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US military shoots down fourth flying object over North America
- blinded 4y agoThis feels like some Chineese college level advance engineering capstone project.
- caminante 4y agoThe air force sure can't complain about the "excuse" for target practice and cycling inventory.
- caminante 4y agoAnd the military missed with a $500k heat seeking missile! [0]https://www.foxnews.com/us/us-military-first-shot-unknown-octagonal-object-lake-huron-missed https://www.foxnews.com/us/us-military-first-shot-unknown-oc...
- hgsgm 4y agoIf Chinese college students are flying unknown advanced tech around the world, the US has a major education problem.
- weard_beard 4y agoI think you can eliminate the former and still keep the later.
- qazxcvbnmlp 4y agoI had friends (at a no - name university) that could have flown balloons around the world if you told them too. They deliberately designed them to pop, b/c when they went across the border into Canada it made for uncomfortable phone calls with the FAA.
- hulitu 4y agoDamn, those california condors have no chance. /s
- pibechorro 4y agoMeanwhile, major controversial news is being pushed down to cover this stupidity. Look over here folks! Nothing to see over there!
- Ancalagon 4y agoThe train and the economy?
- PM_me_your_math 4y agoAll of a sudden. After admin drops the ball in a really obviously way. I don't buy it. This is theater.
- retrac 4y agoThere's absolutely some theatre going on. The only reason we know about the ones over Alaska and Yukon is that they told us. As several articles are noting, the US has recorded ~10 such balloons over the last year. None of which we heard about. Were they shot down without us knowing? Were they allowed to fly over without issue? Either way, why the change with the public statements now being made? (Did they drop the ball with all those ones we never heard about? What about in previous years? How long has this been happening?) The best hypothesis I can come up with is that when Americans on the ground saw the first balloon, the administration felt political pressure to act. Now that the American public, and the international community, is broadly supportive of the USA shooting them down, the US feels empowered to make a public statement, with China's leaders as the intended primary recipient, but also playing to a domestic audience to some degree.
- seanw444 4y agoHow do the realistic, obvious takes end up getting downvoted to grey? It's a consistent pattern on HN.
- PM_me_your_math 4y agoBecause realistic viewpoints are generally disliked, regardless of platform. The whole upvote/downvote/hidden/shadow-ban mechanic is the death knell of discourse. Despite all of our technological advances, humanity has devolved back into tribalism in a big way. You can't even have a decent conversation anymore without some kind of metering, soft-censorship, shadow-action, or reprimand. It is enough to make you want to pour concrete for living, and have nothing to do with any technology short of what it takes to do your job. In fact, I'm not even sure I can make this post because of the dreaded "You're posting too fast."
- 4y ago
- hoppyhoppy2 4y agoBeing discussed at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34767096 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34767096
- fwungy 4y agoChina has over 300 satellites of which over a 100 are known to be military. These balloons have been around for a long time. Why do they care now? Maybe: 1) Distraction from bad domestic economy news 2) Distraction from bad Ukraine news 3) Preparing public for war with China, as that general said. 4) All of above.
- sschueller 4y agoDistraction from the chemical spill in Ohio which is a direct result of failure of congress to regulate.