Voyage to the Edge

Originally posted on January 12, 2019 at DaTechGuy Blog.

Das NarrenSchiff/Ship of Fools. Sculpture in Nuremberg, Germany.

Sailing the ocean blue.

A group of people who believe the Earth is flat have announced their “biggest, boldest, best adventure yet”: a Flat Earth cruise scheduled for 2020.

The cruise, organized by the Flat Earth International Conference, promises to be a lovely time. Flat earthers – who include the rapper B.o.B. [JAO: don’t ask because I don’t know either.] and reality television person Tila Tequila – will be able to enjoy restaurants, swimming pools and perhaps even an artificial surf wave.

There’s just one problem for those seeking to celebrate the flatness of the Earth. The navigational systems cruise ships, and other vessels, use rely on the fact that the Earth is not flat: theoretically puncturing the beliefs of the flat Earth crowd.

“Ships navigate based on the principle that the Earth is round,” said Henk Keijer, a former cruise ship captain who sailed all over the globe during a 23-year career. (…)

Keijer, who now works as a forensic marine expert for Robson Forensic, said the existence of GPS, the global positioning system, alone is proof that the Earth is a sphere, not a flat disc. GPS relies on 24 main satellites which orbit the Earth to provide positional and navigational information.

“The reason why 24 satellites were used is because on the curvature of the Earth,” Keijer said.

That vessel might be carrying a more virulent disease than this one.

Essentially, flat-earthism is the result of removing the basic educational ground which was seeded in most of us Americans who are over 50. In that group, even those who weren’t National Merit Scholar material can take the basic seeds of knowledge and logic and apply them.

The Internet, of course, exacerbates the boldness of the stupid. When you find out that there are others who think like you, it can cement your opinion on anything – especially if you’re not in the habit of introspection and of re-thinking old views.

Will I re-think this opinion? Certainly. And when I do, I might walk out to the edge and see what’s down there!

Just kidding.

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