But I thought the weird part about it was that it was floating much lower than they are normally placed? I believe that some outlets were even saying it was in the same altitude as commercial aircraft. Though I am not sure at what level using canons on a fighter is completely pointless. So even if it was lower, you may still be correct.
It seems strange to me that the US needed to fire a missile at it just to bring it down (aside from it looking “strong” for the cameras). It could’ve been taken down with the machine guns and wouldn’t have cost the tens of thousands of dollars that the missile costs. I hope that if they are able to get the sensors and computers from it all just turn out to be completely just the normal “boring” stuff that weather balloons always have. I also hope that if the US intentionally makes a point of having our own “blown off course” balloon enter China’s airspace that China makes a point of handling it all better. Then the US loses its chance to point back and talk shit. Win win for China’s image in being the more levelheaded nation that isn’t trying to take over the world (as the US always claims it is).
All of the Fediverse is going to have to deal with them at some point. It isn’t like the opensource systems can just ban people from setting up servers and instances. But they can take proactive measures to block them and setup databases of known fascist instances that anti-fascist instances can import. But I am not an admin or dev, so I am not sure what currently are and aren’t options. Decentralization by its nature is meant to be hard to be stopped for good and bad.
You are correct! The way they advise China to back off while the US is on edge is purely to seed the idea that it should be normal to yield to whatever the US wants to happen. Also seeds the idea that if the US does become hostile, that the Chinese should’ve known it would happen. It is like telling women that they shouldn’t have dressed a certain way if they didn’t want to be assaulted. It is like taking the side of a domestic abuser. The US has been told “yes” too many times and freaks out like a spoiled child that can’t handle any “noes” that come their way.
The balloon got brought up mostly jokingly at work the other day. And even folks that respectfully converse with me about politics but tend to disagree with me were calling it an overreaction. I said that if they did shoot it down, that I would love to see it be a big troll by China. Just normal sensors and a note that has a pic of Xi with something to the effect of “lol gotcha losers”. Or maybe letters from an elementary school class seeing if anyone would write back to let them know how far it got or something. lol
I have only used it on Windows personally, but the GitHub does have info for Mac OS and Linux. It uses I2P but can run its own I2P connection without needing to also install the main I2P router. For the moment it seems to be not super populated due to lack of more people not knowing about it (IMO at least). The UI is fairly simple and “feels” like old-school P2P from the early 00’s. Setting up the folders you want to share might be a little less straightforward up front (at least to me). But it is pretty easy compared to stuff like DC++ while also having some chat options built-in. It also allows you to set the program for speed (no hops and not as anonymous) or for safety (more hops before arriving to or from).
But again, I have only used it on Windows at the moment.
This is true given how FB has ignored lots of literal death squads all over the world (the others aren’t innocent of this either). But it is the one that the most people tend to use. Almost none of my friends or family use twitter sort of a link taking them there. And I believe that Instagram was pretty popular for ISIS to reach out to folks by making life with them look good.