As the Roman calendar rolls forward another year, folks pause, if ever so briefly, to contemplate where they have been and where they are going. Uncertainty and unease about the future can be very unsettling. What will the new year bring? What can you expect in your life and on the world scene in the next 12 months?

"Midnight," according to the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, represents global disaster—"the figurative end of civilization". On January 17, 2007, the Bulletin moved the clock from seven minutes (last set in 2002) to five minutes to midnight!

During a time when Germany finds itself inching into the global spotlight as the leading nation of the European Union, its population is beginning to experience an interesting shift in its sentiments about who should have power and how that power should be wielded.

A man I know belonged to a hunting club in a remote area of Alabama where large coyotes were preying on some of the game animals. These were much larger than western coyotes and were not as shy around humans.

It has become apparent from the news networks that there is confusion and disagreement about where United States and British policy is leading in Iraq, Iran, North Korea and other world trouble spots.