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US aircraft shoots down new airborne object over Canada

bbc.com

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Re: US aircraft shoots down new airborne object over Canada

#271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it just me or does this sound unremarkable? If we take one question mark from each event, we can construct a very spooky narrative. But none of the question marks, on their own, seem all that peculiar.

HN vibe when ET life is finally acknowledged by government: “ is it just me or does this sound unremarkable? I mean think about it the universe is so big. We’ve always welcomed open minded scientific inquiry on this forum, I don’t think any of us ever seriously doubted we’d eventually find ET life. Why is this on front page? Let’s get back to bickering over the latest shiny tech fad.” Hehe

1. It is lowest of the low rhetoric to argue from what a hypothetical exaggerated caricature in a hypothetical situation would say. If you want to upset people then keep doing it, but I advise punching above the belt.

2. We've got a bunch of balloons in the air. Balloons are a technology dating back to before they started keeping records [0]. If it turns out people aren't registering every single balloon flight with every government then that isn't really a surprise. Drones are in the mix now too.

2b. People are going to use balloons to spy on each other. That isn't new. Governments spy on everything all the time. These comments are probably being logged in a super-database somewhere in the NSA, in the GRU and the Chinese Ministry of State Security. While it makes a good story it is not evidence of change unless someone does the legwork to show that it wasn't just a slow news week.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_ballooning

Re: US aircraft shoots down new airborne object over Canada

#274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you even read the article? > The Pentagon said the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) detected the object over Alaska late Friday evening. U.S. fighter jets from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, monitored the object as it crossed over into Canadian airspace, where Canadian CF-18 and CP-140 aircraft joined the formation.

I did read the article, yes. It was the US plane that did the actual take down. Of course RCAF planes joined, how much more pathetic would it have been if only foreign planes did the work. Did Canadian planes join in the other day when the Alaska one was shot down? Of course not, because the USAF is able to do it on their own, unlike the RCAF, which was my original point.

Because that's how it's supposed to work. The US and Canada work together to defend their combined airspace. They're literally under the same chain of command, hence "NORAD". It would be rather inefficient to set that up and then have both countries redundantly responding everywhere.

Re: US aircraft shoots down new airborne object over Canada

#275
post #253

UFOs are just spy drones with sensor jammers and detectors that are designed to look strange and unnerving to pilots so they will scope them out. Pilots are trained NOT to go by them or engage with them for fear of secrets leaking.

> UFOs are just spy drones with sensor jammers and detectors…

They can be, but they can also be weapons.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fu-Go_balloon_bomb

Re: US aircraft shoots down new airborne object over Canada

#276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm convinced that's why the balloons haven't been shot down in the past. Learning our detection abilities is probably way more important for China than anything they would be able to take a picture of.

Yeah, I don't think that's it. Detecting a balloon doesn't take any exotic technology. Now a hypersonic missile, or a stealth plane -- that would be a test. But losing one of those would be pretty expensive.

> Detecting a balloon doesn't take any exotic technology.

Don't they have radar signatures only rivaling that of a lawnmower?

Re: US aircraft shoots down new airborne object over Canada

#277
post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm convinced that's why the balloons haven't been shot down in the past. Learning our detection abilities is probably way more important for China than anything they would be able to take a picture of.

People can see these with the naked eye (or with cameras). If our sophisticated defense systems are failing to match the naked eye... something is wrong.

Most of Canada is unoccupied wilderness. It's a crapload of ground to cover and no naked eyes to be found.

Re: US aircraft shoots down new airborne object over Canada

#280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

UFO just means unidentified.

Yeah, but my point is UFO means alien craft in popular parlance, hence the clickbait.

It's good to remind people what UFO really means. I've heard some ridiculous things from very popular American podcaster Joe Rogan recently.
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