31

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Evolution (attempt to avoid derailment)

« on: March 06, 2018, 04:29:25 AM »

Have you read the Blind Watchmaker?   I recommend you should.

https://www.amazon.com/Blind-Watchmaker-Evidence-Evolution-Universe/dp/0393351491

I can also highly recommend "The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution". Also by Dawkins.

https://www.amazon.com/Greatest-Show-Earth-Evidence-Evolution/dp/1416594795/ref=pd_sim_14_2?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1416594795&pd_rd_r=JKB65V4D1C9RKGW6WZQD&pd_rd_w=7l2Dy&pd_rd_wg=q44LG&psc=1&refRID=JKB65V4D1C9RKGW6WZQD

32

Flat Earth General / Re: Not Trolling-Curious About Flat Earth Theory

« on: March 05, 2018, 03:31:15 AM »

So do you think a sensible design feature for an aircraft is to have have front windows that distort the view for the pilot?

33

Technology, Science & Alt Science / Re: AI chatbots...

« on: February 24, 2018, 04:53:12 AM »

And now for some music from our sponsors

Bloody hell, Rayzor and I recently did Hitch Hikers Guide, and now you’ve posted a Stranglers tune. I’m coming over all emotional!!!!

Black and White from ‘78 is a cracking album from the greatest band ever!

34

Flat Earth Debate / Re: Google is disproven while manipulating the distance to Seoul !

« on: February 20, 2018, 05:02:46 AM »

BOTD

For crying out loud you surely must know that at soon as the wheels are off the runway the aircraft is moving, and being controlled, with respect to the air. That's why we have airspeed indicators, that's why V1, Vr, V2, stall speed, Vref for landing, Vne, Vmcg, Flap limiting speeds, Gear extension limit speeds, etc etc are all AIR SPEEDS. Why do I even have to say this? Get down to a local flying club and ask them what they think.

Airlines plan minimum cost routings that will invariably try to maximise tailwind components and minimise headwind components. Outbound and inbound routings are rarely the same, especially across the North Atlantic and other oceanic areas where overflight/political/terrain considerations are not a factor. Why don't you contact Turkish Airlines and see if you can spend a few hours with their flight planning department and ask them what they think? Perhaps they've got it all wrong and you can save them some lira.

Your efforts at a map started out as a good idea despite the obvious inherent errors due ground delays, dep/arr routings etc. However you've pre-judged the outcome by trying to fit everything onto a flat map then crying foul when the outcome isn't as you expected/hoped.

Here's an idea. Why don't you have a collection from your FE buddies and buy a bloody ticket for one of your 'fake" flights? AKL-EZE for example? The cost wouldn't be prohibitive per person given the number of flat earth's you think exist, then you can time the sodding thing for yourself. Heck, I'll even arrange to meet you in EZE then we can all go out with the ANZ crew (like I did last time I was there) and you can ask them to their faces what they think about your map. I'll even pay for dinner and the malbec!

35

The Lounge / Re: I guess I look like a terrorist?

« on: February 19, 2018, 11:35:03 AM »

Though the only time I have been to Italy was passing by traveling elsewhere...but I did spend a few days there. I can say I was not impressed at all with the pizza there, and that is about all I tried from different places...and some pasta.

My taste buds were ready to be blown away....instead they simply shrugged and said meh.

Just one notch above little Caesars

Were there any Italians eating there? I'm sure you can go to crap places just like anywhere else but Italians will just not accept rubbish food.

Good spaghetti alle vongole is amazing too.

36

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Scientology

« on: February 19, 2018, 02:23:08 AM »

Yep, so many good bits....The Electric Monk, the sofa stuck in the stairwell, the salt cellar in the Greek vase, the time machine, Coleridge, etc etc. One of my favourites is the description of the Cambridge one-way system where you "drive around and around until you achieve a kind of escape velocity and ping off in a random direction". Just the best book ever.

Nearly time for my annual re-read.

The TV attempts have been OK but of course don't actually follow the original plot which is a shame, as the original storyline is breathtakingly brilliant.

edit

actually that one way system bit might be HHGTTG!

37

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Scientology

« on: February 19, 2018, 01:53:51 AM »

LOL  here's cheers.   Did you notice the "DON'T PANIC"  on the dashboard of Elon Musk's Tesla that he launched into space?

I did indeed. Very nice touch. I'm old enough to remember the original BBC radio broadcasts. I used to listen to them with my dad. Amazing stuff. I've just re-read the 5 book "trilogy" too. Such a shame Douglas Adams died so young.

I love THHGTTG, but, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency has to be the best short novel I've ever read.

Anyway, back to religion...

It's always good to ask people who profess to follow a particular religion "what do you believe, and why?" Then take it from there. I'm fascinated by religion. I recently had the chance to go to Jerusalem for the day, amazing place. The church of the Holy Sepulchre, the most holy place in christianity, is "owned" by 6 or 7 different factions/denominations of christians. Needless to say they can't agree on anything, so (according to our guide) the keys to the main door are kept by a muslim family to avoid arguments!

So, ask a scientologist "what do you believe and why?". If you think the response makes no sense ask yourself the same question about your own beliefs.

38

The Lounge / Re: I guess I look like a terrorist?

« on: February 19, 2018, 12:52:25 AM »

Sorry peeps but Pizza outside of Italy is simply NOT pizza. Thin crusts in the north and thicker down south.

I have to say that as I'm married to an Italian.

Our favourite ever is Al Pisacane in Genova. Thin crust overlapping the plate, my choice is simply funghi con aglio. Awesome!!! Luckily we can drive to some pretty good alternatives near us.

In bocca al lupo!

39

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Scientology

« on: February 18, 2018, 11:19:46 PM »

I believe the universe was sneezed from the nose of the Great Green Arlkleseizure.

The Jatravartids live in perpetual fear of the time they call "the Coming of the Great White Handkerchief"

Well done - a Pan Galactic Gargleblaster to you Sir!

40

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Scientology

« on: February 18, 2018, 11:21:58 AM »

I believe the universe was sneezed from the nose of the Great Green Arlkleseizure.

41

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Another mass shooting...

« on: February 18, 2018, 09:59:10 AM »

How many kids need to get killed before America will wake up and do something about it?

Maybe this has been posted before so apologies if it has, but Australian comedian Jim Jefferies sums it up well....

part 1

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part 2

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42

Flat Earth General / Re: The size and distance of Mars.

« on: January 10, 2018, 07:00:50 AM »

True. Fortunately I had my towel with me!

I edited (added to) my previous post as you were posting yours so I'll add the extra below to keep the timeline complete.

Actually, the Hubble Space Telescope is rather like the Total Perspective Vortex from The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy. The deep field views really do show how insignificant we are. There are more stars in the observable universe than grains of sand on the earth. We are on a rock going around one of those grains of sand. How arrogant of (some) Homo Sapiens to think that we are anyway special in "creation".

43

Flat Earth General / Re: The size and distance of Mars.

« on: January 10, 2018, 06:46:17 AM »

And yes, I, too, think a lot of what makes a flat earther has to do with the inability to comprehend the vastness, and our position and lack of "meaning" in all of it. I think the same applies to many religious people. Knowing there are boundaries can be comforting.

Indeed. They need a trip to the The Total Perspective Vortex on Frogstar B !!! I survived, but only by leaving Zarniwoop's office by the window.

Actually, the Hubble Space Telescope is rather like the Total Perspective Vortex from The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy. The deep field views really do show how insignificant we are. There are more stars in the observable universe than grains of sand on the earth. We are on a rock going around one of those grains of sand. How arrogant of (some) Homo Sapiens to think that we are anyway special in "creation".

44

Flat Earth General / Re: The size and distance of Mars.

« on: January 10, 2018, 05:25:14 AM »

I know English is not your first language and mine is,

Steady on Bruce, can't have the colonials getting ideas above their station - even if they are better at cricket!

45

Flat Earth General / Re: What does parallax measure?

« on: January 10, 2018, 05:11:35 AM »

To be fair, and at the risk of "doing a Jane", deriving a stellar distance from parallax is dependent on knowing the size of earth's orbit around the sun. I don't suppose many FEs would agree that the earth orbits the sun!

Perhaps a better question would be....

Astronomers observe 2 types of cyclical variation in the position of some stars - stellar parallax and stellar aberration. These variations are explained by the position of the earth in it's orbit around the sun (parallax) or it's relative motion/inertial reference frame (aberration). What, if any, is the FE explanation for these phenomena?

46

Flat Earth General / Re: Do you believe Apollo 11 was a hoax?

« on: January 06, 2018, 06:53:06 AM »

The main foundations of my anti NASA posts focus on lying and cheating astronauts and NASA spokesmen.

Sometime ago I asked if you'd ever spoken to an astronaut or visited any of the space centres/museums around the world. I urge you to do so if you can. Meet them face to face, ask about their missions and experiences. Speak to the ground crews and engineers that are on hand in places like KSC and JSC. Then decide if their lying to you instead of deciding by reading youtube comments.

I've been lucky enough to meet Tom Stafford, Fred Haise, Jim Lovell (all apollo), Bruce Melnick, and Tom Henricks (shuttle). Through work contacts I've been very fortunate to get "back stage" tours around JSC speaking to all sorts of people from past and current projects. Dutchy, they're not lying my friend. Can you imagine the size of the conspiracy needed? This is not difficult to do. Flights and accommodation to Houston are relatively cheap and the bus to JSC from downtown is $3 each way! Adult entry is circa $30. Or start in europe, ESA must have something similar. I think this is something you need to do.

Also it's not just about the astronauts. There are countless videos and books about the American and Russian space efforts and the teams and infrastructure needed.

This doc about Mission Control is fantastic....

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As ever I wish you well.

47

Flat Earth Debate / Re: Does FE-theory even make testable claims?

« on: January 06, 2018, 06:24:45 AM »

From the great Richard Feynman on the scientific method

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48

Flat Earth General / Re: Think about it FES

« on: January 04, 2018, 02:26:02 AM »

Ask yourself “how is sound transmitted? What pathways could there be to the microphones?”

I’m pretty sure there’s no mystery here.

Hope you’re well.

Z

49

Flat Earth Debate / Re: Distances between cities

« on: January 03, 2018, 06:14:02 AM »

BOTD

I admire you for having a go a least and as long as you make some sensible ball park allowances for taxi/departure arrival routes/holding/prevailing winds etc then you might get a rough idea of the topography. Don’t forget that an airline will plan a min cost routing not necessarily a min distance routing. Prevailing winds mean that the return route can be very different from the outbound, North Atlantic tracks are a good example.

If you want to invalidate a globe model then you really should be looking at southern hemisphere routes where the errors of your methodology will be small compared to the differences between the “competing” models.

Anyway, I’m currently in EZE (Buenos Airies) having operated a 777-200ER from Europe a couple of days ago. We stay in the same hotel as the NZ crew so I was out for dinner last night with the crew that operated their AKL-EZE service (currently also on a 777 due to the ongoing worldwide engine issues with the RR powered 787). Their non-stop route/timing was as advertised.

Surely you’d be much better looking at these kinds of sectors?

50

Flat Earth General / Re: The constant stream.

« on: December 29, 2017, 07:27:55 AM »

Is that Yellowknife Canada? Airport code CYZF?

Flew pretty much straight over last week on the way to San Francisco. We used it as an ETOPS alternate. Looked bloody cold and even the “long” runway is not the longest!

51

Flat Earth General / Re: Where is 21 feets of missing curvature?Who is hiding it?Globe heads please help!

« on: December 16, 2017, 11:48:59 AM »

If camera and light source are approx 1m/3ft above the deck then line of sight range would be about 6 miles

52

Flat Earth General / Re: Geminid Meteor Showers

« on: December 15, 2017, 08:34:31 AM »

Well at 0400 ish UTC at FL390 over the North Atlantic on thursday morning it looked pretty darn cool. We did have the best seat in the house mind!

The heliocentric explanation for this regular event is the earth’s orbit passing through bits of an asteroid.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geminids

53

Flat Earth General / Re: Flat Earthers and Dinosaurs

« on: December 13, 2017, 06:20:37 AM »

John

Maybe I missed it, but you don’t appear to have answered the question regarding how the the bones got into the rock, and how old they are.

So, here goes again. The following link shows the Quarry Exhibit Hall at Dinosaur National Monument in Utah. There are over 1500 dinosaur bones on view here, still embedded in the rock as they were found.

https://www.nps.gov/dino/planyourvisit/quarry-exhibit-hall.htm



How did they get there?

How old are they?

54

Flat Earth General / Re: Flat Earthers and Dinosaurs

« on: December 11, 2017, 06:21:58 AM »

Have you been?

Ffs John it’s a National Park like Grand Canyon or Yosemite, not some attraction like Disney or the Creation Museum. How do you think the bones got there and when do you think it happened?

55

Flat Earth General / Re: Flat Earthers and Dinosaurs

« on: December 11, 2017, 06:18:43 AM »

The idea that dinosaurs existed has about as much weight to it as dragons existing.

So Dinosaur National Monument in Utah is just all part of the conspiracy is it?

https://www.nps.gov/dino/index.htm

56

Flat Earth General / Re: Are there any pilots or ocean navigators who ascribe to this theory?

« on: December 08, 2017, 02:06:34 PM »

TheEngineer was a longtime member of this forum, engineer, and pilot whom supplied his license to us to verify; he attested that his experiences never showed any evidence of a round earth.

If he was a holder of an ATPL or CPL (Airline Transport/Commercial Pilot’s Licence), or equivalent, then the techniques he learned to pass his navigation exams for licence issue would have been based on spherical geometry. If he had any practical experience of long haul and/or oceanic flying he would know that said techniques work.

57

Flat Earth General / Re: Flat Earth Speech

« on: December 07, 2017, 01:23:42 PM »

That's all very fanciful, but you're telling me the earth is moved at these astronomical scales towards the sun - but not the reverse - and then have the arrogance to claim it's basic physics.





Puhleeze

No, you apparently still don't understand.  The Earth is pulled toward the Sun, and the Sun is pulled toward the Earth.  The Sun simply moves much, much less because it is 300,000 times more massive.  Unless you believe that the same amount of force should move objects uniformly regardless of an absurd size differential?

Seriously, you are way outclassed in this conversation, and I'm not even one of the better physics people on the board...

So in a long enough time scale, like 4000 years (the age of the earth), the sun eventually crashes into the earth.

If they weren’t orbiting each other then yes.

And the earth is circa 4,500,000,000 years old.

58

Flat Earth General / Re: Flat Earth Speech

« on: December 07, 2017, 01:08:44 PM »

Wait, so mass doesn't accelerate towards the earth at 9.8 m/s^2?

I guess we finally agree on something!

You really do need to do some study of basic physics. That link again.....

http://www.physicsclassroom.com/Physics-Tutorial/Newton-s-Laws

And

http://www.physicsclassroom.com/class/circles/Lesson-3/Newton-s-Law-of-Universal-Gravitation

59

Flat Earth General / Re: Flat Earth Speech

« on: December 07, 2017, 12:46:08 PM »

So on one hand there’s a wonderful program about quantum mechanics on bbc4, whilst here there are a couple of ignorant flat earthers talking bollocks. Time to turn the iPad off!

60

Flat Earth General / Re: Flat Earth Speech

« on: December 07, 2017, 12:22:51 PM »

Because the sun is much much more massive than the earth. And actually, the sun and earth are in orbit around their common centre of mass.

Please read up on Newton’s Laws of motion.

http://www.physicsclassroom.com/Physics-Tutorial/Newton-s-Laws