Social Experiment for Prizes! Yellow ribbons and red balloons (messin’ with DARPA)

So; someone pointed me to a rather interesting contest by DARPA, the DARPA Network Challenge. Now, I appreciate what DARPA tries to do as much as the next guy (basically throwing money at problems hoping someone finds the solution).  But, this context in particular struck my fancy; socially organizing a way to find, locate and then tell the government where something is for a prize.  Granted a bit of big-brother outsourcing, but I found the idea curious nonetheless.

Basically, DARPA is going to place 10, 8′, red, anchored weather balloons around the US; and thenwants people to use social networking to find them all and report in for a prize.  One thing I instantly thought of, is “hey, I want to do another social experiment”.  So, here’s the skinny: For each person that hangs up (within their local laws, legally) an 8′ red weather balloon somewhere visible in the US and provides a photo I’ll list you here and send you $15 US via PayPal to cover your expenses and buy a fancy coffee (up to a max 15 entries).

What’s the point?

1. To give DARPA another angle to deal with, dealing with extraneous data… it is social networking after all
2. To show just how fast ordinary people can get out there and organize when needed.
3. Hey, it’ll be funny too

Let the balloonigans begin!

Edit: Yes, things that look similar to 8′ red weather balloons do count, including painting a similarly sized white balloon red.
[and just one more note to do this legally, don't go setting up the balloons on someone's else lawn without permission, etc]