The Times Does Geometry

We’ve had a lot of fun at the expense of the New York Times’ Corrections section, pointing out how it exposes the lack of basic, high school-level knowledge of history, literature, arithmetic and science on the part of the paper’s reporters and editors. Today’s Corrections section takes on the mysteries of geometry:

The Keeping Score column in SportsSunday on Jan. 23, about a mathematical formula for projecting the winner of the Super Bowl, misstated the application of the Pythagorean theorem, which the formula resembles. The theorem determines the length of the third side of a right triangle when the length of the two other sides is known; it is not used to determine the sum of the angles in a right triangle.

The Times is still searching for the elusive “formula” that governs the sum of the angles of a triangle.
Remember: These people think they are entitled to exercise power because they’re smarter than you!
UPDATE: Reader Paul Schlick offers to help the Times learn geometry:

In an attempt to help the MSM improve, here is some correction boilerplate the Times could use that might help them remember the intricacies of geometry:

Since our reporters and editors are often ‘obtuse’ we have an ‘acute’ problem getting the facts ‘right’. Thus we must again do a ‘180’, this time with regard to …
(insert current correction here)
While some see as hypocrisy our approach to certain issues from differing ‘angles’ depending on which ‘side’ at the moment supports our ideology, we prefer the term ‘triangulation.’

Should have warned you of a ‘metaphor alert’. Sorry.

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