Ah, good 'old urban legends...
"This wonderful bit of creative writing began circulating on the Internet in
April 1998. Written by Mark Boslough as an April Fool's parody on
legislative and school board attacks on evolution in New Mexico, the author
took real statements from New Mexican legislators and school board members
supporting creationism and recast them into a fictional account detailing
how Alabama legislators had passed a law calling for the value of pi to be
set to the "Biblical value" of 3.0.
This brilliant piece of humor was originally posted to the newsgroup
talk.origins on 1 April 1998 as well as sent to a list of New Mexican
scientists and citizens interested in evolution and printed in the April
issue of the New Mexicans for Science and Reason newsletter NMSR Reports.
Its talk.origins poster followed up a day later with a full confession and
explanation of the prank, thereby allowing others to share in the fun. One
would have thought that would have been the end of it.
Ah but the Internet works in mysterious ways. Several readers forwarded the
piece to friends and posted it to other newsgroups. As the story moved
along, what would have easily identified it as a parody and not a news item
was stripped out: the attribution to "April Holiday" of the "Associmated
Press." Now it looked like a real news piece. Which is how it was received
by many.
There is not now and never has been a bill in front of the Alabama state
legislature to redefine the value of pi. With one exception, none of the
names given in this fanciful account stand up to scrutiny.
The one exception is Guy Hunt. He is a former governor of Alabama, convicted
in 1993 for diverting $200,000 from his inaugural fund to his personal use.
Though the claim about the Alabama state legislature is pure nonsense, it is
similar to an event that happened more than a century ago. In 1897 the
Indiana House of Representatives unanimously passed a measure redefining the
area of a circle and the value of pi. (House Bill no. 246, introduced by
Rep. Taylor I. Record.) The bill died in the state Senate."
For more funny urban legends, I suggest visiting http://www.snopes.com
Jeremy Blosser
-----Original Message-----
From: Olivier Langlois [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Friday, February 04, 2000 3:15 AM
To: Mersenne mailing list (E-mail)
Subject: Mersenne: FW: what do you think about the authenticity of this?
Is this story really ??
Where is going our society ?? :-)
<snip>
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