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6508
From: Skywise, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Man to launch in homemade rocket to prove Earth is flat
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I thought of posting in WOWS, as this is certainly wacky as shit. I thought of posting in Just for Laughs, because it's certainly laughable. But I think it is more appropriate in Science as this is an excellent example of how people just don't comprehend what science actually is, how it works, how it continuously helps them in their daily lives in spite of their dismissal if not vehement hatred of "science". He doesn't believe in science, yet he's building a rocket using a formula, claiming that it isn't science. Where does he think the formula came from? That's right!!! Science!!! It was a bunch of researchers aka scientists and the scientific method that allowed some smart people to figure out the formula he's using. As Homer Simpson would say, "D'oh!!" Anyway, even if the guy's flight goes as high as he expects (according to that pesky scientific formula) and he manages to not kill himself (Darwin is right, survival of the fittest), I don't expect this to change his mind in the least. He won't be high enough. I had long ago pondered the idea of giving a flat-earther a ride on the space shuttle to prove them wrong. But hey, how do we know it wasn't a hallucinogen induced full motion simulator ride? You can not change the mind of a true believer. The article is below. Brian http://www.foxnews.com/science/2017/11/23/rocket-launch-will-prove-earth-is-flat-california-man-says.html A California man intends to launch himself 1,800 feet high on Saturday in a home-built rocket to prove that astronauts faked the shape of the Earth. Mike Hughes, a 61-year-old limo driver, said his stunt will be the first phase of the flat-Earth space program, sponsored by Research Flat Earth, a group that believes Earth is, well, flat. The rocket should travel about a mile at a speed of roughly 500 mph. “If you’re not scared to death, you’re an idiot,” Hughes said. “It’s scary as hell, but none of us are getting out of this world alive. I like to do extraordinary things that no one else can do, and no one in the history of mankind has designed, built and launched himself in his own rocket.” He claims to have built the steam-powered rocket out of scrap metal parts in his garage. The project cost around $20,000, including the purchase of a motor home off Craigslist that was converted into a ramp. The daredevil’s aim is to get miles above Earth and snap a photo, proving that astronauts conspired to fabricate the shape of the planet. Mike Hughes Rocket pic AP “I don’t believe in science,” Hughes said. “I know about aerodynamics and fluid dynamics and how things move through the air, about the certain size of rocket nozzles, and thrust. But that’s not science, that’s just a formula. There’s no difference between science and science fiction.” During an interview with a flat-Earth group in June, Hughes said his project will “shut the doors on this ball Earth.” But he acknowledged that he had much to learn about rocket science. “This whole tech thing, I'm really behind the eight ball," he said. Hughes, however, is not an absolute amateur when it comes to rocket science. He built his first rocket in 2014 and flew a quarter-mile in Arizona, though the flight left him injured. But the Saturday’s planned launch will pose a challenge to the daredevil. Not only was the 2014 flight a quarter of the distance he expects to fly this Saturday, the previous rocket was based on round-earth technology, the Washington Post reported. The project received the backing of the flat-earth community in America after Hughes became a flat-Earth supporter. "We were kind of looking for new sponsors for this. And I'm a believer in the flat Earth," Hughes told the host of a flat-earth web show, the Post reported. "I researched it for several months." According to the host, Hughes was a real explorer of scientific secrets and “not compromised by the government.” “John Glenn and Neil Armstrong are Freemasons," Hughes said. "Once you understand that, you understand the roots of the deception." |
6510
From: David Fenton, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Re: Man to launch in homemade rocket to prove Earth is flat
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What an Oxy-moron !!!..“I don’t believe in science,” Hughes said. “I know about aerodynamics and fluid dynamics and how things move through the air, about the certain size of rocket nozzles, and thrust. But that’s not science, that’s just a formula. There’s no difference between science and science fiction.” He knows about aerodynamics and fluid dynamics but what about "gravity" ? |
6569
From: t, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Re: Man to launch in homemade rocket to prove Earth is flat
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[6570]
6570
From: t, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Re: Man to launch in homemade rocket to prove Earth is flat
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6509
From: Redhart, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Re: Man to launch in homemade rocket ..oops, delays...
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A California man who planned to launch himself 1,800 feet high Saturday in a homemade scrap-metal rocket — in an effort to prove that Earth is flat — said he is postponing the experiment after he couldn't get permission from a federal agency to conduct it on public land. Instead, Mike Hughes said the launch will take place sometime next week on private property, albeit still in Amboy, Calif., an unincorporated community in the Mojave Desert along historic Route 66. “It's still happening. We're just moving it three miles down the road,” Hughes told The Washington Post on Friday. “This is what happens anytime you have to deal with any kind of government agency.” Hughes claimed the Bureau of Land Management said he couldn't launch his rocket as planned Saturday in Amboy. He claimed the federal agency had given him verbal permission more than a year ago, pending approval from the Federal Aviation Administration. A BLM spokeswoman said its local field office had no record of speaking with Hughes and that he had not applied for the necessary special recreation permit to hold an event on public land. "Someone from our local office reached out to him after seeing some of these news articles [about the launch], because that was news to them," BLM spokeswoman Samantha Storms said. Representatives from the FAA did not immediately respond to requests for comment Friday. Hughes said he had originally intended to arrive in Amboy on Wednesday to start setting up the rocket. The BLM's denial, along with some technical difficulties — a motor in his modified motor home quit working for a day — threw a wrench into his plans, according to Hughes. “I don't see [the launch] happening until about Tuesday, honestly,” he said. “It takes three days to set up. . . . You know, it's not easy because it's not supposed to be easy.” [A Trump team member just compared climate science to the flat-Earth theory] Assuming the 500-mph, mile-long flight through the Mojave Desert does not kill him, Hughes told the Associated Press, his journey into the atmosflat will mark the first phase of his ambitious flat-Earth space program. Hughes’s ultimate goal is a subsequent launch that puts him miles above Earth, where the 61-year-old limousine driver hopes to photograph proof that it's a disk we all live on. “It’ll shut the door on this ball Earth,” Hughes said in a flight fundraising interview with a flat-Earth group. Theories discussed during the interview included NASA being controlled by round-Earth Freemasons and Elon Musk making fake rockets from blimps. Hughes promised the flat-Earth community that he would expose the conspiracy with his steam-powered rocket, which will launch from a heavily modified mobile home — though he acknowledged that he still had much to learn about rocket science. “This whole tech thing,” he said in the June interview. “I’m really behind the eight ball.” [Kyrie Irving believes Earth is flat. It is not.] That said, Hughes isn’t a totally unproven engineer. He set a Guinness World Record in 2002 for a limousine jump, according to Ars Technica, and has been building rockets for years, albeit with mixed results. “Okay, Waldo. 3 . . . 2 . . . 1!” someone yells in a test-fire video from 2012. There’s a brief hiss of boiling water, then . . . nothing. So Hughes walks up to the engine and pokes it with a stick, at which point a thick cloud of steam belches out toward the camera. He built his first manned rocket in 2014, the Associated Press reported, and managed to fly a quarter-mile over Winkelman, Ariz. As seen in a YouTube video, the flight ended with Hughes being dragged, moaning, from the remains of the rocket. The injuries he suffered put him in a walker for two weeks, he said. The 2014 flight was only a quarter of the distance of Saturday’s mile-long attempt. And it was based on round-Earth technology. Hughes only recently converted to flat-Eartherism, after struggling for months to raise funds for his follow-up flight over the Mojave. It was originally scheduled for early 2016 in a Kickstarter campaign — “From Garage to Outer Space!” — that mentioned nothing about Illuminati astronauts and was themed after a NASCAR event. “We want to do this and basically thumb our noses at all these billionaires trying to do this,” Hughes said in the pitch video, standing in his Apple Valley, Calif., living room, which he had plastered with drawings of his rockets. “They have not put a man in space yet,” Hughes said. “There are 20 different space agencies here in America, and I’m the last person that’s put a man in a rocket and launched it.” Comparing himself to Evel Knievel, he promised to launch himself from a California racetrack that year as the first step in his steam-powered leap toward space. The Kickstarter raised $310 of its $150,000 goal. [The explorers who really disproved flat-Earth theories] Hughes made other pitches, including a plan to fly over Texas in a “SkyLimo.” But he complained to Ars Technica last year about the difficulty of funding his dreams on a chauffeur’s meager salary. A year later, he called into a flat-Earth community Web show to announce that he had become a recent convert. “We were kind of looking for new sponsors for this. And I’m a believer in the flat Earth,” Hughes said. “I researched it for several months.” The host sounded impressed. Hughes had actually flown in a rocket, he noted, whereas astronauts were merely paid actors performing in front of a CGI globe. “John Glenn and Neil Armstrong are Freemasons,” Hughes agreed. “Once you understand that, you understand the roots of the deception.” The host talked of “Elon Musk’s fake reality,” and Hughes talked of “anti-Christ, Illuminati stuff.” After half an hour of this, the host told his 300-some listeners to back Hughes’s exploration of space. While there is no one hypothesis for what the flat Earth is supposed to look like, many believers envision a flat disk ringed by sea ice, which naturally holds the oceans in. What’s beyond the sea ice, if anything, remains to be discovered. “We need an individual who’s not compromised by the government,” the host told Hughes. “And you could be that man.” A flat-Earth GoFundMe effort subsequently raised nearly $8,000 for Hughes. By November, the AP reported, his $20,000 rocket had a coat of Rust-Oleum paint and “RESEARCH FLAT EARTH” inscribed on the side. While his flat-Earth friends helped him finally get the thing built, the AP reported, Hughes will be making adjustments right up to the launch. “We want to do this and basically thumb our noses at all these billionaires trying to do this,” Hughes said in the pitch video, standing in his Apple Valley, Calif., living room, which he had plastered with drawings of his rockets. “They have not put a man in space yet,” Hughes said. “There are 20 different space agencies here in America, and I’m the last person that’s put a man in a rocket and launched it.” Comparing himself to Evel Knievel, he promised to launch himself from a California racetrack that year as the first step in his steam-powered leap toward space. The Kickstarter raised $310 of its $150,000 goal. [The explorers who really disproved flat-Earth theories] Hughes made other pitches, including a plan to fly over Texas in a “SkyLimo.” But he complained to Ars Technica last year about the difficulty of funding his dreams on a chauffeur’s meager salary. A year later, he called into a flat-Earth community Web show to announce that he had become a recent convert. “We were kind of looking for new sponsors for this. And I’m a believer in the flat Earth,” Hughes said. “I researched it for several months.” The host sounded impressed. Hughes had actually flown in a rocket, he noted, whereas astronauts were merely paid actors performing in front of a CGI globe. “John Glenn and Neil Armstrong are Freemasons,” Hughes agreed. “Once you understand that, you understand the roots of the deception.” The host talked of “Elon Musk’s fake reality,” and Hughes talked of “anti-Christ, Illuminati stuff.” After half an hour of this, the host told his 300-some listeners to back Hughes’s exploration of space. While there is no one hypothesis for what the flat Earth is supposed to look like, many believers envision a flat disk ringed by sea ice, which naturally holds the oceans in. What’s beyond the sea ice, if anything, remains to be discovered. “We need an individual who’s not compromised by the government,” the host told Hughes. “And you could be that man.” A flat-Earth GoFundMe effort subsequently raised nearly $8,000 for Hughes. By November, the AP reported, his $20,000 rocket had a coat of Rust-Oleum paint and “RESEARCH FLAT EARTH” inscribed on the side. While his flat-Earth friends helped him finally get the thing built, the AP reported, Hughes will be making adjustments right up to the launch. |
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