The U.S. government may find itself on the horns of a dilemma. If they continue to say nothing definitive about the mysterious small objects, as they have done so far, this will continue to foster rumors, conspiracy theories, and dissatisfaction. One hears of pressure on U.S. leaders to speak to this issue. One even hears responsible journalists asking about the possibility of extraterrestrial UFOs!

If the government continues to find no mundane explanation for these objects, and admits this, they risk appearing less-than -competent in managing their own skies. All the claims, by certain individuals, that these are merely balloons of one sort or another have not been backed by any documented evidence.

The longer the current impasse continues, the more we will be justified in entertaining some truly extraordinary possibilities.

I strongly suspect there is some very mundane politics at play...


Meanwhile, these bags of gas are getting strung along to make for an ongoing press clickbait bonanza...

Keep searchin'!
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Another plan crumbles and they're not happy about it.

Xi Jinping's Mouthpiece Slams US For 'Weaponizing' Pacific Island Countries: 'Opening A Sheep Pen To Wolves'.

And we know who the real wolves are. Just take a look at the financial trap that their "Belt and Road Initiative" has been for some countries. ;-)

I bet that Xi will make something out of this.

I mentioned about around 19,000 refugees who arrived in Australia before Operation Sovereign Borders started in 2013 will be able to apply to transition to a permanent Resolution of Status (RoS) visa elsewhere and in case people smugglers and their potential victims didn't get the "before 2013" part of it the ADF is providing 'surge' support to border protection efforts north of Australia.

But that'll also mean that there's more chance on spotting any Chinese shenanigans going on in the region.

The case of the octagonal, high altitude object, recently found at an altitude of 20,000 feet, has an interesting aspect. The military is more or less convinced that they tracked this object over Montana, and then again, moving over Michigan, ending with the shoot-down over Lake Huron.

Somehow, the object evaded detection over part of its journey between these two points. That, in itself, is puzzling. Going by the distance travelled, and the time it took, the object must have made an average speed of about 200 miles per hour. This seems excessively fast for a balloon.

Were the winds of the jet stream involved? The jet stream occurs at the altitude of the tropopause, the boundary between the troposphere and the stratosphere. At the relevant latitude, and at this time of year, the tropopause is found at a height of about 36,000 feet, far above the reported altitude of that mysterious object.

Given the apparent manufactured nature of the object, and the lack of any discernible means of propulsion, its excess speed creates something of a real mystery.

No supernatural speeds needed for that one...

Why not more simply that there was more than just the one balloon?...

All a silly game of multiple identical 'twins'?!


Keep searchin',
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Pragmatic U.S. Military Intelligence found that the Montana and Michigan objects were likely to be one in the same. They very probably have access to more information supporting this idea than we do. They don't appear to have taken the implied speed of the object into consideration, when voicing support for the balloon hypothesis. Perhaps they were aware of the problem this would raise, and simply hoped no one else would notice!

https://www.aviationweather.gov/windtemp/data?region=chi

FT 3000 6000 9000 12000 18000 24000 30000 34000 39000
LOU 3218 3419-11 3022-12 2936-15 2838-27 2587-31 751139 750444 259846

So this reads: above "LOU" at 39,000 ft there is a jetstream of 98 knots; direction: 250 deg, temperature: -46 (°F/C?) ??? Found no explanation. Some kind of compact notation (like METARs).

A hobby group may have the answer to what the U.S. shot down over Canada last week
Looks like Biden shot down a 13$ balloon with a $400,000 sidewinder missile.

The Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade, in a blog post that was first reported by Aviation Week, says one of its balloons went “missing in action” in the same region the U.S. military shot down one of the three unknown objects.
On Tuesday, the group said one of its balloons was last spotted at 12:48 a.m. on Saturday along an uninhabited island off the coast of Alaska. That tracks with when a U.S. F-22 used a Sidewinder missile to shoot down an object over the Yukon later that same day. Canadian officials have since said the debris will be extremely difficult to retrieve due to the frozen terrain and the remoteness of the site.
The club’s balloon had a long journey, traveling for 123 days and 18 hours of flight before — possibly — being shot out of the sky. “For now we are calling Pico Balloon K9YO Missing in Action,” the club’s website says, without making any accusations or connecting the incident to the military shootdown.

The Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade have been unable to locate one of their pico balloons since Feb 11

They may all get a visit from the NTSB very soon.

https://www.aviationweather.gov/windtemp/data?region=chi

FT 3000 6000 9000 12000 18000 24000 30000 34000 39000
LOU 3218 3419-11 3022-12 2936-15 2838-27 2587-31 751139 750444 259846

So this reads: above "LOU" at 39,000 ft there is a jetstream of 98 knots; direction: 250 deg, temperature: -46 (°F/C?) ??? Found no explanation. Some kind of compact notation (like METARs).

Missed the help page?
https://www.aviationweather.gov/windtemp/help?page=text

China seems to still have a hard time understanding “sovereignty”.

China’s brazen move has sparked a diplomatic firestorm with US.

Meeting between top Chinese and US diplomats remains uncertain as nations verbally spar over downed balloon.

Top China diplomat mocks US response to China balloon as ‘hysterical’.

The only thing ‘hysterical’ is China's reaction to the push back by many countries against their hypocritical nonsense.

What I read from your first link:

China’s brazen move has sparked a diplomatic firestorm with US.

A pragmatic, intelligent response by China could have been: "Hey, let's discuss some unregulated things: How high is the national sovereign airspace? What is the Near Space? Where exactly does Outer Space begin? That's not clearly defined at the moment". That would have been a pragmatic answer to an escalating diplomatic problem, caused by China.

But China opted for 'hypocritical nonsense'.

Pentagon releases pilot's close-up photo of Chinese balloon.

The Philippines has had enough with the ‘Harassment’.

A country is appealing for help as China upped its aggression in the South China Sea. Now Australia has made a promise.

WTF?

China banned women from modelling lingerie, so men are filling in.

China is turning back to the bad old days.

China looks at reforms to deepen Xi's control.

While a Russian analyst reckons that China's Xi Jinping Is 'Getting Ready for War.

As China doesn't want Russia to lose in Ukraine. But Beijing's endgame is murky.

And what could China-Belarus Deals Mean for Ukraine?

China says there will 'surely be conflict' with US if Washington does not change path.

China's foreign minister has blamed the US for rising tensions between Washington and Beijing and said if the US does not change its path there will "surely be conflict and confrontation".

The US had been engaging in suppression and containment of China rather than competition, China's foreign minister Qin Gang told reporters at a news conference in Beijing on the sidelines of an annual parliament meeting.

"The United States' perception and views of China are seriously distorted," Mr Qin said.

"It regards China as its primary rival and the most consequential geopolitical challenge. This is like the first button in the shirt being put wrong."

Mr Qin said the US should play by the rules it promotes.

He said the US was establishing guardrails for relations with China and was not seeking conflict, but what this meant in practice was that China was not supposed to respond with words or actions when slandered or attacked.

"That is just impossible," Mr Qin said.

"If the United States does not hit the brake, and continues to speed down the wrong path, no amount of guardrails can prevent derailment, which will become conflict and confrontation. And who will bear the catastrophic consequences?"...

Quite a bit of hypocrisy is voiced, but very war like.

Is China following in Russia's footsteps?...


Bao Fan: Why do Chinese billionaires keep vanishing?


With the Russian elite enjoying one or two assassinations each week, one once in a while in China isn't going to get noticed? Will it??

Cue a new HBO series called the "Game of Dragons" or "Game of Despots"?

Or would "Game of Demons" fit better?


Stay safe folks!
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)