Another thing that sometimes rears its ugly head, and which should definitely not be a part of our cause, is the preposterous Flat Earth idea.

Eratosthenes was right; the Earth is spherical. The behavior of radio waves proves it. As all broadcast engineers and well-educated radio amateurs know, the fall-off of a radio signal's direct wave strength with distance follows the inverse square law: The signal goes down to 1/4 the power density every time you double the distance. But, beyond a short distance, this law only applies in free space; not on the surface of the spherical Earth. On the Earth, the fall-off of signal strength rapidly increases once the spherical surface causes the two antennas to no longer be line of sight to each other, and a mathematical formula based on the Earth's curvature is needed -- and used -- to calculate what that signal strength will be. If the Earth was a flat plane, you'd be able to hear FM stations from Outer Mongolia in New York City every single day.