The Cold War may have ended a long time ago, but that doesn't mean that spies can rest on their laurels. In fact, US intelligence agents have been keeping busy lately. Doing what, you may ask? Why, studying video games in order to improve their analytical skills.

It seems that DIA analysts have now joined the likes of surgeons in using video games for training. More on this unorthodox method of training in the full article after the jump.

Archaeologists in Jerusalem have uncovered what seems to be the remains of a 2,000-year old mansion belonging to the royal clan that ruled Adiabene, a region in current day northern Iraq.

The remains of the building was found just outside the walls of Jerusalem's Old City, hidden under the asphalt of a small parking lot in the eastern part of the city. This discovery was by far the largest and most elaborate one discovered in the City of David area.

Researchers have recently developed a bionic foot complete with an ankle, something previous generations of prosthetics lacked. Bionic limbs have long since been in research but efforts have mainly been focused on the upper limbs, which is what makes this new kind of prosthetic an important achievement.

Garth Stewart, who lost part of a leg in an explosion in Iraq, is the recipient of this new technology. He demonstrated the new ankle in Providence, in the Veterans Affairs Medical Center. The leg prosthetic was aimed to act like a biological one, built to provide the user with improved balance and the push forward that a real ankle gives. It reduces fatigue and "provides amputees with a truly humanlike gait."

Leg prosthetics have previously only been built with springs, while this new bionic one is powered by a motor, putting less strain on the user. The downward motion of the user as he walks expends energy which is stored and is released with the help of the motor upon the upward motion, allowing them to walk more naturally than just being pushed forward by springs. The device was built by Professor Hugh Herr, head of the biomechatronics research group at the MIT Media Lab.

Next, Herr hopes to invent wireless implants that can send signals from the amputee's muscles directly into the device to provide more control. What would have happened if Luke and Anakin lost their feet instead? The bionic leg is hoped to be released by summer next year.

University of Portsmouth scientists are currently testing new and high-tech thermal vests that could be used by soldiers to cope with the heat of the battle in the almost four-year-old Second Gulf War. The vests use a combination of air, liquid, and new applications of older technologies. One of those older technologies is the convertion of paraffin wax into liquid in chambers within the vest to absorb body heat.

These thermal vests are manufactured by an undisclosed U.S.-based military contractor and are expected to be used within two years. Soldiers stationed in Iraq do not wear thermal cooling vests and that may be a problem as temperatures there could reach as high as 50 degrees Celsius. Heat-illness could seriously impair decision making and could even result to death. Mark Newton, a University of Portsmouth thermal physiology said,

I can't reveal too much as we don't own the vests - they belong to an undisclosed military contractor. But what I can say is that the cooling power generated by these garments will make a difference for soldiers operating in extreme climates such as those experienced in Iraq.

Currently, the thermal vests are being tested on subjects wearing full combat fatigues at Portsmouth's Spinnaker Building.

About 4% to 6% of British soldiers come back from Iraq suffering from post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but a whopping 20% of US soldiers suffer from PTSD when they get home. While it can be attributed to the fact that more US soldiers are in the thick of things, it doesn't change the fact that 20% is still high.

PTSD. PTSD is no joke. The most common symptoms of this condition include reliving traumatic events through dreams and flashbacks. This makes the sufferer to either become paranoid or to "tune out" and become emotionally numb.

Treatment for PTSD. The accepted method of treatment in scientific journals is the gradual exposure of the subject to the stimuli or triggers that cause anxiety. This, of course should be done in a supportive and controlled environment.

Virtual Iraq. Virtual Iraq has shown some promise in lowering the effects of PTSD in the people it has been tested on. Virtual Iraq uses virtual reality to slowly subject the patient to the cause of his or her anxiety: Iraq.

The system setup is simple. Basically the patient is asked to wear a headset which will be showing scenes in Iraq. This includes city streets, desert roads, small villages, building interiors, convoys, and checkpoints. The graphics are similar to those found in Full Spectrum Warrior for the Xbox.

Sounds, vibrations and odors can be induced by the doctor administrating the treatment. Among the smells that can be released are gunpowder, cordite, diesel, burning rubber, body odour, spices, and even cooked lamb. During this session, the patient's heart rate and skin conductivity are kept track of; these offer a good measure of the patient's stress level. Each treatment lasts for an hour with the patient urged to speak about his experiences.

While there haven't been enough patients to conclusively prove that Virtual Iraq is a definite cure, the results have been very good. A patient continues to show improvement even three months after the end of the treatment.

Also, the equipment can be afforded by many clinics: it will cost about £ 5,000 (about US $ 9,800).

We hope that this therapy will be a success so we have additional ways to help our fighting men and women when they get back.

Dogs do a great job of sniffing out bombs and explosives, but scientists at a US weapons lab are sending in reinforcements in the form of trained bees. That's right, folks, our busy buzzing bees are the recent recruits in the fight to strengthen the US homeland security.

Researchers at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico have found a way to train honeybees to sniff out explosives. In a project dubbed as the "Stealthy Insect Sensor Project", the bees are trained to stick out their proboscises (tubes used to feed on nectar) in the presence of explosives, in exchange for a sweet sugar-water reward.

What's even more remarkable is that these bees were able to recognize dynamites, C-4 plastic explosives, and even Howitzer propellant grains, which are used in improvised explosive devices in Iraq. Sweet!

Now, you might be wondering how these bees would be used when they start reporting for duty. Well, the bees would be placed in a handheld detector as big as a shoe box. It's quite hard to picture how the final device would look like, but the important thing is that there's another US ally to help fight terrorism. Looks like our bees are going to be busier than usual.

Airplanes recently proved to be useful in seeding silver iodide in clouds so that snow and rain would be forced to fall. Planes have also been used to transport water to thirsty soldiers in Iraq, and now, the US government finds relief from using C-17 cargo planes, as it is now possible to create water out of thin air!

Aqua Sciences, one of several companies commissioned by the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, finally found a solution to bringing water to soldiers in Iraq. This technology is believed to reduce the cost of logistical support for supplying water to the troops in Iraq by billions of dollars, since if one is to compute it, the usual $ 30 a gallon was reduced to a mere 30 cents.

How is this possible? There's nothing tricky about it, according to Aqua Sciences. All they did was mimic nature, using natural salt to extract water and act as a natural decontaminant. They were mum on how the machine actually works, but they say that it's like "rice used in saltshakers that acts as a magnet to extract water and keeps salt from clumping". The 20-foot machine can churn out 600 gallons of water a day without using or producing toxic materials and byproducts.

The technology proves to be superior than other systems that are currently on the market. Other systems use condensation and require high levels of humidity, where Aqua Sciences' machines, on the other hand, only require 14 percent of that humidity. Aqua Sciences has also found out that the atmosphere is a river full of water, even in the desert. The water-churning machine, according to them, won't work absolutely anywhere, but it works virtually everywhere.

Well, this proves that there's no such thing as a dry earth if we all have fertile enough minds to find ways to exploit it.

According to OPEC, the global demand for oil in the first half of 2006 was weaker than expected.

The report said US gasoline demand “grew by only 0.7%, well below the annual average of 1.6% despite the stabilisation of gasoline prices. This has led to downward revisions of 200,000 barrels per day and 100,000 bpd to second- and third-quarter oil demand figures for North America.”

While the global economy had grown strongly in 2006, OPEC said this “has not been matched with commensurate growth in oil demand”.

"Oil intensity", defined as the amount of oil needed to produce a unit of energy, had declined significantly, especially in Europe and the US. The dropped was attributed to improved oil efficiency.

According to the report, the US requires a quarter less oil to produce a unit of output today compared to the early 1970s. Efficiency is even better in European countries.

The OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) is a cartel which includes Algeria, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela.

Although one of the group's objectives is "ensuring the stabilization of prices in international oil markets with a view to eliminating harmful and unnecessary fluctuations" OPEC's influence on the market has not always been positive.

It set set off a global panic and triggered high inflation in both developing and developed countries by using oil as a weapon in the 1973 oil crisis.

OPEC warned that sustained high prices may accelerate further fall in oil intensities.

Oh, boo hoo hoo!

We say let's keep working on bringing down oil intensities. Let's get the governments of the world and private companies to invest and develop alternative energy. Let's give the OPEC and oil company executives something to really cry about!