Heavy Torpedoes

Heavy torpedoes don't hit ships: they explode beneath their centerline and crack the hull.

The Cheonan is a corvette: a smaller local frigate. She was sunk by a a heavy torpedo launched by a North Korean sub. Or by a North Korean suicide sub.

North Korea apparently wants a lot of attention right now. They just asked South Korea, Japan, Australia, and the US to send dozens of warships into Chinese shipping lanes.

We, and South Korea, are not responding as they like. And the Chinese are pissed. The son of a god just provoked South Korea's allies to send an armada, or at least an intimidating number of warships, into the waters that China uses to get oil.

"Someron ees vry ronry, so vry ronry." But who is going to absorb the countless benighted, starving wretches of North Korea when this state falls?

This attack is a sad, murderous ploy to get China to send North Korea more money and supplies. But is the horrible humanitarian disaster of North Korea one that we--including the Chinese--even want to deal with?

Not That Bad Really

So we aren't going back to the moon--which is disappointing--but we are now shooting for something much more difficult and way more scientifically interesting: an asteroid. And Mars is still a national priority.

I like Obama's program for NASA for 4 reasons:

1. It's fiscally doable, as necessity can be defended via planetary security. Bush the Younger proposed a moon mission, then poorly funded the endeavor so that the next administration could take the hit for cancelling it. Thanks Bin Laden....This mission transcends Chinese bombastics and national apathy: we Americans will provide the world with the data necessary to defend our planet from asteroids.
   
2. It, through an outer-terrestrial manned mission, sets up the engineering and national excitement for the longer, more exciting Mars mission.
3. It focuses on heavy lifting, which will be required for all of our serious robotic explorations (the overdue replacement for the Hubble, a Europa probe, etc).
4. It, through out-sourcing near-earth orbit duties to civilian and international space agencies, allows the NASA budget to be spent mostly on what it should: science.

I know that many in these parts are unhappy with the cancellation of the moon missions. But think about the international implications of our new goal:

"Go ahead and land your people on the moon China...we went there decades ago. And try not to choke on our fumes as we land people on an asteroid and collect data that could save humankind."

How much you want to bet that as we get closer to landing Americans on an asteroid, the Chinese become less interested in landing their people on the moon?

June 4 Massacre

The value of a single human is worth more than a state, or an ideal, or a religion. So say we all...

Suffer The Little Children

Crucifixes sold in US Christian book stores (gag) are made in a Dickensian Chinese sweatshop.

Truly, the poor are blessed:

Crucifixes are being made at the Junxingye Factory in Dongguan, China, by mostly young women — several just 15 and 16 years old — forced to work routine 14- to 15½-hour shifts, from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 or 11:30 p.m., seven days a week. There are also frequent 17- to 18-hour shifts ending at 1:00 or 2:00 a.m. and even monthly all-night 22½- to 25-hour shifts before shipments must leave for the U.S. All overtime is mandatory, and anyone missing even a single overtime shift will be docked a full day’s wages. It is common for the workers to be at the factory at least 100 hours a week.

"Workers are paid just 26½ cents an hour, which is half of China’s legal minimum wage (already set at a below-subsistence level) of 55 cents an hour. After fees deducted for room and board, the workers take-home wage can drop to just nine cents an hour.

Hooray Magic Jesus!

Gotta Light?

All the Tobacco in China - a paean to Chinese smoke in the Wall Street Journal. Oddly compelling.