The U.S. military and intelligence agencies know what they're doing. You don't.

(Written on 02/10/2023)(Permalink)

Well the U.S. military is the best at rational thought in such situations. Certainly armchair "experts" are not. Jesse Carroll is asking an honest questions, and she deserves an honest answer, not self-aggrandizing nonsense. Jesse, this Forbes article describes the challenges with putting a "few holes" in the balloon: https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidhambling/2023/02/03/busting-that-chinese-balloon-is-harder-than-you-think/?sh=31c734b57d6a .

(Written on 02/10/2023)(Permalink)

Agreed. Mr. Rowe thought he was being cutely tangential with his.... Sadly this forum has a fair amount of proud racists.

(Written on 12/23/2022)(Permalink)

Apparently even ketchup ends up on the wall....

(Written on 12/23/2022)(Permalink)

So you're 100% certain that this person will run....

(Written on 09/30/2022)(Permalink)

Facts are no fun!

(Written on 09/30/2022)(Permalink)

It's bail -- an amount designed to make sure the accused shows up to their trial. It's not a fine, much less the ultimate punishment, which in my state is up to 5 years in prison and up to $10,000 in fines, not to mention that it's also a federal crime.

(Written on 09/30/2022)(Permalink)

... that we know about.

(Written on 09/02/2022)(Permalink)

Quoting the article: " One of the individuals that police investigated was a 19-year-old man named Giovanni De Luca, an airline subcontractor. Investigators went to his home on Aug 10 and found the items that had been reported missing, plus those of another man who reported that $15,000 worth of jewelry from his suitcase had gone missing just days earlier."

(Written on 08/26/2022)(Permalink)

Apple Air Tags are not GPS trackers. They're low energy Bluetooth beacons. Every so often they simply send out a signal announcing their presence and their unique ID. Nearby Apple devices (e.g., iPhones) hear those beacons and send their ID and some location information back to Apple. There are layers of cryptography to protect the privacy surrounding the device (e.g., iPhone) that helps out in this process. So no information about the location of the iPhone (and its owner) is retained or retrievable. The fact that this is a low energy Bluetooth beacon means the battery can last for *years*. Compare that with a device that actually is a GPS receiver. Not only does it have to power up and wait for signals from enough satellites to arrive to determine its location, it then has to transmit that information back to the owner somehow, likely via the cell phone network. That too has energy costs. Neither of those is low-energy, so any such device might only be able to last on the order

(Written on 08/26/2022)(Permalink)