Can you believe what it costs to go to Disneyland or DisneyWorld now ? The prices just went up to $76 and $82 for a single park entry. I know that they are in the business of making money, but when they refer to it as the "Happiest place on earth", are they the ones that are happy ? Maybe when I win the Lotto...
So the court has struck down the same sex marriage ban.... Maybe what REALLY needs to be done is to define LEGALLY what marriage is. I can understand a church having issues here, but not the legal system. They need to define what it is LEGALLY....
Sir Ernest Rutherford, President of the Royal Academy, and
recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics, related the following
story:
"Some time ago I received a call from a colleague. He was about
to give a student a zero for his answer to a physics question,
while the student claimed a perfect score. The instructor and the
student agreed to an impartial arbiter, and I was selected. I
read the examination question:
"Show how it is possible to determine the height of a tall
building with the aid of a barometer."
The student had answered: "Take the barometer to the top of the
building, attach a long rope to it, lower it to the street, and
then bring it up, measuring the length of the rope. The length of
the rope is the height of the building."
The student really had a strong case for full credit since he had
really answered the question completely and correctly! On the
other hand, if full credit were given, it could well contribute
to a high grade in his physics course and certify competence in
physics, but the answer did not confirm this.
I suggested that the student have another try. I gave the student
six minutes to answer the question with the warning that the
answer should show some knowledge of physics. At the end of five
minutes, he hadn't written anything. I asked if he wished to give
up, but he said he had many answers to this problem; he was just
thinking of the best one. I excused myself for interrupting him
and asked him to please go on. In the next minute, he dashed off
his answer, which read:
"Take the barometer to the top of the building and lean over the
edge of the roof. Drop the barometer, timing its fall with a
stopwatch. Then, using the formula x=0.5*a*t^2, calculate the
height of the building."
At this point, I asked my colleague if he would give up. He
conceded, and gave the student almost full credit. While leaving
my colleague's office, I recalled that the student had said that
he had other answers to the problem, so I asked him what they
were.
"Well," said the student, "there are many ways of getting the
height of a tall building with the aid of a barometer. For
example, you could take the barometer out on a sunny day and
measure the height of the barometer, the length of its shadow,
and the length of the shadow of the building, and by the use of
simple proportion, determine the height of the building."
"Fine," I said, "and others?"
"Yes," said the student, "there is a very basic measurement
method you will like. In this method, you take the barometer and
begin to walk up the stairs. As you climb the stairs, you mark
off the length of the barometer along the wall. You then count
the number of marks, and this will give you the height of the
building in barometer units. A very direct method.
"Of course."
"If you want a more sophisticated method, you can tie the
barometer to the end of a string, swing it as a pendulum, and
determine the value of g [gravity! at the street level and at the
top of the building. From the difference between the two values
of g, the height of the building, in principle, can be
calculated." "On this same tack, you could take the barometer to
the top of the building, attach a long rope to it, lower it to
just above the street, and then swing it as a pendulum. You could
then calculate the height of the building by the period of the
precession". Finally," he concluded, "there are many other ways
of solving the problem.
Probably the best," he said, "is to take the barometer to the
basement and knock on the superintendent's door. When the
superintendent answers, you speak to him as follows: 'Mr.
Superintendent, here is a fine barometer. If you will tell me the
height of the building, I will give you this barometer.'"
At this point, I asked the student if he really did not know the
conventional answer to this question. He admitted that he did,
but said that he was fed up with high school and college
instructors trying to teach him how to think.
An elderly man in Kentucky had owned a large farm for several years. He had a large pond in the back. It was properly shaped for swimming, so he fixed it up nice with picnic tables, horseshoe courts, and some apple and peach trees.
One evening the old farmer decided to go down to the pond, as he hadn't been there for a while to look it over. He grabbed a five-gallon bucket to bring back some fruit.
As he neared the pond, he heard voices shouting and laughing with glee. As he came closer, he saw a bunch of young women skinny-dipping in his pond.
He made the women aware of his presence and they all went to the deep end. One of the women shouted to him, 'We're not coming out until you leave!' The old man frowned, 'I didn't come down here to watch you ladies swim naked or make you get out of the pond naked...'
Holding the bucket up he said, 'I'm here to feed the alligator.'
Murphy applied for an engineering position ...
Murphy applied for an engineering position at an Irish firm based in Dublin. An American applied for the same job and both applicants having the same qualifications were asked to take a test by the Department manager. Upon completion of the test both men only missed one of the questions. The manager went to Murphy and said.
Manager: "Thank you for your interest, but we've decided to give the American the job"
Murphy: "And why would you be doing that? We both got nine questions correct. This being Ireland and me being Irish I should get the job!"
Well too bad. Here goes. Manager: "We have made our decisions not on the correct answers, but on the question you missed."
Murphy: "And just how would one incorrect answer be better than the other?"
Manager: "Simple, the American put down on question #5, "I don't know.", You put down "Neither do I."
True story
My daughter's parakeet flew out the window and up a nearby tree. Being the dilligent dad, I go over and climb up. I get up there and realize I don't have a way to get back down with the bird one-handedly, so I take off my shirt, wrap the bird up in it and drop it to my daughter. She catches him and we're all good. Except I look to my left and there's a 14-ish girl in her 2nd story bedroom looking at me.
The record reflects that the gentleman who climbed the tree and then began removing his clothes before the young lady...
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