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chunking express (2)

On December 19th, Ford closed the doors of their St Paul auto plant, ending 800 jobs and 86 years of history. The plant was closed as part of Ford's move to end the Ford Ranger in North America, a truck that will still be available overseas. Born of the 80s gas crisis, the Ranger has been Ford's compact truck for almost forty years. Ford blames demand for large trucks and the shrinking gap in price between the compact and full-sized truck markets, spurring concern about the future of the compact truck market in North America.
posted by Stagger Lee on Dec 23, 2011 - 93 comments

Spaces of banana control. A visit to one of the four major artificial banana ripening facilities in New York City, for a research seminar on the "Artificial Cryosphere." [more inside]
posted by gusandrews on Dec 20, 2011 - 16 comments

In part five of Jon Ronson's Escape and Control, he talks to Patrice Wilson, the man behind Rebecca Black's "Friday" (YT) and finds himself part of the Ark Music Factory assembly line. [more inside]
posted by beaucoupkevin on Nov 2, 2011 - 22 comments

For the last few decades, discoveries at Blombos Cave near Capetown have been pushing back our timeframe for the earliest known periods of complex human thought. Henshilwood et al have now discovered a 100,000 year old ocher paint factory at the same site.
posted by jjray on Oct 13, 2011 - 17 comments

At long last, Factory Balls 4 is complete. Go forth and create, my friends. (One, two, three, xmas.)
posted by phunniemee on Oct 3, 2011 - 11 comments

The Spam Factory's Dirty Secret. Undocumented workers, an autoimmune mystery traced to aerosolized pork brains from increased line production speed, and what sounds like one of the worst jobs in America.
posted by availablelight on Jun 27, 2011 - 46 comments

Made in America: small businesses buck the offshoring trend - "For US manufacturing to make sense, factories must make extensive use of automation. That's getting easier, given that the cost of robots with comparable capabilities has decreased precipitously in the past two decades." [more inside]
posted by kliuless on May 20, 2011 - 52 comments

We Are Those Lions. Sepia Mutiny discusses the death of Jayaben Desai, trade unionist.
posted by chunking express on Jan 7, 2011 - 8 comments

He might've placed a couple of chips into your Mac, Dell or Hewlett-Packard. Meet Yuan Yandong.
posted by flapjax at midnite on Jun 20, 2010 - 24 comments

A giant lego machine which builds a small lego airplane. A 10 min video of lego building lego... I couldn't make it through without fast-forwarding, but as a lego enthusiast, I was intrigued by the way the assorted pieces were provided to the machine and moved along to the final creation.
posted by lonemantis on May 28, 2010 - 13 comments

A (translated) Chinese report on life as a factory worker at Foxconn, the company that manufactures iPhones and other gadgets. Each employee would sign a "voluntary overtime affidavit," in order to waive the 36-hour legal limit on your monthly overtime hours. This isn't a bad thing, though, as many workers think that only factories that offer more overtime are "good factories," because "without overtime, you can hardly make a living."
posted by ignignokt on May 19, 2010 - 127 comments

The National Labor Committee, a watchdog group that investigates working conditions at foreign factories producing goods for US corporations, has released a report on the KYE Factory in Guangdong, China. KYE manufactures outsourced products for Microsoft (their biggest customer), HP, Best Buy, Samsung, Foxconn, Acer, Logitech, and ASUS. The report focuses heavily on the workers producing Microsoft products. In response, Microsoft says they will investigate the allegations, as their vendor code of conduct (pdf) bans much of the abuses uncovered by the report. Photo Slideshow / NLC report summary [more inside]
posted by zarq on Apr 15, 2010 - 55 comments

A History of Obama Feigning Interest in Mundane Things, slide show courtesy of New York magazine. Can be divided into two categories: with safety glasses, and without.
posted by Halloween Jack on Mar 2, 2010 - 74 comments

Health and safety issues at an 'investment casting' (AKA 'lost wax') factory near Ningbo. Seventh in a series of photo essays (1 2 3 4 5 6) by Hong Kong-based independent photographer Alex Hofford, looking at life and work in the factories of southern China where the world's stuff gets made.
posted by Abiezer on Feb 19, 2010 - 36 comments

They slice. They dice. They make tempura shrimp. I'm not exactly sure who or what PF Max Company is, but this collection of YouTube videos -- featuring factory machines designed to cut, slice, sort, and do unspeakable things to fish -- is fascinating to watch. There are dozens of videos; these were selected for their toe-tapping (rolling out imitation crab & scallop) musical accompaniment (shredding fish to make Surimi). ⚠Warning: these videos depict bad things happening to (dead) fish so if that upsets you, don't watch. [more inside]
posted by Deathalicious on Sep 7, 2009 - 49 comments

Thomas A. Edison did not simply invent; he created the invention industry. He not only inspired the American Industrial Revolution, he provided the model for modern R&D concepts. Perhaps his greatest success beyond his legacy of innovation and invention is the introduction of team-based research. The Edison Innovation Foundation is using Edison's Invention Factory to educate the next generation of inventors.
posted by netbros on Jul 29, 2008 - 23 comments

25 Photos from a Toy Factory in China.
posted by chunking express on Oct 4, 2007 - 53 comments

Celebrating Tony Wilson (realplayer - realplayer alternative here). BBC Radio One's weekly 2hr Essential Mix, this week featuring show host Pete Tong and Hacienda legend Mike Pickering. It'll be up for a week from today - tracklisting here.
posted by forallmankind on Aug 26, 2007 - 18 comments

Anthony H. Wilson: 20th February 1950 - 10th August 2007
posted by Webbster on Aug 10, 2007 - 74 comments

Organic chickens more likely to make you seriously ill. Of course, just thinking about the conditions factory-raised chickens live in can make you ill as well, but Campylobacter can kill you.
posted by Kickstart70 on Jun 10, 2007 - 40 comments

Take a cyber tour of the Nong Shim factory! Yay! Warning: Portions may require ActiveX control. Includes sound, especially music, voice, and a chime every few seconds. Discontinue use if you experience any of the following: overstimulation, understimulation, rage, anguish, nausea, seizure, uncontrollable craving for shrimp crackers, or an erection lasting more than four hours.
posted by thirteenkiller on Dec 11, 2006 - 11 comments

"One Thing to Do About Food". Short essays on what to do about the nations food supply by Michael Pollan (Omnivore's Dilemma), Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation) and others.
posted by stbalbach on Sep 7, 2006 - 28 comments

...or why I wish I lived in England, part 6. The Mancunians return gravitas to Christianity's most holy holiday.
posted by klangklangston on Jan 26, 2006 - 43 comments

From the outside it's hard to guess this is a car factory. But then again, even from the inside the parquet floors and lack of shelves may have thrown you off. Welcome to VW's Incredible Glass Factory.
posted by furtive on Dec 24, 2005 - 16 comments

"For every Deep Roy, there are a hundred and fifty of us who are forced to do wacked-out shit on 'The Man Show.' I'd like Tim Burton to tell me to my face what is the benefit of hiring one dwarf actor and computer-generating him when he could hire seven. We're standing at the gate and we're raising our hands and saying, 'Pick me!' And then Tim Burton comes out and says, 'I'm sorry, guys, go on home. We've got this machine that can do all your jobs.'"
posted by JPowers on Jul 27, 2005 - 43 comments

The Google Factory Tour (if you have a few hours to kill); video for RealPlayer or Windows Media.
posted by indices on May 21, 2005 - 6 comments

The Triangle Factory Fire of 1911. 'This site includes selected information on a terrible and unnecessary tragedy involving the death of many young working women in a New York City sweatshop at the beginning of the 20th century and the resulting investigations and reforms. '
posted by plep on Jul 22, 2004 - 7 comments

Factory Tours! Too cool. A site devoted to collecting and sharing publicly available tours of various production facilities: candy, breweries, cars, candles, power plants... Just the idea transports me right back to being a grade-schooler watching films about How Things Are Made. I am so there, dude.
posted by NortonDC on Jun 9, 2004 - 15 comments

Just DON'T do it. In findings that Nike admitted were "concerning", the Community Aid Abroad-Oxfam Australia report revealed that, not only were female workers only paid $2 per day, despite legal entitlement to menstrual leave each month, they were forced to pull down their pants in front of the factory doctor to claim that leave.
posted by murray_kester on Sep 4, 2000 - 5 comments