Posts Tagged russia
In Germany: Living Ghosts of Chernobyl, Radioactive Boar on the Rise
Posted by mistergroonk in Animals, World on August 17, 2010
Warmer winters have contributed to a rise in wild boar in Germany. They’re frightening residents and attacking people in parks. Well, it was one person but he was in a wheelchair.
But that’s not the only problem. A quarter of a century after Chernobyl, wild boar have become radioactive from eating mushrooms and truffles. Their delicacies are particularly efficient at absorbing radiation, it seems.
Even worse, though, almost a quarter century after the Chernobyl nuclear meltdown in Ukraine, a good chunk of Germany’s wild boar population remains slightly radioactive — and the phenomenon has been costing the German government an increasing amount of money in recent years.
According to the Environment Ministry in Berlin, almost €425,000 ($555,000) was paid out to hunters in 2009 in compensation for wild boar meat that was too contaminated by radiation to be sold for consumption. That total is more than four times higher than compensation payments made in 2007.
[…]
Many of the boar that are killed land on the plates of diners across Germany, but it is forbidden to sell meat containing high levels of radioactive caesium-137 — any animals showing contamination levels higher than 600 becquerel per kilogram must be disposed of. But in some areas of Germany, particularly in the south, wild boar routinely show much higher levels of contamination. According to the Environment Ministry, the average contamination for boar shot in Bayerischer Wald, a forested region on the Bavarian border with the Czech Republic, was 7,000 becquerel per kilogram. Other regions in southern Germany aren’t much better.
via spiegel online
Russia Remains on Fire, Radioactive. The Nothing Attacks Hietaniemi Beach Helsinki
Posted by mistergroonk in Photography, Video, World on August 11, 2010
Nature. Once her wrath gets going, it’s tough to calm her down.
That Fire in Russia
By now you are aware that Russia is being consumed by conflagration. The Foreign Policy website has photos on this matter.
Did you also know that the fires are raising fears of radioactivity?
The danger comes from radioactive residue still coating large areas of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia, years after the explosion of Reactor No. 4 at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant on April 26, 1986, in what was then the Soviet republic of Ukraine.
“The Chernobyl catastrophe occurred and these areas were littered with radioactive fallout,†said Aleksandr Nikitin, director of the St. Petersburg office of Bellona, an international environmental group.
“This contaminated the trees and the grass.†he said.
“Now, when there is a fire and when all of this burns, all of this radioactivity, together with smoke, comes out and spreads to other territories, including populated areas where people breathe it in as smog.â€
In Hietaniemi beach Helsinki
via you tube
Higher res version here.
As a Freakangel on Whitechapel noted, “it’s the goddamned Nothing!”
Reference for those who forgot The Nothing under the cut.
Read the rest of this entry »
#MusicMonday: A Complete History Of The Soviet Union Arranged to The Melody Of Tetris.
Posted by mistergroonk in Digital Share, History, Music on August 9, 2010
Presented without much comment: A brief, yet complete, history of the Soviet Union through the eyes of a humble worker arranged to the melody of Tetris.
It’s catchy and from what we know of Soviet Russian history, accurate.
Best You Tube comment
In Soviet Russia, blocks arrange you.
Nuclear Detonation Timeline 1945-1998. That’s 2053 Nuclear Tests All Over the World
Posted by mistergroonk in On the French, USA, Video, World on August 3, 2010
Here you have your basic Nuclear Detonation timeline from recognized “Nuclear Weapon States.”
As the video starts out detonations are few and far between. The first three detonations represent the Manhattan Project and the two bombs that ended World War II. After a few representative minutes the USSR and Britain enter the nuclear club and the testing really starts to heat up.
Even though the video does not differentiate between sub-critical “safety” tests and full detonations, you get a good idea of the fever of the nuclear arms race.
Sleep well.
Mashup Monday: Peacetime/Wartime Perspectives
Posted by mistergroonk in Photography on February 23, 2009
This is how we imagine a “time viewer,” when invented, will work.
What Sergei Larenkov has done is he reshot WWII-era photographs in the now from their original perspectives. Then he blended them into marvelous mashups
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It Seems Like Someone Should Have Known
Posted by mistergroonk in Admin, Photography, World on August 21, 2008
There’s a hole in the world. It is man-made (a diamond mine in Eastern Siberia, Russia) and it is horrifyingly gorgeous.
Other holes on planetary surfaces: Mars
(via sreedhara, Mark Trapp)
A ride through the “Dead Zone”
Posted by mistergroonk in Photography, World on March 4, 2004
Elena is taken with riding through the Chernobyl “dead zone” on her motorbike.
Actually, some people coming back to their homes and settle down, those mostly old people who do not care if they die today or tomorrow. important is to die at home.
marauders in radiation poluted area are not just a regular marauders, they don’t steal stuff for themselves. There were cases of radiactive tv sets and other stuff being sold on city second hand markets and then police shot 7 or 8 of them and it helped
Houses open and everything as people left it 18 years ago.
Usually a police officer who call himself a town guard was telling me that I was in town alone. then I could hit roads with no worry that I will run accross some car. This town might be an attractive place for tourists. Some tourists companies have been trying to arrange extrim tours in this town, but people- their customers scared and have been complaining about silence which is hard to stand in empty town. They charged 210 us dollars for 2 hours excursion and town guard say, they all were leaving in some 15 mins, complaining that silense is tremendous as if one got deaf.
A truly fascinating tour. Links found on DPH(Who knows where they are since DPH died.)
update: it would seem the combination of boingboing, slashdot and diepunyhumans did a one two punch on Elena’s site. Thankfully she has a new home here. But don’t tell the big blogging guys.
DPH gives up this necessary update.