Damning the Yin Ta Lai

Damning the Yin Ta Lai is a short, 13-minute video that provides a rare glimpse into the heart of Karenni State in eastern Burma, and the lives and environment of the Yin Ta Lai.

Living along the Salween river, the Yin Ta Lai are facing extinction from the Weigyi dam, one of five controversial dams that are planned for the Salween. Once completed, the dam’s reservoirs would submerge the entirety of the Yin Ta Lai’s homeland.

“The Yin Ta Lai will become extinct if this dam goes ahead. While Burma’s regime gains profits from selling electricity, we will bear the costs” says Aung Ngyeh, a spokesperson of the Karenni Research Development Group (KDRG), who produced the movie. “We urge all parties to suspend plans for the Salween dams.”

Sarah Palin Speaks with Charlie Gibson interview (Full Pt. 1)

Sarah Palin Speaks with Charlie Gibson

30 Days: Life on an Indian Reservation

Growing up in the US, the documentarian Morgan Spurlock wasn’t any different from most Americans (and Canadians); knowing very little about indigenous people, their history, or the problems they face today.

And so, for the season finale of his television series 30 Days, Morgan decided to “leave America as he knows it, without ever actually leaving US soil, to live with a people who many see as refugees in their own country:” the Navajo.

Hulu.com has the full 30 Days episode, “Life on an Indian Reservation”, available on their website. You can watch it below, however, only if you’re in the US. Hulu is a US-only video service.

If you’re outside the states and really want to watch it, you can download and install Hotspot Shield, then come back here (or go to hulu.)

Hanford crews make progress on 618-7 Burial Ground (w/ video)

Hanford workers are finding huge stainless steel tanks, one with radioactive powder inside, and drums of potentially flammable zircaloy chips as they dig up the final trench at a burial ground just north of Richland.

Contractor Washington Closure Hanford had delayed starting cleanup of the 618-7 Burial Ground until this year, fearing that its contents would be so hazardous that it needed to have a new safety plan required by the Department of Energy in place before work began.

“It’s gone better than we expected,” said John Ludowise, project engineer for Washington Closure. “We prepared for the worst.”

The burial ground was used from about 1960-73 for waste from the Hanford nuclear reservation’s 300 Area along the Columbia River, where fuel was made for Hanford’s reactors and research was conducted.

Obama campaign targets McCain’s support of dumping nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama released a new ad over the weekend in Nevada, targeting Republican rival John McCain’s support for dumping nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain.

“Imagine trucks hauling the nation’s nuclear waste on our highways to Yucca Mountain,” the ad says. “John McCain supports opening Yucca. He’s not worried about nuclear waste in our state — only in Arizona.”

The Origins Of Wall-E

Besides the movie’s cutesy references to classic movies and pop culture, the theme of humans relying completely on their creations – and the often-unfortunate results of that dependency – is definitely not a new one. Although such works as Asimov’s “I, Robot” or Philip K. Dick’s “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep” (on which “Bladerunner” was based) have a significant emphasis on the various ways in which robots of different types and intelligence levels will assist humans in The Future, they do not go so far as to describe a civilization completely void of Human endeavor.