This Chinese balloon thing is much about nothing.  If all China can do to spy on us is float balloons, I think we are ahead of the game.  China can't make an auto part that fits and works for more than a few days.  Heck, they can't even make dog food right.   All they have to do is wait around until we go broke by spending money we don't have.

22 hours ago, roadwarrior said:

Why wasn't it shot down when it was first detected?  And where is the coverage on

the second balloon?  I feel like I'm living in the Twilight Zone.

There was a ton of coverage on why it wasn't shot down. Here's the lowdown on what I heard toda on PBS. Every station, well almost every one, clearly outlined the reasons.

1. The pentagon couldn't guarantee no damage to property or the safety to people.

2. They decided to wait until it was traveled and crossed to the ocean.

3. The pentagon had successfully blocked all transmissions from the balloon's equipment.

4. It didn't have cameras, they have satellites for that, that can do a better job.

5. It likely had radiation sensors, atmospheric sensors (for some reason) and equipment to collect military radio traffic.

6. The decision had come from the Whitehouse with military recommendation to shoot it down on Wednesday.

7. Shooting it down over the ocean in about 50 ft of water would help to make an easy recovery and have more of it survive the fall.

8. It had to be hit with a rocket from a plane because it was 10,000 feet higher than the fighter could fly so bullets wouldn't work.

22 hours ago, roadwarrior said:

And where is the coverage on the second balloon?  

 

Yeah, I'm watching everyone of Yanet Garcia's weather reports, and not much on it, I guess I'll keep watching, it's 27 c in Colombia...

 

I've got plenty that I would like to say but Glenn and the moderator's wouldn't be very appreciative. Plus I don't want to be given a time out.

1. Had to Google Yanet Garcia. Had no idea she was a meteorologist. 
2. Did anybody see it/take pics as it floated through your area?

12 minutes ago, volzfan59 said:

I've got plenty that I would like to say but Glenn and the moderator's wouldn't be very appreciative. Plus I don't want to be given a time out.

I may have stepped over the line with an early post but sarcasm was easily detected ?

4 hours ago, Skunkmaster-k said:

I wonder why the spies didn’t take a boat or airplane. Seems silly to float in a balloon to America. 

Well, we were stupid enough to let it float all the way across our continent, sooooo....it worked. 

Is it gone?

 

Can I leave my bunker? ?
 

 

 

This thread inspired me to make this meme while sitting here eating my burger.  Thanks for the motivation.

50 minutes ago, Bird said:

I may have stepped over the line with an early post but sarcasm was easily detected

With a topic like this asides, innuendos, sarcasms, etc can easily be misinterpreted as being serious.  Then somebody gets all riled up and fur starts flying.  So there's a tighter tolerance on this one.

 

Yours was not the only post removed.

 

2 minutes ago, Glenn said:

With a topic like this asides, innuendos, sarcasms, etc can easily be misinterpreted as being serious.  Then somebody gets all riled up and fur starts flying.  So there's a tighter tolerance on this one.

 

Yours was not the only post removed.

Mine will be too so I won't even bother posting it.

7 hours ago, deaknh03 said:

It was flying around 60,000 feet, a little out of range.

Red Dot's

I did see someone say: ‘If you shoot straight up you don’t have to compensate for bullet drop.” Still not sure if they were serious. 60,000 feet is about 11 miles.

8 minutes ago, VolFan said:

I did see someone say: ‘If you shoot straight up you don’t have to compensate for bullet drop.” Still not sure if they were serious. 60,000 feet is about 11 miles.

 

Yeah, cause the "drop" is 180 degrees opposite the direction of travel, it's "dropping" backwards, we call that slowing down. You guys are starting to scare me, no bullet can reach anywhere near that height. The math is relatively easy, just need muzzle exit velocity, weight of projectile, and a couple of constants and coefficients.

1 minute ago, Deleted account said:

 

You guys are starting to scare me, no bullet can reach anywhere near that height. The math is relatively easy, just need muzzle exit velocity, weight of projectile, and a couple of constants and coefficients.

people still believe in a flat earth so.........nothing should scare or surprise you anymore 

1 minute ago, flyfisher said:

people still believe in a flat earth so.........

Kyrie got traded.

2 minutes ago, Deleted account said:

Kyrie got traded.

And I have great empathy for the Mavericks ?

Seriously I don’t know how a franchise can look at his historical employment and then sell their future for a few months with him.

 

just to be clear - I 100% understood why you didn’t need to account for bullet drop in a vertical shot. The person that said it, less so.

8 minutes ago, VolFan said:

Seriously I don’t know how a franchise can look at his historical employment and then sell their future for a few months with him.

 

just to be clear - I 100% understood why you didn’t need to account for bullet drop in a vertical shot. The person that said it, less so.

Listen and learn

 

19 minutes ago, Bird said:

And I have great empathy for the Mavericks ?

Luka is going to be crying like a baby now that his numbers will go down with two ball dominant players

Who'da thunk an MTV 80's video was actually a Prophecy?

 

 

 

"Hear me out, we crush some C4 and put it in Woodstock's feed"...

 

 

21 hours ago, BigAngus752 said:

Well, we were stupid enough to let it float all the way across our continent, sooooo....it worked. 

Good point