This is an interesting website countering the Flat Earth belief
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The thing I found most fascinating about the documentary Behind the Curve was that a lot of these people actually conduct reasonably well thought-out experiments to disprove the curvature of the Earth, but invariably dismiss their own data when it fails to support their theories.
I don’t know what drives people to become Flat Earthers but it’s certainly not a lack of available data.
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In that light, would you rate his latest endeavour as a success or as a failure?
That’ll depend on whether he can repeat the experiment and get the same result.
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I was going to mention that in the other thread about this. It’s not like they don’t believe in physics, like you say they do some sophisticated experiments but they refuse to believe in what the results are telling them. The dude with the laser gyroscope being a good example from that documentary - the gyro is showing a 15 degree drift, we’ll encase it in a gauss chamber! Still a 15 degree drift, we’ll encase it in bismuth! And on and on…
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Energies of the heavens? Good god.
So the effects seen on his flat earth are really the results of an external mysterious, “energy of the heavens”, which conveniently can’t be measured I’d wager.
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The documentary is worth a watch though if you haven’t seen it and makes some valid points from scientists about not alienating these people, i mean some of them have real skill and scientific knowledge but they’re using it in the pursuit of something they’ll never find. Where are all the phlogiston believers by the way? Stay to the end of the film as well, i tried not to laugh but it ends with one of the most satisfying self-owns you’re likely to see.
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Any idea where to find the full documentary?
Oh, well i saw it on netflix.
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Trumpists won’t get the metaphor on this one.
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One big downside of the push to remove disinformation from social media platforms:
I quite enjoyed watching flat earth and other assorted conspiracy videos on YouTube. I can’t really explain my fascination, especially for the really outre ones claiming a hollow earth, or infinite disc earth, disappearing sun, inflating sun, rogue planet on a collision course, etc. Most of the cool ones seem to be gone these days. To me, something of value was lost, even if it has zero scientific value.
Edit: hecep, oops I meant this to just be a reply to the topic, not you specifically.
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Can relate; I used to really enjoy reading some of the nuttier conspiracy websites back in the day. The crazier the better, as long as they actually seemed to believe it.
That said, I look forward to someday seeing the murals at Denver International Airport. Though after everything I’ve read, I can’t imagine the real thing actually living up to the legend.
One of the big problems with the way misinformation is served up on social media platforms is that the algorithms tend to feed naive/misguided/vulnerable people more and more of the same kinds of content once they start expressing interest in a topic, which makes it more and more likely they’ll fall into an echo chamber of similarly deluded people willing to reinforce those ideas.
So for anyone willing to entertain Flat-Earth conspiracy theories or climate change deniers or anti-vaxxers that they can very quickly fall into a vortex of disinformation affirming their skepticism of the overwhelming scientific consensus. It also means that anyone who is willing to sit through a video promoting racism or misogyny can very quickly be sucked into the kinds of online communities that helped radicalize mass murderers like Dylann Roof.
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It may have something to do with things that deviate from our usual day-to-day expectations and pull us out of the mundane; people still slow down to observe highway car wrecks; gather to watch building fires; and (not all that long ago) attend circus ‘freak shows’.
As far as any professed belief in a Flat Earth or in other wacky theories, all that provides me a sad education on just how “broken”, gullible, and easily directed some people can be; to that extent, there is more than zero scientific value to it all… at least to psychologists.
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“Relatively” being a key word. Rocket-grade H2O2 is one of those things that Dr. Lowe won’t work with, mostly because too many oxygen atoms in your molecule has a similar problem to too many nitrogens (a tendency to go kaboom).
ETA: Someone took two of the Things Dr. Lowe Won’t Work With and combined them into one substance (with anhydrous hydrogen peroxide being one of the components).
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You can observe that for yourself if you clear out your Google/YouTube cookies and browse YouTube not logged in. As soon as you watch your first video, the suggestions instantly reflect the first thing you watched. Sure, it makes sense, but life needs a little randomness, too.
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Thank you for the link - I didn’t know that concentrated H2O2 was that dangerous. Comments are also worth reading, I’ve learned that it’s a bad idea to store a gallon tank of 35% hydrogen peroxide in negative temperatures. Now I’m happy we didn’t have winter this year 
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One of the big problems with the way misinformation is served up on social media platforms is that the algorithms tend to feed naive/misguided/vulnerable people more and more of the same kinds of content once they start expressing interest in a topic, which makes it more and more likely they’ll fall into an echo chamber of similarly deluded people willing to reinforce those ideas.
I don’t think removing or censoring material is a solution though. It seems the real problem is more likely the wholesale data collection and targeting.
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