Pondering the futility of life

For anyone who may have seen the Colbert Report on Wednesday night... crushing a donut into a sphere isn't a "continuous deformation" of the donut, which is another way of saying that it falls outside the scope of the Poincare conjecture. The gag here is that you aren't allowed to close gaps in an object either- you cannot tear nor mend a tear.

I am not a topologist. A topologist who heard me use the phrase "continuous deformation" would probably grimace in pain, because I am not using this technical term precisely correctly. It's only a small step up from the "without tearing" phrasing favored in the popular press. But my point here is, crushing something into a ball doesn't count.

Stephen is correct that rabbits, and every other vertebrate I can think of, have at least one hole in the topological sense.

In other news, I feel like hell.




( In which I expand on the feeling like hell. Contains self-pity. )