Tag: technology

From Red Moon to Vostochny: 10 Achievements of Russian Cosmonautics

USSR: 10 Achievements of Soviet & Russian Cosmonautics! (11.9.2026)

On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union, which had just recovered from the war, amazed the world with news from the field of high technology – the Soviets, who were reproached for technological backwardness, managed to be the first in the world to launch a satellite into space. True, it was originally planned to send a more complex device into orbit, but the data that the United States would launch its satellite in 1958 forced Korolev to hurry. The mass of the Sputnik-1 spacecraft, which the American press nicknamed the “Red Moon”, was 83.6 kg, the maximum diameter was 0.58 m. It flew in space for 92 days, having made 1440 revolutions around the Earth during this time. Satellite signals could be received using ordinary amateur radio equipment, and radio transmitters worked for three weeks after the launch. Gradually, the device lost speed and burned up in the dense layers of the atmosphere.

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Workers celebrate as excavation of the Jintang undersea tunnel passes the 4,000-meter mark on Aug. 31, 2026. (Photo: China News Service/Zhao Rongfa)

China: World’s Longest Undersea [High-Speed] Rail Tunnel Project – Passes “4-km Boring Milestone”! (2.9.2026)

Stretching 16.18 kilometres, the Jintang Tunnel is a core component of the Ningbo-Zhoushan Railway. Upon completion, it will become the world’s longest undersea high-speed railway tunnel. Its 11.21-kilometre shield-driven section is being excavated from the Ningbo and Zhoushan sides by two tunnel boring machines that will meet beneath the sea.

The tunnel’s Ningbo excavation segment spans 4.94 kilometres, with its lowest point reaching 92 metres below the seabed. The domestically developed “Yongzhou” machine is currently boring through the hardest full-face rock section along the undersea route.

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Robot Weightlifting Beijing 2026

Beijing: World Robot Games – Weightlifting Robot Takes a Tumble! (25.8.2026)

Humanoid robots competed for the first time in the weightlifting category at the World Robot Games, held on Monday, August 22nd, at the Beijing National Speed Skating Hall.Four robots in the heavyweight category began by lifting a 15-kilogram barbell. In one attempt, a robot lost its balance and fell towards the judges’ table. Immediately after, officials stopped the competition and declared that attempt over.

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Robots play soccer during the World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing, Sunday, Aug. 23, 2026.

China: Humanoid Robot Beats – Usain Bolt’s – 100-Metre World Record Time! (24.8.2026)

Let’s face, a “robot” is basically a car manifesting its fast manoeuvrability via “two-legs” – instead of wheels. A standard car, depending upon the skill of the driver, should be able to easily beat the fastest of humans. A human-body lacks the mechanical ability to accelerate from 0-60mph in five-seconds – on the grounds that it has not been an evolutionary necessity. The idea that an artificial machine, just because it has been given the moulded externality of a “human-shaped body” – does not mean it has any genuine relationship (or connection) to a “biologically-functioning” human-body. What is the difference between a “robot” and a “drone”? Answer – the ability to “flight”. And that’s about it. What’s next – parachuting? Rock-climbing? Diving? It is an interesting gimmick and I suspect the CPC might be using ths technology to intimidate the US by proxy – as these “funny little fellows” might be used as expendable infantry soldiers in a future war of self-defence against US aggression.

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PrOP-M - Soviet Rover - 1971

USSR: The 1971 Mars 2 & Mars 3 Missions – Carried the 1st Soviet-Made “Mars Rovers” [PrOP-M]! (18.8.2026)

The USSR and Eastern Europe had been devastated by Hitler during WWII with the Soviets suffering 41 million (killed and wounded) casualties whilst large swathes of the Western USSR was materially devastated. Leningrad, of course, was reduced to starvation by the Nazi blockade (rather like what Trump II is attempting to do to Cuba). Despite suffering that material and psychological devastation – within a few short years of reconstruction directed by Joseph Stalin – the country was able to regroup and direct its resources toward space exploration, a process which sent shockwaves throughout the world of the US, a place which had suffered no material or economic damage during WWII. Make no mistake about, although Stalin passed away in 1953 – everything that unfolded in the USSR from a technological position – manifested from the groundwork laid by Stalin between 1945-1953. This dialectical preparation sustained the country for decades despites its leaders betraying Stalin and taking the country in a Counter-Revolutionary direction. Indeed, the Mars 2 and Mars 3 Soviet fact-finding missions to Mars in 1971 both carried a version of the world’s first “rover” designed to explore the area immediately surrounding the lander (or “Mars Station”). This “Device Assessing [through] Cross-Country Capability-Mars” [Прибор оценки проходимости-Марс – Pribor otsenki prokhodimosti-Mars] or “ПрОП-М” [PrOP-M] was attached to the lander via a 15 metre tethering cable (similar to the first-generation remote controls attached to TV sets and video recorders).

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A protest against AI outside OpenAI headquarters in San Francisco, California, on 11 July. Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

US: Trump Vows to “Break Wynd” Over AI Row! (17.8.2026)

She said that when she was found guilty, she was “hit with a wave of grief” because she realised her peers “just didn’t get” the danger she believes is posed by the race to superintelligence. But she was beginning to feel “vindicated” as more prominent figures like Sanders were speaking out. She is now braced for the prison experience of an orange jump suit, “horrible food, dirt [and] you can’t sleep”. She has been previously jailed for short periods related to her decades of political activism over causes including Nicaragua, nuclear disarmament, western Sahara and Palestine.

Her message to the chief executives of OpenAI, Anthropic and Meta, which also reported a security incident with its model, was “regain your humanity”. Kaufmyn said her target audience was ordinary people “and the message being: stop the progress of this technology. Let’s get a global ban on the race to superintelligence.”

Prof Stuart Russell, a leading AI academic at the University of California at Berkeley and president of the International Association for Safe and Ethical AI, gave evidence in Kaufmyn’s defence. He claimed OpenAI’s activities “pose an unacceptable risk”, alleging it had deployed AI systems with inadequate safeguards. He said that further development of these systems “must be conditioned on rigorous guarantees of safety, which are currently unavailable”.

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