Dare Devil Flat Earther Dies in Rocket Crash

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The world will not suffer fools.

Stupidity is not automatically lethal, and lots of astonishingly stupid people do quite well by doing demonstrably stupid things. We are all liable to survivorship bias; the fallacy of attributing cause and merit to either success or to failure. There are wealthy and successful fools, and there are worthy and clever failures (rather more of the former, I suspect -- but plenty of both).

This is a singular case of a person doing something stupidly dangerous and suffering a completely unsurprising failure. But the failure wasn't his alone. He did this in full view of people who knew (or should have known) how it was likely to end.
 
Guess I don't understand. Most exclusions on life insurance end after the policy is in effect for a period of time (typically 2 years), e.g., payout on suicide. To get coverage, they ask you specific questions on dangerous activities such as being a pilot, skydiving, rock climbing, etc. Even then you can get coverage, albeit at a higher rate.

Getting coverage with high risk factors depends on the company, salesman, and underwriters. You may get covered at a high rate or may get denied and it pays to shop around. I did find coverage at okay terms, but still not as good as I would like. I am well covered at work, so I really wished I could have excluded that.

Mad Mike on the other hand has a well documented history of high risk activity. When they determine risk, they like to look at history and other people engaged in the same activity to compare the chance of death. There aren't too many people who launch themselves in homemade rockets and insuring that would just be a 50/50 gamble.
 
Guess I don't understand. Most exclusions on life insurance end after the policy is in effect for a period of time (typically 2 years), e.g., payout on suicide. To get coverage, they ask you specific questions on dangerous activities such as being a pilot, skydiving, rock climbing, etc. Even then you can get coverage, albeit at a higher rate.

This is correct. Flying yourself in a rocket isn't a question. However it could be construed along the lines of pilot/flying but would most likely need litigation to overturn a decision of denial. It could also be considered self inflicted (even death with alcohol/drugs/at fault situation) which would be turned down by most group/work sponsored life Insurance. Work/group life is the worst thing you can do. It has so many "out" clauses and it's not really yours. But private life Insurance would likely pay out regardless because of the 2 year incontestability clause. Also private life Insurance will have clear cut guidelines since you own the policy and you would have a copy of it in its entirety.

I'm in the Insurance Industry, Personal, Commercial and High Risk.

I'm interested to hear about this extortion case. A few days ago while discussing this, not knowing the case, it was suggested that it could have been a planned out.
 
Mike was also facing 20 years in prison for extortion, so who knows, at 64 years old, this might had been the best way to go. He had a $650,000 bond while awaiting trial, and the Flat Earth Society bailed him out for 10% time ($65,000). Basically he was out waiting for the verdict. This could’ve been his way out.

Are there any links to news articles or anything to that court case?
 
Stupidity is not automatically lethal, and lots of astonishingly stupid people do quite well by doing demonstrably stupid things. We are all liable to survivorship bias; the fallacy of attributing cause and merit to either success or to failure. There are wealthy and successful fools, and there are worthy and clever failures (rather more of the former, I suspect -- but plenty of both).

This is a singular case of a person doing something stupidly dangerous and suffering a completely unsurprising failure. But the failure wasn't his alone. He did this in full view of people who knew (or should have known) how it was likely to end.
As I stated, the world will not suffer fools. They simply watched. He's already shown he would not listen. He gave them no other alternative.
 
As I stated, the world will not suffer fools. They simply watched. He's already shown he would not listen. He gave them no other alternative.

I cannot make out what you mean by that.

I also suspect that we are posting past each other here. There is a counting problem. We have before us one spectacular example of a failure. If something had prevented this launch -- something outside of Hughes' control -- he'd have lived and would not (yet) be counted among those killed by their own foolishness. Invisible to us (except for the thousands upon thousands of "Hey watch this!" YouTube videos) are the fools who survive their folly.

Luck saves the lives as fools in the same way that it rewards lottery winners or punishes those who trip and fall in front of a moving train.

Hughes put himself in harms way, to be sure, but there are too many examples of prosperous fools, and those seemingly rewarded for folly, to accept the proposition that foolishness alone -- of whatever magnitude -- is lethal.
 
I meant that in spite of what I'm certain came from other's warnings, he ignored their advice and effectively lawn darted himself while they watched. These witnesses could only look on more than likely shaking their heads. Heard a story about a minister feeling the overpowering urge to visit a tribe who was not friendly in any way to outsiders. He was told they were very dangerous and few made it back alive. Sure enough, he was killed with a flurry of poisoned arrows. So all in all, you can warn people all you want, in the end they simply manage to take themselves out. Drunk drivers fit this bill as well. Some make it, some don't.

I consider Hughes to have been an explorer of aviation. Astronauts to be space explorers etc. There is something admirable in people like this. This individual who lawn darted himself could have walked, drove or even flown to the 'edge' of the earth yet chose the most dangerous route.
 
...individual who lawn darted himself could have walked, drove or even flown to the 'edge' of the earth yet chose the most dangerous route.
And sadly, the guy didn't even have enough mental horsepower to understand he wasn't going to achieve a high enough altitude to observe the earth's curvature in that contraption in any case.
 
And sadly, the guy didn't even have enough mental horsepower to understand he wasn't going to achieve a high enough altitude to observe the earth's curvature in that contraption in any case.
I agree with that. Had things turned out better, he would have come down stating: "See, it's flat!"
 
You are dead on with everything you said Nate, I know all 7 guys on the film crew like family now, they have a safety guy on the crew, who even quit because he couldn’t take all the insurance they had to go through with Mike. So we have a new guy, everything we do is way over board on safety meetings, and it has always been #1. The rule is if they ever feel uncomfortable/unsafe, anyone can drop their gear and leave. I can promise you that they had no clue this would happen, as the past launches Mike made it out alive, and it was simply another launch for him, without changing any factor on the propulsion side (who knows about recovery, but I’ll find out soon). I know the producer is very startled, and the crew didn’t even stick around after the crash in panic. The ambulance that was there didn’t even move for 5 minutes, because they already figured it was over with.

First of all, Buddy, thanks for providing some behind the scenes perspective! There is always more going on than can be seen in a short video clip.

Not being a safety guy and absolutely not qualified to talks about stunts, I probably should shut up, but I'm still wondering about what was involved with being the safety guy there. I couldn't imagine signing off on something like this without maybe 10 prior successful unmanned flights and some external review. Rockets are kinda special, even compared to things like high speed land vehicles etc., because you can't make harmless low speed low altitude tests with them before gradually expanding the envelope. Even NASA with it's extreme level of pre-launch scrutiny has basically stopped putting people on maiden flights of rockets.

Reinhard
 
Gee, I hope Mad Mike Hughes doesn't give model rocketry hobbiests a bad name. So driven to prove the Earth is flat.

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Like all the previous launches we had in space and the shuttle and space station isn't enough proof from all the pictures that the earth is indeed round? If the earth is suppose to be flat then why is the moon round?
 
Like all the previous launches we had in space and the shuttle and space station isn't enough proof from all the pictures that the earth is indeed round? If the earth is suppose to be flat then why is the moon round?
And why do we see a round shadow on the Moon during a Lunar Eclipse? And not this?FlatEarthLunarEclipse.jpg
 
View attachment 407470 This is so basic. its because the moon is oriented like a fully deployed parachute with the flat earth and the presumably flat sun pulling on it. So we see something like this. C'mon, every school kid knows this in the city I live in.

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I just listened to both interviews that were replayed on the All Out Show today with Rude Jude.....
Probably the best interviews and captures the full character of Hughes and has commentary from callers.
 
Yeah, im mixed. For a man who didnt believe in science or engineering because "thats all just formulas", im not entirely surprised.

Im not leaving out the option this is a publicity stunt

"To err is human, to forgive is not within the unshakable laws of gravity"
 
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