# The Physical Geography of the world and our historical timeline are being supernaturally changed as I type this **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 7, 2021, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-physical-geography-of-the-world-and-our-historical-timeline-are-being-supernaturally-changed-as-i-type-this/941576 "2021-05-07T05:41:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Brayne\_Ded](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Brayne\_Ded](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brayne_Ded)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2021, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-physical-geography-of-the-world-and-our-historical-timeline-are-being-supernaturally-changed-as-i-type-this/941576/121 "2021-05-07T20:41:06Z")
[Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)[Charter Member](https://boards.straightdope.com/g/Charter_Member) [1h](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-physical-geography-of-the-world-and-our-historical-timeline-are-being-supernaturally-changed-as-i-type-this/941576/116) This is not a recent fenomo. . .phnylno. . .thing, people. Why, in 1795 you couldn’t find a map with Poland on it because it had _completely vanished!_ Don’t worry, I found it again. Stuffed down the back of the sofa cushions. ---
**Author:** ![BippityBoppityBoo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bippityboppityboo/32/5745_2.png) [@BippityBoppityBoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BippityBoppityBoo)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2021, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-physical-geography-of-the-world-and-our-historical-timeline-are-being-supernaturally-changed-as-i-type-this/941576/122 "2021-05-07T20:52:01Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > Or I think I’m married to her. I’d better check. Maybe you _used_ to be married to some alien who shape shifted to kinda sorta look like her. All in another time and dimension. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2021, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-physical-geography-of-the-world-and-our-historical-timeline-are-being-supernaturally-changed-as-i-type-this/941576/123 "2021-05-07T21:01:30Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > This is what happens when you eat the red M&M, rather than the blue one. I remember when I was a kid that M&Ms were red, orange, yellow, green, brown, and tan. But that was more than 40 years ago. I could be wrong. There are lots of things from back then that I have no recollection of. Did my family go somewhere for my tenth birthday party, or did we have cake at home? I haven’t the faintest idea. If I went online and could find no evidence that tan M&Ms ever existed, it would certainly be a little unsettling, but I wouldn’t conclude that the whole universe changed just to mess with my head. If the OP wants us to have an open mind about these things, I’d ask him to have one as well. Consider the possibility that your memory isn’t perfect. How we view, interact, and remember the world is a tremendously complicated thing. Accept your fallibility and do the best you can. > [@Dallas\_Jones](#): > > I think that he is onto something. For instance, Kentucky Fried Chicken, now called KFC, is nothing at all like the stuff we used to get when I was young. The rolls, the gravy, the chicken spices, are only a vague imitation of what used to be. I’m not even sure that it is food anymore. I used to love their potato salad. I think. > [@Chronos](#): > > Memory two: I remember learning in history class of the disputes between Spain and Portugal (at the time, the only two countries seriously in the exploration business) about who had claim to the New World. The dispute was settled by the Pope (the only authority both countries recognized), who chose a line of longitude, and decreed that any new lands found east of that line belonged to Portugal, and any west of that line belonged to Spain. I’d hear that as well, but I’ve also learned that determining longitude was very difficult during the early days of the age of exploration. I wonder how precisely the longitude of the South American coastline was known when the pope drew his line on the map. Did any land change from Spanish to Portuguese when better surveys became possible? ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2021, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-physical-geography-of-the-world-and-our-historical-timeline-are-being-supernaturally-changed-as-i-type-this/941576/124 "2021-05-07T21:08:13Z")
> [@Jasmine](#): > > > [@Something](#): > > > > South America has been shifted thousands of miles east of where it once was. The size, shape, and location of countries and continents- Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea- are apparently being altered on a daily basis. > > In science, this is known as “continental drift”, and there is nothing supernatural about it. But the OP says that South America is moving eastward, while the plate is moving to the west… > [@k9bfriender](#): > > I have to admit, if you gave me a multiple choice test on who made Stovetop Stuffing, and Stouffer’s was on there, I almost certainly would have chosen that. Ditto. > [@QuickSilver](#): > > I’ve just erased the world from your timeline. Put it back! He was still using it! > [@k9bfriender](#): > > So, with any conspiracy, I have to ask, who’s doing it and what do they have to gain? My standard answer back in the '70s: It’s part of a communist plot to take over Rhode Island. (Of course it was commies! Who else would have a plot to take over RI that included changing house numbers in Iowa?) ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2021, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-physical-geography-of-the-world-and-our-historical-timeline-are-being-supernaturally-changed-as-i-type-this/941576/125 "2021-05-07T21:11:40Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > I remember when I was a kid that M&Ms were red, orange, yellow, green, brown, and tan. But that was more than 40 years ago. This was true but not until 1986. From [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%26M%27s), considerably shortened: > The original colors of M&M’s candies were red, yellow, violet, green and brown. Violet was discontinued and replaced with tan in the late 1940s. > > In 1976, Mars eliminated red-colored M&M’s… [and replaced them with orange]. Red M&M’s were reintroduced as a result [of a campaign in 1986]. Then lots of stuff happened. Now everybody in the world has an individual M&M color assigned to them at birth that they can used as a universal ID, at least in South America. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2021, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-physical-geography-of-the-world-and-our-historical-timeline-are-being-supernaturally-changed-as-i-type-this/941576/126 "2021-05-07T21:20:02Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Now everybody in the world has an individual M&M color assigned to them at birth that they can used as a universal ID, at least in South America. Ah, so that’s why they moved it east a few thousand miles. Now it’s starting to make sense. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2021, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-physical-geography-of-the-world-and-our-historical-timeline-are-being-supernaturally-changed-as-i-type-this/941576/127 "2021-05-07T21:26:06Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > This was true but not until 1986. From [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%26M%27s), considerably shortened: I was born in '65, so I’m probably remembering the color mix before red was discontinued in '76. But I don’t want to mock the OP. I just used M&Ms as something I remembered a certain way, but was so long ago that it’s hard to be certain. There was a movie I saw when I was young. I’d forgotten almost everything about it, except some details of the plot and a specific quote that always stuck with me. Well, I saw it again a few years ago; the plot was as I remembered, but I kept waiting for that familiar line and it was never spoken. There wasn’t even a line that was similar enough that I might have conflated the two. I remembered it word-for-word. It felt wrong when it wasn’t there. I sympathize with the OP. It’s weird to be certain of something that isn’t there, and never was. I don’t think the universe changed to take that line out of the movie. I think that human brains are strange, complicated, intricate, squishy things that sometimes even fool themselves. Including mine. ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2021, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-physical-geography-of-the-world-and-our-historical-timeline-are-being-supernaturally-changed-as-i-type-this/941576/128 "2021-05-07T21:34:22Z")
Seriously, however: > [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > > [@Chronos](#): > > > > I remember learning in history class of the disputes between Spain and Portugal (at the time, the only two countries seriously in the exploration business) about who had claim to the New World. The dispute was settled by the Pope (the only authority both countries recognized), who chose a line of longitude, and decreed that any new lands found east of that line belonged to Portugal, and any west of that line belonged to Spain. > > I’d hear that as well, but I’ve also learned that determining longitude was very difficult during the early days of the age of exploration. I wonder how precisely the longitude of the South American coastline was known when the pope drew his line on the map. Did any land change from Spanish to Portuguese when better surveys became possible? I read that the pope’s line was suppoed to be far enough east that the entirety of South America was west of it, but as you said, the longitude measurement was incorrect. Hmmm… Wiki sez: > [@](#): > > The Treaty of Tordesillas only specified the line of demarcation in leagues from the Cape Verde Islands. It did not specify the line in degrees, nor did it identify the specific island or the specific length of its league. So, between locating the Azores and measuring the distance: [![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/ff/Early_Tordesillas_lines.jpg) ](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/ff/Early_Tordesillas_lines.jpg) Pick a line, any line! My own memory tells me that some years back a science fiction writer said that travel between alternate realities isn’t difficult – in fact, it’s so easy that people do it all the time without noticing. That’s why, for instance, your keys are on the coffee table in the living room but you’re absolutely positive that you left them on the kitchen counter last night. Unfortunately, I can neither find this quoted anywhere on line, nor find anyone else who remembers it. ---
**Author:** ![gdave](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gdave/32/3683_2.png) [@gdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gdave)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2021, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-physical-geography-of-the-world-and-our-historical-timeline-are-being-supernaturally-changed-as-i-type-this/941576/129 "2021-05-07T21:37:29Z")
My memory is that it wasn’t a sci-fi writer, but a neo-Fortean. Colin Wilson, maybe? (Clearly, you and I are from divergent timelines). ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2021, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-physical-geography-of-the-world-and-our-historical-timeline-are-being-supernaturally-changed-as-i-type-this/941576/130 "2021-05-07T21:52:18Z")
This whole timeline-shifting mess would never have happened if Spider-Man hadn’t made that deal with Mephisto to save Aunt Jemima’s life. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2021, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-physical-geography-of-the-world-and-our-historical-timeline-are-being-supernaturally-changed-as-i-type-this/941576/131 "2021-05-07T21:53:03Z")
Not only have geographical locations moved, they have also changed size. When I was in my 40’s I returned to my childhood home for the first time since I was 10 years old. The home still occupied the same physical space, but had _ **actually shrunk in size from when I was a child.** _ Not only that, but the long hill in my front yard that I had played on with my sled had flattened to a gentle rise from the street to the front porch. All the other houses in the neighborhood suffered from the same shrinkage. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2021, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-physical-geography-of-the-world-and-our-historical-timeline-are-being-supernaturally-changed-as-i-type-this/941576/132 "2021-05-07T21:56:44Z")
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#): > > Stouffer’s is owned by Nestle. Their brand is used for frozen foods, not mixes. IIRC they had a frozen stuffing out at one time. Kinda tasty too. There were quite a few of those _ **Dogs Playing Poker** _ by Coolidge, dating from around the end of the 19th to the start of the 20th, plus a myriad of rip-offs, parodies and etc. It is quite easy to remember one of the non-originals, one say painted on velvet , by a different artist and hanging in the basement, and thinking that was one of the original 18. A search on Google images turns up the original _and_ quite a few others. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2021, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-physical-geography-of-the-world-and-our-historical-timeline-are-being-supernaturally-changed-as-i-type-this/941576/133 "2021-05-07T21:57:14Z")
Post #48. Larry Niven - “[All the Myriad Ways](https://archive.org/details/Galaxy_v27n03_1968-10/page/n31/mode/2up?view=theater).” ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2021, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-physical-geography-of-the-world-and-our-historical-timeline-are-being-supernaturally-changed-as-i-type-this/941576/134 "2021-05-07T22:01:08Z")
> [@Something](#): > > However, none of the paintings match the memory that so many of us distinctly have,… Which is? ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2021, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-physical-geography-of-the-world-and-our-historical-timeline-are-being-supernaturally-changed-as-i-type-this/941576/135 "2021-05-07T22:02:26Z")
Well, let us see. Who is President? Hillary Clinton in her second term, right? ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2021, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-physical-geography-of-the-world-and-our-historical-timeline-are-being-supernaturally-changed-as-i-type-this/941576/136 "2021-05-07T22:04:12Z")
True dat, especially the gravy. Even the REAL Colonel said that, after they changed his recipe to some sort of brown tasteless crap. ---
**Author:** ![BippityBoppityBoo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bippityboppityboo/32/5745_2.png) [@BippityBoppityBoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BippityBoppityBoo)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2021, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-physical-geography-of-the-world-and-our-historical-timeline-are-being-supernaturally-changed-as-i-type-this/941576/137 "2021-05-07T22:04:32Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Well, let us see. Who is President? Hillary Clinton in her second term, right? You may be getting the hang of this new fangled texting promise of yours! Good show! ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2021, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-physical-geography-of-the-world-and-our-historical-timeline-are-being-supernaturally-changed-as-i-type-this/941576/138 "2021-05-07T22:07:05Z")
My Dad was such a fantastic hero in WW2 he lassoed Japan to pull it into Bombing range. He was a direct descendant of Pecos Bill. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2021, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-physical-geography-of-the-world-and-our-historical-timeline-are-being-supernaturally-changed-as-i-type-this/941576/139 "2021-05-07T22:08:09Z")
Oddly the same thing happened around 1939. Weird isn’t it? _Twilight zone music plays…_ ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2021, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-physical-geography-of-the-world-and-our-historical-timeline-are-being-supernaturally-changed-as-i-type-this/941576/140 "2021-05-07T22:18:09Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Post #48. Larry Niven - “[All the Myriad Ways](https://archive.org/details/Galaxy_v27n03_1968-10/page/n31/mode/2up?view=theater).” Interesting story – I’ve read it several times – but nothing to do with what I mentioned. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-physical-geography-of-the-world-and-our-historical-timeline-are-being-supernaturally-changed-as-i-type-this/941576.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-physical-geography-of-the-world-and-our-historical-timeline-are-being-supernaturally-changed-as-i-type-this/941576.md?page=8)