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My New Year's resolutions so far are: 1- To get a job. It's becoming series. 2- To go fishing and hunting this year. 3- If I don't get a job, concentrate on fishing and hunting, and building polygons with Magnetix. 4- Not to post vanities.

There it sits on your night stand, that book you've meant to read for who knows how long but haven't yet cracked open. Tonight, as you feel its stare from beneath that teetering pile of magazines, know one thing — you are not alone. One in four adults say they read no books at all in the past year, according to an Associated Press-Ipsos poll released Tuesday. Of those who did read, women and seniors were most avid, and religious works and popular fiction were the top choices. The survey reveals a nation whose book readers, on the whole, can...

NEW YORK — A young mother's car left out of gear accidentally rolled over her only son and killed him, a year after her soldier husband was killed in Iraq, relatives and police said. "It's a tragedy for all my family," said Evelyn Mercedes, 65, the soldier's grandmother. "My grandson dies. Now, this happens to the baby." Christopher Mercedes, who turned 1 last month, slipped from his mom's arms as she got out of the sport utility vehicle that began rolling because it was in neutral gear rather than park, police said. "She was hysterical, crying out, 'Somebody help me...

  Conn. Guard Soldiers Reflect on Year in Afghanistan Events of 9/11 compel Marine to enlist in Army National Guard. By U.S. Army Sgt. Matthew Clifton22nd Mobile Public Affairs Detachment FORWARD OPERATING BASE GARDEZ, Afghanistan, April 23, 2007 — Whether serving on active duty, Army Reserve or Army National Guard, deployments have become all but inevitable for soldiers in the U.S. Army. "[The enemy] doesn’t care if you’re in the National Guard or if you’re not on a combat mission." U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Richard Rafferty Some troops have seen more years in Iraq or Afghanistan than they have...

The imam of the Taipei Grand Mosque complained to Taiwan's foreign minister for sending him a greeting card for the Chinese New Year showing four pigs, a newspaper said on Saturday. After receiving the New Year card, Imam Ma Hsiao-chi pointed out to the Foreign Ministry that the card was offensive to Muslims, the Liberty Times reported. Muslims do not eat pork and regard pigs as unclean animals. But the ministry defended Foreign Minister Huang Chih-fang's sending out the greeting cards, which were printed because 2007 is the Year of Pig according to the Chinese lunar calendar. "Sending New Year...

CAMP FALLUJAH — Marines with Regimental Combat Team 5 spent 2006 making significant progress, with the help of the Iraqi Army, in eastern Al Anbar Province. Fallujah, once the site of a pitched battle between Marines and al Qaida insurgents, is now considered a Sunni safe haven. It’s a marked progression that’s led to Marines turning over increasing responsibility to the Iraqi Security Force, a functioning city government and Iraqis seeking safety within the city’s limits. It’s been a year of tough days, spectacular battlefield performances, hope, faith and steadfast discipline. “We have aggressively worked to make Fallujah a model...

He's the last man standing on refugee island and costs Australia £8m a year By Nick Squires in Sydney (Filed: 06/10/2006) He is possibly the loneliest refugee in the world and he is being maintained at a cost of £8 million a year. Mohammed Sagar has spent the past five years living in a detention camp on Nauru, a sun-baked rock in the middle of the south Pacific. He was one of 1,500 refugees from the Middle East and Afghanistan sent to the near-bankrupt republic under Australia's so-called Pacific Solution to boatloads of people fleeing their homelands. They were intercepted...

8,400-year old settlement unearthed in Ýzmir’s Ulucak Tumulus Monday, September 25, 2006 ÝZMÝR - Turkish Daily News A team of archaeologists working at the Ulucak tumulus, located in Ýzmir's Kemalpaþa district, have unearthed a Neolithic settlement area dating back some 8,400 years, an archaeologist announced last week. Archaeologist Fulya Dedeoðlu of Ege University told the Doðan News Agency that excavations had been under way in the area since 1995. She said they believed their latest discovery could be the oldest settlement dating from the Neolithic period unearthed to date and added that further excavations on the lower levels could reveal...

9,500-year-old decorated skulls found in Syria Sun Sep 24, 4:14 PM ET DAMASCUS (AFP) - Archaeologists said they had uncovered decorated human skulls dating back as long as 9,500 years ago from a burial site near the Syrian capital Damascus. "The human skulls date back between 9,500 and 9,000 years ago, (on which) lifelike faces were modelled with clay earth ... then coloured to accentuate the features," said Danielle Stordeur, head of the joint French-Syrian archaeological mission behind the discovery. Located at a burial site near a prehistoric village, the five skulls were found earlier this month in a pit...

A 5-year-old girl is undergoing treatment for possible HIV infection after the man charged with raping her -- an illegal alien who was previously deported to Mexico -- admitted he has the virus, authorities said. The case has re-energized some state lawmakers to push for tougher penalties for people who commit sex crimes and knowingly expose their victims to HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Julio Cesar Cruz Martinez, 32, of Fairhope is being held in a segregated unit at the Baldwin County Corrections Center on charges of first-degree rape, sexual abuse and sodomy, a jail official said Wednesday. Police...

Chinese archaeologists discover 2,000-year-old leather shoes Beijing, Sept. 9 (PTI): Six leather shoes, made some 2,000 years ago, have been discovered at a relic site in Dunhuang in northwest China's Gansu Province, taking the Chinese shoe-making industry older by some 1,000 years.The leather shoes, from the Han Dynasty (205 BC-220 AD), are the oldest leather shoes found in China, indicating that the history of China's leather shoe-making is some 1,000 years longer than previously believed, an archaeologist from Gansu Province, He Shuangquan said. The newly found, well-preserved shoes were made for children, aged three to six years old, said He,...

Spc. Patrick Hart, military policeman, hands over keys to an Iraqi Police lieutenant of the Tarmiyah Police Station for seven of the 18 new Iraqi Police trucks being distributed from Camp Taji. The Iraqi Police are being issued 96 trucks throughout the 1st Brigade Combat Team’s area of responsibility, north of Baghdad, to help the police curb sectarian violence. Department of Defense photo by Army Sgt. 1st Class Brent Hunt. CAMP TAJI -- In an effort to make the Taji district north of Baghdad a safer place to live, Multi-National Division - Baghdad Soldiers provided the Iraqi Police stations in...

SACRAMENTO – After a partisan battle over Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's failed “Year of Reform” initiatives last fall, the Republican governor and Democratic legislators yesterday wrapped up what could be called the “Year of the Deal.” They addressed long-neglected infrastructure by putting a record $37.3 billion bond package on the November ballot, produced a rare on-time budget and helped average Californians through a higher minimum wage and cheaper prescription drugs. They also increased school spending by 10 percent, moving a lagging California closer to the national average spent per pupil, and directed $3 billion in new spending over the next seven...

Natascha weighs less than when kidnapped By Kate Connolly in Vienna (Filed: 26/08/2006) The full horror of Natascha Kampusch's eight-year kidnap ordeal became clearer yesterday as her mother said that the 18-year-old girl weighed less now than when she was abducted. Brigitte Sirny said she had been shopping for size 6 clothes for her daughter whose weight had dropped to 6st 6lb despite having grown to 5ft 3in. She said her daughter had "nothing" except for an orange dress she was wearing when she escaped her "master". Natascha has developed a formal, slightly stilted high-German accent similar to that of...

Archaeologists find 2,500-year-old mummy in Mongolia, tattoos and all Thu Aug 24, 2:18 PM ETAFP/DDP/GAI-HO Photo: This undated picture released by the German Archaeological Institute (GAI) shows a mummified body from... BERLIN (AFP) - An international group of archaeologists has unearthed a well-preserved, 2,500-year-old mummy frozen in the snowcapped mountains of Mongolia complete with blond hair, tattoos and a felt hat. The president of the German Archaeological Institute, Hermann Parzinger, hailed the "fabulous find" at a press conference to present the 28-member team's discovery in Berlin. The Scythian warrior was found in June at a height of 2,600 meters (8,500...

8/17/2006 - RANDOLPH AIR FORCE BASE, Texas (AFPN) -- The Air Force is on track to make its recruiting goal this year, marking the seventh consecutive year the service has brought in the right number and mix of new Airmen. To date, 25,645 people have enlisted in the Air Force and entered active duty in fiscal 2006. That puts the Air Force on pace to send 30,750 men and women to basic training and technical schools to fill jobs in more than 150 areas. In response to the Air Force's force shaping, fiscal 2007 recruiting goals have been reduced by...

Cambridge scholar makes rare 30,000-year-old find Archaeologists have unearthed a pair of tiny bone fragments dating back almost 30,000 years and featuring minute designs carved by some of our earliest European ancestors. The thumbnail-sized bone fragments are engraved with parallel lines and match similar artefacts uncovered in the same area during the 19th century. They were carved by hunter-gatherers as they slowly made their way north in pursuit of moving populations of mammoth and reindeer 25-30,000 years ago. The unusual find was made by a Cambridge scholar, Becky Farbstein, who has been working at Predmosti in north Moravia, in the...

A 3,000-year-old voyage of discovery JENNIFER VEITCHMen would have used this type of log boat to fish and hunt, as well as to trade goods with others, as this drawing exhibits. Picture: Courtesy Perth and Kinross Heritage Trust IN ANCIENT times, when Scotland was virtually covered in dense forest, there was only one way to get around. Traveling by boat helped early Scots to find food and trade goods with their neighbours. The work to extract the boat from the river bed is slow and painstaking. Picture: Courtesy Historic Scotland Now, with the excavation of a 3,000-year-old log boat, archaeologists...

Archaeologists seek hints on 4000-year-old civilization in Tekirdað Wednesday, July 19, 2006 ANKARA - Turkish Daily News Archaeologists working on an ancient Thracian site in Tekirdað said on Monday they have unveiled part of an ancient city named Heraion Teichos, which is thought to date back to 2000 B.C. The excavation team of Mimar Sinan University's Archaeology Department has been working to unearth the ancient city, located near Tekirdað's Karaevli village, for the last six years. Head of the excavations, Associate Professor Neþe Atik, told the Doðan News Agency on Monday that they were the first team to conduct the...

AL ASAD, Iraq (July 12, 2006) -- From navigating the jungles of Vietnam to surviving the deserts of Iraq, one warrior has been a part of almost every major campaign that the Marine Corps has had in the past four decades. Marines with Task Force Military Police, 1st Battalion, 14th Marine Regiment, honored Chief Warrant Officer 4 Wayne H. Silva for his 40th anniversary in the Marine Corps while in Al Asad July 8. "June 28, 1966, was the day that I stepped onto the yellow footprints," stated Silva, Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear defense officer, Task Force Military Police....

2,300-year-old artefacts may change Ashoka-Buddhist history (FOC) BHUBANESWAR: Orissa Institute of Maritime and South East Asian Studies (OIMSEAS) has unearthed some 2,300-year-old artefacts at Jajpur district in Orissa, which, it claimed, could change some historical narratives on the Ashokan period. The description of Chinese pilgrim Hieun-Tsang about Ashoka that he had constructed 10 stupas in Odra country where Buddha had preached may come true. Earlier, historians refused to accept the narrative. We have already analysed five stupas and found three more similar structures,” OIMSEAS Director Debaraj Pradhan told mediapersons here. He said a huge inscribed monolithic stupa along with other...

30,000-year-old Relics Reveal Pre-historic Civilization along Qinghai-Tibet Railway 2006-06-24 13:59:42 Xinhua Chinese archaeologists claim that relics unearthed in the areas along the Qinghai-Tibet Railway proved that human beings lived there at least 30,000 years ago. Archaeologists with the Qinghai Provincial Archaeological Institute said they collected large number of chipped stone tools including knives and pointed implements dating back 30,000 years in the Tuotuo River valley, Hoh Xil, a habitat for Tibetan antelopes, and Qaidam Basin, where the railway runs through, during recent excavations. More than 30 stone implements were also discovered at the site of Sancha River bridge on the...

Japanese researchers discover remains of what appears to be 4,800-year-old temple in Peru 06/20/2006 The Asahi Shimbun CHANCAY, Peru--Japanese researchers said they have discovered--with the unintended help of looters--what appears to be a temple ruins at least 4,800 years old that could be one of the oldest in the Americas. The temple is believed to have been built before or around 2600 BC when Peru's oldest known city, Caral, was created, the researchers said. The ruins were found in the ruins of Shicras located in the Chancay Valley about 100 kilometers north of Lima. The team started full-scale excavation work...

Jun. 18, 2006 0:24 | Updated Jun. 18, 2006 10:4511,000-year-old grain shakes up beliefs on beginnings of agriculture By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH Bar-Ilan University researchers have found a cache of 120,000 wild oat and 260,000 wild barley grains at the Gilgal archaeological site near Jericho that date back 11,000 years - providing evidence of cultivation during the Neolithic Period. The research, performed by Drs. Ehud Weiss and Anat Hartmann of BIU's department of Land of Israel studies and Prof. Mordechai Kislev of the faculty of life sciences, appears in the June 16 edition of the prestigious journal Science. It is the...

BAGHDAD, May 29, 2006 — The ratification of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s cabinet ministers is another sign of progress toward unity, security and prosperity in Iraq. This past week, I met with delegations from two of the 29 nations that comprise Multinational Force-Iraq to discuss future support to Iraq’s democratic government. The El Salvadoran Minister of Defense Gen. Otto Alejandro Romero, accompanied by several Salvadoran Congressmen, reviewed the contributions of their battalion and discussed progress with Iraqi and coalition leaders. In the same week Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen inspected the Danish contingent and met al-Maliki and senior officials...

Climate change may be key to 10,000-year-old mystery - University of Alberta leads investigation into disappearance of ancient people OTTAWA, May 16 /CNW Telbec/ - Today, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) announced an investment of $2.5 million in a research project that will investigate the link between climate change, human genetics and the disappearance of an entire culture from the Boreal forest region of Siberia between 7,000 and 6,000 BC. With the help of DNA analysis, radiocarbon dating and climate modeling, University of Alberta professor Andrzej Weber will lead an international team of scholars in...

FORT HUACHUCA — Soldiers of the 69th Signal Company returned home after nearly a year in Iraq where they put in a number of communication infrastructures. The 142 men and women of the unit — most of whom are cable dogs, individuals who install communication lines — stepped off the charter aircraft at 8 p.m. Thursday, concluding a trip from Kuwait to Arizona. Waiting for the ramp to be put up to the plane, soldiers of the 11th Signal Brigade, to which the 69th belongs, were as anxious to see their fellow soldiers get off the commercial airliner as probably...

Blair: I'll quit next year - trust me By George Jones, Political Editor and Brendan Carlin (Filed: 09/05/2006) Tony Blair abandoned his election promise to serve a full third term last night, indicating that he could stand down next summer. Although he refused to set a timetable for his departure, saying that it would paralyse government, he anointed Gordon Brown as his successor and promised to give him sufficient time to establish himself before the next election. Tony Blair was in no mood for compromise yesterday As the Labour Party stood on the brink of civil war over the timing...

TRENTON, N.J. - New Jersey: We're Not So Good With Slogans. The state has jettisoned "Come See For Yourself," its second attempt at a tagline in less than a year. It was the product of a statewide contest set up by then-acting Gov. Richard J. Codey last fall, after he rejected a consultant's offering: "We'll Win You Over." State tourism officials said legal issues led them to scrap the latest slogan, explaining that West Virginia and other states previously used "Come See For Yourself." "We are proceeding without the slogan. We will revisit the next steps at the end of...

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (April 19) - For 84-year-old Josephine Crawford, the golden years just got a lot more golden. After a night playing the slot machines, the retired waitress widow was about to call it quits Tuesday when she hit a $10 million jackpot - the biggest in the history of casino gambling in Atlantic City. Crawford, who gambles here twice a week and has been going to the casinos since the first one opened in 1978, had never won more than $1,000 before she came into the big money at the nickel slots at Harrah's Atlantic City. The widow...

Archaeologists unearth 9,000-year-old settlement in Seydiþedir Thursday, March 16, 2006 As a result of four years of painstaking excavation, a settlement dating back 9,000 years was discovered in central Anatolia. The tumulus is unique for the region as it is surrounded by walls ANKARA - Turkish Daily News A settlement dating back 9,000 years was discovered during archaeological excavations in Seydiþehir, a district of the central Anatolian province of Konya. Following a visit to Gökhüyük, where the settlement was unearthed, Konya's Provincial Culture and Tourism Director Abdüssettar Yarar told the Anatolia news agency that excavations have been conducted for the...

MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. (Mar. 2, 2006) -- In late February 2005, a 26-year-old Harrisburg, Penn. native deployed to the western part of the Al Anbar province, Iraq with Regimental Combat Team-2, 2nd Marine Division. One year later, he returned to the U.S. forever changed. Lance Cpl. Shane S. Keller, a combat photographer with RCT-2, recently came home after a year deployed to Iraq, where he had been supporting Marines and Iraqi Forces during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Keller’s job in Iraq consisted of documenting the security and stabilization operations the RCT conducted for historical, training and intelligence purposes....

Qasr'e Shirin's 6,000-Year-Old Mystery Feb 26, 2006 Discovery of some clay relics from Obeid Site (an ancient site in Mesopotamia and current Iraq belonging to the 4th Millennium BC) in the city of Qasr'e Shirin has laid the origin and destination of this city’s migrants about 6,000 years ago under ambiguity. Archeologists want to know whether these migrants came to this region from Mesopotamia or they were traveling among different regions of Zagros Mountains. "Continuation of the surveys and identifications in this city led to the discovery of 75 ancient sites most of which belong to the Obeid Site," said...

8,000-year-old drill to make fire found in Zhejiang www.chinaview.cn 2006-02-21 17:54:57 BEIJING, Feb. 21 (Xinhuanet) -- Chinese archaeologists said that parts of an instrument to make fire, dating back to 8,000 years ago, have been found in east China's Zhejiang Province. The relics, made of bones and wood, were discovered at the Kuahuqiao Relics Site in Xiaoshan, Zhejiang Province, according to Qianjiang Evening News. Liu Zhiqing, a retired professor from Zhejiang University, was quoted by the newspaper as saying that the relics were part of an instrument to drill wood to get fire. Some relics in strange shapes were unearthed...

ANCIENT FIND By LIZ McKINNON February 1, 2006 Damein Bell stands in the remains of an ancient stone house uncovered by a bushfire at Tyrendarra. Picture: LEANNE PICKETT THE bushfire at Tyrendarra last month has unearthed some of the biggest Aboriginal stone houses ever seen in Gunditjmara land. Undocumented sites have been uncovered including a village thought to be 30,000 years old. The Winda-Mara Aboriginal Co-operative made the discovery yesterday during an analysis of its Tyrendarra Indigenous Protected Area. On January 22 fire burnt 240 hectares, blackening 90 per cent of the property's rocky outcrop on the Mt Eccles lava...

7000 year-old sacrificial altar found in Hunan www.chinaview.cn 2006-01-29 11:23:54 BEIJING, Jan. 29 (Xinhuanet) -- A sacrificial altar, dating back about 7,000 years, has been discovered in central China's Hunan Province, according to Chinese archaeologists. The altar is the earliest sacrificial site so far found in China, said He Gang, a researcher with the Hunan Institute of Archaeology. "Ancients prayed to the gods of nature, such as the gods of the earth, river and heaven," said He at a archaeological forum held by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences recently in Beijing. Archaeologists have found China's oldest white pottery specimens...

MACDILL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla., Jan. 27, 2006 – Just one day after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, nations around the world mobilized and formed a military coalition. Their goal: to combat global terrorism. This year marks the fifth anniversary of the coalition, which is headquartered at U.S. Central Command headquarters in Tampa, Fla. Today, CENTCOM officials said, 63 nations are supporting the global war on terror. Since the coalition's inception, 27 nations have deployed more than 22,000 troops to Iraq. In Afghanistan, coalition nations have deployed more than 3,000 troops hailing from 42 nations. These figures exclude U.S. forces....

7:27 am PT, Thursday, Jan 26, 2006 Using New Methods, Oregon State University Archaeologists Uncover 10,000-Year-Old Coastal Site By Mark Floyd, 541-737-0788/OSU CORVALLIS, Oregon - Researchers from Oregon State University have analyzed a second archaeological site on the southern Oregon coast that appears to be about 10,000 years old, and they are hopeful that their newly fine-tuned methodology will lead to the discovery of more and older sites. Results of their study were just published in the journal Radiocarbon. The site, located on a bluff just south of Bandon, Ore., included a large number of stone flakes, charcoal pieces and...

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Jan. 23, 2006 — Iraq is a nation overcoming the fear of terror that gripped them for decades under Saddam's dictatorship and challenges their ability to become a free and democratic people today. Through indiscriminate acts of violence terrorists attempt to cause fear and doubt in the minds of Iraqis and the world on what otherwise is a bright future. Much has been accomplished in the past 18 months that should allow Iraqis to confront their fears-and give hope for the future: Iraq established an interim government, mobilized Iraqi Security Forces, increased the pace of economic development, created...

AIDS activist charged with sex crimes Tuesday, January 10, 2006 The Associated Press BURLINGTON An AIDS activist was one of two people accused of sex crimes against a 13-year-old boy last year over several weeks. Ricky Odell Yow, 42, of Elon, was charged with five counts of taking indecent liberties with a child, three counts each of a first-degree sex offense with a child, using a minor to assist in an obscenity, first-degree sexual exploitation of a minor, crimes against nature, and two counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor. He was in jail Tuesday under $1.5 million...

Broken ice dam blamed for 300-year chill 14:21 10 January 2006 NewScientist.com news service Kurt Kleiner A three-century-long cold spell that chilled Europe 8200 years ago was probably caused by the bursting of a Canadian ice dam, which released a colossal flood of glacial meltwater into the Atlantic Ocean. Two new papers, using different computer models, show that the massive freshwater flood accounts for evidence of the sudden climate change, which cooled Greenland by an average of 7.4°C, and Europe by about 1°C. It was the most abrupt and widespread cool spell in the last 10,000 years. Evidence for the...

SALT LAKE CITY (Jan. 10) - Utah's oldest inmate, 99-year-old Bert Jackson, will be paroled and serve the rest of his sentence on home confinement. Jackson has served three years of a sentence of one to 15 years in prison for sexually abusing at least two children. "I don't want you to die in prison," state Board of Pardons and Parole member Keith Hamilton told Jackson during a Jan. 3 parole hearing. The Board of Pardons decided Thursday that Jackson will be paroled Feb. 7 to live with his son and daughter-in-law. The parole hearing lasted longer than usual because...

...That it's not as bad as 2005...!!! Why YES... That *IS* 'Village-Idiot' font... So nice of you to NOTICE...!!!

MARINE CORPS RECRUIT DEPOT SAN DIEGO (Jan. 6, 2006) -- Sixteen members of Coast Guard Maritime Safety and Security Team 91109 deployed to New Orleans to assist in provide assistance and security in recovery missions from Sept. 6 to Sept. 21 While very few depot Marines see opportunities to deploy, Coast Guard security teams were called upon to assist in searches for survivors of the hurricane. This past year, the 175 mile-per-hour winds of Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans. A storm surge broke through the levee system that protected the city from Lake Pontchartrain and the Mississippi River, resulting in...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 4, 2006 – The new year will build on 2005's progress in the war on terror, President Bush said at the Pentagon today after meeting with his national defense team and top military leaders overseeing operations in Iraq. During today's Pentagon meeting, the president met with Vice President Dick Cheney; Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld; Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; and three top Army generals supporting the war on terrorism: Gen. John Abizaid, commander of U.S. Central Command; Gen. George W. Casey Jr., commander of Multinational Force Iraq; and Lt. Gen. Martin Dempsey,...

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Jan. 4, 2006 — The beginning of a new year is a time to reflect on the past and look toward the future. Last year was a monumental year. The year began with the successful election of a transitional government, the Iraqi people wrote and ratified a constitution and recently held another successful election. Along the way, more than 15 million Iraqis registered to vote and an increasing number voted in each event, due in part to an increasingly secure environment. A key to the improved security environment was the growth and capability of Iraqi police and army...

U.S. MARINE CORPS FORCES, PACIFIC, CAMP H. M. SMITH, Hawaii (01-03-2006) -- If you are tired of trying to make Meal-Ready-to-Eat menus more palatable, then your search may be over. The field rations have progressed a long way from the C-rats of the past, and they continue to change even to this day. Four of the current 24 MREs have been removed and are being replaced by new and improved menus, according to the U.S. Army Soldier Systems Center, located in Natick, Mass. Usually the ASSC only replaces two MREs a year, but this year they wanted to give the...

KABUL, Afghanistan (Army News Service, Jan. 3, 2006) – One year can change the face of a nation. Afghanistan made significant advancements in 2005 toward autonomy and security. The changes started in the first few days of the new year. January The Ghazni Province held a women’s shura, or council, with the help of the Ghazni Provincial Reconstruction Team. The shura proposed to give the women of Ghazni more of a voice in government and was supported by the governor of Ghazni, Asadullah Khalid. February Afghanistan’s 120 cadets took their place in history when they reported for duty at the...

Disasters: Searching for Lessons From a Bad Year John Bohannon No doubt about it, the 12 months since the last Breakthrough of the Year issue have been an annus horribilis. Three major natural disasters--the 2004 "Christmas tsunami" in the Indian Ocean, Hurricane Katrina on the U.S. Gulf Coast, and the Pakistan earthquake--left nearly 300,000 dead and millions homeless. In Pakistan, the disaster is still unfolding as winter engulfs the devastated communities. Insurance companies classify such events as "acts of God": misfortunes for which no one is at fault. But in their aftermath, many scientists are pointing out that natural disasters...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 1, 2006 – President Bush visited Brooke Army Medical Center, at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, today to wish wounded troops undergoing treatment there a happy new year, thank them for their sacrifice, and present nine Purple Heart Medals. "I can't think of a better way to start 2006 than here at this fantastic hospital," Bush told reporters during a stop at the San Antonio post, where he met with 51 soldiers and Marines, most of them injured in Iraq. "This hospital is full of healers and compassionate people who care deeply about our men and women in uniform,"...