China is a smog-filled hellscape
China is a smog-filled hellscape
http://mashable.com/2014/01/20/no-beiji ... pollution/
Apparently those giant sunrise screens aren't a smog joke waiting to happen, but merely some tourism ad.
Apparently those giant sunrise screens aren't a smog joke waiting to happen, but merely some tourism ad.
Re: China is a smog-filled hellscape
Aaaaand this "heavily polluted" term is in relation to their euphemistic use of "lightly polluted" for 70% of their farmland, which is pollution twice over the national standards, whatever those are.
Environmental deregulation would be so good for the economy, am I right?
EDIT: Maybe I misread that, and the 70% is a portion of the contaminated segment, not of the overall farmland. Which is still pretty horrifying.
Environmental deregulation would be so good for the economy, am I right?
EDIT: Maybe I misread that, and the 70% is a portion of the contaminated segment, not of the overall farmland. Which is still pretty horrifying.
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Re: China is a smog-filled hellscape
Chinese court seizes Japanese ship over ships lost in the 1930's
Uh, this seems like a really stupid escalation.
Uh, this seems like a really stupid escalation.
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Re: China is a smog-filled hellscape
This could go in the State Censorship thread too I guess, but it's a necro either way.
China bans puns
Good luck with that!
China bans puns
Good luck with that!
Re: China is a smog-filled hellscape
reddit post wrote:Yup. This is the real reason [China is cracking down on puns].
The popular "cao ni ma" (fuck your mother/grass mud horse) is the most well known example of what the Chinese government wants to prevent.
This article makes it sound as if the Chinese government is going mad about the Chinese language and just arbitrarily wants to crack down on people not using Chinese properly. That's false. The government has nothing against wordplays. It has something against the public use of idioms by dissidents.
If people don't get it, they should just watch this:
http://youtu.be/3D2eh4xehc4[1]
http://youtu.be/wKx1aenJK08[2]
This wordplay was propagated by well known Chinese anti-government activist Ai Wei Wei:
http://youtu.be/Nsk-KgD0aOM[3]
Here is Ai Wei Wei "riding" a Grass Mud Horse:
http://i.imgur.com/j18FYs9.jpg[4]
This is part of a photo series titled "草泥马挡中央" (a Grass Mud Horse covering the center).
Which - when read aloud - can also be understood as: "Fuck your mother, Communist Party Central Committee"
Additional reading here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grass_Mud_Horse[5]
So... yeah. That's why the Chinese government wants public media to crack down on wordplays. And it's targeting specifically that type of wordplay, it couldn't give a rat's ass about those wordplays promoting tourism.
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Re: China is a smog-filled hellscape
I don't think any of us have any illusions about why the the CPC is doing it; and even if we did, the article says as much.
But those are some cool YouTube links (and I don't mean that in a sarcastic way), which I had not seen!
But those are some cool YouTube links (and I don't mean that in a sarcastic way), which I had not seen!
Re: China is a smog-filled hellscape
Man who goes through airport turnstile sideways is going to Bangkok
Re: China is a smog-filled hellscape
Friday is now illegal in China
Re: China is a smog-filled hellscape
And Thailand.
Re: China is a smog-filled hellscape
That means the work week never ends!
Re: China is a smog-filled hellscape
Significant part of Chinese city blows the fuck up
They're reporting the explosion a bit on the small side for the actual effects, but that could be innocent enough, it's early in the investigation. What is clear is that there was an initial explosion followed by a fucking huge follow-up explosion as seen here (do not watch of POV camera crew getting killed will upset you)
Here's a death fr-... remote view
And here's a bunch of them together including at least one death view all time synced
They're reporting the explosion a bit on the small side for the actual effects, but that could be innocent enough, it's early in the investigation. What is clear is that there was an initial explosion followed by a fucking huge follow-up explosion as seen here (do not watch of POV camera crew getting killed will upset you)
Here's a death fr-... remote view
And here's a bunch of them together including at least one death view all time synced
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Re: China is a smog-filled hellscape
Jesus, that's enormous. The story was reported on in most regular news places this morning, and was described as an explosives or munitions shipment going off somehow, but in most cases the damage (and blast) were described as much smaller, with about 50 people dead.
The only way that's only 50 people, is if the epicentre was really empty with a huge buffer zone around it. Which IS possible in a port facility at late night. Maybe? But it wouldn't surprise me if that number turns out to be a lot higher...
The only way that's only 50 people, is if the epicentre was really empty with a huge buffer zone around it. Which IS possible in a port facility at late night. Maybe? But it wouldn't surprise me if that number turns out to be a lot higher...
Re: China is a smog-filled hellscape
The story out of China is pretty contradictory at the moment. Apparently there were over a hundred first responders trying to put out the fire and wrangle people, but only 50 official deaths. Given that there were actually THREE explosions, and the second one was the first of the roiling death blasts that incinerated most everything in a huge area, I can't see how that's possible.
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Re: China is a smog-filled hellscape
I think that even in countries where information flows freely, disaster numbers almost always go up over time as people are accounted for.
That's a huge port too - this is brobdingnagian enough to fuck up logistics on a global scale. There is for sure going to be some economic fallout from this.
That's a huge port too - this is brobdingnagian enough to fuck up logistics on a global scale. There is for sure going to be some economic fallout from this.
Re: China is a smog-filled hellscape
Mongrel wrote:Jesus, that's enormous. The story was reported on in most regular news places this morning, and was described as an explosives or munitions shipment going off somehow, but in most cases the damage (and blast) were described as much smaller, with about 50 people dead.
The only way that's only 50 people, is if the epicentre was really empty with a huge buffer zone around it. Which IS possible in a port facility at late night. Maybe? But it wouldn't surprise me if that number turns out to be a lot higher...
Government of China Official Approved Story is 50 people dead. There are unconfirmed reports (someone talked to some police officer at the scene, who said...) of 200-300 dead, among them 120 firefighters.
Re: China is a smog-filled hellscape
Bal wrote:The story out of China is pretty contradictory at the moment. Apparently there were over a hundred first responders trying to put out the fire and wrangle people, but only 50 official deaths. Given that there were actually THREE explosions, and the second one was the first of the roiling death blasts that incinerated most everything in a huge area, I can't see how that's possible.
Apparently the blast radius was fucking 2 miles. I can't wrap my head around that.
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Re: China is a smog-filled hellscape
Mothra wrote:Bal wrote:The story out of China is pretty contradictory at the moment. Apparently there were over a hundred first responders trying to put out the fire and wrangle people, but only 50 official deaths. Given that there were actually THREE explosions, and the second one was the first of the roiling death blasts that incinerated most everything in a huge area, I can't see how that's possible.
Apparently the blast radius was fucking 2 miles. I can't wrap my head around that.
Man, where did you hear that? Legit question.
Re: China is a smog-filled hellscape
Here's a source for 2km damage radius.
Latest theory I've heard, via Reddit that originally got it from some form of Chinese social media and I can't follow the source for the Chinese social media: There was a fire at a warehouse containing calcium carbide, and they were trying to douse it with water - which makes acetylene gas, mix enough with air and ignite and you can easily get an explosion this brobdingnagian. (Think: Oxy-acetylene welding torch.) Some of the videos, you can see a whole bunch of firetrucks next to the fire just before the blast, and there's footage from the blast zone that shows destroyed fire trucks.
Do not read this unless you want to be sad. Translation of texts between a firefighter and a friend of his.
Latest theory I've heard, via Reddit that originally got it from some form of Chinese social media and I can't follow the source for the Chinese social media: There was a fire at a warehouse containing calcium carbide, and they were trying to douse it with water - which makes acetylene gas, mix enough with air and ignite and you can easily get an explosion this brobdingnagian. (Think: Oxy-acetylene welding torch.) Some of the videos, you can see a whole bunch of firetrucks next to the fire just before the blast, and there's footage from the blast zone that shows destroyed fire trucks.
Do not read this unless you want to be sad. Translation of texts between a firefighter and a friend of his.
Re: China is a smog-filled hellscape
Mongrel wrote:Mothra wrote:Apparently the blast radius was fucking 2 miles. I can't wrap my head around that.
Man, where did you hear that? Legit question.
NPR:
"The first one was equivalent to 3 tons of TNT," NPR's Frank Langfitt reports, citing Chinese media. "The second: 21 tons. Satellite photos suggest a blast radius of nearly 2 miles."
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