As I understand it, the Chinese police have massive databases of
absolutely everyone which presumably also note the name and heritage of
everyone in the system.
All 1.5 billion of them? Now thatrCOs scary.
I've seen a number of claims in recent months that China's population
isn't actually nearly as big as it claims; some say the population is
only HALF of 1.5 billion. I don't know how credible the claims are though.
[adding rasw to the mix]
[snip]
As I understand it, the Chinese police have massive databases of
absolutely everyone which presumably also note the name and heritage of >>>> everyone in the system.
All 1.5 billion of them? Now thatrCOs scary.
I've seen a number of claims in recent months that China's population
isn't actually nearly as big as it claims; some say the population is
only HALF of 1.5 billion. I don't know how credible the claims are though.
Brings to mind the snippet in Robert A Heinlein's, umm,
some biographical novel...
He mentions how the official
population of Moscow was (number dredged from memory so
don't hold me to this semi-reference) five million, but
when he thought about the transportation/freight infrastructure
it couldn't be more than two million.
And.. he added, he discussed this with a spook friend
of his who got whistful, visualized the rail lines, etc.,
and agreed with him.
Which led to RAH wondering just why the US went along
with this fiction...
only HALF of 1.5 billion. I don't know how credible the claims are though. >>Brings to mind the snippet in Robert A Heinlein's, umm,
some biographical novel...
Not a biographical novel really, just a collection of some of his
earlier work and various essays he'd written stitched together with some
new commentary into a book called Expanded Universe.
On 2026-06-15 4:14 p.m., danny burstein wrote:
[adding rasw to the mix]
[snip]
As I understand it, the Chinese police have massive databases of
absolutely everyone which presumably also note the name and
heritage of
everyone in the system.
All 1.5 billion of them? Now thatrCOs scary.
I've seen a number of claims in recent months that China's population
isn't actually nearly as big as it claims; some say the population is
only HALF of 1.5 billion. I don't know how credible the claims are
though.
Brings to mind the snippet in Robert A Heinlein's, umm,
some biographical novel...
Not a biographical novel really, just a collection of some of his
earlier work and various essays he'd written stitched together with some
new commentary into a book called Expanded Universe.
He mentions how the officialI'm looking at the relevant page and he says the official population is
population of Moscow was (number dredged from memory so
don't hold me to this semi-reference) five million, but
when he thought about the transportation/freight infrastructure
it couldn't be more than two million.
5 million but he and his wife agree there are no more than 750,000
people there.
And.. he added, he discussed this with a spook friendAn interesting question. I wish I knew the answer.
of his who got whistful, visualized the rail lines, etc.,
and agreed with him.
Which led to RAH wondering just why the US went along
with this fiction...
-a-a-a-aSimple! It is a diplomatic courtesy to accept the
-alies nations tell each other. Hangover from the age of
-a Kings where not to do so is les majesty and you do not
-a want to tell the king or a sovereign state that they
-a are lying.
[adding rasw to the mix]
[snip]
As I understand it, the Chinese police have massive
databases of absolutely everyone which presumably also
note the name and heritage of everyone in the system.
All 1.5 billion of them? Now thatrCOs scary.
I've seen a number of claims in recent months that China's
population isn't actually nearly as big as it claims; some
say the population is only HALF of 1.5 billion. I don't
know how credible the claims are though.
Brings to mind the snippet in Robert A Heinlein's, umm,
some biographical novel... He mentions how the official
population of Moscow was (number dredged from memory so
don't hold me to this semi-reference) five million, but
when he thought about the transportation/freight
infrastructure it couldn't be more than two million.
And.. he added, he discussed this with a spook friend
of his who got whistful, visualized the rail lines, etc.,
and agreed with him.
Which led to RAH wondering just why the US went along
with this fiction...
in Robert A Heinlein's, umm,
some biographical novel... He mentions how the official
population of Moscow was (number dredged from memory so
don't hold me to this semi-reference) five million, but
when he thought about the transportation/freight infrastructure
it couldn't be more than two million.
And.. he added, he discussed this with a spook friend
of his who got whistful, visualized the rail lines, etc.,
and agreed with him.
Which led to RAH wondering just why the US went along
with this fiction...
On 15/06/2026 21:14, danny burstein wrote:
in Robert A Heinlein's, umm,
some biographical novel...-a He mentions how the official
population of Moscow was (number dredged from memory so
don't hold me to this semi-reference) five million, but
when he thought about the transportation/freight infrastructure
it couldn't be more than two million.
And.. he added, he discussed this with a spook friend
of his who got whistful, visualized the rail lines, etc.,
and agreed with him.
Which led to RAH wondering just why the US went along
with this fiction...
-a There was research on the validity on Soviet statistics at the time,
and I'm sure a lot more has been done since the wall came down. I don't,
from a very brief glance, see any reference to the population levels
being wildly distorted - as opposed to things like infant mortality rates.
-a Still, ignoring experts is an established tradition nearly everywhere.
On 2026-06-15 4:14 p.m., danny burstein wrote:
[adding rasw to the mix]
And.. he added, he discussed this with a spook friend
of his who got whistful, visualized the rail lines, etc.,
and agreed with him.
Which led to RAH wondering just why the US went along
with this fiction...
An interesting question. I wish I knew the answer.
On Mon, 15 Jun 2026 17:12:52 -0400, Rhino
<no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:
On 2026-06-15 4:14 p.m., danny burstein wrote:
[adding rasw to the mix]
And.. he added, he discussed this with a spook friend
of his who got whistful, visualized the rail lines, etc.,
and agreed with him.
Which led to RAH wondering just why the US went along
with this fiction...
An interesting question. I wish I knew the answer.
The most obvious possible answer, if indeed Moscow's population was
less than officially claimed, would be that the U.S. would not wish to disclose to the Soviet Union that its intelligence agencies knew the
truth.
On Mon, 15 Jun 2026 17:12:52 -0400, Rhino
<no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:
On 2026-06-15 4:14 p.m., danny burstein wrote:
[adding rasw to the mix]
And.. he added, he discussed this with a spook friend
of his who got whistful, visualized the rail lines, etc.,
and agreed with him.
Which led to RAH wondering just why the US went along
with this fiction...
An interesting question. I wish I knew the answer.
The most obvious possible answer, if indeed Moscow's population was
less than officially claimed,
disclose to the Soviet Union that its intelligence agencies knew the
truth.
On 6/17/26 13:26, John Savard wrote:
On Mon, 15 Jun 2026 17:12:52 -0400, Rhino
<no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:
On 2026-06-15 4:14 p.m., danny burstein wrote:
[adding rasw to the mix]
And.. he added, he discussed this with a spook friend
of his who got whistful, visualized the rail lines, etc.,
and agreed with him.
Which led to RAH wondering just why the US went along
with this fiction...
An interesting question. I wish I knew the answer.
The most obvious possible answer, if indeed Moscow's population was
less than officially claimed, would be that the U.S. would not wish to
disclose to the Soviet Union that its intelligence agencies knew the
truth.
Sort of like why after Enigma was cracked, Britain had to be very
careful about how they were supposed to know about planned attacks,
etc., because if Germany knew Enigma had been cracked, they would change it.
Or it could just be that the Soviet Union was not as densely developed
as the US and much of Europe were, suffering from shortages and
insufficient infrastructure....
On 6/17/26 13:26, John Savard wrote:
On Mon, 15 Jun 2026 17:12:52 -0400, Rhino
<no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:
On 2026-06-15 4:14 p.m., danny burstein wrote:
[adding rasw to the mix]
And.. he added, he discussed this with a spook friend
of his who got whistful, visualized the rail lines, etc.,
and agreed with him.
Which led to RAH wondering just why the US went along
with this fiction...
An interesting question. I wish I knew the answer.
The most obvious possible answer, if indeed Moscow's population was
less than officially claimed, would be that the U.S. would not wish to
disclose to the Soviet Union that its intelligence agencies knew the
truth.
Sort of like why after Enigma was cracked, Britain had to be very
careful about how they were supposed to know about planned attacks,
etc., because if Germany knew Enigma had been cracked, they would change
it.
I believe they set up some fake radar posts that every once in a while
just "happened" to be pointed in the right direction to detect planes
that they knew would be there, as a plausible way to claim knowledge,
but also that they accepted certain tactical losses by *not* acting on
the information they had.
Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:
Or it could just be that the Soviet Union was not as densely developed
as the US and much of Europe were, suffering from shortages and
insufficient infrastructure....
The Soviets had a planned economy, so that quotas and allocations were dependent on local statistics including population statistics. This
being the case, it was usually in the interest of local authorities to
feed bad numbers to the central planning commission. As a result, any
Soviet statistics had to be taken with a huge grain of salt, even things
that seemed innocuous.
--scott
On 6/17/26 12:27, Evelyn C. Leeper wrote:
On 6/17/26 13:26, John Savard wrote:
On Mon, 15 Jun 2026 17:12:52 -0400, Rhino
<no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:
On 2026-06-15 4:14 p.m., danny burstein wrote:
[adding rasw to the mix]
And.. he added, he discussed this with a spook friend
of his who got whistful, visualized the rail lines, etc.,
and agreed with him.
Which led to RAH wondering just why the US went along
with this fiction...
An interesting question. I wish I knew the answer.
The most obvious possible answer, if indeed Moscow's population was
less than officially claimed, would be that the U.S. would not wish to
disclose to the Soviet Union that its intelligence agencies knew the
truth.
Sort of like why after Enigma was cracked, Britain had to be very
careful about how they were supposed to know about planned attacks,
etc., because if Germany knew Enigma had been cracked, they would
change it.
I believe they set up some fake radar posts that every once in a while
just "happened" to be pointed in the right direction to detect planes
that they knew would be there, as a plausible way to claim knowledge,
but also that they accepted certain tactical losses by *not* acting on
the information they had.
-a-a-a-aThe difference between acquiring Intelligence and applying
that information in an Intelligent manner. Also the intelligence
they were acquiring might be useless if the enemies determined
that their plans were known.-a Sadly they could not use the
information to save a lot of lives.
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