Invercoe

All of these are off the iPhone 4s, using Autostich to make the panoramics. Otherwise untouched.

This release includes Favourites, which allows you to mark a stop as a favourite, and if you are within 2km of the stop, it will show up. Favourites are shown on the left side of the closest stop, where as normal stops are shown to the right.

 

Also added is a refresh function – if you need to refresh all the stops and your location, just shake your phone gently, and it will refresh.

Nearest Bus is now available in the appstore

Leonie also has a lot of pictures up. I especially love her one of the bumper cars.

There has been a lot written about what happened – the Wikipedia pages are plentiful and well written, and there are a number of good documentaries around. The BBC has a good, recently study on it.

Why I went

Visiting  Chernobyl has always been a “bucket list” thing for me. I love the “wabi-sabi” aesthetic: the look of things which are transient, changing into something else, or back into their original state. That was a major draw for visiting Pripyat: what would a town look like if humans had been removed for 25 years? How would nature take hold and reclaim it’s previous state? When my friend Beren said he was organising something, I jumped at the chance to go. I was not disappointed.

Pripyat / Припять

The town of Pripyat was where most of the workers and their families lived. It was home to around 50,000 people at the time of the disaster.

The town has the feeling of somewhere which was left in a hurry – which it was. It’s not spooky anymore, but it is quiet and broken. There are no windows, a lot of the parquet floors are broken up, and in a number of places, the wooden floors are starting to disintegrate. But mostly, nature is taking over again. Tree’s are growing in and around the dive well. Mold, moss and other life forms are all over the walls, and we were told that Boar, Bears, Wolves, Deer and the almost extinct local Horse have all come back in fairly large numbers.

People are still around, but they don’t stick around – it’s just to look, or work around the reactors. Nature is left pretty much alone. It feels like that too – like we were gatecrashing something else’s party.

Reactor #4

The Chernobyl power plants were only just starting their life when the disaster happened. There was plans to build 12 reactors on the site, each one able to produce around 1GW (1000 MW) of electricity, and the 5th one sits partly built, with the cranes still there, waiting to finish it.

But despite the scale of the disaster, the remaining 3 operational reactors still continued to produce power for nearly 20 years after the accident. Reactor 3, which is only 50-100m from the destroyed Reactor #4, was the last to be shutdown in December 2000. It’s just on off the left of the first picture in this section, just to the left of the big chimney.

One thing I learned while I was here: it could have been much, much worse. And it nearly was. It was well known that the reactor melted down, and the resulting pressure blew the 1200 tonne cap off the reactor, spewing out a lot of local radiation (and radioactive dust), and some, but not a lot, of radioactive dust over western europe.

What wasn’t as well known is that something much, much worse nearly happened, and without the intervention of miners, firefighters and divers, it would have wiped out Minsk (300 miles away) and rendered most of western europe uninhabitable.

The reason for this is the same as what happened with the Icelandic volcano. When the reactor overheated and blew, the workers flooded the reactor with water to try to cool it and stop it burning. This water went thru the reactor and sat in the basement – basically a large pool of water under the white-hot molten core, which was burning it’s way thru the concrete seperating the two.

In Iceland, the situation was the opposite: there was a white-hot area of molten rock (the Eyjafjallajökull volcano), under a glacier (massive body of water). Either way, the result is the same. If water is super-heated, it turns instantly to steam and expands, causing an explosion of whatever is around (volcanic ash or radioactive reactor core). In the case of Iceland, it threw volcanic ash all over western europe, closing air traffic down for around 2 weeks. Imagine if all the places closed by the ash were contaminated with enough radioactivity to harm the inhabitants. Thats what nearly happened at Chernobyl. The explosion would have been huge: around 5-10 megatons. Big enough to contaminate all of western Europe. This was narrowly avoided. (by comparison, Hiroshima was around 20 kiloton, so imagine 2500 times that)

Nuclear Power

I’m in two minds still about Nuclear power. In general, I think I like it. On one hand, aside form disasters and the disposal of waste, it’s a non-polluting energy source, and one which has moved a long way in the last 20 years.

But on the other hand, when it goes bad, it goes very bad. At least it does when an old power plant is damaged (both Chernobyl and Fukushima were built in the mid-late 1970′s).

But the alternatives are not working either. Coal and Gas are running out and have a measurable and destructive effect on the environment, even if it’s a slow one. Coal even releases more radioactivity into the atmosphere than nuclear does (if it’s working properly).

Wind and solar are all very well, but neither is currently scaling enough to provide the world with it’s power needs. Wind is also too irregular, and so is solar.

I think we need a total rethink of how we generate and consume electricity, with a massive move to reduction of use and a change of generation and storage habits. Hydrogen may be an option here (as it’s useful for safe storage for later use), but there is no infrastructure for this yet. It’s going to take a radical shortage to achieve a radical change.

Personal power generation – putting panels on your roof for example – is good for your own power bill, but it’s not going to power the planet. We don’t even HAVE a roof. And while I want to live off the grid, without disconnecting from modern society – or all society – thats really only possible for my person, home use. I’m not sure I’m willing to give up transport, external food production, the internet and all the other things I don’t directly control, but all which require a vast network of power generation.

It’s a problem, but there are no solid solutions yet. Just political posturing and talk, with no action.

More photos

I have more photos up on Flickr, or both Kiev and Chernobyl.

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When we first arrived in London, we live in Brixton, and our closest bus stop was right by the Curries / Halfords which was looted. It was a strange way to start in a new place – from New Zealand, which is mostly white or Maori/Polynesian, to Brixton which is mostly Black. It felt strange being in a minority. Like most of east London, it wasn’t a place I ever felt that safe, tho to be honest, nothing ever happened (even on a 4am very-drunk-walk from Brixton tube back home. In hindsight, this was possibly a bad idea).

For my money, tensions have been building in London and it’s evident even in parts which are not at the bottom end (for lack of a better way to put it) like Tottenham. There has been a feeling of simmering anger and frustration which wasn’t here last year. Oddly enough, we had a different government last year.

I still can’t put my finger on a specific cause, especially around where I am in what can only be called the mild, mild west. The austerity measures, and the anger around the phone hacking things might be contributing to, tho I also think that a lack of any good news in the past 4 months, and no end in sight to the cuts, reductions, and general hopelessness that a lot of people feel.

The only specific thing I can put my finger on is the lack of any form of repercussions for people’s actions. The kids who are rioting – and a lot of them are – know very well that as they are under 16, the worst they will get is an ASBO, which is often worn as a badge of pride. There will be nothing done about them, as the police and the system has been so de-fanged that it can’t do anything except give them a slap on the wrist and let them go out again. There is no fear of their parents, as in most cases, they are just trying to get by, pay check (or benefit) to pay check.

So while it saddens me – and being that some of it is quite close to home, freaks me out – it doesn’t surprise me. It will be very interesting to see what the government does. I suspect very little. (unless the riots move to Chelsea….)

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This is also worth a read. Love this line:

The context is the example these thugs are emulating. Consider a guy who sees the police treating him as a suspect by default because of his age or attitude, who is considered a lazy parasite because he’s never been able to get a real job.

• The example from his parents has been to treat others with disrespect while demanding it for himself.
• The example he saw at school was that qualifications matter more than common sense, yet people with qualifications still end up unemployed.
• The example of those in authority is to exploit every loophole to get rich and to suck up to the powerful and ignore their abuse of power.
• The example he’s absorbed from media stars is to want more, more, more and blame the little guy for “piracy” when it doesn’t happen.
• The example he’s seen of the law is that people who destroy the economy and society get paid off while everyone else ends up in court if they’re caught.
• The norm he’s heard constantly is that bling is best and getting it on credit you can’t afford is OK.

He’s no money to spare, he’s one of thousands, and he sees no consequences to his actions if he can stay in the crowd and avoid the cameras. And he probably can.

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Thanks Stella – nice reality check. I had to stop watching twitter – esp searching for my area – as it was winding me up to much. It ended up there was nothing, and most if not all of the twitter stuff was hoaxes and RTs

I hate that they’re attacking their own back yards. Young people smashing in and stealing from and closing the shops where they themselves work, eat, shop.

I hate the consumerism of the rioters. I wish they were chanting slogans, I wish they were carrying placards, I wish there was a clear political point to what they’re doing. I wish they didn’t seem to be so clearly shopping.
I do think that any riot is political, even without a clear political point, but I wish the people taking part in this one were channelling that energy into something constructive.

Yup, that bit has really got me. It’s not about Mark Duggan anymore – outside of Sunday afternoon, it never was. It’s about breaking stuff and stealing things. Pure and simple. It’ll be interesting to see what the official reaction is, bring both Boris and Cameron are, in theory, “back”. (one may be useful, even if he is a dick, the other is more likely to be a hinderance).

Broken Britain indeed. There is so little consequence for anyone doing anything anti-social here, that something fairly major is going to have to change to make it better.

The place was humming, and nearly full all the time. The coffee was great (and they sell AeroPress’ too), and the staff were…. well, insanely friendly. Not to mention the fantastic ‘tache!

Thanks for a great cup! Well worth it if you are in Antwerp.

Balnakeil Bay

Sandwood Bay

Random Tarn.

All pics are off the iPhone 4. Most are 10-15 shot panoramic, processed with AutoStitch on the phone.

The system here really is quite amazing. It moves around 3.5m people a day – yes, nearly the population of New Zealand PER DAY. Having been in it during rush hour, I can believe that. That said, overall, it’s a very pleasant and efficient service. Sure, bits break down now and again, and a bit more room in the carriages would be nice, but I’m not complaining*. In general, trains turn up fairly often (1-10 mins since the last one, depending on the day), and go where they say they will. The cost isn’t excessive, either (around 100 GBP for a month pass for all trains, tube and buses), tho it does feel like a lot sometimes. With the flexibility of the tube, however, we seldom need a car, so by comparison, it’s cheap.

*I’m especially not complaining now, as I either walk, or catch the bus, to work.

With the addition of some fairly indispensable iPhone apps, especially if your eyesight isn’t too good (iPhone voiceover + London Travel app = usable bus network by visually impaired people), the whole London travel network is, generally, a delight to use – at least by someone not used to having any public transport at all.

One thing I really like the idea of, is where I am at any given time. Obviously, GPS doesn’t work in most of the tube network. Even so, a lot of the underground, isn’t:

(Source: http://www.steveprentice.net/tube/TfLSillyMaps/real_underground.jpg)

.. but I’m always intrigued as to where I am, why this bit when around that corner (and not just a straight line) etc. So this map, via Urban75, is really one which I find very useful.

It actually details where the turns are, why we just went around a certain corner, and how the platforms – underground – relate to each other. It’s geeky as all hell, and I’m not a train-spotter by any means, but I find it really interesting. It even has bits like Mill Hill East, which is at the top east side of the Northern (black) line. The Mill Hill East spur was going to connect up to Edgeware (the top of the west side of the Nothern line), but they never finished the line for some reason.

There is even a PDF if you have a fast enough machine to render it.

Londonist has a nice guide to all the various alternative maps, too – some are just silly, but a lot are very useful.

Happy mapping.

This is my favorite place on the planet, bar none.

Waikaremoana is a large lake in a National Park (Te Urewera National Park). It has traditionally been home to the Tūhoe, the Children of the Mist. (that link works for me, but some browsers don’t do macron’s well eg Tūhoe)

I’ve been coming here since I was a child – my parents took me on the lake track when I was (I think) about 5 or 6, and I’ve walked it 3 or 4 times since then.

Lots of panoramic’s here – all off the iPhone with Autostitch – ‘cos, really, this landscape needs to go wide.

Sunset over Waikaremoana / Panekiri Bluff. Speaking of which, we made up a cocktail called Waikaremoana Sunset: a measure or 2 of Chambord (raspberry liqur), and top the glass with L&P. Twist of lemon if you want. Lovely.

Home bay (from the camping ground)

Waikareiti, just before we paddled out in the boat (tho I’m in the water in this shot). Yes, the water is really THAT clear.

Looking back the other way, towards the shelter. It’s about a 1 hour walk to the lake, and totally worth it (the water was quite warm, too)

Panekiri from the bluffs near Mokau Landing.

Wanganui Arm from the bluffs – yes, thats the road on the right hand side.

Swing bridge on the Lake Track; Tamaiti – a small lake, on an island, which is in the middle of Lake Waikareiti; Looking up into the canopy.

Getting ready to go with Brent, who’s a very hard case The boat is basically a V8 engine driving a water pump AKA a Hamilton Jet.

Panoramic of the river before we set off.

It was a very flat calm day, the river was glassy and smooth most of the way up.

the Bridge to Nowhere. Quite a sight in the middle of the New Zealand bush. Quite a lot of history around it too.

A view from the bridge, looking at the remains of the old swing bridge.

A bit of a mess around with TiltShiftGen on the iPhone. This was the top of a small waterfall, about 3 feet high, on the side of the track.

We are planning on coming back in kayaks sometime next summer (or the one after) to do the 3 day trip down the river.