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Chernobyl Myths
American Spectator ^ | 23 Jan 06 | Paul Lorenzini

Posted on 01/23/2006 10:14:26 AM PST by rellimpank

Nobody likes to be "had," but that is precisely what has happened to the American public with the documentary Chernobyl Heart. Since winning the Academy Award for "Best Short Documentary" in February 2003, it has received international accolades, has been uncritically quoted in major newspapers, and is being recommended for America's classrooms on the National Education Association's website. HBO has run it continuously since September 2004. Yet while presented as a documentary on the 1986 accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, it relies to a shocking extent on scientifically unsupportable claims and in some cases outright falsehoods.

(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.org ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 1986; chernobyl; documentary; mdm; myth; nuclearplant; nuclearpower; radiation; wormwood
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To: Fierce Allegiance

Crap, the font isn't supported.


41 posted on 01/23/2006 12:01:26 PM PST by Fierce Allegiance (Rapidly nearing the third quarter of life.)
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To: struwwelpeter

Chernobyl means "Home of Giant Ants".


42 posted on 01/23/2006 12:07:08 PM PST by mbynack (Retired USAF SMSgt)
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To: Fierce Allegiance
I think I'll start my own 'Kidofspeed' site with a bunch of my Kazakhstan pictures.

Too bad it wasn't a nuclear but economic disaster that chased all the people out of this city. I suppose that I could make something up, like the mototsiklistka did, but then, I don't look that good in leathers.

43 posted on 01/23/2006 12:20:20 PM PST by struwwelpeter
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To: rellimpank

FYI

http://www.angelfire.com/extreme4/kiddofspeed/chapter1.html

This tells the story if it is still up and running.


44 posted on 01/23/2006 12:22:37 PM PST by Archer24
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To: struwwelpeter

They sure are good at concrete construction. Imagine how drab and depressing that place must be in winter. Unnngh.


45 posted on 01/23/2006 12:24:09 PM PST by Fierce Allegiance (Rapidly nearing the third quarter of life.)
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To: Fierce Allegiance
'Chernobyl' means 'Wormwood' in Ukrainain

Isn't this an urban legend? I actually looked up the passage from Revelations in a Russian Bible, and the word was not chernobyl.

It looks like Chernobyl means "black-" something, I don't know what the "byl" addition means.

46 posted on 01/23/2006 12:32:49 PM PST by Dumb_Ox (http://kevinjjones.blogspot.com)
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To: Dumb_Ox

Read the post to which I replied, #31. I was goofing!


47 posted on 01/23/2006 12:34:50 PM PST by Fierce Allegiance (Rapidly nearing the third quarter of life.)
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To: Fierce Allegiance
Those are called "Khrushchovki", after the Khrushchev-era style of construction that continued right up to the end of the Soviet Union. They come in brick or pre-fab concrete slabs. The slab-type ones let ALL the noise and cold in, and are hotter than an oven in the summertime. Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Russia are still suffering from these monstrosities.

Some of the older Stalin-era houses are okay - high ceilings, ornate plasterwork, and thick walls, but Khrushchev/Brezhnev/Andropov/Chernenko/Gorby-era buildings were the pits.

These buildings were in a neighborhood outside of Karaganda, and most are slowly being 'mined' for their pipes, wiring, etc. Some people still live there, and there is an active bus stop, believe it or not.

The Russian version of 'It's a Wonderful Life', which they play every New Year's Eve is called 'Ironies of Fate'. The plot concerns a guy who gets drunk with his buddies one New Year's in Moscow and accidentally gets on a plane to Leningrad/Peterburg. Once there, he takes a taxi home, since he thinks he was just seeing someone off at the airport (now that's drunk). In Leningrad, there is a street with the same name as his own in Moscow, and an apartment complex that looks exactly the same, and with the same address. He takes the elevator to his apartment, and his key even works there. He passes out on a couch he can't remember buying, and a cute lady who of course he'll fall in love with comes home with her fiance.

Some great lines in the movie: "Pit' nado men'she" (Gotta drink less), and the songs are by Nikitin and Pugacheva. The actress was Polish, BTW.

Now such a movie wouldn't be possible in the West. Central planning - it's not just for democrats ;-)

48 posted on 01/23/2006 12:45:25 PM PST by struwwelpeter
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To: struwwelpeter

Very interesting!

I had a co worker who left russia during the Reagan administration. He was a very smart guy, and had an excellent education, but was very difficult to work with and would never take responsibility for anything. Very regimented, too, and took all of his breaks to the second. He would wait outside the office even in freezing weather until it was 8:00 on the button.


49 posted on 01/23/2006 12:51:55 PM PST by Fierce Allegiance (Rapidly nearing the third quarter of life.)
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To: geopyg
There's a really good book about the entire event without all the enviro-wacko stuff.
A design flaw in the control rods caused a neutron spike as the reactor was scrammed.
50 posted on 01/23/2006 1:01:51 PM PST by Zathras
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To: Fierce Allegiance
Read the post to which I replied, #31. I was goofing!

Heh. Oops.

"In the same book of Revelations when the Seven Seals were broken open on the Day of Judgment, when the seven angels blow the trumpets and third angel blows up wormwood, wormwood will fall from the sky. Wormwood will poison the third part, and all the waters in the third part and all the land and many many many people will die. Now do you know what the Russian translation of wormwood is? Chernobyl. Fact!" Source
I guess the urban legend started with the 1993 movie "Naked." Another thing for the infinite pile of useless non-facts. More grist for procrastinators.
51 posted on 01/23/2006 2:34:03 PM PST by Dumb_Ox (http://kevinjjones.blogspot.com)
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To: struwwelpeter
It doesn't. In both Russian and Ukrainian wormwood is 'Gorkaya Polyn', and even the the verse from the Ukrainian Bible calls it 'Polyn'.

I looked that up myself years ago. So what does chernobyl mean? Black Bile?

52 posted on 01/23/2006 2:34:58 PM PST by Dumb_Ox (http://kevinjjones.blogspot.com)
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To: Dumb_Ox
In Ukrainian, the place is called chornobyl', and translates literally into something like 'black mace', but means 'mugwort'.

I had a 'chornobyl' moment in Kyiv when I grabbed some 'chorvoni perets' and figured "Ah, 'chorni' means black, and 'perets' is pepper, so it should be okay on eggs...

Turns out 'chorvoni' in Ukrainian is red, and their red pepper is thermonuclear.

Next time I'll turn on ALL the lights on in the kitchen ;-)

53 posted on 01/23/2006 3:42:40 PM PST by struwwelpeter
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To: Dumb_Ox

Here 'ya go. I don't rely much on online translators for articles, but one word at a time they do okay.

If you want to have some REAL fun, put an article into Bablefish, then plug the translation into it again and run it through a few different languages, then back into English. It comes out pretty hilarious.

54 posted on 01/23/2006 5:53:31 PM PST by struwwelpeter
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To: struwwelpeter
It's not the same word for wormwood in the Ukrainian translation of Revelations, apparently:
8:11 А ймення зорі тій Полин. І стала третина води, як полин, і багато з людей повмирали з води, бо згіркла вона... 8:12 І засурмив Ангол четвертий, і вдарено третину сонця, і третину місяця, і третину зір, щоб затьмилася їхня третина, щоб третина дня не світила, так само ж і ніч...
I was going to look up a Slavonic Bible, but that would be even more ridiculous. Does Snopes.com pay for debunkings?
55 posted on 01/23/2006 8:43:26 PM PST by Dumb_Ox (http://kevinjjones.blogspot.com)
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To: Dumb_Ox
Wow... how did you get the slavonic fonts to show up on FR? I've been stuck doing screen captures and image hosting.

It's the same text, I just screen captured Rev 8:6-11, and you cut and pasted Rev 8:11-12. I wonder if how this would come out:

8:11 À éìåííÿ çîð³ ò³é Ïîëèí. ² ñòàëà òðåòèíà âîäè, ÿê ïîëèí, ³ áàãàòî ç ëþäåé ïîâìèðàëè ç âîäè, áî çã³ðêëà âîíà...

56 posted on 01/23/2006 10:01:13 PM PST by struwwelpeter
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To: Dumb_Ox

Dang, FR overrides my fonts: koi8, cp1251, and unicode all look like Croatian poetry.


57 posted on 01/23/2006 10:03:24 PM PST by struwwelpeter
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To: struwwelpeter

I just cut and pasted from that website. The site says it's in UTF-8. Oh, and I use Firefox instead of IE. Perhaps I added in Cyrillic support when I installed a long time ago.


58 posted on 01/24/2006 12:03:03 PM PST by Dumb_Ox (http://kevinjjones.blogspot.com)
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To: Condor 63

Kid Of SPeed!.. thats it.. I remember that phrase!.. thank you!!!


59 posted on 01/25/2006 4:43:07 PM PST by Bones75
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To: Archer24

"This tells the story if it is still up and running."

That link is still working. Weird that I just read it the other night. Different URL though but same text and images for the most part.

This one has a "please support us" link though. I'm thinking that some teenager put the angelfire one up and niave people are buying his next computer.


60 posted on 04/22/2006 9:07:06 PM PDT by driftdiver
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