Bartosz Milewski @BartoszMilewski@mathstodon.xyz

"The Dao of Functional Programming"
Regularly updated work in progress. PDF on github: https://github.com/BartoszMilewski/Publications/blob/master/TheDaoOfFP/DaoFP.pdf

Interesting comments from Gao Yusheng, former Chinese Ambassador to Ukraine:

"It is only a matter of time before Russia is finally defeated."

https://asiatimes.com/2022/05/rethinking-ukraine-in-china/

Going through old documents, I've found this message from the director of CERN. International phone calls used to be very expensive (I was collaborating with a person in Utrecht).

Even dyed in the wool libertarians admit that unregulated capitalism leads to monopolies that destroy the idea of the free market. It leads to exponential accumulation of capital that destroys the idea of meritocracy they love so much. Read about the excesses of the Belle Epoque!

"Thus, Moscow seems to be bogged down in Ukraine, as the West wanted, but it is obvious that in this format this is not an unbearable burden for it."

Excuse me?! Did you look at the sizes of the economies engaged on both sides?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal)

"But there is a suspicion that the West itself is no longer happy that everything turned out so well for it."

Really?!

"And all this is not least because the Ukrainians turned out to be much better fighters than the Americans and Europeans expected."

They did, indeed!

"Russia is conducting a special operation with a very limited contingent. In turn, the Ukrainian army demonstrates impressive resilience and good NATO training, which, combined with Western support , makes it a serious adversary. As a result, the front line is moving slowly."...

the level of training and equipment of the Ukrainian armed forces, combined with their high motivation. It was a revelation for the Russians to realize how powerful a force, sharpened purposefully against us, has been pumped militarily and ideologically by NATO in eight years"..

"The strategy for achieving this goal is also quite clear: Moscow had to get bogged down in Ukraine - militarily, economically, and politically."
"Russia (in any case, our society) was surprised by...

I read this Russian RIA article, and it makes good points, but the conculsions are absurd. For instance, this makes sense: "The United States (and Europe) had and still has a clear goal in Ukraine: to inflict a geopolitical defeat on Russia...

And, of course, there is the libertarian catnip: crypto! Tell me how much you lost and I'll tell you how libertarian you are.

Human societies are orders of magnitude more complex than even the most complex engineering endeavors. There is no easy fix. The solutions we have at our disposal are badly flawed, but we can't just throw them away and hope for a miracle.

It's true that too much government, too much regulation, too much taxation is bad. This doesn't mean that minimizing these things will solve all the problems--quite the opposite. Libertarians endulge in magical thinking...

I'm lucky to have so many smart people following me here. But being smart doesn't make you immune to fallacies. A lot of software engineers I know fell for the libertarian fallacy...

"...such an absurd claim would be no less plausible than many other claims Russia has already made..." about sums it all (from the recent ISW posting).

The Kremlin is in love with Rand Paul (Рэнд Пол). Is he just a useful idiot or is he a Russian asset?

Big jubilation in Russian media about senator Rand Paul (Рэнд Пол) blocking the bill to help Ukraine.

For those who understand Russian, this is from an article by Putin's propagandist Akopov published by RIA. He says there will be no full war with NATO because Russia will not take Baltic States-- it will be satisfied with a Suwałki corridor, "Сувалкский коридор". How generous!

WW2 started when Poland refused Hitler's demand for the corridor to Prussia. Now Russian media talk about demanding the Suwałki corridor to Kaliningrad (part of Prussia) cutting between two NATO countries, Poland and Lithuania. Russian ambitions won't stop at Ukraine.

Today's lesson in history: During WW2, Hungary was the fourth member of the Axis and took part in the invasion of the USSR. "Their participation was noted by German observers for its particular cruelty." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungary_in_World_War_II

Interesting response from Russian foreign ministry: "fans of neo-Nazism have once again showed their face - and it is bloody."

This is Russia's ambasador to Poland (red paint was thrown in his face).