Stay F---! | May 18, 2005
Carrie McLaren
stay.free at verizon.net
Tue May 17 23:03:15 EDT 2005
Hello, Here are some recent highlights from our blog, Stay F---! Daily.
You can find many more articles, along with with links and images, at:
http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org
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FROM THE STAY F--- ARCHIVES:
PRICING THE PRICELESS: THE PERILS OF COST-BENEFIT ANALYSIS
How much would you pay for a case of chronic bronchitis? What is a
hunchback whale worth? And how many poor kids can your company kill per
year? Frank Ackerman and Lisa Heinzerling discuss the sordid world of
cost-benefit analysis.
http://www.stayfreemagazine.org/archives/23/priceless.html
See also The Costs and Benefits of Setting Yourself on Fire:
http://www.stayfreemagazine.org/archives/23/activist_corner.html
THE CSI EFFECT
Posted by Charles Star
Thanks to TV cop shows, audiences have unrealistically high
expectations of police departments. Investigators are calling it the
CSI Effect. It is hard to tell if this is good for the defense or the
prosecution: “[S]ome defense lawyers say CSI and similar shows make
jurors rely too heavily on scientific findings and unwilling to accept
that those findings can be compromised by human or technical errors.”
Prosecutors also have complaints: They say the shows can make it more
difficult for them to win convictions in the large majority of cases in
which scientific evidence is irrelevant or absent. Now, as ever, all
that really matters is having the right lawyer ... but anyone who has
been watching TV cop shows knows that already.
More at:
http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/05/are_you_gonna_t.html
WAL-MART’S LATEST EXPANSION
Posted by Charles Star
No longer satisfied with being the world’s largest retailer, largest
grocer, third largest pharmacy (so far) and (eventually) largest
bookseller, Wal-Mart is moving into a new sector: church. In recent
years Wal-Mart has hosted dozens of its employees’ weddings. My heart
breaks for Beverly McCutcheon, who got married at an upstate New York
store. She has so internalized Wal-Mart’s draconian labor policy that
is almost seems romantic that her friends are economically imprisoned
at work during normal wedding hours. Says Ms. McCutcheon, “We’re a very
close family here. All my co-workers are friends. They couldn’t get the
day off. So, I brought the wedding to Wal-Mart.”
More at:
http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/05/walmarts_latest.html
NEW, UPDATED WIZARD PEOPLE
The Illegal Art Exhibit is pleased to report that we’ve just received a
new, updated version of Wizard People, Dear Readers, Brad Neely’s
much-loved (albeit unauthorized) take on the first Harry Potter movie.
For those of you in New York, we will be screening the new WP in a
couple of weeks:
Tues., May 31, 8 pm (sharp!)
at Southpaw, Park Slope, Brooklyn
(part of our SF! issue #24 release party).
I’ve also posted lo-res mp3s of the audio on the Illegal Art website,
where you can get ‘em for free. More at:
http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/05/new_updated_wiz.html
WIRED MAGAZINE ASKS: WHY ARE IQ SCORES RISING AROUND THE GLOBE?
Here’s another story by Steven Johnson, the guy who wrote Why
Television Makes You Smarter (discussed here earlier). I found the
Wired story interesting, but don’t buy it. Even if we accept that IQ is
a viable measure of intelligence; that the different IQ tests created
over time measure the same quantity; that the tests are implemented
objectively, with samples representative of the population at large,
there are problems with Johnson’s argument. For one, he oversimplifies
the IQ findings (New Scientist, 3/2/02) and overstates his case. As
Johnson acknowledges, the significant leaps in IQ scores are found
mostly in a certain kind of problem solving: one measuring
visuo-spatial relationships. Researchers point to a number of possible
explanations for the changes in IQ, but Johnson ignores those. He also
ignores all countervailing data (for instance, the fact that the same
researchers have found *declining* IQs in industrial nations over the
past five years), and attributes all positive changes to media use.
More at:
http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/05/watching_televi.html
WHAT’S THAT STENCH?
Advertising Age reports that Proctor & Gamble has come out with a
deodorant for 7-year-old girls.
More at:
http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/05/whats_that_sten.html
GREAT PIECE ON AMERICA’S SUPPOSED “LAWSUIT CRISIS”
I’ve been wanting to do something on tort reform in Stay Free! for
quite some time now, but this Washington Monthly article (October 2004)
by Stephanie Mencimer would be hard to match:
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2004/0410.mencimer.html
See also the critical discussion of Mencimer’s article:
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2005_02/
005659.php#more
DEMAND IT YOUR WAY AT BURGER KING
Posted by Charles Star
With all due respect to Flava Flav, sometimes 911 isn’t to blame for
being a joke. From Food 911 to Nanny 911, TV has done a pretty good job
of redefining “emergency.” Currently making its way around the internet
is this hilarious audio clip of a woman calling 911 because the Burger
King drive-through screwed up her order. Just listen to the sense of
entitlement in the woman’s voice and wonder at the dispatcher’s ability
to remain polite and professional.
More at:
http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/05/demand_it_your_.html
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