THINKWING RADIO MOVED TO MONDAYS @ 9-10 PM, BEGINNING 4/13/2015.

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Welcome to Thinkwing Radio with Mike Honig (@ThinkwingRadio), a listener call-in show (every Monday night from 9-10PM CT) on KPFT-FM 90.1 (Houston). My engineer and discussion partner is Egberto Willies (@EgbertoWillies).

For the purposes of this show, I operate on two mottoes:

• You’re entitled to your own opinion, but not your own facts;
• An educated electorate is a prerequisite for a democracy.

GUESTS: (More complete biographical info on my guests are below Source links.)

OPEN FORUM

POSSIBLE TOPICS: 

Local Elections, Syria, Turkey, Russia, NATO, Iran, Oh My! Common Core: What the heck is it?; and More.

SOURCES WHICH MAY BE RELEVANT TO OTHER DISCUSSION:

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• Voting information in Harris County can be found at http://harrisvotes.com/
  • You can check to see if you’re registered by going to http://www.hctax.net/Voter/Search or the Texas Secretary of State https://team1.sos.state.tx.us/voterws/viw/faces/SearchSelectionVoter.jsp
  • Early voting starts Oct. 19^th and runs thru Oct. 26^th.
• Turkey Is in Serious Trouble: The country has seen periods of turmoil before. But this time may be different, By Soner Cagaptay, (The Atlantic) 2015, 2:07 PM ET
  • NATO denounces Russian incursion into Turkish airspace, ISTANBUL | By Ayla Jean Yackley and Humeyra Pamuk (REUTERS) Mon Oct 5, 2015 5:09pm EDT
• Hillary Clinton gun plan: Is it feasible? Hillary Clinton said on Monday that if elected, she would use executive action to expand background checks for gun purchases. It could be a demonstration of how to circumvent Congress by using assertive presidential power, By Peter Grier, Staff writer [Christian Science Monitor, csmonitor.com] October 5, 2015
• Common Core: What it is and what it isn’t. I will share this significant bit from their web site that seems to debunk the claims made for the check: “While the standards set grade-specific goals, they do not define how the standards should be taught or which materials should be used to support students.” That is from http://www.corestandards.org/
  • Common Core State Standards Initiative, From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
    • The Common Core State Standards Initiative is an educational initiative in the United States that details what K–12 students should know in English language arts and mathematics at the end of each grade. The initiative is sponsored by the National Governors Association (NGA) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) and seeks to establish consistent educational standards across the states as well as ensure that students graduating from high school are prepared to enter credit-bearing courses at two- or four-year college programs or to enter the workforce.^[1]
    • In the 1990s, the “Standards & Accountability Movement” began in the U.S. as states began writing standards (a) outlining what students were expected to know and to be able to do at each grade level, and (b) implementing assessments designed to measure whether students were meeting the standards.^[2]
    • A 2004 report, titled Ready or Not: Creating a High School Diploma That Counts, found that both employers and colleges are demanding more of high school graduates than in the past.
    • The report explained that the major problem currently facing the American school system is that high school graduates were not provided with the skills and knowledge they needed to succeed in college and careers. “While students and their parents may still believe that the diploma reflects adequate preparation for the intellectual demands of adult life, in reality it falls far short of this common-sense goal.” The report said that the diploma itself lost its value because graduates could not compete successfully beyond high school, and that the solution to this problem is a common set of rigorous standards.^[5]
    • Forty-two of the fifty U.S. states and the District of Columbia are members of the Common Core State Standards Initiative, with the states of Oklahoma, Texas, Virginia, Alaska, Nebraska, Indiana, and South Carolina not adopting the initiative at a state level.^[11] Minnesota has adopted the English Language Arts standards but not the Mathematics standards.^[12] Several states that initially adopted Common Core have since decided to repeal or replace it, including Indiana, Oklahoma, and South Carolina.^[13]
    • States were given an incentive to adopt the Common Core Standards through the possibility of competitive federal Race to the Top
    • The Common Core State Standards have drawn support and criticism from political representatives, policy analysts, and educational commentators. Teams of academics and educators from around the United States led the development of the standards, and additional validation teams approved the final standards. The teams drew on public feedback that was solicited throughout the process and that feedback was incorporated into the standards.^[44] The Common Core initiative only specifies what students should know at each grade level and describes the skills that they must acquire in order to achieve college or career readiness. Individual school districts are responsible for choosing curricula based on the standards.^[44]
    • In 2012, Tom Loveless of the Brookings Institution called into question whether the standards will have any effect, and said that they “have done little to equalize academic achievement within states”.^[46] In response to the standards, the libertarian Cato Institute claimed that “it is not the least bit paranoid to say the federal government wants a national curriculum.”^[46] Some conservatives have assailed the program as a federal “top-down” takeover of state and local education systems.^[47][48] South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley said her state should not “relinquish control of education to the federal government, neither should we cede it to the consensus of other states.”^[47]
  • Common Core State Standards Initiative: Home
  • Read the Standards | Common Core State Standards Initiative
• Greenhouse Gases: how important are methane and CO2 from natural sources vs the same gasses from underground hydrocarbons (i.e., oil and natural gas)?
  • One (natural decomposition of previously living organisms) is part of a natural carbon cycle on earth, the other (hydrocarbons pumped from deep within the earth) is not.
  • ALL renewable energy has ‘unintended’ consequences:
    • Wind: microclimate
    • Solar: factory emissions and waste products
    • Tidal: Changes in natural local sea environment
  • When renewable energy isn’t green: hydroelectric emissions, By Kale Roberts For the Poughkeepsie Journal (12:03 a.m. EDT September 19, 2015)
  • What is the difference between nutation and precession of the Earth?

ALSO:

• The Arab world’s wealthiest nations are doing next to nothing for Syria’s refugees, st/1NvBx08 (9/12/15, 10:54 )AM
• Microbeads, the Tiny Orbs Threatening Our Water – NY TIMES: By THE EDITORIAL BOARD: Once plastic microbeads enter the water, they attract toxic substances like PCBs and are eaten by fish
  • Is your face wash damaging the oceans?, Scientists estimate that 9 billion tiny plastic microbeads from tooth paste, cosmetics, and soap enter water streams every day, putting droves of aquatic species at risk., By Cathaleen Chen, Staff September 20, 2015 (csmonitor.com)
• The Possibility of a National Flood Control Network
  • Downhill flow can generate hydroelectric power, to help compensate for uphill pumping.
  • Arid low-lying areas may benefit from becoming ‘reservoirs’ for water being held pending regional needs.
• Dealing With The Megadrought in the Western United States
  • ARTICLES & SOURCES
  • What should California do about its drought? As California suffers a historic drought, residents measure the damage and consider possible solutions, August 26, 2014 by Inside Story Team @AJInsideStoryAM
  • California first to feel hydro-power crunch of drought, By ELLEN KNICKMEYER (Associated Press( March 21, 2015
  • Why California’s drought means higher utility bills. California’s drought has already cost utility ratepayers $1.4 billion and boosted emissions of carbon dioxide. Hydropower is the third priority behind drinking water for people and water for crops, By Ellen Knickmeyer, Associated Press [March 21, 2015]
  • Who owns outer space?, By Yasmin Ali, Science reporter (25 September 2015) BBC.com (From the section Science & Environment)
  • Is Space Mining Legal?: A controversial bill would give companies the right to own natural resources in space, and it may pass in the Senate by the end of September, By Sarah Fecht Posted September 23, 2015 (Popular Science Magazine) “Mining for lunar water could make it up to 90 percent cheaper to colonize the moon. And extracting platinum and other minerals from asteroids could propel mankind to travel beyond low Earth orbit. At least two companies—Planetary Resources and Deep Space Industries—are openly planning to mine asteroids. The former has already launched a simple test vehicle into low Earth orbit, with more planned.”
  • Precession, From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  • 

  • Nutation, From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

    

    Rotation (green), precession (blue) and nutation in obliquity (red) of a planet

TONIGHT’S GUEST: OPEN FORUM

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