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Texas driving beats the hell out of the the plains states. At least you can drive at a good clip and see desert rock formations, especially in west Texas (West Texas into NM or AZ kind of rules for driving) Kansas, East Colorado, etc is magnitudes more mind numbing.
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Jan 13, 2024 08:09
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mlmp08 posted:Texas driving beats the hell out of the the plains states. At least you can drive at a good clip and see desert rock formations, especially in west Texas (West Texas into NM or AZ kind of rules for driving) North or south through Colorado with the Rockies over your shoulder is nice.
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Jan 13, 2024 08:44
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The Texas panhandle is probably the worst place I've driven through. Miles of scrubland in every single direction.
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Jan 13, 2024 08:49
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Acebuckeye13 posted:The Texas panhandle is probably the worst place I've driven through. Miles of scrubland in every single direction. I found the panhandle ever so slightly less boring than western Kansas. I-70 is probably the only road I'd consider using a self-driving car on. It's flat and straight and there's nothing but corn and miscellaneous grassland on either side.
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Jan 13, 2024 08:56
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My Spirit Otter posted:ive done this drive punctuated by a 4 hour nap a couple times I did Dawson city to ottawa, flew to pick up a car in calgary, then drove to ottawa again. And to find hotels to stop at it added another 300 miles or so to the trip. That poo poo sucked and i do not reccomend anyone ever do it solo in a passenger car. The 2 lane 60mph speedlimit highway suuuuucks.
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Jan 13, 2024 09:55
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The New Year's Day earthquake in Japan caused the ground to rise significantly in several places, including one harbor that rose nearly 4 meters in height, completely draining it of water. Here's a short article in English about it.  Land rose across some 85 kilometers of beaches across the Noto Peninsula, adding 250 meters of new beach in some places, totaling around 4.5 square kilometers of new land.  Experts are saying that this may have actually prevented a significant amount of damage that would have otherwise been caused by the tsunami, which in some cases reached a height of five meters. Essentially, the upheaval formed a natural seawall. I can't find a good English article on this, but here's a Japanese article, as well as a Youtube video with some maps, diagrams, and pictures. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mzs2uTlehSw In particular, at 1:15 they show this map of the peninsula where the earthquake occurred; areas in red are where significant ground upheaval happened, and areas in teal are where tsunami damage was recorded. 
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Jan 13, 2024 16:09
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So what you're saying is It's free real estate
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Jan 13, 2024 16:59
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That's a more interesting question than it comes off as. There's probably a trail of case law in Japan and Hawaii and other places about who owns new land out of the ocean - is it the adjacent property owner? the state? how do you handle easements if it's the latter? e: quote:“Rather than allowing only a few of the many lava victims the windfall of lava extensions, this court believes that equity and sound public policy demand that such land inure to the benefit of all the people of Hawaii, in whose behalf the government acts as trustee.” AreWeDrunkYet fucked around with this message at 17:12 on Jan 13, 2024 |
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Jan 13, 2024 17:10
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MA-Horus posted:So what you're saying is Lmao
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Jan 13, 2024 17:25
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MA-Horus posted:So what you're saying is Was thinking it's that earthquakes are the solution to sea level rise.
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Jan 13, 2024 18:01
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So, there actually was a tsunami, but the places it would’ve landed were saved because the ground also rose a few meters and stayed out of the reach of/blocked the waves? 
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Jan 13, 2024 18:56
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Stravag posted:I did Dawson city to ottawa, flew to pick up a car in calgary, then drove to ottawa again. And to find hotels to stop at it added another 300 miles or so to the trip. That poo poo sucked and i do not reccomend anyone ever do it solo in a passenger car. The 2 lane 60mph speedlimit highway suuuuucks. man, i've always wanted to go up to the territories. i'm getting my motorcycle back at some point this year so now you've got me wanting to look into the logistics of a motorcycle camping trip up there either this summer or the next.
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Jan 13, 2024 19:13
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Wondered why my shitheel GOP congressman was posting about his fealty to Taiwan this morning and found my answer. Someone talk me out of this being another example of biden having no clue re foreign affairs. https://www.reuters.com/world/biden-us-does-not-support-taiwan-independence-2024-01-13/ quote:U.S. President Joe Biden said on Saturday the United States does not support the independence of Taiwan, after Taiwanese voters rebuffed China and gave the ruling party a third presidential term.
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Jan 13, 2024 20:18
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stealie72 posted:Wondered why my shitheel GOP congressman was posting about his fealty to Taiwan this morning and found my answer. The US has a one China policy and has had that policy for over 50 years. It would be a dramatic departure from US policy if the POTUS did announce a sudden and radical call for Taiwanese independence from China. Taiwan operates as if independent without signaling or declaring official independence from China. If someone is shocked that the president did not call for Taiwanese independence, that is an example of them being ignorant of US policy, history, and current events. (It would also be shocking and unwelcomed by Taiwan itself if the US suddenly hollered about Taiwanese independence) It is not helpful that US news seems incapable of reporting the legislative and presidential elections in Taiwan through any lens other than how it relates to US/PRC posturing. But it's probably not exciting for US headlines to address stuff like Taiwanese home prices or something or how a traditionally two-party system has significant gains from a third party, which throws off the balance in an already confusing legislative Taiwanese legislative system.
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Jan 13, 2024 20:28
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mlmp08 posted:The US has a one China policy and has had that policy for over 50 years. It would be a dramatic departure from US policy if the POTUS did announce a sudden and radical call for Taiwanese independence from China. Taiwan operates as if independent without signaling or declaring official independence from China. I'm dumb enough to forget how much of this theater.
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Jan 13, 2024 20:29
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 "We do not support the independence of Taiwan" Sells Taiwan a $400,000,000,000,000.00 weapons package that includes Terminators. JOE BIDEN CHINA
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Jan 13, 2024 22:36
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It would be really funny if Taiwan agreed to a price of four hundred trillion dollars and the U.S. accepted an IOU for it. Debt ceiling solved!
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Jan 13, 2024 22:47
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fknlo posted:
An original part of the “one china” policy is a word game where you never specify whether “China” refers to the PRC or RoC. quote:The United States acknowledges that all Chinese on either side of the Taiwan Strait maintain there is but one China and that Taiwan is a part of China and does not challenge that position.
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Jan 13, 2024 23:08
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The Two Chinas situation has been such a joke for so long that ¡Jeb!, who is not a young man, grew up hearing his dad refer to his tennis serve as “unleashing Chang”.
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Jan 13, 2024 23:16
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Platystemon posted:The Two Chinas situation has been such a joke for so long that ¡Jeb!, who is not a young man, grew up hearing his dad refer to his tennis serve as “unleashing Chang”. Looking back at it the world would be a better place if someone 60 years ago had persuaded the Kuomintang to give up on the mainland and just make their own China with blackjack and hookers on the island.
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Jan 13, 2024 23:25
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Platystemon posted:The Two Chinas situation has been such a joke for so long that ¡Jeb!, who is not a young man, grew up hearing his dad refer to his tennis serve as “unleashing Chang”. Yeah it's a dumb diplomatic dance, but supposedly per Bloomberg business, it's a $10T hit to the global economy in a Taiwan war situation. And it's pretty clear Taiwan isn't going to eventually roll over like Hong Kong was forced to, so worth keeping the peace (and independent Taiwan) for as long as possible. But America can't exactly say that out loud. Diplomacy!
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Jan 13, 2024 23:26
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Taiwan had a seat on the security council until Nixon because the UN charter says China gets a seat but doesn’t specify who China is. The Formosa question goes back to the end of WWII, basically.
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Jan 13, 2024 23:37
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facialimpediment posted:Yeah it's a dumb diplomatic dance, but supposedly per Bloomberg business, it's a $10T hit to the global economy in a Taiwan war situation. And it's pretty clear Taiwan isn't going to eventually roll over like Hong Kong was forced to, so worth keeping the peace (and independent Taiwan) for as long as possible. How was Hong Kong forced? The UK had a 99 year lease. 1997 was the end of that lease and reverted back to China.
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Jan 14, 2024 00:14
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Technically the lease was for the New Territories. Britain owned Hong Kong proper outright.
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Jan 14, 2024 00:17
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lightpole posted:How was Hong Kong forced? The UK had a 99 year lease. 1997 was the end of that lease and reverted back to China. But “one country, two systems” was eventually discarded.
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Jan 14, 2024 00:18
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lightpole posted:How was Hong Kong forced? The UK had a 99 year lease. 1997 was the end of that lease and reverted back to China. Until ~2019-ish, China let Hong Kong basically self-rule itself. Then they didn't: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019%E2%80%932020_Hong_Kong_protests https://apnews.com/article/china-hong-kong-beijing-democracy-national-security-9e3c405923c24b6889c1bcf171f6def4
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Jan 14, 2024 00:19
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facialimpediment posted:Until ~2019-ish, China let Hong Kong basically self-rule itself. Then they didn't: Beijing had also said they'd let "one country two systems" keep going for fifty years before fully integrating HK but Pooh Bear decided he wanted his signature accomplishment to be bringing HK, Macao, and Taiwan back under the full control of Beijing so they jumped it forward a couple of decades.
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Jan 14, 2024 00:23
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Wasn't the treaty also supposed to guarantee Hong Kong's legislative and judicial independence for 50 years or something like that? Everyone I've ever met from Hong Kong is very adamant that they are from Hong Kong, not China.
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Jan 14, 2024 00:46
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psydude posted:Everyone I've ever met from Hong Kong is very adamant that they are from Hong Kong, not China. I’ve never met Jackie Chan either.
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Jan 14, 2024 01:10
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lightpole posted:How was Hong Kong forced? The UK had a 99 year lease. 1997 was the end of that lease and reverted back to China. Hong kong preferred to remain a british colony. There was very little trust that beijing would respect the free speech, free market, and democracy hong kong enjoyed, which is why the CCP spent so much time promising 一国两制 "one country, two systems" and 五十年不变 "no change for fifty years". Even then, hong kongers, if they had a say, would have demanded a more concrete guarantee than deng's promises. which, in hindsight, mlmp08 posted:I’ve never met Jackie Chan either. the uber-wealthy in hong kong have been more than happy to throw the laobaixing under the bus in exchange for becoming part of the CCP aristocracy
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Jan 14, 2024 01:29
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i thought they werent loving with macao for money printing reasons
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Jan 14, 2024 01:44
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My Spirit Otter posted:i thought they werent loving with macao for money printing reasons Similar poo poo is happening there with bullshit disqualifying of candidates for office but HK has always enjoyed much stronger brand recognition. Macao has also generally had fewer protests than its neighbor so there have been fewer attention catching crackdowns there.
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Jan 14, 2024 01:51
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https://twitter.com/USArmyPSMag/status/1745849356383572413
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Jan 14, 2024 01:52
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o7
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Jan 14, 2024 01:53
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https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/congressional-leaders-reach-short-term-spending-deal-keep-government-o-rcna133833 "WASHINGTON — House and Senate leaders have reached an agreement on a short-term spending deal that would avert a government shutdown in the next few weeks, three sources familiar with the matter told NBC News."
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Jan 14, 2024 02:48
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Shame, this was one of the easiest ways to explain maintenance poo poo to boots and officers. Sometimes for poo poo as simple as "yes that sight has two battery slots that need to be filled or it wont turn on" or "yes you have to send the paperwork with the goddamn item or it wont get fixed you goddamned cockslobbering shitwhistle.
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Jan 14, 2024 02:59
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Icon Of Sin posted:So, there actually was a tsunami, but the places it would’ve landed were saved because the ground also rose a few meters and stayed out of the reach of/blocked the waves? Yes, pretty much. It looks like ground upheaval may have prevented damage on the northern coast of the peninsula, although there was a lot of damage from the tsunami on the eastern coast of the peninsula. This chart shows GPS measurements for how much the ground moved after the earthquake. The left half shows vertical displacement, and the right half east/west displacement; red means 2+ meters of upheaval on the left map, and dark blue means 2+ meters of westward displacement. Notice how almost the entire northern coast shows some upheaval, and compare that to the map in my earlier post that shows where tsunami damage was recorded.  I made a post a few days after the earthquake stating that there didn't seem to be much damage, but it looks like I spoke too soon. It wasn't like the far-reaching tsunami from 2011 that obliterated entire towns, at least - the damage was mostly limited to within a few hundred meters from the coast. The fault that caused the earthquake and tsunami was also very close to the coast, and in some cases the tsunami reached the shore less than a minute after the earthquake started. The tsunami warning was issued about 5 minutes after the earthquake, so it had likely already reached land before some people had a chance to evacuate. As of this post, the death toll is up to 220 people and 23 people missing. An example of the damage caused by the tsunami: https://i.imgur.com/zIm9JLn.png Image not embedded in case people don't want to see a bunch of destroyed houses.
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Jan 14, 2024 07:21
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F
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Jan 14, 2024 08:12
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I got a homie who's doing an internship for a fed agency. Because of the way it was funded, every time a US government shutdown comes up, he gets all stoked for his indefinite paid vacation. The fact that he's managed to get cockblocked three times in his June-June year by the most dysfunctional house caucus since like, 1856 is  .
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Jan 14, 2024 16:47
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Before the law mandating back pay was signed, there were a lot of feds around me that were a tad leveraged and absolutely wanted to be the ones still working just for the pay guarantee. Also, not just House GOP losing their minds: https://twitter.com/AricToler/status/1746680874534416540?t=RUEYsL9UGk9g1zOXMGPrew&s=19 It appears that the dude gave up so no killdozering, just some weird skid steering. https://twitter.com/JeffMcRichards/status/1746680710033789383?t=u1WDFhFC5lr5rU-7awV54w&s=19
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Jan 15, 2024 01:05
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