Re: Re:The simple fact is
PS
It may strike the overpondians as a surprise BUT (and I'm not making a political statement here, just stating common historical knowledge) the USSR went from what was middle-ages-level developpment stage to spaceships whithin 50 years. That takes some extremeley serious science and engineering developpment both in math and physics. I know a bit about academic physics researchers, I've worked with some, in Northern America no less. First thing you notice, half of them have been trained in the former "eastern Block" (that's USSR and it's allies of yesteryears). Second thing, when asked about a Russian physicist or mathematician, in most cases everyone will bow.
Thirdly, I know quite a few people at the NIH. There is a unofficial "appreciation chart" there, by country you were trained in. French people top the Life Sciences chart, Chinese people feature in the top 5 for all science fields, Russians (and close neighbours) top both the Physics and Mathematics charts. If you consider subcategories Brits are apparenty liked in physiology. Interestingly enough US-trained people never appear on the NIH chart, but that's a story for another time perhaps (research vs developpment etc).
In a nutshell: wherever physics and mathematics are involved, blaming the Russians is a stupid move. They are usually well-trained in both.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
