American spaceship finally made it to the moon

 WASHINGTON: The first American spaceship on the Moon since Apollo is "alive and well" following a drama-packed touchdown, the company that built it said Friday (Feb 22) as it worked to download data and images from the uncrewed robot....

 Odysseus is the first success for a new fleet of NASA-funded lunar landers designed to carry out science investigations that pave the way for the return of American astronauts to the Moon later this decade, under the Artemis program. CNA

Oops, wait a minute...

Intuitive Machines, the company behind this first-ever lunar landing by a private company, initially posted on social media that its hexagonal spaceship was upright, but CEO Steve Altemus told reporters on Friday that statement was based on misinterpreted data.

Instead, it appears that it caught a foot on the surface and tipped over, coming to rest horizontally with its top perched on a small rock -- taking some shine off an accomplishment widely hailed as a historic achievement. Yahoo News

The final story, the lander is well on the moon surface but lying on its side, still able to send data and images, but not going anywhere. Well, it is the best effort of the Americans so far. The big question, if it could not even land a lander right side up on the moon, could it land a rover on the Mars right side up? Of course they could, if not how to send back data from Mars. Really? Who is there to prove that the data really came from the rover in Mars, or was the rover really in Mars?

And the bigger question, did the Americans really land on the moon in the 1960s? Of course they did. They landed on the moon many times, with many astronauts strutting around, jumping and tumbling on the surface of the moon. Really? Sure, the Americans said so. Then how come they could not even land a simple lander on the moon with today's advanced technology? That is the problem. Today's advanced technology is too advanced, too far ahead for the lander to keep up with. No?

Actually, the truth is that all the moon landing technology and data were stolen by China and the Americans have nothing left to work on. So they have to start from scratch. First, must make sure they have a rocket to take them to the moon. Next, they must learn how to land a lander upright and not sideway. Thirdly, they have to find out if humans can survive passing through the Van Allen Radiation Belt. The Americans are still testing this. They have forgotten that they had many astronauts flying many missions through this Belt and came back alive. So they must confirm that this is still the case before sending their astronauts to the moon again!

The short cut is for the Americans to beg the Chinese to return all the data and technology stolen by China. See how easy the Chinese land their rover on the moon, like a piece of cake. Thanks to American's 1960s backward technology. Maybe the Chinese can sell the data and technology back to the Americans as a goodwill gesture.

Poor Americans. the Chinese also stole their 5G and 6G technologies until the Americans cannot put up a workable 5G network in America, and too shy to beg the Chinese to return the technology to them.

Let's all wait for more spins from the lander Odysseus now lying on the lunar surface. It is still alive and well. Perhaps the Americans can ask the Chinese rover, moon rabbit, for help to give the Odysseus a nudge to turn it upright. Oops, ask the Indians, they also have a rover in the South Pole of the moon, definitely nearer to the American lander.

Help, Hollywood, help!

Budget 2024 - A Robin Hood Budget...?

 People of former British colonies are all familiar with the legend of Robin Hood and his merry men. And the moral of this British legend is about robbing the rich to give to the poor in an English society mired with corruption and abuse of power. In several ways, the 2024 Budget came close to the image of the Robin Hood legend, a lot of takings and a lot of giving back to the poor. 

After all the taxes, fee hikes, fare hikes and whatever increases in revenue that the govt can think of over the years, the incessant hikes must have reaped in a lot of revenue to spread around. Now sure how much was brought in from the investments in our trillion dollar reserves. The govt now has a lot of money to give back, which is a good thing.

Here are the differences from Robin Hood. The taxes and fee and fare hikes took from everyone, from the poor as well as the rich. And the GST, without fine tuning, is taxing the poorest as well as the dead and the unborn. Robin Hood was supposedly robbing only from the rich and giving to the poor. This budget gave to everyone, to the rich, to businesses and the poor, the difference is how much. What the average Singaporeans are concerned is how much is given to the poor, and were they adequate.

Who are the poor is obvious and Lawrence Wong has put in much thoughts to this group of Singaporeans that needed financial help badly. The most badly hit are the senior citizens and the retirees and the jobless. For the seniors and retirees, mostly from the Merdeka and Pioneer Generations, they have been hit for many years, primarily from having no income, and the never ending increases in taxes of all kinds, and hikes in fees and fares that led to a runaway inflation of food prices in the kopitiams. Oops, oops, maybe not so serious as the official inflation statistics is probably around 3% only. But this does not hide away from the fact that price increases in basic items like teh and kopi and chap chye png have gone up by 20% or more. These are real and hit the seniors and retirees very hard. Spending time drinking kopi in their clubhouses, ie kopitiams, is no longer cheap and affordable.

On a rough estimate, the average payout to the retirees and seniors is about $4,000 to $6,000 a year from this budget. Without an income, and runaway inflation, it looks like govt handouts to the seniors and retirees are going to be a permanent feature in future budgets, to keep them at least fed daily. Perhaps there should be a specific budget allocated to take care of the ageing seniors and retirees going forward.

The Merdeka and Pioneer Generations were the main contributors to the healthy reserves of the state. It was accumulated at a time when their income were much lower, and cost of living as well. Today, after several decades of inflation, tax, fare and fee hikes, whatever savings of the seniors and retirees, if there is anything left, would have their values shrunk by at least half. A hundred dollar is now worth maybe $50, depending on what it is spent on. It would really be nice and appropriate to tap on the national reserves to provide for the people that contributed the biggest share to it, as dividend payout.  A way to compensate taking a cut from the reserves for the seniors is to remove the cut for new citizens that did not play a part in its creation, at best a token now, and only in the future.

Without any income, the govt must bear in mind that any increases in taxes, fares and fees would hit the seniors real hard, especially those that already run down their savings. It is like robbing the poor when they have nothing to be robbed. High inflation and high taxes, fees, fares are threatening the life and existence of the seniors that are not millionaires. Robin Hood only rob the rich to pay the poor, not robbing the poor and give back a little that is not adequate to get by. The seniors and retirees are hapless and silent victims of high inflation, taxes and fee hikes. They have no choice, no option, no way to defend or help themselves. Maybe, crudely to some, old furniture that is a sore eye and better to be forgotten.

While American terrorists are at wars, China is doing this

 

2 min clip on China's island development near Hainan Island. Money well spent instead of wasting on wars, weapons and killings like the American terrorists. China is building bridges, railways, roads, ports, cities etc etc, what are the Americans doing? Starting wars and inciting wars everywhere, spending billions and billions on wars and weapons.

Mysingaporenews is back!!

 Hi everyone,

I was notified to appeal for reinstatement of my blog. It is now back.

Happy Chinese New Year everyone.

redbean

Israel Palestine conflict - 2 states solution is NOT a solution?

 ASEAN has issued a statement on the conflict, urging an immediate end to violence. It also reaffirmed its support for a negotiated two-state solution that would allow both Israelis and Palestinians to live side by side in peace. CNA

Asean has called for a two state solution, the UN, China as well. This is a good solution but not a permanent solution as it is an abnormal situation in Palestine. The Palestine was never meant to be two states. It never was and would never be. The Israelis and Palestinians are like water and oil, would not mix, and worst, with centuries of hostilities and blood spilt, and two opposing religions that would not tolerate the existence of the other, the region would always be a powder keg to be ignited at the slightest provocation or misunderstanding.

The seed of hate and racial conflict was planted by the Brits and the Americans after WW2. If this seed was not forced into the Palestinian soil then, the world would not have to live with this unending conflict and lost of lives. The solution is to return to pre Israel days. For a total and permanent solution, the mindset must return to base, to square one.

The Americans and Canadians stole the whole continent of North America from the native Red Indians without paying a cent. They have plenty of land to spare since WW2 and till today. Several of the American states are still sparsely populated. What is planting 6m Jews into one of the states to call it Israel, the Promised Land? In some quarters of the Bible waving believers, America is the Promised Land. To end the hate and mutual antagonism of the two tribes, it is best to separate them completely, clinically by geography.

America can spare the land. And the Jews would have a bigger piece of land to live in peace and prosperity. Further, the Jews can easily be assimilated into the USA and contribute positively to the prosperity of the Americans, a land that is lacking real local talents but living on borrowed talents. The talent pool of the Jews is badly needed in America. Why crave for a small piece of land in the Middle East that is prone with violence forever and not seek for a permanent solution? 

A two state solution is a half baked solution, a compromise that would never end well. The Americans must be generous and sincere in wanting a permanent solution for the Jews by offering a state or half a state to the Jews, just like they offered a few pieces of land to the native Red Indians to have a state within a state.

Think out of the box. Think freely and go for a real solution. It needs a wise man, a magnanimous man in the USA to make such a giant move, to have peace in the Middle East forever and for the Jews as well, a permanent and final solution to an unending war of killings and destruction and for generations of Jews to live in a war zone when the normal state of living is war, and also suspicion, tension, fear and unnatural and premature deaths.