So H1N1 could have "been the big one" yet there were no shutdowns or travel restrictions. They just got lucky that time. Supply stockpiles can only do so much, which is admittedly more than Trump did.

Maybe we can learn lessons from China. They managed to avoid large outbreaks in Beijing and Shanghai, seems like the virus went directly from Wuhan to the rest of the world.

A big part of the Zero's reputation came from racking up kills in China against a lot of second-rate planes with poorly-trained pilots. After all, there was a reason that the Republic of China hired the American Volunteer Group to help out during the Second Sino-Japanese War – Chinese pilots had a hard time cutting it.

The Wildcat was deficient in many ways versus the Zero, but it still had superior firepower via ammo loadout. The Zero carried very few 20mm rounds, most of it's ammo was 7.7mm. There are records of Japanese pilots unloading all their 7.7mm ammo on a Wildcat and it was still flyable. On the flip side, the Wildcat had an ample supply of .50 cal.

Stanley "Swede" Vejtasa was able to score seven kills against Japanese planes in one day with a Wildcat.

Yes, the discovery of the Akutan Zero helped the United States beat this plane. But MilitaryFactory.com notes that the Hellcat's first flight was on June 26, 1942 – three weeks after the raid on Dutch Harbor that lead to the fateful crash-landing of the Mitsubishi A6M flown by Tadayoshi Koga.

Marine Captain Kenneth Walsh described how he knew to roll to the right at high speed to lose a Zero on his tail. Walsh would end World War II with 17 kills. The Zero also had trouble in dives, thanks to a bad carburetor.

We were behind in technology for many reasons, but once the Hellcat started replacing the Wildcat, the Japanese Air Superiority was over. Even if they had maintained a lead in technology, as Russia showed in WW2, quantity has a quality all of it's own. We were always going to be able to field more pilots and planes than Japan would be able to.

As far as Soviet rockets, once we were stunned by the launch of Sputnik, we kicked into high gear. You can say what you will of reliability, consistency, and dependability, but exactly how many manned Soviet missions landed on the moon and returned? Other than Buran, which was almost a copy of our Space Shuttle, how many shuttles did the USSR field?

The Soviets did build some things that were very sophisticated and were, for a while, better than what we could field. The Mig-31 is a great example. We briefly lagged behind but have a much superior air capability now. The only advantages the Mig and Sukhoi have is speed, they can fire all their missiles and flee. If they are engaged however, they will lose if pilots are equally skilled.

As @newtboy has said, I am sure that Russia and China are working on military advancements, but the technology simply doesn't exist to make a Hypersonic missile possible at this point.

China is fielding a man portable rifle that can inflict pain, not kill, and there is no hard evidence that it works.

There is no proof that the Chinese have figured out the technology for an operational rail gun on land, let alone the sea. We also have created successful railguns, the problem is POWERING them repeatedly, especially onboard a ship. If they figured out a power source that will pull it off, then it is possible, but there is no concrete proof other than a photo of a weapon attached to a ship. Our experts are guessing they might have it functional by 2025, might...

China has shown that long range QEEC is possible. It has been around but they created the first one capable of doing it from space. The problem is, they had to jury rig it. Photons, or light, can only go through about 100 kilometers of optic fiber before getting too dim to reliably carry data. As a result, the signal needs to be relayed by a node, which decrypts and re-encrypts the data before passing it on. This process makes the nodes susceptible to hacking. There are 32 of these nodes for the Beijing-Shanghai quantum link alone.

The main issue with warfare today is that it really doesn't matter unless the battle is between one of the big 3. Which means that ANY action could provoke Nuclear conflict. Is Russia going to hypersonic missile one of our carriers without Nukes become an option on the table as a retaliation? Is China going to railgun a ship and risk nuclear war?

Hell no, no more than we would expect to blow up some major Russian or Chinese piece of military hardware without severe escalation! Which means we can create all the technological terrors we like, because we WON'T use them unless they somehow provide us a defense against nuclear annihilation.

So just like China and Russia steal stuff from us to build military hardware to counter ours, if they create something that is significantly better, we will began trying to duplicate it. The only thing which would screw this system to hell is if one of us actually did begin developing a successful counter measure to nukes. If that happens, both of the other nations are quite likely to threaten IMMEDIATE thermonuclear war to prevent that country from developing enough of the counter measures to break the tie.

We had crazy hazy days here in Seattle area from those BC wildfires! Our air quality was worse than Beijing I think! It was really amazing to see in the video how far that smoke reached.

I don't think zerohedge is a reputable source.
Why wasn't this found before the event., not that there's anything odd about looking for photographers at a KKK/Nazi rally. Of course you would want them to be comfortable participating in protests, you have to be to get decent photos of them.

Zerohedge : In April 2016, the authors writing as "Durden" on the website were reported by Bloomberg News to be Ivandjiiski, Tim Backshall (a credit derivatives strategist), and Colin Lokey. Lokey, the newest member revealed himself and the other two when he left the site. Ivandjiiski confirmed that the three men "had been the only Tyler Durdens on the payroll" since Lokey joined the site in 2015. Former Zero Hedge writer Colin Lokey said that he was pressured to frame issues in a way he felt was "disingenuous," summarizing its political stances as "Russia=good. Obama=idiot. Bashar al-Assad=benevolent leader. John Kerry=dunce. Vladimir Putin=greatest leader in the history of statecraft." Zero Hedge founder Daniel Ivandjiiski, in response, said that Lokey could write "anything and everything he wanted directly without anyone writing over it." On leaving, Lokey said: "I can't be a 24-hour cheerleader for Hezbollah, Moscow, Tehran, Beijing, and Trump anymore. It's wrong. Period. I know it gets you views now, but it will kill your brand over the long run. This isn't a revolution. It's a joke."

I don't like seeing that either, but if you watch to the end they are actually in part of a larger area.

I'm hyper sensitive to that kind of stuff ever since i went to Beijing zoo. There was a really large enclosure, but it was really old, crumbling and in disrepair, cracks and holes in the floor here and there, all concrete, with one black bear inside pacing up and down by the only perspex window that was about 8 feet in length.

All the Chinese animals were in a special bit of the zoo - pandas and rhinos and all that, state of the art stuff. The 'rest of the world' animals were in the other bit that was old and poorly maintained. An American black bear was worthless to them I suppose.

Now even when i see animals in big areas, all i can see is that poor fucking thing almost dancing left and right for hours by the window to the outside. Really depressed myself writing this.

I left immediately and complained, but no one gave a shit or even understood.

A train ticket between Beijing and Shanghai is cheaper, safer, and just as fast.

HOLY CRAP!!!!
Some more info on what happened here.....

Hundreds of people have been injured by a massive explosion at an industrial port in Tianjin in north-east China, caused by a shipment of explosives that went up in flames.
The explosion happened just before midnight local time (5.00pm GMT), but has caused secondary explosions and fires in the surrounding area, Chinese state television reported on their online microblogging site. The Xinhua news agency said a deafening bang was heard as flames lit up the sky, sending dust dozens of metres into the air.
Three or four hundred people arrived at the Tianjin harbour hospital after at least two devastating blasts, the Beijing News reported, quoting an unnamed medic who works there. Some were brought in ambulances but many arrived on their own, after emergency numbers were overwhelmed with calls

Just to preface this, i got this info from a number of Beijing university physics students, in Beijing.

Many things, in Chinese, are a bunch of descriptions. For example i wanted to find a little statue of a rhino, and my chinese friend taught me to ask shopkeepers for a "xi niu", with a certain inflection. This is when he told me that your inflection can change the meaning of a Chinese word as can the words that follow and precede it. Whenever he asked shopkeepers - and subsequently whenever i asked them - for a xi niu, they always thought i wanted a bull, because i was asking for, literally translated, a "horny cow" as Gary put it. We had to make a mime of a central horn before they understood.... and told me no (different story, hunting a rhino statue across china and finding nothing).

When they gave me a Chinese name, it was some words from a well known and overly flattering Chinese proverb. This makes me think that the same could be true of "coffin man" which could easily come from a provincial saying, or a description the meaning of which escapes these two. I know that my friend from Xi'an struggled to understand phrases and words when he went to uni in Beijing, and his friends used to rib him about being so different. Massive country, the people are diverse. I don't think these guys are expert linguists, and it could just be regional differences.

There was a stipulation when the Brits handed HK back to the Chinese that it remain highly autonomous for 50yrs. Does Beijing picking state approved candidates for HK not somewhat undermine this agreement?

Not that I am suggesting that the protests by the HKers is about an agreement made with Britain, just that I wonder if this is going to damage China-UK relations.

Uh, that is NOT what's happening. Under British rule, the governors of HK were British appointed and there was NO democracy. China is NOT taking away the right for people to choose their elected official because HK people never had that option.

The issue that's pissing off everyone is the electoral reform for the 2017 elections. 2017 is the first time in HK history where the chief executive will be elected by universal suffrage, but now they are saying electoral candidates need to be pre-approved by an nomination committee, which many fear will be heavily pro Beijing biased.

This video has been seconded as a duplicate; transferring votes to the original video and killing this dupe - dupeof seconded with isdupe by eric3579.

This video has been nominated as a duplicate of this video by maatc. If this nomination is seconded with *isdupe, the video will be killed and its votes transferred to the original.

damnit sifty!
fine, have it your way then!
*dupeof=http://videosift.com/video/Pic-a-day-walking-from-Beijing-to-Germany

Great clip, but *dupeof:http://videosift.com/video/Pic-a-day-walking-from-Beijing-to-Germany

But maybe @arvana can swap in this vimeo version? Looks much better than the YouTube one... Where is he, anyways? Seems like he was last here about 3 months ago...

This is why I didn't stay in Beijing. *promote