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[jipehog]

Now, to bring back my prior linguistic diversion for a moment, did you intend an Oxford Comma in listing three individual items, and thus meant to say "none of these"? Or was it two items, with an aside to qualify consistency of perception with that of learning ability, and "neither" was the right choice?

Not your problem, not even being a native anglophone[1]. But perfectly highlights why I think OCs are utterly stupid and frequently confusing. Thus endeth the lesson...

[1] Jipehog, I'm not sure whether that applies to your "...chatGPT have a better train...". And of course I make my own errors of typing or editing, even of things I have a very definite idea of what is correct, for which I frequently kick myself... 

[...] And to annoy dragdeler, for what is likely just a simple typo, "[It] Hurts too bad..." stands out a mile.  [/spoiler]

on topic of diversions, native speaking, and learning. I always found the idea of non native speaker unintuitive, what's a little head start in context of a life time of self improvement. However, that not stickily true, like with driving most people will never past their initial level of expertise no matter how many years they keep at it, because usually we develop a habit and then just drive on "auto pilot" with bare minimal interaction, hence the blank feeling at the end of any mundane activity you zoomed out of.

I think its the same thing with language, the more same ol' same ol the more likely our brain to go into auto-pilot mode, which in case of non native speakers defaults to worse unconscious habits and lizard brain functionality that results in many of those absurd errors that are plain obvious if you stop for second to reread the damn thing. So unintuitively my younger more interested self generally produced much better writings. Anyway challenge yourselves my dears.

[Starver]

Without intending another major digress (I reditected one such recent reply to PM, to shift it off-Off Topic again), I will just say that I find non-'native' users of English, who nonetheless do anglophillically inhabit English-based fora such as these, to often be far more profficient and accurate than the typical primary-anglophone(/-anglograph?), and can probably even teach me a thing or two. (I mean, if I was pressed about how to construct something like the second-person pluperfect of some common but irregular verb, I probably will have to have started by checking which one of the possible forms your actual pluperfect had been...)

But obviously all (Lower-)Leftpondians are incorrigibly tied to various kinds of Websteresque weirdnesses that I cannot always readily reconcile with that specific Rightpondian-trained clump of neurons that lies somewhere suitably deep in my hindbrain.

[dragdeler]

plusterfeck? inglish go ing

[EuchreJack]

So are the balloons still a thing people care about or have they all been popped?

I certainly care about popping them.

Without intending another major digress (I reditected one such recent reply to PM, to shift it off-Off Topic again)

Oh, go ahead with your digression.  It ties into the AI detailment, which has been added to accepted culture by the topic title.
I can always interrupt with new balloon updates.

[King Zultan]

But will the AI be able to handle the various common slang words of the world?

[jipehog]

On technical side, another thing high-altitude balloon are well suited for is monitoring radiation. A common hypothesis concerning the balloon role was that it was there to monitor USA hypersonic testing that were conducted during that time (Russia, China, and US are in race right now concerning hypersonic weapons). Essentially its the same role USA used balloons half a century ago, and the source of at least one alien coverup, before they replaced them with vehicles that can be more reliably recovered. Since then their reliability has improved considerably and Balloons are still far far more harder to monitor compared to satellites with easily identifiable launches and fixed trajectories or very long range planes.

On a political side, Colombia government muted response to its own surveillance balloon, highlight increasing Chinese influence in Colombia and latin america as whole.


@Starver, definitely immigrants selective process result in scores higher than average, but humility aside you don't seem average on that front, also nice finish that works on several levels.

[scriver]

Learned speakers speak the language by the book, native speakers speak the tongue by the heart.

The latter is, sometimes unfortunately, always the correct one, in a way, since it is their language. Even though sometimes they speak so wrongly it makes everyone else both native and taught mad, like people who say "could of" instead of "could have/could've" and similar "X of" constructs, which clearly is not just wrong to everyone who can spot it but also breaks the language in a way that is contrarian to ease of use and understanding but hey they carry the language in their hearts so they have the right to debase and ruin it by their ignorance

[EuchreJack]

A common hypothesis concerning the balloon role was that it was there to monitor USA hypersonic testing that were conducted during that time (Russia, China, and US are in race right now concerning hypersonic weapons).

Am I the only one that thinks it is kinda stupid to be launching a 2023 mach 20 missile from a 1950's mach 0.5 aircraft?
More to the point, the missile is quick enough to evade most defenses, but the plane take 20 minutes to get into position to launch the missile, and is so blatantly obvious that civilians know it's coming?

...no wonder it's only use is against "high value fixed targets".

[Lord Shonus]

The conditions for testing are not the same as those for operational use. If these are adopted and fired for real, they'll be stored in airbase magazines and fitted to aircraft there, not flown randomly across the continental US. The concept is an excellent way to get more use out of airframes that cannot survive as penetrators any longer, and it will probably be carried by B-2 and B-21 aircraft as well as B-52s.

[anewaname]

They are only good against "high value fixed targets" because the heat from friction interferes with dynamic targeting systems; from this article:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

COMMUNICATION

Hypersonic missiles are high-stakes weapons, so it is important to be able to communicate with the munitions, in order to abort or redirect a strike. However, communication is a significant challenge at hypersonic speeds.

“One critical aspect is transmitting and receiving information through the potentially plasma-laden hypersonic airflow. At hypersonic speeds, the aerothermal heating can impart so much energy into the air that the electrons surrounding the air molecules dissociate and create plasma,” says Varley. “This plasma can block radio frequency waves such as communications signals.”

This problem is well known to the public, as it has occurred when manned space capsules and the Space Shuttle have re-entered the atmosphere and experienced a plasma blackout, he notes.

Basically, they are blind and deaf, relying on internal guidance systems to steer to the pre-programmed target.

[Frumple]

Learned speakers speak the language by the book, native speakers speak the tongue by the heart.

The latter is, sometimes unfortunately, always the correct one, in a way, since it is their language. Even though sometimes they speak so wrongly it makes everyone else both native and taught mad, like people who say "could of" instead of "could have/could've" and similar "X of" constructs, which clearly is not just wrong to everyone who can spot it but also breaks the language in a way that is contrarian to ease of use and understanding but hey they carry the language in their hearts so they have the right to debase and ruin it by their ignorance

the best one is "coulda", which coulda' been any of them :V

[King Zultan]

Seems like cutting slang, weird sayings, and common grammatical errors out of the program would be what you'd want for an translation AI to work well, so I don't see why a native speaker would be more important than learned speaker.

[jipehog]

A common hypothesis concerning the balloon role was that it was there to monitor USA hypersonic testing that were conducted during that time (Russia, China, and US are in race right now concerning hypersonic weapons).

Am I the only one that thinks it is kinda stupid to be launching a 2023 mach 20 missile from a 1950's mach 0.5 aircraft?
More to the point, the missile is quick enough to evade most defenses, but the plane take 20 minutes to get into position to launch the missile, and is so blatantly obvious that civilians know it's coming?

...no wonder it's only use is against "high value fixed targets".

There are no known operational defense against hypersonic missiles, that is your selling point.

Otherwise, not sure what its actual speed is, it might reach mach 20 on final approach, but reportedly its average speed is 6-8 mach with a range of 1000-1600km. Meaning a missile shot from London will reach Moscow in 5min.

Not sure how useful advanced warning would be against a missile you can't defend against, but most countries monitoring capabilities at 1000km range are limited and as Lord Shonus noted it would likely end up being used on a verity of platforms (btw any chance it can be fit on a X-37B?) making such detection even harder.

The conditions for testing are not the same as those for operational use. If these are adopted and fired for real, they'll be stored in airbase magazines and fitted to aircraft there, not flown randomly across the continental US. The concept is an excellent way to get more use out of airframes that cannot survive as penetrators any longer, and it will probably be carried by B-2 and B-21 aircraft as well as B-52s.

Here is another something in that vein https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJmcjC7Tfoc

[Lord Shonus]

The other thing is that destroying high value fixed (note that "fixed" is a relative term if you have good enough intel - ground units that have stopped for even a brief time can be targeted if you know their location) targets? Incredibly important in war. One of these impacting a key bridge or supply depot would probably obliterate it - the planned warhead weight is not known, but other missiles in the same category carry 500kg warheads, which is pretty significant, and they travel fast enough to add considerable kinetic energy to that. One bomber's loadout could cripple major offensives, decapitate enemy leadership in the field (by destroying command posts and communications relays), wipe out staging areas, etc.

[jipehog]

Indeed. They can hit high value and or time sensitive targets. Although not necessarily revolutionary tech that will change much (Russia have had super-sonic carrier killers for decades, which is a as big target as I can think of), it has its niche uses but mostly not helpful for international stability

Regardless, it is possible that the balloons could have been monitoring plasma trails following the weapon testing.