The John Batchelor Show

Wednesday 5 September 2012

Air Date: 
September 05, 2012

Photo above:   "This is the latest wacky and wonderful experiment from Dr Bill Lumsden, head of whisky distilling and creation at Ardbeg. Trying to understand the complex interactions taking place in the cask during maturation is like trying to understand Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time whilst on LSD. It’s nigh on impossible. I’ve tried. So to try to better understand what happens during this magical process, Ardbeg have teamed up with US-based space research company NanoRacks and launched some new make spirit and some barrel shards in the direction of the International Space Station (ISS)."

JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW

Wednesday 905P Eastern Time (605P Pacific Time): Arthur Waldron, Lauder Professor of International Relations at the University of Pennsylvania, in re:  Mrs Clinton arrives in Beijing despite a treasonous, not to say Dadaist, editorial in Ren Min Jr Bao by Patrick Cunningham, who reminds us that the Japanese lost WWII and so should be humble about confronting China as it moves to chew up the First Island Chain.  Diaoyutai/Senkaku Island.  . . .  JB: Perhaps Chinese people still understand, "Send in the Marines."

Leaping Tiger Gorge, China.

Wednesday 920P Eastern Time (620P Pacific Time): Patrick Chovanec, Professor at Tsinghua University’s School of Economics and Management, in re: the prospect for stimulus in China.  Currency is just one part of the equation around which other nations,  esp the US, are frustrated – Chinese currency needs rebalancing. Wen Jiabao said China would export its way out of economic troubles, but in fact the rmb lost .9% of its value.  Capital flight out of China. The dominant US narrative is of a Chinese juggernaut; the real story is that it's stumbling badly – economic downturn, leadership transition troubles. May embrace policies to [distract the populace] There's an element of desperation. Is dumping steel. When the August numbers come out of Beijing: rising inventories, falling sales, all the indicators – electricity, exports, mfrg – that we've been looking at. What's dragging down the Chinese economy? It’s reached its sell-by date and needs to look to other modes.

http://chovanec.wordpress.com/2012/08/19/what-us-candidates-need-to-know...

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1) China’s economy is not just slowing, it is entering a serious correction.  The investment bubble that has been driving Chinese growth has popped, and there are no quick “stimulus” fixes left.  There is the very real possibility of some form of financial crisis in China before year’s end.

2) China is in the midst of a once-in-a-decade leadership transition that has not been going smoothly.  The transition will take place, but it has paralyzed the Chinese leadership’s ability to respond to the country’s growing economic troubles.  China’s leaders believe time is on their side; they do not “get” how serious and urgent the situation is, and that what has always “worked” is no longer working.

Palawan Island, Philippines, forward basing of US Marines and Navy at Brookes Point to offset aggression by PLA Navy.

3) China’s economic problems spell trouble for the U.S. on several fronts.

  • First, China is flirting with devaluing its currency to boost exports—a move that will put it in direct conflict with Mitt Romney’s commitments on this issue.
  • Second, China is already dumping excess capacity in steel and other products onto the export market, a tactic that is likely to inflame trade tensions and reinforce imbalances in the global economy.
  • Third, in a worst-case scenario, China may be tempted to provoke a conflict in the South China Sea to redirect popular discontent onto an external enemy.

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Wednesday 935P Eastern Time (635P Pacific Time): Hotel Mars, episode n. David Livingston, Dr Space, and Jeff Manber, managing director of NanoRacks ("premier space businessman"), in re:  only company in world that markets its own research on  ISS; ISS is our landlord, but not a competitor. We have microscopes, a centrifuge, there; have customers all over the world – from universities and high schools (Valley Christian High School in California was the first) to Girl Scouts and corporations.   A commercial pathway to a US national lab.  Can fly there on Russian Soyuz, Russian Progress, or Japanese, Europeans, SpaceX or US rockets.  Our nanolabs are 4" cubes, are becoming the world standard.  Students's experiments: Jeff ____ has a program whereby 39 school districts have flown through SSEP via NanoRacks to the ISS. First national stem-cell research there. Conrad Foundation, run by Nancy Conrad, with American Express so parents can use pooled AmEx points for their children's research.  We’re first company in the world to deploy a small satellite _____ -  Vietnamese, from a university there. NASA gave us permission to be the only company to have an external platform – for DoD – that we're self-funding, to be operational in 2014.  NASA  is the post office, we're Federal Express.

Wednesday 950P Eastern Time (650P Pacific Time): Scott Harold, Associate Political Scientist at RAND, in re: North Korea and Japan are talking "happily,"  despite a historically virulent, almost-unimaginably vicious, enmity.  Why? Because DPRK has been totally dependent on China and may now be a tad nervous about that.  For mutual diplomatic recognition, DPRK probably wd demand recompense for WWII in the region of hundreds of millions of dollars, although Japan right now is in an economic slough.   Pyongyang is up against a painfully difficult economic crisis; it may have local communities foraging for themselves, with the leadership post hoc following along.  Is Kim Jong-eun aiming toward a total flip, similar to Gorbachov?  Unlikely that after six months in power that he has enough authority to do that. There are still daily cyberattacks on South Korea and the US, so one is reluctant to think that there's too much afoot there. China may see DPRK as a big headache, thus it may be watching this dance without displeasure.

Wednesday 1005P Eastern  (705P Pacific Time): Democratic National Convention: John Batchelor's commentary.

Wednesday 1020P Eastern (720P Pacific Time): Democratic National Convention: speeches – Elizabeth Warren.

Mayor Villagaroisa of Los Angeles, Chair of the DNC for the voice vote on the amendemnt to insert "God" and "Jerusalem is and will be the capital of Israel."

Wednesday 1035P Eastern  (735P Pacific Time): Democratic National Convention: speeches - Bill Clinton 

Wednesday 1050P Eastern (750P Pacific Time): Democratic National Convention: speeches - Bill Clinton

Wednesday 1105P  Eastern (805PPacific Time): Democratic National Convention: speeches - Bill Clinton

Wednesday 1120P Eastern (820P Pacific Time):  Democratic National Convention: speeches - Bill Clinton; then  Salena Zito, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review; Lara M Brown, Villanova

Wednesday 1135P Eastern  (835P Pacific Time):  David Drucker, Roll Call; Larry Johnson, No Quarter; Jeff Bliss, The Bliss Index, in re: The convention. The crowd loved it: Clinton was here to reconnect the swing voters with Pres Obama. Unfortunately, Barack Obama can't hold a candle to Bill Clinton in speaking, and unless he really speaks from his heart - not his modus operandi so far - Bill Clinton will be having everyone wishing that Clinton, not Obama, was the current candidate. "A paean to the base." The Bubba vote.  Note that Monica Lewinsky's rabbi, who much criticized Pres Clinton, is scheduled to deliver the benediction - a direct jab at Clinton by the Obama bumble group.

Wednesday 1150P Eastern  (850P Pacific Time): Michael Gordon, NYT, in re: Iran using Iraqi airspace to supply arms, men and money to Syria? also using overland?

Wednesday/Thurs 1205A  Eastern (905 Pacific Time): Gordon Chang, and Charles Burton, in re: Ferrari car crash in Beijing leads to another Communist Party boss scandal.

Wednesday/Thurs  1220A Eastern (920 Pacific Time): Reza Kahlili, author, in re: Is Iraq assisting and abetting the Iranian shipments of arms and men to Syria? Is Maliki in league with Tehran?

Wednesday/Thurs  1235A  Eastern (935P Pacific Time): Hotel Mars, episode n. David Livingston, Dr Space, and Jeff Manber, managing director of Nanoracks ("premier space businessman"), in re:  only co in world that market  its own research on  ISS is our landlord, but not a competitor. We have microscopes, a centrifuge, have customers all over the world – from universities and high schools (Valley Christian High School in California was the first) to Girl Scouts and corporations.   A commercial pathway to a US national lab.  Can fly there on Russian Soyuz, Russian Progress, or Japanese, Euro SpaceX or US rockets.  Our nanolabs are 4" cubes, are becoming the world standard.  Students's experiments, Jeff ____, has a program whereby 39 school districts have flown through SSEP via Nanoracks to the ISS. First natl stem-cell research there. Conrad Fdn, run by Nancy Conrad, with American Express so parents can use AmEx points pooled for their children's research.  We’re first coin the world to deploy a small satellite -  Vietnamese, from a university there. NASA gave us permission to be the only company to have an external platform – for DoD – that we're self-funding, operational in 2014.  NASA  is the post office, we're Federal Express.

Wednesday/Thurs  1250A  Eastern (950P Pacific Time): Exeunt. Sarah Lyall, in re: ghost estates of Ireland and the curse of boom and bust.

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Music (using New York City broadcast times)  

9:00 hour:  Crysis; Serendipity; Tomorrow Never Dies.    10:00 hour:  Frost Nixon.   11:00 hour:        12:00 hour: 

Photo below: ships collide off Diaoyutai/Senkaku Islands

Photo below: Taiwan recalled its ambassador to Japan over the Diaoyutai/Senkaku Islands controversy.

 

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