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Beirut Port Explosion

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Re: Beirut Port Explosion

#181

Post by bamboleo »

anonu wrote: post #139

The point the video makes towards the end is a good one: just basic storage standards were not followed. Forget for one moment that this makeshift bomb laid dormant for years and nothing was done despite constant warnings from officials. Had port officials followed basic storage etiquette, like placing the AN in manageable clusters, separating those clusters from each other by a moderate distance, and not storing oth…

I missed the part where it mentioned 50%. From the "single point of explosion" part I just assumed that only 1 or a small bundle exploded.

Re: Beirut Port Explosion

#182

Post by bamboleo »

ouid wrote: post #146

I'm not sure I buy the argument that smoke plumes 1 and 2 have different fuels. The color change is fairly continuous, and smoke color changes continuously with the availability of oxygen.

As one material runs out, another material starts burning; You wouldn't necessarily get a jump in color just because 1% of the smoke is suddenly coming from another material. I wouldn't exclude the 2-fuel hypothesis.

Re: Beirut Port Explosion

#185

Post by smsm42 »

ryandrake wrote: post #64
oyashirochama wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean it will, just socially and financially.

Sorry, as someone who doesn't use Facebook, how does Facebook have the power make me disappear, socially and financially?

Organize and signal-boost the mob that wants to persecute you, ban and deplatform anybody who dares to defend you, promote any material saying bad things about you, suppress any material that says good things about you. You don't live in a vacuum, neither does your employer, neither do your employer's clients, neither does your family, neither does their employer, neither do teachers at the school you kids go to... etc. etc. You get the idea. You don't have to be a member of the platform for it to be used to attack you.

Re: Beirut Port Explosion

#186

Post by smsm42 »

jcranmer wrote: post #103
holler wrote: post #79

From a laymen's perspective, it's hard to imagine just how negligent the port authorities could have been in managing the warehouse. 2750tons high-explosive Ammonium Nitrate? Check. 50tons Ammonium Phosphate? Check. Stacks of flammable wooden pallets among Ammonium Nitrate? Check. 1000 flammable rubber car tires? Check. 23tons of explosive fireworks? 5 rolls of detonator cord? Check. I mean... how/why?

From what I understand, the warehouse was a collection of confiscated goods by customs at the port. So I can easily see that the managers at the warehouse didn't know and didn't care about proper safety storage procedures for these hazardous goods, since they hadn't been planning to acquire them in the first place. (In US legal terms, this would be recklessness). However, evidently some people (their affiliation is n…

TBH it is a really sucky problem to solve... As I understand the goods got there from some shipping company that in the meantime went bankrupt. The port authorities weren't able to just make 2KT of ammonium nitrate disappear - and probably were legally not allowed to anyway. There really was nobody who was responsible for it and no procedure for getting rid of it - it's not like you can just throw it to the garbage... It's a classic bureaucratic situation where nobody can or is willing to take responsibility, and if it wasn't explosive, these sacks probably could be in there for decades...

Re: Beirut Port Explosion

#187

Post by howlgarnish »

jordan_curve wrote: post #150
spurgu wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, fair enough. But then again those coalitions aren't generally static, but formed around circumstances, and thus don't necessarily create the same kind of blind team mentality that we see in sports for example. And the parties within the coalitions are still aware of their internal differences, they just choose to work together for a common cause, for a period of time.

That’s how it works in the U.S. as well. The political parties are made up of coalitions of voters and over time certain groups shift or change affiliation.

In Europe, you have coalitions of parties. This means voters have many choices along multiple spectra, as opposed to the US where it's one of R or D.

Re: Beirut Port Explosion

#188

Post by zxcmx »

serf wrote: post #177
zxcmx wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you ever thought about your house? The whole damn thing is fuel. Do you store things in the attic? plastic tubs? How about the basement? cardboard? Do you have wool, paintings, plastic toys, plastic anything, wooden anything? Look around you and the places you keep things. Oh my god curtains they are more or less just flame conduits. Your couches, your clothes, everything around you is fuel for a massive fire. I…

> Have you ever thought about your house? The whole damn thing is fuel. analogizing a house, the purpose of which is to store and house human occupants, ran by non-professionals, to a dock store-house that houses hazardous compounds and is staffed by employees is pretty useless. Yes, most everything is fuel. Storing large amounts of explosive chemicals is beyond the scope of purpose behind a household. Dock storehous…

Yes, you're right. They deeply failed as a port authority and a warehouse.

I was trying to explain why civilian city leadership might not have good intuition for why the storage issue would be a problem for them.

Re: Beirut Port Explosion

#189

Post by npteljes »

andreamutz wrote: post #130
npteljes wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

RTFA. There's a direct link to the media, and also a link to their github where there's an xlsx with links the original sources.

I RTFA. The direct link to media only contains snapshots of the video sources, not the videos themselves. The xlsx was added 1 hour after my comment was written, so I guess thanks are in order!

I see, sorry for the assumption!

Re: Beirut Port Explosion

#190

Post by itsthetruth »

tremon wrote: post #24
notrealpersonq wrote: post #23

Very well done video, however they avoided the controversial issues of the explosion. Everywhere in Lebanon, people reported seeing and hearing jets flying and even some videos show flying objects. They also never touched on what might have triggered the fire to begin with or whether there was a possibility of a weapons cache being hidden there.

or whether there was a possibility of a weapons cache being hidden there I disagree, they show that the colour of the smoke and the different burn zones/phases is consistent with the declared contents of the warehouse. Anything further than that would be idle speculation.

>[flagged] Hmmm...
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