November 2007

On October 9, the British rock band Radiohead shook up the music industry by offering its new album, “In Rainbows,” online for whatever fans wanted to pay. The next morning, The Boston Globe reported not only that tens of thousands of CDs had been downloaded under the risky plan, but that the album was pretty good to boot. On the BBC news, lan Youngs admitted: “I paid precisely £0.00 – for research purposes, just to see if it could be done. And it could – the ordering process skipped the credit card section and went straight to the confirmation screen. But soon my conscience was nagging me to be a bit more equitable and give them a fair price . . . . I decided to pay £9.82 because that was the average price paid for a CD in the UK in 2006.”

My son Patrick and I went online that night and paid £3.45 (about $6). We were listening to the album less than nine minutes later.

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Lousy news. Via WoMag:

Richard Nangle, he of the recent court testimony in the Larry Cirignano case, has left the Telegram, and is moving onto the state Department of Social Services.

First Milton Valencia left for the Globe, and now RN’s gone . . . this leaves very few people on the Telegram & Gazette staff I trust to do a thorough, accurate job of reporting local stories.

Related: T&G circulation collapsing, T&G prints election results wrong twice in a row, T&G reports City Council vote exactly wrong.

Below: Maybe it’s too goofy a picture for a sad event, but I prefer to remember the good times. Richard Nangle reports on Mr. Hetero.

Got word today that the Appeals Court in DC voted unanimously to uphold the conviction of seven activists for civil disobedience at the Sudanese Embassy in 2005.

The defendants plan to appeal to the Supreme Court.

Update: Scott Schaeffer-Duffy adds, “This is what the court ruled:”

District of Columbia Court of Appeals senior judges Newman, Belson, and Warren King: Appellants appeal their convictions of incommoding for blocking the entrance to the Sudanese embassy in protest of that country’s policies in Darfur. They claim that the trial court erred in rejecting their defenses of necessity and justification under international law. We affirm.

Substantially for the reasons stated by the trail judge in his Findings of the Court, we are satisfied that the government presented sufficient evidence to establish a violation of DC criminal code 22-1307 and that the court properly rejected the defenses put forth. United States v. Maxwell, Emry v. United States, Reale v. United States, Shiel v. United States, Griffin v. United States, Morgan v. District of Columbia. [cititions omitted]. Accordingly, the judgments of conviction are affirmed.

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This is a recording of a homily by Father Bernie Gilgun, from his weekly Mass at the Mustard Seed in Worcester, Massachusetts. Includes his thoughts on All Saint’s Day and Simon Holden.

You can download the mp3 (4.8MB) or see other formats. You can also subscribe (RSS) to the podcast.

Reading for November 2, 2007.

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Here is a prayer at the end of a sermon on the subject of the slave trade, by one of the first trans-Atlantic chemists, Joseph Priestley (1788):

Bless our native country. May we continue to share thy favour, in the enjoyment of our liberties, civil and religious; and in consequence of making a suitable improvement of our many advantages, may we be that happy people whose God is the Lord. If any individual of our nation, from an inordinate love of gain, have been guilty of injustice and oppression, above those of other nations, may the generosity of others be roused to greater exertions, in order to put a stop to it; and, as far as possible, may reparations be made for past wrongs, by our superior regard to equity and humanity in future time.

– Pauline Bower, compiler (2007) You made us to be free: prayers to mark the bicentenary of the abolition of the slave trade. Oxford: Church Mission Society. ISBN 978-0-85273-088-1.

508 is a show about Worcester.

This week, Mike is joined by Bruce Russell, Brendan Melican, and Matt Feinstein.

You can download the mp3, subscribe to the feed, or see other formats.

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On November 6, 2007, three of the seven defendants convicted for civil disobedience in 2005 against the Darfur genocide went to Washington, DC, for oral arguments in an appeal of their case.

Yesterday, I talked to two of them, Ken Hannaford-Ricardi and Scott Schaeffer-Duffy, about how it went. The men are members of the Saints Francis & Therese Catholic Worker community in Worcester, Massachusetts.

Click here to listen to the conversation (mp3)

You can also see more formats or subscribe to the Pie and Coffee podcast feed.

Ken Hannaford-Ricardi and Scott Schaeffer-Duffy

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From the Boston Globe:

Nationwide, average daily paid newspaper circulation declined 2.6 percent in the six months that ended Sept. 30, compared with the previous year . . . .

Daily paid circulation at the Worcester Telegram & Gazette fell 5.3 percent.

If this sounds familiar, you may be thinking of this story from May: Newspapers down 2%; T&G down 11%. At least the local loss is slowing. The T&G covered the general story, but didn’t mention their own stats.

Worcester election items
I’m really impressed at the job Scott Zoback did liveblogging the election for Worcester Magazine. Much more about the internet & the election on this Friday’s podcast.

Here’s a chart of the results, which I originally posted at Worcester Activist.

Your Pettys and Rushtons rocketed up since the prelims; not so for your Colemans, Perottos, Rosses, and Irishes.

The T&G screws up again

Good grief: “A chart in today’s Telegram & Gazette had incorrect totals for Ms. Ross, Mr. Irish and Mr. Coleman.”

They also screwed up in the prelims.
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This is a recording of a homily by Father Bernie Gilgun, from his weekly Mass at the Mustard Seed in Worcester, Massachusetts.

You can download the mp3 (4.8MB) or see other formats. You can also subscribe (RSS) to the podcast.

Reading for October 26, 2007.

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