From: Ted Davis (tdavis@messiah.edu)
Date: Sun Nov 09 2003 - 22:43:30 EST
Burgy,
I am pretty sure that fixedearth.com is not a parody, for three reasons.
(1) The site has been out there for at least a few years, and it has
consistently maintained its position on the issue it addresses throughout
that time. In other words, unlike some comic sites, it doesn't "change its
material" over time to entertain people. It doesn't put on a "new show,"
rather it adds more related things and leaves the original stuff intact as
the main message, except perhaps for editorial changes that I haven't been
checking for.
(2) The book advertised on the site, Marshall Hall's "The Earth is not
Moving," actually exists and is owned by at least five university libraries,
including the University of Wisconsin. (I suspect that Ron Numbers either
donated it to the library or asked them to order it. At least that would
not suprise me.) Now I have not seen the book and therefore can't verify
that it is also not a spoof, but the evidence at hand suggests it is not.
Incidentally, I almost ordered a copy last year, then changed my mind.
Maybe I'll now go out and buy it...
(3) The fact that the site pushes Tycho Brahe's system (note the backgrounds
on the website) is consistent with other "serious nonsense" sites, such as
that operated by the Association for Biblical Astronomy (or whatever their
precise name is). Geocentrists typically promote that model as their
alternative to the Copernican/Keplerian system. They know darn well that
Ptolemy won't wash, b/c of things like the phases of Venus, so they'll go at
least that far. If this were a nonsense site, I'd exepct it to push some
even wilder cosmological model, not the one actually pushed by "serious"
geocentrists.
ted
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