Latest Chernobyl Motorcycle Photos 951
wrx writes "Elena has taken another motorcycle ride through the Chernobyl area, and has updated her site with a whole lot of new photos and text. The pictures now show several surrounding towns, the radiation level of the magic wood, and many more details inside buildings. After the dust had settled from the
original slashdot story,
Elena wrote 'who are those slashdot people? they swept over like Mongol-Tartars.'"
Not yet. (Score:2, Insightful)
It's disturbing to think that the town is going to be like that for 100 years.
Regardless of how many breakthroughs there have been in fission technology, I'd like to see twice as many breakthroughs in radiation cleanup before I embrace the technology.
Some of us still remember Three Mile Island.
Re:Watch the hit counter spin (Score:5, Insightful)
And once again... (Score:1, Insightful)
Readers keep recommending Slashdot mirror sites. But of course, that would mean (a) editors would have to read the site to know what we think, and (b) they would have to do some actual work.
Reminds me of (Score:4, Insightful)
While the evacuated scenes of London in the film don't have the wear and tear of a few decades of desertion like Chernobyl does, it kind of gives you a representation of what it might be like to be there.
Scary stuff...What's our world coming to?
_________________________________________
Re:Dawn of the Dead (Score:3, Insightful)
Such an amazing and atypical slashdot article (Score:5, Insightful)
Being an American kid at the time of the incident, I was fairly well removed, both politically and geographically, from the disaster, but Elena's pictures serve as a reminder of just how terrible and far reaching the effects of the meltdown were. From the initial coverup to the resulting FUD pumped out by the Russian government during the aftermath, it is easy to lose sight of the fact that this event displaced tens of thousands of people, and many more are still dealing with the legacy or horrors the fallout has inflicted.
Kudos to Elena and the editors for a great human interest story.
Who are these slashdot people? (Score:5, Insightful)
And so you post her to the front page. Again. That's just spiteful.
You can't buy this kind of publicity, but you are sure going to pay for it. Hopefully the bill falls on anglefire and not our friend on the bike.
Re:Soaking up the gamma (Score:5, Insightful)
Favorite quote (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:MOD PARENT +1 INSIGHTFUL (Score:5, Insightful)
>I too agree that the USSR should be ashamed and we should be Proud Americans.
It's not like accidents don't happen in the United States, and I don't quite see where your statement is founded.... simply because another country has a disaster, does not give Americans, nor any other country in the world bragging rights. I think what should be truly done, is that we all learn from examples, so this won't happen to humanity again.
Re:Soaking up the gamma (Score:3, Insightful)
I for one.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Soaking up the gamma (Score:5, Insightful)
Sorry, I'm not trying to karma whore, but my day job relates to getting people not to be affraid of radiation, so seing this post have such high mod points is really getting to me.
Re:Soaking up the gamma (Score:4, Insightful)
But to continue the relative risk theme: visiting a meltdown dead zone is not they only way to expose yourself to radiation. There's living in a house made of brick. (Not very much, I admit, but some.) There's living in a poorly ventilated house that's over a Uranium deposit. And of course, there's sunbathing or visiting a tanning salon, which Elena's pastime look positively healthy!
wow... (Score:2, Insightful)
The last few pages were difficult to view,of the preschool...
Re:Soaking up the gamma (Score:3, Insightful)
She's doing fine. (Score:5, Insightful)
In one transcontinental roundtrip flight, you get 6 millirem, which is equal to 6000 microroentgen. Her little counter is reading microroentgen per hour, so she can go somewhere where her counter is reading 500 and it's just like she's sitting on an airliner at 35000 feet.
Your yearly dose is about 300 millirem, so in order for her to soak that up in hours, as you claim, she'd have to sit somewhere that her counter reads 100000 or more. She's being very smart. If she were walking around without the dosimeter, she could get in trouble.
This is what she means when she says people fear what they don't understand. Once you understand the risks involved, you see her radiation exposure is much less risky than, say, smoking, or even riding motorcycles at all.
Perspective (Score:3, Insightful)
A few rem won't add materially to her risk.
Thank you, Slashdot (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Soaking up the gamma (Score:5, Insightful)
As a motorcycle rider, I can tell you that the increase in safety margins she enjoys riding on empty roads is probably 1000 times greater than the increased health risk the radiation poses. That's not all that clear. Look at it this way - "cell phone chatting back seat kid swatting speeding paying no attention to anyone else cause I have the biggest SUV in town" type drivers are a much greater risk than elevated radiation levels. On a bike, she's definitely safer in the Dead Zone than in a poplulated zone.
On a side note, women who ride motorcycles (as driver not passenger) are undeniably the most alluring of all. I'm in love!
Re:Is she single? Looking? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Not yet. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Who are these slashdot people? (Score:5, Insightful)
Me too. Its a rather sad state of affairs when someone like Elena takes the time, fuel, and a camera along and lets the rest of the world see what its really like, and then might have to pay for the bandwidth to boot.
For the visual information that came out of her camera, I'll gladly forgive her occasionaly poor command of the english language. The pictures tell the story far better than any amount of words anyway. I followed the whole site, wondering when the server was going to melt down like it did the last time, apparently before I even got there, but this time it held up quite well.
Many thanks to a totally cool lady. And to the hosting site for putting up with the rest of the geek world that represents the average
Cheers and many thanks Elena, Gene
Re:Such an amazing and atypical slashdot article (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Such an amazing and atypical slashdot article (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Not yet. (Score:3, Insightful)
real hosting? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Fitting Reminder (Score:4, Insightful)
Luck? TMI not being a catastrophe wasn't due to luck. It was Due to adequate containment vessel design. Whay do you call adequate engineering "luck"?
Re:An idea (Score:3, Insightful)
They should make it a national park or such thing (Score:5, Insightful)
Quite interesting that the author (the biker girl) confirmed what I thought all along: the place has become a heaven for wildlife. Animals don't care about shorter life expectancy, as long as they are freed from the intimidating human presence.
And so it goes again (Score:5, Insightful)
http://www.myownlittleserver.us/chernobyl [myownlittleserver.us]
My bandwidth may not be free, but I have a hell of a lot more of it than she does.
I have mirrored the whole site, as far as I can tell, except for the hit counter. The children among you have shown why its not good to have a public hit counter.
You whould think that a group of people who like to preach "information should be free" would try to have a little more respect. Information may be free, but unlimited bandwidth and server space is not.
Don't forget your multipass (Score:4, Insightful)
And that probably is enough to keep the average people from doing what she is doing. In fact, the checkpoint is probably there exactly to stop average people from doing what she is doing. I won't want anyone going in there that didn't have a professional appreciation of the idea that where you are may be safe but four feet to your right may be death. Plus that keeps the ghost town a ghost town, and not one of those terrible run-down tourist traps.
Besides, the concept of ecological armageddon tourism is just a little... Creepy.
thanks! (Score:5, Insightful)
just wanted to say 'thanks elena -- for being our eyes into this fascinating wasteland'.
your photo-journal is one of the most haunting things i've ever seen.
safe speed be with you.
john penner
(toronto)
Re:'who are those slashdot people? (Score:1, Insightful)
Safer? That's far from obvious.... (Score:4, Insightful)
The obvious potential hazard of the radiation aside, she has mentioned riding at high speeds as well as animals on the road slowing her down.
One of the mostest important aspects of driving or riding safely is expectations. A bike racer can expect that if he follows the leader at 180mph, and is only separated from his rivals back tire by an inch or two, he is in most regards, safe. You cannot do that while riding in public.
Elena's biggest safety risk may very well be "the unexpected".
No cell phone coverage either (Score:5, Insightful)
Since Chernobyl was permanently evacuated long before public cellular networks became prevalent in Easter Europe, no cellular towers were ever placed in that area.
The parent has a point: she's alone, quite a distance away from civilization in a desolate region, with no means of communication with the outside world. Comtemplating all of this, it is a bit scary indeed.
It might be a good idea to bring along a satellite phone next time, just in case.
She's a very brave young lady to undertake such an adventure! She sure has my respect.
Re:Soaking up the gamma (Score:2, Insightful)
Or possibly it's a gambling reference - which might be more apt for riding around Chernobyl...
amazing (Score:3, Insightful)
Apt description (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:how ironic (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:MOD PARENT +1 INSIGHTFUL (Score:1, Insightful)
Admit it.. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Watch the hit counter spin (Score:5, Insightful)
I would hope, however, that the admins at Angelfire would have waived the bandwidth limitations for this particular user. If they have any human decency that is... what she has to say, and what she's doing, should be viewable by everyone, regardless of b/w limitations or not. I'd mirror it myself (have a complete local copy) but I'm out of webspace...
Some things are just too damned important...
SB
Re:I for one.... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:MOD PARENT +1 INSIGHTFUL (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Who are these slashdot people? (Score:2, Insightful)
Wow (Score:5, Insightful)
-psy
Re:Soaking up the gamma (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:poor command of the english language? (Score:5, Insightful)
The story was in the pictures, which really have no "native" language. Very humbling pictures.
Cheers, Gene
Re:MOD PARENT +1 INSIGHTFUL (Score:4, Insightful)
I too agree that the USSR should be ashamed and we should be Proud Americans.
Yes, when the world comes to an end, I too want everyone to remember the numerous toxic waste sites, polluted rivers, and massive deforestation of United States of America. I too want to stand proud of all the positive things my country has done for our enviroment.
Come on, you can't blame the entire USSR for that accident, though their government did downplay the damage of the event in the typical Russian way. If anyone should be ashamed it's probably the idiots inside the plant that cause the disaster to take place. I'm sure they new full well what could happen if they did what they did, but they went ahead and did it anyway. Now all that's left is an area frozen in time.
News flash! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:'who are those slashdot people? (Score:2, Insightful)
Hi, you must be new here.
Re:Safer? That's far from obvious.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Although Elena's site focuses more on the result than the process, I get the impression that she is an experienced rider, and thus cannot fail to be aware of that.
There ARE only two kinds of motorcycle riders, after all -- those that have had accidents, and those that will. (And the two are NOT mutually exclusive, what's worse.
But one doesn't ride a motorcycle because one is concerned about one's safety among all else, either....
(I echo an earlier poster's sentiments about the appeal of women who ride!)
Thank you Elena... (Score:1, Insightful)
Thank you for your wonderfull photography, and a great website detailing your trips into the "Dead Zone". I hope to one day create/capture half the number of compelling photos as you already have in your life.
And please forgive us Mongol-Tartars Slashdot readers for making your hit counter spin like crazy.
Re:More poetry (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Reminds me of (Score:3, Insightful)
Oh God. I just had a horrible thought. I shouldn't say it. If I say it, it will probably happen. If I don't say it, nobody will even think of it. But I can't help myself:
Re:Watch the hit counter spin (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Is she single? Looking? (Score:2, Insightful)
For a fee... of course...
Or possibly for a green card?
Re:Soaking up the gamma (Score:3, Insightful)
The US bombed the Japanese, and then helped clean and study the sites afterward. The USSR evacuated the whole area and just left it. Granted, the pollution from Chernobyl is far larget than what is left over from a nuke airburst.
Very moving (Score:3, Insightful)
Let's just hope no-one does anything stupid and evil that makes us abandon another city in this way...
Re:She didn't take THIS picture. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Watch the hit counter spin (Score:4, Insightful)
Yes, but at great personal cost to her health. Nobody else would go there; she says so herself. These are *one of a kind*.
Fuck just waiving bandwidth restrictions, I'd give her a medal.
Re:Such an amazing and atypical slashdot article (Score:1, Insightful)
After visiting her page and reading/viewing all of her content... I am quite satisfied to say that every dreadfully disgusting site on the internet. Every dirty, crude, inaccurate, bullshit, crappy piece of information or time waster on the internet. All of the hate and spite and flamewars and porn.. it all is worth tolerating for a medium that can deliver us this amazing piece of history that she was able to bring us. Something we never would have seen otherwise. Her story and photos are probably the most beautiful and mesmerizing thing I've ever witness on the web and having shared in this, I can't help but feel enriched and rewarded.
Re:Soaking up the gamma (Score:5, Insightful)
And it should be noted that it was actually the staff of the westernmost, northernmost nuclear power plant (Forsmark) that noticed the increased radiation levels. As in: "We have a leak!". The whole emergency plan for evacuation/containment was put into motion before the operators could figure out that something was 'funny'; "If we have a leak, then why is the radiation levels higher outside the plant than inside?"
It was more or less only bad luck that we got any fallout at all. There was a weather system that moved west during the day and settled over the norther parts where it started to precipicate. The prevaling winds are westerly so chances are we otherwise wouldn't have learned about this incident at all save for several days later when the satellite photos could have provided confirmation.
Sweden now has a nation wide radiation detection system integrated with the weather station network. We never thought we'd have to have one before...
Soviet Museum (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Elena also feeling harassed (Score:4, Insightful)
That's not to say we're not creeping her out, but there are other mass communities as well.
Re:Watch the hit counter spin (Score:2, Insightful)
The blame for Chernobyl lies squarely on the Soviet empire; a cruel and heartless regime that destroyed the lives of millions of people.
Anyone with a USSR flag, or a picture of Stalin or thinks Communism is cool can receive one free ass whipping from me.
Andrew
Ukrainian-Canadian
Absolutely tasteless (Score:1, Insightful)
Published in a book (Score:4, Insightful)
Maybe Oreilly would want to publish their first
coffee table book.
Re:Soaking up the gamma (Score:4, Insightful)
The real war crimes were the firebombing of Hamburg and Dresden.
Re:Soaking up the gamma (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Watch the hit counter spin (Score:5, Insightful)
sorry, but those photos gave me the intense creeps for the past 2 hours and has reminded me that things are not bad at all here in the USA.... at least my child's school is not equipped with children's gas masks.
I feel that every american shoudl be required to view that entire website, and high school classes need to take a week to discuss what happened there.
I remember when it happened, and it's unbelieveable how this one person's website has brough back all those fears I had as a kid then returned and compounded with the realization that
Makes Our three mile island look like a simple fart.
Re:Don't forget ... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:how ironic (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Watch the hit counter spin (Score:3, Insightful)
Kyiv is the capital of Ukraine [countrywatch.com] ...
Re:Soaking up the gamma (Score:3, Insightful)
It's kind of misleading to talk about Hiroshima and Chernobyl as though they were the same.
Re:Soaking up the gamma (Score:2, Insightful)
IMO although it was unfortunate that those hundred(s) of thousands of Japanese people had to die, it was far better than over a million Allied soldiers and an estimated 3 million dead Japanese, though that number probably would approach 10 million within a year or two after the war finally ended. Also dropping the two atomic bombs then was much better than waiting, because that was all the nuclear material the United States had at the time, and had they waited they might have instead dropped even more (as was at least one plan to end the war in the Pacific).