This issue brief outlines the types of projects and expenses related to IT, the role of the Joint Technology Committee (JTC) in overseeing the approval and implementation of IT budget requests, and recent major IT projects.

"This illuminating study traces the transformation of the right to arms from its inception in English and colonial American law to today's impassioned gun-control debate. As historian and legal scholar Patrick J. Charles shows, what the right to arms means to Americans, as well as what it legally protects, has changed drastically since its first appearance in the 1689 Declaration of Rights. Armed in America explores how and why the right to arms...

"A groundbreaking book about how technological advances in genomics and the extraction of ancient DNA have profoundly changed our understanding of human prehistory while resolving many long-standing controversies. Massive technological innovations now allow scientists to extract and analyze ancient DNA as never before, and it has become clear--in part from David Reich's own contributions to the field--that genomics is as important a means of understanding...

"Parable of the Sower is the Butlerian odyssey of one woman who is twice as feeling in a world that has become doubly dehumanized. The time is 2025. The place is California, where small walled communities must protect themselves from hordes of desperate scavengers and roaming bands of people addicted to a drug that activates an orgasmic desire to burn, rape, and murder. When one small community is overrun, Lauren Olamina, an 18 year old black woman...

"A fascinating history of surgery from one of the leading figures in the field, chronicling centuries of scientific breakthroughs by the disipline's most dynamic, pioneering doctors. Written by an author with plenty of experience holding a scalpel, Dr. David Schneider's The Invention of Surgery is an in-depth history of the practice that has leapt forward over the centuries from the dangerous guesswork of ancient Greek physicians to the world-changing...

An unforgettable odyssey of self-discovery and startling adventure begins as a young, inexperienced biologist is deposited alone onto the frozen Arctic tundra. Once settled, he struggles not only to endure the forces of nature, but also to learn as much as he can about the mysterious and misconstrued habits of the wolves he has been sent to study.