To be concerned about the balloon discovered hovering over Montana

[MeetPi]

The balloon is said to be a Chinese spy balloon up to three football fields long. In the last few minutes, another balloon has possibly been spotted over Canada - where the first balloon apparently came through to the US.

Purportedly President Biden wanted to shoot the balloon down, but the Pentagon convinced him otherwise, as this could prove a risk to people on the ground.

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/feb/02/pentagon-chinese-spy-balloon

I'm a bit worried that China is purposefully pissing off the US and trying to trigger WW3

CNN are discussing with a retired general about the benefits of a balloon over a satellite. Basically it can pickup radio and cellphone signals that satellites obviously can’t and allows them to then reorientate their satellites for a better view.

Also suggestion that China may well be passing any gathered intel to Putin and the Russian intelligence services.

I think there we can safely say no. Intelligence gathering in a range of forms is fairly normal.

My thoughts exactly. We don't know what it's doing. (I don't think we should we should take what the US is saying at face value, either.)

Just in case anybody is inclined to think I make stuff up...a couple of links related to surveillance and modern balloons..

digit.site36.net/2022/06/15/military-and-border-police-new-age-for-surveillance-balloons/

www.keytechnologies.ae/index.php/solutions/surveillance-balloons

So it's sort of like the white balloon in "The Prisoner" on steroids? 🤔

Btw I read this in Trending... as balloon disco and was wondering what was so concerning about that; sounds rather fun, I thought.

I don't have Alexa, and the only thing Google Voice Assistant has ever heard me mutter is, "Oh, fuck off", while I'm trying to close it after it's mysteriously popped up on my phone or tablet.

@Switchwitch her sister lives her.

I asked for in Paradesium the other day, she suggested the Death in Paradise theme tune.🙄

👏 good one!

I have no idea how big a football field is. Could we have the measurements in giraffes please?

LeticiaDejeuner · Today 07:16

I like that the article clarifies it is "too big to be the moon." Imagine the embarrassment....

😂

It isn't as big as 3 football fields, it's the size of 3 busses.

Isn't it funny, the way humans find the amuse themselves.

The entire ISS takes up much less than 3 football fields

www.nasa.gov/content/space-station-size-compared-to-soccer-field/

So it's a big balloon but not a ridiculously enormously big balloon.

Can't get my head around a balloon that big. Are we sure it's a balloon? Anyone seen the film 'Nope?'

@plumduck

Canada have just recently issued another statement confirming the second balloon (somewhat).

"Canada monitoring potential second incident of suspected ‘spy balloon’
Canada’s national defence has confirmed a potential second incident of a suspected Chinese spy balloon today and said that officials are monitoring it.
“A high-altitude surveillance balloon was detected and its movements are being actively tracked by [North American Aerospace Defense Command] NORAD,” the national defence said in a statement.
“Canadians are safe and Canada is taking steps to ensure the security of its airspace, including the monitoring of a potential second incident,” the statement added."

😂😂😂

Beat me to it !

It's not as if the yanks don't spy on other countries is it .

They also invade a lot as well !

Of course YABU.
Unless you're in Montana.
What are your actual concerns?

Xi is insane worse than Putin.... in terms of danger to us all, which is what the head of the CIS said recently, should he invade Taiwan, it make the disruption caused by the Ukraine war look like the warm up act.

Someone this morning said that Xi has been spooked by the terrible failure of Russia military hardware against NATO equipment, so will increase his spying activities.... who knows? but this shouldn't be treated lightly & the USA is probably trying to bring it down in one piece.

😃^this

It needs to be considered alongside the wider geopolitical events - e.g. the US and the Philippines signing their cooperation agreement yesterday and Blinken's upcoming meeting with his Chinese counterpart.

Spying isn't new, and the use of balloons isn't new. I'm frankly not overly concerned. I'm in Scotland and there are consistently Russian submarines off our coast and long range reconnaissance planes and bombers on the edge of our airspace. Frankly a balloon is far less dangerous than those.

The world is splitting once again into geopolitical blocks, we're on the verge of a new Cold War (if not already in one) and activities such as spying etc. will become more common. The difference is we now know about them in real time rather than reading about it in a newspaper 3 days after the event.

There could be one floating over this country right now and you wouldn't know about it, unless the Government reported on it. The balloons travel at a much higher altitude than commercial aircraft so wouldn't be able to be seen from the ground.

@Wonnle

Beat me to it !

It's not as if the yanks don't spy on other countries is it .

They also invade a lot as well !

No-one is suggesting that other countries don't also use tactics similar to this - perhaps not this obvious. However, would you really think it so insignificant if you were out in your garden, looked up and saw this? (It would be difficult as it's so high up, but you know what I mean.)

It’s not so much the spying that’s worrying - that’s been going on for millennia. It’s just that sending up a massive spy balloon is a bit…. odd. I always worry when the governments of powerful countries start doing odd things.

I'm not sure what's more alarming, the thought of a theme tune coming out or the fact that you didn't play an entire requiem (Fauré?) and tried to jump to the end.

There's no point getting too het up over the Chinese Eyeballs in the Sky. Although that is, of course, assuming that it is actually Chinese and not a Vogon fleet.