Columnist Susan Snyder: Can we all be free at last?

Thursday, Jan. 13, 2005 | 8:13 a.m.

When information is free, sometimes you get what you pay for.

In this space last week, I shed light on a movement called "free- cycling," in which people who have stuff to get rid of offer it up on the Internet to other people who might want it. It's sort of like eBay, except everything is given and taken for free.

It turns out the Las Vegas Freecycle Web site I mentioned in this space is not an official member of the national movement, found at www.free- cycle.org. That Web site shows its Las Vegas chapter has 3,827 members.

Although the site mentioned here last week delivers what it promises -- free stuff -- and its operator claimed he and many of the 400 or so others in his group are also individual members of the above-mentioned national group, I am told his group and the national site are not related.

A woman representing the Las Vegas chapter of the official national group said in an e-mail last week that the man quoted in my column has "been asked to remove the Freecycle name from (his) Web site."

Evidently, love between the two groups is not free.

My apologies for the kerfuffle. It was not my intention to slight www.freecycle.org, the Las Vegas Freecyclers, their affiliates, relatives, pets, future members or their descendants.

It was my intention to give people a better option than simply dumping more junk into our landfills.

Toward that end, remember there is always the one and only Salvation Army.

Aletha "Lisa" Lowe will be a shadow of her former self when she appears on ABC's "Jane Pauley Show" Friday afternoon.

Lowe, a 38-year-old wife and mother of two teenagers, will appear on the show with her sister Cindy Braden, a personal trainer and owner of Work 4 It fitness center in Las Vegas. Pauley's show airs at 4 p.m. on KTNV Channel 13 and at 8 p.m. on KFBT Channel 33, Cox cable channel 6.

Under Braden's guidance Lowe dropped 37 pounds -- that's five dress sizes and 125 body inches -- as part of the Discovery Health Channel's National Body Challenge. Lowe and Braden's story also is to be featured at 10 p.m. Feb. 2 on the Discovery Health Channel, Cox cable channel 72.

Lowe and Braden also will be working on behalf of the American Heart Association's "Go Red" campaign in February, which educates people about preventing heart disease among women. Lowe, featured in Valley Views on Oct. 19, said she owes her success to a healthy diet and regular exercise. She hopes to lose another 22 pounds.

It's always a good idea to read the fine print -- especially where popular, high-tech toys are concerned.

According to www.Apple.com, the new iPod shuffle digital music player is "smaller than a pack of gum" and "weighs as little as a car key."

At prices of $99 or $149, depending on the storage space, it's pretty affordable too.

But, Apple warns consumers in the fine print at the bottom of the Web page, the unit's rechargeable batteries may have to be replaced every few cycles.

And, Apple also warns, "Do not eat iPod shuffle."

Yes, that would make changing those batteries infinitely more challenging.