You’ve all surely heard of the Darwin Awards, where some people remove themselves from the gene pool for the benefit of mankind by taunting natural selection:
Natural selection deems that some individuals serve as a warning to others. Who are we to disagree? The next generation, ever and anon, is descended from the survivors.
This fellow, one Mike Hughes of California, who bills himself as:
The Only Man in History to Design, Build, and Launch Himself in a Rocket
Mike thinks the Earth is flat, and NOAA, NASA, and everybody else is wrong on that fact. So, to prove it, he’s made a rocket to go to the edge of space to prove it to himself.
A story in the Washington Post says:
Hughes is a 61-year-old limo driver who’s spent the last few years building a steam-powered rocket out of salvage parts in his garage. His project has cost him $20,000, which includes Rust-Oleum paint to fancy it up and a motor home he bought on Craigslist that he converted into a ramp.
Besides the fact that limo drivers aren’t generally rocket scientists, there’s only one major problem; he’s used a similar design for his “steam powered rocket” as the infamous Evel Knievel, who tried and failed to launch a similar contraption over the Snake River Canyon back in September 1974. Stuntman Eddie Braun did successfully zoom over the canyon — using Knievel’s original blueprints — in September 2016.
In a story by BGR, we get a clearer picture:
Mike Hughes, who has made it known that he doesn’t “believe in science,” has built a steam-powered rocket which he intends to ride into the sky. His aim doesn’t seem to be to put the flat earth debate to rest — at the altitude he’ll be reaching, he wouldn’t be able to see much of a curve, and even if he did it’s not like he’d admit it — but rather to promote a flat earth group that is helping to sponsor his flight.
If you’ve ever debated a flat earther online — and if you haven’t, I probably wouldn’t advise it, because logic and reason are completely lost on them — you’ll usually reach a point where one of you says “If we could travel to space you’d see the truth.” The rocket Hughes plans to ride skyward isn’t capable of such a feat, but it’s better than nothing. As for the potential dangers of the flight, he’s well aware of the risks.
“If you’re not scared to death, you’re an idiot,” Hughes explained. “It’s scary as hell, but none of us are getting out of this world alive.” While that may be true, taking your life into your own hands with a steam-powered rocket still requires a mix of guts and stupidity.
Umm, yeah. Looks like steamflunk.
Our friend, Dr. Roy Spencer, recently said on Facebook post that he’d like to nominate Hughes for a Darwin award “pre-humously”.
I second that motion.
Saturday, Nov 25th, while people are watching football and eating turkey leftovers, hughes plans a Pay Per View coverage of his Darwin Award event launch. In my view, he’s just another stuntman with a crazy idea to make fame and money.
well, this man surely does stupid research, but at least he is doing it properly, with real experiment, not with “model”. IF he succeeded in launching his rocket (obviously it won’t work, alas ; just hope he doesn’t blow himself apart), he WOULD see the rotundity of Earth.
Nothing of the sort can happen regarding CAGW, which as LESS science content that this poor man’s attempt.
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. . . he WOULD see the rotundity of Earth.
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He won’t at 1,800 feet. He wouldn’t at 18,000 feet. Maybe he would at 180,000 feet.
Jim
As you gain altitude, you can see a farther horizon line, thus evidence for curvature, even if you do not see it yet “side to side”. That’s part of why the crow’s nest was on old sailing ships. Just a bit better and farther view. Similarly, the first thing seen on an approaching ship was the top of the mast, then the rest “rises” into view. Need good eyes or optical gear to see it though. We’re talking over a 100 miles and a wooden pole with flag.
I’ve had the experience of seeing the horizon line move out and have never been to 180,000 feet, so I think it happens a lot lower than that. At 12,000 ft looking out to sea from a volcano top I remember thinking there was some slight curvature observable. I suppose it might have been seeing what I expected; seeing the curvature of the horizon line not the “edge” of the earth… but that curved horizon line is a product of the curved earth… on a flat earth, any altitude ought to result in the horizon reaching the edge, once clear of local obstacles.
The ‘crazy’ part is important. It’s about showmanship. As Gorgeous George told Cassius Clay:
link
If lots of people pay good money to watch the stunt then he’s succeeded.
Who is crazy, the guy who claims the Earth is flat, or the thousands of people who show up to see if he is right?
It’s hard to not look at a train wreck– especially one happening before your eyes.
Jim
This is one of flat earth proofs
http://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/235a73b625789cbbed839be87c3aa41c
Looks like he’ll need to stock enough fuel to pass the edge
Let’s try again
He can perhaps greet the ship of fools on his round trip back.
Finnish religious flat earthers going by this map think they are the actual center of the universe almost 😛
to be fair to the flat earthers, they have slightly better arguments than that, many of which seem quite plausible to not so enlightened but honestly non conspiratorial people.
Same with the man made CO2 climate change “theory”, in many ways it has similarities to the flat earth theory in how it is presented to an unwitting victim :D.
I don’t understand what would make the Arctic cold if it were in the center. And what would make the sun go around in a circle? And what makes it go away at night? And only over part of the earth? Just how small and close to the earth is it?
Sorry for the pontificating on an idiotic subject.
One can stand at the seashore easily see the curvature of the earth – and then calculate by the disappearing mast trick as the Greeks did – but there is no fame and fortune in that.
Hope the trickster lands safely and invents another gag.
The “flat-earth” angle is simply part of the funding for this foolishness, and part of the schtick. I don’t believe for one second that he actually believes in a flat-earth. He’s an Evel Knievel wannabe, out for fame and hopefully fortune. Yes, it’s crude, stupid, and somewhat crass, but in a weird way it’s also very American. I wish him luck, and hope he doesn’t get killed in the process.
no need for any concerned.
Latest technology parachutes are neatly packed in the back, just above paddle wheel steam powered turbine
I’m sure others have said the same, but I’m pretty sure this is not accurate. I recall at least one instance of a Chinese guy building one and firing himself off after the invention of gunpowder?
I think it ended badly as such ventures are likely to…
But why shouldn’t flat Earth be the accepted theory? Give me control of all research funding and I will guarantee to have the scientific establishment espousing flat Earth theory within a year or two. Here’s how it would work.
First, I would cause all research funding in anything to do with Earth sciences to suddenly dry up, and let it be known that the funding gatekeepers were interested in flat earth theory. It wouldn’t be stated so bluntly of course. Dear me, no. It would be stated perhaps as a need for a critical re-examination of the geosphericity paradigm. Sooner or later, some ambitious young man or woman would take the bait, and wham – they would find themselves with so much research funding they would be able to open their very own research institute with a staff of a couple of dozen or so, and a quiet understanding that all of it would disappear if they failed to produce a stream of research papers supporting flat Earth theory. At this point all the other ambitious academics out there would get the idea and start queuing up for their research funding.
As to the rest of it – ousting old-school journal editors and replacing them with flat-Earth friendly editors, ensuring that peer review is done only by your pals, and so on, the trail has already been blazed by the CAGW crew. Nothing to it!
Uh, Evel Knievel already did the steam rocket thing. . . about 44 years ago. . .
I don’t believe he did the actual design, the the difference is somewhat pedantic.
He may cool the Earth to space by hitting the convection preventing, heat trapping CACA gas firmament.
I think the “ISS is in a swimming pool” is the craziest part of the flat earth claims tbh.
Not sure you could tell from a suborbital flight anyway. I believe the view from the ISS is not immediately conclusive as it’s still much closer than the Earth’s diameter; the roundness is only apparent if you watch long enough to see that stuff is going past. Apollo 8 gave us the first full view of the Earth from space as a globe, and in some ways that stole the show from visiting the.moon.
The fact that the horizon is curved at sea is inconclusive since it would look much the same if the horizon were the edge of a disc.
But a ship’s mast dropping below the horizon as it went out to sea certainly would not be the same if the earth was a disk. Nor could it be explained if the effect appeared at every beach, since not all can possibly be on the edge.
I don’t know about flat earth, but he is going to get a flat face.
When I first read a story reporting this guy’s silly stunt I was more struck by the idiots in the comment section who had been duped into feeling compelled to explain how they know the earth is not flat.
“If you’ve ever debated a flat earther online …”
Must be like debating a climate alarmist.
Gotta love these wild self-promoters! Really…this guy raised enough money and found sponsors, built a rocket (of sorts), converted a motor home…..terrific. He has been, unfortunately, born a hundred or so years too late….in 1867 he would have been lauded a genius adventurer.
So, amusement may be appropriate — but you have got to give the guy credit — he does more than just sit in his armchair and write snarky comments on blogs.
I sometimes wonder if the flat earther’s really believe it, or whether the whole schtick is just some comedy act amongst comrades, in defiance of modernity? I have known a few, and my take was that they are just messing with us. Although, some of them thought the world was only 6,000 years old too, and seemed to be deadly serious about that and had a whole library of books to prove it. I guess we just don’t know what goes on inside some people’s heads.
“Mike thinks the Earth is flat, and NOAA, NASA, and everybody else is wrong on that fact.”
Does it not seem ironic that people here are laughing at this guy, because he doesn’t accept what NOAA and NASA above are saying, but are happy to disagree with them when it comes to what they have to say about the affect of CO2 on our warming planet?
I’m bigger than that, said Garfield.
Spencer analyses satellite data. Those things that orbit the globe. I don’t see any irony there. What I see from your side is misunderstanding what is skeptism and what is, err…, stunting.
But But But… Spencer doesn’t dispute that we are warming and that CO2 plays a part in that. His satellite data is showing a whole lot more warming lately too.
Ugh….how’s he going to land?
The ONLY way this makes sense is if “Mad Mike” is engaged in a spectacular attempt to fake his own death.
In the several articles on this guy I have read, I have not read that he thinks the earth is flat. It would appear that his main sponsor is “Research Flat Earth”. Just because his main sponsor thinks the earth is flat does not necessarily mean that he does.
Wait. Consider. What -if- he gets to the edge and then explodes? Wouldn’t the resulting explosion tip the rest of us into one corner? He must be stopped no matter how infinitesimal the possibility because of the potential dire consequences. Just. Like. Climate. Alarmism.
I’m a regular reader of this site and I believe global warming is a massive hoax. I also believe that conventional science is barmy. I struggle to believe that the Earth spins around at 1000 mph while our
atmosphere stays glued to it by magic gravity,
I struggle to believe the big bang theory. as well. Our sun is supposedly orbiting the center of our galaxy
at 514k mph, so how is the Earth able to orbit this speeding bullet? Relative motion? The moon landings
were an obvious hoax. Rockets cannot work in the vacuum of space. Ships do not dip below the horizon
and if you can see buildings from 80 miles away then where is the Earth’s curvature? I also think NASA
is a joke.
I think that the fact that you can see further when you climb a high building would indicate that the earth is curved ,assuming there are no hills in the way etc. , because if it was flat you would not be able to see any further . I think he will be able to see further if his attempt comes off this is clear unlike the nonsense we are being told about global warming and computer modelling. I think it is clear from reading the article that he is only saying that he thinks the earth could be flat to get sponsorship for his attempt. It is very wrong to accuse someone of being stupid just because they are prepared to do something dangerous people who climb mountains should be regarded as stupid in that case.
Dr. Spencer has a great sense of humous!
Wouldn’t a hot air balloon be a lot easier?