Woo-hoo! I don't know if I'm more excited about the success of our military's efforts to destroy a wayward satellite because 1) it's a bold tactical, interstellar move, or 2) now we'll get to stop writing about it. Either way, the Navy is "80-90 percent confident" that a missile aboard the U.S.S. Lake Erie took out most of the spy satellite, including that tank of poisonous hydrazine that caused such a hubbub. There's no official video of the takedown, but you can imagine that it went a little something like this:
Results tagged “china” from 60 Second Science
Satellite destruction mission a success! Next up: Building the U.S.S. Death Star
Pew! Pew! Is an arms race in space on the horizon?
War is bad and all, but recent news of an errant satellite and our military's plans to blow it out of the sky has stoked the fires of our Millennium Falcon-loving youth. Luckily, our thoughtful, do-gooder big brother spent less time breaking out the action figures and actually investigated the possibility of the U.S. and China engaging in a protracted arms race in outer space. Basically, the Pentagon is already thinking about it seriously, but astronomical (heh) costs and mitigating factors (debris in orbit from space battles could interfere with essential communications satellites) might hold us or the Chinese back from building a Death Star anytime soon.
Even cooler than the article, though, is the space weapons slideshow our sibling provided at no extra charge. It covers possible space weapons, connected technology, and the feasibility and costs of getting said super-weapons off the ground. Badass entries include: a ground-based antisatellite laser, kinetic-energy interceptors, offensive satellites, and space-based hypersonic bombers (pictured left). Yes! Way to go, bro!
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China simultaneously in love and at war with water before 2008 Olympics
China won the right to host the 2008 Summer Olympics after overcoming political worries, environmental concerns and a knockdown-drag-out fight with Paris. China declared of Paris that "certain urban areas leave something to be desired when it comes to cleanliness. In particular, errant dogs and rabid dogs are increasingly numerous." Claude Bebear, the head of the Paris Olympic bid committee, shot back with "dogs are dogs...they do the same thing everywhere... It's just that there are no dogs in China - because they eat them." BURN!
So after that flame war, there's no way in hell China's going to let a little thing like water ruin the opening-day festivities: They've had some success in preventing light rain, as we've previously reported.
But at the same time that China is attempting to stop H2O from falling from the sky, they've also constructed a groundbreaking structure inspired by water bubbles (pictured above). The Beijing National Aquatics Center, or Water Cube, as it's affectionately called, is covered in 100,000 square meters of iridescent, Teflon-like plastic called ETFE. ETFE is only 0.08 of an inch think, but it can hold up to 300 times its weight. The Water Cube is said to mimic nature's way of filling space most efficiently — with bubbles — while also absorbing solar heat to warm the building and the pool. It's said to be one of the most sustainable buildings in the increasingly environmentally-aware China, who want to look good for the world come August.
Check a video of the building after the jump:
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Beijing stops the rain
While rappers around the world are obsessed with making it rain every month on time, Beijing just wants it to stop. In a "when you have a hammer the whole world looks like a nail" situation, the Beijing Meteorological Bureau has been assigned the job of preventing rain during the upcoming Olympics because, at least in part, there's no roof on the fancy new Bird's Nest stadium. And it's working. Mostly.
"Our experiments with rain mitigation have been aimed at light rain," Zhang Qian, head of weather manipulation at the bureau, told a conference. "With heavy rain it is more difficult. The results with light rain have been satisfactory."
That's right, don't worry about the poison air. Just stop the rain.
Peking Man 2: Peking Harder
Prehistoric man, you keep on rocking: In what Chinese state media hails as "the greatest discovery since Peking Man," Chinese archaeologists from the Henan Cultural Relics and Archaeology Research Institute have found a nearly complete human skull fossil dating from 100,000 years ago.
Researchers found the skull last month in Xuchang in 16 fragments, resting with stone and bone artifacts and over 30,000 animal fossils. The skull features protruding eyebrows and a small forehead, but most intriguingly, it retains a fossilized membrane on the inside, so scientists can "track the nerves of the Paleolithic ancestors," said archaeologist Li Zhanyang.
After two years of excavation, the archaeologists discovered the skull just days before leaving to party down for Chinese New Year.
The magnificence of China's pollution
A new xenith in audio slideshows: Photographer Chang W. Lee and cellist Zoe Keating have collaborated to produce a work of art from, of all things, the overwhelming industrial pollution engulfing China.
More here.
China's anti-graft website not corrupt, just broken
So I wouldn't want to be the IT administrator for a Chinese graft-reporting website for all the tea in, well, China. I might however do it for all the server space in China if, that is, the servers weren't monitored by corrupt, grafty politicians.
The website, now live again, was launched on Tuesday by the National Bureau of Corruption Preventio to collect information on corrupt activities. The server crashed one day later. Apparently China is either incredibly corrupt or so boring that complaining ranks as one of the most popular past times. I.e., it's like the 1969 Whitehouse or my Grandparent's retirement center. Oh wait. It's the former.
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New moon images from China indistinguishable from old moon images from America
Image taken last week by China's lunar orbiter, the Chang'e 1, reveals that the moon has changed little in 40 years, which is totally unsurprising given that it's a cold, dead, airless chunk of abiotic rock
(credit: Xinhua)
"The Chinese nation is fully able to stand tall among the world's ranks of advanced nations," said Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on Monday, without even a trace of irony.
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Woman born with half a brain functions fine, sets sights on acting, rehab
Surviving after having half of your brain removed is certainly nothing new -- I'm living proof of the heights of success one can achieve while running on half-empty. But a woman in China tops all those people who had to pay to surgically halve their brains by sporting an all-natural, double-d, half-brain.
The Chinese woman only discovered she had half a brain when she went to the doctor with complaints of "feeling weak." That must've been an epic day at the clinic for Dr. Zhang -- can you imagine the amount of people he had to forward that first "dude, get this!" email to?
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World's best place for power-plant voyeurism now open
Just how close is your neighborhood power plant? How many kilowatts of energy is it producing? And how much carbon dioxide does that eyesore emit into the air?
Answer these questions and find out more fun and frightening facts about 50,000 plants worldwide at CARMA.org, Carbon Monitoring for Action. The newly unveiled site is hosted by the think tank, the Center for Global Development.
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Man sues China after risking life to rescue rare plants
Dr Suess's Lorax "spoke for the trees, for the trees have no tongues." Now, China's very own Lorax is suing the government over the deaths of thousands of rare trees flooded by the Three Gorges Dam reservoir.
When waters behind the dam rose, people relocated and animals fled. “But plants, they don’t have a mouth to shout for help or legs to run,” said Li Zhenyu, a senior scientist with the Institute of Botany under the Chinese Academy of Sciences. “We must help them to escape.”
Enter the Lorax, Xiang Xiufa. The Chinese businessman secured 2.09 million yuan (280,000 US dollars) of funding from the government to help collect and care for the rare plants. But the check never showed up.
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China launches first moon probe, dad warns of "Red Menace"
My dad has a semi-irrational fear of an impending Chinese takeover. All it takes is one Chinese-manufactured component on his grill breaking and he's foaming at the mouth about how my sister will have to learn Cantonese before she can finish her grad degree. We had to administer a rectal sedative when he discovered China supplies crucial airplane components to Boeing.
The news that China successfully launched a lunar probe yesterday probably sent him into an epic fit (I should check on mom). The Chang’e-1 satellite, named after a Chinese goddess who flew to the moon, took off from a site in Sichuan Province, according to state-run media.
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