Friday 19 September 2014
Photo, above: An F-15C Eagle intercepts a Tu-95MS on the outskirts of the west coast of Alaska on September 28, 2006.
On Wednesday, 17 Sept 2014 - Russian Nuclear Bombers Buzz Alaska, N. Europe Bear H bomber runs timed to Ukrainian leader visit In this photo released by the U.S. Navy, an F/A-18 Hornet from aboard the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz, escorts a Russian Tupolev 95 Bear long range bomber aircraft on Feb. 9, 2008 / AP - by Bill Gertz - Russian strategic nuclear bombers carried out air defense zone incursions near Alaska and across Northern Europe this week in the latest nuclear saber rattling by Moscow.
Six Russian aircraft, including two Bear H nuclear bombers [Tu-95 ], two MiG-31 fighter jets and two IL-78 refueling tankers were intercepted by F-22 fighters on Wednesday west and north of Alaska in air defense identification zones, said Navy Capt. Jeff A. Davis, a spokesman for the U.S. Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command. Two other Bears were intercepted by Canadian jets on Thursday.
“The group of Russian aircraft flew a loop south, returning westward toward Russia,” Davis told the Free Beacon. A day later two more Bear bombers were intercepted by Canadian CF-18 jets in the western area of the Canadian air defense identification zone near the Beaufort Sea, north of Alaska, he said. The Russian bombers did not enter U.S. airspace but flew within 63 miles of the Alaskan coast and 46 miles of the Canadian coastline, Davis said. In both instances . . .
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Hour One
Friday 19 September 2014 / Hour 1, Block A: Fraser Howie, author, Red Capital, in re: Cameron Calls for Less-United Kingdom British Prime Minister David Cameron, fresh from narrowly dodging the breakup of the U.K. after Scottish voters rejected independence, kicked off a new wave of political uncertainty with a proposal to reshape the way the centuries-old union is governed. Scottish Leader to Resign 'Yes' Voters Face Up to Defeat U.K. Further from Legacy
In Scotland, who voted yes? [--these are interesting data]
Friday 19 September 2014 / Hour 1, Block B: Jim McTague, Barron's Washington, in re: Obama's Midterm Strategy What aides say President Obama will talk about on the midterm campaign trail. Plus, Rand Paul adjusts foreign-policy stance ahead of 2016, and more in the email newsletter.
ECB invites banks to tap new funds it hopes will pep up euro zone The European Central Bank invited banks on Tuesday to bid for a fresh round of long-term loans it hopes will stimulate lending to businesses and reinvigorate the euro zone economy but which may see only modest take-up.
OECD slashes growth forecasts, urges aggressive ECB action The OECD slashed its growth forecasts for major developed economies on Monday, urging much more aggressive ECB stimulus to ward off the risk of deflation in a subdued euro zone.
Friday 19 September 2014 / Hour 1, Block C: Ian Austen, NYT, in re: Canada Chases Down an Arctic Mystery, and Some See a Political Strategy Some Canadians, particularly Prime Minister Stephen Harper, have long been taken with the story of the disastrous attempt by the British explorer Sir John Franklin to sail and map the Northwest Passage. So it was not surprising that Mr. Harper took it upon himself to announce on Tuesday that the sixth attempt by Canada’s government to locate wreckage from Franklin’s doomed voyage had been successful.
Researchers from Parks Canada, the national parks agency, found one of the two ships abandoned in 1848 by Franklin’s 129 crew members, all of whom ultimately died. The discovery, made on Sunday by a remotely controlled underwater vehicle, was also a confirmation of sorts. The ship’s wreckage was found near King William Island in the territory of Nunavut, the place where the Inuit, the region’s aboriginal people, have long said the ships were crushed by sea ice. “For more than a century, this has been a great Canadian story and mystery,” an unusually animated Mr. Harper said. “I’d say it’s been the subject of scientists and historians and writers and singers. So I think we have a really important day in mapping together the history of our country.”
While the disappearance of the expedition’s crew became almost an obsession of Victorian England, prompting 32 unsuccessful search missions between 1848 and 1859, it has not loomed large in modern Canadian life. But Robert Huebert, a political scientist the University of Calgary in Alberta who studies circumpolar issues, said that Arctic nationalism is, along with hockey and the War of 1812, a topic of particular interest to Mr. Harper. “This is one of the three things that really get him going,” Mr. Huebert said. “This is a tremendous find for Canadian Arctic nationalism. It acts as an element of nation building. It’s who we are, we see ourselves as a northern people.” Mr. Harper has made of point of traveling to the Arctic each summer, and this year he briefly participated in the . . . [more]
Friday 19 September 2014 / Hour 1, Block D: Robert Zimmerman, behindtheblack.com, in re: Dawn’s arrival at Ceres delayed one month Though engineers have solved the problems caused when a radiation blast disabled Dawn’s ion engine and put it into safe mode for a week, the fix will cause a one-month delay in its arrival at the asteroid Ceres. Controllers discovered Dawn was in safe mode Sept. 11 after radiation disabled its ion engine, which uses electrical fields to “push” the spacecraft along. The radiation stopped all engine thrusting activities. The thrusting resumed Monday (Sept. 15) after controllers identified and fixed the problem, but then they found another anomaly troubling the spacecraft.
Dawn’s main antenna was also disabled, forcing the spacecraft to send signals to Earth (a 53-minute roundtrip by light speed) through a weaker secondary antenna and slowing communications. The cause of this problem hasn’t been figured out yet, but controllers suspect radiation affected the computer’s software. A computer reset has solved the issue, NASA added. The spacecraft is now functioning normally.
A new impact crater on the Moon Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has confirmed the creation of a new crater on the Moon, the impact flash of which was spotted when it happened on September 11, 2013. The before and after images not only identify the new ~112 foot wide crater, they also show ejecta effects surrounding the crater.
Hour Two
Friday 19 September 2014 / Hour 2, Block B: Michael Vlahos, Naval War College, in re: - http://freebeacon.com/national-security/russian-nuclear-bombers-buzz-northern-europe/
- Ukraine crisis triggers increase in Polish support for national service ; Survey suggests increasing number of Poles support return to national service in the wake of Russia's annexation of Crimea
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Query, below left: “Ms. Lerner’s Blackberry was replaced in February 2012 as part of an ongoing Blackberry update….it was disposed of under standard procedures at that time,” Koskinen said. Koskinen claimed that information from Lerner’s Blackberry could not be transferred to her new model because “Our Blackberries only display email that is displayed by our employees’ Microsoft Outlook emails, which is maintained on IRS servers.”
Koskinen also said that there’s no outside system to save IRS employees’ emails. “There is no system outside the IRS, government or otherwise, that the IRS uses to back up or store emails,” Koskinen said. Koskinen didn’t mention that the IRS terminated its years-long contract with its email archiving company Sonasoft shortly after Lerner’s computer crashed. See: Hour 2, Block D, Francis Rose, Federal News Radio, Stonewall Koskinen.
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Friday 19 September 2014 / Hour 2, Block C: Mark Oppenheimer, BuzzFeed. in re: Will Misogyny Bring Down the Atheist Movement? The continuing debate over a murky sexual encounter at a 2008 convention for cheekily anti-establishment skeptics underscores a broader dilemma: How can a progressive, important intellectual community behave so poorly towards its female peers? . . . This overall growth, and increased parity between the sexes, would seem like a good thing for the movement. But not everyone saw it that way. Older male activists in particular were like fans whose favorite obscure band hits it big; their small, intimate shows were becoming big arena concerts, leaving them a bit dislocated. Skepchick.org The nascent misogyny first burst into public view about three years ago. On June 20, 2011, Watson posted to her Skepchick site an eight-minute video entitled “About Mythbusters, Robot Eyes, Feminism, and Jokes.” In the video, Watson wears red-framed glasses and a T-shirt that says something about “Di-Atomic Dogma Disruption.” Her hair is bleached blond and overlaid with pink streaks. Around the four-minute mark, she turns serious, discussing a talk she had recently given at an atheists’ conference in Dublin in which she decried “blatant misogyny” in freethought. The audience . . .
Friday 19 September 2014 / Hour 2, Block D: Francis Rose, Federal News Radio, in re: Stonewall Koskinen (in WSJ POTOMAC WATCH, By Kimberley A. Strassel) The IRS!
Hour Three
Friday 19 September 2014 / Hour 3, Block A: Mary Anastasia O'Grady, Wall Street Journal, OPINION AMERICAS, in re: Venezuela Heads to a Default Reckoning
Friday 19 September 2014 / Hour 3, Block B: Jamie Dettmer, Daily Beast, in re: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/07/09/al-qaeda-to-isis-get-off-my-lawn-the-theological-debate-behind-the-caliphate.html
Friday 19 September 2014 / Hour 3, Block C: Mark Sklar, WSJ OPINION, in re: http://online.wsj.com/articles/mark-sklar-doctoring-in-the-age-of-obamacare-1410478521
Friday 19 September 2014 / Hour 3, Block D: Sonali Basak, Bloomberg, in re: MICROSOFT MINING. With Minecraft, Microsoft Bets Again on Blockbuster Game Franchises Over Talent– The conventional wisdom in Silicon Valley is that acquisitions are about gaining great talent. Just last week, Tim Cook told Charlie Rose that one of the main reasons Apple bought Beats was for "incredible talent." The Valley even has its own term for an acquisition based solely on hiring: "acquihire."
Hour Four
Friday 19 September 2014 / Hour 4, Block A: West of the Revolution: An Uncommon History of 1776 by Claudio Saunt (1 of 4)
Friday 19 September 2014 / Hour 4, Block B: West of the Revolution: An Uncommon History of 1776 by Claudio Saunt (2 of 4)
Friday 19 September 2014 / Hour 4, Block C: West of the Revolution: An Uncommon History of 1776 by Claudio Saunt (3 of 4)
Friday 19 September 2014 / Hour 4, Block D: West of the Revolution: An Uncommon History of 1776 by Claudio Saunt (4 of 4)