That's no plane wreck, that's a Google Wi-Fi balloon Emergency Services in New Zealand town today scrambled to assist what they thought was a downed plane, but actually turned out to be one of Google's Project Loon WiFi-beaming balloons. Project Loon is Google's attempt to become an ISP of sorts by floating balloons over parts of the world where internet access is not often …
Thinking back on the nostalgic days of dialup modems and the lovely cacaphony of squeals, buzzs, snarls, pops, growls, hisses and whinging connection sounds ... those same sounds emitted from a loudspeaker as the cluster-pod plummeted to earth would be an appropriate signal that ... while all may not be well, it is not a life-threatening event ... unless you're standing under it, looking up ... waiting for a connection, maybe ??
"We coordinate with local air traffic control authorities and have a team dedicated to recovering the balloons when they land."
I just have this vision of lots of blokes charging around on quadbikes trying to catch the next baloon as it comes down and belt it back into the air.
Why should Google pay for the emergency response? The responders were not responding to a request for assistance or looking for aircraft that had failed to be where they were supposed to be. This is a typical government 'over response' and if anybody should be paying it's the emergency services that rush out without the slightest idea of what they're going out to do. There are protocols galore, even up there in New Zealand, about downed aircraft and none of them were followed. They didn't have the slightest idea of what they were doing, that isn't the fault of Google.
That just backs up my point. The first responders didn't know what they were responding to. If they're going to make it SOP to throw resources at an unknown then that's their issue, and their issue alone.
You don't dispatch a helicopter and ground teams simultaneously unless you know what you're getting into. Otherwise the only point of the first ground crew is to radio for a second ground crew to bring the appropriate equipment. Just everything about the response was wrong. It's good practice, but again, funding practice drills is their issue.
"promised to recompense emergency services for their time and effort"
No too specific are they? "Recompense" could mean anything from paying the full cost of the exercise to sending the participants a token (tax deductible) gift of some kind, I hope those chaps (and chapesses of course) enjoy their free Google tee shirts.
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Special Friday Google related bonus quiz:
Q: What's the difference between cynicism and pragmatism?
A: What do you mean "difference"?
Standard New Zealand fire service charges for a false alarm attendance start at $500 and go up from there.
Cheviot is rural enough that
1: This kind of thing is mostly handled by volunteers (usualy rural areas in NZ have 1-2 cops covering an area the size of switzerland, everything else is volunteer-run from the fire brigade to the ambulance service)
2: False alarms are rare enough that they're regarded as good practice for the real thing.
It's good that Google have offered to pay. It will be appreciated by the people concerned and probably go towards patching a hole in the fire station roof.
It's good that Google have offered to pay. It will be appreciated by the people concerned and probably go towards patching a hole in the fire station roof.
Yes I was being rather mischievous and I'm certain that Google will pay the full amount.
I'm also sure their accountants will consider it a one-off extraordinary expense that can be written off 100% against tax so tell me, who is really paying for it?
Ok, late as it is, I'm going to explain this to my downvoter because apparently they don't understand money.
There is a pool of tax money extracted from the general population, corporations and so on, from which a small amount is taken to pay for this service. That money is taken and paid no matter what.
Assume Google don't offer to pay directly. The tax money - which includes taxes that Google paid already - is used to pay for the costs of this excursion. Google theoretically pays indirectly for the outcome.
Now we take the reality: google offer to pay directly. Their money pays directly for the whole thing. Lets assume they then write it off at 100%. In this scenario the amount of money sloshing around hasn't changed. All that has changed is that google directly pays the emergency services rather than paying that money into the general tax pool, from which the services are subsequently paid.
Either way, google pays.
The only way to see this as a net loss is to assume that the government deserves the tax money that google hypothetically wrote off, which is such a bloody stupid assumption that I don't even know where to begin.
...about very high altitude wind patterns and how they vary with season, latitude and general "weather" effects? Are Google sure there's no Sargasso sea, Doldrums or Gyre effect equivalent up there?
Will we end up with a Great Atmospheric Garbage Patch full of Google WiFi Loons? I'm assuming that these Google Loons will be designed for an aerial duration as long as possible.
Alien icon, because we all just know that UFO reports will increase in line with the size of the Google Loon fleet.
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