Flat Earth? F**king Moron

According to this article from the BBC, the flat-earth community is alive and well these days in the 21st century. It's the 50th anniversary of the founding of NASA, an event that has sparked renewed interest in conspiracy theories about faked moon landings and fake, spherical pictures of the earth taken from space. One notable organization is the Flat Earth Society, whose motto "Deprogramming the masses since 1547" is almost too funny for words. (Check out their site for a good laugh/cry).

The flat earthers, as a group, deny that our planet is a sphere - that's clear and simple. The specific shape of the earth, however, is still a topic of debate. Some think the earth is a disc with infinite horizontal distance. Others think it a disc with a fixed diameter, like a giant coin.



Most interestingly, the article points out that flat-earth conspiracies were not pervasive during the Dark Ages, as is the common understanding, and only received widespread attention in the 19th century, as Christian authorities sought to counter the progression of scientific rationalism. Faced with the popularizing of naturalistic accounts of earth history, Christian "thinkers" toured the country spouting alternative accounts of the organization our planet and solar system.

This is a perfect example of misguided skepticism. Instead of questioning complex, fantastic explanations for phenomena, replacing them with parsimonious, evidence-based answers, the flat earthers simply deny the evidence - claiming it's widespread propaganda from the Authority - and insert an alternative explanation.

Skepticism is vital for scientific progress and critical, rational thinking in everyday life. Question everything, sure, but allow yourself to adjust that skepticism according to the evidence presented to you.

Continue reading "Flat Earth? F**king Moron"!

Hard mistake

It's been a while, I've been distracted with end of term. That's all over now. I plan to post thoughts on my first year of graduate school later. For now, a silly story.

A University of Michigan professor of archaeology recently took his 7-year-old son to a Detroit Tiger's game. The boy was thirsty, so dad bought him a lemonade. Oops, it was alcoholic - a Mike's Hard Lemonade. In the ninth inning, a security guard stopped by and took the bottle from the kid. Sounds like an honest mistake, right? Enlighten the guy and be done with it. Well, no.

The kid was rushed to the children's hospital, given blood tests, and observed for the rest of the day. The father was questioned by police, and then child services took the kid into foster care, where he remained for two days until his mother was allowed to retrieve him. The father was then forced to move to a hotel for a week.

All of this for 12 ounces of sugary swill? This man was ostracized and denied parental rights - legally obligated recourse - because he accidently fed his child a few grams of alcohol, but there is no action against parents that chronically medicate, overfeed, and home school their children into oblivion. The worst part? That lemonade cost 7 dollars! Continue reading "Hard mistake"!

So stupid, it burns

Some collector has purchased a cornflake shaped like Illinois on eBay for $1,350! You read that right. No, it doesn't resemble the Virgin Mary or Hanna Montana, but a state.

I find this sort of behavior stupid on principle, but in this case it is especially inane because the cornflake doesn't look that much like Illinois.

Eh? I don't get it. If you flipped it over, it could pass for Michigan, or perhaps Georgia. And why restrict ourselves to the USA? Rotate that flake 90 degrees and you've got a spitting image of the Ukraine. Or Greenland. Definitely Mongolia. I'd pay 5,000 Hyrvnia, easy.

The best part of this is that copycat auctions are springing up. Stuff inexplicably shaped like other stuff! Let the bidding begin. Continue reading "So stupid, it burns"!