Photo, above: A single Hubble Space Telescope image can capture scores of distant galaxies, but the one galaxy we'll never see from the outside is our own. As a result, no one knows the Milky Way's exact size and shape. It took more than a century after the discovery of the first spiral in space before astronomers established that our galaxy is a spiral, too, and more years elapsed before they deduced that we inhabit a barred spiral—a type whose bright central region is elongated. Now, for the first time, observers have detected five stars on the far side of the galaxy that serve as outstanding yardsticks, a feat which will divulge secrets about the Milky Way's terra incognita. "It's a beautiful piece of classic astronomy," says Leo Blitz, an astronomer at the University of California, Berkeley, who was not involved in the discovery.

The researchers, in South Africa and Japan, discovered five stars known as Cepheids shining on the opposite side of the Milky Way's disk, 72,000 to 99,000 light-years from Earth. All five stars Also: This artist's image of the Milky Way shows the position of the sun (yellow circle) and other nearby Cepheid variables (light blue circles) in relation to the five newly discovered Cepheid varaibles (dark blue circles) that lie on the other side of the Milky Way. The newfound stars lie above and below the plane of the galaxy and indicate a flaring of the outer disk.

NASA writes: Cepheid stars oscillate between two states: In one of the states, the star is compact and large temperature and pressure gradients build up in the star. These large pressures cause the star to expand. When the star is in its expanded state, there is a much weaker pressure gradient in the star. Without the pressure gradient to support the star against gravity, the star contracts and the star returns to its compressed state.  Cepheid variable stars have masses between five and twenty times the mass of our Sun. The more massive stars are more luminous and have more extended envelopes (the outer layers of gas in a star are sometimes called its "envelope"). Because these envelopes are more extended and the density in their envelopes is lower, their variability period, which is proportional to the inverse square root of the density in the layer, is longer.

JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW

Co-hosts: Mary Kissel, Wall Street Journal editorial board & host of OpinionJournal.com.  Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents.

Hour One

Thursday  10 July   2014 / Hour 1, Block A: Mary Kissel, Wall Street Journal editorial board & host of OpinionJournal.com; in re: The fighting in Gaza connected to the future of Eurasia; Vladimire Putin will sit with Angela Merkel at the final World Cup match.  US border:  Mary Anastasia O'Grady, Wall Street Journal, says that there's no one single cause to this crisis, the US shares much of the blame in connection with the narcocartels, and the children arriving immediately turn themselves in to the Border agents.  Crisis, tragedy, nightmare, along the Texas border. This is not an issue of border control – more agents there now than ever before – but surges because people come to find work when the US economy picks up.

Nan Hayworth, was until recently Congressional representative from NY-18, then the GOP was overwhelmed at Pres Obama's last election, and now she's running again. The Obama Adm has made antidiscrimination themes priority, will go outside the boundaries of the law to do so.  Westchester is a sort of Democratic suburb of New York, is exceptionally diverse.  Rob Astorino, mayor, had to build 750 housing units.   Fed showed up and demanded several thousand. Astorino protested. HUD wants to take over zoning of 19 cities, many towns and villages – according to ethnic backgrounds. Feds are also going to banks and, basically, threatening them. Recall that Andrew Cuomo ran HUD, presided over the explosion in subprime lending. Issue is now in the courts, Fed hired a "Federal monitor" to  . . .

  Federal Housing fight to cost Westchester $5.2M in grants After the federal government Wednesday gave Westchester County a ... "HUD has been working with Westchester County for several years to ...

Thursday  10 July   2014 / Hour 1, Block B:   Edward W Hayes, criminal defense attorney par excellence, in re: A dead person cold win in New York State if he ran as a Democrat.  Unhh, several have.  The coming Dem trend is to the left, and de Blasio is a leader – despite a low electoral turnout. De Blasio was trying to shut down the Success Academies; Gov Cuomo overrode.

Cuomo Maintains Huge Lead over Astorino, Poll Shows
 Andrew Cuomo holds a commanding 35-point lead over his ... "Those are the folks Astorino is trying to build his campaign around, and he's not ...  GOP's Rob Astorino wants regional debates against Gov ...On marijuana, de Blasio agrees with Thompson and Bratton ...


Two of Mayor Bill de Blasio's allies appear to disagree over how to deal with first- time offenders charged with possession of small amounts of ...

Thursday  10 July   2014 / Hour 1, Block C: Sean Trende, RealClearPolitics, in re: In a recent Quinnipiac poll, Mr Obama was called "the worst president ever," but the question was poorly-worded and probably isn’t of any use.  Also, his policies are less favored (30%+) than he is (44%).  Congress's job approval is just above 10%.

Is Obama the Worst President? Poll Setup Clouds the Issue  A poll from Quinnipiac has been making the rounds of late, with the media focusing in on a question that purportedly shows Americans consider Barack Obama the worst president since...

Party Identification Varies Widely Across the Age Spectrum Democratic identification is highest among young Americans and older baby boomers, while Republicans do best among middle-aged Americans and seniors. Young Americans are most likely to identify as independents.

POLLING MATTERS: The Worst President Since World War II?

Thursday  10 July   2014 / Hour 1, Block D: Michael Auslin, AEI, in re:  East Timor. Anti-Chinese language. If the Jakarta governor is elected, how will he lead as a lightweight?  Indonesia poll marks fork in road (Nikkei Asian Review) Indonesians on July 9 will vote in the third presidential election since the collapse of former President Suharto's regime in 1998. Their choice may determine whether Indonesia turns inward or continues to liberalize at home and abroad.

Japan’s military is not about to march through Asia (National Review Online) Put in the context of Japan's gradual security evolution over the past several decades, Shinzo Abe's push to revoke the country's ban on engaging in collective self-defense is neither a radical move nor one that threatens peace in Asia.

Hour Two

Thursday  10 July   2014 / Hour 2, Block A: Neri Zilber, a journalist & 2014 visiting scholar at The Washington Institute, in re: Gaza rocketry. Beware accidents and mass casualties.  Reservists's call-up?  Regular forces move to the south; reservists may go north.  Tunnels into Israel.  Eight-hour Cabinet mtg today. Massing of ground forces near Gaza may signal a possible land invasion – which Jerusalem ardently does not want. If the rockets barrages continue all-out, IDF will have to go in to root out the rocket factories and emplacements.  Until recently, Hamas was seriously unpopular in Gaza, and Hamas did not (probably still does not want) to rocket. [Editor: fair guess that Iran, almost Hamas's only source of funds, is obliging Hamas to rocket Israel in order to distract everyone from its nuclear developments and from the ISIS success.) . . . Netanyahu threw a lifeline to Hamas several times, encouraging it to slow down the escalation; gave it off-ramps, or a way to climb down.

Thursday  10 July   2014 / Hour 2, Block B: Ambassador Ido Aharoni, Consul General of Israel in New York, in re: Current events in Israel, impact on the people; making the case for Israel. Criminal: Hamas ordered Gazans to ignore Israel's telephone calls to Gazan families warning them of impending attacks on nearby Hamas military operations.    . . . stability of oil industry as Iran  . . .  Breakdown of peace process and jihadist groups. Iran is a chief supplier of the rockets that Hamas is using. Jack Straw took a delegation to Teheran and bragged about it.

Thursday  10 July   2014 / Hour 2, Block C: Michael Singh is managing director of The Washington Institute; in re:  Iran.

Thursday  10 July   2014 / Hour 2, Block D: Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re:  Hamas is cut off from Egypt, from Moslem Brothers's funding; and an apocalyptic condition across the ummah; and Egypt's Sisi govt effective in Sinai in stopping the rogue state that's been a-building here for years. Arab press has shown indifference to Hamas; UN said he only way for a land invasion to be prevented is for Hamas to stop rocketing Israeli civilians. IsALso, Iron Dome was so successful in bringing down most of the 500-plus rockets fired – today took out a rocket that went over the Knesset in Jerusalem.  Hamas's goal is to kill.  Inability to replenish via tunnels closed by Egypt and cessation of funding by Qatar and others (Qatar refused to pick up the tab for 40,000 Hamas employees).  Abbas claiming genocide: setting stage to make a claim in the ICC in the future.   At the same time, Abbas is collaborating with Hamas.  Today Reuters journos in Gaza were stunned to see rockets firing out of the side of their civilian building  - completely in opposition to Geneva, inter al.  Conference convened by a left newspaper; Phil Gordon (US Middle East guy on NSC) lapsed into language attacking the govt of Israel, put the onus on Israel – borers, settlements, et al, at the very minute that Israel was being bombarded by rockets.   Life in Israel is onerous under constant physical attack, but people steadfastly patronize shops, cafes.

Hour Three

Thursday  10 July   2014 / Hour 3, Block A: Lt Col Peter Lerner, Israel Defense Forces Spokesman for International Media & Commander of the IDF Social Media activities; in re: Situation on the ground, Gaza, Iron Dome; IDF point of view. Iron Dome  was dvpd in Israel with US aid and funding to pick up enemy's rockets as it leaves the ground and in a few seconds sends an interceptor into the air to seek the target.  Allows decision-makers to make level-headed decisions. In the last 24 hours we’ve had 4 4interceptions that probably would have flattened bldgs and killed people.   Very expensive; our policy is that life comes first . Rockets from Gaza are cheap. Gaza and Hamas have dvpd 10,000 rockets with al different ranges, from M302  (160 km) to more locally-produced M-75 (long-range) and Qassam and Grad.  M302 is a Syrian mil grade surface-to-surface rocket – we intercepted in March of this year a huge shipment from Iran off the coast of Eilat.   Israel is calling up reservists. Need to relieve the ground forces already tied up in operational duty if we intend to call on them for combat.  Reservists to Golan, for example.   . . . Four Palestinians approached the coast and attacked the military—our naval surveillance picked up on them as the emerged from ht sea; all branches of IDF cooperated in taking out this threat from the sea (navy, infantry, air force) Also a tunnel they wanted to explode.  So far their rocketeering has not succeeded, have been met with brute force of IDF.

Thursday  10 July   2014 / Hour 3, Block B: Pinhas Inbari, Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, in re:   War in Gaza.  The internal ___ is well  organized. Everyone has a [place to shelter] under rockets. Iron Dome is working in the skies, has already intercepted missiles over Tel Aviv.  The fact that this is Ramadan . . .   Arabs in Israel and Palestinians in West Bank: latter are happy that Hamas is standing up for Palestinian dignity, makes them happy Arabs in Israel are more contained, no visible manifestation of happiness. Today an Israeli Arab woman under rockets suffered a heart attack.  Syria:  Radio Palestine are disappointed that the Arab world is entirely engaged in its own affairs and ignores Gaza. This includes Syria and Iraq; nobody cares about Palestine.  Khaled Mashal gave an address on Tuesday: asked people to rescue Jerusalem, but no one responded.  Israel was dragged into this conflict, has no endgame beyond stopping the war.   [more]

Thursday  10 July   2014 / Hour 3, Block C: Robert Zimmerman, behindtheblack.com, in re: The competition heats up: Bigelow Aerospace hired two former NASA astronauts today as part of a broader expansion of the company in anticipation of .the completion of its first two private space modules in 2017.

Bigelow said the smallest space station his company plans to fly will require two BA330 modules, each of which has 330 cubic meters of internal space. The company expects to finish building the first two BA330s by 2017, Bigelow said.  Ham and Zamka are former military aviators who have piloted and commanded space shuttle missions. Their NASA and military credentials are part of the appeal for Bigelow, who plans to put both former space fliers to work as recruiters. “I would like to see us have half a dozen astronauts onboard by the end of the year,” Bigelow said.

Each Bigelow Aerospace space station would require about a dozen astronauts, including orbital, ground and backup personnel. The 660-cubic-foot stations would host four paying clients, who would be assisted by three company astronauts responsible for day-to-day maintenance, Bigelow said. Initially, clients and crews would cycle in and out of the stations in 90-day shifts, Bigelow said. Eventually, the company hopes to shorten that cycle to 60 days.

The company had laid off many of its workers several years ago and was essential dormant, waiting for the development of some sort of affordable commercial manned spacecraft capability. It now appears they are expecting SpaceX, Boeing, or Sierra Nevada to succeed in providing this service in the next few years.

Friday’s Cygnus launch to ISS has been delayed 24 hours because of a threat of thundershowers in Florida.

The competition heats up: The FAA today approved SpaceX’s application to establish a spaceport near Brownsville, Texas.

Thursday  10 July   2014 / Hour 3, Block D: Sohrab Ahmari, WSJ London, in re: : London Calling—and Tehran Is Listening

Hour Four

Thursday  10 July   2014 / Hour 4, Block A: Markos Kounalakis, Sacramento Bee, in re:  Iraq, Syria Need National Saviors More than U.S. Intervention

Thursday  10 July   2014 / Hour 4, Block B: Ken Crosswell, Science magazine, in re:  The far side of the Galaxy.

Thursday  10 July   2014 / Hour 4, Block C:  Casey Mulligan, WSJ, in re: A Recovery Stymied by Redistribution Public policy intended to make layoffs less painful actually made layoffs cheaper and more common.

Thursday  10 July   2014 / Hour 4, Block D: Neil Irwin, NYT, in re:  The Everything Boom — and, quite possibly, the Everything Bubble. Around the world, nearly every asset class is expensive by historical standards. Stocks and bonds; emerging markets and advanced economies; urban office towers to Iowa farmland; you name it, and it's trading at prices that are high by historical standards relative to fundamentals. The inverse of that is relatively low returns for investors.