04 | November | 2012 | RobertLovesPi.net

I teach geometry, so I get asked this question a lot.

Of course, the subject has many uses, from architecture to the study of ziggurats, but I don’t like to focus on tawdry, real-world uses for it. Geometry is far too important to me for its value to be measured in terms of mere utility.

Without the octadecagon and the nonagon, and my curiosity about them, for example, I never would have come up with this pattern:

Was it useful for me to do this? Such a question would miss the point completely. It was FUN to make this, and that’s why I did it. While I worked on it, I thought about absolutely nothing that bothers me. The rest of the world vanished, leaving only a mathematical pattern, and I was completely happy.

I guess one could look at this as a “use,” but — yuck — I certainly do not want to.

Why do people say this so much? There’s no voting-requirement clause in the First Amendment.

Those who choose not to vote do, indeed, have a right to complain. So do those who vote for the people who lose.

If ANYONE sacrifices their “right to complain” on election day, it should be those who vote FOR whomever wins — for those are the people who actually put the winners in office!

It bugs me when people say something over and over and over, but never stop to actually THINK about it.

Also, why are we bombarded by messages urging us to vote? I prefer to encourage people to stay home on Election Day. I don’t want everyone voting — especially not stupid people who pay no attention to what’s going on in the world.

I vote. I already have, this year, in fact. If I can ever convince everyone else not to vote, then, well, I’ll get my way on everything, won’t I?