Off The Hook - 2003-12-31

[00:01.640 --> 00:07.200]  [SPEAKER_00]: You were listening to FSRN's third annual Year in Review, produced by Jeff Brady.
[00:07.620 --> 00:15.700]  [SPEAKER_00]: Tomorrow we bring you a special documentary presentation looking at the 10-year anniversary of the EZLN, or the Zapatistas, in Chiapas.
[00:15.840 --> 00:18.140]  [SPEAKER_00]: It's also the 10th anniversary of NAFTA.
[00:18.800 --> 00:19.800]  [SPEAKER_00]: And Deepa Fernandes.
[00:23.960 --> 00:24.800]  [SPEAKER_12]: It's 7 p.m.
[00:24.840 --> 00:25.360]  [SPEAKER_12]: in New York City.
[00:25.520 --> 00:27.240]  [SPEAKER_12]: You're tuned to 99.5 FM.
[00:27.440 --> 00:32.150]  [SPEAKER_12]: Coming up at 11 o'clock will be a shortcut through 2003 with Peter Beauchamp.
[00:32.470 --> 00:34.680]  [SPEAKER_12]: Right now, stay tuned for Off the Hook.
[00:54.220 --> 00:55.800]  [SPEAKER_14]: But if they could, they would.
[00:56.120 --> 00:58.740]  [SPEAKER_14]: But the best is back from the worst.
[00:59.480 --> 01:01.220]  [SPEAKER_14]: I hope that's understood.
[01:01.600 --> 01:02.220]  [SPEAKER_14]: But then it goes.
[02:18.520 --> 02:23.280]  [SPEAKER_19]: This is WBAI, New York, 99.5 FM.
[02:23.600 --> 02:27.720]  [SPEAKER_19]: All the hook, now until 8 o'clock when the computer show comes on.
[02:29.120 --> 02:32.420]  [SPEAKER_19]: With our host, Emmanuel, are you there?
[02:33.160 --> 02:33.980]  [SPEAKER_03]: Yes, I am.
[02:34.100 --> 02:37.780]  [SPEAKER_03]: I didn't hear any themes, so it's hard for me to hear you guys.
[02:39.140 --> 02:42.020]  [SPEAKER_03]: You're also very low, but I know there's probably nothing you can do about that.
[02:43.540 --> 02:44.380]  [SPEAKER_03]: Can you hear me okay?
[02:44.900 --> 02:45.760]  [SPEAKER_19]: We can hear you.
[02:45.900 --> 02:46.920]  [SPEAKER_19]: You're fuzzy, but we can hear you.
[02:47.400 --> 02:49.340]  [SPEAKER_03]: Okay, well, I'm standing on the streets of Amsterdam.
[02:49.440 --> 02:50.460]  [SPEAKER_03]: Actually, I'm standing on a balcony.
[02:50.820 --> 02:52.140]  [SPEAKER_03]: It's New Year's now.
[02:52.400 --> 02:53.720]  [SPEAKER_03]: It's about 1 o'clock in the morning.
[02:53.780 --> 02:54.720]  [SPEAKER_03]: Actually, it's just after 1.
[02:55.820 --> 03:07.080]  [SPEAKER_03]: And the streets have come alive, as they do every January 1st, with all kinds of activity that you would never see anywhere in the United States, that's for sure.
[03:07.520 --> 03:09.440]  [SPEAKER_03]: This is the third year in a row I've been here.
[03:10.180 --> 03:11.500]  [SPEAKER_03]: And the contrast...
[03:13.000 --> 03:13.540]  [SPEAKER_03]: You okay?
[03:14.200 --> 03:14.980]  [SPEAKER_03]: No, I'm fine.
[03:15.120 --> 03:15.900]  [SPEAKER_03]: You see, that's the thing.
[03:16.060 --> 03:19.940]  [SPEAKER_03]: You're getting to hear noises like that all throughout the hour, and everybody's fine.
[03:20.040 --> 03:21.220]  [SPEAKER_03]: Everyone's just walking through the streets.
[03:21.280 --> 03:23.120]  [SPEAKER_03]: Little babies are on people's shoulders, sleeping.
[03:25.540 --> 03:27.820]  [SPEAKER_03]: It's just basically a way of life here on New Year's.
[03:27.820 --> 03:36.140]  [SPEAKER_03]: Everybody gets together in various squares in town and just shoots off fireworks nonstop for hours and hours, all night long.
[03:37.720 --> 03:39.240]  [SPEAKER_03]: And it's a great time.
[03:39.240 --> 03:43.540]  [SPEAKER_03]: Of course, as an American, I'm a bit touchy about it.
[03:43.620 --> 03:45.780]  [SPEAKER_03]: You know, I feel that this is kind of dangerous.
[03:46.680 --> 03:49.780]  [SPEAKER_03]: And, you know, perhaps it is to a degree, but it's also a great deal of fun.
[03:49.780 --> 03:53.100]  [SPEAKER_03]: And people here seem to know how to take care of themselves.
[03:53.900 --> 03:56.680]  [SPEAKER_03]: Again, as always, I see very few policemen.
[03:57.060 --> 04:01.140]  [SPEAKER_03]: And, you know, I've been reading the accounts of what's going on back home, and it makes me very sad.
[04:02.060 --> 04:07.240]  [SPEAKER_03]: You know, I spent a few New Year's celebrations in Times Square.
[04:08.260 --> 04:11.280]  [SPEAKER_03]: New Year's is leading into 2000 and 2001.
[04:11.980 --> 04:18.780]  [SPEAKER_03]: And while there was a lot of police presence, which I thought was mostly unnecessary, it was nothing compared to what's going on today.
[04:19.860 --> 04:24.300]  [SPEAKER_03]: And we're all kind of looking at the news over here in Europe, and it's...
[04:25.580 --> 04:28.540]  [SPEAKER_03]: I'm just looking at a massive display of fireworks way in the distance.
[04:29.140 --> 04:30.360]  [SPEAKER_03]: That's just unbelievable.
[04:32.060 --> 04:33.340]  [SPEAKER_03]: I don't know if you can hear that.
[04:33.880 --> 04:35.180]  [SPEAKER_13]: Yes, we can in the background.
[04:36.660 --> 04:37.460]  [SPEAKER_03]: And incredible.
[04:37.640 --> 04:40.860]  [SPEAKER_03]: I feel like Wolf Blitzer on the roof of a hotel in Baghdad.
[04:41.280 --> 04:42.680]  [SPEAKER_03]: I was reporting on what's going on.
[04:42.900 --> 04:44.520]  [SPEAKER_11]: Maybe slightly less dangerous.
[04:45.500 --> 04:46.740]  [SPEAKER_03]: It's not dangerous.
[04:47.140 --> 04:51.240]  [SPEAKER_03]: It's at least, you know, unless you stand on top of an M-80 or something, it really isn't.
[04:51.340 --> 04:54.600]  [SPEAKER_03]: It's just kind of stressful to us who aren't used to it.
[04:56.540 --> 04:59.040]  [SPEAKER_03]: But we're reading the accounts, and it's just...
[04:59.040 --> 05:00.760]  [SPEAKER_03]: It seems like a police state over there.
[05:00.880 --> 05:02.420]  [SPEAKER_03]: I mean, I'm not in New York now, obviously.
[05:02.500 --> 05:04.340]  [SPEAKER_03]: Maybe you can tell me a little bit more about what's going on.
[05:04.420 --> 05:06.200]  [SPEAKER_03]: But it just seems like...
[05:06.620 --> 05:15.320]  [SPEAKER_03]: There are millions of people in Times Square gathering right now, and I believe they're putting everybody through a metal detector, and they have radiation and sharpshooters on the roof.
[05:15.400 --> 05:15.960]  [SPEAKER_03]: Is that not true?
[05:16.240 --> 05:17.860]  [SPEAKER_13]: Yeah, yeah, that's true.
[05:17.880 --> 05:21.220]  [SPEAKER_13]: But that's been going on for a couple of years with the sharpshooters and the radiation.
[05:21.760 --> 05:24.300]  [SPEAKER_03]: They say what's going on this year is unprecedented.
[05:24.860 --> 05:26.600]  [SPEAKER_13]: It's much more of the same.
[05:26.600 --> 05:29.800]  [SPEAKER_03]: Because we're at Orange, and everyone seems to be taking it seriously this time.
[05:31.700 --> 05:36.720]  [SPEAKER_03]: Well, because of that, we're redoubling the efforts.
[05:36.960 --> 05:37.680]  [SPEAKER_03]: Well, you...
[05:37.680 --> 05:43.040]  [SPEAKER_03]: And I just have to wonder how much of an effect it can possibly have, except just to instill fear into people.
[05:43.240 --> 05:46.500]  [SPEAKER_13]: Well, you shouldn't worry too much about the metal detectors.
[05:46.500 --> 05:50.760]  [SPEAKER_13]: They came from the New York City public schools, and we all know how successful those have been.
[05:52.840 --> 05:59.140]  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I mean, when I went to school, the idea of metal detectors in school would be absolutely absurd back then, and now, of course, it's accepted.
[05:59.400 --> 06:00.280]  [SPEAKER_11]: Well, it's still absurd.
[06:00.440 --> 06:01.360]  [SPEAKER_11]: It's just accepted.
[06:01.620 --> 06:04.880]  [SPEAKER_13]: Yeah, they're also very, very successful, as we all know.
[06:06.520 --> 06:07.440]  [SPEAKER_03]: That's the thing.
[06:07.540 --> 06:10.200]  [SPEAKER_03]: You know, you can't really measure success with security like this.
[06:10.540 --> 06:15.200]  [SPEAKER_03]: All you can basically do is say, well, nothing happened, so therefore security was a success.
[06:16.340 --> 06:21.700]  [SPEAKER_03]: It's a very easy thing to do, but there's really no way to prove that the security is what caused nothing to happen.
[06:21.920 --> 06:26.960]  [SPEAKER_03]: And I think it's always possible, and I think this is what we try to prove on the show, is that something is always possible.
[06:27.100 --> 06:32.220]  [SPEAKER_03]: That's why, you know, security is always able to be breached one way or another.
[06:32.460 --> 06:34.640]  [SPEAKER_13]: And you'll appreciate this.
[06:34.640 --> 06:41.640]  [SPEAKER_13]: There has been a rare display of intellectual honesty by, and I hate to say this because it's my own political party, by a Republican.
[06:43.280 --> 06:57.500]  [SPEAKER_13]: Christopher Shays, representative from Connecticut, has essentially said that Mayor Bloomberg is talking out of his hat when he's advocating that people get together in a big group during a heightened terrorism alert.
[06:57.940 --> 07:00.340]  [SPEAKER_13]: And it does seem kind of hypocritical of the mayor.
[07:01.040 --> 07:03.720]  [SPEAKER_13]: It's the same problem as the Patriot Act.
[07:03.720 --> 07:09.640]  [SPEAKER_13]: If it works fine and nothing happens, you point to that as a self-fulfilling prophecy.
[07:10.160 --> 07:15.440]  [SPEAKER_13]: And, of course, if things go wrong, you know, it's too late to do anything about it.
[07:16.540 --> 07:17.540]  [SPEAKER_03]: Yes, absolutely.
[07:17.900 --> 07:18.560]  [SPEAKER_03]: I'm not quite sure.
[07:18.680 --> 07:20.260]  [SPEAKER_03]: What was it he was advocating exactly?
[07:21.220 --> 07:24.700]  [SPEAKER_13]: Republican Representative Christopher Shays from Connecticut.
[07:25.520 --> 07:33.240]  [SPEAKER_13]: Essentially, he's saying that Bloomberg is talking out of his hat when he says people should get together in Times Square and not worry about terrorism.
[07:34.860 --> 07:36.300]  [SPEAKER_11]: I'm not worried about terrorism.
[07:36.500 --> 07:38.620]  [SPEAKER_11]: Not that I'm going to Times Square, but, you know.
[07:41.000 --> 07:41.800]  [SPEAKER_03]: Well, it's...
[07:42.300 --> 07:47.600]  [SPEAKER_03]: The pictures I've seen have just been very, very worrisome of just, you know, people in helicopters with machine guns.
[07:47.720 --> 07:50.600]  [SPEAKER_03]: I don't know what people in helicopters with machine guns can possibly do.
[07:51.480 --> 07:54.140]  [SPEAKER_03]: And, you know, to the crowd in Times Square...
[07:54.140 --> 07:55.780]  [SPEAKER_11]: Well, actually, they can do two things.
[07:55.900 --> 07:59.440]  [SPEAKER_11]: They can collect our tax dollars instead of using them for something useful.
[07:59.680 --> 08:04.320]  [SPEAKER_11]: And they can make certain personality types feel better, which is, you know, maybe some people want that.
[08:04.440 --> 08:07.120]  [SPEAKER_13]: And, ironically, there are no machine guns in the helicopters.
[08:07.120 --> 08:14.280]  [SPEAKER_13]: They decide against that on the grounds that if something did happen, that a machine gun in a helicopter would not be useful.
[08:14.280 --> 08:16.060]  [SPEAKER_13]: You wouldn't be able to get one or two terrorists.
[08:16.940 --> 08:22.740]  [SPEAKER_03]: I mean, I saw a picture on CNN.com of somebody sitting in a helicopter above the city with a machine gun.
[08:22.820 --> 08:26.840]  [SPEAKER_03]: So I don't know if he was just doing that for a photo shoot or if it wasn't motored or something like that.
[08:26.920 --> 08:32.360]  [SPEAKER_03]: But it seems like they're trying to at least convey some kind of an image that will instill some kind of fear into us.
[08:32.500 --> 08:43.420]  [SPEAKER_13]: The mayor in a news conference a couple days ago explicitly stated that the helicopter is going to be for observational purposes and they will not be armed with crowd-control weapons.
[08:44.400 --> 08:49.520]  [SPEAKER_03]: The thing that really kind of worries me, though, is that this becomes the norm.
[08:49.520 --> 08:52.740]  [SPEAKER_03]: This becomes something that we all get used to.
[08:53.060 --> 08:55.460]  [SPEAKER_03]: And I just see us growing further and further apart.
[08:55.460 --> 09:07.740]  [SPEAKER_03]: I see people here who basically are taking care of themselves or acting like adults, except for tonight maybe, and simply getting through by acting responsibly.
[09:08.520 --> 09:11.540]  [SPEAKER_03]: In our case, we're terrified.
[09:11.760 --> 09:15.680]  [SPEAKER_03]: In America, we are terrified of what could possibly happen.
[09:15.820 --> 09:18.020]  [SPEAKER_03]: And we need to constantly have our hands held.
[09:18.020 --> 09:19.700]  [SPEAKER_03]: We need to constantly be told what to do.
[09:20.100 --> 09:24.080]  [SPEAKER_03]: And people who are growing up today, this is all they know.
[09:24.080 --> 09:27.700]  [SPEAKER_03]: And people who are born in the future, this is all they're ever going to know.
[09:28.300 --> 09:32.100]  [SPEAKER_03]: And it just makes me really sad to think that this is what our country is turning into.
[09:34.340 --> 09:34.740]  [SPEAKER_13]: Yeah.
[09:36.980 --> 09:37.520]  [SPEAKER_13]: Oh, well.
[09:39.040 --> 09:40.260]  [SPEAKER_13]: No one has anything to say.
[09:40.720 --> 09:41.800]  [SPEAKER_13]: I just said, oh, well.
[09:42.300 --> 09:48.080]  [SPEAKER_13]: For the whole country, for all the things that we've struggled for and fought for, it just comes down to, oh, well.
[09:48.440 --> 09:50.060]  [SPEAKER_13]: Well, what can I say at the moment?
[09:50.680 --> 09:52.480]  [SPEAKER_13]: Rage against the machine, so to speak?
[09:52.480 --> 09:53.700]  [SPEAKER_13]: When you're right, you're right.
[09:53.980 --> 09:55.540]  [SPEAKER_13]: Yeah, that's essentially what I was getting at.
[09:56.840 --> 10:02.940]  [SPEAKER_03]: Well, we're here with a bunch of other people as well that came over to the Chaos Communications Congress in Berlin.
[10:03.140 --> 10:06.820]  [SPEAKER_03]: That took place over the weekend, actually, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday.
[10:07.740 --> 10:10.280]  [SPEAKER_03]: And we had a good turnout there.
[10:10.300 --> 10:12.320]  [SPEAKER_03]: We had a new building in the middle of Alexanderplatz.
[10:12.880 --> 10:13.960]  [SPEAKER_03]: It was a lot of fun.
[10:14.640 --> 10:16.020]  [SPEAKER_03]: Mostly German-speaking, obviously.
[10:16.720 --> 10:18.420]  [SPEAKER_03]: But it was educational.
[10:18.660 --> 10:20.160]  [SPEAKER_03]: A lot of people to meet in the hallways.
[10:20.160 --> 10:21.420]  [SPEAKER_03]: A lot of panels that were in English.
[10:22.000 --> 10:24.800]  [SPEAKER_03]: And I always recommend people venture over to this.
[10:25.040 --> 10:28.640]  [SPEAKER_03]: We met a couple of people, actually, that came over just based on hearing the radio show.
[10:28.720 --> 10:34.420]  [SPEAKER_03]: And I think that's really cool that somebody would listen to Off the Hook and say, yeah, you know, I'm going to check out the Congress in Germany.
[10:34.580 --> 10:35.640]  [SPEAKER_03]: And they all had a great time.
[10:35.740 --> 10:38.200]  [SPEAKER_03]: From what I could gather, everybody was enjoying themselves.
[10:38.540 --> 10:43.800]  [SPEAKER_03]: And just, you know, wandering around the city when you're not at the Congress, just seeing how things are there.
[10:43.800 --> 10:46.100]  [SPEAKER_03]: It's just a really cool thing.
[10:46.300 --> 10:50.460]  [SPEAKER_03]: That's what I've been doing for the last about 10 days, I guess.
[10:50.600 --> 10:52.040]  [SPEAKER_03]: London, Amsterdam, Berlin.
[10:52.580 --> 10:53.820]  [SPEAKER_03]: And I'll be back in New York.
[10:53.920 --> 10:55.400]  [SPEAKER_03]: And, of course, that's going to be fun.
[10:55.800 --> 11:00.020]  [SPEAKER_03]: Everybody who has come over here has had some kind of a story involving air travel.
[11:01.100 --> 11:08.920]  [SPEAKER_03]: One of our people who's over here right now, in fact, had their flight delayed by over three hours out of Newark.
[11:09.540 --> 11:13.020]  [SPEAKER_03]: It was never really explained what the security issue was.
[11:13.120 --> 11:16.900]  [SPEAKER_03]: This was about the time that the Air France scare was going on.
[11:17.040 --> 11:19.740]  [SPEAKER_03]: Flights from Paris to Los Angeles were being canceled.
[11:20.180 --> 11:24.400]  [SPEAKER_03]: This particular person, though, found themselves being surrounded.
[11:24.720 --> 11:27.320]  [SPEAKER_03]: Well, everyone actually was being surrounded by people with machine guns.
[11:27.580 --> 11:30.140]  [SPEAKER_03]: As if flying isn't stressful enough.
[11:30.340 --> 11:37.180]  [SPEAKER_03]: That's if all the hassle of getting to the airport and going through security and making sure you have your ticket and all that nonsense there.
[11:37.360 --> 11:42.680]  [SPEAKER_03]: As if that's not enough, you have to worry about people with machine guns on either side of you as you're boarding the airplane.
[11:43.600 --> 11:45.640]  [SPEAKER_03]: It's really kind of a bizarre situation.
[11:46.180 --> 11:49.600]  [SPEAKER_03]: I'm trying to figure in my wildest imagination what exactly...
[11:51.620 --> 11:52.260]  [SPEAKER_03]: I'm sorry.
[11:52.260 --> 11:53.400]  [SPEAKER_03]: I'm sorry this is distracting.
[11:54.580 --> 11:56.920]  [SPEAKER_19]: You talk about machine guns and then you hear firecrackers.
[11:57.440 --> 12:01.220]  [SPEAKER_03]: I've always wanted to do a show on New Year's Eve from Amsterdam and now I'm getting my wish.
[12:01.340 --> 12:02.780]  [SPEAKER_03]: Except this New Year's Day, technically.
[12:03.900 --> 12:09.640]  [SPEAKER_03]: But I'm wondering what can these two people with machine guns do if something happens?
[12:09.780 --> 12:12.040]  [SPEAKER_03]: Are they just going to fire around the entire airport terminal?
[12:12.400 --> 12:17.820]  [SPEAKER_03]: It's kind of like what we were commenting on months ago about the people with machine guns wandering around the subways.
[12:17.880 --> 12:18.740]  [SPEAKER_03]: Remember those people, Mike?
[12:19.120 --> 12:19.980]  [SPEAKER_11]: Yes, I do.
[12:20.540 --> 12:21.360]  [SPEAKER_03]: Are they still there?
[12:21.420 --> 12:22.140]  [SPEAKER_03]: I haven't seen them recently.
[12:22.420 --> 12:27.740]  [SPEAKER_11]: I haven't seen them in a while, but I'm sure they're ready to be called at a moment's notice or some such nonsense.
[12:27.740 --> 12:29.340]  [SPEAKER_11]: Maybe once in a while you see them on Wall Street.
[12:30.240 --> 12:32.540]  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, they're protecting the stock exchange.
[12:32.620 --> 12:36.700]  [SPEAKER_19]: And sometimes their guns are pointing to the ground and sometimes they're pointing to the sky.
[12:37.220 --> 12:38.840]  [SPEAKER_03]: Sometimes they're pointed right straight at you.
[12:39.340 --> 12:40.140]  [SPEAKER_03]: Not yet.
[12:40.680 --> 12:40.980]  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
[12:41.380 --> 12:43.400]  [SPEAKER_03]: But here's the crazy thing, okay?
[12:43.540 --> 12:44.800]  [SPEAKER_03]: These people didn't speak.
[12:44.940 --> 12:45.580]  [SPEAKER_03]: They never speak.
[12:46.040 --> 12:54.340]  [SPEAKER_03]: But in the airport terminal, these people were, you know, two of them for everybody getting on the airplane, you have to pass between two people with machine guns.
[12:54.800 --> 12:58.640]  [SPEAKER_03]: But the security personnel were questioning everybody a second time.
[12:59.520 --> 13:05.360]  [SPEAKER_03]: And the person I was talking to said that they asked him sternly, where were you born?
[13:06.740 --> 13:09.960]  [SPEAKER_03]: And he said New York, which is a correct answer.
[13:10.800 --> 13:15.940]  [SPEAKER_03]: And then they said with a slightly raised voice, where were you born?
[13:16.620 --> 13:19.820]  [SPEAKER_03]: And he said, kind of scared, Manhattan.
[13:20.680 --> 13:23.260]  [SPEAKER_03]: And then they seemed to really get kind of pissed off.
[13:23.340 --> 13:24.780]  [SPEAKER_03]: They said, where were you born?
[13:26.020 --> 13:29.540]  [SPEAKER_03]: Now, at this point, at this point, I would have had a real problem.
[13:29.760 --> 13:37.160]  [SPEAKER_03]: Because when somebody acts that way to me, I kind of, you know, there comes a point where I just don't care anymore.
[13:37.540 --> 13:40.780]  [SPEAKER_03]: And maybe the machine guns would have convinced me to care a bit more.
[13:40.940 --> 13:41.400]  [SPEAKER_03]: Maybe not.
[13:41.480 --> 13:41.840]  [SPEAKER_03]: I don't know.
[13:42.660 --> 13:46.940]  [SPEAKER_03]: But he finally, after thinking about it for a second, answered Mount Sinai Hospital.
[13:48.020 --> 13:49.020]  [SPEAKER_03]: And that's the other thing.
[13:49.100 --> 13:52.360]  [SPEAKER_03]: I don't know what hospital I was born in, so I would have been in trouble for that too, I guess.
[13:52.360 --> 13:54.800]  [SPEAKER_03]: But I'm wondering, what in God's name are these people thinking?
[13:54.980 --> 13:59.040]  [SPEAKER_03]: What's going to make flying more secure by people knowing what hospital they were born in?
[14:00.660 --> 14:07.580]  [SPEAKER_13]: Well, you know, if he came up with an answer like Karl Marx Hospital, then it might be suspicious.
[14:08.600 --> 14:09.740]  [SPEAKER_13]: What are you talking about?
[14:09.740 --> 14:11.120]  [SPEAKER_13]: Why it's all a Khomeini hospital?
[14:11.400 --> 14:11.840]  [SPEAKER_13]: I don't know.
[14:12.080 --> 14:12.580]  [SPEAKER_13]: In Manhattan?
[14:13.060 --> 14:17.360]  [SPEAKER_13]: Well, you know, if he's a terrorist, he's not going to know the name of the local hospital.
[14:17.920 --> 14:19.600]  [SPEAKER_13]: That's the only thing I can think of.
[14:19.620 --> 14:24.040]  [SPEAKER_19]: That's the equivalent of asking who plays first base for the Yankees in World War II, you know?
[14:24.860 --> 14:31.760]  [SPEAKER_03]: The terrorists have just been tipped off that they should know the names of the hospitals now in the various cities that they plan to act from.
[14:32.460 --> 14:43.480]  [SPEAKER_03]: And perhaps that's a reason why they should carry around almanacs, which I believe might be who have today's latest Onion-ish story that really isn't from the Onion at all.
[14:43.480 --> 14:45.420]  [SPEAKER_03]: It's actually from the Associated Press.
[14:45.620 --> 14:47.480]  [SPEAKER_03]: What in God's name is going on over there?
[14:47.480 --> 14:50.120]  [SPEAKER_13]: They're afraid the terrorists will read from the Tide tables.
[14:50.240 --> 15:08.900]  [SPEAKER_11]: I have this article from the AP, and as you said, it's not from the Onion, entitled FBI Issues Alert Against Almanac Carriers, which states that the FBI is warning police nationwide to be alert for people carrying almanacs, cautioning that the popular reference books could be covering everything that from abbreviations to weather trends,
[15:09.020 --> 15:11.000]  [SPEAKER_11]: and they could be used for terrorist planning.
[15:12.180 --> 15:15.820]  [SPEAKER_11]: And a Bolton sent Christmas Eve to about 18,000 police organizations.
[15:16.240 --> 15:22.140]  [SPEAKER_11]: The FBI said terrorists may use almanacs to assist with target selection and pre-operational plannings.
[15:22.980 --> 15:32.740]  [SPEAKER_11]: During searches, traffic stops, and other investigations, officers should watch for people carrying almanacs, especially if the books are annotated in suspicious ways.
[15:32.740 --> 15:38.360]  [SPEAKER_11]: I don't know what suspicious annotation is contrasted with any other kind of annotation.
[15:40.980 --> 15:51.340]  [SPEAKER_11]: It goes on to inform us that the FBI did note that the use of almanacs or maps may be innocent, quote, the product of legitimate recreational or commercial activities.
[15:53.280 --> 15:54.360]  [SPEAKER_11]: It just goes on.
[15:54.460 --> 15:58.520]  [SPEAKER_11]: There's a quote from the senior editor of the World Almanac, whose name is Kevin Seabrook.
[15:58.520 --> 16:01.360]  [SPEAKER_11]: I don't think anyone would consider us a harmful entity.
[16:01.740 --> 16:12.140]  [SPEAKER_11]: He said the reference book includes about a dozen pages out of its a thousand pages, listing the world's tallest buildings and bridges, but includes no diagrams or architectural schematics.
[16:12.360 --> 16:17.940]  [SPEAKER_11]: And then he makes a point which is, you know, should put him out of business.
[16:18.040 --> 16:21.000]  [SPEAKER_11]: He says it's stuff that's widely available on the Internet.
[16:22.480 --> 16:24.460]  [SPEAKER_13]: Well, it's hard to pick up on the Internet.
[16:24.660 --> 16:28.120]  [SPEAKER_13]: I mean, if you want it all in one place, an almanac is still the handiest.
[16:29.080 --> 16:34.780]  [SPEAKER_03]: Of course, the Internet is also the terrorist's biggest friend, so I guess they'll be watching people who get connected to that as well.
[16:34.900 --> 16:38.460]  [SPEAKER_11]: I mean, I think they should be checking for people with laptops, not just an almanac.
[16:39.080 --> 16:39.480]  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
[16:39.660 --> 16:41.480]  [SPEAKER_11]: Because only terrorists carry laptops.
[16:42.480 --> 16:46.380]  [SPEAKER_03]: And who is the genius who came up with this particular concern?
[16:46.640 --> 16:49.740]  [SPEAKER_11]: An unnamed official in the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
[16:50.540 --> 16:52.540]  [SPEAKER_03]: Well, I understand why they're unnamed.
[16:52.640 --> 17:04.380]  [SPEAKER_03]: That's the most ridiculous story I think I've heard this year, which I guess brings us to what we should be talking about tonight, is what has been some of the most ridiculous things that have happened this year, what have been some of the best things that have happened this year.
[17:05.040 --> 17:10.780]  [SPEAKER_03]: And of course, we'd like our listeners to join in on this as well, because boy, that sounded like a nuke.
[17:12.100 --> 17:12.740]  [SPEAKER_03]: All right.
[17:12.940 --> 17:25.760]  [SPEAKER_03]: Well, you know, I was asking people before, if a bunch of people just got together and started doing what these folks over here are doing, just started lighting fireworks off in the middle of a town square, how long would they last before they were gunned down or something in New York?
[17:26.520 --> 17:28.100]  [SPEAKER_03]: I said about three minutes.
[17:29.820 --> 17:41.580]  [SPEAKER_13]: Well, speaking of the end of things, it's the end for the subway token tonight, and the high-tech MetroCard exerts its hegemony over the system.
[17:42.580 --> 17:44.780]  [SPEAKER_13]: You mean you could still use subway tokens?
[17:44.940 --> 17:47.880]  [SPEAKER_13]: You could still use subway tokens on buses until midnight tonight.
[17:47.880 --> 17:50.240]  [SPEAKER_13]: That's about four hours, 40 minutes.
[17:50.820 --> 17:51.740]  [SPEAKER_13]: I had no idea.
[17:51.940 --> 17:52.160]  [SPEAKER_03]: Wow.
[17:52.760 --> 18:04.720]  [SPEAKER_03]: But if anyone out there in New York listening right now has a subway token or they always call them subway tokens, even though they could be used on buses, too, run over to a bus and drop it into the turnstile, whatever they call that.
[18:04.780 --> 18:05.220]  [SPEAKER_13]: Fairbox.
[18:05.220 --> 18:07.800]  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, and right away.
[18:08.700 --> 18:14.380]  [SPEAKER_03]: It's funny because mass transit here shut down at 8 o'clock on New Year's Eve.
[18:14.480 --> 18:18.640]  [SPEAKER_03]: In fact, it shuts down every year on New Year's Eve at 8 o'clock.
[18:18.740 --> 18:24.880]  [SPEAKER_03]: And I always assumed it was because the streets are mobbed with people and the trams and buses have no real way of getting around.
[18:25.740 --> 18:29.680]  [SPEAKER_03]: But I found out tonight because I asked, well, is the Metro shut down as well?
[18:29.700 --> 18:30.540]  [SPEAKER_03]: Because that's on the ground.
[18:30.640 --> 18:31.600]  [SPEAKER_03]: That wouldn't be blocked by people.
[18:31.760 --> 18:36.000]  [SPEAKER_03]: And I was told that, yes, in fact, all trains in Holland are shut down at 8 o'clock.
[18:36.200 --> 18:37.540]  [SPEAKER_03]: And I asked, well, why is that?
[18:37.680 --> 18:42.740]  [SPEAKER_03]: And the reason is something that was completely alien to me, because nobody wants to...
[18:43.500 --> 18:44.040]  [SPEAKER_03]: Uh-oh.
[18:44.840 --> 18:48.240]  [SPEAKER_03]: It's because nobody wants to work on New Year's Eve.
[18:49.280 --> 18:54.580]  [SPEAKER_03]: And it's amazing that because nobody wants to work on New Year's Eve, nobody works on New Year's Eve, and everybody just has fun.
[18:54.580 --> 18:55.840]  [SPEAKER_13]: That's astonishing.
[18:56.320 --> 19:03.020]  [SPEAKER_11]: Ken Gell, who we want to thank again for engineering, has produced a subway token just like that.
[19:03.160 --> 19:04.140]  [SPEAKER_13]: Well, he hasn't created it.
[19:04.200 --> 19:05.140]  [SPEAKER_13]: He found it in his pocket.
[19:06.640 --> 19:08.320]  [SPEAKER_13]: Well, you know, that's so ironic.
[19:08.440 --> 19:09.000]  [SPEAKER_19]: I was going to tell you to listeners.
[19:09.960 --> 19:16.000]  [SPEAKER_13]: Because all my years with the Transit Authority, I worked New Year's Eve, even though I didn't want to.
[19:16.540 --> 19:17.620]  [SPEAKER_13]: It's kind of weird.
[19:18.060 --> 19:19.360]  [SPEAKER_13]: Shows a whole different mindset.
[19:20.360 --> 19:22.700]  [SPEAKER_03]: Well, we don't consider this working tonight.
[19:22.760 --> 19:33.680]  [SPEAKER_03]: We consider this to be fun and we're spending New Year's Eve with our favorite people, our listeners, and we invite you to join us in this particular radio program, our last radio program of the year 2003.
[19:34.060 --> 19:36.720]  [SPEAKER_11]: Well, for you, it's not even 2003 anymore.
[19:36.820 --> 19:39.100]  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I've jumped over into 2004 already.
[19:39.220 --> 19:44.680]  [SPEAKER_03]: And I've got to tell you, 2004, you know, it's not really different from 2003, at least not yet.
[19:45.260 --> 19:46.380]  [SPEAKER_13]: Give it a couple hours.
[19:46.480 --> 19:49.820]  [SPEAKER_13]: Well, let's just mention a couple of things early in 2004.
[19:49.860 --> 19:51.120]  [SPEAKER_13]: This Friday, of course.
[19:51.180 --> 19:55.680]  [SPEAKER_19]: And you're listening to Off the Hook on WBAI New York, 99.5 FM.
[19:56.240 --> 20:00.820]  [SPEAKER_19]: The host in Amsterdam is Emmanuel Goldstein, and Mike and Jim are in the studio.
[20:01.020 --> 20:03.040]  [SPEAKER_13]: Along with our great engineer, Ken Gale.
[20:03.700 --> 20:09.220]  [SPEAKER_13]: This Friday, of course, 2600 meetings around the world, including in New York at the CitiCorp Center.
[20:09.580 --> 20:13.400]  [SPEAKER_13]: And it'll be the last day to see the trains at the CitiCorp Center for this season.
[20:13.780 --> 20:14.980]  [SPEAKER_03]: Oh, thank God for that.
[20:16.440 --> 20:17.640]  [SPEAKER_03]: You know, I like trains.
[20:17.780 --> 20:18.060]  [SPEAKER_03]: I do.
[20:18.840 --> 20:26.880]  [SPEAKER_03]: They're model trains, of course, but they always put the trains where we have the meetings, so we have to move the meeting over to, like, a little corner someplace, and it's just kind of crowded.
[20:27.000 --> 20:30.220]  [SPEAKER_13]: It's two months, and it brings such joy to so many people.
[20:30.580 --> 20:33.280]  [SPEAKER_13]: Well, it doesn't bring joy to me, because whenever I get there, they're turned off.
[20:33.480 --> 20:36.520]  [SPEAKER_13]: Well, you have to get there by 6 p.m., so get to the meeting early this Friday.
[20:37.000 --> 20:42.420]  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, well, the meeting happens to start at 5 p.m., so I'm never there before 6 anyway, and I won't be there at all this week.
[20:42.720 --> 20:48.240]  [SPEAKER_03]: And, in fact, there's no meeting in Amsterdam, so I guess I won't be at a meeting for the first time as long as I can remember.
[20:48.260 --> 20:49.720]  [SPEAKER_13]: Well, why don't you start an Amsterdam meeting?
[20:50.120 --> 20:56.440]  [SPEAKER_03]: Well, if anyone wants to get together for a meeting on Friday in Amsterdam, please send me an email, and maybe we can hook up someplace.
[20:56.680 --> 21:08.420]  [SPEAKER_13]: One other thing I want to mention is this Sunday, the 4th of January, the sanitation department is having Electronics Recycling Day at the north end of Union Square in Manhattan.
[21:08.880 --> 21:14.460]  [SPEAKER_13]: So this is probably a great opportunity for dumpster diving, unless they put high security on this.
[21:14.920 --> 21:33.100]  [SPEAKER_13]: They're saying if you want to throw out your broken or unused laptops, cell phones, keyboards, printers, TVs, VCRs, they'll take it to a correct sort of recycling center rather than just let it go in a landfill as if you covered it up in plastic and threw it up in your regular garbage.
[21:33.900 --> 21:35.080]  [SPEAKER_13]: That's this Sunday.
[21:37.180 --> 21:37.860]  [SPEAKER_13]: What time?
[21:37.980 --> 21:38.600]  [SPEAKER_13]: It doesn't give times.
[21:38.720 --> 21:39.160]  [SPEAKER_13]: Yes, it does.
[21:39.280 --> 21:39.620]  [SPEAKER_13]: 9 a.m.
[21:39.640 --> 21:40.280]  [SPEAKER_13]: to 4 p.m.
[21:40.360 --> 21:41.020]  [SPEAKER_13]: Union Square.
[21:42.080 --> 21:42.880]  [SPEAKER_13]: Electronic stuff.
[21:43.680 --> 21:55.680]  [SPEAKER_03]: Speaking of dumpster diving, there's useless equipment that's being sold by various companies all the time when they realize that they can actually make money off of these things.
[21:55.800 --> 21:57.920]  [SPEAKER_03]: And some of that equipment actually are payphones.
[21:58.140 --> 22:02.460]  [SPEAKER_03]: So I don't know if you guys have heard about this, but Bell South is actually...
[22:02.460 --> 22:03.800]  [SPEAKER_03]: Here's what they say on their website.
[22:03.980 --> 22:14.400]  [SPEAKER_03]: Due to downward trends in payphone usage, Bell South plans to discontinue providing services to its payphone location provider customers.
[22:15.060 --> 22:16.960]  [SPEAKER_03]: Payphone location provider customers.
[22:16.960 --> 22:17.640]  [SPEAKER_03]: I've never heard that phrase.
[22:17.640 --> 22:19.040]  [SPEAKER_13]: That's German almost.
[22:19.640 --> 22:21.280]  [SPEAKER_03]: Payphone usage...
[22:21.280 --> 22:22.480]  [SPEAKER_03]: Oh, that's a real shame.
[22:23.140 --> 22:25.000]  [SPEAKER_03]: Two of my stories just went over the roof.
[22:25.780 --> 22:27.820]  [SPEAKER_03]: And they're on their way down to the street below.
[22:27.820 --> 22:28.260]  [SPEAKER_03]: So, oh, well.
[22:29.320 --> 22:30.440]  [SPEAKER_03]: I don't know what those are.
[22:31.500 --> 22:32.640]  [SPEAKER_03]: But I'm sorry about that.
[22:32.660 --> 22:34.880]  [SPEAKER_11]: We can have well-informed New Year's revelers.
[22:35.100 --> 22:36.720]  [SPEAKER_03]: Oh, you see, my hands are freezing out here.
[22:36.880 --> 22:38.840]  [SPEAKER_03]: There's explosions to the left and to the right.
[22:38.940 --> 22:40.220]  [SPEAKER_03]: And it's also kind of dark.
[22:40.240 --> 22:42.140]  [SPEAKER_03]: So I'm doing the best I can here.
[22:42.820 --> 22:46.900]  [SPEAKER_03]: But anyway, Bell South plans to discontinue providing those services.
[22:47.320 --> 22:52.120]  [SPEAKER_03]: And payphone usage declines are the primary drivers of Bell South's decision to exit the business.
[22:52.980 --> 22:53.720]  [SPEAKER_03]: Blah, blah, blah.
[22:53.720 --> 23:00.640]  [SPEAKER_03]: They're basically selling renovated payphones for a cost of...
[23:00.640 --> 23:01.560]  [SPEAKER_03]: Gosh, you know what?
[23:01.660 --> 23:03.780]  [SPEAKER_03]: I don't know if they have the cost of the actual payphone here.
[23:03.840 --> 23:04.260]  [SPEAKER_03]: I see...
[23:04.260 --> 23:04.460]  [SPEAKER_03]: Oh, yeah.
[23:04.460 --> 23:05.680]  [SPEAKER_03]: The payphone is $135.
[23:06.280 --> 23:06.900]  [SPEAKER_10]: Oh, my.
[23:07.080 --> 23:08.520]  [SPEAKER_03]: And that's shipping and handling.
[23:08.680 --> 23:11.520]  [SPEAKER_03]: And they also sell payphone coin box stores and things like that.
[23:12.500 --> 23:16.920]  [SPEAKER_03]: So if you go to bellsouthpioneers.org, you might find some interesting items there.
[23:18.680 --> 23:25.460]  [SPEAKER_03]: It's, you know, there's some fun things that can be had from phone companies sometimes, like phone company vans.
[23:26.100 --> 23:28.680]  [SPEAKER_03]: I was able to find one of those back in 1993.
[23:29.180 --> 23:33.860]  [SPEAKER_03]: And you may, too, if you look around and keep your ears open.
[23:35.120 --> 23:35.680]  [SPEAKER_11]: All right.
[23:35.860 --> 23:39.040]  [SPEAKER_11]: We have an update to one of the most absurd stories of the year.
[23:39.620 --> 23:48.000]  [SPEAKER_11]: If you remember, in August, there was a teenager who stuck a note in his baggage stating that he did not have a bomb in the luggage.
[23:48.120 --> 23:54.500]  [SPEAKER_11]: He checked this bag through the airport and was accused of writing a bomb threat.
[23:55.040 --> 23:59.240]  [SPEAKER_11]: Apparently, saying you don't have a bomb is the same as saying you do have a bomb.
[23:59.540 --> 24:00.820]  [SPEAKER_11]: The courts agreed.
[24:00.980 --> 24:09.160]  [SPEAKER_11]: And he was, in late November, given 50 hours of community service and required to write an apology to the Transportation Security Administration.
[24:09.620 --> 24:12.860]  [SPEAKER_03]: Well, you know, I don't want to start another big, like, you know, to-do about this.
[24:12.960 --> 24:18.920]  [SPEAKER_03]: But I have to say, I have to say, I think that's incredibly stupid to be writing notes to anybody, mentioning bombs anywhere.
[24:18.920 --> 24:30.780]  [SPEAKER_03]: I mean, if you know they're going to be searching your luggage, you know, it's probably best not to mention certain words, like, you know, if you put a big note in there saying, guess what, I am not a terrorist, blah, blah, blah, you know, you just might provoke a reaction.
[24:31.400 --> 24:34.220]  [SPEAKER_03]: Of course, you'll be cleared of wrongdoing in the end, but...
[24:34.220 --> 24:34.820]  [SPEAKER_11]: Well, not this too.
[24:34.820 --> 24:37.340]  [SPEAKER_03]: ...you're going to wind up delaying yourself and having your whole investigation started.
[24:37.740 --> 24:39.520]  [SPEAKER_03]: I don't know, I just think there's better ways of making a point.
[24:39.520 --> 24:48.940]  [SPEAKER_03]: Now, if this person had instead said that, you know, searching my bag is a violation of my rights, and, you know, said something along those lines, fine.
[24:49.740 --> 24:57.080]  [SPEAKER_03]: But just by bringing up the whole terrorism and bomb thing, that just provokes a reaction that is very hard to stop.
[24:57.940 --> 24:58.720]  [SPEAKER_11]: All right, then.
[25:02.360 --> 25:02.760]  [SPEAKER_11]: So...
[25:02.760 --> 25:10.040]  [SPEAKER_03]: But, you know, on the note, because this brings up the whole, what was it, suspected terrorist button that people were wearing a few months ago?
[25:10.060 --> 25:11.980]  [SPEAKER_11]: I thought we were done talking about that on the show.
[25:12.260 --> 25:32.000]  [SPEAKER_03]: I'm just mentioning something, that we had an idea, because people are talking about air marshals on flights now, that they're basically, the United States is requiring certain countries to have armed air marshals, and we thought it would be a fun idea to have a button saying suspected air marshal,
[25:32.160 --> 25:33.460]  [SPEAKER_03]: and people could wear.
[25:33.760 --> 25:35.280]  [SPEAKER_11]: You'll never be heard from again.
[25:35.940 --> 25:38.680]  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, because, you know, it's the kind of thing you sort of have to keep secret.
[25:39.760 --> 25:42.060]  [SPEAKER_13]: Well, the reaction is mixed, according to the AP.
[25:42.260 --> 25:44.740]  [SPEAKER_13]: How about buttons that say, I am not an air marshal?
[25:46.540 --> 25:48.880]  [SPEAKER_03]: That's, yeah, that could be interesting, too.
[25:48.960 --> 25:52.200]  [SPEAKER_03]: You could spread a whole long discussion on a flight with that.
[25:52.340 --> 25:53.500]  [SPEAKER_13]: The air marshals would buy them.
[25:56.060 --> 25:59.140]  [SPEAKER_03]: The guy who gets angry and tells you to take off the button, that's the air marshal.
[26:01.120 --> 26:06.080]  [SPEAKER_11]: Personally, I'm just as afraid of the air marshals as I am of anything else, but that's just me.
[26:08.000 --> 26:09.240]  [SPEAKER_13]: So, what shall we do now?
[26:10.380 --> 26:12.560]  [SPEAKER_03]: Actually, I have another story I just picked up off the floor.
[26:14.580 --> 26:16.540]  [SPEAKER_11]: This one is not on the street below.
[26:16.540 --> 26:17.640]  [SPEAKER_03]: No, I wish this was on video.
[26:17.740 --> 26:26.760]  [SPEAKER_03]: I really do, because the conditions I'm dealing with right now on top of the freezing roof in the middle of a war-torn in Amsterdam is nothing to be believed.
[26:27.240 --> 26:27.880]  [SPEAKER_03]: Take a picture.
[26:28.220 --> 26:28.940]  [SPEAKER_19]: Take a picture.
[26:28.940 --> 26:29.720]  [SPEAKER_19]: Put it on the website.
[26:30.500 --> 26:37.660]  [SPEAKER_03]: I owe it to our listeners to stay outside, I think, and just bring them to the experiences that they can ever experience.
[26:37.700 --> 26:39.420]  [SPEAKER_13]: Reporting on the scuds falling, huh?
[26:40.120 --> 26:41.260]  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, it's almost like that.
[26:41.400 --> 26:50.000]  [SPEAKER_03]: You know, if you look up in the sky, you see all kinds of tracers and all kinds of different rocket-propelled fireworks going up there.
[26:50.820 --> 27:05.240]  [SPEAKER_03]: A story I read today, actually, from Reuters, saying that the Verizon Wireless and Vodafone Group have reached an agreement that's going to let their customers send text messages via mobile telephones back and forth across the Atlantic Ocean.
[27:05.280 --> 27:10.720]  [SPEAKER_03]: Of course, this is old news for those of us with GSM who can send messages back and forth with impunity.
[27:11.120 --> 27:14.420]  [SPEAKER_03]: In fact, that's how I've been communicating with people back home.
[27:14.560 --> 27:22.400]  [SPEAKER_03]: It's a lot cheaper than making phone calls, and it's a lot easier than being on the Internet because, well, you can send an SMS message from anywhere.
[27:23.080 --> 27:26.260]  [SPEAKER_03]: But apparently Verizon Wireless is...
[27:26.260 --> 27:28.780]  [SPEAKER_03]: Well, they're not a GSM company.
[27:28.900 --> 27:30.100]  [SPEAKER_03]: They use CDMA.
[27:30.840 --> 27:33.160]  [SPEAKER_03]: Vodafone, however, over here uses GSM.
[27:33.660 --> 27:38.220]  [SPEAKER_03]: So basically what they've figured out is through a company, a U.S.
[27:38.260 --> 27:44.960]  [SPEAKER_03]: company called InfoMatch, which for some reason spells Info, I-N-P-H-O, I guess because that's similar to phone.
[27:45.680 --> 27:49.460]  [SPEAKER_03]: Well, they're going to handle conversion of the messages between networks.
[27:50.160 --> 27:53.440]  [SPEAKER_03]: Verizon said in testing, conversion and delivery happen within seconds.
[27:53.980 --> 28:04.800]  [SPEAKER_03]: Now, it's interesting because we've been experimenting here on the radio show with text messaging between Sprint PCS and various GSM companies such as T-Mobile.
[28:05.140 --> 28:11.580]  [SPEAKER_03]: I believe, Mike, you use Sprint PCS to this day and I'm able to message you very easily from my GSM phone.
[28:11.580 --> 28:15.700]  [SPEAKER_11]: Yes, I'm not able to retrieve the message easily, but it is possible.
[28:16.560 --> 28:17.700]  [SPEAKER_03]: I'm sorry, it was a mortar.
[28:17.820 --> 28:18.300]  [SPEAKER_03]: I didn't hear you.
[28:18.720 --> 28:26.040]  [SPEAKER_11]: I was saying that you may be able to send the message easily, but the Sprint PCS process for retrieving the message is anything but.
[28:26.560 --> 28:34.220]  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, no, you're right about that because you have to enter the Sprint PCS wireless web world or something like that and pay a premium price.
[28:35.000 --> 28:35.200]  [SPEAKER_11]: Yeah.
[28:36.400 --> 28:43.220]  [SPEAKER_11]: They have this button called the wireless web, which is, I don't even know, I don't think, it means about eight different things.
[28:43.320 --> 28:47.660]  [SPEAKER_11]: So if you call Sprint PCS and ask for the wireless web, you're liable to get the wrong one.
[28:48.400 --> 28:57.100]  [SPEAKER_11]: But if you go into the correct one, it's this very slow service and they're charging you by the minute, the whole time that you're typing or receiving messages.
[28:57.760 --> 29:02.200]  [SPEAKER_11]: And it's just the worst implementation of SMS anyone ever heard of.
[29:04.240 --> 29:06.060]  [SPEAKER_03]: There's another story today, actually, too.
[29:06.340 --> 29:07.360]  [SPEAKER_03]: Actually, no, this isn't from today.
[29:07.360 --> 29:08.500]  [SPEAKER_03]: This is from a couple of weeks ago.
[29:09.020 --> 29:15.680]  [SPEAKER_03]: But it concerns the chief of Blockbuster calling for an end to region codes.
[29:15.820 --> 29:23.940]  [SPEAKER_03]: Region codes being the artificial controls on DVDs that prevent people from seeing videos in different countries.
[29:26.420 --> 29:33.280]  [SPEAKER_03]: Basically, for instance, I will see something over here that I really like on BBC or something like that and I want to get a DVD of it.
[29:33.440 --> 29:39.740]  [SPEAKER_03]: But theoretically, I can't do that in the United States because it's a different region code and it will probably never be released in the United States.
[29:40.440 --> 29:47.200]  [SPEAKER_03]: So I don't quite know what the logic behind that is and what they expect people to do except maybe remain completely isolated forever from other cultures.
[29:47.880 --> 29:54.420]  [SPEAKER_03]: But the guy here seems to finally be realizing that region coding is just a very bad idea.
[29:56.400 --> 29:57.360]  [SPEAKER_03]: He basically...
[29:57.360 --> 30:03.120]  [SPEAKER_03]: Nigel Travis is the Blockbuster Video president and he was at a recent European video conference.
[30:03.360 --> 30:10.640]  [SPEAKER_03]: He called for the end of DVD region coding and he says that ending DVD region coding could actually decrease video piracy.
[30:10.840 --> 30:16.880]  [SPEAKER_03]: He outlined the logic of his position by pointing out holes in the region code scheme such as growing market for code-free DVD players.
[30:17.620 --> 30:24.820]  [SPEAKER_03]: And this is the first indication by someone considered a part of the video establishment to publicly come out against DVD region coding.
[30:25.200 --> 30:27.560]  [SPEAKER_03]: So that comes from the Hollywood Reporter.
[30:28.800 --> 30:30.160]  [SPEAKER_03]: And I think it's interesting.
[30:30.260 --> 30:32.160]  [SPEAKER_03]: I think a lot of people are finally waking up to this.
[30:33.020 --> 30:35.640]  [SPEAKER_03]: It's a stupid restriction to have.
[30:35.640 --> 30:37.520]  [SPEAKER_03]: It's great to see things from other countries.
[30:38.920 --> 30:40.840]  [SPEAKER_03]: And it doesn't really serve any purpose.
[30:42.260 --> 30:44.360]  [SPEAKER_11]: Never stopped the entertainment industry before.
[30:47.560 --> 30:50.260]  [SPEAKER_11]: Do you have any other news stories or have they all fallen off?
[30:50.260 --> 30:52.080]  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I do.
[30:52.340 --> 30:52.960]  [SPEAKER_03]: Hang on.
[30:53.100 --> 30:55.020]  [SPEAKER_03]: It's funny how I'm the one on the roof in Amsterdam.
[30:55.240 --> 30:56.240]  [SPEAKER_03]: I've got all the news stories.
[30:56.620 --> 30:58.920]  [SPEAKER_03]: You guys have a nice, clean studio there.
[31:01.600 --> 31:02.600]  [SPEAKER_03]: All right, hold on.
[31:03.100 --> 31:06.180]  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, there's a story that came out today actually about cyber blackmail.
[31:06.260 --> 31:07.080]  [SPEAKER_03]: Anybody read about this?
[31:07.760 --> 31:08.880]  [SPEAKER_11]: I heard about it.
[31:08.940 --> 31:11.400]  [SPEAKER_11]: It seems incredibly dumb, but go on.
[31:11.860 --> 31:13.500]  [SPEAKER_03]: Well, cyber blackmail artists.
[31:14.960 --> 31:16.500]  [SPEAKER_03]: That's the newest catchphrase.
[31:16.500 --> 31:25.000]  [SPEAKER_03]: They're shaking down office workers threatening to delete computer files or install pornographic images on their work PCs unless they pay a ransom.
[31:25.280 --> 31:29.480]  [SPEAKER_03]: That's according to police and security experts.
[31:30.100 --> 31:31.480]  [SPEAKER_03]: And again, this comes from Reuters.
[31:31.700 --> 31:39.940]  [SPEAKER_03]: The extortion scam, which is believed to have surfaced one year ago, indiscriminately targets anyone on the corporate ladder with a PC connected to the Internet.
[31:39.940 --> 31:48.380]  [SPEAKER_03]: It usually starts with a threatening email in which the author claims to have the power to take over a worker's computer through an exploit in the corporate network.
[31:48.820 --> 32:00.720]  [SPEAKER_03]: The email typically contains a demand that unless a small fee is paid, usually about $20 or $30, they will attack the PC with a file-wiping program or download onto the machine images of child pornography.
[32:01.240 --> 32:03.520]  [SPEAKER_03]: Now, here's the part that's kind of hard to believe.
[32:04.120 --> 32:04.960]  [SPEAKER_03]: There's a quote.
[32:04.960 --> 32:08.340]  [SPEAKER_03]: They prey on the nice secretary who wouldn't do anything wrong.
[32:08.400 --> 32:12.560]  [SPEAKER_03]: When she gets one of these emails, she thinks, oh my goodness, what am I going to do?
[32:12.840 --> 32:20.040]  [SPEAKER_03]: So she puts it on her credit card and transfers the funds to the suspect's online bank account in the hopes it goes away.
[32:20.280 --> 32:23.880]  [SPEAKER_03]: That's according to a British detective specializing in cybercrime.
[32:25.500 --> 32:31.000]  [SPEAKER_03]: And of course, the goal is here, they come back many times and demanding more money.
[32:31.480 --> 32:36.200]  [SPEAKER_03]: It just seems like the kind of scenario that people dream up.
[32:36.600 --> 32:37.580]  [SPEAKER_03]: Saying, you know, what if?
[32:37.620 --> 32:41.220]  [SPEAKER_03]: So this is something that would make a good TV show or something like that.
[32:41.420 --> 32:42.500]  [SPEAKER_03]: I don't know, I've never heard of this.
[32:42.580 --> 32:43.500]  [SPEAKER_03]: I've heard of all kinds of things.
[32:43.580 --> 32:44.840]  [SPEAKER_03]: I've heard about the Nigerian scam.
[32:45.220 --> 32:52.260]  [SPEAKER_03]: You know, all kinds of different Internet hoaxes and, you know, ridiculous waste of time.
[32:52.360 --> 32:53.660]  [SPEAKER_03]: I've never heard of anything quite like this.
[32:53.940 --> 32:55.580]  [SPEAKER_03]: I don't know, you guys ever hear of anything like that?
[32:55.580 --> 33:04.940]  [SPEAKER_13]: It sounds incredibly fake because the way it's described, there's an, well, this is going to sound silly, electronic paper trail, so to speak.
[33:05.560 --> 33:10.560]  [SPEAKER_13]: She takes it on her credit card and gives it to this guy's electronic account.
[33:12.060 --> 33:14.200]  [SPEAKER_13]: Isn't the guy thereby traceable?
[33:14.600 --> 33:18.280]  [SPEAKER_13]: The cyber blackmail artist, as the phrase goes.
[33:19.140 --> 33:20.060]  [SPEAKER_13]: It's absurd.
[33:20.720 --> 33:21.280]  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
[33:21.860 --> 33:26.380]  [SPEAKER_03]: Hey, we have RedHackt here, who also is in Amsterdam and is also now standing on a balcony.
[33:27.200 --> 33:32.220]  [SPEAKER_03]: And I'm going to hand over the phone to you for a second so he can give you his impressions.
[33:32.380 --> 33:37.840]  [SPEAKER_03]: I should warn you, RedHackt, that the audio here is very low, so you might have to listen above all the bombings that are going on around here.
[33:38.280 --> 33:38.820]  [SPEAKER_03]: All right, hang on.
[33:38.920 --> 33:39.580]  [SPEAKER_03]: Here's RedHackt.
[33:39.920 --> 33:40.860]  [SPEAKER_11]: Hello, RedHackt.
[33:40.880 --> 33:41.080]  [SPEAKER_03]: Hello.
[33:41.660 --> 33:42.000]  [SPEAKER_03]: How are you?
[33:42.140 --> 33:42.820]  [SPEAKER_03]: Happy New Year's, everyone.
[33:43.900 --> 33:44.480]  [SPEAKER_11]: To you, too?
[33:45.000 --> 33:46.240]  [SPEAKER_11]: What's going on in Amsterdam?
[33:46.940 --> 33:49.920]  [SPEAKER_02]: Well, there's a lot of crits sort of quieted down now.
[33:49.920 --> 33:54.060]  [SPEAKER_02]: Well, there's still fireworks going off in the distance, people in the streets.
[33:54.900 --> 33:58.560]  [SPEAKER_02]: It's still a party, but it's calmed down a bit.
[33:58.940 --> 34:01.460]  [SPEAKER_02]: We went to New Market Square to see.
[34:01.580 --> 34:03.700]  [SPEAKER_02]: There's no professional fireworks show or anything here.
[34:03.700 --> 34:06.320]  [SPEAKER_02]: It's just all amateur, but it was amazing.
[34:06.600 --> 34:14.300]  [SPEAKER_02]: There were tons of people in the square shooting off fireworks that they'd bought from here and other countries surrounding here.
[34:15.160 --> 34:15.860]  [SPEAKER_11]: All right.
[34:16.480 --> 34:17.320]  [SPEAKER_02]: It was interesting.
[34:19.420 --> 34:21.500]  [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, so that's what's happening in Amsterdam.
[34:22.280 --> 34:26.500]  [SPEAKER_02]: I'm a little behind on what you've been talking about because the stream is about two and a half minutes delayed.
[34:27.040 --> 34:27.560]  [SPEAKER_11]: Uh-huh.
[34:27.740 --> 34:29.200]  [SPEAKER_11]: You should pick us up on shortwave.
[34:30.040 --> 34:30.700]  [SPEAKER_02]: Good try.
[34:31.720 --> 34:34.220]  [SPEAKER_02]: All right, so I guess I'll hand you back to Emmanuel then.
[34:34.360 --> 34:34.720]  [SPEAKER_11]: All right.
[34:34.940 --> 34:35.700]  [SPEAKER_11]: Good talking to you.
[34:35.900 --> 34:36.140]  [SPEAKER_02]: Bye.
[34:36.540 --> 34:44.400]  [SPEAKER_03]: We also have Mish here, who is also standing on the balcony observing the goings-on in the street here.
[34:45.400 --> 34:47.460]  [SPEAKER_03]: Mish, have you ever seen anything like this in your life?
[34:48.800 --> 34:51.820]  [SPEAKER_20]: I have honestly seen nothing like this in my life.
[34:52.020 --> 34:53.560]  [SPEAKER_20]: It's, um...
[34:53.560 --> 34:54.760]  [SPEAKER_20]: I'm just looking down the street.
[34:55.040 --> 34:56.540]  [SPEAKER_20]: It's as bright as daylight.
[34:57.140 --> 35:01.600]  [SPEAKER_20]: Um, and just there's tons of people walking around, fireworks going off in all...
[35:01.600 --> 35:02.300]  [SPEAKER_20]: Whoa.
[35:02.560 --> 35:03.520]  [SPEAKER_20]: In all directions.
[35:04.020 --> 35:06.520]  [SPEAKER_20]: Um, I can't imagine anything like this in New York.
[35:07.040 --> 35:08.040]  [SPEAKER_20]: Uh, it's great.
[35:09.380 --> 35:09.880]  Whoa.
[35:10.240 --> 35:10.840]  [SPEAKER_19]: All right.
[35:11.280 --> 35:14.080]  [SPEAKER_19]: How does it compare to Chinatown on Chinese New Year's?
[35:14.400 --> 35:15.540]  [SPEAKER_19]: Uh, excuse me?
[35:15.760 --> 35:18.640]  [SPEAKER_19]: How does it compare to Chinatown on Chinese New Year's?
[35:18.980 --> 35:27.320]  [SPEAKER_20]: Uh, I've unfortunately never been able to go down there during the fireworks displays, but I would say that it's even...
[35:27.320 --> 35:28.680]  [SPEAKER_20]: there's even more people around.
[35:29.320 --> 35:30.680]  [SPEAKER_20]: Um, it's...
[35:30.680 --> 35:31.260]  [SPEAKER_20]: it's...
[35:31.260 --> 35:33.920]  [SPEAKER_20]: the thing is, it's in the city center.
[35:34.480 --> 35:38.420]  [SPEAKER_20]: Um, and everyone in the entire city is involved in something like this.
[35:38.780 --> 35:40.160]  [SPEAKER_20]: Um, which is...
[35:40.160 --> 35:41.760]  [SPEAKER_20]: which is really unique.
[35:47.940 --> 35:48.460]  [SPEAKER_20]: Um...
[35:48.460 --> 35:48.820]  [SPEAKER_11]: Um...
[35:48.820 --> 35:49.180]  [SPEAKER_11]: Anything else?
[35:51.800 --> 35:52.320]  [SPEAKER_20]: I...
[35:52.320 --> 35:52.580]  [SPEAKER_20]: I...
[35:53.020 --> 35:55.280]  [SPEAKER_20]: I guess I'll hand you back to Emmanuel now.
[35:55.720 --> 35:56.240]  [SPEAKER_10]: Um...
[35:56.240 --> 35:56.720]  [SPEAKER_20]: All right.
[35:57.440 --> 35:58.360]  [SPEAKER_20]: Sorry, I...
[35:58.360 --> 36:01.300]  [SPEAKER_20]: the phone here is really low, but, uh, hold on.
[36:04.800 --> 36:05.540]  [SPEAKER_11]: I'm back.
[36:05.680 --> 36:14.780]  [SPEAKER_11]: You know, all your Dutch friends have such fancy telephones that can't do simple things like hear the person on the other end and pick up an extension and...
[36:15.600 --> 36:16.760]  [SPEAKER_03]: Well, you know, I'm not...
[36:16.760 --> 36:19.760]  [SPEAKER_03]: I have a feeling this is on DAI's end because, uh, this...
[36:19.760 --> 36:22.040]  [SPEAKER_03]: this phone works fine, usually.
[36:22.760 --> 36:24.840]  [SPEAKER_03]: And, um, with the steering very low audio.
[36:25.080 --> 36:25.420]  [SPEAKER_03]: And, um...
[36:25.420 --> 36:29.760]  [SPEAKER_03]: And FSRN, actually, I was listening to that before, and it was coming through pretty loud, so...
[36:29.760 --> 36:33.760]  [SPEAKER_03]: there might be some setting in the board that, uh, just needs to be boosted or something like that.
[36:33.860 --> 36:34.260]  [SPEAKER_03]: But that's...
[36:34.260 --> 36:35.700]  [SPEAKER_03]: that's a topic for another time.
[36:36.400 --> 36:38.220]  [SPEAKER_03]: So it's a good hearing test for me right now.
[36:38.400 --> 36:40.520]  [SPEAKER_11]: We'll review our settings and, uh...
[36:40.520 --> 36:40.920]  [SPEAKER_13]: Yeah.
[36:41.260 --> 36:42.800]  [SPEAKER_13]: What term do we have over there in New York?
[36:42.800 --> 36:45.280]  [SPEAKER_13]: It's 7.36 and 22 seconds.
[36:45.820 --> 36:49.020]  [SPEAKER_03]: Well, then, I think it's time to, uh, to go to the phones, uh, as, um...
[36:49.020 --> 36:50.720]  [SPEAKER_03]: New Year's approaches in New York.
[36:50.940 --> 36:53.140]  [SPEAKER_03]: A little over four hours to go before 2004.
[36:53.660 --> 36:56.780]  [SPEAKER_03]: Still, I haven't seen much of a difference in 2004 and 2003.
[36:56.900 --> 36:57.720]  [SPEAKER_03]: I'm continuing to look.
[36:58.220 --> 36:58.940]  [SPEAKER_03]: I'm not getting up yet.
[36:58.940 --> 37:02.140]  [SPEAKER_11]: A bit more fireworks than yesterday at this time?
[37:02.340 --> 37:02.580]  [SPEAKER_03]: Uh, no, the fireworks...
[37:02.580 --> 37:04.020]  [SPEAKER_03]: 2003 began the same way.
[37:04.080 --> 37:08.320]  [SPEAKER_03]: I was here last year at this time, and it began, uh, the same way with the fireworks.
[37:08.500 --> 37:11.920]  [SPEAKER_03]: So it looks like, you know, 2004 is going to be a repeat of 2003.
[37:11.920 --> 37:12.980]  [SPEAKER_03]: I mean, I hope not.
[37:13.200 --> 37:14.520]  [SPEAKER_13]: Well, Saturn's rings.
[37:14.800 --> 37:14.960]  [SPEAKER_03]: Oh, great.
[37:15.060 --> 37:16.460]  [SPEAKER_03]: Someone just shot a bottle rocket up here.
[37:17.680 --> 37:18.540]  [SPEAKER_03]: Hang on a second.
[37:18.580 --> 37:19.540]  [SPEAKER_03]: Where did that go?
[37:20.380 --> 37:21.180]  [SPEAKER_10]: Our phone...
[37:21.180 --> 37:22.020]  [SPEAKER_03]: I just saw...
[37:22.720 --> 37:27.820]  [SPEAKER_03]: I just saw the streak of sparks go hurtling right past us.
[37:28.100 --> 37:30.240]  [SPEAKER_03]: And I guess it never actually exploded.
[37:30.380 --> 37:30.880]  [SPEAKER_03]: Okay, that's good.
[37:31.020 --> 37:31.760]  [SPEAKER_11]: Try not to get hit.
[37:31.900 --> 37:32.580]  [SPEAKER_11]: Our phone number here...
[37:32.580 --> 37:33.980]  [SPEAKER_03]: Don't try that again, whoever you are.
[37:34.040 --> 37:40.380]  [SPEAKER_11]: You know, our phone number, if I can get it right this week, is 1-2-1-2-2-0-9-2-9-100.
[37:41.300 --> 37:43.620]  [SPEAKER_03]: Actually, Mike, the 1 is not part of the phone number.
[37:43.740 --> 37:46.360]  [SPEAKER_03]: It's just something stupid that we have to dial for some reason.
[37:46.580 --> 37:48.940]  [SPEAKER_11]: If you're calling from out of the country, you have to press 1.
[37:49.420 --> 37:49.960]  [SPEAKER_03]: That's true.
[37:50.080 --> 37:53.860]  [SPEAKER_03]: Well, you actually have to press probably 0-0 to dial overseas and then 1.
[37:54.800 --> 37:55.460]  [SPEAKER_03]: Or whatever.
[37:55.780 --> 37:58.460]  [SPEAKER_03]: You know, if you're on a PBX, you might even have to dial 9 or something to get out.
[37:58.460 --> 38:01.760]  [SPEAKER_13]: Just ignore our advice and do what you normally would do to dial our number.
[38:02.260 --> 38:05.480]  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, let's dial the number and we especially like to hear from new callers.
[38:05.620 --> 38:11.440]  [SPEAKER_03]: Not that we're tired of the old callers, like not most of them anyway, but we certainly want to hear what you're doing this New Year's Eve.
[38:11.560 --> 38:12.960]  [SPEAKER_03]: Why in God's name are you listening to the radio?
[38:13.160 --> 38:16.740]  [SPEAKER_03]: Of course we know why because, you know, we like family here.
[38:17.040 --> 38:18.840]  [SPEAKER_19]: Because Off the Hook is a great show.
[38:18.940 --> 38:21.660]  [SPEAKER_19]: We're here on WBAI, New York, 99.5 FM.
[38:21.840 --> 38:22.820]  [SPEAKER_11]: All right, we have...
[38:22.820 --> 38:24.320]  [SPEAKER_11]: Oh, we don't have that caller.
[38:24.680 --> 38:25.380]  [SPEAKER_11]: Let's try...
[38:25.380 --> 38:26.400]  [SPEAKER_03]: Ken, you're a great engineer.
[38:26.580 --> 38:27.400]  [SPEAKER_03]: It's good to have you with us.
[38:27.500 --> 38:28.620]  [SPEAKER_11]: Let's try this caller.
[38:29.140 --> 38:35.280]  [SPEAKER_18]: Yeah, I think I have the answer for you on why almanacs are particularly suspicious.
[38:35.660 --> 38:35.880]  [SPEAKER_10]: Okay.
[38:35.980 --> 38:36.860]  [SPEAKER_18]: Do you have an almanac?
[38:36.960 --> 38:42.940]  [SPEAKER_18]: This was revealed this morning on Wake Up Call by our analyst, Richard Eric Helian.
[38:43.460 --> 38:48.040]  [SPEAKER_18]: The word almanac is derived from the Arabic or calendar.
[38:50.740 --> 38:56.620]  [SPEAKER_03]: Okay, you know, you just gave me a great idea to have a terrorist group called almanac or whatever.
[38:57.640 --> 39:00.080]  [SPEAKER_18]: I'm sure the immune is taking this and running with it.
[39:00.540 --> 39:03.020]  [SPEAKER_18]: Alcohol is also derived from the Arabic, so Happy New Year.
[39:03.120 --> 39:05.240]  [SPEAKER_13]: So they shouldn't be selling booze on planes either.
[39:05.680 --> 39:06.500]  [SPEAKER_18]: All right, stay tuned.
[39:06.660 --> 39:07.520]  [SPEAKER_11]: All right, thank you.
[39:07.600 --> 39:08.160]  [SPEAKER_11]: Thanks for calling.
[39:08.480 --> 39:08.960]  [SPEAKER_11]: Thanks, Fred.
[39:09.460 --> 39:12.340]  [SPEAKER_11]: All right, we have one other caller over here.
[39:12.440 --> 39:12.600]  [SPEAKER_11]: Hello?
[39:12.600 --> 39:25.480]  [SPEAKER_17]: Yes, I'm wondering if I called in to a station in Amsterdam about Mayor Bloomberg smoking pot or would I have been, you know, denied my freedom of speech to discuss it?
[39:26.180 --> 39:27.540]  [SPEAKER_13]: We have no idea.
[39:27.720 --> 39:29.340]  [SPEAKER_13]: We don't work for a station in Amsterdam.
[39:29.600 --> 39:30.980]  [SPEAKER_13]: We are not in a station in Amsterdam.
[39:31.280 --> 39:41.020]  [SPEAKER_17]: And you should be listening to the radio over there and give us a report on the nature of listener-supported non-commercialality in Europe.
[39:41.020 --> 39:46.960]  [SPEAKER_03]: He could be in the year 3050 and Monroe would call up and claim that his rights were being violated by somebody doing another thing.
[39:46.960 --> 39:49.440]  [SPEAKER_03]: Well, I think you should be more concerned about it.
[39:49.800 --> 39:54.740]  [SPEAKER_17]: You should be concerned you talk about 1984 and what's your name?
[39:54.860 --> 39:55.880]  [SPEAKER_17]: Emmanuel Goldstein?
[39:56.100 --> 39:57.720]  [SPEAKER_17]: You took it because of 1984.
[39:58.420 --> 39:59.220]  [SPEAKER_03]: 20 years ago.
[39:59.440 --> 40:01.140]  [SPEAKER_03]: Okay, what do you mean 20 years ago?
[40:01.500 --> 40:05.600]  [SPEAKER_17]: We're going to have a 2084 coming up soon with a military state.
[40:06.080 --> 40:07.520]  [SPEAKER_17]: You know what it's going to be like?
[40:08.560 --> 40:10.780]  [SPEAKER_17]: It's going to be like not to use them.
[40:12.220 --> 40:12.500]  [SPEAKER_03]: All right.
[40:12.580 --> 40:15.580]  [SPEAKER_03]: Well, if we ever violate your rights on our radio show, you let us know about it.
[40:15.740 --> 40:16.200]  [SPEAKER_03]: Let us know.
[40:16.280 --> 40:17.360]  [SPEAKER_03]: Let another radio show know.
[40:17.480 --> 40:20.860]  [SPEAKER_03]: But let's move on and talk about stuff that's going on on this radio program.
[40:20.980 --> 40:21.080]  [SPEAKER_11]: We'll do that.
[40:21.840 --> 40:23.120]  [SPEAKER_11]: And we have another caller.
[40:23.240 --> 40:23.400]  [SPEAKER_11]: Hello.
[40:23.840 --> 40:24.160]  [SPEAKER_07]: Hi.
[40:24.320 --> 40:25.480]  [SPEAKER_07]: This is Big Bertha.
[40:25.700 --> 40:26.440]  [SPEAKER_07]: Hi, Emmanuel.
[40:26.900 --> 40:27.620]  [SPEAKER_03]: Hey, how you doing?
[40:28.800 --> 40:37.680]  [SPEAKER_07]: I just want to send my greetings out to all the people at 2600 and announce that I'm back on the web and I'm no longer Street Homeless.
[40:38.080 --> 40:38.920]  [SPEAKER_07]: I'm in New York.
[40:38.920 --> 40:45.080]  [SPEAKER_07]: Rosophilia, R-O-S-A-P-H-I-L-I-A at webtv.net.
[40:45.640 --> 40:53.200]  [SPEAKER_07]: And I'm going to be at the January 4th dumpster dive if I can make it.
[40:53.500 --> 40:58.760]  [SPEAKER_07]: But I'm pretty much losing my dexterity and parts of my vision.
[40:59.300 --> 41:02.300]  [SPEAKER_07]: So if there's anyone out there who...
[41:02.300 --> 41:05.800]  [SPEAKER_07]: I have three computers that I dumpster dive that don't seem to work.
[41:05.800 --> 41:14.780]  [SPEAKER_07]: if there's anyone out there that likes extremely rotund short women are willing to exchange certain...
[41:14.780 --> 41:16.380]  [SPEAKER_03]: Maybe it's the way you said it.
[41:17.400 --> 41:25.880]  [SPEAKER_07]: Certain odd proclivities and favors in exchange for someone getting my computers up.
[41:26.480 --> 41:28.580]  [SPEAKER_03]: There's the back page of the Village Voice.
[41:29.360 --> 41:33.380]  [SPEAKER_07]: Well, this is much more efficient and there's an international audience.
[41:33.980 --> 41:34.920]  [SPEAKER_03]: Oh, that's true.
[41:35.000 --> 41:35.360]  [SPEAKER_03]: That's true.
[41:35.380 --> 41:38.020]  [SPEAKER_03]: Except people would have to fly into New York I would imagine.
[41:38.880 --> 41:39.960]  [SPEAKER_07]: Some may choose to.
[41:40.380 --> 41:41.420]  [SPEAKER_07]: I may be worth it.
[41:41.980 --> 41:43.060]  [SPEAKER_07]: I may be worth it.
[41:43.540 --> 41:44.040]  [SPEAKER_07]: Well, I'll...
[41:44.820 --> 41:46.080]  [SPEAKER_03]: How do people contact you?
[41:46.540 --> 41:53.580]  [SPEAKER_07]: Rosa Celia R-O-S-A-P-H-I-L-I-A at WebTV.net I want...
[41:53.580 --> 41:59.060]  [SPEAKER_07]: Actually, I walk with a can and I'm going freaking blind due to the blood pressure problems and stuff.
[41:59.260 --> 42:01.380]  [SPEAKER_07]: But I did get an apartment in the projects.
[42:01.540 --> 42:01.780]  [SPEAKER_07]: Yay!
[42:02.220 --> 42:03.500]  [SPEAKER_07]: And I got it for my job.
[42:03.560 --> 42:03.620]  [SPEAKER_07]: Congratulations.
[42:04.000 --> 42:04.520]  [SPEAKER_07]: Thank you.
[42:04.840 --> 42:05.160]  [SPEAKER_07]: All right.
[42:05.260 --> 42:06.100]  [SPEAKER_07]: Let's move on to the next call.
[42:06.420 --> 42:06.820]  [SPEAKER_11]: All right.
[42:07.140 --> 42:08.280]  [SPEAKER_11]: No one's calling us.
[42:08.560 --> 42:11.800]  [SPEAKER_03]: You know, did you hear that one of the co-founders of WebTV died at the age of 39?
[42:12.300 --> 42:13.160]  [SPEAKER_11]: I did not hear that.
[42:13.180 --> 42:14.520]  [SPEAKER_03]: I just read that in the paper.
[42:15.480 --> 42:16.420]  [SPEAKER_03]: Pretty shocking news.
[42:16.520 --> 42:16.980]  [SPEAKER_03]: That's a shame.
[42:17.780 --> 42:18.520]  [SPEAKER_11]: No one's calling?
[42:18.700 --> 42:20.000]  [SPEAKER_11]: I guess everyone's not having fun, huh?
[42:20.080 --> 42:21.040]  [SPEAKER_11]: Yeah, well, they should be.
[42:21.580 --> 42:22.440]  [SPEAKER_11]: But we have a call.
[42:22.560 --> 42:23.200]  [SPEAKER_11]: We have a caller.
[42:23.520 --> 42:24.500]  [SPEAKER_11]: No, we don't have a caller.
[42:24.560 --> 42:25.240]  [SPEAKER_03]: No, we have a dial tone.
[42:25.520 --> 42:28.200]  [SPEAKER_03]: I'm freezing my ass off here on a balcony in Amsterdam.
[42:28.420 --> 42:33.740]  [SPEAKER_03]: The least people can do is call in the radio program because I'm sacrificing my help to do this.
[42:33.900 --> 42:36.300]  [SPEAKER_13]: There's a European invention called Indoors.
[42:37.620 --> 42:40.120]  [SPEAKER_11]: I don't think it's a European invention.
[42:41.300 --> 42:42.260]  [SPEAKER_11]: We have a caller.
[42:42.380 --> 42:42.560]  [SPEAKER_11]: Hello.
[42:43.380 --> 42:43.620]  [SPEAKER_15]: Hello.
[42:43.960 --> 42:47.220]  [SPEAKER_15]: I wanted to call and wish 2,600 and Emmanuel.
[42:48.000 --> 42:48.760]  [SPEAKER_15]: Happy New Year.
[42:48.940 --> 42:49.860]  [SPEAKER_15]: Thanks for all the hard work.
[42:49.960 --> 42:52.220]  [SPEAKER_15]: We're looking forward to the next convention.
[42:53.180 --> 42:53.800]  [SPEAKER_15]: Thank you, guys.
[42:54.520 --> 42:55.140]  [SPEAKER_13]: Thanks for listening.
[42:55.400 --> 42:56.060]  [SPEAKER_13]: Thank you very much.
[42:56.220 --> 42:59.860]  [SPEAKER_13]: And yes, the next Hope Convention will be later in July.
[43:00.220 --> 43:00.620]  [SPEAKER_13]: The, what?
[43:00.700 --> 43:01.820]  [SPEAKER_13]: The 9th, 10th, and 11th?
[43:01.820 --> 43:02.660]  [SPEAKER_03]: July 9th through 11th.
[43:02.740 --> 43:07.420]  [SPEAKER_03]: Yes, we'll have more details on that on our website probably right after the year changes.
[43:07.680 --> 43:08.880]  [SPEAKER_03]: So, stay tuned.
[43:09.260 --> 43:11.500]  [SPEAKER_03]: You will see information on that really, really soon.
[43:11.600 --> 43:12.660]  [SPEAKER_11]: Just spend your whole time.
[43:12.800 --> 43:15.180]  [SPEAKER_13]: You mean like five hours from now right after the year changes?
[43:15.240 --> 43:16.260]  [SPEAKER_03]: Not that close.
[43:16.380 --> 43:16.960]  [SPEAKER_03]: Not that close.
[43:17.120 --> 43:17.720]  [SPEAKER_03]: But soon.
[43:17.920 --> 43:18.040]  [SPEAKER_03]: Soon.
[43:18.160 --> 43:19.100]  [SPEAKER_03]: Within the next couple of weeks.
[43:19.240 --> 43:19.960]  [SPEAKER_03]: Ah, people are calling.
[43:20.400 --> 43:20.720]  [SPEAKER_19]: All right.
[43:21.040 --> 43:22.040]  [SPEAKER_19]: Emmanuel, I have a question.
[43:22.380 --> 43:22.780]  [SPEAKER_19]: Yes, go ahead.
[43:23.280 --> 43:27.800]  [SPEAKER_19]: Can you get a picture of the scene that you're in right now that you can put on your webpage?
[43:28.600 --> 43:34.160]  [SPEAKER_03]: There have been people coming around taking pictures so I'm sure we'll be able to do something like that if there's a demand for it.
[43:34.780 --> 43:35.120]  [SPEAKER_13]: Good.
[43:35.460 --> 43:36.220]  [SPEAKER_13]: I'd like to see it.
[43:36.300 --> 43:37.760]  [SPEAKER_13]: Yes, put it on the 2600 page.
[43:38.300 --> 43:42.060]  [SPEAKER_03]: And of course, you can email your demands to OTH at 2600.com.
[43:42.580 --> 43:44.880]  [SPEAKER_03]: We read everything that we receive.
[43:45.120 --> 44:00.900]  [SPEAKER_13]: Or you can cut up newspaper and glue it together to make your demands known and mail it to Off the Hook care of WBAI 120 Wall Street New York New York 1-0-0-0-0-0-0-0 United States of America.
[44:01.300 --> 44:02.020]  [SPEAKER_13]: That's right.
[44:02.840 --> 44:03.280]  [SPEAKER_11]: All right.
[44:03.500 --> 44:05.540]  [SPEAKER_11]: We have another caller who's on the air.
[44:06.700 --> 44:07.280]  [SPEAKER_06]: Happy New Year.
[44:07.420 --> 44:07.880]  [SPEAKER_06]: It's Bernie S.
[44:07.980 --> 44:08.400]  [SPEAKER_06]: in Philadelphia.
[44:08.640 --> 44:09.060]  [SPEAKER_06]: Bernie!
[44:11.920 --> 44:13.020]  [SPEAKER_06]: Great Saturday night.
[44:13.180 --> 44:14.620]  [SPEAKER_06]: I just wanted to ask Emmanuel.
[44:15.420 --> 44:18.860]  [SPEAKER_06]: You, you know, obviously you went to the CCC Congress this weekend.
[44:18.860 --> 44:21.240]  [SPEAKER_03]: Yes, and I know that you're not there this year.
[44:21.540 --> 44:22.240]  [SPEAKER_06]: Yes, I know.
[44:22.340 --> 44:24.400]  [SPEAKER_06]: Unfortunately, I had other obligations here in Philadelphia.
[44:24.880 --> 44:34.740]  [SPEAKER_06]: But I'm very interested in knowing what the what specific panel discussions or other interesting things went on at the Congress this year.
[44:35.140 --> 44:42.280]  [SPEAKER_03]: Well, there is a Cryptophone panel dealing with the Cryptophone that we talked about a few weeks ago.
[44:42.660 --> 44:43.860]  [SPEAKER_03]: Demonstrations of that.
[44:44.500 --> 44:47.540]  [SPEAKER_03]: The Blinking Lights was a big hit.
[44:48.220 --> 44:55.400]  [SPEAKER_03]: This was the first conference that was held right smack in the middle of Alexanderplatz instead of two year-bond stops away.
[44:56.360 --> 45:01.700]  [SPEAKER_03]: And what that means is that literally next door was the original Blinking Lights building.
[45:01.700 --> 45:16.880]  [SPEAKER_03]: Blinking Lights building being a tall structure kind of UN-shaped where all kinds of ASCII art was created by having a light switch turn on and off on each particular floor in each particular room.
[45:17.520 --> 45:28.880]  [SPEAKER_03]: So literally you could play a game of Pong by calling a special number using the 5 key to go up the 8 key to go down and you could play Pong on a huge office building in the middle of the city.
[45:29.180 --> 45:36.560]  [SPEAKER_03]: This is the kind of thing I'm talking about that you can do in various places in Europe that you could never even imagine doing in the States.
[45:36.600 --> 45:41.660]  [SPEAKER_03]: I mean, I shouldn't sound so pessimistic because it is New Year's we should be a little bit optimistic.
[45:42.300 --> 45:56.160]  [SPEAKER_03]: Back in 1989 when I saw the first Galactic Hacker Party in Amsterdam I remember saying how this could never happen in the United States and we did.
[45:56.340 --> 45:57.060]  [SPEAKER_03]: We did it.
[45:57.160 --> 45:57.840]  [SPEAKER_03]: We did it.
[45:59.300 --> 46:05.260]  [SPEAKER_03]: We made it happen just by getting people together and thinking of positive things to do.
[46:06.320 --> 46:11.260]  [SPEAKER_03]: So when we say that this kind of thing isn't possible it is possible.
[46:11.260 --> 46:12.880]  [SPEAKER_03]: We just need to work really hard at it.
[46:13.340 --> 46:21.000]  [SPEAKER_06]: I wondered if the perseverance and hard work that makes this sort of thing possible in this country just comes more naturally to people in Europe.
[46:21.060 --> 46:21.520]  [SPEAKER_06]: What do you think?
[46:22.340 --> 46:23.120]  [SPEAKER_03]: I'm sorry, I didn't hear what you said.
[46:23.300 --> 46:34.400]  [SPEAKER_06]: I said, well, as we know from the Hope series of conferences it takes a lot of perseverance and hard work and I'm wondering does that just seem to happen more easily for people in Europe?
[46:36.820 --> 46:41.620]  [SPEAKER_03]: It's hard to say because we're looking at that from the outside.
[46:41.620 --> 46:51.120]  [SPEAKER_03]: We're not part of the actual organizing structure of these particular conferences so we don't really know for sure what kinds of problems they...
[46:51.120 --> 46:53.420]  [SPEAKER_03]: I know that they had problems this time.
[46:53.420 --> 47:19.020]  [SPEAKER_03]: for instance the t-shirts didn't arrive which is a complete disaster for any conference not having the t-shirts arrive in time but incidentally if you were there you can order them through the ccc.de website but that's you know an indication that yeah sometimes things don't quite go the way you want them to I think that there is definitely a mood here in Berlin and various other places around here
[47:19.020 --> 47:43.720]  [SPEAKER_03]: of just being able to well because you have more support I guess from the structures around you from the city you know from the government you're not seen as the enemy you're not seen as terrorists you're seen as something positive and productive and yes you can get an office building in the middle of the city to light up for you you can do all kinds of things that would be looked upon with
[47:43.720 --> 47:55.740]  [SPEAKER_03]: suspicion and hostility in the states but that's not to say that that mood can't change I mean look how much the mood in our country has changed Okay, it's changed in a very bad way, but it's changed nonetheless.
[47:56.000 --> 47:56.960]  [SPEAKER_03]: You can change things.
[47:57.040 --> 48:00.400]  [SPEAKER_03]: You can change society, and you can have a profound effect on things.
[48:00.520 --> 48:03.440]  [SPEAKER_03]: But just as easily as it can go bad, it can go right.
[48:03.920 --> 48:07.740]  [SPEAKER_03]: And I think that's something that, you know, people like us need to not forget.
[48:07.740 --> 48:09.240]  [SPEAKER_03]: We can't give up.
[48:09.380 --> 48:11.180]  [SPEAKER_03]: There's just no point giving up on all this.
[48:11.280 --> 48:14.940]  [SPEAKER_03]: We have to look in the, you know, at the positive possibilities.
[48:15.240 --> 48:16.560]  [SPEAKER_03]: We've got nothing to lose by trying.
[48:16.560 --> 48:17.960]  [SPEAKER_03]: I couldn't have said it better.
[48:18.600 --> 48:22.840]  [SPEAKER_03]: I didn't mean to give a speech, but I just sort of launched into it here on the balcony.
[48:24.900 --> 48:27.140]  [SPEAKER_03]: A bunch of people have gathered, and they're cheering.
[48:27.280 --> 48:28.200]  [SPEAKER_03]: Thank you very much.
[48:28.740 --> 48:30.920]  [SPEAKER_06]: Have you sustained any injuries there in the war zone?
[48:31.520 --> 48:32.760]  [SPEAKER_03]: No, you know, and that's the thing.
[48:32.840 --> 48:39.600]  [SPEAKER_03]: When you're in the war zone, which is what we call it, you think that you're about to die because there's all these explosions going on around you, things hurtling up in the air.
[48:39.740 --> 48:42.720]  [SPEAKER_03]: The biggest problem I had tonight was being sprayed with champagne.
[48:44.120 --> 48:48.880]  [SPEAKER_03]: Everybody brought champagne, and the wise guys next to us decided to do the countdown a minute early.
[48:49.060 --> 48:55.080]  [SPEAKER_03]: So that confused everybody because they were counting down at one minute to midnight, and they opened their champagne and were spraying all over the place.
[48:55.580 --> 49:00.760]  [SPEAKER_03]: Meanwhile, everybody else was still just sort of standing around waiting for the actual midnight hour to arrive.
[49:02.260 --> 49:04.900]  [SPEAKER_03]: But, you know, no real problems at all.
[49:05.000 --> 49:08.480]  [SPEAKER_03]: It's a little scary for Americans who aren't used to this kind of thing.
[49:08.480 --> 49:13.980]  [SPEAKER_03]: Even though it's the third year in a row I've done it, it's still something that, you know, it's a shock every time you experience it.
[49:14.240 --> 49:15.180]  [SPEAKER_03]: But it's a good shock.
[49:15.340 --> 49:16.840]  [SPEAKER_03]: It's the kind of thing I think everybody needs to do.
[49:17.060 --> 49:20.680]  [SPEAKER_03]: So if you're looking at something completely different, go to Amsterdam for New Year's.
[49:20.880 --> 49:25.760]  [SPEAKER_06]: I know I was there last year, and I just could not believe my eyes and my ears, what I was seeing.
[49:25.940 --> 49:26.920]  [SPEAKER_06]: And I agree with you.
[49:27.440 --> 49:34.640]  [SPEAKER_06]: If you tried to pull off anything one-tenth as big in the States, you'd probably be shot on sight.
[49:36.040 --> 49:37.540]  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, it would be something.
[49:37.760 --> 49:38.600]  [SPEAKER_03]: I'd like to hear, though.
[49:38.680 --> 49:44.300]  [SPEAKER_03]: I mean, there are places in the United States where you can do things like this more than, say, in New York City.
[49:44.540 --> 49:45.100]  [SPEAKER_03]: I don't know.
[49:45.220 --> 49:46.600]  [SPEAKER_03]: You know, maybe people are more creative.
[49:46.800 --> 49:54.180]  [SPEAKER_03]: I think the only thing you can do is just continue to challenge the oppressiveness and continue to try and breathe some life into what's around us.
[49:54.760 --> 50:04.520]  [SPEAKER_06]: I wonder if the Netherlands has an equivalent to the BATF, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, which regulates fireworks here in the U.S.
[50:04.520 --> 50:08.060]  [SPEAKER_06]: You know, we have these Class A, Class B, and Class C fireworks.
[50:08.440 --> 50:12.520]  [SPEAKER_06]: And individuals like you and me are only able to purchase Class C fireworks here in the States.
[50:12.660 --> 50:15.380]  [SPEAKER_06]: And that pretty much amounts to just, like, sparklers.
[50:15.540 --> 50:16.680]  [SPEAKER_06]: I mean, that's about all you can buy.
[50:17.460 --> 50:17.940]  [SPEAKER_06]: Uh-huh.
[50:18.280 --> 50:22.400]  [SPEAKER_11]: Well, they have the ATF, which is opening up offices all over the world, I understand.
[50:22.860 --> 50:23.320]  [SPEAKER_03]: Oh, great.
[50:23.320 --> 50:26.220]  [SPEAKER_03]: Well, there's plenty of alcohol, tobacco, and fireworks around here.
[50:26.440 --> 50:30.300]  [SPEAKER_03]: So people are surviving quite nicely.
[50:30.700 --> 50:32.900]  [SPEAKER_06]: I'll let some other callers get on the air.
[50:32.900 --> 50:34.580]  [SPEAKER_06]: So, uh, Happy New Year, everyone.
[50:35.040 --> 50:35.740]  [SPEAKER_11]: Happy New Year, Bernie.
[50:36.380 --> 50:40.680]  [SPEAKER_11]: Uh, we're going to take him off, and we have another caller who's on with us.
[50:41.560 --> 50:43.180]  [SPEAKER_16]: Yes, this is Matthew at Columbus, Ohio.
[50:43.340 --> 50:43.760]  [SPEAKER_16]: How you doing?
[50:43.960 --> 50:44.260]  [SPEAKER_11]: All right.
[50:44.620 --> 50:45.080]  [SPEAKER_11]: How are you?
[50:45.460 --> 50:46.220]  [SPEAKER_16]: Oh, I'm okay.
[50:46.380 --> 50:47.580]  [SPEAKER_16]: I don't know how much a delay is.
[50:47.680 --> 50:48.880]  [SPEAKER_16]: They're at 7.50 right now.
[50:48.960 --> 50:49.600]  [SPEAKER_16]: What time is it?
[50:49.880 --> 50:51.380]  [SPEAKER_11]: You're live on the air right now.
[50:51.480 --> 50:52.320]  [SPEAKER_16]: Oh, Jesus Christ.
[50:52.680 --> 50:53.040]  [SPEAKER_16]: Okay.
[50:53.160 --> 50:58.880]  [SPEAKER_16]: Well, I was just calling to let you guys know Happy New Year, and thanks a lot for a really good year of, uh, radio.
[50:59.220 --> 51:03.360]  [SPEAKER_16]: I've been listening, uh, started listening early this year, and I don't miss an episode.
[51:03.660 --> 51:05.960]  [SPEAKER_16]: So, just calling to wish you guys Happy New Year.
[51:06.160 --> 51:07.060]  [SPEAKER_13]: Happy New Year to you.
[51:07.460 --> 51:12.000]  [SPEAKER_13]: And you can always go back and get them on the archives, the ones that were on before you started listening.
[51:12.280 --> 51:18.520]  [SPEAKER_16]: Well, yeah, I've listened to a lot of the key ones where, um, uh, you know, back in the archives.
[51:18.720 --> 51:21.100]  [SPEAKER_16]: There's a lot of interesting, uh, shows there.
[51:21.100 --> 51:26.260]  [SPEAKER_16]: Good descriptions on the website tells me what the show's about, so if I want to listen to it or not, it's pretty good.
[51:27.020 --> 51:33.840]  [SPEAKER_16]: And, uh, the different ones where Mitnick finally got off of, uh, probation and different, uh, shows you guys had.
[51:33.940 --> 51:34.580]  [SPEAKER_16]: It was really interesting.
[51:35.100 --> 51:37.820]  [SPEAKER_16]: So, but, uh, thanks a lot for all you guys' effort.
[51:38.120 --> 51:38.600]  [SPEAKER_13]: Thank you.
[51:39.040 --> 51:39.840]  [SPEAKER_16]: Uh, have a happy new year.
[51:39.840 --> 51:42.520]  [SPEAKER_03]: Okay, now your voice is forever on the archives yourself, so, uh...
[51:42.520 --> 51:43.000]  [SPEAKER_03]: Oh, sweet.
[51:43.280 --> 51:44.140]  [SPEAKER_03]: You can go back and listen to it.
[51:44.480 --> 51:44.780]  [SPEAKER_03]: All right.
[51:44.920 --> 51:45.120]  [SPEAKER_11]: Bye.
[51:45.320 --> 51:45.720]  [SPEAKER_11]: All right.
[51:46.360 --> 51:48.520]  [SPEAKER_11]: Uh, and the board...
[51:48.520 --> 51:49.280]  [SPEAKER_11]: How much time do we have?
[51:49.440 --> 51:50.260]  [SPEAKER_11]: We have a...
[51:50.260 --> 51:50.300]  [SPEAKER_11]: Hi.
[51:51.100 --> 51:51.880]  [SPEAKER_08]: Hi, it's Santa.
[51:52.080 --> 51:54.100]  [SPEAKER_08]: Happy New Year in New York and Amsterdam.
[51:54.200 --> 51:55.780]  [SPEAKER_08]: Wow, I wish I was in Paris.
[51:56.060 --> 51:58.020]  [SPEAKER_08]: I heard a siren before.
[51:58.460 --> 52:00.500]  [SPEAKER_08]: Uh, fire trucks were trying to get by.
[52:00.660 --> 52:10.180]  [SPEAKER_08]: My husband and I went to look out the window, and there were, uh, people from some part of the city traffic locking manhole covers on the Upper West Side.
[52:10.380 --> 52:10.940]  [SPEAKER_08]: Yes, yes.
[52:11.700 --> 52:12.920]  [SPEAKER_08]: 1984 is here.
[52:13.360 --> 52:20.660]  [SPEAKER_08]: And I just want to say, I'm really waiting for New Year's to come because I finally get a birthday on February 29th.
[52:21.120 --> 52:21.560]  [SPEAKER_08]: Oh.
[52:21.680 --> 52:21.860]  [SPEAKER_08]: Oh, wow.
[52:22.060 --> 52:23.180]  [SPEAKER_08]: Yes, I'm one of those.
[52:23.460 --> 52:24.500]  [SPEAKER_08]: Going to be sweet 16.
[52:24.500 --> 52:27.300]  [SPEAKER_08]: That makes you a quarter of the age of, uh, most people, right?
[52:27.620 --> 52:29.680]  [SPEAKER_08]: Yep, I'm going to be sweet 16 again.
[52:31.620 --> 52:32.340]  [SPEAKER_08]: Oh, really?
[52:32.940 --> 52:33.480]  [SPEAKER_08]: Bye-bye.
[52:35.060 --> 52:37.840]  [SPEAKER_11]: All right, we have, uh, about eight minutes, uh, till the hour.
[52:37.840 --> 52:40.040]  [SPEAKER_03]: Have we ever done a show on February 29th, I wonder?
[52:40.040 --> 52:40.880]  [SPEAKER_11]: I don't know.
[52:41.160 --> 52:41.760]  [SPEAKER_11]: Will we this year?
[52:41.840 --> 52:42.660]  [SPEAKER_11]: What day of the week is it?
[52:43.120 --> 52:44.000]  [SPEAKER_13]: Has to happen sometime.
[52:44.120 --> 52:47.000]  [SPEAKER_13]: February 4th is Wednesday, so we're not going to do it this year.
[52:47.180 --> 52:47.380]  [SPEAKER_11]: Oh.
[52:47.520 --> 52:47.900]  [SPEAKER_11]: All right.
[52:47.960 --> 52:48.280]  [SPEAKER_13]: Oh, well.
[52:48.480 --> 52:49.480]  [SPEAKER_09]: Maybe in 2008.
[52:50.160 --> 52:51.140]  [SPEAKER_11]: We'll have to see.
[52:51.520 --> 52:53.420]  [SPEAKER_11]: Uh, but we have another caller on the line.
[52:53.780 --> 52:55.100]  [SPEAKER_09]: Hi, this is Mercy calling.
[52:55.260 --> 53:03.780]  [SPEAKER_09]: I was down in the subway, like the Lexington line, the number five, and the trash cans have plastic bags on them, so you can't put anything in the trash can.
[53:03.920 --> 53:06.940]  [SPEAKER_09]: They have big rubber bands holding these condoms on the trash can.
[53:07.360 --> 53:10.940]  [SPEAKER_09]: And people are piling trash on top of these because you can't put anything in the trash can.
[53:11.160 --> 53:11.800]  [SPEAKER_03]: Oh, no, wait a minute.
[53:11.880 --> 53:12.400]  [SPEAKER_03]: Hold on a second.
[53:12.520 --> 53:18.420]  [SPEAKER_03]: Now, couldn't you just cut the plastic bag and deposit your bomb or whatever it is you want to put in the box?
[53:18.600 --> 53:20.920]  [SPEAKER_09]: But there's cops all over the platform tonight.
[53:21.040 --> 53:22.060]  [SPEAKER_09]: There were cops all over the place.
[53:22.080 --> 53:23.920]  [SPEAKER_09]: This is like five or six o'clock, five o'clock.
[53:24.020 --> 53:32.740]  [SPEAKER_13]: Well, what you do is the first terrorist goes over and makes like he's putting garbage on a freshly, uh, sanitized trash can, and he's actually cutting the top.
[53:33.040 --> 53:36.960]  [SPEAKER_13]: And the next terrorist has a bomb disguised as a two-liter soda bottle.
[53:36.960 --> 53:39.320]  [SPEAKER_19]: Why do you need to put a bomb in a trash can?
[53:39.320 --> 53:41.840]  [SPEAKER_19]: You can put it on the trash can with the rest of the garbage.
[53:41.960 --> 53:42.700]  [SPEAKER_19]: What's the big deal?
[53:42.820 --> 53:43.180]  [SPEAKER_19]: Oh, yeah.
[53:43.380 --> 53:44.560]  [SPEAKER_19]: You can put it on the floor.
[53:44.660 --> 53:45.520]  [SPEAKER_13]: You can put it on the wall.
[53:45.980 --> 53:47.120]  [SPEAKER_03]: We're getting a little bit too particular.
[53:47.180 --> 53:48.660]  [SPEAKER_13]: They started doing this...
[53:48.660 --> 53:53.200]  [SPEAKER_13]: The first time they did this was when the Democrats, uh, had the convention in, uh, Madison Square Garden.
[53:53.240 --> 53:53.840]  [SPEAKER_13]: What year was that?
[53:54.500 --> 53:55.220]  [SPEAKER_09]: They've done this before.
[53:55.320 --> 53:55.940]  [SPEAKER_09]: That's so weird.
[53:56.080 --> 53:56.360]  [SPEAKER_13]: 1980?
[53:56.800 --> 53:57.940]  [SPEAKER_09]: Don't put anything in the trash.
[53:58.120 --> 53:58.880]  [SPEAKER_09]: Don't look in the trash.
[54:06.960 --> 54:10.380]  [SPEAKER_09]: Full of people in, like, marine costumes or camouflage outfits.
[54:10.540 --> 54:12.020]  [SPEAKER_09]: You know, these young people from all over the world.
[54:12.140 --> 54:14.260]  [SPEAKER_09]: And they're carrying, like, these angry expressions.
[54:14.400 --> 54:15.240]  [SPEAKER_09]: I didn't see if they're carrying guns.
[54:15.300 --> 54:16.000]  [SPEAKER_09]: I didn't really want to look.
[54:16.460 --> 54:18.100]  [SPEAKER_09]: But there's cops all over the place, too.
[54:18.100 --> 54:21.760]  [SPEAKER_19]: Well, it's a good thing they have it camouflaged because they can hide in the moldy bagels.
[54:21.960 --> 54:22.580]  [SPEAKER_09]: Oh, that's...
[54:23.000 --> 54:24.540]  [SPEAKER_03]: Down in the dining court or whatever.
[54:25.160 --> 54:34.980]  [SPEAKER_03]: Well, what I would like to know, what I'd like to know is, does anybody in New York, please write to us, does anybody feel safer as a result of what's going on there today with all this police activity?
[54:36.960 --> 54:39.900]  [SPEAKER_13]: Well, I feel safer because I live in Brooklyn and most of them are in Manhattan.
[54:40.500 --> 54:41.900]  [SPEAKER_09]: Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.
[54:44.120 --> 54:44.660]  [SPEAKER_13]: All right.
[54:44.860 --> 54:45.520]  [SPEAKER_09]: Woo, fireworks.
[54:46.020 --> 54:48.140]  [SPEAKER_13]: Oh, for a second, I thought they were shooting at you, Mercy.
[54:48.720 --> 54:49.140]  [SPEAKER_13]: Thank you.
[54:49.160 --> 54:50.380]  [SPEAKER_13]: No, they're shooting at a manual.
[54:50.620 --> 54:50.760]  [SPEAKER_13]: Oh.
[54:55.640 --> 54:56.920]  [SPEAKER_19]: That's Chinese New Year.
[54:57.520 --> 54:58.680]  [SPEAKER_19]: They do a lot of fireworks, too.
[54:58.680 --> 54:59.260]  [SPEAKER_19]: Happy New Year.
[54:59.620 --> 54:59.920]  [SPEAKER_19]: Yeah.
[55:00.180 --> 55:00.600]  [SPEAKER_19]: Oh, okay.
[55:01.980 --> 55:03.240]  [SPEAKER_03]: Happy Secular Halloween.
[55:04.160 --> 55:06.660]  [SPEAKER_03]: I'm having trouble hearing it because there's explosions going on.
[55:07.060 --> 55:09.040]  [SPEAKER_13]: Don't worry, we're having trouble hearing you also.
[55:09.260 --> 55:11.060]  [SPEAKER_13]: Let's say goodbye to Mercy and take another call.
[55:11.140 --> 55:12.120]  [SPEAKER_13]: Not that we don't love her, but...
[55:12.120 --> 55:12.860]  [SPEAKER_13]: Okay, good night, guys.
[55:12.980 --> 55:13.320]  [SPEAKER_13]: Take care.
[55:13.440 --> 55:13.720]  [SPEAKER_13]: See you later.
[55:13.800 --> 55:13.920]  [SPEAKER_13]: Bye.
[55:14.720 --> 55:18.520]  [SPEAKER_11]: All right, and we have just a few minutes left here on this call.
[55:18.700 --> 55:18.840]  [SPEAKER_11]: No?
[55:20.380 --> 55:24.020]  [SPEAKER_11]: These calls keep running away, but we have one who I think I've captured.
[55:24.340 --> 55:24.940]  [SPEAKER_04]: Hey, guys.
[55:25.760 --> 55:26.120]  [SPEAKER_04]: Evening.
[55:26.600 --> 55:27.040]  [SPEAKER_11]: Good evening.
[55:27.300 --> 55:30.360]  [SPEAKER_04]: Hey, you know, I was just wondering if you guys saw that article in New York.
[55:31.200 --> 55:32.040]  [SPEAKER_04]: Are you down there?
[55:32.620 --> 55:34.360]  [SPEAKER_11]: We need you to turn your radio down.
[55:34.480 --> 55:35.080]  [SPEAKER_04]: Oh, it's down.
[55:35.340 --> 55:35.540]  [SPEAKER_11]: Hmm.
[55:35.540 --> 55:36.180]  [SPEAKER_11]: Yeah, it's down.
[55:36.440 --> 55:37.680]  [SPEAKER_11]: Okay, let's try that again.
[55:37.880 --> 55:38.700]  [SPEAKER_05]: Article in the Times?
[55:39.120 --> 55:44.820]  [SPEAKER_05]: Well, last week in the New York Press, real quick, there was an article that stated that there's a website called
[55:49.400 --> 55:54.600]  [SPEAKER_05]: presidentialprayerteam.org where we pray for Bush and for the recovery of Iraq and business and everything over there.
[55:54.720 --> 56:00.040]  [SPEAKER_05]: I was just wondering if Emmanuel would think that anything like that would exist in Europe for the president of the state.
[56:00.040 --> 56:01.240]  [SPEAKER_03]: I'm not sure what this is.
[56:01.700 --> 56:02.840]  [SPEAKER_03]: A presidential prayer?
[56:03.080 --> 56:07.880]  [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, it's a site that prays for Bush and all his policies.
[56:08.200 --> 56:14.180]  [SPEAKER_05]: It's called presidentialprayerteam.org We're running quickly out of time here.
[56:14.340 --> 56:15.060]  [SPEAKER_03]: I know you are.
[56:15.240 --> 56:16.720]  [SPEAKER_03]: Let me just say quickly, that's, you know, it's a website.
[56:17.140 --> 56:18.380]  [SPEAKER_03]: Anything's possible with websites.
[56:18.780 --> 56:20.520]  [SPEAKER_03]: So you can certainly see something like that over here, too.
[56:20.800 --> 56:21.740]  [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, oh, really?
[56:21.860 --> 56:22.720]  [SPEAKER_05]: Okay, I was just curious.
[56:22.880 --> 56:25.920]  [SPEAKER_05]: I just, it's, because the whole thing, it's Billy Graham's involved with it and everything.
[56:26.180 --> 56:27.340]  [SPEAKER_05]: And it's real close to Bush.
[56:27.340 --> 56:27.940]  [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, I don't know.
[56:28.040 --> 56:30.340]  [SPEAKER_05]: I just thought it was kind of ironic that you were over there.
[56:30.380 --> 56:30.720]  [SPEAKER_05]: Thanks for the call.
[56:30.900 --> 56:31.340]  [SPEAKER_05]: We're out of time.
[56:31.640 --> 56:32.040]  [SPEAKER_05]: All right, guys.
[56:32.140 --> 56:32.500]  [SPEAKER_05]: Happy New Year.
[56:32.560 --> 56:32.980]  [SPEAKER_11]: Thank you.
[56:33.540 --> 56:35.420]  [SPEAKER_11]: And happy New Year to all our listeners.
[56:36.340 --> 56:37.200]  [SPEAKER_11]: Happy New Year to you, guys.
[56:37.240 --> 56:37.780]  [SPEAKER_11]: our listeners.
[56:38.060 --> 56:41.240]  [SPEAKER_13]: Happy New Year to you, Emmanuel and Ken and Mike.
[56:41.660 --> 56:43.820]  [SPEAKER_13]: And don't forget, this Friday, the 2600 meeting.
[56:45.240 --> 56:47.520]  [SPEAKER_03]: That's right, which I won't be at, but I'll be at the show next week.
[56:47.700 --> 56:50.460]  [SPEAKER_13]: In the CitiCorp Center in New York and consult...
[56:50.460 --> 56:51.400]  [SPEAKER_19]: Where is the CitiCorp Center?
[56:52.020 --> 56:52.880]  [SPEAKER_13]: 53rd and Lexington.
[56:53.600 --> 56:57.740]  [SPEAKER_13]: And consult your 2600 magazine or the 2600.com website for more information.
[56:58.420 --> 57:03.620]  [SPEAKER_19]: And this has been Off the Hook on WBAI New York, 99.5 FM.
[57:03.840 --> 57:06.440]  [SPEAKER_19]: Coming up next is the Personal Computer Show.
[57:07.060 --> 57:08.640]  [SPEAKER_19]: So, stay tuned.