USS Gilliam (APA-57), named for Gilliam County in Oregon, was the lead ship in the her class of attack transports serving in the United States Navy during World War II. She was launched 28 March 1944 under a Maritime Commission contract by the Consolidated Steel Corporation, Wilmington, California; sponsored by Mrs. A. O. Williams of Wilmington; acquired 31 July 1944; and commissioned 1 August 1944, Comdr. H. B. Olsen in command.

Six years ago, lawyer-banker-scholar Charles Morris wrote a prophetic book - 'Two-Trillion-Dollar Meltdown: Easy Money, High-Rollers and the Great Credit Crunch' - that foresaw the 2008 Great Recession before it clobbered America and the world. Now Morris has reversed course and sees good times ahead. His forthcoming book, 'Comeback,' predicts that surging U.S. energy independence will bring a buoyant rise in American manufacturing and jobs.

Ohio started the month of July with its pedal to the metal. The Buckeye State became the 34th state to adopt the 70 miles-an-hour speed limit. Drivers can now do up to 70 on more than 570 of Ohio's 1,332 miles of interstate highway. Congress repealed the 55 mph national limit in 1995. Despite predictions of calamity and carnage on the highways, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported in October 1998 that "the traffic death rate dropped to a record low level in 1997". That pattern has continued since then.

Plasma is one of the four fundamental states of matter (the others being solid, liquid, and gas). Heating a gas may ionize its molecules or atoms (reducing or increasing the number of electrons in them), thus turning it into a plasma, which contains charged particles: positive ions and negative electrons or ions.

The Vikings were seafaring north Germanic people who raided, traded, explored, and settled in wide areas of Europe, Asia, and the North Atlantic islands from the late 8th to the mid-11th centuries. The Vikings employed wooden longships with wide, shallow-draft hulls, allowing navigation in rough seas or in shallow river waters. The ships could be landed on beaches, and their light weight enabled them to be hauled over portages. These versatile ships allowed the Vikings to travel as far east as Constantinople and the Volga River in Russia, as far west as Iceland, Greenland, and Newfoundland, and as far south as Nekor. This period of Viking expansion, known as the Viking Age, constitutes an important element of the medieval history of Scandinavia, Great Britain, Ireland, Russia, and the rest of Europe.