Source: National Institute for Standards and Technology “This guide is intended to assist organizations and system owners in making practical sanitization decisions based on the type of information on their system media. It does not, and cannot, specifically address all known types of media however; the described draft sanitization decision process can be applied universally to all forms of media and categorizations of information.”

The Department of Energy’s (DOE) Energy Sciences Network (ESnet) and Internet2 — two of the nation’s leading networking organizations dedicated to research — today announced a partnership to deploy a highly reliable, high capacity nationwide network that will greatly enhance the capabilities of researchers across the country who participate in the DOE’s scientific research efforts. The partnership brings together two advanced networks which have a combined 30 years of experience in providing network support to thousands of researchers around the world.

As more and more corporate dollars are being spent on securing the network from outside intruders, the threat from within is being overlooked. The mobile devices and the wireless access to networks open up many new possibilities to expose the corporate network to intrusion and theft. As mobile devices are carried by employees from the safe corporate network to the unsecured wireless networks of coffee shops, bookstores and airports, the need for desktop security is higher than ever.

University of Arizona physicists have discovered how to turn single molecules into working transistors. It's a breakthrough needed to make the next-generation of remarkably tiny, powerful computers that nanotechnologists dream of.

The Wi-Fi Alliance originally planned to hold off certification of 802.11n products until the IEEE finished ratifying their standards for the wireless technology. But they can wait no longer.

A joint collaboration between Northwestern University and BBN Technologies of Cambridge, Mass., has led to the first demonstration of a truly quantum cryptographic data network. By integrating quantum noise protected data encryption (quantum data encryption or QDE for short) with Quantum Key Distribution (QKD), the researchers have developed a complete data communication system with extraordinary resilience to eavesdropping.

An upgrade to the Cray XT3 supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory has increased the system’s computing power to 54 teraflops, or 54 trillion mathematical calculations per second, making the Cray among the most powerful open scientific systems in the world.

Cell phones that can send or receive multimedia files could be targeted by an attack that stealthily drains their batteries, leaving cellular communications networks useless, according to computer security researchers at UC Davis.

U.S. civilian and military weather forecasters have adopted a newly developed computer forecasting model that can predict many weather events with unprecedented accuracy. The model, created through a partnership among NCAR, NOAA and more than 150 other organizations, will also be used by overseas forecasters.

Esteemed scholars, scientists, and policymakers address these crucial questions in the September volume of SAGE Publications' The ANNALS of The American Academy of Political and Social Science. All sides of the discussion, from strategic to tactical, from ideological to technical, and from the historical to the contemporary, are explored in this volume, which is edited by Graham Allison of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, John. F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.

On 22 July, a truck containing 10 lead-lined boxes was intercepted at the Bulgarian-Romanian border, after Bulgarian scanning detectors measured radiation 200 times the normal background radiation. The consignment, destined for Iran, was discovered by the Bulgarian Nuclear Regulatory Agency (NPA) to contain soil-measuring devices incorporating the radioisotopes cesium-137 and americium-beryllium. In the light of the continuing controversy over Iran's record of nondisclosure about its nuclear activities, questions arise as to the intended purpose of such a consignment.

On August 4, 2006, the Al-Hesbah website published instructions on "How to Kill a Crusader in the Arabian Peninsula." The document was signed by Amer Al-Najdi, and dated June 15, 2006. Al-Najdi instructs his readers in some possible ways to kill a Westerner, from choosing the victim through following him through the stage of the actual killing.

Jaish-e-Mohammed (JEM) is a Kashmir-based organization with separatist goals that have recently become the focus of international attention because of the role that it may have played in the disrupted British airliner plot of August 2006. As detailed below, at least one of those arrested in the plot has close personal ties to the group’s founder, Maulana Massod Azhar, who in turn has links to Osama bin Laden.

Although the activities involved in homeland security intelligence (HSINT)itself are not new, the relative importance of state, local, and private sector stakeholders; the awareness of how law enforcement information might protect national security; and the importance attached to homeland security intelligence have all increased substantially since the events of September 11, 2001.

Although Hezbollah has recently dominated the news for its recent war with Israel, the group is one of the most well-established modern terrorist organizations in the world. Its history dates back to the early 1980s, when it pioneered many of the methods that have been adopted by other groups, such as al-Qaida and Islamic Jihad.

University of Wyoming researchers have developed and patented a technology that can rapidly detect explosives such as the liquid compounds that were part of a recently-thwarted plot to detonate bombs on as many as 10 U.S.-bound airliners.

This Guide ranks leading mobile and PC manufacturers on their global policies and practice on eliminating harmful chemicals and on taking responsibility for their products once they are discarded by consumers. Companies are ranked solely on information that is publicly available.

A six-year study at the world’s largest experimental landscape devoted to the corridors — links between otherwise isolated natural areas — has found that more plant species, and specifically more native plant species, persist in areas connected by the corridors than in isolated areas. The results suggest that corridors are an important tool not only for preserving wildlife but also for supporting and encouraging plant biodiversity.

The three winning entries of the EarthTrends Environmental Essay Competition have been formatted as pdf files and are available for download. In addition, we have recently updated nearly 70 indicators, including labor, land, GDP, and trade data sets with the most recent statistics available. Click 'read more' for a complete listing.

Human actions affect ecosystems worldwide, leading to irreversible losses in biodiversity. These changes were faster in the past 50 years than at any time in human history, and this acceleration is projected to continue (1), despite diverse efforts to prevent these losses. Do these efforts make any measurable difference in the global state of biodiversity? The combined results of the 2006 World Conservation Union (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species (2) and of a study by Butchart et al. (3) provide the first opportunity to assess the impact of global conservation investment on biodiversity. From: (Science 2006 313:1051)

Every creature has its place and role in the oceans – even the smallest microbe, according to a new study. In The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences’ Early Edition, Fuhrman and colleagues from USC and Columbia University show that most kinds of bacteria are not interchangeable and that each thrives under predictable conditions and at predictable times.

Concentrations of atmospheric ozone -- which protects Earth from the sun's ultraviolet radiation -- are showing signs of recovery in the most important regions of the stratosphere above the mid-latitudes in both the Northern and Southern hemispheres, a new study shows.

Halfway between South America and New Zealand, in the remote South Pacific, is Rapa. This horseshoe-shaped, 13.5 square-mile island of volcanic origin, located essentially in the middle of nowhere, is “a microcosm of the world’s situation,” says a University of Oregon archaeologist.

Based on the interest of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, we initiated a project to research studies, articles, publications, and reports that address the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) organizational structure. This project is a collection ofinformation, not an audit, and the information provided is strictly the viewpoint of the authors of the studies and not those of the Office of Inspector General (OIG).

Conclusive proof that spring is arriving earlier across Europe than it did 30 years ago is published today in the journal Global Change Biology.

Their results suggest that as these bulky foods make their way down the gastrointestinal tract, they run into cells, tearing them and freeing lubricating mucus within.

The findings blunt concerns about the human body's ability to absorb nutrients from raw vegetables, as well as concern that the structure and characteristics of some plants undercut nutritional value.

A dog in Thailand's central Suphan Buri province contracted avian influenza after eating infected ducks, according to a Thai researcher quoted in a newspaper.

In a large epidemiological study, researchers found that people who drank three or more servings of fruit and vegetable juices per week had a 76 percent lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease than those who drank juice less than once per week. The study by Qi Dai, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of Medicine, and colleagues appears in the September issue of The American Journal of Medicine.

A daily glass of orange juice can help prevent the recurrence of kidney stones better than other citrus fruit juices such as lemonade, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have discovered.

Massachusetts Department of Public Health researchers found the amount of nicotine that could be inhaled from cigarettes -- even those labeled "light" -- increased 10 percent between 1998 and 2004, The Boston Globe reported Wednesday.

Researchers at Regions Hospital in St. Paul, Minn., compared such preventive strategies in a computer-simulated community of 100,000 people that resembled the population of Olmsted County, Minn., in 2000. By raising omega-3 fatty acids levels among the cyber-Olmsted citizens, Dr. Thomas Kottke and colleagues were able to lower overall death rates in the simulated population by 6.4 percent. By contrast, automated external defibrillators, or AEDs, reduced death rates by 0.8 percent, and implanted defibrillators, ICDs, reduced deaths by 3.3 percent.

Transfusions with blood products taken from people who had recovered from Spanish influenza may have reduced risk for death and improved symptoms of hospitalized patients who contracted Spanish influenza complicated by pneumonia. Early treatment was superior to later treatment.

Although human genes contribute significantly to a person's health and behavior, these two kinds of traits aren't closely linked at all. In fact, a study appearing this month in the Public Library of Science found absolutely no connection between the hard-driving personality and heart disease, contrary to previous studies and conventional wisdom.

Are sunscreens always beneficial, or can they be detrimental to users? A research team led by UC Riverside chemists reports that unless people out in the sun apply sunscreen often, the sunscreen itself can become harmful to the skin. Study results will appear in an upcoming issue of Free Radical Biology & Medicine.

In an article in Science magazine, SUNY Downstate researchers describe erasing memory from the brain by targeting a molecular mechanism that controls memory. Finding may be applied to chronic pain, memory loss, and other conditions.

A new study shows bisphenol-A -- a man-made chemical that mimics estrogen in the body -- can not only enter cells, it can make breast cancer cells multiply. The research, although conducted in vitro in a laboratory, could take the teeth out of a previous argument that the chemical is not able to penetrate cells in the body. Bisphenol-A, or BPA, is a synthetic compound commonly used in the manufacture of consumer plastics, particularly polycarbonate plastic items such as sunglasses, water bottles, CDs and baby bottles. The research is published in the Aug. 28 issue of Chemistry and Biology.

It doesn’t just matter how much radiation an astronaut is exposed to, time and the order in which charged particles strike human cells are important factors as well. That’s the main finding of a study simulating radiation exposure conducted at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory and published in the September 2006 edition of Radiation Research. In the study, human cells were three times more likely to develop properties similar to those in the initial stages of cancer when they were exposed to two types of high-energy particles in a short period of time.

Letting in a little extra light throughout the day may do more than just lift your spirits. It could make you more alert and help you avoid an afternoon energy slump. The researchers exposed a group of people to 21 minutes of bright white light in the morning while they imaged their brains. Not only were the participants more alert, but responses in certain parts of their brain also got a boost. This boost was correlated with regions of the brain that are involved in alertness and some cognitive processes and can briefly prevent the sleepiness developed in continuous darkness, the researchers report in the Aug. 22 issue of the journal Current Biology.

Reporting in the online edition of Neurobiology of Aging, Tufts psychologist Barbara Shukitt-Hale and her colleagues say a diet rich in berries improved the brain function of aging rats, WebMd reports.

A bubble bath that improves memory. A kitchen cleaner that wards off nausea and energizes. A scented handkerchief that calms a patient entering the MRI. The benefits of aromatherapy are real. Below, learn the uses, healing properties and how-tos of using aromatherapy to heal and de-stress from The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

Forget tedious warm-up exercises. Athletes may be able to ready their muscles using pulses of infrared light, a study suggests. In a study of 24 young adults, Japanese researchers found that a device that emits near-infrared light warmed up the shoulder muscles better than standard warm-up exercise. The idea of using a "passive" warm-up before competition is not new. Hot pads and steamy showers are other ways of warming the muscles and improving range of motion in the joints, Demura and colleagues note in their report in the Clinical Journal of Sports Medicine.

Holding an ice pack on a sprained ankle for no more than 10 minutes at a time is more effective for easing pain than icing for a longer stretch of time, researchers report. However, the either approach was effective for reducing swelling and improving joint function, the team found. The report is published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

An analysis combining 11 separate research studies found that blacks with diabetes have poorer control of blood sugar than whites, according to researchers from Wake Forest University School of Medicine and colleagues.

How much fluid should a marathon runner drink while racing? The answer depends on a variety of factors, but the best approach is to replace fluids in response to thirst, according to experts from the International Marathon Medical Directors Association (IMMDA).

Jihadist forums reacted with predictable fury to news of an open conflict between Israel and Hizbullah. At the outset, they directed the bulk of their considerable invective at Hizbullah in a reflection of the profoundly anti-Shia and anti-Iranian sentiments that have come to dominate Sunni jihadist circles as a result of events in Iraq. The debate eventually showed that the act of jihad itself is more important to many in the extremist community than ideological preconditions. Access is restricted to Fort Leavenworth IP range.

Iranian acquisition of nuclear weapons is not simply a struggle over issues of national prestige or "rights." It has a major potential impact on regional stability and future war fighting. If Iran does acquire nuclear weapons, it is possible that it will use them largely as a passive deterrent and means of defense. It is also possible, however, that Iran will use them to put direct or indirect pressure on its neighbors, threatening them to achieve goals it could not achieve without the explicit or tacit threat of weapons of mass destruction.

The report, which covers the period from May to July 2006, specifies incidents of grave child rights abuses, indicative of the nature and trend of systematic violations in the Sudan. The report focuses specifically on the killing and maiming of children, their recruitment and use as soldiers, grave sexual violence, abductions and denial of humanitarian access to children, and indicates that these violations continue in the Sudan largely unabated.

Prisons and detention centers are recruiting grounds for radical Islamists. The National Military Strategic Plan for the War on Terrorism Campaign Plan does not sufficiently develop a strategy to counter the violent Islamic ideologies in order to hinder conversions of detainees into terrorists. Addressing the violent Islamic ideology at the grass roots level may decrease the number of terrorist recruitment and increase the number of Muslims appealing to a nonviolent interpretation of the Qur’an.

How did Al Qaeda's militant worldview become so popular among a subset of British Pakistanis? For one thing, there is the generational divide in the community. Just as in Turgenev's Fathers and Sons -- which depicts the rift between an older generation of nineteenth-century Russian liberals and their more militant, socialist sons -- some of Great Britain's young Pakistanis are filled with contempt both for the moderation of their parents and for a British society that won't quite accept them.

A March 8, 2006 conference, on “The Future of the Transatlantic Relations,” addressed changes in US and European defense and foreign policy in the aftermath of the War in Iraq and in light of a new consensus for coordinating US and European military strategy, planning and operational activities. Texas A&M University’s Bush School of Government and Public Service, Bush Presidential Library Foundation, and European Union Center of Excellence, partnering with the Department of the Army’s Eisenhower National Security Series and the Army War College’s Strategic Studies Institute, convened a conference of distinguished international experts from academic, military, governmental, and non-governmental organizations to examine key dimensions of this dynamic relationship, which has major implications for global as well as regional security.

Neutrinos have mass — but only a little, and nobody knows exactly how much. Of the three flavors of neutrino (electron neutrino, muon neutrino, tau neutrino), the heaviest has at least one 10‑millionth the electron's mass and could have more than 10 times that much. But which flavor is the heaviest? That too is uncertain.

The apparent absence of shadows where shadows were expected to be is raising new questions about the faint glow of microwave radiation once hailed as proof that the universe was created by a "Big Bang."

Data presented here are derived from the fall 2004 National Science Foundation-National Institutes of Health Survey of Graduate Students and Postdoctorates in Science and Engineering. Unless otherwise specified, the published data represent estimates of total enrollment in science, engineering, and health-related programs in 12,240 graduate departments at 589 institutions in the United States and outlying areas.

An MIT researcher has a vision: Four hundred huge offshore wind turbines are providing onshore customers with enough electricity to power several hundred thousand homes, and nobody standing onshore can see them. The trick? The wind turbines are floating on platforms a hundred miles out to sea, where the winds are strong and steady.

An MIT researcher has a vision: Four hundred huge offshore wind turbines are providing onshore customers with enough electricity to power several hundred thousand homes, and nobody standing onshore can see them. The trick? The wind turbines are floating on platforms a hundred miles out to sea, where the winds are strong and steady.

Gasoline, diesel, and turbine engines could soon burn cleaner or be more fuel efficient through the application of Plasma Assisted Combustion, a technology originated and developed at Los Alamos National Laboratory, and now poised to enter the marketplace.

Starting this fall, scientists will have a new tool for peering into the materials that make up living systems at the Molecular Observatory for Structural Molecular Biology at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory (SSRL), thanks to a collaboration between CalTech and SLAC.

Massive stars as much as 40 times bigger than our sun often produce brilliant gamma-ray bursts when they explode, leaving behind black holes.

Water is essential for life. Nevertheless, even small amounts of water in the wrong places – such as fuels, lubricants, or organic solvents – can cause motors to sputter, metal parts to rust, or chemical reactions to go awry. That's why one of the most common lab tests performed in industry is one that looks for traces of water in other substances, even though the test itself is complicated and time-consuming.

This is a chemist’s dream,” explains Roman Krems, a professor at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. “We’ve been trying for 50 years to develop mechanisms to control molecular collisions externally.”

University of Alberta researchers, collaborating with colleagues at the Eindhoven University of Technology and Phillips Research Laboratories in the Netherlands, have shown that LCP, when formed into a thin film on a glass backing, can be fabricated and patterned on a microscale. The research was published recently in the Journal of Material Chemistry.

Producing iron by electrolysis rather than conventional smelting could prevent the emission of a billion tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year.

Researchers have devised a new and efficient way to improve battery power as well as make that precious charge last longer. They describe their results in the latest issue of Advanced Materials.

For the first time, scientists have observed the spectacular death of a massive star in real time. Because the supernova lasted for nearly 40 minutes, NASA's Swift satellite was able to turn its lens towards the explosion to observe the star's slow death.

Using an off-the-shelf inkjet printer, a team of scientists has developed a simple technique for printing patterns of carbon nanotubes on paper and plastic surfaces. The method, which is described in the August 2006 issue of the journal Small, could lead to a new process for manufacturing a wide range of nanotube-based devices, from flexible electronics and conducting fabrics to sensors for detecting chemical agents.

By measuring electricity in the atmosphere, the device provides advance warning that lightning may be imminent, said William Beasley, a University of Oklahoma professor of meteorology, who helped invent the Campbell Scientific CS-110 Electric Field Meter.

Georgia Institute of Technology researchers have conducted successful test flights of a hydrogen-powered unmanned aircraft believed to be the largest to fly on a proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell using compressed hydrogen.

The Air Force Office of Scientific Research here recently began funding a new research area that includes a number of studies involving computational math. The new area, formally launched at a meeting with AFOSR principal investigators at Syracuse University, Syracuse, N.Y., is entitled Information Forensics and Process Integration. The overall portfolio of projects consists of three areas of research emphasis – incomplete information and metrics; search, interactive design, and active querying; and cognitive processing.

When it comes to flying, the fly reigns supreme. This two-winged insect’s sophisticated flying behavior enables it to make sharp turns, aim at targets and hover – traits which make the insect an ideal prototype for tiny micro air vehicles (MAVs). However, the same flying finesse also presents challenges for scientists trying to investigate, observe and understand these complex creatures in their natural environments. Now, scientists from the U.K. demonstrate that mathematical modeling may provide adequate complementary information for advances in MAV technology.

Columbia research scientist Latha Venkataraman has demonstrated that in creating single-molecule electronic devices, flatter molecules conduct electricity better. That principle has long been suspected, but to demonstrate it definitively required an innovation to existing methods for measuring conductance in nano-scale objects.

An ingenious new mathematical procedure based on the behaviour of honey bees is delivering sweet results for industry. Researchers at Cardiff University's Manufacturing Engineering Centre (MEC) developed the procedure, or algorithm, after observing the "waggle dance" of bees foraging for nectar. The algorithm enables companies to maximise results by changing basic elements of their processes.

Imagine a shift in the Earth so profound that it could force our entire planet to spin on its side after a few million years, tilting it so far that Alaska would sit at the equator. Princeton scientists have now provided the first compelling evidence that this kind of major shift may have happened in our world's distant past.

A scientist at North Carolina State University has discovered that the tiny grains comprising many bulk materials can potentially contain nearly zero structural imperfections when the grains are smaller than a certain critical size, typically a few to several nanometers.

The widow of the astronomer who discovered Pluto 76 years ago said Thursday she was frustrated by the decision to strip it of its planetary status, but she added that Clyde Tombaugh would have understood.

Days before the recent fighting erupted with the Islamic Resistance (the armed wing of the Lebanese Shi'ite Party of God - Hizbullah), Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz was presented with Northrop Grumman's Skyguard land-based air-defence system: a derivative of the Tactical High Energy Laser (THEL/Nautilus) project.

A Strategic Assessment buy Anthony H. Cordesman, Arleigh A. Burke Chair in Strategy with the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Revised: August 31, 2006

In Stability and Reconstruction the US requires forces that can operate in protracted environments. The US has developed forces for short-duration engagements. This requires the disengagement of forces between campaigns. If these campaigns are seen as “clear and hold” operations, then the counterinsurgent principle of holding cleared areas becomes a concern. A third component, “build,” is necessary to fill the vacuum when US forces depart. Local security institutions are the key to holding these areas. Successful efforts can be built around local security, however without culturally acceptable institutions there is a tendency for them to fail. Designing successful institutions requires understanding the culture. This monograph examines this problem from a cultural standpoint by defining the problem, identifying elements common to success, and listing cultural principles for planning. It then illustrates these constructs by examining two case studies and summarizes the elements, principles, and techniques that allow succcess. It concludes by discussing how successful efforts allow sustained operations over time at reduced political cost.

The Iranian army has active forces of some 345,000 personnel, although a large percentage of this total are 18-month conscripts who generally receive limited training and have marginal military effectiveness. It also has an army reserve of some 350,000 personnel, although these reserves receive negligible training and Iran lacks the equipment, supplies and leadership cadres to make effective use of such resources without months of reorganisation and training.

Current body armour relies on a stiff and relatively heavy layer of ceramic material to absorb ballistic impact. This makes body armour heavy and unwieldy. The Daresbury team, together with researchers from Tuskegee and Florida Atlantic universities in the USA, are evaluating new nanocomposite materials which can be woven into fabrics to provide greater flexibility as well as better ballistic protection. They have found that incorporating spherical nanoparticles of silicon or titanium dioxide or carbon nanotubes in a plastic or epoxy matrix offers improved ballistic resistance together with greatly improved flexibility.

The next Japanese government can continue to articulate a progressive vision for its Self-Defense Forces, remind the Japanese people of the strategic impact of their expanded roles and missions, and potentially provide a turning point in developing a contemporary Japanese security policy.

The full funding policy is a federal budgeting rule imposed on the Department of Defense (DOD) by Congress in the 1950s that requires the entire procurement cost of a weapon or piece of military equipment to be funded in the year in which the item is procured. Although technical in nature, the policy relates to Congress’s power of the purse and its responsibility for conducting oversight of DOD programs. Support for the policy has been periodically reaffirmed over the years by Congress, the Government Accountability Office, and DOD.

The Senate began floor debate on the FY2007 defense appropriations bill, H.R. 5631 on August 1, but it did not complete the bill before adjourning for the August recess. The Senate plans to resume action on September 5. As reported by the appropriations committee, the bill provided $453.5 billion for defense, including $50 billion in appropriations for overseas operations. The total is $9.1 billion less than the Administration requested. In floor action, the Senate added substantial amounts to the $50 billion in emergency spending, including $13.1 billion to reequip units returning from abroad and $1.8 billion for border security.

Experts disagree on many aspects of the Iraq War, including the ways which American strategic mistakes led to the initial failures in creating effective Iraqi military, security, and police forces. There is little disagreement, however, over the fact the US should have done more in its invasion planning, during the invasion, and in the year that followed, to conduct stability operations, nation building, and establish security.

Military personnel issues typically generate significant interest from many Members of Congress and their staffs. Ongoing military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan in support of the Global War on Terror, along with the emerging operational role of the Reserve Components, has further heightened interest and support for a wide range of military personnel policies and issues.

A Texas Tech researcher has created a fabric with polyurethane fibers, which may prove a boon to protection against chemical warfare.

Good compensation is an important part of the nation's compact with its men and women in uniform. In contrast to the private sector or other government employers, the U.S. military spends a large share of its compensation dollars on noncash benefits. Such benefits are extremely inefficient from an economic point of view, costing taxpayers substantially more than they are typically worth to either the individuals who receive them or the services as institutions. Their high costs are draining resources from other service priorities. Several options available for retrieval of full paper (PDF; 297 KB).

Cease-fires and peace agreements signal the end of fighting, but periodic violence usually continues, and communities suffer in the absence of reliable and effective security forces and rule of law. These environments also tend to be home to large populations of youth, who often are viewed as part of the problem. A new report from CSIS's Post-Conflict Reconstruction (PCR) Project argues, however, that youth represent untapped potential that could help in reconstruction. To launch the report, PCR hosted a discussion with the authors.

Congress and the Department of Defense (DOD) are engaged in an extended discourse over the future direction of U.S. defense strategy and military force structure. In the past, these discussions have focused almost exclusively on questions related to U.S. conventional military forces, with discussions about nuclear weapons held in separate fora. However, the 2005 Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) examined both nuclear and conventional forces, a first in the QDR’s history. This indicates that analysts both inside and outside government are beginning to review and assess the potential deterrent and operational relationship between conventional and nuclear weapons.

Iraqi force development in the summer of 2006 occurred against a backdrop of increasing adversity and violence. Initial events suggested cause for optimism. A new elected Iraqi government that included all major factions finally took shape in May. Al-Qa’ida in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed on June 7. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki seemed poised to take the initiative with a proposal for national reconciliation and the beginning of the Baghdad security plan called Operation Forward Together. Yet security proved an elusive goal, and inability to halt waves of sectarian-motivated killing sparked renewed fears of civil war as Shi’ite versus Sunni clashes escalated. Militias and "death squads" became the primary targets for security forces.

Avid readers can download and print classics such as Dante's Divine Comedy through Google's Book Search service for free, starting today. Until now, the search engine giant only allowed people to read the out-of-copyright books online. But readers will be able to download PDF files of books no longer under copyright.

Federal Research Division Updates Country Profiles for China

Federal Research Division Updates Country Profiles for Iraq

Chemistry Central is a new service publishing peer-reviewed open access research in chemistry from BioMed Central, the leading biomedical open access publisher. The Chemistry Central website currently features chemistry-related articles published in BioMed Central journals and independent journals utilizing BioMed Central's open access publishing services.

Yet in his new book, The Trouble With Physics, theoretician Lee Smolin argues that string theory is not only weird, it might be wrong. A founding scientist at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Ontario, Smolin says that string theory is unconvincing – maybe even nonscientific – and that physicists have embraced it at the expense of other promising research.

If No Further Action Is Taken, Estate Tax Exemption Will Still Increase By 2009 While Value of Minimum Wage Will Continue To Fall.

Writing about emotional experiences is associated with a host of positive outcomes. This study extended the expressive-writing paradigm to the realm of romantic relationships to examine the social effects of writing.

America’s most acute national security threat is a catastrophic attack with nuclear weapons. Yet the United States has lacked a coherent and vigorous strategy to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons to states and terrorist groups. Unmet priorities include bolstering leadership and funding for threat-reduction programs and negotiating a new bargain to close the loopholes within the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which must be substantially strengthened to meet today’s challenges. To accomplish these goals, the nuclear weapons states must revive the old bargain embodied in the NPT: leveraging deep and verifiable cuts in existing arsenals to achieve more stringent controls on nuclear materials and technologies.

The U.S. International Trade Commission’s (Commission) advice on the probable effect of certain proposed modifications to the rules of origin contained in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is based on an assessment of whether a proposed rule modification would likely increase or decrease trade flows of U.S. products in the NAFTA markets as a result of preferential market access, and the resulting effect on total U.S. imports, exports, and production. In preparing its advice, the Commission assessed each specific proposed modification to determine the probable effect on U.S. trade and on U.S. industries.

“Federal Political Action Committees raised $773.5 million, spent $656.3 million, and contributed $248.2 million to federal candidates from January 1, 2005, through June 30, 2006, according to a Federal Election Commission (FEC) summary released today. This represented a 23% increase in receipts when compared with 2004, while disbursements increased by 27%. Contributions to candidates were 21% higher than at this point in the 2004 campaign. Source: Federal Election Commission

Evolutionary biology, mysteriously missing from the list of undergraduate subjects eligible for a US federal grant, has been reinstated after a flurry of protest.

Neuroscientists have identified a network of brain regions activated when nuns feel that they are at one with God. Artificially stimulating the brain in this way, they say, might allow people to have mystical experiences without believing in God themselves.

Using original data to systematically assess individual outlets and the media overall, the authors conclude that broad criticism of the U.S. media is often badly overstated.

In recent months, there have been many revelations about the tactics used by the Bush Administration to prosecute their war on terrorism. These stories involve the exploitation of technologies that allow the government, with the cooperation of phone companies and financial institutions, to access phone and financial records. This paper focuses on the revelation and widespread criticism of the Bush Administration’s operation of a warrantless electronic surveillance program to monitor international phone calls and emails that originate or terminate with a United States party. The powerful and secret National Security Agency heads the program and leverages its significant intelligence collection infrastructure to further this effort.

Courage, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. And in an era of increasing controls on the gathering and dissemination of information, many Americans are unaware of the courageous stands librarians take every day.

Two U.S. researchers say many people may have a bit of Neanderthal in their genes. A study published in the journal PLoS Genetics says people of European descent may be 5 percent Neanderthal.

The number of immigrants living in U.S. households rose 16 percent over the last five years, according to new data released by the Census Bureau. Many of these immigrants are coming from Mexico, and they are settling in new areas.

Over 30% of surveyed Israelis experienced direct or indirect personal contact with a terrorist incident; long-term exposure has increased adverse psychological effects, especially among women and people of Arab ethnicity.

Unfortunately, the goals of too many teens now outpace what they are likely to achieve, a problem that can lead to wasted time and resources, not to mention anxiety and distress, according to a new Florida State University study.

Cultures that favour male babies have bred a surplus of men who will struggle to find sexual partners and could find themselves marginalised in society, warns a new paper co-authored by a UCL (University College London) researcher. As more men discover their lack of marriage prospects, this could lead to antisocial behaviour, violence and possibly more opportunities for organised crime and terrorism, threatening the stability and security of many societies.

Reports have revealed low uses of e-books and other lengthy texts held in digital libraries. In this article we claim that one of the main reasons for the lack of interest is the current multitude of end-user text formats, some oriented towards print, others proprietary, and few optimized for sustained reading of text-intensive publications. We note IDPF's reluctance to develop a common digital publication format, discuss requirements for a universal, open-standard end-user format, and present the effort to establish such a format by the OpenReader Consortium. The main objective of the article is to examine the pros and cons of a universal, reader-oriented text format for different types of critical text editions and digital libraries.

Female military doctors, lawyers and chaplains are more likely than their male counterparts to leave the military after serving five to eight years. The Defense Department Advisory Committee on Women in the Services wants to know why.

The relationship between religion and politics is a controversial one. While the public remains more supportive of religion's role in public life than in the 1960s, Americans are uneasy with the approaches offered by both liberals and conservatives. Fully 69% of Americans say that liberals have gone too far in keeping religion out of schools and government. But the proportion who express reservations about attempts by Christian conservatives to impose their religious values has edged up in the past year, with about half the public (49%) now expressing wariness about this.

A recent debate about the Bush administration's use of presidential signing statements has raised questions about their function, legality, and value. We argue that presidential signing statements are legal and that they provide a useful way for the president to disclose his views about the meaning and constitutionality of legislation. Although President Bush has challenged more statutory provisions in signing statements than prior administrations have, his signing statements are similar in many respects to the signing statements issued by prior presidents, such as President Clinton. In addition, basic tenets of positive political theory suggest that signing statements do not undermine the separation of powers or the legislative process and that, under certain circumstances, they can provide relevant evidence of statutory meaning.

Every day, millions of students taking online college courses act in much the same way as their bricks-and-mortar counterparts. After logging on, they move from course to course and do things like submit work in virtual drop boxes and view posted grades - all from a program running on a PC. And now, in a move that has shaken up the e-learning community, Blackboard Inc. has been awarded a patent establishing its claims to some of the basic features of the software that powers online education.

Men are catching up to women in one area. They too are feeling pressure to achieve perfect bodies, and this can lead them down unhealthy paths. The findings of a new study "challenge that myth that men aren't affected by the media or other's comments towards their bodies," Dr. Tracy L. Tylka, at Ohio State University, told Reuters Health. Tylka presented her findings earlier this month during the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, held in New Orleans, Louisiana.