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Military shoots down another high-altitude object, over Lake Huron: officials

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Re: Military shoots down another high-altitude object, over Lake Huron: officials

#441

Post by uptown »

krapp wrote: post #365
tzs wrote: post #324

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was an amusing short story called "The Road Not Taken" about that. In it gravity manipulation technology turns out to be really simple. It is something every civilization (except one) discovers early, like before they reach what on Earth would have been medieval technology level, and then all their technological development is focused on their gravity technology. The one civilization that somehow missed gravity…

>So when the alien invaders arrive with the FTL ships and release their conquering armies...our automatic machine guns and missiles and tanks and bazookas and such totally outmatch the aliens troops who have flintlock rifles and black powder. That doesn't even make sense. Why would having simple gravity manipulation stop progress on the development of other technologies, particularly weapons? Especially if, as it see…

“ That doesn't even make sense. Why would having simple gravity manipulation stop progress on the development of other technologies, particularly weapons?”

It’s kinda like asking - why have some of the world’s brightest minds spent the past 20 years trying to get people to watch more ads? What else might they have achieved or discovered instead?

Re: Military shoots down another high-altitude object, over Lake Huron: officials

#443

Post by r721 »

mensetmanusman wrote: post #378
kirubakaran wrote: post #346

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That just means the false negative rate of the detector is low. Says nothing about the false positive rate.

How would we read all the banned flame wars though?

Bookmark this page: https://news.ycombinator.com/active ("Most active current discussions", it's findable via "Lists" link in footer)

Re: Military shoots down another high-altitude object, over Lake Huron: officials

#444

Post by [deleted] »

ShredKazoo wrote: post #390
gambiting wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>Also the UN is an absolute joke UN is literally just a forum for countries to meet and discuss matters. Nothing more nothing less. I have no idea why people expect UN to take action, when UN is explicitly not an organisation for taking any actions.

It's interesting to me that this has become such a common internet talking point. A while ago, I finished reading a history of the UN (the one by Stanley Meisler), and I definitely got the impression that the founders of the UN wanted it to be more than just a forum. E.g. here are some passages I hilighted from Chapter 1: "Americans could envision the Soviet Union joining the United States in policing the peace in th…

[deleted]

Re: Military shoots down another high-altitude object, over Lake Huron: officials

#445

Post by jjav »

consp wrote: post #222
Kon-Peki wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Commercially available radar reflectors are frequently found as a sailboat supply item Wooden and fiberglass boats are fairly invisible to radar, even with metal masts and rigging. If you are ever planning to head out into the ocean and near where you might expect commercial shipping, these are a cheap safety item for making your boat visible.

If you attempt to go near larger commercial shipping lanes you are required to have them at least were I live, they are not optional here. Also get the right size, some smaller ones are useless (so I've been told).

> If you attempt to go near larger commercial shipping lanes you are required to have them at least were I live, they are not optional here.

Not required in the US, but not a bad idea to hoist one in fog.

Although these days, an AIS transmitter is a better answer. But a prudent mariner never trusts a single point of failure, so might as well do both.

Admittedly I don't always hoist the radar reflector in the heavy fog near the Golden Gate bridge, but I always transmit AIS in low visibility (and monitor it).

Re: Military shoots down another high-altitude object, over Lake Huron: officials

#446

Post by arwineap »

localplume wrote: post #131
georgeg23 wrote: post #6

Balloons could be a clever counter to what the US is doing with Low Earth Orbit satellites recently. SpaceX is launching tons of spy/missile defense satellites over China as part of the Space Development Agency: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Development_Agency China has been complaining to the United Nations about it. https://press.un.org/en/2022/gadis3698.doc.htm More details: https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Star…

Surveillance satellites are very different to directly flying this equipment into US airspace, including the fact that this equipment could hold paylods other than ISR. Not to mention this comment implies China does not have equivalent spy satellites, which it does. Also the UN is an absolute joke. That article links has China and Russia complaining about the West being aggressors so honestly its kinda BS. Also forge…

I'm failing to understand how balloons are different from satellites, save for altitude; those sats could be carrying payloads other than ISR as well.

Re: Military shoots down another high-altitude object, over Lake Huron: officials

#447

Post by infrawhispers »

esperent wrote: post #438
ziftface wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Can you be more specific? I'm from a country that people would consider part of "The West". However we've never attacked anyone except invaders in entire country's history. I'm sure you could dredge up some connection to the US and get angry with us about it, if you were an Islamic extremist or something. More realistically though, you could find fault with any country with that attitude. Speaking of current geopolit…

The Iraq War of 2003 [1] began with an invasion almost two decades ago (anniv will be in March 2003 iirc) with participation of a coalition of Western governments. That "almost" is doing heavy lifting given that this war officially lasted until ~2011 and led to further interventions as recently as 2014[2]. Notably, a non-trivial rationale for this war were lies about Weapons of Mass Destruction - which unsurprisingly, were never found. I am curious if your government participated in this war.

Ignoring the ongoing interventions in foreign conflicts [3][4], US Foreign Policy has been absolutely _disastrous_ for a number of countries around the world. From the perspective of the US Govt, this may be fine though I would argue that the real effects from destabilization and strained bilateral relations are simply accumulating. Happy to provide citations for multiple blunders in the last 3 decades. It is not surprising that many countries in the global south now see China|Russia|India as better bilateral partners.

Devolving critique to simply originating from "if you were an Islamic extremist of something" is very reductive and I would implore you to read more about global politics from different national perspectives.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_War

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American-led_intervention_in_I...

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American-led_intervention_in_t...

[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_intervention_in_Libya...

Re: Military shoots down another high-altitude object, over Lake Huron: officials

#448

Post by bigcat12345678 »

localplume wrote: post #131
georgeg23 wrote: post #6

Balloons could be a clever counter to what the US is doing with Low Earth Orbit satellites recently. SpaceX is launching tons of spy/missile defense satellites over China as part of the Space Development Agency: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Development_Agency China has been complaining to the United Nations about it. https://press.un.org/en/2022/gadis3698.doc.htm More details: https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Star…

Surveillance satellites are very different to directly flying this equipment into US airspace, including the fact that this equipment could hold paylods other than ISR. Not to mention this comment implies China does not have equivalent spy satellites, which it does. Also the UN is an absolute joke. That article links has China and Russia complaining about the West being aggressors so honestly its kinda BS. Also forge…

> China's [ASAT test](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fengyun) which has been the worst in history.

Check your source, per your cited wiki page: > The shootdown, and the subsequent creation of a record-setting amount of in-orbit debris, drew serious international criticism.[15][16][17][18][19]

The shootdown refers to the ASAT test on FY-1C

For the reference [15] http://www.centerforspace.com/asat/, cannot be opened, the site is unreachable.

For [16] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17497766 It's referring to a debris from Russia rocket, itself is a routine affair in the space. > The crew of the International Space Station (ISS) briefly took refuge in escape capsules as a piece of space junk hurtled by. > The debris - a discarded piece of Russian rocket - was detected on Friday when it was too late to move the ISS.

For reference [17], a piece from BCC http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6276543.stm BCC's reporting on China is about as accurate as Fox's reporting on Democratic party. Go figure

For reference [18], an intro page on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agence_France-Presse AFP Not sure what's relevance with a ASAT

For reference [19], https://www.npr.org/2007/01/19/6923805/chinese-missile-destr... > The governments of Britain, Japan and Australia are voicing concern over China's apparent test of an anti-satellite missile. The United States says China shot down one of its own aging weather satellites last week, in a kind of target practice in low Earth orbit. > "I was surprised that they were able to do it," Kristensen says. Seems about routine as any space tests...

Then the conclusion is that China's ASAT test is "the worst in history." With evidences that are as substantial as web3's value to society.

This type of post on HN is simply not passing the quality bar on HN...

Re: Military shoots down another high-altitude object, over Lake Huron: officials

#449

Post by somenameforme »

e12e wrote: post #204
labster wrote: post #18

I was not expecting the 99 Luftballoons song to happen so literally. This is definitely the darkest timeline.

Thank you for pointing that out - I never paid much attention to the lyrics (my German isn't great). Fitting prelude and postlude to Alphaville - Forever Young...

Wow! I was just about to say they did the song in English as well, when your post sent me on a web crawl. I never realized that the English version is "censored"! The English version is relatively playful and only really references the worst in metaphor. Whereas the German version overtly describes the reality of war, and what motivates it.

This makes the Goldfinger cover (which is awesome) make all the more sense. At one point he starts singing in German and I always just assumed it was for style. In reality - he's singing the "real" song, and one of the most critical parts "censored" for the English version. This is what he's singing in German:

----

"Ninety-nine ministers of war

Matches and petrol cans (gasoline cans)

They regarded themselves as clever people

Already on the scent of fat quarry

They shouted "War" and wanted power

Man, who would have thought

That someday it would come as far as this

Because of ninety-nine balloons"

----

It's a shame he stops there since the German ending is also dramatically better, "Ninety-nine years of war. Left no place for victors. There are no longer any ministers of war. And also no jet fighters. Today I'm making my rounds. I see the world lying in ruins. I have found a balloon. I think of you and let it fly."

The English version ending speaks in metaphor and can even be interpreted to mean it might have just been a dream.

----

Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiwgOWo7mDc

Goldfinger Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQFplXS0DIM

English Lyrics ("censored") - https://genius.com/Nena-99-red-balloons-lyrics

English Lyrics (translated from German) - https://lyricstranslate.com/en/99-Luftballons-99-Luftballons...

Re: Military shoots down another high-altitude object, over Lake Huron: officials

#450

Post by wkat4242 »

they4kman wrote: post #260
CPLX wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In 2002, Griffin was President and COO of In-Q-Tel, a private enterprise funded by the CIA to identify and invest in companies developing cutting-edge technologies that serve national security interests. During this time, he met entrepreneur Elon Musk and accompanied him on a trip to Russia where they attempted to purchase ICBMs. They did what now?

Yeah, so the lore goes, Musk just wanted to send humans to Mars, and had no intention, originally, to build his own rockets. The first tactic was to retool an ICBM for spacier spaceflight, but the Russians laughed them out of the country.

Why would the Russians laugh at that? They did this themselves.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dnepr_(rocket)

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