SpaceKadet

Yeah, I have a cousin too. And she's still alive. Empirical evidence here; do not attempt to start an untuned bike with open exhaust that backfires into a jerrycan full of gasoline. You might qualify for the Darwin awards..... By the way; did you know that they inflate party balloons with bike exhaust in this county? That rubber must be really good quality and heat resistant too....

Try to read the thing about air/fuel ratio and the ignition temperature. How smoking in the car would cause an explosion outside?

I never shut down the engine while fueling up in Saudi, and never shut it down here. How can a running engine cause an explosion? All urban myths... There was a documentary made some times ago dispelling movie myths. One of them was that throwing a burning cigarette on the gasoline would ignite it. Whatever they tried, they could not ignite the gasoline, not even with a cigar. The temperature of a smoldering tobacco is just too low. Goes into the same category as when there is a car crash, the car would explode... as seen in all the American movies. Don't buy American cars!!! To ignite gasoline fumes you need to achieve the air–fuel ratio of about 14.7:1. This is very unlikely to happen in open air environment. The same thing about the cellphone usage. There was some urban myth that using a cellphone in a gas station would cause arcing and cause and explosion. If that was a case, I would be worrying more about killing my brain cells rather than causing an explosion. What about those cell towers everywhere pumping out watts of microwaves everywhere? Anybody can point to a reliable source describing an explosion caused by a running engine, smoking, or using a cell phone while fueling up?

Politicians make everything so complicated. In reality, it's very simple. All Russia has to do is stop the aggression and withdraw it's troops from Ukraine. It all hangs on Putin.

Yeah, especially with all the antennas covering most of the interesting radio spectrum.

I was thinking the same???? Lot's of kinky applications for cling wrap.....

Personally, I think it's extra terrestrials preparing for invasion and sending unmanned probes to test our defenses.

That is what I read on BBC some time back. And, no, don't ask me for the URL. I read in on the BBC app on my phone.

This one allegedly had propellers.

I will beg to differ. Normally, spy satellites orbit at 200 miles (320km). According to most sources, the highest image resolution they can do is under 10cm but more that 5cm. Now imagine a stationary object loitering at 25km with the same camera. I would expect the image resolution to be below 1cm. And that could probably read the date on the coin. One thing that spy satellites cannot do, or even the Echelon system that you mentioned, is to gather signal intelligence (SIGINT) of low powered transmitters used by different branches of military, and civil services. Balloons loitering at 85,000 feet are perfect for that. Echelon relies on huge listening radio arrays, and spy satellites positioning themselves next to commercial Com Satellites. Do you seriously believe that you could, in NY find a signal transmitted by a 2W handheld in LA, no matter how big your listening antenna was? There is this thing called "Inverse Square Law".

F22, as most US fighters, carries M61A2 Vulcan 20mm six-barreled internal cannon. Effective range is just under 2 miles. Now, please tell me how would you put a "small hole" in something that is hovering 25,000 feet (over 4 miles) above you? And remember that bullets do not have internal propulsion or guidance and are purely ballistic, i.e. obeying the gravity.

I know a little bit about weather balloons (dated a meteorologist in my much younger years), and they tend to stay close to where they are released and don't last more than a few hours. This one traveled half across the globe. Strange why China would be interested about the weather over Alaska, Canada and US.

Thanks for the info. Looks a little weak on US letting is just drift everywhere. Somehow I don't think we will know what that balloon was...

I asked a question earlier that might have been lost in the background noise, so I'll repeat it. Would really like to have an answer. The balloon was spotted loitering over Nebraska, close to the west coast, but was eventually shot down over the Atlantic. Does this mean it traveled across the whole of the US? Also, some asked what is it that a balloon can do that a satellite can't. Well, I did answer that an image taken at 20+km is much more detailed than taken at 100+km. But there is even more important aspect to loitering about at 20km, and that is recording radio signals. It's not even important what is being said over the radio, but recording the frequencies used by military, civil services, emergency services etc, can be very useful and cannot be done by a passing satellite.

This is from BBC World News site. The meteorologists have calculated the possible route of the balloon, based on the prevailing wings at that altitude. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-64514120 I am a bit confused though. Some news say it has been shot down over the Atlantic off the coast of South Caroline. That would imply it has traveled across the whole continental US. _128512391_balloon_us_china-2x-nc-40.webp

Geostationary can only be around the equator. Montana is at 47-48 deg north. A "very high" resolution camera at 20km that is stationary and can loiter for hours over the same spot can do much better images than a fly by satellite at 100km or more.

Agree on S01 being very odd on P2P sites. I still have to finish S04, but personally, I like British crime/thriller series. And lets face it, Holliday is really easy on the eyes ????

If it really was a civilian weather balloon, one would have expected a common courtesy of China to inform US and Canada that it has indeed gone off course and will be passing over their territories. However, nothing was said, in fact as far as I remember it was denied in the beginning by CCP that the balloon was theirs.

I don't know how the torrent sites group the series together, there seem to be differences. Here is the definitive broadcast order: ..."Fifteen episodes across five series have been broadcast to date, each series adapting the novels The Cuckoo's Calling (2013), The Silkworm (2014), Career of Evil (2015), Lethal White (2018), and Troubled Blood (2020), respectively"... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strike_(TV_series)

Watched it recently, quite good, if little known story.

Each "season" or part seems to be based on a separate book of J.K. Rowling. According to my research, season 1 contains: Season01: The Cuckoos Calling part 1-3 Season02: The Silkworm part part 1-2 Season03: Career of Evil part 1-2 Season04: Lethal White Season05: Troubled Blood So far, I've watched Season01-Season04, and it seems to be a correct sequence of the story.

The Ark, new highly anticipated Sci-Fi TV series has just premiered, and S01E01 is now available on P2P scene. I shouldn't judge after only the first episode, but to me it looked a little stereotypical and at times just plain stupid. Unfortunately it seems down to usual bickering and fighting for power, rather that spinning a good Sci-Fi story. Among many other things; can you really grow corn in only 5cm of soil? Or will using even a hundred LED grow lights drain all the power of a huge space ship that probably has TWatts of nuclear power available....

Ever been "queuing" together with Indians at Saudia check-in desk in Jeddah? Or Ethiopians at the boarding gate at the old Addis Ababa airport?

Well, Stalin sent millions to their death, so what is 100,000 in the great scheme of Russian leader bent on restoring the "glory" of the Soviet Union, aka CCCP.

Excellent link, didn't know it existed.