back to article China 'evacuates' 9,000 around monster radio 'scope

China will "evacuate" 9,110 residents living within a five-kilometre radius of its new "Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope" (FAST), in order to create "a sound electromagnetic wave environment". The monster radio 'scope - located in the south-western province of Guizhou - is due for completion in September. The …

  1. TRT Silver badge

    We all know...

    that really it's the cover for a super-villian's secret base and 007 will abseil in with an elite team of SAS or marines.

    1. MyffyW Silver badge

      Re: We all know...

      I just love the fact that our own radio telescope - Jodrell Bank - is about 300 yards from the electrified West Coast Mainline. Must be great fun trying to unpick Pulsar emissions from the signature of a passing Virgin Voyager and it's faulty toilet.

  2. hplasm
    Thumb Up

    improbable units calculator

    Can we get these added to the Reg Store?

    1. Oli 1

      Re: improbable units calculator

      Pronto!

      I need to know how many bottles of wine fit in a double decker bus - to check my figures, natch

      1. AbelSoul
        Trollface

        Re: how many bottles of wine fit in a double decker bus

        Olympic-sized double-decker Bulgarian wine-bags?

        1. Robert Helpmann??
          Childcatcher

          Re: how many bottles of wine fit in a double decker bus

          "if you fill it with wine, every one of the world's seven billion people could get a share of about five bottles".

          Around 26,250,000,000 liters which comes to about 10,488 Olympic-sized swimming pools or 15,331,403,620* Bulgarian funbags (unless I misplaced a decimal or made a rounding error or was distracted by poodles).

          * A whole lot of fun indeed!

          1. Stoneshop

            Re: how many bottles of wine fit in a double decker bus

            $ units

            Currency exchange rates from www.timegenie.com on 2014-04-02

            2890 units, 109 prefixes, 79 nonlinear units

            You have: 7e9*5*0.7 l

            You want: funbag

            * 1.430931e+10

            / 6.9884571e-11

            You have: 7e9*5*0.7 l

            You want: pool

            * 9788.7715

            / 0.00010215787

            You have: 7e9*5*0.7 l

            You want: grapefruit

            * 4.6791444e+10

            / 2.1371429e-11

            You have: 7e9*5*0.7 l

            You want: pinch

            * 7.84e+13

            / 1.2755102e-14

            You have:

          2. Martin Budden Silver badge
            Headmaster

            Re: how many bottles of wine fit in a double decker bus

            Around 26,250,000,000 liters which comes to about 10,488 Olympic-sized swimming pools...

            ...or just one Olympic-sized swimming pool, if it's a really deep one.

      2. redpawn

        Re: improbable units calculator

        I'll drink those bottles one by one as improbable discoveries are made. Might go for the shares of others who might not be as enthusiastic.

  3. chivo243 Silver badge
    Headmaster

    Humans gone

    what about animals and such in the area??

    1. Paul Crawford Silver badge

      Re: Humans gone

      Unless your goat has WiFi its not a problem...

      1. Lester Haines (Written by Reg staff) Gold badge

        Re: Re: Humans gone

        Isn't Google working on WiFi-enabled caprines for remote rural communities?

        1. Alister

          Re: Humans gone

          Isn't Google working on WiFi-enabled caprines for remote rural communities?

          Well that's a Loony idea.

        2. Scott 53

          Re: Humans gone

          Wi-fi nannystations

        3. chris 17 Silver badge

          Re: Humans gone

          "Isn't Google working on WiFi-enabled caprines for remote rural communities?"

          Google are working on Wi-fi enabled mountain bikes?

          is the antenna in the wheels or something?

          http://www.yt-industries.com/detail/index/sArticle/541/sCategory/77

      2. John Brown (no body) Silver badge
        Trollface

        Re: Humans gone

        "Unless your goat has WiFi its not a problem..."

        It does. Anything to keep the kids quiet when nanny is having a nap and billy is down at The Bridge pub playing darts with the trolls.

    2. Lester Haines (Written by Reg staff) Gold badge

      Re: Humans gone

      Unless they're operating microwave ovens and the like, I don't think they pose much of a threat to operations. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/04/12/strange_radio_telescope_signals_came_from_microwave_ovens/

    3. phuzz Silver badge
      Big Brother

      Re: Humans gone

      The whole reason for getting rid of people is so that they can easily track the cats with radio transmitters up their bum that the CIA are using to spy on them.

      (Actually the truth is almost stranger than my fiction)

  4. roger 8

    worlds biggest Wok

    1. Stoneshop

      worlds biggest Wok

      Why don't they build an array using a beeeellion standard woks?

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Wait a second, that looks suspiciously like a part from the death star, there planning on blowing up the moon!

    1. MyffyW Silver badge

      That's no moon!

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    In communist China, building projects NIMBY you!

  7. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge

    China is horrid with property rights

    But then again, you can get rolled over by "eminent domain" procedures in the US too if someone thinks a new mall in the neighborhood would be just the thing.

    Was there at least a payout? Probably nothing of value...

    1. Hud Dunlap
      Megaphone

      Re: China is horrid with property rights @ Destroy all monsters

      I don't get the down voles. Just look up the Kelo ruling and the many disasters that came with it. One of which is the keystone pipeline. NAFTA allows a foreign company to use eminent domain to take Americans land. I know that, for now, Obama , has blocked the Keystone pipeline. That hasn't stopped a number of people in Texas from giving up their land rather than risk getting less for it under eminent domain. You can also look up all of the land taken by former Governor Rick Perry for toll roads and a new railroad line for Toyota.

      For fun you can always look up Donald Trump and eminent domain.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: China is horrid with property rights @ Destroy all monsters

        If you think Donald Trump is bad, you should see what a Bernie Sanders or Barack Obama will do when they want rangeland turned into a nature preserve.

    2. Martin Gregorie

      Re: China is horrid with property rights

      Was there at least a payout? Probably nothing of value...

      Well, the article did say that each family was getting the equivalent of $US1300 as compensation. The bit the story skipped was to find out what $US1300 would be worth to one of the families being 'evacuated' from the 5km exclusion zone.

      That amount would be bugger all to us in comparison with the costs of moving to a new area and then finding replacement housing and a new job, but what would it be worth to a Chinese village farmer? How far would it go to get them set up in a similar house and with a similar plot of land and/or business premises? Could it provide the same standard of living they are used to? Since there was no mention of rehousing them some place else we can only assume that the kindly Chinese Government wasn't about to do that for the 'evacuees' and the $1300 bung is all they're going to get.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: China is horrid with property rights

        A $ will go roughly 6-7 times as far in most parts of China, this is a (very), rural area, so say 10-15 times.

        What I am unsure of is the cost of apartments locally; down in the south $100,000 was about the cheapest new apartment I saw advertised.

        It is different if you rent of course; we were paying about $55 per month, (back in 2011), for one 3x5m room with a 1x1 kitchen and 1x1 toilet hole with hose pipe over.

        If these people rented, they are probably quid-in; if they lived in their family built home, they are fucked.

  8. John Savard

    Hazards

    Well, it is true that people use personal computers and even television sets, and so one would wish to put a radio telescope in an empty spot. And China is known to be rather crowded.

  9. itzman

    Idael testimg ground

    For your new EMI emitting drone.

  10. x 7

    radio telescope?

    Looks more like a a very long range military directional VLF radio transmitter. Ideal for talking to submarines at extreme range.

    1. Ru'

      Isn't it, kinda, pointing in the wrong direction for underwater use?

      1. x 7

        "Isn't it, kinda, pointing in the wrong direction for underwater use?"

        no - with a directional radio of that type you steer the beam by energising whichever part of the outside ring is facing the right way, the centre is the other pole. With VLF the radio wave can bounce of the ionosphere, giving extreme long range

        1. Ru'

          Thanks for the info, I (clearly) did not know that.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    5 bottles each?

    In the real world, 1% would get most of it, and the rest of us would get a single drop each... and have to pay for it too.

  12. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

    To give an idea of the scale of the beast, Li whipped out his improbable units calculator and declared that "if you fill it with wine, every one of the world's seven billion people could get a share of about five bottles".

    El Reg should

    1 include this in their units page

    2 give Mr. Li some sort of reward or citation

  13. Yag

    This explains...

    why the chineese are buying a lot of wineyards those days.

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