How good a boss are you?

After 34 years in the attitude-survey business and thousands of employee polls, David Sirota knows what your subordinates want. Do you? Check this out, then take our quiz.
By Anne Fisher, Fortune senior writer

NEW YORK (Fortune) -- "A large part of what a good boss does is expedite things for employees - that is, help them get their jobs done by removing obstacles. This is not at all the same as 'making sure' they get their jobs done by raising the anxiety level. Most people are anxious enough already." So says David Sirota, head of Sirota Survey Intelligence, a research firm headquartered in Purchase, N.Y., that has surveyed millions of employees in Fortune 500 companies since its founding in 1972.

See the winners of Winning Workplaces' Best Bosses competition

Along with two co-authors, Sirota has summed up what the firm has discovered in a new book, "The Enthusiastic Employee: How Companies Profit by Giving Workers What They Want" (Wharton School Publishing, $26.95). We recently spoke about how to tell whether you're a good boss or a bad one. Some excerpts from our conversation:

To start with the most basic question: What makes a good boss, in employees' eyes?

All of our research consistently shows that people in general have three goals at work. First is fairness. They want to feel that they're being recognized and rewarded fairly for what they contribute. Second is achievement. People want to be proud of the organization and of their place in it. And third, camaraderie, meaning good working relationships and a sense of belonging to a team. If these three goals are met, you have enthusiastic employees.

The trouble is that, in most companies, morale among new hires is high and then, by about the six-month point, it has dropped sharply. Management has destroyed it. One thing bad bosses do is to deliberately make people feel insecure about their jobs. Another is, treat employees like children or criminals instead of like responsible adults.

A sign of a really bad boss is micromanaging, which I define as devoting punitive amounts of attention to minutiae. We've seen workplaces where people have to raise their hands if they want to go to the restroom. Another sign of a bad boss is when you hear employees say that they get no positive feedback at all. A common complaint is, "If we make a mistake, we hear about it, but for doing our jobs well, there is never a 'thank you'."

Just to play devil's advocate for a minute here, let me ask you this: Why should companies care whether employees are enthusiastic or not, as long as the work gets done?

Well, there is plenty of persuasive evidence of a direct link between employee morale and the overall performance of the company, including its stock price. That correlation seems to be a result of enthusiastic employees treating the company's customers particularly well. All of us at one time or another have dealt with an apathetic or even hostile customer-service person or salesperson and, by contrast, with someone who's enthused about his or her work. Enormous difference! A good or a bad direct boss is most often responsible for that.

And it can make or break a company's reputation. We recently did some work with the Mayo Clinic, whose prestige among patients and fellow practitioners comes partly from its employees' enthusiasm. We met nurses there who come in on their days off, just to check on their patients - not because they have to, but because they want to. But it's not just in the life-or-death medical profession that enthusiasm matters. We also worked with Keebler, and there was tremendous dedication and high morale there. People are pleased to be making a product that customers enjoy.

Don't most bosses - even rotten ones - think they are doing the right things? If you are a manager, how can you tell if you're a good boss or a bad one?

The surest way is to ask your people for feedback. How do they think you're doing? This is why 360-degree evaluations are so useful, because they give people the chance to offer you some constructive criticism. If your company has no formal 360-degree program, you have to seek out people's opinions yourself, and you may be glad you did. But you have to be careful how you ask, because people often are afraid to be honest with the boss. So you may need a bit of training in how to open the discussion so that you can actually learn something from it.

CopyRight2007@money.cnn.com

Microsoft will release Windows Vista SP1 early 2008

After dancing around the subject for months, Microsoft finally opened up Wednesday and said it will release the first Service Pack for Windows Vista in the first quarter of 2008 with a wider beta version coming in "a few weeks."

The announcement confirms Microsoft comments in a Department of Justice filing in June that the company would have a test version of SP1 out before the end of the year.

"We're feeling good about Windows Vista," said David Zipkin, a Microsoft senior product manager for Windows Client, in an interview.

He pointed out that among other metrics, Windows Vista had 12 security issues in its first six months compared with Windows XP's 36 during its first six months.

"At the same time, we are getting notes back that some people are having not so great experiences."

Microsoft has seen a number of setbacks with Windows Vista thus far. Earlier this year, Dell decided that it would again sell Windows XP systems due to high customer demand and then announced it would be selling computers pre-installed with Linux.

Many businesses, meanwhile, have opted to hold off on installing Vista indefinitely until Microsoft works out compatibility problems and other kinks.

Last month, Microsoft CFO Chris Liddell changed an earlier prediction for an 85 percent to 15 percent split between sales of Vista and XP in 2008 to a 78 percent to 22 percent split.

Performance, compatibility, and reliability have been among the biggest complaints of Windows Vista users. Many of the Windows Update fixes for Vista to date have addressed problems related to these three major trouble areas.

Microsoft appears to have listened, focusing most of Vista SP1 on under-the-cover features. As is typical for Windows service packs, many of the patches, fixes, and updates thus far released through Windows Update will be included in SP1, as well as some other fixes and adds.

However, Vista SP1 will not include new drivers, as they would weigh down the service pack because they are computer-specific. Those will continue being released by the driver vendor or via Windows Update.

One of the main goals of SP1 will be to improve performance. Among the performance enhancements will be a package released Tuesday via Windows Update that fixes problems related to poor memory management, long calculation times for estimating the time it will take to move or copy files, screen saver memory leaks, and delays returning from hibernation or stand-by mode. Vista SP1 will also include some tweaks to make Internet Explorer 7 speedier.

Other focuses for Vista SP1 will be reliability and administration. Several recent patches issued on Windows Update, including one Tuesday, have addressed reliability concerns. In the administrative arena, BitLocker Drive Encryption will now support encryption of any drive volume, rather than just the Vista drive.

Vista SP1 also will make it easier to connect and print to a local printer within Terminal Server sessions, add network diagnostics for file sharing problems, provide more options for Windows' disk defragmenter, and include the a remote access VPN tunneling protocol called the Secure Sockets Tunnel Protocol.

There will be some minor feature upgrades in Vista SP1, the most significant of which will be an ability for users to choose which program they want to handle desktop search by default, rather than making Microsoft's own search capabilities the only default. Google complaints brought on the announcement of those changes earlier this year.

Other changes include a new encryption generator, improved security algorithms, support for the ExFAT file format used in new consumer devices, better performance for SD Card data transfer, and common security APIs for security partners.

Users might think of service packs as heavy fixes because of the massive overhaul of the operating system in Windows XP SP2, but Vista SP1 will not include any major user interface changes. That means no new version of Windows Media Center, for example.

"This is not a feature delivery vehicle," Zipkin said. "It's not about breaking applications."

The download for Vista SP1 will be smaller than that of XP SP2, weighing in at about 50 Mbytes to XP SP2's 120 Mbytes. Vista SP1 also will be available through Windows Server Update Services, as a standalone one-gigabyte software package (larger because it includes full software components instead of only incrementally changed file portions), and through computer manufacturers once the final version is released.

Zipkin said Microsoft delayed discussion of Vista SP1 this long because it needed to find a balance between giving customers the right amount of time to react to the announcement and Microsoft the right amount of time to formulate and test the updates.

Also on Wednesday, Microsoft announced that Windows XP SP3 will be available in the first half of next year. Microsoft standard practice is to issue a service pack that includes all recent hot fixes and patches as a product reaches the end of its career. The only new feature in XP SP3 will be support for Network Access Protection, a security mechanism included in Windows Server 2008 and in Vista.

Microsoft began testing early pre-beta versions of Vista SP1 and XP SP3 earlier this month with approximately 100 testers, but copies of both quickly began appearing online to the chagrin of Zipkin. Some fixes in the leaks will not appear in the final versions of the updates.

"I think it's unfortunate that they were leaked," he said. "At this point in the game, that kind of information can give misdirection and misinformation to our customers."

See original article on InformationWeek.com

Copyright2007@www.itnews.com.au

How do you have sex?

Sexual intercourse is sometimes called making love or having sex. It is when a man's hard penis goes inside a woman's vagina. If a man and woman are having sexual intercourse, then using a contraceptive properly, every time, will prevent the woman becoming pregnant. There is more information on the contraceptive page.

If two people have sexual intercourse, and one of them has a sexual infection, they could pass it on the other person. These infections are sometimes called sexually transmitted infections (STIs) or diseases (STDs). Using a condom is the best way to prevent any infection from being passed from one person to the other.

Sexual intercourse between a man and a woman starts with them both getting sexually excited. This is sometimes referred to as foreplay, and might involve kissing and cuddling, touching each other and other sexual activities. Foreplay is important as it means a woman's vagina begins to get moist and a man gets an erection. If the woman's vagina does not get moist enough, then having sexual intercourse could be difficult or painful for her.

If a couple are going to use a condom for protection against pregnancy or infections, they should put it on the man's penis as soon as he gets an erection. Some men say they worry about using condoms in case they lose their erection or have difficulty putting the condom on. You could get some condoms and practice beforehand. Condoms come with instructions in words and pictures which show exactly how to use them.

After the condom is on, the man or woman can guide his penis into her vagina. The couple then move their bodies so that his penis moves up and down inside her vagina. This usually rubs the penis and makes the man sexually excited so that he has an orgasm. The movement might rub the woman's clitoris too so she can have an orgasm. But this depends on the position the couple are in when they have sexual intercourse.

'Spider-man' suit secret revealed

A "Spider-man" suit that enables its wearer to scale vertical walls like the comic and movie superhero could one day be a reality, according to a study.

Natural technology used by spiders and geckos could help a human climb the side of a building or hang upside down from a roof, the analysis suggests.

The findings are published in the Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter.

Both spiders and geckos possess tiny "hairs" that allow them to stick to surfaces.

Some studies suggest that geckos can hold hundreds of times their own body weight.

In 2002, US research suggested this adhesion in geckos was due to very weak intermolecular forces.

These are produced by billions of hair-like structures of different sizes that are arranged in a hierarchical structure on each gecko foot.

The intermolecular "van der Waals" forces arise when unbalanced electrical charges around molecules attract one another.

The cumulative attractive force of billions of gecko hairs allows the reptiles to scurry up walls and even hang upside down on polished glass.

Size effect

Professor Nicola Pugno, from the Polytechnic of Turin, Italy, has calculated how sufficient stickiness could be generated in the same way to support an adult human's body weight.

But the bigger the surface that needs to stick, the lower its adhesion strength. So a glove able to fit a man's hand, and covered with artificial gecko hairs, should not be as sticky as a gecko's foot.

Luckily, the gecko only uses a fraction of the theoretical stickiness available through van der Waals forces.

"Some researchers were able to measure a [theoretical] adhesion strength 200 times higher than the adhesion strength in the gecko. But between theory and practical applications there is a large gap," said Professor Pugno.

"If we are able to make a surface a little bit stronger, so that the size effect vanishes, we might be able to make a suit with the same adhesion as a gecko."

The Turin-based researcher proposes that carbon nanotubes could be used as an artificial alternative to the gecko's hairs.

Carbon nanotubes are tiny cylinders of carbon that measure just a few billionths of a metre across. They are ultra-strong and can be organised into larger fibres.

Cleaning windows

Professor Pugno also outlined three properties which a real Spider-man suit must demonstrate.

Firstly, and most obviously, it must be able to demonstrate strong adhesive properties. Secondly, the suit must be able to detach easily from a surface after it has stuck. Thirdly, the suit must, to some degree, be able to clean itself.

The latter requirement is considered important because dirt particles could get in the way, interfering with the adhesive properties of the suit.

One way to do it is to make the suit "superhydrophobic", so that it strongly repels water. As water droplets are forced away from the contact areas of the outfit, they should wash away particles of dirt.

This property could be achieved simply by altering the geometrical properties, or topology, of the surface.

"To have all these mechanisms working together is difficult, because they are in competition with one another," Professor Pugno told the BBC News website.

"But geckos and spiders provide a natural demonstration that this can be done."

He added that there were many interesting applications for adhesive suits, in areas ranging from space exploration to defence. The work could also aid the design of gloves and shoes for window cleaners working on tall skyscrapers.

But human muscles are very different to those of geckos, so people would probably suffer from muscle fatigue if they tried to stick to a wall for many hours.

Copyright2007@news.bbc.co.uk

Mobile surge harms China Telecom

China Telecom, the country's largest fixed-line provider, has seen a drop in half-year profits fall as consumers increasingly favour mobile phones.

Profits in the six months to 30 June fell to 13.48bn yuan ($1.87bn; £898m), down from 14.16bn a year ago.

China Telecom faces tough rivalry from firms such as China Mobile, which have been offering cheaper sign-up rates.

The firm said it faced "immense pressure of declining voice revenue" as mobile operators expanded aggressively.

This latest figures are in contrast to China Mobile which recently reported a 26% rise in half-year profits to 37.9bn yuan.

Both it and rival mobile operator China Unicom have been targeting out-of-town and rural areas in a bid to boost subscriber numbers.

The number of fixed-line customers at China Telecom rose to 224 million during the first half, marking an increase of 1.45 million users, while its broadband subscribers increased by 3.87 million to 32.19 million.

Copyright2007@news.bbc.co.uk

Czech Republic GP Debrief With Bridgestone’s Manager Of Motorcycle Sport

From a press release issued by Bridgestone:

Bridgestone MotoGP: Czech Republic Debrief Q+A with Hiroshi Yamada - Bridgestone Motorsport - Manager Motorcycle Sport

Ducati Corse’s Casey Stoner continued in Brno where he left off in Laguna Seca the previous month with a dominant pole to flag victory in the Czech Republic Grand Prix last weekend. The Australian rider’s performance scored him a seventh win of the season to further extend his championship lead to an impressive sixty points. The only time during the season so far that Stoner has relinquished his grip on the championship was after Jerez GP back in March.

Bridgestone’s range of tyres performed well around the lengthy, undulating Brno track for the second consecutive Czech Republic GP win by a Bridgestone-equipped rider. This year, however, success was bolstered by a resounding performance from Suzuki’s John Hopkins who used his Bridgestone tyres to good effect to take a MotoGP career-best second position and his second podium of 2007 after China.

Six riders on Bridgestone tyres finished the 22-lap event in the top nine with Hopkins’ team-mate Chris Vermeulen cementing his fourth place in the championship with a fine fifth place, Loris Capirossi in sixth, Randy de Puniet in eighth and Alex Barros in ninth. The hard work did not end at the chequered flag with most riders staying on for an extensive two day test, yielding important results for the climax of the 2007 season and beyond.

Mr. Yamada, another win for the Casey Stoner-Ducati-Bridgestone package, was this an expected result?

“Of course, we always head into each race weekend targeting victories and podiums, but after a one month break between races, and knowing how strong our competitors are, we never underestimated the challenge of Brno. It was just the second time this season that we returned to a track where our tyres had helped a rider to victory in 2006, so it was great to defend that honour with another formidable ride from Casey and Ducati. Additionally, it was a great performance from John Hopkins and the Suzuki team. John was on the pace in every single session and his second position, his best ever MotoGP result, was very well deserved.”

Qualifying was another success for Bridgestone in Brno with Casey on pole?

“Casey’s pole lap was another outstanding achievement and his best time was three-tenths quicker than everyone else. We had five riders on the front three rows and it is always an advantage to be higher up on the grid in those tense, close opening laps of the race. The qualifying times in Brno were not as quick as last year, but I think this can be attributed to the difference between how the more powerful 990cc machines used qualifying rubber compared to the 800cc bikes. Most riders improved their lap time by over a second on qualifying tyres and there was, I believe, more parity between the performance levels of the three tyre manufacturers’ qualifying tyres.”

Were there any problems over the weekend or in the race itself?

“We had a trouble-free first day but Brno is such a technical track that the teams used the two opening practice sessions to hone the set-up of the bikes. Although we had done the usual tyre evaluation work, we were not able to carry out any longer race simulation runs in practice. We were therefore pleased to see that the tyres were able to help riders achieve strong points and podium scoring results over the full 22-lap race distance. Our riders had opted for a variety of tyre combinations front and rear, the biggest range of the season, and all three tyres of rear compound – soft, medium and hard – were all represented in the top six, a great overall result.”

Bridgestone stayed on for two days’ testing after the race – what was learned?

“We tried a lot of new specification tyres in the post race test, both front and rear, with new compound, construction and shapes. We found some promising specifications for later in this season and for the future. It was important to gain this data for our ongoing technical development, so thanks must go to each of our teams for their valuable contribution.”

Copyright2007@motogpmagazine.com

Galaxy's season all but over

The strain of playing for a losing team seemed to affect David Beckham against Chivas USA.

As the last seconds ticked off the clock at the Home Depot Center on Thursday night, it was tough to tell which was in worse shape -- David Beckham's ankle or the Los Angeles Galaxy. After yet another ugly loss by the Galaxy and another inexplicable 90 minutes for Beckham's gimpy left ankle, both could be damaged beyond repair.

The 2007 season is over for the Galaxy. There are still MLS games to play, and the Galaxy will compete in the SuperLiga final on Wednesday. But any hopes of Beckham and the so-called jewel of Major League Soccer reaching the MLS postseason died a little more with every shot Chivas USA buried past goalkeeper Joe Cannon on Thursday in a 3-0 victory over L.A.

Yes, the Galaxy have played just 17 MLS matches this year, four fewer games than the Columbus Crew, who currently hold the No. 8 seed in the MLS playoffs. Yet Beckham's boys have demonstrated nothing to make their fans believe they can turn things around. From the comical defending to the putrid offense, the Galaxy look more like an expansion team than a marquee club.

How long has it been since the Galaxy's last victory in MLS play? Try July 4. They've lost without Beckham, and while a hobbled Beckham has proven that he can make them better, they have yet to win an MLS game with him on the field.

The Galaxy's struggles are the product of a poorly constructed roster that has little depth, a terrible defense and far too many older players who just can't produce consistent results. The back line is particularly awful. Whether it is Chris Klein doing a poor impression of a right back, Ty Harden showing his inexperience or Abel Xavier following up stellar games with stinkers (when he's not skipping games on artificial turf), Cannon must be pining for his Colorado days when all he had to worry about was a nonexistent offense.

The Galaxy attack isn't much better. The Galaxy's four-goal effort against the Red Bulls was an anomaly; the club has managed just one goal in the run of play in its past five MLS matches. Carlos Pavon and Edson Buddle have been disappointing, and while Landon Donovan has had some solid matches, he has found himself struggling to find support in the attack, particularly with Beckham so limited physically.

Perhaps more tragic than Chivas USA's demolition of their Home Depot Center neighbors was Galaxy coach Frank Yallop's decision to let Beckham play 90 minutes. It was the third full match in six days for Beckham, a time span that included a full match on artificial turf, a full international match against Germany and two lengthy flights. To have him go 90 minutes just 32 hours after he could barely run against Germany brings new meaning to the word negligent.

"It wasn't the intention to play him at all, but he came in and said that he felt OK," Yallop said of Beckham after Thursday's match. "And obviously, with our situation in the league, we need points."

Needing points is one thing, but sabotaging your own season is another. Thursday night's loss was a blow to the Galaxy's playoff hopes, but sacrificing that result in order to get Beckham some rest could have put the team in better position to take advantage of its back-loaded schedule.

Playing a worn-out Beckham for 90 minutes and risking a setback could wind up costing Los Angeles even more points if his injured left ankle forces him to miss a match against a beatable Colorado squad on Sunday, or if the wear and tear of the past week keeps Beckham from ever getting fully healthy this season.

Yallop had his chance to give Beckham some rest and end the insanity of Beckham's past six days, but rather than bench Beckham in the 69th minute with the Galaxy down 2-0, Yallop used his last substitution to sit Kyle Martino because he believed Beckham could still work some magic despite having just one good leg (apparently Yallop has watched "The Karate Kid" one too many times). That level of desperation illustrates just how bad things are with the Galaxy.

At this point, the biggest question surrounding the Galaxy isn't whether they can turn things around, but whether Yallop and L.A. president Alexi Lalas will survive this disaster of a season. Given Lalas' history, it wouldn't be surprising if he has already placed a call to Juergen Klinsmann to step in and salvage the season while drafting his speech explaining the need to fire Yallop. Lalas probably could just show a replay of Thursday's game, which shows Yallop's tactical decisions and his handling of Beckham.

There is no question that Beckham has the heart of a lion and would probably take the field with a broken bone if allowed, but that is exactly why Yallop should have ignored Beckham's claims of feeling fine and sat him for the entire match. Sure, it can be argued that Beckham is as much to blame, but he is a supreme competitor who realizes his team is in trouble. He needed someone more rational to step in and protect him. Nobody did on Thursday.

If anything, the image of Beckham wincing in pain with every step was hard to stomach because you just felt like his bravery was being wasted on a team that doesn't look worthy of the sacrifice.

Is Yallop really the man to blame for this mess? He has played his part, but Lalas is just as guilty, particularly if rumors are true that he was the man responsible for the Galaxy's inept trade of Nathan Sturgis and Robbie Findley for Klein as well as the signing of disappointing Honduran forward Carlos Pavon. Now Galaxy fans join supporters of the Red Bulls and the Earthquake in the fraternity of fans whose teams have been damaged by Lalas.

Is there a chance that Los Angeles can turn things around? Galaxy fans surely will point to the 2005 season, when their team looked similarly lost only to go on a late-season run that culminated with an improbable MLS Cup title. They could also point to Beckham's own recent history and how he helped Real Madrid win a title when doing so seemed impossible.

They can hold out hope that history will repeat itself, but doing so is an exercise in futility. The Galaxy's season is over, even if the circus surrounding the club is just getting started.

Ives Galarcep covers MLS for ESPNsoccernet. He is a writer and columnist for the Herald News (N.J.) and writes a blog, Soccer By Ives.

How secure is your transaction?

Secure Internet Connections

1. How do you tell if the Internet connections are secure?
   Many web sites use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) technology to encrypt the credit card information that you send over the Internet. These sites usually inform you they are using this technology. Or, check if the web address on the page that asks for your credit card information begins with "https:" instead of "http:"; if so, this technology is in place.

   A different security technology, which works on different principles, is Secure Electronic Transaction, or SET, technology. SET or SSL technology are designed to make your connection secure.

   Other ways to tell whether a web site uses security software:

   • Your browser displays the icon of a locked padlock at the bottom of the screen (Netscape Navigator™; - versions 4.0 and higher);
   • You see the icon of an unbroken key at the bottom of the screen (earlier versions of Netscape Navigator™);
   • You see the icon of a lock on the status bar (Microsoft Internet Explorer®).
2. Phone-In Option
   Would you rather give your credit card information over the phone?
   Many web merchants allow you to order online and give your credit card information over the phone. If you’re more comfortable with this option, make a note of the phone number, company, the date and time of your call, and the name of the person who recorded your credit card number.

   You should only give your password and credit card number in a secure connection on a web site, not in ordinary e-mail. "Theft of identity," in which someone gets access to your bank account or gets credit cards or loans in your name, is a growing problem, and you should carefully guard personal information that might allow a thief to impersonate you.

3. Passwords
   Do you use different passwords?
   If you use a password to log on to your network or computer, use a different password for orders. Some web sites may require you to create a password for future orders. You may want to create a special password for particularly sensitive sites, such as your home banking site.

   How did you choose your password?
   The best passwords are not your address, birth date, phone number, or recognizable words. Choose a string of at least five letters, numbers, and punctuation marks. One easy way to create a memorable password is to take the first letter of each word in an expression or song lyric, and add some numbers and punctuation marks. For example, "tmottobg!5" is derived in part from "Take Me Out To The Old Ball Game."

   How should you record your password?
   Don’t write down any password near your computer where someone could see it. If you do record it somewhere, reverse the order of the characters or transpose some letters or numbers. That way, someone finding it won’t have discovered your true password.

   Who wants to know your password or other identifying information?
   Be very careful about responding to an e-mail, phone call, fax, or letter from anyone who asks for your password(s), social security number, birth date, bank account, credit card number, mother’s maiden name, or other personal information. To verify that the person contacting you really does work for the seller, call and request to speak to that person directly. Except for your password and credit card number, you should never have to give any other information to place an order online.

   And you should only give your password and credit card number in a secure connection on a web site, not in ordinary e-mail. "Theft of identity," in which someone gets access to your bank account or gets credit cards or loans in your name, is a growing problem, and you should carefully guard personal information that might allow a thief to impersonate you.

4. Viruses
   How can you avoid viruses?
   If you receive an unsolicited commercial message, you should not open any attached file whose name ends in ".exe." Clicking on such files could activate a computer virus that might affect the operation of your computer and/or damage the information stored on your computer. You can also protect yourself against viruses carried by e-mail or by computer files that you’ve received on a floppy disk, by purchasing and installing on your computer or network a virus-protection program.

love is in the air

"i think love is incrediddble it makes u be awake all night, and it daunts u in ur slep its makes u steamy red and piping oh my ears burn ofg heat do u think guys ur views on this all matter"

How the Web was Born

The World Wide Web was originally developed in 1990 at CERN, the European Laboratory for Particle Physics. The original idea came from a young computer scientist, Tim Berners-Lee. It is now managed by The World Wide Web Consortium.

The WWW Consortium is funded by a large number of corporate members, including AT&T, Adobe Systems, Inc., Microsoft Corporation and Sun Microsystems, Inc. Its purpose is to promote the growth of the Web by developing technical specifications and reference software that will be freely available to everyone. The Consortium is run by MIT with INRIA (The French National Institute for Research in Computer Science) acting as European host, in collaboration with CERN.

The National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, was instrumental in the development of early graphical software utilizing the World Wide Web features created by CERN. NCSA focuses on improving the productivity of researchers by providing software for scientific modeling, analysis, and visualization. The World Wide Web was an obvious way to fulfill that mission. NCSA Mosaic, one of the earliest web browsers, was distributed free to the public. It led directly to the phenomenal growth of the World Wide Web.

For an exploration of this late 20th century marvel, visit A Little History of the World Wide Web. The University of Leiden offers a concise technical explanation of the inner workings of the Web.

Copyright2007@www.learnthenet.com

Powerhouse GOP firm working to undermine Iraqi PM

By Ed Henry

CNN White House Correspondent

CRAWFORD, Texas (CNN) -- A powerhouse Republican lobbying firm with close ties to the White House has begun a public campaign to undermine the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, CNN has confirmed.

A report by the U.S. intelligence community questions Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's ability to govern.

This comes as President Bush is publicly taking great pains to reiterate his support for the embattled Iraqi leader.

Al-Maliki's government has come under sharp criticism and scrutiny from Washington lawmakers and officials, as reflected in Thursday's National Intelligence Estimate.

A senior Bush administration official told CNN the White House is aware of the lobbying campaign by Barbour Griffith & Rogers because the firm is "blasting e-mails all over town" criticizing al-Maliki and promoting the firm's client, former interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, as an alternative to al-Maliki.

But the senior administration official insisted that White House officials have "absolutely no involvement" in the campaign to remove al-Maliki, nor have they given it their blessing.

"There's just no connection whatsoever," the official said. "There's absolutely no involvement."

When asked whether the White House will ask the prominent Republican lobbying firm to stop lashing out at al-Maliki, the official said, "I don't rule it out."

Pressed on why allies of the White House would be contradicting the president publicly, the senior administration official said of the lobbyists, "They're making a lot of money."

And National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe told CNN the Bush administration continues to support al-Maliki and the Iraqi Presidency Council, "and we'll continue to work with them on the best way forward in Iraq."

"I don't think they asked the White House before they signed their contract with Mr. Allawi," he said.

Asked earlier why Republican lobbyists would want to undercut the administration's public statements, Johndroe said, "Maybe it's a really good contract."

The lobbying firm boasts the services of two onetime foreign policy hands of President Bush: Ambassador Robert Blackwill, the former deputy national security adviser who was Bush's envoy to Iraq and helped form Allawi's interim government in 2004, and Philip Zelikow, former counselor to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Ingrid Henick, a vice president for Barbour Griffith & Rogers, confirmed the firm has signed a contract to "provide strategic counsel for and on behalf of Dr. Allawi."

Henick refused to comment on why such a prominent Republican firm would work to hurt al-Maliki, whom President Bush has repeatedly backed as the best hope for forging political reconciliation in Iraq.

According to an e-mail obtained by CNN, Barbour Griffith & Rogers sent a mass message Tuesday to congressional staffers with the subject line, "A New Leader in Iraq," promoting Allawi as a potential successor to al-Maliki.

"Please see today's news items regarding the increased skepticism of the Maliki government in The New York Times (embedded), The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal (attached), along with a joint statement made by Sens. Carl Levin and John Warner," the e-mail said.

A second e-mail from the lobbying firm sent congressional staffers a copy of a recent Washington Post op-ed column by Allawi that said Iraq will fall apart unless al-Maliki is forced out of power.

The outlines of the lobbying campaign were first reported by the news blog Iraqslogger.com.

The lobbying e-mails were sent Tuesday, the day after Levin called for the ouster of al-Maliki upon returning from an official trip to Iraq with Warner. Also on Tuesday, Bush appeared to be softening his support for al-Maliki at a news conference by expressing frustration with the pace of progress by the Iraqi government.

But on Wednesday, upset by media reports asserting he was backing away from the Iraqi leader, Bush clarified in a speech, "Prime Minister Maliki is a good guy, a good man with a difficult job, and I support him."

The e-mails to congressional staffers came from the e-mail address DrAyadAllawi@Allawi-for-Iraq.com.

But the bottom of the e-mail added this note of disclosure to congressional aides: "Barbour Griffith & Rogers, LLC has filed registration statements under the Foreign Agents Registration Act with regard to its representation and dissemination of information on behalf of Dr. Ayad Allawi."

"Yes, in fact, we recently filed forms with FARA," Henick told CNN.

But she would not provide details of the filing, which will reveal how much money the firm is making on the account and other details, because the Justice Department has not yet made the documents public.

Henick added that beyond the e-mails, the firm will also be directly lobbying members of the "U.S. government, Congress, the media and opinion leaders" on behalf of Allawi.

One Republican congressional aide who received the e-mails this week expressed surprise that a lobbying firm with such close ties to the White House would attack al-Maliki at such a pivotal time on the debate over the war, just weeks before Bush provides a progress report to the nation.

The lobbying firm was founded by conservative stalwarts Haley Barbour, the former Republican National Committee chairman and current governor of Mississippi; Lanny Griffith, who worked for the administration of former President George H.W. Bush; and Ed Rogers, an aide to former Presidents Ronald Reagan and Bush.

The official from the current Bush administration dismissed the effort, saying that there's a "lot of lobbying" on various issues and that the campaign against al-Maliki is just a "bunch of noise in Washington, D.C."

Copyright2007@www.cnn.com

The Green One Over There

Katia Kapovich

My half-brother had dark sad eyes, wheaten hair
and the same gorgeous skin his mother had.
He was cute and smart and innately kind,
unlike me at his age, according to our father.
Five years younger than me,
Tim attracted all the love
my father had frozen in his heart
when I was growing up.
Tim was brought up on my old books.
He did better than I with poetry,
reciting by six some “grownup” verses
which I couldn’t memorize at eleven.
At eight he wrote a poem
at the back of his math exercise book
and forgot about it.
It was a love poem
with an underlined dedication, “To A.”
It so happened that I knew who A was.
The poem read as follows:
“I loved and missed her so much
that I forgot what she looked like,
and when she entered the classroom
in the morning, I did not recognize her.
I did not recognize her long face,
nor her slow neck, nor her skinny hands,
I had completely forgotten her green eyes.”
It was quite a work of art, in my opinion,
but I told him that to sigh about
legs and necks and eyes
was sentimental and girlish.
He listened to me with dry eyes
and then tore out the page and threw it away
into the wastebasket.
He never wrote poetry again, but I did.
At fifteen I wrote a short story
which had some success and was even
published in a teenage literary magazine
called “Asterisks.” It was around that time
that I stopped visiting my dad’s house
after I realized
that everything about this boy
put me down, humiliated me
and filled me with jealousy.
I would meet dad on one condition:
if he wanted to see me,
he had to come to my place
or to stop by at the artsy café,
where my older friend Lena and I
would go after school
to sip strawberry milkshakes.
One day my father
came to my school during class hours
to take me to a hospital: the night before
my half-brother had gotten sick.
We arrived in the middle of the doctor’s rounds.
The waiting area was noisy
and smelled of urine and medication.
Dad had gone inside,
I waited for him to call me in.
Through the door left ajar
I saw a row of iron bunks with striped mattresses.
Tim’s was next to the door.
He lay leaning on a big gray pillow,
a glass of water in his hand.
The doctor wanted him to take a pill,
but he wouldn’t hear of it.
He was willful, obstreperous,
he pushed away the hand of medicine.
“I want that ship, that ship …” he whined.
“What ship?” My father turned pale
and stared at the doctor. “Can’t you see?
The green one, over there!” cried Tim,
inserting his finger in the glass of water
where a green ship, a three-funneled steamer,
was slowly sinking at the time.

From Gogol in Rome, 2004
Salt Publishing

Copyright 2004 Katia Kapovich.
All rights reserved.