Elon Musk's Starship blew up with a positive spin

LOS ANGELES : The spectacular explosion of SpaceX's new Starship rocket minutes after it soared off its launch pad on a first flight test is the latest vivid illustration of a "successful failure" business formula that serves Elon Musk's company well, experts said on Thursday.

Rather than seeing the fiery disintegration of Musk's colossal, next-generation Starship system as a setback, experts said the dramatic loss of the rocket ship would help accelerate development of the vehicle.

Images of the Starship tumbling out of control some 20 miles up in the sky while mounted to its Super Heavy rocket booster before the combined vehicle blew to bits dominated media coverage of the highly anticipated launch....

But SpaceX executives including Musk - the founder, CEO and chief engineer of the California-based rocket company - hailed the test flight for achieving the major objective of getting the vehicle off the ground while providing a wealth of data that will advance Starship's development. CNA

Above is quoted from CNA. See the positive spin put into the failure of the takeoff? What would the American news be reporting if it was a Chinese rocket that blew up? I think if it was a NASA rocket, it would be reported as a huge success, yes, just to lift off the ground.

The question is why would Musk be reinventing the wheel when the Americans had already the most powerful rockets that could take them to the moon in the late 1960s? When don't Musk just buy the blue prints and walla, he will have success proven rockets that can fly to the moon without having to try something new that could fail? As a commercial enterprise, cost is very important.

The other options available for Musk is to talk to Kim Jung Un. Make it a business proposition and Kim would be happy to sell him some blue prints of the best rockets he has. The North Koreans are very good at building rockets that can fly, unlike the Japanese or the South Koreans...and now Musk.

Another option is to buy the blue prints from China. China also has many working rockets and for a price, could be for sale to a commercial enterprise like SpaceX, not to NASA of course. And NASA would not want to buy anything Chinese because NASA has their own working and proven to work rockets since 1969. NASA is going to space again but committing the same silly mistake of wanting to build new experimental rockets and not wanting to use their proven 1960s rockets. Why are they doing this, to spend public money, when they could do it cheaply and successfully with old rockets of the 1960s?

How many more super rockets is Musk going to blow up and claim more successes?

 

PS. Happy Hari Raya Aidilfitri to all Muslim friends.

American playbook on demonising China

When they want to keep down the rise of anything, especially from China, when they failed to compete, is that they will hide the pros and hype up the cons or demonise the products completely. Remember they were talking about all the ill effects of those 5G towers erected by Huawei, how dangerous they were in affecting health and all that horseshit. Now they are erecting even more such towers, more closely for their 5G signals, using different wavelengths for their system, and these are even affecting communication of planes at airports nearby. Has that problem been solved yet? Oh, sorry they are already experimenting with 6G or 7G now. They are so advanced technologically that they can leapfrog a generation or two. Many however, thinks it is more like just still tinkering with 4.5G.
The other modus operandi that they always use in their playbook is trotting out the National Security argument and targeting and banning anything made in China, blaming spying on China made mobile phones, electrical transformers, solar panels, bread toasters, washing machines, weather balloons, Huawei and now TikTok among others. The fact that they are now starting the narrative on AI and its inherent dangers tells us that they are targeting Chinese made EV. Soon, even shadows cast by any Chinese walking on the streets in USA will be suspected of spying.

This morning I woke up to a new discovery - Light pollution. Too many lights on at night is causing chronic and mental illness they claimed. Hyping up the dangers will see a coming clampdown on too many lights on buildings, streets and in the house at night. Will this result in less energy usage and was that the purpose of such a study? Hey, it will result in lowering inflation at least. Any study can be skewed to produce the result to support an agenda. Did the world learned any lesson from the COVID19 vaccine fiasco, with studies purported to prevent infections - touted day and night to be 96% effective. What was the infection result after vaccination and was it true?

Oh, by the way, Bill Gates is investing heavily in a new Covid oral spray, in 'anticipation' of a new pandemic originating in Brazil in 2025 which he predicted. He was reported to have already made US$500 million investing in vaccine manufacturing during the COVID19 outbreak in 2020/22. Wonder how much more he is going to make from Brazil in 2025. Such a futuristic mind and able to predict coming catastrophies to make money. Wonder how he did that? Silly asking about 'getting rich' secrets from one of the richest man in the world.

Anonymous

ROC Taiwan - more American provocations

200 US military trainers now in Taiwan as US intends to 'turn Taiwan into battlefield'

TAIPEI — The U.S. has reportedly sent more than 200 troops to Taiwan to provide military training to Taiwan's armed forces.

On Sunday, military sources said the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command has dispatched more than 200 military trainers to Taiwan to assist local forces in training and propose improvements.

Among the more than 200 instructors, 80% are from the U.S. army. Most of the American instructors are stationed at new training centers and reserve brigades of Taiwan's Army.

The U.S. army instructors are to provide on-the-spot evaluations of training and will propose improvements. Next year, Taiwan will resume the one-year compulsory service period, and recruit training will adopt the combat training programs proposed by the U.S. military to cope with the People's Liberation Army.

More than 160 of the instructors sent by the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command are non-commissioned officers with combat experience. In addition to being stationed in the main combat units of Taiwan's Army, most of these instructors go to army recruiting centers and reserve brigades to check on basic training and propose improved training methods to enhance the overall combat effectiveness of Taiwan's Army.

In early April, U.S. military instructors reportedly entered Chiashan Air Force Base in Hualien County to re-evaluate the safety of the bunkers, such as explosion-proof and protective facilities, especially the safety of areas where fighter planes and ammunition are stored. In addition, they assessed whether it is difficult for satellites to detect ammunition stored in the open air and the area where fighter jets are housed. They then proposed methods to strengthen bunker security facilities to reduce the damage caused by weapons.

Most of the U.S. Army trainers are stationed in the Taiwan Army's new training center and the reserve brigades, to check whether the training of recruits and the teaching and training of reserve soldiers meet the needs of defensive operations.

The Biden administration has said that it would help train Taiwan's armed forces to fight a guerrilla war on the island.

People in Taiwan will be the ultimate victims if the US turns the island region into a battlefield for a proxy war with China.

Media reports alleged that the US has been considering plans to destroy the island in the event of a military conflict across the Taiwan Strait.

Anonymous

Singaporeans are the envy of the world

 The latest Certificate of Entitlement(COE) bidding exercise saw the COE for a small, ie 1,600cc car and below hitting a record of $103,400. This means that to buy a small car, the buyer must pay $103,400 for this piece of certificate before he is eligible to buy a car that is priced with at least 150% tax levied on it.  A small car will thus cost about Singapore $153,400! For bigger cars, the COE is $123,000!

And the COE is valid only for 10 years. After which the owner of the car must pay for another COE if he wants to keep the car or buy a new one. And the Singaporeans are not making a whimper about this. Either they are resigned to this fate that they are not going to be able to buy and own a car, or they are so rich, so what is another $100,000 to buy a piece of paper.

Then there was the 1% GST increase this year from 7% to 8% and this will be 9% in the beginning of 2024.

Would all these increases make Singaporeans unhappy and protest in the streets? Not at all. Food prices of everything, including the basic necessities and food at hawker centres, price of a cup of kopi or tea also up by at least 10 %, are all well absorbed or accepted as the price to pay for living in this great city called Singapore. 

For the poor expats, some are crying as property prices also shot through the roof making rentals to go up as well. As for Singaporeans living in public housing, it means that the value of their HDB flats also goes up, some hitting $1m an unit, competing with Hong Kong to be number one. How can Singaporeans complain when they are now owners of a million dollar public housing flat? They are happy of course. The only unspoken secret, the value of their 99 year leasehold public housing will come to zero when the lease expires. But that is a problem in the distance. Who cares.

Singaporeans are going about their lives feeling rich and good. Thanks to their good government and good blessing. Every Singaporean must be hoping that their HDB flats would go up higher in prices. How about $2m a piece? As for those owners of private properties, they wear their big smiles in their sleep. The govt is making all Singaporeans becoming millionaires and multi millionaires without having to work for it. Let the properties do the working.

Now you know why ministers are paid in the millions, more than the President of the USA. They deserve every cent of it. And for their great efforts, how about a pay increases for the ministers and MPs?

Arrogance of the Americans brought about its own downfall

The USA and the West took their eyes off BRICS for a time, confidently brushing aside the importance of the rising clout of BRICS as overblown, and thought that nothing could overturn the US$ hegemony. Not with still such a wide usage of the US$ among global countries, which they confidently predicted and assumed, is another of their 'exceptionalism monument' that can never be taken down. Now the reality is dawning, but maybe too little too late to start countering. The whole global South is turning to BRICS.
That was also the situation they had before China's rise, bordering on arrogance and over confidence. China's rise was never taken with much fanfare and probably looked upon with disdain, and also brushed aside as overblown. No, China was never expected to rise to such a level as to compete with the USA, as China was then so backward, poor and underdeveloped. How could China ever compete with the USA, a first world country so developed, so advanced technologically, with democracy triumphantly flooring communism, and still the only superpower that controls the world? Didn't Gordon Chang kept hammering on the collapse of China for over a decade, lending credence to the belief that it will come true just by repeating? If 2022 it did not happen, maybe next year it will come true.

That is still the mentality of most USA citizens today with regard to China, who were fed with all the propaganda by their Government and MSM for decades. It was only with the advent of the internet and proliferation of Social Media, that US citizens and those around the world slowly became aware of the lies they were being fed.

Those who had the opportunity to go to China to do business, people like Cyrus Janssen, were able to see the rapid changes going on in China, and together with other like-minded business people from the USA, desiring to continue doing business in China and wanting to tell their own citizens the naked truth, embarked on a mission to counter the perception being ingrained in the minds of ordinary USA citizens and elsewhere. Together with Youtubers like Gweilo60, Jason (Living in China), Barrett and many others, it is slowly working and changing the way people look at China, as evidenced by the expansion of BRICS.

Now BRICS is showing its effectiveness in attempting to bring about de-dollarisation, in the mode of the impending rise of China as a competing global superpower. With important global players like Saudi Arabia, Brazil and Mexico, with their rich resources also joining BRICS, trying to play with the same overblown self comforting thought is not going to work anymore for the USA and the West.

Anonymous