A demolishing criticism <http://scientopia.org/blogs/goodmath/2010/11/16/grandiose-crackpottery-proves-pi4/> of Miles Mathis, particularly on his paper about Pi being 4 <http://milesmathis.com/pi.html> (among many other things, Miles shows that Pi equals four, with an elegant(and wrong) "proof", which basically boils down to this <http://28.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lbxrvcK4pk1qbylvso1_400.png>)
I was fooled by a number of factors: his appearance of grandiosity, his vast work, originality of thought in many cases, and also the relative internal consistency of many of his ideas. But most of them do not stand closer scrutiny, and that was evident relatively soon. Anyway, it was fun while it lasted, and I learnt some things(seriously) and got some useful ideas. I also got a rugged skin. Mathis is not run of the mill. Far from that. I contacted him pointing errors in his arguments, and he refused to acknowledge any, or to correct or expurge anything published on his web site. Although he acknowledged to me that he's aware that he probably has done many mistakes, he kindly said that he nevertheless believes everything published on his web site at the moment stand as correct(!), and as so, does not need any amend. At this point, I'm sure he's aware of his many errors, but I suppose he enjoys making fools of some of us. He's certainly making a fool of himself. A big one, that's for sure. Mauro
