Massive explosion in Tianjin, China

[Great Rumbler]

Didn't want to keep posting in the images thread, so let's keep all talk about the disaster here.

Heavy explosions have hit China's northern city of Tianjin, leaving at least 44 people dead and hundreds more injured.

Chinese state news said the blasts started late after a container of "hazardous material" exploded in a warehouse shortly before midnight local time on Wednesday night.

The blasts knocked doors off buildings in the area and shattered windows up to several kilometres away.

Hospitals are reported to be overwhelmed with casualties and thousands of people have become homeless and are sleeping in the open air.

That drone footage is incredible. I don't think I've seen destruction on that scale outside of tornadoes/hurricanes or WWII footage. Just crazy.

[Am_I_Anonymous]

Replicate America's work conditions in the industrial revolution brehs

[Tasty]

That window one... Jeeeeeeeze. No words. I'd shit my pants.

[studyguy]

Most recent reports I see are some 50 dead, 70 critical and like 700 wounded. No word on how many missing. The fact that there was an apartment complex a few blocks down from that chem plant seems awful tho. The invisible hand of the market looked like a fist that day.

[Great Rumbler]

Most recent reports I see are some 50 dead, 70 critical and like 700 wounded. No word on how many missing.

One report I saw said that a dozen firefighters were already confirmed dead and 36 were still missing.

[T-Short]

someone in Tianjin posted an AMA:

https://www.reddit.com/r/AMA/comments/3gsnd1/i_was_caught_in_the_tianjin_china_explosion_ama/

[VomKriege]

Most recent reports I see are some 50 dead, 70 critical and like 700 wounded. No word on how many missing. The fact that there was an apartment complex a few blocks down from that chem plant seems awful tho. The invisible hand of the market looked like a fist that day.

Hopefully, losses might not be heavier. As I said in the other thread, those casualties seems consistent with other disasters like that in recent years.

[Madrun Badrun]

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=0e5_1439474009

[BobFromPikeCreek]

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=0e5_1439474009

Holy fuck. You really get a sense of the scale with this one. Jeeeesus.

[Madrun Badrun]

https://www.reddit.com/live/veh2e41lp0he/updates/e2293c80-41f0-11e5-b81c-0eb2aee2097b

fuck

[Tasty]

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=0e5_1439474009

Listening to Madonna's Ghost Town while watching this was oddly fitting.

[benjipwns]

I can't comment on failure rates, because it's just not something - it's a moving target. What this consumer should worry about is the way that we've treated him. Y'know, things break, and if we've treated him well and fixed his problem, that's something that we're focused on right now. I'm not going to comment on individual failure rates because I'm shipping in 36 countries and it's a complex business.

[Great Rumbler]

I can't comment on failure rates, because it's just not something - it's a moving target. What this consumer should worry about is the way that we've treated him. Y'know, things break, and if we've treated him well and fixed his problem, that's something that we're focused on right now. I'm not going to comment on individual failure rates because I'm shipping in 36 countries and it's a complex business.

Is that something that Karl Marx said?

[Kara]

The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of quality control.

[thisismyusername]

Replicate America's work conditions in the industrial revolution brehs

While slightly off topic, I'll throw this in:



I'm wondering if the cause of this is the lack of regulation/oversight. That documentary I posted goes into the environmental problems China is facing and the (Chinese) reporter that investigates basically is told flat out "we have three departments that are supposed to oversight, but no one does it because they don't want to step on the toes of one of the others by claiming 'jurisdiction'."

(Oh it's also in Chinese with English subs so if you are a ENGLISH SPEAKING LANGUAGE AUDIO ONLY person uh... skip. But it's really good.)

[I'm a Puppy!]

Only the free market can save them now.

[benjipwns]

I'm wondering if the cause of this is the lack of regulation/oversight. That documentary I posted goes into the environmental problems China is facing and the (Chinese) reporter that investigates basically is told flat out "we have three departments that are supposed to oversight, but no one does it because they don't want to step on the toes of one of the others by claiming 'jurisdiction'."

This is, essentially, more or less what the books I've read on the Chinese Communist Party describe the entire state apparatus functioning like. (Since The Party and the state are basically inseparable for all intents and purposes.)

Everything is organized for top down Party diktats, even the most minor of issues, except that the bureaucracy has gotten so large, so corrupt and the expansion of their capitalist markets so uncontrollable that essentially their state entities spend all their time figuring out where to deflect blame to if they get noticed (like say, a plant explodes) and how to screw people above them so they can trample their corpses up the pyramid. The point of the one book was more or less that the Party's real problem is that it's too afraid to change things in its own operations despite having power and significant AGREEMENT to do so (like say, letting a local department make decisions that are reviewed by the central state rather than asking permission through 50 steps and channels and waiting for the state to decide), to make it work better so everyone just kinda sticks their fingers in their ears and finds excuses. And that its blatant and uncaring authoritarianism stems from this in that the one thing they can all agree on is roughing some people up and stamping some faces in concrete from time to time.

So, it's like the United States basically.

[Kara]

Not that I put a great deal of stock in that book, but I'm surprised informal networks don't exist to deal with the institutional paralysis. Managers post-collectivisation in the Soviet Union were adroit at this, for example.

[benjipwns]

It was a few books actually, I just happened to read those two mass market ones back to back, but yeah, they all mention that. Basically the way to actually get anything done is some form of bribery and "connections", which is why Westerners or Middle Easterners coming in with money get their way so easily. Because The Party promotes the "opening of China" and foreign investment so you get to tout that as you try and move up and plus all the bureaucratic blame shifting culture lets you hopefully side-step it.

And you don't even need to literally pay off the bureaucrats, just shit like taking them out to clubs and so on works. There was an article in some magazine I read where some Russian tycoon came into some city up near the border there (I think the one Bourdain went to) and basically just going out to clubs, buying drinks and getting girls to come and sit with the bureaucrat was all he needed to do to get some pipeline or whatever approved and regulations ignored.

EDIT: I find the Chinese Party stuff to be kinda fascinating as they try to cope with what they've unleashed. The Soviet to Russia transition was really kinda lame and what you expected in hindsight.

[benjipwns]

According to the Tianjin Tanggu Environmental Monitoring Station, hazardous chemicals stored by the company concerned include sodium cyanide (NaCN), toluene diisocyanate (TDI) and calcium carbide (CaC2), all of which pose direct threats to human health on contact. NaCN in particular is highly toxic. Ca(C2) and TDI react violently with water and reactive chemicals, with risk of explosion. This will present a challenge for firefighting and, with rain forecast for tomorrow, is a major hazard," Greenpeace said.

[benjipwns]

These were supposedly hit with just the shockwave, ones closer to the building in the background of another picture are totally mangled:



This dude is not giving up:


Yes, that's a hanger:


The one positive thing is that all the pictures of the ruined cars are because there's two major car factories or something around the site, they didn't have anyone in them or weren't workers cars or something.

From the related stories, this is a city in China, Wujiaqu's pollution:

[chronovore]

The not-giving-up dude's car looks like mine does in GTA V after a mission.

That smog is terrifying.

[Madrun Badrun]

https://i.imgur.com/qc7FPxa.jpg

[Brehvolution]

https://i.imgur.com/qc7FPxa.jpg

Looks like Fallout 3.

[Madrun Badrun]

Nah, fallout 3 looks worse without mods

[thisismyusername]

I'm wondering if the cause of this is the lack of regulation/oversight. That documentary I posted goes into the environmental problems China is facing and the (Chinese) reporter that investigates basically is told flat out "we have three departments that are supposed to oversight, but no one does it because they don't want to step on the toes of one of the others by claiming 'jurisdiction'."

This is, essentially, more or less what the books I've read on the Chinese Communist Party describe the entire state apparatus functioning like. (Since The Party and the state are basically inseparable for all intents and purposes.)

Everything is organized for top down Party diktats, even the most minor of issues, except that the bureaucracy has gotten so large, so corrupt and the expansion of their capitalist markets so uncontrollable that essentially their state entities spend all their time figuring out where to deflect blame to if they get noticed (like say, a plant explodes) and how to screw people above them so they can trample their corpses up the pyramid. The point of the one book was more or less that the Party's real problem is that it's too afraid to change things in its own operations despite having power and significant AGREEMENT to do so (like say, letting a local department make decisions that are reviewed by the central state rather than asking permission through 50 steps and channels and waiting for the state to decide), to make it work better so everyone just kinda sticks their fingers in their ears and finds excuses. And that its blatant and uncaring authoritarianism stems from this in that the one thing they can all agree on is roughing some people up and stamping some faces in concrete from time to time.

So, it's like the United States basically.

Speaking of which: http://science.slashdot.org/story/15/08/18/0152200/breathing-beijings-air-is-the-equivalent-of-smoking-almost-40-cigarettes-a-day

Eesh.

On topic: Any news about the recovery/turning the fire off at the chemical station since like three days ago? I haven't heard anything about this since.

[Brehvolution]

I'm wondering if the cause of this is the lack of regulation/oversight. That documentary I posted goes into the environmental problems China is facing and the (Chinese) reporter that investigates basically is told flat out "we have three departments that are supposed to oversight, but no one does it because they don't want to step on the toes of one of the others by claiming 'jurisdiction'."

This is, essentially, more or less what the books I've read on the Chinese Communist Party describe the entire state apparatus functioning like. (Since The Party and the state are basically inseparable for all intents and purposes.)

Everything is organized for top down Party diktats, even the most minor of issues, except that the bureaucracy has gotten so large, so corrupt and the expansion of their capitalist markets so uncontrollable that essentially their state entities spend all their time figuring out where to deflect blame to if they get noticed (like say, a plant explodes) and how to screw people above them so they can trample their corpses up the pyramid. The point of the one book was more or less that the Party's real problem is that it's too afraid to change things in its own operations despite having power and significant AGREEMENT to do so (like say, letting a local department make decisions that are reviewed by the central state rather than asking permission through 50 steps and channels and waiting for the state to decide), to make it work better so everyone just kinda sticks their fingers in their ears and finds excuses. And that its blatant and uncaring authoritarianism stems from this in that the one thing they can all agree on is roughing some people up and stamping some faces in concrete from time to time.

So, it's like the United States basically.

Unlike the US, they arrested those in charge of the company. In the US, the company would just declare bankruptcy and the taxpayers would end up footing the cost of the cleanup. All while the CEO and upper management are sipping Coronas on a beach somewhere.

[Great Rumbler]

Unlike the US, they arrested those in charge of the company. In the US, the company would just declare bankruptcy and the taxpayers would end up footing the cost of the cleanup. All while the CEO and upper management are sipping Corona's on a beach somewhere.

It's one thing to make your company look bad, it's quite another to make the party look bad.

[Cerveza mas fina]

I think you can get a death sentence in china for such corporate fuckups

Should have sent everyone on wallstreet to a gulag

[Kara]

A number of what we would treat as "corporate malfeasances" are capital crimes in the PRC, yes. Food safety immediately comes to mind.

[brawndolicious]

A number of what we would treat as "corporate malfeasances" are capital crimes in the PRC, yes. Food safety immediately comes to mind.

If you mean the former head of the Chinese FDA,  he was taking bribes to approve unsafe drugs that resulted in hundreds of deaths. Maybe if it was just incompetence he would be sent to prison but showing corruption at the top levels of government is probably what got him a death sentence.

In this case, I'm sure there was somebody being bribed for them to operate for 6 months without a license but there's no direct link yet between corruption and the  explosion.

[Kara]

http://en.chinacourt.org/public/detail.php?id=5

CHAPTER III CRIMES OF DISRUPTING THE ORDER OF THE SOCIALIST MARKET ECONOMY

SECTION 1 CRIMES OF PRODUCING AND MARKETING FAKE OR SUBSTANDARD COMMODITIES

Article 144 Whoever mixes the foods that he produces or sells with toxic or harmful non-food raw materials or knowingly sells such foods shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than five years or criminal detention and shall also, or shall only, be fined not less than half but not more than two times the amount of earnings from sales . . . if death is caused to another person or especially serious harm is done to human health, he shall be punished according to the provisions in Article 141 of this Law.

Article 141 Whoever produces or sells fake medicines that are harmful enough to seriously endanger human health shall be sentenced to fixed- term imprisonment of not more than three years or criminal detention and shall also, or shall only, be fined not less than half but not more than two times the amount of earnings from sales . . . if death is caused to another person or especially serious harm is done to human health, he shall be sentenced to fixed- term imprisonment of not less than 10 years, life imprisonment or death, and shall also be fined not less than half but not more than two times the amount of earnings from sales or be sentenced to confiscation of property.

Redactions mine.

[zomgee]

Yes, that's a hanger:
(Image removed from quote.)

I don't understand the significance of the hanger.

[Great Rumbler]

Cellphone antenna.