Make sure to read story at bottom…



“Good news is that I truly out did myself this year with my Christmas  decorations. The bad news is that I had to take him down after 2 days. I had more people come screaming up to my house than ever.Great stories. But two things made me take it down.

First, the cops advised me that it would cause traffic accidents as they almost wrecked when they drove by.

Second, a 55 year old lady grabbed the 75 pound ladder almost killed herself putting it against my house and didn’t realize it was fake until she climbed to the top (she was not happy). By the way, she was one of many people who attempted to do that. My yard couldn’t take it either. I have more than a few tire tracks where people literally drove up my yard.”

Posted via email from jeffgoddard’s posterous

The MIT Team won.  Interesting quote at the end of a government press release.

See the release here.

Join Team Goddard in finding the DARPA Red Balloons on December 5th 2009 !

Have you seen a balloon like this today?

Email us with your name and exact balloon location to  jeff@goddard.com

By joining Team Goddard, you could be splitting a $40,000 prize!

The Contest

The challenge is to be the first to submit the locations of 10 moored, 8-foot, red, weather balloons at 10 fixed locations in the continental United States. The balloons will be in readily accessible locations and visible from nearby roads. They will only be visible during daylight hours on Saturday, December 5.

A $40,000 cash prize will be awarded to the first entrant to submit the latitude and longitude of all ten balloons.

Team Goddard Strategy

Our basic strategy is “Largest Network”.  The usefulness of a network increases when the number of its users increases.  If you find a balloon, you cannot win this challenge yourself.  You need a team – Team Goddard.

I found a balloon – what should I do?

Email us with your name and exact balloon location to  jeff@goddard.com

In this contest, the exact location of the balloon is important.  Use a GPS device to determine your location.  For Garmin devices, you can press the “car” in the middle of the screen to save your exact location.

Prize Money

How is Team Goddard going to split the $40,000 prize?  After expenses, the actual balloon finders and 1 verifier per balloon will split the remaining money. If we find all 10 balloons, the 20 people will split approx. $38,000.

Team Goddard organizers are playing this contest purely for the thrill.

Stuff for Bots

Common thoughts on the challenge:  Why are there red balloons?  Where did these strange balloons come from?  Why is a man holding a red balloon? Team Goddard.  What is this contest about weather ballloons?  Weird red balloons in the news.  Balloon Network Challenge.  Spot the Balloons.  Find 10 red DARPA balloons.

Check it out here.