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The Lounge / Re: I got banned from Christian Forums....
« on: December 14, 2009, 07:42:19 AM »
54.3442562% of all supporting Facts are made up on the spot.
Sorry, couldn't resist
Sorry, couldn't resist
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I think my intelligence was knocked down a few points after reading this.
ah ... > uh ..eh ' haau hh
It's not as much a lack of sense of humor, as the fact that joke was terrible.But... Bugs Bunny threw a baseball around the world... and it came back BEHIND him... So the world MUST be round. It's the only logical explanation.
Yeah, a cartoon, that proves so much.
Wow, somebody's sense of humor is broken.
But isn't that the problem of the whole FE movement? The paradigm sort of goes as follows:
(1.) Believe everything without proof.
Nope. FE'ers will tell you to read Earth Not a Globe and then repeat the experiments found within so that you can come to your own conclusions.
No. You just have to take their word for it that the Earth is flat and just believe it.
Or you could actually think things through and realize that a flat earth is the only logical conclusion.
I'm incredibly simple. Help me think things through and tell me more about logic.
I'd start with Earth Not A Globe. He has simple experiments that you can recreate yourself proving the shape of the earth. The full text is free online here: http://www.sacred-texts.com/earth/za/index.htm
Yeah, I looked at that and I used logic to decide it was bunk as he misrepresented many, many things, didn't measure many things that would factor in, and so on. Oh, I also found this in a critical analysis:Quote from: Laurence A. MarschallGarwood's flat-Earthers employ a peculiar brand of inverted logic to bulwark their odd beliefs. Samuel Rowbotham, who lectured and wrote widely about the flat Earth in the mid-1800s under the pseudonym "Parallax," described the Earth as a flat, stationary disk centered on the North Pole, ringed at its outer edges by an impenetrable barrier of ice. The Sun circled overhead, only a few hundred miles up, and the Moon and stars were luminous bodies not much farther away. If challenged during a speech, Rowbotham would confidently cite abstruse technicalities or invent spurious data. What caused day and night if the Earth did not turn? The "expansion and contraction of the solar path" and a "special law of perspective." Since we can't see the North Star from south of the equator, isn't the Earth round? Not so: on 23 January, 1862, the North Star was seen from a spot 23 degrees south of the equator. The speaker's resolve in the face of tough counterclaims was enough to persuade at least a few members of his audience.
Citation: Marschall, Laurence A. "Flat Earth: The History of an Infamous Idea.(Book review)." Natural History 117.7 (Sept 2008): 36(2).
Huh, I will agree that most of what he said was fairly spurious.
Well, I respect your beliefs, but mine happen to differ. A flat earth is what makes sense in my eyes, and I don't believe what he said was spurious at all. I think he was a very intelligent man and it's a shame he's being remembered like this.
Hah...I agree.The OP stopped coming to this site a while ago
But it made much more sense than the OP.
Last Active: October 06, 2008, 12:50:42 PM
So, don't expect an answer soon, unless some other FE'er feels like dealing with your tl;dr.
But... Bugs Bunny threw a baseball around the world... and it came back BEHIND him... So the world MUST be round. It's the only logical explanation.
Yeah, a cartoon, that proves so much.
I know I'm not in this thread at all, but I just want to point out that bit_pattern's picture is a picture of some ice at Mt. Kilimanjaro. An honest FE'er wouldn't use pictures as evidence, since--by their own admittance--they can be faked.
QuoteQ: "Why has no one taken a photo of the Earth that proves it is flat?"
A: Only those connected to the Conspiracy have access to heights from which the shape of the Earth can be discerned. Also, nobody has been to the edge of the Earth and lived; conditions on the Ice Wall get increasingly treacherous the further you get out, and navigation methods become unreliable that far south. It is also possible that the Conspiracy is guarding the edge to prevent people from getting too close to the truth.
Conclusive Mathematics:
Basically, I'm going to assume that every single person on my list wants to get paid so that they won't talk about the conspiracy. They're going to want a lot of it, too, most likely. Probably enough so that they won't have to work for the rest of their lives? Well, how's about something like one million dollars per year, plus one million in advance. That's far better than most jobs can fetch, and all they have to do is shut up. Minus the top five or so, since they are the runners of the organization.
That brings us to 40 x 1,000,000.
Forty million dollars plus forty million every year? Sure, it's plenty of cash, but NASA receives so much more money than that from just governmental funds, and while I don't know much about Russian space teams, I'm sure they do, too. They can easily pay for this, and the undernoted requirements for money, without even breaking a sweat; in fact, they'll be probably pulling a profit, just from the government giving them cash.
Maintenance:
There doesn't need to be all that much maintenance, besides damage control. The space exploration programs have maintenance funds from their respective governments, so they're all self-sufficient without having to spend excess money on maintaining the conspiracy (seeing as all the cash they're not spending on research can be spent on the conspiracy).
The only reason extra money might need to be poured into the conspiracy would be for damage control. If we say that this would cost somewhere around five million per year, that still only leaves us with forty-five million per year.
*UPDATED*
Ice Wall Guarding:
Now, I'm going to take this, and say that we need about one-thousand men guarding the wall, again with two shifts each, if we include cameras, infrared, radar, intelligence, and all that good stuff. This is more than I stated previously, but bear in mind that I had been very generous with the amount those men had been paid. Now, seeing as the men practically have no influence (all they do is guard an ice wall; it's not like it's probable they have a lot of friends at all, let alone ones in high places), they don't necessarily need a very grand rate of pay. Therefore I'm dropping my previous estimate to a simple one-hundred thousand dollars per person. That still leaves us with the same amount of two-million dollars to pay for every guard in the wall forces.
CONSPIRACY MONEY TOTAL = $47,000,000 USD (Forty-Million U.S. Dollars)
Second Topic:
How Does The Conspiracy Benefit?
This is not easily answered, but I've taken some insight into this and made some estimates on how the conspiracy could be making money:
Government Paychecks:
It's very possible that the conspiracy runs by just sucking money out of the government that they are underneath. Seeing as the head honchos in those governments don't have to know about the conspiracy, it'd be pretty easy to take money from the government. Also, even if the leaders DID know, it's tax money that's going into the space exploration research, so really, they'd still be pulling profit. Basically, if you chose to believe this option, the leaders of the conspiracy are taking tax money and getting filthy stinking rich off of it. Sounds like a motive to me.
Display of Power:
Some people are control freaks. Maybe they get a rush from showing that they can change everyone's mind about the true shape of the Earth.
Embarrassment:
So, the government messed up at a really bad time to mess up, and they've been pooling all of the already-angry tax-payers' money into research that eventually led to a less-than-exciting discovery: The Earth is flat. Everyone was wrong. Millions (probably billions) of dollars of money that didn't really belong to them had been basically tossed down the drain for research of the round Earth, when, in fact it was flat. So, instead of angering people and possibly even sparking a revolt of some sort, they made up some stuff. And you know how lies tend to roll and get bigger and bigger until they're inescapable? I'd say a worldwide conspiracy is that concept...to the max.
Recruitment/Faithfulness:
Similar to the one above. Maybe the future-conspirators were ashamed that they hadn't reached out to space yet, and they felt that the people were getting hasty and impatient with them, so they decided to say they did it, and qualm the welling resentment of them, so they could ACTUALLY send people into space on a later date, without a bunch of morons knocking on their doorstep asking when they would be done with their space ship. Unfortunately, they later realized that they were wrong the whole time, and therefore had to uphold the conspiracy, lest they be accused of lying, and therefore reverting the resentment to its original state.
Third Topic:
What If Someone Squeals?
"Yes," you say, "but what happens when someone leaks the information?"
Why You WOULD Leak Conspiracy Information:
Fame:
You officially proved that the Earth is actually flat. You'll be in history books for ages!
Money:
Interviews with every news station and every magazine ever. You'll be a huge celebrity, and as such, you'll probably be making a fair amount of cash...at least for a little while.
Peace of Mind:
It's probably tough to keep that stuff in your head without leaking some of it out every once in a while. It'd be a lot on your conscience.
Why You Would NOT Leak Conspiracy Information:
Fame:
Some people don't like being in the spotlight all that much. Paparazzi can get annoying, and even though attention may appear to be entertaining, it can get old pretty fast.
Money:
You no longer get the big fat paychecks from the conspirators. After all of the press wears out, and starts ignoring you again--meaning no more cash from interviews--you'll probably have to start working again.
Peace of Mind:
You just screwed over all of your friends, just because you wanted a few minutes of fame and a lot of cash. Congratulations.
Insanity:
If you don't have enough proof, you won't be revered as a revolutionary, you'll be revered as Patient #3562 at the local mental hospital.
Death:
While a most likely uncommon side-effect, NASA could easily kill you and say, "He died in a space shuttle accident, I swear." Honestly, by the way it seems on TV, those things are so unstable, no one would ever EVER doubt that someone died while in space due to some random accident (add a bunch of jargon and you've got an incredibly convincing reason for death).
Topic Four:
Conclusive Notes:
As you can see, the conspiracy is not only logical, but it's, in its own way, actually quite plausible. With all of these concepts in your face, it's hard to refute AT LEAST the possibility of a conspiracy covering up the shape of the Earth. If anyone wants to rebuttal, though, I gladly welcome it (in fact, I'm probably missing a lot of stuff--but hey, I'm only one guy), and I'll add more to this compendium (hence why it's a compendium).
SO STOP MAKING CONSPIRACY THREADS!!
The Conclusive Categorical Conspiracy Compendium
Okay. There has been way too many threads asking about the same damned question, and too many people saying that the governments can't pull together a conspiracy as such, and what not. This will conclusively prove that it is entirely plausible, profitable and, hopefully, probable. Expect me to reference this any time you ask a stupid question about the conspiracy again.
First Topic:
How Can They Afford the Conspiracy?
Bribes
Let's look at this liberally (keep in mind these are probably near maximized estimates).
Who DOES Need to Know:
NASA -- Okay, so the top three (at most) need to know, we'll say. These are the guys who actually are controlling the conspiracy, and maybe some of the profit is divided amongst them, but they don't need to be bribed to shut their mouths, and thus have no leverage amongst the others. If we say about three other people in NASA know about it, who are helping with image editing, video editing, and general coverage, but working closely with the top three.
RASA -- The Russians are just about equal if not more active in space exploration as the US, so we'll say these guys have six people helping out with the conspiracy as well. As a matter of fact, tag one more on, just because I'm generous. That leaves us with thirteen people.
China -- Yes, in 2003, China became the third country to independently send a manned spaceship into outer space. However, their space program isn't all that big. As a (very) liberal estimate, we'll say they need about three people. But why don't we tag on one more just to make sure I'm not cheating. That leaves us with seventeen people from the space exploration crews that need to know.
GPS Manufacturers -- I'm going to say they only need one person for this job. There's not really much to do. Machines make most of the chips, and I doubt all of the bosses of the companies need to even bother. They just need to have one guy saying, "Yup, that's right." This guy could even be one of the NASA or RASA members, honestly, but I'm being nice. This rings up to a comprehensive total of eighteen people.
Public Relations People -- NASA or RASA conspirators could fill this role, too, but again, generosity has the better of me, and I'm going to say that the conspiracy hires people to do this, too, since the guys in the space exploration teams are filled with a bunch of pale, pimply white guys, and therefore aren't good at convincing people of the truth. We'll say they need a couple of these guys, bringing the total up to a whopping twenty people.
People Who Have "Been In Space" -- Yes, they need astronauts saying, "Hey! I was up there!" But they're barely part of the conspiracy, they're just people who have a little bit of leverage, and therefore need a bit of bribing. We'll count them as half-people for this count, since they don't really count as conspirators. So, if we have somewhere around fifty people that have "been in space," that means that it counts for about twenty-five conspirators, therefore bringing our total to forty-five which is not as large as is commonly described.
Ice Wall Guards -- These guys don't need to be paid in full, either, as they're only guarding an ice wall. I believe that it was Erasmus who pulled some mathematics on this one, and showed that not that many people were needed to guard the ice wall. As they don't really have any leverage on the conspiracy, they won't count for this part (I'll go back to it later), since this is mostly about who needs to be paid to shut their mouths.
Who Does NOT Need To Know:
PotUS -- Why would the president need to know? All he knows is that he's giving money to what he thinks is a space exploration team, and then he sees exactly what everyone in the world sees on TV. He doesn't ever need to suspect a damned thing.
Members of Space Teams -- They see exactly what we see as well, but they're sitting on the ground looking at it "Live." That doesn't mean that they know that the people are actually in space, but they can make a really convincing argument towards it, perhaps.