The Earth is Flat and Gravity is Bunk

Posted by $ Thoritsu 7 years, 1 month ago to Science
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This is shocking to me. It must be a joke, or it is one of the worst examples of ignorance.
SOURCE URL: http://www.deathandtaxesmag.com/322818/shaquille-oneal-earth-is-flat-explanation-bonkers/


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  • Posted by ProfChuck 7 years, 1 month ago
    It's all a matter of scale. The Earth is flat, locally.
    consider an architect designing the foundation of a building. While he could include the shape of the Earth to be a sphere it would introduce unnecessary complications to his analysis. when calculating the seasonal solar angle for roof overhang shade functions it makes no difference if the Earth revolves around the Sun or the other way around. However, if you want to plan the navigation from California to Hawaii you better use a spherical Earth or you will get hopelessly lost. If you think small a flat Earth works but if you want to get out of your own backyard a larger view necessary. This says a lot about scale of a flat Earther's mind.
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  • Posted by $ DriveTrain 7 years ago
    Here's my theory: There is a hidden group of aliens who have some kind of technological need for facepalms - like it's some kind of hyper-advanced form of fuel for their groovy little space cruisers, and they need to get home. So they do mind-melds to first hypnotize, then induce such ideas within the minds of the easily-manipulated.

    I'm thinking that this one enabled them to open The Mother Of All Intergalactic Gas Stations.
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  • Posted by $ Abaco 7 years, 1 month ago
    The earth is flat. Guam might tip over. Putin invaded Korea. Pelosi is having trouble working with President Bush. Mercury is good for you. You have to pass a bill in order to read it. In person, I heard a high-level EPA official say that worsening smog in America is causing the childhood asthma epidemic (it's not).

    When you turn off the tv and start reading books, as I did over the past decade, you can't help but shake your head at all this stuff...
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  • Posted by freedomforall 7 years, 1 month ago
    Hmmm, what are the known traits of basketball stars?
    Most are taller than average. The best are usually a lot taller than average. Most have good reaction times that were developed through practice, and the best have great reaction times while playing their sport. Are they known for using the scientific method, rational thinking outside the sport itself, or above average intelligence? No, those are not traits that are important to excellence in basketball.
    Listening to people who are good at basketball talk or write (if they can write) about any topic other than basketball is about as rational as expecting intelligent political commentary from a turnip.
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    • Posted by lrshultis 7 years, 1 month ago
      You must not have run into Jerry Lucas, author of 30 books on memory and learning? He is the only player from the only game that I went to in the 60s against the Badgers that I remember and I liked his memory book written with Harry Lorayne. He was excellent as a pro too.
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  • Posted by CircuitGuy 7 years, 1 month ago
    I don't think he's serious because the interviewer is laughing at him and saying it's stupid, and he doesn't protest or say it's serious.

    The article rightly says he starts sound a little like Howard Zinn. Zinn says everyone views the world through a cultural bias. Trying to focus on value-neutral facts, he says, leads to deception because there really are no value-neutral facts. So he purposely picks a bias he thinks he good and starts there.

    It seems like we've gone crazy in that direction. With some people smugly saying you say "not true" to any fact you do not like, and that "political strategy" works for any claims that sound remotely truthy without regard to actual truth. I can't tell if they're true post-modernists or if it's just a more blatant form of the age-old foibles of wishful thinking and argument from personal incredulity.

    Just from this two-minute clip, though, it sounds like he's making a joke rather than philosophical commentary.
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  • Posted by rbroberg 7 years, 1 month ago
    The argument in the article is an example of an anti-conceptual view. Shaq is trying to make fun of anti-conceptual views. The flat earth analogy is generally used as a springboard to other more or less "obvious" facts. Shaq himself is just too big to use the springboard to launch into completion of the analogy or joke.
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  • Posted by Herb7734 7 years, 1 month ago
    A big basketball player as a scientist is as a bicycle to a fish.
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    • Posted by $ 7 years, 1 month ago
      But unlike a bicycle or fish he can vote, and unlike either 1-2M other voters read what says, but not what I say.
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      • Posted by Herb7734 7 years, 1 month ago
        Unfortunately, you are correct. However, having seen this guy on display on certain TV shows, he has a broad sense of humor which he might be punking us with at present.The pity is that there is a segment of the population who agrees with him, and even more so the originators of this stupidity.
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      • Posted by Herb7734 7 years, 1 month ago
        Unfortunately, you are http://correct.To this forum, he is a chuckle. To certain others, he may be a Solon. It's a pity that even if only a few believe as he does let alone a large number. However, having seen his sense of humor on display, he may just be kidding around for laughs. The other guy, perhaps, not so much.
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  • Posted by Jstork 7 years, 1 month ago
    Maybe we could send the flat earth believers sailing off to find the edge of the earth where there is no gravity. They can report back to see what they find.
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  • Posted by $ Olduglycarl 7 years, 1 month ago
    Now that was a funny interview.
    Ask an Astronaut, see photos from the space station, see photos from the moon...Oh, and what about all the other planets one can see from a telescope...idiots.
    These people are either just spoofing us or they live inside a flat bubble.

    Heard the science guy once say, that there is no gravity!...Really! He said that it's the weight of the atmosphere that keeps us here...Ok...then why is there less atmospheric pressure at the tops of mountains, less air to breath...?

    They Got to be spoofin us...right?
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  • Posted by Esceptico 7 years, 1 month ago
    He is probably a product of government schools and never looked beyond what he was taught. But, then, keep in mind for decades two well know polls have found 18% of Americans believe the sun goes around the earth.

    Note this belief is easily possible if one accepts the Primacy of Consciousness metaphysical position.
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    • Posted by $ 7 years, 1 month ago
      One might accept such, but one with this view may not be able to describe such in terms of the noun, primacy, or adjective, metaphysical. Appositives are right out.
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  • Posted by CTYankee 7 years, 1 month ago
    If I catch you sharing that nonsense on facebook, you will be blocked! {sorry} This pet peeve is one of my triggers... {twitch}

    It's really sad. At first I thought it was a joke, but as time passed, the realization that these people {twitch} are not joking became apparent.
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  • Posted by preimert1 7 years, 1 month ago
    I wonder what are Shaq's views on climate change.
    ...and I also wonder if Dr. Feynman, s a scientist, ever took any government money, in which case his views would be suspecte wouldn't they?
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