Silicon Sweatshops is a five-part investigation of the supply chains that produce many of the world’s most popular technology products, from Apple iPhones, to Nokia cell phones, Dell keyboards and more. The series examines the scope of the problem, including its effects on workers from the Philippines, Taiwan and China. It also looks at a novel factory program that may be a blueprint for solving this perennial industry problem.
posted by Joe Beese on Nov 19, 2009 - 9 comments

The newspaper industry is facing challenges, and what might be done to ramify the situation Newspapers have been an institution for over a hundred years, but are now under threat of being undermined by the Internet and other sources. This article gives a decent background of the current crisis faced by the industry and how the industry might respond to the threats the printed paper faces.
posted by reenum on Sep 23, 2009 - 38 comments

Doodles, Drafts and Designs: Industrial Drawings from the Smithsonian. Including crayon tests, the original telescoping shopping cart and more. [via the horse's neck]
posted by mediareport on Feb 11, 2008 - 7 comments

The post-industrial model is not an assembly line, but an assembly swarm. So shopping means you're just the front end of the machine, eh?
posted by DenOfSizer on Aug 16, 2002 - 5 comments

War, Incorporated. "'War is a racket. It always has been....A racket is best described as something that is not what it seems to the majority of people. Only a small 'inside' group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many.' Words of a radical peacenik? Only if a Marine Corps Major General qualifies as such." Of course, this particular Major General was talking about the oooold days when corporations had the political pillow-patter down, and our elected officials were the best money could buy. Not like the way things are today.

And who was this crackpot Ike, anyway?
posted by fold_and_mutilate on Jul 17, 2002 - 18 comments

White House summons biz chieftains The industry's top leaders, including Viacom Inc. chairman Sumner Redstone and News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch, will assemble in Beverly Hills Sunday morning with Karl Rove, the president's senior adviser, to hammer out a specific agenda for the entertainment industry to aid the fight on terrorism. They say it's not about propaganda, it's to identify strategies and agree on practical ideas, which may involve films as well as TV messages. Huh? That sounds like propaganda to me.
posted by BarneyFifesBullet on Nov 7, 2001 - 15 comments

Slumping Sales. The RIAA appears to be losing money so far this year because people aren't buying as many cd's and aren't going to as many concerts. It's hard to tell if there's some correlation between the demise of napster and the falling sales or if the numbers are down because the new album's coming out aren't really that good. Personally, I'd say a little bit of both. I haven't purchased many cd's this year, although there are one or two that I plan to pick up in the coming months (only because I've already downloaded the songs and know that it's worth the money).
posted by dave on Jul 20, 2001 - 37 comments