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Posted August 07, 2013 - 09:17 AM
This is just a travel question.. My ex is actually a decent gal.. She went to North Korea. Spent two days there.Took a fair amount of pictures. I called her crazy.. Maybe for more reasons then just that but anyhow.. This brings me to my question. Where have you traveled that possibly you shouldn't have...
AGAIN.. No political crap or i hope a mod deletes this... Please DON'T post political stuff in here and make me looking foolish i can do that all on my own well enough...
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Posted August 07, 2013 - 09:19 AM
I went to Tripoli, Libya three times...
...to a nuclear research center!
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Posted August 07, 2013 - 09:23 AM
Wow.. What can you tell of your trip? I would love to travel but i can't get on a plane ... Or a boat.. anyhow... My bad decision was Arizona for school. From my hotel room while there i saw shoot outs on the freeway between gangs and cops and different gangs.
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Posted August 07, 2013 - 09:49 AM
I used to work for a small company that made waste water evaporators. We supplied several units to the US DOE for installation at a research reactor in Libya. This was in 2007 / 2008, in the time period between when Mummar owned up to the Lockerbie bombings and the overthrow of the government and when we were on semi-friendly terms.
The reactor was built by the Russians in the late 70s / early 80s but the Libyans and Russians had a falling out before all of the equipment was commissioned and so their waste water evaporator was never used, but nobody knew how it worked. The US was part of a team that was helping developing countries better manage their radiological programs and while this was out of the norm for their type of assistance, we were willing to help.
I traveled there three times over the course of a year, with a team made up of several different agencies. My first time traveling overseas, too... Luckily they were all old pros and were very helpful. The first trip was training and site evaluation, the second was supposed to be startup but we found that they were not ready, and the third was more training and startup with plain tap water.
While I'm not afraid to say that it was pretty scary, especially the first time, the people there were nothing but nice to us and were very interested to talk any chance they had. All of the engineers and scientists there had been trained at some point in the US so they had varying degrees of fluency in English. Their reading and writing was better than their speech because they had nobody else to converse with, so sometimes we had to resort to pencil and paper.
Luckily for us, the Russians refused to provide documentation in Arabic and the Libyans refused to accept Cyrillic documentation, so they compromised on English.
I took loads of pictures while I was there. I should load them up to Flickr but here are a couple. I'm the guy with the blue booties in the first picture. That was the official startup and had some local dignitaries in attendance.
My biggest regret was not getting to see the reactor in operation - they would gladly open up the cover to the pool while it was running so you could see the blue glow, but I was too busy with actual work to get a tour. The other thing I wished I had had time to see was the Roman ruins in the desert. I never did get a chance to try camel meat, either. Unfortunately with my not working for that company any more and the political situation there I will likely never get a chance to go back.
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Posted August 07, 2013 - 09:58 AM
Well, When I was in College back in 1969(a dangerous time in history) in Olathe Kansas. I was dating a high school girl there. She was doing a report on the Black Panthers. She talked me into taking her to the black Panthers Headquarters in Kansas City loacated at 23Rd & Paseo.
That was an eye opener for an Iowa Country Boy. It was a vacant Storefront, all the windows were armored with plywood and steel with gun ports cut in them. The floor below the windows had gun racks all the way around the room. Should never have done that! But we got out safely. Bet they had a good laugh at the nieve kids coming to see them and collect their propoganda!.
Edited by JD DANNELS, August 07, 2013 - 10:00 AM.
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Posted August 07, 2013 - 09:58 AM
I should add too, that this was a research reactor that did not generate electricity. If there were any *naughty* materials there, they were removed a few years before we arrived. The primary reason for the reactor was for training, research, and supply of isotopes for the oil industry and the local hospitals. Short-lived isotopes could be injected down a test well to determine the direction of flow of oil or water underground, and one thing they supplied to the hospitals were irradiated "seeds" which could be implanted around a tumor. My dad had that done for his prostate cancer here in the States, for example.
I also have some pictures on Picasa. If you search around the coastal area East of Tripoli on Google Maps or Google Earth you'll find them. Mine are the only ones of the facility...
This facility was very clean, as far as radioactivity was concerned. We didn't need to suit up or anything like that. The water our equipment was processing was primarily from the laundry and some ion exchange beds and was very lightly contaminated.
Hmm... then, there was the trip I took the the Savannah River site in SC. That is a mothballed cold war era weapons producing facility and while the area we were working in was relatively clean by their standards, it was contaminated and we had to go to school to learn how to suit up and stay safe, THAT was a pretty creepy place. Unfortunately no pictures as that was strictly forbidden.
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Posted August 07, 2013 - 10:02 AM
I've been to Kentucky
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Posted August 07, 2013 - 10:11 AM
I'd like to see some of the North Korea pictures, if you have any.
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Freedom is not Free. Thank those in uniform for your freedom.
Posted August 07, 2013 - 10:28 AM
There have been quite a few places I shouldn't have been in, but not of my own accord. Uncle Sugar says go and you went. I think if I had to name the one place I've been that I didn't feel safe it would have to be Alexandria Egypt. We were there during the Marine barracks time in Lebanon and there was a lot of unrest in the eastern Mediterranean.
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Posted August 07, 2013 - 10:34 AM
Posted Today, 10:59 AM
Team_Green, on 07 Aug 2013 - 10:17 AM, said:
. Where have you traveled that possibly you shouldn't have...
I've been to Kentucky
How'd you slip in , were gonna have to increase the border patrol . 
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Posted August 07, 2013 - 10:49 AM
I'd like to see some of the North Korea pictures, if you have any.
She used a actual film camera.. Not sure if she will be scanning any of them. Some interesting shots...
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Red Tractor Nut & Diesel Addict
Posted August 07, 2013 - 10:53 AM
I've been to Kentucky
It's a matter of WHERE in Kentucky you go to!
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Old, but not dead -- yet!
Posted August 07, 2013 - 11:15 AM
\ Where have you traveled that possibly you shouldn't have...
Churchill, Manitoba. --- Polar Bear Capital of the World
We spent 3 days/3 nights there, but it was only a tease. ....Would love to go back for a longer stay, but too expensive!
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Posted August 07, 2013 - 11:20 AM
Churchill, Manitoba. --- Polar Bear Capital of the World
We spent 3 days/3 nights there, but it was only a tease. ....Would love to go back for a longer stay, but too expensive!
DANG I just glanced at that and thought you wrote Polar BEER capital of the world 
Dont know why that would interest me I dont drink.
