Photos, above:    The uniqueness of the ecosystem is the most interesting ecological aspect of the páramos in Ecuador. An estimated 60% of all flora is endemic to the biome (not to be found anywhere else in the world). Tall tussock grasslands in between which grow spectacular plant formations like giant bromeliads and the characteristic stem rosettes (Espeletia), scattered stunted forests with the highest elevation growing tree genus in the world (Polylepis), create a special landscape.   See Hour 1, Block A,  Carl Zimmer: Fast-Paced Evolution in the Andes

JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW

Hour One

Saturday 23 November  2013 / Hour 1, Block A:  Carl Zimmer, in re: Fast-Paced Evolution in the Andes  The remarkable ecosystems known as Páramos are home to the fastest evolution on Earth, a new study suggests.  The páramo is mainly an open grassland ecosystem, located above the tree line and bordering perpetual snow (approx. 3000 to 5000 m). This ecosystem isdistributed between 11°N and 8°S latitude, mainly in the humid Equatorial Andes in Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador and northern Peru, but is also found in some locations in Costa Rica and Panama. The páramo is one of richest high mountain ecosystems in the world with an enormous biodiversity and endemism, but from the ecological point of view it is a fragile environment. The high biodiversity, biogeographical, evolutionary, ecological, and economic importance make the páramo a unique ecosystem with species which have adapted to this environment and not found anywhere else. Páramo plants have adapted to environmental, physical, chemical and climatic conditions of the high mountains, which affect its biological functioning. These conditions include low air pressure and low temperature, intense ultraviolet radiation, rapid changes in sun light, physiological dryness and physical damage from hail, and sometimes by snow. The result plants adaptation to these conditions are very peculiar growth forms such a rosettes, cushion plants, bunch grasses, dwarf prostrate shrubs with scale like leaves, often covered by a dense mat of hairs. [more]

Saturday 23 November  2013 / Hour 1, Block B:  Robert Zimmerman, behindtheblack.com, in re:  New images of Comet ISON suggest it might have begun breaking up.

Working for the Democratic Party: Newly released emails provide more evidence that IRS official Lois Lerner was lying when she said the IRS scandal was confined to the low-level employees in Cincinnati.

An IRS official blasted Lois Lerner for her attempt to blame the agency’s targeting scandal on low-level employees in Cincinnati, according to newly released emails. “Cincinnati wasn’t publicly ‘thrown under the bus’ (but) instead was hit by a convoy of Mack trucks,” wrote Cindy Thomas, former director of the IRS exempt organizations office in Cincinnati, in a May 10, 2013 email to Lerner obtained by the House Ways and Means Committee.

Thomas wrote the email on the very day that the IRS targeting scandal broke when Lerner, a senior agency official based in Washington, D.C., admitted that her exempt organizations division engaged in improper targeting of conservative groups.

The truth was that the low-level employees in Cincinnati were getting their orders to harass conservatives from high up the chain in Washington.

Saturday 23 November  2013 / Hour 1, Block C: Margaret Thatcher on Leadership: Lessons for American Conservatives Today by Nile Gardiner and Stephen Thompson (1 of 2)

Saturday 23 November  2013 / Hour 1, Block D: Margaret Thatcher on Leadership: Lessons for American Conservatives Today by Nile Gardiner and Stephen Thompson (2 of 2)

Hour Two

Saturday 23 November  2013 / Hour 2, Block A: Tested by Zion: The Bush Administration and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict by Elliott Abrams (1 of 4)

Saturday 23 November  2013 / Hour 2, Block B: Tested by Zion: The Bush Administration and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict by Elliott Abrams (2 of 4)

Saturday 23 November  2013 / Hour 2, Block C: Tested by Zion: The Bush Administration and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict by Elliott Abrams (3 of 4)

Saturday 23 November  2013 / Hour 2, Block D: Tested by Zion: The Bush Administration and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict by Elliott Abrams (4 of 4)

Hour Three

Saturday 23 November  2013 / Hour 3, Block A: The Last Days of Kim Jong-il: The North Korean Threat in a Changing Era by Bruce Bechtol (1 of 4)

Saturday 23 November  2013 / Hour 3, Block B: The Last Days of Kim Jong-il: The North Korean Threat in a Changing Era by Bruce Bechtol (2 of 4)

Saturday 23 November  2013 / Hour 3, Block C: The Last Days of Kim Jong-il: The North Korean Threat in a Changing Era by Bruce Bechtol (3 of 4)

Saturday 23 November  2013 / Hour 3, Block D: The Last Days of Kim Jong-il: The North Korean Threat in a Changing Era by Bruce Bechtol (4 of 4) 

Hour Four

Saturday 23 November  2013 / Hour 4, Block A: The Last Refuge: Yemen, al-Qaeda, and America's War in Arabia by Gregory D Johnsen (1 of 4)

Saturday 23 November  2013 / Hour 4, Block B: The Last Refuge: Yemen, al-Qaeda, and America's War in Arabia by Gregory D Johnsen (2 of 4)

Saturday 23 November  2013 / Hour 4, Block C: The Last Refuge: Yemen, al-Qaeda, and America's War in Arabia by Gregory D Johnsen (3 of 4)

Saturday 23 November  2013 / Hour 4, Block D: The Last Refuge: Yemen, al-Qaeda, and America's War in Arabia by Gregory D Johnsen (4 of 4)

..  ..  ..

Music

Hour 1:

Hour 2:

Hour 3:

Hour 4: