[math-fun] Flat earth [was: math-fun How many 5 digit #s are (US) zip codes?]
From: Thane Plambeck <tplambeck@gmail.com> To: Andres Valloud <avalloud@smalltalk.comcastbiz.net> Cc: math-fun <math-fun@mailman.xmission.com> Reply-To: math-fun <math-fun@mailman.xmission.com>
The G4Ger who did the zip code act is named David Rosdeitcher. He lives near Boulder, CO.
He has several flat Earth videos on YouTube.
Until now, I've managed to ignore flat earth advocates as crackpots amusing each other by weaving tangled webs: Wikipedia: When satellite images showed Earth as a sphere, Shenton remarked: "It's easy to see how a photograph like that could fool the untrained eye".[15] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_flat_Earth_societies#cite_note-15> Later asked about similar photographs taken by astronauts, he attributed curvature to the use of wide-angle lens <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wide-angle_lens>, adding, "It's a deception of the public and it isn't right".[13] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_flat_Earth_societies#cite_note-Gilmore_1967-13> But if I met an advocate, morbid curiosity would compel me to ask: "Forget NASA. Why do air routes from Atlanta to Tokyo "detour" north of the Aleutians?" Great Circles were long known to old time mariners. But I'd just get sprayed in the face by Occam's Lawnmower. —rwg Yup, the Titanic was lost to the foolish belief that veering northward is actually shorter.
On Fri, Sep 13, 2019 at 11:52 AM Andres Valloud < avalloud@smalltalk.comcastbiz.net> wrote:
Regarding the subject, it appears US (basic) zip codes are effectively character digit strings of length 5 (that is, [0-9]{5}). Some state there are 42k active zip codes, presumably of the five digit variety.
On 9/13/19 6:28 , Bill Gosper wrote:
G4G once had an entertainer named "Mr. Zipcode"(?). You tell him yours and he tells you where, and then goes on to describe places to eat, etc. (He struggled with Ray Solomonoff's obscure town in upstate New York. Or maybe some offstage confederate struggled with https://m.usps.com/m/ZipLookupAction?search=zip .)
Impressive, but maybe not 10^-5 impressive. I just mistakenly tried 44007, which seems to be Nantes, the site of a French Revolution atrocity. Does Mr. Zipcode mention atrocities? —rwg _______________________________________________ math-fun mailing list math-fun@mailman.xmission.com https://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/math-fun
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Once I picked up a Greek classic at random, and upon opening it at random, Galen was bitterly complaining of the following situation. There was an argument on how the bladder worked, and where urine originated from. Galen's explanation was that urine originated in the kidneys. A rather annoying skeptic wouldn't believe him. So Galen actually did the vivisection experiment on the relevant animal to show the skeptic things worked like he said. The skeptic's response was something along the lines of "you almost had me fooled with that trick, but fortunately I had already read a book by someone else who never did any vivisection yet argues persuasively this experiment in front of me is not true". But that's about 2000 years old --- even doge knows much data, so progress. And yet, relatively recently, Babbage complained this way: On two occasions I have been asked, — "Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?" In one case a member of the Upper, and in the other a member of the Lower, House put this question. I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question. On 9/13/19 21:01 , Bill Gosper wrote:
From: Thane Plambeck <tplambeck@gmail.com> To: Andres Valloud <avalloud@smalltalk.comcastbiz.net> Cc: math-fun <math-fun@mailman.xmission.com> Reply-To: math-fun <math-fun@mailman.xmission.com>
The G4Ger who did the zip code act is named David Rosdeitcher. He lives near Boulder, CO.
He has several flat Earth videos on YouTube.
Until now, I've managed to ignore flat earth advocates as crackpots amusing each other by weaving tangled webs:
Wikipedia: When satellite images showed Earth as a sphere, Shenton remarked: "It's easy to see how a photograph like that could fool the untrained eye".[15] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_flat_Earth_societies#cite_note-15> Later asked about similar photographs taken by astronauts, he attributed curvature to the use of wide-angle lens <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wide-angle_lens>, adding, "It's a deception of the public and it isn't right".[13] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_flat_Earth_societies#cite_note-Gilmore_1967-13>
But if I met an advocate, morbid curiosity would compel me to ask: "Forget NASA. Why do air routes from Atlanta to Tokyo "detour" north of the Aleutians?" Great Circles were long known to old time mariners. But I'd just get sprayed in the face by Occam's Lawnmower. —rwg Yup, the Titanic was lost to the foolish belief that veering northward is actually shorter.
On Fri, Sep 13, 2019 at 11:52 AM Andres Valloud < avalloud@smalltalk.comcastbiz.net> wrote:
Regarding the subject, it appears US (basic) zip codes are effectively character digit strings of length 5 (that is, [0-9]{5}). Some state there are 42k active zip codes, presumably of the five digit variety.
On 9/13/19 6:28 , Bill Gosper wrote:
G4G once had an entertainer named "Mr. Zipcode"(?). You tell him yours and he tells you where, and then goes on to describe places to eat, etc. (He struggled with Ray Solomonoff's obscure town in upstate New York. Or maybe some offstage confederate struggled with https://m.usps.com/m/ZipLookupAction?search=zip .)
Impressive, but maybe not 10^-5 impressive. I just mistakenly tried 44007, which seems to be Nantes, the site of a French Revolution atrocity. Does Mr. Zipcode mention atrocities? —rwg _______________________________________________ math-fun mailing list math-fun@mailman.xmission.com https://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/math-fun
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Andres Valloud -
Bill Gosper