Beijing Reports Heaviest Rain in 140 Years (theguardian.com) 56
Rains that pummelled Beijing in recent days were the heaviest since records began 140 years ago, the city's weather service has said, as China faced accusations that it had undermined key climate talks with other countries. From a report: Storm Doksuri, a former super typhoon, swept northwards over China after hitting southern Fujian province last week, following its battering of the Philippines. The average rainfall for the entire month of July was dumped on Beijing in just 40 hours, with heavy rains pummelling the capital and surrounding areas since Saturday.
"The maximum [amount] of rainfall recorded during this storm, which was 744.8 millimetres, occurred at the Wangjiayuan reservoir in Changping," the Beijing Meteorological Service said, adding it was the "heaviest rainfall in 140 years." The extreme weather comes as China's foreign ministry denied reports that it obstructed discussions on tackling climate change at G20 meetings in India last week, calling the accusations "completely inconsistent with the facts."
"The maximum [amount] of rainfall recorded during this storm, which was 744.8 millimetres, occurred at the Wangjiayuan reservoir in Changping," the Beijing Meteorological Service said, adding it was the "heaviest rainfall in 140 years." The extreme weather comes as China's foreign ministry denied reports that it obstructed discussions on tackling climate change at G20 meetings in India last week, calling the accusations "completely inconsistent with the facts."
More (Score:4, Funny)
Maybe they should burn some more coal and see if that helps.
Re: (Score:1)
Don't be silly. The laptop isn't bad it's the proof of influence peddling and taking bribes that bothers the Republicans... or actually it should bother any honest American.
Oversight Committee Releases Biden Family Influence Peddling Timeline
https://oversight.house.gov/re... [house.gov]
--
Mod me +1 Troll for stating facts you don't like
Re:More (Score:4, Insightful)
Don't be silly. The laptop isn't bad it's the proof of influence peddling and taking bribes that bothers the Republicans... or actually it should bother any honest American.
Oversight Committee Releases Biden Family Influence Peddling Timeline https://oversight.house.gov/re... [house.gov]
Rebuttal: House Oversight chair admits GOP can’t back up Biden bribery accusations [independent.co.uk] (07/31/2023):
The chairman of the House Oversight Committee on Monday said he and his colleagues still lack evidence proving that President Joe Biden took bribes while he was vice president during the Obama administration, despite months of investigation into his son, Hunter Biden.
Representative James Comer made the embarrassing admission during an appearance on Fox News host Sean Hannity's eponymous nightly programme alongside Representative Jim Jordan, the chair of the House Judiciary Committee.
Asked whether he would be able to prove the outrageous claim about the president, Mr Comer hesitated.
Pressed further by Hannity, he finally replied: "I sure hope so. And I do believe that there's a lot of smoke and when there's smoke, there's fire".
Re: (Score:2)
Kushner.
Dare you to draft law against influence peddling (Score:1)
> Kushner. [influence peddling]
Indeed! It would be hard to ban influence peddling because that would require reading minds, something we don't have the technology for yet. Plus, I doubt Mr. Bone Saw would cooperate.
Re: (Score:2)
Everything reported thus far indicates Hunter was probably selling himself as being a portal to his father.
There is nothing thus far indicating Joe Biden was cooperating in any way.
There are many claims, but no proof.
Find that, then you have something. I will wait.
Re: (Score:3)
Everything reported thus far indicates Hunter was probably selling himself as being a portal to his father.
I was reading about that this morning. It might just turn out that Grandpa Brandon was nothing more than a tool. I wonder if we will ever get a list of who Hunter was selling himself off too.
Re: (Score:2)
That's redundant
Re: (Score:1)
No, every Republican knows the rain is caused by Hunter's laptop.
For House Republicans, "Biden" is just an alternate spelling of "Benghazi" ... and (so far) looks to be heading in the same direction.
House Oversight chair admits GOP can’t back up Biden bribery accusations [independent.co.uk] (07/31/2023):
The chairman of the House Oversight Committee on Monday said he and his colleagues still lack evidence proving that President Joe Biden took bribes while he was vice president during the Obama administration, despite months of investigation into his son, Hunter Biden.
Representative James Comer made the embarrassing admission during an appearance on Fox News host Sean Hannity's eponymous nightly programme alongside Representative Jim Jordan, the chair of the House Judiciary Committee.
Asked whether he would be able to prove the outrageous claim about the president, Mr Comer hesitated.
Pressed further by Hannity, he finally replied: "I sure hope so. And I do believe that there's a lot of smoke and when there's smoke, there's fire".
Re: (Score:2)
How are progs so witty and quick with the banter? I'm getting chills reading this post, well done anon. But you didn't include the words "orange" or "cheeto", or mention the size of his hands.. so chalk that up as a missed opportunity -- how can you own the chuds if you don't use all the magic words?
That said, It's almost the progs and their insane trump derangement syndrome blinds them to the absolute clusterfuck that Joe and Hunter are. Most of you seem to still be stuck on slava ukraini firmware and hav
Re: (Score:2)
"the DOJ gave him blanket immunity from prosecution?"
Ah, no, they didn't. Hunter seemed to think he was granted that, and thus the deal fell apart.
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Trump Derangement Syndrome? I don't think we need to bring belief in what the former alleged president says into this.
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I'm not American, so take this how you want, but from just /. commenters (see how I refrained from using Commentards) but are Republicans seriously as stupid as the impression I have garnered from the last 20 years of comments?.
It can't be true, can it?
Yes! (Score:3, Insightful)
Yes yes and yes! Since they don't value logic, reason, research, science, and subject matter experts; anything goes, and charlatans like the Orange Toddler can manipulate these gaps like Yo-Yo Ma does a cello.
Unfair and untrue. (Score:4)
Now, if you're the kind of person who thinks anyone who disagrees with you on any number of issues is a complete fool and can have nothing meaningful to say on anything, then sure, you're going to write off as full of worthless people with worthless opinions. At that point, though, you also don't really have any valid reason to participate in debate to begin with because the fundamental conceit of debate is that we are not perfect and that as a result there is value in discussing conflicting viewpoints, that it can inform our own positions, expose problems, and bring both sides closer to a more complete and truthful understanding of the issue at hand. So I'm going to assume you think there is at least some value in dissent.
To that end, consider the huge tapestry of viewpoints and values that each party represents and understand why someone who isn't an idiot would associate with a party festering with idiocy. Most people only really substantially care about a small handful of issues that are very personal to them, whether for practical reasons or because they see some great injustice either being done or possibly happening down the road. If we take for granted that, in the myriad positions that the Democratic Party stands for, there is at least one that maybe some people might have valid reasons for taking issue with (and I hope this isn't a bridge too far for you), then you can maybe start to understand why it isn't as simple as everyone smart is in one party and everyone stupid is in another.
A problem that is very prevalent across both parties and really across a lot of discourse in the US in general these days is the assumption that there is little value in what the dissent has to say, that it's all either moronic or mal-intentioned. This is why political discussions here are so often completely stupid and hateful, it's why we're so divided down political lines as a people, and it's an important reason informing the Republican slide further to the right: it has encouraged a sort of tribalism that encourages and elevates the most extreme positions internally (you're not a "RINO," are you?) in a context in which out-group hostility is already almost universal (for instance, saying that everyone associated with the dissent "doesn't value logic, reason, research, or science" and saying that they're easily-manipulated fools).
The Democratic Party shares some but not all of these same problems; thus far, it hasn't been completely overrun by the more extreme elements, but the assumed "rightness" and hostility toward dissent is the same as in the Republican Party, so we'll see how long that lasts. I genuinely think that a healthy opposition party is important both for the purposes of effectively representing the interests of many voters and for the purpose of placing checks on the more absurd shit coming out of your own party, so in my opinion what's happening to the Republican Party isn't a good thing even if you don't like most of what it represents.
Either way, circling back around to the original point, I don't think what you said is fair. The situation is a lot more nuanced than just "my team good your team dumb" and I think painting it in this light lowers the already-low standard of discourse in US politics.
Re: (Score:1)
Too much of GOP policy is based on assumptions of hoaxes, conspiracies, and blatantly false info, including but not limited to:
- Vax is hoax (or at least doctors are making big lies about it)
- Climate change is a hoax or greatly exaggerated
- LGBTQ+ are bigly above average pedo's and groomers.
- 2020 election was rigged (and used to justify restrictive voting)
- Jan 6 was not a coup attempt
- Trickle-down works (bloated fat cats are the source of most jobs)
- Most fentanyl comes in via migrants (as opposed to co
Re: (Score:3)
The main point I was trying to make is that there are valid reasons why intelligent (or at least not stupid, which was the original word used) people might vote for them because
Re: (Score:1)
> The main point I was trying to make is that there are valid reasons why intelligent (or at least not stupid, which was the original word used) people might vote for them
There's always exceptions to the rule or pattern. But GOP has a general "conspiracy problem".
> The secondary point that I was trying to make was that a single party becoming too dominant is bad [by reducing checks & balances]....Republican Party's downward slide is not a good thing even if you think they're bad/evil/whatever.
It's
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People are stupid. Democrats and Republicans are people. Both Parties have their idiots.
When watching politics, popcorn in a prerequisite
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The Olde Both Sides Are Wrong argument. After all the bullshit of the previous alleged administration shoveled, you have the nerve think both sides are equally culpable? The former alleged president managed, by himself, to push out over 30,000 falsehoods during his alleged administration. The Wash. Post counted. That doesn't count the rest of the muppets he hired.
Re: (Score:3)
The Olde Both Sides Are Wrong argument.
The TDS is strong in this one.
To answer your question, yes republicans are that bad and so are democrats. History is full of examples where BOTH parties have screwed over the people for themselves.
The republicans have given us endless wars and watergate. The democrats, jim crow and the Klu Klux Klan.
Re: More (Score:2)
The people who were democrats when the Democrats gave us that stuff became Republicans and then gave us that stuff the Republicans gave us. But thanks for confirming that all that stuff came from people who are now Republicans.
Re: (Score:2)
You need to read more history. Probably be best that you not talk about things you don't understand. Oh wait, you are good that aren't you. Don't you have a anti nuclear rally to go infest?
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The Democrats that fought a war to preserve slavery are the same Democrats that ran the Jim Crow South, the same Democrats that tried to filibuster the Civil Rights Act and the same Democrats that had ex-KKK members in Congress into the 2000s.
The whole they changed parties nonesense is the opiate they give you to help calm the cognitive dissonance, but it requires not looking very closely at the entire 20th Century, because Democrats remained staunchly and often violently racist straight through the 1960s a
Re:More (Score:4, Interesting)
Speaking of which: does China still have the infamous brown clouds hanging over Beijing (and other populated segments of the country) like they did a few years ago? Perhaps all this rain can wash most of the particulate out of the air?
Kinda makes you wonder how dirty that rain is by the time it hits the ground.
Re: (Score:2)
A lot of that is dust. Beijing is built in a depression that causes particulates to accumulate in the air naturally. Dust blows in from the Gobi Desert and just hangs over the city like a cloud. On top of that, deforestation in the surrounding areas means more dust gets blown into the air to accumulate there. The rain will bring some of it down, but it'll be back very quickly.
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It isn't all dust.
https://www.nbcnews.com/scienc... [nbcnews.com]
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wik... [wikipedia.org]
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Beijing does not. They cleaned it up some years ago, just banned all the highly polluting burners one day.
They also build massive new mass transit systems. In a decade they dug more metro lines than the rest of the world has combined. Moving hundreds of millions of journeys every day to electric underground trains really helped.
It's still not ideal, and some other cities have issues like Shanghai. It is improving though, as the government clamps down on polluters. The rivers are getting better too, and ther
Deuterium? (Score:2)
OMG they could use that to make nukes.
How much came from the volcano last year? (Score:5, Interesting)
I honestly wonder how much came from the Tonga volcanic eruption last year [npr.org] which reportedly dumped a "massive amount of water vapor" into the atmosphere? According to that article, it claimed that it could "take 5-10 years to fully dissipate."
The paper The Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai Hydration of the Stratosphere [wiley.com] suggested that the one eruption added 10% to the amount of water vapor that typically resides in the stratosphere, and may contribute to global warming as water vapor contributes to greenhouse warming.
Re: (Score:3)
Geological effects - even those for things like volcanic activity - are baked in to the climate. They might fluctuate in intensity and frequency, but overall they form a normal part of the maintained ecosystem. The idea that one event - even a big one - somehow dwarfs anything that man might introduce is misguided. The climate is the combination of all factors, and they include eruptions. You might have a short term change with a large enough event, but for the whole planet to more or less uniformly warm up
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The idea that geologic events can cause temporary and localized shifts in climate is not misguided.
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I don't disagree with you. But "Temporary and localized" effects are not really climate - even local climate. They're the equivalent of weather.
Re:How much came from the volcano last year? (Score:4, Informative)
I honestly wonder how much came from the Tonga volcanic eruption last year [npr.org] which reportedly dumped a "massive amount of water vapor" into the atmosphere?
Pretty much none of it. The Tonga eruption may have put 10% more water vapor into the stratosphere than the amount that's usually there, but that's significant only because there's not much water vapor in the stratosphere. 150 million tons of water vapor sounds like a lot, but given that the surface area of the earth is 500 million square kilometers, even if it all rained out in one rainstorm (and it doesn't; it takes a long time for water vapor to filter down from the stratosphere to the troposphere) it would only deposit 0.03 mm of rain.
According to that article, it claimed that it could "take 5-10 years to fully dissipate."
OK, so drop that to 0.03 mm per five to ten years.
Solve the Climate Crisis in 20 years (Score:5, Insightful)
By using cheap Chinese designed Hualong Nuclear Power Plants https://www.bloomberg.com/news... [bloomberg.com]
Pakistan Karachi cost $2.7 billion for 1.1 Gigawatts make this cheaper than solar when you account for capacity factor.Solar costs about $1billion per Gigawatt with 25% capacity depending on latitude https://coldwellsolar.com/comm... [coldwellsolar.com]
Solar 25% capacity factor: https://www.eia.gov/todayinene... [eia.gov]
Pakistan has commissioned another reactor at Chasnupp this time to cost $4.8 billion for 1.2 GW . Even at this higher price it still beats solar https://www.powermag.com/pakis... [powermag.com]
Re: (Score:2)
If they work, and work well, buy them. It's better than buying a million cheap air conditioning units from them and compounding the problem.
The rain in Spain (Score:4, Funny)
Karma for seeding the clouds. (Score:2)
Drainage (Score:3)
This article talks a lot about how the rains have slammed China but has but a one-off line about "Beijing's ancient drainage systems." Cities all over China are built the cheapest way possible, and creating a decent drainage system has been one of the least important considerations in the march to "modernization." I'm not gonna pretend Katrina gave the US much standing to point the finger, but from the reports I've heard, these storms in China aren't just causing unmanageable flooding, but the crappy, cost-cutting construction methods they use also mean things like overpasses and building roofs are collapsing under the weight of the water.
Re: Drainage (Score:1)
I'd guess you're listening to biased reports. Where I live in Beijing, they're handling the flood really well, so it's an exceptional situation. There are low quality construction of course, as anywhere, but don't think they're not improving significantly, like most things in China.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
There's 3 factors involved:
That last factor tends to be overlooked, but can have dramatic effect on how severe flooding events are. Most cities have every m^2 paved, routing any rainfall to drainage systems. R
Oh good (Score:2)
Re: Oh good (Score:1)
Bollocks. Beijing is very clean, actually.
Re: (Score:3)
Bollocks. Beijing is very clean, actually.
I would ask you how the weather is in Beijing :p
Re: (Score:2)
Here is your air stats. [iqair.com]
Here is a live view of the sky. Yeah, that looks real clean. [cctv.com]
But while China has met its national air quality standard, its pollution levels still exceed World Health Organization guidelines. When compared to the most polluted city in the United States, Los Angeles, Beijing is still three times more polluted. If China were to meet the WHO guideline, the average Chinese citizen could expect to gain an additional 2 years of life expectancy, on top of the recent gains. Res [uchicago.edu]