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  • From: Carrie McLaren <stay.free AT verizon.net>
  • To: stayfree AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Stay F---! | October 17
  • Date: Mon, 17 Oct 2005 23:06:55 -0400

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




  • Stay F---! | October 17, Carrie McLaren, 10/17/2005

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