Looks like really excellent work. Anyone know how the 3D models were built? What SW, how many person-hours, that sort of thing?
Beirut Port Explosion
201–210 of 226 posts
Re: Beirut Port Explosion
#202Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
At least where I've voted in the US, there are rarely only two viable choices for a state or national legislature position. Some states resolve this using primaries for D/R candidates, and a few use stricter runoffs where there are frequently several D/R candidates. At least in the towns where I've lived, there were noticeable policy differences between many of these candidates within each party, although I will readily admit that I doubt this holds for most of the US. Also, it's still generally not as widely varying in views as in countries with 3+ parties (if made viable through proportional or similar voting) instead of the multiple rounds system popular in the US.
Going back to the original point someone made in this thread, I think this two-party multiple-views system in the US actually helps a bit to drive polarization. Seemingly disparate views are drawn together under a banner of [party] with an obvious (not actually clear or cohesive) enemy in the [other party].
Re: Beirut Port Explosion
#203Earlier quoted context omitted.
> There are several videos showing flying objects and several people reporting that jets were flying. [...] I will say it again, there exists SEVERAL different videos that show this. Where are these videos?
https://asiatimes.com/2020/08/planes-heard-seen-in-skies-of-... Here's one article that talks about it. Again, there are plenty of doctored videos that are obviously fake but this article does not use them. And people here seem to assume that me asking about it means that I believe that that it was an air strike. All I am saying is that I wished Forensic Architecture had tackled these subjects as well and debunked th…
You are not going to convince a bunch of people that generally require evidence for their beliefs to side with you on another possibility if it doesn't rise above speculation. You cannot even find a video to link to, admitting many are doctored, you simply keep saying there are lots of videos. You are in the wrong community if that's the conversation you want to have.
Re: Beirut Port Explosion
#204Earlier quoted context omitted.
Everything about reporting this way is amazing, it’s an aspiring goal for on watchers of what data can provide. As you watch this you know that grant money is working hard here. Much respect for such a talented team bringing in complex engineering for all to consume.
> you know that grant money is working hard here Am I the only one who finds this a little disturbing? I mean the thing is beautifully produced, no doubt, I don't want to take anything away from the skills of the people who made it. But the slickness moves it somehow from "scrappy bunch who gathered all the open data & collaboratively figured stuff out" into a different category. More like "someone with very deep poc…
If I’m not mistaken Forensic Architecture have a lot of connections to the art world (and architecture of course, it’s in the name of the project). Some of them teach at art schools (Goldsmiths etc.), they were nominated for the Turner Prize. I don’t know if it shows a shifting definition of what art is, but it’s interesting that this is the context that (in part) enables them to do their work. It also helps to explain the attention to visual presentation.
Re: Beirut Port Explosion
#205This is incredible and I can only imagine how much time this took to create. Definitely also worth taking a look at their previous investigations at https://forensic-architecture.org/ .
I agree that this is work of very high technical quality. I was slightly disturbed, though, that this didn't include any interview from people working there, though. I realize it's neither trivial nor cheap to organize, bit it did leave me a strange feeling that I have trouble putting into words. Is there an element of arrogance in assuming we can simply "science the shit out of this" (to quote a well-known Martian), comfortably removed from the faraway site of a human tragedy and without involving any of the affected people, and call it a day?
Kind of like marketeers only trusting analytics and never talking to a single customer, but with an element of western arrogance on top of it.
Re: Beirut Port Explosion
#206Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why the hyperbole? "Big Brother" can disappear you into the night, never to be seen again till someone unearths a mass grave many decades later. Social media has no such power.
stochastic terrorism would enters the chat
Stochastic terrorism still isn't Big Brother.
Re: Beirut Port Explosion
#207Earlier quoted context omitted.
Facebook, willingly or not, is part of the same entities' sourcing and influencing activities. We know this as established fact. Both your side's and various multipolar others.
Snowden. Cambridge Analytica. Cozy Bear. Black Cube. "How the U.S. Military Buys Location Data from Ordinary Apps" https://www.vice.com/en/article/jgqm5x/us-military-location-... ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25113117 )
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Re: Beirut Port Explosion
#208In the past this kind of material would be collected and analyzed by state intelligence services. Combined by allies and used to gain leverage for individual or combined strategic priorities. Something like, “Here is how negligent you were. Install this person in power or we leak this and your people revolt and you won’t be able to walk away.” More recently, it seems, some news organizations have begun assembling rep…
> the advertising-funded third state Did you mean Third Estate? Or a state-like entity governed by ad revenue?
Yeah, I am a bit lost on that line. Third Estate refers either to commoners (in the Middle Ages) or the judiciary (in modern times).
Re: Beirut Port Explosion
#209I'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.
I'm not excluding it, I just don't buy the argument.
Re: Beirut Port Explosion
#210At 2:54, the commentator says "[...] as little as half of the 2750 sacks of ammonium nitrate".
At 6:06, the commentator says "The 2750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate [...]".
There is a possibility that they're describing 1 tonne sacks, but I'm left wondering whether they meant to say something else. An image search for ammonium nitrate packaging shows many 25-50 kg range sacks, and a 500kg industrial sack, leaving me a) wondering whether the report has sacks/tonnes confused and b) on many watchlists.
edit: A bit further on they show leaked in-warehouse pictures of sacks of ammonium nitrate that must weigh a tonne (with the number 1000 printed on them). Likely no mistake then.