Tuesday, April 19

My Neighbor's New Puppy - A Must Read Post

My neighbor Susan got a puppy.  It’s a yellow Labrador retriever.  His name is Buddy and he frolics.  Mid-morning, every day, Susan takes Buddy for a walk.  They set out down the sidewalk and Susan steps forward and something catches Buddy’s eye, he stops, takes a step in the opposite direction of Susan, turns and trots around in a circle with the leash following him, winding around Susan’s legs.  After Susan extricates herself from the leash/human knot, they start afresh and try again.  Susan walks in a straight line and Buddy trots off to the left, then zigzags across to the right, then stops, sits, then stands up, leaps forward and bounds down the street at breakneck speed with Susan trailing after him shouting “Buddy, walk, walk Buddy!”  Eventually Buddy walks again, but not in a straight line as instructed.

Friday, April 15

What time is it in Beijing, Qinhai and California?

And here's one for all the wimps in California. The entire country of China is on the same time zone, which for the life of me I can't figure out. China is huuuuuggggeeee (<-West - East->, North - no arrow on the keyboard for up). It crosses a ton of meridians, longitudes and latitudes. So, here is the quadratic equation question:

</Proof
If the sun rises in the East and sets in the West (at least that's the excuse in California)

And you live in Beijing (which is North East'ish)

And it is 9:00am in Beijing when presumably the sun is out (If it isn’t engulfed by a thick cloud of factorial pollution clouds)

Then what does everyone in Qinhai (which is West'ish) do at 9:00am when presumably it is still dark?
End Proof> }

Do the Qinhaians all get up in the dark and go to work when in the moon is out, while the Beijingers get up in the light when the sun is out?

This wouldn't surprise me since all of the government officials live in Beijing and they would want to get up in the light and could care less about the common man in Qinhai.  Do all the Qinhaians have little eye pillows from the Body Shop or blackout shades for their little pagoda huts, so that they can go to sleep at night?  Or, do the people in the west give the proverbial head nod to the Communist rule and get up at say 11:00am when the sun is out and go to bed at 11:00pm when it finally gets dark? (I would probably need to live in Qinhai, that schedule would work better with my biological clock). I thought we were all getting up with the sun because we had to go out and work in the fields in 1810, so we just stuck with it which has really worked out well since all of the kids have to catch the early bus to school and we wouldn't want them to wait outside in the morning in the dark and obviously, the Californians are all a bunch of wimps and they need their own special time zone.

Bonus Question:
What about Tibet? China thinks it owns Tibet and Tibet is all, "Oh no you didn't” so what time is it in Tibet?