Friday 13 December 2013
Photo, above: The pod-rooms at Endémico, one of the new hotels in the wine region of Valle de Guadalupe, are perched above the valley. See Hour 4, Block D, Damian Cave, NYT, on A Rustic Paradise, Open for Development The Guadalupe Valley is Mexico’s Tuscany.
We're south of the border and in from the sea, underground and staring up at the light. Narrow shafts of sunlight breach the subterranean dark via a constellation of tiny skylights that are, our host points out, actually repurposed eyeglass lenses. The arched ceiling itself is fashioned from the upturned hull of an old wooden fishing boat, burned black. The walls of the oblong space are simply a cutaway of packed, tan earth. It is kind of the best room in or under the world, or as Phil Gregory puts it, proudly: “My future mad-scientist laboratory.” [interactive slide show >>]
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Hour One
Friday 13 December 2013 / Hour 1, Block A: Mary Anastasia O'Grady, Wall Street Journal, in re: Mexico Nears an Energy Breakthrough
Friday 13 December 2013 / Hour 1, Block B: Kirk Johnson, NYT, in re: SOLDOTNA JOURNAL Alaska’s Thin Line Between Camping and Homelessness
Friday 13 December 2013 / Hour 1, Block C: Sid Perkins, Nature, Science, in re: CLIMATE ScienceShot: Drastic Cuts in Soot, Methane Won't Curb Long-Term Climate Change Trimming emissions of soot and methane now will have only short-term impact
CLIMATE ScienceShot: Ban on Ozone Destroyers Slowed Global Warming Earth would be hotter than it is today if countries hadn't curtailed the use of chlorofluorocarbons
EARTH ScienceShot: Predicting Heat Waves Certain weather patterns boost chances for sweltering days in continental United States
Friday 13 December 2013 / Hour 1, Block D: Gretchen Morgenson, NYT, in re: Playing Pension Games As cities and states face shortfalls, there is a need for more disclosure, not less, about pension funds.
Hour Two
Friday 13 December 2013 / Hour 2, Block A: Manny Fernandez, NYT, in re: In Houston, Armored Cars Are Doing the Opposite of Dissuading Robbers With 11 armored-car heists this year, the Texas city accounts for about a third of the national total. One company, hit four times, took the unusual step of publicly calling out “the bad guys.”
Friday 13 December 2013 / Hour 2, Block B: John Tamny, RealClearMarkets, in re: China skeptics like to point out 'ghost cities' there as evidence of the country's false economy created by government waste. They have a point about productive wealth wasted by politicians, but if so, they should acknowledge by their very own logic the 'ghost country' that is the U.S., and that's been created by wealth siphoned from the true producers. Forbes.com. China's 'Ghost Cities' Have Nothing on the 'Ghost Country' That Is the U.S.
Friday 13 December 2013 / Hour 2, Block C: Richard A Epstein, Hoover Institution (Defining Ideas), Chicago Law, in re: The Incorrigible President Obama (1 of 2)
Friday 13 December 2013 / Hour 2, Block D: Richard A Epstein, Hoover Institution (Defining Ideas), Chicago Law, in re: The Incorrigible President Obama (2 of 2)
Hour Three
Friday 13 December 2013 / Hour 3, Block A: Jim McTague, Barron's Washington, in re: Economists Split on Start of Fed Pullback.
Insurers Told to Ease Coverage Rules The government on Thursday announced steps to stave off unpleasant surprises for Americans when the health-overhaul law fully kicks in Jan. 1, including measures to ensure continuous care for people with serious medical conditions
House Approves Budget Pact The House passed a budget bill designed to avoid a government shutdown next month and relax spending limits in the next two years. Boehner Steps Up Attack on Tea-Party Groups
Friday 13 December 2013 / Hour 3, Block B: Reza Kahlili, author, A Time to Betray, in re: Iran: Move Puts Nuclear Deal at Risk The deputy foreign minister says the country is fashioning its response after the U.S. extended a blacklist for evading sanctions, but European officials say they don't see the landmark deal in danger.
Missing former FBI agent’s case sheds light on US diplomatic maneuvers in Iran
Years after vanishing in Iran, US man proven alive
"An Iranian defector now living in the United States, Reza Kahlili, told the AP that Levinson was picked up by the Quds Force, a unit of Iran's Revolutionary Guard. Kahlili said he was told by sources inside Iran that Levinson was investigating money laundering and discovered a link between the Russian mob and the Revolutionary Guard.
Kahlili said Levinson was taken to a safe house in Tehran, but he does not know what happened to him. A former FBI official said the U.S. was aware of that account and, though he described Kahlili as credible, the U.S. could never confirm his story.
Friday 13 December 2013 / Hour 3, Block C: Michael Phillips, WSJ, in re: (1 of 2)
The Lobotomy Files: Family Scars To this day, families remain torn over their role, a half-century ago, in setting the fate of brothers, fathers, loved ones;...
Video: The Lobotomy Files: The Story of Emil Kauzalarich In an excerpt from a WSJ special report, Frances Malzahn, niece of WWII veteran Emil Kauzlarich, talks about how her uncle...
Video: The Lobotomy Files: The Story of Melbert Peters In an excerpt from a WSJ special report, Bea Cooper, niece of WWII veteran Melbert Peters, talks about how her uncle was...
Video: The Lobotomy Files: The Story of Harvey Bailey In an excerpt from a WSJ special project, David Nigro, son of WWII veteran Harvey Bailey talks about how his father was given...
Video: The Lobotomy Files: The Story of Eugene Kainulainen In an excerpt from a WSJ special project, Edna Schauer, sister of WWII veteran Eugene Kainulainen talks about how her brother...
The Lobotomy Files: One Doctor's Legacy How one of the most divisive figures in American medical history, Walter Freeman, steered the VA toward his view on lobotomies;...
The Lobotomy Files: A Descent Into Madness Wealth of forgotten papers detail Leonard Kingcade's journey from railroadman, to soldier, to Japanese POW, to lobotomized...
The Lobotomy Files: Forgotten Soldiers A cache of musty documents lost to memory exposes a time when the U.S. lobotomized some 2,000 veterans. The nation forgot...
Video: Inside WSJ's 'The Lobotomy Files' Special Project WSJ reporter Michael Phillips discusses how he uncovered the nearly forgotten story of hundreds of WWII veterans that were...
Video: The Lobotomy Files: Inside the Mind of Roman Tritz, Veteran Lobotomized by the VA. Roman Tritz was one of thousands of WWll veterans who were lobotomized by the Veterans Administration. The nation forgot...
Friday 13 December 2013 / Hour 3, Block D: Michael Phillips, WSJ, in re: Family Scars To this day, the families of lobotomized U.S. veterans remain torn over their role, a half-century ago, in setting the fate of brothers, fathers, loved ones. "I loved him so," one sister says. (2 of 2)
Hour Four
Friday 13 December 2013 / Hour 4, Block A: Daniel Henninger, WSJ WONDER LAND, in re: Will de Blasio Choke Charters?
Friday 13 December 2013 / Hour 4, Block B: Matt Richtel, NYT, in re: All Dogs May Go to Heaven. These Days, Some Go to Hospice. A growing number of veterinarians are offering hospice care to cats and dogs, giving the pets — and their owners — a less anxious, more comfortable passing. . . . Around the country, a growing number of veterinarians are offering hospice care, and marketing it as a way to give cats and dogs — and their owners — a less anxious, more comfortable passing. The approach, in the spirit of the human variety, entails . . .
Friday 13 December 2013 / Hour 4, Block C: Felix Gilette, Bloomberg, in re: THE RISE AND FALL OF BLACKBERRY: AN ORAL HISTORY Over the last two months, Bloomberg Businessweek spoke to dozens of current and former BlackBerry employees, vendors, and associates to get their account of the thrill of BlackBerry's ascension – what it was like to be associated with a tech pioneer that produced the indispensable accessory of business executives,
Friday 13 December 2013 / Hour 4, Block D: Damian Cave, NYT, in re: A Rustic Paradise, Open for Development The Guadalupe Valley is Mexico’s Tuscany. The vast majority of Mexico’s increasingly popular wine comes from vineyards here, along a narrow, 14-mile stretch of land with the warm days and cold nights that vintners crave. Over the past five years, as interest in the area has grown, dozens of new wineries, along with small hotels and award-winning restaurants, have popped up between the softly sloping mountains. Yet, for now at least, it is still much as it has always been: a ribbon of rustic beauty where most of the roads are dirt and the nights are brightened by shimmering stars.
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Music
Hour 1 - Miami Vice, Knight & Day, Battlestar Gallactica, Pirates of Caribbean.
Hour 2 - Hidalgo, Eagle.
Hour 3 - Brothers Grimm, Underworld, Lost.
Hour 4 - Miami Vice, Downton Abbey, All the Kings Men, Gravity.