Eratosthenes knew that on the summer solstice at local noon in the Ancient Egyptian city of Swenet (known in Greek as Syene, and in the modern day as Aswan) on the Tropic of Cancer, the sun would appear at the zenith, directly overhead. He also knew, from measurement, that in his hometown of Alexandria, the angle of elevation of the Sun would be 1/50 of a full circle (7°12′) south of the zenith at the same time. Assuming that Alexandria was due north of Syene he concluded that the distance from Alexandria to Syene must be 1/50 of the total circumference of the Earth. His estimated distance between the cities was 5000 stadia (about 500 geographical miles or 950 km). He rounded the result to a final value of 700 stadia per degree, which implies a circumference of 252,000 stadia. The exact size of the stadion he used is frequently argued. The common Attic stadium was about 185 m, which would imply a circumference of 46,620 km, i.e. 16.3% too large. However, if we assume that Eratosthenes used the “Egyptian stadium”[2] of about 157.5 m, his measurement turns out to be 39,690 km, an error of less than 1%.

Ptolomy was most famous for his cataloging of the stars in The Almagest, although he apparently only did some of the observations, and borrowed the rest from Hipparchus.

In his Geographia, Ptolomy does draw maps of the ancient world. The maps look distorted as compared to modern maps, because Ptolemy’s data were inaccurate. One reason is that Ptolemy estimated the size of the Earth as too small: while Eratosthenes found 700 stadia for a great circle degree on the globe, in the Geographia Ptolemy uses 500 stadia.

I once told someone that the Bible says the sun rises. The believer replied well, that’s just a metaphor. I then said that maybe the entire Bible is a metaphor.

a few observers in 1800s have looked at US social structure and saw that it differed not at all from societal structure of any other empire or country.

but the constitution and religion asserted that US structure was fair and square.
and to this day, 90% of USans firmly believe that US is noble, fair, helpful, etc.
even slavery, lynching, disappearance of indigenes, numerous wars cld not as yet convince the about 90% of USans that they are serfs and cannon fodder for the iniquitous society. thnx

But I get your point.

By William L. Watts, MarketWatch
Last update: 1:10 p.m. EST Feb. 19, 2009
LONDON (MarketWatch) — Germany is willing to shore up the International Monetary Fund if it becomes necessary to do so, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Thursday, according to news reports.
The remarks, at a Berlin news conference with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, come amid rising hopes that the German government will lead European Union efforts to support troubled economies in Central and Eastern Europe.
“Germany will not refuse to (financially) support the IMF if necessary, ” Merkel said.
Merkel also praised the region participating in the single currency as “strong” and said it “has proven its worth in the crisis.”
However, she reportedly declined to say whether Germany, with the largest economy in Europe, would come to the aid of euro-zone nations under severe fiscal stress.
German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck this week dismissed as “absurd” any speculation that fiscal strains within the euro zone could lead to an exit by any of the single currency’s 16 members.
Steinbrueck, in comments repeated on Wednesday, said euro-zone countries would likely have to come to the aid of other troubled members.
The consequences of a euro-zone breakup would be too far-reaching, Steinbrueck said Wednesday, according to Dow Jones Newswires.
“Could you imagine anyone would be wiling to put up with this?” he said.
Steinbrueck’s remarks followed a further widening of government bond yield spreads, with markets demanding a higher premium for lending to governments such as Ireland that are under severe fiscal strain. The cost of insuring against default on sovereign debt issued by Ireland soared to record levels in recent days. See earlier story.
Easing worries about strains in the euro zone helped contribute to a rebound in the euro in Thursday’s foreign-exchange dealings, traders said. The single currency changed hands at $1.2689 versus the U.S. dollar, up from $1.2532 in North American trading late Wednesday. See Currencies.
William L. Watts is a reporter for MarketWatch in London.

Your figures on corporate debt simply represent a different way of financing of corporate expansion in Europe relative to the US. In the US, typically extra corporate financing is sought in the stock market by issuing more stock, while in Europe the thight relationships with Banks tend to lead to more borrowing. It has little implications on how efficient operations are and often, since Banks are more interested in longer term gains instead of short term stock prices, many European companies can actually affortd to take a much longer view on investing. Some argue this leads ot better decision making at the management level.

The problems are worldwide and no doubt Eastern Europe will suffer and some corrections will take place, but it is doubtful that it would lead to another world war in Europe. There is much more worry about dropping governement revenues in oil producing countries where budget revenues have collapsed by 50% in some cases, and unfortunately this leads back to areas in the world that have been historically unstable, Middle East, the Former Soviet Union, and the poorest and most inequitable part of the world, Africa.