# Police, firefighters called in after flat Earth debate turns heated **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 16, 2016, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-firefighters-called-in-after-flat-earth-debate-turns-heated/757493 "2016-06-16T03:30:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-firefighters-called-in-after-flat-earth-debate-turns-heated/757493/21 "2016-06-20T16:04:01Z")
> [@Xema](#): > > But the countries and continents that appear on that disk change from one picture to another. > > Which is one way to tell that the moon landings were faked. Ah ha! ---
**Author:** ![Sinaptics](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/278dde/32.png) [@Sinaptics](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sinaptics)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-firefighters-called-in-after-flat-earth-debate-turns-heated/757493/22 "2016-06-20T16:09:18Z")
> [@QuickSilver](#): > > I’m surprised you have any soul left in you. Me too 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2016, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-firefighters-called-in-after-flat-earth-debate-turns-heated/757493/23 "2016-06-21T00:14:34Z")
> [@digs](#): > > What is it with girlfriends and the crazy worlds they inhabit? > > A woman that I almost married wrote an article “Why You Need To Hide Your Cash” (because Obama’s “going to steal it from everyone” before he leaves office). > And another just wrote a post stating that Hillary owes it to the American people to shoot herself, so that Bernie can have the nomination. > > Luckily, I married The Practical One. _Whew!_ > [@carnivorousplant](#): > > But you apparently considered a woman who is looney tunes. Well, who among us has _not_ ever considered a woman who was looney tunes? ---
**Author:** ![Lok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e8c25b/32.png) [@Lok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lok)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2016, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-firefighters-called-in-after-flat-earth-debate-turns-heated/757493/24 "2016-06-21T00:38:57Z")
> [@QuickSilver](#): > > I’m surprised you have any soul left in you. That’s why I make sure to be the one taking the pictures. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2016, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-firefighters-called-in-after-flat-earth-debate-turns-heated/757493/25 "2016-06-21T01:51:44Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Well, who among us has _not_ ever considered a woman who was looney tunes? The Manlaw, “Don’t put it in the crazy,” exists because we will reliably flout it. The crazy is where the fun is. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2016, 7:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-firefighters-called-in-after-flat-earth-debate-turns-heated/757493/26 "2016-06-21T07:45:18Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Well, who among us has _not_ ever considered a woman who was looney tunes? I haven’t considered a woman at all. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2016, 8:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-firefighters-called-in-after-flat-earth-debate-turns-heated/757493/27 "2016-06-21T08:03:02Z")
> [@don\_t\_ask](#): > > At most race meetings in Australia any group can sponsor a race. You make a contribution towards the prize money, the race is named after your group and you are given a pile of members tickets for the day so that you can attend. If there is a trophy you get to award it. At today’s Geelong races there are races named after _Roderick Insurance Brokers_ and _Wilson Real Estate_. One day years ago I was surprised to see the _Flat Earth Society Handicap_ run on a Wednesday at Canterbury. How can \*Australians \*believe in a flat Earth? You guys live on the bottom! If the Earth were flat, you’d fall off! ---
**Author:** ![Noel\_Prosequi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b19c9b/32.png) [@Noel\_Prosequi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noel_Prosequi)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2016, 8:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-firefighters-called-in-after-flat-earth-debate-turns-heated/757493/28 "2016-06-21T08:55:08Z")
I am ashamed to say I was once on a drive from Brisbane to Melbourne with some mates and we got hopelessly bored. It is, after all, a long way. As happens, people start to come up with ridiculous conversations. We spent hours discussing whether the drive from Brisbane (subtropical) to Melbourne (much further south) was, in fact, downhill. Now of course it started from an idea that going south looks sort of downhill when you look at a globe, in the same way that the Nile appears to run uphill from that perspective, but of course only an idiot would think it was downhill merely because we were travelling south on a conventionally oriented globe. The argument evolved to taking into account the oblate spheroid thing and an assertion that because of that imperfect roundness, a car actually gets closer to the centre of the Earth as it goes a large distance south. If getting closer to the centre of the Earth is not the functional definition of downhill, what is? That led to a definition debate about what “downhill” means. The counter-assertion was that it means a significant deviation from the tangential plane that touches the Earth at the point where the vehicle is situated. Utterly pointless debate that got us to Melbourne without playing I Spy and only minimal injuries. And not once did we fall off the Earth. Meanwhile, on the subject of race naming, a group who earned the naming rights to races as described by **don’t ask** got full of drink and named the races the Hugh Jorgan Stakes and the Pat McClitris Handicap. This was a night event, and gormless newspaper minions in southern newspapers actually printed these names in early edition results the next day until someone had a forehead slap moment. Can’t do it these days, unfortunately. Have to provide the names well in advance. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2016, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-firefighters-called-in-after-flat-earth-debate-turns-heated/757493/29 "2016-06-21T16:24:46Z")
Meanwhile, in Ankh-Morpork… ---
**Author:** ![74westy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/74westy/32/3950_2.png) [@74westy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/74westy)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2016, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-firefighters-called-in-after-flat-earth-debate-turns-heated/757493/30 "2016-06-21T17:19:06Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > But you apparently considered a woman who is looney tunes. Speaking of Loonie Tunes, “the world she’s-a round like-a my head!” ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2016, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-firefighters-called-in-after-flat-earth-debate-turns-heated/757493/31 "2016-06-21T22:45:29Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > I haven’t considered a woman at all. 😉 Okay, but the “considering someone who is looney tunes” part remains valid. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![brujaja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4af34b/32.png) [@brujaja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brujaja)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2016, 7:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-firefighters-called-in-after-flat-earth-debate-turns-heated/757493/32 "2016-06-25T07:15:26Z")
> [@Noel\_Prosequi](#): > > As happens, people start to come up with ridiculous conversations… I want to go on my next long car trip with you guys! That is a perfectly legitimate conversation, for those of us who enjoy a good solid discourse born of genuine curiosity about the finer points of nomenclature when referring to principles of physics, or… you know, comparative etymology and stuff.🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-firefighters-called-in-after-flat-earth-debate-turns-heated/757493.md?page=1)