Coincidentally, Maryland just passed a law specifically authorizing statutory pet trusts: http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/trusts_estates_prof/2009/04/maryland-authorizes-statutory-pet-trusts.html
"The rabbit would be able to swim from the center to the south edge in 2 seconds, while the agent would only be able to run from the north end to the south end in 3.14 seconds."
Actually the agent would be able to get from the north end to the south end in 1/2(pi) seconds; with a 2-meter radius, the pond's circumference is 4(pi), so half that is 2(pi). At 4 meters/second, 2(pi) meters would take about 1.57 seconds, and he would get there 0.43 seconds before the rabbit does.
John, I don't think the agent would be able to. If the rabbit just swam straight from the center to the edge, the agent would get there edge first, because the agent would have to cover pi times the rabbit's distance, and he can travel faster than pi times the rabbit's speed.
I think, though, that if while the rabbit swam it kept turning so that it was always swimming directly away from the agent, the rabbit would pretty quickly find itself in a spot that is only .78 (or pi/4) of the distance from the point that was at that moment directly opposite the agent. From there, the rabbit makes a break for it and escapes.
I could be visualizing this improperly, though. Somebody should set up a computer model to figure this out.
The rabbit should swim directly away from the Secret Service guy. The agent will begin to run around the pond, and the rabbit should keep turning as the agent moves around the pond, so that the rabbit is always swimming away from the agent. The rabbit will end up swimming in a spiral pattern, getting closer and closer to the edge, and eventually will be close enough to the edge opposite the agent that the bunny can just make a direct break for it.
I think Neil might have a bit of a chip on his shoulder about meat, given that a four-word comment having nothing to do with meat drew him into that anti-meat rant.
And this chart is most definitely crap. Water isn't like oil; it's not as though there's a gigantic reservoir of water somewhere, and when it runs out, will mean everyone's gonig to die of thirst. Water runs in a cycle, and there's no more or less of it now than there was a thousand years ago. Some is clean and some isn't, is all.
The original spin is converted into the rocking/wobbling motion, which is then converted into the counterspin. I've seen these things given out to kids as party favors. Pretty cool.
Martin: The shape in that photo does look remarkably like a girl, but it's basically just a couple of dark splotches.
Our brains are so face-attuned that we interpret a colon followed by a closing parenthesis as a sideways smiley. Couple this with the fact that there are hundreds of billions of photos in the world, no two of them alike, and it's not too surprising that some of them have splotches and blotches that we try to see as people.
Iv'e been a photography enthusiast for years and years. There's nothing in any of those photos that's even remotely difficult to explain without resorting to "ghosts."
Of course it looks stupid. If looking stupid were a crime, I would have spent most of my teens in prison.
qoli: Of course society should have standards. But this particular standard is arbitrary and stupid.
Kids have wearing their pants like this for ten or fifteen years; you know why this fashion has stuck around so much longer than, for example, parachute pants? Because it still shocks people. As soon as people stop getting their panties in a twist about it, kids will stop doing it.
Also, someone should tell those teachers that the fashion's origins in jail are going to make kids like it more, not less. Weren't these people ever kids themselves?
(I have no idea what the smallest town I've been to is; I just used the first one that came to mind.)
"The rabbit would be able to swim from the center to the south edge in 2 seconds, while the agent would only be able to run from the north end to the south end in 3.14 seconds."
Actually the agent would be able to get from the north end to the south end in 1/2(pi) seconds; with a 2-meter radius, the pond's circumference is 4(pi), so half that is 2(pi). At 4 meters/second, 2(pi) meters would take about 1.57 seconds, and he would get there 0.43 seconds before the rabbit does.
I think, though, that if while the rabbit swam it kept turning so that it was always swimming directly away from the agent, the rabbit would pretty quickly find itself in a spot that is only .78 (or pi/4) of the distance from the point that was at that moment directly opposite the agent. From there, the rabbit makes a break for it and escapes.
I could be visualizing this improperly, though. Somebody should set up a computer model to figure this out.
And this chart is most definitely crap. Water isn't like oil; it's not as though there's a gigantic reservoir of water somewhere, and when it runs out, will mean everyone's gonig to die of thirst. Water runs in a cycle, and there's no more or less of it now than there was a thousand years ago. Some is clean and some isn't, is all.
Our brains are so face-attuned that we interpret a colon followed by a closing parenthesis as a sideways smiley. Couple this with the fact that there are hundreds of billions of photos in the world, no two of them alike, and it's not too surprising that some of them have splotches and blotches that we try to see as people.
qoli: Of course society should have standards. But this particular standard is arbitrary and stupid.
Kids have wearing their pants like this for ten or fifteen years; you know why this fashion has stuck around so much longer than, for example, parachute pants? Because it still shocks people. As soon as people stop getting their panties in a twist about it, kids will stop doing it.
Also, someone should tell those teachers that the fashion's origins in jail are going to make kids like it more, not less. Weren't these people ever kids themselves?