Shaq, I owe you an apology.

I mistakenly believed that the image with the grid pattern was yours and that it was an older version of the image you posted here in September.

I should have checked this more carefully before making that claim, and I sincerely apologize for the mistake.

I’ll get back to the other points when I have more time.

One final psychological prompt, a reductio ad absurdum perspective.

We are given 1.) a map and 2.) a distance in inches. The latter is in precisely the form we need to measure out those very inches (2.) on this very map (1.). That should be it.

Let us do as you propose, however.

We take the number of inches (2.) that we were given and apply the (erroneous) printed scale found on the map to derive an erroneous distance in miles. We then find ourselves a different map (1a.) and we deduce the number of inches (2a.) on this map that corresponds to our deduced distance in miles. We take this doubly-deduced inch distance (2a.) and we apply it to our arbitrarily chosen map (1a.) to discover where it gets us.

It gets us to a different place, because the printed scale on the Phillips map is wrong.

But then you will see—and this is the absurdity—that all you have done is applied a series of unnecessary, erroneous and uncalled-for conversions to get back precisely to the very point you started from: measuring a distance in inches (2a.) on a map (1a.).

Having been averse, for whatever reason, to simply measuring out the given inches on the given map, you find nonetheless that the end point of your wandering is merely to measure out some or other different inches on some different map.

We can discount all of this extra circular nonsense as not being something we could be expected to pursue.

We were given a distance in inches (2.) and we were given a map (1.).

Posted by: @shaqmeister

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We can discount all of this extra circular nonsense as not being something we could be expected to pursue.

More to the point, had The Zodiac wanted us to use some other map he would have given us that other map and a distance in inches for it. Had he merely wanted us to not use the Phillips he would have given us the distance in miles. Both these alternatives would be as free from ambiguity and capable of producing the intended result without confusion as is the method he did use.

Posted by: @northkey

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Shaq, I owe you an apology.

I mistakenly believed that the image with the grid pattern was yours and that it was an older version of the image you posted here in September.

I should have checked this more carefully before making that claim, and I sincerely apologize for the mistake.

I’ll get back to the other points when I have more time.

No need to apologise, @Northkey. It very possibly could have been something that I posted. Without a link, though, I would have difficulty trying to find it.

For myself, I can recognise that I have come to the limit of any assistance I am able to contribute at this time beyond just repeating points I have already made but in different words. My purpose is to present logical analyses and challenge errors, not merely to change minds. I feel I have gone as far as I can with that here.