When life gives you lemons:

mysql> update tasks set task_department = (select project_department  from tasks AS t, projects where project_id = task_project);
ERROR 1093 (HY000): You can't specify target table 'tasks' for update in FROM clause

Solution:

UPDATE tasks AS t INNER JOIN projects AS p ON t.task_project = p.project_id SET t.task_department = p.project_department;

I hope they're partying in Accra...

Ghana's football squad beautifully spanked the Czechs. Although the US is still rounding out the bottom of the E group, this was just a delightful example of the magnificent upsets that the "Fussball Weltmeisterschaft" gives us every 4 years.

Tite

The best thing we got going....

LSU, a terrifically (instupituously?) third-tier (shall we say third-rate?) university will commence its capital campaign for the Flagship Fund on Monday.

To be frank, the Louisiana state legislature's commitment to LSU is only marginally higher than that of its commitment to its lesser campuses (ULL, Nicholls, Northwestern, et al - each of which is solidly fourth-tier) . Blame it on Louisiana's egalitarian nature.

The establishment of the Flagship Fund is a cynical realization that LSU will never be able to move itself out of the third-tier if it must rely on state funding. Frequently, LSU likens itself to UT-Austin, a firmly first-tier school, and an absolute enigma amongst Southern public universities.

Why has UT become a stellar school, and most other Southern publics languished (save UNC and Georgia)? Call it the Santa Rita #1, the oil well, found on UT property, that provided the seed capital for UT's 11 million dollar endowment.

For comparison: LSU's endowment is ~500 thousand.

Given this fact, I seriously doubt LSU has any better hope for securing its academic future than the flagship fund, which is why it's so puzzling that the Reveille staff oppose this fundraising effort.

They point to "hard work", which is stellar in concept, but completely ignores the fact that endowments fund professorships, labs, scholarships, research, and facilities. Without these things, all of the "hard work" in the world will amount to trying to squeeze blood from a stone.