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	<title>blum &amp;laquo; WordPress.com Tag Feed</title>
	<link>http://en.wordpress.com/tag/blum/</link>
	<description>Feed of posts on WordPress.com tagged "blum"</description>
	<pubDate>Thu, 26 Nov 2009 03:42:36 +0000</pubDate>

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<title><![CDATA[Flights of Angel]]></title>
<link>http://jongo82.wordpress.com/2009/11/22/flights-of-angel/</link>
<pubDate>Sun, 22 Nov 2009 19:51:32 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>jongo82</dc:creator>
<guid>http://jongo82.wordpress.com/2009/11/22/flights-of-angel/</guid>
<description><![CDATA[CAN Yesterday, while scratching my head through Cost Accounting textbook, I came across a inspiring ]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class='snap_preview'><div class="wp-caption alignleft" style="width: 286px"><img title="CAN" src="http://roadrunnersusa.com/library/CANLOGO-BLUE.jpg" alt="Corporate Angel Network" width="276" height="121" /><p class="wp-caption-text">CAN</p></div>
<p>Yesterday, while scratching my head through Cost Accounting textbook, I came across a inspiring story which urged me to write about it in my blog entry.</p>
<p>I know what you think&#8230; <em>Huh? Cost accounting and an inspriring story? Business and charity in a book? Does it sound so unrelated?</em> Well, this is just a small story the author inserted into his book to illustrate his theorical idea. However, I like it very much, not only because it made me get the idea of Differential Cost and Revenue but it also gave me a warm feeling in my heart.</p>
<p>Business people always say <em>&#8220;There is no free lunch&#8221;</em>, but is is really?</p>
<p>In America there is an organization who is trying really hard to get free flights for people. Wow, sounds great but why do they do that? <strong><a title="Corporate Angel Network" href="http://www.corpangelnetwork.org/"></a></strong></p>
<p><strong><a title="Corporate Angel Network" href="http://www.corpangelnetwork.org/">Corporate Angel Network</a> </strong>is a charitable organization whose sole mission is to provide cancer patients free seats on corporate aircrafts flying on routine business.</p>
<p><span style='text-align:center; display: block;'><object width='425' height='350'><param name='movie' value='http://www.youtube.com/v/HX70LoSebB4&#038;rel=1&#038;fs=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;hd=0' /><param name='allowfullscreen' value='true' /><param name='wmode' value='transparent' /><embed src='http://www.youtube.com/v/HX70LoSebB4&#038;rel=1&#038;fs=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;hd=0' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' allowfullscreen='true' width='425' height='350' wmode='transparent'></embed></object></span></p>
<p>Corporate Angel Network was founded in 1981 by Leonard M. Greene, founder and president of Safe Flight Instrument Corporation, Priscilla H. Blum, a licensed commercial pilot, and Jay N. Weinberg, then owner of a Mt. Vernon, NY Avis Car Rental franchise.<!--more--></p>
<p>Priscilla H.Blum and Jay N.Weinberg had been personally going through the hardship of fighting against cancer while Leonard M.Greene lost his wife because of cancer, these three people wanted to give their helping hands to cancer patients to ease their physical pain and financial burden of travelling with commercial airline. They noticed that there are often many empty seats on corporate flights. Therefore, by putting another person on these flights doesn&#8217;t actually increase any extra cost.</p>
<p>With this idea in mind, <a title="Corporate Angel Network" href="http://www.corpangelnetwork.org/">Corporate Angel Network</a> has been making contacts with many corporations and arranging more than 25,000 free flights since 1981.</p>
<p>Today more than 500 firms participate in  CAN, including American Express, AT&#38;T, Champion International,  General Foods, Merrill Lynch, Reader&#8217;s Digest and Time Inc, etc.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s amazing to me that with just a little thoughtful idea, <a title="Corporate Angel Network" href="http://www.corpangelnetwork.org/">Corporate Angel Network</a> founders have been helping and saving so many lives. And it&#8217;s also fascinating to know that so many business giants do actually care about little good things that going on beside their world of business.</p>
<blockquote><p><em>&#8220;For me, the greatest pleasure comes not from the endless acquisition of material things, but from creating wealth and giving it away.&#8221;</em></p>
<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay_Van_Andel">Jay Van Andel</a>, Founder of <a title="Amway" href="http://www.amway.com/en">Amway</a> <strong> </strong></p></blockquote>
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<item>
<title><![CDATA[Nothin Ever Happens In Blum .... Until Now]]></title>
<link>http://frigginloon.wordpress.com/2009/11/14/man-attacked-by-a-llama-in-blum/</link>
<pubDate>Sat, 14 Nov 2009 23:31:44 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>frigginloon</dc:creator>
<guid>http://frigginloon.wordpress.com/2009/11/14/man-attacked-by-a-llama-in-blum/</guid>
<description><![CDATA[If I wanted to kill him, I would have! OMG, when llama&#8217;s get rabies they can be nasty buggers,]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class='snap_preview'><div id="attachment_14526" class="wp-caption alignright" style="width: 128px"><a rel="attachment wp-att-14526" href="http://frigginloon.wordpress.com/2009/11/14/man-attacked-by-a-llama-in-blum/llama/"><img class="size-full wp-image-14526" title="Llama attacks a man in Blum" src="http://frigginloon.wordpress.com/files/2009/11/llama.gif" alt="Llama attacks a man in Blum" width="118" height="198" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">If I wanted to kill him, I would have!</p></div>
<p>OMG, when llama&#8217;s get rabies they can be nasty buggers, just ask James &#8220;Buzzy&#8221; Steele from Blum. Buzzy was out tending to his mates goats when Spanky the llama ran right up to him, knock him down, grabbed his leg and &#8220;went to jerking on me.&#8221; (don&#8217;t know what that fully means and probably don&#8217;t want to know, so lets just leave it at that!). Anywho, Spanky went friggin nuts dragging Buzzy around the paddock by the leg. That&#8217;s when the owner, Terry Flowers, who was smoking his pipe at the time stepped in &#8220;I cleared the fence and just started beating on him.&#8221; As they raced to hospital with Buzzy bleeding all over the place , he rang his missus who owns the Redneck Grill &#38; Bar in Blum, and told her he had been attacked by a llama. She couldn&#8217;t understand what hubby was saying and thought he had been attacked by a lawn mower! Anywho, 700 stitches later Buzzy was sent home. Meanwhile, back at the farm, Spanky the crazy assed 6ft 300 plus lb llama was shot dead and his head sent to the state health department in Austin to be tested for rabies.Geez, it&#8217;s the biggest thing that has ever happened in Blum.</p>
<p><strong>Psst</strong> Mr Flowers said that this was the first time Spanky has ever acted aggressively towards anyone &#8230;except &#8220;I have always heard they were spitters, but he never spit on anyone except for my sister — and if you knew my sister, you would understand why he spit on her.&#8221;</p>
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<title><![CDATA[back to mainly personal stuff]]></title>
<link>http://lahja.wordpress.com/2009/11/08/back-to-mainly-personal-stuff/</link>
<pubDate>Sun, 08 Nov 2009 13:34:49 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>lahja</dc:creator>
<guid>http://lahja.wordpress.com/2009/11/08/back-to-mainly-personal-stuff/</guid>
<description><![CDATA[i enjoy the whole thing of &#8220;uni brennt&#8221; and i&#8217;m gonna have a further look and post]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class='snap_preview'><p>i enjoy the whole thing of &#8220;uni brennt&#8221; and i&#8217;m gonna have a further look and post on it, but i think it&#8217;s time to return to more personal things and thoughts of my life.</p>
<p>well, my ego&#8217;s speaking and crying and crawling and wants more and more attention. does somebody know what i mean?</p>
<p>today is one of those grey in grey days and it&#8217;s not my day. we had a little bit less sleep this night then the last nights. and i&#8217;m totally not feeling well. my head aches a little bit. i&#8217;m tired like hell, not able to think about all those great things, only about this problem, and that stupid exam and blablabla&#8230; really unnerving.</p>
<p>but yesterday evening was sooooo amazing. it was so much fun. we went into a greek restaurant (i love greek food, though the only thing i know is that gyros is small cut meat and tsatsiki is yoghurt with cucumber and garlic and salt. <img src='http://s.wordpress.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif' alt=':D' class='wp-smiley' />  ) yesterday i enjoyed a makadonia plate, which was with hardly everything you can dream of. especially the lamb chops were tasty. everything was perfect, but the waiter, he wasn&#8217;t that friendly and it&#8217;s just my opinion, but if i would be the waitress and a group of 8 people are visiting my restaurant for the first time, i would be veeeery nice and veeeery friendly because, if they would like me and my food, they will come back some day or visit the restaurant more often.</p>
<p>afterwards we went in a bar, i&#8217;ve been some years ago and it was like a living room. there are two rooms. the bigger one for smoker and the smaller for non-smoker. and we had the whole non-smoking area for us. we talked about this and that, even a bit about sex and this was the first time we did it. mr. womanizer ( i call him like this, couse this fits soooo very much) told us his fantasies and surprisingly they were simple fantasies and now i can tell it is the point of becoming a group of adults. and relationships with love, understanding and sex are more important to the most of us than heavy partying.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
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<title><![CDATA[Highlights of FOCS Theory Day]]></title>
<link>http://rjlipton.wordpress.com/2009/10/27/highlights-of-focs-theory-day/</link>
<pubDate>Tue, 27 Oct 2009 13:16:07 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>rjlipton</dc:creator>
<guid>http://rjlipton.wordpress.com/2009/10/27/highlights-of-focs-theory-day/</guid>
<description><![CDATA[A summary of a great day of talks before FOCS at Theory Day Dick Karp was the leadoff speaker this S]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class='snap_preview'><p> <font color="”#0066cc?"><br />
<em> A summary of a great day of talks before FOCS at Theory Day </em><br />
<font color="”#000000?"></p>
<p><img src="http://rjlipton.wordpress.com/files/2009/10/all.png" alt="all" title="all" width="160" height="172" class="alignright size-full wp-image-3771" /></p>
<p>Dick Karp was the leadoff speaker this Saturday at the <a href="http://www.aco.gatech.edu/conference/focs-aco/">FOCS Theory Day</a><br />
 in Atlanta. He was followed by Mihalis Yannakakis, Noga Alon, and Manny Blum. Sounds to me like a lineup for a baseball team that is in the World Series. I can almost hear an announcer saying:</p>
<blockquote><p>
 	Now batting cleanup, Mannnnny Blummmmm.
 </p></blockquote>
<p> And the crowd goes wild.</p>
<p> Today I thought I would write a summary of what Dick and the others said Saturday. The talks were webcast, but perhaps not all of you watched them. In any event I will add some additional comments that I hope you enjoy.<br />
<!--more--></p>
<p> All of these speakers always give great talks, and this day was no exception. I did notice that Karp and Blum both have titles that ask a question. Is this meaningful?</p>
<p> I cannot resist one story about Dick. Years ago he visited Atlanta to give the keynote at a conference. Rich DeMillo was the program chair, and he and I went out to the airport to pick Karp up. We planned to eat lunch, and then get Dick to the venue for his address. During the lunch we had a wonderful time chatting with Karp. Finally, at one point Dick said that he had a small issue that he was worried about. We of course asked what it was&#8212;we were prepared to help him in anyway possible.</p>
<p> Dick explained that he made his slides on the long airplane ride from SFO to Atlanta. In those days talks were made by writing on plastic transparencies with colored pens; my personal favorite were  <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00006IFGW">vis-a-vis markers</a>. Dick said that he was concerned about the new type of pens that he had used. He did not use vis-a-vis, but he had used a new brand. We said that  was fine. But he added that he was a bit concerned how well the slides would project, since they looked pretty pale. The pens apparently were not as good as old reliable vis-a-vis.</p>
<p> After lunch we jumped in Rich&#8217;s car, raced over to the conference hotel, and quickly found the room where Dick&#8217;s talk was going to be held. We immediately checked out the projector and more importantly Dick&#8217;s slides. He was right&#8212;the colors were extremely pale and the slides were nearly impossible to read. But it was way too late to redo them, since the talk was just about to start. Some of the audience were already entering the room.</p>
<p> We went forward&#8212;there was no other option. Rich gave a wonderful introduction of Karp, there was a long applause, and then Dick started his talk. He gave a great presentation. Whether the slides are perfect or not, Dick has a way of speaking and presenting his ideas that transcends everything else. Whether the red on a slide, for example, was pale or dark was unimportant. When Dick finished there was again a long applause. His talk was a huge success, but I believe he did throw the new pens away.</p>
<p> Let&#8217;s move on to discuss the talks, which were all quite different styles. Yet each was a masterpiece given by one of the leaders of the field.</p>
<p> <b>What Makes an Algorithm Great?</b></p>
<p> Karp started by quoting me, twice. I was a bit embarrassed&#8212;and secretly pleased. The first quote was that &#8220;Algorithms are Tiny,&#8221; which I have <a href="http://rjlipton.wordpress.com/2009/02/13/algorithms-tiny-yet-powerful/">discussed</a> earlier. By the way the ideas in that discussion are joint with Lenore Blum.</p>
<ul>
<li> Karp then began to discuss great algorithms based on various<br />
 criteria. The first list was historical:</p>
<ul>
<li> The Positional Number system of <a href="http://wvegter.hivemind.net/abacus/CyberHeroes/Alkarismi.htm">Alkarismi</a>.
<li> The Chinese Remainder Theorem&#8212;which is really an algorithm.
<li> The Euclidean Algorithm.
<li> Gaussian Elimination.
</ul>
<p> Impossible to argue with any on his list. Without positional numbers, I believe, that one could make the case that almost no modern algorithm is possible. The Chinese Remainder Theorem is one of my favorites, and the other two are clearly great.</p>
<li> Karp then talked about several algorithms that he said were based on great ideas.<br />
 They were,</p>
<ul>
<li> Linear Programming
<li> Primality Testing
<li> Fast Matrix Product
<li> TSP
<li> Integer Factoring
</ul>
<p>The famous simplex method for LP is still one of the best ways to solve linear programs. Karp pointed out that the ellipsoid method was a great theoretic result, but the interior-point methods were the first to solve LP&#8217;s in a way which was both in polynomial-time and practical. Karp gave a nice survey of the work on the TSP: he pointed out that Nicos Christofides&#8217; wonderful <img src='http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B1.5%7D%26%2338%3Bfg%3D000000&#038;bg=ffffff&#038;fg=000000&#038;s=0' alt='{1.5}&amp;fg=000000' title='{1.5}&amp;fg=000000' class='latex' />-approximation algorithm for the metric TSP is still the best known. If you somehow do not know it <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christofides_algorithm">check it out</a>. It was discovered in 1976&#8212;that&#8217;s a lot of FOCS&#8217;s ago. Dick also pointed out that Volker Strassen&#8217;s famous fast matrix product algorithm was a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strassen_algorithm">surprise</a> to the mathematical community. </p>
<li> Karp is an expert in so many things, but perhaps his roots are in combinatorial optimization. So he went into some detail on the great algorithms from that area.
<ul>
<li> Minimum Spanning Tree
<li> Shortest Path in Graphs
<li> For-Fulkerson Max-flow Algorithm
<li> Gale-Shapley Stable Marriage
<li> General Matching in Graphs
</ul>
<p> In 1965 Jack Edmonds&#8217; <a href="http://www3.ntu.edu.sg/home/YHLow/article/path-tree-flowers.pdf">paper</a> titled &#8220;Paths, Trees, and Flowers&#8221; not only showed how to do matching for non- bipartite graphs, but also laid out an informal basis of what later became P, NP, and co-NP. An incredible achievement for that point in time.</p>
<li> Karp next discussed randomized algorithms. I sometimes think we could not have a FOCS meeting if we disallowed the use of randomization.
<ul>
<li> Primality Testing
<li> Volume of Convex Bodies
<li> Counting Matchings
<li> Min-Cut of Graphs
<li> String Matching
<li> Hashing
</ul>
<p>All of these algorithms are great, and Karp spent some details on the volume algorithm of Alan Frieze and Ravi Kannan. He said nothing about the beautiful string matching algorithm that is due to Michael Rabin and himself. He was modest, but I am under no constraint. Their matching algorithm is one of the examples of the immense power of randomness. Their algorithm is theoretically fast and is practical. Actually it is more than practical, it is I believe the algorithm of choice for most packages. A wonderful algorithm, that would make my personal top ten.</p>
<li> Karp talked next about heuristic algorithms. These, he said, present an important challenge to theory. The central question, of course, is why do they work so well in practice?
<ul>
<li> Local Search
<li> Shotgun Sequencing Algorithm
<li> Simulated Annealing
</ul>
<p>Dick stated that Myers&#8217; great work on sequencing was critical to the effort that first sequenced the human genome at Celera&#8212;then a company in competition with the NIH funded labs. What is so neat about Myers&#8217; algorithm is that it required him to understand the structure of the human genome. The genome is <i>not</i> random, has structure, and that structure makes what Gene did so difficult.</p>
<li> Karp and complexity theory:
<ul>
<li> NLOG is Closed Under Complement
<li> Undirected Connectivity is in DLOG
<li> Space is More Powerful Than Time
</ul>
<p>Karp agreed with my earlier <a href="http://rjlipton.wordpress.com/2009/09/22/its-all-algorithms-algorithms-and-algorithms/">discussion</a> that even complexity theory is really all about algorithms. He selected the above as the some of the most outstanding ones. John Hopcroft, Wolfgang Paul, and Leslie Valiant proved that deterministic time <img src='http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bt%28n%29%7D%26%2338%3Bfg%3D000000&#038;bg=ffffff&#038;fg=000000&#038;s=0' alt='{t(n)}&amp;fg=000000' title='{t(n)}&amp;fg=000000' class='latex' /> is in deterministic space <img src='http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bo%28t%28n%29%29%7D%26%2338%3Bfg%3D000000&#038;bg=ffffff&#038;fg=000000&#038;s=0' alt='{o(t(n))}&amp;fg=000000' title='{o(t(n))}&amp;fg=000000' class='latex' />. Their proof relies on several algorithmic <a href="http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=322015">ideas</a>: the block-respecting method and the pebbling game strategy.</p>
<li> Karp only had time to list a number of great algorithms that show that theory can have impact on the &#8220;real-world.&#8221; All of the algorithms in his list have changed the world.
<ul>
<li> Fast Fourier Transform
<li> RSA Encryption
<li> Miller-Rabin Primality Test
<li> Reed-Solomon Codes
<li> Lempel-Ziv Compression
<li> Page Rank of Google
<li> Consistent Hashing of Akamai
<li> Viterbi and Hidden Markov Models
<li> Smith-Waterman
<li> Spectral Low Rank Approximation Algorithms
<li> Binary Decision Diagrams
</ul>
<p> Without these algorithms the world would stop: no web search, no digital music or movies, no security, <img src='http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cdots%7D%26%2338%3Bfg%3D000000&#038;bg=ffffff&#038;fg=000000&#038;s=0' alt='{\dots}&amp;fg=000000' title='{\dots}&amp;fg=000000' class='latex' /> and on and on.</p>
<li> Karp finally gave a short list of algorithms from the area of information transfer.
<ul>
<li> Digital Fountain Codes
<li> CDMA
<li> Compressive Sensing of Images
</ul>
<p>The first is a breakthrough method of Michael Luby that is a near optimal erasure code. In many situations information may be lost, rather than corrupted. Since it is lost the decoder knows that it is missing, which allows for a whole different type of error correcting code. These codes are extremely powerful: they are easy to encode and decode, and need relatively few extra bits of redundancy. Compressive Sensing is a relatively recent idea that is based on deep mathematics, yet is rapidly changing image compression. The creators are David Donoho, Emmanuel  Candès,  Justin Romberg, and Terence Tao&#8212;see <a href="http://www.dsp.ece.rice.edu/cs">this</a> for many papers and articles from the area.</p>
</ul>
<p>The talk was wonderful. Wonderful. In one hour we were carried from ancient times, past the dawn of modern computational complexity, then to the modern era, and the present&#8212;with a peek at the future. A masterful talk by the master. Later in the meeting Alon said that he could not imagine doing what Karp did. I completely agree.</p>
<p align="center"><img src='http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++%5CS+%26%2338%3Bfg%3D000000&#038;bg=ffffff&#038;fg=000000&#038;s=0' alt='\displaystyle  \S &amp;fg=000000' title='\displaystyle  \S &amp;fg=000000' class='latex' /></p>
<p> <b>Computational Aspects of Equilibria.</b></p>
<p>Yannakakis spoke about equilibria phenomena in game theory and economic theory. He started by saying that he had two hours worth of slides, but kindly finished nicely on time: close to the <i>von Neumann Bound</i>. John von Neumann once defined the perfect length of a talk as a micro-century, which works out to just about <img src='http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B52%7D%26%2338%3Bfg%3D000000&#038;bg=ffffff&#038;fg=000000&#038;s=0' alt='{52}&amp;fg=000000' title='{52}&amp;fg=000000' class='latex' /> minutes.</p>
<ul>
<li> Yannakakis first explained how many systems can evolve over time to a stable state. He spoke at some length about the classic example of neural nets and a 1982 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hopfield_net">theorem</a> due to John Hopfield that proves that they always converge to a local minimum. The argument is based on showing that a certain potential function decreases and eventually reaches a local minimum.
<li> Yannakakis then switched to a discussion that was mostly about various types of games. He discussed in detail the famous result of John Nash, proved in 1950, that any non-zero sum game always has at least <i>one</i> mixed equilibria point.
<li>
 Yannakakis&#8217; key point was that Nash&#8217;s proof that mixed equilibria always exist was based on the famous Brouwer Fixed Point Theorem (BFPT). This theorem that is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brouwer_fixed_point_theorem">named</a> after Luitzen Brouwer is also, as Mihalis said, used to prove that a whole host of other game/economic systems have a stable equilibrium point.</p>
<li> Yannakakis then showed the power of modern complexity theory. Just because the BFPT is used to prove something does not rule out the possibility that there is a proof that avoids it. But, this is not the case. He introduced three complexity classes: <img src='http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cmathsf%7BFIXP%7D%7D%26%2338%3Bfg%3D000000&#038;bg=ffffff&#038;fg=000000&#038;s=0' alt='{\mathsf{FIXP}}&amp;fg=000000' title='{\mathsf{FIXP}}&amp;fg=000000' class='latex' />, <img src='http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cmathsf%7BPPAD%7D%7D%26%2338%3Bfg%3D000000&#038;bg=ffffff&#038;fg=000000&#038;s=0' alt='{\mathsf{PPAD}}&amp;fg=000000' title='{\mathsf{PPAD}}&amp;fg=000000' class='latex' />, and <img src='http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cmathsf%7BPLS%7D%7D%26%2338%3Bfg%3D000000&#038;bg=ffffff&#038;fg=000000&#038;s=0' alt='{\mathsf{PLS}}&amp;fg=000000' title='{\mathsf{PLS}}&amp;fg=000000' class='latex' />. They capture respectively: general <img src='http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B3%7D%26%2338%3Bfg%3D000000&#038;bg=ffffff&#038;fg=000000&#038;s=0' alt='{3}&amp;fg=000000' title='{3}&amp;fg=000000' class='latex' />-player games, <img src='http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B2%7D%26%2338%3Bfg%3D000000&#038;bg=ffffff&#038;fg=000000&#038;s=0' alt='{2}&amp;fg=000000' title='{2}&amp;fg=000000' class='latex' />-player games, and finally games that have pure equilibria. A beautiful point is that he could use these classes to show that BFPT is equivalent to Nash&#8217;s famous theorem for multiple player games, and thus it is <i>essential</i> for the proof. The power of modern complexity should not be underestimated. Without the crisp notion of a &#8220;complexity class&#8221; I cannot see how any result like this could even be stated&#8212;let alone proved. Terrific.
<li> Yannakakis also pointed out that solutions to multiple player games may not be rational numbers, in general. This was, by the way, known to Nash back in 1950. The problem with this is that then there may be no way to write down the exact solution to the problem. This plays havoc with complexity theory. Mihalis gave the analogy to the sum of square root problem: Is the following true,
<p align="center"><img src='http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++%5Csum_%7Bi%3D1%7D%5E%7Bn%7D+%5Csqrt+%7Bd_%7Bi%7D%7D+%5Cle+b+%26%2338%3Bfg%3D000000&#038;bg=ffffff&#038;fg=000000&#038;s=0' alt='\displaystyle  \sum_{i=1}^{n} \sqrt {d_{i}} \le b &amp;fg=000000' title='\displaystyle  \sum_{i=1}^{n} \sqrt {d_{i}} \le b &amp;fg=000000' class='latex' /></p>
<p> where the <img src='http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bd_%7Bi%7D%7D%26%2338%3Bfg%3D000000&#038;bg=ffffff&#038;fg=000000&#038;s=0' alt='{d_{i}}&amp;fg=000000' title='{d_{i}}&amp;fg=000000' class='latex' /> are natural numbers and <img src='http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bb%7D%26%2338%3Bfg%3D000000&#038;bg=ffffff&#038;fg=000000&#038;s=0' alt='{b}&amp;fg=000000' title='{b}&amp;fg=000000' class='latex' /> is a rational number. It is a long standing open problem whether or not this can be solved in polynomial time. See this for a <a href="http://rjlipton.wordpress.com/2009/03/04/ron-graham-gives-a-talk/">discussion</a> that I had earlier on this topic.</p>
<li> Yannakakis finally gave us the usual news about the complexity classes: not much is known about their power. Oh well. The following diagram summarizes all that is known about them: (an arrow denotes inclusion)<br />
 <img src="http://rjlipton.wordpress.com/files/2009/10/classes1.png" alt="classes" title="classes" width="375" height="132" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-3793" /></p>
</ul>
<p>His talk summarized quite neatly the relationship between equilibria problems and certain complexity classes. I wish that Yannakakis had more time to give more details&#8212;perhaps another talk.</p>
<p align="center"><img src='http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++%5CS+%26%2338%3Bfg%3D000000&#038;bg=ffffff&#038;fg=000000&#038;s=0' alt='\displaystyle  \S &amp;fg=000000' title='\displaystyle  \S &amp;fg=000000' class='latex' /></p>
<p> <b>Disjoint Paths, Isoperimetric Problems, and Graph Eigenvalues.</b></p>
<p>Alon started by pointing out that his first FOCS paper was at the <img src='http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7B25%7D%5E%7Bth%7D%7D%26%2338%3Bfg%3D000000&#038;bg=ffffff&#038;fg=000000&#038;s=0' alt='{{25}^{th}}&amp;fg=000000' title='{{25}^{th}}&amp;fg=000000' class='latex' />. At that meeting, in 1984, he spoke on eigenvalues and expanders&#8212;he said he seemed to be stuck. He then pulled out a small piece of paper and proceeded to read,</p>
<blockquote><p>
 	I would like to thank the many FOCS program committees for their hard work and effort&#8212;<b>except</b> for the FOCS program committees of 1989, 2003, and 2006.
</p></blockquote>
<p>Even one of the greatest theorists in the world gets papers rejected from FOCS. This got a big laugh, yet I think it actually raises a serious question about the role of conferences. I know that is being discussed both on-line and off, but let&#8217;s move on to the rest of his talk and leave that discussion for another time and place.</p>
<p>Noga really gave highlights of two problems:</p>
<ul>
<li> Alon first discussed a kind of routing game. He imagines that you have some fixed <img src='http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bn%7D%26%2338%3Bfg%3D000000&#038;bg=ffffff&#038;fg=000000&#038;s=0' alt='{n}&amp;fg=000000' title='{n}&amp;fg=000000' class='latex' /> node degree <img src='http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bd%7D%26%2338%3Bfg%3D000000&#038;bg=ffffff&#038;fg=000000&#038;s=0' alt='{d}&amp;fg=000000' title='{d}&amp;fg=000000' class='latex' /> expander graph. The game is this: you will be given a series of requests of the form:
<p align="center"><img src='http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++s_%7B1%7D+%5Crightarrow+t_%7B1%7D%2C+%5Cdots%2C+s_%7Bm%7D+%5Crightarrow+t_%7Bm%7D+%26%2338%3Bfg%3D000000&#038;bg=ffffff&#038;fg=000000&#038;s=0' alt='\displaystyle  s_{1} \rightarrow t_{1}, \dots, s_{m} \rightarrow t_{m} &amp;fg=000000' title='\displaystyle  s_{1} \rightarrow t_{1}, \dots, s_{m} \rightarrow t_{m} &amp;fg=000000' class='latex' /></p>
<p>where this means that you are to find a set of edge disjoint paths from <img src='http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bs_%7Bi%7D%7D%26%2338%3Bfg%3D000000&#038;bg=ffffff&#038;fg=000000&#038;s=0' alt='{s_{i}}&amp;fg=000000' title='{s_{i}}&amp;fg=000000' class='latex' /> to <img src='http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bt_%7Bi%7D%7D%26%2338%3Bfg%3D000000&#038;bg=ffffff&#038;fg=000000&#038;s=0' alt='{t_{i}}&amp;fg=000000' title='{t_{i}}&amp;fg=000000' class='latex' /> for each <img src='http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bi%7D%26%2338%3Bfg%3D000000&#038;bg=ffffff&#038;fg=000000&#038;s=0' alt='{i}&amp;fg=000000' title='{i}&amp;fg=000000' class='latex' />. He proves that on a special type of expander that not only can this be done for <img src='http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bm%7D%26%2338%3Bfg%3D000000&#038;bg=ffffff&#038;fg=000000&#038;s=0' alt='{m}&amp;fg=000000' title='{m}&amp;fg=000000' class='latex' /> such that <img src='http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bm+%3D+O%28n%2F%5Clog+n%29%7D%2C%26%2338%3Bfg%3D000000&#038;bg=ffffff&#038;fg=000000&#038;s=0' alt='{m = O(n/\log n)},&amp;fg=000000' title='{m = O(n/\log n)},&amp;fg=000000' class='latex' /> but that it can be done <i>on-line</i>. That is there is an algorithm that selects the path from <img src='http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bs_%7Bi%7D%7D%26%2338%3Bfg%3D000000&#038;bg=ffffff&#038;fg=000000&#038;s=0' alt='{s_{i}}&amp;fg=000000' title='{s_{i}}&amp;fg=000000' class='latex' /> to <img src='http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bt_%7Bi%7D%7D%26%2338%3Bfg%3D000000&#038;bg=ffffff&#038;fg=000000&#038;s=0' alt='{t_{i}}&amp;fg=000000' title='{t_{i}}&amp;fg=000000' class='latex' /> without knowing the requests that will follow,</p>
<p align="center"><img src='http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++s_%7Bi%2B1%7D+%5Crightarrow+t_%7Bi%2B1%7D%2C+%5Cdots%2C+s_%7Bm%7D+%5Crightarrow+t_%7Bm%7D.+%26%2338%3Bfg%3D000000&#038;bg=ffffff&#038;fg=000000&#038;s=0' alt='\displaystyle  s_{i+1} \rightarrow t_{i+1}, \dots, s_{m} \rightarrow t_{m}. &amp;fg=000000' title='\displaystyle  s_{i+1} \rightarrow t_{i+1}, \dots, s_{m} \rightarrow t_{m}. &amp;fg=000000' class='latex' /></p>
<p>This seems amazing to me. See the <a href="http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/freeabs_all.jsp?arnumber=4389521">paper</a> joint with Michael Capalbo for full details on how this works.</p>
<li> Alon then spoke on <i>spines</i>. Imagine <img src='http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bd%7D%26%2338%3Bfg%3D000000&#038;bg=ffffff&#038;fg=000000&#038;s=0' alt='{d}&amp;fg=000000' title='{d}&amp;fg=000000' class='latex' /> dimension space divided into unit cubes. You are to select a subset of each cube so that this &#8220;spine&#8221; does not allow any non-trivial path that moves from cube to cube. In a sense the spines are a kind of geometric separator. Since separators play a key role in many parts of theory, it may come as no surprise that spines also are very useful. A deep result of Guy Kindler, Ryan O&#8217;Donnell, Anup Rao, and Avi Wigderson shows that a spine can have surface area bounded by <img src='http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BO%28%5Csqrt+d%29%7D%26%2338%3Bfg%3D000000&#038;bg=ffffff&#038;fg=000000&#038;s=0' alt='{O(\sqrt d)}&amp;fg=000000' title='{O(\sqrt d)}&amp;fg=000000' class='latex' /> where <img src='http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bd%7D%26%2338%3Bfg%3D000000&#038;bg=ffffff&#038;fg=000000&#038;s=0' alt='{d}&amp;fg=000000' title='{d}&amp;fg=000000' class='latex' /> is the dimension of the space. However, the shape of their spine is essentially not known; it cannot be seen. The <a href="http://tcsmath.wordpress.com/2008/09/">discussion</a> here may help understand more about spines and their applications. Noga&#8217;s main result is a new uniform proof that solves this and other spine problems.
<li> Alon also had a simple piece of advice for all of us. He pointed out that we all use search engines to try to find mathematics that can help us in our research The trouble is that it is impossible to type in mathematical formulas into search engines. His suggestion is: <i>give all your lemmas meaningful names</i>. This may allow people to find your work, and then reference it. He gave an example of one of his lemmas:
<p>
 <b>Lemma:</b> <i>(A simple discrete vertex isoperimetric inequality on the<br />
Dirichlet boundary condition)</i></p>
</ul>
<p>When I Googled this &#8220;name&#8221; the second hit was his paper&#8212;not too bad.</p>
<p>
A wonderful talk, with light touches, and beautiful results; even though it contained many technical parts, I believe that most came away with the basic ideas that Noga wanted to get across.</p>
<p align="center"><img src='http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++%5CS+%26%2338%3Bfg%3D000000&#038;bg=ffffff&#038;fg=000000&#038;s=0' alt='\displaystyle  \S &amp;fg=000000' title='\displaystyle  \S &amp;fg=000000' class='latex' /></p>
<p> <b>Can (Theoretical Computer) Science Come to Grips With Consciousness?</b></p>
<p>Blum spoke about a life long quest, that started when he was six years old, to understand consciousness. Blum has a record of looking at old problems in new ways, of looking at new problems in his own way, of creating whole fields of study, and thus we should take his ideas on what is &#8220;consciousness&#8221; very seriously. Let&#8217;s call this the: <i>What is consciousness problem.</i> (WICP).</p>
<p>It is hard to really do justice to his wonderful talk, but I think there are a few high level points that I can get right:</p>
<ul>
<li> Blum states that now may be the first time that real progress can be made on the WICP. This is due to the confluence of two events. The ability of researchers to use <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Functional_magnetic_resonance_imaging">FMRI</a> machines to watch a person&#8217;s brain as they think is relatively recent development. Second, is the maturing of a powerful theory called the <a href="http://cogweb.ucla.edu/CogSci/GWorkspace.html">Global Workspace Theory</a>, which was created by Bernie <a href="http://lifeboat.com/ex/bios.bernard.j.baars">Baars</a>. I will not explain the theory, since I do not understand it. But Blum says that it has a very computational flavor, which may mean that theory can make an important contribution to the WICP.
<li> Blum explained that when he was a graduate student he worked with some of the greats such as Warren McCulloch and Walter Pitts. They are famous for their notion of the McCulloch-Pitts <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_neuron">neuron</a>, which they proved could be the basis of a universal computing device. Today we study threshold functions and the complexity class <img src='http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cmathsf%7BTC%7D%5E%7B0%7D%7D%26%2338%3Bfg%3D000000&#038;bg=ffffff&#038;fg=000000&#038;s=0' alt='{\mathsf{TC}^{0}}&amp;fg=000000' title='{\mathsf{TC}^{0}}&amp;fg=000000' class='latex' /> that are modern versions of their pioneering work.
<li> Blum pointed out a simple fact about the eye that I found fascinating: In the dark take a light source, and quickly move it around in front of you. You will see a path of light. This happens, Manny explained, because the eye responds only to motion. Then, keep the light source fixed and now move your head around. You will not see a path of light: you will see just a point of light. Somehow the eye and brain together can tell the difference between these two cases. Terrific.
<li> Blum then shifted into a more theory oriented part of his talk. He explained what he called <i>templates</i>. They are his way of modeling how we solve problems. His stated goal is quite ambitious; if we could understand WICP he thinks that we might be able to make robots/agents that learn. The template model is a kind of tree. For example, suppose that you are trying to prove a theorem. Then, the root of the tree would contain a &#8220;hint&#8221; or some high-level idea that gets you thinking in the right way about your theorem. Below that would be more precise yet still informal pieces of information. Eventually, the leaves of the tree would contain more formal pieces that make up the actual proof.
<li> Blum had a simple but great piece of advice to us all. If you are faced with a problem that you cannot solve, then modify the problem. Change it. Try another problem. He argued that this often may be interesting by itself, and sometimes may shed light on the original problem. Great advice.
<li> Blum ended with a pretty puzzle. Is there a irrational number <img src='http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Calpha%7D%26%2338%3Bfg%3D000000&#038;bg=ffffff&#038;fg=000000&#038;s=0' alt='{\alpha}&amp;fg=000000' title='{\alpha}&amp;fg=000000' class='latex' /> so that
<p align="center"><img src='http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++%5Calpha+%5E%7B%5Calpha%7D+%3D+%5Cbeta%26%2338%3Bfg%3D000000&#038;bg=ffffff&#038;fg=000000&#038;s=0' alt='\displaystyle  \alpha ^{\alpha} = \beta&amp;fg=000000' title='\displaystyle  \alpha ^{\alpha} = \beta&amp;fg=000000' class='latex' /></p>
<p>for a rational <img src='http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Cbeta%7D%26%2338%3Bfg%3D000000&#038;bg=ffffff&#038;fg=000000&#038;s=0' alt='{\beta}&amp;fg=000000' title='{\beta}&amp;fg=000000' class='latex' />? The answer is yes, and he explained how his templates could guide you to the solution to his problem.</p>
</ul>
<p>A wonderful talk, from one of the great visionaries of the field.</p>
<p><b> Open Problems </b></p>
<p>Before turning to some open problems I want to thank the following people for making Theory day such a great success: Dani Denton, Milena Mihail, Dan Spielman, and Robin Thomas. Thanks for all your hard work.</p>
<p> Robin pointed out that it was also ACO&#8217;s <img src='http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7B20%7D%5E%7Bth%7D%7D%26%2338%3Bfg%3D000000&#038;bg=ffffff&#038;fg=000000&#038;s=0' alt='{{20}^{th}}&amp;fg=000000' title='{{20}^{th}}&amp;fg=000000' class='latex' /> anniversary, and all of the talks should be <a href="http://www.aco.gatech.edu/conference/focs-aco/">online</a> later this week.</p>
<p>
Now some open problems that each speaker implicitly raised:</p>
<li> <strong>Karp:</strong> What are your favorite algorithms? Do you agree with Dick&#8217;s lists?
<li> <strong>Yannakakis:</strong> What are the relative powers of the complexity classes discussed? There is a <i>rumor</i> that part of this may be resolved&#8212;more on this soon.
<li> <strong>Alon:</strong> What does a spine really look like? Can the same bounds be found with spines that one can  actually &#8220;see?&#8221;
<li> <strong>Blum:</strong> What do you think about WICP? Can theory help us understand WICP? Is the Global Workspace Theory one we can contribute to?<br />
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<title><![CDATA[Blum L.]]></title>
<link>http://jaxxalude.wordpress.com/2009/10/27/blum-l/</link>
<pubDate>Tue, 27 Oct 2009 10:18:25 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>jaxxalude</dc:creator>
<guid>http://jaxxalude.wordpress.com/2009/10/27/blum-l/</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Ogni società che pretende di assicurare agli uomini la libertà deve cominciare col garantir loro l]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class='snap_preview'><blockquote><p><strong><a rel="attachment wp-att-204" href="http://jaxxalude.wordpress.com/2009/10/27/blum-l/aforismablum/"><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-204" title="aforismablum" src="http://jaxxalude.wordpress.com/files/2009/10/aforismablum.jpg?w=517" alt="" width="517" height="189" /></a></strong></p>
<p><strong>Ogni società che pretende di assicurare agli uomini la libertà deve cominciare col garantir loro l&#8217;esistenza.</strong></p></blockquote>
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<title><![CDATA[Anne Will - von Buletten, Pfandbons, unmenschlichen Chefs und dem Kapitalismus ]]></title>
<link>http://dissonanz.wordpress.com/2009/10/12/anne-will-von-buletten-pfandbons-unmenschlichen-chefs-und-dem-kapitalismus/</link>
<pubDate>Mon, 12 Oct 2009 12:48:07 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>jitzchak45</dc:creator>
<guid>http://dissonanz.wordpress.com/2009/10/12/anne-will-von-buletten-pfandbons-unmenschlichen-chefs-und-dem-kapitalismus/</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Auch wenn ich die nervigen und nichtssagenden Pseudo-Polit-Sendungen eigentlich eher meide, habe ich]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class='snap_preview'><p>Auch wenn ich die nervigen und nichtssagenden Pseudo-Polit-Sendungen eigentlich eher meide, habe ich gestern Abend mal in Anne Will reingeschaut. Und dann war es auch so schlecht wie erwartet, aber – wieder Erwarten – dann doch so interessant, dass ich dem Ganzen hier einen kurzen Beitrag widmen will. Ich will hier allerdings nicht den Inhalt der Sendung zusammenfassen (<a href="http://daserste.ndr.de/annewill/videos/annewill1370.html" target="_blank">anzusehen ist sie hier</a>), sondern nur auf einige Dinge eingehen, die mir besonders auffielen.</p>
<p><!--more--></p>
<p>Behandelt wurde das Thema der Kündigungen nach geringen Diebstählen seitens der Arbeitnehmer, aktuell das Beispiel der gestohlenen Buletten beim Bauverband Westfalen. Von Anfang an wurde ganz im Sinne der Volksseele von dem einzelnen, persönlich verantwortlichen und natürlich immer männlichen „Chef“ ausgegangen, der in direktem Verhältnis zur Entlassenen gestanden habe. Keine Spur von der Vorstellung, es handele sich vielmehr um komplexere, über mehrere Ebenen gelagerte, bürokratische Apparate. Nein, um das Ganze schön einfach zu machen, um das Bild vom bösen Manager aufrecht zu erhalten, wird durchgehend vom „Chef“ gesprochen, der persönliche Schuld trage.</p>
<p>Natürlich ist es so – auch wenn das vom ein oder anderen in der Runde nicht zugegeben wurde –, dass ein solch kleiner Diebstahl schnell mal als Grund genommen wird jemanden zu entlassen, doch ist dies nicht die persönliche Schuld eines „Chefs“, sondern wohl eher dem im Fundament liegenden Konkurrenz- und Effizienzdruck, sprich den Zwängen des Marktes geschuldet. Als interessiere es die nächst höhere Ebene in der Bürokratie wirklich, wie die Ebene darunter die vorgeschriebenen Zahlen erreicht, als mache sich der &#8211; ebenfalls angestellte – Verantwortliche für die Kündigung darum Gedanken, wen er da entlässt. Schließlich weiß er ganz genau, dass es auch für seine Entlassung einen Verantwortlichen gibt, der nicht zögern wird, sollten die Zahlen nicht stimmen.</p>
<p>Diese Atmosphäre des Drucks, vermittelt einmal auf der Ebene des Marktes zwischen den Firmen, die immer günstiger produzieren müssen und denen eine Entlassung ohne Abfindung da wie gerufen kommt, und ein zweites Mal auf der Ebene des Arbeitsmarktes zwischen den Arbeitnehmern, die – haben sie einmal eine Stelle &#8211; diese zu verteidigen suchen, ist es, die zu solchen Entlassungen führt. Letzeres wird auch in dem Fall der Kassiererin deutlich, die Pfandbons geklaut haben soll – sie wurde von Kollegen „überführt“.</p>
<p>Zwar blitzte im Laufe der Sendung kurz die Rede davon auf, dass die Unternehmensstrukturen so komplex seien, dass – ja wiedermal – der „Chef“ den einzelnen Mitarbeiter gar nicht mehr kenne, dies diente jedoch lediglich dazu, damit unter anderem Herr Blühm die doch soviel besseren alten Zeiten beschwören konnte. Eine wirkliche Einsicht folgte nicht. Wie auch, wenn Leute wie Blüm eingeladen werden, die auf Stammtisch-Niveau versuchen den Kapitalismus zu kritisieren, über ihren strukturellen Antisemitismus und das Lob des „ehrlichen Kaufmanns“  im Gegenzug zum  bösen – im Idealfall amerikanischen &#8211; Großkonzern dabei aber nicht hinauskommen.</p>
<div class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 315px"><img class=" " title="Norbert Blüm" src="http://daserste.ndr.de/annewill/media/bluem106_v-dasErstegross.jpg" alt="" width="305" height="229" /><p class="wp-caption-text">Stets zu haben für regressive Kapitalismuskritik - Norbert Blüm  Foto: ard.de</p></div>
<p>Die personalisierende Rede vom bösen „Chef“, „Manager“ oder – zumindest in Deutschland so offen ein wenig aus der Mode – vom „Juden“ jedoch bringt keinerlei Einblick in die wirklichen Problematiken, zeigt nicht auf, dass das Problem ein grundsätzliches ist und nicht mit der Absage an die so dramatisch gezeichnete Gier zu lösen ist. Doch würde mensch dies wirklich einsehen, so müsste ja auch der Glaube daran aufgegeben werden, der Kapitalismus sei unter Mithilfe des Staates und durch die Annäherung von Kapital und Arbeit, wie Merkel sie will, in eine menschliche Form der Vergesellschaftung zu verwandeln. Die Erfahrungen – vor allem was die Aufhebung der Differenz von Kapital und Arbeit angeht &#8211;  zeigen, dass wohl eher das Gegenteil der Fall ist.</p>
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<title><![CDATA[People I can do without]]></title>
<link>http://lilianablum.wordpress.com/2009/09/21/people-i-can-do-without/</link>
<pubDate>Sun, 20 Sep 2009 18:52:35 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Liliana V. Blum</dc:creator>
<guid>http://lilianablum.wordpress.com/2009/09/21/people-i-can-do-without/</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Inspirada en una parte de un sketch de George Carlin (q.e.p.d.) hice mi columnita dominical para La ]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class='snap_preview'><p style="text-align:center;"><img class="aligncenter" title="George Carlin" src="http://www.mtfca.com/discus/messages/80257/96603.jpg" alt="" width="277" height="319" /></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">Inspirada en una parte de un sketch de George Carlin (q.e.p.d.) hice mi columnita dominical para <em>La Razón</em> (de venta en los Oxxos y en las esquinitas de aquí y allá). Se llama &#8220;Gente que sobra&#8221;. Para leer, dar click <a title="Gente que sobra" href="http://alacranajaiba.wordpress.com/2009/09/20/gente-que-sobra/" target="_blank">aquí merito mano</a> Esto es un guiño para ciertos españolitos rigurosos y ultraderechistas, franquistas militantes anacrónicos, que asumen que insultan con eso de &#8220;manito&#8221; y se burlan además de la manía mexicana de diminutivizar las cosas y además se empeñan en xoder escribiendo el nombre de mi país con jota, jejejeje. Ellos, por ejemplo, sobran. <img src='http://s.wordpress.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif' alt=':-D' class='wp-smiley' /> </p>
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<title><![CDATA[Leon Blum]]></title>
<link>http://frasedeldia.net/2009/09/09/leon-blum/</link>
<pubDate>Wed, 09 Sep 2009 07:17:16 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>caminando</dc:creator>
<guid>http://frasedeldia.net/2009/09/09/leon-blum/</guid>
<description><![CDATA[El hombre libre es aquel no tiene miedo de ir hasta el final de su pensamiento.]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class='snap_preview'><p>El hombre libre es aquel no tiene miedo de ir hasta el final de su pensamiento.</p>
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<title><![CDATA[Seeking to quiet public indignation over land scandal, finance minister asks for meeting with investor]]></title>
<link>http://hunebizz.wordpress.com/2009/09/05/seeking-to-quiet-public-indignation-over-land-scandal-finance-minister-asks-for-meeting-with-investor/</link>
<pubDate>Sat, 05 Sep 2009 06:23:13 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>hunebizz</dc:creator>
<guid>http://hunebizz.wordpress.com/2009/09/05/seeking-to-quiet-public-indignation-over-land-scandal-finance-minister-asks-for-meeting-with-investor/</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Finance Minister Péter Oszkó has asked in a letter for a personal meeting with investor Joav Blum ab]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class='snap_preview'><div><strong>Finance Minister Péter Oszkó has asked in a letter for a personal meeting with investor Joav Blum about an exchange of land that has become the source of public indignation, MTI learnt after obtaining a copy of the letter Friday.</strong></div>
<p>Oszkó said in the letter that a solution had to be found for legal worries as well as public indignation about the exchange of the property, and that he wanted to hear about the events from the investor&#8217;s stand as well as listen to his proposed solutions. The State Audit Agency (ÁSz) deemed the contract legally invalid in an assessment, he added.</p>
<p>Blum earlier exchanged farm land he owned along the planned route of road no. 4 for a state-owned plot on the banks of Lake Velence. Blum, together with a group of foreign and Hungarian investors, plan to build a €1.5 billion resort and casino on the site.</p>
<p>ÁSz said only a fraction of the farm land Blum owned was necessary for the road, and this could have been expropriated by the state.</p>
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<title><![CDATA[Heil Hitler]]></title>
<link>http://stoppolitics.wordpress.com/2009/08/21/heil-hitler/</link>
<pubDate>Fri, 21 Aug 2009 03:49:53 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>etbitmydog</dc:creator>
<guid>http://stoppolitics.wordpress.com/2009/08/21/heil-hitler/</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Riddle me this, Riddle me that,  how the fuck does killing Jews seem in any way similar to Obama wan]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class='snap_preview'><p>Riddle me this, Riddle me that,  how the fuck does killing Jews seem in any way similar to Obama wanting to reform health care? Our health care debate has not only been tarnished by the spread of false information such as the now infamous &#8220;death panels&#8221; and untrue &#8220;health care for illegals&#8221; claim, but now we turn against ourselves with the arguments like &#8220;you support Hitler&#8221;.</p>
<p>At a recent rally in Nevada, local crazy women <span>Pamela Pilger went on to make the remark &#8220;Heil Hitler&#8221; to Israeli born</span> Samual Blum as he discussed his own views on our health care policy.  Samual Blum is Jewish.   As Blum went on to take noticeable offense, voice cracking all the while, Pilger was joined by two moronic goons who resembling teenagers as they crossed their arms to join her in her defense. I couldn&#8217;t believe my eyes to see them somehow support her by saying that she needed to get away from HIM! Oh contraire says stop politics.  Blum should be the one trying to get away from a nut like her!</p>
<p>Is this kind of childish behavior really what America is all about?  Instead of discussing the fact that the bill isn&#8217;t paid for, bringing up the questionable claims on how much families will really save, arguing that too much government intervention might be intrusive to people&#8217;s rights, or trying to come up with a solution to the problem, what we get from these people is now defaced Obama pictures making him to look like Hitler or the  Joker.</p>
<p>Here are some of the outlandish remarks that were made by Pilger which she used to support her claim:<br />
&#8220;<a href="http://www.factcheck.org/2009/08/seven-falsehoods-about-health-care/">Well Obama wants to support the illegal aliens</a>&#8220;.<br />
&#8220;<a href="http://www.factcheck.org/2009/07/surgery-for-seniors-vs-abortions/">I will not let my tax dollars pay for abortions</a>&#8220;.<br />
Both untrue.</p>
<p><span style='text-align:center; display: block;'><object width='425' height='350'><param name='movie' value='http://www.youtube.com/v/sHsUi2Hu4Ug&#038;rel=1&#038;fs=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;hd=0' /><param name='allowfullscreen' value='true' /><param name='wmode' value='transparent' /><embed src='http://www.youtube.com/v/sHsUi2Hu4Ug&#038;rel=1&#038;fs=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;hd=0' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' allowfullscreen='true' width='425' height='350' wmode='transparent'></embed></object></span></p>
<p><span style='text-align:center; display: block;'><object width='425' height='350'><param name='movie' value='http://www.youtube.com/v/PcRr5xA-K80&#038;rel=1&#038;fs=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;hd=0' /><param name='allowfullscreen' value='true' /><param name='wmode' value='transparent' /><embed src='http://www.youtube.com/v/PcRr5xA-K80&#038;rel=1&#038;fs=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;hd=0' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' allowfullscreen='true' width='425' height='350' wmode='transparent'></embed></object></span></p>
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<title><![CDATA[Programming Praxis - Blum Blum Shub]]></title>
<link>http://bonsaicode.wordpress.com/2009/08/18/programming-praxis-blum-blum-shub/</link>
<pubDate>Tue, 18 Aug 2009 13:22:47 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Remco Niemeijer</dc:creator>
<guid>http://bonsaicode.wordpress.com/2009/08/18/programming-praxis-blum-blum-shub/</guid>
<description><![CDATA[In today’s Programming Praxis problem we have to implement a stream cipher based on the Blum Blum Sh]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class='snap_preview'><p>In <a href="http://programmingpraxis.com/2009/08/18/blum-blum-shub/" target="_blank">today’s</a> Programming Praxis problem we have to implement a stream cipher based on the Blum Blum Shub method. Let&#8217;s get started.</p>
<p>First our imports:</p>
<pre style="color:#000000;background-color:#ffffff;font-size:9pt;font-family:'Courier New';">import Data<span style="color:#ff0000;">.</span>Bits
import Data<span style="color:#ff0000;">.</span><span style="color:#0000ff;">Char</span></pre>
<p>This is our random number generator. I&#8217;m using the least significant 3 bits instead of just one because it scrambles the original message a bit more.</p>
<pre style="color:#000000;background-color:#ffffff;font-size:9pt;font-family:'Courier New';">rng <span style="color:#ff0000;">::</span> <span style="color:#0000ff;">Int</span> <span style="color:#ff0000;">-&#62;</span> <span style="color:#0000ff;">Int</span> <span style="color:#ff0000;">-&#62; [</span><span style="color:#0000ff;">Int</span><span style="color:#ff0000;">]</span>
rng m <span style="color:#ff0000;">=</span> <span style="color:#ec7f15;">map</span> <span style="color:#ff0000;">(.&#38;.</span> <span style="color:#a900a9;">7</span><span style="color:#ff0000;">) .</span> <span style="color:#ec7f15;">tail</span> <span style="color:#ff0000;">.</span> <span style="color:#ec7f15;">iterate</span> <span style="color:#ff0000;">(</span>\n <span style="color:#ff0000;">-&#62;</span> <span style="color:#ec7f15;">mod</span> <span style="color:#ff0000;">(</span>n ^ <span style="color:#a900a9;">2</span><span style="color:#ff0000;">)</span> m<span style="color:#ff0000;">)</span></pre>
<p>Encoding or decoding is a simple matter of xor&#8217;ing the message and the random number stream.</p>
<pre style="color:#000000;background-color:#ffffff;font-size:9pt;font-family:'Courier New';">cipher <span style="color:#ff0000;">::</span> <span style="color:#0000ff;">Int</span> <span style="color:#ff0000;">-&#62;</span> <span style="color:#0000ff;">Int</span> <span style="color:#ff0000;">-&#62;</span> <span style="color:#0000ff;">Int</span> <span style="color:#ff0000;">-&#62;</span> <span style="color:#0000ff;">String</span> <span style="color:#ff0000;">-&#62;</span> <span style="color:#0000ff;">String</span>
cipher s p q <span style="color:#ff0000;">=</span> <span style="color:#ec7f15;">map chr</span> <span style="color:#ff0000;">.</span> <span style="color:#ec7f15;">zipWith</span> xor <span style="color:#ff0000;">(</span>rng <span style="color:#ff0000;">(</span>p <span style="color:#ff0000;">*</span> q<span style="color:#ff0000;">)</span> s<span style="color:#ff0000;">) .</span> <span style="color:#ec7f15;">map ord</span></pre>
<p>And that&#8217;s all there is to it. Let&#8217;s see if it works:</p>
<pre style="color:#000000;background-color:#ffffff;font-size:9pt;font-family:'Courier New';">main <span style="color:#ff0000;">::</span> <span style="color:#0000ff;">IO</span> <span style="color:#ff0000;">()</span>
main <span style="color:#ff0000;">=</span> do <span style="color:#ec7f15;">print</span> $ cipher <span style="color:#a900a9;">3 11 19</span> <span style="color:#ff0000;">"Bonsai Code"</span>
          <span style="color:#ec7f15;">print</span> <span style="color:#ff0000;">.</span> cipher <span style="color:#a900a9;">3 11 19</span> $ cipher <span style="color:#a900a9;">3 11 19</span> <span style="color:#ff0000;">"Bonsai Code"</span></pre>
<p>Seems to work just fine. Not bad for just two lines of code.</p>
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<title><![CDATA[Ce este Indamatic?]]></title>
<link>http://indamatic.wordpress.com/2009/07/13/amortizor-ieftin-pentru-sertare/</link>
<pubDate>Mon, 13 Jul 2009 13:25:40 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>akarasrl</dc:creator>
<guid>http://indamatic.wordpress.com/2009/07/13/amortizor-ieftin-pentru-sertare/</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Indamatic este conceptul de amortizare la închidere a sertarelor si  usilor dezvoltat de firma Indau]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class='snap_preview'><p>Indamatic este conceptul de amortizare la închidere a sertarelor si  usilor dezvoltat de firma Indaux.</p>
<p>Indamatic Gacela, este in acest moment amortizorul de sertare cu cea mai mare rata de crestere a vanzarilor pe piata din Romania. Curios de ce?</p>
<p>- se poate monta pe orice sertar pe glisiere pe rola, indiferent daca producatorul se numeste Blum, FGV, Grass, Samet, Hettich, Hafele, etc.</p>
<p>- pret foarte competitiv, 3 Euro + TVA</p>
<p>- acceptabilitate mare din partea producatorilor de mobilier, deoarece acestia nu sunt obligati sa schimbe furnizorul de glisiere</p>
<p>- calitate testata la 80.000 de cicluri</p>
<p>Curios sa-l testezi si tu? <a href="mailto:contact@akara.ro" target="_blank">Scrie-ne!</a></p>
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<title><![CDATA[A History of CIA Atrocities ]]></title>
<link>http://dprogram.net/2009/06/21/a-history-of-cia-atrocities/</link>
<pubDate>Sun, 21 Jun 2009 06:32:22 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>sakerfa</dc:creator>
<guid>http://dprogram.net/2009/06/21/a-history-of-cia-atrocities/</guid>
<description><![CDATA[The following timeline describes just a few of the hundreds of atrocities and crimes committed by th]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[The following timeline describes just a few of the hundreds of atrocities and crimes committed by th]]></content:encoded>
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<title><![CDATA[Thoughts on Blum Hinges]]></title>
<link>http://cabinetspot.wordpress.com/2009/05/21/thoughts-on-blum-hinges/</link>
<pubDate>Thu, 21 May 2009 21:57:20 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Robert Villanova</dc:creator>
<guid>http://cabinetspot.wordpress.com/2009/05/21/thoughts-on-blum-hinges/</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Today there are many options when it comes to cabinet door hinges. Maybe the most popular is the Eur]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class='snap_preview'><p>Today there are many options when it comes to cabinet door hinges.  Maybe the most popular is the <a href="http://wwhardware.com/catalog.cfm/GroupID/Cabinet%20Hinges/CatID/Cabinet%20Hinges%2C%20Blum%26%23174%3B%20Concealed">European style concealed hinge</a>.  Concealed hinges are totally hidden when the doors are closed so you see just the beauty of the door not the hinges.  Mounting is made easy with the 6-way independent adjustment found on all Blum hinges. Woodworker’s Hardware has carried the Blum line of concealed hinges which is unsurpassed if quality and breadth of line.   </p>
<p>Face frame style cabinets are the most common type of kitchen cabinet in the U.S. and Blum has a many options for this style cabinet.  Face frame cabinets have all of the door and drawer openings surrounded by wooden frame usually matching the wood on the doors and drawers.  The <a href="http://wwhardware.com/catalog.cfm/GroupID/Cabinet%20Hinges/CatID/Cabinet%20Hinges%2C%20Blum%26%23174%3B%20Concealed/SubCatID/105%26%230176%3B%20Compact%2038">compact series B38N</a> is designed specifically for face frame cabinets comes in many overlay options and you can add the <a href="http://wwhardware.com/catalog.cfm/GroupID/Cabinet%20Hinges/CatID/Cabinet%20Hinges%2C%20Blumotion%20for%20Doors/SubCatID/Blumotion%20Insert/showprod/1">soft-close feature</a> to all of them.  </p>
<p>Frameless or box style construction is just what it sounds like and the cabinets are a series of boxes with doors and drawers attached to an open side.  Blum also has a huge line of hinges for this type of construction in their <a href="http://wwhardware.com/catalog.cfm/GroupID/Cabinet%20Hinges/CatID/Cabinet%20Hinges%2C%20Blum%26%23174%3B%20Concealed">Clip Top series</a>.  If you have any application needing a concealed hinge <a href="http://wwhardware.com/">Woodworker’s Hardware</a> and Blum is the place to start.</p>
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<title><![CDATA[Change? ]]></title>
<link>http://marcelo717.wordpress.com/2009/05/10/change/</link>
<pubDate>Sun, 10 May 2009 17:31:09 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Castro</dc:creator>
<guid>http://marcelo717.wordpress.com/2009/05/10/change/</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Americans and the rest of the world deserve real change, but, it won&#8217;t be coming from Obama. O]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class='snap_preview'><p>Americans and the rest of the world deserve real change, but, it won&#8217;t be coming from Obama. Or any centrist.</p>
<p>I have a deep love of the Americas and it&#8217;s people deserve better. But of course, I am an American by birth, just much further south in the part that the elite have called &#8220;it&#8217;s backyard&#8221;. Although in actuality, I&#8217;m not a South American or Australian. I don&#8217;t pledge allegiance to any particular country. I only pledge allegiance to anyone seeking to be free. To those who suffer I pledge allegiance. To those seeking equal rights I pledge allegiance.</p>
<p>Australia is a corrupted society. A lazy society. An indifferent society. And our leader? A man who believes in fairy tales. A man who believes that faith in an ancient book will save the day, rather than right thinking people. Howard was pure &#8216;evil&#8217; at best, and should be arrested and charged. Krudd isn&#8217;t pure &#8216;evil&#8217; &#8211; he&#8217;s just really really stupid.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Patrick Cockburn has a great piece on the recent &#8216;Obomber&#8217; attacks that killed 120 civilians &#8211; <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/patrick-cockburn-who-killed-120-civilians-the-us-says-its-not-a-story-1682310.html">article here</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/patrick-cockburn-who-killed-120-civilians-the-us-says-its-not-a-story-1682310.html"></a></p>
<p>And William Blum&#8217;s <a href="http://www.zcommunications.org/zspace/commentaries/3859">latest Anti Empire</a> report is out saying that&#8230;</p>
<p>&#8220;<span style="font-family:Verdana;line-height:normal;">The problem, I&#8217;m increasingly afraid, is that the man (Obama) doesn&#8217;t really believe strongly in anything, certainly not in controversial areas. He learned a long time ago how to take positions that avoid controversy, how to express opinions without clearly and firmly taking sides, how to talk eloquently without actually saying anything, how to leave his listeners&#8217; heads filled with stirring clichés, platitudes, and slogans. And it worked. Oh how it worked! What could happen now, as President of the United States, to induce him to change his style?&#8221;    </span></p>
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<title><![CDATA[Der Anti-Jude]]></title>
<link>http://madrasaoftime.wordpress.com/2009/04/30/der-anti-jude/</link>
<pubDate>Wed, 29 Apr 2009 22:28:55 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Time</dc:creator>
<guid>http://madrasaoftime.wordpress.com/2009/04/30/der-anti-jude/</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Unter den Auswertungen der gestrigen TV-Talkrunde &#8220;Hart aber fair&#8221; zum Thema &#8220;Gaza]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class='snap_preview'><p style="text-align:justify;">Unter den Auswertungen der gestrigen TV-Talkrunde &#8220;Hart aber fair&#8221; zum Thema &#8220;Gaza&#8221; ist mE. die von SpOn unter <a href="http://www.spiegel.de/kultur/gesellschaft/0,1518,602764,00.html">(1)</a> besonders lesenswert, weil sie den in Deutschland ebenso latent wie virulent grassierenden Anti-Judaismus mit eindrücklichen Zitaten der Debattanten aufdeckt. <em>&#8220;Es gibt kein Tabu in Deutschland, Israel zu kritisieren. Im Gegenteil&#8221;</em>, stellt Reinhard Mohr fest.</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">Eine bestimmte Gruppe der Anti-Juden beginnt diese Kritik typischerweise mit<em> &#8220;Ich bin ein großer Freund Israels, ABER&#8230;&#8221;</em>, und läßt dann von Sharon über Olmert zu Netanjahu kein einziges gutes Haar an irgendeinem lebenden jüdischen Politiker. Diese Leute wissen immer besser, was Israel zu tun hätte, und es ist immer etwas anderes als das, was Israel grade tut. Logisch, der Kampf gegen die Hamas war in ihren Augen falsch, völlig überzogen und wurde ungeachtet der eindeutigen Erfolge der IDF und des kläglichen Verhaltens der Terroristen von DIESEN gewonnen. Offenbar DARF Israel für diese Leute nicht kämpfen und nicht siegen. Zu dieser Gruppe zählen mE. zB. Kienzle und Blüm.</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;"><em>&#8220;Von Anfang an fiel auf, mit welcher Verve, Leidenschaft, ja Erbitterung sich die sonst so routiniert abgeklärten TV-Talker gegenseitig beharkten&#8221;</em>, bemerkt Mohr, und <em>&#8220;&#8230; Wären die Aufwallungen nur aus der Sache selbst zu erklären, dann hätte man als Zuschauer gar nichts dagegen gehabt. Wir wissen: The Show must go on. Doch es war unverkennbar, dass sich die Erregung aus ganz anderen Quellen speiste. Weder über Afghanistan oder den Irak und schon gar nicht über Somalia oder Zimbabwe, wo wegen des schwarzen Diktators Robert M-UGA-UGA-BE </em><em>Tausende Menschen einen lautlosen Cholera- und Hungertod sterben, wäre man derart außer Rand und Band geraten. Der Verdacht liegt nahe, dass die Geysire des Unbewussten exakt zwischen &#8216;Tabu&#8217; und &#8216;Tabubruch&#8217; liegen, zwischen Schuldgefühlen und dem Drang, sie zu überwinden – dass es also doch untergründige Verbindungen zwischen Israel-Kritik und einem Antisemitismus gibt, der aus den Untiefen der Geschichte kommt und sich immer wieder neu auflädt.&#8221;<br />
</em><br />
Vielleicht würde viele Deutschen nicht nur das Eingeständnis, dass die Deutschen als Volk den Juden unermessliches Unrecht zugefügt haben, weiterführen, sondern auch das Eingeständnis, dass bei den Deutschen nach der kurzen Zeit seit ADIS Ende die Wahrscheinlichkeit einfach recht hoch ist, dass sie unterbewußt noch immer in Antijudaismen verfangen sind. Ich frage mich häufig, woher überhaupt das bei uns offenbar große Bedürfnis stammt, Israel kritisieren zu müssen. Es gibt doch in der Tat (s.o.)  genug andere und völlig eindeutig zu kritisierende Zustände auf der Welt. Warum überlassen wir Deutschen die Israelkritik nicht zB. unseren amerikanischen Freunden und konzentrieren uns selbst auf die Sioux- und Apachenkritik? Egal, wie hoch diese Israelkritiker ebenso absurder- wie fälschlicherweise den angeblichen Berg der Schuld Israels erklären, es ist generell unmöglich, die ungeheure Schuld der Deutschen an den Juden zu verringern oder zu relativieren (es sei denn durch Bezug auf die Schuld des Mohammedanismus und seiner 270 Millionen Toten). Diese Israelkritiker machen nicht nur die &#8220;deutsche Schuld&#8221; NICHT kleiner, sondern sie vergrößern sie im Gegenteil sogar deshalb, weil sie &#8211; obschon sie nicht direkt gegen die Juden agieren &#8211; nunmehr die Feinde der Juden unterstützen. Deshalb mache ich &#8211; bekennender Deutscher, der ich bin &#8211; folgendes, wenn mir was an Juden oder Israel nicht gefällt, und das gilt sogar für Woody Allen und Hecht-Galinski: Ich halte die Klappe!</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">Eine andere Gruppe der Anti-Juden sei erwähnt, das sind die Ork-Agenten. Diese Leute, die sich in Deutschland gerne als &#8220;Orientalisten&#8221; tarnen (von 100 deutschen Orientalisten sind bekanntlich 110 verdeckte Mohammedanisten), interessieren sich nicht für unser Land und seine Geschichte, sie führen vielmehr intellektuellen Jihad. Ihnen ist kein Greuelmärchen, kein angeblicher Kronzeuge zu unglaubwürdig, um negative Aussagen gegen Israel zu platzieren, weil sie erkannt haben, dass die Existenz Israels den Beginn des Untergangs des Mohammedanismus bedeutet. Zu dieser Kategorie gehört mE. Steinbach. Mohr schreibt: <em>&#8220;Am deutlichsten widersetzte sich der Orientalist Udo Steinbach dieser komplizierten Doppelthematik – er wollte nur über den Gaza-Krieg sprechen. Die Nazi-Vergangenheit werde immer nur als Alibi benutzt, um der schlimmen Gegenwart im nahen Osten auszuweichen. Seine eigenen Schüler und Studenten interessierten sich jedenfalls &#8216;mehr für Gaza als für Auschwitz&#8217;.</em>&#8221; Unter <a href="http://www.tagesschau.de/ausland/gaza730.html">(2)</a> lesen Sie diesbezüglich ein besonders abstoßendes Machwerk. &#8220;&#8216;Meine Familie ist buchstäblich geschmolzen&#8217; &#8211; Es gibt kaum Zweifel daran, dass Israel im Gaza-Krieg Phosphor-Granaten eingesetzt hat&#8221;, behauptet die &#8220;Orientalistin&#8221; Esther Saoub (! &#8211; <a href="http://www.ndrinfo.de/wir_ueber_uns/korrespondenten/kairo2.html">3</a> ). Kein Zweifel für sie, die Juden sind perverse Kindermörder: <em>&#8220;&#8216;Wir haben überall im Gazastreifen Nachweise für weißen Phosphor gefunden&#8217;, sagt Chris Cobb-Smith, Militärexperte der Menschenrechtsorganisation amnesty international&#8230; Der dichte Rauch des weißen Phosphor, sagt er, werde GEWÖHNLICH eingesetzt, um Truppenbewegungen zu verbergen. Als Antipersonenwaffe war er NIE gedacht. Doch die israelische Armee hat ihn OFFENSICHTLICH als solche eingesetzt: &#8216;Es ist UNMÖGLICH, dass dies versehentlich geschehen ist. Die Granaten wurden BEWUSST auf DICHT besiedelte WOHNGEBIETE abgefeuert.&#8217;&#8221; </em></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;">Eine dritte Gruppe sind schließlich natürlich die Orks selbst, die zB. für uns als &#8220;Vorschlag&#8221; getarnt die mohammedanistische Welt auf die Vernichtung Israels einschwören, indem sie die Rückkehr der arabischen Flüchtlinge nach Israel fordern (s. King Abdulla). Deren Zahl belief sich 1948 laut Wiki auf 711.000, 1967 auf 175.000-300.000, von denen nach derselben Quelle jedoch mitlerweile <em>&#8220;laut UNRWA&#8230; 3,7 Millionen&#8230; als Flüchtlinge anerkannt&#8221;</em> sind, wohingegen R.B. Goldmann heute in der FAZ sogar von <em>&#8220;über sechs Millionen&#8221;</em> in den Flüchtlingslagern spricht. Der jordanische Königsberater Abu Odeh zB. lehnt eine Einwanderung von Palästinensern in Jordanien ab, weil dies <em>&#8220;UNSERE Gesellschaft zerstören könnte&#8221;</em>. Dass diese riesige, ungebildete und haßerfüllte Gruppe JEDEM Staat und zumal dem nicht-orkischen Israel den Untergang brächte, ist auch JEDEM Menschen auf Erden völlig klar, und deshalb ist Abdullas &#8220;Vorschlag&#8221; auch nichts weiter als ein codifizierter Aufruf zum JIHAD, dessen vordringlichstes Ziel wiederum wie gesagt naturgemäß die Vernichtung ISRAELS sein MUSS. Jedoch, an Israel wird sich der Ork auch die letzten seiner noch verbliebenen Zähne ausbeißen, bevor er im Abfluß der Geschichte verschwindet!</p>
<p>Time am 22. Januar 2009</p>
<p>_____</p>
<p>(1) <a href="http://www.spiegel.de/kultur/gesellschaft/0,1518,602764,00.html">http://www.spiegel.de/kultur/gesellschaft/0,1518,602764,00.html </a></p>
<p>(2) <a href="http://www.tagesschau.de/ausland/gaza730.html">http://www.tagesschau.de/ausland/gaza730.html</a></p>
<p>(3) <a href="http://www.ndrinfo.de/wir_ueber_uns/korrespondenten/kairo2.html">http://www.ndrinfo.de/wir_ueber_uns/korrespondenten/kairo2.html</a></p>
<p>_____</p>
<p>PS:: Zum Thema arabische Flüchtlinge machte FAZ-Leser Eckhard Raabe am 20. Mai 2008 übrigens folgende interessante Anmerkungen:</p>
<p style="text-align:justify;"><em>In dem Artikel &#8220;In den Feldern der Philister&#8221; (F.A.Z. vom 10. Mai) wird scheinbar objektiv und neutral über die Entstehung des Staates Israel berichtet. Tatsächlich wird aber subtil antiisraelische Stimmung gemacht: &#8220;Der Unabhängigkeitskrieg Israels bedeutete für die Palästinenser eine Katastrophe&#8230; Die Palästinenser flüchteten vor den &#8216;Hunden des Krieges&#8217;, die entfesselt worden waren.&#8221; Liest man den Artikel insgesamt, gewinnt man den Eindruck, Israel habe 1947/48 einen Krieg angefangen und als wichtigstes Ergebnis 700 000 Palästinenser vertrieben. Im ganzen Artikel kein Wort darüber, dass dieser Krieg von den arabischen Staaten und palästinensischen Freischärlern vom Zaun gebrochen worden war und dass dessen Ziel die Vernichtung Israels und seiner jüdischen Bevölkerung war. Die &#8220;Hunde des Krieges&#8221;, deren Opfer die Palästinenser waren, sind von Arabern entfesselt worden. Und wäre der Krieg so ausgegangen, wie die arabische Seite es sich erhoffte, hätte es einen zweiten Holocaust gegeben.</em></p>
<p><em>In ihrer Verkürzung irreführend ist auch die Bemerkung, es habe keine arabischen Aufrufe zur (zeitweiligen) Flucht der Palästinenser geben. Benny Morris, ein revisionistischer Historiker, auf den sich Wolfgang Günter </em>(&#8220;Ali&#8221;, T.)<em> Lerch wohl beruft, schreibt lediglich, dass er keine entsprechenden Dokumente gefunden habe, wobei er keinen Zugang zu arabischen Archiven hatte. Es gibt aber zahlreiche zeitgenössische Berichte in britischen und amerikanischen Medien sowie Berichte des britischen Geheimdienstes, die diese Aufrufe bestätigen. Die Aufrufe waren mit der Drohung verbunden, wer bleibe, müsse nach der erhofften Wiedereroberung mit Sanktionen rechnen. In Haifa zum Beispiel sind Zehntausende Palästinenser diesem Aufruf gefolgt und verließen die Stadt. Tausende Palästinenser blieben. Sie beziehungsweise ihre Nachkommen leben noch heute dort (nachzulesen unter anderem bei Lozowick, Yaakov: Israels Existenzkampf, Hamburg 2006).</em></p>
<p><em>Aktiv vertrieben (wohl insgesamt etwa ein Drittel der Flüchtlinge) wurden die Palästinenser aus Ortschaften, die sich im Unabhängigkeitskrieg als Bedrohung erwiesen hatten, von denen zum Beispiel 1948 der Zugang zu Jerusalem blockiert wurde, um die jüdische Bevölkerung auszuhungern. Das zwischen Tel Aviv und Jerusalem gelegene Abu Gosh hat sich an dieser Blockade nicht beteiligt. Es ist bis heute ein arabischer Ort.<br />
</em></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;"><em><a href="http://www.ndrinfo.de/wir_ueber_uns/korrespondenten/kairo2.html"></a></em></p>
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<title><![CDATA[Fads and the Theory of Computation  ]]></title>
<link>http://rjlipton.wordpress.com/2009/04/22/fads-and-the-theory-of-computation/</link>
<pubDate>Wed, 22 Apr 2009 12:31:41 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>rjlipton</dc:creator>
<guid>http://rjlipton.wordpress.com/2009/04/22/fads-and-the-theory-of-computation/</guid>
<description><![CDATA[The role of fads in computational complexity theory Heidi Klum is of course not a computer scientist]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class='snap_preview'><p><font color="”#0066cc?"><br />
<em> The role of fads in computational complexity theory </em><br />
<font color="”#000000?"></p>
<p><img src="http://rjlipton.wordpress.com/files/2009/04/images5.jpeg" alt="images5" title="images5" width="111" height="124" class="alignright size-full wp-image-2054" /></p>
<p>
Heidi Klum is of course not a computer scientist, but is a world famous model and the host of the hit TV show &#8220;Project Runway.&#8221; To paraphrase her: &#8220;In theory (fashion), one day you are in and one day you are out.&#8221; </p>
<p>
<!--more--><br />
What I would like to discuss today is the way that computational theory is driven, at least partly, by fads. According to the <a href="http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/fad">dictionary</a> a fad is: a temporary fashion, notion, manner of conduct, etc., especially one followed enthusiastically by a group. What is in yesterday, may be out today. </p>
<p>
In any science it is natural for topics to change over time. As progress is made, topics must evolve. This evolution may make old topics obsolete, and open up entire new ones, which will have their own questions. These questions may require new methods for further progress to be made, and so on. This type of change is natural and healthy. </p>
<p>
I have two concerns, first, that important old ideas maybe tossed aside, forgotten. I will shortly give a list of topics that once were very much in favorite and are now out. This may be okay, but one consequence is that important earlier work is not generally known by today&#8217;s researchers. </p>
<blockquote><p>
 Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. </p></blockquote>
<p>From George <a href="http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/2042.html">Santayana.</a></p>
<p>
Second, I am concerned that the dominance of fads, in computational theory, could negatively effect the future. In my last <a href="http://rjlipton.wordpress.com/2009/04/18/cantors-non-diagonal-proof/">post</a> I discussed the reasons that Georg Cantor kept a low profile in naming his first paper, which proved that the reals are uncountable. He was afraid of the controversy his work had already stirred up. In that post, I raised a question: if his work was happening today, would he be able to get funded, get promoted, or get into top conferences? I wonder.</p>
<p>
<p><b> A Disclaimer </b></p>
<p><p>
I want to say up front that I have worked on many of these &#8220;fads&#8221;, so am throwing stones at my work too. I do want to point out that there are areas that were once central to theory, and have gone out of favor. I think there are important results in some of these areas that we all should know, but many do not. Also we might ask ourselves, the next time we judge what is &#8220;in&#8221; and what is &#8220;out&#8221;, will our own area go out of favor someday? </p>
<p>
 <b>What is a Blum Complexity measure</b>? If you guessed it is a measure named after the famous Manny Blum, you are on the right track. In the late 1960&#8217;s Blum decided to generalize the notion of time and space resource measures. He did this by creating a simple pair of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blum_axioms">axioms</a> that any &#8220;reasonable&#8221; complexity measure should have. More importantly he, and others, proved a number of interesting theorems about any resource measure that satisfied his axioms. </p>
<p>
One of the big results in Blum complexity measure theory is that there are problems with no &#8220;optimal&#8221; algorithm. A basic example of this is: </p>
<blockquote><p><b>Theorem: </b> <em> There is a recursive set so that given any algorithm for the set with running time <img src='http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BT%28n%29%2C%7D%26%2338%3Bbg%3De8e8e8%26%2338%3Bfg%3D000000&#038;bg=ffffff&#038;fg=000000&#038;s=0' alt='{T(n),}&amp;bg=e8e8e8&amp;fg=000000' title='{T(n),}&amp;bg=e8e8e8&amp;fg=000000' class='latex' /> there is another algorithm for the set that runs in time <img src='http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Clog+T%28n%29%7D%26%2338%3Bbg%3De8e8e8%26%2338%3Bfg%3D000000&#038;bg=ffffff&#038;fg=000000&#038;s=0' alt='{\log T(n)}&amp;bg=e8e8e8&amp;fg=000000' title='{\log T(n)}&amp;bg=e8e8e8&amp;fg=000000' class='latex' /> for large enough <img src='http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bn%7D%26%2338%3Bfg%3D000000&#038;bg=ffffff&#038;fg=000000&#038;s=0' alt='{n}&amp;fg=000000' title='{n}&amp;fg=000000' class='latex' />. </em></p></blockquote>
<p> There were much stronger results, I only give this as an indication of the type of results that were proved. This theorem and its cousins are called &#8220;Speed-Up Theorems.&#8221;</p>
<p>
When I was a graduate student, Blum complexity theory was the rage. One half of the theory qualifier at Carnegie-Mellon, the year I took it, was a question of the form: consider a resource measure <img src='http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BX%7D%26%2338%3Bfg%3D000000&#038;bg=ffffff&#038;fg=000000&#038;s=0' alt='{X}&amp;fg=000000' title='{X}&amp;fg=000000' class='latex' />, is it or is it not a Blum Complexity Measure? I had a very short proof that showed that the answer was no&#8211;the measure <img src='http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BX%7D%26%2338%3Bfg%3D000000&#038;bg=ffffff&#038;fg=000000&#038;s=0' alt='{X}&amp;fg=000000' title='{X}&amp;fg=000000' class='latex' /> violated the speedup theorem. But I worried a bit that my answer could be wrong, since it was so short. </p>
<p>
The beauty of the area was that the complexity measures were defined by two simple axioms and so the results applied equally to time or space or even other exotic measures. The reason the area became less important, I think, was not that the results were not beautiful, nor technically difficult, but that they applied only to artificial problems. Further, the focus of theory shifted to not what properties did time and space have in common, but how were they different. See <a href="http://weblog.fortnow.com/2004/04/blum-complexity-measures.html">this</a> for Fortnow&#8217;s thoughts on this topic.</p>
<p>
 <b>What is Program Schema Theory</b>? If you guessed it is a theory of programs named after Schema you are wrong. It is the study of programs started in the late 1950&#8217;s by Iu Ianov, that attempted to avoid the undecidability of the Halting problem. The halting problem makes all interesting questions about programs undecidable. This is actually a theorem called <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rice's_theorem">Rice&#8217;s Theorem</a>&#8211;roughly any non-trivial property that depends on the <em>behavior</em> of a program is undecidable. Alan Perlis called this phenomena the &#8220;Turing Tar-pit.&#8221; Alan&#8217;s point was whenever we try to do something general with programs, like the dinosaurs, we get stuck in  the tar-pit.</p>
<p>
 The central <a href="http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=321204">idea</a> of Ianov was to strip a program of all semantics except the flow structure. Thus, replace statements in programs like:
<p align="center"><img src='http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++x+%5Cleftarrow+y+%2B+z%5E%7B2%7D%3B+%26%2338%3Bfg%3D000000&#038;bg=ffffff&#038;fg=000000&#038;s=0' alt='\displaystyle  x \leftarrow y + z^{2}; &amp;fg=000000' title='\displaystyle  x \leftarrow y + z^{2}; &amp;fg=000000' class='latex' /></p>
<p> by
<p align="center"><img src='http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++x+%5Cleftarrow+f%28y%2Cg%28z%29%29.%26%2338%3Bfg%3D000000&#038;bg=ffffff&#038;fg=000000&#038;s=0' alt='\displaystyle  x \leftarrow f(y,g(z)).&amp;fg=000000' title='\displaystyle  x \leftarrow f(y,g(z)).&amp;fg=000000' class='latex' /></p>
<p> His idea was to try to prove properties that were true for all instances of the functions <img src='http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bf%28%2C%29%7D%26%2338%3Bfg%3D000000&#038;bg=ffffff&#038;fg=000000&#038;s=0' alt='{f(,)}&amp;fg=000000' title='{f(,)}&amp;fg=000000' class='latex' /> and <img src='http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bg%28%29%7D%26%2338%3Bfg%3D000000&#038;bg=ffffff&#038;fg=000000&#038;s=0' alt='{g()}&amp;fg=000000' title='{g()}&amp;fg=000000' class='latex' />. Perhaps one could avoid falling into the Turing Tar-pit, if the analysis could avoid the subtleties of the addition and squaring operation. </p>
<p>
The good news was that for very simple cases such as <em>one</em> variable and monadic operations all was decidable; the bad news was that anything more became undecidable. There were many very pretty results that were proved in this area, but again the central idea did not work exactly as planned. </p>
<p>One example of the work that was done is Zohar Manna thesis on program schema theory. It is a classic: it is relatively short, and very beautiful. I once looked at it as a student and thought, with great envy, I wish I could write a thesis like that.</p>
<p>
 <b>What is a Balloon Automata</b>? I hope you do not know the answer to this; if you do, for bonus points what is an AFL? The correct answer has nothing to do with American football. <a href="http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=321558">Balloon automata </a>were an attempt to generalize the notion of finite automata, pushdown automata and others into one general package. The idea was reasonable: perhaps some theorems could be proved for whole classes of automata rather than having to prove them piecemeal. The difficulty was that the interesting questions tend to be special for each type of automata. </p>
<p>
Perhaps some areas deserve to go away.</p>
<p>
 <b>What is a Reducible Graph</b>? These are a subset of all directed graphs. In a natural way, directed graphs can be used to model the information flow of a program. After the rise of structured programming, an important insight was that many real flow graphs were <a href="http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=321835">reducible.</a> I will not give the definition here, but they had a beautiful inductive flavor. This inductive structure allowed algorithms that were slow on general directed graphs to be faster on reducible graphs, often even run in linear time.</p>
<p>
 This work was quite neat and had an interesting structural result called &#8220;The Ice Cream Cone Lemma.&#8221; I do not know why this is not more central today. However, see <a href="http://infolab.stanford.edu/~ullman/dragon/w06/lectures/dfa3.pdf">this</a> for a modern treatment.</p>
<p>
<b>What is a Ultra Computer</b>? In the 1980&#8217;s Jack Schwartz of NYU started a joint <a href="http://cs.nyu.edu/cs/projects/ultra/">project</a> with IBM to build the &#8220;ultra machine.&#8221; This was to be the ultimate in parallel computers, that&#8217;s why it was called the ultra machine. The design at a top level was a collection of processors that were connected to a collection of memory units via a network. The project included other clever ideas such as &#8220;combiners&#8221; that you can read about on your own, if you are interested.</p>
<p>
There was a large amount of theory research into the structure of such machines. Quite a bit was done at NYU, but most papers were written by those at other institutions. One of the major theory questions was how to avoid collisions in the network from slowing down the machine: if many processors needed data from the same memories that would be a problem. Some clever methods were developed that used randomness and hashing techniques to attempt to avoid such bottlenecks. </p>
<p>Actually, a few leaders of the theory field, like Wolfgang Paul, left theory to go and actually build their designs. A huge lost for theory. I will have a post of Paul&#8217;s important theory work soon.</p>
<p>
 <b>What is VLSI</b>? In the 1980&#8217;s Carver Mead and Lynn Conway wrote a great book on <b>V</b>ery <b>L</b>arge <b>S</b>cale <b>I</b>ntergration, that made it possible for mortals to design VLSI chips. We did just that at Princeton where I was at the time, and many other places did the same. A theory for the complexity of chips was created at Carnegie-Mellon by by H. T. Kung and his students. A typical theorem looked like this:</p>
<blockquote><p><b>Theorem 2</b> <em> Any chip that computes <img src='http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BX%7D%26%2338%3Bbg%3De8e8e8%26%2338%3Bfg%3D000000&#038;bg=ffffff&#038;fg=000000&#038;s=0' alt='{X}&amp;bg=e8e8e8&amp;fg=000000' title='{X}&amp;bg=e8e8e8&amp;fg=000000' class='latex' /> has <img src='http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BAT%5E%7B2%7D+%5Cge+cn%5E%7B2%7D%7D%26%2338%3Bbg%3De8e8e8%26%2338%3Bfg%3D000000&#038;bg=ffffff&#038;fg=000000&#038;s=0' alt='{AT^{2} \ge cn^{2}}&amp;bg=e8e8e8&amp;fg=000000' title='{AT^{2} \ge cn^{2}}&amp;bg=e8e8e8&amp;fg=000000' class='latex' />, for large enough <img src='http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bn%7D%26%2338%3Bbg%3De8e8e8%26%2338%3Bfg%3D000000&#038;bg=ffffff&#038;fg=000000&#038;s=0' alt='{n}&amp;bg=e8e8e8&amp;fg=000000' title='{n}&amp;bg=e8e8e8&amp;fg=000000' class='latex' /> and a constant <img src='http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bc%26%2362%3B0%7D%26%2338%3Bbg%3De8e8e8%26%2338%3Bfg%3D000000&#038;bg=ffffff&#038;fg=000000&#038;s=0' alt='{c&gt;0}&amp;bg=e8e8e8&amp;fg=000000' title='{c&gt;0}&amp;bg=e8e8e8&amp;fg=000000' class='latex' />. </em></p></blockquote>
<p> Here <img src='http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA%7D%26%2338%3Bfg%3D000000&#038;bg=ffffff&#038;fg=000000&#038;s=0' alt='{A}&amp;fg=000000' title='{A}&amp;fg=000000' class='latex' /> is the area of the chip, and <img src='http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BT%7D%26%2338%3Bfg%3D000000&#038;bg=ffffff&#038;fg=000000&#038;s=0' alt='{T}&amp;fg=000000' title='{T}&amp;fg=000000' class='latex' /> is the time that the chip takes to compute the problem. For example, <img src='http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BX%7D%26%2338%3Bfg%3D000000&#038;bg=ffffff&#038;fg=000000&#038;s=0' alt='{X}&amp;fg=000000' title='{X}&amp;fg=000000' class='latex' /> could be &#8220;the product of two <img src='http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bn%7D%26%2338%3Bfg%3D000000&#038;bg=ffffff&#038;fg=000000&#038;s=0' alt='{n}&amp;fg=000000' title='{n}&amp;fg=000000' class='latex' /> bit numbers.&#8221;</p>
<p>
All of these proofs were similar. First you showed that there had to be a geometric bisection of the chip into two parts, call them <img src='http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BL%7D%26%2338%3Bfg%3D000000&#038;bg=ffffff&#038;fg=000000&#038;s=0' alt='{L}&amp;fg=000000' title='{L}&amp;fg=000000' class='latex' /> and <img src='http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BR%7D%26%2338%3Bfg%3D000000&#038;bg=ffffff&#038;fg=000000&#038;s=0' alt='{R}&amp;fg=000000' title='{R}&amp;fg=000000' class='latex' />, which had a certain property. Second, one proved that <img src='http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BL%7D%26%2338%3Bfg%3D000000&#038;bg=ffffff&#038;fg=000000&#038;s=0' alt='{L}&amp;fg=000000' title='{L}&amp;fg=000000' class='latex' /> and <img src='http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BR%7D%26%2338%3Bfg%3D000000&#038;bg=ffffff&#038;fg=000000&#038;s=0' alt='{R}&amp;fg=000000' title='{R}&amp;fg=000000' class='latex' /> had to exchange many bits of information, in order for the computation to work. This was the special property. Finally, the lower bound on <img src='http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BAT%5E%7B2%7D%7D%26%2338%3Bfg%3D000000&#038;bg=ffffff&#038;fg=000000&#038;s=0' alt='{AT^{2}}&amp;fg=000000' title='{AT^{2}}&amp;fg=000000' class='latex' /> followed by showing that either: (i) the bisection cut was large and hence <img src='http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BA%7D%26%2338%3Bfg%3D000000&#038;bg=ffffff&#038;fg=000000&#038;s=0' alt='{A}&amp;fg=000000' title='{A}&amp;fg=000000' class='latex' /> was large, or (ii) the bisection cut was small and so <img src='http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7BT%5E%7B2%7D%7D%26%2338%3Bfg%3D000000&#038;bg=ffffff&#038;fg=000000&#038;s=0' alt='{T^{2}}&amp;fg=000000' title='{T^{2}}&amp;fg=000000' class='latex' /> had to be large since it would take a long time to move many bits across a small cut. </p>
<p>
One lasting contribution was the creation of the notion of communication complexity. For example, nondeterministic communication complexity, I believe, was first introduced by Bob Sedgewick and myself in this context. We needed nondeterministic communication complexity to solve a particular chip lower bound question. </p>
<p>
Unfortunately, one of the failings of this area is that the constant <img src='http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bc%7D%26%2338%3Bfg%3D000000&#038;bg=ffffff&#038;fg=000000&#038;s=0' alt='{c}&amp;fg=000000' title='{c}&amp;fg=000000' class='latex' /> was tiny. See this earlier <a href="http://rjlipton.wordpress.com/2009/02/13/o-abuse/">post</a> for a comment on this.</p>
<p>
 <b>What is WSI?</b> It is wafer scale intergration. A company called Trilogy Systems was founded around 1980 to make WSI work in practice. They eventually spent over &#36;230 million trying to succeed, although they eventually failed.</p>
<p>So what is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wafer-scale_integration">WSI?</a> When VLSI chips are made they are fabricated on large wafers that contain many individual chips. The wafers are then cut into separate pieces, these pieces are tested, and the working ones are used. Trilogy&#8217;s idea was to avoid the whole cut apart and test operations. Rather, their idea was to keep the wafer whole and let software find the good chips, and then use software to route around the faulted chips. </p>
<p>
This sounded like a promising idea, but it did not work. There were many practical issues that made for the failure: the main one was the cost benefit of keeping the wafer intact was not large enough. Thus, &#36;230 million was lost, when that was a large amount of money. Remember those days.</p>
<p>
There were some very pretty theory questions that arose in the theory of WSI. For example, theoreticians like Charles Leiserson and Tom Leighton wrote a  <a href="http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1310609">paper</a> on the theory of WSI. The specific problem they studied is interesting in its own right. Roughly one has a square grid of devices and each can fail with some probability <img src='http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bp%26%2362%3B0%7D%26%2338%3Bfg%3D000000&#038;bg=ffffff&#038;fg=000000&#038;s=0' alt='{p&gt;0}&amp;fg=000000' title='{p&gt;0}&amp;fg=000000' class='latex' />, but they fail independently. The question is how large a set of devices can you construct that are connected by relatively short wires. The analysis was non-trivial and interesting. </p>
<p>
 <b>What is a Decision Problem?</b> Okay I sure you got this one right. The issue with this area is that it was still a &#8220;fad&#8221; that somehow went mostly out of favor. Two examples come to mind. </p>
<p>
A long standing, very hard, open problem was given two deterministic pushdown automata, do they accept the same language? Leslie Valiant proved one of the first non-trivial <a href="http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=803881">results</a> and showed that for a very special sub-case the answer was yes. His proof is a clever simulation of both pushdown machines by <em>one</em> pushdown machine. He showed that if the two machines stay &#8220;near&#8221; each other the simulation works; however, if they &#8220;drift&#8221; apart, then the simulation fails, but in this case they are not equivalent. Very clever. This appeared in a STOC. Yet later when the general problem was <a href="http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1272273">solved</a> it was not to appear in STOC or FOCS. </p>
<p>
The same thing happen with the <a href="http://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/docs/00/35/51/52/PDF/main.pdf">work</a> of J&#233;r&#244;me Leroux on the decision problem for Vector Addition Systems. I have discussed such systems in an earlier <a href="http://rjlipton.wordpress.com/2009/04/08/an-expspace-lower-bound/">post,</a> and must say that I am not unbiased since I worked on them. But, I cannot understand why the FOCS program committee would reject his work. He said that one of the three FOCS reviews was “I think that the author should find a conference that is better suited for this paper”. </p>
<p>
Clearly, decision problems are out.</p>
<p>
 <b>What is Univariate Complexity?</b> Okay I think you know this one too. What you may not be aware is that this &#8220;fad&#8221; had methods that are still relevant today. It is a good example of Santayana&#8217;s warning.</p>
<p>
In the early days of complexity theory we studied the complexity of univariate polynomials. There were a series of results on the complexity of a polynomial such as
<p align="center"><img src='http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++a%28x%29+%3D+a_%7Bn%7Dx%5E%7Bn%7D+%2B+a_%7Bn-1%7Dx%5E%7Bn-1%7D+%2B+%5Cdots+%2B+a_%7B0%7D+.%26%2338%3Bfg%3D000000&#038;bg=ffffff&#038;fg=000000&#038;s=0' alt='\displaystyle  a(x) = a_{n}x^{n} + a_{n-1}x^{n-1} + \dots + a_{0} .&amp;fg=000000' title='\displaystyle  a(x) = a_{n}x^{n} + a_{n-1}x^{n-1} + \dots + a_{0} .&amp;fg=000000' class='latex' /></p>
<p> A simple degree argument showed that no straight-line computation could compute such a polynomial in less that <img src='http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%5Clog+n%7D%26%2338%3Bfg%3D000000&#038;bg=ffffff&#038;fg=000000&#038;s=0' alt='{\log n}&amp;fg=000000' title='{\log n}&amp;fg=000000' class='latex' />, provided <img src='http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Ba_%7Bn%7D+%5Cneq+0%7D%26%2338%3Bfg%3D000000&#038;bg=ffffff&#038;fg=000000&#038;s=0' alt='{a_{n} \neq 0}&amp;fg=000000' title='{a_{n} \neq 0}&amp;fg=000000' class='latex' />. But in general a polynomial required almost order <img src='http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bn%7D%26%2338%3Bfg%3D000000&#038;bg=ffffff&#038;fg=000000&#038;s=0' alt='{n}&amp;fg=000000' title='{n}&amp;fg=000000' class='latex' /> steps.</p>
<p>
Then, as today, the goal was to get lower bounds on explicit polynomials. The best that was proved then were results like <a href="http://siamdl.aip.org/getabs/servlet/GetabsServlet?prog=normal&#38;id=SMJCAT000003000002000128000001&#38;idtype=cvips&#38;gifs=Yes">this</a> due to Volker Strassen. </p>
<blockquote><p><b>Theorem: </b> <em> The polynomial,
<p align="center"><img src='http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++%5Csum_%7Bk%3D0%7D%5E%7Bn%7D+2%5E%7B2%5E%7Bk%7D%7Dx%5E%7Bk%7D%26%2338%3Bbg%3De8e8e8%26%2338%3Bfg%3D000000&#038;bg=ffffff&#038;fg=000000&#038;s=0' alt='\displaystyle  \sum_{k=0}^{n} 2^{2^{k}}x^{k}&amp;bg=e8e8e8&amp;fg=000000' title='\displaystyle  \sum_{k=0}^{n} 2^{2^{k}}x^{k}&amp;bg=e8e8e8&amp;fg=000000' class='latex' /></p>
<p> requires <img src='http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7B%5COmega%7D%28n%29%7D%26%2338%3Bbg%3De8e8e8%26%2338%3Bfg%3D000000&#038;bg=ffffff&#038;fg=000000&#038;s=0' alt='{{\Omega}(n)}&amp;bg=e8e8e8&amp;fg=000000' title='{{\Omega}(n)}&amp;bg=e8e8e8&amp;fg=000000' class='latex' /> operations to compute. </em></p></blockquote>
<p><p>
His proof technology is worth recalling. His idea was to show that if a polynomial <img src='http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Ba%28x%29%7D%26%2338%3Bfg%3D000000&#038;bg=ffffff&#038;fg=000000&#038;s=0' alt='{a(x)}&amp;fg=000000' title='{a(x)}&amp;fg=000000' class='latex' /> could be computed fast, then its coefficients must lie on a hyper-surface
<p align="center"><img src='http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++S%28a_%7B0%7D%2C%5Cdots%2Ca_%7Bn%7D%29+%3D0%26%2338%3Bfg%3D000000&#038;bg=ffffff&#038;fg=000000&#038;s=0' alt='\displaystyle  S(a_{0},\dots,a_{n}) =0&amp;fg=000000' title='\displaystyle  S(a_{0},\dots,a_{n}) =0&amp;fg=000000' class='latex' /></p>
<p> and moreover the surface had relatively small degree and height. Thus, he reduced the challenge to showing that there were explicit points that were not on the surface. The reason his theorem worked is the double exponential growth kept the points off the hyper-surface.</p>
<p>
I cannot resist to mention that I worked in this area and proved <a href="http://www2.computer.org/portal/web/csdl/doi/10.1109/SFCS.1975.25">this:</a> </p>
<blockquote><p><b>Theorem: </b> <em> There exist polynomials,
<p align="center"><img src='http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5Cdisplaystyle++%5Csum_%7Bi%3D0%7D%5E%7Bn%7D+c_%7Bi%7Dx%5E%7Bi%7D%26%2338%3Bbg%3De8e8e8%26%2338%3Bfg%3D000000&#038;bg=ffffff&#038;fg=000000&#038;s=0' alt='\displaystyle  \sum_{i=0}^{n} c_{i}x^{i}&amp;bg=e8e8e8&amp;fg=000000' title='\displaystyle  \sum_{i=0}^{n} c_{i}x^{i}&amp;bg=e8e8e8&amp;fg=000000' class='latex' /></p>
<p> with <img src='http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7Bc_%7Bi%7D+%5Cin+%5C%7B0%2C1%5C%7D+%7D%26%2338%3Bbg%3De8e8e8%26%2338%3Bfg%3D000000&#038;bg=ffffff&#038;fg=000000&#038;s=0' alt='{c_{i} \in \{0,1\} }&amp;bg=e8e8e8&amp;fg=000000' title='{c_{i} \in \{0,1\} }&amp;bg=e8e8e8&amp;fg=000000' class='latex' /> that require <img src='http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%7B%7B%5COmega%7D%28n%5E%7B1%2F4%7D%2F%5Clog+n+++%29%7D%26%2338%3Bbg%3De8e8e8%26%2338%3Bfg%3D000000&#038;bg=ffffff&#038;fg=000000&#038;s=0' alt='{{\Omega}(n^{1/4}/\log n   )}&amp;bg=e8e8e8&amp;fg=000000' title='{{\Omega}(n^{1/4}/\log n   )}&amp;bg=e8e8e8&amp;fg=000000' class='latex' /> operations to compute. </em></p></blockquote>
<p>
This has been <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=UtGrENa2sZoC&#38;pg=PA135&#38;lpg=PA135&#38;dq=Schnorr:+Improved+Lower+Bounds+on+the+Number+of+Multiplications/Divisions+Which+Are+Necessary+to+Evaluate+Polynomials&#38;source=bl&#38;ots=vW9vExp_Pq&#38;sig=4rmwSLCP5qM626BrRAMV0rA487M&#38;hl=en&#38;ei=oxfuSf--GZa-M9q1pOwP&#38;sa=X&#38;oi=book_result&#38;ct=result&#38;resnum=1#PPA135,M1">improved</a> to <img src='http://l.wordpress.com/latex.php?latex=%5COmega%28%5Csqrt+n%2F%5Clog+n%29+%26%2338%3Bfg%3D000000&#038;bg=ffffff&#038;fg=000000&#038;s=0' alt='\Omega(\sqrt n/\log n) &amp;fg=000000' title='\Omega(\sqrt n/\log n) &amp;fg=000000' class='latex' /> by Claus Schnorr. Note, in all these results arbitrary complex numbers are allowed in the computation.</p>
<p><p>
Recently Ran Raz has proved some pretty <a href="http://eccc.hpi-web.de/eccc-reports/2008/TR08-001/Paper.pdf">results</a> on multi-variate polynomials that are based on, I believe, similar technology to that of Strassen. Ran&#8217;s work goes way beyond the work that was done earlier, and he did his work without knowing anything about Strassen&#8217;s paper. I know this because I pointed out Strassen&#8217;s work to him when Ran visited Georgia Tech. Ran was very kind to reference our earlier work. However, it seems too bad that this earlier work was on the outs, and therefore was unknown to modern researchers.</p>
<p>
<p><b> Open Problems </b></p>
<p><p>
This is a different type of post, so I guess there should be a different type of questions. How do make sure that results from old &#8220;fads&#8221; are not completely forgotten? I think there are lots of good ideas that have been lost to the community. Perhaps you agree? Let me know.</p>
<p>
Also it may be interesting to note that several of the old &#8220;fads&#8221; had a similar goal: how could we find common structure among disparate concepts? This clearly applies to Blum measures, and Ballloon automata. Today we seem to focus completely on problems that are special to each area. Could we be missing the forest for the trees by not trying to unify things more? Clearly, such a unification must be done properly or we will lose the fine structure of complexity theory. But I think there could be something there to do. </p>
<p>
Finally, this issue of &#8220;fads&#8221; has arisen in the community, so check out <a href="http://mybiasedcoin.blogspot.com/2009/04/theory-and-many-cores-reflection.html">this</a> to  see what Michael Mitzenmacher has to say on a related issue.</p>
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<title><![CDATA[MSM: Exclusive - Senator's husband's firm cashes in on crisis]]></title>
<link>http://dprogram.net/2009/04/22/msm-exclusive-senators-husbands-firm-cashes-in-on-crisis/</link>
<pubDate>Wed, 22 Apr 2009 06:06:35 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>sakerfa</dc:creator>
<guid>http://dprogram.net/2009/04/22/msm-exclusive-senators-husbands-firm-cashes-in-on-crisis/</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Feinstein sought $25 billion for agency that awarded contract to spouse On the day the new Congress ]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[Feinstein sought $25 billion for agency that awarded contract to spouse On the day the new Congress ]]></content:encoded>
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<title><![CDATA[L'affaire Salengro.]]></title>
<link>http://rannemarie.wordpress.com/2009/04/14/laffaire-salengro/</link>
<pubDate>Tue, 14 Apr 2009 07:42:38 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>raannemari</dc:creator>
<guid>http://rannemarie.wordpress.com/2009/04/14/laffaire-salengro/</guid>
<description><![CDATA[France 2 &#8211; 20h35 &#8211; mardi 14/4   téléfilm d&#8217;Yves Boisset avec bernard-Pierre Donnad]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class='snap_preview'><p><span style="text-decoration:underline;">France 2 &#8211; 20h35 &#8211; mardi 14/4</span>   téléfilm d&#8217;Yves Boisset avec bernard-Pierre Donnadieu, Daniel Mesguish, Julie-Marie Parmentier,</p>
<p>En juin 1936, le Front populaire de Léon Blum fait face à des grèves très dures qui se multiplient dans toute la France et paralysent l&#8217;économie du pays.</p>
<p>Un homme seul réussit à remettre la France au travail : Roger Salengro, ministre de l&#8217;intérieur de Léon Blum et principal artisan des accords de Matignon.</p>
<p><strong>Rediffusions :</strong><br />
23.04.2009 à 09:55<br />
30.04.2009 à 00:45</p>
<p><span style="text-decoration:underline;">Biographie</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:30px;text-align:justify;">Né le 30 mai 1890 à Lille, Roger Salengro milite très jeune parmi les partisans de Jules Guesde, l’introducteur du marxisme en France. Antimilitariste, il est fiché au « carnet B » et par conséquent détenu pendant plusieurs semaines en août 1914.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:30px;text-align:justify;">Quand il est admis à porter les armes, son régiment est replié sur Cognac, mais Roger Salengro demande à partir au front et sa requête est acceptée. Évacué comme malade au printemps 1915, il obtient de revenir en première ligne. « Pour pouvoir sortir de l’hôpital, écrit-il le 22 mai 1915, il m’a fallu remuer ciel et terre, parce qu’incomplètement guéri. Mais je pars radieux sachant pourquoi je me bats et décidé à faire tout mon devoir. »</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:30px;text-align:justify;">Le 7 octobre 1915, parti chercher le corps d’un combattant, il est capturé par les Allemands. Interné en Bavière, il incite ses camarades à refuser le travail forcé, ce qui lui vaut treize mois de camp disciplinaire. Sa santé s’altère d’autant plus qu’il est atteint de dépression nerveuse. Il est dirigé vers la Suisse dans un convoi de rapatriés sanitaires. Quand il revient à Lille, Roger Salengro ne pèse plus que quarante-deux kilos.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:30px;text-align:justify;">Côté français, la suspicion à l’encontre des socialistes, qui avaient combattu la « loi de trois ans » avec Jaurès, fait qu’un conseil de guerre a examiné son dossier : en janvier 1916 cependant, le soupçon de désertion est écarté et le soldat Salengro, acquitté.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:30px;text-align:justify;">Cette affaire sera néanmoins exploitée par les adversaires de Roger Salengro, et d’abord par les communistes. Conseiller municipal de Lille à partir de 1919, Roger Salengro a fait le choix de la SFIO au congrès de Tours. Il contribue à réorganiser la fédération du Nord en même temps qu’il collabore activement au <em>Cri du peuple</em>, le quotidien socialiste local.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:30px;text-align:justify;">Maire de Lille en 1925, Roger Salengro devient député en 1928. Réélu en 1932 et en 1936, il est nommé au poste difficile de ministre de l’Intérieur dans le gouvernement de Front populaire dirigé par Léon Blum. C’est donc Roger Salengro qui signe les décrets de dissolution des ligues pris en application de la loi du 10 janvier 1936, s’attirant la haine de l’extrême droite.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:30px;text-align:justify;">Son ennemi Henri Becquart, député du Nord, réclame au ministre de la Guerre Édouard Daladier des précisions sur l’attitude du soldat Salengro pendant la Grande Guerre. Bientôt s’ensuit une campagne de presse d’une grande violence, menée par <em>L’Action française</em> et <em>Gringoire</em>.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:30px;text-align:justify;">Une commission, présidée par le général Gamelin, innocente Roger Salengro. Le 13 novembre 1936, interpellé par l’opposition, Léon Blum défend son ministre, obtenant la confiance de 427 députés. « Vous savez que la campagne menée contre Roger Salengro au nom de l’honneur militaire et du patriotisme repose sur l’altération de la vérité », déclare clairement le Président du Conseil. Mais la campagne de presse se poursuit, <em>Gringoire</em> voulant voir dans le rapatriement sanitaire de Roger Salengro une marque de bienveillance allemande. Éprouvé par la mort de sa femme et la maladie de sa mère, le ministre met fin à ses jours dans la nuit du 17 au 18 novembre. <a href="https://rannemarie.wordpress.com/wp-admin/lettre.asp">La lettre qu’il écrit à Léon Blum</a> est publiée en une du <em>Populaire</em> qui fustige le « fascisme assassin ». À Lille, sont organisées le 22 novembre des obsèques nationales qui rassemblent un million de personnes.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:30px;text-align:justify;"><a href="http://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/13/evenements/salengro/biographie.asp">http://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/13/evenements/salengro/biographie.asp</a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:30px;text-align:justify;"> </p>
<p align="justify"> </p>
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<title><![CDATA[L'AFFAIRE SALENGRO]]></title>
<link>http://rogervicot.wordpress.com/2009/04/01/laffaire-salengro/</link>
<pubDate>Wed, 01 Apr 2009 20:30:09 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>rvicot</dc:creator>
<guid>http://rogervicot.wordpress.com/2009/04/01/laffaire-salengro/</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Avant-première, lundi soir, du film consacré à ce qu&#8217;on a appelé l&#8217;affaire Salengro. Yve]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class='snap_preview'><p style="text-align:justify;"><a href="http://rogervicot.wordpress.com/files/2009/04/mrsalengro1.jpg"><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-489" title="mrsalengro1" src="http://rogervicot.wordpress.com/files/2009/04/mrsalengro1.jpg" alt="mrsalengro1" width="141" height="155" /></a>Avant-première, lundi soir, du film consacré à ce qu&#8217;on a appelé l&#8217;affaire Salengro. Yves Boisset derrière la caméra, et Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu dans le rôle de l&#8217;ancien maire de Lille&#8230; duo d&#8217;excellence pour un film poignant. J&#8217;ai trouvé &#8211; mais c&#8217;est tout à fait personnel et donc très subjectif &#8211; Daniel Mesguich peu convaincant dans le rôle de Léon Blum. Peu de choses à dire finalement sur l&#8217;affaire elle-même, tant on la connaît : &#8220;<em>l&#8217;honneur d&#8217;un homme jeté aux chiens</em>&#8220;, comme disait Mitterrand en d&#8217;autres circonstances. Le pouvoir des mots, des mots qui tuent, et la mort comme ultime solution, dernière échappatoire, seule porte de sortie. Une vie comme un combat, toute entière consacrée à la défense d&#8217;un idéal et de valeurs. A en mourir. &#8220;<em><strong><span style="color:#0000ff;">Mon parti aura été ma vie et ma joie</span></strong></em>&#8220;&#8230; derniers mots jetés sur le papier, à destination de Blum. <strong><span style="color:#ff0000;">Le film est diffusé le 14 avril au soir. Et c&#8217;est à voir.</span></strong></p>
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<title><![CDATA[What to Do Now?]]></title>
<link>http://stewarthayes.wordpress.com/2009/03/31/what-to-do-now/</link>
<pubDate>Tue, 31 Mar 2009 09:56:59 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Stewart</dc:creator>
<guid>http://stewarthayes.wordpress.com/2009/03/31/what-to-do-now/</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Over the past few weeks I&#8217;ve seen some common themes emerging around the global economic crisi]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[Over the past few weeks I&#8217;ve seen some common themes emerging around the global economic crisi]]></content:encoded>
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<title><![CDATA[Blick nach Österreich und Deutschland]]></title>
<link>http://blog.lehrstellenboerse.ch/2009/03/30/blick-nach-osterreich-und-deutschland/</link>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Mar 2009 18:39:49 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>M. Ferreira</dc:creator>
<guid>http://blog.lehrstellenboerse.ch/2009/03/30/blick-nach-osterreich-und-deutschland/</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ÖGB befürchtet Kündigungswelle bei Lehrlingen &#8220;Eine wahre Kündigungswelle sieht die Gewerkscha]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[ÖGB befürchtet Kündigungswelle bei Lehrlingen &#8220;Eine wahre Kündigungswelle sieht die Gewerkscha]]></content:encoded>
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<title><![CDATA[March 28, 2009: Look at the Infield]]></title>
<link>http://astroskimm.wordpress.com/2009/03/28/march-28-2009-look-at-the-infield/</link>
<pubDate>Sat, 28 Mar 2009 23:38:19 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>superpowers</dc:creator>
<guid>http://astroskimm.wordpress.com/2009/03/28/march-28-2009-look-at-the-infield/</guid>
<description><![CDATA[As Opening Day against the Cubs is coming up soon, let&#8217;s take a look at the Astros proposed in]]></description>
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<p>As Opening Day against the Cubs is coming up soon, let&#8217;s take a look at the Astros proposed infield.  I am only going to look at the starters right now as it is pointless to look at backups at this time especially since the seem to be dropping like Wall Street.  (Though it does look like Edwin Maysonet is a good bet to make the team.)</p>
<p><strong>Starters</strong></p>
<p>1B &#8211; Lance Berkman<br />
2B &#8211; Kaz Matsui<br />
SS &#8211; Miguel Tejada<br />
3B &#8211; Geoff Blum</p>
<p><strong>Lance Berkman, 1B</strong></p>
<p><em>Spring Training Stats</em><strong><br />
</strong></p>
<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td width="32" valign="top"><strong>G</strong></td>
<td width="32" valign="top"><strong>AB</strong></td>
<td width="32" valign="top"><strong>R</strong></td>
<td width="32" valign="top"><strong>H</strong></td>
<td width="32" valign="top"><strong>2B</strong></td>
<td width="32" valign="top"><strong>3B</strong></td>
<td width="32" valign="top"><strong>HR</strong></td>
<td width="32" valign="top"><strong>RBI</strong></td>
<td width="32" valign="top"><strong>TB</strong></td>
<td width="32" valign="top"><strong>BB</strong></td>
<td width="32" valign="top"><strong>SO</strong></td>
<td width="32" valign="top"><strong>SB</strong></td>
<td width="32" valign="top"><strong>CS</strong></td>
<td width="32" valign="top"><strong>OBP</strong></td>
<td width="32" valign="top"><strong>SLG</strong></td>
<td width="32" valign="top"><strong>AVG</strong></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="32" valign="top">16</td>
<td width="32" valign="top">43</td>
<td width="32" valign="top">5</td>
<td width="32" valign="top">14</td>
<td width="32" valign="top">4</td>
<td width="32" valign="top">0</td>
<td width="32" valign="top">3</td>
<td width="32" valign="top">8</td>
<td width="32" valign="top">27</td>
<td width="32" valign="top">7</td>
<td width="32" valign="top">6</td>
<td width="32" valign="top">0</td>
<td width="32" valign="top">0</td>
<td width="32" valign="top">.412</td>
<td width="32" valign="top">.628</td>
<td width="32" valign="top">.326</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p><img class="alignright" title="Lance Berkman" src="http://mlb.mlb.com/images/players/mugshot/ph_204020.jpg" alt="" width="90" height="135" />Sir Lancelot has had a good Spring Training overall.  In fact, you could argue that he has had one of the the best springs offensively for the Astros.  There are many other players across MLB who have better averages include Berkman&#8217;s backup, John Gall, who has a .375 in 16 games.  However, Lance&#8217;s slugging is one of the tops among that category.</p>
<p>Will he have a good season?  I think Lance would have to go into a coma for several months not to have a good season.  He always seems to have at least one month where he doesn&#8217;t play well, but he bounces back.  Signs point that he will have a good season, but let&#8217;s wait and see.  He usually starts off slow and doesn&#8217;t warm up until May.  If he can be even .100 off of his May average of last year (.471), then I would be happy.</p>
<p><em>NOTE: Lance recently stayed back in Kissimmee, FL for a sore shoulder.  Reports don&#8217;t indicate that this will be of any concern, but keep an eye on it.</em></p>
<p><strong>Kaz Matsui, 2B</strong></p>
<p><em>Spring Training Stats</em><strong><br />
</strong></p>
<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td width="32" valign="top"><strong>G</strong></td>
<td width="32" valign="top"><strong>AB</strong></td>
<td width="32" valign="top"><strong>R</strong></td>
<td width="32" valign="top"><strong>H</strong></td>
<td width="32" valign="top"><strong>2B</strong></td>
<td width="32" valign="top"><strong>3B</strong></td>
<td width="32" valign="top"><strong>HR</strong></td>
<td width="32" valign="top"><strong>RBI</strong></td>
<td width="32" valign="top"><strong>TB</strong></td>
<td width="32" valign="top"><strong>BB</strong></td>
<td width="32" valign="top"><strong>SO</strong></td>
<td width="32" valign="top"><strong>SB</strong></td>
<td width="32" valign="top"><strong>CS</strong></td>
<td width="32" valign="top"><strong>OBP</strong></td>
<td width="32" valign="top"><strong>SLG</strong></td>
<td width="32" valign="top"><strong>AVG</strong></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">20</td>
<td valign="top">64</td>
<td valign="top">6</td>
<td valign="top">10</td>
<td valign="top">3</td>
<td valign="top">0</td>
<td valign="top">0</td>
<td valign="top">0</td>
<td valign="top">13</td>
<td valign="top">2</td>
<td valign="top">13</td>
<td valign="top">2</td>
<td valign="top">2</td>
<td valign="top">.182</td>
<td valign="top">.203</td>
<td valign="top">.156</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p><img class="alignright" title="Kaz Matsui" src="http://mlb.mlb.com/images/players/mugshot/ph_430565.jpg" alt="" width="90" height="135" />I am still fairly underwhelmed by Kaz Matsui.  Sure, he seems to be a nice guy and his defense is good, but I am confused as to why we signed him in the first place.  His spring numbers have been atrocious.  This does not bode well and he needs to play much, much better.</p>
<p>Will he have a good season?  Based on his spring numbers, the answer is no and we always have to be on the lookout for injuries with him.  We need our second baseman to be good defensively and offensively.  Not great, but good.  Defensively, he has been good in pre-season, but offensively, he has been bad.  I am especially alarmed by his strikeout numbers.  Yeouch!</p>
<p>The final prognosis?  Be afraid, be very afraid.</p>
<p><strong>Miguel Tejada, SS</strong></p>
<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td width="32" valign="top"><strong>G</strong></td>
<td width="32" valign="top"><strong>AB</strong></td>
<td width="32" valign="top"><strong>R</strong></td>
<td width="32" valign="top"><strong>H</strong></td>
<td width="32" valign="top"><strong>2B</strong></td>
<td width="32" valign="top"><strong>3B</strong></td>
<td width="32" valign="top"><strong>HR</strong></td>
<td width="32" valign="top"><strong>RBI</strong></td>
<td width="32" valign="top"><strong>TB</strong></td>
<td width="32" valign="top"><strong>BB</strong></td>
<td width="32" valign="top"><strong>SO</strong></td>
<td width="32" valign="top"><strong>SB</strong></td>
<td width="32" valign="top"><strong>CS</strong></td>
<td width="32" valign="top"><strong>OBP</strong></td>
<td width="32" valign="top"><strong>SLG</strong></td>
<td width="32" valign="top"><strong>AVG</strong></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">14</td>
<td valign="top">40</td>
<td valign="top">8</td>
<td valign="top">12</td>
<td valign="top">4</td>
<td valign="top">0</td>
<td valign="top">2</td>
<td valign="top">6</td>
<td valign="top">22</td>
<td valign="top">1</td>
<td valign="top">3</td>
<td valign="top">0</td>
<td valign="top">0</td>
<td valign="top">.326</td>
<td valign="top">.550</td>
<td valign="top">.300</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p><img class="alignright" title="Miguel Tejada" src="http://mlb.mlb.com/images/players/mugshot/ph_123173.jpg" alt="" width="90" height="135" />Like Berkman, Miguel&#8217;s numbers have been good over the spring.  I would have liked them to be better, but he did have a federal perjury case to worry about all winter, so it&#8217;s not surprising that he was quirky at the plate.  Tejada has admitted that the whole thing was stressful and he is glad to have it behind him.  How much difference would this have made in Kissimmee?  It&#8217;s hard to tell, but it will make a difference in the regular season.  In 2008, questions followed him all season about his age and his steroid use.  It will be good for him to have a breather.</p>
<p>Will he have a good season?  I look for a more relaxed Tejada this year.  His numbers last year were very good and I hope that one year older without the stress will help him to repeat those numbers.  Plus, he is on my fantasy team, so he&#8217;d better be good or I will bench him!</p>
<p><strong>Geoff Blum, 3B</strong></p>
<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td width="32" valign="top"><strong>G</strong></td>
<td width="32" valign="top"><strong>AB</strong></td>
<td width="32" valign="top"><strong>R</strong></td>
<td width="32" valign="top"><strong>H</strong></td>
<td width="32" valign="top"><strong>2B</strong></td>
<td width="32" valign="top"><strong>3B</strong></td>
<td width="32" valign="top"><strong>HR</strong></td>
<td width="32" valign="top"><strong>RBI</strong></td>
<td width="32" valign="top"><strong>TB</strong></td>
<td width="32" valign="top"><strong>BB</strong></td>
<td width="32" valign="top"><strong>SO</strong></td>
<td width="32" valign="top"><strong>SB</strong></td>
<td width="32" valign="top"><strong>CS</strong></td>
<td width="32" valign="top"><strong>OBP</strong></td>
<td width="32" valign="top"><strong>SLG</strong></td>
<td width="32" valign="top"><strong>AVG</strong></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top">19</td>
<td valign="top">49</td>
<td valign="top">2</td>
<td valign="top">10</td>
<td valign="top">3</td>
<td valign="top">0</td>
<td valign="top">0</td>
<td valign="top">9</td>
<td valign="top">13</td>
<td valign="top">3</td>
<td valign="top">6</td>
<td valign="top">0</td>
<td valign="top">0</td>
<td valign="top">.236</td>
<td valign="top">.265</td>
<td valign="top">.204</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p><img class="alignright" title="Geoff Blum" src="http://mlb.mlb.com/images/players/mugshot/ph_150398.jpg" alt="" width="90" height="135" />Not real sparkling numbers in pre-season, but much better than Matsui&#8217;s.  (Which makes Kaz&#8217;s numbers all the more alarming.)   What I am more interested in with Geoff is his defense as he will be on the field when Hampton is pitching.  Why am I bringing this up?  Remember when Hampton pitched for us last and Bill Spiers (one of my favorite players second only to Jose Cruz) was playing at third.  I seem to remember a quote from Bill that whenever Hampy was pitching, he got a good workout and always had to be on his toes.</p>
<p>Will he have a good season?  I don&#8217;t expect that Mike&#8217;s pitching has changed all that much and look for plenty of ground balls to go to third base, so Blum needs to be at his best at least every fifth game.  However, Blum has had 2 errors in Spring Training.  That&#8217;s awful.  Some players play months of regular season ball before getting that many.  Now I am really worried.  If you add that to his low numbers at Kissimmee, then you have a player that clearly isn&#8217;t ready to play ball.</p>
<p>I am not a Blum-hater.  I really like the guy (except for when he hit that home run off the Astros in the World Series), but he needs to step it up soon or Ed Wade is going to sign some 39-year old veteran free agent and put Blum on the bench.</p>
<p><strong>Final Thoughts</strong></p>
<p>Right now, the infield is concerning with firstbase and shortstop looking good and secondbase and thirdbase looking not-so-good.  The butterflies in my stomach are flying around and I think it is going to be a tough first few months of the season before all is said and done.</p>
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<title><![CDATA[Putting new technology in an old house]]></title>
<link>http://cabinettrends.wordpress.com/2009/02/20/putting-new-technology-in-an-old-house/</link>
<pubDate>Fri, 20 Feb 2009 17:16:44 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>cabinettrends</dc:creator>
<guid>http://cabinettrends.wordpress.com/2009/02/20/putting-new-technology-in-an-old-house/</guid>
<description><![CDATA[“This Old House” is using Blum’s new servo-drive drawer technology in a Brooklyn brownstone which is]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class='snap_preview'><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0;"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:&#34;"><a href="http://thisoldhouse.com" target="_blank"><img class="alignright size-medium wp-image-144" title="Blum servo-drive-in-action" src="http://cabinettrends.wordpress.com/files/2009/02/servo-drive-in-action.jpg?w=300" alt="Blum servo-drive-in-action" width="300" height="193" />“This Old House”</a> is using <a href="http://blum.com" target="_blank">Blum’s</a> new servo-drive drawer technology in a Brooklyn brownstone which is the subject of the show’s first-ever New York City renovation.<span> </span>Part of the renovation was a 250-square-foot kitchen that now includes Blum&#8217;s Tandem plus Blumotion concealed runners, Orga-line drawer organization, and Clip top hinges with Blumotion quiet closing. One cabinet was outfitted with Blum&#8217;s <a href="http://cabinetmakeronline.com/ViewProducts.aspx?id=25878&#38;terms=*Blum*" target="_blank">servo-drive</a> opening feature that opens a drawer electronically with just a light touch of the drawer front. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0;"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:&#34;">For the first time in its three-decade history, “This Old House” is taking on a renovation in New York City, home to one of the greatest collections of residential architecture in the country. The project is the conversion of a 104-year-old rowhouse in Brooklyn&#8217;s historic Prospect Heights neighborhood, from a nine-room boarding house to a three-family home.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0;"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:&#34;">The “This Old House” New York City project airs on <a href="http://pbs.org" target="_blank">PBS</a> Thursdays at 8 p.m. (check your local listings).</span></p>
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