Imagine what our parenting would be like without resources to fall back on—skills, money, family, friends, and connections—and what might be revealed if our lives were constantly scrutinized in public housing, in public …
National
“The Only Chief Petty Officer in the National Baseball Hall of Fame”
100
— The number of chaise lounges the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum, Sudan, wants to buy. It’s specifying, here, the Polywood brand, made of 90% recycled plastic and retailing for about $440 each. It’s also in the market for 60 patio dining tables and accompanying chairs.
Mark Twain’s Cyber Perspective
So the response to Tuesday’s Washington Post story that computer hackers had stolen secrets associated with U.S. weapons was Pavlovian. Within hours, it was all over the internet that China had hacked into the designs of U.S. …
JCPenney’s ‘Hitler’ Tea Kettle Sells Out Online
You’ll have to visit JC Penney stores in person to buy the tea kettle that resembles former German Chancellor and Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler.
107,796
— That’s the number of contractors supporting the 65,700 U.S. troops in Afghanistan in March. They represented 62% of the total, according to a new Congressional Research Service report, here. Contractors outnumbered troops in Afghanistan until December 2010, when President Obama’s troop surge arrived. But a subsequent contractor surge made the hired help a majority once again beginning in September 2011. h/t Steven Aftergood, FAS.
Photos: Freight Train Derails Outside Baltimore
A CSX freight train derailed Tuesday outside Baltimore after crashing into a trash truck, causing a large explosion and sending a giant plume of smoke into the air. Officials said toxic substances aboard the train were not …
A U.S. Army Post Named Fort Osama bin Laden?
Why not?
Former Time colleague Jamie Malanowski had an intriguing piece in the New York Times over the holiday weekend wondering why the U.S. military has at least 10 major bases named in honor – there is no other way to put …
42%
— How much of the Army's tuition assistance -- $127 million of $304 million in 2013 -- is going to for-profit universities. That's a relatively big chunk of change for schools that only enroll 13% of the nation's post-secondary pupils.
Bringing the Uniform Out of the Closet
The unveiling of the of American Psychiatric Association’s fifth edition of its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders – the key reference in how mental-health professionals diagnose mental ailments – dominated …
How the Military Can Change the Culture of Assault
Over the past decade, the U.S. military has faced controversies surrounding soldier suicide, cultural sensitivity in theater, veteran unemployment, and now sexual harassment and assault.
To me, the most recent scandal — the …
Commemorating Memorial Day
Battleland has always appreciated print advertising…after all, it has put food on its table for nearly four decades.
But there is just something a little off when the only full-page advertisements in the front section of the …
Section 60: Visiting Hallowed Ground
“So many graves.”
That was my daughter, 4, aghast at the site of seemingly unending rows of greying marble headstones, arranged in perfect symmetry along the rolling Virginia fields.
“Why did all these people have to die, …