"Mad" Mike Hughes dies in crash of homemade rocket

[jmowreader]

https://www.tmz.com/2020/02/22/daredevil-mad-mike-hughes-dead-dies-rocket-crash-land/

You knew this was gonna happen.

Dear friends, it is my sad duty to report that Flat Earther "Mad" Mike Hughes, who gained fame a couple years ago by attempting to fly a steam-powered homemade rocket high enough to prove the earth is flat, tried it again today. This time, he was attempting to fly to 62 miles altitude apparently so he could photograph the absence of curvature. Unfortunately for Mad Mike, his recovery parachute ripped off the rocket shortly after he left the launcher. The parachute's deployment caused an "instability" in the vehicle that made it wave around in the breeze for its several-hundred-foot ascent. It then flipped over and dove straight into the ground near Barstow, Calif., where the event occurred. Mr. Hughes did not survive.

He was 64.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. Darwin claims his reward?

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

25. At 64 years old, he was probably contributing to the DNA pool.

He didn't fly high enough to determine if the Earth is flat or a globe. But he knows the Earth is very, very, hard.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

58. Depends on whether any woman ever found him sane enough to mate with.

But if so, we can only hope the stoopid gene is recessive.

[misanthrope]

84. He knows nothing

His consciousness doesn't exist now.

[Initech]

2. I'm shocked! Shocked! Well not that shocked.

RIP.

[mr_lebowski]

3. ZOMG they took Mike out!!! SEE this PROVES how deep this Spheroid-Earth Conspiracy goes!!11!

Sorry

Sorry for his friends and family ...

[elias7]

8. Yes, the spheroid conspiracy of gravitation

Sorry for friends and family

[Cirque du So-What]

4. He died for such a noble cause

Nah! He died in a stupid way, trying to prove something just as stupid. His ploy for attention worked, but one can make a spectacular splat but once.

[ripcord]

50. I will remember his philosophy forever

"We have nothing to fear but sphere itself".

[dalton99a]

5. Trump should give him a National Medal of Science

[Buckeye_Democrat]

20. LOL!

[Jamastiene]

44. Well, he WAS a Trump supporter.

https://www.rawstory.com/2019/08/flat-earther-seeks-trumps-attention-with-homemade-rocket-but-gets-thwarted-by-faulty-craiglist-water-heater/

[pandr32]

6. Another one bites the dust

Many more to go

[IADEMO2004]

7. I'll check Snopes.com in the morning. No idea what is fact or fantasy any more.

[jmowreader]

9. It's being carried by legitimate newspapers

San Bernardino Sun:
https://www.sbsun.com/2020/02/22/daredevil-mad-mike-hughes-reported-dead-in-rocket-crash-near-barstow/

The New York Daily News is also reporting it, but they're taking TMZ as their source.

[IADEMO2004]

80. How Bizarre How Bizarre. Trump voter? Total devotion to ignoring science.

[Demovictory9]

67. video

Link to tweet

[IADEMO2004]

82. Folly takes another life. Very sad and hard to watch.

[Iggo]

10. Aw.

I’ll miss his dogged tenacity in the pursuit of facts to fit his theory.

[Ms. Toad]

63. At least he's in search of facts. N/t

[Iggo]

72. I learned a long time ago if the facts don't fit your theory...

...get a better theory.

[Ms. Toad]

81. Yes - but that assumest you know the facts.

The step before abandoning your theory is to ascertain the relevant facts.

Now, there are better ways tofind the relevant facts than launching yourself into the air, but my point was that if he's in search of facts there is still the possibility of moving to the next step of abandoning or revising your theory - as opposed to people who are making up facts when the facts don't fit their theory.

[Iggo]

83. He discounted every bit of evidence that was contrary to his theory.

That’s bad science.

[SunSeeker]

11. My in-laws live around there. They're all right wing nutbags.

Bet they knew the guy.

That whole area is deep red, a little Kentucky in the desert.

[Permanut]

12. Ah, yes, the flat-earthers..

that would be the group that believes that gravity doesn't exist.

[Ptah]

13. His spirit animal.

[skamaria]

17. Perfect metaphor for this Bozo!

[Flaleftist]

14. I guess this flat-Earther was no rocket scientist after all.

[erlewyne]

22. He believed, he had to.

Your response. Flaleftist, is very entertaining

I feel so guilty because I am sure I would have loved "flat-earther"
like a brother. Why is this so funny? I hope, that when I die
the world will be filled with this kind of mirth.

I never heard of him and I will never forget him!

[edbermac]

15. Darwin Hall of Fame.

Any guesses on his political affiliation?

[Jamastiene]

45. He was a Trump supporter.

https://www.rawstory.com/2019/08/flat-earther-seeks-trumps-attention-with-homemade-rocket-but-gets-thwarted-by-faulty-craiglist-water-heater/

[Moostache]

16. He clearly was praying with insufficient sincerity or the Great Pumpkin would have saved him.

I have had enough of these idiots taking up any valuable time at all. I really wish they would all get together on a high bridge and dispute the theory of gravity one by one.

SMH...

[CloudWatcher]

18. The "Science" Channel

Yeah, haha. But "the Science Channel was there to chronicle his journey," the Science Channel said in a statement. I have to pause and wonder what moral culpability they have for encouraging/funding this kind of lunacy. What's next ... snuff films?

[exboyfil]

31. How the Science channel

And the other documentary channels have degenerated since first introduced is a sad commentary on our society.

[Jamastiene]

46. I cannot believe what they try to pass off as "science" on those

types of channels nowadays. No wonder the right wing believes they can just make up "alternate facts."

[jberryhill]

35. People killing themselves is entertainment. Look at this thread

This man’s death is an amusement.

[CloudWatcher]

62. Pretty sick.

I guess I just don't understand most people. I don't even understand how people can still watch the NFL after the CTE (brain damage) scandals. Sad.

[Iggo]

71. I was pulling for him.

I wanted him to fly high enough to report to the others, “Nah, yeah, it’s round, guys.”

[jberryhill]

75. Where is the FAA in any of this

Can anyone just build a rocket, blow themselves up, and endanger others, or are there some rules around this sort of thing?

[Iggo]

77. Good point. I hadn't thought of that.

I remember we used to fly rockets when I was a kid, but the rules changed after 9/11.

That’s a pretty big, pretty famous, flying bomb he was riding.

Some agency should have been all over his shit.

[LanternWaste]

87. As is commenting on people's reaction an amusement as well.

(we just tell ourselves differently to better maintain a plausible degree of our own self-righteousness)

[Aussie105]

19. It's a matter of perspective.

The Earth really is flat.
Except for the bits that are bumpy. Little bumps (hills) and big bumps (mountains).
Other bits are round.
Other bits are concave. Lakes, ocean floors.

All you flat earthers and round earthers are missing the big picture.

The Earth is BUMPY!
(No discord or discussion will be entered into or tolerated.)

Now, Mr Hughes should have collaborated with Elon Musk. His rocket would have gained a superior height.

[snort]

21. He ended up flat on the Earth.

[5X]

30. LOL

[trusty elf]

23. ...

[malaise]

29. Is that mad Mike or the Con?

[trusty elf]

33. It's the Con!

I couldn't resist!

[malaise]

34. My dream my dream

My dream my dream my dream!

[trusty elf]

36. nice!

[malaise]

37. Love the wave - goodbye cruel world

[trusty elf]

38. That was right after some one told him that Obama

tried to launch himself in a steam rocket but failed.

[malaise]

39. Hehehehehe

Too good

[trusty elf]

24. meep, meep!

&fbclid=IwAR1vTElyf8ZFvx9UaN2z2fithqYOmVoak8SmJ-efF8AgLF34oSo3clsZu10

[pansypoo53219]

26. did he believe in gravity?

[Jamastiene]

47. He probably did right before he crashed,

but a lot of flat-earthers do not believe in gravity.

[Iggo]

74. Enough to know he needed a lot of thrust to get off the ground.

[DeminPennswoods]

27. The collective US IQ just went up a couple of points

nt

[malaise]

28. This was always going to happen

Now he will lie flat in the earth

[jberryhill]

32. Mentally ill man kill self; DU laughs

Once you can get people to laugh at the deaths of others, many things become possible.

[muriel_volestrangler]

43. Not sure he was mentally ill in any way; he did like publicity, however

Do you actually know of any diagnosis? Or are you just saying that he'd say anything crazy to get people talking about him and giving him a chance to make money?

[jberryhill]

51. I'm saying that a fellow human being has died

Tragically, due to a delusion.

[muriel_volestrangler]

54. And I'm saying a professional daredevil has died, due to his chosen occupation

He set a Guinness World Record in 2002 for the longest limousine jump - over 31 metres (103 ft) in a Lincoln Town Car stretched limo.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-51602655

These were stunts in a steam-powered rocket (or, if you're optimistic, an attempt to show how high a steam-powered rocket could go), not serious attempts to talk about the flatness of the Earth (as others constantly pointed out, climbing a mountain or flying in a normal plane would be more effective).

Still, Hughes converted to the flat-Earth belief recently, shortly after his first fundraising campaign for the rocket earned just $310 of its $150,000 goal. His second campaign, this time posted after his conversion and with the support of the flat-Earth community, succeeded in hitting its $7,875 goal.

"I've been a believer for maybe almost a year. I researched it for several months in between doing everything else — you know, I've still got to make a living and all that kind of stuff, and building this rocket actually eats up a lot of my time," he told the flat-Earth Web show. "But when I'm not doing that, I research things."

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/11/22/565926690/i-dont-believe-in-science-says-flat-earther-set-to-launch-himself-in-own-rocket

[USALiberal]

49. DU does this a lot. Very disappointing. nt

[Cirque du So-What]

53. God, we SUCK! Thank you, Superiority Man, for pointing out our shortcomings.

Now we will all strive to redeem ourselves in your eyes and purge all our tendencies toward behavior unbecoming of the ubermensch.

[hunter]

65. He was the guy standing on the roof of a tall building and the crowd was yelling "JUMP!"

Television and social media are crap.

They promote the bullshit of crazy people like Trump or Mad Mike Hughes and the end result is disaster.

[Iggo]

73. Nah, more like the crowd is yelling, "DON"T JUMP! YOU'LL DIE!"

But he calls them all fools and jumps anyway.

[hunter]

78. He couldn't have done this if he didn't have the crowd.

Trump wouldn't be president if he didn't have television.

The people watching television yelling "DON"T JUMP! YOU'LL DIE!" were not heard.

Screaming at your television set accomplishes nothing.

[nolabear]

69. Absolutely agree. This is not who we should be.

It doesn’t harm him but it sure does no one good to become part of a jeering crowd.

[Iggo]

76. Not ill. Just wrong.

From where I sit, he was no more mentally ill than a religionist. Same shit, different church.

Sucks he died so horribly. Sucks even worse he did it in front of a society raised on slapstick.

I’m sad for him AND I’m laughing at the same time.

That’s life.

[Croney]

40. Why didn't he just take a commercial flight,

on a clear day, and take pictures from the window like the rest of us tourists? It would show a curved horizon. I guess I'm missing something.

[onethatcares]

42. you folks are bad

really bad. tremendously bad.

but you're funny.

[catbyte]

48. I'm probably going to hell for this, but that TMZ video looked like a Wile E. Coyote Acme rocket

stunt. But I'm sure somebody feels bad about it, so I'll stop now.

[Mendocino]

52. Hello Boys

I'm back!

[link:

|

[essme]

55. At least he didn't dispute gravity. It always wins in the end. nt

[EX500rider]

61. Gravity sucks!

[Newest Reality]

56. It seems that...

It seems that his connection to the Flat Earth crowd may have been due to funding, from what I am gathering from this article. Now, he did say in another article that he "didn't believe in science" while referring to aerodynamics and fluid dynamics as just formulas. So, he was on a tangent in that respect. He also denied interest in Flat Earth earlier on or that the rocket launch was to prove it, though.

He seems to have been a daredevil, (as we already know) and out to prove he could fly a home made rocket, mainly. Perhaps the gullibility of Flat Earth enthusiasts and paying for his experiment are a factor in this.

"Whoever started that rumor that I was going to prove the Earth was flat is an idiot," he said in a phone call the week after his flight. He suggested that it may have been a reporter from the Washington Post who planted the seed, but that Jeff Bezos was likely behind the rumor-spreading. We'll never know for sure. What we do know is that dreams—no matter how far-fetched or ill-advised—can come true. A 61-year-old limousine driver who makes $15 an hour ferrying people around California's high desert communities can hurl himself into the sky from an RV-based launcher in a steam-powered rocket. It's a feat that's nothing if not unique.

https://www.thedrive.com/opinion/20084/the-strange-short-flight-of-flat-earth-rocket-man

[NCjack]

57. Time for the next-in-line investigator of the Flat Earth Society

to step forward, put on the mantle and get launched. We are waiting with eager anticipation the results of your voyage.

[Turbineguy]

59. Can any of us truly imagine

the feeling of abandonment that would come with falling off the edge of the Earth?

[Hekate]

85. You'd get to investigate the gender of Great A'Tuin the turtle upon which the Flat Earth rides....

...but not for long.

[miyazaki]

60. Saw his rocket when driving to Vegas last summer

It was set up out in the desert just past Amboy. I Said to my gf, he probably won't be around when we go next summer.

[Volaris]

64. Issac Newton and Charles Darwin: still fucking right.

[Demovictory9]

66. the crash

Link to tweet

[nolabear]

68. Y'all are some mean mofos.

I know he was a goofball but the sheer meanness around here is starting to get to me.

[bill]

70. The Earth is still round...

...and Mad Mike is now flat

[Shermann]

79. Even a failed rocket launch like that takes significant engineering skill to pull off

The Flat Earth connection surely is a shtick for publicity.

[Crowman2009]

86. Don't feel too sorry for him. Because he was a conspiratorial nutjob!

Obama's birth certificate, federal reserve, chemtrails; you named it, he believed it.