Timelies all!

Happy Birthday Plei!

(In two days our guests arrive. In three days, the con starts. Aaaah!)

Mayor Mike Bloomberg just changed his party affiliation to "unaffiliated." Why would he do that if he was just going to retire in 2009?

I hope he doesn't think he can swoop into a Hillary/Rudy presidential race. Because, seriously.

Hey, did I mention I'm coming to B'more for work?

O rly? Very cool. It would be good to finally meet you, if you have the time.

So I was looking at the website of The Flat Earth people. Shouldn't there be a rule that you can't use technology if you're...I dunno, really very annoyingly anti-tech, or something?

Why the Earth must be flat.

Or, as I like to think, they're kidding. I mean, they have to be, right?

I'm assuming there's stuff that makes the internet possible that also ties into the whole "we are on a planet thing," like, you know, cables running across ocean floor and satellites and crap. So if they don't believe in all the bits of the internet, I think they should be booted off.

I was just reading about Islamic scholars during their pre-Renaissance golden age. They got gravity, yet not this dude.

Unless, as noted above, they're kidding.

They have to be.

Or, as I like to think, they're kidding. I mean, they have to be, right?

The power of denial in the face of all possible evidence is an amazing thing.

Still, maybe not everyone there is serious. Maybe some are flat-earthers just to pick up chicks....

Okay, kidding.

Three loyal Flat Earth Society members, during a camping trip to the small African nation of Tunisia, came across a privately-owned 59 minute photo stand in the isolated northernmost corner of the desert country. Employing guerilla warfare techniques learned under Mao Zedong in the early 1920's, they were able to effortlessly seize control of the stand and are now using it to distribute pro-Flat Earth propaganda throughout the West African region.

Better now.

Dammit - there goes my "they're doing it just to pick up flat-earther chicks" theory....

Okay, kidding.

Yeah, but they used to exist.

********

The modern flat earth movement originated with an eccentric English inventor, Samuel Rowbotham (1816-1884). Based on his literal interpretation of certain biblical passages, Rowbotham published a 16-page pamphlet, which he later expanded into a 430 page book Earth Not a Globe expounding his views. According to Rowbotham's system, which he called "Zetetic Astronomy", the earth is a flat disk centered at the North Pole and bounded along its southern edge by a wall of ice, with the sun and moon 3000 miles and the "cosmos" 3100 miles above earth.

Rowbotham and his followers gained notoriety by engaging in raucous public debates with leading scientists of the day. One such clash, involving the prominent naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace, led to several lawsuits for fraud and libel.

After Rowbotham's death, his followers established the Universal Zetetic Society, published a magazine entitled The Earth Not a Globe Review and remained active well into the early part of the 20th century. After World War I, the movement underwent a slow decline.

Yeah, but they used to exist.

That I got no issue with. I mean, they weren't on the Internet.

That I got no issue with. I mean, they weren't on the Internet.

They were still around in a not-kidding way to dispute satellite photos of earth.

Now you've got me looking up obsolete scientific theories: Aether drag hypothesis, Sublunary sphere, Miasma theory of disease, Open polar sea, Etheric force.

These are all good band names.