In the early 1960s Soviet Union sold titanium to the US believing they needed it for Pizza Ovens but instead they used it to build the iconic SR-71 Blackbird Mach 3+ spy plane

After all, they fraudulently possibly told their comrades that the United States was a lazy country that probably couldn’t even cook for itself. //

Titanium procurement during the Cold War was so vital to the US’ goal of defeating the Soviet Union that it had to secretly buy the metal from the very country it sought to vanquish. It was 1960 and Washington needed spy planes that could avoid detection in Soviet airspace by flying to the heavens. To make what would become the vaunted SR-71 Blackbird, Lockheed knew it had to build a light plane, but one that was strong enough to hold extra fuel to give it expansive range. The only metal that would do the job was titanium. The only place to get titanium in the needed quantities was the Soviet Union.

The US worked through Third World countries and fake companies and finally was able to ship the ore to the US to build the SR-71. //

“The airplane is 92% titanium inside and out. Back when they were building the airplane the United States didn’t have the ore supplies – an ore called rutile ore. It’s a very sandy soil and it’s only found in very few parts of the world. The major supplier of the ore was the USSR. Working through Third World countries and bogus operations, they were able to get the rutile ore shipped to the United States to build the SR-71,” famous former SR-71 pilot Colonel Rich Graham said in an interesting article appeared on BBC.

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20130701-tales-from-the-blackbird-cockpit

"We already know from early research that it is possible."

What did that shameless, dishonest groveling at the feet of the Chinese dictatorship accomplish? The answer is apparently nothing. When Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in the adversarial nation on Sunday to hold more fruitless talks, the CCP immediately set out to embarrass the Biden administration.

Is this how this entire trip is going to go?

DaiWW @BeijingDai
·
Blinken lands in China. No red carpet, no greeting party and no high level CPC officals.
9:19 PM · Jun 17, 2023 //

When high-ranking diplomats (and there is no higher ranking than Blinken) visit other countries, it is an act of tradition and respect to roll out the red carpet. It’s also customary for that person’s foreign counterpart, usually the one he’ll be negotiating with, to be in attendance to greet said diplomat and escort them to the meeting place or where they are staying. In this case, Blinken was met with a low-ranking official while given essentially zero pomp and circumstance, and the reason China snubbed him isn’t exactly a mystery.

As it stands, the CCP sees Biden as weak and ineffective. Not surprisingly, that’s because the president is weak and ineffective. His prostration before Xi Jinping on Saturday, defending China’s aggression with talking points that came straight out of Beijing (and that his own administration officials have contradicted), has only made the situation worse.

Eight years after Google Domains launched, and a little more than a year after it graduated out of beta, Google is "winding down following a transition period," as part of "efforts to sharpen our focus." That's corporate-ese for "We need to keep cost-cutting, so we're selling this business we just finished shaping up to Squarespace." //

However clean and orderly a transition the two companies try to emulate, the sale cannot help but further Google's image as a company that readily gives up on projects that aren't core to its advertising business, even those that have matured and would seem to encourage a tie-in with Google accounts. //

Goofball_Jones Ars Praefectus
13y
3,532
So, looking back at the Google Graveyard, it seems their ongoing philosophy is "if we can't totally dominate a market with a service, we'll kill the service". I mean, look what is left is just the major things they totally dominate. YouTube, Search, Email, and to some extent, Android. That's why it's a laugh-fest when they announce something new because we all know if they don't dominate the world with it within a year, they'll kill it off.

I picture in the future some service they come up with that will keep you alive well past the usual age of dying....only to kill it off a few years later, telling the people currently on it "you have 30 days to take care of your affairs and say goodbye to your family and friends. Thank you for supporting GoogleLife" //

cdd Smack-Fu Master, in training
2d
1
The $180 million Google gets from the sale doesn't even come close to covering the $226 million they paid Sundar Pichai in 2022 and only serves to erode consumer trust in Google's willingness to continue any of its products. If they need the money, why not just hire a cheaper CEO?

Unfortunately, sad stories like this will continue to emerge as long as these outrages are allowed to continue. Kids should not be used as surgical guinea pigs and weapons in this bizarre and ghoulish culture war we’ve found ourselves in. One can only hope these doctors and the Kaiser Hospitals are forced to pay hand over fist.