Slashdot Mirror
China Abandons Long-Distance Maglev Effort
Ralph Lee writes "China has chosen to abandon its Maglev train effort from Beijing-Shanghai, according to this AP story: 'Besides cost, "the maglev technique was excluded because it does not match the wheel-track technique used by railways in China," the report said, citing Wang Derong, vice-chairman of the China Transport Association.... The scrapping of the 9-year-old maglev project - two weeks after the country's first maglev, a short stretch in Shanghai, began regular operation - represents a setback for the development of the technology in China, which many had seen as one of its key markets.'" The short 18-mile MagLev run mentioned earlier remains in operation, but China is not going to use magnetic levitation for the planned 750-mile Beijing-Shanghai link.
Plase, sign this !!!
NUNSHITTERS!
Maglev seems to be all but dead in the United States - Is this just an extension where other countries are abandoning an aparently pointless technology?
Abandoning apparently pointless technologies? Like the US DoD's "Star Wars" programme?
What use is spending tens if not hundreds of billions researching pie-in-the-sky orbital missile defences in an era where the greatest threats come from "rogue" states that don't possess the capability to strike at the continental US?
Who is the Star Wars programme going to defend against? Russia, which is now an ally? China, which exports more goods to the US than anywhere else?
The only purpose the Star Wars research serves is providing jobs to defence contractors. If it's fruitless then it's wasted money. If it's fruitful then its a white elephant. So why carry on funding it?
Wouldn't that money be better spent elsewhere? Like, say, airport security in Washington DC to stop people carrying live ammunition onto intercontinental flights?
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
As of this moment, in rural areas, the Chinese people live in squandor.
Sorry for nit-picking, but I hate it when such fine words are distorted and wrecked: the word you were looking for is squalor!
Sigged!