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Mic has an article on the upcoming Solar Eclipse across the USA, focusing on one particular group of observers: Flat Earthers, who believe that the sun and moon rotate around each other above the Earth's surface.
...astronomers (both professional and amateur) aren't the only groups excited for this once-in-a-lifetime event. Another, more controversial community believes the upcoming eclipse could provide overwhelming evidence to support their cause. These people are flat Earthers, and they believe the solar eclipse will prove once and for all the Earth is not a sphere.
The article describes some of the proposed arguments from the newly resurgent, and apparently quite serious, flat earth community.
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Flat Earth Truthers and the Solar Eclipse
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First study the enemy. Seek weakness.
-- Romulan Commander, "Balance of Terror", stardate 1709.2
(Score: 2) by bart on Monday August 14 2017, @02:36PM (2 children)
They might be sane, but they are hugely ignorant, and unaware of their ignorance. Just a very quick of the top of my head list of things that would behave totally differently if the earth were flat:
So if you're willing to concede that all people involved in all these activities are part of the conspiracy, then go ahead; stay dumb.
(Score: 2) by VortexCortex on Monday August 14 2017, @09:43PM (1 child)
Ah! The Gish Gallop. [rationalwiki.org]
Weather prediction would be the same on FE or round. Weather balloons work in either model.
Navigation: Sailors navigating in the southern hemisphere complain that Navigational maps require very large course adjustments. They claim it's as if the lines of longitude are further apart (like they are on a flat earth map). It's such a common complaint that the "Oblate Sphereoid" or "Pear shaped earth" which is "fatter at the bottom" was invented to explain away the discrepancy. There are no images from NASA which show a bulge enough to account for the navigational error...
GPS: Global Positioning System -- Would be cheaper to implement via cell phone / radio towers, like the prior ground based radio positioning systems. In fact, that's how GPS works, see "satellite":
"Satellite" can also mean a design topology where units are placed around a hub. Could this be why none of your TV satellite dishes point up. They could be aiming at radio towers / baloons. There is not a single detailed image of a satellite in orbit, despite space agencies having access to quite massive telescopes. NASA admits the only images they have of satellites in orbit are 3D generated graphics / artist renditions.
round the world sailing - Flatten the globe out. Imagine you're traveling along the equator, it's now a circle around the north pole. Going around in a circle does not prove the globe is a ball, any more than walking around the north pole would prove the path you traveled was not on a flat plane.
all astronauts are liars - Almost all astronauts are Freemasons, that means they're sworn to lie. Also, apparently the "exploded" Challenger crew is still alive. [youtube.com] Some of them didn't even bother changing their name after that PSYOP. I didn't want to believe it either, but it's a fact that NASA does science, but they also do propaganda. Or else Obama wouldn't have given NASA the task of making Muslims feel good about their contribution to science -- That's a job for propagandists, not scientists.
military sniping - That's a myth. Snipers do not have to correct for the Coriolis effect, look it up.
all scientists and engineers in the space industry are dumbnuts (me for instance) - Aha! Now we see why the Gish Gallop is invoked. It could just be that you, like most people, have been decieved. The small amount of people required to perpetuate misinformation to others who repeat it due to trusting disinformation agents is a principal that all intelligence agencies operate by. It's not that you're a dumbnut, you just didn't question the information you were given, like anyone else. Why would NASA disallow TV broadcasters from receiving the moon landing broadcast directly, and instead require them to video tape a screen and rebroadcast that? Answer: It was pre-recorded staged video. [youtube.com] Here we see actual footage from NASA of astronauts in low earth orbit faking an image of a distant earth from by turning out the lights and taking a picture of the round window. There is not a single complete picture of the Earth seen from space. Space agency folk are working towards surpassing goals that we unfortunately have not yet accomplished. Keep up the good work, I hope we do get to the moon some day, and figure out how to survive the radiation belts.
All of your other points have answers too. Prefix "flat earth" with any one of those. You clearly have not done any research on the subject, and why would you? Your job depends on you believing some falsehoods.
(Score: 2) by VortexCortex on Monday August 14 2017, @09:51PM
Just to be clear, I'm not one of the earth proponents. There is too much evidence showing the earth is round, but the sizes and distances could be wrong. Rather I'm a proponent of the truth about propaganda in the space agencies. I don't believe the earth is flat, but flat earth groups have some interesting arguments which have contributed to my understanding of some falsehoods surrounding space exploration.
For example: It is a fact that some images claimed as Hubble are actually from the SOFIA instrument -- A telescope on an airplane. SOFIA researchers don't know their images are being retouched and claimed as Hubble, the people processing the images don't know the data did not come from Hubble.
It's easy for a small amount of people to maintain such a deception. Where did the money earmarked for Hubble actually go?