#1 2018-02-23 09:37:03
For all the bombs and boots on the ground we’ve launched in the last century, China is close to conquering the world without firing a shot, and you would never know from following the U.S. press.
In Chinese media, on the other hand, the Belt and Road Initiative was the most-mentioned topic in the news last year. This reflects the historic significance of the plan. If completed would likely represent the largest peacetime project ever, estimated to cost between $4 trillion and $8 trillion.
The project would revive the Silk Road of ancient times, connecting China, Central Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Europe with roads, railways, pipelines, communications networks, electrical grids and other infrastructure over land, and a maritime road that would connect ports from the South China Sea, Indian Ocean, Arabian Sea, Persian Gulf and Mediterranean.
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#3 2018-02-23 10:24:03
choad wrote:
Meanwhile, the Pan American Hwy remains stalled at the Darian Gap.
This is more like Eisenhower's Interstate system, plus pipelines and railways, but applied from the Med to the China Sea and south to Botswana. Plus port systems and NAFTA-like agreements in place to free the borders to pass the trucks and ships to feed the rising middle class of 1.5 Billion Chinese.
The most intersting part of the article is in the second half, discussing how the Chinese are doing it without state-department lead coercion and economic blackmail, ala the glorious US State Department. Instead Uncle Chen builds you a new dam, as long as you promise to let them run it for 30 years, then gives it to you. They get to hook you on a reliable electricity and then sell it to you for 30 years, at which point you will be in a better position to buy their manufactured goods.
And I've driven more than a few miles of the Pan-American highway. The state road in front of my house is larger, faster and in better condition than 90% of that road, and it touches only about 10% of the population of Central and South America. The Darien Gap is an engineering black-hole, that's for sure, but the Chinese would have that thing paved in half a decade. The question is whether they would let you build a bridge over their Panama Canal.
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#4 2018-02-23 10:49:51
Brilliant piece of work.
Just to stop and think that at the height of our powers the America's themselves are still a disjointed arena due to our politics and greed is mind numbing.
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#5 2018-02-23 12:08:59
GooberMcNutly wrote:
And I've driven more than a few miles of the Pan-American highway.
I have, too and each time it was a serious fucking nightmare.
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#6 2018-02-23 13:17:38
choad wrote:
GooberMcNutly wrote:
And I've driven more than a few miles of the Pan-American highway.
I have, too and each time it was a serious fucking nightmare.
We've driven from Prudhoe Bay to Fairbanks in July. It was great. You can keep the rest.
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#7 2018-02-24 08:59:37
Emmeran wrote:
Brilliant piece of work.
Just to stop and think that at the height of our powers the America's themselves are still a disjointed arena due to our politics and greed is mind numbing.
It's also kind of mind numbing that your grammar skills would allow you to put an apostrophe where it doesn't belong.
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#8 2018-02-24 09:06:36
Bigcat wrote:
It's also kind of mind numbing that your grammar skills would allow you to put an apostrophe where it doesn't belong.
Speaking of Grammar Nazis has anyone seen Georgie lately?
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#9 2018-02-24 09:12:24
Emmeran wrote:
... Grammar Nazis (comma) has anyone...
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#10 2018-02-24 10:52:23
Bigcat wrote:
Emmeran wrote:
... Grammar Nazis (comma) has anyone...
Don't you have a mountain to climb or an urban hunter to humiliate?
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#11 2018-02-24 11:41:52
No clouds, 60 degrees in February, today's a beauty to crack windows and blow the stink out...
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#12 2018-02-24 12:42:38
choad wrote:
No clouds, 60 degrees in February, today's a beauty to crack windows and blow the stink out...
It's a good thing Global Warming is a hoax or we'd really be fucked.
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#13 2018-02-24 12:52:14
BC - Are you back from Aconcagua?
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#14 2018-02-25 01:11:22
Fled wrote:
BC - Are you back from Aconcagua?
Yes. Got back a few days ago. It was a great trip but no summit. The weather wouldn’t stay good long enough. I love it there though, I might want to live there someday.
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#15 2018-02-25 20:26:42
Emmeran wrote:
choad wrote:
No clouds, 60 degrees in February, today's a beauty to crack windows and blow the stink out...
It's a good thing Global Warming is a hoax or we'd really be fucked.
Global Warming is just an analysis of the cause, Massive Climate Changes are the symptoms.
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#16 2018-02-26 10:47:32
Baywolfe wrote:
Global Warming is just an analysis of the cause, Massive Climate Changes are the symptoms.
Massive Climate Change is the norm for this planet and always has been. Occasionally a catalyst comes along that accelerates and intensifies that process, in the current case it's over-population and the pollutions that accompany that event.
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#17 2018-02-26 14:20:06
Bigcat wrote:
Fled wrote:
BC - Are you back from Aconcagua?
Yes. Got back a few days ago. It was a great trip but no summit. The weather wouldn’t stay good long enough. I love it there though, I might want to live there someday.
Sorry the weather did not cooperate, but glad you had a good trip otherwise. I have read about Aconcagua but never been there. As I recall there is a pretty long approach.
I have had the great pleasure of climbing and trekking in the Andes a few times. If I get to go back, I want to see the southern end (Chile, Argentina, Patagonia).
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#18 2018-02-26 14:27:35
Emmeran wrote:
Baywolfe wrote:
Global Warming is just an analysis of the cause, Massive Climate Changes are the symptoms.
Massive Climate Change is the norm for this planet and always has been. Occasionally a catalyst comes along that accelerates and intensifies that process, in the current case it's over-population and the pollutions that accompany that event.
Not disagreeing with you, the difference now is that these occurrences are more frequent and more violent than they used to be. Cleveland had a blizzard in 1978 that is still talked about to this day. Those type blizzards are now hitting the Midwest multiple times each year.
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#19 2018-02-26 15:02:02
Global Warming isn't about the overall height of the ocean, but the size of the waves. Higher highs and lower lows. It's the amplitude in the AM signal, not it's DC bias.
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#20 2018-02-26 15:09:30
OK, let me say what I really think.
1. Clean up after yourself, leave no trace - in fact leave every place better than you found it.
2. Don't over-breed.
3. Don't use more than you need.
4. Take care of your land (all land) like it's your most treasured possession.
5. Don't fuck with mother nature, there is an order to all things even if you can't see it.
6. You don't need that toy.
7. If she's too drunk to say yes she's too drunk to fuck.
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#21 2018-02-26 15:55:35
GooberMcNutly wrote:
Global Warming isn't about the overall height of the ocean, but the size of the waves. Higher highs and lower lows. It's the amplitude in the AM signal, not it's DC bias.
It's both, actually. The absolute level is rising too. As water warms it expands, and that alone will increase sea levels. But it's not just water expansion we're looking at because of ice melt. When you add all three together, we're basically fucked.
Last edited by Smudge (2018-02-26 16:16:01)
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#22 2018-02-26 16:00:26
Smudge wrote:
GooberMcNutly wrote:
Global Warming isn't about the overall height of the ocean, but the size of the waves. Higher highs and lower lows. It's the amplitude in the AM signal, not it's DC bias.
It's both, actually. The absolute level is rising too. As water warms it expands, and that alone will increase sea levels. But it's not just water expansion we're looking at because of the additional volume because of ice melt, which will also lead to significant increases. When you add all three together, we're basically fucked.
Don't discount Nature quite so quickly, expect the unexpected and do not discount the ingenuity of man. The biggest problem is that what happens next is anyone's guess; we are one super-volcano away from a mini-ice age at any moment in time.
We don't know as much as we think we do.
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#23 2018-02-26 16:47:32
Emmeran wrote:
OK, let me say what I really think.
1. Clean up after yourself, leave no trace - in fact leave every place better than you found it.
2. Don't over-breed.
3. Don't use more than you need.
4. Take care of your land (all land) like it's your most treasured possession.
5. Don't fuck with mother nature, there is an order to all things even if you can't see it.
6. You don't need that toy.
7. If she's too drunk to say yes she's too drunk to fuck.
On-board...exception being #6. I happen to enjoy "accumulating toys": skid-steer, dozer, excavator, 15 yd. dump, guns, ATVs, two beloved old pickups, and, of course the '79 CJ7.
Due to spontaneous episodes of C2H5OH-induced-risk-taking-behavior, the woman, who allows me live with her, "suggested" ties be severed with the Duckworth & Cessna.
In a soy-boy-esque moment of weakness, I caved and found them new homes. Murica.
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#24 2018-03-01 15:28:20
Gee, I wonder why I'm not reading any of these kinds of stories in the American "I support our troops" press?
As a friend’s five-year-old puts it, “China has three navies: the regular navy, the police navy and the sneaky navy.” Each of these three sea forces is the world’s largest of its type by number of ships — at least by some measures.
...
As Adm. Harry Harris, commander of the U.S. Pacific Command, recently testified before the House Armed Services Committee, “Across the South China Sea, China’s air force, navy, coast guard, and maritime militia all maintain a robust presence. Routine patrols and exercises ensure Chinese forces are in and around all the features, not just the ones they occupy. China routinely challenges the presence of non-Chinese forces, including other claimant nations and especially the U.S., often overstating its authority and insisting foreign forces either stay away or obtain Chinese permission to operate.”
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#25 2018-03-01 15:39:23
JetRx wrote:
Emmeran wrote:
6. You don't need that toy.
On-board...exception being #6. I happen to enjoy "accumulating toys": skid-steer, dozer, excavator, 15 yd. dump, guns, ATVs, two beloved old pickups, and, of course the '79 CJ7.
Due to spontaneous episodes of C2H5OH-induced-risk-taking-behavior, the woman, who allows me live with her, "suggested" ties be severed with the Duckworth & Cessna.
In a soy-boy-esque moment of weakness, I caved and found them new homes. Murica.
With all respect sir, "Need" is different than "want". In my small view of the world you can have whatever you want UNTIL it creates a problem for other peoples actual rights. You know, rights like life, liberty, clean water, clean air.
By all determinations the following are examples wants not needs: Race cars, Semi-automatic firearms, amusement parks and "the other woman".
And to put on my "Dad" hat for a minute: If I start hearing about it from my woman I will do something about it.
Last edited by Emmeran (2018-03-01 15:47:08)
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#26 2018-03-17 21:09:03
Emmeran wrote:
Bigcat wrote:
It's also kind of mind numbing that your grammar skills would allow you to put an apostrophe where it doesn't belong.
Speaking of Grammar Nazis has anyone seen Georgie lately?
Hey, y'all. Sorry, been out of commission for a while recovering from some surgery. I am well now, except for the stress of seeing apostrophes where they don't belong, and not seeing commas where they do fucking belong.
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#27 2018-03-17 21:25:33
Clearly, the lobotomy did not take. Well, better luck next time Georgie.
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