Find Your Valentine
Slog
News & ArtsThursday, October 15, 2009
??!! There Is a Boy Floating in a Balloon Over Colorado
Posted by Jen Graves on Thu, Oct 15, 2009 at 12:04 PM
And nobody knows how to get him down.
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
UPDATE: Man, this looks scary. The thing has lost about a third of the helium inside it and is listing in the wind. Jets are being rerouted.
UPDATE AGAIN: The 6-year-old boy inside might be asphyxiated already from breathing in helium alone, unless there's some kind of way he's getting oxygen.
AGAIN: It's circling and descending. Cameras won't show the landing.
AGAIN: Actually, they did show it. Soft landing. Where's Falcon?
UPDATE: NOBODY IS IN THERE. So...where's Falcon?? 'There is no child in this balloon.'
UPDATE: Um, this family was on Wife Swap.
UPDATE: Did a part of the aircraft break off during flight? Is Falcon hiding in the backyard? I cannot stop watching this.
UPDATE: Search-and-rescue underway. They say he's not hiding in the vicinity of the house.
UPDATE: Is this a scam?
7
Straight parents are always leaving their kids near their homemade experimental balloons.
I'm pretty sure no gay parents have ever done this.
I'm pretty sure no gay parents have ever done this.
9
I hope he crashes super hard, breaking tons of bones, but keeping his hopes up and steeling his nerves to become an experimental pilot later in life.
Or that he survives with no ill effects and his parents beat him.
Or that he survives with no ill effects and his parents beat him.
11
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/15…
When the Heene family aren't chasing storms, they devote their time to scientific experiments that include looking for extraterrestrials and building a research-gathering flying saucer to send into the eye of the storm. In this ultimate swap, the Heenes swap lives with a psychic mom who speaks to the dead and can control the weather, her husband and her children -- who believe they are destined to be stars. This show will feature aliens, punk rockers, past-life regression and, for the first time ever, the children from the two families will face off in a kids' table meeting. "Heene/Silver," the 100th episode of Wife Swap, destined to become a classic!
When the Heene family aren't chasing storms, they devote their time to scientific experiments that include looking for extraterrestrials and building a research-gathering flying saucer to send into the eye of the storm. In this ultimate swap, the Heenes swap lives with a psychic mom who speaks to the dead and can control the weather, her husband and her children -- who believe they are destined to be stars. This show will feature aliens, punk rockers, past-life regression and, for the first time ever, the children from the two families will face off in a kids' table meeting. "Heene/Silver," the 100th episode of Wife Swap, destined to become a classic!
13
The only good solution I can think of is to chase it with hot-air balloons. Anything more forceful could send the whole thing tumbling. Is the kid above an altitude for hot-air balloons?
Or maybe really skilled skydivers with an extra parachute.
...yeah, that's all I've got. Skydivers and hot-air balloons. CNN Breaking News just updated saying the balloon has landed, though, with no mention of whether the kid is inside.
Or maybe really skilled skydivers with an extra parachute.
...yeah, that's all I've got. Skydivers and hot-air balloons. CNN Breaking News just updated saying the balloon has landed, though, with no mention of whether the kid is inside.
14
The kid's not in there. They think he might have fallen out along the way somewhere. Jesus Christ.
15
The British Anchor on CNN just said "I know what that boy must be going through. I flew in economy class once". Classy.
16
Holy crap! Where the hell is the kid? How would no one see him fall out? My office mate thinks he was abducted. I don't know what to think. That's way too weird.
17
Oh man. Here's to hoping the kid is hiding in his treehouse, scared to be in trouble because he accidentally let the balloon go, and will wander inside the house once it gets dark.
19
Any chance this is a scam? That the boy never got in the balloon, but a media hungry family wanted more attention? Capitalizing on this event? Or am I just a cynic blinded by years of Susan Smiths and Scot Peterson sob stories to the media before we find out the truth?
Maybe I'm just catty today.
Maybe I'm just catty today.
20
Oh shit, I totally remember this family from Wife Swap, the parents were basically totally insane. I hope the kid's okay...
21
I like eccentric families like this. hopefully the kid is alive somewhere. i'm guessing if he's safe and alive, he's run away because his dad is going to kill him. UNLESS this breaking news brings great publicity to his fringe theories on electromagnetic fields and storms
24
@19 - I have been wondering the same thing. maybe they should be investigated for this possibility. I never saw them on wife swap, but if they got on this show it is likely that they DO desire lots of publicity, no?
26
Apparently (according to some guy on twitter) their episode of Wife Swap was re-run just yesterday.
They need to issue an Amber Alert, if they haven't already. The longer this goes on--the kid wasn't in the balloon or hiding in the neighborhood--the more it sounds like a sick wild-goose-chase distraction to a child abduction. It sounds like a ruse on a crime drama, doesn't it?
They need to issue an Amber Alert, if they haven't already. The longer this goes on--the kid wasn't in the balloon or hiding in the neighborhood--the more it sounds like a sick wild-goose-chase distraction to a child abduction. It sounds like a ruse on a crime drama, doesn't it?
27
I'm unconvinced that balloon could ever have lifted a small child. Even a spherical version (easier the work the math for, ha) of the same radius would be borderline.
28
@24 That's exactly where I was going with that... People get addicted to fame and celebrity and who knows what high hopes they have for future fame. I'm just saying that there are people who know exactly how to push the media's buttons.
I'm just talking out loud rather than accusing, just putting a perspective that isn't being talked about on the news cycle. I've worked in mass media and have studied the media for over a decade, and like to observe and critique the media.
I'm just talking out loud rather than accusing, just putting a perspective that isn't being talked about on the news cycle. I've worked in mass media and have studied the media for over a decade, and like to observe and critique the media.
30
@27 The parents should know exactly what the lift was for the balloon. They were doing meteorological work (whackjob work, it sounds like, but still) and had built the balloon's basket to bear a load. The call to the police was "Our balloon is missing and so is our son, and it's possible that he's inside," rather than "Our balloon is missing and so is our son, but the balloon couldn't have lifted the boy."
You've done the math, for (for the sake of argument) a 40-pound kid plus (again, for the sake of argument) a 20-pound balloon-plus-platform, versus a 10-foot-radius sphere of helium? I wouldn't know how to begin running the math on it, but if you know the math and can be reasonably sure that the balloon wouldn't have lifted the kid, it screams "scam" at best and "inside job on a child abduction" at worst.
You've done the math, for (for the sake of argument) a 40-pound kid plus (again, for the sake of argument) a 20-pound balloon-plus-platform, versus a 10-foot-radius sphere of helium? I wouldn't know how to begin running the math on it, but if you know the math and can be reasonably sure that the balloon wouldn't have lifted the kid, it screams "scam" at best and "inside job on a child abduction" at worst.
31
I'm watching "the situation room" with wolf blitzer and a correspondent just chimed in, showing some ireport footage of the father, pointing out a new pyramid that has been found on MARS. They say he has much more material online. Wolf: "fascinating stuff..." Yes Wolf, fascinating. So this is one of those guys who maybe believes there were ancient civilizations on Mars, such as Cydonia?
Pyramids have also been known to harness electromagnetic energy in peculiar ways, just like Mr. Heene's theories about storms. Very very interesting. I read that he first became interested in studying electromagnetic anomalies of storms after the roof of his workplace was blown off in a storm in 1979 and it was found very much intact, surprisingly, 300 yards away.
Could it be that this guy has been weather-chasing on his own, and building loosely-controled stuff like this weather balloon in his back yard, because he couldn't find a supportive scientific community to be involved with?
Pyramids have also been known to harness electromagnetic energy in peculiar ways, just like Mr. Heene's theories about storms. Very very interesting. I read that he first became interested in studying electromagnetic anomalies of storms after the roof of his workplace was blown off in a storm in 1979 and it was found very much intact, surprisingly, 300 yards away.
Could it be that this guy has been weather-chasing on his own, and building loosely-controled stuff like this weather balloon in his back yard, because he couldn't find a supportive scientific community to be involved with?
32
Haven't watched the video, so I don't know how big the balloon is, but:
Dia. Ft. Vol. l Lift gr. Lift Lbs.
1 14.83 15.2 0.03
2 118.62 121.7 0.27
3 400.34 410.9 0.91
4 948.96 973.9 2.15
5 1853.45 1902.2 4.19
6 3202.76 3287.0 7.25
7 5085.86 5219.7 11.51
8 7591.72 7791.5 17.18
9 10809.30 11093.7 24.46
10 14827.58 15217.7 33.55
11 19735.50 20254.8 44.65
12 25622.05 26296.2 57.97
13 32576.18 33433.3 73.71
14 40686.87 41757.4 92.06
15 50043.07 51359.8 113.23
16 60733.75 62331.8 137.42
17 72847.88 74764.7 164.83
18 86474.42 88749.8 195.66
19 101702.34 104378 230.12
20 118620.61 121741 268.40
21 137318.18 140931 310.70
22 157884.03 162038 357.24
23 180407.11 185154 408.20
24 204976.41 210369 463.79
60 pounds ~~ 12 foot diameter.
Dia. Ft. Vol. l Lift gr. Lift Lbs.
1 14.83 15.2 0.03
2 118.62 121.7 0.27
3 400.34 410.9 0.91
4 948.96 973.9 2.15
5 1853.45 1902.2 4.19
6 3202.76 3287.0 7.25
7 5085.86 5219.7 11.51
8 7591.72 7791.5 17.18
9 10809.30 11093.7 24.46
10 14827.58 15217.7 33.55
11 19735.50 20254.8 44.65
12 25622.05 26296.2 57.97
13 32576.18 33433.3 73.71
14 40686.87 41757.4 92.06
15 50043.07 51359.8 113.23
16 60733.75 62331.8 137.42
17 72847.88 74764.7 164.83
18 86474.42 88749.8 195.66
19 101702.34 104378 230.12
20 118620.61 121741 268.40
21 137318.18 140931 310.70
22 157884.03 162038 357.24
23 180407.11 185154 408.20
24 204976.41 210369 463.79
60 pounds ~~ 12 foot diameter.
34
Okay. I calculated it this way, which may be totally wrong:
Take a cylinder of radius 10 feet and height 5 feet. Volume: 1571 cubic feet.
Cut that by 1/3, because the balloon isn't cylindrical, it's balloon-shaped. That's a big leap of logic on my part, how much of those cylinder edges get trimmed off, but figure the balloon maintains about 1000 cubic feet of helium.
Helium will lift 28.2 grams/cubic foot. Thus, 1000 cubic feet would have 28,200 grams of lift.
In pounds, that's around 62 pounds. Assuming a 40-pound 6-year-old and a 20-pound plywood frame/basket, it's theoretically possible.
Of course, that's just to get the boy and his balloon basket to gravity-neutral. To fly through the air and cause a helicopter chase, you would need considerably more helium, or considerably less boy/basket than I'd assumed.
So. Results inconclusive. Please feel free to dispute my assumptions/calculations.
Take a cylinder of radius 10 feet and height 5 feet. Volume: 1571 cubic feet.
Cut that by 1/3, because the balloon isn't cylindrical, it's balloon-shaped. That's a big leap of logic on my part, how much of those cylinder edges get trimmed off, but figure the balloon maintains about 1000 cubic feet of helium.
Helium will lift 28.2 grams/cubic foot. Thus, 1000 cubic feet would have 28,200 grams of lift.
In pounds, that's around 62 pounds. Assuming a 40-pound 6-year-old and a 20-pound plywood frame/basket, it's theoretically possible.
Of course, that's just to get the boy and his balloon basket to gravity-neutral. To fly through the air and cause a helicopter chase, you would need considerably more helium, or considerably less boy/basket than I'd assumed.
So. Results inconclusive. Please feel free to dispute my assumptions/calculations.
35
Is the lift of helium variable depending on barometric pressure at different altitudes? Ft. Collins says they're at 4984 ft.
36
They are now saying (on CNN) that the boy may have been in a box, or basket, attached to the balloon, and that it may have fallen and crashed to the ground right after take-off.
IF that is possible, that he/the box weren't too heavy to allow balloon to take off. You all know physics better than me
IF that is possible, that he/the box weren't too heavy to allow balloon to take off. You all know physics better than me
37
I didn't see the movie Up, but I do know that the main character takes off in a balloon for an adventure.
38
@ 19 et al.
Was thinking the same thing when I heard that they called the news station before/instead of anyone else. Do parents think to call the news first when theres a situation?
Hope I'm wrong, but...
Was thinking the same thing when I heard that they called the news station before/instead of anyone else. Do parents think to call the news first when theres a situation?
Hope I'm wrong, but...
39
You fucking killed your kid, asshole. Good work.
I hope you rot in jail for a good, long time. Involuntary manslaughter can carry one hell of a sentence in Colorado.
I hope you rot in jail for a good, long time. Involuntary manslaughter can carry one hell of a sentence in Colorado.
41
@38 I hadn't heard that their first call was to the media, but if that is true, it's not detracting from my theory.
Advertisement
Most Commented on Slog
-
SL Letter of the Day: Pill The Homos! by Dan Savage
-
SL Letter of the Day: Daddy Loves Who? by Dan Savage
-
SL Letter of the Day: Life Sentence by Dan Savage
-
Crowdsourcing Uncut Police Video from the Dec. 12 Occupy Protest at the Port of Seattle by Eli Sanders
-
The AP Is Reporting That Whitney Houston Is Dead by Paul Constant
-
Slog Bible Study: Deuteronomy 21:10-14 by Goldy
-
Because Guns Make Us Safer by Goldy
-
The Onion Is on a Roll: "Iran Worried U.S. Might Be Building 8,500th Nuclear Weapon" by Charles Mudede
-
Gregoire: "This is signed!" by Eli Sanders
-
Gay Kids Are Still Killing Themselves by Dan Savage
RSS
Facebook
Twitter
Comments (43) RSS