...because God knows you need some satisfaction in life besides shagging Captain Cardboard! And I never really liked you anyway. And you have stupid hair!

Spike ,'Selfless'


Natter 52: Playing with a full deck?  

Off-topic discussion. Wanna talk about corsets, duct tape, or physics? This is the place. Detailed discussion of any current-season TV must be whitefonted.


Jesse - Jun 19, 2007 2:02:12 pm PDT #3802 of 10001
Sometimes I trip on how happy we could be.

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.


Maria - Jun 19, 2007 2:16:35 pm PDT #3803 of 10001
Not so nice is that I'm about to ruin a Friday morning for a bunch of people because of a series of unfortunate events and an upset foreign government. - shrift

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.


§ ita § - Jun 19, 2007 2:17:40 pm PDT #3804 of 10001
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.

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.


tommyrot - Jun 19, 2007 2:21:19 pm PDT #3805 of 10001
Sir, it's not an offence to let your cat eat your bacon. Okay? And we don't arrest cats, I'm very sorry.

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....


§ ita § - Jun 19, 2007 2:27:23 pm PDT #3806 of 10001
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.

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.


tommyrot - Jun 19, 2007 2:30:40 pm PDT #3807 of 10001
Sir, it's not an offence to let your cat eat your bacon. Okay? And we don't arrest cats, I'm very sorry.

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


DavidS - Jun 19, 2007 2:32:29 pm PDT #3808 of 10001
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."

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.


§ ita § - Jun 19, 2007 2:35:15 pm PDT #3809 of 10001
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.

Yeah, but they used to exist.

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


DavidS - Jun 19, 2007 2:39:25 pm PDT #3810 of 10001
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."

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.


billytea - Jun 19, 2007 2:44:14 pm PDT #3811 of 10001
You were a wrong baby who grew up wrong. The wrong kind of wrong. It's better you hear it from a friend.

17 doesn't need reasons to be liked. All it needs is its essence of 17-ness.

And, seventeen species of penguin!