"Setting a new world record for the largest balloon cluster flight ever attempted, the entire aircraft from top to bottom was a whopping 10-stories high, made it to an alititude of 10,000 feet, and flew for about an hour."
Crazy? Also, did you know that the world is running out of helium? And that most of the world's helium comes for an area around Amarillo, Texas? Wow, huh? You can read an article here about it, but I'll sum it up for you because it's very technical and sciencey and has lots of words, and really, who has time for that.
So, some science dudes were all like "hey, there's this awesome isotope called helium-3 that's missing a neutron, but it's super rare. But it could be a fuel for a form of nuclear fusion that could take us to frickin' NEPTUNE, man! Neptune!" So in the 60's the U.S. government realized that helium was a handy little guy to have around so they stockpiled a shitload of it underground. Now for some unexplained reason they don't want the helium anymore, which sounds bananas to me, but I'm sure there's some sort of conspiracy going on that involves Tom Hanks. So they're selling off their bunker of helium to just anyone and think it will be all gone in 10-25 years, with the entire stupid earth being virtually helium-free by the end of the century. What sort of planet would that be, with no helium? Sounds like a pretty stupid one, if you ask me, with no floating houses or anything. But anyways, there's a bunch of helium on the moon and some planets and stuff, so we just have to get there to get it. Which is totally worth it for party balloons. Totally.
You are hilarious- I wish we could hang out-
ReplyDeleteI'm going to tweet this post because I think it is so HIGHlarious.
Are you on twitter? I'm byladyren
ReplyDeletei wonder how much helium the nat geo peeps wasted floating that house? haha you are such a good science-paraphraser!
ReplyDeleteI'm so confused about the helium shortage. I thought it was something you could just create. Would if my kids don't know that balloons can float? That would be a nightmare.
ReplyDeletethere's also going to be shortages of like, everything else around then too so basically we're screwed.
ReplyDeletewait, what? i've been to Amarillo. is that what it's good for? helium storage?
ReplyDeletei love these pics, just what i needed to see. and thanks for sumerizing all the science stuff, much easier to read. ;)
ReplyDeletetrip to amarillo anyone?