>>> Spherical Cow is really an idiom, and arguably not a normal adjective-noun >>> pair. >> Justify it all you want, it still sounds like "Copying Ubuntu" to me. > > Dudes, it's just a name. > Please, focus on technical. I'm late to this (all-important) thread, but I haven't seen anybody mention the origin of the term "spherical cow". It's a physics joke, or, maybe better, a joke about physicists. The world is a complicated place, and to make any progress in analyzing it, physicists (and other scientists) have to resort to simplifying assumptions. E.g., the earth and the sun are not really spheres, but if you ignore that geometric subtlety, you can do some reasonable calculations about the gravitational interaction of the sun and the earth. Non-physicists tend to view this approach as a simplistic retreat from reality. Hence, the joke: A physics professor says to the class, "consider a spherical cow of mass M". -- Mike -- users mailing list users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx To unsubscribe or change subscription options: https://admin.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/users Guidelines: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mailing_list_guidelines Have a question? Ask away: http://ask.fedoraproject.org
