I work for an online language learning platform (Culturestride) and we've got a student who is at the lower intermediate level (HSK 3) looking to do conversational group classes with 1-2 other students.
Would anyone be interested in joining this class?
Lessons will be online, focused on real communication, and be facilitated with a native teacher from China ("Practical" format as described below).
https://preview.redd.it/czkz9m7oxwa71.png?width=1251&format=png&auto=webp&s=924e365a8634b48a47aa125cbc18b0a1dffed2bd
Timing wise, tentatively Friday 7pm PST California time (flexible) for 1 hr a week but he is also free weekday evenings.
Happy to answer any questions including more about the student via pm/replies.
Expressions of interest: https://forms.gle/u7d5VSajjBhkYwT39
Disclosure: This isn't free but it shouldn't break the bank (9 AUD = ~ 7 USD per week).
In the year 1200, an extremely deadly disease appears in both the Yangtze River and Yellow River.
This disease behaves as follows: After a short incubation period, it has symptoms similar to rabies. It is effectively 100% lethal. It is airborne out from the rivers, can travel as far as it's possible to smell the rivers from, and completely contaminates the rivers' water (in other words, canals, irrigation, etc. are contaminated as well).
However, it can only effectively reproduce in a specific, unspecified animal that lives only in these two rivers; humans cannot spread it to other humans, and it will not spread out into ocean water or beyond these two specific rivers under any circumstances.
It is possible to vaccinate against it, with effectively 100% protection and an extremely high level of safety to the point where even newborn infants can get the vaccine, but of course this technology is still over 500 years out. It is also possible to use air filters to traverse the area it is in, but this is still risky, although at least possible at the time.
People do recognize very quickly that the rivers are the cause of the madness and death. The disease only affects its target animal (who usually live, perhaps with neurological damage) and humans, no other animals.
What are the impacts on China, the Mongol Empire, and the rest of the world? How does history change?
2 years in and I still canโt speak to oranges.
If so I really wish I chose the "die, commie" option now
Hit me up if you have a copy for sale. Will pay shipping ect.
Dr Ely Ratner,
Thank you for reaching out to N.C. Defence regarding the vulnerabilities of the Yiling Hydroelectric Facility (Three Gorges Dam). Though an attack on the dam itself is non-credible, our team has developed a strategy which would result in the total failure of the facility as well as complete inundation of the lower Yangtze floodplains.
The Yangtze river stretches over 6000 kilometres into southwestern China, during which time it passes through 12 major dams. These dams comprise myriad construction techniques and purposes, with a total volume of retained water of roughly 103km^(3). Nearly two thirds of this water is held upstream of the Three Gorges Dam (see attached map).
Any rupture of an upstream dam would cause a domino effect as downstream dams are overwhelmed by a sudden influx of water. This effect will be compounded as water from each reservoir is added to the flood for subsequent dams. Indeed, the mountainous terrain of Yunnan province is quite conducive to funneling the floodwater downstream.
A prime candidate for targeting is the Ahai dam. 170km from the Burmese border, and only half an hourโs flight from IAF Mohanbari, the Ahai dam presents an inviting target for enemy bombers. By comparison the Three Gorges Dam is stronger, heavily defended, and situated in the centre of mainland China.
A collapse of the Ahai dam would result in over 100 cubic kilometres of water released (through the aforementioned domino effect), nearly triple that of a strike on the Three Gorges itself. An added benefit would be the destruction of Chonqing, a major city located upstream of the Three Gorges facility.
Such an operation may be carried out using standard GBU-57 munitions on the base of the dam.
It must be noted that despite the immense loss of life and ecological devastation this operation would induce, it isn't technically a war crime unless you declare war first.
Regards,
Tritium660
The majority of water is retained upstream of the Three Gorges Dam
At 720' and 656' respectively, rivers are FAR deeper than I thought for whatever reason. Is it possible anything crazy lives down there? Is it at all possible to explore? Is there anything geographic, biologic, or just visually interesting down there? Lastly, do you think it varies at all between rivers (I.E. is the bottom of the Amazon different than the bottom of the Congo in any appreciable way)?
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