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.

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

And, seventeen species of penguin!

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

Still got no issue with that. With these guys? You betchya.

So some of them are Erisian/Dadaists.

Hm, it appears the Planned Human Extinction people have vanished from the Internet. Which would fit with their plan.

Now I'm trying to parse the differences between protoscience, fringe science, pseudoscience and junk science.

All different flavors of suck?