Brilliant real-world “analysis”:http://www.bioteach.ubc.ca/quarterly/?p=108 with sound axioms. “Von Neumann”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_von_Neumann would have been proud. First, I thought it was similar to “The Journal of Irreproducible Results,”:http://www.jir.com/ but “The Science Creative Quarterly”:http://www.bioteach.ubc.ca/quarterly/ is actually solid in its sciences. Of course, it’s the applications that count. In this case, it boils down to this approximately optimal algorithm:

In the morning John leaves the seat up after performing #1. In the evening he puts it down.