Posts
IBD weighs in on GE's proposal to share advanced aircraft engine technology with Red China - a country on a fast upward trajectory to challenge America militarily, economically and technologically in the forseeable future. This seems an incredibly foolish act: . . . The aircraft industry remains one of America's strongest manufacturing sectors, providing needed jobs and industrial sales. Already buffeted by the heavily subsidized European Airbus, it may also face stiffer competition one day from a Chinese behemoth buying what American technology it cannot steal. We have laws on the books against transferring duel use technology - and this clearly falls into that category. While I am all for free trade, this crosses the line, particularly since it involves a country that is so blatantly on a collision course with the U.S. militarily. Hopefully, Congress will dust off its copy of the U.S. Code and give this proposed trade a serious look before allowing it to go through.
General Electric plans this week to sign a joint-venture agreement under which it will share its most sophisticated airplane electronics, including technology from Boeing's 787 Dreamliner, with state-owned Aviation Industry Corp. of China, or Avic. . . .
Avionics are electronics that control an aircraft's basic in-flight operations. The risk is that in exchange for short-term sales, however significant, GE is providing a future industrial competitor with technology that also has military applications.
China recently rolled out its version of our fifth-generation F-22 Raptor fighter. Critics have said the Chinese J-20 will be in need of better avionics and more powerful jet engines to fulfill its ominous potential.
The GE deal supposedly forbids transfer of any technology to military applications. The joint venture to be headquartered in Shanghai will occupy separate offices from Avic's military division, and the computer systems involved are said to be incapable of transferring data to that division. Anyone working on the project is barred for two years from working on Avic's military projects.
Yet China's disrespect for intellectual property rights is legendary. . . .
We have seen the harmful effects of the transfer of "civilian" technology when we aided China's early space efforts. After the failed launch of a satellite built by Loral Space & Communications Ltd. and attached to a Chinese rocket in February 1996, Loral provided 200 pages of data to China's Great Wall Industry Corp. to correct the guidance system problems of their Long March rockets, which blew up 75% of the time.
A May 1997 classified Pentagon report concluded that Loral had "turned over expertise that significantly improved China's nuclear missiles" and that as a result "United States national security has been harmed."
According to the Pentagon, the technology that improved the Long March satellite launcher has also made the Dong Feng ICBM series more lethal.
Technology is fungible and can be used for good or ill. Whether enabling a future competitor or potential combatant, its transfer can come back to bite us.
Showing posts with label technology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label technology. Show all posts
Thursday, January 20, 2011
IBD: Trading Away Secrets To China
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Moving Closer To A Brave New World
With each new step of technology, we move towards a world that we can't even imagine today. The latest - using MRI's to read minds:
A scan of brain activity can effectively read a person's mind, researchers said Thursday.
British scientists from University College London found they could differentiate brain activity linked to different memories and thereby identify thought patterns by using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).
The evidence suggests researchers can tell which memory of a past event a person is recalling from the pattern of their brain activity alone.
"We've been able to look at brain activity for a specific episodic memory -- to look at actual memory traces," said senior author of the study, Eleanor Maguire. . . .
Do read the entire article.
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Interesting News & Posts - 19 February 2008
A round-up of the interesting news and posts of the day, all below the fold.
___________________________________________________________
Art: The Birth of Venus, Francois Boucher, 1740
Fausta’s Blog is one stop shopping for the best in Castro coverage.
The Ace of Spades responds to five questions George Will poses for John McCain regarding the constitutional powers of the Presidency. As to the last one, I do not know of one SOFA Agreement that has ever gone through Congress, and I would be surprised if McCain believed that he was required to commit such an agreement to Congress for approval.
Googlemaps.ranger.patrol.com . . .well, not quite, but that's what it sounds like. There are reasons we have the most professional military in the world. Technology is an important part of it, even for grunts.
Gateway Pundit blogs on the Pakistani elections and Senators Kerry, Biden and Hagel spending time with radical Islamist leader and former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. A win for Sharif’s party would be a disaster for the U.S. So why am I not surprised that the three stooges should show up with Sharif?
According to Protein Wisdom, the Obama Scrutiny Cometh. Perhaps they can start with his incredibly punitive and far-reaching gun control proposals. I doubt if the scrutiny can come fast enough for Hillary though. Indeed, this picture says it all. I will take scrutiny whenever it may come, however, so long as I do not have to do compulsory prayer at the Church of the Latter Day Obama come November. Though I for one would never need the smelling salts during the service.
Brits are finding themselves between a Northern Rock and a hard place. One wonders just what each will get for their £3,500 . . . besides screwed. The one thing I doubt that they will get is good policing under Labour’s policies. Indeed, as one straight forward police inspector has written about the policies: "Things are considerably worse, considerably more stupid and much more confused." At least the police are responsive to the Muslims in Britain. Is this insane or what?
EU Press Freedom is taking an ominous turn. This is not surprising when one understands the concept of seditious libel and the ruling of the EU Court of Justice in the 2001 case of Connolly vs. Commission. The modern left has no respect for freedom of speech. There is no relationship between classical liberalism and those who call themselves "liberals" today.
From Islam in Europe: Twenty-one suspected members of a self-styled "gang of barbarians" will be tried in France for the kidnapping, torture and murder of a young Jewish man, Ilan Halimi, in 2006.
If you are going to make a living as a bimbo, don’t be an air-head like Sharon Stone and decry America to Arab newspapers, . . . be a minimalist like Lindsey Lohan.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
