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

theguardian.com

811–820 of 943 posts

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

#811

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…

These are the least-bad theories, but if an agency is desperate enough to deploy the drones night after night even after being noticed, then that's extremely foreboding. What would drive them to do that, a dirty bomb that needs to be found with drone sensors? Personally I'd rather have evidence of this before dwelling on all the possible tragedies here.

[deleted]

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

#812
post #500

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The videos i saw ostensibly showed what looked like rear fixed wing aircraft, like a small f-16 or something. But you could only make out that detail from the lights, which can be configured however you want to configure them to look, so, technically, it could be a large quadcopter (or octa, or hex) with lights affixed that make it look like a fixed wing aircraft. none of the videos i saw had sound from the drone to…

> FLIR would work better for certain things at night ;-) At those distances and with typical thermal imager resolutions, the zoom lens required would cost more than a cheap car..

Nope, it would cost more than an expensive car.

The only openly available price I've seen for such things is from China, and then it's $80k. The Teledyne FLIR stuff is probably quite a bit more expensive.

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

#813

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There used to be no evidence at all, but now you have David Grusch who was given explicit authorization to talk to people in unacknowledged special access programs about UAPs and he said under oath before congress that yes, there are crashed ET craft with biologics in them that have been recovered going back to the 1930s. https://x.com/cspan/status/1684217673716989958

Testimony is not evidence, and using the passive voice ("given explicit authorization", by whom? why does this matter?) is an explicit argument from authority. Physical evidence or nothing. There are no shortage of credulous people in the world happy to bask in the glow of attention. Consider the counter-factual. If indeed there are aliens here, and have been here for decades, why not centuries? Why haven't previous…

Grusch was given access specifically by an act of the U.S Congress to investigate UAPs. Watch the CSPAN link of the congressional hearing I provided for the full details.

Read the link to "The Crowded Galaxy" theory for what's probably going on based on that testimony. It answers all your questions. There are probably millions of planets with life in the galaxy. We're not remarkable except with how hyper-violent and invasive our species is, which is why they're keeping an eye on us. We evolved here so we have the right to live here, but we don't have any rights to live anywhere else in the galaxy. Transforming is probably a ghastly notion to them.

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

#814

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would not write this.off as hysteria. It's important to consider motivation of potential actors. Every advanced rocket guidance system uses cameras to zero in on its targets during the final approach. You can't rely on GPS at that point. To do a good job you need to know what your target looks like and high resolution drone imagery helps a lot.

Or not even imagery collection, but testing to see what our response is like. If we're scrambling and unable to explain/contain it, that's useful for an adversary to know a little about our current defensive capabilities.

Or testing our own response. If we want to test what China's response might be, both public and military, but its too provocative to try, we might try it on ourselves.

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

#815
post #591

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Abichandani has no idea as of now whether the drones over New Jersey are swarming drones. Then this article goes on to speculate about scary things.

..and Abichandani is reported to be an actual academic (in drone swarming technology) at a prestigious university that is local to the observations, not an enthusiast or politician! In next room, I have a nearly 100yo man who, in a small group of people using computers with (literal) core memory, invented the technology, satellites and delivery systems to do Reconnaissance from orbit and more importantly, to spot the…

> Abichandani is reported to be an actual academic

He pretty much says nothing, and the article uses him as a mouth piece to give other individuals mentioned legitimacy.

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

#816

I am very certain I know what this is, and sorry, it's not aliens. I've seen this before and people were freaking TF out back then, too. That one is still labeled unexplained. It's not hard to figure it out. I'm actually loathe to spoil it in case they're doing this as a prank (and they definitely are) because it's such a genius fucking way to throw a whole nation into full UFO panic for a few hundred bucks, and very…

I'm guessing you mean the reports are fake, or at least the ones seeding the panic, generated by bots, social media ads, or something. Once you hit a critical mass, hysteria kicks in, and the chain reaction becomes self-sustaining. A psy-ops weapons test, basically. I think this is very possible, and yes it could be a prank in this case, but it should not go unpunished if so.

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

#817

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For those who want to know the most consistent UFOlogy angle that wasn't invented last week: Over on 4chan there was an alleged leaker and follow ups back in 2023 who says that there's an underwater ET mothership off the east coast that produces 3-d printed made to order small anti-gravity drones that launch and do various tasks to monitor us. Anything that approaches the underwater mothership is destroyed before the…

> Anything that approaches the underwater mothership is destroyed before they even know they're under attack. Let me guess, it is parked in the "Bermuda Triangle". It's easy to make theories when you are unburdened by evidence.

It's impossible to discover novel phenomenon if you are unwilling to start without evidence. Meanwhile, you yourself _just_ made a meta-theory, without any burden whatsoever.

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

#818
post #803

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Voters" doesn't always mean "eligible voters". "Those who cast votes in the election under discussion" seems a reasonable sense of the term in this context. You are correct that he got the plurality and not the majority of the popular vote.

I wasn't referring to eligible voters, I was referring to the voters who cast votes in the election under discussion.

It is obviously not true that only 64% of voters who cast votes in the 2024 election cast votes in the 2024 election, so some meaning slipped here, somewhere.

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

#819
post #686

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not true. They have drones that can drop multiple rpg warheads or grenades. Imagine a bunch of drones each with ten grenades dropping them over Times Square. I doubt there is anything the NYPD would be able to do.

Do you have any media of those drones that drop "multiple rpg warheads" so I can visualize how large they are?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baba_Yaga_(aircraft)

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

#820
post #712

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would not write this.off as hysteria. It's important to consider motivation of potential actors. Every advanced rocket guidance system uses cameras to zero in on its targets during the final approach. You can't rely on GPS at that point. To do a good job you need to know what your target looks like and high resolution drone imagery helps a lot.

Why put lights on the drones? Why not map during the day?

My theory was that assuming these are some kind of adversary drone, they seem to have read and understood the law and are making some effort to remain within its bounds so that 4th Amendment and other relevant protections apply to them. That means operating at the legally-allowed altitude, running navigation lights, etc...but then somehow deciding not to run the required ADS-B ID that would, in theory, give away who they are and allow their comings and goings to be tracked.

Causing a collision with another plane that might then fall onto a residential neighborhood is a great way to get the entire weight of the government to come down on you, have the remains of your craft picked apart, and have your cover thoroughly blown. Don't mess with the NTSB!

I realize this theory has holes, but it's what I've got, and I feel like it's making more effort at explanation than e.g. the retired Air Force Major-General who was quoted as saying "they're flying with lights on, they're flying where people will see them; that tells me... there's nothing nefarious about it, or we're dealing with the world's dumbest terrorist."[1]

As to why they don't fly during the day: it seems that they don't want to be seen, and have been observed to "go dark" when confronted.[2] Incidentally, that's also what "The Angry Astronaut" said in his video posted on 1 Dec [3] about the craft he attempted to chase down in the United Kingdom next to the Lakenheath US Air Force installation-- well before this behavior was reported in the USA.

[1] https://youtu.be/qpFz-SPCSJc?t=50

[2] https://www.newsweek.com/mystery-new-jersey-drones-go-dark-w...

[3] https://youtu.be/1yglSSzP8Qk?t=331

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