Why SphericalCow.net?
Well, in college, Dave heard a really really funny joke and the punchline was "consider a spherical cow". He has since told the joke many, many, many times and he still thinks it's one of the best jokes he's ever heard - even Leah thought it was funny the first half-dozen times! It also has that cool math/science guy bent, so when Dave was dreaming about what to call his very own domain name......SphericalCow.net was born! His brother- and sister-in-law got wind of this desire, and gave this domain to him as his very own birthday gift. So, make Dave's day and email him at his brand-spankin'-new address: dave@sphericalcow.net.
The USDA once wanted to make cows produce milk
faster, to improve the dairy industry. So, they decided to consult the foremost
biologists and recombinant DNA technicians to build them a better cow. They
assembled this team of great scientists, and gave them unlimited funding. They
requested rare chemicals, weird bacteria, tons of quarantine equipment, there
was a horrible typhus epidemic they started by accident, and, 2 years later,
they came back with the "new, improved cow." It had a milk production
improvement of 2% over the original.
They then tried with the greatest Nobel Prize winning chemists around. They
worked for six months, and, after requisitioning tons of chemical equipment, and
poisoning half the small town in Colorado where they were working with a toxic
cloud from one of their experiments, they got a 5% improvement in milk output.
The physicists tried for a year, and, after ten thousand cows were subjected to
radiation therapy, they got a 1% improvement in output.
Finally, in desperation, they turned to the mathematicians. The foremost
mathematician of his time offered to help them with the problem. Upon hearing
the problem, he told the delegation that they could come back in the morning and
he would have solved the problem. In the morning, they came back, and he handed
them a piece of paper with the computations for the new, 300% improved milk cow.
The plans began: "A Proof of the Attainability of Increased Milk Output
from Bovines: Consider a spherical cow......"
credit for this version of the joke: http://saullular.tripod.com/cow/