Web links related to the Back of the Book program of August 13, 2007


It's mid-Summer and the Perseid meteors are streaking overhead!

Did you know that I've got a brief synopsis of some of the WBAI LSB meetings? Well, I do. And I've updated them only yesterday!

The August 6th, 2007, WBAI LSB meeting featured faction operatives trying to bring up all of the stuff they'd made believe that they'd passed at the July 14, 2007, meeting when there hadn't been a quorum. We also got to discuss the WBAI FY08 budget proposal a bit. It doesn't look so good.

The next LSB meeting will be on Tuesday, August 21, 2007, at 7:00 PM at the Harlem State Office Building, 163 W. 125th St., between 7th and 8th Aves. in Manhattan. Note: all attendees must show picture ID in order to enter the building and must go through a metal detector and have all bags searched by the security guards. Public participation is welcome.

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

WBAI has an official Web stream of what's on the air at any time! You can go here and pick which type of stream you want! If this stream isn't working let me know. It was working all right at 9:33 PM (ET) last night.

The Pacifica Foundation, which owns WBAI, 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.

WBAI also has a forum on its Web site now. You have to register to post messages, but anyone may read the messages.

WBAI is archiving the programs! Just go here and you'll be able to listen to the program any time for the next couple of weeks. Unfortunately, Back of the Book is not one of the programs that you can download, you can only listen to it on line. But maybe someone will change that at some point. NOTE: The archives have not always been behaving properly of late. They have been fixed, but we can't guarantee their condition. If Back of the Book isn't archived this time I'll post an archive myself. Also note that they have been calling the Back of the Book archive the Carrier Wave archive. You should go by the date of the program until this gets rectified, or just listen to both programs in this time slot!

If this is mid-Summer then it must be time for the annual Perseid meteor shower!

Indeed this potentially spectacular meteor shower will be going on during the radio program. But it's due to peak at 4:00 AM (ET), one hour after we're off the air.

Although you'll need decently dark skies to really be able to appreciate the meteor shower you can still see some of the brighter meteors even from New York City, but try not to stand too near a street lamp or any other light source.

And on this meteoric radio program we plan to get through all of the mail backlog!

My backup computer, which isn't backing up very well!I go on about my computer being a mess sometimes, well this isn't a picture of my computer, this is a picture of the computer that someone gave me that I use as a backup. For the past year or so this computer has been the one that's taken up the slack from my failing, old machine. This is the computer that these Web pages get composed on these days.

Well, this computer has now started to fail! As you can see I have it wide open to the world, much as I have my computer. I'm not sure what's wrong with it but it's quite the dance I have to do nowadays trying to get things from one computer to the other between rapid fire crashes of both of them!

One of these days I need to buy a decent computer that doesn't need to be backed up by a computer that someone's throwing away.

And of course we'll probably talk about the tornado in Brooklyn this past fortnight!

There are a lot of issues that are considered hazardous to talk about on the air at WBAI, even now that the gag rule has been lifted. 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.

Probably the most popular 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 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.

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

And then there is the historic “Free Pacifica!” list, which has been used to help organize resistance to Pacifica Management hijackers since the mid-90s. It's become a low volume mailing list because it's been eclipsed by some of the newer, more technologically advanced, lists. Just click on this link and follow the instructions, and you'll be subscribed. This is a mailing list only, it doesn't have a digest option nor does it have a web interface.

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

You can also send me E-mail.



WBAI related links

Free Pacifica Web site

WBAI Listeners' Web page

WBAI Management's official Web site


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The contents of this Web page are copyright © 2007, R. Paul Martin.