hypocrites (Score 1)

Why are so many of you open-source "believers" knocking China's efforts to modernize? Who cares that it's not the first? The simple fact that lazy Americans haven't invested much in this revolutionary techonology is no surprise, considering their latent dependency on gasoline to fuel their egos. When they realize that the world's (current oil-based) economy does NOT have to inflate the prices of commodities like milk and toilet paper every time the Arabian peninsula decides not to produce as much, it will be a great day. How does this happen? It needs to be brought into public consciousness that maglevs consume (at 400km/h ~ 250m/h) only .2kN of energy per seat, versus ~.6kN per seat for automobiles and ~1.0kN per seat for aircraft. 1 billion people live in China, and if citizens there owned on average as many as American citizens, the Middle Eastern reserves would dry up quicker than the drool on freeway drivers' faces. So what if it's expensive? So are 2GHz processors, but that doesn't seem to morally rattle people. Kudos for China for taking the initiative to possibly skip an automobile-dominated phase of societal growth. ~axzaetus