Flat earth-preaching rocketeer finally gets off the ground

I was giggling when the camera was rocking side to side and the view of the Earth was first convex, then concave and then sinusoidal. It looked like the balloon had reached the edge of the hypothesphere where consensus reality battles it out to determine the true nature of the Universe.

6 Likes

I thought Quatloos were currency?

3 Likes

I don’t think Flat Earthers really believe the Earth is flat, any more than Satanists really worship Satan. If a stranger introduced themselves at a party and said the Earth was flat, I’d be willing to go with it for a while; it’s a lot more interesting than arguing for boring old reality, and it makes no difference what people say when they’re just talking for entertainment.

Of course I wouldn’t keep that pose up in the rest of my life, because it’d be an irritating, unfun waste of time. But that’s because I have social interactions where I need to come across as a somewhat competent stable person, and I do work that relies on actual correct geometry. That’s not true for everyone. I assume Flat Earthers are mostly just starved of intellectual stimulation and acting out against the people who get to work at NASA and go home with full mental tummies every day.

(Although there are probably a few true crazies among them, since that’s a hazard of this sort of thing)

3 Likes

But he still wouldn’t see the curvature of the Earth. It’s flat I tell you! FLAT! /s

FAKE! Also, I don’t believe the photo in your profile is really you. You can’t possbily be that cute. :yum:

1 Like

It’s true. My profile pic came from http://www.robbahou.com/cats/ His name is Scuba and people who know me told me that this cat is my spirit animal or something like that.

1 Like

but it wasnt even his money, it was money he took from the flatearther kickstarter or indigogo he had running, i bet he pocketed most of the money himself anyways.

1 Like

Your spirit animal of you’re a shaman, your familiar if you’re a witch. Are you a shaman or a witch? Come on now, we all want to know.

The windows might be LCD panels or something to continue the epic planetary-level conspiracy of a round earth… :sweat_smile:

You reminded me of all the unsettling thoughts implied by the potential trend of LCD windows - which are becoming a thing!

1 Like

I’m not much more than a USDA, bona fide, 40 chuggin’, blunt lovin’, red eyed reject from the front row of highschool

1 Like

Well, I can only speak to my reaction, but the entire reason I hang around BoingBoing is because it doesn’t advocate ‘alternative facts’ or support the anti-intellectual/anti-science stance one finds on other chat boards.

I didn’t live through the Middle Ages, and I don’t intend to.

2 Likes

“Talk about it?”

Oh I dunno… let’s put this in words “we” can all “understand”:

Who could have guessed that

could make steam-punk be more functional and steam-punk than most steam-punk crap already in existence?

:heavy_heart_exclamation:
:heavy_heart_exclamation:

5 Likes

That’s it, then! The Earth is bowl-shaped. Or wok-shaped.

1 Like

1875 feet? I’ve sent Estes model rockets higher. Admittedly, without a passenger, but what the heck–you can put a camera on the rocket and watch the process from the rocket’s POV.

2 Likes

I have personally:

  • synchronized distant events by radio. The propagation delays are precisely what a round-Earth hypothesis predicts.
  • taken a plane table to several fire towers and triangulated upon others. The deficiency in the angles of the triangles is what a round-Earth hypothesis predicts.
  • written code to predict the orbital motion of spacecraft. Let’s just say that this kind of requires a round Earth: in fact, it would be much simpler if the Earth were spherical. Even for single orbits, you need a bunch of correction terms.
  • observed the round shadow of the Earth upon the Moon during an eclipse.
  • written code to rectify oblique-angle aerial images onto a projected map. Yup, the round-Earth hypothesis is confirmed there.
  • learnt to calculate positions with sextant and chronometer

I’m also sure, like one earlier poster in this thread, that I can climb to a better view than Mr Hughes got, with a pair of hiking boots. There’s an escarpment within an hour’s drive or so where the cliff tops are at least two thousand feet above the valley floor, and the higher peaks above it are another couple of thousand feet up. They have great views from the top.st

By contrast, the flat Earth argument is largely founded on inconsistent authority. Assuming that the flat Earthers are referring to the King James Bible, the relevant verses are most likely Isaiah 11:12, Ezekiel 7:2, and Revelation 7:1, which refer to the ‘four corners of the Earth.’ And yet Job 26:10, Proverbs 8:27 and Isaiah 40:22 have the world as a circle inscribed on the face of the deep, and a circle has no corners. In short, the claim is that the Earth is flat because the Bible inconsistently tells us that it is, and of course the Book is more trustworthy than our own senses and instruments.

Of course, that merely serves to confirm that I’m in on the conspiracy.

If the Earth has four corners, can I use this projection, please?

4 Likes

But this guy shot himself 1875’ in to the air! That’s got to be worth some kudos. Hell, parachuting from that height would impress me. :smiley:

I would love to see that waiting for me when I journey in to the great unknown; though I’ll settle for oblivion.

1 Like

For counter-examples, see Cleomenes, On the Circular Motions of the Celestial Bodies, Aristarchus, On the Sizes and Distances of the Earth and the Moon, and Archimedes, Sand-Reckoner. All assume the spherical model for the Earth (which we know isn’t exactly correct). They are all later than Aristotle or Herodotus, of course, but not that much later.

1 Like

For a minute I thought that was one starling with an enormous mouth.

1 Like