HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: vadik@cs.umd.edu (Vadim Maslov)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.soviet
Subject: Re: More education talk...
Date: 29 Sep 92 02:46:01 GMT
Organization: U of Maryland, Dept. of Computer Science, Coll. Pk., MD 20742

In article <1992Sep29.010923.2095@u.washington.edu> nobby@milton.u.washington.edu (Vitaly Shmatikov) writes:
>	I spent almost 3 years (Sept.'89-Apr.'92) at Moscow University,
>at its infamous VMiK department (literal translation for the American
>readers: Faculty of Computational Mathematics and Cybernetics). The
>quality of education was truly depressing. With few exceptions
>instructors were almost incompetent.

  Well, I also graduated from VMiK. Indeed, there are some 
problems in there but these rude insults impress even me
(I never was a big fan of VMiK). Probably they are meant to
carry a message about their author.

  My impression was that faculty was mostly competent though
not without exceptions. That is, some of them were not
up-to-date in CS, but I am sure that they were not considerably
worse in the field of instruction than their american counterparts.
  As to computational mathematics, some of VMiK professors are 
world-recognized scientists. 

>  Student body comprised mostly:
>	a. Computer geeks
>	b. The folks who flunked Mekhmat entrance exams or were
>	   kicked out of there after 1-2 years of study
>	c. Idlers who couldn't care less about education, VMiK
>	   and all that stuff.

Why you, having this level of hatred to your student colleaugues,
studied at VMiK for 3 years? It must be very difficult for a bright 
boy like you to study among this bydlo. 
BTW, to which category (a,b,c) do you belong?


>	Grades that we used to receive had nothing to do with the
>knowledge on the subject. It was more than easy to get straight A's
>not having attended a single lecture. I never met some of my classmates.

First, that's just not true. Marks were usually related to knowledge.
I remember being examiner at undergrad CS courses. There was a clear direction
from above to relate marks to the knowledge. And I saw that marks
really corresponded.

Second, number of attended lectures doesn't say much about 
quality of education. I didn't attend many lectures, but 
if I had to pass an exam I just read textbook 
or somebody's notes for 2-4 days before exam.
And you know, it depends on individual how personalized his education
is. I had enough time and freedom to study things I wanted to.
Nobody made me to do it. But it doesn't mean that system is this bad.

-- 

Vadim Maslov.
Newsgroups: soc.culture.soviet
From: mashina <novost@halcyon.com>
Subject: American Education
Originator: novost@halcyon.com
Organization: The 23:00 News and Mail Service
Date: Sat, 26 Sep 1992 15:35:12 GMT

  I think many of the problems in the American Education System
are due to poor teachers in the lower grades.  Some of this is
due to two reasons 1) The courses required at the Colleges and
Universitys here to become a teacher are not very difficult and
2) the pay for teachers in the lower grades is too low to 
attract good qualified teachers.  As a result, many students
are disillusioned, confused, or are not taught many of the
basic skills in the lower grades, and the lack of basics
plagues themselves thrughout the rest of their school years.

I have a highschool friend who received a BA degree from
college by making Physical Education his major.  He is now a
teacher and teaches somes courses in Math (when he took
mostly sports oriented classes at the University).??

                 Jeff
From: vadim@ohstpy.mps.ohio-state.edu
Newsgroups: soc.culture.soviet
Subject: Uncorrect joke problems.
Date: 2 Oct 92 16:37:53 EDT

There are a couple of "uncorrect" problems to offer:
1) Given: The Ukranian coupon cost some five rubles right
   after issuing. Less then in a year it cost some 80 kop.
   and it can be bought without problems.
   To be found: What is gonna be a price of voucher if it
   currently cost some 30000 rub. (nominal price = 10000 r.)
2) Given: The dollar cost some 30 rub one year ago.
   Now it cost 309 rub.
   To be found: What is gonna be the price of dollar (in rubles)
   in three months? (Non-linear effects may (or may not?) be 
   neglected.)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.soviet
From: vlad@erg.sri.com (vlad)
Subject: Re: Americans and movies: something's wrong
Organization: SRI International, Menlo Park, CA
Date: Tue, 29 Sep 92 21:51:01 GMT

In article <1992Sep25.122353.15848@husc3.harvard.edu> verbit@brauer.harvard.edu (Mikhail S. Verbitsky) writes:
>
>The "Mystery of K. H." is a brilliant movie, but surely
>a very depressive one. It is about a demented man who
>lived all his life in a closed room without seeing
>anybody, then got out of the room and got soon killed
>mysteriously (actually, this is a real story of XIX cent.)
>There is a story that a famous rock singer Ian Curtis
>(leader of Joy Division which after his death became 
>a New Order and made several millions) hang himself the
>night after seeing this movie. Nothing funny there,
>except the demented man. People who will laugh at him
>will surely laugh at handicapped children or anybody
>who is ill because he is weak. 
>
>Well, all the time the movie went the people laughed
>in the most coarse way ("rzhali" - neighed in Russian).
>In Russia, this could be a normal reaction in some
>little provincial city (where people laughed all the
>time when Andrei Rublev went), but in Moscow nobody
>laughed. I am sure there is no more refined public
>in America than gathered at Brattle. Behaviour
>of these people is extremely tasteless.
>
>Could someone who is defending US in everything
>and lived there more than me (like Garik of Seth)
>explain me why the people who are more refined
>than Moscowites can understand Herzog movie no
>better than lowclass Russians in some Nikolo-Uryupinsk?

I don't know who Garik of Seth is (is he a famous saint?:-)) and don't know
about this particular herzog movie, but what you seem to be saying is that
your neighbors' reactions were opposite from yours. From that you conclude
that their reaction was wrong. Maybe yours was wrong? 

By the way, have you never laughed during a very depressing movie? Even a
tragic comedy? Or as a release of tension? Could it be that Moscovites are
too snobbish and too afraid of showing a "wrong" emotion and so sit like
stones? I have heard American rock stars complain about the pertrification
of Soviet audiences.

Vlad

Employer disagrees
Newsgroups: soc.culture.soviet
From: leonid@tuna.uchicago.edu (Leonid Andreev)
Subject: Re: Spelling...
Organization: University of Chicago CILS
	<1992Oct5.111321.16089@husc3.harvard.edu>
	<1992Oct05.170808.30522@watson.ibm.com>
Date: Mon, 5 Oct 1992 19:17:47 GMT

In article <1992Oct05.170808.30522@watson.ibm.com> bil@burka..aix.kingston.ibm.com (Igor Belchinskiy) writes:

   In article <1992Oct5.111321.16089@husc3.harvard.edu> verbit@coolidge.harvard.edu (Mikhail S. Verbitsky) as usually writes something not quite well so to say
>   >The joke has nothing to do with Nabokov.
>   >Anna Karamazoff was the name of the hit French play
>   >from Russian life of 20-ies. 
>   Where was Nabokov in twenties?
>   What was his occupation in twenties?
>   Had he any connections with theater?

Wasn't he in Berlin in twenties? ( he was still in Cambridge 
at the very beginning of twenties ) I think he was living 
in Paris in 1937-19... I mean, during the period between 
Germany and USA.

Please correct me if I'm wrong.

--
----------------------------------------------------------------------
| Leonid S Andreev,    Center for Information and Language Studies,  |
|  (312) 702 9096        University of Chicago, Chicago IL, 60637.   |
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Xref: sparky soc.culture.soviet:8148 talk.politics.soviet:8254
From: avg@rodan.UU.NET (Vadim Antonov)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.soviet,talk.politics.soviet
Subject: Re: ESTONIA existed and exists (Was: "SOME
Date: 28 Sep 1992 22:58:51 -0400
Organization: Berkeley Software Design
NNTP-Posting-Host: rodan.uu.net

In article <gunars.717694603@spssig> gunars@spss.com (Gunars V Lucans) writes:
>That is one extreme.  The other extreme: if you come home one evening
>and find someone has broken into your house, is that person now a
>member of your family simply because the criminal act is now a
>historical fact?  Suppose, for the sake of silliness, that the burglar
>is pregnant and gives birth while in your living room.  Is that child
>now your son as well? :-)

Well, in case of Baltic states we're talking about two generations.

>>Check you logic, buddy.
>
>Real life rarely fits boolean constraints (just look at the fuzzy
>logic in this newsgroup).

The real life has plenty of wonderful examples of what's going to happen
if boneheads are allowed to make their ethnic haterd a law. How do
you think why i included Bosnian Muslims into the list? And the
European countries seem to encourage them by cheering and empty 
promises at the same time as it watches idly Serbs killing Muslims
and German neo-nazis firebombing shelters. Shame.

--vadim

Newsgroups: soc.culture.soviet
From: jjj@mits.mdata.fi (Joni Jarvenkyla)
Subject: Anybody from St Petersburg?
Organization: Microdata Oy, Helsinki, Finland
Date: Mon, 5 Oct 1992 17:18:53 GMT


I'm going to St Petersburg with a few friends on 22-25th of October.

What's the nightlife like nowadays? Something attractive for a group of
20-25 year olds? A couple of years back the nightlife was pretty much
taking action in the biggest hotels, but we also had a fabulous time at
restaurant Neva. What are the top highlights as of today?

St Petersburg is rumoured to have a fairly active "rave" scene. Anything
happening on these days?

Where to go shopping? Gostinyi Dvor used to be the place to go, but I'd
have a hard time believing that there are no new shopping areas in town.
At least I would be interested in buying a good quality mens suit and
other clothing, not to mention a leather shoulder bag.

If somebody's interested in meeting us, showing the town and nightlife,
please drop me a line.

--
jjj@mits.mdata.fi     Thanks, Life; thanks, Death    And the other me:
jjj@niksula.hut.fi    for freeing me from self       Jenny L{rv{joki
From: muh@physics.Berkeley.EDU (Yury M. Mukharsky)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.soviet
Subject: Re: More education talk...
Date: 30 Sep 1992 18:13:18 GMT
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
NNTP-Posting-Host: physics.berkeley.edu
Keywords: Russian students, "cookbook recipes."

In article <1992Sep30.141722.19999@watson.ibm.com> bil@burka..aix.kingston.ibm.com (Igor Belchinskiy) writes:
>
>Poshel sobirat' biser. Poigraem, pobrosaem. :-)
>
Slushaj, umnik. Naskol'ko ja znaju, vezhlivost', vsegda byla priznakom
intelligentnogo cheloveka v bol'shej stepeni, chem otsustvie grammaticheskih
oshibok (a tem bolee opechatok, v russkom jasyke est' dlja etih ponjatji
raznye slova, chtoby tam ne govorili uchitelja russkogo jazyka i primknuvshie k nim). To chto ty umeesh' napisat' bes oshibok "svinja" ili "poshel na huj"
otnjud' ne delaet tebja intelligentom.

Yury

Newsgroups: soc.culture.soviet
From: bil@burka..aix.kingston.ibm.com (Igor Belchinskiy)
Subject: Re: Solaris - the "freeway sequence"
Date: Tue, 06 Oct 92 21:42:58 GMT
Organization: Be. I am.

In article <rabjab.2.718397433@golem.ucsd.edu> rabjab@golem.ucsd.edu (Jeff Bytof) writes:
>I just saw the video of Solaris, Tarkovsky's adaptation for the
>screen of the Stanislaw Lem novel.  I enjoyed it.  However,
>I am mystified by the length of the "freeway sequence" in the first
>half of the film.  What point was Tarkovsky trying to make by 
>lingering on images of cars zooming along a Japanese freeway?

Strange, was it really Japanese? I thought it was Moscow beltway -
and these scenes were my favorite in the film specifically for that reason.

Considering the point - don't know of course, but seems a lot of trivial 
explanations fits: to make viewer feel home-ness and forever
dear Earth (as in Zemlya - kolybel'). Link to viewer's own experience of 
motherland. So other part of film wouldn't be viewed as overcalculated SF, 
but rather felt as emotional experience. Standard art formula - include
recipient to created Universe. Also - to show roots of heroes, their 
likeness to us. Than - more space for breath in this scenes than outside 
the Earth - in closed station with plain walls and sometimes with glimpses
of unhospitable Solaris environment.

There is much more, but as usual doesn't matter - your mileage may vary.

Btw, what about artists? (especially Banionis)

>Jeff Bytof
>rabjab@golem.ucsd.edu

	-igor
From: verbit@coolidge.harvard.edu (Mikhail S. Verbitsky)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.soviet
Subject: Re: American Education/Soviet Education
Date: 2 Oct 92 16:06:45 GMT
Organization: Sozialistische Patienten Kollektiv

In article <1992Oct02.134616.28692@watson.ibm.com> bil@burka..aix.kingston.ibm.com (Igor Belchinskiy) writes:
>In article <1992Oct2.050356.25364@netcom.com> oleg@netcom.com (Oleg Kiselev) writes:
>>In article <BvH3ty.GKu@cs.columbia.edu> igor@cs.columbia.edu (Igor Pankevich) writes:
>>>God is God, not god... (sorry)

>>You may be talking about different gods.  

>There is only one God.

Yeah, Cthulhu in the One God!
"Ph-nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn"

Misha.
From: shimkevi@buchmf.bu.edu (Sergey Shimkevich)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.soviet
Subject: Re: Amer/Rus movies
Date: 30 Sep 92 18:03:19 GMT
Organization: Boston University Chemistry Department

In article <1992Sep30.003523.18023@leland.Stanford.EDU> arto@leland.Stanford.EDU (Artavazd Khachikian) writes:

>	How about the recent OSCARS? What do you think?
>How about Beauty and the Beast? How about nominations for best effects?
>How about Terminator 2?

Animation-wise, Beauty and the Beast was nearly flawless. As for special
effects, if they are not art, I don't know what is.

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// Ryan: What is it to you, demon?       //// Sergei Shimkevich             //
// Lune: It is Sir, Demon to you, worm!  //// shimkevi@buchmf.bu.edu        //
// -Phantasy Star III                    //// shimkevich@A1.tch.harvard.edu // 
Newsgroups: soc.culture.soviet
From: gene@max.physics.sunysb.edu (Eugene Tyurin)
Subject: Re: ``Moon's ass'' (long lasting saga...)
Organization: Institute for Theoretical Physics
Date: Tue, 6 Oct 1992 20:14:46 GMT

In article <1992Oct5.000544.4597@dxcern.cern.ch> GLL@fnal.fnal.gov (Gregory Landsberg) writes:
>Q. How many Eugene N. Tyurin's does it take to screw a light bulb in an ass?
>
>Cheers,
>
>Greg

	Grisha!
 I see you have a tendency to load the net with irrelevant & trivial things.
In your first posting you started talking about the darkside (instead of the
backside) and revealed to the stunned world that PF (oh, goodness! -- they've
reached the status of JC!) used this word to name their album. I'm on my knees
and appreciate the aroma of creativity and humor that escapes your brainpot --
now you ask the question that every kid in the kindergarden knows how to 
answer -- N=1 (think about it!).

Hint for the handicapped: I'm a fermion (you too!)

 ______________________________________________________________________________
| Eugene N. Tyurin            |                                               |
| Physics Dept., Stony Brook  | 	   This space for rent.	              |
| gene@max.physics.sunysb.edu |                                               |
|_____________________________|_______________________________________________|
Newsgroups: soc.culture.soviet
Subject: Re: Anybody from St Petersburg?
From: verbit@brauer.harvard.edu (Mikhail S. Verbitsky)
Date: 5 Oct 92 20:07:50 EDT
Organization: Sozialistische Patienten Kollektiv

In article <1992Oct5.171853.21713@prime.mdata.fi> jjj@mits.mdata.fi (Joni Jarvenkyla) writes:


>St Petersburg is rumoured to have a fairly active "rave" scene. Anything
>happening on these days?

I am afraid this is rather a Usenet rumour. There are no rave
groups in Russia and no drugs except pot are available for decent price.
The term itself is not known to anyone yet. There are lot of Finns
in SPburg who are escaping Finland where they cannot buy vodka,
but no raving Russians I knew of. 

Misha.
Newsgroups: soc.culture.soviet
From: pmaggs@uxh.cso.uiuc.edu (Peter B. Maggs)
Subject: Re: Internet/CIS Connection
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Sun, 4 Oct 1992 19:09:50 GMT


There is a way to get a connection to Compuserve in Moscow that
is relatively simple, but not cheap.  You can go directly, I 
believe, thorugh VNIIPAS, or indirectly through SprintNet.  The
later merely involves calling there Moscow office, setting up
an account and paying $40 per hour in addition to the charges
that you normally pay in the US to use a SprintNet--accessible
computer.  You might be able to get sprintnet set up before
you leave.
From: nikolay@husc10.harvard.edu (Philip Nikolayev)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.soviet
Subject: Re: Spy satellites
Date: 5 Oct 92 02:52:08 GMT
Organization: Poets for Physics
In-reply-to: gorokho1@husc10.harvard.edu's message of 4 Oct 92 22:26:30

In article <GOROKHO1.92Oct4222630@husc10.harvard.edu>, 

gorokho1@husc10.harvard.edu (Zhenya Gorokhovsky) writes:
> Relay-Version: VMS News - V6.0-3 14/03/90 VAX/VMS; site husc3.harvard.edu
> Nntp-Posting-Host: husc10.harvard.edu

> In soc.culture.soviet PETER VOROBIEFF writes:

>> Nevertheless you are almost correct. Only the resolution of our low-orbit
>> photo systems is of the same order or better than that of American spy
>> satellites. But they have much, much better image enchancing hardware and
>> software. Still their spy equipment is relatively expensive, and ours
>> was dirt cheap. And it never was a great trouble to lose one of the 

>> satellites.
> It is painfully obvious from your absolutely moronic response that 
> you _never_ read _any_ literature on the topic you are so eagerly 
> discussing. Keep your opinions shut in your dandruff-ridden head.
> Shalom,
> Zhenya Gorokhovsky
> gorokho1@husc.harvard.edu

>         The barge was full of barley and the crew was full of rye.
>                                                 - "Erie Canal"
>  

Ok, folks, isn't it clear to the entire world just how
_immature_ these Harvard dudes are! Oh, they think they know
everything about everything. I really hate them. No political
correctness whatsoever in their obstreperous little heads.
Each of them thinks herself an Einstein, and, like, they have a
clue 'bout satellites and all that crap. Who gives a fuckn schmidt
about the goddarned satellites. What's a satellite anyways, folks?
Besides, what really bothers me is that these puddn-heads think
they don't have no dandruff. We all know they does, right?

Philip Nikolayev
From: gene@max.physics.sunysb.edu (Eugene Tyurin)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.soviet
Subject: flight tickets in xSU
Date: 3 Oct 92 19:04:28 GMT
Article-I.D.: max.BvK7nG.6u9
Organization: Institute for Theoretical Physics


	Hi, people!
 Can anybody forecast prices for the winter Moscow -> New York plane tickets if
purchased in Moscow? I'm interested in Aeroflot/non-Aeroflot prices, rubles/$$.
Any experts out there?
 Just for the reference: US prices vary as 600-1000$ roundtrip depending on the
type of the ticket (fixed date/open date/more than 1 month).

 ______________________________________________________________________________
| Eugene N. Tyurin            |                                               |
| Physics Dept., Stony Brook  | I do not need a disclaimer, I need a CLAIMER! |
| gene@max.physics.sunysb.edu |                                               |
|_____________________________|_______________________________________________|
Newsgroups: soc.culture.soviet
From: didinsky@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (didinsky garry)
Subject: Re: Ura!!!
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Sun, 4 Oct 1992 20:41:48 GMT

gmfich@cs.washington.edu (Greg Fichtenholtz) writes:

>Gospoda!
>Goss Perot is back in the race!
>GEVOLUTSIA PGODOLZHAETSYA!!!!!!!!!!!!!


>-- 
>=============================++===================================
>Gregory Fichtenholtz         ||          |~~~ |~\ |  | | | |   /| 
>gmfich@cs.washington.edu     ||          |    |_/ | /| | | |  /_| 
>                             ||          |    |   |/ | |_|_| /  | .

Is this a contribution to the "DARKSIDE" discussion, which also 
goes by "Moon's ass"?  And are you then implying that Ross Perot is
an ASS?  Or should I say a Democrate? Because then I would have to
disagree with you, he looks more like Dumbo, the flying Elephant.

---Garik.
Newsgroups: soc.culture.soviet
From: oleg@watson.ibm.com (Oleg Vishnepolsky)
Subject: Re: More education talk...
Date: Thu, 01 Oct 1992 18:36:43 GMT
News-Software: IBM OS/2 PM RN (NR/2) v0.14 by O. Vishnepolsky and R. Rogers
Reply-To: oleg@watson.ibm.com (Oleg Vishnepolsky)
Disclaimer: This posting represents the poster's views, not necessarily those of IBM
Organization: IBM T.J. Watson Research Center

In  <1992Oct1.175427.19078@CSD-NewsHost.Stanford.EDU>
frants@Xenon.Stanford.EDU (Leonid Frants) writes:
> ..
>Also people making use of others' bad spelling in an argument make me
>cringe. There is something intellectually slimy about them - don't
>you agree?
>
>Leonid.

Not when they do it is a joke. If you look back at what started this
discussion, Garik was saying how good US education system is and saying
that he made several spelling errors. Igor found that funny and
pointed that out. I gave it half a smile myself. What's the big deal ?
One may disagree that this is not funny, but at least one should detect
a joke attempt especially that a smiley was added at the end.

Oleg V
From: piij@hippo.ru.ac.za (Mr ID Jennings)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.soviet
Subject: Re: languages in ex-Soviet Union
Keywords: Ukrainian, Byelorussian
Date: 3 Oct 92 08:58:01 GMT
Article-I.D.: hippo.1992Oct3.085801.11372
Organization: Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa

In <1ai50nINNl6l@mizar.usc.edu> miwalker@mizar.usc.edu (Michael Walker) writes:

>I can't offer you any information about the Ukraine, but I think its a
>safe bet that they are using there own language and replacing Russian
>as much as possible.  But I was in Belarus this summer, and I can tell
>you that they have begun to replace ALL Russian road signs, and seem to
>have adopted the policy of substituting Belorussian language throughout
>the country.  Obviously this has only resulted in spotty changes so far. 

Re your comment below (for some reason I can't get the cursor past the
end of your last sentence so I'm forced to comment here):  Why do you
think that it is the case that so many citizens of Belarus don't
understand Belorussian.  Is it because they are ethnic Russians who
never spoke it anyway, or is it because the language has suffered a
similar fate to that of, say, Welsh in the UK, in that people realized
that if they wanted their kids to get ahead they ought to teach them the
dominant language - in this case Russian.

>But an interesting aside is that many citizens of Belarus don't understand
>the Belorussian language.  Fortunately it is so similar to Russian, that it
>isn't much of a problem, but this attempt to assert Belorussian nationalism
>was scoffed at by my friends, who are Belorussian.
-- 
Ian Jennings
Philosophy Department
Rhodes University
Grahamstown 6140