I have a high altitude balloon+electronics education project and it is very fun. We were using our pocket money. It can get expensive really quickly was very hard to raise money for this kind of stuff. We spend about $300 per launch (not including transportation) given we retrieve the payload successfully. If we don't, it is going to be $1.5k per launch for a latex weather balloon. There is a lot of risks involved in the process.
With that in mind, I think being able to launch a hunk of metal to 2k ft with just $20k is actually really quite impressive. I don't care if he raised money for the flat earth cause or any other scandalous cause, I think he did a legitimately impressive engineering feat, risked his life for it, raised money for it, didn't hurt or rob nobody. I am thoroughly entertained by this guy. Anyone with an iota of a brain will quickly realize this is just a comedy sketch, but as they say, a fool and his money are soon parted. If they didn't give money to this guy, they would have given their money to another stupid cause. And if anyone decides to give their money to any flat earth cause, I'd rather see they give money to this one.
With that in mind, I don't think I would go so far as going on the radio saying stupid shit just to raise money for my hobby project. But then, the world rewards people with crazy ideas and crazy execution plans when they work. Clearly, this is one of the instances when an unlikely funny idea actually worked. If I knew about this earlier, I would have chipped in some of my money just because it's so hilarious (and I can see many people would do that too).
With that in mind, I think being able to launch a hunk of metal to 2k ft with just $20k is actually really quite impressive. I don't care if he raised money for the flat earth cause or any other scandalous cause, I think he did a legitimately impressive engineering feat, risked his life for it, raised money for it, didn't hurt or rob nobody. I am thoroughly entertained by this guy. Anyone with an iota of a brain will quickly realize this is just a comedy sketch, but as they say, a fool and his money are soon parted. If they didn't give money to this guy, they would have given their money to another stupid cause. And if anyone decides to give their money to any flat earth cause, I'd rather see they give money to this one.
With that in mind, I don't think I would go so far as going on the radio saying stupid shit just to raise money for my hobby project. But then, the world rewards people with crazy ideas and crazy execution plans when they work. Clearly, this is one of the instances when an unlikely funny idea actually worked. If I knew about this earlier, I would have chipped in some of my money just because it's so hilarious (and I can see many people would do that too).