lostrune2 comments

The US govt and military are going to look silly if this turns out to be a weather balloon. A US media report said the object passed over Japan on its way, but I've heard nothing about that.

The likely path would had take it over Japan:

https://www.newsweek.com/chinese-spy-balloon-tracker-questions-shot-down-1778754#slideshow/2189877

If it's indeed a weather balloon lost or not, it's irresponsible that China did not give other countries a heads up about it. It's very large and possibly a danger to planes on the air and a crash landing on people on the ground. If it's civilian, then there's no reason for China to withhold that information from countries in its path

Seems yet another balloon is now cited over South America (Venezuela, Colombia):

"Photos Appear to Show Second Chinese Balloon Passing Over Latin America"

https://www.newsweek.com/photos-appear-show-second-chinese-balloon-passing-over-latin-america-1778949

If that's another Chinese balloon, how's a supposed weather balloon get so far there, where the trade winds go West to East (opposite the direction from China to Venezuela)

U.S. officials say the Biden administration was aware of it even before it crossed into American airspace in Alaska early this past week.

The Pentagon says the balloon, which was carrying sensors and surveillance equipment, was maneuverable and showed it could change course.

Craig Singleton, a senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, said Chinese surveillance balloons have been sighted on numerous occasions over the past five years in different parts of the Pacific, including near sensitive U.S. military installations in Hawaii.

Officials said the U.S. monitored it, using "a variety of methods" including aircraft. The Pentagon said the balloon wasn't a military threat and didn't give China any surveillance capabilities it didn't already have with spy satellites.

One official said the sensor package the balloon was carrying weighed as much as 1,000 pounds. The balloon was large enough and high enough in the air that the potential debris field could stretch for miles, with no control over where it would eventually land.

if it can change course, then it was never lost but deliberate. That's likely how another balloon got to Hawaii, when no trade winds from China would have gotten it there (actually in the northern tropics, the winds go West to East, opposite the direction from China to Hawaii)

It's actually smart that they shot it down over their territorial waters instead of over land: (A) After clearing the area of planes and ships, it minimizes possible large debris casualties. (B) They can recover as much of it as possible intact on the shallower waters off the continental shelf before the deep ocean.

And if it's okay to shoot down these balloons which are almost up in space, can China retaliate by shooting down a US satellite that crosses over China?

The balloon is nowhere close to space. Space is defined as past the "Karman Line" which from ground is 100 km = 330,000 feet. The balloon is only around 60,000 feet

The US U2 spy plane that the Soviet Union shot down over Russia was at 80,000 feet

I agree, Tiktok should be avoided at all costs if you want to keep your sanity...

I do keep a lookout for independent artists though, but mostly on recommendation of others...

Many independent artists do use Tiktok though to get an audience (as well as Youtube and Twitch, among others)

Many of those recommendations likely stemmed from there

Good for them

He and other analysts say the crackdown could potentially stifle innovation, as investors and entrepreneurs become more cautious about operating in China.

Some entrepreneurs and venture capitalists are taking a wait-and-see attitude, “worried in the long term that if they invest in a hot sector that the government that goes against China’s agenda or doesn’t fit with the government’s agenda for the private sector that they might get wiped out,” Rein said.

Under such pressure, China has accelerated efforts to become more self-sufficient in semiconductors and other advanced technologies, providing billions in subsidies and investments for the industry. But it remains years behind in some of the most advanced semiconductor manufacturing processes

Much of these problems were of the Chinese government's own making. By championing just a select few companies by giving them special treatment while stifling their competitors, thus making them grow into giants without the check of competition and innovation. Now that has to rein them in whimsically, so investors have no trust that they can be wiped out just like that, and not due to business reasons that can be planned for

China has already admitted it's their balloon that got lost, saying it's for scientific purposes

(That's why they uncharacteristically didn't deny it immediately)

Who believes it's for scientific purposes? Depends what they mean by "scientific" Lol

And if it really got lost, how can they not able to track it, since it's full of supposed "scientific" instruments the size of a bus - and let other countries know ahead of time that the wind is taking it to their airspace? It's not like we can't track wind patterns nowadays, and surely some of those instruments include a simple GPS and a communication antenna

People who believe these radionuclides are just harmless tritium probably believe the earth is flat.

Conspiracy theorists?

For Neshvad, "The Red Suitcase" wasn't born of the current uprising in Iran -- it was filmed a year before it started.

But it has its roots in the injustices faced by his family -- of the Bahai religion, systematically persecuted in Iran -- as well as those long experienced by Iranian girls and women before Amini's death brought them to global attention.

Hope a win will bring more attention to this religious persecution.

What's taking so long

It'd be time for the next Winter Olympics, and they still wouldn't receive their earned medals

That's a disservice to their accomplishments

The Chinese Communist Party lies so often you can never take their words at face value

Meanwhile, Taiwanese are watching all this and thinking - do we want the same thing to happen to us?

China has NOT denied whether it is their spy balloon or not

"China Says It’s Checking Whether It Sent Spy Balloon to Montana"

https://gizmodo.com/china-verifying-spy-balloon-montana-1850069388

That's intriguing since they usually deny so quick

Seems they do send spy balloons - just whether this is one of theirs or not

China has sent surveillance balloons over the United States in the past. However, this one has lingered in U.S. air space much longer, the senior defense official said.

And this is not the first time such a balloon has been sighted in the US airspace. So they've seen these, just this one has lingered much longer

Funny to see how they get scared just for a Chinese balloon, lol!!..

If they're scared, they would have shot it down already! Lol

Obviously they're not. In fact, here's what they said if you read the article:

But the Pentagon did not believe it constitutes a particularly dangerous intelligence threat. "We assess that this balloon has limited additive value from an intelligence collection perspective," the official said.

"The balloon is currently traveling at an altitude well above commercial air traffic. It does not present a military or physical threat to people on the ground," Ryder said in a statement.

Instead of avoiding it, some teachers are planning to incorporate ChatGPT into their curricula instead:

https://www.wired.com/story/chatgpt-is-coming-for-classrooms-dont-panic/

https://www.npr.org/2023/01/26/1151499213/chatgpt-ai-education-cheating-classroom-wharton-school

"We taught people how to do math in a world with calculators," he said. Now the challenge is for educators to teach students how the world has changed again, and how they can adapt to that.

Russia still hasn't passed yet the requirements for a clean bill of health against the doping cheating national sports agency - and likely won't for awhile since they're too busy conducting the Ukraine invasion war

Only if or when that happens can they ask to be a regular participant again. In the meantime, they're still under suspension rules - and statistically the medals and records can go to the clean Russian athletes, but do not count under the country of Russia

NZ and Australia are the tournament hosts - they have a say on what goes on their lands

Same as Dubai, right?

how about 'I shot the sheriff'? or is that okay because the sheriff was male (presumably)

Sure as when the Welsh Rugby also gotten caught for shooting the sheriff yet? Lol

Wednesday's announcement came with the Welsh Rugby Union still reeling from allegations of misogyny, sexism, racism and homophobia within the ranks of the governing body.

It only cost him his marriage for coming back to what turned out to be his first-ever losing season vs. if he had retired last year

Loved Brady's retirement announcement. Short and simple yet honest and heartfelt. No fireworks, no flash. The way it should be.

Lol, because, as he actually mentioned in his 2nd retirement, he already had his dramatic retirement last year - and ya only get to do that once, so the 2nd is short and simple

“I know the process was a pretty big deal last time, so when I woke up this morning, I figured I’d let you guys know first," Brady says in the video. “I won’t be long-winded. You only get one super emotional retirement essay and I used mine up last year."

Was it the left? Or the right?

That could make the difference between life and death /s

North Korea will arms flood the Korean Peninsula regardless

Among the four suspects, Yuki Watanabe, who is believed to be a key figure in the group and may go by the name "Luffy," has been charged with violating the Philippine law on violence against women and children.

The robber wants to be king of the pirates, looking for that one piece to get him there, recruiting through the power of friendship, using the Philippines' rubber plantations and abundant varieties of fruits

Don't help those who don't help themselves

Also solution: don't have entrance exams at all

While North Korea keeps international situations unstable with its clandestine missile tests flying over other nations' airspace, assassinating his own brother with a deadly nerve agent in a foreign airport, etc.

And let's not forget - now secretly supplying the Russian mercenary Wagner Group with weapons

Yeah, the bastion of stability that Kim

Most Japanese oil comes threw the Straights of Hormuz.

The attacks on the Strait of Hormuz have been mostly from the Iran's Revolutionary Guard who are answerable only to the Ayatollah (not to anyone else, not the President, not the military, nor the Government of Iran). Even Trump admitted this

"The Legal Regime of the Strait of Hormuz and Attacks Against Oil Tankers: Law of the Sea and Law on the Use of Force Perspectives"

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00908320.2022.2096158

The Strait of Hormuz has great significance for the world economy as an oil chokepoint. Yet in recent years, international navigation through the Strait of Hormuz has been repeatedly hampered and subject to discriminatory navigational restrictions and attacks. Such measures have been mostly aimed at oil tankers. This article examines the maritime incidents that occurred in the Strait of Hormuz in 2019: mine attacks against oil tankers and the arrest of an oil tanker by the Iranian armed forces. This study approaches these incidents from the perspectives of the law of the sea and from jus ad bellum.

If it was done years ago, Keanu Reeves was the overwhelming fans' pick to play Spike

I can see the left going into meltdown over his anti Hollywood comments.

No, perhaps ya don't know about Shyamalan

He's not exactly an in-demand director nowadays, especially after what he did to Avatar The Last Airbender

It's a documentary of Mariupol home videos filmed in the early days of the war, before they had to leave the city

Maruipol is recovering fast.

Smoke and mirrors

"Frozen In Time: A Rare Look At Life In Mariupol Under Russian Occupation"

https://worldcrunch.com/focus/mariupol-news

Russian occupation authorities promised to rebuild housing in Mariupol by winter, but in reality, thousands of people face the cold in largely destroyed houses and apartments. Mariupol residents told Vazhnyye Istorii about how they are surviving as winter falls.

Up to 90% of high-rise buildings and 60% of private homes have been damaged or destroyed. Nevertheless, there are still about 100,000 people in the occupied city. Many of them have no electricity, heat, water, or sewage. People live without utilities, with tape covering broken windows, and are freezing in their homes in the absence of promised aid that Russia has failed to deliver.

About the pro-Russian or pro-Ukrainian position: nobody cares what happens in politics. They don't watch the news, and they don't follow the fighting. They don't see who is advancing or retreating. They want to survive, and they want to restore at least a normal livelihood. Right now, it's inhuman. The city is destroyed, and people are doomed to extinction. I'm sitting at home; my feet and hands are freezing cold. That is why such questions are irrelevant here. If you ask about Ukraine or Russia on the street, people will say, "Does it matter now?"

Before June, we were given humanitarian kits from the "United Russia" (political party), sugar, pasta. But since June, they've only been giving these kits to children from 0 to 3 years old. I survive on subsistence food. Sometimes the residents share some food. You don't know what you will eat tomorrow.

That was a bonehead push at the end of the game

Besides the Super Bowl being a Kelce Bowl (the first time brothers are playing against each other in the SB), it's also an Andy Reid Bowl (just the 2nd time a coach will face a former team he led to the SB)

The Chiefs and Eagles are tied in #1 scoring points for the season, but the Eagles also have the #1 passing defense. The 4 previous times the #1 scoring vs. #1 passing defense met in the SB, the #1 passing defense won each time

don’t understand what these are. Are they just a color piece of cotton or used for something hentai? Naïve guy here…

Search "dakimakura"

Sickle attack is preferable than gun attack

Can't block that with an umbrella

Doesn't matter anymore - Djokovic's father already made an apology statement

as much free speech as they allow in Russia

I guess that's fair, people who don't have free speech in Russia shouldn't have free speech in other countries as well.

Or, people who have free speech in other countries should have free speech in Russia as well

I just find it funny that people who cry "Free speech! Free speech!" to support him in Australia, that if he ever goes to Russia calling it a war, would they also cry "Free speech! Free speech!" to support him there as well?

But most probably not. Because they don't want him to have free speech in Russia

There is nothing wrong with calling it a war and expressing it