Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD)

[sgolds]

blauboad, fascinating! Never thought about the Dante connection, but that makes perfect sense. Just shows that certain members of the educated in medival Europe did know the world is round, and gravity pulls towards the center, even if others believed in a flat world. Much different picture than we were taught in grade school!

The Columbus mis-calculation does explain a lot of stuff. I always wondered if he knew his mistake and refused to admit it. In naming the natives 'Indians' and coming back with hot chile 'peppers', I always suspected that he knew the difference but couldn't let down his Spanish backers.

While this is all interesting, I think we shouldn't busy this board with the OT topic anymore...

Note to UpNDown: Columbus did not discover North America, but rather he publicized it. Take a look at my post and you will see that I was careful in my wording and even pointed out that English fishermen had been bringing North American species to the market before Columbus, but kept their fishing grounds secret.

Yes, the Vikings were there first. The natives were there way ahead of the Vikings, most of which came from Siberia but Celtic circles in Canada and speculative evidence about a tropical Pacific link shows that America was 'discovered' multiple times.

Columbus' accomplishment was not the discovery, but the publicity of that discovery so that others could follow. That changed the world, it cannot be denied!