The Flat Earth Conspiracy

B-Man said:
Hey just for a change, let's do something other than terrorists & supposedly ficticious airliners & government conspiracies.

Well okay, it's still a government conspiracy - The Flat Earth Society.
http://theflatearthsociety.org/forum//index.php

Looks like some people really believe that the Earth is flat and the public are being lied to that it's spherical. The air & water is held on the flat plate by the huge ice walls that surround the Earth, and the north pole is the centre of the plate. The entire edge of the plate is the south pole.
The Sun is much much smaller than we're told, and it moves around above the plate in circles to make day & night and the seasons.
We can't see all the way across the plate because of the dirty atmosphere.

It's a ripper, isn't it?
Click to expand...

The irony of this is that it can be argued that the earth is indeed flat, at least locally. I see the fallacy of extending this local "truth" to a global falsity in the "9/11 truth" community also. Sure, the BBC screwed up their coverage of WTC7; yes, not all the eyewitness testimony matches up; no, the NIST was not able to recreate the collapse of the towers identically (nor did they try) - these are all local truths, but the "truthers" fail to recognize that they are not representative of the global "truth" just as the flat-earthers fail to recognize that the local "flatness" of the earth does not cause global "flatness".
 
strathmeyer said:
This is a horrible theory, considering that there is consistently some form of residents at the South Pole.
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And also a few at the North Pole, most notably a fat guy, his wife, a bunch of crazy toy-making elves and a herd of reindeer, one of which has a glowing red nose... yoinks! talk about a conspiracy :D
 
einsteen said:
I think some major leage debunkers here have the talent to convince people that the earth indeed is flat.
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Yes, they've got some wonderful arguments for everything you can throw at them.
But it's good for a laugh to try anyway. :)
 
AZCat said:
The irony of this is that it can be argued that the earth is indeed flat, at least locally. I see the fallacy of extending this local "truth" to a global falsity in the "9/11 truth" community also. Sure, the BBC screwed up their coverage of WTC7; yes, not all the eyewitness testimony matches up; no, the NIST was not able to recreate the collapse of the towers identically (nor did they try) - these are all local truths, but the "truthers" fail to recognize that they are not representative of the global "truth" just as the flat-earthers fail to recognize that the local "flatness" of the earth does not cause global "flatness".
Click to expand...


Not even locally, just ask any surveyor. For a good local proof of a spherical (roughly) earth, take a survey shot using absolute azimuths or bearings from one point (Point A) towards another (Point B) about 3 km away, or more if possible. Go to Point B and take a shot back to Point A. Compare the numbers. The direction from Point A to Point B is not simply 180 degrees off of the direction from Point B to Point A. Surveyors refer to these as geodetic directions. The effect is greater the farther apart Point A and B are. This is due to the same effect that gives you a great-circle path for air travel, rather than a straight point to point as it appears on a flat map.
 
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It boggles the mind how dumb this is.

Or perhaps, it's so dumb that it gobbles the mind. :confused:
 
Hokulele said:
Not even locally, just ask any surveyor. For a good local proof of a spherical (roughly) earth, take a survey shot using absolute azimuths or bearings from one point (Point A) towards another (Point B) about 3 km away, or more if possible. Go to Point B and take a shot back to Point A. Compare the numbers. The direction from Point A to Point B is not simply 180 degrees off of the direction from Point B to Point A. Surveyors refer to these as geodetic directions. The effect is greater the farther apart Point A and B are. This is due to the same effect that gives you a great-circle path for air travel, rather than a straight point to point as it appears on a flat map.
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I apologize - I should have added that one must think like a "truther" to see this. For example, the floor of my apartment is not curved - it is flat. The floor of my office? Flat. When I go to get coffee with "the boys" in the morning (at the local Flingers) the floor there is flat. All examples of local "flatness". Stupid, but that never stopped a "truther".
 
AZCat said:
I apologize - I should have added that one must think like a "truther" to see this. For example, the floor of my apartment is not curved - it is flat. The floor of my office? Flat. When I go to get coffee with "the boys" in the morning (at the local Flingers) the floor there is flat. All examples of local "flatness". Stupid, but that never stopped a "truther".
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I wish all of my local floors were that flat. :D

You are right, I wasn't thinking like a "truther".

*shudders to imagine such a thing*
 
It's actually fun to try to help them answer their unanswered FAQs.

For instance, the reason that the mast appears before the hull might have something to do with water being a diff temperature than air and consequently there is a temperature gradient causing light to refract.. making the ship appear lower the farther away it is.
 
I liked how they explain away the idea of sunsets by saying the sun just gets further away until it disappears from view.

150 years of this Society and that's the best they could come up with? Do they not find it curious that the sun appears much bigger as it's setting?
 
I just wonder what the odds are that every object in space, which is supposedly also flat, is directly facing the Earth's POV. Not one is at an angle to us. Also, how do they explain an object like 2003 EL61 which is obviously an oblong object spinning end over end?

I do agree with one thing though. It's turtles all the way down.
 
B-Man said:
Looks like some people really believe that the Earth is flat and the public are being lied to that it's spherical. The air & water is held on the flat plate by the huge ice walls that surround the Earth, and the north pole is the centre of the plate. The entire edge of the plate is the south pole.
The Sun is much much smaller than we're told, and it moves around above the plate in circles to make day & night and the seasons.
We can't see all the way across the plate because of the dirty atmosphere.

It's a ripper, isn't it?
Click to expand...



Personally I think Terry Pratchett came up with a far more sensible and cohesive scenario.

-Gumboot
 
uk_dave said:
So why do you see a ships mast over the 'horizon' before the hull?

huh? huh?
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Speaking of that example, I've never actually seen it happen. And I grew up in Tampa watching ships all the time. Then again, I'm not the patient type.
 
TK0001 said:
I liked how they explain away the idea of sunsets by saying the sun just gets further away until it disappears from view.

150 years of this Society and that's the best they could come up with? Do they not find it curious that the sun appears much bigger as it's setting?
Click to expand...
or the fact that it sets on the horizon, if it was just disappearing into the sky it wouldnt get any closer to ground
 
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