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You referred to 'instruments in the F-18'. I asked what you meant. You haven't replied to that, so I don't think you have 'made your point'. It's not a trivial detail: if the F-18 had instruments on board which gave a range for the object, that's important, and more credible than the other...

I may have missed something, but I wasn't aware that any instruments in the F-18 gave an indication of range. The Situation Awareness display had data from other sources, which we haven't seen.

I noticed this recent press report from Yorkshire (UK) about a US Air Force jet taking evasive action to avoid a large balloon at around 21,000 feet. So far as I know it was not reported as a UFO/UAP...

Judging by the photo, they need to work on their camouflage.

The TASS claim reminds me of the old Soviet joke about Pravda (literally, 'truth') and Izvestia (literally, 'news'): 'There is no truth in Pravda and no news in Izvestia.' I don't recall if there was a joke about TASS.

Living in a country (the UK) where in the last few years the Russian state has used both chemical (nerve poison) and radiological (polonium) weapons against its enemies, with great risks to innocent bystanders (one of whom died), when the Russians complain about possible chemical weapons in...

I can't quote a source, but I've seen a slightly different version in the UK press: soldiers in the Russian advance forces carried personal rations for 3 days, with the expectation that they would soon be resupplied. But delays due to Ukrainian resistance and traffic problems, like that...

On the Cottingley Fairies, an interesting source is this old segment from the BBC's Antiques Roadshow. (Assuming that it is correctly ascribed to Series 31, it was filmed some time in 2008 or 2009.) Remarkably, it features the daughter and granddaughter of one of the original hoaxers. (Or so...

Banerji (in various spellings) is a Hindu name - in fact usually Brahmin - so it is highly unlikely they would use cow fat. 'Tallow' is a generic term for animal fat, so they could well have used fat from sheep, goats, geese, ducks, etc. Or buffaloes, which apparently don't count as cows for...

Was it a telephone survey? I'm trying to imagine how the call would go: "Good morning, is that Ivan Ivanovich of 23 Nevsky Prospekt, Kursk? Yes? We are conducting an opinion poll. This telephone call may be recorded for training purposes, but please be assured that your responses will be...

The latest update on Ukraine in The Times (London, paywalled) states that: I don't automatically believe any statement by the MoD, but a Russian shift to night operations, if true, would be significant. It's difficult to see any reason for it other than effective opposition in the daytime...

I hope so, but I haven't seen any specific statements about this, in contrast to statements about supplying weapons. Perhaps in the nature of the case any intelligence activity would be kept secret. For example, if the US/NATO is flying reconnaissance drones over Ukrainian territory, the less...

Various media reports, attributed to Western intelligence sources, suggest that Russian paratroops and special forces were landed at the airport to the north of Kiev, with the aim of quickly entering Kiev and capturing or killing the Ukrainian President and installing a puppet regime. If that...

It's difficult to know what to count as an invasion, since the USSR had forces stationed permanently in most 'Eastern bloc' countries - for their defence against NATO, of course! - so the USSR didn't always need to send tanks across borders to achieve its objectives. But I think Hungary in 1956...

They might not see it that way in Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Finland... If Putin says 'We have no more territorial demands to make in Europe', then they should really be worried.

We would need to see the full context of this. The version I've seen in a UK newspaper (probably The Times) is that the promise made to Russia and/or the USSR at the time of German reunification was specifically not to extend NATO forces in Germany beyond the Elbe, and had nothing to do with...

Who would doubt that? And if anyone did, wouldn't the occupation of Crimea have removed the doubts?

The glare is in the camera, not the sky. I don't think we have established any basis for a limit to the apparent size of a glare as a multiple of the angular size of the heat or light source causing it. I just looked at a bright LED street light (it is night time where I live), with the naked...

Thanks for the explanation. I doubt that I fully understand it, but I hope it will be useful to others. I don't see a huge problem in the divergence right at the end of the video. Isn't it agreed that the fighter 'overshoots' the target in the final few seconds, as shown by the angle of the...

I don't follow this. Surely for most of the (short) video the Navy plane is turning in a tight circle, while the object is not, so 'the directions of each object against the wind' must be different during most of the video. So why does the divergence only occur at the very end? Also, if the...