Chinese "weather" balloon shoot-down over US

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Foxy Loxy said "A piece of it just hit me on the head!"

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Rive said:
Reminds me of the old joke about peeing in the swimming pool.
You know, even if it's a bit fuzzy thing, doing it from the jump board is kind of different...
Remember Lockheed U-2 spy plane ? I guess Soviets found a way at that time. They've used urine-indicator dye and hence located the perpetrator (wee-wee master) as well as being able to measure the exact height of the jump board. And what's with that (almost) everyday violation of "one China" principle ? Somebody is obviously violating the airspace of China on a daily basis 😂
 
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Frabjous said:
A lot of bad can be justified with this class of argument.
I'm not justifying anything. I'm just saying it's a fact 😁
 
boneh3ad said:
They already released the preliminary findings. Just like they thought, tons of SIGINT equipment for measuring and triangulating signals. A propeller with a rudder. It's a spy balloon.
If you say so. And if the US gov says so 🤡
 
discoversci said:
If you say so. And if the US gov says so 🤡
(last reminder to avoid heading too much into politics, or this thread will be done. Thank you)
 
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It's hard not to read into the current events without putting it into the context of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan, and the US pledge to enter into a direct war with China to defend Taiwan if necessary. Just prior to the balloon incident, a memo leaked from a US 4 star general, saying that he predicts the US and China will be at war by 2025 for these reasons.

In this context, the balloon incident can be a signal. By flying a blatantly visible spy balloon over the US nuclear missile silos, it sends the message that China is preparing, or prepared, to engage the US in a nuclear war if it comes to it. By showing they are serious about this possibility, it can potentially help deter the US from taking the risk to defend Taiwan.
 
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berkeman said:
It was at 40,000 feet, so deemed a threat to civilian aircraft...
Since my daughter is a pilot, I'm glad they shot the damned thing down.
 
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'It was a success': White House says a second 'high altitude object' shot down over Alaska​

WASHINGTON — The U.S. shot down an unidentified object Friday over frozen waters near Alaska at the order of President Joe Biden, less than one week after shooting down a Chinese spy balloon off the East Coast.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news...tude-object-shot-own-over-alaska/11229937002/

This balloon is thought to have originated at little Cindy Davis's birthday party. Cindy and her friends have no comment so far.
 
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There are many great rivalries in aviation...
F4U vs A6M
Bf-109 vs Spitfire
MiG-15 vs F-86
MiG-21 vs F-4
F-15 vs Su-27
and at last the F-22 vs Balloons
 
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Ivan Seeking said:
This balloon is thought to have originated at little Cindy Davis's birthday party. Cindy and her friends have no comment so far.
Just an update -- Cindy's dad was wearing a parachute and was able to bail out as the F22s approached...
lawn-chair-larry_copycat.jpg

https://tilln.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/lawn-chair-larry_copycat.jpg
 
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Jarvis323 said:
In this context, the balloon incident can be a signal. By flying a blatantly visible spy balloon over the US nuclear missile silos, it sends the message that China is preparing, or prepared, to engage the US in a nuclear war if it comes to it. By showing they are serious about this possibility, it can potentially help deter the US from taking the risk to defend Taiwan.
That was my point earlier. It may seem harmless enough, but it could be a prelude to nuclear war. They are apparently probing some of our most sensitive nuclear installations.

But then we lived on the brink of nuclear annihilation on and off for 40 years during the cold war. So, just another day on the farm. Mutually assured destruction has always saved the day so far!
 
Ivan Seeking said:
LOL! I remember the original! And yes, it really did happen - Lawn-chair Larry. I listened to live coverage as he got too close to an airport.
I believe he shot his own balloons too.
 
BillTre said:
I believe he shot his own balloons too.
IIRC, he dropped his BB gun. :oops: But he did come down eventually.
 
The government and media are officially calling the second object, unidentified, and not definitively a balloon. And of course, this is already being cited as one of those UAPs [UFOs] the government was talking about.

NOPE! Don't be fooled by the nonsense! Balloons were specifically identified along with other "sky clutter"

1676075663348.png


https://www.dni.gov/files/ODNI/documents/assessments/Unclassified-2022-Annual-Report-UAP.pdf#:~:text=Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) reporting is increasing, enabling,provided in the classified version of this report.

It is the other 171 unidentified objects where some have demonstrated "unusual flight characteristics or performance capabilities", as cited in the last sentence, that get interesting.
 
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Ivan Seeking said:
The government and media are officially calling the second object, unidentified, and not definitively a balloon. And of course, this is already being cited as one of those UAPs [UFOs] the government was talking about.

At some point, we may start to see deniable (i.e. no distinguishing features) decoy balloons designed to get governments to waste their resources tracking and shooting them.
 
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You'll know we've come full circle when the balloons go a full circle and we start shooting down our own decoys.
 
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The comedians seem surprisingly slow. I would have expected to see various cartoons involving Winnie the Pooh hanging from a balloon... :oldbiggrin:
 
strangerep said:
The comedians seem surprisingly slow. I would have expected to see various cartoons involving Winnie the Pooh hanging from a balloon... :oldbiggrin:
FoFIUPzXkAMPrqP.jpg


I have seen a couple of Chinese versions of the incident but that point of view would get banned as politics.
 
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fresh_42 said:
I must somehow think of Nena.
Post #141. German with English subtitles.
 
Swamp Thing said:
At some point, we may start to see deniable (i.e. no distinguishing features) decoy balloons designed to get governments to waste their resources tracking and shooting them.

That was a big concern back in the 50s and 60s. The fear was that the Soviets would send many dummy crafts to overwhelm the defense systems. And we were worried about these things causing a panic.

Also, the Brookings Report (1960) concluded that belief in alien life could be severely disruptive to society. So that was a problem as well as the UFO craze was intimately connected to other cold war concerns.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brookings_Report
 
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NORAD is tracking more objects through the Northern US and Canada, that could be additional spy balloons.
 
Ivan Seeking said:
NORAD is tracking more objects through the Northern US and Canada, that could be additional spy balloons.
Since this looks like it is going to be a regular occurrence, they now have 10.5 months to develop the technology to not accidentally shoot down Santa.
 
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