Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller for October 09, 2017

He didn’t find India the other times either.

The Northmen (a.k.a.: Vikings) didn’t tell anyone outside their groups of their discoveries; upon his return, Columbus told the world there was something out there to the west.

Then why aren’t the natives called vikians?

Some lived in Greenland for 450 years. Not long? Sure in Manhattan they pissed off the local Indian nations and had to flee superior numbers and never came back.

fun fact…..humans ALREADY knew the world was round nearly 2,000 years BEFORE columbus. ancient greeks, discoverers of democracy, developers of math, science and medicine knew the circumference of the earth to within 10%. BUT, religion had to butt in and put the kibosh on all that amazing human development to usher in the dark ages of superstition and intolerant dogma.

It wasn’t until a couple of months later that he finally made landfall in Ohio.

Columbus KNEW about the Viking colonies in The New World. He spent the winter of 1475-76 in Iceland. Not a lot to do there, so he listened to all of the stories the elders had to tell.

Funny, that doesn’t look like Minnesota.

The guy wasn’t called Erik the Red for nothing.

Very interesting comments and observations.

Once Christopher Columbus

Sailed the sea without a compass

Well, When his men began a rumpus

Up spoke Christopher Columbus.

He said : ‘There is land somewhere’

‘So until we get there we will not go wrong’

‘If we sing a swing song’

‘Since the world is round-o we’ll be safe and sound-o’

‘Til our goal is found-o we’ll just keep the rhythm bound-o’.

Jim Kweskin Jug Band

1) Thank you. 2) it was Leif Erikson who came to North America first (Vineland & Markland) around 1000 ad 3) He was from Iceland. 4/ Today is Leif Erikson Day.

there are a lot more Italians around than Icelanders / my guess majority rule.

See ! I told you so !! All the history junk that we were taught in school was nothin’ but FAKE NEWS !

Columbus …VERY DISAPPOINTING !!

Fun factoid I learned recently: Orange tabby cats came from Norway during the Viking days. Due to trading and of course, raiding (Vikings) orange tabbies would sneak aboard the ships and made their way worldwide. That’s how we have them here in the USA. Pretty neat, huh?

A link to go with my comment above: https://www.sciencealert.com/cats-sailed-with-vikings-to-conquer-the-world-genetic-study-reveals

Before 1492, the Swiss didn’t have chocolate, the Turks didn’t have tobacco, the Irish didn’t have potatoes, the Italians didn’t have tomato sauce, the Spanish didn’t have peanuts, and the Amerinds had to get by without starlings, rum, or smallpox.

Today, we are being inconvenienced (USPS closed) for a holiday of a mass murderer. The only reason is because of the Italians that came to the US. Before few cared about Hit…I mean Columbus.

The name `Hindustan’ combines Sindhu and Hindu and thus freely infers, the “land of the Hindus”. Thus, at the “time of Columbus “India” was known by the by the Persian epithet; variously; Hindus & Hindustan”. No country, land, sea or people in the world were named “India” prior to 1492.

Columbus was a bad navigator besides being a bad person. (He ended up as what we would call, in these modern enlightened times, a “lunatic” or a “Trump voter.”) As for bravery, what, you think all those other sailors were Cowardly Lions?

I just find it interesting that the Columbus mythologies overlook the fact he never set foot on the North American continent. Vespuci did that, thus the continent is “America”, and we’ve got cities named Columbus. And of course where Columbus did land became slave trading bases in the Carib lands.

Just remember…“History” is written by the winners…

“Christopher Columbus was a seaman second class

When I told him that the Indies could be found

By sailing to the West instead of sailing to the East.

I advised him that I thought the world was round.

(I really thought so.)

And then I sent him down to ask good Queen Isabella

To pawn her jewels for all their worth.

Next day he set sail, and as everyone knows,

He fell off the edge of the Earth."

……………..Alan Sherman

Did you know that when some Norse came nosing around Manhattan island that is was a trading area for the surrounding tribes? Things were okay between the two groups until one Indian was charged by a Norseman for “stealing” and was killed on the spot by him. Now the Norse there were maybe 7-9 in number and they were surrounded by hundreds of armed natives. They fought and left never to return. Chickens.

Also Greenland was green when they came and settled only the forests were dry, and slow growing not like in their own country so when the cut them no more grew.

For all those lionizing the ancient Greeks as the beacons of civilization, science and philosophy while vilifying religion – wasn’t the Aristotelian geocentric view of the universe the accepted model for centuries? They certainly weren’t right about everything, and while the Greco-Roman world gave us many great things, it could also be amazingly cruel to anyone who wasn’t a prominent citizen. And you might want to read some of the quotes from the fathers of modern science – Newton, Galileo, and Copernicus as the most obvious examples – these men waxed poetic about their faith in God, and how that faith inspired and even informed their science. “The Universe has been wrought for us by a supremely good and orderly Creator” – Nicolaus Copernicus “For the divine Psalmist surely did not say gratuitously that he took pleasure in the workings of God and rejoiced in the works of His hands, unless by means of these things as by some sort of vehicle we are transported to the contemplation of the highest good.” – Nicolaus Copernicus “This most beautiful system of the sun, planets and comets, could only proceed from the counsel and dominion of an intelligent and powerful Being.” – Isaac Newton “He who thinks half-heartedly will not believe in God; but he who really thinks has to believe in God." – Isaac Newton “I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use.” – Galileo Galilei “I give infinite thanks to God, who has been pleased to make me the first observer of marvelous things.” – Galileo Galilei There are many more examples, but suffice it to say that the rift between science and religion has been oversimplified.

Well. I’m just glad SOME one decided to come here or we would no doubt, all be…or not be!

You vilify the ancient Greeks who your charge " certainly weren’t right about everything." Shame on them! Also on Newton, Galileo, and Copernicus.But they tried to make use of all the knowledge then available. You appear to repudiate it. To urge going back to pre-scientific dogma.

Columbus knew there was land to the west. He thought it was Asia because he disagreed with the diameter of the earth computed by the ancient Greeks. He knew there was land there because the Danes were still sailing to Greenland into the 15th century. The last documented landings in Greenland were in 1420 (by a Danish cartographer no less!) and there is letter to the Pope describing an attempt to contact the settlers in 1448 that failed because of heavy sea ice.Columbus may have visited Greenland in 1477 — he certainly went to Iceland, He described vising an England sized Island several hundred miles west of Iceland in a letter. ….