🌊Hongkongers in SPAAACE
🌊Hongkongers in SPAAACE
No scientific reason to keep COVID regulations - Dr. Ho Pak-Leung
Good afternoon,
Life got in the way a bit yesterday, so apologies for writing today’s Tide up late. Back to our usual scheduling tomorrow!
Speaking of tomorrow - myself and our semi-regular contributor Beth Kong will be at ReThink tomorrow and Thursday!
ReThink is always great fun to go to - lots of interesting talks, great people to meet, interesting businesses to look into especially if you’re looking for new ways to become more sustainable. We met many of the past year’s LoTW guests at ReThink and hope to meet many more this year!
Tickets are still available online and at the door and online passes are also offered!
Please do come say hi if you’ll be there!
— Cyril
On Today’s Tide
Science | Hong Kongers in SPAAAACE
COVID | No scientific backing for most COVID rules: Dr. Ho
Environment | FEHD & HKFP to target illegally extended shopfronts
Events | ReThink online!
Behind the paywall:
Politics | Civil Servant College not for politics: Oscar Kwok
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HKers in SPAAAAACE
Beijing announced yesterday that Hong Kongers and Macanese are invited to apply to join the national space program.
Now in its 30th year, the Chinese manned space programmes have so far been limited to mainland nationals, but the upcoming fourth trip will allow patriotic residents of the two SARs to join the Taikonaut ranks. Working predominantly as payload specialists, the new Taikonauts will be responsible for “conducting aerospace experiments or researches, operating space laboratory equipment, and managing daily operations of space stations with other astronauts”.
“The HKSAR Government is immensely honoured for the arrangement and expresses sincere gratitude to the country” said the local press release.
Those interested in going to SPAAAAAACE have to be:
Chinese national and a premanent resident of Hong Kong
Candidate and immediate family have to be patriots who adhere to
‘One Country, Two Systems’Physically fit and meet certain eyesight and height criteria
Hold a PhD in a scientific field
Be linked to a predetermined set of institutions including Universities, government agencies etc (though this is negotiable if you really love space)
Interested parties can apply from now till Oct 27 on the official website. All applicants will be screen further screen by the mainland authorities before being sent to training and then to SPAAAACE!
And now I get to use this meme again and that’s great:
COVID in Hong Kong
COVID-19 in Hong Kong
New cases: 3529 (343 imported)
Total cases: 1,776,409
New deaths: 3
Total deaths: 10,176
Compulsory Testing locations: 63
No scientific proof for COVID regulations
One of the most prominent COVID advisors, Dr. Ho Pak-Leung has spoken out about continued strick regulations against COVID, saying that they are “unnecessary and is no longer scientifically justified” but understands if the government needs to keep them for other “administrative justifications”. Specific regulations he criticised were the four person gathering ban, and tracing using LHS.
FEHD and HKP combat illegal shopfront extensions
You ever walk down Mong Kok and have to parkour over all the shops that store products 2 metres into the street?
Well, worry less because the police and FEHD are launching a joint operation to have more “stringent enforcement actions in all districts across the territory gradually starting from today to step up tackling the problems of illegal shop extension and obstruction”.
According to the FEHD press release, this is to “combat hygiene black spots with illegal shop front extensions” to fix “an environmental hygiene problem that has been plaguing the districts for years”.
The new program is a continuation of a pilot program that launched last September in limited districts. Under this program, police are given statutory powers to give warnings to shops that are illegally extending into the streets. If stores do not heed warnings, the FEHD and police have the right to remove obstructions which may include sales products and good.
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