Photo:  This southerly view of Dione shows enormous canyons extending from mid-latitudes on the trailing hemisphere, at right, to the moon's south polar region.

This view looks toward the Saturn-facing side of Dione (1,126 kilometers, or 700 miles, across) and is centered on 22 degrees south latitude, 359 degrees west longitude. North on Dione is up; the moon's south pole is seen at bottom.

The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Feb. 8, 2008. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 211,000 kilometers (131,000 miles) from Dione and at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 20 degrees. Image scale is 1 kilometer (0.6 mile) per pixel.
Permissions:   Source: http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA09861     Author: NASA
 
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
 
Hour One
Friday 26 October 2018 / Hour 1, Block A: Dan Henninger, Deputy Editorial Page Editor, WSJ; column: Wonder Land; in re: Surprises of October
Friday 26 October 2018 / Hour 1, Block B: Jeff Bliss, Pacific Watch, in re: Californians leaving for China jobs.
Friday 26 October 2018 / Hour 1, Block C:  Liz Peek, Fox News & The Hill, in re A 3.5% GDP growth. All the consumer data from the Fed Beige Book were good; not good was the fall-off in bz investment – serious, as it drives productivity gains. Is this a temporary blip, or a sigh that the tariff discussions are causing deferred spending Absent productivity gains, we can be stuck in a corridor, The trade battle may have put a crimp in corporate spending. Also weak; residential fixed construction (mortgage rates); the good news is that household formation numbers are still quite strong, and people have to live somewhere. The issue confronting the Fed is inflation: German Bund is .3% and ours is over 2%. Inflation pressures are from plant and eqpt (capacity utilization), and labor.  . . . Expectations of a December hike have been somewhat tempered – Powell may want not to look as though he’s bowing to Pres Trump.
THE SCALA REPORT
Friday 26 October 2018 / Hour 1, Block D:   Chris Riegel, Scala.com; in re: Annual Competitiveness Study measures all nations according to twelve pillars – marketing, health, enabling _______, human capital, ecosystems, et al..  Taiwan Singapore, HK, Japan, and South Korea are doing well. Slingshot of public-private partnerships, esp involving universities.
Australia is still principally an export economy, dependent mostly on China, and has a high minimum wage; labeled “weak in innovation” – where the best leave to work elsewhere, no native base of tech. 
Emerging markets:  Malaysia, with a rising middle class, all very entrepreneurial.  Also, China at an inflection point from investment-driven to consumer-driven.  The shopping ethos in Shanghai rivals any place in the world.
 
Hour Two
Friday 26 October 2018 / Hour 2, Block A:  Michael E Vlahos, Johns Hopkins, in re:  Are we in a civil war?  The answer is, you never know it till long after. The War Before the War: Fugitive Slaves and the Struggle for America's Soul from the Revolution to the Civil War, by Andrew Delbanco*, a Columbia professor. In Chapter 1: “Both sides had incentives to exaggerate the scale of what was happening.” Speaks of evangelical progressivism.   
Today’s progressive elite is more radical in that it wants to destroy the consensus.  Difference between the planter aristocracy and its effort to preserve slavery, and the 1850s abolitionists’ effort to destroy that way of life. Today’s social justice warriors are the true spiritual heirs of the most radical period of Calvinism.  Leaders are most similar to the ancient prophets. Committed to their course; no resolution short of absolute triumph.  “Unconditional Surrender Grant.” . . . The escalation cycle.
* https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&fi...’s+Soul.&rh=n%3A283155%2Ck%3AThe+War+Before+the+War%5Cc+Fugitive+Slaves+and+the+Struggle+for+America’s+Soul.
Friday 26 October 2018 / Hour 2, Block B:  Michael E Vlahos, Johns Hopkins, in re:  Symptoms of alienation of the population from itself.  Destroying the middle.  Richard Hofstader on the loss of comity – remarkable quotation: “The basic humanity of the opposition is not forgot. . . .An awareness that some day the opposition will be [running] the government is always present.”  . . .Today’s red side is on the defensive.  Blue is seeking total and absolute objectives – piously.  “Virtue signalling.”
SMALL BUSINESS REPORT SPONSORED BY SCALA.com
Friday 26 October 2018 / Hour 2, Block C:  Gene Marks, The Guardian and The Philadelphia Inquirer, in re: Federal Reserve’s Beige Book, quarterly report; today: steady economic growth, although concerns about tightening labor mkt and wage pressures. In Cali, 22% of GPDP is from trade.  Canada, Mexico, China, are main US trade partners – China’s problems won’t resolve soon till its leadership decides to play by intl rules. In this booming economy. Small businesses finding it difficult to find employees; reaching out to high schools and trade schools.  Jared Kushner didn't pay taxes because he took advantage of well-known tax strategies – investing in capital eqpt, et al.   IRS Code Section 179 deduction: now is permanent and increased. . . . Trade war. 
SMALL BUSINESS SEGMENT REPORT BY SCALA.com
Friday 26 October 2018 / Hour 2, Block D: Gene Marks, The Guardian and The Philadelphia Inquirer, in re: Some of the concerns still held by businesses, even in this good economy. Spotify and all music streamers:  SoundTrackYourBrand says that 83% of bz around the world are illegally using this music for public consumption. 
Entrepreneurs – King of Prussia, Palo Alto, Austin – optimistic entrepreneurs earn less money than sceptics do.  China and tariffs: of 2,000 entrepreneurs, they overwhelmingly wanted to see China punished and supported Trump’s moves against unfair trade practices. They’re pirates!
 
Hour Three
Friday 26 October 2018 / Hour 3, Block A: Robert Zimmerman, BehindtheBlackcom, author of Genesis; in re: Curiosity, Gale Crater. [Gale is a crater, and probable dry lake, on Mars near the northwestern part of the Aeolis quadrangle at 5.4°S 137.8°E. It is 154 km in diameter and estimated to be about 3.5—3.8 billion years old.]  Got its mojo back and will soon start uphill.  Dust storm is over, yet no peep from Opportunity; dust devils have not cleaned the solar panels. In a week, will no longer ping it but merely passively monitor for a sound from little Oppy.  Very busy season this fall with a large number of space projects.  Hayabusa 2 wanted a space 16 meters across [60-plus feet] in which to [noodle around], but it’s all boulders.  The Parker Solar Probe.  Saturn’s moon named Dione.  Biological interpretation??  Alan Stern: how to return to Pluto most effectively?  Maybe ion-type propulsion system, can orbit Pluto and use flyby technique to travel throughout the Kuyper Belt.
Friday 26 October 2018 / Hour 3, Block B:   Robert Zimmerman, BehindtheBlackcom, author of Genesis; in re: ISS big problem, mounting lug.  Starliner, one of two commercial capsules to take us to ISS, this one by Boeing.  First unmanned flight maybe March 2019.  Beginning assembly process early in 2019.  New Glen: Blue Origins have delivered to Florida the ship to be the landing platform.  Space Force:  a boondoggle to come. “I want to be a Lieutenant-Colonel!”
Friday 26 October 2018 / Hour 3, Block C:  Mary Anastasia O’Grady, WSJ editorial board, in re: Brazil and Venezuela
Friday 26 October 2018 / Hour 3, Block D:  Mary Anastasia O’Grady, WSJ editorial board, in re: Brazil and Venezuela
 
Hour Four
Friday 26 October 2018 / Hour 4, Block A: America's Black Sea Fleet: The U.S. Navy Amidst War and Revolution, 1919–1923, by Robert Shenk
Friday 26 October 2018 / Hour 4, Block B: America's Black Sea Fleet: The U.S. Navy Amidst War and Revolution, 1919–1923, by Robert Shenk
Friday 26 October 2018 / Hour 4, Block C:  The Unknowns: The Untold Story of America’s Unknown Soldier and WWI’s Most Decorated Heroes Who Brought Him Home, by Patrick K. O'Donnell
Friday 26 October 2018 / Hour 4, Block D:  The Unknowns: The Untold Story of America’s Unknown Soldier and WWI’s Most Decorated Heroes Who Brought Him Home, by Patrick K. O'Donnell