The John Batchelor Show

Friday 24 August 2012

Air Date: 
August 24, 2012

Photo, above: The fins on the 1959 Cadillac Eldorado were the largest and most outrageous ever fitted on a production car. Those fins were too much for many customers, however, and the tailfins shrank after that point. Within a couple of years, tailfins had become much less prominent, and by the mid 1960s, they were gone on many models. Vestigial tailfins remained on American cars into the 1980s, with the sides of the quarter panels often being raised above the trunk lid and the corner sharp-edged, or at least raised. Cadillac was one of the last makers to phase raised edges out, with vertically-arranged tail-light assemblies as well, on all of their products (except the Allanté) all the way to the early 1990s.

JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW

Wired Magazine, 2009: "Five eastern European men were indicted in New York on Monday as part of an international ring allegedly responsible for at least $4 million in credit card theft.  The ring, which authorities dubbed the Western Express Cybercrime Group, operated between 2001 and 2007 and trafficked in at least 95,000 known stolen credit card numbers, including some belonging to victims in New York, where the case is being prosecuted by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office.  The five named in an indictment unsealed this week include Vasilyev Viatcheslav, 33, and Vladimir Kramarenko, 31, of the Czech Republic, who were arrested in Prague in July 2008 and only extradited to the U.S. last week; Egor Shevelev, 23, a Ukrainian arrested last year during a vacation in Greece and awaiting extradition; Oleg Kovelin, 28, from Moldova (spelled “Covelin” in some documents); and Dzimitry Burak, 26, a Belorussian who was last living in Ukraine. The latter two have not yet been apprehended. A sixth defendant has not been named yet.  The five men named this week allegedly worked in concert with 17 other defendants who were previously charged with a 173-count indictment in November 2007, along with a New York-based company called Western Express International Inc., which authorities allege was used to coordinate and facilitate the illegal activities and launder the ring’s ill-gotten gains. Of those 17 defendants, 14 have been arrested. Five pleaded guilty."

Friday 905P Eastern Time: . Misha Glenny, author, "Dark Markets: Cyberthieves, Cybercops, and You.  1 of 4.

Friday 920P Eastern Time: . Misha Glenny, author, "Dark Markets: Cyberthieves, Cybercops, and You.  2 of 4.

Friday 935P Eastern Time: Misha Glenny, author, "Dark Markets: Cyberthieves, Cybercops, and You.  3 of 4.

Friday 950P Eastern Time:  Misha Glenny, author, "Dark Markets: Cyberthieves, Cybercops, and You.  4 of 4.

Friday 1005P (705P Pacific Time):  . George B. Dyson, author, "Turing's Cathedral: The Origin of the Digital Universe; 1 of 4

Robert Oppenheimer and Johnny Von Neuman, at Princetion Institute with the MANIAC.  Von Neumann was a founding figure in computer science.[50] Von Neumann's hydrogen bomb work was played out in the realm of computing, where he and Stanisław Ulam developed simulations on von Neumann's digital computers for the hydrodynamic computations. During this time he contributed to the development of the Monte Carlo method, which allowed solutions to complicated problems to be approximated using random numbers.

Friday 1020P (720P Pacific Time):  .George B. Dyson, author, "Turing's Cathedral: The Origin of the Digital Universe; 2 of 4

Friday 1035P (735P Pacific Time):  George B. Dyson, author, "Turing's Cathedral: The Origin of the Digital Universe; 3 of 4

Friday 1050P (750P Pacific Time):  .George B. Dyson, author, "Turing's Cathedral: The Origin of the Digital Universe; 4 of 4

Friday 1105P (805P Pacific Time): . Bob Lutz, author, "Car Guys vs. Bean Counters: The Battle for the Soul of American Business;" 1 of 4

1969 was the first year for "The Judge", a popular $332 option named after a skit on the Laugh-In TV program. Besides a wing, wheel, stripe and decal package, buyers also were treated to a Ram Air III 400 along with a Hurst controlled three speed manual transmission and a heavy duty suspension. Other changes were minimal from 1968 and consisted mainly of badge updates.

Friday 1120P (820P Pacific Time): Bob Lutz, author, "Car Guys vs. Bean Counters: The Battle for the Soul of American Business;" 2 of 4

Friday 1135P (835P Pacific Time):  .Bob Lutz, author, "Car Guys vs. Bean Counters: The Battle for the Soul of American Business;" 3 of 4

Friday 1150P (850P Pacific Time):  .Bob Lutz, author, "Car Guys vs. Bean Counters: The Battle for the Soul of American Business;" 4 of 4

Friday/Sat 1205A (905 Pacific Time):  .Jim Motavali, author, "High Voltage: The Fast Track to Plug in the American Auto Industry;" 1 of 2

Friday/Sat  1220A (920 Pacific Time): .Jim Motavali, author, "High Voltage: The Fast Track to Plug in the American Auto Industry;" 2 of 2

The Bonneville name first appeared in 1954 on a pair of bubble-topped GM Motorama concept cars called the Bonneville Special. It entered the production lineup as a high-performance,fuel-injected luxury convertible within the Star Chief line in the 1957 model year and was loaded with every conceivable option as standard equipment with the exception of optional air conditioning. This put the Bonneville in a Cadillac-like price range of $5,000 - more than double the base price of a Chieftain four-door sedan. A fully equipped Bonneville could cost more than a Cadillac. Only 630 units were produced that first year, making it one of the most collectible Pontiacs of all time. The following year it would become its own separate model, and it would endure until 2005 as the division's top-of-the-line model. The name was taken from the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, the site of much early auto racing and most of the world's land speed record runs, which was named in turn after U.S. Army officer Benjamin Bonneville.

Friday/Sat  1235A (935P Pacific Time): .Rebecca MacKinnon, author, "Consent of the Networked: The Worldwide Struggle for Internet Freedom;" 1 of 2

Friday/Sat  1250A  (950P Pacific Time): Exeunt. Rebecca MacKinnon, author, "Consent of the Networked: The Worldwide Struggle for Internet Freedom;"  2 of 2

Music: