A prep course for the month-long World Cup soccer tournament, a worldwide pheno

ombs equal to seven Hiroshimas on this land . The bombing killed and wounded ten

s of thousands of men , women and children , hitting mosques , churches , hospit

als , schools , homes for children and the disabled and civilian shelters . Bomb

s and missiles also destroyed power stations , sewage systems and municipal serv

ices . This is a breach of Article 51 of the first protocol of the Geneva conven

tions of 1977 , which calls for protection of civilians against military operati

ons and forbids attacks targeting them . The U.N. economic sanctions were placed

 on Iraq for refusing to withdraw from Kuwait and were continued after Iraqi tro

ops pulled out , following the cease-fire . The stated aim was to compel destruc

tion of the country 's capacity to produce chemical and nuclear weapons . The wh

ispered aim was to bring down Saddam Hussein and to aid the Kurds and the Shiite

s . Saddam is still in power , with a weary and impoverished population unable t

o gather the revolutionary zeal for his overthrow expected by President Bush . A

s for the Kurds , the United States has never been a friend of the Kurdish strug

gle for self-determination . Its policy after the war produced the painful exodu

s of the Kurds , resulting in thousands of dead and homeless , hungry people . N

ow it is trying to assuage its guilt by dropping pallets of food into refugee ca

mps while Turkey carries out military raids against Kurdish villages in Iraq . T

he U.S. call for an uprising of the Shiites , only to abandon those who made the

 attempt , resulted in the deaths of thousands more . Sanctions have , however ,

 managed to create a weak economy , a physically debilitated people and three so

cietal problems practically unheard of in prewar Iraq : crime , unemployment and

 prostitution . Women and children are bearing the brunt of these sanctions . Wo

men whose partners were lost were thrown into the job market to feed their child

ren . Divorce rates are up in two-parent families because of the stress and stra

in . Girls are dropping out of school to help in the home . The acute shortage o

f basic food and medicines as well as their soaring prices has triggered a nearl

y 550 percent increase since 1990 in the mortality rate of children under 5 . An

d women are withdrawing from political activity , unable to handle all the added

 responsibilities they now have . The stated aim of the U.N. resolution on sanct

ions was to stop Iraq 's production of weapons of mass destruction . Iraq has co

mplied with all the conditions . It has officially dropped its claim to Kuwait a

s Iraq 's 19th province . And it has agreed to long-term monitoring to ensure it

 is not resuscitating its weapons program . What is the purpose of continuing th

e sanctions ? A healthy , vibrant society is in a much better position to work f

or political change , to correct human-rights abuses , to build a democratic sys

tem . If the civilized world is to carry the banner of human rights , it has to 

look at its own actions . Denying people food , medications , sovereignty and pe

ace of mind is another form of war . The Clinton administration inherited a poli

cy . It is time it examined that inheritance and took the bold , humane action o

f removing the sanctions .

 Q : I just saw my first grandchild . He is beautiful , but I have a question . 

Why do they put stocking caps on babies in the hospital ? I would think it would

 be their little hands and feet that got cold ! I recommend booties . A : Before

 birth a baby is kept warm by its mother 's body . Its own thermostat is not cha

llenged . After birth , a baby 's temperature regulation system is suddenly on i

ts own . Placed in a cool environment , a baby may have trouble adjusting . Comp

ared to the rest of its body , a baby 's head is relatively large . It provides 

a large area of skin from which heat can escape , even if the baby 's body is bu

ndled . The purpose of the cap is to preserve body heat . We do not know whether

 it also makes a baby more comfortable . Hands and feet are , as you pointed out

 , little . They are unlikely to be a major source of heat loss for a baby . We 

doubt whether a baby cares whether or not it has on booties , but in our experie

nce , booties do seem to make grandmothers more comfortable and may be recommend

ed for that reason alone ! Distributed by the Los Angeles Times-Washington Post 

News Service .

 This is an embarrassment of riches . For years Rachmaninoff 's First Sonata has

 fared poorly on records and in the concert hall . The work is gigantic almost a

s long the Concerto No. 3 and horrendously difficult . Few of the great Rachmani

noff interpreters including the composer himself , Horowitz , Richter , Cliburn 

and Ashkenazy have shown interest in expending the time and energy necessary to 

keep it in their fingers . It 's hard to blame them . While the piece is better 

organized than the Sonata No. 2 , its length particularly in the 15-minute long 

finale all but precludes success . In the finale the composer 's forearm-straini

ng and knuckle-breaking virtuosic phrases must be repeated so frequently that ev

en a great artist runs the risk of boring an audience . In the past 30 years or 

so , only John Ogdon and Alexis Weissenberg have been interested in the piece . 

And Ogdon 's old RCA recording is long out of print , and by the time Weissenber

g got around to recording it for Deutsche Grammophon in 1990 , he did not play i

t with his earlier fire and brilliance . Desperately in need of a single decent 

recording , we now must choose between two tremendous ones . Both the Cuban-born

 Rodriguez , who lives in College Park , and the Russian-born Berezovsky , who n

ow lives in Spain , have the fingers to play this music , the minds to make a co

herent experience of it and the hearts to make it affecting . They are somewhat 

different kinds of readings . Berezovsky , 25 , plays Rachmaninoff in the now do

minant style that Cliburn first introduced in the late 1950s . His relaxed , ass

ured playing , while it does not shortchange the music 's heroism , emphasizes i

ts lyricism . Rodriguez , 40 , performs the Sonata in the way to judge from his 

recordings that one imagines the composer himself did before he lost interest in

 the work . Rodriguez 's is utterly unsentimental playing that drives the music 

with a sense of ferocious destiny . This is not to say that his playing lacks fe

eling , but only , like that of Rachmaninoff 's himself , that it lacks anything

 resembling self-indulgence . If I had to choose between them , I would select R

odriguez . He has been programming an enormous amount of the composer 's solo pi

eces in the past few years and his experience shows in the way he is able to per

suade the listener as Berezovsky does not always do that the Sonata is not over-

long . ( In fact , Rodriguez ' performance is about four minutes faster than Ber

ezovsky . ) The couplings are excellent : Rodriguez performs the opus 32 prelude

s in a heroic , turbulent manner and Berezovsky does a lovely job in making a ca

se for the composer 's neglected Variations on a theme of Chopin . But listeners

 should keep in mind that a second all-Rachmaninoff CD of Rodriguez , featuring 

the Sonata No. 2 and the same Chopin Variations , is planned for future release 

.

 When we talk about cyberspace , the online world , more and more we 're talking

 about the Internet . It 's a place that has emerged , Oz-like and shimmering , 

from the intertwining of more than 15,000 computer networks around the globe . T

he Internet isn't a discrete physical place , nor is it owned by anyone . The wo

rd describes the computer networks that abide by the same technical rules for tr

ansmitting data . But since so much of that `` data '' is plain old , person-to-

person communicating , the Internet has begun to feel like a new community , a s

olid place where people go to communicate and learn . The Internet evolved from 

a Cold War experiment in computer networking called the Arpanet nearly 25 years 

ago . The Defense Department network allowed different kinds of computers to int

erconnect and pass data . It was designed to withstand nuclear war ; should one 

node be taken out in , say , Salt Lake City , whatever was left of the network w

as designed to carry on , route around the dead zone . Happily , this was never 

tested and , as the Defense Department moved out , civilians began to move in , 

like squatters inhabiting bomb shelters . The simple rules for interconnecting t

o the network encouraged the growth of regional subnetworks . Universities and c

olleges joined research facilities on the Net , followed by the rest of us , who

 were looking for PC diversions beyond word processing and spreadsheets . Now , 

some 15 million people spend time in this place . If the population continues to

 climb at such an astounding rate , everyone on the planet will be on the Intern

et by the year 2003 . As the population grows , so does the content . More and m

ore of the world 's information is centralizing here . The seasoned Net comber c

an find digitized photographs from the Smithsonian Institution or the Vatican , 

thousands of shareware programs and free software , satellite maps , weather for

ecasts , a daily MTV `` cybersleaze report '' and discussion groups on everythin

g from abortion to gardening . But you have to know what you 're doing to get ar

ound and even find the Internet . To people who are just beginning to allow comp

uters into their homes , the Internet is as mysterious as was the New World six 

centuries ago . The Internet tourist needs only minimal equipment . In fact , al

l you need is a computer , a modem and a phone line . Virtually any computer and

 any U.S. phone line will work . That 's one of the great things about using the

 Internet : You can hook your slow , dumb , out-of-date computer into a million-

dollar supercomputer on the Net and tap into all that power like a bandit . ( It

 's nice to know that that computer you paid $ 3,000 for three years ago is stil

l good for something . Indeed , a lot of people , when they upgrade to new machi

nes , reserve their old computers for traveling the online world . ) It doesn't 

matter if you have an IBM clone or a Macintosh . It doesn't matter if it 's an o

ld XT or an Apple II . It doesn't even matter if you have a hard drive , though 

having one means you willn't have to pop floppy disks in and out to capture the 

treasures you retrieve off the Net . All that matters is that your computer can 

be connected to a modem , and frankly , it 's hard to think of one that can't . 

The next item on a hardware checklist is called a modem . Modems are devices tha

t allow computers to communicate over telephone lines . Modems do this by transl

ating the digital language that computers use into audio frequencies that can be

 transmitted by telephone networks . ( The word `` modem '' comes from MOdulator

-DEModulator . ) Many computers are sold these days with internal modems . If yo

u look on the back of the computer 's central processing unit ( the box that loo

ks like a toaster ) and if you see a jack that will accommodate a phoneline , yo

u 've already got a modem on board . Otherwise , you 'll need to buy one . You n

eed to decide whether you want to buy an internal modem , which fits neatly insi

de your computer ( it 's easy enough to install yourself ) , or an external mode

m , which can sit on the floor or desk top . External modems are slightly more e

xpensive , mainly because they are equipped with a string of lights that help yo

u figure out what the modem is doing at any given time . This is a nice feature 

for problem-shooting ; a quick glance tells you whether you 're actually online 

, how fast your modem is pumping data and other , more arcane details . Still , 

some people prefer not cluttering their desks with more circuitry than necessary

 , and gladly forgo yet another array of LEDs in favor of economy . A phone line

 will plug into the back of your computer , if you have an internal modem , or i

nto the external modem itself . The next decision is speed how fast a modem shou

ld you buy ? On the Internet , and elsewhere in the online world , faster is bet

ter . The faster the modem , the less time it takes to transfer the fruits you '

ll be harvesting on the Net : Text files , inexpensive or free software , pictur

es , even video and audio . If you 're paying for Internet service by the hour ,

 you 'll actually save money by buying a more expensive high-speed modem . A mod

em 's speed is determined by how many bits per second it can move . ( A bit is e

ither a zero or a one , the smallest unit of data conveyed by microprocessors ) 

. You will also see the word `` baud '' used as a measure of speed . In the fabu

lously arcane world of computer jargon , baud and bit rate are sometimes used in

terchangeably , though in most cases they are not at all the same . At low speed

s , however , baud and bit rate are the same : A 300-baud modem moves data at 30

0 bits per second . But as modems developed , and coding schemes for moving bits

 matured , it became possible to pack more than one bit on each baud . ( A 2400-

bits-per-second modem , for instance , operates at 600 baud . ) The usual analog

y is cars on a highway , with each car representing a baud and each passenger a 

bit . Bits-per-second is the measure you 're interested in . So how fast ? These

 days , it pays to get a modem that pumps data at 14,400 bits-per-second or fast

er . At that speed , or higher , you can try some of the nifty new services that

 are making it easier to navigate the Net , like Mosaic . Slower modems will wor

k for everything else , though . ( Begin optional trim ) It also pays to buy a r

eliable modem , one that can stand up to the crushing demands of a long session 

on the Net . You can find many off-brand modems , and save yourself money . But 

my experience has been that cheap modems tend to fail when they get hot ( cussed

ly annoying when you 're in the middle of downloading a large file and have to s

tart anew ) . I use a Global Village Gold , 14,400 bps in my Macintosh Powerbook

 . The modem sells for about $ 275 . It 's been reliable and so has the 800-numb

er for customer support . In the Time of Misery , when I used IBM compatibles , 

I used a Hayes modem , which is also the industry standard . To get your modem t

o call any other computer , you 'll need a communications program . There are do

zens of these , ranging in price from a few hundred dollars to freeware . On the

 IBM side , the most common are ProComm and Mirror ; try Zterm or Microphone for

 Macs . Any off-the-shelf communications program will do for online work . Unfor

tunately , the only way to learn how to use one of these is to read the manual .

 You 'll need to learn how to put a phone number in your dialing directory and c

all the number ; later , you 'll also need to learn how to use xmodem or zmodem 

to transfer files between your computer and your Internet host computer . ( End 

optional trim ) One final word : Most fast modems also come with a fax option , 

meaning you can send or receive faxes through your computer . Sure , you 've gon

e this long without having a fax machine . But it 's amusing to fax things to yo

ur friends . Think of it as e-mail for the Internet-impaired .

 I 'd rather give up my telephone than my e-mail . I love being able to communic

ate in writing with people and not have to wait days or weeks for a reply ( or h

ave to find a stamp ) . It 's a luxury to be able to compose my thoughts before 

I communicate . On a recent , typical day , I sent e-mail to a computer technici

an in Finland ( `` How 's it going ? '' ) , a fellow reporter in New York City (

 `` Lunch Friday ? '' ) , a college kid at Dartmouth ( `` Here 's that telnet ad

dress you wanted ... '' ) and my mom in Pennsylvania ( don't ask ) . I also rece

ived mail from all of the above , as well as from a magazine editor in San Franc

isco , a programmer in Boston , a professor at the University of Pennsylvania an

d .. . actually , I got about 60 messages from people all over the world . Unlik

e using regular `` snail mail '' the U.S. Postal Service kind I can send and rec

eive as much e-mail as I want , paying nothing other than my flat , monthly Inte

rnet access fee . Corresponding with my friend in Espoo , Finland , is as cheap 

as e-mailing my friend in New York City , which makes the `` global village '' c

liche really work . The only problem with e-mail is that some people I want to r

each don't use it yet . But that 's changing . An estimated 15 million people sw

ap electronic mail over the Internet . That includes the world 's college and un

iversity students , users of America Online , CompuServe , Delphi , FidoNet , GE

nie , Prodigy and anyone who subscribes to the e-mail services offered by AT&T ,

 MCI and Sprint . More commercial online services are offering e-mail-only gatew

ays to the Internet every day . Much of that e-mail is just like the communicati

ng you do in letters and over the telephone . It 's casual , and has the feeling

 of a long-running conversation . One way e-mail improves upon the telephone is 

most people read their own e-mail , rather than having , say , their secretary s

creen it . Of course , President Clinton isn't any more likely to read e-mail ad

dressed to ` ` president ( AT ) whitehouse.gov ' ' than he is a postcard mailed 

to him . But other people might be . Until The New Yorker published an amusing p

iece a few months ago that detailed the correspondence between a staff writer th

ere and Microsoft founder Bill Gates , Gates read his own e-mail . Then , after 

tens of thousands of messages , he turned the chore over to an assistant . Findi

ng someone 's e-mail address requires more sleuthing than finding someone 's `` 

snail mail '' address . There are a few directories on the Internet that represe

nt little more than the first attempts at collecting addresses . For now , your 

best bet is having someone 's e-mail address already in hand . But you can often

 figure out a person 's address if you know a little bit about how e-mail addres

ses are structured . The syntax of an e-mail address is a peculiar thing . The f

irst time you saw one , you probably thought it was a typo. ` ` quit ( AT ) news

day.com ' ' If I were telling someone that address I 'd say : `` quit at newsday

 dot com . '' ( In the bit-speak of network land , you always say `` dot , '' ra

ther than `` period , '' and `` at , '' instead of `` at-sign . '' ) At the far 

right of that address , ( .com ) is the `` domain '' name . Internet domains can

 be .com ( commercial ) , .edu ( educational , like colleges and universities ) 

, .gov ( governmental agencies ) , .org ( organizations ) and so on . The name i

n the middle is usually the name of the school , organization , agency or busine

ss . The at-sign identifies the individual user at that domain . Beyond person-t

o-person correspondence , e-mail is used for a powerful , new way of communicati

ng known as mailing lists . These mailing lists are creating small , floating co

mmunities without boundaries that are growing up around special interests . You 

can subscribe to mailing lists by sending your name to a computer , known as a L

istserv , that automatically handles the e-mail list . Any message sent to the L

istserv bounces out to all the members of the list . So if someone on a list abo

ut , say , Powerbook computers , sends a question to the Listserv asking why his

 trackball gets all gummy , the question would go out to everyone . Chances are 

someone knows why and how to fix it , and will send a reply back to the list . I

n the past two years , I 've subscribed to e-mail lists that : track civil liber

ties issues on the electronic frontier ; disseminate bad jokes ; report on techn

ological risks ; examine questions surrounding computer-assisted journalism ; pr

ovide daily feeds of what 's hot in cyberspace ; and discuss ad nauseum the tele

vision series `` Mayberry RFD . '' ( Begin optional trim ) It 's easy to get off

 these lists ; you simply send e-mail to the Listserv asking to be taken off the

 list . Mailing lists illustrate the fundamentally different way people are usin

g the global Internet to communicate : An e-mail user can send an electronic que

ry out into the void , like a message in a bottle , and days or even hours later

 , get a reply , usually from a stranger , and often , from someone in another c

ountry . In letterwriting , or telephone conversations , we communicate one to o

ne ; on the Net , we can communicate one to many . It helps explain why people g

et so carried away when they contemplate the future of this global medium . ( En

d optional trim ) Often , when people get access to the Internet , one of the fi

rst things they do is start subscribing to mail lists . The question is , how do

 you find out what 's out there to subscribe to ? One way is to get a copy of th

e List of Lists , a compendium that catalogs each mail list , its address , and 

the rules for subscribing , as well as the topics covered . ( You need to read e

ach entry on the List of Lists , since the list name doesn't necessarily tell yo

u what it 's about . For instance , the list called DOROTHYL is the one you 'd w

ant if you 're interested in discussing mystery novels ; the name is an homage t

o the great mystery writer Dorothy Sayers . ) You can get the List of Lists by e

-mail . ( Send e-mail to : ` ` mail-server ( AT ) sri.com ' ' Put the words `` s

end interest-groups '' in the body of the message . ) Or you can buy one of the 

many books that provide directories of mail lists . Among them are , `` Internet

 : Mailing Lists , '' published by Prentice Hall , which is little more than a v

erbatim printout of the List of Lists ; or `` netguide , '' published by Random 

House . The Random House book , which is described as a TV Guide of cyberspace ,

 lists most of the mail lists ( and other great net treasures ) in a topic-by-to