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[Carrie McLaren <stay.free AT verizon.net>]

Recent highlights from our blog, Stay Free! Daily. Full text, images, 
and links can be found at http://www.stayfreemagazine.org

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PERSONAL MATTERS

I haven't had much time to blog lately. For one thing, my part-time 
job ended two weeks ago and so I've been scavenging for freelance 
design work. But, more importantly, Charles (Stay Free! "Vice 
President") and I have decided to get married. Since I'm a classic 
Type A personality,  I immediately started to look into reception 
sites and expenses, even though the wedding is a good year away.... 
and, to make a long story short, the experience has been such a rude 
awakening that Charles and I have decided to document it on a new 
wedding blog. Maybe you'll enjoy it.
http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/09/personal_matter.html


AN INTRO TO NEWS READERS FOR TECHNOPHOBES

After reading the stats that over 90% of web users don't know about 
RSS, I figure a little education is in order. If you are one of the 
people who read web sites regularly but don't use an RSS "news 
reader," trust me when I say that it would make reading online a 
whole lot easier. This is especially true for sites like ours that 
update sporadically. A news reader will tell you when your favorite 
sites update and allow you to keep track of articles that you intend 
to read when time permits. First, you'll need a news reader...
http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/09/rss_for_technop.html


DOCTORS FIGHT ONLINE CRITICS

A while back I posted about RateMDs, a website that lets people 
review doctors in their area. The Wall Street Journal reported this 
week that, surprise, the medical world is outraged about it and 
similar sites. Several doctors have complained and filed lawsuits 
against online critics.
http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/09/rate_doctors_lo.html


NOT SO WILD ANIMALS

Via Monkeywire, we learn that zoo administrators across the country 
have been doping exotic animals that show signs of distress with 
their environment. I don't want to get all PETA about this since I'm 
lying naked on a bearskin rug and eating chicken salad while typing, 
but this sounds a lot like experiments are being done on animals just 
to keep the show entertaining.
http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/09/not_so_wild_ani.html


PAPER WORK: AN INTERVIEW WITH LIBBY BLACK

Libby Black is a San Francisco artist who recreates high-end retail 
products and environments by hand.  The first work I saw of hers was 
a life-size, convertible Mercedes Benz 280SL made completely out of 
paper. She also recreated a Louis Vuitton retail store in a local 
gallery, making all the store details and Louis Vuitton product line 
out of paper, paint, and glue. Most recently, she recreated a Kate 
Spade store inside the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts' "Bay Area Now 
4" show...
http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/09/interview_with_.html


KATRINA, KATRINA

Artwork inspired by the disaster:
http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/09/katrina_art.html


WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOUR LOCAL BUSINESSES SUCK?

You might think I'm lucky to have a video store twenty feet away from 
my apartment. I barely have to put on pants to rent a movie on a lazy 
Sunday afternoon. It would follow that I should be upset that it's 
closing after 20 years, but I'm more interested to see what comes in 
to take its place. You see, this video store sucked. It could quite 
possibly be the worst video store I've ever been in and yet I kept 
coming back only because it was so damned convenient. There's another 
video store three blocks away, and it too is a prince in the court of 
Suck. The next closest option is a Blockbuster (8 blocks) and after 
that a really excellent hole in the wall (16 blocks) which is where 
I've been renting my videos ever since I decided it was worth the 
half hour round trip. I don't even consider the Blockbuster as an 
option, but I can say that because I live in a place with a plethora 
of video stores. My question to you is, what does somebody do when 
they only have one local choice and it totally sucks?
http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/09/what_do_you_do_.html


THE ALL-CONSUMING CENTURY

Via Adfreak, I just found out about a four-hour BBC documentary 
showing here in New York through tomorrow: Century of the Self, a 
four-hour series about Freud, Bernays and the rise of consumer 
culture and mass persuasion in the 20th century. I had never heard of 
the documentary before, which is a bit surprising because it's from 
2002, but not when you consider that the series wasn't made available 
commercially on VHS or DVD. And why might that be? Because, like a 
lot of BBC documentaries, the producers couldn't clear the rights to 
historical footage and images for commercial release...
http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/09/century_of_self.html


TV MAKES YOU SMARTER, HUH?

More fodder for our Steven Johnson file: The Archives of Pediatrics & 
Adolescent Medicine, a JAMA journal, has several studies documenting 
the negative relationship between TV viewing and educational 
achievement.
http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/09/tv_makes_you_sm.html