Berkeley urban legends
One of the odder things that happened at Berkeley.

One day In 1939, George Bernard Dantzig, a doctoral candidate at the University of California, Berkeley, arrived late for a graduate-level statistics class and found two problems written on the board. Not knowing they were examples of "unsolvable" statistics problems, he mistook them for part of a homework assignment, jotted them down, and solved them. (The equations Dantzig tackled are perhaps more accurately described not as unsolvable problems, but as unproved statistical theorems for which he worked out proofs.) Six weeks later, Dantzig's statistic professor notified him that he had prepared one of his two "homework" proofs for publication, and Dantzig was given co-author credit on another paper several years later when another mathematician independently worked out the same solution to the second problem.

 
Director's Label
Going to spend money in Sept for sure!

 
Localbarboy
Oh yeah if you ever singalong to Humpback Oak and The Oddfellows.

 
You can conquer, but you cannot rule.

 
Tribute to the Unknown worker
I dropped by Little India yesterday to attend the funeral service of the Myanmar worker, whose body had been dumped by the company that exploited him after he died in an accident. The funeral was held in a small function room that would probably transform into a dance lounge at night. Two small mirrorballs hung from the ceiling, and on the stage wreaths were laid out for this unknown worker, also known as 'Ah Nya', aged 24. The service went by quietly, though there was an odd moment when several Filipino women, holding songbooks with the Virgin Mary prominently displayed on the cover, sang Amazing Grace, in what had been a Buddhist ceremony. I suppose it was awkward, but one can accept that it's their way of honoring this person, who like them, was here to seek a better life, only to find an inhumane death.

But how does one hold a memorial for a dead man that nobody in the hall knew? His friends working at the construction sites were too afraid to attend, perhaps due to their illegal status as well. Still, we must remember, if only to learn.

His family still had not been contacted, and his body apparently still waits in the morgue. Hopefully they can be found soon. May his body find its way home and his spirit to Heaven.

 
headache
Feels like someone stuck a crowbar in my skull and trying to pry it open.

 
Ending poverty
Just finished Jeffrey Sach's The End of Poverty, a non-fiction book that gives a blueprint for eradicating extreme poverty by 2025. Pretty interesting and bold vision, and some may find his plans unachievable, but there's no denying he makes some good points. Well worth reading. Now for the Japanese thriller Out next.