Oh, hell! I was going to get this page fixed up right after the program, but between the Internet World show I attended, and the rest of life intruding, I've only gotten to it nearly a week late. I've managed to repair the suddenly broken links, and I've added the links regarding HIV, AIDS cranks, and the Chess Olympiad.

Gene Autry was not my favorite TV personality. But when I was a small child in the very early '50s, I did watch his TV program, he did 91 episodes, and his old movies were inescapable. Here's a Gene Autry Memorial Web page by someone who apparently has quite a thing for old Orvon Gene Autry.

Gene Autry also had his own “Autry Museum of Western Heritage”.

I've been dealing with some AIDS cranks who maintain that Dr. Luc Montagnier has said that HIV does not cause AIDS. This is not at all true. He's made a very specific point about co-factors causing apoptosis of T4 cells in people who are infected with HIV. In other words, HIV may cause cell death in more than one way. You will note that his last published paper was about HIV and was published in 1997. He's also working at Queens College in New York, and sure doesn't seem to be repudiating his previous research on HIV in anything he's published.

Someone who has been fighting AIDS cranks for a while is a guy named Edward King, who has a Web page on AIDS. He also has an amusing parody of one of the AIDS cranks' favorite hobby horses.

I'm sure that in the future we'll be exploring this topic some more.

Regular listener, letter writer and contributor Seth has been telling us about a tape recorder that will record radio programs on a standard cassette tape at ¼ speed. The thing isn't cheap, but Seth swears by it. The company does have some lower priced units for sale. The company that makes this device also markets a “Walk Man” style player that plays back the tapes at ¼ speed.

An alternative, if you have a stereo VCR, is to just put the audio output of your radio into the stereo input of a VCR and record the program on video tape. Of course this is not a portable solution, but the VCR can be set to record for a specific amount of time and you can get a lot of high quality sound on a video tape.

Here's the piece about the “Magnetar.” I'm going to be trying to find out more about this.

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary is on line! Nice to look through.

The 33^rd Chess Olympiad began a couple of days late, and still mired in controversy. Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, the President of FIDE (the international chess federation), is apparently a tyrant in the semi-autonomous Russian republic of Kalmykia, where he also holds the title of President. Over the Summer a woman named Larisa Yudina was murdered. She was a journalist who was printing articles which claimed that President Ilyumzhinov has financial dealings more in keeping with those of a gangster than of the President of a small country. The 33^rd Chess Olympiad has taken place, after a delay and reduction in the number of rounds, at “Chess City” in Elista, capital of Kalmykia. But the site wasn't ready in time. Some teams played in some odd places, and some players were lodged in “former” insane asylums. Generous amounts of vodka were provided to the players.

FIDE had been taking the unprecedented step of banning games from the internet, and trying to charge $19.95 for them. This has proved so unpopular, and detrimental to chess, that they have reversed themselves and all games will be available soon, probably from The Week in Chess.

The problem with links about this subject is that the “happy talk” ones are available, but the critical, journalistic ones only last for a day and then are gone. I do not want to violate copyright by republishing them here. Oh well.

Oh yes, despite all of the terrible controversies surrounding him Kirsan Ilyumzhinov was Reelected FIDE President, much to the discredit of the international chess community.

You can find out how the USA is doing in the Chess Olympics here.

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.