The Flat Earth Society is an organization that seeks to further the belief that the Earth is flat instead of an oblate spheroid. The modern organization was founded by Englishman Samuel Shenton in 1956 and was later led by Charles K. Johnson, who based the organization in his home in Lancaster, California. The formal society was inactive after Johnson’s death in 2001 but was resurrected in 2004 by its new president Daniel Shenton.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat_Earth_Society

>> ^Boise_Lib:

If it's a disk--what's on the other side?


*gasp* Possibly a mirror universe!

In reply to this comment by EvilDeathBee:
>> ^therealblankman:

>> ^EvilDeathBee:
Oh my god, he really believes this... not even the 9/11 conspirators are THAT dumb

Yes they are.


Hmm, you make a persuasive argument!

Thanks for the big chuckle.

>> ^therealblankman:

>> ^EvilDeathBee:
Oh my god, he really believes this... not even the 9/11 conspirators are THAT dumb

Yes they are.


Hmm, you make a persuasive argument!

>> ^EvilDeathBee:

Oh my god, he really believes this... not even the 9/11 conspirators are THAT dumb


Yes they are.

The Flat Earth Society does endorse this product.

It's like the world has been taken over by a flat earth cult, isn't it?

I like the religious angle of this video -- I think that's more likely what's really driving this policy than anything else. People have gotten it into their heads that debt is a sin, and recessions are a purgatory that must be suffered in order to purge that sin.

More and more, it seems like everyone everywhere needs to go see a good psychiatrist. People need to learn that the human mind usually works the wrong way around -- people often decide what conclusion they want to come to, and then try to build a logical justification to support it.

Unfortunately at the extreme, this leads people to hang onto a belief by the thinnest thread of support possible, even when there's overwhelming evidence for an alternative way of looking at the world.

IMO, things like climate change denialism, creationism, and anti-vaccination movements bear a huge similarity to the austerity movements in the Western world. It's a certainty borne more of prejudice than reason.
>> ^radx:

So why the fuck would they push these extreme austerity measures on GIPSI?

OMG!! @NetRunner, I didn't know you were a ship hand on NObama's child slave ship.. ..on his journey to explore the edge of the flat earth.. ..which was created 6000 years ago..!!


[holy shit this is racially insensitive]

In this little tale god resurrects himself, or a part of himself. Why would that give anyone the expectation he'd do the same, or could, for anyone else? Whatever...

There's no historical record for Jesus' existence outside the bible until about 60 years after he's gone, if you believe the bible's timeline. Apparently nobody bothered to record any of the stuff he did while he was alive, but some knew he was coming in advance, again according to the bible.

The bible itself being copied by hand many times evolved spelling errors, mistranslations, and entire stories being added later out of nowhere. Why am I supposed to believe anything that comes from it?

Oh yeah, blind faith, no matter what, hopefully drilled into my brain since birth, and maintained by my unquestioning family and community, in a hidden valley unknown to approximately 5.8 billion non-christians, on this flat earth.

>> ^Trancecoach:

Must be part of The Flat Earth Society.



You hit closer to home than you think:
http://www.indiana.edu/~ensiweb/lessons/flaterth.vid.ws2.tch.pdf

"Google Dr. Leo Ferrari. They will find that he is, indeed, a university professor... of philosophy (he is NOT a scientist of any kind). He was also one of the founders (and past president) of the Flat Earth Society!"

(Said Leo Ferrari is best described here.)

It's turtles all the way down.

>> ^punisher:

Awesome news... I now hold out hope that the moon is made of cheese,,, preferably aged white cheddar....
So, if the earth is flat... how thick is it? What's underneath? Was Terry Pratchett correct?!?

Don't dig too deep, I'd hate to fall through...

>> ^punisher:

Awesome news... I now hold out hope that the moon is made of cheese,,, preferably aged white cheddar....
So, if the earth is flat... how thick is it? What's underneath? Was Terry Pratchett correct?!?

Wind idea: think of the atmosphere as you think of the oceans... they both flow around in patterns, wash up and around mountains, have layers, etc.. This is how a hurricane can build off the coast of Africa then swamp through the Caribbean and the U.S. Atlantic coast. And this is how you'll sometimes see lower clouds going one way and higher clouds going another.

The question of getting dizzy at the poles/equator... remember we're talking about something that rotates one time over the course of 24 hours. We get dizzy because our vestibular system orients us... the vestibular system is essentially tubes of saline with nerves arranged basically to sense the pressure of the saline in 3D space. Swinging your head around and then halting rapidly leaves this saline swirling a bit, and you get a vertigo-like sensation.
>> ^Contagion21:

>> ^Sagemind:
I'm convinced, without a doubt that the world is round.
But, the wind idea is interesting/facinating, and the question of would I get dizzy standing on the axis of the planet if I were used to standing at the equator, are all good questions.
Does anyone have a link that may discuss these phenomenon? ... Sometimes an explanation is more convincing that saying, "Well that's a stupid statement or opinion." Maybe someone schooled in this area (or who has more spare time than others)can guide us to some interesting reading on this.

It's a frame of reference issue.

>> ^Sagemind:

I'm convinced, without a doubt that the world is round.
But, the wind idea is interesting/facinating, and the question of would I get dizzy standing on the axis of the planet if I were used to standing at the equator, are all good questions.
Does anyone have a link that may discuss these phenomenon? ... Sometimes an explanation is more convincing that saying, "Well that's a stupid statement or opinion." Maybe someone schooled in this area (or who has more spare time than others)can guide us to some interesting reading on this. <img class="smiley" src="http://cdn.videosift.com/cdm/emoticon/smile.gif">


It's a frame of reference issue. It's harder to define mathmatically, but the view point that the earth is standing still and the rest of the universe is revolving around it is just conceptually valid.

The wind argument assumes that the atmosphere is not part of the earth and should be sitting still while the earth rotates beneath it. However, the physical planet applies more force to the atmosphere than the surrounding vacuum so eventually, the atmosphere will also rotate in sync with the planet itself based on Newton's laws.