brindleblog'n

NEW YORK (AP) -- Thirty-five years after computer scientists at UCLA linked two bulky computers using a 15-foot gray cable, testing a new way to exchange data over networks, what would ultimately become the Internet remains a work in progress.

University researchers are experimenting with ways to increase its capacity and speed. Programmers are trying to imbue Web pages with intelligence. And work is underway to re-engineer the network to reduce spam and security troubles.

All the while threats loom: Critics warn that commercial, legal and political pressures could hinder the types of innovations that made the Internet what it is today.

Stephen Crocker and Vinton Cerf were among the graduate students who joined UCLA professor Len Kleinrock in an engineering lab on September 2, 1969, as bits of meaningless test data flowed silently between the two computers. By January, three other "nodes" joined the fledgling network.

Then came e-mail a few years later, a core communications protocol called TCP/IP in the late 1970s, the domain name system in the 1980s and the World Wide Web -- now the second most popular application behind e-mail -- in 1990. The Internet expanded beyond its initial military and educational domain into businesses and homes around the world.

Today, Crocker continues work on the Internet, designing better tools for collaboration. And as security chairman for the Internet's key oversight body, he is trying to defend the core addressing system from outside threats, including an attempt last year by a private search engine to grab Web surfers who mistype addresses.

He acknowledges the Internet he helped build is far from finished, and changes are in store to meet growing demands for multimedia. Network providers now make only "best efforts" at delivering data packets, and Crocker said better guarantees are needed to prevent the skips and stutters now common with video.

Cerf, now at MCI Inc., said he wished he could have designed the Internet with security built-in. Microsoft Corp., Yahoo Inc. and America Online Inc., among others, are currently trying to retrofit the network so e-mail senders can be authenticated -- a way to cut down on junk messages sent using spoofed addresses.

The recent debate about UK airports has had various scare stories about the "biggest airport in the world" being built in some greenfield location as an alternative to Heathrow.

It is worth putting this into the context of understanding just exactly what is meant by terms such as "biggest", "busiest", or "busiest international", as is often applied to Heathrow.

The Biggest Airport in the World

Taken literally as the airport which takes up the most land mass, this is the King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. It takes up some 81 square miles - an area larger than many cities.

Trivia: This airport has four terminals, yet only three have ever been used.

The second biggest airport in the world is Denver International, which takes up 53 square miles.

By comparison, London Heathrow takes up around 3,000 acres, or just 4.7 square miles.

The Busiest Airport in the World

This depends on whether you monitor aircraft movements (the numbers of take-offs and landings), or passenger numbers. An airport such as Washington National may have relatively high aircraft movements, but as the largest aircraft it handles is a Boeing 757, it handles relatively fewer annual passengers than other airports with similar movements.

Movements and passenger numbers are both acceptable methods of determining the "busiest" airport, although passenger numbers is the generally quoted figure.

Most Passenger numbers

Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson is the busiest airport in the world, handling 76.7 million passengers in 2002. Atlanta overtook Chicago O'Hare in 1998, and is now significantly ahead. Chicago handled 66.6 million passengers in 2002.

Busiest International Airport

London Heathrow handles the most international passengers (as opposed to passengers on domestic flights, which make up the majority of traffic at US airports). On an overall scale, Heathrow ranks third behind Atlanta and Chicago.

Busiest City (all airports)

When the flights from all airports in a city are combined, London is the busiest aviation centre in the world.

Only London, Tokyo and New York have two airports in the top 30 worldwide.

Combining New York's JFK (29 943 084) and Newark (29 202 654 ) still does not reach the same level as London Heathrow. Despite being the major international gateway for Japan, Tokyo Narita (28 883 606) is overshadowed by the mainly domestic Haneda (61 079 478). This puts Tokyo on a relatively even keel with Heathrow (63 338 641) and Gatwick (29 628 423).

When Stansted (18 750 000), Luton (6 500 000), and London City (1 500 000) are added on top, London handles a total of almost 120 million passengers annually.

Source: World airports Council , BAA, Luton Airport, London City Airport

SEATTLE, Washington (Reuters) -- A black bear was found passed out at a campground in Washington state recently after guzzling down three dozen cans of a local beer, a campground worker said on Wednesday.

"We noticed a bear sleeping on the common lawn and wondered what was going on until we discovered that there were a lot of beer cans lying around," said Lisa Broxson, a worker at the Baker Lake Resort, 80 miles (129 kilometers) northeast of Seattle.

The hard-drinking bear, estimated to be about two years old, broke into campers' coolers and, using his claws and teeth to open the cans, swilled down the suds.

It turns out the bear was a bit of a beer sophisticate. He tried a mass-market Busch beer, but switched to Rainier Beer, a local ale, and stuck with it for his drinking binge.

Wildlife agents chased the bear away, but it returned the next day, said Broxson.

They set a trap using as bait some doughnuts, honey and two cans of Rainier Beer. It worked, and the bear was captured for relocation.

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Controversial new rules regarding overtime pay went into effect Monday, with the Bush administration and labor advocates squabbling over how many U.S. workers are affected.

QUICK VOTE Do you think the new overtime rules benefit most workers? Yes No View results

The changes mark the first major overhaul of the federal overtime law in more than 50 years.

The Labor Department says the new rules will strengthen overtime rights for 6.7 million American workers, including 1.3 million low-wage workers who were denied overtime under the old rules.

Overtime Class Action Attorneys Class action law firm to handle overtime pay violation cases. Contingency fee -... www.schneiderwallace.com Overtime Pay Lorman Education - Choose from a variety of seminars designed to meet the... www.lorman.com Articles on Overtime Pay KeepMedia offers thousands of articles from leading publications like... www.keepmedia.com Calculating Overtime under the FLSA Free article and policy. Plus extensive management rationale and legal... www.ppspublishers.com

But groups, including the AFL-CIO, say the rules will bar 6 million workers from getting time and a half. There's a Capitol Hill protest of the rules scheduled Monday.

In Saturday's Democratic Party radio address, vice presidential candidate Sen. John Edwards blasted the rules.

"Why would anyone want to take overtime pay away from as many as 6 million Americans at a time when they need that money the most?," Edwards asked.

Under the law, there are three primary tests for determining who is eligible ("non-exempt") and who is not ("exempt") from overtime pay.

First up is the "salary-basis" test. To be exempt from overtime, workers must be paid a set salary, not an hourly wage. This has long been the rule under federal overtime law. The new rules don't change this requirement.

The second criteria, called the "salary-level" test, has been amended. In order to be exempt from overtime, the new rules require that employees earn a minimum salary of $455 a week, or $23,660 a year. That's triple the prior minimum salary of $155 a week, or $8,060 a year.

According to David Emery of About.com, 13-phobia may have come from the Hindus, who apparently believed it was always unlucky for 13 people to gather in one place. A version of the same superstition also from the Vikings: Twelve gods were invited to a banquet at Valhalla. Loki, the Evil One, god of mischief, had been excluded from the guest list but crashed the party, bringing the total to 13. Loki then proceeded to incite Hod, the blind god of winter, to attack Balder the Good, who was a favorite of the gods. Hod took a spear of mistletoe offered by Loki and hurled it at Balder, killing him instantly.

Sometime after that moment in history, the superstition attached itself to the story of the Last Supper of Jesus and the 12 disciples. (Twelve plus one equals 13.) Judas, who rose first from the table, was the first to die.

On the other hand, the Egyptians at the time of the pharoahs considered 13 lucky, because they believed life unfolded in 12 stages, and that there was a 13th stage—the afterlife—beyond. That meant the number 13 symbolized death—as a happy transformation. Egyptian civilization perished, but the symbolism of the number 13 lived on as fear of death. (In Tarot decks the "Death" card bears the number 13 but retains its original, positive meaning: transformation.)

for more reading