Photo, above: Scottish independence rally in advance of Thursday's vote. JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW Hour One Wednesday 17 September 2014 / Hour 1, Block A: Arthur Waldron, Lauder Professor of International Relations at the University of Pennsylvania, in re: ‘Tiger’ Zhou Yongkang: Did China’s former...
A coronal mass ejection (CME) is a massive burst of solar wind and magnetic fields rising above the solar corona or being released into space. A large CME will occur overnight on September 17-19. Photo, above: On August 31, 2012, a long filament of solar material that had been hovering in the Sun'...
Photo, above: Pres Obama cited American success in Somalia and Yemen. Yemen is on the verge of collapse as Iran agitates to overthrow the Yemeni president, an associate of the Saudi government – which Iran intends to destroy. Tens of thousands in Yemen Shiite protest... August 18, 2014. Yemen...
Painting, above: Dido building Carthage, or The Rise of the Carthaginian Empire, is an oil on canvas painting by JMW Turner. The painting is one of Turner's most important works, greatly influenced by the luminous classical landscapes of Claude Lorraine. Turner described it as his chef d'oeuvre....
Engraving, above: The Samuel Osgood House (now demolished), also known as the Walter Franklin House, was a mansion at the northeast corner of Pearl and Cherry Streets in Manhattan. It served as the first presidential mansion, housing George Washington, his family, and household staff from April 23...
Photo, above: Close to the Karakoram Highway in Xinjiang (translation: New Territories), East Turkestan.. See Hour 1, Block C, Gordon Chang, Forbes.com, in re: China standing by as US goes after ISIS. Xinjiang is the largest political subdivision of China—it accounts for more than one sixth of...
Photo, above: Congressman Gregory W. Meeks (NY-15) visiting Israel, praying at the Western Wall (in Hebrew: Kotel) for his daughter's engagement. Later at the Kotel, along with Chief Rabbi Lau and Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, he offered comfort and support to Gilad Shaer's father and Naftali...
Map, above: The ISIS map of the world – by courtesy of and with thanks to The Daily Mail (an Arabic version at the end of this page): Militants outline chilling five-year plan for global domination as they declare formation of caliphate - and change their name to the Islamic State • Sunni...
Panting above: The Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks to the Sultan of Turkey (1893 version). In 1880, Ilya Yefimovich Repin traveled to Zaporozhye in Ukraine to gather material for the 1891 Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks. The self-governing Cossack communities were concentrated in three...
Photo, above: Amman, the capital of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Kind, generous, hospitable Jordan is immediately next in the sights of ISIS. In the 13th century BC, Amman was called Rabbath Ammon by the Ammonites. It was later conquered by the Assyrians, followed by the Persians, and then the...