I had just finished a brief conversation about technological advances in topographical surveying when I spied the latest print issue of McGraw-Hill's Engineering News Record, with cover headline "Tipping Point? With election success in Iraq, reconstruction contractors are encouraged but wary." Two stories are online, one reporting the current assessment of reconstruction efforts and the other examining wartime contracts. News is mixed but with far more good than otherwise.

The picture above, from the ENR cover, shows workers in Iraq using Total Station, a Global Positioning System-enhanced survey suite. At work I'm occasionally brought along for survey outings, and we use nothing less than Total Station. It's a poignant anecdote. Brought close to us by their January 30th entrance into the civilized world, Iraqis seem even a little closer.