Busted: F-R-E-E spells $14.95 a month

Well, the boom has dropped on those seafood-serving pirates and renaissance hipsters we love to hate. Freecreditreport.com's free ride courtesy of a comatose Bush Federal Trade Commission is over.

Huffpost covers some of the ruling requiring full and clear disclosure of the fact that signing up means you get a monthly suprise on the credit card you are asked to submit to verify your identity upon registering for the "free service." It's always been a smorgasbord of outrageous puffery. The ID theft protection they "provide" means you must pay attention to all your transactions, the raw data: it's your burden to spot irregularity. Yes, that is kinda like saying green tights make you a brave and great bowman like Robin Hood. It's a shame this sham marketing has originated with a hometown ad agency that should know better. (Disclosure: The Martin Agency wrote me few checks for copywriting back in the mid-90s.)

The news of the bogus nature of these things is hardly news: NYT had a story in April 2008, "The High Cost of Free Credit Report"

Twitter: Newton's Third Law meets Groucho Marx's Axiom

"Crowne Village Apts is now following you on Twitter!"

Yay!

I'm sensing some serious market mis-timing here, namely: all the folks who jumped into Pets.com stock after seeing a Superbowl ad. And what the hell is Groucho's Axiom anyway?

Whiny 13 year-olds in $2000 suits are still whiny 13 year-olds

A new blog I found and like cuz he writes about money but good and somethin' funny: The Epicurean Dealmaker is apparently a handsome and refined practitioner of the Arts of Merging & Acquiring. Go there now as he roughly succors the holders of Chrysler bonds, gives fashion tips to GM investors and reality checks to armchair John Galts: More of a kickin' sitcheyation.

Plus: I like this quote...

"The wealth required by nature is limited and is easy to procure; but the wealth required by vain ideals extends to infinity." — Epicurus, Principal Doctrines

If I can make it there - The art school nude model in NYC

Time Out NY tackled the not-so-fast-paced, not-so-glamorous wage-craft of the Art School nude model. It's only NSFW if you get click-happy with the accompanying galleries as you review this important sociological topic. I like this observation about studio space:

Time Out New York: What was your first modeling experience?
Laura Noble: I was going to Rhode Island School of Design for illustration. A friend told me that she modeled for an artist who hired three models a day, five days a week. I needed the money. The other girls warned me that it was in his musty basement. It wasn’t really a bad experience, but one should generally avoid musty basements.

Wisdom for the ages, I'd say.

Prayer - are you ISO 9000 compliant?

Isn't it funny how diagrams can convey a certain legitimacy, albeit fleeting, to just about anything? Via j-walk comes this procedural breakdown for effectively petitioning the Chief Spiritual Officer in the sky...



And that reminds me of an interesting animation project emanating from the interwebs a few years back from the Vancouver Film School: Duelity.



Duelity is two videos, one borrowing scientific-sounding language and iconography to explain Genesis and, the other, using biblical prose style to explain Evolution. Worth a look if your Prayer Group's TQM is lagging industry standards and best practices.