Schadenfreude's a bitch, ain't it?
January 13, 2004 6:29 PM   Subscribe

Marilyn is Wrong! Because your life doesn't contain enough nitpicking.
posted by Johnny Assay (25 comments total)
 
Hope this isn't a double — it looks like it's been around for a while, but the search didn't turn up anything.
posted by Johnny Assay at 6:31 PM on January 13, 2004


On the hole through the sphere question, they get lost in a bunch of calculus - triple integrals, etc. You don't need any calculus whatsoever to solve it - I've got an old Martin Gardner book which reprints a SciAm colum with a blessedly simple answer. My point being, what a bunch of whiners. Entertaining site, though...
posted by notsnot at 6:51 PM on January 13, 2004


Jesus has a 300

i remember my old Guinness book listed J.S. Mill.

does it belong to Sidis now?
posted by clavdivs at 6:57 PM on January 13, 2004


Yeah, search the articles and boards of the Straight Dope (praise cecil) and you'll find lot's of examples of her being wrong. Mind you, I guess she feels a certain obligation to always act like she's right because of her name.

I mean, that's the name she was born with, right?
right?
posted by lumpenprole at 7:45 PM on January 13, 2004


It's not nice to fool with Marilyn!
posted by mischief at 7:48 PM on January 13, 2004


You found that while looking for the floating hourglass didn't you? :)
posted by riffola at 7:54 PM on January 13, 2004


Right in one, riffola. Ain't synergy great?
posted by Johnny Assay at 8:39 PM on January 13, 2004


Gee, and there's nothing newer than 2000 there. It completely omits the column that made me vow in disgust never to read her again.

I guess beyond a certain point showing that an alleged genius is an idiot looses its charm.
posted by ilsa at 9:00 PM on January 13, 2004


Well don't leave us hanging, ilsa! What was the egregious 2000 column?
posted by Dreama at 9:53 PM on January 13, 2004


She has a high IQ, which means she probably can pick up on things a bit better / faster than your average joe. It doesn't mean she was born with all of the knowledge in the whole world. Give the poor woman a break. If you think she answers those questions without looking them up you're nuts.
posted by banished at 9:54 PM on January 13, 2004


It completely omits the column that made me vow in disgust never to read her again.

Wow, I came to that conclusion over a decade ago.
posted by rushmc at 10:37 PM on January 13, 2004


Most of this stuff is pretty annoyingly nitpicky, but did she really try to argue that Andrew Wiles didn't prove Fermat's last theorem because he used non-euclidian geometry? Not only would that betray a profound ignorance about how mathematics works, but journalism as well. Couldn't she be bothered to phone up an actual mathematician to check if her argument had any merit whatsoever?
posted by electro at 10:43 PM on January 13, 2004


Fred Moolten smacked that bitch down! here
posted by Tryptophan-5ht at 11:43 PM on January 13, 2004


Marilyn is often wrong.

And I once had an IQ test well over 200, too, just like lots of other people. Once you get over about 170 on the S-B, the accuracy of the scores is questionable; they flare all over. Marilyn got a higher freak score on the test than the high freak scores of other people who are also extremely good at tests, and whoever administered the test to her got all excited rather than understanding that it was an artifact of the test and scoring system.

"Vos Savant" was, I believe, the last name her mother was born with (don't know if Mom ever changed her last name, but I think that Marilyn was known by her father's less felicitous last name in her youth).

About the Wiles thing--there are plenty of "actual mathematicians" who have beef with his proof/methods/etc. My ex was a Ph. D. student in mathematics around the time of the Wiles proof and it was not uncontroversial.

Not that I'm agreeing with Marilyn, because I hate her (if she's so damn smart, why does she have the world's lamest 1970s porn-star hairdo?)
posted by Sidhedevil at 12:25 AM on January 14, 2004


Let the IQ cock-measuring begin...
posted by spazzm at 2:22 AM on January 14, 2004


Let the IQ cock-measuring begin...

7.
posted by vito90 at 6:05 AM on January 14, 2004


Hey, I have no cock to measure!

Seriously, I've taken about a dozen IQ tests, and most of them were, you know, the normally high scores that people who are really good at tests get. But the SB is so weird a testing instrument that a really high flare is just not that uncommon, and sensible people realize it's just an artifact.

Also, I do not commit the fallacy of confusing "good at tests" with "actually intelligent in any useful way". I am not quite as useless to society as William James Sidis, but almost.
posted by Sidhedevil at 8:55 AM on January 14, 2004


However, my hair is much better than Marilyn's. Much. In that arena, at least, I will take on all comers.
posted by Sidhedevil at 8:56 AM on January 14, 2004


However, my hair is much better than Marilyn's. Much. In that arena, at least, I will take on all comers.

You might want to consider rephrasing this, given the context you established above of "1970s porn stars."
posted by rushmc at 9:02 AM on January 14, 2004


See what I mean about not being intelligent in any useful way?

On the brighter side, think how much I save on appliance repair.
posted by Sidhedevil at 9:04 AM on January 14, 2004


Like lumpenprole, I've always wondered about her name too. It's a funny coincidence otherwise....
posted by dabitch at 9:08 AM on January 14, 2004


Dreama:

This quote, taken out of a column that I unfortunately cannot find in its entirety, in which she discusses (or perhaps disgusts) teenage non-conformity, and in fact justifies ill treatment of anybody who is "different":

"We encourage and admire people who reject bad examples, resist mediocrity and develop their personal strengths. But nonconformists simply try to be different from everyone, including the good, better and best. This is a lazy, negative way to be an individual. No wonder they get no respect."

To me this quote is evidence that either Marilyn is not half as smart as she wants us to beleive, or she never atttended high school.
posted by ilsa at 10:36 AM on January 14, 2004


As any good D&D geek will tell you, Intelligence and Wisdom are different stats.
posted by inpHilltr8r at 3:19 PM on January 14, 2004


"there are plenty of "actual mathematicians" who have beef with his proof/methods/etc" -- i question this statement. wiles's proof of fermat's last theorem is (as of 2004) widely accepted by the mathematical community. to believe otherwise, i'd have to see examples of respected mathematicians who dispute the proof's validity.
posted by jcruelty at 3:32 PM on January 14, 2004


If she's so damn smart, why is she writing for Parade magazine?
posted by jonp72 at 6:06 PM on January 14, 2004


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