Henry
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A man got a parrot which could already talk. It had belonged to a sailor and had a big vocabulary. However, the man soon discovered that the parrot mostly know bad words. At first he thought it was funny, but then it became tiresome, and finally, when the man had important guests, the bird's bad words embarrassed him very much.
As soon as the guests left, the man angrily shouted at the parrot,"That language must stop!". But the bird answered him with curses. He shook the bird and shouted again, "Don't use those ugly words!" Again the bird cursed him.
Now the man was really angry. He grabbed the parrot and threw him into the refrigerator. But it had no effect. From inside the refrigerator,the parrot was still swearing. He opened the door and took him out, and again the bird spoke in dirty words and curses. This time, the man opened the door of the freezer , threw the bird into it, and closed the door.
This time there was silence. After two minutes, the man opened the door and removed the very cold parrot. Slowly the shivering parrot walked up the man's arm, sat on his shoulder and spoke into his ear, sounding very frightened:
"I'll be good, I promise...Those chickens in there.. what did they say?"
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Two friends were walking through the desert.
During some point of the journey, they had an argument, and one friend slapped the other one in the face.
The one who got slapped was hurt, but without saying anything, he wrote in the sand: Today my best friend slapped me in the face.
They kept on walking, until they found an oasis, where they decided to take a bath.
The one who had been slapped got stuck in the mire and started drowning, but his friend saved him.
After he recovered from the near drowning, he wrote on a stone: Today my best friend saved my life.
The friend, who had slapped and saved his best friend, asked him, "After I hurt you, you wrote in the sand, and now, you write on a stone, why?"
The other friend replied: "When someone hurts us, we should write it down in sand, where the winds of forgiveness can erase it away, but when someone does something good for us, we must engrave it in stone where no wind can ever erase it. Learn to write your hurts in the sand and to carve your blessings in stone.
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There were 3 little alien dudes in a little green space ship. All the sudden they crashed on earth. The first little dude was purple, the second green and third blue. The little purple dude walked into an opera house and heard “ mi,mi,mi” “ mi,mi,mi” and got stuck saying “ mi,mi,mi” “ mi,mi,mi”. The little green dude walked into the purple cow and heard “ fork & knife” “ fork & knife” and got stuck saying “ fork & knife” “fork & knife”. The little purple dude walked into a candy shop and heard “goody goody gum drops” “ goody goody gum drops” and got stuck saying “ goody
gum drops” “ goody goody gum drops”.
On the way back to the space ship a policeman stopped them and said, “There has been a murder and, since you are new to this town, I think you did it. Okay! Let's get this straight. Which one of you did it?”
The little purple dude said “ mi,mi,mi” and the policeman said “With what?” and the little green dude said “ fork & knife”.
The policeman said, “ I’m sorry but you’re going to jail."
The little blue dude said, “goody goody gum drops!”
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A Catholic teenager goes to confession, and after confessing to an affair with a girl is told by the priest that he can't be forgiven unless he reveals who the girl is. "I promised not to tell!" he says. "Was it Mary Patricia, the butcher's daughter?" the preist asks. "No, and I said I wouldn't tell." "Was it Mary Elizabeth, the printer's daughter?" "No, and I still won't tell!" 'Was it Mary Francis, the baker's daughter?" "No," says the boy. 'Well, son," says the priest, "I have no choice but to excommunicate you for six months." Outside, the boy's friends ask what happened. "Well," he says, "I got six months, but three good leads."
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Happy Birthday, CHARMY_JUNNY
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For decades, two heroic statues, one male and one female, faced each other in a city park,
until one day an angel came down from heaven.
"You've been such exemplary statues," he announced to them,
"and I'm going to give you a special gift.
I'm going to bring you both to life for thirty minutes, in which you can do anything you want."
And with a clap of his hands, the angel brought the statues to life.
The two approached each other a bit shyly , but soon dashed for the bushes,
from which shortly emerged a good deal of giggling, laughter, and shaking of branches.
Fifteen minutes later, the two statues emerged from the bushes, wide grins on their faces.
"You still have fifteen more minutes," said the angel, winking conspiratorially.
Grinning even more widely the female statue turned to the male statue and said, "Great!
Only this time you hold the pigeon down and I'll poop on it's head."
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A carpet layer had just finished installing carpet for a lady.
He stepped out for a smoke, only to realize he'd lost his cigarettes.
In the middle the room, under the carpet, was a bump.
"No sense pulling up the entire floor for one pack smokes," he said to himself.
He proceeded to get out his hammer and flattened the hump.
As he was cleaning up, the lady came in. "Here," she said, handing him his pack cigarettes.
"I found them in the hallway."
"Now," she said, "if only I could find my sweet little hamster."
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A father and baby polar bear were walking across the ice when the baby polar bear said to his dad
"Dad, am I part panda bear?"
"No", replied his dad. "Well then, am I part brown bear?" Again his dad said no.
A short time later the baby bear asked again,
"Dad, maybe I'm part koala bear?"
The father getting annoyed said, "look son, I'm a polar bear, your mums a polar bear.
Why on earth do you keep asking for?!"
"Because," the baby bear said, "I'm Bloody Freezing!".
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Three men were flying in a plane.
One dropped out an apple the other dropped an orange and the other dropped a grenade.
After landing they were walking down the street and saw a kid crying.
They asked him why he was crying and he said "an apple hit me in the head".
Then they saw another kid crying he said "an orange hit me in the head".
Then they saw a kid laughing his head off and they asked him what was so funny he said
"I farted and my house blew up!"
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A man's dog has a problem so he takes him to the vet's. The vet looks at the dog and says that he'll have to take him to the examining room. In the examining room, he takes a cat out of a cage and lets the cat walk all over the dog, but the dog doesn't do anything.
The doctor say "Your dog is dead."
The man goes out to the receptionist and asks for his bill.
"That'll be $325" says the receptionist.
"What! $325? How's that possible?"
"It's $25 for the consultation, and $300 for the Cat scan."
NOTE: The students might not recognise the word CAT scan.
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A man wanted to become a monk so he went to the monastery and talked to the head monk.
The head monk said, "You must take a vow of silence and can only say two words every three years."
The man agreed and after the first 3 years, the head monk came to him and said, "What are your two words?"
"Food cold!" the man replied.
Three more years went by and the head monk came to him and said "What are your two words?"
"Robe dirty!" the man exclaimed.
Three more years went by and the head monk came to him and said, "What are your two words?"
"I quit!" said the man.
"Well, the head monk replied, I am not surprised. You have done nothing but complain ever since you got here!"
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A woman got on a bus, holding a baby.
The bus driver said, "That's the ugliest baby I've ever seen."
In a huff, the woman slammed her fare into the fare box and took an aisle
seat near the rear of the bus.
The man seated next to her sensed that she was agitated and asked her what
was wrong.
"The bus driver insulted me," she fumed.
The man sympathized and said, "Why, he's a public servant and shouldn't say
things to insult passengers."
"You're right," she said. "I think I'll go back up there and give him a piece of my mind."
"That's a good idea," the man said. "Here, let me hold your monkey."
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One day a student was taking a very difficult essay exam. At the end of the test, the prof asked all the students to put their pencils down and immediately hand in their tests. The young man kept writing furioulsy, although he was warned that if he did not stop immediately he would be disqualified. He ignored the warning, finished the test 10
minutes later, and went to hand the test to his instructor. The instructor told him he would not take the test.
The student asked, "Do you know who I am?"
The prof said, "No and I don't care."
The student asked again, "Are you sure you don't know who I am?"
The prof again said no. So the student walked over to the pile of tests, placed his in
the middle, then threw the papers in the air.
"Good" the student said, and walked out. He passed.
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The Red Beach is located in the Liaohe River Delta, about 30 kilometer southwest of Panjin City in China. The beach gets its name from its appearance, which is caused by a type of sea weed that flourishes in the saline-alkali soil. The weed that start growing during April or May remains green during the summer. In autumn, this weed turns flaming red, and the beach looks as if it was covered by an infinite red carpet that creates a rare red sea landscape. Most of the Red Beach is a nature reserve and closed to the public. Only a small, remote, section is open for tourists.
Covering an area of nearly 600,000 hectares, the Liaohe River Delta Marshland includes Panjin and Yingkou Cities in Liaoning Province, where the Shuangtai Hekou Nature Reserve has been set up. This is a key habitat and a way station for migratory birds on their East Asia-Australia route. The endless stretch of its unique ''red carpet'', the world's second-largest reed marshes, such as red-crowned cranes, black-beaked gulls and sounders' gulls, and spotted and common seals, are parts of a richly colorful wetland ecosystem.
There lives a plant with strong life force in the mud flat of the mouth of Liaohe River. It calls the sea-blite plants. The sea-blite plants start to grow in every April or May. The color is green at beginning, and becomes red slower and slower. In September, the colors of the plants become strong red, covering the whole alkaline beach. The splendid red beach scenery appears only at the mud flat in Panjin. Although sea-blite plants grow in other coastal areas, the plants couldn’t become red at last there. Therefore, it has a beautiful name- Red Beach.
There are 236 kinds of birds inhabit here. Among them, there are over 30 kinds of national first and second class protection birds, such as red-crowned cranes, black-mouth gulls, etc. Therefore, the red beach scenic area becomes a national nature protection area. It has been the gold tourist section of Liaohe area, because of its rich nature resources and beautiful nature spectacle. The mud flat occupies the area of over 90,000 Mu. When tide covers the mud flat, haulms of reeds could still been seen. After tide, the whole area appears a red spectacle again, which looks like burning red clouds in the beach. Moreover, the red beach is listed on the international tourist routes. More and more people are attracted by the fantastic red beach not only at home but abroad.
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Easter Island, an island in the world's strangest
Island almost three-form, located in the South Pacific back to Chile and away from 3.600 kilometers west, called by the local Rabanue (Peto T or T-languishing) or navel of the world is to say Alrabanue language (the language of East Polynesia). Although small, but it is rich in heritage and natural beauty
Rano Raraku quarry (Figure 1), within which 95% of the over 1,000 Easter Island stone statues was carved, is a massive crater of consolidated volcanic ash surrounding an interior, reed-filled lake (Figure 2). About half of the total number of statues recorded to date is still within the quarry zone.
Some 150 statues stand upright on the interior and exterior slopes of Rano Raraku. They are buried to varying depths and appear often as heads only. While weathered and worn by centuries of exposure to the elements, many of them are still very beautiful (Figure 3).
Rano Raraku was first reported to the outside world in 1868 by officers of HMS Topaze. The world was fascinated, and many sketches, essays, newspaper articles, and books were published describing the statues embedded in the slopes as “heads.” Over 90 excavations in Rano Raraku since that time exposed the torsos of many statues. Katherine and William Scoresby Routledge of the Mana Expedition to Easter Island, 1914-15 published photos of their own digs illustrating the bodies of many statues. In 1954-55 Thor Heyerdahl and his Norwegian Archaeological Expedition to Easter Island excavated others, further documenting the existence of complete, but partially buried, statues.
Our EISP excavations recently exposed the torsos of two 7 m tall statues (Figure 4). Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of visitors to the island have been astonished to see that, indeed, Easter Island statues have bodies! More important, however, we discovered a great deal about the Rapa Nui techniques of ancient engineering:
the dirt and detritus partially burying the statues was washed down from above and not deliberately placed there to bury, protect, or support the statues
the statues were erected in place and stand on stone pavements.
post holes were cut into bedrock to support upright tree trunks
rope guides were cut into bedrock around the post holes
posts, ropes, stones, and different types of stone tools were all used to carve and raise the statues upright
We also discovered that ceremonies were certainly associated with the statues. We found large quantities of red pigment, some of which may have been used to paint the statues. Finally, and perhaps most poignantly, we found in the pavement under one statue a single stone carved with a crescent symbol said to represent a canoe, or vaka (Figure 5). The backs of both statues are covered with petroglyphs, many of which are also vaka. A direct connection between the vaka symbol and the identity of the artist or group owning the statue is strongly suggested.
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A beautiful woman loved growing tomatoes, but couldn't seem to get her tomatoes to turn red. One day, while taking a stroll, she came upon a gentleman neighbor who had the most beautiful garden full of huge red tomatoes.
The woman asked the gentlemen,"What do you do to get your tomatoes so red?" The gentlemen responded, "Well, twice a day I stand in front of my tomato garden naked in my trench coat and flash them. My tomatoes turn red from blushing so much."
Well, the woman was so impressed; she decided to try doing the same thing to her tomato garden to see if it would work. So twice a day for two weeks she flashed her garden hoping for the best.
One day the gentleman was passing by and asked the woman, "By the way, how did you make out? Did your tomatoes turn red?"
"No", she replied, "but my cucumbers are enormous."
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Two blondes were driving along a road by a wheat field when they saw a blonde in the middle of the field rowing a row boat.
The driver blonde turned to her friend and said "You know - it's blondes like that that give us a bad name!"
To this, the other blonde replies "I know it, and if I knew how to swim, I'd go out there and drown her."
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A blonde goes into a nearby store and asks a clerk if she can buy the TV in the corner.
The clerk looks at her and says that he doesn't serve blondes, so she goes back home and dyes her hair black.
The next day she returns to the store and asks the same thing, and again, the clerk said he doesn't serve blondes.
Frustrated, the blonde goes home and dyes her hair yet again, to a shade of red.
Sure that a clerk would sell her the TV this time, she returns and asks a different clerk this time.
To her astonishment, this clerk also says that she doesn't serve blondes.
The blonde asks the clerk, "How in the world do you know I am a blonde?"
The clerk looks at her disgustedly and says,"That's not a TV -- it's a microwave!"
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Happy Birthday Echo
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Dean of contemporary Arabic literature and a pioneer of enlightenment, Taha Hussein was born in AI-Minya province, Upper Egypt, on November 14th, 1889 and grew up, the seventh of thirteen children, in a lower middle-class family. At a very early age, he contracted a simple eye infection and, due to faulty treatment by an unskilled local practitioner, was blinded, at the age of three.
He was placed in a kuttab (a school where children learn Quran and reading and writing) and was later sent to Al-Azhar University, where he acquired a thorough knowledge of religion and Arabic literature in the traditional manner. He felt deep discontent with the narrow thinking and conservatism of his tutors.
In 1908, he learned of the founding of a new, secular university as part of a national effort to promote education in Egypt under British occupation, and was very keen to enter it. He was blind and poor, but overcoming many obstacles, he was accepted in that university. He later stated, in Al-Ayyam (The Days) that the doors of knowledge were from that day opened wide for him.
In 1914, he was the first graduate of this university to receive a Ph.D with his thesis on the skeptic poet and philosopher Abu-Alalaa’ AI-Ma'arri.
Again with much trouble, he was sent to study in France on the university's educational mission. His blindness caused him continuing pains, aggravated by a careless brother, presumably sent to take care of him. It was in France that he met his ‘sweet voice’, Suzanne, who came to read to him since not all the references needed were available in braille. She later became his wife, his mentor, advisor, assistant, mother to his children, great love and best friend. He states that since he first heard that 'sweet voice', anguish never entered his heart."
After his death, Suzanne wrote Ma'ak (With You), published in Arabic; a touching remembrance of their life together.
His doctoral dissertation, written in 1917, was on lbn Khaldun, the fourteenth century Arab historian, the founder of sociology.
In 1918 he obtained his second PhD in Social Philosophy from the Sorbonne, Paris.
In 1919 he received a diploma in post-graduate studies in the Roman Civil Code from the same university.
He was granted honorary doctorates from the universities of Oxford, Madrid, and Rome.
In 1919 he was appointed a professor of history at the Egyptian University. He did not confine himself to political and constituational history but transferred to his students his knowledge of Greek drama such as Sophocles and Aeschylus.
When he assumed office as Minister of Education in 1950, he managed to put his motto, "Education is like water we drink and the air we breath," into practice.
He succeeded in making all elementary and secondary education.
Millions of Egyptians owe their literacy to Taha Hussein
His Work
The greater part of Taha Hussein’s canon is basically influenced by Greek culture. He issued "Selected Pages" from Greek Dramatic poetry (1920), "The Athenian System" in 1921, and "Leaders of Thought" in 1925. Thus, the link between his Arabic culture with that of Greece was a turning point as thinker.
The first book was an incomplete attempt at an expose of Greek poets and their works. The second book was a meticulous translation of one of the most important texts of Greek history of civilization. He deals with the religious impact on thought in the Middle Ages, then moves on to the Modern Ages of multi influences.
Thus,Taha Hussein was not merely influenced by Greek thought in his literary work but also in his books on politics and civilization. The books he issued following his return from Paris greatly influenced modern Arabic classical literature.
He waged many battles for enlightenment, the respect of reason and thought, and women’s emancipation. The first of these was in 1926 when he issued "Pre-Islamic Poetry", which was highly controversial in both politically and literary circles. It aroused widescale front page arguments in newspapers between supporters and opposers. In self defence he argued that he adopted a scientific method of approach in his treatise on Pre-Islamic poetry. That method, he said, was adopted by western philosopher scientists and men of letters who followed the French philosopher Descartes in his reasoning in search of the truth of beginning. It rennovated science and philosophy and changed the outlook of men of letters and artists in the West.
Taha Hussein's works can be divided into three categories: scientific study of Arabic literature and Islamic history; creative literary works with social content combating poverty & ignorance, and political articles. The latter he published in the two papers of which he was editor-in-chief, after being expelled from his post as professor of Classical Arabic literature at the Egyptian University. His expulsion came as a result of public reaction to his book 'On Pre-lslamic Poetry'.
In his novels, he expresses an astounding sensitivity, insight and compassion in that age for a person with his background.
His arguments for justice and equality are supported by deep and honest understanding of Islam. Equally remarkable are his sympathy with his downtrodden compatriots and his understanding of the deepest emotions and thoughts of woman as girl, lover, wife and mother
His type of literature became an independent form and readers competed in it passionately, reading and interpreting, discussing analyses, and extracting clear meanings from ambiguous allusions ... Looking at his publications, one will find allusions to phenomena that one abhorred and could not speak of openly during those dismal days. We preferred ambiguity to clarity, symbols and riddles to declaration, allusion and insinuation to calling things by their names.
The government of that era and its controllers would read and not understand. Thus, he defeated the oppression of tyrants and escaped the censorship of censors and manage to record the injustices of the unjust and the corruption of corruptors.
Taha Hussein, who had to bear the brunt of conservative attacks and confront enemies of his reforms, enjoyed affection of his pupils & colleagues. During his life time, he was elected member of many educational academies in Arab countries, and was honored by many international institutions. The American University in Cairo paid no heed to Egyptian Premier Isma'il Sidqi, when he warned against offering employment to Taha Hussein. Its Ewart Hall, where AUC holds its extra-curricular activities, was teeming in the 1930s with listeners eager to hear him and to declare him Dean of Arabic Literature.
President Gamal Abd AI-Nasser bestowed on him the highest Egyptian decoration, normally, reserved for heads of state. In 1973, he received the United Nations Human Rights Award.
Taha Husein died in October 1973, immediately after witnessing his country's victory in its last war against Israel.
He died in his home, alone with his "sweet voice"; Suzanne.
She wrote: "We were together, alone, close to an extent beyond description. I was not crying - the tears came later. Each of us was before the other; unknown & united as we had been at the beginning of our journey. In this last unity, in the midst of this very close familiarity, I talked to him, kissing that forehead that was so noble and handsome, on which age and pain had not succeeded to carve any wrinkles, and no adversity had managed to cause to frown - a forehead that still emanated light”.
http://www.sis.gov.e.../html/taha1.htm
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Mahfouz was born in an old quarter of Cairo (Gamaliya) in 1911 and lived there until the age of 12, when his parents moved to a newer suburb; however, he achieved fame as the chronicler of the old neighborhoods of Cairo, and has credited the Cairene world as his inspiration. He was the youngest of seven children, but at 10 years younger than his next-older brother really had no sibling relationship; instead, he emphasized friendships outside of the house. Politics and religion were evidently important topics of conversation in his home, although Mahfouz has remained relatively silent about his family.
Mahfouz began his education at the kuttab (Qur’an school), where the emphasis was on Islamic religion and basic literacy, then went on to primary school. When he was 7, Egypt was caught up in a revolution against British rule, the memory of which continues to dominate his political awareness; images of the revolution recur in many of his novels. He read historical and adventure novels, specifically citing Sir Walter Scott and H. Rider Haggard, but also read widely in both classical and contemporary Arabic literature. (In various statements after he achieved fame as a writer, he specifically mentioned a wide variety of Western writers, most notably Tolstoy, Proust, and Mann.) He then attended King Fu’ad I University, graduating with a degree in philosophy in 1934. As he matured, he gravitated toward a socialist worldview and became increasingly critical of “Islamist” politics.
He began to study toward an M.A. while occupying various bureaucratic positions from 1934 until 1971, when he became affiliated with the daily newspaper Al-Ahram. In his entire life, he was out of Egypt only twice; he even turned down the opportunity to travel to Stockholm to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1988. Prior to this award, few in the West knew of him; at that point, he had written 38 novels or novellas and 12 collections of short stories and plays, and had received several awards in the Arabic world. His added prominence came with a price, however, as strict Islamic fundamentalists have suggested that a fatwa should have been declared on him after he wrote Children of the Alley, as it would have prevented Salman Rushdie’s subsequent writing of The Satanic Verses. In October of 1994, he was attacked and stabbed on a Cairo street, evidently by a fundamentalist.
His early writings included translations from English and stories about ancient Egypt; but his most significant early novels trace changes in the lives of Cairo's petty bourgeoisie as a national consciousness emerged after the 1919 Revolution. He has been compared to Zola, Balzac, and Dickens, although most critics emphasize his independent Arabic nature. However, after receiving the Nobel Prize, Mahfouz himself said that his work upholds principles widely associated with European civilization - but he has also argued that these principles can be found in Islam as well.
Mahfouz was part of a generation of Egyptian writers who emerged during the 1940s and '50s calling for the reform of Egyptian society. During the 1940s, Egyptian society experienced a major shift as poor workers began moving into the cities seeking employment; under the stress of the changing society, some affiliated with the socialists or communists and others with the Muslim Brotherhood . There was also a great increase in the number of novels published, both because of the increasing respectability of the genre among Arab readers and the foundation of new publishing. Mahfouz, who took part in this explosion of the Egyptian novel, is “the most significant” contributor to the Arab novel in the 20th century, surpassing any rivals in terms of volume and variety of literary output, originality, and seriousness .
In his earlier, realistic novels, Mahfouz clearly seems to favor “secularist socialism,” aligned with modern science, over “revivalist (fundamentalist) Islamism,” as is shown by his presentation of characters espousing each perspective. According to Trevor Le Gassick, “Mahfouz saw his stories as a means to bring enlightenment and reform to his society.” Mahfouz's Cairo Trilogy (published 1957) in particular contributed to both radicalism and social realism in Egyptian literature, but all of his novels up to at least 1957 strive to give a realistic view of life in the old part of Cairo - many of these novels were named for streets or neighborhoods in the old city. Somekh argues that one important ingredient in Mahfouz's work is the complete identification with the plight of Egyptian masses - in other words, his sympathy is with the downtrodden. These are the novels that the Nobel Committee specifically cited in awarding the Prize.
He stopped writing for five years after the 1952 revolution (which also coincided with the completion of his Cairo Trilogy). In Children of the Alley (1959) , he introduces a warning recognition that science, too, may be misused, as the magician’s invention of a powerful explosive weapon is appropriated by the forces of tyranny, not those of liberation (Beginning with Children of the Alley and The Thief and the Dogs in 1962, Mahfouz seemed to move away from his realistic style to a more inner-directed narrative of character's thoughts. Novels of this period tend to be more focused on individuals than the earlier works, but Somekh (perhaps the most expert writer on Mahfouz in English) suggests these works are "neo-realistic" in that they avoid detailed description of setting and psychology but nonetheless present an accurate picture of realistic Egyptian society.
Mahfouz again wrote no novels for several years after Egypt’s defeat in the Six Days War . Following the hiatus in literary production following the 1967 Egyptian defeat, his work has been even more experimental, using a wide variety of forms
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Mahfouz claims that all of his books are political in some way, and that his work revolves around the three poles of politics, faith and love - but politics "is by all odds the most essential". Mahfouz is highly sensitive to political events; e.g., he used the 1919 Egyptian revolution as the background for his Cairo Trilogy, and exhibited prolonged periods of creative stasis followed by new writing directions after both the 1952 revolution and the 1967 loss to Israel in the Six-Day War . His politics became a source of controversy in 1979 when his public support of Sadat's treaty with Israel brought denunciations from Islamic fundamentalists and a ban on his works in some Arab countries.
While his works are often realistic, characters and events often have a further significance, which Somekh says is not quite mystic symbolism but may approach it. For instance, the family is often both a family and a condensed version of Egypt as a whole.
Some of his works translated into English
Palace Walk (Book 1 of the Cairo Trilogy) (originally published in Arabic 1956)
Palace of Desire (Book 2 of the Cairo Trilogy) (originally published in Arabic 1957)
Sugar Street (Book 3 of the Cairo Trilogy) (originally published in Arabic 1957)
Children of Gebelawi (originally published in Arabic 1959)
The Beginning and the End (originally published in Arabic 1956)
Adrift on the Nile (originally published in Arabic 1966)
The Journey of Ibn Fattouma (originally published in Arabic 1983)
Midaq Alley (originally published in Arabic 1947)
The Harafish (originally published in Arabic 1977)
The Beggar (originally published in Arabic 1965)
The Thief and the Dogs (originally published in Arabic 1961)
Autumn Quail (originally published in Arabic 1962)
Wedding Song (originally published in Arabic 1981)
The Search (originally published in Arabic 1964)
Fountain and Tomb (originally published in Arabic 1975)
Miramar (originally published in Arabic 1967)
The Time and the Place and other stories
Respected Sir (originally published in Arabic 1975)
Arabian Nights and Days (originally published in Arabic 1982)
http://www.arabworldbooks.com/authors/naguib_mahfouz.html
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On the banks of the Nile, the Rosetta branch, I lived an enjoyable childhood in the City of Disuq, which is the home of the famous mosque, Sidi Ibrahim. I was born (February 26, 1946) in nearby Damanhur, the "City of Horus", only 60 km from Alexandria. In retrospect, it is remarkable that my childhood origins were flanked by two great places - Rosetta, the city where the famous Stone was discovered, and Alexandria, the home of ancient learning. The dawn of my memory begins with my days, at Disuq's preparatory school. I am the only son in a family of three sisters and two loving parents. My father was liked and respected by the city community - he was helpful, cheerful and very much enjoyed his life. He worked for the government and also had his own business. My mother, a good-natured, contented person, devoted all her life to her children and, in particular, to me. She was central to my "walks of life" with her kindness, total devotion and native intelligence. Although our immediate family is small, the Zewails are well known in Damanhur.
The family's dream was to see me receive a high degree abroad and to return to become a university professor - on the door to my study room, a sign was placed reading, "Dr. Ahmed," even though I was still far from becoming a doctor. My father did live to see that day, but a dear uncle did not. Uncle Rizk was special in my boyhood years and I learned much from him - an appreciation for critical analyses, an enjoyment of music, and of intermingling with the masses and intellectuals alike; he was respected for his wisdom, financially well-to-do, and self-educated. Culturally, my interests were focused - reading, music, some sports and playing backgammon. The great singer Um Kulthum (actually named Kawkab Elsharq - a superstar of the East) had a major influence on my appreciation of music. On the first Thursday of each month we listened to Um Kulthum's concert - "waslats" (three songs) - for more than three hours. During all of my study years in Egypt, the music of this unique figure gave me a special happiness, and her voice was often in the background while I was studying mathematics, chemistry... etc. After three decades I still have the same feeling and passion for her music. In America, the only music I have been able to appreciate on this level is classical, and some jazz. Reading was and still is my real joy.
As a boy it was clear that my inclinations were toward the physical sciences. Mathematics, mechanics, and chemistry were among the fields that gave me a special satisfaction. Social sciences were not as attractive because in those days much emphasis was placed on memorization of subjects, names and the like, and for reasons unknown (to me), my mind kept asking "how" and "why". This characteristic has persisted from the beginning of my life. In my teens, I recall feeling a thrill when I solved a difficult problem in mechanics, for instance, considering all of the tricky operational forces of a car going uphill or downhill. Even though chemistry required some memorization, I was intrigued by the "mathematics of chemistry". It provides laboratory phenomena which, as a boy, I wanted to reproduce and understand. In my bedroom I constructed a small apparatus, out of my mother's oil burner (for making Arabic coffee) and a few glass tubes, in order to see how wood is transformed into a burning gas and a liquid substance. I still remember this vividly, not only for the science, but also for the danger of burning down our house! It is not clear why I developed this attraction to science at such an early stage.
After finishing high school, I applied to universities. In Egypt, you send your application to a central Bureau (Maktab El Tansiq), and according to your grades, you are assigned a university, hopefully on your list of choice. In the sixties, Engineering, Medicine, Pharmacy, and Science were tops. I was admitted to Alexandria University and to the faculty of science. Here, luck played a crucial role because I had little to do with Maktab El Tansiq's decision, which gave me the career I still love most: science. At the time, I did not know the depth of this feeling, and, if accepted to another faculty, I probably would not have insisted on the faculty of science. But this passion for science became evident on the first day I went to the campus in Maharem Bek with my uncle - I had tears in my eyes as I felt the greatness of the university and the sacredness of its atmosphere. My grades throughout the next four years reflected this special passion. In the first year, I took four courses, mathematics, physics, chemistry, and geology, and my grades were either excellent or very good. Similarly, in the second year I scored very highly (excellent) in Chemistry and was chosen for a group of seven students (called "special chemistry"), an elite science group. I graduated with the highest honors - "Distinction with First Class Honor" - with above 90% in all areas of chemistry. With these scores, i was awarded, as a student, a stipend every month of approximately £13, which was close to that of a university graduate who made £17 at the time!
After graduating with the degree of Bachelor of Science, I was appointed to a University position as a demonstrator ("Moeid"), to carry on research toward a Masters and then a Ph.D. degree, and to teach undergraduates at the University of Alexandria. This was a tenured position, guaranteeing a faculty appointment at the University. In teaching, I was successful to the point that, although not yet a professor, I gave "professorial lectures" to help students after the Professor had given his lecture. Through this experience I discovered an affinity and enjoyment of explaining science and natural phenomena in the clearest and simplest way. The students (500 or more) enriched this sense with the appreciation they expressed. At the age of 21, as a Moeid, I believed that behind every universal phenomenon there must be beauty and simplicity in its description. This belief remains true today.
On the research side, I finished the requirements for a Masters in Science in about eight months. The tool was spectroscopy, and I was excited about developing an understanding of how and why the spectra of certain molecules change with solvents. This is an old subject, but to me it involved a new level of understanding that was quite modern in our department. My research advisors were three: The head of the inorganic section, Professor Tahany Salem and Professors Rafaat Issa and Samir El Ezaby, with whom I worked most closely; they suggested the research problem to me, and this research resulted in several publications. I was ready to think about my Ph.D. research (called "research point") after one year of being a Moeid. Professors El Ezaby (a graduate of Utah) and Yehia El Tantawy (a graduate of Penn) encouraged me to go abroad to complete my Ph.D. work. All the odds were against my going to America. First, I did not have the connections abroad. Second, the 1967 war had just ended and American stocks in Egypt were at their lowest value, so study missions were only sent to the USSR or Eastern European countries. I had to obtain a scholarship directly from an American University. After corresponding with a dozen universities, the University of Pennsylvania and a few others offered me scholarships, providing the tuition and paying a monthly stipend (some $300). There were still further obstacles against travel to America ("Safer to America"). It took enormous energy to pass the regulatory and bureaucratic barriers.
Arriving in the States, I had the feeling of being thrown into an ocean. The ocean was full of knowledge, culture, and opportunities, and the choice was clear: I could either learn to swim or sink. The culture was foreign, the language was difficult, but my hopes were high. I did not speak or write English fluently, and I did not know much about western culture in general, or American culture in particular. I remember a "cultural incident" that opened my eyes to the new traditions I was experiencing right after settling in Philadelphia. In Egypt, as boys, we used to kid each other by saying "I'll kill you", and good friends often said such phrases jokingly. I became friends with a sympathetic American graduate student, and, at one point, jokingly said "I'll kill you". I immediately noticed his reserve and coolness, perhaps worrying that a fellow from the Middle East might actually do it!
My presence - as the Egyptian at Penn - was starting to be felt by the professors and students as my scores were high, and I also began a successful course of research. I owe much to my research advisor, Professor Robin Hochstrasser, who was, and still is, a committed scientist and educator. The diverse research problems I worked on, and the collaborations with many able scientists, were both enjoyable and profitable. My publication list was increasing, but just as importantly, I was learning new things literally every day - in chemistry, in physics and in other fields. The atmosphere at the Laboratory for Research on the Structure of Matter (LRSM) was most stimulating and I was enthusiastic about researching in areas that crossed the disciplines of physics and chemistry (sometimes too enthusiastic!). My courses were enjoyable too; I still recall the series 501, 502, 503 and the physics courses I took with the Nobel Laureate, Bob Schrieffer. I was working almost "day and night," and doing several projects at the same time: The Stark effect of simple molecules; the Zeeman effect of solids like NO2- and benzene; the optical detection of magnetic resonance (ODMR); double resonance techniques, etc. Now, thinking about it, I cannot imagine doing all of this again, but of course then I was "young and innocent".
The research for my Ph.D. and the requirements for a degree were essentially completed by 1973, when another war erupted in the Middle East. I had strong feelings about returning to Egypt to be a University Professor, even though at the beginning of my years in America my memories of the frustrating bureaucracy encountered at the time of my departure were still vivid. With time, things change, and I recollected all the wonderful years of my childhood and the opportunities Egypt had provided to me. Returning was important to me, but I also knew that Egypt would not be able to provide the scientific atmosphere I had enjoyed in the U.S. A few more years in America would give me and my family two opportunities: First, I could think about another area of research in a different place (while learning to be professorial!). Second, my salary would be higher than that of a graduate student, and we could then buy a big American car that would be so impressive for the new Professor at Alexandria University! I applied for five positions, three in the U.S., one in Germany and one in Holland, and all of them with world-renowned professors. I received five offers and decided on Berkeley.
Early in 1974 we went to Berkeley, excited by the new opportunities. Culturally, moving from Philadelphia to Berkeley was almost as much of a shock as the transition from Alexandria to Philadelphia - Berkeley was a new world! I saw Telegraph Avenue for the first time, and this was sufficient to indicate the difference. I also met many graduate students whose language and behavior I had never seen before, neither in Alexandria, nor in Philadelphia. I interacted well with essentially everybody, and in some cases I guided some graduate students. But I also learned from members of the group. The obstacles did not seem as high as they had when I came to the University of Pennsylvania because culturally and scientifically I was better equipped. Berkeley was a great place for science - the BIG science. In the laboratory, my aim was to utilize the expertise I had gained from my Ph.D. work on the spectroscopy of pairs of molecules, called dimers, and to measure their coherence with the new tools available at Berkeley. Professor Charles Harris was traveling to Holland for an extensive stay, but when he returned to Berkeley we enjoyed discussing science at late hours! His ideas were broad and numerous, and in some cases went beyond the scientific language I was familiar with. Nevertheless, my general direction was established. I immediately saw the importance of the concept of coherence. I decided to tackle the problem, and, in a rather short time, acquired a rigorous theoretical foundation which was new to me. I believe that this transition proved vital in subsequent years of my research.
I wrote two papers with Charles, one theoretical and the other experimental. They were published in Physical Review. These papers were followed by other work, and I extended the concept of coherence to multidimensional systems, publishing my first independently authored paper while at Berkeley. In collaboration with other graduate students, I also published papers on energy transfer in solids. I enjoyed my interactions with the students and professors, and at Berkeley's popular and well-attended physical chemistry seminars. Charles decided to offer me the IBM Fellowship that was only given to a few in the department. He strongly felt that I should get a job at one of the top universities in America, or at least have the experience of going to the interviews; I am grateful for his belief in me. I only applied to a few places and thought I had no chance at these top universities. During the process, I contacted Egypt, and I also considered the American University in Beirut (AUB). Although I visited some places, nothing was finalized, and I was preparing myself for the return. Meanwhile, I was busy and excited about the new research I was doing. Charles decided to build a picosecond laser, and two of us in the group were involved in this hard and "non-profitable" direction of research (!); I learned a great deal about the principles of lasers and their physics.
During this period, many of the top universities announced new positions, and Charles asked me to apply. I decided to send applications to nearly a dozen places and, at the end, after interviews and enjoyable visits, I was offered an Assistant Professorship at many, including Harvard, Caltech, Chicago, Rice, and Northwestern. My interview at Caltech had gone well, despite the experience of an exhausting two days, visiting each half hour with a different faculty member in chemistry and chemical engineering. The visit was exciting, surprising and memorable. The talks went well and I even received some undeserved praise for style. At one point, I was speaking about what is known as the FVH, picture of coherence, where F stands for Feynman, the famous Caltech physicist and Nobel Laureate. I went to the board to write the name and all of a sudden I was stuck on the spelling. Half way through, I turned to the audience and said, "you know how to spell Feynman". A big laugh erupted, and the audience thought I was joking - I wasn't! After receiving several offers, the time had come to make up my mind, but I had not yet heard from Caltech. I called the Head of the Search Committee, now a colleague of mine, and he was lukewarm, encouraging me to accept other offers. However, shortly after this, I was contacted by Caltech with a very attractive offer, asking me to visit with my family. We received the red carpet treatment, and that visit did cost Caltech! I never regretted the decision of accepting the Caltech offer.
My science family came from all over the world, and members were of varied backgrounds, cultures, and abilities. The diversity in this "small world" I worked in daily provided the most stimulating environment, with many challenges and much optimism. Over the years, my research group has had close to 150 graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and visiting associates. Many of them are now in leading academic, industrial and governmental positions. Working with such minds in a village of science has been the most rewarding experience - Caltech was the right place for me.
My biological children were all "made in America". I have two daughters, Maha, a Ph.D. student at the University of Texas, Austin, and Amani, a junior at Berkeley, both of whom I am very proud. I met Dema, my wife, by a surprising chance, a fairy tale. In 1988 it was announced that I was a winner of the King Faisal International Prize. In March of 1989, I went to receive the award from Saudi Arabia, and there I met Dema; her father was receiving the same prize in literature. We met in March, got engaged in July and married in September, all of the same year, 1989. Dema has her M.D. from Damascus University, and completed a Master's degree in Public Health at UCLA. We have two young sons, Nabeel and Hani, and both bring joy and excitement to our life. Dema is a wonderful mother, and is my friend and confidante.
The journey from Egypt to America has been full of surprises. As a Moeid, I was unaware of the Nobel Prize in the way I now see its impact in the West. We used to gather around the TV or read in the newspaper about the recognition of famous Egyptian scientists and writers by the President, and these moments gave me and my friends a real thrill - maybe one day we would be in this position ourselves for achievements in science or literature. Some decades later, when President Mubarak bestowed on me the Order of Merit, first class, and the Grand Collar of the Nile ("Kiladate El Niel"), the highest State honor, it brought these emotional boyhood days back to my memory. I never expected that my portrait, next to the pyramids, would be on a postage stamp or that the school I went to as a boy and the road to Rosetta would be named after me. Certainly, as a youngster in love with science, I had no dreams about the honor of the Nobel Prize.
Since my arrival at Caltech in 1976, our contributions have been recognized by countries around the world. Among the awards and honors are:Special Honors
King Faisal International Prize in Science (1989).
First Linus Pauling Chair, Caltech (1990).
Wolf Prize in Chemistry (1993).
Order of Merit, first class (Sciences & Arts), from President Mubarak (1995).
Robert A. Welch Award in Chemistry (1997).
Benjamin Franklin Medal, Franklin Institute, USA (1998).
Egypt Postage Stamps, with Portrait (1998); the Fourth Pyramid (1999).
Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1999).
Grand Collar of the Nile, Highest State Honor, conferred by President Mubarak (1999).
Prizes and Awards
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellow (1978-1982).
Camille and Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award (1979-1985).
Alexander von Humboldt Award for Senior United States Scientists (1983).
National Science Foundation Award for especially creative research (1984; 1988; 1993).
Buck-Whitney Medal, American Chemical Society (1985).
John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellow (1987).
Harrison Howe Award, American Chemical Society (1989).
Carl Zeiss International Award, Germany (1992).
Earle K. Plyler Prize, American Physical Society (1993).
Medal of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, Holland (1993).
Bonner Chemiepreis, Germany (1994).
Herbert P. Broida Prize, American Physical Society (1995).
Leonardo Da Vinci Award of Excellence, France (1995).
Collége de France Medal, France (1995).
Peter Debye Award, American Chemical Society (1996).
National Academy of Sciences Award, Chemical Sciences, USA (1996).
J.G. Kirkwood Medal, Yale University (1996).
Peking University Medal, PU President, Beijing, China (1996).
Pittsburgh Spectroscopy Award (1997).
First E.B. Wilson Award, American Chemical Society (1997).
Linus Pauling Medal Award (1997).
Richard C. Tolman Medal Award (1998).
William H. Nichols Medal Award (1998).
Paul Karrer Gold Medal, University of Zürich, Switzerland (1998).
E.O. Lawrence Award, U.S. Government (1998).
Merski Award, University of Nebraska (1999).
Röntgen Prize, (100th Anniversary of the Discovery of X-rays), Germany (1999).
Academies and Societies
American Physical Society, Fellow (elected 1982).
National Academy of Sciences, USA (elected 1989).
Third World Academy of Sciences, Italy (elected 1989).
Sigma Xi Society, USA (elected 1992).
American Academy of Arts and Sciences (elected 1993).
Académie Européenne des Sciences, des Arts et des Lettres, France (elected 1994).
American Philosophical Society (elected 1998).
Pontifical Academy of Sciences (elected 1999).
American Academy of Achievement (elected 1999).
Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters (elected 2000)
Honorary Degrees
Oxford University, UK (1991): M.A., h.c.
American University, Cairo, Egypt (1993): D.Sc., h.c.
Katholieke Universiteit, Leuven, Belgium (1997): D.Sc., h.c.
University of Pennsylvania, USA (1997): D.Sc., h.c.
Université de Lausanne, Switzerland (1997): D.Sc., h.c.
Swinburne University, Australia (1999): D.U., h.c.
Arab Academy for Science & Technology, Egypt (1999): H.D.A.Sc.
Alexandria University, Egypt (1999): H.D.Sc.
University of New Brunswick, Canada (2000): Doctoris in Scientia, D.Sc., h.c.
Universita di Roma "La Sapienza", Italy (2000): D.Sc., h.c.
Université de Liège, Belgium (2000): Doctor honoris causa, D., h.c.
From Les Prix Nobel. The Nobel Prizes 1999, Editor Tore Frängsmyr, [Nobel Foundation], Stockholm, 2000
This autobiography/biography was written at the time of the award and later published in the book series Les Prix Nobel/Nobel Lectures. The information is sometimes updated with an addendum submitted by the Laureate.
Copyright © The Nobel Foundation 1999
Addendum, January 2006
After the awarding of the Nobel Prize in 1999, I continued to serve as a faculty member at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) as the Linus Pauling Chair Professor of Chemistry and Professor of Physics, and the Director of the Physical Biology Center for Ultrafast Science and Technology (UST) and the NSF Laboratory for Molecular Sciences (LMS). Current research is devoted to dynamical chemistry and biology, with a focus on the physics of elementary processes in complex systems. A major research frontier is the new development of "4D ultrafast diffraction and microscopy”, making possible the imaging of transient structures in space and time with atomic-scale resolution.
I have also devoted some time to giving public lectures in order to enhance awareness of the value of knowledge gained from fundamental research, and helping the population of developing countries through the promotion of science and technology for the betterment of society. Because of the unique East-West cultures that I represent, I wrote a book Voyage Through Time - Walks of Life to the Nobel Prize hoping to share the experience, especially with young people, and to remind them that it is possible! This book is in 12 editions and languages, so far.
Since the awarding of the Nobel Prize, the following are some of the awards and honors received:Special Honors
Postage Stamp, issued by the country of Ghana (2002)
Ahmed Zewail Fellowships, University of Pennsylvania (2000–)
Highest Order of the State from United Arab Emirates, Sudan, Tunisia, Lebanon (2000–)
Ahmed Zewail Prize, American University in Cairo (2001–)
Ahmed Zewail Prize for Creativity in the Arts, Opera House, Cairo (2004–)
Zewail Foundation for Knowledge and Development, Cairo (2004–)
Ahmed Zewail Prizes for Excellence and Leadership, ICTP, Trieste, Italy (2004–)
Ahmed Zewail Award for Ultrafast Science and Technology, American Chemical Society (2005–).
Prizes and Awards
Faye Robiner Award, Ross University School of Medicine, New York (2000)
Golden Plate Award, American Academy of Achievement (2000)
City of Pisa Medal, City Mayor, Pisa, Italy (2000)
Medal of "La Sapienza" ("wisdom"), University of Rome (2000)
Médaille de l'Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, France (2000)
Honorary Medal, Universite Du Centre, Monastir, Tunisia (2000)
Honorary Medal, City of Monastir, from The Mayor, Tunisia (2000)
Distinguished Alumni Award, University of Pennsylvania (2002)
G.M. Kosolapoff Award, The American Chemical Society (2002)
Distinguished American Service Award, ADC, Washington D.C. (2002)
Sir C.V. Raman Award, Kolkata, India (2002)
Arab American Award, National Museum, Dearborn, Michigan (2004)
Gold Medal (Highest Honor), Burgos University, Burgos, Spain (2004)
Grand Gold Medal, Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovak Republic (2005)
Academies and Societies
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), Fellow (elected 2000)
Chemical Society of India, Honorary Fellow (elected 2001)
Indian Academy of Sciences (elected 2001)
The Royal Society of London, Foreign Member (elected 2001)
Sydney Sussex College, Honorary Fellow, Cambridge, U.K. (elected 2002)
Indian National Science Academy, Foreign Fellow (elected 2002)
Korean Academy of Science and Technology, Honorary Foreign Member (elected 2002)
African Academy of Sciences, Honorary Fellow (elected 2002)
Royal Society of Chemistry, Honorary Fellow, U.K. (elected 2003)
Russian Academy of Sciences, Foreign Member (elected 2003)
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Foreign Member (elected 2003)
The Royal Academy of Belgium, Foreign Member (elected 2003)
St. Catherine's College, Honorary Fellow, Oxford, U.K. (elected 2004)
European Academy of Sciences, Honorary Member, Belgium (elected 2004)
The Literary & Historical Society, University College, Honorary Fellow, Dublin, Ireland (elected 2004)
The National Society of High School Scholars, Honorary Member Board of Advisors, U.S.A. (elected 2004)
Academy of Sciences of Malaysia, Honorary Fellow (elected 2005)
French Academy of Sciences, Foreign Member (elected 2005)
Honorary Degrees
Jadavpur University, India (2001): D.Sc., h.c.
Concordia University, Montréal, Canada (2002): LLD, h.c.
Heriot-Watt University, Scotland (2002): D.Sc., h.c.
Pusan National University, Korea (2003): M.D., h.c.
Lund University, Sweden (2003) : D.Ph., h.c.
Bogaziçi University, Istanbul, Turkey (2003): D.Sc., h.c.
École Normale Supérieure, Paris, France (2003): D.Sc., h.c.
Oxford University, United Kingdom (2004): D.Sc., h.c.
Peking University, People's Republic of China (2004): H.D.D.
Autonomous University of the State of Mexico, Toluca, Mexico (2004): D., h.c.
University of Dublin, Trinity College, Ireland (2004): D.Sc., h.c.
Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan (2005): H.D.D.
American University of Beirut, Lebanon (2005): D.H.L.
University of Buenos Aires, Argentina (2005): D., h.c.
National University of Cordoba, Argentina (2005): D., h.c.
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1999/zewail-autobio.html
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Who is Kevin Mitnick? The picture that emerged after his arrest in Raleigh, N.C. last February was of a 31-year old computer programmer, who had been given a number of chances to get his life together but each time was seduced back to the dark side of the computer world. Kevin David Mitnick reached adolescence in suburban Los Angeles in the late 1970s, the same time the personal computer industry was exploding beyond its hobbyist roots. His parents were divorced, and in a lower-middle-class environment that lacked adventure and in which he was largely a loner and an underachiever, he was seduced by the power he could gain over the telephone network. The underground culture of phone phreaks had already flourished for more than a decade, but it was now in the middle of a transition from the analog to the digital world. Using a personal computer and modem it became possible to commandeer a phone company's digital central office switch by dialing in remotely, and Kevin became adept at doing so. Mastery of a local telephone company switch offered more than just free calls: It opened a window into the lives of other people to eavesdrop on the rich and powerful, or on his own enemies.
Mitnick soon fell in with an informal phone phreak gang that met irregularly in a pizza parlor in Hollywood. Much of what they did fell into the category of pranks, like taking over directory assistance and answering operator calls by saying, "Yes, that number is eight-seven-five-zero and a half. Do you know how to dial the half, ma'am?" or changing the class of service on someone's home phone to payphone status, so that whenever they picked up the receiver a recorded voice asked them to deposit twenty cents. But the group seemed to have a mean streak as well. One of its members destroyed files of a San Francisco-based computer time-sharing company, a crime that went unsolved for more than a year -- until a break-in at a Los Angeles telephone company switching center led police to the gang.
The case was actually solved when a jilted girlfriend of one of the gang went to the police...That break-in occurred over Memorial Day weekend in 1981, when Kevin and two friends decided to physically enter Pacific Bell's COSMOS phone center in downtown Los Angeles. COSMOS, or Computer System for Mainframe Operations, was a database used by many of the nation's phone companies for controlling the phone system's basic recordkeeping functions. The group talked their way past a security guard and ultimately found the room where the COSMOS system was located. Once inside they took lists of computer passwords, including the combinations to the door locks at nine Pacific Bell central offices and a series of operating manuals for the COSMOS system.. To facilitate later social engineering they planted their pseudonyms and phone numbers in a rolodex sitting on one of the desks in the room. With a flourish one of the fake names they used was "John Draper," who was an actual computer programmer also known as the legendary phone phreak, Captain Crunch, the phone numbers were actually misrouted numbers that would ring at a coffee shop pay phone in Van Nuys.
The crime was far from perfect, however. A telephone company manager soon discovered the phony numbers and reported them to the local police, who started an investigation. The case was actually solved when a jilted girlfriend of one of the gang went to the police, and Kevin and his friends were soon arrested. The group was charged with destroying data over a computer network and with stealing operator's manuals from the telephone company. Kevin, 17 years old at the time, was relatively lucky, and was sentenced to spend only three months in the Los Angeles Juvenile Detention Center, followed by a year's probation.
A run-in with the police might have persuaded most bright kids to explore the many legal ways to have computer adventures, but Mitnick appeared to be obsessed by some twisted vision. Rather than developing his computer skills in creative and productive ways, he seemed interested only in learning enough short-cuts for computer break-ins and dirty tricks to continue to play out a fantasy that led to collision after collision with the police throughout the 1980s. He obviously loved the attention and the mystique his growing notoriety was bringing. Early on, after seeing the 1975 Robert Redford movie Three Days of the Condor, he had adopted Condor as his nom de guerre. In the film Redford plays the role of a hunted CIA researcher who uses his experience as an Army signal corpsman to manipulate the phone system and avoid capture. Mitnick seemed to view himself as the same kind of daring man on the run from the law.
After he was released, he obtained the license plate "X HACKER" for his Nissan...His next arrest was in 1983 by campus police at the University of Southern California, where he had gotten into minor trouble a few years earlier, when he was caught using a university computer to gain illegal access to the ARPAnet. This time he was discovered sitting at a computer in a campus terminal room, breaking into a Pentagon computer over the ARPAnet, and was sentenced to six months at the California Youth Authority's Karl Holton Training School, a juvenile prison in Stockton, California. After he was released, he obtained the license plate "X HACKER" for his Nissan, but he was still very much in the computer break-in business. Several years later he went underground for more than a year after being accused of tampering with a TRW credit reference computer; an arrest warrant was issued, but it later vanished from police records without explanation.
By 1987, Mitnick seemed to be making an effort to pull his life together, and he began living with a woman who was taking a computer class with him at a local vocational school. After a while, however, his obsession drew him back, and this time his use of illegal telephone credit card numbers led police investigators to the apartment he was sharing with his girlfriend in Thousand Oaks, California. He was convicted of stealing software from the Santa Cruz Operation, a California software company, and in December 1987, he was sentenced to 36 months probation. That brush with the police, and the resultant wrist slap, seemed only increase his sense of omnipotence.
In 1987 and 1988, Kevin and a friend, Lenny DiCicco, fought a pitched electronic battle against scientists at Digital Equipment's Palo Alto research laboratory. Mitnick had become obsessed with obtaining a copy of Digital's VMS minicomputer operating system, and was trying to do so by gaining entry to the company's corporate computer network, known as Easynet. The computers at Digital's Palo Alto laboratory looked easiest, so every night with remarkable persistence Mitnick and DiCicco would launch their modem attacks from a small Calabasas, California company where DiCicco had a computer support job. Although Reid discovered the attacks almost immediately, he didn't know where they were coming from, nor did the local police or FBI, because Mitnick was manipulating the telephone network's switches to disguise the source of the modem calls.
...he agreed to one year in prison and six months in a counseling program for his computer "addiction."The FBI can easily serve warrants and get trap-and-trace information from telephone companies, but few of its agents know how to interpret the data they provide. If the bad guy is actually holed up at the address that corresponds to the telephone number, they're set. But if the criminal has electronically broken into to the telephone company's local switch and scrambled the routing tables, they're clueless. Kevin had easily frustrated their best attempts at tracking him through the telephone network using wiretaps and traces. He would routinely use two computer terminals each night -- one for his forays into Digital's computers, the other as a lookout that scanned the telephone company computers to see if his trackers were getting close. At one point, a team of law enforcement and telephone security agents thought they had tracked him down, only to find that Mitnick had diverted the telephone lines so as to lead his pursuers not to his hideout in Calabasas, but to an apartment in Malibu. Mitnick, it seemed, was a tough accomplice, for even as they had been working together he had been harassing DiCicco by making fake calls to DiCicco's employer, claiming to be a Government agent and saying that DiCicco was in trouble with the Internal Revenue Service. The frustrated DiCicco confessed to his boss, who notified DEC and the FBI, and Mitnick soon wound up in federal court in Los Angeles. Although DEC claimed that he had stolen software worth several million dollars, and had cost DEC almost $200,000 in time spent trying to keep him out of their computers, Kevin pleaded guilty to one count of computer fraud and one count of possessing illegal long-distance access codes.
It was the fifth time that Mitnick had been apprehended for a computer crime, and the case attracted nationwide attention because, in an unusual plea bargain, he agreed to one year in prison and six months in a counseling program for his computer "addiction." It was a strange defense tactic, but a federal judge, after initially balking, bought the idea that there was some sort of psychological parallel between the obsession Mitnick had for breaking in to computer systems and an addict's craving for drugs. After he finished his jail time and his halfway-house counseling sentence for the 1989 Digital Equipment conviction Mitnick moved to Las Vegas and took a low-level computer programming position for a mailing list company. His mother had moved there, as had a woman who called herself Susan Thunder who had been part of Mitnick's phone phreak gang in the early 1980s, and with whom he now became reacquainted. It was during this period that he tried to "social engineer" me over the phone. In early 1992 Mitnick moved back to the San Fernando Valley area after his half-brother died of an apparent heroin overdose. He briefly worked for his father in construction, but then took a job he found through a friend of his father's at the Tel Tec Detective Agency . Soon after he began, someone was discovered illegally using a commercial database system on the agency's behalf, and Kevin was once again the subject of an FBI investigation. In September the Bureau searched his apartment, as well as the home and workplace of another member of the original phone phreak gang. Two months later a federal judge issued a warrant for Mitnick's arrest for having violated the terms of his 1989 probation. There were two charges: illegally accessing a phone company computer, and associating with one of the people with whom he'd originally been arrested in 1981. His friends claimed Mitnick had been set up by the detective firm; whatever the truth, when the FBI came to arrest him, Kevin Mitnick had vanished.
His escape, subsequently reported in the Southern California newspapers, made the authorities look like bumblers who were no match for a brilliant and elusive cyberthief.In late 1992 someone called the California Department of Motor Vehicles office in Sacramento, and using a valid law enforcement requester code, attempted to have driver's license photographs of a police informer faxed to a number in Studio City, near Los Angeles. Smelling fraud, D.M.V. security officers checked the number and discovered that it was assigned to a Kinko's copy shop, which they staked out before faxing the photographs. But somehow the spotters didn't see their quarry until he was going out the door of the copy shop. They started after him, but he outran them across the parking lot and disappeared around the corner, dropping the documents as he fled. The agents later determined that they were covered with Kevin Mitnick's fingerprints. His escape, subsequently reported in the Southern California newspapers, made the authorities look like bumblers who were no match for a brilliant and elusive cyberthief.
Benefits of smoking
in Jokes
Posted
Benefits of smoking
1 - Do not grow up in the Age
2 - dogs fear you
3 - Do not exposed to theft
Why ?
1 - because you die at an early age
2 - Because you can not walk and is based on stick
3 - Because you awake all night because of coughing