For most of the twentieth century, if you studied higher mathematics in Russia, you worked from one problem book. This is its first English edition. Günter and Kuzmin's Collection of Problems in Higher Mathematics began in 1912 as a working set of problems compiled by the mathematics department of the Institute of Engineers of Ways of Communication in St Petersburg. It grew to three volumes, ran to a thirteenth edition, and became the standard problem book of the Soviet universities and the higher technical institutes alike. Russian biographical accounts record that its problems supplied the mathematics of the entrance examination Lev Landau set his prospective students — the celebrated "theoretical minimum." Here is the part most people don't know. The two men who assembled it were not textbook compilers. They were working research mathematicians, and it shows on every page. RODION KUZMIN (1891–1949) left two permanent results. In 1928 he settled a question Gauss had raised and left unanswered — the limiting distribution of the partial quotients of a continued fraction — and was the first to prove it with an estimate of the rate of convergence. The theorem and the distribution now carry Gauss's name and his. In 1930 he proved that a^b is transcendental whenever a is a positive algebraic number other than 1 and b is a real quadratic irrational. So 2^√2 is transcendental. That is a case of Hilbert's seventh problem, and he got there four years before Gelfond and Schneider settled it in general. He was expelled from Petersburg University for student politics, finished his degree at Petrograd in 1916, and held the chair of general mathematics at Leningrad University from 1945 until his death. NIKOLAI GÜNTER (1871–1941) was taught by Korkin, Markov and Possé — the direct line of Chebyshev's school. Doctorate in 1915 on the characteristics of systems of partial differential equations. Professor from 1916 until his death. Corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences from 1924. His treatise on potential theory was published in Paris in 1934, in Borel's collection at Gauthier-Villars, and reviewed in the English mathematical press on publication. He led the higher mathematics department at the Institute of Engineers of Ways of Communication from 1906, and for long stretches taught at four institutions at once, across some four decades. Günter died in 1941. Kuzmin finished the last revision alone and signed its preface from Biysk, in 1944, a long way from Leningrad. WHAT IS IN THE BOOK 6,314 problems, numbered continuously from 1 to 6,314, running from analytic geometry in the plane through to the calculus of variations and the theory of probability. Higher algebra, integration, multiple and surface integrals, ordinary and partial differential equations, special functions, series, approximate computation, complex variables, mathematical physics. The theoretical interludes that make the problems usable sit exactly where a working student needs them — not in an appendix. a.co/d/07jMUsK1

很多国内学生听信中介忽悠，说德国公立大学全球排名前列、而且全免学费（一学期只收几百欧注册费），以为去了就是白嫖欧洲高等教育。 等真坐在慕尼黑工大或者亚琛工大的阶梯教室里，才明白什么叫“地狱大逃杀”！ 德国大学实行极其铁血的教授负责制和学术淘汰机制：一门核心专业课（如高数、热力学），每个学生一辈子只有两次补考机会（加上首考一共考三次）！ 如果第三次考试成绩依然挂科不及格，德语里有个绝望的名词叫“Endgültig nicht bestanden（最终不通过）” 你不仅这辈子再也不能在德国任何一所大学修读该专业，还会被全德国高校系统永久拉黑除名，前三年修的所有学分当场清零作废！ 在德国读工科本科，能四年按时毕业的不到四成，而免学费的代价就是拿命去赌毕业率🥲

很多国内学生听信中介忽悠，说德国公立大学全球排名前列、而且全免学费（一学期只收几百欧注册费），以为去了就是白嫖欧洲高等教育。 等真坐在慕尼黑工大或者亚琛工大的阶梯教室里，才明白什么叫“地狱大逃杀”！ 德国大学实行极其铁血的教授负责制和学术淘汰机制：一门核心专业课（如高数、热力学），每个学生一辈子只有两次补考机会（加上首考一共考三次）！ 如果第三次考试成绩依然挂科不及格，德语里有个绝望的名词叫“Endgültig nicht bestanden（最终不通过）” 你不仅这辈子再也不能在德国任何一所大学修读该专业，还会被全德国高校系统永久拉黑除名，前三年修的所有学分当场清零作废！ 在德国读工科本科，能四年按时毕业的不到四成，而免学费的代价就是拿命去赌毕业率🥲

很多国内学生听信中介忽悠，说德国公立大学全球排名前列、而且全免学费（一学期只收几百欧注册费），以为去了就是白嫖欧洲高等教育。 等真坐在慕尼黑工大或者亚琛工大的阶梯教室里，才明白什么叫“地狱大逃杀”！ 德国大学实行极其铁血的教授负责制和学术淘汰机制：一门核心专业课（如高数、热力学），每个学生一辈子只有两次补考机会（加上首考一共考三次）！ 如果第三次考试成绩依然挂科不及格，德语里有个绝望的名词叫“Endgültig nicht bestanden（最终不通过）” 你不仅这辈子再也不能在德国任何一所大学修读该专业，还会被全德国高校系统永久拉黑除名，前三年修的所有学分当场清零作废！ 在德国读工科本科，能四年按时毕业的不到四成，而免学费的代价就是拿命去赌毕业率🥲

很多国内学生听信中介忽悠，说德国公立大学全球排名前列、而且全免学费（一学期只收几百欧注册费），以为去了就是白嫖欧洲高等教育。 等真坐在慕尼黑工大或者亚琛工大的阶梯教室里，才明白什么叫“地狱大逃杀”！ 德国大学实行极其铁血的教授负责制和学术淘汰机制：一门核心专业课（如高数、热力学），每个学生一辈子只有两次补考机会（加上首考一共考三次）！ 如果第三次考试成绩依然挂科不及格，德语里有个绝望的名词叫“Endgültig nicht bestanden（最终不通过）” 你不仅这辈子再也不能在德国任何一所大学修读该专业，还会被全德国高校系统永久拉黑除名，前三年修的所有学分当场清零作废！ 在德国读工科本科，能四年按时毕业的不到四成，而免学费的代价就是拿命去赌毕业率🥲

I did not know there was a big AI scene in Kazakhstan. Apparently Higgsfield's entire engineering team is in Kazakhstan and NVIDIA just invested in them. Jensen just visited too (his first time there). Seems like Kazakhstan is really positioning itself as a regional AI and supercomputing hub. Very interesting. Will probably work out very well for the region commercially. The order of all this is interesting. Most countries first build data centers and hope the startups show up. Here the talent was already in place, quietly building one of the fastest growing AI startups, and now the GPUs are following the engineers. Their biggest telecom runs 880 NVIDIA GPUs today. A new deal adds 45,000 by 2027.

To make the Chinese tunnel-boring story short: In 1997, poor China was extorted because it lacked the technology. Now, China produces the world’s best tunnel-boring machines and 70% of the world’s total. It’s a story of self-reliance.