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you
hello 303 please 303 yes
yeah Emmanuel how are you where are you this is Ken this is Ken Gale in New York
City oh Ken Gale yes yeah it's Wednesday night isn't it it's Wednesday
night there's the show you do time just does not work the same way over here as
it does over there I can't believe a week has gone by since since the last
time we did this it's it's it's one o'clock in the morning on Thursday
actually here but that's what it was last week when we were in Germany at the
chaos camp and it's unbelievable that a whole week has gone by this is everybody
there's a whole cast and crew assembled oh yeah we're all here we're all here
we're wondering where here is for you right now I'm in Warsaw which is a city
in Poland I know these words are unfamiliar to many people but yes it's
another country that I'm in now to the east of Germany and I'm basically
continuing my journeys throughout Eastern Europe I just also got some
disturbing news today in typical BAI fashion we got our two-week notice that
we're being preempted next week and we got that today once again once again
we're being preempted with without the proper notice so you won't be hearing me
in the Baltic states next week I'm not sure which Baltic state I'm going to be
in but I understand he isn't going to be in one of them and actually it's this
is good for me because as you travel further east the time gets weirder and
weirder so right now it's one o'clock in the morning next week it would have been
two o'clock in the morning and the week after that when I'm in Russia it's going
to be three o'clock in the morning when when I'm on the air so that week we will
be on and and I'm sure I'll sound even more disoriented than I do now I guess
the thing to do right now though is to talk about the amazing experience that
many of us had many of us on the show that is Jeff you've returned to New York
since last week is that correct yes I have minus my luggage but judging the
sound of your voice it sounds like you're right there in the studio but you
say your your luggage did not follow you no Bernie yes and I both both of our
bags were left somewhere I did get a call earlier and they said that it did
arrive about an hour ago and they're saying maybe 10 11 o'clock tonight it'll
uh it'll show up well I think when when you said the word Bernie s just then
that might have actually helped to explain the situation it seems every
time that guy goes on an airplane something goes wrong with it and it's
it's you know I'm not saying it's his fault or anything like that I'm just
saying that you know the guy kind of acts like a lightning rod for trouble
and yeah your luggage right it's probably taking a world tour someplace
the last time last winter when he flew on a plane it had to dump its fuel over
over England or something and turn back I'm sure there's all kinds of other
stories too I don't know that but yes Bernie's power is increasing I've heard
this story and this this happened before the plane what what happened before the
problems oh yeah we the one thing I haven't told you yet was the when when
we left in the morning to go to the plane we got up very early four o'clock
got everything taken care of we were trying to leave the apartment of our
hosts and what had happened is that we didn't realize that downstairs door was
locked with a key and once you leave the elevator from their apartment and go
down you can't get back up we didn't take keys with us because we were
leaving so you see you're laughing I'm not really Jeff I'm not laughing it's
just it sort of sounds that way over the over the transatlantic cable but
actually what you're hearing what you're hearing in my voice is concerned
concerned and I guess that the static does that yeah but we so wait you're
you're telling me that that you went downstairs from our friends apartment
the first time I'm hearing this too by the way I went downstairs from our
friend's apartment and the door was locked from the inside so you couldn't
get back up or go outside is that correct that's correct so of course the
the the first thing was well can we get to the doorbell from the inside and that
that wasn't possible we tried of course didn't Bernie have a GSM phone with him
his credits had run out because that would have been my good yeah we couldn't
get any any calls from the night before so the the other phone would have been
the easiest but unfortunately it wasn't working my phone doesn't work this
sounds this sounds like a riddle for our audience how do you get out of a
situation like that never mind how you get into a situation like that because
again Bernie as Jeff and in the equation these things will happen but now that
you're in the situation how do you get out of it and well what would I do I'd
scream real loud maybe I went upstairs and was was banging on the apartment
door but of course there on the next are you able to go upstairs I was able to go
up the stairs to their level but that was floor for there on floor five and
there at the opposite end of the building where they sleep is at the far
end not in the front so all of the pounding left so early that they had not
get awoken exactly and okay from what I understand from from emailing them is
that I was successful in waking the neighbors in the buildings next to them
but not not them so we can't you know after a while my hands just started
hurting so the next thing to do was okay let's go in the elevator and take the
panel off that has the buttons and see if we can create a jumper or do
something to to make that work on the fourth floor without the key you know I
did something like that once and I was trying to take get into somebody's place
who wasn't answering the door turned out they were home too and that's that's
one way of doing it very James Bond ish yeah unfortunately we tried the knife I
took the metal piece out of the back of my pin that I was wearing to to go to
the airport and bent that up to all we wound up doing was just breaking the
the breaking the elevator actually you couldn't take it up or down after we're
done our friends give you the hospitality of their apartment you stay
there you get up at all hours you know and and and cause mayhem that's not
enough you you go back and you break the elevator and vandalize the place you
forgot waking the neighbors and waking the neighbors causing all kinds of
problems now there's more of you Bush is doing a fine job getting the world mad
at us he does not need your help but yes I know I do I have the feeling the
story continues George's W acts globally these our friends act locally but yeah
what finally what what finally worked is Bernie s was was talking through a
little hole in the front door and tried to get people to to he was offering 20
euro for them to make a phone call but for some reason he stopped and went back
up I think was to put the elevator back together I stuck my head in the mailbox
and found that the larger slot the wider slot I could see people coming in the
reflection across the way and I offered this one woman that did speak English 10
euro to just ring the doorbell and of course that that brought our hostess out
to the balcony and evidently this is a common thing that people come by and
ring their doorbell so she wanted to ignore her and it took a while before we
actually communicated the fact that Bernie s and Jeff were in fact stuck in
the building and we did manage she did come down with the keys we open the door
we said never never let me see you again no actually she apologized because at a
force of habit she had locked the door and she had told Bernie s that you know
no she would leave it open so that we could get out and it as it turns out she
thinks that the downstairs neighbor came in and may have locked it as well
you know behind him so there were there were two opportunities there were even
if if she hadn't left it open the the the neighbor would have and fortunately
we got onto a taxi got into a taxi and made it to the airport and got on our
plane but not without a little sweating so yeah this is the admin if you had
made your plane though you'd probably still have your luggage true and we'd
still be in Amsterdam well there's that's two positive things right there
but as you can see listeners these are just some of the problems that Americans
can have when they travel abroad all kinds of other things that can happen as
well that that will make your adventures memorable perhaps we should focus on the
conference that we went over there for which was a lot more positive and didn't
involve anyway getting locked to anything no no it was a wonderful
experience basically we we camped out well most of us anyway we camped out on
in this field the amazing thing is that where where the chaos communications
campground took place was only about 25 kilometers from Berlin now imagine with
25 kilometers from New York I think you're still in Queens or something but
this was this was literally the middle of nowhere there were you know just
tractors everywhere and animals and things like that and it was a very
pristine environment you have to figure you know Berlin's been around for a long
time Germany's been around for a long time you'd think that it would get
overdeveloped or saturated with people but no there's still these wide open
spaces so close to major cities and it's just really really different so
we we camped out in that area from well I was there anyway from Wednesday until
Sunday that's the longest I've ever camped out in one place and it was
really cool because you just built this community you you wound up knowing your
neighbors and in tents and you wound up wandering around the entire area just
seeing where everything was and talking to all kinds of people from all all
different countries it was really sad when it ended it really was because it
had gone so well everybody was was very happy with with all the things that
that happened there all the talks just the community that formed you didn't
want it to end you know 24 hours a day people were just always doing something
I don't think I I witnessed any problems at all to be honest it just went so
smoothly and I think we had a total of attendance of about 1,800 that's
reported yeah that's what they reported what that means is that despite all the
all the positivity they probably wound up lost losing a bit of money not a huge
amount I don't think but but they did lose something we lost something for
h2k2 lots of times these conferences lose money sometimes they they make a
little bit it's I would strongly suggest that people support them in whatever
way possible to ensure that this kind of a thing can happen again because it
was just such a positive experience and it's what we need you know it's what the
hacker community needs it's what the world needs is to have these kinds of
things happen where you get together meet people in person share ideas have
long conversations have lots of fun you know we're we're much better off for
that I met a whole lot of interesting people including some Americans that
really kind of gave me hope that it's not all all negative from this point on
there's a lot that we can change here a lot of positive things we can do so you
have to make sure these kind of things continue so whatever you can do to to
support the CCC and and hacker groups in general that put on these kinds of
things I understand something will be happening in Holland in two years as
well it's basically they alternate every every four years it's in one of those
countries and we're we're hoping to have another conference next year
ourselves in New York but we'll have more details on that in the weeks ahead
the the interesting thing when you say was a whole community I mean we
basically had everything there they brought in power they brought in
internet this year for the first time they brought in a phone system there
were 205 deck phones set up DC phones I think 72 internal channels it was it was
amazing you had a lake there in case you you needed a quick little dip to to
beat the heat or you know take take an impromptu shower it was amazing yeah and
it was hot we didn't get a drop of rain the whole the whole time which I guess
you know for a camp for a camping experience is a good thing but Europe is
in the middle of a major heat wave right now in fact I'm not saying it's the
worst heatwave ever to hit to hit Europe temperatures above 35 in some
areas flirting with 40 which is just insane when you consider the people here
don't have air conditioning it's it's deadly in fact 100 people in Paris have
died since last week due to heat heat problems hopefully hopefully it'll you
know what's 40 degrees centigrade in Fahrenheit oh you're thinking in
European temperature yeah yeah I know it's very easy to fall into that well
let's see about 34 would be a hundred Fahrenheit so anything above 30 is
really you know it's really hot and 40 is just that's you know you talk desert
temperatures there so 35 is about where it's been sitting in many places
including London Paris and people just aren't used to that kind of a thing so
it's it's it's been pretty weird as far as as far as the camp goes though it was
it was great I mean yeah it was hot you'd wind up going to sleep at a
reasonable time you know like maybe one or two in the morning and at nine o'clock
you had to get up because your tent would become so hot you could not
breathe and if you did not get up you would simply die it's it's just survival
so you woke up at nine o'clock you were up at nine you were you know hanging out
for the entire day doing all kinds of things and I guess that's kind of how
like you know life started that's why people woke up in the morning because
the Sun just made everything hot and people did things and went to sleep at
night so of course there are people who didn't go to sleep at night there are
people stayed up all night I think there are people who stayed up all for night
okay so that's typical of any any hacker convention yeah some some had that look
I guess maybe we should tie Bernie s in where we're trying to bring him in now
okay because he was there he had all kinds of experiences as well not not
always being locked into places or locked places but some of them quite
interesting as well I believe you know Jeff one thing that I wanted to mention
remember the bees oh yeah there were bees everywhere I mean you know that
sounds like a negative thing right there but you know the bees were just flying
all over the place at night there'd be a shift change and the bees would be
replaced by moths and flies and other things but but for some reason and
someone told me this early they said these are European bees they're a lot
more mellow than American bees and at that point I just thought you know this
is really getting silly this whole talk about how everything in Europe is like
you know nice and mellow and everybody in America is nice and uptight but the
odd thing was that the person was right these bees didn't sting they just sort
of like hovered around and they just you know they were interested in what you
were eating and you know wondering if you could spare some of it and they
they they didn't cause any other problems unless of course you did
something to them they might retaliate but I didn't see that happen
I didn't hear one person getting stung I mean it's the same species they were
was like the voice of Bernie S in the distance they were not Bernie are you with us
I used to raise bees that was it I'm a former beekeeper they were wasps and not
bees okay well wasps and not bees I mean really is it does it matter that much if
they're wasps or bees I mean you know all my life I'm calling those things
bees it beats are far less aggressive than wasps although these wasps I agree
with you did not seem particularly aggressive well they were aggressive but
not from a stinging standpoint right I you know the only time I've ever been
stung was by one of those whatever it is a bee a wasp a hornet I don't know but
one that looked just like that except it was American not European you can
tell from looking at their thorax that they were European no that they're wasps
and not bees oh okay well I think it's a common European European bees are
frequently used in America Italian honeybees are the most popular brand of
our species of a variety of bees honeybees used in the US for domestic
honey well this is a side of knowledge I had no idea you possess Bernie and
it just shows that there's all kinds of things to learn out there I learned a
lot this past week too it was fantastic well Jeff already told the story about
how you got locked in to an apartment which was pretty interesting and we
already know your luggage is somewhere in the world but not in your possession
are there any memories of the conference that you'd like to share just the
chemistry was was truly amazing I mean you had a couple thousand people in a
field and it just seemed to be just this great symbiosis between the people from
different nations it was a it was truly inspiring what I what I really like
about the German German hackers is just they seem to have a complete lack of ego
as far as like when when they accomplish something when they do something it's
not this elitist bunch of people or you know not someone saying I'm the greatest
hacker of all it just quietly happens it quietly gets done all the all the
different works of art that were out there in the field of light shows and
and the sculptures and things that just magically appeared you know they were
just a part of it all you know you didn't know who specifically did what
you just know that it got done and that's that's what how the whole
conference came together you know there wasn't just one person doing it was a
whole lot of people putting a lot of effort into it and that's what made it
work I think I agree I think we had a discussion I remember about whether we
could pull something off like that in the States and we've got different
reactions from different people on that didn't we well yeah I mean you know a
lot of people would like to see us pull something like that off in the States
but there is so many ways that that it could be stopped you know all kinds of
things from morality issues to to permits to just you know you name it
there's there's almost infinite number of ways that that kind of a thing could
be prevented from happening in the United States it's really unfortunate
even positivity even on private property we'd have we would yeah yeah I mean
that's you know a lot of these a lot of these concerts that happen wind up not
happening because of you know community concern over what might be going on you
know they basically they worry themselves into a frenzy and then you
know their worst nightmares become reality in their minds and basically you
see the American way is that you can never be trusted to use your own
judgment you know you can you can you have to be told what to do rules have to
be set for every scenario and you know we're just not capable of making up our
own minds it's it's sad but that's the reality we're facing so yeah we'd love
to do something like this I don't have the foggiest idea how to make a
community run like that on a campground but I know there are people out there
who do so if the opportunity ever presents itself of course we'd certainly
like to be a part of that but the things that we do know how to do or run the
conferences in New York and hopefully we'll be able to continue doing that and
something you know it's not the same and maybe it shouldn't be the same maybe we
should have our own unique way of doing things here but I would like to see
things like this in the future in in our country as well but until they exist in
our country we can only say go to the places where they do exist and learn
true yeah did you did we didn't mention the the heart of gold did we know why
it's one of the nicer one of the nicer decorations effects that was there at on
the campground when you arrived and started out there was an area that was
basically set up for the heart of gold which is the the name of the spaceship
that basically you have to really go to the website ccc.de slash camp to get the
the full story of how this all began and how it started but that's another thing
that they do over there which we don't really do over here is just they engage
in this kind of like you know fantasy world they talk about the spaceship they
talk about the fairy dust and you know they don't explain it it's just there
there's information on the website about the fairy dust and what it does and where
it comes from Jeff did it have an infinite in probability generator in the
heart of gold yeah yeah I'm sure if not they're the mothership but when we got
there the that you saw the the the place where the the ship was going to land and
the landing zone right overnight the the next day there was a how tall was that
three stories it was three stories tall it was it was an amazing fiberglass
constructed spaceship it looked like some sort of extraterrestrial material
to me Jeff well I'm only going by you know trying to describe it in terms that
that you know we can all understand emitting there were vapors coming out of
the the engine oh the entire time yeah and it had I thought was incredible was
was how you could just leave your I brought a laptop over there a bunch of
other people did as well you just leave your equipment in various places and not
even think that somebody was going to tamper with it or take it maybe there
was one instance of that in the entire camp it's such a cultural difference
people are able to get alcohol a lot more easily if you're 16 or something I
think it's not a problem at all but I didn't see anybody you know getting
drunk or out of control or anything like that people were well-behaved so it's we
just have so much to learn I think what was interesting I noticed at the airport
speaking of the drinking age they actually have a card system I noticed it
for the cigarettes as well you have to be 16 to buy tobacco there and you in
order to make the transaction you have to put in your card that already has
your your age on there and then it'll allow you to make the purchase well they
actually I mean they do have that sort of thing here they have a in New York
State they have a 2d barcode on the back of the license and they can scan that
and it contains all the information name yeah but this was just a lead this
was a vendor the vending machine yeah yeah oh wow I believe red heck you had
that happen to you on your 18th birthday yes and they didn't accept it they they
said I was a minor but whatever but this is something that gets Jeff is that an
ID card of some sort a national ID card because I know Germans do have that
well this this the way they they showed the picture of this thing it looked just
like an an age card just a you know it didn't didn't say ID
I wish I'd taken the picture now are you just gonna have to go back and take
another picture I hope to put in a lot of detail on the front of the cigarette
machine but it was clear that it was a chip card that contained information
that you would insert into a slot and that would verify your age and then
allow you to put coins or currency in the machine to buy the tobacco products
so Jeff and I were here's a stupid question couldn't you just borrow
someone else's chip card sure but Jeff and I were speculating as to whether the
machine logged the ID information of whose card was inserted and whether that
was transmitted anywhere I didn't see any wires coming from the machine that
looked like data cables there was just power going to it so probably not but if
they didn't log data if they did something like that in this country you
can bet they would log data because here in Pennsylvania they when you buy any
kind of alcohol in a state store which runs all the liquor sales in the state
they log your identification even if you're paying by cash you've got to
swipe your driver's license so it doesn't seem to happen in Europe other
bits of technology at the camp included a full-service radio station that was
just kind of set up it's a you know I don't want to say it puts BAI to shame
but it really does because the equipment was really good it worked perfectly
it was set up in in a heartbeat virtually and it operated out of a tent
and was was sent over to the entire camp and the internet we did a couple of
hours of radio ourselves over there and it was it was sent all over the place
it's just amazing how quickly people were able to put this together radio
sub-either yeah it was that's right radio sub-either.de you you do realize
these are all Hitchhiker's Guide references right mm-hmm okay now we
yeah Hitchhiker's Guide what's Hitchhiker's Guide to the galaxy the
heart of gold was a spaceship powered by the infinite and probability generator
and sub-either was the radio network that basically different species used to
communicate within the galaxy all Douglas Adams books I didn't see any
references to the number 42 though so obvious then and in the camp during one
of the panel discussions someone shouted out 42 in the response to some question
that someone raised at the panel so um that wasn't the right answer but it was
another reference to Douglas Adams work and at the camp was only four days long
and we had too much fun so I think I think it pervade throughout yeah that's
that's good as far as other bits of technology though there was the 3d
machine which chef I believe you have some intimate knowledge of I'm holding
it in my hand right now yeah in fact just a piece that I brought back this
was they were actually doing a model replica of the heart of gold and
evidently during the first shot somehow they the cartridge ran out of material
someone did not replace it properly and the job got canceled so they were re
redoing it and this was kind of kind of left there but it has it's it's it's
sparked an idea I'm gonna get in touch with Tim and offer a suggestion or an
opportunity that maybe by the time we get together in December I'll I'll
actually be bringing some stuff over there that may be very interesting for
the people that didn't didn't see this there it's a basically a three
dimensional output device for a computer you can give it a job that you design
with some CAD cam software and it will instead of machining it it actually
squirts and very tiny droplets of some sort of epoxy and it builds a
three-dimensional model of anything your your mind can imagine which is an
amazing machine now it's a heated plastic I noticed that kind of like the
replicator in Star Trek except a lot slower and it only makes one material I
noticed that in the model it's not actually a solid object it's sort of
hollow it's got there is there is a web inside now is that is that the device or
is that good designing on their part you can you can have the this this mesh
that's inside you can have it closer wider apart you determine that when
you're making the program and just say I would like a filler grid to happen in
here and I want it to be you know so many lines thick so many lines apart and
that's how this is set up because you can have just about any density that you
want put into this thing so it's it's all part of the software and hopefully
we can have something like this at the next help conference as well it's my
dream to have more artistic type of displays as well since we have so much
space at the Hotel Pennsylvania we can we can accommodate things like that so
if you're involved in that kind of thing we certainly do want to hear from you oh
how many people call the waterfall did you see the you see the waterfall
manual with the projection through it oh yeah yeah they're not there wasn't a
real waterfall it was well it was an art waterfall an art waterfall but it was
the size of a waterfall was several feet across on the side and they had a video
projector projecting images through it and it was a really beautiful yeah the
screen and people would go up with light and and displays simply were unbelievable
out there in the middle of a field under the dark sky you just there's a laser
show which was really incredible and as I mentioned last week Mars to just being
there was perfect you know it just added so much to it this brilliant bright red
planet which by the way tonight is right next to the moon so I'm looking at it
now in fact so I don't know if you have the moon yet over there but if when you
get it look up at it and you'll see that it's right next to it it's supposed to
be even better in a few days I think by the 23rd it'll be the best it's going to
be it'll still last for a little while but this won't happen again for another
couple hundred years this this kind of activity 60,000 years well 50,000 years
is the last time it happened what I read today on one astronomy site is the next
time it will be this close will be 60,000 years from now so I dare say the
world is going to be a different place then I think I'll wait for the next time
around you and I will you do that actually I wanted to mention this the
first show I was away and I keep forgetting to mention it and I guess it's
a little bit of a contest and we have to remember to announce the answer but
during the first show I was away I was in Paris and that day that very day I
saw something on the chandelier day for the very first time in my life and I saw
one of these things and I saw another one right after it I was wondering people
there might be able to guess what I saw for the first time in my life I think I
can guess okay go ahead was it the smart car that you've been talking about
profusely smart car something like that a card car car I've seen smart cars many
times so no it was not that I've seen smart cards very few times as well hmm
well I understand it would be unfair to ask for too big of a hint but what I'd
like to know is this thing this is a thing of which there are many or more
than one this is a thing this is a thing that I think eventually everyone's going
to see at some point and that's a pretty big hint right there I was
expecting to see one by now I just didn't expect to see it then and you
know I I saw this thing and everybody turned and looked at it and then another
one appeared no no I turned I looked at that let me just ask is there is there
it's is it like the Eiffel Tower in that there's only one that's in a fixed place
or is it like a bicycle there are many not at all this could have happened
anywhere was it was it that I was kind of a segway oh yeah the segway was it
the scooter yep that's what it was okay who gets that I was first I was first
but all right the two Jeff's guys the other Jeff you know mentioned the name
but we'd actually seen one in Dayton Bernie S and I saw one yeah that was it
was one there in Dayton I have a story to top all of you I saw one after last
week's show guess where in New York sorry being driven by a cop right you're
right but guess where yeah guess where yes Wall Street City Corps no Grand
Central in the subway Union Square there's a transit police district at
Union Square and this cop was just tooling up and down the corridor one
flight above the the train platform playing with his segway what possible
use the segway is inside the subway that crossed my mind too it's fun
flashing red lights on it no grace that way it says NYPD on the the wheel
covers the the fenders what is it a segway that George W fell off of yeah
you know I saw this thing stop fast and you know it the guy didn't fall off of
it take a skill I can't be able to do that he's carrying out a couple of
things about Poland and then maybe we could take some phone calls we won't be
on next week I mean you know before we jump to Poland one quick question about
the the Netherlands there do you know what the emergency response number like
in here in New York we have 9-1-1 do you know what the emergency response number
is in the Netherlands there it's so funny that you're saying that because I
was I'm holding in my hand a guide of emergency numbers in Poland and that's
one of the things I want to talk about and it has to be the same as in the
Netherlands is it really well what is it yeah well now let me ask were you trying
to dial that or something no no no no no no I just it was one of the things that
came up in conversation while I was talking to with people and I when I
heard about I wonder if Emmanuel knows this he's well the in most Western
European countries one one two yes you the police yeah that's it on any GSM
phone in fact this will happen in the States to you go ahead and try it now
actually don't go ahead and try it but take my word for it if you have a GSM
phone and you dial one one two you will get the police you'll even it'll say
emergency dialing when you dial that and similarly nine one one when you dial
that will get you the police in Europe if you're using a GSM phone but here in
Poland things are a little bit different one one two does work for the police
however if you dial 9-1-1 you wind up getting information about Warsaw just an
information number is what 9-1-1 is 9-1-3 is local information 9-3-0 is
information about domestic numbers which I guess are not local numbers but
somewhere in the country here's where it gets kind of weird ordering trunk
line calls down 900 I don't know what they mean by ordering a trunk line call
I guess maybe maybe making a reservation or something for you know for some kind
of a long-distance call claims on trunk line calls that's 909 so if you want to
make a claim on a trunk line call and you're in Poland you dial 909
information about foreign numbers 901 claims on international calls 908 flight
reservations and sales information 9572 you see that's a four-digit number all
the rest with three-digit numbers so they have an interesting phone system
here where certain numbers can be three digits I saw a taxi driving around that
that had a three-digit number in fact I think I even have it here yes 9-1-9
is a taxi but there's another taxi driving around that has number 8-1-1-1-1-1-1
so all kinds of different numbering schemes are possible here I imagine
there's a certain variant of 9 that allows for three digits and I guess if
you pay a lot of money you can get a three-digit phone number in addition if
you want the police and you're not at a mobile phone I actually 1-1-2 only works
for mobile phones but the actual landline police number well maybe I
should just let somebody guess that any any way I want to try oh yes 999 that's
very good Jim very good it's wrong you'll get an ambulance for 999 but it's
a good guess I'll try again 1-1-1 1-1-1 is a very silly guess and why is it
silly if 1-1-2 is the police why wouldn't 1-1-1 is the most commonly
missed out number you know a cat can dial 1-1-1 hitting a different button
give me a break no that would be very hard yeah but we're talking about rotary
you know that's that's why these numbers were invented I'd like to see we've
lost Jim Jim's the first person to get disconnected while inside the way you
notice I haven't been disconnected yet so I don't know what happened the last
couple of weeks I've had many long phone conversations on this new system of ours
and I haven't been cut off the only times I've been cut off with the two
times who are on the air so I don't know what that was all about but obviously it
hasn't happened yet this this week so okay I guess I'll spill the beans on
ahead the ambulance is nine nine nine fire department nine nine eight police
nine nine seven an emergency gas service nine nine two emergency road service nine
six three three and if you want a veterinary emergency it's six two two
five five two two so Poland is an interesting place phone wise that's the
number you call and there are a number of GSM providers here as well in fact
there are three all together there's one called idea IDEA there's plus GSM and
then there's our era GSM and just to quickly go over this because I've been
taking notes in every country I go in I scan for the different countries
different companies rather that exist in that country and I usually get between
three and four different companies in this particular case PL plus has the ID
code of 260-01 260 being the country code for that particular GSM country PL
era GSM is 260-02 and IDEA is 260-03 now I've switched each one of them just
to test them out and they all seem to work pretty normally with the exception
of era GSM which sends you an SMS message as soon as you switch to them
welcoming you some companies do this as soon as you either enter the country or
switch to their company they welcome you to their country on this one said
welcome to era the best mobile network in Poland and this is the interesting
part it said for voice stream connect that's one word voice stream connect
dial 411 for your customer care dial 611 now somehow it knew my phone was
registered as voice stream must have read something off my phone because my
phone still says voice stream a company no longer exists is now T-Mobile and
someone told me actually that that all voice stream phones have now become T-
mobile phone something must have happened in the last few days if
anybody can verify that we'd like to know but anyway this this message was
followed by two more messages with more helpful hints and at that point it just
got so annoying that I switch companies again they were just obviously SMS happy
and just sending all kinds of messages to welcome welcome people but I was
interested the number that it came from the country code in Poland is 48 so it
came over as plus four eight six zero two nine double five zero zero zero and
that's the number that showed up on the GSM phone I have no idea what happens
if you call that but it's just some some GSM oddities which always fun to play
with now when I go to my next stop is Kaliningrad which is the part of Russia
that's that's not attached to the rest of Russia they make it very difficult I
either have to leave it at 219 at night and catch a train from Warsaw that will
allow me to switch to two other trains that will eventually get me to
Kaliningrad or I could take a bus which leaves at noon I hate buses but I just
might do that because it's just a much better time I don't have no idea what
what that's going to be like what that that place is gonna be like everybody
has tried to convince me not to go there I've met complete strangers talked about
my travels and I say yeah I'm going to Kaliningrad and they always say no no
don't go there don't that there's nothing there there's nothing for you
there just don't go there I'm really interested in going there now to see
what that's gonna be all about and if they have any GSM providers I'll
certainly be taking notes on those as well as all the other countries and
speaking of phones did we want to take any calls tonight yes we certainly should
let me just say just to finish off about about Poland I spent the day walking
around in the old village looking at all kinds of things I tracked down the
synagogue which it's sad to say the synagogue is one in the entire town when
you consider what a vibrant Jewish community that was before World War two
how it was completely decimated and how there there are so few left here now it
really makes you realize that the effects of the war forever changed this
place this was really where where the front lines were Warsaw was completely
devastated most of the town has been rebuilt since World War two and there's
nothing really that dates beyond that very with very rare exceptions but a lot
of sobering reminders as to the effects of that kind of a war so I intend to
explore some more in the next couple of days and hopefully in a couple weeks I
could tell you what I find just out of curiosity what did you do in your final
day in Berlin well I am here's an interesting thing Mike who actually is
on a train right now from Prague to Amsterdam that's why he's not joining us
tonight because he doesn't have a GSM phone either if he had a GSM phone he'd
be able to we walked around Berlin a little bit he only had one day so I
wanted to show him some of the sites and in the middle of West Berlin now keep in
mind Berlin is a huge city it's 15 times the size of Paris and West Berlin is a
pretty big section of it we were just walking around I was I was you know
showing him some of the some of the sites over there and we turn a corner we
run into two people who are at the conference who have been talking to you
only a day earlier and we spent a good part of the day hanging out with them as
well so it was it was just you know pretty cool just walking around just
seeing parts of the town and you know reminiscing about the conference and
planning for the future that kind of thing okay it went very fast all right
we'll go ahead and take some calls number is two one two two zero nine two
nine hundred you're on the air yeah hi I have a question on privacy manual X call
please okay you're the next call hi yes hello to your guest in Europe I'd like
to Christian you're on the air my radio I've never been able to get through to
you guys the first time here you know why you can never get through to us is
because certain people tie up all the phone lines very very disruptive every
time I've tried I can never get through but here I am sorry thank you and it's
an excellent show I've always enjoyed it but I wanted to ask you kind of a
funny question maybe funny this scooter thing you mentioned what is this and why
is it remarkable that you saw one it's not at all remarkable to me that this
that this thing exists it's a stupid invention it's something that's just
gonna make people fatter and lazier what I thought was amazing was just the fact
that I finally saw one after all the hoopla but after you know I don't know
what you're talking Segway SEGWAY it's invented by this guy named Dean
Kamen who's a well-known inventor it's a two-wheeled scooter it has gyroscope or
two it's computer-controlled and it's a two-wheeled they're parallel to each
other like the front X axles of a car so it looks like it looks like you're
riding on a hand truck basically right and it doesn't tip over because it's
self-correct electric and it goes like 10 miles an hour maximum something along
those lines really like 20 I think yeah yeah you can you can get up to some
pretty good speed well they said people can outrun it easily in 20 miles an hour
would not be outrunning it easily 10 miles an hour would but well here's the
thing cops get cops get faster versions that can go double the speed so they can
catch up to you the donut shop faster there's one other question I wanted to
always ask you guys that it's not about the topic you're talking about but I've
never been able to get through before has to do with the collect calls for
years now I see many many commercials on TV about calling collect 1-800 collect
various things to call collect and save money and so forth but I just don't
understand this maybe you could give me your opinion of why why would people want
to be calling collect isn't it it's much cheaper to use your phone card or to use
it if they have no money in there caught in the middle of nowhere then it's a
very good point it's kind of creating this market that doesn't really exist
by saying that that you're that you're saving money by making somebody you're
saving somebody money who's paying for your call and they should be happy that
you called them using this because you're saving the money there's no need
for it I think because I don't know personally I've never felt I ever had a
need to make a collect the argument that the phone company uses exactly like a
mugger coming to you saying give me half your money I'm saving you money by only
so they're just so that's why there's so much advertising because they're
creating a false demand right ah okay thank you for calling you know around
see how many people you know who use this system I don't know anybody who's
ever used it the collect calling thing you want to actually I know people have
experimented with it just to see what it's like but you know to use it you
know for a legitimate reason I'm glad to get the experts opinion on it thank you
and thank you again for a great point all right bye bye hello you're on the
air oh hello hookers the Segway guy also invented a mobile wheelchair which
apparently got bought up by Johnson & Johnson yeah and then he turns attention
to consumer nonsense with the Segway which is a total waste of money for most
people but would make a hell of a thing for a handicapped folks who wouldn't
want to know it's great for handicapped people no question yeah people have
trouble standing and walking we'll have to stand and ride yeah but the whole
thing with the cops it's really stupid because of police I used to sell police
bicycles at a bike shop here in New Jersey and a bike a bike for a cop was
like 850 with thousand bucks the Segway is like I think 20 grand it's 5,000
five grand okay okay the figures always varied it's like they only go about 12
miles per hour maximum and it's total like the guys hearing a lot of hype by
virtually doing into police departments and you know everyone loves gadgets but
it's totally stupid also and also postmen are getting them as well to
deliver the mail so they don't have to actually walk oh man you know get a
bicycle for crying out loud and then they sell the little chain options so
that they can do it in the snow too you know it's it's totally stupid I mean the
bicycle took the perfect instrument for any kind of self-propelled like go
anywhere capability and people think oh no it's too onerous oh we we definitely
saw that while traveling through Europe the everything was on bicycle so we were
at the the shuttle stop for the to get to the camp and I saw a a post a mail
person show up on a bicycle and actually accomplish what they needed to do with a
bicycle there was no truck nothing just and and I've got pictures of the bike
racks near Central Station in Amsterdam yeah three stories high
huge and and you you walk around and you can say well now I know why these women
have such beautiful legs they're all healthy yeah and then of course the
paradox is you turn around and they're lighting a cigarette up and it just
doesn't make sense but you know a lot of a lot of areas we have that nonsense even
here we got people who have got more silicon in a couple of mother mother
boards you know what the hell also when you go to call our conics
you're actually going to Konigsberg Prussia an old Prussian city yeah yeah
he's part of East Prussia I believe yep and big sub base there I think still to
this day my grandfather came from I'll look for it okay well have a good one
and I'm gonna thanks for your call there's something actually I'd like to
I'd like to mention okay I think we're on some kind of delay here because I'm
always hearing echoes and things there's an important update to a story report on
a couple of months ago that's the the case of Mike Hawash who who wound up
pleading guilty to the charges last week this was the software engineer who
worked for Intel who had been held without without even confirmation he was
being held and what wound up happening was he pleaded guilty last Wednesday to
conspiring to provide services to the Taliban he won't face any other charges
but he will have to testify against other suspects he initially pleaded
innocent to charges of conspiracy to wage war against the United States
conspiracy to provide material support to al-qaeda and conspiracy to contribute
services to al-qaeda and the Taliban in exchange for that testimony federal
prosecutors agreed to drop charges of conspiring to levy war against the u.s.
and conspiring to provide material support for terrorism however he did
plead guilty to conspiring to provide services to the Taliban now this is all
very interesting because again we don't know what actually happened as a case
of the Bush administration constantly you don't get the details you don't
understand why this guy was was followed and and and looked at supposedly his
neighbor said that he became kind of unfriendly and that was the whole basis
for them to look into him as a potential terrorist suspect he was also
accused of going to China and attempting to get into Afghanistan and not
succeeding but the thing that I think everyone's forgetting here is that the
Taliban weren't the they weren't the terrorist group they were the people
running another country it's not the same thing as al-qaeda so yeah the US
government million yeah the US government gave the Taliban millions and
millions of dollars for its a drug erratic eradication efforts in
Afghanistan prior to 9-11 so it really doesn't make any sense
well Emmanuel just quickly according to the official plea that I read earlier um
he essentially he he plenty of the day in the plea he said that they he was
going he was with a bunch of people they agreed to leave from Portland and get to
Afghanistan to China try to go through Pakistan to Afghanistan and fight for
the Taliban that was the official plea so obviously there's a lot that we have
to know about this case I mean I know people plead guilty for all kinds of
different reasons and maybe he is guilty maybe he is not if he's just looking for
a way to get out of prison within his lifetime we're gonna follow this weeks
ahead the website www.freemykawash.org has more information there's a copy of
the plea there actually and that music means that he shows over yeah I guess
that's what it means and unfortunately we're not on next week which I'm really
bummed about but we will be on in two weeks and I'll be in Russia then so that
ought to be interesting
okay thanks Emmanuel take care and coming up next is the computer show
free
I'm gonna
The US-made microprocessor-controlled cardiac pacemaker of Neoliberalism is having a check-attack
that makes the harder General Secretary stops and his head drops on a red button, which,
on its part, starts a couple of microprocessor-controlled events and, until today, strategy experts on
both sides of the Iron Curtain have already been bringing up.
This time, everything runs properly.
On Tuesday, August 19th at 6.30pm at the House of the Lord Church in Brooklyn,
joined relatives of soldiers in Iraq, former Congress Member Cynthia McKinney,
former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark, City Council Member Charles Barron,
the Reverend Herbert Daughtry and others for a rally demanding an end to the colonial occupation of Iraq,
money for jobs and human needs, and a return of our troops to US soil.
That's Tuesday, August 19th at 6.30pm at the House of the Lord Church,
located at 415 Atlantic Avenue in downtown Brooklyn.
This rally is sponsored by ANSWER and the Martin Luther King, Jr. Peace Now Committee.
For more information, call 212-633-6646.
That's 212-633-6646.
Or log on to www.internationalanswer.org.