The US Navy has a plan to issue all new recruits a laptop computer as part of their clothing issue, starting in 2002. Because such laptops will cost about $2,000 each, the Navy has come up with a clever funding idea. It will lease the computers for three years, after which the vendor will donate them to schools for a tax write off. In the meantime, the laptop vendor would be allowed to state in its advertising that it is the Navy's laptop computer supplier. The Navy says access to such a computer is critical for a recruit to absorb the mass of highly-technical material he must absorb.--Stephen V Cole

The British Ministry of Defense has initiated a program to keep military pilots in their cockpits. Under this program, military pilots are paid 10,000 pounds (about $16,300) toward the cost of obtaining a civilian airline license in exchange for remaining in uniform an extra two years in the RAF or three years in the Army, Royal Navy, or Royal Marines.-Stephen V Cole