What’s all this balloony stuff anyhow?
The California legislature is voting to ban Mylar balloons because of a perceived danger of shorting power lines. Mylar is a trade name for polyester film which is used in industry as an electrical insulator and therefore cannot cause an electrical short. They should look it up in the dictionary before voting.
Some metallic Mylar balloons have a very thin vacuum deposited aluminum coating which helps seal in the helium gas and makes the balloon reflective. This coating would vaporize instantly if it happened to bridge power lines and the short would be gone before the systems protection devices could react. It’s also unlikely that a toy balloon would be large enough to bridge the several foot gaps between power lines. However, to be on the safe side, they could just limit the size of the metallic coated balloons, not ban them. It’s interesting that our city council voted to ban plastic bags but not plastic balloons which, to a fish, are the same thing.
The power lines are noninsulated copper wire, which, when they blow down, spark brush fires and people. The power company could solve the shorting and safety problems by insulating these lines with a heat resistant insulation such as Teflon, particularly in brush and population areas. Birds can perch on these lines comfortably without getting a hotfoot because they’re on only one line. If a bird with a spread of a stork tried bridging two lines, bye bye birdie. Fortunately, we don’t often see storks perched on power lines.
The ruckus about the perceived brain cancer threat of cell phones goes on but why is the cancer threat of cordless phones ignored? They are both microwave radio transceivers that we use next our brains.
Will Pepperdine use their Olympic size pool for fire fighting and will we see their massive lawn slowly turn brown as their administrators observe water conservation?
Will Lunacy Park use sewer sprinklers similar to those off Las Virgenes in the city’s water conservation effort? Time will tell.
Jack Singleton