E-mail

Electronic mail, most commonly abbreviated email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages. E-mail systems are based on a store-and-forward model in which e-mail server computer systems accept, forward, deliver and store messages on behalf of users, who only need to connect to the e-mail infrastructure, typically an e-mail server, with a network-enabled device for the duration of message submission or retrieval. Originally, e-mail was always transmitted directly from one user's device to another's; nowadays this is rarely the case.
An electronic mail message consists of two components, the message header, and the message body, which is the email's content. The message header contains control information, including, minimally, an originator's email address and one or more recipient addresses. Usually additional information is added, such as a subject header field.
Originally a text-only communications medium, email was extended to carry multi-media content attachments, which were standardized in with RFC 2045 through RFC 2049, collectively called, Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME).
The foundation for today's global Internet e-mail service was created in the early ARPANET and standards for encoding of messages were proposed as early as 1973 (RFC 561). An e-mail sent in the early 1970s looked very similar to one sent on the Internet today. Conversion from the ARPANET to the Internet in the early 1980s produced the core of the current service.
Network-based e-mail was initially exchanged on the ARPANET in extensions to the File Transfer Protocol (FTP), but is today carried by the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), first published as Internet standard 10 (RFC 821) in 1982. In the process of transporting e-mail messages between systems, SMTP communicates delivery parameters using a message envelope separately from the message (header and body) itself.

1. US-Presidential Election 2008

Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama took a giant possibly decisive step towards nomination, obtaining a convincing victory in North Carolina helping to revive his campaign’s momentum and confirming that he is the front-runner with 1887 delegates, while Clinton has 1718, after winning with an impressive margin in WestVirginia, underscoring Obama’s weakness with white, working-class voters and proving that her campaign has still life. However this is not likely to change the overall fundamentals that are installing Obama as the presumtive Democratic nominee, as he leads in pledged delegates, superdelegates and polls. Obama’s campaign is assuming that he will loose also Kentucky(May 20) and win in Oregon(May 20), giving him a firm majority of pledged delegates and the possibility to declare victory, -excluding Michigan and Florida where Democrats did not campaign because of a dispute of the primary calendar. As it is unlikely that one of the two Democratic candidates will earn the needed 2025 delegates for nomination,  Party chiefs are ready to push the last uncommitted party leaders, the so-called superdelegates, to endorse a candidate, after the primaries end on June 7, with the intention to prevent the potential of a floor fight at the Democratic National Convention in Denver August 25-28. Talking about a joint ticket Obama/Clinton for the Presidential election on November 4, is still premature, but for Clinton, vowing to fight on, a face saving exit to the presidential primaries that she probably cannot win, could be a try for the vice presidency or running for Governor of New York! Obama, who reputiated angrily his former pastor Rev. Wright, overshadowing the Illinois senator’s campaign and grabbing a lot of attention, is resetting and freshening his message to attract the white, working-class voters, an important part of the traditional Democratic coalation, and, with less than six months until Election Day,  he is already focusing mostly in his remaining campaign on the presumtive Republican nominee John McCain, who will try to exploit Obama’s youth and unexperience, as Clinton did without success.  According to a latest poll, controversy with  Rev.Wright takes toll as now 51% of Democratic primary voters say they expected Obama to win their party’s nomination, down from 69%, and 48% are saying he is the candidate with the best chance to beat Republican nominee John McCain, down from 56%. Meanwhile on the Republican side John McCain, 73, who secured his nomination, which will not become official until the Republican National Convention in September, is said to be a problem-solver who could bring spending under control, avoiding the steady collapse of the government’s financial house. Federal budget has increased to $3,1 Trillion from $1,8 Trillion; the national debt is now $9 Trillion, more than the combined GDP of China, Japan and Canada, and adding Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security commitments, as a nation there is a $50 Trillion hole, an invisible mortgage of $450.000 for every American family. The federal spending, the war on terror, federal judgeships and energy independence are all significant issues. General public concern, discontent and widespread dissatisfaction will conduce voters to choose the candidate they trust more to secure America’s place in the world, a candidate with strong leadership qualities and capable to introduce and fight for a change. President Bush mentioned in a speach to the Israeli Parliament those who defended greater engagement with ‘terrorists and radicals’, interpreted as a clear reference to the presumtive Democratic nominee Obama, whom Republicans try to portray as weak in the fight against terrorism. Obama’s campaign accused President Bush of launching an unprecedented attack, endorsed by John McCain, in order to continue failed policies and an intention to influence the presidential election and Obama is ready and willing to fight Republicans over foreign policy and national security issues.