Is anyone really a flat-earther, or are they all a bunch of good-natured trolls craving attention? That was the thread on Facebook recently (in my feed anyway), with no firm consensus reached. But this week comes news that one flat-earther is into home-made manned rockets, and plans to launch himself in one just high enough to see that the Earth is indeed, flat:
According to the AP, Hughes says he expects his new rocket to hurl him through the skies above the Mojave Desert ghost town of Amboy at up to 500 miles per hour for roughly one mile, attaining a peak altitude of 1,800 feet before it deploys two parachutes. Hughes is a proponent of the Flat Earth theory; the Research Flat Earth group is his main sponsor. Hughes does not “believe in science,” which he told the AP has “no difference” from science fiction.
Either way, we shouldn’t spend too much time harshing on these folks in public view. We have bigger fish to fry. They’re either trolls, in which case feeding them is inadvisable, or they’re serious, in which case they deserve our pity and sympathy. Besides, it’s obvious the Earth isn’t flat. As wiser heads have noted, If it were flat, cats would have pushed everything off the edge long ago.
- It turns out the flat-earthers had themselves a conference this month. I would have temporarily renounced my sinful round-earth ways to attend:
Among the speakers were Darryle Marble, who once took a level on a plane to "prove" the Earth doesn't curve; Mark Sargent, the creator of the Flat Earth Clues YouTube Series, who believes all life is enclosed in a "Truman Show"-like dome structure; and Jeran Campanella, a YouTube and online radio personality, who makes flat-Earth, 9/11 Truther and other conspiracy theory videos.
- Just remember, you meat-eating barbarians, when you sidle up to the holiday table this weekend, and face the scale in the New Year: the humble turkey you’re chowing down on descended from something like the feathered bad-asses in the image above.
- Some historians claim Benjamin Franklin wanted to make the turkey our national bird, while others claim that’s an exaggeration or outright myth. Regardless, he reportedly wrote this in a private letter:
For in Truth the Turkey is in Comparison a much more respectable Bird, and withal a true original Native of America... He is besides, though a little vain & silly, a Bird of Courage, and would not hesitate to attack a Grenadier of the British Guards who should presume to invade his Farm Yard with a red Coat on.