OT: sometimes it’s just destiny

JohnInCarolina

You can’t make this stuff up.  May he rest in peace, the glorious moron.  

Boileregger

Evolution works.

Botch

Now, if we can just save enough of last years' flu shot for the anti-vaxxers...

johnnyp

Big pharma didn't want him to reveal the truth.  sabotage

JohnInCarolina

And this is part of it all too, unfortunately.  Death as spectacle.

johnnyp

Idk, I take your point about rampant anti-intellectualism becoming normalized, but no one would be advocating for committing evil knievel or travis pastrana if their stunts had gone sideways.  

JohnInCarolina

johnnyp said:

Idk, I take your point about rampant anti-intellectualism becoming normalized, but no one would be advocating for committing evil knievel or travis pastrana if their stunts had gone sideways.  

I would suggest Knievel and Pastrana are slightly different entities than Hughes, to put it mildly.  

johnnyp

Their motivations are certainly pointing in different directions.  I am disappointing that his stunt was marketed by the Discovery family of networks.  I guess thats my fault for expecting more from the network that brought us Naked and Afraid.

My point being that television has been featuring daredevil stunts for decades.  Though, the tweet you posted advocated for him being committed.  Ultimately, I don't disagree with the sentiment.  Just pointing out that the tweet seems overly reactionary.

YukonRon

Gory visual media today, is only watching the coliseum slaughters and public beheadings, and hangings of the historic global civilization.

People have not lost their thirst for obscene violence, it is just now, it can be enjoyed on your favorite couch in the comforts of your home.

If some knucklehead wants to blow himself up, there will always be people standing in line, or dialing up the image to witness.

Destiny.

Indeed.

DoubleEgger

blind99

supposedly the flat earth thing was part of his schtick, not sure he really believed it. 

Anyways, I agree, someone should have stopped him from strapping himself to a homemade rocket.

SemolinaPilchard

blind99 said:

supposedly the flat earth thing was part of his schtick, not sure he really believed it. 

Anyways, I agree, someone should have stopped him from strapping himself to a homemade rocket.

That is probably true. One thing we know about him is, he didn't schtick the landing.

Gulfcoastguy

I wonder why he didn’t do a trial run with a lab rat in the cockpit?

JohnInCarolina

Gulfcoastguy said:

I wonder why he didn’t do a trial run with a lab rat in the cockpit?

I think he tried, but he never could get the rat to tell him whether or not the Earth looked flat from 20,000 feet.   

Ozzie_Isaac

Gulfcoastguy said:

I wonder why he didn’t do a trial run with a lab rat in the cockpit?

Apparently he has done multiple previous launches.  One in 2018 reached over 1,800ft.

The real stupid part was using a steam powered rocket for the first couple of thousand feet, then a balloon for the next 62 miles.  Would have been safer and easier to just use the balloon from the ground.

SaltySam

“Glorious Moron” will be going in the grammar quiver

Botch

Ozzie_Isaac said:
The real stupid part was using a steam powered rocket for the first couple of thousand feet, then a balloon for the next 62 miles.  Would have been safer and easier to just use the balloon from the ground.

Huh.  Didn't a father help his daughter with a science project, attaching a video camera to a weather balloon, and it got high enough to see the Earth's curvature?  Had forgotten about that.  

The Cen-Tex Smoker

Botch said:

Ozzie_Isaac said:
The real stupid part was using a steam powered rocket for the first couple of thousand feet, then a balloon for the next 62 miles.  Would have been safer and easier to just use the balloon from the ground.

Huh.  Didn't a father help his daughter with a science project, attaching a video camera to a weather balloon, and it got high enough to see the Earth's curvature?  Had forgotten about that.  

We had some interns send a bean bag chair into space on a weather balloon with several gopro cameras attached last summer. 110,000 feet! You could definitely see the curvature of the earth. I'll see if I can find the video and post it.

The Cen-Tex Smoker

Here she is at 100,000 feet: