science

Save Toby

Save Toby is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Save Toby rather than just read about it. In short: Save Toby was a joke website. The premise of the site was that the website's anonymous webmasters would eat Toby, a pet rabbit, unless they received $50,000 in donations to care for it.

Key takeaways

Save Toby belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Save Toby to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Save Toby from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Save Toby was a joke website. The premise of the site was that the website's anonymous webmasters would eat Toby, a pet rabbit, unless they received $50,000 in donations to care for it. The website also spawned a book, fully titled: Save Toby: Only YOU have the power to save Toby!

SaveToby.com The website was created near the beginning of 2005. The website claimed that the owner found Toby wounded outside his home, and nursed the rabbit back to health, not believing it would survive. However, it did, and he was unable to afford to care for him. The website then claimed that, unless he received $50,000 in US dollars to pay for its care, he would eat the rabbit. The money could be either donated directly, or through purchasing "Save Toby" merchandise. The website includes several pictures of Toby, as well as many recipes that can be used to prepare and cook rabbit. The webmasters have remained anonymous, claiming they have received death threats. They go by the names "James" and "Brian"; however, "James" admits his name is a pseudonym. The original deadline for receiving the money was June 30, 2005. When the deadline passed, they extended it to November 6, 2006, claiming that problems with PayPal made it impossible for people to donate money and that it was the only fair thing to do for Toby. It was later changed to Thanksgiving Day, 2006, because of the release of the book. In December 2006, the site announced that humor/games website bored.com had purchased the website, and therefore Toby had been saved. It is claimed that over $24,000 was collected by the website.

Save Toby: Only YOU have the power to save Toby! The book was released in September 2005. The book made a new threat: if 100,000 copies of the book were not sold, Toby would be eaten at Thanksgiving dinner. The number of copies of the book sold is unknown. The book includes pictures of Toby, and various recipes for cooking rabbit. It also has instructions on how to run a similar site.

Public response & legitimacy

The website received media attention throughout the United States and in other countries. Toby was also featured on NBC Nightly News. The website made many animal rights activists upset, claiming that the owners were engaging in animal cruelty. They attempted to have the site removed; however, the company that hosted the site, Go Daddy, claimed that there was nothing illegal about the site and that "it was perfectly legal to eat a rabbit". PayPal accounts used for donations were often frozen due to complaints about the site. There have also been questions about whether or not the site was legitimate. The owners, when asked, claimed that the site was completely serious and they would eat the rabbit. However, the nature of the website suggests it is a hoax or joke, a retelling of older jokes that threaten harm to an animal unless you buy a product (for example, National Lampoon once ran a cover with a gun aimed at a puppy, stating "If You Don't buy This Magazine, We'll Kill This Dog"). There were other similar websites in existence around the same time that threatened to eat a rabbit unless a monetary demand was met. One, Save Bernd!, copied Save Toby. It demanded a 1,000,000 euro ransom. The site claims that "Bernd is gone", but not that he was eaten. Small letters at the bottom of the page make it clear that "It's a joke".

Illustrations

Save Toby: The cover of the Save Toby book. — The cover of the Save Toby book.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Save Toby

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Save Toby claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Save Toby before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Save Toby ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Save Toby

In research: Save Toby appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Save Toby in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Save Toby is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2005 hoaxes, American comedy websites, Defunct websites, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Save Toby outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Save Toby in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Save Toby means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Save Toby out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Save Toby in simple terms?

Save Toby was a joke website. The premise of the site was that the website's anonymous webmasters would eat Toby, a pet rabbit, unless they received $50,000 in donations to care for it.

Why does Save Toby matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Save Toby?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Save Toby.