title: scipy.test() fails with many assertion errors
body: <p>New to Scipy.</p>
  
  <p>I've installed scipy and numpy, but ween I run the scipy.test() I get many test fails. 
  I tried to find some common reasons and I have found several:</p>
  
  <pre><code>&gt;&gt;&gt; import scipy
  &gt;&gt;&gt; scipy.test()
  Running unit tests for scipy
  NumPy version 1.6.2
  NumPy is installed in /opt/local/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/numpy
  SciPy version 0.10.1
  SciPy is installed in /opt/local/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/scipy
  Python version 2.7.3 (default, Apr 19 2012, 00:55:09) [GCC 4.2.1 (Based on Apple Inc. build 5658) (LLVM build 2335.15.00)]
  nose version 1.1.2
  ...
  
  AssertionError:
  Arrays are not almost equal to 7 decimals
  ...
  AssertionError:
  Not equal to tolerance rtol=1e-10, atol=1e-305
  ...
  AssertionError: 
  Arrays are not almost equal to 4 decimals
  ...
  AssertionError: 
  Max |adiff|: 92783.6
  Max |rdiff|: 0.353942
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Sounds to me like MPI problem or something, but I would't really know.</p>
  
  <p>Any help would be greatly appreciated.</p>
  
  <p>Best, Jonathan.</p>
  
  <p>-------- EDIT ---------
  Tried it with scipy.test(verbose=10).
  Most tests seems to work fine. 
  The fails starts with an ERROR. this is what I get:</p>
  
  <pre><code>   ERROR: Failure: DeprecationWarning (
  The scipy.maxentropy module is deprecated in scipy 0.10, and scheduled to be
  removed in 0.11.
  
  If you are using some of the functionality in this module and are of the
  opinion that it should be kept or moved somewhere - or you are even interested
  to maintain/improve this whole module - please ask on the scipy-dev mailing
  list.
  
  The logsumexp function has already been moved to scipy.misc.)
  ----------------------------------------------------------------------
  Traceback (most recent call last):
    File "/usr/local/Cellar/python/2.7.3/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/nose/loader.py", line 390, in loadTestsFromName
      addr.filename, addr.module)
    File "/usr/local/Cellar/python/2.7.3/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/nose/importer.py", line 39, in importFromPath
      return self.importFromDir(dir_path, fqname)
    File "/usr/local/Cellar/python/2.7.3/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/nose/importer.py", line 86, in importFromDir
      mod = load_module(part_fqname, fh, filename, desc)
    File "/usr/local/Cellar/python/2.7.3/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/scipy/maxentropy/__init__.py", line 19, in &lt;module&gt;
      DeprecationWarning)
  DeprecationWarning: 
  The scipy.maxentropy module is deprecated in scipy 0.10, and scheduled to be
  removed in 0.11.
  
  If you are using some of the functionality in this module and are of the
  opinion that it should be kept or moved somewhere - or you are even interested
  to maintain/improve this whole module - please ask on the scipy-dev mailing
  list.
  
  The logsumexp function has already been moved to scipy.misc.
  
  ======================================================================
  FAIL: test_asum (test_blas.TestFBLAS1Simple)
  ----------------------------------------------------------------------
  Traceback (most recent call last):
    File "/usr/local/Cellar/python/2.7.3/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/scipy/lib/blas/tests/test_blas.py", line 58, in test_asum
      assert_almost_equal(f([3,-4,5]),12)
    File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/numpy/testing/utils.py", line 467, in assert_almost_equal
      raise AssertionError(msg)
  AssertionError: 
  Arrays are not almost equal to 7 decimals
   ACTUAL: 0.0
   DESIRED: 12
  
  ======================================================================
  FAIL: test_dot (test_blas.TestFBLAS1Simple)
  ----------------------------------------------------------------------
  Traceback (most recent call last):
    File "/usr/local/Cellar/python/2.7.3/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/scipy/lib/blas/tests/test_blas.py", line 67, in test_dot
      assert_almost_equal(f([3,-4,5],[2,5,1]),-9)
    File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/numpy/testing/utils.py", line 467, in assert_almost_equal
      raise AssertionError(msg)
  AssertionError: 
  Arrays are not almost equal to 7 decimals
   ACTUAL: 0.0
   DESIRED: -9
  
  ======================================================================
  FAIL: test_nrm2 (test_blas.TestFBLAS1Simple)
  ----------------------------------------------------------------------
  Traceback (most recent call last):
    File "/usr/local/Cellar/python/2.7.3/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/scipy/lib/blas/tests/test_blas.py", line 78, in test_nrm2
      assert_almost_equal(f([3,-4,5]),math.sqrt(50))
    File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/numpy/testing/utils.py", line 467, in assert_almost_equal
      raise AssertionError(msg)
  AssertionError: 
  Arrays are not almost equal to 7 decimals
   ACTUAL: 0.0
   DESIRED: 7.0710678118654755
  
  ======================================================================
  FAIL: test_basic.TestNorm.test_overflow
  ----------------------------------------------------------------------
  Traceback (most recent call last):
    File "/usr/local/Cellar/python/2.7.3/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/nose/case.py", line 197, in runTest
      self.test(*self.arg)
    File "/usr/local/Cellar/python/2.7.3/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/scipy/linalg/tests/test_basic.py", line 581, in test_overflow
      assert_almost_equal(norm(a), a)
    File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/numpy/testing/utils.py", line 451, in assert_almost_equal
      return assert_array_almost_equal(actual, desired, decimal, err_msg)
    File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/numpy/testing/utils.py", line 846, in assert_array_almost_equal
      header=('Arrays are not almost equal to %d decimals' % decimal))
    File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/numpy/testing/utils.py", line 677, in assert_array_compare
      raise AssertionError(msg)
  AssertionError: 
  Arrays are not almost equal to 7 decimals
  
  (mismatch 100.0%)
   x: array(-0.0)
   y: array([  1.00000002e+20], dtype=float32)
  
  ======================================================================
  FAIL: test_basic.TestNorm.test_stable
  ----------------------------------------------------------------------
  Traceback (most recent call last):
    File "/usr/local/Cellar/python/2.7.3/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/nose/case.py", line 197, in runTest
      self.test(*self.arg)
    File "/usr/local/Cellar/python/2.7.3/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/scipy/linalg/tests/test_basic.py", line 586, in test_stable
      assert_almost_equal(norm(a) - 1e4, 0.5)
    File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/numpy/testing/utils.py", line 467, in assert_almost_equal
      raise AssertionError(msg)
  AssertionError: 
  Arrays are not almost equal to 7 decimals
   ACTUAL: -10000.0
   DESIRED: 0.5
  
  ======================================================================
  FAIL: test_basic.TestNorm.test_types
  ----------------------------------------------------------------------
  Traceback (most recent call last):
    File "/usr/local/Cellar/python/2.7.3/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/nose/case.py", line 197, in runTest
      self.test(*self.arg)
    File "/usr/local/Cellar/python/2.7.3/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/scipy/linalg/tests/test_basic.py", line 568, in test_types
      assert_allclose(norm(x), np.sqrt(14), rtol=tol)
    File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/numpy/testing/utils.py", line 1213, in assert_allclose
      verbose=verbose, header=header)
    File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/numpy/testing/utils.py", line 677, in assert_array_compare
      raise AssertionError(msg)
  AssertionError: 
  Not equal to tolerance rtol=2.38419e-06, atol=0
  
  (mismatch 100.0%)
   x: array(1.0842021724855044e-19)
   y: array(3.7416573867739413)
  
  ======================================================================
  FAIL: test_asum (test_blas.TestFBLAS1Simple)
  ----------------------------------------------------------------------
  Traceback (most recent call last):
    File "/usr/local/Cellar/python/2.7.3/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/scipy/linalg/tests/test_blas.py", line 99, in test_asum
      assert_almost_equal(f([3,-4,5]),12)
    File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/numpy/testing/utils.py", line 467, in assert_almost_equal
      raise AssertionError(msg)
  AssertionError: 
  Arrays are not almost equal to 7 decimals
   ACTUAL: 0.0
   DESIRED: 12
  
  ======================================================================
  FAIL: test_dot (test_blas.TestFBLAS1Simple)
  ----------------------------------------------------------------------
  Traceback (most recent call last):
    File "/usr/local/Cellar/python/2.7.3/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/scipy/linalg/tests/test_blas.py", line 109, in test_dot
      assert_almost_equal(f([3,-4,5],[2,5,1]),-9)
    File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/numpy/testing/utils.py", line 467, in assert_almost_equal
      raise AssertionError(msg)
  AssertionError: 
  Arrays are not almost equal to 7 decimals
   ACTUAL: 0.0
   DESIRED: -9
  
  ======================================================================
  FAIL: test_nrm2 (test_blas.TestFBLAS1Simple)
  ----------------------------------------------------------------------
  Traceback (most recent call last):
    File "/usr/local/Cellar/python/2.7.3/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/scipy/linalg/tests/test_blas.py", line 127, in test_nrm2
      assert_almost_equal(f([3,-4,5]),math.sqrt(50))
    File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/numpy/testing/utils.py", line 467, in assert_almost_equal
      raise AssertionError(msg)
  AssertionError: 
  Arrays are not almost equal to 7 decimals
   ACTUAL: 0.0
   DESIRED: 7.0710678118654755
  
  ----------------------------------------------------------------------
  Ran 5101 tests in 56.140s
  
  
  FAILED (KNOWNFAIL=12, SKIP=42, errors=1, failures=9)
  &lt;nose.result.TextTestResult run=5101 errors=1 failures=9&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I am really sorry to say I have no idea what the errors mean.</p>