Important People Podcasts from Nebraska

While I'm often noting to beware of the clay feet of "important people" they still have a specialized utility now and then. Here in Nebraska, they have a lecture series at the local huge performing arts center (one that's got major fiscal problems - probably not enough country-western acts). They have audio and video podcasts of them along with streams for those who couldn't make it or would otherwise be interested in what took place.

I went to the Amory Lovins presentation and it was pretty good although I preferred the more general PowerPoint presentation he did at Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo some years back. He of the "soft energy path" was flogging a new book ("Winning the Oil End Game") this time. Haven't watched former Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt on water issues or eco-evangelical Richard Cizik and the role of religion and the environment. Those both seem pretty worthwhile.

I was at the ethanol "debate" and even got a question in from the crowd (which got an idiot answer, imo). The whole thing was sub-par but what do you expect with two hacks from either side. And one from the libertarian Cato Institute. Robo-Responses-R-Us.

E.N. Thompson Forum on World Issues - Audio / Visual Archive

Former Thompson lecturer and Bushie U.N. ambassador-henchman John Bolton just got heated up by George Monbiot when he went for a lecture visit in the UK. Monbiot tried a citizen's arrest that, of course, didn't work so well.

Important People Podcasts from Nebraska

While I'm often noting to beware of the clay feet of "important people" they still have a specialized utility now and then. Here in Nebraska, they have a lecture series at the local huge performing arts center (one that's got major fiscal problems - probably not enough country-western acts). They have audio and video podcasts of them along with streams for those who couldn't make it or would otherwise be interested in what took place.

I went to the Amory Lovins presentation and it was pretty good although I preferred the more general PowerPoint presentation he did at Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo some years back. He of the "soft energy path" was flogging a new book ("Winning the Oil End Game") this time. Haven't watched former Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt on water issues or eco-evangelical Richard Cizik and the role of religion and the environment. Those both seem pretty worthwhile.

I was at the ethanol "debate" and even got a question in from the crowd (which got an idiot answer, imo). The whole thing was sub-par but what do you expect with two hacks from either side. And one from the libertarian Cato Institute. Robo-Responses-R-Us.

E.N. Thompson Forum on World Issues - Audio / Visual Archive

Former Thompson lecturer and Bushie U.N. ambassador-henchman John Bolton just got heated up by George Monbiot when he went for a lecture visit in the UK. Monbiot tried a citizen's arrest that, of course, didn't work so well.

Navajos on Clean Inexpensive Nuclear Power

One of those minor details often left out of the debate of clean and inexpensive nuclear power is that of the nasty mining aspects of it. Of course now that we have mines in the various Freedonias of the world, no need to fret much about those folks. Heck, we don't even fret much about our own folks. Then again, the native people of most countries have been consistently treated like Freedonians. And the nuclear industry still keeps spewing baloney on how no one has ever died from commercial nuclear plant operation.

Navajo Nation Pushes for Uranium Cleanup - NPR - 30 May 08

"Chris Shuey, of the Southwest Research and Information Center in Albuquerque, N.M., studied the impact of uranium on the Navajo community and found they had lower cancer rates than the general population before mining. The rates are three- to five-times higher now."

"Nez says officials called it 'time-critical removal,' which he finds curious because the soil had been there since he returned from serving in Vietnam in 1971. Wind blows the contaminated soil into the air, and rain washes it under the fence back toward the house. Nez says the cleanup around his house was, at best, a Band-Aid.

'When the dust blows, the EPA people told me not to work outside too long,' Nez says."

Navajos on Clean Inexpensive Nuclear Power

One of those minor details often left out of the debate of clean and inexpensive nuclear power is that of the nasty mining aspects of it. Of course now that we have mines in the various Freedonias of the world, no need to fret much about those folks. Heck, we don't even fret much about our own folks. Then again, the native people of most countries have been consistently treated like Freedonians. And the nuclear industry still keeps spewing baloney on how no one has ever died from commercial nuclear plant operation.

Navajo Nation Pushes for Uranium Cleanup - NPR - 30 May 08

"Chris Shuey, of the Southwest Research and Information Center in Albuquerque, N.M., studied the impact of uranium on the Navajo community and found they had lower cancer rates than the general population before mining. The rates are three- to five-times higher now."

"Nez says officials called it 'time-critical removal,' which he finds curious because the soil had been there since he returned from serving in Vietnam in 1971. Wind blows the contaminated soil into the air, and rain washes it under the fence back toward the house. Nez says the cleanup around his house was, at best, a Band-Aid.

'When the dust blows, the EPA people told me not to work outside too long,' Nez says."