Now that Oedipus had defeated Sphinx, a new monster — or rather, a big lump of protein — appears on the road to Thebes. It is covered in hairs, it pants, and it asks all passersby in a shrieking voice:

"Dude, comb my hairs so that no parting can be found -- or death!"

This is a topology problem about vector fields on a sphere. The best one can do is to comb the hairs to make everywhere smooth except one point on the ball. Remarkably, the meteorologist then deduces from the hairy ball that there must be always a cyclone somewhere on earth.

Thus we are always doomed, one way or the other.

P.S. Concepts of Modern Mathematics has a lively discussion on the hairy ball.

— 2005. 11. 12