Remember as a youngster letting go of a balloon and seeing it zigzag, ascend and descend, and make a few loops?

No? Oh, I see. This is because it is not typical.

As you’ve probably already heard, a weird balloon is now flying above the continental United States.

Why wouldn’t you trust the Chinese claim that it is only a “civilian airship used for research” that veered off course?

The vast majority of individuals, including Pentagon officials, consider this to be a “Chinese surveillance balloon.” What is it precisely surveying? Nobody appears to know, which only heightens its unsettling character.

We do know, though, that this spy balloon has exceedingly remarkable characteristics, including a level of mobility that the authorities did not appear eager to elaborate on.

“But is it — you say that it’s moving eastward and it’s over the continental U.S. It’s change — it’s not over Montana anymore. Is the Chinese government controlling the movement of the balloon, or is it just floating with air streams?” a reporter asked the Pentagon’s press secretary, Air Force Brigadier Gen. Patrick Ryder, on Friday.

“Thanks, Jennifer. So I’m not going to go into any specific intelligence that we may have. Again, we know this is a Chinese balloon and that it has the ability to maneuver, but I’ll just leave it at that,” Ryder added.

This “ability to maneuver” aroused the interest of John Villasenor, head of the Institute for Technology, Law, and Policy and professor of electrical engineering, law, public policy, and management at the University of California, Los Angeles, as reported by Scientific American.

Villasenor told Scientific American,“The only balloons I’ve ever heard of are the ones that can go up and down or the ones that don’t do anything—they just go completely at the mercy of the winds.” “But the phrasing from these spokespeople seems to suggest some greater degree of control than that. I don’t know what that means, but I think it’s notable …. It adds some more complexity to the whole thing.”

Oh. Great.

It is terrifying to consider what may happen next. A week ago, the ordinary American was probably unaware of the existence of the balloon. A few days ago, very few people were aware of this “ability to maneuver.” CONTINUE READING…