San Franciscans Angry Over Video Game Balloon Stunt

, in addition to the balloons being %100 biodegradable,
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there are different levels of biodegradability, just because something is biodegradable doesn't mean it'll breakdown anywhere, there are many types of "biodegradable" materials that if somehow put underwater won't break down, wood comes to mind. And 100% organic? *sigh*... Fucking stupid, they make pesticides that are 100% organic too, doesn't mean I'd want to inhale it.


the game publishing company received the proper permits from the city before going ahead with the balloon ad promotion.
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Could be they got permits to do their ad campaign, maybe not specific to what they could do.


"The balloons released at the Homefront rally event today were made from a 100% organic product and are 100% biodegradable. The balloons have no history of causing any environmental pollution on land or in water
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Not to be picky here, but seriously how long have organic/biodegradable balloons been in existence? Could be why there's no history...

That said, I couldn't care less about the crap that is given to these balloons, yet some prick neighbor of mine thinks the telephone pole in front of my house is also an appropriate garbage dump.
 
Ualdayan said:
The point is that 'it's biodegradable' doesn't matter much, if something is where you don't want it I don't think somebody else can say 'Calm down.. it's biodegradable so it doesn't matter.'
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No one is saying it doesn't matter. If it truly didn't matter, THQ wouldn't have hired a cleanup crew. That being said, you have to evaluate the severity of the implications of this stunt. In your comparison, you likened the severity of a balloon landing your yard to someone taking a dump on it. I would suggest that the implications aren't equally severe. Would you agree?
 
Disposed said:
Got a link to that ridiculously fake law?
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California Penal Code Chapter 1559 Section 653.1. www.leginfo.ca.gov

Balloons; electrically conductive material or appurtenance; sale, distribution or release outdoors; reports

No person shall sell or distribute any balloon which is constructed of electrically conductive material, and filled with a gas lighter than air without:
Affixing an object of sufficient weight to the balloon or its appurtenance ex: ribbon, string, etc. to counter the lift capability of the balloon.
It was later stated that the weight must not be consumable, i.e., no tying foils to bags of candy.
Affixing a statement on the balloon, or ensuring that a statement is so affixed, that warns the consumer about the risk if the balloon come in contact with electrical power lines.
This is already printed on most balloons, but you need to make sure. Add your own warning if it's not printed.
A printed identification of the manufacturer of the balloon.
No person shall sell or distribute any balloon filled with a gas lighter than air, which is attached to an electrically conductive string, tether, streamer, or other electrically conductive appurtenance.
No metallized ribbon on helium filled latex or foils, even if weighted. No helium filled arches built around steel cable, or with metallized ribbons.
No person shall sell or distribute any balloon which is constructed of electrically conductive material and filled with a gas lighter than air, which, is attached to another balloon constructed of electrically conductive material, and filled with a gas lighter than air.
No tying helium filled foils together - each must be individually tied to the weight. No helium filled foil arches (but air-filled foil arches - even on conductive aluminum rod or EMT frames - are OK).
No person or group shall release, outdoors, balloons made of electrically conductive material and filled with a gas lighter than air, as part of a public or civic event, promotional activity, or product advertisement.
No foil balloon releases.
Any person who violates subdivision (a), (b), (c) or (d) shall be guilty of an infraction punishable by a fine not exceeding one hundred dollars ($100). Any person who violates subdivision (a), (b), (c) or (d) who has been previously convicted twice of violating subdivision (a), (b), (c) or (d) shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.
Go directly to jail. Do not pass "Go." Do not collect $200.
This section shall not apply to manned hot air balloons, or to balloons used in governmental or scientific research projects.
Electrical corporations shall report to the Public Utilities Commission every other month, from January 1, 1991, until June 30, 1993 on electrical service disruptions caused by balloons constructed of electrically conductive material, including but not limited to, the location of the service disruption, the composition of the balloon, and the extent of the disruption. The commission shall provide a copy of each electrical corporation's bimonthly report to a representative designated by the metallic balloon manufacturers and shall report the following by December 31, 1993, to the legislature:
The number of outages reported by each electrical corporation on a monthly basis.
A comparison of the monthly outages reported pursuant to Chapter 1122 of the Statutes of 1988, with the monthly outages reported by each electrical corporation pursuant to this act, reflecting the numerical trend of the outages.
 
techie254 said:
No person shall sell or distribute any balloon which is constructed of electrically conductive material, and filled with a gas lighter than air without:
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Read it again. If it said OR that would make a difference.
 
TwistedAegis said:
I live in SF. While all kinds of stupid crap comes out of here (see: Happy Meal toy ban, banning circumcision, sanctuary city, etc etc etc) I don't know how a "conservative" can call someone a "fucking hippy" for being pissed off at a company essentially dumping a bunch of trash into the Bay to promote their craptacular game.
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To be fair, the people outraged over this probably are fucking hippies even though it's a stupid stunt for a stupid game.
 
Not to pick on anyone but San Francisco needs to be "up in arms" about all the REGULAR pollution they have before worrying about balloons.

We drove from Alaska to Las Vegas this summer, stopped and got pictures at all the famous landmarks. The only two places on the entire trip that we couldn't get pictures (after driving hundreds of miles out of our way) was the Golden Gate Bridge and the Hollywood sign....

why???

...SMOG. When brownish-yellow smog so thick it obscures and entire bridge / huge sign, you've got bigger problems than biodegradable balloons. :eek:
 
Steve said:
Not to pick on anyone but San Francisco needs to be "up in arms" about all the REGULAR pollution they have before worrying about balloons.

We drove from Alaska to Las Vegas this summer, stopped and got pictures at all the famous landmarks. The only two places on the entire trip that we couldn't get pictures (after driving hundreds of miles out of our way) was the Golden Gate Bridge and the Hollywood sign....

why???

...SMOG. When brownish-yellow smog so thick it obscures and entire bridge / huge sign, you've got bigger problems than biodegradable balloons. :eek:
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We have spare the air days. However during the .com era millions of people moved to the bay area and as you may know there's horrible public transportation outside of San Francisco. With the influx of people and lack of infrastructure we have too many people with too many cars etc etc etc. I think I heard somewhere that California has a larger population than all of Canada.

That and all the hippies smoking dope. ha J/K. I don't care what people smoke, just don't blow it in my face.
 
Well - I chalk most of the comments here as expected from the southern and central states that make a vast majority of the [H]ard Community. In regions such as Texas, I would suppose some balloons in your yard would be a welcome addition to the rusted cars and beer cans. Old furniture, broken toys and bottles.

:eek: Please know that those of us here on the west coast are a little more progressive than the rest of America. So you will forgive us if we do not want to look at a bay full of litter. Surely had this been in the south somewhere, the stunt would have been more well received as I see you all take from the style portfolio of the THQ marketing company - but with an added twist of the genre you find throughout your lives in the south and central states...such as rusted cars and beer cans. Old furniture, broken toys and bottles. :rolleyes:
 
Disposed said:
Got a link to that ridiculously fake law?
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I didnt read that it was for conductive balloons only.

Here is the text of the law in California regarding balloon releases. It is CALIFORNIA
PENAL CODE SECTION 653.1. You can also see this law on www.leginfo.ca.gov

653.1. (a) No person shall sell or distribute any balloon which is constructed of electrically conductive material, and filled with a gas lighter than air without:

(1) Affixing an object of sufficient weight to the balloon or its appurtenance to counter the lift capability of the balloon.
(2) Affixing a statement on the balloon, or ensuring that a statement is so affixed, that warns the consumer about the risk if the balloon comes in contact with electrical power lines.
(3) A printed identification of the manufacturer of the balloon.

(b) No person shall sell or distribute any balloon filled with a gas lighter than air, which is attached to an electrically conductive string, tether, streamer, or other electrically conductive appurtenance.
(c) No person shall sell or distribute any balloon which is constructed of electrically conductive material and filled with a gas lighter than air, which, is attached to another balloon constructed of electrically conductive material and filled with a gas lighter than air.
(d) No person or group shall release, outdoors, balloons made of electrically conductive material and filled with a gas lighter than air, as part of a public or civic event, promotional activity, or product advertisement.
(e) Any person who violates subdivision (a), (b), (c), or (d) shall be guilty of an infraction punishable by a fine not exceeding one hundred dollars ($100). Any person who violates subdivision (a), (b), (c), or (d) who has been previously convicted twice of violating subdivision (a), (b), (c), or (d) shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.
(f) This section shall not apply to manned hot air balloons, or to balloons used in governmental or scientific research projects.
 
That's why the balloons were in the water, pushed down by the smog. :p
Maybe SF needs to worry about the amount of fucking bums on their streets. That is all I saw when I was there last...and hairy broads.
 
Here is another aspect of it. What they did, in essance, was littering. Yes, it will biodrgrade, but litter is litter. Like someone said before me, just because its biodegradeable doesent mean you can take a shit on my front yard. They need to at least pick up there litter like the rest of us.
 
It takes 6 months to degrade people which is still a long time. If you don't mind people throwing crap like that around your house then I can go over there and spit 100% bio degradable gum all around your house and see how you like it.
 
You have to realise that video games make normally sane people KILL PEOPLE and that anything even remotely related to video games makes normally sane people KILL PEOPLE TOO. Therefore these balloons are just time bombs just waiting to go off because think of the horror that would happen if a little girl picked up one of these death balloons. OMG its like FEAR was a prophecy.EVERYONE LOCK UP YOUR DAUGHTERS!!!!!!!.







¬_¬..........
 
Soulblaze said:
Well - I chalk most of the comments here as expected from the southern and central states that make a vast majority of the [H]ard Community. In regions such as Texas, I would suppose some balloons in your yard would be a welcome addition to the rusted cars and beer cans. Old furniture, broken toys and bottles.

:eek: Please know that those of us here on the west coast are a little more progressive than the rest of America. So you will forgive us if we do not want to look at a bay full of litter. Surely had this been in the south somewhere, the stunt would have been more well received as I see you all take from the style portfolio of the THQ marketing company - but with an added twist of the genre you find throughout your lives in the south and central states...such as rusted cars and beer cans. Old furniture, broken toys and bottles. :rolleyes:
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This is why so many people hate San Francisco progressives. You try to put yourself on a pedestal. There's trash everywhere in San Francisco and it's not just the garbage. Don't even bother with the roads because they're absolutely awful.

Try Austin Texas. It's the progressive part of Texas, but at least their progressives aren't cold arrogant asses. I even met people from SF that moved to Austin and they said they'd never move back to SF because it's cold and they weren't talking about the weather.
 
Soulblaze said:
Well - I chalk most of the comments here as expected from the southern and central states that make a vast majority of the [H]ard Community. In regions such as Texas, I would suppose some balloons in your yard would be a welcome addition to the rusted cars and beer cans. Old furniture, broken toys and bottles.

:eek: Please know that those of us here on the west coast are a little more progressive than the rest of America. So you will forgive us if we do not want to look at a bay full of litter. Surely had this been in the south somewhere, the stunt would have been more well received as I see you all take from the style portfolio of the THQ marketing company - but with an added twist of the genre you find throughout your lives in the south and central states...such as rusted cars and beer cans. Old furniture, broken toys and bottles. :rolleyes:
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I understand why people would be upset since littering is still littering. However SF has bigger problems to worry about than this. How about a bay full of bums and criminals?

Skirrow said:
EVERYONE LOCK UP YOUR DAUGHTERS!!!!!!!.

¬_¬..........
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Why, is Steve in town again?
 
sc3252 said:
It takes 6 months to degrade people which is still a long time. If you don't mind people throwing crap like that around your house then I can go over there and spit 100% bio degradable gum all around your house and see how you like it.
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It takes "upto", not it takes 6 months. The upto part means it's being spouted by the hippies, so we're probably looking at under a month.
 
LeninGHOLA said:
SF is a beautiful city, but there is underlying derrangement there. The article itself is unclear. There are several mentions of latex, plastics, yet THQ says they are soy. Latex and soy are both biodegradeable. Where does the plastic come in?
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Trust me, it looks beautiful on the outside, but once you are on the inside, the derangement hits you full in the face. You wait until a homeless dreg shits right in front of you, or throws themselves in front of your car and claims you hit them, or you get assaulted at the Folsom Street Fair, or you are harassed if you go anywhere the Polk or the Castro districts for being a heterosexual of all things, the beauty of the city vanishes pretty damn quick.
 
pgwalsh said:
This is why so many people hate San Francisco progressives. You try to put yourself on a pedestal. There's trash everywhere in San Francisco and it's not just the garbage. Don't even bother with the roads because they're absolutely awful.]/QUOTE]

I live in the Pacific Northwest - I've never even been to SF. I'm just trolling :D

pgwalsh said:
Try Austin Texas. It's the progressive part of Texas, but at least their progressives aren't cold arrogant asses. I even met people from SF that moved to Austin and they said they'd never move back to SF because it's cold and they weren't talking about the weather.
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I have heard Austin is great :p
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Soulblaze said:
Well - I chalk most of the comments here as expected from the southern and central states that make a vast majority of the [H]ard Community. In regions such as Texas, I would suppose some balloons in your yard would be a welcome addition to the rusted cars and beer cans. Old furniture, broken toys and bottles.

:eek: Please know that those of us here on the west coast are a little more progressive than the rest of America. So you will forgive us if we do not want to look at a bay full of litter. Surely had this been in the south somewhere, the stunt would have been more well received as I see you all take from the style portfolio of the THQ marketing company - but with an added twist of the genre you find throughout your lives in the south and central states...such as rusted cars and beer cans. Old furniture, broken toys and bottles. :rolleyes:
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Having a clean city or clean state isn't indicative of ones progressiveness. The progressive faction in San Fransisco systematically promotes their totalitarian statist nonsense on a daily basis with the egregious regulations burdened on the people that live in that city. No one says a thing for fear of retribution and nothing and no one is more vindictive or spiteful than a scorned progressive.

Oh, and as a disclaimer, I'm a native San Diegan who lives/works in the Bay Area.
 
Soulblaze said:
pgwalsh said:
This is why so many people hate San Francisco progressives. You try to put yourself on a pedestal. There's trash everywhere in San Francisco and it's not just the garbage. Don't even bother with the roads because they're absolutely awful.]/QUOTE]

I live in the Pacific Northwest - I've never even been to SF. I'm just trolling :D



I have heard Austin is great :p
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Austin is looking better and better, but it is texas afterall. :D
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wizdum said:
Its great to see that the state of California has solved all their other problems, so that something as simple as a few biodegradable balloons causes this kind of uproar.
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FYI-

San Francisco != State of California
 
Soulblaze said:
pgwalsh said:
This is why so many people hate San Francisco progressives. You try to put yourself on a pedestal. There's trash everywhere in San Francisco and it's not just the garbage. Don't even bother with the roads because they're absolutely awful.]/QUOTE]

I live in the Pacific Northwest - I've never even been to SF. I'm just trolling :D



I have heard Austin is great :p
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That was an awesome troll. I questioned it in my mind, but bit anyway.

Austin is great. I went a few weeks ago and went to other parts of Texas. I loved it. The people are really friendly, it was rather refreshing.
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Soulblaze said:
Well - I chalk most of the comments here as expected from the southern and central states that make a vast majority of the [H]ard Community. In regions such as Texas, I would suppose some balloons in your yard would be a welcome addition to the rusted cars and beer cans. Old furniture, broken toys and bottles.

:eek: Please know that those of us here on the west coast are a little more progressive than the rest of America. So you will forgive us if we do not want to look at a bay full of litter. Surely had this been in the south somewhere, the stunt would have been more well received as I see you all take from the style portfolio of the THQ marketing company - but with an added twist of the genre you find throughout your lives in the south and central states...such as rusted cars and beer cans. Old furniture, broken toys and bottles. :rolleyes:
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Just about everyone in Texas lives in McMansions bro. Sorry about all the ghettos full of violent poors in your west coast cities.
 
Steve said:
The only two places on the entire trip that we couldn't get pictures (after driving hundreds of miles out of our way) was the Golden Gate Bridge and the Hollywood sign....

why???

...SMOG. When brownish-yellow smog so thick it obscures and entire bridge / huge sign, you've got bigger problems than biodegradable balloons. :eek:
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No offense Steve, but San Francisco really doesn't have a smog problem, at least to the point that it would obscure the entire bridge. Plenty of the other OG... FOG, that does that on a very regular basis though. Due to our windy position on the peninsula most of our smog blows into the East Bay :D
 
Soulblaze said:
I live in the Pacific Northwest - I've never even been to SF. I'm just trolling :D
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Awww - and here I was set to post about not lumping in the entire west coast in with the "progressives". :D (Though the great NW is not without our unique individuals either.)
 
sfsuphysics said:
No offense Steve, but San Francisco really doesn't have a smog problem, at least to the point that it would obscure the entire bridge. Plenty of the other OG... FOG, that does that on a very regular basis though. Due to our windy position on the peninsula most of our smog blows into the East Bay :D
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Thank God Antioch and Pittsburgh are east of me. :D
 
Methadras said:
Trust me, it looks beautiful on the outside, but once you are on the inside, the derangement hits you full in the face. You wait until a homeless dreg shits right in front of you, or throws themselves in front of your car and claims you hit them, or you get assaulted at the Folsom Street Fair, or you are harassed if you go anywhere the Polk or the Castro districts for being a heterosexual of all things, the beauty of the city vanishes pretty damn quick.
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SF is a hellhole. I'm a Bay Area native and I stay away from it at all costs.
pgwalsh said:
Exactly. I see it everyday living in the SF Bay Area and I'm a native. It's not just SF, but the whole peninsula all the way to Santa Cruz. Just like the fact that you can't put in a wood burning fireplace anymore. What made me laugh this weekend was watching someone complain about high gas prices, but had a "Stop Texas Oil" on their license plate, hiptard.
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People here are retarded. Too many extreme liberals who really have an incomplete understanding of how the world works. Granted, no one is expected to know everything about everything, but the "Bay Area" mentality is rather contradicting, especially with how powerful the damn unions have become up here, hence why nothing really gets accomplished around here. Take a look at any construction projects, I see about half a dozen of them on my way to work, and just watch how long it takes for anything to get finished. It's ridiculous.
 
amdgamer said:
I understand why people would be upset since littering is still littering. However SF has bigger problems to worry about than this. How about a bay full of bums and criminals?
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And that's just the people they elect to office :)


I'm also from the west coast (southern california) and I wish we could just split the state in 2 or 3 parts so we didn't have to deal with all the crazyness comming out of the bay area.
 
It's mostly SF and Berkley and maybe some Oakland. The rest of the bay area is alright
 
Environmentalists can have very good intentions with very disastrous results. Wildfires in California come to mind. Nobody wanted wild fires, so for decades they'd put them out before they could take off. Nobody wants trees cut down, or natural areas disturbed at all, so for decades nobody was allowed to cut any trees, even dead underbrush. The result? Lots and lots and lots of dead, dry wood laying around just waiting for the right conditions to spawn an inferno. Instead of either allowing the natural burn cycle to burn away the dead brush, or allowing human intervention to clear out the dead brush and use controlled burns to manage the forest areas near inhabited zones, they created their own recipe for disaster.

That's the bad thing about the Environmentalist movement. You have some sensible people doing science, and you have emotional nuts making law that don't listen to science. San Francisco seems to embody just about every form of insanity of late. I'm not really surprised about this one.
 
I bet if the balloons were released for a promotion of say... the Apple Ipad 2... no one would complain. They would probably ask, "WHEN DOES IT COME OUT? WHERE DO I SEND MY MONEY?"
 
Phoenix333 said:
Environmentalists can have very good intentions with very disastrous results. Wildfires in California come to mind. Nobody wanted wild fires, so for decades they'd put them out before they could take off. Nobody wants trees cut down, or natural areas disturbed at all, so for decades nobody was allowed to cut any trees, even dead underbrush. The result? Lots and lots and lots of dead, dry wood laying around just waiting for the right conditions to spawn an inferno. Instead of either allowing the natural burn cycle to burn away the dead brush, or allowing human intervention to clear out the dead brush and use controlled burns to manage the forest areas near inhabited zones, they created their own recipe for disaster.

That's the bad thing about the Environmentalist movement. You have some sensible people doing science, and you have emotional nuts making law that don't listen to science. San Francisco seems to embody just about every form of insanity of late. I'm not really surprised about this one.
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+10

I could easily put together a long list of similar examples of counter productive regulations but it still wouldn’t matter.

All that matters is the intent, i.e. “save the planet”, not the end results.
 
Methadras said:
Trust me, it looks beautiful on the outside, but once you are on the inside, the derangement hits you full in the face. You wait until a homeless dreg shits right in front of you, or throws themselves in front of your car and claims you hit them, or you get assaulted at the Folsom Street Fair, or you are harassed if you go anywhere the Polk or the Castro districts for being a heterosexual of all things, the beauty of the city vanishes pretty damn quick.
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don't know if it's true, but i heard that about 10-20 years ago SF shut down a bunch of mental institutions and basically released the crazies into the streets. it seems like the homeless vagrants in SF really are on another level. I remember seeing a guy having a full out screaming match with a telephone pole and punching/kicking it repeatedly....at 9am in front of about 50 people who all seemed like it was completely normal occurrence.

i have seen my fair share of insane people before, but SF was special.
 
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