This is a five-part documentary by British filmmaker Adam Curtis about the rise of nuclear energy in the United States. These sections make up A is for Atom which is a 1-hour segment of a much longer science and politics television series called Pandora’s Box. It chronicles the development of the nuclear power industry and shows clearly how little was ever understood about what would happen or what should be done during a nuclear accident.
Parts 2 – 5 after the jump
Look at that picture. That’s a Reuters news photo of the nuclear power plant in Fukushima, Japan. It is disintegrating. Explosions, fires and radiation leaks are growing worse by the day and the efforts to dump water on the reactors are desperate and considered by experts to be ‘last-ditch’ efforts.
The UK’s Daily Mail has an in-depth article with photos.
This is a frightening and horrific world disaster that is quickly approaching and will likely exceed the Chernobyl disaster. The French government is evacuating its nationals from Japan and has announced that the Japanese government is hiding the truth about the disaster. That’s about all one should need to know at this point. The French, one of the world’s leading nuclear nations, are evacuating from Japan.
Let’s stop and think about a Japan with a northern region that is completely uninhabitable.
Japan cannot handle this situation. It has become an emergency requiring a massive U.S. military intervention.
It should go without saying that investigations of nuclear power plant operators worldwide is in quick order. The criminal stupidity of building these things should lead to arrests and prosecutions in the coming months. If someone comes to your town trying sell you a nuclear power plant… put them in a jail cell.
I simply cannot overstress the absolute criminal stupidity of building nuclear reactors in an earthquake zone prone to massive tsunamis. It is simply beyond all excuse and government and power company officials in Japan should definitely be put in jail and taken out of office. This reactor problem is an insult to rationality itself. You don’t build nuclear reactors on top of faults in tsunami waters. It is suicide.
UPDATE: Great Britain is now evacuating all British citizens from Tokyo.
The Daily Mail in the UK has a series of photos of the earthquake and tsunami damage in Japan.
The photos are from the European Pressphoto Agency.
CNN has a live blog following the quake and tsunami.
The Huffington Post has live coverage.
Here is how you can donate to the Red Cross Japan Earthquake effort.
This is raw and shocking video of the tsunami in Japan entering and destroying a town. It was posted by James MacWhyte on his Facebook page.
Thank you to Paul Gallagher of Dangerous Minds for the find.
CNN has a live blog following the quake and tsunami.
The Huffington Post has live coverage.
Here is how you can donate to the Red Cross Japan Earthquake effort.
In honor of the great people of Japan during a terrible crisis, I re-post this beautiful tale.
This is the story of young Momotaro, whose name literally means Peach Boy. The story is one of the most popular from Japanese folklore. Its theme of the unification of a people separated by hostility into an effective force for change resonates throughout history and applies to many different cultures.
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Read by Laral Andrews.
Duration: 00:05:57
Here’s the full audio script:
PEACH BOY
ONCE upon a time in Japan, there lived in the country an old man and his wife. They were very lonely because they had no children.
One day the old man went into the mountains to cut firewood and his wife went to the river to wash clothes.
CNN has a live blog following the quake and tsunami.
The Huffington Post has live coverage.
Here is how you can donate to the Red Cross Japan Earthquake effort.