Several neighborhoods in the city remain without power. TIME spent the night of Nov. 6 in a still-unelectrified part of Queens
Videos
After Sandy, Returning to Ruins in Breezy Point
When Hurricane Sandy hit, the tranquil beach town of Breezy Point erupted in fire and floods. As residents returned two days later, some discovered they had lost everything
Rethink College: 3 Takeaways from the TIME Summit on Higher Education
At a gathering of more than 100 college leaders and thinkers, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan says college costs are too high, graduation rates are too low and there is too little accountability
Can Online Mega Courses Change Education? Join TIME’s Google Hangout to Discuss
TIME and the Carnegie Corporation of New York are hosting a Google Hangout On Air this Friday at 12:00 pm (EST) to discuss the future of college.
For this week’s special issue on higher education, Amanda Ripley’s cover story …
Combat, Up Close
Two things are striking about this just-posted three-and-a-half minute video of a firefight in Afghanistan’s Kunar province last April:
— Just how unseen the enemy is.
— Just how unconnected Private 1st Class Red Daniels of the Army’s 4th Infantry Division is.
Clad in body armor, he’s hit four times and falls to the …
The Military’s Anti-Suicide Push: Old Wine, New Bottles
September is suicide prevention month. The military has focused again on reducing suicide, which is absolutely appropriate. But I am troubled by the use of old, already tried/tired (failed?) methods for reducing suicide.
Soldiers and other service members do not need more suicide awareness-type campaigns. They are smart, and well …
Unmanned Jet Headed to Carriers
Young boys of a couple of generations ago loved to get dizzy, flying their yellow Cox PT-19 with its buzzing .049 Babe Bee engine in endless circles. The “pilot” was connected to the plane via a pair of control lines that allowed the model planes to climb and dive…and occasionally crash.
That’s why the X-47B is so exciting. …
He NOEs What He’s Doing…
When helicopter pilots deftly hug the earth at treetop level, it’s called nap-of-the-earth – NOE – flying. It’s a technique designed to avoid enemy detection – flying under the radar, as it’s sometimes called.
It’s altogether something else to do it in a Navy F-18 jet fighter as in this video, anonymously posted on …
Tunnel Vision
The U.S. is eager to rebuild the Salang Pass tunnel in Afghanistan. It’s a vital conduit linking Kabul to everything north of the capital. Just how important is it?
The site is located at high altitude and is a critical part of the infrastructure of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (GIRoA); and as such shall
…
Military Technology: Improving Soldiers’ Lives…And Deaths
Checking out Pentagon paperwork sometimes leads to strange findings, like the pair of contract solicitations Battleland just came across. They seem especially apt given how the GOP basically drove by the war in Afghanistan at its convention Wednesday night in Tampa.
The American public wants nothing to do with the Afghan war. …
No “Green-On-Blue” Blues Here
Amid “green-on-blue” attacks, it’s plain to see from this video from the Pakistan-bordering Kunar province in eastern Afghanistan that U.S. Army troops don’t have the blues (sure looks like friendly Afghan troops popping up at about 1:45 into the video).
Check out this just-posted cover of Call Me Maybe (as sung by Carly Rae Jepsen), …
“Keep Your Mouth SEALed!”
So a group of former Special Forces guys is complaining that national-security leaks from the Obama Administration are harming national security. Some of the recent leaks – about the Stuxnet computer virus aimed at the heart of Iran’s nuclear program, for example – have seemed brazen to Battleland.
But it seems a tad incongruous …
Planning for SNAFUS
The Air Force spent a lot of time and money a generation ago when it designed its C-17 cargo airplane to take off and land at short, unimproved runways around the world – “austere” was the word of choice. But it couldn’t imagine that capability would be needed because a pilot would someday err and land at the tiny Davis Islands …