Yeah, it was fun while it lasted, you're right. In the video (the later parts of it), it seems obvious that whatever's making that trail isn't moving all that fast. Also, the one point where "flames" seem to be visible also looks a lot like the setting sun reflecting off a shiny metal fuselage on a banking plane.

The contrail's tragectory seems weird, still, but that could be some species of optical illusion. Bashi, got a link to that photo?

I'm still not convinced it wasn't super-dolphins, firing a warning shot, though. SQUEEEE!

Heh.

-CW

I thought you'd like (7.) the best, personally. Hey, I even provided a photo link!

I actually DID like #7 better, but the picture looks too much like *MY* Evil Underground Lair, so I choose #8 to throw all of you off the scent... :D

I thought you'd like (7.) the best, personally. Hey, I even provided a photo link!

:-)

-CW

I know exactly what you mean. It amazes me every time. As if the laws of physics might let me down. And then, everything works and you remember how cool it was. Better than you remembered even.

And if you have kids with you who've never see a launch, even better.

It really doesn't look like a jet airplane either. That seems to be the gub'ment story.

I would have liked to be a fly on the wall when someone's butt got chewed out.

Now I'm going back to enjoying my McRib ... :)
-David

p.s. The world's largest model rocket launch ...
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/04/090427-worlds-largest-model-rocket.html

Logical...

Michale.....

a nuclear deterrent is ONLY a deterrent if it is known.

We have plenty of declared deterrent, for now. But we well might develop more in secret, so as to be a jump ahead when someone else develops new countermeasures or new threats. Keeping it secret makes it harder for them to either copy it or develop countermeasures.

Yea... But will that be the REAL story???

I had a little time to think about this during my shower.. (sorry about the mental picture.. :D)

It IS pretty weird how there doesn't seem to be much interest in this.. Maybe it, as you say, the sign of the times.. Back in my military hay day, something like this would have panicked Americans all the way up to the Oval Office..

Have we become so blase' that we think, "Huh?? Unknown missile launch 35 miles off the coast?? hoo hum... Should I have a Big Mac or a McRib???"

I have also had time to contemplate my theory.. It would seem that, if it HAD been a Chinese launch the readiness of the US military would reflect that. You can't hide deployment orders of such a scale that an enemy missile launch would require.

I would HATE to think that our military leaders simply don't know..

That's likely the scariest scenario of all...

Michale.....

I can assure you that to this trained eye (spent several years at Vandenberg and saw many a missile launch up close and personal) this was an ICBM launch. No two ways about it..

TPTB are trying to pass it off as a Jet contrail..

Sheeya, right... I may have been born at night, but it wasn't LAST night...

(8.) The dolphins have evolved into a super-race, and boy are they pissed off.

That one made me laugh.. :D

They probably are sick and tired of being mistaken for tuna.. :D

(1.) A foreign government snuck a submarine very close to L.A., and then fired off a missile as a warning shot across America's bow, in a very literal sense.

My money is on this one.. China is royally pissed about the US monetary maneuverings and is telling us in no uncertain terms that they (the Chinese) would be very happy to take an economic war and make it a real war. AND that they (the Chinese) have the power to do it...

Anyone ever read or see HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER?? Imagine the consternation if the Chinese or the Russians can park a sub 35 miles off our coast and perform missile drills and NO ONE knows it's there till the missiles start flying.. Less then 2 mins warning, if my estimates are accurate.

dsws,

It doesn't have to be a sub: it could be a surface ship, or a floating missile silo dropped off by a ship.

It definitely wasn't a ship.. I know of no ship in our arsenal that is capable of launching an ICBM. And it doesn't make sense to keep it a secret. As we learned very well in Dr Strangelove, a nuclear deterrent is ONLY a deterrent if it is known...

A floating missile silo?? Now THAT's an interesting concept.. I have never heard of it, but it would be a lot easier to conceal than an entire ICBM equipped ship..

Hmmmmmmmm

Now THAT brings up some interesting possibilities.. Imagine hundreds of this floating silos deployed, stealth materials and activated like mines..

Whooaaaaaa... That's pretty kewl... :D

Michale.....

Hoo boy. And what billionaire would have a grudge against California right about now?

(cough, cough... Meg Whitman... cough)

Maybe I should change that to "Meggles' undersea lair"...

Heh. Where's James Bond when you need him?

:-)

-CW

Just because branches of the military that talk to the public don't know anything, that doesn't mean it wasn't done intentionally by No Such Agency of the US government. It doesn't have to be a sub: it could be a surface ship, or a floating missile silo dropped off by a ship. China knows we can fire missiles from subs, but maybe they didn't know we could do it from where they didn't think we had one.