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Goats and Soda

Can The U.S. Military Turn The Tide In The Ebola Outbreak?

Two new U.S. Ebola treatment facilities are expected to open in Liberia over the next week. One is a 25-bed field hospital near Monrovia's airport, specifically to treat local health care workers who get infected. The other is a hundred-bed Ebola treatment unit, or ETU, in the town of Tubmanburg, north of Monrovia.

The 25-bed hospital is finished and set to open this weekend. But overall, progress has been slow in building the 18 field hospitals that the U.S promised Liberia back in September. However, Maj. Gen. Gary Volesky from the 101st Airborne, who is commanding the U.S. forces in Liberia, says five are currently under construction and work will begin soon on 12 more.

"Now that we are out of the rainy season, we've been able to make pretty good progress on building," says Volesky. "So you'll see these ETUs coming up online a lot quicker just because we're not fighting the elements."

The U.S. has pledged to build ETUs all across Liberia with the idea that others will manage those facilities.

Goats and Soda

The U.S. Ebola Hospitals In Liberia Are Going Up ... Slowly

Volesky says that's part of the reason the ETUs aren't going up faster: Constructing them is only one piece of the equation. They also have to make sure they can put health care providers in them to treat patients.

"What we want to do is not accelerate the ETU construction and then have an empty ETU that we've got to secure," he says.

From the beginning of this operation, President Obama made it clear that U.S. Army medics will not be treating patients at the new centers. The World Health Organization says it's still searching for international aid groups to run and staff 14 of the yet-to-be-built ETUs.

Even before any of these proposed wards open, there are signs that the Ebola epidemic may be weakening in Liberia. Many of the existing Ebola hospitals there — which were completely overwhelmed in September — now report having empty beds.

Volesky says these changes on the ground could alter what the U.S. finally builds: "What we don't want to do here, as the military, is come in here and build capacity or capability that the Liberians can't sustain." That's a lesson he picked up from serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.

He still expects to construct all the promised treatment units but some of them might end up being smaller than originally planned.

Goats and Soda

Could Ebola Be Slowing Down In Liberia?

Liberia has gone from having more than 400 new cases of Ebola each week in late August to reporting just 50 cases in the last week of October. Some researchers are even questioning whether the country needs hundreds of additional Ebola treatment beds.

But there have been other ebbs and flows in this outbreak, warned Dr. Bruce Aylward, the assistant director-general at WHO, who is in charge of the organization's operational response to the Ebola outbreak.

"My God, the single biggest mistake anybody could make now is to think, 'Well, do we really need all those beds?'" he said in a press conference last week in Geneva. "Absolutely, because remember, what you're looking at is treatment centers that are geographically located across these countries in hot spot areas."

If the U.S. military follows through with its plan to build an Ebola ward in every county across Liberia, Aylward said, Ebola cases from rural areas could be isolated much faster and prevent the spread to new communities.

He added that right now is a critical moment in the outbreak. "I'm terrified that the information will be misinterpreted and that people would start to think, 'Oh great, [Ebola] is under control,'" he told reporters. "That's like saying your pet tiger is under control or something. This is a very, very dangerous disease."

It's not the time, he said, for the international community to back off.

Volesky says the American military isn't. In fact, its presence will grow significantly — from 1,300 servicemen right now to 3,000 by the end of this month.

In addition to constructing the treatment centers, U.S. troops have started training health care workers in Monrovia to work in the Ebola wards. The U.S. Navy is running mobile laboratories to test blood samples for Ebola. The Army just sent soldiers from its Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, and Explosives Command from the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland to set up more mobile labs in Liberia.

Volesky's operation now also has helicopters at its disposal. He says the U.S. military can provide speed and flexibility in the battle against Ebola — and he expects it to play an even bigger role in the weeks to come.

Jon Stewart may be the only media figure who started his election coverage Tuesday with an apology.

"I did vote today ... I was being flip and it kind of took off," said Stewart, who had told CNN anchor Christiane Amanpour in an interview earlier Tuesday that he wasn't voting because he "had just moved, and I don't even know where my thing is." The comment sparked loads of stories about how the comedian wasn't voting in an election he had been talking about for months.

"I want to apologize," Stewart added. "Because I think I wasn't clear enough that I was kidding and it sent a message that I didn't think voting was important or that I didn't think it was a big issue. And I do. And I did vote. And I was being flip and I shouldn't have done that. That was stupid."

Television

Jon Stewart: The Most Trusted Name In Fake News

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Stephen Colbert: The End Of One Joke, The Start Of Many More

Yes, it was that kind of night for liberals. Even a left-leaning fake news anchor had to start the night by seeking forgiveness for a screw up.

Both Stewart's Daily Show and its Comedy Central sibling, Stephen Colbert's Colbert Report, went live Tuesday to talk about the historic wins Republicans piled up in this year's midterm elections.

But the wave of red sweeping over the electoral map seemed to dampen the mood a bit at both shows, where leading Republicans like Sens. Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham had been the target of barbed jokes for quite a while.

"Look, I'm trying to find any way to entertain people who are truly on a ledge tonight," Stewart joked at one point, just before promising to replace the Statue of Liberty's torch and tablet with a Bible and an AK-47 to signal the GOP's success.

The evening seemed to highlight the limits of news-tinged satire on the political scene, as HBO comic Bill Maher's public effort to oust Republican U.S. Rep. John Kline — referred to on his show Real Time as the "flip a district" campaign — also failed.

Kline, whom Maher criticized for being "invisible" while representing a district outside Minneapolis, won his seventh term in office Tuesday despite repeated criticism from the comic, who devoted a website to the effort and even visited the state for a panel discussion on the election.

On Stewart's and Colbert's shows, the reporting of election results almost seemed an afterthought — though the Daily Show had fun with some election projections, picturing McConnell as a cartoon turtle and showing an alligator gobbling up failed Florida gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist, the Republican turned Democrat.

Instead, Stewart poked fun at the influence of money — alum Rob Riggle played a stack of cash giddily celebrating the dollar's role in the most expensive midterm election in history — and interviewed Republican National Committee Chair Reince Priebus.

"Were you surprised that the Democrats strategy seemed to be curling in a ball and hoping you didn't kick them in the face too hard?" Stewart asked Priebus, setting the tone for the rest of the interview.

Colbert presented his last live election special before leaving Comedy Central to take over David Letterman's Late Show on CBS next year. Many of his jokes centered on the media coverage, lampooning social media-obsessed TV reports and playing multiple instances of Fox News anchor referring to the channel's election data center as its "brain room."

"Just as you suspected, Fox News keeps all their brains in one room," Colbert joked. "And it's not the one with the cameras."

Although his persona on the show is ostensibly a parody of a conservative political commentator, Colbert seemed less like his character than ever, signaling the kind of attitude viewers might see once he moves to CBS and drops the show's conceit forever.

"It's been a good night for Republicans," Colbert said, not really sympathizing with or enjoying the victory. "Some of them are even awake to celebrate it."

Colbert also welcomed conservative pundit-turned-Obama supporter Andrew Sullivan, who blamed Democrats' massive electoral losses on being "weak-kneed" about supporting the president and party policies.

"You have a president who has an excellent economic record ... [who] enacted universal health care, which is their goal for 40 years," says Sullivan. "And they ran away from that achievement and refuse to talk about it."

Colbert responded by asking, "What can we do to get more Americans to vote? Should we have those 'I voted' stickers deep fried?"

There were lots of odd events elsewhere in media coverage Tuesday, including a moment when Fox News pundit Brit Hume kept chanting the world "Redskins" as fellow pundit Juan Williams tried to talk about the controversy surrounding the name of Washington's NFL team.

Former Meet the Press host David Gregory joined fellow NBC alum Katie Couric on Yahoo's election coverage — which was held in a Washington, D.C., bar.

And CNN anchor Anderson Cooper had a novel comeback when a panel responded sluggishly to his question about marijuana legalization just before 1 a.m. Wednesday: "What, are you all stoned, or something?"

The only time Colbert got close to being serious Tuesday was when he wrapped up the show noting it was his eighth and final live election show for Comedy Central in 14 years.

"I'll just end by saying it has been a pleasure and privilege to be welcomed into your homes these last nine years," he said. "So to you and yours and I say a fond ... what's that? I have another month and a half of shows? Well, this was a little too dramatic."

Not dramatic enough to change the tone for TV's leading news satire shows, which worked hard Tuesday to slap a smiling face on a defeat that likely disappointed many fans in their audiences.

Maybe Colbert just got out while the getting was good.

When I sat down with Benedict Cumberbatch to talk about Sherlock, the first thing on his mind wasn't exactly the show.

"I'm really worried about those Sherlock fans, because they have been here, probably, for a while," Cumberbatch says to his assistants, asking them to tell a small clutch of fans waiting outside the hotel where we were meeting that he would stop by to see them soon.

This attention to fans seems a natural reflex for Cumberbatch, but it's also a key to the show's success. Producers have earned a massive audience by shaping Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Holmes into a compelling character for modern viewers.

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Benedict Cumberbatch, right, and Martin Freeman star as Sherlock Holmes and John Watson on the BBC's crime drama Sherlock. Robert Viglasky/© Hartswood Films hide caption

itoggle caption Robert Viglasky/© Hartswood Films

Benedict Cumberbatch, right, and Martin Freeman star as Sherlock Holmes and John Watson on the BBC's crime drama Sherlock.

Robert Viglasky/© Hartswood Films

That's why, even as fans resign themselves to waiting more than a year for a new episode of the show, it makes sense that the BBC would release a new box set to tide them over until then.

On Tuesday, fans get first crack at a DVD and Blu-ray set containing all three seasons of Sherlock, with outtakes, interviews, new commentaries and even collectible resin mini-busts, depicting the show's two leading men.

Once fans devour this material, they'll discover Sherlock's last season gave more information than ever about the mysterious detective's history — details Cumberbatch recites in our interview with the rapid-fire cadence from one of Sherlock's famous speeches filled with deductions.

"You find out about Sherlock's background," the actor says. "You find out that he comes from a truly stable home. It was a gesture in the first episode, but you see that in practice in the third. You see that, as a boy he was deeply insecure — it begins as a taunt [from his older brother, Mycroft] ... and that comes back to haunt him and he feels like a child. He's reduced to feeling like a child."

Cumberbatch suspected those storylines came from conversations early in the first season's production with one of the show's producers, Steven Moffat.

"Immediately as an actor I wanted to understand who [Sherlock] was, what his parents were," he adds. "These were questions I asked ... I wanted to understand. [Moffat] was just talking about, 'Can't this guy just be good at what he does and he's your age and he looks like you and he's doing his thing?' And I went, 'No, no Steven, there's a process I've got to go through. I've got to understand how I became this person.' "

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He didn't necessarily expect those answers to be revealed to viewers, Cumberbatch points out now. "I can't just sort of float onto set with a whole bunch of mannerisms and hope it sort of comes off," he says. "You have to ground it in some sort of reality, otherwise you get found out as things sort of evolve."

One other thing Cumberbatch insisted on was creating a weakness for Sherlock — his inability to connect with people — another idea Moffatt resisted.

"And [Moffat] said, 'But can't he just be really good? Can't he just be good at it? Why does he have to have flaw or an Achilles heel?'" the actor says. "Because I said, you know, 'Where's his weakness?' Because no human being doesn't [have one]. And however much [Sherlock] tries to convince himself he's not human, he is."

Cumberbatch says those early conversations seemed to spark ideas that fully developed in the show's third season, featuring a look at Sherlock's parents — played by the star's real mother and father — and his unique personality, revealed in a climactic scene with the episode's villain that ends with a the detective declaring himself "a high functioning sociopath" before letting off a gunshot

(For the sake of those who may not yet have seen the show, I won't say what Sherlock shoots or why.)

"What he's resorting to at the end is violence," Cumberbatch says "It's the weakest, weakest thing to do. So, to me, I think that exposes more about Sherlock ... I think you get under the skin of every character with this last season ... This is a really Freudian drama."

The new box set offers even more goodies for fans, including an interview where Moffat explains Sherlock Holmes' endless appeal.

"He's got the one explainable superpower that's out there; he deduces things," Moffatt says at one point. "He actually goes to the trouble to explain it. Superman never tells you how he flies. But Sherlock Holmes tells you how the trick is done."

The trick for producers of Sherlock will be using events like this new box set to keep fans excited until a new episode appears — more than a year from now.

One week after Apple's new mobile payment system, Apple Pay, debuted in CVS stores, CVS has backtracked and barred its use. Rite Aid took the same step, leading many observers to note that the two companies are part of a group of retailers that's developing its own payment system, called CurrentC. Partners include Wal-Mart, Best Buy and 7-Eleven.

The two pharmacy chains stopped using Apple Pay and other "swipeless" payment systems, including Google Wallet. Previously, CVS and Rite Aid had joined other large retailers to create their own mobile wallet, with two key goals: cutting major credit card companies out of their transactions and building more consumer loyalty (and data tracking) through points programs and store credit cards.

Another test of the new system could present itself in the case of Target. Apple mentioned the retail giant at its event announcing Apple Pay, but Target is also a member of the Merchant Customer Exchange, the group that's working on CurrentC.

Further illustrating how delicate and complicated the mobile payment issue promises to be, the MCX website's photo of the CurrentC app shows it running on an Apple iPhone.

Here's a rundown of angles on the story:

"Apple is partnering with Visa, MasterCard and American Express as well as the biggest banks, which together cover more than 80 percent of credit card purchases in the U.S. And Apple is opening up a new revenue stream because it'll get a small cut from the transactions." — NPR's Aarti Shahani.

"Some merchants are finding themselves tied to the Merchant Customer Exchange, known as MCX, while Apple Pay is being rolled out. 'Merchants are contractually obligated to MCX, so they really don't have a choice,' Nathalie Reinelt, an analyst with Aite Group, said in an e-mail." — Bloomberg News

"Please note that we do not accept Apple Pay at this time," says a Rite Aid memo quoted by NFC World. "However we are currently working with a group of large retailers to develop a mobile wallet that allows for mobile payments attached to credit cards and bank accounts directly from a smart phone. We expect to have this feature available in the first half of 2015."

"The only thing that's clear is that sooner or later, consumers are bound to become confused. Which phone can I use (Apple does not support Google Wallet)? Which payment type do you accept? And who the heck can I trust with my data? There goes the convenience factor." — Forbes

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