The John Batchelor Show

Photo: Edmund Burke. CBS Eye on the World with John Batchelor CBS Audio Network @Batchelorshow Praising the bold AUKUS with Burkean caution. @AmbJohnBolton @TheEconomist https://www.economist.com/by-invitation/2021/09/22/john-bolton-on-how-a-new-era-of-american-alliances-is-under-way

Photo: Glasgow Bridge, [Glasgow, Scotland]. CBS Eye on the World with John Batchelor CBS Audio Network @Batchelorshow The critical COP26 Glasgow dead ahead. Katrina vanden Heuvel @TheNation https://www.thenation.com/article/environment/climate-change-reconciliation-bill-glasgow/ Climate change: Green groups call for COP26 postponement

Photo: No known restrictions on publication. CBS Eye on the World with John Batchelor CBS Audio Network @Batchelorshow Meung in a red dress.  Charles Burton, senior fellow at the Centre for Advancing Canada's Interests Abroad at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute @GordonGChang, Gatestone, Newsweek, The Hill. HFN https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-58690974

Photo: No known restrictions on publication. CBS Eye on the World with John Batchelor CBS Audio Network @Batchelorshow Bad News Christmas Supply Chain. Jonathan Bass, onshoring advocate and CEO of PTM Images, @GordonGChang, Gatestone, Newsweek, The Hill. HFN https://www.reuters.com/world/china/chinas-power-crunch-begins-weigh-economic-outlook-2021-09-27/

Photo: No known restrictions on publication. CBS Eye on the World with John Batchelor CBS Audio Network @Batchelorshow Why did Germany attack its Moscow Treaty signatory, Russia, 1941? @VDhanson @HooverIn @HooverInstst https://victorhanson.com/historians-corner-some-mythologies-of-world-war-ii-part-two/

Photo: No known restrictions on publication. CBS Eye on the World with John Batchelor CBS Audio Network @Batchelorshow The facts are that Germany won the total war 1939-1941. @VDHanson GLXXG https://victorhanson.com/historians-corner-some-mythologies-of-world-war-ii-part-one/

Photo: Some of Hong Kong's New Territories were created with landfill. Today, Beijing is using an updated method to create militarized islands where never there was one before in order to arrogate enormous swaths of ocean to the south, southwest and southeast of the Chinese mainland.   Photo here: British take over the New Territories CBS Eye on the World with John Batchelor CBS Audio Network @Batchelorshow Admiral Harry Harris USN (ret.) and the Great Wall of Sand. @FRoseDC @FedScoop https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/17-adm-harry-harris-usn-ret-on-the-aukus-agreement/id1567303578?i=1000536541844 "Great Wall of Sand" is a name first used in March 2015 by US Admiral Harry Harris, who was commander of the Pacific Fleet, to describe a series of uniquely large-scale land reclamation (the process of creating new land from oceans, seas, riverbeds or lake beds) projects by the People's Republic of China (PRC) in the Spratly Islands area of the South China Sea in the period from late 2013 to late 2016.  

Photo: Abu Ammar (Yasir Arafat), Abbas's predecessor, speaking at he UN General Assembly.. He died with billions of dollars in multiple personal accounts; it's fairly well established that that money came from enormous donations made by nation-states to and for the Palestinian people, who unfortunately have not fared well economically under any of the comparatively kleptocratic regimes that have ruled and regulated wither the West Bank or Gaza. CBS Eye on the World with John Batchelor CBS Audio Network @Batchelorshow  Israel speaks  softly to Abbas & What is to be done? Jonathan Schanzer @JSchanzer @FDD GLXXG https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/25/world/middleeast/israel-palestinians-abbas-bennett.html

Photo:  An air-to-air left underside view of a DC-130 Hercules drone control aircraft with BQM-34S Firebee target drones mounted on its wing pylons. The aircraft is assigned to Fleet Logistics Support Squadron 3 #AfterAfghanistan: US drone strikes Al Qaeda.   @BillRoggio @ThomasJoscelyn @LongWarJournal https://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2021/09/u-s-targets-suspected-al-qaeda-leader-in-idlib-syria.php

Photo:   Khyber Pass, 1891  #AfterAfghanistan: ISIS vs Taliban at the Khyber Pass.  @BillRoggio @ThomasJoscelyn @LongWarJournal https://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2021/09/islamic-state-bombs-taliban-convoys-in-eastern-afghanistan.php

Photo: Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba - in trench #AfterAfghanistan: GITMO Taliban in Kabul government.  @BillRoggio @ThomasJoscelyn @LongWarJournal https://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2021/09/influential-taliban-commanders-added-to-taliban-government.php

Photo:  Voice of America reporter interviewing poppy cultivators. #AfterAfghanistan: The economic collapse.  @BillRoggio @ThomasJoscelyn @LongWarJournal https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-spent-billions-on-afghanistan-and-failed-to-build-a-sustainable-economy-11632735001

Photo:  Metallurgy in early Americas.   Here: Sican tumi, or ceremonial knife, Peru, 850–1500 CE #NewWorldReport:  Before the First Peoples in the Americas Were Unknown Peoples.  Senadora Maria Fernanda Cabal. @MariaFdaCabal (on leave) ; Joseph Humire @JMHumire @SecureFreeSoc https://www.securefreesociety.org https://newatlas.com/science/fossil-footprints-earliest-evidence-humans-north-america/

Photo: Nicaragua: How protests are received by the government. Here: Anti-riot police outside the National University of Engineering in Managua on 19 April 2018. #NewWorldReport: Nicaragua could become the North Korea of the Americas.  Senadora Maria Fernanda Cabal. @MariaFdaCabal (on leave); Joseph Humire @JMHumire @SecureFreeSoc https://www.securefreesociety.org https://thegrayzone.com/2021/09/24/us-congress-economic-war-nicaragua-sandinista/

Photo: #NewWorldReport:  Mexico overwhelmed by migrants.  Senadora Maria Fernanda Cabal. @MariaFdaCabal (on leave); Joseph Humire @JMHumire @SecureFreeSoc https://www.securefreesociety.org https://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/they-have-nothing-to-eat-mexicans-step-up-with-aid-for-haitian-migrants/ ..

Photo: #NewWorldReport:   Venezuela and Iran swap bad acting. Senadora Maria Fernanda Cabal. @MariaFdaCabal (on leave); Joseph Humire @JMHumire @SecureFreeSoc https://www.securefreesociety.org https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/exclusive-under-us-sanctions-iran-venezuela-strike-oil-export-deal-sources-2021-09-25/ .

Photo: No known restrictions on publication. @Batchelorshow The New Russian Communist Party is not Marxist-Leninst atheism, but it is anti-Putin. H.J. Mackinder, International Relations https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2021/09/20/russian-communist-party-says-wont-recognize-moscow-e-voting-results-a75087

Photo:  At the same time, Karl Ludwig Schulmeister (Charles Louis Schulmeister) (1770–1853) (also known as Carl Schulmeister or Charles Louis Schulmeister) was an Austrian double agent for France during the reign of Napoleon I. CBS Eye on the World with John Batchelor CBS Audio Network @Batchelorshow J. H. Gelernter #Unbound. The complete, twenty-minute interview. May 3, 2021. LXX GLXXG Hold Fast: A Novel.   Hardcover – May 4, 2021, by J. H. Gelernter  https://www.amazon.com/Hold-Fast-J-H-Gelernter/dp/0393867048 It's 1803. The Napoleonic Wars are raging, Britain is on her heels, and His Majesty's Secret Service has just lost its best agent, Thomas Grey. Deeply depressed by his wife's untimely death, Grey resigns from the service and accepts an offer to join a lumber firm in Boston. But when a sea battle with a privateer forces the ship carrying him west to make port in neutral Portugal, Grey is approached with a counteroffer: become a wealthy man by selling out Britain's spy network to France. The French take Grey for a disgruntled ex–naval officer, blithely unaware that Grey had lost his wife to an unlucky shot from a French cannon. Now, after many years serving King and Country, Grey seizes the opportunity to fight a covert war of his own. He travels to Paris, and―playing the part of the invaluable turncoat the French believe him to be―proceeds to infiltrate the highest levels of Napoleon's government. If he can outwit his handlers, outmatch his French counterparts, and outrun Napoleon's secret police, Grey may just avenge his wife's death and turn the tide of war in England's favor. Bursting with action and intrigue, Hold Fast sends readers headlong into an unrelenting spy thriller

Photo: Liang Lan-hsun, first Chinese Consul-General to Australia @Batchelorshow China and France assault Australia's national security and economy. Jeremy Zakis, New South Wales. #FriendsofHistoryDebatingSociety

Photo: Cloud cover over Melbourne and southern Victoria. @Batchelorshow Chilly springtime Melbourne protests against the continued severe lockdown in much of populated Australia. Jeremy Zakis, New South Wales. #FriendsofHistoryDebatingSociety

 Photo: Practice makes perfect. Here:  John Glenn practices insertion into the Mercury 'Friendship 7' spacecraft with the help of Guenter Wendt, the original pad leader for NASA's manned space program, during pre-flight training. Image Credit: NASA ..  ..  ..   The Art of Routine: Discover How Routineology Can Transform Your Life.  Hardcover – June 1, 2021 by Angel Iscovich MD, with Joe Garner and Michael Ashley, contributors https://www.amazon.com/Art-Routine-Discover-Routineology-Transform/dp/1510764550 Conventional wisdom suggests that the best way to navigate our noisy new world is to accept change. Open up to novelty. Go with the flow. Live in the moment. Embrace the relentless pelting of content minute by minute. But routine experts Angel Iscovich, MD, Joe Garner, and Michael Ashley are here to say that's a bad idea. Humans don't just benefit from structure; they require it. Years of observation and practice led to their breakthrough concept of routineology, the key to optimize your life and the cure for crisis. Routineology's fundamental prescriptive is to look inside and live your life in a “time bubble” to find purpose, meaning, and joy. Offering insights from top performers and stories of triumph over adversity, this book demonstrates that routine isn't just a good idea—it's imperative for surviving and thriving today. Live a life of deeper meaning and navigate toward a better world with The Art of Routine. ..

Photo: Fijian druas CBS Eye on the World with John Batchelor CBS Audio Network @Batchelorshow Nicholas Thomas: #Unbound the complete, 40-minute interview, June 15, 2021 Voyagers: The Settlement of the Pacific. Hardcover – June 15, 2021; by Nicholas Thomas An award-winning scholar explores the sixty-thousand-year history of the Pacific islands in this dazzling, deeply researched account. The islands of Polynesia, Melanesia, and Micronesia stretch across a huge expanse of ocean and encompass a multitude of different peoples. Starting with Captain James Cook, the earliest European explorers to visit the Pacific were astounded and perplexed to find populations thriving thousands of miles from continents. Who were these people? From where did they come? And how were they able to reach islands dispersed over such vast tracts of ocean? In Voyagers, the distinguished anthropologist Nicholas Thomas charts the course of the seaborne migrations that populated the islands between Asia and the Americas from late prehistory onward. Drawing on the latest research, including insights gained from genetics, linguistics, and archaeology, Thomas provides a dazzling account of these long-distance migrations, the seagoing technologies that enabled them, and the societies they left in their wake.

Photo: Royal Montreal Golf Club 1882  . CBS Eye on the World with John Batchelor CBS Audio Network @Batchelorshow William Damon #UNBOUND: The complete, forty-minute interview. July 3, 2021. A Round of Golf with My Father, by William Damon.    https://www.amazon.co.uk/Round-Golf-Father-Psychology-Exploring/dp/1599475634 Viewing our past through the Eye of maturity can reveal insights that our younger selves could not see. Lessons that eluded us become apparent. Encounters that once felt like misfortunes now become understood as valued parts of who we are. We realize what we've learned and what we have to teach. And we're encouraged to chart a future that is rich with purpose.  In A Round of Golf with My Father, William Damon introduces us to the “life review.” This is a process of looking with clarity and curiosity at the paths we've traveled, examining our pasts in a frank yet positive manner, and using what we've learned to write purposeful next chapters for our lives.

Photo: 1898 political cartoon: "Ten Thousand Miles from Tip to Tip," meaning the extension of U.S. domination (symbolized by a bald eagle) from Puerto Rico to the Philippines. CBS Eye on the World with John Batchelor CBS Audio Network @Batchelorshow #Londinium90AD: Gaius and Germanicus debate the American Empire led by the unchallenged Optimates, 2021.  Michael Vlahos. Michael E Vlahos, Global Security Studies program at Johns Hopkins's University's School of Arts and Sciences.   @JHUWorldCrisis

Photo: Winter landscape, Holland; 1600s.  CBS Eye on the World with John Batchelor CBS Audio Network @Batchelorshow Winter is coming for Europe.  Vijay Vaitheeswaran  @Vvvchina @TheEconomist https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/europes-energy-crisis-is-a-warning-for-america/ar-AAOMBvu

Photo:   Solar lamp CBS Eye on the World with John Batchelor CBS Audio Network @Batchelorshow The UN doubts the climate plans of the rich nations for the poor nations.  @Vvvchina @TheEconomist https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/sep/21/joe-biden-un-general-assembly-climate-aid-developing-countries

Photo: Nicholas Roerich's The Last of Atlantis CBS Eye on the World with John Batchelor CBS Audio Network @Batchelorshow The eruption of the Mediterranean legend of Atlantis. Charles Pellegrino, author. Return to Sodom and Gomorrah Paperback – December 1, 1995 by Charles R. Pellegrino (Author https://www.amazon.com/Return-Sodom-Gomorrah-Charles-Pellegrino/dp/0380726335) A brilliant author, scientist, and adventurer who has been called "the real Indiana Jones," Dr. Charles Pellegrino takes us on a remarkable journey from the Nile to the Tigris-Euphrates rivers -- crossing time, legend, and ancient lands to explore the unsolved mysteries of the Old Testament. Return to Sodom and Gomorrah is an epic saga of discovery that interweaves science, history, and suspense --the first book ever to bring archaeologists, scientists and theologians together to examine the same evidence. In this enthralling revelatory adventure, Pellegrino introduces us to dedicated pioneers like Benjamin Mazar, Leonard Woolley, and T. E. Lawrence, who retraced the steps of Moses to demystify the Exodus and the Flood. In the process, he enables us to view ancient relics in an extraordinary new light -- as both fascinating windows on the past and vivid signposts to the future.

Photo: Lot flees the burning cities.  . CBS Eye on the World with John Batchelor CBS Audio Network @Batchelorshow The asteroid that disappeared Sodom and Gomorrah. Charles Pellegrino, author. Return to Sodom and Gomorrah, Paperback – December 1, 1995 by Charles R. Pellegrino (Author https://www.amazon.com/Return-Sodom-Gomorrah-Charles-Pellegrino/dp/0380726335) A brilliant author, scientist, and adventurer who has been called "the real Indiana Jones," Dr. Charles Pellegrino takes us on a remarkable journey from the Nile to the Tigris-Euphrates rivers—crossing time, legend, and ancient lands to explore the unsolved mysteries of the Old Testament. Return to Sodom and Gomorrah is an epic saga of discovery that interweaves science, history, and suspense—the first book ever to bring archaeologists, scientists and theologians together to examine the same evidence. In this enthralling revelatory adventure, Pellegrino introduces us to dedicated pioneers like Benjamin Mazar, Leonard Woolley, and T. E. Lawrence, who retraced the steps of Moses to demystify the Exodus and the Flood. In the process, he enables us to view ancient relics in an extraordinary new ligh—as both fascinating windows on the past and vivid signposts to the future.

Photo: An artist's depiction of the construction of the Ark, from the Nuremberg Chronicle (1493) CBS Eye on the World with John Batchelor CBS Audio Network @Batchelorshow The Mesopotamian city of Noah's flood wiped out by an earthquake. Charles Pellegrino, author. Return to Sodom and Gomorrah Paperback – December 1, 1995 by Charles R. Pellegrino (Author https://www.amazon.com/Return-Sodom-Gomorrah-Charles-Pellegrino/dp/0380726335) A brilliant author, scientist, and adventurer who has been called "the real Indiana Jones," Dr. Charles Pellegrino takes us on a remarkable journey from the Nile to the Tigris-Euphrates rivers—crossing time, legend, and ancient lands to explore the unsolved mysteries of the Old Testament. Return to Sodom and Gomorrah is an epic saga of discovery that interweaves science, history, and suspense—the first book ever to bring archaeologists, scientists and theologians together to examine the same evidence. In this enthralling, revelatory adventure, Pellegrino introduces us to dedicated pioneers like Benjamin Mazar, Leonard Woolley, and T. E. Lawrence, who retraced the steps of Moses to demystify the Exodus and the Flood. In the process, he enables us to view ancient relics in an extraordinary new light—as both fascinating windows on the past and vivid signposts to the future. .

Photo: Vista of fishing boats in Palermo, Sicily. Veduta della pescheria di Palermo in Sicilia CBS Eye on the World with John Batchelor CBS Audio Network @Batchelorshow Russell Shorto #Unbound: the complete, forty-minute interview, April 22, 2021. Smalltime: A Story of My Family and the Mob. Hardcover – February 2, 2021, by Russell Shorto   (Author) https://www.amazon.com/Smalltime-Story-My-Family-Mob/dp/0393245586/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr= Family secrets emerge as a best-selling author dives into the history of the mob in small-town America. The best-selling author Russell Shorto, praised for his incisive works of narrative history, never thought to write about his own past. He grew up knowing his grandfather and namesake was a small-town mob boss but maintained an unspoken family vow of silence. Then an elderly relative prodded: You're a writer―what are you gonna do about the story? Smalltime is a mob story straight out of central casting―but with a difference, for the small-town mob, which stretched from Schenectady to Fresno, is a mostly unknown world. The location is the brawny postwar factory town of Johnstown, Pennsylvania. The setting is City Cigar, a storefront next to City Hall, behind which Russ and his brother-in-law, “Little Joe,” operate a gambling empire and effectively run the town. Smalltime is a riveting American immigrant story that travels back to Risorgimento Sicily, to the ancient, dusty, hill-town home of Antonino Sciotto, the author's great-grandfather, who leaves his wife and children in grinding poverty for a new life―and wife―in a Pennsylvania mining town. It's a tale of Italian Americans living in squalor and prejudice, and of the rise of Russ, who, like thousands of other young men, created a copy of the American establishment that excluded him. Smalltimedraws an intimate portrait of a mobster and his wife, sudden riches, and the toll a lawless life takes on one family. But Smalltime is something more. The author enlists his ailing father―Tony, the mobster's son―as his partner in the search for their troubled patriarch. As secrets are revealed and Tony's health deteriorates, the book becomes an urgent and intimate exploration of three generations of the American immigrant experience. Moving, wryly funny, and richly detailed, Smalltime is an irresistible memoir by a masterful writer of historical narrative.                       8 black-and-white illustrations

Photo: The Browning school near Dublin, Georgia. CBS Eye on the World with John Batchelor CBS Audio Network @Batchelorshow  James Tooley #Unbound: the complete, forty-minute interview. May 14, 2021. LXX. GLXXG Really Good Schools: Global Lessons for High-Caliber, Low-Cost Education –  Hardcover – April 12, 2021.by James Tooley  “James Tooley has taken his argument about the transformative power of low-cost private education to a new and revelatory level in Really Good Schools. This is a bold and inspiring manifesto for a global revolution in education.” —Niall C. Ferguson, Milbank Family Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University Almost overnight a virus has brought into question America's nearly 200-year-old government-run K-12 school-system—and prompted an urgent search for alternatives. But where should we turn to find them?  Enter James Tooley's Really Good Schools. A distinguished scholar of education and the world's foremost expert on private, low-cost innovative education, Tooley takes readers to some of the world's most impoverished communities located in some of the world's most dangerous places—including such war-torn countries as Sierra Leone, Liberia, and South Sudan.  And there, in places where education “experts” fear to tread, Tooley finds thriving private schools that government, multinational NGOs, and even international charity officials deny exist.  Why?  Because the very existence of low-cost, high-quality private schools shatters the prevailing myth in the U.S., U.K., and western Europe that, absent government, affordable, high-quality schools for the poor could not exist. But they do. And they are ubiquitous and in high demand. Founded by unheralded, local educational entrepreneurs, these schools are proving that self-organized education is not just possible but flourishing—often enrolling far more students than “free” government schools do at prices within reach of even the most impoverished families. In the course of his analysis Tooley asks the key questions: ■ What proportion of poor children is served? ■ How good are the private schools?  ■ What are the business models for these schools?  ■ And can they be replicated and improved?  The evidence is in. In poor urban and rural areas around the world, children in low-cost private schools outperform those in government schools. And the schools do so for a fraction of the per-pupil cost. Thanks to the pandemic, parents in America and Europe are discovering that the education of their children is indeed possible—and likely far better—without government meddling with rigid seat-time mandates, outdated school calendars, absurd age-driven grade levels, and worse testing regimes. And having experienced the first fruits of educational freedom, parents will be increasingly open to the possibilities of ever greater educational entrepreneurship and innovation.  Thankfully, they have Really Good Schools to show the way.

Photo:  An exceprt from the Luo Chong Lu showing Korean, Japanese and Ryukyuan ethnicities. . CBS Eye on the World with John Batchelor CBS Audio Network @Batchelorshow Michael Auslin #Unbound. The complete, twenty-minute interview. May 12, 2021. LXX GLXXG Asia's New Geopolitics: Essays on Reshaping the Indo-Pacific,  by Michael R. Auslin   Format: Kindle Edition https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08563RW9H/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0 The Indo-Pacific is fast becoming the world's dominant region. Now, as it grows in power and wealth, geopolitical competition has reemerged, threatening future stability not merely in Asia but around the globe. China is aggressive and uncooperative, and increasingly expects the world to bend to its wishes. The focus on Sino-US competition for global power has obscured "Asia's other great game": the rivalry between Japan and China. A modernizing India risks missing out on the energies and talents of millions of its women, potentially hampering the broader role it can play in the world. And in North Korea, the most frightening question raised by Kim Jong-un's pursuit of the ultimate weapon is also the simplest: Can he control his nukes? In Asia's New Geopolitics: Essays on Reshaping the Indo-Pacific, Michael R. Auslin examines these and other key issues transforming the Indo-Pacific and the broader world. He also explores the history of American strategy in Asia, from the 18th century through today. Taken together, Auslin's essays convey the richness and diversity of the region: with more than three billion people, the Indo-Pacific contains over half of the global population, including the world's two most populous nations, India and China. In a riveting final chapter, Auslin imagines a war between America and China in a bid for regional hegemony and what this conflict might look like.

Photo: Panoramic view of the Gettysburg battlefield CBS Eye on the World with John Batchelor CBS Audio Network @Batchelorshow Jeff McCausland #Unbound. The complete, forty-minute interview. May 21, 2021. Battle Tested! : Gettysburg Leadership Lessons for 21st Century Leaders, by Jeffrey D. McCausland (Author), Tom Vossler(Author), Walter Dixon(Narrator), Gildan Media (Publisher). Audible Audiobook– Unabridged https://www.amazon.com/Battle-Tested-Gettysburg-Leadership-Lessons/dp/1642934534 In order to be a truly effective leader, it is necessary to learn as much as possible from the examples of history—the disasters as well as the triumphs. At Gettysburg, Union and Confederate commanders faced a series of critical leadership challenges under the enormous stress of combat. The fate of the nation hung in the balance. Each of these leaders  responded in different ways, but the concepts and principles they applied during those traumatic three days contain critical lessons for today's leaders that are both useful and applicable—whether those leaders manage operations at a large corporation, supervise a public institution, lead an athletic team, or govern a state or municipality.   In the twenty-first century, leadership is the indispensable quality that separates successful organizations from failures. Successful leaders communicate vision, motivate team members, and inspire trust. One must move both people and the collective organization into the future while, at the same time, dealing with the past. A leader must learn to master the dynamic requirements of decision-making and change.

Photo: Paul Smith's College, a premier school of forestry; in New York State just south of the Canadian border.   Holly Fretwell #Unbound. Forests. The complete, forty-minute interview. April 12, 2021. Photo: CBS Eye on the World with John Batchelor CBS Audio Network @Batchelorshow Holly Fretwell  #Unbound. The complete, forty-minute interview.  April 12, 2021. Fix America's Forests: Reforms to Restore National Forests and Tackle the Wildfire Crisis. Holly Fretwell , Jonathan Wood April 12, 2021   https://www.perc.org/2021/04/12/fix-americas-forests-reforms-to-restore-national-forests-and-tackle-the-wildfire-crisis/ In 2020, the largest wildfire in California history scorched six counties in the northern part of the state. The August Complex Fire burned more than one million acres across three national forests and destroyed hundreds of structures. But devastating fires are not limited to California. Across the West, more than 10 million acres burned in 2020—a record in modern history. These fires consumed more than 17,500 structures and more than $3.5 billion in firefighting costs. Tragically, dozens of lives were lost, and many more people were displaced by evacuation orders. Fires released smoke that degraded air quality nearby and hundreds of miles away. They also destroyed wildlife habitat, including for imperiled species, and the fires' aftereffects will soon lead to erosion that harms water quality in local watersheds. .

Photo: Obligatory reading of Chairman Mao's Little Red Book. CBS Eye on the World with John Batchelor CBS Audio Network @Batchelorshow The new new Cold War with China or not. @JoshRogin WashingtonPost GLXXG https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/09/23/bidens-strategy-stabilize-us-china-relations-isnt-working/

Photo: Fallen giant sequoia. . CBS Eye on the World with John Batchelor CBS Audio Network @Batchelorshow #PacificWatch: General Sherman is safe for now.@JCBlissHFN https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/08/us/california-wildfires-heat-updates.html 

Photo:   Wild boar corner aN Italian woman and steal her food from shopping. Video grab. CBS Eye on the World with John Batchelor CBS Audio Network @Batchelorshow More wild boars than ever in the post-pandemic streets of Rome. Lorenzo Fiori, Anslado Foundation GLXXG https://www.thelocal.it/20210923/watch-videos-of-wild-boar-invading-rome-streets-go-viral-in-italy/

Photo:  Election and Coronation of Emperor Maximilian II CBS Eye on the World with John Batchelor CBS Audio Network @Batchelorshow The German election is neck and neck for Red Olof Scholz vs Merkel's "merkeln" CDU.   Vendeline von Bredow @TheEconomist HFN https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/sep/24/german-election-too-close-to-call-as-spd-lead-evaporates

Photo: Mars—Burns Cliff Beckons CBS Eye on the World with John Batchelor CBS Audio Network @Batchelorshow The unknown cliffsides of Mars.  Bob Zimmerman BehindtheBlack.com https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/martian-mountaintop/

Photo:  The Boeing CST-100 Starliner spacecraft is guided into position above a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket at the Vertical Integration Facility at Space Launch Complex 41 at Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in preparation for its Orbital Flight Test. CBS Eye on the World with John Batchelor CBS Audio Network @Batchelorshow Boeing Starliner paused; & What is to be done? Bob Zimmerman BehindtheBlack.com https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/starliner-unmanned-demo-flight-likely-delayed-until-22/

Photo: Justice Stephen Breyer CBS Eye on the World with John Batchelor CBS Audio Network @Batchelorshow Is Stephen Breyer the last SCOTUS Liberal? @RichardAGoldstein @HooverInst https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/justice-stephen-breyer-83-responds-to-liberal-activists-pressing-for-his-retirement/ar-AAOC1v7

Photo:  A camel, giraffe, chameleon, dragon, ichneumon, spider, insects and flowers, 1663.  Loggan + Hollar CBS Eye on the World with John Batchelor CBS Audio Network @Batchelorshow Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG)  investing  is the new new on Wall Street. @RichardAEpstein. @HooverInst https://www.hoover.org/research/creeping-coercion-under-stakeholder-banner

Photo: 4/4   The Next 500 Years: Engineering Life to Reach New Worlds, by Christopher E. Mason.  Hardcover – April 20, 2021 https://www.amazon.com/Next-500-Years-Engineering-Worlds/dp/0262044404 An argument that we have a moral duty to explore other planets and solar systems—because human life on Earth has an expiration date. Inevitably, life on Earth will come to an end, whether by climate disaster, cataclysmic war, or the death of the sun in a few billion years. To avoid extinction, we will have to find a new home planet, perhaps even a new solar system, to inhabit. In this provocative and fascinating book, Christopher Mason argues that we have a moral duty to do just that. As the only species aware that life on Earth has an expiration date, we have a responsibility to act as the shepherd of life-forms—not only for our species but for all species on which we depend and for those still to come (by accidental or designed evolution). Mason argues that the same capacity for ingenuity that has enabled us to build rockets and land on other planets can be applied to redesigning biology so that we can sustainably inhabit those planets. And he lays out a 500-year plan for undertaking the massively ambitious project of reengineering human genetics for life on other worlds.  As they are today, our frail human bodies could never survive travel to another habitable planet. Mason describes the toll that long-term space travel took on the astronaut Scott Kelly, who returned from a year on the International Space Station with changes to his blood, bones, and genes. Mason proposes a ten-phase, 500-year program that would engineer the genome so that humans can tolerate the extreme environments of outer space—with the ultimate goal of achieving human settlement of new solar systems. He lays out a roadmap of which solar systems to visit first, and merges biotechnology, philosophy, and genetics to offer an unparalleled vision of the universe to come

Photo: 3/4   The Next 500 Years: Engineering Life to Reach New Worlds, by Christopher E. Mason.  Hardcover – April 20, 2021 https://www.amazon.com/Next-500-Years-Engineering-Worlds/dp/0262044404 An argument that we have a moral duty to explore other planets and solar systems—because human life on Earth has an expiration date. Inevitably, life on Earth will come to an end, whether by climate disaster, cataclysmic war, or the death of the sun in a few billion years. To avoid extinction, we will have to find a new home planet, perhaps even a new solar system, to inhabit. In this provocative and fascinating book, Christopher Mason argues that we have a moral duty to do just that. As the only species aware that life on Earth has an expiration date, we have a responsibility to act as the shepherd of life-forms—not only for our species but for all species on which we depend and for those still to come (by accidental or designed evolution). Mason argues that the same capacity for ingenuity that has enabled us to build rockets and land on other planets can be applied to redesigning biology so that we can sustainably inhabit those planets. And he lays out a 500-year plan for undertaking the massively ambitious project of reengineering human genetics for life on other worlds.  As they are today, our frail human bodies could never survive travel to another habitable planet. Mason describes the toll that long-term space travel took on the astronaut Scott Kelly, who returned from a year on the International Space Station with changes to his blood, bones, and genes. Mason proposes a ten-phase, 500-year program that would engineer the genome so that humans can tolerate the extreme environments of outer space—with the ultimate goal of achieving human settlement of new solar systems. He lays out a roadmap of which solar systems to visit first, and merges biotechnology, philosophy, and genetics to offer an unparalleled vision of the universe to come

Photo: 2/4   The Next 500 Years: Engineering Life to Reach New Worlds, by Christopher E. Mason.  Hardcover – April 20, 2021 https://www.amazon.com/Next-500-Years-Engineering-Worlds/dp/0262044404 An argument that we have a moral duty to explore other planets and solar systems—because human life on Earth has an expiration date. Inevitably, life on Earth will come to an end, whether by climate disaster, cataclysmic war, or the death of the sun in a few billion years. To avoid extinction, we will have to find a new home planet, perhaps even a new solar system, to inhabit. In this provocative and fascinating book, Christopher Mason argues that we have a moral duty to do just that. As the only species aware that life on Earth has an expiration date, we have a responsibility to act as the shepherd of life-forms—not only for our species but for all species on which we depend and for those still to come (by accidental or designed evolution). Mason argues that the same capacity for ingenuity that has enabled us to build rockets and land on other planets can be applied to redesigning biology so that we can sustainably inhabit those planets. And he lays out a 500-year plan for undertaking the massively ambitious project of reengineering human genetics for life on other worlds.  As they are today, our frail human bodies could never survive travel to another habitable planet. Mason describes the toll that long-term space travel took on the astronaut Scott Kelly, who returned from a year on the International Space Station with changes to his blood, bones, and genes. Mason proposes a ten-phase, 500-year program that would engineer the genome so that humans can tolerate the extreme environments of outer space—with the ultimate goal of achieving human settlement of new solar systems. He lays out a roadmap of which solar systems to visit first, and merges biotechnology, philosophy, and genetics to offer an unparalleled vision of the universe to come