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Title

Monkeys and Spheres

Description

<img src="{att_link}flatearthsociety.png" align="right">Don't believe in either one of them; it's an intellectual plot. If you go to school in America today, there's a chance that you'll hear some interesting theories in your science classes. The theory of evolution vs. creationism debate appears in the news every once in a while. Sophisticates like to scoff that Hiring Creationists to teach Biology is all the rage in podunk states that value God above logic. Those programs require equal time for all theories, regardless of whether they are based on the scientific method (hypothesis/evidence/repeat) or not. Whereas a good portion of the planet believes that God created the planet in a handful of days only a few thousand years ago, most of those people also have also kind of accepted the Copernican model of the solar system and the concept of planets as spheres (if they think about it at all, that is). Not the folks at the <a href="http://www.flat-earth.org/">Flat Earth Society</a>. Imagine going into Earth Science and being greeted by a teacher who carefully explains that he will be teaching you that the Earth is a sphere so that you can pass the test administered by the State, but that he, personally, is convinced that the Earth is flat. He generously provides a few details about this other theory of the world before continuing with the government propaganda he must teach in order to get a paycheck. In contrast to most everything else on earthli News, this is not made up. This person actually exists and teaches in central New York. If he were not serious, it would be a brilliant tactic that would force kids to study hard, looking for ways to prove their teacher wrong; a way of showing them how to back up arguments with proof and a way of showing them how some arguments and theories cannot easily be disproven. If he were kidding. A quick perusal of the <a href="http://www.flat-earth.org/platygaea/faq.html">Flat Earth FAQ</a> indicates that these folks have not chosen to take the path of creating an alternate theory that is also seductively supported by physical evidence. A Flat-Earther apparently doesn't believe in <iq>Idaho</iq>, <iq>North Dakota</iq> or <iq>Australia</iq>. They stop short of mentioning which government agency invented these pieces of land or to what purpose. As with most of these societies, a little bit of science goes a long way to providing enough terminology to sound extremely smart. If asked why the earth looks like a sphere, they respond with: <bq>The reason for this effect is that the Earth's atmosphere becomes denser the further one ascends, after thinning out at about 5 miles. This causes light to be refracted more at high altitudes, giving the appearance of a spherical Earth.</bq> Sounds intimidating if you're a bit shaky on your own science convictions, doesn't it? It's a bit tough to believe that these people aren't just kidding though, because of stuff like this explanation of gravity (which doesn't exist, by the way): <bq>There is a school of thought which states, however, that the Earth does not move through space, but rather that it rests on the back of a giant turtle, and that what we call gravity is, in fact, the turtle's animal magnetism.</bq> The "Springfield Effect" sounds like something straight out of the Simpsons: <bq>The Springfield Effect is the name given to the phenomenon by which every place named Springfield is hard-linked in hyperspace to every other place of this name. In other words, there is only one place named Springfield, but it is "linked" to various locations in the world.</bq> I just can't tell anymore if they believe this stuff or not. Direct links to the <a href="http://www.fantasymaps.com/">Cartographer's Conspiracy Cabal</a> convince me that the whole crew is nuts, but some of the phrasing is almost so deliberately tongue-in-cheek that they have to know how ridiculous is sounds. Or do they?