Russia and China to build an evil lair on the moon

Russia and China ready to sign historic deal to build first moon base after snubbing US”

9 thoughts on “Russia and China to build an evil lair on the moon

  1. Well, sad to say, but the Chinese government’s finances are in much better shape for this kind of thing than ours is. I blame a 40 year REPUBLICAN focus on making the rich richer at the expense of everything else, but of course “conservatives” will reach back 50 years and blame the liberals of the 1970’s for wanting to cut NASA’s budget after the Moon landing in favor of social programs.

    (My tablet insists on putting REPUBLICAN in all caps. I do not know why, nor how to fix it.)

    1. I have a mixed response to this.

      As a human being, I am proud and elated that we are taking another giant step off our own planet and toward the stars. Establishing human habitation on the moon is damned exciting, and a massive challenge to our science and engineering efforts.

      As an American, I am saddened that we have lost our position of leadership in science and exploration. (And although I was joking about an “evil lair,” a small, paranoid part of me wonders whether some monstrous evil could somehow result from this.)

      1. Ditto. But I think that just as the 19th was Britain’s century and the 20th was the US’s, the 21st is going to be China’s.

        And if we want to keep up, we’re going to have to prioritize things other than shoveling more billions to billionaires, and pandering to people who believe the metric system is the work of the devil or that immigrants are a liability instead of a great asset.

        Otherwise we’re going to be the next Spanish Empire, or royal France, or some other once-great nation that couldn’t get its act together.

        Either that, or I’m just in a bad mood today.

        1. “The 21st is going to be China’s.”

          Pretty much no doubt about that. The century has a long way to go, and in every passing year they are pulling farther ahead in some fields, and catching up rapidly in others.

          When you see how much Asia can accomplish in such a short time, you have to ponder how the rest of the world ever managed to pull ahead of them in the first place.

          1. And 1421 to you too, Adam!

            No, seriously, you’re going to have to unpack that one. 1421 is the year the “Yongle Emperor” sent named “Zheng He” out with a fleet to call on countries around the Indian Ocean. He stopped doing that in 1424. (Thanks, Wikipedia!) Is that what 1421 means? Is 1969 America’s 1421? And if so, why not say 1424 instead of 1421? Or was this just your equivalent of butt dialing?

          2. Hrm, if Wikipedia is correct, then I got the dates wrong.

            1421 is the name of Gavin Menzies book about this. He is a ship captain though and not a historian.

            There is dispute over his book regarding just how far the ships journeyed. There is also dispute regarding how much these ship voyages had to do with what happened next, but what happened next isn’t in dispute. In 1424 and 1425 (not 1421, my mistake) the successor to the Yongle Emperor, the Hongxi Emperor ordered the remaining ships to be destroyed and abolished sea trade and other things that lead to ‘productivity increases.’

            His successors followed this up by emphasizing Confucianism, which meant emphasizing spiritual growth by looking back into history rather than economic growth or looking into the future.

            I certainly wouldn’t argue there can’t be benefits to this, but it also essentially meant that China went into a roughly 500+ year period of self imposed stagnation and decline that they only started to come out of after the first Opium War and didn’t really come out of until 1978.

          3. Interestingly, Wiki disputes that the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) was behind this self imposed stagnation or even that the Qing dynasty from 1644-1912 was necessarily that bad.

            It is interesting how many changes there are in views on ancient history (or after that) (the old joke: ‘what could be new in ancient history?’) but, given how far ahead of the rest of the world China was around 1420-1425 and how much they had fallen behind Europe around 400 years later, I’m going to stick to the old views that China went into a self imposed period of stagnation and decline beginning around 1424-1425 (not 1421.)

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