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WASHINGTON, May 22, 2006 – Defense Department officials are weighing the potential benefits of merging the three military medical commands into one, unified command that would oversee all military health care as well as the training of military medical professionals. The concept, if adopted, would bring together the Army, Air Force and Navy medical commands, enabling DoD to provide better care while keeping costs in check, Dr. David Tornberg, deputy assistant secretary of defense for clinical and program policy, told American Forces Press Service. The DoD medical community is generally supportive of such a realignment, which Tornberg said would ensure...

Doctors at a clinic in Kragujevac, central Serbia, have removed an 11 centimetre-long intestinal worm from a woman's eye socket. According to preliminary results, the worm taken from the 37-year-old patient's eye belongs to the Ascaris family, a common intestinal parasite in pigs that is also found in humans. No similar case has ever been recorded in Serbia and probably in Europe, Radomir Stojicevic, a doctor at the Kragujevac clinic, told the Tanjug news agency. The parasite had probably travelled through the patient's blood from the digestive tract into the eye socket, doctors at the clinic believe.

CAMP TAQADDUM, Iraq (Jan. 24, 2006) -- A Marine moves swiftly from the CH-46E helicopter’s drop door as he continually scans the surrounding area for potential danger. His job is to protect the commanding general in his charge if a situation requiring immediate aid should arise. This Marine is with the Personal Security Detachment, 2nd Marine Logistics Group (Forward), providing continual protection for the commanding general and staff day in and day out. “My training has prepared me well on several occasions,” said Sgt. Eddie T. Hedgepeth, a PSD Marine with 2nd MLG (Fwd), who was formerly a shoulder-launched multipurpose...

Dragon Eye Protects Troops, Improves Recon The easily-transportable unmanned aerial vehicle gives troops up-to-date reconnaissance over a wide area of terrain. By U.S. Marine Corps Sgt. Robert M. Storm JALALABAD, Afghanistan, Nov. 4, 2005 — U.S. Marines and sailors from 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, Marine Corps Base Hawaii, use the Dragon Eye to minimize friendly casualties and maximize surveillance during missions in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. The Dragon Eye is the smallest functioning unmanned aerial vehicle. "The Dragon Eye is a good tool if used properly. It's excellent for short range reconnaissance and can easily...

MARINE CORPS BASE QUANTICO, Va. (Nov. 3, 2005) -- The Marine Corps is searching for a larger, more capable combat transport to replace the Humvee. The Fires and Maneuver Integration Division of Marine Corps Combat Development Command is outlining the requirements for its future vehicle, dubbed the Combat Tactical Vehicle, with the goal of fielding the first CTVs in 2011. Kevin M. McConnell, deputy director of the Fires and Maneuver Integration Division, said the Humvee, while a battle-proven tactical vehicle, is beginning to show its limitations in Iraq and Afghanistan. “The Humvee A2 is a great vehicle, [but] it has...

The Implantable Miniature Telescope (IMT), invented by Israeli doctor Isaac Lipshitz is offering hope to the eight million Americans who suffer vision loss due to age-related macular degeneration, known as AMD. In clinical trials, VisionCare's revolutionary device drastically improved the vision of almost 200 patients, with the results paving the way for its imminent FDA approval.

LEE COUNTY? While watching NBC2 coverage of Hurricane Wilma about two dozen residents called the station reporting an unusual sighting. While watching a Doppler loop of Hurricane Wilma coming ashore, a number two appeared in the eye of the storm. In going back through the recorded Doppler loop, we found exactly what viewers were talking about. The image below was not altered in any way - it's a screen capture from the Doppler system. You can click 'play' above to watch the actual Doppler loop.

Paris - French President Jacques Chirac declared himself in good shape as he left a military hospital after seven days, but took doctors' advice by dropping plans to attend next week's United Nations summit of world leaders and also postponed a planned trip to Egypt. The 72-year-old leader's place will be taken at the United Nations by Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, his office announced on Friday. Villepin was roundly applauded at the United Nations for his 2003 speech against the invasion of Iraq. Chirac was hospitalised on September 2 after suffering a "small vascular accident" that impaired vision in...

Parts of the brain are temporarily "switched off" when we blink, scientists have found. Researchers from University College London found that the brain actively shuts down parts of the visual system for every blink - even if light is still entering the eyes. This could explain why people do not notice their own blinking. The study used a specially-designed device to study the effects of blinking on the brain. The device, made with fibre optic cable, was placed in the mouths of volunteers who were wearing light proof goggles and lying in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) brain scanner....

The court-ordered removal of Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube was “an act of murder,” in the opinion of Rabbi Shlomo Yaffe, a member of the Lubavitch movement who spoke recently to a Montreal audience made up largely of lawyers. Rabbi Yaffe, spiritual leader of Congregation Agudas Achim in West Hartford, Conn., and a popular lecturer on the Torah perspective on modern ethical issues, was a guest speaker at the Westmount Chabad centre. The fact that Schiavo, who died in March almost two weeks after her gastric feeding tube was removed, was breathing on her own makes all the difference, Rabbi Yaffe...

DARWIN famously wrote in On the Origin of Species that the eye is so complex that its evolution by natural selection seems "absurd". The key to the puzzle, he argued, was to find eyes of intermediate complexity in the animal kingdom that would demonstrate a possible path from simple to complicated. Now, a detailed study of the eyes of the box jellyfish (Tripedalia cystophora) has thrown up one of these fascinating intermediate stages. Box jellyfish, or cubozoans, are bizarre, highly poisonous predators (New Scientist, 8 November 2003, p 34). "These are fantastic creatures with 24 eyes, four parallel brains and...

DHAKA (Reuters) - A Bangladeshi woman desperate for money after she was abandoned by her husband has offered to sell one of her eyes. "I desperately looked for a job to live with my two-and-half-year-old daughter, Meem," the woman, 26-year-old Shefali Begum, told Reuters Thursday at her slum dwelling in Dhaka. "But I could not find any ... and decided to sell one of my eyes. What do I do with both eyes while my daughter will die for want of milk and food?" Bangladeshi men have been known to advertise their kidneys for sale to generate cash, but Shefali...

Stanford physicists and eye doctors have teamed up to design a "bionic eye," of sorts.On Feb. 22 in the Journal of Neural Engineering, Daniel Palanker, Alexander Vankov and Phil Huie from the Department of Ophthalmology and the Hansen Experimental Physics Laboratory and Stephen Baccus from the Department of Neurobiology published a design of an optoelectronic retinal prosthesis system that can stimulate the retina with resolution corresponding to a visual acuity of 20/80—sharp enough to orient yourself toward objects, recognize faces, read large fonts, watch TV and, perhaps most important, lead an independent life. The researchers hope their device may someday...

Man Shoots Eye With Nail Gun, Pulls It Out Construction Worker Accidentally Shoots Himself in the Eye With Nail Gun, Then Pulls It Out The Associated Press Mar. 4, 2005 - A construction worker accidentally shot himself in the eye with a nail gun and then pulled the 2 1/2-inch nail out of his face, according to a police report and a co-worker. Joseluis Franco, 19, was using an air-powered, Hitachi nail gun to help build a home Wednesday when a nail bounced back and lodged in his eye, crew leader Rogelio Ocampo said. Franco was nailing a two-by-four to...

"R&B singer Houston has reportedly attempted suicide by gouging out his eye while on tour in London. According to reports, Houston tried to jump off a balcony, but was stopped by his security detail. After he was prevented from leaping, he then was locked in a bathroom, where he gouged out one of his eyes. Last year, the Hip-Hop oriented singer scored a major hit in 'I Like That' with Nate Dogg and Chingy. Earlier this month, Houston was nominated for 'Best New R&B Artist' by the 2004 T M H Honors. Winners were supposed to be announced on Jan....

Democrats eye softer image on abortion Leaders urge more welcome for opponents By Susan Milligan, Globe Staff December 19, 2004 WASHINGTON -- Leading Democrats, stung by election losses, are signaling they want the party to embrace antiabortion voters and candidates, softening the image of the party from one fiercely defensive of abortion rights to one that acknowledges the moral and religious qualms some Americans have about the issue. House minority leader Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat who is one of the most ardent supporters of abortion rights in Congress, has encouraged Tim Roemer, a former representative with a strong voting...

President’s daughter applies for job at D.C. public school First daughters Jenna Bush, left, and her twin sister Barbara, right, speak to supporters and volunteers at Bush-Cheney campaign headquarters in Miami earlier this year. Jenna Bush, one of President Bush's two daughters, has applied for a teaching position at a public school in Washington, D.C., according to a report in the Washington Post.The president’s daughter wants to teach at Elsie Whitlow Stokes Community Freedom Public Charter School in the Mount Pleasant/Columbia Heights neighborhood of the capital. The school serves low-income children and has 250 pupils enrolled in kindergarten through sixth...

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

<p>PRING, Tex. - In front of her gated apartment complex, Courtney Payne, a 9-year-old fourth grader with dark hair pulled tightly into a ponytail, exits a yellow school bus. Moments later, her movement is observed by Alan Bragg, the local police chief, standing in a windowless control room more than a mile away.</p>

Darwin's greatest challenge tackled The mystery of eye evolution Researchers provide concrete evidence about how the human eye evolved When Darwin's skeptics attack his theory of evolution, they often focus on the eye. Darwin himself confessed that it was 'absurd' to propose that the human eye, an 'organ of extreme perfection and complication' evolved through spontaneous mutation and natural selection. But he also reasoned that "if numerous gradations from a simple and imperfect eye to one complex and perfect can be shown to exist" then this difficulty should be overcome. Scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory [EMBL] have now...