Admitting you were wrong is not an easy thing to do for anyone.
Three years ago, a pastor from Colorado named Will Duffy found out that some people believed — still believed — that the Earth was flat. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. Hadn't we settled this debate centuries ago?! Not only was the debate continuing to rage on, but it was incredibly divisive and was part of a doorway to discredit even more crucial science.
He decided to take it upon himself to end the questions, once and for all. How? By taking a trip to Antarctica.
Duffy devised a project called The Final Experiment, in which he invited prominent "flat Earthers" along with a crew of "globe Earthers" to explore the most remote climate on the planet — together.
In a flat Earth model, Antarctica is usually depicted as an ice wall that encircles the rest of the planet. Sometimes, it's shown as its own distinct continent. However, by visiting Antarctica in the summer, the team would be able to see Antarctica's famous 24-hour sun, or midnight sun, up close and personal.
Flat Earthers, crucially, do not typically believe that a 24-hour sun is possible. In their models, the sun would rise and set in Antarctica the same way it does everywhere else. The existence of midnight sun would, if not outright prove, at least heavily suggest, that Earth is a tilted sphere.
(Of course, there are already mountains of evidence and data that show the Earth is a sphere — and plenty of documentation of the existence of midnight sun. But never mind that for now.)
Duffy reached out to several big-name flat Earthers, and many declined to take the trip. But he was able to get a handful of brave explorers on board. The group flew deep into the interior of Antarctica, landing on an ice runway near Union Glacier Camp.
Will Duffy and his crew live-streamed the whole thing on YouTube via Starlink. The video begins at midnight, with the sun high in the sky — an absolutely stunning sight for many on the expedition. Duffy then allows each member of the team to share their thoughts on the journey and their observations.
- YouTubewww.youtube.com
Jeran Campanella, one of the most prominent flat Earthers on YouTube, spoke from the heart: "Sometimes, you are wrong in life."
"I thought there was no 24-hour sun, in fact I was pretty sure of it," he said bluntly after observing it with his own eyes. "It's a fact. The sun does circle you in the south. What does it mean? You guys are gonna have to figure that out yourselves."
He stopped short of definitively admitting that the Earth is a sphere, but he did confess that the Azimuthal equidistant map — the most popular flat earth model — no longer makes sense in his mind based on what he saw in Antarctica.
"I realize I'll be called a shill for saying that. And you know what, if you're a shill for being honest, so be it. I honestly believed there was no 24 hour sun, I honestly now believe there is. There it is," he said.
It seems silly, since most of us can acknowledge that a spherical Earth is settled science. But by making this admission on camera, Jeran risked losing his audience, his credibility in his community, and even his livelihood as a content creator with nearly 200,000 followers.
It took courage to finally admit that he was wrong.
"Respect for Jeran. He sounded shaken and he knows he's going to [receive] backlash," wrote a commenter on Youtube.
"I'm quite impressed by Jeran. He chokes up and was quite emotional, clearly this was a deep seated belief of his and he handled being proven wrong with grace. good for him," said another.
Why is it so hard for us to let go of deeply held beliefs? Beliefs aren't always logical decisions, but emotional ones.
By Strebe - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0
Our identities and our sense of self get so tied up into what we believe. Belief in a conspiracy theory might start as genuine curiosity or confusion but quickly spiral into much more.
People even make good friends and meet romantic partners inside of communities based on their beliefs, so to let go of that is deeply threatening to our psyches.
"Our ego, or sense of self, finds comfort in our various identities. Just as we have fight, flight, or freeze instincts to protect our physical well-being, we defend our psychological sense of self when our various identities are threatened. This is why if someone makes fun of our favorite football team, city, state, country, music artist, political party, hero, religion, ideas, and so on, we feel a surge of emotion to defend them," writes Mike Brooks for Psychology Today.
Even when we see the truth with our own eyes, it can be hard to accept.
"I think what matters most is putting our egos aside," Lisbeth, another flat Earther that accompanied The Final Experiment to Antarctica. "Are we here for truth, or are we here to hold onto narrative and ego?"
Some people just need to see things with their own eyes to believe. And putting your most deeply-held beliefs on the line and going into new situations with an open mind, knowing core pieces of your identity may not hold up to scrutiny, is admirable — no matter what the rest of us might think about the validity of those beliefs.
Mark Herman, who also went on the voyage, said, "Who would have thought? Two groups of people who are so opposed in belief and ideology to the point where there's ridicule, there's shame, all kinds of horrible things, but when they come together, there's so much camaraderie and teamwork between people. I'm very thankful to be a part of it."
Watch the full video and I think you'll be surprised by how much beauty there is in this project, not only in the breathtaking Antarctic landscape and the wonder of never-ending sunshine, but in the humanity and vulnerability on display from each of the participants.
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A Generation Jones teenager poses in her room.Image via Wikmedia Commons
An office kitchen.via 
An angry man eating spaghetti.via 
At least it wasn't Bubbles. 
You just know there's a person named Whiskey out there getting a kick out of this. 
An Irish woman went to the doctor for a routine eye exam. She left with bright neon green eyes.
It's not easy seeing green.
Did she get superpowers?
Going to the eye doctor can be a hassle and a pain. It's not just the routine issues and inconveniences that come along when making a doctor appointment, but sometimes the various devices being used to check your eyes' health feel invasive and uncomfortable. But at least at the end of the appointment, most of us don't look like we're turning into The Incredible Hulk. That wasn't the case for one Irish woman.
Photographer Margerita B. Wargola was just going in for a routine eye exam at the hospital but ended up leaving with her eyes a shocking, bright neon green.
At the doctor's office, the nurse practitioner was prepping Wargola for a test with a machine that Wargola had experienced before. Before the test started, Wargola presumed the nurse had dropped some saline into her eyes, as they were feeling dry. After she blinked, everything went yellow.
Wargola and the nurse initially panicked. Neither knew what was going on as Wargola suddenly had yellow vision and radioactive-looking green eyes. After the initial shock, both realized the issue: the nurse forgot to ask Wargola to remove her contact lenses before putting contrast drops in her eyes for the exam. Wargola and the nurse quickly removed the lenses from her eyes and washed them thoroughly with saline. Fortunately, Wargola's eyes were unharmed. Unfortunately, her contacts were permanently stained and she didn't bring a spare pair.
- YouTube youtube.com
Since she has poor vision, Wargola was forced to drive herself home after the eye exam wearing the neon-green contact lenses that make her look like a member of the Green Lantern Corps. She couldn't help but laugh at her predicament and recorded a video explaining it all on social media. Since then, her video has sparked a couple Reddit threads and collected a bunch of comments on Instagram:
“But the REAL question is: do you now have X-Ray vision?”
“You can just say you're a superhero.”
“I would make a few stops on the way home just to freak some people out!”
“I would have lived it up! Grab a coffee, do grocery shopping, walk around a shopping center.”
“This one would pair well with that girl who ate something with turmeric with her invisalign on and walked around Paris smiling at people with seemingly BRIGHT YELLOW TEETH.”
“I would save those for fancy special occasions! WOW!”
“Every time I'd stop I'd turn slowly and stare at the person in the car next to me.”
“Keep them. Tell people what to do. They’ll do your bidding.”
In a follow-up Instagram video, Wargola showed her followers that she was safe at home with normal eyes, showing that the damaged contact lenses were so stained that they turned the saline solution in her contacts case into a bright Gatorade yellow. She wasn't mad at the nurse and, in fact, plans on keeping the lenses to wear on St. Patrick's Day or some other special occasion.
While no harm was done and a good laugh was had, it's still best for doctors, nurses, and patients alike to double-check and ask or tell if contact lenses are being worn before each eye test. If not, there might be more than ultra-green eyes to worry about.