Who wants to live forever

Glad you're back, Humon. I was worried about you.

The fact that there is an occupation called an "influencer" makes me more violently ill than radiation poisoning ever can.

@SydneyCarton You are a lady and a scholar. I hope your opinion is more common than I was thinking amongst young American women.

@SydneyCarton they are influencing people in various ways, including making someone upset...

@SydneyCarton Thank you for letting us know that all this "influencer" stuff isn't universal among the younger folks. I was beginning to worry.

I hope those facebook comics get posted here. I do not want to touch facebook with a 50 foot pole

@Icalasari
My thoughts exactly

@Icalasari Agreed.
When I finally caved in and joined, they kept blocking my account. They don't like people who try to keep their Internet footprint small.

As an American, I approve of all "influencers" going to Chernobyl and removing any and all safety equipment they desire to and to spend as much time there as they can...

Chernobyl is a tourist destination with an extremely low threat risk. Visitors dont wander around the reactor or anywhere dangerous, and it's all really safe. As much as people like to bluster about how stupid the people taking pictures are, it's not unsafe or anything worse than kind of silly.

@Daigga but is it really? Any place that requires you to wear nuclear Geiger counters and check if you are contaminated on the way out doesn’t sound safe to me. Also you need permission to actually go there.

@Niren There are levels of radiation. Yes the background radiation in Pripyat and by the reactor is much higher than say New York but it is far from deadly levels. Spending a few hours there as a tourist is perfectly safe as long as you follow the guides as there are still hotspots not clear enough. You probably shouldn't venture into the red forest for example.

@Daigga Thank you. There's no need for masks and protective gear. Don't bathe in the river or frolic in the grass and you're fine.

@Daigga Um, I'm pretty sure safety isn't really most people's problem with the visitors' pictures/videos. The real problem lies in the blatant disrespect of a real tragedy. It's no different than people taking stupid selfies at Auschwitz and posting them on Twitter and Snapchat, etc. with dumb captions and lols. Well, perhaps the scale of disrespect is a little different but still, these people are indeed idiots for using a historic disaster site for public recognition. It's the typical "Hey look at me, I'm somewhere important. Isn't that amazing? Yay me!" behavior which continues to disgust people. Now, that being said, I am not against people wanting to go to the site, or even wanting to take photos, even their dumb selfies. Only, at least show some understanding of the gravity of where you are and some respect for how tragic the Chernobyl Disaster was. An entire town had to be evacuated and abandoned. An entire community of people were up-rooted, forced to leave their homes and find somewhere else to settle, with all the difficulties this entails. And that's not even to mention those many who straight-up lost their lives. Given all this, maybe they should keep their dumb selfies private. If they really want to post about their visit online, then do so with respect and consideration of the site's history. After all, if you don't care about the history and don't fully comprehend the gravity of the disaster, why visit the Exclusion Zone in the first place? Isn't knowing and acknowledging the history what really makes the experience? Now, many visitors are indeed respectful and some are even extremely aware and understanding. I'm merely saying it's those who are less so who are causing online anger.

@Daigga Ah yes, lets mock all the thousand of people who were forced out of their homes and jobs and in some case even lost loved ones, and haunts them even in the pressent by getting really severe cases of mutations in the family from pregnant mothers at that time, people who ended up being strait up homeless, people who still have trauma from the incident and lets not forget the ill fauna and flora of the area. I am sure that that fact nothing decays there anymore ever since the explosion because all of the natural fungi who help with the decomposition process no longer exist, is not a reason to be concerned!
But no, its a great place to take a picture were you pose in a sexy way in front something like an abandoned school or hospital, 10/10 would come back again!

Personal protective equipment is not mandatory in places where tourists can get to. Unless they eat something, stay downwind from burning vegetation or take dust baths, worst case scenario is that they'll have to discard clothes and take cold shower at checkpoint.

People who sneak in without guides and past checkpoints are at risk of stumbling into a hot spot that wasn't cleaned up, but most of them seem to have at least a cheap Geiger counter and enough sense to walk away from places where it goes crazy. Their risk of getting cancer is probably still lower than risk of getting a brick through the skull while they play stalker in a building that wasn't maintained for 30 years.

Perhaps there is a global conspiracy to draw influencers to dangerous places? Next up, free tickets to the maiden voyage of Titanic 2.0 for Instagram influencers.

@Kummerspeck Well, when you put it like that....

@Kummerspeck

I can think of some conspiracy theorists I would like to donate money to send them there with a special tour of the core area.

@Kummerspeck Or this...https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/10/world/europe/siberia-lake-instagram.html

Why oh why do most of these idiots come from America?
Let me rephrase.
Why am I constantly surrounded by morons?

@tigercub123

Not sure that most of them do considering events in the rest of the world. Think its more a case that they shout louder/get more publicity and hence tend to obscure many of the other idiots elsewhere. Unfortunately irresponsible idiots seem to have some genetic advantage as they keep bloody popping up.

@stevep59 As long as the brash idiot is male, he has the ability to sire plenty of offspring before karma catches up to him.

In essence, he is pulling the human equivalent of a peacocks tail.

Never mind that being American and speaking English, the reach of the digital megaphone is further than most.

@digiowl

All to true a lot of the time unfortunately.

I didn't know there was a Chernobyl TV show ... but that doesn't matter because Humon is back!!! :-D Yay!!!

Please don't ever leave us like that again! An internet without Humon is as lifeless as, well, as Chernobyl!

@gahlka Actually, Chernobyl is brimming with life - other animals don't understand radiation, and the place was free of humans for a long time. As such, it was a safe place for population booms. And the animals are still relatively safe as they care radioactive dust on their fur/feathers/scales/etc., thus making them dangerous for a long lived species like a human to get too close to. I kind of wonder how the radiation affected evolution, since in theory, wouldn't it make them evolve faster?

'@Icalasari' https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutation_breeding#Radiation_breeding
To achieve significant number of mutations, plants and seeds had to be subjected to radiation levels that killed about half of them. Type, duration and conditions of exposure also had to be tweaked to achieve useful results, but process in general is still very random.

Random mutations in animals are likely to produce non-viable offspring, and high enough dose will probably kill or render subject sterile well before it has a chance to reproduce. Even if mutant specimen manages to reproduce, there is no guarantee that it's particular mutation will be replicated in next generation or generation after that. Apparently slight morphological differences and higher rates of albinism were discovered in exclusion zone, but I don't think there were mentions of something drastic like formation of new species or subspecies.

Also, long-term accumulation of radioactivity happens in animals through consumption of plant matter (or other animals) that picked up caesium-137 and strontium-90 from environment. Both isotopes are treated by body as potassium and calcium respectively, as such they are distributed through and accumulated in appropriate tissues. Americium-241 will become a bigger problem over time, but since it produces alpha-radiation it's more immediately lethal.

@Icalasari
I think it only makes them grow bigger. In one document they found a gigantic pawprint and human-sized fishes.

'@Sisu' human-sized is not too big if it's a catfish. Given enough time European catfish can grow up to several meters long.

Sexy mutants....just what the world needs!