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Comment by hopler | Hacker News Reader

It's a clickbait headline. The article is a meaty (for a webzine) history story, and the headline is to trick people into reading something unsexy.

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I'm annoyed how the author never actually explained what Corium was. Just described it as "the most toxic substance" and hoped readers would go along with the ride thinking it's some new material.

All it is is an amalgamation of melted fission materials and reactor components like control rods.

It's mentioned somewhat, but admittedly not terribly clear:

> Of the five corium creations, only Cherobyl’s has escaped its containment. With no water to cool the mass, the radioactive sludge moved through the unit over the course a week following the meltdown, taking on molten concrete and sand to go along with the uranium (fuel) and zirconium (cladding) molecules.

Yeah I feel like maybe some irony or humor is being lost too. Do we really think whoever named it "corium" was proposing an official name to be taken with seriousness and reverence? Probably it was a joke that started with its rhyming with thorium. Something on a par with "unobtainium." If a writer were to reverently and carefully explain that so-and-so's custom racing bike is made of unobtainium, the most expensive substance known to man, I'd be like, you missed the joke buddy!

You have heard of Google and Duck Duck Go, correct?

Just for your information, so you know why you've been heavily downvoted … From the HN guidelines:

"Be civil. Don't say things you wouldn't say face-to-face. Don't be snarky. Comments should get more civil [...]"

On HN, discussion is encouraged. Yes, Google exists, but we're here to share our ideas, our thoughts, our opinions; not simply parrot Google results at each other.

Not just the headline... the article does attribute the man's presence on the photograph to a desire to "get into position, which explains why he seems to be moving and why the glow from his flashlight looks like a lightning flash." I think it's cool that the journalist traced the person in the photograph but that explanation doesn't hold water

"The Famous Photo" - it's not famous. "Most dangerous radioactive material" - All radioactive material is dangerous given enough Roentgens. "Selfie" - Anachronism and misapplication.

I feel like there should be a machine learning like filter that can be applied so this stuff doesn't get posted here anymore.

It's a famous enough that I've seen it before, and I don't have a particular interest in the history of nuclear accidents.

I've read almost every photo book at the Mechanics Institute... if there are gaps in my reading it's pre-20th century stuff. I guess it's famous if you say it is. Four downvotes. What a way to start a Saturday.

The downvotes come, I assume, from your parading how wonderfully clever you are, how much reading you've done, etc., as though the rest of the world should measure itself against your level of knowledge with a particular domain.

That would be my interpretation of your original comment and the reply to which I am replying, and I'm sure it wouldn't be too far off what others are reading, too.

It's sufficiently famous that I knew what photo the article is about just from reading the headline.

It is absolutely famous, but its fame is somewhat cloistered. The Elephant's Foot is a gateway to the Chernobyl rabbit hole for so many people. A geological, cataclysm celebrity; a fucking rock with a documented kill count and it sits still. Fascinating.

This picture led me to reading all about Chernobyl, Pripyat, glasnost, and the collapse of the SSR in the context of logistics and energy infrastructure. The whole chibang was the result of good intentions, poor planning, and an intellectual environment experiencing a death spiral. During this process, I watched a documentary on the Chernobyl clean up effort. Chernobyl was the largest military deployment by Russia since their "Great Patriotic War."

I digress. This picture could be accurately portrayed as a perfect metaphor for the scientific endeavors of the 20th century; unique brilliance, unfettered intention, bureaucratically fettered investment, unintentional disaster, Herculean effort at recovery, and all of it flushed down the memory hole.

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