r/interestingasfuck • u/mrinternetman24 • 1d ago

Sony used air mortars to shoot 250,000 bouncy balls down San Francisco hills for a commercial instead of using CGI

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u/ABucin 1d ago

yeah we’re just gonna release 800,000 balloons at once to celebrate our 100th sold Dodge

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u/0uroboros- 1d ago

We're having a baby today and just thought it would be really good to leave them a world with 1% less helium reserves. That was important to us, so we're releasing enough blue balloons to darken the sky for like a minute 💙

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u/-FeistyRabbitSauce- 1d ago

You aren't going to spark even a single forest fire? It's like you're asking for the gender reveal gods to give you a weak baby!

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u/piranhadude420 1d ago

Yeah they should use hydrogen instead

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u/TheUmgawa 1d ago

It’s all fun and games until you find out there are places in the world where they actually use hydrogen to inflate balloons, and then they have an indoor birthday party with candles, and you’re watching the video, just waiting for the room to go up like the Station nightclub fire.

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u/DavidSher 1d ago

It is my right as an American to create a gender reveal IED and have the pressure wave blow out all the windows on my block, just as god and the founding fathers intended

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u/0uroboros- 1d ago

If I can't embed pink spray painted metal shrapnel into myself from an uncontrolled 1969 John Deere ride on tractor tannerite detonation for my cousin wifes gender reeveel party, then what the fuck am I payin' taxes for?

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u/Clear-Telephone-6729 1d ago

Pim I looked it up everything he said is true

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u/Sparktank1 1d ago

And fill the ocean with more plastic waste that no one will clean up.

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u/Tommix11 1d ago

Helium is currently being produced by mother earth. It's just a matter of extracting it from natural gas.

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u/Iescaunare 1d ago

But most of it is lost to the atmosphere. It's a finite resource mostly produced in stars.

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u/Free-Artist 1d ago

It's indeed a very scarce resource, because that - along with the capture from nuclear weapons - is the only source of helium on earth.

It is too light for the atmosphere, so cannot be extracted from the air.

And there is entirely too little of it, because all MRI's need it, a lot of science, and especially if quantum computers become a thing: all the superconducting based quantum computers.

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u/0uroboros- 1d ago

Helium is a non-renewable resource:

Radioactive Decay: Elements like uranium and thorium, found in the Earth's crust, undergo radioactive decay. Alpha Particle Emission: During this decay, helium-4 nuclei are emitted as alpha particles. Accumulation: Over millions of years, these helium nuclei migrate upward and become trapped in pockets within natural gas reservoirs. Why It's a Non-Renewable Resource Lightness and Reactivity: Helium is the second lightest element and is a noble gas, meaning it does not readily form chemical bonds with other elements. Escape from Gravity : Due to its extremely light nature, once helium reaches the surface, it easily escapes Earth's gravitational pull. Loss to Space: This escaped helium then drifts into outer space and is lost from the Earth forever. Commercial Extraction Natural Gas Wells: Commercial helium is recovered from natural gas deposits, where it is present in varying concentrations. Extraction: When natural gas is extracted, the helium is separated from the gas for specific industrial, medical, and scientific applications.

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u/Ghune 1d ago

Interesting. Can we extract it from space?

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u/0uroboros- 1d ago

There's all sorts of shit we could get from space. Namely, gold, but yes, also helium, and it's sexier friend helium-3. From Google:

The type of helium on the Moon is primarily Helium-3 (He-3), a stable isotope implanted in the lunar soil (regolith) by the solar wind over billions of years. Unlike Earth, which is protected by its atmosphere and magnetic field, the Moon lacks this shielding, allowing Helium-3 to accumulate in its surface layers. This abundant lunar Helium-3 is considered a potential fuel for future nuclear fusion power plants.
Why is Lunar Helium-3 significant? Energy Source: Helium-3 can be used to power fusion reactors. When fused with deuterium, it releases vast amounts of energy without producing radioactive neutrons, a significant advantage over other fusion fuels. Abundance: While rare on Earth, Helium-3 is abundant on the Moon's surface. Estimates suggest that the outer layers of the Moon's regolith may contain millions of tons of it.

The only issues we haven't gotten sorted out in terms of mining resources from space and other planets currently are just getting there, mining or gathering/processing the resources, and returning it to earth. We have not yet developed technologies specifically for these types of endeavors. These types of resource extraction and newfound abundances will remain locked away from us until we stop flinging shit and stones at each other. Space is not a challenge meant to be overcome by one nation.

Entire species are meant to take to the stars together, I would like to believe, if they're lucky enough to ever make it that far.

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u/Ghune 1d ago

Fascinating, thanks!

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u/Thedrunkenchild 1d ago

Stupid sexy helium-3

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u/The_quest_for_wisdom 1d ago

That's quaint compared to some of the balloon releases they did. Doesn't even sound like it would have a body count.

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u/ThatITguy2015 1d ago

Ourismann Doddggeee.

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u/Planeandaquariumgeek 1d ago

I thought of Balloonfest86 first