9/17/00: Newspaper Headlines, Already Complete

Hi,

FYI - If you are sending me emails to my Anderson email address, that
address is now deactivated. Please send all personal emails to me at:
joshli@post.harvard.edu. I'll be keeping this as my permanent forwarding
email address, so you will never have to change it again.

Do you like Chinese films? Well, I love films from China, Taiwan, Hong
Kong, etc. There will be a Chinese film festival here in LA from 9/25 to
9/29. After that, the festival goes to SF and then NYC. The tickets are
FREE. I'm planning to go to several of these. For ticket and event
details, call (888) 906-FILM or visit http://www.chinesefilmfestival.org.

Two people replied to last week's question (answers were lasagna and
coconut).

This week's thought provoking question is: "If you had to pick the most
important quality for a leader of your country, what would it be?"

This week's humor was forwarded from Jennifer Chin. The puzzle is from
Phil Lin (solution to last week's puzzle was written by Clarice Law).
Finally, the inspirational piece was forwarded from Anna Man.

Enjoy!

-Josh.

Come to the APEX/NAAAP Conference here in LA! (10/6-8)
http://www.apex.org/content.cfm?content_id=81
______________________________________________

BEST NEWSPAPER HEADLINES OF 1999

1. Include Your Children When Baking Cookies
2. Something Went Wrong in Jet Crash, Experts Say
3. Police Begin Campaign to Run Down Jaywalkers
4. Drunks Get Nine Months in Violin Case
5. Iraqi Head Seeks Arms
6. Is There a Ring of Debris around Uranus?
7. Prostitutes Appeal to Pope
8. Panda Mating Fails; Veterinarian Takes Over
9. British Left Waffles on Falkland Islands
10. Teacher Strikes Idle Kids
11. Clinton Wins Budget; More Lies Ahead
12. Plane Too Close to Ground, Crash Probe Told
13. Miners Refuse to Work After Death
14. Juvenile Court to Try Shooting Defendant
15. Stolen Painting Found by Tree
16. Two Sisters Reunited after 18 Years in Checkout Counter
17. War Dims Hope for Peace
18. If Strike Isn't Settled Quickly, It May Last a While
19. Couple Slain; Police Suspect Homicide
20. Man Struck by Lightning Faces Battery Charge
21. New Study of Obesity Looks for Larger Test Group
22. Astronaut Takes Blame for Gas in Space
23. Kids Make Nutritious Snacks
24. Local High School Dropouts Cut in Half
25. Typhoon Rips through Cemetery; Hundreds Dead
_______________________

Puzzle: Another Duel with Poison

The following puzzle was created by Michael Rabin, who I think is a
professor of computer science at Harvard. If you pass on this puzzle, be
sure to retain this attribution.

There is a world in which the inhabitants have a strange physiology. If a
healthy person ingests a poison, he will die within an hour unless he
ingests a stronger poison, in which case he becomes healthy again.
(Ingesting weaker poisons has no effect; the person must still ingest a
poison stronger than the poison that got him sick in the first place, and
doing so automatically annuls all other weaker poisons that he may have
ingested in the meantime.) The poisons in this world are strictly linearly
ordered in strength. Moreover, there are two kinds of poisons: magical and
medical, which are dispensed by the Royal Magician and the
Royal Physician respectively. No magical poison has the same strength as a
medical poison. All of these facts are common knowledge.

The King decides that he wants to find the strongest poison in the land,
because it will not only be very useful for eliminating enemies but will
also act as an antidote against any other poison. So he calls in the Royal
Magician and the Royal Physician and says, "I want each of you to return
here to my royal chambers at noon tomorrow. Bring a vial of your strongest
poison. To give you incentive to bring your strongest poison, you must do
the following: each of you must drink first from the other's vial and then
drink from your own vial. I will have trained observers present to make
sure that you cannot cheat. Then you will be watched for one hour, during
which you may not ingest any substances. The person who has the stronger
poison will of course survive and the other will die. This is unfortunate
but I have decided that it is worth it, in the interests of national
security. If I suspect that either one of you is trying to cheat or
somehow circumvent my plan, I will execute both of you instantly. You may
go now, but you must return at the specified time."

The Royal Physician and the Royal Magician go off, both very disturbed,
because each one wants very much to survive. Neither of them is fully
confident of having the strongest poison. Although both of them have full
knowledge of the relative strengths of their own poisons, neither has any
way of getting access to the other's poisons. They rack their brains all
night trying to think how they can best ensure their own survival.

The appointed time rolls around and the two Royal Servants return. They
follow the specified protocol exactly, and are watched carefully for one
hour. To everyone's astonishment, both Royal Servants keel over and die
within the hour. The Royal Coroner confirms that both died of poisoning.

How can this be?

Bonus: after you find the intended solution to the puzzle, "cook" the
puzzle; i.e., find three other legitimate solutions.
___________________________________________________

Already Complete

Just because no one has been fortunate enough
to realize what a gold mine you are,
doesn't mean you shine any less.
Just because no one has been smart enough
to figure out that you can't be topped,
doesn't stop you from being the best.
Just because no one has come along to share your life,
doesn't mean that day isn't coming.
Just because no one has made this race worth while,
doesn't give you permission to stop running.
Just because no one has realized how much of a woman you are,
doesn't mean they can affect your femininity.
Just because no one has come to take the loneliness away,
doesn't mean you have to settle for a lower quality.
Just because no one has shown up who can love you on your level,
doesn't mean you have to sink to theirs.
Just because you deserve the very best there is,
doesn't mean that life is always fair.
Just because God is still preparing your king,
doesn't mean that you're not already a queen.
Just because your situation
doesn't seem to be progressing right now,
doesn't mean you need to change a thing.
Keep shining,
Keep running,
Keep hoping,
Keep praying,
Keep being exactly what you are already; complete
__________________________

Answer to last week's puzzle:

Figuring out which light switch is correct requires patience and
temperature discernment. While outside, turn on switch #2 and leave it on
5 minutes. Then turn it off and turn on switch 3# and enter room. If
light is on, it's switch #3. If light is off, you'll need to feel the
bulb. If the bulb is warm, it's switch #2. If light is off and bulb is
cold, it's switch #1.