701

Announcements / Re: Parsifal will be less active for a while

« on: January 02, 2014, 03:34:07 AM »

How dare Parsifal have some semblance of a life? I for one am outraged.

702

Suggestions & Concerns / Councillors unable to see most boards.

« on: December 31, 2013, 04:12:46 AM »

Is it just me, or is the rest of the forum gone?

703

Flat Earth Community / Re: The Zetetic Council

« on: December 31, 2013, 02:27:52 AM »

Even the editors had a secret board.

Yeah, that was a mistake of mine. It resulted in changes being discussed only within the editor clique and brought forth things that did not meet with popular approval. That's why this forum doesn't have an editor forum, or even an "official" position of an editor - anyone can ask for a wiki account and they'll get one. As long as they edit in good faith, there should be no issue. Parsifal even had an idea of integrating logins between TFES sites so that people's forum logins work for the Wiki etc, but that probably won't happen soon, if at all. But yes, the editors weren't transparent. Mea culpa, this is now fixed.

Don't take me wrong, I'm not trying to block the idea of a private Council forum. However, I personally feel like things like this should be justified.

No, you have a valid point. The forum should probably be public unless someone has reasoning I haven't thought of.

704

Flat Earth Community / Re: The Zetetic Council

« on: December 31, 2013, 12:31:41 AM »

Is there a need for secrecy?

There's no need, I suppose. But the admins and mods have always had their secret fora. Even the editors had a secret board. I assume you have a secret board of your own. There's really no need for that, either. But I do think that things get done more efficiently when nobody is looking over your shoulders.

Of course, I also don't feel particularly strongly about this. If people disagree, that's fine with me.

705

Flat Earth Community / Re: The Zetetic Council

« on: December 30, 2013, 10:03:28 PM »

So should we have a private board? Or should we let the public see what's being discussed? I guess we should decide that and then either keep discussing here or move it to the appropriate board.

I think we should have both. Elections should be public, people ought to know who votes for what. But discussions should be behind closed doors.

And this should be discussed here. Everyone has a right to have input.

706

Flat Earth Community / Re: The Zetetic Council

« on: December 30, 2013, 08:10:17 PM »

Don't worry, we'll change it to something more official soon. Nobody is feeling too serious at the moment, I think.

707

Flat Earth Theory / Re: Sunrise and Sunset at the Falklands

« on: December 30, 2013, 05:39:48 PM »

Well what I'm saying is, why would they have to be different in FET? At least in my model, it makes more sense for them to be the same

708

Flat Earth Community / Re: The Zetetic Council

« on: December 30, 2013, 05:37:13 PM »

Thanks for the link. I think we're pretty much all in agreement that the admins run the forum and the council runs the society itself. That takes care of the purpose.

Now for rights, responsibilities, etc. I propose that we be required to check into the forum at least once a week barring unforeseen circumstances (or vacations, or finals, or whatever). We should have to be active members of the community.

There should be two boards. One secret for general discussions, and one public for voting. We should be able to speak freely, but when we vote everyone should know who is voting for what.

I like the idea of a tier system based on popularity. Secret User and I would be the bottom tier, because we got the fewest votes. Our term of office should be ~4 months. The next tier would be Roundy and Thork, who get ~8 months, and the final tier should be Tom, who gets a year. Maybe we can call Tom the president or something.

709

Science & Alternative Science / Re: Erich von Daniken

« on: December 30, 2013, 04:57:47 PM »

Why should it be difficult for aliens to get to Earth if they wanted to? I believe that von Daniken's theory has nothing to do w/ 'little green men' as such, but rather, w/ beings who were able to copulate w/ human females, thus producing a new race. Personally, I'm not partial to this theory. I'm more the Battlestar Galactica theory, ie, the concept that humans as such originated off-world, & may exist elsewhere as well as here. If that were the case, it would damn sure explain how a lot of shit got built that frankly has no earthly fucking business being where it is, Puma Punku being just 1 example. Of course, I may be full of crap, too. If I am, I'm prepared to live w/ that. All I'm suggesting is that von Daniken would probably do well to read an archaeology book or 2, & a few history books, & the historians/archaeologists could read 1 or 2 of his.

The closest star, proxima centauri, is 4 light years away. Even if there were life somewhere in this star system (and there almost certainly is not), it would take them a decade moving at half the speed of light to get here. It's not really realistic to expect them to move more quickly than this, as hitting a single hydrogen atom at .9c would be enough to blow up your space ship. So they spent a decade getting here, braving radiation etc. to... build simple structures and mate with human females? That doesn't make very much sense.

In addition, biology doesn't work like that. Aliens and humans wouldn't be able to produce viable offspring. It doesn't work like that.

In addition again, if you claim that humans started somewhere else, how do you explain the 98% similarity between human and ape DNA? How do you explain the clear lineage of fossils leading up to humanity?

710

Flat Earth Community / Re: Moon shrimp data

« on: December 30, 2013, 04:17:28 AM »

Welcome to TFES! I'm pleased to see that we're starting to get angry noobs again. First, I encourage you to avoid making assumptions. We all know the saying about what assume does to us. Instead of saying 'You can't explain x', I suggest you instead say 'How do you explain x?'. You might be surprised at how not-insane Flat Earth Theory actually is.

Things unaccounted for in your theories such as the effects of Lorentz contraction and special relativity (Which is taken into consideration, but used and applied improperly.) lead me to believe that the UA theory is false.

I'm not sure where you're trying to go with Special Relativity. You might want to expand on that a bit, but in a different thread. Hijacking threads (which is absolutely what you're doing right now) is frowned upon.

Direct "zetetic" observations such as the Sun disappearing under the horizon - and the crazy ideas such as moon shrimp - render me to submit to the idea that believing the world is flat is an exercise in lunacy fueled by paranoia and an inability to just trust the data and facts sometimes.

Don't worry, the Moon Shramp are an inside joke. Nobody actually believes in them with the possible exception of iwanttobelieve, who appears to be mentally unstable.

The cycling of the Sun is clearly explained by FET. I suggest you read the FAQ. There will be a link to it in my signature within the next five minutes.

Date Registered: July 21, 2009, 02:44:23 PM
Not an angry noob.
Beside the point.
I suggest reading this for my problem with Lorentz contraction and the UA. http://theflatearthsociety.org/forum/index.php?topic=60351.0#.UsDxFHlMhnw
I'm not talking about the cycle of the Sun.
I'm talking about how it clearly dips below the horizon, and does not "fade out due to a perspective effect".
I'm also glad that the moon shrimp are a joke. 

th3rm0m3t3r0, I am not sure what you are confused about.  If you can tell me what you can not understand, I will try to explain it in more simpler terms.  I am here to help.

I understand it, it just doesn't fit.

Angry noobdom isn't about when you registered. It's a state of mind.

Anyway, in response to your other thread all of the other stars, galaxies, etc. are evidently in our frame of reference. Otherwise they'd be somewhere behind us by now.

711

Flat Earth Theory / Re: Sunrise and Sunset at the Falklands

« on: December 30, 2013, 04:07:04 AM »

Hmm. This actually makes sense, considering that the honorable Doctor was using rather inaccurate technologies. It doesn't mean that he was a crackpot, just that the data he was using was incorrect.

This being said, I rather feel that it has little effect on Flat Earth Theory as a whole

712

Science & Alternative Science / Re: Erich von Daniken

« on: December 30, 2013, 02:53:09 AM »

It's not that crazy. First of all, it was built from sandstone. Not diorite. Second, there are multiple possible ways it could have been done as a quick glance at the wikipedia article reveals.

Anyway, you're suggesting that a race of highly advanced alien lifeforms capable of warpdrive found the Earth, realized that primitive life existed on it, took the unbelievable amount of energy required to get here, built a bunch of simple monuments using available materials, and were never seen again? Is it not more likely that an ancient civilization performed an impressive feat of engineering using slave labor?

713

Science & Alternative Science / Re: Honey & Lemon

« on: December 30, 2013, 02:04:55 AM »

I do festivals sometimes as part of an environmental group in my school that I'm part of (read: in charge of). There are a couple of beekeepers that go to them as well. My house is always stocked with delicious honey.

I recommend finding all of the state parks in your area and seeing when they do festivals or whatever.

714

Arts & Entertainment / The FES Books

« on: December 30, 2013, 01:59:32 AM »

It occurs to me that if Dotorg ever completely goes under, The Book and all of the other pieces of FES literature will be gone forever. Is there anything we can do around here to prevent that happening?

715

Flat Earth Community / Re: The Zetetic Council

« on: December 30, 2013, 01:49:58 AM »

I think that the first thing the council needs to do is to determine what their job entitles, since I could not get their job descriptions to be decided before everyone rushed to elect people.  But, what do I know?

Well, that's what this thread is for. I feel like deciding that should be the job of the society as a whole and not just those we elected

716

Flat Earth Community / The Zetetic Council

« on: December 30, 2013, 01:39:55 AM »

The First Zetetic Council of the Flat Earth Society has been created. It consists of Tom Bishop, Roundy, Thork, Secret User, and myself. This, of course, begs the question: what is the Zetetic Council? I know some people seem to have well-defined ideas about this, but it ought to be made official.

So, the goals of this thread are to determine:

• The purpose of the Zetetic Council
• The responsibilities, expectations, and rights of individual members
• The length of the council member's terms of office
• Protocol for future elections
• Protocol for impeachment and resigning
• Anything else I haven't thought of

Thoughts?

717

Flat Earth Community / Re: Moon shrimp data

« on: December 30, 2013, 01:30:57 AM »

Welcome to TFES! I'm pleased to see that we're starting to get angry noobs again. First, I encourage you to avoid making assumptions. We all know the saying about what assume does to us. Instead of saying 'You can't explain x', I suggest you instead say 'How do you explain x?'. You might be surprised at how not-insane Flat Earth Theory actually is.

Things unaccounted for in your theories such as the effects of Lorentz contraction and special relativity (Which is taken into consideration, but used and applied improperly.) lead me to believe that the UA theory is false.

I'm not sure where you're trying to go with Special Relativity. You might want to expand on that a bit, but in a different thread. Hijacking threads (which is absolutely what you're doing right now) is frowned upon.

Direct "zetetic" observations such as the Sun disappearing under the horizon - and the crazy ideas such as moon shrimp - render me to submit to the idea that believing the world is flat is an exercise in lunacy fueled by paranoia and an inability to just trust the data and facts sometimes.

Don't worry, the Moon Shramp are an inside joke. Nobody actually believes in them with the possible exception of iwanttobelieve, who appears to be mentally unstable.

The cycling of the Sun is clearly explained by FET. I suggest you read the FAQ. There will be a link to it in my signature within the next five minutes.

718

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Daily Contact Prayers in the 3 Major Faiths

« on: December 26, 2013, 06:07:14 PM »

The Bible actually quotes God as calling Himself jealous, so yeah, there's an insecurity with the Fundamental idea of God.

Which doesn't really follow the idea of a perfect God, does it? Isn't jealousy supposed to be a sin?

719

Flat Earth Community / Re: Questions for the FAQ

« on: December 25, 2013, 10:44:26 PM »

Hmm. I have some thoughts. Ill screw with it when I get home and see what you think

720

Flat Earth Community / Re: Questions for the FAQ

« on: December 25, 2013, 09:06:16 PM »

I have to say, the longer I think about this idea, the more confused I am about what you're trying to improve. Doesn't this do what you want already?

It's simply neater this way. The FAQ pages can actually have detailed explanations, with pictures and whatnot. Even with the contents thing, the page gets unwieldy quickly. While you were on your year-long vacation we played with making the original FAQ into a wiki page like this. It didn't work very well.

Also, sorry. I was rather of the impression that the wiki was rather unofficial, since we don't currently have any angry noobs whatsoever and probably won't for quite a while