China Built the World’s Largest Telescope, Then Came the Tourists

Re:China Built the World’s Largest Telescope, Then Came the ... by lnsru on Monday August 27, 2018 @02:09AM (#17849742)

I don’t know about France, but Germany is failing 2 huge projects right now: Stuttgart 21 and BER airport. There was also Elbphilharmonie. And Transrapid that even didn’t start. And China is building and building and building. I don’t know how good it is in China, but the infrastructure in Germany from seventies isn’t that good anymore. Not talking about scientific projects, because there are close to none.

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Re:China Built the World’s Largest Telescope, Then Came the ... by _Microft on Monday August 27, 2018 @03:35AM (#17849990)

I'm not sure where you heard that there are no scientific projects in Germany but check the pages of Max-Planck-Society, Helmholtz Association and Fraunhofer-Society at least to get a current view. They should be spending 5-10 billion Euro per year on research in for example plasma physics (Wendelstein 7-X fusion research experiment in Greifswald for example), particle physics (DESY, GSI), applied research (Fraunhofer society) and cooperate with others to build things like the European free election laser (XFEL, at DESY).

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Re:China Built the World’s Largest Telescope, Then Came the ... by lnsru on Monday August 27, 2018 @03:48AM (#17850036)

Saw DESY, they are looking for FPGA developers. The problem with all applied research is simple: salary is a joke compared to their industrial partners. You end doing work for Infineon, BMW, Siemens, you-name-it for 1/3 salary. Catching greenhorns to work for free isn’t sustainable operational model. Think about mp3 patent case.

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Re:China Built the World’s Largest Telescope, Then Came the ... by selimthegrim on Monday August 27, 2018 @09:00AM (#17851181)

What about the patent case?

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Re:China Built the World’s Largest Telescope, Then Came the ... by timmy-turner on Monday August 27, 2018 @03:21AM (#17849946)

Well, comparing these two countries infrastructure-wise to a software project, then China is a greenfield project which is able to pick whatever is the hippest technology at the moment because its still growing whereas Germany is the years old legacy Java project on its fourth partial rewrite that everyone relies on every day. And by everyone I mean people from those living on welfare to the billionaires at the top, not just upper class members or those belonging to the ruling party.

I'll bet that those failed projects would not have been called a failure in China.

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Re:China Built the World’s Largest Telescope, Then Came the ... by dnomad on Monday August 27, 2018 @04:09AM (#17850099)

There's really nothing in China could be called a "greenfield project." Germany doesn't grow because it doesn't want to grow. You're talking about a country with an absolutely unprecedented budget surplus and the lowest investment spending in the developed world [1]. China grows because it is just the opposite; it's willing to take on unprecedented deficits and invest those in the country's future.

Germany and much of the West as a whole has largely stopped investing in anything but tax cuts and entirely pointless military spending. The neoliberal gamble is that private actors can produce growth if government just gets out the way. At this point, given the last forty years of so-so growth and massive inequality, it's not looking too good.

It's probably for the best since Germany is only going to get older and older [2]. They can use all the savings to build hospital beds etc while economic growth continues in Asia and Africa.

[1] https://www.economist.com/europe/2017/06/17/germanys-low-inv...

[2] https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/01/germany-will-hit-a-si...

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Re:China Built the World’s Largest Telescope, Then Came the ... by icebraining on Monday August 27, 2018 @08:26AM (#17850991)

Germany and much of the West as a whole has largely stopped investing in anything but tax cuts and entirely pointless military spending.

I don't understand this claim; Germany and many EU countries top the lists of tax-to-GDP and effective tax rates in the world, while its military expenditure (as % of GDP) is lower than China's.

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