Merkur Futur Clone....My thoughts.

Sounds like applying some science would have worked. Blind panic sure didn't save any homes. Doing an investigation about when and where the gates got opened might shed light on who was trying to save THEIR home at the expense of many others.

 

Yeppers.

 

The people _I'm_ complaining about aren't the ones up in the north and NE. It's the ones to the west. (Cinco Ranch, et al) Flood waters had _not_ receded, and the reservoirs (one after another) hit the tipping point. We've had a LOT of people that moved to Houston from California, as well as the north/northeast, and _they_ think of a reservoir or lake as being a big bowl. Both the Addicks and Barker Reservoirs are actually just giant sloping areas with walls on (roughly) three sides.

https://nwis.waterdata.usgs.gov/tx/...od=&begin_date=2017-08-20&end_date=2017-09-07 (Barker Reservoir) - That's for leading up to and just after Harvey.
Page for the reservoir itself - https://waterdatafortexas.org/reservoirs/individual/barker

Basically, what I understand happened is that the water hit the spillway level (103.7 feet), and _kept going_. At that point, they were _forced_ to open up the gates to let the water out. If they didn't, the water would then be pouring all around the sides of the earthen embankments (Those who are familiar with SE Texas and Louisiana know all about these. They work just fine until you hit their failure point - then they're a hard fail, not soft). If that happened, the embankments would be ripped apart. The folks around there tried to claim that they were being flooded _to benefit others_, rather than the physics - there was too much water coming in, and it had to go somewhere

I know _nothing_ about the northeast or east side. I only know about the west side because I grew up spending event time and recreation time in the Addicks reservoir, which regularly flooded enough so that you couldn't use Highway 6. Anyone who deliberately bought a house built up against one of those reservoirs? They either did no due diligence, they were egotistical enough to think "It will never happen to me", or, perhaps, were lied to by the developers. In none of those three cases should Harris County or the City of Houston be held liable.

@DaltonGang - I've watched those folks you were talking about who did nothing about their houses/businesses. I understand people not being able to do much of their own construction work, but really - they could have ripped sheetrock out with a hammer to let things dry. Those people _are_ lazy.

@RyX - not sure that applying science would have worked. It was a mess, and there was going to be flooding, and a lot of areas that flooded did so because of random events. About the only 'fix' would have been to have NOT built so many developments, and built more tall residential buildings, so as to have more green space to hold water. Digging the two major reservoirs deeper wouldn't have worked - they'd just hold water more of the year, and breed mosquitos.

I'll track down @Linuxguile's Etsy store. I don't have a vested need to buy from E-Bay, I just don't want to spend a ton for a razor I just want to play with.

 

Easy thing first; Andrew's Shave Shop. TSD member in good standing, a participating Vendor. You can PM him @Linuxguile to have conversation about stuff in his Etsy shop.

That other - Urban Planning. Can of worms because it's grown without any real planning. I'm guessing Houston progressed like most urban behemoths. Small town became a Downtown surrounded by industry ringed by suburbs. The inner core rots, gets revived and gentrified. The industry moves further out and another ring of suburbs happens. Everyone wants a 5 minute ride to work, but can't afford a nice house in that neighborhood. Split the difference and purchase a house 45 minutes ride to work in what used to be a rice field that floods on purpose because it's low laying near a waterway. There was no plan for 50+ inches of rain in a weekend.

 

As I understand it from my father, Houston, back in the 1950's, _did_ sit down and put together a long range urban plan. They planned for about 40% or less of the growth that actually happened, so... Most of the uncontrolled 'sprawl' isn't from industry. The bulk of industry has stayed put, oddly enough. The downtown businesses and manufacturing did have to move out, but I think that was driven as much by traffic difficulties as it was property taxes. (Don't get me started on governments that destroy businesses and farms by predatory taxation). Anyway, I think Houston may be the biggest 'one to two story' city in the country. Yes, I realize we're on alluvial soil (sand and clay), but we can and have built very tall buildings that have stood for decades, and for some of the oldest ones, a century. However, the builders of businesses and residential housing (like apartments) insist on spreading _out_ rather than up. So, we end up with a "Greater Houston Area" that's close to 100 miles wide and 70 miles tall - without being as stretched out as LA.

 

I lived in Atlanta for twenty years. They don't have "rush hour", instead it's more or less traffic day and night. It's more about knowing if there are any alternative routes, but it's already too late and resigning yourself to sitting still in an eight lane interstate parking lot.
I do enjoy my home town. Less than 80k population instead of a six county Metro Area. It's not Mayberry anymore. The casinos ended that.

Tapatalk Via Kyocera

 

Yes, very lazy people. But the solution to the flooding, in the NE area, would have been to lower the reservoirs and lakes, before the 50-60 inches of predicted rains came. I'm not familiar with the West side of towns flooding problems.

 

Ok, how did this thread get so derailed??

 

Godwin's Law applies elsewhere. In TSD it's just Topic Drift.

 

Just lucky?

 

Sorry to hear that the flood condition is so bad over there without government support. There isn't any news reporting at all in MSM on aftermath bad situation.

Btw, there are comments that the clone Ming Shi 2000 actually shaved just like Merkur futur, Progress XL, and Parker Variant, but give better feels. I also find it shave better than Muhle R89 in my personal comparison over last few months. That is very surprising for a under $7 clone make in China to have such excellent quality. All who saw my MS are impressed by its solid quality.

So i will keep a spare for myself, and offer as gift to friends including those royal Gillette cartridge fans and newbies to start enjoy wet shave.

 

Good to know the particular Clone I ended up with compares favorably. I'm happy with the quality of the build, and my experience using it yields better results each shave. I have a Muhle R89 and found it very mild so it's earmarked as a trade item.

 

Arrived today - first impressions are very good. Will let you all know what I think once I've shaved with it tomorrow.

 

Why never hear any sharing yet from Dansco?

Btw, i found misalignment of new blade that have one side protrude more than the other recently is due to the blade quality itself. It show similar alignment problem when put in another razor. Shaving is bad, like scrapping the skin with so much noise and vibration required to lower setting down to 3. So if anyone encounter alignment issues, change the blade as it may not be Ming Shi problem.

 

Has anyone bought a black one? https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Qsh...-3375-4737-9b9c-55be2a2ebcca&rmStoreLevelAB=0

 

I'm giving one away in my Thankgiving PIF ... sign up to win

 

Just recieved a clone the other day. Cant wait to try it but thinking of the 30 day thing.. Life is tough..

 

I did 30 days this past November with a Ming Shi 2000S. While this is no Fat Boy, it's a decent razor. Actually it does shave nearly as well as a Gillette 195, but with that retro Futur style. Hope you enjoy yours!

 

Maybe Im to ambivalent to do a 30 day.. Really looking forward to rotating, haha..

 

I understand that. In the 30 Day Rule / Focus Group, I have a difficult time maintaining Focus for a month. That might have been the first time I did it. Having just received the razor it was a New Thing so it held my interest. There was variety because I used different soap, brush, and AS.