On the last program I talked a bit about the shootings at columbine High School in Littleton, CO. But I didn't get the Web page updated about that in a very timely manner, so, if you missed it, here's what was on that page.

A listener sent me some E-mail showing that the United States Marine Corps is indeed using the computer game DOOM to train troops. This is not a great Idea, I think. Real life and video games are different things.

So there have been a lot of developments in the Abner Louima case. At this point it's just a question of how the main assailant will change his plea to guilty. But the defense was apparently trying to intimate that Louima was gay, in an effort to discredit him. Apparently they're of the opinion that a jury will not believe someone if they're revealed to be gay. Of course I have no idea what AbnerLouima's sexual orientation might be and it shouldn't matter. However, if the cops were saying that he is gay then that would actually lend credence to his story because cops have been known in the past to assault arrested gay men in exactly this way. The 6^th Precinct in Greenwich Village used to do this sort of thing.

As I've commented before, the nuttiness that's gripping the world because we're about to end our century and millennium and enter new ones, which will not occur until January 1, 2001, is fascinating. Apparently one of the things that's happening is that many ordinary people are now seized with the idea of burying a time capsule for folks in the future to discover. One of the articles said that the best thing would be for someone to write down what they want to say to future generations on a piece of paper with a plain #2 pencil. I was surprised at this because I'd always thought that ink was more permanent than pencil. But the guy who said this is a part of something called the International Time Capsule Society, so he probably knows something about this stuff. That site also has tips on how to make a time capsule.

Now, I've got a lot of artifacts, mostly written word, from my life that a friend of mine who's a gay archivist wants me to give him, now or when I croak, and it's overwhelmingly in ink, not pencil. So I asked him and he confirmed that pencil, if not erased or something, lasts longer than ink! I was amazed. Apparently archivists have found that all ink fades on paper after a time. And some inks actually destroy the paper around the ink stains. Oh my, there go my archives. He also thinks I'm nuts for putting a lot of my stuff on CD-ROM because he says that this is even less permanent than ink on paper. I'm doing it anyway. I can tell you that things like audio and video tape, and ZIP disks and other magnetic media, are all going to be erased over time by the daily moving around of the Earth's magnetic field. One story I read is about the disasters that occur to many time capsules.

The Union at WBAI has been fighting for its survival for the past three years against the machinations of Pacifica and WBAI Management. They have been trying to bust the Union, and have been spending listener sponsors' money on lawyers to help them do this. But the Staff at WBAI are determined to survive as a Unionized work force. The NLRB has finally issued a formal complaint against Pacifica/WBAI Management for some of their Unfair Labor Practices. You can read our press release on this, and you can read the NLRB Unfair Labor Practice complaint. This is all part of the theft of Pacifica.

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 fill out the form, 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 the 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.