Water levels at China's giant Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze river are inching closer to their maximum after torrential rains raised inflows to a record high, official data showed on Friday.
With 75,000 cubic metres per second of water flowing in from the Yangtze River on Thursday, the reservoir's depth had reached 165.6 metres (543 feet) by Friday morning, up more than two metres (6.6 feet) overnight and almost 20 metres (65.6 feet) higher than the official warning level.
The maximum designed depth of China's largest reservoir is 175 metres (574 feet).
Authorities raised the discharge volume to a record 48,800 cubic metres per second on Thursday to try and lower water levels, and they might have to increase it again to avoid the possibility of a dangerous overflow.
Wuhan, Nanjing, and Shanghai are all downstream...
(Score: 2, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 22 2020, @01:17AM (12 children)
It's the god's punishment to Xi's CCP.
Dear CCP "Han" Chinese, repent!!! You have lost the heaven's mandate, and Xi the poo is the culprit.
The last time you fucked up, Manchus ruled your ass for three hundred years.
BTW, is there any connection betweeb xiaolongbao and khinkali? Just curious.
Anyways
Free Hong Kong!
Free Tibet!
Free UIghurs!
Taiwan Numbah Won!
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Mojibake Tengu on Saturday August 22 2020, @02:19AM (3 children)
And which god do you mean?
If I had to worship someone, I'd pick Lei family of the storm gods: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leigong [wikipedia.org]
They are all cool.
Concerning Tibet: they picked a wrong tech tree for research long time ago so they are weak now.
Concerning Hong Kong: the decolonisation proceeds somewhat slowly lately.
Concerning Uyghurs, a Turkic tribe: maybe they could live better if they return back to Turkey... Or, maybe not, considering a fate of Armenians and Kurds. Is still Turkey a member of NATO and big ally to all liberal democracies?
Taiwan, well, that's really number one: I vote for AMD any day!
Rust programming language offends both my Intelligence and my Spirit.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Phoenix666 on Saturday August 22 2020, @02:26AM
The Uighurs aren't from Turkey; they and the Turks are both from the Altai Mountains in Central Asia.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 22 2020, @02:51AM
You are sick.
(Score: 3, Touché) by PiMuNu on Saturday August 22 2020, @06:14AM
> Concerning Hong Kong: the decolonisation proceeds somewhat slowly lately.
Try disappearing a few more booksellers - I heard that helps.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 22 2020, @02:27AM
The absolute worst punishment God could inflict on any man is to make him into a ladies' man. That lives in the USofA.
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Saturday August 22 2020, @02:29AM (3 children)
> You have lost the heaven's mandate
Really? I hadn't heard that their military had collapsed. That is after all what "heaven's mandate" translates to in practice.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Saturday August 22 2020, @03:50AM (2 children)
Not quite. It usually means the respect of those who run the military, but there are a few other ways to lose it. For that interpretation though, you don't need the military to collapse, merely your control over it.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday August 22 2020, @04:02AM (1 child)
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 22 2020, @02:20PM
I read it was because Reagan rode in on a horse and pistol-whipped the entire country and they cried like little babies and converted to Christianity. God Bless America!
(Score: 5, Insightful) by PinkyGigglebrain on Saturday August 22 2020, @02:42AM (1 child)
This doesn't punish XI. It might punish the thousands of common people down river who had ZERO power to stop X but we will have to see how badly the dam overflows (fails?).
If your God REALLY wanted to punish XI he would be diagnosed with a rare and deadly aliment that had no cure, and even if it did the treatment would not work because it was "God's Punishmentl". If this was really God's Punishment then Xi would suffer for years as he wasted away in agony and pain.
But where is Xi while thousands of people are at risk of being killed in a flood? Oh right, he is safe far from danger in his "Presidential" estate being pampered by his attendants. Warm and Dry.
So much for your "God's punishment". Same can be said of all the tyrants in the world.
Maybe God has given us everything we need to make something of ourselves and said "Its all yours my children. Make me proud!".
And my how we have failed! But instead of taking responibility for our own actions Humanity as always has gone running for Daddy screaming "Daddy!! Daddy!! We fucked up the gift you gave us and need you to fix everything!".
Personally if my children made as big a mess of what I gave them as Humanity has of God's gift I'd disown them in a heartbeat.
Ever consider that maybe He has?
"Beware those who would deny you Knowledge, For in their hearts they dream themselves your Master."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 22 2020, @12:57PM
This is the prophecy (Ezekiel 34:2-6) against far too many of the governments of the world:
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Saturday August 22 2020, @09:51AM
In formal logic terms:
_|_ |= anything
(Immerman - ^ there's a joke up there in those parentheses, you are permitted to not laugh, that's fine, but please stop complaining about what is essentially your own lack of sense of humour)
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Saturday August 22 2020, @01:25AM
Chances are they won't get used more than once though
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 22 2020, @01:38AM (3 children)
Dang, the climate change is real. I'm still not convinced about the carbon business, but the climate change, you cannot deny.
I am in Southern California, and it's hot and humid as fuck in August. Hot, Indian Summer, that's normal, but the humidity is stupid out of whack.
Climate change is real, yo.
(Score: 2, Offtopic) by Revek on Saturday August 22 2020, @02:02AM
Normal night temperature here is 80 to 85 and 70+ percent humidity. Its actually been a little cooler than that this year.
This page was generated by a Swarm of Roaming Elephants
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Arik on Saturday August 22 2020, @02:17AM
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2) by Bot on Saturday August 22 2020, @08:36AM
>Dang
Missed golden opportunity to say DAM instead.
Account abandoned.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 22 2020, @02:22AM (8 children)
Wuhan is the source of the China Virus, so good, let it be wiped completely off the map.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Runaway1956 on Saturday August 22 2020, @02:31AM (2 children)
It's a long, LONG way from the dam to Wuhan. I was just looking around, it's claimed that about 400,000 people live in the Yangze watershed. A catastrophic failure of the Three Gorges would be one of the ugliest disasters we have ever witnessed. Entire towns and cities immediately downstream would be swept away entirely. Further downstream - like 100 miles - cities would still be crippled. It's hard to say how far down you would have to be to be relatively safe. Likely more than 200 miles. There are a LOT of people in the danger zone.
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 3, Informative) by Sulla on Saturday August 22 2020, @04:35AM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjHWkCdZdOE [youtube.com]
See the above simulation. Horrifying.
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 22 2020, @05:40PM
Live webcam from China. Shocking!
https://youtu.be/DNJfC9qtRuE?t=67 [youtu.be]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 22 2020, @02:54AM (4 children)
No one wants people to die except political assholes like you.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Saturday August 22 2020, @05:30AM (3 children)
Except people like that comprise a significant portion of the American public.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 22 2020, @06:00AM (2 children)
60%+ of the American public doesn't even know where China is. All your problems are with the 40% who vote democrat/republican. And really only half of those do it because they feel obligated. So the real problem is only 20% or even less of the americans.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Saturday August 22 2020, @01:24PM (1 child)
Wrong! Every American knows China is on the bottom of the world and that Chinese are upside-down.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 22 2020, @04:07PM
That is so very true. Everything in the pile "cheap china crap" that comes out is backwards (i.e., "upside down") compared to the rest of the world.
That is why your cheap china made electronics (i.e., the ones made by a china company, not contract built by china for a Eurpoean company) contains such stupidity as the "off light". What is the "off light" you say.... Well, it is a light that turns on when you turn the device off and turns off when you turn the device on. Exactly opposite to the way things should be.
I was also reverse engineering a cheap Chinese made coffee mug warmer a couple weeks back. Internally it used a small microcontroller designed as a touch sensor to turn on/off. Yes, a small computer in a coffee mug warmer so it would have a touch sensor an two heat levels. Anyway, the micro-controller needed 5-7 Vdc to operate. So the chinese engineer had hung the positive side of the DC filter capacitors off one side of the AC line, then setup two diodes as a full wave rectifier from the other AC with a zenier diode regulator to create a -5 (yes, minus 5) volt supply. Then the Vcc of the micro controller was connected to the positive side of the filter capacitors which was also one side of the AC line, and the ground of the micro-controller was connected to the pull down side of the negative 5 volt supply.
Which is exactly backwards (or upside-down) to how a European would design it. The negative of the caps would be ground (and be connected to one side of the AC supply, and the rectifiers and zenier regulator would create a +5 output rail to feed the Vcc of the micro-controller.
So yes, all Chinese are upside-down.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Sulla on Saturday August 22 2020, @04:28AM (2 children)
A few weeks ago there were some leaked internal reports that confirmed that the dam had moved up to a meter (no timeframe given). There are also reports from the original contractors that less steel was used than should have been, cement pours were done too quickly and that by time it went into service it had not all dried (revenue from the electricity was needed), and the anchors were not build to design specifications. It has held this long, so hopefully it continues to do so. Some 200 million people plus would die if this thing went.
Biggest concern I had was a few weeks ago watching the live stream of the dam the water started coming of the tubes weird and there were loud pops, ie signs of cavitation. Because the water level on the downside of the dam are so high if there was cavitation repairs could not be made. After this they started alternating spillways and the output decreased, they then started to alternate between the spillways in what looks like an attempt to even out the damage across the structure so you don't have a total failure, in the hopes that they could make it hold out longer. They also blew out some levies upriver to flood rice and corn fields to reduce pressure on the dam. It is hard to tell because the livestream was looped so you would see the same bug and bird fly by the camera at set intervals, I haven't watched in a week or two because of this.
An issue the dam has had ever since construction is that the power generation turbines have to deal with so much pollution and liter, and it builds up on the upper side of the dam and is rarely cleared. This level of throughput and debris could cause a turbine to fail, further decreasing output. Maintenance has not been done to the turbines in quite a while because shutting down a turbine means less power means less profit.
The battle is to let out enough water not to overload the dam but not allow so much out that it overloads the cities. Downriver the water is already higher than street level but is held back by levies.
Hopefully the rain stops soon
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Saturday August 22 2020, @10:29AM (1 child)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5O1w2UelZZQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AeCyM0DfoM
source: https://brucewilds.blogspot.com/2020/07/chinas-massive-three-gorges-dam-on-edge.html
Handy hint for dictators - if you want to rule a nation, make sure you've got millions of disposables in your population.
Strangely, this is actually good news for Brazil, because equilibria rebalance. Whether the disposables there will ever benefit is another question. (With the answer "obviously not, duh!")
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 22 2020, @01:02PM
https://youtube.com/watch?v=nybfjFkDowU [youtube.com]
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Sulla on Saturday August 22 2020, @04:41AM (3 children)
I have found the government narrative on this interesting as well, the following are the changes over time since this began.
1. This is a thousand year dam, nothing can stop it
2. This is a 500 year dam facing a 200 year flood, no concern
3. Why aren't Americans concerned the hoover dam will fail? Its weak and they should be concerned. US government lies say it is strong.
4. This is a 100 year dam facing a 200 year flood. It isn't the dams fault
5. You cannot blame the party for this, the engineers did not consider a 200 year flood
6. You are here
Again, hope it all works out and the rains subside. But as I mentioned in the previous post they lowered the output even though downriver can take more flooding, why are they lowering output when input is increasing and water level behind the dam is increasing? Hopefully this is planned for some reason we don't know and it isn't that they can't open more spillways due to cavitation.
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 3, Informative) by Grishnakh on Saturday August 22 2020, @05:33AM
But as I mentioned in the previous post they lowered the output even though downriver can take more flooding, why are they lowering output when input is increasing and water level behind the dam is increasing?
What are you talking about? From the article summary: "Authorities raised the discharge volume to a record 48,800 cubic metres per second on Thursday to try and lower water levels, and they might have to increase it again to avoid the possibility of a dangerous overflow."
They aren't lowering the output, they're lowering the water levels (or trying to at least) by *raising* the discharge volume.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by VLM on Saturday August 22 2020, @02:07PM
Another part of the narrative we are told we MUST ignore is the meme of Chinese buildings collapsing because the concrete is a thin shell around dirt and cardboard and trash and general landfill instead of being solid.
So WHEN (not if) the dam collapses and its found to be constructed far under specification, the Chinese will freak about trying to save face that its not example number million of shitty Chinese QA/QC.
My experience with Chinese QAQC both as consumer and as engineer is you'll get about 80% of what you paid for. So its trivial to "overpay" maybe 200% of QAQC and get aerospace reliable iPads. Or you can assume they'll save face, they won't if there's a buck to be made, and you get twist drlls at walmart that unroll when used, plug in power supplies with all safety/RFI features unpopulated or replaced by jumpers, etc.
The problem with designing a 1000 year dam in China is QAQC plus corruption means you're really only getting a 10 year dam, and they can duct tape that together for awhile, but its eventually failing as sure as the sun rises every morning.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 22 2020, @08:27PM
Please no not less, what is needed is more rain, harder rain storms, longer downpours. That is what is needed, even more rain above the dam.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Nuke on Saturday August 22 2020, @09:32AM (4 children)
I'd always assumed that dams and their reservoirs were designed to take a water level as high as the top of the dam, and a few feet more, with the usual structural safety factors over that. Then a excessive upstream inflow to the reservoir would be easily accomodated by an overflow the width of the dam, the dam becoming a weir and thus acting as a safety valve. WRT towns downstream, such an overflow rate cannot be any worse than a rate that stabilises or reduces the reservoir level using spillways.
I guess the main problem with the dam overflowing is undermining its foundations and subsoil on its downstream side - but surely there is a re-inforced concrete or rock apron there?
Or is the problem that this dam was designed by the same guys who design the household trash that is all you can buy in the West these days, and that falls apart just after the guarantee period. I thought that they would do better for their own home market.
(Score: 4, Informative) by FatPhil on Saturday August 22 2020, @10:35AM (2 children)
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by VLM on Saturday August 22 2020, @02:12PM (1 child)
And sometimes those fail like the Glen Canyon dam about 35 years ago.
You build a spillway, don't test it under full load, whoops a daisy you can end up with a huge mess even if the dam under normal operation doesn't or couldn't fail.
Yeah yeah yeah, its 2020 nobody forgets cavitation damage anymore. The real point is the Glen Canyon debacle happened after centuries of civil engineering. Its not like the failure happened the same week the steam locomotive was invented LOL. There's plenty of phenomena out there left to discover the hard way even in 2020.
Much like world history did not end in 1989 and progress in Physics did not end around 1900, there's likely more civil engineering left to discover.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Sunday August 23 2020, @08:45AM
https://eu.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona-environment/2019/07/18/1983-arizona-glen-canyon-dam-lake-powell-almost-overflowed-colorado-river/1662234001/
Interesting tale.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 22 2020, @06:30PM
It depends on the design of the dam. Many have overflow areas (some dont). The style used in China is is a gate control system where they open the gates and let the water out. However there if there is too much water/junk in there it can literally pick apart the concrete of the ramps to reduce cavitation next to the wall.
A recent example of an earthin style dam almost failure was a few years ago https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oroville_Dam_crisis [wikipedia.org]
Basically they had 2 overflows. The first one failed because of cavitation and poor maintenance. They closed it because it was going to take out the main part of the dam. They then resorted to the secondary one which is what you state. But that had the side effect of scouring the landscape next to the dam and could have caused a total failure also. Luckily it didnt.
Basically if the overflow fails it can create a scoured out area that the rest of the water will go through. This is true for any overflow system.
Some of the gate style have failed recently in the US too. Basically something gets caught in the gate and it yanks out a part of the wall. Which creates a weak point for the rest of the water to go through. It then unwinds like a zipper. The ones in the US were about 90 years old at the point of their failure. The US is also trying to remove thousands of dams that were built over the past 150 years. Many that will never fail but are just in the way at this point. The company that built them is long out of business and the reason for the dam no longer exists.
(Score: 2) by quietus on Saturday August 22 2020, @11:44AM
Could it be that the designers of Three Gorges dam, originally, have not taken into account [worst case] future flood risk projections, or that these flood risks were underestimated?
I'm asking, as the current water level is just 10 metres under the maximum design level.