You were listening to FSRN's 3rd annual Year in Review produced by Jeff Brady.
Tomorrow we bring you a special documentary presentation looking at the 10 year anniversary of the EZLN or the Zapatistas in Chiapas.
It's also the 10th anniversary of NAFTA. I'm Deepa Fernandes.
It's 7pm in New York City. You're tuned to 99.5 FM.
Coming up at 11 o'clock will be a shortcut through 2003 with Peter Beauchene.
Right now stay tuned for Off The Hook.
Off The Hook
Off The Hook
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Off The Hook
Off The Hook
With our host, Emanuel, you there?
Yes I am. I didn't hear any themes so it's hard for me to hear you guys.
You're also very low. I know there's probably nothing you can do about that.
Can you hear me okay?
We can hear you. You're fuzzy but we can hear you.
Okay, well I'm standing on the streets of Amsterdam. Actually I'm standing on a balcony.
It's New Year's now. It's about 1 o'clock in the morning. Actually it's just after 1.
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.
This is the third year in a row I've been here. And the contrast...
You okay?
No, I'm fine. You see, that's the thing. You're going to hear noises like that all throughout the hour.
And everybody's fine. Everybody's just walking through the streets.
Little babies are on people's shoulders, sleeping.
It's just basically a way of life here on New Year's.
Everybody gets together in various squares in town and just shoots off fireworks
non-stop for hours and hours all night long.
And it's a great time. Of course as an American I'm a bit touchy about it.
I feel that this is kind of dangerous.
And perhaps it is to a degree, but it's also a great deal of fun.
And people here seem to know how to take care of themselves.
Again, as always, I see very few policemen.
And I've been reading the accounts of what's going on back home and it makes me very sad.
You know, I spent a few New Year's celebrations in Times Square,
New Year's leading up to 2000 and 2001.
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.
And we're all kind of looking at the news over here in Europe.
And it's... I'm just looking at a massive display of fireworks way in the distance.
That's just unbelievable.
I don't know if you can hear that.
Yes, we can in the background.
And incredible. I feel like Wolf Blitzer on the roof of a hotel in Baghdad
just reporting on what's going on.
Maybe slightly less dangerous.
Except it's not dangerous.
At least, you know, unless you stand on top of an M-80 or something, it really isn't.
It's just kind of stressful to us who aren't used to it.
But we're reading the accounts, and it's just...
It seems like a police state over there.
I mean, I'm not in New York now, obviously.
Maybe you can tell me a little bit more about what's going on.
But it just seems like...
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.
Is that true?
Yeah, that's true.
But that's been going on for a couple of years with the sharpshooters and the radiation.
They say what's going on this year is unprecedented.
It's much more of the same.
Because we're at orange, and everyone seems to be taking it seriously this time.
Because of that, we're redoubling the efforts.
I just have to wonder how much of an effect it can possibly have,
except just to instill fear into people.
Well, you shouldn't worry too much about the metal detectors.
They came from the New York City public schools,
and we all know how successful those have been.
Yeah, 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.
Well, it's still absurd. It's just accepted.
Yeah, they're also very, very successful, as we all know.
That's the thing.
You know, you can't really measure success with security like this.
All you can basically do is say,
well, nothing happened, so therefore security was a success.
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.
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.
That's why, you know, security is always able to be breached one way or another.
And you'll appreciate this.
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.
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.
And it does seem kind of hypocritical of the mayor.
It's the same problem as the Patriot Act.
If it works fine and nothing happens,
you point to that as a self-fulfilling prophecy.
And, of course, if things go wrong,
you know, it's too late to do anything about it.
Yes, absolutely.
I'm not quite sure, what was it he was advocating exactly?
Republican representative Christopher Shays from Connecticut.
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.
I'm not worried about terrorism.
Not that I'm going to Times Square, but, you know.
Well, it's...
The pictures I've seen have just been very, very worrisome of just,
you know, people in helicopters with machine guns.
I don't know what people in helicopters with machine guns can possibly do.
And, you know, to crowd in Times Square...
Well, actually, they can do two things.
They can collect our tax dollars
instead of using them for something useful.
And they can make certain personality types feel better,
which is, you know, maybe some people want that.
And, ironically, there are no machine guns in the helicopters.
They decide against that on the grounds that,
if something did happen,
the machine gun in a helicopter would not be useful.
You wouldn't be able to get one or two terrorists.
I mean, I saw a picture on CNN.com
of somebody sitting in a helicopter above the city with a machine gun.
So I don't know if he was just doing that for a photo shoot
or if it wasn't loaded or something like that.
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.
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.
The thing that really kind of worries me, though,
is that this becomes the norm.
This becomes something that we all get used to.
And I just see us growing further and further apart.
I see people here who basically are taking care of themselves
or acting like adults, except for tonight, maybe,
and simply, you know, getting through by acting responsibly.
In our case, we're, you know,
In our case, we're terrified.
In America, we are terrified of what could possibly happen.
And we need to constantly have our hands held.
We need to constantly be told what to do.
And people who are growing up today, this is all they know.
And people who are born in the future, this is all they're ever going to know.
And it just makes me really sad to think that this is what our country is turning into.
Yeah.
Oh, well.
No one has anything to say.
Did you just say, oh, well?
I just said, oh, well.
For the whole country, for all the things that we've struggled for and fought for,
it just comes down to oh, well, huh?
Well, what can I say at the moment?
Rage against the machine, so to speak?
When you're right, you're right.
Yeah, that's just what I was getting at.
Well, we're here with a bunch of other people as well
that came over to the Chaos Communications Congress in Berlin.
That took place over the weekend, actually, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday.
And we had a good turnout there.
We had a new building in the middle of Alexanderplatz.
It was a lot of fun.
Mostly German-speaking, obviously.
But it was educational.
A lot of people to meet in the hallways.
A lot of panels that were in English.
And I'd always recommend people venture over to this.
We met a couple of people, actually, that came over just based on hearing the radio show.
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.
And they all had a great time.
From what I could gather, everybody was enjoying themselves.
And just, you know, wandering around the city when you're not at the Congress,
just seeing how things are there.
It's just a really cool thing.
That's what I've been doing for the last about ten days, I guess.
London, Amsterdam, Berlin.
And I'll be back in New York.
And, of course, that's going to be fun.
Everybody who has come over here has had some kind of a story involving air travel.
One of our people who's over here right now, in fact,
had their flight delayed by over three hours out of Newark.
It was never really explained what the security issue was.
This was about the time that the Air France scare was going on,
flights from Paris to Los Angeles were being canceled.
This particular person, though, found themselves being surrounded.
Well, everyone actually was being surrounded by people with machine guns.
This flying isn't stressful enough.
All the hassle of getting to the airport and going through security
and making sure you have your ticket and all that nonsense there.
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.
It's really kind of a bizarre situation.
I'm trying to figure in my wildest imagination what exactly...
I'm sorry this is distracting, but it's just...
You talk about machine guns and then you hear firecrackers.
I've always wanted to do a show on New Year's Eve from Amsterdam,
and now I'm getting my wish. It's New Year's Day, technically.
But I'm wondering what can these two people with machine guns do if something happens?
Are they just going to fire around the entire airport terminal?
It's kind of like what we were commenting on months ago
about the people with machine guns wandering around the subways.
Remember those people, Mike?
Yes, I do.
They're still there. I haven't seen them recently.
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.
Every once in a while you see them on Wall Street.
Yeah, they're protecting the stock exchange.
And sometimes their guns are pointing to the ground
and sometimes they're pointing to the sky.
Sometimes they're pointed right straight at you.
Not yet.
But here's the crazy thing.
These people didn't speak. They never speak.
But in the airport terminal, these people were...
Two of them, for everybody getting on the airplane,
you have to pass between two people with machine guns.
But the security personnel were questioning everybody a second time.
And the person I was talking to said that they asked him sternly,
where were you born?
And he said New York, which is a correct answer.
And then they said with a slightly raised voice,
where were you born?
And he said, kind of scared, Manhattan.
And then they seemed to really get kind of pissed off.
They said, where were you born?
Now, at this point, I would have had a real problem
because when somebody acts that way to me, I kind of, you know,
there comes a point where I just don't care anymore.
And maybe the machine guns would have convinced me to care a bit more.
Maybe not. I don't know.
And he finally, after thinking about it for a second,
answered Mount Sinai Hospital.
And that's the other thing.
I don't know what hospital I was born in,
so I would have been in trouble for that too, I guess.
But I'm wondering, what in God's name are these people thinking?
What's going to make flying more secure by people knowing
what hospital they were born in?
Well, you know, if he came up with an answer like Karl Marx Hospital,
then it might be suspicious or...
What are you talking about?
I don't know.
In Manhattan.
Well, you know, if he's a terrorist,
he's not going to know the name of the local hospital.
That's the only thing I can think of.
That's the equivalent of asking,
who plays first base for the Yankees in World War II, you know?
Well, the terrorists have been tipped off
that they should know the names of the hospitals now
in the various cities that they plan to act from.
And perhaps that's a reason why they should carry around almanacs,
You have today's latest Onion-esque story
that really isn't from the Onion at all,
it's actually from the Associated Press.
What in God's name is going on over there?
They're afraid the terrorists will read from the tide tables.
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 from abbreviations to weather trends,
and they could be used for terrorist planning.
In a Bolton-sent Christmas Eve
to about 18,000 police organizations,
the FBI said terrorists may use almanacs
to assist with target selection and pre-operational planning.
During searches, traffic stops, and other investigations,
officers should watch for people carrying almanacs,
especially if the books are annotated in suspicious ways.
I don't know what a suspicious annotation is
contrasted with any other kind of annotation.
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.
It just goes on.
There's a quote from the senior editor of the World Almanac,
whose name is Kevin Seabrook.
I don't think anyone would consider us a harmful entity.
He said the reference book includes about a dozen pages
out of its 1,000 pages listing the world's tallest buildings and bridges,
but includes no diagrams or architectural schematics.
And then he makes a point which is, you know,
should put him out of business.
He says it's stuff that's widely available on the Internet.
Well, it's hard to pick up on the Internet.
I mean, if you want it all in one place,
an almanac is still the handiest.
I mean, I think they should be checking for people with laptops,
not just almanacs.
Because only terrorists carry laptops.
An unnamed official in the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Well, I can understand why they're unnamed.
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.
And, of course, we'd like our listeners to join in on this as well.
Because, boy, that sounded like a nuke.
All right.
Well, you know, I was asking some 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?
I said about three minutes.
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.
You mean you could still use subway tokens?
You could still use subway tokens on buses until midnight tonight.
That's about four hours, 40 minutes.
I had no idea. Wow.
If anyone out there in New York listening right now has a subway token,
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 there.
Fairbox.
Yeah, and ride away.
It's funny because mass transit here shut down at 8 o'clock on New Year's Eve.
In fact, it shuts down every year on New Year's Eve at 8 o'clock.
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.
But I found out tonight because I asked, well, is the Metro shut down as well?
Because that's on the ground. That wouldn't be blocked by people.
And I was told that, yes, in fact, all trains in Holland are shut down at 8 o'clock.
And I asked, well, why is that?
And the reason is something that was completely alien to me,
because nobody wants to work on New Year's Eve.
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.
That's astonishing.
Ken Gell, who we want to thank again for engineering, has produced a subway token.
Just like that.
Well, he hasn't created it. He found it in his pocket.
Well, you know, that's so ironic.
Because all my years with the Transit Authority,
I worked New Year's Eve even though I didn't want to.
It's kind of weird. Shows a whole different mindset.
Well, we don't consider this working tonight.
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.
Well, for you, it's not even 2003 anymore.
Yeah, I've jumped over into 2004 already and I gotta tell you,
2004, you know, it's not very different from 2003, at least not yet.
Give it a couple hours.
Well, let's just mention a couple of things early in 2004.
This Friday, of course...
And you're listening to Off the Hook on WBAI New York 99.5 FM.
The host in Amsterdam is Emanuel Goldstein and Mike and Jim are in the studio.
Along with our great engineer, Ken Gell.
Great engineer, Ken Gell.
This Friday, of course, 2600 meetings around the world,
including in New York at the City Corps Center.
And it'll be the last day to see the trains at the City Corps Center for this season.
Oh, thank God for that.
You know, I like trains, I do.
The 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.
It's two months and it brings such joy to so many people.
Well, it doesn't bring joy to me because whenever I get there, they're turned off.
Well, you have to get there by 6 p.m.
So get to the meeting early this Friday.
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.
And in fact, there's no meeting in Amsterdam,
so I guess I won't be at a meeting for the first time in as long as I can remember.
Well, why don't you start an Amsterdam meeting?
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.
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.
So this is probably a great opportunity for dumpster diving
unless they put high security on this.
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 regular garbage.
That's this Sunday.
What time? It doesn't give times. Yes, it does.
9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Union Square.
Electronic stuff.
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.
And some of that equipment actually are pay phones.
I don't know if you guys have heard about this,
but Bell South is actually, here's what they say on their website.
Due to downward trends in pay phone usage,
Bell South plans to discontinue providing services
to its pay phone location provider customers.
Pay phone location provider customers.
That's German almost.
Pay phone usage.
Oh, that's a real shame.
Two of my stories just went over the roof.
And they're on their way down to the street below.
Oh, well.
I don't know what they're there.
But I'm sorry about that.
We can have well-informed New Year's revelers.
My hands are freezing out here.
There's explosions to the left and to the right,
and it's also kind of dark, so I'm doing the best I can here.
But anyway, Bell South plans to discontinue providing those services,
and pay phone usage declines are the primary drivers
of Bell South's decision to exit the business, blah, blah, blah.
They're basically selling renovated pay phones for a cost of, gosh, you know what?
I don't know if they have the cost of the actual pay phone here.
Oh, yeah, the pay phone is $135.
Oh, my.
And shipping and handling, and they also sell pay phone coin box stores
and things like that.
So if you go to bellsouthpioneers.org,
you might find some interesting items there.
There's some fun things that can be had from phone companies sometimes,
like phone company vans.
I was able to find one of those back in 1993,
and you may too if you look around and keep your ears open.
All right.
We have an update to one of the most absurd stories of the year.
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.
He checked this bag through the airport and was accused of writing a bomb threat.
Apparently, saying you don't have a bomb is the same as saying you do have a bomb.
The courts agreed, and he was, in late November,
given 50 hours of community service and required to write an apology
to the Transportation Security Administration.
I don't know. I just think there's better ways of making a point.
Now, if this person had instead said that searching my bag is a violation of my rights
and said something along those lines, fine.
But just by bringing up the whole terrorism and bomb thing,
that just provokes a reaction that is very hard to stop.
All right, then.
No, on the note, because this brings up the whole suspected terrorist button
that people were wearing a few months ago.
I thought we were done talking about that on the show.
I'm just mentioning something.
We had an idea, because people are talking about air marshals on flights now,
that basically the United States is requiring certain countries to have armed air marshals.
We thought it would be a fun idea to have a button saying suspected air marshal
and people could wear.
You'll never be spurred from again.
Yeah, because, you know, it's the kind of thing you sort of have to keep secret.
Well, the reaction is mixed, according to the AP.
How about buttons that say, I am not an air marshal?
Yeah, that could be interesting, too.
You could start a whole long discussion on a flight with that.
The air marshals would buy them.
The guy who gets angry and tells you to take off the button, that's the air marshal.
Personally, I'm just as afraid of the air marshals as I am of anything else.
But that's just me.
So what shall we do now?
Actually, I have another story I just picked up off the floor.
Hang on.
This one is not on the street below.
You know, I wish this was on video.
I really do, because the conditions I'm dealing with right now on top of this freezing roof
in the middle of war-torn Amsterdam is nothing to be believed.
Take a picture.
Go inside.
Take a picture.
I yell to our listeners to stay outside, I think, and just bring them the experiences
that they could ever experience.
Reporting on the Scuds falling, huh?
Yeah, it's almost like that.
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.
A story I read today, actually, from Reuters, saying that the Verizon Wireless and Vodafone
have reached an agreement that's going to let their customers send text messages via
mobile telephones back and forth across the Atlantic Ocean.
Of course, this is old news for those of us with GSM who can send messages back and forth
with impunity.
In fact, that's how I've been communicating with people back home.
It's a lot cheaper.
They're making phone calls, and it's a lot easier than being on the Internet, because,
well, you can send an SMS message from anywhere.
But apparently Verizon Wireless is, well, they're not a GSM company.
They use CDMA.
Vodafone, however, over here, uses GSM.
So basically what they've figured out is, well, through a company, a U.S. company called
InfoMatch, which for some reason spells info, I-N-P-H-O, I guess because that's similar to
phone.
Well, they're going to handle conversion of the messages between networks.
Verizon said in testing, conversion and delivery happen within seconds.
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.
I believe, Mike, you use Sprint PCS to this day, and I'm able to message you very easily
from my GSM phone.
Yes.
I'm not able to retrieve the message easily, but it is possible.
I'm sorry.
It was a mortar.
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.
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.
Yeah.
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.
So if you call Sprint PCS and ask for the wireless web, you're liable to get the wrong
one.
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, and it's just
the worst implementation of SMS anyone ever heard of.
There's another story today, actually, too.
Actually, no, this isn't from today.
This is from a couple of weeks ago, but it concerns the chief of Blockbuster calling
for an end to region codes.
Region codes being the artificial controls on DVDs that prevent people from seeing videos
in different countries.
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.
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.
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.
But the guy here seems to finally be realizing that region coding is just a very bad idea.
He basically, Nigel Travis, is the Blockbuster video president, and he was at a recent European
video conference.
He called for the end of DVD region coding, and he says that ending DVD region coding
could actually decrease video piracy.
He outlined the logic of his position by pointing out holes in the region code scheme,
such as growing markets for code-free DVD players.
And this is the first indication by someone considered a part of the video establishment
to publicly come out against DVD region coding.
So that comes from the Hollywood Reporter.
And I think it's interesting.
I think a lot of people are finally waking up to this, that it's a stupid restriction
to have.
It's great to see things from other countries.
And it doesn't really serve any purpose.
Never stopped the entertainment industry before.
Do you have any other news stories, or have they all fallen off?
Yeah, I do.
Hang on.
It's funny how I'm the one on the roof, and I've got all the news stories, and you guys
have a nice, clean studio there.
All right, hold on.
Yeah, there's a story that came out today, actually, about cyber blackmail.
Anybody read about this?
I heard about it.
It seems incredibly dumb, but go on.
Well, cyber blackmail artists, that's the newest catchphrase, they're shaking down office
workers threatening to delete computer files or install pornographic images on their work
PCs unless they pay a ransom.
That's according to police and security experts.
And again, this comes from Reuters.
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.
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.
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.
Now, here's the part that's kind of hard to believe.
There's a quote.
They prey on the nice secretary who wouldn't do anything wrong.
When she gets one of these emails, she thinks, oh, my goodness, what am I going to do?
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.
That's according to a British detective specializing in cybercrime.
And of course, the goal is here.
They come back many times and demanding more money.
It just seems like the kind of the kind of scenario that people dream up saying, you
know, what if this is something that would make a good TV show or something like that?
I don't know.
I've never heard of this.
I've heard of all kinds of things.
I heard about the Nigerian scam, you know, all kinds of different Internet hoaxes and
and, you know, ridiculous waste of time.
I've never heard of anything quite like this.
I don't know.
You guys ever hear anything like that?
It sounds incredibly fake because the way it's it's described, there's an well, this
is going to sound silly.
Electronic paper trail, so to speak.
She takes it on her credit card and gives it to this guy's electronic account.
Isn't the guy thereby traceable?
The the cyber blackmail artist, as the phrase goes, it's absurd.
Yeah.
Hey, we have Red Hat here who also is in Amsterdam and is also now standing on a balcony.
And I'm going to I'm going to hand over the phone to you for a second so he can give you
his impressions.
I should warn you, Red Hat, that the audio here is very low, so you might have to listen
above all the bombings that are going on around here.
All right.
Hang on.
Here's Red Hat.
Hello, Red Hat.
How are you?
Happy New Year, everyone.
To you, too.
What's going on in Amsterdam?
Well, there's a lot of sort of quieted down now.
There's still fireworks going off in the distance.
People in the streets.
It's still a party, but it's calmed down a bit.
We went to Newmarket Square to see there's no professional fireworks show or anything
here.
It's just all amateur.
But it was it was it was amazing.
There were tons of people in the square shooting off fireworks that they bought from here and
other countries surrounding here.
All right.
It was interesting.
Yeah.
So that's that's what's happening in Amsterdam.
I'm a little behind on what you're talking about because the stream is about two and
a half minutes delayed.
You should pick us up on shortwave.
I could try.
All right.
So I guess I'll hand you back to Emanuel then.
All right.
Good talking to you.
Bye.
We also have Mish here, who is also standing on the on the balcony observing the the goings
on in the street here.
Mish, have you ever seen anything like this in your life?
I see.
Honestly, I've seen nothing like this in my life.
It's just looking down the street.
It's as bright as daylight.
And just there's tons of people walking around, fireworks going off and all in all directions.
I can't imagine anything like this in New York.
It's great.
All right.
How does how does compare to Chinatown on Chinese New Year's?
Excuse me?
How does it compare to Chinatown on Chinese New Year's?
I've unfortunately never been able to go down there during during the firework fireworks
displays, but I would say that it's even there's even more people around.
It's it's it's the thing is, it's in the city center and everyone in the entire city is
involved in something like this, which is which is really unique.
Anything else?
I guess I'll hand you back to Emmanuel now.
All right.
The phone here is really low, but hold on.
I'm back.
All your Dutch friends have such fancy telephones.
I can't do simple things like hear the person on the other end and pick up an extension.
Well, you know, I'm not I have a feeling this is on the other end because this phone works
fine usually and with the steering very low audio and FSRN actually I was listening to
that before and it was coming through pretty loud.
So there might be some setting in the board that just needs to be boosted or something
like that.
That's a topic for another time.
So it's a good hearing test for me right now.
We'll review our settings.
And yeah, what time do we have over there in New York?
It's seven thirty six and twenty two seconds.
Well, then I think it's time to go to the phones as New Year's approaches in New York
over four hours to go before 2004.
Still, I haven't seen much of a difference in 2004 and 2003.
I'm continuing to look.
I'm not giving up yet more fireworks than yesterday at this time.
2003 began the same way.
I was here last year at this time and it began the same way with the fireworks.
So it looks like, you know, 2004 is going to be a repeat of 2003.
I mean, I hope not.
Well, Saturn's ring is great.
Someone just shot a bottle rocket up here.
Hang on a second.
Where did that go?
I just saw the streak of sparks go curling right past us.
And I guess it never actually exploded.
OK, that's good.
Try not to get hit.
Our phone number here.
Don't try that again, whoever you are.
You know, our phone number, if I can get it right this week, is 1212-209-2900.
Actually, Mike, the one is not part of the phone number.
It's just something stupid that we have to dial for some reason.
If you're calling from out of the country, you have to press one.
That's true.
Well, you actually have to press probably zero zero to dial overseas and then one.
Or whatever.
You know, if you're on a PBX, you might have to dial nine or something.
Just ignore our advice and do what you normally would do to dial our number.
Yeah, just dial the number.
And we especially like to hear from you callers.
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.
Why in God's name are you listening to the radio?
Of course we know why.
Because, you know, we're like family here.
Because Off the Hook is a great show here in WBAI, New York, 99.5 FM.
All right.
We don't have that caller.
Let's try.
Ken, you're a great engineer.
It's good to have you with us.
Let's try this caller.
Yeah, I think I have the answer for you on why almanacs are particularly suspicious.
Okay.
You have an almanac?
This was revealed this morning on Wake Up Call by our analyst, Richard Erichelian.
The word almanac is derived from the Arabic for calendar.
Okay.
You know, you just gave me a great idea to have a terrorist group called almanac or whatever.
Alcohol is also derived from the Arabic, so happy New Year.
So they shouldn't be selling booze on planes either.
All right.
Stay tuned.
All right.
Thank you.
Thanks for calling.
Thanks, Fred.
All right.
We have one other caller over here.
Hello?
I'm wondering if I called into a station in Amsterdam about Mayor Bloomberg smoking pot,
would I have been denied my freedom of speech to discuss it?
We have no idea.
We don't work for a station in Amsterdam.
We are not a station in Amsterdam.
Ken should be listening to the radio over there and give us a report on the nature of
listener-supported non-commerciality.
We could be in the year 3050 and Monroe would call up and claim that his rights are being
violated by somebody doing another thing.
Well, I think you should be more concerned about it.
You should be concerned.
You talk about 1984 and what's your name?
Emanuel Goldstein.
You took it because of 1984.
20 years ago.
Okay.
What do you mean 20 years ago?
We're going to have a 2084 coming up soon with a military state.
You know what it's going to be like?
It's going to be like Naziism.
All right.
Well, Manuel, if we ever violate your rights on our radio show, you let us know about it.
Let us know.
Let another radio show know.
But let's move on and talk about stuff that's going on on this radio program.
We'll do that.
And we have another caller.
Hello.
Hi.
This is Big Bertha.
Hi, Emanuel.
Hey, how you doing?
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.
I'm in New York.
Rosaphilia, R-O-S-A-P-H-I-L-I-A at web2tv.net.
And I'm going to be at the January 4th dumpster dive if I can make it.
But I'm pretty much losing my dexterity and parts of my vision.
Is there anyone out there who...
I have three computers that I dumpster dived that don't seem to work.
Is there anyone out there that likes extremely rotund short women?
I'm willing to...
I'm sorry.
...exchange certain...
That is the way you said it.
...certain odd proclivities and favors in exchange for someone getting my computers up.
There's the back page of the Village Voice.
Well, this is much more efficient and there's an international audience.
Oh, that's true.
That's true.
Except people would have to fly into New York, I would imagine.
Some may choose to.
I may be worth it.
Well, you know, this could happen.
I may be worth it.
Well, I'll...
How do people contact you?
Rosaphilia, R-O-S-A-P-H-I-L-I-A at web2tv.net.
Actually, I walk with a cane and I'm going freaking blind due to the blood pressure problems and stuff.
But I did get an apartment in the Projects. Yay!
And I got it from...
Congratulations.
Thank you.
All right. Let's move on to the next call.
All right. No one's calling us.
You know, did you hear that one of the co-founders of WebTV died at the age of 39?
I did not hear that.
No.
I just read that in the paper.
Pretty shocking news.
That's a shame.
No one's calling? I guess everyone's out having fun, huh?
Yeah, well, they should be.
But we have a caller.
We have a caller.
No, no, we don't have a caller.
No, we have a dial tone.
I'm freezing my ass off here on a balcony in Amsterdam.
The least people can do is call in the radio program because I'm sacrificing my health to do this.
There's a European invention called indoors.
I don't think it's a European invention.
We have a caller. Hello.
Hello. I wanted to call on the West 2600 and Emmanuel.
Happy New Year.
Happy New Year.
Thanks for all the hard work.
We're looking forward to the next H.O.P.E. convention.
Thank you, guys.
Thanks for listening.
Thank you very much.
And, yes, the next H.O.P.E. convention will be later in July.
The what? The 9th, 10th, and 11th?
The 9th through 11th, yes.
We'll have more details on that on our website.
Probably right after the year changes.
So stay tuned.
You will see information on that really, really soon.
Just spend your whole time.
Do you mean like five hours from now, right after the year changes?
Not that close.
Not that close.
But soon, soon, within the next couple of weeks.
Ah, people are calling.
All right.
Emmanuel, I have a question.
Yes, go ahead.
Can you get a picture of the scene that you're in right now that you can put on your web page?
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.
Good.
I'd like to see it.
Yes, put it on the 2600 page.
And, of course, you can e-mail your demands to OTH at 2600.com.
We read everything that we receive.
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, 1-000-5, United States of America.
That's right.
All right.
We have another caller who is on the air.
Happy New Year.
It's Bernie S. in Philadelphia.
Bernie!
Great Saturday night.
I just wanted to ask Emanuel, obviously you went to the CCC Congress this weekend.
Yes, and I know that you're not there this year.
Yes, I know.
Unfortunately, I had other obligations here in Philadelphia.
But I'm very interested in knowing what specific panel discussions
or other interesting things went on at the Congress this year.
Well, there was a crypto phone panel dealing with the crypto phone that we talked about a few weeks ago
and demonstrations of that.
The blinking lights was a big hit.
This was the first conference that was held right smack in the middle of Alexanderplatz
instead of two U-Bahn stops away.
And what that means is that literally next door was the original blinking lights building.
The blinking lights building being a tall structure, kind of U-N 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.
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.
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.
I mean, you know, I shouldn't sound so pessimistic because it is New Year's.
We should be a little bit optimistic.
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. We did it. We did it.
We made it happen just by getting people together and thinking of positive things to do.
So when we say that this kind of thing isn't possible, it is possible.
We just need to work really hard at it.
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. What do you think?
I'm sorry, I didn't hear what you said.
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?
Bernie, it's hard to say because we're looking at that from the outside.
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.
I mean, I know that they had problems this time.
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 an indication that, yes, 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
of just being able to, well, because you have more support, I guess, from the structures around you,
from the city, from the government.
You're not seen as the enemy. You're not seen as terrorist.
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 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 in the last four years.
Okay, it's changed in a very bad way, but it's changed nonetheless.
You can change things. You can change society, and you can have a profound effect on things.
But just as easily as it can go bad, it can go right.
And I think that's something that people like us need to not forget.
We can't give up. There's just no point giving up on all this.
We have to look at the positive possibilities.
We've got nothing to lose by trying.
I couldn't have said it better.
I didn't mean to give a speech, but I just sort of launched into it here on the balcony.
A bunch of people have gathered, and they're cheering. Thank you very much.
Have you sustained any injuries there in the war zone?
No, you know, and that's the thing.
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.
The biggest problem I had tonight was being sprayed with champagne.
Everybody brought champagne, and the wise guys next to us decided to do the countdown a minute early.
So that confused everybody, because they're counting down at one minute to midnight,
they opened their champagne and were spraying all over the place.
Meanwhile, everybody else was still just sort of standing around,
waiting for the actual midnight hour to arrive.
But no, no real problems at all.
It's a little scary for Americans who aren't used to this kind of thing.
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.
But it's a good shock. It's the kind of thing I think everybody needs to do.
So if you're looking to do something completely different, go to Amsterdam for New Year's.
I know I was there last year, and I just could not believe my eyes and my ears what I was seeing.
And I agree with you, if you tried to pull off anything one-tenth as big in the States,
you'd probably be shot on sight.
Yeah, it would be something.
I'd like to hear it, though.
I mean, is there a place in the United States where you can do things like this more than, say, in New York City?
I don't know, you know, maybe people are more creative.
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.
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.
You know, we have these Class A, Class B, and Class C fireworks,
and individuals like you and me are only able to purchase Class C fireworks here in the States.
And that pretty much amounts to just, like, sparklers.
I mean, that's about all you can buy.
Well, they have the ATF, which is opening up offices all over the world, I understand.
Oh, great.
There's plenty of alcohol, tobacco, and fireworks around here.
People are surviving quite nicely.
I'll let some other callers get on the air.
So, happy New Year, everyone.
Happy New Year, Bernie.
We're going to take him off, and we have another caller who's on with us.
Yes, this is Matthew at Columbus, Ohio. How are you doing?
Hi. How are you?
Oh, I'm okay. I don't know how much the delay is.
They're at 7.50 right now. What time is it?
You're live on the air right now.
Oh, Jesus Christ.
Okay, well, I was just calling to let you guys know Happy New Year,
and thanks a lot for a really good year of radio.
I've been listening, started listening early this year, and I don't miss an episode.
So, just calling to wish you guys Happy New Year.
Happy New Year to you.
And you can always go back and get them on the archives,
the ones that were on before you started listening.
Well, yeah, I've listened to a lot of the key ones back in the archives.
There's a lot of interesting shows there.
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.
And the different ones where Mitnick finally got off of probation
and different shows you guys had is really interesting.
But thanks a lot for all you guys' effort.
Thank you.
Okay, your voice is forever on the archives yourself.
Oh, sweet.
You can go back and listen to it.
All right.
Bye.
All right.
And the board is just—
How much time do we have?
We have about—
Hi.
Hello.
Hi, it's Sandra.
Happy New Year in New York and Amsterdam.
Wow, I wish I was in Paris.
I heard a siren before.
Fire trucks were trying to get by.
My husband and I went to look out the window,
and there were people from some part of the city,
traffic, locking manhole covers on the Upper West Side.
Yes, yes.
1984 is here.
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.
Oh, wow.
Yes, I'm one of those.
Going to be sweet 16.
That makes you a quarter of the age of most people, right?
Yep, I'm going to be sweet 16 again.
All right.
Congratulations.
Happy New Year.
Bye-bye.
All right, we have about eight minutes to the hour.
Have we ever done a show on February 29th, I wonder?
I don't know.
Will we this year?
What day of the week is it?
Has to happen sometime.
February 4th is Wednesday, so we're not going to do it this year.
Oh, all right.
Oh, well, maybe in 2008.
We'll have to see.
We have another caller on the line.
Hi, this is Mercy calling.
I was down in the subway, like the Lexington line, the number 5,
and the trash cans have plastic bags on them,
and you can't put anything in the trash can.
They have big rubber bands holding these condoms on the trash can,
and people are piling trash on top of these
because you can't put anything in the trash can.
Well, wait a minute.
Hold on a second.
Now, couldn't you just cut the plastic bag and deposit your bomb
or whatever it is you want to put in the bag?
But there's cops all over the platform tonight.
There were cops all over the place.
This is like 5 or 6 o'clock, 5 o'clock.
Well, what you do is the first terrorist goes over
and makes like he's putting garbage on a freshly sanitized trash can,
and he's actually cutting the top,
and the next terrorist has a bomb disguised as a 2-liter soda bottle.
Why do you need to put a bomb in a trash can?
You can put it on the trash can with the rest of the garbage.
What's the big deal?
Oh, yeah.
You can put it on the floor.
You can put it on the wall.
We're getting a little bit too particular.
The first time they did this was when the Democrats had the convention
in Madison Square Garden.
What year was that?
They've done this before.
That's so weird.
1980?
Don't put anything in the trash.
Don't look in the trash.
Big deal.
If you have a bomb, you put it anywhere you want.
Grand Central Station today.
Put it in the dark in the subway tunnel.
Grand Central Station was full of people in like marine costumes
or camouflage outfits.
You know, these young people from all over the world,
and they're carrying like these angry expressions.
I didn't see if they're carrying guns.
I didn't really want to look.
But there's cops all over the place, too.
It's a good thing they have a camouflage
because they can hide in the moldy bagels.
Oh, that's down in the dining court or whatever.
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?
Well, I feel safer because I live in Brooklyn,
and most of them are in Manhattan.
Fireworks.
For a second, I thought they were shooting at you, Mercy.
No, they're just shooting at Emmanuel.
That's Chinese New Year.
They do a lot of fireworks, too.
It's Happy New Year.
Yeah.
Oh, okay.
Happy Secular Halloween.
I'm sorry.
I'm having trouble hearing you because there's explosions going on.
Don't worry.
We're having trouble hearing you also.
Let's say goodbye to Mercy and take another call.
Not that we don't love her.
Okay.
Good night, guys.
Take care.
See you later.
Bye.
All right.
And we have just a few minutes left here on this call.
These calls keep running away, but we have one who I think I've captured.
Hey, guys.
Evening.
Good evening.
Hey, you know, I was just wondering if you guys saw that article in the New York Times.
Is it on there?
We need you to turn your radio down.
Oh, it's down.
Hmm.
Yeah, it's down.
Okay, let's try that again.
Article in the Times.
Well, last week in the New York Press, real quick,
there was an article that stated that there's a website called presidentialprayer.
What is it called?
Presidentialprayerteam.org where we pray for Bush and for the recovery of Iraq and business
and everything over there.
I was just wondering if Emanuel would think that anything like that would exist in Europe
for the President of the United States.
I'm not quite sure what this is.
A presidential prayer?
Yeah, it's a site that prays for Bush and all his policies.
It's called presidentialprayerteam.org.
We're running quickly out of time here.
All right.
I know you are.
It's a website.
Anything's possible with websites.
You can certainly see something like that over here, too.
Yeah.
Oh, really?
Okay.
I was just curious.
Because the whole thing, it's Billy Graham's involved with it and everything.
Anything's possible.
It's real close to Bush.
Yeah, I don't know.
I just thought it was kind of ironic that you were over there.
Thank you for the call.
We're out of time.
All right, guys.
Happy New Year.
All right.
Thank you.
Happy New Year to all our listeners and even people who aren't our listeners.
Happy New Year to you, guys.
Happy New Year to you, Emanuel and Ken and Mike.
And don't forget, this is Friday at 2600 Meeting.
That's right.
We're trying to get to 2600.
Where is the meeting?
In the CityCore Center in New York.
Where is the CityCore Center?
53rd and Lexington.
And consult your 2600 Magazine or the 2600.com website for more information.
And this has been Off the Hook on WBAI New York, 99.5 FM.
Coming up next is the Personal Computer Show.
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