The John Batchelor Show

Friday 30 November 2012

Air Date: 
November 30, 2012

Graphic, above: global population distribution. This is in connection with the 11-hour tonight, a discussion of UnCivilization: Urban Geopolitics in a Time of Chaos, by Gregory R. Copley

JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW

1964: Fail Safe

Friday 905P Eastern Time: . Michael Vlahos, Naval War College, in re: The Second Nuclear Age: what is it, what are the challenges, what new conditions apply, what about conventions of limits?  What's the nuclear club?  How to use a nuke?  

Friday 920P Eastern Time:  .Michael Vlahos, Naval War College, continued, in re:  speculation on banning “nuclear alerts”

Friday 935P Eastern Time: . Frank Phillips, Boston Globe, in re:  the Beacon Hill Mob - what are the fears of the Massachusetts legislature about Speaker DeLeo come January 2013?

Friday 950P Eastern Time:  James Taranto, WSJ, in re: where is Article 5 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, and why is it under review by the Supreme Court? How does this relate to the voter ID controversy?

Friday 1005P (705P Pacific Time):  . John Bolton, AEI, in re:  How did Iran gain from the Gazan Hamas firing of missiles at Israel?  How did Cairo gain?  What is the alliance between Teheran and Cairo?  What of the rise of the Muslim Brothers dictatorship?

Friday 1020P (720P Pacific Time):  Henry Miller, Hoover, in re:  What is genetically modified food?   How does it relate to the Green Revolution, why does India fear GM food, what's to be done with superstition and witch-hunting in India?

 

Leon Botstein, writing on Einstein and music, is particularly thoughtful. His balanced account of Einstein's abilities as a violinist is of interest to those of us who have read much about Einstein's love of music without ever finding out much about his abilities as a musician. Many have speculated that Einstein's love of music somehow contributed to his scientific genius, and Botstein correctly quotes the great man himself pouring cold water on the notion that his scientific thought was in any way influenced by his love of music. Botstein notes that Einstein's taste was quite conservative and that he lacked any appreciation of the modernist music of his own day. In those respects, he was typical of many 20th-century scientists.

Friday 1035P (735P Pacific Time):  . Michael Balter, Science Magazine and Salon, in re:  why is the Homo sapiens brain so large? How'd it get that way? How does our brain size compare to that of hominids, dolphins, mice?

Friday 1050P (750P Pacific Time):  . Michael Balter, Science Magazine and Salon, continued, in re: what do we know and how do we know it of Einstein’s brain? What's unusual about it, and was he born that way or did it grow? What does it mean that the part of his brain with music is much developed?

Friday 1105P (805P Pacific Time): . UnCivilization: Urban Geopolitics in a Time of Chaos by Gregory R. Copley; 1 of 4

Friday 1120P (820P Pacific Time): .UnCivilization: Urban Geopolitics in a Time of Chaos by Gregory R. Copley; 2 of 4

Friday 1135P (835P Pacific Time): . UnCivilization: Urban Geopolitics in a Time of Chaos by Gregory R. Copley; 3 of 4

Friday 1150P (850P Pacific Time):  .UnCivilization: Urban Geopolitics in a Time of Chaos by Gregory R. Copley; 4 of 4

Friday/Sat 1205A (905 Pacific Time):  . Sebastian Gorka, FDD, in re: Morsi and the Muslim Brothers push through a democratic constitution of one man/one vote/one time.  What does this mean for the rise of Cairo, and what does it mean for the region?

Friday/Sat  1220A (920 Pacific Time): .Mark Schroeder, Stratfor, in re: what's M23 and what part does it play in the civil war of Eastern Congo? What is Rwanda’s ambition - is this a breakup of Congo?

 

This is a composite images taken by NASA’s Cassini probe of the enormous, swirling storm that dominates Saturn’s north pole earlier this week. We’ve seen images of the storm, before, but never gotten this much detail on it and…man, just wow.  Keep reading for an even bigger image of the monster cyclone, which is estimated to meausure up to 4,000 kilometers across. That’s about 2,500 miles, meaning that the vortex you’re looking at would span the distance between New York City and Los Angeles.

Friday/Sat  1235A (935P Pacific Time):  .Robert Zimmerman, behindtheblack.com, in re: Mercury has water ice?  A vortex glimpsed at the Saturn pole. Old Cold War telescopes given to NASA and now asking for ideas; oops: no money to use,

Friday/Sat  1250A  (950P Pacific Time): Exeunt. Robert Zimmerman, behindtheblack.com, in re:  South Korean space rocket delay. Orbital Sciences replaces SpaceX in partnership with Strato Launch.

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Music (using New York City broadcast times)  

9:00 hour:    Assassins' Creed; Sherlock Holmes.

10:00 hour:   Mission Impossible – Ghost Protoco.

11:00 hour:    10,000 BC; Inception.

midnight hour:   Internationale; I, Robot.