Maths vs Science, FANCIERS, Elvish names

[Tabouli]

Cindy:
> Math -- What Is It Good For?

David:
> As a maths graduate, I would like to confirm that maths is indeed not 
good for anything.

As a verbal-dominant Arts graduate (double major in Mandarin and Psychology) who includes the Sciences/Humanities fence among the many she straddles (ouch!), my brain *can* be bullied into doing mathematics, but makes it very clear to me that it would much rather be doing anything else.  Anything. (as in: oo look, there's some grass growing over there!).  A good illustration of this is the fact that I walked out of my last maths exam ever in 1989 after six years of secondary school maths classes and promptly forgot every single formula I ever learnt.  Not a crumb of calculus, not a trifle of trigonometry, not an atom of algebra remained, my brain offloaded the lot as of no use or interest.  By contrast, I learnt "The Walrus and the Carpenter" in 1987 (during maths classes, in fact), and still remember all of it!

My problem with maths is that it seemed very pointless to me... they give you a handful of meaningless numbers and letters, you spend a page or so of mucking around with them, and what do you get?  More meaningless numbers and letters!  Why bother?  The beauty of symbols and numbers, ensnaring the mind, bewitching the senses, etc. only holds any interest for me if it can be *applied* to something more interesting.

On these grounds, give me science any day.  Sure, it has maths in it, but it's *interesting* maths, it *means* something!  What I'm into is communication (hence learning languages, writing HPFGU messages, etc.), and understanding (a) the natural world (I have a Tolkienesque preference for natural phenomena over machines), and (b) human behaviour.  Maths which helps me understand how we could make Mars inhabitable, or how a bird flies... now *that* is interesting.  I'm sure we only have the maths to understand these things because some people, like Drieux, are interested in numbers of the sake of numbers, but I'm happy to leave them to it and hear from them at the end when they've found a use for them!

Adana:
> I hereby petition Tabouli for a cool acronym for those of us who find 
ourselves burdened with not one but TWO fictional crushes.  Still hoping 
that somehow Mr. Mortenson will get cast in Sirius's role, so that we can 
become even further confused...<

Specifically TWO fictional crushes, or just a general group for fictional crushees?  Hmm.  Let's try to hint at David's wise reservations as well...

F.A.N.C.I.E.R.S. (Fictional And Non-existent Characters: Immeasurably Enhanceable Romantic Substitutes)

Adana:
> OK, I don't want to learn to speak Elvish, but I would like to know my Elven name...

Oo, so would I, though I'll have to sneakily check the site behind all your backs with my real name.  Somehow I don't think Elvish will have a word for a Middle Eastern parsley salad...

Tabouli.




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