this one's for you, disclaimerwill

[fflo]

Crossing AXH's desk this morning (drum roll).... the hairy ball theorem! 6 hits in MSN.

Kinda looks like it boils down to the notion that every continuous vector field on $S^2$ has a zero. Whatever that means.

Comments

[disclaimerwill.livejournal.com]

That one got a very noisy "Heee hee!" from me that made Novi the cockatiel squeak with curiosity. Thanks! :)

[paperkingdoms]

Yes, yes it does. It means, roughly, that if you had a sphere covered with hair, and tried to make it all lie down flat with, say, a hairbrush... you couldn't. There'd have to be an odd spot somewhere where stuff stuck up.

Thus you have topologists announcing that "you can't comb the hair on a bowling ball"... and feeling very clever for it. ;^)

[We actually used this fact in one of my classes a week or so ago.]

[altamont.livejournal.com]

Thus you have topologists announcing that "you can't comb the hair on a bowling ball"... and feeling very clever for it. ;^)

Heck, The King could'a told ya how to handle that one. Thankyaverramuch.

[paperkingdoms]

::grin::

[fflo.livejournal.com]

Pomade and pumice always put a song in my heart...

TODD: And what may I do for you, sir? A stylish trimming of the hair? A soothing skin massage?
JUDGE (Sings):
You see, sir, a man infatuate with love,
Her ardent and eager slave.
So fetch the pomade and pumice stone
And lend me a more seductive tone,
A sprinkling perhaps of French cologne,
But first, sir, I think --- a shave.
TODD: The closest I ever gave.
(He whips the sheet over the JUDGE, then tucks the bib in. The JUDGE hums, flicking imaginary dust off the sheet; TODD whistles gaily)
JUDGE: You are in a merry mood today, Mr. TODD.
TODD (Sings, mixing lather):
'Tis your delight, sir, catching fire
From one man to the next.
JUDGE:
'Tis true, sir, love can still inspire
The blood to pound, the heart leap higher.
BOTH:
What more, what more can man require �
JUDGE:
Than love, sir?
TODD:
More than love, sir.
JUDGE:
What, sir?
TODD:
Women.
JUDGE:
Ah yes, women.
TODD:
Pretty women.

[fflo.livejournal.com]

Ah. So you try to comb the balls with a hairbrush. I'll pass that along at work!

[paperkingdoms]

I'm sure that'll make it all better. ;^)

[altamont.livejournal.com]

Das ewige weibliche zieht uns hinan. Faith, her privates we. In the ghetto...

Hmmmm, _I_ saw that one! The original production (Sweeney Todd, for those just joining us in progress) had one of the coolest openings, the music rises on a piss-yellow, smoky stage partially backgrounded by a semi-transparent scrim bearing a HUGE reproduction of the Victorian Beehive, which is yanked to the ground by a scruffy type as the whistle blasts. Wayyyy effective.

[fflo.livejournal.com]

Incredifuckin'ble. I TOO saw the original Broadway prod! I was a teenager. It was my second show---the first had been the fantab, great-set "On The Twentieth Century," with John Cullum and a understudy for Madeline Kahn (Judy Somethin'... what was her name... she did the book-on-tape of something i saw a while ago) and the young dapper Kevin Kline in a supporting role with lotsa prat fall goofiness. Oh, and 4 tap dancing porters singing train metaphors, and the ONE & ONLY Imogene Coca in a great role.

Then my second show, the next year, was Sweeney Todd. I was so struck right from the beginning---and that screetch of the organ whistle---practically heart-stopping. You can't reproduce the feeling on yer home stereo, that's for sure. Atmospheric don't convey the half of it, fer sure.

Of course Angela was great, and we loved all the bawdiness and verbal play. We being me & my classmates---had this great teacher, a regular mentor to me, who brought whole other worlds into our sorta-sticks-y Maryland school. She would also just let us all go do whatever-the-fuck in NYC when the bus got us to town---sending us off with mimeographed maps of the immediate environs & saying "Meet back here before 2:00."

Unfortunately, the next year we saw a minimalist (and otherwise not very well done) revival of West Side Story, and I came to know that not all Broadway productions are like those first two.

Gonna go put yer Deutsch into babelfish now...

[altamont.livejournal.com]

If babelfish goops it, the corrected quote is

Das Ewig-Weibliche zieht uns hinan.

No doubt by the rolling of your eyes you've gotten the citation by now, but try googling it elsewise.

[fflo.livejournal.com]

ah, ja... naturlich Babelfish object-form-for-"it" gegoopt. Aber nur un picito. (utterly guessing at spelling there) (my brief stint of studying German did not result, to say the least, in fluency)