Ok, a little bit less of a nerdy turn.

The Ghost Towns of Chernobyl

This site is hauntingly interesting. It's photo journal of Elena, the daughter of a Ukranian nuclear physicist, and as such she is able to get passes to ride through the Chernobyl "dead zone". 18 years ago one of the reactors in the Chernobyl nuclear power plant had a massive failure and meltdown. It's believed 300,000 to 400,000 people died as a result of that accident. The area around the plant is severely contaminated, and pretty much uninhabitable. When Elena goes on her tours, she has to take a geiger counter anywhere she goes to insure that she isn't overexposed to radiation.

This site is amazing in how plain and honest it is. Greenpeace would have a field day with it if it were theirs, but Elena is simple and straightforward. I even find the english mistakes endearing. To me it's an interesting example in the hubris of humanity. We are indeed lords of all we survey, but it's amazing how foolishly we can wipe ourselves out and plow our own fields under with salt (or deadly radiation).

I think it would be interesting to meet a member of the Siuslaw or Clatsop or Tillamook or any of the myriad small native American tribes that used to populate the Portland Metro Area... and see what they think of the fine metropolis we've built. Don't get me wrong, I love this city, but it's amazing how an entire people can be utterly wiped out. I wonder if their ghosts wander unseen around us completely bewildered by all that we have replaced them with. It makes me wonder what the land around me was like before... before we came. Looking at the pictures of the villages and towns around Chernobyl, you can see how many of the apartments and roads are almost frozen in time on the day the area was finally exacuated. I wonder what the ghosts of Chernobyl must think.