"They all laughed at Christopher Columbus when he said the world was round," goes the famous song.



If we transplanted the concept to the 21st Century, it might well sound something like: "They all laughed at B.o.B. and Andrew Flintoff when they said the world was flat," - with the crucial musical drawback being that I'm no songwriter, so my new lyrics don't scan, but a solid scientific win that comes from knowing that at least everyone is actually laughing at the people in question.

Flat-Earthers' most recent setback comes in the form of a Reddit thread that has been gathering pace in recent days, simply titled 'Checkmate Flat-Earth Society'.



It shows an image taken from the top of Mount Everest, in which a mountaineer has taken a selfie that displays the curvature of the Earth quite clearly behind him.



Credit: Dean Carriere/GoPro

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Everest is just shy of 9,000m above sea level and thus a prime position to see just how unflat the world is. Checkmate indeed, though a lot of the Redditors beneath the image seemed somewhat annoyed at the amount of rubbish that appears to be lying around atop the world's highest mountain.

As anyone who's ever tried to score a free brew in the centre of a major city knows, Buddhist Centres are the place to go, and anyone who has been to a Buddhist Centre will know about their love of prayer flags.

Well, given that Tibet, where Mount Everest is located, is home to many Buddhists, that would answer your question. A lot the 'rubbish' is remnants of the thousands of people who have been up and left their religious symbols quite deliberately behind them.



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Credit: PA

There was also a long discussion about what happens to all the shites that mountaineers take on their way up the mountain, which obviously has to come down with them.