QUES: Electronic theft by foreign and industrial spies and disgruntled employees is costing U.S. companies billions and eroding their international competitive advantage. That was the message delivered by government and private security experts at an all-day conference on corporate electronic espionage. "Hostile and even friendly nations routinely steal information from U.S. companies and share it with their own companies," said Noel D. Matchett, a former staffer at the federal National Security Agency and now president of Information Security Inc., Silver Spring, Md. It "may well be" that theft of business data is "as serious a strategic threat to national security" as it is a threat to the survival of victimized U.S. firms, said Michelle Van Cleave, the White House's assistant director for National Security Affairs. The conference was jointly sponsored by the New York Institute of Technology School of Management and the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association, a joint industry-government trade group. Any secret can be pirated, the experts said, if it is transmitted over the air. Even rank amateurs can do it if they spend a few thousand dollars for a commercially available microwave receiver with amplifier and a VCR recorder. They need only position themselves near a company's satellite dish and wait. "You can have a dozen competitors stealing your secrets at the same time," Mr. Matchett said, adding : "It's a pretty good bet they won't get caught." The only way to catch an electronic thief, he said, is to set him up with erroneous information.
Do you have any questions?
MY QUESTION: Can amateurs pirate any secret transmitted over the air?

QUES: The modern Republic of Turkey dates only from 1923, but the history of the land within its borders stretches back to the dawn of humanity. Widespread finds of Stone Age implements in cave excavations show that Anatolia was already inhabited during the Middle of the Palaeolithic period (about 200,000 to 40,000 years ago). By Neolithic times, organized communities had arisen, such as the one at Catalhoyuk, near Konya, Turkey's most important prehistoric site. This town, which flourished between 6500 and 5500 b.c. , had flat-roofed houses of mud and timber decorated with wall-paintings, some of which show patterns that still appear on Anatolian kilims. The advent of the Bronze Age (about 3200 b.c. ), and the spread of city-states ruled by kings, is marked by the appearance of royal tombs containing bronze objects in such places as Troy in the west, and Alacahoyuk near Ankara. Around this time the Sumerian civilization living in Mesopotamia (the region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in present-day Iraq) founded and developed the cuneiform script, the world's oldest form of writing on record. The technique was introduced by Assyrian traders 1,000 years later into Anatolia, where it was quickly adopted by the indigenous Hatti people, who, at this point, had already reached an advanced state of civilization. The Hittites: The capital of the Hatti was Kanesh (modern Kultepe, near Kayseri). Cuneiform tablets found here record the arrival in Anatolia of warlike invaders around the second millennium b.c. Their origins remain a mystery (their written language was finally deciphered in 1915), but they came from the direction of the Caucasus mountains, spreading destruction and disorder throughout Anatolia. It was two hundred years before they were firmly entrenched in their newly conquered empire. The newcomers were the Hittites, and their domination of Anatolia can be divided into three distinct periods: the Old Kingdom (c. 16001450 b.c. ), then the New or Empire Period (c. 14501200 b.c. ), and the Late Hittite Period (c.
Do you have any questions?
MY QUESTION: What do we know about the Cuneiform tablets found at the capital of the Hatti was Kanesh?

QUES: And William Martinez, 28, who cut his medical school studies short because he couldn't afford the $39,000 in loans after two years of graduate school and four years of college. Martinez works two jobs as a physician's assistant and supports his elderly parents and 8-year-old son. Uncommon Good has a 22-member board of doctors, lawyers and representatives of Christian groups and is recruiting mentors. One goal is to get the state Legislature to pass a law to provide loan forgiveness to medical professionals and lawyers who work with the poor. Mintie said she hopes her organization can be a national model for other professions. She is trying to bring legal aid services to the Inland Valley -- the closest legal aid office is in El Monte and represents 700,000 poor people throughout the San Fernando, San Gabriel and Inland valleys. "Unless the legal aid is in the community, you can't say you are serving the poor," Mintie said. Neal Dudovitz is the executive director of Neighborhood Legal Services of Los Angeles County, the legal aid office in El Monte. He sees attorneys new to poverty law leave all the time because they can't afford the salary with their law school debt. "She's really opened a lot of eyes in terms of having people understand how the educational debt is limiting and reducing the services that are available to low-income communities," Dudovitz said. "Nancy is light years ahead of the curve on this stuff. Very little is being done practically to solve it." Mintie, her colleagues say, could have made a lot of money in private practice. "She's very kind and pleasant," said Julius Thompson, 45, an attorney at Inner City Law Center and an Uncommon Good recipient. "But she's also a woman on a mission. When she sets her sights on something, she's a formidable force."
Do you have any questions?
MY QUESTION: Who said, "She's a formidable force."?

QUES: Earths magnetic field helps protect Earth and its organisms. It protects us from harmful particles given off by the sun. Most of the particles are attracted to the north and south magnetic poles. This is where Earths magnetic field is strongest. This is also where relatively few organisms live. Another benefit of Earths magnetic field is its use for navigation. People use compasses to detect Earths magnetic north pole. Knowing this helps them tell direction. Many animals have natural 'compasses' that work just as well. Birds like the garden warbler in Figure 1.36 use Earths magnetic field. They use it to guide their annual migrations. Recent research suggests that warblers and other migrating birds have structures in their eyes. These structures let them see Earths magnetic field as a visual pattern.
Do you have any questions?
MY QUESTION:
What is the purpose of a compass and what does it detect?