Is it a bird? Is it an UFO? No? It's the Chinese?

[fridi]

I wonder how much of the equipment from the balloon will be saved...

Suspected Chinese spy balloon flying above U.S. shot down off Carolina coast

Strangely enough, the Chinese explanation that the balloon was a weather balloon that went off its projected course because of weather conditions which exceeded the balloon's ability to maintain its intended course, has been accepted by almost everyone who knows anything about the conditions that existed in the upper atmosphere at the time.

The baying hounds of ignorance, on the other hand, staunchly maintain that it was a "spy balloon". Whether they are going to point to the fact that the balloon wasn't recovered for examination is **P*R*O*O*F** that it was a "spy balloon equipped with a self-destruct mechanism" remains to be seen.

PS - You do know that a helicopter that had been rigged with a grappling hook that had specially sharpened tines could theoretically have snagged the balloon and brought it back to the US so that all America could see the "spy equipment" that was mounted on it - don't you?

Anyway, I'm sure you were waiting for this, so here's a meme dump on the subject: MEMES OMG!

Comments

[mahnmut]

Only in today's social media world will a fucking balloon cause this much BS.

Like China's satellites already don't have all the info they need.

[garote]

Can't tell what's sarcasm here and what isn't. This device was flying more than twice the altitude that any form of helicopter can reach.

Also, is the conspiracy that this is a spy balloon, or that it isn't? You're certain it's from China. So, you believe somebody's press. The Chinese have satellites yes, but satellites are fucking expensive to put into space.

My gut tells me that this is some kind of research vessel that has also been used for reconnaissance, because in China, the line between private enterprise, peacetime research like weather prediction and navigation, and outright spycraft and co-opting by the military, doesn't exist.

I find it quite telling that the response from China has not been something like "oops that's just some random weather balloon, sorry". It's been more like "that COULD be a weather balloon for all YOU know!!" because the bureaucracy is too arrogant to admit that they don't have complete control over things like the weather.

[asthfghl]

Well, they're trying to retrieve the wreckage, we're being told.