fussfun

right strategy
coupling with Russia against U.S.A:naughty:

fussfun

BEIJING, China (Reuters) --

China and Russia will mount a joint effort to explore Mars and one of its moons in 2009, Chinese state media reported on Wednesday following an agreement to boost cooperation between the two ambitious space powers.

A Russian rocket will lift a Chinese satellite and Russian exploration vehicle to survey Mars and Phobos, the innermost and biggest of the red planet's moons, the China Daily reported, citing China's National Space Administration.

The announcement followed an agreement signed on Monday in Moscow, where Chinese President Hu Jintao has been visiting.

A Chinese space official said the agreement would boost cooperation between China and Russia, both eager to expand their presence in space as the United States seeks to keep its lead.

"It indicates the two sides have taken a key step forward to working on a large space program," said the official, according to the China Daily.

The small Chinese satellite will explore Mars while the Russian craft will land on Phobos to explore the environment and scoop up soil samples.

Russia has much more experience than China in space exploration. But Beijing has been using its newly acquired wealth and technological muscle to break into the exclusive space club.

In 2003, China put a man in space, becoming only the third country to achieve the feat after the United States and the Soviet Union. It launched a second manned space flight last year and plans to eventually land a person on the moon.

The United States has announced its own plans to expand exploration of Mars and eventually send a manned expedition there. Washington chided Beijing in January for testing an anti-satellite missile that pulverized an old Chinese satellite, scattering debris that could damage other satellites.

fussfun

BEIJING, China (AP) -- There's a new Chinese saying: When life hands you panda poop, make paper.

Researchers at a giant panda reserve in southern China are looking for paper mills to process their surplus of fiber-rich panda excrement into high quality paper.

Liao Jun, a researcher at the Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Base in Sichuan province, said the idea came to them after a visit to Thailand last year where they found paper made from elephant dung. They thought panda poop would produce an even finer quality paper, he said.

The base is in talks with several paper mills on how to turn the droppings of Jing Jing, Ke Bi, Ya Ya and dozens of other pandas at the base into reams of office paper and rolls of wrapping paper, Liao said.

They hope to have a product line available by next year, he said.

"We are not interested in doing this for the profits but to recycle the waste," said Liao.

"It's environmentally friendly. We can use the paper ourselves, and also we can sell whatever is left over."

The center's 40 bamboo-fed pandas produce about 2 tons of droppings a day, but Liao said he was not sure yet how much paper would result.

What about squeamish customers who might consider the paper unsanitary?

"People won't find it gross at all," Liao said. "They probably won't even be able to tell it's from panda poop."

The Chiang Mai Zoo in northern Thailand already sells multicolored paper made from the excrement produced by its two resident pandas. Making paper there involves a daylong process of cleaning the feces, boiling it in a soda solution, bleaching it with chlorine and drying it under the sun.

panda poop




[ 本帖最后由 fussfun 于 2007-3-28 00:58 编辑 ]

fussfun

me too, an i'm user. The text code i set up is *help: stopglobalwarming,
hehe, the environment problem is really critical.

The Microsoft is not pulling our legs, isn't it?
I do trust Bill Gates quite a lot , hopefully he will not abuse our trust.:naughty:

[ 本帖最后由 fussfun 于 2007-3-28 00:54 编辑 ]