Is one side of a quarter biased to the other? I’ve heard stories saying it’s either biased towards tails, or it depends on the coin.
The guy whom ‘Patch Adams’ was based on(i forget his name)… whatever happened to him and his hospital base? I heard he got in trouble for taking a chunk of the donations for himself, but I’ve heard nothing more.
Just why are the Buckingham Palace gaurds so stiff and rigid?(i guess they’re better than Al Gore, since they don’t talk as much)
Oh, you mean, Patch Adams? That is his real name. I think his real given name is John, but I’m not sure. http://www.patchadams.org/ is the Gesundheit! Institute’s website.
On most coins, the heads treat the tails as second-class citizens. The most common exception is the Susan B. Anthony dollar, which has 13 sides, leading to a state of complete anarchy.
Bob the Random Expert
“If we don’t have the answer, we’ll make one up.”
According to James Cameron, in an interview in American Cinematographer magazine, the character was based on bits of some real people’s stories, but in fact that person did not exist. HOWEVER- he says that he did meet a survivor who threw pottery, and was doing this when he met her. This inspired the moment near the beginning of the film where Rose is throwing a ceramic pot.
I’m not sure it was a ship, I think it was a concept first…
Typer
Last time I was outside the gates of Buckingham palace, the Royal Guards were possitively antsy; yawning, scratching their asses, etc. I guess they only bring out the really stiff ones for “road” episodes of your favorite sit-coms. (Is it at all possible for a long running show to avoid the obligatory visit to London?)
The Beefeaters (Buckingham palace guards) only really come out for the formal events at te main gates. Otherwise you have to go look for them I forget if they hang at the side gates or at somewhere else. But the reason they’re so stiff is that if they blink, then who knows what sort of nutz might run off with the queen! Then where would he be? hung for treason, that’s where.
If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit.
Actually, the Beefeaters are the guards at the Tower of London and they are not required to stand at attention (in fact, they are defacto tour guides). The Palace Guards are to be found at Buckingham palace. There are always at least two on duty at all times. A gate prevents tourists from getting any closer than 50 feet to them. An episode of “I Love Lucy” would suggest that this wasn’t always the case.
By the way the guards at the Tower of London don’t like to be called “Beefeaters”. Their real title is “Yeoman Warders” (sp?) and for gods sake dont complement them on their “Costumes” it a uniform!
Ive always found it easer to get forgiveness rather than permission.
The “beefeaters” (Yeoman Warders) go way back to when the Tower of London was the main royal palace. That made them the main royal guards, and that made them a special elite unit. They got better rations than the rest of the army, including a daily (I think) dose of beef.
Nowadays, of course, they’re as much tourist guides as anything else, but it’s still a special honor to be made one. I guess the nearest US equivalent would be being on the crew of the U.S.S. Constitution.
John W. Kennedy
“Compact is becoming contract; man only earns and pays.”
– Charles Williams
Beefeaters did get their name from their special status, and the rations that came with that status. Today, however, beefeaters are still the cream of the crop. Most are decorated combat veterans with loads of experience. Same goes with the palace guards.
Keep an eye on C-SPAN; they occasionally show the changing of the guard, and while many do show a certain nonchalance, you’ll notice that at least a few of those red-coated guys are toting some mean looking bayoneted automatic weapons somewhere under that bushy bear hat. The position is not merely ceremonial.
A coin that has significantly more metal on one side vs the other (due to different designs on each side) should theoretically be biased a bit towards the lighter side. In practice, variations in flip, aerodynamic drag, and other factors are going to completely swamp this so it would never be exploitable.
If you had a machine that flipped a coin at random speeds in a vacuum, after tens of thousands of flips you might see a small difference in results.
Dr. Patch Adams is real. His first name is Hunter, BTW. He operates the Gesundheit Institute and he has a large waiting list of doctors who wish to abandon their practices to join in his cause.
