Common Dreams reports:
The death toll from this week's fiery explosions at the Chinese port of Tianjin climbed above 100 on Saturday, while confusion spread over whether authorities had ordered the evacuation of everyone within two miles amid fears of chemical contamination.
[...] Anti-chemical warfare troops have entered the site, according to the BBC.
[...] Two Chinese news outlets, including the state-run The Paper, reported that the warehouse was storing 700 tons of sodium cyanide--70 times more than it should have been holding at one time--and that authorities were rushing to clean it up.
Sodium cyanide is a toxic chemical that can form a flammable gas upon contact with water.
[...] "The company that owned the warehouse where the blasts originated, Rui Hai International Logistics, appears to have violated Chinese law by operating close to apartment buildings and worker dormitories", journalist Andrew Jacobs reports for [NYTimes] (paywall). "Residents say they were unaware that the company was handling dangerous materials."
About 6,300 people have been displaced by the blasts, with around 721 injured and 33 in serious condition, Xinhua news agency said. At least 21 firefighters are reported dead.
Related: Large Warehouse Explosions Injure 300-400 in Tianjin, China
For the adulterated baby formula abuses of 2008 (4 infants dead; 12,892 hospitalized), 2 people were executed. One wonders what will come of this case.
Related Stories
Raw Story summarizes a New York Times report that Colleges across the country this spring have been wrestling with student requests for what are known as "trigger warnings," explicit alerts that the material they are about to read or see in a classroom might upset them or, as some students assert, cause symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder in victims of rape or in war veterans.
The debate has left many academics fuming, saying that professors should be trusted to use common sense and that being provocative is part of their mandate. Trigger warnings, they say, suggest a certain fragility of mind that higher learning is meant to challenge, not embrace. "Any kind of blanket trigger policy is inimical to academic freedom," said Lisa Hajjar, a sociology professor, who often uses graphic depictions of torture in her courses about war. "Any student can request some sort of individual accommodation, but to say we need some kind of one-size-fits-all approach is totally wrong. The presumption there is that students should not be forced to deal with something that makes them uncomfortable is absurd or even dangerous."
Greg Lukianoff, president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, said, "It is only going to get harder to teach people that there is a real important and serious value to being offended. Part of that is talking about deadly serious and uncomfortable subjects."
A summary of the College Literature, along with the appropriate trigger warnings, assumed or suggested in the article is as follows: Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice" (anti-Semitism), Virginia Woolf's "Mrs. Dalloway" (suicide), "The Great Gatsby" (misogynistic violence), and "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" (racism).
Note: The Raw Story link was provided to provide an alternative to the article source, the New York Times, due to user complaints about the NYT website paywalling their articles.
Breaking: Massive Explosions Rock China's Tianjin
At least two major explosions tore through Tianjin in eastern China on Wednesday night. According to Xinhua, the shockwaves from the blasts "were felt kilometers away" and shattered windows.
Chinese media reports indicated that the blasts occurred around 11:30 p.m. local time. People's Daily tweeted that the "quake" from the blast was "felt 10 km away." In a separate tweet, People's Daily cited the China Earthquake Network Center as saying that two explosions had occurred within 30 seconds, one magnitude 2.3 ML (or Richter magnitude) and [the] other magnitude 2.9 ML.
The number of casualties is still unknown; Xinhua's official report (issued at around 3 a.m. local time) noted "at least 50" people injured, while the official Twitter account of People's Daily said a local hospital "has received 300-400 injured." No deaths have been confirmed as of this writing, but two firefighters have been reported missing.
Update: People's Daily is now reporting 13 dead.
There were conflicting reports as to the cause of the blast. Initial speculation suggested the cause was gas or oil-related, possibly connected to the liquid natural gas (LNG) terminal in Tianjin. By around 3 a.m. local time, official Chinese media sources were reporting that the explosion started at a warehouse in the Binhai New Area of Tianjin, where "dangerous goods" were being stored.
CCTV had the most specific information, citing the Tianjin Public Security Bureau as saying that the explosion occurred at the Tianjin Dongjiang Port Rui Hai International Logistics Co. Ltd, "which handles the transport of hazardous goods." Xing Zheming of CCTV America said the first explosion involved flammable materials; the second involved oil.
Update: People's Daily reports that a representative from Rui Hai is being questioned in connection with the explosion.
Landslide, Explosion Strike Shenzhen
In Shenzhen (which lies directly north of Hong Kong), a mound of soil and construction waste, piled against the side of a hill, gave way on Sunday. Official reports say that 91 people are missing after the disaster. At least 33 buildings were damaged.
A major gas pipeline in the area exploded at around the same time. The local government attributed the explosion to the landslide.
- Channel News Asia
- South China Morning Post
- NBC News
- Telegraph
- Bloomberg
- Reuters (video without narration)
- New York Times
- BBC
- China Economic Review
- iCrossChina
- CNN
[More After the Break]
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 16 2015, @01:45PM
In China, generally speaking, everybody is violating some laws and regulations all the time. That is OK. It only becomes a problem when either something bad happens, or when you piss off someone important.
My experience in how things worked there where very different from how things usually go in NW Europe (it happens there as well, but on a much smaller scale).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 16 2015, @02:19PM
Is there going to be torture and finger chopping?!??!?!!?!?!
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 16 2015, @02:20PM
70 times more than it should have been holding at one time
The regulations are there, but not enforced. The governments can sit and make regulations all they want, but without a solid system to enforce them, its useless.
Think of speeding laws on roads: Many people won't give a crap about them if they are not enforced in some way. (not that I agree with speeding laws)
...abuses of 2008, 2 people were executed. One wonders what will come of this case
A few more will get executed, but it won't stop others from doing the same thing. Capital punishment never stopped criminals from committing murder. Profit-seekers will continue to seek profit by any and all means if there is no oversight. This is also one of the reasons you should never eat anything made or packed in China.
Over-regulation kills business, but non-enforcement of regulation kills the people.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Monday August 17 2015, @04:17PM
> it won't stop others from doing the same thing.
It will just remind them to funnel their cash offshore and keep the jet ready for a quick exit when bad things happen.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 16 2015, @08:58PM
> In China, generally speaking, everybody is violating some laws and regulations all the time. That is OK.
Corruption breeds more corruption. When 'everybody' is breaking the law, nobody wants to work with the 'goody two-shoes' who isn't breaking the law because it makes them feel vulnerable. If everybody is ditry they all have something to lose, but that one clean guy, nobody has leverage on him and you never know if he'll try to rat you out for competitive advantage or just out of spite. Ironic that the non-corrupt become targets of suspicion and distrust. In this way, once corruption reaches a tipping point it becomes self-perpetuating.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by gnuman on Monday August 17 2015, @01:32AM
In China, generally speaking, everybody is violating some laws and regulations all the time. That is OK. It only becomes a problem when either something bad happens, or when you piss off someone important.
Couldn't that be said about most places on earth?
For example, US has so many laws, that most people are breaking some at some point in time. And nothing happens, unless you piss off someone important or something bad happens, then you get 10-concurrent felonies for crossing the street not on cross-walk.
For business examples, look at the Deepwater Horizon 2010 oil spill in Gulf of Mexico. Multiple regulations were also ignored and nothing happened, until something bad happened.
(Score: 2) by moondrake on Monday August 17 2015, @08:44AM
>Couldn't that be said about most places on earth?
Yes. But my personal experience suggest that it is simply worse in China. Have never visited the VS though, so perhaps its the same there.
Also, I have been put in a position in China that no matter how I resolved the situation, I would break a law.
(Score: 2) by gnuman on Monday August 17 2015, @08:04PM
Also, I have been put in a position in China that no matter how I resolved the situation, I would break a law.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Cardinal_Richelieu [wikiquote.org]
If you give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest of men, I will find something in them which will hang him.
and this most likely predates him by many millennia.
For an example in US where your situation was (is?) endemic - in Florida with drug enforcement police.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/undercover-cops-florida-city-make-millions-selling-cocaine/story?id=20523714 [go.com]
There were cases when sheriffs were short for their "prison labor", so they colluded with judges to convict innocent passerbys of crimes just so they get money for their labor on farms. (sorry, can't find the link at this time). This actually went on for years until justice department started investigating.
Drive with cash? Oops, cash is gone.
http://reason.com/archives/2010/01/26/the-forfeiture-racket [reason.com]
The difference is that in China this is slightly more prominent, although there are efforts to eradicate this type of corruption. In Russia, on the other hand .... well, maybe stay in China instead.
(Score: 2) by moondrake on Tuesday August 18 2015, @08:18AM
Still, I like to think that in Europe, we left the days of said Cardinal behind us. These are generalizations obviously.
I also want to add that the 'corruption' in China often worked in my favor. I was very appreciated, and thus if I wanted something, someone would make it happen. This allowed things to proceed quickly and efficient, but I doubt it was always fair.
For example, in one case, I mentioned a person did not qualify as he was to old, but I was told by the government official that for my case, that rule could be ignored. Research funding (I work in academia) requires like in the EU and US, a written proposal. However, in China, meetings between delegates of Institutes and Universities (i.e. not the people who do the research) and officials in Beijing influenced the selection procedure significantly (with more powerful institutes or politically important delegates having more influence).
(Score: 2) by Yog-Yogguth on Friday August 21 2015, @05:27PM
You make some interesting posts. I don't think you're remotely right but I'm glad you wrote what you did because I think a lot of people would say something akin to what you did even though they're unlikely to have your experience from China.
Written proposals, or contracts, guarantees, laws, or even “supreme court” rulings don't neccessarily make any difference as to who or what is funded or at what level or who gets away with what and often doesn't seem to make any difference at all (good luck trying to get a government to follow a ruling against it unless you're “powerful” or “connected”, I know how that “works” from personal experience). Your description of China sounds exactly like the supposedly well run “super duper democratic” country I live in (northern Europe) and everywhere else.
/Except/ you make the Chinese seem more honest (!) (and even though they're probably not) about not following their own rules and less regimental about how things actually work. And of course they did it because they like you i.e. whatever you did was something they wanted, possibly desperately.
The fantasy of somehow being better is kind of strange considering how governments as well as everyone trying to do anything is always openly talking (or even “shouting”) about the importance of “networking”. Just what do you suppose that “networking” is? I can tell you it has nothing to do with writing proposals (formalities for the most part) and everything to do with scratching backs and trading favors (including criminal ones) and maybe some payback or mutual/reciprocal sharing of future endeavors. Sometimes some idiot involved actually takes straight cash but since that's so obvious and comparatively easy to unravel it's rare, only criminals are that dumb or only the dumb are/become criminals :P
Hopefully you work in something like physics¹ but have a close look at all the academic research that gets funded in the US and Europe that is nothing but advanced covert corruption and pay for fudged or obfuscated “correct” results: it's epidemic, governments and political parties do it just as often if not more so as private entities do, often they do it together or through each other, often we're talking about exactly the same people anyway and the only difference is what role they're wearing at that moment.
¹ Although if you work in HEP then don't kid yourself about ITER and other megaprojects like it. Massive spending == massive corruption.
All that aside (and more towards the original topic rather than a reply to your posts) consider Euopean and US examples of things blowing sky high; it's not uncommon at all with fuel trains/freight of hazardous chemicals (more than four in the last year or so? Not counting other lethal derailments nor the ones without casualties), firework factories/storage (at least three), fuel depots (at least one huge one in England not that long ago), chemical plants, and that's just from memory of the recent years. Once in a while there is also the odd workplace accident (deaths in industrial ovens and smelters come to mind from recent news) which I guess only make the news when they're extremely disturbing. And of course there's the whole US CDC/bio-labs nightmare. Sure this Chinese tragedy is bigger than usual but similar things are not at all uncommon “here” either.
Bite harder Ouroboros, bite! tails.boum.org/ linux USB CD secure desktop IRC *crypt tor (not endorsements (XKeyScore))
(Score: 3, Informative) by Gravis on Sunday August 16 2015, @02:38PM
today the head of the company that was storing 700 tons of sodium cyanide was executed. problem "solved".
the Chinese pretty much handle these problems the same way, kill the guy in charge and move on like nothing happened.
(Score: 2) by zocalo on Sunday August 16 2015, @02:52PM
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
(Score: 3, Interesting) by frojack on Monday August 17 2015, @01:27AM
What about the fire fighters?
Early indications are that their use of water on a material that combusts more vigorously in water. Should they have known better?
This same thing happened in West City, Texas when fire fighters turned their hoses on a small fire and caused a huge explosion. Because of death of a lot of firefighters, the review went out of their way to not blame them directly and instead pin it on a lack of training at all levels of government.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by Whoever on Monday August 17 2015, @02:29AM
A material that should not have been there? How were they supposed to know that it was there?
(Score: 2) by frojack on Monday August 17 2015, @02:39AM
There is no indication that the material was not supposed to be there. Where did you read that?, Or did you just make it up?
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by Whoever on Monday August 17 2015, @03:05AM
oh [theguardian.com], really? [dw.com] From this latter link:
Perhaps you should do some investigation of your own [lmgtfy.com]before accusing people of making stuff up because of your own ignorance? It's not that difficult.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Monday August 17 2015, @04:43AM
Maybe try reading TFS, if not TFA:
Two Chinese news outlets, including the state-run The Paper, reported that the warehouse was storing 700 tons of sodium cyanide--70 times more than it should have been holding at one time
So CLEARLY they had approval to have SOME Sodium Cyanide, and simply had too much. Approved, by the government.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by zocalo on Monday August 17 2015, @06:49AM
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
(Score: 2) by moondrake on Monday August 17 2015, @02:52PM
well, lets not jump to conclusions. Even IF they had a license (its not clear from that link, perhaps it just means that you can store up to 10 tons if you have approval), the firefighters may have had no knowledge of this. In general (as in labs where I work) storage of dangerous goods has all kind of string attached, but one significant one is clear labeling on doors and cabinets. This because when the building goes up in flame, people trying to put out the fire can make a sensible response (use water in this area or not, walk into this room even when there is minor fire, or simply clear the floor, etc etc).
Even when NaCN is present, it should usually stored in a safe way (do not know about Chinese regulations related to this however). If it was not stored properly, chances that things go wrong go up drastically.
When things like this happen, you generally are not going to file a 10 page document to your local government office asking them to provide you a list of the licenses they have.
This does not mean nobody has made a mistake, but it is silly to assume without more detailed knowledge that it was their own fault.
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Monday August 17 2015, @03:10AM
Well, either you use the firefighting materials that are sanctioned for whatever they had officially stored, or...what? If their records are lies how are you supposed to know what they have on the premises?
If they supposedly had 1x of the stuff e.g. in a single building out of 8 and they really had 70x the stuff spread across all 8 buildings how are you supposed to know better?
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 2) by frojack on Monday August 17 2015, @04:49AM
How would I know, its in CHINA for gotsake!
In this country, storage of dangerous materials has to be placarded, and fire departments have to be notified.
http://environmentalchemistry.com/yogi/hazmat/placards/ [environmentalchemistry.com]
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2, Disagree) by turgid on Sunday August 16 2015, @02:56PM
One of the features of a civillised, progressive society is one in which lessons can be learned from such incidents. Killing someone to make an example of them and shouting at everyone else, "Be more careful!" doesn't result in progress.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 1, Informative) by Francis on Sunday August 16 2015, @03:03PM
China isn't a civilized society in that regard. I lived there for 16 months and I don't recall ever having seen a single person learning from a mistake. I left and won't be going back any time soon speciifically because the foreigners are responsible for basically everything even when incompetent, racist managers can't be bothered to do their job. It's the Confucian culture. The people who make the decisions rarely see what the results of those decisions are. So you see people make the same mistakes over and over and over again because they can't put 2 and 2 together.
It's the main reason why I support them executing the top level executives involved. The younger Chinese are a bit smarter, but it's probably going to take generations before the school induced ADHD leaves their society.
(Score: 2) by turgid on Sunday August 16 2015, @04:59PM
That's very interesting. There was a BBC TV programme this week about an experiment where some British school kids were taught for a month by some highly-regarded Chinese teachers. The kids ran rings around the teachers.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Francis on Sunday August 16 2015, @08:12PM
Things are changing, I had some students who had been fortunate enough to go to classes that are more western in nature. Where they had to talk to each other in class, but in general for all the change, the schools are mostly stuck in the 12th century (or earlier) with very little changed since then.
Traditionally, the teacher has the knowledge and the students copy it. They're judged primarily on speed and accuracy, with no points at all for creativity or anything cross-domain . Things are changing, but the extreme level of top down thinking remains pervasive and the government has no incentive to discourage that way of doing things.
(Score: 2) by turgid on Monday August 17 2015, @08:04PM
Here's the programme about the Chinese teachers teaching British teenagers [bbc.co.uk]. Very revealing.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 16 2015, @07:34PM
I would love to see a few thousand CEOs, bank executives, criminal cops, corrupt judges (like the two that stole the lives of thousands of children that they sentenced to serve time in a private prison for millions of dollars in kick-backs), corrupt politicians, etc., hanged, guillotined, drawn and quartered, or other execution by exhibition.
A death penalty for crimes of passion / mental illness, like murder has no deterrent effect and should be abolished. But, a death penalty against scheming rich parasites and their sycophants is far more likely to have a deterrent effect. Especially, if it is carried out enough times that the parasites have a reasonable fear that they will succumb to one of these ignoble deaths.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by hemocyanin on Sunday August 16 2015, @04:39PM
As compared to the American way (do nothing at all) which is better? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Fertilizer_Company_explosion [wikipedia.org]
Has anything of a criminal nature happened against the owners and management of West for violating regaulations? No.
I'm anti-death penalty so I don't really think China's method is awesome, but then, the US method: "do nothing and let the average joe suck it up, so sorry about that" really sucks too. Another expression of the one rule for the population, one rule for the over-class.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Gravis on Sunday August 16 2015, @04:55PM
As compared to the American way (do nothing at all) which is better?
i'm not commenting on what's good or bad, i just wrote what's going to happen.
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 16 2015, @05:17PM
FTFY.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 16 2015, @09:12PM
According to its last filing with the EPA in late 2012 [. . .] Federal law requires that [...] DHS be notified
An agency that could have padlocked the West, Texas operation until they were in compliance with standards is OSHA (Occupational Health and Safety Administration).
The Neoliberals in Congress (privatize everything; kill off all regulatory agencies), however, have continually defunded that agency in keeping with the principles of Reaganism.
Due to limited regulatory manpower, the West, TX plant was last inspected in 1985. [google.com]
My original suggested department was
from the a-more-free-market-and-fewer-regulations-is-clearly-the-solution dept.
takyon retained the nub of that.
-- gewg_
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 16 2015, @05:29PM
And it turns out that the head of a faction in Beijing politics was directly responsible for overseeing the factory, so he was controlled, too.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 16 2015, @07:19PM
the Chinese pretty much handle these problems the same way, kill the guy in charge and move on like nothing happened.
The world could learn a thing from the way the Chinese do it. Imagine how much better the world would be if every bank executive, bought and paid for politician, criminal cop, and C-level executive were hanged for their criminal activities. In the US, there wouldn't be any of these parasites left-- because here they are all crooks.
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Monday August 17 2015, @03:07AM
It all depends whether the "fuck up and we'll execute you" causes the people in question to A) be law-abiding to avoid getting executed or B) be more careful while continuing to do the illegal thing.
Suppose if they can nail you with some random offence and execute you no matter what A) is basically right out the window.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 2) by Nollij on Sunday August 16 2015, @03:29PM
The difference here is who was affected. We all know that manufacturing in China is deadly to the locals, this will be forgotten (by the west) in about a week. No different than the factory fire in Bangladesh. Or the other dozen factory fires there in recent years. Or the story about how many people die each day from pollution in China.
The baby formula, OTOH, was a very big trade issue - China's been trying to portray its products as safe for a long time. It set them back a very long time, with many people still refusing to touch any food that comes from China. The executions were a show for outsiders. Now, if there are reports of iPhone users getting sick from this, things may change.
(Score: 2) by Snotnose on Sunday August 16 2015, @04:08PM
The baby formula, OTOH, was a very big trade issue - China's been trying to portray its products as safe for a long time. It set them back a very long time, with many people still refusing to touch any food that comes from China.
Not to mention the pet food fiasco of 10 years ago. I still avoid any pet food, or people food for that matter, that is made in China.
When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Monday August 17 2015, @02:15AM
I still avoid any pet food, or people food for that matter, that is made in China.
I suspect you're not alone there. My local supermarket used to stock Chinese garlic at about 10% the price of locally grown. Even at that price they couldn't sell it after the news stories about Chinese garlic farmers soaking the harvested garlic in bleach to get that nice white colour. I haven't seen Chinese garlic for quite a while now.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 16 2015, @08:31PM
Also, after a generation of one-child policy, babies are VERY important to the Chinese. Killing little Future Han Emperors is a good way to get yourself executed.
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Sunday August 16 2015, @11:52PM
Only male babies. Because, you know, females are only good for bearing children and cooking food. Males are needed to carry on the family name and ensure they can support their elderly parents as only males are breadwinners. It's an old mindset that has yet to go away.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 17 2015, @02:41AM
You [pinimg.com] might [chinadigitaltimes.net] want [fortune.com] to [fucough.com] rethink [wordpress.com] that [news.com.au] one. [amazingdata.com]
-- gewg_
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Monday August 17 2015, @12:10PM
Turn your sarcasm detector back on.
(Score: 2) by tibman on Monday August 17 2015, @01:49AM
Glad to hear it, i have been sick of iphones for years now.
SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
(Score: 1) by Francis on Tuesday August 18 2015, @03:36AM
Those problems are mostly a thing of the past. You still see people willing to pay large amounts of money for formula from Hong Kong and there are strict limits by the Hong Kong government to prevent their supply from being bought up by Mainland residents.
In the time I was in China, I got sick precisely twice, which is about the same number of times I'd get sick if I lived in any other place with a foreign cuisine and less frequently than I get sick in America. The big problem is the heavy metals that can build up without you noticing it. But, they do inspect the food much more closely now and I saw absolutely no evidence to suggest that the inspections weren't working. There were a similar number of problems there to the US over a similar period of time.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 16 2015, @04:19PM
WILL EARLY-MODERN EUROPEAN STYLE TORTURE OCCUR
(Sawing off limbs, smashing limbs and then burning them, cutting off genitals, pulling out entrals, all while alive)
????
100 dead.
(Score: 0, Offtopic) by JNCF on Sunday August 16 2015, @05:03PM
Video of the explosion can be found here. [youtube.com]