Monday, December 25, 2006

Stalinism

The Stalinist version of socialism, with some important modifications, shaped the Soviet Union and influenced Communist Parties worldwide. It was heralded as a possibility of building communism via a massive program of industrialization and collectivization. The rapid development of industry, and above all the victory of the Soviet Union in the Second World War, maintained that vision throughout the world, even around a decade following Stalin's death, when the party adopted a program in which it promised the establishment of communism within thirty years.
However, under Stalin's leadership, evidence emerged that dented faith in the possibility of achieving communism within the framework of the Soviet model. Stalin had created in the Soviet Union a repressive state that dominated every aspect of life. Later, growth declined, and rent-seeking and corruption by state officials increased, which dented the legitimacy of the Soviet system.
Despite the activity of the Comintern, the Soviet Communist Party adopted the Stalinist theory of "socialism in one country" and claimed that, due to the "aggravation of class struggle under socialism," it was possible, even necessary, to build socialism in one country alone.This departure from Marxist internationalism was challenged by Leon Trotsky, whose theory of "permanent revolution" stressed the necessity of world revolution.


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Sunday, December 17, 2006

In Mathematics

Space is a set, with some particular properties and usually some additional structure. It is not a formally defined concept as such, but a generic name for a number of similar concepts, most of which generalize some abstract properties of the physical concept of space.
In particular, a vector space and specifically a Euclidean space can be seen as generalizations of the concept of a Euclidean coordinate system. Important varieties of vector spaces with more imposed structure include Banach space and Hilbert space. Distance measurement is abstracted as the concept of metric space and volume measurement leads to the concept of measure space.
As far as the concept of dimension is defined, although three-dimensional space is the most commonly thought of dimensional space, the number of dimensions for a space to exist need not be three: it can also be zero, one, two, more than three, finite or infinite, and with some definitions, a non-integer value. Mathematicians often study general structures that hold regardless of the number of dimensions


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Monday, December 11, 2006

Weedy Sea Dragon

The Weedy Sea Dragon or Common Sea Dragon is a marine fish related to the seahorse. It is the only member of the genus Phyllopteryx. They occur in water 3 to 50 meters deep round the southern coastline of Australia, approximately between Port Stephens, New South Wales and Geraldton, Western Australia, as well as around Tasmania. Weedy sea dragons are named for the weed-like projections on their bodies that camouflage them as they move among the seaweed beds where they are usually found.
Weedy sea dragons reach up to 45 cm in length. They feed on tiny crustacea and other zooplankton, which are sucked into the end of their tube-like snout.A more cryptic relative of the weedy sea dragon is the leafy sea dragon. However, according to the November 2006 issue of National Geographic magazine, marine biologist Greg Rouse believes leafy and weedy sea dragons may be the same species residing in a wide territory.
The Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, California and Melbourne Aquarium in Australia are the only facilities in the world to have successfully bred Weedy Sea Dragons in captivity.The Weedy Sea Dragon is an aquatic emblem of the State of Victoria.The Leafy Sea Dragon Festival is held biennially in the Fleurieu Peninsula, south of Adelaide.


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