It's Monday night/Tuesday morning as I put this page on the Web. I'm still trying to get to the bottom of that deodorant story, and if/when I find out more about it I'm going to post that information here. So you might consider looking in on it again later in the week.

The new European Union has some ideas about privacy that are very different from those currently in use in America. Imagine, they really think that buying and selling your name, address, telephone number and lots of other personal information about you is something you should have a say in!

As far as I can tell, the jury is still out on the story about 16 year old Jonathan Capewell of Manchester, England and his death on July 28^th, from overuse of deodorant. This story just doesn't sound right to me. Unless this kid was huffing the deodorant's propellant I can't see how this would be physically possible. For the volatile gases propane and butane to take months to accumulate in his blood and kill him just seems make believe to me.

Hoaxes are not unknown either on line or over the AP wires. I'm going to keep on looking for clarification of this story. I'm going to keep trying to find out if this really happened and I'll post the information here when I find it.

I went to the “Inqueery Series” panel discussion “Gay Power, Lesbian Liberation: 1969 - 1972” on Wednesday, October 21^st, at the above mentioned Gay & Lesbian Community Services Center. No real sparks, but the bias of academics for the group Gay Liberation Front and against the Gay Activists Alliance was apparent.

The exhibit “We're Revolting! Gay Power After Stonewall: The Photographs of Richard C. Wandel” photo exhibit at the Gay & Lesbian Community Services Center. If you want to see what I looked like in 1971, here's your chance. It's in Room 206. The exhibit will be there until November 29, 1998.

Easy directions to the Center for those not intimately familiar with the ancient, winding streets of Greenwich Village: go west on W. 14^th St. till you reach Hudson St. This is also the intersection of 14^th St. & 9^th Ave. Turn left (south) and walk two blocks on Hudson and you're at Little West 12^th St.

People can be cranks about damned near anything. The “Year 2000 Bug,” aka “the millennium bug” or “Y2K,” is yet another example of this phenomenon. There are all sorts of cuckoos latching onto this potential computer problem. I think it's all part of the end of the millennium crap. Y2K is to be lumped in with UFOs, fairies at the bottom of the garden, health cranks and spiritualist foolery. Survivalist and end-of-the-world nut cases are all latching onto Y2K.

Despite the dire predictions of the survivalists and the superstitious there is a great deal of attention being paid to this problem, and I think it's mostly being solved at this point. Of course some things will get screwed up as we switch to the year 2000, but it's going to be relatively minor.

Some see the solution to this problem to be in the order that people write down the details of dates.

Some suerstitionists want to pray about Y2K.

But some saner folks are of the opinion that we might as well have a few laughs at Y2K.

Harry from the internet sent me some E-mail which I read on the air. Harry railed against my having come down against the efforts of AIDS cranks. Harry was still laboring under some of the same delusions that many other people have been exposed to by AIDS cranks, such as the idea that HIV has not been isolated, etc. Below is something I've put on the Web site before debunking one of the main sources of misinformation.

One of the still oft-cited “authorities” for the idea that HIV doesn't exist at all are some AIDS cranks from Perth, Australia who issued a “reward” in 1995, for anyone who could isolate or otherwise prove that HIV existed. Here's a rebuttal of “The Perth Group's Challenge” by Edward King

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.