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2010/02/19 23:39:52
Subject: People apparently still think the earth is flat
They are as serious as the police knocking on your door at 4am.
1500pts
Gwar! wrote:Debate it all you want, I just report what the rules actually say. It's up to others to tie their panties in a Knot. I stopped caring long ago.
2010/02/19 23:52:38
Subject: People apparently still think the earth is flat
I'm reading the physics section of their wiki, I'm literally getting brain cancer from it and have 6 to 8 months to live.
They claim that the Earth disc is being accelerated upwards at 9.8 m/s^2 by "dark energy" which is what creates gravity. Also the Earth can never reach the speed of light despite constant acceleration and that Earth's mass does not generate gravitational force even though the mass of the stars and the moon do.
2010/02/20 00:06:52
Subject: People apparently still think the earth is flat
Gwar! wrote:Debate it all you want, I just report what the rules actually say. It's up to others to tie their panties in a Knot. I stopped caring long ago.
2010/02/20 02:44:09
Subject: People apparently still think the earth is flat
“We may observe that the government in a civilized country is much more expensive than in a barbarous one; and when we say that one government is more expensive than another, it is the same as if we said that that one country is farther advanced in improvement than another. To say that the government is expensive and the people not oppressed is to say that the people are rich.”
Adam Smith, who must have been some kind of leftie or something.
2010/02/20 02:47:38
Subject: People apparently still think the earth is flat
Not only that, but he's also the wisest man on earth, and above god.
Anuvver fing - when they do sumfing, they try to make it look like somfink else to confuse everybody. When one of them wants to lord it over the uvvers, 'e says "I'm very speshul so'z you gotta worship me", or "I know summink wot you lot don't know, so yer better lissen good". Da funny fing is, arf of 'em believe it and da over arf don't, so 'e 'as to hit 'em all anyway or run fer it.
2010/02/20 03:23:05
Subject: People apparently still think the earth is flat
J.Black wrote:They are as serious as the police knocking on your door at 4am.
Does that happen to you too?
Night Watch SM
Kroot Mercenaries W 2 - D 3 - L 1
Manchu wrote: This is simply a self-fulfilling prophecy. Everyone says, "it won't change so why should I bother to try?" and then it doesn't change so people feel validated in their bad behavior.
Timecube! I am converted by the passionate eloquence of your ravings.
the world is a cube and I am a square
my god is the six sided Lord of Chance
Never bothered to read up about Flat Earth philosophy, but how do they explain an aeroplane or a ship circumnavigating the earth?
Also what is on the verso and why can't we go there?
2010/02/20 09:13:01
Subject: People apparently still think the earth is flat
Why bother ridiculing this. You miss the point of Flat Earthers.
Flat Earthers are popular for their, er, flat denial. Its a social club of quite reasonable people who want something in common and they generate a mutual fellowship by denying something that is plainly obvious but nevertheless historically claimed. So you get to puncture scientific egos, have fun, be nostalgic in a medievalesque way all at the same time.
Thats the big point people are missing. We are labouring under the assumption that scientific community is entirely rational, it is not. When a new theory is proposed it is often argued on human rather than scientific grounds. The person who supported an old theory might well have something to lose and so will be tempted to dig heels in in the fact of new theories and evidences At the very least quality popular science programs in the UK have been implying this for decades. I cant remember just how many episodes of Horizon feature battles of will of supporters of old and new theories, many of these battles are possibly ego rather than fact driven.
Modern Flat Earthers originate from the UK about the same sort of timeline, and I think there could be a connection. what better way than to spoof the egotism of theoretical science than to openly defend something excessively spurious with gusto. I believe that the Flat Earth concept is an attempt to fly in the face of scientific egotism as portrayed in popular science television. To give the BBC its credit such programs as Horizon are actually very good and quite unlike the current crop of popular science programs.
Now there is perhaps a skill in finding fresh excuses to brazenly deny well known phenomena. The explanation that Antarctica is actually a wall around the Earths oceans must be a fun point of argument from the comfort of ones own barstool, meanwhile because of its nature Flat Earthers are not taken seriously and so there is no harm in allowing them to expouse their theories unchecked. In fact its refreshing. The Flat Earthers in the university debate halls are pretty much unique, the only analogy I can think of is the Iraqi Information Minister Al-Sahaf denying the US army were in Baghdad et al; you cant help but admire the front.
As for the 'they are crackpots' idea. Actually those who try to take them on are more likely crackpots. Most scientific debate is essentially a pissing contest with long words, Flat Earthers appear to have a healthy contempt for this and are game for an argument; defending a Round Earth is no great challenge and therefore achievable with no intellectual skill. If someone argues against them and 'wins' the joke is on them. A wiser man will raise a glass to the Flat Earthers, its the less wise who try and raise a point. In fact those who think they are crackpots or wish to take the time to refute them are missing the point entirely.
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2010/02/20 09:54:04
n'oublie jamais - It appears I now have to highlight this again.
It is by tea alone I set my mind in motion. By the juice of the brew my thoughts aquire speed, my mind becomes strained, the strain becomes a warning. It is by tea alone I set my mind in motion.
2010/02/20 09:57:35
Subject: People apparently still think the earth is flat
Some tools still think the earth is a sphere.... when it is obviously an oblate spheroid which is a rotationally symmetric ellipsoid having a polar axis shorter than the diameter of the equatorial circle whose plane bisects it.
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2010/02/20 10:19:48
Subject: People apparently still think the earth is flat
Oh dear, someone wasn't hugged enough as a child. The guy who wrote that must be insane/
Keep a good distance between your opinions on the nut who wrote that site and Flat Earthers. The guy behind timecube is on some form of hate rant. Proper Flat Earthers do not bring hatred into it, they will talk about 'conspiracies' in a light hearted topical way, are not egoistic, and keep their comments separate from religion.
n'oublie jamais - It appears I now have to highlight this again.
It is by tea alone I set my mind in motion. By the juice of the brew my thoughts aquire speed, my mind becomes strained, the strain becomes a warning. It is by tea alone I set my mind in motion.
2010/02/20 10:42:01
Subject: People apparently still think the earth is flat
Of course they are serious. As serious as those who think we rode dinosaurs to school 4000 years ago, but we killed them off after Noah took them on the ark. I suspect many flat earthers are people that deny it because somewhere in the bible it says the earth was a flat disc with a firmament above it. You can make yourself deny anything if you are willing to ignore obvious physical evidence because you think it cant coincide with your most passionately held beliefs. Leave them too it, because arguing with them seems to give their absurd position some sort of credibility. Ignoring the idiots entirely is a better strategem, unless they insist on knocking on your fething door of course. :-)
We are arming Syrian rebels who support ISIS, who is fighting Iran, who is fighting Iraq who we also support against ISIS, while fighting Kurds who we support while they are fighting Syrian rebels.
2010/02/20 10:56:47
Subject: Re:People apparently still think the earth is flat
Is this really news to you guys? Some buddies of mine in high school started a Flat Earth Society Club at our school just for the hell of it.
DR:80+S(GT)G++M++B-I++Pwmhd05#+D+++A+++/sWD-R++T(Ot)DM+ How is it they live in such harmony - the billions of stars - when most men can barely go a minute without declaring war in their minds about someone they know.
- St. Thomas Aquinas
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2010/02/20 21:28:57
Subject: People apparently still think the earth is flat
I believe the bible mentions angels standing on the four corners of the earth. Thus, one might consider the earth to be a flat square (or a tetrahedron).
Anuvver fing - when they do sumfing, they try to make it look like somfink else to confuse everybody. When one of them wants to lord it over the uvvers, 'e says "I'm very speshul so'z you gotta worship me", or "I know summink wot you lot don't know, so yer better lissen good". Da funny fing is, arf of 'em believe it and da over arf don't, so 'e 'as to hit 'em all anyway or run fer it.
2010/02/20 22:29:14
Subject: People apparently still think the earth is flat
[DCM]
Chief Deputy Sub Assistant Trainee Squig Handling Intern
Chibi Bodge-Battle wrote:
be nostalgic in a medievalesque
It is a common misconception that the Mediaevals thought the earth was flat until Colombus came along.
Not sure that the Bible does say the world was flat. Plato did.
Indeedydoo. If I recall correctly, according to the QI Book Of General Ignorance, Columbus himself actually believed the world was Egg shaped. Or possibly Pear Shaped. Been ages since I read the article, and since I'm packing to move house, I have no idea whatsoever where the book is right now!
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Columbus thought the earth was a sphere, though smaller in circumference than it actually was. Hence he thought he could make it to the indies in a shorter time by traveling west. He still thought this on his death, and still believed that the west indies and americas he had discovered were off the east of asia. The belief that the earth was flat became widespread long before his time.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2010/02/20 23:40:15
Orkeosaurus wrote:I believe the bible mentions angels standing on the four corners of the earth. Thus, one might consider the earth to be a flat square (or a tetrahedron).
of course
this of itself doesn't suggest a flat earth cosmology as it refers to the cardinal points, but there may well have been influences from Mesopotamia and Egypt
Seems Plato too thought of a spherical world, though i seem to recall a description of a saucer world. Must be my memory playing tricks
Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:Indeedydoo. If I recall correctly, according to the QI Book Of General Ignorance, Columbus himself actually believed the world was Egg shaped. Or possibly Pear Shaped. Been ages since I read the article, and since I'm packing to move house, I have no idea whatsoever where the book is right now!
It used to be egg shaped then it went (all) pear shaped.
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