Now that I've seen your last post ... does anybody here know how a balloon is "steerable" -- other than changing altitude?
That's the way they did it on the two hot air balloon rides I've been on. The pilot had a can of shave cream to judge the wind direction by shooting some over the side to see which way the wind would blow it. There was also a companion balloon at a higher elevation doing the same, and they would communicate by radio.
There has been a lot of net traffic suggesting that the Chinese balloon is steerable, as if they had a choice about where to go with it next. Nobody has an idea how;
I'm willing to bet they're aircraft-launched. Only a supposition, but an aircraft can move in the aloft winds and find a particular stream to send it off.
Didn't you see the pictures of the framework of the balloon itself? The whole inside of it was framed - NOT "trailing" that out.
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An old hillbilly farmer had a wife who nagged him unmercifully. From morning till night (and sometimes later), she was always complaining about something. The only time he got any relief was when he was out plowing with his old mule. He tried to plow a lot. One day, when he was out plowing, his wife brought him lunch in the field. He drove the old mule into the shade, sat down on a stump, and began to eat his lunch. Immediately, his wife began haranguing him again. Complain, nag, nag; it just went on and on. All of a sudden, the old mule lashed out with both hind feet; caught her smack in the back of the head. Killed her dead on the spot. At the funeral several days later, the minister noticed something rather odd. When a woman mourner would approach the old farmer, he would listen for a minute, then nod his head in agreement; but when a man mourner approached him, he would listen for a minute, then shake his head in disagreement. This was so consistent, the minister decided to ask the old farmer about it. So after the funeral, the minister spoke to the old farmer and asked him why he nodded his head and agreed with the women, but always shook his head and disagreed with all the men. The old farmer said: "Well, the women would come up and say something about how nice my wife looked, or how pretty her dress was, so I'd nod my head in agreement." "And what about the men?" the minister asked. "They wanted to know if the mule was for sale."
