The large, windowless square structure is grain storage. It blocked some of the blast but represents a large fraction of Lebanon's grain supply.

More details from https://www.moonofalabama.org/2020/08/beirut-blast-wrap-up.html#more

-------------------------%<--------------------------------%<------------------------------ RFERL spoke with the captain of the ship that had unintentionally brought the ammonium nitrate to Lebanon. He confirms the ship's arrest. It also reports the cause of the incident:

Lebanon's LBCI-TV reported on August 5 that, according to preliminary information, the fire that set off the explosion was started accidentally by welders who were closing off a gap that allowed unauthorized entry into the warehouse.

LBCI said sparks from a welder's torch are thought to have ignited fireworks stored in a warehouse, which in turn detonated the nearby cargo of ammonium nitrate that had been unloaded from the MV Rhosus years earlier.

Independent experts say orange clouds that followed the massive blast on August 4 were likely from toxic nitrogen dioxide gas that is released after an explosion involving nitrates.

There is a short video of firefighters at the initial fire. Reportedly none survived when the fireworks fire set off the ammonium nitrate. Another video shows the initial fire caused by welding. It burns a while and then sets off fireworks in a first explosion. This takes the roof off the warehouse. A few minutes later the fireworks cause the huge explosion of the ammonium nitrate.

Reuters provides another detail:

The source said a fire had started at port warehouse 9 on Tuesday and spread to warehouse 12, where the ammonium nitrate was stored.

That the ammonium nitrate was stored for seven years was not the responsibility of the port management but was caused by some judicial quarrel:

The head of Beirut port and the head of customs both said on Wednesday that several letters were sent to the judiciary asking for the dangerous material be removed, but no action was taken.

Port General Manager Hassan Koraytem told OTV the material had been put in a warehouse on a court order, adding that they knew then the material was dangerous but “not to this degree”.

“We requested that it be re-exported but that did not happen. We leave it to the experts and those concerned to determine why,” Badri Daher, director general of Lebanese Customs, told broadcaster LBCI.

Two documents seen by Reuters showed Lebanese Customs had asked the judiciary in 2016 and 2017 to request that the “concerned maritime agency” re-export or approve the sale of the ammonium nitrate, which had been removed from cargo vessel Rhosus and deposited in warehouse 12, to ensure port safety.

I read they specifically buy airtime in Washington D.C. area broadcasts, just to get under Trumps skin.

Not sure about other markets, but likely they'll spend their donations to broadcast elsewhere (at least in swing states).

That's kind of insane...

Do these Lincoln Project ads air on broadcast television?

Curious how many Trump supporters around the country see this stuff.

On funny: I always found such vitriolic expressions for broadcast sports overly-ridiculous therefore being ripe for the absurd.

Equally, I regarded the various protestations of my parents growing up in similar lights, often amplifying my troubles due to “inappropriate laughing”.

A crisis! What a great brand opportunity!

An example of how corporations are like sociopaths. If a person stood up and gave a speech taken from the text of these ads, you'd be wondering what the fuck's wrong with this person for making the whole thing about themself. You'd also be wondering why broadcast news is carrying it live every day.

Lol. Nice.

Don't forget, they stormed into closed door hearings live streaming the whole thing, even though electronic devices are 100% not allowed in such hearings by law to maintain state secrets, protect witnesses, and even to protect the president from baseless or unproven accusations becoming public. Closed door hearings are like classified information, and the Republicans just tried to broadcast them to the world.

Hilariously, hypocritically, the thing they're so faux outraged about today is the rules Republicans enacted so they could make it easier to impeach Clintons....

https://crooksandliars.com/2019/10/karma-republicans-clinton-rules-apply

Just a taste.....
Andrew Napolitano reminded Fox and Friends viewers...that Republicans wrote the rules on impeachment proceedings during the Bill Clinton years. Uh oh.

I genuinely can't overstate the effect that this single performance had on Ireland as a country.

I saw this on VHS the afternoon following broadcast, pre-internet, pre-twitter, the grape vine was aflame with this being a must-see event. Of course I considered myself far too cool to have seen it broadcast during the Eurovision, but curiosity got the better of me. I finally agreed to watch it as my father was raving about it and wanted to show it to me on tape.

Hear that roar of approval at the end? That's the sound of Ireland, as a nation, spurred on by it's World Cup success, it's newly booming economy, the success of The Commitments, and the global stardom of U2, finally letting go of the collective cultural shame it felt for it's diddle-eye bullshit past, reinventing itself and saying "You know what, we *are* fucking great, and our culture is something to be proud of".

I think nationalism and patriotism are bullshit. But here, now, 25 years later, it's genuinely just brought a tear to my eye for what probably will not be the last time.

Poor can't afford TV's now that there's no free broadcast stations anymore.

It's their phones they can't look away from.

Kids starving? Yep. Homeless? Check. Deal drugs and/or pimp yourself out just to survive? Sure, but you'll pry my iPhone from my cold, dead hands.

*promote

https://ftw.usatoday.com/2018/12/fox-sports-roundball-rock-nba-on-nbc-theme-john-tesh-video

https://www.12up.com/posts/6241647-fox-bringing-back-iconic-nba-on-nbc-theme-music-for-college-basketball-broadcasts

https://awfulannouncing.com/fox/fox-sports-is-bringing-john-teshs-roundball-rock-to-select-college-basketball-broadcasts.html

I thought I was going crazy in hearing this rad NBC's NBA theme earlier!

I like his new plan, to take the money directly from the military for the monument to his own stupidity. Republicans should love that.
He's going to be really upset to learn that Mexico has developed ladder technology, making fences and walls obsolete.

Networks should refuse to air his speech and cite President Trump who repeatedly said he might yank the broadcasting license of networks that air fake news and lies as the reason.

I think it was originally intended for sports broadcasts that were 1080i (interlaced), and fast left-right camera pans would create a lot of tearing.

I hate smoothing (soap-opera-effect) too.
I have a friend who likes it though, and got mad at me when I changed his TV settings to disable it.

@ChaosEngine:
"The first 3 levels of sexual violence ALL involve no physical contact and are entirely verbal. "
100% fine with this. You can be a creepy sleazebag without touching someone and it's still not ok.

Perhaps you misunderstand. I also oppose verbal harassment and discrimination. I disagree with calling sexist and racist comments acts of violence. I agree with condemning them and acting to stop them.

Real world example, a Canadian student TA at Wilfred Laurier University played a short clip of a publicly broadcast debate over trans pronoun usage between 2 U of T professors in a class. She was brought into a meeting with 3 WLU staff who told her she was horribly wrong for doing so because playing that clip was "an act of violence" against any trans students in the room.

This abuse of language is manipulative and wrong.

I'm a man, and I'm not scared of being accused of sexual assault. None of my male friends are scared either.

With burden of proof I'm thinking beyond merely sexual assault. This already practice in forms in Canada. Ontario has an entire system of Social Justice Tribunals that run parallel to the criminal court system. It's been a gradual transformation of the civil court system, so civil and family courts are lumped in as tribunals now there. The specific one relevant in this case is the human rights tribunal. If the WLU faculty, or a student from the classroom, wanted to file a human rights complaint for the 'violence' they faced, the burden of proof would be a preponderance of the evidence rather than innocent until proven guilty. Which I can even understand in some cases, but lets not say that doesn't make people nervous about being falsely accused. That is not what scares people the most though in Ontario. The social justice tribunals have paid for legal representation for the accusers, and so the government foots the financial costs for the accuser. The accused however is on their own. The erosion of burden of proof and fear of financial damages from malicious or vengeful complaints is a very, very real thing in Canada. Accusations of sexual harassment being just one of many kinds of accusations that you can be damaged by while entirely innocent.

Wow, BBC was broadcasting an US weather report??

I'd pay 100 USD to the person who Xs out the "Hon." on Kavanaugh's name board.

(Not photoshop, has to be broadcast live.)