China Is Building a Solar Power Station in Space

China Is Building a Solar Power Station in Space. Oh, cool. However:

Needless to say, the biggest problem for a floating power plant is figuring out how to get the energy back down to Earth.

The scientists behind the project are still sorting that part out. But right now, the plan is to have solar arrays in space capture light from the sun and then beam electricity down to a facility on Earth in the form of a microwave or a laser, according to The Sydney Morning Herald.

Just build a space elevator, you assholes. That would be far safer.

The idea of this solar station beaming energy to space-faring vessels is intriguing though.

Erik Prince & Frontier Services Group profile

Blackwater Mercenary Prince Has a New $1 Trillion Chinese Boss. One of those things that's unfashionable to mention on Twitter is how China fits into the Trump puzzle. Russiagate never worked for me because it's too simple. There was no one power responsible for what happened. Erik Prince is how China ties into it.

Check out this timeline. Erik Prince met Trump's people in January 2017.

Date

Event

Oct 2013

Prince meets CITIC Chairman Chang Zhenming

Jan 2014

Prince named FSG Chairman

Apr 2016

FSG first mentions intent to pursue Belt and Road projects in filings

Apr 2016

CEO Gregg Smith, former Marine, and William Fallon, former US admiral, resign

Dec 2016

FSG formally updates strategy to "better capitalize" on Belt and Road

Jan 2017

FSG announces Belt and Road partnership with China state-owned Taiping

Mar 2018

China state-owned CITIC ups stake in FSG; Taiping becomes shareholder

Dec 2018

CITIC Chairman Chang becomes FSG Chairman

Jan 2019

FSG releases, then deletes, statement on Xinjiang training camp

Wushan Man

There's a post about two million years old human fossils that were discovered over the past twenty years in Wushan County in Chongqing municipality in China over on Remote Central.

pre-installed malware on Maxtor drives: new RIAA strategy?

Slashdot had a strange little piece about trojan horse malware being pre-installed on Maxtor harddrives in the factory in Thailand. One of the link on there links to a story that seems to imply that the government of China is somehow involved in the scheme, but the virus described back in September is one that deletes mp3s.

I wonder if the RIAA is finding creative new ways to fight in the digital age? It's either them or the gold farmers (as the virus also looks for game passwords and uploads them to sites in Beijing,) or possibly a joint venture.

If China wanted to create a botnet, could this be the kind of industrial sabotage and espionage that would provide an instant horde of zombies? Or fuck a botnet... if it's a harddrive with malware installed as soon as the icon is clicked, why not go for financial information or scientific research?

photo of new tomb at Qinshihuang funerary complex

Coincidentally, my brother just came back from a visit to China, and took a photo of of the hill containing this relatively "newly" discovered tomb. He has the whole set up on Flickr.