A Darwin for Mad Mike

This from Dr. Roy Spencer:

RIP, Mad Mike Hughes. I nominate this guy for the Darwin Award

'Mad Mike' Hughes - Homemade Rocket Daredevil 64 - Killed in Mishap

From the article:

In March 2018, Hughes, who believed the Earth is flat, propelled himself about 1,875 feet into the air before a hard landing in the Mojave Desert.

"My story really is incredible,” Hughes told the AP at the time. "It’s got a bunch of story lines — the garage-built thing. I’m an older guy. It’s out in the middle of nowhere, plus the Flat Earth. The problem is it brings out all the nuts also, people questioning everything. It’s the downside of all this.

...he claimed that he can prove the Earth is flat by flying to an altitude of 2,000 feet (I guess he's never heard of airplanes), and then laments that he attracts "nuts". Go figure.

A WORD FROM TIM:

Unless anyone knows somene who tried to box a polar bear or try to use a modified Ford Escort as a submarine I'd say we have a winner! Especially since he thinks the Earth is flat! He should have contacted that guy who parachuted from the edge of space; they sound like kindred spirits, but at least that guy knew the world was round.

That said, there is some value in this kind of crazy.

Benjamin Franklin, while not a kook by any measure, did an incredibly stupid thing in flying that kite in the storm; he should have been killed by the lightning bolt. His folly there gave us proof of concept that lightning is electricity. I imagine there were people who thought Franklin mad for flying the kite in the storm. That said, he knew a lot more about what he was doing than a guy like this, but as you say, these kind of eccentrics do indeed help drive progress in their own way. Look at Tesla; he was clearly nuts but he gave us much of our modern technology.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 07:14 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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