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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."

168 of 272 comments (clear)

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

    Obvious propaganda from the chinese communist party.

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    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 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.

    10. 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.

    11. 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.

    12. 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
    13. 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.

    14. 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.

    15. 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.

    16. 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.
    17. 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.

    18. 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....

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    1. Re:Apple has finally done it !!!! by aliquis · · Score: 1

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

  4. 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
      --
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    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 fa2k · · Score: 1

      that looks pretty cool!

    7. Re:Red? by fm6 · · Score: 1

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

    8. 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.

    9. 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...
    10. Re:Red? by richlv · · Score: 1

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

      --
      Rich
    11. 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
    12. 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.

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    13. 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.
    14. 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.

    15. 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)

    16. 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.
    17. 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.
    18. 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.
    19. 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.
    20. 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?

    21. Re:Red? by fm6 · · Score: 1

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

    22. 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)

    23. 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)

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

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

  6. Call me when it burns by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Red river? BFD.

    Cleveland's rivers fucking BURN.

  7. 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.

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    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: 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?

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

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

      --
      systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
    10. 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.
    11. 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.

    12. 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

    13. 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.

    14. 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
    15. 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
    16. Re:Some photos obviously enhanced by Aryden · · Score: 1

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

    17. 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?

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

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

    19. 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

    20. 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.
    21. 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.

  8. Re:Uh-huh.. by hey! · · Score: 1

    No.

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  9. Re:Uh-huh.. by turkeyfeathers · · Score: 4, Funny

    Blood from sacrifices at Foxconn factory?

  10. 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. ;)

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

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

    --
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    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.

      --
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    3. Re:That's nothing serious by fustakrakich · · Score: 3, Interesting

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

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

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

      --
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    5. 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. ;)

      --
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    6. 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.

    7. 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!
  12. 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

  13. 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 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.

    3. 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.

    4. 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.

    5. 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.

  14. 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/
  15. 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.

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

    I blame Obama. Who's with me?

  17. 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.
  18. 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.

  19. 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.

  20. 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"?
  21. ..and in other news.. by SirStiff · · Score: 1

    the next iPhone will be red!

  22. 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.

  23. 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.

  24. 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?

  25. 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...
  26. 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).

  27. 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
  28. 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.
  29. 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.

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

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

  31. 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.

  32. 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.

  33. 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.

  34. 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

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

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

  36. 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
  37. 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!!!
  38. 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!

  39. 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.
  40. 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.

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

    ... for the river.

  42. Garlic by slashmojo · · Score: 1

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

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

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

    --
    Computer simulation made easy -- LibGeoDecomp
  44. 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.

  45. 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.

  46. 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
  47. 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?

  48. 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 :)

  49. 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.

  50. Re:news! by Forty+Two+Tenfold · · Score: 1
    --
    Upward mobility is a slippery slope - the higher you climb the more you show your ass.
  51. 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.
  52. 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')

  53. 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.
  54. 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.
  55. 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...

  56. 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.
  57. 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

  58. 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.
  59. Next... by random_ID · · Score: 1

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

  60. 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.
  61. 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 ?

  62. 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.
  63. 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

  64. 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.
  65. 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
  66. 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.
  67. 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
  68. 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?

  69. 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.

  70. 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?
  71. 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.
  72. 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.
  73. Re:news! by kaatochacha · · Score: 1

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

  74. 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.

  75. Re:Wrist slap or a bullet? by WastedMeat · · Score: 1

    It probably also depends on his blood type.

  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.
  77. 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.
  78. Re:news! by Guignol · · Score: 1

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

  79. 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.

  80. 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.