Mathematical DYN in 2ACV07

Hello...

Is Futurama supposed to contain mathematical jokes?

In the scene where Fry's head and Amy discuss breaking up in the supply cupboard, there are two binders/books/boxes labelled 'P' and 'NP' in the bottom left of the picture. I think this is referring to P and NP problems. I'm no expert in this (it's computer science, and I'm a physics student...) but I found some interesting stuff with Google at http://www.cs.unb.ca/~alopez-o/comp-faq/faq.html - scroll down to 'P vs NP'. Something you may have heard of - the so-called 'travelling salesman' problem is a good example of an NP-hard problem, where the time required to solve the problem increases at a tremendous rate when the complexity is only slighly increased.

Could this be some subtle reference to the difficulty of 'doing the right thing' regarding romantic situations, particularly those with a larger number of people involved? Or a reference to Bender's computer dating service? Why bother expending so many processor cycles finding Mr/Miss Right, when you can get a rough approximation in far less time? :-)

I can't think of any other explanation for the letters 'P' and 'NP' - or am I overlooking something terribly obvious?

I loved the 2001 reference, BTW. Was it the first in Futurama so far? Time to get out my ruler and check that the proportions of the monolith are correct - it should be 1^2 by 2^2 by 3^2... :-)

Bye...

Adam Foster

In article ,

(remainder snipped...)

And I thought I was doing good to get the "discreet and discrete" thing...

(scratches head and walks away...)

Hello...

In article , brian tivol wrote:

And what is its significance? :-) Time to go looking...

(snip)

But there's a third, similar-looking box - but the label is conveniently blocked by Amy's arm. Could this signify some kind of upcoming revolution in mathematics? Interesting... :-)

Then again, the mysterious Third Box might be labelled 'Corn Plasters' or 'Bunion Ointment', and have nothing whatsoever to do with mathematics.

BTW, does anyone hnow anything about the 'Emergency Beans' and 'Emergency Milk'? Google didn't come up with anything particularly significant, except that they might be for use 'in the unlikely event of a military attack or some other national disaster'. Could Farnsworth be prepared for the next alien invasion of Earth? :-)

I think you've got the real meaning of the joke, unlike me and my inane ramblings. If I rabbit on long enough, I might say something meaningful, but that's highly unlikely. ('It was the best of times, it was the blurst of times...')

The great things about stuff like this in Futurama (and the Simpsons) is that it goes way over the heads of approximately 99.999% of the viewers' heads, but that doesn't stop it going in.

I've found that the humour in Futurama goes past way too quickly to catch it all in one viewing - it has to be watched many, many times before it can be fully appreciated. Perhaps it should come with a warning...

'This is High Density Humour - for use by trained personnel only.'

Adam Foster

On 14 Feb 2000, Adam Foster wrote:

I'll have to have another look at the tape, but I could swear it said emergency MILT, not milk. I'll leave it to the reader to look up that word in the dictionary and tell me what sort of emergencies might require its use...

Worst part is, now I thought of a MILT pun based on that M & M candy slogan ("Melts in your mouth, not in your hand"), and I can't get it to go away!

Hello...

David Garcia wrote:

Time to check the somewhat fuzzy RealVideo version (I'm on the other side of the Atlantic, OK? Getting these DYNs is particularly hard for me, since I have to get my eyesight round compression artifacts... :) )

It says 'CONDENSED MILT'. Ewww... Could we have discovered where Zoidberg's, um, 'male jelly' went from 2ACV05?

I really, really don't want to know why Farnsworth kept it if that's the case...

On the other hand, I'd love to see what Farnsworth has collected over the years. Most of the interior of the Planet Express building is as yet unaccounted for.

BTW, are these posts appearing alright? I'm reading alt.tv.futurama through www.remarq.com, and posting through slrn via my university's wonderfully reliable news server - it gets approximately 10% of alt.tv.futurama, a lot of which is posted by me. I just hope I'm getting the headers right... :)

Bye...

Adam Foster

I thought it was funny when Bender's butt exploded.

"Adam Foster" wrote in message news:[email]...

Would that be an example of 'high density humor'?

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I love Futurama because of it's numerous subtle jokes, they're very witty, but it's sort of like Futurama's Austin Powers 1, while the Simpsons (S4-S8) is like Austin Powers 2. Simpsons/AP2- Tons of rip-roaring laughter. Futurama/AP1: You're fresh, witty, subtle, and clever, now can we get to some good 'ole belly laughs? I guess this post makes me look moronic. I'm not really bashing Futurama in any way though. Every episode except 2 or 3 are near perfection.