Remember Chang'e, the Chinese space vehicle intended to soft-land on the Moon and deploy a rover? Via Bryan of Why Now?, the AP on CBC informs us it arrived successfully and is leaving "deep traces on [the Moon's] loose soil" today. (See video on linked page.)

When I was 10 years old I assumed this sort of event would be routine by now. Because Saint Ronald Reagan effectively abandoned any aspect of the American space program that could not be turned directly to military purposes, it has actually been almost 40 years since America left the moon. America gave up space research, and humankind is the poorer for it.

Congratulations to China. It is good to know that as America abandons its creative technological past in favor of direct transfers of taxpayers' money to already wealthy people, at least one nation intends to revive and continue the efforts America gave up.

Hey, maybe we can ask China for a lift to the International Space Station. We've been depending on Russia to move people there and back...

ellroon of Rants from the Rookery continues her list of dangerous products imported from China, a list that seems always to grow longer, never shorter. At some point, you have to doubt the intent of the Chinese government... and the American government... to rectify the situation. Considering the clearly inadequate inspection of imported Chinese products, I suppose we have to live with poisonous pet food, honey containing heavy metals, pills that contain human remains, ... the list goes on and on; read it yourself. You may not be quite so quick to buy things labeled "Made in China" when you see the pattern.