Carl Montgomery » Video

Chernobyl

Carl Montgomery — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 16:58:06 +0000

Chernobyl, here’s the one ill-advised destination that drew the most criticism. Today I visited the abandoned town of Pryprat directly next to the exploded reactor #4 as well as the reactor itself and a few surrounding areas.
First off I’m going to bore you with the science. You’ll see my Geiger counter in the video and a number of the photos. To get an idea of what the figures mean, here’s a few common doses of radiation that we all get regularly, listed from lowest to highest (these measurements I took myself):

Sitting at my desk at work	0.15 μSv/h
Enjoying the Australian sunshine	0.18 μSv/h
Using the marbled lifts	0.22 μSv/h
Maximum considered to be natural radiation	0.30 μSv/h
The international flight to get here	0.80 μSv/h

**Reactor #4. 22x normal**

The video and a number of the photos show readings well above any of these. Before anyone freaks out about my person safety, there’s really no cause for concern. I didn’t hang around those areas long and my total exposure for the day according to to my Geiger counter was about 0.012 mSv. About what you would get from a few days sun baking. Probably not much more than i got on the flight to get here.
.

**Childrens play ground**

Anyway, about Chernobyl. Yes it is still very contaminated and will be for many years. Many areas made the Geiger counter complain bitterly. More disturbing though is the abandoned town of Pryprat.
Much is left as it was on that day in 1986. The school menu is still up on the board, Bumper cars are still in the children’s playgrounds, medical equipment is still left in the hospital with no one to treat, pictures of Lenin are still on the walls.
It’s a stark reminder that many people died or were displaced in the disaster or got sick later on.

**Bed pan, baby toy and a speculum**

On the bright side, a lot of areas even very close to the reactor are now remarkably clean. Radiation levels drop every year.

Also there are many people who do live and work there for at least short periods of time. Many of these people work in often in hazardous circumstances to make the place as safe as possible. There were many hero’s on the day of the disaster and there are still many more quietly working away to this day.

Photo’s and video follow. I’d highly recommend you take the time to download the better quality version, you cant see much in the low quality preview.

Or download Windows Media High quality (near DVD) Right click, Save as..
(62MB – 16 minutes or less on broadband or up to 4 hours on dialup)

High quality video – hooray for wireless Internet

Carl Montgomery — Wed, 13 Sep 2006 08:17:52 +0000

Taking advantage of being out of the third world for a few hours, I’ve uploaded the higher quality versions of the two Videos I uploaded before.
The high quality version are near enough DVD quality but will take a while to download. The medium quality is about one third the size but still ok’ish quality.
Enjoy.

Edit Dispite the title of this post, i dont garentee that these videos are anything but crappy and hastily edited

Bali Video

Download: Right click the links and “save as”. Mac users Ctrl+click
Download Windows Media High quality (near DVD)
(15MB – 4 minutes or less on broadband or up to and hour on dialup)
OR
Download Windows Media Medium quality
(5 MB – 2 minutes on broadband or 12 minutes on dialup)
Running time: 2min

Myanmar (Burma) Video

Download: Right click the links and “save as”. Mac users Ctrl+click
Download Windows Media High quality (near DVD)
(30MB – 8 minutes or less on broadband or up to 2 hours on dialup)
OR
Download Windows Media Medium quality
(9 MB – 4 minutes on broadband or 40 minutes on dialup)
Running time: 4min

Myanmar video

Carl Montgomery — Tue, 12 Sep 2006 07:49:25 +0000

**Crappy low quality video**

Hi all, I leave the county in a a few hours so this will be the last post before i take extreme travel to the sub-atomic level in the former soviet union.
Before i go however I’ll take a moment to mention the people here. Rather amazenly, dispiste everything this is actually an easy place to travel, everyone is eager to help wether or not you have USD$ to offer. On top of this, dispite the dificatlies the people face is actually a safe county to visit. Never did i feel my safty was in danger and my posessions were always safe in the hands of whomever had them. Basiaclly this is a wonderful set of people.

Anyway, 4 minutes of hastily edited video is here for whoever wants it.

Bali video

Carl Montgomery — Mon, 04 Sep 2006 04:54:26 +0000

**Crappy low quality video**

Didnt exactly shoot much video in bali, but for what it’s worth 2 minutes of video to the left.
Before anyone asks, in the last part of the video there was a really interesting ceremony for the god of machines happening next to the rice paddy i was walking through (you can hear it in the background). No there are no photos or video of said ceremony. I was asked “dont look at the God”, so i didnt. you will just have to enjoy the vista of a rice paddy instead.

Anyway, I’m about to fly out of Bali for one night in Bangkok (as the song goes) Then on to the real adventure in Myanmar(Burma). I’m not sure how much internet i’ll come across there so I might dissapear of the net for a week.
If i dont reappear by September 12th, send out a search party.

Video – Every Animal that walks crawls or bites

Carl Montgomery — Wed, 21 Sep 2005 06:43:13 +0000

some hastily edited footage of pretty much any african animal you can poke a spear at. A highlight is me getting a tounge bath from a friendly Cheetah. this on top of the usual lions, rhinos, Girraffes etc.
For those who care (or were there with me), this video covers:
Etosha National Park – Namibia
DaanViljeon Game park -Namibia
Cheetah Park – Namibia.

Enjoy.

Running time: 4:30min

Download: choose your connection speed below. Right click the links and “save as”. Mac users Ctrl+click

Download Windows Media High quality
(30MB – 10 minutes on broadband or up to two hours on dialup)

Download Windows Media Medium quality
(10 MB – 3 minutes on broadband or 15 minutes on dialup)

Download Windows Media Low quality
(2 MB – seconds on broadband or 4 minutes on dialup)

Video – Jumping out of a plane for no good reason. Skydive Namibia

Carl Montgomery — Thu, 08 Sep 2005 23:10:27 +0000

I can’t really take any credit for this video since it was entirely shot and edited by the skydive company.
None the less, watch my second go at jumping out of a perfectly good plane.

Video from my skydive in Sydney a few years ago is here in case you haven’t seen it.

Running time: 5 min

Download: Right click the links and “save as”. Mac users Ctrl+click

Download Windows Media Medium quality
(14 MB – 4minutes on broadband or 18 minutes on dialup)

Download Windows Media Low quality
(3MB – seconds on broadband or 6 minutes on dialup)

Video – Water water and more water

Carl Montgomery — Mon, 05 Sep 2005 01:28:47 +0000

Slightly more sedate and with far less nudity than the Himba Tribe video.
This one covers:
Okavango Delta – Botswana
Chobe River -Botswana
Victoria Falls Zimbabwe.
It would probably benifit from being viewed on a decent size screen rather than this postage stamp sized video but what the hey. To that end i’d recomend going for the high quality version at the end if you have the bandwidth/time.
Download away.

Running time: 4:30min

Download: Right click the links and “save as”. Mac users Ctrl+click

Download Windows Media Medium quality
(10 MB – 3 minutes on broadband or 15 minutes on dialup)

Download Windows Media Low quality
(2 MB – seconds on broadband or 4 minutes on dialup)

Edit. if you have a good internet connection and/or a bit of time, this near DVD quality version is the one to go for.
Download Windows Media High quality
(30MB – 10 minutes on broadband or up to two hours on dialup)

Video – Himba Tribe Namibia

Carl Montgomery — Wed, 24 Aug 2005 04:49:26 +0000

The first of quite a few hastily edited videos. This one from a day with a Himba tribe in Namibia. With all the half naked tribes people and me getting my head shaved it should be a crowd pleaser.
Note: If semi nakedness offends you may want to avoid this one.
Running time: 4min

Download: Right click the links and “save as”. Mac users Ctrl+click

Download Windows Media Medium quality
(10 MB – 2 minutes on broadband or 12 minutes on dialup)

Download Windows Media Low quality
(2 MB – seconds on broadband or 2 minutes on dialup)