Trump to Bargain With China

Trump is visiting China, seeking their cooperation in pressuring North Korea:

Whitehouse Hints It May Take Over SpaceX & Blue Origin Rockets

In an interview with Scientific American, Whitehouse space policy advisor Scott Pace has hinted that the US govt may be looking at possibly taking over the heavy lift rocket programs of SpaceX and Blue Origin:


https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/q-a-plotting-u-s-space-policy-with-white-house-adviser-scott-pace/


Scientific American asks:

NASA is spending billions of dollars developing its own heavy-lift rocket, the Space Launch System, as the centerpiece for future exploration activities beyond low Earth orbit. But private companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin are pursuing more reusable heavy-lift vehicles of their own that may be less expensive to build and operate. Is there room for public-private partnership there, and what might that look like?

Scott Pace replies:

Heavy-lift rockets are strategic national assets, like aircraft carriers. There are some people who have talked about buying heavy-lift as a service as opposed to owning and operating, in which case the government would, of course, have to continue to own the intellectual properties so it wasn’t hostage to any one contractor. One could imagine this but, in general, building a heavy-lift rocket is no more “commercial” than building an aircraft carrier with private contractors would be.

Naturally, this type of US govt takeover of American private space sector enterprises could significantly crimp their freedom of action and their business pursuits, by subordinating them into primarily servicing the US govt's strategic goals. This may however create a market opening for India's space sector to then fill. So this is a fluid situation, but it's definitely worth watching.

Quick notes: Kurds betrayed, Anglocondescension...

• Why did America abandon the Kurds? "We had so much trust in America. We never thought America would accept Iranian proxies using American weapons against their allies."  Less than 72 hours after Trump heralded a get-tough-on-Iran policy, the US just did the opposite in Kirkuk and alienated the Kurds, its longest and most stalwart counter-terrorism ally in Iraq.



• Anglocondescension: "We are sorry to have disappointed you. But maybe we Spaniards have grown up and no longer need to be lectured". Europe Is Tiring of 'Anglocondescension'



• Chabahar already impacting Pakis: Already half the wheat flour mills and related businesses have closed down in Peshawar.



• India is among world's hottest: India is quickly becoming one of the hottest countries in the world, which is triggering significant weather impacts and affecting its economy. 



• Rajeev on alt-meat: Generating Meat In Labs: The Technology, Opportunities And The Consequences



• How to Install Solar Panels:




• Bleeding because of Amazon: Sellers are protesting against Amazon India’s returns policy by pulling back ads



• “Second war of economic independence”: A century after freedom fighters launched a movement against British goods — the backlash against Chinese products is ramping up.



• Bye-bye globalization: Republican tax bill unveiled in the U.S. Congress could disrupt the global supply chains of large MNCs by slapping a 20% tax on cross-border transactions they routinely make between related business units. The proposal could run afoul of WTO and other international tax treaties



• Marxist dogma: Calls for Lenin's body to finally be buried ahead of 100th anniversary of Bolshevik revolution



• The state of apostates in Muslim countries: Imagine if other countries criminalized Islam

Imagine if over a dozen Western countries criminalized Islam, if the “crime” could be met with death, often at the hands of the public. 1/

— Sarah Haider (@SarahTheHaider) November 7, 2017

Alpha Design - Private Indian Satellite Maker to Go Public

Electronics and space systems integrator Alpha Design is on a growth trajectory, having led an ISRO-sponsored effort to privately design and assemble IRNSS navigational positioning satellites for India's NavIC:

http://www.thehindu.com/business/Industry/military-parts-maker-alpha-design-to-go-public-next-year/article19988098.ece

Alpha Design will be listing itself on the stock market next year, seeking capital to fund its growth. Indian space startups could make space the next big frontier for job-seeking Indian techies. The size of their pie is small now, but so was the IT pie once.

Quick notes: Selective globalization, Loss-making route...

• Swadeshi startups: The market value of internet sector in Europe is $50 billion. China's is 20 times bigger. This is because while China banned companies like Google, Twitter and Facebook, Europe did not. “What we need to do is what China did and tell the world that we need your capital, but we don’t need your companies”. Indiatech.org advocates ‘selective globalization’, saying it is something that the US and China already follow.



• India’s growing trade imbalance with China: Questions emerge about how Chinese producers undersell Indian manufacturers, considering transportation and a tariff of 10 percent. Some of the merchandise made in China, including locks or jewelry, is made with raw materials supplied by India.



• Bullet Train route is currently loss-making: 32 Mail and Express trains between Mumbai to Ahmedabad have been incurring a loss of 14 crore and 31 trains from Mumbai to Ahmedabad have made losses of 15 crore.



• Funds for education: Re 1 spent on school inspectors can save India Rs 10



• Gita Supersite: The texts are in Sanskrit and can be viewed in any of 11 language scripts: Assamese, Bengali, Devanagari, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Oriya, Punjabi, Roman, Tamil and Telugu.



• The insanity of big mountain freeriding:




• No public bicycle sharing for South Bengaluru: BJP-represented constituencies lose. Congress-ruled constituencies get preference.



• Discontent among nationalists:
  



• October 31 is Big Tree Day:

Big Tree Day. Also sikh genocide day, thanks to Rajiv Gandhi https://t.co/hKAvJWvkOk

— राजीवः श्रीनिवासः (@RajeevSrinivasa) October 31, 2017




• If not for its cloud business, Amazon would be posting big losses. The $1.2 billion operating profit posted by AWS wiped out the $936 million operating loss recorded by Amazon's international e-commerce business.

Uzbek Man Kills 8 in NYC Terror Attack

29-year-old Saifullah Saipov managed to run over and kill 8 pedestrians and injured 12 while driving a truck in NYC, before abandoning the vehicle and being shot by police:

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/dead-gunman-home-depot-truck-runs-bikers-article-1.3602094

This is triggering yet another round of furious debate in the US:

It's worth mentioning that the main radical militant group in Uzbekistan, the fundamentalist Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, is primarily backed by Pakistan's ISI.

Campaign Ad for Modi

A new political campaign ad in support of Narendra Modi points out that if people fail to support him now, then no PM will dare tackle corruption for 100 years:

https://www.economictimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/if-you-let-modi-fail-now-no-pm-will-dare-to-fight-corruption-for-100-years-says-new-video/articleshow/61371888.cms