Saturday, May 26, 2012

The Slippery Slope of Memorial Day

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New World Notes News
Vol. 5, No. 21 -- May 26, 2012

This week in New World Notes, radio program #221, May29, 2012

The Slippery Slope
of Memorial Day

In brief

An anti-war, anti-militarism perspective on Memorial Day.

Features journalist Robert Fisk's antiwar reflections (there's no "Good War"--not after 1945--he concludes). Plus Howard Zinn's 1976 newspaper column on whom Memorial Day ought to honor (which got him fired from the Boston Globe) ... plus commentary by me and Steppenwolf's antiwar classic, "Monster."

This installment is a rerun of NWN #65 (May 2009).


A Zinn Personal Anecdote

After recording this installment in 2009, I sent an email "fan letter" to Howard Zinn expressing my admiration for his Memorial Day essay.

An old English major, I decribed the essay enough to show that I understood how it works. I thought its framing device was especially clever. The essay begins and ends by discussing highway smashups--an American Memorial Day tradition. But by the end, smashup doesn't mean just vehicular carnage. It becomes a metaphor for (you might say) the collision of American values, ethics, and government policy. A metaphor for where American militarism is leading us.

I told him that the essay was my favorite, of the many Zinn essays I had read. That's still true.

Within two hours, the eminent historian had written and sent me a gracious personal reply. He thanked me for my kind remarks and told me that, in fact, the Memorial Day essay was one of his favorites too.

Zinn died, four months after our exchange, in January 2010.

Howard Zinn in May, 2009

Notes, credits, & links

Fisk talk courtesy of tucradio.org. Zinn essay, "Whom Will We Honor Memorial Day?"--and much other good stuff--from The Zinn Reader (Seven Stories Press, 1997).

New World Notes is produced under the auspices (Latin for "nihil obstat") of WWUH-FM, a community service of that beacon of light in darkest Connecticut, the University of Hartford.

You can listen to any installment of New World Notes online or else download it (as an mp3 audio file) for later listening. The show is archived at both radio4all.net and (from #90 onwards) The Internet Archive. Either link should get you a reverse-chrono listing of available installments. Or browse the show's Web site: Each installment has a page, and each page has links to the recorded audio. See the gray sidebar on the right ("CONTENTS [Links]") for a table of contents.

Series overview: Political and social commentary in a variety of genres. Exploring the gap between what we want ... and what they're trying to make us settle for.
Above: Graphic by Eric Drooker.
Below: "Spain, 1936" by Robert Capa.

Coming soon (Tuesday air debut date shown)
  • June 5 & 12 -- "Unsustainable": Michael Pollan on Factory Farming
Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):
A-Infos Radio Project http://www.radio4all.net
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Saturday, May 19, 2012

Eugene Jarecki: The Drug War

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New World Notes News
Vol. 5, No. 20 -- May 19, 2012

This week in New World Notes, radio program #220, May 22, 2012

Eugene Jarecki: The Drug War
In brief

Filmmaker Eugene Jarecki's new documentary on the drug war, The House I Live In, just won a top award at Sundance. Now Jarecki talks about some things he learned while making the film.

Among them: 90% of crack arrestees--but only 13% of crack users--are Black. Drug laws, always a means of race control, are now also a means of class control, with poor whites increasingly targeted. And the original "War on Drugs"--launched by Nixon in 1971--devoted two-thirds of its budget to treatment programs (vs. almost nothing today).

Introductory & concluding remarks by K.D.
Notes, credits, & links

Jarecki's remarks are taken from an interview by Michael Slate, broadcast on The Michael Slate Show on KPFK, Los Angeles. The hour-long program is available here. Many thanks for permission to rebroadcast.

New World Notes is produced under the auspices (Latin for "gun") of WWUH-FM, a community service of that beacon of light in darkest Connecticut, the University of Hartford.

You can listen to any installment of New World Notes online or else download it (as an mp3 audio file) for later listening. The show is archived at both radio4all.net and (from #90 onwards) The Internet Archive. Either link should get you a reverse-chrono listing of available installments. Or browse the show's Web site: Each installment has a page, and each page has links to the recorded audio. See the gray sidebar on the right ("CONTENTS [Links]") for a table of contents.

Series overview:Political and social commentary in a variety of genres. Exploring the gap between what we want ... and what they're trying to make us settle for.

Coming soon (Tuesday air debut date shown)
  • May 29 -- The Slippery Slope of Memorial Day
Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):
A-Infos Radio Project http://www.radio4all.net
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Saturday, May 12, 2012

Lawrence Lessig: Our Corrupt Congress


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New World Notes News
Vol. 5, No. 19 -- May 12, 2012

This week in New World Notes, radio program #219, May 15, 2012

Lawrence Lessig:
Our Corrupt Congress

In brief

Harvard Law professor Lawrence Lessig brilliantly discusses the many ways that our Congress is corrupt. Some of his examples surprised even me.

His October 2011 lecture in Seattle--based on his book Republic, Lost--combined an excellent discussion of the problem with (IMHO) a long-shot, pie-in-the-sky solution (a Constitutional Convention to establish campaign finance reform). Our condensed version of the talk focuses on the problem.


Notes, credits, & links

Our selections from Lessig's talk are taken from the hour-long recording broadcast by Mind Over Matters. Many thanks to that program and to producer Mike McCormick. The full recording is here.

New World Notes is produced under the auspices (Latin for "average quality") of WWUH-FM, a community service of that beacon of light in darkest Connecticut, the University of Hartford.

You can listen to any installment of New World Notes online or else download it (as an mp3 audio file) for later listening. The show is archived at both radio4all.net and (from #90 onwards) The Internet Archive. Either link should get you a reverse-chrono listing of available installments. Or browse the show's Web site: Each installment has a page, and each page has links to the recorded audio. See the gray sidebar on the right ("CONTENTS [Links]") for a table of contents.

Series overview: Political and social commentary in a variety of genres. Exploring the gap between what we want ... and what they're trying to make us settle for.

Coming soon (Tuesday air debut date shown)
  • May 22 -- filmmaker Eugene Jarecki on the Drug War
Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):
A-Infos Radio Project http://www.radio4all.net
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Saturday, May 5, 2012

The News as Propaganda


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New World Notes News
Vol. 5, No. 18 -- May 5, 2012


This week in New World Notes, radio program #218, May 8, 2012

The News as Propaganda
In brief

First, veteran news critic Jeff Cohen explains how the news media mislead the public to serve the interests of Established Power.

He focuses on two related techniques: (1) presenting a very narrow spectrum of opinion (while pretending to cover "both sides") and (2) ignoring all voices--including experts'--that contradict government and corporate claims. War opponents especially.

Then--courtesy of Project Censored--we look at some important stories that the major news media decided not to report.

Above: FAIR co-founder Jeff Cohen. Below: Other
good media analysts head up Project Censored.

Notes, credits, & links

Jeff Cohen's remarks are taken from a half-hour interview on Barry Vogel's Radio Curious. Many thanks to Barry and the show. Find the complete interview--and hundreds of other installments--at http://www.radiocurious.org/

Jeff Cohen was a founder of the media watchgroup Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) -- http://www.fair.org/.
http://www.jeffcohen.org/
http://www.projectcensored.org/

New World Notes is produced under the auspices (Latin for "Yum-yum tree") of WWUH-FM, a community service of that beacon of light in darkest Connecticut, the University of Hartford.

You can listen to any installment of New World Notes online or else download it (as an mp3 audio file) for later listening. The show is archived at both radio4all.net and (from #90 onwards) The Internet Archive. Either link should get you a reverse-chrono listing of available installments. Or browse the show's Web site: Each installment has a page, and each page has links to the recorded audio. See the gray sidebar on the right ("CONTENTS [Links]") for a table of contents.

Series overview: Political and social commentary in a variety of genres. Exploring the gap between what we want ... and what they're trying to make us settle for.
Coming soon (Tuesday air debut date shown)
  • May 15 -- Lawrence Lessig on the Corruption of Congress
Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):
A-Infos Radio Project http://www.radio4all.net
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Friday, April 27, 2012

Trends


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New World Notes News
Vol. 5, No. 17 -- April 27, 2012

This week in New World Notes, radio program #217, May 1, 2012

Trends
Botox for men
In brief

In places seriously, in places tongue-in-cheek, we take a look at some current trends. Important ones include the decline of suburbs and the increasing wealth of the plutocrats.

But let's not neglect Botox for men ("brotox"), celebrity vegetarianism, women NOT dyeing their hair, special-interest magazines, exploring power plants while naked.... Contributors include J.H. Kunstler, George Carlin, Paul Krassner, provincial newspapers, and singer David Rovics.

Notes, credits, & links

New World Notes is produced under the auspices (Latin for "What, me worry?") of WWUH-FM, a community service of that beacon of light in darkest Connecticut, the University of Hartford.

You can listen to any installment of New World Notes online or else download it (as an mp3 audio file) for later listening. The show is archived at both radio4all.net and (from #90 onwards) The Internet Archive. Either link should get you a reverse-chrono listing of available installments. Or browse the show's Web site: Each installment has a page, and each page has links to the recorded audio. See the gray sidebar on the right ("CONTENTS [Links]") for a table of contents.

Series overview: Political and social commentary in a variety of genres. Exploring the gap between what we want ... and what they're trying to make us settle for.
Paul Krassner

Coming soon (Tuesday air debut date shown)
  • May 8 -- Jeff Cohen on Corporate News Media
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Friday, April 13, 2012

Peak Oil, Peak Natural Gas, Peak Electricity...


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New World Notes News
Vol. 5, No. 15-16 -- Friday the 13th, 2012

This fortnight in New World Notes, radio program #215-216, April 17 & 24, 2012

Peak Oil, Peak Natural Gas,
Peak Electricity:
Why 'More of the Same' is Not an Option

Most graphics: Click to enlarge
In brief

It's not just oil. With growing demand and declining supplies, all forms of energy will soon become very expensive.

No alternative sources can produce as much energy as we are now obtaining from oil and natural gas--both of which are in decline. Some proposed alternatives (hydrogen, ethanol) are pipe-dreams.

Is this the end of The American Way of Life? Probably. Several experts lucidly explain what's happpening and what we have to do.

Experts speaking here include several petroleum scientists and engineers, ecologist Richard Heinberg, urban planners James Howard Kunstler and Peter Calthorpe, energy investment broker Matthew Simmons, political analyst Michael Ruppert, and journalist Barrie Zwicker (narrator).

For this two-part broadcast, I condensed and adapted the 2004 documentary film, The End of Suburbia.


Notes, credits, & links

More on Peak Oil: http://aspo-usa.com/

New World Notes is produced under the auspices (Latin for "aegis") of WWUH-FM, a community service of that beacon of light in darkest Connecticut, the University of Hartford.

You can listen to any installment of New World Notes online or else download it (as an mp3 audio file) for later listening. The show is archived at both radio4all.net and (from #90 onwards) The Internet Archive. Either link should get you a reverse-chrono listing of available installments. Or browse the show's Web site: Each installment has a page, and each page has links to the recorded audio. See the gray sidebar on the right ("CONTENTS [Links]") for a table of contents.

Series overview: Political and social commentary in a variety of genres. Exploring the gap between what we want ... and what they're trying to make us settle for.

Below: No known or forseeable technology can produce as much power, as cheaply, as oil and natural gas have been able to. Can expensive power and prosperity co-exist?

Coming soon (Tuesday air debut date shown)
  • May 1 -- Trends
Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):

A-Infos Radio Project http://www.radio4all.net
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Friday, March 30, 2012

Capitalism Hits the Fan


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New World Notes News
Vol. 5, No. 13-14 -- March 30, 2012

This fortnight in New World Notes, radio program #213-214, April 3 & 10, 2012

Capitalism Hits the Fan:
A Talk by Richard Wolff

In brief

With clarity, force, and wit, economist Richard Wolff explains the 30-year-long process that got the US economy into its present crisis. He shows why there are no quick fixes--while suggesting (in Part 2) some practical actions that will improve the situation. Actions that nobody in Washington is proposing.

More fundamentally, we need to re-think our commitment to corporate capitalism, he argues.

Part 1 of his talk focuses on the factors most affecting workers: growing workforce, growing productivity, declining available jobs, stagnant pay, and--perhaps an inevitable consequence--growing consumer debt.

Part 2 focuses more on the CEOs and financiers--who managed to make a bad situation much worse. Part 2 includes also Wolff's practical suggestions for near-and long-term changes.

Richard Wolff

Some conclusions

Just as there are no easy fixes, Wolff concludes, so there are no dastardly villains--not even Wall Street. Wolff has written,

"Everybody did his or her part to contribute to the crisis. The bankers did what bankers do; the working people did what working people do. Everyone tried to make this system work for them. ...

"When a system has everybody playing more or less by the rules and achieves the level of dysfunction we have now, it’s time to stop looking for scapegoats and understand the problem is the system itself."


Notes, credits, & links

Wolff gave this guest-lecture at Brown University on December 2, 2009. I have condensed it for radio broadcast. A video of the entire presentation including introduction (1:45:00) can be found on YouTube.

More on & by Richard Wolff: http://rdwolff.com/

New World Notes is produced under the auspices (Latin for "counter") of WWUH-FM, a community service of that beacon of light in darkest Connecticut, the University of Hartford.

You can listen to any installment of New World Notes online or else download it (as an mp3 audio file) for later listening. The show is archived at both radio4all.net and (from #90 onwards) The Internet Archive. Either link should get you a reverse-chrono listing of available installments. Or browse the show's Web site: Each installment has a page, and each page has links to the recorded audio. See the gray sidebar on the right ("CONTENTS [Links]") for a table of contents.

Series overview: Political and social commentary in a variety of genres. Exploring the gap between what we want ... and what they're trying to make us settle for.


Coming soon (Tuesday air debut date shown)
  • April 17 & 24 -- Peak Oil, Peak Natural Gas, Peak Electricity--Why 'More of the Same' is Not an Option
Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):

A-Infos Radio Project http://www.radio4all.net
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Sunday, March 25, 2012

Power, Propaganda and the Silence of Writers


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New World Notes News
Vol. 5, No. 12 -- March 25, 2012

This week in New World Notes, radio program #212, March 27, 2012

Power, Propaganda and
the Silence of Writers


In brief

Independent journalist John Pilger exposes the hypocrisy of the news media--and how they further the aims of Established Power by producing a barrage of propaganda.

The examples he cites are striking. In Pilger's native Australia, the media have invented a child-prostitution scandal among Australia's indigenous people--thus furthering yet another land-grab by the government.

Then there's the press's "propaganda of silence": not reporting facts and stories that contradict the (often false) claims of the powerful.

UN weapons inspectors and all the major U.S. spy agencies report that they have found no evidence that Iran has a program to develop nuclear weapons. Iran has signed and is abiding by the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Under the treaty, Iran has the right to enrich uranium to levels useful for power generation and medical research. Enriching it to the much-higher level needed to make bombs would require a huge increase in uranium imports and a huge increase in infrastructure--impossible to conceal.

Israel has not signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and possesses hundreds of nuclear weapons.

Don't look for any of these inconvenient facts on the front page of the New York Times--or from any other Establishment "news outlet."

John Pilger

Notes, credits, & links

Pilger gave this talk on August 23, 2008, at the Melbourne Writers Festival. I've condensed the talk for radio broadcast. A video of the entire presentation is here: http://www.blinkx.com/watch-video/melbourne-writers-festival-john-pilger/ce8xBDNRwI04RdzibPvOjA

New World Notes is produced under the auspices (Latin for "Freedom of Information Act") of WWUH-FM, a community service of that beacon of light in darkest Connecticut, the University of Hartford.

You can listen to any installment of New World Notes online or else download it (as an mp3 audio file) for later listening. The show is archived at both radio4all.net and (from #90 onwards) The Internet Archive. Either link should get you a reverse-chrono listing of available installments. Or browse the show's Web site: Each installment has a page, and each page has links to the recorded audio. See the gray sidebar on the right ("CONTENTS [Links]") for a table of contents.

Series overview: Political and social commentary in a variety of genres. Exploring the gap between what we want ... and what they're trying to make us settle for.

Coming soon (Tuesday air debut date shown)
  • April 3 & 10 -- "Capitalism Hits the Fan," a lecture by economist Richard Wolff
Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):

A-Infos Radio Project http://www.radio4all.net
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Sunday, March 18, 2012

How 'The System' Causes Addiction


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New World Notes News
Vol. 5, No. 11 -- March 18, 2012

This week in New World Notes, radio program #211, March 20, 2012

How 'The System' Causes Addiction
with Dr. Gabor Mate 


In brief

A good introduction to Dr. Gabor Mate's insights into addiction.

Mate (mah-TAY) shows that addiction is caused not by chemical substances but by the complex interaction of brain, experience, the environment (including society & the economy), and chemical substances. He argues that our stressful, exploitative economic system is a major factor causing addiction. Not just promoting addiction but causing it at the basic, biochemical level.

And since The System's "War on Drugs" does little good and much harm, could its real goals be more sinister than its professed goals?

Mate's insights come from both scientific research and his own clinical experience treating addicts in Vancouver's version of Skid Row.

Notes, credits, & links

Gabor Mate's most recent book is In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction.

This program replays parts of an interview with Mate (January 2010) by Mike McCormick, on Mind Over Matters, and parts of a speech Mate gave in Berkeley in November 2011 (courtesy of the National Radio Project and Making Contact). Many thanks to both sources.

New World Notes is produced under the auspices (Latin for "thumb") of WWUH-FM, a community service of that beacon of light in darkest Connecticut, the University of Hartford.

You can listen to any installment of New World Notes online or else download it (as an mp3 audio file) for later listening. The show is archived at both radio4all.net and (from #90 onwards) The Internet Archive. Either link should get you a reverse-chrono listing of available installments. Or browse the show's Web site: Each installment has a page, and each page has links to the recorded audio. See the gray sidebar on the right ("CONTENTS [Links]") for a table of contents.

Series overview: Political and social commentary in a variety of genres. Exploring the gap between what we want ... and what they're trying to make us settle for.

Coming soon (Tuesday air debut date shown)
  • March 27 -- John Pilger: Power, Propaganda and the Silence of Writers
Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):

A-Infos Radio Project http://www.radio4all.net
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Saturday, March 10, 2012

For-Profit Medicine


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New World Notes News
Vol. 5, No. 10 -- March 10, 2012

This week in New World Notes, radio program #210, March 13, 2012

For-Profit Medicine

Connecticut's new execution apparatus? Close, but no cigar. It's a CT scanner. The CT-scanning business is booming ... and, it turns out, a major cause of breast cancer.

In brief

This week, a brief first look at a very large subject: corporate-controlled, for-profit medicine.

We feature 2 interesting articles. One examines the booming business of diagnostic CT scans. Problem is, researchers have found that the biggest identifiable cause of breast cancer is ... CT scans.

The other article exposes the Susan G. Komen organization as a right-wing tool of Big Pharma. It's an outfit that has no interest in preventing breast cancer, and it turns a blind eye to the ways its corporate backers are causing breast cancer.

Plus remarks by Ralph Nader, Dr. Susan Rosenthal, and me.

While Connecticut's industries and businesses continue declining, downsizing, laying-off workers, and closing, one business is growing and getting richer: for-profit medicine. Here's the "topping off" ceremony for new medical offices outside Hartford.

Notes, credits, & links

I condensed and edited both articles for radio broadcast. The original texts are here: http://www.counterpunch.org/2011/12/26/the-leading-cause-of-breast-cancer/

and here: http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/02/09/the-komen-con/ . Thanks to the authors and CounterPunch.

New World Notes is produced under the auspices (Latin for "table") of WWUH-FM, a community service of that beacon of light in darkest Connecticut, the University of Hartford.

You can listen to any installment of New World Notes online or else download it (as an mp3 audio file) for later listening. The show is archived at both radio4all.net and (from #90 onwards) The Internet Archive. Either link should get you a reverse-chrono listing of available installments. Or browse the show's Web site: Each installment has a page, and each page has links to the recorded audio. See the gray sidebar on the right ("CONTENTS [Links]") for a table of contents.

Series overview: Political and social commentary in a variety of genres. Exploring the gap between what we want ... and what they're trying to make us settle for.

Above: Nancy G. Brinker: entrepreneuse, major GOP fundraiser, founder & head of the Susan G. Komen organization--and agent of Big Pharma? Detecting and treating cancer means money for her corporate sponsors. Preventing cancer does not.
Below: Answer: channel new customers to corporate sponsors such as General Electric and AstraZeneca.

Coming soon (Tuesday air debut date shown)
  • March 20 -- How "The System" Causes Addiction -- featuring Dr. Gabor Mate'
Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):

A-Infos Radio Project http://www.radio4all.net
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Saturday, March 3, 2012

Nader: The Government's Crimes Against the Constitution


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New World Notes News
Vol. 5, No. 9 -- March 3, 2012

This week in New World Notes, radio program #209, March 6, 2012

Nader: The Government's Crimes
Against the Constitution


In brief

In this hard-hitting talk at Harvard Law School, Ralph Nader indicts both Barack Obama and G.W. Bush for their (clearly impeachable) crimes against the U.S. Constitution and against the people of the United States.

And he denounces the needless suffering and deaths caused by government policies that place corporate profits above the welfare of the citizens.

On a positive note, Nader urges law students to be "first responders" in defense of our liberties.

Includes selected Q&A.

Nader spoke at Harvard Law School--his alma mater--on February 8, 2012. His talk was gently edited for radio by K.D.

Is that a noun or a verb? Let it be both, say we!

Notes, credits, & links

New World Notes is produced under the auspices (Latin for "first floor") of WWUH-FM, a community service of that beacon of light in darkest Connecticut, the University of Hartford.

You can listen to any installment of New World Notes online or else download it (as an mp3 audio file) for later listening. The show is archived at both radio4all.net and (from #90 onwards) The Internet Archive. Either link should get you a reverse-chrono listing of available installments. Or browse the show's Web site: Each installment has a page, and each page has links to the recorded audio. See the gray sidebar on the right ("CONTENTS [Links]") for a table of contents.

Series overview: Political and social commentary in a variety of genres. Exploring the gap between what we want ... and what they're trying to make us settle for.

Above: Ralph Nader and Bruce Fein--another good-guy activist lawyer--spoke at Harvard Law School on February 8. Nader received his law degree from Harvard in 1958, Fein in 1972.

Coming soon (Tuesday air debut date shown)
  • March 13 -- Corporate Medicine
Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):

A-Infos Radio Project http://www.radio4all.net
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