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Flat Earther Plans New Rocket Launch, Predicts Super Bowl-Sized Ratings (phillyvoice.com)

Self-taught rocket scientist/daredevil "Mad" Mike Hughes will finally launch his homemade rocket in two weeks -- despite "anonymous online haters questioning his every move." An anonymous reader quotes PhillyVoice: He's found some private land in the "ghost town" of Amboy, California -- complete with a brand-spanking-new road that'll enable him to get his motor home and rocket gear to the site... "It'll be a vertical launch, me strapped into the rocket with 6,000 pounds of thrust, going up about three-eighths of a mile," he said, noting it's a prologue to a major launch this Fourth of July weekend. "It's the ultimate Wile E. Coyote move."

As with the scrubbed mission, this is in part an event which he hopes will get people to investigate the ideology which holds the earth is flat -- despite quite a bit of evidence to the contrary. He said it would've happened back in November if international publicity hadn't prompted government bureaucrats to "cover their asses" by pointing out that his launch site crept 150 feet into federal land. "I could've been arrested so at that point, I just went home and got back to work," he said... "But guess what? It's about to happen again... I should get more viewers than the Super Bowl," said Hughes, adding the launch will be aired on Noize TV [a video-on-demand service].

Noize TV has already posted video of a new interview with Hughes, touting his upcoming launch at 3 p.m. on Saturday, February 3, the day before the Super Bowl (which Hughes calls "nothing but bullshit.")

Hughes says he's also filing to run for Governor of California.

26 of 219 comments (clear)

  1. Really? by Betty+Crocker · · Score: 4, Funny

    Is this what Slashdot has come to?

    This is like something that Q would teleport Picard off the bridge to watch just to WASTE HIS TIME.

    1. Re:Really? by Patent+Lover · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Seriously, can we stop covering this asshole?

    2. Re:Really? by PopeRatzo · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Seriously, can we stop covering this asshole?

      Bite your tongue. I would definitely buy a pay-per-view to watch his launch. I might even donate to his Patreon if he promises to do it.

      What could be more quintessentially American than a guy strapping himself to a homemade rocket and launching himself off his motorhome in Amboy, California. God speed, you glorious bastard.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    3. Re: Really? by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 2

      'To summarize the summary of the summary: people are a problem.' — Douglas Adams

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      #DeleteFacebook
    4. Re: Really? by c6gunner · · Score: 2

      He is doing science because he thinks the government lies to us all.

      Ah, yes. "Doing science". The way that Albert Fish was "practising medicine and the culinary arts" when he dissected and ate his victims.

      Believing what experts tell you is the opposite of science.

      No, it's a big part of science. Nobody can possibly verify every single thing which they've been taught. At some point you have to accept that the millions of other scientists are probably right about the stuff which is generally accepted.

      Attempting to falsify the work of others is certainly a huge part of science, but we distribute that load; you, as an individual, will never be able to examine the many millions of papers written over the years, but they will all be looked at by many others. You either believe that those others are doing a decent job, or you don't. If you don't ... you're not going to be doing much real science; you'll spend your whole career rehashing stuff we learned back in the 1800s.

  2. He might just get his crowd. by sehlat · · Score: 5, Funny

    Of course, it will be like the stunt rider who was told that the crowd wasn't there to watch him jump thirteen buses. They were there to watch him jump twelve-and-a-half.

  3. Honestly by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Nowadays when we’re at the point that even a casual investigation by a grade school student can locate definitive evidence that the earth is round... it takes a special breed of delusional imbecile to hold onto the belief that the earth is flat.

    Here’s to you, Mike Hughes!

    --
    #DeleteChrome
    1. Re:Honestly by gweihir · · Score: 2

      Well, look at some of the extreme stupidity found in human beings, and this is just a bit more spectacular than most.

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      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    2. Re:Honestly by PPH · · Score: 5, Funny

      Well duh. Round earth has been demonstrated by incontrovertible photographic evidence.

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      Have gnu, will travel.
  4. "Crater", not "ratings" by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 3, Funny

    Flat Earther Plans New Rocket Launch, Predicts Super Bowl-Sized Crater

    FTFY.

    --
    systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
  5. Flat earther by iTrawl · · Score: 4, Funny

    Who are you calling flat? He's not flat... yet!

    --
    "Everybody's naked underneath" -- The Doctor
  6. Haven't we already done this? by Mozai · · Score: 2

    Wasn't there already a non-government extra-terrestrial live video event where we could see the curvature of the Earth from above? Or is this one of those things where anybody who produces evidence we don't like is clearly in-on-it and part of the big-as-we-need-it-to-be conspiracy?

  7. Get a Balloon, or a plane ticket by vix86 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    He says he'll go up 3/8ths of a mile, that's just under 2,000ft. A commercial airline flight goes higher than that, as well as some cheap high altitude balloons. Of course the point of this isn't to prove anything except that this is a publicity stunt.

    1. Re:Get a Balloon, or a plane ticket by jittles · · Score: 2

      He says he'll go up 3/8ths of a mile, that's just under 2,000ft. A commercial airline flight goes higher than that, as well as some cheap high altitude balloons. Of course the point of this isn't to prove anything except that this is a publicity stunt.

      I believe he got quite a bit of money in donations, in addition to the publicity stunt. Win-win?

  8. First 2018 Live Darwin Awards! by Andrew+Lindh · · Score: 4, Funny

    This needs to be live viewing feed (for about 5 minutes) because it will only happen once and you want to make sure it's not censored by the crazy round planet people. He needs to get a circus monkey to push the launch button just to compliment the entertainment value. We'll get to see the first human firework that celebrates his own Darwin Award. Even if he survives, he won't see much at 2000 feet that you can't see from a skyscraper (Burj Khalifa is more than 1/2 a mile tall).

    1. Re:First 2018 Live Darwin Awards! by careysub · · Score: 2

      There are mountains taller than that less than 15 miles away due south of Amboy, in direct line of sight. From there you can look down on this guy as he reaches the peak of his ascent.

      --
      Starships were meant to fly, Hands up and touch the sky - Nicky Minaj
  9. Re:o.O Really? by sound+vision · · Score: 2

    Evangelicals are people with no morals who pretend to have morals. The people who use that term are typically a different breed: People who have no morals and don't pretend to.

  10. I get some conspiracy theories, but... by Pollux · · Score: 2

    Flat earthers are a different breed altogether. With your typical conspiracy (9-11 inside job, fake the moon landing, vaccines cause autism, etc.), all it takes is a combination of a good story, not understood or misunderstood science, and a belief that you know something special that most people don't. It also becomes more popular as time gets further and further away from the initial event. But a key element is the inability for everyone or the average person to recreate the original variables surrounding the conspiracy. (We cannot recreate 9-11, we cannot recreate a moon landing limiting our technology and knowledge to what we had in 1968, etc.

    But with flat earthers? There are literally hundreds of ways today the average human can observe that the Earth is round. There's no depth of science to it. One can ask themselves the question, "Why can't I see the Rocky Mountains from my house?" Or, one can go find a straight road (perhaps on the salt flats or on ND Hwy 46), get a pair of binoculars or a good telescoping lens on a tripod, watch a car drive by, and watch it disappear over the horizon, then ask the question, "Would the car disappear if the Earth was flat?" Or just go onto YouTube and watch all the videos made floating weather balloons up to the stratosphere, where the camera can capture the curvature of the Earth. Or talk to an airplane pilot. Or control tower personnel whose equations they use to calculate distances, vectors, and flight plans would fail miserably if they were to use Euclidian Geometry instead of Spherical Geometry. Or duplicate Eratosthenes' experiment. (Yes, that one's far more complicated than watching video's on YouTube, but if it worked for some dead white Greek dude over two thousand years ago, who didn't have the internet or Google, then it can work for anyone today as well.)

    Most conspiracy theories choose to ignore expert opinions because they're incapable of understanding the science themselves. Flat-earthers are fully capable of understanding the science; they just refuse to understand.

  11. Re:90% of flat-hearters are trolls by PopeRatzo · · Score: 2

    90% of flat-hearters are trolls.

    And 2% of them are dyslexic.

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    You are welcome on my lawn.
  12. The Earth is Flat... by neoRUR · · Score: 2

    When I lay the world map down on the table it's flat, how can you argue with that?

  13. Re:90% of flat-hearters are trolls by Archfeld · · Score: 2

    Just ask Mattel or FisherPrice how much money that market is responsible for. Hint Barbie is NOT poor...

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    errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
  14. Making money in the social media world by CptJeanLuc · · Score: 2
    1. Pretend you believe in something outrageous
    2. Wait for simpletons on social media to believe you and spread the story
    3. Spice it up by throwing in something grand like launching a rocket
    4. Wait for sensationalist media to pick up the "story" and make it go viral
    5. Watch the audience grow
    6. Profit
  15. I'm reminded of those beer commercials by Pezbian · · Score: 2

    Looks like "Real Men of Genius" might have a comeback.

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    In a world of the blind, the one-eyed man is king--and the two-eyed man is a heretic.
  16. Re:90% of flat-hearters are trolls by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 2

    What separates that group from the Trump core?

    The covfefe, of course.

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    #DeleteFacebook
  17. Hit that nail on the head by TiggertheMad · · Score: 2

    Parent post shouldn't have been voted down, it is probably pretty accurate. I think that most flat-earthers are either doing it for attention or money. I suppose a few might have genuine mental health problems. But it is pretty hard to swallow that someone who is sane would actually think that the Earth is flat. in the face of modern technology and the evidence it presents.

    Of course this guy is a troll. He has the technical acumen to construct a primitive rocket, but yet it has not occurred to him to just put a camera on a small model rocket to 'prove' his theory rather than risk his life on an expensive and complicated stunt? Weather balloons are super cheap compared to rocketry, and those can go to the edges of space. He has a number of options to test his theories with little effort.

    He isn't trying to prove anything, he just wants attention.

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    HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!
  18. Re:Notice the weak winter Sun is strengthening? by Kellamity · · Score: 2

    Because Australia isn't real and we are all actors perpetuating the myth. Hi from 'Melbourne'.