8:42 a.m. Friday (Blogroll)

MP3s: New to me, from WFMU's Beware of the Blog, "Here's a dial scan of New York City's FM band from 25 years ago (MP3). It was recorded shortly after the news of John Lennon's murder broke. The recording was made by an unknown listener, and it was included on our CD compilation, Radio Archival Oddities, Vol. 2."

Nirvana, Melbourne 1992 at BigO, Singapore.

Nervous laughter: In Welcome aboard, The Economist offers, "In-flight announcements are not entirely truthful. What might an honest one sound like?" Here's a bit of it:

Your life-jacket can be found under your seat, but please do not remove it now. In fact, do not bother to look for it at all. In the event of a landing on water, an unprecedented miracle will have occurred, because in the history of aviation the number of wide-bodied aircraft that have made successful landings on water is zero. This aircraft is equipped with inflatable slides that detach to form life rafts, not that it makes any difference. Please remove high-heeled shoes before using the slides. We might as well add that space helmets and anti-gravity belts should also be removed, since even to mention the use of the slides as rafts is to enter the realm of science fiction.

Please switch off all mobile phones, since they can interfere with the aircraft's navigation systems. At least, that's what you've always been told. The real reason to switch them off is because they interfere with mobile networks on the ground, but somehow that doesn't sound quite so good. On most flights a few mobile phones are left on by mistake, so if they were really dangerous we would not allow them on board at all, if you think about it. We will have to come clean about this next year, when we introduce in-flight calling across the Veritas fleet. At that point the prospect of taking a cut of the sky-high calling charges will miraculously cause our safety concerns about mobile phones to evaporate.

No termination fee? From Smart Money, Ditching Your Cell Contract:

Many folks don't realize that they can drop their cell phone contract without paying a termination fee, which typically runs as much as $150 to $200 per line. All they have to do is find someone willing to take the contract over for its remaining term.

Granted, this may not be easy: Beyond your family and friends — who probably have contracts of their own to gripe about — who's there to ask? That's why a year ago Eric Wurtenberg and his brother launched Celltradeusa.com, which connects consumers who want to get rid of their contract with those looking to assume one. This way, sellers can drop their cellphone carriers for a fraction of the penalty fee, while buyers can get a contract with a much shorter term than the now-standard 24 months, pay no activation fees and, in most cases, receive a free cell phone from the seller.

The service is free for the buyers, who can search ads posted by sellers based on criteria such as cellular company, contract length, monthly price or type of phone offered. The $19.99 fee that sellers pay is due only after they start receiving emails from interested buyers and in the case they want to access the sender's contact information. Since it launched a year ago, about 75,000 users a month have visited the site, which typically sports at least 1,000 active "for sale" ads, according to Wurtenberg. (A recent search yielded 1,179 listings.)

But while it offers advantages for both buyers and sellers, the service also comes with a catch: While it can help you find an interested buyer for your contract, it doesn't help with the actual transfer. "We can't get involved," says Wurtenberg. "We're a matchmaking service. Like eBay, we're connecting people."

Ears on their knees: Outside last night, listening to night sounds, we wondered about the cricket chorus. Wikipedia:

Crickets are known for their chirp (which only male crickets can do; male wings have ridges or "teeth" that act like a "comb and file" instrument). The left forewing has a thick rib (a modified vein) which bears 50 to 300 minute "teeth". They chirp by raising their left forewing to a 45 degree angle and rubbing it against the upper hind edge of the right forewing, which has a thick scraper (Berenbaum 1995). This sound-producing action is called "stridulation" and the song is species-specific. There are two types of cricket songs: a calling song and a courting song. The calling song attracts females and repels other males, and is fairly loud. The courting song is used when a female cricket is near, and is a very quiet song. Female crickets have a long needlelike egg-laying organ (ovipositor)....

...To hear the mating call of other crickets, crickets have ears located in an unusual spot on its knees. More precisely, the ear drum is located just below the joint of their front legs....

Rhode Island politics: This might come as a surprise to out-of-town pundits, but not to us: Labor backs Democrat Whitehouse. Sheldon Whitehouse, who faces Tuesday's Republican primary winner Lincoln Chafee for U.S. Senate, picked up the endorsement of the AFL-CIO at its convention last night.