The Hard Way Out of Afghanistan
After a Marine unit found nine I. E. D. ’s hidden beneath Ugly Hill’s scarred and caverned faces last year, coalition forces seldom ventured near it. Until one night this October, when members of Echo Company, from the Second Battalion, Fourth... ” Two weeks later, about 60 members of Echo Company, along with 30 Afghan National Army soldiers, traveled on foot through the night and took Ugly Hill without a shot. Joshua Lee, a 26-year-old sergeant from Arkansas, located the first I. E. D. using a metal detector. The Marines’ signs were bordered with the nation’s colors, and in Pashto and Dari they announced: “The Afghan National Security Forces are coming. For years, in the village of Juz Ghoray, at the remote fringes of the Musa Qala District in northern Helmand Province, the Taliban enjoyed free rein, collecting taxes from local poppy farmers and staging attacks on any foreign patrol that moved... Before the Afghans could claim Ugly Hill, two marines had to sweep it for mines. At dawn, as villagers emerged from their homes, they found laborers stacking bastions to fortify a new Afghan police post. And something else, which many residents of Juz Ghoray had never seen before: an Afghan flag raised on a wooden pole.
Auburn Journal on 01.01.70 | File Under Garden Tools | Comments


Metal Detectors
The Transportation Security Administration has installed the new "backscatter" screening machines in many airports, but a good number of them aren't actually used yet. One helpful site is compiling reports on which airports are still using X-ray/metal detector combinations.
Metal detectors and metal detector accessories. Books, headphones, pouches, bags, scoops, picks, shovels, pinpointers, compasses, and even GPS. Coin shooters should check out our tumblers and cleaners.
Smurfs on Ice! And much more lavish, insane nonsense that is both funny and a little sad. Ever seen a woman used as a metal detector? Seen Charlie Chaplin about to spontaneously combust? Seen a dozen beautiful showgirls seem to act out the fertilization of an egg -- on ice?
Though metal-detecting is a solitary pursuit, the hobby can be surprisingly social. Dedicated hunters compete against each other in time trials, searching the beach for pre-seeded targets. Many participate in clubs, where they meet up for show-and-tell and swap war stories about returning lost engagement rings and having close encounters with dog mess. Wired.com recently spent time with some avid beachcombers in the San Francisco Bay Area.

