Category: anonradio

ASFO 2022–01–21

In which I announce an Exciting New Initiative, although I’m not yet clear on how to pay for it, and consider non–existent remedies for non–existent maladies, and the question of whether you are really entitled to your own opinion, if you can’t be bothered to inform yourself about the topic. Also… yes, Virginia, reducing the human population of Earth to 2 billion by 2100 would in fact constitute genocide, even if you do it purely by limitation of births. Let’s spend more time on the happier business of the what and how of the Lunar Settlement, shall we?

Cover of a booklet entitled (in German) "Homeopathic Prescriptions for a Future with Radioactivity".
Non–existent remedies for non–existent maladies

Supplementary Shows

  • 2023–01–24 Probably the last reading from Man and the Moon. In addition to the notes by Richardson, I read the whole of Where to Land on the Moon by Wilkins, and the first part of Man on the Moon ― The Exploration by Whipple and von Braun (from the famous 1952 Man Will Conquer Space Soon series of illustrated articles in Collier’s). The idea behind this has been to get a feel for the way people were thinking when serious work on space travel began.
  • 2023–01–27 Interstellar Migration and the Human Experience (Finney and Jones, eds) is the proceedings of a conference held at Los Alamos in 1983. And a very interesting volume it is, too! I read the Table of Contents, Prologue, Introduction to Section I Resources : Human, Technological, and Cosmic, and the concluding summary to Solar System Industrialization : Implications for Interstellar Migrations by David Criswell.

ASFO 2023–01–14

Lützerath is a name the world would have been just as happy not knowing. And the insistence of the German people (the people of the world, really) at being upset when they get exactly what they have asked for in no uncertain terms continues to bother me. Instead of focusing on the primary role that fossil fuels continue to hold in world energy supply, with no real end in sight, I would much rather concentrate on the characteristics which I envision for the early lunar settlement. We need hope for the future, after all.

Political ad demanding the use of "Clean Coal" instead of nuclear energy in the German state of Nordrhein Westfälen, and condemning the advanced power reactor prototypes SNR-300 and THTR-300. Circa 1980.
German political ad circa 1980 (mentioned in the show) demanding the use of “ecological coal technologies” instead of atomic energy.
Australian political ad warning that "Nuclear Power Will Kill the Coal Industry" and demanding the use of "Clean Coal" to tackle climate change. Dated 2007-11-19.
Australian political ad from 2007 demanding the use of “clean coal”, not atomic energy, to “tackle” climate change.

Supplementary Shows

  • 2023–01–17 More from Man and the Moon : The Circular Maria by Ralph Baldwin, a description of the formation of Mare Imbrium which rewards dramatic reading ; and Observations of a Volcanic Process on the Moon by Nikolai Kozyrev, with a prefatory note longer than the article itself, and my own interpretation of the evidence.
  • 2023–01–20 Again from Man and the Moon : two pieces entitled The Other Side of the Moon, one from H Percy Wilkins writing in 1953, and one from Soviet News reporting on the photographs taken by the Luna 3 spacecraft.

Luv’n Time International – Episode 8, The Jamaican Episode (2023-01-13)

Archive Download

  • Prince Buster – Enjoy Yourself
  • Desmond Dekker – It Mek
  • Horace Andy – Skylarking
  • Dandy Livingstone – Rudy, A Message To You
  • Sister Nancy – Bam Bam
  • Althea & Donna – Uptown Top Ranking
  • Culture – Two Sevens Clash
  • Junior Murvin – Police & Thieves
  • The Paragons – The Tide Is High
  • The Upsetters – Return Of Django
  • Max Romeo – Chase The Devil
  • The Upsetters – Croaking Lizard
  • Toots & The Maytals – Pressure Drop
  • The Melodians – Rivers Of Babylon
  • Willie Wiliams – Armageddon Time
  • Jimmy Cliff – You Can Get It If You Really Want
  • The Skatalites – Guns of Navarone
  • THe Untouchables – Tighten Up
  • The Pioneers – Long Shot Kick De Bucket

ASFO 2023–01–07

Starting off (well, following some technical trouble) with the audio from my contribution to a video–conference event, last month, commemorating the 50th anniversary of Apollo 17, I proceed to try to generate some hope for the future and forward momentum for the year by discussing the lunar settlement as I envision it developing into Luna City. More of that anon. Also I issue a clarion call for the return of the NS Savannah to service with a modern nuclear powerplant, to serve as a traveling exhibition of civil atomic energy, and a pathfinder for future nuclear merchant vessels in a world eager for decarbonized transportation. You too can read the Draft Agreement between the Department of Transportation and Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and e–mail your comment to Senior Technical Advisor Erhard Koehler by the end of January.

Supplementary Shows

  • 2023–01–10 More from Man and the Moon : Development of a Lunar Base by GEV Awdry (reprinted from the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society), and the first part of Richardson’s essay Imaginary Voyages to the Moon.
  • 2023–01–13 Technical troubles at the start again. Then the completion of the Richardson piece, including a synopsis of the movie Frau im Mond and some reminiscences of the production of Destination Moon ; more of the “blurbs” introducing the various excerpts and articles ; and The Formation of the Craters by Richardson, originally published in The Exploration of Mars.

ASFO 2022–12–31

Glorious Future Year 2022 ends as it began, with A Step Farther Out. I could take this opportunity for a “Year In Review”, but asking the question “what use is a cut–price monarchy?” proved to be more fun. Then, having previously discussed the miseries of living in a metro area with a low enough density of development to actually allow for covering a great part of its energy needs from rooftop solar, and irritated by an (on–line) encounter with “solarpunks”, I draw an analogy between energy supply and transportation. Betweentimes, discussion of the problems raised by our dependency on financial markets… and hey, paper straws in paper wrappers!

Badges and stickers with an "atomic flower" logo and the motto "Split Atoms Not Wood"
New propaganda!

Supplementary Shows

  • 2023–01–03 The first Hear Now the Words! of the New Year is occupied with completing Chapter 6, “Success, Failure, and Politics”, of Rockets : The Future of Travel Beyond the Stratosphere (third printing with additional material, January 1945) by Willy Ley.
  • 2023–01–06 Selections from Man and the Moon (1961), mostly the interstitial commentary by astronomer (and frequent Astounding/Analog contributor) RS Richardson, and a more extended piece from him entitled Astronomical Observations from the Moon, as well as a prefatory poem by Adrienne Rich.