-Caveat Lector- from: http://www.aci.net/kalliste/ <A HREF="http://www.aci.net/kalliste/">The Home Page of J. Orlin Grabbe</A> ----- Today's Lesson From Fermat's Enigma by Simon Singh Euler earned a reputation for being able to solve any problem that was posed, a talent that seemed to extend even beyond the realm of science. During his stint at the court of Catherine the Great he encountered the great French philosopher Diderot. Diderot was a committed atheist and would spend his days converting the Russians to atheism. This infuriated Catherine, who asked Euler to put a stop to the efforts of the godless Frenchman. Euler gave the matter some thought and claimed that he had an algebraic proof for the existence of God. Catherine the Great invited Euler and Diderot to the palace and gathered together her courtiers to listen to the theological debate. Euler stood before the audience and announced: "Sir, (a+bn)/n = x, hence God exists; reply!" With no great understanding of algebra, Diderot was unable to argue against the greatest mathematician in Europe and was left speechless. Humiliated, he left St. Petersburg and returned to Paris. In his absence, Euler continued to enjoy his return to theological study and published several other mock proofs concerning the nature of God and the human spirit. ===== Russian Follies Russian Journalists Attack State Televsion Now, if U.S. journalists would attack CBS Several leading Russian journalists decided to make rather than break the news this week. The country's best known television anchorman, Moscow's punchiest radio commentator, and the editors of a daily newspaper and a news magazine got together to launch a blazing attack on the state-owned ORT television channel. The journalists, all employees of the privately run Media-Most group, accused ORT of peddling "lies". They also attacked Alexander Voloshin, President Boris Yeltsin's chief of staff and the government representative on ORT's board, for misleading his ailing boss about the real state of the country. "We consider that the activities of A. Voloshin compromise the Kremlin, the president and the authorities in Russia. In any civilised country a bureaucrat who openly lies should be sacked," said Yevgeny Kisilyov, the suave presenter of Itogi, the flagship current affairs programme of Media-Most's NTV television channel. Such a direct attack against a public figure was extraordinary even by the rumbustuous standards of Russian political life. But the fact that it was journalists doing the mud-slinging, rather than political rivals, has many Russians worried about the independence and integrity of their fledgling free press. Perhaps it was inevitable that the media would become entangled in the ugly battle for power and wealth in the dying days of the Yeltsin regime. It was always expected that the media would play a critical role in influencing the outcome of presidential elections next July. But Media-Most is testing uncharted waters by being so openly hostile to President Yeltsin's closest allies. The "war of the television channels" began in mid-May, when Yevgeny Primakov was sacked as prime minister, leaving big corporate interests to shape the new government. Boris Berezovsky, a Kremlin adviser, oligarch and power broker, placed many of his men in the cabinet and started lining up potential presidential candidates. The state-owned media was an essential instrument in his plans. A Ministry of the Media was recently created to "protect the interests of the state", stoking fears that freedom of expression - one of the most precious achievements of Mr Yeltsin's presidency - could be curtailed. Although Mr Berezovsky denies he exerts editorial control over any media organisation, the ORT television channel, which is 51 per cent owned by the state, has actively sided with Mr Berezovsky's supporters, while tarnishing his opponents. "ORT is like a matryoshka doll," says Alexander Pumpyansky, editor of the independent Novoye Vremya (New Times) magazine. "There is a private channel inside a government channel inside a state channel. "Berezovsky is clearly using ORT for his own financial and political goals," he adds. "The mass media are returning to their role as organs of agitprop." Mr Berezovsky's ambitions, however, have met a stumbling block in the form of Vladimir Gusinsky, a former theatre producer who has built Media-Most into Russia's biggest private media organisation. His group embraces NTV, Echo Moskvy, a radio station, Sevodnya, a newspaper, and Itogi, a news magazine. Media-Most has further antagonised Mr Berezovsky by backing the presidential ambitions of Yuri Luzhkov, Moscow's energetic mayor, who has fallen out with the Kremlin. Mr Gusinsky has not been above using his media assets to further his commercial interests. But NTV has set new standards of objectivity in Russian journalism in its coverage of the war in the breakaway republic of Chechnya, and more recently in the refugee crisis in Kosovo. It has also encouraged a more vibrant political debate by devoting more airtime than other television channels to reporting the views of Russia's opposition parties - to the intense irritation of the Kremlin. "NTV is widely regarded as the main pioneer of free speech in Russian TV," says Aleksei Pushkov, a political commentator at TV-Tsentr, a rival television company. "It is the most outspoken and liberal and pro-western TV station in Russia." The animosity between Mr Berezovsky and Mr Gusinsky is intensifying by the day. And in this fight, many Russians fear Mr Gusinsky will be the loser because his finances, unlike Mr Berezovsky's, would appear to be particularly vulnerable. Recently, the tax police raided Media-Most's offices. At the same time, ORT began to air reports on the health of NTV's finances, highlighting its dependence on soft credits and loan guarantees from the giant Gazprom gas company. And from a different flank, Mr Berezovsky's allies are campaigning to remove Rem Vyakhirev as head of Gazprom, which owns 30 per cent of NTV. Mr Vyakhirev's dismissal could signal severe financial complications for Media-Most. But Mr Gusinsky, a veteran of many Kremlin intrigues, knows how to hit back. His NTV television channel has launched a vicious attack against Mr Voloshin in the presidential administration and has been fanning the flames of corruption scandals around the Kremlin. In some ways, the ferocious television war is a healthy sign of the political pluralism that is taking root in Russia. Only three years ago, most Russian journalists supported Mr Yeltsin's presidential campaign, fearing they would be out of jobs if the Communist party returned to power. The fact that newspapers and television stations are likely to support different candidates in next year's presidential elections is therefore a novel aspect of Russian political life. The vigorous scrutiny of all pretenders to power imitates the practice of US media groups prior to American presidential elections. But Mr Pumpyansky at Novoye Vremya fears this process is not being dictated by journalistic standards of objectivity, and that media groups risk becoming the pawns of oligarchs in their power games. At a time when few media outlets are profitable, he says, it is difficult to resist the financial allure of the richest men in Russia. "There is no tradition or practice or culture of distance between media ownership and editorial policy," he says. "The big battalions will decide this struggle. He who has the most money will win the war." The Financial Times, July 31, 1999 Presidential Fornication Linda Tripp Indicted for Wiretapping Vengeance is Mine, Saith Lord Clinton ELLICOTT CITY, Md. (AP) -- Linda Tripp's secret recordings of phone conversations with Monica Lewinsky were meant to bring presidential misconduct to light, and she should be praised, not prosecuted, her lawyers say. A Maryland grand jury thought otherwise, indicting Mrs. Tripp on state wiretapping charges. The indictment, which followed a yearlong investigation, makes Mrs. Tripp the only major figure in the sex scandal to face a criminal charge. Each offense carries up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. Tripp spokesman Philip Coughter called the investigation ``the most disgraceful, transparent campaign of politically motivated vengeance in recent American history.'' Mrs. Tripp's new attorney Stephen Kohn, who has handled numerous government whistle-blower cases, compared her to civil rights heroes who broke minor state laws to battle injustice. He said federal law protects Mrs. Tripp as a government witness in a corruption case. Kohn said he will challenge the state's authority to bring charges because she was given immunity by Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr when she turned over the tapes. Kohn likened the Maryland investigation to the McCarthy-era communist witch hunts and said Friday's indictment ``will have a chilling effect on witnesses who have the courage to document and report official misconduct.'' State Prosecutor Stephen Montanarelli, who led the grand jury investigation, said simply, ``I think she broke the law.'' He waved off suggestions that the case would be viewed as politically motivated. ``I can't help how it will be seen. ... I think we've done our duty,'' he said. Montanarelli, a Democrat appointed to his post in 1984, said he would handle the case himself. The grand jury indicted Mrs. Tripp on one count of illegal interception, for taping a phone conversation on Dec. 22, 1997, after she was told by her lawyer that secret taping was illegal. In conversations taped that day, the two women discussed what they should say about Ms. Lewinsky's sexual relationship with Clinton in testimony they expected to have to give for Paula Jones' sexual harassment lawsuit against the president. Mrs. Tripp also was charged with disclosing the contents of that conversation to Newsweek magazine, which published a partial transcript of a Tripp-Lewinsky phone call on Feb. 2, 1998. A spokeswoman for Newsweek, Jan Angilella, said magazine officials would not comment on the proceeding. The White House and representatives of Ms. Lewinsky also declined to comment. It was Mrs. Tripp's more than 20 hours of recordings that launched the independent counsel's investigation of Clinton's relationship with Ms. Lewinsky, a former White House intern. The recordings of the two women's rambling and sometimes ribald conversations were released publicly by the House Judiciary Committee before the House voted to impeach Clinton for perjury and obstruction. He was acquitted Feb. 12 after a Senate trial. Maryland's wiretap law, which is infrequently prosecuted, forbids taping phone conversations without the other party's consent. Ignorance of the law is a valid defense. But Mrs. Tripp, who recorded the calls in her Columbia, Md., living room, testified for Starr's grand jury that she taped several conversations in late 1997 even after an attorney told her it was illegal. Mrs. Tripp will be allowed to arrange a time to surrender voluntarily, her attorneys said. Mrs. Tripp, 49, has said she began taping her friend's phone calls to protect herself because she was being pressured by Ms. Lewinsky to lie in Mrs. Jones' lawsuit against the president. Ms. Lewinsky confided her sexual encounters with the president to Mrs. Tripp after the pair became friends while working together at the Pentagon. Ms. Lewinsky wanted Mrs. Tripp to deny knowledge of the relationship in an affidavit for Mrs. Jones' sexual harassment case. Starr gave Ms. Lewinsky immunity from prosecution in return for her testimony against Clinton. New York book agent Lucianne Goldberg, who testified in Starr's investigation last November, said she had urged Mrs. Tripp to start taping. Mrs. Tripp also talked with her about writing a tell-all book about her years at the White House. Reached by phone in New York, Ms. Goldberg said, ``Now she will be able to have her day in court and tell her side of the story.'' Associated Press, July 31, 1999 ----- Aloha, He'Ping, Om, Shalom, Salaam. 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