Fetch (game)
Fetch is a game usually played with a dog. An object, such as a stick or ball, is thrown a moderate distance away from the animal, and it is the animal's objective to grab and retrieve it. Many times, the owner of the animal will say "Fetch" to the animal before or after throwing the object. In rare instances, cats, especially younger cats, have been known to engage in fetch behavior.
Mathematics of Fetch
Arizona State psychology professor Michael McBeath has proposed a simple model to explain how dogs play Fetch. By mounting a camera on the head of a dog, he found that the dog changed its speed and direction in order to keep the frisbee's image in a constant position on its retina. This approach, called the Linear Optical Trajectory, makes the frisbee appear to move in a linear path at a constant speed. McBeath had previously noticed this interception strategy in professional baseball players pursuing fly balls.
Tim Pennings, a mathematics professor at Hope College, has found that dogs are somehow able to calculate the optimal path to a ball thrown in the water. While playing Fetch with his Welsh Corgi, he noticed that the dog ran along the beach for a certain distance before jumping into the water. Because the dog is faster on land, this technique minimizes the total retrieval time. He showed that the dog is able to calculate the optimal point to jump into the water with statistical significance, a problem Pennings must resort to calculus to solve.
Fetch (geography)
The fetch, also called the fetch length, is the length of water over which a given wind has blown. Fetch is used in geography and meteorology and its effects are usually associated with sea state and when it reaches shore it is the main factor that creates storm surge which leads to coastal erosion and flooding. It also plays a large part in longshore drift as well.
Fetch length, along with the wind speed (wind strength), determines the size (sea state) of waves produced. The wind direction is considered constant. The longer the fetch and the faster the wind speed, the more wind energy is imparted to the water surface and the larger the resulting sea state will be.
See also
Fetch (folklore)
A fetch is a supernatural double or an apparition of a living person in Irish folklore. It is largely akin to the doppelgänger, and sightings are regarded as omens, usually for impending death. The origin of the term is unclear.
Description
The fetch is described as an exact, spectral double of a living human, whose appearance is regarded as ominous. As such, it is similar to the Germanic doppelgänger, and to some conceptions of the British wraith.Francis Grose associated the term with Northern England in his 1787 Provincial Glossary, but otherwise it seems to have been in popular use only in Ireland. A sighting of a fetch is generally taken as a portent of its exemplar's looming death, though John and Michael Banim report that if the double appears in the morning rather than the evening, it is instead a sign of a long life in store.
The etymology is obscure. It may derive from the verb "fetch"; the compound "fetch-life", evidently referring to a psychopomp who "fetches" the souls of the dying, is attested in Richard Stanyhurst's 1583 translation of the Aeneid. Alternately, the word may derive from fæcce, found in two Old English glossaries. In both texts, fæcce is glossed for mære, a spirit associated with death and nightmares. The word may be Old English in origin, though it would have been atypical for the author to gloss one English word with another. He seems to have regarded it as a Latin word, though it is unattested in Latin. Instead, it may be Irish, which could be the origin of the Hiberno-English fetch.
Slime
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Gunge
Gunge as it is known in the British Isles, or slime as it is known in America and most English-speaking areas of the world, is a thick, gooey, yet runny substance with a consistency somewhere between that of paint and custard. It has been a feature on many children's programmes for many years around the world and has made appearances in game shows as well as other programming. While gunge mostly appears on television, it can also be used as a fundraising tool for charities, youth and religious groups. Gunge tanks have appeared at nightclubs and Fun Days. The British charities Comic Relief and Children in Need, supported by the BBC, have used gunge for fundraising in the past. In America, slime is sometimes associated with Nickelodeon, even having several game shows revolving around it, such as Slime Time Live. In most countries, being gunged is seen as a forfeit with the aim to cause embarrassment. In contrast, being slimed in America can be a good thing as well as a bad thing. Overall the main point of being gunged or slimed is to cause mess.
Slime (Dragon Quest)
The Slime is the mascot of the Dragon Quest role-playing video game franchise. Originally inspired by the game Wizardry to be a weak and common monster for the video game Dragon Quest, Slime has appeared in almost every Dragon Quest game since. The character's popularity led to the appearance of many varieties of slimes, including boss characters, and even emerging as the protagonist of the Rocket Slime video game series.
The Slime has been placed on a multitude of different kinds of merchandise. The Slime's friendliness, limited power, and appealing form have caused the Slime to become a popular character and symbol of the Dragon Quest series.
Character design
The inspiration for the Slime came to Yuji Horii, the creator of Dragon Quest, from a role-playing game called Wizardry. "I was really hooked on 'Wizardy,' the PC game, ... There's...slime-looking characters ..., so I got the inspiration from it. I was doodling the slime-looking character and I took it to Mr. Toriyama, who did the character design, and he made it the Slime we see today." Horii said that when it was originally conceived, the Slime was "a pile of goo", but Toriyama's design came back as a tear-drop which they considered "perfect".
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