So read the headlines of page 13 of the Thursday Daily Mail.
It began; 'for most people, a trip to Antarctica would be a once-in-a-lifetime experience, a chance to see one of the most breathtaking landscapes on the planet. But early next year there could be a journey to the bottom of the Earth with a very different purpose. Its mission could not be more startling: to prove the Earth is Flat. Forget those millennia of geographical research and those millions of photographs from space of our globe-shaped planet. There really are people who think the world is shaped more like a disc than a ball-encircled by a massive perimeter of ice that's 45 metres thick and 50 metres high. "Beyond the ice wall is anyone's guess," says the website of the Flat Earth Society. "How far the ice extends, how it terminates, and what exists beyond it, are questions to which no present human experience can reply." With their trip down south, the flat-earthers hope to answer this. What's extraordinary about flat-earth theorists is that they maintain their belief despite the testimony of more than 550 humans who have gone into space.
'Does this mean today's flat-Earthers are Christian fundamentalists, too?' 'They are a whole mix of people' says Michael Marshall.
The article goes on with lots of very interesting facts etc. It gets more interesting when it tells us: 'The most cited [evidence] is the Bedford Level experiment carried out in 1838 by inventor samuel Roebotham. It was set up on a straight 9.5km stretch of the Bedford river, some of the flatest areas of England.Rowbottom stood in the river as a colleague rowed a boat away from him which was fitted with a flag raised 90cm above the water.........he could still see the flag after it had travelled 9.5km. According to his calculations based on the curvature of the Earth the top of the flag should have dropped out of sight, and be invisable through his telescope. But it wass still invisible.... The world was flat.'
'Unfortunately he failed to account for refraction, whereby lighty rays shift direction when passing through an atmosphere. As any surveyer will tell you, near the surface of the Earth, light rays often bend down, with the curve of the rays nearly matching the curvature of the earth.'
"The flat-Earth Cruise," according to the programme of this year's FEIC programme, is due to set sail next year.'
There is more of the usual but I have recorded the important bits. So, flat-earthers on CIF, are any of you going or thinking of going on this trip? It really could be the beginning or end of the theory. No doubt youy will let us all know.