Web links related to the Back of the Book program of April 17, 2000

It's Friday, 4/21/2000 05:19:07, and I think this Web page is done. I've put more on the Neandertal topic up here and included a couple of things I'd gotten to on the program. Unfortunately, I didn't get to any mail during the program. Next time I will.

There's a job action ongoing by the freelance reporters and stringers for Pacifica Network News. Look at the Pacifica Theft Menu to find out more.

The Web cast of tonight's program should be working for Back of the Book. The feed was working at 10:00 PM last night. Unfortunately, this may not be the case for much longer. WBAI's wacky General Manager, Valerie Van Isler, has not paid Porus dot com the $2,500 she'd promised to upgrade their carriage of WBAI. This feed may cease to exist soon.

Paul Williams of UFO Desk is arranging for this feed. And we thank Porus dot com for this feed.

“Emmanuel Goldstein” of Off The Hook is maintaining this feed.

Pickles of the North and I took a sojourn to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden a week ago. It was very nice. The cherry trees were blossoming. Sometimes it's just good to stop and smell the flowers.

While there I saw daffodils. Reminded me of the poem. While we were there, at the foot of “Daffodil Hill,” a group of elderly folks strolled by and recited the poem in unison! Of course, given my misspent youth, I can only recite it in the voice of Bullwinkle J, Moose.

I've gotten ahold of some of those new “golden dollar” coins. What hype. They're the usual copper/nickel alloy. I'm wondering what they'll look like after a few years. Might not be so “golden” anymore.

dollar_coin.gif - 15587 Bytes

Some coin collectors didn't like the new coin from the get go. I've also heard that the three quarter profile on the new coin will wear very rapidly.

It's the same size as the Susan B. Anthony dollar that some think was sabotaged and made unpopular because Ms. Anthony was political.

Susan B. Anthony dollar coin

On the program I spoke about the current controversy over what most people have known as “Neanderthal Man” for almost a century and a half. Much of it centers around the discovery of the remains of a four year old boy who was buried in what is now Portugal some 24,500 years ago. I'm not trying to represent any one side of this, and it's entirely possible that no one's got this right, but the professional views on the species that is now called Neandertal, and you'll notice that the spelling has now changed too, are certainly more informed and more varied than they used to be.

This page has a map showing approximately the range of the Neandertals.

Here's a site that has extensive information about Neandertals.

Here's the article that touched off the current controversy in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Anthropologists Ian Tattersall and Jeffrey H. Schwartz published this critical commentary in the same issue.

The original authors shot back a letter of reply to the critical commentary on the Internet. And Tattersall has sent out a letter replying to their reply.

Well, this is the way scientists debate when the topics get hot. What the science will eventually determine on this issue is a lot more interesting than the fights between the scientists, but their fight will help to determine exactly what needs to be looked at and how in order to determine the answers about Neandertals and their relationships to us.

I spoke a bit about the protests against the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank meetings in Washington D.C. People were arrested for doing nothing, tar gas was used against peaceful demonstrators and even the copy shops were sometimes shut down by police in order to thwart the demonstrations.

The mainstream media gave this story their usual coverage, which is to be expected since they're owned by wealthy people who have an interest in increasing their wealth, an interest apparently shared by the IMF and the World Bank. Of course WBAI covered the demonstrations as best it could. Here's a Web presence of some folks who also covered it a bit differently from the mainstream press.

On the program I read a tiny piece about the Archbishop of York, whose real name is David Hope, having said some dumb things about the Internet's “potential for evil” and similar silliness. I'm not finding that article at the source, a magazine named Conservatism, but he appears to be quite the right wing looney with this huffing about some dome in England, and his really regressive stance on allowing women to be bishops in his religion.

There are a lot of issues that we can't 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.


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

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