Back of the Book — December 22, 2012


On this program we plan to talk about the world ending yesterday. We also plan to talk a bit about the tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut on December 14. There are a number of science topics we'd like to get to, and we would like to get to some mail. We'll do what we have time for on this program. Check back for some sort of update some time before the next end of the world.

Did you know that I've got a brief synopsis of some of the WBAI LSB meetings? Well, I do, and I've recently updated all of that.

The next regular WBAI LSB meeting is scheduled to be held on Wednesday, January 9, 2013, but the LSB Chair is pushing to have another meeting of the Sixth WBAI LSB before the end of December. We'll see what happens.

The Delegates' Assembly and the WBAI LSB both met on Wednesday, December 12, 2012, at Alwan-for-the-Arts, 16 Beaver Street, 4th floor, in downtown Manhattan. The Delegates' Assembly before the LSB meeting was supposed to have begun at 6:30 PM. It started at 7:10 PM, 40 minutes late. That assembly, which has the same voting members as the LSB, considered the seven bylaws amendments that were up for consideration. I've posted the bylaws amendments on my Web site, you can get to them from the Web page for tonight's radio program. All seven bylaws amendments were defeated. The LSB then met, and rapidly lost its quorum and didn't get much done.

At a previous meeting the WBAI LSB voted to hold its meetings on the second Wednesday of every month and/or the last Thursday of that month, subject to change by the LSB, which gives us the following schedule:

All of these meetings are set to begin at 7:00 PM.

WBAI has a program schedule up on its newly revamped Web site. The site has gotten many of the individual program pages together to provide links and such, so check it out.

Because WBAI was forced out of its studios by the flood waters' destruction of the building's electrical system we still have this alternate, temporary stream for the radio station! I do not know how long this emergency stream will be up for. If this stream isn't working let me know.

New WBAI stream! WBAI has put up an experimental stream for the Apple iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. This is a brand new, experimental stream. So if you have one of those devices you might try the link out. And let us know how it works for you one way or the other. That way the folks implementing it can iron out any kinks in the system.

WBAI is archiving the programs! Just go here and you'll be able to listen to this program any time for the next couple of months. You may need to scroll up one line to see the audio archive. Let me know if you find this feature useful. There is also another version of the archive here.

If you want to listen to any part of the WBAI archive click here to go right to the archives. When you first go to the Web page you'll only see the WBAI programs for the past 7 days. If you want to see older programs you can click on one of the “See ALL Shows” buttons. Or to see only the two shows in this time slot click here.

Back of the Book is one of the programs that you can download, as well as listen to on line.

In the table on the archive Web page Back of the Book and Saturday Morning With the Radio On are both in the “Show” column. The “Date and Category” column shows the date of the program. After the program I go in and write the details of the program and say which program it is. Of course I'd recommend that you just listen to both programs in this time slot!

In the Summer of 2009, there was a Pacifica National Board meeting held in New York. Here's the Web page I did about this PNB meeting and the amazing things that went on at it.

And the PNB has also met in Houston from Friday October 9th, through Sunday October 11th, 2009. The official audio archive of that meeting is here. It was not disrupted as the New York meeting was, although some of the same miscreants got out there to say stupid things.

The Pacifica National Board (PNB) met in Manhattan the weekend of October 1-3, 2010. The audio has been posted for the first day of the meeting, the second day of the meeting and the third day of the meeting.

PNB Chair Summer Reese has been appointed interim Executive Director of the Pacifica foundation, which owns WBAI. Press release here.

The 2012, Pacifica elections are for the most part over. I hope that none of you voted for the so-called “Justice & Unity Campaign,” aka the faction, candidates. We should know within the next week or so what the composition of the Seventh WBAI LSB will be. If the faction has won a majority it will be too bad for WBAI. For more information Click here.

Here's wishing everyone a Merry Isaac Newton's birthday on December 25th.

And remember that the reason for the season is that the Earth's rotational axis is tilted 23½° to the plane of its orbit.

We plan to talk about the latest discovery of an exoplanet, one that may be in a habitable zone around a Sun-like star.

Pickles of the North plans to talk about a comet that may become prominent in our skies next year.

WBAI is moving! We'll tell you what we can about that on this program.

We hope we can get to talk about our trip to Coney Island this past fortnight. It was our first since super storm Sandy struck. We saw lots of destruction down there. Parts of the beach are changed by the storm. We'll post photographs here soon.

What's been stressing us for months? We plan to tell you about that on this radio program.

Oh yeah, the world ended yesterday. Ahem. Yeah, we plan to talk about that too.

There are a lot of issues that are considered hazardous to talk about on the air at WBAI, even though the gag rule was lifted in 2002. However, there is the Internet! There are mailing lists which you can subscribe to and Web based message boards devoted to WBAI and Pacifica issues. Many controversial WBAI/Pacifica issues are discussed on these lists.

One popular list the “NewPacifica” mailing list. Founded October 31, 2000, this list is sometimes lively and as of mid-2011, has 687 subscribers coast to coast.

Being lively, of course, it sometimes also gets a bit nasty. All sorts of things are happening on this list and official announcements are frequently posted there.

You can look at the NewPacifica list here, and you can join the list from that Web page too. If you subscribe to the “NewPacifica” mailing list you will receive, via E-mail, all of the messages which are sent to that list.

There is the option to receive a “digest” version of the list, which means that a bunch of messages are bundled into one E-mail and sent to you at regular intervals, this cuts down on the number of E-mails you get from the list. You will also be able to send messages to the list.

This list also has a Web based interface where you can read messages and from which you can post your own messages.

There is also the more WBAI specific “Goodlight” Web based message board. It is sometimes referred to on Back of the Book as “the bleepin' blue board,” owing to the blue background used on its Web pages. This one has many people posting anonymously and there's also an ancillary “WBAI people” board that's just totally out of hand. UPDATE: The bleepin' blue board has had to add a step for folks to get onto it because it's under attack by spambots. When you click on the above link you may be asked for a username and password. Type in Username: poster Password: enternow

When the computer in Master Control is working we sometimes have live interaction with people posting on the “Goodlight Board” during the program.

Our very own Uncle Sidney Smith, whose program Saturday Morning With the Radio On alternates with us, has a blog these days. You can reach his blog here.

My voice mail number at WBAI is 212-209-2996. Leave a message.

You can also send me E-mail.



WBAI related links

WBAI Listeners' Web page

WBAI Management's official Web site

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The contents of this Web page are copyright © 2012, R. Paul Martin.