Quote: Kenneth @ 28th August 2017, 3:54 AM

Steady on. How about the Korean War? We have Chinese intervention to thank for the creation of North Korea and propping up the regime. And how about China's ongoing maritime expansionism upsetting neighboring countries?

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C'mon man, get with the program. China is the world's biggest polluter, but the United States are the target of global warming scorn. People are free to say what they'd like about President Trump, while China blocks half the Internet from its citizens and jails political opponents, but it's Trump who's the fascist.

You know two people can be fascists at the same time?

Isn't Harvey over yet? Or is the hurricane bit over and now it's just rain? I've been watching videos of people taking their boats and just rescuing random people (and pets).

[quote name="DaButt" post="1178716" date="28th August 2017, 1:57 AM"] The governor of Texas is in a wheelchair after being struck by a falling tree limb while jogging, quote]
No offence to your governor but that's hilarious. Most of our ministers go jogging too because their PR team insists on it knowing they'll get snapped everytime by the paps and they especially like to be seen jogging in a crisis. Your governor goes out to show he's getting fit to tackle this crisis and he ends up a cripple being wheeled around by nursie. Priceless, I just wish that would happen to our lot.

Quote: zooo @ 28th August 2017, 9:30 AM

Isn't Harvey over yet? Or is the hurricane bit over and now it's just rain? I've been watching videos of people taking their boats and just rescuing random people (and pets).

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It's no longer a hurricane, but it's essentially motionless and dumping endless rain on the Houston area. They've gotten 25 inches of rain and another 15-25 are predicted over the next 3 or 4 days. The flooding in the nation's 4th-largest city is unprecedented.

Quote: Alfred J Kipper @ 28th August 2017, 9:52 AM

No offence to your governor but that's hilarious.

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It's not at all funny. He's permanently paralyzed (paraplegic) and the accident happened in 1984 when he was a young man. It has nothing to do with political optics, he was a track and field star in his younger days and he was an avid jogger.

I just read that Harvey is expected to have dropped 20 trillion gallons of rain by the time it's all over. That's almost 3000 gallons of rain for every person on the planet. It would be enough to cover the entire UK in a foot of water.

The politicizing of the disaster in Houston continues. CNN has a headline that says "It's too soon for Trump to go to Texas." (The story was written by a senior member of the Obama administration.) http://www.cnn.com/2017/08/29/opinions/its-too-soon-for-trump-to-go-to-texas-psaki/index.html

I remember when President Bush was attacked for not traveling to New Orleans soon enough during Hurricane Katrina:

"It was not enough for the president to bank his plane and look at the window and say, 'Oh, what a devastating sight,"' said Senator Frank Lautenberg, Democrat of New Jersey, in a statement on Thursday. "Instead of looking out the window of an airplane, he should have been on the ground giving the people devastated by this hurricane hope."

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/02/world/americas/bush-criticized-over-storm-response.html

The most important thing is to make sure there are huge crowds for any visits Trump makes. Nothing else is remotely important.

I saw a picture on the news today of a stretch of highway in Texas and it now looks like an ocean. It's unbelievable and deeply saddening and I pray for no more casualties. I saw flooding in 1998 when it rained constantly for a week and caused a lot of flood damage and widespread evacuation to parts of the town but that was a gradual effect over days and days of rainfall. I visited the area to witness the water levels with some mates and there was a raised footbridge over a river that had been completely submerged so the water level had risen by at least 3 or 4 metres. We were watching the raging river which had become muddy brown sludge instead of normal river water with just a single brick wall between us not reasling if that had burst we would have been swept away and proably knocked out by the rubble and drowned. We didn't hang around and I've seen footage on youtube that confirms the wall gave way and it flooded a retail park. I've never seen rainfall like that since and hope I never do again. It really was constant heavy rain that never stopped for a week. People were laughing about it at first but by the third day it was no joke.

Quote: Definitely Tarby @ 30th August 2017, 10:13 PM

I saw a picture on the news today of a stretch of highway in Texas and it now looks like an ocean.

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Yeah, it's incredible. Some places received 52 inches of rain. I saw photos of water that was within a foot or two of the large signs that straddle highways and I think they're typically 18 feet tall. Most homes don't have flood insurance, so the impact is going to be severe, with estimated costs in the neighborhood of $100 billion.

Lots of individuals and businesses are funneling supplies to the affected areas. People with boats are just loading them on trailers and heading to help out. Disasters bring out the best in people, so that's why it really irritates me when people try to politicize them. Give us a few days to think about something else, for f**k's sake.

For the last week or so there has been military aircraft flying high above us here in Yorkshire.
None of them were marked on www.flightradar24.com They were flying so high you could only see the vapour trail.

Then the bombers started flying over - huge aeroplanes, funnily enough with their bomb doors open
(I have photographs) I presume that they can't fly as high as the others.

The last time this happened was when there was big trouble in Syria and The USA went to bomb them.
They only ever say the USA but there were British jets going out too.

There is an RAF base up here and of course Menwith Hill, a large American spying and communications air base.
I suspect North Korea is the reason this time.
They will never mention this on the news but military aircraft are flying out to somewhere for some reason.

Just look at them queuing up for London

Quote: Stephen Goodlad @ 4th September 2017, 4:27 PM

For the last week or so there has been military aircraft flying high above us here in Yorkshire.
None of them were marked on www.flightradar24.com They were flying so high you could only see the vapour trail.

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It's not unusual for military aircraft to not broadcast identification/location information.

Quote: Stephen Goodlad @ 4th September 2017, 4:27 PM

Then the bombers started flying over - huge aeroplanes, funnily enough with their bomb doors open
(I have photographs) I presume that they can't fly as high as the others.

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The three bombers in current use (B-52, B-1 and B-2) all have ceilings of 50,000 feet or more, so they're quite capable of flying higher than commercial aircraft. What models did you see/photograph? They're all very unique and easily identifiable. I can't imagine why they'd be flying with their bomb doors open.

Quote: Stephen Goodlad @ 4th September 2017, 4:27 PM

I suspect North Korea is the reason this time.
They will never mention this on the news but military aircraft are flying out to somewhere for some reason.

Just look at them queuing up for London.

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I'm sure that the situation in North Korea and Syria is keeping our aircraft busy, but it's hard to tell whether it is related to what you have observed. I'd expect the bombers involved in Korea to leave from Guam.

I don't see anything unusual in that depiction of London air traffic. Looks like civilian flights to me.

The last picture and post was supposed to be seperate and just an observation of how busy London airport was. This site joins your posts up if you are the same next poster. It made it look like I was saying they were military too...which I wasn't.
The ones flying over were only going one way, south, and were noisy enough to make you look. There have been none coming back.

Quote: Stephen Goodlad @ 4th September 2017, 5:33 PM

It made it look like I was saying they were military too...which I wasn't.

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That's exactly what I thought you meant.

Quote: Stephen Goodlad @ 4th September 2017, 4:27 PM

Just look at them queuing up for London

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I have a setup (cheap Raspberry Pi microcomputer, antenna, Software Defined Radio and filter) in my attic that receives position reports from aircraft and feeds them to online services like FlightAware and FlightRadar24. Here's what I can see from my house at the moment. (Hills to the east and west dramatically reduce reception from those areas.)

I believe that the object at 60,000 feet is one of Google's Project Loon balloons.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Loon

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4850156/Police-dog-Connecticut-cancer-diagnosis.html

It's been a long time since I last shed a tear but that image of the officer with his face buried in his partners fur was too much.