Sunday, July 31, 2011

Dog Day Afternoon at the Movies


New World Notes News
Vol. 4, No. 31 -- July 31, 2011


This week in New World Notes, radio program #178, August 2, 2011

Dog Day Afternoon
at the Movies


Archer City, Texas. The Royal Theater was gutted by fire in 1965, shown in The Last Picture Show in 1971, and reopened in 2001.

In brief

Three short documentary films on fossil fuels, pollution, and the environment:

1. 300 Years of Fossil Fuels in 300 Seconds by the Post Carbon Institute

2. The Story of Cap & Trade by Annie Leonard

3. The Story of Electronics by Annie Leonard

Notes, credits, & links

All 3 videos are available on YouTube.

New World Notes is produced under the auspices (Latin for "long-suffering sighs") 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.
From The Last Picture Show.

Coming soon (Tuesday air debut date shown)
  • August 9 -- More Voices from "Lifting the Veil"
Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):

A-Infos Radio Project http://www.radio4all.net
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Sunday, July 24, 2011

Voices from "Lifting the Veil"


New World Notes News
Vol. 4, No. 30 -- July 24, 2011


This week in New World Notes, radio program #177, July 26, 2011

Voices from
"Lifting the Veil"


Three segments from Scott Noble's fine new documentary video about the betrayal of the American people by their political system.

1. A heartbreaking collection of Obama campaign promises--every one of which he broke. Get out of Iraq immediately; stop torture; close Guantanamo; bail out the people, not just the investment banks; renegotiate NAFTA; develop clean energy sources . . . and more. Everything Americans yearned for he promised. And we're still yearning.

2. Discussion by various figures of how US politics is controlled by--and serves only--Big Money.

3. A stunning speech at a war protest demonstration (D.C., December 16, 2010) by commentator Chris Hedges--on the meaning of the word "hope." Given The System's betrayal of democracy, hope requires the people to engage in public acts of nonviolent resistance to "the corporate state," he explains. (Hedges and more than 100 veterans then chained themselves to the White House fence and were arrested.)

The musical score in the background makes Hedges' speech even more stunning and inspiring. Hedges' remarks are preceded by a few on similar themes by John Pilger (2009).
Notes, credits, & links
The 2-hour film is available, without charge, online: http://www.metanoia-films.org/compilations.php

New World Notes is produced under the auspices (Latin for "radar") 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.
Antiwar demonstration, Washington, D.C., December 16, 2010.
Our installment--and the film--end with Chris Hedges'
stirring speech (below). Click to enlarge.

Coming soon (Tuesday air debut date shown)
  • August 2 -- Dog Day Afternoon at the Movies
Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):

A-Infos Radio Project http://www.radio4all.net
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Saturday, July 16, 2011

Glen Ford


New World Notes News
Vol. 4, No. 29 -- July 16, 2011

This week in New World Notes, radio program #176, July 19, 2011

Glen Ford


Three brief and good talks on current events by Glen Ford, one of America's most astute--and hardest-hitting--Progressive political commentators.

Ford exposes the phoniness of the 2-party system (which resembles professional wrestling more than politics): both parties serve Finance Capital and imperialism.

Then Ford exposes the barrage of US government lies about Gaddafi, Libya, and the US wars in Africa. And he denounces the corporate press's decision to--yet again!--trumpet the lies and never question them.

Above: Glen Ford

Notes, credits, & links

Music added: David Rovics, Evening News

Hear and read more by Glen Ford--and other good commentators--at http://www.blacksgendareport.com/

New World Notes is produced under the auspices (Latin for "inflexible deadlines") 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.
Click to enlarge.

Coming soon (Tuesday air debut date shown)
  • July 26 -- Voices from Lifting the Veil
Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):

A-Infos Radio Project http://www.radio4all.net
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Friday, July 1, 2011

Technology and Society

New World Notes News
Vol. 4, No. 27 -- July 1, 2011

This week in New World Notes, radio programs #174-175, July 5 & 12, 2011

Technology and Society

The Antichrist, in the shape of Steve Jobs, holds a recent
"smart phone" variation, the iPad.

The new "smart phones" such as Apple's iPhone have been revealed to be excellent devices for spying on the phones' owners. So this might be a good time to hear Dr. Neil Postman's celebrated and witty lecture, "Technology and Society" (1998).

Postman proposes six questions that society--and individuals--ought to consider before deciding to adopt any particular new technology.

Part 1 (NWN #174) includes some of Postman's introduction and his discussion of the first four questions.

Part 2 (NWN #175) includes

1. the final two questions and Postman's remarks on the relationship of TV and religion;
2. a news article on yet another spooky aspect of smart phones;
3. remarks by technology-law expert Jonathan Zittrain on the government's use of other "smart" wireless technology to spy on citizens (plus more bad news about the iPhone).

Above: Neil Postman in 1998.
Below: Should the U.S. taxpayer have subsidized construction of a supersonic passenger jet ("SST") to compete with the Anglo-French Concorde (1976-2003)? Postman applies two of his six questions to the proposal. Exactly what problem does this new technology solve? And exactly whose problem is it?

Notes, credits, & links

For many years a professor at New York University, Neil Postman wrote extensively on educational theory and theory of technology, as well as other works of cultural criticism. He died in 2003.


Postman spoke at Calvin College in January 1998. This lecture is available as 7 videos on YouTube. Jonathan Zittrain spoke at the University of Hartford on October 20, 2010 (recorded by me).

A good deal of Zittrain's October 20 lecture appears in New World Notes #142.

Music added (to Part Two): from Bruce Cockburn, If I Had a Rocket Launcher.

New World Notes is produced under the auspices (Latin for "spreading chestnut 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.
Above: Technology-law expert Jonathan Zittrain.
Below: Further thoughts by Neil Postman. (Click to enlarge.)

Coming soon (Tuesday air debut date shown)
  • July 19 -- Speaking Truth to the Disempowered: Glen Ford
Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):

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