Now in our 11th year on KPFT!
Apologies for the absence of an original episode of Thinkwing Radio this week. I was hospitalized, but I’ve now been released with my issues under control, and hope to have an original episode for the week starting April 17.
POSSIBLE TOPICS: VOTETEXAS.GOV—Voter Information;
Now in our 11th year on KPFT!
FROM MIKE: This episode was recorded on March 6, but for technical reasons was never broadcast. I believe that the stories and commentaries included are still applicable to current events. I hope you find it interesting.
AUDIO:
POSSIBLE TOPICS: VOTETEXAS.GOV—Voter Information; March 12 Conventions; League City officials talk growth, resident satisfaction at State of the City breakfast; HISD kids still not getting the Internet access they lost; Mayor Whitmire and Judge Lina Hidalgo still haven’t officially met; Voters in new Alabama congressional district given incorrect poll information; Hard Lessons Make for Hard Choices 2 Years Into the War in Ukraine; Warren Buffett’s son Howard has given $500M to Ukraine — he warns the US is making a historic mistake by pulling its support; NATO navies can exploit a Russian fear and keep Putin from invading more neighbors; Israel may have just torched its relationship with Russia, promising to supply Ukraine with ‘early-warning systems’; CNN staff say network’s pro-Israel slant amounts to ‘journalistic malpractice’; More
Now in our 11th year on KPFT!
AUDIO:
POSSIBLE TOPICS: VOTETEXAS.GOV—Voter Information; State Rep. Shawn Thierry, a Houston Democrat who voted with Republicans on anti-LGBTQ+ bills, headed to likely primary runoff; Getting revenge is the best revenge; Is TikTok different in China? Here’s what to know; Swedes cheer end of long wait to join Nato; Biden admin announces new weapons package for Ukraine following months of warnings there was no money left; Russia [is] producing three times more artillery shells than US and Europe [Combined] for Ukraine; How Russia has avoided bankrupting itself after 2 years of waging war in Ukraine; Russia’s economy is so driven by the war in Ukraine that it cannot afford to either win or lose, economist says; US says falling trade with China could be positive; As Vietnam grows ties with U.S., a secret directive seeks to gird the Communist Party; More.
Now in our 11th year on KPFT!
AUDIO:
POSSIBLE TOPICS: VOTETEXAS.GOV—Voter Information; March 12 Conventions; League City officials talk growth, resident satisfaction at State of the City breakfast; HISD kids still not getting the Internet access they lost; Mayor Whitmire and Judge Lina Hidalgo still haven’t officially met; Voters in new Alabama congressional district given incorrect poll information; Hard Lessons Make for Hard Choices 2 Years Into the War in Ukraine; Warren Buffett’s son Howard has given $500M to Ukraine — he warns the US is making a historic mistake by pulling its support; NATO navies can exploit a Russian fear and keep Putin from invading more neighbors; Israel may have just torched its relationship with Russia, promising to supply Ukraine with ‘early-warning systems’; CNN staff say network’s pro-Israel slant amounts to ‘journalistic malpractice’; More
Now in our 11th year on KPFT!
AUDIO:
POSSIBLE TOPICS: VOTETEXAS.GOV—Voter Information; March 5 Primary Elections; A 13-county Gulf Coast regional air pollution, emission reduction plan advances; Consumers are tired of inflation. But some retailers fear falling prices; Natural Gas News: Cautious Optimism Amid Production Adjustments; Plastic experts say recycling is a scam. Should we even do it anymore?; Hungary’s parliament clears path for Sweden’s Nato membership; Nord Stream: Denmark closes investigation into pipeline blast; Confiscating Russia’s assets would send negative signal, says central bank; China Deflation Alarms Raised by Falling Prices for Food and Cars; Why landing on the moon is proving more difficult today than 50 years ago; Brazil’s ex-leader Bolsonaro surrenders passport over coup probe;
I find myself suddenly feeling a little more optimistic for our country than I have in decades. That brought to mind something that I wrote back on February 16, 2011. I feel it is summed up by this comment:
“Declining nations glory in their past accomplishments because their future looks so bleak. Rising nations become great by looking to the future, investing in their people and their infrastructure, and taking risks.” ~ Michael R Honig, “Republicans Must Think That Knowledge Grows on Trees” (2011-Feb 16)
I think that our nation became more nostalgic and less daring with the Ronald Reagan era which began 40 years ago. If you might recall, he was so opposed to renewable energy that he took the solar panels that Jimmy Carter had already installed on the White House roof and removed them!
Joe Biden has proposed a great infrastructure program to be accomplished over the span of 8 years. It may be the most important quantum leap in our infrastructure since the great programs of the FDR era over 80 years ago.
It will cost a lot of money, but it’s not an expense. It’s an investment in ourselves that will pay dividends for the lifetimes of everyone alive in America today.
I hate the comparison of running Government like a business, but I’ll allow this comparison, imperfect though it is: Business borrows to invest all the time, with the expectation that the debt will be repaid many times over by the improved profitability from the business’s increased productivity by virtue of it’s improved competitiveness. In short, from it’s revitalized infrastructure.
The Biden/Harris Infrastructure proposals will make the US more competitive, more productive, and more profitable in commercial, financial, national security, and human terms.
It will make us a better country.
I wrote the article below just over 10 years ago. Aside from the dates and names, it could have been written this year or last year.
I have long believed that America is a profoundly anti-intellectual country, in spite of the paradox of America’s belief in its technological and intellectual superiority over the rest of the world.
You hear the insults all the time, concurrent with an actual or understood sneer: Long hairs, eggheads, nerds, geeks, Ivory Tower academics, brainiacs, book worms, teacher’s pets, know-it-alls, rocket scientists.
(See this essay written by Dennis Wu, “Why Isn’t Science More Respected and Rewarding?”)
Modern conservatives seem to be the worst at this form of hypocrisy Continue reading
Increasingly, SpaceX is looking like the real world version of science fiction’s space entrepreneurs.
You may not have heard of them all, and many will be before your time (though not necessarily before mine :)
Just for fun, run through the list and see how you agree with, how many you’ve seen, or how many you ought to see.
http://movies.msn.com/paralleluniverse/50-greatest-sci-fi-films/photo-gallery/feature/
One of my favorites not on the list: “The Forbin Project” (1970), with Eric Braedon, just after he was Hans Gudegast in “The Rat Patrol”, but before he was Victor Newman on “The Young and the Restless”. A great little film with a haunting score, and arguably a precursor to “The Terminator”’s Skynet, with inspiration from HAL9000.
http://i.usatoday.net/tech/graphics/iss_timeline/flash.htm
International Space Station Animated Assembly Graphic
From Space.com. You can read the full article here.
CREDIT: Karl Tate, SPACE.com
CREDIT: USAF/Vandenberg Air Force Base
CREDIT: USAF
I have long believed that America is a profoundly anti-intellectual country, in spite of the paradox of America’s belief in its technological and intellectual superiority over the rest of the world.
You hear the insults all the time, concurrent with an actual or understood sneer: Long hairs, eggheads, nerds, geeks, Ivory Tower academics, brainiacs, book worms, teacher’s pets, know-it-alls, rocket scientists.
(See this essay written by Dennis Wu, “Why Isn’t Science More Respected and Rewarding?”)
Modern conservatives seem to be the worst at this form of hypocrisy Continue reading
Talk of Mars exploration has always revolved around how to get there and back. What if we eliminated the “and back” part of that equation?
The mission certainly gets cheaper, but what are the chances of crew survival? And would anybody want to go on a one-way trip to a lace more than 35 million miles from home? Sometimes a LOT more than 35 million miles! Continue reading
UPDATE (2011-MARCH-3): The USAF is planning on again launching the X-37B on a classified mission. An unanswered question is whether this is a re-launch of the same X-37B which flew last year, or a 2nd prototype? If it’s the former, that’s significant for turnaround time.
Prologue: This piece was written and submitted for publication on Dec. 6, 2010, and published on Dec. 15th. On that very same day, Orbital Sciences announced that they were submitting an official proposal to NASA to build an orbital space plane to take up to four people into an orbit capable of delivering them to the International Space Station. This article actually scooped the news by over a week. – Mike
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Posted on TGDaily.com, by Michael R. Honig | Wed 15th Dec 2010, 11:38 am
Back in May 2010, shortly after it was launched, I wrote a speculative piece about the military’s X-37B experimental unmanned craft.
To me, it obviously bore a more-than-passing resemblance to two of NASA’s mothballed experimental space planes: the X-33 and the X-34. This tweaked my memory and provoked some comparisons and guesses.
So far, I think I’m the only one who has ever made the connections expressed in that piece.
Now, an update. Continue reading
Thinkwing Radio with Mike Honig 
