Google Internet balloon drops in on farmer

Buyers of the earthly explanation for whatever fell from the sky in Roswell, N.M. back in 1947 are likely to appreciate the reaction of a South African farmer who recently came across what he assumed to be a crashed weather balloon.

In this case, however, the confusion proved only temporary.

From a Wall Street Journal account:

According to a report Thursday in the Afrikaans-language Beeld newspaper, Urbanus Botha, who farms in the arid landscape of the Karoo south of Bloemfontein and Lesotho in the center of South Africa, came across the crashed balloon and initially thought it a weather balloon from the nearby weather station at De Aar. He called up the station’s office but nobody picked up, so he packed it into his pickup truck, thinking that its plastic could come in handy as he planned to repaint his shed.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Network World Paul McNamara