I really need to look into a suppressor. I went way over my helium balloon budget last month, that was NOT cool. Hat to make cutbacks in cashmere socks, smoked cheeses, and artisan salts.
The real crime here is that perfectly good helium to inhale is going to waste. If you’re not killing braincells and staying stupid shit with your lungs full of the nobelest of gases then you’re just not living.
Thoughts?
This just in… combining water and balloons creates an NFA item. I heard a guy got busted last week for constructive intent just by having his kid’s birthday party balloons near the tap in the kitchen. The ATF doesn’t play… except when they do, then they play hard.
That balloon on a stick assassination device is genius…. I love this guy.
I’m actually the most interested in seeing how it effects POI (point of impact), which he doesn’t show at all. I’m sure it messes everything up, but I’d like to see the results regardless. I imagine hollow points wouldn’t be ideal either because they would expand as they travelled through the water.
Thoughts?
Hat tip: Steve, Marco
Are toy firearm related games that break the 4 rules of firearm safety OK? Is this any different than kids shooting each other with water guns? Probably not, although since this game has suicide connotations pulling the game out around certain people might not yield the jovial reaction you were hoping for.
Why not personalise your game like us and put whipped cream or chocolate sauce in the balloon before inflating it. Messy but hilarious!
What a massacre that would be. I’m surprised they didn’t suggest ketchup!
If you’re interested you can pick one up over at Amazon for $17.99
Thoughts?
Initially I thought it was kind of lame they were using a pellet gun, but then I saw the pellet bounce off the one balloon… nice. Still pretty lame though, but judging by the accents they probably don’t live in the US so real guns might be harder to come by.
The dive at 7500fps was pretty cool. High speed cameras definitely seem like one of those things that can automatically make you money if you own or have access to one.
On December 4th I blogged that DARPA was holding a competition (On Dec. 5th) where you could win $40000 in prize money.
My Predictions:
My guess is the correct answer is submitted in less than 30 minutes, on behalf of some sort of tightly knit organization. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.
I wonder if anyone is planning on playing dirty and attaching a bunch of fake decoy balloons at various locations throughout the U.S. … If that is the case then maybe my prediction of 30 minutes isn’t realistic.
The Winner:
The Red Balloon Team of M.I.T. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
I find it unsurprising that M.I.T. won, considering the people that go there are obviously very intelligent.
What I do find surprising though is the lack of information released by M.I.T. or DARPA about the details on the network that was established that led to the win.
There is a useless PDF that the DARPA site links to – HERE and all it says it it took “less than 9 hours”.
The FAQ of the M.I.T. Red Balloon Team offers some insight into the process, but still doesn’t give any details about how many people ended up signing up and how they eventually won.
Kind of anti-climatic considering I thought there would be a lot of fake balloons launched, and other random hi-jinx. Well maybe there was, but who knows, because like I mentioned earlier there seems to be absoultely no information about the progression of the contest.
Here is the map from DARPA on where they placed the 10 Balloons. I wonder what their problem was with the central U.S.?
I was expecting something funny, but not that! haha