{"id":844,"date":"2019-03-29T19:24:51","date_gmt":"2019-03-29T23:24:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/josmfs.net\/?p=844"},"modified":"2021-06-12T13:48:26","modified_gmt":"2021-06-12T17:48:26","slug":"columbus-and-the-irony-of-chance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/josmfs.net\/wordpress\/2019\/03\/29\/columbus-and-the-irony-of-chance\/","title":{"rendered":"Columbus and the Irony of Chance"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft  wp-image-2229\" src=\"https:\/\/josmfs.net\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Columbus-and-Irony-of-Chance-fig2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"251\" height=\"232\" srcset=\"https:\/\/josmfs.net\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Columbus-and-Irony-of-Chance-fig2.jpg 608w, https:\/\/josmfs.net\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Columbus-and-Irony-of-Chance-fig2-300x278.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 251px) 100vw, 251px\" \/>One of the all-time examples of chance intervening in history is Christopher Columbus\u2019s putative discovery of America. Moreover, the legend of this discovery is filled with erroneous information that was traditionally foisted upon unsuspecting elementary school children. One of the most egregious errors was the assertion that Columbus was trying to prove the earth was round and not flat. I had a picture book when I was young that showed sailors tumbling off the edge of a flat earth.<\/p>\n<p>I first came upon the demythologizing of the Columbus legend from reading Isaac Azimov\u2019s anthologized 1962 column \u201cThe Shape of Things\u201d. His tale is so well-written, that I want to include it in its entirety. I have augmented it with some more detailed footnotes and illustrations.<\/p>\n<p>See <a href=\"https:\/\/josmfs.net\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Columbus-and-Irony-of-Chance-190329.pdf\">Columbus and the Irony of Chance<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the all-time examples of chance intervening in history is Christopher Columbus\u2019s putative discovery of America. Moreover, the legend of this discovery is filled with erroneous information that was traditionally foisted upon unsuspecting elementary school children. One of the most egregious errors was the assertion that Columbus was trying to prove the earth was [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[116],"tags":[121,135,122,123,124],"class_list":["post-844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-causality-chance-and-connections","tag-christopher-columbus","tag-historical-irony","tag-isaac-azimov","tag-tony-lester","tag-washington-irving"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/josmfs.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/josmfs.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/josmfs.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/josmfs.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/josmfs.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=844"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/josmfs.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2230,"href":"https:\/\/josmfs.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844\/revisions\/2230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/josmfs.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/josmfs.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/josmfs.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}