A space alien peering at us is a quaint idea. What does his ogling us accomplish? He can never reach the earth, and we cannot reach him in that neighboring galaxy.
If we really want to explore the stars, we must focus on high-risk projects that bust the fundamental notions of science. One such project is the hyperdrive. Burkhardt Heim developed a unique (almost incomprehensible) field of physics. If he is right, then we can build a space ship to visit the space alien peering at us.
Note that one deduction from Heim's work is a formula for calculating the mass of fundamental particles. The formula has been subjected to review by esteemed physicists and is 100% accurate. Could the hyperdrive be another valid consequence of Heim's work? The possibilities are quite tantalizing.
There is an eerie similarity between (1) this incident involving military officers employed by Washington and (2) several incidents involving bloggers employed by the Kremlin. The American military officers modified information on a website by removing negative statements about the American government and by adding favorable statements. The officers also added negative statements about "enemies" of the USA.
As for the pro-Kremlin bloggers, A recent report by Radio Free Europe states, "A new generation of pro-Kremlin bloggers, for example, is being cultivated to spread Putin's word online -- and to rapidly disrupt the activities of Russia's opponents, both real and imagined.
When Kasparov's Other Russia held a rally in Moscow on April 14, for example, a group of pro-Kremlin bloggers from the Young Guard youth movement flooded the Internet with reports of a smaller pro-regime demonstration on the same day. In doing so, they crowded out postings about the opposition march on Russia's top web portals -- creating a virtual news blackout in one of the last refuges of free media in the county. Pavel Danilin, the pro-Putin blogger who spearheaded the effort bragged to 'The Washington Post' that his team 'played it beautifully.'"
Is Russia becoming more like the USA, or is the USA becoming more like Russia?
Guarantee of Reliability is not Free
on
NYSE Moves to Linux
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· Score: 5, Interesting
Although Linux is free, the NYSE did not simply download Linux and install it on some Hewlett-Packard (HP) hardware purchased through Costco. The NYSE purchased a packaged solution from HP (or another solutions bundler like Accenture), and HP will guarantee that this installation of Linux will be reliable to 6 sigma. The contract between the NYSE and HP will likely include some sort of guaranteed uptime.
If Linux has a bug that diminishes uptime at the NYSE and if the Linux "team" of volunteer programmers does not offer a fix within 24 hours, then HP management will order its commercial slave programmers to develop a solution -- pronto.
If a you or I encountered a bug in our Linux downloaded from the Web for free, we would have no immediate remedy to our problem. We must wait for the next release, which could take weeks.
John C. Dvorak gives a specific example of a core problem: buying luxuries in the absense of satisfying basic needs.
One of the characteristics of a failed 3rd-world nation is that its people spend money on projects that are not directly related to providing basic necessities. To understand this issue, first look at a highly successful people who transformed themselves from a 3rd-world nation into a 1st-world economic superpower. Consider the case of Japan.
At the end of 1945, Japan was impoverished. Allied forces had bombed it back into barren rock, of which some became radioactive. In the ensuing 35 years, the Japanese people focused on the basics: building the infrastructure (e.g., railroads and public schools), acquiring industrial technology (e.g., transistors from the Americans) to expand its industrial base, etc. Specifically, Tokyo invested almost no money in military forces, space adventures, etc. By 1980, Japan became a 1st-world nation -- and the #2 economic superpower.
Now, consider India. Its people are wasting money on a space race and nuclear weapons. This activity only impoverishes the impoverished people, who are the majority of the Indian population. The result is that the prospects for India are quite poor.
Forget laptops. Forget space ships. Above all, forget nuclear weapons. If you are a citizen of an impoverished nation, focus on the basics: reading, writing, mathematics, science (includng agriculture), and free markets. If you can succeed at the basics (and everyone can succeed at the basics), then your nation will naturally prosper.
Look at Japan. In the 1960s, the Japanese watched, without envy, as the Americans "won" the space race. The Japanese knew that their day in space would come, but in 1965, they knew that they must stay focused on the basics. The Japanese succeeded.
Similar comments apply to Eastern Europe. Look at Poland. It does not waste money on either nuclear weapons or space ships. Yet, Poland is succeeding. It will soon become a Western economic superpower alongside Japan.
This election was clearly rigged. According to a report by the "Guardian Unlimited", "in Chechnya 99.3% of the population were said to have voted for Putin's party [...] while in the republic of Mordovia the figure was apparently 109%." How does a politician earn 109% of the votes without rigging? In 2004, Gennady Zyuganov, head of the Communist Party, had insightfully warned, "This is not an election, it's a special [Kremlin] operation with a predetermined result." ("The Washinton Post", 2004 March 14)
Yet, why would Czar Vladimir Putin go through all this trouble to produce an impressive showing at the polls? He is already quite popular. His party, United Russia, could have easily won control of the Duma without the election rigging.
"The Economist" has finally provided an answer to this puzzling question. "The answer almost certainly lies in the ever more vicious--and open--rivalry among the Kremlin's political clans. Perhaps Mr Putin upset so many rich and powerful people that the prospect of losing control over the transition of power may simply have been too dangerous for his inner circle, and for himself. For all his talk about foreign threats and domestic enemies, what Mr Putin really fears is his entourage and a war among the clans. Winston Churchill once described the Kremlin's political tussles as being like a fight among bulldogs under a carpet: outsiders hear plenty of growling but have few clues about the victor's identity until it emerges."
Renegade political factions (run by former and current members of the FSB, successor of the KGB) operate within and outside the Kremlin. Each faction is like a gang, and the gangs kill each other. They answer to no one. So far, Putin has used his power to keep the factions under control.
Putin needed an impressive showing in the election in order to demonstrate his political power -- to the siloviki. He controls the United Russia party. Since the party won more than 66% of the seats in the Duma (due to the rigged election), the party -- and Putin -- can alter the constitution at will.
Of course, Putin is gambling that his scheme will work. He may lose the gamble. One of the renegade factions may assassinate him.
In this context, you can understand the comments by Mikhail Gorbachev. Gorbachev won the Nobel Peace Prize for releasing the Eastern Europeans from the yoke of Soviet oppression. He has criticized the steadily eroding freedoms that he initiated in Russia in the late 1980s, but he has refrained from directly criticizing Czar Vladimir Putin.
Putin is indeed a czar, but he is a far better ruler than one of the thugs in the siloviki. These thugs likely killed both Alexander Litvinenko and Anna Politkovskaya. Even if Putin wanted to solve their murders, he has no power to do so. If he attempted to find the killers, then he may be killed.
P.S.
"The Economist" seems to provide much better analysis of Russian politics than Washington provides. What exactly are our Russian "experts" in Washington doing?
About 61% of American voters votes along party lines. Their attitude is, "I do not care whether the position is correct. If my party supports it, then I support it." Worse, within party primaries (like the ones that will begin soon in early 2008), voters tend to choose candidates based on gotcha's, glamor, and glitz. A candidate who can crack a witty joke during the debate can easily reel in millions of mindless voters.
Clearly, this incident with the spammer supporting Ron Paul will be spun, by his competitors, into a gotcha.
Please do your yourself -- and your nation -- a favor. Avoid the above method of selecting political candidates. Ignore gotcha's, glamor, and glitz. Do not vote along party lines.
Instead, research the voting history, the policy proposals, and the honesty of the candidates in the 2008 race for president. You can easily find this information at the quality news sites like "The Washington Post". Hopefully, Rupert Murdoch will open the web site of the "Wall Street Journal" (WSJ) to the public before the election in 2008. The WSJ has some of the best in-depth reporting in the industry, but the WSJ web site is currently open only to subscribers.
The Russian election for the Duma concluded on December 2. During this process, Golos was instrumental in identifying voting irregularities that skewed the vote in favor of United Russia, the pro-Kremlin party. Golos is an independent organization that monitors elections and receives funding from the United States and the European Union.
Then, after the election concluded, a Moscow-based company acquired LiveJournal. Is the timing merely coincidence or is the Kremlin somehow connected to this business deal?
There are two types of communication on the Internet. One is broadcast communication. In it, a user sends a message to a medium, and the general public can access the medium. Examples include the SlashDot forum and a channel on IRC. A user of such media should assume that whatever she writes is readily available to the FBI, NSA, etc.
The second type of communication is peer-to-peer. A user sends a message to a specific user. Examples include e-mail, phone communication, and the like.
Anyone can ensure the privacy of peer-to-peer communcation. Consider two users who want to exchange e-mail messages. First, the users pick a reliable encryption tool (which are readily available on the Internet) and an encryption key. Then, each user encrypts a message before sending it via e-mail to the other user. Even the NSA will be unable to crack the message (if the users pick a good encryption tool).
Encryption can also be applied to voice communication. The users can use an Internet-phone software application to communicate by voice via the Internet. Each user merely needs to encrypt the data packets before sending them to the other user's computer.
If you believe that someone (e.g., a Russian spy) is wiretapping your regular (mobile or landline) phone, then do voice communication via the Internet. In Russia, most people use cell phones, so they just need to ensure that the phone has a data-communication mode in addition to the regular voice-communication mode. To ensure private communication, the user switches the mode of his phone to data-communication mode and uses his phone as a modem. He plugs the modem into his computer and then runs an Internet-phone software application to communicate via the Internet. The FSB (successor to the KGB) can record the entire session of encrypted Internet packets, but the FSB will be unable to decipher the communication.
Unfortunately for Gary Kasparov, the Kremlin plays brutal chess.
According to a report recently issued by Reuters, the leading political candidate representing the liberal anti-Kremlin Yabloko party has been shot by an unknown assailant. The candidate is now in serious condition in a hospital. This attempted assassination caps a year-long effort, by the Kremlin, to rig the parliamentary election on December 2. Under orders from the Kremlin, banks have refused to accept donations from supporters for deposit in the accounts of opposition parties. Owners of assembly halls have canceled contracts allowing opposition politicians to stage rallies. The police have seized the newspapers of opposition parties in a draconian attempt to prevent them from spreading their message.
The first 3 movies (i.e., "Star Wars IV", "Star Wars V", and "Star Wars VI") were really a medieval tale dressed in high technology. The tale had a princess (i.e., Princess Leia) , a knight (i.e., Han Solo), an apprentice (i.e., Luke Skywalker), the swords (i.e., the light sabers), etc. More importantly, we saw the battle between good and evil.
In most medieval tales, people have free will to choose between good and evil. Darth Vader chose evil. Han Solo also made the wrong choices, but at the end of Star Wars IV, he made the right choice to not abandon the rebels. Han Solo saved the day by protecting Luke Skywalker as his space ship ultimately delivered a blow against the Death Star -- the ultimate symbol of evil. Of course, in "Star Wars VI", even Darth Vader chose good and became reborn as a good spirit.
In the first 3 movies, people who chose good and who committed their lives to the ideals of the Jedi could acquire the powers of the Jedi. Of course, one must be open-minded and must be sensitive to the true nature of the universe. This message is a wholesome one for all the bratty kids who adored these movies and who eventually grew up to shape our society (via, for example, the many discussions on Slashdot) for the better.
Now, fast forward to the 21st century. George Lucas changed the message of the original "Star Wars". In the new "Star Wars", the powers of the Jedi belong only to the people who inherit specialized midi-chlorians in their genes. If you do not have the special genetic material, then you are a loser like the rest of the humanoids.
In the new "Star Wars", the Jedis are the highest, most privileged class in a caste system (like the one in India). People are born into their fate. Regardless of the amount of effort in abiding by the Jedi ideals, a person can never be a Jedi. Being a good person means nothing.
George Lucas transformed the Western theme of free will (to choose good and become a Jedi) to the Indian theme of a caste system. That is a terrible message to send to today's children. Though both the old "Star Wars" and the new "Star Wars" have characters (e.g., ewoks and Jar Jar Binks) specifically appealing to children, the underlying message of the old "Star Wars" is a much better inspiration for children.
Yet, we should not whine about Lucas' tragic blunder. We should create another new "Star Wars" by re-writing the stories and re-developing them into an alternative prequel, which sticks closely to the original theme in "Star Wars IV: A New Hope".
Fixing a tragic blunder is the plan for a new movie about "Star Trek". This new movie is also a prequel and attempts to return to the original spirit of "Star Trek".
The aforementioned article includes several inaccurate statements. Below are the facts.
1. According to a report by "The Economist", the Japanese government, by 2005, had apologized 17 times for the role of the Japanese in World War II. The Japanese government even gave a written apology to the Korean government.
3. According to a CNN report, a "Time" magazine report, and several other reports, Nazi symbols are popular in Korea. "A small photo of Adolf Hitler adorns the entrance to the Fifth Reich, an upscale watering hole in Seoul's Shinchon university district. A larger picture of the Führer hangs across from the bar, where waiters and waitresses with swastika arm badges mix drinks that have names like 'Adolf Hitler' and 'Dead'."
4. Koreans have viciously treated non-Koreans in South Korea. The Chinese immigrant community has succeeded in nearly every Asian country (including Japan). The exception is South Korea. The Chinese population in Korea declined from 50,000 to 10,000. "Many Chinese claim they were forced out by the Seoul authorities."
7. "Purity" of blood is extremely important in Korean culture. "Traditional reverence for familial bloodlines [in Korea] and the social stigmas attached to adoptees as well as children who are disabled, mixed race or born out of wedlock limit local enthusiasm for the [adoption] program. Thus, international adoption continues to outpace domestic." "Because of societal values emphasizing the importance of bloodline, children were adopted domestically only by extended family or blood relatives."
Although a tiny percentage of Japanese citizens supports a revisionist history (as evidenced by the shocking memorial next to Yasukuni Shrine), the overwhelming majority of Japanese is aware of the correct history of World War II: specifically, the Japanese military initiated a war of aggression.
However, this unfortunate history is no justification, whatsoever, for the the racist and bigotted attitudes of the Koreans. Korean citizens who reside in Japan but who refuse Japanese citizenship should be treated as foreigners. These Korean "refuseniks" are loyal to either South Korea or North Korea. The Japanese government should fingerprint all Korean "refuseniks".
Fingerprinting foreigners does not violate the Universal Declaration of Human Rights if all foreigners are treated equally. Before addressing the issue of "equally", I note that a foreigner is not entitled to the same privileges that a citizen enjoys. For example, a government can legally and ethically target non-citizens for random searches prior to boarding an aircraft. An Iranian citizen residing in the USA is not entitled to the same privileges that an American citizen of Iranian ancestry is entitled.
As for the issue of "equally", the new Japanese law mandating the fingerprinting of foreigners is discriminatory and is unacceptable. In particular, the law exempts Korean citizens who reside permanently in Japan but who refuse Japanese citizenship. Roughly 45% of these "refuseniks" pledge their allegiance to North Korea. They send their children to special schools which teach their students to sing the praises of North Korea.
These Korean refuseniks deliberately refuse Japanese citizenship because they want to maintain their "Korean-ness". They believe that blood determines both culture and nation of loyalty. They are loyal to either North Korea or South Korea.
In today's Japan, there is no discrimination against Japanese citizens of Korean ancestry. There is, however, justifiable discrimination against Korean citizens or any other person who lacks Japanese citizenship: for example, a Brazilian citizen of Japanese ancestry does not have the same privileges that a Japanese citizen enjoys.
The Korean refuseniks are exempted from the fingerprinting requirement because, in the 1980s, the Korean government demanded that the Japanese government end the fingerprinting of Korean citizens who refuse Japanese citizenship. The Korean government insisted that Tokyo fulfill this demand before the Korean government was willing to improve relations with Japan. As a result of this interference by the Korean government in Japanese domestic politics, Tokyo ended the fingerprinting of Korean refuseniks. The Korean refuseniks are also exempted from the fingerprinting in the new Japanese law just passed by the Japanese parliament.
There is a huge difference between Korean refuseniks and Americans of African ancestry. Some Korean refuseniks are descended from people who were forcibly brought to Japan during World War II. However, many Korean refuseniks are descended from people who voluntarily came to Japan during and after World War II. By contrast, nearly all Americans of African ancestry are descended from people who were forcibly brought to the United States. Yet, while the Korean refuseniks voluntarily refuse Japanese citizenship (that they could easily get), all Americans of African ancestry gladly want to be American citizens.
The attitude of the Koreans is utterly racist and bigotted. By contrast, most Taiwanese citizens who chose to reside permanently in Japan have conscientiously wanted (and obtained) Japanese citizenship.
In summary, the new Japanese law mandating the fingerprinting of foreigners is discriminatory and is unacceptable because the law exempts Korean refuseniks. Tokyo should ignore the Korean government and should resume fingerprinting Korean refuseniks -- especially Korean refuseniks who pledge their allegiance to North Korea. (The Korean government has been a far bigger pain to Japan than the Mexican government has been to the USA.)
Software upgrades in business need justification. Money is a precious resource, and good managers do not squander it.
A 1-gigahertz desktop running Windows XP with ECC memory meets the needs of most businesses. They had a genuine need to upgrade from the MS-DOS-based operating systems (OSes) like Windows 98 when Windows XP was launched. The former is just too unreliable, but the latter approached Linux-level reliability.
Going from Windows XP to Vista does not buy you a quantum leap in reliability. The latter has a nicer GUI than the former, but a nicer user interface is not enough to justify spending another $1000+ on a machine for your secretary.
During this obssessive drive to faster, bigger, and badder computers and OSes, eventually the technology reaches a point at which it exceeds the needs of the customers. We have reached that point -- that knee of the technology curve. Any further technical advancements beyond the knee does not bring new customers to computer company XYZ. The computer-systems market now resembles or will soon resemble the automotive market: a replacement market for broken devices.
I do not replace my Chevrolet Camaro when a new sports car enters the automotive market. I replace my Camaro when it becomes too expensive to repair.
No spokesperson for a computer company ever talks about the arrival of the "knee". It means flat sales and thin margins for the company.
Well, the knee has arrived. The personal-computer industry is now a mature industry like the automotive industry. Welcome to flat sales and used-computer salescritters.
Contrast the response of Vladimir Putin (and the rest of the Kremlin) to the murder of Anna Politkovskaya and his response to the death of George Koval.
Politkovskaya had spent most of her career in helping the victims of horrific human-rights abuses. She was their only voice in an icy land of indifference. Commenting on the murder of Politkovskaya, Putin insulted her, "The level of her influence on political life in Russia was utterly insignificant."
By contrast, Koval helped the Soviet Union to develop weapons of mass destruction. They included nuclear weapons that can incinerate millions of victims within seconds. Commenting on his death, Putin heaps lavish praise and posthumously gives him the "Hero of Russia" medal, the highest Russian award.
I am almost at a loss for words to describe my utter disgust at the Kremlin.
There may be another possibility. With so much unwanted attention in the media, the Russian Business Network (RBN) may voluntarily have broken up into numerous small groups. In much the same fashion, the alumni of the KGB have broken up into numerous small cliques. Each clique is essentially a mafia gang with a strongman as boss and wields considerable power.
As the Kremlin moves into cyberspace, each KGB clique will want a "piece of the action" and has absorbed some alumni of the RBN. In the 21st century, even the Russian mafia needs an online presence.
Walmart is not the sort of place where you find geeks, techies, and various assorted dweebs. This store is where America shops and is patronized by people who know little about calculus or physics.
That a Linux machine is sold out at Walmart suggests that plain folks -- not like you and me -- know and respect Linux. The lesson is that there is a ready market, in middle America, for Linux-based applications. Will software developers heed this lesson?
For most people, the monster computer (with globs of memory and a gazillion hertz of processor speed) running Windows XP is already more machine than most Americans need. Now, Microsoft will kill off Windows XP in order to sell Vista to us. We will need a super-monster computer to run Vista. This whole process of bloated operating systems (OSes) driving purchases of even more excessive amounts of hardware is a damned waste of money.
The simple machine that runs Linux is good enough for most people. The number one application in America, after all, is e-mail.
Software developers should tune into middle America and sell Linux-based applications so that we can put an end to this never-ending cycle of bigger, badder OS needing bigger, badder computer.
There are two important issues. First, some states (like California) have very strict rules about what can be enforced. That you sign a labor contract does not mean that every item in the contract is enforceable. The clauses (of the contract) conflicting with state rules are not enforceable. In California, your employer cannot claim legal rights to any invention that you produce after you terminate employment -- unless you used company proprietary information to produce the invention.
The second issue is that, in some states (like Calfornia), you are not required to agree to binding arbitration in a dispute even if your contract stipulates binding arbitration. In California, an appeals court declared that binding arbitration in any contract allowing a full court trial by a company filing suit against an employee is null and void. In the case of David Abramson vs. Juniper, the appeals court said that allowing a court trial by the company against an employee but disallowing a trial (in favor of binding arbitration) by an employee against the company is unfair and invalid. If a court trial is allowed in one direction, the trial must be allowed in the other direction.
In other words, if your former employer attempts to intimidate you (with high-powered company lawyers) into signing away your invention (produced after termination from the company) to him, then you can sue your former employer for harrassment. You do not need to agree to binding arbitration. You can sue your former employer in a full court trial.
Most American companies, like Juniper, are ruthless. So, know your rights. Contact the labor departments of both the federal government and the state government. Talk to your lawyer.
By the way, does anyone know how the lawsuit by David Abramson against Juniper is progressing? The appeals court granted him the right to sue Juniper in a full court trial.
Russia is not yet a wealthy developed nation. According to the CIA World Factbook, the Russian GDP per capita is $12,200. By contrast, the Polish GDP per capita is $14,400, and the Poles are not investing in a wasteful space race.
The Russians need to stay focused on modernizing their economy and political system. Russia still has considerable poverty, and the money wasted on the space race would be better spent on welfare programs and the education system. At the same stage of development, the Japanese did not waste money on either a space race or a massive weapons program.
Unfortunately, the Russians have become obsessed with nationalism since Vladimir Putin came to power. Big, impressive national projects have become more important than simply improving the quality of life for the poorest segments of the population.
The Russians have a lot to learn from the Poles. The latter are not wasting money on either a space race or a massive weapons program.
The most important lesson that the Russians can learn from the West is that the greatness of a nation is not measured by the size of the weaponry or the speed of the space ship. Rather, the greatness is measured by the quality of life for the average person.
The Soviet Union had awesome weapons and space vehicles, yet was the Soviet Union a great nation?
The most barbaric experiment even conducted in the 20th century in the USA is the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment . For 40 years, Washington used a group of destitute African-Americans to conduct experiments into the effects of syphilis.
Washington denied treatment to the members of this group even after the discovery of penicillin. The government wanted to see how syphilis mutilates and kills people.
The full details are far worse than that described by the NPR story. In some cases, nurses actually deliberately injected syphilis bacteria into the bloodstream in order to infect the men. None of the criminals involved in this experiment ever served time in prison.
Living in Silicon Valley, the nerve center of anti-establishmentarianism on the Internet, does not necessarily change the mentality of the Russians. I chatted with one fellow in Silicon Valley, and he highly praised Natalia Narochnitskaya.
Worst of all, the Rodina party has fueled racist xenophobic violence in Russia. According to a report in 2004 by the "The Globe and Mail", "According to official estimates, 20,000 people in Moscow alone now belong to skinhead organizations or other extremist groups, a 30-per-cent increase from five years ago. Among their favourite targets are Jews -- dozens of street signs last year were painted with swastikas and anti-Semitic graffiti -- and those from the Caucasus region on Russia's southern flank, a historic hatred that has grown deeper through a decade of bloody war in the breakaway republic of Chechnya."
The report further states that when an African student sought help from the Russian police to protect him from violent skinheads, a Russian police officer said, "Why are you here, Mr. Nigger? We don't have any bananas here."
Russian society has regressed beyond merely (1) government control of the media and (2) Kremlin-ordered assassinations that eliminate probing journalists. There is now a third way: police psychiatry.
The "Washington Post" recently published a chilling story about "police psychiatry" in Russia. Powerful thugs in the government (including the police) and in commercial businesses bribe judges and doctors to declare that a mentally healthy person is mentally incompetent. Then, the "justice" (in a very loose sense of the word) system will imprison the victim in a mental institution. There, the doctors proceed to "treat" the victim with beatings and injections of psychotic substances.
The article by the "Washington Post" mentions that Larissa Arap, a human-rights activist, was one such victim. She had written a damning article about the horrible state of psychiatric wards in Russia. In response, psychiatrists and judges -- under orders from the Kremlin -- imprisoned her in a psychiatric ward. She was subjected to 6 weeks of beatings and injections with an unknown psychotic substance. After numerous letters pleading for her life from Gary Kasparov and other human-rights activits, the Kremlin finally released her.
What is most disturbing about police psychiatry is that it is practiced not only by the Kremlin. This "tool" is also used by ordinary Russians who want to rid themselves of people whom they dislike.
Slashdot should create a new topic category for Russia. It deserves its own topic category for story submissions; the horrors in today's Russia should be an active topic of discussion (condemnation?) for any Westerner who has an iota of compassion. This article by the "Washington Post" should scare any Westerner.
Check out the web sites at MIT and UC-Berkeley, which are the #1 private institution and the #1 public institution, respectively, in the USA. There is a good chance that they offer on-line videos of the lectures.
Buy the same textbooks that the students at those universities use. For the pre-calculus mathematics, UC-Berkeley would be your best bet. MIT caters to only students who have already taken calculus in high school.
My best advice is to try a two-track approach: non-discrete mathematics and discrete mathematics. Traditionally high schools teach only non-discrete mathematics: e.g., trigonometry and calculus. Since you are studying the material on your own, you could improve upon the standard curriculum. Read a good book on discrete mathematics first. It will build your intuition of mathematics. Then, study the standard topics in non-discrete mathematics.
Discrete mathematics and non-discrete mathematics are quite different, but the reasoning in discrete mathematics will hone your skill in handling mathematical proofs, which are central to both branches of mathematics.
For a real challenge, after you finish your studies, try to determine whether P = NP.
One organization that rivals the influence of the military industrial complex (of which the Department of Defense is a piece) is the farm lobby (also known as the agri-business lobby). If the farm lobby -- or, more specifically, the pro-ethanol corn lobby in the midwest -- opposes the solar-power idea in favor of ethanol, will the government still build an orbiting solar-power transmitter?
My hunch is that the answer is "no". Even though Brazilian sugar-cane-based ethanol is much cheaper than American corn-based ethanol, Washington levies such a huge tariff on the former that it is more expensive than the latter. The whole point is to placate the angry American farmer.
An effort that favors any alternative fuel source besides corn is sure to run afoul of the farm lobby. Isn't Iowa one of the earliest primary states?
Oh yeah. Coca-Cola, long ago, dumped sugar in favor of corn syrup in the soft drinks. A tariff here and there sure can change the economics of life.
Zonk published my article on SlashDot to start the current thread of discussion. He edited my article by appending the following phrase
and given it a high rating
to my original sentence below
A laboratory of the French government has evaluated the "stealthy-ness" of ATD-X.
to create the following sentence.
A laboratory of the French government has evaluated the "stealthy-ness" of ATD-X, and given it a high rating.
The modification by Zonk is a significant error. Neither Mitsubishi nor the French laboratory publicized the result of the evaluation. The result is highly classified.
Anyone who has ever operated a Sony camcorder understands the fundamental design flaw with the military Touch Table. Constantly touching the screen with your hands smudges the screen. Seeing the streaks of grease and the occasion bits of dirt is distracting. In a real-time battle scenario, I would not want to be distracted.
The Touch Table should be modified so that external sensors can detect the motion of the hand about 1 foot away from the screen. Those sensors would then translate the motion into zooms and pans of the image on the screen.
Slashdot Mirror
If we really want to explore the stars, we must focus on high-risk projects that bust the fundamental notions of science. One such project is the hyperdrive. Burkhardt Heim developed a unique (almost incomprehensible) field of physics. If he is right, then we can build a space ship to visit the space alien peering at us.
Note that one deduction from Heim's work is a formula for calculating the mass of fundamental particles. The formula has been subjected to review by esteemed physicists and is 100% accurate. Could the hyperdrive be another valid consequence of Heim's work? The possibilities are quite tantalizing.
"To boldly go where no one has gone before ..."
As for the pro-Kremlin bloggers, A recent report by Radio Free Europe states, "A new generation of pro-Kremlin bloggers, for example, is being cultivated to spread Putin's word online -- and to rapidly disrupt the activities of Russia's opponents, both real and imagined.
When Kasparov's Other Russia held a rally in Moscow on April 14, for example, a group of pro-Kremlin bloggers from the Young Guard youth movement flooded the Internet with reports of a smaller pro-regime demonstration on the same day. In doing so, they crowded out postings about the opposition march on Russia's top web portals -- creating a virtual news blackout in one of the last refuges of free media in the county. Pavel Danilin, the pro-Putin blogger who spearheaded the effort bragged to 'The Washington Post' that his team 'played it beautifully.'"
Is Russia becoming more like the USA, or is the USA becoming more like Russia?
If Linux has a bug that diminishes uptime at the NYSE and if the Linux "team" of volunteer programmers does not offer a fix within 24 hours, then HP management will order its commercial slave programmers to develop a solution -- pronto.
If a you or I encountered a bug in our Linux downloaded from the Web for free, we would have no immediate remedy to our problem. We must wait for the next release, which could take weeks.
One of the characteristics of a failed 3rd-world nation is that its people spend money on projects that are not directly related to providing basic necessities. To understand this issue, first look at a highly successful people who transformed themselves from a 3rd-world nation into a 1st-world economic superpower. Consider the case of Japan.
At the end of 1945, Japan was impoverished. Allied forces had bombed it back into barren rock, of which some became radioactive. In the ensuing 35 years, the Japanese people focused on the basics: building the infrastructure (e.g., railroads and public schools), acquiring industrial technology (e.g., transistors from the Americans) to expand its industrial base, etc. Specifically, Tokyo invested almost no money in military forces, space adventures, etc. By 1980, Japan became a 1st-world nation -- and the #2 economic superpower.
Now, consider India. Its people are wasting money on a space race and nuclear weapons. This activity only impoverishes the impoverished people, who are the majority of the Indian population. The result is that the prospects for India are quite poor.
Forget laptops. Forget space ships. Above all, forget nuclear weapons. If you are a citizen of an impoverished nation, focus on the basics: reading, writing, mathematics, science (includng agriculture), and free markets. If you can succeed at the basics (and everyone can succeed at the basics), then your nation will naturally prosper.
Look at Japan. In the 1960s, the Japanese watched, without envy, as the Americans "won" the space race. The Japanese knew that their day in space would come, but in 1965, they knew that they must stay focused on the basics. The Japanese succeeded.
Similar comments apply to Eastern Europe. Look at Poland. It does not waste money on either nuclear weapons or space ships. Yet, Poland is succeeding. It will soon become a Western economic superpower alongside Japan.
Yet, why would Czar Vladimir Putin go through all this trouble to produce an impressive showing at the polls? He is already quite popular. His party, United Russia, could have easily won control of the Duma without the election rigging.
"The Economist" has finally provided an answer to this puzzling question. "The answer almost certainly lies in the ever more vicious--and open--rivalry among the Kremlin's political clans. Perhaps Mr Putin upset so many rich and powerful people that the prospect of losing control over the transition of power may simply have been too dangerous for his inner circle, and for himself. For all his talk about foreign threats and domestic enemies, what Mr Putin really fears is his entourage and a war among the clans. Winston Churchill once described the Kremlin's political tussles as being like a fight among bulldogs under a carpet: outsiders hear plenty of growling but have few clues about the victor's identity until it emerges."
Renegade political factions (run by former and current members of the FSB, successor of the KGB) operate within and outside the Kremlin. Each faction is like a gang, and the gangs kill each other. They answer to no one. So far, Putin has used his power to keep the factions under control.
Putin needed an impressive showing in the election in order to demonstrate his political power -- to the siloviki. He controls the United Russia party. Since the party won more than 66% of the seats in the Duma (due to the rigged election), the party -- and Putin -- can alter the constitution at will.
Of course, Putin is gambling that his scheme will work. He may lose the gamble. One of the renegade factions may assassinate him.
In this context, you can understand the comments by Mikhail Gorbachev. Gorbachev won the Nobel Peace Prize for releasing the Eastern Europeans from the yoke of Soviet oppression. He has criticized the steadily eroding freedoms that he initiated in Russia in the late 1980s, but he has refrained from directly criticizing Czar Vladimir Putin.
Putin is indeed a czar, but he is a far better ruler than one of the thugs in the siloviki. These thugs likely killed both Alexander Litvinenko and Anna Politkovskaya. Even if Putin wanted to solve their murders, he has no power to do so. If he attempted to find the killers, then he may be killed.
P.S.
"The Economist" seems to provide much better analysis of Russian politics than Washington provides. What exactly are our Russian "experts" in Washington doing?
Clearly, this incident with the spammer supporting Ron Paul will be spun, by his competitors, into a gotcha.
Please do your yourself -- and your nation -- a favor. Avoid the above method of selecting political candidates. Ignore gotcha's, glamor, and glitz. Do not vote along party lines.
Instead, research the voting history, the policy proposals, and the honesty of the candidates in the 2008 race for president. You can easily find this information at the quality news sites like "The Washington Post". Hopefully, Rupert Murdoch will open the web site of the "Wall Street Journal" (WSJ) to the public before the election in 2008. The WSJ has some of the best in-depth reporting in the industry, but the WSJ web site is currently open only to subscribers.
Golos and its supporters have been maintaining a blog page at LiveJournal. You can read either the actual blog page in Russian or the English translation of the blog page. It contained plenty of damning evidence showing that the Kremlin had manipulated the election.
Then, after the election concluded, a Moscow-based company acquired LiveJournal. Is the timing merely coincidence or is the Kremlin somehow connected to this business deal?
The second type of communication is peer-to-peer. A user sends a message to a specific user. Examples include e-mail, phone communication, and the like.
Anyone can ensure the privacy of peer-to-peer communcation. Consider two users who want to exchange e-mail messages. First, the users pick a reliable encryption tool (which are readily available on the Internet) and an encryption key. Then, each user encrypts a message before sending it via e-mail to the other user. Even the NSA will be unable to crack the message (if the users pick a good encryption tool).
Encryption can also be applied to voice communication. The users can use an Internet-phone software application to communicate by voice via the Internet. Each user merely needs to encrypt the data packets before sending them to the other user's computer.
If you believe that someone (e.g., a Russian spy) is wiretapping your regular (mobile or landline) phone, then do voice communication via the Internet. In Russia, most people use cell phones, so they just need to ensure that the phone has a data-communication mode in addition to the regular voice-communication mode. To ensure private communication, the user switches the mode of his phone to data-communication mode and uses his phone as a modem. He plugs the modem into his computer and then runs an Internet-phone software application to communicate via the Internet. The FSB (successor to the KGB) can record the entire session of encrypted Internet packets, but the FSB will be unable to decipher the communication.
According to a report recently issued by Reuters, the leading political candidate representing the liberal anti-Kremlin Yabloko party has been shot by an unknown assailant. The candidate is now in serious condition in a hospital. This attempted assassination caps a year-long effort, by the Kremlin, to rig the parliamentary election on December 2. Under orders from the Kremlin, banks have refused to accept donations from supporters for deposit in the accounts of opposition parties. Owners of assembly halls have canceled contracts allowing opposition politicians to stage rallies. The police have seized the newspapers of opposition parties in a draconian attempt to prevent them from spreading their message.
In early November, the election-monitoring arm of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) declined to send election observers to Russia to monitor the 2007 parliamentary election. This OSCE decision resulted from (1) the Kremlin's refusing to allow more than 70 OSCE observers to enter Russia and (2) the Kremlin's delaying the granting of visas to them. In 2003, the Kremlin had accepted 400 OSCE observers, but after the OSCE condemned the 2003 election for being unfair, many folks in the Kremlin vowed to stymie OSCE's efforts in future elections.
In most medieval tales, people have free will to choose between good and evil. Darth Vader chose evil. Han Solo also made the wrong choices, but at the end of Star Wars IV, he made the right choice to not abandon the rebels. Han Solo saved the day by protecting Luke Skywalker as his space ship ultimately delivered a blow against the Death Star -- the ultimate symbol of evil. Of course, in "Star Wars VI", even Darth Vader chose good and became reborn as a good spirit.
In the first 3 movies, people who chose good and who committed their lives to the ideals of the Jedi could acquire the powers of the Jedi. Of course, one must be open-minded and must be sensitive to the true nature of the universe. This message is a wholesome one for all the bratty kids who adored these movies and who eventually grew up to shape our society (via, for example, the many discussions on Slashdot) for the better.
Now, fast forward to the 21st century. George Lucas changed the message of the original "Star Wars". In the new "Star Wars", the powers of the Jedi belong only to the people who inherit specialized midi-chlorians in their genes. If you do not have the special genetic material, then you are a loser like the rest of the humanoids.
In the new "Star Wars", the Jedis are the highest, most privileged class in a caste system (like the one in India). People are born into their fate. Regardless of the amount of effort in abiding by the Jedi ideals, a person can never be a Jedi. Being a good person means nothing.
George Lucas transformed the Western theme of free will (to choose good and become a Jedi) to the Indian theme of a caste system. That is a terrible message to send to today's children. Though both the old "Star Wars" and the new "Star Wars" have characters (e.g., ewoks and Jar Jar Binks) specifically appealing to children, the underlying message of the old "Star Wars" is a much better inspiration for children.
Yet, we should not whine about Lucas' tragic blunder. We should create another new "Star Wars" by re-writing the stories and re-developing them into an alternative prequel, which sticks closely to the original theme in "Star Wars IV: A New Hope".
Fixing a tragic blunder is the plan for a new movie about "Star Trek". This new movie is also a prequel and attempts to return to the original spirit of "Star Trek".
1. According to a report by "The Economist", the Japanese government, by 2005, had apologized 17 times for the role of the Japanese in World War II. The Japanese government even gave a written apology to the Korean government.
2. According to a report by "The Washington Post", Tokyo paid $500 million of war reparations to Seoul in 1965.
3. According to a CNN report, a "Time" magazine report, and several other reports, Nazi symbols are popular in Korea. "A small photo of Adolf Hitler adorns the entrance to the Fifth Reich, an upscale watering hole in Seoul's Shinchon university district. A larger picture of the Führer hangs across from the bar, where waiters and waitresses with swastika arm badges mix drinks that have names like 'Adolf Hitler' and 'Dead'."
4. Koreans have viciously treated non-Koreans in South Korea. The Chinese immigrant community has succeeded in nearly every Asian country (including Japan). The exception is South Korea. The Chinese population in Korea declined from 50,000 to 10,000. "Many Chinese claim they were forced out by the Seoul authorities."
5. A reporter at "The Economist" wrote, "Koreans have always prided themselves on ethnic homogeneity, and feared and distrusted outsiders."
6. The U.S. State department has warned, "Citizenship [in Korea] is based on blood, not location of birth, and Koreans must show as proof their family genealogy. Thus, ethnic Chinese born and resident in Korea cannot obtain citizenship or become public servants."
7. "Purity" of blood is extremely important in Korean culture. "Traditional reverence for familial bloodlines [in Korea] and the social stigmas attached to adoptees as well as children who are disabled, mixed race or born out of wedlock limit local enthusiasm for the [adoption] program. Thus, international adoption continues to outpace domestic." "Because of societal values emphasizing the importance of bloodline, children were adopted domestically only by extended family or blood relatives."
Although a tiny percentage of Japanese citizens supports a revisionist history (as evidenced by the shocking memorial next to Yasukuni Shrine), the overwhelming majority of Japanese is aware of the correct history of World War II: specifically, the Japanese military initiated a war of aggression.
However, this unfortunate history is no justification, whatsoever, for the the racist and bigotted attitudes of the Koreans. Korean citizens who reside in Japan but who refuse Japanese citizenship should be treated as foreigners. These Korean "refuseniks" are loyal to either South Korea or North Korea. The Japanese government should fingerprint all Korean "refuseniks".
As for the issue of "equally", the new Japanese law mandating the fingerprinting of foreigners is discriminatory and is unacceptable. In particular, the law exempts Korean citizens who reside permanently in Japan but who refuse Japanese citizenship. Roughly 45% of these "refuseniks" pledge their allegiance to North Korea. They send their children to special schools which teach their students to sing the praises of North Korea.
These Korean refuseniks deliberately refuse Japanese citizenship because they want to maintain their "Korean-ness". They believe that blood determines both culture and nation of loyalty. They are loyal to either North Korea or South Korea.
The Korean refuseniks have harbored this intense racist bigotry for decades. Since the early 1990s, this bigotry began to fade slightly, and the number of Koreans applying for Japanese citizenship has increased from 5000 annually to 10,000 annually.
In today's Japan, there is no discrimination against Japanese citizens of Korean ancestry. There is, however, justifiable discrimination against Korean citizens or any other person who lacks Japanese citizenship: for example, a Brazilian citizen of Japanese ancestry does not have the same privileges that a Japanese citizen enjoys.
The Korean refuseniks are exempted from the fingerprinting requirement because, in the 1980s, the Korean government demanded that the Japanese government end the fingerprinting of Korean citizens who refuse Japanese citizenship. The Korean government insisted that Tokyo fulfill this demand before the Korean government was willing to improve relations with Japan. As a result of this interference by the Korean government in Japanese domestic politics, Tokyo ended the fingerprinting of Korean refuseniks. The Korean refuseniks are also exempted from the fingerprinting in the new Japanese law just passed by the Japanese parliament.
There is a huge difference between Korean refuseniks and Americans of African ancestry. Some Korean refuseniks are descended from people who were forcibly brought to Japan during World War II. However, many Korean refuseniks are descended from people who voluntarily came to Japan during and after World War II. By contrast, nearly all Americans of African ancestry are descended from people who were forcibly brought to the United States. Yet, while the Korean refuseniks voluntarily refuse Japanese citizenship (that they could easily get), all Americans of African ancestry gladly want to be American citizens.
The attitude of the Koreans is utterly racist and bigotted. By contrast, most Taiwanese citizens who chose to reside permanently in Japan have conscientiously wanted (and obtained) Japanese citizenship.
In summary, the new Japanese law mandating the fingerprinting of foreigners is discriminatory and is unacceptable because the law exempts Korean refuseniks. Tokyo should ignore the Korean government and should resume fingerprinting Korean refuseniks -- especially Korean refuseniks who pledge their allegiance to North Korea. (The Korean government has been a far bigger pain to Japan than the Mexican government has been to the USA.)
A 1-gigahertz desktop running Windows XP with ECC memory meets the needs of most businesses. They had a genuine need to upgrade from the MS-DOS-based operating systems (OSes) like Windows 98 when Windows XP was launched. The former is just too unreliable, but the latter approached Linux-level reliability.
Going from Windows XP to Vista does not buy you a quantum leap in reliability. The latter has a nicer GUI than the former, but a nicer user interface is not enough to justify spending another $1000+ on a machine for your secretary.
During this obssessive drive to faster, bigger, and badder computers and OSes, eventually the technology reaches a point at which it exceeds the needs of the customers. We have reached that point -- that knee of the technology curve. Any further technical advancements beyond the knee does not bring new customers to computer company XYZ. The computer-systems market now resembles or will soon resemble the automotive market: a replacement market for broken devices.
I do not replace my Chevrolet Camaro when a new sports car enters the automotive market. I replace my Camaro when it becomes too expensive to repair.
No spokesperson for a computer company ever talks about the arrival of the "knee". It means flat sales and thin margins for the company.
Well, the knee has arrived. The personal-computer industry is now a mature industry like the automotive industry. Welcome to flat sales and used-computer salescritters.
Politkovskaya had spent most of her career in helping the victims of horrific human-rights abuses. She was their only voice in an icy land of indifference. Commenting on the murder of Politkovskaya, Putin insulted her, "The level of her influence on political life in Russia was utterly insignificant."
By contrast, Koval helped the Soviet Union to develop weapons of mass destruction. They included nuclear weapons that can incinerate millions of victims within seconds. Commenting on his death, Putin heaps lavish praise and posthumously gives him the "Hero of Russia" medal, the highest Russian award.
I am almost at a loss for words to describe my utter disgust at the Kremlin.
As the Kremlin moves into cyberspace, each KGB clique will want a "piece of the action" and has absorbed some alumni of the RBN. In the 21st century, even the Russian mafia needs an online presence.
That a Linux machine is sold out at Walmart suggests that plain folks -- not like you and me -- know and respect Linux. The lesson is that there is a ready market, in middle America, for Linux-based applications. Will software developers heed this lesson?
For most people, the monster computer (with globs of memory and a gazillion hertz of processor speed) running Windows XP is already more machine than most Americans need. Now, Microsoft will kill off Windows XP in order to sell Vista to us. We will need a super-monster computer to run Vista. This whole process of bloated operating systems (OSes) driving purchases of even more excessive amounts of hardware is a damned waste of money.
The simple machine that runs Linux is good enough for most people. The number one application in America, after all, is e-mail.
Software developers should tune into middle America and sell Linux-based applications so that we can put an end to this never-ending cycle of bigger, badder OS needing bigger, badder computer.
The second issue is that, in some states (like Calfornia), you are not required to agree to binding arbitration in a dispute even if your contract stipulates binding arbitration. In California, an appeals court declared that binding arbitration in any contract allowing a full court trial by a company filing suit against an employee is null and void. In the case of David Abramson vs. Juniper, the appeals court said that allowing a court trial by the company against an employee but disallowing a trial (in favor of binding arbitration) by an employee against the company is unfair and invalid. If a court trial is allowed in one direction, the trial must be allowed in the other direction.
In other words, if your former employer attempts to intimidate you (with high-powered company lawyers) into signing away your invention (produced after termination from the company) to him, then you can sue your former employer for harrassment. You do not need to agree to binding arbitration. You can sue your former employer in a full court trial.
Most American companies, like Juniper, are ruthless. So, know your rights. Contact the labor departments of both the federal government and the state government. Talk to your lawyer.
By the way, does anyone know how the lawsuit by David Abramson against Juniper is progressing? The appeals court granted him the right to sue Juniper in a full court trial.
The Russians need to stay focused on modernizing their economy and political system. Russia still has considerable poverty, and the money wasted on the space race would be better spent on welfare programs and the education system. At the same stage of development, the Japanese did not waste money on either a space race or a massive weapons program.
Unfortunately, the Russians have become obsessed with nationalism since Vladimir Putin came to power. Big, impressive national projects have become more important than simply improving the quality of life for the poorest segments of the population.
The Russians have a lot to learn from the Poles. The latter are not wasting money on either a space race or a massive weapons program.
The most important lesson that the Russians can learn from the West is that the greatness of a nation is not measured by the size of the weaponry or the speed of the space ship. Rather, the greatness is measured by the quality of life for the average person.
The Soviet Union had awesome weapons and space vehicles, yet was the Soviet Union a great nation?
Washington denied treatment to the members of this group even after the discovery of penicillin. The government wanted to see how syphilis mutilates and kills people.
The full details are far worse than that described by the NPR story. In some cases, nurses actually deliberately injected syphilis bacteria into the bloodstream in order to infect the men. None of the criminals involved in this experiment ever served time in prison.
She is a member of the Rodina block, which was a political party created by the Kremlin and which was eventually merged into a larger party called "Just Russia". The leader of the Rodina block has advocated restricting the operation of human-rights non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Russa.
Narochnitskaya herself has opposed the Orange Revolution (a.k.a. the democratization movement) in the Ukraine.
Worst of all, the Rodina party has fueled racist xenophobic violence in Russia. According to a report in 2004 by the "The Globe and Mail", "According to official estimates, 20,000 people in Moscow alone now belong to skinhead organizations or other extremist groups, a 30-per-cent increase from five years ago. Among their favourite targets are Jews -- dozens of street signs last year were painted with swastikas and anti-Semitic graffiti -- and those from the Caucasus region on Russia's southern flank, a historic hatred that has grown deeper through a decade of bloody war in the breakaway republic of Chechnya."
The report further states that when an African student sought help from the Russian police to protect him from violent skinheads, a Russian police officer said, "Why are you here, Mr. Nigger? We don't have any bananas here."
The "Washington Post" recently published a chilling story about "police psychiatry" in Russia. Powerful thugs in the government (including the police) and in commercial businesses bribe judges and doctors to declare that a mentally healthy person is mentally incompetent. Then, the "justice" (in a very loose sense of the word) system will imprison the victim in a mental institution. There, the doctors proceed to "treat" the victim with beatings and injections of psychotic substances.
The article by the "Washington Post" mentions that Larissa Arap, a human-rights activist, was one such victim. She had written a damning article about the horrible state of psychiatric wards in Russia. In response, psychiatrists and judges -- under orders from the Kremlin -- imprisoned her in a psychiatric ward. She was subjected to 6 weeks of beatings and injections with an unknown psychotic substance. After numerous letters pleading for her life from Gary Kasparov and other human-rights activits, the Kremlin finally released her.
What is most disturbing about police psychiatry is that it is practiced not only by the Kremlin. This "tool" is also used by ordinary Russians who want to rid themselves of people whom they dislike.
Slashdot should create a new topic category for Russia. It deserves its own topic category for story submissions; the horrors in today's Russia should be an active topic of discussion (condemnation?) for any Westerner who has an iota of compassion. This article by the "Washington Post" should scare any Westerner.
Buy the same textbooks that the students at those universities use. For the pre-calculus mathematics, UC-Berkeley would be your best bet. MIT caters to only students who have already taken calculus in high school.
My best advice is to try a two-track approach: non-discrete mathematics and discrete mathematics. Traditionally high schools teach only non-discrete mathematics: e.g., trigonometry and calculus. Since you are studying the material on your own, you could improve upon the standard curriculum. Read a good book on discrete mathematics first. It will build your intuition of mathematics. Then, study the standard topics in non-discrete mathematics.
Discrete mathematics and non-discrete mathematics are quite different, but the reasoning in discrete mathematics will hone your skill in handling mathematical proofs, which are central to both branches of mathematics.
For a real challenge, after you finish your studies, try to determine whether P = NP.
My hunch is that the answer is "no". Even though Brazilian sugar-cane-based ethanol is much cheaper than American corn-based ethanol, Washington levies such a huge tariff on the former that it is more expensive than the latter. The whole point is to placate the angry American farmer.
An effort that favors any alternative fuel source besides corn is sure to run afoul of the farm lobby. Isn't Iowa one of the earliest primary states?
Oh yeah. Coca-Cola, long ago, dumped sugar in favor of corn syrup in the soft drinks. A tariff here and there sure can change the economics of life.
to my original sentence below
A laboratory of the French government has evaluated the "stealthy-ness" of ATD-X.to create the following sentence.
A laboratory of the French government has evaluated the "stealthy-ness" of ATD-X, and given it a high rating.The modification by Zonk is a significant error. Neither Mitsubishi nor the French laboratory publicized the result of the evaluation. The result is highly classified.
The Touch Table should be modified so that external sensors can detect the motion of the hand about 1 foot away from the screen. Those sensors would then translate the motion into zooms and pans of the image on the screen.