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Scene report from the Chernobyl Zone

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Re: Scene report from the Chernobyl Zone

#151

Post by ryacko »

lyxsus1 wrote: post #86
randylahey wrote: post #4

I found it very distracting that none of the ostensibly Russian or Ukrainian characters have an even remotely slavic accent.

Somebody, please explain me, why out of blue it became fashionable to put that native-sounding flavour of an accent in games and movies even when its story assumes almost every character in it is a native speaker? I always find it disturbing. As every native Russian speaker, I tend to feel it perceive as beautiful and melodic. Just as any other Russian, Ukranian, Greek or whoever else. Sounds like a joke and not a go…

I believe accents go along with a campy or cliched artistic aesthetic.

In any case, I think American evening comedy peaked before I was born.

Re: Scene report from the Chernobyl Zone

#152

Post by soperj »

CydeWeys wrote: post #134
ekianjo wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly, the soviet entry is clearly what led the leaders of Japan to surrender - the timeline also matches very closely. Not sure what we keep hearing the A-bomb propaganda such a long time after the facts.

In the end the atomic bombs weren't really any different than the other tools of total war though, like all the aforementioned fire bombings. There's a lot of reasons the Japanese capitulated, and the relentless damage being inflicted across the entire country by the US (including the atomic bombings) was a very important reason. If the US had just backed off and stopped applying pressure on Japan, the war may never…

> at least not on the terms that we were demanding (and got)

Terms that were un-necessary. Japan still has an emperor no? Could have ended the war much earlier if they wanted to.

Re: Scene report from the Chernobyl Zone

#153

Post by FPGAhacker »

TaylorAlexander wrote: post #139
mikeash wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hate it when movies try to portray foreign language speakers as speaking accented English. That’s not how any of this works! If they want to go for accuracy, the actors should speak the actual language. Provide subtitles for outside audiences. Otherwise, just have the actors speak normally. It’s no less authentic than speaking with an accent, and the actors can focus on acting. Another prominent Soviet example of d…

I’ve heard some audiences (probably Americans) don’t like subtitles. So it’s a matter of money in some ways.

After seeing Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, I became a fan of subtitled movies. Part way through the movie it felt like I understood Mandarin.

Re: Scene report from the Chernobyl Zone

#154

Post by Fins »

ekianjo wrote: post #113
robocat wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your comment is based on the myth that the atomic bombs ended the war. https://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-stone-kuznick-hi... """ The atomic bombings, terrible and inhumane as they were, played little role in Japanese leaders' calculations to quickly surrender. After all, the U.S. had firebombed more than 100 Japanese cities. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were just two more cities destroyed; whether the attack requ…

Exactly, the soviet entry is clearly what led the leaders of Japan to surrender - the timeline also matches very closely. Not sure what we keep hearing the A-bomb propaganda such a long time after the facts.

That's something that Soviets very much want the world to believe, but they have never had shown how they could even possibly get their troops anywhere near Japanese mainland, what with Russian/Soviet/Russian navy historically being more dangerous to people who serve there than any enemy. And whatever happened in Manchuria or Korea didn't really concern Japan by that point anyway.

Re: Scene report from the Chernobyl Zone

#155

Post by dkarl »

pvaldes wrote: post #132
HeWhoLurksLate wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's unfortunate that people still point to Chernobyl as why we should never go back to nuclear power ever again.

Taking in mind that the human population living in the area has sinked, and that Prypiat has been a ghost town eating money for 33 years, I can understand the general lack of enthusiasm for repeating the Chernobyl experience at home.

How many Chernobyls would it take to equal the damage that is already inevitable from global warming? That's a serious question. It can be answered by comparing number of deaths, number of people displaced, or economic and political disruption, but no matter how you calculate the answer, the result is that Chernobyl is a tiny event by comparison.

Re: Scene report from the Chernobyl Zone

#156

Post by BurningFrog »

BurningFrog wrote: post #149
moxie wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think there's a lot of uncertainty in talking about Chernobyl, since most of the information published by the Soviet authorities was intentionally incorrect or misleading, designed to downplay the significance of the accident. One thing I've found interesting in talking about Chernobyl is that advocates of nuclear power are often willing to accept the Soviet numbers as fact, since they confirm the idea that nuclear…

Even if a thousands died from Chernobyl, it reflects the danger of the Soviet system, not of nuclear energy. Just take the thing we learned in this week's episode: The design flaw on the RBMK reactors that caused the explosion had been observed before, but the report was classified to not put the glorious Soviet nuclear technology in a bad light !!! In any remotely sane system, security risks are published and compen…

More Soviet fans than I expected on HN tonight, judging from the downvotes :)

Re: Scene report from the Chernobyl Zone

#157

Post by CydeWeys »

soperj wrote: post #152
CydeWeys wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the end the atomic bombs weren't really any different than the other tools of total war though, like all the aforementioned fire bombings. There's a lot of reasons the Japanese capitulated, and the relentless damage being inflicted across the entire country by the US (including the atomic bombings) was a very important reason. If the US had just backed off and stopped applying pressure on Japan, the war may never…

> at least not on the terms that we were demanding (and got) Terms that were un-necessary. Japan still has an emperor no? Could have ended the war much earlier if they wanted to.

It's hard to say with certainty. It's not like we can re-run history and try it again. Japan certainly turned out well with what did happen; it's not clear that a better outcome would have resulted from a less total surrender on their part. There's a lot of value in helping to move forward when you admit that you were completely beaten, not just mostly beaten; the latter leaves the door open for a repeat.

And another factor is that we haven't had a nuclear war since Japan, which showed the horrors of nuclear warfare. Had that not happened, maybe real nuclear weapons would have been used by someone later on, when they were much more powerful and more numerous, and even when both sides possessed them? The bombings have helped ensure that something much worse hasn't happened since.

And you know what, the Japanese government deserved it. They started the war, killed millions of people in the process (including many millions of civilians in Asia), and then had the gall to try to bargain for decent surrender terms after all that horror they caused? Nope. Sometimes harsh punishment is necessary.

Re: Scene report from the Chernobyl Zone

#159

Post by rdtsc »

randylahey wrote: post #4

I found it very distracting that none of the ostensibly Russian or Ukrainian characters have an even remotely slavic accent.

Being from around those parts, and remembering the time when the accident happened (watching the evening news with my father when they admitted publicly to the disaster and my father shaking his head and saying "hell, if they admitted to this much, the reality must be 10x as worse"). Anyway, I'd have to say the lack of accents were not even noticeable because the acting, the scenery, even down to small details like the clothes, haircuts, paint color schemes were are just incredibly well done.

Yeah they took some liberty with condensing multiple characters into the Khomyuk character, but even she was believable.

Re: Scene report from the Chernobyl Zone

#160

Post by ekianjo »

CydeWeys wrote: post #157
soperj wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> at least not on the terms that we were demanding (and got) Terms that were un-necessary. Japan still has an emperor no? Could have ended the war much earlier if they wanted to.

It's hard to say with certainty. It's not like we can re-run history and try it again. Japan certainly turned out well with what did happen; it's not clear that a better outcome would have resulted from a less total surrender on their part. There's a lot of value in helping to move forward when you admit that you were completely beaten, not just mostly beaten; the latter leaves the door open for a repeat. And another…

> And you know what, the Japanese government deserved it. They started the war, killed millions of people in the process (including many millions of civilians in Asia), and then had the gall to try to bargain for decent surrender terms after all that horror they caused? Nope. Sometimes harsh punishment is necessary.

The government yes. The people did not elect them. They had no choice in the matter, and were also trained into full propaganda mode many years before the war. So targeting civilians with fire-bombing is certainly questionable. Even McNamara said that what they did in Japan would be considered "crimes of war" in case they did not end up victorious.

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