July 1st 1492: It&#x27;s high time that humanity moved past the notion that sending meatbags onto the oceans is a good idea. Pampering to fans of stories about shorter routes to Asia has squandered a great many dubloons pursuing the &#x27;meatbags on the waves&#x27; chimera and all we have to show for it is a severe case of scurvy and a bunch of rotten timber. We already know how to get to Asia overland, why <i>on earth</i> would we bother finding a longer, more dangerous and probably slower route around the other side. Besides, everybody knows the Earth is flat.<p>Some grandiose ideas are fun but they get you nowhere and leave you worse off as they represent a gigantic mis-allocation of capital.