Category: anonradio

ASFO 2024–02–17

Cryptocurrency ― leading contender for “scam of the century” before generative AI came along ― was estimated to account for approximately 2% of US electricity consumption last year. That is twelve times what was used by electrified railways, and exceeds the whole consumption of the States of Alaska, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Utah, and Vermont, and the District of Columbia put together ― more than seven and a half million people, in a country which uses more than half again as much electricity per head of population as the average for wealthy countries, and almost four times the average for the world as a whole. And to what end? Yet it is almost certainly one example among many.

A strange red shape, square in cross-section and forming a twisted loop, against an indistinct background of diagrams
From my new film transfer, “Nuclear Fusion ― Research toward a new energy source” (German language, 1984)

ASFO 2024–02–10

Rickshaws (Japanese 人力車 jinrikisha, “human–powered vehicle”) considered ; the Myth of the Golden Age and its dangers ; and the real answer to the Nuclear Waste Problem. Also I get to make one of my utterly megalomaniacal statements. Plus, Mail Call!

To Fermi ― With Love

Described as “a commemorative two–record album on the life and times of Enrico Fermi”, this program was produced at Argonne National Laboratory, very likely in the early 1970s. It appears there may have been an accompanying film as well. In addition to familiar voices from other USAEC records, such as Herbert Anderson, Arthur Holly Compton, and Crawford Greenewalt, the great physicist’s wife Laura is heard from. Script by James Chimbidis, drawing heavily from Atoms in the Family by Laura Fermi, Enrico Fermi, Physicist by Emilio Segrè, and The First Pile by Corbin Allardice and Edward Trapnell ; narration by Jay Andre.

  • 2024–02–09 The first two sides, covering the period up to the first criticality of CP–1 and the commencement in earnest of the plutonium project.
  • 2024–02–13 The second disc, finishing the program.

ASFO 2024–02–03

Hope is the necessary thing for making the world better! That’s a message you frequently hear from me, and the reason for it is that humans have immense power to re–shape the world in which we live, to make it better for ourselves. Therefore it is of vital importance to spread a message of hope, and it is very disturbing to see the efforts being made to spread despair, and the success they meet with. Hence I renew my pleas for support. Also I speculate on whether Washington DC local news might have more of an effect on US policy than electoral or strategic considerations, and propose steps which the Federal government can and should take towards a sound domestic and global energy policy.

A billboard advertising conspiracy-theory Web site "The Epoch Times" and claiming "#1 Trusted News"
[citation needed]

ASFO 2024–01–27

This episode, in all honesty, slides rapidly off the rails. If you didn’t expect to hear the term “bronies” on this show, you’re scarcely alone ― I didn’t expect to use it! But it turns out to be relevant to the notion I explored last week, of a yearning for stability and reassurance in the concrete form of a declarative social order. And this seems to be connected to something I have discussed before, the fear of decay and collapse and catastrophic loss. So I spend a while discussing how this affects, and is in turn affected by, our prospects for space settlement. We have reasons for hope, we have the means to endow that hope with materiality, but we have to believe that or it is worthless. And that lack of belief leads to radical and destructive politics, perhaps the greatest threat to our future.

Two mailing envelopes, with space stamps on them, one with a space-station hologram cachet. Also, circular stickers with mottoes "Atomic Power to the People", "Split Atoms Not Wood" and "No Blood for Oil / Atoms for Peace"
Some of the contents of the envelopes pictured above, including a "coin card", a sample copy of "blast", and leaflets.
An example of premiums received by Patreon supporters

ASFO 2024–01–20

This should be the last I talk about “racism” for a good long while. I try to connect it with what appears to me to be the desire, among many people for a declarative social order. Also, news from Morris, Illinois, and the Moon ; and burning hoverboards, possibly the most futuristic–sounding calamity of the past few months.

US Postal Service pre-printed postcards from 1989 (15c "America the Beautiful" issue), four to a letter-size sheet, overprinted with a "Man and Atom" return-address cachet, with 36c of postage added, and printed on the other side with a promotional message, and a "Split Atoms not Wood" sticker attached.
Outgoing mail!