Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!cbnews!lvc From: lvc@cbnews.ATT.COM (Lawrence V. Cipriani) Newsgroups: comp.misc Subject: Re: Soviet Access to Usenet Message-ID: <2456@cbnews.ATT.COM> Date: 4 Dec 88 16:39:22 GMT References: <8081@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU> <2672@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu> <348@kps.UUCP> <2304@ficc.uu.net> <957@tank.uchicago.edu> <274@lloyd.camex.uucp> <2409@cbnews.ATT.COM> <227@taniwha.UUCP> Reply-To: lvc@cbnews.ATT.COM (Lawrence V. Cipriani) Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories Lines: 41 In article <227@taniwha.UUCP> michael@taniwha.UUCP (Michael Hamel) writes: >Aha. I wondered what it was. Larry, you really shouldn't let one persons >writings do this to you. I wouldn't ever believe everything I read in a book >about a highly-charged subject like the USSR. People have been known to lie >and exaggerate about subjects that they feel strongly about. I get my views >on the USSR from an average of a *lot* of books and articles, and I still >wouldn't claim to know whats really going on over there. I certainly wouldn't >let one book put me in a position where nothing short of "fundamental changes" >could change my views. Why not read another book? Or two? I've read several authors on the USSR and even an occasional issue of Soviet Life (gag). Like you, I don't claim to understand the USSR completely. I got some mail from former Russians living in the west. Basically, they agree with the goals I advocate but not the means. Okay, we can discuss what the best way to promote change in the USSR is, but not in comp.misc. I don't think I ever claimed that I was omniscent, I only wanted to point out that a USENET connection could possibly have a negative effect on promoting fundamental change in the USSR. What I think a USENET connection will do is to prolong the current system, even though it might make life better in the short run. I could be wrong. I have some strange, even radical, ideas but I'm really a nice guy. Now, lets talk comp.misc! This is from a sci.math article I posted this past week. It might be of interest here. On Dec. 6 a "human computer" will make an appearance here. Her name is Shakuntala Devi, or something close to that. She holds the Guiness world record for multiplying two large numbers in her head. So, I was wondering if anyone could think of some problems that would be particularly hard for such a person. Any 100 digit numbers need factoring :-) One of the best problems I got so far was: Find the smallest integer n such that: 1 + 1/2 + 1/3 + ... + 1/n > 20 -- Larry Cipriani, AT&T Network Systems, Columbus OH, Path: att!cbnews!lvc Domain: lvc@cbnews.ATT.COM