"Fred J. McCall" wrote in message
news
"Snuffy Smith" wrote:

:"Fred J. McCall" wrote in message
.. .
: (D.K.) wrote:
:
: :What I'd like to know is how widely Soviet space achievements
: Sputnik, Gagarin, Leonov, Tereshkova) were popularized in the USA?
:
: Talked about? Sure. Popularized? Not so much.
:
: It didn't help that the Russians didn't allow TV broadcasts for a lot
: of this stuff out of fear that something might go wrong.
:
:Ever notice any of the parallels between current day China and the old
:Soviet Union?

Not really, no.

:That flu virus that started in China was known for months. The Chinese
tried
:to black out the world on what was going on. People in China didn't even
:know there was a deadly flu bug swirling all around them.

I assume you're referring to SARS? Not a "flu bug". China actually
had public thermometers to check people on the street. You seem a bit
misinformed here.


Well duhhh! Only AFTER they looked like fools in the eyes of the entire
world.

:Now we see that they backed out on showing their space launch live.

This is typical of any semi-dictatorship.

:Then you have all that Falun Gong and Tibet persecution stuff.

Again, typical of any semi-dictatorship.

:The question is how long before China implodes like the Soviet Union????

It won't happen. China has been much more economically flexible than
the old Soviet Union was.


Never say never.


--
"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable
man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore,
all progress depends on the unreasonable man."
--George Bernard Shaw