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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."

74 of 391 comments (clear)

  1. Yay for variety.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    "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...

    1. Re:Yay for variety.. by c1ay · · Score: 3, Funny
      This just means that the space station will now have a choice of either Mandarin or Szechuan style when they order chinese take-out.

      --

    2. Re:Yay for variety.. by jabberjaw · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Interesting, is China allowed to dock at the ISS? If they were allowed to can they given the orbit etc..? A quick google did not turn much up. I for one think it would be a great step in the right direction for the Chinese to be allowed to join the Americans and Russians aboard the ISS in future missions.

    3. Re:Yay for variety.. by DunbarTheInept · · Score: 4, Insightful

      If you wait to solve all problems before exploring further, you never end up exploring further - EVER.

      --

      Don't label something "offtopic" unless you know the topic well enough to tell what's on topic.

    4. Re:Yay for variety.. by DAldredge · · Score: 2, Informative

      The poverty line in the US isn't set as the same level as most other countries. It is set at a much higher level. Most people under the poverty line in the US have phone service, cable and a place to live (rent or own). Food can be provided by our food stamp program.

    5. Re:Yay for variety.. by mickwd · · Score: 4, Informative

      "Maybe the European Union can focus on treating less developed countries, that were formally colonized by them, would treat them fairly and give them preferential treatment on imports."

      Funny you should mention this. I believe the EU tried to do this with bananas imported from poor countries in the caribbean. The USA, prompted by large american banana companies, took them to the WTO to prevent it.

      Link here.

      That said, the EU is still too much like a rich man's club.

    6. Re:Yay for variety.. by juniorkindergarten · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Well that was the arguement for cutting back the space program years ago. Focus on domestic issues, spend the money on domestic problems.
      Unfortunately nothing has changed, but you currently enjoy the benefits of the space program, such as that computer you're currently typing on. How about a more efficient care (computer controlled fuel injection). How about better communications?
      As for the Russians, tell me there isn't instances of corruption in any democracy? Hm? The Russians are only a short time into a democracy in comparison to the US, "stability" takes time. Ans speaking of economies, there is no such thing as a stable economy per se, as an economy is constantly in a state of flux - new ideas constantly change the financial landscape
      Maybe the US should ratify Kyoto, since they effectivly killed it.
      Sure lets turn the US into the world's largest welfare state - I'll bet you bitch come tax time, and I'll bet you'd bitch even louder if your taxes went up.
      If you don't like US foreign policy vote for a different president.
      If the US stopped meddling in other people's countries to serve their own self interest the world would be a better place.

      --
      "Every security scheme that is based on secrets eventually fails." - Steve Jobs
    7. Re:Yay for variety.. by alkali · · Score: 2, Funny
      This just means that the space station will now have a choice of either Mandarin or Szechuan style when they order chinese take-out.

      The problem with dehydrated Chinese space food packets is that .021 Earth revolutions later, you're hungry again.

  2. Space Race!! by MongooseCN · · Score: 5, Funny

    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.

    1. Re:Space Race!! by JeffHeatonDotCom · · Score: 2, Funny

      Nah, that won't do it, there is no OIL on Mars.

      Jeff

    2. Re:Space Race!! by Sogol · · Score: 3, Funny

      maybe, but the president of the US is still a bigger penis

  3. China Sending Two People Into Space by Mononoke · · Score: 4, Funny

    I notice that nothing is said about bringing them back.

    --
    NetInfo connection failed for server 127.0.0.1/local
    1. Re:China Sending Two People Into Space by Anonymovs+Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting
      You should not make joke, Monoke.

      Lighten up. This is nothing compared to the Bush jokes you'll see here. And for all Bush's defects, his government is still a shade less totalitarian than the Chinese one, most people would agree.

    2. Re:China Sending Two People Into Space by mafeesh · · Score: 4, Informative

      Except that it *does* mention bringing them back.

      He said astronauts would stay aboard the orbiting lab for short periods, with spacecraft ferrying them back and forth.

  4. Fast lane by savagedome · · Score: 3, Funny

    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) !!

  5. Good for manned spaceflights by October_30th · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Excellent.

    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
    1. Re:Good for manned spaceflights by ktanmay · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Not! This isn't about manned spaceflight, more about national prestige, anyway, if you really want to feel sad today, read this.

    2. Re:Good for manned spaceflights by TopShelf · · Score: 3, Funny

      I don't know, this could result in space getting overwhelmed - at least if one recalls the old Benny Hill joke:

      "Once upon a time, there were two Chinamen...

      Now look how many!"

      --
      Stop by my site where I write about ERP systems & more
    3. Re:Good for manned spaceflights by magarity · · Score: 5, Insightful

      preferably in the form of true collaboration and not just let's-all-keep-reinventing-the-wheel kind of silly competition

      Let's see... collaboration came up with the ISS, an over budget, behind schedule, understaffed white elephant. Competition put men on the moon in less than 10 years from (almost) scratch.

    4. Re:Good for manned spaceflights by zeux · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Yes but as soon as it was over everything vanished totally.

      Nobody can go to the moon now and we really have to 'reinvent the wheel' to go back there.

    5. Re:Good for manned spaceflights by Greeneland · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Consider the fact that ISS will also vanish totally not long after it finally gets finished.

  6. Wikipedia, as usual, rocks by another+misanthrope · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

    1. Re:Wikipedia, as usual, rocks by zeux · · Score: 3, Interesting

      In the future the orbital modules could also be left behind on a Chinese space station as additional station modules.

      This part is really interesting. It means that a Chinese space station could grow up very fast and for very cheaply.

      Do you have any more information on this?

  7. FYI space programs = nuke programs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    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.

  8. I hope china builds a nuclear rocket by j_dot_bomb · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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.

    1. Re:I hope china builds a nuclear rocket by S3D · · Score: 5, Informative

      In fact there 2 type of Nuclear propulsion : Without fallout (Nuclear Termal Rocket (NTR) - basically just flying reactor) and with fallout ( Orion - nuclear bomp explosion pushed ship, Nuclear salt water rocket NSWR). AFAIK there is still no usable "build now" NTR design, and overall NTR probably couldn't make one stage to orbit and back reusable trip. NSWR is a radioactive disaster, usable only in space. Orion - battleship sized spaceship on the pushing plate, pushed by nuke explosion probaly most realistic nuclear design, and probaly could be built now. If launched in the Antarctica, radioactive pollution wouldn't be quite disastrous, but still costing one cancer death per launch (for all the world), by some estimation. So until the progress with NTR nuclear propulsion is better used in space (and there is no electromagnetic pulse in space for nuke too)

    2. Re:I hope china builds a nuclear rocket by S3D · · Score: 2, Informative

      You lost me here.... the EM pulse is generated from all that energy being released and doesn't need a medium to travel in, as it is electromagnetic AFAIK ECM is not produced by explosion itself, but a result of air ionization by the radiation produced by explosion. There is no air to ionize in the vacuum, so no ECM.

  9. Re:chinee by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.

  10. Re:Me-too technology by Aardpig · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.
  11. Two Chinese, an American, and Ruskie... by 9Nails · · Score: 5, Funny

    So two Chinese, seven Americans, and a Russian were flying in space...

  12. Why Taikonaut ? by rholliday · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.
    1. Re:Why Taikonaut ? by Uber+Banker · · Score: 5, Informative

      Taikonaut was a word that was coined for Western audiences as it would fit in with the terms Cosmonaut and Astronaut. The term Taikonaut is not used in China, instead the word 'yuhangyuan' (literally 'astro-navigator') is used - which refers to Astronauts, Cosmonauts and 'Taikonauts' without distinction of nationality.

    2. Re:Why Taikonaut ? by Waffle+Iron · · Score: 3, Insightful
      First, why should their job title need to mention their nationality?

      Maybe it's because nationalism is the primary motivation for manned space missions?

  13. paranoia creeps... coming up slowly by Nadsat · · Score: 4, Funny

    Bomb them all from the moon! We must not allow a mine shaft gap!

  14. Uh, what? by Jugalator · · Score: 2, Interesting

    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!
    1. Re:Uh, what? by genmanath · · Score: 3, Informative

      I would suppose that the 5-7 day mission is meant to "test the waters", as it were, and perhaps to set a milestone, have the taikonauts talk to school-children, etc. The first few times that the USA and USSR put manned capsules into orbit, they did nothing more than orbit and re-enter. However, that's been done a lot (technology is proven, etc), so the Chinese may have to skip the orbiting for the sake of orbiting's sake and get right to work on whatever-they'll-do.

      --
      G. M. Manath

      Go not to the Elves for counsel, for they will say both 'Yes' and 'No.'

  15. Re:Me-too technology by dalutong · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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?
  16. Re:Me-too technology by gloth · · Score: 5, Insightful
    The USA did it and more, [...] but it could afford it, being a truly rich country.

    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!

  17. Re:Me-too technology by zeux · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

  18. Re:Yay... go china.... by Blaskowicz · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.

  19. Re:Me-too technology by Anonymovs+Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful
    the USA did it and more (and its population paid the price in taxes, but it could afford it, being a truly rich country)

    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.)

  20. They've got to hurry... by ahh · · Score: 5, Informative

    ... 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.

    1. Re:They've got to hurry... by squarooticus · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Arms control is dead, welcome new instability.

      Arms control works only when the most powerful parties are rational: back when the US and USSR were the only major nuclear powers, this was a true statement, as much as it pains me to say the USSR was "rational." :)

      This is not true anymore: there are too many nuclear powers now, not all of whom want to sacrifice the benefits of being a major nuclear power on the altar of "arms control." Please tell me what you think is in it for them?

      --
      [ home ]
  21. Re:Yay... go china.... by krumms · · Score: 3, Funny

    By rest of the world I did mean the USSR and US.

    You failed geography, didn't you?

  22. Reuter/CNN report by henrypijames · · Score: 2, Informative

    There is a Reuter report on CNN online, with practically the same information as the Xinhua report.

  23. Damn It!!! by DAldredge · · Score: 2, Funny

    I have told you people to stop making fun of Karl Rove!!!!

    Show more respect!

  24. Re:chinee by krumms · · Score: 2, Insightful

    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.

  25. Thank you, america! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.

  26. Return Missions Considered Capitalist by Vagary · · Score: 2, Interesting

    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.

  27. Re:Me-too technology by shfted! · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.
  28. Bad Chinese Drivers? by perdelucena · · Score: 2, Funny

    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!

  29. Soon... by Mr.+Cancelled · · Score: 3, Funny

    "All your planets are belong to us!"

  30. Let me get this straight... by FooGoo · · Score: 2, Troll

    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
    1. Re:Let me get this straight... by ErikZ · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Ever hear of inflation?

      25 billion in 1963 dollars is 143 billion in 2002 dollars.

      --
      Democrats or Republicans. They are both taking us to the same place and they are not afraid of us anymore.
  31. Re:Me-too technology by Anonymovs+Coward · · Score: 3, Informative
    We went to war during the great depression. A war that wasn't directly against us (until Pearl Harbor).

    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".

  32. anecdote cont'd by roman_mir · · Score: 4, Funny

    ... with only one landing module designed for three people...

    (someone has to come up with an ending now)

    1. Re:anecdote cont'd by nounderscores · · Score: 3, Funny

      ...when the chinese commander says "For the Glory of the People's Republic we will stay in the Orbital module, sitting in the cold darkness enduring hardships and awaiting resupply, thus allowing the other space travelers a chance to reenter."

      The Ruskie says: "While we of the CCCP do not fear firey death in re-entry, there is only one of me and seven of you Americans, how will we choose which two of you will acompany me to earth?"

      Whereapon the American Commander says: "Hey, I thought that in SOVIET RUSSIA the Earth Re-enters YOU?"

      So they threw the american crew out of the airlock and the three communists took the capsule home.

  33. Funny is an opinion by NotQuiteReal · · Score: 2, Troll
    Insightful? Where do the moderators get off moderating knee-jerk political correctness as being Insightful? Mod me as a troll or redundant or whatever crap you may, but when this kind of intolerance for the wrong of sense of humor is considered Insightful while just having a normal sense of humor is attacked is just sad.

    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.
  34. "Divine ship" eh? by be-fan · · Score: 2, Insightful

    For a supposedly atheist country?

    --
    A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
    1. Re:"Divine ship" eh? by rangek · · Score: 2, Informative

      I think a better translation is "magic ship".

      http://www.sworld.com.au/steven/space/shenzhou/

      http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/1892598.stm

      And others... IANACT (I am not a Chinese translator). Maybe some one who speaks Chinese could comment?

    2. Re:"Divine ship" eh? by x0n · · Score: 3, Informative

      Well, "divine ship" (or "devine vessel" as some have called it) is only a western interpretation of the word "Shen-Zhou", and a stereotypical one at that. "Shen" can also mean magic as well as divine, and "zhou" can mean boat, vessel or ship.

      We as westerners, are all caught up with the image of the Chinese as mystical people selling us Mogwai/Gremlins and rubbing ground rhino horn into their heads each morning. This is just not true. I'd say most Chinese would prefer to translate "Shen-Zhou" as "Magic Boat/Ship". I mean, the Chinese for Aladdin's Magic Carpet could also be translated as his "Divine Floorcovering"; it doesn't really work, does it?

      - Oisin

      --

      PGP KeyId: 0x08D63965
  35. You Do Realise Money's Just Paper, Right? by Vagary · · Score: 2, Informative

    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.

  36. Going to Space Improves Quality of Life by Vagary · · Score: 3, Informative

    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.

  37. In China by TheKidWho · · Score: 2, Funny

    Back in soviet china anyone can fly to space.

  38. Good Point, But... by Vagary · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.

  39. Re:Me-too technology by Dirk+Pitt · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Oh, and before you mod this as flamebait, maybe at least try to make an effort to prove me wrong!

    '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.

  40. From the Chinese constitution. by DAldredge · · Score: 2, Insightful

    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.

    (

  41. 27 million children is not possible! by bluGill · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.

  42. A couple of Russian jokes about Chinese space prog by Poligraf · · Score: 2, Funny

    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
  43. Nothing "sad" about it! by solarrhino · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Great link, but be sure to read the whole article. At the end of the second page:
    President Bush is right. The space shuttle and the space station deserve termination. The true heart of his proposal is the elimination of these programs, and the substitution of robotic exploration. We will look before we leap--that is, fly telescopes built for visible, infrared, ultraviolet, microwave, x-ray, and gamma ray wavelengths--to see what we can see from Earth orbit. Then we will send robots to explore whatever robots can explore. Hold back on the astronauts until we have goals that need them. Let science be the guide, rather than a presumed human need to step off the surface of the Earth.

    Some people will say I am too optimistic, that I am reading too much in between the lines. I think I am just ignoring the headlines to read the actual lines themselves. President Bush gave us a great plan. Let's recognize that and go with it. But let's be careful to make sure that politicians and bureaucrats do not hijack President Bush's wonderful vision of robotic space exploration and degrade it into a listless program that merely launches astronauts to places where telescopes and probes could do a safer, quicker, better, and cheaper job.

    Finally! Somebody gets it! Heaving humans into the heavens is mostly vanity. Instead, let's use the tools that we've created and explore every possible corner of this solar system as quickly, safely, and cheaply as possible!
    --
    "Lord, grant that I may always be right, for Thou knowest that I am hard to turn" -- A Scots-Irish prayer
  44. Re:Iraq by Poligraf · · Score: 2, Insightful

    One problem with the modern American mentality (as I find it) is inability to think long term.

    It looks like fscked lawyers affected not just the corporate policies (where blowing a couple of thousand employees after a bad quarter is pretty much necessary in order to avoid getting sued by vultures like this: http://www.wfu.edu/users/palmitar/Courses/SecReg-P almiter/Handout/Articles/Elkind-Lerach-King-Dead.h tm ).

    --
    Tigers respect lions, elephants and hippos. Maggots respect no one. (C) S. Dovlatov
  45. fuzzy math? by univgeek · · Score: 2, Insightful

    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!
  46. Re:Me-too technology by Aardpig · · Score: 2, Insightful

    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.
  47. Re:chinee by Sivaram_Velauthapill · · Score: 2, Insightful

    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 ;)