Half snow - half mud - looks like winter is over.

I would bet; I imagine that the fish wintering under the ice had a tough moment with that shockwave.

In another note: why didn't the water put out the fuse? From simple starvation of oxygen if not actual dousing?

The doldrums of winter, the long election cycle, the perception by most that 2016 was terrible. Perhaps people are just all talked out at this point?

You're kidding, right? Kiwis can swear with the best of them!

And yeah, I'm in chch, but I'm a frequent visitor to qtown, especially in winter.

And this looks like some *quality mayhem!

I'm nowhere near as fast as these guys, but that looks like some epic fun. Crazy downhill kids!

*promote

Well--this took a while to come out; maybe this is rising because it's winter time now?

lol

I do agree that unilateral disarmament is a difficult thing to achieve, but there are other arguments as to why it should be pursued. I am sure we agree on a lot of things on this subject, but let me at least put the other side out there:

1. America as the over achieving nation in the world has a duty to lead by example. How can the country with the largest nuclear arsenal expect other countries to start the process that we all signed up to? Hey France, why didn't you get rid of your 87 nukes? Well America, why haven't you touched that pile of 500? (making up numbers here to illustrate the point)

2. The US isn't worried about Best Korea nuking them because they would need a staging platform and a functional ballistic missile. They can be launched from subs, but NK isn't really your worry there. The most developed nations are the concern, and if you could get an agreement it could happen, with peacekeepers and mutually open inspections, and pressure on smaller countries to abide or be trade embargoed to stop them (which the west does/has done already). Unlikely as things are right now, i agree.

3. We have ageing equipment housing extremely dangerous explosives. They require a huge amount of maintenance and whatnot, costing billions. The UK has to replace their system soon to the tune of hundreds of billions of pounds. Imagine what kind of alternative modern anti-nuclear defence system we could develop using all that money and all our technology? That way we could be safe from nukes without using nukes and it would cost less in the long run.

Also if you claim your weapons as part of a defence, it's a bit of a giveaway that you're bullshitting if you then go off around the world antagonising other countries, knowing that they can't really fight back. So i think in fairness we should crack open that self-defence argument and see what percentage of it is referring to "a good offence".

Having said all that, binning all the US nukes overnight wouldn't be a great idea. The UK would be less of a target and safer without nukes imo, but the US would probably make the world a lot safer just by having less.

Let's be honest here, the amount of nukes we have is preposterous. No one could possibly have any reason to use that many, the potential for absolute worldwide devastation is far too high to need that many - you could potentially finish the world off in a nuclear winter, according to the average figures given, in about 100 'small' nukes. Not 100 each per country, but 100 total worldwide.

And remember, that doesn't mean you can use 90 and be safe. The figure 100 was enough to likely cause a global famine by causing temperature drops leading to crop failures. That doesn't account for extinction of animals and the devastation of the natural balance (which would lead to our eventual extinction) which can be wildly unpredictable. You could shoot 40 at a country, win the conflict, and cause the starvation of millions+ in your own (and other) countries for the next 20 odd years..... or worse.

Or CoD4 Winter Crash...

Babylon's Ashes has hit the shelves last week -- a copy is waiting for me at home, but I dare not touch it. It's the most addictive sci-fi universe out there and the bloody suspense at the end of each book was killing me. It's worse than waiting for The Winds of Winter...

I know you're being funny, but if that was his actual intention, he should have backed down incrementally. The fact he's just using, at best, winter tires alone is also foolish. His company or department would know conditions were bad enough for chains.

Hipster millennials might have to put up with that shit, but I never had anything but amazing turkey in my youth.

To this day, my Xmas in july (Southern Hemisphere winter) dinners are the stuff of legend.

If you dare impugn my countrymans amazing turkey, you will have to come to NZ and I will cook a fantastic meal for you! That'll learn ya...

Your video, Could Humans Survive a Nuclear Winter?, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

Blame presumes guilt. There's no guilt in voting for your interests, even if others don't understand them.

Reasons for those voting decisions are interesting, but also very hard to get since the media ignores everything between the coasts, and even the diverse internet is so full of filter bubbles that you're basically funneled straight into echo chambers. At least on my end, the Silicon Valley/Hollywood culture is drowning out everything else -- and I'm a commie outsider who doesn't give a shit about celebrities or "save zones".

That said, the election is just the most recent culmination of an ongoing, decades-long development. But that's beyond the point, so...

Populism trumps business as usual if business as usual leads to Detroit, Cleveland and Camden. Or the rural areas on the coast of Louisiana, which were hit much harder than New Orleans and still look worse than Chernobyl, 11 years after the fact.

So the question is: did you a) fail to provide an alternative, b) fail to make a convincing case for that alternative, c) decide against trying to convince those that think differently, or d) not even realize that not everybody shares your perception of reality.

Given the tone of the reactions, the collective damnation of Trump voters as (insert any insult in the book), I'm thinking that d) is a much bigger issue than anyone is willing to admit.

In short, I blame George R. R. Martin. If he had published The Winds of Winter by now, all would be well.

From the guy who owns the property and posted the video:

Update:
DAM REBUILT
6 weeks after this Collapse the Beavers rebuilt the dam to 4 ft high. The pond is now two thirds full and their house entrance should be accessible for the winter. By next summer I expect it to be totally rebuilt. -yt

Also here is a video with the new beaver pond in it(beginning of video), about four months after the original damn broke, I assume, as the videos were posted that far apart. https://youtu.be/ubk9vXVJ1q4