Monday, March 24, 2003

Stuck in a long layover at Europe's most boring large airport, Frankfurt, just over a week ago, I found the original English edition of Four Colours Suffice by Robin Wilson deeply discounted. Duty-free mathematics? In contrast to the majority of popular renderings of famous mathematics, which give up just when it gets interesting, this book gets to the heart of the matter, as well as providing a delightful tour of the origins of the problem and the many false starts along the way to its eventual computer-assisted proof. The elementary nature of the problem and solution make it easier writing about the four color theorem than about, say, Fermat's last theorem, but Robin Wilson does an excellent job organizing the history and arguments, giving examples, and presenting everything in light, subtly humorous prose. Just what I needed to fill the long flight back to Philadelphia and bridge skiing to work. 10:01:38 PM

Reporters and commentators on Iraq talk about “surprising” Iraqi resistance. Fortunately for them, most if not all never lived in a fascist country. A long-standing fascist regime does not survive without the active cooperation of a significant fraction of the public (10-20%) and the passive cooperation of many others. Why would we be surprised that the active supporters will fight? As far as they know, the collapse of the regime will be their demise. Mostly peaceful collapses of fascist regimes (Portugal, Spain) were engendered from the inside in regimes that had long passed their most virulent phase. Neither is the case in Iraq. 9:47:10 AM