California resident Mike Hughes is going where a lot of men have gone before: to the painfully absurd conclusion of an indefensible worldview.
Only in Hughes’ variation on the theme, he’s taking a rocket there. The Associated Press reported on Monday that Hughes, a limo driver and “self-taught rocket scientist,” spent the last few months and $20,000 building his own rocket out of scrap metal. On Saturday, Hughes says he will use that rocket to launch himself 1,800 feet into the air. During that launch he hopes to begin his quest toward proving the Earth is flat.
“I don’t believe in science,” Hughes explains, helpfully. “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.”
Hughes also announced that after he definitely survives launching himself into the sky, he plans to run for governor of California.
Proving the earth is flat and consolidating power is fun, but Hughes is also in it to become famous and hurt billionaires’ feelings. Actually, I’m fairly certain that’s mostly what he’s in it for. “We want to do this and basically thumb our noses at all these billionaires trying to do this,” Hughes told the Washington Post.
Which as all to say the Earth may not be flat, but neither is it in very good shape