Except that mi writes bullshit, Russians are perfectly able to hear the difference between [v] and [w]. They don't have the [w] phoneme, that is all.

You even fail at Russian.

Russian spelling is not phonetic, there are often significant differences between what is said and what is written.
Belarussian is strictly phonetic, Czech is almost phonetic (there are some exceptions due to vocal shifts: like "u" with krouzek and with carka, "i" and "y" being the same phoneme). Russian is not.

Writing that the distinction between "w" and "v" makes no sense is also wrong. The right answer is that Russian simply lacks the [w] phoneme (labio-velar approximant) and uses either "v" or "u" in transcriptions of foreign texts. Polish and Belarussian both have this phoneme, although the origin of it is the dark L sound, that is why it is written as L with as stroke in Polish and probably wouldn't make sense in front of an "i". Belarus on the other hand uses an u with a breve, that might actually work.

I don't think SpaceX does anything from a different perspective and there is nothing groundbreaking with what they do - just good engineering. What they did was to build well-researched hardware using modern manufacturing techniques and a lot of off-the-shelf parts. That is why their design is so conservative. Nothing wrong about it - that works well and helps keeping the cost down. But bleeding edge is something else.

Well, the problem here in Germany is that our government is a bunch of amateurs who don't know what they are doing and thus follow a nauseating zig-zag course.

On one hand, renewable energy in Germany is indeed increasing. On the other hand, some goals were indeed abandoned after the ridiculous sanctions of Russia started to backfire, sinking the German economy after it barely started walking out of the 2008-2009 recession.

Go grow some reading comprehension, Pavlov's dog.

I've never stated anything about "forced green energy efforts" at all. The only thing I've written about is that the invisible hand that magically creates solutions when they are needed does not exist and every research process is a long strings of small steps so sitting and waiting for a magical solution to every problem to appear out of thin air is delusional.

Of course it is needed. I, for one, like clean air, clean water, trees not damaged by acid rain and while a trip to Pripyat was fun - in an eerie way - you have to strictly stay on the roads, because outside of these the radiation is still strong enough for better not having kids after sitting on a tree stem.

Bitchslapping? Come on, Anonymous Coward, your "real world examples" weren't bitchslapping, they are meaningless in matter of this discussion. Simply because they weren't about innovations, research or anything remotely similar. They were just about some government funded manufacturing being expensive. What does it have to do with anything I've written?

Don't be a Pavlov's dog next time.

Butthurt much?

Well, fact is that governments sponsor most of basic research. It still takes very long time to fruit and I think most people who want the government to continue funding basic research are well aware of it.

I have seen - predominantly on Slashdot, obviously, but also elsewhere, a sort of naive technocrats (who are often also libertarians) believing that as soon as some technology is needed, the invisible hand of the market magically creates this technology so one only has to sit and wait for this magic solution to appear out of thin air. The more down-to-earth kind of these people even tried to explain this magic by telling that this process happens by throwing enough money at a problem.

Unfortunately - and TFA is a picture book example of this - reality doesn't work that way. Breakthroughs don't happen by magic, they happen by meticulous research and a shitload of small steps. Solutions don't suddenly appear just when they are needed, a long lead time of research is required. And sometimes this new technology never comes up at all.

"neoliberal" is an european term meaning purely economic liberals (freedom for business aka free market fundamentalists).

Nah, if it is at gunpoint, then it is not "steal", it is "rob" ;-)

Sounds like a typical case of Lake Wobegon effect

That is only because there is no Transrapid in Munich. Otherwise one would be able to start the flight at the Munich central railway station.

Is it like a quality seal?

It is just 85%, you sissy. That is perfectly fine, no additional sweetener needed.
This one is bitter.