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Flat Earther Fails To Launch His Homemade Rocket -- Yet Again (facebook.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the big-fizzles dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Flat earther "Mad" Mike Hughes, who also bills himself as "the last great daredevil," promised Super Bowl-sized ratings for an event Saturday where he'd blast himself nearly half a mile into the sky on a homemade rocket. "We had 20 cameras on site today, ready for a full segment," explained the video-on-demand site Noize TV on their Facebook page. One newspaper described it as also being "an event which he hopes will get people to investigate the ideology which holds the earth is flat." But judging from online reactions, the event was just another disappointment.

Noize TV's Facebook post titled "The Launch!!! Finally" shows a picture of Mike standing beside his rocket -- but it's followed by a commenters saying things like "There was no launch. I doubt there will be," and the official Noize TV account saying "We thought he would press that button... He did not. And won't be doing so we are pretty certain." And this morning Noize TV posted that "we will no longer cover non launches, only launches... It turns out non launches are not as funny as we anticipated."

One woman even posted that "I was there for awhile...police were there. Ambulance was there. 100 people that weren't supposed to be there was there..." And while there's rumors Mike might still try again another day, her ultimate verdict about the limo-driver-turned-daredevil was cynical. "He's all about getting seen rather than getting launched... My husband gave him $100 cash the last time he was going to launch...live and learn."

33 of 162 comments (clear)

  1. Too bad by XXongo · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Too bad. I love that guy. America needs more full-on nuts who do crazy things with rockets and other such toys-- and I mean that sincerely.

    1. Re:Too bad by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      if they are really that stupid that they believe the earth is flat, it's no wonder they fail to launch a rocket...

    2. Re:Too bad by slazzy · · Score: 2

      That's true. America has done some great things, and most of them started in someone's garage or basement. While the flat earth thing is beyond dumb, it's probably just his marketing stunt to get in the news and get sponsors or something.

      --
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    3. Re:Too bad by Immerman · · Score: 2

      Yeah, it's one thing to scam a bunch of flat-earther nut-jobs into funding your lunatic daredevil stunts... but what's the point if, after all that hard work, you're not going to actually follow through?

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      --- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
    4. Re:Too bad by Tablizer · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Too bad. I love that guy. America needs more full-on nuts who do crazy things with rockets and other such toys

      Having leaders of nations like that is NOT enough for you?

      --
      Table-ized A.I.
    5. Re:Too bad by geekmux · · Score: 2

      Too bad. I love that guy. America needs more full-on nuts who do crazy things with rockets and other such toys-- and I mean that sincerely.

      When it comes to certain technologies, we need those "full-on nuts" to know what the fuck they're doing. And I mean that sincerely. It's never a good thing when a Darwin Award winner ends up taking innocent lives with them.

    6. Re:Too bad by Immerman · · Score: 2

      Problem is, they're a lot less likely to kill themselves, and a lot more likely to kill a lot of other people. Crazy hobbies become a lot less admirable when you start gambling with other people's lives.

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      --- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
    7. Re:Too bad by drinkypoo · · Score: 4, Funny

      It's never a good thing when a Darwin Award winner ends up taking innocent lives with them.

      If he takes out someone who lives across the street, that's tragedy. If he takes out the people who have come to see the launch, and who are rewarding his attention-whoring, that's comedy.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    8. Re:Too bad by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Current evidence suggests this guy isn't a nut, just a liar that conned a bunch of actual nuts out of some money.

    9. Re:Too bad by gtall · · Score: 2

      Yeah, like the moon shot, or...or...the SR-71...or modern cancer therapy, or lasers, or laser eye surgery, or dentistry, or the interstate highway system, or SS so grandma doesn't come and live with you, or fighting two fronts in WWII, or integrated circuits, or computers, or vaccines, or stereo systems, or....well golly, just about everything great in America was started in a garage or basement. The U.S. should build more of those, think how many more great things it would have.

    10. Re:Too bad by MerlTurkin · · Score: 2

      Just like religion!

    11. Re: Too bad by riverat1 · · Score: 2

      There is a legitimate argument that the world is flat: if you look out the window it's plainly obvious.

      I don't know about you but I've been high enough above sea level on the tops of mountains or in airplanes to see the curvature of the Earth. The Greeks had it figured out to within about 5% of the actual value nearly 3,000 years ago.

  2. GoFund Me Turtle One by jwhyche · · Score: 5, Funny

    I do not understand why these people want to just launch up and bounce off the dome surrounding the earth. It should be clear that is what is going to happen.

    Instead I want to announce my kickstarter project to fund exploratory project. I want to build a "sphere" probably made of metal that we will lower over the edge of the planet to investigate the large turtle that carries the earth, and it supporting elephants on its back. While we are down there we will attempt to discover the sex of the turtle and possibly communicate with it.

    This is an entirely original ideal and there is no precedence for in any written proposal fictional or otherwise.

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    I read at +2. If your post doesn't reach that level I will not see or respond to it.
    1. Re:GoFund Me Turtle One by Darinbob · · Score: 4, Funny

      You're going to try and communicate with the sex of the turtle?

    2. Re:GoFund Me Turtle One by c · · Score: 5, Funny

      That is the most stupid idea I've ever seen.

      What if you spook the turtle?!? YOU'LL KILL US ALL!!!1!

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      Log in or piss off.
    3. Re: GoFund Me Turtle One by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      That's dangerously close to saying he wants to have relations with the turtle. Fortunately, if he isn't interested in the gender of that turtle, it's turtles all the way down. This implies possibly infinite turtles, so he's very likely to find one that interests him.

    4. Re:GoFund Me Turtle One by jwhyche · · Score: 2

      Sure, why not?

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      I read at +2. If your post doesn't reach that level I will not see or respond to it.
    5. Re:GoFund Me Turtle One by jwhyche · · Score: 4, Funny

      What if you spook the turtle?!? YOU'LL KILL US ALL!!!1!

      That is a risk I'm willing to take.

      --
      I read at +2. If your post doesn't reach that level I will not see or respond to it.
  3. Surprise, Surprise, Surprise. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Americans totally fell for a completely obviously bullshit con-artist loony-toons crackpot nutjob. Frankly, I'm surprised he's not running for public orifice. He would fit right in with the majority that is actually in minority, but not welcoming to minorities by the majority of them.

    What next, the return of Kent Hovind? Roy Moore's Spoken Word Album goes Platinum? Michelle Bachmann hears the call of God?

  4. Clearly Obama did this by UnknowingFool · · Score: 2

    [conspiracy logic]Obama wasn't there. He never mentioned this event. Therefore it is a conspiracy that he stopped. With the aid of Illuminati of course.[/conspiracy logic]

    --
    Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
  5. If only by backslashdot · · Score: 2

    If only there was a way, or some kind of technology already existing, that someone could pay a few hundred dollars to go up thousands of feet in the air.

  6. Re:Not likely by Lord+Bitman · · Score: 3, Insightful

    His launch is not likely to influence his beliefs. Not due to the strength of his convictions, but because he only planned to go up about 600 meters.

    Note that the bare-minimum for being able to detect the curvature of the earth with the naked eye, in ideal / cloudless conditions, is over 10,000 meters. The most-common views that one typically sees of the "curved earth" / thinks of when considering the curvature of the earth, are from the the international space station (or other orbits of roughly that area), which averages 400,000 meters from the earth's surface.

    600 meters much less than he'd get from riding in an airplane. If he didn't trust the windows on those things, and wanted a definite unobstructed view, he could just get into a normal hot air balloon - those tend to go up a little more than 600 meters, on average.

    --
    -- 'The' Lord and Master Bitman On High, Master Of All
  7. Can we please just stop by LeftCoastThinker · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Can we please stop posting stories about this guy, he is either mentally unstable (in which case he needs help, not an audience, and Slashdot is contributing to the problem) or he is a con man (who should also not be encouraged or given a platform as well...)

    Anyone who is a "flat earther" can easily test their hypothesis by spending around $10k. Fly from SFO to Hawii, take longitude and latitude measurements at each destination and track the flight time, use a compass to confirm you are always traveling West. Hell use GPS to track your flight path. Then fly to Tokyo, London and back to the US. Proof positive that the earth is round, and around $10k in plane tickets.

    This is generally why there are very few flat earthers, because plane and business travel is common enough that most people know someone who has actually flown around the planet...

    --
    If you disagree, please post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like
    1. Re:Can we please just stop by bruce_the_moose · · Score: 2

      Cheaper: sit on a beach with a pair of binoculars and look for ships to come over the horizon. Binoculars: $50, sunscreen: $5.

      --
      To reduce crime, make fewer things against the law.
    2. Re:Can we please just stop by ProzacPatient · · Score: 4, Funny

      For everything else; there is MasterCard

    3. Re:Can we please just stop by worf_mo · · Score: 2

      Yeah, nice try! Everyone knows that there are large escalators placed around the ends of the earth for just that purpose: to make you beach-sitters think that the ships come over - or disappear behind - the "horizon".

    4. Re:Can we please just stop by 91degrees · · Score: 2

      I see him as more of a publicity hound than a con man. He doesn't believe the earth is flat, but he's playing a character that does. He's a lot of fun if you're in on the joke.

    5. Re:Can we please just stop by serviscope_minor · · Score: 2

      For $150, you can launch a weather balloon with a camera high enougough to see the curvature of the earth if you REALLY know what you're doing.

      For the inexperienced ameture, you're probably looking at $250 to $300.

      This is generally why there are very few flat earthers, because plane and business travel is common enough that most people know someone who has actually flown around the planet...

      I doubt that: it's been generally rare since well before the era of common plane travel.

      --
      SJW n. One who posts facts.
  8. Re:I blame TV. by jwhyche · · Score: 2

    An just think, we all thought this was just another comedy movie.

    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt03...

    Now it is clear that it is a documentary.

    --
    I read at +2. If your post doesn't reach that level I will not see or respond to it.
  9. Too obvious by uvajed_ekil · · Score: 2

    Clearly the government paid/coerced him not to launch so he can't see and reveal the true nature of our flat Earth.

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  10. Re:Maybe he started to doubt that... by EETech1 · · Score: 2

    Half of the same fools don't believe we landed on the moon either!

  11. Re: Useful entertainment.... by The123king · · Score: 2

    Or forget to convert from imperial to metric

    --
    If you gave me a choice between a printer and a giraffe with explosive diarrhoea, i'll get my ladder and my raincoat
  12. Attention seeking by sjbe · · Score: 2

    Too bad. I love that guy. America needs more full-on nuts who do crazy things with rockets and other such toys-- and I mean that sincerely.

    You mean we need attention seeking whores with idiotic ideas who don't actually do anything? You're a big fan of the Kardashians aren't you?

    I have no idea why anyone is giving this lunatic the time of day.