What's actually going on here is that Chinese researchers have carried out this research using the most easily available data they have - Chinese data. There's no reason to believe that US wastewater treatment plants don't also release this material, because AFAIK, no one has checked.

It is 40 year old tech in the same sense that the Soyuz the US uses now is 50 year old tech. The basic point is that space technology has advanced only incrementally since Apollo, especially with the Shuttle ending up costing more than non-reusable spacecraft and turning out to be a technological cul-de-sac. If the Chinese want to build, according to modern technology, the most cost-effective and efficient launch system, it's going to look a lot like this '40 year old tech', albeit with better computers, more sensitive sensors and other, less obvious, improvements. I'd say that the Chinese are essentially on a par with the US in terms of space technology. (For example, the automated hazard avoidance/hover land system is quite reminiscent of what the Curiosity rover landing system had, and that was much lauded. It's a lot more advanced than the manual remote control, or 'sit and pray you don't land on a rock' landings using for the Cold War landings, and for most of the Mars probes.)

What they lack is practical experience with actually *using* this technology, which is what these missions are about.

So, not exactly '40 year old tech', eh?

Look at what the US uses for its space program, these days: With the retirement of the space shuttle, the only thing left for boosting crew to the ISS is the Soyuz.

If the Chinese are using 40 year old tech, the US space program is using 50 year old tech -- built by a foreign country.

Yeah, what BoA is saying is that *even if* Bitcoins were successful and popular in commerce, and as trusted as silver (which it's not), the prices it is commanding now is approaching the maximum of what it should be. Basically BoA is saying there is a huge bubble.

But hey, the Bitcoin pump-and-dumpers will push any lie that will nudge the prices up.

This is a bunch of non-sequitirs. "As it was mostly option contracts, they were largely not executed, so it didn't end up being a major issue." Really? The damage caused by tulipmania and so on has nothing to do with whether or not the options are executed. Even if they aren't, people spent money on those options contracts, and so lost massive amounts of money when the prices collapse. The characterisation of the prices collapsing due to 'the height of the bubonic plague' is also incorrect. The height of the bubonic plague was 200 years earlier in the 15th century, and plague outbreaks occurred before, during and after tulipmania.

If it is a replacement for cash, its value should decrease over time to discourage people from hoarding it, and so keep the currency liquid.

Extensive... but not *that* extensive. Not nearly worth any extended period of interrupted trade between China and Japan, let alone the US.

As the Americans learned so painfully in Earth's final century, free flow of information is the only safeguard against tyranny. The once-chained people whose leaders at last lose their grip on information flow will soon burst with freedom and vitality, but the free nation gradually constricting its grip on public discourse has begun its rapid slide into despotism. Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master.

Commissioner Pravin Lal, "U.N. Declaration of Rights"

A stopped clock is right twice a day, but RT *are* a stopped clock. They'd report any old bullshit if it helps their cause. Recall the reporting during the Libya campaign that Gaddaffi's victory was imminent, that the rebels were NATO troops, and so on?

The fixation on 'death panels' is based on a flawed understanding of the situation. If the NHS refuses to provide a treatment to you, you are still totally free to opt for private medical care. What the NHS provides is a certain minimum level (designed to be as efficient in saving lives as possible, given the available resources) to everyone.

That only makes sense in terms of how literally everything affects the rich less. But inflation tends to be less regressive. For the rich, the $20m in cash is also what generates most of your cashflow, as capital gains. Whereas someone with $20K in savings will only be seeing negligible interest payments from that. Instead, his daily life would be determined by his income from his job, which would scale automatically with inflation.

Deducting the value of a household's home (which scales with inflation) from their net worth, the median US household's inflation-vulnerable wealth is actually $-12,000. In other words, for most people, inflation actually increases their net worth, in real terms.

You need to look at the difference between wage inflation and cost of living inflation. The 1970s external oil price shocks created a cost of living spike. But nowadays the conservatives controlling the economy are worried about wage inflation for some deeply mysterious reason, despite the fact that the wages for the majority of people have been in decline. (Cost of living hasn't increased as a direct effect of this, because people literally can't afford to pay more.)

This runs totally counter to reality.

The rich have a lot of monetary assets. For example, money in the bank, investment vehicles, etc etc. Their wealth goes down *faster* than the majority of people. Unless they leave the country, of course.

The poor have less monetary wealth - indeed, most of their monetary stuff are *debts*. For example, mortgages. Under inflation, the amount you owe under your mortgage stays fixed nominally, while the price of your house increases. Thus you are better off. Under inflation, your wages will also rise to compensate for the rise in the cost of living. Hence, if you aren't living off of interest, you are relatively unaffected by the pain.

Historically, the poor have always clamoured for inflationary policy, while the rich have always pushed for deflation, for this exact reason. See the debates over free silver, leaving the gold standard, etc. This is textbook stuff.

Does Israel block tor?