"QUANTUM SHOT" #395(rev)
Link - article by Avi Abrams
Odyssey in the Arctic with the Russian Icebreaker Fleet
The nuclear-powered icebreakers were considered the symbol of Soviet technological power for many decades. Today this fleet is still used to aid ship navigation in the seas north of Siberia - but also for the purpose of elite tourism, which surely helps to pay the bills.
The most powerful of all icebreakers - "50 years of Victory" (one of six "Arktika" class)- has two nuclear reactors and is capable of reaching North Pole in just a couple of days.
"Vaigach" and "Taimyr"
Svetlana Bogdanova has recently returned from a very special trip on board the icebreaker "Vaigach" and provided us with these unique photographs. Thanks to her exclusive permission (including collection of photos from the seamen of the Murmansk Sea Shipping Company) we can now offer you a glimpse of what it really means to follow along the caravan of ships in the Northern seas, led by a colossal nuclear-powered vessel.
Svetlana says: "A nuclear icebreaker almost feels alive, like a huge proud creature with a benevolent and dependable character. See it moving in the dark of night, projecting a powerful light ahead, making the snow sparkle in a misty path, feel it tremble under your feet... Its sheer immensity is inspiring, making one think of heroic exploration of unknown lands, the stuff that kids should be dreaming about".
"Vaigach" in the mist:
The blizzard is getting worse:
Unexpected Rescue:
This truck got in trouble on treacherous ice, so a professional team quickly comes up with a plan:
The journey resumes:
Breaking the way for a caravan of ships:
"30 Days of Night"...
Arriving into Dixon: a small town of about a thousand people -
Its population lives in the Arctic wasteland, enduring the most extreme climate. A significant part of Dixon has become a ghost town during Soviet years - and a series of ghastly buildings line up to haunt the endless night:
It's easy to start imagining vampires... but these buildings are long abandoned. Though one has to wonder about this cannon-looking thing left nearby:
Back to the Arctic trail
Serene and wonderfully wide-format views along the way - the Svalbard archipelago:
And mammoth fossils are simply everywhere, just lying around (left). On the right is an object that looks like a rusted bomb:
A day in the life of Murmansk Sea Shipping Company
A custom paint job looks aggressive on an icebreaker (appropriately enough):
Launching the deep sea research vessel (Bathysphere) "MIR-1":
Encountering some heavy seas:
"Yamal" towing the oil rig:
Land-based oil rigs are usually towed by a chain of tractors:
Staying in port for maintenance:
Here are Some of the Giants of the Arctic Fleet:
"Lenin" was the first Russian nuclear icebreaker, built in 1957. It looked imposing, but suffered two nuclear accidents while in operation till 1989, and now is being converted into a museum ship. Another milestone: "Arktika" became the first surface ship ever to reach the North Pole in 1977.
"50 Years of Victory" - is the largest, most powerful icebreaker ever constructed.
117 meters in length, the "50 Years of Victory" has TWO nuclear reactors, develops around 500,000 horse power, and its huge steel ice belt 5 meters wide can easily break through ice up to 2.5 meters (9.2 feet) thick. (The "victory" in its name is the Russian people's victory over the Nazis in 1945)
And by the way, in case you're thinking that no ice can ever stop such behemoths, let me remind you that the nuclear icebreaker "Soviet Union" was trapped in ice for three days in 1998 (which is nothing compared to Mother Russia trapped in communism for 70 years)
Here is that "Soviet Union" ship -
The rest of 10 nuclear icebreakers are described in detail here.
Bears just wanna have... milk
Polar bears lead pretty eventful life: from "romantic" courtships to intense family squabbles:
However, if they spot a passing ship, they will drop everything and try to get closer, knowing exactly what they want.
>They will surely start begging for their most favorite treat - condensed sweetened milk in cans: (not healthy of course, but simply irresistible)
They try to stretch their meal: one can will keep a bear occupied for up to 3 hours. After they lick the can clean, they start to chew on it, like some sort of chewing gum - to get that last whiff of flavor.
Finally, to sleep with a full tummy:
Polar bear tracks:
Note: if price is no object, Quark Expeditions will offer you exclusive trips to the North Pole on board of these icebreakers.
Photos by Svetlana Bogdanova; seamen of the Murmansk Sea Shipping Company; awd.ru, used by exclusive permission, all rights reserved
"Yes, Hill sings his song of Gary with clear sarcasm and bile..."
Well, not really: the song was written in the 1950s, right at the peak of Gary's arc, right? In retrospect we may interpret it as ironic mockery, but that's not built into the song.
I used to work in Gary during 1996-99 years. The first day I joined and went out for lunch to a KFC across the street, my colleagues warned me to get food from home or get mugged. Being new to US and my first visit to Gary was a real eye opener.With the Jobs gone and economy in shambles it was a desolate landscape. There was a shooting 2 blocks from the office the day before I joined , later I learned was lot of gang banging and drugs. I used to live 4 miles away from Gary a beautiful little town called Crown Point and used to wonder what a difference 4 miles was.I was new to driving and took a less menacing route to Chicago Lakeshore drive avoiding the 80/94 Dan Ryan road rage way where honking or driving slow means sure death.Little did I know that I will be venturing past the Gary and its extended neighborhoods past the Amoco refinery and South Chicago. It was eerily a haunting scenario from old hollywood movies showing a desolate town and only the noise of some squawking bird. There were very few people near apartment blocks, the shops boarded or heavily armored , empty parks and no kids. The only successful business near Gary that seems to be crowded would be Al Bundy's favorite nudie bar and casino. During the winter you would notice some burning drums with people huddling to get some warmth and it felt a brutal existence for the people living there.There was some federal grant during Clinton years to revamp Gary, restart the convention center, which I bet was for used for payroll subsidy to keep the dead man walking.
Thank yoi for posting this! My husband is from Gary, and it is very sad to see the ruins of what used to be such a grand city. Whenever we drive through Gary, I always look at the buildings and try to imagine what they looked like when the city was in its prime.
wasn't this suppossed to be the first all black city. Which is the way they wanted it. Even with help from the government it still ends up being a ghetto. So this is the model they wanted to set for the rest of the country for the black community.
My grandfather was a welder and moved frequently from job to job during WWII. One place that he talked about, twenty years later, was Gary and how much he had liked it there.
Absolutely fantastic photos! After two years of urbex in Japan I'm really longing to explore some stuff in a Western country. Time for a trip to the States...
No, Anonymous idiot, Gary was not supposed to be, nor was it ever, "the first all black city." (That would be Eatonville, Florida.) *Gary* was billed as "the city of the century", and it was filled, at least in the early years, with immigrants and their US-born children. For the record, that's *European* immigrants -- Germans, Russians, Poles, etc.
Only after the immigration restrictions that came with WWI did American blacks really start moving to Gary in greater numbers, along with the Mexicans the company also encouraged to immigrate. Not, you understand, that they really wanted to socialise with those blacks and Mexicans, dear me, no. But they got the work done, while there was work.
It is in no small part attitudes and ignorance very like your own that contributed to what Gary is today; prejudice like that does tend to lead to the kind of racial conflict that became Gary's public image. As it turns out, that conflict only gets worse when you combine it with worrying about how you're going to feed your children and knowing you'll be at the end of the line for anything and everything because some people think the color of their skin and the language they learned with their mother's milk add up to virtue on their part instead of pure luck.
I live not to far from here, and I promise this is as beautiful as I've seen the city in 20 years... gary is the one place we "219'ers" wont go after dark, especially since the police are off the clock after 5.
You can thank the labor unions for driving out the big steel mills, textile mills and other manufacturing that employed thousands of people. Vehicle manufacturing went to using lots of robots and other automation, but the automation technology for these other industries didn't come soon enough to keep them in the USA when labor priced itself out of the market.
The rooms with a lone chair and the huge fireplace could have been J F Sebastian's residence in Blade Runner. Unsettling when life and art resemble each other so closely.
Thank you! I think there is a typo though: "This hood ornament is from a 1954 Chevrolet police car (right image). On the right is the hood ornament from the DeSoto Diplomat". So, which is which?
!!! Jude Law for 46th Karlovy Vary IFF !! not spam, Jude used the prize - small statue - girl with globe for his car.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fNTli9bvRM
"This hood ornament is from a 1954 Chevrolet police car (right image). On the right is the hood ornament from the DeSoto Diplomat"... The ornament on the left is from a 1957 Chevy Bel Air. http://www.flickr.com/photos/44323995@N03/sets/72157624804248321/detail/ This is a 54 Chevy Police Car http://popuppistons.com/2342/1954-chevy-police-car/
@Kaiser Troll: The Viking inspired ornament is the emblem of The Rover Car Company, Vikings, and later pirates were known as 'Sea-Rovers'. Others of their cars carried viking ship ornaments, badges of a ship with dragon prow, red and white striped square-sail, its sides lined with shields. The founders of the company were a bit viking obsessed. In 1948, they built the 'Land-Rover', and have been building them ever since.
It's also worth noting that many of the plastic and glass ornaments were illuminated from inside or underneath and glowed when the car was running at night.
Polar Bears are never 'stranded' on an iceberg. They are excellent swimmers, they hunt in the water, and are known to swim tens of kilometers while hunting.
Actually, during certain seasons, the polar bears can be effectively "stranded" on ice bergs, because the distance between ice floes can be hundreds of miles. They are strong swimmers, but even they have their limits.
The Pyongyang Hotel certainly amazes me, but there's something even more impressive: the emptyness of the sreets even around such a key architectural point of NK.
"Anyone wants a rocket?" A couple of bombs on the cart, not rockets. The rockets I've seen have exhaust nozzles at the back for propulsion, these don't.
As to the balloon photos, the one on the left (multi-color balloons) is real. I have crewed for this pilot. See clusterballoon.org See also clusterballoon.com The one on the right (blue and white balloons) is most likely a fake. In real life, the balloons tend to pack tighter than depicted and one needs many more of them
Ski jumping is a popular sport even nowadays, it's part of the Winter Olympic Games too! The countries of the Baltic and the Alps are very good at this, but I think there are some people doing it in the Far East (Japan, China) and in North America (USA, Canada) too. I wouldn't call it an extreme sport, although those people jumping more than 200 meters in the air need huge balls. Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEIv95bzLy8
The national sport of Argentina is the Pato (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pato) which originally was played using a living duck (not for long) inside a basket which was in itself the prize. If there was no duck ('pato' is the Spanish word for 'duck') any animal could be used and quite possibly goats have been used.
It is now played with a leather ball with 6 handles all around and formal rules.
it might be worth noting that the vasa boat in the first pictures - the colored stern is a part of a scale model of the boat, while the unpainted stern is the real salvaged boat which occupies the complete museum. Flash is not allowed as they are trying to preserve the ship as much as possible.
La Real, the flagship of the Holy League forces at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571 has a rather interesting stern, definitely worth including in a Part 2 if you can find a good picture of it (the wikipedia link above had one that's decent, but a little fuzzy)
Beautiful! On the other hand, I doubt the tower was truly lost, just unknown to Europeans and Americans. I am fairly certain that the local Afghan people knew it was there. I feel like it's disingenuous to act as though Westerners' knowledge is the only one that counts.
Gaidig, the phrase that the tower was forgotten meant that it was forgotten to westerners, given the context of the rest of the text. I feel that it is a rush to judgement to feel that a phrase like that implies western arrogance.
I really wish I could see something like that in the area of Afghanistan I am in. It is truly beautiful. Here... not so much. As I side note, we could all learn something from the message of tolerance on that tower.
Is it a sign of tolerance, or a symbol of defiance built by those who had been conqured and forced to submit to islam? A leaning minaret covered in references to their native faiths built to show the contempt they felt for their new masters.
Careful now Anonymous, we could easily replace 'Taliban' by USA, Britain, Spain or any other number of Western governments over the years that have treated countless other countries around the world to exactly the same regime.
I rarely quote the Bible, but the proverb about taking the plank out of your eye before removing the speck from another's seems appropriate.
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1 Comments:
Great pictures.
One correction - the bones are not mammoth fossils but whale skeletons form European whaling in the 17th century.
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