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[Carrie McLaren <stayfreemagazine AT gmail.com>]

Hello. Here are some recent highlights from our new blog. Visit
http://stayfree.typepad.com for full stories and images (or just click
the direct URLS below).



CELL PHONE JAMMING
Posted by Carrie

Next time some loudmouth on the bus starts yapping on his cell phone,
it's nice to know you have a few options, aside from joining the
conversation or resorting to violence. Commercial cell phone jammers
-- which range in price from $250 to $2,000 -- temporarily disable
nearby cell phones...
http://stayfree.typepad.com/stayfree/2005/02/cell_phone_jamm.html



LIKE TIVO, BUT MORE PRURIENT
Posted by Charles

Did you ever want to watch TV but didn't want to get bogged down in
plot or dialogue? Did you ever think "Why can't I just skip to the
necrophilia and avoid all the tedious character development?" Well,
now you can! The Parents Television Council website features the Worst
of the Week in network television, giving their membership access to
all of the things that they really, really hate so they can watch them
over and over again. Probably with their pants off. Their prudery is
your ticket to pleasure. Click and enjoy our debased culture.
http://stayfree.typepad.com/stayfree/2005/02/like_tivo_but_m.html



"KEEP TV FREE?"
Posted by Carrie

Gee, who would have thought that some of the same suits who are now
trying to dictate what you can watch and record on television once
urged Americans to "Keep TV Free"? Well, here's a PSA from the late
1960s Hollywood that does just that...
http://stayfree.typepad.com/stayfree/2005/02/1960s_psas_urge.html



GREAT MOMENTS IN JOURNALISM, VOL. 1
Posted by Charles

Last Sunday's NYT Business section, featured a 3,000 word story about
how McDonald's move towards healthier fare has suddenly made them the
largest purchaser of apples in the country. McDonald's Apple Dippers
are going to "take the place of French Fries in some child's Happy
Meal" and "answer many of its critics who contend that most of its
menu is of poor nutritional quality."

Apple Dippers? They are dipped in yogurt, right? Twenty-four
paragraphs (and eight pages) later, on the heels of a McDonald's
lackey bragging about how salads have improved McDonald's image, we
are finally told:

> Apple Dippers, which come with a caramel dipping sauce and
> are offered either as a part of a Happy Meal or sold separately
> for $1 ... have also given McDonald's customers some
> alternatives to burgers, chicken nuggets and fried potatoes.

http://stayfree.typepad.com/stayfree/2005/02/great_moments_i.html



PROPOSED LAW ON MOVIE THEATER ADS
Posted by Carrie

Fire up for New York City Councilwoman Gale Brewer, who has introduced
legislation that would require movie theaters to specify when movies
actually start, not when the ads start. If passed, theaters that don't
provide actual start times could face fines of $500 to $1,000 for each
infraction...
http://stayfree.typepad.com/stayfree/2005/02/proposed_law_on.html



QUEENS DEVELOPER DROPS PLAN FOR NYC WAL-MART

>From The New York Times: Facing intense opposition, a large real
estate developer has dropped its plans to include a Wal-Mart store in
a Queens shopping complex, thwarting Wal-Mart's plan to open its first
store in New York City, city officials and real estate executives said
yesterday...
http://stayfree.typepad.com/stayfree/2005/02/queens_develope.html



ABC-TV AD COVERS THE GOWANUS SKY

Reader Ted Houghton writes: I was just looking out the window, holding
my newborn and enjoying one of baby's first sunsets over the Gowanus
expressway, when I noticed a dark blotch in the sky. On closer
inspection, it was a giant floating billboard being towed by a
helicopter advertising an ABC-TV program.  It was gigantic -- you had
to wonder how the helicopter got it off the ground...
http://stayfree.typepad.com/stayfree/2005/02/abctv_ad_covers.html



HERE'S AN IDEA: "NEW YORK CITY"
Posted by Charles

Because I like reading without the burden of "thinking," I
occasionally pick up "am New York." It is a good thing I did.
Otherwise I might never have known that New York is in the process of
renaming The Big Apple. New York City has filed a trademark
application for the phrase "The World's Second Home" (a phrase already
in use by the City's 2012 Olympic committee) to use on T-shirts and
other promotional geegaws. This would be unremarkable (after all, the
Olympics are 20% sport, 30% pathos and 50% selling stuff) but for a
not-so-coincidental coincidence: "The Big Apple" is in the public
domain. In other words, it isn't enough for the City to sell t-shirts
and temporary tattoos and keychains for the Olympics: it has to have a
proprietary mark. Of course it does. New York may be the world's
second home, but remember: you are just renting.
http://stayfree.typepad.com/stayfree/2005/02/heres_an_idea_n.html



SILENT DISOBEDIENCE
Posted by Mat Honan

With the 'AA's and major rightsholders going after everyone from
BitTorrent tracker sites to Beatallica, most copyright violaters are
keeping their heads down. But not  Scott Moschella, who's documented
how he stripped Apple's Digital Rights Management (DRM) technology
from an iTunes track and posted the de-DRM-ed song online for others
to download. Moschella used a promotional Pepsi iTunes code to
purchase "Silence," by the Ciccone Youth, from the iTunes Music Store.
He's now more or less daring the RIAA, Apple, or anyone else, to come
after him...
http://stayfree.typepad.com/stayfree/2005/02/silent_disobedi.html




CHRISTO SAYS: DON'T PHOTOGRAPH THE GATES!

>From an email by NYC activist Robert Lederman:

> Christo's publisher claims a vast new degree of copyright
> and trademark protection. They claim they will prosecute
> anyone who sells their own original photos of The Gates;
> who makes and sells a drawing of The Gates or who even uses
> the words, The Gates, without their permission....They also
> claim to have an agreement with the media that media sources
> may only use news photos of the gates for the period the installation
> is up. That after that the media will only be allowed to use
> "official" photos of The Gates. 
http://stayfree.typepad.com/stayfree/2005/02/christo_says_do_1.html

See also: 
"More on Christo's policy of photographing the Gates"
http://stayfree.typepad.com/stayfree/2005/02/christo_says_do_1.html



BILL GATES DROPS SOME MAD 5x1llz
Posted by ja3

Need to know what your kidz are saying to each other online?
Microsoft's primer to computer slang has the answers...
http://stayfree.typepad.com/stayfree/2005/02/bill_gates_drop.html