Is this the end? Or “The Jig is Up”

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Mrs. Peach

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Is this the end? Or “The Jig is Up”
« on: April 30, 2007, 03:45:50 AM »
FLAT EARTH: The History of an Infamous Idea
Christopher Hart on Christine Garwood’s book, in the Sunday Times: April 22, 2007

Recent flat-earthism was revived by an awkward Lancashireman (if that’s not a tautology), one Samuel Birley Rowbotham of Stockport, a radical socialist, quack doctor and all-round pain in the neck. With scant education concealed by tremendous energy and self-belief, Rowbotham started touring England in the late 1830s, arguing that the earth was a flat disc, the sun was 400 miles from London, and that we age only because we ingest too much “phosphate and sulphate of lime”. He comes across as a Victorian hybrid of David Icke and Dave Spart. Garwood vividly evokes this milieu of bolshy, furiously autodidactic working-class men in their splendid Mechanics’ Institutes and Owenite Halls of Science, determined to prove those toffee-nosed boffins down in London wrong. Even if they were spectacularly wrong themselves, there’s something appealing about their stubborn contrariness, as with global-warming sceptics today. Unquestioning herd-like consensus is never a healthy state of affairs.

The tone of their scientific debates was also vigorous. They dismissed each other’s arguments as “loquacious twaddle and milk-and-water moonshine”, and their opponents as “brainless boobies, infidel upstarts, swaggering freethinkers, knavish professors and the scum of the literary world”. It all makes contemporary scientific debates seem a little anaemic, except perhaps those featuring Richard Dawkins. (There is no God, and Dawkins is his Prophet.)

More at:
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/history/article1672192.ece

*globularists - a word recently used by our own Tom Bishop.  Has he read an advance copy?  Has the entire FES sold out?

« Last Edit: May 04, 2007, 10:10:27 PM by Mrs. More »

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Colonel Gaydafi

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Re: Is this the end? Or “The Jig is Up”
« Reply #1 on: April 30, 2007, 03:51:59 AM »
Quote
and that we age only because we ingest too much “phosphate and sulphate of lime”.

I better start cutting down on them...
Quote from: WardoggKC130FE
If Gayer doesn't remember you, you might as well do yourself a favor and become an hero.
Quote from: Raa
there is a difference between touching a muff and putting your hand into it isn't there?

Re: Is this the end? Or “The Jig is Up”
« Reply #2 on: April 30, 2007, 05:01:51 AM »
Quote
...the sun was 400 miles from London...
Damn global warming...
Quote
Can the FAQ...
Yes, it can.

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Amroth

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Re: Is this the end? Or “The Jig is Up”
« Reply #3 on: April 30, 2007, 05:49:23 AM »
So is that the reason why people in the bible lived for hundreds of years? Because they didn't ingest as much phosphate and sulphate of lime as we do today?
Nothing is impossible. Improbable. Unlikely. But never impossible.

Re: Is this the end? Or “The Jig is Up”
« Reply #4 on: April 30, 2007, 05:52:40 AM »
Take that!

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sokarul

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Re: Is this the end? Or “The Jig is Up”
« Reply #5 on: April 30, 2007, 09:00:44 AM »
The end is near.  How much of it is from that book is another story. 
ANNIHILATOR OF  SHIFTER

It's no slur if it's fact.

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Marlow

Re: Is this the end? Or “The Jig is Up”
« Reply #6 on: April 30, 2007, 10:59:35 AM »
I don’t think the author coined the word "globularist".  Run a search and you’ll find quite a few posts using the word on this site.  But it does sound like a good read.  Couldn’t be any funnier or wittier than some of the threads here, though.  Lots of good fun.

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Mrs. Peach

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Re: Is this the end? Or “The Jig is Up”
« Reply #7 on: April 30, 2007, 12:50:53 PM »
You're right.  Thanks.

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sokarul

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Re: Is this the end? Or “The Jig is Up”
« Reply #8 on: April 30, 2007, 02:36:30 PM »
Did you guys ever notice the giant news box up above? 
« Last Edit: April 30, 2007, 03:25:58 PM by sokarul »
ANNIHILATOR OF  SHIFTER

It's no slur if it's fact.

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Colonel Gaydafi

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Re: Is this the end? Or “The Jig is Up”
« Reply #9 on: April 30, 2007, 02:38:42 PM »
No but I noticed the giant news box. Not that it's that big...
Quote from: WardoggKC130FE
If Gayer doesn't remember you, you might as well do yourself a favor and become an hero.
Quote from: Raa
there is a difference between touching a muff and putting your hand into it isn't there?

?

Marlow

Re: Is this the end? Or “The Jig is Up”
« Reply #10 on: April 30, 2007, 05:05:46 PM »
Did you guys ever notice the giant news box up above? 

You mean the box where the ?owner? of this web site is asking us to read a book that is going to give the FES a big poke in the eye?  And he has the advance copy......well, which of us didn't really know the straight skinny here?  It's still a lot of fun and worth at least one loud laugh a day.

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Rick_James

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Re: Is this the end? Or “The Jig is Up”
« Reply #11 on: April 30, 2007, 07:30:54 PM »
Did you guys ever notice the giant news box up above? 

You mean the box where the ?owner? of this web site is asking us to read a book that is going to give the FES a big poke in the eye?  And he has the advance copy......well, which of us didn't really know the straight skinny here?  It's still a lot of fun and worth at least one loud laugh a day.

What makes you think a book detailing the history of a belief would go on to dispute that belief?

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Marlow

Re: Is this the end? Or “The Jig is Up”
« Reply #12 on: April 30, 2007, 08:05:10 PM »

What makes you think a book detailing the history of a belief would go on to dispute that belief?

I don't really know, quite obviously, as I haven't read the book.  I would think that the reviewer has read it and I'll cite, "Even if they were spectacularly wrong themselves, there’s something appealing about their stubborn contrariness, as with global-warming sceptics today," as the basis for my quip.  I had to think of "Tom Bishop" when I read that.

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Rick_James

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Re: Is this the end? Or “The Jig is Up”
« Reply #13 on: April 30, 2007, 08:08:19 PM »
I tend to think they were probably the reviewer's words, not the author's. It would seem a strange way to document the history of a belief.

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Marlow

Re: Is this the end? Or “The Jig is Up”
« Reply #14 on: April 30, 2007, 09:03:02 PM »
I tend to think they were probably the reviewer's words, not the author's. It would seem a strange way to document the history of a belief.

I think I cited the reviewer.

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Midnight

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Re: Is this the end? Or “The Jig is Up”
« Reply #15 on: May 01, 2007, 07:46:17 PM »
I tend to think they were probably the reviewer's words, not the author's. It would seem a strange way to document the history of a belief.

I think I cited the reviewer.

It burns ussss precioussssss...
My problem with his ideas is that it is a ridiculous thing.

Genius. PURE, undiluted genius.

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Amroth

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Re: Is this the end? Or “The Jig is Up”
« Reply #16 on: May 02, 2007, 05:58:12 AM »
I tend to think they were probably the reviewer's words, not the author's. It would seem a strange way to document the history of a belief.

I think I cited the reviewer.

It burns ussss precioussssss...

Smeagol
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James

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Re: Is this the end? Or “The Jig is Up”
« Reply #17 on: May 02, 2007, 06:00:27 AM »
We've been using the word globularist for years.
"For your own sake, as well as for that of our beloved country, be bold and firm against error and evil of every kind." - David Wardlaw Scott, Terra Firma 1901

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Mrs. Peach

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Re: Is this the end? Or “The Jig is Up”
« Reply #18 on: May 02, 2007, 09:29:43 AM »
We've been using the word globularist for years.

Mr. Hart credits Ms Garwood.  By a false credit he is now discredited.