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Mr. Daisey and the Apple Factory.

   8 February 2012, mid-morning

This American Life excerpted part of Mike Daisey one-man show “The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs” to produce a one hour podcast about how are tech-junk gets built. To say it’s a little bit bleak would be an understatement. It’s a full on Dickens novel crossed with some dystopian science fiction. Dasisey’s focus is on Apple, but at this point chances are good that Foxconn has made anything electronic you may own. The podcast is amazing and you should definitely listen to it.

The response to this story has been a bit all over the place. Most Apple blogs I read seem quick to let you know that HP and Dell and all those other shitty PC manufactures also make their junk in China. John Gruber actually linked to a (very old) article by Krugman about how shitty jobs in the 3rd world are better than nothing. I guess?

The New York Times has a great companion piece to this article that touches on why manufacturing has moved to China. It’s not simply a matter of costs. You really can’t produce the sorts of gadgets we enjoy today anywhere else in the world. This seems to be the most pulled quote from the article:

“They could hire 3,000 people overnight,” said Jennifer Rigoni, who was Apple’s worldwide supply demand manager until 2010, but declined to discuss specifics of her work. “What U.S. plant can find 3,000 people overnight and convince them to live in dorms?”

I bought a backpack from Goruck recently. I bought it because they are well reviewed backpacks. They also happen to by made in the USA. Goruck has written about this on their blog a few times. They had a post about how their GR1 is made. They’ve also written about their second factory, complete with goofy pictures of their staff. This side of things didn’t enter my mind at the time. Now that I think about it, my backpack is perhaps the only thing I own which I’m pretty confident was made ethically.

Comment [1] Technology | Politics 

The Descent

   6 February 2012, late at night

The Decent is one of those movies it’s best to watch knowing as little about the film as possible. So, i’ll just say that the film is about a group of thrill seaking women who go spellunking in a cave. It’s filmed so well. I don’t think i’ve ever felt so claustraphobic in a movie. The shots of the women crawling through the tight crevises of the cave will creep you out. I quite liked the film. Most scenes are quite dark, being illuminated solely by the gear the women are carrying. (Well, at least it looks that way.) The lighting is another thing I found quite creative about the movie. I quite liked this movie. It’s on Netflix, so you can watch it right now!

I’d link to the official The Descent website, but I think it gives away too much of the story.

Comment Movies 

True Grit

   3 February 2012, mid-morning

True Grit was great. The very excellent and funny Hailee Steinfeld plays a young lady trying to catch the man who killed her father. She hires a marshal, played by Jeff Bridges, to help her in her quest. She also meets a Texax Ranger, played by Matt Damon, who is also looking for the same man. That could all be pretty heavy, but the film is actually quite funny. Between the humour things are more sombre and dark. The contrast between the comedy and drama probably makes the comedy more comedic and the drama more dramatic. Like most Coen brothers films the writing is great. The acting is really solid. I hadn’t seem a movie of note in quite some time, so this was a good movie to start the year off with. This is definitely worth watching. I’m now curious to see what the original version of this film is like.

The official True Grit website.

Comment [1] Movies