The Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog;

Well there are some really big real bunnies around.

This is Atlas, aka Atilla the Bun:



The Guardian - Giant rabbit finds a home

.... or even bigger is Darius:

nordmann wrote:

The rabbit looks quite concerned, but is perhaps merely startled.

Priscilla has sent a "woolly rabbit" email asking if I am growing bigger or smaller down my rabbit hole. Alas, I really do not know. Will keep you informed of any sizing problems, as they manifest,  P.  

Shall we have a blast from the past? When I was a teenager, I used to drive my poor father mad with this track, playing it as loud as possible over and over again just to annoy him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1fOZjiDaw4

At that time, Sainsbury's did not sell rabbit - until pestered by those who assumed, from this, that they did.

I used to hate the rabbits that were eating everything in my garden - until I saw one on my lawn, obviously dying of myxomatosis. It was horrible. I had no idea that this disease had been introduced by man in an effort to control the rabbit population in Australia.

Being eaten by a fox is a far quicker, kinder and more natural death for a rabbit. Nature's cruel all right, but man more so.

Rabbit is on all the posh London restaurant menus these days, as I think has been discussed here before.

I feel like I've fallen down that bloomin' rabbit hole, this machine has been arbitrarily logging me out and leaving me in the cyber-dark. Now that I've spoken to it severely and given it a damn good thrashing I'm hoping it will behave.

What's with the bunny infestation? Was someone silly enough to let two into the bar at the same time and they behaved like, well, rabbits? Don't blame me when what you thought were black olives turn out to something entirely different and floor collapses because it's completely undermined by burrows. On the other hand, it's such a long time since we were down in the netherworld to check what's going on there, it could be interesting and explain the disappearance of some of the regulars. Have they found P's missing supply of special port and are having a jolly party without us?

Not and live, they won't, ferv. Temps seems lost - on the other hand she may have at last found some open minded intellectuals for proper discussion.... assuming this is not a put down hole, of course. The site is a warren of them......... Up here the big baby bunting suit competition flourishes. Your point taken ferv - avoid fruit cake. I recall rabbit stew as a wartime constant. This was part of that other economy of barter, poachers and creative enterprise. I imagine you are in  the crying corner now that the Palmyra films are released for this and worse life seems to struggle on between tears and laughter. Which further sums up my day not knowing what to get for lunch.

Priscilla wrote:

Temps seems lost - on the other hand she may have at last found some open minded intellectuals for proper discussion.... assuming this is not a put down hole, of course.

She is lost. Quite, quite lost. My new job around here is stuffing the rabbits back in their hats and they don't want to go. Don't think I'll last very long at it to be honest.


There are quite a lot of political cartoons with rabbits - here's one with Roosevelt:





And an earlier one:




And one for our times:








That's me done for today - really am going now. You can all get back to posting pics of monster bunnies...

Good luck putting the rabbits back into their hats, that's almost as difficult as pushing worms back into their holes. By the way when Dupont Chemicals invented nylon, they named it after New York, LONdon, but they nearly called it, Duproh, from "Dupont pulls rabbit out of hat".

Triceratops wrote:

The Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog;

Wasn't  there  a skit about a dangerous bunny in Monty Python and the Holy Grail?

ferval wrote:

I feel like I've fallen down that bloomin' rabbit hole, this machine has been arbitrarily logging me out and leaving me in the cyber-dark. Now that I've spoken to it severely and given it a damn good thrashing I'm hoping it will behave.

What's with the bunny infestation? Was someone silly enough to let two into the bar at the same time and they behaved like, well, rabbits? Don't blame me when what you thought were black olives turn out to something entirely different and floor collapses because it's completely undermined by burrows. On the other hand, it's such a long time since we were down in the netherworld to check what's going on there, it could be interesting and explain the disappearance of some of the regulars. Have they found P's missing supply of special port and are having a jolly party without us?

The whole last week studying and doing research on the internet for an extension of the thread from overhere on the French forum Passion Histoire:
https://reshistorica.forumotion.com/t884-ancients-starting-with-gods-and-kingships

and there under the heading:
http://passion-histoire.net/viewtopic.php?f=82&t=38982
"Antiquité partout démarrée avec dieux et rois" (Antiquity everywhere started with gods and kings). My brain is reeling from all those stories...chiefs, tribes, clans, kings, rainmaker's kings, primitive democracy and all...
Btw did you know that with the North American Indians there was matrilinean succession of power...The ladies overhere will appreciate that...?
When I have more conclusions from my French thread I will publish it here on the "Kings and gods" thread again...

Kind regards, Paul.

LiR wrote:

Wasn't  there  a skit about a dangerous bunny in Monty Python and the Holy Grail?

Here you are, LiR. Actually, the Lobbing of the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch is the best bit. Remember the days when we could all have a laugh at such things? And that sort of brings the discussion round full circle, doesn't it?

Priscilla wrote:

Temps seems lost - on the other hand she may have at last found some open minded intellectuals for proper discussion

A horrible fate to wish upon anyone, P.

Discussion, especially a "proper" one (improper ones intrigue me), with the owner of an uncritically vacuous mind ad infinitum is one of my versions of what hell must be like, were I open-mindedly vacuous enough to entertain such a silly conceit as an afterlife.

No, give me engagement with an intelligent mind which is brave enough to employ criticism based on reasoned deduction any day. If there is a heaven, then it is in that eternal shit that this pig would be most happy.

My contribution to the veneration of the Holy Grail (the film of course)

Why are improper fractions improper - I never did know. Do they offend against some mathematical code of conduct? I'm sure Humpty Dumpty could tell us.


I'd rather have an improper fraction any day than a proper one. Proper fractions get rather boring after a while I find, but I suppose they are the sensible choice.

Temperance, you know as a non-English speaking member that I don't understand all your slang.
What is in your context "fraction" and "improper fraction"? Don't fear, no thoughts behind. Just that I don't understand the sentence, or perhaps the hidden pun...

Your devoted Paul.

Just to confuse you further, Paul , we have vulgar fractions too.

These are dreadful things, and are best avoided if at all possible. They (like cake) are rarely seen at the best houses these days, certainly in England. Not sure about the rest of the UK (or Europe).

And don't even mention irrational numbers; silly things just sitting there and going on and on and on.........

I'd rather have an irrational number than a bunch of Cartesian coordinates. They can be such irritating know-it-alls.

Temperance wrote:

Just to confuse you further, Paul , we have vulgar fractions too.

These are dreadful things, and are best avoided if at all possible. They (like cake) are rarely seen at the best houses these days, certainly in England. Not sure about the rest of the UK (or Europe).

Yes, now I see..."fractions" are just fractions as in Dutch (breuken). But I am not sure that I ever heard in Dutch about "proper" and "improper" fractions...yes and after some quick research on google also vulgar or common fractions...Can it be that we on the continent are more used to the decimals and all from the French...? Not such an elaborated and difficult approach as with fractions as over the Channel...?

And yes different languages are many times enigmatic...especially pronunciation...take now a word that I heard this afternoon on tele without seeing the context...the word "Rachel" which sounds in English as the German word "Rätsel" (mystery), but that we overhere pronounce the French way: "Rachelle". Meles meles will know what a difference it is. I try it in English to pronounce it as: "Rasshelle"?...

Regards from Paul.

Temperance wrote:

I'd rather have an irrational number than a bunch of Cartesian coordinates. They are such irritating know-it-alls.

 Sometimes you create marvellous little gems dear Temperance. I thank you for that.

I have always had a lot of empathy for you from between my Cartesian coordinates....

Temps - have you been munching on mushrooms? I meant to warn you about smug caterpillars down there. Can you hear me? If he asks, don't tell him your name, Temps.  I further recommend that you come out of that hole soon because the Golf Majors - or Masters or  Miners even, starts soon according to my sports besotted family.

Don't even begin contemplating imaginary numbers - enough of the so-called real ones turn out to be imaginary. On BBC R4 "More - or less?" they revealed that the 26,000+ word eu directive on the sale of carrots DOESN'T ACTUALLY EXIST! One's heart bleeds for those Brexiters who have used this statistic as politicians are wont to do "Politicians use statistics in the same way that a drunk uses lamp-posts—for support rather than illumination." (whose quotation?)

Any simple old fraction can be vulgar, just so long as both its top and bottom are integers ... the improper ones are just the ones whose top is bigger than their bottom, which naturally makes them rather big-headed. Prime numbers, although always odd, also have big egos but then they are rather special. Complex numbers are self-centred little sods: always going on about i, whilst hyperbolic or split-complex numbers I suspect suffer from bi-polar syndrome. Transcendental numbers are boring hippies that go on and on and on, as opposed to rational numbers that are succinct but even more boring. Decimals can be tediously precise unless rounded off a tad, while dimensionless numbers usually get completely ignored. Surds, always rooting for one thing or another, are down-right rude things ... they should never be mentioned in polite company in case people miss-hear what you are talking about.

The worst of the lot are those smug primes: sitting there bragging, We're all so special, everyone seeks us out but they'll never find us all. And they'll never split us up.

A Y-coordinate is the second of an ordered pair, but ordered from where? Calvin Klein? And do you get free returns on all orders?

PS It was cabbages, not carrots.

PS I know I was in trouble for being too serious last week, but now I'm worried I'm in trouble for being too silly.  

Oh well - you can't win around here, Alice.

Do Calvin Kleins topographically have an inside as well as an outside, or do they only have one surface like a Klein bottle? What if the waist band was a Moebius strip? Are they perhaps really pan-dimensional pants? 

Glad to see you've regained some of your joie de vivre, Temp ... or is it the eau de vie talking?

MM wrote:

Glad to see you've regained some of your joie de vivre, Temp ... or is it the eau de vie talking?

Eau de vie at 10.15 on a Monday morning? Certainly not, sir. No mushrooms either, P. It's just I've seen the light and so have lightened up.


Such a relief.

Temperance wrote:

A Y-coordinate is the second of an ordered pair, but ordered from where? Calvin Klein? And do you get free returns on all orders?

PS It was cabbages, not carrots.

I'm now speculating as to the appearance of a pair of Calvins. Hodden grey presumably and a bit scratchy, or am I being a bit judgemental?

Just looked up Klein Bottle and Moebius Strip - had never heard of them.

   

 

ferval wrote:

I'm now speculating as to the appearance of a pair of Calvins. Hodden grey presumably and a bit scratchy, or am I being a bit judgemental?

Or perhaps shiney smooth and misshapen, maybe a bit like this ... aptly it's called a Boy's surface:



Wiki - Boy's surface

In exploring your new found world, Temps, I  strongly recommend that you avoid looking into vectors which toy with all manner of pluses and minuses about the quadrants of a cross .......I think......
One has to draw the line somewhere.

OK, MM, now you've gone beyond my limited knowledge but that animation is mesmerising; I want one! Is it actually constructable? There's something of a 'Celtic' knot or Moore about it, could it be classed as 'art' I wonder?

I think it must be at least sort-of constructable as there's a model of one outside the Oberwolfen Mathematical Research Institute in Germany.

From Wiki :
The Mathematical Research Institute of Oberwolfach has a large model of a Boy's surface outside the entrance, constructed and donated by Mercedes-Benz in January 1991. This model has 3-fold rotational symmetry and minimizes the Willmore energy of the surface. It consists of steel strips which represent the image of a polar coordinate grid under a parameterization given by Robert Bryant and Rob Kusner. The meridians (rays) become ordinary Möbius strips], i.e. twisted by 180 degrees. All but one of the strips corresponding to circles of latitude (radial circles around the origin) are untwisted, while the one corresponding to the boundary of the unit circle is a Möbius strip twisted by three times 180 degrees — as is the emblem of the institute.

So there, now you know 



.... though that doesn't look half so funky as the rotating one above.

Apparently you can make your own from paper and "sticky-back tape":

I think Temps would just like to make a single loop example with a pencil line, mm?. ferv wants a 3d one and I want that grid - for  my garden. Er - are there any moebius strip structures in nature - several maths sequences are? (As in sunflower seeds)

Priscilla wrote:

I think Temps would just like to make a single loop example with a pencil line, mm?. ferv wants a 3d one and I want that grid - for  my garden. Er - are there any moebius strip structures in nature - several maths sequences are? (As in sunflower seeds)

Oh yes, Fiobonacc numbers, they're fun although I always think that they should be the latest creations from the House of Fiobonacci's spring collection.

Oh my goodness, here you are!

I don't know of any examples of Moebius strips in the structure of plants, animals etc, but I think some naturally occurring chemicals (proteins?) have Moebius structures.

Moebius strips are quite intriguing ... here are some things you could try next time you have to entertain the grand kids:



PS : Why did the chicken cross the Moebius strip?

To get to the same side.

Deleted. Strange loops will do for another time.

A maths joke:

Noah's Ark lands after The Flood and Noah releases all the animals, saying, "Go forth and multiply." Several months pass and Noah decides to check up on the animals. All are doing fine except a pair of snakes.

"What's the problem?" asks Noah. "Cut down some trees and let us live there," say the snakes. Noah follows their advice. Several more weeks pass and Noah checks up on the snakes again.
He sees lots of baby snakes; everybody is happy.

Noah says, "So tell me how the trees helped." "Certainly," reply the snakes. "We're adders, and we need logs to multiply."

Oh well. Ask a stupid question...

Temperance wrote:

Why are improper fractions improper .... ? I'm sure Humpty Dumpty could tell us.

Well if Humpty Dumpty couldn't, then certainly Lewis Carroll (Charles Dodgson) would be able to explain ... he was after all a lecturer of mathermatics at Oxford University.

But enough of all this mathematical madness.

I'm just chuffed that today's forecast rain has held off, and so I've been able to empty the dead leaves and two large toads from my drained swimming pool, scrubbed it throughout, and am now slowly filling it up again (it'll take about two weeks - any faster and I risk drawing too much from the spring in which case both I, and my neighbours, might find our household taps and showers suddenly running dry). I've also dug over and fenced off another bit of garden, so this year I've now managed to get an additional 40sq metres of land under cultivation compared to last year. On this new tranche I've today planted two rows of beans, in addition to the beans and leaks I planted a few weeks ago, and prepared the soil ready for a few rows of courgettes, aubergines, tomatoes, lettuces and things like that. A few days ago, when I was buying my sacks of horse manure at the garden centre, I was tempted to get some laying hens as well ... but I haven't had the time to repair the hen house and chicken run yet ... so maybe next year. Meanwhile in the house the window sills are filling up with seedlings of courgettes, tomatoes, aubergines, peppers etc ... all waiting until it's safe to be planted outside (maybe just another week). Oh, and I de-wormed the cats today as well!

Now my back aches, I've caught the sun on my neck, and my hands are scratched and blistered. But all the immediate outside jobs are done and the weather forecast is now for several days of steady rain ... perfect for watering my young veggies and helping to fill the pool.

I'm having a glass of red wine ... un petit verre de quelque chose pour quelqu'un?

The sun shone here too but I only deadheaded a daff. Claiming jet lag for as long as I can get away with it,  I then lazed about.considering planting lilies in fields........however, to keep you company, MM, of course a port would go down very well. Ta.

Priscilla wrote:

........however, to keep you company, MM, of course a port would go down very well. Ta.

At 10:30 in the morning? How decadent!  

Mind you, I'm an hour ahead so here, it is nearly time for an apéro.

Well, the amorous cephalopod seems to have driven everyone away, perhaps to prepare a nice plate of sepia a la plancha, so if there's a petit verre de vin still going I'd enjoy that. Or a restorative port, that would do nicely.

I should get me courgettes going as well but I suffer from a shortage of sunny window sills in this house and the ones that I do have tend to get cleared by the cat jumping up to watch the birds or the procession of neighbourhood felines that use my garden as a handy short-cut.

ferval wrote:

Well, the amorous cephalopod seems to have driven everyone away

Not the open-minded intellectuals, I hope!

Free Ovaltine for all the stunned, offended and bewildered ...

Horlicks, nordmann, that's the thing to guard against the effects of night starvation. Is your marriage suffering? Then a cup of the fawn stuff will fix everything.





Prepared with one of these of course (which were excellent for whisking egg whites before I had an electric mixer).

I'm picturing hundreds of men coming home from the office fagged ...

It doesn't bear thinking about.

Speaking of pick-me-up supplements, in India Complan is the chemical of choice and this is a recent TV ad extolling its virtues (with the help of Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan's rather spooky Complan ghost)



Hemant Patil, a social activist based in Pune who (he says himself) campaigns against silly legislation and for "the common man's rights", has demanded a police complaint against Bachchan and others under the stringent new Maharashtra Prevention and Eradication of Human Sacrifices and Other Inhuman, Evil and Aghori Practices and Black Magic Act, 2013. He says Complan is encouraging superstition.

The octopus erotica pic, said to be in revolt against a stern junta caused me to wonder if I ought not use that aspect on the Religious Benefits thread. I had a port instead....... but still toying with the thought.... being at least reasonably open minded if not an intellect. Bournvita, anyone?

Crossed posts - what, I wonder, inspired that 2013 act  India? As I recall of it Complan was about the only thing that might rescued a failing body after many bouts of the runs. On which subject I bet I could keep a thread going for years.

Never mind that horny octopus, this is the big talking point in the Oceans at the moment;

Nessie in Thames