Iraqi astronomer goes on TV to explain why Earth is flat
Here's a video of Fadhel Al-Said, a "researcher on astronomy," sharing his surprising findings about the shape of the Earth and the physics of the solar system with Iraqi television viewers.
Statement by a round-earther physicist: When you watch a ship sailing towards the shore, all you see at first is the mast. Then you see the bow, and eventually the entire ship.LinkFadhel Al-Said: When you stand on the beach and look into the distance, everything you see is in the visible distance. In the blurred distance, you cannot see a thing. Later on as the ship gets closer to the shore or the harbor, you see the upper part. How do you see it? The eye, as I have said, no doctor has succeeded in understanding how the eye works.
the latest
latest episodes
Again?
no,you've had a stroke
Whoa. Deja vu...
this man is unstoppable!
well, i'm sure glad he's cleared that flat thingy up once and for all.
#3 What did you just say?
He says what we're all thinking!
I suddenly remember ch. 6 of my college Animal Physiology textbook... "Eyes Are Magic."
You might post at least one round-earth post for every two flat-earth ones. What about equal time for conflicting viewpoints, or is this another example of kneejerk BB groupthink? What next? Flat Earth ads? A steampunk flat globe?
#9: "What next? A steampunk flat globe?"
Hopefully, a Time Cube
MEMRI is an unreliable source. They routinely mis-translate, obscure context and mis-represent the Arab and middle-eastern world. Please look at http://memriwatch.org/
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/brian_whitaker/2007/05/arabic_under_fire.html
and
MEMRI is a disinformation outfit, by any definition, and there is no determining if this is an "Iraqi astronomer" or a schizophrenic.
You have been "neoconned."
#8
Very funny :)
Hey we read it the first time! ;)
So do they show videos of “intelligent design” loons in Iraq as examples of how loopy the U.S. is?
Let’s face it. People are crazy.
So nice you posted it twice. Guess the MODerator fell asleep. More steam-punk wheelchair posts please.
When I get old and break my hip, I'm creating my own steam-powered steam-punk wheelchair! Thanks, TREE SHAPIRO!
You are all wrong. The world is CONCAVE http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/hollow/morrow.htm
Good post from Jeremiah Cornelius @ 11 - amidst all the hilarity, this is serious stuff. Look out kids, you're gonna get hit
by users, cheaters, six-time losers...
Dang, Spikeles beat me to it. I was even gonna name-drop Athanasius Kircher!
The world is muffinoid, if you go beyond the outer limits you fall into the cosmic oven.
For some reason the image reminds me greatly of the C&C Red Alert full motion vids...
Yes, but this time did you notice the moonwalking bear?
There's not just one of these chaps.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat_Earth_Society
Baghdad Bob meets Time Cube.
#11 Jeremiah Cornelius -
Good post. Thanks for the info. Creepy how many disinformation outfits there are and how sneaky they've become.
Unfortunately, there are a lot of stealth marketing outfits and provocateurs. Some of the tactics they use are amazingly sneaky. Like placing attractive people in popular bars who smoking a brand of cigs, pretending to be normal customers and not actors. Makes telemarketers seem almost decent by comparison.
Dear Boing Boing -
Maybe this post and video should be taken down. Yes it's funny, but it was deliberatly distributed by an anti-Arab propaganda outfit. It qualifies as hate speech in that context.
Heck, I've got access to several whole cable channels full of equally uninformed and insane Evangelical Christians pushing their unscientific ideology about the origins of life here in the states ... what's the big deal?
I don't get why anyone would continue to think the Earth is flat, of all things. There are lots of things that can't be directly observed, and if you want you can take a mythical viewpoint...
...but you can get on a plane, fly a circle around the Earth, and PROVE to yourself it's a sphere.
Dear Hounskull,
So we're supposed to ignore it when stupid people are Arab? (Which, by the way, he is not. If he's anything he's Persian.)
But it's okay to make fun of stupid people when they're WASPs?
I call Shenanigans. Stupid people are stupid regardless of race or national origin, and also regardless of who posted the video.
And stupid people, whether American|Foreign|White|Black|Brown|Green|Purple|Human|Alien ,all deserve mocking for my amusement. Actually, now that I think of it, Everyone deserves mockery. We're all crazy, and stupid, in our own ways. Lord knows I'm plenty dumb on a lot of occasions.
-abs
I think that the point being made by Hounskull is that this film was deliberately released as part of a propaganda campaign. #11 above pointed out that the folks behind this routinely mis-translate things. So this may or may not be a video of a stupid person (I don't speak the language) but it also could very well be someone intentionally mis-translating the mans words to simply make him LOOK stupid (and by association the news media who would broadcast such a thing).
It should at least have a warning that it is a propaganda film and I'd love to have a Boing Boing reader do their own translation and see how well they match up. If he's an idiot? Then let's all laugh at him. If he's being made to LOOK like an idiot, perhaps we should more closely scrutinize the source.
#11, I was wondering whether it was a mis-translation or just some loony myself. I didn't realize that it might be a deliberate attempt at misinformation. Thanks for the info. I will out for MEMRI from now on!
#29, what if it was the KKK bringing up some Muslim junk about Barack Obama? Would you want it to be taken down?