Perelman Urged To Accept $1m Prize 421
krou writes "The Warm Home charity in St. Petersburg, Grigory Perelman's home-town, has urged the math genius and recluse to accept the $1m Millennium Prize for solving the Poincaré conjecture, and donate it to charities. Perelman has refused to accept the award, telling one reporter through the closed door of his flat, 'I have all I want,' and another who managed to call him on his mobile, 'You are disturbing me. I am picking mushrooms.'"
Re:An artform. (Score:2, Informative)
ascetic
Re:An ordinary man... (Score:4, Informative)
When I use that excuse to justify my interest in Thai prostitutes they call me insane. When I use that excuse on slashdot they call me a troll.
Re:This is hilarious (Score:2, Informative)
This guy, though, actually is insane, as anyone who read up on his life and habits knows.
Re:I have an idea... (Score:5, Informative)
Sounds like a plan to me. I'd be pissed off if people kept bugging me as well. Just take the money he doesn't want and give it to a math oriented scholarship fund or something.
and yet maybe if you had a clue about where he was coming from you'd know it was the same math community that fucked him over that you suggest giving blindly too.... not that I dont disagree with teaching math on all levels to those that want it., but it is more immersive than that at a higher level (not just a give it to math scholarships and call it a day (yet I can see your point, but his as well). he was at the height of mathadamia (yay for made up words) and what he saw there was nothing short of cut throat... I'm four sheets to the wind, but please look up some of my earlier arguments.... ah fuck it, here is my earlier discussion on him: http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1484928&cid=30508008 [slashdot.org]
and really, dont take it from me, read the new yorker piece on him (I ref in my link). he is something special. not just some stuck up asshole looking for an albeit good for him negitive bit of PR.
Re:This is hilarious (Score:5, Informative)
Re:'Your disturbing me. I'm picking mushrooms' (Score:4, Informative)
It is a funny quote in the context of most people from the Americas, understand that in Russia, specifically St Petersburg there are millions of people who eat mushrooms, not the magic kind, the good stuff, eatable. He picks mushrooms in St. Peterburg's parks, they are huge parks, also there are forests right outside the city.
People really eat mushrooms and berries that they pick, it is a tradition and a free source of food. I highly HIGHLY doubt that he does almost anything that changes his perception of reality at all. His perception is very acutely tuned, apparently he has very very strong moral compass, to the point of obsessiveness.
Re:This is hilarious (Score:5, Informative)
While that's what happened in the film, that's not what happened in real life. According to Wikipedia [wikipedia.org] he never had visual hallucinations, and only heard voices from 1964 onwards, 5 years after being diagnosed with schizophrenia.
Re:This is hilarious (Score:3, Informative)
If you left your chair to go outside and pick some Morels, and cooked them with some food, you'd change your tune about picking mushrooms. I promise. There's a reason they cost $115 a pound dried ;) Fresh they are orgasmically good and picking them is the only way to get them that way.