Congresswoman Martha Roby (R-Ala.) is sponsoring HR 205, The Geometric Simplification Act, declaring the Euclidean mathematical constant of pi to be precisely 3. The bill comes in response to data and rankings from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, rating the United States' 15 year-olds 25th in the world in mathematics.
OECD is celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2011, and the Paris-based NGO released its international educational rankings, placing the US in a three-way tie for math, equaling Portugal and Ireland, just beneath No. 24 Luxembourg.
"That long-held empirical value of pi, I am not saying it should be necessarily viewed as wrong, but 3 is a lot better," said Roby, the 34-year old legislator representing Alabama's second congressional district, ushered into office in the historic 2010 Republican mid-term bonanza.
"It's no panacea, but this legislation will point us in the right direction. Looking at hard data, we know our children are struggling with a heck of a lot of the math, including the geometry incorporating pi," Roby said. "I guarantee you American scores will go up once pi is 3. It will be so much easier."
The dawn of idiocracy is upon us. Head for the hills. Addendum - Despite my sobreity now, I still hold to this statement. The question is who does it apply to me or the Republicans.
11 comments:
If you read the whole thing I think you would probably agree that it obviously isn't "for real"...
Poe's law FTW I guess
It is under comedy section, so: not real
Read more carefully. It's satire, in the Huffpost Comedy section.
It's satire.
It's somewhat believable though. Which is almost as bad.
OOps I guess that's what happens when you read the internet with one too many Fall Manhattans.
Gotta be careful with these things ;-) There's been more than one situation involving a tirade against op-eds posted on The Onion!
This essay appeared today ruminating about the anti-science tendencies of the right:
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/stephen-pizzo/35147/are-you-smarter-than-your-senators
In 2004 writer Ron Susskind published this quote from a Bush official, possibly Karl Rove:
The aide said that guys like me were "in what we call the reality-based community," which he defined as people who "believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality." ... "That's not the way the world really works anymore," he continued. "We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors…and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do."
I did have a MODS prof once who wrote a single equation across three chalkboards, then walked across striking things out saying "that's negligible, that goes to 1, these two cancel out (etc.) and PI IS EXACTLY THREE!!!"
@Edward Thanks for the link.
@Emma That's hilarious.
You know, I wished I'd had the too many manhattans excuse for posting this to my fb after first reading it here... :)
I will admit that the fact that as a Canadian myself, I was quick to believe this story (albeit I obviously didn't read it very carefuly), is probably not a good thing. I'm sorry, Americans, for jumping to conclusions that anything crazy like that could happen in the US.. :)
AGM
@AGM Sorry about that. I really did enjoy the Manhattans. Must get more.
Post a Comment