Free Republic

Ding, dong, the bells are dead – at least on weekdays. By court order, the electronic chimes that were rung each day by Cathedral of Christ the King Catholic Church in Phoenix, Ariz., are now confined to Sundays and special occasions, while the cathedral's leader, Bishop Rick Painter, faces potential jail time for playing the daily melodies. Responding to complaints that the electronic bells at the northern Phoenix church were rung too loud and too often, a municipal court gave Painter three years probation and a suspended 10-day jail sentence on charges of violating city noise ordinances. The judge further...

It's the sound people have been waiting to hear for decades. The famous Danilov Bells, which escaped the Communist era axe and returned from Harvard last year, have rung today at their original residence in Moscow. They were sold to the U.S. in the late 1920s and returned to Russia after 78 years of exile. And today, all 18 Danilov Bells have rung together for the first time. The Head of the Russian Church, Patriarch Kirill, and the capital’s Mayor, Yury Luzhkov, have been attending the ceremony. "The most important thing about the homecoming of the Danilov bells is that...

Rome, Sep 5, 2008 / 01:34 am (CNA).- An Italian priest has been ordered to pay more than eighty thousand dollars to a woman living near his church because she claims the bells were rung too loud and too long at “unsocial hours.”The judgment was handed down by a court in the town of Chiavari after retired university teacher Flora Leuzzi and others claimed the ringing of church bells created a form of noise pollution, the Guardian reports.Professor Leuzzi lives close to the Carmine church in Lavagna, which is near Genoa. She first voiced complaints about the bell ringing...

Bell's Brewery Inc. beers are headed back to the Windy City nearly two years after the company pulled its brands out of the Chicago market following a nasty dispute with a distributor.

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...

Dear customers, We have for sale all Brands & Models Of MOBILE Phones,Tuners, Laptops Computers; I pod Nanas, Digital Cameras, camcorders AND ALL General Electronics at very Subsidized & Unbeatable Prices. All Phones are Brand New T2 Euro specs, Factory unlocked, free sim no Operator logo, sealed in their original factory box, we sell in Wholesales and any quantity of your choice. All phones come with the full specs and complete accessories/manuals with 2 years international warranty. YOUR ORDER HAVE TO BE MADE BEFORE PROCESSING IT.SO YOU ARE ASK TO PLACE AN ORDER NOW WHICH WILL BE SHIP WITHIN 48...

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....