HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: yao@ee.rochester.edu (Meng Yao)
Subject: answer to fun problem No.3
Organization: Univ of Rochester, College of Engineering and Applied Science
Distribution: usa
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1992 19:13:09 GMT

Looks like only one person has been able to give the correct answer.
I wonder if I should reduce the difficulty of problems.
Original problem included at end of posting.

This is the question the smart prisoner should ask:

(to A or B): The other guy will say D1 is the life door, won't he?

If the answer is no, D1 will be the life door, if the answer is yes,
D2 will be the life door.
Let's say you ask the question to No.1, and if No.2 is the truth guy,
denote as No.2(T), if No.2 is the lie guy, denote as No.2(F).
Here are the possible cases:

No.2(T)		D1 is life	No.1 will say: no
No.2(T)		D2 is life	No.1 will say: yes
No.2(F)		D1 is life	No.1 will say: no
No.2(F)		D2 is life	No.1 will say: yes

So, all no's correspond to D1 is life, all yes' correspond to D2 is life.

I still feel sorry for the truth guy, how could some one telling the truth
end up in prison? He must be a political prisoner. Poor guy.

Meng

Original problem:

From huilong@phoenix.princeton.edu Fri Dec 18 14:10:53 1992

         The choice of life and death.

         There were two doors for a prisoner to choose. One was life door
another was death door. The prisoner was forced to choose one of them
to determine his life.

The only thing he can do now was asking another two prisoners in the room,
say A and B. All he knew about them was one always lies and the other
always tells  truth but didn't know who is who. As longtime roommates,
A knew B always lies and B knew A always tells truth. Of course, both of
A and B knew which one is life door and which one is death door.

The prisoner was allowed to ask A or B only once, and the answer
should be as simple as "yes" or "no". 

         At last the smart and poor prisoner found a question to ask such
that from the answer he knew which one is life door and got freedom.

         What is that question?
From: chifang@acsu.buffalo.edu (chi fang)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.china
Subject: Re: [news] fan3 gong4 yi4 shi4
Date: 1 Jan 93 16:26:12 GMT
Organization: State University of New York at Buffalo/Comp Sci

In article <1300@blue.cis.pitt.edu> yding+@pitt.edu (Yijun Ding) writes:
>Zuo2 chang2ren2, Jiang1 Hong2jun1, Si1 xiao3ling2, got death penalty in
>Taibei Dec 29, 1992.  Kind of ironic, isn't it?
>


Have they considered hijacking an airplane back to China and being a
Yi4 Shi4 one more time? or they are pretty sure people elsewhere are
not so naive to believe their story?
Newsgroups: soc.culture.china
Subject: HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!
From: bioysl@lure.latrobe.edu.au
Date: Thu, 31 Dec 1992 03:38:11 GMT
Organization: VAX Cluster, Computer Centre, La Trobe University 



      O      O       O               O     O          OOOOOOOO       !!!!
   OOOOOO OOO       OOOOOOOO         O     O         O   O          !!!!!!
    O  O  O        O    O          O O   OOOOO       O   O          !!!!!!
   OOOOOO OOOOO      OOOOOOO       OOOO    O O      OOOOOOOOOO       !!!!
      O   O O        O  O          O O  OOOOOOO          O            !!
   OOOOOO O O      OOOOOOOOOO        O     O          O  O O
    O O O O O           O            O    O O        O   O  O         !!
    O O O O O           O            O   O   O      O   OO   O        !!
Organization: TECHNION - Israel Institute of Technology.
Date: Mon, 21 Dec 1992 22:09:51 IST
From: <CVRLIUS@TECHNION.BITNET>
Newsgroups: soc.culture.china
Subject: Re: The Second Austrilia Satellite Has Been Launched Successively

      Wu1 La1 !   Good News!   Congratulations!



Newsgroups: soc.culture.china
From: yuen@bhprtc.scpd.oz.au (Daniel Yuen)
Subject: Re: a fun problem
Organization: BHP Steel, Sheet & Coil, Research & Technology Centre
Date: Wed, 23 Dec 92 02:08:38 GMT

sichao@bnr.ca (Sichao Wang) writes:

>In article <1992Dec15.235211.7349@ee.rochester.edu> you write:
>: Now let's have something more advanced. Given 13 balls that look exactly the
>: same but one of the 13 balls differs in weight from the others, can you
>: find out this ball by using a balance(tian1 ping2) only three times?
>: 
>: Meng
>Too easy!
 ^^^^^^^^
Is it??

>Here comes the algorithm:
>
>             1. divide all the balls into three groups with number of balls:
>                n/2, n/2, 1 (the dividing is randomly) if n is odd, or just
>                two groups with n/2 number of balls if n is even;
>
>             2. weigh the two groups with n/2 balls on the balance:
>
>                2.1. IF Weight(group1) > Weight (group2)
>                     THEN
>                        GOTO step 1 to divide group1;
                                               ^^^^^^
Hang on. Note that the puzzle didn't specify if the odd one out is heavier
or lighter!

>                     ELSE
>                        IF Weight(group1) < Weight (group2)
>                        THEN
>                           GOTO step 1 to divide group2;
>                        ENDIF;
>                     ENDIF;
[.....]

This problem was one of the assignments in Information Theory in my Uni days.
If my memory has not failed me, one could prove that picking out an odd ball
among *13* balls in 3 weighings could not be done (picking out the odd one
among *12* balls using 3 weighings can be done though).  I'd love to see
someone solve this puzzle!

Cheers.

Daniel (yuen@bhprtc.scpd.oz.au)
Xref: sparky soc.culture.china:33596 soc.culture.taiwan:16584
From: nlu@Xenon.Stanford.EDU (Nelson Lu)
Subject: Re: Hus Fu and the Japanese
Organization: Computer Science Department, Stanford University.
Date: Sun, 27 Dec 1992 01:05:19 GMT

In article <1hira6INN688@liverbug.hsc.usc.edu> jamesou@liverbug.hsc.usc.edu (James Ou) writes:
>
>In <1992Dec25.015921.19296@CSD-NewsHost.Stanford.EDU>, nlu@Xenon.Stanford.EDU
>(Nelson Lu) writes:

>>Then, why didn't they blame Liu Che4 (Han Wu Di) for pretty much the same
>>things that Ying Zheng did?
>
>LiuChe was often criticized for "Hao4 Da4 Xi3 Gong1, Qiong2 Bing1
>Du2 Wu3" (Arrogant and exhausting the nation for wars). When we
>look at the Han history, the four emperors flanking him were
>highly praised. Historically, the eras of these four emperors
>were called "Wen2 Jing3 Zhi1 Zhi4" and "Zhao1 Xuan1 Zhi1 Zhi4".
>Wu3 Di4 was left out. Why?

Well, even then, the key is that they didn't blame him as much.  Let me
translate a segment of Ban1 Gu4's commentary on Liu Che:  (pardon my far
from elegant translation, but I just want to make a point...)

"Even though Wu Di had many military achievements, but he did not change the
custom of being humble and thrift left from the times of Wen Di (Liu Hen) and
Jing Di (Liu Chi), and he loved his people; even the king sages praised by the
Book of Poetry (Shi1 Jin1) and Book of Documents (Shu1 Jin1) cannot exceed
him."

Doesn't sound like much of a blame to me!  Much of the praise is undue, while
Liu Che's military achievements went unpraised (showing the bias of traditional
historians).
>
>>Why didn't they blame Yang Guang, who was far
>>worse than the two mentioned above, as much as they blamed Ying Zheng?
>
>If they did not, then how did you get to know that Yang2 Guang3
>was a jerk?  :-)  He murdered his father and his elder brother,
>fondled his father's concubines, enslaved people to build the
>Great Canal for his pleasure, sent hundreds of thousands of
>Chinese to Korea to die, etc. Why did you say that historians did
>not blame him for his crimes? :-)

Again, the key is *not as much*.  Whenever historians want to conjure up
images of tyrants, they always go to Ying Zheng first.  (The great Li Shi4
Min2 knows better, as he always referred to Yang Guang, but he's not a
historian.)

(BTW, I don't think Yang Guang just "fondled" his father's concubines. :-))
From: chen@natinst.com (Dapang Chen)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.china
Subject: News Release
Date: 28 Dec 1992 12:01:55 -0600
Organization: National Instruments, Austin, TX
NNTP-Posting-Host: eagle.natinst.com
Keywords: Chinese Academy of Sciences, Economy, Technology

1992 Chinese Academy of Sciences' Young Scientists Conference on 
Promoting Economy by Science and Technology

Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and the city of Shenzhen co-sponsored a
conference on how to promote the economic development by latest 
technological advancement.  The purpose of the conference is to discuss how
to make smooth transition from research to commercial 
applications.  

Dozens of representatives from 5 countries
(PRC, USA, Canada, Japan, Britain) attended the conference.  Also attending
were many officials from various agencies in CAS, and general 
managers of successful businesses under CAS.  During the conference, the 
attendees had the opportunities to discuss topics of mutual interests with
business leaders and government representatives from the city of Shenzhen.

It is generally agreed that the conference was a great success. The
representatives saw first hand some very successful companies in China and 
were impressed by the surprising growth rate of those company.  They
were also very encouraged by the enormous opportunities in today's China.
By communicating directly with the top management, many representative felt
their knowledge can further help these companies.

Due to the success of this conference, a second conference of the same
nature will be held in Shanghai in late december of 1993.  Learning from
this conference, the next conference will be more specific to a few areas:
biotechnologies, materials, and information & communication technologies etc.
More companies will also be attending.
If you are interested in getting involved in this conference please contact
	Mr. Lebin Wu
	Chinese Academy of Sciences
	Panning Bureau
	52 Sanlihe Rd
	Beijing 100864
	PRC.  
for more information.
From: B7Y6@MUSICT.MCGILL.CA (B7Y6)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.china
Subject: help! help!
Date: 27 Dec 92 03:39:20 GMT
Organization: McGill University

Hello! Everybody.
I am moving to a small town located in Renfrew, Ontario.
Can everybody tell me any means to connect my computer
to Montreal and the world, free or paid services? In Renfrew,
there is only a local BBS, organized by a few compter fans.
There is also a Datapac public Dial Port which is a paid service.
I would like to keep in touch with my friends and the latest
research findings in the universities. Please post here or mail
to me. Thanks in advance.
Newsgroups: soc.culture.china
From: xlli@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (xiao-lin li)
Subject: Re: Everyone should change his major to Qi Gong major
Keywords: Qi Gong
Organization: Indiana University
Date: Mon, 4 Jan 1993 00:25:26 GMT

In article <wangf.726102834@unixg.ubc.ca> wangf@unixg.ubc.ca (Frank Wang) writes:
>Yan xin's qing gong has been discussed on this net for couple of
>times.  I remember on netter said that when Yan was asked about
>the scientic proof aobut his claims (molecule change of the water
>he qi'ed), he was rather angry.  These proof does not need very
>sofiscated equipement.  Almost ervey Unitversity can do it.  
>Why did not he do it to support his claim?  This kind of data
>is more convincing than mentioning some big names.  Isn't it clear?
>Yan Xin is not a stupid.  He has a university degre. 
>He sure knows how to use moden equipment
>to support his claim.  The problem is that the result is negtive 
>to his claims.  

I doubt he knows how scientific experiments are performed. It
seemed to me that he knows some words from scientist such as
H2O :-). He may frighten many ordinary Chinese who have no college
education. He may even frighten mathematicians :-). But sure
he cannot frighten people who knows some basic facts of physics.

You are right, I noticed that he had short temper too. Some people
found his talk distasteful and left early. He said something
like he was not responsible if these people had car accident. This
was still New Year. I suspect he had any Qi when he said so :-).
I was intended to ask him some sharp questions after his "scientific
lecture". But I was afraid that the interaction would become very
unpleasent one.  His talk was a monoply. No one could ask questions. 

I guess we have to stop this man lying in American Campus. He
could do something outside the academic world. But to cite Nobel
Prize winner and Fellow of American Science Academy is a serious 
matter. I doubt if C. N. Yang would allow him to use his name
randomly and irresponsibly for unproven "science".


Newsgroups: soc.culture.china
From: mliu@pt.com (Fred Liu)
Subject: 9 women among 10 best
Organization: Performance Technologies, Incorporated
Date: Sun, 3 Jan 1993 15:15:09 GMT

The Dec 30 1992 People's Daily reported the 10 best atheletes
of China for the past year.  It's interesting that among the
ten, 9 are women and the man is the last one.

Where are those Chinese men?

-- 
Fred Liu, Performance Technologies Incorporated		mliu@pt.com
315 Science Parkway, Rochester, New York 14620		uupsi!ptsys1!mliu
Newsgroups: soc.culture.china,soc.culture.hongkong,soc.culture.taiwan,talk.politics.china
From: utingli@uxa.ecn.bgu.edu (Tingli Pan)
Subject: Re: Chinese Running Dog
Organization: Educational Computing Network
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1992 14:39:37 GMT

In article <1h6ph5INNd91@ariel.ucs.unimelb.EDU.AU> jlam@ariel.ucs.unimelb.edu.au (Lord Automato) writes:
>
>In article <2B33AF4A.14932@news.service.uci.edu>, ygu@eve.eng.uci.edu (Yifan Gu) writes:
>
>|> No, running dogs are chinese people who serve the interests of their foreign
>
>No, running dogs are those who serve for their own self-interests and betray
>the interests of others fellow countrymen.
>
I think this definition isn't very accurate. And seems almost all the
CCP Gao Gang will be covered under it.

Tingli Pan   
>Lin Can
>
From: gyu@bass.bu.edu (Guo-Xiang Yu)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.china
Subject: Re: (Re: DATA: largest world economies)
Date: 21 Dec 92 17:10:56 GMT
Reply-To: gyu@bass.bu.edu (Guo-Xiang Yu)
Followup-To: soc.culture.china
Organization: Boston University

In article <07T=g0=@engin.umich.edu> changhp@engin.umich.edu writes:
>
>In article <105168@bu.edu>, yush@buengc.bu.edu (Guo-Xiang Yu) writes:
>
>> You can't impose your political view on Taiwanese just like I
>> can't impose mine on you. 
>	
>	When we, people of Taiwan, are talking about
>the Taiwan issues, we are discussing our own problems.
>	When you, people from China, are talking about
>the Taiwan issues, you are talking about your neighbor country's
>problems.
>	Your situation and Mr. Liao's are apparently different.
>
>>        -Guo-Xiang

I agree with you that we are not in the same position. You can vote and 
can be counted as one of the 31% ballots DPP got, while I can't. But I 
still have the right talking about any political issues. Also don't  
forget KMT got 53% ballots. Let's read one other Taiwanese' voice.

	-Guo-Xiang Yu

The following is quoted from C. H. Yang's poster. 

cut here
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
	How can you be sure that Taiwanese are not Chinese culturally 
	and ethinically?  You don't have to be brainwashed to see that the 
	on the tombstone of my ancestors who died before KMT ever existed 
	with the exact location and city of my ancestrial origin.  Do you 
	mean to say that the KMT came and secretly switched all these 
	tombstones?

	Just because you surround yourself with people who advocate TI, it
	does not mean that most people in Taiwan wanted TI.  

	What gives you the God Damn right to play GOD and say that I am 
	not a Chinese?  What gives you the right to tell other Taiwanese 
	that they are not Chinese?  

	Oh!  Of Course, if you are an aboriginal person you have the 
	right to claim that you are not Chinese.  If so you have the right
	to say all Chinese get out of my Island!  That of course means that
	you are ethically philipino or malay or even some other minor pacific 
	island tribal people.  But no, most of people in Taiwan not are not
	aboriginal, they gotta be from somewhere.  Don't tell me they pop up 
	from under a big rock all of a sudden.  

	Anyway.  Becareful what you say.  It is all flame bait as far 
	as I am concerned.  

	I advocate Taiwanese self-determination, that means we don't need
	the old KMT nor people like you to tell us what we are.

	- C. H. Yang
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
cut here
From: lix@thames.bu.edu (Xiaowen Li)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.china
Subject: Re: Yes, those blood-card-ers are "running dogs" (Re: running dogs)
Date: 22 Dec 92 02:07:54 GMT
Organization: Boston University

In article <92352.201056XXX100@psuvm.psu.edu> XXX100@psuvm.psu.edu writes:
>From: yeh@netix.com (Mr Shannon Yeh)
<>(deleted)
>              Long time no see!
>              Your drawing style hasn't  changed yet.

In addition, he keeps adding wrong Pian Pang to a hard-written character.
For example, the "word" in "beg". I can't help suggesting him to donate again,
though I have been retired.

-- 
The SOS China Education Fund is a non-political, non-profit and independent
organization to raise money promoting the education in rural China. All donations
are tax-deductable. Make checks or money orders payable to: "SOS China Education
Fund"; c/o Jie KANG, 2610 E. 5th Pl, Apt. 1, Tulsa, OK74104, USA.
From: ygu@eve.eng.uci.edu (Yifan Gu)
Subject: Re: Mongolia
Newsgroups: soc.culture.china
Organization: University of California, Irvine
Date: 24 Dec 92 23:30:49 GMT


In article <BzqoyG.79o@usenet.ucs.indiana.edu> achen@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu (positron) writes:
>
>I wonder if Beijing has any plans to "liberate"
>outer Mongolia?  I think Mongolia should be recovered
>before Beijing can even start to dream about "liberating"
>Taiwan.
>
>Also, from the historical perspective, an invasion of
>Mongolia definitely justifiable because it could be
>viewed as revenge for Ghengis Khan's invasion of China.
>
>If you think about it carefully, China never did really
>recover from the Mongolian invasion.  Before the Mongolian
>invasion of China, China was always the premier civilization
>in the world.  After the Mongolian invasion, the West overtook
>China permanently as the premier civilization in the world.
>
>In my opinion, the "real" China was permanently destroyed by
>the Mongolian invasion and real Chinese history ended at that
>point.  All of the notable dynasties that followed the Mongolian 
>invasion were not real Chinese dynasties.  For example, most
>historians don't consider the Manchus as being Chinese.
                               ^^^^^^^
>
>  

Are you confusing the Mongolians with the Manchus ?

Both Mongolian and Manchu minority groups exist in China today, and they are 
very different people. The Mongolians speak their own langrage and have their
distinct culture. But the Manchus have been largely assimilated into the Chinese
Han culture. If you meet a Manchu person in China today, you won't be able
to find much difference between him/her from other Han people because they 
speak Chinese just the same and they don`t look much different.

Historically, the Mongols conquered China, established Yuan Dynasty, which was 
later replaced by Ming Dynasty of Han tradition. Ming was destroyed by rebels
uprising(Li ZhiCheng), and the Manchus took over at the time of Mi ng's destruction
and imposed the rule of Ch'ing Dynasty, which was turned upside down later by ......
..... so and so on.


Nobody is talking about "liberating" anymore anywhere. Now the issue is 
unification or separation (or, further separation).
From: v999qx29@ubvmsd.cc.buffalo.edu
Newsgroups: soc.culture.china
Subject: Re: when china wakes
Date: 2 Jan 93 08:52:00 GMT
Distribution: soc
Organization: University at Buffalo
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41

In article <2B454B84.23191@news.service.uci.edu>, ygu@balboa.eng.uci.edu (Yifan Gu) writes...
> 
> 
>The following paragrph interests me, I wonder who wrote it.
> 
>>>> *** Without the freedom of speech and true election , How can you be so
>>>>    sure?  Even most Chinese People you run into support it , are you
>>>>    really sure they will support it after listening to the debate between
>>>>    pros and cons? I believe in the 60s most of the people in mainland
>>>>    China supported Cultural Revolution , don't they?
> 
>They not only supported it, they participated in it. Almost 100% of city and 
>Town people (over age 13) did participate because, guess what, they had
>"freedom of speech"!  Don't be surprised!  The chinese paraphrase for
>"freedom of speech" at the time was "Da Ming, Da Fong, Da Zhi Boa, 
>Da Bian Leng" (sorry, I forgot Pin Yin already). It roughly means that
>"let all the opinions be heared, let your piece of mind be given 
>to others, use big posters, and let us have big debates". It was a
>really big "democracy". And the result was violence. 
> 
> 

What was the class of your family? I guess it was red. Had you been the so
called class enemy , I really doubt you had the freedom of speech. The only
thing you could do would have been confess over and again to the so called 
people . That was by no means "Democrocy".
From: qlong@themis.cs.umass.edu (Qiegang Long)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.china
Subject: Re: a fun problem
Date: 22 Dec 92 23:08:57 GMT
	<1992Dec21.210053.26773@das.harvard.edu>
Reply-To: QLONG@themis.cs.umass.edu
Organization: Dept. Computer Science, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
In-reply-to: zhenyu@clotho's message of 21 Dec 92 21:00:53 GMT


In article <1992Dec21.210053.26773@das.harvard.edu> zhenyu@clotho (Zhenyu Li) writes:
> 
> Ivan Popstefanija (mirsip@risky.ecs.umass.edu) wrote:
> .....
> :> stuff deleted.
> 
> :> The problem I had was this:
> :> 12 balls, one of them is slightly different in weight than the other 11.
> :> Given a balance, what's the least times you need to find that different
> :> ball. 
> :> The answer is, 3.
> :> Now, you tell me how you could do it!
> 
> 
> It occurs to me this problem was an exercise from one of the algorithm
> classes we had at Keda (Uinversity of Science and Technology of China)
> many years back. Since I still can vaguely remember the answer, I'd
> like to share it with you.
> 
> WLG, let us call the 12 balls a,b,c,d,e,f,g,h, i,j,k,l.
> Divide the balls into 3 groups: (a,b,c,d), (e,f,g,h) and (i,j,k,l)
> In the following, W(...) is used to denote weight of a group of balls.
> 
> 1) if W(a,b,c,d) = W(e,f,g,h) then all the balls (a .. h) are normal
>    and the bad one is in (i,j,k,l). We pick three balls from this
>    group and form the new groups (i,j) and (k,a), i.e. leave l aside
>    , a is a standard ball.
>   1.1) if W(i,j) = W (k,a)  then we know l is bad. 
>        Use any of the other standard ball to weigh again l, we will
>        know weather l is lighter or heavier.
>   1.2) if W(i,j) > W (k,a) then we know that either one of i, j is
>        heavier or k is lighter, but l is normal.
>        Now just compare i and j. 
> 	1.2.1) If W(i) = W(j), then k is bad and lighter.
>         1.2.2) If W(i) > W(j), then i is bad and heavier.
>         1.2.3) If W(i) < W(j), then j is bad and heavier.
>   1.3) W(i,j) < W(k,a) 
>        This case is symmetric to 1.2) but the sense is reversed.
> 2) if W(a,b,c,d) < W(e,f,g,h)
>    We know (i .. l) are normal and one of a,b,c,d is lighter and one
>    of e,f,g,h is heavier.
>    Form the new groups (a,b,e) and (f,c,i) -- leave d and g, h aside. 
>    i is a standard ball.
>    2.1) if W (a,b,e) = W(f,c,i) then either d is lighter or one of g, h is
>         heavier. See 1.2) for the rest.
>    2.2) if W(a,b,e) < W(f,c,i) 
>         then we know either one of a,b is lighter or f is heavier 
> 	See 1.2) for the rest.
>    2.3) W(a,b,e) > W (f,c,i) then either e is heavier or c is lighter.
> 	The last use of the balance can tell you all.
> 3) W(a,b,c,d) > W (e,f,g,h) 
>    symmetric to 2).
> 
> 
> The information theoretical low bound for this problem is somewhere
> around 2.7 time. My friends who took the Information Theory class in Keda
> told me they derived the bound in their class. 

I should say you are wasting your intelligence :-)  The least times
you need to find that ball is 2 if you are lucky enough ......