Thursday Morning Joe: Madigan doctor just does it, weather, exploding rubber duckie and more news ...

By Northwest Military News Team on January 2, 2014

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The "Spartans" of 3rd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry), have once again come into the mountains of Afghanistan, because they are bad asses.

Air Force Col. Richard H. McBride wants all service members to be part of a new arms race. And by arms race we mean he wants service members to roll up their sleeves and donate blood to help their fellow service members and their families.

A lot of people start the beginning of every year making a bunch of empty promises to themselves, but it doesn't have to be that way.  A doctor at Madigan Army Medical Center in Joint Base Lewis-McChord has made a sound resolution backed by promoted by the surgeon general of the Army.

The U.S. has transformed a boat into a super drug sniffer with a high-tech system that can neutralize lethal chemical weapons such as nerve gas with water and bleaching compounds ... and it's going to set sail for Syria.

Skype, the popular Internet phone call provider, is not just for conversations with your easily amused parents or faraway best friends anymore. It's also for bad guys in the Syrian Electronic Army.

They were called the Stern Gang and it catapulted British MI5's involvement with counterterrorism during the Cold War.

The new year got a little happier for one Iraq War vet. He made the first pot purchase in Colorado.

But hey, happy new year! Let's all look forward to the year of the horse, the salamander, the e-engagement, the modest sheath dress, family farming, Luigi, the haggis, vertical downspacing and 48 other things proclaimed by writers all over the world.

Did you know calendars repeat periodically? Yep! The year 2014 has the same days and dates as 1975. Therefore, Morning Joe crew will live this year by the 1975 Marvel Comics calendar.

Where are they now? There were 16 overlooked deaths from 2013, including the crazy person who gave us "Wild Thing."

Oh, the horror! The giant rubber duckie that has been going around the globe for the past few months - bringing peace and joy to all of humanity - has exploded in Taiwan.