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China Invents Solid Water
Drew N. Taylor writes: "The 'solid water', which is packed in degradable paper, is not pollutive and can be placed deep in the earth together with the root of plant. With the help of microbe, the 'solid water' is gradually dissolved to irrigate the root of plant."
For me it's not Communism that I dislike, it's the fact that free speech is suppressed in China. If the gubment was Commy and people could speak freely, then I say no problem. But when a man or woman cannot speak and write in criticism of anything they wish, then that's wrong, and that government is wrong.
If tits were wings it'd be flying around.
"But, it's a title they claimed, and the Americanpublic has been subject to Anti Communism propaganda for so long... it's a sort of brain washing..."
which is funny.. because that is what we claim china does. (which they do.)
the funny part is that the american's are better at it. we have free speech. we have freedom of the press. but we are still pack animals.
individualism, in its true form, isn't popular here in america. we like to feign individualism a lot... but we are more content "going with the flow."
which is why it is more effective brainwashing. we actually believe what we do is of our own volition... but it isn't. it is exactly what the media, gov't, popular celebrities tell us to think. it's pathetic.
(disclaimer: there are the exceptions. but there are the exceptions in china too)
What comes first, finding a teacher or becoming a student?
free speech. it is oppressed here as well.
example:
after sept. 11th i took every chance i could to say that i was against military action overseas. (and that we are partially responsible for the events on 9/11 and we have to change our foreign policy, not our military strategy, if we hope to stop future attachs)
i recieved SO much hate (e)mail, bad looks, sneering comments, and questioning by my higher ups. like i was a terrorist or something. like i didn't feel sympathy for the people who died.
but that's total crap. i don't want it to happen again. that's why i protest military action.
but anyway. that's my opinion. and they (society) took every means to suppress it.
and it isn't a case of "but that's the nature of people. the gov't didnt' do anything," because they did.
but first, media (with a touch of gov't)
i remember one night on the alan keyes show..
i don't quite remember the guests, but i think they were two senators. one was "go war! let's kill those bastards." and the other one was "but i think that won't end the problem.. just lighten the symptoms for a little bit"
alan responded to the (peaceful) senator, "that's unamerican! to think that you would allow, even support, terrorism!"
and the senator shut up. not another anti-war peep from him. that's the pathetic entity we call our government. they think they'll lose votes.. and they fold.
and so the gov't. bush has made it all too clear that we are either "with us (him) or against us(him"
which makes anyone who says "down with the american government as we know it today" or simply "no war! let us find a way to nurture mutual respect.. with the first, second, n-times until it works, steps being made by us." is unamerican. you are blacklisted. like the 50s. you're arab and you don't tatoo our flag on your body? you're blacklisted.
but it isn't unamerican. it is as american as you get. like jefferson, who held his interpretation of the constitution over everything, we have to keep the idea of free speech alive... but the current gov't disallows it.
just like china does.
oh. and how many anti-american books can you find on bn.com that don't end in "do it's not really america's fault" or "and they said sorry"? (esp. with good reviews)
What comes first, finding a teacher or becoming a student?
Why, why, why do all sectional stories now have to appear as section.slashdot.org in the front page link? It's annoying!
Yes, I know that if I only want to see the Science stories I can go to science.slashdot.org, or if I want to see a horrific colourscheme I can go to apache.slashdot.org. However, I _didn't_, I went to main slashdot.org and clicked on a link. This story, for no good reason, took me into the subsection. This gains me nothing (same story is available at the same URL minus the section. at the beginning) and means it ignores my login cookie. So, I either have to log back in (waste of time, irritating) or manually change the URL and redownload the story. On 56k and a larger story, that's not much fun.
PLEASE, can this stop? It doesn't help anyone, it just wastes time and bandwidth, mine and yours.
Greg
(Inside a nuclear plant)
Aaaarrrggh! Run! The canary has mutated!
An American invents liquid shit.
You are as confused as you are deluded.
If tits were wings it'd be flying around.
China is only concerned with insular affairs. Take the recent N. Korean incident with the Japanese embassy into consideration. If the Japanese had paid attention to Chinese international relations with regard to the outside world, they would have realized that the Chinese government has no real empathy nor special hatred for any other country's citizens.
The Korean War is a very good example of this attitude. China early on made it clear to the American government that any incursion onto Chinese soil would result in retaliation, but implicit in the statement was that they would not retaliate against anything short of a physical incursion. Thus when the U.S. pushed deep into N.Korea, they didn't find any Chinese resistance. It wasn't until they decided to push into Chinese territory that the Chinese tanks rolled onto the scene and beat the U.S. forces back to the 32nd Parallel. If the strategists had paid enough attention, the Korean penninsula would be unified under a democratic government.
What is the point of all this? Well, it's that China couldn't care less about anything other than itself. It cares about Taiwan because it believes that it is just a rogue state that has strayed and needs to be brought back into the fold. It cares about open markets because it knows that the influx of Western money is the key to supporting its teetering government. It cares about its international pride, thus supplying the impetus to upgrade its rocket launching capabilities and suggesting Chinese moon bases.
It does not care about other countries except in relation to how they affect the motherland. In the previously mentioned case of the N.Korean refugees, if the Japanese had taken the Chinese attitude into consideration, they could have avoided the stupid mistakes of publicly demanding the return of the refugees and instead worked with the Chinese government in secret, like the Nixon administration did in opening China to foreign markets, to get them back.
So the bottom line of all this is that China doesn't have the urge to become the star at the center of the world stage. It is quite content to be all powerful in its sphere of influence, which is militarily all of Asia and economically global. It has never stepped beyonds its own perceived borders since the Cultural Revolution. China knows its priorities and none of them include risking its military for foreign conquest or supporting foreign countries. The support for such military actions is non-existant among the populace and has little to no support in the government. That's what 5,000 years of History will do to a country.
The only thing that seems to motivate the Chinese is the prospect of making a mint off the West and on the backs of its citizens. Like Japan after WWII, they have in place programs to strengthen business and keep their economy growing. However, China will not go to war to settle international trade disputes because such a course of action would be completely contrary to the actions of an international trade partner. If China were to upset the U.S. they would lose their largest trading partner and would risk the collapse of their economy and subsequently their government.
No, unless China's government is replaced by a modern, moderate, socialist democratic government they will never become the world power you imagine they will be. The government as it stands is too focused on maintaining itself and too oblivious to outside events that they can't ever become de-stultified enough to allow its citizens the requisite freedoms to become a world superpower.
If they had a colonial history like Russia this would be a different conversation. They do not have the evangelical Communist spirit that characterized the Russian system, the system that brought to loggerheads the Soviets and the Americans. The fact is that except for occasional stupidity on the Americans' part, China and the U.S. have never come to blows.
To be a world superpower, a country must be able to look beyond its borders and protect, threaten, or in some other way affect other countries' internal affairs. To date, China has done nothing of the sort with any affect. They are neither a stabilizing force in their region (India vs. Pakistan, civil war in Indonesia, N.Korea vs. S.Korea, etc.), nor a destabilizing force anywhere in the world. In toto the Chinese effects do not extend past its borders.
China will never be a superpower along the lines of America or the U.S.S.R. for two reasons. First is that they do not have the military might to seriously threaten the principal global superpower, the United States. Second, the future of the Chinese government is wholly based on its ability to generate capital through open trade with the international community. If the first problem is corrected, the backlash of the U.S. would be to withdraw financial support of the country, causing the government to lose its ability to keep its citizens sedate. If the second problem were solved by the admission of Western-style freedoms, it would mean a peaceful transition from the old hard-fisted totalitarian government to a new open-handed democratic beauracracy which would be very encouraging for trade and peace worldwide. But such a course of action would also be an admission of China's own failure to govern themselves well for the last 50-odd years, and as a result put them in a subordinate position much like Germany or Britain to the U.S.
I have been pwned because my
The western world is full of complaisant people like you who don't get it.
The umpire has to call the ball now. You're obviously an IDIOT.
Compliant like me? How compliant do you think I am? If people get locked up for speaking what do you think I'm going to do? Duck and cover?
No, fool. I'll be protecting YOUR ass and your right to speak.
I get it CLEARLY. The right to speak ultimately is secured by the people, and must be actively retained by the people. But that's not the situation right now. The original complainant was whining like a baby because nobody was listening to him. He wasn't locked up, he wasn't killed. He spoke, and everyone ignored him.
No problem with freedom of speech in his case.
If tits were wings it'd be flying around.