Monthly Archives: March 2012


Mike Daisey is right about not being a journalist, but that doesn't mean he's… 1

Mike Daisey is right about not being a journalist, but that doesn't mean he's not influential.

When his tale about working conditions in Chinese consumer electronics factories exploded onto the headlines it raised awareness about the human effect of the products we buy every day. Despite the exaggerations and fabrications in Daisey's version of the narrative, the reality is that China has a manufacturing advantage over the United States because of generally poor working conditions and low pay.

The flexibility and responsiveness that Apple likes to tout from its Chinese suppliers comes from having tens of thousands of workers living in crowded dorms adjacent to the factory that can be pulled in day or night and put to work. That sort of behavior would never be tolerated here and should not be tolerated in China. Cranking up production of a new phone or tablet is simply not so important that humans need to be abused in this way.

The blowback against Daisey's actions may well inoculate companies like Apple, HP and Dell as well as suppliers like Foxconn so that people ignore the problem that is all too real.

#China #chinesefactories #apple #foxconn #mikedaisey

Reshared post from +Dan Gillmor

Mike Daisey "undermined the cause he purported to advance. That's the real scandal."

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Worse Than Kony2012: The Tragedy of Mike Daisey's Lies About China
American
consumers can't do much for Central Africa or Afghanistan, but they
have real power to improve Chinese labor abuses. Will they be less
inclined to believe the next person who tells them ho…

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+Jeff Jarvis as he so often does calls out the flaws in Mike Daisey's logic,…

+Jeff Jarvis as he so often does calls out the flaws in Mike Daisey's logic, especially mistake #2 Thinking that if you don't call it journalism, it doesn't have to be true. Falso.

Reshared post from +Jeff Jarvis

This American Life retracts its most popular show (podcast) ever: Mike Daisy's monologue and "reporting" on Apple's factories in China.

From the press release: "I'm not going to say that I didn't take a few shortcuts in my passion to be heard," Daisey tells Schmitz and Glass. "My mistake, the mistake I truly regret, is that I had it on your show as journalism, and it's not
journalism. It's theater."

No, Daisy's dangerous mistake #1: Thinking that shortcuts lead to the truth, not away from it.

Daisy's dangerous mistake #2: Thinking that if you don't call it journalism, it doesn't have to be true. Falso.

Daisy's suicidal mistake #3: Thinking that, once discovered, This American Life of all shows would let him get away with it. Wrong.

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http://www.chicagopublicmedia.org/sites/default/files/Retraction%20Press%20Release%20Final.pdf

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Michelin also stepped up to develop brand new tires for the Deltawing 2

#lemans #highcroftracing #deltawing #michelin
http://alms.com/video/michelin-and-delta-wing?channelId&channelListId&mediaId=15abaf6836c84f238ec95b9ab4b7f484

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Michelin and The Delta Wing | American Le Mans Series
Primary Navigation. News · ALMS Experts · ALMS Insiders · Multimedia · ALMS TV · photo gallery · Videos · watch live · Races / Standings · Schedule · Point Standings · Race Results · Car Corral · Team…

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Earlier this week, it was revealed that the Detroit automakers missed out on a huge…

Earlier this week, it was revealed that the Detroit automakers missed out on a huge opportunity to demonstrate some true innovation innovation on the race track when they took a pass on supporting +Highcroft Racing and the Deltawing project. Two of the three Detroit companies have four cylinder engines with direct injection and turbocharging that would have made a perfect basis for propelling this radical new machine.

Into the breach stepped +Nissan with a modified version of the engine from the Juke compact crossover. Autoextremist Pete De Lorenzo has a great column this week that praises Nissan and rips into the domestics for this missed opportunity. http://www.autoextremist.com/fumes1/2012/3/13/fumes.html

Meanwhile Highcroft brought the Deltawing to Sebring yesterday to run some demonstration laps in between practice sessions for the 60th annual 12 Hours tomorrow.

#sebring #sebring12 #americanlemansseries #lemans #alms #highcroftracing #nissan

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Fortunately modern rally cars are seriously tough

Fortunately modern rally cars are seriously tough

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This Is Why Rally Cars Have Roof Scoops
If you've ever wondered what those air scoops on the roofs of rally cars are for, this clip of Russian driver Evgeny Novikov having a massive crash in last weekend's WRC Rally Mexico should help you u…

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If this is true, it's yet another piece of evidence that the TSA needs to be… 6

If this is true, it's yet another piece of evidence that the TSA needs to be completely disbanded.

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Add this Air Puffer to Your List of Silly Things Banned by the TSA
While the TSA may have a point not allowing cannonballs and ninja stars onto flights, it bars way more innocuous items like baby food and…air puffers?
Apparently a redditor, the marvelously named Gy…

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+Android Central is giving away a pair of Asus Transformer Primes 1

+Android Central is giving away a pair of Asus Transformer Primes

Reshared post from +Android Central

Hey, folks! We're giving away a couple of ASUS Tranformer Primes with NVIDIA's help.

Two ways to enter. One is to circle us and share this post. That simple.

The other is to enter through this forum thread (http://goo.gl/QTzjW)

Entries will end at 8 a.m. PDT Monday morning. Good luck!

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If you though that high school algebra was tough, just imagine the sort of brain…

If you though that high school algebra was tough, just imagine the sort of brain it takes to work out copyright math. The calculations required to come to the conclusion that a single iPod classic full of 40,000 mp3 files is worth 8 billion in lost revenue boggle the mind. Fortunately Rob Reid has Excel and he was able to plow through the numbers and explain them to us.

#copyright #math

Reshared post from +Tom Merritt

Breaking down the math.

Thank goodness for this clear useful explanation of the damages of piracy.

Rob Reid: The $8 billion iPod

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