Massive Flood and Landslide in Nepal and Tibet - 200 Dead, 1,500 Missing

LurchAddams said:
A large section of a Himalayan glacier broke loose high in the mountains, near the Langtang region. A tremendous mass of ice and rock plunged roughly 1,200 meters (about 4,000 feet) into the Lhende Khola river valley. That set off a chain reaction: The falling glacier produced a huge ice-and-rock avalanche/landslide, picking up boulders, sediment and additional debris. The debris appears to have temporarily dammed the river. Water accumulated behind that blockage, and when it failed, an enormous surge of water, mud, rock and ice blasted downstream. River levels reportedly rose by roughly 9 meters — nearly 30 feet — in about 30 minutes in places. Interestingly, instruments initially registered what looked like an earthquake. The USGS subsequently determined that the glacier collapse itself generated the seismic signal — essentially, the landslide was so enormous that it registered like a magnitude-5-ish seismic event. As for why the glacier broke, that's still being investigated. Scientists are being careful not to say climate change definitively caused this particular collapse. But Himalayan glaciers are rapidly retreating, and warming can increase meltwater and thaw frozen ground while removing ice that helps support steep rock faces. All of those processes can make these high mountain slopes less stable. So, in shorthand, it looks like: Glacier collapse → massive ice/rock landslide → river blockage/debris flow → blockage fails → catastrophic flash flood.
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You say that like it's a bad thing, Felch.
 
Hawkeye10 said:
I have been told that when non party asset Chinese use VPN's to get to places like this they read only, because if they talk they will be found.
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Not all websites are blocked. In fact, a lot of websites aren't blocked. For example, this forum, and sites like CNN and AP News. I think the reason there aren't many Chinese people on this forum is that it's too boring. Americans aren't interested in China. Americans know nothing about China. There's really nothing interesting to see here. The reason I'm here is that I don't want to use a VPN. Using a VPN to browse blocked websites is illegal, and you have to pay for it too. Not interested in doing that.

Technically speaking, everyone who uses a VPN will basically be found out. But in over 99% of cases, it won't trigger any punishment. Unless you're an actor filming porn yourself, or running telecom scams, or browsing too much terrorist content.

I'm just saying what's very common in China. Take Taiwan, for example. You think I'm paid by the government? I can tell you, everyone I've met in real life, from when I was a kid all the way to now—people may have different views on many things, but on Taiwan, there isn't a single person who thinks Taiwan doesn't belong to China or that reunification shouldn't happen.
 
There are cases where people used a VPN and got punished. The fine is about 2,000 yuan, which is roughly 300 US dollars. But it's rare, and it's usually treated as some kind of "news" about something that hardly ever happens. A lot of people don't even know that using a VPN is illegal.
 
I find some Americans pretty funny. They believe that if you mention Tiananmen Square to a Chinese person, it'll shut them up right away, because the internet police will come knocking. Well, Tiananmen Square is indeed a somewhat sensitive topic, because it involves some kind of internal power struggle within the CCP. So it gets downplayed. It becomes something that pretty much everyone knows about, but also doesn't fully know about. But if you think a Chinese person will get arrested by the police just for talking about this on a foreign website, I think you're probably overthinking it.
 
Even someone like Hawkeye10 doesn't really understand China, let alone anyone else. That's America today. People don't care about China. They know nothing. They just need to keep hating. And pat themselves on the back for being a country of free speech and critical thinking. Of course, I'm talking about some Americans, not all of them.
 
It's a bit surprising that Americans are willing to go to the other side of the Pacific, about 9,000 kilometers away, and fight a huge war over something left over from a civil war in a country they're so unfamiliar with and so uninterested in. The fighting spirit of the American people shocks me. You really are the most battle-hardened people on this planet.
 
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