Subject: Re: NewYorker comment
Date: Wed, 8 Aug 2001 10:19:22 -0400 (EDT)
From: Tom Goodwillie <tomg@math.brown.edu>

Topology involves comparatively extreme distortion of objects.
Maybe some people (like Brayton) take this to mean that our subject matter
is soft, while others take it to mean either that we are
boisterous/hardheaded or that the rules we live by are
indulgent/libertarian.

Tom Goodwillie

> I thought that this placement was strange. OK, so the first column is
> yang
> and the second is yin. But shouldn't topology and geometry should be
> reversed. I am always curious about what the lay public thinks we are
> doing, but here I have no clue. Can anyone suggest how topology got in
> the
> left column? Does the author think that Erdos is a topologist?
>
> >
> > Coffee Aspect                Tea Aspect
> >
> > Male                         Female
> > Boisterous                   Decorous
> > Indulgence                   Temperance
> > Hardheaded                   Romantic
> > TOPOLOGY                     GEOMETRY
> > Heidegger                    Carnap
> > Beethoven                    Mozart
> > Libertarian                  Statist
> > Promiscuous                  Pure
> >
_________________________________________
>
Subject: RE: NewYorker comment & postdoc
Date: Wed, 8 Aug 2001 13:49:28 +0800
From: Wu Jie <matwuj@nus.edu.sg>

Just for fun. Below is my understanding for topology to be in the left
column.

According to the bible, God first created a man and then created a woman by
taking something from the man. For a space, first we have topology and then,
by adding something to it, we have geometry.

Best Regards,

Jie