The John Batchelor Show

Wednesday 3 October 2012

Air Date: 
October 03, 2012

 

Photo, above: Chemical Alteration by Water, Jezero Crater Delta

On ancient Mars, water carved channels and transported sediments to form fans and deltas within lake basins. Examination of spectral data acquired from orbit show that some of these sediments have minerals that indicate chemical alteration by water. Here in Jezero Crater delta, sediments contain clays and carbonates. The image combines information from two instruments on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter,the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars and the Context Camera. (Reference: Ehlmann et al. 2008.) 

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/JHU-APL

 

JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW

Wednesday 905P Eastern Time (605P Pacific Time):  Gordon Chang, Forbes.com, in re: tonight is the first debate, and what do the people of China think of how democracy works?  What does the fact of this debate between two distinct parties, between two directions for the next four years, mean to the credibility of the Communist Party in China?  How do the democracies of Asia regard the success of the American system?

Wednesday 920P Eastern Time (620P Pacific Time): Walter Lohman, Heritage, in re: the US and Asian pivot of the Obama Administration: the China PLA Navy threatens the Philippines, and the US counsels the Philippines to back down.  However the US starts steps toward remobilizing the Phillipine Air Force and Navy and forward basing Philippine Marines on Palawan Island.

Wednesday 935P Eastern Time (635P Pacific Time):    David Livingston, Dr Space, and Dorothy Oehler, NASA Research Scientist, Johnson Space Center, in re: an inquiry over the significance of the early results from Curiosity on Gale Crater that water flowed on this surface in some abundance (knee-deep) and 3 feet per second.  What do JPL and the Johnson Space Center make of the results from Curiosity so far?  What happened to the water on Mars?  Is it possible that there are substantial amounts of water and water ice underground, a subterranean cryosphere?  Dr. Oehler has worked on Martian data since 2003, applying her background in both ancient terrestrial life and new ventures exploration to questions of Martian habitability and exploration for Martian biosignatures.  She has published numerous papers on biosignature identification, Martian settings of potential habitability, and methods for focusing the search for Martian organic biosignatures.  She is currently a Participating Scientist on the Mars Science Laboratory mission and is temporarily located at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California where she joins the scientists and engineers who are living and working on Mars time and evaluating the data being acquired by the Curiosity Rover.

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Wednesday 950P Eastern Time (650P Pacific Time): Ellen Bork, Director of Democracy and Human Rights of The Foreign Policy Initiative; in re:  just returned from a month-long trip to Burma.   Hard to get a hotel room – legions of delegations, major corporations gong to have a look.  US dips have enormous respect for Aung San Suu Kyi, also need to enlist Burmese civil society. Aung San Suu Kyi is on a par with the greatest democracy activists. She's an historic person, is great.  ASEAN. Does Burma offer an example to other regional outcasts – esp North Korea? Could do if DPRK wanted it to be.  Peace and reconciliation commission? No formal talks of one yet.

Wednesday 1005P Eastern  (705P Pacific Time):  Gordon Chang, in re: Chinese Communist Party unable to have anything like the debate that the US enjoys tonight. "Well, Mr Bo, what happened to that Briton?" With Larry Johnson, how is the debate going so far?  Larry Johnson re the overwhelmingly strong eprformance of Mitt ROmney and the surprisingly frail performance of POTUS midway through the first presidential debate .

Wednesday 1020P Eastern (720P Pacific Time): Alim Seytoff, Uyghur American Association, in re: the continued persecution of minorities, esp Uyghurs and Tibetans, by Beijing. Beiing is extremely afraid of conflict in far-flung conquered lands: East Turkestan.  While the PArty Congress struggles to organize in Beijing, the persecution of the 8 million Uyghurs in East Turkistan continues and accelerates. Hu Jintao ad Wen Jiabao are now overtly alarmed at situations in Tibet and Xinjiang, which are similar: security forces began brutal crackdown in summer 2009; patrol Uyghur district; have tens of thousands of CCTV cameras everywhere. Fully armed soldiers patrol neighborhoods, mosques, children's playgrounds.    Han chauvinism: Han Chinese are better than all other humans. AND Xinjiang has mineral raches, is a buffer to other countries, is a nuclear bomb testing area.  HH the Dalai Lama spoke of "cultural genocide" in Tibet; occurring also n East Turkestan.  China Daily boast of eight Islamic Institutes in Xinjiang – create d to train "Communist mullahs."!  Young people are taught not Islam but CCP agitprop; then they go into countryside and teach false theology.    Communist mullahs are taught to explain that CCP abortion is OK – which it emphatically is not in Islam

Wednesday 1035P Eastern  (735P Pacific Time):  Mona Charen, NRO, and Jim McTague, Baron's Washington, in re: The day before the debate, Romney floats idea of single $17,000 cap on deductions:  ”On the eve of his first debate with President Obama, Mitt Romney indicated that he was considering a uniform deduction for most tax payers - $17,000 was the figure mentioned - as a way to pay for his proposed reform, which includes $5 trillion in across-the-board cuts. On the eve of his first debate with President Obama, Mitt Romney indicated that he was considering a uniform deduction for most tax payers — $17,000 was the figure mentioned — as a way to pay for his proposed reform, which includes $5 trillion in across-the-board cuts…’As an option you could say everybody’s going to get up to a $17,000 deduction; and you could use your charitable deduction, your home mortgage deduction, or others - your healthcare deduction. And you can fill that bucket, if you will, that $17,000 bucket that way.’” Gregory J. Krieg, ABC News.

Wednesday 1050P Eastern (750P Pacific Time): Brett Arends, WSJ and author of The Romney Files; John Fund, American Spectator, in re: just-concluded first residential debate of 2012 Mitt Romney, challenger, must demonstrate that he's ready to assume the presidency.  "Best debate I've ever seen Mitt Romney do; potentially has transformed the election. The president is liked as  person, people have mixed views of his execution. Romney, however has been seen as a clown.

Wednesday 1105P  Eastern (805PPacific Time): Taegan Goddard, Political Wire;  Bill Whalen, Hoover; Salena Zito, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, in re:   Salena with 200-plus Dem swing voters who haven’t really decided; all e-mailed this evening from battleground states: overwhelmingly were very impressed wit Romney: armed with facts and ready to talk about issues.   Obama seemed disengaged; his responses said nothing new; when pressed, he moved directly to class warfare. TG: President used rope-a-dope – president was waiting for the bell to ring. CBS News Instapolling 46 to 122 viewers said Romney won.   Traders guess Obama has abt a 68% chance of winning (down from 80% or more). Pres Obama has spent the last four years not being challenged; doesn’t like being challenged. He looked like a guy who'd forgot his anniversary.  JB:  No 47%, Cayman Islands, or Todd Aiken – political malfeasance.  First debate goes to the challenger.

Wednesday 1120P Eastern (820P Pacific Time):  Kori Schake, Hoover, and Larry Johnson, No Quarter, in re: Turkey shoots across Syrian border in response to Syrian fire. What did POTUS mean by saying that Afghanistan was "winding down?"  Looking to the foreign policy debate on October 22.

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Kori Schake , Hoover research fellow and West Point professor, served as Pres George W Bush’s director for Defense Strategy and Requirements on the National Security Council, where she was worked extensively on creating NATO’s Allied Command Transformation and the NATO Response Force, and on recruiting and retaining coalition partners for operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.  She also served as the State Department’s deputy director for policy planning, and as senior foreign policy adviser to the 2008 McCain-Palin campaign.

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Wednesday 1135P Eastern  (835P Pacific Time): God of Liberty: A Religious History of the American Revolution by Thomas S. Kidd; 1 of 2

Wednesday 1150P Eastern  (850P Pacific Time): God of Liberty: A Religious History of the American Revolution by Thomas S. Kidd; 2 of 2

 

Wednesday/Thurs 1205A  Eastern (905 Pacific Time): Arthur Waldron, and Gordon Chang, re Bo Xilai Scandal, and the party congress - land of two suns?

Wednesday/Thurs  1220A Eastern (920 Pacific Time): Walter Lohman, Heritage, in re: the US and Asian pivot of the Obama Administration: the China PLA Navy threatens the Philippines, and the US counsels the Philippines to back down.  However the US starts steps toward remobilizing the Philippine Air Force and Navy and forward basing Philippine Marines on Palawan Island.

Wednesday/Thurs  1235A  Eastern (935P Pacific Time):  David Livingston, Dr Space, and Dorothy Oehler, NASA Research Scientist, Johnson Space Center, in re: an inquiry over the significance of the early results from Curiosity on Gale Crater that water flowed on this surface in some abundance (knee-deep) and 3 feet per second.  What do JPL and the Johnson Space Center make of the results from Curiosity so far?  What happened to the water on Mars?  Is it possible that there are substantial amounts of water and water ice underground, a subterranean cryosphere?

Wednesday/Thurs  1250A  Eastern (950P Pacific Time): Exeunt: Sebastian Gorka, FDD, re the Arab Spring deterioration in Syria, Yemen, Egypt, Libya and Tunis.