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Getbig Main Boards => Gossip & Opinions => Topic started by: Ron on August 04, 2020, 12:28:49 PM
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Shocked at this huge explosion at the port of Beirut, in wihch the pressure and shock waves destroyed hundreds of buildings.
It is feared that hundreds are dead, and more than 5,000 are injured...
While they are saying this is a 'fireworks' facility, the type of explosion and damage here looks like quiet a few bombs underground.
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Holy shit
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does not look real to me :-\
Geeze it is real
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Incredible.
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The holy War has now reached a new level.
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Fake news. Red flag. Blah blah.
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Holy shit.
Whodunnit?
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Shocked at this huge explosion at the port of Beirut, in wihch the pressure and shock waves destroyed hundreds of buildings.
It is feared that hundreds are dead, and more than 5,000 are injured...
While they are saying this is a 'fireworks' facility, the type of explosion and damage here looks like quiet a few bombs underground.
Fireworks facility covering for a bomb factory? Sure looks like they were working on a monster weapon. Were, anyways, lol
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https://twitter.com/JohnCassuri/status/1290682240482058247
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There have been loads of cases of things burning and/or blowing up all over the middle east (mostly Iran). Israel and hackers have been getting the blame. Could easily all be linked.
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If you build weapons to attack Israel, they will take you out.
Not hand you $155 BILLION like the queer little muslim did.
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Was their Bombfactory sabotaged by Israel?
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That was not "fireworks"...It looked like high explosives from the looks of the shockwave early in the explosion.
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That's kind of you to not mention Hezbollah, Ron. Even my Lebanese friend who sent me the link mentioned Hezbollah, and told me that he thinks they are bad for Lebanon. I don't understand the situation well, but I know they are 10% of Lebanon's parliament.
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Fire works? I have a bridge to sell you. You will clean up on tolls.
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There have been loads of cases of things burning and/or blowing up all over the middle east (mostly Iran). Israel and hackers have been getting the blame. Could easily all be linked.
Could it be Israel knew where the mother load of explosives was being stored and they blew it up?
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Nothing to see here. Just improperly stored fertilizer according to the govt there. ::)
I would love to see a geiger counter reading right now. Curious...
(https://www.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/beirutdocks.jpeg?itok=bsU742XM)
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Eel2fSkX0AUGU7_?format=jpg&name=medium)
BREAKING: Lebanese Prime Minister says Beirut explosions caused by an estimated 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate left unsecured for 6 years in a warehouse
Same chemical compound in Oklahoma City bombing
at least 70 people killed, over 3,000 injured; death toll rising by the hour
ten firefighters still missing
sprawling port area utterly destroyed
widespread damage observed across city
exact cause of explosion still officially unknown
Lebanon's interior minister links blast to ammonium nitrate improperly stored in a warehouse at the port
Shockwave and explosion so large that terrified residents thought they were under nuclear attack
Countries sending international emergency aid
Large parts of city plunged into darkness this evening
Overwhelmed hospitals are treating patients in parking lots
Head of Lebanon’s Red Cross George Kettani told broadcaster Mayadeen: “There are victims and casualties everywhere - in all the streets and areas near and far from the explosion.”
Beirut City Governor Marwan Aboud said: "Beirut is a disaster city and the scale of the damage is enormous" and called the blast a "national disaster akin to Hiroshima."
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aziz...battery
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Average pipe bomb I used to make back in High School. No big deal.
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Unflappable until the roof collapsed.
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Unflappable until the roof collapsed.
Basically what I said to my wife. Not sure the outcome of the Priest or the parishioners
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CNN will claim the deceased were COVID-19 victims.
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McVeigh took down the OKC federal building with TWO tons of Ammonium Nitrate.
Now imagine what 2750 TONS looks like.
Oh wait...we don’t need to imagine.
Not gonna lie. Looks terrifying even on video.
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(https://images.homedepot-static.com/productImages/ed90c7a2-8d1f-4764-b7f9-7c805a219d7c/svn/scotts-granular-fertilizer-38605a-64_1000.jpg)
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That second wave and the few seconds it took to hit was crazy. Way too much time for you to think about it before it hits. Depending on how close you were, it’s enough time to realize you’re probably not going to make it. Sad shit.
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CNN will claim the deceased were COVID-19 victims.
:D
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CNN will claim the deceased were COVID-19 victims.
While fox will claim it would have been much worse if trump wasn’t in office. . .
Trump = loser.
J
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While fox will claim it would have been much worse if trump wasn’t in office. . .
Trump = loser.
J
Gawd you are such a jackoff, lol. In real life you are such a pussy I'm sure, haha.
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The explanation that it was a storehouse of ammonium nitrate fertilizer is starting to be believable.
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While fox will claim it would have been much worse if trump wasn’t in office. . .
Trump = loser.
J
Walter is right about people dying from two illnesses being listed as Covid-19 deaths. If you look up Ironage pornographic film actor John Holmes on Wikipedia, you will see that he died of a bunch of things. Meanwhile, he died of AIDS. But several things are listed.
If a person with kidney cancer who expected to live to the end of this year makes it to January 2021 and dies of Covid-19, is that a Covid-19 death, or a kidney cancer death.
I have no idea why you brought up Trump. In any event, Joe Biden will be turning 78 this year, and I don't think he is a better candidate. And there is a good chance he is being pushed in the event he needs to be removed by a geriatric psychiatric.
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From wikipedia:
An explosion is a rapid increase in volume and release of energy in an extreme manner, usually with the generation of high temperatures and the release of gases. Supersonic explosions created by high explosives are known as detonations and travel via supersonic shock waves. Subsonic explosions are created by low explosives through a slower burning process known as deflagration.
This is how I knew, even with no military experience, that that was no fireworks explosion...
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While fox will claim it would have been much worse if trump wasn’t in office. . .
Trump = loser.
J
You are a liberal pussy.
Nothing more needs to be said.
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From wikipedia:
An explosion is a rapid increase in volume and release of energy in an extreme manner, usually with the generation of high temperatures and the release of gases. Supersonic explosions created by high explosives are known as detonations and travel via supersonic shock waves. Subsonic explosions are created by low explosives through a slower burning process known as deflagration.
This is how I knew, even with no military experience, that that was no fireworks explosion...
I think it’s quite obvious that was a simple fireworks explosion that simply got out of hand.
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I'm shocked they didn't blame Israel right away. The fact they didn't makes me think they know exactly what happened and are trying to cover their asses.
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WHY would you store this type of explosive chemicals so close to the city center? This tradegy did not have to happen, so many innocent lives lost and hurt.
--> President Michel Aoun said that 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate had been stored for six years at the port without safety measures, and he said that was "unacceptable". Ammonium nitrate is a common industrial chemical used mainly for fertiliser because it is a good source of nitrogen for plants, but it is also one of the main components in mining explosives
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WHY would you store this type of explosive chemicals so close to the city center? This tradegy did not have to happen, so many innocent lives lost and hurt.
--> President Michel Aoun said that 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate had been stored for six years at the port without safety measures, and he said that was "unacceptable". Ammonium nitrate is a common industrial chemical used mainly for fertiliser because it is a good source of nitrogen for plants, but it is also one of the main components in mining explosives
A known source for making explosives Ron. used by terrorists
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The only thing is...I don't think ammonium nitrate is a high explosive...That white ball of condensation is indicative of a supersonic shock wave.
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Gawd you are such a jackoff, lol. In real life you are such a pussy I'm sure, haha.
He has Trump Derangement Syndrome, be gentle with him.
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Beirut explosion rocks bride's photoshoot
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How big was the blast? Experts have not yet determined its size, but the shockwave blew out windows at Beirut International Airport's passenger terminal, about 9km (5 miles) away from the port.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-53668493
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Gawd you are such a jackoff, lol. In real life you are such a pussy I'm sure, haha.
In real life? I so enjoy the functional illiterates Of GetBig.
Joe Biden is your daddy.
J
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You are a liberal pussy.
Nothing more needs to be said.
Your Mom did some job on you. Must be tough to post from your phone while mopping ;)
J
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He has Trump Derangement Syndrome, be gentle with him.
Your mom always is.
J
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Walter is right about people dying from two illnesses being listed as Covid-19 deaths. If you look up Ironage pornographic film actor John Holmes on Wikipedia, you will see that he died of a bunch of things. Meanwhile, he died of AIDS. But several things are listed.
If a person with kidney cancer who expected to live to the end of this year makes it to January 2021 and dies of Covid-19, is that a Covid-19 death, or a kidney cancer death.
I have no idea why you brought up Trump. In any event, Joe Biden will be turning 78 this year, and I don't think he is a better candidate. And there is a good chance he is being pushed in the event he needs to be removed by a geriatric psychiatric.
Matt, you certainly are entitled to your opinion.
J
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(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EeqRL_BWoAAxmBj?format=jpg)
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Matt, you certainly are entitled to your opinion.
J
Thanks JAGO, but I just don't see how a pandemic can be blamed on one man. Unless it was caused by one person with intent to eat bats until they started a pandemic, or if it was a bio-weapon produced by one individual in his home.
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Maybe a self built MOAB....
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So this is going to be the Russian's fault. Lol. Fucking degenerates.
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(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EeqRL_BWoAAxmBj?format=jpg)
What is that Wall in the middle that wasn't destroyed by the explosion?
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Your mom always is.
J
You wish, liberal filth.
Gone for many years.
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Beirut explosion rocks bride's photoshoot
I'll bet that will be remembered more than her wedding. The blast blew out windows in buildings all around her. She may be shell shocked. :o
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What is that Wall in the middle that wasn't destroyed by the explosion?
Not sure. It wasn't pulverized like everything else around it, but it took a beating.
(https://static01.nyt.com/images/2020/08/05/world/05lebanon-ledeall/merlin_175336812_5f6984fe-f400-4603-aae2-6094d6cdf58b-superJumbo.jpg)
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Not sure. It wasn't pulverized like everything else around it, but it took a beating.
(https://static01.nyt.com/images/2020/08/05/world/05lebanon-ledeall/merlin_175336812_5f6984fe-f400-4603-aae2-6094d6cdf58b-superJumbo.jpg)
Took a beating sure, but everything else was pulverized, and that wall still stands!
Clearly built out of sterner stuff, like the sturdy Pellius VS pulverized Escrima.
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These are the best angles so far....You can see that it indeed started with fireworks...Then...
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lots of quality clips etc being posted in this thread. Thanks guys.
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Took a beating sure, but everything else was pulverized, and that wall still stands!
Clearly built out of sterner stuff, like the sturdy Pellius VS pulverized Escrima.
2 things that clearly work
a wall
and a wheel!!
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These are the best angles so far....You can see that it indeed started with fireworks...Then...
A closer view. The big second blast came about 30 seconds after the end of the video.
Certainly makes one think of firework. Still, not sure,though,how you could distinguish fireworks from,say, exploding ammunition.
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Mayor of Beirut Statement - What The Fuck Was That. !!!
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In real life? I so enjoy the functional illiterates Of GetBig.
Joe Biden is your daddy.
J
Right now Joe Biden looks like a man who doesn't know where he is and can't remember his own name.
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Not sure. It wasn't pulverized like everything else around it, but it took a beating.
(https://static01.nyt.com/images/2020/08/05/world/05lebanon-ledeall/merlin_175336812_5f6984fe-f400-4603-aae2-6094d6cdf58b-superJumbo.jpg)
We need that on our southern border. Who was the architect? Mohammed bin Laden?
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We need that on our southern border. Who was the architect? Mohammed bin Laden?
Looks like the back wall of the building that stood there before the explosion. Some people online are claiming it was designed by Czechs, same as the building below in Hiroshima.
(https://momentum.travel/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/war_Hero.jpg)
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/20/Old_and_New.jpg/808px-Old_and_New.jpg)
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Seems, a few Getbiggers have been wondering , what that standing structure used to be.
I understand it used to be Beirut port's grain silos. Essentially, all of Lebanon's grain reserves went up in an instant.
(https://www.theglobeandmail.com/resizer/AeGerdAsvKTkvrBfhrCWPvL07ko=/1020x0/filters:quality(80)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tgam/RFZDYX7HGZMNHPSEYLCS4HTYPY.jpg)
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Seems, a few Getbiggers have been wondering , what that standing structure used to be.
I understand it used to be Beirut port's grain silos. Essentially, of Lebanon's grain reserves went up in an instant.
(https://www.theglobeandmail.com/resizer/AeGerdAsvKTkvrBfhrCWPvL07ko=/1020x0/filters:quality(80)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tgam/RFZDYX7HGZMNHPSEYLCS4HTYPY.jpg)
Thanks! Makes it easier to search for. Looks like only half or less of the building is left standing.
(https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/silos-d464.jpg)
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(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EeqK8h3WAAEvW7g?format=png)
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Looks like the back wall of the building that stood there before the explosion. Some people online are claiming it was designed by Czechs, same as the building below in Hiroshima.
(https://momentum.travel/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/war_Hero.jpg)
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/20/Old_and_New.jpg/808px-Old_and_New.jpg)
Two days ago, two devastating blasts rocked the Lebanese capital of Beirut, leaving (so far) 157 dead, dozens missing, and thousands injured. In most photos of the blast zone, a single building can be seen standing amidst the rubble.
Incredibly, Czech architects were behind this structure as well. The Beirut Port Silo, which houses Beirut’s grain supply, was built by the Czech firm Prumstav between 1968-1970. Due to the blasts, Lebanon now has less than one month’s reserves of grain.
https://news.expats.cz/weekly-czech-news/czech-architects-made-one-of-the-only-buildings-to-survive-the-august-6-1945-hiroshima-bombing/
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I don't get it
Why do they store their grain next to their fireworks?
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I don't get it
Why do they store their grain next to their fireworks?
It’s a port and that’s where some companies have large grain silos. They offload it from the ships into the silos for storage until they sell/use the contents.
Concrete solos are a fucking beast to deal with.
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I don't get it
Why do they store their grain next to their fireworks?
ARABS !. That's why ;)
Have you notice, there is no reaction from AbraG,Stinkray,............... ;D
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Beirut: Aerial footage after the explosion
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I remember when I was a kid there was always on the news about bombs in Beirut. It got like a meme about that place
what a shithole...
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Never play poker with this dude.
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French President Macron Visits Beirut Explosion Site
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Is this real? This is the second of it's kind I have seen today:
Beirut explosion was planned | footage shows two missile hit Beirut
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It’s fake.
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Never play poker with this dude.
He just lives in the middle east where this shit happens all the time.
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Two days ago, two devastating blasts rocked the Lebanese capital of Beirut, leaving (so far) 157 dead, dozens missing, and thousands injured. In most photos of the blast zone, a single building can be seen standing amidst the rubble.
Incredibly, Czech architects were behind this structure as well. The Beirut Port Silo, which houses Beirut’s grain supply, was built by the Czech firm Prumstav between 1968-1970. Due to the blasts, Lebanon now has less than one month’s reserves of grain.
https://news.expats.cz/weekly-czech-news/czech-architects-made-one-of-the-only-buildings-to-survive-the-august-6-1945-hiroshima-bombing/
So it's true. Darn Czechs can build a tough house.
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What has been happening, since the blast, on US and Canadian grain future market?
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Is this real? This is the second of it's kind I have seen today: Beirut explosion was planned | footage shows two missile hit Beirut
Some person inserted the missile into the video to deflect, or create propaganda.
From an analysis
"but a closer look reveals that the large missile was superimposed onto the video. In the manipulated video, a negative film effect was used to invert the colors, supposedly revealing a missile striking the seaport of Beirut. But when viewing the video frame by frame, the missile appears bent in the middle and has a cartoonish appearance. As the missile moves closer to the target, its size and the angle doesn’t change. About 8 seconds into the video, the missile disappears before getting close to striking anything.
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CNN’s Brian Stelter will be blaming the 157 Lebanese Covid deaths on President Donald Trump in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1......go.
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Just imagine if smartphones and surveillance videos were as prevalent in Oklahoma City back in 1995.
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Lebanese Couple's Photoshoot Interrupted By Beirut Blast
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Inside Beirut After the Explosion
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Video shows new angle of the massive blast
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Beirut Explosion Rocks Church During a Wedding
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New video shows closest angle to Beirut explosion so far
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:40 The nanny straight up used those children as human shields to protect herself. lol.
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CCTV captures moment blast struck hospital
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New video shows closest angle to Beirut explosion so far
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Seems the couple in that video were living in one of the tower blocks close to the port and facing the blast.
Here is the street level view of the blast , just behind those blocks.
Jeez.
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Seems the couple in that video were living in one of the tower blocks close to the port and facing the blast.
Here is the street level view of the blast , just behind those blocks.
Jeez.
HOLY SHIT!!!!
SHOCKWAVE OF PEACE
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Nothing to see here. Just improperly stored fertilizer according to the govt there. ::)
I would love to see a geiger counter reading right now. Curious...
(https://www.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/beirutdocks.jpeg?itok=bsU742XM)
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Eel2fSkX0AUGU7_?format=jpg&name=medium)
BREAKING: Lebanese Prime Minister says Beirut explosions caused by an estimated 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate left unsecured for 6 years in a warehouse
Same chemical compound in Oklahoma City bombing
at least 70 people killed, over 3,000 injured; death toll rising by the hour
ten firefighters still missing
sprawling port area utterly destroyed
widespread damage observed across city
exact cause of explosion still officially unknown
Lebanon's interior minister links blast to ammonium nitrate improperly stored in a warehouse at the port
Shockwave and explosion so large that terrified residents thought they were under nuclear attack
Countries sending international emergency aid
Large parts of city plunged into darkness this evening
Overwhelmed hospitals are treating patients in parking lots
Head of Lebanon’s Red Cross George Kettani told broadcaster Mayadeen: “There are victims and casualties everywhere - in all the streets and areas near and far from the explosion.”
Beirut City Governor Marwan Aboud said: "Beirut is a disaster city and the scale of the damage is enormous" and called the blast a "national disaster akin to Hiroshima."
Talk about ground zero.
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Cut Fortress some slack.
It was my holiday. I’d eaten some tasty bean stew.
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HD footage shows new angle of blast that rocked Beirut, Lebanon
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Great drone video of the aftermath, flying in and out of damaged buildings:
https://twitter.com/FirasMaksad/status/1292132418611183617 (https://twitter.com/FirasMaksad/status/1292132418611183617)
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Closest footage so far of Beirut blasts emerges from apartment balcony near port
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The Tragic Physics of the Deadly Explosion in Beirut
ON AUGUST 4, 2020, a massive explosion blasted deadly waves through downtown Beirut. Then, video of the fireball rippled around the world almost as quickly. Now, details of the blast that started in a fireworks storage area by a small storage building at the end of a Beirut pier trickle in as the world waits to hear what the final death, injury, and destruction tallies will be. However, in a way, the world already has some idea what to expect, because similar blasts have occurred before.
As a biomedical engineer with a doctorate in the patterns of injury and trauma that follow an explosion, scraping together information from accidental blasts is part of my daily work. The more mundane explosions are rarely this size, but the same principles of physics and chemistry apply. Science, along with a few case studies from history, let me do some preliminary calculations to puzzle out this explosion, too.
In 1917, an accidental detonation of 6 million pounds of hodgepodge high explosives in the harbor of Halifax, Nova Scotia, left a swath of wreckage that, at least until Tuesday, was the largest nonnuclear explosion ever created by humanity. As we learn more about Beirut, which could possibly challenge that record, the story of Halifax tells us what we might expect to learn about the ensuing trauma, and the modern cell phone videos, along with the blast physics gleaned by scientists in the intervening century, tell us why those patterns of trauma occurred in quite the way they did.
The Frisky Chemistry of Ammonium Nitrate
Every fire is a rearrangement of molecules, and an explosion is basically a fire turbocharged into a hyper-energy-fueled frenzy. Unstable structures barter and swap atoms with one another until all of them, happy with their trades, blissfully settle into more relaxed, lower-energy states, like rocks reaching the bottom of a hill. But their excess energy has to go somewhere. In a campfire, where the chemical reactions are facilitated in a leisurely way by the oxygen in the air alone, energy is released slowly as enjoyable levels of heat and light. In an explosion, however, the devilish little instigator that is oxygen shoves the process into overdrive.
Early reports of the blast revealed that the building that sparked the eruption may have been storing large quantities of ammonium nitrate, a flammable chemical that has relatively harmless manifestations as fertilizer but has also been experimented with as a rocket fuel. Oxygen is the key to ammonium nitrate’s deadly habit of exploding, and given that 47 known, major, accidental ammonium nitrate explosions have occured in the last century, it is undeniably a habit. “Ammonium” is a nitrogen atom with four hydrogens, written NH4+, whereas the “nitrate” part of the mix is a nitrogen with three oxygens, NO3-. Under boring everyday conditions, the + of the ammonium and the – of the nitrate pull the two molecules into a harmless hug, but when you add a spark—or a firework—the molecules realize that their very atoms can get a little friskier and convert into something completely new.
When ammonium nitrate is manufactured as fertilizer, it is mixed with other chemicals that usually stop this reaction from happening, though as the 2013 explosion at the West Fertilizer Company proved, those chemicals are not always successful. The first reports out of Beirut suggested fertilizer may have once again been the culprit. However, photos shared on social media showed bags marked “Nitroprill HD” supposedly being stored at the Beirut pier, and some have speculated that if those photos are accurate, Nitroprill may be a knockoff of the name-brand blasting agent Nitropril. Nitropril is designed for use in coal mines, so this particular breed of ammonium nitrate would not have been mixed with quieting chemicals like a fertilizer would be; rather, it would have been mixed to blow.
And nitrate, when mixed to blow, wants to ditch those little Os. It’s chemically unstable, meaning the bonds between the Ns and the Os vibrate with an unhappy level of physical tension. Overloaded with three oxygens, NO3- is eager to shove some onto any neighbor, and with a little bit of heat to get things moving, it will do so willingly. NH4+ is all too happy to accept.
The chemical rearrangement of ammonium nitrate answers a lot of the public questions about the videos, including the source of the startling red color of the plume. One of the byproducts of NO3- as it sheds all that oxygen is nitrogen dioxide, which has a logically obvious chemical structure of NO2 and looks deep, blood red. Many explosive materials give off tints and hues during a blast that suggest their chemical composition—chemical additives to color both smoke and explosions have been around since before the 1920s and are how we get different-colored fireworks and signaling flares—and it’s nitrogen dioxide that gives an ammonium nitrate explosion its signature, ominous blood-like tone. A small blast can look subtle and orange-ish, but on a large scale like at Beirut, the sunlight helps deepen its hue.
According to Brad Wojtylak, a special agent bomb technician and certified explosive specialist with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, when smoke plumes are large enough, they begin to catch the sunlight, and refraction will darken the normal colors produced by any explosion. Wojtylak is not directly involved in the Beirut investigation but has 16 years of experience investigating blast accidents. He says as sunlight bounces around within the cloud of contaminants, other, less determined wavelengths get refracted off in different directions. When a smoke plume happens on such a large scale, only the longest wavelengths, the red shades, persevere all the way through to the viewer on the other side. So, the natural reddish color becomes even deeper, richer, darker than it would be for a small blast.
An explosive with a pure burn, like any explosive used in military-grade weaponry, will produce smoke that looks equally pure: snowy, billowy white, or sometimes a pale grey. But accidental explosions are far less tidy, and their sloppy combustion also produces ash, particulates, and gross black charred contaminated matter. This black gunk billows into the sky along with the other byproducts, coloring the smoke plume, like the charcoal residue left behind after the more efficient parts of the campfire wood have burned away. To a blast expert, the videos, with their roiling cloud of black and red curling over the pier of Beirut, scream “ammonium nitrate.”
Not a Shock Wave
The videos also show an unnervingly uniform hemisphere of white propagating outward from the blast site, a dome of vicious vapor that eventually hurtles toward every person filming and announces its arrival in the audio with a crash. This hemisphere is the pressure wave produced by the explosion.
No, it’s not a shock wave. It’s a pressure wave, and that key difference affects the number of casualties expected. A shock wave goes from zero pressure to its absolute maximum pressure in literally zero seconds. The impact of a pressure wave is like hitting the ground after rolling down a steep cliff; the force of a shock wave is like hitting the ground after falling through the air and reaching terminal velocity. High explosives produce shock waves; low explosives, like ammonium nitrate, produce pressure waves, which have a bit of slope to their shape, a period of time over which the pressure increases more gradually.
Shocks, because of their fascinating and complex physics, travel faster than the speed of sound, and they cause far more damage than pressure waves. Thankfully, we know this blast did not produce a shock because the speed of the water-vapor-filled white dome can be measured.
The speed of sound in air is 343 meters per second. Based on the viewing angle and distinctive red chairs pictured in some of the later frames, I traced one of the Beirut videos posted by The Guardian to its filming location on the rooftop terrace of La Mezcaleria Rooftop Bar, and measured it to be 885 meters from the center of the blast. From that vantage, the pressure wave can be seen neatly traveling from the center of the blast first to the point halfway between the end of the pier and the edge of the long, massive gray grain silo building, a distance of 151 meters, then to the end of the pier, 262 meters, then eventually to La Mezcaleria.
By measuring the times at which the pressure wave reaches these landmarks on the video, we know that, as it blazed down the pier, its rampage occurred at a speed of only 312 meters per second. That’s slow for a bomb. Then by the time the audible crash and mayhem reached the formerly peaceful and picturesque outdoor bar, it had slowed to at most 289 meters per second. The pressure wave, slower than the 343 meters per second speed of sound, caused destruction, horror, confusion, shattered glass, torn-apart flat surfaces, and disorientation for onlookers as their ears were subjected to the rapid pressure fluctuations. But a shock wave could have caused them to drop dead from lung trauma as they watched.
In the 6 million-pound Halifax explosion of 1917, the propagation of the shock wave through downtown left a swath of fatalities reaching 1.5 miles from the center of the blast, killing an estimated 1,950 and leaving another 8,000 with devastating injuries. (The ships that exploded in the harbor were known to be carrying high explosives, which by their nature always make shock waves.) In Beirut, thankfully, while building damage has been reported up to 5.6 miles away, because the low-explosive ammonium nitrate made a pressure wave rather than a shock wave, the fatality estimates so far are still in the hundreds, even though the charge size was likely larger than the bomb in Halifax.
Thanks to modern technology that charge size can be calculated scientifically too, even while waiting for more complete information to trickle out, using the size of the telltale crater. Analysis of the aerial photographs of the pier shows a crater in the range of 120 to 140 meters in diameter; blast physics mixed with history tell us that to carve a chunk that size from the side of the planet requires a charge equivalent to 1.7 to 5.4 million kilograms of TNT (that’s 3.8 to 11.8 million pounds for any Americans dragging their feet on converting to metric). For reference, the bombing of the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City in 1995 used the equivalent of 1.8 thousand kilograms of TNT. So, Beirut was at minimum a thousand times more boom than Oklahoma City.
As an aside, nuclear weaponry is set to detonate several hundred feet above ground level, and therefore doesn’t exert enough force directly on the soil to create a crater. The detonation of the first atomic weaponry above Hiroshima occurred almost exactly 75 years ago to the day, and despite its historically unprecedented trauma to the city and populace, it left behind no crater.
Germany, too, knows the destructive power of improperly stored ammonium nitrate, and an accident in that country reinforces the calculation of the charge size. In 1921, a fertilizer explosion in Oppau, Germany, carved a remarkably similar crater. At 120 meters in diameter, following the explosion of 4.1 million kilos of ammonium nitrate, the size of the Oppau crater supports the idea that the Beirut pier, which early reports said held only 2,750 metric tons—2.75 million kilograms—may have held some number of millions more kilograms of charge. However even using only those 2,750 metric tons, Special Agent Wojtylak says his preliminary calculations indicate that those safe from all risk of carnage would have needed to be at least 15 kilometers from the Beirut pier.
Within that radius, the injuries from such a massive blast in a downtown location can be as varied as the victims who experience them, but a number of them are likely from glass and other flying projectiles. Flat, delicate, frangible, and installed in large sheets, glass is the perfect target for a blast wave of even minuscule magnitude; it shatters and flies easier than any other substance.
In Halifax, the fire that eventually triggered the main explosion meant that citizens were already positioned at their windows to watch the excitement when the bomb detonated. As a result, of those wounded on that morning in 1917, injuries of shattered glass penetrating the eyes of onlookers were described as “extraordinarily prevalent.” The accident of the fireworks storage area and its alarming plume of smoke similarly guaranteed plenty of onlookers for Beirut. Without smoke drawing these witnesses, we would not have such ample cell phone footage, but there also might have been fewer injuries.
After the Blast
The Halifax explosion resulted in the same series of events that, according to Duke University Hospital emergency room physician Dan Buckland, still occurs in emergency rooms today after mass casualty incidents. Buckland treated casualties following a natural gas explosion in Durham, North Carolina, in 2019 which, while substantially smaller in size, occurred in a densely populated downtown area. The first wave of patients are those who were physically near emergency services, he says, those unlucky enough to get hurt but lucky enough to do it in close proximity to an ambulance. After that, the hospitals get flooded by “walking wounded,” those who are wounded enough to seek medical care but intact enough to transport themselves. The key to increasing the number of survivors, Buckland says, is getting the third wave of patients through the door, through the crowds of this second wave. The third wave is made up of those at the core of the site, too injured to walk, whom the emergency responders combing the wreckage medically prioritize next.
After a blast in a civilian area, emergency responders aren’t the only heroes. Just after 9 am on December 6, 1917, in Halifax, mustachioed 45-year-old train dispatcher Vincent Coleman knew the lazy plume of smoke coming from the explosive-laden vessel in Halifax harbor was a terrifying portent of worse to come. But as the other dispatchers ran for their lives, Coleman realized the number of train passengers set to arrive at Halifax any moment, and so he stayed long enough to send one final telegram: “Hold up the train. Munitions ship on fire and making for Pier 6 ... Goodbye boys.” Coleman died in the blast at 9:05, but his final message saved thousands, not just the passengers on the trains that were able to stop before entering the zone of destruction, but also the citizens already in Halifax: The telegram signal reached every operator in the surrounding region, and because of Coleman’s quick thinking, every doctor who felt the earth rumble, up to 160 km away, had almost immediate access to news about what had happened. They rushed in to help.
Medical personnel dealt with as many of the first, second, and even third waves of injured patients as fast as humanly possible, some of them even creating makeshift treatment centers on trains. From Beirut too, will gradually emerge stories of heroism and savvy, along with the final accounting of lives lost. But in the meantime, between those who filmed the blast and the application of physics, we can prevent any escalation of conspiracy theories or misunderstandings. The explosion wasn’t a military-grade bomb; it most certainly wasn’t a nuclear one. It was, sadly, tragically, history repeating itself yet again: Explosives can be devastatingly lethal, and we should never underestimate their destructive fury.
https://www.wired.com/story/tragic-physics-deadly-explosion-beirut/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_brand=wired&utm_social-type=owned
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fascinating read. thanks.
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(https://s.yimg.com/uu/api/res/1.2/yywHGPZ31XXBqSVAoMx89g--~B/Zmk9c3RyaW07aD0zODg7cT05NTt3PTcyMDthcHBpZD15dGFjaHlvbg--/https://s.yimg.com/os/creatr-uploaded-images/2020-08/a0f0a3f0-da77-11ea-bf7f-201c7b8991bd.cf.webp)
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https://youtu.be/Uqr4p1WcNWI?t=134 (https://youtu.be/Uqr4p1WcNWI?t=134)
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Russia today:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/russia-explosion-volgograd-today-blast-injuries-gas-station-a9663636.html
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I wonder if anyone was on the elevators @ 0:49. Look at all of those people leave the elderly man at the entrance before that.
CCTV captures dramatic moment blasts hit 5-star Beirut hotel
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I wonder if anyone was on the elevators @ 0:49. Look at all of those people leave the elderly man at the entrance before that.
CCTV captures dramatic moment blasts hit 5-star Beirut hotel
Jeez
How far away was that?
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Lebanon’s Entire Government Just Resigned Over Beirut Explosion
Lebanon’s embattled Prime Minister Hassan Diab announced the resignation of his government Monday, bowing to public outrage over last week’s catastrophic explosion in the capital.
Addressing the nation in a televised speech, Diab said he was resigning alongside his entire Cabinet, several of whom had already publicly announced they were standing down in protest over the blast.
The resignations followed consecutive days of rage on the streets of Beirut, where security forces clashed over the weekend with protesters demanding the ouster of Lebanon’s political class over the country’s worst peacetime disaster. The explosion of a huge stockpile of ammonium nitrate at Beirut’s port, which occurred despite repeated warnings among officials of the dangers it posed, has been widely blamed on an entrenched government culture of incompetence and corruption.
“We will back down and stand with the people. We need to open the door for the people,” said Diab.
“I declare today the resignation of this government. God bless Lebanon.”
Diab, a self-styled reformer who led a cabinet of technocrats, only came to power in December, months after a protest movement unseated the previous administration. He blamed his predecessors for the devastating Aug. 4 explosion, which killed more than 200 people and devastated the Lebanese capital.
“They [the political class] should have been ashamed of themselves because their corruption is what has led to this disaster that had been hidden for seven years,” he said.
But even the whole Cabinet’s resignation is unlikely to be enough to quell public fury, analysts say.
“The problem extends much deeper than the current government — it really rests with the entire political class,” Aya Majzoub, a Beirut-based researcher for Human Rights Watch, told VICE News. “People are calling for a regime change. They don’t want to see any of the faces that we’ve seen before in government; they want a completely new system.”
Sam Heller, a Beirut-based analyst for International Crisis Group, told VICE News that Lebanon was “heading into the unknown.”
“People are understandably so angry at the country’s leaders,” he said, blaming the government's negligence for a disaster of "world-historical scale that’s devastated the city at a time when I think so few are able to bounce back from that.”
This weekend, riot police in body armour clashed with demonstrators advancing on Parliament Square, using disproportionate levels of violence, according to Human Rights Watch. Protesters set up gallows and nooses to hang effigies of Lebanese politicians, while others held signs that read "resign or hang”.
Human Rights Watch’s researchers observed security forces using excessive amounts of tear gas Saturday, as well as firing a tear gas canister directly at a protester’s head – severely injuring him – and shooting rubber bullets and birdshot pellets indiscriminately at protesters.
Majzoub from Human Rights Watch was herself beaten at the protest, hit by an officer before others threw away her phone, which she had been using to document the event.
Mazjoub told VICE News that the heavy-handed response by security forces had only added to the public’s anger over the disaster, which was caused when a massive stockpile of highly explosive ammonium nitrate – a compound used in fertiliser and bomb-making – was left unsecured at the port for years, despite repeated warnings among officials of the risks it posed.
“They’re livid that, after this horrific blast happened, security forces chose to repress people who were expressing their very justified rage and anger over the incompetence and corruption that led to the explosion,” she said.
“What’s even more egregious is that the army and security forces have been noticeably absent from the clean-up and relief efforts. They weren’t helping to pick up the rubble, clean up homes and provide shelter, yet they spend all their resources to crack down on people who were demonstrating. It shows very clearly the priorities of the state.”
Lebanon’s top Maronite Christian cleric, Patriarch Bechara Boutros al-Rai, had called in his Sunday sermon for the entire government to resign, as it could not “change the way it governs”.
“The resignation of an MP or a minister is not enough ... the whole government should resign, as it is unable to help the country recover,” he said.
International donors pledged $297 million in aid for emergency relief on Sunday at a summit hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron, stipulating the funds had to be "directly delivered to the Lebanese population” to avoid being siphoned off by corrupt elites.
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/889kw4/lebanons-government-facing-widespread-resignations-as-protesters-demand-change?utm_content=1597095002&utm_medium=social&utm_source=VICE_facebook&fbclid=IwAR2rQnYMIEGmcx-boPo3R75WNnC2Hol0fI35YPozfHOSqnRDlKZsMjPjeoY
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(https://scontent-lga3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/117388942_10220197268415829_9138816701497658145_n.jpg?_nc_cat=109&_nc_sid=8bfeb9&_nc_ohc=0qJiN1RccGoAX9JALFq&_nc_ht=scontent-lga3-1.xx&oh=464684e3803169b67c1fb238d9da0e8c&oe=5F5AA2BA)
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The surgeon pulled more glass out of her face days later.
Fixing the scars of Beirut's explosion
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Beirut's shattered glass finds new use
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Beirut Explosion Victims Are Being Preyed on by Real Estate Scavengers