This is video of a drone flyover of the city of Chernobyl, Russia..I suppose we all know of the deadly and tragic history from the end of the 20th century..
Now, so many decades later—but no danger is gone—a drone captured chilling footage of the city of Pripyat, Ukraine. The city is stuck in time—people who were mandated to leave after the nuclear disaster in 1986 were told they’d be gone for three days. They never came back, but because the government lied to them, many of their personal possessions were simply left in place. The images from the drone were courtesy of Danny Cook, who went to Chernobyl to film the video for a CBS 60 MINUTES piece..
The video portrays an overgrown city.. vegetation is lush.. the radiated earth has taken over the streets capes..
The nightmare is nuclear catastrophe will not be over any generation soon.. But the remnants of what was are still cold, vacant, and seemingly chilling..
This is a big deal in the entertainment world. Sony’s new movies have leaked onto the Internet after this hack.
At this moment, the story is still in the development stage.. but we know this, at least five new movies from Sony Pictures are now on file sharing websites across the internet.. The HOLLYWOOD REPORTER says this,
Copies of DVD screeners of four unreleased Sony movies including the upcoming “Annie” are getting some unwelcome early exposure, but nothing compared to the frenzy enveloping “Fury,” the war pic still in theaters since bowing last month.
“Fury” has been downloaded by over 888,000 unique IP addresses since showing up on peer-to-peer networks on Nov. 27, according to piracy tracking firm Excipio. That’s high enough to be the second most downloaded movie currently being pirated, and it’s not out of movie theaters yet.
Another big Sony movie, “Annie,” is also being pirated, this one three weeks ahead of its own wide release. Other Sony movies being downloaded include “Mr. Turner,” “Still Alice” and “To Write Love on Her Arms.”
But as of Friday the studio’s email, phone system and computers remained paralyzed, and in some cases staffers were using whiteboards to get things done. The studio’s Twitter accounts have also been hacked, according to two individuals with knowledge of the situation.
And while the studio has set up a parallel system offline, there is apparently no solution that has been found to undo the attack.
The hack attack is more than just movies.. it’s stolen data of stars and their contracts..
The attack occurred a month before Sony Pictures, a unit of Sony Corp, is to release “The Interview.” The movie is a comedy about two journalists who are recruited by the CIA to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The Pyongyang government denounced the film as “undisguised sponsoring of terrorism, as well as an act of war” in a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in June.
Did a movie propel a strange and cruel dictatorship to declare war on an American studio? There seems to be a connection..
But there are a few people online who are suggesting this is all just a ploy–that the computers at Sony are awful, maybe, and that a hack could have occurred.. but that the blame game of North Korea is just a part of the INTERVIEW marketing. Making the movie seem even more important on the geopolitical stage than it ever would have been..
I don’t think SONY is faking a hack–too many people would be eager to call them out on that type of scenario.. But there is a chance that they are playing this in a way that could hopefully benefit their release of THE INTERVIEW in December..
But if it’s real, would this be an act of war? Or does anyone way if actors’ IDs get stolen and lackluster movies get leaked?
Normally this weekly type of post is called the ‘Sunday morning sidewalk’ .. but today this Sunday morning is coming down.. The reason is not clear, but there is a deep concern in my heart about some personal issues that seem to be developing in my family. Let me explain without giving away personal secrets–I’m a 20th century boy and don’t share my entire life..
My son has grown fond of saying that he “knows everything” as of late.. It brings comic relief when he proclaims it, but he is entirely serious about this.. He truly says he knows everything and means it. Ayden is not yet even 4, but year somehow he does surprise me with his knowledge.. At times I think he knows more than me! He has become a reservoir of my memory, even telling me at times where I put items that I lost.. Found thanks to his keen eye and ear always being aware..
But he does not know everything. None of us do..
What I fear more than anything this lonely and gray Sunday morning is that the things he does not know will hurt him the most..
I am speaking specific on something..
There are a number of people in my family and my wife’s who are coming of age at a time where he will be growing into his later tens.. There is a chance that over the next decade, his life will be filled with funerals.. It scares me to ponder the thought that these eventual deaths will shatter his worldview in some way, but perhaps I am over thinking this..
Death is a fact of life. It happens to us all..
People all have their own way of dealing with events of this nature.. Children as well seem to put it into a perspective that works for them.
There is an even rougher edge to my thought on this.. The question of what God is.. whether God is.. and where he is.. I ask my son all of the time if he remembers where he was prior to being born.. as of yet he does not recall. I was hoping he’d tell me a pilot in war, or a child coal miner.. something specific and not relative to his life now, which could prove to me a reincarnation happens. Every theory on life after death is not proven. Near death experiences could be the closest thing we have–but how many of them are real vs the brain just doing its fluttering prior to switching off..
I don’t think of this all of the time. But I did last night mainly after seeing my parents struggle to decorate for Christmas.. My father already had a rendezvous with Death in December 2013 but survived.. However they are being aging in the same advanced way anyone who just turned 70 would..
I want to say, I am a happy parent. I am a nostalgic one however, with the first almost four years of Ayden’s life skyrocketing through time and space, it’s tough to get a breather and put into perspective the amazing ability a body has to age and develop.. The boy is amazing. He is absolutely my new best friend.. We play games, his play room shares a mini-office of mine.. Amazing stuff. And I have yet to really yell at him about anything important. Other parents remind me that it will change on that note, of course.. and I know it will. The parent hat will come on and he will one day tell me he hates me. I dread that moment.. But I will understand his rage is only skin deep.
What scares me more though is dealing with tragic life experiences, world upheaval, and personal crises.
About two weeks ago my wife was taking him to day care in the morning and they became stuck behind a tragic accident. There were two deaths.. My son still talks about it, reminding my wife and I about it .. He even became a back seat driver because of it, telling me to slow down or, as he says, ‘drive the right way.’ He must know of the 3o’clock position taught in driver’s ED classes.. Upon the sights and sounds of this wreck, he was told that the souls have gone to heaven. But he somehow knew that it meant in part they could ‘not go home again.’ He seemed a little sad, and changed the subject to something more appealing…
There are things about parenting that are harder than any 3am feeding session during infancy.. Those skin deep things are just things.. The real things that matter are the emotions that come with growing, the deep pain that someone can suffer, and how to inspire a child to grow up understanding life and still enjoying it.
Times are getting strange.. now a man in a werewolf suit silently walked into a store and shot a 58-year-old construction worker. There is a massive manhunt on.. FROM CNN: After the shooting, the assailant took off on foot. Despite an “exhaustive search,” the gunman was nowhere to be found, Kelliher said… There is also no word on a motive. But the image is certainly creepy..
