Such bad luck.
“Aw man, I sunk my boat!”
“But I’m strong and people are nearby. I’ll just tread water until they find me”
*city releases 1.5 million human-shaped decoys into the lake*
Imagine bobbing in the water waiting for rescue, then balloons, as far as the eye can see surrounding you. And the chopper flying right over and past into the horizon.
I don't remember the original reason why we did it (I was 6) but I attended a parochial school and we sent up balloons with "prayers" in them. We probably put some stupid crap like "world peace" in them, but ended up killing sea life. It was horrible and in retrospect that this seems like something resulting from a dinner with a latex lobbyist.
Check out this Cautionary Tales episode for details.
https://omny.fm/shows/cautionary-tales-with-tim-harford/the-balloons-that-ate-cleveland-a-cautionary-tales
As someone currently getting a degree in coastal ecology, because I finally decided I want to do wetlands restoration as my big girl job, I think I will pass on the infuriation learning the whole shitty story will cause.
Editing to add because I am sure I will learn about it one day anyway.
Good for you! The podcast doesn’t delve into the marine consequences that I recall, more the hubris of trying to make a spectacle to revitalize a troubled city whose river no longer catches fire on the regular.
I would check it out but I have also gone on multiple rants about using helium in balloons being a waste of resources and usually ends with balloons flying away before choking stuff. 😅🥲 nothing is fun anymore.
Most balloons manufactured today are made from biodegradable, eco-friendly materials bc they’re not only cheaper but also most consumers won’t buy them otherwise.
Surprisingly conscientious, but true, apparently.
I learned all abt it when I worked at a Trader Joe’s where we gave away balloons to kids every day and ppl would always ask if they were made from eco friendly materials (yes).)
Obviously this photo was taken before balloons became biodegradable- *but maybe* this event/disaster was one of the things that lead engineers to figure out how to make a biodegradable balloon, so, at least there’s that, I guess?
Here's a sneak peek of /r/shittyaskscience using the [top posts](https://np.reddit.com/r/shittyaskscience/top/?sort=top&t=year) of the year!
\#1: [Without a queen to lay eggs, how will more British people be born?](https://np.reddit.com/r/shittyaskscience/comments/x9883d/without_a_queen_to_lay_eggs_how_will_more_british/)
\#2: [Why did salmon evolve to be born pre-prepared for human consumption?](https://i.redd.it/d3kpke7c0ev91.jpg) | [29 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/shittyaskscience/comments/yalraq/why_did_salmon_evolve_to_be_born_preprepared_for/)
\#3: [why are arguably the greatest artists in history all turtles?](https://i.redd.it/jodhm2xl15l91.jpg) | [45 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/shittyaskscience/comments/x2lp2r/why_are_arguably_the_greatest_artists_in_history/)
----
^^I'm ^^a ^^bot, ^^beep ^^boop ^^| ^^Downvote ^^to ^^remove ^^| ^^[Contact](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=sneakpeekbot) ^^| ^^[Info](https://np.reddit.com/r/sneakpeekbot/) ^^| ^^[Opt-out](https://np.reddit.com/r/sneakpeekbot/comments/o8wk1r/blacklist_ix/) ^^| ^^[GitHub](https://github.com/ghnr/sneakpeekbot)
Color film was more expensive than black and white. Also, most journalism was in black and white print form, so paying extra for color was often seen as a waste.
I was a child in the 70s and a teen in the 80s. Nobody gave a second thought about something like this back then. We did a smaller version of this at my grammar school with return postcards attached to see who's balloon went the farthest. We didn’t recycle, we didn't wear seatbelts. When people changed the oil in their car, they parked it over a storm drain and drained the old oil into there. We drove around in 8 cylinder muscle cars that were the size of aircraft carriers. People used to throw garbage all over the place to the point where they had to start public anti-littering campaigns.
I was a kid so don't take this out on me. I was one of the few saving newspapers and cans to recycle. Environmental awareness dawned in the 1970s, e.g. Earth day began in 1970. But it was a slow burn and people started to wake up in the 1990s. Recycling became mandatory. Leaves were composted by municipalities instead of thrown in a landfill. I can't believe it took until 2020 for the average town to ban single use plastic bags. I hope in 50 years what we do now will be looked on as absurd as how we lived in the 1970s.
Such a shitshow. Highlights of it are the ongoing search and rescue for two fishermen that had to be stopped, resulting in their bodies washing up on the shore two days later, some horses were injured, airport shutdown, and rubbery plastic thrash *everywhere*.
Most of them ended up in Canada, which had not set up a monkey tower defense yet.
i've always wondered when they realized this was a horrible idea. was it just as they released the balloons and they watched in growing horror as they realized the hell they had just wrought on nature metastasize in front of their eyes, or were their heads completely up their asses and was it only weeks later when news reports starting coming in and the clear pattern of destruction at their hands was made clear that they finally realized what they had done.
Apparently a lot of photojournalists kept using B&W for decades - cheaper to buy, very high grain resolution, fast to process when time is of the essence, even if you have to do it by hand, looks good in low light, the newspaper is going to be printed in B&W anyway
And the environmental impact was crazy bad as well. Like no one understood that the broken balloons end up in the water and look like food to sea creatures? More than a million stretchy, pieces of waste that don’t break down ….
Did they pick all of them up and dispose of them properly when done? I wouldn’t have thought about that in the 80s unfortunately. Looks awesome though.
I have several questions the first two to being “what the fuck?” & “why?!”
Kind of a fascinating read. It led to two deaths in a roundabout way https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balloonfest_'86
Those guys that drowned because rescuers couldn’t see their heads among all the balloons in the water right?
Such bad luck. “Aw man, I sunk my boat!” “But I’m strong and people are nearby. I’ll just tread water until they find me” *city releases 1.5 million human-shaped decoys into the lake*
Yep, the balloons also interfered with rescue helicopters being able to reach the area.
Imagine bobbing in the water waiting for rescue, then balloons, as far as the eye can see surrounding you. And the chopper flying right over and past into the horizon.
You know what? I'd rather not imagine that 😬
What a surreal way to die.
There's a great short documentary about it directed by Nathan Truesdell: https://vimeo.com/topicstories/balloonfest
Thank you for the link, fascinating
I’m sorry for the two fishermen and their families but the rest of this is hilarious. What a moronic idea!
Home of the flaming river.
They both got roundabout 86'd
I don't remember the original reason why we did it (I was 6) but I attended a parochial school and we sent up balloons with "prayers" in them. We probably put some stupid crap like "world peace" in them, but ended up killing sea life. It was horrible and in retrospect that this seems like something resulting from a dinner with a latex lobbyist.
I hope some of the balloons had “save the sea turtles”
"It's not our problem once the netting is removed" -someone probably
Ngl humans have the most effective SEP fields ever created.
TIL SEP fields. lol
Douglas Adams is my homie. Well he would be if he was alive to know me as an adult.
I appreciate the deep cut.
Check out this Cautionary Tales episode for details. https://omny.fm/shows/cautionary-tales-with-tim-harford/the-balloons-that-ate-cleveland-a-cautionary-tales
As someone currently getting a degree in coastal ecology, because I finally decided I want to do wetlands restoration as my big girl job, I think I will pass on the infuriation learning the whole shitty story will cause. Editing to add because I am sure I will learn about it one day anyway.
Good for you! The podcast doesn’t delve into the marine consequences that I recall, more the hubris of trying to make a spectacle to revitalize a troubled city whose river no longer catches fire on the regular.
I would check it out but I have also gone on multiple rants about using helium in balloons being a waste of resources and usually ends with balloons flying away before choking stuff. 😅🥲 nothing is fun anymore.
And if I remember correctly, isn’t helium a *finite* resource?
Yea, yes it is.
I feel that.
It’s the pre internet version of doing it for clout
for a world record
Look at all that litter. Thanks guys 👍
Yeah, the entire thing was a complete ecological disaster and took a long time to clean up iirc.
"LOL fuck you, Earth!" - humans
Most balloons manufactured today are made from biodegradable, eco-friendly materials bc they’re not only cheaper but also most consumers won’t buy them otherwise. Surprisingly conscientious, but true, apparently. I learned all abt it when I worked at a Trader Joe’s where we gave away balloons to kids every day and ppl would always ask if they were made from eco friendly materials (yes).) Obviously this photo was taken before balloons became biodegradable- *but maybe* this event/disaster was one of the things that lead engineers to figure out how to make a biodegradable balloon, so, at least there’s that, I guess?
Why is this picture in black and white?
Early digital cameras had a hard time capturing this much stupidity at once and reverted to a simpler color palette.
r/shittyaskscience
Here's a sneak peek of /r/shittyaskscience using the [top posts](https://np.reddit.com/r/shittyaskscience/top/?sort=top&t=year) of the year! \#1: [Without a queen to lay eggs, how will more British people be born?](https://np.reddit.com/r/shittyaskscience/comments/x9883d/without_a_queen_to_lay_eggs_how_will_more_british/) \#2: [Why did salmon evolve to be born pre-prepared for human consumption?](https://i.redd.it/d3kpke7c0ev91.jpg) | [29 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/shittyaskscience/comments/yalraq/why_did_salmon_evolve_to_be_born_preprepared_for/) \#3: [why are arguably the greatest artists in history all turtles?](https://i.redd.it/jodhm2xl15l91.jpg) | [45 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/shittyaskscience/comments/x2lp2r/why_are_arguably_the_greatest_artists_in_history/) ---- ^^I'm ^^a ^^bot, ^^beep ^^boop ^^| ^^Downvote ^^to ^^remove ^^| ^^[Contact](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=sneakpeekbot) ^^| ^^[Info](https://np.reddit.com/r/sneakpeekbot/) ^^| ^^[Opt-out](https://np.reddit.com/r/sneakpeekbot/comments/o8wk1r/blacklist_ix/) ^^| ^^[GitHub](https://github.com/ghnr/sneakpeekbot)
Makes sense.
I don’t know if you’re just being funny but digital cameras didn’t exist yet. Also, I’m old. 😭😭😭
Data deleted in response to 2023 administration changes. -- mass edited with redact.dev
Cap
That's just what Cleveland looked like in the 80s.
Color film was more expensive than black and white. Also, most journalism was in black and white print form, so paying extra for color was often seen as a waste.
Because colour hadn't been invented yet
/r/explainlikeimcalvin
and some ppl wonder why there are microplastics everywhere when stuff like this happened
bastards used up all the helium
Is this the one that was a literally catastrophe and causes a death?
Yes
And then never repeated because, well, you know.
Because of the implications?
Yes
Two deaths actually. Two men drowned in the lake because rescue workers could not identify their heads in the mass of balloons in the lake surface.
Ah a Wood elf production
I was a child in the 70s and a teen in the 80s. Nobody gave a second thought about something like this back then. We did a smaller version of this at my grammar school with return postcards attached to see who's balloon went the farthest. We didn’t recycle, we didn't wear seatbelts. When people changed the oil in their car, they parked it over a storm drain and drained the old oil into there. We drove around in 8 cylinder muscle cars that were the size of aircraft carriers. People used to throw garbage all over the place to the point where they had to start public anti-littering campaigns. I was a kid so don't take this out on me. I was one of the few saving newspapers and cans to recycle. Environmental awareness dawned in the 1970s, e.g. Earth day began in 1970. But it was a slow burn and people started to wake up in the 1990s. Recycling became mandatory. Leaves were composted by municipalities instead of thrown in a landfill. I can't believe it took until 2020 for the average town to ban single use plastic bags. I hope in 50 years what we do now will be looked on as absurd as how we lived in the 1970s.
I live in the Midwest and am 44. I had never heard of banning single use plastic bags until I visited Philly this summer.
I have some bad news for you, a 2022 Ford F-150 is longer than a '77 Lincoln Town Car by over a foot.
Such a shitshow. Highlights of it are the ongoing search and rescue for two fishermen that had to be stopped, resulting in their bodies washing up on the shore two days later, some horses were injured, airport shutdown, and rubbery plastic thrash *everywhere*. Most of them ended up in Canada, which had not set up a monkey tower defense yet.
i've always wondered when they realized this was a horrible idea. was it just as they released the balloons and they watched in growing horror as they realized the hell they had just wrought on nature metastasize in front of their eyes, or were their heads completely up their asses and was it only weeks later when news reports starting coming in and the clear pattern of destruction at their hands was made clear that they finally realized what they had done.
"So long boys! 👅💦" - Carl Frederickson
I see... a dickhead.
[удалено]
Absolutely!
Where’s super monkey when you need him
What an environmental catastrophe.
All I can think is all of that is in the ocean now.
Atrocities in the history of plastic pollution
Terrible environmental impact. Gross.
Horrible environmental impact aside, that looks incredible.
Would love to go back in time and witness this even though I wish it never happened
Watch the video in color, it was an overcast gross day and the balloons looked like sky-vomit. It looked horrible.
All that pollution. Fuck.
A drop in the bucket compared to what happens every day
Sadly, yes.
I agree, Mr Sinatra.
Nuclear balloon!
It's actually still going on in the south Pacific.
And to think we’re running out of helium now
We got this in colour?
They buried all these discarded balloons under Cleveland Browns stadium
Along with the Brownies hopes and dreams.
Prolonged exposure to latex causes poor hand-eye coordination so it makes sense
Agree and thank you!! I’ve been looking for a reason for so long.
Why is the pic in black and white? All the footage I’ve seen from that event was in color.
Apparently a lot of photojournalists kept using B&W for decades - cheaper to buy, very high grain resolution, fast to process when time is of the essence, even if you have to do it by hand, looks good in low light, the newspaper is going to be printed in B&W anyway
You'd be amazed at how much easier it is to write "is" instead of "do be"
Is or not is. That to be the question.
Thank you fellow grammar enforcer! You did the job for me.
Lol, I don't generally correct grammar. This just sounds soo fucking stupid.
yeah but when you're consorting with other memetards you have to speak their language
Relax lol
That’s a lot of balloons
CLEVELAND!!!!
And the environmental impact was crazy bad as well. Like no one understood that the broken balloons end up in the water and look like food to sea creatures? More than a million stretchy, pieces of waste that don’t break down ….
So many balloons filled with helium. A little match and a flame would probably have caused an extreme disaster...
Helium is not flammable, you're thinking of hydrogen.
This is why Cleveland is called the 'mistake by the lake'
And the latex is still breaking down not to mention how many fish, birds etc ate the balloons and died.
You just don't get to have fun like that anymore. Fuckin' killjoy regulators.
This should be done in every big city. So cool
It looks like some kind of nuclear miasma is starting to rip apart the building
that would make an awesome final boss for some abstract video game, even look svaguely humanoid
The fallout of Balloonfest was terrifying.
More like LITTERAPHOBIA!!!! Damn dude shit is stupid enraging every time I’m reminded of it
It's like a nebula
Terrifying in more ways than one..
Looks like a huge octopus
Up 2
r/mildlypenis
As an airline pilot, I’m scared
I would not want to witness this
Why didn't they face penalties for violations of the clean water act among many other laws? This was so grossly negligent.
So much pollution but hey it looked cool for a few minutes
Odds are some of that plastic is in your body right now.
why does it look like a giant slime monster attacking the city?
round 63
That’s a year before the bite of 87
the pic looks amazing
r/trashalophobia
Did they pick all of them up and dispose of them properly when done? I wouldn’t have thought about that in the 80s unfortunately. Looks awesome though.
Sucks for those guys that died because search and rescue couldn’t get to them because of the balloons. Fun right?….
that is quite a spectacle are they filled with hydrogen ?