Slashdot Mirror
China's Space Launch Near; Malaysia Wants One, Too
Enoch Root writes "According to an article on People's Daily Online, a Chinese news service, the first Chinese manned space launch is set to take place in the next few days, between October 15th and October 17th. Space.com has an interesting article on the subject, including a satellite snapshot of the Jiuquan, strongly suggesting the imminent launch." And alphaque writes "Malaysia is calling for interested applicants aged 21 and above to be its first cosmonaut aboard the International Space Station. The ability to speak Russian and prior space exploration experience is a definite plus, they say. Applications can be made online at your nearest astronaut recruitment site. Light sabres optional. Now the floodgates are open. Boldly go where no Malaysian has gone before -- to space, the final frontier." Offer is for Malaysians only, though.
A little rocket to scare those pesky rebels back into submission, eh Mao?
"Oh yeah, btw, these rockets can also be refitted with those kooky warheads, ring-a-ding-ding!"
Either the US or China should declare war on the other, already. I'm sick of this crap.
It used to be that countries would declare war on each other because of petty rivalries between dukes and princes. Now, it sometimes takes an act of god to get them to go at it. How stupid is that?!?!
We're spending billions of dollars (a big chunk of our GDP) on national defense. And we never even use it! We shuffle our troops from base to base, sure, and we log our mileage and tally our days in service and hang our medals. But do we ever do anything productive? Do we ever kill anyone? Of course not.
Is it because we can't anymore? Bullshit. It's because we're afraid to. It's because we've let ourselves get castrated by the liberal media and their doomsday predictions about what might happen if one nation accidentally steps on the toes of the other.
Are we the world's largest superpower or what?!?! Is Bush to big a chump or is he just a pansy?!?!
If we don't start declaring open war on countries that disrespect our sovereignty, then foreign countries will think they can get away with pissing us off. Can you imagine FDR or Eisenhower letting the Chinese hold our American soldiers hostage like this? We haven't seen crap like this since Jimmy Carter, and let me tell you, those were some pretty sad days.
We must settle for no less than outright war. They think they have the upper hand now, but wait until we give it to them old-fashioned American style. They probably don't even have all those nukes they keep whispering about. Have we ever seen them detonate one? Well have we? NO! They don't exist.
Once open war is declared, our economy will boom. It'll be the answer to our recent economic downturn. Look at how WW2 pulled us out of the Depression. And look at how much more expensive modern equipment is. More expenses mean more contribution to our economy and our GDP. That means more funding for the military. It's a positive feedback loop.
And when we're done with China, we should go back to the USSR and show those guys what we're made of. We never bombed them for the U2 incident all those years ago, so it's time we showed them what for. That's what distinguishes the men from the Canadians.
You'd think those silly Chinese would have learned from the time they tried to launch one of their emperors into space in the 1400s by putting hundreds of paper tube rockets on his throne. He blew up.
We silly round eyes have been in space for 40 years, and now you guys think it is a huge achievement? Dammit, Lance Bass was trying to get to go in space. The sad thing is he was probably closer than either two of those nations. Then again, it is the same bassackward corner of the world where cambodians had to be educated on how to use an escalater just a few months ago.
Ke...Ke...Ke...
You only enable them to continue to torture and repress Tibetans, and other dissidents, and use that country as a source for everybody's slave labor.
You guys make me sick.
Beware...
China becoming an economic superpower would be a good thing, both for its citizens and potentially for the rest of the world (they'll have more money to buy our stuff).
Your assumption is that China will "do bad things" if it becomes a superpower, but I don't think that is a given. The neo-Cons in the current US administration don't want any country to threaten the USAs current economic pole position, and are willing to do whatever it takes to keep the USA there. I think that view is narrow minded, and could be damaging for everyone in the long term. Fortunately it looks like the neo-Cons are finding that their gung-ho attitiude to world affairs don't actually get the results they expect.