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

Hey all, here are some more highlights from Stay F---! Daily. For 
full text, images, links, and even more articles, see 
http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org.



FROM EACH, ACCORDING TO HIS BALANCE

Advertising Age is worrying that a new best-seller will hurt 
marketers' efforts to use radio-frequency id (RFID) chips to track 
consumer habits. Me? I'm delighted to hear about the work of 
Katherine Albrect and Liz McIntyre, who track the direct market 
industry so we don't have to. Albrect and McIntyre's book Spychips: 
How Major Corporations and Government Plan to Track Your Every Move 
with RFID, has hit the top 10 of Amazon's nonfiction list - a small 
triumph for their activist group, Consumers Against Supermarket 
Privacy Invasion and Numbering (CASPIAN)...
http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/10/shopping_cards.html


FORGETTABLE SCIENCE

I suppose it was inevitable. Larry Farwell, the genius behind 
so-called "brain fingerprinting" has set his sights on a new outlet 
for his invention: advertising...
http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/10/brain_fingerpri.html


ADD YOUR OWN

Responding to our recent article about local businesses that suck, 
reader Mark Hurst sent me the URL for this neato site he created: 
AddYourOwn.com, which is kinda like a Wiki for local restaurant 
reviews - that is, it allows Brooklynites (and people in other 
cities) to post comments on local joints and to edit others' 
comments...
http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/10/restaurant_revi.html


CITIZEN WAL-MART

So a kid places a tack through a picture of George Bush and 
photographs his hand making the "thumbs down" sign next to the 
picture, then sends the film to be developed at Wal-Mart. You may be 
able to guess what happens next. Wal-Mart flags the photo and calls 
the police...
http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/10/citizen_walmart.html


NEW FROM STAY FREE! MAGAZINE

"The Professional" is a brilliant short story by my buddy Alexandra 
Ringe. We usually don't run fiction in Stay Free! but for this I made 
an exception. I had to beg Alexandra and wait over a year for 
permission to run it, so if you haven't yet had the pleasure, you 
should read it now with the understanding that a battle was fought 
and won on your behalf. Many people have told me this was their 
favorite thing in the last issue. Others, moved to confusion by the 
raw reality of Alexandra's prose, have expressed their condolences to 
the author. So please remember: this is fiction.
http://www.stayfreemagazine.org/archives/24/professional-alexandra.html


A NATION OF PEDOPHILES...

While visiting NYC, I read that a woman was ticketed for disobeying a 
playground sign that say, "adults not admitted without children." 
Some attribute this law to living in New York City and/or Mayor 
Bloomberg, but I've seen these signs in other cities -- they're a 
knee-jerk reaction to highly-publicised child abduction cases.
http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/10/a_nation_of_ped.html


MEDICATION VS. MEDITATION

Apparently I have some kind of medical condition called "restless 
mind." I lay awake in bed at night.  My mind wanders, sometimes for 
hours, and I don't sleep... Finally, there's a drug to make this go 
away...
http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/10/medication_vs_m.html


WE'RE ALL CRAZY NOW

From the British Medical Journal: The parents of an Indiana teenager 
have filed a suit in a federal court in the state's Northern 
District, charging that school officials violated their privacy 
rights and parental rights by subjecting their daughter to a mental 
health screening examination without their permission...
http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/10/teen_depression.html


WHO'S YOUR MOMMY

Remember the credit card prank we mentioned back when? Well, the same 
guy has come up with another entertaining way to publicize holes in 
credit card security. This time around, John Hargrave calls Visa and, 
when asked for his mother's maiden name, gives an unintelligible 
response - but the customer service rep pretends he got it right and 
gives him his account info anyway!
http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/10/visa_prank.html


DAMNED IF YOU DO...

A recent study has found that doing drugs and having sex can lead to 
teen depression. In related news, a longitudinal study of one 
teenager growing up in Queens proved that a lack of sex and drugs 
also leads to depression...
http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/10/damned_if_you_d.html


CAN'T GET ENOUGH RIBBON PARODIES

In the spirit of Empty Sentiment and Support Our Pants, Twisty Faster 
of I Blame the Patriarchy has my favorite parody ribbon yet...
http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/09/cant_get_enough.html


UNNECESSARY PERMISSION GRANTED

Every sports fan should recognize the following phrase: "Any 
rebroadcast, reproduction, retransmission or other use of the 
pictures and accounts of this game without the express written 
consent of Major League Baseball is strictly prohibited." But, 
really, ANY reproduction? If Commissioner Selig gives the go-ahead, 
it's a trap? The local news can't show a clip when reporting on the 
game? What if they are reporting on the quality of the broadcast? ...
http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/09/unnecessary_per.html


TAKING THE PERMISSION SOCIETY SERIOUSLY

Wherein Carrie writes a letter to ASCAP, asking for permission to 
sing "Happy Birthday" to her father on the anniversary of his 75th 
year.
http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/09/happy_birthday.html


PROPOSED NEW UNIT OF MEASUREMENT: THE WALT SCALE OF CRASS COMMERCIALIZATION

Ever been to Myrtle Beach, SC? It's a craphole. What makes it a 
craphole is not so much the actual beach landscape itself, but rather 
the sheer volume of crap-vending, advertising, and generally far too 
much commerce in too small a volume. So I was thinking, how would I 
inform someone who, say, was trying to decide whether to vacation at 
Myrtle Beach or the Outer Banks of NC?
http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/09/proposed_new_un.html


TROLLING FOR PATENTS

Microsoft calling for limit on patent rights? Who would have 
thought...? And it's not just Microsoft: several multinational 
technology companies have been lobbying to limit "patent trolls" - 
small companies that buy up patents and then use them to extort money 
from the big guys. These outfits don't actually produce anything; 
they collect patents strictly to file lawsuits. When a company starts 
making something similar to a patent they own, they file suit and 
demand payment...
http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/09/trolling_for_pa.html