Petr Beckmann wrote a great book about Pi. See below:
There are details on the story about when a legislator (from Indiana) tried to make–by force of law–Pi exactly equal to three, as there is a Biblical precedent that Pi exactly equals three from 2 Chronicles, 4:2.
I read this legislator’s mathematical reasoning, and he seems unable to distinguish between applied mathematics and pure mathematics, as he wants to reconcile this Biblical falsehood by deducting the width of the ink line used to draw a circle from the diameter of the circle itself so that we only consider what is enclosed by the circle rather than the whole circle . . . whatever the hell that means.
Also, California was recently considering legislating the value of Pi. Please see below:
Sometimes, I wish I could understand people better.
It bothers me that our leaders can be so stupid, and it bothers me that our populace must be so stupid that we keep electing idiots into office.
Yeah right? It seems like a hopeless problem.
That’s why “god has no grandchildren”. Everyone has to reinvent the wheel, it seems. We refuse to learn from each other. Or most of us do. The only hope is the few who DO learn from each other, and from history, and carry the light forward imperfectly to the next generation, and that is why all this is playing a VERY long game.
Perhaps too long, considering the approaching brick wall of climate change. There are now people talking about us sailing past 3 or 4C and being in a terminal situation as a species as soon as the mid 2050s. Others put it further out, but it does seem sometimes like we are munching popcorn during the End of Days (just not the version envisioned by Christianity).
I agree with you.
It sickens me what we’ve done to this planet and to ourselves, and how we just don’t seem to care.
I wish I could feel some shred of hope for my species, but I really don’t.
I also think it’s awful that it seems likely that we will take the dolphins and whales (intelligent beings in their own right) with us . . . not to mention the great apes.
I should probably start taking Prozac or Welbutrin.
My late / previous wife was disabled with various chronic illnesses and knock-ons therefrom and to make it even more fun she had to go through a disability review every couple of years. They seemed obsessed with determining whether or not she was “depressed”, probably because if she was “just depressed” they could kick her off disability. The shrink they sent her to said words to this effect in his report: “Of COURSE she has reactive depression. She’s in a a bad situation. I’d be worried about her sanity if she WEREN’T depressed.” I think about that man every now and again, and bless him every time I do. We were so grateful for that respectful and supportive assessment.
One can and should take appropriate meds for clinical depression, but we shouldn’t lose sight that depression is also a perfectly normal reaction to actual bad things, and not just a floating bad feeling about nothing in particular.
I’m watching the shit show in LA right now and there would be something wrong with me if I didn’t have a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. This is a setup and a trap, probably both an attempt to cow people planning to protest during Shitler’s military revue parade next Saturday, and to begin creating the pretext for martial law by fomenting or manufacturing violence.
Paradoxically IMO it’s better to look this stuff straight on and be realistic about it, and process it rather than avoid, deflect or repress it. Because that way lies the only chances I have to respond in the best possible ways to it all.
I am very sorry for your loss. How long were you two married?
13 years. She died in '07.
Again, very sorry for your loss.
Religion rears its ugly head here too. There are many religious nutjobs who feel that either we’re in the “end times” and the world will end soon, so no need to take care of it, and there are other similar nutjobs who think their god won’t allow them to destroy the earth or its ecosystems, so therefore there’s no need to take care of it.
Agree 100%.
Also, the religious nutjobs don’t believe in the fossil record and the idea that extinction is the rule . . . not the exception.
I really think I need prozac.
The same nutjobs, mostly, also believe that God has given man “dominion over” the earth, or in other words, a license to do with it as they please. This “dominionism” has, since the early 1960s, been increasingly extended to the realm of politics, producing, in the US … whatever THIS is.