Authorities are trying to rescue the balloon but there's no much they can do about it, as the UFO is flying without control over northeastern Colorado, pushed by 15 to 20mph southwest wind. According to Eloise Campanella, Larimer County Sheriff's Officer spokeswoman, "the device could rise to 10,000 feet." At that altitude, temperature is very low and there's little air to breathe.

The balloon was made with helium balloons and tinfoil by his father, Richard Heene (who is quite a weird character, as you can see in the video of him trying to prove life in Mars). Hopefully things won't end dramatically this time, and we will see a happy ending so the people at Pixar can make a follow up to Up!.

Update 1: The flying saucer is down. The boy is OK, but it's not clear yet if he was in the balloon or not. MSNBC is saying now that the kid wasn't on the balloon after they said he was, but CBS just said he was.

Update 2: Boy is not in the balloon. County sheriff is saying that the Colorado emergency office and various sheriff offices are organizing a search and rescue operation.

Update 3: They are evaluating areas for the search.

Update 4: The Heene family is one weird bunch. Once upon a time, they participated in ABC's WifeSwap:

The Heene family from Colorado live life on the edge. Wife Mayumi (43) and storm scientist Richard (45) take their three kids, Bradford (8), Ryo (7) and Falcon (5), out of school to go on storm chasing missions to prove Richard's theories about magnetic fields and gravity. If conditions are right, Mayumi wakes her family by shouting "Storm Approaching, Storm Approaching!" into a bullhorn. The family sleep in their clothes so they can leap out of bed and into the storm-mobile. Richard calls Mayumi his 'ninja wife'; she maintains equipment, drives the storm-mobile, films tornadoes and waits with the kids while Richard jumps on his motorbike, heads into the eye of the storm and launches rockets to measure magnetic forces. At home the family are as chaotic as a twister: the kids have no table manners and throw themselves around the house, and while Richard devotes every moment to his research, he expects Mayumi to cook, clean and run the house without any help.

Meanwhile on a quiet street in Connecticut, the Martel family — wife Karen (43), husband Jay (50) and their two kids, Max (11) and Dean (10) — live a life of calm and safety. Dad is so committed to safety that he runs a child-proofing business devoted to identifying dangers and risks and making sure kids stay out of harm's way. With all the precautions taken to keep them safe, Max and Dean seem to be afraid of everything..."you can fall down the stairs, get cancer from the microwave, get tapeworms from sushi, and the lava lamp could explode..." The Martels conduct safety fire drills, make sure the kids wear protective gear on their bikes and pogo-sticks and never let the boys out of their sight. The atmosphere in the house is calm and serene, and Karen and Jay are equal partners.

Now, enjoy this "rap video" with the three kids.

Update 5: I'm not surprised the father picked an UFO theme for the helium balloon. Check him proving life on Mars on iReport:

Update 6: One of the siblings says he saw Falcon getting into the UFO. Police are looking now for an object—presumably a box—that was seen dropping from the balloon.

Update 7: The boy was actually at home.

Since my son started to drink gas, his IQ has dropped sharply and now he can't figure out simple addition and subtraction. Before that, he was a very smart boy, and he could even repair the television. But now he does not know the answer of 7 plus 17.

No kidding. The worrying thing is that it took a long time for the parents to realize that his son's habits could be bad for him. How long?

He began to drink gasoline five years ago, when we found he liked smelling lighter fuel.

Five years? FIVE FRAKING YEARS? According to the doctors at the Shanghai hospital where he's being treated "the gasoline contains a lot of lead, which can do harm to people's brains. To make thing even worse, the boy is in the physical development stage, and the lead has caused serious damage to his body." Apparently, the parents have been drinking kerosene for the longest time too.

Poor kid, seriously. I hope the parents get their ass in jail for incompetence. The only positive thing in this story: At least he wasn't tased. [Shangai Daily via slashfilm--Thanks GitEmSteveDave!]

Sure, Apple has its shiny white coating of education. The (apparently free) one-hour trip can accommodate up to 25 impressionable youngsters. "Let the children create projects using easy-to-understand software like iMovie and iPhoto!" the site exclaims. "Or they can bring in a project they've already created and turn our store into a theater," the site explains. "Free t-shirts!" furthers the site. Well, Apple, let me tell you this. I will not "bring my enthusiasm," and I will not let you "bring the rest." Children should frolic in parks, not museum-like electronics shops. The t-shirts do look sort of sweet, though. [TUAW]

* Not Safe for Mental Health

I'm afraid this beats the Jesus Switch by a wide margin. [Fail]

His mom said: "He's watching a molecular process happening here, he's creating a climatic event. It's incredible." I don't know what's more incredible: her mom being cool about Forest creating a huge mountain of snow in their backyard or the fact that she's talking about it all as "molecular process."

Forest, if you are reading this, contact us. Brian needs a ski slope to practice his snowboarding on in San Francisco. [Katu and Oregon Live]