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RANFIELD, England, July 29 (UPI) -- Church bells in Cranfield, England, chimed every quarter hour for hundreds of years -- but the tradition was broken after some newcomers complained. New residents said chimes kept them awake at night, Britain's Mail on Sunday reported. The city council has issued a noise abatement regulation, to take effect next month, preventing the bells from ringing at night.

29 May 2007, 16:42 Harvard delegation pleased with sounding of new bells copied from St. Daniel’s monastery belfry Voronezh, May 29, Interfax - The delegation of Harvard University who visited the bell-casting plant to test the copies of St. Daniel’s monastery’s bells are pleased with the results of the test. ‘I liked the bells very much. I believe they are very beautiful’, the Harvard University senior bell-ringer Ben Rappoport said in an interview with the NTV. During the test, he examined every bell several times, tested its voice and recorded every sound to compare it later with the sounding of...

Our local parish has been denied the right to ring our bells on Sunday for a long time. It seems a neighbor is offended by them. When our parish priest, approached our County Supervisor, he was told that an appeal would be filed, and that he would be kept abreast of the actions taken by the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors. A petition was circulated and well over 2000 signatures were obtained of parishioners who want to ring the bells on Sunday. All of us parishioners agreed to let Fr. Tom represent us and deal with the local representative. She...

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Do any of my fellow freepers know how many bells for a Captain (USN)? It's for a retirement ceremony. I've searched the net with absolutely no luck. Thanks in advance.

BRING BACK THE BELLS: MASS SEEN AS IN REAL NEED OF RETURN TO SENSE OF SACREDWe all remember that during the election of Pope Benedict XVI, the Vatican initiated a new backup system in announcing the decision. Instead of just using smoke, the Church instituted the ringing of bells as a confirmation.We suggest that the Church take it another step and institute (or should we say, "re-institute") the bells during Mass. Bring those bells back into the liturgy!Many of us remember how, before the reforms of Vatican II, bells were jingled during Consecration. There were three long rings as the...

Japanese Cheers

Church bells have tolled in mourning of a loved one's death for centuries. (The toll is a slow, somber, usually single sound from the lowest, largest bell; very different from the joyous pealing of the whole set.) Perhaps it's time we asked our pastors, of every church we know of, to ring a single bell each hour for as long as Teri fights for her life. One bell, rung once each hour, can be programmed into electrical carrilions, or rung mechanically, or even struck by hand manually by watchstanders. It'd be a "rining" effort that would remind people who satnds...

The Salvation Army has received an outpouring of support after reports that two major department store chains -- Target and Mervyn's -- had banned the charity's holiday bell ringers from collecting donations in front of their stores, a spokeswoman said Wednesday. The Salvation Army's office in San Francisco received scores of calls from people who said they were shocked by the chains' decision to boot the little red kettles off their property after years of permitting the collections. Some callers said they were writing letters to the corporations; others promised to boycott the stores. "People are saying they are saddened...

Origin of 'Jingle Bells' Song Is Debated By RUSS BYNUM, Associated Press Writer SAVANNAH, Ga. - Dashing in the sun, through oaks and Spanish moss. Sleigh riding's no fun, when there's no snow to cross. Could "Jingle Bells" really be a song of the South? It's not hard to see why balmy Savannah has a tough time selling the Christmas carol as a native creation. Or why the claim makes folks in Medford, Mass. — hometown of the song's composer — cry humbug. This much is known: James Pierpont was the organist at Savannah's Unitarian Universalist Church in 1857 when...

WASHINGTON -- The Federal Communications Commission released its long-awaited rules governing competition in the local-telephone industry Thursday, over six months after initially approving the measure in a 3-2 vote. But the release signals less the end of a process than the beginning of litigation that has been promised from virtually every corner of the industry. Suits are likely from the Baby Bells, which were looking for more relief from obligations that they lease their networks at low cost to competitors like the local arms of AT&T Corp. and MCI, as well as competitors who will say that deregulation of...

Anticipated FCC Broadband Ruling Next Major Step on Path to New Networks With Nearly Limitless Bandwidth for Internet, Voice and Innovative Video Applications ATLANTA, SAN ANTONIO and NEW YORK, May 29 /PRNewswire/ -- Three of the nation's largest telecommunications service providers -- BellSouth (NYSE: BLS), SBC Communications Inc. (NYSE: SBC) and Verizon (NYSE: VZ) -- have adopted a set of common technical requirements based on established industry standards and specifications for a technology known as fiber to the premises (FTTP). These advanced fiber-optic systems can be used to connect homes and businesses to telecom networks. Today's announcement is a major...

WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--A divided Federal Communications Commission is still struggling to complete before the end of the month key telephone competition rules adopted in concept on Feb. 20. While some in the agency are optimistic the job will be completed by next week, others aren't so sure. The commissioners are scheduled to vote on a major rewrite of media ownership rules by June 2, possibly making completion of the phone rules difficult before then. Meanwhile, a trade association representing the dominant local telephone companies said investment is on hold until the FCC releases the new phone rules. The delay...

NEW YORK - It may be the best news the high-tech industry has seen all year: This morning Verizon Communications laid out the details of its plan to slash prices, increase speeds and reach more customers with high-speed Internet access--moves which could invigorate the relatively torpid U.S. broadband market. High prices and lagging speeds have been the two primary reasons that America's use of broadband lags well behind global leaders such as Canada and South Korea. Silicon Valley groups such as Technet say the slow U.S. rollout has crippled many bandwith-hungry technologies and left the U.S. telecom industry drowning...

Shortchanged The Baby Bells may have bilked consumers out of billions by inflating the cost of their networks. Regulators seem content to overlook the matter. Front-page headlines in June 2000 hailed a historic deal that dramatically cut phone rates for the nation's consumers. The Federal Communications Commission, in persuading the Baby Bells to slash the access fees they charge long-distance carriers for routing calls to their local lines, said it would save customers $3.2 billion a year. The FCC's claim to have enacted "the largest rate cut in the history of federal telephone regulation" was the New York Times'...

The Baby Bells may have bilked consumers out of billions by inflating the cost of their networks. Regulators seem content to overlook the matter. Front-page headlines in June 2000 hailed a historic deal that dramatically cut phone rates for the nation's consumers. The Federal Communications Commission, in persuading the Baby Bells to slash the access fees they charge long-distance carriers for routing calls to their local lines, said it would save customers $3.2 billion a year. The FCC's claim to have enacted "the largest rate cut in the history of federal telephone regulation" was the New York Times' lead story....

Chairman Michael K. Powell sharply dissented from the portion of the Federal Communications Commission's Order of February 20, 2003, which retained obligations of incumbent local exchange carrier (ILEC) monopolists to unbundle network elements to facilitate budding competitive carriers. On the other hand, the Chairman celebrated the withholding of corresponding unbundling obligations for new fiber lines capable of a dazzling array of broadband services, such as Internet, television, movies, or high speed data. Both positions seem ill-conceived. According to the Chairman, new fiber construction by the gang of four ILECs-Verizon, SBC, Qwest, and BellSouth-would spurt because its broadband profit opportunities...

WASHINGTON, Feb 26 (Reuters) - Dominant U.S. local telephone companies such as BellSouth Corp. will likely invest further in high-speed networks despite a decision that they must continue to share their networks with rivals, Federal Communications Chairman Michael Powell said on Wednesday. The FCC voted to keep rules that require the carriers to give rivals discounted access to their voice networks but lifted sharing requirements on fiber-optic networks in hopes of spurring further investment in high-speed networks and video-on-demand. Powell, who had favored reducing sharing requirements on most voice and data services offered by the carriers but was outvoted...

Iraq wasn't the only one recently facing a countdown from a man named Powell. Competition in the vital telecommunications sector faces one, too. Just as Secretary of State Colin Powell has said time is running out on Iraq, his son, Federal Communications Chairman Michael Powell, has promised to meet a largely self-imposed Feb. 20 deadline for issuing new rules governing wireline telephone services. But will it be a case of like father, like son? Most press reports say not. Secretary of State Colin Powell wisely has refused to accept the false promises of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein that he...

DSL Prime News: The Inside Source A leak from the FCC says a deal on line sharing has been reached because the RBOCs are about to build fiber, and therefore no longer hate sharing their outdated copper networks. "The Bells are about to build fiber, and that explains the coming FCC decisions." -- Leak from the top of the FCC Powell is apparently cutting a private deal with Seidenberg and Whitacre. He will give them less competition, and they will promise to build out a fiber or VDSL network. Powell hopes to change a public relations disaster into a...