no ISO for Serbia so far

From Wikipedia:

"Two-letter ISO 3166-1 Alpha-2

This code, used also as Internet TLD, is the major problem with ISO
assignment to Serbia. All combinations of S as a first letter and any
other letter in word Serbia, or even Srbija (in Serbian), are already
taken by other states:

Country names Alpha-2
------------- -------
Saudi Arabia SA
Slovenia SI
Solomon Islands SB
Suriname SR
Svalbard and Jan Mayen SJ
Sweden SE

There have been unofficial suggestions that Alpha-2 code for Serbia
should be RS (Republic of Serbia), which is unlikely, as no country has
its form of government in these codes. Other solutions could be
"generic" SS or SX, although SS is to be avoided for its association
with Nazi Schutzstaffel.

As this code is also to be used as Internet top-level domain for the
country, there have been rumors of approaching either International
Organization for Standardization, United Nations or one of the countries
in the list in order to switch the codes. Likely options would be SB
(Solomon Islands) and SJ (Svalbard and Jan Mayen)."

Al-gebra

Terrorist School Teacher Arrested, as reported first on CNN

NEW YORK - A public school teacher was arrested today at John F. Kennedy International Airport as he attempted to board a flight while in possession of a ruler, a protractor, a set square, a slide rule and a calculator.

At a morning press conference, Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez said he believes the man is a member of the notorious Al-gebra movement. He did not identify the man, who has been charged by the FBI with carrying weapons of math instruction.

"Al-gebra is a problem for us," Gonzalez said. "They desire solutions by means and extremes, and sometimes go off on tangents in a search of absolute value. They use secret code names like 'x' and 'y' and refer to themselves as 'unknowns', but we have determined they belong to a
common denominator of the axis of medieval with coordinates in every country.

As the Greek philanderer Isosceles used to say, 'There are 3 sides to every triangle'."

When asked to comment on the arrest, President Bush said, "If God had wanted us to have better weapons of math instruction, He would have given us more fingers and toes."

CO2 global influx

I remember I asked if somebody can give the exact figures of how much carbon is emitted to the atmosphere from burning fossil fuel.

Globally, liquid and solid fuels accounted for 76.7% of the emissions from fossil-fuel burning in 2003. Combustion of gas fuels (e.g., natural gas) accounted for 19.2% (1402 million metric tons of carbon) of the total emissions from fossil fuels in 2003 and reflects a gradually increasing global utilization of natural gas. Emissions from cement production (275 million metric tons of carbon in 2003) have more than doubled since the mid 1970s and now represent 3.8% of global CO2 releases from fossil-fuel burning and cement production. Gas flaring, which accounted for roughly 2% of global emissions during the 1970s, now accounts for less than 1% of global fossil-fuel releases.

I think it is a lot. If it is true, I'm READY TO CHANGE MY MIND REGARDING THE GLOBAL WARMING. (And regarding Al Gore, too.)

изрядно сказано

одна изъ самыхъ большихъ опасностей въ стратегическомъ планированiи научныхъ изслѣдованiй связано съ взаимодѣйствiемъ энтузiастовъ и проходимцевъ.

puzzlers

function(f) { return function(x) { return f(x,f) } }

1. Which language is it?
2. How the hell does it work?
3. What is the name of such a function?