Happy Columbus Day!

[Beerlord]

[user=9]Beerlord[/user] wrote:

He probably wouldn't have had the balls to do it if he wasnt' stoned.

Would that be a scientific "probably" or one derived from opinion?

 

Happily the vast majority of the educated public tended to disagree with your point of view long enough to make the day a holiday.

Bravo.

Regardless of these highly unsupported facts, and seemingly hostile opinions, he was and is a hero. Regardless where he landed, America was discovered because of his efforts, bravery and finally the lack of sophisticated navigational aids of the time. So thanks to Columbus we have this fine country and a holiday. I say Bravo.

Well, it's not opinion, it's fact, when i was in college inthe early 90's i did a mini thesis onit, i wish i had allthe supporitng documents i had then, it was long before the age of teh internet is waht it is now. And educated people do not belive thelies that are taught to our children and brought up year after year. He discoverd nothign except what he thought was a route to india but was completly wrong. Tell me somthign how do you discover somthign that already inhabitated not to menton tha fact tha it was visited by europeans hundred of years before Colombus was born.

[Skipper the cigar aFISHinodo]

the point simply is, not until Columbus was the discovery any sort of a noticed event. Period.

[Not A Nice Person]

[user=35]Skipper the cigar aFISHinodo[/user] wrote:

Regardless where he landed, he introduced the concept of a round world. No edge to fall off of. And that was a major contradiction of the predominant thinking at the time.

Actually, that's not true. Scholars knew the world was round long before Columbus. When he went to "make his case" before them, it was not, as grade school history textbooks frequently state, to argue about the roundness or flatness of the earth, but about its diameter. True fact.

Funny thing is, Columbus was convinced the earth's diameter was 4000 miles; the scholars felt it was 8000. They were right, actually, and had the New World not been here, Columbus and crew would have starved to death at sea, since he had provisioned his ships based on the smaller number.

Anyway, as Rubie points out:

You know, the vikings were making trips here regularly long before Columbus accidentally showed up.

Some of my ancestors, there. Beat Columbus here by 500 years, back when people really DID worry about sailing off the edge of the world. It's worth mentioning this year especially, since by a rather rare coincidence, Columbus Day and Leif Erickson Day fell on the same day this year!

NANPâ„¢
[cigar]

[Skipper the cigar aFISHinodo]

Somehow my point is being missed.

I give up, go ahead bash him if it makes you happy.

[Dr. Stogie Fresh]

On a lighter note... I have heard it said that, Columbus found America when he got lost looking for India, so he called the native Americans, "Indians." I guess they were lucky he wasn't looking for Turkey.

Doc

[Rubie]

On a lighter note... I have heard it said that, Columbus found America when he got lost looking for India, so he called the native Americans, "Indians." I guess they were lucky he wasn't looking for Turkey.

Doc

Heh, good one.

[Bungalowbill]

i thought america was discovered by those space aliens the scientologists talk about.

[Not A Nice Person]

[user=26]Dr. Stogie Fresh[/user] wrote:

On a lighter note... I have heard it said that, Columbus found America when he got lost looking for India, so he called the native Americans, "Indians." I guess they were lucky he wasn't looking for Turkey.

Doc

Heh heh heh.

Only problem is, at the time, India was named Hindustan.

Yep.

What he actually called them was "la Gente en Dios" . . . the "people in God" . . . because of their Eden-like existence.

Just sayin' . . . still a nice riff there, Doc.

NANPâ„¢
[cigar]

[Skipper the cigar aFISHinodo]

Well now... Isn't this interesting...

I was just watching NOVA and the great map that "proves" the Vinkings visited with America before Columbus is found to be a forgery. It was made with modern day chemicals and not the tannon based inks used from that period (& the manuscript that the map was found with)

 

Sounds to me like "the Vikings were there first" may be "junk science" (to coin a popular phrase)