Tag: books

Politics of Unpredictability: The Impact and Ethics of the Madman Theory | March 01 2025, 17:10

In every corner, following the discussed theme, if we delve into history, the “unpredictability” or demonstrative “irrationality” were indeed often employed as tools by major politicians. On one hand, this could serve as a kind of “shock effect,” giving such a leader an edge in negotiations or governance. On the other hand, this tactic often led to severe consequences for their own country (and the entire world).

For example, U.S. President Richard Nixon tried to convince the leadership of the Soviet Union and North Vietnam that he could “snap” and resort to extreme measures, including the use of nuclear weapons if the conflict was not resolved. It was hoped that the fear of an “inadequate” American president would force the opponents to seek a compromise more quickly. Before Nixon, Dwight Eisenhower adhered to similar tactics, ending the Korean War with such methods.

This political strategy is called the “Madman Theory”. The underlying ideas were articulated as far back as the 15th century by Machiavelli, who noted that in politics, “it is sometimes useful to pretend to be mad”.

Overall, it is useful to indeed be a bit “nuts”. And better even more than a bit. The line between acting like a madman and being one is incredibly thin.

The “Madman Theory” is quite often criticized as an ineffective foreign policy strategy. In particular, it is noted that it can be considered a Russian roulette in international relations, increasing unpredictability and not always prompting the desired behavior from its recipient.

The problem is that the “Madman Theory” is associated not only with Nixon but also with Hitler, Mao Zedong, Kim Jong Il/Jong Un, and basically almost everything. If you look at it, something similar was present with Ivan the Terrible and Stalin. Under both, the country flourished. But there were a lot of corpses.

In business, the “Madman Theory” is primarily associated with Elon Musk (yes, they found each other).

There is also a negotiation technique called “Brinkmanship”. This is when one of the parties pushes events towards an undesirable, often catastrophic outcome for both parties, counting on the last moment that the other side will yield for self-preservation, thereby avoiding the catastrophe and gaining unilateral advantages.

One would like to think that behind all this there is some strategy, which so far shows only its corner. Who knows, such abrupt “turns” in politics might be a deliberate tactic related to techniques from the “madman theory” or “brinkmanship”. First, one side demonstrates unexpected loyalty, lifts restrictions, offers joint projects, and creates an illusion of long-term warming. The other side, sensing a benefit, starts to invest heavily and rely on new opportunities, which increases the “exit costs” from these relationships. Once the connection between the partners becomes close enough (which could happen literally within a month or two) and potential losses from a breakup are too high, the initiator of the “warming” switches to tougher demands, knowing that it is difficult for the partner to refuse: the stakes have already been raised, and the risk of loss has seriously increased.

Not sure if it’s like that, but in general, it’s also not out of the question. We will observe, it seems, for us there remains only observation

Navigating Life in a Spanish-Dominant World | February 25 2025, 23:50

Our half of the planet is primarily Spanish-speaking. 455 million (that’s 91% of all Spanish speakers) compared to 280 million English speakers. In other words, we, with our English, are in the minority here. Hence, it’s no surprise that during all my trips to Mexico and Colombia, my English was of no use to anyone. Even Portuguese is spoken almost as much as English, but Spanish leads the way.

Overall, I’m struggling here without Spanish. Nobody understands me. I have to explain complex concepts like “do you accept cards or only cash” or “how can I get to the library” using hand gestures.

It’s silly to wonder why they don’t teach English properly here. Probably, from their standpoint, we should be the ones learning Spanish, considering they outnumber us twofold, and Spanish is spoken in 19 countries, whereas English, or its variants, just in 13 (among them Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago).

Interestingly, in Canada French is an official language, yet it’s spoken throughout Americas as much as the Quechua language.

But the funniest thing is that the name of the city I’m currently in, Guadalajara, came from the Arabic Wādī al-Ḥijāra, which means “Valley of Stones” or “River flowing through stones.”

Exploring the Rational and Historical Intricacies of Paper Sizes | February 23 2025, 14:57

Somehow I managed to miss this back in the day, but it turned out that the European paper sizes A0, A1, A2, A3, A4, … are not just arbitrary. Let’s start with the fact that A0 has an area of exactly 1 square meter. Well, with a slight error margin to avoid dealing with fractional millimeters. And the aspect ratio — 1:√2 is the only possible one that maintains itself when the paper is divided in half. Thus, there is a rationale behind paper formats in Europe.

But with our paper formats, there seems to be no sense. What we have are letter, legal, tabloid, all with different proportions, and the origin of the format goes back to tradition and is not well known.

I decided to dig into the topic and found a claim that “dimension originates from the days of manual papermaking and that the 11-inch length of the page is about a quarter of ‘the average maximum stretch of an experienced vatman’s arms’. However, the claim does not explain the proportions, but then there is the word vatman, which reminds one of Whatman sheets, remember those? But no, a vatman is a specialist who scooped up the liquid paper pulp from a vat using a mold (sieve) and formed the sheet. And the Whatman sheet comes from James Whatman, an English paper manufacturer of the 18th century, which was simplified to ‘vatman’. Interestingly, the term ‘vatman’ seems to exist only in Russian, derived from Whatman’s surname and his paper, Whatman paper.

And why do we call the formats in the U.S. legal and letter? This is quite interesting as well.

Interestingly, in the U.S., there were two different “standard” sizes initially: 8″ x 10.5″ and 8.5″ x 11″. Different committees independently adopted different standards: 8″ x 10.5″ for the government, and 8.5″ x 11″ for everyone else. When the committees discovered a few years later that they had different standards, they agreed to “disagree until the early 1980s when Reagan finally declared 8.5″ x 11” the officially approved standard size for paper.

The matter began in 1921, when the first Director of the Bureau of the Budget, with the President’s approval, formed an inter-agency advisory group called the “Permanent Conference on Printing,” which approved 8″ x 10½” as the standard format for government agency forms. This continued a practice established earlier by former President Hoover (who was then serving as Secretary of Commerce), defining 8″ x 10½” as the standard format for his department’s forms.

In the same year, the Committee on the Simplification of Paper Sizes, comprising representatives from the printing industry, was appointed to work with the Bureau of Standards as part of Hoover’s program to eliminate waste in industry. This committee defined basic sizes for different types of printed and writing paper. The “writing” size was set as a sheet of 17″ x 22″, while the “legal” size was 17″ x 28″. The now well-known Letter format emerged as a result of dividing these sheets in half (8½” x 11″ and 8½” x 14″).

Even when choosing 8½” x 11″, there wasn’t a special analysis conducted to verify that this size was optimal for commercial forms. The committee that developed these formats aimed solely to “reduce leftovers and waste during the trimming of sheets by reducing the range of paper sizes.”

Moreover, the legal size is still in full use as its name suggests, especially among lawyers, and folders and desk drawers are made to fit its size.

But if you look at a pack of paper in the U.S., you will see “20lb” on the pack. Actually, 20lb is the weight of a small dog, but it is also written that there are 500 pages. “Amazon Basics Multipurpose Copy Printer Paper, 20 Pound, White, 96 Brightness, 8.5 x 11 Inch, 1 Ream, 500 Sheets Total”

In the U.S., the “weight category” of paper indicates the total weight of one ream (500 sheets) of paper in its uncut (original) format. For office paper of the Bond class (often sold in Letter format), the base size is considered to be 17 x 22 inches. For example, a “20-pound” label means that 500 sheets of exactly 17 x 22 weigh 20 pounds. But if we take a pack of Letter format (8.5 x 11), which results from cutting 17 x 22 into four parts, its weight will be about 5 pounds.

In Europe, the weight category essentially refers to the weight of an A0 sheet in grams.

So, if you fold A0 in half, you get A1 with half a square meter area, if you fold A1, you get A2. That’s clear. But how many times can you actually fold a sheet of paper?

The maximum number of times a non-compressible material can be folded has been calculated. With each fold, a part of the paper “loses” for the next potential fold. The function of folding paper in half in one direction is:

L=πt/6(2ⁿ+4)(2ⁿ-1)

where L is the minimum paper length (or other material),

t is the thickness of the material,

n is the number of possible folds.

The length L and thickness t must be expressed in the same units.

The thickness W is calculated as πt2^(3(n-1)/2).

This formula was derived by Britney Gallivan, a high school student from California, in December 2001. In January 2002, she and her helpers spent eight hours folding a roll of toilet paper about 4000 feet long (approximately 1200 meters) twelve times in the same direction, thus debunking the old myth that paper cannot be folded more than eight times.

Sources mention that she started in school with gold foil (I wrote about such foil recently), and, starting with a square sheet the size of a hand, after many hours of perseverance and practice, using rulers, soft brushes, and tweezers, she managed to fold her gold foil twelve times. But apparently, that wasn’t spectacular enough, and she found toilet paper over a kilometer long somewhere in 2002 and made a show for the Guinness record.

Britney didn’t stop there and wrote a book. Though it was only 48 pages. How about that, Britney?

Travel Troubles and Unexpected Stays: A Tale of Two Airports | February 22 2025, 16:46

In the end, I managed a bingo of two airports where planes had recently crashed. One incident occurred just the day before my planned arrival in Toronto, which, of course, led to my flight being canceled. I found out at the airport. No problem, I worked from there, then returned home, luckily only a 20-minute drive away. I flew out the next day.

But the return trip was more interesting. First, the flight was rescheduled countless times, then they loaded us into the plane, then unloaded us again and told us to come back tomorrow for a second attempt. Amusingly, the border guard’s question about the purpose of your visit to Canada sounded quite ironic upon exiting. No one knows where to wait for the luggage, and what’s even supposed to be on the display board from where I flew? From Toronto to Toronto? But they say not to worry, they’ll collect unclaimed baggage overnight, and it will fly with me tomorrow. Midnight approaches, no Uber can be caught for all the money in the world, the hotel shuttle has been promised every ten minutes for the last hour but finally arrives, and the three of us, including a couple celebrating their 26th wedding anniversary, occupy the last two seats. On the bus, I joke that all that’s left is to find out that the hotel is fully booked. No way, my fellow travelers tell me, you reserved it in front of us (the airline gave a voucher). I pull out my phone, and instead of a ‘thank you for your reservation’, there’s a message saying no rooms are available at Comfort Inn. Well, the hotel was “better than any motel. I try to find the next hotel on the airline’s website in the hotel lobby; there are three options, of which two are about 70 km away, and one is listed but has no availability. While I was calling, another option popped up, Marriot Residence Inn, and that worked out. Nice rooms, two-bedroom suites with a full kitchen, but with a terrible breakfast in the morning. Luckily, the airline’s voucher covered a good lunch at a restaurant the next day.

The next day, the flight was at the same time, and here comes another delay message. Well, this time it was minor, and our Mitsubishi made it to Reagan Airport quite comfortably. They didn’t lose the luggage;)

Grant Wood: The Enigmatic Life of an American Icon | February 15 2025, 17:29

American artist Grant Wood (Grant DeVolson Wood, 1891–1942) is best known for his painting American Gothic. Starting with Impressionism, he later focused on realistic depictions of Iowa. He lived modestly, avoiding publicity. His strict Quaker father forbade art, but after his father’s death, Wood dedicated himself to painting.

American Gothic—one of the most recognizable, frequently copied, and parodied paintings—brought him worldwide fame, though Wood had no idea what to do with it. He spent his life trying to be talked about, written about, and known as little as possible. To achieve this, he spent years crafting the image of a “farmer-artist”—a painter in overalls, uneducated, and entirely unremarkable. In an interview, Wood once said: “I’m the plainest kind of fellow you can find. There isn’t a single thing I’ve done or experienced that would be worth talking about.”

In 1935, the loss of his mother and an unsuccessful marriage changed his life. He died in 1942, leaving behind a legacy as one of America’s most significant artists. Just a couple of days ago was the anniversary of his death, and a day later—his birthday.

Similar posts are grouped under the tag #artrauflikes, and all 147 of them can be found in the Art Rauf Likes section on beinginamerica.com (unlike Facebook, which forgets—or ignores—almost half of them).

Exploring Generative Art with Raven Kwok | February 14 2025, 23:52

A fascinating Chinese comrade, Raven Kwok (郭 锐文). He calls himself a visual artist and creative technologist: his work focuses on exploring generative visual aesthetics created through computer algorithms. His works have been exhibited at international media-art and film festivals such as Ars Electronica, FILE, VIS, Punto y Raya, Resonate, FIBER, and others.

His biography also mentions education at the Shanghai Academy of Visual Arts, where he received a bachelor’s degree in photography (2007–2011).

Interestingly, this is not the first time I’ve seen Processing used professionally for such gadgets. I’ve run plotting software on it – a plotter that I’ve seen mounted on two motors at the corners of a large board, with ropes dangling from them supporting a pen. I should take a deeper look at this Processing.

The website has a lot of beautiful content

https://ravenkwok.com/

Training Dogs: Communication and Challenges | February 13 2025, 19:59

If, like us, you train a dog to ask to go outside by tapping the window with its paw, and to ask for food by tapping the refrigerator similarly, you quickly notice an interesting effect. Ignoring these requests becomes unpleasant: not because you urgently need to go walking or feed them, but because the tapping turns into something more — into a voice, and teaching the dog to understand the reason for refusal is much trickier. You might want to reinforce — well done, let’s go, I’ll do what you want, you’ve learned to communicate with us, we’ve learned to understand you, but on the other hand, the dog begins to control you, realizing that tapping with its paw actually produces a tangible effect.

The real problem is that if I don’t react, my dog doesn’t think: “Ah, probably not the time right now.” It decides that it’s just not loud enough or persistent enough. In its world, the absence of a response is not an argument but a reason to increase the pressure.

Well okay, it has learned to understand and accept a verbal refusal, after all. But occasionally it doesn’t work. Apparently, in its world, an insufficiently justified refusal is not seen as a refusal.

When we watch movies, we slice cheese for the wine. Yuka knows that when the projector turns on, the smell of wine will soon be accompanied by cheese, and settles nearby. And interestingly, it very clearly senses when the cheese is finished. It can’t see that it’s finished, but apparently, its sense of smell replaces its vision. And as soon as you eat the last piece with it, it stands up and leaves.

Global Leaders in the Sneaker Market | February 11 2025, 22:05

Today we went shopping for sneakers, and I decided to investigate which countries are currently the world leaders in sneakers.

Overall, no surprises—the US is in the absolute lead. Germany and Japan are notable. The rest are catching up.

American brands—at least 9 of them: Nike (+Converse), New Balance, Brooks, Saucony (+Merrell), Reebok, Skechers, Vans, Hoka. Purely sport-wise, probably 7 from the list.

Japanese—Asics, Mizuno.

German—Adidas, Puma (by the way, both founded by the Dassler brothers, yet they are competitors). Swiss—On. Korean—Fila.

Of course, production is all in China, Vietnam, Indonesia.

Personally, I’ve been buying almost exclusively Asics for a long time. They are very comfortable, although the design is so-so, a mere pass.

By the way, want an interesting fact you probably didn’t know? The thin layer of felt on the sole of Converse sneakers was added (at least as of 10 years ago—it was added) not for functional reasons but for economic ones. Footwear with a fabric sole was subject to lower customs duties when imported compared to footwear with a rubber sole because it was classified as slippers. And the duty was reduced from 37.5% to 3%.

Who else from other countries – are there any brands that are very noticeable and popular in your markets, and have yet to make it to the US?

Surprising Facts About Nature and Science | February 10 2025, 22:11

Live a century, learn a century.

Strawberries and wild strawberries are not berries, but nuts. More precisely, not the fruits themselves but the seeds, and the pulp is the receptacle. Potatoes are bi-locular berries. A pear is an apple. Cherries, plums, apricots, peaches are all drupes. They are divided into one-seeded (e.g., cherry, plum, peach, coconut) and many-seeded (e.g., raspberry, blackberry, cloudberry). Bananas are berries. Pineapple is a grass. Watermelon is a berry (a type of pumpkin). Almonds are not nuts, but a dry fruit. Apple seeds, and the pits of cherries, apricots, peaches, or plums contain cyanides (amygdalin converts in them). Just like in almonds. Chocolate contains theobromine – a couple of bars might be lethal for a dog or close to it, half a bar will definitely knock it down. Vanilla is made from a Mexican orchid vine, while vanillin, an artificial vanilla substitute, is a byproduct of the pulp and paper industry.

There is no such animal as a panther. In popular usage, “panthers” are black jaguars or leopards. Black panthers also have spots, they’re just less visible. Polar bears have black skin and transparent fur. And they are white for the same reason clouds are white. Woodpeckers have tongues four times the length of their beaks, wrapped around their skulls that can stretch out. The tongue of the European green woodpecker goes down into the throat, stretches across the back of the neck, around the back of the skull under the skin, across the crown between the eyes, and usually ends right under the eye socket. In some woodpeckers, the tongue exits the skull between the eyes and enters the beak through one of the nostrils.

Anteaters have their tongues attached to their sternums, between the clavicles. Elephants are the only animals with four fully-developed knee joints. Koalas have fingerprints that are almost indistinguishable from human ones. Sharks have no bones and their closest relatives are rays. Crocodiles can go without eating for a whole year (but they feel blue). Zebras are black with white stripes, not the other way round (white appears on black skin). 1% of people have cervical ribs. Squids, cuttlefish, and octopuses can edit their RNA “on the fly”.

As it turns out, René Descartes invented the Cartesian coordinate system for Russia and for the rest of the world. Since Descartes’s name is Descartes, i.e., Des Cartes, it corresponds to Cartesian.