Balloon flights like SABLE-3 are nothing new and being done regularly by numerous groups, and even individuals, so what happened next, after the SABLE-3 web page was published on Thursday, was not expected and I find it all very amusing. Within 24 hours the SABLE-3 web page & story were already on gizmodo.com where their story was viewed 91,984 times by Friday at 2 PM and numerous comments were received. During this time the gizmodo story was also on digg.com where it was dugg 1782 times and received another 120 comments and by Friday evening there were 34 different blogs at www.blogsnow.com with links to the SABLE-3 web page.

I knew something unusual was happening during this period as my internet connection had become ever increasing slow, but didn't know exactly why until my son Garrett called me on Saturday to let me know that my web site couldn't be accessed, but not to worry as the server was fine and that it was simply being slash-dotted. I had never heard that term before so Garrett explained how the SABLE-3 web page was the latest hot news story and the rest is best summed up by the comment in one blog, that said "The site seems to be getting hammered right now".

Now for the rest of the story - Tony's home town paper, the Hanna Herald, ran a story about Tony's Sable-1 flight in 2006 and it was no surprise to see the paper run another story about his Sable-3 flight, but this was just the first of many interview requests & published stories this time. Email requests and phone calls have not only been received from other local papers, but foreign magazines and news agencies like RainyDayMagazine, the Next Magazine in Hong Kong, and barcroftmedia.com, an international news & features agency in London, England. Barcroftmedia provides stories to newspapers and magazines in Europe and around the world and sent Tony a scan of the story that appeared in the Scottish Daily Record in Glasgow.

Wednesday, Sept 5 - The story made the Globe and Mail today and their story & interview with Tony is the best yet. Tony also appeared on CBC radio today and the interview can be heard HERE.

Friday, Sept 7 - Tony appeared on the Edmonton CityTV Breakfast Television show this morning and, after just finally being able to browse the web again, web service suddenly slowed when the SABLE-3 web page address was mentioned and my internet service and server were once again 'hammered' with web page requests.

 

Friday, Sept 14 - Today the story made front page of the local Sherwood Park News.

Monday, Sept 17 - Someone has turned the web page into a very nicely done Power Point Presentation, but it would have been nice if they had at least asked for permission to use the copyrighted pages as full size, high-res images could have then been supplied which would have been much better to use then the small low-res images stolen off the web site.

We tried to keep track of everywhere this story appeared, especially in print form, but it quickly became impossible to keep up and Google, after only a week, now lists 26,700 web pages with the story and the list grows daily. And in addition to all of the email interview requests, requests for help to do this same thing have also been received from around the world plus one that simply wanted to let us know that the folks at the Canadian Consulate in San Diego had spotted the story and were circulating it.

And finally, many of the countless comments and replies found on as many web pages are very interesting, but this one from digg.com is one of my favourites -
     Comment: What kind of guys normally launch balloons?
          Reply - The ones that have their pants pulled up to their chests, hair slicked back with Brylcreem,
                           and thick black framed glasses with tape holding one of the hinges together.
          Reply - Guys that don't spend all day on Digg? Guys that actually *do* stuff?