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Flat Earther Now Wants To Launch His Homemade Rocket From a Balloon (themaineedge.com)

A Maine alternative newsweekly just interviewed self-taught rocket scientist "Mad" Mike Hughes, who still believes that the earth is a flat, Frisbee-shaped disc. ("Think about this. Australia -- which is supposedly on the other side of the planet -- is upside down yet they're holding the waters in the ocean. Now how is that happening?") And Mike's got a new way to prove it after his aborted launch attempt in November. An anonymous reader writes: "One thing I want to clarify is that this rocket was never supposed to prove that the Earth is flat," Hughes tells an interviewer. "I was never going to go high enough to do that." But he will prove it's flat -- with an even riskier stunt. "I have a plan to go 62 miles up to the edge of space. It's going to cost $1.8 million and that could happen within 10 months."

"I'm going to have a balloon built at about $250,000 with $100,000 worth of hydrogen in it. It will lift me up about 20 miles... If I'm unconscious, they can use the controls to bring the balloon back." But if he's still conscious? "Then I'll fire a rocket through the balloon that will pull me up by my shoulders through a truss for 42 miles at 1.5 g's."

It's an awesome plan "if I don't burn up coming back through the atmosphere."

The interviewer asks Hughes a reasonable question. "Wouldn't it be cheaper and less deadly to just try to drill through the Earth to the other side to prove your point?"

"You can't," Hughes answers. "That's another fallacy. The deepest hole ever drilled is seven-and-a-half miles and it was done in Russia. It took 12 years. You cannot drill through this planet. It dulls every drill bit. All the stuff that you learned in school -- that the core is molten nickel -- it's all lies. No one knows what's in the center of the Earth or how deep it is. I'm no expert at anything, but I know that's a fact."

178 of 314 comments (clear)

  1. It might be even cooler... by Type44Q · · Score: 2

    It might be even cooler... to launch a balloon from a rocket. You know, if you're a flat-earther.

    1. Re:It might be even cooler... by davester666 · · Score: 1

      He better hope there are no stray oxygen molecules hanging around when he ignites a rocket that blasts him through the hydrogen-filled balloon.

      Of course, there will nobody around to say "Oh, the humanity."

      --
      Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
    2. Re:It might be even cooler... by Aighearach · · Score: 3, Funny

      Telescopes. We can all share in this.

    3. Re:It might be even cooler... by Pascoea · · Score: 1

      The problem with flat earthers, it is difficult to tell if they are trolling or really are full-on mentally handicapped.

  2. Wait, what? by Hentes · · Score: 5, Funny

    if I don't burn up coming back through the atmosphere.

    Something tells me this guy may not be true believer.

    1. Re:Wait, what? by Orgasmatron · · Score: 1

      If he had said atmofrustum would anyone have understood what he meant?

      --
      See that "Preview" button?
    2. Re:Wait, what? by GameboyRMH · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I've noticed that the flat earthers have no explanation for what keeps the atmofrustrum from falling off the sides of the disc. The ice wall that keeps the oceans from falling off is supposedly only around 150ft ASL, which is nothing in terms of keeping air in.

      Maybe there's another wall beyond the ice wall, hundreds of thousands of feet tall, made of the same indestructible stuff that makes it impossible to drill through the earth...but then they'd have to explain why this wall doesn't block any view of the stars near the horizon.

      --
      "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
    3. Re:Wait, what? by jon3k · · Score: 1

      Maybe there's another wall beyond the ice wall

      Believe it or not, that is one very prevalent theory among flat earthers. They think the first ice wall is to prevent us from seeing the world on the other side of the wall that they're secretly trying to keep us from getting to. I'm not sure who "they" are, of course.

    4. Re:Wait, what? by nospam007 · · Score: 1

      " the same indestructible stuff that makes it impossible to drill through the earth."

      It's just elephants and a turtle down there anyway.

    5. Re:Wait, what? by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 1

      And what do they think is on the bottom side of the flat world? Surely as you approach the bounding ice wall gravity will be pulling you more and more toward the center of the disk so would be walking on a slant with your head toward the edge. If you climbed the wall you could then walk normally down the edge of the disk (I'm assuming a pressure suit would be required) and then reach the underside. This would be entirely new territory, equal in area to the entire world we know, ripe for real estate development and mining.

    6. Re:Wait, what? by Dutch+Gun · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I'm convinced that 90% of flat earthers are just trolls who don't actually believe what they say, but love seeing the consternation of people trying to convince them they're wrong. Or maybe some of them just enjoy the intellectual challenge of trying to invent counter-arguments to scientific reality. The other 10% are just gullible saps who have been taken in by the former group.

      There are many thousands of logical fallacies to the flat earth theory. You'll go crazy if you try to argue logically with these people. You can't argue with trolls or stupid.

      --
      Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
    7. Re:Wait, what? by ceoyoyo · · Score: 1

      Yeah, the scrith is folded up at the edges to make the rim wall mountains. You can't really see it because it's so far away. You'll notice though that the horizon always looks a little fuzzy and the sun or moon looks wonky when it's sitting on the horizon: light ways refracting over the rim walls. Plus astronomers never point their telescopes at things near the horizon because of "atmospheric effects."

    8. Re: Wait, what? by Jesus+H+Rolle · · Score: 1

      And what do they think is on the bottom side of the flat world? Surely as you approach the bounding ice wall gravity will be pulling you more and more toward the center of the disk so would be walking on a slant with your head toward the edge. If you climbed the wall you could then walk normally down the edge of the disk (I'm assuming a pressure suit would be required) and then reach the underside. This would be entirely new territory, equal in area to the entire world we know, ripe for real estate development and mining.

      Gravity itself is an illusion - that is, the earth is accelerating upward at 1g, which is indistinguishable from gravity only so long as we stay on top. You'll need to rappel down the sides, and if you make it to the other side of the earth, you will fall, or see the earth falling away from you, as they are one and the same.

    9. Re:Wait, what? by jrumney · · Score: 1
      Yeah. His beliefs lack consistency to say the least...

      All the stuff that you learned in school -- that the core is molten nickel -- it's all lies. No one knows what's in the center of the Earth or how deep it is. I'm no expert at anything, but I know that's a fact."

    10. Re:Wait, what? by NicknameUnavailable · · Score: 1

      Yeah. His beliefs lack consistency to say the least...

      Not really. He's an old daredevil who suckered a bunch of flatearthers into donating money so he could build a rocket, he knows he only has one shot at it so he's trying to make it as much of an adrenaline rush as he can without getting sued for taking advantage of the retarded.

    11. Re: Wait, what? by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 1

      Okay...continuous 1G acceleration for over 4 billion years puts us so close to the speed of light that we would no longer see a full surround of stars in the night sky. Our instruments could detect deep blue-shifted stars dead ahead, deeply red-shifted stars behind, and we would visually see a band of stars at near right angles to our acceleration vector. And because we still perceive day and night, the Sun circling the flat Earth would have to be coming along for the ride.

      Do you have any idea how much energy this would require for just the Earth and the Sun, l;et alone anything else in the solar system? What is the source?

    12. Re:Wait, what? by zarmanto · · Score: 1

      if I don't burn up coming back through the atmosphere.

      Something tells me this guy may not be true believer.

      In line with that premise:

      ... No one knows what's in the center of the Earth or how deep it is. ...

      (Emphasis added.) So, how could the Earth have a "center" if it were flat?

      Uh huh. This dude is a fraud, plain and simple. But the worst part is, no "real" flat-earthers would ever believe him, if he did survive to tell the tale and finally "realize" that the earth is round... because upon making such a statement, they would just label him as another brainwashed member of the "round-earth conspiracy." So ultimately, he doesn't even have any kind of legitimate end-game, here... it's all a pointless waste of time.

    13. Re:Wait, what? by rhazz · · Score: 1
      This is 100% some irrelevant guy trying to get visibility by making popular claims and hoping media organizations will be click-bait greedy enough to publish something about him. Enter Slashdot.

      You'll go crazy if you try to argue logically with these people. You can't argue with trolls or stupid.

      Obviously they're trolls. The only argument you need is to have them explain commercial airline flight path/time.

    14. Re:Wait, what? by K10W · · Score: 1

      if I don't burn up coming back through the atmosphere.

      Something tells me this guy may not be true believer.

      joking aside I doubt he was ever a believer. He is such a relatively new convert I think he did it for funding from the morons and to garner much more publicity for other reasons and this isn't his end game (no pun intended). In some ways he is probably smart to play that game to reach his goal as it seems to be working. He'd have much less exposure as just another amateur rocket guy which there are plenty of, especially since he's not really both feet in that camp and rocket building is just a means to an end not his field of expertise nor passion. Iirc a while back someone said he was talking aobut having a reality tv show or something like that, whatever he is up to I don't swallow his bait but I think it has great amusement value and the is he isn't he trolling of media, flat earthers and science folks all at once is pretty funny you've got to admit.

  3. This guy.... by Rick+Zeman · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...is just a world-class troll. Nothing more.

  4. This guy is a grifter by galvanash · · Score: 5, Insightful

    He does not believe the earth is flat. What he believes is that a bunch of stupid people either DO think the earth is flat, or would just be willing to pay to see him die. He is just trying to swindle some cash.

    Stop feeding the troll people...

    --
    - sigs are stupid
    1. Re:This guy is a grifter by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      He does not believe the earth is flat. What he believes is that a bunch of stupid people either DO think the earth is flat, or would just be willing to pay to see him die. He is just trying to swindle some cash.

      Stop feeding the troll people...

      That makes sense. Maybe he saw the election and went, "Hey, if people are that stupid, there must be a market here."

    2. Re:This guy is a grifter by meerling · · Score: 2

      You know, that hypothesis holds a lot more water than his stated one about a flat earth does...

    3. Re:This guy is a grifter by Krishnoid · · Score: 1

      He is just trying to swindle some cash.

      I guess he at least understands the economic component of his argument.

    4. Re:This guy is a grifter by Hal_Porter · · Score: 1

      I think the Flat Earthers don't really think the Earth is flat, they just know the average person can't explain coherently why they don't believe it's flat and it's funny making them try.

      Also this song is catchy -

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

      Send it to all your to people who follow "I fucking love science" on FB but who don't know a damn thing about science and watch them fail to explain why they think Flat Earth Asshole is wrong because they don't know who Eratosthenes was.

      --
      echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
    5. Re:This guy is a grifter by bluefoxlucid · · Score: 1

      To be fair, the earth is (relatively) flat.

      ... just in a coordinate system where the angles on a triangle add up to more than 180 degrees.

    6. Re:This guy is a grifter by fuzzywig · · Score: 1
      "nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public"

      I'd heard that was a P.T. Barnum quote, but apparently not. Let's just say that it's a trump quote now.

  5. He's going to go 60 miles up... by Fly+Swatter · · Score: 5, Funny

    And bump into the ceiling, space is a lie.

    1. Re:He's going to go 60 miles up... by meerling · · Score: 1

      I enjoyed that episode.

  6. Thanks for wasting my time... Slashdot. by Tulsa_Time · · Score: 1

    Just to make yourself feel good.... ridicule and schadenfreude.

         

    --
    5 out of 6 people enjoy Russian Roulette & 6 out of 7 Dwarfs are not Happy
  7. Cheaper alternative. by OpenSourced · · Score: 4, Informative

    Would be cheaper to call some friend that he had in a different time zone, wait for sunrise and ask if the sun is rising there now. If answer is no, try to explain that with a flat earth.

    --
    Rome taught me patience and assiduous application to detail. Virtues which temper the boldness of great, general views.
    1. Re:Cheaper alternative. by ColdWetDog · · Score: 1

      Look, that's completely obvious - reality doesn't happen all at once. That would be overwhelming for the vast majority of people, It has to, you know, flow.

      Otherwise it would be just too overwhelming.

      --
      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
    2. Re:Cheaper alternative. by Arzaboa · · Score: 1

      He doesn't believe in phone companies either.

      --
      Hey, you're that guy - TV Commercial

    3. Re:Cheaper alternative. by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      You got me there ... friends? Time Zone?

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    4. Re:Cheaper alternative. by thewolfkin · · Score: 1

      Would be cheaper to call some friend that he had in a different time zone, wait for sunrise and ask if the sun is rising there now. If answer is no, try to explain that with a flat earth.

      Are you reading my comments? I've been saying this since B.O.B. released his instagram proof aka "Hey look over in the background of this picture.. do you see curvature? *micdrop* What now scientists" i mean how small do these people think the earth is.. they know we're not living on King Kai's planet from Dragon Ball Z right?

      --
      Just another second banana
    5. Re:Cheaper alternative. by sheramil · · Score: 1

      i mean how small do these people think the earth is.. they know we're not living on King Kai's planet from Dragon Ball Z right?

      (Rolls eyes) Well, obviously. It's an established fact that King Kai's world was blown up by Perfect Cell.

      Anyway, a little consideration for us upside-down Australians who have to hold the ocean up every day!

    6. Re:Cheaper alternative. by inking · · Score: 1

      The spotlight sun theory, my brother.

    7. Re:Cheaper alternative. by thewolfkin · · Score: 1

      i mean how small do these people think the earth is.. they know we're not living on King Kai's planet from Dragon Ball Z right?

      Anyway, a little consideration for us upside-down Australians who have to hold the ocean up every day!

      that's the second time I've heard that... is that a thing?

      --
      Just another second banana
  8. Well, this guy is good for one thing by gweihir · · Score: 1

    Proving that the ignorance you can find in one person is really unlimited. I fear, though, that he is not that much more ignorant than the average person, just more stubborn.

    --
    Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
  9. Re:HAHA by TechyImmigrant · · Score: 2

    What a stupid retard this guy is, my self of steam is so high knowing I'm smarter than at least some one

    Yes. I know the Earth isn't flat. I had to walk up a hill the other day.

    --
    I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
  10. This guy is a [... fill in the blank condemnation] by Darth+Technoid · · Score: 1

    My question why any sensible person anywhere, would ever discuss this ... and give the guy the air tie he wants?

  11. Re:Trump has a new director of NASA? by Kernel+Kurtz · · Score: 2, Insightful

    My first thought as well. There must be some place in the Trump administration for this man!

  12. Fifteen more minutes by cahuenga · · Score: 1

    Fame as a moron. Who knew there was a future in that?

  13. Re:He'd be more successful banning bump stocks by thewolfkin · · Score: 2

    wait so he's against hillary AND against bump stocks? da heck kinda alt right conspiracy nut are you?

    --
    Just another second banana
  14. Re:So what's keeping the oceans from draining? by TechyImmigrant · · Score: 1

    Is there some infinite supply of water in the middle of the disc? A wall? Why aren't there any pictures of the edge?

    Geolocation. The cameras on phones are disabled when you get that far out.

    --
    I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
  15. Re:He'd be more successful banning bump stocks by c · · Score: 1, Informative

    wait so he's against hillary AND against bump stocks? da heck kinda alt right conspiracy nut are you?

    One of the saner ones, I'm afraid.

    --
    Log in or piss off.
  16. Re:Trump by thewolfkin · · Score: 1

    Trump will soon be recruiting this loser to run NASA.

    he can build a rocket.. might be too qualified.

    --
    Just another second banana
  17. Can we stop covering this asshole? by Patent+Lover · · Score: 1

    This idiot craves attention like a 2 year old and the press is more than happy to oblige.

  18. The flat Earth lie.... by TiggertheMad · · Score: 2

    The Earth is not flat. This is a lie spread by fools and idiots. If the earth was flat, the water would run off the edge. It is CLEARLY bowl shaped, as this is the only shape that would retain water over time.

    Do not believe this idiot, his ideas will lead you down a path of folly and ruin.

    --

    HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!
    1. Re:The flat Earth lie.... by Rick+Zeman · · Score: 2

      The Earth is not flat. This is a lie spread by fools and idiots. If the earth was flat, the water would run off the edge.

      No, more importantly, if the earth was flat the cats of the world would have pushed everything over the edge by now just for shits and grins.

    2. Re:The flat Earth lie.... by serviscope_minor · · Score: 1

      It is CLEARLY bowl shaped, as this is the only shape that would retain water over time.

      The Earth is a sphere: but we're actually living on the INSIDE of a sphere.

      Why else do you think storms go the other way round on the other side of the earth? It's becaue they're above us so it only LOOKS the other way round.

      WAKE UP SHEEPLE

      --
      SJW n. One who posts facts.
    3. Re:The flat Earth lie.... by johannesg · · Score: 1

      Bowl shaped? BOWL SHAPED? If it were bowl shaped, the rain would eventually FILL IT UP and we would ALL DROWN!

    4. Re:The flat Earth lie.... by careysub · · Score: 1

      Bowl shaped? BOWL SHAPED? If it were bowl shaped, the rain would eventually FILL IT UP and we would ALL DROWN!

      No, the fallacy here is that there is a hole that constantly drains it out to provide water for the turtles that hold up the Earth.

      --
      Starships were meant to fly, Hands up and touch the sky - Nicky Minaj
    5. Re:The flat Earth lie.... by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      You're awful close to Godwin, serviscope_minor. Nazi Germany got involved with the Hollow Earth theory, although there's no historical documentation for some of the wackier rumors (like attempts to see the South Atlantic from Germany).

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
  19. Re:He'd be more successful banning bump stocks by thewolfkin · · Score: 1

    I was considering what sort of response would be appropriate when I fell into a hush looking at your four digit ID. I mean that's older than me even if I DID sign up when I first started reading.

    --
    Just another second banana
  20. Re:Trump has a new director of NASA? by quonset · · Score: 1

    There must be some place in the Trump administration for this man!

    Who do you think came up with the idea to ban the CDC from using words such as "science-based" in official papers?

  21. slip of the tongue by xonen · · Score: 1

    No one knows what's in the center of the Earth

    If he doesn't believe the earth is round, why does he believe it has a center?

    Because, on a flat earth the center would be, going by their maps, the north pole. Only a sphere has a 'center' that you theoretically could reach by drilling.

    If this were his own words, then i think this dude knows darn well the earth is round. He's just seeking publicity. And just unmasked himself by this slip of the tongue.

    --
    A glitch a day keeps the bugs away.
  22. Re:Trump has a new director of NASA? by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

    My first thought as well. There must be some place in the Trump administration for this man!

    Minister of truthiness.

    --
    The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
  23. The rocket is superfluous. by hey! · · Score: 5, Informative

    He'd be better off letting the balloon go higher with a lighter payload. A steam rocket with its massive pressure vessel is going to take more off your maximum altitude than it contributes.

    The first humans to see the curvature of the Earth were US Army captains Albert Stevens and Orvil Anderson, who achieved an altitude of 22km in the Helium-filled Explorer II balloon on November 11, 1935. This would be the way to go. The record for a hot-air balloon ascent is 21 km, which would be sufficient to detect the curvature of the Earth if your gondola sported a porthole with a sufficiently wide field of view.

    But the easiest and cheapest sensory evidence you can get is from a camera lofted into the stratosphere by a weather balloon. For under $150 you can buy a ballon with a burst height of over 35 km. You could probably rig the entire mission for under $1000.

    --
    Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
    1. Re:The rocket is superfluous. by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 2

      My highest flight altitude was 13km, and you can clearly see from there that the earth is a sphere.

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    2. Re:The rocket is superfluous. by swillden · · Score: 1

      Can't trust cameras. How do you know the picture you get back from it hasn't been tampered with by The Conspiracy?

      If you fly up 60 miles, how do you know the memory you have in your brain hasn't been tampered with by The Conspiracy.

      --
      Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
    3. Re:The rocket is superfluous. by hey! · · Score: 1

      Well, you can use an analog camera.

      Now what flat Earthers will actually tell you about weather balloon pictures is that they're actually the result of the fisheye lens effect. And here's the thing: they're mostly right about that! The dramatic curvature you see on balloon videos is a result of using a wide-angle lens.

      However the fisheye effect doesn't affect the center of the image, where you can see the curvature. It's subtle. It's also missing in some shots. That's because the curvature as seen from the lower stratosphere is so subtle it can easily be obliterated by high cloud cover, when the clouds are quite a bit nearer to you than the horizon.

      What you need is a shot where the camera is centered on a clear view of the horizon, and then you look at only the center of the image. It's visible, but again it's quite subtle.

      --
      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
    4. Re:The rocket is superfluous. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      You can see the curvature of the Earth from the top of Pike's Peak (14,000 or so ft.).

  24. Burn up in atmosphere by Dan+East · · Score: 4, Informative

    It's an awesome plan "if I don't burn up coming back through the atmosphere."

    Altitude has nothing to do with burning up in the atmosphere. He will merely reach terminal velocity speeds (which will vary with the density of the atmosphere) but there is no risk of burning up. Objects that are in orbit burn up because they are at orbital velocity, not because of their altitude.

    --
    Better known as 318230.
  25. Center of something flat ? by Crashmarik · · Score: 1

    Is he proposing a cubic planet ?

    Either way, being able to reach east west destinations via polar paths should be all the proof anyone needs.

    1. Re:Center of something flat ? by Jason+Levine · · Score: 1

      Is he proposing a cubic planet ?

      I thought this world was acting a little Bizarro recently.

      --
      My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
  26. Re:If the Earth is flat, how can there be a center by meerling · · Score: 1

    Same off topic troll on a second post of the same spam

  27. Re: Why is this on here? by blackomegax · · Score: 1

    Lots of people are dying from cancer though.

  28. Re: Trump has a new director of NASA? by meerling · · Score: 1

    Not that I recall, not even close. Reagan was more like Obama than trump. Sure, he wasn't much like Obama at all, but then he's even less like trump other than the party he ran as.

  29. Launch from the South Pole by jfdavis668 · · Score: 1

    Fly over the wall and prove the Earth is flat!

  30. Re:So what's keeping the oceans from draining? by blackomegax · · Score: 1

    film has existed forever, and you can buy perfectly good camera bodies, and lenses, with NO ELECTRONICS IN THEM.

  31. Why is this idiot newsworthy? by sjbe · · Score: 1

    A Maine alternative newsweekly just interviewed self-taught rocket scientist "Mad" Mike Hughes...

    Why is anyone giving this lunatic the time of day? More specific to here, how exactly is this news for nerds or stuff that matters? If this lunatic wants to become a Darwin Award recipient, let him and spare us the details. All the media are doing is giving a lunatic a bullhorn to infect other idiots with his stupidity. He's not even an entertaining species of lunatic.

    1. Re:Why is this idiot newsworthy? by skam240 · · Score: 1

      Plenty of news sites/publications have an "on the lighter side" section. These are stories that are generally of little importance but people often find them amusing. In this case, many find it amusing to see the lengths a flat earther will take their beliefs and for those of us with any science education it's seeing the 101 glaring problems with his plan. It's an amusing distraction.

      As an example: http://www.bbc.com/news/also_i...

      If you don't get it that's fine, feel free to be outraged. That's what it's doing on slashdot and in the news though.

      --
      I ignore Anonymous Coward posts. If you want to discuss something, that's awesome. Log in.
    2. Re:Why is this idiot newsworthy? by jwhyche · · Score: 2

      He isn't. Can we can the Pseudoscience bullshit please? Just for a week are so.

      --
      I read at +2. If your post doesn't reach that level I will not see or respond to it.
  32. evidence-based rocket science by PopeRatzo · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "I'm no expert at anything, but I know that's a fact."

    This is the quote of 2017.

    And all of you haters and losers making fun of this guy, why do you hate diverse viewpoints in science? It's about time we had more Trump-supporting scientists.

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.
    1. Re:evidence-based rocket science by archer,+the · · Score: 2

      The laws of physics aren't for or against anyone. They just exist. It's our job to figure out how they work, and then how they can be used to help the world.

      Ignoring mountains of existing, thoroughly peer-reviewed evidence would be like saying the $1,000 on your bank statement actually means $100 million, then going to the bank to ask for a full withdrawl. The world doesn't work like that.

    2. Re:evidence-based rocket science by pikester · · Score: 1

      It would be if Trump weren't our president.

    3. Re:evidence-based rocket science by mapkinase · · Score: 1

      >about time we had more Trump-supporting scientists.

      You mean white male scientists over 50? I wonder where we can find those....

      --
      I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
    4. Re:evidence-based rocket science by swillden · · Score: 1

      "I'm no expert at anything, but I know that's a fact."

      This is the quote of 2017.

      Indeed. It should be understood, though, that the apparent disclaimer "I'm no expert at anything" is actually intended to be -- and is understood as by its target audience -- an appeal to authority. There's a significant percentage of the US population that has gotten so annoyed with and dismissive of experts that they actually see not being an expert at anything as a positive qualification (except with respect to practical stuff they know they don't know, where they want an expert).

      This opposition to education and knowledge has always been a feature of US politics, and is derived largely from opposition to the historical reverence of Yankees for education and knowledge, but it's seen a strong resurgence of late as all sorts of systems have become increasingly more complex and less accessible to non-experts.

      --
      Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
  33. Re:I once saw a proof it was flat by meerling · · Score: 2

    I've seen a hypothesis that our universe is a 3d hologram essentially projected from a 2d source on a brane, (Yes, I spelled "brane" correctly, go look it up.)
    Of course, we have no idea if that's true or not, or if branes actually exist either. But even if the source of the universe is 2d, that doesn't mean the earth is "flat" in our perception of the universe.

  34. Re:HAHA by meerling · · Score: 5, Funny

    I wonder if he's just trying to break the record for the most intricate and involved Darwin Award qualification.

  35. Litany of wrong by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1
    Okay. Some how or another, this guy is going to be attached to a truss that will trail behind a rocket.

    "Then I’ll fire a rocket through the balloon that will pull me up by my shoulders through a truss for 42 miles at 1.5 g’s

    Better have a hella long line between him and the rocket exhaust.

    "Everything will be controlled remotely. Even if I’m unconscious, they can use the controls to bring the balloon back. That is the plan. That is if I don’t burn up coming back through the atmosphere."

    He seems to think that the slow velocity he will be going will allow for enough friction heating to ignite him? He won't even be going fast enough to orbit, so he'll pretty quickly slow to terminal velocity.

    We do make stupid people famous don't we?

    --
    The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    1. Re:Litany of wrong by riverat1 · · Score: 1

      Chances are it won't make a difference but I hope he has a good space suit. I wonder if it's homemade like his rocket.

  36. Re:Maybe it's enough? by meerling · · Score: 1

    I guess everyone needs something to laugh at.

  37. What is this? by OneHundredAndTen · · Score: 1

    Either this guy is the epitome of stupidity and obduracy, or else he's a ruthless scammer attempting to capitalize on a common fad. We'll probably find out soon.

  38. Re:So what's keeping the oceans from draining? by serviscope_minor · · Score: 1

    > > A wall? Why aren't there any pictures of the edge?

    > Geolocation. The cameras on phones are disabled when you get that far out.

    No it's because the government kills anyone who gets that far. Why do you thik so many polar explorers have died??

    WAKE UP SHEEPLE

    --
    SJW n. One who posts facts.
  39. Re:Fundraising link? by meerling · · Score: 1

    I'd say people have been independently verifying the shape and structure of the Earth by various means for a bit over 3000 years, and in the last half century or so in high resolution astroselfies as well :)

  40. Confirmation bias by sjbe · · Score: 2

    Flat-Earthers make me feel the way I'm sure I make climate alarmists feel, but I believe in science (the process), and I'm willing to put a few bucks towards an independent verification.

    And who exactly do you think is qualified to perform your "independent verification"? You do realize that climate scientists actually have more to gain by proving the consensus wrong than they do in going along with it? They ARE the independent verification. Only people engaged in confirmation bias pretend otherwise.

    In any case the science has already been done on this (both flat earth and climate change) and there is no need to rehash what is out there unless you want to either confirm an experiment yourself or have new evidence to present.

    And maybe a bigger factor is that if a schmuck like this can get to space, that can only mean the day is getting closer when I can too.

    This idiot isn't going into space. Please tell me you aren't actually dumb enough to believe anything this moron claims.

  41. Frisbee-shaped disc by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 1

    Frisbee-shaped disc

    As opposed to... what? A non-Frisbee-shaped disc?

    --
    systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
  42. I think I love this guy ... awesome wackiness! Troll or not, he's highly entertaining :)

  43. Re: HAHA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    "self of steam" - nice, an eggcorn I have not seen in the wild before.

  44. Re:Thanks, America by NicknameUnavailable · · Score: 1

    Our professional drivers are intelligent enough alone to build fucking rockets which rival all of North Korea, and you find that reason to mock us? Truly the cry of an ape.

  45. Reporter Just as Stupid by pipingguy · · Score: 2

    "Wouldn't it be cheaper and less deadly to just try to drill through the Earth to the other side to prove your point?"

    That's a reasonable question?

    1. Re:Reporter Just as Stupid by Graysccale · · Score: 1

      Wouldn't you just run into the turtle shell?

    2. Re:Reporter Just as Stupid by sl3xd · · Score: 1

      Maybe, but there's an awful lot of elephant to drill through before you get to the turtle shell.

      --
      -- Sometimes you have to turn the lights off in order to see.
  46. Re: Trump has a new director of NASA? by youngone · · Score: 2

    To be fair, Reagan had lost his marbles completely half way through his second term and was just a figurehead by that point.

  47. Knock yourself out by atheos · · Score: 1

    Flat earthers all killing themselves to prove that the world is flat? I'm all for it!

  48. This guy gets by fredrated · · Score: 1

    5 minutes of publicity why?

    1. Re:This guy gets by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

      He had the brilliant idea of mixing con artist with magic trick:

      1. Tell the world you're going to build a contraption and do a stunt, get five minutes of fame.

      2. Declare you can't launch said first contraption because reason X, get another five minutes of fame.

      3. Then tell the world you're going to build a much bigger contraption and do a much more dangerous stunt, get another five minutes of fame.

      4. A bit later, announce that you can't afford to build the much bigger contraption on your own and you need people to help you pay for it. Get another five minutes of fame and a shitload of money.

      5. Only use 10% of the money to build the contraption, make it appear as if you die in the stunt and disappear with 90% of the money.

      He's set for life if he can get enough money in step 4 and execute step 5 without any problems.

      --
      #DeleteFacebook
  49. Re: I once saw a proof it was flat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    This is why we have oceans. The fluid simulation is able to fill those areas and hide the distorted textures. This is also why mountains are covered in snow, to cover up the stretching on the peaks.

  50. Where's the end/edges? by spineboy · · Score: 1

    I still am waiting for them to tell me where the edges of the Earth are

    --
    ..........FULL STOP.
  51. Re:Fundraising link? by quantaman · · Score: 1

    I'll pitch in $10.

    Flat-Earthers make me feel the way I'm sure I make climate alarmists feel, but I believe in science (the process), and I'm willing to put a few bucks towards an independent verification. And maybe a bigger factor is that if a schmuck like this can get to space, that can only mean the day is getting closer when I can too.

    What does this guy have to do with science?

    Back when he just wanted a rocket ride then his first test would have been a ride on a standard commercial hot-air balloon. Of course that wouldn't have been high enough as you apparently need to be about 10k up.

    So now that he's apparently done the dedicated research of a 5 minute google search he's realized his rocket (which he backed out of) wouldn't get high enough, but instead of testing his hypothesis by sending up a camera for a few thousand he wants a couple million to play pretend astronaut.

    He's not trying to do science, science is about trying to honestly investigate and verify your ideas. If he really was a scientist the first thing he'd do is ask a friend to hop in a sailboat and watch for a few hours, when the sailboat vanished over the horizon, exactly as predicted, he'd go "huh, so I guess the earth is round after all". Of course, if he came up with some dumb excuse for the ship vanishing like oh, it's just too far away I need a telescope then it would immediately occur to him to make two observations with a telescope, one close to sea level and one on a sea cliff. And again he'd disprove his flat earth hypothesis.

    I don't believe this guy is such an idiot that I only needed 30 seconds to come up with experiments that never occurred to him in a lifetime of scientific research. Rather, I think this guy isn't a scientist, he's just a religious believer playing science, and he's deliberately avoiding doing anything to challenge his beliefs. Plus if he can get his name in the papers and bilk a bunch of people out of money that's just a bonus.

    --
    I stole this Sig
  52. You say grifter... by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

    ...I say performance artists. There's no way the majority of money he is getting come from people who really think the earth is flat; instead they come from people who REALLY want to see a guy fire a rocket with himself strapped in via shoulder harness...

    My only real concern with his plan is that he's made sure his beneficiaries get a great percentage of the video rights.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  53. Re:Thanks, America by viperidaenz · · Score: 2

    Who built a rocket that rivals North Korea's efforts?
    Mike Hughes hasn't launched anything, North Korea has launched rockets out of the atmosphere.
    Not surprising from someone who doesn't believe in GPS or aeroplanes. You know, things that require a spherical earth to do what they do every day.
    Someone who bases his beliefs on "If the earth was round, Australia would be upside down and its oceans would fall to its sky"

  54. Re:Space is fake. Earth is flat. Eclipses prove it by meerling · · Score: 1

    1 - The sunlight DOES pass through more atmosphere in the summer. Take some geometry classes.

    2 - If your hard drive is vibrating that badly, something is out of balance. The rest of your assumptions and innuendo in that section are not relevant.

    3 - Your playing with gyroscopes isn't the same as a planet in orbit, or pretty much anything in orbit, but I'm not going to take the time to educate you on this especially since you put it in a section that supposed to be on eclipses.

    4 - You've never been to a Solar Observatory either I see. No, the Corona never moves faster than the speed of light, any movement of portions of the suns Corona is SIGNIFICANTLY BELOW the speed of light. How the heck do you think we can identify when a Coronal discharge will hit earth by observation? We don't some kind of sci-fi superluminal telescopes!
    And no, the sun and the moon are in no way the same size. Parallax measurements have verified that without any doubt by anyone who knows at least high school level math/geometry/physics.
    There are NO observatories on the dark side of the moon (it's not dark because there's no light, it's "dark" because it can't be seen from Earth), though we have had probes and manned missions orbit the moon and send back the pictures of it. Now if you mean we can see protuberances of the solar corona beyond the edges of the moon during a full solar eclipse, well that is correct! That's because the moon isn't completely smooth, the disk of the sun is far enough away that it can be completely blocked by the moon, but it's atmosphere, the corona, is large enough to peek out from behind it like a guy with a beer belly turning sideways to hide behind a tree that's not wide enough. As to it not being smooth either, well duh! The sun was once thought to be a perfect structure of divine essence, then we developed methods to see past it's bright glare and learn the truth. It's a seething turbulent mass. So of course the corona isn't some nice smooth thing. Heck, it's magnetic field has enough loops and twists it could be the manifestation of a knitters nightmare! And with the corona being plasma, it's able to be manipulated by those magnetic fields. Anyway, this is more time trying to educate a willfully ignorant fool that I should be spending. NEXT!

    5 - Wow, more eclipses huh? Neither the Earth nor Luna are perfect spheres, not even close, or hadn't you noticed the mountains and other such discrepancies?
    Color changes are due to the passing of the light through the EARTHS atmosphere as well as the particles in it. At different angles you get different frequencies due to the scattering. Sorry the cameras used by the filmer suck worse than human eyes which are easily fooled by changing light levels.
    Sorry you don't understand how when circling another object an object has to rotate to maintain facing that same object, so yeah, the moon has rotation, stop being so ignorant. In fact, the rotation doesn't keep it exactly facing the earth because the orbit isn't perfectly circular, though it is still orbit locked. (Look up orbit locked if you still don't get that the moon is rotating, or go to an FPS forum and ask about circle strafing which is the same basic idea.) Because of this slight mismatch we can actually see about 59% of the total surface of the moon with the naked eye over the period of an orbit. That time is almost a month, or a bit more accurately, is a lunar month. If you want more accuracy than that, grab an encyclopedia, you need to read a set badly.
    Craters do tend to be round, just look at the ones on the Earth made by meteorites, and even the artificial ones we made by slamming high speed objects into the ground, accidentally and intentionally. The only time they aren't "round" is when they are more oval and stretched out in one axis. Those are caused by things hitting at a more horizontal angle, and yes, they exist on the moon too, but do to the way orbital mechanics, gravity, and the resultant impacts end up working out, they rarely strike at that kind of angle.

  55. So... by FatdogHaiku · · Score: 1

    I've seen a hypothesis that our universe is a 3d hologram essentially projected from a 2d source on a brane, (Yes, I spelled "brane" correctly, go look it up.) Of course, we have no idea if that's true or not, or if branes actually exist either. But even if the source of the universe is 2d, that doesn't mean the earth is "flat" in our perception of the universe.

    The rain in Spain
    falls mainly on the brane?

    --
    You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
  56. Re:Fundraising link? by gwolf · · Score: 1

    If he really was a scientist the first thing he'd do is ask a friend to hop in a sailboat and watch for a few hours, when the sailboat vanished over the horizon, exactly as predicted, he'd go "huh, so I guess the earth is round after all".

    The answer I've seen to this is quite clever (FSVO clever) - Light rays are heavy, so they "fall down" over distance, giving us the "illusion" of a round Earth.

    Funny, the illusion gives a precisely equal circumference than all other indirect measurements...

  57. Really want to mod this one "Insane" by jsrjsr · · Score: 2

    An obvious mod choice is missing!

  58. Who did he vote for? by Subm · · Score: 4, Funny

    Do we know who he voted for?

    Any guesses?

  59. Same as all the rest by MikeMo · · Score: 1

    This guy is the same as the anti-vaxers, the moon-landing-hoaxers, the homeopathic medicine users, the phones-cause-cancer believers, and the “911 was an inside job” crew. All the same.

    No matter what you believe today, you’ll find a healthy group of people on the internet with the same beliefs, and lots of data to back them up.

    And they vote.

    1. Re:Same as all the rest by Jason+Levine · · Score: 1

      Since homeopathy supposedly works by "the lower the dose, the stronger the medicine", then by taking zero dosage*, you're basically taking infinitely strong homeopathic medicine. It's amazing you haven't had a homeopathic OD by now!

      * Yes, I realize that there's' no real dosage of anything actual drug in homeopathic "medicine."

      --
      My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
  60. Re:He'd be more successful banning bump stocks by plopez · · Score: 1

    On certain issues I would be considered "right wing" on others sane and sensible :) Though while I used to say I would vote for the best candidate the Republicans have become so bizarre that I will probably never vote republican again.

    Take this as a lesson:
    On matters of drug legalization the libertarian part of the Republican party is actually in agreement the liberal wing of the democratic party on the issue of drug legalization.

    So it is not all black or white.

    --
    putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
  61. Re: Thanks, America by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Look, I like Canada and all, but just because they ate Kraft Dinner on the way to the moon doesn't make it count.

  62. Re:If the Earth is flat, how can there be a center by plopez · · Score: 2

    Yeah, slashdot has really gone downhill since the good old days.

    --
    putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
  63. Re: Trump has a new director of NASA? by plopez · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Nancy was the true evil one. Reagan was a weak person surrounded by evil people. Remember Cheney was part of his administration at one point.

    To Reagan's credit he did volunteer for WWII. But that was before he met Nancy and switched sides.

    John Wayne was perfectly healthy but didn't volunteer. Instead of being a Marine he played one in the movies. He was a yellow bellied coward.

    --
    putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
  64. Re:Space is fake. Earth is flat. Eclipses prove it by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

    1 - The sunlight DOES pass through more atmosphere in the summer. Take some geometry classes.
    If you live on the northern hemisphere and talk about what northerners call summer, then no.
    I suggest you take your own advice and take a geometry class.

    --
    Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
  65. Howto: disprove flat earth theory at home <$100 by GameboyRMH · · Score: 1

    Not literally at home, you'll have to go outside, but with very basic tools.

    What you need:

    1. A place with a very long expanse of "flat" (spoilers: follows the curvature of the earth) ground and a tall structure (a runway with control tower or flat expanse of desert with a nearby tall cliff or plateau could work)
    2. A large equilateral triangle frame with a plumb weight hanging from one corner. This is your highly sensitive angle measuring tool. Mark the level position on the face opposite from where the weight is hanging. Enclose it in clear plastic to keep wind away from the plumb line for bonus points.
    3. Optional but recommended: Binoculars/spyglass/telescope, pressure altimeter.

    Start near the base of the tall structure. Note any easily visible features near the base. Walk away from it in the direction that will give you the longest distance on flat ground. Check that the ground is level (and optionally check altitude) as frequently as you like. As you get very far away from the tall structure, note that features near the base are no longer visible. If the ground is measured as being flat (altitude can help confirm) yet the base of the tall structure is obscured by the ground at long distances, this proves that the earth is not flat.

    --
    "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
  66. Wow by DaMattster · · Score: 1

    I can't believe morons like this are still around. It's been proven a very long time ago that the Earth is NOT flat. Also there is no sea monster out to swallow ships whole.

    1. Re:Wow by Baron_Yam · · Score: 1

      My understanding of the basic experiment is this:

      1) Get binoculars.

      2) Get a lift to a place where boats are likely to approach from a great distance (I live near Lake Ontario, so this is easy for me).

      3) Use binoculars to note that you see the tops of distant boats first, not the whole thing only smaller.

      4) Use your brain to recognize this is in perfect accordance with a curved Earth.

      Alternatively, with a bit more brain effort, you get a couple of balls, a couple of cardboard disks and a flashlight, and go into a dark room to compare what happens when you cast shadows from one object onto another, then compare that to the phases of the Moon.

      If none of that is sufficiently compelling, there's always the 'plastic bag over the head, duct taped around the neck' experiment. It won't tell you the Earth is round, but it WILL be an interesting experiment in eugenics.

  67. Lowering the SNR by Tenebrousedge · · Score: 1

    Dude, you are an intellectual flyweight who occasionally happens to be on the factual side of arguments. Mostly you just blather about things which you don't understand.

    Case in point: when you find a hill on water, let us know.

    --
    Those who advocate genocide deserve every protection afforded by law, and none afforded by common human decency.
    1. Re:Lowering the SNR by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      There are actually quite often 'hills' on the water. Some people call them waves. A tsunami far out before it reaches the land is a very big hill, albeit only 1 or 2 feet high.

      I just fight the unlogical reasoning of the parent posters.

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
  68. Re:I once saw a proof it was flat by dgatwood · · Score: 1

    Of course, we have no idea if that's true or not, or if branes actually exist either. But even if the source of the universe is 2d, that doesn't mean the earth is "flat" in our perception of the universe.

    More to the point, even if the earth is a flat projection, anybody who still believes it isn't spherical in the context of our dimension probably qualifies as a p-brane. :-)

    Sorry, science pun. Carry on.

    --

    Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.

  69. Feeding the trolls by sjbe · · Score: 1

    Plenty of news sites/publications have an "on the lighter side" section.

    So what? This still isn't news even of the lighter variety. This is either an idiot or a troll. Either way he should be ignored.

    In this case, many find it amusing to see the lengths a flat earther will take their beliefs and for those of us with any science education it's seeing the 101 glaring problems with his plan. It's an amusing distraction.

    Maybe if you have a truly perverse sense of humor. I don't see anything funny about this. We're already dealing with a presidency that is more anti-science than any in my lifetime. We don't need to be giving the lunatics the microphone. I'm not outraged but his 15 minutes of fame should be in the rear view mirror except jackasses keep giving him the attention he desires.

    If you don't get it that's fine, feel free to be outraged.

    There is nothing to get. He's a moron and an attention whore. It sounds like you are part of the problem.

    1. Re:Feeding the trolls by skam240 · · Score: 1

      Do you get outraged every time some one else finds something funny that you dont or did I just catch you on a bad day?

      --
      I ignore Anonymous Coward posts. If you want to discuss something, that's awesome. Log in.
  70. Re:Fundraising link? by quantaman · · Score: 1

    He has a hypothesis and wants to test it. That's more "science" than anything the hockey team has been up to for the last 20 or 30 years

    Since you REALLY want to take some shots at AGW research do you actually have a proposal for a better way they could test their hypothesis?

    - and we give them billions of dollars taken at gunpoint from the unwilling.

    Don't worry, we were already able to deduct your political affiliations.

    What's a couple of bucks here and there given by volunteers? And if you aren't going to pitch in anyway, what do you care if his approach is sub-optimal?

    Well if you want to give your money to something that is at best, worthless, and more likely a scam then go ahead.

    But it's not that it's sub-optimal, it's that he's not interested in testing his flat-earth hypothesis at all. You could stick him on the ISS and he'd come up with some excuse about the windows distorting the light.

    --
    I stole this Sig
  71. This is not about flat earth by aepervius · · Score: 1

    Or even getting a rocket. That man if not mentally ill, is simply trying to fleece other people out of $1.8 million. And that's the extent of the story.

    --
    C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
    http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
    visit randi.org
  72. Re:Fundraising link? by quantaman · · Score: 1

    You go uphill and then vanish behind the hill ... is the earth now "flat" or a sphere?
    You ride a boat and vanish ... are you behind a hill on the water or is that indication for a sphere?

    So that means the earth is either round or there's hills of water. Ok, lets see if we can detect a hill of water. Take measurements from a few different locations on the shore, take measurements between two boats, etc, etc. Eventually you'll discover that there's a hill, precisely matching the supposed curvature of the earth, that always happens to be in exactly between your two observation points.

    The only reason you wouldn't do that followup experiment is because you don't want to know the answer.

    Sorry, calling other people dumb only makes yourself look dumb.

    Actually I said I don't believe this guy is such an idiot, a fact you seemed to miss, along with the fairly obvious followup experiment to your "hill on the water" excuse.

    I think someone once said something about people who call other people dumb...

    he's just a religious believer playing science
    With the same likelyhood I could say he is an atheist.

    Why is every idiot on the planet convinced that all the other idiots are religios nutcracks instead of 'normal' nutcracks?

    It's a metaphor. I was saying his flat earth belief was better classified as a religious belief than a scientific one.

    --
    I stole this Sig
  73. It would be cheaper.. by toonces33 · · Score: 1

    It would be cheaper to just launch a GoPro to that same altitude, and then release it with a small parachute. But the guy seems to have a death wish.

  74. Not An Expert by cstacy · · Score: 1
    "I'm no expert at anything, but I know that's a fact."

    Doesn't that just sum up the world in general?

  75. He's no expert by Araxen · · Score: 1

    but he's 100% positive the Earth is flat. /boggle

  76. Re:Fundraising link? by quantaman · · Score: 1

    If he really was a scientist the first thing he'd do is ask a friend to hop in a sailboat and watch for a few hours, when the sailboat vanished over the horizon, exactly as predicted, he'd go "huh, so I guess the earth is round after all".

    The answer I've seen to this is quite clever (FSVO clever) - Light rays are heavy, so they "fall down" over distance, giving us the "illusion" of a round Earth.

    Funny, the illusion gives a precisely equal circumference than all other indirect measurements...

    Hmm, that is a clever one. And technically kinda correct according to Einstein. Of course their physics break down pretty quickly and you'd probably see a visible distortion in mountains from the effect but that's not something you could easily communicate.

    I'm not sure how to disprove that one. Maybe if you have a laser pointer set it up on land and point at the sail, showing that the laser point gets cut off part way, demonstrating that the curvature cuts off the beam, rather than the beam falling ever shorter. But even if you could get one powerful enough it would be a massive pain to calibrate. A transmitter and radio receiver might also do the trick, I've never looked into it but I suspect that's why ships have radio towers (to get around the curvature).

    --
    I stole this Sig
  77. This guy should be Person of the Year by presidenteloco · · Score: 1

    "Mad" Mike Hughes is truly the Einstein of the Trump era! (oops, I meant error!).

    --

    Where are we going and why are we in a handbasket?
  78. Hydrogen filled, I hope by sandbagger · · Score: 1

    Let's help the guy out.

    --
    ---- The above post was generated by the Turing Institute. Maybe.
  79. Re:You only need a stick, clock, sun and math by bugs2squash · · Score: 1

    These people don;t believe anything they can verify silly.

    --
    Nullius in verba
  80. Re:He'd be more successful banning bump stocks by c · · Score: 2

    Beware... commenting on a low digit ID is near guaranteed to summon the Elder Gods of slashdot. There's still a few three's that troll this realm.

    --
    Log in or piss off.
  81. Re: Trump has a new director of NASA? by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 1

    Even Jimmy Carter does not hold a candle to Trump in that area.

    Trump is going to crash the US dollar and stock market and drive the prime interest rate to 18%?

    I was living in Japan when this happened, and it wasn't pretty. All of the Americans working there had to leave because their money was no longer worth anything. They were replaced by Germans and Brits, which had wondrous effects on our balance of payments. It took until the middle of Reagan's second term to clean up the mess Carter left behind.

  82. Re:This guy is a [... fill in the blank condemnati by Dutch+Gun · · Score: 1

    It lets people of even average intelligence or scientific knowledge feel smugly superior.

    --
    Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
  83. Re: Thanks, America by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

    Canada manufactured the Luna 9? That's a new one...

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  84. Re: Thanks, America by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

    Where's this "professional driver" that built an orbital launcher? I'm really interested in that.

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  85. Balloon? by F34nor · · Score: 1

    How about we give him cash to buy a GoPro (if we bought it for him ot would be a plot) and a weather balloon and a string and a lead weight and he can do what fucking middle schoolers ddo and send it into space. Oh wait he's just a guy trying to get money out of people who are dumb.

    1. Re:Balloon? by iggymanz · · Score: 1

      Have you seen the pictures taken? he'd just say "yup that's the disc of the flat earth"

    2. Re:Balloon? by F34nor · · Score: 1

      Time.

  86. The best response to this I've heard is... by WalrusSlayer · · Score: 5, Funny

    ..."that's easy! Show me where the edge of the Earth is! That'd be the coolest place ever! Heck, I'll build a house right at the edge of the world!"

    Personally, my favorite corollary is that the presence of cats is disproof of a flat Earth. If the Earth were flat, there would be an edge somewhere. Which is where all the cats would be, knocking things off the edge, rather than piddling around with us mere humans.

  87. Troll Science:How to go to the other side of Earth by n329619 · · Score: 1

    Feeling sad that interviewer asked "Wouldn't it be cheaper and less deadly to just try to drill through the Earth to the other side to prove your point?" and can't do it?

    Feel sad no more, with this shortcut to the other side of earth!

    First get/steal a pair of nice shoes. (use magnet for maximum efficiency)

    Next, run as fast as you can to the top Mount St. Helens and jump off into the volcano.

    Volcano has a big hole at the top so you won't need any digging. You'll reach the other side of earth in no time as you'll fall straight to the other side. Russia goes bankrupt, drill companies go bankrupt, school goes bankrupt. U Mad, interviewer fag?

  88. Re:HAHA by ls671 · · Score: 1

    What a stupid retard this guy is, my self of steam is so high knowing I'm smarter than at least some one

    Yes. I know the Earth isn't flat. I had to walk up a hill the other day.

    Did it make your self of steam better?

    --
    Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
  89. Re: Thanks, America by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

    So Russia was first in space (Sputnik 1) and the first on the moon (Luna 9).

    Still, something made in Québec, Canada touched the moon before Neil Armstrong so I guess that still counts for something.

    --
    #DeleteFacebook
  90. Re:Trump has a new director of NASA? by Aighearach · · Score: 1

    Yes! Our very own Baghdad Bob!

    If you look at how little money the flat earthers had to invest in advertising on his rocket to get him to totally adopt all their talking points, it is just a slam dunk, he'd take the job, and he'd knock it out of the park.

  91. Evidence-based? by Roger+W+Moore · · Score: 1

    I thought you were no longer allowed to use that term. How about "fact-based according to a someone who admits he doesn't know what he is talking about"?

    1. Re:Evidence-based? by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

      I thought you were no longer allowed to use that term [slashdot.org]. How about "fact-based according to a someone who admits he doesn't know what he is talking about"?

      Why are you discriminating against people who don't know what they're talking about? In 2017 America, someone who doesn't know what he's talking about is given control of our nuclear weapons.

      Get with the times, man.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    2. Re:Evidence-based? by Roger+W+Moore · · Score: 1

      Why are you discriminating against people who don't know what they're talking about?

      I wasn't, I was just stating the facts.....ah sorry now I see where I went wrong!

  92. Re:Trump has a new director of NASA? by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

    Yes! Our very own Baghdad Bob!

    I've been hearning a lot of references to good old Bob lately.

    --
    The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
  93. Re:Thanks, America by ceoyoyo · · Score: 1

    Some part of the former Soviet Union I guess. In 1959.

    It's cool we Canadians made the legs that the first manned lander used, ten years later.

  94. Re:Thanks, America by iggymanz · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Ukranians designed and made the stuff, Russia gets the credit for theorists

  95. Re:Fundraising link? by OneAhead · · Score: 1

    Except that to create the illusion of a round earth, light rays would need to curve upward over distance.

  96. Nope, this guy is going for Whitehouse communicati by new500 · · Score: 1

    " I'm no expert at anything, but I know that's a fact."

      - and they are learning the way to win votes, in twitter length winning bigly insight after another...

    This needed editing, tho': "All the stuff that you learned in school -- []-- it's all lies"

  97. Re: I once saw a proof it was flat by michelcolman · · Score: 2

    Actually, yes you can. You can't project a sphere from a cartesian 3D space onto a cartesian 2D plane, but the surface of a sphere is, in fact, a 2D space.

    There are people (serious scientists) who believe that the entire universe might be 2D, with a special geometry and rules of physics that make it appear 3D to us. They base this on the assumption that entropy in a black hole must be conserved, and a black hole can only hold an amount of entropy proportional to its surface area, but personally I think it's a bit far-fetched. I think it's far more logical to just accept that black holes can decrease entropy.

  98. Re:Here is a better idea... by NicknameUnavailable · · Score: 1

    Just go to the edge and jump off.

    Don't be ridiculous, according to the flatearthers we're surrounded by a giant ice wall and the grey "aliens" have us pinned off inside because they don't want us escaping, anyone who goes near the edge gets probed to death.

  99. Re: Trump has a new director of NASA? by Maritz · · Score: 1

    Reagan had a functioning brain and a degree of class. Trump on the other hand... has neither of those.

    --
    I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
  100. Re: Trump has a new director of NASA? by Maritz · · Score: 1

    Lower your intake of fake news. Trump wants to resume sending astronauts to the moon.

    Even from the NYT: https://mobile.nytimes.com/201...

    Money launches rockets, not words.

    Trump offered words. The exact words of the national space council. Additional money to make this happen: nope.

    Another "fake news" dickhead corrected. Also, Trump is a fucking clown.

    --
    I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
  101. Re: Trump has a new director of NASA? by Maritz · · Score: 1

    Yeah. He's going to make Euclid pay for it.

    --
    I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
  102. Re:Trump has a new director of NASA? by Maritz · · Score: 1

    lol. Why not claim the fall of the USSR while you're at it.

    Oh wait, that one might not go over so well.

    --
    I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
  103. Idiocracy by bmimatt · · Score: 1

    It's either alreasdy here or quickly marching towards our territory.

  104. Re:Howto: disprove flat earth theory at home $100 by GameboyRMH · · Score: 1

    Actually I'd thought of that but it would make the experiment more difficult. My experiment was inspired by the effect of tall ships disappearing bottom-first over the horizon, but on a moving water surface with waves, there could be ways for flat-earthers to weasel out of this problem: They could argue that it's too difficult to measure angles on the ocean, or that wave peaks are what obscures the bottoms of boats at long distances. Doing the experiment on land eliminates these problems and keeps it cheap and simple (no need for a boat for one). These people like evidence that is directly and easily observable.

    --
    "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
  105. +5, Insightful??? by archer,+the · · Score: 1

    I still can't believe the parent post is +5 insightful. It's BS. The whole point of science is to use evidence to figure out the laws of physics. When the sitting president bans scientists from using the term "evidence-based", it should be clear the president DOESN'T GIVE A SHIT about science. Why would anyone expect real scientists to support him? (Real scientists: people interested in founding out how things actually work, as compared to snake oil salespeople claiming their mystical bracelet will cure all your ailments.)
     
    If you want to throw out science that has been proven for centuries, you might as well go to a doctor who thinks leeches can fix broken bones.

    1. Re:+5, Insightful??? by swillden · · Score: 1

      I still can't believe the parent post is +5 insightful. It's BS.

      Actually, it's sarcasm. PopeRatzo figured people knew him well enough to know that, or would get it from the use of "evidence-based" in the subject.

      --
      Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
    2. Re:+5, Insightful??? by archer,+the · · Score: 1

      Oh. *facepalm*

      Thanks, swillden.

      My apologies, your eminence.

  106. Re:He'd be more successful banning bump stocks by Bombcar · · Score: 1

    I'm a low five, but that's not saying much.

  107. Re:If the Earth is flat, how can there be a center by Killall+-9+Bash · · Score: 1

    I miss GNAA.

    --
    "Prediction: within 10 years, Windows will be a Linux distribution." Me, 7-6-2016
  108. Re:HAHA by OffaMyLawn · · Score: 1

    And here I was willing to ignore this guy completely, but now that you put it this way I kind of want to watch.

  109. How do I send him money? by Timothy2.0 · · Score: 1

    Anyone have a link for his kickstarter, or whatever? I'm generally not one to promote suicide, but this guy seems adamant on using his homemade rocket to kill himself in a most spectacular fashion. I mean, if this is what he really wants as his dying act, who am I to deny him? Hell, maybe we can help him along with his goal?

  110. Re:Howto: disprove flat earth theory at home $100 by Tenebrousedge · · Score: 1

    One famous experiment used a narrow canal.

    --
    Those who advocate genocide deserve every protection afforded by law, and none afforded by common human decency.
  111. Future Politician, good at fund raising by gral · · Score: 1

    If you look into this guys story further, you find that for several months he was looking for financial backing for his rocket hobby. He tried NASA, and various other groups to help with funding. After exhasuting EVERYTHING he could think of, he started talking to the Flat Earth movement. He was able to convince the group that he was a heavy believer through a 90 minute talk with one of their interviewers. They gave him the funding for his hobby, and he has been pushing their ideals every chance he gets.

    --
    Scott Carr
  112. Re:HAHA by TechyImmigrant · · Score: 1

    What a stupid retard this guy is, my self of steam is so high knowing I'm smarter than at least some one

    Yes. I know the Earth isn't flat. I had to walk up a hill the other day.

    Did it make your self of steam better?

    That's the steampunk version of me. Ignore him and his bolted on gears.

    --
    I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
  113. Oh, come on! by kammermusik · · Score: 1

    It's obvious that this guy is acting as a comedian. Why not do the right thing and laugh about his jokes? That statement with the water running off is super-funny, IMO. I can imagine the tone of his voice he conveyed it with.

  114. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 1

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  115. Re:Maybe it's enough? by dddux · · Score: 1

    Poor people will not laugh, because this flat-headed fuckwit is throwing away money for nothing, whilst he could do something useful for once and just give it to charity.

    --
    "It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." - Jiddu Krishnamurti
  116. Re:He'd be more successful banning bump stocks by thewolfkin · · Score: 1

    I hear ya. I fully recognize that the democratic party doesn't serve well the needs of the minority community. And I would love to participate in voting for a party that would serve my needs but in reality that choice isn't on the table. It's the party that will ignore me vs the party that will kill me. But soon as the party that's officially become too crazy to have any value left. Is gone I'm totally on board with making like the Green Party something of substance and not just conspiracy theories

    --
    Just another second banana
  117. Re:He'd be more successful banning bump stocks by thewolfkin · · Score: 1

    I'm a low five, but that's not saying much.

    I should have been a high five but I was "born" in LeWrongGeneration or however that meme goes.

    --
    Just another second banana