NASA Satellite stops on a dime!? WTF!!!

[norton ash]

Did all the Australians who fell off the earth land in LA? Couldn't believe all the Aussies I met there last year.

[maco144]

Old guard of this forum really exposes how 'rigorous' their approach is when it comes to flat earth.

[Elihu]

let's not refer to what it might be, let's refer to it as "helio rotund taught in school under guard might be BS"

[NeonLX]

no GPS tracking south of the equator

That has just got to suck for my friends in Australia. I'm checking with them to see if they use GPS in their automobiles.

Back at you in a bit.

On edit: Yes, they do have GPS trackers in Australia.

Bro, I wish you would quit lying. All you do is lie lie lie. Crooked NeonLX. Joe hasn't showed up in a grip. He fell off the side of the Earth. Believe me. Believe me. Outstanding.

Everything I say is a lie. I'll let you loop that around inside yer head for awhile.

I always wondered if terlits in Antarctica flush up instead of down.

[vanlose kid]

*

[semper occultus]

...if incisive genius Thomas Friedman reckons its flat...that's good enough for me...

[stefano]

I can't see the name Thomas Friedman without thinking of the Matt Taibbi piece that will survive us all, Taibbi's Hamlet: Flathead: The Peculiar Genius of Thomas L. Friedman. It's about The world is flat.

Everyone should read it once a year, but here's a bit that might be relevant to a thread about whether the Earth actually is flat. (Is this thread about that? Can't really tell.)

Start with the title.

The book's genesis is conversation Friedman has with Nandan Nilekani, the CEO of Infosys. Nilekani causally mutters to Friedman: "Tom, the playing field is being leveled." To you and me, an innocent throwaway phrase - the level playing field being, after all, one of the most oft-repeated stock ideas in the history of human interaction. Not to Friedman. Ten minutes after his talk with Nilekani, he is pitching a tent in his company van on the road back from the Infosys campus in Bangalore:

As I left the Infosys campus that evening along the road back to Bangalore, I kept chewing on that phrase: "The playing field is being leveled." What Nandan is saying, I thought, is that the playing field is being flattened... Flattened? Flattened? My God, he's telling me the world is flat!

This is like three pages into the book, and already the premise is totally fucked. Nilekani said level, not flat. The two concepts are completely different. Level is a qualitative idea that implies equality and competitive balance; flat is a physical, geographic concept that Friedman, remember, is openly contrasting--ironically, as it were--with Columbus's discovery that the world is round.

Except for one thing. The significance of Columbus's discovery was that on a round earth, humanity is more interconnected than on a flat one. On a round earth, the two most distant points are closer together than they are on a flat earth. But Friedman is going to spend the next 470 pages turning the "flat world" into a metaphor for global interconnectedness. Furthermore, he is specifically going to use the word round to describe the old, geographically isolated, unconnected world.

"Let me... share with you some of the encounters that led me to conclude that the world is no longer round," he says. He will literally travel backward in time, against the current of human knowledge.

[NeonLX]

See, here's the thing...I've got several friends whom I would consider to be very wise, who legitimately believe that the earth is flat. At first, I scoffed at them and even mocked them. I started out with the usual "why don't people fall off the edge?" and "how do communications satellites work?".

But in my usual fashion, I eventually asked myself "well, what if?".

Down the rabbit hole I went. It's one helluva journey. Several very good Facebook groups are out there for discussions on this issue. If you go in with a reasonably open mind, it's a lot of fun--and challenging. I heartily recommend it.

[stefano]

Neon, sorry man but it really isn't challenging. We've had one of these before, with nothing even approaching argument more sophisticated than 'it looks flat.' All these argument videos rely on what's called the 'Gish Gallop', filling up two hours of bullshit to try to get you to refute each of 200 supposed arguments why the Earth can't be round. Why isn't one argument enough? Because each is quickly refuted, so the bullshit artist needs to reload. Some aren't even arguments, they're not even wrong in the logician's parlance.

Whatever, I'm not here to convince anyone, or to save anyone any time. Have fun out there. If fun is your goal I particularly recommend getting into the sub-subculture that's about debunking claims that advertised scheduled flights between southern hemisphere destinations (Johannesburg-Sydney is the busiest... or is it?) actually happen.

[82_28]

I don't think Neon was defending them he was just saying that they are out there. Which if he has witnessed it, it definitely does exist.

Which I do not understand.

[Elihu]

some people will never be able to let go of their training.

[82_28]

Obligatory. I grew up on this song.

[smoking since 1879]

is this some kind of conspiracy theory to discredit conspiracy theorists ?

[coffin_dodger]

is this some kind of conspiracy theory to discredit conspiracy theorists ?

A bit of that, yes - mingled with an increasing inability of the general population to distinguish between what is real and what isn't. Eyes and ears are definitely more prone to deceive - in the digital age.

[Elihu]

Eyes and ears are definitely more prone to deceive - in the digital age.

especially when seeing and hearing something digital.