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China's Yangtze River Turns Red

redletterdave writes "The Yangtze River, the third longest river in the world traditionally known as the 'golden watercourse,' mysteriously blushed for the first time on Sept. 6. Residents in the surrounding area near the city of Chongqing, where the Yangtze connects to the Jialin River, literally stopped in their tracks when they noticed their once golden river had turned a shocking shade of red. Residents have carefully crept down to the riverbanks for the past few days to save some of the red, tomato juice-like river water in bottles. Early predictions from scientists say the red water was likely a result of pollution, but investigators are still investigating the unknown cause."

272 comments

  1. sounds familiar by __aaltlg1547 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Soon Moh She will lead the workers out of their factories and part the Yellow Sea.

    1. Re:sounds familiar by FatdogHaiku · · Score: 1

      Soon Moh She will lead the workers out of their factories and part the Yellow Sea.

      Which, if this is pollution related, may in fact actually be "yellow" by then!
      Now, if the yellow area just makes it down to the mouth of the Yangtze River we might get a nice swirled paisley effect...
      Tie Dyed ocean, could there be better proof of God's Love?

      --
      You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
    2. Re:sounds familiar by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 4, Funny

      But not before the evil Pharaoh will have been humbled by the other nine plagues of Communism: shortage of diapers in drug stores, ten years of waiting time for a new Volga car, dirty tram seats, the darkness-causing industrial air pollution, attentive secret police agents on every corner, badly fitting shapeless clothes made of rough fabric that itches on your bum, badly maintained roads threatening to destroy your Volga car's shock absorbers on every kilometer (if you have one (a Volga car, not a kilometer)), oranges only for Christmas in shops, and worst of all, Soviet ballet movies with outrageous picture quality every night on the telly.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    3. Re:sounds familiar by Mike_K · · Score: 1

      You have clearly never lived under Communism. Diapers were made of fabric (because babies do not wait for disposables to be delivered), but everyone was on a constant search for toilet paper. And not the soft stuff that feels like soft fabric that is sold in the West, we're talking about nasty, sand-paper resembling stuff that you knew was made out of recycled newspapers because you could read a letter here and there.

      Michal

    4. Re:sounds familiar by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      Actually, I have. And the whole thing was meant as a joke. I guess I can be excused for not remembering what diapers I was put into as an infant, or not? I do, however, remember the imported Polish toilet paper. It was good for polishing things indeed.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    5. Re:sounds familiar by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sounds like the USA in 10 years... (No, it does not matter, which "party" comes to [imaginary] power.)

  2. Obvious propaganda is obvious. by fragfoo · · Score: 4, Funny

    Obvious propaganda from the chinese communist party.

    --
    Sig? Heil
    1. Re:Obvious propaganda is obvious. by icebike · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Oh right, commemorating the great events of September ???, lessee, when was that?

      Huge earthquakes, near Yiliang County.
      Followed by heavy rains.
      Large landslides.
      117 miles south of a major Yangtze tributary into which local rivers drain.

      Far more likely an industrial spill or iron ore laden mudslide.

      --
      Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
    2. Re:Obvious propaganda is obvious. by fm6 · · Score: 1

      Sorry, the color red no longer belongs to socialism. It's been take over by a totally different movement.

    3. Re:Obvious propaganda is obvious. by fm6 · · Score: 1

      Jeez dude, lighten up, and enjoy some good old-fashioned Communist Propaganda.

    4. Re:Obvious propaganda is obvious. by icebike · · Score: 1

      synchronizing periods

      Story said this was the "First Time". Had it been a monthly occurrence it wouldn't be news.

      --
      Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
    5. Re:Obvious propaganda is obvious. by Russ1642 · · Score: 5, Funny

      Hopefully Mother Earth has already had The Talk with the river.

    6. Re:Obvious propaganda is obvious. by hawguy · · Score: 2

      Worse.
      Finally china's population density has brought about a horrific consequence, the land itself is synchronizing periods with the local population.
      Those poor bastards, may god have mercy on their souls...

      China's population density is about 1/3 that of Japan, Korea, and India, and about half the density of the UK. Does god have enough mercy for all of those souls as well?

    7. Re:Obvious propaganda is obvious. by dumuzi · · Score: 1

      replace "china's" with "the world's" and you have yourself and accurate statement.

    8. Re:Obvious propaganda is obvious. by Quiet_Desperation · · Score: 1

      It was news media that assigned the colors. It was GOP blue and Dems red when I was a kid, then they switched it for what I'm sure are curious reasons.

    9. Re:Obvious propaganda is obvious. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      China's population density is skewed by large tracts of comparatively empty provinces. Instead of comparing it as a country to other countries, stick to the provinces with high populations.

    10. Re:Obvious propaganda is obvious. by fm6 · · Score: 4, Informative

      I don't remember the parties having any colors when I was a kid, though according to WP, the Dems and Reps did indeed sometimes use Red and Blue respectively. And of course everywhere but here, the left is "Red" and the right is "Blue". I think this has to do with the left being fond of waving red flags (an old symbol for a fight to the death) and the right usually being associated with asserting traditional hierarchies, which originally meant rule by so-called Blue Bloods — people who had the right ancestors.

      But the red flag became the symbol of the socialist movement, which has always been unpopular in the U.S. I think American liberals consciously avoided using red, so as to avoid assisting those who defined a commie as anybody to the left of Genghis Khan. So the standard color scheme never really caught on here. Meanwhile, the world socialist movement fell out of favor after the biggest Marxist state collapsed and the second-biggest basically switched over to intensive capitalism — pretty much destroying the whole red-versus-blue image. Since Americans aren't great at historical memory, they were now free to re-invent the color scheme.

      It's true that the current Red-State/Blue-State thing started out on TV. (WP says it was first used in the 2000 presidential coverage). But I think the main credit for its spread goes to the right, which embraced an image that neatly illustrated their claim that liberals represent a group of people living in a few prosperous coastal states, and who completely ignore the needs of Americans in flyover states.

      Note that redstate.com is an influential political blog, while bluestate.com belongs to an obscure lighting and design firm whose web site has been in parking mode since 2007.

    11. Re:Obvious propaganda is obvious. by hawguy · · Score: 2

      China's population density is skewed by large tracts of comparatively empty provinces. Instead of comparing it as a country to other countries, stick to the provinces with high populations.

      Isn't that better for the environment? Areas of very dense population large areas of mostly undeveloped land? I'd bet that if their population were more evenly distributed across the country then there'd be more environmental destruction.

    12. Re:Obvious propaganda is obvious. by quenda · · Score: 1

      China's population density is about 1/3 that of Japan, Korea, and India, and about half the density of the UK. Does god have enough mercy for all of those souls as well?

      Big difference. India and UK have lots of flat arable land. China is covered in mountains and desert.

    13. Re:Obvious propaganda is obvious. by rtb61 · · Score: 2

      Nothing to do with population density. This is simply what you get when you combine psychophysically run corporations with an autocratic corrupt right wing government, China simply flipped from a left wing to a right wing government, without changing the name plates. The net result of corporations running without any regulation, sure the laws are there but a few dollars and they disappear.

      So how much will settle in the riverbed taking decades to either be buried on to reduce to less problematic levels and how much will end up in the sea to effect neighbouring countries. With current global population levels no country has the right to turn the environment into an infinite rubbish.

      --
      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
    14. Re:Obvious propaganda is obvious. by Havenwar · · Score: 1

      That's true, that makes the population density in China less harmful than that in the UK and India and so on. Because condensing the area people live on reduces their energy needs. If every chinese household had a car and a need to use it, then that would be a problem - but due to the lack of "lots of flat arable land", they don't need to drive to get their needs filled. Same goes for a lot of other things... Granted they still need to work on the efficiency of their production chain and on reducing the craptastic factory pollution and so on, but that's not an issue of population density.

    15. Re:Obvious propaganda is obvious. by dbIII · · Score: 4, Insightful

      If you judge Mao by his actions he was a dictator far to the right of Ghenghis Khan that just happened to use left wing excuses for his actions.

    16. Re:Obvious propaganda is obvious. by blagooly · · Score: 1

      The dramatic USA Today county by county map from 2000 is the one that I recall. http://www.usatoday.com/news/politicselections/vote2004/countymap2000.htm Red was used for the shock value, front page of the paper.

      Darn colors are backwards. Now the R's are the bloody revolutionaries, D's fear the extremists, and want to preserve the status quo. I blame this darn map. Heh.

    17. Re:Obvious propaganda is obvious. by KDR_11k · · Score: 1

      I wonder if political parties are happy being called red vs blue considering both the communist association as well as the BLUFOR vs OPFOR convention of war games (where blue means the own nation and red the enemy nation).

      --
      Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
    18. Re:Obvious propaganda is obvious. by fm6 · · Score: 1

      Please. People are barely aware of recent history ("Obama is socialist and a facist!"). They'e not going to be worrying about war games. Hey, the left thinks the military is evil and the right thinks of the military in terms of expensive DOD contracts and sending other people sons and daughters off to fix the world.

    19. Re:Obvious propaganda is obvious. by fm6 · · Score: 1

      Yeah, pretty dramatic. But I've never heard anybody talk about "red counties" or "blue counties". The idea of entire states inhabited by "libtards" is what appeals. When I lived in California, any online mention of my residence was an invitation for right-wingers to blame my obvious mental incompetence on geography. Never mind that California is the state that gave the world Ronald Reagan!

  3. Apple has finally done it !!!! by future+assassin · · Score: 4, Funny

    They've unleashed gods wrath on us with their patent wars....

    --
    by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
    1. Re:Apple has finally done it !!!! by aliquis · · Score: 1

      Doesn't make sense since the Chinese patented it first?

  4. Wrist slap or a bullet? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

    When the polluter is caught, will he get a wrist slap or a bullet in the back of the head? Stay tuned!

    1. Re:Wrist slap or a bullet? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Depends on whether it's a citizen or a corporation. One is seen as potential trouble, the other as potential income.

    2. Re:Wrist slap or a bullet? by bruce_the_loon · · Score: 1

      The last one was a pair of illegal dye factories. They got shut down and their equipment dismantled. Now all depends on whether this is an illegal operation or in the Party's good books.

      --
      Trying to become famous by taking photos. Visit my homepage please.
    3. Re:Wrist slap or a bullet? by WastedMeat · · Score: 1

      It probably also depends on his blood type.

  5. Red? by WD · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Maybe my eyes need to be checked, but it looks brown to me.

    1. Re:Red? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      I was thinking the same thing then clicked the link in the article and that was where the red pictures were, the page we are linked to has the before pictures.

      It's pretty unmistakeably red if you can see red.

    2. Re:Red? by SuurMyy · · Score: 1

      Thanks.

      --
      The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne
    3. Re:Red? by SuurMyy · · Score: 4, Informative

      Here are the red pictures

      --
      The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne
    4. Re:Red? by icebike · · Score: 4, Informative
      --
      Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
    5. Re:Red? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Quite obviously photoshopped. Look at the photo with the two men, one holding a bottle. Now look along the left side of the bottle. Look at the men's left arms. Screaming fake. If you inspect some of the other pictures closely, you will also find other areas where color manipulation is evident.

    6. Re:Red? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No idea why the story insisted on linking to a secondary source.

      Because these pictures have been manipulated. Look closely. Whomever did these was obviously an amateur and did a terrible job of masking in a couple of the pictures before applying color adjustment.

    7. Re:Red? by fa2k · · Score: 1

      that looks pretty cool!

    8. Re:Red? by X0563511 · · Score: 0

      Differing water temperatures, idiot.

      Or would you try to tell me a cloud front was "photoshopped in?" It's the same phenomena.

      --
      For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
    9. Re:Red? by X0563511 · · Score: 0

      Nevermind. You weren't talking about the current gradients, I guess? Perhaps this?

      If you are going to say shit like that, do you mind actually pointing out what you are saying it about?

      --
      For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
    10. Re:Red? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/09/07/article-2199800-14E2A79F000005DC-361_964x567.jpg
      Clearly photoshopped image. the water is brown not orange...

    11. Re:Red? by fm6 · · Score: 1

      Red and brown are pretty much the same color at different brightness. Weird, but true.

    12. Re:Red? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      AC Parent is a liar

      No, he's not.

      Take a good look at the area under the bottle in this image. Some of the water remains brown, yet parts of the two men's arms are the exact same color as the water.

    13. Re:Red? by Mashiki · · Score: 1

      Yeah even I have to agree to that. I sent a message to my friend who lives in Chongqing, after a long night of partying I got a reply of "what happened?" I guess he didn't even know about it.

      --
      Om, nomnomnom...
    14. Re:Red? by richlv · · Score: 1

      oh, haha. and look at the area around the thumb of his left hand

      --
      Rich
    15. Re:Red? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The water between body and arm of the guy in the back... and several other places... too apparent.

    16. Re:Red? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No idea why the story insisted on linking to a secondary source.

      Submitter is used to editing wikipedia articles.

    17. Re:Red? by poity · · Score: 2

      Wow, no joke, that's some shoddy PS job. Also the shore-side water in the background between the two men's heads. They forgot to paint that part.

      --
      your thin skin doesn't make me a troll
    18. Re:Red? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It didn't need an explanation because it was obvious, asshole. It would have been better if you had just fucked off instead of responding with a back handed admission of being wrong.

    19. Re:Red? by hey! · · Score: 4, Informative

      It looks to me like they tweaked the saturation. I was wondering about that because I saw the same pictures elsewhere and the color is not nearly so dramatic -- at least if you're not conditioned to having the river look one way or the other.

      My wife is a physical oceanographer and her first reaction when she heard about this is that it was some kind of phytoplankton bloom. Some pictures I've seen make it look like some kind of dye, which is more plausible than you might think.

      When my brother was a civil engineering co-op student he caused a local news sensation . He'd been given the job of doing a dye study looking for illegal sewer connections. What happens is that developers assume the first pipe they come to is the right one to hook the sanitary sewer lines up to. He only needed half a teaspoon of dye powder, but the smallest quantity he could order was a two gallon pail. So he flushed the whole pail down the toilet, and hit the jackpot, dyeing the whole harbor of Salem Mass fluorescent green.

      --
      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
    20. Re:Red? by TapeCutter · · Score: 1

      My wife is a physical oceanographer and her first reaction when she heard about this is that it was some kind of phytoplankton bloom

      That's what I was thinking, it's the right time of year and they are not uncommon in China (recall the massive bloom they were cleaning up around the time of the Olympics).

      --
      And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
    21. Re:Red? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And under his left arm too.

    22. Re:Red? by tragedy · · Score: 1

      Have to agree. Obvious photoshop job is obvious. Which doesn't necessarily mean that the whole thing is a hoax. It probably just means that the pictures they took just didn't look as red/orange as they had to the naked eye, so they modified them a bit. Probably to the point where it looks even brighter than it actually appeared to the naked eye.

    23. Re:Red? by MobileTatsu-NJG · · Score: 1

      Take a good look at the area under the bottle in this image. Some of the water remains brown, yet parts of the two men's arms are the exact same color as the water.

      I visited MSNBC one day and got to sit amongst some people gathering images for news stories to post on their site. They'd often pull up the image then find a few things to boost up the saturation on. For example, when I was there, there was a stoty about a forest fire. They got the photos of the scene and do things like highlight the fire and make it brighter. This wasn't to be disingenuous, it was to make it more readable to the audience. I think that's what happened in this photo. I think they just slathered on some boost in saturation, probably because the camera didn't quite capture the shade of red people were seeing. That can happen on overcast days.

      I don't really see 'photoshopped' in the sense that I don't think that the river was really just brown and that they made it up.

      --

      "I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)

    24. Re:Red? by O('_')O_Bush · · Score: 0

      Because water doesn't run down arms when you dip them into a muddy red river? If you look at the other pictures, the water is very cloudy, almost like tomato sauce. If you were to let tomato sauce drip down your arm, surely it to would have red streaks?

      --
      while(1) attack(People.Sandy);
    25. Re:Red? by Forty+Two+Tenfold · · Score: 1

      You're all crazy conspiracy theorists.

      --
      Upward mobility is a slippery slope - the higher you climb the more you show your ass.
    26. Re:Red? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Because linking to the Daily Mail is handing ad revenue to a bunch of professional trolls

    27. Re:Red? by KDR_11k · · Score: 1

      It's the Daily Mail, I'm not sure they deserve the benefit of doubt.

      --
      Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
    28. Re:Red? by KDR_11k · · Score: 1

      It doesn't take a conspiracy theorist to doubt what's written in a tabloid.

      --
      Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
    29. Re:Red? by KDR_11k · · Score: 1

      Isn't brown more like dark orange? Dark red isn't the same as brown, you need to add a bit of yellow/green hue to get brown.

      --
      Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
    30. Re:Red? by Stiletto · · Score: 1

      I visited MSNBC one day and got to sit amongst some people gathering images for news stories to post on their site. They'd often pull up the image then find a few things to boost up the saturation on. For example, when I was there, there was a stoty about a forest fire. They got the photos of the scene and do things like highlight the fire and make it brighter. This wasn't to be disingenuous, it was to make it more readable to the audience.

      However you sugar-coat it, they're doctoring photos. Would it kill news organizations to simply take a picture and report it?

    31. Re:Red? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      photoshopped.

    32. Re:Red? by fm6 · · Score: 1

      Oops. You're quite right. I seem to have garbled something I learned a long time ago.

    33. Re:Red? by MobileTatsu-NJG · · Score: 1

      What if the photo isn't coming out as people actually see it?

      --

      "I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)

    34. Re:Red? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Then you adjust the levels on the entire photo. You don't go masking around the water to selectively fake the color saturation.

    35. Re:Red? by MobileTatsu-NJG · · Score: 1

      There is no not 'faking' it if the camera isn't taking the photo the human eye is seeing.

      Do you realize how much blue light you're getting from the sky that your eyes naturally deal with?

      Understanding != sugarcoating.

      --

      "I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)

    36. Re:Red? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Pics or it didn't happen!

      (Seriously, I want to see that! It sounds awesome! [Except for the poor water creatures.])

    37. Re:Red? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Lol. You link to the Daily Mail as a reference?
      Need I say more, or will you facepalm yourself?

    38. Re:Red? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Because nobody with a brain takes the Daily Fail seriously. Everything on there is a lie. In fact, it is a very useful news source. Simply assume the opposite of what is stated. ^^

  6. Re:Uh-huh.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Trying to figure out the scientific explanation behind this isn't nerdy enough?

  7. Ocean dye? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Did some dye from the company that makes it get spilled? The company I worked for had an accident and the water company went back along the pipe until it stopped, and it turned out that some printer ink tank had sprung a leak and it was coloring the water red.

    Is this different than the red tide?

    Anyways, once the river caught on fire in Cleveland, our EPA was created. Hopefully this will cause the Chinese to create an EPA that has some real power.

    1. Re:Ocean dye? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You mean that "useless" organization that the Tea Partiers want to stop "wasting" money on and get rid of? Why would the Chinese want to "waste" their money on that too?!

    2. Re:Ocean dye? by hawguy · · Score: 2

      It wouldn't be the first time dye turned a chinese river red

      They said it's not the normal red-tide algae because that algae grows in salt water, but this is a freshwater river.

    3. Re:Ocean dye? by mirix · · Score: 1

      I seem to recall that the cuyahaga(sp?) river caught on fire 10+ times before they did much about it, around the early 70s. Pretty sick, really.

      So many tons of toxic shit dumped into the rivers and great lakes...

      --
      Sent from my PDP-11
  8. Call me when it burns by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Red river? BFD.

    Cleveland's rivers fucking BURN.

  9. Some photos obviously enhanced by DaTrueDave · · Score: 5, Informative

    I was looking at some of the photos linked in that article, and I noticed that some of them are pretty obviously photoshopped. I'm sure the river was red, but I'm not so sure it was such a dramatic shade of red. You can see where the editing was sloppy and bled over into the arm and thumb of the person holding the bottle, and the arm of the guy behind, as well as some sections that are probably the actual shade of red that the river turned.

    1. Re:Some photos obviously enhanced by cpu6502 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      >>>bled over into the arm and thumb of the person holding the bottle

      Wow. Okay so what motive would the Daily Mail of the fine and prestigious UK have to colorize these photos? Hmmm.

      --
      My AC stalker: " I personally agree with your posts most of the time, but that won't keep me from modding you troll"
    2. Re:Some photos obviously enhanced by Clsid · · Score: 4, Insightful

      We don't know but the guy does have a point, that picture was photoshopped.

    3. Re:Some photos obviously enhanced by TaoPhoenix · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I'm so upset that I didn't even bother to read more than a few sentences of the article given the topic we're having.
      "Nobody is quite sure what caused the color change."

      So in the rush to get there first with the reporting race, someone couldn't be bothered to give a college chem lab student lunch and an hour to get a chemical composition of the water? Oh, right, that would actually take journalism work.

      --
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    4. Re:Some photos obviously enhanced by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      The same already photoshopped picture is available from both China Foto Press and Barcroft Media, which are credited in the Daily Mail picture. Sloppy screening on the Daily Mail's behalf, but the image manipulation appears to originate closer to the source.

    5. Re:Some photos obviously enhanced by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      No. It's a lousy Photoshop job. Zoom in on the lower part of the picture. You can clearly see the bad strokes made by the person who did the "enhancement".

    6. Re:Some photos obviously enhanced by Anne_Nonymous · · Score: 1

      >> bled over into the arm and thumb of the person holding the bottle

      Tomorrow in the Daily Fail: Massacre in China; Rivers Run With Blood

    7. Re:Some photos obviously enhanced by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      It is probably the camera person because they probably get money based on viewership. Therefore, the more sensational the picture the more money they make.

    8. Re:Some photos obviously enhanced by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It isn't 'obvious' to me that that image has been manipulated. It just looks like the man's left arm has been submerged in the red river and some of the colourant is still adhering to his arm and fingers. Same with the second man in the rear of the image.

      Surely there are enough residents in this large Chinese city for this report to be independently verified.

    9. Re:Some photos obviously enhanced by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's probably a real event, but that picture is photoshopped, without a doubt. At least some of the other pictures have also been "enhanced". The Barcroft Media pictures look more suspicious than the ones that are credited to Getty Images. Someone was obviously generous with the saturation slider.

    10. Re:Some photos obviously enhanced by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      [dailymail.co.uk] are pretty obviously photoshopped.

      I wouldn't expect much else from the Daily Mail (and I don't even live in the UK, their craptasticness is world famous).

      And TFA from the International Business Times? Half of it is cut and pasted from Wikipedia.

      Lazy reporting and lazy photoshopping. Do we blame the internet or Murdoch for this sad state of affairs?

    11. Re:Some photos obviously enhanced by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It seems that way at first, but look at the arm of the guy behind him. There is red on him as well. I'm willing to bet that anything that could change the river to a color like this would probably stain the skin a bit. So I don't think it's a shoddy photoshop, just the guy with the bottle got red on his arm.

    12. Re:Some photos obviously enhanced by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      You missed where the color that was applied to the arm wasn't applied to the brown river below it? And to his thumb? And some of the brown water in the bottle where the color wasn't applied?

    13. Re:Some photos obviously enhanced by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Though the one doesn't directly refer to the other, but putting "fine and prestigious" in the same sentence as "daily mail" is not something one sees very often. I haven't read the daily fail article, but "lol, typical stupid chinks" is likely to be the gist of it. As for motive, selling papers hadn't occurred to you?

    14. Re:Some photos obviously enhanced by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 1

      It's called "sensationalism" and it sells newspapers.

      --
      systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
    15. Re:Some photos obviously enhanced by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      invisible sarcasm tag is invisible. You need to recalibrate your sarcasm detector for british ;)

    16. Re:Some photos obviously enhanced by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I'm willing to bet that anything that could change the river to a color like this would probably stain the skin a bit.

      That doesn't explain why there is a patch of un-brightened water under the guy's forearm, the line of which exactly matches up with the patch of orange on his arm itself.

      --
      systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
    17. Re:Some photos obviously enhanced by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't know about you, but the last time I stuck my arm in dye filled water, I ended up with some on my arm and hand. If it is truely photoshopped, can somebody point out a specific reference (i.e. lower right hand corner of picture 3 shows clearly delineated lines of an applied tool)?

    18. Re:Some photos obviously enhanced by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      I'm pretty sure that was intended to be read with a sarcastic tone. Though I'm from the States, from what I've gathered the Daily Mail is like the UK's version of the National Enquirer--correspondence of their articles to actual reality is purely coincidental.

      And, like the Enquirer, the more fantastic (in the literal sense) the story, the better.

    19. Re:Some photos obviously enhanced by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's called "sensationalism" and it sells newspapers.

      It's called "sarcasm", and it sounds like "whooosh!"

    20. Re:Some photos obviously enhanced by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The linked picture shows very obvious sloppy masking. The manipulation can be reversed by desaturating with a mask following the obvious lines. That turns the river the same color as the unmanipulated patch of river below the guy's arm and the bottle the same color as the patch of unmanipulated bottle.

    21. Re:Some photos obviously enhanced by UnknownSoldier · · Score: 2

      > It isn't 'obvious' to me that that image has been manipulated.

      No offense, but are you blind? Here are the areas highlighted in red that show obvious signs of being manipulated.

      http://imgur.com/d5vKF

    22. Re:Some photos obviously enhanced by gratuitous_arp · · Score: 1

      Could someone with a knack for photoshop re-color the water in the picture to a nice blue color, with a caption saying both images are photoshopped? The "original" definitely looks photoshopped, but I admit I wasn't looking for it and I didn't notice until someone pointed it out. To see the the same photo with a sparkling blue river would be a great reminder that we have to keep our skepticism active at all times.

    23. Re:Some photos obviously enhanced by poity · · Score: 4, Informative

      On the captions you see it's by China Photo Press/Barcroft Media, which means DailyMail bought them from 3rd party photo journalists, who obviously were looking for a quick sell and weren't concerned with some color enhancement. Here's a phone camera video taken yesterday http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNDQ3ODM2NDUy.html It's not as red as the photos, but still very red. The locals who are talking to the guy filming say it's the first time they've seen anything like this, so it's not a total fake either.

      --
      your thin skin doesn't make me a troll
    24. Re:Some photos obviously enhanced by poity · · Score: 1

      And it's the first photo you see when you go on their website http://en.chinafotopress.com/
      Probably some local Chinese photographer wanted a quick buck from some gullible Britons.

      --
      your thin skin doesn't make me a troll
    25. Re:Some photos obviously enhanced by Aryden · · Score: 1

      You left out the area between the 2 guy's heads.

    26. Re:Some photos obviously enhanced by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Crimson Tide? Not to say the Yangzte River is pristine, but between the photoshopped photos and the sensationalist news coverage, I'm saddened by the western propaganda on this. I'm also wondering why nobody is talking about red tide, a red algal bloom that occurs throughout the world. Here's an article on its effect on the Yangtze River: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22165212. Just do an image search on red tide to see some red tide photos...

    27. Re:Some photos obviously enhanced by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      >> coloured arms

      How do you suppose he got the water into the bottle in the first place? Telekinesis?

    28. Re:Some photos obviously enhanced by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's not western propaganda. It is shit lazy journalism put out by morons from one of the least respected news outlets existing in the UK today. And that's really saying something as the UK has some really terrible news outlets.

      If you had RTFA, you would have seen the red tide hypothesis addressed and popped. Marine species the like of which create a classic red tide can not survive, let alone bloom, in fresh water.

    29. Re:Some photos obviously enhanced by Patch86 · · Score: 1

      Hahaha. It's the Daily Mail- they don't need a motive to make shit up, it's second nature!

      But if you want a motive, try- the pictures weren't dramatic enough, the real world colouration being not that drastic, and they really want their article to be linked all over the internet so that they get more page views?

    30. Re:Some photos obviously enhanced by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The area of water between the heads of the two men is also untouched.

    31. Re:Some photos obviously enhanced by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sarcasm that people don't notice isn't sarcasm - it's a failed attempt at communication.

    32. Re:Some photos obviously enhanced by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You missed to highlight the straight line down the guys arm right beneath your bottom highlight. It's the most obvious and undeniable one.

    33. Re:Some photos obviously enhanced by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wow. Okay so what motive would the Daily Mail of the fine and prestigious UK have to colorize these photos? Hmmm.

      Hey, thats a great question. Why don't you let us know what Alex Jones and Russia Today have to say about it? Good grief.

      Pot, meet kettle.

    34. Re:Some photos obviously enhanced by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well... then Daily Mail is not malicious, just EXTREMELY incompetent. I saw that the picture was photoshopped even before seeing any comments mentioning it. You can't just not see it: it's stupidly obvious.

      So... choose one:

      1) Daily Mail are a bunch of liars and incompetents that can't even get a photoshop right;
      2) Daily Mail are a bunch of incompetents that buy crap that was obviously (and incompetently) manipulated.

    35. Re:Some photos obviously enhanced by UnknownSoldier · · Score: 1

      Ah yes, I saw that initially but forgot to add it. :-/

    36. Re:Some photos obviously enhanced by UnknownSoldier · · Score: 1

      Ah! You're right -- looks like that is the original color of the water!

      I've posted a new version that shows all the photoshop'd areas
      http://imgur.com/lvZap

    37. Re:Some photos obviously enhanced by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      GP here. I tend to attribute things to stupidity before malice. But reading what I have about the Daily Mail in other posts and how it is the UK version of the Enquirer and the like, I'm starting to think I was wrong about the malice.

    38. Re:Some photos obviously enhanced by maxwell+demon · · Score: 1

      The question is on which end the communication failed. I'd say the "Hmmm" at the end was quite obvious.

      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
    39. Re:Some photos obviously enhanced by jrumney · · Score: 1

      I'm sure there's a story about contaminated illegal immigrants forcing child cancer patients to wait longer on NHS waiting lists in there somewhere.

  10. Re:Uh-huh.. by hey! · · Score: 1

    No.

    --
    Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
  11. Re:Uh-huh.. by turkeyfeathers · · Score: 4, Funny

    Blood from sacrifices at Foxconn factory?

  12. Ukraine by roman_mir · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Here is a picture that I remember from way back - this is a red river in the city of Zaporizhia in Ukraine, this city has (or had) a number of factories, smelters, motor factories, I think most of them were just dumping the waste right into Dnepr (the main river in Ukraine) and then all that water flows into the Black sea.

    1. Re:Ukraine by LongearedBat · · Score: 1

      So the pollution turned the Black Sea into a Red Sea and killed stuff off so it became a Dead Sea. ;)

  13. That's nothing serious by dkleinsc · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'm from Cleveland. Call me when the Yangste is on fire.

    --
    I am officially gone from /. Long live http://www.soylentnews.com/
    1. Re:That's nothing serious by DesertJazz · · Score: 1

      So true. When I went to Cleveland to go to school I couldn't believe the story at first. Moral of that story is never eat anything from Lake Erie or the river!

    2. Re:That's nothing serious by desertfool · · Score: 1, Interesting

      Came here to say this. The Cuyahoga caught fire in 1969. How long will it take China to start taking their environment seriously? I can't believe that they would let this go on forever, but it isn't a democracy and money makes people blind to the effects of their actions.

      --
      Just a dude. Stuck in IT.
    3. Re:That's nothing serious by fustakrakich · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Seems to me a good way to catch your fish precooked...

      --
      “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    4. Re:That's nothing serious by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hey look! All the manufacturers in Cleveland moved to China!

    5. Re:That's nothing serious by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How long will it take China to start taking their environment seriously? I can't believe that they would let this go on forever, but it isn't a democracy and money makes people blind to the effects of their actions.

      Your username fits.

    6. Re:That's nothing serious by X0563511 · · Score: 1

      When it is, can we toss the idiot who photoshopped these in it?

      --
      For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
    7. Re:That's nothing serious by TapeCutter · · Score: 4, Interesting

      How long will it take China to start taking their environment seriously?

      China's environmental record is similar to the US in that it is full of contradictions. Look up the Loose (sic?) plateau in NW China, it's an area the size of France that 20yrs ago looked like an Afghan desert and today is one of the world's largest apple producing regions, goats are now fenced in, the hills now have trees and wild life, the land has stopped eroding away faster than anywhere else on earth, locals were given land to farm in exchange for caring for it in the prescribed manner, and the average income of the locals has quadrupled (after taking inflation into account). The entire thing cost $500M and was done with hand tools using local labor. However these were all secondary aims of the project, the primary aim of the project was to stop silt filling up the three gorges dam. ;)

      --
      And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
    8. Re:That's nothing serious by tlhIngan · · Score: 1

      Came here to say this. The Cuyahoga caught fire in 1969. How long will it take China to start taking their environment seriously? I can't believe that they would let this go on forever, but it isn't a democracy and money makes people blind to the effects of their actions.

      Consider the Chinese to be the ultimate in capitalists. They know that the US with its pansy environmental laws hurt profits, and you can't have that.

      Plus, when a few people die, so what? China's population numbers are big enough that a bunch of people can die without many people noticing.

      And democracy's got nothing to do with it - convince enough people that environmental protection laws hurt their pocketbooks and they'll vote for anything.

    9. Re:That's nothing serious by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      :-) learned to swim there and still kicking -

    10. Re:That's nothing serious by LunaticTippy · · Score: 1

      It is the Loess Plateau, and the success there is moderate but encouraging. According to wikipedia it has reduced the silt load by 1% while achieving other gains.

      --
      Man, you really need that seminar!
  14. Iron oxide, maybe a spill from an aluminium plant by jopet · · Score: 5, Informative

    Aluminium plants produce a huge quantity of "red mud" which is red from iron oxide. A spill could well color the whole river red.
    See e.g. here where the mud spilled through a broken dam in Hungary: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/gallery/2010/10/05/GA2010100502818.html

  15. Sounds like a red tide by Grayhand · · Score: 5, Interesting

    There are chemicals that can cause it but the other option is all the fertilizer resulted in a red tide, a type of algae. For wildlife it's as bad or worse than a chemical spill. The blooms can come on suddenly and should fade once the food source gets used up.

    1. Re:Sounds like a red tide by fm6 · · Score: 1

      Red tides have a number of causes, some of which are quite natural. The algal bloom is often toxic, which makes me worry for the fisherman in TFA.

    2. Re:Sounds like a red tide by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Likely not red tide...

      "When water turns red, the thing a lot of people think of first is red tide," Stanley told LiveScience. "But the algae that causes red tide is a marine group and not a freshwater group, so it's highly, highly unlikely that this is a red-tide-related phenomenon."

    3. Re:Sounds like a red tide by Aighearach · · Score: 1

      While not strictly "red tide," here in Oregon we have problems every summer with (potentially lethal) freshwater algae blooms that come in a variety of bright colors. The one that has plagued Hills Creek Reservoir for many years is a fairly bright, ominous red.

      Last month I saw one that was a pale milky green.

      A natural area a few minutes from my house has signs warning pet owners of brightly colored waters and the danger of pet death.

    4. Re:Sounds like a red tide by ByteSlicer · · Score: 1

      China even already has a strain of red algae in the mountains. Though it's probably not that one, since it only grows in one (large) area.

    5. Re:Sounds like a red tide by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Red tides are common in the ocean and in lakes, but in rivers, especially well-stirred rivers already laden with sediment, it would be rather surprising. The algae responsible are usually photosynthetic, and high suspended sediment doesn't let the light penetrate very well, and mixing the water column discourages higher concentrations of the algae (which usually become most prolific at the surface).

      As other people have suggested, it's probably either industrial dyes or perhaps "red mud" from aluminum ore processing that has been washed into the river.

    6. Re:Sounds like a red tide by Maow · · Score: 1

      I've closed the tab, but in the article, they quoted someone saying that red tide is a "marine" as opposed to fresh water phenomenon.

      So, while I cringe for the fishermen (and those that eat their catch), it's lot that type of toxic.

    7. Re:Sounds like a red tide by fm6 · · Score: 1

      Fresh water red tides do happen. However, to my inexpert eye, this event looks like some red substance suspended in the water, rather than red algae.

  16. And now for a musical interlude by dkleinsc · · Score: 5, Funny

    When Android was in China's land ... let my cell phones go!
    Just trolled so hard they could not stand .. let my cell phones go!
    Go down, Samsung, way down in China's land,
    tell ol' Jintao to let my cell phones go!

    (Nah, it just doesn't quite have the same ring to it)

    --
    I am officially gone from /. Long live http://www.soylentnews.com/
    1. Re:And now for a musical interlude by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Cell phones...ring...hur hur hur

      I c wut u accidentally there.

  17. People's Republic Rejoice! by Suffering+Bastard · · Score: 4, Funny

    Only Glorious Red Rivers for Glorious Red Chinese Communist Republic! Soon all waters and newborn babies everywhere will shine triumphantly with Glorious Red Hue!

    --
    "Molest me not with this pocket calculator stuff."
    - Deep Thought
    1. Re:People's Republic Rejoice! by fm6 · · Score: 1

      No longer appropriate for a country that is only nominally Communist, and happens to be the biggest Capitalistic entity on the planet.

    2. Re:People's Republic Rejoice! by nateb · · Score: 1

      FWIW, capitalistic is redundant. Capitalist works fine.

      --
      -- Nate
    3. Re:People's Republic Rejoice! by fm6 · · Score: 1

      Huh. That's like the way the GOP insists on referring to the Democratic Party as the Democrat Party. China isn't capitalistic, they just call themselves capitalists.

  18. Perfectly reasonable by fredgiblet · · Score: 4, Funny

    I blame Obama. Who's with me?

    1. Re:Perfectly reasonable by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I thought we were still blaming Bush.

      Or have we switched to Romney already?

  19. Re:Iron oxide, maybe a spill from an aluminium pla by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'd go with blood from dead peasants that were protesting the 3 gorges dam. They were put through the turbines to quiet them after they didn't accept the 100 bowls of rice for payment for their land.

  20. Listen by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Just let the Jews go. It only gets worse from here.

    - Pharaoh

    1. Re:Listen by jbeaupre · · Score: 5, Funny

      If it gets to where all the first born children die, there won't be many people left to stop them from leaving in this one-child-only country.

      --
      The world is made by those who show up for the job.
    2. Re:Listen by Daniel+Dvorkin · · Score: 1

      They may try, but God will just harden the Central Committee's hearts. He does that whenever He wants to make a point.

      --
      The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
  21. hoax by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    clearly photoshopped, and poorly at that.

    1. Re:hoax by X0563511 · · Score: 1

      The 'shop certainly makes it look more insane, but in the spots where you can see the original colors it's still discolored. It's more of a ruddy brown, but it's still reddish.

      --
      For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
  22. Dumping by Animats · · Score: 4, Informative

    Some of the religious nuts will probably claim this is bibilical, but more likely, somebody dumped some industrial waste.

    Something like that happened in San Jose, CA about twenty years ago. Someone dumped several big industrial plating baths into the sewers all at once. This killed most of the bacteria that digest waste in the sewerage treatment plant. So for about three days, raw sewerage was dumped into the San Francisco Bay. Big mess, especially since there isn't much water flow in the south end of San Francisco Bay to dilute that stuff. It could be both seen and smelled. EPA fined San Jose millions for that. San Jose found and fined the plating company.

    1. Re:Dumping by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      you will be judged with the same measure you judge others. Sounds like you need Jesus. Ill pray for you.

  23. Re:Iron oxide, maybe a spill from an aluminium pla by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Whatever it is in the river, pollution or not, I suspect will be hawked by the superstitious and the snake oil salesmen as the cure for everything from baldness and weight-loss to impotence and old age.

    Outside of the placebo effect, sleeping with a vial of the Mysterious Red Waters of the Golden River may be harmless. But I can only wonder at how many people are mixing that stuff in with their morning rice...for their kids.

    This isn't not a dig at Eastern Mystical Healing or homeopathy. The Western World has plenty of 'cured by the sight (or site) of the holy relic' cases, too. People are just wired funny that way.

  24. Free Tibet! by stevegee58 · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    It's the blood of the hundreds of thousands of Tibetans slaughtered by the Chinese. May they be haunted forever by their crimes.

    1. Re:Free Tibet! by turkeyfeathers · · Score: 1

      Different drainage basin... you're thinking of the Tsangpo or Huang.

    2. Re:Free Tibet! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      About 50,000 Tibetans died in the rebellion in 1953. That is sad, but civil wars and rebellions are never pretty.

      Your "hundreds of thousands" is a lie.

  25. Re:Iron oxide, maybe a spill from an aluminium pla by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Had the same issue in Norway a while ago: http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/iriks/Utslipp-fra-politiker-farget-sjoen-rod-6953762.html

    It was an iron oxide spill, as OP mentioned.

  26. Call me when it catches on fire by istartedi · · Score: 1

    Call me when it catches on fire. That's how you know an industrial revolution is complete.

    --
    For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
  27. Lake Nyos by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Reminds me of Lake Nyos in Cameroon. Trapped CO2 caused the lake to turn orange and kill surrounding people and animals.
    Many different possibilities that could cause this.

    http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_zxepIf_keLY/TH56IPnMMeI/AAAAAAAAFos/iAAbNerr5y8/s1600/nyos1_l.jpg

  28. ..and in other news.. by SirStiff · · Score: 1

    the next iPhone will be red!

  29. nge reference missing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Maybe there was a battle between giant mechas upstream?

  30. You know when you're in a flat with three girls? by tbird81 · · Score: 3, Funny

    And then they get "sync'd"?

    Now imagine that with 14 million women and poor sanitation.

  31. Just do you know... by Alex+Belits · · Score: 1

    ...that river was called golden for a reason -- it always carries suspended particles of clay, so the color of the river depends on the composition of clay around it.

    Red clay is nothing unusual, so most likely the river eroded some part of a bank with a different clay composition. If this is the case, any sane geologist should be able to find the place along the river where color changes, take water samples, and determine the source.

    --
    Contrary to the popular belief, there indeed is no God.
    1. Re:Just do you know... by Genda · · Score: 2

      China is notorious for its poor environmental practices and there are so many ways to get red, from organic pollutants to heavy metal salts to industrial dyes and coloring agents. The "Golden Watercourse" has run golden for many thousands of years, the chance of a sudden color shift not the result of human intervention (read dumping) though possible is vanishingly remote.

      A similar event along the Yangtze happened in February of 2008 when the river ran red and authorities found large amounts of Ammonium Nitrate and Metal Permanganates.

      A large number of folks talk about the advantages for business and society of not having to tow strict environmental laws and regulations. The advantages for business are clear, society as a whole, not so much. China is a good place to look at what happens when people do as they please. The results are sometime ugly and other times full on disasters.

    2. Re:Just do you know... by Alex+Belits · · Score: 1

      1. It was not Yangtze river itself.
      2. None of the chemicals mentioned are bright red.
      3. The amount of red subtance that requires such color change over the whole river likely exceeds the capacity of any chemical production in the whole China. Yellow color was caused by clay, so there is no reason to suspect anything other than clay unless demonstrated otherwise.
      4. Water pollutants are water-soluble, red substance that is seen in the river now is clearly suspension.

      --
      Contrary to the popular belief, there indeed is no God.
    3. Re:Just do you know... by Genda · · Score: 2

      In reply...
      1. The Han River is a tributary fork of the Yangtze, what you see on the Han, you see on the Yangtze shortly there after.
      2. I beg your pardon, Permanganates can range anywhere from deep purple to red depending on the metal, and this didn't have to be an identical dumping, Iron oxides, certain lead compounds (already responsible for colorful pollution on smaller rivers), even cinnabar (mercury sulphate) could color water red. I mention in the first paragraph we could be looking at any one of a number of industrial effluents that could produce this result. Some of the organic dyes (especially the concentrated oil based dyes) might produce a suspension and even a small amount could color a tremendous amount of water. Geologist working on glaciers melting use such dye and their capacity to color water can exceed tens, even hundreds of millions to one. Just last year powerful dyes were illegally dumped in the Jian River through storm drainage.
      3. Water pollutants fall into large groups, some of which are soluble, many not. That said, most of the non-soluble would for emulsions and not suspensions.

      There are also a group of geologists who are suggesting a recent earthquake upstream may have released a significant amount of vermiculated (iron oxide rich) clay into the river, so I will concede the possibility that this is a natural event predicated on a sequence of events that together would occur very rarely.

  32. Woo magic tree! by OneAhead · · Score: 1

    Here's another one for Photoshop Disasters. Look at that psychedelic halo around that tree in the lower left!

    Also, is it me, or is there something wrong with the general color balance of the picture?

  33. Re:Uh-huh.. by mcneely.mike · · Score: 0

    KIRK "Spock... what is happening."
    SPOCK "I don't know, Captain... let me put in my little ear thing and peer into my thingy."
    BONES "It's obvious, Jim. It's dead."

    I agree: How could you not go all geeky over this? I wish i had a tricorder and could beam over to China right now!

    --
    soylentnews.org Go there to enjoy the people!
  34. Re:Chinese lying? Unheard of! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Wow! The Chinese photoshopped something to embellish or exaggerate a story!? I've never heard of that before!

    Oh wait, yes I have. It was called the Rape of Nanking.

    Go fuck yourself with a flaming telephone pole - an old, used one with lots of 4-inch-long splinters coming off of it.

    Seriously.

    Because you sound like an idiotic Twoofer/Holocaust denier, too.

  35. Re:Iron oxide, maybe a spill from an aluminium pla by b4dc0d3r · · Score: 1

    And those photos are a lot closer in color to the un-enhanced spots on the Daily Mail shots. No doubt it was orange, but not the bright pumpkin orange from the daily mail shots (not that the DM necessarily touched them up, they obviously belong to a Chinese outfit).

  36. 100% terrible photoshop by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Courtesy of the Daily Fail.

    Seriously, they didn't even paint behind his arm.

  37. Re:Chinese lying? Unheard of! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Wow! The Chinese photoshopped something to embellish or exaggerate a story!? I've never heard of that before!

    Oh wait, yes I have. It was called the Rape of Nanking.

    Yeah, sure.

    During the Japanese reign of terror in Nanking – which, by the way, continues to this day to a considerable degree – the Reverend John Magee, a member of the American Episcopal Church Mission who has been here for almost a quarter of a century, took motion pictures that eloquently bear witness to the atrocities committed by the Japanese .... One will have to wait and see whether the highest officers in the Japanese army succeed, as they have indicated, in stopping the activities of their troops, which continue even today.[55]

            On December 13, about 30 soldiers came to a Chinese house at #5 Hsing Lu Koo in the southeastern part of Nanking, and demanded entrance. The door was open by the landlord, a Mohammedan named Ha. They killed him immediately with a revolver and also Mrs. Ha, who knelt before them after Ha's death, begging them not to kill anyone else. Mrs. Ha asked them why they killed her husband and they shot her. Mrs. Hsia was dragged out from under a table in the guest hall where she had tried to hide with her 1 year old baby. After being stripped and raped by one or more men, she was bayoneted in the chest, and then had a bottle thrust into her vagina. The baby was killed with a bayonet. Some soldiers then went to the next room, where Mrs. Hsia's parents, aged 76 and 74, and her two daughters aged 16 and 14. They were about to rape the girls when the grandmother tried to protect them. The soldiers killed her with a revolver. The grandfather grasped the body of his wife and was killed. The two girls were then stripped, the elder being raped by 2–3 men, and the younger by 3. The older girl was stabbed afterwards and a cane was rammed in her vagina. The younger girl was bayoneted also but was spared the horrible treatment that had been meted out to her sister and mother. The soldiers then bayoneted another sister of between 7–8, who was also in the room. The last murders in the house were of Ha's two children, aged 4 and 2 respectively. The older was bayoneted and the younger split down through the head with a sword.

  38. cyanobacteria ? by cats-paw · · Score: 2

    a bloom caused by excess nutrients, i.e. pollution, in the water ?

    maybe a kind of algae ?

    that would be my guess.

    --
    Absolute statements are never true
  39. Image is poorly Photoshopped - restored version by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 4, Informative

    Based on a quick study of the poorly Photoshopped image (you can clearly see the mask lines, and the bits they forgot to alter) it looks like someone simply doubled the saturation on the water.

    I've made an attempt to restore the image to something approaching reality.

    --
    systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
  40. Re:You know when you're in a flat with three girls by codepigeon · · Score: 4, Funny

    I have mod points, where is the option +1 Fucking gross comment.

  41. news! by someones · · Score: 0, Troll

    There most likely is no god

    1. Re:news! by hawguy · · Score: 3, Funny

      There most likely is no god

      Why are you trying to turn this into a religious argument? There most certainly is a god, and I've got a Wikipedia article that proves it.

    2. Re:news! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Great, another dumb FSM heretic. You can run but you can't hide, She will punish you for your beliefs and you'll never see her coming!

    3. Re:news! by cold+fjord · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      Atheism is indeed the most daring of all dogmas . . . for it is the assertion of a universal negative. -- G. K. Chesterton

      --
      much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
    4. Re:news! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      ya, except it isn't.

      Theism is the belief in a god. The A, means no or not. I don't believe, I'm not making a statement for or against.

      A philatelist is a stamp collector. I am an 'Aphilatelist'. Am I making any type of assertion of a negative?

      Of course there is a difference, I can actually see stamps. Kinda helps with the credibility. That and no one is killing anyone else over invisible stamps.

    5. Re:news! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Repent, the end is nigh!

    6. Re:news! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If all you ever said was that "you" do not believe there is a god, you have a point. If however, you say there is no god, then the GP's quote is correct and it is "the assertion of a universal negative".

    7. Re:news! by FrangoAssado · · Score: 0

      Exactly.

      I mean, between believing that there is no God and believing that the only God is the invisible pink unicorn, it's obvious that the first one is the most daring dogma.

    8. Re:news! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > That and no one is killing anyone else over invisible stamps.

      Ever read about the events going on about the time of the Boston Tea Party? Invisible stamps, check. Killing each other, check.

    9. Re:news! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Atheism is indeed the most daring of all dogmas . . . for it is the assertion of a universal negative. -- G. K. Chesterton

      No, it is not an assertion of a universal negative. Atheism is the lack of belief, not the active practice of non-belief. They are not the same thing.
      I don't believe in Aliens from another planet. But I don't discount the possibility of Aliens, either. Given proof, I would be willing to accept Aliens as real, but as long as there is no proof, I do not believe them to exist.

    10. Re:news! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      It appears you don't even understand your position. As an a-theist, it isn't that you don't believe in god, you believe there is no god, otherwise you would be an agnostic. Atheism takes a position, one which cannot be based on knowledge*, which renders it belief.

      That and no one is killing anyone else over invisible stamps.

      You flatter yourself based on mistaken belief.

      League of Militant Atheists

      Documentary on Militant Atheism in the Soviet Union

      Militant Atheism in the USSR

      Tortured for Christ in Atheist Romania - Richard Wurmbrand

      * ~ 10^11 galaxies in the universe . . . no God anywhere? Really? You know this?

    11. Re:news! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You are agnostic about the possibility of aliens, not atheistic about it.

    12. Re:news! by Guignol · · Score: 1

      What you are describing is agnosticism
      Atheism does indeed imply a strong belief in the non existence of a deity exactly as the opposite view of theism
      It's just a definition, though, not that it matters that much in this conversation :)

    13. Re:news! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Gnostic theist
      Agnostic theist
      Gnostic atheist
      Agnostic atheist

      Pick one.

    14. Re:news! by Forty+Two+Tenfold · · Score: 1
      --
      Upward mobility is a slippery slope - the higher you climb the more you show your ass.
    15. Re:news! by Forty+Two+Tenfold · · Score: 3, Informative

      You're another idiot in the long list of those who conflate two non-exclusive terms. Atheism vs antitheism.

      --
      Upward mobility is a slippery slope - the higher you climb the more you show your ass.
    16. Re:news! by Guignol · · Score: 1
      You are confusing me with your "nope" linking to a wikipedia which says exactly what I was saying

      In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities.

      (second sentence of the article)

      here is the companion article that also agrees with what I said (which is just what I have been teached at some point anyway, it could be 'wrong')

    17. Re:news! by Forty+Two+Tenfold · · Score: 1

      You are confusing me with your "nope" linking to a wikipedia which says exactly what I was saying
      have been teached

      That's because, apart from basic kindergarten grammar skills, you also lack reading comprehension:

      Most inclusively, atheism is simply the absence of belief that any deities exist.

      There. Now for antitheism:

      Antitheism (sometimes anti-theism) is active opposition to theism.

      --
      Upward mobility is a slippery slope - the higher you climb the more you show your ass.
    18. Re:news! by Guignol · · Score: 1
      Taught :) yes thank you, english is not my first language, not even the second
      Appart from this, the article is quite clear:

      specifically the position that there are no deities.

      The term atheism originated from the Greek (atheos), meaning "without god(s)"

      the burden of proof lies not on the atheist to disprove the existence of God, but on the theist to provide a rationale for theism

      This is from your linked article which I clearly misunderstand because of my sub-kindergarten reading comprehension
      Looking at the companion link I provided you you get this quite unambiguous precision, which I understand I am totally not comprehending either:

      In some senses, agnosticism is a stance about the difference between belief and knowledge, rather than about any specific claim or belief. In the popular sense, an agnostic is someone who neither believes nor disbelieves in the existence of a deity or deities, whereas a theist and an atheist believe and disbelieve, respectively.In the strict sense

      Anyway, it's not really important, it's just 'names' so to speak, and I was just trying to give a nice hint at my parent poster as to which term is better suited for what he was talking about (as far as I understood him)
      Now, you bolded *exactly* just as you bolded *teached* (thank's again). Could you be nice and tell me what is gramatically wrong with it ? I honestly don't know but would apreciate being taught about it :)
      Have a nice day...

    19. Re:news! by Forty+Two+Tenfold · · Score: 1

      English (always capitalized) is not my mother tongue either, but guess what, I don't see it as a viable excuse for my errors.

      Every word is "just a word" and their meanings are important for unambiguous communication.

      The relevant parts of the definiotion are "narrower" and "broader" as well as the phrase "most inclusively," and collectively they make your claim of being "exactly" what you've written earlier untrue. Absence of belief does not equal belief in absence. That's where antitheism fits.

      --
      Upward mobility is a slippery slope - the higher you climb the more you show your ass.
    20. Re:news! by Guignol · · Score: 1

      Hmm that wasn't an excuse for my errors, that was an excuse for asking humbly to be explained what was the grammatical error with "exactly".
      Thanks to your explanation in which you manage to throw some basic kindergarten level spelling errors (yeah I can tell a typo when I see one, I'm just kidding you and giving you a glance of how effective your harsh attitude can be) it is now effectively clear that one of us has very bad reading comprehension skills
      Also, that wasn't a grammatical error, not only was it not an error, but you must not understand well what grammar actually is, but that's OK, English is not your first language either so that must explain everything ;)
      I agree with you by the way, absence of belief is not belief of absence
      But guess what ? sometimes it takes several sentences to convey a message and explain something, in this case the definition of a term (atheism, agnosticism)
      For some reason you are sticking to one of them, the one that is ambiguous by the way, then you make your interpretation of the term thanks to this and completely disregard the rest of the definition where the ambiguity is addressed and removed. (??)
      The two linked articles make several specific clarifications which I just quoted for you where they specifically make the distinction of 'belief of no existence' vs 'doubt' (or maybe 'non belief of existence')
      antitheism is a word I have never heard of, but I agree it is quite unambiguous when you read it, if it was more widespread, that would probably be the term I would use when referring to what I currently qualify as atheism

    21. Re:news! by Forty+Two+Tenfold · · Score: 1

      Hmm that wasn't an excuse for my errors, that was an excuse for asking humbly to be explained what was the grammatical error with "exactly".

      Where exactly did I claim "exactly" was a grammatical error? How exactly my previous post enforces that idea, when it clarifies it is incorrect by being untrue? Pray tell.

      --
      Upward mobility is a slippery slope - the higher you climb the more you show your ass.
    22. Re:news! by Guignol · · Score: 1

      Hmm, you are right, this isn't what you said exactly, you just put together the two 'errors' and I assumed you put them in the same category to later make your point
      I apologize for "putting words in your mouth", so to speak, but this is because I just didn't imagine that the 'exactly' error you were pointing at was (apart from being *your* error as a matter of fact) just some irrelevant pedantry
      So indeed, since my post wasn't a complete copy-paste of the article that *you* referred to, then, it isn't 'exactly' what I was saying
      But, the article does make the effort to clarify and make the distinction that I was making myself, so it was in this sense, exactly what I was saying
      Did you even read the article ? did you read the parts I quoted for you ?
      I really don't think you did, I (but I can be wrong of course and I am certainly don't mean to be rude or anything like that)
      I imagine that you have somehow the preconceived 'feeling' of what the word atheism means, that you are certain this is what you think it is, and that when you looked it up just to correct me on wikipedia, you didn't read it past the first sentence
      At least this is what it looks like, or, indeed, you would have terrible reading comprehension skills, but I don't think this is it
      Now, care to read the whole article, or at least the first 3 or 4 sentences, or just read the parts I quoted for you and explain to me again how this is not exactly what I was saying at the beginning ?

    23. Re:news! by Forty+Two+Tenfold · · Score: 1

      Now, care to read the whole article

      I've read it, several times. But since you insist on not reading or otherwise disregarding what I've written to you before (or you wouldn't make such idiotic claims), thus indirectly telling me to go fuck myself, here's a resounding "you too."

      --
      Upward mobility is a slippery slope - the higher you climb the more you show your ass.
    24. Re:news! by Guignol · · Score: 1

      Ok, well, no I didn't tell you to go fuck yourself, I don't even see where in my post you could extract this kind of meaning, but that must be using the same reading comprehension skills you applied before when reading (several times :D (this is such an piece of delight, I'm sure you must be reading it several times a day (seriously, WTF ?)))
      Anyway, I was giving you a chance of not making a complete fool of yourself and you just blew it
      So well, since you admit having read said article (several times :D were you eating popcorn ? did you invite some friends ? :D) and you clearly don't understand what it says, or pretend not to, well... I don't know, I checked your posting history to see if you were a troll
      You clearly are always very harsh (though correct in most of the few examples I saw) so I guess yeah, you must be an overall unsuccessful troll and today was your lucky day, congratulations and have a nice day

    25. Re:news! by Forty+Two+Tenfold · · Score: 1
      Note the word "indirectly" used in my previous response.

      The relevant parts of the definition are "narrower" and "broader" as well as the phrase "most inclusively,"

      It's interesting that you've noticed the typo (now removed) but ignored the quoted words which appear in the first three sentences of the article in question. You had no reason to suppose I've not read them. And you dare call me a troll. Fuck you.

      --
      Upward mobility is a slippery slope - the higher you climb the more you show your ass.
    26. Re:news! by cold+fjord · · Score: 1

      It looks to me like you might be challenged by the word "militant". Maybe you shouldn't be throwing around "conflate" until you get that figured out.

      --
      much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
    27. Re:news! by Forty+Two+Tenfold · · Score: 1

      I see you've made a little mistake. You might also want to learn about the word "misnomer." Good luck!

      --
      Upward mobility is a slippery slope - the higher you climb the more you show your ass.
    28. Re:news! by cold+fjord · · Score: 1

      I'm amused that you would try to disprove documented historical fact with a hand waving article from a self-labeled "activist" in a psychology magazine. Sorry, but the body count is simply too large for that to work.

      I assume we can both agree that "misnomer" isn't the way to formally address an unmarried female of a race of mythical short people? Salud!

      --
      much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
    29. Re:news! by pepty · · Score: 1

      What part of "Most inclusively, atheism is simply the absence of belief that any deities exist." Is still unclear?

    30. Re:news! by mdielmann · · Score: 1

      You're another idiot in the long list of those who conflate two non-exclusive terms. Atheism vs antitheism.

      Well, to be fair, it looks like the antitheists started it.

      --
      Sure I'm paranoid, but am I paranoid enough?
    31. Re:news! by kaatochacha · · Score: 1

      I find myself wondering, what the hell does this have to do with the Yangtze turning red?

    32. Re:news! by Forty+Two+Tenfold · · Score: 1

      Not nearly as amused as I! Next thing you know, you'll be telling me there was communism in USSR, that the USA is democratic, that free market is viable or that Caspian Sea isn't a lake! I ain't gonna fall for that! No siree, Bob!

      --
      Upward mobility is a slippery slope - the higher you climb the more you show your ass.
    33. Re:news! by Guignol · · Score: 1

      So do I, and I plaid guilty for this absurd deviation

  42. Seems pretty normal to me by someones · · Score: 1

    When it rains a little all our rivers in europe look like this...

  43. Yes, I can by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    In the picture linked by GP, look at the guy in the background... or more specifically, look past his head and the color of the water in the river... on the right side of his head, it's ridiculously orange (photoshopped), on the left side it's orange-ish but more natural (probably real). We're talking about areas just a few meters away from each others, so there is nothing (in the light, etc.) that could actually cause that difference.

    That picture has been photoshopped and someone clearly has been either very bad at it, or has done it very fast (3 minute job, when he should have spent 15 minutes).

  44. Hype much? by Time_Ngler · · Score: 1

    You've got to like the last sentence of the dailymail piece:

    According to chapter 16, verse 4 of the Bible's book of Revelations, one of the signs that Armageddon is near will be an angel pouring a bowl into the rivers, turning them into blood.

    1. Re:Hype much? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The book is named "Revelation" not "Revelations".

  45. Re:Uh-huh.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    More like Apple decided it needed the blood, sweat, and tears from the workers, but at the least minute revised the design to exclude the blood.

  46. Yangtze River Dolphins by jayveekay · · Score: 1

    I see why the Baiji dolphins of that river went extinct. At least they didn't have to suffer through this red mess.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baiji

  47. Moderation... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I found RomanMir's comment moderated to -1

    I found the link went to a perfectly informative image, albeit its a Russian site, in Russian.

    I could only bump it up by one. Is there a reason Roman is getting trounced? I thought it was a good entry showing another place a river ran red, and appreciated his post - even if I couldn't read the text.

    All I can think of is maybe the site has some objectionable other content or nuisance I never saw ( thanks to NoScript ).

    ( I am posting anonymously so I do not reverse the moderation I did on this thread ).

    1. Re:Moderation... by TapeCutter · · Score: 2

      Is there a reason Roman is getting trounced?

      Probably his reputation. To some people mod points are a weapon to use on their "foes", I don't agree with roman_mir 99.9% of the time he opens his mouth about politics, but there is always a lot more to a person than their political opinions. Down modding his interesting and on-topic post above is just petty vindictiveness from someone he has offended in the past. Slashdot really isn't that much different to a village in the dark ages, some people get noticed more because of what they regularly talk about. If you're one of these people, (as roman is), and your opinions are unpopular with the wrong people, they will try and hound you out of "their" village. Meta-moderation is intended to smooth this out but it usually doesn't happen until after the post has gone cold.

      --
      And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
    2. Re:Moderation... by dbIII · · Score: 1

      He's got a habit of calling his opinions "facts" (eg. his opinion that the rise of capitalism spontaneously caused the cessation of child labour with no government involvement), which gets him modded down for pushing misleading flamebait IMHO (even though I'm guessing at the motive since I've been too lazy to mod in a long time). I don't see that as a sign of a broken moderation system.

    3. Re:Moderation... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you look at the breakdown (click "Score:") then you'll see he STARTED at -1. That's because of his karma, not because of moderation.

    4. Re:Moderation... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      the rise of capitalism spontaneously caused the cessation of child labour with no government involvement

      and this is both a true fact and at the same time has nothing to do with the OP comment, Mr. Troll.

    5. Re:Moderation... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is the way /. maintains a monotone echo chamber, every down mod decreases the Karma until the poster can leave only 2-3 comments per day and they are all at -1. Every down mod reduces Karma by a slightly higher score than every up mod, this way it's possible to moderate a comment up and then down from more than one account, to ensure that the Karma stays low.

      This way the posters that do not agree with the status quo ideology are prevented from participating in any discussions and thus the feeling of ideological cohesion is strengthened.

    6. Re:Moderation... by kaatochacha · · Score: 1

      But that has nothing to do with his post. Just because you disagree with someone doesn't make all his statements incorrect.

    7. Re:Moderation... by dbIII · · Score: 1

      No, it has everything to do with the post I replied to instead.
      It was a post about the moderation system and how people get modded down when they use a paticular style and had nothing at all to do with whether I agree with an opinion or not.

  48. El Yang-Tsé en llamas by Pseudonymus+Bosch · · Score: 1

    You reminded me of the film The Sand Peebles, whose Spanish title was "El Yang-Tsé en llamas" ("The Yangtse on fire").

    --
    __
    Men with no respect for life must never be allowed to control the ultimate instruments of death.
    GW Bu
  49. Re:Chinese lying? Unheard of! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Fat lot of good that did.

    The Japs should have been more thorough.. there's still over a billion of the filthy little Chinese crawlers left alive, a crying shame. Still, only so much one can do with a handful of bayonets I suppose.

  50. Re:Iron oxide, maybe a spill from an aluminium pla by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Wouldnt there be a death count at this point if it was a red mud spill? That stuff is toxic. At the very least it would kill the fish, but they show a guy fishing in the river.

  51. LET MY PEOPLE GO! by Chas · · Score: 1

    You've seen the movie. Don't make me go through all the stuff again.

    Just ask the Pharaoh...Oops! My bad!

    --


    Chas - The one, the only.
    THANK GOD!!!
  52. TOO BAD IT'S REAL IN THE GULF OF MEXICO !! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The chinese photos are fake but free !!

    As in I.P. Freely Beer !!

  53. Rivers of BLOOD! The end is nigh. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You know someone, out there, is thinking it.

  54. Oh shit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Someone found the red lead labeled red dye #2. What now?

  55. Re:Chinese lying? Unheard of! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yes, scream about the rightness of your views w/o offering even the tiniest shred of evidence to back it up. Well, lazy trolling or lazy historian. Either way, I suppose it's par for course on this site.

  56. Free enterprise will pick the right color... by krups+gusto · · Score: 2

    ... for the river.

  57. Garlic by slashmojo · · Score: 1

    Obviously someone blew up the local true blood factory.. time to get the garlic out.

  58. Mystery solved by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It may help readers to check out this post, Yangtze River Turns Red - Explained:
        http://www.rchoetzlein.com/theory/2012/yangtze-river-turns-red-explanation/

    Cause is definitely pollution, but questionably no more or less than at other points along the river.

  59. Nothing new, ask my wife... by gentryx · · Score: 1

    ...her "golden river" turns red every four weeks!

    --
    Computer simulation made easy -- LibGeoDecomp
  60. I've been wishing for their flag to turn gold... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They should try Visine... It gets the red out!

    (Signed: AlexLibman's sockpuppet.)

  61. Actually, no by jopet · · Score: 1

    Red mud is dangerous because of two reasons: first, it contains sodium hydroxide which is a chemicale base and caustic so that the pH is somewhere betwee 10 and 13. However, I would suppose that the pH drops quickly in the river after a few kilometers and only fish at the location where the mud entered the river would be severely affected.
    Second, it contains heavy metals but not in a concentration that would have an immediate toxic effect -- problem with that is that it will accumulate in organisms.
    The biggest portion of material in red mud is iron oxide in a very fine suspension and this can color a river red even when the mud is diluted with lots of river water already. I would suspect that with the traditional yellow mud coloring of the Yangtse, the final color of the mixture would indeed be more orange-ish.

  62. Re:Uh-huh.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Or from the dolphins.

  63. Red rain in Kerala by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_rain_in_Kerala

  64. China river turns red by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I know it happened last year for the same reason but I had no idea this time it had a reason

  65. Re:Iron oxide, maybe a spill from an aluminium pla by KDR_11k · · Score: 1

    At least that would distract them from poaching endangered species to sell as snake oil instead.

    --
    Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
  66. Next... by random_ID · · Score: 1

    ... behold, I will smite all thy borders with frogs and the river shall bring forth frogs abundantly...

  67. Poster Error by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Guess he couldn't find the "stuff no one gives a fuck about" tag.

  68. Explained by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Google search for:
    "Yangtze River Turns Red - Explained"

  69. haters gonna hate, investigators gonna investigate by foxx1337 · · Score: 0

    ... and more water will flow down the yangtze river till they figure something out

  70. they have been 1-upped by slashmydots · · Score: 1

    If you think this is bad, that 1 major river in India was so polluted it actually lit on fire multiple times lol.

  71. You're the real heretic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Another nut job chasing religions when we already have Eris.

  72. faulty translation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "The A, means no or not."

    premise rejected. You failed to grasp the nuance of the original Greek. You also chose to ignore the last century of modern usage of the word "atheism", Perhaps because you thought your definition was more convenient to sustain your irrational arguments?

  73. He must have filled that bottle at some point by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    He must have filled that bottle at some point, it's possible the red you see on his arm is from that.

    1. Re:He must have filled that bottle at some point by Jeng · · Score: 1

      If it was just his I could agree with you, but take a closer look at the arm of the person behind him.

      --
      Don't know something? Look it up. Still don't know? Then ask.
  74. roman_mir versus reality by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Is there a reason Roman is getting trounced?

    Probably his reputation.

    It's a bit more than that. Read back a couple weeks and you'll find a discussion where roman_mir injected his political/religious beliefs into a discussion where they didn't belong. There are, after all, some discussions on slashdot that have nothing to do with politics. He was called out on being off-topic and he doubled down by following up with more fallacies and eventually outright lies. He was down-modded accordingly.
     
     

    there is always a lot more to a person than their political opinions

    Unfortunately, with roman_mir, that statement is incorrect. Every discussion he enters, he brings back to his political/religious beliefs.

    No worries, though. If you are fond of what roman_mir says and want more of it, just look at his sock puppet account.

    1. Re:roman_mir versus reality by TapeCutter · · Score: 1

      If you are fond of what roman_mir says and want more of it

      Please don't insert words into my mouth, it belittles us both. I've verbally wrestled with roman and his socks about politics many times, and the posts you describe have a valid reason to be modded OT/troll. My point is that there is no valid reason to down mod the post in question, it's on topic and interesting. However given it's roman (and his reputation), the invalid down mod is almost certainly intended as a personal attack on him, not his post. I'm not sticking up for roman, I'm sticking up for the ideal that everyone (including roman) deserves a "fair go".

      Unfortunately, with roman_mir, that statement is incorrect.

      I reserve the word evil for very special people in history, other than that all men are afflicted with the same humanity, even Hitler loved his nieces and nephews. If you want a bit of insight into why he thinks the way he does, just ask him to describe where (and when) he grew up. He's actually unaware that he is doing exactly what he has spent his life trying to avoid - being a propaganda tool for the upper class.

      I cannot help feeling a little sorry for someone who believes what feels good rather than what is true, for a start they must be in a constant state of confusion. I don't want roman to go away just because he's annoying, I want him to think about Pravda vs Fox, wake up to what's going on, and get angry at the people who are using him. I don't imagine it will happen any day soon, he's an old fart like me, telling him he's been "doing it wrong" all his life isn't going to work, he has to decide to direct that "passion" toward self-skepticisim, and figure it out himself. Being a "feels good" kind of decision maker that is very unlikely. I'm not a fan of lost causes so consequently I rarely reply to his posts these days, when I have mod points I know I can save a point by letting others knock him down to -1. This particular post caught my attention because I believe the moderation is vindictive rather than indicative, it grossly offended one of the very few principles I have, "the golden rule".

      Anyway his sane post is now at +5 interesting and his insane ones are still in the toilet, maybe he will catch on with appropriate reward and punishment, who knows?

      --
      And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
    2. Re:roman_mir versus reality by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you are fond of what roman_mir says and want more of it

      Please don't insert words into my mouth, it belittles us both.

      The key word is if. I would never accuse anyone of being interested in roman_mir's religion unless they have blatantly stated otherwise. Just because he is of the delusion that he can make new converts to his religion by repeating their mantras ad naseum doesn't mean there is any reason to believe that to be the case.
       
       

      roman and his socks

      How many does he have? I thought udachny was new and possibly the only one. Are there more?
       
       

      However given it's roman (and his reputation), the invalid down mod is almost certainly intended as a personal attack on him, not his post

      He has, in fact, earned the -1 score that his posts start at. When he went total turned-up-to-eleven nutso a while ago he knocked his own karma into the negative. Notice that while his comments are scored mostly -1 right now, few of them are moderated at all. He could have stopped earlier and saved his own karma but he kept going.

      Karma's a bitch like that...
       
       

      I'm sticking up for the ideal that everyone (including roman) deserves a "fair go".

      He had a fair go. And then he went ...
       
       

      there is always a lot more to a person than their political opinions

      Unfortunately, with roman_mir, that statement is incorrect.

      I reserve the word evil for very special people in history

      I'm not sure if perhaps you misread me, but I do not consider roman_mir to be evil. Some of his religious dogma is beyond absurd, but he's not actually evil, IMHO.
       
       

      other than that all men are afflicted with the same humanity, even Hitler loved his nieces and nephews. If you want a bit of insight into why he thinks the way he does, just ask him to describe where (and when) he grew up. He's actually unaware that he is doing exactly what he has spent his life trying to avoid - being a propaganda tool for the upper class.

      Actually I disagree on the matter to a certain extent. I think that since he (at least, if you believe him) grew up in the soviet union, he used to live in an officially atheist state. I think he views religion as an escape from his upbringing and so he found the religion that was most in opposition to the application of communism in the USSR (prior to the end of the Soviet state, of course).

        He then made that religion his entire reason for existing.
       
       

      I don't want roman to go away just because he's annoying

      Oh, don't worry. He won't.
       
       

      I want him to think

      However he won't do that, either. His religion thinks for him.
       
       

      Anyway his sane post is now at +5 interesting and his insane ones are still in the toilet, maybe he will catch on with appropriate reward and punishment, who knows?

      I will bet you anything that roman_mir will not catch on. He found that starting a sock puppet was an effective way to continue spreading his gospel without worry about what happened to his regular account. He won't catch on, ever.

    3. Re:roman_mir versus reality by TapeCutter · · Score: 1

      I will bet you anything that roman_mir will not catch on. - Why do you think I put him in the "lost cause" basket?

      --
      And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
  75. Its the begining of the end..... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "The LORD said to Moses, "Tell Aaron, 'Take your staff and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt(China)--over the streams and canals, over the ponds and all the reservoirs'--and they will turn to blood. Blood will be everywhere in Egypt(China), even in the wooden buckets and stone jars.""

  76. Foxconn must have missed an Apple deadline... by TheSkepticalOptimist · · Score: 1

    yes, I said it.

    --
    I haven't thought of anything clever to put here, but then again most of you haven't either.