Wednesday 20 January 2016
Photo, left: Photo, left: Peng Ming-min (center) with colleagues at National Taiwan University in 1954.
Peng Ming-min (彭明敏; b. 15 August 1923) is a noted democracy activist, advocate of Taiwan independence, and politician. Arrested for sedition in 1964 for printing a manifesto advocating democracy in his native Taiwan, he dramatically escaped to the United States. After 22 years in exile he returned to became the Democratic Progressive Party's first presidential candidate in Taiwan's first direct presidential election in 1996.
Noteworthy that before Dr Peng escaped, he'd "languished in jail for several months before being tried for sedition by a military court. Peng was sentenced to eight years of imprisonment but his case attracted worldwide attention. Bowing to the increasing international pressure, Chiang Kai-shek released Dr Peng from military prison 14 months later – during which time he'd been tortured by the KuoMinTang – but placed him under house arrest for life with strict surveillance." Then he managed to escape, which probably saved his life. Dr Peng is a hero of the democratic, liberty-loving, accountable-government and independent nation of Taiwan.
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Co-hosts: Gordon Chang, Forbes.com & Daily Beast. Dr. David M. Livingston, The Space Show.
Hour One
Wednesday 20 January 2016 / Hour 1, Block A: Henry Sokolski, executive director of The Nonproliferation Policy Education Center, in re: his op-ed in the WSJ, on a boosted-fission weapon; and warheads on long-range missiles: must be smaller and lighter. In 1953 when the Russians made a boosted-fission device, they called in a hydrogen weapon. DPRK test: so deep that US overflights cannot detect radiation. . . . Inject tritium; heat it for fusion, emitting lots of neutrons that then fission to produce not one addtl neutron but maybe five. Ergo, don't need as much explosive or heavy casing; much more efficient and lightweight, higher yield. Newly-arriving nuclear nations start not with the clunky tech from the 1950s but with a system that could send H-bombs to Paris, London New York, etc. Also, can use lower-grade material from only a power reactor – of which there are many many hundreds around the world Also, can beat inspection buy slipping lithium into a power reactor, and we certainly do not have the capacity currently to monitor that. http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-other-dangers-from-that-north-korean-nuke-test-1453162539
Wednesday 20 January 2016 / Hour 1, Block B: Henry Sokolski, executive director of The Nonproliferation Policy Education Center, in re: his op-ed in the WSJ; and: Reactor-grade plutonium is all over the world. Iran, Turkey, South Kroea, and Japan, among many other places. Russia could, and so could China. The IAEA could do a reasonable job of tracking Pn locked in to spent fuel; but not so good at monitoring Pn extracted therefrom, principally Japan and India. The can do a lot better; and have historically got permission to have cameras linked to satellites and fiber-optic links to look every five minutes or so, Absent that permission, have to go every three months to download camera pix. A country could turn off the lights and have no image for a long time; ISAWEA wouldn't know till three months later. IAEA owns spectacular technology – can track stray molecules the host didn't know existed – but it can't be everywhere at once [and the IAEA is horribly politicized – editor]. Large reactors and heavy-water production plants: need to be looking in Iran and North Korea, which it is not doing. We have to be much more heard-nosed about monitoring, incl friends like Japan, but also potential adversaries, like China. Talk occurring about boosting as a way to race forward in nukes; internationally, medium-level personnel understand, but it's not clear that the higher-ups do. http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-other-dangers-from-that-north-korean-nuke-test-1453162539
Wednesday 20 January 2016 / Hour 1, Block C: Dr Jens Biele, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Köln, in re: Rosetta team. . . . something on the comet looks like a coral reef with flashlights on it. Surface is much harder than expected, and we can't explain it, or how it emits dusts. Lots f organic molecules found; organic chemists are puzzling over that, & the composition if he Solar System, and the variety of substances, incl amino acids. What does this mean for life on Earth? All of the Rosetta team would like to go to another comet with recent technology and experience; next step: take a sample and bring it back – "Land and return."
Science. The composition of water vapor from Churyumov–Gerasimenko, as determined by the Rosetta spacecraft, is substantially different from that found on Earth. The ratio of deuterium to hydrogen in the water from the comet was determined to be three times that found for terrestrial water. This makes it unlikely that water found on Earth came from comets such as Churyumov–Gerasimenko. On 22 January 2015, NASA reported that, between June and August 2014, the comet released increasing amounts of water vapor, up to tenfold as much. On 23 January 2015, the journal Science published a special issue of scientific studies related to the comet.
Measurements carried out before Philae ' s batteries failed indicate that the dust layer could be as much as 20 cm (7.9 in) thick. Beneath that is hard ice, or a mixture of ice and dust. Porosity appears to increase toward the center of the comet. The nucleus of Churyumov–Gerasimenko was found to have no magnetic field of its own after measurements were taken during Philae 's descent and landing by its ROMAP instrument and Rosetta 's RPC-MAG instrument. This suggests that magnetism may not have played a role in the early formation of the Solar System, as had previously been hypothesized.
The ALICE spectrograph on Rosetta determined that electrons (within 1 km (0.6 mi) above the comet nucleus) produced from photoionization of water molecules by solar radiation, and not photons from the Sun as thought earlier, are responsible for the degradation of water and carbon dioxide molecules released from the comet nucleus into its coma. Also, active pits, related to sinkhole collapses and possibly associated with outbursts are present on the comet.
Measurements by the COSAC and Ptolemy instruments on the Philae 's lander revealed sixteen organic compounds, four of which were seen for the first time on a comet, including acetamide, acetone, methyl isocyanate and propionaldehyde. Astrobiologists Chandra Wickramasinghe and Max Wallis stated that some of the physical features detected on the comet's surface by Rosetta and Philae, such as its organic-rich crust, could be explained by the presence of extraterrestrial microorganisms. Rosetta program scientists dismissed the claim as "pure speculation". Carbon-rich compounds are common in the Solar System. Neither Rosetta nor Philae is equipped to search for direct evidence of viable organisms.
Wednesday 20 January 2016 / Hour 1, Block D: Afshin Molavi, senior Fellow at the Foreign Policy Institute of the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, in re: Xi Jinping has just arrived on an embassy to Cairo. China's increasingly large and aggressive role in foreign policy. China romances many nations; Egypt appreciates China's infrastructure spending. Until a few days ago, Xi was in Saudi Arabia – a million Bbl/day to China; Aramco is investing in downstream refineries in China and vice versa. Heavy strategic relations. China is selling a gas-powered nuclear reactor to Saudis. Dragon Mart is a mega-Chinese-shopping mall in Dubai, with many if the 4,000 Chinese firms in Dubai based in the mall, where you can buy retail or wholesale, including heavy industry. Could buy one or a million teddy bears. A sort of Hong Kong West. Most frequent ship visitors in Dubai are Chinese. Dragon Mart isn't made up of state-owned businesses, but Chinese of private entrepreneurs, many from Southeast China. Ask a young Dubai boy: "What's 2 + 2?" He'll say, "It depends – am I buying or selling?" http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/01/18/how-dragon-mart-explains-the-world/ ; http://gulfnews.com/business/sectors/energy/saudi-arabia-china-sign-mou-... ; http://www.wsj.com/articles/saudi-arabia-and-iran-tussle-over-exports-to-china-1453222569
Hour Two
Wednesday 20 January 2016 / Hour 2, Block A: Andrew Collier, managing director of Orient Capital Research based in Hong Kong, in re: http://in.reuters.com/article/china-markets-idINKCN0UY079 ; http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/ae4dee44-bf34-11e5-9fdb-87b8d15baec2.html#axzz3xn7yXJUJ
Wednesday 20 January 2016 / Hour 2, Block B: Bob Yang, former president of the Formosan Association for Public Affairs, Taiwan-born activist & retired professor, University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine, in re: the Taiwanese elections. . . . A new generation of Taiwanese is shifting politically to liberty. . . . GC: In the old days, if you didn't publicly favor the KuoMinTang [Chiang Kai-shek's latterly-thuggish posse] you were in danger of being arrested, imprisoned, tortured, and killed. BY: I was an overseas Taiwanese and on a major blacklist for thirty years. You're right, some people did sacrifice their lives for democracy and freedom in Taiwan. We've made accumulated progress from the past to the present. . . . It'll be a long transition from Jan 16 to Feb 20; Ma Ying-jeou is still president for several months and we have to be sure that no one makes any nefarious moves, that China does nothing fishy to damage Taiwan's democratic process – that Beijing doesn't claim that there's anarchy in Taiwan and Beijing has to take over.
Wednesday 20 January 2016 / Hour 2, Block C: Steven Herman, Asia bureau chief, Voice of America, in re: People in Tokyo are making terrifying snow sculptures during this ... ; also, follow-up on the Jakarta Da'ish attack. McDonald's, Starbucks; brutal, but not as successful as it could have been, but it had the profile of creating economic chaos in a capital. I was on the scene a few hours after the attack in Jakarta: definitely the first one attributed to and claimed by loyalists to IS. Hundreds of Indonesians have shuttled back and forth from home to Syria to Indonesia. The attackers were both poorly trained and not well equipped; speculation that this attack was a bit rushed: various rivals want to be named Emir if Indonesia is named a province of the caliphate. To demonstrate to the oversees in Syria. Suppose that other attacks are planned against foreigners, notably in Bali. Most Indonesians oppose IS, but a few hundred adherents is enough to cause damage, esp to Indonesia's economy. JB: I was struck by how swiftly people went back to business, as though it had been a weather cataclysm. / Tokyo having bad days at the markets. Wary eye on Shanghai and HK; uncertainty, overpriced stocks. Yesterday Japan officially went back to its long-term malaise, despite Abe-nomics. New scandal: a loyal trade minister was instrumental in negotiating the TPP to be signed in NZ in February; Abe gave him permission to short-circuit normal bureaucracy and report to Abe – but the guy is said to have taken bribes from a construction company, as happens with boring frequency in the Japanese Liberal Democratic Party. This will sadden many in the US, who depended on him for the fast-track negotiation. Further, reported Japanese corporate collusion after the tsunami ("No – you don't say!").
Wednesday 20 January 2016 / Hour 2, Block D: John Bolton, AEI, in re: Taiwanese elections.
Hour Three
Wednesday 20 January 2016 / Hour 3, Block A: Monica Crowley, Fox, & Washington Times Online opinion editor; in re: Joe Biden: U.S. doesn't need 'socialism' - CNNPolitics.com Vice President Joe Biden disparaged socialism while addressing the World ...
Wednesday 20 January 2016 / Hour 3, Block B: Monica Crowley, Fox, & Washington Times Online opinion editor; in re: Inspector General: Clinton emails had intel from most secretive, classified programs | Fox News Hillary Clinton's emails on her unsecured, homebrew ... Fox News exclusively obtained the unclassified letter, sent Jan. ... That indicates a level of classification beyond even “top secret,” the . . .
Wednesday 20 January 2016 / Hour 3, Block C: Monica Crowley, Fox, & Washington Times Online opinion editor; in re: A triumph for diplomacy, Obama's foreign policy It was probably the angriest President Obama had been during a press conference. The day ..
Wednesday 20 January 2016 / Hour 3, Block D: Monica Crowley, Fox, & Washington Times Online opinion editor; in re: Donald Trump and Ted Cruz Fight over Ethanol In Iowa Donald Trump and Ted Cruz are escalating their feud in Iowa. It makes sense that the gloves ...
Hour Four
Wednesday 20 January 2016 / Hour 4, Block A: Aaron Klein, Breitbart Middle Eastern bureau chief; in re: http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2016/01/20/sherman-amidror-at-odds-about-whether-all-options-available-against-iran/
Just days after implementation of the Iran nuclear deal, former State Department official Wendy Sherman, who was instrumental in negotiating the deal, said that if Iran cheated, “all options that the United States has, that we all have, remain completely available.” jpost.com:
Wednesday 20 January 2016 / Hour 4, Block B: Aaron Klein, Breitbart Middle Eastern bureau chief; in re: http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2016/01/20/sherman-amidror-at-odds-about-whether-all-options-available-against-iran/
Just days after implementation of the Iran nuclear deal, former State Department official Wendy Sherman, who was instrumental in negotiating the deal, said that if Iran cheated, “all options that the United States has, that we all have, remain completely available.” jpost.com
Wednesday 20 January 2016 / Hour 4, Block C: David Grinspoon, Senior Scientist at the Planetary Science Institute; in re: Spirit examined spectacular layered rocks exposed at “Home Plate.” The rover has drove around the northern and eastern edges of Home Plate. Before departing, Spirit took this image showing some of the most complex layering patterns seen so far at this location. Scientists suspect that the rocks at Home Plate were formed in the aftermath of a volcanic explosion or impact event, and they are investigating the possibility that wind may also have played a role in redistributing materials after such an event. http://phys.org/news/2016-01-spirit-rover-touchdown-years-spectacular.html#jCp
Wednesday 20 January 2016 / Hour 4, Block D: David Grinspoon, Senior Scientist at the Planetary Science Institute; in re: On anniversary of launch, New Horizons returns hi-res images of Pluto's haze, possible cryovolcano NASA's New Horizons spacecraft has sent back the highest resolution images yet of Pluto's ...