[imagesource: David Roberts/iStock]

The spherical shape of the earth, or as we like to call it, “settled science”, has somehow lost traction with a persistent group of conspiracy theorists over time.

Pit even a 2 500-year-old truth against the evangelism of the Flat Earthers, and you’ve landed yourself an actual debate, no matter how inane.

It’s a tightknit community that loves getting together to exchange theories and conduct experiments, which always fail – they even have their own football team.

To be clear, the ball is round. I would have pegged them more as frisbee enthusiasts.

I recently watched Behind the Curve on Netflix, which started out funny, and quickly turned tragic as members of the movement conducted various experiments to prove their theory, all of which obviously failed.

Check out the trailer before we continue:

Following all of these failed attempts, a plan was launched to prove once and for all that the earth is flat at the Flat Earth International Conference in Denver last year, when the movement met to discuss an expedition to find the “edge of the earth”.

The expedition to Antarctica was supposed to happen this year, and quite frankly, I was looking forward to it.

Then the pandemic hit and it had to be put on hold.

They’re persistent bunch, though, so it’s not that surprising that two Flat Earthers from Venice decided to forge ahead and go it alone.

Over to VICE:

The man and woman, both from Venice, set sail towards Lampedusa – an island between Sicily and North Africa – to find “the end of the world”, which they believe is near the Sicilian island, reports Italy’s la Repubblica.

The couple sold their car to buy a boat and proceeded to sail around the island to make it to Lampedusa, which in the last decade has become a common transit point for migrants and refugees trying to make the journey from Africa to Europe.

They didn’t quite make it to their intended destination – although to be fair they would never have made it to their intended destination if they were hoping to find the edge.

They became lost and were rescued by a doctor at the maritime health office of the Ministry of Health, Salvatore Zichichi, who said that they were trying to navigate with a compass.

“The funny thing is that they orient themselves with the compass, an instrument that works on the basis of terrestrial magnetism,” Zichichi told the Italian newspaper La Stampa.

“A principle that they, as Flat Earthers, should reject.”

The couple were swiftly whisked away to quarantine on Ustica.

They’ve attempted to escape twice, and have been returned to the quarantine facility both times.

Yup, yet another setback for the Flat Earther community.

Shame, they really do try.

[source:vice]