April 2010

508 is a show about Worcester. This week, Mike and Brendan talk with School Committee member Tracy Novick.

 

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[0:00] We start by talking about school funding, principal firing, and union negotiations.

[10:33] Brendan notices some anti-drug-dealer graffiti on a log.

[18:35] The T&G reported a circulation decline this week, and is planning to charge for some online articles. We discuss whether this matters and how Worcester’s bloggers are doing in picking up some of the slack.

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Our old college buddy Zack Berger, medical doctor and Yiddish poet, got a shout-out on Boing Boing this week, highlighting his Yiddish versions of classic children’s books. Good job! You can order the books here. I don’t speak Yiddish, but reading them aloud is a treat anyway.

Catholic anarchism
Michael Iafrate excerpts an essay from the latest Catholic Worker. If I find the thing online I’ll post a link.

Telegram & Gazette paywall
Our local paper, the Worcester Telegram & Gazette is planning to charge for some local stories on their website, starting this summer. The first few stories each day would be free, after that you’d have to pay. Jeff Barnard has an impressive rant about the modern economics of newspapers and how they relate to the T&G and its plans.

New Ubuntu released today
For the past few years, I’ve mostly used computers running the Ubuntu operating system, the most popular flavor of Linux. The latest version is out today.

(To appear in Issue 2 of the Oxford Left Review.)

‘One of the most encouraging developments in the emergent intellectual space [...] has been a new willingness to advocate the Necessary rather than the merely Practical.’ – Mike Davis, Who will build the ark? New Left Review 61 (January/February 2010)

Political events since mid-2009, especially the parliamentary expenses scandal, accentuated long-standing symptoms in the British body politic, eliciting predictions of doom (in the form of further voter disengagement, among others) and calls for reform. Among these, many an opinion poll suggested the possibility of a hung Parliament, and many a campaign group called for a referendum on reforming the electoral system of first-past-the-post (FPTP). Peter Tatchell outlined the case for electoral reform in the inaugural issue of this Review. Beyond this, the wide Left ought also to think a few more steps ahead. Read the rest of this entry »

Worcester Telegram & Gazette:

The T&G reported paid circulation declines about on par with expectations because of recent pricing changes; and also continued to report significant growth in its online audience. Daily circulation declined 9.5 percent to 71,034 Monday through Saturday; and Sunday declined 10.3 percent to 81,461.

Looking only at weekday circulation, and comparing the annual Oct-Mar reporting periods, this represents a 16.2% decline in circulation over the past 3 years.

• Oct 2006-March 2007: 84,754
• Oct 2007-March 2008: 81,437
• Oct 2008-March 2009: 78,479
• Oct 2009-March 2010: 71,034

The audience for the paper’s website is expanding, but they’re planning to erect a paywall. Jeff points out that the # of unique visitors to the site is growing 3 times as fast as page views.

For a service at Saint Columba’s Church, 2010-04-25.

Last time I spoke from this lectern, I started by talking about a bank branch a few metres down High Street. I am going to talk about banks again. A nationalized bank at that. Seventy percent of the Royal Bank of Scotland is owned by Her Majesty’s Treasury … well, the better name is the taxpayers’ Treasury, our Treasury. In turn, RBS owns the NatWest bank in England; we have a branch down the road. Before I get too much into the banks, let me take a detour, and talk about oil. I promise to come back to banks … ’cause that seems to be where the action’s at, these days.

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