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China Sending Two People Into Space
henrypijames writes "As reported widely in Chinese media, China has began production of and launch preparations for it's new Shenzhou ("divine ship") 6 spaceship. While being roughly equal in design to Shenzhou 5 which sent the first Chinese into space last year (although having capacity for three persons), Shenzhou 6 is supposed to carry two "Taikonaut" next year."
"Shenzhou 6 is supposed to carry two "Taikonaut" next year."
I bet the people on the space station were getting tired of american and russian food. I never had taikonaut but its probably good...
Hopefully this will get the US to start a space race with China! Just to make sure, everyone tell Bush that if China gets a man on Mars first, that proves that the president of China has a bigger penis than the president of the US.
Outdoor digital photography, mostly in New Engl
I notice that nothing is said about bringing them back.
NetInfo connection failed for server 127.0.0.1/local
Your offensive, racist comment, should not have been moderated "Funny."
"I am a fictional character."
Shenzhou 5 which sent the first Chinese into space last year (although having capacity for three persons), Shenzhou 6 is supposed to carry two "Taikonaut" next year."
They are sending two people so that they can drive the carpool lane. (HOV lane) !!
Free XBox, PS2
Hopefully this will revive the manned spaceflight programs all over the world, preferably in the form of true collaboration and not just let's-all-keep-reinventing-the-wheel kind of silly competition.
We need to get off this planet sooner or later and unmanned probes won't do that.
The owls are not what they seem
snippet from Wikipedia's listing for the Shenzhou - lots more in the link!
Design
Like the Soyuz, the Shenzhou consists of three modules; a forward "orbital" module, a reentry capsule in the middle, and an aft service module. This division is based on the principle of minimizing the amount of material to be returned to Earth. Anything placed in the orbital or service modules does not require heat shielding, and this greatly increases the space available to the spacecraft without increasing weight as much as it would if those modules were also able to withstand reentry.
The orbital module contains space for experiments, crew-serviced or operated equipment, and in-orbit habitation. The reentry capsule contains seating for the crew, and is the only portion of the Shenzhou which returns to Earth's surface. The aft service module contains life support and other equipment required for the functioning of the Shenzhou. Two pairs of solar panels, one pair on the service module and the other pair on the orbital module, have a total area of over 40 square metres, indicating average electrical power over 1.5 kW (three times that of Soyuz and greater than that of the original Mir base module).
Unlike the Soyuz, the orbital module was equipped with its own propulsion, solar power, and control systems, allowing autonomous flight. In the future the orbital modules could also be left behind on a Chinese space station as additional station modules. In the unmanned test flights launched so far, the orbital module of each Shenzhou was left functioning in orbit for several days after the reentry capsule's return.
OK I know I'm gonna get labeled as a troll, but I still think the fact is that Kennedy's race to the moon had nothing to do with the desire for space exploration and everything to do with advancing and keeping one up on ICMB technology. The space program was just a nice side effect. The same could even be said of the hubble telescope, where I hear they have 6 of them up there, but rather than pointing up are pointing down as spy telescopes.
Now the same is true of China. They wanted space weapons cababilities, so they created a space program. It has more to do with Tiwan than space, and the US mission to Marz and the new recent push back into space has from Bush has more to do with China than any real interest or value they see in space.
I'm sorry, but that's just the way it is.
I hope china builds a nuclear powered rocket like some of the designs discussed at http://www.nuclearspace.com/ . Then the defence industry in the US would overide the environmentalists.
Just like a submarine, its crazy not to use nuclear.
Funny? I know I'm not the first to speak up, as I have been beaten to the punch, but still--where do the moderators get off moderating this racist drivel as being funny? Mod me as a troll or redundant or whatever other crap you may, but when things like racism are funny while standing up for a sense of respect and tolerance for other cultures goes unnoticed or is determined to be trolling... that's just sad.
They're a bunch of circus clown, and putting priorities like that above their nation's welfare shows how much Chinese leaders are disconnected with the reality of their country.
Here goes my karma, but its worth pointing out that exactly the same allegations can be levelled at the current administration of the USA. How precisely has the expenditiure of over $100 billion for the war in Iraq helped the nation's welfare?
Certainly, the war it may have advanced the geopolitical goals of the administration -- much like China's space race will advance the geopolitical goals of their administration. However, the war has done nothing to advance the USA's welfare.
I'm very much in favour of China's forays into space; I think the USA can only benefit from having a competitor in space. Its not coincidence that the US manned space program has declined heavily since the height of the cold war.
Tubal-Cain smokes the white owl.
So two Chinese, seven Americans, and a Russian were flying in space...
In case you were wondering like me ...
"Taikong" is a Chinese word that means space or cosmos. The resulted prefix "taiko-" is similar to "astro-" and "cosmo-" that makes three words perfectly symmetric, both in meaning and in form. Removing "g" from "taikong" is to make the word short and easy to pronounce. On the other side, its pronounciation is also close to "taikong ren", the Chinese words "space men".
Xbox reviews.. We think they're funny.
Bomb them all from the moon! We must not allow a mine shaft gap!
The Custom Mary
You know those Chinese multiply like rabbits: 2, 4, 8, 16 ...
If you were well-informed enough to hear of the Chinese one-child policy, you would have written "1, 1, 1, 1, 1...". And even then, you'd be leaving out all the instances where children were killed because they were girls.
Tubal-Cain smokes the white owl.
Read the mini article, but it sure didn't say much...
- Five to seven day mission doing what?
- Their coming space station will be carrying out what experiments?
- Why aren't they using the already functional International Space Station?
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
USSR was a very rich country but the majority of the population were not rich. But they also were not that poor, they did have roofs about their heads and food on the table, noone starved, people could afford to go to vacations up to a month in a year for most professions. Most of them could not afford big items like cars or extra housing, but in general the country could be seen as populated by a middle class, even though the standard of living of middle class was lower than middle class in the States for example.
The reason why the space program and the millitary programs were quite successful in that country was exactly because most of the wealth of the country was spent on that.
You can't handle the truth.
As someone who grew up in China I have some insight into the welfare of the Chinese people. In short: it could get a lot better. But that doesn't mean China shouldn't go into space.
We went to war during the great depression. A war that wasn't directly against us (until Pearl Harbor). Should we have? We had millions of starving Americans.
When we went into space we still had people without jobs and without food. Today we have people without jobs and without food. Why are we doing anything but feeding them?
Because that's not how economies work. If China can develop a computer industry jobs will come. If china can develop a science industry jobs will come.
If China just spent its time trying to feed its people then no one would get fed and the government would collapse. You have to make the economy boom and then move on from there. For instance, people are doing a hell of a lot better today then they were in 1979 or even ten years ago. Why? Because China invested in its markets and in its economy and in its peoples sense of national pride.
BTW, China is nothing like the USSR. The USSR never had the world's fastest growing major economy. It certainly never had it for years running as China has.
China can afford going to space. They shouldn't get consumed by it; but I doubt that is what is happening. There is still a lot more money outside the space race than inside the space race.
So they are paying a little for some national pride, so what?
What comes first, finding a teacher or becoming a student?
they're *blasting*...
China, which last year became the third nation to blast a man into space...
it's funnier.
"You get all the fun of sitting still, being quiet, writing down numbers, paying attention...science has it all."
I hope you realize that there's more people in the US today without medical insurance than there were in the USSR during the space race? That there's now more people in the US not receiving a reasonable education than in the USSE back then?
It's your "We're awesome, so we have the right to kick ass, everyone else doesn't really deserve it" attitude that made the US a lot of enemies...
Oh, and before you mod this as flamebait, maybe at least try to make an effort to prove me wrong!
not a troll
You could apply *exactly* the same argument about the US and USSR.
Don't forget when you pass that homeless guy on the street that it was US that were playing the "me too" game 40 years ago. Fact is putting something in space isn't that expensive in the grand scheme of things and it's good for nationalism.
The space program could have a good return on the Chinese living standard. This pumps government money in the economy, accelerates progress and gives the citizens a 'pride'.
The space program is not a lot of money in comparison of the government budget. It wouldn't improve life of the citizens much anyway.
And the USA is doing the same financing a very expensive war with a very bad budget and huge dept. Read my sig to understand the effect of the national debt.
Iraq: war to save the U
bah!
Russia has a 40-year-old soyouz, China has the most advanced manned space ship.. and America has NOTHING to put man into space!! only useless shuttles that are a dysmal failure.
If by the rest of the world you mean Russia and the US then yes. But otherwise they're ahead.
read my blog
musings on politics and technol
"The rest of the world"? Come on.
43 years behind Russia? Sure.
43 years behind the USA? Sure.
But nobody else has put anybody into space. Aside from Russia and the USA, China is ahead of the rest of the world. Whee!
Mod down posts with a "Free Mac Mini/iPod" sig, they're spam!
Yeah, tell that to the chap sleeping on the streets outside my doorstep, the people begging on the subway, the wretched homes in the Bronx and New Jersey, people living in shantytowns all over the midwest, south, etc.
Oh yes, "welfare" is only a dirty word if the US Government says about it, no?
Really -- assuming you're an american and have been brought up in the American way of thinking -- do you seriously think the government can "provide" a standard of living to a billion people? No government has that kind of money. You improve the standard of living by stimulating the economy and creating jobs. You do that, in part, by spurring science and technological research. The post-war defence and space programmes are a big reason for the US's economic superpower status today. (You also need a market economy, which the USSR didn't have, but China's developing one.)
Encourage them to do this. It will only accelerate their impoverishment and send them tumbling the way of the USSR. Their economy is about as bad off as the old Soviet Union, full of positive reports to keep ministers from being executed. They've got lots of bank scandals starting to appear showing that their currency is not worth what they say. They've got entire villages infected with AIDS that are about to disappear, because they can only deal with these things by hiding them from public view in the hopes no one will notice before they disappear. Things are going very wrong and have all the earmarks of a government without enough resources to handle it all. They ignore it all to produce a few gems like cavitation torpedoes, a space program, and a couple of capitalist sector cities.
"Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart, he dreams himself your master."
... as space is the ultimate high ground on military thinking and United States is publicly touting to build space-based weaponry to maintain supremecy.
This is just the beginning of next arms race, even India is building nuclear attack platform in space.
Arms control is dead, welcome new instability.
OK, screwed that one up a bit. By rest of the world I did mean the USSR and US.
-------
"In times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act."
-- George Orwell
By rest of the world I did mean the USSR and US.
You failed geography, didn't you?
There is a Reuter report on CNN online, with practically the same information as the Xinhua report.
I have told you people to stop making fun of Karl Rove!!!!
Show more respect!
I swear I witness so many bad chineese drivers, and I know some guys from China who agree with me on this one. They just don't know how to drive and when they cause some problem or an accident they don't even understand why it was their fault. There are other bad drivers too, but I most of the ones I see are Chineese
Yeah. All "Chineese" are bad drivers. Though I'd bet my last dollar that they could write in their native language better than you write in yours.
Now, you can moderate this as much as you want, but I take a stand, this is my imperical evidence.
You mean "empirical" right? And how is the act of "taking a stand" empirical evidence?
Oh wait, it's just your fucked up grammar.
stupid slashdot doesn't allow post in gb2312, anyway there are Chinese words sounded Shenzhou. One is divine places (that means China), another is divine vessel
Chinese divine is not the same divine in your bible, we don't have God with human shape .
Post about china and watch how american act like americans on slashdot.
I'm not only from europe, no, I'm also deeply impressed by your "funny" (+5, Troll) and your "Insightful" (+5, Flamebait) posts.
Truly a great moment for the american karma and how the rest of the world shall interpret it.
I know you're kidding but Eastern and especially Communist collectivism is precisely why China could easily beat the West to a manned Mars mission: get the taikonauts to Mars without worrying how to bring them back. If you figure it out later: great, then you get to tell the West "I told you so". If not, give them the Order of Labour Glory or whatever.
you seriously think the government can "provide" a standard of living to a billion people
:)
It's a communist government. That's their job
China should allow private ownership of property before they do shit like this. I know the are talking about doing it, but this is the 21st century and they still don't allow their people to own land.
The USA is less rich than it appears. A lot of the high lifestyle that even the lowest classes live is all financed on consumer debt. People are already reaching their credit limits. Once people can no longer finance new things, they can't purchase new things, and you know where that leads. Like any venture financed with debt, it must return enough to more than compensate for the cost of servicing the debt. As consumer tend to only buy things which don't make money, they're taken on huge amounts of debt that will reduce their buying power for many years to come.
The only difference between the USSR and the USA is that the debt is riding more on the individual consumers in the US. Either way, the people owe lots. The US hasn't provided a decent standard of living for its quater billion citizens.
He who laughs last is stuck in a time dilation bubble.
Me too. I also had this problem with my video card. I'm not sure if the drivers were chinese or made in Taiwan, but sure they didn't work as expected!
"All your planets are belong to us!"
You speak of tolerance, but none of the anti-racists is tolerant. Either you completely agree with them without questioning, or you're a racist.
These days you need to reread everything you write several times to make sure it can't be possible interprete as "racism" especialy when there are anti-racists around.
Would you have complained if his joke had been about white people?
Thanks for your input. No one cares.
I am Jewish, you moron.
Israel has not put anybody into space.
The US has put an Israeli into space. Not the same thing.
Mod down posts with a "Free Mac Mini/iPod" sig, they're spam!
The US can't afford to send people to Mars but we can afford to send 2 chinese into space?
62 percent of all shoes and sneakers imported to the United States are made in China. So are 83 percent of all toys and sporting goods, 54 percent of all leather products, 76 percent of all umbrellas, 30 percent of all furniture, and one in four caps and hats.
The US China trade deficit is about $82 billion dollars (last time I checked) and the Apollo program only cost about $25 Billion.
I'm not sure what my point is but I'm sure there is one.
People who bite the hand that feeds them usually lick the boot that kicks them
american way of thinking? uhm...
I am very sucseptible to "let's have another drink"
I'm not sure what they teach in history classes these days. The US went to war only after Pearl Harbour. Until then, which means when France and most of Western Europe had been occupied and the Nazis had been at Britain's doorstep for several months, the US was neutral---precisely because the war "wasn't directly against us".
... with only one landing module designed for three people...
(someone has to come up with an ending now)
You can't handle the truth.
That's exactly what's wrong with communism. The government's only source of income is taxes. If 80% of the population is rich, you can tax them and provide welfare to the remaining 20% (like in Europe), but if 80% are poor, you cannot possibly give them handouts by taxing the remaining 20% to any rational degree. And if you impose ridiculous tax rates like 80% on the rich, you kill their incentive to earn and destroy the economy.
BTW, the Chinese govt has realised this for a couple of decades now; today China is communist only politically, not economically.
Ouch!
How the hell do you figure that English is my first language, asshole? Russian and Ukrainian are though, so fuck off, ok?
Oh, well that explains it then. You see, my empirical evidence seems to indicate that those with a Ukrainian background have terrible difficulty spelling "Chinese" and "empirical", and sometimes just darn well fuck up sentences all together!
Honestly dude, you're making sweeping generalizations as to a person's driving ability with respect to their race. People are people. Some people can drive well, others frequently fuck up. Some people can spell the names of the race they're trying to insult, others frequently fuck up.
So what's your deal?
Racial based humor is not, logically, indictive of racism.
In other words, the answer to the question where do the moderators get off moderating this racist drivel as being funny? is; Because the think it is funny!
Get some looser shorts, man. I am guessing that one of the differences between my post and the parent, was that I smiled more while writing mine.
Moderators: Mod this however you like, it's your mod point.
This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
Private land ownership has been legal in China since 1987. Yes, that's right, before it was legal in Russia.
For a supposedly atheist country?
A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
No, you've seen at least one chinese person drive badly and THAT'S your empirical evidence. Even if you've seen 100 chinese people drive "like shit", that's insignificant compared to the number of chinese people worldwide. I'm going to be charitable and assume that it's an ignorance of statistics that is behind your racist opinions - nevertheless, they are nonsense.
The US was very close to entering the war when Pearl Harbor occured. The only reason Yamamoto permitted Pearl Harbor is that he was hoping it would take out enough US hardware that Japan could hold out. If the Japanese believed that the US were going to stay out of the war, they would have happily let them.
The *last* thing in the US that we need right now is something good for nationalism.
We don't need another wave of morons feeling superior to everyone else just because some very great people live (and lived) on the same 3.5 million square mile land mass as they do.
A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
The only reason capitalist governments need taxes, is that they need to buy stuff that's being produced by private industry. If all the production is public, then the government doesn't need to use money internally at all. A communist government redistributes the gains of labour the same way a socialist government redistributes income.
Standard of living is an ends in itself (well, maybe for Americans), it's a measure of quality of life potential. However, quality of life can be raised by factors other than increase of income; factors such as a better environment or more available technology.
You don't try and feed a billion people by having them all sustinence farm -- you have a few of them farm and a few of them build fertilizer to help the farmers and a few of them build computers to help the chemists build the fertilizer to help the farmers and a few of them to build shiny things to trade for resources the engineers need to build the computers to help the chemists build the fertilizer to help the farmers. And how do you get better at building shiny things? Go to space.
Back in soviet china anyone can fly to space.
Atleast, I am not an anonymous coward. You see thats another part of freedom of speech. I don't have to worry about the gov kicking in my door for what I say. As current history shows most europeans are anonymous cowards.
People who bite the hand that feeds them usually lick the boot that kicks them
yes, quite.
start raving about you much you love islam and bombs - let's see how free your speech really is.
Good point, although the reason the US enacted the embargos was because they were planning for the inevitability of war with Japan. It could also be argued that the embargos were effectively an act of war just as OPEC cutting off US oil supply would be today.
And Yamamoto's intention was that Pearl Harbor would destabilize and demoralize the US enough that when they entered the war they would not be able to quickly pose a threat. The reason he was authorized to do this was because of the embargo.
'Don't know if this is your sig or you meant to attach this to your post, but the onus should be on *you* as the one that asserts the point to prove yourself right. Just saying 'education was better in Russia than is in the US now' and 'more people were covered than they are in the US now' doesn't make it so.
So I'll turn it back to you -- I'd like to see figures that prove that the *quality of care* for all those Soviets covered by the national healthcare plan was equal -- or even in the same stratosphere -- as the equivalent US citizen on private health insurance. I won't comment either way on the education stance, which is highly subjective, except to say that a reasonable education is available to as vast majority of Americans. You can lead a horse to water...
As for the question as to whether the US should spend money on a space race when we have so many that don't have insurance, as so many other posters said, this isn't how an economy works. If there were as many people *starving* in the US, living at the absolute bottommost percent of the poverty level when compared to the poorest of the poor countries, the gov't would be abandoning these kinds of cultural/scientific milestones, and pursuing social programs. Wait -- I believe they did already. Look at the state of the union in the 30's. Little programs started like the WPA and the SSA. If JFK faced similar times, you can certainly bet the Apollo money would've gone directly to the soup kitchens.
Actually, the US implemented an oil embargo against Japan, cutting off aprox. 80% of Japan's oil supply. Doesn't sound like a very "neutral" country to me. One of the major reasons why Japan invaded South east Asia and to Indochina was for the oil fields that were there.
I. The Constitutional System
The Constitution is the fundamental law of the state.
The existing Constitution was adopted for implementation by the 5th Session of the 5th National People's Congress on December 4, 1982. Amendments were made to the Constitution respectively at the 1st Session of the 7th National People's Congress on April 12, 1988, the 1st Session of the 8th National People's Congress on March 29, 1993 and the 2nd Session of the 9th National People's Congress on March 15, 1999.
I. Major stipulations in the Constitution in regard to China's political system
1. Major political principles in China
(1) The Communist Party of China is the country's sole political party in power.
The People's Republic of China was founded by the Communist Party of China which is the leader of the Chinese people.
(2) The socialist system
The socialist system led by the working class and based on the alliance of the workers and farmers is the fundamental system of the People's Republic of China
(3) All rights belong to the people
All the power in the country belongs to the people who exercise their power through the National People's Congress and local people's congresses at all levels.
The people manage the state, economy, culture and other social affairs through a multitude of means and forms.
(4) The fundamental task and goals of the state
To concentrate on the socialist modernization drive along the road of building socialism with Chinese characteristics; to adhere to the socialist road, persist in the reform and opening up program, improve the socialist system in all aspects, develop the market economy, expand democracy, and improve the rule of law; to be self-reliance and work hard to gradually realize the modernization of the industry, agriculture, national defense, science and technology so as to build China into a strong and democratic socialist country with a high degree of cultural development.
(5) Democratic centralism
The organizational principle for the state organs is democratic centralism.
(6) The armed forces of the people
The armed forces of the People's Republic of China belong to the people.
The tasks of the armed forces are to consolidate national defense, resist invasion, defend the country, safeguard the people in their peaceful work and life, take part in the country's economic construction and strive to serves the people.
(7) To govern the country through the rule of law
All individuals, political parties and social organizations must abide by the Constitution in all their actions and shall not be privileged to be above the Constitution or the law.
All acts in violation of the Constitution and law must be investigated.
The rule of law is practiced to build China into a socialist country with the rule of law.
(8) The system of ethnic regional autonomy
All ethnic groups are equal.
All prejudice and oppression against any ethnic group is forbidden. All behaviors harmful to ethnic unity and aimed at ethnic separation are forbidden.
2. The position and rights of the citizen in the political life of the country
(1) All citizens are equal before the law.
(2) The right to vote and stand for election
All citizens who have reached the age of 18 have the right to vote and stand for election, regardless of ethnic status, race, sex, occupation, family background, religious belief, education, property status or length of residence, except persons deprived of political rights according to law.
(3) The freedom of speech and thought
All citizens enjoy freedom of speech, of the press, or assembly, of association, of procession and of demonstration
(4) The freedom of religious belief
Citizens enjoy the freedom of religious belief.
No state organ, public organization or individual may compel citizens to believe in, or not to believe in, any religion.
(
Tai Kong means Space (literally "Too Empty"). For astronauts, they would have called theirs sinsinauts (Xing Xing = stars)
having said that, in China they called these taikonauts "Yu (Universe) Hang (Navigate) Yuan (Person)".
Simple Math: about 300 million people in the US total. (280 or 297 or something as of the last census) 27 is about 30. Now divide that out: 1 in 10 people in the US is a child living in poverty. For the sake of ease in math lets assume that the current life expectancy is 80 (it is about 76 last I checked) and define child as anyone 20 or less (close enough to 18). Which means 1 in 4 people in the US is a child. Combine that with 1 in 10, and that means half the children in the US are living in poverty! (Yes I rounded, but there is a spike in the US population of the baby boomer years, so rounding down to 1/2 makes more sense than up 1/3 in this case)
In short: I don't believe your numbers. They just don't fit in with the US I know.
Sept 16, 1940 - United States military conscription bill passed. More than a year before Pearl Harbor.
We might not have "entered" until Pearl Harbor (and then shortly after Germany declaring war on us), but we were preparing for it. Would we have gone to war if they hadn't bombed us? No one knows.
But -- point taken. I'll watch my wording next time.
What comes first, finding a teacher or becoming a student?
I found it difficult to get data about the 60s, which I consider the hay-day of the Soviet Union. Even so, according to the CIA, the illiteracy rate in the US is considerably higher than in Russia.. Of course, the numbers are from different years, and a lot of other things are to be considered here (immigration, for example), but for all I know it is generally agreed, that the Soviet Union had a literacy rate of close to 100%.
As far as health care goes, this was a constitutional right in the Soviet Union, so things are quite different than in the US. Thus, there was no such thing as being to poor for health services.
Now, having this said, my point was not that everything was great in the Soviet Union back then. Lack of freedom and democracy come to mind, and of course the crimes of the Stalin era alone can fill volumes.
What I was trying to say was that the reasoning of the original poster, (Many Chinese are poor, so their country shouldn't engage in space flight), could just as well have been made against the US during NASAs finest days. That's all.
I have an irrational feeling that Kerry will be a bad President.
Unfortunately, I don't see a good Democratic candidate this season.
Tigers respect lions, elephants and hippos. Maggots respect no one. (C) S. Dovlatov
You tell it yourself - it was for geopolitical goals.
And it is a long term investment that will allow USA to survive in 20 to 40 years prospective.
Tigers respect lions, elephants and hippos. Maggots respect no one. (C) S. Dovlatov
These are really old.
;-).
;-).
1. TASS news - there was a collision in the orbit between Soviet and Chinese spaceships. Two cosmonauts have died on the Soviet ship; three cosmonauts and twenty two stokers/firemen died on the Chinese one
2. China has launched a new satellite.
Two thousand people strained themselves during that launch
While this message sounds like a flaimbait, it really isn't. I personally admire Chinese civilization, and hope that the West will adopt a bit more than just Chinese food. For example, qigong and Daoist sexual techniques.
Tigers respect lions, elephants and hippos. Maggots respect no one. (C) S. Dovlatov
"Lord, grant that I may always be right, for Thou knowest that I am hard to turn" -- A Scots-Irish prayer
If 1 in 10 ppl in the US is a 'child in poverty', that makes approx 27 million children in poverty. Why go through the rest of the math? You seem to be taking the fraction of the answer itself.
And why is this figure a problem if there are only 70 million children in the US ?( source. Mostly poor people have more children than rich people, which is why you will have more than half the children in poverty.
All bow to his Noodliness!! His Noodle Appendage has touched me!
Can I get "Wah-fucking-Wah" moderated as "Insightful" please?
You need a FREE iPod Nano
You are joking, right?
sig under development
Racism has nothing to do with genetics of people, but rather with their ethnic origin. Thus, the remark is racist. It is also mildly amusing in a very shallow way, and I for one would err on the side of humor.
Exercise for the interested reader: Does that make me a shallow person? Am I a racist?
Free Manning, jail Obama.
Why did they send only one on a three person craft ?
Obviously, to return with aliens in the free seats.
You understand now, Scully ?
I'm still trying to figure out what people mean by 'social skills' here.
Even racist talk can be funny. In fact, humor transcends everything. That's why it is so useful. In Germany (how appropriate!) we have a saying: "Humor ist, wenn man trotzdem lacht." It means: "Humor is, when you laugh nonetheless." And yes, the borked grammar is there on purpose.
That doesn't mean that I support racial humor, but denying that you did laugh (or smile) about it doesn't help fighting the racist cause.
OTOH, I have mod priviledges right now and would not have moderated the post as funny, because it's not.
Free Manning, jail Obama.
> You speak of tolerance, but none of the anti-racists is tolerant.
Huh? Your so-called anti-racists only extend tolerance to people who extend this tolerance in return. It's an application of the Golden Rule. Thus your anti-racists have no tolerance towards racists. I mean, that's the whole point.
Also regarding your fear about political correctness in what you're writing: If you say e.g. "women can't drive", then I can assure you that this is not racist.
Free Manning, jail Obama.
A space elevator could eventually make it safe and affordable to jettison nuclear waste it the cosmos!!!!
-------- -------- Support Wesley Clark for president!!!
I'm glad to see that the US isn't the ONLY country willing to waste BILLIONS on useless weapons technology.
Whats the difference between a satellite nuclear launcher and a submarine launcher ??????
Give up
Oh yeah, and a couple hundred billion dollars
-------- -------- Support Wesley Clark for president!!!
What does any of this have to do with space technology?
Stay sentient. Don't drink bad milk.
You know, I've thought of this very question for a long time. I eventually realized that aside from being a chilly place to live and work, any industrialization down there would likely increase the ambient temperature enough to melt some ice. I don't know if enough would be melted to raise the oceans, but why take that risk? Feasibility aside, it might also spark a land grab by world governments as no nation-state have yet made serious territorial claims there.
Stay sentient. Don't drink bad milk.
this is just speculation. nader will doubtless get far fewer votes than last time. It's too early to tell how people will vote; but by all indications nader is going to get a FAR smaller vote than last time around.
Photos.
Well, there's that whole Saddam thing and the disbanding of a major terrorist ring, but that's got nothing to do with a nation's welfare.
A putative link between Saddam and al-Qaida has yet to be proven. You obviously have obediently swallowed all the crap that the administration has been pumping out. You fool.
Tubal-Cain smokes the white owl.
You are very, very smart. i hope you know this.
Thanks, I reassure myself of this every time I look in the mirror, but its nice when the dolts who post to /. reconfirm my presumptions of genius.
Tubal-Cain smokes the white owl.
With all the aid the US was providing to the allies in Europe up until Pearl Harbor, we were effectively at war long before Pearl Harbor. I think parent post is speaking in the context of national resources and industrial capacity during the Great Depression, so this is very relevant as it shows the ability of a nation to produce under stress.
Stay sentient. Don't drink bad milk.
Man! There are so many things wrong with your post I don't even know where to begin.
It will only accelerate their impoverishment and send them tumbling the way of the USSR. Their economy is about as bad off as the old Soviet Union, full of positive reports to keep ministers from being executed.
The economies of Russia (past and present) and China are fundamentally different in many ways. First, China's economy has been evolving toward capitalism for more than 20 years since Deng Xiao Ping was in charge. As with any kind of change of this magnitude, growing pains are to be expected. A hickup every now and then should be expected. Banking scandals? We've got Enron, Worldcom, Martha Stewrt, etc. No big deal. Regardless, the point is that it is all moving forward at a managable pace. For a little historic perspective, it is worth noting that China was actually one of the Anchors that kept the Asian Economy from crashing even harder many years ago. The Soviet Union, had no control over the economic changes that occured in the aftermath of the breakup. It was basically a free for all, everyone for themselves kind of situation.
They've got entire villages infected with AIDS that are about to disappear
Like urban legends, this is just one of those things that won't die. The villagers who contracted AIDS by selling their blood has been reported so much by major media, it feels like O.J. Simpson all over again. Let it go, there's no point in beating a dead horse. At the very least, the article details medical aid being given to the villagers. That is a great deal better than how US treated many southern blacks who were intentially infected with syphillis a few decades ago.
They ignore it all to produce a few gems like cavitation torpedoes, a space program, and a couple of capitalist sector cities.
You need to get your facts straight. Cavitation torpedoes are not Chinese, they are Russian . With regards to "a couple of capitalist sector cities." - I was born in a part of China which when I left could very properly be described as the boonies. Rice paddies and water buffalos everywhere. As little as 10 years ago, , everything I had known was gone. The rural quietness bulldozed over and replaced with freeways and automobiles. Modernization is not just happening in Shanghai and ShenZhen, it is happening to the whole country. A great deal of the news you get from the American press in really no better than supermart tabloid reporting. I guess no matter how outlandish it is, there are still those who would swallow it all hook line and sinker.
Stay sentient. Don't drink bad milk.
Astro also comes from Greek. The difference is "astro-" means "star", while "cosmo-" means "space/universe". Since the earliest astronauts didn't go to other stars (come to think of it, neither have any others since), the word "cosmonaut" would probably have been a better choice; in addition, we wouldn't have this silly policy that gives two people two different names for the same job based on the nationality of said person (unless the Russians had decided they wanted to use a different word from that the USians were using).
one hundred twenty
is just enough characters
to write a haiku
It makes better economic sense to take out evil tin-plated dictatorships than to provide them with aid and support, like China does.
Likewise, the United States has a long and proud history of propping up evil tin-plated dictatorships. The US only knocks them over when they start causing more problems than they solve.
from the google cache4 MQexkJ: msnbc.msn.com/id/3131128/+%22chinese+food%22+taiko nauts&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
http://216.239.39.104/search?q=cache:0f7VP
From an article dated October 14, 2003:
The mission will also herald the debut of authentic Chinese food in space, another Web site reported.
"They'll be able to eat shredded pork with garlic sauce and kungpao chicken," China.com, said. "It will be more tasty than Western food. After the meal, green tea will be available to increase the astronaut's spirits."
I swear I witness so many bad chineese drivers, and I know some guys from China who agree with me on this one.
...
You know... the #1 way to propagate discrimination is by claiming that you know some guys who fit into the particular group in question and who say the same thing. That neither advances your argument nor does it make it right! What people--even those that belong to the group--say is totally irrelevant. This is true because some people are self-haters or feel subordinate to others (A good example are some blacks who were actually brainwashed to believe that they were inferior to whites in the 50's).
All blacks are dumb because I know some blacks who say so.
All whites are warmongers because I know some whites who say so.
All Asians are selfish because I know some who say so.
All women are idiots because some women admit it.
All Americans are dumb because I know some Americans who say so.
All Canadians are stupid because I know some who admit it.
All Latinos are criminals because I know some Latinos who agree with me on this one.
All Russians are corrupt because I know some Russians who agree with me on this one.
All Jews are greedy because I know some Jews who agree with me.
All Christians are dumb because I know some who agree with me.
I hope you see what I mean...
Sivaram Velauthapillai
Sivaram Velauthapillai
Seeking the meaning of life... @slashdot of all places
How can this be modded to zero! You have got to be kidding me! Mod parent up. This is not flaiming! This is a legitimate point of view which makes perfect sense. Don't mod down just because it is a negative view. This needs to be there to balance the represented view points.
Creative Demolition
It IS racism, but it is milder than say what is typical put forth by fascists. Think of it this way... Here is a thought experiment:
Consider a hypothetical society where everyone was equal in all traits except driving. In such a case, you are basically claiming that the Chinese are inferior to others when it comes to driving (without any proof, and without considering environmental/societal factors). People advocating such views in that hypothetical society are basically calling for a fascist society of "good drivers" and "bad drivers". The Chinese will take the role of the inferior people in that society.
Now, come to our real society. Everything stays the same, driving isn't a "big" issue. Since driving cars isn't so "valuable", you don't care. But the principle stays the same. It IS racist. It isn't as severe as, say, someone claiming all Chinese are dumb and stupid and hence should not be allowed to have any professional jobs. Nevertheless, the ideal is the same.
Sivaram Velauthapillai
Sivaram Velauthapillai
Seeking the meaning of life... @slashdot of all places
SARS is sooo yesterday... I think you mean Avian Flu?
:)
BTW, it's a funny post hehe
Sivaram Velauthapillai
Sivaram Velauthapillai
Seeking the meaning of life... @slashdot of all places
I am not making generalizations, I am stating my fucking experiences. When some fuckhead tries to make an illegal turn into your car because they have no fucking peripheral or any fucking vision, then you can fucking talk, and this is not only me, this is now folklore.
;)
It's called racism but don't worry... many have a habit of being in denial over it.
Having said that, you may just be trolling. Is this your attempt to get TrollKore (aka TK) or GNAA to accept you?
Sivaram Velauthapillai
Sivaram Velauthapillai
Seeking the meaning of life... @slashdot of all places
China DOES own Taiwan. If not them, who? USA? Recall that Taiwan is not a seperate country. It never declared independence.
Sivaram Velauthapillai
Sivaram Velauthapillai
Seeking the meaning of life... @slashdot of all places
It's called racism but don't worry... many have a habit of being in denial over it. - sure it's called racism, I am not in denial over it, I admit it freely. However, I worked with many outstanding Chinese guys and girls and I have Chinese friends, but can easily be partially racist when I say that in my experience Chinese driving is the worst (today on the roads I saw another few examples.) So what was your question again?
You can't handle the truth.
I was born in Ukraine and I lived there for over 11 years in total, and I lived in Russia, and I am sure that in my time this has not happened, in the 30th, sure it happened, but those were the times of change and in the times of change shit happens. For the last 13-15 years it also have been times of change for the former Soviet countries and now most of the population can be called poor with some 1-2% rich who are at the top and almost no middle class.
From about the 1955 to about 1989 USSR was mostly populated by middle class city folks and farmers.
You can't handle the truth.
Stupid troll, you know nothing about the Chinese society.
These techniques were for the aristocrats only, and it is your luck that you can read about them in a book that you can get from a regular bookstore.
However, you're so dumb that you won't use this opportunity to improve yourself.
And here about the causes of the overpopulation: http://sqft87.pisem.net/tiger/civilwar.html
Their culture has not shifted towards the K-strategy yet. Actually, it has pretty much shifted because of the Communists' policies, and current growth happens not because of the fertility rate but because people live longer.
Another couple of dosens years, and the population there will start slowly shrinking.
Tigers respect lions, elephants and hippos. Maggots respect no one. (C) S. Dovlatov
USSR's population did not suffer because of the space program. USSR had a higher standard of living than even now. It was certainly above the so-called third world (whereas Russia is part of the 3rd world now). Very few Soviets actually starved to death because of the space program. The reason millions died in USSR was because they were purposely killed. That is, they died due to political reasons. Even starvations in Ukraine were done purposely by Stalin. There is no reason why USSR couldn't have maintained its standard of living without killing these people, while keeping all their space programs.
As far as China is concerned, it spends VERY LITTLE on their space program. Even if they spent it on social welfare, it wouldn't make much of a difference. What you CAN argue against, however, is their spending on military. They, like all superpower-wannabe, spends a lot on their military.
Sivaram Velauthapillai
Sivaram Velauthapillai
Seeking the meaning of life... @slashdot of all places
What terrorist ring is this? The one manufactured in your fantasy world by Bush and his neoconservative friends of his?
Sivaram Velauthapillai
Sivaram Velauthapillai
Seeking the meaning of life... @slashdot of all places
No, you can go to the fed aid sites and see what programs are offered. 100-200+ per month in food stamps, medical care for your kids, aid from community/religios orgs, Goverment housing assistance and other related programs.
In the past I have been rather poor so I know what it is like? How about you, every been there?
I responded to you in another post but to reiterate: just because you have friends of a particular group doesn't mean that you can be discriminatory towards them.
Sivaram Velauthapillai
Sivaram Velauthapillai
Seeking the meaning of life... @slashdot of all places
I think there's something else frightening away the silly moderators. . . At least I rate bad moderation rather than ridicule this round. That's usually a sign that I got past the first layer of, "NO, NO! DO NOT THINK," programming.
Anybody too frightened to consider whole idea sets is a coward on a leash.
-FL
It doesn't make much sense to say that, today, Taiwan is Chinese.
The Slashdot Paradox: "100% Overrated"
I recall that The Economist (amoung others) made the interesting point that the best estimates for the cost of the Chinese space program is pretty much the same as the amount of direct foreign aid given to China by other nations.
At the rate NASA is deteriorating and the China space programming, China will the the pre-eminent space power in 10-15 years.
Ed Lu was up there for six months n 2003; Leroy Chiao is going up in the next round.
The US has had 17 deaths in US spacecraft (3 in the launch pad fire, 7 on Challenger, 7 on Columbia), and 280 people have flown in US spacecraft. (seeAmerican Astronauts )
Death rate for those flying in US spacecraft:
6.0%
6% is an EXTREMELY high death rate for any "safe" activity. Sure, when something breaks, NASA tells us that space travel is still unsafe and experimental, but their actions belie their words: they think it's safe enough to fly three senators and a teacher.
By comparison, I did some checking on US wars back to the Civil War; the killed-in-action rate for the war is lower than 6% in every case. That's right, boys and girls, you're more likely to be killed in a US spacecraft than by an enemy bullet in a war. In the US civil war, if you consider deaths from disease, and if you consider the Confederate army also, the death rate is a whopping 19%, so war is not all fun and games.
On the other hand, since a failure generally kills everyone aboard and doesn't leave you wounded, we could look at the percentage of "dead" missions. I'm not sure exactly what to count as dead; would Apollo 13 count, for example? A quick and dirty calculation for the shuttle program is 2 (number of destroyed shuttles / 107 (number of shuttle missions). This is less than 2% and is comparable to the KIA rate in the Viet Nam war.
USA is an imperial power. Therefore, it protects whatever serves its interest. In that sense, Taiwan is (somewhat) protected by USA (although I don't think USA will intervene if China invades Taiwan). USA "protecting" other countries is well known. Other examples include Panama, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and so forth.
I'm not exactly saying Taiwan is Chinese. But it isn't independent in any sense either. The UN does not recognize it. Most countries don't. It doesn't really have an independent foreign policy of any sort.
In a way, Taiwan is more of a half-state, like Palestine. People are free in one sense but at the same time, they aren't truly free.
Until Taiwan declares independence (at which point the UN will recognize it), I don't consider it as a seperate country.
Sivaram Velauthapillai
Sivaram Velauthapillai
Seeking the meaning of life... @slashdot of all places
The shame of it is that China could do some interesting things, and not just reinvent the wheel, as another poster suggests. I suggest that this 'reinvention' isn't in technology, but economic development. Instead of following the footsteps of the Americans, why not become powerhouse agricultural experts, or energy technologists for that matter? They certainly have the land to erect multi-acre solar arrays. These would give China a huge advantage in the world, and have the added bonus of feeding its people.
I've been to China, and I've been to the poorer neighborhoods in the States. You just can't compare the two, 1960's or now. IMHO, the class division there is much more prominent than in the West.
They realise that as soon as they make overtures to the UN, or overtly declare independence, it will poison relations with Beijing irreperably. All they want *is* a limited independence, and note that almost entirely the hardware sold to Taiwan by the US is defensive.
Palestine is probably a good example, in effect but not cause; the cause is almost diametrically oppposed - Israel forces the status on them, whereas Taiwan assumes it itself. But that's a whole other can of worms (albeit also one in my personal top-three-reasons-we'll-all-vaporise-one-day list)
The Slashdot Paradox: "100% Overrated"
As I understand the situation, Taiwan is being excruciatingly polite about the whole affair. They acknowledge their limited independence, and would probably consider being ruled under a similar "one nation, two systems" regime as Hong Kong.
:) There are other more probable vaporize-everything scenarios :( I don't really think the Isreali/Palestinian conflict will lead to a nuclear war. Even if there are nuclear bombs being unleashed, they will be isolated and won't really do much damage (I'm talking about dirty bombs.)
Yes, Taiwan is being very polite. I think it's because they know China will invade them if they declare independence. I'm sure they would want a totally independent country--who doesn't?
I'm not really sure if Taiwan wants the 'one nation, two systems.' I am also not sure if that really works. Hong Kong is being forced to change. In the long term, I see the following. China will switch from totalitarianism to some democracy-like system. China will become powerful and wealthy. Taiwan will merge with China and end up as one country. If China becomes a big economic power, Taiwan will likely want to join China.
So, overall, I think Taiwan will end up with China--hopefully, peacefully.
All they want *is* a limited independence, and note that almost entirely the hardware sold to Taiwan by the US is defensive.
There is no such thing as "defensive" hardware. Ever since governments changed their name from war department to defense department (circa mid 1900's), the whole notion of "defense" became meaningless. The "defensive" that Taiwan has can be used to bomb China. Conversely, the "defensive" ships China uses to patrol can be used to attack Taiwanese cities. As far as I'm concerned, defense is nothing more than doublespeak!
But that's a whole other can of worms (albeit also one in my personal top-three-reasons-we'll-all-vaporise-one-day list)
Don't be so pessimistic about the Middle East situation
Sivaram Velauthapillai
Sivaram Velauthapillai
Seeking the meaning of life... @slashdot of all places
I'm glad you think I'm so stupid. It was actually a joke. And I don't care if it IS offensive.
I could really give a shit LESS about what caused deeper socialoligal phenomenon influencing China's overpopulation. But I'm still 100% sure it was too much fucking.
-------- -------- Support Wesley Clark for president!!!
Tel Aviv hits Mecca + Medina [This one's a bit of a stretch, but I'd imagine the plans exist]
Islamabad hits Tel Aviv
It all goes downhill from here...
I agree that Stumpy McNutjob (AKA Kim Jong Il) is probably more of a worry though, depending on how far he thinks he can push - unless the Northern Resource Area concept takes off... I think Moscow should fill out those NATO forms now and keep them in a drawer, just in case...
The Slashdot Paradox: "100% Overrated"
I couldn't remember where I'd read it, but figured it was interesting enough to repeat. Whore I am.
- Oisin
PGP KeyId: 0x08D63965
This is mostly caused by cultural differences and lack of proper driver training.
I agree that many Asian immigrants have poor driving skills. However, at best it's impolite to joke about it. It's such a cheap shot, too. Come up with something clever!
As with all things, it's a scale. I'd argue that it's fairly hard to attack China with an Aegis system though, unless you want to fry them a dozen at a time. Ditto Patriot and other systems bought.
USA probably sells more jets (in dollar value) than the these so-called defensive systems. The same jets can be used to attack China (or any other country). Even the AEGIS system is somewhat offensive. It will be used to prevent submarines from attacking ships. It will probably be more useful when you are attacking another country than defending one.
'Suitcase nuke' in Jerusalem [where better to hit at the 'Zionist crusaders'?] Tel Aviv hits Mecca + Medina [This one's a bit of a stretch, but I'd imagine the plans exist] Islamabad hits Tel Aviv It all goes downhill from here...
The muslim fundamentalists won't bomb Jerusalem since it is holy to muslims (and there are probably more Palestinians there than "Isrealis.")... As well, Pakistan probably doesn't have missiles that can hit Isreal (their missiles don't even cover all of India, for example). In any case, these are minor points.
If you are an Isreal (or anywhere in the Middle East), you have a point. I was thinking from a global point of view. I'm thinking more a World War III (this won't happen under that scenario).
Sivaram Velauthapillai
Sivaram Velauthapillai
Seeking the meaning of life... @slashdot of all places