Web links related to the Back of the Book program of January 6, 2003

Here is the latest on the saga of Pacifica. There was yet another big meeting of the interim Pacifica National Board December 6-8, in Washington, D.C. It finally decided to kick the so called “Constituency Model” to the curb.

Here's the WBAI schedule. Don't blame me if it's not accurate, I didn't make it up I'm only relaying it. Here's a schedule made by a listener who has Web links for various programs and producers.

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Our colleagues from Off the Hook now have both a RealAudio streaming web cast operating, and a new MP3 stream both of which were working at about 6:33 PM last night. The MP3 feed is now the preferred feed.

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The Pacifica Foundation, which owns WBAI, has revamped its Web site and now has something called the Pacifica Lounge where you can post messages about Pacifica, WBAI and other Pacifica radio stations. This may be a good thing, and of course there are other, long term fora in which to participate.

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I'd heard before the program that there was a new computer installed in master Control, where I do the program from. And there was, and it's connected to the Internet. So we had some interaction on the Goodlight board for part of the program.

Of course this took up time that I'd have used for reading mail, both postal mail and E-mail, on the program so I'm not sure how this will work out in the long run. But it seems to have been something of a hit while we were doing it. I'm sure I'll try it again, but I must make sure I get to the mail people have sent in as well.

This is a lot better than phone calls, as far as I'm concerned. If a nut case calls on the phone you have to deal with them on the air and we all know that the same jerks call a lot. A nutty posting on a Web board can simply be ignored. Makes for a better program, in my opinion.

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I did a year in review segment again — for the year 1952. I mostly talked about scientific news from 1952, which I got from a book that reviewed that year right after it ended. Ah, the days of my kindergarten experience.

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My big personal announcement was that I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes a couple of days before the program. Since I've been getting checkups regularly this condition was caught just as it manifested itself. Pickles of the North promises to poke me in my pancreas with a stick to help that endocrine gland produce more insulin. I'm sure the modified diet and medicine will do something to help as well.

Of course it's hard to understand how I could have gotten diabetes. I'm only about 60 pounds overweight and I'm careful to partake of the five major food groups. You know the five major food groups, don't you? If not, they are: sugar, salt, fat, grease and alcohol. I eat most of these in something approaching moderation, of course.

I'm sure that this will be a topic on future programs. There's a lot of information out there about this condition and my dietary changes alone are going to be such a drag that I'll just have to kvetch about it on the air.

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There are a lot of issues that are considered hazardous to talk about on the air at WBAI. But there is an Internet list called “Free Pacifica!” which you can subscribe to, and these issues are discussed there. If you subscribe to it you will receive, via E-mail, all of the messages which are sent to that list. You will also be able to send messages to the list.

If you want to subscribe to the “Free Pacifica!” list just click on this link and follow the instructions, and you'll be subscribed. Could open your eyes a little bit.

The above list has occasionally produced a high volume of E-mail because of the attention that these issues have drawn. If you would prefer to subscribe to a low volume list that only provides announcements of events related to these issues then subscribe to the FreePac mailing list.

Another list that's sprung up is the “NewPacifica” mailing list. This one is very lively and currently includes over 400 subscribers coast to coast. Being lively, of course, it sometimes also gets a bit nasty. All sorts of things are happening on this list. With that warning in mind, you can look at the NewPacifica list here, and you can join the list from that Web page too, although you'll have to deal with Yahoo! to do so.

There is also the more WBAI specific “Goodlight” Web based message board. This one has a great many people posting anonymously and there's also an ancillary board that's just totally out of hand.

The “Goodlight” Web based message board has expanded to cover all Pacifica stations.

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