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Mysterious New Jersey drone sightings prompt call for 'state of emergency'

theguardian.com

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Re: Mysterious New Jersey drone sightings prompt call for 'state of emergency'

#601

Post by wyager »

iepathos wrote: post #487
motorest wrote: post #466

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I live in NJ. I've seen these drones. They are not commercial airliners or helicopters. They are loud, fly low and slow, and make abrupt turns unlike any planes I've seen. Their lights are also very different from other aircraft. You better crank out your camera and collect any proof at all,because what you are describing bears no resemblance to the sightings mentioned in the article. There is a reason why sighting…

For real, with everyone having a smartphone with high quality cameras on them there really is zero excuse for there to not be highly detailed accurate videos of this if they are legit especially with people describing them as "low and slow".

Tbf, smartphone cameras are not really "high quality" in a way that's useful here. Try taking a video of something with small angular subtension like an aircraft at cruising altitude with a cell phone camera.

Re: Mysterious New Jersey drone sightings prompt call for 'state of emergency'

#602

Post by duxup »

curt15 wrote: post #549
selfmodruntime wrote: post #526

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How can anyone know these aren't a threat without knowing whose they are They are - obviously - lying. This screams secrecy to me. All 3 know that these drones are not a threat. They aren't US military because they are a 3 letter agency program. They know there's nothing to worry about it, but they won't tell you any more details. Which has been the modus operandi for secret services for decades, so I'm surprised i…

Shoot one down and see who comes knocking?

This seems like it would be a difficult task to accomplish.

Re: Mysterious New Jersey drone sightings prompt call for 'state of emergency'

#603

Post by JKCalhoun »

j_timberlake wrote: post #501

Quick summary after following this for a few days: FBI says they're rotary and fixed-wing drones, White House says they aren't foreign adversaries, Pentagon says they aren't USA military, all 3 insist that there's no indication of a real threat despite the drones being bigger and higher tech than retail drones. Politicians are PO'd that something about this doesn't add up: How can anyone know these aren't a threat wi…

1) You don't need a single theory to fit all the evidence — some sightings might be unrelated to others.

2) You don't need a theory to fit all the evidence since, undoubtedly, not all the evidence is accurate. A theory that fit most of the evidence is adequate.

3) We all know people and even photos lie. That gives us quite a bit of leeway to be dismissive of sightings and official responses as well.

Re: Mysterious New Jersey drone sightings prompt call for 'state of emergency'

#604

Post by afthonos »

weard_beard wrote: post #578
rmbyrro wrote: post #571

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Careful who you wish on your door...

[flagged]

I like the idea that the government will show up without identifying themselves just so people can live out their fantasy of shooting someone without getting into trouble.

They will absolutely identify themselves. The reason you should be worried is the endless, expensive process you’ll be subjected to after they knock on your door.

Re: Mysterious New Jersey drone sightings prompt call for 'state of emergency'

#605

Post by duxup »

j_timberlake wrote: post #501

Quick summary after following this for a few days: FBI says they're rotary and fixed-wing drones, White House says they aren't foreign adversaries, Pentagon says they aren't USA military, all 3 insist that there's no indication of a real threat despite the drones being bigger and higher tech than retail drones. Politicians are PO'd that something about this doesn't add up: How can anyone know these aren't a threat wi…

It doesn't strike me as odd that politicians would be out of the loop at times, especially locals.

Re: Mysterious New Jersey drone sightings prompt call for 'state of emergency'

#606

Post by tzs »

Some people report erratic motion of the objects which you wouldn't expect from a normal plane or helicopter.

If the lights on the things are blinking, I have a possible explanation for the erratic motion.

I've found that if I'm in a dark place with a green LED that is blinking and there is not enough light to see anything but the LED then the LED appears to jump around erratically.

I'll see it come on and go off and I'm sure that I am continuing to stare at the now off LED but when it comes on it is somewhere else. If I'm about 40 cm from the LED it can appear to have jumped up to maybe 15-20 cm.

It can be quite disconcerting if there is a series of apparent jumps in the same direction, because each time I have to move my eyes/head in the same direction to recenter the LED, and after 4 or 5 jumps it feels like I should be turned significantly but I can tell that I'm actually still looking mostly straight ahead.

If I arrange for their to be some faint light in the closet so that I can see even hints of the other things in there when the LED is off then I can actually keep staring at the LED's position.

I believe this phenomenon is due to saccades [1]. Our eyes normally jump around randomly when we are looking at things. We can override that and force ourselves to stare at a point. My guess is that we need some reference in the field of view to focus our attention on to be able to do an override.

I'd guess that this same effect could happen with a blinking object in a dark sky.

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

Re: Mysterious New Jersey drone sightings prompt call for 'state of emergency'

#607

Post by rozab »

People would do well to keep in mind the episode of drone hysteria which happened at Gatwick airport in 2018. Hundreds of sightings were reported over a period of several days, shutting down the airport completely.

It was a massive media event, camera crews from every outlet were at the airport, but none ever photographed a drone. None of the radar systems at the airport, nor the military anti-drone systems sent later on, ever picked up anything.

In this article, a professional drone photographer describes mistaking a helicopter for a drone:

> But when he opened up the image on his computer, ready to send to his editors, he realised he’d made a mistake. The image did not show a drone. It was a helicopter hovering 10 miles away; between the darkness and the distance, his eyes had played a trick on him. “If I’m making a mistake – and I fly drones two or three times a week – then God help us, because others will have no idea,” he said. He called police to retract his reported sighting.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/dec/01/the-mystery-...

Re: Mysterious New Jersey drone sightings prompt call for 'state of emergency'

#608

Post by JKCalhoun »

j_timberlake wrote: post #501

Quick summary after following this for a few days: FBI says they're rotary and fixed-wing drones, White House says they aren't foreign adversaries, Pentagon says they aren't USA military, all 3 insist that there's no indication of a real threat despite the drones being bigger and higher tech than retail drones. Politicians are PO'd that something about this doesn't add up: How can anyone know these aren't a threat wi…

The most likely theory I have seen is regarding a craft from Pivotal Aero [1]. I'm not sure what the holes in that theory are.

(When some John Bircher shoots one down though I suppose we'll have our answer, ha-ha, not-ha-ha.)

[1] https://pivotal.aero

Re: Mysterious New Jersey drone sightings prompt call for 'state of emergency'

#609

Post by mrguyorama »

ComplexSystems wrote: post #584
otikik wrote: post #547

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How can anyone know these aren't a threat without knowing whose they are? Because they are theirs, obviously. They just won't say it.

Why don't they just say it then? Who cares?

Same reason the feds didn't say anything about the F-117 in the 80s when hundreds of people in nevada were mistaking it for a UFO: They have no interest in telling the world about the exact nature of their ISR assets.

The US DoD has recognized a lack of capacity and capability in our native drone programs when examined in context of the Ukraine war. They are spending plenty of money to shore of that lack, and not all of the programs and projects they are funding are through Anduril and have literal fan groups.

Re: Mysterious New Jersey drone sightings prompt call for 'state of emergency'

#610

Post by ripped_britches »

andrelaszlo wrote: post #366

"a post-Chinese spy-balloon world" Noticed it because of the typo ("spy-ballon") but realized it's also a pretty funny phrase. Are we living in a spy-balloon world which is no longer Chinese? Or maybe in a balloon-world, post the Chinese spy?

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