What Could You Do If You Didn’t Know You Couldn’t?
During a mathematics course at Columbia University, a student fell asleep and woke up to the sound of his classmates talking. As the lesson ended, he noticed the lecturer had written two problems on the whiteboard. He assumed these were homework assignments, so he copied them into his notepad to tackle later.
When he first attempted the problems, he found them quite difficult. However, he persevered, spending hours in the library gathering references and studying until he was able to solve one of the problems, though it was challenging.
To his surprise, the lecturer didn’t ask about the homework in the next class. Curious, the student stood up and asked, “Doctor, why didn’t you ask about the assignment from the previous lecture?”
The lecturer replied, “Required? It wasn’t mandatory. I was simply presenting examples of mathematical problems that science and scientists had not yet solved.”
Shocked, the student responded, “But I solved one of them in four papers!” The solution he discovered was eventually credited to him and documented at Columbia University. The four papers he wrote on the issue are still on display at the institution.
The key reason the student was able to solve the problem was that he didn’t hear the lecturer say, “No one has found a solution.”
Instead, he believed it was a problem worth solving and approached it without frustration, ultimately succeeding.
This story serves as a reminder: don’t listen to those who tell you that you can’t achieve something, as many young people today are surrounded by negativity and doubt. Some people intentionally plant seeds of failure and frustration.
You have the power to achieve your goals, overcome obstacles, and fulfill your aspirations. Simply trust in God and keep trying.
The student was George Dantzig, and the problem came from Math Stack Exchange.
“Dantzig demonstrated that, in the context of Student’s t-test, the only way to create a hypothesis test whose power is independent of the standard deviation is to use an absurd test that always has an equal probability of rejecting or failing to reject, which, of course, is not practical.”
Creation From Destruction
Artist Simon Berger deliberately cracks the glass to create an image through its fractured patterns.
Brilliant Tool!
For Parents – A Reason To Be The Best Version of You That You Can Be
Some interesting thoughts. My take is that the ripples extend beyond your children, far beyond.
Click the Read More button to view the video:
Dancing vs Exercise – Is There A Difference?
Begs the question, Why exercise when you can dance?
Gluten-Free Multi-Grain Bread Recipe
Five months ago I asked ChatGPT and Perplexit.ai for some gluten-free bread recipes. They provided several and I have been attempting, with limited but growing success, to make a good one.
With the weather cooling and the oven setting on the lowest heat still not giving me an adequately risen dough, I asked my elder daughter if she had a bread maker. She has one and hadn’t used it for 5 years so was very happy to lend it to me.
First time I used the bread maker the loaf turned out sensational!
Wow! Who would live life without a bread maker! (Obviously a competent baker would, but that’s a stripe I have yet to earn! LOL!)
If you are interested, here’s the recipe as provided by Perplexity.ai and my substitutions/additions:
Gluten-Free Multi-Grain Bread Recipe
Dry Ingredients:
• 1 cup (120g) brown rice flour
• 1/2 cup (60g) white rice flour
• 1/2 cup (60g) buckwheat flour
• 1/4 cup (30g) almond meal
• 1/4 cup (30g) potato starch
• 1/4 cup (30g) tapioca starch
• 3 tablespoons (20g) coconut flour
• 1 tablespoon (12g) xanthan gum
• 2 teaspoons (7g) baking powder
• 1 teaspoon (6g) salt
Wet Ingredients:
• 2 cups (480ml) warm water (95-110°F / 35-43°C)
• 2 tablespoons honey or sugar
• 2 1/4 teaspoons (1 packet) active dry yeast
• 1/4 cup (60ml) olive oil
• 3 large eggs, room temperature
• 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
Instructions:
1. In a large bowl, mix all the dry ingredients thoroughly.
2. In a separate bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients.
3. Combine the wet and dry ingredients, mixing well to form a sticky dough.
4. Transfer the dough to a greased 9 x 5-inch loaf pan.
5. Cover and let rise in a warm place for about 1 hour.
6. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
7. Bake for 45-55 minutes, or until the bread is golden brown and sounds hollow when tapped.
8. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then remove and cool completely.
Because buckwheat and almonds are presently contraindicated for Julie I substituted 90 grams of Hazelnut meal to replace the buckwheat flour and almond meal.
I have heard it is not good to cook honey so I used some coconut flower nectar instead.
I also added 50 grams each of flax seeds, pepitas, sesame seeds and sunflower seeds. (You could barely discern them in the resulting bread.)
All credit to Sunbeam for the bread maker, the result was as good a loaf as I have eaten. But please don’t tell Teal. She might ask for her bread maker back!
The Best Part About Being A Conspiracy Theorist
A True Hero…
…is not someone who does not feel fear or pain, it is someone who sets fear and paid aside to do regardless of them what they feel best at the time.
A few weeks before he left this world, Robin Williams sat down to film a short video for a little girl he had never met. The girl, terminally ill and in her final stages of life, had parents who reached out through a mutual connection hoping for a small gesture. What they received was a burst of life: Robin spoke in silly voices, slipped between accents with ease, blew kisses into the camera, and finished with a soft, smiling line, “Keep laughing, okay? Laughter is the best medicine.”
Her parents said she watched it every single day. It made her laugh when her body hurt too much to move. It gave her a reason to smile in the quiet, painful hours of hospital care. What they didn’t realize was that Robin, even while filming that message, was in the midst of his own unraveling. The man who brought so much joy to others was fighting a storm inside his mind.
He had recently received a diagnosis that explained none of what he was truly feeling. Doctors initially believed it was Parkinson’s disease, but the true culprit, Lewy body dementia, remained undetected until after he was gone. It was an aggressive condition that attacked not just his memory, but his grip on reality. He suffered from paranoia, insomnia, panic attacks, and moments of confusion so intense that he once forgot his own lines during a shoot, something that had never happened in his long career.
But in that message, recorded quietly at home, none of that pain showed. Robin radiated warmth. He looked straight into the camera, into the heart of a child who needed comfort, and gave everything he had. It wasn’t scripted. It wasn’t part of a campaign. It was a deeply personal act of love.
Throughout his life, Robin had a habit of showing up for people when no one was watching. He spent time with sick children, visited hospitals unannounced, and supported causes without publicity. His work with organizations like “St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital” and “Comic Relief” wasn’t about visibility. It was about showing up in real moments for real people.
That little girl’s parents only came to understand the full weight of the message after the news broke. They were heartbroken, but also grateful. In his final weeks, their daughter had received something irreplaceable, a moment of pure happiness from the very person who, unknown to them, was navigating his own private despair.
Susan Schneider Williams later revealed that Robin knew something was deeply wrong with his brain. He would say things like, “I feel like I’m going crazy,” and, “I just want to reboot my mind.” She watched him try to hold himself together, even as confusion and fear crept into the corners of his personality.
And still, he gave that video everything. A friend who later viewed the clip said it best, “It was Robin being Robin. He was hurting, but when the moment came to make someone else laugh, he just flipped the switch. Like he always did.”
For the family, that message became more than a keepsake. It became a lifeline. It was proof that even in unimaginable pain, people like Robin Williams chose love. Chose to give. Chose laughter over silence.
In one of his final personal acts, he reminded the world that true kindness doesn’t need strength, it only needs sincerity and heart.
Even when his mind was fading, his soul knew exactly what to do: find someone who was hurting, and make them laugh.
Take Them Fishing
