Arabs used to vote Republican and they used to be very conservative and they would mesh with them on that. And so now it's interesting to see that maybe they're going to get the Arab vote back. Although I don't really agree with the Republican Party, it is an issue that I support and it is something I do think they're on the right track with.

Alexa Graziolli

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Rachel Lushinsky/NPR

Rachel Lushinsky/NPR

Most of us here probably have college loans, and I think Social Security, I think it's good to have a safety net, you work towards it, and I think it's about helping your elders and things like that. I want to pay in for it for my mom; I want my kids to pay in for it. So I do think that government is a helpful thing.

I think these [social] issues are so important to us too because growing up we were exposed to them more. So as far as ... gay rights, when my mom was growing up that may have been the secret in the family you didn't really talk about it. But growing up, you know, I knew my uncle was gay and that didn't matter to me because I'm 5 — I don't know the difference so I think that's why it's so important. As you get older you realize that there are people that are against it and you're kind of like, "Why? It hasn't caused me any harm; it doesn't cause you any harm." So I think that's why we're so focused on issues like that.

Stephen Crouch

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Rachel Lushinsky/NPR

Rachel Lushinsky/NPR

Obviously the government is a tool that we have to have in our society — it gives us laws, it gives us rules — but I would also like to point out there's a lot of bureaucracy involved. There's a lot of government bailouts that are happening, and this is money that we're paying into the kitty that we'll probably never see in our generation. We have politicians that make, you know, exorbitant amounts of money and ... these are [our] taxes ... we're buying their Lexuses, we're buying their McMansions, and obviously I feel like that's a system that's just not working for working-class people.

I kind of feel like politicians at this point of time, they rely on being very beige. They don't have any kind of stance either way, and that's how these guys are getting kind of pushed into politics. I mean, you look at Obama — he had no vote either way until he went into the presidency. It's like, politicians are almost negatively impacted for having an opinion. You know, like Rand Paul probably doesn't have much a chance at ... being the president because he voices an opinion which, you know, in all honestly is a breath of fresh air.

Jessica Ramser

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Rachel Lushinsky/NPR

Rachel Lushinsky/NPR

My dad is a labor worker and I saw unemployment help us so much growing up. And, yeah, I do fear that. Especially, you know, thankful for the loans that the government is giving me, but where is that going to take me in the next two years? You know, am I guaranteed a job anymore? No, and I am scared for my economic future.

[My dad] has gone through just periods of unemployment. The labor union is tough — sometimes there's jobs, sometimes there's not; it depends on the weather. There's so many union workers out there. Currently he is working now, but [he has] gone through periods of unemployment, which, you know, there's a couple months you're fine and a couple months you're not. So definitely living that paycheck to paycheck, I have felt firsthand with my family.

I think that as millennials we have a voice, and a strong voice. And within the next couple years, especially as we get into our careers and prominent roles, you'll see that throughout the United States and in policy.

Ginger Gibson

I came out of college and ... the economy crashed ... I walked into my office every day not knowing if they were gonna close the doors and turn us away. I mean, they were hemorrhaging employees, and I watched people who would have not gotten by had it not been for unemployment. ... I think that's going to, probably forever, change my perspective on government assistance like that, just because I saw how bad it was and how desperately people needed it.

I think we pay attention way more than we get credit for. I think that there's this misperception of millennials as being selfish, as being unengaged, as not working hard, as being difficult. I think that's wrong. I think anybody who's grown up in my years and years after me that has to deal with this economy knows that's wrong, we've worked really hard. And we pay attention. Sometimes we pay more attention than older generations. And we're going to keep paying attention. And I think that our viewpoints are not locked in, we're not going to be monolithic from the start, but I think that we are going to pay a lot more attention moving forward.

In her book A Chosen Exile: A History of Racial Passing in American Life, Allyson Hobbs delves into the personal histories of light-skinned African-Americans who, because of their fair complexions and social circumstance, were able to "pass" as white. Code Switch's Karen Grigsby Bates spoke with Hobbs, who explained that, in the past, passing was really a group effort that involved the complicity of a person's family and community. We wondered what passing means now, not just for African-Americans but for others who want to live beyond the social boundaries of group identity.

Passing today, many folks explained, was less about accurately identifying themselves as one race versus another than giving other people one identity to wrap their minds around.

[View the story "Twitter Recap: What Does Racial "Passing" Look Like Today?" on Storify]

Three different themes came up in our discussion:

People choosing to pass, depending on the situation.

People who identified as multiracial sometimes presenting one aspect of their multiethnic heritage, while being encouraged to hide others.

Strangers assuming that a person has a racial identity that he doesn't have.

@NPRCodeSwitch @karenbates Yes, one passed to play professional baseball during segregation.

— Sonya Alexander (@wordslinger1) October 8, 2014

@NPRCodeSwitch in Italy my Iranian family passed as Italian. In Spain nobody thought we were Spaniards. In Germany we were seen as Turkish,

— sabuki (@srsos) October 8, 2014

@NPRCodeSwitch which is why we left. In the states, it was easier to situationally pass for white when I was younger.

— sabuki (@srsos) October 8, 2014

@NPRCodeSwitch @karenbates Me and my siblings were raised to pass and not disclose having a biracial Dad or a Jewish mother.

— Lillian Cohen-Moore (@lilyorit) October 8, 2014

@NPRCodeSwitch @karenbates i was at the gym and a woman started talking to me in Spanish. I answered in English and she was offended. +

— Anna Lynn Martino (@annalynnmartino) October 8, 2014

@NPRCodeSwitch @karenbates + then she asked "Aren't you Mexican?" I said "No, I'm Filipina."

— Anna Lynn Martino (@annalynnmartino) October 8, 2014

@CharlesPulliam @NPRCodeSwitch Interestingly, it was my dad (Korean) who wanted to erase Korean identity from his kids.

— /mieszanej krwi (@pointfivekorean) October 8, 2014

@NPRCodeSwitch @karenbates @katchow @RadioMirage Passing requires others' perceptions, I think who I am with also reveals my identity.

— Stephanie M Rushford (@SMRushford) October 8, 2014

You've probably heard of "farm to table," but how about "field to garment"? In Alabama, acclaimed fashion houses Alabama Chanin and Billy Reid have a new line of organic cotton clothing made from their own cotton field.

It's not just an experiment in keeping production local; it's an attempt to revive the long tradition of apparel-making in the Deep South. North Alabama was once a hub for textile manufacturing, with readily available cotton and access to cheap labor. But the industry all but disappeared after NAFTA became law, as operations moved overseas.

Now, Sue Hanback is again working a sewing machine in a cavernous building that was once part of the biggest cut-and-sew operation in Florence, Ala.

"I'm gonna five-thread this shirt," she explains, stitching cuffs onto an organic-cotton sweatshirt.

Hanback was last laid off in 2006 when this was a T-shirt factory. Her husband worked in the dye house. She's been a seamstress all her life.

"Ever since I was 18 years old," Hanback says. "So that was like, 48 years."

Keeping Cotton Local

Hanback is one of about 30 people who work at The Factory, home to Alabama Chanin, the fashion and lifestyle company founded by Natalie Chanin. The site includes a cafe, workshop and the company's flagship store.

Chanin is best known for her flowing, made-to-order organic garments, entirely hand-stitched and inspired by the rural South of the 1930s and '40s.

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Fashion designer Natalie Chanin stands in front of in-progress garments at the Alabama Chanin Factory. Chanin and Billy Reid, internationally acclaimed designers, have teamed up to test the concept of organic, sustainable cotton farming and garment-making. Debbie Elliott/NPR hide caption

itoggle caption Debbie Elliott/NPR

Fashion designer Natalie Chanin stands in front of in-progress garments at the Alabama Chanin Factory. Chanin and Billy Reid, internationally acclaimed designers, have teamed up to test the concept of organic, sustainable cotton farming and garment-making.

Debbie Elliott/NPR

She's recently added a basic machine-made line, using experienced local seamstresses like Hanback.

"It's not just 'factory work,' " Chanin says. "This is a skill that's dying out in this country."

It's part of the nation's "cultural sustainability to preserve these things," Chanin says, "to be able to make our clothes."

American manufacturing is in Chanin's DNA: Her grandmother and great-grandmother used to work at a plant here that made underwear for the military. Life in North Alabama once revolved around the apparel industry, but few plants remain. Now, Alabama is better-known for auto manufacturing than the clothes it produces.

But Florence, a small town tucked in the far northwest corner of the state, is gaining a new reputation for fashion. Both Chanin and her friend Billy Reid, also a designer, are headquartered here.

Both have won coveted awards from the Council of Fashion Designers of America, among others.

"We broke down, sort of, those barriers in some ways, [showing] that you can do it from anywhere if you do it right and do it real," says Reid.

He's known for classic American designs a New York Times reviewer once described as "whiskey-soaked style."

His business partner, K.P. McNeill, is the one who first thought about growing their own cotton.

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Clothing designer Billy Reid in his design studio in Florence, Ala. Debbie Elliott/NPR hide caption

itoggle caption Debbie Elliott/NPR

Clothing designer Billy Reid in his design studio in Florence, Ala.

Debbie Elliott/NPR

"I think the original idea really came from just driving through these areas in the fall when cotton is being picked and baled," McNeill says.

It got him thinking about whether all that cotton was being shipped overseas when companies right here could be using it.

So McNeill took a question to Chanin: "Can we go from seed to finished product in the same community?" he asked.

'Straight From Field To Form'

Chanin was intrigued. It made her think of how generations ago, manufacturing was more of a vertical affair.

"They were growing the cotton; they were ginning the cotton; they were processing it," she says. "And it was going straight from field to form, I call it."

Could that be done today? And organically?

They came up with a plan to test it. Reid says it meant no pesticides, no herbicides and no farm equipment tainted by such chemicals.

"A lot of the weeds had to be pulled by hand. It's not just your normal cotton operation that's automated," Reid says. "You really are going back to a somewhat primitive way — a primitive process to pick the cotton and to farm the cotton."

Farmer Jimmy Lentz tended the 7-acre plot, planted in 2012 on a breezy hillside where he used to raise cows.

"It was a lot of hard work, but to see the fruits of our labor was beyond words," Lentz says.

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His wife, Lisa, was the cotton whisperer — nurturing the fledgling seedlings through a six-week drought before the rains came.

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"It shot up," she says. "It was beautiful. And so many people were betting against us and saying,'You can't grow cotton unless you use pesticides. The bugs will eat it. It will be gone. Good luck, ha ha,' " she says.

But when harvest came, they proved the naysayers wrong.

"This little cotton field was planted just like our grandpas would have planted something," says Lisa Lentz. "It was very simple, a very small-scale operation — but a powerful goal."

Jimmy Lentz says it's satisfying to think about your clothes being grown out of the soil. "You think of something that you would eat, but you don't think of something that you would wear that's actually coming up out of the ground out there," he says.

Back at The Factory, Chanin holds a piece of ivory-colored fabric spun from the hand-picked cotton grown in the Alabama field.

"I've never seen cotton quite as clean and clear as this," Chanin says.

She says it's purer than cotton picked by machine because there's less plant matter that can show up as flecks in the cloth.

"And I've never seen that," she says. "I don't think people have seen that since cotton was really an agent of destruction in this country."

Chanin says this project is about transforming cotton into something more modern.

"I mean, cotton has a really ugly history. And it has had an ugly history all over the world. It has built fortunes, it's destroyed nations, it's enslaved people," says Chanin. "But to me this cotton ... is part of making a new story for cotton."

Alabama Chanin and Billy Reid produced a limited run of T-shirts, socks and scarves from the yield of their test cotton field — about 700 yards of fabric in all.

They acknowledge it was a small-scale experiment that proved difficult. But they say it also proved that field-to-garment manufacturing in the same community is possible.

sustainable agriculture

organic farming

Alabama

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American manufacturing

Fashion

On Oct. 18, the Calabasas, Calif.-based auction house Profiles In History will auction off what it says is the last authentic motorcycle used in the filming of 1969's Easy Rider, and what some consider the most famous motorcycle in the world.

Peter Fonda, who played Wyatt in the Dennis Hopper-directed film, rode the so-called "Captain America" bike, named for its distinctive American flag color scheme and known for its sharply-angled long front end.

The bike currently for sale was partially destroyed in the film's finale, the auction house says, and then rebuilt by actor Dan Haggerty. (The three other bikes used in the production were stolen prior to the film's release.)

According to Brian Chanes, acquisitions manager for the auction house, the bike's estimated value is between $1 million and $1.2 million.

But despite the bike's fame, the history of the creation of the bikes used in Easy Rider has for many years been largely unknown. And the man who designed and coordinated the building of the motorcycles, Clifford Vaughs, says he and the other bike builders have not received proper credit for their work.

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The Profiles In History auction house in Calabasas, Calif., is auctioning off the supposedly last authentic 'Captain America' chopper used in the film Easy Rider. The proceeds will go in part towards Michael Eisenberg, the current owner of the bike, as well as to the auction house and the American Humane Association. Damian Dovarganes/AP hide caption

itoggle caption Damian Dovarganes/AP

The Profiles In History auction house in Calabasas, Calif., is auctioning off the supposedly last authentic 'Captain America' chopper used in the film Easy Rider. The proceeds will go in part towards Michael Eisenberg, the current owner of the bike, as well as to the auction house and the American Humane Association.

Damian Dovarganes/AP

Choppers: 'Quintessentially American'

The motorcycles used in Easy Rider were not simply rolled out of a showroom and in front of the camera. They were "choppers," crafted by hand.

Choppers are "a type of customized motorcycle usually defined by a stretched out wheel-base, and pulled back handlebars, and a sissy bar, and a wild paint job," says Paul d'Orleans, the author of the upcoming book, The Chopper: The Real Story. "It's a quintessentially American folk art form."

“ They did more to popularize choppers around the world than any other film or any other motorcycle. I mean, suddenly people were building choppers in Czechoslovakia, or Russia, or China, or Japan.

- Paul d'Orleans

The "Captain America" bike is an unmistakable and legendary chopper, and has made an enormous impact on the world of motorcycling.

The bikes in Easy Rider, d'Orleans says, "did more to popularize choppers around the world than any other film or any other motorcycle. I mean, suddenly people were building choppers in Czechoslovakia, or Russia, or China, or Japan."

Whose hands turned the wrenches? Who welded the steel? Most of the time, d'Orleans says, choppers are associated with their builders, "because they are an artistic creation. And curiously, the Easy Rider bikes were never associated with any particular builder."

In fact, two documentaries about the production of Easy Rider — 1995's Born To Be Wild and 1999's Easy Rider: Shaking The Cage — never name the men who designed and built the choppers.

Finding The Builders

In bits and pieces, the story behind the Easy Rider choppers began to emerge publicly, and identified two African-American bike builders: Clifford "Soney" Vaughs, who designed the bikes, and Ben Hardy, a prominent chopper-builder in Los Angeles, who worked on their construction.

Clifford Vaughs, seen in Panama around 1990, believes Easy Rider conspicuously omitted the contributions of African-Americans to motorcycle culture. Courtesy of Clifford Vaughs hide caption

itoggle caption Courtesy of Clifford Vaughs

The Discovery Channel's "History of the Chopper" identified Hardy and Vaughs in 2006, an exhibition at the California African American Museum noted Hardy's contributions in 2008, and Paul d'Orleans wrote about Vaughs on his blog The Vintagent in 2012.

Ben Hardy died in 1994. But in an interview this week, Vaughs, now 77 years old, explained his role in the creation of the "Captain America" bike.

At the time, Vaughs was a motorcyclist and had built bikes himself. He had also worked as a civil rights activist and photographer with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and was a member of the newsroom at the Los Angeles radio station KRLA.

Vaughs says he first met Fonda in his role at KRLA. In the summer of 1966, Fonda was arrested and charged with possession of marijuana. Vaughs says he covered Fonda's court appearance for KRLA and, in the process, got to talking with the young actor about motorcycles.

Not long after, Vaughs says, Fonda and Dennis Hopper came by his apartment in West Hollywood, and discussed early plans for a motorcycle movie, and building the bikes they would need.

Before working on Easy Rider, Clifford Vaughs was active in the civil rights movement in the 1960s. An Associated Press story in the Los Angeles Times even noted his work in Mississippi in 1964. Los Angeles Times hide caption

itoggle caption Los Angeles Times

"I said, 'Well, I can build whatever we need for the film right here at my place,' " Vaughs remembers.

That film would eventually become Easy Rider.

Conflicting Tales

More than 45 years after the production of Easy Rider, it's difficult to sort out the exact timeline of the film's creation, and the various responsibilities of the people involved. Several of the key figures involved with the film have died, including director Dennis Hopper and credited screenwriter Terry Southern.

The history of the production has also been particularly messy.

"The whole thing has been like a Rashomon experience," producer Bill Hayward, who died in 2008, told the filmmakers who made Easy Rider: Shaking The Cage. "The whole movie, the whole production ... everyone's got an entirely different story."

Clifford Vaughs, for his part, says he acted as an associate producer early on in the film's production. By his account, he designed the bikes himself, and is responsible for the distinctive look of the "Captain America" bike. He says he also worked with Ben Hardy to purchase engines at a Los Angeles Police Department auction, and coordinated the building of the bikes.

Peter Fonda, meanwhile, has said that he himself played a greater role in the design and construction of the bikes.

"I built the motorcycles that I rode and Dennis rode," Fonda told WHYY's Fresh Air in 2007. "I bought four of them from Los Angeles Police Department. I love the political incorrectness of that ... And five black guys from Watts helped me build these."

A publicist for Fonda said that he was unavailable for comment for this story.

But in 2009, Dennis Hopper recorded an audio commentary track for the Criterion Collection release of the film, in which he says Vaughs "built the bikes, built the chopper."

Larry Marcus is a mechanic who lived with Vaughs at the time, and worked on the choppers and the early film production. "Cliff really came up with the design for both motorcycles," Marcus said in a phone interview.

According to the press release announcing the current auction, the Captain America bike "was designed and built by two African-American chopper builders — Cliff Vaughs and Ben Hardy — following design cues provided by Peter Fonda himself."

Raw Feelings

Vaughs says he and others were fired and replaced early on in the film's production, following the chaotic shoot at Mardi Gras in New Orleans. As a result, his name never appears in the credits. And while the film went on to become one of the top-grossing films of 1969 and a cultural touchstone, the name Clifford Vaughs has remained largely unknown.

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Clifford Vaughs, seen here in Colombia circa 2000, says he has never watched Easy Rider, despite the fact that he designed the bikes used in the film. Courtesy of Clifford Vaughs hide caption

itoggle caption Courtesy of Clifford Vaughs

Clifford Vaughs, seen here in Colombia circa 2000, says he has never watched Easy Rider, despite the fact that he designed the bikes used in the film.

Courtesy of Clifford Vaughs

"I'm a little miffed about this, but there's nothing I can do," Vaughs says of the story, though he makes sure to note that he only spent about a month working on Easy Rider, out of a "long and illustrious life."

But he says the absence of black characters in the film is troubling. In the 1960s, Vaughs belonged to an integrated motorcycle club known as The Chosen Few. That multi-ethnic reality was not reflected on screen.

"Why is it that we have a film about America and there are no negroes?" he says.

Vaughs says the omission of his own name and that of other African-Americans in the retelling of the Easy Rider story is conspicuous.

"Those bikes, when we talk about iconic, they are definitely iconic," he says. "But yet, the participation of blacks ... completely suppressed, completely suppressed. And I say suppressed, because no one talks about it."

To this day, Vaughs has never watched Easy Rider. When asked why, he responds simply, "What for?"

A Million-Dollar Icon

Brian Chanes, of Profiles In History, says it's common for the men and women who actually build iconic props to go unrecognized. He handles some of the most famous props ever seen on screen, like Wolverine's claws from X-Men or the whip used in the Indiana Jones films.

"The guys that were back there doing the welding, the guys that are doing the set building, that are really masters of their craft," Chanes says, "they don't get the notoriety, unfortunately."

Now, nearly five decades after the release of Easy Rider, Vaughs says he's unconcerned about whether he's mentioned in connection with the auction.

"I'm really not worried about getting any credit for this, because I know what I did," Vaughs says. "People who were close to me were there in the yard when I was building those bikes."

Tom Dreisbach is an associate producer with weekends on All Things Considered.

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Cliff Vaughs

Peter Fonda

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If you saw Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach meeting with half a dozen supporters in an Kansas bar recently, you might think that he hadn't come all that far from his childhood in Topeka, where his dad owned a Buick dealership.

But this smiling, enthusiastic guy holds degrees from Harvard, Oxford and Yale, and he's a national stalwart of the anti-immigration movement.

"I have been involved in restoring the rule of law in immigration," he says. "That means trying to stop the lawlessness in the Obama administration, and that also means defending states like Arizona."

Kobach is a conservative Republican in a deeply red state, but this year, he is struggling to win reelection, and some of his GOP brethren are turning against him.

Kobach not only wrote the Arizona immigration law, the toughest in the country, he defended it before the Supreme Court.

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"Kris Kobach is really, in many ways, the national poster boy for tough-minded anti-immigration legislation across the country," says Burdett Loomis, political science professor at Kansas University. "He has aggressively moved into writing ordinances and then defending those ordinances in city after city, state after state."

Kobach's far-flung immigration battles have left some Kansans wondering if his heart is really in his secretary of state job. Absolutely, Kobach says.

"It's about the rule of law for me, and that's a common thread with respect to my duties as secretary of state, because there, too, we want to see legal, fair elections where there's no voter fraud," he says.

Under Kobach, Kansas became the first state to require proof of citizenship for everyone registering to vote. Kobach says the requirement has blocked the registrations of a dozen or so non-residents.

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But the law has also kept at least 18,000 would-be Kansas voters from registering, and that has sparked a backlash against him.

"I appreciate his interest, but I don't think he's protecting me from anything," says Mark Buhler, a Republican who has served in the state Senate. Buhler says he voted for Kobach last time, but this year he is supporting the Democratic challenger.

Jean Schodorf was a moderate Republican state senator. Ousted by the conservative wing of the party, Schodorf is now a Democrat, running against Kobach on a pledge to ease voting restrictions and to stay close to the secretary of state's office.

"I will be a full-time secretary of state, full time, for the people of Kansas, and not Arizona!" she said at a recent pool-side fundraiser.

Schodorf is polling about even with Kobach, which is remarkable: In Kansas, Republicans outnumber Democrats almost 2-to-1.

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Some see a swing back toward the center in Kansas politics. If that happens, it could dislodge Kobach and other national mainstays of the conservative movement.

"In the state of Kansas, a Democrat can't win just by depending on Democrats and unaffiliated," says Bob Beatty, political science professor at Washburn University. "He or she has to have those moderate Republicans."

Beatty says Kansas moderate Republicans are peeling away to support Democrats, and not just in the Kobach race. The state's incumbent Republican governor, Sam Brownback, and three-term U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts are also in trouble this election.

Imagine there's no tipping. By getting rid of gratuities, a few restaurants believe they'll make life easier for customers, while providing a more stable income to servers.

"It eliminates the pressure on the guest to worry about paying our staff," says Brian Oliveira, chef at Girard, a French-style restaurant opening in Philadelphia in a few weeks that intends to offer its staff up to $13 an hour in salary, plus health benefits, but with no tips.

Successful ideas in the restaurant business always get copied. Oliveira said he and his partners were inspired by no-tipping experiments happening at a handful of restaurants in California, Texas and New York.

Those restaurants say employees are more satisfied and that service has actually improved. Moving away from tipping may never spread industrywide, but it's a model that may help answer some complaints about poor salaries.

Packhouse, a no-tip meat emporium that opened in Newport, Ky., in January, pays servers $10 an hour and gives them the chance to earn 20 percent of their total sales per shift if they hit certain targets — whichever is higher. Servers bring home the bigger amount most days.

"If it's dead all day, they don't walk out making nine bucks," says Kurt Stephens, Packhouse's general manager.

Not all servers will be better off under this type of arrangement, but lack of tipping makes for easier accounting for customers and the business itself.

Menu prices might read a bit higher, but diners will know what they'll end up paying at meal's end — probably no more than they would have at an equivalent place where they'd tip.

And lack of tips simplifies compliance for restaurateurs obligated to make up the difference between servers' base pay and the standard minimum wage, if they don't make enough in tips. Currently, the federal minimum wage for tipped workers is $2.13 an hour, although that baseline is higher in a majority of states.

Tipping creates winners and losers. The people who bring you your steaks at high-end restaurants are probably doing quite well off tips, but many restaurant workers can't count on bringing home big bucks, especially after slow shifts on off days. A recent study from the labor-backed Economic Policy Institute found that 17 percent of restaurant workers live in poverty.

"I'm very aware that at some establishments, people would do far better under the existing tipping model," says Bill Perry, who is about to open Public Option, a no-tipping pub in Washington, D.C. "In our category, which is much more neighborhood-oriented, we're concerned that the variability of tips may not produce a good income."

This is an idea still very much in the making. Girard and Public Option aren't even open yet. With only a few other restaurants around the country having made the move away from tipping, it's not at all clear this will be a successful alternative.

But the increasing pressure on restaurants to pay their employees more — from fast-food workers to waiters hustling for tips — is one reason outlets should consider the tip-free approach, says Dennis Lombardi, a restaurant consultant based in Columbus, Ohio.

Wage increases are bound to translate into higher menu prices. "By going to nontipping, they can pay that living wage," Lombardi says, "without having the additional cost of tipping that will determine whether the customer comes back to the restaurant."

It works in Europe. But tipping has long been a part of the American way of dining out, a tool for diners to reward good service — and, less often, to punish those who fail to satisfy. The desire to earn good tips is part of what prompts people to give good service and "promotes the spirit of hospitality," says Hudson Riehle, senior vice president of research at the National Restaurant Association.

"Along with flexible work schedules, tipping is part of what makes [being] a restaurant server an attractive profession for millions of Americans," he says.

Even a labor advocate such as Saru Jayaraman, who directs the food labor research center at the University of California, Berkeley and calls the no-tip approach "a fabulous model," worries that it won't pay off for all workers. An increased base wage is a step in the right direction, she says, but she worries that salaries of $10 or $13 an hour won't be enough.

"Restaurant workers are professionals and in other countries are paid like professionals — $18 or $20 an hour," Jayaraman says.

But many restaurant workers in the U.S. don't make anything near those amounts, she concedes. So the prospect of a guaranteed income will be enticing for many who have come home with hardly anything to show after a quiet Tuesday afternoon lunch shift, suggests Perry, the D.C. restaurateur.

"Some of the folks we spoke to really cited the variability — that they never know what to expect," Perry says. "They can't wait to actually try [the no-tipping model] out."

Restaurant workers have traditionally experienced either feast or famine when it comes to their own pay packets. Some workers might be content just knowing the exact amount of take-home pay they can count on — at least, that's what the number of applicants at the new no-tipping establishments would suggest.

"We're kind of taking the risk off the server and putting it back on the business," says Stephens, the Packhouse general manager. "There's hardly any turnover, and everybody's making money."

A former NPR staffer, Alan Greenblatt is a journalist based in St. Louis.

no-tipping

tipping

restaurant workers

minimum wage

Imagine there's no tipping. By getting rid of gratuities, a few restaurants believe they'll make life easier for customers, while providing a more stable income to servers.

"It eliminates the pressure on the guest to worry about paying our staff," says Brian Oliveira, chef at Girard, a French-style restaurant opening in Philadelphia in a few weeks that intends to offer its staff up to $13 an hour in salary, plus health benefits, but with no tips.

Successful ideas in the restaurant business always get copied. Oliveira said he and his partners were inspired by no-tipping experiments happening at a handful of restaurants in California, Texas and New York.

Those restaurants say employees are more satisfied and that service has actually improved. Moving away from tipping may never spread industrywide, but it's a model that may help answer some complaints about poor salaries.

Packhouse, a no-tip meat emporium that opened in Newport, Ky., in January, pays servers $10 an hour and gives them the chance to earn 20 percent of their total sales per shift if they hit certain targets — whichever is higher. Servers bring home the bigger amount most days.

"If it's dead all day, they don't walk out making nine bucks," says Kurt Stephens, Packhouse's general manager.

Not all servers will be better off under this type of arrangement, but lack of tipping makes for easier accounting for customers and the business itself.

Menu prices might read a bit higher, but diners will know what they'll end up paying at meal's end — probably no more than they would have at an equivalent place where they'd tip.

And lack of tips simplifies compliance for restaurateurs obligated to make up the difference between servers' base pay and the standard minimum wage, if they don't make enough in tips. Currently, the federal minimum wage for tipped workers is $2.13 an hour, although that baseline is higher in a majority of states.

Tipping creates winners and losers. The people who bring you your steaks at high-end restaurants are probably doing quite well off tips, but many restaurant workers can't count on bringing home big bucks, especially after slow shifts on off days. A recent study from the labor-backed Economic Policy Institute found that 17 percent of restaurant workers live in poverty.

"I'm very aware that at some establishments, people would do far better under the existing tipping model," says Bill Perry, who is about to open Public Option, a no-tipping pub in Washington, D.C. "In our category, which is much more neighborhood-oriented, we're concerned that the variability of tips may not produce a good income."

This is an idea still very much in the making. Girard and Public Option aren't even open yet. With only a few other restaurants around the country having made the move away from tipping, it's not at all clear this will be a successful alternative.

But the increasing pressure on restaurants to pay their employees more — from fast-food workers to waiters hustling for tips — is one reason outlets should consider the tip-free approach, says Dennis Lombardi, a restaurant consultant based in Columbus, Ohio.

Wage increases are bound to translate into higher menu prices. "By going to nontipping, they can pay that living wage," Lombardi says, "without having the additional cost of tipping that will determine whether the customer comes back to the restaurant."

It works in Europe. But tipping has long been a part of the American way of dining out, a tool for diners to reward good service — and, less often, to punish those who fail to satisfy. The desire to earn good tips is part of what prompts people to give good service and "promotes the spirit of hospitality," says Hudson Riehle, senior vice president of research at the National Restaurant Association.

"Along with flexible work schedules, tipping is part of what makes [being] a restaurant server an attractive profession for millions of Americans," he says.

Even a labor advocate such as Saru Jayaraman, who directs the food labor research center at the University of California, Berkeley and calls the no-tip approach "a fabulous model," worries that it won't pay off for all workers. An increased base wage is a step in the right direction, she says, but she worries that salaries of $10 or $13 an hour won't be enough.

"Restaurant workers are professionals and in other countries are paid like professionals — $18 or $20 an hour," Jayaraman says.

But many restaurant workers in the U.S. don't make anything near those amounts, she concedes. So the prospect of a guaranteed income will be enticing for many who have come home with hardly anything to show after a quiet Tuesday afternoon lunch shift, suggests Perry, the D.C. restaurateur.

"Some of the folks we spoke to really cited the variability — that they never know what to expect," Perry says. "They can't wait to actually try [the no-tipping model] out."

Restaurant workers have traditionally experienced either feast or famine when it comes to their own pay packets. Some workers might be content just knowing the exact amount of take-home pay they can count on — at least, that's what the number of applicants at the new no-tipping establishments would suggest.

"We're kind of taking the risk off the server and putting it back on the business," says Stephens, the Packhouse general manager. "There's hardly any turnover, and everybody's making money."

A former NPR staffer, Alan Greenblatt is a journalist based in St. Louis.

no-tipping

tipping

restaurant workers

minimum wage

For about a month, Kmart says, its stores' check-out registers were "compromised by malicious software that stole customer credit and debit card information."

The company, owned by Sears, says it removed the malware from its system after it was discovered Thursday. It announced the exposure late Friday, saying that no personal data or PIN numbers were lost.

While some important customer information seems to have been protected, the breach could still allow criminals to make counterfeit versions of the exposed credit cards.

The company announced the problem on its website, along with recommendations that "If customers see any sign of suspicious activity, they should immediately contact their card issuer." The company also says customers can get more information at its website and over the phone at 888-488-5978.

The number of customers in question hasn't been announced; the vulnerability did not affect online shoppers, the company says.

Saying the breach likely began in early September, Sears announced that to protect anyone "who shopped with a credit or debit card in our Kmart stores during the month of September through yesterday (Oct. 9, 2014), Kmart will be offering free credit monitoring protection."

The data breach affected only "track 2" data, reports security expert Michael Krebs, citing a Sears spokesman who says the information "did not include customer names, email address, physical address, Social Security numbers, PINs or any other sensitive information."

With Friday's announcement, the retailer joins Target, Neiman Marcus, and Home Depot on the list of large companies whose customers' data was accessed illegally in the past year.

credit cards

Kmart

hacking

Flinging birds at pigs and moving jelly beans around a little screen are not human instincts. Game designers create the urge to do those things for hours at a time.

"From the way the games are designed to help us start playing the game, to the way they keep us coming back to the game, to how they involve our friends in the game — all of these things have underpinnings in consumer psychology," says game consultant Nir Eyal.

I wanted to see if game designers could create an addictive game out of anything. So I asked a bunch of people how to make a great game about the most boring thing I could think of: making toast.

You'd want the toast to look "cute," says Roger Dickey, who created the video game Mafia Wars. And you'd want "something twitchy, where you have to tap the toast at the just right time for it to come out of the toaster."

"I could see something like that working," he says.

To keep people playing, there would have to be variety.

"Let's spice it up by saying we have a range of different cooking devices, we have a range of different bread sizes, we might have time pressure added," says game consultant Ramin Shokrizade. "We might have a number of people who are demanding toast, and they all want it cooked a different way."

Of course, the better you do, the more you move up in levels. Maybe a player can move from short order cook to toastmaster general.

Those little challenges stimulate dopamine in your brain, Shokrizade says. The time pressure stimulates adrenaline.

But how can a company make money off a game about toasting bread?

Eyal, Dickey and Shokrizade all say that part is pretty easy: Just wait until a player is in a groove — overcoming challenges — and then put a big fat barrier in front of him. Run out of time, run out of lives, run out of delicious strawberry jam. Then, make the player pay to get a little boost to get over that barrier.

"Once we break through that initial barrier," Dickey says, "once you're the kind of person who's willing to buy an item in a game, which isn't everybody, then you'll do it again."

In the business, this barrier is called "fun pain." Dickey says a smart game will give people choices. They can pay with money or they can pay by inviting their friends on Facebook or Twitter. And if friends are playing a game, that means you'll play it even longer.

A colleague accosted me at the coffee machine the other day with an urgent question. "Why are pine nuts so expensive?"

I promised to find out. And I did. But along the way, I discovered something remarkable about pine nuts.

They connect us to a world of remote villages and vast forests, ancient foraging traditions that are facing modern threats.

Pine nuts don't generally come from orchards, or fields, or plantations. They come from pine forests. (And pine nuts are expensive because most of these areas are so remote.)

The nuts are hidden inside the cones of certain species of pine, such as the mighty Siberian pine, which covers thousands of square miles of Siberia. A few pine nut plantations have been set up in Spain and Portugal, but they produce only a tiny portion of the world's pine nuts.

Leo Sharashkin, a Russian forester who now lives in Missouri, still remembers feeling overwhelmed the first time he saw this pine nut harvest. "We tend to think of food as coming from farms," he says. "We till the soil and get nourishment from the soil. But there, I was seeing all these trees that were laden with cones that took no human effort to produce!"

In the midst of this forest, Sharashkin says, you can't usually see the cones. The trees are thick, and the nuts are far up in the forest canopy. "But whenever I saw a tree standing in the open, it looked like a huge Christmas tree, with the cones hanging in the branches," he says.

Once a year, the pine trees drop these cones onto the forest floor, and entire Siberian villages move into the forest for a month or so to gather them. "It doesn't take any special equipment," Sharashkin says. "You go into the forest, you pick up the cones from the ground, put them into burlap bags, and then transport them to wherever they are being crushed to extract the nuts."

The Salt

Don't Let The Price Of Pine Nuts Keep You From Pesto

The Salt

Cause Of Foul Pine Nut Taste Befuddles Scientists

Russia exports some nuts officially and others unofficially; truckloads of them are smuggled across the border into China.

China has its own pine forests. And it is the world's biggest exporter of pine nuts. Pine nuts also come from North Korea, Pakistan and Afghanistan. (Look at that list and you realize that good food can come from troubled places.)

There are a few American pine nuts, too. They're a regional specialty in the West, and people are harvesting them right now.

I reached Dayer LeBaron on his cellphone as he pursued pine nuts on a mountain range called Butte Mountain, near Ely, Nev.

A few hundred feet above LeBaron, pion (also known as pinyon) pines cover the mountainside. They are modest but hardy trees that you'll find across mountains and foothills of the West, from Nevada to New Mexico. The nuts of this tree have nourished people living here for thousands of years.

These mountains are public land, and in Nevada, anyone is free to harvest up to 25 pounds of pion pine nuts for personal use. LeBaron, though, purchased the rights to gather the nuts commercially from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. It's his family business: wholesalepinenuts.com.

One type of pion pine grows in Nevada; a different kind, in New Mexico. But in both areas, pine nuts are deeply rooted in local culture, and in food prepared on special occasions.

"Especially Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Year's," says LeBaron. "If you don't have them, it's like taking turkey out of Thanksgiving. Or taking Santa Claus out of Christmas — it's almost that important!"

But this year's harvest has been poor, LeBaron says. Insects have been eating the nuts, and strange weather disrupted the normal harvest pattern. LeBaron blames climate change.

Penny Frazier, an environmentalist who lives in the Ozarks, in Missouri, says government land managers aren't doing enough to protect this forest.

"It's an incredibly productive ecosystem that has been misunderstood and not managed for its forestry values," she says. "We've lost close to half of that habitat, that ecosystem, in the course of 20 years."

Some of the forest was cleared to expand range land for cattle grazing.

Frazier, who calls herself Pinyon Penny, has set up her own business — pinenut.com — to sell American pine nuts. Sharashkin, the Russian forester, also works for pinenut.com. By promoting pine nuts, they're also encouraging people to appreciate, and protect, the forests that produce them.

pine forests

pine nuts

nuts

It started with the iPod. In 2001, Apple promised to do away with stacks of CDs and put 1,000 songs in your pocket. Thirteen years later, the music industry is unrecognizable: Most brick-and-mortar record stores have closed, and a pocket-size hard drive filled with music seems quaint in a world with YouTube and Spotify.

We didn't know it at the time, but the introduction of the iPod began Apple's shift from Macs to consumer electronics, which resuscitated the ailing computer-maker's fortunes and helped transform it into the world's most valuable company.

Next on Apple's list of industries to shake up is something much more basic: how we pay for things countless times a day. Apple is taking aim at what's in our wallet. Our cash and credit cards, as well online shopping.

Apple Pay uses what's known as a near-field chip to communicate with payment sensors at store checkouts. It works with Touch ID, a system built into recent iPhones that uses your fingerprint as a pass code. And Apple Pay promises to make transactions more secure at a time when major retailers, including Target and Home Depot, have reported massive breaches of their payment systems.

All Tech Considered

Mobile Payment Apps Put Wallets In Phones, Not Pockets

All Tech Considered

Key To Unlocking Your Phone? Give It The Finger(print)

All Tech Considered

I Feel Nothing: The Home Depot Hack And Data Breach Fatigue

Apple's foray into e-payments was predicted long ago, and it is not the first phone-maker to get into it. Windows and Android phones already have NFC chips for payments. But they haven't caught on.

John-Kurt Pliniussen, associate professor of Internet marketing and innovation at Queens School of Business in Ontario, says Apple's entry into e-payments means magnetic strip credit and debit cards are now "state of the ark" — about as relevant as Noah's floodworthy vessel.

"The question is how quickly this will dominate the world, because it will," Pliniussen says.

Apple has built its corporate empire by making money off apps, music and devices. That got us thinking: What's Apple Inc. going to get out of Apple Pay?

iWant

Susan Crawford, an Internet policy expert and visiting professor at Harvard Law School, sees the payment system as a way of locking in increased loyalty for already adoring Apple fans. If Apple can leverage its customers' pre-existing trust to help consumers jump over their privacy concerns associated with e-payments, she says, the company may have made one more reason for users to keep their iPhones clutched tightly in their hand at all times.

"Really this is all about affection for these devices, which are literally very close to people's hearts," Crawford says.

Ryan McInerney, president of Visa, framed Apple Pay as a win-win for both Apple and credit card companies. "Buying things on your mobile phones is not as easy as it should be," he says. Apple "wants to engage their customers on their devices as much as possible."

Card companies think that keeping your beloved, trusted phone in your hand longer, and closer to your heart, means you'll spend more money with it — that's good for Apple and good for Visa, MasterCard and the like.

Swipe Fees

Apple reportedly negotiated a cut from the "swipe fees" that card companies charge merchants when you use your card, but Visa's McInerney would not comment on what, if any, agreements were made.

It's not likely we will hear an official statement on how much Apple is getting each time a consumer taps a phone on a sensor. Credit card swipe fees are something of a trade secret for companies like Visa and MasterCard — a class-action lawsuit that alleged swipe fee price fixing was settled in 2012.

Many retailers say the fees are still too high. Wal-Mart is suing Visa after opting out of the settlement.

Apple Has Your Credit Card Number

Apple already has what analysts believe is the largest cache of consumer credit card numbers in the world. In a conference call with investors this April, Apple CEO Tim Cook said the company had 800 million iTunes accounts, the majority of which had active credit cards stored on them. (That's up from 575 million in June 2013.)

For new Apple Pay users, the default payment will be the card that is already stored in their iTunes account. That's one less hoop for consumers to jump through before they can start tapping and buying.

Security

In the past, Apple succeeded in making money by presenting more attractive alternatives to industries under attack. In 2001, the music industry was battered by music-sharing services like Napster. The iTunes Store's growing clout forced companies to play with Apple and agree to its payment scheme.

Today, credit card companies like Visa and MasterCard are scrambling to implement PIN verification systems to respond to repeated massive breaches of consumer data.

Credit card transaction fees differ based on whether a card is "present" or "not present." This means that buying something online assesses a higher fee as a type of insurance to hedge against the increased risk of fraud in online transactions.

In his keynote address Tuesday, Cook made the security argument by saying the magnetic stripe and 16 digits of plastic credit cards are "outdated and vulnerable."

Cook also noted the vast sum of money Apple could potentially dip into: $4 trillion per year charged to credit and debit cards in the U.S. alone.

Ed McLaughlin, chief emerging payments officer at MasterCard, also hinted that security was a key appeal. "We see value being generated in many ways," McLaughlin says, including "fraud that can be eliminated."

But Crawford, the Internet policy expert, is not so sure the win-win is a permanent win for Visa, MasterCard and the others. "[Credit card companies] are powerful enough that Apple needs them more right now than they need Apple," she says. "But the tables may turn as Apple becomes more like a card processing network."

Indeed, Cook hinted at the company's ambitions in an interview with ABC News. When asked whether Apple had killed the credit card, Cook said, "I think that we put a dagger in it."

Tim Fitzsimons is a reporter based in Washington, D.C. He writes about technology, business and the Middle East.

apple pay

credit cards

online shopping

Apple

iPhone

It started with the iPod. In 2001, Apple promised to do away with stacks of CDs and put 1,000 songs in your pocket. Thirteen years later, the music industry is unrecognizable: Most brick-and-mortar record stores have closed, and a pocket-size hard drive filled with music seems quaint in a world with YouTube and Spotify.

We didn't know it at the time, but the introduction of the iPod began Apple's shift from Macs to consumer electronics, which resuscitated the ailing computer-maker's fortunes and helped transform it into the world's most valuable company.

Next on Apple's list of industries to shake up is something much more basic: how we pay for things countless times a day. Apple is taking aim at what's in our wallet. Our cash and credit cards, as well online shopping.

Apple Pay uses what's known as a near-field chip to communicate with payment sensors at store checkouts. It works with Touch ID, a system built into recent iPhones that uses your fingerprint as a pass code. And Apple Pay promises to make transactions more secure at a time when major retailers, including Target and Home Depot, have reported massive breaches of their payment systems.

All Tech Considered

Mobile Payment Apps Put Wallets In Phones, Not Pockets

All Tech Considered

Key To Unlocking Your Phone? Give It The Finger(print)

All Tech Considered

I Feel Nothing: The Home Depot Hack And Data Breach Fatigue

Apple's foray into e-payments was predicted long ago, and it is not the first phone-maker to get into it. Windows and Android phones already have NFC chips for payments. But they haven't caught on.

John-Kurt Pliniussen, associate professor of Internet marketing and innovation at Queens School of Business in Ontario, says Apple's entry into e-payments means magnetic strip credit and debit cards are now "state of the ark" — about as relevant as Noah's floodworthy vessel.

"The question is how quickly this will dominate the world, because it will," Pliniussen says.

Apple has built its corporate empire by making money off apps, music and devices. That got us thinking: What's Apple Inc. going to get out of Apple Pay?

iWant

Susan Crawford, an Internet policy expert and visiting professor at Harvard Law School, sees the payment system as a way of locking in increased loyalty for already adoring Apple fans. If Apple can leverage its customers' pre-existing trust to help consumers jump over their privacy concerns associated with e-payments, she says, the company may have made one more reason for users to keep their iPhones clutched tightly in their hand at all times.

"Really this is all about affection for these devices, which are literally very close to people's hearts," Crawford says.

Ryan McInerney, president of Visa, framed Apple Pay as a win-win for both Apple and credit card companies. "Buying things on your mobile phones is not as easy as it should be," he says. Apple "wants to engage their customers on their devices as much as possible."

Card companies think that keeping your beloved, trusted phone in your hand longer, and closer to your heart, means you'll spend more money with it — that's good for Apple and good for Visa, MasterCard and the like.

Swipe Fees

Apple reportedly negotiated a cut from the "swipe fees" that card companies charge merchants when you use your card, but Visa's McInerney would not comment on what, if any, agreements were made.

It's not likely we will hear an official statement on how much Apple is getting each time a consumer taps a phone on a sensor. Credit card swipe fees are something of a trade secret for companies like Visa and MasterCard — a class-action lawsuit that alleged swipe fee price fixing was settled in 2012.

Many retailers say the fees are still too high. Wal-Mart is suing Visa after opting out of the settlement.

Apple Has Your Credit Card Number

Apple already has what analysts believe is the largest cache of consumer credit card numbers in the world. In a conference call with investors this April, Apple CEO Tim Cook said the company had 800 million iTunes accounts, the majority of which had active credit cards stored on them. (That's up from 575 million in June 2013.)

For new Apple Pay users, the default payment will be the card that is already stored in their iTunes account. That's one less hoop for consumers to jump through before they can start tapping and buying.

Security

In the past, Apple succeeded in making money by presenting more attractive alternatives to industries under attack. In 2001, the music industry was battered by music-sharing services like Napster. The iTunes Store's growing clout forced companies to play with Apple and agree to its payment scheme.

Today, credit card companies like Visa and MasterCard are scrambling to implement PIN verification systems to respond to repeated massive breaches of consumer data.

Credit card transaction fees differ based on whether a card is "present" or "not present." This means that buying something online assesses a higher fee as a type of insurance to hedge against the increased risk of fraud in online transactions.

In his keynote address Tuesday, Cook made the security argument by saying the magnetic stripe and 16 digits of plastic credit cards are "outdated and vulnerable."

Cook also noted the vast sum of money Apple could potentially dip into: $4 trillion per year charged to credit and debit cards in the U.S. alone.

Ed McLaughlin, chief emerging payments officer at MasterCard, also hinted that security was a key appeal. "We see value being generated in many ways," McLaughlin says, including "fraud that can be eliminated."

But Crawford, the Internet policy expert, is not so sure the win-win is a permanent win for Visa, MasterCard and the others. "[Credit card companies] are powerful enough that Apple needs them more right now than they need Apple," she says. "But the tables may turn as Apple becomes more like a card processing network."

Indeed, Cook hinted at the company's ambitions in an interview with ABC News. When asked whether Apple had killed the credit card, Cook said, "I think that we put a dagger in it."

Tim Fitzsimons is a reporter based in Washington, D.C. He writes about technology, business and the Middle East.

apple pay

credit cards

online shopping

Apple

iPhone

West Africa is a poor region, struggling to improve its economic growth.

It had been succeeding. Last year, Sierra Leone and Liberia ranked second and sixth among countries with the highest growth in gross domestic product in the world.

But this year, growth has stopped because of the spread of the deadly Ebola virus. On Wednesday, the World Bank released a report saying the epidemic's economic cost could reach $32.6 billion by the end of 2015 if the outbreak spreads.

In such poor countries — the combined 2013 gross domestic product of the two nations and similarly hard-hit Guinea was about $15 billion — that's an astounding amount of money.

The grim scenario is based on economists' estimates of costs, and it assumes that containment efforts will move slowly, allowing the disease to spread from the hardest-hit three nations into neighboring countries, including Ivory Coast, Nigeria and Senegal. World Bank officials are hoping that "slow" scenario won't come true.

"With Ebola's potential to inflict massive economic costs on Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone and on the rest of their neighbors in West Africa, the international community must find ways to get past logistical roadblocks and bring in more doctors and trained medical staff, more hospital beds and more health and development support to help stop Ebola in its tracks," World Bank President Jim Yong Kim said in a statement.

The World Bank study says that no matter what happens in coming months, Ebola already is having a huge economic impact. Right now, it is killing workers and causing "higher fiscal deficits; rising prices; lower real household incomes and greater poverty."

Over time, the disease will have indirect consequences as people change their behaviors, according to the report. When countries get hit with widespread fear of contagion, people become afraid to meet or even show up for work. That, in turn, "closes places of employment, disrupts transportation, motivates some governments to close land borders ... and motivates private decision-makers to disrupt trade, travel and commerce by canceling scheduled commercial flights and reduction in shipping and cargo service."

This week, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund are trying to call attention to the huge costs of Ebola. The organizations are holding their annual fall meetings in Washington. On Thursday morning, a news conference will feature the presidents of Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone as well as the heads of the CDC, the World Bank, IMF, the United Nations.

i i

Broad channels of short-term economic impact from the Ebola epidemic, as laid out in the World Bank report. For a larger version, click here. Courtesy of the World Bank hide caption

itoggle caption Courtesy of the World Bank

Broad channels of short-term economic impact from the Ebola epidemic, as laid out in the World Bank report. For a larger version, click here.

Courtesy of the World Bank

Estimates of Ebola's potential economic damage come on top of Tuesday's release of the World Bank and IMF's assessment of annual global growth. The report noted that factors such as disease, debt, war and terrorist attacks are slowing global economic expansion. The forecast for this year's average global growth slid to 3.3 percent, down 0.4 percentage point from April.

Guinea

Sierra Leone

ebola

World Bank

Liberia

For about a month, Kmart says, its stores' check-out registers were "compromised by malicious software that stole customer credit and debit card information."

The company, owned by Sears, says it removed the malware from its system after it was discovered Thursday. It announced the exposure late Friday, saying that no personal data or PIN numbers were lost.

While some important customer information seems to have been protected, the breach could still allow criminals to make counterfeit versions of the exposed credit cards.

The company announced the problem on its website, along with recommendations that "If customers see any sign of suspicious activity, they should immediately contact their card issuer." The company also says customers can get more information at its website and over the phone at 888-488-5978.

The number of customers in question hasn't been announced; the vulnerability did not affect online shoppers, the company says.

Saying the breach likely began in early September, Sears announced that to protect anyone "who shopped with a credit or debit card in our Kmart stores during the month of September through yesterday (Oct. 9, 2014), Kmart will be offering free credit monitoring protection."

The data breach affected only "track 2" data, reports security expert Michael Krebs, citing a Sears spokesman who says the information "did not include customer names, email address, physical address, Social Security numbers, PINs or any other sensitive information."

With Friday's announcement, the retailer joins Target, Neiman Marcus, and Home Depot on the list of large companies whose customers' data was accessed illegally in the past year.

credit cards

Kmart

hacking

"[Schiaparelli] and Dali adored each other because they were both daring and risk-takers," Secrest says. "And Dali's theme of the lobster ... comes up over and over again in his symbolism. He has many symbols, but the lobster is really sort of sexual in theme, I suppose. And at some point or other, they both, he and Elsa concoct this idea that the lobster should be a dress."

She was the first to design a built-in bra for a bathing suit, to put jackets with evening gowns, and she loved embroidery, feathers, sequins, and whimsical buttons. In her heyday, she overshadowed her great rival, Coco Chanel, and her boutique at 21 Place Vendome in Paris — with its statue of Napoleon outside the window — was the place for glamor.

Schiaparelli's movements in and out of France during the first two years of the war aroused suspicions. By the time she left France for America in 1942, the British, French, German and American governments all felt it was obvious that she was a spy for the Vichy regime. While she was in the US, the FBI watched her closely for four years and kept a file.

Schiaparelli invented a built-in bra to be used in bathing suits. Courtesy of the Philadelphia Museum of Art hide caption

itoggle caption Courtesy of the Philadelphia Museum of Art

"The war is terrifying for every dress designer in Paris," Secrest says. "Because it goes so rapidly, because France falls so fast. People hardly have time to catch their breath. It's, it's only a year, you know. They wanted to keep their business. They wanted to keep their houses, but the Germans have moved into Paris. What are they going to do? And, of course, Elsa, being Elsa, wants to have it all. She wants to have her salon stay just the way it is. She doesn't want anybody touching her house. She wants to be able to come and go between New York and Paris. And she manages to go in and out of occupied France."

Schiaparelli returned to France after the war in 1946, never entirely free of the taint of collaboration. And herclients had moved on. Women wanted romance, not modernity. They wanted the nipped waists and flared skirts of Christian Dior's softer "New Look." By 1954, she was out of business; banks no longer lent her credit. And in 1969, she donated a collection of her clothing to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, where Secrest did some of her research.

"It's a curious thing," Secrest says. "I don't think she ever was happy, you know? And I think, to a very important degree, she underestimated herself. She underestimated her influence. After all, why are we still talking about Elsa Schiaparelli? Because there are things that she did that nobody else ever did ... She's one of the greats!"

Sitting in the empty auditorium, 10 minutes before Yoram Bauman's set begins, I start feeling bad. Low turnout is hard on a stand-up comedian, but what was he expecting for a comedy gig at 6 p.m. on a Monday ... at the Inter-American Development Bank, of all places?

When the event coordinator comes in to make an announcement to the six of us in the audience, I worry she's going to cancel the event.

"There's a bit of a hold-up at the entrance. The line's out the door, so we're going to wait a few minutes to get started."

Oh.

By the time Bauman takes the stage, the packed house — looks like at least 200 people — are cheering and clapping for the world's first stand-up economist. He grabs the mic and starts his set by admitting just how strange his profession is. When he told his dad that he wanted to use his Ph.D. in economics as the basis for a comedy career, his dad was unsure.

"He didn't think there would be enough demand."

On a Monday night, in the basement auditorium of a development bank, this is the kind of joke that kills. Bauman tries another.

"I told him not to worry. I'm a supply-side economist. I just stand up and let the jokes trickle down."

I'm not so sure about these economics puns myself, but the crowd is eating it up.

"I believe in the Laffer curve." Crickets. Bauman doesn't mind. He waves off the silence. "That's my test of how much economics you know. I give you guys a six."

Since that's roughly the grade I got on my Economics 101 final exam, I am understandably wary about a stand-up economist. But Bauman has managed to make a career out of economics-based humor, presenting at colleges, professional conferences and comedy clubs.

He's also the co-author of three cartoon textbooks: The Cartoon Introduction to Microeconomics, The Cartoon Introduction to Macroeconomics and, out this summer, The Cartoon Introduction to Climate Change.

"I'm not going to say it's a semester's worth of economics, but it's not bad," says Bauman in an interview before the show. The books have been translated into a dozen languages. The latest is Mongolian.

The comic has a serious side as well. One minute, he's making fun of Libertarians ("Left-wing Libertarians want the freedom to do drugs, right-wing Libertarians want the freedom to use guns, and neither of them believe in Social Security. Although with those interests, who is going to make it to 65?"). The next minute he's pitching you his idea about environmental tax reform. In addition to being a comedian and an economist, Bauman has committed his life to "using the tools of economics and the power of capitalism to protect the environment."

In fact, Bauman works with a group, Carbon Washington, that has a measure on the ballot in 2016 to implement a carbon tax in Washington state.

"If we had higher taxes on carbon and other types of pollution, we could afford to have lower taxes on things like income and investment," he says backstage. "Higher taxes on bads, lower taxes on goods. When I first saw that idea as an undergrad, I thought it was intellectually beautiful. Now, I'm spending my life working on it."

Even if you don't quite understand environmental tax reform (shame on you!), you find yourself nodding along and agreeing like it's a cheesy infomercial: I do want lower taxes on income! I don't want the Earth to burn!

Bauman spent five months studying global warming in China, where he got the T-shirt he often wears onstage: the word "capitalism" written in the Coca-Cola brand font.

"The tag says, 'Made in China,' " Bauman reads. "It's 80 percent cotton, 20 percent irony."

Tall and gangly, Bauman doesn't do much to subvert the physical stereotype of an economist. He wears the same short-sleeve, checkered button-down shirt to most of his shows, which he can unsnap at a moment's notice to reveal his punch-line T-shirt. He may be funnier than most who study the "dismal science," but his fashion sense fits the bill, which he acknowledges.

"You might be an economist if you're an expert on money but you dress like a flood victim." Delivered with his self-deprecating shrug, even knock-off Jeff Foxworthy jokes get a laugh from the crowd.

A development bank is the perfect setting for Bauman, where he can make jokes like this one: When life gives you lemons, development economists take 50 Kenyan villages, split them into two random groups, see how one group responds to lemons, and then write an article for the Journal of Economic Development.

The woman sitting behind me had to leave the room to compose herself, she was laughing so hard.

But he doesn't always hit the mark. When he submitted an idea about hyperinflation in hell for the humor column he edits for the journal Economic Inquiry, his editor asked: "Are we to assume that the dead have lost their ability to innovate?"

stand-up comedy

Yoram Bauman

economics

Updated at 1 p.m. ET

The U.S. unemployment rate dipped below 6 percent for the first time since July 2008, with nonfarm payrolls adding 248,000 new jobs in September, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports.

The jobless rate fell 0.2 percentage points to 5.9 percent. Employment increased in professional and business services, retail trade and health care, BLS says. The data were stronger than expected. Employers also added about 69,000 more jobs in July and August than the government first reported.

The median forecast among economists surveyed by Bloomberg had called for 215,000 new jobs in September.

Jason Furman, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, said in a statement that the report extends the "longest streak of private-sector job growth on record.

"The data underscore that six years after the Great Recession — thanks to the hard work of the American people and in part to the policies the President has pursued — our economy has bounced back more strongly than most others around the world," Furman said.

Many economists consider 5.5 percent unemployment a "healthy number," and as the unemployment rate moves closer to that figure, The Associated Press says it "could ratchet up pressure on the Federal Reserve to raise its benchmark interest rate."

As NPR's John Ydstie reports, "Over the past few years, much of the decline in the unemployment rate has been attributed to people leaving the labor force. But, Jim O'Sullivan of High Frequency Economics says in 2014 it's largely job growth that's has pushed unemployment down."

Dean Maki, chief U.S. economist at Barclays PLC in New York, is quoted by Bloomberg as calling the latest data "strong across the board.

"The labor market continues to grow fast enough to keep pushing the unemployment rate down," Maki told Bloomberg.

Even with the new jobs, nearly 100,000 people stopped looking for work. The number of Americans working or looking for work was at 62.7 percent, the lowest proportion since February 1978, The Associated Press says.

Economy

Unemployment

Banks have made it tougher for people to get mortgages after the Great Recession. Just how hard is it? Former Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke told an audience in Chicago Thursday that he was unable to refinance his home loan.

"Just between the two of us," he told moderator Mark Zandi of Moody Analytics, "I recently tried to refinance my mortgage and I was unsuccessful in doing so."

The audience at a conference of the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing and Care laughed, prompting Bernanke to add: "I'm not making that up."

The comments were reported by Bloomberg.

The former Fed chairman added that "it's entirely possible" lenders "may have gone a little bit too far on mortgage credit conditions."

Bernanke, who stepped down as Fed chairman in January after navigating the U.S. economy through its worst crisis since the Great Depression, now earns at least $250,000 per speech, and has a book deal worth at least $1 million. So, why would he have trouble refinancing his mortgage? The New York Times explains that while Bernanke's earning potential is vast — through speeches, books and other means — it is now irregular.

It adds: "The problem probably boils down to this: Anybody who knows how the world works may know that Ben Bernanke has vast earning potential, and that he is as safe a credit risk as one could imagine. But he just changed jobs a few months ago. And in the thoroughly automated world of mortgage finance, having recently changed jobs makes you a steeper credit risk."

Ben Bernanke

mortgage

No, no, I promise: This is not about Derek Jeter. May bats fly down my chimney and trolls enter my door if I inflict any more Derek Jeter farewell upon you. But, of course, I am a sentimental creature, and the player whose name dare not be spoken again did gush forth memories of other grand finales.

I think the most dramatic leavetakings were those accomplished by athletes who made their ultimate bow a championship. Norm Van Brocklin, the Dutchman, led the Eagles over Vince Lombardi's Packers in the NFL title game of 1960, then hung it up. Poor, gruff Van Brocklin would die young but, oh, my, what an exit for an athlete.

And then there was Bill Russell, who left the court forever in 1969 after winning his 11th championship in the seventh game of the NBA finals, beating Wilt Chamberlain and the Lakers in Los Angeles.

Two basketball coaches, Johnny Wooden of UCLA and Al McGuire of Marquette, not only won the NCAAs in their swansong, but had previously declared this would be their goodbye. I telegraphed Al afterward with just the name of a country-western song he liked: "The girls get prettier at closin' time."

Because an individual sport is the most intimate, perhaps the dearest going-away victory was by Pete Sampras in the 2002 U.S. Open final. Supposed to be a has-been, a second-round loser at Wimbledon, seeded 17th, Pete beat Andre Agassi, then never played again.

And the saddest: Probably a guy you never heard of, Wayne Estes, an All-American basketball player at Utah State. On Feb. 8, 1965, he won his last college game, scoring 48 points. Afterward, Estes stopped at the scene of an accident, and because he was so tall, his head brushed against a downed live wire, and he was electrocuted only hours after his beautiful valedictory.

Ah, but the sweetest goodbye is part of the tradition of wrestling. When Rulon Gardner, who'd won the gold at the 2000 Olympics, only won the bronze in '04, he just sat down, took off his shoes and left them there in the middle of the mat. Hail and farewell.

I was covering Secretariat's last race at Woodbine in Toronto in 1973. After he won, I went down to the finish line and snatched up the very grass where, best I could tell, the supreme champion's hooves had last touched a race track. I stuffed it in my pocket and took it home. Told you I was a sentimental fool.

Derek Jeter

Andre Agassi

sports

Frank DeFord

More than 40 states have adopted the Common Core State Standards, new national academic benchmarks in reading and math. But the Common Core has become the center of a highly contentious debate nationwide.

Proponents say the Common Core was designed to ensure that children, no matter where they go to school, are prepared to succeed in college or the workplace upon graduation. Opponents argue that many of the standards are not age- or development-appropriate, and that they constrain the ability of teachers to adjust their teaching to their individual classrooms.

In a recent Intelligence Squared U.S. debate, two teams of education experts squared off on the motion, "Embrace the Common Core." In these Oxford-style debates, the team that sways the most people to its side by the end is the winner.

Before the debate, the audience at the Kauffman Music Center in New York voted 50 percent in favor of the motion and 13 percent against, with 37 percent undecided. After the debate, 67 agreed with the motion, while 27 percent were against, making the team arguing for the motion the winner of this debate.

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Those debating:

FOR THE MOTION

Carmel Martin is the executive vice president for policy at the Center for American Progress. Before joining CAP, she was the assistant secretary for planning, evaluation and policy development at the Department of Education, where she led policy and budget development activities and served as a senior adviser to Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. Prior to coming to the education department, Martin served as general counsel and deputy staff director for the late Sen. Edward Kennedy. She also previously worked at CAP as the associate director for domestic policy, and served as chief counsel and senior policy adviser to former Sen. Jeff Bingaman and special counsel to former Sen. Tom Daschle.

Mike Petrilli is president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, an education-policy think tank. He is the author of The Diverse Schools Dilemma and co-editor of Knowledge at the Core: Don Hirsch, Core Knowledge, and the Future of the Common Core. Petrilli is also a research fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution and executive editor of Education Next. Petrilli has published opinion pieces in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Bloomberg View and The Wall Street Journal, and has been a guest on NBC Nightly News, ABC World News Tonight, CNN and Fox, as well as several National Public Radio programs. Petrilli helped to create the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Innovation and Improvement, the Policy Innovators in Education Network and Young Education Professionals.

i i

Frederick Hess and Carol Burris argue that the Common Core State Standards are untested and overly vague. Samuel LaHoz/Intelligence Squared U.S. hide caption

itoggle caption Samuel LaHoz/Intelligence Squared U.S.

Frederick Hess and Carol Burris argue that the Common Core State Standards are untested and overly vague.

Samuel LaHoz/Intelligence Squared U.S.

AGAINST THE MOTION

Carol Burris has been the principal of South Side High School in Rockville Centre, N.Y., since 2000. She was named the 2013 New York High School Principal of the Year by the National Association of Secondary School Principals and the 2010 New York State Outstanding Educator by the New York State School Administrators Association. In addition to leading her diverse suburban high school, Burris has authored or co-authored three books, as well as numerous journal articles on equity and excellence in schools. Burris is a staunch advocate of school and classroom desegregation. At the same time, she is an outspoken opponent of many of the Race to the Top reforms, including the Common Core. Carol frequently blogs on Valerie Strauss' Answersheet, which appears in The Washington Post.

Frederick Hess, resident scholar and director of educational policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, is an educator, political scientist and author who studies K-12 and higher education issues. His books include Cage-Busting Leadership, Education Unbound and Common Sense School Reform. He is also the author of the Education Week blog, Rick Hess Straight Up. Hess' work has appeared in scholarly and popular outlets such as Teachers College Record, Harvard Educational Review, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Washington Post, The Atlantic and National Review. He has edited widely cited volumes on the Common Core, the role of for-profits in education, education philanthropy, school costs and productivity, the impact of education research, and No Child Left Behind. A former high school teacher, Hess currently teaches at Rice University and the University of Pennsylvania and serves as executive editor for the education journal Education Next.

common core

math

Education

mathematics

debate

NPR has learned Labor Secretary Thomas Perez is a top candidate to be the next attorney general. Three sources familiar with the process say the issue is on the desk of President Obama, who has yet to decide among a relatively short list of options.

White House spokesman Eric Schultz said in an email Friday that "we have no personnel announcements at this time."

Perez ran the civil rights unit at the Justice Department earlier in the Obama administration, where, as one of the most aggressive civil rights enforcers in recent history, he investigated record numbers of police departments and helped enforce the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act.

Other possibilities to replace Attorney General Eric Holder, who announced his intention to resign two weeks ago, include current and former U.S. attorneys and justice officials.

The White House doesn't have a great deal of wiggle room if it wants to confirm Holder's successor before the end of the year. With midterm elections approaching, political sensitivities are high. And to get a nominee through during the Senate's lame-duck session, the administration would need to act soon because of paperwork and background check requirements, as well as procedural delays the GOP could deploy.

NPR has learned Labor Secretary Thomas Perez is a top candidate to be the next attorney general. Three sources familiar with the process say the issue is on the desk of President Obama, who has yet to decide among a relatively short list of options.

White House spokesman Eric Schultz said in an email Friday that "we have no personnel announcements at this time."

Perez ran the civil rights unit at the Justice Department earlier in the Obama administration, where, as one of the most aggressive civil rights enforcers in recent history, he investigated record numbers of police departments and helped enforce the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act.

Other possibilities to replace Attorney General Eric Holder, who announced his intention to resign two weeks ago, include current and former U.S. attorneys and justice officials.

The White House doesn't have a great deal of wiggle room if it wants to confirm Holder's successor before the end of the year. With midterm elections approaching, political sensitivities are high. And to get a nominee through during the Senate's lame-duck session, the administration would need to act soon because of paperwork and background check requirements, as well as procedural delays the GOP could deploy.

Dr Samuel Johnson's dictionary once dismissed porridge as "a food usually reserved for horses in England, in Scotland supports the people."

That was in the 1700s. These days, porridge is seen as more cool than gruel. Today is World Porridge Day — and to celebrate, London hosted its own porridge-making competition.

"Most people think of porridge as a winter dish, and a richer, heavier dish. But I do think it's coming back in vogue. In the last 10 years, it's risen in profile," says Toral Shah, a competitor at Friday morning's event.

Porridge is traditionally Scottish, with its heritage in the oaty diets of crofters, or tenant farmers, of the remote Highlands. I'm a Scotsman, and porridge formed an integral part of my childhood. Winter would mean one thing for certain: a steaming hot bowl of the stuff every morning, before trudging through the snow to school.

Porridge is such a subjective thing. Mine was made with milk, occasionally dried fruit, and either brown sugar or golden syrup drizzled in to the shape of a smiley face. Just as long as you remember to stir clockwise — stirring counter-clockwise risks summoning the devil, according to Scottish superstition.

i i

Judges taste test an entry in Friday's London Porridge Championships. Dai Williams/Courtesy of the National Porridge Championship hide caption

itoggle caption Dai Williams/Courtesy of the National Porridge Championship

Judges taste test an entry in Friday's London Porridge Championships.

Dai Williams/Courtesy of the National Porridge Championship

Nick Barnard is a porridge traditionalist, and a judge in Friday's London Porridge Championships. "I have a bowl of oatmeal, flavored with salt, and cooked just right — piping hot," Barnard says, explaining his technique. " I dip my spoon in to the porridge, then in to cold raw Guernsey cream. ... And there I am, absolutely loving this wonderful simplicity."

Barnard runs London-based Rude Health foods, which sponsored Friday's competition. He was crowned last year's champion in the "specialty" category – he made a fruity date dish — at the World Porridge Making Championships, held annually in Carrbridge in the Highlands of Scotland.

The 21st World Championship was held last weekend. Entrants competed in two categories: traditional and speciality. The winner in the former category takes home the "Golden Spurtle," a Scottish kitchen tool for stirring porridge thought to have originated six centuries ago. Made of wood, it looks like a tiny baseball bat. This year's traditional winner, Dr. Izhar Khan, a kidney specialist from Aberdeen, Scotland, told NPR he credited his victory to the spurtle he used, made by one of his patients.

As for the prize for the specialty dish, it was awarded jointly to Chris Young and Christine Conte. Chris had turned savoury, putting together a wild mushroom porridge risotto, whilst Christina — a Scottish-Italian food blogger based in LA — made a sticky toffee porridge.

The winner of today's London event — personal fitness trainer Adam Stansbury – wowed the judges with his chocolate and honey porridge.

Fellow competitor Toral Shah is another health-food fanatic; she runs London's Urban Kitchen. The porridge competition, she says, "is a fun thing to do, it's slightly competitive, and I really want to show people that you can make things taste brilliant, but they can be really healthy, too."

Indeed, porridge's widely acclaimed nutritional benefits — slow-releasing carbohydrates, energy-rich, and easy to digest — are credited in part for its resurgent popularity in recent years.

i i

A simple take on Scotland's beloved dish. Dai Williams/Courtesy of the National Porridge Championship hide caption

itoggle caption Dai Williams/Courtesy of the National Porridge Championship

A simple take on Scotland's beloved dish.

Dai Williams/Courtesy of the National Porridge Championship

Some even credit porridge with changing the course of Scottish history. In his book The Scottish: A Genetic Journey, author Alistair Moffat argues that soon after the Scots began farming cereals thousands of years ago, they learned how to turn that harvest into porridge – a discovery that fueled the nation's population growth. His argument? Feeding children porridge – a meal soft enough not to tax fragile baby teeth — meant that women could stop breastfeeding sooner, freeing them up to have more children.

Modern Britons clearly haven't forgotten their roots. According to research firm Mintel, almost half of 16-to-24-year-olds in the U.K. surveyed last year said they start the day with porridge. And fast-casual food chain Pret A Manger's sales of hot cereals doubled in the U.K. in 2013.

But the porridge love has spread well beyond the U.K. Kahn's competitors in last week's championships included the owner of a porridge bar in Copenhagen, as well as Sweden's Nordic porridge-making champion.

So what does Barnard look for in a great serving of porridge? The first word he uses is "moreish" — how nourishing-ly delicious is it? He wants imagination, and something that's pleasing. The quality of the ingredients is also important for him. "Could I eat a whole bowl of it, and will it sustain me?"

For Toral, it's the experimental possibilities that makes porridge so exciting. Take her beetroot and apple version, with hints of ginger, cinnamon, vanilla yogurt and spiced granola. "And it's apple season," she adds. "Why would you not go seasonal?"

So, tell us, how do you eat yours?

Scottish food

porridge

Dr Samuel Johnson's dictionary once dismissed porridge as "a food usually reserved for horses in England, in Scotland supports the people."

That was in the 1700s. These days, porridge is seen as more cool than gruel. Today is World Porridge Day — and to celebrate, London hosted its own porridge-making competition.

"Most people think of porridge as a winter dish, and a richer, heavier dish. But I do think it's coming back in vogue. In the last 10 years, it's risen in profile," says Toral Shah, a competitor at Friday morning's event.

Porridge is traditionally Scottish, with its heritage in the oaty diets of crofters, or tenant farmers, of the remote Highlands. I'm a Scotsman, and porridge formed an integral part of my childhood. Winter would mean one thing for certain: a steaming hot bowl of the stuff every morning, before trudging through the snow to school.

Porridge is such a subjective thing. Mine was made with milk, occasionally dried fruit, and either brown sugar or golden syrup drizzled in to the shape of a smiley face. Just as long as you remember to stir clockwise — stirring counter-clockwise risks summoning the devil, according to Scottish superstition.

i i

Judges taste test an entry in Friday's London Porridge Championships. Dai Williams/Courtesy of the National Porridge Championship hide caption

itoggle caption Dai Williams/Courtesy of the National Porridge Championship

Judges taste test an entry in Friday's London Porridge Championships.

Dai Williams/Courtesy of the National Porridge Championship

Nick Barnard is a porridge traditionalist, and a judge in Friday's London Porridge Championships. "I have a bowl of oatmeal, flavored with salt, and cooked just right — piping hot," Barnard says, explaining his technique. " I dip my spoon in to the porridge, then in to cold raw Guernsey cream. ... And there I am, absolutely loving this wonderful simplicity."

Barnard runs London-based Rude Health foods, which sponsored Friday's competition. He was crowned last year's champion in the "specialty" category – he made a fruity date dish — at the World Porridge Making Championships, held annually in Carrbridge in the Highlands of Scotland.

The 21st World Championship was held last weekend. Entrants competed in two categories: traditional and speciality. The winner in the former category takes home the "Golden Spurtle," a Scottish kitchen tool for stirring porridge thought to have originated six centuries ago. Made of wood, it looks like a tiny baseball bat. This year's traditional winner, Dr. Izhar Khan, a kidney specialist from Aberdeen, Scotland, told NPR he credited his victory to the spurtle he used, made by one of his patients.

As for the prize for the specialty dish, it was awarded jointly to Chris Young and Christine Conte. Chris had turned savoury, putting together a wild mushroom porridge risotto, whilst Christina — a Scottish-Italian food blogger based in LA — made a sticky toffee porridge.

The winner of today's London event — personal fitness trainer Adam Stansbury – wowed the judges with his chocolate and honey porridge.

Fellow competitor Toral Shah is another health-food fanatic; she runs London's Urban Kitchen. The porridge competition, she says, "is a fun thing to do, it's slightly competitive, and I really want to show people that you can make things taste brilliant, but they can be really healthy, too."

Indeed, porridge's widely acclaimed nutritional benefits — slow-releasing carbohydrates, energy-rich, and easy to digest — are credited in part for its resurgent popularity in recent years.

i i

A simple take on Scotland's beloved dish. Dai Williams/Courtesy of the National Porridge Championship hide caption

itoggle caption Dai Williams/Courtesy of the National Porridge Championship

A simple take on Scotland's beloved dish.

Dai Williams/Courtesy of the National Porridge Championship

Some even credit porridge with changing the course of Scottish history. In his book The Scottish: A Genetic Journey, author Alistair Moffat argues that soon after the Scots began farming cereals thousands of years ago, they learned how to turn that harvest into porridge – a discovery that fueled the nation's population growth. His argument? Feeding children porridge – a meal soft enough not to tax fragile baby teeth — meant that women could stop breastfeeding sooner, freeing them up to have more children.

Modern Britons clearly haven't forgotten their roots. According to research firm Mintel, almost half of 16-to-24-year-olds in the U.K. surveyed last year said they start the day with porridge. And fast-casual food chain Pret A Manger's sales of hot cereals doubled in the U.K. in 2013.

But the porridge love has spread well beyond the U.K. Kahn's competitors in last week's championships included the owner of a porridge bar in Copenhagen, as well as Sweden's Nordic porridge-making champion.

So what does Barnard look for in a great serving of porridge? The first word he uses is "moreish" — how nourishing-ly delicious is it? He wants imagination, and something that's pleasing. The quality of the ingredients is also important for him. "Could I eat a whole bowl of it, and will it sustain me?"

For Toral, it's the experimental possibilities that makes porridge so exciting. Take her beetroot and apple version, with hints of ginger, cinnamon, vanilla yogurt and spiced granola. "And it's apple season," she adds. "Why would you not go seasonal?"

So, tell us, how do you eat yours?

Scottish food

porridge