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stayfreemagazine - Stay Free! | 18 November 2003

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  • From: Carrie McLaren <carrie AT stayfreemagazine.org>
  • To: stayfreemagazine AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Stay Free! | 18 November 2003
  • Date: Tue, 18 Nov 2003 10:32:22 -0500

VD ATTACK!

In our current issue, Alexandra reviews an amazing 1973 public service film by Disney, entitled VD Attack. Thanks to our man Skip at AVGeeks.com, you can now download the movie if you've got a highspeed connection. See:
http://www.stayfreemagazine.org/public/index.html



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

We've been inconsistent about running letters to the editor in the past but, for the record, we gladly accept them and will run them in the magazine whenever space permits. Here's a recent one from the 'hood:


Re: "Secret Shopper" by Matthew Flaming (Issue 21)

Flaming forgot to include the price-per-measure information below
the shelf price of many products. Ostensibly, these notices allow shoppers
to do price comparisons, but the units priced vary between brands -- from
weight to volume to whatever else they can think of. One jar of grape jam
will be per pound, one per gallon, and one per 100 jars. I've even seen items
labeled per item, i.e., a bag of rice labeled $4.99 on the price tag and $4.99/unit
for price comparison.

I recently confronted a manager at my local Key Foods about this and was told
that these numbers are provided by the manufacturers, not the stores, and
that the stores have no control over them! In any case, I have been taking a
Sharpie with me when I shop and adding my own comments to the tags when
they are incorrect or give inane information.

Adam Steinberg
Brooklyn, NY



OTHER ITEMS OF INTEREST


EXPERIAN
The Experian corporation claims to "hold more demographic and credit information on individuals and businesses than any other company in the world," and that very well may be. But what caught my eye was a new item in the company's fall catalog. Experian is now offering marketers the chance to use what it calls a "True Hipster" database. The catalog doesn't identify how Experian identified the true hipster, but from the accompanying photograph we know he wears a beige ski-cap and sunglasses.
http://www.listlink.experian.com/User_Doc/Fall03/Catalog.pdf
(Thanks to Chris Hoofnagle)


DOWNHILL BATTLE
Here's a great site about how the music industry--with help from Apple's iTunes--is screwing over musicians as well as fans. A smart look at the politics of filesharing:
http://www.downhillbattle.org/itunes/
(Thanks to Noah Scalin)


'Two, Four, Six, Eight... This Pill Works Great!'
Doctors Try Placebo Effect to Boost Power Of Real Drugs; Manipulating the Patient
From the Wall Street Journal
http://www.stayfreemagazine.org/public/wsj_placebo.html
Unfortunately, this WSJ article ignores the crucial point that if doctors are allowed to lie to patients en masse then patients will trust them even less. It also says nothing about direct-to-consumer advertising, which in itself feeds placebo effects. I wrote about this years ago, incidentally, and the argument remains quite prescient if I dare say so myself:
http://www.stayfreemagazine.org/archives/16/advg_health.html


And in case you missed it:
"There's a killer haunting America's inner cities. Not drugs. Not handguns But... stress?"
By Helen Epstein
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/12/magazine/12HEALTH.html



UPCOMING STAY FREE!-RELATED EVENTS

This Friday, 11/22, from 4 to 6 p.m. - New York, NY

Distributed Creativity: A Conversation with Lawrence Lessig (Stanford
University Law School). Carrie will be on this panel with Lessig, who
will be discussing his group Creative Commons, and the creation of a
"some rights reserved" system for collecting and putting creative works
in the public domain. With Jonah Peretti, Jon Ippolito, and Joline Blais.
at Eyebeam, 540 W. 21st Street bet. 10 & 11th Avenues.
$5 public / $2 members
http://www.eyebeam.org/distributedcreativity

Sunday, 12/7, at 3 pm - Red Hook in Brooklyn, NY

Carrie will be reading at Sundays at Sunny's reading series,
along with David Rees (Get Your War On and My New Fighting
Technique is Unstoppable) and David Kocieniewski (The
Brass Wall). At Sunny's, 253 Conover St. between
Beard and Reed streets in Red Hook, Brooklyn,
Info: 718 625-8211.


12/5-12/7, 7 pm and 9 pm - Seattle, WA

Illegal Art film and video screenings at
The Northwest Film Forum's ULTRA festival
The Little Theater (608 19th Avenue East)
Watch http://www.nwfilmforum.org for updates




  • Stay Free! | 18 November 2003, Carrie McLaren, 11/18/2003

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