China has a problem and it's not the Wuhan flu.

[Darren]

But, of course Trump assure us that climate change is a hoax, almost as big a hoax as covid 19.

That bit about glaciers melting was obligatory in a story where flooding was of such a magnitude that glacial melt was inconsequential.

The question is what magnitude of flooding is being experienced? 100 year? 200 year? 2200 year like the flood in the eastern US in 1985? That was calculated by the USGS according to the man who once headed the USGS in WV.

There's been only one probable maximum flood (PMF) in the US. That occurred in the late 1800s in WV per the Army Corps of Engineers. A PMF is the largest possible flood.

[Big RR]

That bit about glaciers melting was obligatory in a story where flooding was of such a magnitude that glacial melt was inconsequential.

So you, who I presume has never been to China, know more about this than the experts ? I don't buy it.

[Econoline]

Since seasonal melt/runoff from Himalayan glaciers supplies a significant part of the water in the Ganges, Brahmaputra, Yangtze and Mekong rivers, it seems reasonable that a substantial annual increase in that seasonal melt would *NOT* be "inconsequential".

[Darren]

Any port in a storm. I wonder if they get access to Uyghur organs as part of the deal.

"Following weeks of feverish rumors, Iran and China have concluded a strategic accord. Last weekend, The New York Times reported on the contents of a final draft of the agreement.

In its opening line, China and Iran describe themselves as "two ancient Asian cultures, two partners in the sectors of trade, economy, politics, culture, and security with a similar outlook and many mutual bilateral and multilateral interests."

Henceforth, they, "will consider one another strategic partners."

Substantively, the deal involves Iran supplying China with oil at below-market prices for the next 25 years and China investing $400 billion in Iran over the same period. China committed to expanding its presence in the Iranian banking and telecommunication sectors. Among dozens of infrastructure projects, China will construct and operate ports and train lines. China will integrate Iran into its 5G internet network and its GPS system.

The implications of the deal are clear. China has opted to ignore US sanctions. Beijing clearly believes the economic and diplomatic price it will pay for doing so will be smaller than the price the US will pay for the diminishment of its position as the ultimate arbiter of global markets.

For Iran, China is a life raft saving it from total economic collapse under the weight of US economic sanctions.

The Sino-Iranian pact is also a military accord. According to the New York Times report, the agreement commits the sides to intensify their joint military exercises. Since 2014, China and Iran have carried out three joint military exercises, the most recent one, a naval exercise that took place in December 2019. Russia also participated."

https://www.israelhayom.com/2020/07/17/ ... -alliance/

[Darren]

"China-UK conflict fears explode as Beijing condemns 'very dangerous' carrier moChina-UK conflict fears explode as Beijing condemns 'very dangerous' carrier move

Relations between Britain and China have soured over the past few months over Hong Kong, Huawei and China’s handing of the original coronavirus outbreak. Speaking to The Times Liu Xiaoming, China’s ambassador to London, warned it would be a “very dangerous move” for Britain to station a carrier in the far-east."

https://www-express-co-uk.cdn.ampprojec ... -China-Sea

[Darren]

Since seasonal melt/runoff from Himalayan glaciers supplies a significant part of the water in the Ganges, Brahmaputra, Yangtze and Mekong rivers, it seems reasonable that a substantial annual increase in that seasonal melt would *NOT* be "inconsequential".

Did you miss the mention of unseasonably heavy rainfall?

[rubato]

did you miss the fact that glaciers are melting everywhere in the world?


yrs,
rubato

[MajGenl.Meade]

did you miss the fact that glaciers are melting everywhere in the world?
yrs,
rubato

Nuh-uh. Only in the places where there are glaciers.

[Darren]

"A senior member of an influential parliamentary committee on China this week spoke of “distressing echoes” for Jews in China’s “brutal suppression” of its Uyghur minority after 13 tonnes of human hair was found on a US-bound ship.

It follows a huge US Customs seizure of human hair products believed to have been taken from Muslim Uyghurs, more than a million of whom have been detained in vast indoctrination camps in China’s western Xinjiang province. "

https://jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/13 ... E4OnotQf2g

From another source (not my numbers): "Ok, if my math is correct; a head of hair is anywhere from an ounce to 5 pounds. Typically one to two ounces. There are 32,000 ounces in a ton. So, 16,000 heads of hair in one ton. Times that by 13 and you get 208,000 heads. So, China has about a quarter of a million slaves?"

[Bicycle Bill]

13 tonnes (that's a metric ton, by the way — 1000 kilograms or roughly 2200 US pounds) of hair?  Hair in that large a quantity sounds like most of it was sweepings off the barbershop floor.  Even "Locks of Love", which accepts hair donations which are used to make custom wigs and hairpieces for child cancer patients who have lost their own hair as a result of radiation treatments or chemotherapy, has standards and won't accept just anything you care to give them.

What I want to know is what does America want or need with that much human hair?  Stuffing pillows with it?  Or maybe some modern-day snake-oil salesman has found some way to liquefy the hair — which is basically keratin, a protein — and then combine this protein with water, oil, and an emulsifier to create a 'hair regrowth' cream — "Now enhanced with ALL-NATURAL KERATIN!" — to foist off on the suckers.

-"BB"-

[Darren]

"China’s Ambassador to the United States, Cui Tiankai, said America must make a “fundamental choice” about whether it can live peacefully with a “modernized, strong, prosperous” China.

Cui spoke with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria in an exclusive interview on Saturday, after a dizzying few days in the souring relationship between the US and China.

Earlier this week, it emerged that the White House is reportedly considering banning members of the Chinese Communist Party from entering the US, and on Thursday the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs accused America of oppressing and bullying China.

In response to claims by some in the West that under President Xi Jinping, China has become more assertive, expansionist and repressive power, Cui said “people have to fully recognize the realities of today’s world.”

“We certainly have the legitimate right to build our country into a modernized, strong, prosperous country, like every other country in the world,” the ambassador said.

“I think that the fundamental question for the United States is very simple,” he said. “Is the United States ready or willing to live with another country with a very different culture, a very different political and economic system … in peace and cooperate on so many and still growing global challenges?”"

[Darren]

"Founded nine years ago, Detroit Bikes LLC now produces up to 10,000 bikes a year, says CEO Zak Pashak. And it’s poised this month to begin assembling 500 copies of Schwinn’s classic Collegiate cruiser in a new partnership for an American brand that traces its lineage to 1895 Chicago.

“It’s a really tight schedule,” Pashak said of plans to build the revived Schwinn model. “This is the first time Schwinns have been manufactured in the U.S. in a long time. Manufacturing has been decreasing in the U.S., and this is a big step to change that. We’re going to need to step up our game for this one. But we’re ready to take on the challenge.”

The Schwinn Collegiate to be produced in Detroit is intended to reflect the leisurely aesthetic evoked by the 1965 version, says Ryan Birkicht, senior communications manager at Schwinn Bikes. They will be painted in classic Campus Green. A nod to the present is its eight-speed grip-shifter, an upgrade from the five-speed lever-shifter on the original.

The Collegiate is expected to be priced at $998 per copy and available as early as next month through Walmart.com. "Walmart is our No. 1 retailer,” Birkicht said."

[dales]

The Collegiate is expected to be priced at $998 per copy and available as early as next month through Walmart.com. "Walmart is our No. 1 retailer,” Birkicht said."

A thousand dollars for a copy of an old Schwinn purchased a Walmart?

What a pathetic waste of money.

[Long Run]

Dales, given the theft rate of bikes on college campuses, your comment is doubly so. OTOH, given the 4 year cost of college, the bike, if it survives the first September, its barely a tiny addition to the spittoon.

[Bicycle Bill]

"Founded nine years ago, Detroit Bikes LLC now produces up to 10,000 bikes a year, says CEO Zak Pashak. And it’s poised this month to begin assembling 500 copies of Schwinn’s classic Collegiate cruiser in a new partnership for an American brand that traces its lineage to 1895 Chicago.

“It’s a really tight schedule,” Pashak said of plans to build the revived Schwinn model. “This is the first time Schwinns have been manufactured in the U.S. in a long time. Manufacturing has been decreasing in the U.S., and this is a big step to change that. We’re going to need to step up our game for this one. But we’re ready to take on the challenge.”

The Schwinn Collegiate to be produced in Detroit is intended to reflect the leisurely aesthetic evoked by the 1965 version, says Ryan Birkicht, senior communications manager at Schwinn Bikes. They will be painted in classic Campus Green. A nod to the present is its eight-speed grip-shifter, an upgrade from the five-speed lever-shifter on the original.

The Collegiate is expected to be priced at $998 per copy and available as early as next month through Walmart.com. "Walmart is our No. 1 retailer,” Birkicht said."

This is what real cyclists call a BSO, or "bicycle-shaped object".

That same Schwinn "Collegiate" bike, when it was produced in Chicago in the 1960s and 1970s, retailed for less than a hundred dollars (I know about inflation and all that, but the inflation rate in the past fifty years is more like 500%, not 1000%), weighed close to forty pounds — and it looks like this new version is about the same, judging from the way the guy in the picture is hefting that thing, and was sold, assembled, and serviced at a real bicycle shop by people who knew what they were doing.  Now it's priced at a grand and will be sold and assembled by some pimply-faced kid in the back room of a big-box store — or even worse, being sent to Joe Consumer thru Walmart.com as an IKEA-like 'build-a-bike' kit.  And when it needs service?  All I can do is shudder.

And for the record, top-of-the-line Schwinn bicycles such as their 'Paramount' models were still being hand-produced in Waterford, WI even after the rest of the marque had been off-shored and was being built by a subsidiary of Giant Bicycles (Taiwan) in the 1990s and after.

-"BB"-

[Darren]

This is what real cyclists call a BSO, or "bicycle-shaped object".

That same Schwinn "Collegiate" bike, when it was produced in Chicago in the 1960s and 1970s, retailed for less than a hundred dollars (I know about inflation and all that, but the inflation rate in the past fifty years is more like 500%, not 1000%), weighed close to forty pounds — and it looks like this new version is about the same, judging from the way the guy in the picture is hefting that thing, and was sold, assembled, and serviced at a real bicycle shop by people who knew what they were doing.  Now it's priced at a grand and will be sold and assembled by some pimply-faced kid in the back room of a big-box store — or even worse, being sent to Joe Consumer thru Walmart.com as an IKEA-like 'build-a-bike' kit.  And when it needs service?  All I can do is shudder.

And for the record, top-of-the-line Schwinn bicycles such as their 'Paramount' models were still being hand-produced in Waterford, WI even after the rest of the marque had been off-shored and was being built by a subsidiary of Giant Bicycles (Taiwan) in the 1990s and after.

-"BB"-

If you've been in a Walmart you may have noticed they have very few bicycles to sell. I don't see the Schwinn as being a big step to sourcing bicycles from somewhere other than China. Still it's a step in that direction. It does show Walmart buyers are amenable to non-Chinese sources.

[Darren]

"India emerged as the world’s fifth largest economy by overtaking the UK and France in 2019, says a report.

A US-based think tank World Population Review in its report said that India is developing into an open-market economy from its previous autarkic (self sufficient) policies."

https://www.financialexpress.com/econom ... t/1871086/

[Gob]

I Saw a Peacock, with a fiery tail,
I saw a Blazing Comet, drop down hail,
I saw a Cloud, with Ivy circled round,
I saw a sturdy Oak, creep on the ground,
I saw a Pismire, swallow up a Whale,
I saw a raging Sea, brim full of Ale …

Darren, your constant posting of irrelevant shit is beginning to annoy me.

[Darren]

I Saw a Peacock, with a fiery tail,
I saw a Blazing Comet, drop down hail,
I saw a Cloud, with Ivy circled round,
I saw a sturdy Oak, creep on the ground,
I saw a Pismire, swallow up a Whale,
I saw a raging Sea, brim full of Ale …

Darren, your constant posting of irrelevant shit is beginning to annoy me.

I take it you'd rather read something else than the increasing economic, diplomatic and militaristic confrontations with China. I always wondered why people were such avid fans of soap operas when real events have the potential to affect their countries and their lives.

Do you support the possible move of the QE carrier to the South China Sea? Did you support its construction?

[Gob]

Can you tell me what you last post but one had to do with; "the increasing economic, diplomatic and militaristic confrontations with China"?

Your trouble is you're full of shit mate.

Do you support the possible move of the QE carrier to the South China Sea? Did you support its construction?

I couldn't give a flying fuck what your mad government does.